Thermal convection in a toroidal duct of a liquid metal blanket. Part II. Effect of axial mean flow

The work continues the exploration of the effect of thermal convection on flows in toroidal ducts of a liquid metal blanket. This time we consider the effect of the mean flow along the duct and of the associated heat transfer diverting the heat deposited by captured neutrons. Numerical simulations are conducted for a model system with two-dimensional (streamwise-uniform) fully developed flow, purely toroidal magnetic field, and perfectly electrically and thermally insulating walls. Realistically high Grashof (up to 1011) and Reynolds (up to 106) numbers are used. It is found that the flow develops thermal convection in the transverse plane at moderate Grashof numbers. At large Grashof numbers, the flow is dominated by the top-bottom asymmetry of the streamwise velocity and stable stratification of temperature, which are caused by the buoyancy force due to the mean temperature growing along the duct. This leads to suppression of thermal convection, weak mixing, and substantial gradients of wall temperature. Further analysis based on more realistic models is suggested.