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At least 523 records · Page 29

Analyzing the Effects of Atmospheric Turbulent Fluctuations on the Wake Structure of Wind Turbines and Their Blade Vibrational Dynamics

In recent trends, a rising demand for renewable energy has driven wind turbines to larger proportions, where lighter blade designs are often adopted to reduce the costs associated with logistics and production. This causes modern utility-scale wind turbine blades to be inherently more flexible, and their amplified aeroelastic sensitivity results in complex multi-physics reactions to variant atmospheric conditions, including dynamic patterns of aerodynamic loading at the rotor and vortex structure evolutions within the wake. In this paper, we analyze the influence of inflow variance for wind turbines with large, flexible rotors through simulations of the National Rotor Testbed (NRT) turbine, located at Sandia National Labs’ Scaled Wind Farm Technology (SWiFT) facility in Lubbock, Texas. The Common Ordinary Differential Equation Framework (CODEF) modeling suite is used to simulate wind turbine aeroelastic oscillatory behavior and wind farm vortex wake interactions for a range of flexible NRT blade variations, operating in differing conditions of variant atmospheric flow. CODEF solutions of turbine operation in Steady-In-The-Average (SITA) wind conditions are compared to SITA wind conditions featuring a controlled gust-like pulse overimposed, to isolate the effects of typical wind fluctuations. Finally, simulations of realistic time-varying wind conditions from SWiFT meteorological tower measurements are compared to the solutions of SITA wind conditions. These increasingly complex atmospheric inflow variations are tested to show the differing effects evoked by various patterns of spatiotemporal atmospheric flow fluctuations. An analysis is presented for solutions of wind turbine aeroelastic response and vortex wake evolution, to elucidate the consequences of variant inflow, which pertain to wind turbine dynamics at an individual and farm-collective scale. The comparisons of simulated farm flow for SITA and measured fluctuating wind conditions show that certain regions of the wake contain up to a 12% difference in normalized axial velocity, due to the introduction of wind fluctuations. The findings of this study prove valuable for practical applications in wind farm control and optimization strategies, with particular significance for modern utility-scale wind power plants operating in variant atmospheric conditions.

Farrell, Alayna (ORCID:000000023555720X)↗

Voltage Optimization

Voltage optimization refers to a volt-var optimization technique which was originally designed to minimize energy consumption and improve end-use efficiency on the distribution system. This reduces source voltage at a substation, which lowers generation demand, reduces system losses, and improves system stability. This has been the conventional implementation of voltage optimization: focusing on regulation of voltages throughout the distribution system via coordinated adjustments of load tap changers, line-voltage regulators, switched shunt compensation, and the targeted placement of new shunt compensation. These methods have received increased focus following a growth in distributed-energy resources (DERs) interconnecting at the distribution level, given their developing capability to participate in voltage regulation. This is paired with the intermittency challenges they pose, load imbalances, and voltage fluctuations. Voltage optimization has long been an area of extensive research within the distribution system, with various strategies and philosophies demonstrating a range of effects. The conventional focus on the distribution system owes to the typical operation of transmission systems, which assumes firm local resources and flows strictly from generation resources to loads. The strategies employed in distribution have also been optimized for this typically radial configuration and operation of the distribution system.

24 - POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Learning Distribution Grid Topologies: A Tutorial

Unveiling feeder topologies from data is of paramount importance to advance situational awareness and proper utilization of smart resources in power distribution grids. This tutorial summarizes, contrasts, and establishes useful links between recent works on topology identification and detection schemes that have been proposed for power distribution grids. The primary focus is to highlight methods that overcome the limited availability of measurement devices in distribution grids, while enhancing topology estimates using conservation laws of power-flow physics and structural properties of feeders. Grid data from phasor measurement units or smart meters can be collected either passively in the traditional way, or actively, upon actuating grid resources and measuring the feeder's voltage response. Analytical claims on feeder identifiability and detectability are reviewed under disparate meter placement scenarios. Such topology learning claims can be attained exactly or approximately so via algorithmic solutions with various levels of computational complexity, ranging from least-squares fits to convex optimization problems, and from polynomial-time searches over graphs to mixed-integer programs. Although the emphasis is on radial single-phase feeders, extensions to meshed and/or multiphase circuits are sometimes possible and discussed. Here this tutorial aspires to provide researchers and engineers with knowledge of the current state-of-the-art in tractable distribution grid learning and insights into future directions of work.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Stability Analysis of Parallel Connected Bidirectional WPT System

