Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “Fuel Characterization”

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 55 records · Page 3
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2011

Laser-Based Diagnostic Measurements of Low Emissions Combustor Concepts

This presentation provides a summary of primarily laser-based measurement techniques we use at NASA Glenn Research Center to characterize fuel injection, fuel/air mixing, and combustion. The report highlights using Planar Laser-Induced Fluorescence, Particle Image Velocimetry, and Phase Doppler Interferometry to obtain fuel injector patternation, fuel and air velocities, and fuel drop sizes and turbulence intensities during combustion. We also present a brief comparison between combustors burning standard JP-8 Jet fuel and an alternative fuels. For this comparison, we used flame chemiluminescence and high speed imaging.

Hicks, Yolanda R.↗
DOE OSTI2025

AFC Metal Fuel Workshop Presentations

Compilation of PowerPoint slide decks from presentations given at the 3rd Annual AFC Metal Fuels Workshop. The purpose of this workshop is to bring the national metallic fuel stakeholders together to discuss status and needs of metallic fuel and review the DOE AFC Metal Fuel R&D. Desired Outcomes - Advance Metallic Fuel Technology: 1. Stakeholder Community Building 2. National Program R&D Accountability, Planning Support, and Increased Stakeholder Advocation.

11 - NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Status Report on Characterization of High Burnup Fuel with Advanced Nondestructive Pulsed Neutron PIE

Characterizing irradiated or spent nuclear fuels with pulsed neutron techniques provides microstructural data such as phase fractions as well as crystallographic data, e.g. lattice parameters, from diffraction analysis. Diffraction characterization is complemented by spatially resolved mapping of isotope densities from energy-resolved neutron imaging, in particular neutron absorption resonance imaging, and overall bulk isotope assay with better sensitivity for minority isotopes from neutron absorption resonance spectroscopy without spatial resolution. Furthermore, after characterization at ambient condition, heating of irradiated or spent fuel will allow to characterize differences of e.g. lattice thermal expansion or phase transition temperature and kinetics compared to fresh fuel as well as enable the study of disappearance of irradiation defects. This data enables benchmarking of predictions of properties of irradiated fuels for which otherwise experimental data is sparse. The effort described here strives to characterize a section cut from a high-burnup fuel. Volumes smaller than entire fuel pellets or rodlets as proposed here, e.g. sections cut from a fuel pellet, to pave the way to characterize entire pellets or rodlets in the future.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
NASA NTRS1988

Fuel-injector/air-swirl characterization

Experimental data on the characteristics of the spray produced by a gas-turbine engine airblast fuel injector are reported. The data acquired include the mass-flux distribution measured by use of a high-resolution spray patternator; the gas-phase velocity field measured by use of a two-component laser Doppler velocimeter, and the liquid droplet size and velocity distributions measured by use of a single-component phase-Doppler anemometer. The data are intended for use in assessments of two-phase flow computational methods as applied to combustor design procedures.

Mcvey, J. B.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Fuel-injector/air-swirl characterization

The objectives of this program are to establish an experimental data base documenting the behavior of gas turbine engine fuel injector sprays as the spray interacts with the swirling gas flow existing in the combustor dome, and to conduct an assessment of the validity of current analytical techniques for predicting fuel spray behavior. Emphasis is placed on the acquisition of data using injector/swirler components which closely resemble components currently in use in advanced aircraft gas turbine engines, conducting tests under conditions that closely simulate or closely approximate those developed in actual combustors, and conducting a well-controlled experimental effort which will comprise using a combination of low-risk experiments and experiments requiring the use of state-of-the-art diagnostic instrumentation. Analysis of the data is to be conducted using an existing, TEACH-type code which employs a stochastic analysis of the motion of the dispersed phase in the turbulent continuum flow field.

Mcvey, J. B.↗
NASA NTRS1993

SSME fuel preburner injector characterization

A project has been initiated at the Marshall Space Flight Center to determine if preburner inter- or intra-element mixture ratio maldistributions are the cause of temperature variations in the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) High Pressure Fuel Turbopump (HPFTP) turbine inlet region. Temperature nonuniformity may contribute to the many problems experienced in this region. The project will involve high pressure cold-flow testing and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling.

Hutt, John J.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Lubricity of well-characterized jet and broad-cut fuels by ball-on-cylinder machine

A ball-on-cylinder machine (BOCM) was used to measure the lubricity of fuels. The fuels tested were well-characterized fuels available from other programs at the NASA Lewis Research Center plus some in-house mildly hydroprocessed shale fuels from other programs included Jet-A, ERBS fuel, ERBS blends, and blend stock. The BOCM tests were made before and after clay treatment of some of these fuels with both humidified air and dry nitrogen as the preconditioning and cover gas. As expected, clay treatment always reduced fuel lubricity. Using nitrogen preconditioning and cover gas always resulted in a smaller wear scar diameter than when humidified air was used. Also observed was an indication of lower lubricity with lower boiling range fuels and lower aromatic fuels. Gas chromatographic analysis indicted changes in BOCM-stressed fuels.

