The conversion of a room temperature NaK loop to a high temperature MHD facility for Li/V blanket testing
- Argonne National Lab., IL (United States)
- Efremov (D.V.) Research Inst. of Electrophysical Apparatus, St. Petersburg (Russian Federation)
- Southwestern Inst. of Physics (China). Fusion Technology and Materials Div.
The Vanadium/Lithium system has been the recent focus of ANL`s Blanket Technology Pro-ram, and for the last several years, ANL`s Liquid Metal Blanket activities have been carried out in direct support of the ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) breeding blanket task area. A key feasibility issue for the ITER Vanadium/Lithium breeding blanket is the Near the development of insulator coatings. Design calculations, Hua and Gohar, show that an electrically insulating layer is necessary to maintain an acceptably low magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) pressure drop in the current ITER design. Consequently, the decision was made to convert Argonne`s Liquid Metal EXperiment (ALEX) from a 200{degrees}C NaK facility to a 350{degrees}C lithium facility. The upgraded facility was designed to produce MHD pressure drop data, test section voltage distributions, and heat transfer data for mid-scale test sections and blanket mockups at Hartmann numbers (M) and interaction parameters (N) in the range of 10{sup 3} to 10{sup 5} in lithium at 350{degrees}C. Following completion of the upgrade work, a short performance test was conducted, followed by two longer multiple-hour, MHD tests, all at 230{degrees}C. The modified ALEX facility performed up to expectations in the testing. MHD pressure drop and test section voltage distributions were collected at Hartmann numbers of 1000.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Research, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-31109-ENG-38
- OSTI ID:
- 434860
- Report Number(s):
- ANL/TD/CP-89092; CONF-9606116-87; ON: DE97001007
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Annual meeting of the American Nuclear Society (ANS), Reno, NV (United States), 16-20 Jun 1996; Other Information: PBD: [1996]
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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