Technical note for the cavitation damage inspection for interior surface of the mercury target vessel, 2; Damage depth measurement for cavitation erosion

Naoe, Takashi; Wakui, Takashi; Kinoshita, Hidetaka; Kogawa, Hiroyuki; Teshigawara, Makoto; Haga, Katsuhiro

JAEA-Technology 2023-022, 81 Pages, 2024/01

JAEA-Technology-2023-022.pdf:9.87MB

In the liquid mercury target system for the pulsed spallation neutron source of Materials and Life Science Experimental Facility (MLF) in the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC), pressure waves that is generated by the high-energy proton beam injection simultaneously with the spallation reaction, resulting severe cavitation erosion damage on the interior surface of the mercury target vessel. Because the bubble of pressure wave-induced cavitation collapsing near the interior surface of the mercury target vessel with applying the large amplitude of localized impact on the surface. Since the wall thickness of the beam entrance portion of the target vessel is designed to be 3 mm to reduce thermal stress due to the internal heating, the erosion damage has the possibility to cause the vessel fatigue failure and mercury leakage originated from erosion pits during operation. To reduce the erosion damage by cavitation, a technique of gas microbubble injection into the mercury for pressure wave mitigation, and double-walled structure of the beam window of the target vessel has been applied. A specimen was cut from the beam window of the used mercury target vessel in order to investigate the effect of the damage mitigation technologies on the vessel, and to reflect the consideration of operation condition for the next target. We have observed cavitation damage on interior surface of the used mercury target vessel by cutting out the disk shape specimens. Damage morphology and depth of damaged surface were evaluated and correlation between the damage depth and operational condition was examined. The result showed that the erosion damage by cavitation is extremely reduced by injecting gas microbubbles and the damage not formed inside narrow channel of the double-walled structure for relatively high-power operated target vessels.

Small gas bubble experiment for mitigation of cavitation damage and pressure waves in short-pulse mercury spallation targets

Riemer, B. W.*; Wendel, M. W.*; Felde, D. K.*; Sangrey, R. L.*; Abdou, A.*; West, D. L.*; Shea, T. J.*; Hasegawa, Shoichi; Kogawa, Hiroyuki; Naoe, Takashi; et al.

Journal of Nuclear Materials, 450(1-3), p.192 - 203, 2014/07

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2013.10.011

Populations of small helium gas bubbles were introduced into a flowing mercury experiment test loop to evaluate mitigation of beam-pulse induced cavitation damage and pressure waves. The test loop was developed and thoroughly tested at the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) prior to irradiations at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center - Weapons Neutron Research Center (LANSCE-WNR) facility. Twelve candidate bubblers were evaluated over a range of mercury flow and gas injection rates by use of a novel optical measurement technique that accurately assessed the generated bubble size distributions. Final selection for irradiation testing included two variations of a swirl bubbler provided by Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC) collaborators and one orifice bubbler developed at SNS. Bubble populations of interest consisted of sizes up to 150 m in radius with achieved gas void fractions in the 10 to 10 range. The nominal WNR beam pulse used for the experiment created energy deposition in the mercury comparable to SNS pulses operating at 2.5 MW. Nineteen test conditions were completed each with 100 pulses, including variations on mercury flow, gas injection and protons per pulse. The principal measure of cavitation damage mitigation was surface damage assessment on test specimens that were manually replaced for each test condition. Damage assessment was done after radiation decay and decontamination by optical and laser profiling microscopy with damaged area fraction and maximum pit depth being the more valued results. Damage was reduced by flow alone; the best mitigation from bubble injection was between half and a quarter that of flow alone. Other data collected included surface motion tracking by three laser Doppler vibrometers (LDV), loop wall dynamic strain, beam diagnostics for charge and beam profile assessment, embedded hydrophones and pressure sensors, and sound measurement by a suite of conventional and contact microphones.

Study of decontamination methods with microbubbles, 2

Yamamoto, Keisuke; Aoyama, Yoshio

no journal, , 

no abstracts in English

Effect of microbubble injection on cavitation erosion

Sun, X.*; Naoe, Takashi; Futakawa, Masatoshi; Maekawa, Katsuhiro*

no journal, , 

Mercury target for pulsed spallation neutron source has been installed at the Materials and Life science experimental Facility (MLF) in the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex. At the moment of the proton beams bombard the target, pressure waves will be generated due to the thermal shock. On the process of the pressure wave propagation, negative pressure induces the cavitation which causes pitting damage on the inner surface of the target vessel. In the MLF, microbubbles injection into the flowing mercury is carrying out in order to mitigate the pressure waves. In this study, the effect of microbubbles on cavitation damage by microsecond-scale negative pressure was investigated through the vibratory horn tests in the bubbly water.