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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2017

H2@Scale Workshop Report

Final report from the H2@Scale Workshop held November 16-17, 2016, at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado. The U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory hosted a technology workshop to identify the current barriers and research needs of the H2@Scale concept. H2@Scale is a concept regarding the potential for wide-scale impact of hydrogen produced from diverse domestic resources to enhance U.S. energy security and enable growth of innovative technologies and domestic industries. Feedback received from a diverse set of stakeholders at the workshop will guide the development of an H2@Scale roadmap for research, development, and early stage demonstration activities that can enable hydrogen as an energy carrier at a national scale.

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION↗
DOE OSTI2020

Hydropower Geotechnical Foundations: Current Practice and Innovation Opportunities for Low-Head Applications

Hydropower is a renewable energy resource that produces electricity from flowing water under pressure. Engineered hydropower structures, such as dams, are used to create a hydraulic head, enabling a turbinegenerator unit to convert pressurized flow into electricity. While hydropower has been a source of renewable energy since antiquity, new development in the United States has slowed in recent decades. Based on recent resource assessments, the largest opportunity to expand hydropower in the United States is from new stream-reach development (i.e., new hydropower development along stream-reaches that do not currently have hydroelectric facilities or other forms of infrastructure, such as dams). Roughly 75% of identified new stream-reach development potential is from low-head sites (less than 30 ft of head), which typically suffer from smaller power densities and higher normalized costs, given economies of scale. Hydropower developers and other stakeholders are thus interested in strategies to reduce initial capital costs while practicing sustainable development to maximize environmental compatibility with minimal disruption to natural aquatic life, sediment, and water flows. Historically, civil works have represented a significant cost driver for new hydropower development, with the foundation system representing a major cost component and source of uncertainty. The foundation system is the collection of engineered structural features (e.g. cutoff trenches, walls, grouting, anchors) constructed at or below the preconstruction ground surface that interfaces between the overlying structures (superstructures) and the bed material below (subsurface). Development of a hydropower foundation system must consider the various characteristics of the surrounding stream environment and subsurface while adhering to the engineering requirements of the superstructure that it supports. The care of water, excavation, and other construction activities are important features of foundation design and construction. The design and construction cost of the foundation system is largely dependent on the site geology and riverbed composition and is influenced by the level of geotechnical assessment required and conducted. Thus, a hydropower facility’s geotechnical foundation is often highly site-specific, with proper site selection and assessment being important to project success. The foundation system is designed to provide structural stability (of the foundation and dam), limit seepage, ensure public safety, and maintain functionality for the project life, during both construction and facility operations. Inadequate foundation or dam design can result in dam failure and the uncontrolled release of significant volumes of water, which could cause a high number of casualties and extensive property damage downstream of the failure. According to the Association of State Dam Safety Officials, approximately 30% of all historical dam failures in the United States are attributed to foundation or abutment defects, and another 20% are attributed to piping or seepage through the embankment, foundation, or abutment. To ameliorate these safety considerations, foundations often require massive amounts of construction material (e.g., grout, concrete, engineered dam fill) and long construction times. Foundation design also requires significant analysis prior to construction because the initial in-stream and abutment subsurface conditions are site-specific, and sufficient data for them often are lacking. Current practice requires on-site assessment, using expensive drilling and invasive and non-invasive investigation methods, to determine the expected cost of foundation material and treatment. Additionally, foundation construction often requires site dewatering (and other care of water activities), which involves constructing temporary diversion structures upstream and often downstream, called cofferdams, and water diversion systems that route water around the construction site. Cofferdams and water diversion systems can drastically increase construction costs and contribute to environmental disruption, including modification of flow patterns and benthic habitats. Given the technical, economic, and environmental challenges associated with hydropower foundations, opportunities exist to improve the current state of practice and to develop new and innovative solutions to Hydropower is a renewable energy resource that produces electricity from flowing water under pressure. Engineered hydropower structures, such as dams, are used to create a hydraulic head, enabling a turbinegenerator unit to convert pressurized flow into electricity. While hydropower has been a source of renewable energy since antiquity, new development in the United States has slowed in recent decades. Based on recent resource assessments, the largest opportunity to expand hydropower in the United States is from new stream-reach development (i.e., new hydropower development along stream-reaches that do not currently have hydroelectric facilities or other forms of infrastructure, such as dams). Roughly 75% of identified new stream-reach development potential is from low-head sites (less than 30 ft of head), which typically suffer from smaller power densities and higher normalized