Establishment of new design criteria for GlidCop super( registered ) X-ray absorbers

An engineering research program has been conducted at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) in order to determine the thermomechanical conditions that lead to crack formation in GlidCop super( registered ), a material commonly used to fabricate X-ray absorbers at X-ray synchrotron facilities. This dispersion-strengthened copper alloy is a proprietary material and detailed technical data of interest to the synchrotron community is limited. The results from the research program have allowed new design criteria to be established for GlidCop super( registered ) X-ray absorbers based upon the thermomechanically induced fatigue behavior of the material. X-ray power from APS insertion devices was used to expose 30 GlidCop super( registered ) samples to 10000 thermal loading cycles each under various beam power conditions, and all of the samples were metallurgically examined for crack presence/geometry. In addition, an independent testing facility was hired to measure temperature-dependent mechanical data and uniaxial mechanical fatigue data for numerous GlidCop super( registered ) samples. Data from these studies support finite element analysis (FEA) simulation and parametric models, allowing the development of a thermal fatigue model and the establishment of new design criteria so that the thermomechanically induced fatigue life of X-ray absorbers may be predicted. It is also demonstrated how the thermal fatigue model can be used as a tool to geometrically optimize X-ray absorber designs. New design criteria have been established for GlidCop super( registered ) based upon the thermomechanically induced fatigue behavior of the material.