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At least 631 records · Page 35
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Identification of Dynamic Force Coefficients for an Additively Manufactured Hermetic Squeeze Film Bearing Support Damper Utilizing a Pass-Through Channel

Abstract The following paper presents breakthrough experimental results for a new hermetic squeeze film damper (HSFD) concept that is integrally designed within an externally pressurized tilting-pad radial gas bearing support. The flexibly damped gas bearing module was designed for a 7.2″ (183 mm) diameter shaft and fabricated using direct metal laser melting (DMLM); also known as additive manufacturing. The bearing and HSFD were sized based on ongoing studies for oil-free supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) power turbines in the 8.5 MW–10 MW power range. The development of the new damper concept was motivated by past dynamic testing on HSFD, which generated frequency-dependent stiffness and damping force coefficients. In efforts to eliminate the frequency dependency, a new HSFD architecture was conceived that adds accumulator volumes and a pass-through channel to previously conceived HSFD flow network designs. The other motivation for the work is the need to develop a cost-effective and reliable oil-free bearing technology that is scalable to large power turbomachinery applications. There were several objectives for the following work. The first objective was to successfully design and fabricate a single piece bearing-damper using additive manufacturing, while dimensionally controlling critical design features. The paper discusses the manufacturing steps and shows cut-ups that reveal adequate clearance control capability with internal damper clearances. The second objective was to perform experimental testing with the new HSFD design in efforts to extract stiffness and damping coefficients for excitation frequencies within 20–160 Hz and peak vibration amplitudes between 0.25 mils (6.35 microns) to 1 mil (25.4 microns). The test results for a single HSFD bearing module indicated that the design modifications to the HSFD architecture were successful in eliminating nearly all the frequency dependencies for the stiffness force coefficient. The dynamic tests yielded a stiffness coefficient that varied between 112 klb/in. (19.6 MN/m) and 96 klb/in. (16.8 MN/m). The damping force coefficient however, exhibited relatively more variation with frequency with values residing between 175 lb-s/in. (31 kN-s/m) to 214 lb-s/in. (37 kN-s/m). Finally, the paper advances a three-dimensional fluid-structure interaction (FSI) model using transient finite element analysis (FEA) coupled to a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model. The FSI analysis performed between 20 Hz and 80 Hz was used to predict the stiffness and damping of the HSFD using a quarter-section model of the damper. The FSI analysis was able to support test results by showing only a 6–7.4% change in the magnitude of force coefficients. Stiffness predictions agree reasonably well with experiments whereas damping is underpredicted.

Engineering↗
DOE OSTI2021

Thermal-Mechanical Elastic-Plastic and Ductile Failure Model Calibrations for 6061-T651 Aluminum Alloy from Plate

Numerical simulations of metallic structures undergoing rapid loading into the plastic range require material models that accurately represent the response. In general, the material response can be seen as having four interrelated parts: the baseline response under slow loading, the effect of strain rate, the conversion of plastic work into heat and the effect of temperature. In essence, the material behaves in a thermal-mechanical manner if the loading is fast enough so when heat is generated by plastic deformation it raises the temperature and therefore influences the mechanical response. In these cases, appropriate models that can capture the aspects listed above are necessary. The matters of interest here are the elastic-plastic response and ductile failure behavior of 6061-T651 aluminum alloy under the conditions described above. The work was accomplished by first designing and conducting a material test program to provide data for the calibration of a modular $J_2$ plasticity model with isotropic hardening as well as a ductile failure model. Both included modules that accounted for temperature and strain rate dependence. The models were coupled with an adiabatic heating module to calculate the temperature rise due to the conversion of plastic work to heat. The test program included uniaxial tension tests conducted at room temperature, 150 and 300 C and at strain rates between 10 –4 and 10 3 1/s as well as four geometries of notched tension specimens and two tests on specimens with shear-dominated deformations. The test data collected allowed the calibration of both the plasticity and the ductile failure models. Most test specimens were extracted from a single piece of plate to maintain consistency. Notched tension tests came from a possibly different plate, but from the same lot. When using the model in structural finite element calculations, element formulations and sizes different from those used to model the test specimens in the calibration are likely to be used. A brief investigation demonstrated that the failure model can be particularly sensitive to the element selection and provided an initial guide to compensate in a specific example.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2023

COUPLING SMOOTHED PARTICLE HYDRODYNAMICS WITH FINITE ELEMENT METHOD TO SIMULATE RESIDUAL STRESSES FROM FRICTION STIR PROCESSING

