Infrared detection of tungsten cracking on actively cooled ITER-like component during high power experiment in WEST

• The consequences of tungsten (W) damaging processes, such as cracking and melting, on divertor lifetime and plasma operation are high priority issues for ITER. A sustained melting experiment was conducted in WEST using a 2 mm deep groove geometry on the upstream mono-block (MB) to overexpose the sharp leading edge (LE) of the downstream MB. W-cracking has been evidenced for the first time with a very high spatial resolution infrared camera before tungsten melting was reached. These cracks develop when the monoblock temperature is about 2600 degrees C, thus higher than both ductile to brittle transition and softening threshold of tungsten, suggesting that these cracks are different from the ones observed in previous campaigns where brittle failure was involved, because of transient events on cold monoblock. Post-exposure analyses have been performed on the damaged monoblock, highlighting 12 main cracks on the LE, with a width varying from 33 mu m to 77 mu m, and an average spacing of 0.45 mm. Parallel heat flux about 90 MW/m2 has been derived from infrared temperature measurements, with a heat flux decay length on the target of 4 mm. The T-REX modelling code suggest here that with these thermal inputs, a crack can initiates due to thermal cycling without disruption, with a ductile failure, under 1 to 5 cycles for a tungsten DBTT varying from 400 degrees C to 500 degrees C.

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Fysik -- Fusion, plasma och rymdfysik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Physical Sciences -- Fusion, Plasma and Space Physics (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Divertor

Plasma-facing components

Actively cooled

Tungsten cracking

High power

Ductile failure

Thermal cycling

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)