Development of tracer particles for thermal hydraulic experiment by neutron imaging

Saito, Yasushi*; Ito, Daisuke*; Odaira, Naoya*; Kurita, Keisuke  ; Iikura, Hiroshi  

To observe flow velocity distributions by Neutron Imaging, suitable tracer is necessary. The requirements are its density, its visibility, and its wettability (if applied to liquid metal). Gold cadmium tracers have been developed for the Pb-Bi two-phase flow, however, the visibility have not been verified depending on the particle size and the measurement system. As the candidates of tracer particles, Ag, Cd, Au-Cd, and Ag-Cd have been tested by varying its compositions and its diameters. Results show enough visibility if the particles size is larger than 1mm. In addition, Cd tracer particles were applied to the fluidized bed, where the bed materials are metallic particle made of stainless steel, with 1mm diameter. The diameter of Cd trace is about 1.5 mm. From the neutron imaging, the visibility of the tracers is enough to measure the velocity distributions in the fluidized bed.