Thermo-mechanical analysis of the components in the launcher transmission line of ITER ex-port plug collective Thomson scattering

Abstract

ITER Collective Thomson Scattering (CTS) diagnostic system is designed to analyze the alpha particles resulting from Deuterium-Tritium fusion reactions. It consists of one launcher and nine receiver transmission lines. The launcher line transports the high-power microwave emission of 1.2 MW from the gyrotron source to the frontend, while the receiver lines transport the collected microwave emission from the front-end and distribute it to the instrumentation in the Diagnostic Building. Due to the high power transported in the launcher line, it has to be water-cooled to minimize the thermal expansion resulting from the heating caused by the power losses. Therefore, this work primarily focuses on establishing the cooling system parameters for the launcher TL to ensure efficient dissipation of the ohmic losses, while meeting the ITER cooling requirements. Once the parameters of the water cooling system are defined, a thermo-mechanical analysis of the most critical components is performed to assess their temperature distribution and deformations.