Water evaporation-Condensation cooling system design for Pb-Li17 cold trap

The developed cold trap consists of three loops. The primary loop is for Pb-Li17 liquid metal flow. The secondary loop contains water-steam mixture which provides cooling of the primary loop by water evaporation. The accumulated thermal energy is subsequently transferred by condensation to the tertiary loop - water cooler (condenser) which performs final heat removal from the trap body. Adding inert gas (Argon) into the secondary loop is necessary to achieve and control required higher saturation conditions. The presence of the inert gases in the water-steam mixture can significantly reduce the heat and mass transfer. It has an effect on heat removal from the cold trap body. A model based on dimensionless numbers is developed and applied to solve these processes. Achieved results are analysed and discussed.