Safety Related HVAC Systems in PWR Nuclear Power Plants

This paper is for the completion of MEMS 500 - Independent Study at Washington University in St. Louis. The materials and coursework are based off MEMS 5420 HVAC Analysis and Design I. This course covered readings and problems from chapters 1-8 of Heating, Ventilating, and Air-Conditioning Design and Analysis - sixth edition by McQuiston, Parker, and Spitler. Topics included moist air prop- erties, indoor environmental quality (comfort and health), heat transmission in building structures, space heating loads, and cooling loads. This paper focuses on a few of the safety related HVAC systems found in PWR or pressurized water reactor type nuclear power plants. HVAC systems provide personal comfort and safety through heating, cooling, and ventilation air at appropriate temperatures, humidities, and flow rates for normal machine operations. Due to the sheer number and complexity of these systems, my focus is on only a few considerations. This includes an overview of each building on a campus and their HVAC needs. Special topics include a breakdown of radioactive filtration systems, and ventilation for excess hydrogen in battery rooms

Matignicourt-Goncourt – Les Grands Chicherons, le Haut du Chemin de Matignicourt, les Vignottes (tranche 2, zone 2a)

Suite à la demande volontaire de réalisation de diagnostic pour le renouvellement et l’exploitation d’une carrière de granulats, déposée par le Société GSM Italcementi Group, des diagnostics scindés en plusieurs tranches d’intervention ont été effectués sur les territoires des communes de Matignicourt-Goncourt et d’Isle-sur-Marne. L’emprise concernée par l’opération concerne les lieux-dits situés sur la commune de Matignicourt-Goncourt, les Grands Chicherons, le Haut de Matignicourt, les Vign..

Matignicourt-Goncourt – Le Chemin d’Orconte (tranche 4, zone 9)

Suite à la demande volontaire de diagnostic pour le renouvellement et l’exploitation d’une carrière de granulats, déposé par la société GSM Italcementi, des diagnostics archéologiques, scindés en plusieurs tranches d’intervention ont été réalisés sur les territoires des communes de Matignicourt-Goncourt et Isle-sur-Marne. L’emprise concernée par la tranche 4, zone 9 se situe sur le territoire de Matignicourt-Goncourt, au lieu-dit le Chemin d’Orconte, sur une surface de 81 115 m2. 8 654 m2 ont..

Matignicourt-Goncourt – Haut Chemin de Matignicourt (phase 3)

Suite à la demande volontaire de diagnostic pour le renouvellement et l’exploitation d’une carrière de granulats, déposé par la société GSM Italcementi, des diagnostics archéologiques, scindés en plusieurs tranches d’intervention, se sont déroulés sur les territoires des communes de Matignicourt-Goncourt et Isle-sur-Marne. L’opération, tranche 3, zone 2b concerne les lieux-dits situés sur la commune de Matignicourt-Goncourt, le Haut du Chemin de Matignicourt et les Vignottes, l’ensemble repré..

MEMS 411: ASME Soccer Robot

This project was based off of a variation of the ASME Soccer Robot Competition, where 5 teams were tasked with creating a soccer robot to compete with. The main objective for each team was to create a remote-controlled robot with an integrated shooting mechanism that was capable of shooting a tennis ball, with accuracy, into a goal. A design process was used to create this robot from scratch, where multiple concepts were created and tested through mock-ups and prototypes to better understand the problem at hand. Throughout this process, three main prototype goals were prioritized: the ability to drive around the field in less than 17 seconds, make 5/10 shots from the mid-line, and capture a ball within 2 seconds 8/10 times. With these goals in mind, as well as multiple user needs listed on page 10, a final prototype was constructed and competed in the competition, winning 3rd place overall.Overall, our prototype achieved two out of the three goals. The shooting mechanism was very efficient with capturing and shooting the ball, but the final product lacked the speed to make it around the field in less than 17 seconds

Addressing Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Together: A Global Assessment of Agriculture and Forestry Projects

Adaptation and mitigation share the ultimate purpose of reducing climate change impacts. However, they tend to be considered separately in projects and policies because of their different objectives and scales. Agriculture and forestry are related to both adaptation and mitigation: they contribute to greenhouse gas emissions and removals, are vulnerable to climate variations, and form part of adaptive strategies for rural livelihoods. We assessed how climate change project design documents (PDDs) considered a joint contribution to adaptation and mitigation in forestry and agriculture in the tropics, by analyzing 201 PDDs from adaptation funds, mitigation instruments, and project standards [e.g., climate community and biodiversity (CCB)]. We analyzed whether PDDs established for one goal reported an explicit contribution to the other (i.e., whether mitigation PDDs contributed to adaptation and vice versa). We also examined whether the proposed activities or expected outcomes allowed for potential contributions to the two goals. Despite the separation between the two goals in international and national institutions, 37 % of the PDDs explicitly mentioned a contribution to the other objective, although only half of those substantiated it. In addition, most adaptation (90 %) and all mitigation PDDs could potentially report a contribution to at least partially to the other goal. Some adaptation project developers were interested in mitigation for the prospect of carbon funding, whereas mitigation project developers integrated adaptation to achieve greater long-term sustainability or to attain CCB certification. International and national institutions can provide incentives for projects to harness synergies and avoid trade-offs between adaptation and mitigation. (Résumé d'auteur

Applying a Reading Program Based on Cognitive Science in Rural Areas of Malawi: Preliminary Results

Reading fluency is a skill foundational to academic performance, and acquiring this skill in early grades is crucial. Throughout sub-Saharan Africa, reading levels of students are far below grade level, and Malawi is no exception. Research suggests that students, particularly in consistently spelled languages, acquire automaticity most easily by starting from individual letters, combining them in increasingly larger chunks, and getting plenty of practice in decoding them. Due to working memory capacity limits, students must attain a minimum reading speed in order to understand text. These concepts were tested in a rural district in Malawi. The study helps to explain the components of this science-based “learning package” needed for reading fluency. Volunteers held the classes in communities as an after school program for children from grades 1 to 5. The goal behind this innovative six-month program is students’ recognition of all letters used in Chichewa language and progress in text decoding. This study helps to explain the various components of the learning intervention and the results show that there has been improvement in knowledge of letter sounds. This study uses an already tried and tested cognitive neuroscience model, which was contextualized and implemented in the Malawi setting