1. Heidi Elliott El Campo High School El Campo ISD POWER SET Sponsor Cable Kurwitz Department of Nuclear Engineering Nuclear Power Institute Texas A&M University

2. Dr. Cable Kurwitz  Department of Nuclear Engineering Office: 3 rd floor of Zachry (303N)  Interphase Transport Phenomena Laboratory – Zachry Basement Graduate and Undergraduate students ○ Jake Peterson Utilize multiple facilities and methods  Space Engineering Research Center (SERC) – University Services Building

3. SERC Mission  To raise the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of important Space Technologies by assisting Business, Government, and Education with Research and Development Projects

4. 4 Og Gas/Fluid Inventory Determination

5.  Accurate inventory determination is challenging due to a few factors: Substance orientation Substance properties Measurement technique  Several RFPs have been granted to develop new technologies to provide better accuracy in 1g and 0g conditions

6. What’s The Goal?  Develop a non-intrusive, reliable, simple instrument to accurately determine the inventory level Use ‘dumb’ sensors Utilize simple physics Take advantage of ‘random’ nature of fluid

7. Compressed Sensing  Process of acquiring and reconstructing a signal that is supposed to be sparse or compressible.  An undetermined system has more unknowns than equations and generally has an infinite number of solutions. However, if there is a unique sparse solution to the underdetermined system, then the Compressed Sensing framework allows the recovery of that solution. Not all underdetermined systems of linear equations have a sparse solution.

8. Procedure  Develop MCNP model to stochastically track particles/photons through system and record counts at detector locations  Develop a library of known fill levels and detector responses  Query library with new detector responses to determine fill level utilizing compressed sensing approaches

9. More Complex System  An interest in determining fill level and location of liquid in tank in zero gravity  Utilize similar approach to earth-g system but allow liquid to be located anywhere in the tank.  Solve for both fill and location

10. Inventory Location

11. Engineering Design Process Courtesy of Project Lead The Way

12. What’s My Role?  Research prototype design possibilities

13. What’s My Role?  Design experiment Perform calculations involving materials

14. What’s My Role?  Designing experiment prototype Generate prototype concepts Perform design calculations Assemble prototype  Time Permitting: Test and Evaluate Refine

15. Future Implications

16.  Other systems involving fluids and the need for inventory sensing and location determination

17. Summary  A new approach to inventory fill determination has been demonstrated utilizing a unique, simple, non-intrusive detector arrangement  Approach may potentially be capable of accurately determining zero-g liquid inventory and liquid location

18. Classroom Application  Pre-AP Algebra II  Linear programming Students will be expected to formulate systems of equations and inequalities from this particular situation, use a variety of methods to solve, and then analyze the solution in terms of the situation.

19. Acknowledgements  TAMU E3 Program  Nuclear Power Institute  National Science Foundation  Dr. Cable Kurwitz – PI  Jake Peterson – MS Student  Dr. Igor Carron – Collaborator from France