Photo thermal radiometry method development and application for nuclear technologies

Alexandre Semerok (1) , Sergey V. Fomichev (2, 3) , Christian Grisolia (4) , Sang Pham Tu Quoc (1) , Antonin Poisson (1) , Guy Cheymol (1) , Fernando Lomello (1) , Alexandre Michau (1) , Frédéric Schuster (5) , George Hamaoui (6) , Nicolas Horny (6) , Michai Chirtoc (6) , Hicham Maskrot (1)

1 LISL - laboratoire d'ingénierie des surfaces et lasers
2 NRC KI - National Research Center "Kurchatov Institute"
3 MIPT - Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology [Moscow]
4 IRFM - Institut de Recherche sur la Fusion par confinement Magnétique
5 CEA - CEA- Saclay
6 GRESPI - Groupe de Recherche en Sciences Pour l'Ingénieur - EA 4694

In the search for new materials for nuclear industry and reliable nuclear safe technologies, much attention is given to methods for non-destructive remote testing and control of materials in severe environment of nuclear installations. Photo thermal radiometry, as one of these possible methods, is under development in the CEA (French Atomic Energy Commission). In our studies, it was used with repetition rate laser heating of a sample by either a pulsed (100 ns-1 ms, 1-10000 Hz) [1, 2] or a sinusoidal modulated laser power (1 Hz - 1 MHz) [2,3] followed by measurements of the thermal radiation emitted by the sample under study. Thermal radiation time-dependence or phase shifts between the laser power and the thermal radiation measured at different modulated frequencies (lock-in radiometry) were then compared with those obtained with a model of laser heating to characterize some sample properties (thermal diffusivity, thickness, layer adhesion, under-surface defects and their changes in time). Samples from European TOKAMAKS (graphite or carbon fibre composite protective tiles with 1 - 100 µm deposits) and nuclear installations (metal pieces, Zircaloy cladding, micrometric oxide layers or PVD thin films, 3D-printed metal objects) were tested and characterized with the home-made experimental setups and the developed analytical (3D+t) models of laser heating [4-6]. The numerical simulation of laser heating was used to fit the calculated thermal radiation or phase shifts with the experimental ones by adjusting the material properties. This method of characterization was validated with a set of etalon samples. The applied methods will be presented along with the obtained results. The possible ways to improve the method to widen the scope of its application in the nuclear industry will be discussed as well.

1.A. Semerok, S. V. Fomichev, J.-M. Weulersse, F. Brygo and P.-Y. Thro, Journal of Applied Physics 101, 084916 (2007) 2.A. Semerok, F. Jaubert, S.V. Fomichev, P.-Y.Thro, X .Courtois, C. Grisolia, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment A693, 98 (2012) 3.N. Horny, M. Chirtoc, A. Fleming, G. Hamaoui and H. Ban, Applied Physics Letters 109, 033103 (2016) 4.A. Semerok, S.V. Fomichev, F. Jaubert, C. Grisolia, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment A738, 25 (2014) 5.S. Pham Tu Quoc, G. Cheymol, A. Semerok, Review of Scientific Instruments 85, 054903 (2014) 6.A. Semerok, S. Pham Tu Quoc, G. Cheymol, C. Gallou, H. Maskrot and G. Moutiers, European Journal of Physics, Nuclear Sciences & Technology 2, 20 (2016) doi: https://doi.org/10.1051/epjn/2016015

Domaines: Instrumentations et Détecteurs [physics.ins-det]

Alexandre Semerok, Sergey V. Fomichev, Christian Grisolia, Sang Pham Tu Quoc, Antonin Poisson, et al.. Photo thermal radiometry method development and application for nuclear technologies. 20th International Conference on Photoacoustic and Photothermal Phenomena (ICPPP 20), Jul 2019, Moscou, Russia. ⟨cea-03412003⟩