Experimental determination of effective density of Al2O3-SiC-ZrO2 ceramics porous phase using gamma-ray attenuation. (2017) - Kenawy, Sayed H.
In the present work, we describe the use of a multi-gamma lines source to determine the linear attenuation coefficient of ceramic material. High precision germanium detector is used to assess gamma-ray transmission. Geometry is adopted to enhance detection of 210 Pb gamma-ray line at 46.2 keV. Cascade summing was followed up. The effective density of micro-porous Al2 O3 -SiC-ZrO2 ceramics was determined by comparing the measured linear attenuation coefficients at different energies with corresponding values computed by XCOM database. Five different composing ratios are investigated, for the three mixed materials. The results illustrate the applicability of high-resolution gamma-ray attenuation in the determination of effective density of ceramics and suitability of Al2 O3 -SiC composite as a candidate alternative for fuel cladding.