Thermocycling tests by inductively heated sodium in the high temperature SOLTEC-2 facility

The present study focuses on the numerical investigations of the inductive heater considered for the high temperature SOLTEC-2 (SOdium Loop to TEst materials and Corrosion) facility. The study is motivated by the need to investigate the inductive heater, prior to the start of the long time tests for corrosion/erosion investigations of materials in hot sodium to be performed in the SOLTEC-2 facility. The numerical simulations were made with COMSOL Multiphysics software and aim to obtain knowledge regarding the heat distribution in the U-shaped tube test sample and to optimize the design of the inductive heater and the experimental setup. A parametric study has been performed to investigate the heat transfer process. Based on the study an optimized configuration of the heater is proposed that can provide a heat load density of∼1 MW/m2 and fast heating and cooling rates in the order of 150 K/s.