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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 307 records · Page 17

Status of New Models Hosted on the Virtual Test Bed (VTB) in 2024

The National Reactor Innovation Center (NRIC) mission is to support deployment of novel reactor concepts. This is achieved by providing physical and virtual spaces for building and testing various components, systems, and complete pilot plants. The Virtual Test Bed (VTB) represents the virtual counterpart to the physical test bed. It is in development in collaboration with the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program. The mission of the VTB is to accelerate the deployment and licensing of advanced reactors by leveraging state-of-the-art modeling and simulation (M&S) tools developed by the DOE NEAMS program. This is accomplished by three primary means: (1) openly hosting simulations that showcase analysis capabilities, (2) continuously testing the models hosted against code updates to avoid deprecation, and (3) filling key M&S gaps that are relevant for the physical NRIC test beds. The VTB repository consists of two sub-entities: 1. A documentation website detailing the models (https://mooseframework.inl.gov/virtual_test_bed). 2. A GitHub repository that hosts the corresponding files (https://github.com/idaholab/virtual_test_bed). Previous documentation on the models hosted in the VTB can be found in [1,2,3,4]. These references also include additional background information on the various NEAMS codes showcased in the VTB (which is omitted here for brevity). This paper primarily provides a status update of the most recent additions to the repository.

22 - GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Voyager telecommunications - The broadcast from Jupiter

The means by which the data collected by the Voyager 1 mission to Jupiter were returned to earth are presented. Radio links between the earth and the spacecraft are used for the transmission of both imaging and nonimaging telemetry from the spacecraft and commands from the earth and for radiometric observations of the spacecraft and its environment. Features which have lead to vast improvements in the capability of the Voyager telecommunications system over that of previous space probes include the use of X-band rather than S-band telemetry, a dual power X-band traveling wave tube amplifier, a 3.7 m spacecraft antenna and a single channel telemetry system with concatenated coding. Communications equipment at the three ground complexes of the Deep Space Network for telemetry reception includes 64 m steerable antennas, cryogenic maser preamplifiers and a phase-lock loop receiver. Voyager 1 has met or exceeded all of its telecommunications requirements, providing a 98% data return and a total of 2 x 10 to the 11th data bits during the Jupiter encounter.

Edelson, R. E.↗

2M17091769+3127589: A Mass-transfer Binary with an Extreme Mass Ratio

We present the orbital solution of a peculiar double-lined spectroscopic and eclipsing binary system, 2M17091769+3127589. This solution was obtained by a simultaneous fit of both APOGEE radial velocities and TESS and ASAS-SN light curves to determine masses and radii. This system consists of an M=0.256{sub -0.006}{sup +0.010} M {sub ⊙}, R=3.961{sub -0.032}{sup +0.049} R {sub ⊙} red giant and a hotter M=1.518{sub -0.031}{sup +0.057} M {sub ⊙}, R=2.608{sub -0.321}{sup +0.034} R {sub ⊙} subgiant. Modeling with the MESA evolutionary codes indicates that the system likely formed 5.26 Gyrs ago, with a M = 1.2 M {sub ⊙} primary that is now the system’s red giant and a M = 1.11 M {sub ⊙} secondary that is now a more massive subgiant. Due to Roche-lobe overflow as the primary ascends the red giant branch, the more evolved “primary” (i.e., originally the more massive star of the pair) is now only one sixth as massive as the “secondary.” Such a difference between the initial and the current mass ratio is one of the most extreme detected so far. Evolutionary modeling suggests the system is still engaged in mass transfer, at a rate of M-dot ~10{sup -9} M {sub ⊙}/yr, and it provides an example of a less evolved precursor to some of the systems that consist of white dwarfs and blue stragglers.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Applications to ranging.

Operational ranging systems using waves coded by sequences having multiple peaks in their autocorrelation functions

AUTOCORRELATION↗

Infrastructure improvements in the National Reactor Innovation Center Virtual Test Bed

The National Reactor Innovation Center’s (NRIC) mission is to support deployment of novel reactor concepts. This is achieved by providing physical and virtual spaces for building and testing various components, systems, and complete pilot plants. The Virtual Test Bed (VTB) represents the virtual counterpart to the physical test bed. The VTB is being developed in collaboration with the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program. The mission of the VTB is to accelerate the deployment and licensing of advanced reactors by leveraging state-of-the-art modeling and simulation (M&S) tools developed by the DOE NEAMS program. This is accomplished via three primary means: (1) openly hosting simulations that showcase analysis capabilities, (2) continuously testing the models hosted against code updates to avoid deprecation, and (3) filling key M&S gaps that are relevant for the physical NRIC test beds. The VTB repository consists of two sub-entities: • A documentation website detailing the models: https://mooseframework.inl.gov/virtual_test_bed • A GitHub repository that hosts the corresponding files: https://github.com/idaholab/virtual_test_bed. This paper presents the infrastructure added to the VTB in the last two fiscal years. Additional information about the VTB can be found in various publications [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8].