costs, given economies of scale. Hydropower developers and other stakeholders are thus interested in strategies to reduce initial capital costs while practicing sustainable development to maximize environmental compatibility with minimal disruption to natural aquatic life, sediment, and water flows. Historically, civil works have represented a significant cost driver for new hydropower development, with the foundation system representing a major cost component and source of uncertainty. The foundation system is the collection of engineered structural features (e.g. cutoff trenches, walls, grouting, anchors) constructed at or below the preconstruction ground surface that interfaces between the overlying structures (superstructures) and the bed material below (subsurface). Development of a hydropower foundation system must consider the various characteristics of the surrounding stream environment and subsurface while adhering to the engineering requirements of the superstructure that it supports. The care of water, excavation, and other construction activities are important features of foundation design and construction. The design and construction cost of the foundation system is largely dependent on the site geology and riverbed composition and is influenced by the level of geotechnical assessment required and conducted. Thus, a hydropower facility’s geotechnical foundation is often highly site-specific, with proper site selection and assessment being important to project success. The foundation system is designed to provide structural stability (of the foundation and dam), limit seepage, ensure public safety, and maintain functionality for the project life, during both construction and facility operations. Inadequate foundation or dam design can result in dam failure and the uncontrolled release of significant volumes of water, which could cause a high number of casualties and extensive property damage downstream of the failure. According to the Association of State Dam Safety Officials, approximately 30% of all historical dam failures in the United States are attributed to foundation or abutment defects, and another 20% are attributed to piping or seepage through the embankment, foundation, or abutment. To ameliorate these safety considerations, foundations often require massive amounts of construction material (e.g., grout, concrete, engineered dam fill) and long construction times. Foundation design also requires significant analysis prior to construction because the initial in-stream and abutment subsurface conditions are site-specific, and sufficient data for them often are lacking. Current practice requires on-site assessment, using expensive drilling and invasive and non-invasive investigation methods, to determine the expected cost of foundation material and treatment. Additionally, foundation construction often requires site dewatering (and other care of water activities), which involves constructing temporary diversion structures upstream and often downstream, called cofferdams, and water diversion systems that route water around the construction site. Cofferdams and water diversion systems can drastically increase construction costs and contribute to environmental disruption, including modification of flow patterns and benthic habitats. Given the technical, economic, and environmental challenges associated with hydropower foundations, opportunities exist to improve the current state of practice and to develop new and innovative solutions to challenges frequently encountered with traditional approaches. With this understanding, it is critically important to understand and document the current state of practice for hydropower geotechnical foundations, identify key challenges, and define opportunities for innovative solutions. To this end, this report documents the current state of practice across the three main phases of geotechnical foundation development: (1) geotechnical site assessment, (2) design, and (3) construction for hydropower systems. It also describes the major challenges with conventional approaches and identifies opportunities for innovation to reduce hydropower foundations costs, timelines, and risks. Key takeaways from this report include the following: Approximately 80% of available low-head sites are expected to have foundations on soil beds rather than rock beds, suggesting that rockfill and earthfill dams may be the most cost-effective conventional dam type for new projects.; Geotechnical and geologic investigation activities are time-consuming and expensive but are essential to define the parameters and criteria needed for foundation design.; Certain riverbed soil and bedrock types present significant technical challenges or require expensive foundation construction, which can prove financially prohibitive for low-head project development.; Modular hydropower design and prefabricated modular foundations represent a promising but unproven paradigm for new hydropower development. Design and construction approaches using optimized and highly repeatable, reliable components would benefit project cost, time, and risk but require additional research and development.; Temporary construction features for foundations, including cofferdams, water diversion, and water control systems, can prove costly and have inherent construction risk.; For economically viable development, hydropower geotechnical foundations should be limited to 4 to 15% of the project’s total initial capital costs. Many proposed projects have experienced cost overruns attributable to foundation difficulties or surprises during construction. These overruns may have been due to inadequate investigations, lack of adequate engineering effort to tailor the structures to site geology and topography, and/or contractual terms, among other considerations.; Challenges for hydropower foundations and opportunities for innovative technology solutions are identified in the following areas (consistent with the three main phases of foundation development): Geotechnical site assessment, Foundation design and materials, Construction methods and technology. Ultimately, this report aims to provide information about geotechnical foundations for low-head hydropower and to motivate transformative technologies to support hydropower growth.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2010

