Erlangen 2026 – scientific programme
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P: Fachverband Plasmaphysik
P 16: Poster Session Plasma Physics
P 16.114: Poster
Thursday, March 19, 2026, 13:45–15:45, Redoutensaal
Exploiting Tungsten Fibre-Reinforcement for Plasma-Facing Component Design — •Thomas Fox1,2, Alexander von Mueller1, and Rudolf Neu1,2 — 1Technical University Munich, Boltzmannstr. 15, 85748 Garching — 2Max Planck-Insitute for Plasma Physics, Boltzmannstr. 2, 85748 Garching
The divertor of a magnetic confinement fusion device has extreme requirements for materials design due to the high heat fluxes combined with plasma erosion and neutron flux considerations. Current leading designs centre around tungsten (W) surface armouring joined to a copper (Cu)-based heat sink. The mismatch in coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) between these base materials leads to high thermomechanical stresses during heat loading that can cause cracking and delamination of the W armouring. This can significantly hamper the performance and shorten the service lifetime of a divertor plasma-facing component (PFC).
In this work, a design will be presented, in which W-fibre reinforcement will be utilised to mitigate the CTE mismatch while also strengthening and toughening the W/Cu joint with cross-interface connections. By taking advantage of textile processes, complex fibre preforms can be constructed out of ductile, potassium-doped W fibres. These preforms can first undergo chemically vapour infiltration of W and then melt infiltration of Cu or Cu-based alloys for creating a highly damage resistant fibre-reinforced composite PFC design. The overall goal of this work is to design, manufacture and test a scalable concept that meets the extreme requirements of a fusion reactor divertor.
Keywords: Tungsten Fibre; Copper; PFC; Composite; High Heat Flux