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A mathematical model of surface cracking under pulsed heat load was developed. The model correctly describes a smooth brittle–ductile transition. The elastic deformation is described in a thin-heated-layer approximation. The plastic deformation is described with the Hollomon equation. The time dependence of the deformation and stresses is described for one heating–cooling cycle for a material without initial plastic deformation. The model can be applied to tungsten manufactured according to ITER specifications. The model shows that the stability of stress-relieved tungsten deteriorates when the base temperature increases. This proved to be a result of the close ultimate tensile and yield strengths. For a heat load of arbitrary magnitude a stability criterion was obtained in the form of condition on the relation of the ultimate tensile and yield strengths.

The paper presents experimental investigations of tungsten surface modification after plasma loads at the multimirror trap GOL-3. Energy loads on tungsten surface varied from 2 up to 4 MJ/m2 per shot with sets from 1 to 9 repetitive irradiations that corresponds to loads higher than tungsten melting threshold and is close to ITER giant ELM loads. Targets surface modification and transverse microsections after irradiation was studied by optical microscopy, SEM and hardness tester. Formation on tungsten surface of three different crack networks with typical cell sizes of 1000, 10 and 0.3 μm and bubbles are identified. The network of large cracks extend perpendicularly to the irradiated sample surface to a depth of 50–350 μm. Erosion depth depends on energy loads – rises from 20 to 200 μm at 2 and 4 MJ/m2 correspondingly. Cracking, development of tungsten surface morphology and droplets splashing are discussed.

On the basis of the modeling experiments of hot plasma influence on the graphite and tungsten materials performed on the GOL-3 device, an analysis was made of a possibility for explosive erosion to occur under ITER disruption conditions. In this analysis, the threshold value for explosive erosion obtained in the GOL-3 experiments was taken into account. Then the volumetric energy release was calculated for a hot plasma (T = 1–20 keV) reaching the target at the limit of irradiating flux close to the conditions of ITER disruption (an energy flux of up to 140 MJ/m2). It is shown that under such conditions, erosion can reach values much higher than those in the case of erosion under the effect of a plasma with lower temperature but with the same energy density.

The GOL-3 facility was used for exploratory plasma stream target experiments under conditions rather typical for the thermal quench phase of ITER tokamak plasma disruptions. The experiments allowed study of the properties of target plasmas formed from vaporized target materials in front of the target and determination of the target material erosion. Within 2 ps after the onset of the plasma stream a cloud of evaporated material is formed. The cloud expands along magnetic force lines with velocities around lo6 cm/s. Line radiation is observed from the target plasma corona, continuum radiation from the bulk of the cloud. The temperature in the plasma corona is about 1 eV. The black body temperature of the bulk cloud is below 0.5 eV. The erosion for graphite increases sharply upon reaching a threshold value of 1 MJ/m’ for the energy density of the hot plasma stream and achieves very high values.