Thermo-mechanical behaviour of a single slice test device for the FRIB high power target

One of the major challenges of the FRIB project (Facility for Rare Isotope Beams) at Michigan State University is the design and integration of the production target to produce rare isotope beams via fragmentation reaction. In the most extreme case, a 400 kW uranium beam of 200 MeV/u will be focused in a 1 mm diameter spot, leading to a power density of 60 MW/cm3 for a C target. Up to 200 kW may be dissipated in the target.A rotating solid carbon disk concept has been selected as the target design approach for all primary beams up to uranium to provide high-power operation. A high rotational speed is necessary to compensate for the high power density. A multi-slice approach allows the evacuation of the large amount of heat deposited by the increase of the radiating area. In the present design study, the multi-slice target device has a diameter of about 30 cm and rotates at about 5000 RPM (revolutions per minute). The first step of the R&D strategy consists in the development and test of a 20 kW single-slice target prototype. This single disk device is designed to accept the same fraction of power as each disk of the final multi-slice target. Critical information on thermal-mechanical properties can be obtained thus at a lower power level than the one of the full device. Different carbon materials were tested. An electron beam of ∼20 keV was used for the thermal tests. Simulations were performed using the ANSYS code for the thermo-mechanical behaviour of the target, the resulting deformation and the stress profiles of heated graphite disks. Results of the simulations were compared with experimental data.