Computational thermal fluid dynamic analysis of Hypervapotron heat sink for high heat flux devices application

Abstract

In fusion devices, plasma is the environment in which light elements fuse producing energy. More than 20% of this power reaches the surface of plasma facing components (e.g. the divertor targets, first wall), where the heat flux local value can be several MW/m2. In order to handle such heat fluxes several coolants are proposed such as water, helium and liquid metals along with different heat sink devices, such as Swirl tubes, Hypervapotrons, Jet cooling, Pin-fins, etc. Among these, Hypervapotron concept, operating in highly subcooled boiling regime with water as a coolant is considered as one of the potential candidates. In this paper, a Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) approach is used to analyze the boiling flow inside Hypervapotron channel using two different boiling models: Rohsenow boiling model and Transition boiling model, these models are available in the commercial CFD code STARCCM+, and uses Volume of Fluid approach for the multiphase flow analysis. They are benchmarked using experimental data obtained from experiments conducted at Joint European Torus, UK. The simulated results are then compared with each other and also with other simulated data available to test the quantitative, qualitative features of boiling models in modeling nucleate as well as hard boiling regimes.