Development of Lattice Boltzmann Methods for Simulation of Complex Fluid Physics and Chemistry in Liquid-Wall Fusion Systems

73207S03-I Improved simulations are needed to understand the fluid physics and chemistry of significant effects in liquid-wall fusion systems. These effects include, but are not limited to, corrosion effects, surface impurity/dopant segregation, sticking of energetic plasma particles, and effects on surface tension and electrical/thermal conductivity, in both free-surface liquid metal and molten salt flows. This project will develop lattice Boltzmann methods to simulate complex fluid physics and chemistry, with emphasis on free-surface and multicomponent flows. In Phase I, an existing lattice Boltzmann program, originally developed for the computation of stirred chemical reaction systems, will be extended to accommodate phenomena of interest for liquid-wall fusion reactors. Some validation against experiments is planned. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by awardee: Lattice Boltzmann methods have the capability of modeling fluid physics and chemistry but have not been exploited commercially. However, these methods are well suited to distributed computing systems (clusters) that have only recently become available. Therefore, there should be considerable opportunity to license the technology to industrial organizations for the simulation of reactive and complex fluid systems.