CASL

On April 4th the CASL team at North Carolina State University had the pleasure of hosting university Chancellor Randolph Woodson for a tour of facilities and discussion of research being done on campus to support CASL. Accompanying Dr. Woodson were Dean of Engineering Louis Martin-Vega and Department of Nuclear Engineering Head Yousry Azmy. The CASL team at NC State is housed in 5,000 square feet in a new building on the university’s Centennial Campus. Approximately 35 students, Post Docs, staff and faculty are currently working on the project, with representation from the Departments of Computer Science, Materials Science and Engineering, Mathematics, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and Nuclear Engineering. Greeting Dr. Woodson and providing an overview of CASL research and education activities was Dr. John Gilligan, Director of the CASL Education Program. Following Dr. Gilligan’s presentation, poster presentations were made by Dr. Avinash Dongare on thermodynamic calculations to assess the possibility of compounds forming associated with CRUD and supporting experiments, Dr. Hong Luo on assessing accuracy of sub-channel and coarse mesh CFD thermal-hydraulic models judged against experimental data, Dr. Dmitriy Anistratov on methods to accelerate multiphysics and nonlinear problems encountered in radiation transport, and Dr. Hany Abdel-Kahlik on the development of capabilities to complete sensitivity analysis, uncertainty quantification, and data assimilation utilizing deterministic and hybrid deterministic-stochastic approaches. Dr. Igor Bolotonv, who holds a joint faculty appointment with CASL-ORNL, then showed a movie on bubble dynamics in a flowing fluid generated using Direct Numerical Simulation. The visit concluded with a demonstration of Huddle collaboration technology, with several NC State alumni now employed at ORNL “huddling” at the lab and Dr. Paul Turinsky, Chief Scientist of CASL and NC State faculty member, connecting using a notebook computer and wireless connection, from the Philadelphia Naval Yard, where he was attending the “All DOE Energy Innovation Hubs” meeting.