"Irradiation Testing of Ultrasonic Transducers"
Joshua Daw, Gordon Kohse, Joe Palmer, Pradeep Ramuhalli, Brian Reinhardt, Joy Rempe, Bernhard Tittmann, Robert Montgomery, Jean-Francois Villard, H. T. Chien,
ANIMMA 2013 Special Edition, IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science
Vol. 61
2013
1-7
Link
Ultrasonic technologies offer the potential for high accuracy and resolution in-pile measurement of numerous parameters, including geometry changes, temperature, crack initiation and growth, gas pressure and composition, and microstructural changes. Many Department of Energy-Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE) programs are exploring the use of ultrasonic technologies to provide enhanced sensors for in-pile instrumentation during irradiation testing. For example, the ability of single, small diameter ultrasonic thermometers (UTs) to provide a temperature profile in candidate metallic and oxide fuel would provide much needed data for validating new fuel performance models. Other efforts include an ultrasonic technique to detect morphology changes (such as crack initiation and growth) and acoustic techniques to evaluate fission gas composition and pressure. These efforts are limited by the lack of existing knowledge of ultrasonic transducer material survivability under irradiation conditions. To address this need, the Pennsylvania State University (PSU) was awarded an Advanced Test Reactor National Scientific User Facility (ATR NSUF) project to evaluate promising magnetostrictive and piezoelectric transducer performance in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Research Reactor (MITR) up to a fast fluence of at least 1021 n/cm2 (E> 0.1 MeV). This test will be an instrumented lead test; and real-time transducer performance data will be collected along with temperature and neutron and gamma flux data. By characterizing magnetostrictive and piezoelectric transducer survivability during irradiation, test results will enable the development of novel radiation tolerant ultrasonic sensors for use in Material and Test Reactors (MTRs). The current work bridges the gap between proven out-of-pile ultrasonic techniques and in-pile deployment of ultrasonic sensors by acquiring the data necessary to demonstrate the performance of ultrasonic transducers.
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"Updated Results of Ultrasonic Transducer Irradiation Test"
Joshua Daw, Gordon Kohse, Joe Palmer, Brian Reinhardt, Joy Rempe, Pradeep Ramuhalli, Paul Keller, Robert Montgomery, Hual-Te Chien, Bernhard Tittmann, Jean-Francois Villard,
ANIMMA - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Vol.
2015
Link
Ultrasonic technologies offer the potential for high accuracy and resolution in-pile measurement of a range of parameters, including geometry changes, temperature, crack initiation and growth, gas pressure and composition, and microstructural changes. Many Department of Energy-Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE) programs are exploring the use of ultrasonic technologies to provide enhanced sensors for in-pile instrumentation during irradiation testing. For example, the ability of small diameter ultrasonic thermometers (UTs) to provide a temperature profile in candidate metallic and oxide fuel would provide much needed data for validating new fuel performance models. These efforts are limited by the lack of identified ultrasonic transducer materials capable of long term performance under irradiation test conditions. To address this need, the Pennsylvania State University (PSU) was awarded an Advanced Test Reactor National Scientific User Facility (ATR NSUF) project to evaluate the performance of promising magnetostrictive and piezoelectric transducers in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Research Reactor (MITR) up to a fast fluence of at least 10{sup 21} n/cm{sup 2}. A multi-National Laboratory collaboration funded by the Nuclear Energy Enabling Technologies Advanced Sensors and Instrumentation (NEET-ASI) program also provided initial support for this effort. This irradiation, which started in February 2014, is an instrumented lead test and real-time transducer performance data are collected along with temperature and neutron and gamma flux data. The irradiation is ongoing and will continue to approximately mid-2015. To date, very encouraging results have been attained as several transducers continue to operate under irradiation. |
