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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 379 records · Page 21
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

BENCH-SCALE DEVELOPMENT OF A TRANSFORMATIVE MEMBRANE PROCESS FOR PRE-COMBUSTION CO 2 CAPTURE

This final technical report describes work conducted by Membrane Technology and Research, Inc. (MTR) for the Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory (DOE NETL) on development of the second generation (Gen-2) Proteus™ membrane modules and a pre-combustion membrane process for carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) capture from an Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) plant for power generation (award number DE-FE0031632). The work was conducted from October 1, 2018 through March 30, 2022. The overall goal of this project was to bring a Gen-2 version of the H2-selective Proteus membrane to bench-scale module (component) testing with real syngas. MTR was assisted in this project by Susteon, a technology development company with extensive experience in gasification processes, and the University of North Dakota Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC), who provided the host site for the slipstream field testing. This report details the work conducted to optimize the Gen-2 Proteus membrane and develop modules capable of operation at 200°C; demonstrate membrane module performance processing coal-derived syngas during a field test at EERC; and optimize integration of a dual-membrane process into an IGCC with carbon capture. Work for this project included membrane optimization and scale-up, module component screening and fabrication of high-temperature lab- and bench-scale modules, design and fabrication of a bench-scale field test membrane skid, operation of the field test skid processing coal-derived syngas at EERC, and a detailed techno-economic analysis (TEA) of the MTR dual-membrane process for IGCC power plant pre-combustion CO 2 capture. This project validated recent membrane technology advancements, mitigates risk in future scale-up activities, and moved the membrane pre-combustion capture technology from TRL-4 to TRL-5. Key results for each major task are discussed in the report.

10 SYNTHETIC FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Noodles: Cooking Up Collaborative Visualization

NOODLES is a new cross-domain collaborative visualization and analysis capability being developed at NREL. The NOODLES specification is a minimal protocol that can tie different software packages and platforms together. As an example, a simulation code that speaks this protocol could stream iso-surfaces to an immersive VR space and a web browser. Another example is a team (with some members across the country) classifying and discovering features in a statistical data plot, driven from a researcher's existing Python-based workflow. In this talk, we will discuss some background on the problems that this protocol intends to solve, basic principles of the specification, the current state of supporting libraries, and some demonstrations of the protocol in action.

3D↗
DOE OSTI2023

Experiments to Measure the Effect of Tantalum on Critical Systems

Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) collaborated to develop a capability to test the epithermal/intermediate cross sections of materials at the SNL critical experiment facility using the Seven Percent Critical Experiment (7uPCX) fuel. As a result, a new set of critical experiments has been designed to target the epithermal cross sections of tantalum (Ta) and is scheduled to be performed at SNL in 2023. These critical experiments will be evaluated for inclusion in the 2024 edition of the International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP) Handbook. The focus of these critical experiments is to measure the effects of Ta on the critical array size. The critical array size will be determined by an approach-to-critical experiment with the number of fuel rods in the array as a free parameter. The core configurations are designed to optimize the reactivity worth of Ta and the overall percentage of Ta absorption rates in the epithermal/intermediate energy range (0.625 eV – 100 keV). The baseline core configuration includes 7uPCX fuel rods set at a triangular pitch of 1.016 cm and a central dry test region that utilizes a cadmium liner for filtering out thermal neutrons. The central test region has locations for 85 Ta rods set at a triangular pitch of 0.813 cm. The Ta reactivity worth for the case with 85 Ta rods is approximately 2.55%, with the percentage of Ta absorption rates within the intermediate energy range at nearly 90%.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Development of A Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL) Testbed for Cyber-Physical Security in Smart Buildings

As smart buildings move towards open communication technologies, providing access to the Building Automation System (BAS) through the building's intranet, or even remotely through the Internet, has become a common practice. However, BAS was historically developed as a closed environment and designed with limited cyber-security considerations. Thus, smart buildings are vulnerable to cyber-attacks with the increased accessibility. This study introduces the development and capability of a Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIT) testbed for testing and evaluating the cyber-physical security of typical BASs in smart buildings. The testbed consists of three subsystems: (1) a real-time HIL emulator simulating the behavior of a virtual building as well as the Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) equipment via a dynamic simulation in Modelica; (2) a set of real HVAC controllers monitoring the virtual building operation and providing local control signals to control HVAC equipment in the HIL emulator; and (3) a BAS server along with a web-based service for users to fully access the schedule, setpoints, trends, alarms, and other control functions of the HVAC controllers remotely through the BACnet network. The server generates rule-based setpoints to local HVAC controllers. Based on these three subsystems, the HIL testbed supports attack/fault-free and attack/fault-injection experiments at various levels of the building system. The resulting test data can be used to inform the building community and support the cyber-physical security technology transfer to the building industry.

