Wall cratering upon high velocity normal dust impact

Dust-wall high speed impacts, triggered by the termination of runaway electrons on plasma facing components, constitute a source of erosion. Normal high velocity mechanical impacts of tungsten dust on bulk tungsten plates are reproduced in a controlled manner by light gas gun shooting systems. Post-mortem surface analysis revealed that three erosion regimes are realized; plastic deformation, bonding and partial disintegration. The large impact statistics allowed the extraction of reliable empirical damage laws in the latter regime, which can be employed for erosion estimates in future reactors. •W dust high speed impacts on bulk W realized by light gas gun systems.•Erosion regimes of plastic deformation, impact bonding and partial disintegration.•Crater characteristics measured by mechanical profiler and microscopy.•Formulation of empirical damage laws for the crater diameter and crater depth.