From Images to Insight: Revealing Quantitative Behaviour in Fusion Plant Components
Abstract
Designing and developing components that can survive the extreme conditions inside a fusion power plant is a huge challenge. Reaching the high thermal, mechanical, and electromagnetic loads that a component would face is often unfeasible, and even when it is possible, it can be destructive and expensive. As a result, we rely heavily on modelling and advanced imaging to understand how materials and components behave. At UKAEA, I work on the development of simulation tools that reproduce both the underlying physics and the behaviour of the diagnostic systems we use to capture that physics. By combining these approaches, we can design targeted experiments that extract the maximum amount of information from a minimal number of physical tests. In this talk, I hope to show how experiments, mathematics, image-based measurement, and simulation come together to improve fusion component qualification.