Earthquake Response Modeling for a Parked and Operating Megawatt-Scale Wind Turbine

Demand parameters for turbines, such as tower moment demand, are primarily driven by wind excitation and dynamics associated with operation. For that purpose, computational simulation platforms have been developed, such as FAST, maintained by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). For seismically active regions, building codes also require the consideration of earthquake loading.Historically, it has been common to use simple building code approaches to estimate the structural demand from earthquake shaking, as an independent loading scenario. Currently, International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) design requirements include the consideration of earthquake shaking while the turbine is operating. Numerical and analytical tools used to consider earthquake loads forbuildings and other static civil structures are not well suited for modeling simultaneous wind and earthquake excitation in conjunction with operational dynamics. Through the addition of seismic loading capabilities to FAST, it is possible to simulate earthquake shaking in the time domain, which allows consideration of non-linear effects such as structural nonlinearities, aerodynamic hysteresis,control system influence, and transients. This paper presents a FAST model of a modern 900-kW wind turbine, which is calibrated based on field vibration measurements. With this calibrated model, both coupled and uncoupled simulations are conducted looking at the structural demand for the turbine tower. Response is compared under the conditions of normal operation and potential emergency shutdowndue the earthquake induced vibrations. The results highlight the availability of a numerical tool for conducting such studies, and provide insights into the combined wind-earthquake loading mechanism.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

Resistive magnetohydrodynamics simulations of the ideal tearing mode

We study the linear and nonlinear evolution of the tearing instability on thin current sheets by means of two-dimensional numerical simulations, within the framework of compressible, resistive MHD. In particular we analyze the behavior of current sheets whose inverse aspect ratio scales with the Lundquist number S as S{sup −1/3}. This scaling has been recently recognized to yield the threshold separating fast, ideal reconnection, with an evolution and growth that are independent of S provided this is high enough, as it should be natural having the ideal case as a limit for S→∞. Our simulations confirm that the tearing instability growth rate can be as fast as γ≈0.6 τ{sub A}{sup −1}, where τ{sub A} is the ideal Alfvénic time set by the macroscopic scales, for our least diffusive case with S=10{sup 7}. The expected instability dispersion relation and eigenmodes are also retrieved in the linear regime, for the values of S explored here. Moreover, in the nonlinear stage of the simulations we observe secondary events obeying the same critical scaling with S, here calculated on the local, much smaller lengths, leading to increasingly faster reconnection. These findings strongly support the idea that in a fully dynamic regime, as soon as current sheets develop, thin, and reach this critical threshold in their aspect ratio, the tearing mode is able to trigger plasmoid formation and reconnection on the local (ideal) Alfvénic timescales, as required to explain the explosive flaring activity often observed in solar and astrophysical plasmas.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2012

