FORCED FLOW SUPERCRITICAL HELIUM IN A CLOSED HEAT TRANSFER LOOP SUBJECTED TO PULSED HEAT LOADS

The superconducting magnets of the tokamak JT-60SA are cooled by means of forced flows of supercritical helium at 4.4 K and 0.5 MPa. The closed loops transfer heat from the magnets to the refrigerator through heat exchangers immersed into a saturated liquid helium bath. An experimental loop was designed to represent a 1/20 scaled down mock-up of JT-60SA central solenoid cooling circuits. This design for keeping the same transit times in the helium circuits, aims at observing the thermally induced transients in the closed loop. Indeed, heated section simulates the variable loads coming from the magnet circuits. A series of experiments was performed with pulsed loads in an isochoric configuration of the loop. The cold circulator has been characterized under pulsed operation and its performances are addressed. Mass flow regulations at the interface of the refrigerator were tested to smooth the pulsed loads with the saturated liquid bath acting as a thermal buffer. Knowledge of the pulsed loads effects on the cryogenic components is important in view of a safe operation of the cryogenic system.