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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 109 records · Page 6
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2014

Predictions of the poloidal asymmetries and transport frequencies in KSTAR

The extended neoclassical rotation theory formulated in Miller flux surface geometry enables unprecedented neoclassical calculations of the poloidal asymmetries in density, rotation velocities, electrostatic potential along the flux surfaces, and of the inertial (Reynolds stress) and gyroviscous transport frequencies, which are strong functions of these asymmetries. This paper presents such calculations of the poloidal asymmetries and non-negligible inertial and gyroviscous transport frequencies in two KSTAR (Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research) [Kwon et al., Nucl. Fusion 51, 094006 (2011)] Neutral Beam Injection H-mode discharges. The in-out asymmetries in the velocities are an order of magnitude larger than their up-down asymmetries. The magnitudes of the predicted inertial and gyroviscous transport frequencies depend on the magnitudes of the density and velocity asymmetries. The neoclassically predicted density asymmetries are shown to correspond with the reported measurements in tokamaks and the predicted carbon toroidal velocities agree very well with the measurements in KSTAR.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Thermal Hydraulic Experimental Test Article (FY2020 Status Report)

The Thermal Hydraulic Experimental Test Article (THETA) is a facility that will be used to develop sodium components and instrumentation as well as acquire experimental data for validation of reactor thermal hydraulic and safety analysis codes. The facility will simulate nominal conditions as well as protected/unprotected loss of flow accidents in a sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR). High fidelity distributed temperature profiles of the developed flow field will be acquired with Rayleigh backscatter based optical fiber temperature sensors. The facility is being designed in partnership with systems code experts to tailor the experiment to ensure the most relevant and highest quality data for code validation. THETA is comprised of a traditional primary and secondary system. The primary system is submerged in the pool of sodium and consists of a pump, electrically heated core, intermediate heat exchanger, and connected piping and thermal barriers (redan). The secondary system, located outside of the sodium pool, consists of a pump, sodium to air heat exchanger, and connected piping and valves. Figure 1 illustrates the main components of the primary system. THETA will be installed in the Mechanisms Engineering Test Loop (METL) with the primary system in the 28 inch Test Vessel #4, Figure 2. The design work for the facility has been completed. Since the FY19 THETA status report, the THETA primary system components have been assembled and tested using de-ionized water. Some results of this testing at select Richardson and Reynolds numbers are included herein. The custom THETA sodium flowmeter (permanent magnet submersible sodium flowmeter) has been built and calibrated using sodium in an auxiliary facility against a NIST traceable vortex shedder type flowmeter. The permanent magnet flowmeter showed excellent performance, following the theoretical equation for measured voltage quite well, with an error < 3.5% at flow rates ranging from 3-24 GPM at temperatures up to 400 °C. The secondary sodium system for heat rejection from intermediate heat exchanger has been analyzed according to ASME code. All secondary side piping, fittings and a U-stamped air-to-sodium heat exchanger have been procured.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2016

A FOUR-FLUID MHD MODEL OF THE SOLAR WIND/INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM INTERACTION WITH TURBULENCE TRANSPORT AND PICKUP PROTONS AS SEPARATE FLUID

We have developed a four-fluid, three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic model of the solar wind interaction with the local interstellar medium. The unique features of the model are: (a) a three-fluid description for the charged components of the solar wind and interstellar plasmas (thermal protons, electrons, and pickup protons), (b) the built-in turbulence transport equations based on Reynolds decomposition and coupled with the mean-flow Reynolds-averaged equations, and (c) a solar corona/solar wind model that supplies inner boundary conditions at 40 au by computing solar wind and magnetic field parameters outward from the coronal base. The three charged species are described by separate energy equations and are assumed to move with the same velocity. The fourth fluid in the model is the interstellar hydrogen which is treated by separate continuity, momentum, and energy equations and is coupled with the charged components through photoionization and charge exchange. We evaluate the effects of turbulence transport and pickup protons on the global heliospheric structure and compute the distribution of plasma, magnetic field, and turbulence parameters throughout the heliosphere for representative solar minimum and maximum conditions. We compare our results with Voyager 1 observations in the outer heliosheath and show that the relative amplitude of magnetic fluctuations just outside the heliopause is in close agreement with the value inferred from Voyager 1 measurements by Burlaga et al. The simulated profiles of magnetic field parameters in the outer heliosheath are in qualitative agreement with the Voyager 1 observations and with the analytical model of magnetic field draping around the heliopause of Isenberg et al.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

