Structural design and analysis for the KSTAR cryostat

The KSTAR cryostat is a 8.8 m diameter vacuum vessel that provides the necessary thermal barrier between the ambient temperature test cell and the supercritical helium cooled superconducting magnet providing the base pressure of 1/spl times/10/sup -5/ torr. The cryostat is a single walled vessel consisting of central cylindrical section and two end closures, a flat base structure with external reinforcements and a dome-shaped lid structure. The base structure has 8 equally spaced support legs anchored on the concrete base. The cryostat vessel design was executed to satisfy the performance and operation requirements. The mechanical penetration components with bellows were designed to restrict the displacements of all kinds of ports due to EM loads and thermal loads within the allowable limits. The major loads considered in this paper for the design of cryostat vessel are the vacuum pressure, the dead weight of vacuum vessel, PFC, and magnet which are total about 400 tons, the electromagnetic load driven by plasma disruption, and seismic loads. Based on these loads, structural analyses were performed. It was found that the maximum stress intensity was below the allowable limit, and that the cryostat vessel had buckling safety of over 5. Based on the results, structural robustness of the cryostat vessel has been proved.