Faculty and Student Teams Program

Project Descriptions

Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Nuclear Science and Technology Division

Design of an Experiment to Examine Molten Salts as a Heat Transfer Medium

Requesting applications from science or engineering faculty members at institutions serving students underrepresented in science, engineering, mathematics and technology to work on the following projects at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).

Project Description

Molten salts have a low vapor pressure at high temperatures. These salts have heat transfer characteristics similar to water at much lower pressures, and may serve as the next generation heat transfer medium. Salts have been proposed as coolants for advanced reactor concepts, and as a heat transfer medium for thermal transport at very high temperatures. The proposed project is aimed at developing a simple experiment aimed at studying the behavior of specific salts that can be used to perform corrosion and heat transfer studies as well as developing instrumentation techniques.

Participants will be asked to assist in the design of an experiment investigating molten salts as a heat transfer medium. A small experiment has been conceptualized that will allow corrosion testing and heat transfer measurements of a high temperature (700o C – 900o C) molten salt. The experiment design uses a furnace to heat a pool of molten salt enclosed in a graphite crucible. The molten salt must be covered by a high purity inert gas, so the crucible must form a portion of a sealed container holding the molten salt. The faculty/student team will be asked to design the crucible-furnace combination so that the pool is uniformly heated and remains essentially stagnant. The design of the crucible will be such that a transparent port can be used to visually examine the pool and perform spectroscopy on the pool. Temperature limits of this port will require that it be isolated conductively from the crucible, while still acting as a positive part of the enclosure. Additionally, a heated finger to be inserted in the pool will constructed out of a material of interest to perform the corrosion and heat transfer testing. Once the crucible is designed, analysis must be performed examining the natural circulation flow of molten salt around this submerged heated finger.

Participants will be asked to use a variety of techniques to execute this study. These may range from hand calculations to performing thermal calculations using sophisticated thermal/fluid analysis tools such as ANSYS, CFX, and FLUENT.

Laboratory Contact: Graydon L. Yoder, Jr. Ph: (865) 945-3660 e-mail:yodergljr@ornl.gov

Applicants’ Responsibilities and Relationship to Project

Applicants will receive support under the Department of Energy Faculty Student Team Research Program (FaST) to work collaboratively with the project research team at the Laboratory for up to 10 weeks during the summer of 2008. The exact appointment period in the time frame of June to August will be scheduled by mutual agreement between the host divisions at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the successful applicant. Faculty will be expected to identify students from their campuses to participate in the FaST program. The faculty member will provide some mentorship to students during the summer research activities. The faculty and students must participate as a group and serve their appointments concurrently. It is expected that the faculty member and the students become an integral part of the research team working on this project and that opportunities for continued collaboration may be identified.

Qualifications of Ideal Candidate

Faculty should have a proven research record in the thermal/fluid sciences. Students should have a background in the same and an interest in performing thermal analysis to develop experimental designs.

Support and Financial Commitments

The successful candidate will receive a stipend based on the academic salary, travel expenses to and from the Laboratory, and a housing allowance. Students recommended by the faculty member for participation in the program will receive a stipend of $400/week for each week at the Laboratory, plus a housing allowance, and reimbursement for transportation expenses to and from the ORNL. Funds are provided for this program from the US Department of Energy, Office of Science in partnership with the National Science Foundation, from ORNL, and from other sources.

See Financial Information.