Abstract
The paper deals with the design issues concerning the
remote maintenance of divertors in fusion advanced
studies torus (FAST), a satellite tokamak acting as a
test bed for the study and the develop of innovative
technologies oriented to ITER and DEMO programs, pilot
examples of the feasibility of energy production from
nuclear fusion on the Earth. FAST remote handling (RH)
solutions are provided according to an "interactive
design review" philosophy based on virtual prototyping
techniques. Assuming an ITER configuration as start
point, it foresees an iterative process of design review,
carried out in virtual reality (VR) environment and
oriented to obtain a sort of best solution from the RH
point of view. Any iteration includes the analysis of the
current solution and the proposal of new and alternative
ones, based on the requirements fulfillment and the
improvement of critical points highlighted. In such a
way, and this is the main novelty introduced by the
paper, the interactive design review in a VR
collaborative environment becomes the tool able to put in
cooperation and in positive competition various and
different competences, required by a multidisciplinary
problem as the realization of nuclear fusion machine, in
order to reach a shared solution. A first preliminary
FAST RH solution is hereinafter presented, accompanied by
the design of a compatible support system, due to the
strict relationship between the divertor maintenance and
the support configuration. The work was carried out via
the collaboration of the "Divertor Test Platform 2"
(DTP2) team, in charge of ITER divertor RH tests and
located in VTT's Labs of Tampere (Finland), and the
IDEAinVR team of CREATE Consortium, with competence in
interactive design and VR simulations and located in the
Virtual Reality Lab of University of Naples Federico II
(Italy)
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 55-65 |
Journal | International Journal on Interactive Design and Manufacturing |
Volume | 8 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2014 |
MoE publication type | A1 Journal article-refereed |
Keywords
- Fusion engineering
- interactive design
- remote handling
- tokamak design
- virtual prototyping