Study on surface wave characteristics of free surface flow of liquid metal lithium for IFMIF

Hoashi, Eiji*; Sugiura, Hirokazu*; Suzuki, Sachiko*; Kanemura, Takuji; Kondo, Hiroo; Yamaoka, Nobuo*; Horiike, Hiroshi*

Free surface flow of a liquid metal Lithium (Li) is planned as a target irradiated by two deuteron beams to generate intense neutrons and it is thus important to obtain knowledge of the surface wave characteristic for the safety and the efficiency of system in the IFMIF. This paper reports the results of the wave height and the surface velocity examined experimentally using a Li loop at Osaka University and numerically using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code, FLUENT. In the experiment, an electro-contact probe apparatus was used to obtain the wave height, and a high speed video was used to measure the surface velocity. A CFD simulation was also conducted to obtain information on the relation of the free surface with the inner flow. In the simulation, the model included from a two-staged contraction nozzle to a flow channel with a free surface flow region and simulation results were compared with the experimental data. We resulted in knowledge of the surface wave growth mechanism.