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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 271 records · Page 15
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2021

The effect of transient needle lift on the internal flow and near-nozzle spray characteristics for modern GDI systems investigated by high-speed X-ray imaging

The development of the injector nozzle is a dynamic area in regard of several technical aspects. At first, the internal flow influences the near-field spray characteristics via various phenomena such as cavitation and turbulence. However, these phenomena are not fully understood due to their extremely fast, complex and multiscale nature. Furthermore, it governs the spray targeting inside the combustion chamber. High-speed X-ray imaging of GDI injector nozzles is performed in this study. The experimental results presented are related to the internal flow and primary breakup of discharged liquid jets. The injectors used are equipped with nozzles made of aluminum which have been specially developed for these investigations to enhance optical accessibility. The visualization of the needle motion, in-nozzle flow and the primary breakup region provides several exciting observations. First, the needle lift tracking exhibits short overshooting right before the steady-state of the injection phase. Additionally, this event leads to a short-term, however, significant change in the associated performance of the breakup. This phenomenon is found to be a consequence of the transient behavior of the in-nozzle flow. It is shown that under some circumstances hydraulic flip may occur during this overshooting period. The primary jet breakup region is visualized and evaluated by means of image processing. Thus, the transient behavior of liquid jet expansion is quantified in the vicinity of the nozzle. It is observed that the liquid jet direction deviates from the hole axis already at the nozzle outlet, which is caused by internal flow characteristics.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2017

Observation of Downward Facing Pool Boiling on a Hemispherical Vessel under External Reactor Vessel Cooling

It is a great challenge to ensure the safety of nuclear power plant during a severe accident. One of the major concerns is to overheat the reactor core which potentially may create a nuclear crisis if the core cooling fails. The concept of In-vessel retention (IVR) by passive external reactor vessel cooling (ERVC) in a flooded cavity of pressurized water reactor (PWR) is a viable and effective approach to retain radioactive core melt within the reactor pressure vessel (RPV). As long as the heat flux at the lower head of the RPV is lower than the critical heat flux (CHF) limit at the corresponding point, nucleate boiling will be the prevailing regime. In that case, the temperature of outer surface can be maintained near the saturated temperature of water such that the reactor vessel is able to be sufficiently cooled to sustain its thermal and structural integrity. Owing to the practical significance of this IVR-ERVC concept, there were many experimental and theoretical studies to investigate the two-phase flow natural circulation phenomena including the effect of inclination angle on the CHF, based on which many different empirical or semiempirical correlations were developed for CHF by fitting the experimental results. For the engineering applications, reactor-scale facilities such as ULPU series, KAIST facility, CYBL and FIRM were built to experimentally verify and validate the feasibility of ERVC for different design of reactors. Besides, for the research on physical mechanism of downward facing pool boiling, laboratory-scale experiments such as DELTA, CASA and SBLB were performed to visually and theoretically simulate the process of IVR-ERVC. All of the aforementioned test facilities and experiments provided a simulation of the downward facing boiling process and experimental study on the CHF limits during the ERVC conditions of different types of reactors. There were also some visualized investigations on the two-phase flow behavior in both quenching and steady state experiments. In this study, a scale-down three-dimensional downward facing pool boiling facility (iSBLB) was built to investigate the two phase natural circulation flow characteristics during the ERVC process. The general morphologies of vapor mass at different locations were visually recorded using the high-speed camera. The observation results showed that vapor behavior along the hemispherical curved surface was periodical. The boiling phenomenon was quite different from those on all other surface orientations.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Rheo–Electric Foundations and Engineering of Carbon Slurry Flow Electrodes

