Integrated design strategy for EU-DEMO first wall protection from plasma transients

Maviglia, F.; Bachmann, Christian; Federici, G.; Franke, Thomas; Siccinio, M.; Albanese, R.; Ambrosino, R.; Arter, W.; Bonifetto, Roberto; Calabrò, G.; Luca, Riccardo De; Grazia, Luigi E. Di; Fable, E.; Fanelli, Pierluigi; Fanni, Alessandra; Firdaouss, M.; Gerardin, J.; Lombroni, R.; Mattei, M.; Moscheni, M.; Morris, W.; Pautasso, G.; Pestchanyi, S.; Ramogida, G.; Richiusa, M.L.; Sias, Giuliana; Subba, F.; Villone, F.; You, J.-H.; Vízváry, Z.

doi:10.1016/j.fusengdes.2022.113067

Cited by 29 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…3) Result Discussion and Further Work: The results obtained under VDE heat loads might not be realistically catching the physics governing the intense evaporation under vacuum, for at least two reasons: 1) the model represents the first attempt to tackle these kinds of problems and 2) gas kinetics has not been taken into account in TARTIFL&TTE for describing the vaporization phase, which in its intense occurrence under vacuum conditions might not be well represented by a simple energy balance at the inter-phase. Despite this, the molten layer depth during UVDE appears to be of the same order of magnitude than the estimated molten thickness of ≈1100 μm in [13]. Hence, there is the need to validate this approach against experimental results.…”

Section: A Multiboundary Layer Approach For Heat Transfer Problems In...mentioning

confidence: 98%

Rationale Behind EU-DEMO Limiter’s Plasma-Facing Component Design Under Material Phase Change

Richiusa

Ireland

Nicholas

et al. 2022

IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci.

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The protection strategy adopted for the European DEMOnstration (EU-DEMO) fusion power reactor foresees the use of sacrificial components-referred to as limiters-dealing with plasma-wall contacts. Their aim is to protect the first wall (FW) against the huge amount of plasma energy (up to GigaJoules) released in a few milliseconds during disruptive events, which might lead to melting and/or vaporization of the foreseen plasma-facing tungsten armor. The current limiter design concepts rely on actively water-cooled plasma-facing components (PFCs) made of tungsten. As water is not allowed inside the main chamber, limiter's PFCs must be designed to preserve the cooling system integrity under any scenario, therefore the estimate of the thickness of material undergoing any phase change is crucial. Given the initial assessment of plasma magnetic configurations during off-normal events, this article describes the procedure followed for designing the limiter's PFC, which includes a novel approach for estimating the molten thickness of material under high heat flux. A simplified 1-D model has been implemented in MATLAB, which deals with multiphase moving boundary problems, hence its name Thermal Analysis foR Tracking InterFaces under meLting&vaporizaTion-induced plasma Transient Events (TARTIFL&TTE). This model takes its inspiration from the way phase change interface tracking problems are tackled in food industry (i.e., freeze-drying processes) and solute concentration diffusion-controlled problems. It overcomes the complexity of solving a strongly coupled non-linear system of partial and ordinary differential equations in moving spatial domains by adopting a change of coordinate system based on the Landau transformation. As a result, an equivalent and fixed spatial coordinate system is defined where the spatial domain boundaries of the different phases are constrained, and the systems of governing equations are easy to solve. Both the solid and liquid phases are modeled, while the vapor is assumed to be removed once formed. Its benchmark against computational results found in the literature has shown a very good agreement, which paves the way to further development of it. For phase change interface tracking problems in 2-D/3-D and more complex Manuscript

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Section: A Multiboundary Layer Approach For Heat Transfer Problems In...mentioning

confidence: 98%

Rationale Behind EU-DEMO Limiter’s Plasma-Facing Component Design Under Material Phase Change

Richiusa

Ireland

Nicholas

et al. 2022

IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci.

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“…Moving next to the whole pulse trajectory, figure 9 illustrates some of the factors that need to be taken into account. For example, considering the PFCs [52], when does the divertor need to be detached? Controlling detachment is challenging when the power crossing the separatrix is increasing rapidly as the fusion power ramps up (over around 10 s for ITER simulations [54]).…”

Section: Integration Example 3: Integrating An Uncertain Plasma Scena...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…• In-vessel coils for divertor sweeping in case of reattachment [52] • Diagnostic/observer precision required (see [78] for discussion of diagnostics for European DEMO). The UQ tools for aleatory uncertainties can also be a powerful way to exploit uncertainties-outlying points can be explored for enhanced performance.…”

Section: Response To Disturbances and Initial/boundarymentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards a fusion power plant: integration of physics and technology

Morris

Akers

Cox

et al. 2022

Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion

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A fusion power plant can only exist with physics and technology acting in synchrony, over space (angstroms to tens of metres) and time (femtoseconds to decades). Recent experience with the European DEMO programme has shown how important it is to start integration early, yet go deep enough to uncover the integration impact, favourable and unfavourable, of the detailed physical and technological characteristics. There are some initially surprising interactions, for example, the fusion power density links the properties of materials in the components to the approaches to waste and remote maintenance in the context of a rigorous safety and environment regime. In this brief tour of a power plant based on a tokamak we outline the major interfaces between plasma physics and technology and engineering considering examples from the European DEMO (exhaust power handling, tritium management and plasma scenarios) with an eye on other concepts. We see how attempting integrated solutions can lead to discoveries and ways to ease interfaces despite the deep coupling of the many aspects of a tokamak plant. A power plant’s plasma, materials and components will be in new parameter spaces with new mechanisms and combinations; the design will therefore be based to a significant extent on sophisticated physics and engineering models making substantial extrapolations. There are however gaps in understanding as well as data – together these are termed “uncertainties”. Early integration in depth therefore represents a conceptual, intellectual and practical challenge, a challenge sharpened by the time pressure imposed by the global need for low carbon energy supplies such as fusion. There is an opportunity (and need) to use emerging transformational advances in computational algorithms and hardware to integrate and advance, despite the “uncertainties” and limited experimental data. We use examples to explore how an integrated approach has the potential to lead to consistent designs that could also be resilient to the residual uncertainties. The paper may stimulate some new thinking as fusion moves to the design of complete power plants alongside an evolving and maturing research programme.

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“…• a heat flux equal to 0.27 MW/m 2 [12] onto the straight surface of the FW plasma facing surface (i.…”

Section: Lob_1 Lob_2 Lob_3mentioning

confidence: 99%

Preliminary thermal optimization and investigation of the overall structural behaviour of the EU-DEMO water-cooled lead lithium left outboard blanket segment

Catanzaro

Bongioví

Maio

et al. 2022

Fusion Engineering and Design

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Integrated design strategy for EU-DEMO first wall protection from plasma transients

Cited by 29 publications

References 38 publications

Rationale Behind EU-DEMO Limiter’s Plasma-Facing Component Design Under Material Phase Change

Rationale Behind EU-DEMO Limiter’s Plasma-Facing Component Design Under Material Phase Change

Towards a fusion power plant: integration of physics and technology

Preliminary thermal optimization and investigation of the overall structural behaviour of the EU-DEMO water-cooled lead lithium left outboard blanket segment

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