Engineering Commons^™

A Mechanism Of Customizing Learning Programs For Older Adults' Lifelong Learning, Hidetsugu Suto, Qianran Wang

Adult Education Research Conference

Many of the Asian countries are facing aging society problems, and lifelong learning is becoming more and more important. In order to provide the chances to join the learning programs for older adults, suitable learning programs must be provided. However, designing learning programs for older adults is not easy because they are in various physical and mental conditions. To approach the problem, the authors have proposed a mechanism for personalizing learning programs for older adults. In this paper, algorithm and data structures of the mechanism is explained, and examples of the results are shown.

Supporting The 21st Century Classroom: Fostering Relevance And Resilience With Project-Based Learning Curricula, Shari Childers, Kara Fulton

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

Participants will learn about building and supporting project-based learning (PBL), a scalable, flexible approach to classes and programs that cultivates 21st century competencies in students, including collaboration and resilience. They will re-imagine a course or a program at their own institution from within a PBL context.

Cnt-Tio2 Composites For Photocatalytic Oxidation Of Atmospheric Pollutants, Alison Chan

Kansas State University Undergraduate Research Conference

The design of catalysts for growth of carbon nanotubes is studied to develop recipes and mechanisms for controlled and scalable growth of carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The objective of the study is to tune the photocatalytic properties of titanium dioxide (TiO₂) by coupling to multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs). Multiwalled CNTs have been shown to act as an electron sink when coupled with TiO₂, thereby inhibiting electron-hole recombination and enhancing photocatalytic degradation of environmental pollutants. A test using acetaldehyde confirmed our findings in the field, where the loading ratio of 99 wt% TiO₂ (1 wt% CNTs) has a high …

Wastewater Denitrification Using Bhn-Probiotic Solutions As An Alternative External Carbon Source, Guadalupe Arreola

Kansas State University Undergraduate Research Conference

Wastewater Denitrification Using BHN-Probiotic Solutions as an Alternative External Carbon Source

Guadalupe Arreola, Evan Heronemus, Megan Lehman, and Dr. Prathap Parameswaran

Department of Civil Engineering

College of Engineering

Reducing the amount of Nitrogen found in wastewater is a crucial step for wastewater treatment plants, and denitrification is an essential biological step that could be rate-limiting. To reach the stringent nutrient discharge standards, treatment plants commonly use methanol as an external carbon source; however, there are many safety issues that can arise from using methanol. This problem prompted the study to find and compare other sustainable and environmentally-friendly carbon sources that …

Advantages Of Air Cooling In Thermal Ablation, Alexander Sheikh

Kansas State University Undergraduate Research Conference

Advantages of Air Cooling in Thermal Ablation

Alex Sheikh, Dr. Punit Prakash, Hojjat Fallahi

Department of Electrical and computer Engineering

Thermal ablation is the method of destroying tumors through the application of extreme temperatures. For this experiment, heat is used and supplied by an amplifier/power generator. The heat is transported out through a catheter device and into the designated area of the tumor. Cooling the tip of the device can be used to control this heat in effort to expand the ablation size and cut down on the destruction of unwanted tissue. Thus far, water has been the primary strategy …

Manufacture Of Dual Sided Microstructured Semiconductor Neutron Detectors, Jared Medina

Kansas State University Undergraduate Research Conference

The world is in need of a new way to detect neutrons. The best current detectors rely on ³He, which is in short supply. The ³He detectors are extremely expensive. The goal of this project is to produce inexpensive and robust detectors that do not rely on ³He. Instead of using gas, the Dual Sided Microstructured Neutron Detectors (DS-MSNDs) are made from a semiconductor material. The DS-MSNDs have been simulated to have up to 70% efficiency, which is comparable to the ³He detectors efficiency of about 80%. The DS-MSNDs have micro-trenches that are back filled with …

Mechanical Systems That Function Like Living Organisms, Dallas Rice

Kansas State University Undergraduate Research Conference

The purpose of this research was to explore the relationship between the human body and technologically advanced mechanical systems or robotics. More specifically, we looked at how robotics plays a part in prosthetics for other living organisms. During the research we looked at the anatomy of the human body, focusing on the nervous system, bone structure and movements, tissue and muscle relationships, and the neurological response of the brain. We also looked at how the human body reacts and responds to artificial limbs as a way to identify the best ways to introduce unnatural mechanical systems to the body. Different …

