Thermal hydraulic test with 6 MPa nitrogen gas loop for developing the Korean He cooled test blanket

In considering the requirements for a DEMO-relevant blanket concept, Korea (KO) has proposed a Helium Cooled Molten Lithium (HCML) Test Blanket Module (TBM) for testing in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). The performance analysis for thermal-hydraulics and safety analysis for an accident caused by loss of a coolant for the KO TBM has been carried out with a commercial CFD code, ANSYS-CFX V11 and system code, GAMMA (GAs Multicomponent Mixture Analysis). In order to verify the codes, a basic thermal-hydraulic test with a high pressure nitrogen gas loop up to 6 MPa pressure and 950 °C temperature was performed. In the experiment, single TBM First Wall (FW) mock-up made from the same material as the KO TBM, Ferritic Martensitic Steel, was used and the test was performed under the conditions of pressures of 20 and 36 bar and flow rates of 0.75 and 0.92 kg/min. As one-side of the mock-up was heated to 230 °C, the wall temperatures were measured by installed thermocouples. The measured temperatures show a strong parity with codes’ results simulated with the same test conditions. An additional test with higher pressure and temperature has been prepared for the future.