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Continuous Wave gyrotrons are the key elements for Electron Cyclotron Resonance Heating and Current Drive (ECRH&CD) in present fusion experiments and future fusion reactors. In the frame of the EUROfusion activities, a 170 GHz, 2 MW short-pulse (∼ 1 ms), water-cooled coaxial gyrotron, already tested at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), is being upgraded for operation at longer pulses (∼ 100–1000 ms). Here we use the MUlti-physiCs tool for the integrated simulation of the CAvity (MUCCA), recently developed in collaboration between Politecnico di Torino and KIT, to analyze the evolution of the operating condition of the coaxial gyrotron cavity, self-consistently coupling thermal-hydraulic, thermo-mechanical and electro-dynamic models. The main results are presented in terms of evolution of temperature, heat load and deformation of the heated surface of the resonator and of the coaxial insert during the first few seconds of operation. We show that the system evolves towards stable operating conditions (no beam loss), with a peak temperature strongly dependent on the cooling configuration, where a large room for the improvement of the current cavity cooling design is found.

In recent years Electron Cyclotron Resonance Heating (ECRH) has become the prime heating system on most fusion machines, due to the availability of gyrotrons and transmission systems as reliable high power microwave sources. The Institute of Pulsed Power and Microwave Heating (IHM) at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) is at the center of European efforts in developing such gyrotrons, in collaboration with European industry and other research institutions. Two years ago, KIT has started the construction of a new gyrotron test facility FULGOR (Fusion Long Pulse Laboratory), which should satisfy the demands gyrotron testing poses over the next 2–3 decades. The paper describes the capabilities of FULGOR and the progress made in its construction.

The present gyrotron designs for EC plasma heating in nuclear fusion reactors require the safe exhaust of a power comparable to that injected into the plasma, in order to keep the maximum temperature below the acceptable value of 300 °C. In this paper, the commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software STAR-CCM+® is used to analyze the thermal performance of the annular copper collector of a 1 MW ITER gyrotron, equipped with a hypervapotron structure made of annular fins with rectangular cavities of aspect ratio (depth/width) = 3, cooled by highly subcooled (90–100 °C) pressurized water flowing at ∼4 m/s. It is assumed that the simple vertical sweeping strategy is used to reduce the very high peak heat flux on the collector (up to 30 MW/m2 transient, 5 MW/m2 time average), due to the spent electron beam. The 2D steady-state conjugate heat transfer problem is solved assuming azimuthal symmetry and accounting for 2-phase flow. The single-cavity flow and heat transfer problem is considered first, to optimize the mesh and the selection of the turbulence model. For the operating conditions considered in this paper, the full collector (100+ cavities) solution shows that boiling occurs only in a limited number of cavities close to the peaks of the heat flux, with the vapor remaining trapped in the bottom of the cavities, i.e. no full hypervapotron regime should be achieved in these operating conditions. The steady-state analysis allows the numerical evaluation of the heat transfer coefficients between Cu and water; these are then used as input for the simplified, purely thermal (solid only) analysis of the actual transient problem for the full collector. The results of the simplified model, which allows a huge reduction of the computational effort, are successfully benchmarked against those of a comprehensive thermal–hydraulic simulation. The computed peak Cu temperature is below the acceptable limit under the steady-state (time averaged) heat load, but becomes unacceptably high if the actual transient heat load is considered, confirming the need for more effective sweeping strategies and/or optimized collector geometries with improved heat transfer capabilities.

Different configurations of water-cooled Cu collector for gyrotrons are investigated using the StarCCM + CFD code, aimed at optimizing its thermal–hydraulic (TH) performance. Although the current collectors show a good performance, the collector can be subjected to transient heat loads, due to the spent electron beam, of up to several tens of MW/m2, and there is an interest to increase the gyrotron output power in the future. Furthermore, an optimized cooling will lead to improved reliability and lifetime of the collector. Starting from a hypervapotron (HV)-like collector, characterized by 100+ deep rectangular cavities with aspect ratio (AR) = 3, we present in the first part of the paper a single-cavity steady-state parametric analysis of the effect of AR on the heat exhaust capabilities. The investigation is then extended to other collector designs, including circumferential ribs and dimples, in order to assess the options for further improvements of the TH performance. The peak Cu temperature is computed by the code and its minimization is the target of the present optimization exercise. A self-consistent estimate of the heat transfer coefficient between collector and coolant is also obtained, which could be useful for fatigue and lifetime assessments. In the second part of the paper the most promising collector geometries identified in the first part are analyzed in the case of a transient heat load (vertical sweeping), first at the level of a single spatial period of the collector structure, then at the full-collector level. The results of the TH transient analysis are compared with both the results of the first part and with the transient purely thermal analysis of the full collector, showing for all geometries considered in this study a room for cooling efficiency improvement with respect to the HV-like design with AR = 3, at least in the operating conditions considered for this study (V ∼ 4 m/s, almost 100 °C sub-cooling).

Parasitic beam tunnel oscillations have been hampering the series production of gyrotrons for W7-X. This problem has now been overcome thanks to the introduction of a specially corrugated beam tunnel. Two gyrotrons equipped with the new beam tunnel have fully passed the acceptance tests. Despite excellent power capability, the expected efficiency has not yet been achieved, possibly due to the presence of parasitic oscillations suspected to be dynamic after-cavity-oscillations (ACI's) or due to insufficient electron beam quality. Both theoretical and experimental investigations on these topics are ongoing. On previous W7-X gyrotrons collector fatigue has been observed, not (yet) leading to any failures so far. The plastic deformation occurring on the collector has now been eliminated due to the strict use (on all gyrotrons) of a sweeping method which combines the conventional 7 Hz solenoid sweeping technique with a 50 Hz transverse-field sweep system. Starting in 2013, the gyrotron test facility at KIT will be enhanced, chiefly with a new 10 MW DC modulator, capable of testing gyrotrons up to 4 MW CW output power with multi-stage-depressed collectors.

Parasitic beam tunnel oscillations have been discovered on some of the series production gyrotrons for W7-X and also on the coaxial pre-prototype gyrotron for ITER. Solutions to remedy these problems have resulted in a modified beam tunnel design, technologically close to the existing beam tunnel. The new design has successfully been tested on both the coaxial and also the f-step-tunable gyrotrons and has subsequently been implemented on one of the W7-X series-production-tubes presently undergoing factory acceptance tests in Karlsruhe. The ECRH test loads at KIT are operated under normal atmospheric conditions. Several loads have eventually failed in 1 MW long pulse experiments and KIT has therefore started to design its own loads. The first KIT-load is based on a fixed conical mirror and an aluminum cylinder coated with a lossy material for increased absorption. The new load has so far successfully been used during the acceptance tests of two 1-MW CW gyrotrons. Nevertheless a new load based on pure (uncoated) stainless steel absorbers is being developed as a backup solution for the ongoing high priority gyrotron testing. A superconducting magnet capable of rapid field changes between 4.15 and 5.67 T for frequency step-tunable gyrotrons has been procured, has demonstrated a (static) field of 7.2 T and its capability of rapid field-changes.