Development of a new spectrometer for the characterization of the radionuclide-based neutron sources
Since few years, the LNHB is developing a new instrument dedicated to the neutron spectrometry, called AQUASPEC. The experimental device consists of a polyethylene container that is equipped with a central channel accommodating the source and 12-measurement channels (in a spiral formation) around the source, into which detectors can be placed. The container is filled with water in order to moderate neutrons emitted from the source. Measurements have performed with 6Li-doped plastic scintillators, optimized for the simultaneous detection of fast neutrons, thermal neutrons and gamma rays through the signal processing based on pulse shape discrimination (PSD). The spectrum reconstruction is performed with an iterative ML-EM or MAP-EM algorithm, by unfolding experimental data through the detector's responses matrix calculated with MCNP6 code. The candidate will work in the general way on issues related to the neutron spectrometry in the laboratory: Contribution to the development and validation of the new spectrometer AQUASPEC; Participation to the sources measurements and working on aspects of neutron detection and signal processing, in particular issue of the discrimination of neutron/gamma based on the pulse shape discrimination technique (PSD); Usage of Monte Carlo simulation codes and algorithms to reconstruct initial neutron energy distribution; Investigation and integration of information related to neutron/gamma coincidence specific to the XBe type sources.
Mitigation of Alkali Silica Reaction in concrete used for radwaste stabilization and solidification
Electricity production from nuclear power plants generates radioactive wastes, the management of which represents a major industrial and environmental concern. Thus, low- or intermediate - level radioactive aqueous waste streams may be concentrated by evaporation, and immobilized with a Portland cement, before being sent to disposal. Nevertheless, interactions may occur between some components of the waste and the cement phases or aggregates, and decrease the stability of the final waste forms. Thereby, the formation of a gel-like product has been recently observed on the surface of some cemented drums of evaporator concentrates which were produced in the 80’s in Belgium. This product results from a reaction between silica from the aggregates and the very alkaline pore solution of the concrete. However, its composition and rheological properties differ from those reported for alkali-silica gels in civil engineering. Extensive work has been performed to better understand the processes involved in the gel formation within the cement-waste forms and characterize its properties. Based on these results, the post-doctoral project will be focussed on the mitigation of alkali silica reaction in cement-waste forms. Two approaches will be more particularly investigated by decreasing the water saturation ratio of concrete and/or the pH of its pore solution using supercritical carbonation.
This project is intended for a post-doctoral fellow wishing to develop skills in materials science, with an interest in advancing the field of cement chemistry and improving the conditioning of radioactive waste. It will be performed in collaboration with ONDRAF-NIRAS, the Agency in charge of radioactive waste management in Belgium, and will build upon the expertise of two laboratories at CEA Marcoule: the Cements and Bitumen for Waste Conditioning Laboratory for materials elaboration and characterization, and the Supercritical and Decontamination Laboratory.
Next generation PV module packaging design and mechanical testing
Photovoltaic modules are required to last 25- 30 years in harsh outdoor environment. The packaging of PV modules plays an essential role in reaching this target. PV cells are protected by a glass frontsheet, and highly engineered polymeric encapsulants and backsheets. Encapsulants provide moisture, oxygen &UV barrier, electrical isolation and mechanical protection of highly fragile cells while they must ensure optical coupling between the various layers. Current industrial process technology for module manufacturing is lamination that adds additional constraints to the formulation of encapsulants. These numerous requirements lead to ever-involving complex encapsulant composition and behavior.
The aim of this post-doc is to establish the correlation between the material properties of engineered plastics– their processing conditions and thermo-mechanical behavior in high performance PV modules with heterojunction, back-contact or Si/Perovksite tandem cells. Material selection and lamination process development will be guided by detailed material characterization (DSC, DMA, Peel strength, TGA, WVTR, Soxhlet extraction etc.). Moreover, we aim to establish insights in the encapsulant processing conditions and its impact on mechanical stability of PV modules. The selection of the encapsulants to investigate will be strongly guided by eco-design to lower the environmental impact and to increase the recyclability of modules. This postdoc is conducted in the frame of an EU collaboration.
Automatic machine learning identification of nanoscale features in transmission electron microscopy images
Imaging nanoscale features using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is key to predicting and assessing the mechanical behaviour of structural materials in nuclear reactors or in the fields of nanotechnology. These features, visible by phase contrast (nanobubbles) or diffraction contrast (dislocation loops or coherent precipitates), are prime candidates for automation. Analysing these micrographs manually is often tedious, time-consuming, non-universal and somehow subjective.
In this project, the objective is to develop a Python-based framework for data treatment of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images.
Machine Learning approaches will be implemented in order to tackle the following tasks:
- Data collection: The success of any machine learning approach is linked to the database quality. In this project, a huge database is available. Four microscopists are involved in the project and will continuously enrich the database with images containing easily recognizable features.
- Denoising and finding the defect contour both through existing open-access software and in-house developed descriptors. Representative ROI (region-of-Interest) will be generated on images.
- Design of the Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) Architecture and model training: A collective feature map will be generated for the entire images in order to identify some representatives ROI. Each ROI is then overlaid to the original feature map and is passed to the CNN for individual region classifications. Secondly, recent advances in image segmentation will be placed in the core engine of the workflow.
- Model performance metrics: The aim is to reach a compromise between the training time and the detector performance.
The process will be applied to nanometer-sized features formed under irradiation in nuclear oriented materials (Co-free high entropy alloys (HEA), UO2) and precipitates in materials with a technological interest (coherent Cr precipitates in Cu).
