Simulations of liquid metal flows over plasma-facing component edges and application to beryllium melt events in JET

Navier-Stokes simulations of liquid beryllium flows over the straight edge of plasma-facing components are carried out in conditions emulating upper dump plate melting observed experimentally in JET. The results demonstrate the existence of three main hydrodynamic regimes featuring various degrees of downstream flow attachment to the underlying solid surface. Transitions between these regimes are characterized by critical values of the Weber number, which quantifies the relative strength of fluid inertia and surface tension, thereby providing a general stability criterion that can be applied to any instance of transient melt events in fusion devices. The predictive capabilities of the model are tested by comparing numerical output with JET data regarding the morphology of the frozen melt layers and the location of beryllium droplets splashed onto nearby vacuum vessel surfaces as a result of disruption current quench plasmas interacting with the solid beryllium tiles protecting the upper main chamber regions. Simulations accounting for the coupling between fluid flow and heat transfer confirm the key role played by re-solidification as a stabilizing process, as previously found through macroscopic melt dynamics calculations performed with the MEMOS-U code. The favourable agreement found between the simulations and the general characteristics of the JET beryllium upper dump plate melt splashing give confidence that the same approach can be applied to estimate the possibility of such mechanisms occurring during disruptions on ITER.

Fabricating tritium permeation barrier for PFC with a new non-coating strategy

Tritium (T) permeation through plasma-facing component (PFC) into the coolant is a major concern of fusion reactor operation. In this work, deuterium (D) permeation through CLAM steel, CLAM/CLAM and CLAM/Fe-Cr-Al samples prepared by hot isostatic pressing (HIP) are tested in a linear plasma device. Only the downstream surfaces of the samples are oxidized with controlled atmosphere to form permeation barrier. No significant effect on D diffusion and penetration can be observed for the joining interfaces, while the dense oxide layer at the downstream side plays an important role in suppressing D permeation. The downstream surface oxidization of CLAM/Fe-Cr-Al is found to effectively reduce D permeation flux by a factor up to 1000.

A numerical-experimental analysis of qualification assessment for mono-block plasma-facing component with flat heat sink

The heat removal capacity of a flat heat sink was studied using subcooled flow boiling experiments, to address the thermal peaking problem. Based on the Bowring criteria, the boiling curve is divided into a partially developed nucleate boiling regime (PDB) and fully developed nucleate boiling regime (FDB), and the existing heat transfer correlations for each flow regime are evaluated. In the PDB regime, the Baburajan correlation exhibited the highest prediction rate with an average error rate of 10.92%; however, the FDB regime heat transfer correlations exhibited high error rates at very high heat flux conditions. Therefore, the authors developed a new FDB correlation using the artificial intelligence technique by correlating the bubble agitation effect, which is a mechanism of the FDB regime, and then, evaluated the qualification assessment on this basis. The mono-block plasma-facing component with a flat heat sink was found to meet all criteria (except #1.2, shutdown plasma ratcheting), and to succeed in the actual fabrication.