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Student News
Solving Energy Challenges One Grain Boundary at a Time
By Alyssa Patrick, CEA Communications Intern
Stephanie Pitts, a mechanical engineering
doctoral candidate and fellow with the Nuclear
Energy University Programs (NEUP), is working to
better understand and develop new materials for
use in nuclear power plants.
Pressure and irradiation levels can cause voids
and cracks in the structural metals inside nuclear
power plants. Pitts is working with her advisor,
Dr. Hussein Zbib, to create a computational model
of how steel reacts to irradiation. As part of the
Department of Energy, NEUP promotes research
on nuclear energy security.
“I’m really interested in metal grain boundaries.
Metals have different grains that are similar to rock
candy crystals. The crystals in rock candy jut out at
different angles, meaning they don’t line up perfectly
with each other. The same thing happens in
metals,” Pitts said. Those boundaries are one of the
dominating features that can cause metal failure
under irradiation and stress, she says.
Stephanie Pitts
She hopes that her model will help to prevent
machine damage before it happens. Knowing the pressure at which
a metal will crack will allow power plants to avoid those occurrences
by running machines at lower pressures.
She also hopes to discover materials that could be used for the latest
nuclear reactor concept scientists are developing. These reactors,
called GenIV, would operate on a closed fuel cycle and use recycled
nuclear fuel. They would be super efficient, potentially producing
ten times the energy with the same amount of uranium.
“Currently there are only design concepts for these reactors
because it is important to know what kind of material will be able
to hold up for 15 to 30 or more years in those nuclear conditions,”
Pitts said.
Pitts sees nuclear energy as an important, sustainable, and renewable
energy.
“While the renewable energies most talked about now like wind
and sun power are exciting, they are not very reliable. The wind
doesn’t always blow and the sun doesn’t always shine. Nuclear
energy is clean, has a low carbon imprint, and is a stable source of
baseload power,” Pitts said.
Pitts received a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from
WSU in 2009 and is a graduate of the Honors College. ❚
Briefs
Tracy (Jianying) Ji, a doctoral student in
the School of Mechanical and Materials
Engineering, has been recognized as the
Boeing and Flightglobal Engineering
Student of the Year (ESOYA). It is the first
time that a WSU student has received the
prestigious award.
Boeing and Flightglobal
have held the ESOYA competition
since 2005 as a way
of encouraging students in
aerospace engineering. Open
to any engineering student Tracy (Jianying) Ji
around the world, competitors are judged on
the potential impact of their research on the
aerospace industry. Ji was one of two students
and the graduate level winner of the award.
Ji came to WSU in 2009 to pursue her
doctorate. Since then, she has published eight
papers and has filed for a patent.
Working with Professor
Katie Zhong, Ji is developing a
new type of battery that would
be lighter, safer, and more
environmentally friendly than
current lithium ion batteries.
Ji and members of her team were invited
to Boeing in Seattle this fall for an awards
presentation.
TriboTeX, a company started by a WSU
materials science graduate student, was one
of about 150 semi-finalists around the United
States in a national and prestigious clean
technology business competition. Clean Tech
Open, the nonprofit organization that runs
the competition, works to enable innovation
in the clean tech industry, according
to their website. Their annual business plan
8 School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering | Spring 2013