Validation of a new propellant valve test bed to support developments for shattered pellet injection technology

Shattered Pellet Injection (SPI) is a widely used technique in Disruption Mitigation Systems (DMS) to mitigate the detrimental effects of plasma disruptions in tokamaks. Operating an SPI system requires a fast-acting propellant gas valve to launch and accelerate the pellets. Eddy-current-actuated, high-pressure fast valves were specifically developed for the SPI system at the ITER DMS Support Laboratory, located at the HUN-REN Centre for Energy Research. A new propellant valve test bed with high-voltage control electronics and high-pressure gas handling system has been built to support fast valve developments. Laboratory tests were carried out to allow comparison of the results of the experiments on the new test bed and the SPI system with real pellets. Simultaneously, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations were carried out to model the gas flow in the valve and the barrel, and the simulation results were compared with the measured results. The validated CFD model serves as a valuable tool for optimizing valve performance in support of future developments.