Flowable carbon slurry electrodes promise continuous, scalable electrochemical desalination and energy storage when their rheology (flow and stability) and electronic connectivity are jointly optimized. This report integrates six complementary thrusts that we executed under the Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project: (i) a fast, ex situ, centrifuge-compatible method to quantify pellet (packed slurry) electronic conductivity, with a validated cell constant (“shape factor”) and quantitative structure–property insights for carbon mixtures; (ii) a controlled circulation study showing that peristaltic pumping can irreversibly alter particle size and morphology over laboratory-relevant durations; (iii) development of a miniature jet pump that preserves particle integrity while achieving entrainment ratios of 2–4 at practical flow rates; (iv) a comprehensive mapping of how a representative non-ionic surfactant (Tween 20) collapses the carbon gel network, separating network-percolation losses from intrinsic particle contact resistance; (v) in-situ visualization revealing how gravitational settling and flow-driven mixing compete to control charge transport, with dynamic bed layers preventing saturation while achieving 30-fold local concentration enhancement; and (vi) a simple, widely adoptable fabrication route to structured, gas-nitrided titanium nitride (TiN) titanium current collectors that dramatically lower interfacial losses and enable geometry-driven performance gains. Together, these results provide a coherent toolchain and design rules to accelerate formulation screening, de-risk device prototyping, and standardize characterization for carbon slurry electrodes in flow-electrode capacitive deionization (FCDI), electrochemical flow capacitor (EFC), and related systems.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2015

Evaluating the Efficacy of Wavelet Configurations on Turbulent-Flow Data

I/O is increasingly becoming a significant constraint for simulation codes and visualization tools on modern supercomputers. Data compression is an attractive workaround, and, in particular, wavelets provide a promising solution. However, wavelets can be applied in multiple configurations, and the variations in configuration impact accuracy, storage cost, and execution time. While the variation in these factors over wavelet configurations have been explored in image processing, they are not well understood for visualization and analysis of scientific data. To illuminate this issue, we evaluate multiple wavelet configurations on turbulent-flow data. Our approach is to repeat established analysis routines on uncompressed and lossy-compressed versions of a data set, and then quantitatively compare their outcomes. Our findings show that accuracy varies greatly based on wavelet configuration, while storage cost and execution time vary less. Overall, our study provides new insights for simulation analysts and visualization experts, who need to make tradeoffs between accuracy, storage cost, and execution time.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2019

X-Ray Phase Contrast Imaging of Liquid Film and Spray Development Inside an Aircraft Engine Swirler

Modern aircraft engines combine liquid fuel and air using an intricate flow device with many fuel and air flow passages. To date, the process by which the fuel atomizes within this swirler set has not been examined directly due to optical access limitations. In this work, high-speed X-ray phase-contrast imaging of a liquid spray inside a gas turbine engine swirler geometry is presented. Measurements were carried out at the 7-BM beamline of the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory using the high-energy broadband X-ray beam. The synchrotron X-ray source provides the necessary photon energy and flux to capture time-resolved fluid phenomena within the confines of the relevant geometry while liquid and air are flowing. Spray nozzle hardware and geometries were provided by the National Jet Fuels Combustion Program (NJFCP), allowing for characterization of the spray using a commercially relevant configuration. Modified swirlers were three-dimensional printed with acrylic to improve imaging access while maintaining influential internal features. Water was used as a surrogate fluid for these studies to demonstrate the visualization capabilities. The experiments were conducted at atmospheric exit pressure conditions with a pressure drop of 6% across the swirler. High-speed imaging of the pilot spray cone revealed sheet breakup several millimeters downstream of the orifice exit, upon interaction with the radial assist air flow. These droplets and ligaments were observed to impinge on the inner filming surface of the swirler and flow toward the exit while developing a tangential flow. Under these conditions, the liquid film grows up to several hundred microns in thickness on the filming surface, and subsequently forms ligaments up to several millimeters in length before breaking up. This work demonstrates the capability of X-ray diagnostics in visualizing liquid flows within solid geometries of technical relevance. Furthermore, the spatial quantification of filming flows and liquid interaction with the swirler air provides validation data for modeling of the multiphase flows and surface interactions within the swirler.

Sforzo, Brandon A.↗
DOE OSTI2016

Released air during vapor and air cavitation

Cavitation today is a very important problem that is solved by means of experimental and mathematical methods. The article deals with the generation of cavitation in convergent divergent nozzle of rectangular cross section. Measurement of pressure, flow rate, temperature, amount of dissolved air in the liquid and visualization of cavitation area using high-speed camera was performed for different flow rates. The measurement results were generalized by dimensionless analysis, which allows easy detection of cavitation in the nozzle. For numerical simulation the multiphase mathematical model of cavitation consisting of water and vapor was created. During verification the disagreement with the measurements for higher flow rates was proved, therefore the model was extended to multiphase mathematical model (water, vapor and air), due to release of dissolved air. For the mathematical modeling the multiphase turbulence RNG k-ε model for low Reynolds number flow with vapor and air cavitation was used. Subsequently the sizes of the cavitation area were verified. In article the inlet pressure and loss coefficient depending on the amount of air added to the mathematical model are evaluated. On the basis of the approach it may be create a methodology to estimate the amount of released air added at the inlet to the modeled area.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2019

