Analysis of the Thermo-Mechanical Behaviour of the EU DEMO Water-Cooled Lithium Lead Central Outboard Blanket Segment under an Optimized Thermal Field

Within the framework of EUROfusion research activities on DEMO Water-Cooled Lithium Lead (WCLL) Breeding Blanket (BB) design, a study was performed to preliminarily optimize, from thermal point view, WCLL Central Outboard (COB) segment in order investigate its structural behaviour under realistic field. In particular, analyses optimize Double Walled Tubes and Segment Box cooling channels’ geometric configurations along poloidal extension COB segment, obtain spatial temperature distribution fulfilling design requirement. Then, thermo-mechanical analysis Normal Operation (NO, representing nominal conditions), Upper Vertical Displacements Event (UVDE, plasma disruption event) Over-Pressurization (OP, an in-box loss coolant accident) scenarios were carried out, assuming previously obtained field, realistically predict displacement stress fields. Finally, linearization procedure allowed comparing values some critical regions structure with criteria prescribed by reference standard RCC-MRx. A theoretical–numerical approach based Finite Element Method (FEM) followed using commercial code Abaqus v. 6.14.