Designs of contraction nozzle and concave back-wall for IFMIF target

Abstract

For the liquid lithium flow target of International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility (IFMIF), the double reducer (two-step contraction) nozzle with a high-contraction ratio of 10 which generated high-speed uniform jet flows up to 20 m/s was proposed. Multi-dimensional hydraulic analyses were carried out to verify the performance of the proposed nozzle. The analytical results showed that the double reducer nozzle would well generate high-speed uniform flow, while one-step contraction nozzle generated non-uniform flow and resulted in flow thickening at the beam footprint. For the target design, the range of the concave back-wall radius with no lithium boiling due to the centrifugal force and proper component arrangement in the irradiation test cell was determined by the thermal–hydraulic analysis of a free-surface flow. It was verified that the back-wall radius from 0.25 to 10 m was acceptable in the velocity range of 10–20 m/s.