Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “ASME”

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 595 records · Page 33
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

SMR Containment Cable and Electrical Penetration Assembly System

GAIN Project CRADA Number NFE-21-08839, entitled “SMR Containment Cable and EPA System” was initiated by the partnership of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Engineered Solutions Group (ESG) to test an ESG-designed Electrical Penetration Assembly and Containment Cabling System Qualified for not only SMR technologies, but also Advanced Reactors design. An Electrical Penetration Assembly (EPA) is a component used to allow electrical power and signal conductors as well as optical fiber through the nuclear reactor’s containment structure while maintaining a pressure barrier. The EPA ensures the containment's integrity both during the normal operation and also accident conditions by providing a sealed passage for power and signals. This project was undertaken to fill the equipment gap of EPA and Cabling Systems that require much more severe environmental requirements than legacy plant applications present due to their smaller containment volumes that result in high energy densities compared to legacy designs. This high energy density results in severe accident environments and also more severe normal operating conditions.This document describes cost effective approaches to qualify a unique EPA for Small Modular Reactor (SMR) technologies as legacy LWR EPA technologies will likely have inherent material performance insufficiencies. The DBA profiles for SMRs (and some Advanced Reactor Technologies) are more severe than the legacy qualification requirements making the design of the qualification testing system challenging as the temperatures and pressures can approach the limits permitted by ASME Pressure Vessel Code, as well as accident temperatures exceeding the capability of polymeric gaskets and dielectrics. Small Modular Reactors are designed to have, as the name suggests, modularity which implies sized for factory fabrication and subsequent assembly at the power plant site. SMR containment is much smaller than a legacy Light Water Reactor containment. The containment walls are likely to be comprised of stainless steel. Qualifying Electrical Penetration Assemblies (EPAs) through these steel vessels are of interest in this work. Methods are presented here that discuss critical safety and cost effectiveness for these SMR EPA’s test systems.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Design Basis Document / Owner’s Technical Specification for Nitrate Salt Systems in CSP Projects (Final Technical Report)

The number of commercial coal, gas, and nuclear projects built over the past 100 years number in the thousands. As such, there is a large database, available to a wide range of commercial engineering contractors, on proven designs. In essence, unsuccessful designs have, through generations of iterations, been identified and then deleted from further consideration. In contrast, the number of commercial parabolic trough projects using nitrate salt for the thermal storage media is perhaps 60. Further, the number of commercial central receiver projects using nitrate salt as the working fluid is on the order of 20, including estimates for China. Given the relative immaturity of salt technology, and commercial pressures to successfully bid new solar projects into a mature electricity market, solar projects often promise more than has been delivered. The Design Basis Document / Owner’s Technical Specification is a first step in the iteration process. The report describes the successful features of commercial projects, outlines a range equipment and system failures in projects that didn’t operate as intended, and provides a draft set of design changes intended to correct the known problems. The product of the study is 3 volumes of technical material; one volume is on parabolic trough technologies; a second is on central receiver technologies, and the third is on potential design changes to parabolic trough and central receiver projects. The 3 volumes, which total some 590 pages, can be found at https://www.solardynllc.com/csp-plant-technologies. One of the principal topics in the report is the use of functional or prescriptive specifications. Functional specifications describe what the equipment needs to do, consistent with the minimum legal requirements of the local jurisdictions. The details of how this is to be accomplished is developed by the engineering contractor. Prescriptive specifications, which are developed by the Owner, prescribe to the engineering contractor how the functional requirements are to be met. This arrangement ensures that the favorable experience from a previous project is repeated. One example is the design code for the hot salt tank in central receiver projects. The closest design basis is API Standard 650 Welded Steel Tanks for Oil Storage. However, the maximum design temperature in API 650 is 260 °C. As such, solar projects have typically adopted a hybrid Code approach, in which allowable material stresses are taken from ASME Section II Materials. Further, since the tanks experience daily changes in temperature and in (static) pressure, and since portions of the tank can operate at stresses beyond the elastic range, the low cycle fatigue life of the tank is conducted using the rules of Section VIII Division 2. However, in a recent study by NREL, the principal damage mechanism was identified as creep rather than fatigue. Further, design stresses permitted under Section VIII Division 2, corresponding to a fatigue life of 30 years, result in projected creep lifetimes of only 2 to 5 years. An alternate design approach, prescribed by the Owner, would be based on Code sections intended for high temperature service in the creep regime. A candidate is Section III Division 5. Granted, this is a nuclear code section, and it’s use would not likely be mandated by local jurisdictions. However, the effects of creep have been deemed to be of sufficient importance that one nuclear project developer, and one central receiver project developer, have stipulated in the tank design specification that the equipment be designed to the requirements of Section III Division 5.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Microstructure-Based Understanding of High-Temperature Deformation Behaviors in Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) 316H Stainless Steel

