E-1 Additive Manufacturing (AM) Existing Infrastructure and Recent Developments in Materials, Processes, and Capabilities
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36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
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CABLE Big Idea RDD&D Workshop (Workshop Summary Report)
The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO) held the CABLE Big Idea RDD&D Workshop April 7–9, 2021. The virtual workshop brought together approximately 250 leading scientific and technical experts to gather information on the state of the art in conductivity-enhanced materials and their applications. These stakeholders included scientists, engineers, manufacturers, materials experts, utility companies, and other entities within the conductor material and electrical product manufacturing supply chains. The two main goals of the workshop were to 1) start building and strengthening a research ecosystem around conductivity-enhanced materials and 2) inform AMO’s future portfolio of research, development, demonstration, and deployment (RDD&D) investments and other program activities in the area of conductivity-enhanced materials. CABLE—or Conductivity-enhanced materials for Affordable, Breakthrough Leapfrog Electric and thermal applications—was was established as an Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy initiative as a result of a competitive internal process to identify and prioritize potentially high-impact research topics. Since then, conductivity-enhanced materials have been identified as an important element of the shift to an electrified and decarbonized industry sector, and CABLE remains a Big Idea. The CABLE effort is led by AMO and supported by eight other offices within DOE. The first major effort under CABLE was the development of several subtopics for DOE’s Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) programs in 2020. Another major activity was the launch of the CABLE Conductor Manufacturing Prize in March 2021.
32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
Techno-Economic Analysis for Shear Assisted Processing and Extrusion (ShAPE) of High Strength Aluminum Alloys
Aluminum alloy 7075 (AA7075) is a high strength aluminum alloy (HSAL), attractive for applications such as automotive, aviation, aerospace, defense, and marine applications. However, AA7075 has not yet been widely adopted due slow extrusion speed, high energy use, narrow process window, and sensitivity to incipient melting common in conventional extrusion methods. Alternative extrusion methods may overcome these limitations. New research funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO) is exploring the use of a new SPP approach called Shear Assisted Processing and Extrusion (ShAPE) for the manufacture of AA7075 extrusions. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) are leading the development, testing and characterization of ShAPE, which is showing that high speed ShAPE extrusions (e.g., above 12 meters/min) which is significantly faster than the 1-2 meters/min possible with conventional AA7075 extrusions. Initial findings from the economic and energy analysis indicate that AA7075 tubes created with ShAPE use less energy than tubes that are conventionally heated and extruded. The reduction in energy use is primarily a result of using direct chill cast (non-homogenized) billets, eliminating the pre-heating step, and faster extrusion speeds. The TEA model translates CAPEX and O&M costs to a manufacturing cost, and then a minimum sustainable price (MSP) per ton of extruded product for multiple facility capacities. A sample output figure of the TEA model is presented below. It presents results of the preliminary version of the TEA model.
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
Workshop on Ultra-Precision Control for Ultra-Efficient Devices (Workshop Report)
On April 21–23, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO) within the office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) held the second in a series of workshops on different topics related to semiconductor research and development (R&D) to increase energy efficiency. This workshop focused on ultra-energy-efficient devices and the ultra-precision manufacturing (UPM) processes and next-generation control and metrology technologies needed to manufacture these devices. In addition to the industry needs and RDD&D opportunities, AMO’s new goal on greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction was addressed. The output of this workshop will inform AMO’s future R&D portfolio investments; provide perspectives on trends, drivers, and challenges for ultra-energy-efficient devices and enabling technologies; and help the stakeholder community understand the opportunities on the horizon.
32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
An Integrated Flame Spray Process for Low Cost Production of Battery Materials for Lithium Ion Batteries and Beyond
The overall objective of this project was to develop an advanced manufacturing technology for Li-ion battery materials production at low cost and in a green chemical process using glycerol as solvent to replace water. It was aimed at developing a prototype pilot production line to reduce production cost by at least 25% to the baseline. During the course of this project, research was conducted to understand spray drying and combustion of eutectic solvent precursors of glycerol and metal salts (acetates) in the formation of mixed metal oxide powders. Reactor design and optimization were done to facilitate spray drying and combustion in powder formation and processing. Various cathode materials powders were produced, including lithium nickel-cobalt-manganese oxide (NCM) and lithium nickel-cobalt-aluminum oxide (NCA). These cathode materials powders were tested in half coin cells for their performances, with materials performances of 160 mAh/g for NCM111 and 200 mAh/g for NCA. NCA powders were also produced using a slurry spray-drying process and tested in full pouch cells. A pilot scale flame assisted spray drying reactor was constructed and demonstrated for its production rate exceeding the target of production rate of four metric tons per year. The work performed in this project has been documented in 9 peer reviewed journal publications, 8 conference presentations, and two IP disclosures/patent applications.
