Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “stochastic analysis”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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

At least 487 records · Page 27

SLICE

For most of their lifetime, pebble-bed reactors (PBRs) operate at an equilibrium state in which the core is filled with fuel pebbles at various levels of burnup. A fuel pebble travels multiple times in so-called passes through the reactor before it reaches its target discharge burnup and is replaced with a fresh fuel pebble. Given the stochastic nature of the fuel pebble travel paths and consequently the individual fuel pebble histories, it is not possible with standard methods developed for traditional reactor concepts to calculate the fuel inventory in the reactor core. An iterative approach, the SCALE Leap-In method for Cores at Equilibrium (SLICE), was developed to generate region-average fuel inventory for a PBR. The SLICE code enables automatic generation of input files for the SCALE code system (https://www.ornl.gov/scale), management of the SCALE result files, and analysis of results.

Bostelmann, Friederike [Oak Ridge National Laborat↗

Modeling Time-Dependent Surrogates of Additive-Manufactured Nuclear Fuels Processes

Additive manufacturing (AM) technology is being increasingly adopted in a wide variety of application areas for its ability to rapidly produce, prototype, and customize designs. Recently, a hybrid AM technique was successfully developed at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) to manufacture nuclear fuels [1]. Despite the advantages, this AM technique needs optimization due to defects from a highly complex melting and sintering process. The complex metallurgical phenomena during AM processes are strongly related to parameters such as applied laser power, traveling speed, and scan style, which could lead to differences in density, residual stress, crystallographic texture, and mechanical properties. In addition, stochastic variations in laser energy interaction and associated multiscale/multiphysics phenomena cause variations in microstructure evolution and mechanical properties. Currently, researchers at INL are focusing on developing a comprehensive modeling framework, leveraging INL’s simulation tools MOOSE/MARMOT/BISON/RAVEN [2-4] to describe all steps of this AM process across multiple length scales. Although this advanced framework plays a critical role in enabling enhancements to traditional trial and error approaches for design and optimization of nuclear fuel materials, it remains computationally intense, limiting its use in sensitivity and optimization analysis. In this case, an accurate and inexpensive surrogate becomes an effective tool for providing a tractable approximation of the underlying underline physics. Surrogate models generally not based on the physics of a system are purely mathematical models used to capture the relationships between specific system inputs and outputs. Popular approaches, including neural networks [5], response surfaces [6], and subspace-based reduced order models [7], have been applied to a wide range of disciplines, such as nuclear reactor design, aerospace design and automotive design. In this summary, we employ advanced time-dependent surrogate models such as high-dimensional model representation (HDMR) [8] and physics-informed deep neural network (PINNs) [9] to accelerate the design and optimization of AM process.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Dynamics of coupled thermoacoustic modes: Noise and frequency spacing effects

Practical combustion systems consist of multiple thermoacoustic modes that are linearly stable or unstable at a wide range of frequencies. When coupled, the modal interactions are a strong function of the frequency spacing between them – having very significant implications on interpretation of linear stability or instability of modes from experimental data. Frequency spacing between the modes particularly influences the stability and existence of potential limit cycle solutions. In this paper, we extend earlier deterministic studies to include the effects of noise, studying how deterministic dynamics change with the addition of noise and the simultaneous impact of frequency spacing (i.e., closely, or widely spaced). Specifically, this paper characterizes three key effects of noise, which are (1) distribution of limit cycle amplitudes (“diffusion”), (2) shift in the average limit cycle amplitudes (“noise induced drift”), and (3) introduction of new bifurcations that are not present in the deterministic system. Key conclusions from this work are that in highly noisy practical environments, a deterministic/ low noise analysis will not be sufficient to explain even critical qualitative features of the system – such as existence of stable limit cycles or their amplitudes. Furthermore, the nature of noise-induced effects on nonlinear modal interactions can be fundamentally different for degenerate, closely spaced, and widely spaced modes.

