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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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At least 721 records · Page 40
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2020

Effect of ATF Cr-coated-Zircaloy on BWR In-vessel Accident Progression during a Station Blackout

The deposition of protective coatings on nuclear fuel cladding has been considered as a near-term Accident Tolerant Fuel (ATF) concept that will reduce the high-temperature oxidation rate and enhance accident tolerance of the cladding while providing additional benefits during normal and transient. In this study, the performance of the proposed ATF concept of Cr-coated-Zircaloy is assessed using a generic Boiling Water Reactor MELCOR plant model considering a Short-term Station Blackout (STSBO) scenario. Simulation results indicate that the use of Cr-coated-Zircaloy as cladding and canister material mitigates the core degradation process as compared to the traditional Zircaloy cladding and canister design. The onset of fuel degradation and collapse is delayed by over thirty minutes, and the extent of fuel degradation is reduced. Specifically, the gross in-vessel hydrogen generation decreased by almost a factor of three. Although the eutectic reaction between Cr-coating and Zircaloy could cause an early failure of the coating, the improvement in the delay of fuel degradation is still notable. In addition, a thicker coating is found helpful to obtain additional coping time and to decrease hydrogen generation. In addition to the eutectic formation that may compromise Cr-coated Zr, a different failure mode is identified for the Cr-coated-Zr when compared to Zircaloy; i.e., a complete melt of base material leads to component collapse before the coating is oxidized and consumed. These findings can help the industry focus on productive areas of research and development for accident-tolerant fuel concepts and enhancement of core safety margins.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Assessment of coated cladding impact on large-break LOCA with TRACE-DAKOTA

Since 2011, the U.S. Department of Energy has launched new research and development (R&D) programs for developing new accident tolerant fuels (ATFs). These new fuel concepts are expected to bring several advancements in terms of plant safety. However, development, licensing, as well as deployment of ATF require a substantial investment among fuel vendors, operating utilities, and regulatory authorities. For ATF to be economically feasible, credited safety benefits may be necessary to provide an economic incentive for transition of nuclear power plants from Zr/UO2-based fuel technologies to ATFs. As a result, it is essential to evaluate the economic viability of ATF by conducting a comprehensive safety benefits study informed by R&D and demonstration studies. In the present work, based on the best estimate plus uncertainty methodology, sensitivity analysis and uncertainty quantification for key safety quantities under LB-LOCA are performed for the Peach Bottom boiling water reactor (BWR) with GE14 nuclear fuel design adopting the ATF concepts. A coupled TRACE-DAKOTA analysis framework is adopted to perform the uncertainty quantification. Based on the computational results and obtained statistics, the coping time increase, fuel performance improvement as well as the most dominating phenomena during the accident for Cr-coated cladding are investigated in detail. Overall, the results obtained are useful for subsequent plant PRA study and support a move to more modernized performance-based regulatory requirements to realize plant economic benefits.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Microstructure homogenization of concrete used in nuclear power plants

Almost all nuclear power plants in the United States are operating past their intended lifetimes or are requesting lifetime extensions. Therefore, understanding changes to the concrete containment structure over time is crucial to evaluate the structure’s continued viability. Concrete materials are heterogeneous particulate composites that exhibit viscoelastic material properties, which can lead to slow deformation over time, causing stress redistribution and the potential for creep cracking. A code to generate random, three dimensional (3D) concrete microstructures has been developed and paired with finite element analysis to predict the long-term viscoelastic properties of concrete. Data from these simulations are used to develop constitutive equations for the viscoelastic behavior of the homogenized concrete. The codes in this work are used to virtualize laboratory experiments, to obtain long-term creep data in a faster, cheaper manner. To validate this work, the simulated creep behavior of concrete is compared to 800 d of experimental data that has been extended to 27 y of data using the Time-Temperature superposition (TTS) principal. Excellent agreement between the simulation results and experimental data is seen.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Development of the reactor core isolation cooling system model for the extended station black-out accident

