Properties of Active Water Cooling Atmospheric Plasma Spraying Tungsten Coating

Tungsten coating was deposited onto an actively water-cooled oxygen-free copper substrate by atmospheric plasma spraying technique. The properties of the microstructure, porosity, microhardness and oxidation of the active water cooling atmospheric plasma spraying tungsten coating were characterized and measured. High heat load and thermal response tests using an electron beam facility have been carried out on the tungsten coated mock-ups under the water cooling condition. The heat flux is changed from 3 to 10 MW/m² under the condition that the water flow rate is 2.5, 2.0 and 1.5 m³/h, respectively. It is demonstrated that the mock-ups successfully withstood a heat flux of 15.5 MW/m² at steady state.     

Preparation and properties of CVD-W coated W/Cu FGM mock-ups

Tungsten was coated on a W/Cu functionally graded material (FGM) by chemical vapor deposition technique (CVD), and then the tungsten coated tile was brazed on the CuCrZr heat sink with a cooling channel. The thickness of CVD-W was 2 mm deposited by a fast rate of about 0.7 mm/h. The features of the CVD-W coating including morphology, element composition and thermal properties were characterized. A tungsten coating with high density, purity and thermal conductivity is achieved. The bonding strength between the CVD-W layer and FGM was measured using bonding tensile tests. Thermal screening and fatigue tests were performed on the CVD-W mock-ups under fusion relevant conditions using an electron beam device. Experimental results showed that the CVD-W mock-up failed by melting of Cu beneath the tungsten layer under a high heat load of 14.5 MW/m² and 30 s pulse duration. Thermal fatigue tests showed that the CVD-W mock-up could sustain 1000 cycles at a heat load of 11.7 MW/m² absorbed power density and 15 s pulse duration without visible failure.     

Vacuum plasma-sprayed tungsten on EUROFER and 316L: Results of characterisation and thermal loading tests

Vacuum plasma-spraying (VPS) can be used for the industrial deposition of thick W coatings on actively water-cooled components made of low activation steel or stainless steel. Mock-ups made of martensitic steels, EUROFER and F82H, as well as steel 316L, were coated with 2 mm thick W-VPS layers. The coated materials are candidates for first wall components (ITER and DEMO) receiving moderate heat load of up to 1 MW/m². Mixed tungsten/steel interlayers were applied to reduce the residual and thermal stresses at the substrate–coating interface and to improve the adhesion of the coating. The advantage of this mixed interlayer is that no further (high activation) materials have to be introduced to improve coating adhesion.The characterisation of the W-VPS layers includes the evaluation of the coating microstructure, the measurement of physical and mechanical properties and the metallographical examination before and after heat load tests.Heat load tests with steady state operation up to 2.5 MW/m² and cycling heat loads of 2 MW/m², were successfully completed. They confirm the thermomechanical suitability of industrially manufactured W-VPS coatings for plasma facing first wall components made of steel.     

TRISO coated fuel particles with enhanced SiC properties

The silicon carbide (SiC) layer used for the formation of TRISO coated fuel particles is normally produced at 1500-1650 °C via fluidized bed chemical vapor deposition from methyltrichlorosilane in a hydrogen environment. In this work, we show the deposition of SiC coatings with uniform grain size throughout the coating thickness, as opposed to standard coatings which have larger grain sizes in the outer sections of the coating. Furthermore, the use of argon as the fluidizing gas and propylene as a carbon precursor, in addition to hydrogen and methyltrichlorosilane, allowed the deposition of stoichiometric SiC coatings with refined microstructure at 1400 and 1300 °C. The deposition of SiC at lower deposition temperatures was also advantageous since the reduced heat treatment was not detrimental to the properties of the inner pyrolytic carbon which generally occurs when SiC is deposited at 1500 °C. The use of a chemical vapor deposition coater with four spouts allowed the deposition of uniform and spherical coatings.     

