Abstract
The paper describes an experimental study involving investigation of corrosion possibilities in cooling circuit of an in-house developed 10 MeV, 6 kW S-band industrial electron linear accelerator, comprising of vacuum brazed multiple OFE copper cavities. The study was performed on vacuum brazed OFE copper specimens in process water used in the cooling circuit of the accelerator structure. The results of the study has demonstrated that surface of the brazed OFE copper specimens, exposed to stagnant process water, develops passive oxide layer in the initial period of specimen’s exposure. This oxide layer protects underlying substrate from further corrosion. In contrast, specimens exposed to flowing process water displays relatively higher rate of corrosion. On the basis of short term immersion tests (for 45 days) in flowing conditions the estimated rate of general corrosion was found to be about 0.18 mils/year (equivalent to 4.5 mm/year) which is quite low. However, a long term corrosion study in simulated process loop would provide more useful information regarding corrosion behaviour of the brazed joints of the accelerating structure.
Highlights
A 10 MeV, 6 kW S-band electron linear accelerator has been indigenously developed at Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology for industrial applications
Vacuum brazed copper specimens were subsequently characterized by microstructural examination by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), potentio-dynamic polarization testing, immersion testing and X-ray diffraction (XRD)
In order to identify surface layer formed on immersion-tested specimens were characterized by grazing angle X-ray diffraction (G-XRD), performed with CuKα characteristic radiation (λ = 1.54 oA) at an angle of 1o
Summary
A 10 MeV, 6 kW S-band electron linear accelerator (linac) has been indigenously developed at Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology for industrial applications. The in-house fabricated accelerating structure is currently under continuous operation and has been tested at beam power more than 4.2 kW. The accelerating structure of electron linac comprises of RF couplers, buncher section and regular section. Regular section has 45 accelerating cavities of similar shape [1]. The accelerating structure is made of OFE copper and is fabricated by vacuum brazing of cavities and coupler components using BVAg-8 and Palcusil-5 as braze filler metals (BFM). Present experimental investigation was undertaken with an objective to investigate corrosion possibilities in the cooling circuit which can be one of the life limiting factors of the accelerating structures
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