Construction of 3D MHD pressure drop correlation and flow characterization in the contraction region of a fusion blanket manifold

Jiang, Yuchen; Smolentsev, Sergey

doi:10.1016/j.fusengdes.2025.115005

Construction of 3D MHD pressure drop correlation and flow characterization in the contraction region of a fusion blanket manifold

Journal Article · Wed Apr 02 00:00:00 EDT 2025 · Fusion Engineering and Design

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fusengdes.2025.115005· OSTI ID:2573456

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Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Inlet and outlet manifolds are typical components of liquid metal (LM) blanket designs of a fusion power reactor to be used to distribute the LM flow into breeding channels and collect it at the exit of the blanket. High pressure loss in the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) flows featuring abrupt geometrical changes is one of the main feasibility issues of such designs. Recently, optimization studies were conducted to construct 3D MHD pressure drop correlations for a LM flow in an electrically insulating manifold with gradual expansion. Here, the 3D computational approach developed in that study is applied to the outlet manifold featuring gradual contraction. A systematic analysis was performed with a total number of 135 flow cases computed with COMSOL Multiphysics for Hartmann numbers 1000 < Ha < 10,000, Reynolds numbers 100 < Re < 12,000, and contraction angles 45° < θ < 75° for a fixed contraction ratio of 4. The effects of Ha, Re and θ on the flow recirculation, development length and the total pressure drop were carefully examined. A linear regression analysis was used to determine the power rule of pressure drop coefficient k related to Ha and Re, demonstrating a good match with the Ludford layer theory. Eventually, a correlation for the 3D MHD pressure drop coefficient was constructed as a function of Ha, Re and θ. Further, the results were compared against the inlet manifold. It was found that the flow in the inlet manifold exhibits larger recirculation zones. In the investigated range of Ha, Re and θ, the pressure drop coefficient k of the LM MHD flow in the gradual contraction is only slightly lower (< 8 %) than that in the gradual expansion.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-00OR22725

OSTI ID:: 2573456

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 2549510

Journal Information:: Fusion Engineering and Design, Journal Name: Fusion Engineering and Design Vol. 215; ISSN 0920-3796

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Construction of 3D MHD pressure drop correlation and flow characterization in the contraction region of a fusion blanket manifold

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