BIO:
Nick is a fourth-year doctoral student in LANNS. He graduated from Penn State in 2018 with BS degrees in Physics and Nuclear Engineering and a minor in Mathematics.
RESEARCH:
Nick studies the theoretical thermal hydraulics and fuel-clad thermo-mechanics of advanced solid-fueled reactor designs cooled by exotic fluids. His approach to this work makes use of REX, an in-house code that identifies the thermo-mechanical and thermal-hydraulic operating envelopes of advanced reactors on the basis of fuel-clad thermo-mechanics – namely contact stresses. Nick applies REX towards his study of multi-metallic layered composite materials, a novel reactor core fuel cladding material design concept expected to improve advanced reactor core thermal-hydraulics and thermo-mechanics through corrosion resistance and mechanical stress tolerance.