Transcript Document

Fluidised Powder Rig Developments
Work by:
Chris Densham, Peter Loveridge & Ottone Caretta (RAL)
Tom Davies (Exeter University)
Richard Woods (Gericke Ltd.)
With special thanks to EPSRC Engineering Instrument Pool
www.eip.rl.ac.uk
Presented by Peter Loveridge
[email protected]
UKNF Meeting, Lancaster
April 2009
Why a Powder Target?
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A fluidised powder has some of the advantages of both solid and liquid targets:
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A fluidised powder could be considered for
future high power target scenarios:
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Material already broken (no fear of rupture)
Shock waves constrained within material, i.e. no splashing or cavitation
Flowing, replenishable material
Favourable heat-transfer
Decoupled (offline) cooling
Few moving parts
Powder handling is a mature process technology (ready solutions for most issues)
Neutrino Factory target
• Open (or contained?) jet in solenoid
• Alternative to liquid Mercury baseline
Superbeam
• Contained flowing powder + horn
• To go beyond “power limit” in solid
graphite targets
Tungsten Powder test programme launched
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Test rig commissioned Dec 2008 at RAL
First results Mar 2009
Rig Commissioning, RAL, Dec 2008
Rig Operation Overview
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Powder recirculated in “Batch” mode
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Rig contains ~130 kg Tungsten Powder
Particle size < 250 microns
Fully automated control system
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Valve open/close sequence
Blower on/off
Blower Frequency
Data Logging
Hard-wired safety interlocks
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Control System User Interface (MATLAB)
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Batch Powder Process
Load Hopper
Pressurise Hopper
Powder Ejection and Observation
Suction / Recirculation
Summary of Data runs 18 March – 01 April
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Total ~3,000 kg powder ejected
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Parameters Varied:
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Conveying pressure range 2 to 5 bar
Coaxial flow geometry
Coaxial flow velocity 10 – 30 m/s
Powder jet recorded using High-speed camera
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31 suction/ejection cycles
Vision Research PHANTOM 7.1
5000 fps
Rig instrumentation data logged throughout
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Pressure
Flowrate
Temperature
Mass
High speed camera setup
Post-processing Underway
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Data interpretation underway…
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Preliminary results available
Results for a Low Pressure Jet
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Low pressure ejections look quite promising
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2.0 bar ejection hopper pressure
Jet “droops” by ~30 mm over a 300 mm length
Each particle takes ~0.1 sec to traverse
viewport
Jet Velocity = 3.7 m/s
Nozzle pipe not full!
Vair ~30 m/s
Vjet = 3.7 m/s
Stable Jet
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Constant pressure in hopper throughout
ejection
Velocity (does not vary top/bottom)
Velocity (constant over time)
Dimensions (constant with distance from
nozzle)
Dimensions (reasonable stability over time)
Low pressure ejection schematic
Still from video clip
(2 bar ejection hopper pressure)
Video Clip
High-Speed Video Clip
(2 bar ejection hopper pressure)
Jet Density Calculation
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Recall: Solid Tungsten density = 19,300 kg/m3
Powder density “at rest” ~ 50% solid
Density Calculation for 2 bar ejection
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Jet area, A= 262 mm2
(from nozzle dimensions and video still measurements)
Powder bulk velocity, V = 3.7 m/s
(from particle tracking)
Vol flowrate = A.V = 0.000968 m3/s
Nozzle ID = 21.45 mm
Jet height = 14.6 mm
Jet Area = 262 mm2
Mass flowrate = 7.875 kg/s
(from loadcell)
Jet Density = Mass flowrate / Vol flowrate = 8139 kg/m3
Jet Density = 42% Solid tungsten density
Uncertainty is of the order ± 5% density
From hopper load-cell data log:
63 kg in 8 sec = 7.875 kg/sec
Summary
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Rig commissioning complete in 1st (simple) configuration
Data runs Mar/Apr 2009
Preliminary results indicate a jet density 42 ± 5 % is feasible
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42% Tungsten density is equivalent to 60% Mercury Density
Next Steps
Ongoing evaluation of data runs
Hardware
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Experiments
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Reconfigure rig for vertical powder lift (without 90 degree bend in
suction line)
Install nozzle pressure sensors
Suction
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Powder flotation, minimise velocity and wear in suction cycle
Nozzle pressure drop
Test minimum flow velocity (for contained powder target)
Next EIP camera slot in June?
Next Configuration (vertical powder lift)