Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Scaffidi-Argentina, F
• Piazza, G
• Goraieb, A
• Boller, E
• Elmoutaouakkil, A
• Ferrero, C
• Baruchel, J

Titel

Non destructive three dimensional analysis of the packing of a binary beryllium pebble bed

Ist Teil von

• Fusion engineering and design, 2001-11, Vol.58, p.707-712

Ort / Verlag

Amsterdam: Elsevier B.V

Erscheinungsjahr

2001

Quelle

Elsevier Journal Backfiles on ScienceDirect (DFG Nationallizenzen)

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• In the Helium Cooled Pebble Bed (HCPB) Blanket, studied within the European Fusion Technology Programme, beryllium in form of pebbles is used as neutron multiplier. The thermal–mechanical behaviour of a pebble bed strongly depends on the packing factor of the bed. In a binary pebble bed, in particular, a homogeneous distribution of small pebbles between the larger ones (infiltrated bed) has to be ensured in order to obtain a behaving homogeneously bed. Thus, a detailed non-destructive control of the pebble bed configuration can provide an important help in interpreting the pebble bed thermal mechanical characterisation test results. A three-dimensional (3-D) computer aided microtomography (CMT) experimental setup developed at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) allowed to reconstruct 3-D images of the attenuation coefficient of a X-ray synchrotron radiation beam within a pebble bed without physically damaging it. By post-processing the acquired data, very useful quantitative informations were obtained (local and average void fraction in the sample, impurities and micro-cracks in the pebbles). In the present work, the micrographic technique and the first results of the analysis are presented and critically discussed in view of a future application for a medium scale HCPB Blanket mock-up.