Micro-engineered first wall tungsten armor for high average power laser fusion energy systems

The high average power laser program is developing an inertial fusion energy demonstration power reactor with a solid first wall chamber. The first wall (FW) will be subject to high energy density radiation and high doses of high energy helium implantation. Tungsten has been identified as the candidate material for a FW armor. The fundamental concern is long term thermo-mechanical survivability of the armor against the effects of high temperature pulsed operation and exfoliation due to the retention of implanted helium. Even if a solid tungsten armor coating would survive the high temperature cyclic operation with minimal failure, the high helium implantation and retention would result in unacceptable material loss rates. Micro-engineered materials, such as castellated structures, plasma sprayed nano-porous coatings and refractory foams are suggested as a first wall armor material to address these fundamental concerns. A micro-engineered FW armor would have to be designed with specific geometric features that tolerate high cyclic heating loads and recycle most of the implanted helium without any significant failure. Micro-engineered materials are briefly reviewed. In particular, plasma-sprayed nano-porous tungsten and tungsten foams are assessed for their potential to accommodate inertial fusion specific loads. Tests show that nano-porous plasma spray coatings can be manufactured with high permeability to helium gas, while retaining relatively high thermal conductivities. Tungsten foams where shown to be able to overcome thermo-mechanical loads by cell rotation and deformation. Helium implantation tests have shown, that pulsed implantation and heating releases significant levels of implanted helium. Helium implantation and release from tungsten was modeled using an expanded kinetic rate theory, to include the effects of pulsed implantations and thermal cycles. Although, significant challenges remain micro-engineered materials are shown to constitute potential candidate FW armor materials.     

Preparation of tungsten coatings on graphite by electro-deposition via Na2WO4–WO3 molten salt system

Tungsten coating on graphite substrate is one of the most promising candidate materials as the ITER plasma facing components. In this paper, tungsten coatings on graphite substrates were fabricated by electro-deposition from Na₂WO₄–WO₃ molten salt system at 1173 K in atmosphere. Tungsten coatings with no impurities were successfully deposited on graphite substrates under various pulsed current densities in an hour. By increasing the current density from 60 mA cm⁻² to 120 mA cm⁻² an increase of the average size of tungsten grains, the thickness and the hardness of tungsten coatings occurs. The average size of tungsten grains can reach 7.13 μm, the thickness of tungsten coating was in the range of 28.8–51 μm, and the hardness of coating was higher than 400 HV. No cracks or voids were observed between tungsten coating and graphite substrate. The oxygen content of tungsten coating is about 0.022 wt%.     

Selective growth of diamond by hot filament CVD using patterned carbon film as mask

Selected-area deposition (SAD) of diamond films was achieved on silicon substrates with carbon film mask by hot filament chemical vapor deposition. Needle tip scraped lines were used to grow diamond films. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) investigation demonstrates that highly selective and sharp edged diamond films were produced. The results also demonstrate that the proper substrate temperature is very important for diamond selective growth in this deposition process. Since the enhancement of diamond growth was not observed on the needle tip scraped area of Si wafer with diamond powder scratching, the selective growth was considered to be closely correlated to silicon carbide formed during carbon film deposition and the residual carbon in the scraped area.     

Retention and surface blistering of helium irradiated tungsten as a first wall material

The first wall of an inertial fusion energy reactor may suffer from surface blistering and exfoliation due to helium ion irradiation and extreme temperatures. Tungsten is a candidate for the first wall material. A study of helium retention and surface blistering with regard to helium dose, temperature, pulsed implantation, and tungsten microstructure was conducted to better understand what may occur at the first wall of the reactor. Single crystal and polycrystalline tungsten samples were implanted with 1.3 MeV ³He in doses ranging from 10¹⁹ m⁻² to 10²² m⁻². Implanted samples were analyzed by ³He(d,p)⁴He nuclear reaction analysis and ³He(n,p)T neutron depth profiling techniques. Surface blistering was observed for doses greater than 10²¹ He/m². For He fluences of 5 × 10²⁰ He/m², similar retention levels in both microstructures resulted without blistering. Implantation and flash heating in cycles indicated that helium retention was mitigated with decreasing He dose per cycle.     

