Highlights
Abstract
The functional components, such as the breeder, multiplier, and reflector, are equipped in the form of pebble beds, and helium purge gas flows through pebble beds in a solid-type ceramic breeding blanket. In order to design and evaluate the performance of the blanket system, which is dependent on the configuration of pebble beds, the flow characteristics of purge gas must be researched. The uniform pebble sizes were used to build several pebble bed models, and pebbles were arranged in pre defined regular structure of HCP(hexagonal closed packing) and SC(simple cubic) . The laminar flow of helium purge gas across pebble beds was then simulated using computational fluid dynamics. In terms of pressure drop, the impacts of flow velocity and packing fractions of pebble beds on flow resistance were examined. The pressure drop increases not only in proportion to the packing fraction of pebbles, but also in inverse proportion to the difference in pebble size, according to a series of numerical analyses.. The numerical results were also validated by comparing them to semi-empirical equations such as the Ergun equation and the Kozeny-Carman equation, which were developed for the prediction of pressure decrease in packed beds. The current study will provide a basis for resolving the practical issues on blanket system design by extending it further to the purge gas flow and conjugate heat transfer that involve fragmentation and resettlement of pebbles.
Introduction
Tritium is created in pebble beds in a solid-type ceramic breeding blanket and pushed out by a low-pressure helium purge gas. The properties of pebble beds have been studied in a variety of methods in order to develop an acceptable blanket system design. Numerical studies have only recently been able to provide an understanding of the thermal and mechanical properties of pebble beds, as well as the features of purge gas flow in pebble beds, thanks to developments in computational tools and computing capacity. Even more recently, numerical simulations based on detailed pebble configurations have been undertaken to help blanket system design utilising the discrete element method (DEM). Cundall and Strack were the first to propose the DEM, which has been applied to granular materials involving the interactions of a large number of minute particles. The overall properties of pebble beds, such as effective elastic modulus and effective thermal conductivity, were explored using DEM simulations in the field of nuclear fusion engineering. The purge gas flow has also been simulated using a combination of DEM and computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The features of fluid flow through a packed bed can be explored using a CFD model. Packed pebble beds were also used as similar porous materials in the CFD simulation. When examining real configurations of a large number of pebbles, the DEM can be a promising tool that accommodates precise pebble configurations as they are. The purge gas flow through the created models was studied using the CFD simulation after the models of randomly packed pebble beds were generated using the DEM simulation of the packing process with consideration for the mechanical contact interaction between the pebbles. In addition, by combining the DEM and CFD analyses, pebble motions caused by purge gas flow were simulated.
The laminar flow of helium purge gas across a variety of pebble beds is the subject of this paper. Purge gas flow characteristics are one of the most essential aspects in understanding tritium extraction performance, and should be carefully predicted and accounted for during the blanket system design process. The goal of this research is to develop and evaluate a computational framework for DEM and CFD assessments of purge gas flow that includes precise pebble configurations. We looked of arranging pebbles in pre-defined uniform sized regular structure of HCP and SC and evaluating the pressure drop for various type inlet velocity . We created appropriate meshes based on the sizes and locations of pebbles obtained from the DEM simulation, and then ran a CFD analysis of the helium purge gas flow to compute the pressure decrease in the pebble beds. The pressure drop data were checked against semi-empirical equations like the Ergun equation [28] and the Kozeny-Carman equation [29].
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