MiniBooNE Mineral Oil Procurement

Evaluation of Oils from Witco

Randy Johnson, Eric Hawker, and Jennifer Raaf

November 21, 2001

Overview

In the process of evaluating mineral oils for the MiniBooNE experiment at Fermilab, we received four different oil samples from Witco. Approximately four years ago we received a 55 gallon drum of "Witco Scintillator Fluid". This oil is the one used by the LSND experiment at Los Alamos. Earlier this year, we received two new five gallon samples labelled "Witco A" and "Witco B". Finally we recieved a ten gallon sample with the Witco bid.

Nomenclature

The following table describes the names of the oils received from Witco as they will be used in this report.

Oil NameDescription
Original WitcoOil from the original Witco 55 gallon drum
Witco AOne of the intermediate samples
Witco BThe other intermediate sample
Bid WitcoThe sample recieved with the witco bid

Results of attenuation tests

The attenuation at 460 nm was measured for all oils in the "Alabama" tester. This test was only run on the original Witco sample and the bid Witco Sample. They are summarized in the following table.

Oil NameAttenuation LengthNumber of Measurements
Original Witco12.8 m2
Bid Witco10.8 m2

Results of transmission tests

Below is a plot that compares the relative transmission spectrum of the various oils that we have received from Witco. In this plot, the higher the line, the better the transmission is at a praticular wave length. The absolute attenuation length cannot be determined from this plot. For the absolute attenuation, we use the test results given in the previous section.

Figure 1 - Oil transmission comparisons. Click on picture for expanded view.

Conclusions

Randy Johnson
Last modified: Wed Nov 21 17:45:10 EST