Decision Insight into Stakeholder Conflict for ERN

Participatory modeling has become an important tool in facilitating resource decision making and dispute resolution. Approaches to modeling that are commonly used in this context often do not adequately account for important human factors. Current techniques provide insights into how certain human activities and variables affect resource outcomes; however, they do not directly simulate the complex variables that shape how, why, and under what conditions different human agents behave in ways that affect resources and human interactions related to them. Current approaches also do not adequately reveal how the effects of individual decisions scale up to have systemic level effects in complex resource systems. This lack of integration prevents the development of more robust models to support decision making and dispute resolution processes. Development of integrated tools is further hampered by the fact that collection of primary data for decision-making modeling is costly and time consuming. This project seeks to develop a new approach to resource modeling that incorporates both technical and behavioral modeling techniques into a single decision-making architecture. The modeling platform is enhanced by use of traditional and advanced processes and tools for expedited data capture. Specific objectives of the project are: (1) Develop a proof of concept for a new technical approach to resource modeling that combines the computational techniques of system dynamics and agent based modeling, (2) Develop an iterative, participatory modeling process supported with traditional and advance data capture techniques that may be utilized to facilitate decision making, dispute resolution, and collaborative learning processes, and (3) Examine potential applications of this technology and process. The development of this decision support architecture included both the engineering of the technology and the development of a participatory method to build and apply the technology. Stakeholder interaction with the model and associated data capture was facilitated through two very different modes of engagement, one a standard interface involving radio buttons, slider bars, graphs and plots, while the other utilized an immersive serious gaming interface. The decision support architecture developed through this project was piloted in the Middle Rio Grande Basin to examine how these tools might be utilized to promote enhanced understanding and decision-making in the context of complex water resource management issues. Potential applications of this architecture and its capacity to lead to enhanced understanding and decision-making was assessed through qualitative interviews with study participants who represented key stakeholders in the basin.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2020

Fabricated ecosystem workshop: bridging laboratory to field science. Workshop report.

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) scientists held a workshop at the DOE BER Genomic Sciences PI meeting on the use of Fabricated Ecosystems in Washington D.C. on February 25th, 2020. Ecosystem fabrication is an approach to creating controlled microbial, soil and plant ecologies within a laboratory setting that enable discovery and dissection of environmental variables, activities, and interactions. At Berkeley Lab, we are developing two systems which span spatial and temporal scales — the EcoFAB and the EcoPOD. The participants of the workshop discussed the potential applications and challenges of using fabricated ecosystems as tools to tackle BER-relevant scientific questions. Specifically, they identified (1) research challenges that would benefit from ready access to this infrastructure (2) identified and prioritized technical challenges that currently limit these systems and (3) discussed how to use them to bridge the gap between lab and field research. To ensure that the fabricated ecosystems , in particular the larger-scale EcoPODs, are of use to as much of the BER community as possible, the workshop participants made the following recommendations: 1. Produce publicly available datasets for a set of control variables. Use for benchmarking, and assessing reproducibility between systems. 2. Implement data standards. 3. Develop/leverage nano/micro sensors and in situ root imaging. 4. Encourage the development of interdisciplinary teams to develop EcoPOD experiments. 5. Develop fabricated ecosystems with size and complexity that sits between the EcoFAB and EcoPOD to accelerate use and access.

42 ENGINEERING↗
NASA NTRS1998

Development of a Rotor-Body Coupled Analysis for an Active Mount Aeroelastic Rotor Testbed

At the Langley Research Center an active mount rotorcraft testbed is being developed for use in the Langley Transonic Dynamics Tunnel. This testbed, the second generation version of the Aeroelastic Rotor Experimental System (ARES-II), can impose rotor hub motions and measure the response so that rotor-body coupling phenomena may be investigated. An analytical method for coupling an aeroelastically scaled model rotor system to the ARES-II is developed in the current study. Models of the testbed and the rotor system are developed in independent analyses, and an impedance-matching approach is used to couple the rotor system to the testbed. The development of the analytical models and the coupling method is examined, and individual and coupled results are presented for the testbed and rotor system. Coupled results are presented with and without applied hub motion, and system loads and displacements are examined. The results show that a closed-loop control system is necessary to achieve desired hub motions, that proper modeling requires including the loads at the rotor hub and rotor control system, and that the strain-gauge balance placed in the rotating system of the ARES-II provided the best loads results.

Wilbur, Matthew L.↗
DOE OSTI2011

Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) Waste Integrated Performance and Safety Codes (IPSC) : FY10 development and integration.

