Abstract
The present paper describes the experimental campaign executed at the ENEA Brasimone Research Centre aiming at supporting the development of a PbLi/water heat exchanger suitable for the lithium–lead loops of the dual coolant lithium lead and the water cooled lithium lead breeding blankets of the EU DEMO fusion reactor. The experiments were performed in a test section named HERO, installed inside the main vessel of the lead–bismuth eutectic-cooled pool-type facility CIRCE. The test section hosts a steam generator bayonet tube mock-up in relevant scale, which was selected as a promising configuration for DEMO purposes. For the thermal-hydraulic characterization of the component, five tests were executed at different water pressures (6, 8, 12 MPa, two tests at 10 MPa), and liquid metal flow rates (40, 33, 27, 20, 10 kg/s). The experimental outcomes proved the technological feasibility of this novel steam generator and its suitability for the DEMO PbLi loops. The activity was completed with a post-test analysis using two versions of the system code RELAP5. Because the experiments were executed with lead–bismuth eutectic, a scaling analysis is proposed to find the equivalence with PbLi. RELAP5 code was applied to recalculate the experimental data using PbLi as working fluid.
Highlights
Within the EUROfusion R&D program, financed by the EU Horzon 2020 programme, for the realization of the demonstration fusion power reactor (DEMO) [1], a study was performed to support the development of a lithium–lead (PbLi)/water heat exchanger (HEX)
The paper describes five characterization tests in which the HERO steam generator with bayonet tubes (SGBT) was involved in the pooltype lead–bismuth eutectic (LBE)-cooled facility CIRCE
In the LBE side, the FPS managed to supply the thermal power necessary to balance the power removed by the SGBT
Summary
Within the EUROfusion R&D program, financed by the EU Horzon 2020 programme, for the realization of the demonstration fusion power reactor (DEMO) [1], a study was performed to support the development of a lithium–lead (PbLi)/water heat exchanger (HEX). The test section (TS) involved in the experimental campaign was HERO (Heavy Liquid mEtal pRessurized water cOoled tubes) [15], which hosts a relevant scale mock-up of an SGBT consisting of a bundle of seven double-wall bayonet tubes with a dedicated leakage monitoring system. This test section, designed at ENEA Brasimone R.C. and implemented in the main vessel of the lead–bismuth eutectic (LBE)-cooled pool-type facility CIRCE (CIRColazione Eutettico) [16], deals with the investigation of the thermalhydraulic features of prototypical systems and components, providing at the same time an experimental database suitable for thermal-hydraulic validation of numerical tools (i.e., system codes and Computational Fluid Dynamic codes).
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