KRONOS-CTRL: Thermomechanics Module
The Thermomechanics module maps thermal loads and strain across the vessel, magnets, and divertor, turning physics into structural-health state.
Scope
The Thermomechanics module models heat and mechanical stress in the machine structure: volumetric neutron heating in the blanket and vessel, surface heat flux on the divertor and first wall, Lorentz and preload stresses in the REBCO magnets, and the resulting temperature and strain fields. It converts the physics from the other modules into the mechanical state that governs component life and near-term thermal margins.
Inputs and outputs
- Consumes: neutron heating (Neutronics), plasma heat flux (MHD/equilibrium), magnet loads (field/current)
- Models: CrMoNbV vessel, carbon-fiber cocoon, divertor/expander, magnet structure
- Reads: REBCO strain gauges and thermal sensors via L2
- Provides: strain/temperature fields, structural-health state, thermal-margin constraints for MPC
The divertor and expander are the highest-heat-flux surfaces and set a hard thermal constraint that shape-control MPC (breeder) and end-loss handling (burner) must respect; the module supplies the live heat-flux estimate and margin. The carbon-fiber cocoon and CrMoNbV vessel are tracked for thermal expansion, which feeds back geometry changes to the equilibrium and free-boundary solves.
Structural health monitoring
The module maintains a structural-health record by fusing the strain-gauge network (through the sensor-topology GNN), the accumulated neutron fluence from Neutronics, and the ICE-PISTON preload-cycle signatures. Deviation of measured strain from the modeled coupled pattern is the input to the strain-anomaly detector; drift in the preload signature across cycles indicates fatigue. This turns the twin into a continuous structural-health monitor, not just a plasma model.
A physics-informed thermomechanical surrogate (conduction plus thermoelastic response) keeps the module fast enough for the shadow, validated against finite-element thermomechanical reference models the same way the equilibrium PINN is validated against FEM.