Design of the European spallation source liquid-metal target using computational fluid dynamics

The only two possibilities for examining the thermal-hydraulic behavior of a liquid-metal spallation source target are either to build a full-size tar get and install it in a proton beam, suitably supplied with coolant under d esign conditions and instrumented, or to simulate such a target using a sta te-of-the-art computational fluid dynamics computer code. This latter appro ach has been pursued in the design of the proposed European Spallation Sour ce for a target filled with liquid mercury coolant under forced circulation . Results indicate that a carefully designed target can remove the 2.8 MW o f heat that neutronics calculations predict will be deposited within the co olant and the target body, without the overheating of either.