ISSN 00204412, Instruments and Experimental Techniques, 2010, Vol. 53, No. 5, pp. 663–674. © Pleiades Publishing, Ltd., 2010. Original Russian Text © A.V. Kantsyrev, A.V. Bakhmutova, A.A. Golubev, V.S. Demidov, E.V. Demidova, E.M. Ladygina, N.V. Markov, G.N. Smirnov, V.I. Turtikov, A.D. Fertman, L.M. Shestov, A.V. Khudomyasov, 2010, published in Pribory i Tekhnika Eksperimenta, 2010, No. 5, pp. 47–59.
APPLICATION OF COMPUTERS IN EXPERIMENTS
An Integrated Automation System for Experiments on the Fast Extraction Beamline of the TWAC–ITEP Accelerator–Accumulator Facility A. V. Kantsyrev*, A. V. Bakhmutova, A. A. Golubev, V. S. Demidov, E. V. Demidova, E. M. Ladygina, N. V. Markov, G. N. Smirnov, V. I. Turtikov, A. D. Fertman, L. M. Shestov, and A. V. Khudomyasov Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics (ITEP), ul. Bol’shaya Cheremushkinskaya 25, Moscow, 117218 Russia *email:
[email protected] Received March 3, 2010
Abstract—The integrated automation system (IAS) for proton radiography and ion radiobiological experi ments on the fast extraction beamline of the TWAC–ITEP accelerator–accumulator facility has been devel oped and successfully used. The subsystems that are parts of the IAS perform the following functions: acqui sition, storage, and processing of experimental data; control of the magnetic lenses of the chargedparticle beam transport line; beam diagnostics; and radiation safety and monitoring. The subsystems are composed of hardware–software modules, each dealing with a particular measuring or actuating device and a program for readout, storing, and processing of experimental data corresponding to this device. The modules commu nicate via a TCP/IP socket in a configuration dependent on the requirements of a particular experiment. Data are transmitted from one module to the other in the real time mode within the closed ring network, which allows consecutive processing of incoming experimental data. The status of the system elements, incoming experimental data, and results of their rapid analysis are displayed in the real time mode on the web server. Owing to the flexible structure of the integrated automation system, it is possible to promptly create new configurations for acquisition and processing of experimental data. DOI: 10.1134/S0020441210050088
1. INTRODUCTION
mode, and keeping a log of the experiment with the main parameters being recorded in it.
Fast extraction of ion and proton beams in the TWAC–ITEP accelerator–accumulator facility is intended for basic, applied, and methodological inves tigations in physics of extreme states of matter, physics of explosions, diagnostics of the state of matter in fast processes, development of methods for highintensity beam formation, radiobiology, and medicine. A wide variety of investigations requires both standard and original devices differing in the type of measurable quantities and the methods of their representation for further analysis. To organize efficient operation of equipment in experiments on fast beam extraction, the experimental setup must have a universal automated system for con trol and monitoring of its parameters, as well as for acquisition and processing of experimental data. The development of an integrated automation system (IAS)1 of this type includes execution of the following tasks: transforming experimental data from different sources to a uniform system, automating the control and monitoring of the main setup parameters, provid ing a means for online control of the measurement process, processing experimental data in the real time 1 The abbreviations used in the paper are presented in Appendix.
2. A SETUP FOR EXPERIMENTS ON THE FAST EXTRACTION BEAMLINE OF THE TWAC–ITEP ACCELERATOR An experimental setup (Fig. 1) has been developed for carrying out experiments on the fast extraction beamline of the TWAC–ITEP accelerator–accumu lator facility. This setup consists of the beam transport line (the beamline), over which a charged particle beam is transported from the accelerator to experi mental targets using the magnetic elements. The tar gets are enclosed in target chambers equipped with special measuring equipment for carrying out investi gations. The length of the beamline from the acceler ator to the target is 80 m. Quadrupole lenses Q1–Q18 (МЛ15), F1, and F2 (both are 20K100), bending mag nets B1 and B2 (СП12), and steering magnets C1–C4 (KM) are used to transport the particle beam. Diag nostic modules p1–p9 monitor the transverse dimen sions of the beam. Behind bending magnet B2, beamline 510 is divided into two beamlines—511 and 512. Beamline 511 is used to carry out experiments on the ion beam with an energy of 200–400 MeV/amu in physics of
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Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the charge particle beam transport line (the beamline) to the targets.
