Estudi paramètric de la transferència de triti en canals de metall líquid sota camps magnètics per reactors de fusió nuclear.

Abstract

In the frame of nuclear fusion as a carbon-free source of energy, the project DEMO studies -among others- the feasibility of the Dual Coolant Lithium Lead (DCLL) breeding blanket. As one of the key features of the breeding blanket involves tritium breeding and carrying, the main objective of this master’s thesis is to study the influence of certain relevant MHD parameters on this transport of tritium. Four different cases will be presented, each for every parameter under study: conductivity of the walls, Hartmann number, Reynolds number and temperature deposition, and an analysis on how variations on these parameters affect the transference of tritium will follow. These cases will be simulated and the simulations will be carried out using the software OpenFOAM, specialized in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). The correlations between the selected parameters and the transference of tritium is established by means of relevant parameters of tritium behaviour such us the Tritium Permeation Ratio (TPR), the inventory of tritium or the comparison between different permeation fluxes. The research, conceptualization and design -both scientifically and technologically- for nuclear fusion reactor is still ongoing and different approaches still need to be studied. The conclusions of this master thesis aim to add backup data and knowledge to the main research, in order to help find the best way towards nuclear fusion as a new source of clean energy.