Advanced tungsten materials for plasma-facing components of DEMO and fusion power plants

Highlights: • Development of W-fibre enhanced W-composites incorporating extrinsic toughening mechanisms. • Production of a large sample (more than 2000 long fibres) for mechanical and thermal testing. • Even in a fully embrittled state, toughening mechanisms are still effective. • Emissions of volatile W-oxides can be suppressed by alloying W with elements forming stable oxides. • WCr10Ti2 has been successfully tested under accidental conditions and high heat fluxes. - Abstract: Tungsten is the major candidate material for the armour of plasma facing components in future fusion devices. To overcome the intrinsic brittleness of tungsten, which strongly limits its operational window, a W-fibre enhanced W-composite material (W_f/W) has been developed incorporating extrinsic toughening mechanisms. Small W_f/W samples show a large increase in toughness. Recently, a large sample (50 mm × 50 mm × 3 mm) with more than 2000 long fibres has been successfully produced allowing further mechanical and thermal testing. It could be shown that even in a fully embrittled state, toughening mechanisms as crack bridging by intact fibres, as well as the energy dissipation by fibre-matrix interface debonding and crack deflection are still effective. A potential problem with the use of pure W in a fusion reactor is the formation of radioactive and highly volatile WO₃ compounds and their potential release under accidental conditions. It has been shown that the oxidation of W can be strongly suppressed by alloying with elements forming stable oxides. WCr10Ti2 alloy has been produced on a technical scale and has been successfully tested in the high heat flux test facility GLADIS. Recently, W-Cr-Y alloys have been produced on a lab-scale. They seem to have even improved properties compared to the previously investigated W alloys.