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At least 379 records · Page 21
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2023

MOOSE Optimization Module Overview: Application to Residual Stress Inversion in Nuclear Fuel Plates

Manufacturing methods, material selections and unique plate geometries used in low enriched uranium plate fuels for the High Performance Research Reactor (HPRR) have led to concerns about the residual stresses effect on bond strength of the fuel/cladding interfaces and overall fuel performance under irradiation. The current HPRR plate fuel test program performed residual stress calculations using the contour method with experimental displacement data obtained by incrementally cutting the plate fuel. In this work, we use a gradient based inverse optimization module developed within the MOOSE framework to estimate normal and shear residual stresses within the plate fuels using displacement data taken from a cut placed in the HPRR fuel plate. These results are verified against residual stress calculations obtained from the contour method. The inversion protocol used in this work utilizes two meshes to separately discretize the physics and parameter space. This allows a fine mesh to be used to fully resolve the physics and geometry of the forward problem. A coarser mesh is used to resolve the parameter space with spatially varying mesh density determined from a sensitivity analysis. The adaptive resolution of the parameter space essentially has the effect of regularization as it is designed to achieve the bias-variance tradeoff.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2021

Techno-economic analysis of roll-to-roll production of perovskite modules using radiation thermal processes

Perovskite solar technology can produce economically viable photovoltaic devices due to low cost of materials and scalable manufacturing. Solution phase deposition of all active layers lends itself to roll-to-roll fabrication methods which are well-established and have production rates of several hundred square meters per minute. In this techno-economic analysis, the opportunity to scale at this production throughput is considered with manufacturing rates exceeding one gigawatt per year in a single plant. Intense pulsed light is used for the post deposition process to minimize costs associated with the footprint, equipment, and operation. The analysis is limited to the operation of a roll-to-roll manufacturing facility producing a perovskite solar film that can be incorporated into photovoltaic modules. Costs associated with materials, labor, and equipment are considered along with utilities determined from the fundamental engineering calculations. Furthermore, the results show that at very large-scale operations of several gigawatts, the costs to produce the solar films range between $0.04-$0.10 per watt.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

Manufacturing Cost Levelization Model – A User’s Guide

The Manufacturing Cost Levelization Model is a cost-performance techno-economic model that estimates total large-scale manufacturing costs for necessary to produce a given product. It is designed to provide production cost estimates for technology researchers to help guide technology research and development towards an eventual cost-effective product. The model presented in this user’s guide is generic and can be tailored to the manufacturing of any product, including the generation of electricity (as a product). This flexibility, however, requires the user to develop the processes and process efficiencies that represents a full-scale manufacturing facility. The generic model is comprised of several modules that estimate variable costs (material, labor, and operating), fixed costs (capital & maintenance), financing structures (debt and equity financing), and tax implications (taxable income after equipment and building depreciation, debt interest payments, and expenses) of a notional manufacturing plant. A cash-flow method is used to estimate a selling price necessary for the manufacturing plant to recover its total cost of production. A levelized unit sales price ($ per unit of product) is determined by dividing the net-present value of the manufacturing plant’s expenses ($) by the net present value of its product output. A user defined production schedule drives the cash-flow method that determines the levelized unit price. In addition, an analyst can increase the levelized unit price to include a gross profit margin to estimate a product sales price. This model allows an analyst to understand the effect that any input variables could have on the cost of manufacturing a product. In addition, the tool is able to perform sensitivity analysis, which can be used to identify the key variables and assumptions that have the greatest influence on the levelized costs. This component is intended to help technology researchers focus their research attention on tasks that offer the greatest opportunities for cost reduction early in the research and development stages of technology invention.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2016

