Numerical study of the flow conditioner for the IFMIF liquid lithium target

IFMIF (International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility) is an accelerator-based deuteron lithium (D-Li) neutron source to simulate the neutron irradiation field in a fusion reactor. The target assembly of the IFMIF consists of the flow conditioners and the nozzle, which has to form a stable lithium jet. This work focuses on a numerical study of the flow conditioner efficiency, in which two different types of flow conditioners are compared by means of a detailed numerical analysis with respect to specific hydraulic effects in the pipe elbow and the inflow conditioners. The adequateness of three different turbulence models to simulate a flow through a 90 bend of circular cross section has been examined. The calculations show that a honeycomb-screen combination is not capable to suppress effectively large scale swirl motions emerging from the bend. An increasing number of screens improves the flow uniformity downstream, but increases the pressure drop. In order to detect any transient effects in the separation area a flow straightener configuration consisting of a honeycomb with a subsequent screen has been analyzed by means of a detached eddy simulation (DES). A frequency analysis of the normalized static pressure amplitude conducted by means of a detached eddy simulation (DES) reveals instabilities in the shear layer between the separation zone and the accelerated outer region, which additionally increase the inhomogeneity of the axial velocity distribution. A set of six circumferentially equidistant from the centre to the wall pitched guide vanes upstream the elbow reduces most effectively a generation of backflow areas downstream. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.