Case study

Divertor heat exchanger design

Development of a concept design to extract large heat fluxes; incorporating high performance, manufacturability and ease of repair.

Client

Undisclosed
Business need

Creation of a concept design for a heat exchanger within challenging operational constraints.

The challenge

A significant in-vessel component consideration for fusion devices is efficient plasma cooling. This case study presents a concept design for a divertor heat exchanger to extract large heat fluxes from the plasma, established through development of Finite Element (FE) models.

We were tasked by UKAEA with creating an early concept design of a divertor heat exchanger capable of extracting >20MW/m²from the plasma. It was paramount that the design incorporated features for performance, was within thermal constraints and included features to ensure durability, manufacturability, scalability and repairability.

Our approach

The design was developed using thermal and mechanical FE models, mapped on CFD-derived data. A single tile design was developed that was testable, scalable and functional.

Jet impingement was chosen as a key technology in the heat exchanger since it is well understood and has the ability to produce high amounts of heat transfer. To maximise the potential performance of the heat exchanger, lithium was chosen as the cooling fluid due to its high boiling point and relatively low melting point.

The design is a two-part shell with complex internal geometry. The two halves are joined with a weld to form a sealed box unit. All materials used in the design will be sintered, giving flexibility in quality and geometry complexity if changes are needed in the future.

From an integrity viewpoint, challenges exist around the high amount of heat flux through the plasma facing tungsten due to the large thermal differential through the material. The structural performance of the system is currently the limiting factor for the design, but given the large number of parameters that can be modified to improve the design, there is scope to refine the design further in the future.

Outcome

This project has shown that a cooling solution to extract high levels of heat flux from the plasma of a fusion device can exist as a manufacturable and scalable product. With some further design, our fluids solution would be capable of extracting up to 50 MW/m² from the plasma.

Case study

Divertor heat exchanger design

Client

Business need

The challenge

Our approach

Outcome

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