Summary report for ITER Task-T19: MHD pressure drop and heat transfer study for liquid metal systems

A key feasibility issue for the ITER Vanadium/Lithium breeding blanket is the question of insulator coatings. Design calculations show that an electrically insulating layer is necessary to maintain an acceptably low MHD pressure drop. To begin experimental investigations of the MHD performance of candidate insulator materials and the technology for putting them in place, a new test section was prepared. Aluminum oxide was chosen as the first candidate insulating material because it may be used in combination with NaK in the ITER vacuum vessel and/or the divertor. Details on the methods used to produce the aluminum oxide layer as well as the microstructures of the coating and the aluminide sublayer are presented and discussed. The overall MHD pressure drop, local MHD pressure gradient, local transverse MHD pressure difference, and surface voltage distributions in both the circumferential and the axial directions are reported and discussed. The positive results obtained here for high-temperature NaK have two beneficial implications for ITER. First, since NaK may be used in the vacuum vessel and/or the divertor, these results support the design approach of using electrically insulating coatings to substantially reduce MHD pressure drop. Secondly, while Al2O3/SS is not the same coating/base material combination which would be used in the advanced blanket, this work nonetheless shows that it is possible to produce a viable insulating coating which is stable in contact with a high temperature alkali metal coolant