This report describes the progress in fiscal year 2010 in developing the Waste Integrated Performance and Safety Codes (IPSC) in support of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) Campaign. The goal of the Waste IPSC is to develop an integrated suite of computational modeling and simulation capabilities to quantitatively assess the long-term performance of waste forms in the engineered and geologic environments of a radioactive waste storage or disposal system. The Waste IPSC will provide this simulation capability (1) for a range of disposal concepts, waste form types, engineered repository designs, and geologic settings, (2) for a range of time scales and distances, (3) with appropriate consideration of the inherent uncertainties, and (4) in accordance with robust verification, validation, and software quality requirements. Waste IPSC activities in fiscal year 2010 focused on specifying a challenge problem to demonstrate proof of concept, developing a verification and validation plan, and performing an initial gap analyses to identify candidate codes and tools to support the development and integration of the Waste IPSC. The current Waste IPSC strategy is to acquire and integrate the necessary Waste IPSC capabilities wherever feasible, and develop only those capabilities that cannot be acquired or suitably integrated, verified, or validated. This year-end progress report documents the FY10 status of acquisition, development, and integration of thermal-hydrologic-chemical-mechanical (THCM) code capabilities, frameworks, and enabling tools and infrastructure.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
NASA NTRS1992

Modeling of turbulent shear flows

The current progress is documented in the research and development of modeling techniques for turbulent shear flows. These include a two-scale model for compressible turbulent flows and a new energy transfer model. The former represents the status of the efforts to identify compressibility effects in turbulence. The energy transfer model refines a weakly nonlinear wave model developed earlier, which models directly the turbulent large structures. The objective of these activities is to develop second-order closures for compressible turbulent flows.

Liou, William W.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Flow Components in a NaK Test Loop Designed to Simulate Conditions in a Nuclear Surface Power Reactor

A test loop using NaK as the working fluid is presently in use to study material compatibility effects on various components that comprise a possible nuclear reactor design for use on the lunar surface. A DC electromagnetic (EM) pump has been designed and implemented as a means of actively controlling the NaK flow rate through the system and an EM flow sensor is employed to monitor the developed flow rate. These components allow for the matching of the flow rate conditions in test loops with those that would be found in a full-scale surface-power reactor. The design and operating characteristics of the EM pump and flow sensor are presented. In the EM pump, current is applied to a set of electrodes to produce a Lorentz body force in the fluid. A measurement of the induced voltage (back-EMF) in the flow sensor provides the means of monitoring flow rate. Both components are compact, employing high magnetic field strength neodymium magnets thermally coupled to a water-cooled housing. A vacuum gap limits the heat transferred from the high temperature NaK tube to the magnets and a magnetically-permeable material completes the magnetic circuit. The pump is designed to produce a pressure rise of 5 psi, and the flow sensor's predicted output is roughly 20 mV at the loop's nominal flow rate of 0.5 GPM.

Polzin, Kurt A.↗
DOE OSTI2013

A STUDY OF FAST FLARELESS CORONAL MASS EJECTIONS

Two major processes have been proposed to convert coronal magnetic energy into the kinetic energy of a coronal mass ejection (CME): resistive magnetic reconnection and the ideal macroscopic magnetohydrodynamic instability of a magnetic flux rope. However, it remains elusive whether both processes play a comparable role or one of them prevails during a particular eruption. To shed light on this issue, we carefully studied energetic but flareless CMEs, i.e., fast CMEs not accompanied by any flares. Through searching the Coordinated Data Analysis Workshops database of CMEs observed in Solar Cycle 23, we found 13 such events with speeds larger than 1000 km s{sup -1}. Other common observational features of these events are: (1) none of them originated in active regions, they were associated with eruptions of well-developed long filaments in quiet-Sun regions; (2) no apparent enhancement of flare emissions was present in soft X-ray, EUV, and microwave data. Further studies of two events reveal that (1) the reconnection electric fields, as inferred from the product of the separation speed of post-eruption ribbons and the photospheric magnetic field measurement, were generally weak; (2) the period with a measurable reconnection electric field is considerably shorter than the total filament-CME acceleration time. These observations indicate that for these fast CMEs, the magnetic energy was released mainly via the ideal flux-rope instability through the work done by the large-scale Lorentz force acting on the rope currents rather than via magnetic reconnections. We also suggest that reconnections play a less important role in accelerating CMEs in quiet-Sun regions of weak magnetic field than those in active regions of strong magnetic field.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2012

