A new measurement system of very high temperature in atomic pile using ultrasonic delay time

Abstract

The temperature measurement of very high temperature core melt is of importance in LAVA (lower-plenum Arrested Vessel Attack) experiment in which gap formation between core melt and the reactor lower head, and the effect of the gap on thermal behavior are to be measured. The existing temperature measurement techniques have some problems, which the thermocouple, one of the contact methods, is restricted to under 2000/spl deg/C, and the infrared thermometry, one of the non-contact methods, is unable to measure an internal temperature and very sensitive to the interference from reacted gases. So, in order to solve these problems, the delay time of ultrasonic wavelets due to high temperature is suggested. As a first stage, a molten material temperature was measured up to 2000/spl deg/C. Also, the optimization design of the UTS (ultrasonic temperature sensor) with persistence at the high temperature was suggested in this paper. And the utilization of the theory suggested in this paper and the efficiency of the developed system are certified by performing experiments.