MOMENTUM • VIRGINIA TECH MECHANICAL ENGINEERING 13
Duarte secures nearly $ 500,000 in funding to study boiling water reactor instabilities
Juliana Pacheco Duarte , an assistant professor in nuclear engineering within Virginia Tech ’ s department of mechanical engineering , is the primary investigator on an award of $ 499,517 from the U . S . Nuclear Regulatory Commission to study instabilities in boiling water reactors . Other collaborators on the project include Virginia Tech Associate Professor Yang Liu , University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Associate Professor Tomasz Kozlowski , and University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor Michael Corradini .
The proposal is to use data collected in Germany ’ s Karlstein Thermal Hydraulic Test Facility to show how natural circulation test results might apply to boiling water reactor instabilities under anticipated transient without scram ( ATWS ). The analysis will include the development of a non-dimensional analysis and criteria for twophase flow instability , including the failure to rewet events that can be applicable to future system analysis under similar operating conditions .
The team proposes to investigate the Maximum Extended Load Line Limit Analysis Plus ( MELLLA +) conditions that could lead to dryout and rewet cycles and possible damage to the fuel rods . Research will include coupled thermal-hydraulics and neutronic simulations and the investigation on the transition boiling heat transfer regime .
The grant will also support Ph . D . student Paul Hurley to expand his work on boiling heat transfer phenomena .
Duarte