Modeling of tritium release behavior of biphasic Li2TiO3–Li4SiO4 ceramics

Abstract

Biphasic Li2TiO3–Li4SiO4 ceramics have been proposed as advanced tritium breeder for solid-type breeding blankets of fusion reactors. However, the mechanism of tritium release from biphasic Li2TiO3–Li4SiO4 ceramics remains to be elucidated. In this study, an integrated numerical model for tritium release from biphasic Li2TiO3–Li4SiO4 ceramics was constructed for the first time. In the proposed model, besides the mass transfer steps for tritium release from single-phase ceramics (e.g. Li2TiO3 and Li4SiO4), a mass transfer step between the interfacial layers of Li2TiO3 and Li4SiO4 was also included to take into account the effect of two-phase interface in Li2TiO3–Li4SiO4 ceramics. By using this model, numerical simulations of tritium release from Li2TiO3–Li4SiO4 ceramics with different phase ratio and grain size were performed. The simulation results showed that the mass transfer of tritium atoms between the interfacial layers of Li2TiO3 and Li4SiO4 can effectively enhance tritium release from Li4SiO4 in biphasic Li2TiO3–Li4SiO4 ceramics. Furthermore, increasing phase ratio of Li2TiO3 and decreasing grain size of Li2TiO3 were both beneficial to tritium release from biphasic Li2TiO3–Li4SiO4 ceramics at lower temperature. The modeling work consolidated the presumption that the two-phase interface could play an important role in the tritium release process of biphasic Li2TiO3–Li4SiO4 ceramics.