Structural damages prevention of the ITER vacuum vessel and ports by elasto-plastic analysis with regards to RCC-MR

Abstract Several types of damages have to be prevented in order to guarantee the structural integrity of a structure with regards to RCC-MR; the P-type damages which can result from the application to a structure of a steadily and regularly increasing loading or a constant loading and the S-type damages during operational loading conditions which can only result from repeated application of loadings associated to the progressive deformations and fatigue. Following RCC-MR, the S-type damages prevention has to be started only when the structural integrity is guaranteed against P-type damages. The verification of the last one on the ITER vacuum vessel and ports has been performed by limit analysis with elasto-(perfectly)plastic material behavior. It is usual to employ non-linear analysis when the “classical” elastic analysis reaches its limit of linear application. Some elasto-plastic analyses have been performed considering several cyclic loadings to evaluate also more realistic structural margins of the against S-type damages.