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The experimental campaign that will be carried out
at ITER is crucial to advancing fusion science and
preparing the way for the fusion power plants of
tomorrow.
The experimental campaign that
will be carried out at ITER in
“Cadarache, Southern France, by
a team from 35 nations, is
crucial to advancing fusion
science and preparing the way
for the fusion power plants of
tomorrow
ITER’s tokamak machine

How will a fusion power formed to assure that no leakage should occur
during testing/operating. conditions.
plant work The behaviour of the pump itself was analysed
with a non-linear, thermo-structural decoupled
Power plants generate electricity by converting analysis to include the infl uence of both structu-
mechanical power such as the rotation of a turbine ral & thermal loads.
into electrical power. In a coal-fi red steam station, All the analyses performed confi rmed TMP’s
the combustion of coal turns water into steam and pump fi lled all the necessary requirements and
the steam in turn drives turbine generators to pro- was therefore adequate to withstand the severe
duce electricity. Power plants today rely either on test & operating conditions of ITER’s refrigerating
fossil fuels, nuclear fi ssion, or renewable sources system.
like hydro.
Just like a conventional power plant, a fusion
power plant will use the heat resulting from the
energy generated through the fusion of atoms in-
side a tokamak to produce steam and then elec-
tricity by way of turbines and generators. (source
www.iter.org )

Termomeccanica’s
contribution to the project

A Termomeccanica pump is a part of the refrige-
rating system of the ITER project. The between
bearings radially split pump (TMP DP model) was
designed according to the required ASME Boiler
& Pressure Vessel Code, Section VIII, Division
2, Part 5, thus adhering to stringent design by Termomeccanica’s pump
FEM numerical model
analysis requirements related to safety & structu-
ral resistance such as protection against plastic
collapse, local failure, collapse from buckling and
failure from cyclic loading.
Termomeccanica had three possible alternative
analysis methods to evaluate its pump design:
the elastic stress analysis method, the limit load
method and the elastic plastic stress analysis
method.
TMP chose the latter, the safest and most advan-
ced approach, and proceeded to an in-depth
study of a wide range of scenarios, including all
the loads that could cause failure with a proper
load factor.
The non-linear plastic behaviour of the pump’s
constitutive materials was included in the nume- Pump Von Mises stress
rical model and a contact analysis was also per- plot contour

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