CFD-modeling of insulation debris transport phenomena in water flow

The investigation of insulation debris generation, transport and sedimentation becomes important with regard to reactor safety research for PWR and BWR, when considering the long-term behavior of emergency core cooling systems during all types of loss of coolant accidents (LOCA). The insulation debris released near the break during a LOCA incident consists of a mixture of disparate particle population that varies with size, shape, consistency and other properties. Some fractions of the released insulation debris can be transported into the reactor sump, where it may perturb/impinge on the emergency core cooling systems. Open questions of generic interest are the sedimentation of the insulation debris in a water pool, its possible re-suspension and transport in the sump water flow and the particle load on strainers and corresponding pressure drop. A joint research project on such questions is being performed in cooperation between the University of Applied Sciences Zittau/Görlitz and the Forschungszentrum Dresden-Rossendorf. The project deals with the experimental investigation of particle transport phenomena in coolant flow and the development of CFD models for its description. While the experiments are performed at the University at Zittau/Görlitz, the theoretical modeling efforts are concentrated at Forschungszentrum Dresden-Rossendorf. In the current paper the basic concepts for CFD-modeling are described and feasibility studies including the conceptual design of the experiments are presented. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Hydrodynamic phenomena in the downcomer during flow rate transients in the primary circuit of a PWR

Mixing phenomena observed when the flow rate in a single loop of the primary circuit is changed can influence the operation of pressurized water reactor (PWR) by inducing local gradients of boron concentration or coolant temperature. Analysis of one-dimensional Laser Doppler Anemometry (LDA) measurements during the start-up and shutdown of pump on a single loop of the ROCOM test facility has been performed. The effect of a step change and a ramped change in the flow rate on the axial and azimuthal velocities was examined. Numerical simulations were also performed for the step change in the flow rate that gave quantitative agreement with the axial velocities. Phenomenological agreement was made on the turbulent kinetic energy; however, observed values were a factor of 2.5 less than the turbulent kinetic energy derived from the measurements. © 2007.

The nitrate to ammonia and ceramic (NAC) process for the denitration and immobilization of low-level radioactive liquid waste (LLW)

Hazardous radioactive liquid waste is the legacy of more than 50 years of plutonium production associated with the United States' nuclear weapons program. It is estimated that more than 245,000 tons of nitrate wastes are stored at facilities such as the single-shell tanks (SST) at the Hanford Site in the state of Washington, and the Melton Valley storage tanks at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee. In order to develop an innovative, new technology for the destruction and immobilization of nitrate-based radioactive liquid waste, the United State Department of Energy (DOE) initiated the research project which resulted in the technology known as the Nitrate to Ammonia and Ceramic (NAC) process. However, inasmuch as the nitrate anion is highly mobile and difficult to immobilize, especially in relatively porous cement-based grout which has been used to date as a method for the immobilization of liquid waste, it presents a major obstacle to environmental clean-up initiatives. Thus, in an effort to contribute to the existing body of knowledge and enhance the efficacy of the NAC process, this research involved the experimental measurement of the rheological and heat transfer behaviors of the NAC product slurry and the determination of the optimal operating parameters for the continuous NAC chemical reaction process. Test results indicate that the NAC product slurry exhibits a typical non-Newtonian flow behavior. Correlation equations for the slurry's rheological properties and heat transfer rate in a pipe flow have been developed; these should prove valuable in the design of a full-scale NAC processing plant. The 20-percent slurry exhibited a typical dilatant (shear thickening) behavior and was in the turbulent flow regime due to its lower viscosity. The 40-percent slurry exhibited a typical pseudoplastic (shear thinning) behavior and remained in the laminar flow regime throughout its experimental range. The reactions were found to be more efficient in the lower temperature range investigated. With respect to leachability, the experimental final NAC ceramic waste form is comparable to the final product of vitrification, the technology chosen by DOE to treat these wastes. As the NAC process has the potential of reducing the volume of nitrate-based radioactive liquid waste by as much as 70 percent, it not only promises to enhance environmental remediation efforts but also effect substantial cost savings. ^

Centrifugal separation of molten steel and glass mixtures

A lot of mixed vitrified waste exists at DOE sites, which contain valuable metal having great potential for being reused in industry. Of these useful metals, steel constitutes more than 45% of the volume. Using the differential centrifugal separation technology, steel is separated by using remote melting of the mixed waste. The high costs involved are directly proportional to the time involved in separation of the steel from the mixed waste. This is determined by using similitude principles. Having obtained a solidified steel ingot by melting, it is essential to determine the decontaminated portions of the ingot that can be released to industry. Two parameters representing measures of separation are proposed—the Centrifugal Fluid Separation Number and the Thermal Separation Number. Regression correlations are determined to express the estimated time of separation. Experimental analysis of solidified ingots has shown that when the Thermal Separation Number is less than 1700 the steel contains little or no trace of glass. This result can be used to recycle steel back to industry. ^

The dynamic decode-and-forward channel: SNR allocation.

