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At least 433 records · Page 24

Geologic Characterization of the South Georgia Rift Basin for Source Proximal CO2 Storage

The project Geologic Characterization of the South Georgia Rift Basin for Source Proximal CO2 Storage is one of 9 site characterization projects that were implemented as part of ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act). Data from this project was used to improve resolution of data in NATCARB in the area of study. Data related to this study has already been incorporated in NATCARB Atlas. The South Carolina Research Foundation and partners evaluated the feasibility of CCS in the Jurassic/ Triassic (J / TR) saline formations of the buried Mesozoic South Georgia Rift (SGR) Basin that extends from South Carolina into Georgia. The J / TR sequence, based on preliminary assessment of limited geologic and geophysical data, appears to have both the appropriate areal extent and multiple horizons to permanently and safely store CO2 The presence of several igneous rock layers within the sequence may potentially provide adequate seals to prevent upward CO2 migration into the Coastal Plain aquifer systems. Approximately 81 kilometers of 2-D seismic reflection data were collected by Bay Geophysical, Inc. to explore a portion of the SGR located in southern Georgia. The 81 kilometers were divided into two lines approximately 40.5 kilometers each, with Line 1 intersecting Georgia well GGS 3457. Line 2 intersects Line 1 at the southern portion of Line 1 to maximize the extent of coverage away from GGS-3457 (a deep well drilled in the 1980s for oil and gas exploration). This well had a set of usable logs, including gamma and neutron logs that provided promising results related to CO2 storage. Results showed sandstone with porosity values greater than 10 percent and a thickness of 120 meters. The design of the seismic shot was to extrapolate information away from the well and to better define the extent of the SGR and the necessary reservoir and caprock for a successful CO2 injection. A numerical simulation model of CO2 Injection and migration was developed based on the geology log for the GGS-3457 well. The simulation model was used to investigate the feasibility of injecting 30 million metric tons of CO2 into SGR J / TA sediments and integrity of the diabase layers as seals to prevent CO2 migration.

2-D seismic↗

Life Cycle of Major Sudden Stratospheric Warmings in the Southern Hemisphere from a Multimillennial GCM Simulation

Abstract Sudden stratospheric warmings (SSWs) are rare in the Southern Hemisphere (SH), making it difficult to study possible precursors or subsequent impacts. Using a multimillennial coupled climate model simulation producing 161 SSWs in the SH, we present a detailed study of their life cycle. We show that SH SSWs are predominantly displacement events forced by wave-1 planetary waves, and that a surface signature similar to the negative phase of the Southern Annular Mode (SAM) is detectable up to two months before the onset date, but there is a tendency for a transition from wave 1 before to zonally symmetric anomalies after onset. We identify a strong weakening of the Amundsen Sea low as one of the most prominent precursors, which weakens the climatological wave-2 and wave-3 stationary waves and strengthens wave-1 forcing. Compared to their northern counterparts, SH SSWs generally have a longer time scale, and while there is evidence of pre-onset forcing related to tropical sea surface temperatures, the Indian Ocean dipole is more important than El Niño–Southern Oscillation. Significance Statement Sudden stratospheric warmings (SSWs) are extreme events where the winter polar stratosphere warms within a few days to temperatures usually only experienced in summer. These events are rare in the Southern Hemisphere. Therefore, both the observational record and standard climate model simulations are not enough to understand how SSWs develop, or how they might change surface weather. Here we use very long global climate simulations that produce a large number of SSWs in the Southern Hemisphere to study the development and impact of these events. This includes possible precursors as well as the influence they have on surface weather after they occur.

Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences↗

Modeling and simulation of multiphase flows

This presentation provides an overview of the National Energy Technology Laboratory’s (NETL) multiphase computational fluid dynamics codes. The highly successful Multiphase Flows with Interphase eXchanges (MFIX) suite has been used to model a wide range of applications including post-combustion carbon capture, bioreactor optimization, and bio-FCC regeneration. MFIX-Exa, a state-of-the-art CFD code, developed under DOE’s Exascale Computing Project, is built on the AMReX software framework (https://amrex-codes.github.io/) and is designed to leverage modern accelerator-based compute architectures. This presentation further reviews the underlying physical models of both MFIX and MFIX-Exa and contrasts their similarities and differences. Examples of past and present CFD simulations will illustrate how scientific computing at NETL is being used not only for scientific exploration but also for design, optimization and scale-up of multiphase flow devices.

