Thermal and microstructural properties of spark plasma sintered tungsten for the application to plasma facing materials

Abstract

In this study, we investigated thermal and microstructural properties of pure and dispersion strengthened tungsten fabricated by Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) method in comparison to the tungsten materials produced by different commercial suppliers. We measured the thermal conductivity of the examined materials and compared them with chemical composition, density and microstructure of the samples. Thermal conductivity up to 900 ℃ was derived from thermal diffusivity and specific heat measurement and chemical composition was analyzed through glow discharge mass spectroscopy. Thermal conductivity values show a close correlation with content of compositional element. On the other hand, Vickers hardness shows correlation with the average grain size of the samples. The sample produced by different fabrication process shows different density and thermal conductivity. While TiC and Y2O3 added tungsten fabricated by SPS method shows improved stability in microstructure against recrystallization after exposure to high heat flux, the reduction of thermal conductivity is analyzed in comparison to the amount of contained additive elements.