Melt infiltrated Tungsten-Copper composites as advanced heat sink materials for plasma facing components of future nuclear fusion devices

摘要

The exhaust of power and particles is regarded as a major challenge in view of the design of a magnetic confinementudnuclear fusion demonstration power plant (DEMO). In such a reactor, highly loaded plasma facing componentsud(PFCs), like the divertor vertical targets, have to withstand both severe high heat udux loads and considerable neutronudirradiation. Existing divertor target designs make use of monolithic tungsten (W) and copper (Cu) material gradesudthat are combined in a PFC. Such an approach, however, bears engineering difficulties as W and Cu are materialsudwith inherently different thermomechanical properties and their optimum operating temperature windows do not overlap.udAgainst this background, W-Cu composite materials are promising candidates regarding the application to theudheat sink of highly loaded PFCs. The present contribution summarises recent results regarding the manufacturingudand characterisation progress of such W-Cu composite materials produced by means of liquid Cu melt infiltration ofudopen porous W preforms. On the one hand, this includes composites manufactured by infiltrating powder metallurgicallyudproduced W skeletons. On the other hand, W-Cu composites based on textile technologically produced fibrousudreinforcement preforms are discussed.