Testing of ITER central solenoid coil insulation in an array

A glass-polyimide insulation system has been proposed by the US team for use in the central solenoid (CS) coil of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) machine and it is planned to use this system in the CS model coil inner module. The turn insulation will consist of 2 layers of combined prepreg and Kapton. Each layer is 50% overlapped with a butt wrap of prepreg and an overwrap of S glass. The coil layers will be separated by a glass-resin composite and impregnated in a VPI process. Small scale tests on the various components of the insulation are complete. It is planned to fabricate and test the insulation in a 4/spl times/4 insulated CS conductor array which will include the layer insulation and be vacuum impregnated. The conductor array will be subjected to 20 thermal cycles and 100000 mechanical load cycles in a liquid nitrogen environment. These loads are similar to those seen in the CS coil design. The insulation will be electrically tested at several stages during mechanical testing. This paper will describe the array configuration, fabrication process, instrumentation, testing configuration, and supporting analyses used in selecting the array and test configurations.