Damage modelling in Plasma Facing Components

Full text of publication follows: The plasma facing components (PFC) of controlled fusion devices are submitted to high heat fluxes in operating conditions (10 MW/m2 for Tore Supra and up to 20 MW/m2 for ITER, Cadarache, France). Active cooling is required to maintain a reasonable surface temperature and to avoid critical heat flux and melting of the components. The PFC developed for Tore Supra are made of a carbon/carbon (C/C) composite flat tile bonded to a copper alloy heat sink. Under operating conditions, because of the thermal expansion mismatch existing between the C/C composite and the copper alloy, these components withstand significant stresses which induce damage in the C/C material as well as at the copper/composite interface. Design tools are thus required in order to analyse the initiation and the propagation of damage in thermally loaded PFC. The present study describes a modelling approach aimed at predicting damage in actively cooled PFC. For this purpose, dedicated experimental procedures have been developed and sound constitutive laws taking into account the damage related non linear behaviour of both the C/C material and the Cu-C/C joint have been established. Various tests have first been performed on C/C samples in tension and compression, within the fibre axis and off-axis, as well as in shear using a Iosipescu type device, in order to carefully analyse the non-linear mechanical behaviour of this material. A constitutive law able to handle complex multiaxial loadings, established within a classical thermodynamical framework and using scalar damage variables, was then identified. Tensile and shear tests were also performed on C/C-Cu samples in order to identify a cohesive zone model representative of the damageable behaviour of the joint. These constitutive laws were then introduced in a numerical model representative of a PFC. Obtained results have evidenced the progressive development of damage which takes place in the assembly when submitted to fatigue heat loads. Such an approach can be used to optimise the design of the component. (authors)