Disruption simulation experiments in a pulsed plasma accelerator - energy absorption and damage evolution on plasma facing materials

Plasma accelerators are used as test beds for disruption simulation experiments on plasma facing materials, because the incident energy fluxes and the discharge duration are of similar order as those expected during disruptions in ITER. The VIKA facility was used for the testing of materials under incident energies up to 5 kJ/cm2. Different carbon materials, SiC, stainless steel, TZM and tungsten have been tested. From the experimental results a scaling of the ablation with incident energy density was derived. The resulting ablation depth on carbon materials is roughly 2 μm per kJcm-2 of incident energy density. For metals this ablation is much higher due to the partial loss of the melt layer from splashing. For stainless steel an ablation depth of 9.5 μm per kJcm-2 was determined. The result of a linear scaling of the ablation depth with incident energy density is consistent with a previous calorimetric study. (orig.)