Use of liquid metals for cooling high-heat-flux components of a fusion reactor

Thesis/Dissertation · Mon Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1990

OSTI ID:6308260

Majid, A

High heat flux components are very important components of a fusion reactor. Limiters and divertors maintain the plasma edge and remove the impurities from the plasma. In this thesis, an effort has been made to investigate the use of liquid metals for cooling of these components. Liquid metals react violently with water, therefore the use of water as a coolant for high heat flux components in proximity to liquid metals is considered a safety risk. The approach adopted in this thesis is to develop the design of limiters and divertors through an optimization process. Firstly all options for the design such as materials, geometry, orientation of flow with respect to magnetic field, etc. are considered and these are termed as design variables, then constraints are applied on the design, and finally the objective function is defined and a mathematical form of this function in terms of design variables is obtained. The objective function is the term that is maximized. In this case it is the maximum permissible heat flux that the limiter or divertor can withstand. The optimization process yields three types of designs, firstly a ten millimeter beryllium coated limiter or divertor, which can withstand 3{sup MW}{sub m{sup 2}} heat flux, secondly a six millimeter beryllium coated limiter or divertor which can withstand 5.8{sup MW}{sub m{sup 2}} heat flux, and thirdly a one millimeter tungsten coated limiter or-divertor which can withstand 5{sup MW}{sub m{sup 2}} or more heat flux. An important part of the thesis is the determination of Nusselt number and behaviour of the flow i.e. velocity profiles in the coolant channels which are exposed to the heat flux. The final results are presented in terms of the design window.

• Research Organization: California Univ., Los Angeles, CA (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6308260
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
700202* -- Fusion Power Plant Technology-- Magnet Coils & Fields
700209 -- Fusion Power Plant Technology-- Component Development & Materials Testing
ALKALINE EARTH METALS
BERYLLIUM
COATINGS
COMPUTER CODES
COOLANTS
COOLING
DESIGN
DIVERTORS
ELEMENTS
FINITE ELEMENT METHOD
FLUIDS
HEAT FLUX
LIMITERS
LIQUID METALS
LIQUIDS
METALS
NUMERICAL SOLUTION
OPTIMIZATION
S CODES
THERMONUCLEAR REACTORS
TRANSITION ELEMENTS
TUNGSTEN