Thermocouple Location Research Articles

Experimental and numerical investigations of a diffusion bonded flat-type loop heat pipe for passive thermal management

Previous diffusion bonded loop heat pipes have been researched due to the benefits of this manufacturing technique, which includes direct sealing and maintaining material properties. The previous single-material diffusion bonded loop heat pipes were made of copper, leading to a high heat leak due to high thermal conductivity, causing a reduction in efficiency. This research used a new approach that separated the evaporator from the loop heat pipe while using diffusion bonding to manufacture a loop heat pipe using two materials, copper and stainless steel. This separation allowed for lower thermal conductivity materials to be used to help reduce the heat leak. Two evaporators with different wicks were tested, one made of copper and the other made of polytetrafluoroethylene. Both designs were tested in multiple orientations and operated for a range of 15 W to 45 W with an evaporator to condenser thermal resistance ranging from 2.18 °C/W to 0.004 °C/W. Additionally, a numerical model was developed to predict the performance of both evaporators, with an average temperature difference ranging from 5.5 °C to 6.6 °C for all thermocouple locations. The heat leak ratio was analyzed using the model, and a heat leak ratio of 7.6% to 8.0% and 13.6% to 16.0% for the copper wick and polytetrafluoroethylene wick loop heat pipe was calculated, respectively. This research demonstrates that diffusion bonding copper with a lower thermal conductivity material and using low thermal conductivity sealing material can help reduce the heat leak within diffusion bonded loop heat pipes.

Comparative analysis of CFD models to simulate temperature non-uniformity during hydrogen tank refuelling

This study compares four computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models, i.e. k-ε, RSM, SAS, and LES, to simulate temperature non-uniformity during hydrogen tank refuelling. Three grids with a total number of control volumes of 64k, 363k, and 2.9 M were used. The maximum dimensionless wall distances, y+, were 80, 5 and 2.5, respectively. The predictive capability of the models was assessed by recommended statistical indicators using ten thermocouple locations during 620 s of the experiment. The comparative analysis demonstrated a better predictive capability of temperature non-uniformity and stratification by the LES model and a shorter simulation time. It is concluded that meshes with y+ larger than 80 would overpredict the average hydrogen temperature while meshes with y+<5 provide a good simulation accuracy. The results underline the importance of the turbulence model choice and the numerical grid resolution for proper prediction of temperature non-uniformity during hydrogen tank refuelling.

Process Parameter Optimization of Aerospace-Grade Dissimilar Aluminium Alloy 7075 and 2014 by Friction Stir Welding

In friction stir welding process, the selection of optimum process parameter is an important step. To make a welding with high quality in all aspects such as defect free and reduced HAZ region, it becomes necessary to choose the parameter in such a way the temperature developed due to heat generation is in optimum level. A study on the effect of process parameters on temperature distribution and HAZ region is performed for dissimilar combination of AA7075 and AA2014. A statistical model based on Box-Behnken RSM is built to study the interaction effect of parameters on temperature distribution and optimization of process parameter is obtained as is Tool Rotational Speed (TRS) – 1400 rpm, Tool Traverse Speed (TTS) – 1.21mm/s and Tool Size Ratio (TSR) – 4. An experiment of FSW is made with K-type thermocouples for optimized parameter of AA7075+AA2014 and temperature reading is then compared with simulation for validation of model. The prediction accuracy is in the range of maximum 98.69% and minimum 92.45%. It was observed that optimum depth location of thermocouples is beyond the half of thickness because of less error attained as 1.31%.

Monitoring radiofrequency ablation in ex vivo human liver using 3D echo decorrelation imaging augmented by deep learning

Monitoring of radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is desirable to improve safety and efficacy of liver tumor treatment. Three-dimensional ultrasound echo decorrelation imaging can successfully predict local ablation effects but has had limited success in mapping ablation zone margins and local tissue temperature. Here, a supervised deep learning approach is investigated to improve prediction of ablation zones and tissue temperature from 3D echo decorrelation images. RFA was performed on ex vivo human liver tissue, including normal, fibrotic, and cirrhotic liver (N &amp;gt; 30). During ablation, pairs of echo volumes were acquired with a 4.5 MHz transesophageal matrix array, 3D echo decorrelation images were computed for each volume pair, and temperatures measured by fourthermocouples integrated into the RFA probe were recorded. Tissue was then frozen, sectioned, scanned, and ablation zones were manually segmented. For prediction of ablation zones, B-mode and echo decorrelation images were input to a U-net convolutional neural network to segment ablation margins, with histology serving as ground truth for training and cross-validation. For prediction of temperature, echo decorrelation values at the thermocouple locations were used as input to train a dense network, minimizing mean-squared-error versus measured temperatures. The results indicate promise for improved mapping of tissue ablation and temperature.

