Jake Mcmurray Email & Phone Number

United States

Knoxville, Tennessee Area

Hephaestus Consulting's provides world leading expertise in computational thermodynamics which is critical for understanding the chemical behavior and properties of materials for process development, design, and simulations.

Oak Ridge, Tn

As a member of the Materials Processing and Joining group in the Materials Science and Technology Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, I use experimental and computational thermodynamics to support the development of uranium bearing kernels for Fully Ceramic Microencapsulated (FCM) and Advanced Gas Reactor (AGR) fuel concepts, chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process design, and understanding the chemistry of molten salts for Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) and nuclear reactors.

The Calphad (Calculation of phase diagrams) method and a thermogravimetric technique was used to investigate the thermochemistry and phase equilibria in the U-La-O, U-Gd-O, and U-Th-O ternary systems. Interpretation of experimental measurements from the literature, e.g. XRD, DSC, etc., was critical for a proper thermodynamic assessment of these systems with the aim of describing the equilibria, thermochemistry, and thermodynamic properties of each phase in each system from 298 K to melting. Compound energy formalism sublattice models were used to describe the Gibbs energies of the complex oxide solid phases while the partially ionic two sublattice liquid model was used to represent the liquid solutions. A thermodynamic database containing the models and their optimized parameters was developed using FactSage; however, files were generated in both DAT and TDB formats for compatibility with both FactSage and Thermocalc software. Other tasks included integrating instrumentation and a plumbing design to achieve maximal flexibility in process gas delivery to a Netzsch Jupiter 449 F1 scanning thermal analyzer as well as performing thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) to determine equilibrium oxygen pressures over fluorite urania-thoria and urania-ceria samples as a function of composition. The error for both the oxygen pressure and oxygen composition resulting from the TGA procedure was computed to estimate the uncertainty in the measurement results to avoid unnecessary experimental runs therefore minimizing laboratory time, avoiding waste of process gases, and providing perspective for publishing the data in peer reviewed scientific journals. Additionally, TGA coupled mass spectrometry measurements were performed to support fabrication efforts of uranium-nitrogen-carbon based fuel forms and/or precursors. The work has resulted in 4 peer reviewed publications along with a number of conference presentations.

Charlotte, North Carolina Area

Scott County, Va

Harrisonburg, Va

Charlotte, North Carolina Area

Oak Ridge, Tn

Doctor Of Philosophy (Phd), Energy Science And Engineering

Activities and Societies: TMS, MRSCombined experimental and computational thermodynamics • Experiment design • Thermogravimetric analysis.

Bachelor Of Science (Bs), Chemical Engineering

Activities and Societies: Ole Miss chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Pi Mu Epsilon National Honorary Mathematics.