Expert Details

Nuclear Reactor Thermal Hydraulics, Fire Safety Engineering

ID: 721832 Maryland, USA

He is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Affiliate Professor of Fire Protection Engineering. He has more than a decade record of research with the Center for Fire Research (now BFRL) at the NIST. His work is in evaporative cooling and aqueous fire protection agents. In particular, he is an expert in evaporative cooling due to droplet sprays dispersed in the flow or impinging on solid surfaces. Recently, he developed models and experimental database for the prediction of sprinkler activation time for use in fire dynamics codes. He has analyzed and quantified the performance of fire protection gels and foams.

In his long-term association with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, he has accumulated an extensive expertise in modeling and performance assessment of complex thermal hydraulic systems. This background is relevant to the modeling of the complex multi-phase interactions during nuclear power plant accidental transients. For almost a decade he has directed the research at a thermal hydraulic test facility simulating a pressurized water nuclear reactor system.

In addition to these two main areas, he has experience designing air systems including small-scale impulse turbines as well as ejector nozzles for vacuum systems.

He designed an small driven turbine for electric power generation He designed an ejector nozzle that was succesfully implemented in a shop-vacHe evaluated the two-phase flow conditions in a complex piping arrangement related to fire safety

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Education

Year	Degree	Subject	Institution
Year: 1982	Degree: PhD	Subject: Mechanical Engineering	Institution: Catholic University, Washington, DC
Year: 1976	Degree: Dr. Ing.	Subject: Chemical Engineering	Institution: University of Naples, Italy

Work History

Years	Employer	Title	Department
Years: 1981 to Present	Employer: Undisclosed	Title: Professor and Associate Chair	Department: Mechanical Engineering
Responsibilities: He conducts research in fire safety engineering and teaches thermodynamics, heat transfer and two-phase flow
Years	Employer	Title	Department
Years: 1994 to Present	Employer: Undisclosed	Title: Consultant	Department: Office of Research
Responsibilities: He evaluates integral test facility data to be used for the assessment of computational codes predicting plant behavior during accidental transients

Government Experience

Years	Agency	Role	Description
Years: 1994 to Present	Agency: US Nuclear Regulatory Commission	Role: Consultant	Description: He evaluates integral test facility data to be used for the assessment of computational codes predicting plant behavior during accidental transients
Years: 1985 to 1998	Agency: National Institute of Standard and Technology	Role: Visiting Scientist	Description: He conducted research on fire protection agents and on dropwise evaporative cooling

Career Accomplishments

Associations / Societies
Fellow American Society of Mechanical Engineeris, member American Institute of Chemical Engineeers, member International Association for Fire Safety Science, honorary member Unione Itliana di Termofluidodinamica

Licenses / Certifications
P.E. in Italy 1976

Professional Appointments
Chair of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Heat Transfer and Energy Conversion Division

Publications and Patents Summary
He has 69 referred publications, one patent pending, and one book in preparation on dropwise evaporative cooling

Additional Experience

Expert Witness Experience
On seven occasions he presented technical information to the Advisory Committee on Reactors Safeguards (ACRS) of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Training / Seminars
He has taught more than 2000 graduate and undergradute students at the Employer. He has conducted seminars and short courses in Italy, Taiwan and the United States

Language Skills

Language	Proficiency
Italian	He is native of Italy and completed his graduate studies there
French	He a reasonable comand of the language to conduct a non-technical conversation

Fields of Expertise

nuclear technology, spray cooling, water spray, fire protection, fire protection engineering, nuclear industry, nuclear system, fluid management, pressure drop, fluid behavior, nuclear engineering, alternative energy, hydrostatic pressure, fossil-fueled steam generation, fossil fuel power plant water system, thermal test, thermal modeling, terminal velocity, laminar flow, thermal process, thermal diffusion, stratified flow, fossil fuel electric energy generation, thin liquid film-gas flow interaction, open-channel flow, nuclear power, thermal expansion, mixed flow, renewable energy system, thermal energy storage, geothermal turbine, water flow, thermal diffusivity, thermal conductivity, thermal analysis, pipe flow, nuclear reactor technology, Newtonian flow, Navier-Stokes equation, liquid flow through a nozzle, liquid flow, internal flow, heat convection, heat conduction, geothermal power system, geothermal energy, energy engineering, air flow