A computational procedure for the investigation of whipping effect on ITER High Energy Piping and its application to the ITER divertor primary heat transfer system

Highlights: • High Energy Piping (HEP) are components containing water or steam with P ≥ 2.0 MPa and/or T ≥ 100 °C. • The whipping effect in HEP may cause dangerous domino effect with relative rupture propagation. • The rapture is envisaged or postulated according to the stress state of piping. • A FEM analysis is performed in order to study the dynamic of whipping effect. • Study of special support to avoid and/or mitigate the whipping effect. - Abstract: The Tokamak Cooling Water System of nuclear facility has the function to remove heat from plasma facing components maintaining coolant temperatures, pressures and flow rates as required and, depending on thermal-hydraulic requirements, its systems are defined as High Energy Piping (HEP) because they contain fluids, such as water or steam, at a pressure greater than or equal to 2.0 MPa and/or at a temperature greater than or equal to 100 °C, or even gas at pressure above the atmospheric one. The French standards contemplate the need to consider the whipping effect on HEP design. This effect happens when, after a double ended guillotine break, the reaction force could create a displacement of the piping which might affect adjacent components. A research campaign has been performed, in cooperation by ITER Organization and University of Palermo, to outline the procedure to check whether whipping effect might occur and assess its potential damage effects so to allow their mitigation. This procedure is based on the guidelines issued by U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The proposed procedure has been applied to the analysis of the whipping effect of divertor primary heat transfer system HEP, using a theoretical–computational approach based on the finite element method.