KR100497716B1 - Instrumentation system for experiments using radioactive tracer - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention is a radiotracer experiment for the experimenter can observe the progress of the experiment in real time by transmitting and storing the counting result data for each channel to the computer at the same time for the radiation measurement values counted in a plurality of radiometers on the screen A metrology system, comprising: a plurality of detectors 23 for sensing radiation; Peak height analysis circuit 32 that detects electrical pulses proportional to the number of radiations detected by the detector, analyzes for each energy, converts them into TTL pulse signals, and outputs them, high voltage supply circuit 31 for supplying high voltage to the detector, and high voltage connector A plurality of radiometers 22 including 52; A sub rack 25 that includes a pulse output connector 113 for modularizing and fixing a plurality of radiometers and for collecting and outputting the TTL pulse signals input from the radiometer; A data logger 21 including a counter for counting TTL pulse signals input from the pulse output connector for each channel and a port 132 for outputting count results; And a computer 24 on which a program for displaying and storing data input from the port on a screen for each channel is executed.

Description

Radiotracer Experimental Measurement System {INSTRUMENTATION SYSTEM FOR EXPERIMENTS USING RADIOACTIVE TRACER}

The present invention relates to a device used in an experiment using a radioisotope as a tracer, and more particularly, the counting result data is transmitted to a computer and stored for each channel at the same time for the radiometric values counted by a plurality of radiometers. The present invention relates to a radiometric tracer experimental measurement system that enables an experimenter to observe the progress of an experiment in real time.

Experiments using radioisotopes as tracers can be used in a wide variety of applications such as regime time distribution measurements, CFD model validation, flow velocity measurements, and single particle emission computerized tomography in industrial processes. For these experiments a number of radiometers, data loggers and computers for processing the collected data are essential.

In the past, experimental equipment was used as a commercial radiometer and a multipurpose data collection device. Multipurpose commercial radiometers were expensive equipment with many functions, but lacked the capabilities required for tracer experiments. In addition, since the number of counting channels of the commercial data collection device is limited, it is not easy to add a radiometer, and it takes a long time to install the experimental device, and there is an inconvenience of having to change the configuration according to the test object. This can cause measurement errors and can lead to inaccuracies in the experimental results.

On the other hand, tracer experiments using radioisotopes are mostly applied to large industrial or environmental facilities, not laboratory scale. Experimental time at these facilities lasts from a few seconds to many years, often requiring dozens of channels. However, existing metrology system configurations are not suitable for this experiment. In addition, an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) or the like is required in order to prevent an unexpected power failure and data loss, and there are many problems such as loss of experimental data when an error occurs in a PC that records data.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, the counting result data for each channel at the same time for the counting (counting) radiation measurements in a number of radiometers to the computer by transmitting and storing the counting result data on the screen By developing a radiotracer experimental measurement system that enables the experimenter to observe the trend of the experiment in real time, it is intended to facilitate the acquisition of radiotracer experiment data in the industrial field and to help the practical use of the radiotracer technology.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a plurality of detectors 23 for detecting radiation; A peak height analysis circuit 32 which detects an electrical pulse proportional to the number of radiations detected by the detector, analyzes it for each energy, converts it into a TTL pulse signal, and outputs it; a high voltage supply circuit 31 for supplying a high voltage to the detector; A plurality of radiometers 22 including high voltage connectors 52; A sub rack (25) including a pulse output connector (113) for modularizing and fixing the plurality of radiometers and collecting and outputting the TTL pulse signals inputted from the radiometer; A data logger (21) including a counter for counting TTL pulse signals input from the pulse output connector for each channel and a port (132) for outputting count results; And a computer 24 for executing a program for displaying and storing data input from the port on a screen for each channel, and the radio tracer experimental measurement system.

In addition, the high voltage connector 52 is connected to an external detector (23) without passing through the terminal of the sub rack (25) for noise prevention, the measurement system for a radiotracer experiment.

In addition, the radiation meter 22 includes a high voltage control terminal 43 for controlling the high voltage supply circuit 31, an energy size window control terminal 44 and a threshold for controlling the peak height analysis circuit 32. It provides a radiometric tracer experimental measurement system characterized in that it further comprises a value control terminal (45).

In addition, the data logger 21 provides a radio tracer experimental measurement system, characterized in that further comprising a terminal for supplying power to the sub rack (25).

In addition, the data logger 21 provides an A / D converter for reading a high voltage supplied to the detector 23, and an LCD for displaying a radio tracker experimental measurement system, further comprising an LCD displaying the read high voltage value. .