42 ENGINEERING↗

MAGIS-100 environmental characterization and noise analysis

We investigate and analyze site specific systematics for the MAGIS-100 atomic interferometry experiment at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. As atom interferometers move out of the laboratory environment passive and active mitigation for noise sources must be implemented. To inform the research and development of the experiment design, we measure ambient temperature, humidity, and vibrations of the installation site. We find that temperature fluctuations will necessitate enclosures for critical subsystems and a temperature controlled laser room for the laser system. We also measure and analyze the vibration spectrum above and below ground for the installation site. The seismic vibration effect of gravity gradient noise is also modeled using input from a low-noise seismometer at multiple locations and a mitigation scheme is studied using a stochastic simulation and characterized by a suppression factor.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Prediction of gas hydrate saturation using machine learning and optimal set of well-logs

We report resistivity and acoustic logs are widely used to estimate gas hydrate saturation in various sedimentary systems using one of the two popular methods ((1) acoustic velocity and (2) electrical resistivity), but the limitations of these two methods are often overlooked, which include (i) well-specific calibration of empirical exponents in the electrical resistivity method, (ii) assumption of known pore morphology for gas hydrates in the acoustic velocity method, and (iii) presence of unknown mineralogy and bulk modulus terms in the acoustic velocity method. NMR-density porosity-derived gas hydrate saturation based on the analysis of the transverse magnetization relaxation time (T2) is considered the most precise method, but acquisition of NMR-based logs is limited at relatively recent drilled sites; additionally, its use in conventional oil and gas reservoirs is not that common due to higher cost and operational deployment limitations associated with acquiring NMR well-logs. This study proposes a new method that predicts gas hydrate saturation (S h ) for any well using porosity, bulk density, and compressional wave (P wave) velocity well-logs with neural network (or stochastic gradient descent regression) without any well-specific calibration and/or other aforementioned shortcomings of the existing methods. The method is developed by examining the underlying dependency between S h and different combinations of well-logs, chosen from 6 routine logs, with 12 different machine learning (ML) algorithms. The accuracy of the proposed method in predicting S h is ~ 84%, which is better than the accuracy of seismic and electrical resistivity methods (≤ 75%) per the results reported by three different studies. The robustness of the method in the specific case of permafrost-associated gas hydrates is demonstrated with well-log data from two wells drilled on the Alaska North Slope.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Analytic insights into nonlocal energy transport: Steady state Fokker Planck theory in arbitrary Z plasmas

The generation of energetic electrons in laser fusion in an important issue. The electrons may either arise from a laser plasma instability, or from the uncoupled high temperature tail of a Maxwellian distribution. To study these in a laser fusion context, it is important to find a method accurate enough to be useful, and simple enough to be incorporated into a radiation hydrodynamics numerical simulation, the main workhorse for studying the laser fusion target. That is why analytic insights become important, they allow one to simplify the Fokker Planck theory so that a solution of it can be incorporated into a radiation hydrodynamic simulation. This work develops and analyzes a steady state Fokker Planck theory for plasmas of arbitrary Z. It develops a method of solving the simplified Fokker Planck method with a technique called sparse eigenfunction analysis. As a result, this method appears to work reasonably well when compared to the experimental results from the Rochester/NIF on plastic spherical targets with and without a silicon layer.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Revisiting a Drag Partition Model For Canopy-Like Roughness Elements

Turbulent flows over a large surface area (S) covered by n obstacles experience an overall drag due to the presence of the ground and the protruding obstacles into the flow. The drag partition between the roughness obstacles and the ground is analyzed using an analytical model proposed by Raupach (Boundary-Layer Meteorol 60:375-395, 1992) and is hereafter referred to as R92. The R92 is based on the premise that the wake behind an isolated roughness element can be described by a shelter area A and a shelter volume V. The individual sizes of A and V without any interference from other obstacles can be determined from scaling analysis for the spread of wakes. To upscale from an individual roughness element to n/S elements where wakes may interact, R92 adopted a background stress re-normalizing instead of reducing A or V with each element addition. This work demonstrates that R92’s approach results in a linear background stress reduction in A and V only when the ratio of n/S is small, due to a low probability of wake interactions. This probabilistic nature suggests that up-scaling from individual to multiple roughness elements can be re-formulated using stochastic averaging methods proposed here. The two approaches are shown to recover R92 under plausible conditions. An alternative scaling for the shelter volume is also proposed here using thermodynamic arguments of work and dissipation though the final outcome remains similar to R92. Comparisons between R92 and available data spanning more than two decades after R92 on blocks and vegetation-like roughness elements confirm the practical utility of R92. The agreement between R92 and this updated databases of experiments and simulations confirm the potential use of R92 in large-scale models provided that the relevant parameters accommodate certain features of the roughness element type (cube versus vegetation-like) and, to a lesser extent, their configuration throughout S. Last, a comparison between R92 and models based on first-order closure principles with constant mixing length suggests that R92 can outperform such models when evaluated across a wide range of roughness densities.

