CoUPLE: Development of a Versatile Facility and Experimental Roadmap for Characterization of Corrosion of Blanket Materials in Flowing PbLi Under Magnetic Field

Eutectic lead–lithium (PbLi) alloy is the most promising candidate for liquid tritium breeder material in the blanket of a fusion power reactor. Corrosion of structural blanket steels in the flowing PbLi in the presence of a strong plasma-confining magnetic field and volumetric heating is among the most serious limitations in the design of a robust breeding blanket system. Anew flowing PbLi corrosion loop called Corrosion Upgrade PbLi Experiment (CoUPLE) with a magnetic field and surface heating of the test-section is under development at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The proposed ORNL PbLi loop will reach prototypical blanket conditions (PbLi temperature up to$650~^{\circ }$C, velocity up to 20cm/s, magnetic field up to 4 T) and be able to show the corrosion performance of candidate structural steels and functional electroinsulating materials and establish their corrosion mitigation. The developed computational model in COMSOL Multiphysics is used in this study as a design tool and also for the pre-experimental analysis to plan future experiments on corrosion/precipitation and help in the design and analysis of real blanket systems.