Investigating the Effect of Irradiation on Non-planar Dissimilar Material Joints for Plasma Facing Components – Materials Strand Project

Supervisors: Aneeqa Khan and Anastasia Vasileiou (University of Manchester) and Bradley Young (Oxford Sigma).

A significant materials challenge in fusion are the materials combinations needed for plasma facing components to provide heat extraction, plasma erosion resistance, and shielding to other components. Plasma facing components are necessarily the combination of two or more materials in such a configuration that these functions are met through compromises of material properties.

The particular combination of armour materials, such as W, with structural materials such as Cu-alloys or structural steels leads to a need for robust and reliable joints. One such method is to use monoblocks of the armour material with coolants internally located within a pressurised pipe such as CuCrZr, however the volume of material needed for this approach leads to long-term challenges in waste production and use of finite, low availability, resources. Alternative methods using flat-tiles bonded to a surface minimise the material volumes required, but at the expense of robustness and potential for failures of the joint.

One method to overcome these challenges is to produce structured interfaces with functional grading of properties, either by powder metallurgical approaches, or additive manufacturing and back-casting. It is expected that these approaches will lead to more robust components with reduced severity of interfacial failures. Most design efforts are for the current start-of-life performance improvement with scant consideration for end of-life property requirements needed for safe power plant operations.

This project will seek to understand the effects of irradiation damage on material interface properties of non-planar interfaces, such as those manufactured by additive manufacturing. The consideration of the thermal regime on material properties during irradiation and microstructural damage will be considered. A range of starting points from planar to non-planar manufactured geometries will be examined with the objective of identifying methods to improve future complex interfaces for end-of-life property maintenance.

The project will investigate how expected end of life properties impacts the design process and to develop tools to allow improved design processes.

During the first six months of the PhD, materials strand students will typically travel to attend taught modules at all six of the Fusion CDT partner universities.

The project will mainly be based in Manchester, but there is the opportunity to spend time with the industrial organisation in Oxford and wider collaboration network working on the manufacturing challenge.

This project is offered by University of Manchester. For further information please contact: Aneeqa Khan (aneeqa.khan@manchester.ac.uk).

This project may be compatible with part time study, please contact the project supervisors if you are interested in exploring this.

For details on how to apply, please visit: Apply