High heat flux test with HIP bonded Be/Cu/SS mock-ups for the ITER first wall

Abstract

In order to verify the integrity of the first wall (FW) of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), especially for preparing its qualification program by ITER-O, Be/Cu/SS mock-ups, which were the same size as the qualification mock-ups, were fabricated and tested at the TSEFEY, an e-beam facility, in Efremov, Russia. These mock-ups were joined with a 316 L austenitic stainless steel (SS316L) block for a structural material, CuCrZr for a heat sink material and SS316L tubes for a coolant and then, joined with three Be tiles for an armor material. A hot isostatic pressing (HIP) was used as manufacturing methods at a 1050 °C, 100 MPa for 2 h for a Cu/SS joining and at a 580 °C, 100 MPa for 2 h for a Be/(Cu/SS) joining. Two mock-ups were fabricated by using 1 μmCr/10 μmCu of an interlayer between the Be tile and Cu block. The high heat flux (HHF) tests were performed at 1.5 and 2.0 MW/m 2 heat fluxes for each mock-up. The given conditions and the expected fatigue lifetime were evaluated from a preliminary analysis with ANSYS. Both mock-ups survived for up to 1000 and 268 cycles at 1.5 and 2.0 MW/m 2 heat fluxes, respectively. They are higher than the expected numbers of cycles to a failure.