Mechanical design of the poloidal coils for a large RFP experiment

An air core poloidal coil system for a large RFP experiment is described (magnetizing and primary windings, with their support structure) and in particular the primary windings. The magnetizing winding is formed by a selfsupporting central solenoid, composed by a stack of multiturn pancakes and by a series of outer coils. The assumed forces acting on each part of the coil system are shown along with the results of a finite element static and dynamic analysis. Particular attention is paid to the primary windings consisting in 16 independent coils contained in closed cold formed steel sections. Three possible solutions are discussed and the unilateral contact problem arising in one of them has been investigated. The results of the dynamic response analysis of the proposed load assembly support structure are also shown. (author)