Zunyimycin C inhibits the proliferation of lung cancer cells by inducing apoptosis through an AKT-related mechanism

Objective: Zunyimycin C is a novel halogenated type II polyketide derived from the fermentation product of the Streptomyces species with notable antibiotic activity. However, it is still unclear whether zunyimycin C could inhibit the activity of cancer cells. In this study, human lung adenocarcinoma cell line A549, the large-cell lung cancer cell line NCI-H460 and the non-small-cell lung cancer cell line NCI-H1299 were employed to determine the in vitro anticancer properties of zunyimycin C and underlying molecular mechanisms. Materials and methods: The cellular viability and proliferative properties of lung cancer cells were investigated using the Cell Counting Kit-8 and colony formation assay, respectively. The mRNA expression of apoptotic genes related to lung cancer was studied using reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction. The apoptotic ratio was measured through flow cytometry. The protein expression was visualized via western blotting using specific antibodies. Results: Zunyimycin C could inhibit cell proliferation and induce apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner. The expression levels of apoptosis-related proteins (i.e., BAX, cleaved-caspase-3, and cleaved-caspase-9) were increased compared with the control group. However, the levels of Bcl-2 and phosphorylated AKT were decreased by administration by zunyimycin C. Conclusions: Collectively, these results implied that zunyimycin C could inhibit cell proliferation and induce apoptosis via AKT phosphorylation.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2014

Physics of lithium bromide (LiBr) solution dewatering through vapor venting membranes

The physics of water desorption from a lithium bromide (LiBr) solution flow through an array of microchannels capped by a porous membrane is studied. The membrane allows the vapor to exit the flow and retains the liquid. Effects of different parameters such as wall temperature, solution and vapor pressures, and solution mass flux on the desorption rate were studied. Two different mechanisms of desorption are analyzed. These mechanisms consisted of: (1) direct diffusion of water molecules out of the solution and their subsequent flow through the membrane and (2) formation of water vapor bubbles within the solution and their venting through the membrane. Direct diffusion was the dominant desorption mode at low surface temperatures and its magnitude was directly related to the vapor pressure, the solution concentration, and the heated wall temperature. Desorption at the boiling regime was predominantly controlled by the solution flow pressure and mass flux. Microscale visualization studies suggested that at a critical mass flux, some bubbles are carried out of the desorber through the solution microchannels rather than being vented through the membrane. Overall, an order of magnitude higher desorption rate compare to a previous study on a membrane-based desorber was achieved. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Isfahani, RN↗
DOE OSTI2024

Hypersonic Wake Velocity Measurements Using Acetone Molecular Tagging Velocimetry

A non-intrusive laser diagnostic known as molecular tagging velocimetry was used to find quantitative off-body velocity measurements in the wake of a sphere in the Mach 7 Ludwieg Tube Wind Tunnel located at The University of Texas at San Antonio. Acetone gas seeded in the flow was excited using the 4th harmonic of a pulse-burst Nd:YAG laser. The experimental results were used to validate and compare to simulations using a continuous Galerkin flow solver. Both the experimental and simulated results agreed on negative velocities in the viscous shear layer. Near the centerline of the sphere, average velocities of -200 m/s were observed due to reverse flow in the recirculation region. Outside of the shear layer, velocities of 800 m/s were observed in both the experimental and simulated results. The overall average uncertainty for the strut-mounted and free-flight case was estimated to be ±27 m/s. The flow features of the wake were visualized using schlieren imaging, and the experimental results agreed well with the simulated results.