Musser, Jordan [NETL]↗

The Effect of Air Separations on Fast Pyrolysis Products for Forest Residue Feedstocks

This study investigates the intricate relationship between biomass preprocessing and pyrolysis product yields, employing the air classification technique for the treatment of loblolly pine residues with varying moisture content. A comprehensive exploration of the physicochemical properties of air-classified loblolly pine informs a sophisticated pyrolysis simulation model. Given the complex and multifaceted nature of biomass pyrolysis, operating across diverse temporal and spatial scales, a pyrolysis kinetics-based CFD–DEM simulation method is employed to predict product yields. Results showed that the elevated moisture content amplifies particle adhesiveness, necessitating augmented air velocities for effective separation, thereby influencing the efficiency of the separation process. While carbon and hydrogen contents exhibit relative stability across diverse moisture contents and blower frequencies, the oxygen content undergoes noticeable changes. For example, the oxygen contents were measured as 29.2 and 38.6 wt% in the light fraction of 30% moisture content sample at blower frequencies of 10 and 20 Hz, respectively. An intriguing finding emerges from pyrolysis simulation, indicating that a lower blower frequency in air classification moderately enhances bio-oil yield and significantly improves its quality, particularly in terms of water content. For instance, the water content in the bio-oil was about 1.5% and 10% in the heavy and light fractions, respectively from 10% moisture sample under 15 Hz blower frequency. In summary, a detailed understanding and strategic manipulation of critical material attributes in biomass through efficient fractionation techniques are imperative for advancing fast pyrolysis as a sustainable avenue for renewable energy and chemical production.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗

Bayesian analysis of (3 +1)⁢D relativistic nuclear dynamics with the RHIC beam energy scan data

This work presents a Bayesian inference study for relativistic heavy-ion collisions in the beam energy scan program at the BNL Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider. The theoretical model simulates event-by-event (3+1)-dimensional [(3+1)⁢D] collision dynamics using hydrodynamics and hadronic transport theory. We analyze the model's 20-dimensional posterior distributions obtained using three model emulators with different accuracy and demonstrate the essential role of training an accurate model emulator in the Bayesian analysis. Our analysis provides robust constraints on the quark-gluon plasma's transport properties and various aspects of (3+1)⁢D relativistic nuclear dynamics. By running full model simulations with 100 parameter sets sampled from the posterior distribution, we make predictions for p T -differential observables and estimate their systematic theory uncertainty. Here, a sensitivity analysis is performed to elucidate how individual experimental observables respond to different model parameters, providing useful physics insights into the phenomenological model for heavy-ion collisions.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Deep operator network surrogate for phase-field modeling of metal grain growth during solidification

A deep operator network (DeepONet) has been constructed that generates accurate representations of phase-field model simulations for evolving two dimensional metal grain morphology growing from melt. These representations serve as lower resolution, computationally efficient stand-ins for quick parameter space exploration of solutions to the the Allen-Cahn equations that dictate the phase-field model simulations. The experimental target for the phase-field model is a uranium casting system cooling a 434 g uranium charge from a maximum temperature of 1400° C at an average rate of 30° C / min , traversing the crystallographic phases of the pure metal. Experimental parameters inform the phase-field model, whose higher resolution computational model solutions are used to train the DeepONet in a given parameter space with the aim of developing a faster, more efficient method for predicting the solidifying metal's microstructure at different potential experimental values. The final DeepONet generates high accuracy, lower resolution predictions with cumulative relative approximation error over all timesteps of less than 0.5%, while ensuring solutions remain within physically feasible ranges. Further, these relative error values are comparable with other state-of-the-art DeepONet models for microstructure evolution, while significantly reducing the amount of training data required. Training a convolutional neural network simultaneously with the DeepONet, enforcing realistic values at the complex metal grain boundaries, and mathematically encoding boundary conditions into the structure of the DeepONet improved prediction accuracy and computational efficiency over a standard DeepONet model.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DSO+T: Integrated System Simulation (DSO+T Study: Volume 2)