Investigation of a Wedge Adhesion Test for Edge Seals

Many photovoltaic (PV) technologies have been found to be sensitive to moisture that diffuses into a PV package. Even with the use of impermeable frontsheets and backsheets, moisture can penetrate from the edges of a module. To limit this moisture ingress pathway from occurring, manufacturers often use a low permeability polyisobutylene (PIB) based edge seal filled with desiccant to further restrict moisture ingress. Moisture ingress studies have shown that these materials are capable of blocking moisture for the 25-year life of a module; but to do so, they must remain well-adhered and free of cracks. This work focuses on adapting the Boeing Wedge test for use with edge seals laminated using glass substrates as part of a strategy to assess the long-term durability of edge seals. The advantage of this method is that it duplicates the residual stresses and strains that a glass/glass module may have when the lamination process results in some residual glass bending that puts the perimeter in tension. Additionally, this method allows one to simultaneously expose the material to thermal stress, humidity, mechanical stress, and ultraviolet radiation. The disadvantage of this method generally is that we are limited by the fracture toughness of the glass substrates that the edge seal is adhered to. However, the low toughness of typical uncrosslinked or sparsely crosslinked PIB makes them suitable for this technique. We present data obtained during the development of the wedge test for use with PV edge seal materials. This includes development of the measuring techniques and evaluation of the test method with relevant materials. We find consistent data within a given experiment, along with the theoretical independence of fracture toughness measurements with wedge thickness. This indicates that the test methodology is reproducible. However, even though individual experimental sets are consistent, the reproducibility between experimental sets is poor. We believe this may be due to inconsistencies in sample history, sample batch, or small changes in sample preparation/assembly from one month to the next. Because the fracture strength of typical edge seal materials is so low, they cannot be relied upon for mechanical strength. A small stress or strain on the edge seal is capable of promoting delamination or tearing causing the edge seal to fail. Because of this, edge seals are very dependent on the processing and construction parameters in the full size PV module such that any long term evaluation of their durability must be conducted on full size modules to be accurate.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
NASA NTRS2012

XHAB 2012 Final Report Habitat Demonstration Unit Lite

The University of Maryland Space Systems Laboratory (SSL) was awarded a NASA X-Hab 2012 grant for the design and construction of a new Earth analogue habitat for habitability research. This work builds on the past ECLIPSE and X-Hab projects at the SSL, by combining these elements with a new habitat module in order to create a single research platform for habitability studies. The “Crew Habitat Evaluator for Long-duration Orbital, Near-earth, and Interplanetary Applications” (CHELONIA) will deliver a much more flexible architecture than the previously developed mock-ups, allowing facilitating faster modification of the interior layouts and available total volume. This will enable the investigators to evaluate crew assessments and task performance as a function of the interior layout, functional area allocation and total available volume. This paper documents the design of this new infrastructure, and includes the details of the manufacturing of a new habitat mock-up module and modifications to the existing elements. The paper also includes a brief discussion of possible future research goals. Initial layouts are implemented using foam-core volumetric mock-ups for internal equipment and outfitting. These low fidelity mock-ups constitute a “library” that will allow a very rapid evaluation of a multitude of layouts. CHELONIA is also suitable for higher fidelity functional mock-ups, as well as short to medium-duration mission simulations. This new facility will enable the examination of habitat layouts for both partial gravity and microgravity environments. While partial gravity systems will be easily evaluated with the habitat currently in development, microgravity subsystems will be studied by utilizing low fidelity volumetric neutral buoyancy mock-ups in order to determine if commonality in the design for these two environments is appropriate. Finally, this new facility is being integrated into the SSL Moonyard planetary surface simulation center. The Moonyard simulates a planetary surface by means of a large sandbox, and is used primarily for rover field trials and suit systems evaluation. This new facility will be a prime element in future Earth analog simulations at the University of Maryland in support of NASA exploration objectives.

Kevin Davis↗
NASA NTRS2018

Development and Qualification of the Primary Structure of the Orion European Service Module

This paper presents an overview of the development and qualification test campaign for the primary structure of the European Service Module of ORION, the NASA spacecraft which will serve the future human exploration missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond. Under an agreement between NASA and ESA, the ORION will be powered by a European Service Module (ESM), providing also water and oxygen for astronauts' life sustainability. The development and qualification of the European Service Module (ESM) is under ESA responsibility with Airbus Defense and Space as the prime contractor. Thales Alenia Space Italia is responsible for design development, manufacturing, assembly and qualification of the Structure subsystem. The European Service Module, installed onto the launch adapter, shall support the crew module with its adapter and a launch abort system. It shall sustain: - A combination of global and local launch loads during lift off and ascent phases, - On orbit loads induced by engine firing for orbital transfers and attitude control. The ESM structure is based on a core made of Composite Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) sandwich panels complemented by aluminum alloy platforms, longerons and secondary structures. A development campaign has been implemented in order to define and validate composite parts' strength allowable values for design: coupon tests at material level, test at component level up to breadboards tests performed on main structural components (composite to metallic joints, and at panels' discontinuities). An incremental approach as defined in [1] has been followed. A qualification static test campaign at primary structure assembly level has been implemented in order to validate the design against static stiffness and ultimate strength as well as to correlate the structural Finite Element Model (FEM) used for sizing and confirm the margins of safety. The tests have been performed successfully by Thales Alenia Space Italia (TAS-I) on two flight representative structural models (STA1, STA2), in Turin facilities (Italy) between August 2015 and March 2017, with engineering support of technical representatives from Airbus, ESA, NASA and LMCO. The main development and qualification test activities and associated results are presented and discussed in the paper

