E3 Research Team led by

Dr. Karen Vierow

Research Associate: Dr. Isaac Choutapalli

www.diskingalleries.com/bobdiskin/slides/wate...www.palaciosbeacon.com/palaciospixs-1.shtml

by Marilyn Phillips

Palacios High School

Mathematics Instructor

• Karen Vierow • Associate Professor, Nuclear

Engineering • Education

Ph.D., Quantum Engineering and System Sciences, University of TokyoM.S., Nuclear Engineering, University of California at BerkeleyB.S., Nuclear Engineering, Purdue University

Project Leader

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 Curriculum Development

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

www.stpnoc.com

Water flow is essential in the

nuclear plant.

The water is used to cool the

fission reaction of the Uranium-235

and it is converted to steam

which then turns the turbines

and produces electrical power

which we use in our homes.

This is the project that I participated in

this summer at Texas A & M University:

Niki Williams’ experiment uses water flow and

counter current air flow.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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.

By doing these type of tests, they can see how the cooling system

is affected and provide the nuclear facilities with this

information, so that they can put protocols in place to keep the

plants operating at a safe level.

www.wastecorp.com/irrigation_pumps.html

Water flow can also be used to

determine how many pumps and valves you would

need and what size of piping would be

needed for an irrigation system.

Other Applications of Water Flow

Have you visited a water park lately?

Have you noticed the way that the

water flows down the water slides.

How does the steepness of the

water slide affect the water flow?

www.schlitterbahn.com/

Water & Soil Conservation is another important application of water flow.

If we can measure the water flow in certain areas, we can keep our natural resources

from eroding away.

www.swcs.org

www.texasgulfwaterfront.com

When researching water flow,

I found this article about the

earthquake in China.

They were racing against time to try to get the water to drain.

Picture taken at 9 a.m. on June 10, 2008 from a military helicopter shows the drainage of the Tangjiashan quake lake in southewest China's Sichuan Province. Drainage of the quake lake through a manmade spillway speeded up to 1,760 cubic meters per second at 9:30 am on Tuesday, whereas water flow in the lower reaches of the lake, in Beichuan County, reached 2,240 cubic meters per second.

www.china.org.cn

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

(3) The students will also make a table, graph the data points and draw a conclusion

from the graph.(4) The students will calculate the velocity of

the water for each size of pipe.

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 knowledgeDay Two: Do the Experiment

Day Three: Make Graphs & Discuss the DataDay Four: Have a class discussion about how water flow

relates to the safety of a nuclear plant, irrigation & everyday water use.

Day Five: Post Test to determine what the students have learned.

• Water Flow• Velocity• Cross-sectional Area• Volume• 1 Gallon = _128__oz.• 1 Gallon = _231__in3

Vocabulary

• Independent Variable• Dependent Variable• “Best-fit” line• Rate of Change• Counter current• Slope

Equipment Needed

About a 10 gal water tank

8 ft piece of each of the following:

⅜ inch PVC

½ inch PVC¾ inch PVC

3 valves

PVC glue3/8 inch1/2 inch3/4 inch

Valve ValveValve

Lab Procedure (Day 1): Three Students to a Group

• Have students start with the ½ inch pipe. • The first student will turn the water on and start the timer at the same time. • The second student could turn on the water and

measure the water. The water will be collected and measured at a collection container at the other end of the pipe.

• The third student will write down the data into the collection table that could be used in this

experiment.

The students will do three trials on each pipe and fill in the following

data table.

Water pipe size Δ Water Volume Δ Time Water Flow Rate______3/8 inch_________________________________________________________ 3/8 inch_________________________________________________________ 3/8 inch__________________________________________________________ ½ inch__________________________________________________________ ½ inch__________________________________________________________ ½ inch___________________________________________________________ ¾ inch___________________________________________________________ ¾ inch___________________________________________________________ ¾ inch___________________________________________________________

Day 2 of Experiment

After the students have collected all the data points, they will then calculate the

flow rate for each trial by

Using the following formula:

Water flow = Δ volume/ Δ time

(This is column 4 on the data table)

The students will then plot the data on a graph,

where the independent variableis time (x-axis),

and the dependent variable is the volume of the water (y-axis). The flow rate is the slope of the line.

Example of graph:

Water Volume in ounces

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24

Time in seconds

Graph of Time vs. ounces

Now have the students graph the water flow for each size of pipe:

⅜ inch 1.8 gal/min

½ inch 3.7 gal/min

¾ inch 7.5 gal/min

1/8 ¼ 3/8 ½ ¾ 1 Pipe Size

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

0

Flow Rate

in Gal/min

Graph of Pipe size vs. flow rate

What conclusion can you make about the water flow and how it relates to

the size of pipe?

They should see that the graph is an exponential function.

y = a2 kx

After the students graph the

average water flow, the next thing

that they will do is to

calculate the velocity for each pipe.

The velocity of the water is

how fast the water is moving.

This is found by using the

following formula:

Velocity = Water Flow / cross-sectional area

Predictions

What conclusions can be made about the size of pipe and the water flow?

What conclusions can be made about the size of pipe and the velocity at

which the water is moving?

At this point I will give them some discussion questions and have them

answer these questions on paper.

How would you describe the water flow in the 3/4 inch pipe?

How did it compare to the ½ inch pipe?

How did it compare to the ⅜ inch pipe?

Algebraic Problem Solving

If one pipe can empty a 40 gal water tank

in 5 minutes and a second pipe

can empty a 40 gal water tank

in 8 minutes,

how long will it take for both pipes

to empty the water tank?

Analysis

At this point, I would like them to be able to conclude that

the water flow in the ½ inch pipe is twice the water flow in the ⅜ inch pipe and the water flow in the ¾ inch pipe is

four times the water flow in the ⅜ inch pipe.

I would like to express my

To Everyone in the E3 Program,Especially those that took us on our field trips to

the power plant and the nuclear plant: Dr. Cheryl Page,

Dr. Robin Autenrieth, Dr. Karen Butler-Purry, and

Jacque Hodge.

I would also like to Thank

Professor Conkey and Professor Srinivasa for working with us in the

Educational Discussion Time,

along with all of the other people

that are involved in the

E3 Program.

In Conclusion,I would like to give a special

to all of the people that made this presentation possible.

TAMU E3 ProgramOur 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 South Texas Project

The National Science Foundation