Effects of pulsed power input into a liquid metal target

In order to validate the computations of stress generated in the target con tainer by the sudden input of a large amount of power in the liquid metal o f a high-power spallation target, first experimental investigations were ca rried out in an international collaboration. Temperature and beam profile m easurements showed that up to 61% of the incoming beam power was deposited in the target. The spatial power distribution was reconstructed from the ex perimental data. A computational model with consideration of fluid-structur e interface was employed to simulate the pressure waves in the liquid and t he resulting dynamic stress on the container. The maximum stress on the con tainer was found to be 13.6 MP. Although experimental data are still very p reliminary, a comparison of the measured stress and deformation data with t he computational results showed reasonable agreement in the amplitudes, whi ch are the most important data for engineering design. Although the methods developed to measure the strain on the target surface were found to be ade quate in principle, improvements on both experimental and computational sid es are necessary for further investigations. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.