Eddy current induced electromagnetic loads on shield blankets during plasma disruptions in ITER: A benchmark exercise

According to recent updates of ITER shield blanket design, electromagnetic loads during the plasma disruption are being evaluated to verify the mechanical confidence and reliability. As a course of such evaluations, a benchmark activity for the electromagnetic analysis, coordinated by ITER Organization, is underway between ITER parties to compare the calculation results for disruption loads on the blankets. In this paper, we present calculation results for the electromagnetic loads on the simplified but practical model of ITER shield blankets with respect to six representative disruption scenarios of which ITER distributes simulation results based on the DINA code as a reference of the design and analysis. Commercial finite element method software, ANSYS/Emag™, was employed to evaluate the eddy current on the blanket modules with the 40° sector model for major conducting structure of the tokamak including double-walled vacuum vessel, triangular support, and vertical targets of divertors. An interface between ANSYS/Emag™ and plasma simulator was implemented with a conversion tool assigning the plasma current density on the ANSYS elements corresponding to the current filaments in DINA outputs. Discussions are made of the possible improvement of the blanket model taking more realistic blanket configuration into account at the cost of the moderate increase in computational time. A final remark is given of the possibility of incorporating halo currents into ANSYS disruption simulations, which are major sources of electromagnetic loads on in-vessel components including blankets.