In the half-duplex relay channel applying the decode-and-forward protocol the relay introduces energy over random time intervals into the channel as observed at the destination. Consequently, during simulation the average signal power seen at the destination becomes known at run-time only. Therefore, in order to obtain specific performance measures at the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of interest, strategies are required to adjust the noise variance during simulation run-time. It is necessary that these strategies result in the same performance as measured under real-world conditions. This paper introduces three noise power allocation strategies and demonstrates their applicability using numerical and simulation results.

A touchless passive Infrared gesture sensor.

A sensing device for a touchless, hand gesture, user interface based on an inexpensive passive infrared pyroelectric detector array is presented. The 2 x 2 element sensor responds to changing infrared radiation generated by hand movement over the array. The sensing range is from a few millimetres to tens of centimetres. The low power consumption (< 50 μW) enables the sensor’s use in mobile devices and in low energy applications. Detection rates of 77% have been demonstrated using a prototype system that differentiates the four main hand motion trajectories – up, down, left and right. This device allows greater non-contact control capability without an increase in size, cost or power consumption over existing on/off devices.

CFAR Adaptive PN Code acquisition for DSSS Systems.

Constant false alarm rate (CFAR) techniques can be used in Pseudo-Noise (PN) code acquisition in Spread Spectrum (SS) communication systems, and all the CFAR techniques perform well in homogeneous background PN code acquisition. However, in non-homogeneous background, some CFAR techniques suffer rapid degradation. GO/SO (Greatest-of/Smallest-of) CFAR and adaptive censored mean level detector (ACMLD) are two adaptive CFAR techniques, which are analyzed and compared with other CFAR techniques. The simulation results show that GO/SO CFAR is superior to other CFAR techniques, it maintains short mean acquisition time (MAT) even at environment with strong clutter noise, and ACMLD is suitable for background with strong interfering targets

Mid-infrared photonic sensors based on metamaterial structures

In this work three different metallic metamaterials (MMs) structures such as asymmetric split ring resonators (A-SRRs), dipole and split H-shaped (ASHs) structures that support plasmonic resonances have been developed. The aim of the work involves the optimization of photonic sensor based on plasmonic resonances and surface enhanced infrared absorption (SEIRA) from the MM structures. The MMs structures were designed to tune their plasmonic resonance peaks in the mid-infrared region. The plasmonic resonance peaks produced are highly dependent on the structural dimension and polarisation of the electromagnetic (EM) source. The ASH structure particularly has the ability to produce the plasmonic resonance peak with dual polarisation of the EM source. The double resonance peaks produced due to the asymmetric nature of the structures were optimized by varying the fundamental parameters of the design. These peaks occur due to hybridization of the individual elements of the MMs structure. The presence of a dip known as a trapped mode in between the double plasmonic peaks helps to narrow the resonances. A periodicity greater than twice the length and diameter of the metallic structure was applied to produce narrow resonances for the designed MMs. A nanoscale gap in each structure that broadens the trapped mode to narrow the plasmonic resonances was also used. A thickness of 100 nm gold was used to experimentally produce a high quality factor of 18 in the mid-infrared region. The optimised plasmonic resonance peaks was used for detection of an analyte, 17β-estradiol. 17β-estradiol is mostly responsible for the development of human sex organs and can be found naturally in the environment through human excreta. SEIRA was the method applied to the analysis of the analyte. The work is important in the monitoring of human biology and in water treatment. Applying this method to the developed nano-engineered structures, enhancement factors of 10^5 and a sensitivity of 2791 nm/RIU was obtained. With this high sensitivity a figure of merit (FOM) of 9 was also achieved from the sensors. The experiments were verified using numerical simulations where the vibrational resonances of the C-H stretch from 17β-estradiol were modelled. Lastly, A-SRRs and ASH on waveguides were also designed and evaluated. These patterns are to be use as basis for future work.