25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
Thermal Process Intensification: Transforming the Way Industry Uses Thermal Process Energy
The US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Advanced Manufacturing Office held the virtual workshop entitled “Thermal Process Intensification: Transforming the Way Industry Uses Thermal Process Energy” in November and December 2020. The workshop brought together participants from universities/laboratories, industries, equipment manufacturers, technology vendors, nongovernmental organizations, and subject-matter experts to discuss transformative technologies and strategies to substantially improve the performance (e.g., energy productivity, thermal efficiency, reduced greenhouse gas [GHG] emissions, reduced number of process steps) of thermal processing systems in the industrial sector.
32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
NNSA Minority Serving Institute Partnership Program (MSIPP)--Indigenous Mutual Partnership to Advanced Cybersecurity Technology (ASPIRE, IMPACT and PAMER); FY22 Q2 Progress Report
The following report summarizes the status update during this quarter for the National Nuclear Security Agency (NNSA) initiated Minority Serving Institution Partnership Plan's (MSIPP) projects titled, Indigenous Mutual Partnership to Advanced Cybersecurity Technology (ASPIRE), Indigenous Mutual Partnership to Advanced Cybersecurity Technology (IMPACT) and Partnership for Advanced Manufacturing Education and Research (PAMER).
42 ENGINEERING↗
NC State University Industrial Assessment Center. Final Report
This report documents work from the Industrial Assessment Center program at NC State University. The program is funded by the US Department of Energy Advanced Manufacturing Office. The IAC provides energy conservation assessments for small and medium sized manufacturers in NC, SC, and VA. Students are involved in all aspects of the assessment including the on-site visit, interacting with plant personnel, collecting data, performing engineering analyses on potential energy efficiency measures, and producing a technical report for the client.
32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
2022 Combined Heat and Power/District Energy System Portfolio Meeting (Summary Report)
The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Advanced Manufacturing Office held the 2022 Combined Heat and Power & District Energy System Portfolio Meeting on June 7–9, 2022. The meeting brought together approximately 50 researchers from industry, national laboratories, and research institutes. The purpose of the meeting was for DOE to understand the performance of the projects being sponsored through the CHP program and the status of the technology development, which informs future program planning. This report summarizes the presentations that took place at this event.
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
Scalable Gaussian Processes, GPyTorch Application Benchmarking, and Targeted Adaptive Design (TAD) on ThetaGPU
We aim at showcasing the scalability of Gaussian Process (GP). The naive GP implementation scales cubically with data size, which can be prohibitive, so GP has not heretofore been considered suitable for very large-scale problem settings. We take advantage of GPyTorch, a library for scalable GPs built on top of PyTorch that incorporates GPU acceleration. With GPyTorch, one can achieve nearly linear scaling with structured kernel interpolation (SKI) and constant-time predictive covariances computation with LanczOs Variance Estimates (LOVE) while preserving accuracy. We also take advantage of the computational power of ThetaGPU, a supercomputer of Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF). In addition, we implement a scalable, GPU-ready version of Targeted Adaptive Design (TAD), a GP-based data-driven algorithm that efficiently searches the control space of an advanced manufacturing experiment for settings capable of producing a required design within a specified tolerance, despite the poorly known mapping from control settings to design. We finally show our benchmarking for GPyTorch and TAD performance on CPU vs. ThetaGPU and discuss the results and implications.
