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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.

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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Prefabricated Standard Modular Hydropower Installations for Low-cost Small Hydropower

The goal of the present project was to investigate the potential savings in greenfield hydropower project costs across sites having vastly different characteristics. Littoral Power Systems, Inc. (LPS) undertook the project described herein to explore the promise of Standard Modular Hydropower (SMH) to transform the processes of site identification, conceptual design, detailed design, and construction planning to support low- cost, environmentally attractive development of small hydropower facilities at new stream- reaches. This report includes descriptions of the work to develop these processes, the resulting facility designs achieved using these processes and the projected economics. Installation cost estimates for the resulting conceptual greenfield facility design at two different locations come in at $\$3,419$/kW for Balcony Falls and $\$2,124$/kW for LPS 566. The installation time from site preparation to commissioning-ready is estimated to be 58 weeks for the conceptual facility at Balcony Falls and 42 weeks for the conceptual facility at LPS 566. A real challenge to any hydropower facility – not only the two cases studied here – is that environmental and social conditions can change, and as such, the facility may be required to change. The h-Modulor modules connect uniquely and are structurally independent, enabling site configurations to be changed on the fly, as needed. These results show that LPS's h-Modulor SMH approach delivers an attractive balance between efficiency, economics, and environmental sustainability for small hydro greenfield sites.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Catalyst design for small molecule activation of energy consequence

This project targets the conversion of ubiquitous small molecules (e.g. NO, CO, H 2 O) into viable precursors to synthetic fuels. Current state of the art catalyst design has not directly targeted transition metal complexes capable of mediating the multi-electron redox processes necessary to reduce the overpotential (energy loss) required achieve efficient activation of small molecule substrates. In this vein, a new strategy has been developed for the assembly of polynuclear architectures; allowing for the construction of tunable polymetallic centers that assemble easily within a pre-organized template (conferring stability, selectivity and tunability) that can effect multi-electron redox processes for reactions. Catalyst development has commenced with the following target design elements: (1) catalysts featuring multiple transition metal ions in the same reaction space to greatly expand accessible molecular redox capabilities; (2) catalysts are assembled in a polynucleating ligand framework that permits control over the cluster morphology as well as the local steric and electronic environment of the transition metal ions within the cluster. The high-tunability of the catalyst composition (metal content) and geometric flexibility has permitted a rigorous assessment of electronic-structure-to-function relationship to be developed, further guiding synthetic efforts to realize more potent catalysts. The numerous permutations possible showcase the high degree of generality to this approach with many synthetic handles to tune redox and reaction chemistry. Trinuclear complexes have been synthesized featuring homo- and hetero-trinuclear cores featuring a variety of first row transition metal ions (Cr→Ni). The molecular clusters have been shown to successfully mediate multi-electron redox processes in a cooperative fashion without requiring strong chemical reductants or oxidants. The reactive molecular complexes are being utilized to activate and breakdown the robust bonds within typical waste stream small molecules (e.g., greenhouse gases) and convert them into value-added commodity chemicals. Ultimately, the catalysts developed by this approach will be required to convert energy acquired via renewable resources (e.g., solar or wind) into synthetic fuels as an energy storage mechanism.

10 SYNTHETIC FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Full Cycle Simulations of The Fermilab Booster

The Proton Improvement Plan phase II (PIP-II) project currently under construction at FNAL will replace the existing 400 MeV normal conducting linac with a new 800 MeV superconducting linac. The beam power in the downstream rapid-cycling Booster synchrotron will be doubled by raising the machine cycle frequency from 15 to 20 Hz and by increasing the injected beam intensity by a factor 1.5. This has to be accomplished without raising uncontrolled losses beyond the administrative limit of 500 W. In addition, slip-stacking efficiency in the Recycler, the next machine in the accelerator chain, sets an upper limit on the longitudinal emittance of the beam delivered by the Booster. As part of an effort to better understand potential losses and emittance blow-up in the Booster, we have been conducting full cycle 6D simulations using the code PyORBIT. The simulations include space charge, wall impedance effects and transition crossing. In this paper, we discuss our experience with the code and present representative results for possible operational scenarios.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Multi-Entity Simulation with CoSim Toolbox

Co-simulation is an analysis technique for linking multiple software models during runtime by facilitating data exchange and simulation time synchronization. There are numerous challenges when constructing an effective co-simulation including simulation tool installation, data management, and writing new models in a manner compatible with the co-simulation framework of choice. CoSim Toolbox is an integration of multiple pieces of software designed to make assembling such a co-simulation in HELICS easier. This report summarizes the existing capabilities of CoSim Toolbox and outlines future development plans.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2026