22 - GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Thiohalorhabdus methylotropha sp. nov., an extremely halophilic autotrophic methylotiotroph from hypersaline lakes

So far, there have been no reports of trimethylamine (TMA)-utilizing extremely halophilic microorganisms in hypersaline habitats. Our aerobic enrichments at 4 M total Na + with 5 mM TMA inoculated with surface sediments from hypersaline soda (at pH 9.5) or chloride-sulfate (at pH 7) lakes in southwestern Siberia were successful only for the latter. The initial enrichment included both bacteria and haloarchaea but only the bacterial component was able to grow as a pure culture with TMA. Strain Cl-TMA forms a new-species lineage within the genus Thiohalorhabdus which includes extremely halophilic and obligate lithoautotrophic sulfur-oxidizing gammaproteobacteria. Cl-TMA can grow methyloautotrophically utilizing TMA, dimethylamine (DMA) and methanol (MeOH) as the electron donors or chemolithoautotrophically with thiosulfate. Mixotrophic growth was also observed with the three methyl compounds and thiosulfate. Carbon is assimilated autotrophically via the Calvin-Benson-Basham pathway. Unlike the type species of Thiohalorhabdus, T. denitrificans , Cl-TMA was incapable of anaerobic growth via denitrification. The isolate belongs to extreme halophiles growing between 2.5 and 5 M NaCl with an optimum at 3–3.5 M. Genome analysis identified two gene clusters coding for PQQ-dependent methanol dehydrogenases (MxaFI and XoxF), four homologues of the formaldehyde activating enzymes (Faes), a TMA/DMA oxidation locus, and two cluster of genes encoding an N-methylglutamate dehydrogenase pathway (NMGP) for methylamine oxidation. The first steps of C 1 -subtrate conversions are followed by the tetrahydrofolate (THF)-linked and tetrahydromethanopterin (H4MPT)-linked formaldehyde oxidation pathways and two formate dehydrogenases. All of those signatures of methylotrophy were absent in T. denitrificans . In contrast, genes for two key sulfur oxidation enzymes, thiosulfate dehydrogenase TsdAB and sulfide dehydrogenase FccAB, that are present in the type species are missing in Cl-TMA. Thiosulfate is oxidized to sulfate by a combination of an incomplete Sox cycle and an sHdr system. Strain Cl-TMA T (JCM 35977 = UQM 41915) is proposed to be classified as Thiohalorhabdus methylotrophus sp. nov.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Preliminary Criticality and Radiation Shielding Analysis for the Storage and Transfer of MARVEL Reactor Spent Nuclear Fuel

This report documents the results of preliminary nuclear criticality and radiation shielding assessments during transfer and dry storage of irradiated Microreactor Applications Research Validation and Evaluation (MARVEL) reactor fuel at Idaho National Laboratory (INL). The assessments focus on transfer casks and storage canisters that are currently in use at INL, which may be compatible with the irradiated MARVEL reactor fuel. The criticality assessments were performed using the radiation transport code MCNP6 with 37 MARVEL reactor fuel elements in various configurations and scenarios. All transfer and storage configurations under dry conditions were below the assumed criticality safety limit of 0.93. Some storage and transfer configurations under wet conditions exceeded the criticality safety limit. This suggests that the appropriate administrative and engineering controls, in addition to reducing the number of MARVEL reactor fuel elements per transfer cask or storage canister, can be expected to ensure criticality safety under all scenarios. The radiation shielding assessments were performed by generating conservative neutron and photon source terms using the ORIGEN module in the SCALE suite of codes. These source spectra were used to estimate the dose equivalent rates using the radiation transport code MCNP6, both on contact and 1 m away from the fuel and transfer casks. The maximum estimated dose equivalent rate of 37 unshielded MARVEL reactor fuel elements on contact is approximately 42000 R/hr. The maximum estimated dose equivalent rates on contact to the ATR transfer cask, HFEF-5 transfer cask, and high load charger were approximately 233 mR/hr, 171 mR/hr, and 201 mR/hr, respectively. This suggests that with the appropriate administrative and engineering controls, all three transfer casks analyzed can be expected to provide sufficient radiation shielding to workers during transfer of irradiated MARVEL reactor fuel. These calculations are performed to support the planning and strategy for the MARVEL project and will demonstrate the technical viability of the different configurations discussed and help identify where engineered or administrative controls may be necessary. A complete criticality safety analysis and radiation shielding analysis, including validation and contingency and accident analysis must be completed by licensed and authorized personnel before any transfer or storage of MARVEL reactor nuclear fuel.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Preparation & shipping of ten neutron irradiated Eurofer97 steel variants to HFIR for SANS experiments

