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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 235 records · Page 13
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Operational Experience of the NML Cryogenic Plant at the FAST Test Facility

The New Muon Laboratory (NML) cools two individually cryostated superconducting radio frequency (SRF) capture cavities (CC) and one prototype ILC cryomodule (CM) with eight SRF cavities. This complex accelerates electrons at 150 MeV for the Integrable Optics Test Accelerator (IOTA) ring, located at the Fermilab Accelerator Science and Technology (FAST) facility. Since 2019, this R&D accelerator complex has gone through four science runs.

Wallace, T. [Fermilab]↗
DOE OSTI2023

Development and Bench-Scale Testing of a Novel Biphasic Solvent-Enabled Absorption Process for Post-Combustion Carbon Capture (Final Technical Report)

A new class of biphasic solvents was developed, and the concept of the enabled carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) absorption process was tested for post-combustion carbon capture in our previous lab-scale research. The primary goals of this project were to advance the development of the novel biphasic CO 2 absorption process (BiCAP) and validate its technical advantages by testing the integrated technology at a 40 kWe bench-scale with actual coal-derived flue gas in a power plant environment. The project was led by the University of Illinois at Urban-Champaign (UIUC), and Trimeric Corporation served as a sub-awardee providing support in basic design and techno-economic studies. To achieve the project goals and objectives, solvent management studies, process modeling and optimization, bench-scale equipment design, construction and testing, and technical, economic and environmental assessments have been conducted. The two top-performing biphasic solvents developed in our previous research were used in this project. Biphasic solvent emissions and control were investigated in the laboratory. The emissions of the biphasic solvents from the absorber were comparable to or lower than the reference 30 wt% monoethanolamine (MEA) solution, while they could be more effectively removed in the water wash column. Lab-scale testing of solvent degradation reclamation has revealed that vacuum distillation was feasible for biphasic solvent reclamation. Aspen Plus models were used to optimize the BiCAP, and a CO 2 stripping configuration introducing a secondary cold solvent feed to the stripper was identified to be the most energy efficient. A 40 kWe bench-scale, integrated BiCAP system was successfully designed, fabricated, and installed at the UIUC’s Abbott Power Plant. Parametric testing with synthetic flue gas has demonstrated that the two biphasic solvents required a more than 40% lower heat duty for CO 2 desorption as compared to the reference MEA tested on the same bench-scale skid. Slipstream testing with actual coal flue gas for a total of 31 days in two test campaigns has further demonstrated stable operation of the bench-scale skid. During the first campaign targeting 90% CO 2 removal, the heat duty averaged at 2,183 MJ/tonne of CO 2 captured and during the second campaign targeting 95% removal, the heat duty averaged at 2,450 MJ/tonne of CO 2 captured. A techno-economic analysis has revealed that for integration of the BiCAP into a 650-MWe pulverized coal-fired power plant, the parasitic power loss was reduced by ~20%, and the cost of CO 2 capture was reduced by ~21% ($36.3/tonne on a December 2018 dollar basis) compared to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s baseline Case B12B. As progression from this bench-scale development effort, a new project “Engineering-Scale Testing of the Biphasic Solvent Based CO 2 Absorption Capture Technology at a Covanta Waste-to-Energy Facility” was awarded by the DOE, launched in February 2023, to allow the team to further test the technology and demonstrate its technical and economic advantages at a pilot scale.

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2021

IOTA Run 2 Beam Dynamics Studies in Nonlinear Integrable Systems

Nonlinear integrable optics is a promising design approach for suppressing fast collective instabilities. To study it experimentally, a new storage ring, the Integrable Optics Test Accelerator (IOTA), was built at Fermilab. IOTA has recently completed its second scientific run, incorporating many hardware and instrumentation improvements. This report presents the results of the two integrable optics experiments - the quasi-integrable Henon-Heiles octupole system and the fully integrable Danilov-Nagaitsev system. We demonstrate tune spread and dynamic aperture in agreement with tracking simulations, and a stable crossing of the integer resonance. Based on recovered single-particle phase space dynamics, we show improved invariant jitter consistent with intended effective Hamiltonian. We conclude by outlining future plans and efforts towards proton studies and larger designs.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Feasibility of Adding Twitter Data to Aid Drought Depiction: Case Study in Colorado

