Post on 20-Mar-2018
SEI Goals
Engage undergraduate engineering students in interdisciplinary & multilevel team projects sponsored by government / industry to:
– Target students from underrepresented groups
– Improve student retention in engineering
– Enhance the engineering education of our undergraduates with real world experiences
– Serve as an “Externship”
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Sponsor
Defines
the Need
Faculty:
Technical expertise
Graduate Student:
Project management
Mentorship
Undergraduate Engineering Students
(8 students)
(multiple majors and levels)
SEI Approach
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•Part-time internships – no class credit
•Students work 10hrs/week
•Hourly pay $8-10/hr
•Students majors depend on technical skills
needed for project
•Handle project like a real world project• Semester plan with deliverables
• Weekly team meetings
• Regular interactions with sponsor
• Technical presentations
•Student performance evaluation
• Quality of work
• Initiative
• Teamwork
Program requirements
•Minimum GPA of 2.75
•Above average performance evaluation
SEIStakeholders
INDUSTRY BENEFITSIncrease Research Capability
• Gain low-cost research
• Scope/incubate projects
• Help develop high-tech workforce
• Increase public awareness of engineering value
Increase Access to Students
• Enhance engineering education
• Identify potential hires/interns
• Help/support underrepresented student
populations
• Increase company visibility with students/faculty
GOVERNMENT BENEFITSExpand the Research Infrastructure
• Gain low-cost research and excellent return
• Support needed industries
• Increase state/national engineering research
activity
• Develop high-tech workforce
• Raise public awareness of engineering/research
Enhance Education
• Encourage STEM in K-12 students
• Support underrepresented student populations
• Provide financial support to students
UNIVERSITY BENEFITS• Enhance engineering education
• Increase overall research activity
• Support underrepresented student populations
• Support interdisciplinary education/research
SOCIETAL BENEFITS• Enhance university/industry cooperation
• Enhance engineering/technical education
• Encourage STEM education in K-12 students
• Expand research infrastructure
• Increase engineering/technical workforce
NPI BENEFITS• Help expand the nuclear technical workforce
• Enhance engineering research
• Support Texas A&M academic and research
mission
• Expand ties with industry/government
FACULTY MENTOR
BENEFITS• Enhance research activity
• Develop a pool of graduate students
• Network with industry/government
GRADUATE MENTOR
BENEFITS• Earn a salary
• Learn project management
• Develop leadership skills
• Broaden research experience
• Network with industry/government
UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT
BENEFITS• Gain real-world research experience
• Learn to work in a team environment
• Gain opportunities for mentoring
• Network with industry/government
• Get paid!
• Enhance job marketability
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SEI Projects in Nuclear
• The multilevel, multidisciplinary teams paired with Industry
mentors working on real-world plant problems
• EAB room heat up under HVAC failure
• EAB building heat load analysis
• Interfacing systems LOCA analysis
• Spent fuel pool loading tool development
• Evaluation of probability of loss of service of
transportation and electrical networks
• PCM Materials for Nuclear Applications
• RCS Time-to-Boil Tool
• Loss of Cooling During Refueling Operations
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TAMU STP Decay Heat Load
• Carry out specific thermal calculations under refueling and shutdown
conditions for the South Texas Nuclear Power Plant.
• The main goals for the project:– Develop a tool for calculating time to boil in reactor coolant system and spent fuel pool under
specific plant mode conditions.
– Develop the ability to utilize the EPRI code GOTHIC in carrying out thermal calculations.
– Develop input decks for GOTHIC, test problems, and validation criteria for results.
– Utilize CFD software to better understand local heat transfer and fluid flow conditions.
– Develop and maintain a calculation notebook to support STP requirements.
• The team has completed all GOTHIC training modules and has
benchmarked STP calculations for a specific condition. Currently, the team
is developing a high fidelity model of the fuel transfer tube at STP to analyze
a specific condition during refueling operations.
• TAMU Faculty Mentor– Dr. Cable Kurwitz
• STP Industry Mentor– Steven Smiley
– Safdar Hafeez
• Start Fall 2013 (ongoing)November 8th, 2016
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TAMU GUI Team
• The development and utilization of tools that can reduce human error are of high interest
to the nuclear industry and one such tool is motivation for the development of a digital tool
that can be utilized to determine acceptable storage locations of fresh and spent nuclear
fuel in the spent fuel pool at the South Texas Nuclear Plant.
