Probabilistic failure analysis of a water-cooled tungsten divertor: Impact of embrittlement

Inherent brittleness and neutron embrittlement are critical weaknesses of tungsten for fusion application. Pronounced scattering of the fracture strength of tungsten requires a statistical treatment. Thus, the risk of structural failure of a tungsten component can be estimated only in a probabilistic framework. In this work, we applied a probabilistic failure analysis code STAU to estimate the failure risk of a water-cooled tungsten mono-block divertor component. The STAU code was based on the weakest-link failure theory and linear elastic fracture mechanics. A typical heat flux load being expected for a fusion reactor was considered for the FEM stress analysis. The failure probability was computed considering various mixed-mode fracture criteria. Both the experimentally estimated and hypothetical Weibull parameters were used as material data. In the case of unirradiated tungsten, the failure probability was acceptably small whereas reduced Weibull parameters led to significantly increased failure risk.