This report presents the results of high-temperature mechanical property testing and microstructural analysis of laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) 316H stainless steel (SS) conducted during Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25) under the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy’s Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies (AMMT) program. The study builds upon prior work by expanding the mechanical property test matrix and advancing a microstructure-based mechanistic understanding of LPBF 316H SS performance, with a focus on the solution annealed (SA, 1100°C for 1 hour) materials. High-temperature tension, creep, fatigue, and creep-fatigue tests were performed. Thermal aging studies were conducted. Advanced characterization techniques, including scanning electron microscopy (SEM), scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM), and high-energy synchrotron X-ray diffraction, were employed to investigate the microstructural evolution during thermal aging and mechanical testing. It was discovered that the as-built (AB) LPBF 316H SS exhibited precipitation kinetics during thermal aging that are 10–100 times faster than its wrought counterpart due to the presence of high densities of preferred nucleation sites, while the precipitation kinetics in SA LPBF 316H was under investigation. The accelerated precipitation of embrittling phases such as sigma phase in LPBF 316H SS compared to its wrought counterpart led to significant impacts on creep ductility. The influence of laser printing parameters and build orientations on fatigue and creep-fatigue performance was observed. In assessing the creep-fatigue performance, it was discovered that the SA LPBF 316H samples failed in less than 200 cycles under 595°C, 0.5% (strain amplitude) with a 60-minute hold time. This work establishes a mechanistic framework for predicting the long-term behavior of LPBF 316H SS, supporting its rapid qualification under the ASME BPVC. The findings contribute to the broader goal of enabling the deployment of advanced materials in next-generation nuclear energy systems. An outlook for FY26 work, including continued aging studies, mechanical testing, and microstructural characterization, is provided.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Thermal Hydraulic Experimental Test Article: Second Year of Testing with Secondary Sodium System (Fiscal Year 2025 Final Report)

The Thermal Hydraulic Experimental Test Article (THETA) is currently installed in the Mechanisms Engineering Test Loop (METL) 28” test vessel #4. Both the primary and secondary sodium systems remain online to facilitate continued testing. This fiscal year, work was performed using a COMSOL Multiphysics magnetohydrodynamic model to characterize flow more accurately in the secondary electromagnetic flowmeters. Experimental campaigns were then performed to study the thermal hydraulic differences between sodium and water as a surrogate fluid in the THETA geometry as well as a study to better characterize and understand temperature oscillations that exist at the outlet of the core to the hot pool. A peer-reviewed article was published in the ASME Journal of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Science detailing the THETA facility and providing an overview of a test that was performed with the primary and secondary system online [1]. Work continues to develop a database to house experimental THETA data to better facilitate collaboration with industry and laboratory partners for their use of the data for code benchmarking/validation. THETA remains fully operational and is positioned for continued testing in fiscal year 2026.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Leveraging Artificial Intelligence to Predict Novel Eutectic Alloys

The goal of this project was to train an artificial neural network (ANN) to predict the fractional composition and melting point of eutectic alloys using fundamental atomic properties as inputs. The fundamental properties considered include atomic number, atomic weight, atomic radius, valence electron concentration, electronegativity, and electron affinity. The project involved several phases, starting with data preparation, where phase diagram data was harvested from the ASM International database. Approximately 1300 binary eutectics were collected and cleaned to ensure relevance and accuracy. A regression model was selected for training, utilizing a rectified linear unit as the activation function. Various model configurations were evaluated for predictive accuracy, with validation techniques employed to ensure robustness. The model demonstrated predictive capabilities above random guessing and was able to achieve up to 11% accuracy under certain conditions. An ablative test identified atomic radius and valence electron concentration as critical inputs for model performance. Incorporating the melting point of atomic constituents improved accuracy significantly, although ultimately the model’s predictive capability still fell short of the 80% target. This report details the methodology, results, and implications of the research, contributing to the understanding of employing artificial intelligence to predict the phase transition behavior of eutectic alloys.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Experimental Results on SS 304H and 2.25Cr-1Mo in Support of Developing Inelastic Constitutive Models

