Development and testing of an additively manufactured lattice for DEMO limiters

In the conceptual design of EU-DEMO, damage to plasma-facing components under disruption events is planned to be mitigated by specific sacrificial limiter components. A new limiter concept has been proposed using lattice structures fabricated with tungsten powder by additive manufacturing techniques. The major potential benefits of using a lattice structure for limiters are the possibility to customise the thermal conductivity and structural compliance of these components to manage temperatures and stress within material limits and lower the sensitivity to crack propagation. This paper presents the results of the first investigations into the production, characterisation, and high heat flux testing of these lattices to assess their suitability for DEMO limiters. First stage prototypes have been manufactured from tungsten and tungsten tantalum mixed powder with two distinct laser power bed fusion processes, namely pulsed laser and continuous laser with heated bed. The samples are characterised in terms of mass, volume, density, extent of microcracks and voids, level of un-melted or partially melted particulates, texture and grain size, as well as tantalum segregation when applicable. High transient (0.25 ms) heat load testing, with hydrogen plasma of energy density up to ∼3 MJ m−2 was carried out at Kharkov Institute of Physics and Technology on the quasi-stationary plasma accellerator Kh-50. These tests have shown that the energy absorbed by latticed targets preheated at 500 °C is close to that absorbed by solid tungsten, suggesting that they may be used for limiter applications with the added advantage of adjustment of the heat transfer and stiffness performance by geometry design or material properties.