The gas flow pattern through a small size Resistive Plate Chamber with 2mm gap

TL;DR

This study simulates and experimentally investigates the gas flow in a small Resistive Plate Chamber, revealing how pressure and flow vary within the chamber and implications for detector design.

Contribution

The paper presents a computational fluid dynamic simulation of gas flow in a small RPC and validates it with experiments, providing insights into pressure distribution and flow dynamics.

Findings

Pressure inside the chamber depends linearly on flow rate and hose length.

Flow velocity is significantly higher at inlet and outlet regions compared to corners.

Simulation results align with experimental measurements.

Abstract

A prototype of a single-gap glass Resistive Plate Chamber (RPC) is constructed by the authors. To find the considerations required for better operation of the detector's gas system, we have simulated the flow of the Ar gas through the detector by using computational fluid dynamic methods. Simulations show that the pressure inside the chamber linearly depends on the gas flow rate and the chamber's output hose length. The simulation results were compatible with experiments. We have found that the pressure-driven speed of the gas molecules is two orders of magnitude larger in the inlet and outlet regions than the blocked corners of a 14x14 cm2 chamber, and most likely seems to be higher for larger detectors and different geometries.