Numerical investigation of MHD effect on flow distributions in the manifolds of fusion reactor

In liquid metal blankets of magnetic confinement fusion reactor, the pressure drop and velocity distribution of the liquid metal flow are influenced by magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) effects. In order to investigate the behavior of such a complex flow in manifolds in the liquid LiPb blanket under magnetic fields, a numerical model based on the consistent and conservative scheme has been constructed. The numerical results show that the velocity distribution is straightened along the magnetic field whichever direction it is. For the manifolds, the flow is evenly distributed among different pipes when the magnetic field is applied along the width, controversially, the magnetic field along the height will enable the flow uniformly distributed in the same pipe, while it has a negligible effect on flow distributions among different pipes.