Development and manufacture of an ITER PF coil-tail mock-up

The ITER Poloidal Field (PF) winding pack consists of a stack of double pancakes made of NbTi CIC conductor. A structural element is required, at each electrical joint, to react the operational hoop load. In the present design, this is provided by a hollow profiled steel part welded to the conductor jacket and bonded to the adjacent turns, named "coil-tail". As part of the present development, prototype coil-tails have been manufactured and welded to the PF conductor jacket. A full-size mechanical mock-up, in the shape of a straight beam has been manufactured. It is made of coil-tails and steel plates simulating the adjacent conductors, which are insulated and impregnated. The mock-up is to be subjected soon to fatigue tests at the ENEA-Brasimone laboratory at LN2 temperature.