Liquid metal MHD flow influence on heat transfer phenomena in fusion reactor blankets

DEMO reactor is projected as a technological demonstrator and a component test reactor for several key systems such as the breeding blanket. The dual coolant lithium lead (DCLL) is one promising breeding blanket candidate that performs the functions of shielding, part of the cooling and breeding with the same liquid metal fluid. PbLi is also in charge of transporting the bred tritium to the Tritium Extraction System. Structural cooling of the blanket walls is performed by pressurized helium flow which also transfers heat to the balance of plant. Keeping a proper distribution of thermal loads between the two coolants is a key aspect to reach a plant high efficiency. The thermal power transferred from the liquid metal to the helium channels depends on the flow regime. While liquid metal flows under the magnetic field, the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) phenomena will occur, influencing the flow regime and the velocity profile. The heat is volumetrically deposited in the liquid metal coolant due to the interaction between the highly energetic neutrons originated in the plasma and the coolant. The heat deposition profile is roughly exponential causing temperature differences across the same channel cross section. Temperature gradients induce buoyant effects altering the expected MHD profile and affecting the heat transfer rate from the liquid metal to the surrounding walls cooled with helium. It is of utmost interest to identify the effects of the main flow parameters on the heat transfer coefficient under such complex conditions. The work studies computationally a domain consisting of a liquid region and a surrounding solid region electrically and thermally coupled using latest EU DCLL design characteristics. A fully developed flow is assumed where buoyancy is modelled under the Boussinesq approximation. Joule effect has been considered negligible compared to the neutron deposition. The influence of the buoyant MHD phenomena to the heat transfer coefficient is analysed parametrically with a CFD solver implemented in OpenFOAM®. The parameters investigated here are the Reynolds, Hartmann and Grashof numbers, the Grashof ratio, and the wall conductance ratio ($c_w$).