New Developments in Proton Radiography at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE)

Abstract

An application of nuclear physics, a facility for using protons for flash radiography, has been developed at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE). Protons have proven far superior to high energy x-rays for flash radiography because of their long mean free path, good position resolution, and low scatter background. Although this facility is primarily used for studying very fast phenomena such as high explosive driven experiments, it is finding increasing application to other fields, such as tomography of static objects, phase changes in materials and the dynamics of chemical reactions. The advantages of protons are discussed, data from some recent experiments will be reviewed and concepts for new techniques are introduced.

The Trinity High-Explosive Implosion System: The Foundation for Precision Explosive Applications

“…Extensive work has been performed by the DOD on development of shaped-charge jets and their interaction with targets, often employing DOE-NNSA modeling and simulation tools and experimental capabilities. Proton radiography (pRad) has been employed at Los Alamos to image shaped charge jet penetration into metal and ceramic armor materials, 51,52 as shown in Figure 12. Because of the hazard from combatant or accidental impact of shaped charge jets into military explosive munitions, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has established a policy for introduction and assessment of Insensitive Munitions in Standardization Agreement (STANAG) 4439 to promote the development of safer munitions and increase interoperability with the established STANAG 4526, "Shaped Charge Jet Munition Test Procedures".…”

“…Recent advances include the application of additive manufacturing (3-D printing) to simplify the production of planewave lenses. 59 Plane wave lenses themselves are frequently employed to either provide a direct high pressure impulsive Taylor wave load, [60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68] to launch a flier plate to achieve a high pressure square wave load, 69,70 to achieve planer detonation of an explosive sample, 71,52,72 or to provide a uniform dynamic drive from explosive by-products 73,74 for shock and detonation physics experiments.…”

The Trinity High Explosive Implosion System: The Foundation for Precision Explosive Applications

“…Extensive work has been performed by the DOD on development of shaped-charge jets and their interaction with targets, often employing DOE-NNSA modeling and simulation tools and experimental capabilities. Proton radiography (pRad) has been employed at Los Alamos to image shaped-charge jet penetration into metal and ceramic armor materials, 49,50 as shown in Figure 12. Because of the hazard of employing shaped-charge jets for military applications, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has established a policy for introduction and assessment of Insensitive Munitions in Standardization 51 Explosive lenses are also employed in conventional munitions to optimize the explosive transfer between booster and warhead.…”

“…Recent advances include the application of additive manufacturing (3-D printing) to simplify the production of plane-wave lenses. 57 Plane-wave lenses themselves are frequently employed to either provide a direct high pressure impulsive Taylor wave load, [58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66] to launch a flier plate to achieve a high-pressure square-wave load, 67,68 to achieve planer detonation of an explosive sample, 69,50,70 or to provide a uniform dynamic drive from explosive by-products 71,72 for shock and detonation physics experiments.…”

Proton microscope design for 9 GeV pRad facility

“…To develop the proton microscope optics the following basic principles should be fulfilled. The microscope should consist of the "forming" part and the "measuring" part with target chamber placed between them [10,15,16]. In figure 1 the common proton microscope layout is illustrated.…”