Design and structural analysis of ITER upending tool for sector sub-assembly

The purpose of the upending tool (UT) is upending the vacuum vessel (VV) 40-degree sectors and the toroidal field coils (TFC) from the horizontal delivery orientations to the vertical assembly orientations. According to ITER assembly procedure, this upending operation is carried out by four hooks of the tokamak crane. VV or TFC upended by UT is transferred to sector sub-assembly tool (SSAT) for sector sub-assembly. For this reason, UT is classified as a lifting accessory in the ITER load specification. This paper describes UT design and upending sequence by two cranes with target components (VV and TFC) and presents the analysis results performed for the final design to verify the structural integrity of UT. The analysis cases for this verification are composed of the horizontal and vertical supporting on the floor and lifting. The simplified FE models for the lifted components (VV and TFC) that are provided from ITER Organization Central Team (IOCT) are used for this structural analysis. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.