High heat flux tests on heat sinks armored with tungsten rods

This paper presents the results of high heat flux tests at Sandia National Laboratories of mock-ups armored with W rods embedded in water-cooled coppe r-alloy heat sinks. The major result is the excellent performance of these mock-ups in thermal response tests at up to 30 MW/m(2) and in thermal cycli ng tests of 500 cycles (10 s on, 10 s off) at similar to 25 MW/m(2). Meltin g of rod tips and the subsequent 'self-repair' of a degraded thermal bond w ere seen. Issues for further development in both testing and manufacturing of the mock-ups were identified. Evaluation of the surface heat flux was fo und to be somewhat problematic and this issue is discussed. (C) 2000 Elsevi er Science B.V. All rights reserved.