Shoemake, Lawton↗
DOE OSTI2016

Effects of liquid subcooling and initial rod temperature on the minimum film boiling temperature

This paper presents an experimental study on the minimum film boiling temperature (T{sub min}) and its sensitivity to liquid subcooling and initial rod temperature. T{sub min} is measured through a quenching experiment using a vertical stainless steel rod that is quenched in a distilled water bath. The cylindrical stainless steel rod has a flat circular end with diameter of 9.5 mm similar to that of a fuel rod and length of 25 cm. Physically, T{sub min} is used to define the boundary between film boiling and transition boiling, beyond which temperature liquid would not be able to come into physical contact with the solid surface. Results show that the quenching curves are affected by varying the liquid subcooling but are not significantly altered by the initial rod temperature. Additionally, the experiments include visualization of the boiling regimes. The visualization gives insight into the film flow behavior that is found to depend strongly on the liquid subcooling. It also provides an understanding of the phenomenon for quench front axial propagation (authors)

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Comparison of Planar and Tubular Flow Field Plates for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFCs) through Simulation

Proton exchange membrane fuel cells are excellent clean energy alternatives to current non-renewable energy sources. Bipolar plates are a key component of these fuel cells and directly responsible for their performance. Traditional bipolar plates are created in a planar form, but recent research has revealed a novel tubular design that performs similarly to conventional plates. Here, this study compares traditional planar designs with tubular ones. The finite element ANSYS software was used to determine and visualize velocity and pressure distributions of fluid flow through the bipolar plate channels.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2017

Crystalline and Crystalline International Disposal Activities

This report presents the results of work conducted between September 2015 and July 2016 at Los Alamos National Laboratory in the crystalline disposal and crystalline international disposal work packages of the Used Fuel Disposition Campaign (UFDC) for DOE-NE’s Fuel Cycle Research and Development program. Los Alamos focused on two main activities during this period: Discrete fracture network (DFN) modeling to describe flow and radionuclide transport in complex fracture networks that are typical of crystalline rock environments, and a comprehensive interpretation of three different colloid-facilitated radionuclide transport experiments conducted in a fractured granodiorite at the Grimsel Test Site in Switzerland between 2002 and 2013. Chapter 1 presents the results of the DFN work and is divided into three main sections: (1) we show results of our recent study on the correlation between fracture size and fracture transmissivity (2) we present an analysis and visualization prototype using the concept of a flow topology graph for characterization of discrete fracture networks, and (3) we describe the Crystalline International work in support of the Swedish Task Force. Chapter 2 presents interpretation of the colloidfacilitated radionuclide transport experiments in the crystalline rock at the Grimsel Test Site.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Macrovoid resolved simulations of transport through HPRO relevant membrane geometries

Modeling the transport properties such as diffusivity and permeability of high pressure reverse osmosis (HPRO) membranes is critical for the selection and manufacture of membranes suitable for operation under high pressure. These properties can be significantly affected by the changes in heterogeneous pore structures due to compaction. Here, the modeling platform presented in this work resolves the two scale porosity in HPRO relevant membranes. A synthetic membrane geometry is constructed based on available experimental visualizations of pore structures. The simulations directly capture the flow channeling that results from a combination of material properties and geometric features of the macrovoids. A parametric study is presented to account for the transition of flow characteristics from a material governed regime to a macrovoid governed regime. Permeability of the membrane is evaluated using the simulation data and compared with an existing model that scales with the square of tortuosity over a range of material properties. The model is found to perform well under a narrow range of tortuosity while deviating from the calculated permeabilities at extreme conditions. The effective permeability of the membrane is found to vary by at least two orders of magnitude between the two flow regimes. It is also observed that tortuosity is a bounded property with its upper limit determined by the macrovoid geometry. Consequently, the tortuosity based correlations fail near a flow regime that is mainly governed by the macrovoids. The modeled permeability can be more than an order of magnitude smaller than the simulation result. A new model based on flux-weighted porosity of a membrane is introduced and its correlation with tortuosity is studied. The model agrees with the simulated data as, in addition to tortuosity, it also accounts for the flux partition within and outside the flow channels. Such correlations enable extending the existing understanding of flow characteristics to enhance predictability of porous media models.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2020

Geometry-Driven Detection, Tracking and Visual Analysis of Viscous and Gravitational Fingers

