Safety implications of an integrated boiling curve model for water-cooled divertor channels

The international fusion community is actively researching advanced heat transfer methods for removal of high thermal loads from next-generation divertor assemblies. Such advanced techniques may indeed optimize the operational and economical performance of future divertor designs. However, with its extensive operational database, water-cooling remains as one of the optimum choices for near-term divertor designs. Critical heat flux (CHF) is the maximum heat flux that water, at a given set of inlet conditions, can remove via fully developed nucleate boiling. Accordingly, an accurate CHF calculation is of the utmost importance for maintaining adequate safety margins in divertor operation. This paper uses the integrated boiling curve model developed at Sandia National Laboratories to examine the safety implications of calculating the CHF. In particular, this paper focuses on the influence of the finite element peaking factor (FEPF) that converts the heat flux predicted by CHF correlations into a plasma heat flux that can be measured. The analyses illustrate that the FEPF is proportional to the plasma heat flux and thus accurate calculation of the CHF requires the use of the appropriate FEPF for the given water conditions and plasma heat flux. It is shown that using a geometric peaking factor is inadequate since the true peak factor is dependent upon the plasma heat flux. The conclusion is that a finite element analysis incorporating an integrated boiling curve is required for accurate calculation of the CHF.