Design of the Flowing LIquid Torus (FLIT)

Highlights: • Flowing LIquid metal Torus, FLIT, a fast-flowing liquid metal divertor experiments, was designed to be installed at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, PPPL. • FLIT will have recirculating Galinstan (Ga-In-Sn) using 6 jxB pumps and flow velocities of up to 10 m/s will be achieved on the fully annular divertor plate. • FLIT will operate at 1 T toroidal field it can operate for greater than 10 s at this field. • FLIT will cover the relevant non-dimensional parameters for NSTX-U and ITER. • FLIT is designed as a flexible machine that will allow experimental testing of various liquid metal injection techniques, study of flow instabilities, and their control in order to prove the feasibility of liquid metal divertor concept for fusion reactors. -- Abstract: The design of the Flowing LIquid Torus (FLIT) at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) is presented. FLIT will focus on the development of a liquid metal (LM) diagnostics and divertor system (without a plasma source) suitable for implementation in present-day fusion systems, such as NSTX-U. FLIT is intended to provide proof-of-concept for fast-flowing LM divertor designs for heat fluxes > 10 MW/m². The toroidal test article (ID ≈ 0.56 m, OD ≈ 1.9 m, h ≈ 0.61 m) consists of 12 rectangular coils that can generate a centerline magnetic field of 1 T magnetic for greater than 10 s. Initially, 30 gallons Galinstan (Ga-In-Sn eutectic) will be recirculated within the test article using six jxB pumps to achieve flow velocities of up to 10 m/s across the fully annular radial test section. FLIT is designed to be a flexible machine that will allow experimental testing of various LM injection techniques, the study of flow instabilities, and electromagnetic control concepts to prove the feasibility of the LM divertors within fusion reactors.