Power handling of liquid metal infused trenches in the EAST Tokamak
type: CreativeWork
description: Flowing liquid metal PFCs offer an attractive solution to the problems currently facing conventional solid high-Z PFCs such as: the sputtering of high-Z impurities into the core, fuzz formation from helium implantation and thermal damage (melting, blistering and cracking.) By presenting a constantly refreshing surface to the plasma liquid metal PFCs protect against damage by removing heat via convection from the system and by acting as a particle sink thereby preventing sputtering of high-Z atoms. Lithium is the popular choice for liquid metal PFCs as it is a low-Z element and is a strong chemical getter so can remove impurities from the plasma greatly enhancing confinement time within the plasma. Lithium also reduces the recycling of hydrogenic species at the plasma edge decreasing the collisional cooling in these regions consequently keeping the edge of the plasma hot. Maintaining a hot plasma edge flattens the temperature gradient across the plasma which in turn suppresses the anomalous turbulent transport, stabilising the plasma against ELMs and greatly increasing confinement time. In order to develop lithium PFC technology: three generations of a FLiLi type limiter have been tested in EAST. The tests in EAST have shown the inclusion of FLiLi to increase the confinement time within the tokomak, reduce large scale ELM and produce ELM free periods as well as reducing the recycling within the plasma increasing stored plasma energy. In continuation of this work a LiMIT type limiter was exposed to the EAST plasma and this experimental campaign will form the basis of this work. The LiMIT design consisted of a trenched front face with 2mm wide 1mm trenches, these trenches allow for lithium flow to be driven by TEMHD via the Seebeck effect. Previous work at UIUC has shown the ability for a LiMIT design to produce velocities of ∼ 60cms−1 and withstand heat fluxes of 10MWm−2 under electron beam exposure. Complementary to the experimental data a COMSOL model has been devel…
abstract: Flowing liquid metal PFCs offer an attractive solution to the problems currently facing conventional solid high-Z PFCs such as: the sputtering of high-Z impurities into the core, fuzz formation from helium implantation and thermal damage (melting, blistering and cracking.) By presenting a constantly refreshing surface to the plasma liquid metal PFCs protect against damage by removing heat via convection from the system and by acting as a particle sink thereby preventing sputtering of high-Z atoms. Lithium is the popular choice for liquid metal PFCs as it is a low-Z element and is a strong chemical getter so can remove impurities from the plasma greatly enhancing confinement time within the plasma. Lithium also reduces the recycling of hydrogenic species at the plasma edge decreasing the collisional cooling in these regions consequently keeping the edge of the plasma hot. Maintaining a hot plasma edge flattens the temperature gradient across the plasma which in turn suppresses the anomalous turbulent transport, stabilising the plasma against ELMs and greatly increasing confinement time. In order to develop lithium PFC technology: three generations of a FLiLi type limiter have been tested in EAST. The tests in EAST have shown the inclusion of FLiLi to increase the confinement time within the tokomak, reduce large scale ELM and produce ELM free periods as well as reducing the recycling within the plasma increasing stored plasma energy. In continuation of this work a LiMIT type limiter was exposed to the EAST plasma and this experimental campaign will form the basis of this work. The LiMIT design consisted of a trenched front face with 2mm wide 1mm trenches, these trenches allow for lithium flow to be driven by TEMHD via the Seebeck effect. Previous work at UIUC has shown the ability for a LiMIT design to produce velocities of ∼ 60cms−1 and withstand heat fluxes of 10MWm−2 under electron beam exposure. Complementary to the experimental data a COMSOL model has been devel…
author: O'Dea, Daniel Oliver
language: en
keywords: LiMIT, EAST, Lithium, Fusion
date published: 2022-01-12T21:46:59Z
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:24:53Z
provider: University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/2142/113086