Initiation and propagation of damage in actively cooled CFC armoured high heat flux components in fusion machines

Plasma facing components (PFCs) in magnetic confinement controlled fusion machines are armoured with carbon fibre composite (CFC) bonded to a copper alloy heat sink. The manufacturing process induces high level of residual stresses due to the thermal expansion mismatch between CFC and copper and PFCs have to withstand strong stress ranges during operation. To study the initiation and propagation of damage in the CFC part, the ONERA damage model is used to describe the behaviour of the N11 material. The finite element simulations show that the damage is located near the interface and develops during the manufacturing of the PFCs as a consequence of the high amplitude of shear stresses. Under high heat flux, stresses decrease and the damage does not evolve. Further studies will take into account the damageable behaviour of the composite/copper interface, which will lead to geometrical optimisations and better knowledge of the link between damage and conductivity.