Demonstrating powder metallurgically produced long tungsten fiber-reinforced tungsten composite to serve as plasma-facing material

For future fusion devices, tungsten is the main candidate materials for the application as plasma facing materials (PFMs). However, considering the challenging operational condition with high thermal loading/thermal stress combining plasma exposure and neutron irradiation/embrittlement, one of the major concern for tungsten as PFMs is its intrinsic brittleness. To avoid cracking and components failure, toughening tungsten is widely investigated, among which tungsten fiber reinforced tungsten composites (W f /W) are developed using an extrinsic toughening mechanism. Recently, a new type of aligned long fiber W f /W (L-W f /W) with dedicated weak interface have been prepared by powder metallurgy process, combing the advantages of superb damage resilience with a much easier production compared to conventional chemical vapor deposition process. In this work, the newly developed material is characterized, including, mechanical tests, high heat flux tests, exposure to plasma for erosion and fuel retention tests. The l -W f /W composite could improve significantly the damage resilience compared to pure W without altering much of other properties.