ABSTRACT Novel fuels are part of the nationwide effort to reduce the enrichment of Uranium for energy production. Fuel performance is determined by irradiating tfuel plates. The plate checker used in this experiment at Idaho National Lab (INL) performs nondestructive testing on fuel rod and plate geometries with two different types of sensors: eddy current and digital thickness gauges. The sensors measure oxide growth and sample thickness on research fuels, respectively. Sensor measurement accuracy is crucial because even microns of error is significant when determining the viability of an experimental fuel. One parameter known to affect the eddy current and digital gauge sensors is temperature. Since both sensor accuracies depend on the ambient temperature of the system, the plate checker has been characterized for these sensitivities. Additionally, the manufacturer of the digital gauge probes has noted a rather large coefficient of thermal expansion for their linear scale. In this work, the effect of temperature on the eddy current and digital gauge probes is evaluated, and thickness measurements are provided as empirical functions of temperature. Additionally, an experimental coefficient of thermal expansion for the probe material has been reported and compared with the manufacturer’s specifications.

中文翻译：

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用于氧化物测量的涡流和数字测量探头的温度敏感性研究

摘要 新型燃料是减少用于能源生产的铀浓缩的全国性努力的一部分。燃料性能由辐照燃料板决定。爱达荷州国家实验室 (INL) 在该实验中使用的板检查器使用两种不同类型的传感器对燃料棒和板的几何形状进行无损检测：涡流和数字测厚仪。这些传感器分别测量研究燃料上的氧化物生长和样品厚度。传感器测量精度至关重要，因为在确定实验燃料的可行性时，即使是微米级的误差也很重要。已知影响涡流和数字仪表传感器的一个参数是温度。由于两个传感器的精度都取决于系统的环境温度，因此板检查器的特点是具有这些灵敏度。此外，数字量规探头的制造商注意到其线性标尺具有相当大的热膨胀系数。在这项工作中，温度对涡流探头和数字量规探头的影响进行了评估，并提供了厚度测量作为温度的经验函数。此外，还报告了探针材料的热膨胀实验系数，并与制造商的规格进行了比较。