Abstract
This paper deals with the halo current distribution due to asymmetric vertical displacement events (VDEs) and the subsequent force distributions on the conducting structures in the ITER tokamak. Both the eddy and halo current analyses have been carried out using the 3D code CARIDDI, based on an integral formulation in the conducting region. The plasma plays the role of a source term. The axisymmetric time evolution of the plasma is taken by 2D axisymmetric simulations. The most critical case is a slow VDE downward combined with an n = 1 kink, which may yield large horizontal forces and peaking factors. A simplified n = 1, m = 1 kink model is taken, given by a rigid horizontal displacement accompanied by a tilt. The halo currents are treated as injected currents on the faces of the first wall hit by the plasma. To take into account the inductive effects, which are important especially in the transient phases, suitable compression techniques and supercomputing resources have been utilized. In the worst case the total vertical force on the structure due to the halo currents is about 90 MN downwards (about 30 of which on the divertor); the horizontal force is about 4 MN (about half of which on the divertor); the distribution of the vertical force on the sectors is nearly uniform, whereas the radial loads on the various sectors are very different from each other.