The final 2014-2015 Energy Institute Fellowships were recently announced, a selection of 10 students out of over 60 applications from 20 departments and several colleges, including the Texas A&M School of Law.
Among those 10 was Bradley Beeny of the Department of Nuclear Engineering, for his research "Creation and Application of Computational Tools for Nuclear Energy Systems Analysis."
Beeny received both his B.S. and M.S. in nuclear engineering from Texas A&M University in 2010 and 2012, respectively. Since 2007, he has worked as both an undergraduate and graduate student researcher in the Nuclear Heat Transfer Systems Laboratories under Dr. Karen Vierow. He has primarily focused on computational analysis of nuclear systems safety and thermal hydraulics using codes such as MELCOR and GOTHIC. He has participated in several MELCOR code development activities during his several internships with the severe accident modeling group at Sandia National Laboratories. He is currently conducting doctoral dissertation research while participating in other ongoing thermal hydraulics analysis projects.
His undergraduate and graduate research activities at Texas A&M have focused mainly on the application and development of nuclear reactor thermal hydraulics computational analysis tools, specifically with respect to systems-level computer codes as they apply to reactor safety. Past topics of research interest include condensation in the presence of noncondensible gas in nuclear systems, systems-level and design-basis event analysis for prismatic and pebble bed high temperature gas-cooled reactors, and light water reactor design basis event and severe accident analysis. He has applied existing computational analysis tools (computer codes like MELCOR, RELAP, and GOTHIC among others) in the course of my research and have participated in testing and development of new MELCOR code features as both a student researcher and an intern. In terms of creating reactor analysis tools, he has developed several computer code input decks for both gas cooled and light water cooled reactor systems. Additionally, he's developed a code coupling routine to enable higher-fidelity predictions of pressurized water reactor primary system and containment response under accident conditions. This particular tool finds application in the several ongoing collaborative projects that Texas A&M has with members of the nuclear industry. At present, he plays an active role in development of new MELCOR code user utilities while conducting doctoral dissertation research with the GOTHIC computer code. He is attempting to apply GOTHIC’s porosity/blockage formulation (based on the fractional area/volume obstacle representation method) and fully three-dimensional momentum solution to model in-vessel pressurized water reactor phenomena. More specifically, he's concerned with the implications for reactor safety of certain in-vessel debris blockages that may develop during the recirculation phase of core cooling subsequent to a design-basis accident.
The Energy Institute Fellowship is in the amount of $5,000 for a one-year term, and was funded by ConocoPhillips. The Texas A&M Energy Institute handled the application/selection process, which was open to any graduate students conducting energy research. For more information, visit http://energy.tamu.edu/.