In addition, the detector 23 and the radiometer 22 is provided, respectively, and the counter of the data logger 21 provides a radio tracer experimental measurement system, characterized in that the counter of the 16-bit 24-channel.

In addition, the program provides a radiotracer experimental measurement system, characterized in that the user can select the data storage interval, storage location and file name, and the channel number to be displayed in the graph.

In addition, it provides a radio tracer experimental measurement system, characterized in that the number exceeding the limit of the 16-bit counter of the data logger 21 has an effect of 32-bit counting by adding up to 32-bit in the program.

Hereinafter, the configuration and the operation of the embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic of a metrology system with four channels to show a typical instrument configuration for a radiotracer experiment.

As shown, four detectors (PM tube and crystal, 11), four radiometers with peak height analysis and a high voltage supply, a data logger 13 and a computer for data recording. (14) is connected.

2 shows, as one embodiment of the metrology system according to the present invention, a new system configuration for experiments using radioisotopes as tracers.

As shown, it consists of a sub rack 25 equipped with twelve radiometer modules 22, one data logger 21 and a PC 24 for data recording and control. On the other hand, an experiment using 24 channels requires 24 detectors, 24 radiometers, 1 data logger and 1 PC.

As described above, the configuration of the measurement system used in the experiment using the radioisotope according to the present invention is a detector 23, a radiation meter 22, a counter dedicated data logger 21, and a computer for data storage and control, which are radiation sensors. (24), there is a similar surface to the conventional measurement system.

However, in the present invention, the modularized radiation measuring instrument 22 and the counter-only 24-channel data logger 21 excluding the functions not used in the commercial instrument are designed and manufactured to facilitate installation and operation.

In addition, in order to modularize the radiometer, 12 radiometers can be mounted in one sub rack 25, and up to two subracks can be connected to the manufactured data logger 21 to one data logger. Expandable to 24 channels.

3 is a block diagram of a radiometer 22 developed for the configuration of a measurement system according to the present invention, it can be seen that the addition of a function suitable for the radiotracer experiment and excludes the unnecessary parts.

The radiation meter 22 outputs an electrical pulse proportional to the number of radiations detected by the detector 23 and converts the electrical pulse into a TTL pulse by selecting an energy magnitude. send.

A general radiation measuring instrument supplies a high voltage to a detector, detects an electrical pulse corresponding to radiation from the detector, analyzes the energy by energy, and converts it into a TTL electric signal and controls it with a microcomputer to display data on an LCD. Radiation meters can thus be divided into analog parts up to the TTL signal, and digital parts including microprocessors and LCD displays to control them.

When the radiometers are used independently, they operate with both analog and digital parts, so they are manufactured as a single body in commercial instruments. However, when using these products for radiotracer experiments, it is necessary to count each channel at the same time. Therefore, the TTL signal from each instrument must be processed in a data logger with a counter function. Therefore, the digital part of the commercial radiograph is not used.

Radiation measuring instrument for the tracer experiment proposed in the present invention significantly reduced the size compared to commercial instruments by adding a control portion for the analog portion except for the unnecessary digital portion.

That is, a commonly used measuring instrument includes a counter 34 and a display 33 portion corresponding to the dotted line in FIG. 3, but the present invention excludes these portions to design an efficient measuring instrument for a tracer experiment. In addition, as shown in Figure 4, the front portion of the radiometer is an energy magnitude window for controlling the high-voltage control terminal 43 and the peak height analysis circuit (32), which is essential for radiometric measurement so as to perform a radiation energy spectrum analysis Designed to include a control terminal 44, a threshold control terminal 45, and a switch 41.

5 is a photo of the rear side of the radiometer, the power is supplied through the D-sub connector 51 and the TTL pulse output for ease of connection with the sub rack 25, the detector through the high voltage connector 52 Supply a high voltage to (23).

In the present invention, in order to facilitate the expansion of the channel, a plurality of radiometer module 22 is inserted into the detachable sub rack 25, and the high voltage lead-out portion 52 which is vulnerable to noise is directly provided without an intermediate connection. The sub rack 25 was connected to the outside.

In other words, since the high voltage connector 52 of the radiometer is sensitive to noise because the input resistance is high resistance (usually 100 MΩ or more), it is configured to be connected to the outside without passing through the terminals of the sub rack 25 as shown in FIG. 63).

FIG. 7 is a photograph showing detachment of a sub rack and a radiometer, FIG. 8 is a front view of a sub rack including 12 units of a radiometer module, FIG. 9 is a front picture of a sub rack including a 12 units of a radiometer module, and FIG. 10. Shows a rear view of the sub rack and the connector arrangement in which the 12 unit radiometer module is mounted.