In order to accurately predict the behavior of the Reactor Core Isolation Cooling System (RCIC) in the context of the FLEX strategies under the extended station black-out accident (SBO), we present a mechanistic model of the RCIC in this work. The control volume formulation of angular momentum conservation is employed to model the Terry turbine in the RCIC system. The two-phase nozzle flow model developed in the previous work is utilized to simulate the convergent-divergent nozzles in the Terry turbine. A nozzle flow table is generated to cover the operation range of the RCIC during beyond design basis accidents (BDBAs). The mechanistic RCIC turbine-pump model and the nozzle flow table are incorporated in a TRACE BWR model. Simulations of short-term and long-term SBO transients are performed to demonstrate dynamic RCIC responses. A system analysis code with the proposed mechanistic model of the RCIC system will have a better prediction of system safety response during SBO accidents. With the addition of such more realistic models, the system code will be capable of providing expanded understanding of safety margin, which can help help to form the technical basis for the successful implementation of the FLEX and SAMG measures under Extended Loss of AC Power (ELAP) conditions for BWR or PWR reactor designs.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

A mortar thermomechanical contact computational framework for nuclear fuel performance simulation

Nuclear fuel performance simulations involve the modeling of complex physical phenomena, ranging from fission gas release to fuel swelling and other temperature-induced effects. For light-water reactors (LWRs), swelling of the fuel and the pressure it imposes on the clad when they come into contact causes permanent clad deformation. Accurately characterizing the fuel-cladding interaction, which involves multiple physics, is essential to accurately simulate the fuel/cladding system. Thermomechanical modeling of this problem using a variationally consistent enforcement (e.g., a mortar approach) has been shown to improve the quality of results and facilitate convergence. Here, we present a general multiphysics computational framework for solving nuclear fuel problems using a mortar approach in BISON, a nuclear fuel performance code. In this study analyses show that using the mortar approach, which enables variationally consistent constraint enforcement, improves the quality of results as compared to the more commonly used node-on-face enforcement for representative LWR nuclear fuel simulations.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

At-power subcritical multiplication in the advanced test reactor

The degree to which a given physical subdivision of a critical reactor acts as a neutron source for other lobes is not analytically characterized for general application. ATR and ATRC both operate at power, and individual power-producing lobes rely on each other as neutron sources in order to maintain constant power, which in general requires either exactly critical multiplication within a reactor or an external neutron source. Here, this work shows that lobe powers in ATR or ATRC can be related with subcritical multiplication theory, demonstrating that the lobes are not individually critical. This explanation is significant for ATR due to the desire to irradiate a large variety of experiments simultaneously, each having its impact on the core neutron population. This work also establishes the lack of relationship between experiment reactivity worth and cross-sections calculated from fundamental nuclear data. For any physical subdivision of any other critical reactor, it is likewise true that the subdivision undergoes only subcritical multiplication.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Characterization of local parameters of inclined upward air–water bubbly two-phase flows in a round pipe

The present work seeks to develop a detailed experimental database and characterize the local effects of inclination on horizontal and upward bubbly air–water two-phase flows. Experimental conditions are selected to investigate bubbly flows at a variety of orientations while reducing the influence of flow regime transition. Detailed time-averaged data is collected using state-of-the-art four-sensor conductivity probes for measurements across the flow area for five flow conditions at five inclination orientations in a 25.4 mm inner diameter pipe. Using the newly established database, effects of inclination on bubbly flows are analyzed, as are changes in liquid and gas flow rate at different orientations. The observations include (1) bubble migration and agglomeration at the top pipe wall as orientation changes from vertical to horizontal; (2) reducing the angle from vertical reduces the local gas velocity, and correspondingly reduces the global slip from greater than unity at 90° to less than unity for 60° and lower; (3) changes in the bubble size distribution are primarily at the interface between the bubble cluster and the liquid region of the pipe, not coalescence within the bubble cluster. In conclusion, physical mechanisms for these observations are proposed, and the present trends at different orientations support previous experiments in horizontal two-phase flows.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

At-power subcritical multiplication in the Advanced Test Reactor during nuclear requalification testing