The use of social media, such as Twitter, has changed the information landscape for citizens’ participation in crisis response and recovery activities. Given that drought progression is slow and also spatially extensive, an interesting set of questions arise, such as how the usage of Twitter by a large population may change during the development of a major drought alongside how the changing usage facilitates drought detection. For this reason, contemporary analysis of how social media data, in conjunction with meteorological records, was conducted towards improvement in the detection of drought and its progression. The research utilized machine learning techniques applied over satellite-derived drought conditions in Colorado. Three different machine learning techniques were examined: the generalized linear model, support vector machines and deep learning, each applied to test the integration of Twitter data with meteorological records as a predictor of drought development. It is found that the integration of data resources is viable given that the Twitter-based model outperformed the control run which did not include social media input. Eight of the ten models tested showed quantifiable improvements in the performance over the control run model, suggesting that the Twitter-based model was superior in predicting drought severity. Future work lies in expanding this method to depict drought in the western U.S.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2019

First Measurements of Nonlinear Decoherence in the IOTA Ring

The Integrable Optics Test Accelerator (IOTA), at Fermi National Laboratory is aimed at testing nonlinear optics for the next generation of high intensity rings. Through use of a special magnetic element the ring is designed to induce a large tune spread with amplitude while maintaining integrable motion. This will allow for the suppression of instabilities in high-intensity beams without significant reduction in dynamic aperture. One important aspect of this is the nonlinear decoherence that occurs when a beam is injected off axis or receives a transverse kick while circulating in the ring. This decoherence has been studied in detail, with simulations, for protons in IOTA both with and without space-charge. However, it has yet to be demonstrated experimentally. During the first phase of the IOTA experimental program, the ring is operated with 100 MeV electrons, allowing for the study of nonlinear optics without the complications introduced by space charge. Here we present measurements taken during the IOTA commissioning, and an analysis of the results.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Performance Testing of Enhanced Linear Variable Integrated Sensor (ELVIS III) for LVDTs

The Enhanced Linear Variable Intrinsic Sensor (ELVIS) was a 2024 breakthrough discovery by Idaho National Laboratory (INL) in terms of further innovating the usage of all linear variable differential transformers (LVDTs) and enhancing their performance in harsh environments. In irradiation tests conducted within material test reactors (MTRs), LVDTs with an internal temperature sensing capability can address several critical challenges. This report focuses on performance testing of the ELVIS III device with new hybrid LVDTs provided by the Institute for Energy Technology (IFE), which is the world’s sole supplier of nuclear-grade LVDTs. The ELVIS III device was evaluated in terms of temperature showcasing promising results comparable to a typical type-K thermocouple (TC).

46 - INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AN↗
DOE OSTI2022

Space Charge Driven Emittance Growth and the Effect of Octupoles in IOTA

The Integrable Optics Test Accelerator (IOTA) at Fermilab is a small machine dedicated to a broad frontier accelerator physics program. An important aspect of this program is to investigate the potential benefits of the resonance free tune spread achievable with integrable optics to store and accelerate high intensity proton beams for which space charge is significant. In this context, a good understanding of proton beam emittance growth and particle loss mechanisms is essential. Assuming nominal design parameters, simulations show that for a bunched beam, the bulk of emittance growth takes place immediately following injection, typically within tens of turns. We attempt to account for this growth using a simplified RMS mismatch theory; some of its limitations and possible improvements are briefly discussed. We then compare theoretical predictions to simulations performed using the PIC code pyORBIT. Further exploring ways to mitigate emittance growth and reduce particle loss, we compare two beam matching strategies: (1) matching at the injection point (2) matching at the center of the nonlinear (octupole) insertion region where $\beta_x = \beta_y$. To observe how nonlinearity affects emittance growth and whether it dominates growth due to mismatch, we track two different distributions. Finally, we explore the potential of using octupoles in a quasi-integrable configuration to mitigate growth using a variety of initial distributions both at reduced and full intensities.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Practical Considerations for Testing Polymer Electrolytes for High-Energy Solid-State Batteries

