The preliminary thermal–hydraulic analysis of a water cooled blanket concept design based on RELAP5 code

Abstract

Water cooled blanket (WCB) is very important in the conceptual design and energy transfer in future fusion power plant. One conceptual design of WCB is under computational testing. RELAP5 code, which is mature and often used in transient analysis in Pressurizer water reactor (PWR), is selected as the simulation tool. The complex inner flow channels and heat sources are simplified according to its thermal–hydraulic characteristics. Then the nodal model for REALP5 is built for approximating the conceptual design. Two typical operating plans, superheated steam scheme and PWR scheme, are analyzed. After some adjustments of the inlet flow resistance coefficients of some flow channels, the reasonable stable conditions of both operation plans can be obtained. The stable fluid and wall temperature distributions and pressure drops are studied. At last, a supposed slow flow decreasing is discussed under two operating conditions separately. According to present results, the superheated steam scheme still needs to be further optimized. The PWR scheme shows a very good safety feature.