The sub-rack on which the modular radiometer is mounted supplies power to each radiometer module 62 through the connector 65 and gathers the pulses from each of the various channels together to protect the 9-pin D-sub connector back panel 64. It is transferred to the 25-pin D-sub connector 133 of the data logger through the 25-pin D-sub connector 113 is connected to.

The rear part of the sub rack 25 is shown in FIG. 11, and is composed of a detector connection MHV connector 111 and a back panel 64 for connecting to a detector of each channel through a radiometer, and the back panel 64 includes radiation. A power input connector 112 and a 25 pin D-sub connector 113 are provided for supplying power to the instrument module.

12 and 13 show a data logger 21 having a 16-bit 24-channel counter and an A / D converter (analog / digital converter) included in the present invention.

Conventional commercial data logger is composed of frequency counter, A / D converter, input / output channel, etc., but ideal configuration for tracer experiment is counter counter for counting pulses from each channel and A for reading high voltage supplied to detector. Only the / D converter channel is required.

However, a data logger that meets these special needs does not exist as a commercial product. Due to the limited counter channel and A / D converter channel, an expensive data logger should be added. In addition, it is very difficult to increase more than a channel allowed by a commercial data logger in an experiment of an actual process in an industrial complex.

For this reason, in the present invention, a data logger has been developed in which the counter channel and the A / D converter channels are greatly increased to 24 and other functions are excluded.

Channel expansion requires a large number of radiometers, as well as a large number of counters built into the data logger. Currently developed commercial data loggers have a built-in counter of up to 4 channels for general purpose and no more than 8 channels for counter dedicated boards.In order to expand channels, multiple counter boards must be plugged into one PC. Since the number is limited, this also becomes a limiting factor.

In order to solve such a problem, the present invention has designed a data logger having a 24-channel 16-bit counter and configured to operate in connection with an instrument for a radiotracer.

In addition, since the data logger 21 is connected to the data recording PC 24, and one PC can connect a plurality of data loggers at the time of port expansion, expansion is possible by 24 channels per one port of the PC. Do.

The PC 24 displays the transmitted data on the screen for each channel and stores the data. The data storage interval is extended from 10msec to 65536sec, and the selection period of the experiment has been widened.In order to prevent data loss, the data logger has a built-in UPS function to automatically switch to an auxiliary battery in case of power failure.

The radiometer module and subrack can be connected to one 25-pin connector (133) for 12 channels, or 2 sub-racks equipped with 12 radiometer modules to connect two 25-pin connectors (133, 134) respectively.

The 24-channel data logger counts pulses for each channel, converts them into ASCII codes, and sends them to the PC 24 through the serial port 132. The LCD window 121 of the data logger 21 shows the measurement of the radiation count rate and the high voltage of the channel selected by the control button 122.

The control PC program shown in FIG. 14 is an application program for receiving measurement results in real time from a data logger having a counter of 24 channels. After setting the number of channels and counting interval 142 to receive data, converting HEXA ASCII data, which means the number of 0 ~ 65536 per channel received from the data logger, into a calculable number, and then counting interval of 1 second or less (142) ) Is converted into ASCII data and displayed on the computer screen as a graph (143) on the computer screen, and if the counting interval exceeds 1 second, the received data is added to the 32-bit counting interval and converted into 32 bits. It is displayed on the computer screen at intervals and converted to ASCII data and saved on the hard disk. The storage location and file name are user selectable (144). By counting the counting intervals in excess of one second in the PC, the number of data loggers' 16-bit counters (65536) was overcome to have the same effect as the 32-bit counter. In the example of FIG. 14, four graphs are displayed, and each graph can be arbitrarily selected from 1 to 24 channel 145 numbers. The Y axis value of each graph is the value counted by the data logger for the set time, the X axis is the time axis, and the Y and X axis setting values can be changed during program execution. The data saved is a * .CSV file that can be read by Excel or other text editor.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described specific preferred embodiments, and various modifications can be made by any person having ordinary skill in the art without departing from the gist of the present invention claimed in the claims. Of course, such changes will fall within the scope of the claims.

The invention provides a modular radiometer with only the functions essential for tracer experiments, simplifying maintenance procedures, significantly reducing cost and volume, and providing the same time zone for radiation measurements (multiple channels of up to 24 channels) measured on multiple channels. It is a useful invention that the experimenter can observe the trend of the experiment in real time by transmitting the count result data for each channel to the computer and storing it and displaying it on the screen.

