Study of high-performance non-equilibrium MHD generator for compact fusion advanced Rankine cycle

Abstract

The conceptual design of high-performance non-equilibrium disk magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) generator for compact fusion advanced Rankine (CFAR) cycle has already been performed by the authors. In the design, however, the inlet stagnation pressure may be too high (12.8 atm), making it difficult to design the other components of the cycle. The present study, therefore, performs conceptual design of high performance MHD generator with low stagnation pressure (4 atm) for CFAR cycle. For this purpose, the distribution of magnetic flux density is dealt as unknown variable and is calculated from given inlet conditions, generator configuration and electron temperature. The calculations are performed by using quasi-one-dimensional steady-state simulation code. All conditions except the load current and seed fraction are, at first, determined by preliminary study of design conditions. Then, calculations are performed for various load currents and seed fractions to find out the generator with highest enthalpy extraction ratio. The enthalpy extraction ratio of conceptually designed generator reaches 54.5%.