Analysis of Mars 2020 Entry Vehicle Aerothermal Flight Data

The Mars 2020 entry vehicle’s thermal protection system included measurements of in-depth temperature on the heatshield and backshell, and surface heating on the backshell. This paper describes the flight data and resulting analysis: subsurface temperatures at 11 heatshield and 6 backshell locations, measured total heat flux at two backshell locations, and a radiometer on the backshell to measure shock layer radiation. All temperatures were within allowable material limits. Total surface heat flux was derived from the in-depth temperature measurements at the thermocouple locations. Turbulent boundary-layer conditions occurred at nine heatshield locations and the radiometer provided evidence that heating from shock layer radiation significantly exceeded convective heating on the backshell. Computational results on the reconstructed entry trajectory are compared to the flight data. After boundary-layer transition, total heat flux from algebraic turbulence model calculations qualitatively matches the reconstructed heating, but with lower peak magnitudes. On the backshell, laminar heat flux predictions generally exceed the as-flown values by less than , with shock layer radiation predicted to contribute the majority of heating. At the radiometer location, the maximum predicted radiative heat flux exceeds the measurement, with the measured value likely suppressed by ablation products on the sapphire window.

An innovative method to conduct temperature rise test on medium voltage switchgear assembly based on IEC standards in a power grid

Modern civilization is characterised by a high need for electrical energy. The importance of electricity in daily life has grown to the point that it is desirable to safeguard the power system from damage during fault situations and to ensure maximum supply continuity, which necessitates the use of switchgear. Testing of any electrical equipment indicates the extent to which the equipment is able to comply with a customer's requirements. In this paper temperature rise test on a medium voltage switchgear assembly is considered. In this research, sub-clause 6.5.2 of IEC standard 62271-1 is followed to conduct temperature rise test on a medium voltage switchgear assembly. The test is conducted on two modes, first following the existing method of testing and second by an innovative method of testing. The temperature rise test is conducted on a 12 kV, 50 kA, 3150 A single busbar switchgear assembly and the readings are measured, analysed and compared between the two methods. It is concluded that the temperature rise recorded following the innovative method is more accurate compared to the existing method, as an increase in the recorded temperature rise is seen in all the thermocouple locations as the heat dissipation to the ambient is reduced.

Impact of tip design and thermocouple location on the efficacy and safety of radiofrequency application.

The FlexAbility™ SE catheter has a laser-cut 8Fr 4-mm flexible tip irrigated through laser-cut kerfs with a thermocouple 0.3mm from the distal end. The TactiCath™ SE catheter has an 8Fr 3.5-mm tip and 6-irrigation port with a thermocouple 2.67mm proximal to the tip. We investigated the impact of these differences on the efficacy and safety of radiofrequency (RF) applications. RF applications at a range of powers (20W, 30W, and 40W), contact forces (5g, 15g, and 25g), and durations (10-60s) using perpendicular/parallel catheter orientation were performed in excised porcine hearts. Lesion characteristics and incidence of steam pops were compared. A total of 540 lesions were examined. The FlexAbility™ SE catheter produced smaller lesion depths (4.0mm vs. 4.4mm, p = 0.014 at 20W; 4.6mm vs. 5.6mm, p = 0.015 at 30W), surface areas (22.7mm2 vs. 29.2mm2 at 20W, p = 0.005; 23.2mm2 vs. 28.7mm2, p = 0.009 at 30W), and volumes (126.1mm3 vs. 175.1mm3, p = 0.018 at 20W; 183.2mm3 vs. 304.3mm3, p = 0.002 at 30W) with perpendicular catheter placement. However, no differences were observed with parallel catheter placement. Steam-pops were significantly less frequently observed with the FlexAbility™ SE catheter (4% vs. 22%, p < 0.001) irrespective of catheter direction to the tissue. Multivariate analysis showed that use of the TactiCath™ SE catheter, power ≥ 40W, contact force ≥ 25g, RF duration > 30s, parallel angle, and impedance drop ≥ 20Ω were significantly associated with occurrence of steam-pops. The FlexAbility™ SE catheter reduced the risk of steam-pops but produced smaller lesions with perpendicular catheter placement compared to the TactiCath™ SE catheter.