This paper presents a stability analysis of parallel-connected bi-directional series-series resonant network wireless power transfer (WPT), optimized for Electric Vehicle (EV) charging and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) applications. The study addresses critical stability challenges in systems integrated with diverse distributed energy resources (DERs), including photovoltaics, fuel cells, wind turbines, energy storage systems, and the AC grid. The stability of such integrated DC grid systems is paramount for ensuring reliable operation, particularly under varying power flow conditions and dynamic interactions between parallel WPT systems. The analysis included system impedance characterization, state-space modeling, and open and closed-loop stability evaluations. The results demonstrated that the integration of a robust control architecture effectively mitigates instability risks and supports scalable, efficient operation. This work underscores the converter's adaptability and its potential for large-scale deployment in wireless EV charging infrastructures and integrated DC grid systems.

Asa, Erdem [ORNL] (ORCID:0000000190884812)↗

Modeling State Transition and Head-Dependent Efficiency Curve for Pumped Storage Hydro in Look-Ahead Dispatch

As one of the most widely installed utility-scale storage facilities, pumped storage hydro (PSH) plays an essential role in providing flexibility for power systems worldwide. Thus, to accurately quantify the flexibility of PSH units in operational optimization problems is important. The conventional PSH models in the literature rarely consider detailed state transitions due to their hourly-based settings. However, it becomes imperative for operational optimization on short-term intervals, especially with increasing shares of renewable energy in power systems. To this end, this paper presents a novel deterministic PSH model that considers the transition time and trajectory between three states of PSH units in look-ahead dispatch. Moreover, to better characterize the varying efficiency of PSH units with water head and flow rate, this paper proposes to model detailed headdependent efficiency curves (hereafter called input-output curves) in look-ahead dispatch, which encounters heavy computational burdens when short time intervals are applied. In this work, a zig-zag piece-wise linear approximation method is used for input-output curve modeling. This can enable an accurate quantification for variable efficiency and head dependence in a computationally effective manner. Here, numerical results are presented to show performances of the proposed PSH model in both flexibility quantification and computation time.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗

Lattice Optimization for Porous Electrode

This code performs an optimization over the structure of a porous electrode formed from a lattice of unit cells. This is a steepest descent version of the code used in: V. A. Beck, J. J. Wong, C. F. Jekel, D. A. Tortorelli, S. E. Baker, E. B. Duoss and M. A. Worsley, Computational design of microarchitected porous electrodes for redox flow batteries, J. Power Sources, 2021, 512, 230453.

Wong, JonathanJ↗

Deep reinforcement learning based optimization for a tightly coupled nuclear renewable integrated energy system

New ways to integrate energy systems to maximize efficiency are being sought to meet carbon emissions goals. Nuclear-renewable integrated energy system (NR-IES) concepts are a leading solution that couples a nuclear power plant with renewable energy, hydrogen generation plants, and energy storage systems, such that thermal and electrical power are dispatchable to fulfill grid-flexibility requirements while also producing hydrogen and maximizing revenue. Here, this paper introduces a deep reinforcement learning (DRL)-based framework to address the complex decision-making tasks for NR-IES. The objective is to maximize revenue by generating and selling hydrogen and electricity simultaneously according to their time-varying prices while keeping the energy flow in the subsystems in balance. A Python-based simulator for a NR-IES concept has been developed to integrate with OpenAI Gym and Ray/RLlib to enable an efficient and flexible computational framework for DRL research and development. Three state-of-the-art DRL algorithms have been investigated, including two-delayed deep deterministic policy gradient (TD3), soft-actor critic (SAC), proximal policy optimization (PPO), to illustrate DRL’s superiority for controlling NR-IES by comparing it with a conventional control approach, particle swarm optimization (PSO). In this effort, PPO has shown more-stable performance and also better generalization capability than SAC and TD3. Comparisons with PSO have demonstrated that, on average, PPO can achieve 13.9% more mean episode returns from the training process and 29.4% more mean episode returns from the testing process when different hydrogen-production targets are applied.

