Environmental test of the BGO calorimeter for DArk Matter Particle Explorer

DArk Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) is the first Chinese astronomical satellite, successfully launched on Dec. 17 2015. As the most important payload of DAMPE, the BGO calorimeter contains 308 bismuth germanate crystals, with 616 photomultiplier tubes, one coupled to each end of every crystal. Environmental tests have been carried out to explore the environmental adaptability of the flight model of the BGO calorimeter. In this work we report the results of the vibration tests. During the vibration tests, no visible damage occurred in the mechanical assembly. After random or sinusoidal vibrations, the change of the first order natural frequency of BGO calorimeter during the modal surveys is less than 5%. The shift ratio of Most Probable Value of MIPs changes in cosmic-ray tests are shown, the mean value of which is about −4%. The comparison of results of cosmic-ray tests before and after the vibration shows no significant change in the performance of the BGO calorimeter. All these results suggest that the calorimeter and its structure have passed through the environment tests successfully.