Numerical Simulation on Molten Metal Collision Behavior Using SPH Method Combined with Fractal Analysis on Morphology of Stacking Pattern

Abstract

The developments of the high power proton accelerators become a worldwide interest to provide various applications, where the targets are demanded to efficiently produce secondary beams and to survive intensive MW class proton beam power supplied by the accelerators. Solid metal targets might be melted by very high heat flux that is caused by the intensive proton beam bombardment. In fact, the incident occurred at J-PARC (Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex), in which the gold solid target was locally melted to explosively jet molten gold. The molten gold jet collided with a structural beryllium flange plate that has a function of vacuum boundary. Some parts of molten gold were splashed and the other stuck on the flange plate. The relationship between the impact velocity and the morphology of the sticking pattern on the plate was quantitatively evaluated by introducing fractal analysis. It was found that the fractal dimension is correlated with the impact velocity and might be a useful factor to indicate the localized impact force and behavior.