The deconstruction of flavor in the privately democratic Higgs sector

The Standard Model (SM) of particle physics fails to explain the observed hierarchy in fermion masses or the origin of fermion-flavor structure. We construct a model to explain these observations in the quark sector. We introduce a spectrum of new particles consisting of six of each — massive singlet vector-like quarks (VLQs), singlet scalars, and SU(2)-doublet scalars. SM quark masses are generated when the neutral components of the SU(2)-doublet scalars acquire non-zero vacuum expectation values (VEVs). We impose global symmetries to ensure that Yukawa couplings stay roughly flavor diagonal and democratic (of the same order), as well as to suppress tree-level flavor-changing neutral currents. Quark-mass hierarchy then follows from a hierarchy in scalar VEVs. The singlet scalars also acquire weak-scale VEVs. Together with the VLQs, they act as messengers between different generations of quarks in the SM. These messenger particles are responsible for generating the elements of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Masakawa (CKM) matrix which depend on the ratios of the singlet VEVs and VLQ masses. Constructed this way, the CKM matrix is found to be independent of the SM fermion masses. Using the measured values of the CKM matrix elements and assuming order-one couplings, we derive constraints on the masses of the VLQs and discuss prospects for probing our model in the near future.

CKM Parameters↗
DOE OSTI2026

Methods for Assessing Opportunities for Ring Dam Pumped Storage Hydropower

There is growing interest in new pumped storage hydropower (PSH) deployment to provide a range of grid flexibility, reliability, and resiliency services under an evolving and uncertain future power sector. The National Laboratory of the Rockies develops open PSH resource assessment and cost modeling tools to help evaluate PSH deployment opportunities, and this report describes expansions to those tools to consider an additional PSH system configuration - ring-dam reservoirs built on flat topographical features that are constructed from roller-compacted concrete material. This reservoir type is common among current PSH proposals and requires new methods to identify sites with this reservoir geometry throughout the United States and characterize the associated dam cost. Cost characterization for ring dam reservoirs required collecting historical dam cost data for earthen, rockfill, and roller-compacted concrete dams and regressing equations that relate costs between alternative materials. The ring dam site identification algorithm follows a 5-step procedure to identify circular geometry reservoirs. Once ring dam reservoirs are identified, they are then paired with potential dry-gully reservoirs, and the full set of potential paired reservoirs is cost-optimized to produce a least-cost set of potential PSH sites with no overlapping reservoirs. The resulting analysis found 1,663 ring-dam to dry-gully systems in the contiguous United States that are lower cost than any overlapping dry-gully to dry-gully systems, 29 in Alaska, and none in Hawaii or Puerto Rico. These systems constitute 1.5 TW of capacity in the contiguous United States and nearly 29 GW in Alaska, demonstrating that under suitable topography and head, ring-dam systems can provide cost-effective PSH opportunities. The greatest density of these opportunities are found in the intermountain west where there are mesas and flat land at bases of mountain ranges, but continued work could incorporate additional site characteristics or consider more complex reservoir shapes to find additional PSH deployment opportunities.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Algorithmic construction of SSA-compatible extreme rays of the subadditivity cone and the N = 6 solution

We compute the set of all extreme rays of the 6-party subadditivity cone that are compatible with strong subadditivity. In total, we identify 208 new (genuine 6-party) orbits, 52 of which violate at least one known holographic entropy inequality. For the remaining 156 orbits, which do not violate any such inequalities, we construct holographic graph models for 150 of them. For the final 6 orbits, it remains an open question whether they are holographic. Consistent with the strong form of the conjecture in [1], 148 of these graph models are trees. However, 2 of the graphs contain a “bulk cycle”, leaving open the question of whether equivalent models with tree topology exist, or if these extreme rays are counterexamples to the conjecture. The paper includes a detailed description of the algorithm used for the computation, which is presented in a general framework and can be applied to any situation involving a polyhedral cone defined by a set of linear inequalities and a partial order among them to find extreme rays corresponding to down-sets in this poset.

