29th Symposium on Fusion Technology (SOFT 2016)

P2.014 Experimental and RELAP5-3D results on IELLLO (Integrated European Lead Lithium LOop) operation

6 Sep 2016, 14:20

1h 40m

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

Board: 14

Poster A. Experimental Fusion Devices and Supporting Facilities P2 Poster session

Speaker

Alessandro Venturini (Department of Civil and Industrial Engineering)

Description

The experimental facility IELLLO (Integrated European Lead Lithium LOop) was designed and installed at the ENEA Brasimone Research Centre to support the design of the HCLL TBM. This work presents the results of the experimental campaign carried out within the framework of F4E-FPA-372 and which had three main objectives. First, to produce new experimental data for flowing LLE (Lead-Lithium Eutectic) for an analysis of the loop and the characterisation of its main components. Then, to evaluate performances of commercial instrumentation as available instrumentation is not designed for use in LLE. Lastly, to use the data for validation of the model developed with the system code RELAP5-3D. An additional objective was to simulate the emergency drainage in order to evaluate the time required to complete the process. The data collected could prove helpful to analyse the behaviour of the LLE loop of ITER and DEMO in accidental conditions. The results show that the regenerative countercurrent heat exchanger has an efficiency ranging from 70 to 85 %, mainly depending on the LLE mass flow rate. We verified that the air cooler has the capability to keep the cold part of the loop at 350 °C, even in the most demanding situation (700 rpm and maximum temperature of the hot part). The instrumentation tested showed essentially good accuracy, with the exception of the turbine flow meter. Nevertheless, specific limitations in the upper operative temperatures were found for the LLE direct contact pressure transducer. We found a good fit between the experimental results and the associated RELAP5-3D simulations. Care should be taken during the simulation of the draining process to avoid convergence issues.