08 HYDROGEN↗

Geometric Scale-up Experiments on Fluidization of Geldart B Glass Beads

The objective of this work is to provide a valuable database from controlled experiments for validating computational models. Recently, coarse-grained techniques such as particle-in-cell (PIC) or coarse-grained discrete element modeling (DEM) have gained popularity due to their computational efficiency while modeling large-scale systems; however, the influence of model parameters and their sensitivities at different geometric scales and flow conditions remain to be analyzed. These datasets are critical for the multiphase flow research community to assess predictive capability of modeling techniques as well as elucidate the hydrodynamic behavior in these systems. This study performed fluidization experiments using three different test sections with internal diameters of 2.5, 4, and 6 in. The operating conditions, bed material, and range of flow velocities at the inlet were constant in all the units, which were not hydrodynamically scaled. Glass beads having a Sauter Mean Diameter of 332 μm were used. Superficial velocity was varied from 2.97 to 5.35 times the minimum fluidization velocity and the initial static bed height was 0.1524 m. The order in which the experiments were performed was randomized and replicates were included to provide uncertainty in measurements. Statistics of differential pressure and bed height from these tests were reported. Future plans include validating PIC methodology in the open-source software, MFiX (Multiphase Flow with Interphase Exchanges) using results from this study. This could further be extended to determine optimal model parameters using inverse techniques such as deterministic calibration or Bayesian inference.

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS↗

Visual Tool for Assessing Stability of DER Configurations on Three-Phase Radial Networks

Here, we present a method and tool for evaluating the placement of Distributed Energy Resources (DER) on distribution circuits in order to control voltages and power flows. Our previous work described Phasor-Based Control (PBC), a novel control framework where DERs inject real and reactive power to track voltage magnitude and phase angle targets. Here, we employ linearized power flow equations and integral controllers to develop a linear state space model for PBC acting on a three-phase unbalanced network. We use this model to evaluate whether a given inverter-based DER configuration admits a stable set of controller gains, which cannot be done by analyzing controllability nor by using the Lyapunov equation. Instead, we sample over a parameter space to identify a stable set of controller gains. Our stability analysis requires only a line impedance model and does not entail simulating the system or solving an optimization problem. We incorporate this assessment into a publicly available visualization tool and demonstrate three processes for evaluating many control configurations on the IEEE 123-node test feeder (123NF).

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Dean vortex-enhanced blood plasma separation in self-driven spiral microchannel flow with cross-flow microfilters

Point-of-care (POC) diagnostic devices have been developing rapidly in recent years, but they are mainly using saliva instead of blood as a test sample. A highly efficient self-separation during the self-driven flow without power systems is desired for expanding the point-of-care diagnostic devices. Microfiltration stands out as a promising technique for blood plasma separation but faces limitations due to blood cell clogging, resulting in reduced separation speed and efficiency. These limitations are mainly caused by the high viscosity and hematocrit in the blood flow. A small increment in the hematocrit of the blood significantly increases the pressure needed for the blood plasma separation in the micro-filters and decreases the separation speed and efficiency. Addressing this challenge, this study explores the feasibility of diluting whole blood within a microfluidic device without external power systems. This study implemented a spiral microchannel utilizing the inertial focusing and Dean vortex effects to focus the red blood cells and extract the blood with lower hematocrit. The inertial migration of the particles during the capillary flow was first investigated experimentally; a maximum of 88% of the particles migrated to the bottom and top equilibrium positions in the optimized 350 × 60 μm (cross-sectional area, 5.8 aspect ratio) microchannel. With the optimized dimension of the microchannel, the whole blood samples within the physiological hematocrit range were tested in the experiments, and more than 10% of the hematocrit reduction was compared between the outer branch outlet and inner branch outlet in the 350 × 60 μm microchannel.

