Thermo-mechanical analysis on the full module of water cooled ceramic breeder blanket for CFETR

Abstract

As one of blanket candidates for Chinese Fusion Engineering Test Reactor (CFETR), the concept design of the Water Cooled Ceramic Breeder (WCCB) blanket is being carried out and the analyses of the neutronics and thermal hydraulics have been finished. To investigate the thermo-mechanical behavior of the current WCCB blanket design version under normal operation and accidental operation scenarios (e.g. in-box loss of coolant accident (LOCA)), the finite element thermo-mechanical analyses of a full blanket module were performed by using ANSYS Multiphysics code. The stress results were assessed referring to ITER SDC-IC code. Under normal operation scenario, the blanket shows a satisfying mechanical behavior withstanding 15.5MPa coolant pressure on its cooling channel walls and thermal deformations. However, under in-box LOCA scenario, the blanket fails to withstand 15.5MPa coolant pressure on its internal walls at normal operation thermal level. In this situation, the relief valve is proposed as a mitigation measure to release coolant pressure to maintain the structural integrity of blanket box under in-box LOCA accident.