The ITER Cryostat is a cylindrical vessel of ~28m diameter, ~30 m height and 50mm thickness.

The material of
cryostat is stainless steel 304L. Circumferential joint is 15m down from the top of cryostat. During the site
assembly of Cryostat, a single side full penetration circumferential field joint is required to join upper and lower
cylinders because of space constraints from the outside. As per the assembly requirement ovality of cryostat
cylinder should not be more then 50mm. To meet stringent tolerance and optimize welding process, the study of
temperature of weld region, stress generated in the cryostat due to welding and distortion due to residual
stresses has been done.

Challenge: As per ASME Section VII Division 2 The difference between the maximum and minimum inside
diameter at any cross section shall not exceed 1% of the nominal diameter at the cross section under
consideration i.e. 286mm. But it is not meeting our system requirement so we have to undergo more stringent
to the ASME Code i.e 50mm.

ITER Cryostat Field Welding Joint Study
Mukesh Jindal, Girish Gupta, Vipul More, Rajanikant Prajapati, Jagrut Bhavsar, Avik Bhattacharya & Anil Bhardwaj
Cryostat Group, ITER-India, A-29, GIDC electronic estate, sector -25, Gandhinagar-382025 , INDIA.
3D View of ITER Cryostat
Material of construction
ASME SA-240 Type 304L
ASME SA-240 Type 304
Code and standard
ASME Section IX
ASME section VIII, division 2


Location of Field joint to be weld in tokamak
Pit
Site fabrication
Component detail Tolerances (mm)
Site fabrication of main sections at temporary work shop
Weld distortion due to 20 degree
segment welding
10
Field joint and installation at pit
Offset in field joint 6.25 max.
After removal of fixtures 25
Overall Assembly Tolerances
Overall Height As per functional
requirements
Surface deviation

25
Welding conditions
Material : 304L
Thickness : 50 mm in Dia. 28.4 m
Welding Joint :Single side Butt Joint
with Narrow Gap/TIG/SMAW/MIG


Requirements for welding and welding
equipment
Welding deformation, dimension, control of shape
(mainly because of the thermal expansions and typical
structure of the Cryostat)
NDT examinations; Radiography Testing, Ultrasonic
Testing, Liquid Penetrant Test
Consideration for the space limitation such as
Ribs/bio-shield etc.
Only Narrow Gap TIG welding, is considered from
inside .
To weld from inside special welding carriage shall be
designed.
Same type of welding carriage shall be used for all
welding areas.
Welding carriage shall be designed from point view of
space limitation and workability.
Design shall includes welding carriage, rail, clamps etc.
Figure showing the space availability
between the cryostat and bio-shield
Simulation of field weld joint using SYS-Weld (Computer Software )
Case1: Movement of weld Torch in clockwise
direction as shown by the arrows in the figure
Stress Plots
Maximum
Stress

(429.51 MPa)


(342.52 MPa)
Maximum
Displacement


(76.66 mm)

(6.2 mm)

Displacement Plots
Validation of software by weld Prototype: for the Validation of software we welded two stainless steel plate
of given dimensions and at the given welding inputs. Then simulate the weld with the same welding conditions in
the SYS-Weld as shown below
Sr.No. X Y z
1 Set-point-1 3451.598 -1107.45 -737.789
2 Set-point-2 3184.688 -1088.03 -737.729
3 Set-point-3 2892.797 -1077.43 -737.562
4 Set-point-4 2885.241 -1175.01 -737.916
5 Set-point-5 3185.663 -1185.69 -738.358
6 Set-point-6 3447.131 -1199.13 -738.109
Sr. No. X Y Z
1 Set-point-1 3451.643 -1105.4 -736.646
2 Set-point-2 3185.619 -1086.35 -735.717
3 Set-point-3 2891.528 -1076.95 -736.794
4 Set-point-4 2883.54 -1166.96 -733.927
5 Set-point-5 3185.807 -1179.15 -734.066
6 Set-point-6 3448.12 -1193.03 -734.285
Deformation in case of prototype is 8.01mm and simulation on sys-weld show 6.51mm. The difference between
the results of the prototype and SYS-weld simulation is very less, which shows that SYS- weld results are reliable.
For the field joint study two cases are considered with same parameters
Dimension Of the Plate 800 x 150 x25 mm
Material of the plate SS 304L
Welding Process Manual TIG welding
Filler wire used ER 308 L (2.4 mm dia) .

Welding Speed 65 mm/min
Input current 200 Amp.
Line diagram of work Piece
Location of 6 points taking in
consideration before weld
Quality of weld after 3 passes Liquid Penetrant test of the weld
joint after welding
Location of the points after weld
Actual deflection in the prototype
(Max Deformation is 8.01 mm)
Sys weld simulation result
(Max. Deformation is 6.51 mm)

Welding Limitations / Tolerance
Case2: Movement of the weld torch in
the segments as shown in the figure
Total no. of Passes 15
Conclusion
To achieve required tolerance, it is suggested to weld in segments as shown in case 2. Segmentation shall be
applicable for all the pass. Measurment in between the welding shall be done, Which will give accurate guide line in
further segmentation of welding in passes
Welding Arrangement for field joint at site
Future scope of this work: Whole cryostat weld distortion study and optimization will be done by simulation.