97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
Autonomous Aerial Power Plant Inspection in GPS-denied Environments
Inspection of coal-fired power plants is frequently dangerous, includes difficult places to reach, and can turn expensive due to the downtimes and cost of inspection crew. Robotic systems have shown capabilities to address some of these issues, but most of the current robotic inspection technology in power plants is designed for specific components. Conversely, recent advances in machine vision have empowered aerial platforms for long-range, remotely-controlled, GPS-based inspections of industrial plants. This capability has led to wide spread utilization of aerial robots (commonly termed Drones, UVS or UAS) platforms for inspection in less challenging environments where both collision avoidance, and GPS reception are not significant issues. The challenge in adapting airborne technology for power plant inspection lies in internal structures and the complex network of piping, and distribution systems, which impose significant risks for collision and can hinder the reception and transmission of GPS signals. The current state of the art in aerial inspection technology within the energy sector is controlled via radio control, and utilizes GPS-based navigation, for inspection of large-scale plants such as offshore platforms and wind turbine parks. Nevertheless, close-range and autonomous inspection in the GPS-denied environments of power plants has not yet been achieved, as it requires precise guidance and navigation with real-time situational awareness and obstacle avoidance capabilities. This endeavor introduced the use of rotary wing flying robots, due to their station keeping and vertical take-off capabilities for power plant components inspection. To enable close quarter inspection two methods were used. One method uses the 3D CAD (Three-dimensional Computer-Aided Design) model of the asset to inspect to generate the UAV’s inspection path. To acquire, analyze and process the 3D model, first, the STL file is produced to obtain surface points and vectors normal to the surface. Later, by introducing other variables such as wall offset and a controlled trajectory between each outline and each subsequent layer, the flight path is generated. The proposed framework will generate a path that will pass as close as desired from the surface and navigate in intricate environments. A second method, use advanced manufacturing techniques such as CNC (Computer Numerical Control) and additive manufacturing. Once the inspection flight path is obtained, vision-based navigation systems are employed to have the UAV autonomously tracking the provided trajectory. Finally, Artificial Intelligence-enabled developments are in charge of detecting cracks and corrosion in structural components of power plants. The proposed methods are validated in simulations, laboratory and industrial setups, where it is shown that the developed systems acting together enable close-quarter autonomous aerial inspection and mapping in power plant assets. The system can be further improved by adding more sensors to navigate in different GPS-denied environments, with non-homogeneous lighting conditions, dust and in general situations where vision-based systems may fail.
01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
2D material-based layer transfer: Challenges and opportunities
For future of electronics such as bioelectronics, 3D integrated electronics, and bendable electronics, needs for flexibility and stackability of electronic products have substantially grown up. However, conventional wafer-based single-crystalline semiconductors cannot catch up with such trends because they are bound to the thick rigid wafers such that they are neither flexible nor stackable. Although polymer-based organic electronic materials are more compatible as they are mechanically complaint and less costly than inorganic counterparts, their electronic/photonic performance is substantially inferior to that of single-crystalline inorganic materials. For the past few decades, many different strategies to mitigate such performance-mechanical compliance dilemma by developing methods to obtain cheap, flexible, stackable, single-crystalline inorganic systems. In today’s talk, I will discuss about various strategies to realize such a dream electronic system and how these strategies unlock new ways of manufacturing advanced electronic systems. One of the most promising approaches is to fabricate freestanding ultrathin membranes from existing functional material wafers by peeling the active layers from the top. I will overview all freestanding membrane methods and especially dive deeply into 2D materials-based layer transfer (2DLT) technique that has been recently emerging as one of the very promising options. In the 2DLT process, one can produce single-crystalline freestanding membranes from 3D materials by performing remote epitaxy or van der Waals epitaxy on 2D materials followed by peeling active single-crystalline films from the 2D materials. I will discuss about the challenges and opportunities of this technology. In addition, I will present unprecedented artificial heterostructures that can be enabled by stacking those freestanding 3D material membranes.
Kim, Jeehwan↗
Functionally Designed Ultra-Lightweight Carbon Fiber Reinforced Thermoplastic Composites Door Assembly (Final Scientific/Technical Report)
This is the final technical report for a project that developed an ultra-lightweight carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastics composite door assembly for a mid-size SUV. The project was able achieve a weight reduction of at least 42.5% while maintaining or exceeding the fit, function, safety, stiffness, and crash performance requirements of the current baseline door. Additionally, the target cost was set at less than $5 per pound of weight saved. To accomplish these goals, the project team employed a systems approach that involves redesigning the door assembly, exploring novel materials, optimizing the design, and utilizing advanced manufacturing technologies.