Polymer electrolytes are an important class of materials in enabling solid-state batteries, which have the potential to exceed 400 Wh/kg energy density. Despite significant advancements in their lithium-ion transport and mechanical properties over the last two decades, the integration and testing of these novel electrolyte materials into functioning cells with the electrode loadings and dimensions required to meet the cell-level energy density goals have been limited. Here, through multiple representative examples, we demonstrate the need of testing in close to practical cell conditions for a faster and more reliable evaluation of polymeric electrolytes. In particular, the need for testing with thin lithium anodes and practical cycling capacities is demonstrated for evaluation of their lithium-metal interfacial stability and dendritic resistance, respectively, and a testing protocol is suggested. The guidelines presented here will also apply to testing of other solid electrolytes for solid-state batteries.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2022

AMS Thermal Cooling System (Final Report)

The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) is a U.S. Department of Energy-sponsored particle physics experiment on the International Space Station (ISS). AMS is exploring some of the most fundamental questions in physics such as understanding dark matter, antimatter, the origin of cosmic rays and their characteristics as well as searching for new physics phenomena in the universe. It has recorded more than 200 billion cosmic rays since its launch in May 2011. Over time, anomalies associated with the dedicated cooling system of the AMS Silicon Tracker system were observed, leading to the discovery of progressive deterioration in the functioning of the cooling system's four redundant pumps. The Tracker is crucial to the scientific mission of AMS, as it is the only subdetector that can distinguish matter from antimatter. This report details the successful program of work for the installation of the Upgraded Tracker Thermal Pump System (UTTPS) on AMS. This program included: identifying the root cause of deterioration in the original pumps; design, production, testing, and integration of the new UTTPS cooling system; launch of the UTTPS to ISS; installation of the UTTPS in AMS across a series of four complex extra-vehicular activities (EVAs); and establishment of a dedicated Flight Simulator Laboratory to test the performance of the UTTPS under various thermal conditions. This program was critical to the success of the AMS experiment, and its successful completion will enable AMS to continue taking data through 2030.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2023

AN OVERVIEW OF THE DESIGN AND PERFORMANCE TESTING OF A 275 BAR INTEGRALLY GEARED SUPERCRITICAL CO2 COMPRESSOR FOR POWER GENERATION

An integrally geared compressor-expander (compander) for supercritical CO2 (sCO2) was developed to convert thermal energy to electricity. With operating pressures of 275 bar, this turbomachine represents the state of the art in integrally geared machine architecture, hitting compressor inlet densities of 600 kg/m3 and discharge pressures of 275 bar. The product development was funded by the Department of Energy’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Office under EE0007114 to advance the state of the art in concentrated solar power applications; however, the technology itself is agnostic to heat source, and is predicted to achieve a thermal-to-electric conversion efficiency of 50% for any indirect heat source capable of providing turbine inlet temperatures of 700°C or greater. While the program encompassed the design and testing for the compressor and turbine elements, this paper will focus on the compressor design and operation. The paper will begin with an introduction to the cycle design and analysis of an indirectly heated integrally geared sCO2 compander, a discussion of the mechanical and aerodynamic design of the compressor that is a two stage radial compressor operating subcritically at 27,512 rpm, and will then proceed to describe the test facility and measured data to characterize the performance and robustness of the machine. The paper will conclude with a discussion on lessons learned throughout the course of commissioning and testing. Practical aspects of testing a compressor operating near the dome including complications relating to obtaining an accurate compressor flow map, efficiency calculations, flow unsteadiness, and associated measurement uncertainties will be discussed.

wilkes, jason↗
DOE OSTI2023

BISON validation to in situ cladding burst test and high-burnup LOCA experiments

The process for developing and qualifying nuclear fuels for commercial nuclear application requires fundamental material development, characterization, and design; out-of-pile testing on unirradiated materials; integral fuel rod irradiations, testing, and postirradiation examinations; and transient analyses. The historical approach depends on the generation of large empirical datasets and series of integral fuel rod irradiations, and this approach ultimately takes ~20 years—or sometimes longer—to acquire data through extensive sequential testing. Thus, the qualification and eventual deployment of new fuel systems constitute a long process. However, recent technological advancements have provided researchers the opportunity to perform out-of-cell, in situ measurements to assess material performance for the duration of the experiment. One such example of this capability is the use of digital image coordination and thermal imaging to assess Zircaloy cladding performance under a simulated loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA) transient condition. In situ measurements generally provide high-fidelity strain, strain rates, and temperature surface maps. This is critical for the US nuclear industry, which is actively developing a technical basis to support extending the peak rod average burnup from 62 to ~75 GWd/tU and the deployment of accident-tolerant fuel. However, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) outlined in its research information letter several technical issues that the industry must address before extending burnup. One topic of specific interest is understanding the cladding balloon and rupture geometry during the LOCA heat-up phase. By leveraging these advanced in situ capabilities, this work used in situ data generated from a simulated LOCA to better understand high-temperature creep and its effect on Zircaloy balloon and rupture performance. Here, this work used the BISON fuel performance code to assess the high-temperature creep model predictions with in situ data.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Advanced Reactor Control and Operations (ARCO): A University Research Facility for Developing Optimized Digital Control Rooms