Green Roofs Provide Heating And Cooling Sustainability Benefits In The Great Plains Environmental Climates, Melina Alferoff

Kansas State University Undergraduate Research Conference

This project seeks to improve the design and functionality of a vegetated green roof in the Great Plains area of the U.S. We are learning to manipulate several variables such as different growing media types and irrigation systems in resilient plant communities. By utilizing different types of vegetation, we can determine the proper way to water and care for the plants that are growing on the green roof. To be successful for this research project, we will precisely, in units such as degrees Celsius and milliliters, measure temperature and water usage of the vegetated pods. By observing those two aspects …

Establishment Of 3-D Human Colorectal Cancer Spheroids, India Barnett

Kansas State University Undergraduate Research Conference

Three-Dimensional (3D) cell culture plays an important role in cancer biology by providing a life-like microenvironment as a model for drug discovery and treatment. Hydrogels, like many other 3D scaffolds, demonstrate a unique property as matrices for 3D cell culture. The goal of this project is to establish a 3D cell culture for colorectal cancer and apply this 3D model to drug testing. Colorectal cancer is one of the most common cancers in the United States with an early detection rate of 39%. Previously, 2D cell culture of human colorectal cancer cells, SW480, was used to determine the efficacy of …

Improving The Shortage Of Skilled Workers In The Construction Industry, Brett Moon

Kansas State University Undergraduate Research Conference

The goal of this project was to research ways the construction industry is improving the shortage of skilled workers. The research objective is to identify through literature search ways by which the construction industry enhances skilled laborers. Skilled construction workers are declining, making it a competition among construction companies to find these workers. The recession, immigration challenges, and the lack of training programs are the main causes for the decline in skilled workers. The research was gathered from literature reviews of the shortage of skilled workers in the construction industry. The literature reviews show the need for skilled workers has …

Extraction Of Recipe Steps From Scientific Papers: The Nanomaterials Synthesis Domain, Richard Carmona-Andrade

Kansas State University Undergraduate Research Conference

The overall goal of this research is to effectively extract steps for performing a specified procedure from published text descriptions, producing a recipe listing the materials, operations, and conditions required to perform the procedure. For example, if the procedure is to create a nanomaterial, and relevant source text consists of peer-reviewed scientific publications, a recipe should include raw materials and unit operations, among other specifications of a chemical engineering process. This project focuses on developing performance measures to evaluate recipe steps, by gauging their correctness, completeness, and non-redundancy. This is done by comparing manually annotated documents that conveyed desired results …

Layered Wicks Enable Passive Transport Of Condensation Out Of Cooling Systems, Nhicolas Aponte, Jordan Morrow, Gennifer Riley, Partha P. Chakraborty, Melanie M. Derby

Kansas State University Undergraduate Research Conference

Layered wicks enable passive transport of condensation out of cooling systems

Nhicolas Aponte, Jordan Morrow, Gennifer Riley, Partha Chakraborty, Melanie M. Derby

Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, Kansas State University

Cooling systems, like condensers or cooling towers of a power plant, transfer heat out of a system. The cooling process often occurs through the condensation of water, which forms a liquid film that reduces heat transfer. This problem makes cooling systems larger and more costly. One approach to this problem is drop-wise condensation in which condensed water gathers in the form of droplets which can then run off, preventing …

Expression And Purification Of Hfb1 From The Bacterial Host Escherchia Coli, Jose Cardenas-Perez

Kansas State University Undergraduate Research Conference

Hydrophobins are a unique class of proteins which grow in fungi which demonstrate unique properties, such as self-assembly into two dimensional arrays at water/air or water/solid interfaces. A specific type of hydrophobins, HFB1, will be closely examined, expressed, and purified within an e. coli host. Most hydrophobins are used within the medical field and are harvested directly from the fungi, with little research done to express the protein within a bacterial host for large scale production. Our research will revolve around developing a method to clone, express, and purify the hydrophobin, HFB1, within the bacterial host, with tweaking of the …

