Advanced virtual design of 3D printed fusion reactor components

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

3D printing (additive manufacturing) is an emerging technology that has the potential to enable important breakthroughs in the design of fusion reactor components, particularly as it makes it easier and cheaper to manufacture geometrically complex parts that are difficult or costly to make using conventional means. An example application area is the addition of small-scale features to the surfaces of fusion reactor coolant channels to help improve thermal performance. The design process here involves assessing the robustness or structural integrity of the printed part and the potential for erosion of the small-scale features by the coolant. This requires the ability to quantify the effects of coupled physical processes (heat and mass transfer) at multiple length and time scales. Setting up physical experiments that can reproduce the conditions expected in a fusion reactor is difficult, so this project will use and extend our in-house engineering simulation tools to evaluate digital twins of real, additively manufactured components. The complex geometry of the twins, including internal micro-structural features such as voids and defects, will be captured using 3D imaging facilities. The images will be converted to engineering models that will be evaluated using software designed for use on supercomputers. The aim is to develop a virtual design workflow that can be used to iteratively improve the predicted performance of 3D printed Fusion Reactor components.