Sliding joint concept for toroidal field coils of a tokamak

A low-cost, compact, copper-coil ignition tokamak is the focus of design studies in FY85. For a minimum-cost machine, the toroidal field (TF) coils must be as compact as practical. On the other hand, smaller TF coils inhibit the assembly and maintenance of the components entrapped by the TF coils, such as the plasma vacuum vessel, limiter, poloidal field coils, etc. If the compact TF coil has at least two demountable electrical joints, removal of the outer part of the TF coil will permit servicing of the entrapped components. The vertical straight leg of a TF coil has the smallest cross-sectional area, but it experiences the largest tensile and compressive forces. The tensile load on the vertical leg can be eliminated if the demountable joints can slide. A possible sliding joint design concept is described here. The sliding joint transfers only current. No forces are transferred from the outer curved leg to the straight leg of the TF coils. The outer curved leg can be separated at the sliding joint to gain access to the components inside the TF coil bore