Acoustic instrumentation in extreme environments
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Development of innovative acoustic instrumentation.​​​​​​​​

Cartographie d’épaisseur de la lame mince de combustible et son profil en épaisseur - carré © IRESNE/CEA

The LISM (Instrumentation, Systems and Methods Laboratory) develops acoustic instrumentation for applications in extreme environments (high temperature, pressure, irradiation).
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The technologies developed include:

  • The TUSHT (High Temperature Ultrasonic Transducer) sensor was developed in 1970 and is based on a lithium niobate crystal. It is an “in-core” instrument that can be used in extreme conditions: at a temperature of 600°C, under a flow of fast neutrons and under pressure (150 Bars for PWR).
    This sensor provides a view through opaque and extreme settings (high temperature, chemical environment). It has a wide range of applications, including NDT, telemetry, imaging, debimetry and for gas presence measurements.
    Research is still being conducted at LISM to improve its acoustic performance.

  • The TUMBT/TUMHT (Low and High Temperature Multi-element Ultrasonic Transducer) sensor, developed in partnership with the FEMTO-ST and IES research laboratoriesis a multi-element acoustic transducer used for imaging opaque liquid sodium.
    This sensor is based on a piezoelectric lithium niobate crystal and is considered an improved version of the TUSHT.
    This instrumentation can be used for continuous monitoring or periodic inspections of shutdown reactors.

  • The PIVUS method is a start-up project resulting from an R&D program for the acoustic measurement of velocity fields, supported by the CEA since 2019.
    The technology developed is based on an acoustic velocimetry method for measuring and rebuilding accurate 2D fluid flow velocity fields; a method that is similar to optical PIV (Particle Image Velocimetry). The main applications are as follows:
    - Visualization and reconstruction of velocity fields

    - Flow measurement or data generation to validate and/or refine CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) models.

  • ​The fission release gas sensor developed in partnership with IES (Electronics and Systems Institute) IES (Electronics and Systems Institute) is an ultrasonic sensor for extending acoustic measurements to high temperatures in experimental reactors.
    This acoustic instrumentation was developed in particular for the RJH (Jules Horowitz Experimental Reactor).
    Its aim is to produce radiation and thermodynamic conditions for studying the behavior of materials and fuels in situ, as well as to qualify, test and validate instrumentation for measuring pressure, temperature and gas composition.

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