TY - JOUR

T1 - Molecular dynamics simulations of the effect of porosity on heat transfer in Li2TiO3

AU - Sanjeev, Megha

AU - Gilbert, Mark R.

AU - Murphy, Samuel T.

PY - 2024/5/31

Y1 - 2024/5/31

N2 - Heat transfer is a key consideration in the development of tritium breeder blankets for future fusion reactors. For solid tritium breeder materials there is a fine balance to be struck between high levels of porosity to encourage tritium release and minimising it to maintain the thermal and mechanical properties. Therefore, in this work we employ molecular dynamics simulations to understand how the introduction of porosity influences the thermal conductivity of lithium metatitanate ceramic breeder material. Our simulations predict that increasing the porosity leads to a decrease in the thermal conductivity which is in good agreement with previous experimental observations. By contrast, we do not observe the increase in the thermal conductivity at high temperatures, that is observed in some experiments. We argue that this increase is a consequence of sintering or some other modification of the experimental sample rather than a fundamental change in the heat conduction mechanism in the crystal matrix.

AB - Heat transfer is a key consideration in the development of tritium breeder blankets for future fusion reactors. For solid tritium breeder materials there is a fine balance to be struck between high levels of porosity to encourage tritium release and minimising it to maintain the thermal and mechanical properties. Therefore, in this work we employ molecular dynamics simulations to understand how the introduction of porosity influences the thermal conductivity of lithium metatitanate ceramic breeder material. Our simulations predict that increasing the porosity leads to a decrease in the thermal conductivity which is in good agreement with previous experimental observations. By contrast, we do not observe the increase in the thermal conductivity at high temperatures, that is observed in some experiments. We argue that this increase is a consequence of sintering or some other modification of the experimental sample rather than a fundamental change in the heat conduction mechanism in the crystal matrix.

KW - Li2TiO3

KW - Thermal conductivity

KW - Molecular dynamics

KW - Porosity

U2 - 10.1016/j.fusengdes.2024.114344

DO - 10.1016/j.fusengdes.2024.114344

M3 - Journal article

VL - 202

JO - Fusion Engineering and Design

JF - Fusion Engineering and Design

SN - 0920-3796

M1 - 114344

ER -