Thermal response to heat fluxes of the W7-AS divertor surface submitted to surface modification under high temperature treatment

Some target tiles of the W7-AS divertor has been investigated with respect to their thermal behaviour at the surface during power loading with well-defined heat fluxes in the Gladis facility. The primary aim was to examine uncertainties in the determination of heat fluxes derived from IR-thermography during operation of W7-AS. It is found that the derived heat flux profiles are strongly influenced by the local distribution of plasma-deposited contamination analyzed by AES and SIMS. With the observed actual surface conditions characterized by redeposited contamination equivalent up to about 1 μm thickness, the heat fluxes were partially overestimated up to a factor of 4 during operation of W7-AS. This uncertainty is observed to be significantly reduced after heat treatment at temperatures beyond 700 °C attained at power flux densities of 10.5 MW/m2 and durations longer than 5 s.