canopy turbulence↗

Safety Benefits Assessment for Accident Tolerant Fuels in Consideration of Steam Generator Tube Degradation Using Dynamic Event Tree Analysis

Accident tolerant fuel (ATF) is expected to delay or prevent core damage by providing additional coping time under accidents involving loss of core cooling. The effect of extended coping time may vary depending on the plant response to accidents. Age-related component degradation that deteriorates plant performance over time could have an impact on the actual advantages of ATF. The potential safety benefits of two near-term ATF candidates, including Cr-coated Zr cladding and FeCrAl cladding, are assessed for a 2-in. loss-of-coolant accident with failed high-pressure safety injection using the dynamic event tree (DET) approach considering possible stress corrosion cracking of steam generator (SG) tubing under aging. The DET approach allows likelihood quantification of accident sequences leading to core damage, including stochastic variation of system response and human actions during accident mitigation. The safety benefits of the selected ATF claddings in terms of additional coping time and the core damage frequency reduction rate under specified accident situations were quantitatively estimated. The results show that the deployment of the two selected ATF claddings is expected to lead to longer coping times and lower core damage frequency due to the wider safety margin to peak cladding temperature they provide. The safety advantages would be greater as SG tube degradation proceeds. Thus, the two ATF candidates would lead to less severe consequences in terms of likelihood of core damage and susceptibility to the SG tube degradation than UO 2 -Zr fuel.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Combining Simulation and Optimization to Derive Operating Policies for a Concentrating Solar Power Plant

Optimizing short-term decisions over a rolling horizon and/or using deterministic penalties to capture system stochasticity can lead to myopic policies that fail to consider unplanned events and their long-term adverse effects. We present a methodology that integrates an off-line optimization model with a simulation procedure to determine the profitability of different operating strategies; specifically, the latter is used to generate additional constraints for the former when failures occur according to system component operating lifetimes that (i) are subject to exogenous uncertainty, and (ii) may degrade more quickly under specific operating conditions. We use the feedback provided by the simulation model in a parametric analysis to obtain penalties that can be used in short-term operations scheduling to maximize the long-term revenues obtained by the optimization model. We apply this research to a concentrating solar power plant; our results show that the methodology can be used to choose an operating policy that balances maximizing profit while accounting for maintenance costs. Integrating the optimization model with a simulation procedure reveals that aggressive prices for cycling yield about 55% fewer startups and 30% fewer failures compared to using a more typical start-up operating strategy, and can save hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars in repair costs over the lifetime of the plant.

concentrating solar power↗

Laboratory Constraints on the Neutron-Spin Coupling of feV-Scale Axions

Ultralight axionlike particles can contribute to the dark matter near the Sun, leading to a distinct, stochastic signature in terrestrial experiments. We search for such particles through their neutron-spin coupling by reanalyzing approximately 40 days of data from a K- 3 He comagnetometer with a new frequency-domain likelihood-based formalism that properly accounts for stochastic effects over all axion coherence times relative to the experimental time span. Assuming that axions make up all of the dark matter in the Sun’s vicinity, we find a median 95% upper limit on the neutron-spin coupling of 2.4 × 10 −10 GeV −1 for most axion masses from 0.4 to 4 feV, which is about 5 orders of magnitude more stringent than previous laboratory bounds in that mass range. Although several peaks in the experiment’s magnetic power spectrum suggest the rejection of a white-noise null hypothesis, further analysis of their line shapes yields no positive evidence for a dark-matter axion.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Seasonal Reconfiguration of Electrical Distribution Systems to Mitigate the Impact of Electric Vehicle Charging

