An objection of this study is to develop a measuring circuit of a gauge using radioisotope for compaction control. The gauge developed in this study makes use of radioisotope with the activity exempted from domestic atomic law and consists of measurin...
An objection of this study is to develop a measuring circuit of a gauge using radioisotope for compaction control. The gauge developed in this study makes use of radioisotope with the activity exempted from domestic atomic law and consists of measuring circuits for gamma-rays and thermal neutrons, a high voltage supply unit, and a microprocessor. To obtain meaningful numbers of pulse counts, parallel five and two circuits are provided for gamma-rays and thermal neutrons, respectively. Being simple in electrical characteristics of G-M detector for gamma-rays, pulses are counted through only a shaping circuit. Very small pulses generated from He-3 proportional detector for thermal neutrons are amplified to the maximum of 50 [dB] and a window comparator accepts only pulses with meaning. To minimize effects of natural environmental radiation and electrical noise, circuits are electrostatically shielded and pulses made by ripples are eliminated by taking frequency of high voltage supplied to the circuit and pulse height of ripples into consideration. One-chip microprocessor is applied to process various counts, results are stored and the gauage is made capable to communicate with YC. Enough and meaningful numbers of pulses are counted with the prototype gauage for compaction control.