ASTEC Simulation of Dust Resuspension Behavior Induced by LOCA in Fusion Reactors

• Published in: Journal of fusion energy 2023-12, Vol.42 (2), p.29, Article 29
• Main Authors: Liang, Kaiqi, Chen, Zhibin, Qin, Zhijie, Zhang, Shichao
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Accountants; Aerosols; Analysis; Carrier gases; Design; Dust; Energy Systems; Experiments; Fluid flow; Fusion reactors; Gas flow; Helium; Hydraulics; Loss of coolant accidents; Marine accidents; Modules; Nuclear Energy; Nuclear Fusion; Particle size; Physical properties; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Plasma Physics; Radioactive fallout; Radioactive materials; Radioactive substances; Reactors; Reynolds number; Simulation; Simulation methods; Sustainable Development; Vessels
• ISSN: 1572-9591; 0164-0313; 1572-9591
• DOI: 10.1007/s10894-023-00368-6

Dust resuspension behavior is critical to fusion reactors during an in-vessel loss of coolant accident (LOCA), since it may threaten the integrity of vacuum vessel (VV) and then possibly release the radioactive materials such as tritiated dusts to the environment. To characterize the dust resuspension process induced by 8 MPa helium ingress into VV, simulations of dust resuspension were performed by ASTEC V2.2 in comparison with experimental data obtained from the scaled experimental facility (DustSAFER). CPA module of ASTEC was activated to describe the thermal–hydraulic characteristics of in-vessel LOCA, such as pressurization behaviors and carrier gas flow peculiarities. The thermal-hydraulics calculation results of CPA were supplied as inputs to the SOPHAEROS module of ASTEC to determine the dust resuspension behaviors. The results show that the default resuspension models of ASTEC are not applicable to the dust resuspension due to the in-vessel LOCA, and the improved Force-balance model (FB model) is modified to implement in ASTEC. The default Reynolds number and the FB model constants A b , B b of burst force in ASTEC can significantly influence the evaluation of dust resuspension. The empirical coefficients of FB model are modified accordingly to predict the dust resuspension characteristics while the tuned value of A b and B b is 1589.85 and 1.22. The observations can contribute to the improvement of dust resuspension model and the understanding of thermal-hydraulics and migration behaviors of radioactive dust to the environment in case of design basis accidents (DBAs).