Experimental Determination of Heat Transfer Coefficient on Impingement Cooled Gear Flanks: Validation of the Evaluation Method

AbstractUnderstanding the heat transfer characteristics of impingement cooling of high-speed high-power gears is essential to design a reliable gearbox for a new generation of jet engines. However, experimental data on the impingement cooling of gears is limited in the literature. The experimental setup at the Institute of Thermal Turbomachinery aims at closing this gap. It includes a rotating gear instrumented with thermocouples. The measured temperatures are used to determine a spatially resolved heat transfer coefficient distribution on the gear tooth. The iterative evaluation approach applied in the postprocessing of the experimental data is validated with two reference cases. First, it is shown that the interpolation of temperature data between thermocouple locations leads to inaccurate results and would not be valid for the evaluation of the experiments, even if the number of thermocouples were increased. The iterative evaluation approach can reproduce the reference heat transfer coefficient distributions very accurately even with a low spatial resolution of temperature data. A new iterative method based on the Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm is implemented within this study. The new method generally converges faster than the existing method. The difference in required computational time is negligible in the easy to evaluate high heat transfer case, whereas a speed-up of up to three times is observed in the relatively cumbersome evaluation of the low heat transfer case.

Experimental, analytical and numerical, investigation of peak temperature and cooling rate in butt joint weld of mild steel

PurposeThis paper aims to measure peak temperatures and cooling rates for distinct locations of thermocouples in the butt weld joint of mild steel plates. For experimental measurement of peak temperatures, K-type thermocouples coupled with a data acquisition system were used at predetermined locations. Thereafter, Rosenthal’s analytical models for thin two-dimensional (2D) and thick three-dimensional (3D) plates were adopted to predict peak temperatures for different thermocouple positions. A finite element model (FEM) based on an advanced prescribed temperature approach was adopted to predict time-temperature history for predetermined locations of thermocouples.Design/methodology/approachComparing experimental and Rosenthal analytical models (2D and 3D) findings show that predicted and measured peak temperatures are in close agreement, while cooling rates predicted by analytical models (2D, 3D) show significant variation from measured values. On the other hand, 3D FEM simulation predicted peak temperatures and cooling rates for different thermocouple positions are close to experimental findings.FindingsThe inclusion of filler metal during simulation of welding rightly replicates the real welding situation and improves outcomes of the analysis.Originality/valueThe present study is an original contribution to the field of welding technology.

Inverse estimation of hot-wall heat flux using nonlinear artificial neural networks

Compared with cold-wall heat flux measurement, hot-wall heat flux indicates more information from dynamic heat transfer between the aerothermodynamic boundary layer and the true model’s surface; thus, hot-wall heat flux measurement has become predominant in the aerothermodynamic measurement field. In harsh aerothermodynamic in-flight or ground tests, the hot-wall heat flux must be determined from time history temperature measurements at one or more interior locations. Therefore, accounting for the temperature dependence of the thermophysical properties, hot-wall heat flux measurement essentially results in the solution of the nonlinear inverse heat conduction problem (IHCP). In this paper, a novel inverse estimation of hot-wall heat flux using nonlinear artificial neural networks (ANN) is presented. First, motivated by the hybrid method proposed by Clayton A. Pullins, David O. Hubble, and Tom E. Diller et al., [2010], a modified hybrid heat flux measurement method using two in-depth thermocouples is proposed, which avoid to directly measure surface temperature of gauge or model under harsh aerodynamic heating environments; accounting for the unknown temperature dependent thermophysical properties, a new heat flux inverse estimation model of a nonlinear ANN is proposed and identified to approximate the modified hybrid measurement method through calibration experiment. This heat flux inverse estimation method does not need to solve a first kind Volterra integral equation and to obtain the information about the thermophysical properties of heat conduction body, and the thermal inertia, locations of thermocouples. This paper presents xenon lamp calibration and arc-heated wind tunnel experiments that validate the new inverse estimation method combined with the fabricated hot-wall heat flux sensor and its probe. These experimental results show that, in general, the dynamical hot-wall heat flux estimated based on the proposed method agree well with the known calibrated values and the stagnation heat fluxes of the classic slug calorimeter.

