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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 199 records · Page 11

Development of a Control Co-Design Modeling Tool for Marine Hydrokinetic Turbines: Preprint

This report describes the ongoing and planned development of the software package CT-Opt (Current/Tidal Optimization), a control co-design modeling tool for marine hydrokinetic turbines. The commercialization of these turbines has faced significant challenges due to the complex, multidisciplinary nature of their design and the extreme environmental conditions of their operation. This project aims to create a modeling tool that will enable the efficient design of robust, cost-competitive hydrokinetic turbine systems. Rather than using traditional optimization methods, CT-Opt combines multiple models across a range of fidelities to enable coupled optimization of the system design and system controller via a control co-design approach. With this method, the parameters that affect system performance are considered more comprehensively at every stage of the design process. The lowest-fidelity, frequency-domain model called by CT-Opt is RAFT (Response Amplitudes of Floating Turbines), which was originally developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to model response amplitudes of floating offshore wind turbines. The highest-fidelity, time-domain model is OpenFAST, which was developed by NREL for land-based and offshore wind turbines. As part of the CT-Opt project, new functionalities will be added to RAFT and OpenFAST to enable the accurate simulation of fixed and floating marine hydrokinetic turbines. In addition to expanding the capabilities of RAFT and OpenFAST, new midfidelity models will be developed. These models will be based on RAFT and OpenFAST and will consist of linearized, state-space models derived from the fully coupled, nonlinear OpenFAST equations and derivative function surrogate models that approximate the nonlinear system behavior. Each model will be coupled with controllers to allow control co-design methods to be applied both within models and across fidelity levels, enabling efficient system optimization.

control co-design↗

PyARC Status Report: New Integrations and Upgrades to the Fast Reactor Analysis Workflow Management Tool

PyARC was initially developed as an open source tool to support fast reactor analyses using the Argonne Reactor Computation (ARC) code suite as a part of the Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) Workbench initiative in FY17. The goal of this initiative is to provide a common user interface for model generation, real-time validation, execution, output processing, and visualization for all integrated codes. This is accomplished through the reliance on tools available in the Workbench framework and runtime environment. While initially developed to support the ARC codes, PyARC was extended in FY22 to wrap other NEAMS and non-ARC codes, including Griffin and OpenMC, in the supported other neutronics workflows, and support users in the adoption of NEAMS-supported high fidelity analysis codes. Most recently, NUBOW-3D, a recently adopted ARC code, was integrated to support reactor bowing calculations as well. Integration of these codes into the NEAMS Workbench directly benefits the advanced reactor modeling community by: • Providing a set of controlled, maintained, documented and validated scripts to generate inputs, which promotes best practices, reduces the learning curve, and facilitates project collaboration. • Improving the user experience: the Workbench interface provides assistance for building an input through auto-completion, real-time validation, document navigation, and geometry and results visualization. • Automating complex calculations and workflows for reactor analysis. • Helping users transition to using high-fidelity NEAMS codes along-side the ARC codes. In FY22, a progress report was published that described the state of each of the tools integrated into PyARC. Since then, there have been many enhancements and upgrades to the existing integrations as well as entirely new code integrations as well. This report details all new integrations and major developments in PyARC since the version 2.0.0 release highlighted in the FY22 report.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Symposium MT02: Statistical Mechanics-Based Computational Tools for the Study of Phase Transformation in Complex Materials (Final Report)

Symposium MT02 brought together a diverse and interdisciplinary community of scientists specializing in Statistical Mechanics-based computational modeling to investigate phase transformations in materials exhibiting complex disordered structures. As the demand for materials with extreme performance metrics grows—from aerospace components to next-generation optical fibers—the ability to predict microstructural evolution under non-equilibrium conditions has become paramount. The primary goal of this symposium was to identify, evaluate, and discuss advanced computational tools capable of designing precise manufacturing conditions to tailor material properties efficiently. By fostering a dialogue between computational theorists and experimentalists, the symposium sought to establish new protocols for predicting how processing history—such as cooling rates or strain paths—dictates the final microstructure.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

WFOT: A Wave Function Overlap Tool between Single- and Multi-Reference Electronic Structure Methods for Spectroscopy Simulation

