Simulation design of the collimator for thermal neutron radiography facility based on neutron tube

Abstract

As the traditional reactor and accelerator neutron sources are immovable, the research on the compact neutron radiography becomes more and more important. In this study, a portable neutron tube is employed for the compact thermal neutron radiography system. To realize ideal image quality, the optimal material selection and geometry design (viz. the diameter of the aperture, the shape of the channel and the lining material) of the proposed collimator are thereafter carried out by the SuperMC software. Simulation results show that the normalized thermal neutron flux of 1.42×10−6ncm−2s−1 can be successfully realized at the exit of the collimator by the proposed collimator with a satisfied nonuniformity of 4.6%.