Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “fracture characterization”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 289 records · Page 16
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2023

Utah FORGE 3-2535: Joint EM-Seismic-InSAR Imaging of Fracture Properties - Workshop Presentation

This is a presentation on the Joint Electromagnetic/Seismic/InSAR Imaging of Spatial-Temporal Fracture Growth and Estimation of Physical Fracture Properties During EGS Resource Development project by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, presented by Dr. David Alumbaugh, Staff Scientist. The project's objective was to develop a set of technologies and workflow to image induced fracture generation and growth for an Enhanced Geothermal System (EGS). The project anticipates imaging of the fracture generation and growth at FORGE using a combination of passive seismic, active source borehole EM, and INSAR technology. This presentation was featured in the Utah FORGE R&D Annual Workshop on September 8, 2023. The workshop provided a valuable opportunity to explore the progress made in each of the 17 Research and Development projects funded under Solicitation 2020-1 which aim to enhance our understanding of the crucial factors influencing the development of Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) reservoirs and resources.

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

A parametric analysis of oilfield design factors affecting the detectability and characterization of electrically conductive hydrofracks

Electrical responses in the vicinity of energized steel-cased well sources offer significant potential for monitoring induced fractures. However, the high complexity of well-fracture-host models spanning multiple length scales compels analysts to simplify their numerical models due to enormous computational costs. This consequently limits our understanding regarding monitoring capabilities and the limitations of electrical measurements on realistic hydraulically fracturing systems. In this paper, we use the hierarchical finite element approach to construct geoelectric models in which geometrically complex fractures and steel-cased wells are discretely represented in 3D conducting media without sacrificing the model realism and computation efficiency. We have discovered systematic numerical analyses of the electrical responses to evaluate the influences of borehole material conductivity and the source type as well as the effects of well geometry, conductivity contrast, source location, fracture growth, and fracture propagation. Furthermore, the numerical results indicate that the borehole material property has a strong control on the electrical potentials along the production and monitoring wells. The monopole source located at a steel-cased well results in a current density distribution that decays away from the source location throughout the well length, whereas the dipole source produces a current density that dominates mainly along the dipole length. Moreover, the conductivity contrast between the fractures and host does not change the overall pattern of the electrical potentials but varies its amplitude. The fracture models near different well systems indicate that the well geometry controls the entire distribution of potentials, while the characteristics of the voltage difference profiles along the wells before and after fracturing are insensitive to the well geometry and the well in which the source is located. Further, the hydraulic-fracturing models indicate that the voltage differences along the production well before and after fracturing have strong sensitivity to fracture growth and fracture set propagation.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Initial Fracture Propagation Modeling of Graphite Components with Grizzly

Graphite has historically been extensively used in power reactor cores and will be used in multiple types of advanced reactors currently under development. These graphite structural components can experience significant stresses due to nonuniform volumetric strains induced by irradiation and thermal expansion, which can lead to fracture. Robust tools for predicting fracture initiation and propagation in graphite structural components in nuclear reactors are important for evaluating component integrity, developing design standards, and interpreting experimental results to characterize graphite performance. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation program has been developing degradation models for other structural components in nuclear reactors within the Grizzly and BlackBear codes. This report documents an effort to develop initial capabilities for modeling graphite fracture within these codes, building on prior efforts to model fracture in other materials. Major elements of this effort include developing a new system for modeling fracture nucleation and growth in two dimensions using the extended finite element method and incorporating a damage and plasticity model. These capabilities are applied here to model a representative graphite component and a splitting disc experiment used to obtain tensile strength.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Intrabasin Comparison of Produced Fluid From Hydraulically Fractured Wells in the Permian Region

The Permian Basin is the highest producing oil and gas reservoir in the United States. Hydrocarbon extraction methods in this region are often associated with frac hits, or interwell communication events where an established well is affected by the pumping of fracture fluid into a new well. Our previous work revealed a unique geochemical signal indicating the presence of frac hits in the Permian Basin. We returned to this area with the overall goal of expanding our understanding of the microbial and geochemical dynamics common in this region. To do so, we collected produced water from 25 unique sites across the Permian Basin, 10 of which had previously been characterized during an active frac hit with the rest being novel. For each sample, we measured the pH, alkalinity, geochemical composition, microbial load (qPCR), and microbial community composition (16S rRNA sequencing). Permian Basin produced water is characterized by higher sulfate and lower total dissolved solids (TDS) concentrations compared to other regions. Interestingly, wells impacted by frac hits have a geochemical profile that resembles that of fracture fluid, with both lowered sulfate and lowered TDS concentrations compared to unaffected wells in this region. Due to the year-long recovery window between sample collection periods, we anticipate that all of our data will be characterized by the typical high sulfate, low TDS concentrations.

