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At least 775 records · Page 43

Foam Fracturing Fluid Half-life Experimental Data

Foam thermal stability was studies at Temple University in collaboration with Oak Ridge National Lab (ORNL). The goal of this project is to explore thermally stable foams as hydrofracking fluid media for potential applications in enhanced geothermal system (EGS). Data generated from this project will allow researchers to explore foam as potential fracturing fluid. More than 800 data points on the half-life of foams are recorded in Excel files in the included archive resource (Half-life of Foams with Different Surfactants and Stabilizing Agents). The Excel file within each surfactant folder contains half-life data of the respective surfactant with different stabilizing agents, pressure, and temperature. The respective folders also contains Word files describing the details of the data included in the respective Excel sheet.

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗

A scalable transformer model for real-time decision making in neutron scattering experiments

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) neutron research facilities at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), including the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) and the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS), are a state-of-the-art neutron scattering facility that allows researchers to study the structure and dynamics of materials at the atomic scale. At the SNS, neutrons are measured using the time-of-flight (TOF) technique as they move through a neutron beamline to interact with a sample. Large volumes of neutron scattering data are collected and recorded in neutron event mode. Optimal productivity of the TOF instrument is limited due to the lack of real-time data analysis tools. The large amount of data generated by the experiments can be challenging to process and analyze in real time, particularly for experiments that require rapid feedback and adjustment of experimental parameters. The regular computer/workstation cannot keep up with the experiment speed to provide real-time feedback to adjust experimental parameters, so connecting the supercomputers available to the neutron facility is necessary to achieve real-time data analysis and experiment steering. To address this challenge, we exploit the Frontier supercomputer at Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF) to train a scalable temporal fusion transformer model for real-time decision making of TOF neutron scattering experimentation. Here, in this paper, we present the results using Frontier to provide the processing power needed to rapidly process and analyze large volumes of single-crystal diffraction data collected at TOPAZ, a neutron time-of-flight Laue single-crystal diffractometer at the SNS.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

RLAs WITH FFA ARCS FOR PROTONS AND ELECTRONS

Recirculating Linear Accelerators (RLAs) provide an efficient way of producing high-power, high-quality, continuous-wave hadron and lepton beams. However, their attractiveness had been limited by the cumbersomeness of multiple recirculating arcs and by the complexity of the spreader and recombiner regions. The latter problem sets one of the practical limitations on the maximum number of recirculations. We present an RLA design concept where the problem of multiple arcs is solved using the Fixed-Field Alternating gradient (FFA) design as in CBETA. The spreader/recombiner design is greatly simplified using an adiabatic matching approach. It allows for the spreader/recombiner function to be accomplished by a single beam line. The concept is applied to the designs of a high-power hadron accelerator being considered at ORNL and a CEBAF electron energy doubling project, FFA@CEBAF, being developed at Jefferson lab.

Morozov, V. S.↗

Proton and electron RLA optics design

We describe optics designs of the key components of proton and electron Recirculating Linear Accelerators (RLAs). They are presented in the context of a high-power hadron accelerator being considered at ORNL and a CEBAF electron energy doubling study, FFA@CEBAF, being developed at Jefferson Lab. Both concepts rely on the Fixed-Field Alternating gradient (FFA) arc optics designs where multiple beam passes are transported by a single beam line. Some of the main challenges of the optics design are in synchronization and orbital and linear optics match of the individual passes with the linac straight. To minimize the complexity of the matching sections and make them more practical, it is preferable to complete as much of the orbital and optical match as possible within a single beam line using the FFA approach. The adiabatic matching technique proposed earlier is one such solution, but it requires a large number of cells. We present a much shorter matching section design based on another approach. A compact dog-leg-type section of several bending dipoles and quadrupoles is used to suppress the orbital offset and dispersion coming out of a periodic cell. Additional quadrupoles are used in the section to keep the beta functions under control and simplify their subsequent match to the linac. Initial beam tracking results are presented.

