Search results for "HCPB"

Experimental tests and thermo-mechanical analyses on the HEXCALIBER mock-up

2008

Abstract Within the framework of the R&D activities promoted by European Fusion Development Agreement on the helium-cooled pebble bed test blanket module to be irradiated in ITER, ENEA Brasimone and the Department of Nuclear Engineering of the University of Palermo performed intense research activities on the modelling of the thermo-mechanical behaviour of both beryllium and lithiated ceramics pebble beds, which are envisaged to be used, respectively, as neutron multiplier and tritium breeder. In particular, at the DIN a thermo mechanical constitutive model was developed for both lithiated ceramics and beryllium pebble beds and it was successfully implemented on a commercial finite element …

Preliminary design of EU DEMO helium-cooled breeding blanket primary heat transfer system

2018

Abstract The European DEMO conceptual design foresees four Breeding Blanket (BB) concepts that rely on different cooling and breeding technologies. As DEMO has been conceived to deliver net electricity to the grid, the choice of the blanket coolant plays a pivotal role in the reactor design having a strong influence on plant operation, safety and maintenance. Moreover, the machine pulsed operation makes the BB Primary Heat Transfer System (PHTS) the main hub of the DEMO Balance of Plant (BoP). Within this framework, a study has been carried out to design the Ex-Vessel PHTS of the Helium-Cooled Pebble Bed (HCPB) BB concept. The paper describes criteria and rationale followed with the aim to …

A constitutive model for the thermo-mechanical behaviour of fusion-relevant pebble beds and its application to the simulation of HELICA mock-up exper…

2007

Abstract Within the framework of the R&D activities promoted by EFDA on the Helium-Cooled Pebble Bed Test Blanket Module to be irradiated in ITER, attention has been focused on the modelling of the thermo-mechanical behaviour of both beryllium and lithiated ceramic pebble beds that are envisaged to be used respectively as neutron multiplier and tritium breeder. This behaviour depends, mainly, on the reactor-relevant conditions, the pebble sizes and the breeder cell geometries and a general constitutive model has not yet been validated, especially for fusion-relevant applications. ENEA-Brasimone and the Department of Nuclear Engineering (DIN) of the University of Palermo have performed inten…

Thermal tests of ceramic breeder pebble beds for the Helium Cooled (HCPB) DEMO blanket

2002

Automated parametric neutronics analysis of the Helium Cooled Pebble Bed breeder blanket with Be 12 Ti

2017

The Helium Cooled Pebble Bed (HCPB) breeder blanket is being developed as part of the European Fusion Programme. Part of the programme is to investigate blanket designs relevant for future demonstration fusion power plants. This paper presents neutronics analyses of the HCPB with an alternative neutron multiplier, Be12Ti which is incorporated into the design, replacing the current Be multiplier. A parameter study was performed for a range of geometries to identify the optimal heights of the lithium ceramic and neutron multiplier pebble beds. Automated creation of CAD models followed by conversion to constructive solid geometry (CSG) and unstructured mesh (UM) geometry allows the models to b…

On the theoretical–numerical study of the HEXCALIBER mock-up thermo-mechanical behaviour

2010

Abstract Within the framework of the R&D activities promoted by European Fusion Development Agreement on the Helium-Cooled Pebble Bed Test Blanket Module to be irradiated in ITER, ENEA Brasimone and the Department of Nuclear Engineering of the University of Palermo (DIN) performed intense research activities on the modelling of the thermo-mechanical behaviour of both beryllium and lithiated ceramics pebble beds, that are envisaged to be used, respectively, as neutron multiplier and tritium breeder. In particular, the DIN developed a thermo-mechanical constitutive model for these pebble beds to be validated against the HEXCALIBER mock-up test campaign, carried out at the ENEA HE-FUS3 facilit…

Overview of the HCPB Research Activities in EUROfusion

2018

In the framework of the EUROfusion’s Power Plant Physics and Technology, the working package breeding blanket (BB) aims at investigating four different BB concepts for an EU demonstration fusion reactor (DEMO). One of these concepts is the helium-cooled pebble bed (HCPB) BB, which is based on the use of pebble beds of lithiated ternary compounds and Be or beryllides as tritium breeder and multiplier materials, respectively, EUROFER97 as structural steel and He as coolant. This paper aims at giving an overview of the EU HCPB BB Research and Development (R&D) being developed at KIT, in collaboration with Wigner-RCP, BUTE-INT, and CIEMAT. The paper gives an outline of the HCPB BB design evolut…

Maturation of critical technologies for the DEMO balance of plant systems

2022

The Pre-Concept Design (PCD) of the Balance of Plant (BoP) systems of the EU-DEMO power plant is described in this paper for both breeding blanket (BB) concepts under assessment, namely the Water Cooled Lithium Lead (WCLL) BB and the Helium Cooled Pebble Bed (HCPB) BB. Moreover, the results of a preliminary evaluation of a number of BoP variants are discussed. This paper outlines the steps of the BoP design development, highlighting the project objectives and the strategy for their achievement under the very challenging requirements which include, among others, the intermittent nature of the DEMO plasma heat source. The main achievements during the PCD Phase will be reported together with t…

An enhanced, near-term HCPB design as driver blanket for the EU DEMO

2019

The Helium Cooled Pebble Bed (HCPB) breeding blanket is a candidate as driver blanket for the EU DEMO. The reference design of the HCPB is based on a cooling plate “sandwich” arrangement built in Multi-Module Segments. This architecture significantly improved the tritium breeding performance (TBR = 1.15) and the plant circulating power (≈130 MW) compared to the former ITER-like “beer-box”-like design (TBR<1.10, plant circulating power>200 MW). However, several issues remain with this design, in which (1) the still large power required per He circulator (beyond the state-of-the-art for these components) and (2) the large tritium inventory foreseen in Be have been identified as the most…

Pre-conceptual design of EU DEMO balance of plant systems: Objectives and challenges

2021

Abstract The European Research Roadmap to the Realisation of Fusion Energy foresees that the DEMO reactor is going to succeed ITER in the pathway towards the exploitation of nuclear fusion, achieving long plasma operation time, demonstrating tritium self-sufficiency and producing net electric output on an industrial scale. Therefore, its design must be more oriented towards the Balance of Plant (BoP) than it is in ITER. Since the early pre-conceptual phase of the DEMO project, emphasis has been laid on identifying the main requirements affecting the overall architecture of the BoP. For instance, specific efforts and proper solutions have been envisaged to cope with the pulsed nature of the …