High heat load tests on W/Cu mock-ups and evaluation of their application to EAST device

Tungsten has been considered as the primary candidate plasma-facing materials (PFM) for the EAST device. Three actively cooled W/Cu mock-ups with an interlayer made of tungsten-copper alloy (1.5 mm) were designed and manufactured. The tungsten armors, pure sintered tungsten plate (1 mm) and plasma-sprayed tungsten coatings (0.3 and 0.9 mm), were bonded to the interlayer by brazing and depositing respectively. All mock-ups can withstand high heat flux up to 5 MW/m² and no obvious failure was found after tests. The thermal performance experiments and microstructure analyses indicated the structure of mock-ups possess good thermal contact and high heat transfer capability. WCu alloy as an interlayer can largely reduce the stress due to the mismatch and improve the reliability. The mock-up with 0.9 mm coating had the highest surface temperature than the other two mock-ups, delaminations of this mock-up were found in the near surface by SEM. The primary results show that pure sintered tungsten brazed to WCu alloy is a possible way, and thick plasma-sprayed coating technique still need to be improved.     

Helium and deuterium implantation in tungsten at elevated temperatures

High temperature helium and deuterium implantation on tungsten has been studied using the University of Wisconsin inertial electrostatic confinement device. Helium or deuterium ions from a plasma source were driven into polished tungsten powder metallurgy samples. Deuterium implantation did not damage the surface of the specimens at elevated temperatures (∼1200 °C). Helium implantation resulted in a porous surface structure above 700 °C. A helium fluence scan, ion energy scan, and temperature scan were all completed. With 30 keV ions, the pore formation started just below 4 × 10¹⁶ He⁺/cm². The pore size increased and the pore density decreased with increasing fluence and temperature. The energy scan from 20 to 80 keV showed no consistent trend.     

Erosion and Modifications of Tungsten-Coated Carbon and Copper Under High Heat Flux

Tungsten-coated carbon and copper was prepared by vacuum plasma spraying (VPS) and inert gas plasma spraying (IPS), respectively. W/CFC (Tungsten/Carbon Fiber-Enhanced material) coating has a diffusion barrier that consists of W and Re multi-layers pre-deposited by physical vapor deposition on carbon fiber-enhanced materials, while W/Cu coating has a graded transition interface. Different grain growth processes of tungsten coatings under stable and transient heat loads were observed, their experimental results indicated that the recrystallizing temperature of VPS-W coating was about 1400℃ and a recrystallized columnar layer of about 30μm thickness was formed by cyclic heat loads of 4 ms pulse duration. Erosion and modifications of W/CFC and W/Cu coatings under high heat load, such as microstructure changes of interface,surface plastic deformations and cracks, were investigated, and the erosion mechanism (erosion products) of these two kinds of tungsten coatings under high heat flux was also studied.     

Microstructural analysis on helium retention of ion-irradiated and annealed tungsten foils

The helium retention characteristics and helium bubble distribution in tungsten were studied using ³He(d,p)⁴He nuclear reaction analysis (NRA) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) on two forms of tungsten: single crystal and polycrystalline, implanted to 1 × 10^19 3He/m² at 850 °C and annealed at 2000 °C. The NRA results revealed that as-implanted single crystal and polycrystalline tungsten exhibited similar helium retention characteristics. Stepwise annealing reduced the helium retention in both single crystal and polycrystalline tungsten when the number of implantation steps and annealing time were increased. The TEM results indicated that microstructure played a large role in helium trapping; the existence of grain boundaries led to significant cavity formation and greater cavity growth. Single crystal tungsten had less trapping sites for helium, allowing long range He diffusion during annealing. The decrease of He retention in polycrystalline tungsten during stepwise annealing was probably due to significant recrystallization, resulting in decrease of grain boundary density.     