Benesch, J.↗

Effects of delta ray electrons on measurement uncertainties of harp system

A harp system, which is a multi-wire beam profile monitoring (MWPM) system, is planned upstream of the spallation target to make in situ calibration of beam current density configuration on the target along with beam imaging from luminescent coating on the beam entrance window at the Second Target Station (STS) of the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). This beam interception-based beam diagnostics system on the target will be used to ensure that the maximum beam loads on the target are within the design range during neutron production. Current design of the harp consists of three layers of measurement wires each of which is sandwiched between voltage biasing wire planes. The signal obtained from each measurement wire layer is disturbed by secondary electrons (SE) and delta rays produced by beam-matter interactions in neighboring wires and ionization of residual gases in accelerator vacuum. While the backgrounds from SE can be suppressed by voltage biasing, the delta-ray electrons with kinetic energies above keV ranges overcome the electric potential bias. In this paper, we study the effects of delta-rays on the measurement uncertainties of MWPM using the particle transport simulation code FLUKA. Furthermore, the cases where the harp system is installed in the proximity of a large delta ray sources such as proton beam window or in the core vessel filled with sub-atmospheric gas have been studied.

Lee, Yong Joong↗

Proposed muon collider R&D at SNS

Generation of a muon beam at a Muon Collider requires relatively short, high-charge proton bunches. They are produced in a high-average-power proton driver by first accumulating a proton beam from a super-conducting linac, then bunching the beam and finally compressing and combining the bunches into a single high-intensity proton pulse. All of these beam formation stages involve handling of unprecedentedly high beam charges. Validation of these intricate beam manipulations requires better understanding of extreme space-charge effects and experimental demonstration. A facility perhaps most closely resembling the proton driver configuration and beam parameters is the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) accelerator complex at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Considering the energy scaling of the space-charge parameters, many of the beam formation steps planned for the proton driver can be experimentally checked at the SNS at the relevant space-charge interaction levels. This paper discusses potential proton driver and other muon-collider-related R\&D at the SNS.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Managing Procurements in the Time of Covid-19: SNS-PPU as a Case Study

In early 2020, COVID-19 swept across the world. The accelerator industry, like many others, was impacted by disease, delays, shortages, and new working conditions. All Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLab) employees were sent home in mid-March 2020, with many still working remotely now. At the time, JLab was working on the Proton Power Upgrade (PPU) to the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Procurements had been placed and were being managed, parts were being received and inspected. This paper details the JLab procurement plan for the SNS PPU project, and the mitigations that were developed to continue to support this project smoothly under the limitations imposed by COVID-19.

Wilson, K. M.↗

DOE Data Day 2019 Report

The Department of Energy (DOE) has joined the larger scientific community in the promotion of data management as a means to higher quality, more efficient research and analysis, and as a critical component of data science. Tools and platforms to support data management and analysis are rapidly evolving and provide enormous opportunities. They also pose challenges that can be specific to DOE but are common across DOE mission areas and organizations. The DOE Data Day (D3) workshop was held on September 25–26, 2019, and organized by a team at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in an effort to gather the data management practitioners at the DOE labs together to share their work and results, facilitating knowledge transfers and best practices across project teams. Over 100 attendees participated from multiple national labs—LLNL, Sandia (SNL), Lawrence Berkeley (LBNL), Los Alamos (LANL), Oak Ridge (ORNL), Argonne (ANL), Pacific Northwest (PNNL), Stanford Linear Accelerator (SLAC)—along with Mission Support and Test Services (MSTS), National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), Pantex, National Security Complex (Y-12), National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI), and elsewhere in the DOE complex.

96 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND PRESERVATION↗

Plasma Processing to Mitigate Field Emission in LCLS-II 1.3 GHz SRF Cavities

A collaboration between Fermilab, SLAC and ORNL is working to develop plasma processing for 1.3GHz TESLA shaped SRF cavities. Hydrocarbon (C x H y ) contaminations and adsorbates lower the cavity surface work function (Φ) increasing Field Emission (FE). Plasma processing removes C x H y allowing the cavity to operate at higher E acc .

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

UNITY: Unified Memory and Storage Space

UNITY is a 36-month project focused on providing design and evaluate a new distributed storage paradigm that unifies the traditionally distinct application views of memory- and file-based data storage into a single scalable and resilient environment. The project is a collaboration among Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL, Lead institution), Los Alamos National Labs (LANL), and Georgia Tech (GT). The main contributions of the GT team have been around development of low level systems software for best leveraging the capabilities of new types of persistent memory technologies, and for development of methods for intelligent data management across memory/storage substrates with heterogeneous components. GT contributed the Phoenix library for optimized checkpoint/restart for HPC I/O for systems with non-volatile memory (NVM), the NVStream library for NVM-specialized streaming I/O for HPC workflows, the CoMerge, Mnemo and Kleio solutions for intelligent data management on NVM-based systems. These contributions result in significant improvements in both application performance and system efficiency.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Refrigerants: Market Trends and Supply Chain Assessment

