The Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) is one of the largest centers for fusion research in Europe. In December 2015, the scientific operation of the Wendelstein 7-X fusion experiment was started at the Greifswald site. On February 3, 2016, Chancellor Angela Merkel person-ally pressed the Start button to initiate the first ignition of the hydrogen plasma. The entire electrical engineering for this was planned by researchers with the E-CAD software from WSCAD.

The goal of the plasma research in Greifswald is to replicate the energy production of the sun on earth by generating energy from the fusion of atomic nuclei. Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) is the largest fusion device of the stellarator type and a key experiment in international fusion research. It is intended to demonstrate the suitability of this particular type of plant for power generation.

Powering the Future of Fusion

The core of the system consists of 50 non-planar and 20 planar super-conducting magnetic coils, which in-duce a magnetic field that confines the hydrogen plasma heated to 100 million degrees. In its form, the whole work of art is somewhat reminiscent of an over-sized donut. Ten megawatts of power are needed for the ignition, and a cur-rent of 18,500 amperes flows through the coils. To make this possible, the coils are cooled down to less than four degrees Kelvin, close to absolute zero. Just the helium plant needed for this involves almost unimaginable dimensions. The first successful plasma test was preceded by several years of planning and construction work for the plant. The entire electrical engineering planning and documentation for this was performed by the Max Planck engineers right from the beginning by using the E-CAD solution from WSCAD. “This means that we essentially participated in almost all the development stages of WSCAD and were frequently provided with new functions”, says Jörg Schacht, Head of the CoDa (Control and Data Acquisition) Group.

Managing Complex Electrical and Control Systems

“Today, we use the WSCAD SUITE disciplines of Electrical Engineering for circuit diagrams, Cabinet Engineering for cabinet layouts and Fluid Engineering for pneumatic and fluid plans. We essentially had to plan for all actuators and sensors, including the data acquisition, a variety of control systems, the entire infrastructure and various diagnostic components”. For example, for the construction of the data acquisition and control of laser diagnostics interferometry – a diagnostic system to determine the plasma density. A laser beam is passed through the plasma and changes its properties, depending on the plasma density. The technical group CoDa first receives a requirements specification document. In it, the requesting department specifies the precise characteristics for data acquisition and for controlling the W7-X component to be built, including all subcomponents that must be installed in the project. All other subcomponents are defined by the respective planners.

From Electrical Planning to Cabinet Construction

Seamless Planning, Wiring and Commissioning

The electrical plans contain all the information for the subsequent wiring of the electrical cabinets, power supplies, measuring points or actuators. The fluid plans for compressed air-driven components likewise come from an external service provider, who also works with the WSCAD software. This has the advantage that the supplied plans can be immediately linked to the symbols used in the respective schematics and cabinet layouts. For projects of this magnitude and such a long duration, milestones such as the commissioning of individual components are always among the highlights. For example, the commissioning of further diagnostics. To answer all scientific questions relating to an operational power plant in the future, there will be many more experiments with the W7-X. This will be accompanied by the further expansion of the plant and the job of planning with WSCAD.

In Conclusion: Integrated Engineering from Design to Production

The coil of a valve in the fluid plan is the same as in the circuit diagram or the cabinet configuration. At the touch of a button, the WSCAD software creates comprehensive documentation that is fully compliant with directives and standards, including individual checklists and acceptance protocols. With a simple click on a symbol in the intelligent PDFs, installers and service technicians on site can easily switch from the fluid plan to the schematics and to the cabinet. No additional viewers are required.

Thanks to open interfaces, the integration with enterprise PDM / PLM and ERP systems is easily achieved, and all data generated with the WSCAD SUITE are available for the production of wires and cable bundles, label printing, mounting plates and cabinet doors on NC machining centres.

Macros and macro variants in all disciplines speed up the design process, and the Project Wizard generates complete plans across multiple plan pages as if guided by a magic hand. Furthermore, by using the Automation interface (AI), several WSCAD-independent product configurators can be used to make the WSCAD software automatically generate plans and documentation while running in the background.