Buckling Analysis of TF Coil Inner Leg for Central Solenoidless Tokamak

The central post is one of the critical components for the low aspect ratio tokamak, which endures not only a tremendous ohmic heating because it carries a rather high current, but also a large neutron heating and irradiation owing to the plasma operation. The DS copper alloy Glidcop AL-25[8] was chosen as the conductor material for its adequate mechanical properties and physics properties. The central post has a cylindrical structure with lots of cooling channels. The length of the central post for the next generation of nuclear fusion spherical tokamaks will be more than 10 m or 20 m. The structural stability is very crucial. When the applied load is larger than the structure critical buckling load, the device will lose its stability and collapse. In order to calculate the critical buckling load, a 1/6-segment finite element model was used and the force acting on the central post was simulated. The results showed that the vertical compressive stresses mainly affect the stability of the central post. The linear buckling analysis results with finite element method based on small deformation theory were given in this paper. The relation curves and functions for buckling factor, depending on the different lengths and the radius of the central post, the diameter of cooling channel and the maximum allowable current density, were also shown.