The Nature of Grand Minima and Maxima from Fully Nonlinear Flux Transport Dynamos

We aim to investigate the nature and occurrence characteristics of grand solar minimum and maximum periods, which are observed in the solar proxy records such as {sup 10}Be and {sup 14}C, using a fully nonlinear Babcock–Leighton type flux transport dynamo including momentum and entropy equations. The differential rotation and meridional circulation are generated from the effect of turbulent Reynolds stress and are subjected to back-reaction from the magnetic field. To generate grand minimum- and maximum-like periods in our simulations, we used random fluctuations in the angular momentum transport process, namely the Λ-mechanism, and in the Babcock–Leighton mechanism. To characterize the nature and occurrences of the identified grand minima and maxima in our simulations, we used the waiting time distribution analyses, which reflect whether the underlying distribution arises from a random or a memory-bearing process. The results show that, in the majority of the cases, the distributions of grand minima and maxima reveal that the nature of these events originates from memoryless processes. We also found that in our simulations the meridional circulation speed tends to be smaller during grand maximum, while it is faster during grand minimum periods. The radial differential rotation tends to be larger during grand maxima, while it is smaller during grand minima. The latitudinal differential rotation, on the other hand, is found to be larger during grand minima.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2012

Freely decaying turbulence in two-dimensional electrostatic gyrokinetics

In magnetized plasmas, a turbulent cascade occurs in phase space at scales smaller than the thermal Larmor radius ('sub-Larmor scales') [Tatsuno et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 015003 (2009)]. When the turbulence is restricted to two spatial dimensions perpendicular to the background magnetic field, two independent cascades may take place simultaneously because of the presence of two collisionless invariants. In the present work, freely decaying turbulence of two-dimensional electrostatic gyrokinetics is investigated by means of phenomenological theory and direct numerical simulations. A dual cascade (forward and inverse cascades) is observed in velocity space as well as in position space, which we diagnose by means of nonlinear transfer functions for the collisionless invariants. We find that the turbulence tends to a time-asymptotic state, dominated by a single scale that grows in time. A theory of this asymptotic state is derived in the form of decay laws. Each case that we study falls into one of three regimes (weakly collisional, marginal, and strongly collisional), determined by a dimensionless number D{sub *}, a quantity analogous to the Reynolds number. The marginal state is marked by a critical number D{sub *}=D{sub 0} that is preserved in time. Turbulence initialized above this value become increasingly inertial in time, evolving toward larger and larger D{sub *}; turbulence initialized below D{sub 0} become more and more collisional, decaying to progressively smaller D{sub *}.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2016

VARIANCE ANISOTROPY IN KINETIC PLASMAS

Solar wind fluctuations admit well-documented anisotropies of the variance matrix, or polarization, related to the mean magnetic field direction. Typically, one finds a ratio of perpendicular variance to parallel variance of the order of 9:1 for the magnetic field. Here we study the question of whether a kinetic plasma spontaneously generates and sustains parallel variances when initiated with only perpendicular variance. We find that parallel variance grows and saturates at about 5% of the perpendicular variance in a few nonlinear times irrespective of the Reynolds number. For sufficiently large systems (Reynolds numbers) the variance approaches values consistent with the solar wind observations.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Scaling of Turbulent Viscosity and Resistivity: Extracting a Scale-dependent Turbulent Magnetic Prandtl Number

