TY - JOUR
T1 - Infrared thermography method to detect cracking of nuclear fuels in real-time
AU - Pearlman, Marcus
AU - Lupercio, Adrianna
AU - Rektor, Attila
AU - Lamb, James
AU - Fleming, Austin
AU - Jaques, Brian
AU - Subbaraman, Harish
AU - Kandandai, Nirmala
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was prepared as an account of work sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy Advanced Sensors and Instrumentation program under DOE Contract DE-AC07-05ID14517 . Neither the U.S. Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, expressed or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness, of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. References herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the U.S. Government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the U.S. Government or any agency thereof.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2023/4/15
Y1 - 2023/4/15
N2 - The efficiency and performance of nuclear fuels are essential to the safety, reliability, and economics of nuclear energy. Crack formation occurs relatively early in the fuel operation cycle and lowers its life and efficiency; accordingly, understanding crack formation and propagation in fuels is key to evaluating and improving fuel performance. The harsh environment inside a nuclear reactor is the primary challenge for real-time fuel monitoring. A coherent fiber optic bundle (CFOB) based infrared thermography (IRT) method may be a viable method for real-time fuel monitoring. A radiation hardened, temperature resistant CFOB can be used to transmit a real-time image from inside the harsh reactor environment to the near infrared (NIR) camera outside the reactor. In this paper, the feasibility of the method was tested and confirmed on oxide nuclear fuel surrogates in a laboratory setting. Two different fuel surrogate materials are showcased with and without the CFOB using furnace heating, laser heating, and reflected illumination from an incandescent bulb. The behavior of common features, such as cracks, mounds and pits, were all compared in detail for the different heating/illumination techniques and samples for temperatures ranging from 23–500°C. The effects of five different image processing techniques were also studied. Cracks down to ≈300nm wide with a field of view of ≈6.4×5.12mm were easily detected with the IRT system with and without the CFOB.
AB - The efficiency and performance of nuclear fuels are essential to the safety, reliability, and economics of nuclear energy. Crack formation occurs relatively early in the fuel operation cycle and lowers its life and efficiency; accordingly, understanding crack formation and propagation in fuels is key to evaluating and improving fuel performance. The harsh environment inside a nuclear reactor is the primary challenge for real-time fuel monitoring. A coherent fiber optic bundle (CFOB) based infrared thermography (IRT) method may be a viable method for real-time fuel monitoring. A radiation hardened, temperature resistant CFOB can be used to transmit a real-time image from inside the harsh reactor environment to the near infrared (NIR) camera outside the reactor. In this paper, the feasibility of the method was tested and confirmed on oxide nuclear fuel surrogates in a laboratory setting. Two different fuel surrogate materials are showcased with and without the CFOB using furnace heating, laser heating, and reflected illumination from an incandescent bulb. The behavior of common features, such as cracks, mounds and pits, were all compared in detail for the different heating/illumination techniques and samples for temperatures ranging from 23–500°C. The effects of five different image processing techniques were also studied. Cracks down to ≈300nm wide with a field of view of ≈6.4×5.12mm were easily detected with the IRT system with and without the CFOB.
KW - Image processing
KW - Imaging
KW - Infrared thermography
KW - Instrumentation
KW - Nuclear fuel cracking
KW - Thermal properties
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85147547542&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/00dfc152-e02d-3eb2-9387-497b10052939/
U2 - 10.1016/j.nucengdes.2023.112196
DO - 10.1016/j.nucengdes.2023.112196
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85147547542
SN - 0029-5493
VL - 405
JO - Nuclear Engineering and Design
JF - Nuclear Engineering and Design
M1 - 112196
ER -