Advanced x-ray imaging of metal-coated/impregnated plasma-facing composite materials

Abstract

PACS: 81.70.Tx, 78.70.En. AbstractA combination of X-ray imaging techniques is employed for the characterization of coated/impregnated carbon based composite materials to be used as Plasma Facing Components (PFC) in fusion devices. X-ray micro-tomography (µXCT) is applied for the visualization of Carbon Fiber Composites (CFC) -Cu joined samples and also for the CFC material porosity network characterization. The quantitative determination of the tungsten coating thickness on carbon materials is performed using a combined absorption/fluorescence X-ray technique (µXRFT). The method was applied at the analysis of W coated fine grain graphite (FGG) and CFC tiles. The X-ray imaging techniques provide fast analysis and high spatial resolution.

Enhanced XRF Methods for Investigating the Erosion-Resistant Functional Coatings

“…The energetic K-lines are more relevant because when comparing to the L-lines, they are less auto-absorbed in the investigated deposited layer volume. This considerably increases the saturation threshold for the fluorescence signal acquired on a sample, and improves the overall precision and accuracy of the method [14].…”

“…In previous experiments, it was determined that the auto-absorption phenomena of the fluorescence response are present in W layers above 6 µm in thickness [13,14]. Therefore, the macro-XRF method can be successfully applied to the current sample configuration.…”

“…While integrating low and high energy X-ray sources (from 20 to >120 keV), the applicability of the XRF method was expanded for analyzing multilayers of W on Mo while integrating high and low Z substrates (W, C, and fine grain graphite (FGG)). These XRF methods were developed using the Tomo-Analytic instrument and the X-ray micro-tomography facility which were presented in-detail in previous articles [13,14]. To determine quantitative results, calibration procedures involving dedicated software, simulation algorithms and standard samples were applied.…”

\baselineskip =13pt Orientation distribution function of biotite platelets based on optical, thin sections and $\mu $-CT image analysis in an Outokumpu (Finland) biotite gneiss: Comparison with neutron diffraction texture analysis

“…The instrument spatial resolution, better than 50 m allows representing the material grains whose size is larger than this threshold [Tiseanu et al, 2011[Tiseanu et al, , 2013. Photographic images of the opposed surfaces of sample were realized by a 2400 dpi scanner so grains with a minimum size of 50 m could be well observed.…”