The commercial feasibility of the first fusion power plant generation adopting D-T plasma is strongly dependent upon the self-sustainability in terms of tritium fuelling. Within such a kind of reactor, the component selected to house the tritium breeding reactions is the breeding blanket, which is further assigned to heat power removal and radiation shielding functions. As a consequence of both its role and position, the breeding blanket is heavily exposed to both surface and volumetric heat loads and, hence, its design requires a typical multiphysics approach, from the neutronics to the thermo-mechanics. During last years, a great deal of effort has been put in the optimization of the breeding blanket design, with the aim of maximizing the tritium breeding and heat removal performances without undermining its structural integrity. In this paper, a derivative-free optimization method named “Complex method” is applied for the design optimization of the European DEMO Water-Cooled Lithium Lead breeding blanket concept. To this purpose, a potential performances-based objective function, focusing on the maximization of the tritium breeding, is defined and a multiphysics numerical model of the blanket is developed in order to solve the coupled thermo-mechanical problem, while the optimization algorithm leads the design towards a minimum optimum point compliant with the prescribed requirements. Once the optimized design is obtained, its nuclear and thermo-structural performances are assessed by means of specific neutron transport and multiphysics simulations, respectively. Finally, the structural integrity is verified by means of the application of the RCC-MRx design criteria.

第一个采用 DT 等离子体的聚变发电厂的商业可行性在很大程度上取决于氚燃料的自我可持续性。在这种反应堆中，选择用于容纳氚增殖反应的部件是增殖毯，它进一步分配了热功率去除和辐射屏蔽功能。由于其作用和位置，繁殖毯严重暴露于表面和体积热负荷，因此，其设计需要典型的多物理场方法，从中子学到热力学。近几年来，在优化育苗毯设计方面投入了大量精力，旨在在不破坏其结构完整性的情况下最大限度地提高氚育种和散热性能。在本文中，欧洲DEMO水冷锂铅育种毯概念的设计优化采用了一种名为“Complex method”的无导数优化方法。为此，定义了一个潜在的基于性能的目标函数，重点是氚育种的最大化，并开发了毯子的多物理场数值模型，以解决耦合的热机械问题，而优化算法则领先于设计符合规定要求的最小最佳点。获得优化设计后，将分别通过特定的中子输运和多物理场模拟来评估其核性能和热结构性能。最后，通过应用 RCC-MRx 设计标准来验证结构完整性。