A preliminary study on the feasible design of bionic blanket concept

A bionic concept originating from the mechanism of gastric mucosa protecting a gastric wall from corrosion by gastric acid is creatively proposed, with the intention of finding a new way to reduce the corrosion of insulation coatings in liquid metal blankets. A compatible fluid barrier that mimics the function of gastric mucosa is used to prevent the flowing liquid metal from contacting the inner wall of a loop pipeline. The design of the bionic structure and the control of the barrier fluid are the most critical and difficult. A single-channel simulation is performed using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis to evaluate the effect of a compatible fluid barrier on separating the liquid lithium and insulation coating. The results show that the compatible fluid barrier can completely cover the inner wall of the pipeline within which the liquid metal is flowing, indicating that the bionic design can eliminate the corrosion of insulation coatings with flowing liquid lithium. Based on this, a compatible fluid barrier is investigated with multiple conditions, including the coverage area and film thickness, by changing the velocity ratio of the lithium to the barrier fluid, the shape of the inlet port, and the curvature radius of the bend pipes. In addition, an S-shaped pipe is confirmed to be completely corrosion free. This bionic concept is aimed at all corrosive liquid metals, and this work only starts with the extreme case of pure lithium. This work is expected to provide a preliminary feasibility basis for anti-corrosion design for a pipeline with dual fluids.