Behaviour of melted tungsten plasma facing components under ITER-like transient heat loads: Simulations and experiments

Tungsten in the form of macrobrush structure is foreseen as one of the two candidate materials for the ITER divertor and the dome. Melting and thus melt motion and melt splashing are expected to be main mechanisms of metallic target damage that determine the lifetime of ITER plasma facing components. Experiments carried out at the plasma gun facility QSPA-T for ELM-like heat loads demonstrated a significant erosion of frontal and lateral brush edges, which was confirmed by further numerical simulations. In the experiments and numerical simulations a threshold of brush edge melting was determined.In this paper most important mechanisms of melt splashing and melt bridge formation under ITER transient heat loads are analyzed. Approximate criteria for droplet ejection are obtained and the range of transient events without significant droplet injection is calculated. The critical radius of brush edges rounding which prevents the bridge formation at the macrobrush edges is determined.