Effect Of Nature Convection On Heat Transfer In The Liquid Lipb Blanket

In some liquid blankets (or liquid blanket module)of fusion reactor, the liquid metal, i.e. LiPb flow, as only tritium breeder is characterized by lower outlet temperature and slower flow velocity that allows the utilization of relatively mature material technology[1-2]. The magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) flow and heat transfer become very complex resulting from the differential heating of walls of the channels, especially adjacent to the First Wall (FW), and internal heat sources inside of the liquid LiPb. The nature convection of the liquid LiPb, due to thermal diffusion, in the poloidal channel adjacent to the FW in the presence of the strong magnetic field of the blanket has been considered and studied. The temperature distribution is changed and there is a strong thermal coupling, modifying importantly the magnitude of the flow. The effect of the buoyancy on pressure driven duct flows has been investigated. The buoyant convection was found to be sufficiently strong to impose its flow pattern on the cross flow in the region of intense volumetric heating.