Visible and near-infrared emission spectroscopy of uranium particle clouds

The employment of spectroscopic measurement techniques for the purpose of remotely sensing species within hazardous environments has grown in recent application within the defense and nuclear forensics communities. Such techniques seek to be integrated into technologies capable of detecting the presence of actinide materials within nuclear devices and weaponry. The actinide series encompasses all elements which are radioactive, which includes the element uranium used to generate nuclear energy. The ability to identify the uranium nuclear devices helps inform nuclear forensic investigations critical to the prevention of nuclear security vulnerabilities. The emissive properties of condensed phase uranium powder have not been well-documented, but is of vital importance for the development of remote sensing technologies. For smaller particles (10 um and below), a common challenge exists for determining the behavior of radiative characteristics such as emissivity due to the complex light scattering phenomenon present at the mentioned length scales. Although perhaps convenient, assumptions made about the spectral dependence of emissivity has shown to be misinformative — such as for temperature determination in pyrometry applications. Despite this, prior work making use of shock tube heating on condensed phase particles for emission spectroscopy has shown to be efficacious in evaluating the emissivity of other metal systems. This study seeks to use a similar technique to experimentally characterize the wavelength dependence on emissivity of micro-sized uranium powders at temperatures between 2500 and 3000 K within the visible and near-infrared regimes. This investigation uses the heterogeneous shock tube facility at UIUC to generate high temperature and pressure environments behind a reflected shock with Argon used as the inert gas.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Mechanical Engineering

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2022

Author dc:creator

• Moy, Cory

Contributors dc:contributor

• Glumac, Nick

• Spectroscopy
• Combustion
• Actinides
• Uranium
• Emission
• Particles
• Emissivity
• Shock Tube

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2022 Cory Moy

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/115630

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F115630