This report summarizes an integrated co-simulation model used by the Distribution System Operator with Transactive (DSO+T) study to represent an electrical generation, delivery, and end-load systems for the purposes of assessing the viability and value proposition of transactive energy coordination of flexible assets versus a business-as-usual case. The integrated co-simulation model includes the bulk generation and transmission system, including the day-ahead and real-time scheduling and dispatch of thermal generators. Forty distribution system operators were modelled in detail, including tens of thousands of residential and commercial buildings and their flexible end-loads. These included HVAC systems, residential water heaters, electric vehicles, and stationary, behind-the-meter, batteries. Both wholesale market and end-load results for the business-as-usual case are presented and compared to actual ERCOT system data to assess the accuracy and representativeness of the resulting model.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Near-field models and simulations of pellet ablation in tokamaks

Here, detailed numerical studies of the ablation of a single neon pellet in the plasma disruption mitigation parameter space have been performed. Simulations were carried out using FronTier, a hydrodynamic/low magnetic Reynolds number MHD code with explicit tracking of material interfaces. FronTier's physics models resolve the pellet surface ablation and the formation of a dense, cold cloud of ablated material, the deposition of energy from hot plasma electrons, the expansion of the ablation cloud along magnetic field lines, and the radiation losses. A local thermodynamic equilibrium model based on Saha equations has been used to resolve atomic processes in the cloud and Redlich–Kwong corrections to the ideal gas equation of state for cold and dense gases, which have been used near the pellet surface. The FronTier pellet code is a next generation of the code described. It has been validated against the semi-analytic improved neutral gas shielding model in the 1D spherically symmetric approximation. Main results include quantification of the influence of atomic processes and Redlich–Kwong corrections on the pellet ablation in spherically symmetric approximation and verification of analytic scaling laws in a broad range of pellet and plasma parameters. Using axially symmetric MHD simulations, the properties of ablation channels and the reduction of pellet ablation rates in magnetic fields of increasing strength have been studied. While the main emphasis has been given to neon pellets for the plasma disruption mitigation, selected results on deuterium fueling pellets have also been presented.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Simulation-Based Model for Facility-Scale Eagle Presence Mapping

This talk presents the recent progress in building a predictive movement model for predicting conflict between soaring raptors and wind turbines. In particular, it details the recently developed numerical tool called Stochastic Soaring Raptor Simulator for simulating updraft-subsidized paths for soaring raptors through variety of wind conditions and the associated directional intent.

agent-based model↗

The root-zone soil moisture spectrum in a mediterranean ecosystem

Storage of water within soil pores of the root zone introduce memory effects in the dynamics of soil moisture that are considerably longer than the integral timescale of many atmospheric processes. Thus, hydro-climatic states can be “sustained” through land-surface heat and water vapor fluxes primarily because they can “feed off” on this long-term soil moisture memory. Root-zone soil moisture memory is only but one feature characterizing the spectrum of soil moisture dynamics, which is analyzed here using a combination of long-term measurements and models. In particular, the spectrum of root-zone soil moisture content in a Mediterranean ecosystem is examined using 14-years of half-hourly measurements. A distinguishing hydro-climatic feature in such ecosystems is that sources (mainly rainfall) and sinks (mainly evapotranspiration) of soil moisture are roughly out of phase with each other. For over 4 decades of time scales and 7 decades of energy, the canonical shape of the measured soil moisture spectrum is shown to be approximately Lorentzian determined by the soil moisture variance and its memory but with two exceptions: the occurrences of a peak at diurnal-to-daily time scales and a weaker peak at near annual time scales. Model calculations and spectral analysis demonstrate that diurnal and seasonal variations in hydroclimate forcing responsible for variability in evapotranspiration had minor impact on the normalized shape of the soil moisture spectrum. However, their impact was captured by adjustments in the temporal variance. These findings indicate that precipitation and not evapotranspiration variability dominates the multi-scaling properties of soil moisture variability consistent with prior climate model simulations. Furthermore, the soil moisture memory inferred by the annual peak of soil moisture (340 d) is consistent with climate model simulations, while the memory evaluated from the loss function of a linearized mass balance approach leads to a smaller value (50 d), highlighting the effect of weak non-stationarity on soil moisture variability.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

