Mechanics of Tokamak fusion components

Fusion is an ideal clean energy for human being utilized in the future. Much more significant research progress for such new energy exploited in a limited finite space of the high temperature plasma flow constrained by strong magnetic fields of superconducting magnets has been achieved on Tokamak research, which comes to a new era with the international joint efforts from China, Europe, India, Japan, Korea, Russia and United States for building the international thermonuclear experimental reactor (ITER). The plasma chamber and magnets are key components of a fusion power reactor system, including that the breeding blanket with integrated first wall, as the component for power extraction, tritium fuel sustainability and radiation shielding in fusion reactors. The blanket can be mainly classified as liquid metal concepts, and ceramic breeder concepts. The investigations relevant to mechanics and thermophysics of the components play still a critical role in research and development (R& D) of a fusion reactor as higher magnetic fields are requested.

This special issue consists of six research papers written by experts in engineering mechanics and engineering thermophysics, who mainly conduct researches relevant to fusion engineering and technology. The papers in this issue can be divided into four categories: (1) design and analysis for ceramic breeder blanket of demonstration fusion power plant (DEMO), two articles from Chinese Academy of Sciences (ASIPP) and Southwestern Institute of Physics (SWIP) separately introduce the design of water coolant and helium coolant solid blanket for Chinese fusion engineering testing reactor (CFETR); (2) magnetohyrodynamic (MHD) and heat transfer analysis for the concept of liquid metal blanket, two articles present numerical results for the liquid metal flows under a strong magnetic field and nuclear heat resource; (3) magneto-mechanical stress analysis for magnet and in-vessel components, two articles respectively present experimental and numerical stress analysis for magneto and invessel components under fusion environments; (4) ultrasonic testing for the first wall, one article detailed introduce the ultrasonic testing for defects during manufacturing and operation of the plasma-facing components of tokamak devices. These research papers enable readers and audiences to gain basic understandings and insights into the engineering mechanical and thermophysical problems relevant to fusion engineering and technology. We would like to thank all the authors for contributing their interesting research works for their generous assistance and help.

You-He Zhou received his bachelor and master degrees from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in 1982 and 1984, respectively,and Ph.D. degree from Lanzhou University in 1989. Since 1996, he has severed as a full professor in the Department of Mechanics and Engineering Science of Lanzhou University. In 1999, he was appointed to a professor of the Cheung Kong Scholars by the Ministry of Education of China. He serves as Dean of the College of Civil Engineering and Mechanics of Lanzhou University during 2005-2017, a standing member of the Council of the Chinese Society of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics since 2010, an associate Editor-in-Chief of the academic journals of Theoretical & Applied Mechanics Letters and Acta Mechanica Solida Sinica (Chinese Edition) since 2015, and served as Head of the Key Laboratory of Mechanics for Disaster and Environment in Western China of the Ministry of Education of China(Lanzhou University) during 2006-2016. His research interests are mainly concentrated in areas of nonlinear solid mechanics, electro-magnetosolid mechanics, mechanics of smart structures and dynamic controls,mechanics of superconductor and superconducting magnets, mechanics of wind-blown sand movements, containing their theoretical modeling,quantitatively nonlinear analysis methods, and experiments. Till today, he has published over 300 SCI journal papers, one academic book, and one textbook. His research contributions were awarded two National Natural Science Prizes (second grade) and one National Scientific and Technology Development Prize (second grade) by the Chinese Central Government.His two serial academic papers published in IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity in 2007 received the Best Contribution Paper or the Van Duzer Prize awarded by the IEEE Superconducting Council in 2008. He holds the honors including the Well-Known Teacher of Higher-Education awarded by the Ministry of Education of China in 2008, the Outstanding Contributor for the Innovation of Western China awarded by the Chinese Association of Science and Technology in 2006, and the Outstanding Young Scientist awarded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China in 2000, etc. His teaching contributions were awarded one prize of the National Teaching Achievement Prize (second grade) by the Ministry of Education of China in 2009, and two Ph.D. dissertations supervised by him had won one National Outstanding Ph.D. Dissertations of China in 2010 and one its nomination in 2012, respectively; and his supervised other one Ph.D. dissertation had won the Outstanding Ph.D Dissertation awarded by the Chinese Society of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics.in 2017.

Mingjiu Ni is a Professor in the School of Engineering Science at University of Chinese Academy of Sciences. He received his bachelor and Ph.D. degrees from Xi’an Jiaotong University in 1991 and 1997, respectively. He worked as a JSPS postdoctoral research associate at Kyoto University (1999-2001), and a staff researcher at UCLA (2001-2007). He has engaged himself in magnetohydrodynamics, multiphase flow and heat transfer, fusion engineering and technology for over twenty years. He serves as the editorial member of Theoretical & Applied Mechanics Letters, Acta Mechanica Sinica (English Edition), and Fusion Enginnering and Design. In 2016, he was appointed to a professor of the Cheung Kong Scholars by the Ministry of Education of China.