An OpenFOAM multi-region solver for tritium transport modeling in fusion systems

Abstract

The transport, permeation and retention of tritium inside nuclear fusion reactors is a topic of great interest due to the scarcity of the isotope, its ease of diffusion through materials and its radioactivity. An accurate balance of tritium is needed in all the fuel cycle, and each loss term needs to be evaluated in detail. In this context, reliable and flexible tools to evaluate tritium permeation and retention are a necessity for the development of fusion technologies. This work presents the OpenFOAM PermeAtion Solver for Tritium Analysis Foam (pastaFoam) solver and two custom boundary conditions, along with a series of verification and validation cases. The solver inherits all capabilities of the base solver, chtMultiRegionFoam, and is capable to simulate hydrogen transport in coupled fluid–solid systems in the presence of hydrogen traps, under diffusion limited regime or accounting for surface effects. All features are tested against analytical solutions and results are compared with other tritium transport codes. Agreement with experimental data is aligned with results of numerical benchmarks from literature.