Engineering Commons^™

College Of Engineering Senior Design Competition Fall 2007, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

Fred and Harriet Cox Senior Design Competition Projects

Part of every UNLV engineering student’s academic experience, the senior design project stimulates engineering innovation and entrepreneurship. Each student in their senior year chooses, plans, designs, and prototypes a product in this required element of the curriculum. A capstone to the student’s educational career, the senior design project encourages the student to use everything learned in the engineering program to create a practical, real world solution to an engineering challenge.

The senior design competition helps to focus the senior students in increasing the quality and potential for commercial application for their design projects. Judges from local industry evaluate the projects …

Nevada Risk Assessment/Management Program – Phase 2 (Nramp2): Quarterly Progress Report July 1, 2007 Through September 30, 2007, Klaus J. Stetzenbach

Nevada Risk Assessment/Management Program

Work conducted in this 4th quarter consisted of 3 major activities:

• Continue the receipt and reconciliation of Area 5 Radioactive Waste Management Site (RWMS) inventory data.

• Receive, review, install, calibrate, and run the Goldsim Area 5 Performance Assessment (PA) Model, and review the supporting parameters and assumptions in the 93-document reference set as a tool for regulatory compliance and closure assessment.

• Identify, review, and compare the interpretation of pertinent regulatory guidelines and orders by DOE sites in compliance for PA, Compliance Assessment (CA), and closure activities - as they may relate to the Nevada Test Site (NTS) …

Biomass And Biofuels In Maine: Estimating Supplies For Expanding The Forest Products Industry, Jonathan Rubin, Kate Dickerson, Jacob Kavkewitz

Energy & the Environment

This paper estimates the renewable energy potential of Maine’s forest resources, and how much energy these resources could potentially provide the state. Using the most recent state-specific data available, and a methodology similar to the Billion Tons Report, we find that ethanol production from Maine’s forest residues could potentially provide 18% of Maine’s transportation (gasoline) fuels with a fermentation wood to ethanol process. Making Fischer-Tropsch diesel (F-T diesel) using forest residues can replace 39% of Maine’s petro-diesel consumption. Actual levels of biofuels that can be produced will depend on conversion factors and forestry residue removals that are subject to uncertainty.

High Temperature Heat Exchanger Project: Quarterly Progress Report July 1, 2007 Through September 30, 2007, Anthony Hechanova

Publications (NSTD)

• Ceramatec Sulfuric Acid Decomposer. The numerical model of a SiC ceramic coupon with two layers of microchannels was developed. Calculations of the factor of safety and probability of failure for the case of a straight channel were performed. Results for a pressure of 7.5 MPa were performed. The thermal and mechanical stress analyses of the Ceramatec HTHX and decomposer were completed.

• Bayonet Heat Exchanger. The thermal and mechanical stress analyses of the bayonet type HTHX and decomposer (Sandia design) were completed. Temperature profiles obtained from thermocouples measured from the Sandia experiments have been applied to the whole packed …

Implementation Of Uncertainty Propagation In Triton/Keno: To Support The Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, Charlotta Sanders, Denis Beller

Reactor Campaign (TRP)

Monte Carlo methods are beginning to be used for three-dimensional fuel depletion analyses to compute various quantities of interest, including isotopic compositions of used fuel.1 The TRITON control module, available in the SCALE 5.1 code system, can perform three dimensional (3-D) depletion calculations using either the KENO V.a or KENO-VI Monte Carlo transport codes, as well as the two-dimensional (2- D) NEWT discrete ordinates code. For typical reactor systems, the neutron flux is not spatially uniform. For Monte Carlo simulations, this results in non-uniform statistical uncertainties in the computed reaction rates. For spatial regions where the flux is low, e.g., …

Monaco/Mavric Evaluation For Facility Shielding And Dose Rate Analysis: To Support The Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, Charlotta Sanders, Denis Beller

Reactor Campaign (TRP)

Monte Carlo methods are used to compute fluxes or dose rates over large areas using mesh tallies. For problems that demand that the uncertainty in each mesh cell be less than some set maximum, computation time is controlled by the cell with the largest uncertainty. This issue becomes quite troublesome in deep-penetration problems, and advanced variance reduction techniques are required to obtain reasonable uncertainties over large areas.

