Design and construction of a liquid xenon test apparatus

This thesis discusses the design and initial construction of a liquid xenon test apparatus for the Enriched Xenon Observatory (EXO) experiment. The EXO collaboration aims to explore neutrinoless double beta decay using isotopically enriched Xe-136. It has already published several high impact physics result with EXO-200, and is in R&D stage for nEXO, a tonne scale experiment. The test apparatus is built for Next R&D studies, such as Xe purity, and electronics in liquid xenon. This thesis mainly talks about the system and mechanical design of the apparatus. Xenon system consists of several sub-systems, including experimental chamber, recirculation and purification loop, feed and bleed system, emergency recovery loop, auxiliary cooling sub-system, and slow control system. Several main tasks have already been completed, including mechanical design of different equipment, slow control system setup, database setup, thermodynamics calculation, and sensor testing and calibration. Finally, the thesis discusses commissioning and test plan for the apparatus.

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

2014

Author dc:creator

• Li, Yang

Contributors dc:contributor

• Yang, Liang
• Johnson, Harley T.

• liquid xenon system
• Enriched Xenon Observatory (EXO)
• neutrinoless double beta decay
• purification

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2014 Yang Li

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/49593

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/49593