1972 National Symposium on Atomic Energy,Tokyo, Japan

Strength and Young's modulus of pyrolytic silicon carbide (SiC) were measured. The specimens were the ringed SiC which were taken from TRISO coated fuel particles for High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactors (HTGR). Four kinds of unirradiated specimens and the two of irradiated ones were prepared for the measurement. The SiC coating layer consisting of columnar structure with large crystal grains (about 5 μm) was stronger than the SiC of laminar structure with small grains (less than 1μm). The mean strength of the former SiC was larger than 1,700 MN/m², while that of the latter SiC, less than 1,600 MN/m^s. The SiC with low density (3.14 g/cm³) was the weakest among the present specimens. By irradiation of fission recoil, the mean strength of the SiC of columnar structure with large grains almost unchanged, but that of the SiC of laminar structure with small grains increased about 14%, of which irradiation dose was about 20 times larger than that for the former specimen. As for Young's modulus, the values ranged between 324 and 381 GN/m² and no significant dependence of the modulus on microstructure of the SiC and irradiation was recognized.     

Testing IFE materials on Z

On a single-pulse basis, the tungsten armor for the chamber walls in a laser inertial fusion energy power plant must withstand X-ray fluences of 0.4-1.2 J/cm² with almost no mass loss, and preferably no surface changes. We have exposed preheated tungsten samples to 0.27 and 0.9 J/cm² X-ray fluence from the Z accelerator at Sandia National Laboratories to determine the single-shot X-ray damage threshold. Earlier focused ion beam analysis has shown that rolled powdered metal formed tungsten and tungsten alloys, will melt when exposed to 2.3 J/cm² on Z, but not at 1.3 J/cm². Three forms of tungsten - single-crystal (SING), chemical-vapor-deposited (CVD), and rolled powdered metal (PWM) - were exposed to fluence levels of 0.9 J/cm² without any apparent melting. However, the CVD and PWM sample surfaces were rougher after exposure than the SING sample, which was not roughened. BUCKY (1D) calculations show a threshold of 0.5 J/cm² for melting on Z. The present experiments indicate no melting but limited surface changes occur with polycrystalline samples (PWM and CVD) at 0.9 J/cm² and no surface changes other than debris for samples at 0.27 J/cm².     

Chamber wall materials response to pulsed ions at power-plant level fluences

Candidate dry-wall materials for the reactor chambers of future laser-driven Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE) power plants have been exposed to ion pulses from RHEPP-1, located at Sandia National Laboratories. These pulses simulate the MeV-level ion pulses with fluences of up to 20 J/cm² that can be expected to impinge on the first wall of such future plants. Various forms of tungsten and tungsten alloy were subjected to up to 1600 pulses, usually while being heated to 600 °C. Other metals were exposed as well. Thresholds for roughening and material removal, and evolution of surface morphology were measured and compared with code predictions for materials response. Powder-metallurgy (PM) tungsten is observed to undergo surface roughening and subsurface crack formation that evolves over hundreds of pulses, and which can occur both below and above the melt threshold. This roughening is worse than for other metals, and worse than for either tungsten alloyed with rhenium (W25Re), or for CVD and single-crystal forms of tungsten. Carbon, particularly the form used in composite material, appears to suffer material loss well below its sublimation point. Some engineered materials were also investigated. It appears that some modification to PM tungsten is required for its successful use in a reactor environment.     

Properties of Electrodeposited Tungsten Coatings on Graphite Substrates for Plasma Facing Components

Tungsten coating on graphite substrate is considered as one of promising candidate materials of plasma facing components. In this study, tungsten coatings on graphite substrate were successfully prepared by direct current (DC) and pulse current (PC) electrodeposition methods in Na₂WO₄–WO₃ molten salt under the air atmosphere. Pores were found on the surfaces of the tungsten coatings produced by DC electrodeposition method. For the coatings fabricated by PC method, compact and smooth tungsten coatings were successfully obtained. The crystal structure, morphology, density, microhardness, adhesive strength, oxygen content and the thermal conductivity of the coatings fabricated by PC method were investigated. The obtained tungsten coatings had a body centered cubic structure. After electro-deposition for 100 h, the thickness of the tungsten coating reached 810.02 ± 10.40 μm and the oxygen content was 0.03 wt%. The thermal conductivity of the tungsten coating was 134.29 W m^?1 K^?1. The density of the tungsten coating was 18.83 g cm^?3. The hardness of the coating was 492.0 ± 7.8 HV. After deuterium plasma irradiation, the tungsten coatings were prone to blistering.     