At ORNL, ten variants of Eurofer97 steel were irradiated in the high flux isotope reactor (HFIR) to ~2.94 – 3.24 dpa at 300 ± 30 °C, as part of the EUROfusion Lot-IV collaboration. The irradiations were performed in non-instrumented rabbit capsules in the flux trap region, which included SS-J3 type tensile samples and M4-CVN multi-notch bend bars. Their full set of microstructure and mechanical properties were previously reported in multiple previous publications. In this project, half-broken irradiated and nonirradiated SS-J3 tensile samples from ten alloys, code-named H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P and E, were prepared and shipped for facilitating small angle neutron scattering (SANS) experiments at the HFIR general purpose (GP)-SANS beam line. This report summarizes the completed tasks which included canister moves at the Irradiated Materials Examination and Testing (IMET) hot-cell facility to retrieve the samples from long-term storage, loading of the ten irradiated samples at IMET inside lead (Pb) piglets that were specifically provided by ORNL for SANS experiments and radiological shipment from IMET facility to the HFIR hot cells for performing SANS experiments. In addition to the irradiated samples, ten nonirradiated half-broken pieces from the Eurofer97 variants were also provided to HFIR for SANS.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Nondestructive spot test method for magnesium and magnesium alloys

A method for spot test identification of magnesium and various magnesium alloys commonly used in aerospace applications is described. The spot test identification involves color codes obtained when several drops of 3 M hydrochloric acid are placed on the surface to be tested. After approximately thirty seconds, two drops of this reacted acid is transferred to each of two depressions in a spot plate for additions of other chemicals with subsequent color changes indicating magnesium or its alloy.

Wilson, M. L.↗

Synchronization of Reed-Solomon codes

The synchronization capabilities of Reed-Solomon codes when an appropriate coset of the code is used instead of the code itself are examined. In this case an E-error correcting Reed-Solomon code is transformed into a code capable of determining that there are m symbols out of sync, if e symbol errors occurred, whenever m + e E. In the event that m = 0, i.e., the word is in sync, then decoder will correct any pattern of E - 1 on fewer symbol errors.

Miller, R. L.↗

Orthogonal patterns in binary neural networks

A binary neural network that stores only mutually orthogonal patterns is shown to converge, when probed by any pattern, to a pattern in the memory space, i.e., the space spanned by the stored patterns. The latter are shown to be the only members of the memory space under a certain coding condition, which allows maximum storage of M=(2N) sup 0.5 patterns, where N is the number of neurons. The stored patterns are shown to have basins of attraction of radius N/(2M), within which errors are corrected with probability 1 in a single update cycle. When the probe falls outside these regions, the error correction capability can still be increased to 1 by repeatedly running the network with the same probe.

Baram, Yoram↗

Carrier recovery techniques on satellite mobile channels

An analytical method and a stored channel model were used to evaluate error performance of uncoded quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) and M-ary phase shift keying (MPSK) trellis coded modulation (TCM) over shadowed satellite mobile channels in the presence of phase jitter for various carrier recovery techniques.

Vucetic, B.↗

Towards a generalized computational fluid dynamics technique for all Mach numbers