"Irradiation Testing of Ultrasonic Transducers" Joshua Daw, Gordon Kohse, Joe Palmer, Pradeep Ramuhalli, Brian Reinhardt, Joy Rempe, Bernhard Tittmann, 2013 Conference on Advancements in Nuclear Instrumentation, Measurements Methods (ANIMMA 2013) June 23-27, (2013) |
DOE Awards Eight CINR NSUF Projects - Projects include $3M in access grants and R&D funding Monday, July 6, 2020 - Calls and Awards |
2020 NSUF Annual Review - Presentations The 2020 NSUF Annual Review presentations are now available online Tuesday, December 15, 2020 - DOE, Annual Review, Presentations |
"Leveraging Optimal Sparse Sensor Placement to Aggregate a Network of Digital Twins for Nuclear Subsystems"
Congjian Wang, Palash K. Bhowmik, Joshua J. Cogliati, Silvino A. Balderrama Prieto, Changhu Xing, Andrei A. Klishin, Richard Skifton, Musa Moussaoui, Charles P. Folsom, Joe J. Palmer, Piyush Sabharwall, Krithika Manohar, Mohammad G. Abdo, Niharika Karnik,
[2024]
Energies
· DOI: 10.3390/en17133355
Nuclear power plants (NPPs) require continuous monitoring of various systems, structures, and components to ensure safe and efficient operations. The critical safety testing of new fuel compositions and the analysis of the effects of power transients on core temperatures can be achieved through modeling and simulations. They capture the dynamics of the physical phenomenon associated with failure modes and facilitate the creation of digital twins (DTs). Accurate reconstruction of fields of interest (e.g., temperature, pressure, velocity) from sensor measurements is crucial to establish a two-way communication between physical experiments and models. Sensor placement is highly constrained in most nuclear subsystems due to challenging operating conditions and inherent spatial limitations. This study develops optimized data-driven sensor placements for full-field reconstruction within reactor and steam generator subsystems of NPPs. Optimized constrained sensors reconstruct field of interest within a tri-structural isotropic (TRISO) fuel irradiation experiment, a lumped parameter model of a nuclear fuel test rod and a steam generator. The optimization procedure leverages reduced-order models of flow physics to provide a highly accurate full-field reconstruction of responses of interest, noise-induced uncertainty quantification and physically feasible sensor locations. Accurate sensor-based reconstructions establish a foundation for the digital twinning of subsystems, culminating in a comprehensive DT aggregate of an NPP. |
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"Retractable Sensors for In-Core Service in Material Test Reactors" [2023] | |
"Development and Test Results of Thermocouples Used in the TRISO-Fuel Irradiation Experiment AGR-5/6/7" R. S. Skifton, D. C. Haggard, W. D. Swank, M. Scervini, G. L. Hawkes, C. B. T. Pham, T. L. Checketts, A. J. Palmer, [2023] Nuclear Technology · DOI: 10.1080/00295450.2022.2065873 · ISSN: 0029-5450 | |
"Feasibility Study for the X-energy Reduced Size Pebble Experiment in ATR" Joe Palmer, [2023] · DOI: 10.2172/1923549 | |
"FY2022 Progress Report for Advanced Re-fabrication/Re-instrumentation Capability Development" Joe Palmer, Justin Yarrington, Clayton Turner, James Zillinger, Spencer Parker, Connor Woolum, Colby Jensen, Mark Cole, Jason Schulthess, [2022] · DOI: 10.2172/1891637 | |
"Thermocouple Testing in Support of the AGR-5/6/7 Experiment" Richard Skifton, W. Swank, D. Haggard, Austin Matthews, David Cottle, A. Palmer, [2022] · DOI: 10.2172/1871307 | |
"Assembly and Functional Test of NRAD Heated Instrumentation Rig" A. Palmer, [2021] · DOI: 10.2172/1871308 | |
"Completion of Milestone for Receiving Reinstrumentation Equipment from IFE" Joe Palmer, [2021] · DOI: 10.2172/1780718 | |