Friction stir processing (FSP) is a solid-state material processing technique that locally modifies the microstructure but also induces undesirable residual stresses. A robust numerical model for the FSP can help in mitigating these residual stresses. Heat source models within a finite element method (FEM) framework suffer from inaccuracies. In contrast, smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) model that explicitly captures the material flow near the tool and the associated heat generation are accurate. However, the computational expense of SPH simulations can be prohibitive. In this work, we propose a coupled SPH-FEM framework. SPH is used to model the heat generation accurately near the tool and which is then inserted into to the FEM model as a heat source. To verify this proposed coupling approach, a test case is set up with typical FSP conditions and it is modeled in both SPH and SPH-FEM. The temperatures profiles were compared after the simulations have reached steady-state temperatures. The similarity of the temperature profiles from SPH-FEA and SPH validated the proposed coupling approach. This proposed approach achieves the accuracy of the SPH method while potentially retaining the low computational expense of FEM.

smoothed particle hydrodynamics, Finite Element Me↗
DOE OSTI2025

A TOpographic Mapping (ATOM) Method to Design Magnetic Cores

Wireless power transfer offers safe, convenient, and efficient way of charging electric vehicles. Ongoing research is targeting wireless charging pad design optimization; designing the magnetic component is the most important part of the coupler design because the magnetic part determines the coupling factor and efficiency. Optimizing the coil layout and geometry as well as ferrite design requires finite elements analysis based modeling and simulation for minimized core losses, maximized magnetic coupling, and minimized material use for cost-effectiveness. Although parametric finite element analysis or emerging artificial intelligence methods can generate very accurate results, simulation times are extremely long. To address this issue, this study proposes a simple, effective core design called A TOpographic Mapping (ATOM). The proposed design is based on the design of magnetic core by using the magnetic flux distribution. The thickness of the core increases with increasing magnetic flux density, forming a variable thickness core design with less material and minimized core losses compared to conventional designs. A superimposing method is used to create an optimal design for a rotational magnetic field-based system. According to simulation results, the ATOM design reduces the required material volume by 13.19% and yields the lowest core loss and highest mutual inductance compared to other designs. In addition, misalignment, electromagnetic interference, and thermal performance were evaluated for the proposed design.

Aydin, Emrullah [Oak Ridge National Laboratory (OR↗
DOE OSTI2021

The effects of well damage and completion designs on geoelectrical responses in mature wellbore environments

Well integrity is one of the major concerns in long-term geologic storage sites due to the potential risk of well leakage and groundwater contamination. Evaluating changes in electrical responses due to energized steel-cased wells has the potential to quantify and predict possible wellbore failures because any kind of breakage or corrosion along highly conductive well casings will have an impact on the distribution of the subsurface electrical potential. However, realistic wellbore-geoelectrical models that can fully capture fine-scale details of well completion design and the state of well damage at the field scale require extensive computational effort, or they can even be intractable to simulate. To overcome this computational burden while still keeping the model realistic, we have used the hierarchical finite-element method that represents electrical conductivity at each dimensional component (1D edges, 2D planes, and 3D cells) of a tetrahedral mesh. This allows well completion designs with real-life geometric scales and well systems with realistic, detailed, progressive corrosion and damage in our models. We have developed a comparison of possible discretization approaches of a multicasing completion design in the finite-element model. The effects of the surface casing and the coupling between concentric well casings as well as the effects of the degree and the location of well damage on the electrical responses are also examined. As a result, we analyze real surface electric field data to detect wellbore integrity failure associated with damage.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

Multi-objective surrogate-assisted calibration of CPFEM models using macroscopic response and in situ EBSD measurements of grain reorientation trajectories

Crystal plasticity finite element method (CPFEM) models are widely used to simulate the deformation behaviour of polycrystalline materials, but their calibration is often limited by their high computational cost and the non-convexity of the optimisation landscape. Here, this study develops a multi-objective surrogate-assisted calibration workflow that couples a multi-objective genetic algorithm (MOGA) with an adaptively trained deep neural network (DNN) surrogate model to efficiently identify CPFEM parameters from experimental data. The workflow is demonstrated on three crystal plasticity (CP) formulations of increasing complexity — Voce hardening (VH), two-coefficient latent hardening (LH2), and six-coefficient latent hardening (LH6) — using in situ electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) measurements of Alloy 617 under uniaxial tensile loading. The CPFEM models are calibrated against the experimentally observed stress–strain response and reorientation trajectories of eight grains, then validated against eight additional trajectories and overall texture evolution. Across the CP formulations, the macroscopic response was reproduced reliably, while differences emerged in the robustness and accuracy of the grain-scale predictions. Including grain reorientation trajectories in the multi-objective calibration improved texture evolution predictions and filtered out physically inconsistent parameter sets that can arise from calibrating against only the stress–strain data. The workflow also demonstrates good transferability of calibrated parameters from a low- to a high-fidelity microstructural model. These results provide practical guidance for integrating in situ microstructural data into CPFEM through efficient, repeatable, and physically meaningful multi-objective calibration.

