Experimental Investigation on Pressure Drops of Purge Gas Helium in Packed Pebble Beds for Nuclear Fusion Blanket

Hao Cheng (), Baoping Gong (), Bing Zhou, Juemin Yan, Long Wang, Long Zhang, Yongjin Feng and Xiaoyu Wang
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Hao Cheng: Southwestern Institute of Physics, Chengdu 610041, China
Baoping Gong: Southwestern Institute of Physics, Chengdu 610041, China
Bing Zhou: Southwestern Institute of Physics, Chengdu 610041, China
Juemin Yan: Southwestern Institute of Physics, Chengdu 610041, China
Long Wang: Southwestern Institute of Physics, Chengdu 610041, China
Long Zhang: Southwestern Institute of Physics, Chengdu 610041, China
Yongjin Feng: Nuclear Power Institute of China, Chengdu 610041, China
Xiaoyu Wang: Southwestern Institute of Physics, Chengdu 610041, China

Energies, 2024, vol. 17, issue 6, 1-13

Abstract: The flow characteristics of purge gas helium in the pebble bed of the tritium breeding blanket are important in analyzing the tritium purging process and optimizing the design of the solid breeder blanket. Therefore, the flow characteristics of helium gas in randomly packed pebble beds are investigated experimentally with a focus on the analysis of the pressure loss distribution. The results show that gas velocity, bed dimension, and pebble diameters have an obvious influence on the helium flow characteristics in pebble beds. With the increase in the inlet helium gas velocity, the pressure drop gradient of helium in the pebble bed gradually increased. With increases in the pebble bed dimension, the pressure drop gradient of helium in the pebble bed gradually increased. With the increase in the pebble diameter, the pressure drop gradient gradually decreased. In addition, the effect of temperature on the pressure drop of helium in the pebble bed was also preliminarily investigated. The pressure drop gradient of the helium through the pebble bed obviously increased with the increase in the helium and the bed temperature. The experimentally obtained pressure loss characteristics can be used for the validation of the simulation of a blanket pebble bed and as input parameters in the thermo-hydraulic analysis of solid-tritium breeder blankets.

Keywords: pressure drops; flow resistance; helium; pebble bed; packing factor (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: 2024
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