Fusion Engineering and Design 82 (2007) 24832489

Measurement of free surface of liquid metal lithium

jet for IFMIF target
H. Kondo a, , T. Kanemura a , N. Yamaoka a , S. Miyamoto a , M. Ida b ,
H. Nakamura b , I. Matushita c , T. Muroga d , H. Horiike a
a Osaka University, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan
b Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Tokai, Ibaraki 319-1195, Japan
c Shinryo High Technologies, Ltd., Kobe, Hyogo 652-0865, Japan
d National Institute for Fusion Science, Toki, Gifu 509-5292, Japan

Received 18 August 2006; received in revised form 20 March 2007; accepted 20 March 2007
Available online 11 May 2007

Abstract

Lithium (Li) flow experiment was conducted for a Li target of International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility (IFMIF).
In the experiment, Li plane jet of 10 mm in depth and 70 mm in width formed by a two contractions nozzle was tested in the
velocity range of less than 15 m/s. In the present report, wave patterns (called as surface wakes) on the Li flow were measured by
Pattern Projection Method. This is an image measurement of non-contact and three dimensions. The projected patterns, which
were stripes in this study, were observed to be deformed according to the surface up-and-down. Three-dimensional surface shape
could be obtained by analyzing the deformed patterns. By the method, surface wakes were successfully measured. The results
were compared with a theoretical study and showed good agreement.
2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: IFMIF; Liquid metal lithium; Free-surface flow; Non-contact measurement

1. Introduction in depth and 260 mm in width by a reducer nozzle,

International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility
(IFMIF) is a DLi neutron source to produce high-
energy neutrons to test materials for a fusion reactor.
Liquid metal Li is planned to be deuteron beams
target. The Li target is formed in a plane jet of 25 mm
Corresponding author. Tel.: +81 6 6879 7881.
E-mail address: h-kondo@nucl.eng.osaka-u.ac.jp (H. Kondo).
and flows along a concave back wall in the velocity
range of 1020 m/s in 103 Pa vacuum. Two deuteron
beams of 40 MeV/125 mA (total 250 mA) are incident
to a square region of 50 mm 200 mm on the target
surface, and the neutron field is created behind the back
wall for the long term of 30 years. The axis of beam
line is located at 175 mm downstream from the nozzle
outlet. Conceptual design of IFMIF target was per-
formed based on the experiment for Fusion Materials

0920-3796/$ see front matter 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.fusengdes.2007.03.039
2484 H. Kondo et al. / Fusion Engineering and Design 82 (2007) 24832489

Irradiation Test Facility (FMIT), numerical simulation,

and water experiment (Refs. [13], respectively).
To obtain uniform neutron field and dose rate for
testing materials, thickness of the target flow is nec-
essary to be uniform. Nonuniformity of the thickness
induces that of the neutron field. Thus, it is required to
maintain the target thickness uniform in the long term
operation. Investigations of factors forming the nonuni-
formity of the thickness are necessary. In addition, a
method to measure the thickness is also necessary to
be developed.
The present study focused on measurement of sta-
tionary wave patterns caused from the outlet of the
nozzle. The wave patterns called as surface wakes were
measured by a non-contact measurement method called
as Pattern Projection Method. Fig. 2. Picture of the nozzle (1/6).

before installation to the test section. The outlet of the

2. Experimental facility nozzle was machined knife-edge sharp.

This study was carried out with a Li loop at Osaka

University. Fig. 1 shows a cross-sectional view of the
test section. The test section is consisted of a flow
strainer, the reducer nozzle, a straight flow channel set
horizontally. These are made of SS304. The flow chan-
nel is covered by a chamber with viewing and lighting
ports.
The nozzle produces a lithium flat plane jet of 10 mm
in depth and 70 mm in width. Fig. 2 shows a picture of
the nozzle outlet and the flow channel taken from above
3. Experiments and results
3.1. Stationary wave patterns caused by
indentations at the nozzle edge
Fig. 3 shows a picture of center of the nozzle edge
taken from the downstream. There were small inden-
tations at the nozzle edge, as shown in Fig. 3. The
indentations of 0.2 mm were observed. These might

Fig. 1. Schematic of the test section (1/6).