Crystal plasticity finite element method↗
DOE OSTI2023

A helical actuator driven by biased SMA: design, model, and experiment

A helical actuator driven by biased shape memory alloy (SMA) patterns embedded into a soft composite ribbon base is presented in this work. Instead of common U-shape SMA wires, a single SMA wire is woven into planar patterns, which enable helical deformation of the composite ribbon from an initially flat geometry. An analytical static model is established for accurate and rapid prediction of the helical reconfiguration arising from the shape memory effect of woven SMA patterns, followed by validation of the static model using the finite element method (FEM). The finite element results are compared with the analytical solutions given by this static model, which show a high agreement. Parametric study of the influences of eight independent design variables on the dependent helical parameters, such as combined curvatures, pitches, and helical angles, is completed. It is found that the helically deformed geometry is mainly dominated by diameters, biased positions, inclined angles, and numbers of skewed segments of the SMA wire. Fabrication and in-situ experimental test of a prototype of such helical actuators qualitatively demonstrate its dramatic three-dimensional (3D) spiral reconfiguration from a two-dimensional (2D) flat ribbon. In conclusion, such SMA patterns will allow more diverse designs of soft actuators for a wider range of robotic applications.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2020

A Physically-Based Model for Thermo-Oxidative and Hydrolytic Aging of Elastomers

A computationally efficient model is proposed to capture the loss of mechanical performance due to chemical aging that are formed as the competition of chain scission and cross-link formation/dissolution, such as thermo-oxidative aging or hydrolytic aging. The model should be considered an extension of our recent models [1, 2, 3] which further simplifies the matrix behavior based on the assumption of independence of environmental and mechanical damage. The model uses this assumption to reduce the necessary material parameters needed to model constitutive and inelastic behavior of elastomers during aging. To this end, the model can provide accurate predictions of the material performance with the significantly fewer number of fitting parameters. The model is relevant for all decay mechanisms formed by the occurrence of two simultaneous micro-mechanisms; (i) formation/reduction of the cross-links, and (ii) chain scission, both of which are present in thermo-oxidation and hydrolytic aging. Assuming the alteration of the chain density along the aging trajectory is identical to the peroxide cross-link density for thermo-oxidation, and the change of the average molecular weight for hydrolysis, the strain energy of polymer matrix can be rewritten as a function of deformation, deformation history, storage time and aging temperature. Next, the modified network alteration model is formulated for implementation into Finite Element (FE) simulations. The model is built on the presumption of homogeneous and consistent oxygen/water absorption and thus is mainly relevant for relatively thin samples exposed to environmental loads for a long time. The proposed model includes only six physically inspired material parameters. Therefore, while it is computationally efficient, it shows good agreement with own experimental data, which performed on various range of accelerated aging temperatures and times. With respect to its computational efficiency, simplicity, accuracy, and interpret-ability, the model is the right choice for advanced implementations in FE programs.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2022

Geomechanical and Hydrogeological Evaluation of a Shallow Hydraulic Fracture at the Devine Fracture Pilot Site, Medina County, Texas

UT-Austin’s Devine Fracture Pilot Site, 50 miles southwest of San Antonio, Texas, has been targeted for a comprehensive, multidisciplinary development of fracture diagnostic techniques that are cross-validated by ground-truth data acquisition near a recently created, 175-ft-deep, horizontal hydraulic fracture (Ahmadian et al. 2018 Demonstration of proof of concept of electromagnetic geophysical methods for high resolution illumination of induced fracture networks. In Proceedings of the SPE Hydraulic Fracturing Technology Conference and Exhibition, The Woodlands, Texas, USA, 23–25 January 2018. SPE-189858-MS.). To evaluate the fracture diagnostic methods at this site, we conducted injection tests with a predefined volumetric flow-rate profile, resembling a diagnostic fracture injection test on September 2020. Subsequently, we developed hydrogeological and geomechanical models based on flow-rate and bottomhole-pressure measurements. History-matching efforts using a simplified layer-cake hydrogeological model resulted in the field-scale formation permeability of 9.87 × 10 –15 m 2 (10 mD) and Darcy-scale fracture permeability. The analysis of the bottomhole pressure and injection-rate history showed that (1) the newly created horizontal fracture was closed adjacent to the injection well pre-injection and (2) the initial pump-pressure increase at a nominal volumetric injection rate led to near-well fracture reopening, fluid conductivity increase, and abrupt injection-rate increase. To overcome hydrogeological-model limitations of predicting fracture reopening throughout injection, we extended the modeling to a finite-element, poroelastic analysis of horizontal-fracture growth using a cohesive-zone model. Using this fracture-reopening model, we improved the history match of the transient-pressure response during the experiment by adjusting the hydromechanical properties. Furthermore, post-injection pressure transient analyses helped reduce uncertainty in the overburden-stress gradient, and the initial hydraulic-fracturing simulation verified the plausibility of achieving the surveyed propped fracture area.

