Ablation properties of plasma facing materials using thermal plasmas

We investigated the ablation characteristics of carbon/carbon composites and tungsten coated plasma facing materials (PFMs) using a 400 kW plasma wind tunnel (PWT) and a 55 kW vacuum plasma spraying system. These thermal plasma facilities allow a particle flux greater than 1024/(m2 s) and a heat flux greater than 10 MW/m2, which are the levels relevant for testing PFMs under fusion reactor conditions. We identified the ablation properties through measurement of the ablation rate and investigation of the microstructures of the PFMs before and after the ablation test.