"Completion of Irradiation of Sensors in ATRC Milestone" Joe Palmer, [2021] · DOI: 10.2172/1770179 | |
"AGR-5/6/7 Operations Update for Technical Coordination Team (Apr 2020)" Joe Palmer, [2020] · DOI: 10.2172/1617324 | |
"Performance of Custom-Made Very High Temperature Thermocouples in the Advanced Gas Reactor Experiment AGR-5/6/7 during Irradiation in the Advanced Test Reactor"
R. S. Skifton, M. Scervini, D. C. Haggard, W. D. Swank, A. J. Palmer,
[2020]
EPJ Web of Conferences
· DOI: 10.1051/epjconf/202022504010
· ISSN: 2100-014X
The Advanced Gas Reactor-5/6/7 (AGR-5/6/7) experiment is the fourth and final experiment in the AGR experiment series and will serve as the formal fuel qualification test for the TRISO fuels under development by the U.S. Department of Energy. Certain locations in this experiment reach temperatures higher than any of the previous AGR tests, up to 1500°C. Such extreme temperatures create unique challenges for thermocouple-based temperature measurements. High-temperature platinum-rhodium thermocouples (Types S, R, and B)and tungsten-rhenium thermocouples (Type C) suffer rapiddecalibration due to transmutation of the thermoelements fromneutron absorption. For lower temperature applications, previousexperience with Type K thermocouples in nuclear reactors haveshown that they are affected by neutron irradiation only to alimited extent. Similarly, Type N thermocouples, which are morestable than Type K at high temperatures, are only slightly affectedby neutron fluence. Until recently, the use of these nickel-basedthermocouples was limited when the temperature exceeds 1050°Cdue to drift related to phenomena other than nuclear irradiation.Recognizing the limitations of existing thermometery to measuresuch high temperatures, the sponsor of the AGR-5/6/7 experimentsupported a development and testing program for thermocouplescapable of low drift operation at temperatures above 1100°C. High Temperature Irradiation Resistant Thermocouples (HTIR-TCs)based on molybdenum/niobium thermoelements have been underdevelopment at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) since circa 2004. A step change in accuracy and long-term stability of thisthermocouple type has been achieved as part of the AGR-5/6/7thermometry development program. Additionally, long-termtesting (9000+ hrs) at 1250°C of the Type N thermocouplesutilizing a customized sheath developed at the University ofCambridge has been completed with low drift results. Both theimproved HTIR and the Cambridge Type N thermocouple typeshave been incorporated into the AGR-5/6/7 test, which beganirradiation in February 2018 in INL’s Advanced |
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"AGR-5/6/7 Experiment Monitoring and Simulation Progress" James Sterbentz, Grant Hawkes, Dawn Scates, Joe Palmer, Cam T. Pham, [2019] · DOI: 10.2172/1599405 | |
"Performance of Custom-Made Very High Temperature Thermocouples in the Advanced Gas Reactor Experiment AGR-5/6/7 During Irradiation [Slides]" Richard Skifton, D. Haggard, Michele Scervini, Joe Palmer, [2019] · DOI: 10.2172/1529895 | |
"Evaluation of a Versatile Experimental Salt Irradiation Loop (VESIL) inside the Advanced Test Reactor" James W. Sterbentz, Joe Palmer, Pattrick Calderoni, Abdalla Abou Jaoude, [2019] · DOI: 10.2172/1511048 | |
"AGR-5/6/7 Irradiation Summary as of the End of Cycle 164B" Joe Palmer, [2019] · DOI: 10.2172/1599842 | |
"Conceptual Design Report for the Xe-6/7/8 Experiment in the NE Flux Trap" James Sterbentz, Paul Murray, Joe Palmer, [2018] · DOI: 10.2172/1469795 | |
Source: ORCID/CrossRef using DOI |
The Nuclear Science User Facilities (NSUF) is the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy's only designated nuclear energy user facility. Through peer-reviewed proposal processes, the NSUF provides researchers access to neutron, ion, and gamma irradiations, post-irradiation examination and beamline capabilities at Idaho National Laboratory and a diverse mix of university, national laboratory and industry partner institutions.
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