We report the development of a novel diagnostic tool, named wave function overlap tool (WFOT), designed to evaluate the overlap between wave functions computed at single-reference [i.e., time-dependent density functional theory or configuration interaction singles (CIS)] and multireference (i.e., CASSCF/CASPT2) electronic structure levels of theory. It relies on truncating the single- and multireference WFs to CIS-like expansions spanning the same configurational space and maximizing the molecular orbital overlap by means of a unitary transformation. To demonstrate the functionality of the tool, we calculate the transient spectrum of acetylacetone by evaluating excited state absorption signals with multireference quality on top of single-reference on-the-fly dynamics simulations. Semiautomatic spectra generation is facilitated by interfacing the tool with the COBRAMM package, which also allows one to use WFOT with several quantum chemistry codes such as Gaussian, NWChem, and OpenMolcas. Finally, other exciting possibilities for the utilization of the code beyond the simulation of transient absorption spectroscopy are eventually discussed.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

MCP-eGridGPT (MCP-Enabled Chatbot with Electrical Power System Analysis and Interactive Visualization Tool) [SWR-25-126]

This software is an advanced chatbot system that integrates the Model Context Protocol (MCP) to provide intelligent electrical power system analysis and automated visualization generation. The system enables users to interact with complex electrical engineering tools through natural language, automatically analyzes power system data for voltage violations and grid health assessment, and generates professional interactive HTML dashboards and reports. Key features include dynamic tool discovery from MCP servers, multi-LLM provider support, intelligent data interpretation using large language models, automated chart generation, and a web-based interface for real-time analysis. The software bridges sophisticated electrical engineering analysis with user-friendly interfaces, making power system diagnostics accessible through conversational AI.

Choi, Seong [National Laboratory of the Rockies (N↗

More Tools for Visualization and Analysis of Small-Angle Neutron Scattering Data: Descriptions and Examples

With the adoption of drtsans as the data reduction software for the GP-SANS, Bio-SANS and EQ-SANS instruments at ORNL, tools for data visualization and analysis that can be integrated into drtsans scripts are needed to further improve the user experience. New tools that do not need to be incorporated directly into data reduction scripts can also positively impact users during their experiments. In this report, a new set of tools is presented that complements the previous set released. The set includes tools for both fitting data and for visualizing data.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Dolomites in hydrated fine-grained Antarctic micrometeorites: Effective tools for analyzing secondary processes

We report detailed transmission electron microscope (TEM) observations of carbonates from one hydrated fine-grained Antarctic micrometeorite (H-FgMM). These carbonates show the occurrence of complex chemical variations and microstructures that provide important evidence regarding the formation and evolution of rarely analyzed H-FgMMs. The chemical variations were identified at both micrometer and nanometer scales, indicating that these carbonates formed under localized fluid conditions that suggest a variable chemical microenvironment. Individual carbonates grew from isolated reservoirs of fluid. Moreover, these carbonates contain manganese amounts almost twice as high as those measured in CM chondrites but similar to those identified in CI chondrites. Their particular compositions indicate reducing and progressively evolving conditions in the fluid from which these carbonates precipitated, probably due to water consumption during phyllosilicates formation. In addition to the compositional variability, microstructural features are pervasive in these carbonates, similar to those described in heavily shocked meteorites indicating that these carbonates were probably modified during shock processes after their formation. Since carbonates are highly susceptible to shock metamorphism, we suggest that it is essential to investigate their structure in detail before interpreting the isotopic measurements related to the time of their formation. Additionally, associated with carbonates, ubiquitous phosphates were identified in the micrometeorite analyzed. Future studies of these mineral associations will provide us further insight into the formation and evolution of asteroids, especially since they were both identified in the surface materials of Ryugu and Bennu.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Molecular Optoelectronics (Final Technical Report)

The project developed new theoretical tools for analysis of nanodevices subjected to external optical and bias driving. Traditional theoretical techniques for molecular optoelectronics are either based on kinetic schemes or utilize quasiparticle description. The former fails to account for quantum mechanics of the system-bath interface and may fail qualitatively when used in open interacting systems. The latter is inconvenient in (usual for molecular optical spectroscopy) many body states description of the system. We developed a new technique - the Hubbard nonequilibrium Green's functions method - which allows to avoid shortcomings of standard theoretical approaches. The Hubbard NEGF was applied to analysis of experimental measurements of photoinduced current and bias-induced electroluminescence in STM molecular junctions. We also demonstrated practical usefulness of the Hubbard NEGF within newly proposed universal theory of current-induced forces for nonadiabatic molecular dynamics which generalizes celebrated Head-Gordon and Tully expression for electronic friction. Finally, following latest trends in laser techniques we studied local responses (local fluxes and local noise spectroscopy) of biased junctions as a source of information not accessible by total responses (total fluxes and noises) of the system.