Li, Guowen↗
DOE OSTI2023

Critical Experiments Targeting the Epithermal/Intermediate Cross Sections of Tantalum

Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have collaborated to develop a capability to test the epithermal/intermediate cross sections of materials at the SNL critical experiments facility using the Seven Percent Critical Experiment (7uPCX) fuel. The Sandia Critical Experiments Program provides a specialized facility for performing water moderated and reflected critical experiments with UO 2 fuel rod arrays. The facility offers the ability to modify the core configuration and reactor tank to evaluate various reactor cores for pitch, moderator characteristics, and other criteria. A history of safe operations and flexibility in reactor core configuration has resulted in the completion of nine sets of critical benchmark experiments that have been documented in the International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP) Handbook. The experiment described here is expected to be evaluated for inclusion in the 2024 edition of the ICSBEP Handbook.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2024

The Hard Life of Floatovoltaics: Modeling Wind-Driven Oscillations of Floating Solar Panels

Modern, thin photovoltaic (PV) panels for solar power are susceptible to high stress loads in windy conditions. Manufacturers are eager to determine optimal installation practices to reduce these loads, including in the relatively new practice of installing PV on floating structures located on artificial and natural lakes. As part of our effort to develop simulation capabilities for stress on such floating PV systems, we here present our combined model-simulation approach, which simulates the dynamic wind loading and uses modeled elements to capture both the hydrodynamic and mooring-line forces. We discuss the forces important for our model and the challenges inherent in our simulation. Of particular interest is our model of the hysteresis response displayed by the attached mooring lines, which are engineered to damp motion and oscillation of the floating panel system. We validate our approach against the benchmark problem of vortex-induced vibration of a cylinder, which is driven by the same dynamic forces present in floating PV panels.

floating↗
DOE OSTI2024

Intrinsic Bonding and Reactivity of Actinide Clusters Poster

The effect of electronic structure on chemical bonding and reactivity is one of the most important questions in the field of chemistry. Insight into chemical bond formation involving elements that contain f electrons (i.e., the lanthanides and actinides) is critical for solving specific technical challenges, such as development of advanced nuclear fuel cycles and efficient rare earth separations, as well as a broader understanding of bonding across the entire periodic table. The primary technique for studying the fundamentals of lanthanide and actinide bonding is crystallization of metal-ligand compounds followed by structural determination with X-rays and comparison to theory with computational chemistry. While this procedure has yielded significant insights for a wide variety of elements, it is challenging to apply to the heavier trans-uranic actinides such as berkelium and californium because of limited material availability, significant radioactivity, and poorly understood chemical reactivity of these elements. We hypothesize that by forming actinide-ligand clusters in a mass spectrometer and probing their reactivity in the gas-phase, many of the challenges associated with studying the heavier trans-uranic elements can be circumvented. This project will develop a capability to address a wide range of actinide bonding and reactivity phenomena, increasing Idaho National Laboratory’s capability to address fundamental questions at the forefront of heavy element chemical and molecular science.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2024

METHOD FOR EXPOSING IRRADIATED FUEL CLADDING TO RAPID THERMAL TRANSIENTS

Reactor core materials exposed to rapid thermal transients during accidents can experience significant changes in mechanical properties as irradiation hardness is recovered. Understanding material performance during transients using computer modeling requires accurate descriptions of mechanical property evolution with time and temperature. A simple experimental capability was developed to expose irradiated Zircaloy to a simulated thermal transient using immersion in molten tin (at 675°C) to rapidly heat and hold before rapidly cooling with a water quench. Multiple heating-cooling cycles using a nonirradiated tensile specimen showed simplicity and viability. Based on preliminary test results, a robust system was established for routine evaluation of simulated thermal accident scenarios in the Low Activation Materials Design and Analysis (LAMDA) laboratory at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). This paper summarizes system development and nonirradiated Zircaloy commissioning test results. Future experiments will conduct tensile tests on irradiated Zircaloy after various rapid temperature profiles.