Power grids face challenges in their infrastructure related to the integration of electric vehicles (EV). In particular, EV charging stations may induce instability in key system parameters such as substantial voltage drops, active power losses, and transformer overload due to high demand during charging periods. This article presents a seasonal reconfiguration strategy based on the differential evolution (DE) algorithm, aimed at enhancing system performance under highly variable and stochastic load profiles, particularly those driven by EV charging. The DEA algorithm is hybridized with the find-union (FU) algorithm to efficiently ensure network radiality throughout the optimization process. The proposed methodology is validated on a hybrid distribution system composed of the IEEE 33-bus network, a modified IEEE 13-bus system, and a specific 13-bus microgrid. Results have demonstrated that seasonal reconfiguration significantly reduces active power losses and mitigates transformer loading during critical demand hours, thereby quantifiably increasing the system’s performance. As an integral component of the proposed approach, an analysis of CO2 emissions associated with energy losses is included, allowing a contextualized assessment of the environmental benefits of seasonal reconfiguration in various geographical areas.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

A Comprehensive Analysis of Uncertainties in Warm-Rain Parameterizations in Climate Models Based on In Situ Measurements

Abstract Because of the coarse grid size of Earth system models (ESMs), representing warm-rain processes in ESMs is a challenging task involving multiple sources of uncertainty. Previous studies evaluated warm-rain parameterizations mainly according to their performance in emulating collision–coalescence rates for local droplet populations over a short period of a few seconds. The representativeness of these local process rates comes into question when applied in ESMs for grid sizes on the order of 100 km and time steps on the order of 20–30 min. We evaluate several widely used warm-rain parameterizations in ESM application scenarios. In the comparison of local and instantaneous autoconversion rates, the two parameterization schemes based on numerical fitting to stochastic collection equation (SCE) results perform best. However, because of Jessen’s inequality, their performance deteriorates when grid-mean, instead of locally resolved, cloud properties are used in their simulations. In contrast, the effect of Jessen’s inequality partly cancels the overestimation problem of two semianalytical schemes, leading to an improvement in the ESM-like comparison. In the assessment of uncertainty due to the large time step of ESMs, it is found that the rainwater tendency simulated by the SCE is roughly linear for time steps smaller than 10 min, but the nonlinearity effect becomes significant for larger time steps, leading to errors up to a factor of 4 for a time step of 20 min. After considering all uncertainties, the grid-mean and time-averaged rainwater tendency based on the parameterization schemes is mostly within a factor of 4 of the local benchmark results simulated by SCE.

Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences↗

Unraveling cosmological anisotropies within stochastic gravitational wave backgrounds

Identifying the anisotropies in a cosmologically sourced stochastic gravitational wave background (SGWB) would be of significance in shedding light on the nature of primordial inhomogeneities. For example, if SGWB carries isocurvature fluctuations, it would provide evidence for a multi-field inflationary origin of these inhomogeneities. However, this is challenging in practice due to finite detector sensitivity and also the presence of the astrophysical foregrounds that can compete with the cosmological signal. In this work, we explore the prospects for measuring cosmological SGWB anisotropies in the presence of an astrophysical counterpart and detector noise. To illustrate the main idea, we perform a Fisher analysis using a well-motivated cosmological SGWB template corresponding to a first order phase transition, and an astrophysical SGWB template corresponding to extra-galactic binary mergers, and compute the uncertainty with which various parameters characterizing the isotropic and anisotropic components can be extracted. Finally, we also discuss some subtleties and caveats involving shot noise in the astrophysical foreground. Overall, we show that upcoming experiments, e.g., LISA, Taiji, Einstein Telescope, Cosmic Explorer, and BBO, can all be effective in discovering plausible anisotropic cosmological SGWBs.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Super-resolution stimulated X-ray Raman spectroscopy

