One of the main challenges in the development of a fusion power plant is the adequate selection ofudthe materials that will withstand the extreme conditions of temperature, load and radiation. Amongudthose issues, the control of the heat removal by the divertor is critical, hence the highest heat loadudinside the reactor will be found in it. For this purpose, one solution proposed is a novel optimizedudwater-cooled monoblock divertor consisting of W as plasma facing material and W/Cu composites asudthe baseline heat sink material. The attraction of these metal matrix composites in fusion applicationsudis twofold: the W matrix provides the necessary strength of the composite at high temperatures,udwhile Cu provides the required high thermal conductivity for efficient heat removal in the coolingudsystem. In this context, the goal of this study is the characterization of W-Cu composite materialsudproduced by means of liquid Cu infiltration of open porous W preforms. In order to achieve it, a newudexperimental device was set up to test the composites under high vacuum atmosphere while in theudtemperature range between 273 K and 1073 K. Tensile and fracture tests in three point bendingudconfiguration have been conducted in this temperature range and atmosphere. Additionally,udmicromechanical and physical characterization was also performed by means of micro andudnanoindentation and High Temperature X-Ray Diffraction respectively.
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