Award Date

1-1-2003

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Electrical and Computer Engineering

First Committee Member

Yingtao Jiang

Number of Pages

56

Abstract

Although liquid lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) is a good candidate for coolant in the sub-critical transmutation blanket, it is known to be corrosive to stainless steel tubes and containers used in nuclear installations. To prevent the long-term corrosion problem by producing and maintaining a protective oxide layer on exposed surface of stainless steel, it is essential to accurately measure and control the oxygen concentration dissolved in LBE. An automobile style voltametric oxygen sensors, with YSZ (Yttria Stabilized Zirconia) as electrolyte and molten bismuth saturated with oxygen as reference was selected. An instrumentation system was designed specifically for calibrating the YSZ sensor and measure oxygen concentration in LBE. An initial setup was built and some preliminary experiments were conducted to calibrate the oxygen sensor. A set of calibration curves of voltage vs. temperature ranging from 300°C to 500°C under various oxygen concentrations in liquid LBE was obtained and presented here. A new improvised setup and instrumentation have also been developed to obtain more accurate results for a wide range of temperature between 300°C to 700°C.

Keywords

Calibration; Concentration; Lbe; Measurement; Oxygen; Sensor

Controlled Subject

Electrical engineering

File Format

pdf

File Size

1638.4 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

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