Structural Testing↗
DOE OSTI2022

What Would It Take to Manufacture Perovskite Solar Cells in Space?

Imagine: Astronauts land on the moon. They verify their arrival with mission control and perform system checks and validations. After the dust settles, they open the airlock of the landing vehicle and venture outside. A side hatch opens, and a flexible substrate slowly unfurls on a boom. A series of printer heads raster, hovering over the substrate and sequentially vapor-depositing the constituent layers of a perovskite solar module. In time, a 1-megawatt array has been manufactured on the moon and can now be connected to supply power to the Artemis Base Camp. This ambitious vision could someday become a reality.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2018

Indoor Soil Deposition Chamber: Evaluating Effectiveness of Antisoiling Coatings

An indoor soil deposition method has been developed to simulate natural soil deposition on glass coupons or one-cell and multicell photovoltaic (PV) modules. This method uses variable ambient humidity, coupon/module temperature, and dust composition within a single custom-made chamber to create a natural and uniform soil deposition layer. Antisoiling (AS) coatings from two different manufacturers were applied on two one-cell monocrystalline silicon modules. Three layers of Arizona road dust have been deposited on the one-cell modules with AS coatings and an uncoated one-cell reference module at varied humidity levels. The soiled modules were exposed to an open-circuit subsonic wind tunnel at varying speeds and the effectiveness of AS coatings have been quantified using the transmittance gain. Transmittance loss resulting from the AS coating has been measured and compared with the transmittance of the uncoated reference module using a reflectance spectrophotometer. Reflectance measurements have also been taken to compare the transmittance loss of Arizona road dust and soil collected from PV modules' superstrates. The soiled one-cell modules were then exposed to rain from a rain simulator. The transmittance gain due to rain exposure is quantified using a rain gain and rain coefficient. These tests cumulatively may be used to help develop a test standard for evaluating the effectiveness of AS coatings.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
NASA NTRS1993

A module concept for a cable-mesh deployable antenna

This paper describes the design, manufacture, and deployment tests of a modular mesh deployable antenna. Reaction forces and moments created by a mesh and cable network are estimated using CASA. Deployment analysis is carried out using DADS. Three types of deployable antenna modules are developed and fabricated. Their design approach and deployment characteristics are also presented. Ground deployment tests are performed to verify design criteria.

Meguro, Akira↗
DOE OSTI2018

Photovoltaic Materials and Devices 2017

The demand of photovoltaic energy has continued to grow in recent years concomitant with a decrease in the module prices. There continues to be slight overcapacity of production despite large installations worldwide, particularly in China and the USA. The global capacity additions in 2017 are expected to reach 79 gigawatts (GW), slightly higher than 77 GW in 2016. While most of the solar cell manufacturing is occurring in China, there is a growing interest in developing module assembly in many other countries (particularly in India). As the manufacturing volume grows, there is continued reduction in the manufacturing cost. However, there continues to be considerable need for further research into improved cell/module designs and fabrication technology. This is the 4th special issue of the International Journal of Photoenergy on 'Photovoltaic Materials and Devices' and is a very short assembly of accepted papers from a much wider submission, aimed at recent advances in materials and PV systems. Here, this issue contains 5 papers on various aspects of photovoltaics, which are briefly described here.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2017

Design, Manufacture, and Experimental Serviceability Validation of ITER Blanket Components