Prok, G. M.↗
NASA NTRS2002

Characterization of Liquid Fuel Evaporation of a Lifted Methanol Spray Flame in a Vitiated Coflow Burner

An experimental investigation of lifted spray flames in a coflow of hot, vitiated gases is presented. The vitiated coflow burner is a spray flame that issues into a coaxial flow of hot combustion products from a lean, premixed H2/Air flame. The spray flame in a vitiated coflow emulates the combustion that occurs in many advanced combustors without the detailed fluid mechanics. Two commercially available laser diagnostic systems are used to characterize the spray flame and to demonstrate the vitiated coflow burner's amenability to optical investigation. The Ensemble Particle Concentration and Size (EPCS) system is used to measure the path-average droplet size distribution and liquid volume fraction at several axial locations while an extractive probe instrument named the Real-time Fuel-air Analyzer (RFA) is used to measure the air to fuel ratio downstream of the spray nozzle with high temporal and spatial resolution. The effect of coflow conditions (stoichiometry) and dilution of the fuel with water was studied with the EPCS optical system. As expected, results show that water retards the evaporation and combustion of fuels. Measurements obtained by the RFA extractive probe show that while the Delavan manufactured nozzle does distribute the fuel over the manufacturer specified spray angle, it unfortunately does not distribute the fuel uniformly, providing conditions that may result in the production of unwanted NOx. Despite some limitations due to the inherent nature of the experimental techniques, the two diagnostics can be readily applied to spray flames in the vitiated coflow environment.

Cabra, Ricardo↗
DOE OSTI2026

RU-net for automatic characterization of TRISO fuel cross sections

During irradiation, phenomena such as kernel swelling and buffer densification may impact the performance of tristructural isotropic (TRISO) particle fuel. Post-irradiation microscopy is often used to identify these irradiation-induced morphologic changes. However, each fuel compact generally contains thousands of TRISO particles. Manually performing the work to get statistical information on these phenomena is cumbersome and subjective. Here, to reduce the subjectivity inherent in that process and to accelerate data analysis, we used convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to automatically segment cross-sectional images of microscopic TRISO layers. CNNs are a class of machine-learning algorithms specifically designed for processing structured grid data. They have gained popularity in recent years due to their remarkable performance in various computer vision tasks, including image classification, object detection, and image segmentation. In this research, we generated a large irradiated TRISO layer dataset with more than 2,000 microscopic images of cross-sectional TRISO particles and the corresponding annotated images. Based on these annotated images, we used different CNNs to automatically segment different TRISO layers. These CNNs include RU-Net (developed in this study), as well as three existing architectures: U-Net, Residual Network (ResNet), and Attention U-Net. The preliminary results show that the model based on RU-Net performs best in terms of Intersection over Union (IoU). Using CNN models, we can expedite the analysis of TRISO particle cross sections, significantly reducing the manual labor involved and improving the objectivity of the segmentation results.

11 - NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Characterization of Fuel-to-Coolant Heat Transfer During Reactivity-Initiated Accidents Using Tightly Coupled Thermal Hydraulics and Fuel Thermomechanics

The reactivity-initiated accident (RIA) is a complex scenario with several tightly interacting physical phenomena. Accurately predicting fuel behavior during these transients is difficult due to limitations in the modeling of fuel-to-coolant heat transfer. Common approaches to simulate RIAs involve standalone calculations using either a fuel performance code or a thermal-hydraulic code. The complex interdependencies of thermal-hydraulic and fuel mechanical behavior suggest that a tight coupling between these codes may provide more accurate predictions of fuel-to-coolant heat transfer and cladding mechanical response. Here, RELAP5-3D and BISON are coupled in this paper to simulate RIAs, and a sensitivity analysis is performed to rank key thermal properties and two-phase heat transfer parameters relevant for fuel-to-coolant heat transfer and cladding failure mechanisms in UO 2 –Zircaloy-4 systems. Gas gap conductance, film boiling heat transfer uncertainty, pulse width, fuel-specific heat capacity, and cladding-specific heat capacity were identified as important parameters. Variations in figures of merit resulting from changes to pulse width and the material thermal properties indicate that time-dependent heat transfer rates are significant for safety-relevant mechanical parameters due to the time dependence of cladding ductility and pellet-cladding mechanical interaction loading. The results suggest that the thermal-hydraulic factors have a nonnegligible influence on the thermomechanical solution and vice versa. Tight coupling of both sets of physics is recommended to improve prediction of fuel behavior during RIAs. Highlights include the following: 1. The RELAP5-3D thermal-hydraulic code and the BISON fuel performance code are tightly coupled for simulation of RIA transients with energy depositions at the Zircaloy-4 cladding failure threshold. 2. Departure from nucleate boiling occurred for all simulated cases. Due to the ductility of fresh fuel, substantial ballooning occurred in most cases. 3. Gas gap conductance, fuel-specific heat capacity, cladding-specific heat capacity, transient pulse width, and film boiling heat transfer were the dominant thermal factors impacting the safety figures of merit at energy depositions.

