Structural Integrity of W-CuCrZr composite with optimised topology for nuclear fusion

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Nuclear fusion has enormous potential to offer a sustainable and clean electricity source, but great materials engineering challenges must be overcome before this can be realised. Enabling the next generation of nuclear fusion power plants places significant demand on new metallic materials which can withstand and operate in extreme environments. Tungsten-cooper composites are next generation plasma facing fusion materials. This project aims to develop a process route for tungsten-cooper composites and create a fundamental understanding of the failure in tungsten-cooper composites via multiscale mechanical and microstructure characterisation. With this new understanding, we will develop an imaging-based finite element predictive model for optimising the topology of the tungsten-cooper interface to enable the manufacturing of a heat exchanger with greater thermal resilience and improved service life.