ITER Fast Discharging Units: A Black Box Model Approach for Circuital Simulations

Nuclear fusion represents in the current century one of the most important challenges in the energy field. Achieving such an important goal will completely change the energy scenario and it will reduce the current dependency on fossil fuels with a sustainable alternative. In this framework, ITER project represents the most advanced project for nuclear fusion all over the world. However, challenges related to the physics of the plasma and many others related to various fields of engineering need to be faced in order to accomplish the ITER project development. In particular, one is the need for the definition of suitable discharging units able to de-energise the superconductive coil power supply when necessary. This paper deals with the application of arc models available in the literature to support the definition of a suitable layout for the previously mentioned Fast Discharging Units. This can be achieved firstly by defining a procedure to identify the optimal parameters of the so-called “Black Box Arc Models” in order to fit the experimental oscillograms provided by circuit breakers producers and secondly by implementing it on a circuital simulator in order to define the compliance of the discharging unit with the coil insulation limits.