environmental microbiology↗
DOE OSTI2020

Small-angle Neutron Scattering (SANS) Characterization of Clay- and Carbonate-rich Shale at Elevated Pressures

Unconventional oil and gas from shale formations have emerged as some of the fastest growing energy resources in the United States, providing both cleaner energy to consumers and reducing the nation’s reliance on energy imports. To properly harness these important natural resources, the nanopore structure of associated shales must be fully understood, particularly under hydraulic fracturing conditions, where they are exposed to both overburden compressive and hydrostatic fluid pressures. The current study uses small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) to characterize pore structure, including porosity, pore accessibility, and pore size distribution, in the 1–100 nm regime at elevated pressures for mineralogically distinct clay- and carbonate-rich shales from the Permian Basin. Unlike typical porosity measurement techniques, SANS is uniquely capable of characterizing both open and closed porosity, allowing measurement of how pore accessibility changes with pressure and determination of the size range of accessible versus inaccessible pores. The porosity of the clay-rich shale was 7.7%, compared to 0.51% for the carbonate-rich shale. However, only 2.6% of the nanopores in the carbonate-rich shale were inaccessible to water at 8 kPSI (55.1 MPa) compared to 7.8% for the clay-rich shale. Furthermore, our analyses indicated that the closed pores fall within distinct size ranges, likely corresponding with the chemical nature of the pore host material. These results provide valuable insight into the effects of shale petrophysical properties on hydrocarbon extraction from unconventional reservoirs.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

Sensitivity of the strength and toughness of concrete to the properties of the interfacial transition zone

We report Civil infrastructure is made primarily of concrete structures or components and therefore understanding durability and fracture behavior of concrete is of utmost importance. Concrete contains an interfacial transition zone (ITZ), a porous region surrounding the aggregates, that is often considered to be the weakest region in the concrete. The ITZ is poorly characterized and property estimates for the ITZ differ considerably. In this simulation study, representative concrete mesostructures are produced by packing coarse aggregates with realistic geometries into a mortar matrix. A meshless numerical method, peridynamics, is utilized to simulate the mechanical response including fracture under uniaxial compression and tension. The sensitivity of the stiffness and fracture toughness of the samples to the ITZ properties is computed, showing strong relationships between the ITZ properties and the effective modulus and effective yield strength of the concrete. These results provides insight into the influence of the poorly characterized ITZ on the stiffness and strength of concrete. This work showcases the applicability of peridynamics to concrete systems, matching experimental strength and modulus values. Additionally, relationships between the ITZ’s mechanical properties and the overall concrete strength and stiffness are presented to enable future design decisions.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Tritium embrittlement of austenitic stainless-steel tubing at low helium contents

Austenitic stainless steels are the standard materials for containment of hydrogen and tritium because of their resistance to mechanical property degradation in those environments. The mechanical performance of the primary containment material is critical for tritium handling, processing, and storage, thus comprehensive understanding of the processes of tritium embrittlement is an enabling capability for fusion energy. This work describes the investigation of the effects of low levels of tritium-decay-helium ingrowth on 304 L tubes. Long-term aging with tritium leads to high helium contents in austenitic stainless steels and can reduce fracture toughness by 95 %, but the details of behavior at low helium contents are not as well characterized. Here, we present results from tensile testing of tritium pre-charged 304 L tube specimens with a variety of starting microstructures that all contain a low level of helium. The results of the tritium exposed-and-aged materials are compared to previously reported results on similar specimens tested in an unexposed condition as well as the hydrogen precharged condition. Tritium precharging and aging for a short duration resulted in increased yield strengths, ultimate tensile strengths and slightly increased elongation to failure, comparable to higher concentrations of hydrogen precharging.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

A Comparative Study of Deep Learning Models for Fracture and Pore Space Segmentation in Synthetic Fractured Digital Rocks

