Thermo-Mechanical Analysis and Design Update of the Top Cap Region of the DEMO Water-Cooled Lithium Lead Central Outboard Blanket Segment
Within the framework of the EUROfusion research and development activities, the Water-Cooled Lithium Lead (WCLL) Breeding Blanket (BB) is one of the two candidates to be chosen as the driver blanket for the European DEMO nuclear fusion reactor. Hence, an intense research work is currently ongoing th...
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| Format: | Article |
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MDPI AG
2022-01-01
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| Series: | Applied Sciences |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/12/3/1564 |
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| author | Gaetano Bongiovì Salvatore Giambrone Ilenia Catanzaro Pietro Alessandro Di Maio Pietro Arena |
| author_facet | Gaetano Bongiovì Salvatore Giambrone Ilenia Catanzaro Pietro Alessandro Di Maio Pietro Arena |
| author_sort | Gaetano Bongiovì |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Within the framework of the EUROfusion research and development activities, the Water-Cooled Lithium Lead (WCLL) Breeding Blanket (BB) is one of the two candidates to be chosen as the driver blanket for the European DEMO nuclear fusion reactor. Hence, an intense research work is currently ongoing throughout the EU to develop a robust conceptual design able to fulfil the design requirements selected at the end of the DEMO pre-conceptual design phase. In this work, the thermo-mechanical analysis and the design update of the top cap (TC) region of the DEMO WCLL Central Out-board Blanket (COB) segment is presented. The scope of the work is to find a design solution of the WCLL COB TC region able to fulfil the design requirements, prescribed by the reference RCC-MRx code, under the selected nominal and accidental steady state loading scenarios. The activity herein presented moved from the WCLL COB reference design, purposely modified in compliance with the adopted thermal and mechanical requirements in order to attain a robust TC region geometric layout. In the end, a geometric configuration called “TC region-mod++” was determined, foreseeing a TC able to safely withstand both nominal and accidental loads. Nevertheless, some criticalities still hold in the internal stiffening plates and, therefore, further and finer analysis are necessary to fully match the goal. In any case, it was also found that the proposed approach for the design update is promising and worthy to be further pursued. The work was performed following a theoretical–numerical approach based on the finite element method (FEM) and adopting the quoted Ansys commercial FEM code. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T00:11:22Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-acbf160b76214cbfb9fcff5b01e5c983 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2076-3417 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T00:11:22Z |
| publishDate | 2022-01-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Applied Sciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-acbf160b76214cbfb9fcff5b01e5c9832023-11-23T15:59:42ZengMDPI AGApplied Sciences2076-34172022-01-01123156410.3390/app12031564Thermo-Mechanical Analysis and Design Update of the Top Cap Region of the DEMO Water-Cooled Lithium Lead Central Outboard Blanket SegmentGaetano Bongiovì0Salvatore Giambrone1Ilenia Catanzaro2Pietro Alessandro Di Maio3Pietro Arena4Department of Engineering, University of Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, Ed. 6, 90128 Palermo, ItalyDepartment of Engineering, University of Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, Ed. 6, 90128 Palermo, ItalyDepartment of Engineering, University of Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, Ed. 6, 90128 Palermo, ItalyDepartment of Engineering, University of Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, Ed. 6, 90128 Palermo, ItalyCentro Ricerche Brasimone—ENEA, Brasimone, 40032 Camugnano, ItalyWithin the framework of the EUROfusion research and development activities, the Water-Cooled Lithium Lead (WCLL) Breeding Blanket (BB) is one of the two candidates to be chosen as the driver blanket for the European DEMO nuclear fusion reactor. Hence, an intense research work is currently ongoing throughout the EU to develop a robust conceptual design able to fulfil the design requirements selected at the end of the DEMO pre-conceptual design phase. In this work, the thermo-mechanical analysis and the design update of the top cap (TC) region of the DEMO WCLL Central Out-board Blanket (COB) segment is presented. The scope of the work is to find a design solution of the WCLL COB TC region able to fulfil the design requirements, prescribed by the reference RCC-MRx code, under the selected nominal and accidental steady state loading scenarios. The activity herein presented moved from the WCLL COB reference design, purposely modified in compliance with the adopted thermal and mechanical requirements in order to attain a robust TC region geometric layout. In the end, a geometric configuration called “TC region-mod++” was determined, foreseeing a TC able to safely withstand both nominal and accidental loads. Nevertheless, some criticalities still hold in the internal stiffening plates and, therefore, further and finer analysis are necessary to fully match the goal. In any case, it was also found that the proposed approach for the design update is promising and worthy to be further pursued. The work was performed following a theoretical–numerical approach based on the finite element method (FEM) and adopting the quoted Ansys commercial FEM code.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/12/3/1564DEMObreeding blanketWCLLtop capFEMthermo-mechanics |
| spellingShingle | Gaetano Bongiovì Salvatore Giambrone Ilenia Catanzaro Pietro Alessandro Di Maio Pietro Arena Thermo-Mechanical Analysis and Design Update of the Top Cap Region of the DEMO Water-Cooled Lithium Lead Central Outboard Blanket Segment Applied Sciences DEMO breeding blanket WCLL top cap FEM thermo-mechanics |
| title | Thermo-Mechanical Analysis and Design Update of the Top Cap Region of the DEMO Water-Cooled Lithium Lead Central Outboard Blanket Segment |
| title_full | Thermo-Mechanical Analysis and Design Update of the Top Cap Region of the DEMO Water-Cooled Lithium Lead Central Outboard Blanket Segment |
| title_fullStr | Thermo-Mechanical Analysis and Design Update of the Top Cap Region of the DEMO Water-Cooled Lithium Lead Central Outboard Blanket Segment |
| title_full_unstemmed | Thermo-Mechanical Analysis and Design Update of the Top Cap Region of the DEMO Water-Cooled Lithium Lead Central Outboard Blanket Segment |
| title_short | Thermo-Mechanical Analysis and Design Update of the Top Cap Region of the DEMO Water-Cooled Lithium Lead Central Outboard Blanket Segment |
| title_sort | thermo mechanical analysis and design update of the top cap region of the demo water cooled lithium lead central outboard blanket segment |
| topic | DEMO breeding blanket WCLL top cap FEM thermo-mechanics |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/12/3/1564 |
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