Optimization studies for a manifold of a liquid metal blanket of a fusion reactor

Yuchen Jiang, Sergey Smolentsev

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) flows in a manifold of a liquid metal blanket can significantly contribute to the blanket pressure drop, which is a feasibility issue for almost all liquid metal blanket concepts. Here, optimization studies for a prototypic inlet manifold that feature flow expansion are performed for three expansion angles, θ = 45°, 60° and 75°, expansion ratio of 4, and a wide range of Hartmann (Ha) and Reynolds () numbers: 1000<Ha<10,000, and 50<Re<10,000 aiming at the MHD pressure drop reduction and a more uniform flow distribution at the exit of the manifold. The 150 flow cases computed with COMSOL Multiphysics in 3D provide an extended database for the pressure drop coefficient, which was used to construct a correlation for the 3D MHD pressure drop. In addition, many data analyzes were performed to characterize the flow inside the manifold and access the most important flow characteristics, such as the recirculation flow bubble that appears when the liquid metal enters the expansion region and the flow development length as a function of Ha,Re and θ.

Original languageEnglish
Article number113902
JournalFusion Engineering and Design
Volume194
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2023

Funding

The authors acknowledge financial support from the Office of Fusion Energy Sciences, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE): Yuchen Jiang under contract DE-SC0020979 with UCLA, and Sergey Smolentsev under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with UT-Battelle, LLC. The U.S. government retains and the publisher, by accepting this paper for publication, acknowledges that the U.S. government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this paper, or allow others to do so, for U.S. government purposes. The DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan). The authors acknowledge financial support from the Office of Fusion Energy Sciences, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE): Yuchen Jiang under contract DE-SC0020979 with UCLA, and Sergey Smolentsev under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with UT-Battelle, LLC. The U.S. government retains and the publisher, by accepting this paper for publication, acknowledges that the U.S. government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this paper, or allow others to do so, for U.S. government purposes. The DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan ( http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan ).

FundersFunder number
DOE Public Access Plan
U.S. Government
U.S. Department of EnergyDE-SC0020979
Fusion Energy Sciences
University of California, Los AngelesDE-AC05-00OR22725

    Keywords

    • Gradual expansion manifold
    • Liquid metal blankets
    • Magnetohydrodynamics
    • Pressure drop correlation

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