Microstructure and thermal stability of a structurally graded tungsten and reduced activation ferritic/martensitic steel joint

Ishtiaque K. Robin; Tim Gräning; Ying Yang; Yutai Katoh; Steven J. Zinkle

doi:10.1016/j.jmrt.2024.04.087

Microstructure and thermal stability of a structurally graded tungsten and reduced activation ferritic/martensitic steel joint

Ishtiaque K. Robin
, Tim Gräning
, Ying Yang
, Yutai Katoh
, Steven J. Zinkle

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

10 Scopus citations

Abstract

The leading design for plasma-facing high heat flux components in proposed fusion reactors involves joining plasma-facing tungsten tiles to underlying reduced activation ferritic-martensitic (RAFM) steel structures. Due to significant differences in the physical properties between W and steel, an effective method for joining them while preserving the mechanical and microstructural properties under service thermo-mechanical load is yet to be demonstrated. A transitional multilayer consisting of three layers (VCrTi, VCrAl, and FeCrAl) between W and steel is designed with the help of thermodynamic simulation and diffusion kinetics in an attempt to form solid solution bonding without forming brittle intermetallic phases. The solid solution bonding is desirable to mitigate the drastically different thermal expansion between W and steels. The multilayer structure was fabricated using spark plasma sintering (SPS). The microstructure of the bonded transition layers was analyzed after long-term annealing at 620 °C up to 1000h, through scanning electron microscope, energy dispersive spectroscopy and electron backscattering diffraction. Interdiffusion kinetics between layers and reliability of mobility database were also analyzed. This work provides a good understanding of thermal stability as well as the efficacy of multilayer functionally graded transition layer for joining W to ferritic/martensitic steel.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	3663-3674
Number of pages	12
Journal	Journal of Materials Research and Technology
Volume	30
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmrt.2024.04.087
State	Published - May 1 2024

Funding

The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests:Yutai Katoh reports financial support was provided by US Department of Energy. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.All the experiments for this paper have been performed at the Institute for Advanced Materials & Manufacturing Headquarters (IAMM HQ) at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Support for the conducted research was provided by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) under Award Number 20/CJ000/08/03 at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Fusion Energy Science program. This manuscript has been coauthored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The authors would like to thank Dr. Timothy Ironman for his help with the SPS process. All the experiments for this paper have been performed at the Institute for Advanced Materials & Manufacturing Headquarters (IAMM HQ) at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Support for the conducted research was provided by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) under Award Number 20/CJ000/08/03 at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Fusion Energy Science program. This manuscript has been coauthored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The authors would like to thank Dr. Timothy Ironman for his help with the SPS process.

Keywords

Diffusion kinetics
Fusion plasma facing materials
SPS
Solid state diffusion bond
W-steel transition layer bond

Access to Document

10.1016/j.jmrt.2024.04.087

Cite this

@article{a75f42d0e28841809fce92177ddb1104,

title = "Microstructure and thermal stability of a structurally graded tungsten and reduced activation ferritic/martensitic steel joint",

abstract = "The leading design for plasma-facing high heat flux components in proposed fusion reactors involves joining plasma-facing tungsten tiles to underlying reduced activation ferritic-martensitic (RAFM) steel structures. Due to significant differences in the physical properties between W and steel, an effective method for joining them while preserving the mechanical and microstructural properties under service thermo-mechanical load is yet to be demonstrated. A transitional multilayer consisting of three layers (VCrTi, VCrAl, and FeCrAl) between W and steel is designed with the help of thermodynamic simulation and diffusion kinetics in an attempt to form solid solution bonding without forming brittle intermetallic phases. The solid solution bonding is desirable to mitigate the drastically different thermal expansion between W and steels. The multilayer structure was fabricated using spark plasma sintering (SPS). The microstructure of the bonded transition layers was analyzed after long-term annealing at 620 °C up to 1000h, through scanning electron microscope, energy dispersive spectroscopy and electron backscattering diffraction. Interdiffusion kinetics between layers and reliability of mobility database were also analyzed. This work provides a good understanding of thermal stability as well as the efficacy of multilayer functionally graded transition layer for joining W to ferritic/martensitic steel.",

