Simulation and measurement of the dynamic strain response in a prototypical spallation target
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
The Second Target Station (STS) at the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) will address emerging scientific challenges by providing a source of intense cold neutrons to instruments optimized for this source. The STS target will use rotating tungsten blocks and will receive 1.3 GeV proton beam pulses from the SNS accelerator at a repetition rate of 15 Hz. The facility life is planned for 40 years, and each target assembly life is expected to be approximately 10 years. An accurate strain prediction is then critical for fatigue life assessment of STS target blocks because they will be subject to approximately 108 beam pulses per lifetime. As an R&D activity, the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE) Weapons Neutron Research (WNR) Target 2 (Blue Room) facility was used to test the strain response of prototypical target blocks to the thermal shock of a proton pulse. The blue room was well suited for a pulsed proton beam impact test of subscale STS target blocks; the 800 MeV proton energy is approximately 60 % of the 1.3 GeV proton energy expected from the SNS accelerator to the STS. The LANSCE Proton Storage Ring (PSR) and SNS are both short-pulse proton beam sources with nominal pulse widths of 250 ns and 661 ns, respectively, so the energy deposition in the target occurs in <1 μs pulse duration. Strain measurements on the outer surface of three target blocks (bare tungsten, tantalum-clad tungsten, niobium-clad tungsten) were recorded for comparison against neutronics and structural simulations. In conclusion, this experiment and the supporting simulations satisfied the following primary research goals for the STS target.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC); USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- 89233218CNA000001; AC05-00OR22725
- OSTI ID:
- 3002837
- Journal Information:
- Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research. Section A, Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Journal Name: Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research. Section A, Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment Vol. 1083; ISSN 0168-9002
- Publisher:
- ElsevierCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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