Fusion Engineering and Design 83 (2008) 15241528

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Fusion Engineering and Design

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/fusengdes

Numerical analysis of free surface instabilities in the IFMIF lithium target

S. Gordeev a, , V. Heinzel a , D. Leichtle a , A. Moeslang b
a
Institute for Reactor Safety, Research Centre of Karlsruhe, Hermann-von-Helmholtz-Platz 1, 76344 Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany
b
Institute for Material Research I, Research Centre of Karlsruhe, Hermann-von-Helmholtz-Platz 1, 76344 Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility (IFMIF) uses a high speed (1020 m/s) lithium (Li)-jet
Received 3 August 2007 ow as a target for two 40 MeV/125 mA deuteron beams. The major function of the Li target is to provide a
Received in revised form 9 May 2008 stable Li jet for the production of an intense neutron ux. Different hydrodynamic instability mechanisms
Accepted 27 May 2008
are possible in the Li-jet ow. The main objective of this study is to provide a detailed numerical analysis
Available online 7 July 2008
of instabilities in the Li-jet ow caused by separation of the ow near the nozzle outlet. Experimental
observations have shown that the change of the nozzle geometry at the outlet or nozzle edge defects causes
Keywords:
the ow separation and occurrence of longitudinal periodic structures on the free surface. Target surface
IFMIF
Target
uctuations of large magnitude can lead to the penetration of the deuteron beam in the target structure
Liquid metal and cause the local overheating of the back plate. This work is focused on the validation the CFD code
Free surface Star-CD and choice of the suitable simulation technique for further calculations of lithium target ow. Two
Instabilities simulation methods, Large Eddy Simulation (LES) and Reynolds Averaged NavierStokes method using the
CFD Shear Stress Transport (SST) turbulence model have been validated against the experimental data. Two
Hydraulic experimental cases with two different kinds of instability sources were used to test the suitability of
turbulence models to predict waves generated near the nozzle edge. While in the rst case the instability
source is a stationary located obstacle at the nozzle edge, in the second one the position of the instability
sources is inuenced from turbulent uctuations in the boundary layer near the nozzle edge.
LES has a reasonable agreement with experimental data. SST turbulence model is not able to predict the
local ow separations at the nozzle edge caused by turbulence uctuations and to reproduce instabilities
of small magnitudes.
2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Following hydrodynamic instability mechanisms are possible in

The International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility (IFMIF) [1]
is an accelerator based deuteronlithium (DLi) neutron source to
simulate the neutron irradiation eld in a fusion reactor. Neutrons
up to 55 MeV are produced in the interaction of two 40 MeV/125 mA
deuteron beams with the lithium target. The lithium jet has a free
surface in direction of the beam and follows a concave curved back-
wall. The target jet ow has a high velocity of up to 20 m/s to remove
the deposited beam energy. The centrifugal force increases the boil-
ing point of the liquid Li. The uctuation of the target free surface
should be small enough (1 mm) to avoid signicant heating of the
back-wall by over-penetration of D beams, and to keep the spatial
distribution of the neutron ux with maximal irradiation damage.
Thus, it is necessary to investigate uid dynamic characteristics
of the target ow including generation and growth of waves, to
understand if these requirements can be satised.
the jet ow:
- Boundary layer relaxation at the nozzle exit. Waves may be
formed on the jet surface due to the relaxation of the boundary
layer leaving the nozzle from no-slip boundary condition to shear
free condition.
- Inuence of turbulent uctuations on the free surface (burst-
interface interaction). Bursting structures near the wall are
periodically lifted up, oscillated, and broken down away from the
wall. The ejected vortices interact with free surface and return
into the main ow.
- Jet geometry (centrifugal forces on the curved surface). Centrifu-
gal forces cause the deceleration of the ow near the curved wall
and increasing of the jet thickness. At the same time different kind
of secondary motions due to Ekman and Taylor-Goertler vortices
can inuence the stability of the jet free surface.
- Flow separation at the nozzle outlet.