• There were four main goals for the code developed under this project. They were:
– The creation of a Graphical User Interface (GUI) that would display a map of the SFP at STP
– The determination of the categories of spent fuel assemblies given the relevant parameters
– To analyze the existing SFP configuration and determine acceptable locations for a given category
of spent fuel
– To allow the updating and saving of the SFP map
• The team successfully developed an application in Java that accomplishes these goals. It
loads a text file that contains the existing SFP layout, and displays a map of the pool. It
also loads a file containing the parameters of a spent fuel assembly, determines that
assembly’s category, and locates all the acceptable locations in the SFP for that assembly;
those locations are shown in the GUI and stored in an output file.
• TAMU Faculty Mentor
– Dr. Cable Kurwitz
• STP Industry Mentor
– David Bean
– Duane Gore
• Completed Summer 2014
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TAMU Materials Team
• Utilize phase change materials to store thermal energy under accident conditions in nuclear facilities. In particular, identify and analyze various Phase ChangeMaterials (PCMs) that could be used to absorb thermal energy in a spent
nuclear fuel pool under a loss of cooling condition.
• There were four main goals for the code developed under this project. They were:
– Identify, measure, and analyze potential PCM materials using state-of-the-art instrumentation
– Work with both STP and Czech collaborators to develop a baseline set of conditions and interfaces for integration of PCM materials
– Design and optimize PCM material containing system to store thermal energy under given conditions
– Analyze spent fuel pool response under accident conditions
• The team has performed measurements of multiple PCMs using differential scanning calorimeter and reported these results to the community. Currently, the team is measuring thermal conductivity using a laser flash anemometer of selected PCMs as well as carrying out design and test activities associated with the design of the PCM enclosure.
• TAMU Faculty Mentor– Dr. Cable Kurwitz
• Czech Mentor– Dr. Radek Skoda
– Dr. Jiri Martinec
• Completed Summer 2014
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Design:ThemethodforthePCMtobeplacedintothespentfuelpoolisinaflatcontainerseenisFig.5.Theflatcontainersarehungacrossthespentfuelpoolfromsolidrods,thisdesigncanbeseeninFig.4.Thecontainersareclosedsothatcontamina onofthecoolingsystemisprevented.TheyarelocatedatthetopofthespentfuelpooltokeepthePCMawayfromthehighestradia onareas.
Experiment:Ascalemodelexperimentalapparatuseswasbuilt.ThePCMcontainersweremanufactureandSodiumAcetateTrihydratewasplacedinthePCMcontainers.Thecontainers—curtains,wereplacedinthemetal
tankasseeninFig.7.ABunsenburner,asseeninFig.6waslittoheatthetankandtemperaturewasmeasuredeverytwominutesun lthetankreached80C.
Results:
Whoweare:FourundergraduatesformtheDepartmentsofNuclearEngineeringandChemicalEngineeringatTexasA&M
University.• ZhiXuanTang• ClemenceChapeaux
• ElizabethTindle• JohnathonSkloss
Collabora on:The students workedwith a team from the BrnoUniversityofTechnologyintheCzechRepublic.Dr.Jiří
Mar necheadedtheBrnoteam.TheteamwasabletotraveltotheCzechRepublicforoneweekinMaytodiscusstheirfindingswiththeBrnoteamandhold
seminarsonfuturework.TheBrnoteamisimplemen ngPCMsinnuclearpowerplantcontainment.
PhaseChangeMaterialsinSpentFuelPools
Why:A erthe2011Fukushimaaccident,spentfuelpool
safetybecameatopicofconcern.
Problem:Intheeventthataspentfuelpoolhasalossofpowerandac vecoolingthewaterinthespentfuelpoolwill
boilwithin42hours.
Solu on:Designapassivesafetyfeaturetoimplementincurrentspentfuelpoolstoabsorbthermalenergyandprolong
thewater’s metoboil.
Overview
AcknowledgementsDr.CableKurwitz—Dr.RadekSkoda—Dr.JiříMar nec—Dr.MichaelSchuller—Dr.SeanMcDeavi —NuclearScienceCenter
MaterialSelec on:PhaseChangeMaterials(PCMs)wereselectedusingFig.1.Material selec on was based onmel ng point,
thermalconduc vityandlatentheatoffusion.• Paraffins:Tetracontane• SugarAlcohols:Xylitol
• Fa yAcids:Palmi cAcid• SaltHydrates:SodiumAcetateTrihydrate
Figure1:PCMsbyclass
MDSC:AModulatedDifferen alScanningCalorimeterwasused
todeterminethermalproper esofchosenmaterials.SevenRunsofeachsampleandthreesamplesofeachPCMweredonetoincreaseaccuracy.
Figure2:Temp.v.HeatCapacityforMagnesiumNitrateHexahydrate
MDSC
Why:Since these materials will be in a radioac ve
environment,theirbehaviorinsuchanenvironmentneededtobestudied.
