Construction and initial operation of MHD PbLi facility at UCLA

Smolentsev, S.; Li, Feng-Chen; Morley, Neil B.; Ueki, Yoshitaka; Abdou, Mohamed; Sketchley, T.

doi:10.1016/j.fusengdes.2013.03.018

Cited by 36 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…A review of MHD studies for liquid-metal blankets performed in the US and worldwide in the recent past and a complete reference list can be found in [30]. As examples of more current studies we can refer to experimental investigations of MHD pressure drop reduction in PbLi flows using MaPLE facility at University of California, Los Angeles [70] as well as theoretical studies of MHD instabilities and Q2D turbulence [71], mixed-convection flows [72], tritium transport [73] and MHD flow induced corrosion in the RAFM-PbLi system [74]. Fig.…”

Section: Mhd Thermofluid and Fluid Materials Interactionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Experimental studies are also progressing using either "surrogate" room-temperature (NaK, InGaSn, Hg) or "real" hot-temperature liquid metals (PbLi). There are a few MHD facilities in the world that utilize PbLi as a work fluid: in the US [70], Latvia [81], Japan [82], China [83] and Korea [84]. Some of them address problems specific to leadlithium blankets, including corrosion of RAFM steels in the flowing PbLi and interfacial phenomena between PbLi and silicon carbide.…”

Section: Mhd Thermofluid and Fluid Materials Interactionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…27. One possibility is to upgrade the aforementioned MaPLE facility [70] by the addition of flexible heat sources and a system to modify magnet gap orientation in order to simulate buoyancy effects at different inclinations of the flow channels to the field and to gravity. Experiments should focus on understanding the combination of parameters that define the stability regime as a function of magnetic field and temperature gradient conditions, and to quantify the impact of the stability regime on the transport and pressure drop behavior.…”

Section: Blanket Mockup Thermomechanical/thermofluid/mhd Testing and mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Blanket/first wall challenges and required R&D on the pathway to DEMO

Abdou

Morley

Smolentsev

et al. 2015

Fusion Engineering and Design

283

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a b s t r a c tThe breeding blanket with integrated first wall (FW) is the key nuclear component for power extraction, tritium fuel sustainability, and radiation shielding in fusion reactors. The ITER device will address plasma burn physics and plasma support technology, but it does not have a breeding blanket. Current activities to develop "roadmaps" for realizing fusion power recognize the blanket/FW as one of the principal remaining challenges. Therefore, a central element of the current planning activities is focused on the question: what are the research and major facilities required to develop the blanket/FW to a level which enables the design, construction and successful operation of a fusion DEMO? The principal challenges in the development of the blanket/FW are: (1) the Fusion Nuclear Environment -a multiple-field environment (neutrons, heat/particle fluxes, magnetic field, etc.) with high magnitudes and steep gradients and transients; (2) Nuclear Heating in a large volume with sharp gradients -the nuclear heating drives most blanket phenomena, but accurate simulation of this nuclear heating can be done only in a DT-plasma based facility; and (3) Complex Configuration with blanket/first wall/divertor inside the vacuum vessel -the consequence is low fault tolerance and long repair/replacement time.These blanket/FW development challenges result in critical consequences: (a) non-fusion facilities (laboratory experiments) need to be substantial to simulate multiple fields/multiple effects and must be accompanied by extensive modeling; (b) results from non-fusion facilities will be limited and will not fully resolve key technical issues. A DT-plasma based fusion nuclear science facility (FNSF) is required to perform "multiple effects" and "integrated" experiments in the fusion nuclear environment; and (c) the Reliability/Availability/Maintainability/Inspectability (RAMI) of fusion nuclear components is a major challenge and is one of the primary reasons why the blanket/FW will pace fusion development toward a DEMO.This paper summarizes the top technical issues and elucidates the primary challenges in developing the blanket/first wall and identifies the key R&D needs in non-fusion and fusion facilities on the path to DEMO.Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

