Solubility of helium in mercury for bubbling technology of the spallation neutron mercury target

Hasegawa, Shoichi   ; Naoe, Takashi   ; Futakawa, Masatoshi  

The pitting damage of mercury target container that originates in the pressure wave excited by the proton beam incidence is mitigated by injecting the helium micro bubbles in mercury. It is important to understand the characteristic of micro bubbles in mercury. The solubility of helium in mercury is an important. The lifetime of micro bubble depends on solubility. In addition, the value of solubility is affected for a possibility of bubble generation method. To estimate these issues, the solubility of helium in mercury is required. Data related to the measured solubility of helium in mercury directly by experiments doesn't exist. It is predicted that the solubility is very small ( 10 as mol ratio) from a theoretical model of the rare gas into liquid metal using a molecular dynamics. In this work, the solubility was confirmed by an experimental method, and the life time of micro bubbles and the method to the bubble generation is estimated using the solubility data.