S.D. Kalmani

Effect of ambient pressure variation on closed loop gas system for India based Neutrino Observatory (INO)

Pilot unit of a closed loop gas mixing and distribution system for the INO project was designed and is being operated with 1.8meters × 1.9meters RPCs for about two years. A number of studies on controlling the flow and optimisation of the gas mixture through the RPC stack were carried out during this period. The gas system essentially measures and attempts to maintain absolute pressure inside the RPC gas volume. During typical Mumbai monsoon seasons, the barometric pressure changes rather rapidly, due to which the gas system fails to maintain the set differential pressure between the ambience and the RPC gas volume. As the safety bubblers on the RPC gas input lines are set to work on fixed pressure differentials, the ambient pressure changes lead to either venting out and thus wasting gas through safety bubblers or over pressuring the RPCs gas volume and thus degrading its performance. The above problem also leads to gas mixture contamination through minute leaks in gas gap. The problem stated above was solved by including the ambient barometric pressure as an input parameter in the closed loop. Using this, it is now possible to maintain any set differential pressure between the ambience and RPC gas volumes between 0 to 20mm of water column, thus always ensuring a positive pressure inside the RPC gas volume with respect to the ambience. This has resulted in improved performance of the gas system by maintaining the constant gas flow and reducing the gas toping up frequency. In this paper, we will highlight the design features and improvements of the closed loop gas system. We will present some of the performance studies and considerations for scaling up the system to be used with the engineering module and then followed by Iron Calorimeter detector (ICAL), which is designed to deploy about 30,000 RPCs of 1.8meters × 1.9 meters in area.

Performance enhancement of open loop gas recovery process by centrifugal separation of gases

The proposed INO-ICAL detector [1] is going to be instrumented with 28800 RPCs (Resistive Plate Chamber). These RPCs (2 × 2 m2 size) will consist of two glass electrodes separated by 2 mm and will use a gas mixture of Freon R134a, isobutane and sulphur hexafluoride (in the ratio of 95.3:4.5:0.2). An Open Ended System (OES), in which the gas mixture is vented to the atmosphere after a single passage through the detector, is most commonly used for small detector setups. However, OES cannot be used with the INO-ICAL detector due to reasons of cost and pollution. It is necessary, therefore, to recirculate the gas mixture in a closed loop. In a Closed Loop gas System (CLS) [2] the gas mixture is purified and recirculated after flowing through the RPC. The impurities which get accumulated in the gas mixture due to leaks or formation of radicals are removed by suitable filters. The Open Loop System (OLS) [3] is based on the separation and recovery of major gas components after passage of the gas mixture through the RPCs. and has the advantage that it does not need filters for removal of impurities. However a CLS is found to be more efficient than OLS in the recovery of gases in the mixture. In this paper we discuss centrifugal separation [4] as a technique to extract major gas constituents and use this technique to improve the efficiency of OLS. Results from preliminary trial runs are reported.

Leak rate estimation of a resistive plate chamber gap by monitoring absolute pressure

The differential pressure of a conventional manometer is highly dependent on the atmospheric pressure. The measurements with a manometer for an extended time period show a large variation due to solar atmospheric tides. However, the measurements of absolute pressure, both outside and inside of a resistive plate chamber (RPC), are independent of each other. By monitoring the absolute pressures, both outside and inside of a RPC, along with the temperature, its leakage rate can be estimated. During the test period, the supporting button spacers inside a RPC may get detached due to some manufacturing defect. This effect can be detected clearly by observing the sudden fall of pressure inside the chamber.

Development of a Resistive Plate Chamber with heat strengthened glass

The Iron Calorimeter (ICAL) detector at INO cavern will be made of 50 kTon of magnetized steel layers, tiled with 4 m \(\times \) 2 m \(\times \) 56 mm thick plates, alternating with layers of RPCs. The total number of \(2 \times 2\) m\(^2\) RPCs required will be about 29000. However, during the assembly of RPCs, handling the \(2 \times 2\) m\(^2\) normal float glass of thickness 3 mm is both difficult and risky and will be much easier to handle RPCs with toughened or tempered glass. This paper presents a comparison of the characteristics, such as noise rate, dark current, muon detection efficiency and time resolution, of normal and hardened glass RPCs.

Design validation and performance of closed loop gas recirculation system

A pilot experimental set up of the India Based Neutrino Observatorys ICAL detector has been operational for the last 4 years at TIFR, Mumbai. Twelve glass RPC detectors of size 2 × 2 m2, with a gas gap of 2 mm are under test in a closed loop gas recirculation system. These RPCs are continuously purged individually, with a gas mixture of R134a (C2H2F4), isobutane (iC4H10) and sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) at a steady rate of 360 ml/h to maintain about one volume change a day. To economize gas mixture consumption and to reduce the effluents from being released into the atmosphere, a closed loop system has been designed, fabricated and installed at TIFR. The pressure and flow rate in the loop is controlled by mass flow controllers and pressure transmitters. The performance and integrity of RPCs in the pilot experimental set up is being monitored to assess the effect of periodic fluctuation and transients in atmospheric pressure and temperature, room pressure variation, flow pulsations, uniformity of gas distribution and power failures. The capability of closed loop gas recirculation system to respond to these changes is also studied. The conclusions from the above experiment are presented. The validations of the first design considerations and subsequent modifications have provided improved guidelines for the future design of the engineering module gas system.

Glass RPC detector R&D for a mega neutrino detector

India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) collaboration has proposed a 50 kTons magnetised iron calorimeter (ICAL), whose primary goals are to precisely determine oscillation parameters of the atmospheric neutrinos, to study matter effects on the oscillations and finally to use it as a long baseline detector for the neutrino beams. Good tracking and energy resolutions, good directionality (translating to a time resolution of better than a ns) and charge identification of the detecting particles are the essential requirements of ICAL detector. The ICAL detector will cover an area of about 100,000 m2 and will use about 30,000 glass Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) of about 2 m × 2 m in area as active detector elements. An aggressive R&D program to develop and characterise RPCs operating in the avalanche mode was undertaken. We will describe our R&D efforts towards developing these devices and will present the results of their characterisation studies.