MATERIAL STUDIES RELATED TO TFTR LIMITERS AND WALL ARMOR

Candidate materials for use as limiters and wall armor in the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) device have been evaluated under heat flux conditions similar to those expected in TFTR. The materials were first screened for thermal shock resistance using an electron beam gun to irradiate small test samples of each material. The best materials from the thermal shock tests were then subjected to thermal fatigue tests of up to 5000 cycles. Most of the materials subjected to the fatigue tests were also prepared in a size comparable to TFTR limiter and wall armor designs and exposed to neutral beam bombardment to establish the validity of the small tests. The results indicate that moulded graphites and carbon based composites should be given serious consideration for limiter and wall armor applications. © 1979.