Overview of the Conceptual Design of the Future VENUS Neutron Imaging Beam Line at the Spallation Neutron Source

• Published in: Physics procedia 2015, Vol.69, p.55-59
• Main Authors: Bilheux, Hassina, Herwig, Ken, Keener, Scott, Davis, Larry
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: instrument conceptual design; Spallation Neutron Source; time-of-flight neutron radiography
• ISSN: 1875-3892; 1875-3892
• DOI: 10.1016/j.phpro.2015.07.007

VENUS (Versatile Neutron Imaging Beam line at the Spallation Neutron Source) will be a world-class neutron-imaging instrument that will uniquely utilize the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) time-of-flight (TOF) capabilities to measure and characterize objects across several length scales (mm to μm). When completed, VENUS will provide academia, industry and government laboratories with the opportunity to advance scientific research in areas such as energy, materials, additive manufacturing, geosciences, transportation, engineering, plant physiology, biology, etc. It is anticipated that a good portion of the VENUS user community will have a strong engineering/industrial research focus. Installed at Beam line 10 (BL10), VENUS will be a 25-m neutron imaging facility with the capability to fully illuminate (i.e., umbra illumination) a 20cm x 20cm detector area. The design allows for a 28cm x 28cm field of view when using the penumbra to 80% of the full illumination flux. A sample position at 20 m will be implemented for magnification measurements. The optical components are comprised of a series of selected apertures, T0 and bandwidth choppers, beam scrapers, a fast shutter to limit sample activation, and flight tubes filled with Helium. Techniques such as energy selective, Bragg edge and epithermal imaging will be available at VENUS.