1 is a general schematic diagram of a measurement system using a radioisotope as a tracer,

2 is a photograph of a radiotracer experimental measurement system according to the present invention,

3 is a block diagram of a radiometer designed for radiotracer experiments,

Figure 4 is a front photo of the radiometer module,

5 is a back side photo of the radiometer module,

6 is a connection view of a portion of the connector of the radiometer and the sub rack;

7 is a detachable photograph of a radiometer and a sub rack;

8 is a front view of a sub rack including a 12-meter radiometer module;

9 is a photo of the front part of the sub-rack including a radiometer module of 12 units,

10 is a rear view of the sub rack and the connector arrangement in which the 12 unit radiometer module is mounted;

FIG. 11 is a photograph of the rear and back panel of a sub rack equipped with a 12 unit radiometer module; FIG.

12 is a front view of a 24 counter channel data logger,

13 is a rear portion of a 24 counter channel data logger,

14 is a program for data storage and monitoring;

<Description of the symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

(11) Detector

(12) radiation measuring instrument

(13) Data Logger (DAQ)

(14) PC

(21) 24 channel data logger

(22) radiation meter module

(23) Detectors (PM Tube & Crystal)

(24) PC for data storage and control

(25) sub rack

(31) high voltage supply circuit

(32) Peak height analysis circuit

33 display

34 counters

(41) power switch of the radiation meter module

(42) Radiation energy magnitude window select on / off switch

(43) High voltage control terminals for detector supply

(44) Radiation energy magnitude window control terminals

(45) Radiation energy threshold control terminal

(51) 9-pin D-sub connector

52 MHV high voltage connector

61 sub rack outer case

(62) radiation meter module

(63) MHV connector for PM tube connection

(64) 9-pin D-sub connector protective back panel

(65) 9-pin D-sub female connector for radiation instrumentation part supply and TTL pulse out terminal connection

(66) 9-pin D-sub male connector for radiation instrumentation part supply and TTL pulse out terminal connection

(101) MHV connector for detector connection

(102) Power supply and TTL (Transistor Transistor Logic) lead-out connection

(111) MHV connector for detector connection

(112) power input connector

(113) 25-pin D-sub connector for TTL pulse out and high voltage read

(121) LCD display

122 control buttons

(131) AC power switch

(132) serial port

(133) 25-pin D-sub connector (1-12 channel TTL pulse and HV readout input)

(134) 25-pin D-sub connector (13-24 channel TTL pulse and HV readout input)

(135) backup battery power switch

(136) Power supply terminals for the sub rack

(137) backup battery switch

(141) Data storage and control program

(142) Counting interval selection window

(143) Graph for display

(144) File name and path selection window

(145) Channel select button

Claims (8)

A plurality of detectors 23 for detecting radiation; A peak height analysis circuit 32 which detects an electrical pulse proportional to the number of radiations detected by the detector, analyzes it for each energy, converts it into a TTL pulse signal, and outputs it; a high voltage supply circuit 31 for supplying a high voltage to the detector; A plurality of radiometers 22 including high voltage connectors 52; A sub rack (25) including a pulse output connector (113) for modularizing and fixing the plurality of radiometers and collecting and outputting the TTL pulse signals inputted from the radiometer; A data logger (21) including a counter for counting TTL pulse signals input from the pulse output connector for each channel and a port (132) for outputting count results; And And a computer (24) on which a program for displaying and storing data input from the port on a screen for each channel is executed. The method of claim 1, The high voltage connector 52 is connected to an external detector (23) without passing through the terminal of the sub rack (25) to prevent noise, the tracer experimental measurement system. The method according to claim 1 or 2, The radiation meter 22 is a high voltage control terminal 43 for controlling the high voltage supply circuit 31, an energy magnitude window control terminal 44 and a threshold value control for controlling the peak height analysis circuit 32. And a terminal (45) further comprising a radiotracer experimental measurement system. The method of claim 1, The data logger 21 further comprises a terminal for supplying power to the sub rack 25. The method of claim 1, The data logger (21) further comprises an A / D converter for reading a high voltage supplied to the detector (23), and an LCD for displaying a readout high voltage value. The method of claim 1, And the detector (23) and the radiometer (22) are each 24, and the counter of the data logger (21) is a 16-bit 24-channel counter. The method of claim 1, Wherein said program allows a user to select a data storage interval, a storage location and a file name for storage, and a channel number to display in a graph. The method of claim 7, wherein And 32-bit counting by adding up to 32 bits in the program for the number exceeding the limit of the 16-bit counter of the data logger (21).