Thermal-stress analysis on the crack formation of tungsten during fusion relevant transient heat loads

In the future fusion devices, ELMs-induced transient heat flux may lead to the surface cracking of tungsten (W) based plasma-facing materials (PFMs). In theory, the cracking is related to the material fracture toughness and the thermal stress-strain caused by transient heat flux. In this paper, a finite element model was successfully built to realize a theoretical semi infinite space. The temperature and stress-strain distribution as well as evolution of W during a single heating-cooling cycle of transient heat flux were simulated and analyzed. It showed that the generation of plastic deformation during the brittle temperature range between room temperature and DBTT (ductile to brittle transition temperature, ∼400 °C) caused the cracking of W during the cooling phase. The cracking threshold for W under transient heat flux was successfully obtained by finite element analysis, to some extent, in consistent with the similar experimental results. Both the heat flux factors (FHF = P·t0.5) and the maximum surface temperatures at cracking thresholds were almost invariant for the transient heat fluxes with different pulse widths and temporal distributions. This method not only identified the theoretical conclusion but also obtained the detail values for W with actual temperature-dependent properties.