by Marilyn Phillips Mathematics Instructor Palacios High School Team led by Dr. Karen Vierow Research Associate: Dr. Isaac Choutapalli

Dr. Vierow’s Grad Students — Niki Williams— Countercurrent Flow Limitation Experiment with Steam & Water — Adam Bingham — Analysis of Advanced Fuel Assemblies And Core Designs for the Current and the Next Generations of LWR’s (Light Water Reactors)

— Kevin Hogan — An Overview of Projects Using a Simulation Model —Zach Bailey — Nuclear Safety Program at Texas A & M — Ni Zhen — Analysis of VHTR (Very High Temperature Reactor) Using Melcor

Other Team Members: Scott Griffin from Bay City High School Willie Smith from TideHaven High School Working in Conjunction with the South Texas Project Nuclear Facility

Picture of the South Texas Project Nuclear Facility

What type of research is conducted? Dr. Vierow’s students are working on the design of the cooling system for a nuclear power facility.

Niki Williams’ experiment uses counter current flow with air and water. The purpose of this experiment is to come up with possible scenarios that will cause flooding to occur and thus jeopardize the safety of the nuclear facility.

The Data Acquisition System

Data Interpretation What air or steam flow is necessary to cause a flooding situation? The change in water pressure and the and the air or steam flow rates are what are measured in this experiment. A constant water flow rate is selected for each experiment. In the following data, The water rate flow was approximately 5 gal/min.

The next slide is an example of the number of data points that the Data Acquisition System will read out in just one second. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The date is read and generated using a computer program that takes over 200 readings per second and averages these together and the output data is 20 points per second. This gives us a good picture of what is happening in the simulation.

Seconds Air Pressure Water Flow Δ Water Pr. Atm.Pr.

According to the following data chart, Can you see where flooding is possibly occurring? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Make an educated guess!

Minutes/Seconds Air Pressure Δ Water Pressure 0.5 / / / / / / / / / / What would be your best guess?

The data that is collected will help in the maintenance and the safety protocols that are necessary to keep a nuclear facility from experiencing any of these types of occurrences. Minutes/ Seconds Air Pressure Δ Water Pressure 0.5 / / / / / / / / / /

Counter Current Flow Data Chart As you can see from the graph, as flooding occurs, the water pressure suddenly drops.

According to the data, flooding occurred when the air velocity was about 34.5 m/second. This happened during this experiment at about 480 seconds or 8 minutes. If you look back at the data, you will see a sharp decline in the water pressure at this point.

Safety is the # 1 Priority We want the general population to have a safe environment, especially those of us that live near a nuclear facility. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This research will also help in the design of future plants, so that the safety of our communities will be maintained.

Applications in the High School Classroom ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Set up a 10 gal. tank of water with three different size pipes coming out of the tank. Students will learn about water flow and how it varies with the various dimensions of pipe.

Equipment Needed About a 10 gal water tank 8 ft piece of each of the following: ⅜ inch PVC ½ inch PVC ¾ inch PVC 3 valves PVC glue

During this lesson, the students will learn the following objectives: (1)How changing dimensions affects the cross-sectional area and the volume of the water in the pipe. (2) How to calculate the water flow coming out a pipe by using the Δ Amount of Water / Δ Time

Science teachers may also want to do a water conservation lesson along with this lesson on water flow. I will probably spend about one week of classroom time covering this material. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Day One: Pre-Test on Basic knowledge Day Two: Do the Experiment Day Three: Make Graphs & Discuss the Data Day Four: Have a class discussion about how water flow relates to the safety of a nuclear plant. Day Five: Post Test to determine what the students have learned.

In Conclusion, I would like to give a special THANKS all of the people that made this presentation possible. TAMU Our Team Leader: Dr. Karen Vierow Research Associate: Dr. Isaac Choutapalli Grad Student: Niki Williams All of the other grad students that presented their work for us to view. The National Science Foundation