The promise of a vast source of energy to power the world and protect our planet using fusion technology has been the driving force for scientists and engineers around the globe for more than sixty years. Although the materialization of this ideal still in the distance, multiple scientific and technological advances have been accomplished, which have brought commercial fusion power closer to a reality than it has ever been. As part of the collaborative effort in the pursuit of realizable fusion energy, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) is being developed by a coalition of nations of which the United States is a part of. One critical technological challenge for ITER is the development of adequate plasma facing materials (PFMs) that can withstand the strenuous conditions of operation. To date, high heat flux (HHF) testing has been conducted mainly on non-irradiated specimens due to the difficulty of working with radioactive specimens, such as instrument contamination. In this thesis, the new Irradiated Material Target Station (IMTS) facility for fusion materials at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), in which the HHFs are provided by water-wall plasma-arc lamps (PALs), is considered for neutron-irradiated specimens, especially tungsten. The facility is being used to test irradiated plasma-facing components materials for magnetic fusion reactors as part of the US-Japan plasma facing components evaluation by tritium plasma, heat and neutron irradiation experiments (PHENIX). In order to conduct HHF testing on the PFMs various sample holders designs were developed to accommodate radioactive specimens during HHF testing. As part of the effort to design sample holders that are compatible with the IMTS facility, numerical simulations were performed for different water-cooled sample holder designs with the commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software package, ANSYS™ FLUENT®. The numerical models are validated against experimental temperature measurements obtained from the IMTS facility. These experimentally validated numerical models are used to assess the thermal performance of two sample holder designs and establish safe limits for HHF testing under various operating conditions. The limiting parameter for the current configuration was determined for each sample holder design. For the Gen 1 sample holder, the maximum temperature reached within the Copper rod limits the allowable incident heat flux to about 6 MW/m². In the case of the Gen 2 sample holder, the maximum temperature reached within the Molybdenum clamping disk limits the allowable incident heat flux to about 5 MW/m². In addition, the numerical model are used to parametrically investigate the effect of the operating pressure, mass flow rate, and incident heat flux on the local heat flux distributions and peak surface temperatures. Finally, a comparative analysis is conducted to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages associated with the main design modifications between the two sample holder models as to evaluate their impact in the overall thermal performance of each sample holder in order to provide conclusive recommendations for future sample holder designs.

Dans ce travail de thèse, nous avons développé un nouveau procédé de production et de purification en temps réel des domaines 9 et 10 de la fibronectine humaine chez E.coli. Cette stratégie combine trois partenaires de fusion en tandem : un double tag d’affinité (10xHis et SBP) et un tag de coloration (le domaine de fixation de l’hème du cytochrome b5) en présence d’un site Tev. Ce système a montré sa performance dans le traçage visuel des étapes d’expression et de purification et dans la quantification de la CMAT-FNIII9-10. La présence du double tag d’affinité permet une étape de purification simple et offre un degré de pureté atteignant les 98%. Par ailleurs, le cytochrome b5 a montré son intérêt dans le suivi visuel et quantitatif de l’adsorption de la CMAT-FNIII9-10 à la surface d’un support plastique. Ensuite, l’activité du fragment recombinant a été validée avec succès. Dans cette étude, nous avons construit une matrice adhésive en combinant les propriétés du polymère PCL avec celles de la CMAT-FNIII9-10. L’immobilisation de celle-ci s’est opérée d’une manière orientée en adsorbant la protéine de fusion à la surface des PCL par l’intermédiaire de la streptavidine. Cette approche a conduit à l’élaboration d’un matériau biofonctionnalisé en optimisant l’exposition des sites d’attachement cellulaire à la surface des PCL par une immobilisation orientée. La réponse cellulaire des CMS humaines a été validée efficacement sur cette matrice, en absence de sérum et en présence de BSA. Les résultats de cette expérience montrent que cette stratégie a contribué à améliorer l’exposition des sites « RGD » et « PHSRN » favorisant l’interaction avec les récepteurs cellulaires. / In this thesis, we have developed a novel method for producing and purifying the 9th and 10thdomains of type III human fibronectin in E.coli. This strategy combines three fusion partnersin tandem: a dual affinity tag (10xHis and SBP) and a coloring tag (the binding domain of cytochrome b5 heme) in the presence of a Tev cleaving site.This system has demonstrated its performance in the visual tracking of the expression,purification and quantification steps of CMAT-FNIII9-10. The presence of the dual affinity tag allows a simple purification step and offers a degree of purity up to 98%. Moreover, the cytochrome b5 showed its interest in the visual and quantitative monitoring of the CMATFNIII9-10 adsorption onto the surface of a plastic support. Then the biological activity of there combinant fragment was successfully validated. In this study, we constructed an adhesive matrix by combining the properties of PCL with those of CMAT-FNIII9-10. Immobilization of the recombinant fragments is carried out by an oriented adsorption of the fusion protein onto the PCL film through a streptavidin layer. This approach has led to the development of a bio-functionalized material by optimizing the exposure of cell attachment sites on the surface of the PCL by an oriented immobilization. The cellular response of human MSCs was effectively validated on this matrix, in the absence of serum and in the presence of BSA. The results of this experiment show that this strategy has helped to improve the exposure sites "RGD" and "PHSRN" promoting interaction with cellular receptors.

Thesis (Ph.D.); Submitted to the Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (US); 24 Nov 2004. / Published through the Information Bridge: DOE Scientific and Technical Information. "UCRL-TH-208645" Allen, M. 11/24/2004. Report is also available in paper and microfiche from NTIS.