AdS-CFT correspondence↗
DOE OSTI2021

Design and Construction of a High Field Cable Test Facility at Fermilab

Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, together with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, is building a new High Field Vertical Magnet Test Facility (HFVMTF) to be situated in the Magnet Test Facility at Fermilab. The HFVMTF is jointly funded by the US DOE Offices of Science, High Energy Physics, and Fusion Energy Sciences, and will serve as a superconducting cable test facility for both communities. The background magnetic field for test samples is 15 T and will be produced by a magnet provided by LBNL operating at 1.9 K in superfluid helium. The samples will be placed in the background magnetic field, cooled to between 4.5 K and a user-specified upper limit, and will be powered with a super-conducting transformer at up to 100 kA. Additionally, this facility will be used to test high-field superconducting magnet models and demonstrators, including hybrid magnets, produced by the US Magnet Development Program. Presently, the various tasks of the project are at different stages of execution, from conceptual to ready-for-construction designs. Here, this paper describes the parameters and design status of the pit construction, cryostat, heat exchanger, lambda plate, power system, and quench protection and monitoring systems of the facility.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Evidence of Skewness and Sub-Gaussian Character in Temperature-Dependent Distributions of One Million Electronic Excitation Energies in PbS Quantum Dots

Obtaining statistical distributions by sampling a large number of conformations is vital for an accurate description of temperature-dependent properties of chemical systems. However, constructing distributions with 105??106 samples is computationally challenging because of the prohibitively high computational cost of performing rst-principles quantum-mechanical calculations. In this work, we present a new technique called the Eective Stochastic Potential Conguration Interaction Singles (ESP-CIS) method to obtain excitation energies. The ESP-CIS method uses random matrix theory for the construction of an eective stochastic representation of the Fock operator and combines it with linear-response theory. Here, we perform excitation calculations on PbS quantum dots (0.75-1.75 nm) at temperatures of 200-400 K. Results from a total of 15 million excitation energy calculations (1 million samples for each of the three dots at ve dierent temperatures) revealed the distributions to be sub-Gaussian in nature with negative skewness. The distributions progressively became red-shifted with increasing temperature. The study shows that random distortions in structure from the minimum-energy geometry of these quantum dots are more likely to lower the excitation energies.

Scher, Jeremy A.↗
DOE OSTI2021

Benchmarking Quantum Chemistry Computations with Variational, Imaginary Time Evolution, and Krylov Space Solver Algorithms

Quantum chemistry is a key application area for noisy-intermediate scale quantum (NISQ) devices, and therefore serves as an important benchmark for current and future quantum computer performance. Previous benchmarks in this field have focused on variational methods for computing ground and excited states of various molecules, including a benchmarking suite focused on the performance of computing ground states for alkali-hydrides under an array of error mitigation methods. State-of-the-art methods to reach chemical accuracy in hybrid quantum-classical electronic structure calculations of alkali hydride molecules on NISQ devices from IBM are outlined here. Here it is demonstrated how to extend the reach of variational eigensolvers with symmetry preserving Ansätze. Next, it is outlined how to use quantum imaginary time evolution and Lanczos as a complementary method to variational techniques, highlighting the advantages of each approach. Finally, a new error mitigation method is demonstrated which uses systematic error cancellation via hidden inverse gate constructions, improving the performance of typical variational algorithms. These results show that electronic structure calculations have advanced rapidly, to routine chemical accuracy for simple molecules, from their inception on quantum computers a few short years ago, and they point to further rapid progress to larger molecules as the power of NISQ devices grows.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2021

Covariant color-kinematics duality

We show that color-kinematics duality is a manifest property of the equations of motion governing currents and field strengths. For the nonlinear sigma model (NLSM), this insight enables an implementation of the double copy at the level of fields, as well as an explicit construction of the kinematic algebra and associated kinematic current. As a byproduct, we also derive new formulations of the special Galileon (SG) and Born-Infeld (BI) theory. For Yang-Mills (YM) theory, this same approach reveals a novel structure — covariant color-kinematics duality — whose only difference from the conventional duality is that 1/$\square$ is replaced with covariant 1/D 2 . Remarkably, this structure implies that YM theory is itself the covariant double copy of gauged biadjoint scalar (GBAS) theory and an F 3 theory of field strengths encoding a corresponding kinematic algebra and current. Directly applying the double copy to equations of motion, we derive general relativity (GR) from the product of Einstein-YM and F 3 theory. This exercise reveals a trivial variant of the classical double copy that recasts any solution of GR as a solution of YM theory in a curved background. Covariant color-kinematics duality also implies a new decomposition of tree-level amplitudes in YM theory into those of GBAS theory. Using this representation we derive a closed-form, analytic expression for all BCJ numerators in YM theory and the NLSM for any number of particles in any spacetime dimension. By virtue of the double copy, this constitutes an explicit formula for all tree-level scattering amplitudes in YM, GR, NLSM, SG, and BI.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2021

