Results and conclusions from the ITER TFMC testing

Within the ITER engineering design activity (EDA) seven large R&D projects have been executed to demonstrate the feasibility of the ITER construction. The "L-2" project contained the design, construction and testing of a subsize TF coil, the toroidal field model coil (TFMC), and the manufacturing of two full size sections of a TF coil case. The objective of the L-2 project was to develop and demonstrate the superconducting magnet technology to a level allowing the ITER coils to be built and operated with confidence. The TFMC has been designed and constructed by the European ITER Home Team in collaboration with European companies under the leadership of EFDA/CSU Garching. The testing took place in the TOSKA facility of the Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe in the years 2001 and 2002 with detailed evaluations during this time and afterwards until now. The test arrangement consisted of the TFMC together with a background coil of similar size to expose the TFMC to out-of plane loads and centripetal loads up to stress levels comparable to that of the ITER TF coils. As well suited background coil the reinforced EURATOM LCT coil from the IEA project in the 1980s was used. To minimize risk, in a first test phase the TFMC has been tested alone and then in a second phase together with the LCT coil. This paper gives a survey on the results of this second phase which loaded the TFMC up to its limits, achieving the maximum current ever used in a superconducting magnet so far, namely 80 kA.