CHIMERA Fusion Technology Facility: Testing and Virtual Qualification

The Combined Heating and Magnetic Research Apparatus (CHIMERA) fusion technology test facility is under construction. The facility will be uniquely capable of semi-integral testing of fusion materials and component modules up to the size of the ITER test blanket module box, under combined conditions of in-vacuum high heat flux, static and pulsed magnetic fields, and high-temperature/high-pressure water cooling. This paper reports the high-level capabilities of the CHIMERA baselined design and the planned program of testing and describes the proposed strategy for use of simulations for virtual testing, qualification, and in-situ monitoring.

The first step in testing of a component mock-up is to take data from as-built geometry and other measurements and transmit them to an integrated computational model that can closely mimic the physical asset and form a digital replica. Not only can this digital replica be queried in advance of physical testing in the facility, allowing optimization of the test program, but combined with subsequent test data, it also can deliver much greater insight into experimental results than can be obtained using test data alone. The digital replica is used as the basis for a digital twin, which is live coupled to the running experiment, and is under development as a proposed key facet of fusion reactor surveillance in-service. Physical mock-ups for testing can be subjected to in-vacuum heat flux up to 0.5 MW/m² over the entire surface while within a strong horizontal magnetic field. The central field can be up to 4 T with a peak in the test region of 5 T. The same component mock-ups can also be subjected to repeated magnetic field pulses with ramp rate 12 T/s, which can simulate loading conditions of a plasma disruption. Facility upgrades are underway to include a liquid metal circulation loop to allow the study of magnetohydrodynamics effects and to add a high-heat-flux system using a very high-power continuous-wave laser to achieve divertor-relevant heat fluxes of 20 MW/m² over the area of a small-scale mock-up. Four examples are given to illustrate the physical testing program that is currently foreseen.