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Full-Text Articles in Mechanical Engineering

Deterministic Neutron Transport And Multiphysics Experimental Safety Analyses At The High Flux Isotope Reactor, Christopher James Hurt Dec 2016

Deterministic Neutron Transport And Multiphysics Experimental Safety Analyses At The High Flux Isotope Reactor, Christopher James Hurt

Doctoral Dissertations

The computational ability to accurately predict the conditions in an experiment under irradiation is a valuable tool in the operation of a research reactor whose scientific mission includes isotope production, materials irradiation, and neutron activation analysis. Understanding of different governing physics is required to ascertain satisfactory conditions within the experiment: the neutron transport behavior throughout the reactor and the coupled behavior of heat transfer, structural mechanics and fluid flow. Computational methods and tools were developed for robust numerical analysis of experiment behavior at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR), including fully-coupled thermo-mechanics in three plutonium-238 …


Jet Flow Validation Of Positron Emission Particle Tracking Utilizing High Speed Video, Seth Thomas Langford May 2016

Jet Flow Validation Of Positron Emission Particle Tracking Utilizing High Speed Video, Seth Thomas Langford

Masters Theses

Positron Emission Particle Tracking (PEPT) generates 4D Lagrangian particle trajectories and is used to evaluate flow in granular media and complex geometries where optical interrogation methods are not possible. A Multi-Particle PEPT (Multi-PEPT) approach was developed by the University of Tennessee Thermal Fluids Group capable of finding and tracking many particles simultaneously to extend the utility of the PEPT method. This thesis compares 4,014 trajectories generated using the Multi-PEPT method with 3,055 trajectories generated from High Speed Video (HSV) data. All trajectories are acquired in an acrylic test section with water flow using resin beads. The flow geometry includes a …


Neutron-Gamma Discrimination In Elpasolite Scintillator Detector, Brittany Morgan May 2016

Neutron-Gamma Discrimination In Elpasolite Scintillator Detector, Brittany Morgan

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Existing nuclear stockpiles and weapons-making capabilities imperil the global community. Current nonproliferation efforts involve the research and development of newer, more efficient detection systems that can be deployed for the interdiction and monitoring of special nuclear materials (SNM). Spontaneous and induced fission events in SNM produce neutrons and gamma rays, which can be detected and analyzed, in particular, using scintillator detectors. Various electronic data acquisition systems and data analysis methods have been employed to record and characterize neutron and photon signatures. The goal of this thesis is to develop a new method of discrimination between neutrons and photons in the …


Magnetic Materials Characterization And Modeling For The Enhanced Design Of Magnetic Shielding Of Cryomodules In Particle Accelerators., Sanjay K. Sah Jan 2016

Magnetic Materials Characterization And Modeling For The Enhanced Design Of Magnetic Shielding Of Cryomodules In Particle Accelerators., Sanjay K. Sah

Theses and Dissertations

Particle accelerators produce beams of high-energy particles, which are used for both fundamental and applied scientific research and are critical to the development of accelerator driven sub-critical reactor systems. An effective magnetic shield is very important to achieve higher quality factor (Qo) of the cryomodule of a particle accelerator. The allowed value of field inside the cavity due to all external fields (particularly the Earth’s magnetic field) is ~15 mG or less. The goal of this PhD dissertation is to comprehensively study the magnetic properties of commonly used magnetic shielding materials at both cryogenic and room temperatures. This knowledge can …