High Heat Flux Testing of Graded W-Steel Joining Concepts for the First Wall

Abstract

The realization of the first wall (FW), which is composed of a protective tungsten (W) armor covering the structural steel material, is a critical challenge in the development of future fusion reactors. Due to the different coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE) of W and steel, the direct joining of them results in cyclic thermal stress at their bonding seam during the operation of the fusion reactor. To address this issue, this study benchmarks two joining concepts. The first concept uses an atmospheric plasma sprayed graded interlayer composed of W/steel composites with a varying content of W and steel to gradually change the CTE. The second concept uses a spark plasma sintered graded interlayer. Furthermore, in order to benchmark these concepts, a directly bonded W-steel reference joint as well as a W-steel joint featuring a vanadium interlayer were also tested. These joints were tested under steady-state high heat flux cyclic loading, starting from a heat flux of 1 MW/m2 up to 4.5 MW/m2, with stepwise increments of 0.5 MW/m2. At each heat flux level, 200 thermal cycles were performed. The joints featuring a sintered graded interlayer survived only until 1.5 MW/m2 of loading, while the joint featuring plasma sprayed graded interlayer and V interlayer survived until 3 MW/m2.