Study of MRPC performance at different temperatures

Since 2013, Muon Tomography technology has been developed at Tsinghua University. We have built up a prototype system named THUMTY (Tsinghua University cosmic ray Muon tomography facility) to do elementary research. Our research is focused on developing a muon NDT (Non Destructive Testing) system that will be used in homeland security operations such as custom inspections, airport security and so on. This muon NDT system is based on the MRPC (Multi-gap Resistive Plate Chamber) technology, thus the impact of the ambient temperature must be considered. In this paper, the performance of the MRPC with Freon/SF6/isobutene mixture and pure Freon gas at different temperatures (-15 degrees C, -10 degrees C, -5 degrees C, 5 degrees C, 15 degrees C and 25 degrees C) were studied. This study is important to develop a widely used stable cosmic ray detection system.