To address critical data gaps necessary for updating viscoplastic constitutive material models for Class A materials used in inelastic design analysis under the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code, Section III, Division 5, High Temperature Reactors, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) conducted experimental studies on stainless steel 304H (SS 304H) and 2¼Cr-1Mo steel (F22), to probe their temperature dependent deformation behaviors. These studies covered a range of temperatures up to the maximum limits specified in Division 5 and are intended to support the development of material models by collaborators at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL).

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2026

Analysis of Molten Salt Thermal Energy Storage Tank Sizing and Preheating

Molten Salt Thermal energy storage (TES) is essential for concentrating solar power (CSP) plants, enhancing their capacity factor and dispatchability to ultimately reduce electricity costs. This technology is becoming more important for other technologies including nuclear power, thermal-electrical storage, and concentrating solar thermal (CST). While molten salt TES tanks have been successfully deployed in lower-temperature parabolic-trough plants, the current state-of-the-art central receiver systems operating at temperatures up to 565 degrees Celsius have experienced costly and frequent failures. These failures are associated with the immaturity of the technology and problems in tank design, fabrication, commissioning and, sometimes, aggressive operation. A primary contributing factor is the absence of a dedicated technical standard for high-temperature molten nitrate TES tanks; designers must currently rely on existing codes like API 650 and ASME Section II, which are insufficient because they fail to account for the unique demands of high temperatures, thermal cycling, and transient conditions.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2026

Sample Preparation Laboratory (SPL) Best Practices: CGD as the Primary Acceptance Method

The traditional paradigm applied to the construction of nuclear safety related systems, structures, and components (SSCs), like SPL, involves an owner/licensee hiring an EPC firm with an NQA 1 program to manage the engineering, procurement, and construction of the desired SSC. This traditional approach would have posed significant barriers to the successful completion of the SPL. As a smaller capital project, in the $\$$100–$\$$200 million range, there was concern that employing one of the larger EPC companies would escalate costs and extend the projected schedule beyond what would be feasible for the Department of Energy (DOE). The traditional acceptance method employed for nuclear facilities with credited safety functions requires the use of an EPC firm applying American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) NQA 1 nuclear quality assurance (NQA) to accept safety SSCs. In lieu of this approach, INL elected to apply its own NQA 1 program to hire an EPC firm operating a commercial quality program. This method used commercial grade dedication (CGD) as outlined in NQA 1 which had not been applied at this scale. Use of the commercial supply chain was identified as a key factor to the successful completion of SPL. Favorable conditions enabling the use of CGD included: • INL serving as both the designer and the design authority • Design created by an NQA 1 qualified source • A mature CGD program • Availability of a CGD subject matter expert (SME) • A strong construction management program. This white paper elaborates on the methodology employed in the construction of the SPL, the successes achieved, and best practices implemented.

42 - ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2025

HOLISTIC CREDIBILITY ASSESSMENT OF A MACHINE LEARNING-BASED SURROGATE MODEL IN AN AERODYNAMICS APPLICATION

Elements of ASME V&V 20 credibility assessment methodology are used in tandem with credibility assessment tools from the machine learning community to assess the credibility of a deep neural network based surrogate model. This surrogate model is trained, tested, validated, and employed in the context of aerodynamic coefficient prediction for a NACA 0012 airfoil in subsonic and transonic flow. The parameter space is defined by angle of attack, Reynolds number, and Mach number.

Kirsch, Jared Roelof [Sandia National Laboratories↗
DOE OSTI2025

Report on Preliminary Detailed Experimental Plan for Neutron Irradiation of A709 at ATR and HFIR

