Three dimensional water and ice quantification using neutron imaging

Neutron radiography (NR) and computed tomography (NCT) are important non-destructive testing tools which determine information about an object’s interior structure and material properties. Although water quantification using 2-D neutron imaging has been applied to fuel cells for over a decade, the development of an accurate 3-D method has only recently been demonstrated. The 3-D water quantification technique developed at the Pennsylvania State University’s Radiation Science and Engineering Center has been applied to the quantification of both liquid and ice phase water. Quantification results of water and ice inside a known small channel test object were accurate to within 2%. This capability allows the quantification of ice within a fuel cell flow field under cold-start conditions.