Thermal-mechanical analysis on W/CuCrZr plasma facing component with functionally graded material interlayer

Thermal-mechanical analysis is performed on W/CuCrZr plasma facing component with functionally graded material (FGM) interlayer under the steady-state heat load of 5 MW/m2 using a finite element method (ANSYS code). The influences of the FGM interlayer on the stress, strain and temperature distribution in the whole component is evaluated and compared to the joint without an interlayer and with OFHC interlayer. It is shown that the inserting of W/CuCrZr FGM interlayer between W and CuCrZr effectively alleviates the thermal stress, whose reduction can reach up to 70% when the W/CuCrZr FGM interlayer thickness exceeds 6 mm. Meanwhile, the optimization of the structure and component distribution for W/CuCrZr FGM interlayer was also carried out. The thermal stress tends to saturate with the layer number exceeding 4. For 6 mm 4-layered FGM interlayer, the preferred component distribution exponent (p) is 1.8.