Hydroide Storage Vessel wall stress measurements

Holographic Interferometry and strain gauge measurements were used to determine whether a prototype Hydride Storage Vessel (HSV) swelled while it was loaded in eleven stages with hydrogen. Bed swelling is inferred from deformation of the surface of the HSV. No swelling was detected, even after saturating the hydride material inside the HSV. The large chunky morphology of the titanium is likely responsible for the lack of wall stress. This morphology also implies that decay helium that remains in the titanium hydride (that is, helium that is not released as gas to the free volume) should not cause significant wall stresses when the HSV is used for long-term tritium storage. Holographic interferometry proved to be an extremely sensitive technique to measure swelling, having a detection limit of about 3 microns surface displacement