Some issues in two-dimensional modeling of tritium transport

Among the major processes leading to tritium transport through Li ceramic breeders the percolation of gaseous tritium species through the connected porosity remains the lest amenable to a satisfactory treatment. The combination of diffusion and reaction through the convoluted transport pathways prescribed by the system of pores poses a formidable challenge. The key issue is to make the fundamental connection between the tortuousity of the medium with the transport processes in terms of only basic parameters that are amenable to fundamental understanding and experimental determinations. This fundamental challenges is met within the following approaches. The technique that we have employed is a random network percolation model. Local transport in each individual pore channel is described by a set of convection-diffusion-reaction equations. Long range transport is described by a matrix technique. The heterogeneous structure of the medium is accounted for via Monte Carlo methods. In this way the approach requires as inputs only physical-chemical parameters that are amenable to clear basic understanding and experimental determination. In the sense it provides predictive capability. The approach has been applied to an analysis of the concept of tritium residence time which is associated with the first passage time, a direct output of our analysis. In the next stage of our work the tool that we have developed would be employed to investigate the issues of vary large networks, realistic microstructural information and the effect of varying pressure gradient along the purge channels. We have demonstrated that the approach that has been adopted can be utilized to analyze in a very illuminating way the underlying issues of the concept of residence time. We believe that the present approach is ideally suited to tackle these very important yet difficult issues