Power division information during nuclear requalification of the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) is of considerable interest as an importance function for observed changes to core reactivity. The degree to which a given physical subdivision of a critical reactor acts as a neutron source for other lobes is not analytically characterized for general application. When ATR operates at power, individual power-producing lobes rely on each other as neutron sources in order to maintain constant power, which in general requires either exactly critical multiplication within a reactor or an external neutron source. Here, this work shows that fuel element and lobe powers in ATR can be related with subcritical multiplication theory. Subcritical multiplication factors are computed with a physically validated analytical method based on actual at-power operation, quantifying for each lobe its dependence on other lobes as an external neutron source. This explanation is significant for ATR due to the desire to irradiate a large variety of experiments simultaneously, each having its impact on the core neutron population. For any physical subdivision of any other critical reactor, it is likewise true that the subdivision undergoes only subcritical multiplication.

21 - SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLAN↗
DOE OSTI2021

Bulk properties and multi-particle correlations in large and small systems

Charged particle production is calculated in a hybrid framework consisting of the IP-Glasma initial state, Music viscous relativistic fluid dynamics, and the UrQMD microscopic hadronic cascade. Using one set of parameters, we compute observables for a large variety of collision systems. Furthermore, we compare to experimental data in p+p, p+Pb, Xe+Xe, Au+Au and Pb+Pb collisions at various energies, and make predictions for potential O+O runs at RHIC and LHC.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Effects of dissipative baryon current in heavy-ion collisions at RHIC-BES energies

The CLVisc (3+1)D viscous hydrodynamic model is extended to include the equation of net baryon conservation and the Israel-Stewart-like equations for dissipative baryon current. Using the NEOSB equation of state, we simulate the dynamical evolution and collectivity of the quark-gluon plasma with finite chemical potential, assuming smooth energy density and net baryon density distributions at the initial proper time. Numerical results are shown for the impact of net-baryon dissipation on particle yields and p T spectra in heavy-ion collisions at beam energy scan energies.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Heavy and light flavor jet quenching in heavy-ion collisions in a perturbative QCD approach

In this work, we study the flavor dependence of jet quenching in heavy-ion collisions. A next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD framework is applied to account for both quark and gluon contributions to light and heavy flavor hadron productions. A linear Boltzmann transport model coupled to hydrodynamic simulation is utilized to study the nuclear modification of heavy and light flavor jets in the dynamically evolving quark-gluon plasma. Within our jet quenching framework, we obtain a nice description of the nuclear modification factors of charged hadrons, D mesons, B mesons and B–decayed D mesons over a wide range of transverse momentum (8-300 GeV). Our result shows that perturbative QCD is sufficient to explain the color, mass and energy dependence of parton energy loss and jet quenching in heavy-ion collisions.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Universality driven analytic structure of QCD crossover: radius of convergence and QCD critical point

Recent lattice QCD calculations show strong indications that the crossover of QCD at zero baryon chemical potential (µB) is a remnant of the second order chiral phase transition. The non-universal parameters needed to map temperature T and µ B to the universal properties of the second order chiral phase transition were determined by lattice QCD calculations. Motivated by these advances, first, we discuss the analytic structure of the partition function - the so-called Yang-Lee edge singularity - in the QCD crossover regime, solely based on universal properties. Then, utilizing the lattice calculated non-universal parameters, we map this singularity to the real T and complex µ B plane, in order to find the radius of convergence for a Taylor series expansion of QCD partition function around µ B = 0 in the QCD crossover regime. Our most important findings are: (i) An universality-based estimate of the radius of convergence around µ B = 0; (ii) Universality and lattice QCD based constraints on the location of the QCD critical point in the T - µ B plane.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Higher order cumulants of net baryon-number distributions at non-zero μ