Corresponding author. Tel.: +49 7247 82 2325; fax: +49 7247 82 3718. This report is focused on the investigation of the surface insta-
E-mail address: gordeev@irs.fzk.de (S. Gordeev). bility caused by ow separation at the nozzle outlet. A number of

0920-3796/$ see front matter 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.fusengdes.2008.05.021
 S. Gordeev et al. / Fusion Engineering and Design 83 (2008) 15241528
experiments with water and lithium [3,4] show that even slight
changes of the nozzle edge geometry lead to the generation of lon-
gitudinal disturbances on the jet free surface with amplitude up
to 5 mm. Defects of the IFMIF nozzle edge occurring by erosion,
corrosion or deposited solid particles could lead to the surface
uctuations of this kind causing the penetration of the deuteron
beam in the target structure and the local overheating of the back
plate. For the investigation of large free-surface ow instabilities
a detailed numerical analysis of the Li-jet ow under real IFMIF
operating conditions is necessary. The main objective of this study
is the validation the CFD code Star-CD [2] and choice of the suit-
able turbulence model for further simulations of lithium target
ow.
Two experimental cases with lithium and water jet ow have
been used for the validation. The calculations reported here were
performed with the CFD code Star-CD. A Volume of Fluid (VOF)
method and a SIMPLE-transient analysis option are used for com-
puting of free-surface ow. To maintain the interface sharpness
of free-surface ow, for the solution of the VOF transport equa-
tion a special High-Resolution Interface Capturing (HRIC) scheme
is employed.
Two simulation techniques, Large Eddy Simulation (LES) using
the Smagorinski Subgrid (SSG) Scale [2] model and Reynolds
Averaged NavierStokes (RANS) method using the Shear Stress
Transport (SST) turbulence model [2] have been applied.
2. Simulation of the lithium surface ow with obstacle
near the nozzle edge
First case is an experimental study of the lithium free-surface
ow using the lithium loop facility at Osaka University [3]. The free
surface test section is shown in Fig. 1. This includes the two-stage
contraction nozzle with 70 mm 10 mm cross section and a ow
channel. Flow tests were performed for velocities up to 13.8 m/s at
Fig. 1. Lithium free surface test section [3].
1525
Fig. 2. Computational domain for the lithium free surface simulations.
the pressure of 0.15 MPa in argon. During the experiments, waves
on the surface at a slight angle to the ow direction were observed.
The sources of the wakes were the ow separation due to chemical
compounds of lithium deposited at the nozzle exit. In the report,
surface wakes generated from the nozzle and experimental results
of surface wake shapes are described and compared with theory.
Two cases with free-surface ow at velocities 5 and 10 m/s have
been selected for the simulations.
Constant properties for argon and lithium corresponding to the
temperature 250 C were used. For the model a structured grid
consisting of 1.9 106 elements was used (see Fig. 2). The grid den-
sity of the investigated free surface area 50 mm 4 mm 35 mm
in X (downstream), Y (vertical) and Z (transverse) directions is
200 50 150 elements. Thus, the wave lengths down to 1 mm can
be resolved. Close to the nozzle edge 17.5 mm from the side wall an
obstacle with dimensions of 0.5 mm 0.5 mm 0.5 mm simulates
the instability source. A half of the test section with symmetri-
cal conditions has been modelled. This means that normal to the
symmetry plane velocity component is put on zero. If for RANS tur-
bulence models, this boundary condition is usual, for LES it has no
physical meaning and can lead to the damping of the turbulence
near the symmetry plane. However, in our case the inuence area
of the symmetrical boundary is very small. The mainstream veloc-
ity near the symmetry plane of the test section is around one or
even two order higher than transverse velocity components. This
limits the effect of the symmetrical boundary conditions in the
transverse direction. Additionally, the modelled instability source
is removed from the symmetry plane. The second part of the noz-
zle was included in the computational domain. The nozzle ow was
simulated separately by means of the V2F turbulence model. The
velocity distribution and turbulent characteristics at the end of the
rst contraction part of the nozzle were used for inlet conditions in
the present model. Experimental data [5] and our calculations have
shown the laminarization of the boundary layer in the nozzle ow
for velocities up to 10 m/s. Just after the rst nozzle contraction the
ow is fully laminarized. As result the velocity uctuations, espe-
cially in the streamwise direction, are suppressed. Hence the inow
conditions for LES were applied without any extra methods for the
generation of velocity uctuations. In the core of the ow the tur-
bulence intensity of 5% obtained from nozzle ow calculations was
prescribed. The wall curvature of the nozzle and transition from
the contraction part to the straight part leads to the autonomous
development of turbulent ow. The non-dimensional normal to the
wall distance Y+ = yu / in cells on the wall does not exceed 5. Here
y is a normal to the wall distance, u is a friction velocity and  is a
kinematic viscosity.
1526 S. Gordeev et al. / Fusion Engineering and Design 83 (2008) 15241528

