Mechanics of brazed joints and compliant layers in high heat flux components

Soft layers are of great interest for the joining of dissimilar materials like beryllium, tungsten or carbon base refractory tiles for plasma interface and cooled structures made of copper or molybdenum. Soft layers reduce the residual and in-service stress/strain level without reducing the thermal capability. Thin soft layers interfaces are produced during the brazing or HIP bonding cycles. However, the numerical modelling of the mechanical effect of such soft layers remains largely inaccurate. The camber of [CFC tiles (A05, N11, N112)/Ag-Cu-Ti filler metal/OFHC or TZM substrate] assemblies is recorded during the whole brazing thermal cycle and subsequent thermal fatigue cycles using a special vertical dilatometer. An inverse method based on Finite Element modelling of the samples is used to determine the joint constitutive law. Then, by comparing experiments and FEM calculations, the effects of distributed damage of the CFC and of the strain hardening and thermal softening of OFHC on the in-service stress/strain state of the component are observed. (authors). 5 refs., 7 figs