TY - JOUR
T1 - A 6 MW/m2 High Heat Flux Testing Facility of Irradiated Materials Using Infrared Plasma-Arc Lamps
AU - Sabau, Adrian S.
AU - Tokunaga, Kazutoshi
AU - Littleton, Michael G.
AU - Kiggans, James O.
AU - Schaich, Charles R.
AU - Dinwiddie, Ralph B.
AU - Moore, Daniel T.
AU - Ueda, Yoshio
AU - Katoh, Yutai
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was partly supported by Japan/U.S. Cooperation (PHENIX) in Fusion Research and Development. The research was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Fusion Energy Sciences, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with UT-Battelle, LLC, and the “Technological Assessment of Plasma Facing Components for DEMO Reactors” Japan/U.S. fusion research joint project.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, © 2019 American Nuclear Society.
PY - 2019/10/3
Y1 - 2019/10/3
N2 - Assessing the effect of neutron irradiation of plasma-facing materials has been challenging due to both the technical and radiological challenges involved. In an effort to address the radiological challenges, a facility was developed to conduct high heat flux testing (HHFT) of inherently small samples of neutron-irradiated materials. A new line-focus reflector was designed and fabricated at Oak Ridge National Laboratory for a plasma-arc lamp (PAL) to attain a source heat flux of 12 MW/m2. The new reflector was fabricated with two ports for monitoring specimen condition during HHFT. At the same operational conditions for PAL, the absorbed heat flux in tungsten was increased from 1.39 MW/m2 with the uniform irradiance reflector to 5.12 MW/m2 for the line-focus reflector. This fourfold increase in the heat flux, at the same PAL electrode lifetimes, enabled cost-effective facility operation for a high number of cyclic high heat flux tests. Specifically, the test section is confined to a hemispherical dome, and specimens are bolted directly to a water-cooled copper alloy rod. Temperature measurement in the PAL facility was a main challenge due to a limited line of sight. For the first time in a PAL facility operating at high heat fluxes, the specimen surface temperature was directly measured during HHFT with a pyrometer. The HHFT data, which were obtained in this upgraded PAL facility, demonstrated the facility readiness for irradiated materials.
AB - Assessing the effect of neutron irradiation of plasma-facing materials has been challenging due to both the technical and radiological challenges involved. In an effort to address the radiological challenges, a facility was developed to conduct high heat flux testing (HHFT) of inherently small samples of neutron-irradiated materials. A new line-focus reflector was designed and fabricated at Oak Ridge National Laboratory for a plasma-arc lamp (PAL) to attain a source heat flux of 12 MW/m2. The new reflector was fabricated with two ports for monitoring specimen condition during HHFT. At the same operational conditions for PAL, the absorbed heat flux in tungsten was increased from 1.39 MW/m2 with the uniform irradiance reflector to 5.12 MW/m2 for the line-focus reflector. This fourfold increase in the heat flux, at the same PAL electrode lifetimes, enabled cost-effective facility operation for a high number of cyclic high heat flux tests. Specifically, the test section is confined to a hemispherical dome, and specimens are bolted directly to a water-cooled copper alloy rod. Temperature measurement in the PAL facility was a main challenge due to a limited line of sight. For the first time in a PAL facility operating at high heat fluxes, the specimen surface temperature was directly measured during HHFT with a pyrometer. The HHFT data, which were obtained in this upgraded PAL facility, demonstrated the facility readiness for irradiated materials.
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U2 - 10.1080/15361055.2019.1623571
DO - 10.1080/15361055.2019.1623571
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85067649211
SN - 1536-1055
VL - 75
SP - 690
EP - 701
JO - Fusion Science and Technology
JF - Fusion Science and Technology
IS - 7
ER -