high energy density in matter, ion radiography, devel opment of methods for highintensity ion beam diag nostics, and radiobiology. The beam intensity varies over wide limits (107–1010 ions/shot), the transverse beam dimension at a target ranges between 0.5 to 80.0 mm, and the duration of the ion beam is ~800 ns. Beamline 512 is intended to transport the proton beam with energies of up to 800 MeV and conduct experiments on proton radiography of static and dynamic objects using magnetic optics. The proton beam intensity is as high as 1011 particles/shot. A shot of the proton beam consists of four 70nslong shots following with a period of 250 ns; the shot frequency is ≤0.25 Hz. Both lines of the beamline terminate in target chambers, the auxiliary equipment of which depends on the experiment being conducted.
—microcontrollerbased shot controller (MBSC) connected to PC1; —subsystem of monitoring and control of the magnetic elements in the beam transport line and beam diagnostics (SCED), which is based on PC3 and PC4; —general and radiation safety subsystem (GRSS) controlled by computer PC1; —IAS server (PC5) for storing experimental data and supporting the IAS public site: http:// plasma.itep.ru. Most of the IAS programs are written in Delphi programming language in the Windows XP medium. Computer PC6 is intended for remote mathematical processing of experimental data in the realtime mode in programs written in the PAW language.
3. IAS STRUCTURE The automation system [1] covers all equipment of the setup—both the equipment being common for all experiments (Fig. 1) and special equipment used for measuring the required parameters and positioning the targets and movable parts of the setup. The layout of the main hardware elements on beamline 511 are shown in Fig. 2 as an illustration. The mathematical equipment of the system com prises six personal computers PC1–PC6 located in four rooms—building 101, the experimental area of build ing 120, and two control station rooms (of building 120), which are used to tune the beam and control the experiment and are connected by the Ethernet net work. The IAS includes the following parts: —subsystem of monitoring and control of the experiment (SMCE), which is used for automatic readout and processing of experimental data and is based on two computers PC1 and PC2;
4. SUBSYSTEM OF MONITORING AND CONTROL OF THE EXPERIMENT (SMCE) The SMCE is the basis of the IAS. It has been designed to carry out experiments in the automatic mode according to the plan–job preliminarily devel oped for the IAS. The plan–job specifies the time of the start and end of the experiment and describes the conditions of each experiment on a beam shot: the beam intensity, the target position, and the locations of the measuring devices and detectors. A set of instructions allowing the use of cyclic commands has been developed for transmission of these data to the system. The plan–job can be coded in real time using dialog boxes of operator communication. The dura tion of experiments performed according to the plan– job without operator’s attendance is practically unlim ited. The SMCE consists of a set of hardware–software modules (HSMs), each of which includes a measur ing, diagnostic, or actuating device and the relevant
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Fig. 2. Layout of the hardware used in experiments on beamline 511.
