Space Shuttle

Previously, all ventures in to space were achieved with giant rockets which, after a certain amount of time , were directed back in to the earth’s atmosphere to be reduced to a cinder by the enormous heat of re entry –after the crew and their capsule had been ejected virtually all of that tremendously expensive equipment was destroyed after only one use.

Following are the main supporting systems of a space shuttle.

1. Propulsion system

2. External fuel tank

3. Space shuttle orbiter

ELECTRON BEAM DEPOSITION

Electron beam freeform fabrication (EBF) is an emerging cross-cutting technology for producing structural metal parts. The process can be used to build a complex, unitized part in a layer-additive fashion, although the more immediate payoff is for use as a manufacturing process for adding details to components fabricated from simplified castings and forgings or plate products. Figure 1 shows a schematic of the primary elements of an EBF system. EBF employs a high power electron beam in a vacuum environment (1 ´ 10-4 torr or lower).

Wire feedstock is used due to difficulties feeding powder in a vacuum since the carrier gas used to assist powder delivery will be ionized in the electron beam. Operation in a vacuum ensures a clean process environment and eliminates the need for a consumable shield gas as is typically used in laser deposition systems. The EBF process is nearly 100% efficient in feedstock consumption and approaches 95% efficiency in power usage. The electron beam couples well with any electrically conductive material, including highly reflective alloys, such as aluminium and copper. A variety of weldable alloys can be processed using EBF; further development is required to determine if non-weldable alloys cam also be deposited. Demonstrated deposition rates for EBF are 330 to 2500 cm/hr (20 to 150 in3/hr), with lower resolution in the ability to build fine details. Experiments are planned with the fine diameter wires to attempt to construct fine details and large diameter wires to increase deposition rate, process efficiency, and material compatibility for insertion into the production environment.

SOLAR HEAT ENERGY STORAGE IN PHASE CHANGE MATERIALS

Building an economical and competent resource for energy storage, plays a key role in energy conservation as it can cut down the time radically, for both energy supply and energy demand. This innovative concept as crucial as locating fresh sources of energy, can actually enhance the output of the whole energy system there by escalating its consistency.

In phase change materials (PCM?s) like the salt hydrates, paraffin?s, non-paraffin?s and eutectics of inorganic, the storage of solar heat energy, leads to compactness and delivering of heat energy at steady temperatures.

Solid freeform fabrication

The Role of Software in Nuclear Engineering

The Radiation Safety Information Computational Center (RSICC) is focused on collecting, organizing, and disseminating computational codes and nuclear data associated with radiation transport and safety. Established in 1963 as the Radiation Shielding Information Center, RSICC currently has a library of approximately 1700 code and data packages used for radiation source characterization, dosimetry, neutral- and charged-particle shielding, criticality safety, radiation dispersion modeling, and reactor physics. Although a large number of these software packages represent an archiving of historical information, approximately 2000 software packages are distributed each year because they represent current state-of-the-art software that is valuable for general- and special-purpose nuclear analyses. These software packages are widely distributed worldwide, especially to nuclear engineering students and professors.