This study focuses on the comparative study of deep learning (DL) models for pore space and discrete fracture networks (DFNs) segmentation in synthetic fractured digital rocks, specifically targeting low-permeability rock formations, such as shale and tight sandstones. Accurate characterization of pore space and DFNs is critical for subsequent property analysis and fluid flow modeling. Four DL models, SegNet, U-Net, U-Net-wide, and nested U-Net (i.e., U-Net++), were trained, validated, and tested using synthetic datasets, including input and label image pairs with varying properties. The model performance was assessed regarding pixel-wise metrics, including the F1 score and pixel-wise difference maps. In addition, the physics-based metrics were considered for further analysis, including sample porosity and absolute permeability. Particularly, We first simulated the permeability of porous media containing only pore space and then simulated the permeability of porous media with DFNs added. The difference between these two values is used to quantify the connectivity of segmented DFNs, which is an important parameter for low-permeability rocks. The pixel-wise metrics showed that the nested U-Net model outperformed the rest of the DL models in pore space and DFNs segmentation, with the SegNet model exhibiting the second-best performance. Particularly, nested U-Net enhanced segmentation accuracy for challenging boundary pixels affected by partial volume effects. The U-Net-wide model achieved improved accuracy compared to the U-Net model, which indicated the influence of parameter numbers. Similarly, nested U-Net has the closest match to the ground truth of physics-based metrics, including the porosity of pore space and DFNs, and the permeability difference quantifying the connectivity of DFNs. The findings highlight the effectiveness of DL models, especially the U-Net++ model with nested architecture and redesigned skip connections, in accurately segmenting pore spaces and DFNs, which are crucial for pore-scale fluid flow and transport simulation in low-permeability rocks.

Wang, Hongsheng↗
DOE OSTI2022

Investigation of fracture in porous materials: a phase-field fracture study informed by ReaxFF

Microscopic features (e.g, pore shapes, sizes, and distribution) in porous material substantially affect the overall mechanical properties such as stiffness and strength. In turn, these material properties determine the macroscopic behaviors of fracture in the porous material. In certain cases, macroscopic properties can be derived from the porous skeleton and void ratio (i.e., porosity), but in many other cases, such derivation is a challenging task. This paper presents a numerical investigation of microporosity and micropore shapes effect on the macrofracture behavior in porous amorphous silica. For this study, we extend the recently-proposed combined molecular dynamic (MD) and phase-field (PF) fracture modeling approach by including different pore shapes in the atomistic domain. In the MD simulations, we adopt ReaxFF to evaluate the material properties, where four different micropore cases are considered. Based on the material properties derived from MD simulations, the macrofracture propagation of porous media is studied using hybrid PF simulation. In the characterization of the pore structure, the concept of pore ligament is proposed to relate the pore shape and the critical energy release rate. Two classical fracture problems were used to evaluate the effect of pore shape on the macrofracture behavior. The results of the case study show that although the micropore shapes change the macrofracture behaviors, these effects vary with the geometry and loading conditions of macroscopic boundary value problems. Furthermore, the case study also shows that the influence of micropore structure can be captured at the macroscopic level through the material properties derived from the MD simulations.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2024

Assessment of a Grade 91 Steel Forging and Seamless Pipe Section After 141,000-Hours of Operation in a Superheat Outlet Header

In this work, two unique heats of 9Cr creep strength enhanced ferritic (CSEF) steels extracted from a retired superheat outlet header after 141,000 hours of service were evaluated. These two CSEF steels were a forging manufactured to SA-182 F91 (F91) reducer and a seamless pipe produced to SA-335 P91 (P91) pipe. Their creep deformation and fracture behavior were assessed using a lever arm creep frame integrated with in-situ high-temperature digital image correlation (DIC) system. Critical metallurgical and microstructure factors, including composition, service damage, grain matrix degradation, precipitates, and inclusions were quantitatively characterized to link the performance of the two service aged F91 and P91 CSEF steels. The creep test results show the F91 and P91 steels exhibit a large variation in creep strength and creep ductility. The F91 steel fractured at 572 hours while P91 steel fractured at 1,901 hours when subjected to a test condition of 650 °C and 100 MPa. The nominal creep strains at fracture were 12.5% (F91) and 14.5% (P91), respectively. The high-resolution DIC strain measurements reveal the local creep strain in F91 was about 50% while the local creep strain in P91 was >80%. The characterization results show that the F91 steel possessed pre-existing creep damage from its time in service, a higher fraction of inclusions, and a faster matrix grain coarsening rate. These features contribute to the observed reduction in performance for the F91 steel. The context for these findings, and the importance of metallurgical risk in an integrated life management approach will be emphasized.

