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As a consequence of its position and functions, the ITER blanket system will be subjected to significant heat loads under nominal reference conditions. Therefore, the design of its cooling system is particularly demanding. Coolant water is distributed individually to the 440 blanket modules (BMs) through manifold piping, which makes it a highly parallelized system. The mass flow rate distribution is finely tuned to meet all operation constraints: adequate margin to burn out in the plasma facing components, even distribution of water flow among the so-called plasma-facing “fingers” of the Blanket First Wall panels, high enough water flow rate to avoid excessive water temperature in the outlet pipes, maximum allowable water velocity lower than 7 m/s in manifold pipes. Furthermore the overall pressure drop and flow rate in each BM shall be within the fixed specified design limit to avoid an unduly unbalance of cooling among the 440 modules. Analyses have to be carried out following a computational fluid-dynamic (CFD) approach based on the finite volume method and adopting a CFD commercial code to assess the thermal-hydraulic behaviour of each single circuit of the ITER blanket cooling system. This paper describes the code benchmarking needed to determine the best method to get reliable and timely results. Since experimental tests are available in ITER Organization on full scale prototypes of Shield Blocks #08 and #14, CFD analyses have been performed to investigate their fluid-dynamic behaviour under steady state conditions and compare the numerical and experimental results. Results obtained are presented and critically discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The blanket system is the ITER reactor component devoted to providing a physical boundary for plasma transients and contributing to thermal and nuclear shielding of vacuum vessel, magnets and external components. It is expected to be subjected to significant heat loads under nominal conditions and its cooling system has to ensure an adequate cooling, preventing any risk of critical heat flux occurrence while complying with pressure drop limits. At the University of Palermo a study has been performed, in cooperation with the ITER Organization, to investigate the steady state hydraulic behaviour of the ITER blanket standard sector cooling system. A theoretical–computational approach based on the finite volume method has been followed, adopting the RELAP5 system code. Finite volume models of the most critical blanket cooling circuits have been set-up, realistically simulating the coolant flow domain. The steady state hydraulic behaviour of each cooling circuit has been investigated, determining its hydraulic characteristic function and assessing the spatial distribution of coolant mass flow rates, velocities and pressure drops under reference nominal conditions. Results obtained have indicated that the investigated cooling circuits are able to provide an effective cooling to blanket modules, generally meeting ITER requirements in term of pressure drop and velocity distribution, except for a couple of circuits that are being revised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]