Fig. 3. Calculated surface wake compared with experimental observations (a) experiment, U = 5 m/s; (b) LES, U = 5 m/s; (c) LES, U = 5 m/s; (d) experiment, U = 10 m/s; (e) SST,
U = 10 m/s; (f) SST, U = 10 m/s.

Fig. 3 shows the simulated free surface of the lithium ow nozzle edge in the form of the ow separation from the nozzle sur-
compared with experimental observations (see Fig. 3a and d) face. If the nozzle divergence exceeds the value 0.5 waves arise
and analytical correlations presented in [3]. Here n is an integer and increase the amplitude with increasing of the nozzle diver-
denotes the phase of the wake. Solid lines correspond to the crests gence.
(n = 0.5 and 1.5), dashed line shows the trough (n = 1). Both LES- The case with the jet velocity of 10 m/s and with slope angle of
SSG and RANS-SST models predict very well the development of the nozzle wall at the outlet of 2 was used for the validation. A half
the rst crest of surface wake (n = 0.5). Black solid lines show cal-
culated proles of the free surface in three positions X = 15, 30
and 45 mm scaled by factor 5. Due to resolving of small eddies
near the surface the LES (Fig. 3b and e) can reproduce wave-
ridge structure of the free surface. The position of the second
crest (n = 1.5) of the wake in the simulation is slightly shifted to
the outside. The SST model (Fig. 3c and f) with eddy viscosity
assumption cannot predict small vortical motions and smoothes
the free surface. The second crest of the wake is hardly to be seen.
Although the experimental data cannot give the clear picture of
the wave development for velocity of 10 m/s (Fig. 3d), the same
trend is to see in experiments and calculations: with an increase of
velocity, the angle between the wave-ridge and the ow direction
decreases.