Wang, Yiyu↗
DOE OSTI2023

Formation and characterization of hydride rim structures in Zircaloy-4 nuclear fuel cladding tubes

Zirconium alloy tubes used as nuclear fuel cladding are subject to oxidation and subsequent hydrogen pickup during their long service in commercial light water reactors. The hydrogen picked up in the cladding can precipitate as a brittle hydride rim feature on the cladding outer surface. Here, to better understand the effect of hydride rims on the fracture behavior of stress-relieved zirconium alloy cladding tubes, a procedure to produce these rim-like structures has been developed and is described herein. Extensive characterization of the ‘as hydrided’ tubes is performed. The hydrogen charging apparatus consists of a tube furnace with a quartz chamber that is connected to a vacuum pump as well as a bottle of pure hydrogen gas. The charging station uses a static charge of hydrogen as opposed to a flowing gas. The chief advantage of this approach is the ability to monitor the pressure drop in the hydriding chamber and correlate this pressure drop to a known rate of hydrogen pickup in the cladding tube. It was found that the hydrogen partial pressure, metal temperature, and surface treatment all clearly played a role in whether a hydride rim was formed. Extensive characterization of the hydride rims shows they consist of needle like platelets of δ phase hydrides (ZrH1.66) oriented in the circumferential direction with a radial spacing of several microns in a sandwich-like structure.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Intrabasin Comparison of the Microbiology and Geochemistry of Produced Fluid From Hydraulically Fractured Wells in the Permian Region

The Permian Basin is the highest producing oil reservoir in the United States. Hydrocarbon extraction methods in this region are often associated with frac hits, or interwell communication events where an established well is affected by the pumping of fracture fluid into a new well. Our previous work revealed a geochemical signal indicating the presence of frac hits in the Permian Basin. We returned to this area with the goal of expanding our understanding of subsurface interactions common in this region. To do so, we collected produced water from 25 unique sites across the Permian Basin, 10 of which had previously been characterized during an active frac hit. For each sample, we measured the pH, alkalinity, geochemistry, microbial load, and microbial community composition. Permian Basin produced water is characterized by higher sulfate and lower total dissolved solids (TDS) concentrations compared to other regions. Interestingly, wells impacted by frac hits have a geochemical profile that resembles that of fracture fluid, with both lowered sulfate and lowered TDS concentrations compared to unaffected wells. Due to the year-long recovery window between sample collection periods, we anticipate that all our data will be characterized by the typical high sulfate, low TDS concentrations.

geochemistry↗
DOE OSTI2023

Deformation and failure of the CrCoNi medium-entropy alloy subjected to extreme shock loading

The extraordinary work hardening ability and fracture toughness of the face-centered cubic (fcc) high-entropy alloys render them ideal candidates for many structural applications. Here, the deformation and failure mechanisms of an equiatomic CrCoNi medium-entropyalloy (MEA) were investigated by powerful laser-driven shock experiments. Multiscale characterization demonstrates that profuse planar defects including stacking faults, nanotwins, and hexagonal nanolamella were generated during shock compression, forming a three-dimensional network. During shock release, the MEA fractured by strong tensile deformation and numerous voids was observed in the vicinity of the fracture plane. High defect populations, nanorecrystallization, and amorphization were found adjacent to these areas of localized deformation. Molecular dynamics simulations corroborate the experimental results and suggest that deformation-induced defects formed before void nucleation govern the geometry of void growth and delay their coalescence. Our results indicate that the CrCoNi-based alloys are impact resistant, damage tolerant, and potentially suitable in applications under extreme conditions.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Varied enhancements in mechanical properties and sodium compatibility of Grade 92 by thermomechanical treatments

As a candidate material for advanced nuclear reactors, a ferritic-martensitic (FM) steel Grade 92 in the standard normalized and tempered (NT) condition was subjected to two types of thermomechanical treatments (TMTs) with one having a lower level of deformation (T5A) and the other having a higher level of deformation (T5B). The testing results of the three conditions indicated that the TMTs significantly improved yield strength, creep resistance, fracture toughness, and sodium corrosion resistance compared with the NT condition. T5A excelled at creep resistance while T5B at sodium corrosion resistance. Microstructural characterization of the three conditions supports the varied enhancements in the properties. This study suggests that an appropriate TMT can be developed and applied to FM steels to better meet specific application requirements.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2020

Mechanical Properties and Deformation Behavior of Additively Manufactured 316L Stainless Steel (FY2020)