Biochemistry & Molecular Biology↗

Comparative Analysis of HEATNETS for Geothermal Network Performance

Thermal energy networks (TENs), also known as 5th generation district energy systems, or more specifically geothermal networks when exchanging heat with geothermal boreholes, are an important technology for decarbonization. In these networks an ambient loop connects buildings and thermal sources, such as a borehole field, to exchange energy and maintain a desired loop temperature. Water-source heat pumps are used at the buildings to connect to the ambient or thermal loop to meet to the building heating and cooling loads and maintain comfort. A semi-transient, reduced-order technical model and techno-economic model, called HEATNETS, has been developed at NREL that captures the flow of energy around a TEN. In this work, a comparison of the HEATNETS technical model and a well-known coding platform used for modeling geothermal networks, TRNSYS, has been completed for a proposed geothermal network as a verification and validation process. Hourly data provided from the TRNSYS simulation included building loads, pumping power, heat pump power, temperature entering and leaving the borehole field, and mass flow rates. The hourly borehole temperatures were used to create a linear regression model utilized in HEATNETS to estimate the borehole field heat exchange. The building loads and mass flow rates were direct inputs to HEATNETS while the pumping power, heat pump power, borehole temperatures, and coefficients of performance were all simulated and calculated by HEATNETS, allowing for direct comparison of the thermal energy transfer HEATNETS considers the full process from design inputs to economic outputs and can provide modeling options for high-level initial system design and operational optimization. This study focuses on a validation of HEATNETS using results from TRNSYS. HEATNETS is not intended to replace other modeling tools, but this work demonstrates, via a comparison with an industry standard code, that HEATNETS can be a unique, high-level and rapid modeling tool for estimating the performance of a full geothermal network system.

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗

Sorbent Based Post-Combustion CO 2 Slipstream Testing

TDA Research, Inc. has developed a low-cost sorbent (alkalized alumina) based technology for post-combustion CO 2 capture. The sorbent runs in an isothermal process for adsorption and regeneration. Neither temperature swing nor pressure swing is needed. TDA designed a system which operated 10 fixed beds to simulate a moving bed process. The flow pattern was optimized to minimize the steam usage for regeneration. An excellent sorbent (Batch 1) was also developed with collaboration with our partner. The sorbent degraded after long term operation. We developed a reprocessing procedure, which can be conducted in situ, to restore the sorbent capture capacity as the fresh sorbent after running for about 1250 hours. The reprocessing extended the sorbent longevity significantly. TDA designed a pilot unit (40’ x 32’ x 11.5’), processing flue gas equivalent to 0.5 MW of power generation. It had 10 beds and each bed could hold 1.75 m 3 of sorbent. We worked with Springs Fabrication, Inc. to complete the construction of the pilot unit. It was then shipped and installed at NCCC. The pilot unit was kept running in 24-hour mode when the flue gas and steam were available. It could run automatically without operator on site. Parametric and long-term (2 months) tests were carried out successfully. The results showed that TDA’s process can achieve 90% capture and 95% CO 2 purity for both coal and NG flue gases. For coal flue gas, the system reached performance target when processing up to 0.62 MW flue gas, 24% higher than the design capacity. Thus, capital cost could be saved on the reactors and sorbent. The strip air flow was designed to be 0.25 of that of the flue gas. The test data showed the strip/flue ratio can be reduced to as little as 0.18, which saves the power consumption for the strip air blower. The pressure drop was found to be lower than what the empirical equation calculated. The sorbent still had 91.7% of original capacity after 3-month test. With the data from the pilot test, we updated the TEA. For a 550-MW e supercritical coal fired power plant with CO 2 capture, the capture cost for TDA’s process is $34.9/tonne CO 2 captured, which meets DOE’s goal of $40/tonne and is 17.1% less than the DOE baseline Case 12. Therefore, TDA’s process has a good potential for commercialization.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗

Leveraging Optimal Sparse Sensor Placement to Aggregate a Network of Digital Twins for Nuclear Subsystems

