A review of thermal hydraulics systems analysis for breeding blanket design and future needs for fusion engineering demonstration facility design and licensing

Seo, Seok Bin; Hernandez, Richard; O'Neal, Miles; Meehan, Nicholas; Novais, Felipe S.; Rizk, Marina; Maldonado, G. Ivan; Brown, Nicholas R.

doi:10.1016/j.fusengdes.2021.112769

Cited by 9 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 160 publications

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“…It is planned to derive, at first, a basic model for MHD forced convection heat exchange mechanism that, afterwards, could be extended to include buoyancy effects (mixed convection). Subsequently, a model for evaluating MHD influence on tritium transport is foreseen to be developed if the research about this topic will be intensified, as proposed by Seo et al in [10]. At last, whenever MHD phenomena caused by a strong time-varying magnetic field will be better characterize in the literature, the models are foreseen to be updated so that a wider range of scenarios (operational or incidental) could be possibly simulated by the code.…”

Section: Conclusion and Further Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This kind of codes are crucial for the assessment of thermal-hydraulics phenomena occurring within complex nuclear systems. BE codes are mainly developed for the analysis of incidental or accidental transients but are also employed for the characterization of operational transients or steady-states configurations [10]. Generally, to compute the underlying physics in such challenging scenarios, SYS-TH tools use 0-D or 1-D models derived by the analysis of numerous experimental campaigns.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Development of a RELAP5/MOD3.3 Module for MHD Pressure Drop Analysis in Liquid Metals Loops: Verification and Validation

et al. 2021

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Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) phenomena, due to the interaction between a magnetic field and a moving electro-conductive fluid, are crucial for the design of magnetic-confinement fusion reactors and, specifically, for the design of the breeding blanket concepts that adopt liquid metals (LMs) as working fluids. Computational tools are employed to lead fusion-relevant physical analysis, but a dedicated MHD code able to simulate all the phenomena involved in a blanket is still not available and there is a dearth of systems code featuring MHD modelling capabilities. In this paper, models to predict both 2D and 3D MHD pressure drop, derived by experimental and numerical works, have been implemented in the thermal-hydraulic system code RELAP5/MOD3.3 (RELAP5). The verification and validation procedure of the MHD module involves the comparison of the results obtained by the code with those of direct numerical simulation tools and data obtained by experimental works. As relevant examples, RELAP5 is used to recreate the results obtained by the analysis of two test blanket modules: Lithium Lead Ceramic Breeder and Helium-Cooled Lithium Lead. The novel MHD subroutines are proven reliable in the prediction of the pressure drop for both simple and complex geometries related to LM circuits at high magnetic field intensity (error range ±10%).

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Section: Conclusion and Further Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of a RELAP5/MOD3.3 Module for MHD Pressure Drop Analysis in Liquid Metals Loops: Verification and Validation

et al. 2021

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“…The ANSYS is known to have been widely used in various analysis of thermal hydraulics and mechanical structure. 4 In the ANSYS "Design Modeler (DM)," there is also a function that could convert CAD models into MCNP descriptions. The CAD model exported from CATIA can be read by ANSYS DM and converted into an MCNP geometry file, where the material composition is assigned to each cell and…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Study on neutronics modeling with 22.5° model using ANSYS for CFETR

et al. 2023

AIP Advances

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The detailed China Fusion Engineering Test Reactor (CFETR) 22.5° computer aided design (CAD) model is very difficult to convert into Monte Carlo N Particle Transport Code (MCNP). Manually writing MCNP input data is complicated, which is not only time-consuming but also cannot guarantee accuracy. Therefore, in order to improve the efficiency and accuracy of model transformation, modeling with CAD using CATIA is introduced, and MCNP files are converted by ANSYS. This is because ANSYS has a function that converts CAD “stp” format to MCNP input in the geometry section. Meanwhile, ANSYS can also reverse the converted MCNP input file to inspect which module has the problem. Compared with the software platform that can automatically cut, although the CATIA-to-ANSYS method is inferior in terms of automatic operation, it has advantages in accuracy and quickly dealing with error modules. Moreover, it can also perform parametric modeling in CATIA, which facilitates the optimization of the blanket structure. In this paper, the detailed CFETR 22.5° model was developed, and then parametric modeling of the blanket based on CATIA was performed. Finally, a detailed neutronics model is obtained by ANSYS transformation and inspection. Some representative models were initially validated by comparing volume changes before and after conversion. Then, the final neutronics model was used to calculate the nuclear analyses, including the neutron wall loading, fast neutron flux, and nuclear heating on the inboard side. The results show that the volume of the transformed model is basically consistent with the original model, and the error of results is small.

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“…Despite the progress achieved, SYS-TH codes for fusion applications are still far from an acceptable maturity. In particular, the prediction of MHD effects in liquid metal blanket systems is still very challenging due to the limited availability of closure laws to describe them [22,23]. This is in stark contrast with the advancements made in recent years in the field of CFD analysis, where both commercial and open-source codes are nowadays able to simulate liquid metal MHD flows at reactor-relevant magnetic field intensity and at blanket scale [24].…”

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confidence: 99%

MHD R&D Activities for Liquid Metal Blankets

et al. 2021

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According to the most recently revised European design strategy for DEMO breeding blankets, mature concepts have been identified that require a reduced technological extrapolation towards DEMO and will be tested in ITER. In order to optimize and finalize the design of test blanket modules, a number of issues have to be better understood that are related to the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) interactions of the liquid breeder with the strong magnetic field that confines the fusion plasma. The aim of the present paper is to describe the state of the art of the study of MHD effects coupled with other physical phenomena, such as tritium transport, corrosion and heat transfer. Both numerical and experimental approaches are discussed, as well as future requirements to achieve a reliable prediction of these processes in liquid metal blankets.

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A review of thermal hydraulics systems analysis for breeding blanket design and future needs for fusion engineering demonstration facility design and licensing

Cited by 9 publications

References 160 publications

Development of a RELAP5/MOD3.3 Module for MHD Pressure Drop Analysis in Liquid Metals Loops: Verification and Validation

Development of a RELAP5/MOD3.3 Module for MHD Pressure Drop Analysis in Liquid Metals Loops: Verification and Validation

Study on neutronics modeling with 22.5° model using ANSYS for CFETR

MHD R&D Activities for Liquid Metal Blankets

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