TOWARD MODELING OF FUSION FLUID BLANKET FLOWS USING THE SPECTRAL ELEMENT METHOD

Accurate modeling of flow and heat transfer is essential for the development of fission reactors and fusion blankets. This study focuses on modeling of flows relevant to fusion blankets with a focus on validating experimental data from a differentially heated cavity using NekRS, a high-fidelity spectral element fluid dynamics code. The experimental setup, designed to replicate buoyancy-driven flows in fusion reactors, consists of a fluid volume enclosed between two vertical walls: one heated with a constant thermal flux and the other passively cooled. Temperature measurements were obtained using thermocouples on the walls. This work employs NekRS to be validated against experimental results, modeling natural convection in a differentially heated cavity with conjugate heat transfer. In addition to the cavity results, this work presents Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) results for the CHIMERA facility, a state-of-the-art experimental setup for studying fusion breeding blankets. Including CHIMERA results highlights the capability of NekRS to provide high-fidelity simulations for complex fusion reactor systems.