Affiliations: [a] Institut Laue-Langevin, 71 avenue des Martyrs, CS 20156, 38042 Grenoble Cedex 9, France | [b] Instituto de Estructura de la Materia, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, Serrano 123, E-20886 Madrid, Spain
Abstract: Alkali-borosilicate glasses constitute a current standard as structural elements for the manufacturing of neutron guides. Such optical devices are commonly installed in large neutron research facilities to enable the transport of moderated neutrons from an intense source to scientific instruments. However, this equipment is known to suffer mechanical degradation arising from irradiation due to the neutron transport. This ageing may lead to splinter processes once the glass has reached its fluence limit. The radiation effects on some of these glasses at macroscopic scales have been studied in order to explain their difference in resistance to radiation. Also, special efforts were put towards the measurement of stress generation in thin glass plates finally leading to their brittle rupture. Finally, computer-aided modeling was carried out by means of finite element analysis aiming to correlate the contraction of glass and the induced stresses in the material.
Keywords: Irradiation, glass, stress, finite element analysis, neutron, borosilicate