Critical Heat Flux (CHF)↗
DOE OSTI2025

Emissions Characterization for Ammonia Fuel Blends in an Enclosed Swirl-Stabilized Diffusion Burner

This study investigates ammonia flames using the enclosed Sydney swirl burner (ESSB), focusing on detailed global emissions measurements. Emissions were measured via Fourier-transform-infrared (FTIR) spectrometer, utilizing a heated, long-path absorption cell. Hot, wet measurements of pertinent species were collected, and concentrations were determined via lineshape fitting in conjunction with the HITRAN database. Results show that partially cracked ammonia compositions yield lower emissions compared to pure NH3/H2, and small amounts of NH3 addition to CH4-containing fuel blends exhibit high levels of NOx and CO, with measurable HCN and unburnt CH4. Equilibrium calculations suggest trade-offs between chemical timescale, heat loss, and mixing. Future work will explore emissions sampling procedures and expand analysis using chemical reactor network modelling.

ammonia combustion↗
DOE OSTI2026

Characterization of ceramic fuel powder packing fractions to support INFLUX

Triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS)-based structures show marked potential in novel nuclear reactor fuel designs, as their high surface area-to-volume ratio increases the efficiency of heat transfer out of the fuel, enabling safer, more innovative reactor designs. This milestone report addresses the role of dUO 2 powder processing route on the fill behavior of TPMS-based cladding shells to understand and advance the feasibility of manufacturing TPMS-based nuclear fuel forms. dUO 2 powder was processed through either a dry granulation route, varying consolidation pressure, or through milling, varying milling time, milling method and milled size distribution. The lowest tapped bulk densities (TBD), but best powder flowabilities, were obtained when testing unprocessed dUO 2 powder which was prone to self-agglomeration and formed low-density spheroids. The highest TBD and lowest flowabilities were obtained when using powder produced by hammer-milling dUO 2 powder to pass through a 200-mesh sieve, which led to particles with angular morphologies. Powder produced by dry granulation exhibited TBD that varied according to the consolidation pressure used to form the initial pellets and exhibited improved flowabilities when compared to hammer-milled material. Because of the large span of granule sizes formed as well as the irregular shape associated with the granules, a packing fraction of 0.69 was achieved, exceeding the analytical solution for random close packing of mono-sized spheres. TPMS polymer shells were loaded with unprocessed, granulated, and hammer-milled dUO 2 powders, and their qualitative packing behaviors were analyzed using x-ray computed tomography (xCT). TBDs calculated after loading TPMS polymer shells were 10-20% lower when compared to tapped bulk density measurements taken in a glass graduated cylinder, indicating a non-trivial impact on the tapped bulk density of either the TPMS channel size, TPMS channel surface material, powder cohesiveness, or a combination of the two parameters. A metallic zircaloy-4 TPMS shell will be loaded with hammer-milled dUO 2 powder upon receipt of the shell from Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and shipped to Idaho National Labs (INL) for subsequent hot isostatic pressing (HIP) densification experiments.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2026

