In-situ leading-edge-induced damages of melting and cracking on W/Cu monoblocks as divertor target during long-term operations in EAST

Abstract

Abstract Leading-edge-induced thermal loading effect due to assembly tolerance between neighboring castellated plasma facing components is a critical issue in fusion devices. Actively-cooled ITER-like W/Cu monoblocks were successfully installed for upper divertor target in EAST which significantly increases the ability of divertor power exhaust. The misalignment between neighboring monoblocks was formed inevitably during manufacturing and assembly processes, providing a possibility to demonstrate the leading-edge-induced thermal damages. Indeed, the leading-edge-induced melting phenomena of W/Cu monoblocks on upper divertor targets were observed during plasma discharges with a large number of droplets ejected from divertor target using CCD camera, which were also identified at the leading edges of W/Cu monoblocks. Not only that, but also many macro cracks with width of ~70 m and depth of < 5 mm along radial and toroidal directions were also found universally at the leading edges of W/Cu monoblocks by post-mortem inspection after plasma campaigns. Thermal-mechanical analysis by means of the finite element simulation demonstrated that the maximum temperature could reach W melting point under current projected heat load of ~3 MWm-2 on flat top surface with large misalignment up to 3 mm at the leading edges. Meanwhile, the high temperature also induced high thermal stress and strain concentration at the center of leading edges, at which the thermal fatigue cracking could be initially generated. Such kind of cracks at leading edges on W/Cu monoblocks may be unavoidable due to the long-term pulsed fatigue effects. However, the influence of these cracks seems to be acceptable thanks to the limited propagated distance by self-castellation effect, which still need long-term tracking. The in-situ leading-edge-induced damages of melting and cracking on W/Cu monoblocks of EAST upper divertor target provide significant reference to understand the leading-edge-induced thermal effect in ITER and future fusion devices.