In this project the MAVRIC sequence will be evaluated along with the Monte Carlo engine Monaco to investigate its effectiveness and usefulness in facility shielding and dose rate analyses. A previously MCNP-evaluated cask …

Estimating Business And Residential Water Supply Interruption Losses From Catastrophic Events, Nicholas Brozovic, David L. Sunding, David Zilberman

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Following man-made or natural catastrophes, widespread and long-lasting disruption of lifelines can lead to economic impacts for both business and residential lifeline users. As a result, the total economic losses caused by infrastructure damage may be much higher than the value of damage to infrastructure itself. In this paper, we consider the estimation of economic impacts on businesses and residential consumers resulting from water supply disruption. The methodology we present for estimating business interruption losses assumes that marginal losses are increasing in the severity of disruption and that there may be a critical water availability cutoff below which business activity …

Nevada Risk Assessment/Management Program (Nramp) – Phase 2: Quarterly Progress Report April 1, 2007 Through June 30, 2007, Klaus J. Stetzenbach

Nevada Risk Assessment/Management Program

Work conducted this quarter consisted of continuing the detailed data and information acquisition; review of the received document contents, and interpretation of significance in light of previous DOE documents. Much of the effort was devoted to reconciling inconsistencies and contradictions in both the primary data bases and in and among the DOE published documents. These review and reconciliation efforts included regular telephone and e-mail correspondence, as well as in-person discussions with DOE NVO personnel at the April DOE Generator Conference in Las Vegas. Reconciliation efforts continued with frequent (daily) exchanges on the inventory data sets, and the engineering descriptions of …

High Temperature Heat Exchanger Project: Quarterly Progress Report April 1, 2007 Through June 30, 2007, Anthony Hechanova

Publications (NSTD)

• Ceramatec Sulfuric Acid Decomposer. Modeling with different reacting flow channel configurations (ribbed-surface channels, hexagonal channels, and diamond-shaped channels) was performed. The probability of failure for the one channel geometry with different reacting flow channel configurations was calculated to be zero in the three principal directions for all of the cases.

• Bayonet Heat Exchanger. The Matlab code for calculating the probability of failure using a two-dimensional axisymmetric model of the bayonet decomposer was developed. The probability of failure was calculated for the inner and outer SiC walls, and the intermediate quartz wall of the decomposer and found to be …

Sheep Updates 2007 - Part 4, Dean Thomas, Dominique Blache, Dean Revell, Hayley Norman, Phil Vercoe, Zoey Durmic, Serina Digby, Di Mayberry, Megan Chadwick, Martin Sillence, David Masters, R. Silberstein, F. Byrne, P. G. H. Nichols, J. Young, L. Aitkins, M. G. Wilmot, A. J. Rintoul, T. Lambert, D. R. Mcclements, P. Raper, P. Ward, C. Walton, T. York, David Pethick, David Hopkins, Malcolm Mcphee, D. B. Savage, J. V. Nolan, I. R. Godwin, A. Aoetpah, T. Nguyen, N. Baillie, C. Lawler, Ken Geenty, John Smith, Darryl Smith, Tim Dyall, Grant Uphill, John Young, Michael Paton, John Dorrian

Sheep Updates

This session covers eight papers from different authors:

GRAZING

1. The impact of high dietary salt and its implications for the management of livestock grazing saline land, Dean Thomas, Dominique Blache, Dean Revell, Hayley Norman, Phil Vercoe, Zoey Durmic, Serina Digby, Di Mayberry, Megan Chadwick, Martin Sillence and David Masters, CRC for Plant-based Management of Dryland Salinity, Faculty of Natural & Agricultural Sciences, The University of Western Australia, WA.

2. Sustainable Grazing on Saline Lands - outcomes from the WA1 research project, H.C. Norman^1,2, D.G. Masters^1,2, R. Silberstein^1,2, F. Byrne^2,3, P.G.H. Nichols …

College Of Engineering Senior Design Competition Spring 2007, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

Fred and Harriet Cox Senior Design Competition Projects

Part of every UNLV engineering student’s academic experience, the senior design project stimulates engineering innovation and entrepreneurship. Each student in their senior year chooses, plans, designs, and prototypes a product in this required element of the curriculum. A capstone to the student’s educational career, the senior design project encourages the student to use everything learned in the engineering program to create a practical, real world solution to an engineering challenge.