Cascade of circulicity in compressible turbulence
In this post-doctorate, we propose to study the properties of the small scales of forced compressible homogeneous turbulence. More precisely, exact statistical relations similar to the Monin-Yaglom relation will be investigated. The idea, detailed in reference [1], is to understand how the transfer of circulicity is organized in the inertial range. Circulicity is a quantity associated with angular momentum and, by extension, with vortex motions. The analysis of its inertial properties allows to complete the description of the energy cascade already highlighted in previous works [2,3].
The objective of the post-doctorate is to carry out and exploit direct simulations of compressible homogeneous turbulence with forcing, in order to highlight the inertial properties of circulicity .
To this end, the post-doctoral student will be given access to the very large computing center (TGCC) as well as a code, Triclade, solving the compressible Navier-Stokes equations [4]. This code does not have a forcing mechanism and the first task will therefore be to add this functionality. Once this task has been accomplished, simulations will be carried out by varying the nature of the forcing and in particular the ratio between its solenoidal and dilatational components. These simulations will then be exploited by analyzing the transfer terms of circulicity.
[1] Soulard and Briard. Submitted to Phys. Rev. Fluids. Preprint at arXviv:2207.03761v1
[2] Aluie. Phys. Rev. Lett. 106(17):174502, 2011.
[3] Eyink and Drivas.Phys. Rev. X 8(1):011022, 2018.
[4] Thornber et al. Phys. Fluids 29:105107, 2017.
Study and modeling of fiber Bragg grating acoustic receivers
CEA List has been working for several years on the development of advanced monitoring solutions using fibre optic acoustic receivers called Fiber Bragg Gratings. These optical sensors have a great potential for structural health monitoring, both because of their ability to be integrated into materials (concrete, organic composites, metal) and because of their ability to be deployed in severe environments (embedded, radiative, high temperature).
A post-doctoral work is proposed to carry out modelling of these Fiber Bragg Grating transducers in order to refine the understanding of their sensitivity to ultrasonic guided elastic waves and to help in the design of an associated control system thanks to an intelligent placement of the sensors. Ultimately, the aim is to be able to simulate their response within the Civa non-destructive testing software developed by CEA List, and more particularly via its module dedicated to Structural Health Monitoring (SHM). Such work would strongly contribute to the adoption and exploitation of this technology for Structural Health Monitoring applications.
Modeling of faults on low voltage DC networks in buildings, towards fault detection algorithms
The development of the use of renewable energies and energy storage as well as the progress made by power electronic components are gradually leading to a rethinking of the architectures of low voltage electrical distribution networks in buildings. These developments will allow the development of direct current or mixed alternating-direct current networks supplied by static converters. On this type of network, faults become more difficult to manage due to the power sources used. Indeed, the usual signatures of the short-circuit or the overload are no longer the same and will vary according to the converters used and the architecture of the network. For this, it is necessary to identify, by simulation, the most suitable protection topologies (by neutral systems for example) and to identify the typical fault signatures. Ultimately, these signatures will provide optimum detection devices.
Lean-Rare Earth Magnetic materials
The energy transition will lead to a very strong growth in the demand for rare earths (RE) over the next decade, especially for the elements (Nd, Pr) and (Dy, Tb). These RE, classified as critical materials, are used almost exclusively to produce NdFeB permanent magnets, and constitute 30% of their mass.
Several recent international studies, aiming to identify new alloys with low RE content and comparable performances to the dense magnetic phase Nd2Fe14B, put hard magnetic compounds of RE-Fe12 type as advantageous substitution solutions, allowing to reduce more that 35% of the amount of RE, while keeping the intrinsic magnetic properties close to those of the Nd2Fe14B composition.
The industrial developments of the RE-Fe12 alloys cannot yet be considered due to the important technological and scientific challenge that remain to be lifted in order to be able to produce dense magnets with resistance to demagnetization sufficient for current applications (coercivity Hc > 800 kA/m).
The aim of the post-doctoral work is to develop Nd-Fe12 based alloys with optimized intrinsic magnetic properties and to master the sintering of the powders in order to obtain dense magnets with coercivity beyond 800 kA/m, to fulfil the requirements of the applications in electric mobility. Two technological and scientific challenges are identified:
- understanding of the role of secondary phases on the coercivity. This will open the way to the implementation of techniques called "grain boundary engineering", well known for the NdFeB magnets to have remarkably improved the resistance to demagnetization.
- mastering the sintering step of these powders at low temperature (< 600°C) in order to avoid the decomposotion of the magnetic phase by grain boundary engineering
Highgly reflective materials laser microwelding
In the frame of the Simulation Program, CEA/DAM conducts experiments on high powerful lasers involving complex targets. Intensive research is therefore conducted to study and manufacture a large panel of targets - with ambitious scientific and technological challenges ahead. In particular, CEA wants to extend its laser microwelding capabilities–at a sub-mm scale. The challenge is to weld both high-reflective and thin materials (aluminum, copper, gold …) with an accurate mastering of heat deposition and penetration depth. The goal is to implement, optimize and qualify a process based on the latest source generation (UV or green laser source), and to get an innovative set of experimental data. A phenomenological model might also be proposed.
The latest generation of laser source emitting in visible wavelengths (green, blue) will be exploited. He/she will participate in the design and qualification testing of the laser station associated with this new source. Once validated, he/she will carry out the study of the operational and metallurgical weldability of the sub-elements. He/she will compare his/her results with the use of a pulse infrared laser. He/she will appraise the joints obtained using different approaches and optimize the design of the welded joints. Its experimental study will go as far as carrying out functional tests on prototypes. External collaborations will be set up to compare the results obtained with simulations in order to deduce a phenomenological model.