Thermal response measurements of aluminum and graphite epoxy due to irradiation by 256-MeV protons

This paper describes the infrared technique used to measure the rapid temperature rise of aluminum and graphite epoxy targets when irradiated by 256 MeV proton beam. In this experiment an infrared scanner with a computer image processor and a special video recorder were used to measure real time-2D temperature distributions as the target was bombarded by 100-500 microsecond pulses of 256 MeV protons. The events were stored both in digital and analog format, for accurate quantitative analyses. The targets were placed in a vacuum chamber, and the surface was monitored through a 32.4 cm diameter by 3.8 cm thick salt window having a 10 micrometer antireflection coating. The experiment was conducted at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.