program for readout and mathematical treatment of experimental data (see table). The HSM programs reside in several personal computers integrated into a local ring Ethernet network (Fig. 3), which ensures readout and processing of experimental data, as well as control of actuating devices. Data communication between the HSM programs has been organized via the TCP/IP socket interface. Each HSM program has its unique number (Fig. 3, Server) used as an address to receive data from the other programs. When tuning the configuration for the current experiment, the direction of data transmission (Fig. 3, Client) is specified in each program. HSM 1 composed of an MBSC unit and the Beam Control program is the master module in the network. After a beam shot, it sends a request for reading and processing experi mental data to the next program in the ring network, which reads and processes the data and then sends the request downstream of the network. At the end of operation of the last HSM in the ring, the request returns to master HSM 1. In this case, the Beam Con trol program can perform the next beam shot with the aid of the MBSC unit after changing the parameters of the experiment according to the plan–job. The universal TekVISA driver (Tektronix) has been selected to organize data communication between the programs and devices with unlike interfaces (RS232, GPIB, USB, and LAN). Using this driver, it is possible to organize data communication with the HSM pro grams with allowance for the specific command sys INSTRUMENTS AND EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUES
tem of the device. The ActiveX component of the TekVISA driver is set up for access to the functions of the TekVISA program in the Delphi language. The key HSMs used in the experiments are listed in the table. The set of these modules is sufficient for exe cution of all experiments on the fast extraction beam line of the TWAC–ITEP accelerator. All experimental data are transmitted to the control station room (see Fig. 2), where the hardware and soft ware of the basic HSM, the key elements of the sub systems, and the IAS server are located. 4.1. Basic Hardware–Software Module HSM 1 (MBSC) The hardware part of this module consists of the MBSC, which is used to control the beam extraction modes and synchronize triggering of the measuring equipment. Its block diagram is shown in Fig. 4. It sends the request for a beam shot to the accelerator’s control console, receives the synch signal from the accelerator corresponding to the beam arrival time, generates signals triggering the measuring devices, and measures the level of ion accumulation in the storage ring. The MBSC is based on an AT89S53 microcon troller (Atmel) with embedded programs written in the C language in the FS ProView medium. To ensure programmable delay in triggering of the diagnostic equipment, the MBSC has two output channels with a programmable delay with respect to the synch signal in Vol. 53
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Main hardware–software modules (HSMs) of the IAS subsystem of monitoring and control of the experiment No. HSM1 HSM2
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HSM function Control of beam shots and synchronization of diag nostic equipment triggering Readout, processing, and storage of highfrequen cy signals from detectors and beam intensity mea surements Production of programmable delays and pulses Digitization of scintillator pulses and processing of images Positioning of targets and detectors with reference to the beam Measurements of the radiobiological dose Movement of detectors and targets in the water based radiobiological phantom and construction of the longitudinal and transverse beam profiles Control of the highvoltage power supply
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StopTar, ITEPSTANDA PTWITEP Fantom
БНВ16П power supply with the LCARD MedHV E14440 D DAC module HSM9 Measurements of the current–voltage character Keithley 237 RAPSITEP istics of SCDs HSM10 Positioning of permanent magnets in the proton Nippon Bearing fourcoordinate manipula PROTOM microscope of proton radiography experiments tor with the LCARD E14440 controller
the interval from 50 ns to 30 ms with an error of ±25 ns, as well as one output channel with zero delay time and a time resolution of 1 ns (Fig. 4). The MBSC has a signsynthesizing display with control keys. With the aid of its builtin menu, the MBSC ensures offline control of the stored ion beam intensity, tuning of the beam shot repetition rate, and changing of the time delays in triggering of the equip ment. Data communication between PC1 and the MBSC is effected via the RS232 serial port. The MBSC is used in operation of all IAS subsystems by means of data transmission through the TCP/IP socket interface. The beam intensity, the unique no repeat number, the time and date of the last shot, and the radiation background level measured by the GRSS subsystem (see Section 6) are all recorded after each shot on the IAS server using the Beam Control pro gram. The Beam Control program includes different separately initiated functions used in radiobiological and radiographic experiments. For example, the function of measuring and limit ing the dose received by irradiated samples is per formed by the Beam Control program in radiobiolog ical experiments (see Subsection 8.1). 5. SUBSYSTEM OF MONITORING AND CONTROL OF THE MAGNETIC ELEMENTS IN THE BEAM TRANSPORT LINE AND BEAM DIAGNOSTICS (SCED) Tuning of the currents in the magnetic elements of the beamline (see Fig. 2) at the initial stage of each