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION↗

MANIPULATE-2020: An Interface Tool for Nuclear Data Processing

This report provides basic background data on the Manipulate-2020 code. This code is used for processing and "manipulation" of nuclear data in support of radiation metrology applications. The code is made available on the open GitHub repository and is available to the general nuclear data community.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Green's function methods for multiphysics simulations (Final Report)

Green's functions are important tools for analyzing mathematical properties of partial differential equations (PDEs), and for numerically solving PDEs, especially when equations for the same operator but with multiple right hand sides need to be solved simultaneously. This proposal aims at developing efficient and accurate numerical methods for computing Green's functions, which can be used to tackle a challenging question in multiphysics simulation of DOE-mission science problems: how to couple quantum physics with classical physics. The key mathematical difficulty is properly formulate a "boundary condition" for the region described by quantum physics, and conventional approaches often model such boundary conditions in an empirical way. The proposed Green's function methods use the Dirichlet-to-Neumann map to formulate a boundary condition that is non-empirical and can couple the quantum and classical regions in an in principle exact way. The key ingredient of the new methods is to construct the Dirichlet-to-Neumann map in an efficient, accurate and versatile manner. The new methods have provably low complexity and are ideally suited for massively parallel and emerging many-core computational systems.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Battery State of Health Estimator: Cooperative Research and Development Final Report

NREL has developed a software tool to enable Renewance to estimate the degradation of batteries from basic information such as the type of battery and the application of that battery during its first life, so that used batteries may be evaluated for potential repurposing at low cost. This software tool utilizes NREL's BLAST-Lite battery degradation modeling code, which was updated with additional models for commercially produced lithium-ion batteries as a part of this CRADA. The software tool enables users to input details such as battery type and application so that lifetime estimates can be made without any programming or expert battery knowledge. The application input loads in saved values for parameters such as cycles per year, depth-of-discharge, and other battery operating parameters from a file defined by Renewance. These parameters may be modified to refine simulations for specific batteries. The software tool also incorporates a degradation model optimization tool, whereby existing battery degradation models may be tuned according to measured battery health. This ensures that new models still predict degradation behaviors expected from a certain battery chemistry, but with the overall degradation rate tuned to a specific battery make and model. The new model can then be saved for estimating the degradation of other similar batteries. An additional task was planned to utilize machine-learning to enable battery health diagnosis from rapid EIS measurements to accelerate the screening of used batteries. This task was not completed due to lack of available data for training a machine-learning model. CRADA benefit to DOE, Participant, and US Taxpayer: Further development of open-source software tool BLAST-Lite for predicting the lifetime of commercially produced Lithium-ion batteries (NREL SWR-22-69).

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Hydropower Flexibility Framework (Final Technical Report)

The Hydropower Flexibility Framework (HFF) tool focuses on providing the hydropower community with an effective means of assessing optimized hydropower plant outcomes. This tool combines both site specific characteristics, which act to constrain plant operation, and the hydrologic and grid characteristics which drive hydropower plant operation. The hydropower community faces a confluence of factors which drive the importance of developing such a capability, including an aging hydropower fleet subject to a range of modernization opportunities, a large number of hydropower plant relicensing activities which may affect operational requirements, an electrical grid with increasing levels of variable resources which must be balanced to maintain grid stability, and climate change influencing riverine hydrologic patterns outside of design characteristics. With support from the hydropower community, the project team developed the HFF tool and demonstrated the tool through a series of Use Cases. This guidance was developed as a part of the larger HFF tool User’s Manual (see Appendix B), a resource designed to inform other users and to empower community uptake of the tool. The HFF tool, hosted at https://hfftool.com/, was developed with the support of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO). EPRI is currently exploring alternatives to support the continued maintenance and functionally of the online tool.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗

MN Solar Pathways: Solar Deployment Strategies-Modeling and Case Studies

As part of the Minnesota Solar Pathways project, funded in part by the Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technologies Office, Clean Power Research (CPR) developed a Solar Deployment Strategies modeling tool to calculate the economic impacts and market incentives created by different solar portfolios and rate structures. CPR developed the tool using Minnesota-specific data and assumptions. The case studies described in this report provide insight into possible pathways toward the state goal of 10% solar, but the emphasis of the report is the demonstration of the tool in use cases that can be expanded and modified in future years as needs change.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Hazards and Probabilistic Risk Assessments of Advanced Nuclear Reactors Coupled with Industrial Facilities