Nuclear power plants (NPPs) require continuous monitoring of various systems, structures, and components to ensure safe and efficient operations. The critical safety testing of new fuel compositions and the analysis of the effects of power transients on core temperatures can be achieved through modeling and simulations. They capture the dynamics of the physical phenomenon associated with failure modes and facilitate the creation of digital twins (DTs). Accurate reconstruction of fields of interest (e.g., temperature, pressure, velocity) from sensor measurements is crucial to establish a two-way communication between physical experiments and models. Sensor placement is highly constrained in most nuclear subsystems due to challenging operating conditions and inherent spatial limitations. This study develops optimized data-driven sensor placements for full-field reconstruction within reactor and steam generator subsystems of NPPs. Optimized constrained sensors reconstruct field of interest within a tri-structural isotropic (TRISO) fuel irradiation experiment, a lumped parameter model of a nuclear fuel test rod and a steam generator. The optimization procedure leverages reduced-order models of flow physics to provide a highly accurate full-field reconstruction of responses of interest, noise-induced uncertainty quantification and physically feasible sensor locations. Accurate sensor-based reconstructions establish a foundation for the digital twinning of subsystems, culminating in a comprehensive DT aggregate of an NPP.

42 ENGINEERING↗

A Novel Active Optimization Approach for Rapid and Efficient Design Space Exploration Using Ensemble Machine Learning

In this work, a novel design optimization technique based on active learning, which involves dynamic exploration and exploitation of the design space of interest using an ensemble of machine learning algorithms, is presented. In this approach, a hybrid methodology incorporating an explorative weak learner (regularized basis function model) that fits high-level information about the response surface and an exploitative strong learner (based on committee machine) that fits finer details around promising regions identified by the weak learner is employed. For each design iteration, an aristocratic approach is used to select a set of nominees, where points that meet a threshold merit value as predicted by the weak learner are selected for evaluation. In addition to these points, the global optimum as predicted by the strong learner is also evaluated to enable rapid convergence to the actual global optimum once the most promising region has been identified by the optimizer. Additionally, this methodology is first tested by applying it to the optimization of a two-dimensional multi-modal surface and, subsequently, to a complex internal combustion (IC) engine combustion optimization case with nine control parameters related to fuel injection, initial thermodynamic conditions, and in-cylinder flow. It is found that the new approach significantly lowers the number of function evaluations that are needed to reach the optimum design configuration (by up to 80%) when compared to conventional optimization techniques, such as particle swarm and genetic algorithm-based optimization techniques.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Investigation of Technologies to Improve Condenser Heat Transfer and Performance in a Relevant Coal-Fired Power Plant

Improvements in thermal power-generating plant performance is correlated directly to societal benefits including lower cost of reduced fuel consumption, resulting in lower cost of electricity for the consumer and reduced carbon emissions to the atmosphere. Warm steam exhausted from low-pressure steam turbines is condensed to liquid water on the exterior of thin-walled metal condenser tubes with cooling water passing through the tube interior. The condensation of steam creates a vacuum that supports turbine rotation and the concurrent generation of electricity. This vacuum is optimized when heat transfer across the wall of condenser tube is maximized. Common hindrances to heat transfer include foulants in cooling water that may form and adhere to the interior of condenser tubes, including mineral scale, microbiological films, and particulate deposition. Flowing cooling water may also include a laminar layer at the interior metal surfaces that travels more slowly than bulk water flow, serving to impede heat transfer. On the tube exterior, condensing steam forms an insulating layer of water that flows down the tube and reduces the effectiveness of cooling. Both the interior and exterior barriers to optimal heat transfer may be alleviated to some extent by surface treatments. On the tube interior, hydrophobic coatings may be applied that can reduced the adherence of foulants and of the laminar flow layer to the tube surface. On the tube exterior, hydrophobic coatings or mechanical treatments can be applied that may result in the termination of droplet growth and the departure of droplets from the surface rather than coalescence into a continuous layer of flowing water. Fourteen surface treatments were applied to condenser tubes in this study, including eight interior coatings and six exterior treatments, five of which were coatings and one a microstructural texture. Heat transfer measurement equipment simulating conditions in the condenser of an operating power plant was used to determine heat transfer coefficients by measuring sufficient flow, temperature, water chemistry and other data. Several of the tubes with interior surface treatments showed improvement in heat transfer coefficients compared with a plain (uncoated) tube, and several of the tubes with exterior surface treatments also showed enhanced heat transfer coefficients.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗

