Abstract
We characterize the suitability of two additive manufactured materials for use in shielding thermal neutrons for neutron scattering instrumentation. We compare two different boron based additive manufactured masks to a traditionally manufactured boron nitride mask in a real-use case scenario. The first additive manufactured mask is a composite of aluminum and boron carbide. The second additive manufactured mask is a composite of boron carbide and cyanoacrylate. We report the thermal conductivity of the aluminum boron carbide mask in comparison to other relevant materials. The aluminum boron carbide material may find use in shielding applications where thermal conductivity, a low total neutron scattering cross section, and low toxicity are criteria.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 112463 |
| Journal | Materials and Design |
| Volume | 237 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 2024 |
Funding
This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a non-exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, world-wide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for United States Government purposes. The Department of Energy will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan).We acknowledge SBIR funding from DOE DE-SC0019721 and NASA 80NSSC21C0471. A portion of this research used resources at the Spallation Neutron Source, a DOE Office of Science User Facility operated by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Thermal conductivity measurements (A.F.M.) were supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division. M. B. Stone acknowledges discussions regarding biological shielding with Scott Schwahn and discussions regarding CA-B4C with David Anderson. We acknowledge SBIR funding from DOE DE-SC0019721 and NASA 80NSSC21C0471 . A portion of this research used resources at the Spallation Neutron Source, a DOE Office of Science User Facility operated by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Thermal conductivity measurements (A.F.M.) were supported by the U.S. Department of Energy , Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division. M. B. Stone acknowledges discussions regarding biological shielding with Scott Schwahn and discussions regarding CA-B 4 C with David Anderson.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| DOE Public Access Plan | |
| United States Government | |
| U.S. Department of Energy | DE-SC0019721 |
| National Aeronautics and Space Administration | 80NSSC21C0471 |
| Office of Science | |
| Basic Energy Sciences | |
| Oak Ridge National Laboratory | |
| Small Business Innovation Research | |
| Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering |
Keywords
- Additive manufacturing
- Neutron irradiation
- Neutron scattering
- Neutron shielding