RU Net for Automatic Characterization of TRISO Fuel Cross Sections

TRistructural ISOtropic (TRISO) particle fuel is a type of nuclear fuel known for its high-temperature and high-burnup performance. Each sub-millimeter diameter TRISO particle consists of uranium-oxycarbide (UCO) or UO2 fuel kernel, coated with buffer, inner pyrolytic carbon (IPyC), silicon carbide (SiC), and outer pyrolytic carbon (OPyC) layers. The SiC layer acts as the main containment barrier for the TRISO particle to retain the fission products, while the IPyC and OPyC layers provide additional barriers to the release of fission products, especially fission gases. During irradiation, phenomena like kernel swelling, buffer densification, and IPyC fracture may impact fuel performance. Post-irradiation microscopy on entire compact cross sections or samples of individual particles deconsolidated from compacts is often used to identify these irradiation-induced changes in morphology. However, each fuel compact generally contains thousands of TRISO particles. To get statistical information on these phenomena, it is cumbersome work if done manually. For example, to get information about swelling/densification behaviors of different layers or kernels after irradiation, researchers previously manually measured the perimeter of each TRISO layer in hundreds of particles after four rounds of iterative grinding and polishing encompassing more than 2000 cross-section images for a total of four fuel compacts. To attempt to reduce the subjectivity inherent in that process and accelerate data analysis, we conducted a study on the automatic TRISO layer segmentation on cross-sectional microscopic images using Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs). CNNs are a class of machine learning algorithms specifically designed for processing structured grid data that have gained popularity in recent years due to their remarkable performance in various computer vision tasks, including image classification, object detection, and image segmentation. In this research, we have generated the large irradiated TRISO layer dataset with more than 2000 cross-section TRISO microscopic images and the corresponding annotated images. Based on these annotated images, we have employed different CNNs for automatic segmentation of different TRISO layers. These include RU-Net (developed in this study), as well as three existing architectures: U-Net, Residual Network (ResNet), and Attention U-Net. The preliminary results show that the model based on RU-Net has the best performance in terms of intersection-over-union (IoU). Through the aid of these CNN models, we can expedite the analysis of TRISO particle cross-sections, significantly reducing the manual labor involved and improving the objectivity of the segmentation results.

Convolutional Neural Networks↗
NASA NTRS2003

A Characterization Of Alcohol Fuel Vapor For Wavelength Modulation Spectroscopy Applied To Microgravity Flame Spread

A diode laser diagnostic is being developed for use in an ongoing investigation of flame spread in microgravity at NASA Glenn Research Center. Flame spread rates through non-homogenous gas mixtures are significantly different in a microgravity environment because of buoyancy and possibly hydrostatic pressure effects. These effects contribute to the fuel vapor concentration ahead of the flame being altered so that flame spread is more rapid in microgravity. This paper describes spectral transmission measurements made through mixtures of alcohol, water vapor, and nitrogen in a gas cell that was designed and built to allow measurements at temperatures up to 500 C. The alcohols considered are methanol, ethanol, and n-propanol. The basic technique of wavelength modulation spectroscopy for gas species measurements in microgravity was developed by Silver et al. For this technique to be applicable, one must carefully choose the spectral features over which the diode laser is modulated to provide good sensitivity and minimize interference from other molecular lines such as those in water. Because the methanol spectrum was not known with sufficient resolution in the wavelength region of interest, our first task was to perform high-resolution transmission measurements with an FTIR spectrometer for methanol vapor in nitrogen, followed recently by ethanol and n-propanol. A computer program was written to generate synthesized data to mimic that expected from the experiment using the laser diode, and results from that simulation are also presented.

Kulis, Michael J.↗
DOE OSTI2025

Characterization of MC&A for the Molten Salt Fuel Cycle

Advanced reactor developers are exploring diverse reactor designs, including molten salt reactors (MSRs). These advanced reactors are considered for wider applications and a range of deployment locations, including supporting the integration of renewable energy sources in the grid. There are three main types of MSRs: (1) reactors in which the fuel salt freely circulates within the core; (2) reactors with the fuel salt contained within vented fuel tubes; and (3) reactors that use molten salt solely as a coolant, with the fuel in a separate, solid form. In this document, the term MSR refers specifically to the first two types, which use fuel salt—special nuclear material (enriched uranium, plutonium, and 233 U) in chloride or fluoride form mixed with chloride- or fluoride-based carrier salt in a peritectic mixture—as the primary medium for fission. The composition of fuel salt, both at startup and for makeup or refueling, varies depending on the MSR design and the chosen fuel cycle approach, which can be either once-through or closed. For MSRs, a variety of fuel cycle approaches (e.g., U, U–Pu, U–Pu–TRU, U–Th, U–Pu–Th) are being considered. Fuel in MSRs is much different than traditional solid fuel, including its preparation. The uniqueness warrants investigation into characterizing fuel preparation processes, known as fuel salt synthesis . This effort characterized major fuel preparation and synthesis processes, identifying temperature, equipment, and environmental requirements for uranium-, plutonium-, and thorium-based fuel preparation and synthesis. Because MSR fuel salt synthesis facilities handle special nuclear material in loose, bulk form, a material control and accounting plan will be required for licensing from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission or under the US Department of Energy authorization. This effort serves as a foundation to investigate material control and accounting approaches for synthesis facilities, including determining measurement points and techniques. Because several MSR developers are planning demonstration facilities in the coming years, this effort will support stakeholders with preparing or reviewing material control and accounting plans for providing assurance that all special nuclear material is accounted for at fuel salt synthesis facilities. This report was produced for Materials Protection, Accounting, and Control Technologies (MPACT) program under the US Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Nuclear Energy, Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Supply Chain.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