The Transformational Challenge Reactor (TCR) program plans to build most of the TCR core components through additive manufacturing (AM) processes. These processes include laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) for the metallic (316L) components and the newly developed combined process of binderjet printing and chemical vapor infiltration (CVI) for the SiC fuel matrix. Mechanical testing and characterization tasks have been carried out since the beginning of the TCR program to (1) build a property database for the AM materials that will be used in TCR core and (2) to assess the materials’ performance in TCR-relevant conditions. This document reports the outcome of the testing and characterization efforts for the fiscal year with a focus on the mechanical performance data of AM 316L stainless steel (SS). Baseline tensile testing over a wide temperature range of room temperature–600 °C was completed for the AM 316L alloy in as-built, stress-relieved, and solution-annealed conditions. The as-built 316L showed the highest strength, and the alloy after the post-build treatments showed reduced strengths in the low-strain range. However, the strength differences among the AM materials became insignificant in the later part of deformation. Furthermore, regardless of post-build processing, the AM 316L SS showed higher strength and comparable ductility when compared with wrought 316L SS. Thermal creep testing and microstructural evolution during creep deformation were also performed under selected conditions. It was found that the AM 316L steel showed the best creep resistance in the stress-relieved condition. In-situ tensile tests were performed using scanning electron microscopy and 1-ID beamline at the Advanced Photon Source to elucidate the deformation and fracture behavior of AM 316L and the evolution of crystalline stress, dislocations, and pore distribution. Using these in-situ testing data, an in-depth analysis of the roles of microstructural features in deformation and fracture processes is presented herein. The final section of the document introduces ongoing and future activities for materials testing and characterization, including irradiation effect studies and ball punch testing on AM 316L and AM IN718 alloys.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2022

EGS Collab Experiment 2: Continuous Broadband Seismic Waveform Data

Two broadband seismometers were installed on the 4100 level and recorded for the duration of EGS Collab Experiment #2. Inspired by published data from similar instruments installed in the Aspo Hard Rock Lab, these long-period instruments aimed to measure the tilting of the drift in response to the injection of fluid into the testbed. One instrument was installed underneath the wellheads in Site A (aka the "battery" alcove) and the other was installed along the east wall of the drift, south of Site B. Due to the feet of gravel (ballast) laid along the floor of the drift, we were unable to anchor the sensors directly to the rock. As a result, the coupling of the sensors to the experiment rock volume is likely poor. In addition, there are a number of noise sources that complicate the interpretation of the data. For example, sensor BBB is installed adjacent (within 3 ft) to the rail line that runs towards the Ross shaft. Trains (motors) run along this line almost daily and produce a large signal in these data. Careful extraction of periods of interest, as well as filtering for specific signals, is necessary. The sensors are Nanometrics Trillium Compact Posthole seismometers, sensitive down to 120 seconds period. They were installed as close to the drift wall and as deep as we could manually excavate (only about 1 ft or so). The holes were leveled with sand and the sensors were placed on a paver before backfilling with sand. The hole was then covered by a bucket filled with insulation to improve the sensor's isolation from daily temperature variations, which are minor but present due to drift ventilation from the surface. Data were recorded on Nanometrics Centaur digitizers at 100 Hz. The full response information is available in the StationXML file provided here, or by querying the sensors through the IRIS DMC (see links below). These instruments were provided free of charge through the IRIS PASSCAL instrument center. The network code is XP and the station codes are BBA and BBB. The waveform data can be queried through the IRIS FDSN server using any method the user likes. One convenient option is to use the Obspy python package: https://docs.obspy.org/packages/obspy.clients.fdsn.html

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Characterization of mechanical discontinuities based on data-driven classification of compressional-wave travel times

Wave propagation and diffusive transport phenomena are influenced by the mechanical discontinuities in material. Here this study shows that certain bulk properties of the network of low-velocity mechanical discontinuities (e.g. air-filled cracks) in a material can be characterized by processing compressional-wave travel times using traditional data-driven classification techniques. To that end, we perform three tasks in chronological order: (1) use the discrete fracture network (DFN) method to create two-dimensional (2D) numerical models of crack-bearing material embedded with various types of low-velocity mechanical discontinuities, (2) use the fast marching method (FMM) to simulate the propagation of the wave/diffusion front from a single source through the 2D crack-bearing material to multiple receivers placed on the boundary of the material, and (3) train 9 data-driven classifiers to characterize the crack-bearing materials (i.e. bulk properties of the network of mechanical discontinuities in the crack-bearing material) by learning from the simulations of travel times detected by multiple receivers placed around the crack-bearing material. The classifiers identified the orientation, spatial distribution, and dispersion of the low-velocity mechanical discontinuities. Voting classifier performs the best among the 9 classifiers. For the characterization of bulk dispersion and distribution of discontinuities, the sensors located on the adjacent boundaries are more important; whereas for the characterization of bulk orientation of discontinuities, the sensors located on the opposite side are more important.

42 ENGINEERING↗