Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) provides UMD students of all backgrounds, disciplines, and levels of experience with the opportunity to engage in scaffolded, multidisciplinary team-based projects.
VIP Team Information
VIP Team
Sodium Fire Safety in Nuclear Power Plants
VIP Faculty Mentors:
Dr. Peter Sunderland
Dr. Fernando Raffan-Montoya
Fire Protection Engineering
Fire Protection Engineering, A. James Clark School of Engineering
Meeting Location, Day & Time:
Meeting Time: Monday 10:00am - 12:00pm
Meeting Location: TBA
Description:
Liquid sodium is the primary heat transfer fluid in several types of nuclear reactors, including some small modular reactors that are built in factories and transported on trucks. Sodium-cooled reactors (SCRs) have improved efficiency and reduced pressures. The main impediment to SCRs is that liquid sodium is pyrophoric in air or water, i.e., it ignites spontaneously. Because of this pyrophoric behavior, liquid sodium is a significant fire hazard and requires the use of non-standard fire detection and suppression approaches in case of a mechanical failure that can lead to a liquid sodium leak.
Methods:
The general project objectives are outlined below, although they are subject to change based on research findings as the project progresses:
Performing a literature review identifying the hazards of liquid sodium across multiple applications.
Characterizing specific fire hazards associated with liquid sodium in the built environment.
Identifying current knowledge, or regulatory, gaps in preventative or mitigative fire protection methods.
Identifying future research needs to improve the industry’s understanding of liquid sodium fires and relevant fire protection methods.
Designing small scale experiments that reproduce the expected hazard at a reduced scale.
Analyzing experimental data to design adequate suppression strategies and protocols.
Modeling experiments to gain additional understanding and validation of modeling approaches.
Scaling-up modeling approach to full-scale for predicting real-word scenario behavior of the hazard and candidate mitigation strategies.
Majors:
The team should be composed of a variety of engineering disciplines, led by Fire Protection Engineering students, with support from Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Nuclear Engineering. All other engineering disciplines are welcome, particularly if students have a strong interest in Fire Protection Engineering and/or the Nuclear Engineering minor.
Preferred Interests:
The following skills are highly desirable for this project:
Research experience and scientific writing (project reports, conference or journal articles).
Fire hazard analysis (prescriptive codes such as NFPA and performance-based).
Fire testing and standards.
Fluid mechanics, heat transfer, combustion (theoretical, experimental, modeling).
Nuclear reactor design fundamentals.