Abstract
In blankets of a fusion power reactor, liquid metal (LM) breeders, such as pure lithium or lead-lithium alloy, circulate in complex shape blanket conduits for power conversion and tritium breeding in the presence of a strong plasma-confining magnetic field. The interaction of the magnetic field with induced electric currents in the breeder results in various magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) effects on the flow. Of them, high MHD pressure losses in the LM breeder flows is one of the most important feasibility issues. To design new feasible LM breeding blankets or to improve the existing blanket concepts and designs, one needs to identify and characterize sources of high MHD pressure drop, to understand the underlying physics of MHD flows and to eventually define ways of mitigating high MHD pressure drop in the entire blanket and its sub-components. This article is a comprehensive review of earlier and recent studies of MHD pressure drop in LM blankets with a special focus on: (1) physics of LM MHD flows in typical blanket configurations, (2) development and testing of computational tools for LM MHD flows, (3) practical aspects associated with pumping of a conducting liquid breeder through a strong magnetic field, and (4) approaches to mitigation of the MHD pressure drop in a LM blanket.
Highlights
Academic Editors: Ioannis Sarris and creativecommons.org/licenses/by/Development of a reliable, low-cost, and safe blanket system of a fusion power reactor that provides self-sufficient tritium breeding and efficient conversion of the extracted fusion energy to electricity, while meeting all material, design, and configuration limitations is among the most important fusion science and technology goals [1]
This article summarizes earlier and recent studies of MHD pressure drop in liquid metal (LM) blankets with a special focus on (1) physics of LM MHD flows in typical blanket configurations, (2) development and testing of computational tools for LM MHD flows, (3) practical aspects associated with pumping of a conducting liquid breeder through a strong magnetic field, and (4) approaches to mitigation of the MHD pressure drop in a LM blanket
Among many potential issues associated with the development of feasible blanket designs, high MHD pressure drop remains one of the most important problems
Summary
Development of a reliable, low-cost, and safe blanket system of a fusion power reactor that provides self-sufficient tritium breeding and efficient conversion of the extracted fusion energy to electricity, while meeting all material, design, and configuration limitations is among the most important fusion science and technology goals [1]. Higher pressure drops might still be allowed but this needs to be confirmed through the thermo-mechanical analysis Such an analysis might require data on the pressure drop in the ancillary equipment as the entire pressure drop in the LM circuit is composed of the MHD pressure drop in the blanket and the ordinary pressure drops in the ancillary components, such as a tritium extraction system and a heat exchanger, where LM flows do not experience MHD effects but are typically turbulent. (2) development and testing of computational tools for LM MHD flows, (3) practical aspects associated with pumping of a conducting liquid breeder through a strong magnetic field, and (4) approaches to mitigation of the MHD pressure drop in a LM blanket
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