experiment and their control in the process of experi ments are the main tasks performed with the aid of the SCED. The block diagram of the SCED at the stage of beamline tuning is presented in Fig. 5 using one of the magnetic elements as an example. The SCED soft ware resides in computers PC1, PC3, and PC4. Com puter PC4, which is a remote console of the beam guid ing operator, is located in the experimenters’ room (Fig. 2) and is connected to the other computers by the Ethernet. PC3 contains programs for magnetic ele ment tuning and beam diagnostics. The facilities for monitoring and control of the magnetic elements are connected to PC3. The shot control logic and beam intensity measurements are supported by modules HSM 1 and HSM 2, which operate on PC1. Comput ers PC1, PC3, and PC4 communicate with the IAS server (PC5). The aim of the tuning procedure is to ensure the required beam parameters (i.e., its transverse dimen sions and intensity) in the plane of the target. The transverse dimensions of the beam at nine points of the beamline р1–р9 (see Fig. 1) are measured using diag nostic modules, which are 1mmthick ceramic scin tillation converters located in the vacuum chamber of the beamline. In the course of tuning, the converter located outside the beam during the experiment is positioned at its center with the aid of a remotely con trolled manipulator (Fig. 5). For modules p1–p6, the light image of the beam is recorded by EA100/C CCD cameras (Ever Focus) with an analog output; for mod ules p7–p9, the image is recorded by SDU429 digital CCD cameras (SpetsTeleTekhnika) with a USB inter
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Fig. 3. Layout of data transmission between the IAS programs.
face. Through the multiplexer of the profilometers and video signals, the signal from the active diagnostic module arrives at the input of the video capture card (AverMedia EZMaker Gold) installed on the PCI bus in PC3. When images are read out of the SDU429 cam eras, the USB–Ethernet Lantronix UBOX2100 inter face converters connected to the Ethernet localarea network are used for access to these cameras. The SDUITEP programs running on PC3 are used for image readout and processing. The intensity and time distribution of the beam are measured by the FCT082 20:1 and FCT082 05:1 fast current transfromers (Bergoz). The signal is read out of these sensors by HSM 2, which switches on the TDS3032 oscilloscope and activates the PTEK pro gram calculating the particle beam intensity. The transverse dimensions and shape of the beam are regulated by varying the currents in the magnets and quadrupole lenses placed along the beamline. The SCED monitors the currents and the states of safety locks for 21 magnetic elements of the beamline (the magnetic elements are powered from dc voltage gener ators located on the accelerator). The output current of the dc voltage generators is remotely varied in two channels by application of sampled control signals. Shunting resistors of 1.5 × 10–4 Ω are used to monitor the current. The shunts are connected to the relay multiplexer of currents in the magnetic elements (Fig. 5), which sequentially connects all magnetic ele ments to the MXD4660A singlechannel voltage meter (Metex). The data from the MXD4660A are transmitted to PC3 via the COMRS232 serial port. The error of current measurements is 0.07 A in the range of 0–500 A. The current multiplexer allows sequential connection of as many as 32 magnetic ele ments. Sensors T and B monitoring the water temper ature and pressure in the cooling system for windings of the magnetic elements are connected to PC3 via the sensor multiplexer having 64 digital inputs. Control of the multiplexers, reading of the sensor states, control of the current generators, and lifting of the scintillators are effected using the Beam Line Con INSTRUMENTS AND EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUES
trol program with the aid of the LCARD E14140D digital module connected to PC3 via the USB port. The information on the state of the magnetic elements of the beamline can be transmitted to the database of the IAS server (PC5). The PMVideo program has been designed for readout and processing of the video signal from the EA100/C CCD cameras. It records the video signal, selects the snapshot with the beam image, and analyzes the transverse dimensions of the beam. Both of these programs are written in the Delphi program ming language. The beam guiding procedure is executed from the remote control console of the beam guiding operator in PC4, which is located is the experimenters’ room. The VNC and Remote Desktop Windows remote access programs provide access to computers PC1 and PC3. The view of the beam guiding operator’s work field is presented in Fig. 6. The top oscillogram shows the proton beam cur rent on beamline 512. The duration of four bunches in one shot is 820 ns. In the middle of the work field, there is the window of the Beam Control master mod ule program. In dialog with the accelerator control system, this program organizes beam shot to the setup, regulates the shot repetition rate and the beam inten sity, and outputs to the localarea network the signal initiating the start of data acquisition, processing, and writing into the MySQL database (see Subsection 4.1). Four pictures on the right of the work field present the beam images in the diagnostic modules and in the plane of the target. The voltages across the shunts of the magnetic ele ments in the beamline are presented in the main win dow of the Beam Line Control program operating in PC3, and currently active diagnostic modules (“pro filometers”) are highlighted in it. The Beam Line Control program monitors the currents in the magnets and lenses so that they remain in the specified intervals around the selected values. Should these conditions break, an audible alarm is produced, and a faulty mag netic element is indicated. Vol. 53
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Fig. 4. Block diagram of the MBSC.