Thermal properties of plasma-sprayed tungsten deposits

Tungsten powder was plasma-sprayed onto a graphite substrate in order to examine the microstructures, porosities, and thermal conductivities of tungsten deposits. Tungsten was partially oxidized to tungsten oxide (WO₃) after plasma spraying. Most pores were found in the vicinity of lamellar layers in association with oxidation. It was revealed that both tungsten oxide and the lamellar structure with pores have a significant influence on the electrical and thermal conductivity.     

Bonding tungsten,W–Cu-alloy and copper with amorphous Fe–W alloy transition

W/Cu graded materials are the leading candidate materials used as the plasma facing components in a fusion reactor. However, tungsten and copper can hardly be jointed together due to their great differences in physical properties such as coefficient of thermal expansion and melting point, and the lack of solid solubility between them. To overcome those difficulties, a new amorphous Fe–W alloy transitional coating and vacuum hot pressing (VHP) method were proposed and introduced in this paper. The morphology, composition and structure of the amorphous Fe–W alloy coating and the sintering interface of the specimens were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The thermal shock resistance of the bonded composite was also tested. The results demonstrated that amorphous structure underwent change from amorphous to nano grains during joining process, and the joined W/Cu composite can endued plasma thermal shock resistance with energy density more than 5.33 MW/m². It provides a new feasible technical to join refractory tungsten to immiscible copper with amorphous Fe–W alloy coating.     

High temperature surface effects of He implantation in ICF fusion first wall materials

The first wall armor of the inertial confinement fusion reactor chambers must withstand high temperatures and significant radiation damage from target debris and neutrons. The resilience of multiple materials to one component of the target debris has been investigated using energetic (20-40 keV) helium ions generated in the inertial electrostatic confinement device at the University of Wisconsin. The materials studied include: single-crystalline, and polycrystalline tungsten, tungsten-coated tantalum-carbide ‘foams’, tungsten-rhenium alloy, silicon carbide, carbon-carbon velvet, and tungsten-coated carbon-carbon velvet. Steady-state irradiation temperatures ranged from 750 to 1250 °C with helium fluences between 5 × 10¹⁷ and 1 × 10²⁰ He⁺/cm². The crystalline, rhenium alloyed, carbide foam, and powder metallurgical tungsten specimens each experienced extensive pore formation after He⁺ irradiation. Flaking and pore formation occurred on silicon carbide samples. Individual fibers of carbon-carbon velvet specimens sustained erosion and corrugation, in addition to the roughening and rupturing of tungsten coatings after helium ion implantation.     

Laser ablation of thin tungsten layers deposited on carbon substrate

The aim of the present study was to develop in situ control methods for erosion of layers and deposition on the main wall of a fusion reactor. For this purposes laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) was applied to specially manufactured samples with coatings of known thickness and composition in vacuum. The whole laser induced spectrum in range 200–850 nm was recorded for every laser shot. Our results demonstrated that the equipment used has sufficient sensitivity for recording of the spectrum during a single laser shot. The diagnostic lines most suitable for characterization of layers were determined. Tungsten layer on carbon substrate is detectable and its ablation rate is 0.5–1 μm per laser pulse. From the recorded spectra it is possible to estimate tungsten coating thickness, but for a complex coating where tungsten layer was covered with diamond-like carbon (DLC), tungsten was spectroscopically not detectable. Additional information about charge concentration and movement is possible to obtain by measuring the current pulses in the sample circuit.