• Energy Research

AbstractTo overcome the intrinsic brittleness of tungsten (W), a tungsten fiber-reinforced tungsten-composite material (Wf/W) is under development. The composite addresses the brittleness of W by extrinsic toughening through the introduction of energy dissipation mechanisms. These mechanisms allow the reduction of stress peaks and thus improve the materials resistance against crack growth. They do not rely on the intrinsinc material properties such as ductility. By utilizing powder metallurgy (PM) one could benefit from available industrialized approaches for composite production and alloying routes. In this contribution the PM method of hot isostatic pressing (HIP) is used to produce Wf/W samples containing W fibers coated with an Er2O3 interface. Analysis of the matrix material demonstrates a dense tungsten bulk, a deformed fiber and a deformed, but still intact interface layer. Metallographic analysis reveals indentations of powder particles in the interface, forming a complex 3D structure. Special emphasis is placed on push-out tests of single fiber HIP samples, where a load is applied via a small indenter on the fiber, to test the debonding and frictional properties of the Er2O3 interface region enabling the energy dissipation mechanisms. Together with the obtained experimental results, an axisymmetric finite element model is discussed and compared to existing work. In the HIP Wf/W composites the matrix adhesion is rather large and can dominate the push-out behavior. This is in contrast to the previously tested CVD produced samples.

AbstractFerromagnetic pebbles are investigated as high heat flux (q∥) plasma facing components in fusion devices with short power decay length (λq) on a conceptual level. The ability of a pebble concept to cope with high heat fluxes is retained and extended by the acceleration of ferromagnetic pebbles in magnetic fields. An alloying concept suited for fusion application is outlined and the compatibility of ferromagnetic pebbles with plasma operation is discussed.Steel grade 1.4510 is chosen as a well characterized candidate material to perform an analysis of the heating process. Scaling relationships as a function of q∥ for maximum and optimal pebble diameter, allowed exposure time, and removal time safety margin are obtained numerically for spherical pebble geometry. The acceleration of ferromagnetic pebbles in a tokamak resulting from magnetic gradients is studied and operation parameters for an ITER-based reactor are outlined. Counter-intuitively, it is found that ferromagnetic pebbles perform better for narrow λq profiles, making them an attractive heat exhaust concept for next step devices and thus an option to be investigated in detail.The key results of this study are that very high heat fluxes are accessible in the operation space of ferromagnetic pebbles, that ferromagnetic pebbles are compatible with tokamak operation and current divertor designs, that the heat removal capability of ferromagnetic pebbles increases as λq decreases and, finally, that for fusion relevant values of q∥ pebble diameters below 100μm are required.

The elastic properties of tungsten fiber-reinforced tungsten composites (Wf/W) were characterized on the micro- and macro- scale by combined nano-indentation and laser ultrasonic measurements, respectively. Wf/W composite materials are currently being developed as advanced tungsten (W) plasma facing materials for fusion devices. They possess pseudo-ductility and can overcome some of the limitations caused by the inherent brittleness of pure-W at lower temperatures. The Young's modulus was determined by nano-indentation hardness measurements of the W-matrix and W-fibers separately. The values were combined by simple rule of mixture, and compared to bulk values obtained from laser ultrasonics measurements. The results show that the simple rule of mixtures is valid up to 50% fiber volume fractions.