Dqn: Deep Q-Learning For Autonomous Navigation, Leonardo Garrido Alvarez

Kansas State University Undergraduate Research Conference

This project deals with autonomous mobile robots trained using reinforcement learning, a branch of machine learning (the science of improving problem-solving performance based on experience) based on choosing actions to maximize rewards from various environments. This is a form of behavioral learning that is observed in nature and thus more biologically plausible than cognitive models based on labeled data provided by a teacher (supervised learning). We developed an experimental test bed by implementing Deep Q-Networks (DQN), a form of reinforcement learning, for goal-oriented navigation and obstacle avoidance tasks using a TurtleBot3 Burger robot and in the gazebo simulation environment for …

Education Research With The Engineering Curriculum, Elshaddai Abamegal

Kansas State University Undergraduate Research Conference

No abstract provided.

Multi-Grid Acceleration Scheme For Neutron Transport Calculations Using Optimally Diffusive Cmfd Method, Lakshay Jain, Ramamoorthy Karthikeyan, Umasankari Kannan

Symposium on Advanced Sensors and Modeling Techniques for Nuclear Reactor Safety

Method of characteristics (MOC) is one of the most efficient deterministic techniques for high fidelity neutronic analysis of complex and heterogeneous reactor problems. However, the conventional MOC inner-outer iteration scheme suffers from poor convergence speeds for problems with large scattering to transport cross-section ratio and/or large dominance ratio. This creates a serious hindrance for its effective application to realistic reactor problems. A High Order – Low Order (HO-LO) multi-grid scheme using optimally diffusive coarse mesh finite difference (odCMFD) method has been introduced for improving the performance of code DIAMOND, an assembly level neutronic analysis code based on MOC and unstructured …

Review Of Fuel Management Practices At Various Stages Of Nuclear Fuel Cycle In Phwrs In View Of Environmental Effects, Ravi Kumar Bansal, H. S. Sharma Dr, R. K. Singh Dr, P. N. Prasad

Symposium on Advanced Sensors and Modeling Techniques for Nuclear Reactor Safety

Nuclear Power is emerging as a promising source of environmentally benign energy source alternate from both pollution free environment as well as solution to global warming because of minimal carbon footprint. However, release of radiation and radioactive contamination during fuel cycle operations comprising the optimum fuel utilization in Nuclear Reactors, still remains a challenge to contain the sources of radiation and contamination away from public domain. This review article envisages qualitatively the environmental effects w.r.t. radiation during flow of Natural Uranium fuel used in Indian Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors (IPHWRs) at various stages of mining, fabrication, transportation, operation in nuclear …

Xenon Dynamics Of Ahwr, Arindam Chakraborty, Baltej Singh

Symposium on Advanced Sensors and Modeling Techniques for Nuclear Reactor Safety

Large core reactors where the core dimension is significantly large compared to the migration length of neutron are more susceptible to xenon instability due to local perturbations. Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR) is being designed for on-power refueling. Therefore, refueling or movement of control devices in AHWR causes local perturbation. Preliminary modal analysis of AHWR equilibrium core also showed that the eigenvalue separation between fundamental mode and 1st azimuthal mode is small indicating its susceptibility to xenon oscillation in azimuthal plane. Therefore, xenon dynamic studies for AHWR with explicit xenon calculations were carried out using diffusion theory based computer code …

Transient Simulation Of Lbe Cooled Chtr Under Natural Circulation With 3d Multi-Physics Code Arch-Th, D. K. Dwivedi, Anurag Gupta, Umasankari Kannan

Symposium on Advanced Sensors and Modeling Techniques for Nuclear Reactor Safety

India is developing a 100kWth Compact High Temperature Reactor (CHTR) to facilitate demonstration of technologies for high temperature process heat applications. CHTR is being designed as thorium based TRISO fueled and beryllium oxide moderated prismatic block type vertical core cooled with lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) under natural circulation for 1000°C outlet. The new concept of high temperature core requires multi-physics multi-scale modeling based tools for investigating the normal operational behavior as well as anticipated transients of CHTR. In view of that, 3D multi-physics code ARCH-TH is being indigenously developed and validated for coupled neutronics-thermal hydraulic benchmarks. The multi-group diffusion based neutron …

Flow And Thermal Effects Of Blockages In A Nano-Fluid Cooled Nuclear Fuel Subassembly, Shubham Mandot, N. Govindha Rasu

