Neutron Radiography: A Powerful Tool for Fast, Quantitative and Non-Destructive Determination of Hydrogen Concentration and Distribution in Zirconium Alloys

Author(s):  
Mirco Grosse
2006 ◽  
Vol 321-323 ◽  
pp. 1576-1579
Author(s):  
Yong Moo Cheong ◽  
Young Suk Kim

Zirconium alloys are used for many applications in nuclear components, such as the pressure tube material in a pressurized heavy water reactor, nuclear fuel cladding, etc. One of the problems during the operation of a nuclear reactor is the degradation of the zirconium alloys, which is due to an increase of the hydrogen content in the zirconium alloy. Therefore a non-destructive determination of the hydrogen concentration in zirconium alloy is one of the important issues that need to be addressed. The resonant ultrasound spectroscopy (RUS) technique is evaluated for a characterization of the hydrogen concentration in Zr-2.5Nb alloy. Referring to the terminal solid solubility for dissolution (TSSD) of Zr-2.5Nb alloy, the plot of the mechanical damping coefficient (Q-1) versus the temperature or the deviation of the resonant frequency for the temperature (df/dT) versus the temperature was correlated for the hydrogen concentration in Zr-2.5Nb alloy. It was found that the temperature at an abrupt change of the slope can be correlated with the hydrogen concentration of the Zr-2.5Nb alloy.


Author(s):  
O.P. Omelnyk ◽  
V.V. Levenets ◽  
A.Yu. Lonin ◽  
I.V. Shevchenko ◽  
A.O. Shchur

The possibilities of a non-destructive method of determination of the content of hafnium in zirconium alloys are studied. The method is based on excitation of the characteristic X-ray emission of the atoms of the object of interest, including the L-series of atom of Hf, by external beam of protons accelerated up to 2 MeV. The excited emission is modified by a wide band X-ray emission filter, which is made from pyrolytic graphite plates and measured by a Si-PIN detector. Optimal conditions for measurement of analytical signal were determined after experimental studying. It was shown that under the selected experimental conditions and the measurement time of 10 minutes, the detection limit of Hf in the zirconium matrix is equal 20 ppm. The ways for improving of the metrological characteristics of the technique in the presence of interfering elements are proposed. The content of hafnium and uniformity of its distribution in the cladding of nuclear fuel rod made from the alloy Zr1% Nb was determined.


2010 ◽  
Vol 1262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mirco Grosse ◽  
Marius van den Berg ◽  
Eberhard Helmar Lehmann ◽  
Burkhard Schillinger

AbstractNeutron radiography is a powerful tool for the investigation of the hydrogen uptake of zirconium alloys. It is fast, fully quantitative, non-destructive and provides a spatial resolution of 30 μm. The non-destructive character of neutron radiography provides the possibility of in-situ investigations. The paper describes the calibration of the method and delivers results of ex-situ measurements of the hydrogen concentration distribution after steam oxidation, as well as in-situ experiments of hydrogen diffusion in β-Zr and in-situ investigations of the hydrogen uptake during steam oxidation.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Sjoerd Roorda ◽  
Pat Clancy ◽  
Jonathan Bellemare ◽  
Simon Laliberté-Riverin

With the aim of exploring neutron techniques for the non-destructive detection of hydrogen in embrittled steel, three sets of steel samples were studied with neutron scattering: Ni coated, Cd coated, and Cr coated. Each set contained a non-embrittled or low-hydrogen concentration reference and one or two embrittled and high-hydrogen concentration samples. It is observed that the incoherent scattering, when normalized by the intensity of the Bragg peak, is significantly higher for high-hydrogen concentration or embrittled samples than in the reference. Although the difference is small, this represents a non-destructive technique of detecting hydrogen embrittlement. Neutron radiography, and inelastic or small-angle scattering could not distinguish between embrittled and reference samples.


1983 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Salamanca-Riba ◽  
B.S. Elman ◽  
M.S. Dresselhaus ◽  
T. Venkatesan

ABSTRACTRutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) is used to characterize the stoichiometry of graphite intercalation compounds (GIC). Specific application is made to several stages of different donor and acceptor compounds and to commensurate and incommensurate intercalants. A deviation from the theoretical stoichiometry is measured for most of the compounds using this non-destructive method. Within experimental error, the RBS results agree with those obtained from analysis of the (00ℓ) x-ray diffractograms and weight uptake measurements on the same samples.


2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 1428-1439
Author(s):  
Khurshed Alam ◽  
Md. Sayeedur Rahman ◽  
Md. Mostafizur Rahman ◽  
S. M. Azaharul Islam

A powerful non-destructive testing (NDT) technique is adopted to study the internal defects and elemental distribution/homogeneity and porosity of aerated brick and EPS aggregate poly brick samples. In the present study the internal defects like homogeneity, porosity, elemental distribution, EPS aggregate and aerator distributor in the test samples have been observed by the measurement of gray value/optical density of the neutron radiographic images of these samples. From this measurement it is found that the neutron intensity/optical density variation with the pixel distance of the AOI of the NR images in both expanded polystyrene (EPS) aggregate poly brick and aerated brick samples comply almost same in nature with respect to the whole AOI but individually each AOI shows different nature from one AOI to another and it confirms that the elemental distribution within a AOI is almost homogeneous. Finally it was concluded that homogeneity, elemental distribution in the EPS aggregate poly brick sample is better than that of the aerated brick sample. 


2020 ◽  
Vol 86 (8) ◽  
pp. 32-37
Author(s):  
V. V. Larionov ◽  
Xu Shupeng ◽  
V. N. Kudiyarov

Nickel films formed on the surface of zirconium alloys are often used to protect materials against hydrogen penetration. Hydrogen adsorption on nickel is faster since the latter actively interacts with hydrogen, oxidizes and forms a protective film. The goal of the study is to develop a method providing control of hydrogen absorption by nickel films during vacuum-magnetron sputtering and hydrogenation via measuring thermoEMF. Zirconium alloy E110 was saturated from the gas phase with hydrogen at a temperature of 350°C and a pressure of 2 atm. A specialized Rainbow Spectrum unit was used for coating. It is shown that a nickel film present on the surface significantly affects the hydrogen penetration into the alloy. A coating with a thickness of more than 2 μm deposited by magnetron sputtering on the surface of a zirconium alloy with 1% Nb, almost completely protects the alloy against hydrogen penetration. The magnitude of thermoemf depends on the hydrogen concentration in the zirconium alloy and film thickness. An analysis of the hysteresis width of the thermoEMF temperature loop and a method for determining the effective activation energy of the conductivity of a hydrogenated material coated with a nickel film are presented. The results of the study can be used in assessing the hydrogen concentration and, hence, corrosion protection of the material.


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