Large Capacity Water and Air Bath Calorimeters

EG&G Mound Applied Technologies has developed an 11 in. x 17 in. sample size water bath and an 11 in. x 17 in. sample size air bath calorimeter which both function under servo control mode of operation. The water bath calorimeter has four air bath preconditioners to increase sample throughput and the air bath calorimeter has two air bath preconditioners. The large capacity calorimeters and preconditioners were unique to Mound design which brought about unique design challenges. Both large capacity systems calculate the optimum set temperature for each preconditioner which is available to the operator. Each system is controlled by a personal computer under DOS which allows the operator to download data to commercial software packages when the calorimeter is idle. Qualification testing yielded a one standard deviation of 0.6% for 0.2W to 3.0W Pu-238 heat standard range in the water bath calorimeter and a one standard deviation of 0.3% for the 6.0W to 20.0W Pu-238 heat standard range in the air bath calorimeter.