How sheath properties change with gas pressure: modeling and simulation

Abstract Particle-in-cell simulations are used to study how neutral pressure influences plasma properties at the sheath edge. The high rate of ion–neutral collisions at pressures above several mTorr are found to cause a decrease in the ion velocity at the sheath edge (collisional Bohm criterion), a decrease in the edge-to-center density ratio ( h l factor), and an increase in the sheath width and sheath potential drop. A comparison with existing analytic models generally indicates favorable agreement, but with some distinctions. One is that models for the h l factor need to be made consistent with the collisional Bohm criterion. With this and similar corrections, a comprehensive fluid-based model of the plasma boundary transition is constructed that compares well with the simulation results.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Compartmentalized Storage Reservoir Model and Simulation Results

A hypothetical closed (or compartmentalized) reservoir was created based on the numerical mesh used for Wainwright et al. (2013). The reservoir extent is smaller than the original model and limited between the two faults. The caprock properties are assumed in the rest of the storage formation.

Carbon Storage↗

Review of recent activities with MOOSE, an open-source finite element & finite volume multi-fidelity simulation framework

Modeling and simulation are an increasing part of engineering. This is undoubtedly driven by the high costs of constructing experimental facilities, but also enabled by the exponential increase in computing powers over the last decades, which allows computational models to be closer than ever to reality. One of the main drivers for the development of MOOSE is supporting advanced nuclear reactor simulations. A challenging aspect of modeling advanced nuclear reactors is the plurality of physics involved, including neutronics, thermal hydraulics and fuel performance. These physics are all coupled to some extent and are generally solved in a sequential but iterative fashion. The United States (U.S.) national laboratories have been developing MOOSE, an open source multiphysics framework since its inception at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) in 2008. This framework enables seamless coupling of multiphysics simulations and facilitates the implementation of new physics and material governing laws. It is continuously expanded with novel numerical methods and new pre-implemented physics module. Numerous applications, developed within the Department of Energy (DOE) laboratories, academia, and industry, including outside of nuclear engineering, have been developed to study specialized physics problems. International collaborations are welcome on this open-source modeling and simulation project.

22 - GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Baycal

Bayesian Model Calibration (BayCal) toolkit is a software plugin for Risk Analysis Virtual Environment (RAVEN) framework, arming at inversely quantifying the uncertainties associated with simulation model parameters based on available experiment data. BayCal seeks statistical inference of the uncertain input parameters that are consistent with the available measurement data or observed data. The unique feature of BayCal is the capability to be linked with RAVEN to build corresponding calibration workflows for complex multi-physics simulations. In addition to be able to use the machine learning capability of RAVEN to significantly reduce the computational cost of expensive simulation models, another distinctive feature of BayCal is the capability to deal with high-dimensional correlated model outputs, such as time series observations at multiple locations, via principal component analysis (PCA) technique.

Wang, Congjian↗

Internal variability and forcing influence model–satellite differences in the rate of tropical tropospheric warming

Climate-model simulations exhibit approximately two times more tropical tropospheric warming than satellite observations since 1979. The causes of this difference are not fully understood and are poorly quantified. Here, we apply machine learning to relate the patterns of surface-temperature change to the forced and unforced components of tropical tropospheric warming. This approach allows us to disentangle the forced and unforced change in the model-simulated temperature of the midtroposphere (TMT). In applying the climate-model-trained machine-learning framework to observations, we estimate that external forcing has produced a tropical TMT trend of 0.25 ± 0.08 K⋅decade −1 between 1979 and 2014, but internal variability has offset this warming by 0.07 ± 0.07 K⋅decade −1 . Using the Community Earth System Model version 2 (CESM2) large ensemble, we also find that a discontinuity in the variability of prescribed biomass-burning aerosol emissions artificially enhances simulated tropical TMT change by 0.04 K⋅decade −1 . The magnitude of this aerosol-forcing bias will vary across climate models, but since the latest generation of climate models all use the same emissions dataset, the bias may systematically enhance climate-model trends over the satellite era. Our results indicate that internal variability and forcing uncertainties largely explain differences in satellite-versus-model warming and are important considerations when evaluating climate models.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Electromagnetic Transient (EMT) Simulation Algorithm for Evaluation of Photovoltaic (PV) Generation Systems

