MHD thermofluid issues of liquid-metal blankets: Phenomena and advances

The major accomplishments in the MHD thermofluid area over the last few years are reviewed for liquid-metal blankets. After summarizing basic liquid-metal blanket concepts, such as self-cooled blankets and in particular those to be tested in ITER, namely the dual-coolant and the helium-cooled lead–lithium blanket modules, we consider the most important MHD phenomena and discuss their impact on heat and mass transfer during blanket operation with special emphasis placed on underlying flow physics. Among them are: MHD pressure drop, three-dimensional flows, MHD instability and turbulence, buoyancy-driven flows, electromagnetic coupling, and interfacial phenomena associated with hydrodynamic slip.