Study of the Response of a New Compact Calorimetric Cell for Nuclear Heating Rate Measurements

Comparison of the Responses of New Reduced-Size Calorimetric Cells Made of Different Structure Materials for High Energy Deposition

“…The nature of the material of the resistive wire was changed compared to previous employed heaters (Nickel-chromium instead of Constantan) to have a two times higher electrical resistivity (1.08x10 -6 Ω.m against 5.2x10 -7 Ω.m respectively) leading to a greater resistance for the same length of resistive wire and thus a greater possible injected electrical power range (up to 15W). For the previous works, the power range was only from 0 to 4.5W for CALMOS calorimeter [1] and up to 6W for CALORRE or CARMEN calorimeters [2][3][4][5][6][7] (cf. Fig.1).…”

“…The experimental set-up corresponds to the usual experimental set-up already used to realize the characterization of the temporal response of previous calorimetric cells under laboratory conditions and to do the out-of-pile calibration (cf. Fig.5) [3][4]7]. It is composed of a fluid circulating bath, 4 accurate resistive-shunts, 4 electrical power suppliers, 1 data acquisition device, 1 computer, 2 K-Type thermocouples and the CALORRE assembly.…”

“…Consequently, Aix-Marseille University and CEA into the framework of a joint laboratory called LIMMEX are involved in research works on instrumentation and measurement methods for online quantification of nuclear and thermal parameters in Material Testing Reactors (MTRs). In particular, studies focus on calorimeters (single-cell and differential calorimeters) used for the quantification of the nuclear absorbed dose rate [2][3][4][5][6][7]. Research works coupling experiments (under laboratory and real conditions) with thermal numerical works (1D calculations and 3D simulations) allow the design, the characterization, the calibration, the qualification and the miniaturization of various calorimeters owning different metrological advantages (sensitivity, range, size...).…”

“…This approach led to the design of a new compact calorimetric cell called CALORRE characterized under laboratory conditions and to a first prototype validated under irradiations condition in the MARIA reactor at low nuclear absorbed dose rates (<1W.g -1 ). Moreover, a complete experimental parametrical study under laboratory conditions allowed the determination of the influence of the sensor geometry (horizontal fin, sensor height) for the same material structure (stainless steel), the influence of the material structure for a specific horizontal fin design, and the influence of coolant fluid conditions on the metrological characteristics of the prototypes (sensitivity, linearity, range) [7]. Thanks to these works, a new CALORRE configuration has been defined to target a nuclear absorbed dose rate up to 20W.g -1 .…”

Calibration of a Single-Cell Calorimeter in a New Transient-state Test Bench

“…This calorimeter was designed and developed by the Polish National Center of Nuclear Research (NCBJ) to carry out experiments in the MARIA Reactor in 2014 and 2015. The aim of these two irradiation campaigns was the comparison of different calorimeters: KAROLINA calorimeter and gamma thermometer then KAROLINA calorimeter and two French differential calorimeters (CARMEN [5] and CALORRE [12,13]).…”