42 ENGINEERING↗
The Elevated-Temperature Cyclic Properties of Alloy 316H Fabricated by Powder Metallurgy Hot Isostatic Pressing (Rev.1)
Powder metallurgy hot isostatic pressing (PM HIP), an advanced manufacturing technique, is viewed by the Department of Energy as a “transformational technology” for heavy section manufacturing of nuclear components. Although PM HIP is a mature technology, it has not been qualified in Section III, Division 5 for elevated-temperature nuclear construction. This work seeks to demonstrate a PM HIP qualification method for elevated-temperature nuclear construction that is based on allowable material characteristics. Specifically, the elevated-temperature cyclic properties of PM HIP 316H are investigated. The creep-fatigue properties of PM HIP 316H are significantly degraded compared to those of wrought. Current PM HIP practices are not able to fabricate elevated-temperature nuclear components with creep-fatigue properties that are equivalent to or better than traditional wrought components. A research and development program is proposed for qualifying PM HIP 316H for elevated-temperature nuclear construction.
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
Magnetostrictive materials for enhanced sensors and electronic components
Magnetostriction is a property of magnetic materials that causes them to change their shape or dimensions when their magnetization changes. Low-cost, mechanically robust magnetostrictive sensors would be valuable for a wide range of applications addressing DOE's energy, environmental, and national security missions. Several examples include monitoring internal conditions of pipelines, enhancing implantable systems for the human body, and improving the electrical grid by providing real time sensors for detecting high impedance faults that may act as ignition sources for forest fires. Historically, magnetostrictive materials tended to be expensive and mechanically brittle, but recent developments in iron-based alloys, especially those that include dilute solutions of rare earth elements, have demonstrated useful magnetostriction values, mechanical robustness, and low costs. This project investigated addition of dilute cerium doping on the magnetostrictive properties of Fe-Ga and Fe-Al alloys. Advanced manufacturing techniques were applied to these materials to take advantage of rapid cooling of the alloy to stabilize desired phases and to make near net shape coupons. These coupons develop significant texturing, offering a route to target microstructures with exceptional performance.
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
Progress on Design and Production of Oxide Dispersion–Strengthened Alumina-Forming Austenitic Alloys for Nuclear Applications
Alumina-forming austenitic (AFA) alloys are a promising class of nuclear materials due to their high-temperature oxidation/corrosion resistance and mechanical properties. Unfortunately, these alloys are limited in use for core material applications, specifically in their use as nuclear fuel cladding. Improving these alloys through a fine dispersion of oxide precipitates and thus increasing the effective irradiation sink strength of the alloy system may mitigate many of the degradation phenomena expected during alloy deployment (such as high-temperature helium embrittlement for lead-cooled fast reactor applications). This work package has started using a combination of conventional and advanced manufacturing approaches to the fabrication of oxide dispersion–strengthened (ODS) AFA materials. As such, this report summarizes progress to date in the fabrication of new compositions of these ODS AFA materials with a focus on reactor-specific design and a multifaceted manufacturing approach. Two different compositions of AFA gas-atomized powders were procured, and 200 g of each have been prepared using mechanical alloying with the expectation of high-temperature consolidation in Q1 of FY24. In addition, an approach to use reactive cover gases to promote additional precipitate formation has been developed for implementation in FY24 as a direct comparison with conventionally manufactured alloys.
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
Advanced Compact Generation Module with Fish Safe Runner Technology
Hydropower is an important contributor of stable, load-leveling renewable energy to our national grid. Increasingly, the development of new hydropower facilities or the retrofit of existing ones hinges not only on minimizing costs but also environmental impact. In this report, the analysis and testing of a modular and scalable low-head hydropower generation design using Natel Energy’s Restoration Hydro Turbine is described. This design leverages many established industry approaches for compactness and efficiency while simultaneously allowing for safe downstream fish passage through the turbines themselves. This unique approach reduces overall hydropower facility costs and enables a simpler inclusive method of project design and operation. To assess this design, mechanical and fluid computational analyses were used to study and optimize key parameters. Passage tests of important migratory species (salmonids, American eel) were conducted through representative turbines. The unique propeller geometry of the fish-safe Restoration Hydro Turbine was subjected to detailed design and testing using advanced manufacturing composite techniques. Comprehensive module cost models were developed and assessed alongside hydraulic efficiency. The results of this project show promising and economical applications for downstream passage offish through Restoration Hydro Turbine modules.
13 HYDRO ENERGY↗
Design-oriented Education and Hands-on Training with WBG Power Electronics for the Next Generation Power Engineering Workforce
The WBG Graduate Student Traineeship funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO) provided several U.S. citizen graduate students with a first-class education in the application of GaN, SiC, and associated passives and controls.
24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