Chattanooga Engineers Club Newsletter

http://www.chattanoogaengineersclub.org/

 

 

NEXT MEETING ____________________

Monday August 9 – Leon Tolbert Professor of Electrical Engineering, UT Knoxville

“Power Electronics for Hybrid Electric Vehicles”-

 

Dr. Leon Tolbert will describe research being conducted at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and UT Knoxville on power electronics for hybrid electric vehicles. He will also describe progress towards increased power and lower costs for electric and hybrid vehicles.

 

Dr. Tolbert has a B.S, M.S., and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Tech.  He has been working with power electronics at ORNL since 1991 and at UT since 1999.  

 

DUES INCREASE RECOMMENDED

 

The executive Committee met on July 13 and recommended that membership dues for Retired Members be increased from $30 to $40 per year. This action was taken to help compensate for Club expenditures that have exceeded income for the last two years.  Last year, we increased the 2010 dues of Full and Associate members from $50 to $60 per year. But additional funds are needed to overcome our deficit. This recommendation will be advertised for two weeks, and then voted on by members present at the regular meeting on August 16.

 

FUTURE MEETINGS ____________________

Monday August 16 – Dale Bradshaw Consultant to the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association

“Smart Grid Developments”

 

Monday August 23 – David Wade, Chief Operating Officer - Chattanooga Electric Power Board

“Chattanooga EPB’s Fiber Optic Network for Smart Grid Deployment

 

Monday August 30 – Matt McKee - Komatsu Plant Tour, assemble at noon at plant entrance.  Lunch arrangements on your own.

 

PREVIOUS MEETING____________________

Monday August 2 – Dan Ingersoll Oak Ridge National Lab

Small Modular Reactors and the Second Nuclear Era”.

As a new generation of large nuclear reactor plants are beginning to be ordered and are on the verge of construction in the U.S., a new breed of small modular reactors (SMR) are being designed.  These SMRs are deliberately small, i.e. they are constrained by design features to have relatively small power capacities, generally below 300 MWe. Some of these reactors can be fully fabricated in a factory and shipped to the plant site by truck or rail for installation on site.  Plants of large capacity can be achieved by installing several reactor modules; hence, economy-of-scale is replaced with economy-of-replication.  These deliberately small reactor designs offer customers with a wider range of capacity choices and provide enhanced siting and operational flexibilities. Dan reviewed the status of SMR designs, their promises, and their challenges. 

 

Dr. Daniel Ingersoll is a Senior Program Manager for the Nuclear Technology Programs Office at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.  Dr. Ingersoll received a BS degree in Physics from Miami University in 1973 and a PhD in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Illinois in 1977.


 

CHATTANOOGA ENGINEERS CLUB — CORPORATE SPONSORS_____________

We gratefully acknowledge the corporate sponsorships listed below. 

2010 — Robbins & Bohr, LLC

2009 — Coca—Cola 

2008 — Alstom

2008 — Chattanooga State

 

MEETING LOGISTICS_______________________

The Chattanooga Engineer's Club meets at the DOUBLETREE HOTEL,
407 Chestnut St., Chattanooga, TN 37402.  Free parking may be available in the gated parking lot on the south side of the Hotel.  Plan to arrive before 11:30 a.m., if you intend to park in the limited space available.  Late arrivals may need to pay for parking on the street or in a nearby public parking garage.

 

QUESTIONS and SUGGESTIONS______________

If you have any questions, items that would be of interest to the Chattanooga Engineers Club, or suggestions for future programs, please contact Ralph Boroughs by e-mail at rdboroughs@gmail.com or by phone at 423-227-0412. You can find membership application forms, references to future programs, historical data, and other info at http://www.ChattanoogaEngineersClub.org. To receive future meeting announcements by email, join the Chattanooga Technology Organization mailing list at http://www.ChattanoogaEngineersClub.org/email.

Links to local engineering societies are available to you at: http://www.chattanoogaengineersclub.org/engineer/

For a calendar of local technology related events see: http://chatc.org/