The Advanced Reactor Control and Operations (ARCO) facility was constructed in January 2018 to serve as a test bed for advanced reactor control rooms and operator support systems. Since then, it has supported human-machine interface user experience research, fault detection and mitigation technology development, control room concept of operations development, and remote operations research. ARCO serves as the control room for the Compact Integral Effects Test (CIET) facility, which replicates the primary-side flow paths and thermal-hydraulic behavior of a fluoride-salt-cooled high-temperature reactor (FHR) using simulant fluids and scaling principles. New reactor designs feature different operating conditions and scenarios than those in existing reactors. ARCO supports the research and development of digital tools for operator communications, intuitive real-time data analysis, online health monitoring and prognostics, and control room cybersecurity. By integrating these different technologies, ARCO acts as a prototypical control system to iteratively develop methods and tools of operation in advanced small modular nuclear reactors. This paper describes the features of and challenges to operating advanced small modular reactors underlying the design basis for ARCO and its operator support systems.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Real-Time Characterization of Salt Aerosols Generated from Static and Sparged Molten Salt

The formation of radionuclide-bearing aerosols in the respirable size range has the potential to significantly influence offsite dose consequences and is, therefore, an important consideration in nuclear facility safety assessments. Molten salt reactor (MSR) developers will likely need to demonstrate an understanding of the conditions under which radionuclide-bearing aerosols may be generated from their reactor under normal operating and accident conditions, as well as the characteristics and transport behavior of these aerosols, to demonstrate to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) that the facility can be operated safely. Recent reviews of the literature identified a lack of experimental data describing the mechanisms of formation and properties (size, concentration, and composition) of salt aerosol particles that are produced from molten salts. Experiments that identify the conditions that lead to radionuclide-bearing salt aerosol releases and quantify the characteristics of salt aerosols formed by different mechanisms are high-priority needs to support MSR licensing. This report describes tests that were conducted within the Argonne Salt Aerosol Test Stand (a sealed vessel and measurement system) to generate salt aerosols from static and sparged molten salts and measure their size and concentration in real-time. The results provide insight into salt aerosol formation by the vapor condensation and bubble bursting mechanisms and inform the potential radiological consequences of aerosol formation from molten fuel salt. Videos of the salt surface were taken during salt sparge tests to observe surface bubble behavior. The data in this report can be used to develop mechanistic source term and accident progression models for MSRs. The real-time salt aerosol characterization technique used in this study will be employed in future integral effects tests that are conducted at an engineering scale to simulate realistic MSR accidents and in future separate effects tests to address additional variables that may impact salt aerosol characteristics (e.g., presence of fission products in salt and humidity in atmosphere).

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Droplet Entrainment in Steam Supply System of Water-Cooled Small Modular Reactors: Experiment and Modeling Approaches

Droplet entrainment in steam-flow is a prominent phenomenon that needs adequate safety and risk analysis of postulated transient and accident scenarios—including experimental investigation and representative modeling and simulation (M&S)—for small modular reactor (SMR) system design and demonstration. This study identifies knowledge gaps by evaluating experimental and computational fluid dynamics modeling approaches to support early-stage reactor system design, testing, and model evaluation. Previous studies reported in the literature for steam-flow entrainment primarily focused on gigawatt capacity pressurized water reactor (PWR) systems. However, entrainment phenomena are even more prominent for PWR-type SMRs due to their more compact integrated designs, which need further research and development. To fill the research gaps, this study provides insight by specifying the phenomena of interest by leveraging the lessons learned from past research, adopting advanced M&S techniques and advanced instrumentation and control. The findings and recommendations are applicable for evaluating steam-flow entrainment models and for designing integral effect test and separate effect test facilities for gaining reactor design approvals.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Experimental Studies of Nonlinear Integrable Optics with Elliptic Potentials

