Effect of the length of the poloidal ducts on flow balancing in a liquid metal blanket
| Autor: | Tyler Rhodes, Sergey Smolentsev, Mohamed A. Abdou |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2018 |
| Předmět: |
Physics
Liquid metal Mechanical Engineering Reynolds number Fluid mechanics 02 engineering and technology Mechanics Blanket 01 natural sciences 010305 fluids & plasmas Volumetric flow rate Physics::Fluid Dynamics symbols.namesake 020303 mechanical engineering & transports 0203 mechanical engineering Nuclear Energy and Engineering 0103 physical sciences symbols General Materials Science Duct (flow) Magnetohydrodynamics Balanced flow Civil and Structural Engineering |
| Zdroj: | Fusion Engineering and Design. 136:847-851 |
| ISSN: | 0920-3796 |
| Popis: | To address concerns associated with liquid metal (LM) flow balancing among multiple poloidal channels of a LM blanket, we investigate the factors (first of all the length of the channels) that influence the flow distribution when the duct walls are electrically insulated. We simulate LM MHD flow through multiple channels fed by a prototypical manifold for a range of channel lengths using a 3D MHD solver, HIMAG. The simplified manifold geometry consists of a rectangular, electrically insulated feeding duct which suddenly expands such that the duct thickness in the magnetic field direction abruptly increases by a factor of 4. After a short length downstream of the expansion, the flow is divided into three identical parallel channels. By measuring the flow rate in each of the channels, we conclude that flow balance among the channels is improved by increasing the length of the channels. An effort is made to obtain scaling laws that characterize flow balancing as a function of the flow parameters and the manifold geometry using a Resistor Network Model (RNM). Associated Hartman and Reynolds numbers in the computations were ∼103 and 102 respectively. Compared to the full 3D analysis, the proposed RNM suggests a relatively quick and simpler way of computing the blanket length that might be needed to provide balanced flow among the parallel channels. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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