Advanced nuclear power technologies will use higher temperatures as a means to extract energy at a higher efficiency than current plants and therefore put a larger demand on the structural materials. Improved performance of structural materials could enable greater safety margins, longer plant lifetimes, and reduce maintenance costs. Alloy 709 is championed as the next generation of austenitic alloys for advanced nuclear reactors. In parallel to the ASME code case pursued, the AMMT program is initiating a neutron irradiation campaign to provide first-of-a-kind engineering data to establish operational design parameters and how the mechanical response is modified by environmental factors. This document refines the AMMT neutron irradiation campaign to a 4 year program to support the generation of creep knockdown factors for Alloy 709 and welded Alloy 709. The campaign is divided among two national laboratories, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Idaho National Laboratory, to use the strengths of each laboratory. Through a cooperative plan, time-independent properties and time-dependent properties will be obtained across a large temperature window, nominally 300°C to 800°C, damage levels up to 10 dpa, and with and without the impacts of transmutation produced helium.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Report on Preliminary Detailed Experimental Plan for Neutron Irradiation of A709 at ATR and HFIR

Advanced nuclear power technologies will use higher temperatures as a means to extract energy at a higher efficiency than current plants and therefore put a larger demand on the structural materials. Improved performance of structural materials could enable greater safety margins, longer plant lifetimes, and reduce maintenance costs. Alloy 709 is championed as the next generation of austenitic alloys for advanced nuclear reactors. In parallel to the ASME code case pursued, the AMMT program is initiating a neutron irradiation campaign to provide first-of-a-kind engineering data to establish operational design parameters and how the mechanical response is modified by environmental factors. This document refines the AMMT neutron irradiation campaign to a 4 year program to support the generation of creep knockdown factors for Alloy 709 and welded Alloy 709. The campaign is divided among two national laboratories, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Idaho National Laboratory, to use the strengths of each laboratory. Through a cooperative plan, time-independent properties and time-dependent properties will be obtained across a large temperature window, nominally 300°C to 800°C, damage levels up to 10 dpa, and with and without the impacts of transmutation produced helium.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2026

OES CO 2 Pipeline FEED Project Design Basis Memorandum

The OES CO₂ Pipeline project will move captured carbon dioxide from two ethanol facilities near Gibson City, Illinois, roughly 7.8 miles southeast to three injection wells outside Anchor, where it will be permanently stored underground. The system is designed to handle up to 4.5 million metric tonnes per year of dense-phase CO₂ at pressures up to 2,500 psig, using 16-inch mainline pipe and 10.750-inch laterals made from API 5L X-60 and X-65 steel. Wall thicknesses vary depending on location, with thinner pipe in open country, heavier wall at road crossings, and the heaviest where the pipe passes under highways or railroads via horizontal directional drill. The pipe gets a fusion-bonded epoxy coating, with an added abrasion-resistant layer wherever it's bored or drilled. Major water crossings will use HDD rather than open trenching. The pipeline will be cathodically protected, equipped with SCADA-compatible pressure and temperature instrumentation, and monitored for leaks using a computational pipeline monitoring system per API RP 1130. Hydrostatic testing will be performed at 1.25 times design pressure, and an ILI caliper run will follow to catch any construction defects. Several items, including fracture toughness requirements, specific NDE methods, and ILI tool selection, are left for the detailed design phase. The whole system falls under 49 CFR Part 195 and ASME B31.4, and Gulf Interstate Engineering prepared this document as the FEED-level design basis under the CarbonSAFE Phase III program.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Reducing the Cost of Fatigue Crack Growth Testing for Storage Vessel Steels in Hydrogen Gas

Hydrogen storage pressure vessels are designed against fatigue crack growth, and the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code requires the fatigue crack growth rate (da/dN) vs. stress-intensity factor range (ΔK) relationship of the construction steel to be measured directly in hydrogen gas. These measurements are notoriously slow and expensive: the cyclic loading frequencies prescribed by standards (often 0.1 Hz) are two or more orders of magnitude below those for conventional fatigue testing, individual tests run for days to weeks, and the high-pressure test-chamber set-up imposes a significant per-specimen labor cost. Due to these time and cost constraints, near-threshold data—the regime most valuable for extending design fatigue life—are rarely generated for ferritic storage vessel steels in hydrogen gas.