Experimental investigation of the effect of laser parameters on the weld bead shape and temperature distribution during dissimilar laser welding of stainless steel 308 and carbon steel St 37

Fiber laser fusion welding of two applicable alloys including 308 stainless steel and low carbon steel (St 37) was performed to assess the formation mechanism of the weld bead and temperature field near the fusion zone. In this research, some parameters including welding speed, laser power, nozzle distance, and beam deviation of the laser beam were determined as the main parameters. The results showed that the effect of the nozzle distance on the temperature field was higher than that of the welding speed and laser power. It was also observed that increasing the nozzle distance caused more absorption of the beam in the parts and there was an almost two-fold increase in the dimensions and volume of the weld bead. The measured temperature near melt pool was decreased about 120 °C for st37 while a reduction about 30 °C for stainless steel according to increasing nozzle distance from 3 to 7 mm. Unlike carbon steel, the temperature of the stainless steel was clearly decreased at the nozzle distance to the highest point. By increasing the welding speed, the temperature around the molten area was decreased. The beam deflection parameter showed the effect of the temperature gradient index on changes and a temperature decrease was observed by creating a distance from the location of thermocouples. Increasing laser power from 300 to 400 W created wider weld bead about 40% and higher temperature about 40 °C for stainless steel in comparison to st37.

Modeling temperature profile in mass concrete at early ages of cement hydration

Thermally induced cracks due to temperature gradient in mass concrete have adverse effects on its durability and service life. Heat released during the hydration of Portland cement in early age mass concrete can be quite excessive depending on the ambient temperature, cement content of the concrete mix and the size. Finite difference model using Crank Nicholson implicit method was developed based on the two dimensional unsteady state heat conduction. Optimized MATLAB based software was developed for simulation and data visualization. A mass concrete block cast with standard mix ratio and water cement ratio was used to verify the efficacy of the model. Type-K thermocouple and digital thermometer were used to monitor the temperature at time intervals. The temperature profile showed a hotter core and cooler surface except for the initial placement temperature, which exhibited a uniform temperature for all thermocouple locations. Peak temperature values were recorded within the first day of concrete placement. The model successfully predicted the temperature profile of the mass concrete at early ages of cement hydration. With the knowledge of the ambient temperature and the configuration of the mass concrete, the model can reliably predict the temperature profile from which potential for thermal cracks occurrence can be determined to enable suitable proactive preventive and control measures.

Assimilation of Experimental Data to Create a Quantitatively Accurate Reduced-Order Thermoacoustic Model

Abstract We combine a thermoacoustic experiment with a thermoacoustic reduced order model using Bayesian inference to accurately learn the parameters of the model, rendering it predictive. The experiment is a vertical Rijke tube containing an electric heater. The heater drives a base flow via natural convection, and thermoacoustic oscillations via velocity-driven heat release fluctuations. The decay rates and frequencies of these oscillations are measured every few seconds by acoustically forcing the system via a loudspeaker placed at the bottom of the tube. More than 320,000 temperature measurements are used to compute state and parameters of the base flow model using the Ensemble Kalman Filter. A wave-based network model is then used to describe the acoustics inside the tube. We balance momentum and energy at the boundary between two adjacent elements, and model the viscous and thermal dissipation mechanisms in the boundary layer and at the heater and thermocouple locations. Finally, we tune the parameters of two different thermoacoustic models on an experimental dataset that comprises more than 40,000 experiments. This study shows that, with thorough Bayesian inference, a qualitative model can become quantitatively accurate, without overfitting, as long as it contains the most influential physical phenomena.

Re-purposing of domestic steam disinfectors within the hospital-at-home setting.

BackgroundVulnerable patients being cared for in hospital-at-home settings require safe disinfection of their medical devices, including nebulisers and other respiratory equipment. The scale of patients now being cared for in hospital-at-home settings as a result of COVID19 places huge pressure on hospital central sterile services departments (CSSDs) to provide consumable items to safely support such patients’ care. This places new importance on the disinfection of mundane objects, including crockery, cutlery and frequently touched objects in the home environment. This study examined temperature performance of steam disinfectors and the consequences of potential operator misuse on the survival of 62 bacteria and yeast organisms.MethodsThermal performance of steam disinfectors was evaluated using calibrated thermocouple probes in multiple permutations of device usage with 62 test organisms.ResultsThermocouple data demonstrated disinfection A0 values of 6000 (upper layer) and 60 (lower layer). Steam disinfection of baby bottles had a thermal lethality of at least A0 = 600. Variation in disinfector temperatures were noted, depending on the geometric location of thermocouples. Additional notable temperature reductions occurred with device underfilling with suboptimal water volumes. Steam disinfection eradicated all 62 non-spore-forming Gram-positive, Gram-negative and yeast organisms tested and eradicated all organisms in the inner teat space of contaminated babies' dummies, rendering safe steam disinfection of babies’ dummies.ConclusionDomestic steam disinfection offers an inexpensive, simple, versatile and widely available technology for the elimination of common non-spore-forming nosocomial pathogens and safe disinfection of medical devices, fomites and other mundane objects within the hospital-at-home scenario, thereby enhancing patient safety.

