The fusion power consortium, ITER has adopted software from Ansys to validate the design of its international fusion power plant development project. Key components of the experimental fusion reactor will be optimised using Ansys Workbench platform products to conduct dynamic, non-linear thermal, electromagnetic, coupled field and non-linear structural analyses.
The analyses performed to date using Ansys software have provided invaluable information about the mechanical behaviour of ITER components, such as the magnet system, vacuum vessel and diverter.
The ITER fusion reactor is based on the tokamak concept, in which low-temperature, superconducting coils are positioned around a toroidal vessel. These coils produce a magnetic field that confines hot deuterium/tritium plasma long enough within the vessel to generate ten times more power (via fusion reaction) than that required to maintain its temperature.
ITER’s aims are to gather the necessary data to design and operate the first electricity-producing fusion plant. Construction and commissioning is expected to take about eight years, once a construction license is granted in early 2009.