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Failure analysis of electron gun of a 10 MeV RF linac

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Abstract

Industrial Electron Linacs have become popular tools for a multitude of radiation technology applications in the fields of material modification, pollution control as well as national security. Although thousands of accelerators are being regularly used, failure analysis of Industrial Electron Accelerators remains a sparsely researched topic and not much information is available in public. Being an economically viable option, industrial electron accelerators need to have a 24 × 7 reliable operation. Hence, it is necessary to understand the failure modes and their mitigation techniques, so that the operation of the accelerators is stable, consistent and safe. In this study, failure mode analysis and identification of degradation mechanisms in an industrial 10 MeV RF electron linac have been studied, with emphasis on the electron gun. Failure modes of the linac and its sub-systems have been investigated. Failure Mode and Effects Analysis and Fault Tree Analysis techniques have been examined for the electron gun. Bayesian Networks are used for modelling the performance of electron gun sub system, utilising the operational data of the RF linac. This approach has facilitated the evidential reasoning process to investigate most probable mode of failure and preventive measures have been recommended for mitigation of failure.

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Abbreviations

AC:

Alternating current

ADS:

Accelerator driven subcritical

BN:

Bayesian Network

CERN:

Conseil Européen pour la recherche nucléair (European council for nuclear research)

C & I:

Control & instrumentation

DAG:

Directed acyclic graph

DC:

Direct current

FMEA:

Failure modes & effects analysis

FMECA:

Failure modes, effects & criticality analysis

FT:

Fault tree

FTA:

Fault Tree Analysis

HV:

High voltage

ILC:

International linear collider

LANSCE:

Los Alamos neutron science center

Linac:

Linear accelerator

LHC:

Large hadron collider

MeV:

Million electron volts

MTBF:

Mean time before failure

MTTR:

Mean time to repair

PFN:

Pulse forming network

PSA:

Probabilistic Safety Analysis

RBD:

Reactor block diagram

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge the support extended by Chairman, BARC Safety Council and Head, BARC Safety Council Secretariat for permission to carry out this work. We also thank Shri R. B. Chavan of Accelerator &Pulse Power Division, BARC for providing the operating data of 10 MeV RF Linac.

Funding

This work is carried out in BARC as part of research. No separate funding is involved.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, India

    Kavita P. Dixit, Gopika Vinod & Vipul Garg

  2. Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai, India

    Kavita P. Dixit, Gopika Vinod & Vipul Garg

Authors
  1. Kavita P. Dixit
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  2. Gopika Vinod
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  3. Vipul Garg
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Correspondence to Kavita P. Dixit.

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Dixit, K.P., Vinod, G. & Garg, V. Failure analysis of electron gun of a 10 MeV RF linac. Int J Syst Assur Eng Manag 13, 2338–2355 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13198-022-01647-9

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