Thermo-mechanical design and structural analysis of the first wall for ARIES-III, a 100 MWe D-3He power reactor

The ARIES-III first wall (FW) is made of a low-activation ferritic steel (MHT-9) and is cooled with an organic coolant (HB-40) at a pressure of 2 MPa. The FW has a coating of 0.01 cm tungsten on the MHT-9, followed by 0.15 cm of Be on the plasma side. This is needed for synchrotron radiation reflection and as a melt layer to guard against the thermal effects of a plasma disruption. Two-dimensional finite element models are used with the ANSYS computer code to determine both thermal stresses and temperature profiles. At the midplane, where the surface heating peaks at 1.86 MW/m², the bulk coolant temperature is 385°C, the coolant velocity is 16 m/s, and the combined primary and secondary stresses are 350 MPa at a bulk steel temperature of 497°C. The maximum Be surface temperature facing the plasma is 571°C. It is shown that the ARIES-III FW can be relatively simple in design and can be made to meet the synchrotron reflectivity requirements and conform to all the design limitations, both thermal and structural