Gas/Liquid Level and Location Determination

1. Heidi Elliott El Campo High School El Campo ISD POWER SET Sponsor Cable Kurwitz Department of Nuclear Engineering Nuclear Power Institute Texas A&M University Gas/Liquid Level and Location Determination

2. Dr. Cable Kurwitz • Department of Nuclear Engineering • Office: 3rd floor of Zachry (303N) • Interphase Transport Phenomena Laboratory – Zachry Basement • Graduate and Undergraduate students • Jake Peterson • Utilize multiple facilities and methods • Space Engineering Research Center (SERC) – University Services Building

3. SERC Mission • To raise the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of important Space Technologies by assisting Business, Government, and Education with Research and Development Projects

4. Og Gas/Fluid Inventory Determination

5. Og Gas/Fluid Inventory Determination • Accurate inventory determination is challenging due to a few factors: • Substance orientation • Substance properties • Measurement technique • Several RFPs have been granted to develop new technologies to provide better accuracy in 1g and 0g conditions

6. What’s The Goal? • Develop a non-intrusive, reliable, simple instrument to accurately determine the inventory level • Use ‘dumb’ sensors • Utilize simple physics • Take advantage of ‘random’ nature of fluid

7. Compressed Sensing • Process of acquiring and reconstructing a signal that is supposed to be sparse or compressible. • An undetermined system has more unknowns than equations and generally has an infinite number of solutions. • However, if there is a unique sparse solution to the underdetermined system, then the Compressed Sensing framework allows the recovery of that solution. • Not all underdetermined systems of linear equations have a sparse solution.

8. Procedure • Develop MCNP model to stochastically track particles/photons through system and record counts at detector locations • Develop a library of known fill levels and detector responses • Query library with new detector responses to determine fill level utilizing compressed sensing approaches

9. More Complex System • An interest in determining fill level and location of liquid in tank in zero gravity • Utilize similar approach to earth-g system but allow liquid to be located anywhere in the tank. • Solve for both fill and location

10. Inventory Location

11. Engineering Design Process Courtesy of Project Lead The Way

12. What’s My Role? • Research prototype design possibilities

13. What’s My Role? • Design experiment • Perform calculations involving materials

14. What’s My Role? • Designing experiment prototype • Generate prototype concepts • Perform design calculations • Assemble prototype • Time Permitting: • Test and Evaluate • Refine

15. Future Implications

16. Future Implications • Other systems involving fluids and the need for inventory sensing and location determination

17. Summary • A new approach to inventory fill determination has been demonstrated utilizing a unique, simple, non-intrusive detector arrangement • Approach may potentially be capable of accurately determining zero-g liquid inventory and liquid location

18. Classroom Application • Pre-AP Algebra II • Linear programming • Students will be expected to formulate systems of equations and inequalities from this particular situation, use a variety of methods to solve, and then analyze the solution in terms of the situation.

19. Acknowledgements • TAMU E3 Program • Nuclear Power Institute • National Science Foundation • Dr. Cable Kurwitz – PI • Jake Peterson – MS Student • Dr. Igor Carron – Collaborator from France

20. Thank you!