02 PETROLEUM↗
DOE OSTI2020

Initial microstructural model for creep-fatigue damage in Grade 91 steel

This report describes an initial Crystal Plasticity Finite Element Method (CPFEM) model for cyclic plasticity and damage in Grade 91 steel. The objective of this work is to develop a framework for modeling creep-fatigue interaction in Grade 91 steel to better predict the onset of damage in high temperature microreactor components. Many microreactor concepts envision low operating pressures but relatively high thermal stresses. Under these conditions, creep-fatigue will likely be the dominant design failure mechanism. Physically based models, like the one under development here, could lead to a better understanding of creep-fatigue mechanisms and the effect of stress multiaxiality and hold time on creep-fatigue damage. In turn, this could lead to more efficient microreactor component designs.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2025

A Finite Element Method for Compressible and Turbulent Multiphase Flow Instabilities with Heat Transfer

We present a new finite element framework for modeling compressible, turbulent multiphase flows with heat transfer. For two-fluid systems with a free surface, the Volume of Fluid (VOF) method is implemented without the need for interface reconstruction, while turbulence is resolved using a dynamic Vreman large eddy simulation (LES) model. Unlike most two-phase VOF studies, which neglect heat transfer, the present approach incorporates energy transport equations within the VOF formulation to account for heat exchange, an effect particularly important in turbulent flows. Conjugate heat transfer is often challenging in finite volume methods, which require explicit specification of heat fluxes at the solid–fluid interface, limiting accuracy and predictive capability. By contrast, the finite element formulation does not require heat flux inputs, allowing more accurate and robust simulation of heat transfer between solids and fluids. The method is demonstrated through three representative cases. First, a two-fluid instability with a single-mode perturbation is simulated and validated against analytical growth rates. Second, conjugate heat transfer is examined in a high-temperature flow over a cold metal cylinder, with validation performed both quantitatively—via pressure coefficient comparisons with experimental data—and qualitatively using vector field topology. Finally, compressible spray injection and breakup are modeled, demonstrating the ability of the framework to capture interfacial dynamics and atomization under turbulent, high-speed conditions. In the compressible spray injection and breakup case, the results indicate that the finite element formulation achieved higher predictive accuracy and robustness than the finite-volume method. With the same mesh resolution, the FEM reduced the root mean square error (RMSE) and mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) from 6.96 mm and 26.0% (for the FVM) to 4.85 mm and 12.7%, respectively, demonstrating improved accuracy and robustness in capturing interfacial dynamics and heat transfer. The study also introduced vector field topology to visualize and interpret coherent flow structures and instabilities, offering insights beyond conventional scalar-field analyses.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2023

A mesoscale crystal plasticity model to predict room-temperature deformation and martensitic transformation of high-strength Quenching and Partitioning (Q&P) Steels and validation with synchrotron X-ray diffraction

Renowned for the superior mechanical properties and adeptness at cold-forming, Quenching and Partitioning (QP) steels have gained prominence as a promising candidate material in fabricating safety-critical components in various industries. The pertinent research on QP steels focus on the martensitic transformation of the Retained Austenite (RA) phase during cold-forming, a crucial mechanism that substantially influences the overall strength and ductility of QP steels. The austenite stability and transformation rate heavily rely on the local strain path and the initial microstructure, which is challenging for analytical prediction. In this paper, a mesoscale model is developed to capture the deformation and transformation kinetics of QP steels inside the microstructure. The model integrates the detailed explicit microstructure, acquired from characterization experiments, into a high-resolution finite element (FE) mesh. It distinctly model the deformation and interaction between the various phases and the effect on the transformation of RA. The model is validated with high energy X-ray diffraction (HEXRD) data, and shows excellent capability in predicting the asymmetric stress-strain behavior under uniaxial tension and compression, as well as the martensitic transformation rate. The model is used to investigate the strain and load partitioning effect of surrounding matrix to the transformation of RA, offering insights into the complex behavior of QP980 and facilitates further material development.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2020

