NUMERICAL-ANALYSIS ON FRACTURE-BEHAVIOR OF A SINGLE-EDGE-CRACKED PLATE SUBJECTED TO ELECTROMAGNETIC FORCE

A strong electromagnetic force due to a plasma disruption may damage t he structural integrity of fusion reactor components. Since these comp onents usually consist of thin plates, out-of-plane stress and deforma tion analyses are important. Besides, some components will inevitably contain cracks under the severe disruption conditions. In this study, first, an eddy current analysis on a single-edge-cracked plate was num erically conducted with the use of the magnetic vector potential metho d. As a result, the eddy current has a singularity at crack tip and it s magnitude gradually increases with increasing crack length. Second, a static elastic bending analysis was conducted under three different mechanical boundary conditions. The neighborhood of the crack tip is d eformed in a rather complicated manner, strongly depending on the type of boundary condition. The mode II and mode III stress intensities we re significant when compared with mode I stress intensity. According t o the definition of equivalent stress intensity, the possibility of cr ack initiation was discussed for three different boundary conditions. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.