Spatial and temporal measurements using polyoxometalate, enzymatic and biofilm layers on a CMOS 0.35 μm 64 X 64-pixel I.S.F.E.T. array sensor

This thesis presents the achievements and scientific work conducted using a previously designed and fabricated 64 x 64-pixel ion camera with the use of a 0.35 μm CMOS technology. We used an array of Ion Sensitive Field Effect Transistors (ISFETs) to monitor and measure chemical and biochemical reactions in real time. The area of our observation was a 4.2 x 4.3 mm silicon chip while the actual ISFET array covered an area of 715.8 x 715.8 μm consisting of 4096 ISFET pixels in total with a 1 μm separation space among them. The ion sensitive layer, the locus where all reactions took place was a silicon nitride layer, the final top layer of the austriamicrosystems 0.35 μm CMOS technology used. Our final measurements presented an average sensitivity of 30 mV/pH. With the addition of extra layers we were able to monitor a 65 mV voltage difference during our experiments with glucose and hexokinase, whereas a difference of 85 mV was detected for a similar glucose reaction mentioned in literature, and a 55 mV voltage difference while performing photosynthesis experiments with a biofilm made from cyanobacteria, whereas a voltage difference of 33.7 mV was detected as presented in literature for a similar cyanobacterial species using voltamemtric methods for detection. To monitor our experiments PXIe-6358 measurement cards were used and measurements were controlled by LabVIEW software. The chip was packaged and encapsulated using a PGA-100 chip carrier and a two-component commercial epoxy. Printed circuit board (PCB) has also been previously designed to provide interface between the chip and the measurement cards.

A III-V channel field effect transistor for non-classical CMOS: process optimisation for improved gate stack function

This thesis describes a collection of studies into the electrical response of a III-V MOS stack comprising metal/GaGdO/GaAs layers as a function of fabrication process variables and the findings of those studies. As a result of this work, areas of improvement in the gate process module of a III-V heterostructure MOSFET were identified. Compared to traditional bulk silicon MOSFET design, one featuring a III-V channel heterostructure with a high-dielectric-constant oxide as the gate insulator provides numerous benefits, for example: the insulator can be made thicker for the same capacitance, the operating voltage can be made lower for the same current output, and improved output characteristics can be achieved without reducing the channel length further. It is known that transistors composed of III-V materials are most susceptible to damage induced by radiation and plasma processing. These devices utilise sub-10 nm gate dielectric films, which are prone to contamination, degradation and damage. Therefore, throughout the course of this work, process damage and contamination issues, as well as various techniques to mitigate or prevent those have been investigated through comparative studies of III-V MOS capacitors and transistors comprising various forms of metal gates, various thicknesses of GaGdO dielectric, and a number of GaAs-based semiconductor layer structures. Transistors which were fabricated before this work commenced, showed problems with threshold voltage control. Specifically, MOSFETs designed for normally-off (VTH > 0) operation exhibited below-zero threshold voltages. With the results obtained during this work, it was possible to gain an understanding of why the transistor threshold voltage shifts as the gate length decreases and of what pulls the threshold voltage downwards preventing normally-off device operation. Two main culprits for the negative VTH shift were found. The first was radiation damage induced by the gate metal deposition process, which can be prevented by slowing down the deposition rate. The second was the layer of gold added on top of platinum in the gate metal stack which reduces the effective work function of the whole gate due to its electronegativity properties. Since the device was designed for a platinum-only gate, this could explain the below zero VTH. This could be prevented either by using a platinum-only gate, or by matching the layer structure design and the actual gate metal used for the future devices. Post-metallisation thermal anneal was shown to mitigate both these effects. However, if post-metallisation annealing is used, care should be taken to ensure it is performed before the ohmic contacts are formed as the thermal treatment was shown to degrade the source/drain contacts. In addition, the programme of studies this thesis describes, also found that if the gate contact is deposited before the source/drain contacts, it causes a shift in threshold voltage towards negative values as the gate length decreases, because the ohmic contact anneal process affects the properties of the underlying material differently depending on whether it is covered with the gate metal or not. In terms of surface contamination; this work found that it causes device-to-device parameter variation, and a plasma clean is therefore essential. This work also demonstrated that the parasitic capacitances in the system, namely the contact periphery dependent gate-ohmic capacitance, plays a significant role in the total gate capacitance. This is true to such an extent that reducing the distance between the gate and the source/drain ohmic contacts in the device would help with shifting the threshold voltages closely towards the designed values. The findings made available by the collection of experiments performed for this work have two major applications. Firstly, these findings provide useful data in the study of the possible phenomena taking place inside the metal/GaGdO/GaAs layers and interfaces as the result of chemical processes applied to it. In addition, these findings allow recommendations as to how to best approach fabrication of devices utilising these layers.