Structural Modification and Elastic Analysis and Limit-Analysis Extrapolation in Irregular Sector 2 of Global ITER Vacuum Vessel

The vacuum vessel is a vital component of the ITER facility, serving as a plasma vacuum and safety barrier. Several structural modifications have been worked out to facilitate the manufacture and assembly, yet the structural strength needs to be assessed. By means of the finite element method theory, elastic analyses are performed to verify the modified design and compared to the one of previous design. Besides, an extrapolation of limit analysis is worked out to assist the verification. Based on the criterion of RCC-MR, the evaluated result demonstrates that the modified design satisfies the strength requirement and it is appropriate.