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Section: Mhd Thermofluid and Fluid Materials Interactionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Mhd Thermofluid and Fluid Materials Interactionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Blanket Mockup Thermomechanical/thermofluid/mhd Testing and mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Blanket/first wall challenges and required R&D on the pathway to DEMO

Abdou

Morley

Smolentsev

et al. 2015

Fusion Engineering and Design

283

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“…To achieve this, an indirect liquid metal pressure measurement approach was developed using gas pressure measurements [8]. However, such an approach essentially requires tight control over temperature to minimize errors from temperature dependent gas pressurization in a fixed volume, which may be sometimes difficult to achieve during steady state operation.…”

Section: Pressure Measurementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of Diagnostics for High-Temperature High-Pressure Liquid Pb-16Li Applications

Saraswat¹,

Sahu²,

Rao³

et al. 2017

WJNST

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Liquid lead-lithium (Pb-16Li) is of primary interest as one of the candidate materials for tritium breeder, neutron multiplier and coolant fluid in liquid metal blanket concepts relevant to fusion power plants. For an effective and reliable operation of such high temperature liquid metal systems, monitoring and control of critical process parameters is essential. However, limited operational experience coupled with high temperature operating conditions and corrosive nature of Pb-16Li severely limited application of commercially available diagnostic tools. This paper illustrates indigenous calibration test facility designs and experimental methods used to develop non-contact configuration level diagnostics using pulse radar level sensor, wetted configuration pressure diagnostics using diaphragm seal type pressure sensor and bulk temperature diagnostics with temperature profiling for high temperature, high pressure liquid Pb and Pb-16Li applications. Calibration check of these sensors was performed using analytical methods, at temperature between 380˚C -400˚C and pressure upto 1 MPa (g). Reliability and performance validation were achieved through long duration testing of sensors in liquid Pb and liquid Pb-16Li environment for over 1000 hour. Estimated deviation for radar level sensor lies within [−3.36 mm, +13.64 mm] and the estimated error for pressure sensor lies within 1.1% of calibrated span over the entire test duration. Results obtained and critical observations from these tests are presented in this paper.

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“…However, most of these experiments focused on MHD effects of liquid metals with low melting point and high electric conductivity such as NaK [17][18][19][20], Ga [21], GaInSn [22], et al MHD effects of these metals are more obvious to observe in laboratory conditions and the low temperature makes it easier to measure than PbLi [23,24]. PbLi is seldom adopted in experiments for its high temperature melting point, which is a challenge for measuring technique.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental Studies of MHD Pressure Drop of PbLi Flow in Rectangular Pipes Under Uniform Magnetic Field

Meng

Zhu

et al. 2015

J Fusion Energ

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Liquid metal flow of blanket in fusion reactor would bear pressure drop caused by magnetic field. To investigate the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) pressure drop characteristics, experiments of PbLi flow in an electrically conducting rectangular pipe subjected to a transverse magnetic field were performed on loop DRAGON-IV. A measurement approach for differential pressure in high temperature liquid PbLi was adopted, and detailed data on pressure drop in PbLi MHD flow under various magnetic fields were measured. Electric potential method in the experimental pipe was adopted to measure the flow rate. The obtained experiment results for the MHD pressure drop were in good agreement with theory calculation. Through theoretical analysis, it has been found that the temperature of experimental pipe has a remarkable impact on MHD pressure drop. The change of temperature from 430 to 650°C can lead to a decrease of MHD pressure drop by 10 %. Further experimental studies on the temperature effect on MHD pressure drop are needed.

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Construction and initial operation of MHD PbLi facility at UCLA

Cited by 36 publications

References 42 publications

Blanket/first wall challenges and required R&D on the pathway to DEMO

Blanket/first wall challenges and required R&D on the pathway to DEMO

Development of Diagnostics for High-Temperature High-Pressure Liquid Pb-16Li Applications

Experimental Studies of MHD Pressure Drop of PbLi Flow in Rectangular Pipes Under Uniform Magnetic Field

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