Optimization Design on a High-performance Magnetic Shielding Barrel for Atomic Magnetometer Measurement Application

The ultra-high-precision measurement of the atomic magnetometer is largely restricted by the size of its working magnetic field. In order to reduce the residual magnetic field as much as possible, this article carried out the research on the methods to improve the shielding performance. Firstly, the axial shielding factor that limits the shielding performance of the magnetic shielding barrel was derived with various parameters including the radius, length, thickness, number of layers, distance between adjacent layers, etc. of the magnetic shielding barrel. Secondly, simulation was carried out to verify the correctness of the formula. Simulation shows that the shielding performance of the magnetic shielding barrel decreases with the size of magnetic shielding barrel increase. Besides, with the increase of the distance between two adjacent spacing layers, the shielding performance first increases rapidly and then gradually decreases, indicating that the optimal distance between adjacent layers is 9mm. Especially, the performance of the magnetic shielding barrel improves significantly as the layer thickness and number of layers increase. Experimental results show that the internal remanence of the three-layer magnetic shielding barrel is less than 1nT, and the available axial length of homogeneity range is greater than 200mm.

Finite-Element Simulation of Residual Stresses During the Processing of Lumped Burnable Absorber Fuel

UO2–Gd2O3 fuel is mostly used as a burnable absorber fuel in the form of a homogenous mixture of Gd2O3 and UO2. More effective reactivity control can be achieved by lumping Gd2O3 within the UO2 because this enhances the spatial self-shielding factor of the burnable absorber fuel. The fabrication of lumped burnable absorber fuel containing lumped Gd2O3 spherical particles or compacts has been experimentally demonstrated using yttrium-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) as a UO2 fuel surrogate. Interfacial cracks or gaps forming under the interfacial stress that develops during the fabrication of the fuel can be eliminated by controlling the initial density of the lumped Gd2O3. In this study, this interfacial stress during the fabrication process was simulated using finite element methods. The effect of the size, shape, and initial density of the lumped Gd2O3 on the distribution and magnitude of the interfacial stress was investigated. The addition of Gd2O3 spherical particles resulted in a lower and more uniform interfacial stress distribution than the addition of cylindrical Gd2O3 compacts. The interfacial stress was increased with increasing Gd2O3 size and initial density. The calculated interfacial stress was compared with experimental results to estimate the threshold stress for crack development in a lumped burnable absorber fuel.

Identification of Material Properties and Optimal Design of Magnetically Shielded Rooms

In this paper, we propose an optimal design procedure for magnetically shielded rooms. Focusing on multi-layer ferromagnetic structures, where inner layers operate at very low magnetic field, we propose an identification method of the magnetic material characteristic in the Rayleigh region. A numerical model to simulate the shielding efficiency of a multi-layer ferromagnetic structure is presented and experimentally tested on different geometries and layer configurations. The fixed point iterative method is adopted to handle the nonlinearity of the magnetic material. In conclusion, the optimization of the design parameters of a MSR is discussed, using the Vector Immune System algorithm to minimize the magnetic field inside the room and the cost of the structure. The results highlight that a linear magnetic characteristic for the material is sufficient to identify the suitable geometry of the shield, but the nonlinear model in the Rayleigh region is of fundamental importance to determine a realistic shielding factor.

Conductive suit shielding properties assessment in different power frequency electric field exposure

Shielding properties of conductive protective suits were tested by currents and power frequency electric field strengths for different exposure conditions. The differences between torso and head shielding factors, as well as shielding factors with and without face screen were determined. Near wire and in air capacity exposure test setups were the most valid for head shielding factor assessment.

Balanced, bi-planar magnetic field and field gradient coils for field compensation in wearable magnetoencephalography

To allow wearable magnetoencephalography (MEG) recordings to be made on unconstrained subjects the spatially inhomogeneous remnant magnetic field inside the magnetically shielded room (MSR) must be nulled. Previously, a large bi-planar coil system which produces uniform fields and field gradients was used for this purpose. Its construction presented a significant challenge, six distinct coils were wound on two 1.6 × 1.6 m2 planes. Here, we exploit shared coil symmetries to produce coils simultaneously optimised to generate homogenous fields and gradients. We show nulling performance comparable to that of a six-coil system is achieved with this three-coil system, decreasing the strongest field component Bx by a factor of 53, and the strongest gradient dBx/dz by a factor of 7. To allow the coils to be used in environments with temporally-varying magnetic interference a dynamic nulling system was developed with a shielding factor of 40 dB at 0.01 Hz. Reducing the number of coils required and incorporating dynamic nulling should allow for greater take-up of this technology. Interactions of the coils with the high-permeability walls of the MSR were investigated using a method of images approach. Simulations show a degrading of field uniformity which was broadly consistent with measured values. These effects should be incorporated into future designs.

APPLICATION OF THE FOREST SHIELDING FACTOR TO THE MAXIMUM-LIKELIHOOD EXPECTATION MAXIMIZATION METHOD FOR AIRBORNE RADIATION MONITORING

The maximum-likelihood expectation maximization (ML-EM) method is expected to improve the accuracy of airborne radiation monitoring using an unmanned aerial vehicle. The accuracy of the ML-EM method depends on various parameters, including detector efficiency, attenuation factor, and shielding factor. In this study, we evaluate the shielding factor of trees based on several field radiation measurements. From the actual measurement, the shielding factors were well correlated with the heights of the trees. The evaluated shielding factors were applied to the ML-EM method in conjunction with the measured data obtained from above the Fukushima forest. Compared with the conventional methods used for calculating the dose rate, the proposed method is found to be more reliable.