In the framework of the DEMO Work Package Balance of Plant of EUROfusion consortium, ENEA has been involved in experimental and numerical activities related to the development of a prototypical heat exchanger, suitable as steam generator for the lithium-lead loop of the Dual Coolant Lithium Lead and Water Cooled Lithium Lead breeding blankets. For this purpose, an experimental campaign has been executed on the pool-type liquid metal-cooled facility CIRCE at ENEA Brasimone Research Centre. A dedicated test section named HERO has been designed and installed inside the main vessel of CIRCE. The innovative steam generator consists of a tube bundle with seven double walled bayonet tubes, fed with pressurized water. The selected configuration improves the plant safety, reducing the possibility of water-lead/lead-alloy interaction thanks to a double physical separation and allowing an easier control of eventual leakages from the coolant by pressurizing the separation region with inert gas. A set of tests has been defined to demonstrate technological feasibility and performances of this prototypical steam generator, as well as the suitability of the component for the lithium-lead loop in DEMO. In particular, one of the performed tests is presented and discussed in this paper. The experiment is characterized by a secondary loop feedwater working pressure of 10 MPa and a steam generator inlet temperature of 300 °C. On the primary side, the lead-bismuth eutectic has been used as working fluid with a steam generator inlet temperature of 480 °C. During the test, an experimental sensitivity analysis on the primary coolant mass flow rate has been performed. Furthermore, the results of a post-test analysis realized with two versions of the system thermal-hydraulic code RELAP5 are presented, in order to evaluate their capability in simulating the performances of the component and to support the validation process of the codes for heavy liquid metal applications. The work is concluded presenting a scaling analysis to find the equivalence between LBE and PbLi, recalculating the available experimental data with RELAP5 code using PbLi as working fluid.
Development of a PbLi heat exchanger for EU DEMO fusion reactor: Experimental test and system code assessment
Lorusso P.;Martelli E.;Del Nevo A.;Tarantino M.
2021-01-01
Abstract
In the framework of the DEMO Work Package Balance of Plant of EUROfusion consortium, ENEA has been involved in experimental and numerical activities related to the development of a prototypical heat exchanger, suitable as steam generator for the lithium-lead loop of the Dual Coolant Lithium Lead and Water Cooled Lithium Lead breeding blankets. For this purpose, an experimental campaign has been executed on the pool-type liquid metal-cooled facility CIRCE at ENEA Brasimone Research Centre. A dedicated test section named HERO has been designed and installed inside the main vessel of CIRCE. The innovative steam generator consists of a tube bundle with seven double walled bayonet tubes, fed with pressurized water. The selected configuration improves the plant safety, reducing the possibility of water-lead/lead-alloy interaction thanks to a double physical separation and allowing an easier control of eventual leakages from the coolant by pressurizing the separation region with inert gas. A set of tests has been defined to demonstrate technological feasibility and performances of this prototypical steam generator, as well as the suitability of the component for the lithium-lead loop in DEMO. In particular, one of the performed tests is presented and discussed in this paper. The experiment is characterized by a secondary loop feedwater working pressure of 10 MPa and a steam generator inlet temperature of 300 °C. On the primary side, the lead-bismuth eutectic has been used as working fluid with a steam generator inlet temperature of 480 °C. During the test, an experimental sensitivity analysis on the primary coolant mass flow rate has been performed. Furthermore, the results of a post-test analysis realized with two versions of the system thermal-hydraulic code RELAP5 are presented, in order to evaluate their capability in simulating the performances of the component and to support the validation process of the codes for heavy liquid metal applications. The work is concluded presenting a scaling analysis to find the equivalence between LBE and PbLi, recalculating the available experimental data with RELAP5 code using PbLi as working fluid.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
