Mechanical strength evaluation of the welded bellows for the ports of the JT-60 vacuum vessel

Mechanical strength of the welded bellows for the ports of the JT-60 vacuum vessel was evaluated, laying the emphasis on the fatigue strength under the torsional electromagnetic force. The welded bellows were designed to be loaded with the forced deflection due to the relative displacement between the vacuum vessel and the external fixed point, the atmospheric pressure and the forced torsional angle due to the electromagnetic force. Stresses caused by the former two were estimated following the formulae proposed by the Kellogg Company. On the other hand, two formulae were established to estimate the stress caused by the last, after examining experimentally the behavior of the welded bellows under the torsional load; one is the shearing stress evaluation formula and the other is the axial bending stress evaluation formula. It was found that the welded bellows can easily buckle under the torsional load and the former formula corresponds to the case of non-buckling and the latter to the case of buckling. The present mechanical strength evaluation method was applied to the three kinds of the welded bellows to be used in the ports of the JT-60 vacuum vessel (neutral beam injection ports, vacuum pumping ports and the adjustable limiter ports) and it was confirmed that they have sufficient strength in the range of the design load conditions