Tungsten is particularly suitable as material for highly stressed parts of the vessel enclosing a hot fusion plasma, it being the metal with the highest melting point. A disadvantage, however, is its brittleness, which under stress makes it fragile and prone to damage. A novel, more resilient compound material has now been developed by Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) at Garching. It consists of homogeneous tungsten with coated tungsten wires embedded. A feasibility study has just shown the basic suitability of the new compound.
Tungsten-fibre-reinforced tungsten
Tungsten-fibre-reinforced tungsten
Tungsten-fibre-reinforced tungsten
-
- Posts: 892
- Joined: Thu Mar 12, 2009 3:51 pm
- Contact:
Re: Tungsten-fibre-reinforced tungsten
This would do much for so many other areas. The brittleness of tungsten is an issue in machine tools, where it's hardness shines. Having inserts that are harder to break would be a boon for many operations.
Evil is evil, no matter how small
Re: Tungsten-fibre-reinforced tungsten
LPP is moving to a monolithic tungsten cathode, but the brittleness is an issue:
Monolithic cathode planned to achieve plasma purity, higher density
The fibers would help with the fragility, but I guess the outer surface would still need to be fiber-free to prevent arcs in the wrong places.
Monolithic cathode planned to achieve plasma purity, higher density
The fibers would help with the fragility, but I guess the outer surface would still need to be fiber-free to prevent arcs in the wrong places.