{"title":"Stability studies of sealed (zero gas flow) resistive plate chambers","authors":"A. Blanco , P. Fonte , L. Lopes , M. Pimenta","doi":"10.1016/j.nima.2025.170396","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The phase-out of hydro-fluorocarbons, owing to their high Global Warming Potential, affecting the main gas used in Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs), tetrafluoroethane C<span><math><msub><mrow></mrow><mrow><mn>2</mn></mrow></msub></math></span>H<span><math><msub><mrow></mrow><mrow><mn>2</mn></mrow></msub></math></span>F<span><math><msub><mrow></mrow><mrow><mn>4</mn></mrow></msub></math></span>, has increased operational difficulties on existing systems and imposes strong restrictions on its use in new systems.</div><div>This has motivated a new line of R&D on sealed RPCs: RPCs that do not require a continuous gas flow for their operation and dispense the use of very complex and expensive re-circulation and/or recycling gas systems.</div><div>In this work, we demonstrate the feasibility of a small telescope for atmospheric muon tracking consisting of four 300 × 300 mm<span><math><msup><mrow></mrow><mrow><mn>2</mn></mrow></msup></math></span> sealed RPCs with gas gap widths of <span><math><mrow><mn>1</mn><mspace></mspace><mi>mm</mi></mrow></math></span>, <span><math><mrow><mn>1</mn><mo>.</mo><mn>5</mn><mspace></mspace><mi>mm</mi></mrow></math></span> and <span><math><mrow><mn>2</mn><mspace></mspace><mi>mm</mi></mrow></math></span>. The results suggest that it is possible to operate this type of detectors for extended periods of time (more than five months) with its main characteristics, efficiency, average charge and streamer probability, without apparent degradation and similar to a RPC operated in continuous gas flow.</div><div>However, this paper does not prove that sealed RPC can cover all fields of application normally attributed to RPCs. Much more testing would be needed to prove that sealed RPCs can be used in other conditions, especially at high rate and for extended periods of operation and large scales, like e.g. in LHC experiments at CERN.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":19359,"journal":{"name":"Nuclear Instruments & Methods in Physics Research Section A-accelerators Spectrometers Detectors and Associated Equipment","volume":"1075 ","pages":"Article 170396"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5000,"publicationDate":"2025-03-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Nuclear Instruments & Methods in Physics Research Section A-accelerators Spectrometers Detectors and Associated Equipment","FirstCategoryId":"101","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168900225001974","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"INSTRUMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The phase-out of hydro-fluorocarbons, owing to their high Global Warming Potential, affecting the main gas used in Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs), tetrafluoroethane CHF, has increased operational difficulties on existing systems and imposes strong restrictions on its use in new systems.
This has motivated a new line of R&D on sealed RPCs: RPCs that do not require a continuous gas flow for their operation and dispense the use of very complex and expensive re-circulation and/or recycling gas systems.
In this work, we demonstrate the feasibility of a small telescope for atmospheric muon tracking consisting of four 300 × 300 mm sealed RPCs with gas gap widths of , and . The results suggest that it is possible to operate this type of detectors for extended periods of time (more than five months) with its main characteristics, efficiency, average charge and streamer probability, without apparent degradation and similar to a RPC operated in continuous gas flow.
However, this paper does not prove that sealed RPC can cover all fields of application normally attributed to RPCs. Much more testing would be needed to prove that sealed RPCs can be used in other conditions, especially at high rate and for extended periods of operation and large scales, like e.g. in LHC experiments at CERN.
期刊介绍:
Section A of Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research publishes papers on design, manufacturing and performance of scientific instruments with an emphasis on large scale facilities. This includes the development of particle accelerators, ion sources, beam transport systems and target arrangements as well as the use of secondary phenomena such as synchrotron radiation and free electron lasers. It also includes all types of instrumentation for the detection and spectrometry of radiations from high energy processes and nuclear decays, as well as instrumentation for experiments at nuclear reactors. Specialized electronics for nuclear and other types of spectrometry as well as computerization of measurements and control systems in this area also find their place in the A section.
Theoretical as well as experimental papers are accepted.