 H. Kondo et al. / Fusion Engineering and Design 82 (2007) 24832489
Fig. 3. Picture of the nozzle edge.
be made by erosion or corrosion due to Li flow. The
total time of the experiment is approximately 1300 h
at this moment. During the flow, average velocity was
5 m/s ranging from 2 to 15 m/s. Detailed study on the
erosion/corrosion of the SS304 will be necessary for
the design of actual target.
Fig. 4 shows a picture of the lithium flow for the
velocity of 7 m/s. As shown in the picture, there were
many wave patterns (called as surface wakes) trailed
from the edge. The wakes were observed to be station-
ary in time and in space.
3.2. Pattern Projection Method
In Pattern Projection Method, an optical pattern is
projected onto an object and the shape of the object can
be measured by analyzing the pattern deformed accord-
ing to the object shape. In the present study, a stripes
Fig. 4. Surface wakes from the edge at the velocity of 7 m/s (1/6).
2485
Fig. 5. Optical setting of FTP method (1/6).
pattern was projected onto the lithium surface. The
deformed stripes were analyzed by Fourier-Transform
Profilometry (FTP) method [4].
Fig. 5 shows an optical setting of the FTP method.
Ep and Ep denote the centers of the entrance and the
exit pupils of the projector lens, respectively. Also Ec
and Ec denote those of the camera lens. The line Ep Ep
is an axis of the projection lens, and it crosses with the
line Ec Ec which is an axis of a camera lens, at a point
O on the reference plane R. The reference plane is a fic-
tional plane normal to Ec Ec. The object height h(x,y)
is measured from the reference plane. The x axis is cho-
sen as in the figure, and the y axis is chosen as normal
to the plane of the figure. Stripes pattern denoted by
G is projected by the projection lens, and its conjugate
image with period p is formed on plane I.
When the object is a flat and uniform plane on plane
R, the principal ray Ep A strikes the plane at point C.
For the general object with varying h(x,y), the principal
ray Ep A strikes the object surface at point H, and H will
be seen to be a point D on plane R. The object height h
at point H is written as following geometrically.
CD l0
h= (1)
(CD d)
The stripes pattern on the object can be expressed by
a Fourier series expansion. In FTP method, the defor-
mation of the stripes is expressed as spatially phase
modulation and calculated numerically based on FFT
algorithm in the whole region. The height h(x,y) of the
2486 H. Kondo et al. / Fusion Engineering and Design 82 (2007) 24832489

object is obtained by the following equation
l0 (x, y)
h(x, y) = (2)
(x, y) 2f0 d
where (x,y) is the phase modulation and written as
(x, y) = 2f0 CD (3)
and f0 is the fundamental frequency of the projected
stripes pattern and written as following with p0 which
is the period of the stripes on the reference plane R.
1 cos
f0 = = (4)
p0 p in various directions continuously, and the surface is
Calculation method of (x,y) is described in Ref. [4].
In the present study, distances denoted by l0 and d were
473 and 97 mm, respectively. Period of the stripes at
the lithium flow surface denoted by p0 was 0.1 mm.
The stripes pattern was projected by a CW LED light
and time of the exposure was controlled by an electrical
shutter of the CCD camera in 0.05 s.
3.3. Deformed pattern on Li surface against
velocity
To project and observe the stripes pattern on an
object, it is necessary that the surface of the object
is diffuse reflector. Because the surface of the liquid
metal Li flow is specular reflector, Pattern Projection
Method is not able to be applied to Li flow surface
in principle. However, on the Li flow surface, small
waves are generated and flow continuously as shown
in our previous report [5]. In this study, the pattern is
projected in relatively long time when the many waves
go through. In this condition, the local slope of the
surface is continuously varied by the waves. The varia-
tion of the local slope angle makes specular rays reflect
equivalent to diffuse reflector. Thus stationary surface
shape like the wakes is able to be measured by the
method. In the present study, exposure time was set
0.05 s in which several hundreds waves go through and
the surface wakes assumed to be stationary. The time
was determined experimentally.
Fig. 6 shows deformed stripes patterns on the Li
flow surface. The pictures were taken at the velocities

Fig. 6. Deformed pattern on Li surface (1/2).

