The design of actively cooled plasma-facing components

In future fusion devices, like in the stellarator Wendelstein 7-X, the target plates of the divertor will be exposed to heat loads up to power densities of 10 MW/m2 for 1000 s. For this purpose actively cooled target elements with an internal coolant flow return, made of 2-D CFC armor tiles brazed onto a two tube cooling structure were developed and manufactured at the Forschungszentrum Julich. Individual bent- and coolant flow reversal elements were used to achieve a high flexibility in the shape of the target elements. A special brazing technology, using a thin layer of plasma-arc deposited titanium was used for the bonding of the cooling structure to the plasma facing armor (PFA). FEM-simulations of the thermal and mechanical behavior show that a detachment of about 25% of the bonded area between the copper tubes and the PFA can be tolerated, without exceeding the critical heat flux at 15 MW/m2 or a surface temperature of 1400 °C at 10 MW/m2 by using twisted tape inserts with a twist ratio of 2 at a cooling water velocity of 10 m/s. Thermal cycling tests in an electron beam facility up to a power density level 10.5 MW/m2 show a very good behavior of parts of the target elements, which confirms the performance under fusion relevant conditions. Even defected parts in the bonding interface of the target elements, known from ultrasonic inspections before, show no change in the thermal performance under cycling, which confirms also the structural integrity of partly defected regions.