Álvaro Martínez Pechero

I studied Physics at the University of Salamanca, during my degree I was fascinated with the possibilities of Fusion Energy and its possible commercialization. With this motivation, I completed a MsC in Fusion Energy at the University of York realizing a project about plasma Microtearing modes.

My DPhil project is titled “Modelling dust formation in a Fusion Device” and will be supervised by Prof. Ed Tarleton (University of Oxford), Dr. Yevhen Zayachuk & Dr Anna Widdowson (UKAEA). Dust formation is a big concern for fusion reactor performance and safety. It retains significant amounts of hydrogen, which affects the efficiency and due to its high chemical reactivity, it may cause explosions and damage to vessels. During my project, I’m working on developing a finite element model capable of simulating and predicting the fracture and delamination of deposition layers and the delamination of redeposited dust particles.

The model is planned to be used for the analysis and prediction of dust formation and its behaviour in ITER, the world’s largest fusion reactor, with the expectation that it can also be used in other future fusion devices built with different materials such as DEMO and STEP.

Supervisors

• Prof Edmund Tarleton
• Dr Yevhen Zayachuk (UKAEA)
• Dr Anna Widdowson

Publications

• OXFORD-UMAT: An efficient and versatile crystal plasticity framework
• Study on the fracture behavior and toughening mechanisms of continuous fiber reinforced Wf/Y2O3/W composites fabricated via powder metallurgy
• Restraining geometrically-necessary dislocations to the active slip systems in a crystal plasticity-based finite element framework
• Obtaining SiC Fibers–PyC interfacial properties through push-out FEM Models

Presentations and Publications

• Álvaro Martínez Pechero – Fusenet PhD event – 2022
• Álvaro Martínez Pechero – IEEE Symposium of Fusion Engineering Presentation – 2023
• Álvaro Martínez Pechero – International Conference on Fusion Reactor Materials Presentation – 2023
• Obtaining SiC Fibers–PyC interfacial properties through push-out FEM Models