Simulation of Magnetic and Mechanical Characteristics of the Superconducting System of a Toroidal Magnetic Field of a Spherical Tokamak

A numerical model for calculating magnetic and mechanical stresses of the superconducting toroidal magnetic field superconducting system of a spherical tokamak is developed. Three configurations are considered: the Princeton-D solenoid and two different helical continuous solenoid configurations. The magnetic field distributions of the solenoids and the mechanical stress distributions to which they are subjected are calculated. It is demonstrated that the Princeton-D solenoid is the least favorable: the modulus of induction of the magnetic field on its windings is an order of magnitude greater than that of the continuous solenoids, resulting in a significantly lower—by 34%—maximum possible current throughput. The mechanical stresses in the first case are also noticeably higher. It is also shown that the two variants of the helical configuration differ insignificantly from each other.