A new spherical tokamak, the SMall Aspect Ratio Tokamak (SMART), is currently being designed at the University of Seville. The goal of the machine is to achieve a toroidal field of 1 T, a plasma current of 500 kA and a pulse length of 500 ms for a plasma with a major radius of 0.4 m and minor radius of 0.25 m. This contribution presents the design of the coils and power supplies of the machine. The design foresees a central solenoid, 12 toroidal field coils and 8 poloidal field coils. Taking the current waveforms for these set of coils as starting point, each of them has been designed to withstand the Joule heating during the tokamak operation time. An analytical thermal model is employed to obtain the cross sections of each coil and, finally, their dimensions and parameters. The design of flexible and modular power supplies, based on IGBTs and supercapacitors, is presented. The topologies and control strategy of the power supplies are explained, together with a model in MATLAB Simulink to simulate the power supplies performance, proving their feasibility before the construction of the system.
The increase in hydrogen production to support the energy transition in different sectors, such as the steel industry, leads to the utilization of large scale electrolyzers. These electrolyzers have the ability to become a fundamental tool for grid stability providing grid services, especially frequency regulation, for power grids with a high share of renewable energy sources. Alkaline electrolyzers (AELs) have low cost and long lifetime, but their slow dynamics make them unsuitable for fast frequency regulation, especially in case of contingencies. Proton Exchange Membrane electrolyzers (PEMELs) have fast dynamic response to provide grid services, but they have higher costs. This paper proposes a dynamic power allocation control strategy for hybrid electrolyzer systems to provide frequency regulation with reduced cost, making use of advantages of AELs and PEMELs. Simulations and experiments are conducted to verify the proposed control strategy.
Hydrogen electrolyzers are promising tools for frequency regulation of future power systems with high penetration of renewable energies and low inertia. This is due to both the increasing demand for hydrogen and their flexibility as controllable load. The two main electrolyzer technologies are Alkaline Electrolyzers (AELs) and Proton Exchange Membrane Electrolyzers (PEMELs). However, they have trade-offs: dynamic response speed for AELs, and cost for PEMELs. This paper proposes the combination of both technologies into a Hybrid Hydrogen Electrolyzer System (HHES) to obtain a fast response for frequency regulation with reduced costs. A decentralized dynamic power sharing control strategy is proposed where PEMELs respond to the fast component of the frequency deviation, and AELs respond to the slow component, without the requirement of communication. The proposed decentralized approach facilitates a high reliability and scalability of the system, what is essential for expansion of hydrogen production. The effectiveness of the proposed strategy is validated in simulations and experimental results.
The SMall Aspect Ratio Tokamak (SMART) device is a novel, compact (Rgeo = 0.42 m, a = 0.22 m, A 1.70) spherical tokamak, currently under development at the University of Seville. The SMART device is being developed over 3 phases, with target on-axis toroidal magnetic fields between 0.1 ≼ Bf ≼ 1.0 T, and target plasma currents of between 35 ≼ Ip ≼ 400 kA; with phases 2 and 3 enabling access to a wide range of elongations (κ ≼ 2.30) and triangularities (− 0.50 ≼ δ ≼ 0.50). SMART employs four internal divertor coils with two internal and two external poloidal field coils, enabling operation in lower-single, upper-single and double-null configurations. This work examines phase 3 of the SMART device, presenting a prospective L-mode discharge scenario without external heating, before examining five highly-shaped equilibria, including: two double null triangular configurations, two single null triangular configurations and a baseline double null configuration. All equilibria are obtained via an axisymmetric Grad-Shafranov force balance solver (Fiesta), in combination with a circuit equation rigid current displacement model (RZIp) to obtain time-resolved vessel and plasma currents.