6. GENERAL AND RADIATION SAFETY SUBSYSTEM (GRSS) The hardware part of the GRSS includes a БДМГ 100 γray detector, a БДМН100 neutron detector, an УИМ22Д recorder (see Fig. 2), an RS232–Ethernet MOXA 4120 interface converter, a Beam Stop device, and remote computer PC1. The γray and neutron detectors, together with the УИМ22Д recorder, are located in the experimental area at the point for back ground monitoring. The measured background values are transmitted via the Ethernet from the recorder to PC1. The Beam Stop device has been developed to block the passage of the beam (Fig. 1). This device is a massive stainless steel cylinder 140 mm in diameter and 500 mm in length (corresponding to total absorp tion of the proton and ion beam of the used energies), which is installed in the initial part of the beamline using a pneumatic inlet. Beam blocking is switched on in case of works on the setup during the accelerator run. The state of the Beam Stop device is read out via the LCARD L791 PCI card on PC1 using the Beam StopUNIT program. The “Beam Stop” state is dis played on the indicator panel at the entrance to the experimental ground and on the IAS site. The GRSS software consists of the UIMITEP program, the main purpose of which is to collect and analyze information on the radiation environment at the check points in the experimental room and then store it in the database of the IAS server. If the radia tion background exceeds the threshold value, alarm
signaling is turned on, and information is displayed in the work fields of active HSMs. 7. SERVERS AND THE IAS SITE Computer PC5 (Fig. 7) with the GNU/Linux Debian 5.0 operating system and the Apache web server is used to maintain remote control of IAS oper ation and store incoming experimental data. Two databases have been created with the aid of the MySQL program on the server. Their functions are as follows: —storing the SCED parameters (i.e., the currents of the lenses and magnets); —storing the parameters obtained during SMCE operation (i.e., the beam intensity, the duration of the experiment, the unique norepeat number of the experiment, and the names of saved files with experi mental data). In this case, a new line is filled in the database after each measurement, which allows one to keep a log of conducted experiments. The GRSS per formance parameters are also entered into this data base. The databases are increased via Ethernet by imme diate access to the MySQL via the SQL requests from the programs of the IAS subsystems. To organize SQL requests, the ZeosLib and MySQLpython1.2.2 libraries are used in programs written in the Delphi and Python languages, respectively. The files of the incoming experimental data (oscillograms, images, etc.) are saved via the Ethernet on the server’s hard
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Fig. 5. Block diagram of the SCED. Connection of one magnetic element and one diagnostic module is shown.
