Experimental evaluation of torsional fatigue strength of welded bellows and application to design of fusion device.

Abstract

Torsional fatigue strength of the welded bellows was evaluated experimentally, aiming the application to a port of a fusion device. The welded bellows revealed elastic torsional buckling and spiral distorsion even under a small angle of torsion. Twisting load never leads the welded bellows to fracture easily so far as the angle of torsion is not excessively large, and the welded bellows has the torsional fatigue strength much larger than that expected so far. Two formulae were proposed to evaluate the stress of the welded bellows under the forced angle of torsion; shearing stress evaluation formula in the case that torsional buckling does not occur and the axial bending stress evaluation formula in the case that torsional buckling occurs. And the results of the torsional fatigue experiments showed that the former is reasonably conservative and simulates the actual behavior of the welded bellows better than the latter in the high cycle fatigue region and vice versa in the low cycle fatigue region from the viewpoint of the mechanical design. The present evaluation method of the torsional fatigue strength was applied to the welded bellows for the port of the JT-60 vacuum vessel and its structural integrity was confirmed under the design load condition.