Visualization experiment of complex flow field in a sphere-packed pipe by detailed PIV measurement

A sphere-packed pipe has been proposed as a heat transfer promoter for the first wall cooling in a Flibe blanket. In this study, the flow field in a sphere-packed pipe was well investigated by means of two-dimensional PIV method by matching refractive index of a channel material and working fluid. Three-dimensional flow structure was clarified by integrating the obtained data. The feature of the flow was tortuous high-velocity region formed near pebbles and large velocity fluctuation in the vicinity of the channel wall. And, to apply this flow structure to the actual first wall cooling, a new cooling system using finger-stacked structure was proposed and discussed.