disk with the aid of the Samba Server 3.3 program. To increase the operating speed of the Ethernet localarea network, network equipment operating at speeds of as high as 1 Gbit/s is used to connect personal computers PC1–PC5. For public display of the state of the IAS subsystems and incoming experimental data, website http:// plasma.itep.ru has been setup on the IAS server. This site has been designed using dynamic pages written with the use of the PHP5.0 language and now operates in the automatic update mode. The other server limon.itep.ru connected to the localarea network by the Ethernet technology is used for statistical data pro cessing in the real time mode. 8. EXAMPLES OF EXPERIMENTS USING THE IAS Configurations permitting the making of measure ments in the automatic mode are created from SMCE HSMs for each experiment. In what follows, we describe two system configurations used in radiobio logical experiments and in diagnostics of the parame ters of matter under extreme conditions by means of the proton radiography method. INSTRUMENTS AND EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUES
8.1. Radiobiological Experiments Figure 8 presents the example of the IAS configu ration in the experiments aimed at studying the bio logical efficiency of carbon ions in irradiation of malignant tumors. Module HSM 7 is used to control and monitor the measurement process and prepro cessing of experimental data. The hardware of HSM 7 is based on tissueequivalent phantom (designed in accordance with the IAEA recommendations) with a threecoordinate Standa manipulator [3], which allows precision measurements of dose fields pro duced by the carbon beam in water and can also be used to irradiate cellular structures. The phantom is a Plexiglas parallelepiped filled with water, with dimen sions of 400 × 200 × 200 mm. During an experiment, the water temperature is maintained at a predeter mined level with an error of 0.1°С. In radiobiological experiments, the important methodological task is to maintain the homogeneity of the dose field produced by an ion beam in the plane perpendicular to the beam direction. The dose field is measured by scanning the beam action zone. A semi conductor detector (SCD) or a hermetically sealed ionization chamber is fixed in place on the manipula tor, and the manipulator is connected to PC2 via the Vol. 53
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Fig. 6. Work field of the beam guiding operator’s remote control console (protons have en energy of 800 MeV). The PTEK pro gram of beam intensity measurements is on the left, the Beam Control program is at the center, the BeamStopUNIT is at the bottom, the SDUITEP programs run for three diagnostic modules and one scintillator of the experimental setup are on the right.
USB controller operating under control of the Fantom program. The accuracy of detector positioning in the phantom is 2.5 μm. The detector signals transformed by the integrating amplifier are digitized by the TDS3032 oscilloscope and transmitted over the Ethernet network to the PTEK2 program on PC1. The total number of ions in the beam pulse is mea sured by the Bergoz FCT082 05:1 fast current trans former [3], which is connected to the TDS3034B oscilloscope. Data are transmitted to PC1 and added together by the PTEK1 program (Fig. 8). Primary beam tuning is performed by the operator with the use of the SCED (see Section 5) by lumines cence of scintillators placed in front of and behind the phantom prior to filling it with water. The dose field produced by the carbon beam is measured in the auto matic mode under control of the Beam Control pro gram. Before the experiment, the operator sets up the plan–job for the IAS in the program window, in which he (or she) specifies the number of steps that must be taken as the manipulator moves along axis Z down stream of the beam; the multiplicities of measure ments at this point; and the coordinates of the initial point and the scanning pitch sizes. Coordinates Х and Y of the set of points in the transverse plane are also specified to take similar longitudinal measurements. As the plan–job is executed the system performs the whole cycle of operations at each step, starting with sending a request to the accelerator and terminating in writing the results in the database. Thereafter, the manipulator sets the detector to the next position, and the next measurement is taken. The number of steps in the plan–job is not limited. The time of a single mea surement is 4–12 s, depending on the rate of accumu lation of ions in the accelerator storage ring.
