Study on remanent magnetization of Fe-9Cr steel and its effect on in-vessel remote handling for future fusion reactors

• Published in: Fusion engineering and design Vol. 88; no. 9-10; pp. 2092 - 2095
• Main Authors: Maione, Ivan A., Marracci, Mirko, Tellini, Bernardo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01-10-2013
• Subjects: Austenitic stainless steels; Demagnetization; DEMO; Design engineering; EUROFER; Ferritic stainless steels; Fusion reactors; Heat resistant steels; Magnetic properties; Magnetization; Martensitic stainless steels; RAFM; Remanent magnetization; Remote handling; Segments; Steels; RAFM; EUROFER; DEMO; Remanent magnetization; Remote handling
• ISSN: 0920-3796; 1873-7196
• DOI: 10.1016/j.fusengdes.2013.02.037

► The FM model of a DEMO reactor has been implemented in ANSYS for EM analysis on blanket segments. ► An approximate method to overcome a limitation of ANSYS dealing with ferromagnetic material has been implemented and tested. ► A magnetic characterization of Fe-9Cr steel has been performed. ► We show the effect of ferromagnetic material in in-vessel components in absence of plasma on remote handling procedures.
This work is mainly focused on the study of remanent magnetization of in-vessel components for DEMO fusion reactor and its effect on remote handling procedures. In particular a DEMO reactor configuration based on multi module segment (MMS) design in vertical maintenance is investigated. The system has been analyzed considering the reference magnetic properties of EUROFER97 and of similar Fe-9Cr steel characterized by the authors. The numerical analysis of the EM forces acting on the blanket segment is performed using the commercial ANSYS© code for which a procedure to consider a demagnetization curve with non-zero coercive field for non-permanent magnets has been developed.