Viscous and gravitational flow instabilities cause a displacement front to break up into finger-like fluids. The detection and evolutionary analysis of these fingering instabilities are critical in multiple scientific disciplines such as fluid mechanics and hydrogeology. However, previous detection methods of the viscous and gravitational fingers are based on density thresholding, which provides limited geometric information of the fingers. The geometric structures of fingers and their evolution are important yet little studied in the literature. In this work, we explore the geometric detection and evolution of the fingers in detail to elucidate the dynamics of the instability. Additionally, we propose a ridge voxel detection method to guide the extraction of finger cores from three-dimensional (3D) scalar fields. After skeletonizing finger cores into skeletons, we design a spanning tree based approach to capture how fingers branch spatially from the finger skeletons. Finally, we devise a novel geometric-glyph augmented tracking graph to study how the fingers and their branches grow, merge, and split over time. Feedback from earth scientists demonstrates the usefulness of our approach to performing spatio-temporal geometric analyses of fingers.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2025

CO2 hydrate crystal thickening, morphology, and Raman spectroscopy in a microfluidic device

Gas hydrates are a solid, crystalline form of water that often form at low temperatures and high pressures. Carbon dioxide (CO2) hydrates may form during carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) processes. These solid compounds may form in CO2 pipelines, potentially leading to a full blockage and process shutdown for plug removal. On the other hand, formation of CO2 hydrates may be desired for CO2 capture and separation. In either case, understanding the growth behavior and nature of the hydrates is vital to managing these CCS processes. Using a high-pressure, transparent microfluidic reactor, the crystalline film thickening of CO2 hydrates was observed and measured through visual microscopy and Raman spectroscopy. The impact of subcooling, pressure, and CO2 flow rate was investigated, and only CO2 flow rate was found to have a significant impact on the overall thickness of the film. Visual observations and Raman spectroscopy measurements confirmed that two distinct hydrate layers formed during thickening, one which was more porous than the other. The capillary-like channels in the porous layer indicated a mechanism for mass transfer of water through the hydrate layer. A model was developed based on this observation, and it was fit to the thickening data in order to obtain mass transfer coefficients. Results of this study can be applied to CO2 hydrate formation in pipelines and near porous media used for CO2 capture.

Wadsworth, Lindsey [Colorado School of Mines, Gold↗
DOE OSTI2014

Comparison of electrical capacitance tomography and gamma densitometer measurement in viscous oil-gas flows

Multiphase flow is a common occurrence in industries such as nuclear, process, oil and gas, food and chemical. A prior knowledge of its features and characteristics is essential in the design, control and management of such processes due to its complex nature. Electrical Capacitance Tomography (ECT) and Gamma Densitometer (Gamma) are two promising approaches for multiphase visualization and characterization in process industries. In two phase oil and gas flow, ECT and Gamma are used in multiphase flow monitoring techniques due to their inherent simplicity, robustness, and an ability to withstand wide range of operational temperatures and pressures. High viscous oil (viscosity > 100 cP) is of interest because of its huge reserves, technological advances in its production and unlike conventional oil (oil viscosity < 100 cP) and gas flows where ECT and Gamma have been previously used, high viscous oil and gas flows comes with certain associated concerns which include; increased entrainment of gas bubbles dispersed in oil, shorter and more frequent slugs as well as oil film coatings on the walls of flowing conduits. This study aims to determine the suitability of both devices in the visualization and characterization of high-viscous oil and gas flow. Static tests are performed with both devices and liquid holdup measurements are obtained. Dynamic experiments were also conducted in a 1 and 3 inch facility at Cranfield University with a range of nominal viscosities (1000, 3000 and 7500 cP). Plug, slug and wavy annular flow patterns were identified by means of Probability Mass Function and time series analysis of the data acquired from Gamma and ECT devices with high speed camera used to validate the results. Measured Liquid holdups for both devices were also compared.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2022

Netostat: analyzing dynamic flow patterns in high-speed networks

Understanding flow traffic patterns in networks, such as the Internet or service provider networks, is crucial to improving their design and building them robustly. However, as networks grow and become more complex, it is increasingly cumbersome and challenging to study how the many flow patterns, sizes and the continually changing source-destination pairs in the network evolve with time. Here, we present Netostat, a visualization-based network analysis tool that uses visual representation and a mathematics framework to study and capture flow patterns, using graph theoretical methods such as clustering, similarity and difference measures. Netostat generates an interactive graph of all traffic patterns in the network, to isolate key elements that can provide insights for traffic engineering. We present results for U.S. and European research networks, ESnet and GEANT, demonstrating network state changes, to identify major flow trends, potential points of failure, and bottlenecks.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