Towards standardized nuclear reactors: Seismic isolation and the cost impact of the earthquake load case

We report nuclear energy has a key role to play in global decarbonization. Impediments to the widespread deployment of reactors are their projected high capital cost and levelized cost of energy, and time required to analyze, design, license, construct, and commission them. The earthquake load case is a key cost driver for a new build nuclear plant, because near-surface soils and seismic hazard are different at each site, requiring site-specific analysis, design, engineering, qualification, licensing, and regulatory review, essentially making every design First-of-a-Kind (FoaK). To enable deployment at the scale needed for deep decarbonization, the cost and time impact of the seismic load case must be significantly mitigated, and plants must be standardized. Seismic base isolation has been proven to considerably reduce the earthquake response of structures and equipment but has yet to be applied to a nuclear power plant in the United States, in part because the financial impacts, positive or negative, are not known. Because there are no recent non-proprietary data to characterize the influence of the seismic load case on capital cost, it is difficult to confidently quantify the financial benefits of seismic isolation. Scheme-level designs of two fundamentally different advanced reactor buildings were developed to assemble cost data on the influence of the seismic load case. Both buildings were equipped with three bespoke pieces of safety-related equipment and analyzed for incremented levels of earthquake shaking to quantify the seismic penalty on equipment, in terms of vessel weights and horizontal accelerations. Using analysis results, a questionnaire was developed and transmitted to nuclear utilities, reactor developers, engineers, and equipment suppliers to collect cost data on engineering and fabrication costs for these unique pieces of safety-class equipment. Synthesis of the cost data showed that the seismic load case significantly affects the capital cost (sum of engineering and fabrication cost) of safety-class equipment, with engineering costs being comparable to fabrication costs. Standardization of safety-class equipment is made possible by seismic isolation, that is, equipment designed for minimal seismic robustness can resist earthquake shaking at a site of much higher seismic hazard. The average reduction in the capital cost of the safety-related equipment, enabled by seismic isolation, is a factor of two for FoaK equipment and a factor of five for standardized equipment.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Direct density modulation of photo-assisted field emission from an RF cold cathode

This paper explores direct density modulation of high-current electron beam emission from an RF cold cathode using optical excitation. We theoretically study the photo-assisted field emission of periodically bunched electron beams of various pulse shapes under the combined excitation of an RF field and an optical field, using an exact quantum model. Both continuous-wave (CW) and pulsed optical fields are considered. The emission current pulse amplitude, pulse width, electron number density per pulse, as well as pulse shape and its harmonic contents are investigated in detail. For CW photon sources in the UV to NIR range (i.e., 200–1200 nm), increasing the optical intensity under an RF bias tends to change the current pulse from a Gaussian to sinusoidal-like shape, thus offering strong flexibility to control the frequency components in beam current emission. Pulsed photon sources combined with an RF field can produce sharp, high-current electron bunches with pulse duration comparable with or even less than that of the optical pulse. A contour map of the density modulation depth is constructed for different combinations of RF and laser fields. The results provide insight into unlocking new opportunities to achieve direct density modulation during electron current emission by optical means.

Physics↗
DOE OSTI2023

A new step forward in realistic cluster lens mass modelling: analysis of Hubble Frontier Field Cluster Abell S1063 from joint lensing, X-ray, and galaxy kinematics data

We present a new method to simultaneously and self-consistently model the mass distribution of galaxy clusters that combines constraints from strong lensing features, X-ray emission, and galaxy kinematics measurements. We are able to successfully decompose clusters into their collisionless and collisional mass components thanks to the X-ray surface brightness, as well as use the dynamics of cluster members, to obtain more accurate masses exploiting the fundamental plane of elliptical galaxies. Knowledge from all observables is included through a consistent Bayesian approach in the likelihood or in physically motivated priors. We apply this method to the galaxy cluster Abell S1063 and produce a mass model that we publicly release with this paper. The resulting mass distribution presents different ellipticities for the intra-cluster gas and the other large-scale mass components as well as deviation from elliptical symmetry in the main halo. We assess the ability of our method to recover the masses of the different elements of the cluster using a mock cluster based on a simplified version of our Abell S1063 model. Thanks to the wealth of mutliwavelength information provided by the mass model and the detected X-ray emission, we also found evidence for an ongoing merger event with gas sloshing from a smaller infalling structure into the main cluster. In agreement with previous findings, the total mass, gas profile, and gas mass fraction are all consistent with small deviations from the hydrostatic equilibrium. This new mass model for Abell S1063 is publicly available, as the lenstool extension used to construct it.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Transport coefficients of quasiparticle models within a new relaxation time approximation of the Boltzmann equation

