Open AccessFiber optic calorimetry
Author(s) -
C. R. Rudy,
Stephen Bayliss,
D. S. Bracken,
J. Bush,
P. Davis
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
osti oai (u.s. department of energy office of scientific and technical information)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
DOI - 10.2172/563803
Subject(s) - calorimeter (particle physics) , optical fiber , materials science , plutonium , fiber , calorimetry , optics , phase (matter) , sensitivity (control systems) , thermal , physics , nuclear physics , composite material , electronic engineering , engineering , thermodynamics , quantum mechanics , detector
A twin-bridge calorimeter using optical fiber as the sensor element was constructed and tested. This system demonstrates the principle and capability of using fiber for heat-flow measurements of special nuclear material. This calorimeter uses piezoelectric-generated phase-carrier modulation with subsequent electronic signal processing to allow phase shifts as small as 1 microradian ({mu}rad) to be measured. The sensing element consists of 21-m lengths of single-mode optical fiber wrapped around sample and reference chambers. The sensitivity of the calorimeter was determined to be 74 radians (rad) of phase shift per milliwatt of thermal power. One milliwatt of thermal power is equivalent to 400 mg of plutonium (6% {sup 240}Pu). The system noise base was about 0.2 rad, equivalent to about 1 mg of plutonium
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