keywords = "Diffusion kinetics, Fusion plasma facing materials, SPS, Solid state diffusion bond, W-steel transition layer bond",

author = "Robin, \{Ishtiaque K.\} and Tim Gr{\"a}ning and Ying Yang and Yutai Katoh and Zinkle, \{Steven J.\}",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2024 The Authors",

year = "2024",

month = may,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1016/j.jmrt.2024.04.087",

language = "English",

volume = "30",

pages = "3663--3674",

journal = "Journal of Materials Research and Technology",

issn = "2238-7854",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Microstructure and thermal stability of a structurally graded tungsten and reduced activation ferritic/martensitic steel joint

AU - Robin, Ishtiaque K.

AU - Gräning, Tim

AU - Yang, Ying

AU - Katoh, Yutai

AU - Zinkle, Steven J.

PY - 2024/5/1

Y1 - 2024/5/1

N2 - The leading design for plasma-facing high heat flux components in proposed fusion reactors involves joining plasma-facing tungsten tiles to underlying reduced activation ferritic-martensitic (RAFM) steel structures. Due to significant differences in the physical properties between W and steel, an effective method for joining them while preserving the mechanical and microstructural properties under service thermo-mechanical load is yet to be demonstrated. A transitional multilayer consisting of three layers (VCrTi, VCrAl, and FeCrAl) between W and steel is designed with the help of thermodynamic simulation and diffusion kinetics in an attempt to form solid solution bonding without forming brittle intermetallic phases. The solid solution bonding is desirable to mitigate the drastically different thermal expansion between W and steels. The multilayer structure was fabricated using spark plasma sintering (SPS). The microstructure of the bonded transition layers was analyzed after long-term annealing at 620 °C up to 1000h, through scanning electron microscope, energy dispersive spectroscopy and electron backscattering diffraction. Interdiffusion kinetics between layers and reliability of mobility database were also analyzed. This work provides a good understanding of thermal stability as well as the efficacy of multilayer functionally graded transition layer for joining W to ferritic/martensitic steel.

AB - The leading design for plasma-facing high heat flux components in proposed fusion reactors involves joining plasma-facing tungsten tiles to underlying reduced activation ferritic-martensitic (RAFM) steel structures. Due to significant differences in the physical properties between W and steel, an effective method for joining them while preserving the mechanical and microstructural properties under service thermo-mechanical load is yet to be demonstrated. A transitional multilayer consisting of three layers (VCrTi, VCrAl, and FeCrAl) between W and steel is designed with the help of thermodynamic simulation and diffusion kinetics in an attempt to form solid solution bonding without forming brittle intermetallic phases. The solid solution bonding is desirable to mitigate the drastically different thermal expansion between W and steels. The multilayer structure was fabricated using spark plasma sintering (SPS). The microstructure of the bonded transition layers was analyzed after long-term annealing at 620 °C up to 1000h, through scanning electron microscope, energy dispersive spectroscopy and electron backscattering diffraction. Interdiffusion kinetics between layers and reliability of mobility database were also analyzed. This work provides a good understanding of thermal stability as well as the efficacy of multilayer functionally graded transition layer for joining W to ferritic/martensitic steel.

KW - Diffusion kinetics

KW - Fusion plasma facing materials

KW - SPS

KW - Solid state diffusion bond

KW - W-steel transition layer bond

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85190549201

U2 - 10.1016/j.jmrt.2024.04.087

DO - 10.1016/j.jmrt.2024.04.087

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85190549201

SN - 2238-7854

VL - 30

SP - 3663

EP - 3674

JO - Journal of Materials Research and Technology

JF - Journal of Materials Research and Technology

ER -

Microstructure and thermal stability of a structurally graded tungsten and reduced activation ferritic/martensitic steel joint

Abstract

Funding

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this