Investigation of free-surface fluctuations of liquid lithium flow for IFMIF lithium target by using an electro-contact probe

Kanemura, Takuji*; Kondo, Hiroo*; Yamaoka, Nobuo*; Miyamoto, Seiji*; Ida, Mizuho; Nakamura, Hiroo; Matsushita, Izuru*; Muroga, Takeo*; Horiike, Hiroshi*

For a study on characteristics of lithium target flow of International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility (IFMIF), experiments were carried out by using a lithium loop at Osaka University. In the experiment, fluctuations of a free surface of the horizontal flow were directly measured by using an electro-contact probe acquiring condition of contact/non-contact of the probe with the flow surface as voltage data. Vertical location of the probe tip was set by 0.1 mm step. Horizontal location of the probe was 175 mm downstream from the nozzle exit, corresponding to the footprint of deuteron beam in the IFMIF case. It was found that the maximum amplitude of the surface wave, including rarely arising ones, was 2.2 mm at the center of the flow channel with width of 70 mm at the maximum flow velocity of 15 m/s. The average thickness of the flow was found to be 10.13 mm.