The senior design competition helps to focus the senior students in increasing the quality and potential for commercial application for their design projects. Judges from local industry evaluate the projects …

Nevada Risk Assessment/Management Program (Nramp) – Phase 2: Quarterly Progress Report January 1, 2007 Through March 31, 2007, Klaus J. Stetzenbach

Nevada Risk Assessment/Management Program

Work conducted in this second quarter consisted of continuing the detailed data and information acquisition; review of the received document contents, and interpretation of significance in light of previous DOE documents. This included telephone and in-person discussions with DOE NVO personnel at the March Waste Management Symposia in Tucson. As a result of these discussions and review of the supporting data and methodologies, a more specific listing of activities was developed, and DOE provided a confirmatory note to HRC in March.

Much of the review of the received information does indicate significant changes in data, methodologies, and baseline assumptions over …

High Temperature Heat Exchanger Project: Quarterly Progress Report January 1, 2007 Through March 31, 2007, Anthony Hechanova

Publications (NSTD)

• The variation of sulfur dioxide production (throughput) of the baseline design of the Ceramatec sulfuric acid decomposer with total mass flow rate of reacting flow has been calculated. According to the calculations, the sulfur dioxide production increases as the total mass flow rate of reacting flow increases regardless of the fact that decomposition percentage of sulfuric trioxide decreases. A parametric study of the baseline design of the Ceramatec sulfuric acid decomposer was performed.

• The thermal performance using various channel geometries for the decomposer was studied. The baseline design (straight channels) has 89.5% thermal efficiency while the thermal efficiency …

Potentiality Of Biogas And The Role Of Substrates In Biogas Formation Potential, Scott Shealy

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Biogas infrastructure development, particularly in countries such as Vietnam, has the potential to provide great benefits to people living agrarian lifestyles in rural areas. Decentralized wastewater treatment facilities that utilize anaerobic technologies to digest organic waste for the purpose of collecting methane provide a number of benefits to centralized use as well. In both cases, users benefit from the production of methane gas, wastewater treatment, nutrient recycling, and organic fertilizers. In the case of decentralized use, as is most prevalent in Vietnam, integrated farming methods, such as the VACB model, allow farmers to reap the benefits of a wide array …

Predicting The Impacts Of Serra Leste: A Case Study In Companhia Vale Do Rio Doce’S Influence On Southern Pará, Jason Hayes

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This project analyzes the possible environmental and socioeconomic impacts of Serra Leste, a newly proposed iron mine by the Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD). However, Serra Leste is also part of a much larger system of CVRD projects which has recently had a profound influence on the micro-region surrounding Curionópolis, the future cite of the operation. Interviews, CVRD studies, and secondary sources were used and contrasted to evaluate the situation from several angles. Environmentally, Serra Leste will have profound impacts on the water, air, and soil. Specifically, the mine will probably have the largest influence on regional water tables, …

Cuando Viene El Agua: Percepciones De Los Impactos Sociales Del Proyecto Hidroeléctrico “Chan-75” En Las Comunidades Ubicadas En La Cuenca Del Río Changuinola, Bocas Del Toro, Jeffery D. Stein

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This report analyzes the anticipated social impacts of a hydroelectric project, titled “Chan-75,” in the surrounding communities. The project is located in the Bosque Protector de Palo Seco (BPPS) protected area along the Changuinola River. The flooding of 750 ha to create a reservoir for the dam will require the resettlement of roughly 1,000 residents of at least four indigenous Ngöbe Buglé communities including Valle del Rey, Charco la Pava, Changuinola Arriba, and Guayabal, in addition to the submersion of thousands of ha of farmland belonging to residents of nearby communities (Cordero et al). Once completed, the dam will generate …

Lake Whatcom Model Calibration With Variable Stoichiometry In Sediments - Revised, Chris Berger, Scott A. Wells

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This memorandum discusses model calibration and enhancements made to the Lake Whatcom water quality model. Model development and initial calibration were documented in the report “Lake Whatcom Water Quality Model” (Berger and Wells, 2005). The Lake Whatcom water quality model has been converted from CE-QUAL-W2 version 3.2 to version 3.5 (Cole and Wells, 2006).

