Exploratory study of liquid-metal response to rapid variation of applied magnetic field

Transient plasma events, such as plasma disruptions, are anticipated in the future magnetic-confinement nuclear fusion reactors. The events are accompanied by a rapid change in the magnetic field generated by the plasma current and, accordingly, induction of strong eddy currents and Lorentz forces within the reactor structure. This work targets processes within liquid-metal components of the reactor's breeding blankets. Order-of-magnitude analysis and exploratory numerical simulations are performed to understand the response of liquid metal to a rapidly changing magnetic field and to evaluate the accuracy of commonly used simplifying model assumptions. The response is found to consist of two stages: an initial brief stage (∼1 ms) characterized by a rapid increase in the induced currents, forces, and fluid velocity; and a subsequent stage, which is triggered by the growing velocity of the metal and marked by reversals of Lorentz force, and oscillations and decreases in the amplitude of the induced fields. The transition to the second stage sets the upper limit of the velocity (∼0.5 m/s in our tests), to which an initially quiescent metal can be accelerated during the event. The simulations indicate that many widely used model assumptions, such as the negligible role of Joule dissipation in the heat balance and the constancy of physical property coefficients, remain valid during the response. However, the assumption of liquid metal incompressibility is found to be questionable due to the potential significant effects of pressure waves.