Research and Development of a Low Cost Solar Collector

This is a Final Technical Report on the Research and Development completed towards the development of a Low Cost Solar Collector conducted under the DOE cost-sharing award EE-0003591. The objective of this project was to develop a new class of solar concentrators with geometries and manufacturability that could significantly reduce the fully installed cost of the solar collector field for concentrated solar thermal power plants. The goal of the project was to achieve an aggressive cost target of $\$$170/m 2 , a reduction of up to 50% in the total installed cost of a solar collector field as measured against the current industry benchmark of a conventional parabolic trough. The project plan, and the detailed activities conducted under the scope of the DOE Award project addressed all major drivers that affect solar collector costs. In addition to costs, the study also focused on evaluating technical performance of new collector architectures and compared them to the performance of the industry benchmark parabolic trough. The most notable accomplishment of this DOE award was the delivery of a full-scale integrated design, manufacturing and field installation solution for a new class of solar collector architecture which has been classified as the Bi-Planar Fresnel Collector (BPFC) and may be considered as a viable alternative to the conventional parabolic trough, as well as the conventional Fresnel collectors. This was in part accomplished through the design and development, all the way through fabrication and test validation of a new class of Linear Planar Fresnel Collector architecture. This architecture offers a number of key differentiating features which include a planar light-weight frame geometry with small mass-manufacturable elements utilizing flat mirror sections. The designs shows significant promise in reducing the material costs, fabrication costs, shipping costs, and on-site field installation costs compared to the benchmark parabolic trough, as well as the conventional Fresnel collector. The noteworthy design features of the BPFC architecture include the use of relatively cheaper flat mirrors and a design which allows the mirror support beam sections to act as load-bearing structural elements resulting in more than a 36% reduction in the overall structural weight compared to an optimized parabolic trough. Also, it was shown that the utilization of small mass-produced elements significantly lowers mass-production and logistics costs that can more quickly deliver economies of scale, even for smaller installations while also reducing shipping and installation costs. Moreover, unlike the traditional Fresnel trough the BPFC architecture does not require complex articulating drive mechanisms but instead utilizes a standard parabolic trough hydraulic drive mechanism. In addition to the development of the Bi-Planar Fresnel Collector, an optimized conventional space-frame type parabolic trough was also designed, built, analyzed and field-tested during the first phase of this award. The design of the conventional space-frame parabolic collector was refined with extensive FEA and CFD analysis to reduce material costs and re-designed for simpler fabrication and more accurate lower-cost field assembly. This optimized parabolic trough represented an improvement over the state-of-the art of the traditional parabolic trough architecture and also served as a more rigorous and less subjective benchmark that was used for comparison of new candidate design architectures. The results of the expanded 1 st phase of the DOE award project showed that both the Optimized Parabolic Trough and the new Bi-Planar Fresnel Collector design concepts failed to meet the primary objectives for the project of achieving a 50% cost reduction from the industry reference total installed cost of $\$$350/m 2 . Results showed that the BPFC came in at projected total installed cost of $\$$237/m 2 representing a 32% savings compared to the industry benchmark conventional parabolic trough. And the cost reduction obtained by the Optimized Parabolic Trough compared to the industry benchmark reference was approximately 16.5% against the industry benchmark. The new BPFC design showed a weight savings of almost 36% compared to the optimized parabolic trough and a 50% reduction in field assembly labor and a 13% reduction in shipping volume. The BPFC design showed only a marginal improvement of 16% over the fully projected installed cost of the optimized parabolic trough benchmark developed as Concept One. During the course of the investigation numerous sensitivity analyses and other analytical studies were conducted to assess potential improvement opportunities, and further optimizations that could lead to cost reductions and performance improvements. Factors that could have a significant impact on high-volume costs were related to production and further improvements in design for manufacturability, automation, assembly jigs, and fixtures, and robotic welding etc. The wind modeling analysis showed that the Fresnel design concept did not reduce the wind load in a significant manner. The stress analysis showed that the design concept with almost a 36% lower weight than the parabolic trough and it was strong enough to withstand the expected wind loads and maintain targeting accuracy. The Initial on-sun optical testing showed that the Fresnel Trough was capable of concentrating sunlight effectively to the desired target and yielding an optical efficiency slightly lower than a parabolic trough.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2018