Thermal analysis of the fused filament fabrication printing process: Experimental and numerical investigations

A 3d printing of a thin wall is achieved by a fused filament fabrication process. The influence of the printing velocities on the filament morphology is studied using optical microscopy. The strand morphology is approximated to different geometries and compared to experimental data. The oblong cross-section is a good approximation to estimate the strand’s height and width. A local temperature is recorded by introducing a thermocouple during the printing of a thin wall. The polymer undergoes successive heating and cooling. Their magnitudes decrease with time while the filament deposition occurs farther from the thermocouple location. A steady-state cooling is observed after an extended period of time due to the surrounding air cooling. The influence of the strand’s cross-section area on its cooling kinetics is investigated experimentally. The printing of a thin wall with the same geometry is also numerically computed by solving the heat transfer equation with a finite element method. The thermal conductivity takes into account the porosity of the printed wall. An estimation of the heat transfer coefficients between the wall and the surrounding air is done by comparison with a particular experiment. The numerical computation reproduces very well the amplitudes and the periods of heating and cooling observed experimentally. Moreover, the changes in the morphology of the melted filament show the reliability of the numerical tool to obtain a thermal history in agreement with experimental data.

Deep-Learning Emulators of Transient Compartment Fire Simulations for Inverse Problems and Room-Scale Calorimetry

This work describes a deep learning methodology for “emulating” temperature outputs produced by the Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS), a CFD software. An array of artificial neural networks (ANNs) is trained to predict transient temperatures at specified locations for a transient heat release rate (HRR) input. These locations correspond to the locations of thermocouples used in an experimental burn structure. In order to build the training set, A Gaussian process (GP) framework is used to develop a generative model that produces random viable HRR ramps. Although this procedure may require thousands of FDS runs to build a sufficient training set, the application of transfer learning can reduce the required number of runs by nearly an order of magnitude. This refers to the process of initially training an ANN to predict the output of the Consolidated Model of Fire and Smoke Transport (CFAST) and then transferring its knowledge to an ANN that learns to predict FDS outputs. CFAST is a much faster model than FDS, so a large training set can be generated quickly. The final state of the ANN trained to emulate CFAST is used as the initial state of an ANN that learns to emulate FDS. The result is a model that produces FDS temperature predictions with a mean absolute error (MAE) of less than 2°C and runs over five orders of magnitude faster than FDS. The emulators are also capable of learning inverse mappings; i.e. for a given temperature output, they can predict the HRR ramp that would cause FDS to produce the temperature response. This ability to invert for the HRR profile is exercised on data collected from eight fire experiments with peak HRRs up to 200 kW, including four propane burner fires, two methanol pool fires, and two n-Hexane pool fires. The model inverts for the experimental HRR with a MAE of 5.8 kW-15.4 kW (11.3%–16.7%) for the burner tests and 5.0 kW–25.5 kW (12.1%–28.6%) for the pool fire tests, with a tendency to underestimate the HRR of the pool fires. Finally, the computational speed of the emulators allows for the incorporation of CFD physics in Bayesian parameter inversion. As an example, this is demonstrated to infer the radiative fraction from experimental and synthetic data in conjunction with reported uncertainties from the FDS Validation Guide.

