Thermal Valve

Senior Capstone Project

Sponsored by Dr. Rich Christensen, PhD
Professor of Nuclear Engineering at University of Idaho

Fall 2020

118 Hours

Objective

  • Develop a proof of concept showing that the flow rate of a liquid can be thermally controlled by a coolant without any mechanical parts
  • Be able to both completely and partially restrict liquid flow

Technical Details

  • A U-shaped copper tube full of flowing water was lowered into a container of liquid nitrogen
  • Various tube diameters, initial water flow rates, and length of tube submerged in coolant were tested to develop a model around these parameters
The testing set up.
A graph showing the data collected.
A graph comparing the collected data to the developed model.

Results and Outcomes

Heat equation leading to the model.
0
dx
3
2
1
dy
ecc
ep
frame
mass
particle
raw_mass
signal
size
v
x
y
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
4.151
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1.014
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
-0.240
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0