Analysis of Thermal-Hydraulic Gravity/ Buoyancy Effects in the Testing of the ITER Poloidal Field Full Size Joint Sample (PF-FSJS)

The PF-FSJS is a full-size joint sample, based on the NbTi dual-channel cable-in-conduit conductor (CICC) design currently foreseen for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) Poloidal Field coil system. It was tested during the summer of 2002 in the Sultan facility of CRPP at a background peak magnetic field of typically 6 T. It includes about 3 m of two jointed conductor sections, using different strands but with identical layout. The sample was cooled by supercritical helium at nominal 4.5-5.0 K and 0.9-1.0 MPa, in forced convection from the top to the bottom of the vertical configuration. A pulsed coil was used to test AC losses in the two legs resulting, above a certain input power threshold, in bundle helium backflow from the heated region. Here we study the thermal-hydraulics of the phenomenon with the M&M code, with particular emphasis on the effects of buoyancy on the helium dynamics, as well as on the thermal-hydraulic coupling between the wrapped bundles of strands in the annular cable region and the central cooling channel. Both issues are ITER relevant, as they affect the more general question of the heat removal capability of the helium in this type of conductors.