The SMall Aspect Ratio Tokamak (SMART) device is a new compact (plasma major radius Rgeo≥0.40 m, minor radius a≥0.20 m, aspect ratio A≥1.7) spherical tokamak, currently in development at the University of Seville. The SMART device has been designed to achieve a magnetic field at the plasma center of up to Bϕ=1.0 T with plasma currents up to Ip=500 kA and a pulse length up to τft=500 ms. A wide range of plasma shaping configurations are envisaged, including triangularities between −0.50≤δ≤0.50 and elongations of κ≤2.25. Control of plasma shaping is achieved through four axially variable poloidal field coils (PF), and four fixed divertor (Div) coils, nominally allowing operation in lower-single null, upper-single null and double-null configurations. This work examines phase 2 of the SMART device, presenting a baseline reference equilibrium and two highly-shaped triangular equilibria. The relevant PF and Div coil current waveforms are also presented. Equilibria are obtained via an axisymmetric Grad-Shafranov force balance solver (Fiesta), in combination with a circuit equation rigid current displacement model (RZIp) to obtain time-resolved vessel and plasma currents.
The SMall Aspect Ratio Tokamak (SMART) is a new spherical device that is currently being designed at the University of Seville. SMART is a compact machine with a plasma major radius () greater than 0.4 m, plasma minor radius () greater than 0.2 m, an aspect ratio () over than 1.7 and an elongation () of more than 2. It will be equipped with 4 poloidal field coils, 4 divertor field coils, 12 toroidal field coils and a central solenoid. The heating system comprises of a Neutral Beam Injector (NBI) of 600 kW and an Electron Cyclotron Resonance Heating (ECRH) of 6 kW for pre-ionization. SMART has been designed for a plasma current () of 500 kA, a toroidal magnetic field () of 1 T and a pulse length of 500 ms preserving the compactness of the machine. The free boundary equilibrium solver code FIESTA [1] coupled to the linear time independent, rigid plasma model RZIP [2] has been used to calculate the target equilibria taking into account the physics goals, the required plasma parameters, vacuum vessel structures and power supply requirements. We present here the final design of the SMART vacuum vessel together with the Finite Element Model (FEM) analysis carried out to ensure that the tokamak vessel provides high quality vacuum and plasma performance withstanding the electromagnetic loads caused by the interaction between the eddy currents induced in the vessel itself and the surrounding magnetic fields. A parametric model has been set up for the topological optimization of the vessel where the thickness of the wall has been locally adapted to the expected forces. An overview of the new machine is presented here.
The SMall Aspect Ratio Tokamak (SMART) is a new spherical machine that is currently under construction at the University of Seville aimed at exploring negative vs positive triangularity prospects in Spherical Tokamaks (ST). The operation of SMART will cover three phases, with toroidal fields Bϕ≤ 1 T, inductive plasma currents up to Ip= 500 kA and a pulse length up to 500 ms, for a plasma with R = 0.4 m, a = 0.25 m and a wide range of shaping configurations (aspect ratio, 1.4 < R/a < 3, elongation, κ≤ 3, and average triangularity, -0.6 ≤δ≤ 0.6). The magnet system of the tokamak is composed by 12 Toroidal Field Coils (TFC), 8 Poloidal Field Coils (PFC) and a Central Solenoid (CS). With such operating conditions, the design of the central stack, usually a critical part in spherical tokamaks due to space limitations, presents notable challenges. The current SMART central stack has been designed to operate up to phase 2 and it comprises the inner legs of the TFC, surrounded by the CS, two supporting rings, a central pole and a pedestal. To achieve the plasma parameters of this phase (Bϕ=0.4 T with inductive Ipup to 200 kA), the high currents required, combined with the low aspect-ratio of the machine lead to high forces on the conductors that represent an engineering challenge. The loads expected in the central stack are a centring force up to 1.5 MN and a twisting torque up to 7.4 kNm. This work describes the design of the central stack and its mechanical validation with a multiphysics finite element assessment. Using a combined electromagnetic and mechanical assessment, it is shown that the SMART central stack will meet the physics requirements in phase 2.