Hyperion Magnet Support Structure
The support structure carries the enormous magnetic forces on the coils, holding the field geometry rigid under load.
Holding the magnets in place
The magnetic fields in Hyperion do not just confine the plasma; they push hard on the coils that create them. Toroidal-field coils are squeezed toward the machine axis and toward each other, and the whole magnet system carries loads measured in the meganewtons. The support structure is the frame that holds all of this rigid so the field geometry stays where the physics needs it.
The forces at play
- TF coils experience a centering force driving their inboard legs toward the axis.
- The coils also try to expand outward under their own tension, like a pressurized ring.
- PF and solenoid coils push and pull on each other and on the TF set.
- Disruptions add sudden transient loads through the vessel.
The center stack again
The centering force converges on the center stack, where the inboard TF legs are packed tightest. Reacting that force without adding radius is one of the defining structural problems of a spherical tokamak: the structure that holds the magnets competes for the same scarce central space as the conductor, the solenoid, and the shielding.
In the model
The support structure is selectable as the frame surrounding and bracing the coils. In cutaway it appears as the heavy structural members between and around the magnets; the exploded view shows how the coils seat into it. For signed-in users, load paths are annotated.
Relation to the magnets
Structure and conductor are designed together. See the toroidal-field coils it braces and the center stack where the loads concentrate.