TITAN: a test bench dedicated to ITER’s ICRH antenna
TITAN is a test bench operating in continuous mode (CW), dedicated to ion cyclotron resonance heating (ICRH), built at the IRFM, on the CEA Cadarache site. It was designed to test components of the ITER ICRH antenna under conditions relevant to ITER (vacuum, cooling and RF). It comprises a superheated water loop, a high-power 35-80 MHz RF source, a T resonator and a vacuum chamber.
Main features:
Water loop heating mode :
- Max temperature = 250°C
- Max pressure = 44 bar (absolute)
- Max flow rate = 2.5 kg/s
- Temperature rise rate = 7°C per hour
Water loop cooling mode :
- Max outlet temperature = 148°C
- Max pressure = 44 bar (absolute)
- Max flow rate = 15 kg/s
- Discharge power = 500 kW
- Max pressure drop = 10 ba
Vacuum vessel Specifications :
- Volume = 17.5 m³
- Length ≈ 4 m, diameter = 2.7 m
- Vacuum of 5.10-⁶ Pa reached in a few hours (≈ 3 m³/h)
- Electric heating of tank to 250°C max (7°C per hour)
RF capacity :
- 500 kW CW RF generator in the 40 to 80 MHz frequency range
- Maximum T resonator specifications: 45 kV / 2.25 kA CW
Other facilities:
- Diagnostic flanges with instrumentation (CCD and IR cameras, temperature sensors, vacuum sensors, mass spectrometry, etc.)
- RF and electrical measurement systems (network analysers, oscilloscopes, etc.)
- 64-channel monitoring and data acquisition system
- Cold demineralised water loop
- Nitrogen (N2) and compressed air circuits
- 10 T bridge crane
Recent applications
- RF testing of TS 1000s-20kV antennas for the WEST project
- Sliding contacts
- TWA antenna tested at 2 MW for 5 seconds
- Resonator for ICRH ITER window tests under design