The stable transport of charged particle beams is the core challenge in designing and operating accelerators. The current paradigm for transverse focusing is based on quadrupole and dipole elements, described as a linear integrable Hamiltonian by Courant and Snyder. The operational limits of high intensity accelerators are often determined by collective instabilities within the beam. Nonlinear elements may be added to suppress certain forms of these collective effects, but restrict the range of stable trajectories. These shortcomings motivate extending to a nonlinear integrable system which can offer the benefits of suppressing collective instabilities without limiting the stable trajectories. Danilov and Nagaitsev proposed a novel nonlinear integrable system with elliptical potentials, which could be implemented as magnetic elements in an accelerator. Such a system has been implemented for practical verification in the integrable optics test accelerator (IOTA), a small storage ring constructed for beam dynamics studies. Electron beam studies in IOTA treat the low-emittance beam as a macroparticle for detailed probing of the expected single particle dynamics. This dissertation details new measurements of the nonlinear integrable system relevant for practical implementation. Turn-by-turn measurements of the kicked beam responses are used for phase space reconstruction and analysis of the predicted nonlinear dynamics. The stability and aperture for various nonlinear configurations are measured with beam losses. Amplitude dependent detuning, a core figure of merit for suppressing instabilities, is measured and compared with high fidelity particle tracking simulations. The synchrotron radiation images of circulating beam allow direct measurements of the topology and lifetime in configurations where nonlinear focusing terms dominate.

Wieland, John [Michigan U.] (ORCID:000000028971852↗
DOE OSTI2022

BISON Validation to In-Situ Cladding Burst Test and High Burnup LOCA Experiments

The process to develop and qualify nuclear fuels for commercial nuclear application requires fundamental material development, characterization, and design; out-of-pile testing on unirradiated materials; integral fuel rod irradiations, testing, and post irradiation examinations (PIEs); and transient analyses. The historical approach depends on the generation of large empirical datasets and series of integral fuel rod irradiations, and this approach ultimately takes approximately 20 years—or sometimes longer—to acquire data through extensive sequential testing. Thus, the qualification and eventual deployment of new fuel systems constitute a long and drawn-out process. However, recent technological advancements have provided researchers the opportunity to perform out-of-cell, in-situ measurements to assess material performance for the duration of the experiment. One such example of this capability is the use of digital image coordination and thermal imaging to assess Zircaloy cladding performance under a simulated loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA) transient condition. In general, the in-situ measurements provide high-fidelity strain, strain rates, and temperature surface maps. This is critical for the United States nuclear industry, which is actively developing a technical basis to support extending the peak rod average burnup from 62 to ~75 GWd/tU and the deployment of accident-tolerant fuel. However, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, through their research information letter, outlined a number of technical issues for the industry to address before extending burnup. One topic of specific interest is understanding the cladding balloon and rupture geometry during the LOCA heatup phase. Leveraging these advanced in-situ capabilities, this work intends to use insitu data generated from a simulated LOCA in the Severe Accident Test Station at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to better understand high-temperature creep and its impact on Zircaloy balloon and rupture performance. This work used the BISON fuel performance code to compare BISON’s high-temperature creep model predictions to in-situ data and identify limitations and gaps within the model. Additionally, BISON will subsequently be used to simulate relevant high-burnup LOCA tests. The results will be analyzed and compared to the available post-test data in a manner consistent with the approach outlined in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission research information letter.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2026

TTDAQ: A Continuous Flow, Timing and Trigger DAQ System

Final Scientific/Technical Report for DOE Award DE-SC0019581, “TTDAQ: A Continuous Flow, Timing and Trigger DAQ System.” The report summarizes Telluric Labs’ Phase II STTR work developing silicon-photonic building blocks for a software-defined, continuous-flow, trigger-less data acquisition system for next-generation high-energy and nuclear-physics detectors. The project focused on radiation-hard photonic integrated circuits, remote optical illumination, dense wavelength-division multiplexing, and a differential microring-resonator transceiver architecture designed to improve high-speed optical link stability and bandwidth. The report describes project objectives, technical accomplishments, AIM Photonics tape-outs, bench characterization, radiation-hardness testing, deferred integration work, and potential applications beyond physics readout.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