Using recent results on higher order cumulants of conserved charge fluctuations from lattice QCD, we construct mean, variance, skewness, kurtosis, hyper-skewness and hyper-kurtosis of net-baryon number distributions for small baryon chemical potentials μ B . For the strangeness neutral case ( μ S = 0) at fixed ratio of electric charge to baryon number density ( n Q n B = 0.4 ), which is appropriate for a comparison with heavy ion collisions, we present results for κ B σ 2 B , S B σ 3 B / M B , κ H B σ 4 B and S H B σ 5 B / M B on the crossover line for the chiral transition, T pc ( μ B ). Furthermore, continuum extrapolations for this pseudo-critical transition line have recently been reported by HotQCD up to baryon chemical potentials μ B ≃ 300 MeV [A. Bazavov, et al., Chiral crossover in QCD at zero and non-zero chemical potentials, Phys. Lett. B 795 (2019) 15–21. arXiv:1812.08235 .]. These cumulant ratios are of direct relevance for comparisons with corresponding ratios measured by STAR in the BES-I and II runs at beam energies s NN ≥ 20 GeV . In particular, we point out that recent high statistics results on skewness and kurtosis of net-baryon number distributions obtained by STAR at s NN = 54.4 GeV put strong constraints on freeze-out parameters and are consistent with predictions from thermal QCD.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Charge-dependent flow induced by electromagnetic fields in heavy ion collisions

The colliding heavy ions create extremely strong magnetic and electric fields that significantly affect the evolution of the produced quark-gluon plasma (QGP). The knowledge of these fields is essential for establishing the role of topological fluctuations in the QGP through the chiral magnetic effect and related anomaly-induced phenomena. In this talk, we describe our work on the evolution of the QGP in electric and magnetic fields in the framework of hydrodynamics supplemented, in a perturbative fashion, by the dynamical electromagnetism. The evolution of the QGP fluid is described within the iEBE-VISHNU framework. We find that the electromagnetically induced currents result in a charge-odd directed flow Δv 1 and a charge-odd Δv 3 flow both of which are odd in rapidity. Furthermore, while the predicted magnitude of these charge-odd flows agrees with the data from RHIC and LHC, the sign of the predicted asymmetry between the flows of positive and negative hadrons is opposite to the data.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Ultracentral Collisions of Small and Deformed Systems at RHIC

We study a range of collision systems involving deformed ions and compare the elliptic and triangular flow harmonics produced in a hydrodynamics scenario versus a color glass condensate (CGC) scenario. For the hydrodynamics scenario, we generate initial conditions using TRENTO and work within a linear response approximation to obtain the final flow harmonics. For the CGC scenario, we use the explicit calculation of two-gluon correlations taken in the high-p T “(semi)dilute-(semi)dilute” regime to express the flow harmonics in terms of the density profile of the collision. Here, we consider ultracentral collisions of deformed ions as a testbed for these comparisons because the difference between tip-on-tip and side-on-side collisions modifies the multiplicity dependence in both scenarios, even at zero impact parameter. We find significant qualitative differences in the multiplicity dependence obtained in the initial conditions+hydrodynamics scenario and the CGC scenario, allowing these collisions of deformed ions to be used as a powerful discriminator between models. We also find that sub-nucleonic fluctuations have a systematic effect on the elliptic and triangular flow harmonics which are most discriminating in 0–1% ultracentral symmetric collisions of small deformed ions and in 0–10% d197Au collisions. The collision systems we consider are 238 U 238 U, d 197 Au, 9 Be 197 Au, 9 Be 9 Be, 3 He 3 He, and 3 He 197 Au.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

QCD factorization and universality of jet cross sections in heavy-ion collisions

In this work, we review a recently proposed phenomenological framework to establish the notions of QCD factorization and universality of jet cross sections in the heavy-ion environment. First results of a global analysis of the nuclear modification factor of inclusive jets are presented where we extract medium modified jet functions using a Monte Carlo sampling approach. We observe that gluon jets are significantly more suppressed than quark jets. In addition, we study the jet radius dependence of the inclusive jet cross section in heavy-ion collisions and comment on a recent measurement from CMS. By considering for example jet substructure observables it will be possible to test the universality of the extracted medium jet functions. We thus expect that the presented results will eventually allow for extractions of medium properties with a reduced model bias.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