 H. Kondo et al. / Fusion Engineering and Design 82 (2007) 24832489
of 6, 7, 8 and 9 m/s at a fixing position focused on a
small surface wake. The black regions in left hand of
the pictures were nozzle, and the Li flew from left to
right in the pictures. A place where stripes curve to left
was lower surface, while a place where the stripe curve
to right was higher surface.
The surface wake in Fig. 6 was relatively small com-
pared to those shown in Fig. 4. It is noted difference
in scale between them. In the case of larger wakes as
shown in Fig. 4, projected stripes pattern were made
intermittently by shadows behind crests of the wakes.
These shadows prevent to analyze the surface shape.
This could be avoided by optimizing an angle of pro-
jection and of camera, pitch of stripes and the widths.
However, in our experimental geometry, measurable
wakes were restricted in the size as shown in Fig. 6.
As shown in the pictures, wakes became narrower in
width and higher in amplitude with increasing flow
velocity. Thus patterns deform more with an increase
of velocity.
To analyze the deformed patterns, it is required a
picture of reference pattern that is a pattern projected
onto the smooth surface. Strictly the lithium flow sur-
face continuously fluctuates and is not smooth. In this
study the reference pattern was prepared numerically
by analyzing a relatively smooth pattern taken at the
lower velocity.
Fig. 7. Wake shapes against velocity: (a) 6 m/s (1/6); (b) 9 m/s (1/6).
2487
3.4. Measured surface wake shape
Fig. 7(a and b) shows analyzed results of Fig. 6
at the velocity of 6 and 9 m/s, respectively. Three-
dimensional height of the wake was expressed by
gradation scale. At velocity of 6 m/s, the lithium flow
surface was relatively smooth. With increasing the
velocity, wake shapes became sharper and the ampli-
tude larger.
Fig. 8(a and b) shows cross-sectional views at the
velocity of 6 and 9 m/s. At the velocity of 6 m/s, wakes
are larger in amplitude near the nozzle and the ampli-
tude is smaller as the flow goes to the downstream. In
the case of 9 m/s, the amplitude was still large in down-
stream region and the initial amplitude was larger than
that of 6 m/s.
Shape of the surface wakes could be compared
with a well-known wave pattern behind a ship or
fish line. The wave pattern is result of interference
of annular waves. The phase of the interference wave
pattern is simply analyzed as shown in Ref. [6] for
example.
Fig. 9 shows a comparison of the experimental wake
profile with the iso-phase line at the velocity of 9 m/s.
It is seen that the lines of crest and trough of the
wake profile agreed well with those of n = 1/4 and 1/2,
respectively. The n = 1/4 and 1/2 correspond to phase
2488 H. Kondo et al. / Fusion Engineering and Design 82 (2007) 24832489
Fig. 8. Cross-sectional view of measurements results: (a) 6 m/s (1/6);
(b) 9 m/s (1/6).
Fig. 9. Comparison between the measurement and the analytical
phase line at the velocity of 9 m/s (1/6).
difference of /2 and from the initial phase at the
origin.
A detailed investigation on amplitude of the wave
pattern is difficult from the discussion above. Hence,
waves forming the wave pattern were assumed to be
sinusoidal wave of amplitude A and initial phase 0.
If attenuation in the wave amplitude was assumed to
be exponential of y 103 [m]. Fig. 10 shows cross-
sectional view of the analyzed results at the distance of
0.5 and 1.0 mm from the origin. The solid lines show
experimental results. Comparison with the result shows
good agreement. The comparison represents the initial
phase of the surface wake from the nozzle indentation
were zero.
It is considered that the surface wakes are gener-
ated by the indentations of the nozzle edge as the result
that the flow is not able to separate smoothly from the
nozzle edge. At the indentation, vertical velocity com-
ponent is grown because that flow is dragged by the
side wall of the indentation. The annular waves form-
ing the wave pattern is considered to be induced by the
velocity component.
Fig. 10. Comparison between the measurement and the analytical
amplitude at the velocity of Um = 9 m/s. (a) x = 0.5 mm (1/6); (b)
x = 1.0 mm (1/6).
 H. Kondo et al. / Fusion Engineering and Design 82 (2007) 24832489
It was shown that the surface wakes were able to be
measured by Pattern Projection Method. In this study,
relatively small wake was measured in order to restric-
tion by the setting of the viewing ports of the test
section. It was observed that the wake amplitudes had
strong relation with size of damages at the nozzle edge.
Larger damage made larger surface wake. Detail study
on the relation between the size of the damage and wake
amplitude was under investigation.
4. Summary
Experimental study on free-surface flow of liquid
metal Li simulating IFMIF lithium target was carried
out. It was observed that the nozzle was serrated and
surface wakes were generated on the surface of the
lithium flow.
The nozzle edge was taken in pictures by a CCD
camera. As the results, it is cleared that there were many
small indentations on the edge. The indentations that
the size was 0.2 mm were observed frequently. These
were considered as the results of erosion or corrosion
by lithium flowing. The total time of lithium flow-
ing was approximately 1300 h at this time. As result
that the nozzle became serrated, surface wakes were
observed to be generated from the edge. The surface
wakes were tried to be measured by an image mea-
surement technique called Pattern Projection Method.
The relatively small wake was successfully measured
by the method. The measurement results were com-
2489
pared with an analytical study on the wave pattern of
the surface wake.
Acknowledgements
Authors greatly appreciate for Prof. H. Matusi at
Tohoku Univ and M. Seki at JAEA for their support
to the present work. A part of the present work is
supported by NIFS05KOBF009.
References
[1] J.A. Hassberger, Stability of the FMIT High Speed, Free Surface
Liquid Jet Along a Curved Back Wall, in: Proceedings of the 10th
Symposium on Fusion Engineering, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
December 59, vol. 2, 1983, pp. 18491853.
[2] M. Ida, Hideo Nakamura, Hiroo Nakamura, Hiroshi Nakamura,
K. Ezato, H. Takeuchi, Thermal-hydraulic characteristics of
IFMIF liquid lithium target, Fusion Eng. Des. 6364 (2002)
333342.
[3] K. Itoh, Y. Tsuji, H. Nakamura, Y. Kukita, Initial free surface
instabilities on high-speed water jet simulating a liquid-metal
target, Fusion Technol. 36 (1999) 6984.
[4] M. Takeda, K. Mutoh, Fourier transform profilometry for the
automatic measurement of 3-D object shapes, Appl. Opt. 22 (24)
(1982) 39773982.
[5] H. Kondo, A. Fujisato, N. Yamaoka, S. Miyamoto, M. Ida, H.
Nakamura, I. Matushita, T. Muroga, H. Horiike, Surface wave
on high speed liquid lithium flow for IFMIF, Fusion Eng. Des.
75 (79) (2005) 865869.
[6] H. Lamb, Hydrodynamics, article 256 and 272, sixth ed., Cam-
bridge University Press.