NucEng Concepts

Nuclear Engineering Concepts

The purpose of this page is to make it easy and convenient for students and others to find out about the essential concepts that every nuclear engineer should know. Obviously this is an enormous task that will never be complete, but you can help by sending your contribution. If you have a suggestion or contribution, know of a good web link, etc, please contact me. Please help me make this page grow.

General

Thinking
- Critical thinking
Communication (oral and written)
Organization and time management
Laboratory Safety
The Greek Alphabet
Latin phrases - and other useful Latin information (such as date and number conversion)

Fundamental Physical Processes

The Evolution of the Concept of a Field, text (pdf 414kb), class notes (pdf 228kb), reference text - complete book (pdf 10.6Mb) ( as per chapter 2 of McMaster course Eng 2C3 taught 2001.
Diffusion
Transport
Reaction rates
Force balances
Statics
Dynamics

Mathematics

Philosophy
- The Utility of Mathematics (www.catb.org) - by Eric S. Raymond (archive pdf 37kb), this essay discusses the best current understanding of the relationship between mathematical and empirical knowledge. It focuses on two questions:
  1. Does mathematics have some sort of deep metaphysical connection with reality, and
  2. if not, why is it that mathematical abstractions seem so often to be so powerfully predictive in the real world?
Mathematics and Modelling Refresher - includes some class recordings, covers
- Notions of Modelling and Numerical Solutions
- Vectors (Div, Curl, Grad and all that)
- Linear Algebra
- Calculus
- Ordinary Differential Equations
- Boundary-Value and Eigenvalue Problems
- Partial Differential Equations
- Data Analysis (Statistics and Least Squares Regression)
- Laplace Transforms
- Control Theory
General
- Commonly used math notation (pdf 61kb) from www.columbia.edu/~is375
- American Mathematical Society
- Math on the Web - lots of great links.
- Athabasca University Math Resource Page
- Math review manual - brought to you by the Mathematics & Statistics department at McMaster University, for first year students.
- Refresh Your Maths - brought to you by Nuclear Technology Education Consortium (NTEC) in the UK. Very good refresher for engineers getting back in the groove after being away from math for a few years.
- The University of Sydney Math Learning Centre / Resources - Lots of nicely done basic math tutorials and links to other resources here.
- KhanAcademy - Terrific use of video as a learning tool. Covers many math topics. See the TED talk on this initiative.
- Draft Material for Fundamentals of Plasma Physics book by J.D. Callen contains several useful math appendices.
Calculus
- www.calculus.org/ - Links to calculus resources.
- Integral Tables - from Dr Dan Thomas, the Dept of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Guelph.
- The Integrator and The Derivative Calculators- from Wolfram Research, the makers of Mathematica.
- Material derivative (wikipedia) (saved as a pdf 123kb).
ODE
- Notes on Diffy Qs: Differential Equations for Engineers, By: Jiří Lebl, UW-Madison. A one semester first course on differential equations, aimed at engineering students. Prerequisite for the course is the basic calculus sequence. This free online book (e-book in webspeak) should be usable as a stand-alone textbook or as a companion to Edwards and Penney, Differential Equations and Boundary Value Problems. Mostly OPEs but a little on PDEs. Excellent.
PDE
- See Notes on Diffy Qs: Differential Equations for Engineers, By: Jiří Lebl above.
Numerical methods
- Numerical methods links - very comprehensive site by Douglas N. Arnold at Penn State.
- Numerical Methods for Engineers - a full fourth year course on-line by Dr. Rukmini Sriranganathan, formerly of Virginia Tech. Nicely done.
- Process Modelling (pdf 266kb) and Numerical Methods (pdf 451kb) - excerpts from Engineering Physics 4D3/6D3 - Nuclear Reactor Analysis
Statistics and probability
- Probability Tools and Techniques (pdf 386kb) - Chapter 2 of Engineering Physics 714 - Nuclear Reactor Safety Design
- Chapter 3 Statistics for Small Systems (pdf 158kb) and Chapter 4 Statistics for Systems of Many Elements (pdf 316kb) from from EP2H4 Thermodynamics
- Bayes theorem
  - An Intuitive Explanation of Bayesian Reasoning - Bayes' Theorem for the curious and bewildered; an excruciatingly gentle introduction by Eliezer Yudkowsky
  - Probability Theory and Bayesian Belief Bayesian Networks
  - Bayes Theorem
  - Bayes Theorem explained (self playing class recording, exe 5Mb) by Bill Garland
  - Bayes Theorem in Odds form (pdf 778kb)- Proof. The 'odds' form is easier for calculations.
- Central Limit Theorem - proof via Fourier Transform by Dr. Ashwin Joy. See week 3. Free online video lecture from NPTEL (India).
Laplace and other transforms
- Fourier Transforms - Engineering Physics 3W04 Term II (1999/2000) course notes and links to other FT sites.

Measurement (general)

Experimental design

Thermodynamics

classical
statistical
- Statistical Mechanics - by Dr. Ashwin Joy. Free online video course from NPTEL (India).

Fundamental Nuclear Processes

Diffusion
Transport
Interaction rates and cross sections
Elastic and inelastic Scattering
Radioactive decay
Nuclear reactions
Shielding and attenuation

Radiation Detection

A short note on counting statistics by Dr. Esam Hussein, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of New Brunswick.
Detectors
Radiation types and characteristics
- The ABC's of Nuclear Science - A brief introduction sponsored by Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory.

Reactor Physics (covered in EP4D3/6D3 for the most part)

Fission reactions
Point kinetics
Neutron diffusion
Multigroup theory
Xenon poisioning
Reactor control
Prompt jump
Reactivity feedback mechanisms
Fuel depletion and management
Reactor design
Numerical methods

Fluid Mechanics

mass conservation
momentum conservation
energy conservation
pressure drop and friction factors
flow regimes and velocity profiles
potential flow and boundary layer approximations
viscous flow
turbulent flow
compressible flow
flow diagnostics
boundary conditions
correlations
modelling
numerical methods

Heat Transfer

basic equations (power / energy balance)
conductive heat transfer
convective heat transfer (forced and natural)
radiative heat transfer
boiling phenomena
condensation phenomena
heat exchangers
correlations
devices and examples
numerical methods

Thermalhydraulics (covered in EP716 and EP715)

General conservation equations
homogeneous equilibrium model (HEM) model
two-phase flow models
flow regime maps
flow boiling and CHF
heat transport loops and design
reactor safety analysis
two-phase flow diagnostics
numerical methods

Reactor Safety Analysis (covered in EP714)

Philosophy
Deterministic Analysis
Probabilistic Analysis

Fusion Reactor Systems

fusion reactions
coulomb scattering
electromagnetic hydrodynamics
ion trajectories
energy viability
magnetic confinement
inertial confinement
fusion catalysis
fusion-fission hybrids
fusion reactor kinetics
blanket systems
fuel cycles
plasma diagnostics
plasma chemistry

Electricity and Magnetism

Electronics and Electrical Circuits

Materials

Periodic Table Of Elements: 2022 Refresher
How to Learn the Periodic Table: Best Tips & Techniques - includes links to associated apps.