Turbulent viscosity νt and resistivity ηt are perhaps the simplest models for turbulent transport of angular momentum and magnetic fields, respectively. The associated turbulent magnetic Prandtl number Pr t ≡ ν t /η t has been well recognized to determine the final magnetic configuration of accretion disks. Here, we present an approach to determining these "effective transport" coefficients acting at different length scales using coarse-graining and recent results on decoupled kinetic and magnetic energy cascades. By analyzing the kinetic and magnetic energy cascades from a suite of high-resolution simulations, we show that our definitions of ν t , η t , and Pr t have power-law scalings in the "decoupled range." We observe that Pr t ≈ 1–2 at the smallest inertial-inductive scales, increasing to ≈5 at the largest scales. Furthermore, based on physical considerations, our analysis suggests that Pr t has to become scale independent and of order unity in the decoupled range at sufficiently high Reynolds numbers (or grid resolution) and that the power-law scaling exponents of velocity and magnetic spectra become equal. In addition to implications for astrophysical systems, the scale-dependent turbulent transport coefficients offer a guide for large-eddy simulation modeling.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Stripped elliptical galaxies as probes of ICM physics. II. Stirred, but mixed? Viscous and inviscid gas stripping of the Virgo elliptical M89

Elliptical galaxies moving through the intracluster medium (ICM) are progressively stripped of their gaseous atmospheres. X-ray observations reveal the structure of galactic tails, wakes, and the interface between the galactic gas and the ICM. This fine-structure depends on dynamic conditions (galaxy potential, initial gas contents, orbit in the host cluster), orbital stage (early infall, pre-/post-pericenter passage), as well as on the still ill-constrained ICM plasma properties (thermal conductivity, viscosity, magnetic field structure). Paper I describes flow patterns and stages of inviscid gas stripping. Here we study the effect of a Spitzer-like temperature dependent viscosity corresponding to Reynolds numbers, Re, of 50–5000 with respect to the ICM flow around the remnant atmosphere. Global flow patterns are independent of viscosity in this Reynolds number range. Viscosity influences two aspects. In inviscid stripping, Kelvin–Helmholtz instabilities (KHIs) at the sides of the remnant atmosphere lead to observable horns or wings. Increasing viscosity suppresses KHIs of increasing length scale and thus observable horns and wings. Furthermore, in inviscid stripping, stripped galactic gas can mix with the ambient ICM in the galaxy’s wake. This mixing is suppressed increasingly with increasing viscosity, such that viscously stripped galaxies have long X-ray bright, cool wakes. We provide mock X-ray images for different stripping stages and conditions. While these qualitative results are generic, we tailor our simulations to the Virgo galaxy M89 (NGC 4552), where Re≈50 corresponds to a viscosity of 10% of the Spitzer level. Paper III compares new deep Chandra and archival XMM-Newton data to our simulations.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

Effects of enhanced stratification on equatorward dynamo wave propagation

We present results from simulations of rotating magnetized turbulent convection in spherical wedge geometry representing parts of the latitudinal and longitudinal extents of a star. Here we consider a set of runs for which the density stratification is varied, keeping the Reynolds and Coriolis numbers at similar values. In the case of weak stratification, we find quasi-steady dynamo solutions for moderate rotation and oscillatory ones with poleward migration of activity belts for more rapid rotation. For stronger stratification, the growth rate tends to become smaller. Furthermore, a transition from quasi-steady to oscillatory dynamos is found as the Coriolis number is increased, but now there is an equatorward migrating branch near the equator. The breakpoint where this happens corresponds to a rotation rate that is about three to seven times the solar value. The phase relation of the magnetic field is such that the toroidal field lags behind the radial field by about π/2, which can be explained by an oscillatory α{sup 2} dynamo caused by the sign change of the α-effect about the equator. We test the domain size dependence of our results for a rapidly rotating run with equatorward migration by varying the longitudinal extent of our wedge. The energy of the axisymmetric mean magnetic field decreases as the domain size increases and we find that an m = 1 mode is excited for a full 2π azimuthal extent, reminiscent of the field configurations deduced from observations of rapidly rotating late-type stars.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

