Numerical simulation of heat transfer improvement in the divertor of fusion reactors by using Al2O3 nanofluid

The objective of this work is to study the effect of using nanofluids as coolant on divertor system of fusion reactors which is known to be subjected to high heat loads coming from the plasma. Turbulent force convective heat transfer of water-based Al2O3 nanofluid flowing through the CuCrZr cooling tube of a small scale of mock up made of five tungsten monoblocks has been numerically investigated using single phase model. Computational fluid dynamic approach has been applied by using CFD software FLUENT 6.3.26. The computed results have been validated by traditional corrections expression reported by previous works. The dependence of temperature contours and profiles on volume fraction of nanofluids for different walls of this monoblock has been studied and compared with pure water. The maximum allowed temperature of the candidate material under unusual situation of a fusion reactor has been considered and compared with the maximum temperatures resulted from the CFD results. The effects of various nanofluid concentrations and Reynolds numbers on average Nusselt number have been also investigated. The results show a significant improvement in heat removal from the divertor under the cooling of alumina/water nanofluid with respect to pure water.

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