The MiHTEE Lab at Texas A&M

Equipment

Elementrac ONHp2 Combustion Analyzer

The ELEMENTRAC ONH–p 2 device is an elemental analyser. By melting samples in a pulse
furnace, the device is able to determine oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen concentration in inorganic samples. The gaseous combustion products are measured by infrared and thermal conductivity cells.

The combustion analyzer heats up samples in its crucible to the melting point. This causes the sample to release oxygen which reacts with the graphite crucibles to produce carbon monoxide, which is filtered for and turned into carbon dioxide by the traps shown in the pictures.

The carbon dioxide then passes through a thermal conductivity detector, which then measures its concentration. This concentration is equal to the initial oxygen in the sample, telling us the initial oxygen concentration. The process is similar for hydrogen, but the released hydrogen doesn’t react with anything in the traps. It measures concentrations in the ppm range.

HIPE (Hydrogen Isotope Permeation Experiment)

The HIPE is a versatile experimental platform for accurately measuring the permeability of hydrogen isotopes in materials at high temperatures. 

Hydrogen and tritium permeation are potentially issues in some fission and fusion reactor materials. HIPE will enable the acquisition of practical material performance data under a range of emulated reactor conditions.

HIPE is especially designed to test materials with low hydrogen permeability, such as candidate barrier materials for advanced fission and fusion reactors.

Key Capabilities: 

  • HIPE uses residual gas analysis against an ultra-high-vacuum background to achieve a low minimum detection limit. This detection method can also distinguish between different elements and their isotopes.
  • HIPE possesses an adjustable feed gas system enables the use of any mixture of up to three gases, each with a fully adjustable partial pressure maintained throughout the experiment.
  • Bulk pressure can be adjusted independent of partial pressure wit use of an inert backing gas, conserving expensive gasses such as deuterium or tritium.
  • HIPE features a unique brazed sample mount that enables testing metals and ceramics up to 800 °C, emulating the conditions found in fusion and high-temperature fission reactors.

Sample Specifications:

Other Technical Specifications: 

VeFoCoFLoo (Versatile Forced Convection Fluoride Loop)

 

Enabling never–before–available testing of materials and components in reactic molten salt reactor environments.

The VeFoCoFLoo builds upon CA’s established commercial salt loops by adding heat exchangers that impose a 100°C temperature difference—which is necessary to drive corrosion. The modular design enables components such as heat exchangers to be removed after each experiment for testing and evaluation.

The default configuration consists of two heat exchangers—a salt–to–salt recuperator, and a salt–to–air chiller. The modular design of the loop can accommodate a variety of heat exchanger geometries and orientations, and the salt–to–gas.

Available Sensors
• Electrochemical
• Thermocouples at multiple locations
• Flow velocity

For more information visit:
https://www.copenhagenatomics.com/products.php
for information and videos about the platform upon which the VeFoCoFLoo is based.