Large-Eddy Simulation of Turbulent Flow and Heat Transfer in a Mildly Expanded Channel of IFMIF High Flux Test Module

During irradiation test periods in the International Fusion Material Irradiation Facility (IFMIF), irradiated materials must be maintained at constant temperatures because irradiation characteristics of materials have a large dependency on temperature. In the high flux test module of the IFMIF, required performances for temperature control using gas-cooling and heater-heating are especially stringent because available space for temperature control is remarkably restricted due to very small irradiation volume of about 0.5 l. We proposed an alternative design of the test module with advantages of temperature monitoring and temperature uniformity in specimens. This design employs a rectangular duct as the vessel to pack capsules housing specimens compactly into the small irradiation volume. In the vessel the coolant flows between the capsules and vessel wall. In the basic design, both thickness of a vessel wall and a width of cooling channel are considered as 1.0 mm. Since inside the vessel gaseous helium of several atmospheric pressure flows as a coolant and a low vacuum environment is kept outside the vessel for safety requirements and thermal stress is foreseen to appear due to nuclear heating of the vessel itself, the vessel wall is considered to deform readily and this leads expansion of the cooling channels. It is also considered that a slight expansion of the vessel can have severe influence on the cooling performance due to the initial narrow channel width of 1.0 mm. Therefore, it is necessary to estimate cooling performances for the coolant flowing in the deformed channel. We conduct a finite element analysis of turbulent heat transfer in a mildly expanded channel using large-eddy simulation in this study. In a numerical system, fluid is enclosed by three-dimensionally expanded vessel wall and flat capsule wall, and flows into the system with a fully developed velocity profile. In this study, we focus not only on the cooling performances but also on change in flow structure and heat transfer of a channel turbulence with one wall with three-dimensionally mildly concave surface in case that a fully developed turbulent flow enters in the channel. (author)