Propagation of intense X-ray pulses through dense media has led to the observation of phenomena such as atomic X-ray lasing, self-induced transparency and stimulated X-ray Raman scattering (SXRS)4. SXRS has been long predicted as a means to launch and probe valence-electron wavepackets and as a building block for nonlinear X-ray spectroscopies. However, experimental observations of SXRS to date have not provided spectroscopic information, and theoretical modelling has largely implemented hard-to-realize phase-coherent attosecond pulses. Here we demonstrate SXRS with spectroscopic precision, that is, detection of valence-excited states in neon with a near Fourier-limited joint energy–time resolution of 0.1 eV–40 fs. We used a new covariance analysis between statistically spiky broadband incident X-ray and scattered X-ray Raman pulses. Using 18,000 single shots, we beat not only the incident (about 8 eV) bandwidth but also the approximately 0.2 eV instrumental energy resolution, thus creating super-resolution conditions, in analogy to super-resolved fluorescence microscopy. Our experimental results, supported by ab initio propagation simulations, reveal the competition between lasing in the ion and stimulated Raman scattering in the neutral. We demonstrate enhanced signal collection efficiency and a broad excitation window, surpassing spontaneous Raman efficiencies by orders of magnitude. This stochastic SXRS approach represents a first step towards tracking elementary events that determine chemical outcomes.

nonlinear x-ray spectroscopy↗

Numerical Modelling of the Optical Stochastic Cooling Experiment at IOTA

A proof-of-principle optical-stochastic cooling (OSC) experiment is currently in its commissioning phase at the Fermilab’s IOTA ring. In support of this experiment, we recently implemented an OSC element in the ELEGANT tracking program. The model, based on a semi-analytic description of OSC [*], supports the simulation of a large number of macroparticles (10⁴-10⁶) over many turns (10⁶). This paper showcases the simulation capabilities to investigate the beam dynamics in the presence of cooling (or self-interacting radiation field in general) and quantify the impact of various sources of error (e.g. transverse and phase jitter), guide data analysis.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Flame acceleration and transition to detonation in a pre-/main-chamber combustion system

Numerical simulations are performed to study the mechanism of deflagration to detonation transition (DDT) in a pre-/main-chamber combustion system with a stoichiometric ethylene–oxygen mixture. A Godunov algorithm, fifth-order in space, and third-order in time, is used to solve the fully compressible Navier–Stokes equations on a dynamically adapting mesh. A single-step, calibrated chemical diffusive model described by Arrhenius kinetics is used for energy release and conservation between the fuel and the product. The two-dimensional simulation shows that a laminar flame grows in the pre-chamber and then develops into a jet flame as it passes through the orifice. A strong shock forms immediately ahead of the flame, reflecting off the walls and interacting with the flame front. The shock–flame interactions are crucial for the development of flame instabilities, which trigger the subsequent flame development. The DDT arises due to a shock-focusing mechanism, where multiple shocks collide at the flame front. A chemical explosive mode analysis (CEMA) criterion is developed to study the DDT ignition mode. Preliminary one-dimensional computations for a laminar propagating flame, a fast flame deflagration, and a Chapman–Jouguet detonation are conducted to demonstrate the validity of CEMA on the chemical-diffusive model, as well as to determine the proper conditioning value for CEMA diagnostic. The two-dimensional analysis with CEMA indicates that the DDT initiated by the shock-focusing mechanism can form a strong thermal expansion region at the flame front that features large positive eigenvalues for the chemical explosive mode and dominance of the local autoignition mode. Thus, the CEMA criterion proposed in this study provides a robust diagnostic for identifying autoignition-supported DDT, of which the emergence of excessive local autoignition mode is found to be a precursor. The effect of grid size, initial temperature, and orifice size are then evaluated, and results show that although the close-chamber DDT is highly stochastic, the detonation initiation mechanism remains robust.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Efficient Distance-based Global Sensitivity Analysis for Terrestrial Ecosystem Modeling