This report provides a roadmap and tool kit for site specific risk assessments across a broad range of industrial customers co-located with advanced nuclear power plants (ANPP) that are not currently built and operating in the U.S. This report builds upon the body of work sponsored by the Department of Energy (DOE) Integrated Energy Systems Pathway that has produced industrial requirements studies and techno-economic assessments on the topics of feasibility of ANPP supported industrial processes. This report also leverages the DOE Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) program that has presented hazards assessment and generic probabilistic risk assessments (PRAs) for the addition of a heat extraction system (HES) to light-water reactors (LWRs) co-located with hydrogen production facilities. Many of the hazard assessments and risk assessments performed for the LWRS report are agnostic to whether the nuclear reactor is an ANPP or were adapted to the ANPP focus. The report performs hazards assessments to include industrial facilities: an oil refinery, a methanol plant, a synthetic fuel (synfuel) plant, the production of synthetic gas (syngas) as part of the methanol and synfuel plants, wood pulp and paper mills, and hydrogen production. Hydrogen production facilities are assessed in depth through prior reports in the LWRS program and the results are leveraged in this report. All these facilities are specified through industrial process and requirements research performed by national laboratories, universities, and interaction with industry. Many of the processes used in this report are pre-conceptual designs to use for decarbonization of the current technology facilities. A process of failure modes and effects analysis (what can go wrong) and accidentology (what has historically gone wrong) was used to determine the hazards presented to the nuclear power plant by the addition of the HES and the industrial customer. Chemical properties of feedstocks and products are summarized as part of the hazards assessment. Example analysis procedures are provided for each of the hazard types identified. These deterministic analyses can be used to assess adherence to licensing criteria. They can also be used to meet other safety goals like protection of the public, workers, or industrial facility equipment. A modular high temperature gas-cooled reactor (MHTGR) PRA only existing on paper was modeled and verified in modern PRA software. This will provide a tool for representative ANPP probabilistic analyses for future research.

10 SYNTHETIC FUELS↗

Early Phase Molten Salt Reactor Safety Evaluation Considerations

This report documents rationale to develop analytical tools and data applicable to the safety and design of advanced molten salt power reactors. This report represents early steps in the implementation of the tasks defined by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in 2018 in the following sections of A Safety and Licensing Roadmap to identify the Research and Development Gaps of Commercial Molten Salt Reactors

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Digital Transformation for the Existing Fleet: Where to Start?

To remain economically viable in today’s electricity marketplace, nuclear power plants are replacing old analog equipment with modern digital tools. Having information available in an electronic format allows most work processes to become more efficient by automating simple, time-consuming tasks. However, with thousands of routine work processes performed every day, it can be difficult for the plants to know where to begin. We partnered with a nuclear utility to develop a novel assessment tool that measures seven health indicators for each work process performed, providing a rapid digital status report of the plant. The assessment tool is inexpensive and user-friendly, administered remotely, and automatically customized to each employee. Data from 167 employees representing different perspectives were analyzed to identify optimal candidates for digital initiatives that yield the highest payback for increased process efficiencies. We ranked by a priority index to ensure that processes with a good combination of time savings and digital opportunity were at the top. The focus was on determining a maximum investment to ensure that the cost savings from these initiatives are positive over a specified period. We identified potential cost savings of $2.6m, $1.3m and $1.2m for our top priority processes. By using our novel assessment tool to determine the digital status of the plant’s work processes, they were provided with a starting point for target candidates that would most benefit from a digital initiative. Our analysis helps stakeholders understand the financial impact of digital initiatives and identify maximum investment amounts when seeking technical solutions.

assessment↗

Energize: An Interactive Evaluation Tool for Engaging the General Public with Energy Decision Making - Final Report

The public has an ever-increasing interest in the economic, environmental, and social impacts of global energy production. To support informed decision making, the scientific community has a responsibility to communicate reliable and straight-forward information to the general public, in an engaging way, regarding energy systems and how choices made at different stages of an energy technology life cycle can impact the cost, amount of materials used, and waste produced. Our objective is to enhance public engagement via an interactive electrical energy game (Energ!ze) through which players interact with one another in their quest to develop an electrical energy portfolio that optimizes economic (e.g., company profit), environmental (e.g., reduced CO 2 emissions), and social (e.g., public opinion) impacts. The design and development of Energ!ze was an iterative process involving an interdisciplinary team of engineers, discipline-based scientists, computer scientists, and education experts. The development objectives were two-fold: (1) Accurate and quantifiable modeling of electrical energy systems and (2) Engaging and interactive user interface within the construct of the game narrative. The major game mechanics in the current playable Energ!ze version focus on economic metrics, and the database is scaffolded to add environmental and social metrics for future versions. This report details the outcome of the funding period (Section 2 and 3) and describes the development process, along with recommendations for future development (Section 4).

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