Symposium on Advanced Sensors and Modeling Techniques for Nuclear Reactor Safety

Nanofluids have a great impact on heat transfer characteristics due to increased thermal conductivity and heat transfer coefficient. In this study, Titanium nanoparticles mixed in liquid sodium has been chosen for analyzing the effect of Nanofluid coolant for a Nuclear Sub- assembly. This study is conducted to observe the effect of nanoparticles on the flow properties and heat transfer characteristics such as velocity, heat transfer coefficient, clad temperature, coolant temperature etc. These effects have been observed for varying nanoparticle concentration and different flow blockage sizes. For this study, 7-pin fuel bundle with and without blockage has been modeled and analyzed …

Transient Analysis Of Primary Feed Pump Trip For 700 Mwe Iphwr, S. Phani Krishna, S. Pahari, S. Hajela, M. Singhal

Symposium on Advanced Sensors and Modeling Techniques for Nuclear Reactor Safety

700 MWe Indian Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor (IPHWR) is a horizontal channel type reactor with two loops of Primary Heat Transport (PHTS) system. Three (two operating and one stand by) main boiler feed water pumps (BFP) supply feed water to Steam Generators (SGs). In the event of one of the running BFP trip, standby comes on line on auto. Transient analysis for this event is performed using in- house computer code ATMIKA.T .The transient has been initiated by tripping one of the pumps.

Two cases are postulated:

1: BFP Trip and Standby BFP available on auto
2: BFP Trip and …

Heavy Water Concentration Measurement In Air, A. Gupta, D. V. Uduapa, A. Topkar, A. K. Mohanty

Symposium on Advanced Sensors and Modeling Techniques for Nuclear Reactor Safety

The heavy water in PHWRs flows at high temperature and pressure, hence leaks in the heat transport system are not uncommon. The loss of heavy water due to such leaks can lead to spreading of radioactivity and it also contributes to operating cost of the nuclear reactor. It is advantageous to detect small leaks, because if remains undetected, they may develop into a severe leak, which may lead to reactor shutdown. None of the sensors which are currently in use can meet all the requirement of high sensitivity, and real time measurement which is free from interference from other gamma …

Thermal Stratification In Liquid Metal Pools Under Cold Transients, Brendan Ward, Hitesh Bindra

Symposium on Advanced Sensors and Modeling Techniques for Nuclear Reactor Safety

Experimental results are presented for understanding the thermal stratification or mixing in a low Prandtl number, Pr, pool due to the injection of a colder (higher density) jet at the bottom of the pool. In liquid metals (Pr<<1), the higher volumetric thermal expansion enhances buoyant forces, aiding in thermal stratification while the low Pr extends the thermal boundary layer. Rayleigh backscattering with swept wavelength interferometry is used to generate the high fidelity distributed temperature data. The high spatial and temporal resolution of the sensors are required to capture the temperature gradient and fluctuations of temperature allowing more …

Non-Optical Imaging Of Flow, Boiling, And Salt Deposition In A Simulated Debris Bed, Molly Ross, Alan Cebula, Steven Eckels, D. S. Mcgregor, Hitesh Bindra

Symposium on Advanced Sensors and Modeling Techniques for Nuclear Reactor Safety

Determining flow and heat transfer characteristics in a debris bed or a packed bed is difficult due to the lack of optical access. Non-optical imaging methods, such as x-ray or neutron imaging, can be used to observe flow characteristics and particle deposition, as well as boiling in a packed bed. An amorphous Silicon detector based digital radiography camera can be used to image with either x-rays or neutrons at up to 100 frames per second. The digital radiography camera, coupled with digital image analysis techniques was used to characterize fluid fraction and flow rates in a simulated debris bed. A …

Enhancements To The Discrete Generalized Multigroup Method, R. L. Reed, J. A. Roberts

Symposium on Advanced Sensors and Modeling Techniques for Nuclear Reactor Safety

This work seeks to improve the practicality of the discrete generalized multigroup (DGM) method. The DGM method divides a fine-group energy domain into a set of coarse groups. Fine-group fluxes within each coarse group are expanded in an orthogonal basis, and cross section moments are defined to preserve the reaction rates of the fine-group solution. Previous implementations of DGM suffered from large memory requirements, so this work work explores options to reduce the memory footprint by (a) homogenizing cross-section moments over coarse regions and (b) representing discrete-angle dependence through truncated Legendre expansions. Tests were performed using a 1-D, discrete ordinates …

