An ionization Chamber for a Steel Sheet Thickness Measurement

An ionization chamber is still widely used in many fields by virtue of its' simple operational characteristics and the possibility of its' various shapes. A parallel type of an ionization chamber for a steel sheet thickness measurement was designed and fabricated. High pure xenon gas, which was pressurized up to 6 atm, was chosen as a filling gas to increase the current response and sensitivity for a radiation. A high pressure gas system was also constructed. The active volume and the incident window size of the fabricated ionization chamber were $30\;cm^3\;and\;12\;cm^2$, respectively. Preliminary tests with a 25 mCi $^{241}Am$ gamma-ray source and evaluation tests in a standard X-ray field were performed. The optimal operation voltage was set from the results of the collection efficiency calculation by using an experimental two-voltage method. Linearity for a variation of the steel sheet thickness, which is the most important factor for an application during a steel sheet thickness measurement, was 0.989 in this study.