We investigate the transport properties of a kinetic theory model that is tuned to describe the thermodynamic properties of QCD at zero chemical potential using a new formulation of the relaxation time approximation. In contrast to previous approaches, the latter is constructed to preserve the fundamental properties of the collision term of the Boltzmann equation for any energy dependence of the relaxation time. A novel choice of matching conditions is implemented to ensure that the background mean-field depends only on the temperature even when the system is out of equilibrium. We provide a consistent analysis of how the transport coefficients of relativistic Navier-Stokes theory vary with the energy dependence of the relaxation time. We also show that the entropy production of this theory is consistent with the second law of thermodynamics and verify that it is independent of the matching conditions employed. We used this fact to calculate the matching independent combination of transport coefficients.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2022

C2QA - Bosonic Qiskit

The practical benefits of hybrid quantum information processing hardware that contains continuous-variable objects (bosonic modes such as mechanical or electromagnetic oscillators) in addition to traditional (discrete-variable) qubits have recently been demonstrated by experiments with bosonic codes that reach the break-even point for quantum error correction [1]–[5] and by efficient Gaussian boson sampling simulation of the Franck-Condon spectra of triatomic molecules [6] that is well beyond the capabilities of current qubit-only hardware. The goal of this Co-design Center for Quantum Advantage (C2QA) project is to develop an instruction set architecture (ISA) for hybrid qubit/bosonic mode systems that contains an inventory of the fundamental operations and measurements that are possible in such hardware. The corresponding abstract machine model (AMM) would also contain a description of the appropriate error models associated with the gates, measurements and time evolution of the hardware. This information has been implemented as an extension of IBM Qiskit. IBM Qiskit is an open-source software development toolkit (SDK) for simulating the quantum state of a quantum circuit and for running the same circuits on prototype hardware within the IBM Quantum Experience. We introduce the Bosonic Qiskit software to enable the simulation of hybrid qubit/bosonic systems using the existing Qiskit software development kit [7]. This implementation can be used for simulating new hybrid systems, verifying proposed physical systems, and modeling systems larger than can currently be constructed. We also cover tutorials and example use cases included within the software to study JaynesCummings models, bosonic Hubbard models, plotting Wigner functions and animations, and calculating maximum likelihood estimations using Wigner functions.

quantum, boson, Qiskit↗
DOE OSTI2020

Regenerative Fuel Cell System (Cooperative Research and Development Final Report, CRADA Number CRD-16-635)

Grid energy storage is required to maintain reliable electricity delivery from energy producers to their customers. As electrical loads on the grid change throughout the day, stored energy supplies electricity during increased power demand periods. Further, as more renewable and alternative energy sources are added, energy storage will maximize the usefulness of these technologies. Currently, the United States has over 24.6 GW of grid storage, about 2% of the total electrical production capacity. About 95% of energy storage comes from pumped hydro. However, pumped hydro energy storage is dependent on existing geographic features, making it difficult to integrate with widespread renewable energy sources. As energy demands continue to expand, and more renewable energy (i.e. wind and solar) is added to the grid, new energy storage technologies will be needed that are not dependent on geographic features. Battery technologies can provide energy storage for some applications, but are not economically well-suited for long duration charge/discharges, such as load-leveling of renewable energy. Consequently, development of new energy storage devices will augment the existing grid and reduce the capital investment in construction upgrades. As ever-increasing mandates for renewable energy are implemented, lower-cost energy storage solutions for renewable energy will be necessary to keep electricity costs low for consumers.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Review of New or Modified Radioactive Air Emission Sources

This Environmental Protection and Compliance (EPC), Compliance Programs (CP) Quality Procedure (QP) describes the process for review and evaluation of new and modified sources of radioactive air emissions to determine the requirements for pre-construction approval, stack monitoring, stack sampling system upgrade, ambient air monitoring, and the implementation of As Low As Reasonably Achievable (ALARA) principles. These requirements are specified in 40 CFR 61 Subpart H and by DOE Order 458.1, Radiation Protection of the Public and the Environment.

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