Development and Validation of SAM Multi-dimensional Flow Model for Thermal Mixing and Stratification Modeling

Thermal mixing and stratification in large pools or enclosures are very important phenomena that are critical to nuclear reactor safety. Because of the wide ranges of time and length scales associated with such phenomena, accurate modeling and simulation of thermal mixing and stratification remain as the key unresolved, challenging problems for reactor transient analyses. In traditional system analysis codes, simplified zero-dimensional (0-D) models are widely used for their high numerical efficiency, but they generally suffer from very limited prediction accuracies or range of applicability. Like traditional system analysis codes, the current version of the SAM code has implemented such simplified 0-D and one-dimensional mixing models. On the other hand, high-resolution Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) tools are often used to model complex thermal mixing and stratification phenomena. They are, however, generally numerically expensive, and they require large amounts of computational resources. It is therefore desirable to implement advanced and efficient thermal mixing and stratification modeling capabilities embedded in a system analysis code. This approach will improve the accuracy of reactor safety analyses when thermal mixing and stratification are involved, and also avoid using the large computational resources needed for high-resolution CFD analysis. Currently, with the support of the U.S. DOE Office of Nuclear Energy’s Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation program, an effort has been launched to develop and implement a multi-dimensional flow model in the system analysis code SAM, and demonstrate its applications to model thermal mixing and stratification phenomena in large enclosures. The main outcomes of this research and development activity are summarized in this report, which presents an attempt to include a built-in advanced multi-dimensional flow model in a system analysis code with the focus on overcoming the simulation challenges of thermal mixing and stratification phenomena. In this report, we start with the introduction of existing SAM code capabilities to simulate thermal mixing and stratification phenomena, which is followed by a short summary of the multi-dimensional model implemented in the SAM code, including both the physical model and the Finite Element Method code implementation. In this study, two options were implemented in the SAM code to model turbulent flows: a relatively simple built-in turbulence model and an interface to accept externally computed turbulent viscosities (e.g., from a high- resolution CFD simulation). Code validation studies on this newly added capability were then carried out to compare SAM simulation results with experimental data from the SUPERCAVNA facility, which was designed to study the complex flow recirculation and thermal stratification phenomena relevant to sodium fast reactor designs. In this study, one transient and two steady-state test cases were used for code validation. Different approaches have been used to model the complex turbulence flow fields in the SUPERCAVNA facility. A highly simplified zero-equation turbulence model was first used, but it was determined that it is too simple to capture the complex turbulence flow fields in these test cases. Subsequently, the code validation continued with the use of turbulent viscosity data from high-resolution STAR-CCM+ CFD simulations to improve the accuracy of the results. Using this approach, the SAM simulation results showed very good agreement with both the SUPERCAVNA experimental data and STAR-CCM+ simulation results. In this report, we demonstrate the development, implementation, and successful validation of a multi-dimensional flow model in the SAM code, which aims to improve the simulation accuracy for complex thermal mixing and stratification phenomena. Lessons have also been learned, including that in cases where the flow fields are not well predicted by the zero-equation model, the iinput of turbulent viscosities from an external source can enhance the overall predictive capabilities needed to accurately capture complex thermal-hydraulic phenomena. Therefore, future research will be needed to further improve the code’s capabilities, such as by developing a more efficient and robust approach to capture the turbulence effects in the SAM code.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Extent of interlocking and metallurgical bonding in friction riveting of aluminum alloy to steel

In this study, the joining of 6061-T6 aluminum alloy and DP590 steel using a M42 steel rivet via friction riveting technique is investigated. The surface morphology and microstructure characterization reveal the formation of an anchor zone that imparts mechanical interlock as well as the formation of metallurgical bonds at the interface of aluminum and steel. A combination of interlocking and bonding results in the achievement of a high load-carrying capacity of 5.7 kN during lap shear testing at room temperature. A finite element-based computational model was developed which accurately predicted the lap shear response of the joint. The model revealed that the metallurgical bond formed during fric-riveting adds 39% peak load strength to the joint. An extensive microstructural investigation, post-lap-shear fractography, and the modeling results, together provided insights on the joint failure mechanism. In conclusion, this study highlights that friction riveting is a promising method for aluminum-to-steel dissimilar joining, which is important for lighweighing automotive vehicles for energy efficiency.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