COSMIC RAY HEATING OF THE WARM IONIZED MEDIUM

Observations of line ratios in the Milky Way's warm ionized medium suggest that photoionization is not the only heating mechanism present. For the additional heating to explain the discrepancy, it would have to have a weaker dependence on the gas density than the cooling rate, {Lambda}n{sub e}{sup 2}. Reynolds et al. suggested turbulent dissipation or magnetic field reconnection as possible heating sources. We investigate here the viability of MHD-wave mediated cosmic ray heating as a supplemental heating source. This heating rate depends on the gas density only through its linear dependence on the Alfven speed, which goes as n{sub e}{sup -1/2}. We show that, scaled to appropriate values of cosmic ray energy density, cosmic ray heating can be significant. Furthermore, this heating is stable to perturbations. These results should also apply to warm ionized gas in other galaxies.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Three-fluid, three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic solar wind model with eddy viscosity and turbulent resistivity

We have developed a three-fluid, three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic solar wind model that incorporates turbulence transport, eddy viscosity, turbulent resistivity, and turbulent heating. The solar wind plasma is described as a system of co-moving solar wind protons, electrons, and interstellar pickup protons, with separate energy equations for each species. Numerical steady-state solutions of Reynolds-averaged solar wind equations coupled with turbulence transport equations for turbulence energy, cross helicity, and correlation length are obtained by the time relaxation method in the corotating with the Sun frame of reference in the region from 0.3 to 100 AU (but still inside the termination shock). The model equations include the effects of electron heat conduction, Coulomb collisions, photoionization of interstellar hydrogen atoms and their charge exchange with the solar wind protons, turbulence energy generation by pickup protons, and turbulent heating of solar wind protons and electrons. The turbulence transport model is based on the Reynolds decomposition and turbulence phenomenologies that describe the conversion of fluctuation energy into heat due to a turbulent cascade. In addition to using separate energy equations for the solar wind protons and electrons, a significant improvement over our previous work is that the turbulence model now uses an eddy viscosity approximation for the Reynolds stress tensor and the mean turbulent electric field. The approximation allows the turbulence model to account for driving of turbulence by large-scale velocity gradients. Using either a dipole approximation for the solar magnetic field or synoptic solar magnetograms from the Wilcox Solar Observatory for assigning boundary conditions at the coronal base, we apply the model to study the global structure of the solar wind and its three-dimensional properties, including embedded turbulence, heating, and acceleration throughout the heliosphere. The model results are compared with plasma and magnetic field observations on WIND, Ulysses, and Voyager 2 spacecraft.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

Theoretical Plasma Physics

Lattice Boltzmann algorithms are a mesoscopic method to solve problems in nonlinear physics which are highly parallelized – unlike the direction solution of the original problem. These methods are applied to both fluid and magnetohydrodynamic turbulence. By introducing entropic constraints one can enforce the positive definiteness of the distribution functions and so be able to simulate fluids at high Reynolds numbers without numerical instabilities. By introducing a vector distribution function for the magnetic field one can enforce the divergence free condition on the magnetic field automatically, without the need of divergence cleaning as needed in most direct numerical solutions of the resistive magnetohydrodynamic equations. The principal reason for the high parallelization of lattice Boltzmann codes is that they consist of a kinetic collisional relaxation step (which is purely local) followed by a simple shift of the relaxed data to neighboring lattice sites. In large eddy simulations, the closure schemes are highly nonlocal – the most famous of these schemes is that due to Smagorinsky. Under a lattice Boltzmann representation the Smagorinsky closure is purely local – being simply a particular moment on the perturbed distribution fucntions. After nonlocal fluid moment models were discovered to represent Landau damping, it was found possible to model these fluid models using an appropriate lattice Boltzmann algorithm. The close to ideal parallelization of the lattice Boltzmann codes permitted us to be Gordon Bell finalists on using the Earth Simulation in Japan. We have also been involved in the radio frequency propagation of waves into a tokamak and into a spherical overdense tokamak plasma. Initially we investigated the use of a quasi-optical grill for the launching of lower hybrid waves into a tokamak. It was found that the conducting walls do not prevent the rods from being properly irradiated, the overloading of the quasi-optical grill is not severe with the electric field only being about three times higher than in the ideal case. Moreover, the quasi-optical grill was significantly fewer structural elements that the multijunction grill. Nevertheless there has not been much interest from experimental fusion groups to implementing these structures. Hence we have returned to optimizing the multijunction grill so that the large number of coupling matrix elements can be efficiently evaluated using symmetry arguments. In overdense plasmas, the standard electromagnetic waves cannot propagate into the plasma center, but are reflected at the plasma edge. By optimizing mode conversion processes (in particular, the O-X-B wave propagation of Ordinary Mode converting to an Extraordinary mode which then converts into an electrostatic Bernstein wave) one can excite within the plasma an electrostatic Bernstein wave that does not suffer density cutoffs and is absorbed on the electron cyclotron harmonics. Finally we have started looking at other mesoscopic lattice algorithms that involve unitary collision and streaming steps. Because these algorithms are unitary they can be run on quantum computers when they become available – unlike their computational cousin of lattice Boltzmann which is a purely classical code. These quantum lattice gas algorithms have been tested successfully on exact analytic soliton collision solution. These calculations are hoped to be able to study Bose Einstein condensed atomic gases and their ground states in an optical lattice.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2012

