Design assessment of triangular support bracket for manufacturability

Abstract The triangular support is connected structurally and hydraulically with the inner shell of the vacuum vessel and its main role is to keep plasma vertical stability during operational disruptions. Korea is responsible for the procurement of sectors 1 and 6 of the main vessel including triangular support. At present, design review for its fabrication by ITER Korea and Hyundai Heavy Industries, Co., Ltd. is in progress. This paper presents the results on various designs for triangular support bracket in terms of manufacturability considering both easiness of non-destructive evaluation and fabrication efficiency. The several designs are proposed and evaluated under the most critical loading condition using elastic and limit analysis with fatigue evaluation. Consequently, an optimized design for structural safety is determined in accordance with RCC-MR. This result is reconfirmed by cross-checking in comparison with the baseline of integrity that already had been determined by ITER Organization. The design deviation requests of triangular support bracket have been submitted to ITER Organization and Agreed Notified Body for approval, and their verification is currently under discussion.