Two-way multi-physics coupling for modeling high power RbCl isotope production targets

Abstract This work shows successful first application of two-way multi-physics coupling to model RbCl targets in a three-stacked target configuration used at Los Alamos National Laboratory’s (LANL) Isotope Production Facility (IPF). Targets are known to melt at production level beam currents and as in-beam monitoring of the targets in this configuration is not possible, high-fidelity simulation has been utilized to gain insight into target thermal behavior. Thermal hydraulic modeling was performed with ANSYS CFX and particle transport with the Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP) code. Multi-physics coupling of these two codes was employed to fully capture the highly coupled nature of the problem physics. Both transient and equilibrium thermal hydraulic results were obtained using this process. The equilibrium thermal hydraulic results were then employed to predict measured 82 Sr yields in molten RbCl targets. This technique demonstrates promise as a tool to investigating, understanding, and enhancing high power targetry behavior and limitations.