NURETH-20 Young Professional Awards (August 24, 2023)
Particle Image Velocimetry Measurements for Transition Flow Regime Through a Porous Blocked Subchannel in a 61-Pin Wire-Wrapped Bundle
Trevor Melsheimer (TAMU), Craig Menezes (TAMU), Matthew Kinsky (TAMU), Dalton Pyle (TAMU), Yassin A. Hassan (TAMU)
NURETH-19 Young Professional Awards (March 5, 2022)
Experimental Investigation of the Annular Flow Caused by Convective Boiling in Central Heating Concentric and Eccentric Annuli
Joseph Seo (TAMU), Yassin A. Hassan (TAMU)
2019 ANS Student Conference Awards
The 2019 ANS Student Conference was held at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA. Students from the Thermal Hydraulic Research Laboratory (THRL) presented research in the Thermal Hydraulics and Fluids Division. Among the seven universities present, our laboratory secured top awards within the division.
Best in Thermal Hydraulics and Fluids
First-year graduate student Garland Alec Porter won for his paper/presentation titled “Comparing Lateral Pressure Distributions on the Surface of Tubes within a Helical Coil Steam Generator.” Alec has been part of the THR Lab since his junior year as an undergraduate, presenting twice before at student conferences.
Top Paper Award
Third-year graduate student Marilyn Delgado won for her paper titled “Shell-side Flow Characteristics Within a Specific Helical Coil Steam Generator.” Among all submitted papers, five were selected for this award.
ICONE26 Best Student Poster Award (2018)
PhD candidate Gerrit Botha of the Thermal-Hydraulic Research Laboratory won the Best Student Poster for the U.S. award at the International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE26) in London. His research, “The Influence of Pebble Placement on the Wake of Tandem Pebbles in a Free Stream,” involves Direct Numerical Simulation studies on unstructured randomly packed pebble beds for Very High Temperature Reactors. This study is a precursor to his final investigation on the turbulence statistics of an unstructured pebble bed.
U.S. Department of Energy Innovations in Nuclear Technology R&D Award (2018)
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy recognized outstanding student research in nuclear technology through the 2018 Innovations in Nuclear Technology R&D Award.
Two students from the Thermal-Hydraulic Research Laboratory were selected for their contributions to experimental nuclear thermal hydraulics.
Undergraduate Student Award: Stephen King, a student from the Nuclear Engineering Department at Texas A&M University, won in the undergraduate competition for his work in thermal-hydraulic experiments.
His research, “Pressure Drop Measurements in a Versatile Experimental Facility of Packed Spheres,” focused on pressure drop behavior in packed pebble beds.
Open Competition Award: Nolan Goth, a PhD candidate from the Nuclear Engineering Department, was recognized in the open competition for his pioneering work on wire-wrapped fuel bundles.
His research, “Time-Resolved PIV/PTV Measurements on Interior Subchannels of a Wire-Wrapped 61-Pin Hexagonal Fuel Bundle,” provided valuable insights into flow behavior in complex fuel assemblies.
2018 ANS Student Conference Awards
Congratulations to the students of the Thermal-Hydraulic Research Laboratory for winning the “Best Undergraduate Paper & Presentation in the Thermal Hydraulics Division” at the 2018 American Nuclear Society (ANS) Student Conference.
Best Undergraduate Paper & Presentation
“Analysis of Radial Velocity Distributions Across a Model Helical Coil Steam Generator”
Michael S. Gorman, Marilyn Delgado, Saya Lee, and Yassin A. Hassan.
Students from the laboratory also participated in the 2018 ANS Student Conference, hosted by the University of Florida (April 5-7, 2018).