Investigation on the diffusion bonding of tungsten and EUROFER97

Due to its advantages, tungsten is selected as armor and structural material for use in future fusion power plants. To apply tungsten as structural material, a joint to EUROFER97 is foreseen in current divertor design for which the diffusion bonding is considered in this work. The joining must have acceptable strength and ductility without significant change in microstructures. So far, numerous diffusion bonding experiments without and with post bonding heat treatment (PBHT) are performed at 1050 °C for various bonding duration. For the bonding processes without PBHT, the bonding seams obtained are defect free and have a very high tensile strength. However they are brittle due to a thin layer of FeW intermetallic phase and metal carbides. For the bonding processes with PBHT, the bonding specimens fail at the bonding seam.