Process engineering investigations conducted as part of the joint research project 'Engineering fundamentals of uranium enrichment using laser techniques'

Investigations focused on process engineering questions. The following three topics were dealt with: 1. Development of suitable nozzles for adiabatic cooling. Sonic nozzles, supersonic nozzles and nozzle systems were investigated for adaptation to this process. The influence of nozzle geometry, carrier gas, mixture ratio, stagnation pressure and temperature, and also the expansion ratio on relevant process parameters was investigated. 2. Separation of produced UF5 from the gas stream containing UF6. The separation of monomerous UF5 by a metallic grid immediately downstream of the irradiation zone as well as the separation of UF5-particles by an inhomogeneous electric field was experimentally investigated. Supplementary the growing of UF5-particles in the gas stream was measured and the possibility of collecting UF5-particles by a cyclone was estimated. 3. Investigations on laser beam path manipulation. A computer program was used to investigate the effects of density gradients on deflection of and energy distribution in the laser beam for experimentally-determined UF6 density fields. (orig./HP) With 1 ref., 3 tabs., 16 figs