Implosion chain reaction mitigation in underwater assemblies of photomultiplier tubes

Since the accident with a cascade failure of photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) in the Super-Kamiokande experiment in 2001, the mechanical performance of large format semi-hemispherical PMTs has become a critical issue for large water Cherenkov detectors. The subject of this study is the survival of an assembled array of PMTs under significant hydrostatic pressure and subjected to shock waves caused by the failure of a single PMT. This paper details the results of the second stage of a R&D program focused on the design and testing of different PMT assemblies to mitigate the risk of a “chain-reaction” of PMT failures. The initial results show that our PMT assembly design can effectively reduce the magnitude of the shock wave. With the testing results in this paper and the hydrodynamic simulation calculation, we can further improve the design of PMT deployment to mitigate the risk of chain reactions caused by implosion induced shock waves.