Wall conditioning and leak localization in the advanced toroidal facility

The Advanced Toroidal Facility (ATF) vacuum vessel and its internal components have been conditioned for plasma operation by baking, discharge cleaning with hydrogen and helium, and gettering with chromium and titanium. The plasma-facing surface of ATF consists mainly of stainless steel with some graphite; the outgassing area is dominated by the graphite because of its open porosity. Since this situation is somewhat different from that in other fusion plasma experiments, in which a single material dominates both the outgassing area and the plasma-facing area, different cleaning and conditioning techniques are required. The situation was aggravated by air leaks in the vacuum vessel, presumably resulting from baking and from vibration during plasma operation. The results of the various cleaning and conditioning techniques used are presented and compared on the basis of residual gas analysis and plasma performance. A technique for detecting leaks from the inside of the vacuum vessel is described; this technique was developed because access to the outside of the vessel is severely restricted by external components. 10 refs., 6 figs., 2 tabs

Studies of plasma performance and transport in the advanced toroidal facility (ATF)

An overview of recent ATF experimental results and program plans is presented, with emphasis on the role of magnetic configuration controls in transport studies. The ATF operating space is bounded by a density limit that effectively sets a limit on the energy confinement time {tau}{sub E}. Although this limit is not solely due to impurities, it has recently been raised by improved cleanliness following titanium gettering. This has led to collapse-free neutral beam injection (NBI) discharges with global {tau}{sub E} {approx} 16 ms. Preliminary experiments show that stored energy and bootstrap current are sensitive to details of the magnetic configuration. 13 refs., 8 figs

Effect of Post-weld Heat Treatment on Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Laser Beam Welded TiAl-based Alloy

Post-weld heat treatment is carried out on the laser beam welded γ-TiAl-based alloy Ti-48Al-1Cr-1.5Nb-1Mn-0.2Si-0.5B (at. pct). The macro/microstructure and mechanical properties of both as-welded and heat-treated specimens are investigated by radiography, SEM, and tensile tests. Moreover, high energy synchrotron X-ray diffraction is performed to measure the residual stresses and evaluate the microstructure evolution. It is found that the residual stresses are distributed in a three-peak shape in the region of the weld zone and heat-affected zone of the as-welded specimen due to the microstructural transformation and heat softening. The residual stresses are largely relieved after the heat treatment. The heat-treated specimens have a near fully lamellar microstructure and show balanced mechanical properties of strength and ductility. The diffraction shows that the phase transformation from α 2 to γ takes place under tensile load at 1023 K (750 °C), and the grain size and lamellar spacing are refined in the weld zone. Finally, the fracture mechanisms are found to be controlled by the local stress concentration-induced strain misfit between α 2 and γ phases in the near γ grains and delamination and debonding in the lamellae. Boride ribbons of 5 μm in the near fully lamellar microstructure are found not to be detrimental to the tensile properties