Design and analysis of the equatorial inboard WCCB blanket module for CFETR

Abstract

• Preliminary thermal-hydraulic analyses have been conducted to evaluate the design feasibility. • The cooling configuration has been optimized referring to preliminary flow distribution results. • Further detailed thermal-hydraulic behavior has been obtained based on a global module FE model with an acceptable result. • Thermo-mechanical performance of the WCCB blanket has been investigated under normal operation and two accident events. The blanket system is a key component to fulfill tritium breeding and nuclear energy conversion in the fusion reactor. This paper reports and presents the design and analysis of an equatorial inboard water-cooled ceramic breeder (WCCB) blanket module for Chinese Fusion Engineering Test Reactor (CFETR). The detailed structure design and the schematics of coolant flow scheme optimization has been presented. Based on the design model, a global model of the equatorial inboard WCCB blanket module has been established by the ANSYS code. Preliminary thermal-hydraulic performance of the blanket module is investigated which suggests that the cooling system inside the blanket module should be optimized. Then, optimization design has been done, the analysis results shows that the temperature distribution is reasonable and within the allowable temperature. Further thorough thermal-hydraulic and mechanical analysis have been studied to validate the feasibility of the design. Three scenarios (normal operation/LOCA occurs during plasma startup/LOCA occurs during normal operation) were postulated to evaluate the design rationality, and the results were assessed with ITER SDC-IC. Optimization results imply that the design of the equatorial inboard WCCB blanket module can meet the design requirements.