Numerical investigation of liquid metal magnetohydrodynamic flow in multilayer flow channel inserts

Abstract

In the high temperature liquid metal blanket of fusion-based hydrogen production reactor (named FDS-III), there is a remarkable feature that the multilayer flow channel inserts (MFCI) as function component are put into the breeding zone. The low thermal conductivity of MFCI can prevent the internal PbLi's heat conduct to the outside. So the outlet temperature can achieve high temperature around 1000°C for high efficient production of hydrogen. However, the flow of liquid metal meandering through the MFCI will cause complex magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) effect under the strong fusion magnetic field. Liquid metal MHD effect is a key issue which should be concerned in high temperature breeder blanket (HTL). In this work, a numerical study was carried out to investigate the MHD effect of liquid metal PbLi in the MFCI. The MHD flows with typical modified geometry of the HTL MFCI were considered. The characteristics of flow and induced current fields were analyzed, and the pressure drop was evaluated. It also can be seen that the conductivity of the MFCI will have great impact on liquid metal flow's current and velocity distributions.