In 2014, the Russian Federation and the ITER International Organization signed two Procurement Arrangements (PAs) for ITER blanket components: 1.6.P1ARF.01 “Blanket First Wall” of February 14, 2014, and 1.6.P3.RF.01 “Blanket Module Connections” of December 19, 2014. The first PA stipulates development, manufacture, testing, and delivery to the ITER site of 179 Enhanced Heat Flux (EHF) First Wall (FW) Panels intended for withstanding the heat flux from the plasma up to 4.7MW/m{sup 2}. Two Russian institutions, NIIEFA (Efremov Institute) and NIKIET, are responsible for the implementation of this PA. NIIEFA manufactures plasma-facing components (PFCs) of the EHF FW panels and performs the final assembly and testing of the panels, and NIKIET manufactures FW beam structures, load-bearing structures of PFCs, and all elements of the panel attachment system. As for the second PA, NIKIET is the sole official supplier of flexible blanket supports, electrical insulation key pads (EIKPs), and blanket module/vacuum vessel electrical connectors. Joint activities of NIKIET and NIIEFA for implementing PA 1.6.P1ARF.01 are briefly described, and information on implementation of PA 1.6.P3.RF.01 is given. Results of the engineering design and research efforts in the scope of the above PAs in 2015–2016 are reported, and results of developing the technology for manufacturing ITER blanket components are presented.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2023

Single-Phase Jet Impingement Cooling for a Power-Dense Silicon Carbide Power Module

The adoption of silicon carbide (SiC) devices in the electric vehicle (EV) industry is increasing due to their superior performance over silicon devices. SiC devices enable further miniaturization of EV inverters, increasing their power density, which results in thermal management challenges. Here in this paper, the limits of single-phase jet impingement cooling are explored for an automotive SiC power module. We propose embedding pin fins in the direct-bonded-copper (DBC) substrate of the power module package using laser powder bed fusion additive manufacturing. The thermalhydraulic performance of the DBC-embedded pin fins is compared against folded fins that are directly soldered to the DBC substrate. A heat conduction analysis was conducted on a SiC package to determine the target heat transfer coefficient (HTC) for the heat sink. A water-ethylene glycol (WEG) jet impingement on the proposed concepts was studied using unit-cell models to achieve the target HTC. The studied designs put emphasis on the reliability and manufacturability requirements of the automotive industry. The thermal performance of DBC-embedded pin fins outperformed the DBC-soldered folded fins. The performance of the DBC-embedded pin fins is benchmarked against WEG-based cooling systems of commercial EVs. With the proposed cooling solution, we have shown a pathway of reducing the specific thermal resistance by 75% compared to BMW i3 thermal management system without any penalty on pressure drop or parasitic power.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Using spatio-temporal graph neural networks to estimate fleet-wide photovoltaic performance degradation patterns

Accurate estimation of photovoltaic (PV) system performance is crucial for determining its feasibility as a power generation technology and financial asset. PV-based energy solutions offer a viable alternative to traditional energy resources due to their superior Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE). A significant challenge in assessing the LCOE of PV systems lies in understanding the Performance Loss Rate (PLR) for large fleets of PV systems. Estimating the PLR of PV systems becomes increasingly important in the rapidly growing PV industry. Precise PLR estimation benefits PV users by providing real-time monitoring of PV module performance, while explainable PLR estimation assists PV manufacturers in studying and enhancing the performance of their products. However, traditional PLR estimation methods based on statistical models have notable drawbacks. Firstly, they require user knowledge and decision-making. Secondly, they fail to leverage spatial coherence for fleet-level analysis. Additionally, these methods inherently assume the linearity of degradation, which is not representative of real world degradation. To overcome these challenges, we propose a novel graph deep learning-based decomposition method called the Spatio-Temporal Graph Neural Network for fleet-level PLR estimation (PV-stGNN-PLR). PV-stGNN-PLR decomposes the power timeseries data into aging and fluctuation components, utilizing the aging component to estimate PLR. PV-stGNN-PLR exploits spatial and temporal coherence to derive PLR estimation for all systems in a fleet and imposes flatness and smoothness regularization in loss function to ensure the successful disentanglement between aging and fluctuation. We have evaluated PV-stGNN-PLR on three simulated PV datasets consisting of 100 inverters from 5 sites. Experimental results show that PV-stGNN-PLR obtains a reduction of 33.9% and 35.1% on average in Mean Absolute Percent Error (MAPE) and Euclidean Distance (ED) in PLR degradation pattern estimation compared to the state-of-the-art PLR estimation methods.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2017

