Thermo-mechanical design of the ITER Neutral Beam Injector grids for Radio Frequency Ion Source and SINGAP Accelerator
This paper focuses on the thermo-mechanical design of the ITER Neutral Beam Injector plasma, extraction and acceleration grids, considering the Radio Frequency option for the negative ion source and the SINGAP option for the accelerator. The SINGle Aperture -SINgle GAP (SINGAP) accelerator for ITER NBI foresees four grids for the extraction and acceleration of negative ions, instead of the seven grids of the Multi Aperture Multi Grid (MAMuG) reference configuration. The Radio Frequency ion source is a promising alternative to the Arc Driven one, showing very good performances in recent experiments at IPP Garching (D) and having the advantage of reduced maintenance requirements. A specific plasma grid was designed for RF source considering lower heat loads and different operational requirements. In particular the thermo-hydraulic and thermo-mechanical design aims at having all over the plasma grid a precisely controlled temperature to enhance the negative ions yield inside the caesium seeded source. Analytical and numerical (FE) thermo-mechanical analyses were also carried out for the extraction and acceleration grids. Structural verifications were accomplished according to the ITER Structural Design Criteria for In-Vessel Components. Design optimizations were performed in order to limit the misalignment of the grids within the tolerance specified by beam optics requirements (0.4 mm of maximum misalignment between corresponding apertures axes). The optimum cooling parameters under different operational scenarios were identified. The paper describes the design status of the grid system for the RF ion source and discusses in detail the numerical work carried out for thermo-mechanical and fluid dynamic behaviour.
Design of a low voltage, high current extraction system for the ITER Ion Source
A Test Facility is planned to be built in Padova to assemble and test the Neutral Beam Injector for ITER. In the same Test Facility the Ion Source will be tested in a dedicated facility planned to operate in parallel to the main 1 MV facility. Purpose of the full size Ion Source is to optimize the Ion Source performance by maximizing the extracted negative ion current density and its spatial uniformity and by minimizing the ratio of co‐extracted electrons. In this contribution the design of the extractor and accelerator grids for a 100 kV, 60 A system is presented. The trajectories of the negative ions, calculated with the SLACCAD code [1], have been benchmarked by a new 2D code (BYPO [2]) which solves in a self consistent way the electric fields in presence of electric charge and magnetic fields. The energy flux intercepted by the grids is estimated by using the Montecarlo code EAMCC [3] and the grids designed according to the constraints set by the permanent magnets and by the cooling channels. The inte...
Changes in Quartz During Heating and the Possible Effects on Si Production
In Si and FeSi production, the main Si source is SiO2, in the form of quartz. Reactions with SiO2 generate SiO gas that further reacts with SiC to Si. During heating, quartz will transform to other SiO2 modifications with cristobalite as the stable high-temperature phase. Transformation to cristobalite is a slow process. Its rate has been investigated for several industrial quartz sources and has been shown to vary considerably among the different quartz types. Other differences in behavior during heating between these quartz sources, such as softening temperature and volume expansion, have also been studied. The quartz-cristobalite ratio will affect the rate of reactions involving SiO2. The industrial consequences and other implications of the observed difference between quartz types are discussed. Initial studies of industrial quartz were published by Ringdalen et al. In the current work, a new experimental method has been developed, and an investigation of several new quartz sources has confirmed the earlier observed large variation between different sources. The repeatability of the data has been studied and the effect of gas atmosphere investigated. The results from the earlier work are included as a basis for the discussion.