A review of thermal-hydraulic issues in ITER cable-in-conduit conductors

Problems related to cable-in-conduit conductors (CICC) are intrinsically multi-physics involving coupled electro-magnetic/mechanical/thermal-hydraulic fields. Here we concentrate on the thermal-hydraulic issues because, although the CICC was first proposed for the low-TC superconducting coils of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) many years ago, CICC thermal-hydraulics alone is less understood than could be expected. Some of the difficulties are due to the multi-channel nature of the ITER CICC, where strands containing the superconducting filaments are twisted in multi-stage sub-bundles (petals) delimited by wrappings and concentrated in an annular (porous-medium like) region, while a central channel, delimited by a spiral, provides lower hydraulic impedance and pressure relief to the flow of the supercritical helium coolant. Other difficulties are related to the multi-scale nature of this problem, with length scales relevant for thermal-hydraulics ranging from the strand diameter (<∼10−3 m), to the CICC length in a coil (up to several 102 m). On the other hand, taking advantage of this length-scale separation, the models presently used for CICC simulations are typically 1D (along the conductor) but they need constitutive relations (like friction and heat transfer coefficients) for the transverse mass, momentum and energy transport processes occurring between different conductor elements. The database for the transverse transport coefficients, unfortunately, does not appear complete, or free of internal contradictions, often because the smallness of the transverse scales makes even an experimental assessment of these processes difficult. Here we discuss these issues and possible strategies for overcoming some of the difficulties are proposed.