Nevada Risk Assessment/Management Program (Nramp) – Phase 2: Quarterly Progress Report, Oct. 1, 2006- Dec. 31, 2006, Klaus J. Stetzenbach

Nevada Risk Assessment/Management Program

Work conducted in this initial period consisted of work start-up (technical, administrative, contractual), and interviewing/site visits with DOE NVO staff (and support contractors) and HRC staff to quickly ascertain current technical activities and priorities as related to the scope of this task.

Since much of the technical work scope builds on previous technical work, it was considered critical to determine the changes (programmatic, technical, and regulatory) that have occurred over the past several years that directly relate to the scope. It was also equally important to determine the technical and programmatic priorities that have been established in the interim.

High Temperature Heat Exchanger Project: Quarterly Progress Report October 1, 2006 Through December 31, 2006, Anthony Hechanova

Publications (NSTD)

Modifications to the single-channel models of the Ceramatec heat exchanger and decomposer concept for hexagonal flow channels under two values of layer-overlapping (50% and 100%) and for diamond-shaped flow channels were completed.

The finite element calculations of the “Ball on Three Ball Test” for ceramic material for the purpose of selecting the appropriate specimen thickness for future experimental testing was performed for plate thicknesses ranging from 2 to 8 mm.

A finite element model of the “Ball on Three Ball Test” was also studied for discs having micro-channels.

Selected Lid Projects In New England, New England Environmental Finance Center

Planning

Examples of low impact development (LID) projects in each state in New England.

Development Of Integrated Process Simulation System Model For Spent Fuel Treatment Facility (Sftf) Design, Yitung Chen, Sean Hsieh

Separations Campaign (TRP)

The major objectives will lead to a creation of framework that combines all the strengths of AMUSE’s complicated calculations, well-established commercial system process package and ISOPro’s flexible parameter optimization modules. Development of the process simulation code can be done using the solvent extraction process at Argonne National Laboratory in collaboration with the research team from Mechanical Engineering Department at UNLV.

Research accomplishments:

• Integrated the ASPEN-Plus process model with the ISOPro system engineering modeling package, developed by the UNLV team.
• Tested the simplified system process integration using the ISOPro package.
• Generated complete version of the ISOPro package user manual and tutorial. …

Use Of Positron Annihilation Spectroscopy For Stress-Strain Measurements, Ajit K. Roy

Transmutation Sciences Materials (TRP)

During the past academic year, this project was focused on the characterization of residual stress in welded specimens consisting of austenitic and martensitic stainless steels using an activation technique based on the Positron Annihilation Spectroscopic (PAS) method. The extent of residual stress was expressed in terms of three line-shape parameters (S-, W- and T-). Further, efforts were made to characterize linear lattice defects such as dislocations in the vicinity of Fusion-Line (FL), Heat-Affected- Zone (HAZ), and the base material of the welded specimens using Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). The metallurgical microstructures at these three regions have also been evaluated by …

Fundamental And Applied Experimental Investigations Of Corrosion Of Steel By Lbe Under Controlled Conditions: Kinetics, Chemistry Morphology, And Surface Preparation, John Farley, Allen L. Johnson, Dale L. Perry

Transmutation Sciences Materials (TRP)

Advanced nuclear processes and facilities (e.g., transmutation of nuclear waste, fast reactors, and spallation neutron sources) impose special demands on materials, which must withstand high temperatures, high radiation fields, and chemical corrosion. Proposed schemes for transmuting nuclear waste require a nonmoderating coolant such as lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE). While LBE corrodes most steels, small amounts of oxygen in the LBE greatly reduces the corrosion rate, and could ideally re-grow a damaged oxide layer in-situ. The protective oxide layer would thus be self-healing. However, the fundamental understanding of the role of oxygen and passivating oxide layers is presently incomplete.

During the present …

Effect Of Silicon Content On The Corrosion Resistance And Radiation- Induced Embrittlement Of Materials For Advanced Heavy Liquid Metal Nuclear Systems, Ajit K. Roy

Transmutation Sciences Materials (TRP)

This task is focused on the evaluation of the effects of silicon content on both the corrosion behavior and radiation-induced embrittlement of martensitic stainless steels having compositions similar to that of modified 9Cr-1Mo steel, also known as T91 grade steel. T91 grade steel was selected to be a candidate structural material to contain molten lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE), which can act both as a target material and a coolant during the spallation process. The operating temperature during this process may range from 420-550 °C. Thus, moderate tensile strength of the containment material (T91) is a major requirement.

