Claims
- 1. An elemental on-line material analyzer comprising:
a first material pathway through which analyzed material passes; a second material pathway; a gate to deflect a predetermined amount of material from said first material pathway to said second material pathway at predetermined times; a pulsed neutron generator; at least one gamma ray detector; a data acquisition system operably connected to said gamma ray detector; wherein said on-line analyzer has means to measure fast neutron reactions, thermal neutron reactions and neutron activation reactions to determine the elemental composition of said material.
- 2. The analyzer of claim 1 wherein said fast neutron reactions and said thermal neutron reactions are measured in said first material pathway and said neutron activation reactions are measured in said second material pathway.
- 3. The analyzer of claim 2 wherein said second material pathway is further comprised of:
a first gate to stop said material at a predetermined position to irradiate said material; a second gate to stop said material at a predetermined position to measure the gamma rays emitted from said material; and, an electronic scale.
- 4. The analyzer of claim 1 wherein said pulsed neutron generator is a sealed tube deuterium-tritium neutron generator.
- 5. The analyzer of claim 4 wherein said pulsed neutron generator pulses neutrons with energy of at least 6 MeV.
- 6. The analyzer of claim 4 wherein said pulse of neutrons is from ten to fifteen microseconds wide.
- 7. The analyzer of claim 6 wherein said pulsed neutron generator pulses neutrons at a frequency of between about 10 kHz to about 14 kHz.
- 8. The analyzer of claim 1 wherein said at least one gamma ray detector is comprised of:
a first gamma ray detector in said first material pathway to measure fast neutron reactions; a second and a third gamma ray detector in said first material pathway to measure thermal neutron reactions; a fourth gamma ray detector in said second material pathway to measure neutron activation reactions.
- 9. The analyzer of claim 8 wherein said gamma ray detectors are scintillator detectors.
- 10. The analyzer of claim 8 wherein said gamma ray detectors are comprised of sodium iodide.
- 11. The analyzer of claim 8 wherein said gamma ray detectors are comprised of bismuth germanate.
- 12. The analyzer of claim 1 wherein said analyzer is further comprised of a cesium gamma ray source and a gamma ray detector in local proximity to one another to measure the density of said material.
- 13. The analyzer of claim 8 wherein each of said detectors are further comprised of radiation shielding, said shielding circumscribing each of said detector and having a first and a second end, said first and second end ending at a location adjacent said material pathway.
- 14. The analyzer of claim 1 further comprising:
a first neutron detector in close proximity to said neutron generator; a second neutron detector in close proximity to said neutron generator; wherein said first and second neutron detector are operably connected to said data acquisition system.
- 15. The analyzer of claim 14 wherein the measurements of said second neutron detector are utilized to normalize the yield of said at least one gamma ray detector and of said first neutron detector.
- 16. The analyzer of claim 12 wherein said gamma ray source is collimated towards said first material pathway.
- 17. The analyzer of claim 1 wherein said data acquisition system has means to analyze the signals from said at least one gamma ray detector to determine the chemical composition of said material.
- 18. The analyzer of claim 1 wherein said data acquisition system has means to determine the moisture content of said material.
- 19. The analyzer of claim 4 wherein said pulsed neutron generator pulses neutrons with energy of at least 6 MeV.
- 20. The analyzer of claim 14 wherein said neutron detector is a helium-3 detector.
- 21. The analyzer of claim 14 wherein said neutron detector is a liquid scintillator detector.
- 22. The analyzer of claim 14 wherein said neutron detector is a lithium glass-liquid scintillator detector.
- 23. A method for on-line analyzing of material using a pulsed neutron generator, comprising:
passing material to be analyzed through a first material pathway; submitting said material in said first pathway to pulsed neutron emissions; detecting gamma rays from said material in said first pathway; intermittently directing material to a second material pathway; submitting said material in said second pathway to pulsed neutron emissions; detecting gamma rays form said material in said second pathway; analyzing data from said gamma rays from said first pathway and said second pathway to determine the chemical composition of the material through the analysis of fast neutron reactions, thermal neutron reactions and neutron activation reactions.
Parent Case Info
[0001] This application claims priority to provisional application No. 60/092,194 filed Jul. 7, 1998.
Provisional Applications (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
|
60092194 |
Jul 1998 |
US |