Low cycle fatigue strength of diffusion bonded joints of alumina dispersion-strengthened copper to stainless steel

It is proposed that the first wall and divertor components of ITER employ alumina dispersion-strengthened copper (DS Cu) joined to austenitic stainless steel. In this work, low cycle fatigue tests were performed on a direct diffusion bonded joint, a diffusion bonded joint with a Au interlayer, stainless steel and DS Cu in order to investigate their fatigue strength and fracture behavior. For the direct diffusion bonded joint, the fatigue strength in the small strain range was considerably lower than that of the DS Cu, while in the large strain range the fatigue strength was similar to that of the DS Cu. The low cycle fatigue strength of the Au interlayer joint increased compared with the direct diffusion bonded joint, and was the same as that of the DS Cu. The strain distribution in joint specimens was not uniform, because the deformation stress was different between the 316 stainless steel and the DS Cu. The fracture locations for the joint specimens varied depending on their strain distribution.