The beneficial effects of …

Theoretical Modeling Of Protective Oxide Layer Growth In Non-Isothermal Lead Alloy Coolant Systems, Yitung Chen, Jinsuo Zhang, Jichun Li

Transmutation Sciences Materials (TRP)

The goal of the proposed research project is to provide basic understanding of the protective oxide layer behaviors and to develop oxide layer growth models of steels in non-isothermal lead-alloys (lead or lead-bismuth eutectic) coolant systems. Precise studies and simulations of all hydrodynamics with thermal conditions encountered in practical coolant loop systems by use of different flowing conditions in the laboratory are difficult and expensive, if not impossible. Therefore it is important and necessary to develop theoretical models to predict the protective oxide layer behaviors at the design stage of a practical lead-alloy coolant system, to properly interpret and apply …

Development Of Nanostructure Based Corrosion-Barrier Coatings On Steel For Transmutation Applications, Biswajit Das

Transmutation Sciences Materials (TRP)

Advanced transmutation systems require structural materials that are able to withstand high neutron fluxes, high thermal cycling, and high resistance to chemical corrosion. The current candidate materials for such structures are ferritic and ferritic-martensitic steels due to their strong resistance to swelling, good microstructural stability under irradiation, and the retention of adequate ductility at typical reactor operating temperatures.

In parallel, lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) has emerged as a potential spallation target material for efficient production of neutrons, as well as a coolant in the accelerator system. While LBE has excellent properties as a nuclear coolant, it is also highly corrosive to …

Modeling And Design Algorithms For Electromagnetic Pumps, Daniel P. Cook

Reactor Campaign (TRP)

Electromagnetic (EM) induction pumps are used in a number of nuclear energy related applications, such as circulation of molten lead-bismuth eutectic alloys in neutron targets, and circulation of liquid sodium metal in Gen IV Sodium-cooled Fast Reactors (SFR). Because EM pumps have no moving parts which can fail, they are considerably more reliable than conventional mechanical pumps for molten metal usage, and thus EM pumps are favored over mechanical pumps even though their pumping efficiency is lower and their initial cost is higher when compared to mechanical pumps of similar flow rates.

The research objectives of this task are:

• A …

Thermal Transient Flow Rate Sensor For High Temperature Liquid Metal Cooled Nuclear Reactor, Yingtao Jiang

Reactor Campaign (TRP)

In nuclear power plants and accelerator driven system (ADS) for nuclear waste treatment, it is important to monitor the coolant flow rate in the reactor core and pipe-line. In such a strong irradiation, high pressure and temperature environment, no accurate local flow measurement technique is readily available. Electromagnetic (EM) flow meter is popular in low temperature application as it is a non-intrusive technology. However, additional voltage will be produced due to temperature, flow, pressure, the chemical properties of the liquid metal and surface condition of the steel walls. In addition, the non-definite wetting behavior of liquid lead-bismuth to the electrically …

Decoupling And Disturbance Rejection Control For Target Circulation, Jian Ma, Joon S. Lee, Woosoon Yim

Reactor Campaign (TRP)

In 1998, the Institute of Physics and Power Engineering (IPPE) and Experimental and Development Organization “Gidropress” in Russia, began the design and construction of a prototype lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) accelerator target, the Target Complex 1 (TC-1), under the International Science and Technology Center (ISTC) project #559 (“Pilot Flow Lead-Bismuth Target of 1 MW Power for Accelerator Driven Systems”) in support of the international efforts to develop accelerator-driven spallation systems for nuclear transmutation and other applications.

During the thermal and engineering test of the TC-1 in 2005 at UNLV, it was observed that the existing control algorithm led to a very …

Interaction Between Metal Fission Products And Triso Coating Materials, Clemens Heske

Fuels Campaign (TRP)

This project focuses on the chemical bonding and interface formation of metal fission products with the coating materials used in tri-isotropic (TRISO) fuel particles for gas-cooled reactors. By combining surface- and bulk-sensitive spectroscopic methods, intermediate chemical phases at the interface, intermixing/ diffusion behavior, and the electronic interface structure as a function of material (metal and coating materials) and temperature are examined.

In the past year, emphasis was placed on a detailed analysis and description of the Cs/SiC interface formation process.