The CIRCE Code: Cast3M Investigation and Research for Coils Mechanical Evaluation

Abstract

The recent success of demonstration coils using HTS confirms the promising application of these materials for toroidal field (TF) coils in high-field fusion machines. Potential magnetic fields at around 20 T on the conductor claim to achieve the required performance for commercial reactors with fusion power scaling as ${{P}_f} \propto B_t^4$ under several assumptions. However, this usually involves increased engineering challenges to withstand much higher mechanical loads scaling quadratically with the magnetic field. This paper presents a new mechanical toolbox, named CIRCE: a highly configurable code featuring plane stress analysis and 3D beam analysis, with a case study of tokamak TF coils under in-plane and out-of-plane loads.