The plasma-surface interactions from samples of high-conductivity graphitic foam biased to 120 V and placed in 6–8 eV deuterium plasmas with densities as high as 1019 m−3 were investigated at the PSI-2 linear plasma device in Jülich. Graphitic foam-plasma interactions were also studied at the Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) stellarator in Greifswald by exposure to hydrogen and helium plasmas using the Jülich multi-purpose manipulator. The purpose was to explore the possibility of using the material in a plasma facing component, and initial results were encouraging. In W7-X, no measurable erosion or cracking was observed. The PSI-2 samples received a deuterium fluence of 5 × 1025 m−2 resulting in an average erosion of 43 µm or about 5 mg per sample. Residual gas analysis (RGA) data were acquired to monitor sample outgassing. Laser-induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) was used to measure deuterium retention in the porous foam. After exposure, the surfaces were characterized with scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive x-ray analysis and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS). The graphitic foam has a thermal conductivity as high as 287 W/mK and is considered as a replacement to more exotic carbon fiber composites such as SepCarb NB31 or isotropic graphites like ATJ that are no longer produced but used in present-day tokamak experiments. Actively cooled monoblocks were made from the foam and underwent extensive materials characterization including infrared response studies at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. This material is under consideration for the proposed actively-cooled W7-X divertor scraper element. Keywords: Graphitic foam, Graphite, Plasma facing component, Plasma exposure, Monoblock

In future fusion reactors, plasma-facing materials (PFMs) have to withstand unique conditions such as high temperatures, ion and neutron irradiation. Tungsten (W) has been established as main candidate material due to its favorable properties regarding the fusion environment but brings one major challenge: Its brittleness at moderate temperatures can lead to failure of tungsten components. Tungsten fiber-reinforced tungsten (Wf/W), a tungsten matrix containing drawn tungsten fibers, was developed to mitigate this problem by using extrinsic toughening mechanisms to achieve pseudo-ductility. The deuterium (D) retention in Wf/W manufactured by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) has been investigated using Wf/W single layered model systems consisting of a single plane of unidirectional tungsten fibers embedded in a tungsten matrix produced by CVD. Various parameters with potential influence on the D retention, such as the choice of an erbium oxide interface and potassium doping, have been included in the investigation. The samples have been ground to varying distances between surface and fiber plane - exposing distinct details of the Wf/W microstructures at the surface. The samples were exposed to a low temperature D plasma at 370 K for 72 h resulting in a total fluence of 1025 D/m2. The D retention of all samples was measured by nuclear reaction analysis (NRA) and thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS). The D retention in Wf/W composites is higher than in reference samples made from hot-rolled W by factors between 2 and 5. In addition, a comparison of NRA and TDS data indicates that D penetrates faster into the depth of Wf/W material than into hot-rolled tungsten.

Micro structured tungsten is a new approach to address one of the main issues of tungsten as high heat flux (HHF) plasma facing material (PFM), which is its brittleness and its propensity to crack formation under pulsed, ELM like, heat loads (Loewenhoff et al., 2015; Wirtzet al., 2015 [2,3]). With power densities between 100 MW/m2 and 1 GW/m2, progressive thermal fatigue induced damages like roughening, subsequent cracking and even melting will occur in dependence on the pulse number and PFM base temperature. This represents a serious issue for the usage of tungsten as HHF-PFM. In future tokamaks, such as ITER, about 108 ELMs are expected to occur during the operational lifetime.Several approaches have been tried to overcome this brittleness issue, e.g. alloying tungsten with others elements (Linsmeier et al., 2017 [4]) or introducing pseudo-ductility due to the additions of fibres thus creating composites (Reiser et al., 2017 [5]). Micro-structured tungsten showed a significant improvement in comparison with any of these approaches with respect to the damage expected by ELMs. This investigation on both bulk reference and micro-structured tungsten was performed in the PSI-2 facility (Kreter et al., 2015 [8]). A sequential load was applied combining steady state deuterium plasma (5.1 × 1025 D + m−2, 51 eV, 240 °C, 150 min) loading with laser pulses (up to 105 pulses of 0.5 GW/m2, 3.6 mm spot diameter, 20 J, 1 ms pulse duration, up to 25 Hz pulse frequency). In contrast to reference bulk tungsten, none of the applied loading conditions caused any evident damage on the micro-structured tungsten. The maximum surface temperature within the loaded area measured with a fast pyrometer was increased by about 800 °C at the end of the laser exposure for the reference sample. This is related to the emissivity changes and local temperature increase caused by surface degradation. Meanwhile, the micro-structured sample did not show any change of its temperature response from the 10th to the 100 000th pulse.