Effect of Pebble Size Distribution and Wall Effect on Inner Packing Structure and Contact Force Distribution in Tritium Breeder Pebble Bed

Baoping Gong, Hao Cheng, Yongjin Feng, Xiaofang Luo, Long Wang and Xiaoyu Wang
Additional contact information
Baoping Gong: Center for Fusion Science, Southwestern Institute of Physics, P.O. Box 432, Chengdu 610041, China
Hao Cheng: Center for Fusion Science, Southwestern Institute of Physics, P.O. Box 432, Chengdu 610041, China
Yongjin Feng: Center for Fusion Science, Southwestern Institute of Physics, P.O. Box 432, Chengdu 610041, China
Xiaofang Luo: Center for Fusion Science, Southwestern Institute of Physics, P.O. Box 432, Chengdu 610041, China
Long Wang: Center for Fusion Science, Southwestern Institute of Physics, P.O. Box 432, Chengdu 610041, China
Xiaoyu Wang: Center for Fusion Science, Southwestern Institute of Physics, P.O. Box 432, Chengdu 610041, China

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 2, 1-22

Abstract: In the tritium breeding blanket of nuclear fusion reactors, the heat transfer behavior and thermal-mechanical response of the tritium breeder pebble bed are affected by the inner packing structure, which is crucial for the design and optimization of a reliable pebble bed in tritium breeding blanket. Thus, the effect of pebble size distribution and fixed wall effect on packing structure and contact force in the poly-disperse pebble bed were investigated by numerical simulation. The results show that pebble size distribution has a significant influence on the inner packing structure of pebble bed. With the increase of the dispersion of pebble size, the average porosity and the average coordination number of the poly-disperse pebble bed gradually decrease. Due to the influence of the fixed wall, the porosity distribution of the pebble bed shows an obvious wall effect. For poly-disperse pebble bed, the influenced region of the wall effect gradually decreases with the increase of the dispersion of pebble size. In addition, the gravity effect and the pebble size distribution have an obvious influence on the contact force distribution inside the poly-disperse pebble bed. The majority of the contact force are weak contact force that is less than the average contact force. Only a few of pebbles have strong contact force that is greater than average contact force. This investigation can help in analyzing the pebble crushing characteristics and the thermal hydraulic analysis in the poly-disperse tritium breeder pebble bed.

Keywords: packing structure; contact force; porosity distribution; tritium breeder pebble bed; breeding blanket; discrete element method (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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