Analysis of NSTX TF Joint Voltage Measurements
Author: R. Woolley
Date of PPPL Report: October 2005
Presented at: the Twenty-First Symposium on Fusion Engineering (SOFE2005), 26 - 29 September 2005, Knoxville, Tennessee USA.
This report presents findings of analyses of recorded current and voltage data associated with 72 electrical joints operating at high current and high mechanical stress. The analysis goal was to characterize the mechanical behavior of each joint and thus evaluate its mechanical supports. The joints are part of the toroidal field (TF) magnet system of the National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) pulsed plasma device operating at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL). Since there is not sufficient space near the joints for much traditional mechanical instrumentation, small voltage probes were installed on each joint and their voltage monitoring waveforms have been recorded on sampling digitizers during each NSTX "shot".