Application of heat transfer enhancement technology in ICRF antenna

Plasma must be heated by external heating for ignition in the future fusion reactor, ICRF heating is a favourable high-density plasma heating method since the fast wave launched from ICRF antenna can be transmitted to plasma core even in high-density plasma. While heating power increasing, the exposed antenna surface endures higher heat load. Faraday Shield (FS), as one of the key components, faces plasma and undertakes high heat load during plasma discharge. High stress and deformation on the FS is produced without removing the heating, which drastically reduces the antenna performance, even damages FS structure to threat RF antenna safety. To explore high-efficiency heat transfer enhancement technology to remove heat on the FS, one finite element analysis was used to analyse heat and temperature distribution on FS by different heat transfer ways, optimizing the FS structure. Based on the analysis results, several novel heat transfer enhancement way are proposed. Some workpieces with proposed heat transfer enhancement structure were designed and manufactured for test. Afterwards, two mock-ups with one quarter dimension of EAST ICRF antenna were manufactured without and with optimum heat transfer enhancement technology based on former test results, they were tested under same high heat load, significant results are obtained and presented in the paper, results are shown that heat transfer enhancement technology are drastically improved heat transfer performance of FS, which lay the foundation to high-power, steady-state operation ICRF antenna design in the future.