Procedure:Neutronac va onAnalysiswasperformedonninePCMs.Allmaterialsthatwerenotac vatedwereplacedina1mega-wa researchreactor.EachPCMreceivedaneutronfluxof1014neutrons/cm2whichwascalculatedtobeaworkinglife meofoneyearinaspentfuelpool.ThematerialswerethenanalyzedusingthesameMDSCprocedureasbeforeinorderto compare pre- and post-irradia on thermalproper es.ResultsareshowninFig.3.
Figure3:Pre-andPost-Irradia onDataforMagnesiumNitrateHexahydrate
Irradia on
TheTeam
ClemenceChapeaux—JohnathonSkloss—ZhiXuanTang—ElizabethTindle
Pre-Irradia on
PCM
Post-Irradia on
PCM
Enthalpyof
fusion
149.85 187.66
Solidphase
heatcapacity
1.81 1.857
Liquidphase
heatcapacity
1.834 2.178
kJkg ×°C
kJkg
kJkg ×°C
kJkg ×°C
kJkg ×°C
kJkg
DesignandPhysicalExperimenta on
Figure4:SolidworksModelFigure5:ScalePCMContainerFigure6:BunsenBurnerFigure7:Tankwith16curtains
Theresultsofthescalemodelexperimentprovedtobeverypromisingforanactualspentfuelpoolapplica on.Everythingwas
calculatedandexecutedtoscale.The mechangefrom0mLofPCMto16curtainsor
3,117mLofPCMhada27minutedifferent.Thiswouldbe32hourswhencalculatedtoforaspentfuelpool.Theseresultscanbeseenif
Fig.8.
Figure8:Zero-Four-Eight-SixteenCurtainComparison
OtherTes ng:• LFA447NanoFlash®
• Usedtofindthethermaldivisisity
• SolidworksFlowSimula on• Usedtoseeflowpa ernofheatin
water
• StefanProblem• Usedtoop mizethethicknessof
thecontainer
• MeltFrontExperiment• Builtmodelandrecordedmeltfront
withinfraredcameraGoals:• Prolongboiling meofwaterby24hours
• Replacenomorethan20%ofthespentfuelpoolwater• DesignandtestaplausiblestoragedevicePresenta ons:• StudentResearchWeek,EngineeringExpo,HealthPhysicsConference,BrnoSeminars
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SEI Outreach
• Students Must Participate in Multiple Outreach
Activities
– K-12 and Civic Group Presentations
– George Bush Library and TAMU Activities
– Houston Hispanic Forum
• Dual Focus
– Generate interest/excitement for STEM careers
– Provide information regarding college life from a
student perspective
– ‘Near Peer’ outreach
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SEI Presentations • TAMU Research Week 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015
• TAMU COE Research Showcase 2013, 2014
• Health Physics Society 2011, 2013, 2014 Southwest Texas Chapter
(Best Student Presentation 2013, 2014)
• ANS Student Conference 2013, 2014 (Best Student Presentation,
2013)
• Regional Conferences
• National Conferences
• International Conference for Nuclear Engineers (ICONE)
– Belgium, 2009
– China, 2010
– ANS PRA, 2011
• Trip to Czech Republic, STP, other locations
COE
White ~75%
Hispanic ~11%
0
10
20
30
40
50
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90
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2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14
SEI Diversity
Caucasian
Hispanic
Other
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COE
Female ~20%
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14
SEI Gender Profile
Male
Female
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Breakdown For Current SEI Students
TAMU COE ~19% Female
TAMU COE ~26.5% Minority
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0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Class '06 Class '07 Class '08 Class '09
SEI Student Graduation Rate from
EngineeringOnly for students who joined SEI as Freshman – students may join SEI at
their sophomore/junior/senior year
SEI demonstrates higher retention in engineering
than national averages even though it includes
higher percentages of underrepresented groups.
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Red Line indicates national average retention in engineering, Ref. “Engineering Education Aids Instruction” by N. Fortenberry, J. Sullivan,
P. Jordan, D. Knight, Education Forum, February 2008.
Metrics
• Program Participation
– 9 current students, 41 over last four years
• Program Results
– 16 graduates are full time employed• 15 of 25 graduates are employed in Texas
– 7 graduates are in post-baccalaureate programs• 5 of 7 Enrolled in graduate programs at Texas Universities
– 6 are employed in active research program under professor at Texas A&M
– Multiple student internships and participation in ongoing education programs
– Only one student has not graduated with BS degree
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What do our students think?
• “The experiences and opportunities I have had with SEI have been amazing in contributing to my academic success and preparing me for a career. I have a significant amount of job opportunities in front of me, and can honestly say that SEI has been a major contributing factor in landing these. At interviews, I tend to speak more about my experiences at SEI than my two internships combined. The breadth and depth of knowledge the program has given me has been a wonderful supplement to my course work”.
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