Thermal management of tungsten leading edges in DIII-D

• Published in: Fusion engineering and design Vol. 124; pp. 271 - 275
• Main Authors: Nygren, R.E., Rudakov, D.L., Murphy, C., Watkins, J.D., Unterberg, E.A., Barton, J.L., Stangeby, P.C.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01-11-2017; Elsevier Science Ltd; Elsevier
• Subjects: 70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY; DIII-D; Fusion; High heat flux; Inserts; Leading edges; Molybdenum; Plasma; Plasma facing component; Plasma surface interaction; Plasmas; Power handling; Thermal management; Tungsten; DIII-D; Plasma surface interaction; Tungsten; Plasma facing component; High heat flux; Power handling
• ISSN: 0920-3796; 1873-7196
• DOI: 10.1016/j.fusengdes.2017.04.060

•Experience with tile alignment, documentation and thermal modeling are important aspects of thermal management in DIII-D.•Various approaches to leading edges and thermal management were investigated for tungsten coated TZM inserts installed for the DIII-D Metal Tile Experiment.•The DIII-D team completed a second W leading edge experiment using the DiMES materials probe on support of ITER.
The DiMES materials probe exposed tungsten blocks with 0.3 and 1mm high leading edges to DIII-D He plasmas in 2015 and 2016 viewed with high resolution IRTV. The 1-mm edge may have reached >3000°C in a 3-s shot with a (parallel) heat load of ∼80MW/m2 and ∼8.6MW/m2 on the surface based on modeling. The experiments support ITER. Leading edges were also a concern in the DIII-D Metal Tile Experiment in 2016. Two toroidal arrays of divertor tiles had W-coated molybdenum inserts 50mm wide radially. This paper presents data and thermal analyses.