A Comparison of Strains Induced by Manufacturing and Operational Conditions of a Tantalum Clad Tungsten Plate of an ISIS TS1 Solid Target

Abstract

This paper aims to reveal the relationship between two sets of residual strains. One set of the strains were induced by manufacturing when the Tantalum (Ta) cladding was diffusion bonded to the Tungsten (W) core by Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP) process. Another set of strains was induced during target operations, i.e., when the HIPPED target plates were further bombarded by proton beams for neutron production. The former set was revealed by Neutron Diffraction Measurement (NDM) using the ISIS Engin-X instrument. The latter set was obtained via Finite Element Analysis (FEA) on the ISIS TS1 target assembly. The comparison and superposition of these two sets of strains demonstrated mainly an overall reduction of about 50 micro strains within the Ta cladding. Namely, the strains induced during the TS1 target operation could be beneficial for the specific region of target plate number five (P5) in this case.