Numerical Model of the Dynamic Response of 3-D Conducting Structures with Magnetic Damping

In this paper, we present a new numerical model for the solution of the classic electromagnetomechanical-coupled problem. The dynamical behavior of conducting structures in the presence of a strong magnetic damping was the subject of a high scientific interest in the past, leading to several computational models with experimental validation, mainly related to thin-shell structures. We extend this approach to the treatment of 3-D conducting structures. To this purpose, we couple a very effective 3-D integral formulation in terms of the current density to the 3-D dynamical model of the conducting structures. The formulation is validated against the experimental results of the TEAM-16 benchmark problem. The importance of the magnetic damping is assessed with reference to the analysis of the dynamic response of the vacuum vessel of a fusion device under the strong Lorentz forces due to the plasma current disruption. The complex geometry of the vacuum vessel represents a real challenging problem in this frame.