Predictive study of current sharing temperature test in the Toroidal Field Model Coil without LCT coil using the M&M code Original Research Article

The Toroidal Field Model Coil (TFMC) will be tested next year at Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, Germany, in the frame of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). The TFMC is pancake-wound on radial plates using 10 Nb3Sn two-channel cable-in-conduit conductors, jointed on the inner- and outer-side of the coil. The drivers for the test of current sharing temperature (Tcs) are the resistive heaters located on the inlet plumbing to each conductor (DP1.1, DP1.2) of the first double pancake (DP1). Since all available sensors are outside the coil, Tcs in the conductor must be measured indirectly, which requires sophisticated analysis tools because of the complexity of the system. In the present work we use the recently developed Multi-conductor Mithrandir (M&M) code. The main aim of the paper is of assessing computationally possible scenarios of normal zone initiation in the high field region of the conductor, without quench propagation out of the inlet joint, in the test configuration without LCT coil.