GRANITE HEAT ACCUMULATORS FOR AIR HEATERS

The article deals with one of the ways to improve the energy situation in agriculture of Ukraine, namely to increase the energy efficiency of solar air heaters through the use of granite heat accumulators. In the world, in recent years, the share of energy produced by non-traditional sources has been steadily increasing. Unfortunately, in Ukraine this proportion is much smaller than in the first world countries. This problem is especially relevant for agriculture. The main renewable energy sources for Ukraine's agricultural sector are biofuels (solid, liquid, gaseous), wind and solar. The latter is the most attractive for widespread use in agriculture. After all, for the production of biofuels requires at least land, mechanization and chemistry, etc., for the production of wind energy requires appropriate weather conditions that are not available in most regions of the country. And only solar energy is everywhere and almost always. The difficulty of using solar energy at night is one of the main constraints on the widespread use of solar installations. The use of heat accumulators (in devices that accumulate heat during the day and give it away at night for production purposes) for solar heaters greatly enhances their technological capabilities. Battery material is a variety of materials - from soil to plastic water bottles. This article discusses the theoretical justification (confirmed by experimental studies) of the choice of rational size and shape of granite heat accumulator elements. To simplify the task, it was assumed that the battery element has a spherical shape and its thermophysical characteristics remain constant throughout the process of heating and cooling. As a result of the solution of the differential equation of thermal conductivity for these conditions, the dependence of the liquid temperature distribution depending on the radius and time of heating was obtained. The battery element is fully charged when the liquid temperature in the center and on the surface is equal. The temperature distribution in the middle of the liquid was also determined when cooled. Theoretical calculations were confirmed by experimental studies. To determine the rational parameters of the battery cells, a criterion was proposed, the value of which depends on the ratio of heating and cooling time, heating and cooling temperatures, the location of thermocouples. As a result of theoretical and experimental studies, it is established that the rational size of the granite element of the heat accumulator is an equivalent diameter of 0.3 m. The use of a heat accumulator of this type allows to evaporate more than 300 kg of moisture, which allows to reduce the hay ventilation period, to reduce nutrient losses.

Real-time 3D thermoacoustic imaging and thermometry using a self-calibration technique.

Thermoacoustic (TA) imaging is a modality where pulsed microwaves are used to generate ultrasound waves in tissue, which are highly correlated with temperature. This study uses a self-calibration approach to improve the estimation of temperature using 3D real-time TA thermometry in porcine tissue during localized heating. The self-calibration method estimated temperatures at eight embedded thermocouple locations with a normalized root-mean-square error of 3.25±2.08%. The results demonstrate that the method has the suitable accuracy and resolution to provide feedback control for breast cancer ablation therapy.

Transient Computational and Experimental Thermal Analysis of Graphite Foam Monoblock

A densified graphite foam is being explored for its applicability as plasma-facing material in fusion devices. Three different graphite foam monoblocks are constructed and tested in the Garching Large Divertor Sample Testing Facility. The monoblock samples consist of graphite foam press-fit to a single tube, graphite foam cubes brazed to a single, and graphite foam cubes press-fit to a single tube. The tube is composed of CuCrZr with a steel twisted tape. The monoblocks are exposed to the heat fluxes of 5, 6, and 8 MW/m 2 for 30 s to determine the maximum surface and body temperatures measured with thermocouple for each monoblock design. The press-fit monoblocks are exposed to 8 MW/m 2 for 15 s for 100 cycles to determine the effect of thermal cycling on the contact between the graphite foam and the tube. STAR-CCM+ is used to predict how much the contact between the foam and tubes varies as a result of thermal cycling. In addition, the 6 MW/m 2 loading is modeled in STAR-CCM+ to compare the transient cooldown curves of the computational results to the recorded temperatures at the surface and two different thermocouple locations. This comparison is used to validate the temperature-dependent thermal conductivity and specific heat capacity used in the models of the graphite foam. The computational modeling of the experiment has been used to hypothesize ways to use and improve upon the graphite foam as a suitable material for fusion applications.

Validation of coupled fission matrix – TRACE methods for thermal-hydraulic and control feedback on the Penn State Breazeale Reactor

A new method for calculating power shape and critical control rod position is described and validated in view of increasing the fidelity of the Penn State Breazeale Reactor's (PSBR) fuel management code. Currently, the PSBR fuel management code is biased against experimental results and requires the use of empirical correction factors. This is likely due to a combination of assumptions, such as the control rods being fixed in the all-out position and the use of a uniform fuel temperature. The proposed method supplies this data using fission-matrix-based neutronics coupled with TRACE thermal-hydraulics. The fission-matrix-based neutronics relies on Serpent for precalculation of fission matrices. Steady-state fuel temperature distributions, power shapes, and control rod positions are calculated through iteration between TRACE and fission matrix calculations. Validation is performed on the coupled TRACE-fission matrix model for powers ranging from 50 kW to 1 MW. For these cases, the RMS average error with experimental data is 12.7 K for instrumented element fuel temperature and $0.07 for reactivity change. Agreement is generally within estimated experimental uncertainty. The effect of various modeling parameters, such as the fuel-cladding gap heat transfer coefficient and the exact radial location of the instrumented element thermocouple, are shown. Finally, the impact of this increased modeling fidelity on the depletion calculation is estimated. In the future, this validation should be repeated on later core loadings of the PSBR where more detailed experimental data is available. Comparison between the current PSBR fuel management code and the proposed model should also be made.