Analysis of the effect of the Electron-Beam welding sequence for a fixed manufacturing route using finite element simulations applied to ITER vacuum vessel manufacture

Highlights: • The simulation methodology employed in this paper is able to adapt inside a complex manufacturing route. • The effect of the sequence is lower in a highly constrained assembly than in a lowly constrained one. • The most relevant influence on the distortions is the jigs design, instead of the welding sequence. • The welding distortion analysis should be used as a guidance to design and improve the manufacturing strategy. - Abstract: The ITER Vacuum Vessel Sectors have very tight tolerances and high density of welding. Therefore, prediction and reduction of welding distortion are critical to allow the final assembly with the other Vacuum Vessel Sectors without the production of a full scale prototype. In this paper, the effect of the welding sequence in the distortions inside a fixed manufacturing route and in a highly constrained assembly is studied in the poloidal segment named inboard (PS1). This is one of the four poloidal segments (PS) assembled for the sector. Moreover, some restrictions and limitations in the welding sequence related to the manufacturing process are explained. The results obtained show that the effect of the sequence is lower in a highly constrained assembly than in a low constrained one. A prototype manufactured by AMW consortium (PS1 mock-up) is used in order to validate the finite element method welding simulation employed. The obtained results confirmed that for Electron-Beam welds, both the welding simulation and the mock-up show a low value of distortions.