Material Model Parameters Optimization in Liquid Mercury Target Dynamics Simulation With Machine Learning Surrogates

A pulsed spallation target is subjected to very short (∼0.7μs) but intense loads (23.3 kJ) from repeated proton pulses, which knock away neutrons from the mercury atoms’ nuclei for a wide range application in physics, engineering, medicine, petroleum exploration, biology, chemistry, etc. The effect of this pulsed loading on the stainless-steel target module which contains the flowing mercury target material is difficult to predict not only due to its short but intense explosive-like physical reaction, but also the nonlinear material behavior of the liquid mercury in the structure. Injecting small helium bubbles in the mercury has been an efficient method of mitigating the pressure wave at high power level stage. However, prediction of the resultant loading on the target is more difficult when helium gas is intentionally injected into the mercury. A 2-phase material model that incorporates the Rayleigh-Plesset (R-P) model is expected to address this complex multi-physics dynamics problem by including the bubble dynamics in the liquid mercury. A parameter sensitivity study was firstly employed to understand their impact on the simulation strains. The investigated parameters included E, μ, γ, σ, n, VFgas, and gas cumulative volume curve control parameters a and b. Verification and validation results from sparse polynomial expansions (SPE) method and directional Gaussian smoothing (DGS) optimization show that the surrogate model had training error of ∼7% and validation error of ∼15%, indicating that machine learning methods and surrogate models can help optimize the uncertain parameters in the complex 2-phase material model. This approach is expected to fill the knowledge gap between unknown liquid-gas mixture material model and measured vessel strain responses.

Lin, Lianshan↗

Evaluation of external tubular configurations for a high-temperature chloride molten salt solar receiver operating above 700°C

Next-generation concentrating solar power (CSP) tower technologies target operating temperatures exceeding 700°C to increase the thermal-to-electric conversion efficiency. Molten chloride salts are one possible alternative to current commercial molten nitrate salts to enable the higher operating temperature. This paper analyzes the predicted optical, thermal-fluids, and structural performance of traditional external tubular solar receiver configurations applied with a chloride salt heat transfer fluid (HTF) and inlet/outlet temperatures of 500°C/735°C, and considers sensitivity analysis and optimization relative to receiver sizing, tube sizing, number of panels, flow circuit configurations, and solar flux concentration under constraints on internal velocity, pressure drop, wall thickness, and required creep-fatigue lifetime. The high temperature conditions increase the significance of inelastic deformation mechanisms such as creep relative to that expected in commercial 565°C nitrate salt designs. High-temperature creep and creep-fatigue damage in the metal alloy tubes are the key factors that limit allowable solar flux concentration and achievable receiver thermal efficiency at the near-800°C wall temperature conditions. For a traditional external cylindrical receiver configuration, the design parameters and conditions capable of satisfying all constraints produced, at best, a design point receiver efficiency of 78.2%, or 80.5% when excluding receiver intercept efficiency. Variation in the optimal receiver performance relative to uncertainty in the binding maximum velocity, minimum wall thickness, and minimum lifetime constraints is presented.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Basic Research in Edge and Scrape-Off Layer Fusion Plasmas (Final Report)

U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) supported work at Lodestar Research Corporation under grant DE-FG02-97ER54392 is summarized in this final report. The research conducted under this grant addressed key scientific issues associated with boundary plasmas in fusion energy experimental devices. Harnessing the energy that is released in fusion reactions would provide a safe and abundant source of power to meet the growing energy needs of the world population. Lodestar investigated the important cm-scale region near the edge of these devices where hot plasma, close to one million degrees, meets material surfaces in what is known as a scrape-off layer (SOL). This critical region is subject to plasma turbulence and plasma flows which must be understood to optimize fusion performance on future machines. Strong interactions of applied RF waves is also observed to occur in this region, and must be understood to mitigate unwanted effects and enhance overall performance. The work employed theoretical models and theory-based computational models for validation. The models were applied to understand experimental results and to carry out basic theoretical investigations relevant to the production of fusion energy.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