The next generation CdTe technology- Substrate foil based solar cells

The main objective of this project was the development of one of the most promising Photovoltaic (PV) materials CdTe into a versatile, cost effective, and high throughput technology, by demonstrating substrate devices on foil substrates using high throughput fabrication conditions. The typical CdTe cell is of the superstrate configuration where the solar cell is fabricated on a glass superstrate by the sequential deposition of a TCO, n-type heterojunction partner, p-CdTe absorber, and back contact. Large glass modules are heavy and present significant challenges during manufacturing (uniform heating, etc.). If a substrate CdTe cell could be developed (the main goal of this project) a roll-to-toll high throughput technology could be developed.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2017

Development of Cost-Competitive Advanced Thermoelectric Generators for Direct Conversion of Vehicle Waste Heat into Useful Electrical Power

General Motors LLC (GM) proposed a project to develop a cost-effective thermoelectric generator (TEG) that is fully integrated into a GM production light-duty vehicle. The project goal was to reduce automotive energy consumption and CO 2 emissions by generating usable electricity from exhaust gas waste heat. The project objectives were to overcome the major obstacles to TEG commercialization and demonstrate 5% fuel economy improvement over the US06 drive cycle. We investigated electrical and thermal management strategies that included: (1) reducing electrical accessory load on the alternator using thermoelectric (TE) generated power; (2) shifting engine-driven accessories to electrical drive to raise the electrical accessory load consumption; (3) attempting to use the excess electrical power for something other than the vehicle electrical load e.g., propulsion (optimal for hybrids); and (4) implementing fast engine/transmission warm-up during cold-start. We developed a TEG system and all vehicle controls and electrical systems for full vehicle integration. The TEG system was modeled and analyzed for performance and cost. Heat exchangers and thermal interfaces between heat exchangers and TE modules were optimized for TE performance. Other objectives of the project were to (1) further optimize compositions and processing parameters for TE materials, (2) develop suitable diffusion barriers, interfaces electrical interconnections, and thermal contacts within TE modules, (3) implement adequate protection of TE materials and modules from degradation during operation, and (4) develop manufacturing and assembly processes for large scale production of TE materials and components that include scale-up plans for the production of 100,000 TEG units per year.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Advanced Hydrogen Fueling Station Supply: Tube Trailers

Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. (Air Products) is reporting on the results of a DOE-funded program to develop and validate Advanced Hydrogen Fueling Station hydrogen tube trailers to support hydrogen and fuel cell market applications. The project involved the engineering design and development of a new composite over-wrapped pressure vessel to increase the pressure capability of tube trailers to deliver hydrogen to greater than 8500 psi (586 bar). The new composite over-wrapped pressure vessel tube trailer was expected to provide improved delivery technology and reduce the cost of transporting hydrogen from central hydrogen production sources. The project aimed to meet or exceed DOE’s 2020 delivery targets for tube trailer hydrogen distribution. A gated approach was taken for the project, with early project Go/No-Go decision points. Specific goals for this four-stage product development project included: Preliminary Study, Modeling, and Analysis: Complete a preliminary design analysis and cost viability of a >8500 psi (586 bar) hydrogen storage vessel with an appropriate frame and chassis configuration for a complete trailer to US DOT requirements; Develop New Tube Size for >8500 psi (586 bar) Vessel: Fabricate tubes for test units, perform testing, and submit test results for a DOT Special Permit; Design, fabricate, and test a delivery trailer unit; Deploy the delivery trailer to hydrogen stations and collect data. Work conducted under DE-EE0006524 established costs for US DOT Type III vessels at 8500 psi (586 bar), 12500 psi (862 bar), and 14000 psi (965 bar) with manufactured water volumes up to 375 liters. Trailer module designs were established for the maximum US DOT design limits and for Air Products’ design limit of a 40-foot trailer length that addresses California hydrogen fueling station ingress and egress operating constraints. Conceptual trailer designs were not capable of achieving the DOE 2020 capacity and cost targets, but they did exceed the DOE pressure target of 500 bar. Based on new trailer cost and simulated operating performance, the 8500 psi (586 bar) new trailer design is not feasible in comparison to Air Products’ DOT-approved 7500 psi (520 bar) trailer design in operation today. Also, the project was expected to incur significantly higher product development costs associated with new US DOT vessel development and approval. Alternative trailer design concepts were explored that included 700 bar compression-less mobile fueling that could be promising for early-market hydrogen infrastructure fueling station placement and development and niche military applications. Due to the economic and budget challenges identified in the feasibility phase of the program, Air Products, in agreement with the Department of Energy, decided to terminate this development program.

08 HYDROGEN↗