Matryoshka Inspired Statistical Surrogate For Turbulent Mixing, Abhinav Gairola, Hitesh Bindra

Symposium on Advanced Sensors and Modeling Techniques for Nuclear Reactor Safety

Thermalhydraulics of reactor plena is often the most challenging problem due to turbulent mixing, role of jets and stratified flows. Due to which, the safety analysis of the overall reactor vessel or reactor system become complex. Inability of the system level analysis codes to accurately model the role of tur- bulent mixing in scalar transport leads to a major source of uncertainties. The computational cost of accurate CFD models renders the sensitivity studies using those for reactor safety ineffective. Reduced order models are needed which can effectively capture the effects of turbulent mixing and can be used for parametric studies …

Progress In Micro-Layered Fast Neutron Detectors, Priyarshini Ghosh, W. Fu, Mark J. Harrison, Patrick K. Doyle, Jeremy A. Roberts, D. S. Mcgregor

Symposium on Advanced Sensors and Modeling Techniques for Nuclear Reactor Safety

The study of accident tolerant fuels is ongoing at the Transient Reactor Test Facility (TREAT) at Idaho National Laboratory. The TREAT Facility provides quick, high-energy neutron pulses that simulate various accident conditions. These neutron pulses are presently detected using an array of fast-neutron detectors called Hornyak buttons. Hornyak buttons suffer from poor detection efficiency and significant Ĉerenkov radiation contamination in the signal. A new enabling technology, the micro-layered fast-neutron detector (MLFD), is presented to monitor neutron flux changes during mild-to-severe reactor accidents. The MLFD was designed to overcome the shortcomings of the Hornyak buttons and to improve detection efficiency. The …

Numerical Evaluation Of Micro-Pocket Fission Detectors, Wenkai Fu, Daniel M. Nichols, Douglas S. Mcgregor, Jeremy A. Roberts

Symposium on Advanced Sensors and Modeling Techniques for Nuclear Reactor Safety

Micro-pocket fission detectors (MPFDs) are miniature fission chambers suitable for in-core neutron measurement that have been under development at Kansas State University for over one decade. Current-generation devices have been used at a number of university reactors (Kansas State, Wisconsin, and MIT) and as part of the first experiments performed during the recent restart of TREAT. Ongoing research aims to improve understanding of the existing MPFDs and to optimize designs for future deployment. To aid in this development, the dynamic response of a prototypic MPFD was evaluated using Garfield++, Elmer, Gmsh, and Stopping and Range of Ions in Matter (SRIM). …

Cfd Simulation Of Hydrodynamics And Scrubbing Behaviour Of Iodine Vapors In A Self-Priming Venturi Scrubber, Paridhi Goel, A. K. Nayak

Symposium on Advanced Sensors and Modeling Techniques for Nuclear Reactor Safety

In a severe accident scenario, the inadequate heat removal in a nuclear reactor can lead to over pressurization of the containment thus challenging its integrity. If not controlled, this can lead to release of radionuclides and high pressure steam in the environment. To ensure that the containment building remains intact and the reactor depressurizes, the vent line from the reactor is directed to a scrubber tank consisting of multiple venturi scrubbers, metal fiber filter and demister pad (known as Filtered Containment Venting System (FCVS)). This is a passive safety measure suggested for installation in advanced and existing nuclear reactors post …

Critical Heat Flux And Power Transients At Low-Pressure Low-Flow Conditions In Vertical Flow Boiling, S. R.G. Vadlamudi, A. K. Nayak

Symposium on Advanced Sensors and Modeling Techniques for Nuclear Reactor Safety

In the advanced boiling water reactor concepts such as AHWR and ESBWR, the recirculation pumps are eliminated in order to simplify the design. During the start-up of such reactors, to establish the natural circulation, the primary coolant has to be heated up slowly in steady steps; it is quite important to determine the characteristics of boiling and critical heat flux (CHF) values in order to establish operational limits. Flow boiling experiments were conducted in an annular channel at very low flow rates and atmospheric pressure varying the inlet subcooling from 20 to 400 C. CHF occurred during the oscillatory flow …