A Spatial Five-Bar Linkage as a Tilting Joint of the Breeding Blanket Transporter for the Remote Maintenance of EU DEMO
The future fusion power plant EU DEMO will generate its own tritium fuel through the use of segmented breeding blankets (BBs), which must be replaced from time to time due to material damage caused by high-energy neutrons from the plasma. A vertical maintenance architecture has been proposed, using...
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MDPI AG
2025-04-01
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| author | Hjalte Durocher Christian Bachmann Rocco Mozzillo Günter Janeschitz Xuping Zhang |
| author_facet | Hjalte Durocher Christian Bachmann Rocco Mozzillo Günter Janeschitz Xuping Zhang |
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| description | The future fusion power plant EU DEMO will generate its own tritium fuel through the use of segmented breeding blankets (BBs), which must be replaced from time to time due to material damage caused by high-energy neutrons from the plasma. A vertical maintenance architecture has been proposed, using a robotic remote handling tool (transporter) to disengage the 180 <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mi mathvariant="normal">t</mi></semantics></math></inline-formula> and 125 <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mi mathvariant="normal">t</mi></semantics></math></inline-formula> outboard and inboard segments and manipulate them through an upper port. Safe disengagement without damaging the support structures requires the use of high-capacity tilting joints in the transporter. The trolley tilting mechanism (TTM) is proposed as a novel, compact, high-capacity robotic joint consisting of a five-bar spatial mechanism integrated in the BB transporter trolley link. A kinematic model of the TTM is established, and the analytical input–output relationships, including the position-dependent transmission ratio, are derived and used to guide the design and optimization of the mechanism. The model predictions are compared to an ADAMS multibody simulation and to the results of an experiment conducted on a down-scaled prototype, both of which validate the model accuracy. |
| format | Article |
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| issn | 2075-1702 |
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| publishDate | 2025-04-01 |
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| spelling | doaj-art-dd5a0702f6784000b5cf44f574e2f6ee2025-08-20T02:33:50ZengMDPI AGMachines2075-17022025-04-0113537110.3390/machines13050371A Spatial Five-Bar Linkage as a Tilting Joint of the Breeding Blanket Transporter for the Remote Maintenance of EU DEMOHjalte Durocher0Christian Bachmann1Rocco Mozzillo2Günter Janeschitz3Xuping Zhang4Department of Mechanical and Production Engineering, Aarhus University, 8200 Aarhus, DenmarkFTD Department, EUROfusion Consortium, 85748 Garching bei München, GermanySchool of Engineering, Basilicata University, 85100 Potenza, ItalyMax-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik, 85748 Garching bei München, GermanyDepartment of Mechanical and Production Engineering, Aarhus University, 8200 Aarhus, DenmarkThe future fusion power plant EU DEMO will generate its own tritium fuel through the use of segmented breeding blankets (BBs), which must be replaced from time to time due to material damage caused by high-energy neutrons from the plasma. A vertical maintenance architecture has been proposed, using a robotic remote handling tool (transporter) to disengage the 180 <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mi mathvariant="normal">t</mi></semantics></math></inline-formula> and 125 <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mi mathvariant="normal">t</mi></semantics></math></inline-formula> outboard and inboard segments and manipulate them through an upper port. Safe disengagement without damaging the support structures requires the use of high-capacity tilting joints in the transporter. The trolley tilting mechanism (TTM) is proposed as a novel, compact, high-capacity robotic joint consisting of a five-bar spatial mechanism integrated in the BB transporter trolley link. A kinematic model of the TTM is established, and the analytical input–output relationships, including the position-dependent transmission ratio, are derived and used to guide the design and optimization of the mechanism. The model predictions are compared to an ADAMS multibody simulation and to the results of an experiment conducted on a down-scaled prototype, both of which validate the model accuracy.https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1702/13/5/371kinematicsfive-bar spatial mechanismrobotic manipulatortokamakbreeding blanketremote maintenance |
| spellingShingle | Hjalte Durocher Christian Bachmann Rocco Mozzillo Günter Janeschitz Xuping Zhang A Spatial Five-Bar Linkage as a Tilting Joint of the Breeding Blanket Transporter for the Remote Maintenance of EU DEMO Machines kinematics five-bar spatial mechanism robotic manipulator tokamak breeding blanket remote maintenance |
| title | A Spatial Five-Bar Linkage as a Tilting Joint of the Breeding Blanket Transporter for the Remote Maintenance of EU DEMO |
| title_full | A Spatial Five-Bar Linkage as a Tilting Joint of the Breeding Blanket Transporter for the Remote Maintenance of EU DEMO |
| title_fullStr | A Spatial Five-Bar Linkage as a Tilting Joint of the Breeding Blanket Transporter for the Remote Maintenance of EU DEMO |
| title_full_unstemmed | A Spatial Five-Bar Linkage as a Tilting Joint of the Breeding Blanket Transporter for the Remote Maintenance of EU DEMO |
| title_short | A Spatial Five-Bar Linkage as a Tilting Joint of the Breeding Blanket Transporter for the Remote Maintenance of EU DEMO |
| title_sort | spatial five bar linkage as a tilting joint of the breeding blanket transporter for the remote maintenance of eu demo |
| topic | kinematics five-bar spatial mechanism robotic manipulator tokamak breeding blanket remote maintenance |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1702/13/5/371 |
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