During operation of the IAS, the work field of the operator may display the parameters characterizing the state of the equipment, arriving experimental data, and results of data preprocessing. The measured energy losses of carbon ions with an energy of 190 MeV/amu as a function of the beam’s penetration depth in the water (axis Z) are shown in Fig. 9. The obtained ion range (81 mm) agrees with the value calculated by the SRIM program [4]. The example of the transverse dose distributions obtained using the HSM 7 at Z = 10 mm is shown in Fig. 10. The dose field formed in this experiment had a rectangular shape with dimensions of 38(X) × 75(Y) mm and a uniformity of ±5.8%, which is sufficient for carrying out experiments aimed at studying the effi ciency of ion beam impact on malignant cells. A set of experiments was performed under similar conditions with the aim of irradiating malignant cells applied as a ~50μmthick monolayer on the wall of a rectangular culture bottle. 8.2. Experiments Aimed at Diagnosing the Extreme State of Matter Using the Proton Radiography Method A setup has been developed on the 800MeV pro ton beam (beamline 512 of the TWAC–ITEP Acceler ator) to study shock and detonation processes in con densed substances using the proton radiography method [5, 6]. The first dynamic experiments aimed at detecting detonation waves in pressed trinitrotoluol (TNT) charges and formation of jets on nonuniform surfaces of steel plated under shock action were con ducted in [7]. In the course of experiments at the accelerator, in particular, when dynamic targets and an explosion
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generator are used, it is necessary that general syn chronization be ensured and the measuring and con trol equipment of the experiment, as well as the sys tems of beam control and monitoring, be carefully adjusted. These works cannot be done without an inte grated control, monitoring, and automation system
for experiments. Such a system has been developed at the proton radiographic facility of the ITEP. It has the following configuration: module HSM 1, four mod ules HSM 4, and one module HSM 7. The block diagram of the developed IAS configura tion ensuring general synchronization and control of
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raphy images of the samples under investigation, recorded for two successive proton pulses with a 250ns interval, was obtained in the experiments. The images were recorded by highspeed digital cameras with referencing to an isolated pulse of the proton beam.
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10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 Range in water, mm
Fig. 9. Energy loss curve for carbon ions in water, measured in the radiobiological experiment.
the parameters of the measuring and control equip ment of the experiment is presented in Fig. 11. In addition, the hardware part of the IAS configuration includes quadrupole lenses for the magnetic optic sys tem of the radiographic facility Q12–Q18 and beam diagnostic modules р7–р9 (see Fig. 1). (The magnetic optic system of the radiographic facility was described in detail in [6].) Two pressed TNT targets with densi ties of 1.30–1.35 g/cm3 and dimensions of ∅20 × 32 and ∅15 × 40 mm were used in the experiments. Det onation was initiated by a point source (an electric detonator through an active charge). The total mass of the charge, together with the initiation devices, did not exceed 25 g. The initiating pulse was produced by the generator included in the IAS synchronization cir cuit; the error of timing with the proton beam from the accelerator was 50 ns. A set of pairs of proton radiog SCD, arb. units 45 40
Apart from the experiments aimed at detecting the detonation wave in TNT samples, experimental obser vation of “dusting” and jet formation on metal sur faces under shock action were conducted. Steel plates having notches with a triangular profile ~0.3 and 0.5 mm in depth were placed on the 20mmdiameter end of the TNT charge. The proton radiographic images were recorded in 1 μs after arrival of the deto nation wave in the TNT to the plate surface. The results of the experiments are shown in Fig. 12. In the recorded snapshots at the site of the 0.5mmdeep notch, one can clearly distinguish a jet of metal parti cles flying with a higher velocity relative to the plate surface, whereas no jets of this kind are observed in the 0.3mmdeep notches. The velocity of the plate’s free surface, estimated by its shift in two snapshots recorded for two proton bunches with a 250ns inter val, is 1.68 ± 0.08 km/s. The velocity of the jet head is estimated to be ~4 km/s. SCD, arb. units 40 35
35 30 25 20
30 25 20 15
15 10 5 0
Images from the cameras were stored in the data base of the experiment simultaneously with informa tion on the proton beam parameters, settings of the magnetic optic system of the setup, and the synchro nization diagram. The bulk density profiles recon structed for these data (for the case of TNT detona tion) demonstrate both qualitative and high quantita tive agreement in the discharge zone with the data obtained by the laser Doppler interferometry method and the results of the theoretical simulation in [7].