Use of inverter-based resources facilitating renewable energy resources such as photovoltaic (PV) generation is increasing rapidly with decreasing costs and reduced emissions associated. To accommodate such rapid growth of inverter-based resources like PV systems, electromagnetic transient (EMT) simulation models of both PV systems and grids are required to analyze the interaction of PVs in the grid (like the post-event analysis). In addition, the EMT simulation would help with the planning of future power grid with a large number of PVs as well as other inverter-based distributed generation systems. In this paper, the EMT simulation models of PV systems and grids are developed based on the differential algebraic equations (DAEs) representing their EMT dynamics. Furthermore, advanced simulation algorithms including numerical stiffness-based hybrid discretization, DAE clustering and aggregation, multi-order integration, and matrix splitting approaches are applied to accelerate the EMT simulation. The proposed algorithm was applied to 125 PV inverters within 52-bus medium-voltage (MV) distribution grid.

Choi, Jongchan↗

Modelling and Simulation of a Thermoelectric Heat Pump with Micro-Channel Heat Transfer

Thermoelectric heat pumps (TEHPs) have advantages of modularity and simple design for heating and cooling in some applications. Models of thermoelectric (TE) heat pumps are widely studied. Nevertheless, most existing modeling work focuses on the TE material or air-sourced TE modules. TEHP modeling, especially the relationship between modules and heat exchangers, has not been comprehensively conducted. This work presents a water-to-water TEHP modeling framework that combines Goldsmid’s approach for TE material performance, Gnielinski’s correlation for convective heat transfer, and thermal balance theory for heat exchange networks. This combined framework provides an accurate theoretical analysis of the water-to-water TEHP system. Subsequently, the framework was used to empirically determine TE material properties (electric resistivity, thermal conductivity, and Seebeck coefficient) that minimize modeling errors versus experimentally observed values from the literature. Finally, an additional set of experimental TEHP data was used to validate the model, all with relative absolute deviations of approximately 10% when predicting heating capacity and 10%–20% when forecasting cooling capacity at a 30 K temperature lift. For future work, people can further develop models of TEHPs with an air-based heat sink on one side and water channels on the other side.

Wan, Hanlong↗

Advanced modeling and simulation of research reactors using dynamic mode decomposition

Full text of publication follows. Due to the ever-increasing safety requirements, the current trend of nuclear reactor analysis is shifting towards high-fidelity multi-physics models, which have a very high computational cost and modelling complexity. As the cost of even a single model run makes it impossible to analyse the behaviour and performance of these models on large-scale commercial plants, it has become even more significant to provide suitable benchmarks to validate and test them extensively. In this sense, research reactors offer a promising solution for the initial validation of high-fidelity models, as they are significantly smaller than commercial reactors and their characteristics are well known. In particular, the reactors of the TRIGA family have been used to assess and validate models and methods for Generation-IV designs, as they have some similar features (such as the dominance of natural convection as cooling mechanism and the difficulties in performing sub-channel analysis using standard codes). Still, the computational requirements of high-fidelity models make them unsuitable for real-time analysis, even following their assessment on research reactors. In this sense, Model Order Reduction (MOR) techniques give an additional strategy to reduce the computational cost of high-fidelity models (whilst preserving sufficient accuracy). In particular, this work focuses on Dynamic Mode Decomposition (DMD), a non-intrusive MOR technique that aims at representing models with explicit temporal dynamics by extracting the time-varying characteristics and the governing structures based only on a set of available data, thus without needing any underlying knowledge of the governing equations. In addition, DMD also computes a low-dimensional surrogate of the dynamic matrix of the system, making it suited for stability analysis and real-time evaluations. This work focuses on the application and validation of the DMD method on the Computational Fluid-Dynamics (CFD) model TRIGA Mark II reactor, also discussing in detail the potentiality of this algorithm as an advanced modelling tool for nuclear reactor analysis. (author)

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