08 HYDROGEN↗
DOE OSTI2024

DOE BSSD Performance Management Metrics Report Q2

The vision of the National Microbiome Data Collaborative (NMDC) centers on the concept of connecting data, people, and ideas to advance microbiome innovation and discovery. Building data infrastructure, while key to NMDC’s ability to execute on our vision, can only go so far in creating scientific impact. By fostering strong community partnerships and developing a set of robust community outreach and training programs, we are able to turn our products – the Submission Portal, NMDC EDGE, and the Data Portal – into tools that empower the scientific community. Our multi-pronged community building approach spans individual researchers, research teams, consortia and scientific societies, and institutions and federal agencies. To foster a collaborative and inclusive community-centered environment, we have identified three strategic objectives to promote an inclusive and connected community: (1) recognize and support the diverse research needs and perspectives of the microbiome research community; (2) promote best practices across the microbiome community, from researchers to funders, through community-driven practices (FAIR, CARE, and TRUST); and (3) build a microbiome ecosystem that enables scientific discovery and innovation across stakeholders. These strategic objectives allow our team to focus on impact across a diverse range of activities, from launching the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) Microbiome Data Prize to supporting the Ambassador and Champions programs fostering learning and building a collaborative network. We broadly communicate our work through social media (X/Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram), The Microbiome Standard (our quarterly newsletter), and Annual Reports. All our work is underpinned by a strong commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion as articulated in our Action Plan that tracks progress towards key metrics. A core component of our engagement strategy is user research. User research ensures the Submission Portal, NMDC EDGE, Data Portal, and the new Field Notes mobile app are designed with and for the scientific community. Our user research efforts consist of asking researchers exploratory questions to collect information on researcher priorities, methodologies, and perceptions to ensure that we are aware of the current state of microbiome research. Our usability testing provides researchers with prototypes or test environments of the NMDC products, and we capture valuable information on how users interact with the products to make improvements. Given the diverse nature of microbiome work, we acknowledge that we are not aware of all pressing data challenges and thus rely on the research community to help us identify the most important issues to prioritize. To date, we have conducted 24 interviews and one beta-testing call with 10 participants across all NMDC products, which have generated 321 insights and 120 action items. Herein, we describe the ways we engage with the microbiome research community to advance the NMDC mission.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Corrosion of SS 316, Inconel 617, Inconel 625 in molten chloride salt with emphasis on the speciation of Cr, Ni, and Co in molten salt matrix by XAFS

Dr. Hartmann’ report summarizes the corrosion behavior of materials used in the construction and operation of molten salt reactors which is is of great interest to the molten salt reactor (MSR) community. In the present study we intent to decipher the very elemental phenomena on the corrosion of austenitic chromium-containing stainless steel SS316, as well as Inconel 625 and ASME-coded high temperature Alloy (Inconel) 617. We initiated and are in continuation of conducting ampoule type corrosion testing at 550 °C and 650 °C to determine chromium diffusivity and the related activation energy as well as the speciation of the corrosion products.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Preliminary Plan to Inform Testing of a Heat Exchanger Test Article

This report presents a preliminary plan to guide the qualification testing of advanced heat exchanger (HX) components for nuclear-to-industrial heat transfer applications. The objective is to establish a defensible, physics-based methodology that integrates computational modeling, targeted experimentation, and in-service inspection considerations to demonstrate component performance and reliability under representative reactor conditions. The analysis identifies Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor (SFR) and High-Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR) systems as reference configurations in terms of temperature, pressure, and chemical environment. Within these operating envelopes, dominant degradation mechanisms— including creep–fatigue interaction, flow-induced vibration, corrosion, and diffusion-bond deterioration—were evaluated to define test requirements. A comprehensive computationalexperimental framework is proposed to support life prediction and qualification activities. The framework couples high-fidelity structural-mechanics, thermal-hydraulic, and fluid-structure interaction models with accelerated degradation testing to produce a traceable linkage between microstructural evolution, mechanical performance, and remaining useful life (RUL). The approach adheres to established Verification, Validation, and Uncertainty Quantification (VVUQ) standards (ASME V&V 10/20; NUREG-2152) and incorporates a digital-twin architecture for continuous model refinement through data assimilation. The plan further outlines testing methodologies, including pre-test analyses, test-loop design parameters, and sensor placement strategies that maximize information yield while maintaining mechanistic fidelity. Complementary sections describe in-service inspection (ISI), on-line monitoring (OLM), and structural-health-monitoring (SHM) techniques applicable to compact HX geometries typical of advanced reactors. Collectively, these activities establish the technical foundation for demonstrating 40-60-year equivalent service life of advanced heat exchangers in support of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Reactor and Integrated Energy Systems programs. The forthcoming phase will execute the defined pre-test analyses, initiate hardware fabrication, and implement the integrated testing campaign to validate the proposed qualification methodology.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