Simulation of thermal stresses in SiC-Al_2O_3 composite tritium penetration barrier by finite-element analysis

摘要

Tritium penetration barrier (TPB) composed of Al_2O_3 and SiC on 316L stainless steel was proposed to improve the tritium penetration resistance of the substrate in this work. At the same time, the concept of functionally graded materials (FGM) was applied to manage to decrease residual stresses between Al_2O_3 and 316L stainless steel substrate due to the mismatch of their thermal expansion coefficients. The effects of system architecture on the residual stresses developed in the composite coatings were investigated numerically by means of finite-element analysis (FEA). Modeling results showed that the presence of the graded properties and the compositions within the coating did reduce the stress discontinuity at the interfaces between the coating and the substrate. Also, the magnitudes of the residual stresses on the coating surface and at the coating/substrate interface were dependent on the Al_2O_3 and SiC coating thickness.