Detection of aluminum corrosion products by neutron radiography

Abstract

The neutron radiography technique has been employed to study aluminum corrosion. The compound material experimentally analyzed was bayerite and the experimental data were obtained in a radiographic facility installed at the IEA-R1 Nuclear Research Reactor. The calculated and experimentally determined values for the minimal discernible thickness of bayerite were X b min=0.024 mm and X b min≅0.11 mm, respectively. Calculations show that for real corrosion products, X cp min=0.031 mm, which is significantly smaller than 0.05 mm reported by other authors. The values for X b min and X cp min calculated in this paper show that, due to the filtering of the Maxwellian thermal neutron spectrum by polycrystalline bismuth, an improvement in the technique sensitivity can be achieved.