Project Description

Nuclear fusion promises unlimited energy supply to the world. One challenges to building successful fusion reactors is developing materials that withstand high heat and particle fluxes originating from the fusion plasma. Currently, tungsten is a leading candidate material as plasma-facing component due to its attractive thermal, physical, and mechanical properties. However, recent studies have shown that the high heat and He+ ion loads can drastically reduce the strength of tungsten due to defect generation and transport under localized stress near the surface followed by the formation of fuzz-like nanostructure, which leads to a significant reduction of the thermal conductivity near the tungsten surface and surface cracking. The post-doctoral fellow will investigate the morphological instability and fuzz-structure formation on tungsten surface due to the exposure to low-energy He+ ion irradiation and temperatures up to 1200 K, both experimentally and theoretically. Under the joint supervision of Prof. Ahmed Hassanein (Nuclear Engineering) and Prof. Anter El-Azab (Material Engineering), he/she will integrate the unique experimental facilities at The Center for Materials under Extreme Environment (CMUXE) at Purdue and the simulation tools at the Computational Materials Science Group to carry out the proposed work. 

Start Date

May 1, 2021

Postdoc Qualifications

A Ph.D. in nuclear engineering, materials science and engineering, or mechanical engineering is recommended. Candidates with previous hands-on experience in experimental research and/or simulations are highly preferred, with knowledge in the area of defects and diffusion in materials. 

Co-Advisors

Professor Ahmed Hassanein, School of Nuclear Engineering, hassanein@purdue.edu

Professor Anter El-Azab, School of Materials Engineering, aelazab@purdue.edu

References

G. Sinclair, Tripathi, J.K., and Hassanein, A., “Erosion dynamics of tungsten fuzz during ELM-like heat loading, J. Applied Physics, 123, 133302 (2018)

T.J. Novakowski, A. Sundaram, T.J. Tripathi, S. Gonderman, and A. Hassanein,”Deuterium desorption in ion-irradiated tantalum and effects on surface morphology”, Journal of Nuclear Materials, 504, 1. (2018)

S. Gonderman, J.K. Tripathi, G. Sinclair, T.J. Novakowski, T. Sizyuk, and A. Hassanein, “Effects of in-situ dual ion beam (He+ and D+) irradiation with simultaneous pulsed heat loading on surface morphology evolution of tungsten-tantalum alloys”, Nuclear Fusion, 58, 026016. (2017)

G. Sinclair, J.K. Tripathi, P. Diwakar, and A. Hassanein “Melt layer growth and erosion during ELM-like heat loading on plasma-facing components”, Scientific Reports/Nature, 7, 12273. (2017)

G. Sinclair, J.K. Tripathi, P.K. Diwakar, N. Lemahieu, M. Wirtz, J. Linke, and A. Hassanein “Structural Evolutions of Tungsten Surface Exposed to Low Energy Helium Ion Irradiation by Transient Heat Loading”, Nuclear Materials and Energy, 12, 405. (2017)