AMBIPOLAR DIFFUSION HEATING IN TURBULENT SYSTEMS

The temperature of the gas in molecular clouds is a key determinant of the characteristic mass of star formation. Ambipolar diffusion (AD) is considered one of the most important heating mechanisms in weakly ionized molecular clouds. In this work, we study the AD heating rate using two-fluid turbulence simulations and compare it with the overall heating rate due to turbulent dissipation. We find that for observed molecular clouds, which typically have Alfven Mach numbers of {approx}1 and AD Reynolds numbers of {approx}20, about 70% of the total turbulent dissipation is in the form of AD heating. AD has an important effect on the length scale where energy is dissipated: when AD heating is strong, most of the energy in the cascade is removed by ion-neutral drift, with a comparatively small amount of energy making it down to small scales. We derive a relation for the AD heating rate that describes the results of our simulations to within a factor of two. Turbulent dissipation, including AD heating, is generally less important than cosmic-ray heating in molecular clouds, although there is substantial scatter in both.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Reynolds stress tensor measurements using magnetic resonance velocimetry: expansion of the dynamic measurement range and analysis of systematic measurement errors

This study presents magnetic resonance velocimetry (MRV) Reynolds Stress measurements in a periodic hill channel with a hill Reynolds number of Re = 29,500. The velocity encoding scheme is based on the ICOSA6 method with six icosahedral encoding directions and multiple encoding values are measured to increase the dynamic range. The full Reynolds stress tensor is obtained from a voxel-wise three-dimensional Gaussian fit using the magnitude data of all acquisitions. The MRV results are compared to a wall-resolved large eddy simulation and laser Doppler velocimetry measurements conducted in the same channel. It is shown that the MRV Reynolds stress data have excellent precision and agree qualitatively with the reference data. However, there are apparent systematic deviations. One of the most prominent error contributions is the signal attenuation caused by higher orders of motion, which leads to an overestimation of the turbulence level. Another fundamental error is identified in the assumption that the turbulence is Gaussian distributed. With the presented reconstruction technique, the MRV data are fitted to a statistical model, and depending on the examined flow setup, the Gaussian model can lead to considerable errors. Possible ways of how to reduce all identified errors are presented. In summary, this technique enables Reynolds stress tensor measurements in complex internal flows with high dynamic range and excellent precision. However, several issues need to be resolved to make the turbulence quantification more accurate.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2015

Flux-driven simulations of turbulence collapse

Using three-dimensional nonlinear simulations of tokamak turbulence, we show that an edge transport barrier (ETB) forms naturally once input power exceeds a threshold value. Profiles, turbulence-driven flows, and neoclassical coefficients are evolved self-consistently. A slow power ramp-up simulation shows that ETB transition is triggered by the turbulence-driven flows via an intermediate phase which involves coherent oscillation of turbulence intensity and E×B flow shear. A novel observation of the evolution is that the turbulence collapses and the ETB transition begins when R{sub T} > 1 at t = t{sub R} (R{sub T}: normalized Reynolds power), while the conventional transition criterion (ω{sub E×B}>γ{sub lin} where ω{sub E×B} denotes mean flow shear) is satisfied only after t = t{sub C} ( >t{sub R}), when the mean flow shear grows due to positive feedback.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

