Computational-Experimental Study of the Heating of Structural Materials by IGRIK Radiation

Abstract

An experiment measuring the temperature to which small samples of W, Ta, Mo, Cu, Zr, Ni, Fe, Ti, Sn, and Pb are heated by IGRIK radiation is performed. The technology for placing the thermocouples is described, the results of an analysis of the elemental composition of the samples are presented, and the experimental results from measurements of the heating temperature are also presented. The PRIZMA.D and MCNP computer codes are used to calculate the neutron and γ-ray energy losses in samples irradiated by a reactor pulse. The heat-up temperature is calculated. Discrepancies in calculations performed of the neutron and γ-ray energy losses in samples of the materials using different nuclear data libraries are shown. It is shown that the heating temperature calculated on the basis of the calculation of the neutron and γ-ray energy losses in the material of the samples, using the PRIZMA.D program with the BAS nuclear data library, agrees with the experimental value to within 5%. The agreement obtained with the MCNP code using the ENDF-B5 and -B6 libraries is no worse than 10-15%.Computational and experimental studies of the radiation-induced heating of structural materials have been conducted in the last few years [1, 2]. Three-dimensional cooputer programs, for example, the domestic program PRIZMA.D with the BAS nuclear data library [3,4] and the American program MCNP [5] with the ENDF-B5 and -B6 libraries, are available for performing computational studies. They have been verified on many physical characteristics of different pulsed reactors but not on the effects due to radation-induced heating. The nuclear data describing the mechanisms of neutron and γ-ray energy losses need to be verified. These are the processes that are the object of study in the present work. In the experiments, which were begun in 2000 on the IGR pulsed uranium-graphite thermal reactor, the heat-up temperature due to neutron and γ radiation was measured for the following materials: W, Ta, Mo, Cr, Cu, Zr, Ni, Fe, C, Ti, Al, Sn, Pb, and (CH 2 ) n . In 2003 the experiments were continued on the IGRIK solution pulsed fast reactor [6]. The results of a computational and experimental study of the radiation-induced heating of Pb, Ta, W, Sn, Mo, Zr, Cu, Ni, Fe, and Ti samples are presented in the present paper.