ECP Software Technology Capability Assessment Report

The Exascale Computing Project (ECP) Software Technology (ST) Focus Area is responsible for developing critical software capabilities that will enable successful execution of ECP applications, and for providing key components of a productive and sustainable Exascale computing ecosystem that will position the US Department of Energy (DOE) and the broader high performance (HPC) community with a rm foundation for future extreme-scale computing capabilities. This ECP ST Capability Assessment Report (CAR) provides an overview and assessment of current ECP ST capabilities and activities, giving stakeholders and the broader HPC community information that can be used to assess ECP ST progress and plan their own efforts accordingly. ECP ST leaders commit to updating this document on regular basis (targeting approximately every six months). Highlights from the report are presented here.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2020

ECP Software Technology Capability Assessment Report

The Exascale Computing Project (ECP) Software Technology (ST) Focus Area is responsible for developing critical software capabilities that will enable successful execution of ECP applications, and for providing key components of a productive and sustainable Exascale computing ecosystem that will position the US Department of Energy (DOE) and the broader high performance (HPC) community with a firm foundation for future extreme-scale computing capabilities. This ECP ST Capability Assessment Report (CAR) provides an overview and assessment of current ECP ST capabilities and activities, giving stakeholders and the broader HPC community information that can be used to assess ECP ST progress and plan their own efforts accordingly. ECP ST leaders commit to updating this document on regular basis (every six to 12 months).

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2020

ECP Software Technology Capability Assessment Report

The Exascale Computing Project (ECP) Software Technology (ST) Focus Area is responsible for developing critical software capabilities that will enable successful execution of ECP applications, and for providing key components of a productive and sustainable Exascale computing ecosystem that will position the US Department of Energy (DOE) and the broader high performance (HPC) community with a firm foundation for future extreme-scale computing capabilities. This ECP ST Capability Assessment Report (CAR) provides an overview and assessment of current ECP ST capabilities and activities, giving stakeholders and the broader HPC community information that can be used to assess ECP ST progress and plan their own efforts accordingly. ECP ST leaders commit to updating this document on regular basis (every six to 12 months).

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
NASA NTRS1998

Magnetospheric Substorm Electrodynamics

It was proposed that the expansion phase of substorms results from a reduction in the large-scale electric field imparted to the magnetosphere from the solar wind, following a greater than or equal to 30 min growth phase due to an enhancement in this electric field. The reduction in the electric field is assumed to propagate anti-sunward within the magnetosphere. Triggering by a reduction in the electric field is suggested by the observation that substorms are often triggered by northward turning of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). However, under the theory presented here, substorms may be triggered by anything that causes an electric field reduction such as a reduction in the magnitude of the y-component of the IMF. A reduction in the large-scale electric field disrupts both the inward motion and energization of plasma sheet particles that occurs during the growth phase. It is suggested here that this can lead to formation of the expansion-phase current wedge and active aurora. The current wedge results from the magnetic drift of ions, which has a speed proportional to particle energy, and a large azimuthal gradient in mean particle energy that is expected to develop in the vicinity of magnetic midnight during the growth phase. Current wedge formation will most likely be initiated near the radial distance (approx. 6- 10 R(sub E)) of the peak in the growth-phase plasma pressure distribution, and then propagate tailward from that region. Order-of-magnitude calculations show that the above proposal can account for the rapid development of the expansion phase relative to the growth phase, the magnitude of the reduction in the cross-tail current within the current wedge, the speeds of tailward and westward expansion of the current reduction region, the speeds of poleward and westward motion of active aurora in the ionosphere, and the magnitude of wedge field-aligned currents that connect the ionospheric region of active auroral to the divergent cross-tail current within the magnetosphere. Fundamental observational signatures of substorms and other auroral-zone disturbances were examined.

