Abstract
Mechanical strain gauges are frequently used in real-time load sensing for applications including failure analysis and machine maintenance. To address the dependence of an analog electrical signal for conventional strain gauge operation, a strain-sensitive neutron source is considered in this work. Such a device utilizes the short range of americium-241 α particles to interact in a beryllium target, producing neutrons. Applying strain to the device alters the source-target geometry, resulting in variation of neutron output. Several micro-nuclear-mechanical systems are considered. It is found that linear amplification is required to measure deformation below 1000 μ-strain. The most successful designs utilized chevron-style linear motion amplification, and gave a relative neutron output of 1.37 at 1000 μ-strain in tension, 0.73 at 1000 μ-strain in compression. Absolute neutron output at zero strain was determined to be about 3500 neutrons per second for this design.
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