Fermilab Summer Interns 2012
2007 - 2008 - 2009 - 2010 - 2011 - 2012
Bianca Brandveen
Year: 2012
Program: GEM
College: University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland
Home: Bristow, Virginia
Who I am: I am a second year Master's student at UMD where I am a Mechanical Engineering major. My concentration is in mechanics of materials and my research focuses on composite materials. I am also a Christian. In my spare time, I enjoy singing, working out, swimming, running, playing guitar and songwriting. I hope to complete my first sprint triathlon this October.
Program: GEM
College: University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland
Home: Bristow, Virginia
Who I am: I am a second year Master's student at UMD where I am a Mechanical Engineering major. My concentration is in mechanics of materials and my research focuses on composite materials. I am also a Christian. In my spare time, I enjoy singing, working out, swimming, running, playing guitar and songwriting. I hope to complete my first sprint triathlon this October.
Research: The Scintillator Detector Development (SDD) group at Fermilab is extruding bars made of polystyrene in triangular and rectangular shapes with holes running down the length of the extrusion. These parts will be assembled to create a large detector for the Mu2e experiment. There are two issues with these extruded parts. First, the holes in the material are not round. Secondly, the material is not being cooled evenly throughout the extrusion process and the shape begins to warp once it leaves the extruder. A Mathematica program was created to understand the cooling process throughout the extrusion. This analysis seeks to examine which critical variables affect cooling efficiency while operating the extruder. Results from this project will benefit both SDD and Fermilab. Once the parameters that govern thermal cooling are known, the extrusion speed can be increased; therefore reducing the cost of labor and materials by up to 20 percent.