Effect of Fe11+ ion combined with helium and deuterium plasmas irradiation on the transient thermal shock behaviors of pure and potassium-doped tungsten

Abstract

The large-scale warm-rolled pure tungsten (PW) and hot-rolled potassium-doped tungsten (W-K) plates were prepared by powder metallurgy technology to meet the demands of International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in engineering application. In order to evaluate the performance of plasma-facing materials (PFM) in a more realistic service environment as much as possible, the influence of combined irradiation effects of high-energy iron (Fe) ion, deuterium (D) and helium (He) plasmas on the transient thermal shock behavior in the PW and W-K was investigated. The results indicate that the PW can generate more vacancy- and dislocation-type defects than that of W-K after irradiation. The cracking thresholds for un-irradiated PW and W-K are >0.66 and 0.44–0.55 GW/m2, respectively. However, the cracking threshold for both samples decreased to 0.22–0.33 GW/m2 after combined irradiation, indicating that the combined irradiation can significantly reduce the thermal shock resistance of PW and W-K. In addition, according to the statistical results of the crack density and width on the surface of irradiated samples, irradiated W-K owns better thermal shock resistance than irradiated PW under the same thermal shock condition. These results were also verified by the determination of residual stresses. Besides, the relationship between the evolution of irradiation-induced defects and K bubbles is also discussed in detail. These studies can provide an important reference for the identification of future PFM and numerical simulation under combined irradiation plus high thermal load.