3. Simulation of the water free-surface ow with slight

nozzle divergence at the outlet

The second validation case is the experimental investigation on

hydrodynamic instabilities of the water free-surface ow at the
Institute for Physics and Power Engineering (IPPE) [4]. The test sec-
tion is shown in Fig. 4. Water ows through the two-step Shima
nozzle with contraction ratio 10 and the cross section at the outlet
76 mm 10 mm into the open channel with rectilinear and curvi-
linear parts. The ow velocity varies from 10 up to 20 m/s under air
atmospheric pressure.
In the experiments longitudinal crest-shaped structures on the
water surface were observed. This kind of instabilities occurred
when the nozzle edge had a curvature radius or when the nozzle
walls near the edge were divergent. The number of crests var-
ied from three to ve with amplitude of about 5 mm and up to
twenty and more with lower amplitude. Further investigations
showed that crest-shaped structures arise downstream close to the Fig. 4. Water target experimental facility [4].
 S. Gordeev et al. / Fusion Engineering and Design 83 (2008) 15241528
Fig. 5. Computational domain for the water free surface simulations.
of the test section with symmetrical conditions has been modelled.
The model grid (Fig. 5) consists of 2.3 106 elements. The mean
element size in the free surface area is 0.5 mm 0.1 mm 0.5 mm
in X (downstream), Y (normal to the back-wall) and Z (transverse)
direction respectively. The Y+ on the wall does not exceed the value
5.
Constant properties for air and water corresponding to the tem-
perature 20 C were used. In contrast to the rst validation case with
a xed position of ow separation, in the second case the positions
Fig. 6. Simulated water free-surface ow compared with experimental observations (divergence angle 2 , contact angle 70 ). (a) Experiment; (b) LES; (c) SST.
1527
Fig. 7. Free surface shape (LES, contact angle 70 ).
and dimensions of the ow separation areas can be inuenced by
the wettability of the surface. The wetting of the surface (contact
angle) depends on several factors such as contact duration, tem-
perature, surface quality, etc. and can vary from case to case. To
test the inuence of the surface wettability, calculations were per-
formed with two different values of contact angle, 70 (moderate
wetting) and 7 (good wetting). Fig. 6 shows free surfaces of the
water jet calculated with contact angle 70 (time step 0.1 s) and
compared with experimental observation (Fig. 6a). Although the
number of points with ow separation calculated with LES (10)
exceeds the number of separations (6) presented in Fig. 6a, accord-
ing to the experimental study the number of waves is unstable
and can vary in the time. During the calculation time (t = 0.15 s)
the waves drifted in the transverse direction but the number of
waves remained constant. Merging of small waves in the linear part
reduces the number of crests downstream. Just as in experiments,
in the curvilinear part the crests turn into troughs, and the troughs
turn into crests. As shown in Fig. 7 the wave amplitude remains
constant along the channel. Contrary to the Large Eddy Simulation,
the SST turbulence model cannot reproduce velocity uctuations,
which induce an irregular ow separation from the wall near the
nozzle edge (Fig. 6c).
Additionally, the inuence of the contact angle on the ow sep-
aration was analysed. In Figs. 8 and 9 calculation results carried
out with LES for different contact angle values are presented. Fig. 8
shows the position and dimension of the ow separation areas near
the nozzle edge. When the contact angle is high (Fig. 8a), the ow
separation within the divergent nozzle stage occurs far from the
1528 S. Gordeev et al. / Fusion Engineering and Design 83 (2008) 15241528
Fig. 8. Flow separation at the nozzle edge. (a) LES, contact angle 70 ; (b) LES, contact angle 7 .
Fig. 9. Free surface shape (LES, contact angle 7 and 70 ). (a) X = 10 mm from outlet; (b) middle of the curved channel.
sharp edge. The width of the ow separation zone is larger than
the soliduid contact area. As result the waves with relatively
small amplitude are generated. With increasing of the surface wet-
ting degree (Fig. 8b) the soliduid contact areas become wide and
expand up to the sharp edge of the nozzle causing the generation
of waves with high amplitude (Fig. 9a). Downstream the effect of
the surface wetting is reduced due to surface tension, and uctu-
ations of the jet thickness near the central part in both cases have
the same magnitude (Fig. 9b). Taking into account the large surface
tension of lithium one can assume that the wave amplitude in the
lithium jet ow under the same conditions will be further reduced.
4. Conclusions and outlook
Numerical analysis of instabilities in the Li-jet ow caused by
separation of the ow near the nozzle outlet was performed. Two
calculation methods, Large Eddy Simulation with the Smagorinsky
sub-grid model and Shear Stress Transport turbulence model based
on NavierStokes approach have been tested on experimental data
and compared with analytical correlations.
LES shows good agreement with experimental data but on the
expense of very high computational costs, especially for cases with
turbulent boundary layer with very ne meshes and very small
time steps. SST turbulence model can be only used for simulations
of ow surface instabilities caused by obstacles or nozzle corners.
It is not able to predict the local ow separations at the nozzle edge
caused by turbulence uctuations and to reproduce instabilities of
small magnitudes.
Parallel to this work the jet ow instability due to secondary
motions caused by centrifugal forces is investigated. The next step
is the thermalhydraulic analysis of the IFMIF jet ow with the heat
distribution combined with instabilities such as ow separation
and secondary motions.
References
[1] IFMIF Comprehensive design report. IFMIF International Team. European Union,
2004.
[2] Methodology, Star-CD Version 4.00, CD adapco, 2006.
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I. Matushita, M. Ida, H. Nakamura, T. Muroga, High speed lithium ow experi-
ments for IFMIF target, Journal of Nuclear Materials 329333 (2004) 208212.
[4] N.I. Loginov, A.P. Sorokin, A.D. Efanof, The thermalhydraulic and technological
investigations for validation of project of lithium circulation loop and neutron
lithium target of IFMIF, Final Report, Institute for Physics and Power Engineering,
Obninsk, 2006.
[5] K. Itoh, Y. Tsuji, H. Nakamura, Y. Kukita, Initial free surface instabilities on a high-
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