Analysis of Cryogenic Cooling of Toroidal Field Magnets for Nuclear Fusion Reactors

New developments in REBCO superconducting tape technology have enabled a new class of high-fi eld tokamak fusion reactors. Higher critical temperatures on the order of 20 K allow the magnets to operate under signifi cant thermal loads during the fusion process. As a case study, we look at the proposed SPARC toroidal field (TF) magnet design. We investigate the heat transfer inside the cooling channels and uid dynamics inside the cooling channels. System-level issues are also investigated, including impact of an insulated versus non-insulated design on cooling performance and cryodistribution architectures to provide coolant during fusion. These investigations guide the design for future high- field HTS magnets to be used in tokamak reactors.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2021

Author dc:creator

• Hamilton, Benjamin

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Brisson, John G.
• Minervini, Joseph V.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses may be protected by copyright. Please reuse MIT thesis content according to the MIT Libraries Permissions Policy, which is available through the URL provided.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/144277

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/144277