Magnetoelastic instabilities and vibrations of superconducting-magnet systems

This report describes the research accomplished under Depatment of Energy/NSF grants associated with the structural design of superconducting magnets for magnetic fusion reactors. The main results pertain to magnetomechanical instabilities in toroidal and poloidal field magnets for proposed fusion reactors. One major accomplishment was the building and testing of a 1/75th scale superconducting structural model of a 16 coil Tokamak reactor. Using this model the buckling of toroidal and poloidal field coils under different constraints was observed. A series of dynamic tests were performed, including the effect of currents on natural frequencies, poloidal-toroidal coil interaction, and buckling induced superconducting-normal quench of the coils. The stability of poloidal coils in a toroidal magnet field were investigated with the 16 coil torus. A superconducting poloidal coil was observed to become statically unstable or buckle as the current approached a certain value. Magnetoelastic buckling of other magnet systems such as a yin-yang pair of magnets, Ioffe coils, and discrete coil solenoids were also studied