High Efficiency Heat Transport and Power Conversion System for Cascade
Fusion Science and Technology / Volume 8 / Number 1P2B / July 1985 / Pages 1832-1837
Inertial Confinement Fusion Reactor / Proceedings of the Sixth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (San Francisco, California, March 3-7, 1985) / dx.doi.org/10.13182/FST85-A40027
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The Cascade ICF reactor features a flowing blanket of solid BeO and LiAlO2 granules with very high temperature capability (up to ∼2300 K). We present here the design of a high temperature granule transport and heat exchange system, and two options for high efficiency power conversion. The centrifugal-throw transport system uses the peripheral speed imparted to the granules by the rotating chamber to effect granule transport and requires no additional equipment. The heat exchanger design is a vacuum heat transfer concept utilizing gravity-induced flow of the granules over ceramic heat exchange surfaces. A reference Brayton power cycle is presented which achieves 55% net efficiency with 1300 K peak helium temperature. A modified Field steam cycle (a hybrid Rankine/Brayton cycle) is presented as an alternate which achieves 56% net efficiency.
