Current Development Status of a Particle Size Analyzer for Coated Particle Fuel

摘要

Work was performed to develop a prototype Particle Size Analyzer (PSA) for application to coated particle fuel characterization. This system was based on a light obscuration method and targeted towards high throughput analysis. Although never matured to the point of replacing existing lower throughput optical microscopy shadowgraph methods, the system was successfully applied to automating the counting of large particle samples for increased accuracy in calculating mean particle properties based on measurements of multiparticle samples. The measurement of particle size with the PSA was compared to current shadowgraph techniques and found to result in considerably greater throughput at the cost of larger measurement uncertainty. The current algorithm used by the PSA is more sensitive to particle shape and this is a likely cause of the greater uncertainty when attempting to measure average particle diameter. The use of the PSA to measure particle shape will require further development. Particle transport through the PSA and stability of the light source/detector are key elements in the successful application of this technique. A number of system pitfalls were studied and addressed.