Byun, TS↗
DOE OSTI2021

TEAL Output Visualization

Tool for Economic Analysis (TEAL) is an open-source economics calculation package written and maintained by Idaho National Laboratory (INL). As a plugin of the Risk Analysis Virtual ENvironment (RAVEN), TEAL provides economics analysis models to RAVEN workflow users. In addition, TEAL is used in other RAVEN plugins such as LOGOS and the Holistic Energy Resource Optimization Network (HERON) to complement other analyses with economic calculations. This report documents the efforts in developing the capability of TEAL output visualization for users to better understand and investigate TEAL simulation results. In the past, outputs (e.g., various cash flows) were generated and printed to screen. According to the need and purpose for visualization, users can select various bar charts and donut charts to visualize the cash flows including inflows, outflows, and net cash flows in each year or in a selected time range, in addition to observing data stored in comma-separated value files (CSVs). The visualization capability is flexible and user-friendly by introducing several user-defined parameters, for instance, the start and the end project year of interest and the type of colors to be assigned to the cash flows.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2025

IOTA Experiment for Proton Pulse Compression at Extreme Space-Charge

The longitudinal compression of high-intensity, space-charge-dominated proton bunches is a critical requirement for future proton-driven muon colliders. We propose a proton bunch compression experiment at the Integrable Optics Test Accelerator (IOTA) storage ring at Fermilab to investigate optimal radio-frequency (RF) cavity parameters and lattice configurations. IOTA is a compact, fixed-energy storage ring dedicated to beam physics Research and Development and capable of circulating a 2.5 MeV proton beam under extreme space-charge conditions. Using the ImpactX code with its 3D space-charge solver, simulations indicate that the bunch length can be rapidly reduced by at least a factor of two without appreciable degradation of transverse beam quality--even in the strong space-charge regime. However, longitudinal defocusing due to the space-charge remains a significant challenge in short-pulsed intense proton bunches, and the optimization of compression under these conditions is discussed.

Simons, B. D. [Northern Illinois U.]↗
DOE OSTI2025

Kinetic Plasma Simulation Capabilities in the MOOSE Framework: Verification of Particle-Particle Collisions

High-fidelity simulations of complex plasma systems allow researchers to gain key insights into and understanding of these systems. To facilitate massively parallel high-fidelity plasma simulations, finite-element-based particle-in-cell capabilities are being developed within the open-source Multiphysics Object-Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE) based framework called Software for Advanced Large-scale Analysis of MAgnetic confinement for Numerical Design, Engineering & Research (SALAMANDER). While SALAMANDER’s primary objective is modeling edge plasmas and plasma-facing components in fusion devices, the particle-in-cell capabilities being developed are general and will support modeling low-temperature plasmas as well. Previously, collisionless magnetostatic simulation capabilities have been verified with the two-stream and Dorey-Guest-Harris instabilities, and single particle motion. Collisions were implemented using the direct simulation Monte Carlo method, and verification of this capability will be presented here several verification problems: relaxation of a randomly initialized gas to a Maxwellian distribution, Fourier heat flow, and comparison of reaction rates to both analytic calculations and those calculated using a multi-term Boltzmann solver.

70 - PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

New developments and verification of fusion blanket simulation capabilities in the MOOSE framework

Multiphysics modeling capabilities have a crucial role to play in the accelerated deployment of fusion energy. To that end, we developed new multiphysics fusion blanket simulation capabilities in the Multiphysics Object-Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE). Firstly, we expanded on the existing capabilities of the previously published work, by coupling 3D tritium transport modeling capabilities using the Tritium Migration Analysis Program, version 8 (TMAP8) to an existing tool including thermal hydraulics, fully three-dimensional (3D) heat transfer, and loosely coupled neutronics analysis. Secondly, we performed a thorough verification of the new capabilities and increased testing code coverage to meet MOOSE’s software quality standards. The MOOSE framework follows a strict software quality assurance plan to be Nuclear Quality Assurance, Level 1 compliant. The new multiphysics fusion blanket simulation capabilities are now held to the same standard. Thirdly, to demonstrate MOOSE’s new fusion blanket modeling capabilities, we performed a fully integrated, multiphysics simulation of a 3D solid ceramic breeder blanket design. This proof-of-concept simulation provides the temperature and tritium distribution across the blanket. In conclusion, the combined efforts towards software quality and the development of multiphysics coupling capabilities provide an effective and reliable framework for modeling solid ceramic fusion blankets using MOOSE.

modeling and simulation↗
DOE OSTI2024

Advanced Measurements for Resilient Integration of Inverter-Based Resources: PROGRESS MATRIX Final Report

