Progress status of the ITER Vacuum Vessel sectors manufacturing design thermal hydraulic performance

• Published in: Fusion engineering and design Vol. 124; pp. 578 - 581
• Main Authors: Colomer, C., Briani, P., Fradera, J., Ichard, M., Alemán, A., Martínez-Saban, E., Zamora, I., Hermosa, B., Martín, M., Mata, O., Martell, A., Martinez, J.M., Sabourin, F., Martin, A., Cau, F., Caixas, J., Portone, A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01-11-2017; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: CFD; CHT (Conjugate heat transfer); Computational fluid dynamics; Computer simulation; Deposition; Ducts; Finite element method; Fluid dynamics; Heat transfer; Heat transfer coefficients; Hydraulics; Mass flow rate; Mathematical analysis; Mathematical models; Nuclear engineering; Nuclear fusion ITER; Nuclear heat; Nuclear safety; Pressure drop; Stainless steel; Steady state; Temperature distribution; Thermal hydraulics; Vacuum Vessel; CFD; Vacuum Vessel; CHT (Conjugate heat transfer); Thermal hydraulics; Nuclear fusion ITER
• ISSN: 0920-3796; 1873-7196
• DOI: 10.1016/j.fusengdes.2017.03.095

•3D Geometry healing and simplification for CFD simulations.•Meshing of large domains for CFD simulations.•Meshing procedure for fluid-solid interface coupling.•Hydraulics of the ITER VV Irregular Sector number 3 (IrS#3).•Thermal-hydraulics of the ITER VV IrS#3.
The present work exposes the 3D steady state thermal hydraulic (TH) analysis of the Irregular Sector number 3 (IrS#3) of the ITER Vacuum Vessel (VV), including the Irregular Field Joints (IrFJ) by means of a commercial CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) code. The geometry of the IrS#3 has been simplified and healed in order to be suitable for CFD analysis. The simplified geometry has been meshed and converted to a polyhedral cell based mesh so as to enhance accuracy and calculation stability. Nuclear heat deposition (H) from the latest C Lite model [1] has been implemented through several User Defined Functions (UDF). Water coolant and stainless steel shell are solved together as a steady state conjugate heat transfer problem in order to assess the impact of the nuclear heat deposition on the IrS#3 cooling scheme. Hence, the IrS#3 is simulated as a whole, without splitting the domain.
Results show the total IrS#3 pressure drop as well as the flow and temperature distribution all over the IrS#3. Moreover, the heat transfer coefficient (h) has been calculated at the fluid-solid interface. Velocity magnitude in the water coolant has an average value of 0.10m/s and mass flow rate distribution is 11% and 89% respectively for Inboard and Outboard. The pressure drop, mainly concentrated at inlet and outlet ducts, is of 77.4kPa. The average h is of 5 690W/(m2K), way above the design limit of 500W/(m2K). The fluid temperature stays at an average value of 101.7°C. The results obtained have a significant importance regarding design and safety and give a valuable insight on the current cooling scheme and system behavior for the IrS#3 of the ITER VV. This follows a previous work presenting the methodology and the results of a 3D TH analysis of the Irregular Sector number 2 (IrS#2) of the ITER Vacuum Vessel (VV) by means of CFD [2].