29th Symposium on Fusion Technology (SOFT 2016)

P3.119 Optimization of first wall helium cooling system of European DCLL using CFD approach

Sep 7, 2016, 11:00 AM

1h 20m

Foyer 2A (2nd floor), 3A (3rd floor) (Prague Congress Centre)

Board: 119

Poster F. Plasma Facing Components P3 Poster session

Speaker

Tomas Melichar (Research Centre Rez)

Description

Dual Coolant Lithium Lead (DCLL) is one of the four breeding blanket concepts being developed within the EUROfusion project as candidates for the European DEMO. One of the most challenging components of breeding blanket in terms of thermal-hydraulic is a first wall. In order to handle the high thermal loads that the DCLL first wall is facing a proper design of a helium cooling system is crucial. The present work deals with evaluation of the first wall cooling ability under the DEMO conditions and optimization of geometric and operational parameters of the cooling system composed of helium channels. For this purpose, a sensitivity study to evaluate dependence between geometric and operational parameters was performed. In particular, effects of distance between the helium cooling channels (channel pitch) and coolant inlet velocity on the maximum EUROFER temperature inside the structural material in dependence on various conditions were assessed. These effects were detected and described in the present work to fulfill the EUROFER temperature limit by applying reasonable combinations of channel pitch and coolant inlet velocity values. All studies were performed using CFD approach. Preparation process of the CFD analyses including geometric parametrization of a computational mesh which was necessary for implementation into the CFD solver due to a high number of simulations needed to be performed in order to obtain an appropriate sensitivity study is also described.