Free surface heat transfer and innovative designs for thin and thick liquid walls

Design windows on free surface flows in the APEX (advanced power extraction) study are derived from the viewpoints of the free surface heat transfer, the adaptation of liquid flows to the topological constraints, and temperature requirements for plasma operation and power conversion efficiency. Within these constraints, the temperature of the free liquid surface facing the plasma is the most critical parameter governing the amount of liquid that evaporates into the plasma chamber. Present analyses show that a 2 cm or a 40 cm thick lithium layer can be established throughout the ARIES-RS reactor using a velocity of 10 m s−1 while operating under the plasma compatible surface temperature. However, like solid metallic walls, the liquid lithium walls require the use of electrical insulators to overcome the MHD drag. As for Flibe free surface flows, the MHD effect caused by interaction with the mean flow is negligible, while a fairly uniform flow of 2 or 45 cm thick can be maintained throughout the reactor based on 3-D hydrodynamics calculations. However, being a low thermally conducting medium, the Flibe surface temperature highly depends on the extent of the turbulent convection. The heat transfer analyses based on the κ–ε model of the turbulence, including MHD effects and various boundary conditions, predict a range of temperatures that may be beyond the plasma compatible temperatures. If indeed the Flibe surface temperature is high relative to the plasma operation limit, further design adjustments will be required to accommodate this deficiency.