Development of a IRSN code for dust mobilisation problems in ITER

Abstract

The analysis of accident scenarios in the ITER Fusion facility such as loss of vacuum accidents (LOVA) or ingress of coolant accidents (ICE) is of primary importance in order to evaluate pressure loads generated by a potential dust explosion or mobilisation. Thus the DUST code for simulation of dust mobilisation has been developed in close collaboration between IRSN (France) and the Technical University of Cartagena (Spain), on the basis of the CAST3M code developed at the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique (CEA, France). A high dilute model for the analysis of particle and gas mixtures has been implemented in the code. This type of mixtures is expected in the case of a LOVA inside ITER. The code will permit the analysis of dust spatial distribution, remobilisation and entrainment, and explosion. Special attention is paid to the study of the closure relationships which characterise the physical phenomena involved in this sort of problems and a model based on the force balance has been implemented as well. The implementation of the adhesion/re-suspension model is carefully described. To test the code qualitatively, two benchmarks have been studied taking into account the influence of different parameters. Some conclusions are finally drawn.