Failure mechanisms of High Temperature Rare Earth Barium-Copper Oxides within Fusion Environments

About the Project

This EngD project is co-supervised by Gurdeep Kamal and Simon Chislett-McDonald at Tokamak Energy https://tokamakenergy.com/.

High Temperature Superconducting (HTS) magnets, particularly those based on Rare Earth Barium Copper Oxide (REBCO) tapes, are a critical enabling technology for compact fusion power plants due to their combined ability to generate very strong magnetic fields and high current densities. Tokamak Energy’s power plant concepts are based on HTS magnets, necessitating a robust understanding of their operational lifetime within the harsh fusion radiation environment.

Whilst previous studies have investigated REBCO performance under dynamic thermal and mechanical loads, there remains a quantitative gap in validating the material’s behaviour during realistic operational radiation conditions.

This EngD project aims to address this gap by conducting a comprehensive investigation into the damage mechanisms affecting REBCO tapes under fusion-relevant neutron environments. The research will integrate:

1. Monte-Carlo neutronics simulations (of both TE tokamak magnet environments and neutron experiments) to generate relevant neutron flux spectra,
2. molecular dynamics simulations to model the effect of relevant fluxes on the REBCO crystal lattice and
3. post irradiation analysis of irradiated REBCO to compare to simulations – striving towards an empirical model for the change in REBCO superconducting performance under fusion relevant irradiation.

This EngD project is set within the Fusion Engineering CDT at the University of Birmhingham. In carrying out the work, you will also be part of the UKAEA Fusion Engineering CDT, and, along with your cohort of other doctoral students from universities across the UK, will receive training on cutting edge topics in fusion energy from academic and industry experts in fusion energy.  The 3-month CDT fusion engineering training programme is delievered at 4 leading Russell Group research universities - the University of Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield and Birmingham, and hence you will be funded to travel to these univiersities to recieve training across the fusion energy topic. The CDT trainnig programme is detailed at the CDT website https://www.fusion-engineering-cdt.ac.uk/training-fusioneers/programme/ For further information about the CDT, please visit the website or send an email to hello@fusion-engineering-cdt.ac.uk.