Currently there exists no single unified approach for efficiently and accurately solving computational fluid dynamics (CFD) problems across the Mach number regime, from truly low speed incompressible flows to hypersonic speeds. There are several CFD codes that have evolved into sophisticated prediction tools with a wide variety of features including multiblock capabilities, generalized chemistry and thermodynamics models among other features. However, as these codes evolve, the demand placed on the end user also increases simply because of the myriad of features that are incorporated into these codes. In order for a user to be able to solve a wide range of problems, several codes may be needed requiring the user to be familiar with the intricacies of each code and their rather complicated input files. Moreover, the cost of training users and maintaining several codes becomes prohibitive. The objective of the current work is to extend the compressible, characteristic-based, thermochemical nonequilibrium Navier-Stokes code GASP to very low speed flows and simultaneously improve convergence at all speeds. Before this work began, the practical speed range of GASP was Mach numbers on the order of 0.1 and higher. In addition, a number of new techniques have been developed for more accurate physical and numerical modeling. The primary focus has been on the development of optimal preconditioning techniques for the Euler and the Navier-Stokes equations with general finite-rate chemistry models and both equilibrium and nonequilibrium thermodynamics models. We began with the work of Van Leer, Lee, and Roe for inviscid, one-dimensional perfect gases and extended their approach to include three-dimensional reacting flows. The basic steps required to accomplish this task were a transformation to stream-aligned coordinates, the formulation of the preconditioning matrix, incorporation into both explicit and implicit temporal integration schemes, and modification of the numerical flux formulae. In addition, we improved the convergence rate of the implicit time integration schemes in GASP through the use of inner iteration strategies and the use of the GMRES (General Minimized Resisual) which belongs to the class of algorithms referred to as Krylov subspace iteration. Finally, we significantly improved the practical utility of GASP through the addition of mesh sequencing, a technique in which computations begin on a coarse grid and get interpolated onto successively finer grids. The fluid dynamic problems of interest to the propulsion community involve complex flow physics spanning different velocity regimes and possibly involving chemical reactions. This class of problems results in widely disparate time scales causing numerical stiffness. Even in the absence of chemical reactions, eigenvalue stiffness manifests itself at transonic and very low speed flows which can be quantified by the large condition number of the system and evidenced by slow convergence rates. This results in the need for thorough numerical analysis and subsequent implementation of sophisticated numerical techniques for these difficult yet practical problems. As a result of this work, we have been able to extend the range of applicability of compressible codes to very low speed inviscid flows (M = .001) and reacting flows.

Walters, R. W.↗

Sequence and structural implications of a bovine corneal keratan sulfate proteoglycan core protein. Protein 37B represents bovine lumican and proteins 37A and 25 are unique

Amino acid sequence from tryptic peptides of three different bovine corneal keratan sulfate proteoglycan (KSPG) core proteins (designated 37A, 37B, and 25) showed similarities to the sequence of a chicken KSPG core protein lumican. Bovine lumican cDNA was isolated from a bovine corneal expression library by screening with chicken lumican cDNA. The bovine cDNA codes for a 342-amino acid protein, M(r) 38,712, containing amino acid sequences identified in the 37B KSPG core protein. The bovine lumican is 68% identical to chicken lumican, with an 83% identity excluding the N-terminal 40 amino acids. Location of 6 cysteine and 4 consensus N-glycosylation sites in the bovine sequence were identical to those in chicken lumican. Bovine lumican had about 50% identity to bovine fibromodulin and 20% identity to bovine decorin and biglycan. About two-thirds of the lumican protein consists of a series of 10 amino acid leucine-rich repeats that occur in regions of calculated high beta-hydrophobic moment, suggesting that the leucine-rich repeats contribute to beta-sheet formation in these proteins. Sequences obtained from 37A and 25 core proteins were absent in bovine lumican, thus predicting a unique primary structure and separate mRNA for each of the three bovine KSPG core proteins.

NASA Discipline Cell Biology↗

Preliminary Convective-Radiative Heating Environments for a Neptune Aerocapture Mission

Convective and radiative heating environments have been computed for a three-dimensional ellipsled configuration which would perform an aerocapture maneuver at Neptune. This work was performed as part of a one-year Neptune aerocapture spacecraft systems study that also included analyses of trajectories, atmospheric modeling, aerodynamics, structural design, and other disciplines. Complementary heating analyses were conducted by separate teams using independent sets of aerothermodynamic modeling tools (i.e. Navier-Stokes and radiation transport codes). Environments were generated for a large 5.50 m length ellipsled and a small 2.88 m length ellipsled. Radiative heating was found to contribute up to 80% of the total heating rate at the ellipsled nose depending on the trajectory point. Good agreement between convective heating predictions from the two Navier-Stokes solvers was obtained. However, the radiation analysis revealed several uncertainties in the computational models employed in both sets of codes, as well as large differences between the predicted radiative heating rates.

Hollis, Brian R.↗

Novel features and GPU performance analysis for EM particle transport in the Celeritas code

Celeritas is a new computational transport code designed for high-performance simulation of high-energy physics detectors. This work describes some of its current capabilities and the design choices that enable the rapid development of efficient on-device physics. The abstractions that underpin the code design facilitate low-level performance tweaks that require no changes to the higher-level physics code. We evaluate a set of independent changes that together yield an almost 40% speedup over the original GPU code for a net performance increase of 220× for a single GPU over a single CPU running 8.4M tracks on a small demonstration physics app.

Johnson, Seth R.↗