Sensitivity analysis in terrestrial ecosystem modeling is important for understanding controlling processes, guiding model development, and targeting new observations to reduce parameter and prediction uncertainty. Complex and computationally expensive terrestrial ecosystem models (TEM) limit the number of ensemble simulations, requiring sophisticated and efficient methods to analyze sensitivities of multiple model responses to different types of parameter uncertainties. In this study, we propose a distance-based global sensitivity analysis (DGSA) method. DGSA first classifies model response samples into a small set of discrete classes and then calculates the distance between parameter frequency distributions in different classes to measure the parameter sensitivity. The principle is that, if the parameter distribution is the same in each class, then the model response is insensitive to the parameter, while a large difference in the distributions indicates the parameter is influential to the response. Built on this idea, DGSA can be applied to analyze sensitivity of a single and a group of responses to different kinds of parameter uncertainties including continuous, discrete and even stochastic. Besides the main-effect sensitivity from a single parameter, DGSA can also quantify the sensitivity from parameter interactions. Additionally, DGSA is computationally efficient which can use a small number of model evaluations to obtain an accurate and statistically significant result. We applied DGSA to two TEMs, one having eight parameters and three kinds of model responses, and the other having 47 parameters and a long-period response. We demonstrated that DGSA can be used for sensitivity problems with multiple responses and high-dimensional parameters efficiently.

Lu, Dan↗

Simulation and Analysis on Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV) subjected to Pressurized Thermal Shock (PTS) under SBLOCA scenario by using Cardinal to support the fracture mechanics analyses

The structural components that comprise nuclear reactors and their supporting structures are subjected to harsh operating environments that can challenge their integrity, especially after exposure for extended durations or under accident condition. As one of the most significant components of a Reactor, the Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV) is exposed to an aggressive environment during the operation time (e.g. more than 40 years). Ageing degradation mechanisms (e.g. thermos-fatigue) could grow initial defects up to a critical size, increasing the susceptibility to failure in the RPV. The conventional methods are mostly based on simple crack and structure geometries. Very limited studies consider the real conditions of the RPV subjected to a thermal shock due to a Loss of Coolant Accident (LOCA). During a LOCA event, the most severe conditions take place when the emergency core cooling (ECC) water is injected inside the cold legs filled initially with hotter water and/or steam. The rapid cooling of the down-comer and the internal RPV surface followed probably by re-pressurization of the RPV causes large temperature gradients and variation of pressure which induces thermal-mechanical stresses. In order to develop the model for integrity assessment of a reactor pressure vessel (RPV) subjected to pressurized thermal shock (PTS), a multi-physics simulation, which includes the thermo-hydraulic, thermo-mechanical and fracture mechanics analyses is necessary. The multi-physics simulations are performed using Cardinal, a wrapping of the GPU-oriented spectral element Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code NekRS and other multi-physics sub-modules within the MOOSE framework. Cardinal now fully supports MOOSE stochastic perturbations of NekRS models with varying boundary conditions, initial conditions, material properties, and any other quantity which is defined by a kernel (such as coefficients in a momentum source model). The implementation is designed in a flexible manner so that scalar values are sent from MOOSE into a user scratch space in NekRS, which can then be applied for any purpose within the NekRS case files (both on the host and device). When modeling PTS, several factors can impact the results significantly. In this report, the impacts of the geometry of the model, Reynolds number and buoyancy effect are investigated. Two geometry, i.e., a simplified model and a realistic RPV model, with both laminar and turbulent flow condition are adopted for the PTS simulation with and without buoyancy effect. The purpose of the investigation is to understand the impact of these factors on the prediction of temperature history of RPV. The accurate prediction on the temperature evolution, which will be exported to Grizzly code for further analyses on the progression of aging mechanisms and their effects on the integrity of RPV structures, is very crucial. Based on the understanding of these factors, a more sophisticated model is built to analysis the PTS under SBLOCA scenario. A literature survey is conducted to pick the SBLOCA scenario for the multi-physics simulation. The analysis helps to explain the form and the transformation of the cold plum when the ECC is activated under SBLOCA. This model can be can be applied to study the PTS effect for different RPV configurations. The results can help to assess structural component degradation for advanced reactors.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