As nearly every aspect of the electric power grid undergoes rapid change, measurement technologies that support grid operation and planning must evolve as well. The rapid large-scale deployment of inverter-based resources (IBRs) vital to achieving the nation’s clean energy goals has in some cases led to negative impacts on the reliability and security of the bulk power system (BPS). Advanced power system measurements, including synchronized phasor and waveform measurements, are key to making IBR integration secure and reliable. To this end, the Department of Energy (DOE) initiated the PROGRESS MATRIX project to develop advanced measurement capabilities and analytics that will accelerate adoption of IBRs while improving the reliability and resilience of the BPS. This report discusses the outcomes of the project, which was a joint effort between the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). In the project’s first year, PNNL, NREL, and ORNL partnered with the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), the Western Area Power Administration (WAPA), and Kauai Island Utility Cooperative (KIUC) to understand their existing measurement capabilities and the gaps limiting deployment of IBR-focused measurement systems and analytics. The other primary activity in the first year was deployment of GridSweep instruments, which provide unprecedented precision in waveform measurement while probing distribution systems. The instruments were deployed at Dominion Energy and the University of California, Riverside. In the project’s second year, the input from partner utilities and collected measurements were used to advance measurement capabilities. Twelve analytical methods spanning disturbance analysis, power plant evaluation, feeder evaluation, and modeling were developed. Two software tools were developed, one to analyze GridSweep measurements and another to automatically evaluate the control performance of power plants connected to the BPS. Testbeds at ORNL and NREL were augmented to better enable studies of IBR integration. The project culminated in demonstrations of these analytical methods, software tools, and testbeds, both in the field and in the laboratory. This report discusses these various accomplishments and documents the significant progress in developing advanced measurement capabilities to support the secure, reliable, and accelerated adoption of IBRs in the BPS.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2021

Methods for Estimating Dose from Galactic Cosmic Rays and Jovian Radiation Belts on Reduced-Order Monte Carlo Geometries

This document outlines the methods and tools developed to estimate dose rates from galactic cosmic rays and the trapped radiation belts surrounding Jupiter using Monte Carlo particle transport software. Furthermore, the techniques described here are specific for translating high-resolution MAVRIC models to analogous but lower resolution Monte Carlo N-Particle Transport (MCNP) code models to estimate charged particle effects on models originally developed to study neutral particles only. This capability was initially developed to predict doses to various components of dynamic radioisotope power systems for spaceflight applications, but the tools and methods can be easily applied to other problem geometries and expanded to other space radiation environments.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Development of Automated Atom Probe Tomography capability to study the influence of applied voltage and laser power on the final apparent composition of the analyzed specimen

This study presents the development and implementation of an autonomous Bayesian optimization (BO) framework for controlling and optimizing experimental parameters in Atom Probe Tomography (APT). Using commercial silicon needle samples as a benchmark system, we demonstrate that BO can efficiently navigate the complex parameter space of voltage and laser power to achieve target charge state ratios (specifically Si + /(Si + +Si 2+ )) with minimal experimental evaluations. Our implementation integrates Gaussian Process modeling with the CAMECA atom probe control framework, enabling autonomous adjustment of experimental conditions in real-time. Results show that the algorithm successfully converges to target ratios under different scenarios: maintaining a reference ratio, increasing the ratio (favoring Si 1+ ), and decreasing the ratio (favoring Si 2+ ). The system adapts to specimen evolution during analysis, compensating for changes in apex geometry while maintaining optimization targets. This work establishes a proof of concept for AI-driven optimization in APT, addressing the traditional challenges of manual parameter tuning and paving the way for applications to more complex materials where compositional accuracy is critical.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

Capability: Selective Endotoxin Uptake

Researchers at Los Alamos National Lab are developing a new capability to selectively absorb lipopolysaccharide, also known as endotoxin. Current sepsis treatment technologies generally target the bacteria causing the infection, but do not mitigate the host response that causes sickness. This disruptive capability could enable the removal of endotoxin from patient blood adding a much needed tool to the toolkit of sepsis treatments. We are seeking a CRADA partner with the desire to develop sepsis treatments and collaborate on the next steps.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

New Developments and Verification of the Fusion Blanket Simulation Capabilities in the MOOSE Framework

This poster contains new developments and updates in the Multiphysics Object-Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE) framework related to fusion modeling and simulation, and forms the basis for an on-going effort in modeling whole fusion devices at Idaho National Laboratory using MOOSE. In this work, a slice of the midplane of a proposed ceramic breeder blanket design for the Fusion Nuclear Science Facility is simulated using a combination of neutronics, 1D system level thermal hydraulics for helium, 3D heat conduction, and tritium transport. Previous work focused on the engineering scale full assembly of a blanket sector, but the simulations here form the basis for software quality and verification efforts to increase confidence as the large scale simulations continue. This poster was presented at the Idaho National Laboratory Intern Poster Session 2023.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