Large-scale convective instability in an electroconducting medium with small-scale helicity

A large-scale instability occurring in a stratified conducting medium with small-scale helicity of the velocity field and magnetic fields is detected using an asymptotic many-scale method. Such a helicity is sustained by small external sources for small Reynolds numbers. Two regimes of instability with zero and nonzero frequencies are detected. The criteria for the occurrence of large-scale instability in such a medium are formulated.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

NuSTAR study of hard X-ray morphology and spectroscopy of PWN G21.5–0.9

We present NuSTAR high-energy X-ray observations of the pulsar wind nebula (PWN)/supernova remnant G21.5–0.9. We detect integrated emission from the nebula up to ∼40 keV, and resolve individual spatial features over a broad X-ray band for the first time. The morphology seen by NuSTAR agrees well with that seen by XMM-Newton and Chandra below 10 keV. At high energies, NuSTAR clearly detects non-thermal emission up to ∼20 keV that extends along the eastern and northern rim of the supernova shell. The broadband images clearly demonstrate that X-ray emission from the North Spur and Eastern Limb results predominantly from non-thermal processes. We detect a break in the spatially integrated X-ray spectrum at ∼9 keV that cannot be reproduced by current spectral energy distribution models, implying either a more complex electron injection spectrum or an additional process such as diffusion compared to what has been considered in previous work. We use spatially resolved maps to derive an energy-dependent cooling length scale, L(E)∝E{sup m} with m = –0.21 ± 0.01. We find this to be inconsistent with the model for the morphological evolution with energy described by Kennel and Coroniti. This value, along with the observed steepening in power-law index between radio and X-ray, can be quantitatively explained as an energy-loss spectral break in the simple scaling model of Reynolds, assuming particle advection dominates over diffusion. This interpretation requires a substantial departure from spherical magnetohydrodynamic, magnetic-flux-conserving outflow, most plausibly in the form of turbulent magnetic-field amplification.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Toward full simulations for a liquid metal blanket: part 2. Computations of MHD flows with volumetric heating for a PbLi blanket prototype at Ha ~10 4 and Gr ~10 12

On the pathway toward full simulations for a liquid metal (LM) blanket, this part 2 extends a previous study of purely magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) flows in a DCLL blanket in reference Chen et al (2020 Nucl. Fusion 60 076003) to more general conditions when the MHD flow is coupled with heat transfer. The simulated prototypic blanket module includes all components of a real LM blanket system, such as supply ducts, inlet and outlet manifolds, multiple poloidal ducts and a U-turn zone. Volumetric heating generated by fusion neutrons is added to simulate thermal effects in the flowing lead–lithium (PbLi) breeder. The MHD flow equations and the energy equation are solved with a DNS-type finite-volume code ‘MHD-UCAS’ on a very fine mesh of 470 × 10 6 cells. The applied magnetic field is 5 T (Hartmann number Ha ~ 10 4 ), the PbLi velocity in the poloidal ducts is 10 cm s –1 (Reynolds number Re ~10 5 ), whereas the maximum volumetric heating is 30 MW m –3 (Grashof number Gr ~ 10 12 ). Four cases have been simulated, including forced- and mixed-convection flows, and either an electrically conducting or insulating blanket structure. Various comparisons are made between the four computed cases and also against the purely MHD flows computed earlier in reference Chen et al (2020 Nucl. Fusion 60 076003) with regards to the (1) MHD pressure drop, (2) flow balancing, (3) temperature field, (4) flows in particular blanket components, and (5) 3D and turbulent flow effects. The strongest buoyancy effects were found in the poloidal ducts. In the electrically non-conducting blanket, the buoyancy forces lead to significant modifications of the flow structure, such as formation of reverse flows, whereas their effect on the MHD pressure drop is relatively small. In the electrically conducting blanket case, the buoyancy effects on the flow and MHD pressure drop are almost negligible.

Physics↗