Lyons, L. R.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Overexpression of Human Bone Alkaline Phosphatase in Pichia Pastoris

The Pichiapastoris expression system was utilized to produce functionally active human bone alkaline phosphatase in gram quantities. Bone alkaline phosphatase is a key enzyme in bone formation and biomineralization, yet important questions about its structural chemistry and interactions with other cellular enzymes in mineralizing tissues remain unanswered. A soluble form of human bone alkaline phosphatase was constructed by deletion of the 25 amino acid hydrophobic C-terminal region of the encoding cDNA and inserted into the X-33 Pichiapastoris strain. An overexpression system was developed in shake flasks and converted to large-scale fermentation. Alkaline phosphatase was secreted into the medium to a level of 32mgAL when cultured in shake flasks. Enzyme activity was 12U/mg measured by a spectrophotometric assay. Fermentation yielded 880mgAL with enzymatic activity of 968U/mg. Gel electrophoresis analysis indicates that greater than 50% of the total protein in the fermentation is alkaline phosphatase. A purification scheme has been developed using ammonium sulfate precipitation followed by hydrophobic interaction chromatography. We are currently screening crystallization conditions of the purified recombinant protein for subsequent X-ray diffraction analyses. Structural data should provide additional information on the role of alkaline phosphatase in normal bone mineralization and in certain bone mineralization anomalies.

Karr, Laurel↗
DOE OSTI2021

Wyoming CarbonSAFE: Advancing Commercialization of Low-Carbon Energy Technologies in Fossil-Rich Wyoming

Wyoming’s Powder River Basin (PRB) is the most prolific coal producer and exporter in the United States and the State of Wyoming’s largest oil-producing basin. In addition to being a leading energy producer, the PRB is the site of research programs whose aim is to develop and integrate low-carbon technologies into existing fossil fuel energy industries. Much of the PRB’s low-carbon research is focused around Dry Fork Station (DFS), which is the newest coal-fired power station in the western US. Currently, DFS hosts five carbon capture projects, including pilot-scale capture projects that utilize different capture technologies and a full front-end engineering and design (FEED) study, a commercial CO 2 pipeline for nearby CO 2 -enhanced oil recovery industry, and is also co-located with the Wyoming Integrated Test Center, which is a host facility for unconventional carbon utilization research (i.e. flue gas carbon-to-products innovations). DFS is also the host site for the Wyoming CarbonSAFE project. Wyoming CarbonSAFE, funded by the Department of Energy/National Energy Technology Laboratory, is a multi-phased program (currently in Phase II) whose core objective is developing and validating storage sites within a complex capable of storing 50 million metric tonnes of CO 2 over a 30 year project period using carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS). This paper will provide an overview of the project to-date, showing that CarbonSAFE goals are achievable with respect to geologic, environmental, regulatory, CO 2 source and economic conditions, and why the State of Wyoming offers one of the more favorable environments to advance the commercialization studies. In 2019, the project team designed and completed a ~10,000 foot stratigraphic test well just south of DFS. From this well, the team collected over 600 feet of core, fluid samples from target injection zones, and a full petrophysical log suite. In addition, legacy 2D seismic lines were acquired and a 3D seismic survey was acquired in the fall of 2020. The objective of these field activities has been to identify and characterize target storage reservoirs and associated caprock. This complex has several reservoirs that could meet commercial injection goals, and over 4000 feet of associated caprock. Simulations of site performance suggest that stacked injection provides the most effective storage strategy, and would necessitate several sites within the greater complex to meet final project injection goals. Other work within this project includes the development of a business-case around proximal fields with CO 2 -enhanced oil recovery potential and existing tax credits, assessment of regulatory conditions, including pore space ownership and Class VI injection well permitting requirements, implementation of a robust public outreach Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3821220 GHGT-15 McLaughlin 2 program, and surface site characterization activities that have focused on environmental factors. In the PRB and at DFS, the State of Wyoming and other entities have made carbon management a priority of its future energy industry by providing a regulatory and business framework that is favorable to advancing these technologies. These endeavors will become more realistic with the successful implementation of Wyoming CarbonSAFE, and its ability to secure and validate commercial-scale CCUS at the center of Wyoming’s premier low-carbon research efforts.

McLaughlin, Fred↗