Influence of multiple jet cooling on the heat transfer and thermal stresses in DEMO divertor cooling finger

The divertor concept for DEMO fusion reactor is based on modular design cooled by multiple impinging jets. Such divertor should be able to withstand a surface heat flux of at least 10 MW/m(2) at an acceptable pumping power. To reduce the thermal loads the plasma-facing side of the divertor is build up of numerous small cooling fingers. Each cooling finger is cooled by an array of jets blowing through the holes on the steel cartridge. The size, number and arrangement of jets on the cartridge influences the heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of the divertor. Five different cartridge designs are analyzed in the paper. The most critical parameters, such as structure temperature, heat removal ability, pressure drop, cooling efficiency and thermal stress loadings in the cooling finger are predicted for each cartridge design. A combined computational fluid dynamics and structural model was used to perform the necessary numerical analyses. The results have shown that the cartridge design with the best heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics is not also the most favorable choice from the point of view of minimum stress peaks. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.