10 5 20
40 60 80 100 120 Y (vertical) coordinate, mm
0 50
60
70
80 90 100 110 120 130 X (horizontal) coordinate, mm
Fig. 10. Dose distribution over the beam cross section in the irradiation zone at Z = 10 mm. INSTRUMENTS AND EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUES
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AN INTEGRATED AUTOMATION SYSTEM FOR EXPERIMENTS MBSC
Accelerator communication signals
CCD camera 4
CCD camera 1
Beam Control
SDUITEP 1
SDUITEP 4
PGen
Fantom PTEK
manipulator control
generator control
Oscilloscope Manipulator controller
673
Delay time generator
Target manipulators
Fast current transformer Synch signal
Fig. 11. Block diagram of the IAS configuration for a proton radiography experiment.
(а)
(b)
Fig. 12. Protonradiographic images of the steel plate with 0.5 and 0.3mmdeep notches located at the end of the TNT charge: (a) static image and (b) dynamic image in 1 µs after arrival of the detonation wave to the surface of the plate (the wave traveling direction was from right to left).
9. CONCLUSIONS The universal system of hardware and software tools for automation of experiments on the fast extrac tion beamline of the TWAC–ITEP Accelerator– Accumulator Facility has been developed. A set of ten HSMs has been designed for acquisition of data from measuring devices, with which it is possible to read, store, and process experimental data in the real time INSTRUMENTS AND EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUES
mode. Each HSM comprises a measuring, diagnostic, or actuating device and the relevant program for data readout and processing. The integrated automation system embodies the modular principle. The measuring IAS part is a ring localarea network composed of several personal computers connected into the Ethernet network and is used for processing of digital images in the real time mode and statistical Vol. 53
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analysis of data. Data are transmitted from one mod ule to the other in the localarea network in accor dance with the TCP/IP socket protocol. Information on the current status of an experiment is transferred to the Internet site http://plasma.itep.ru. The operation of the system for more than 2 years has made it possible to reduce the duration of experi ments and simplify their procedures. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This work was supported by Rosatom (state con tract nos. N.4d.47.03.08.058 and N.4d.47.03.08.083) and the International Science and Technology Center (project no. 3591). APPENDIX The following abbreviations are used in the paper: (HSM) hardware–software module; (IAS) integrated automation system; (MBSC) microcontrollerbased shot controller; (SMCE) subsystem of monitoring and control of the experiment;
(GRSS) general and radiation safety subsystem; (SCED) subsystem of monitoring and control of the magnetic elements in the beam transport line and beam diagnostics. REFERENCES 1. Golubev, A.A., Demidov, V.S., Kantsyrev, A.V., et al., Abstracts of Papers, Nauchnaya sessiya MIFI2009 (Sci. Session of Moscow Engineering Phys. Inst. MEPhI2009), Moscow, 2009, vol. 1, p. 116. 2. Bakhmutova, A.V., Golubev, A.A., Kantsyrev, A.V., et al., Abstracts of Papers, VI Kurchatovskaya molo dezhnaya shkola (VI Kurchatov Youth School), Mos cow, 2008, p. 217. 3. http:/www.bergoz.com/products/FCT/dfct.html 4. http:/www.sri.org 5. Golubev, A.A., Demidov, V.S., Demidova, E.V., et al., At. Energ., 2008, vol. 104, no. 2, p. 99. 6. Golubev, A.A., Demidov, V.S., Demidova, E.V., et al., Pis’ma Zh. Tekh. Fiz., 2010, vol. 36, no. 2, p. 61 [Tech. Phys. Lett. (Engl. Transl.), vol. 36, no. 2, p. 177]. 7. Kolesnikov, S.A., Dudin, S.V., Mintsev, V.B., et al., XIII Intern. Conf. Phys. of NonIdeal Plasmas, Cher nogolovka, Russia, 2009.
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