Estimation of density variation in vibrocompacted boron carbide capsules by X-ray radiography

Abstract

In this paper, we report a simple procedure for estimation of density variations in vibrocompacted boron carbide powder in a stainless steel capsule using radiography. Under identical radiography exposure conditions, the optical density of both the boron carbide capsule and a standard stainless steel step wedge is compared, and the variation of density along the length of the capsule is evaluated. It is observed that due to manufacturing conditions, the packing is not uniform along the length of the boron carbide capsule, where the relative density variation was approximately 8%. The procedure is validated for a titanium dioxide (TiO₂) pellet having a bulk density of 4.27 g/cm³. In the case of the titanium dioxide pellet, the estimated value of average density using the new procedure was 4.49 g/cm³, 5% higher than the actual value. The possible reasons for this variation in the density estimation are discussed.