Abstract
Small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) is performed to analyse the microstructural state of a reference CuCrZr material with carefully controlled heat treatments, small-scale manufacturing mock-ups of assemblies and high-heat-flux-exposed mock-ups for fusion reactor components. The information derived from the SANS data corresponds well to existing literature data based on microscopic-scale techniques, but is obtained at millimetre scale with minimal surface preparation. The manufacturing method and high-heat-flux testing conditions are confirmed to have little impact on the microstructural properties, demonstrating the validity of these treatments for scaled-up reactor components.
Highlights
CuCrZr alloys are favoured in applications where a high thermal conductivity and high strength are required at elevated operating conditions, such as in heat exchange structures in nuclear fusion reactors, for example ITER and EU-DEMO (Kalinin & Matera, 1998; Kalinin et al, 2007; Coenen et al, 2016)
Precipitation hardening, with precipitate dimensions in the 1–100 nm range, is crucial to their mechanical strength during operation and needs to be extremely well controlled (Ivanov et al, 2002; Cackett et al, 2018). These components are exposed to complex non-uniform thermal cycles, which will impact on the CuCrZr microstructure
We have demonstrated that Small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) can be used to resolve the state of CuCrZr precipitates in fusion reactor divertor components at a gauge volume of millimetre scale, with minimal sample preparation required
Summary
CuCrZr alloys are favoured in applications where a high thermal conductivity and high strength are required at elevated operating conditions, such as in heat exchange structures in nuclear fusion reactors, for example ITER and EU-DEMO (Kalinin & Matera, 1998; Kalinin et al, 2007; Coenen et al, 2016). Small-angle neutron scattering (SANS), on the other hand, is able to provide a bulk statistical measurement on millimetre-scale samples, while maintaining the sensitivity for the precipitate dimensions (Schmidt, 1991; Vogel, 2013). We compare SANS data for different ageing conditions of a CuCrZr alloy in small (centimetre-scale) samples as well as in bulk components ($10 cm) exposed to different temperature cycles as part of the EU-DEMO ‘thermal break’ divertor exhaust mock-up development process (Barrett et al, 2015; You et al, 2018; Fursdon et al, 2017; Lukenskas et al, 2019)
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