Crack Growth in First Wall by Cyclic Thermal Stress

ABSTRACT

The long pulse operation is assumed in ITER and future reactors. If the first wall has a defect, the crack may be propagated by cyclic thermal loads. In addition, flattop of more than 300 sec during plasma burning is expected, therefore, an effect of transient creep must be included. In order to simulate a severe temperature gradient in the first wall, an experimental facility was designed using an electron beam (EB) as a heat source, which has a distinct feature that the various plasma burning scenarios can be simulated by controlling the beam power so as to make surface temperature of the specimen to be fixed. To clarify the crack growth mechanism and the effects of transient creep, elastic-plastic stress analysis and creep analysis were performed. It is concluded that the creep effect during the operation duration period enlarges the residual tensile stress in the cooling period, and that consequently the crack propagation length increases.