Development of reactor design aid tool using virtual reality technology

• Published in: Fusion engineering and design Vol. 81; no. 23; pp. 2755 - 2759
• Main Authors: Mizuguchi, N., Tamura, Y., Imagawa, S., Sagara, A., Hayashi, T.
• Format: Journal Article Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.11.2006; New York, NY Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Controled nuclear fusion plants; Energy; Energy. Thermal use of fuels; Exact sciences and technology; Installations for energy generation and conversion: thermal and electrical energy; Reactor design; Sonification; Virtual reality; Sonification; Virtual reality; Reactor design; Nuclear fusion reactor; Blanket; Transfer function; Computer aided design
• ISSN: 0920-3796; 1873-7196
• DOI: 10.1016/j.fusengdes.2006.07.043

A new type of aid system for fusion reactor design, to which the virtual reality (VR) visualization and sonification techniques are applied, is developed. This system provides us with an intuitive interaction environment in the VR space between the observer and the designed objects constructed by the conventional 3D computer-aided design (CAD) system. We have applied the design aid tool to the heliotron-type fusion reactor design activity FFHR2m [A. Sagara, S. Imagawa, O. Mitarai, T. Dolan, T. Tanaka, Y. Kubota, et al., Improved structure and long -life blanket concepts for heliotron reactors, Nucl. Fusion 45 (2005) 258–263] on the virtual reality system CompleXcope [Y. Tamura, A. Kageyama, T. Sato, S. Fujiwara, H. Nakamura, Virtual reality system to visualize and auralize numerical imulation data, Comp. Phys. Comm. 142 (2001) 227–230] of the National Institute for Fusion Science, Japan, and have evaluated its performance. The tool includes the functions of transfer of the observer, translation and scaling of the objects, recording of the operations and the check of interference.