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), in partnership with ORNL, under the Clean Energy Manufacturing Analysis Center (CEMAC www.manufacturingcleanenergy.org) umbrella, assessed the current state of existing and low-GWP refrigerants for major end-use applications, including HVAC and those outside of the HVAC industry. The project incorporated a market overview, and supply chain assessment to determine the production, distribution, consumption, costs, and potential operating efficiency impacts of new and alternative refrigerants entering the market. Market trends and ongoing research are also documented. This work supplements other DOE efforts to support research activities on refrigerants and their applications including a refrigerant R&D roadmap and outlook into global air conditioning markets (Goetzler et al. 2014, 2016).

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Characterization of Urbix Resources Natural Flake Graphite Material for Nuclear Applications (CRADA NFE-18-07340 Final Report)

Urbix Resources is a company specializing in graphite powder processing and purification. Urbix is looking to become the first domestic supplier of nuclear-grade graphite in the United States. This has led to a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) being established between the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Urbix Resources, with the goal of characterizing a purified graphite feedstock supplied by Urbix Resources. The resulting data will then be used to determine the viability of a large-scale nuclear graphite production and qualification campaign. These characterization methods have been performed on the as-received graphite feedstock, a heat-treated batch of the feedstock, a milled batch of the feedstock, and a nuclear-grade graphite powder historically used in fuel production. The data from the heat-treated and milled feedstock will determine how different processing methods affect the powder’s physical properties, whereas the data from the nuclear grade graphite will provide information about the characteristics of a graphite previously accepted for nuclear applications. All of these powders have been characterized individually and as part of a resin-graphite blend (herein referred to as matrix) that has been used in past fuel experiments. The results of these experiments show that the Urbix powder and nuclear-grade graphite powder display notably different properties from one another in many cases, but this discrepancy may have been the result of the typical particle size of each powder. This hypothesis is supported by tests conducted on the milled powder, which showed a closer resemblance in properties to the nuclear-grade graphite than the as-received powder. The method for pressing the graphite matrix also had a noticeable effect on the measured properties.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Transportation Energy Data Book: Edition 38

The Transportation Energy Data Book: Edition 38 is a statistical compendium prepared and published by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) under contract with the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Vehicle Technologies Office. Designed for use as a desk-top reference, the Data Book represents an assembly and display of statistics and information that characterize transportation activity, and presents data on other factors that influence transportation energy use. The purpose of this document is to present relevant statistical data in the form of tables and graphs. The latest edition of the Data Book is available via the Internet. This edition of the Data Book has 13 chapters which focus on various aspects of the transportation industry. Chapter 1 - focuses on petroleum; Chapter 2 - energy; Chapter 3 - highway vehicles; Chapter 4 - light vehicles; Chapter 5 - heavy vehicles; Chapter 6 - alternative fuel vehicles; Chapter 7 - transit and shared mobility; Chapter 8 - fleet vehicles; Chapter 9 - household vehicles; Chapter 10 - nonhighway modes; Chapter 11 - transportation and the economy; Chapter 12 - greenhouse gas emissions; and Chapter 13 - criteria pollutant emissions. The sources used represent the latest available data. There are also three appendices which include detailed source information for some tables, measures of conversion, and energy tables and figures with electricity generation and distribution taken into account. A glossary of terms is also included for the reader’s convenience.

02 PETROLEUM↗

Annotated Bibliography of Literature Addressing the Low-Income Energy Affordability in the United States

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), with support from the Georgia Institute of Technology, conducted a “meta review” of low-income energy affordability in the United States. The first step of that review involved the creation of an annotated bibliography of literature focused on low-income household energy affordability, needs, and gaps. This bibliography includes abstracts of the published literature discussed in the meta review. This annotated bibliography describes the relatively current literature (published from 2010 to 2019) that examines low-income energy affordability in the United States. As an initial search criterion, literature was compiled from journal publications archived in Web of Science and Scopus databases.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

Assessment of the Material Performance for TCR Applications (Progress Report)

The objective of Argonne’s materials research activities for the Transformational Challenge Reactor (TCR) program is to improve the understanding of material properties from additive manufacturing with the focus on understanding the creep and fatigue properties of additively manufactured materials. The material work conducted by Argonne provides support in developing and qualifying advanced materials and manufacturing processes to allow for innovative reactor design and licensing for the TCR. In FY 2020, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) provided six ASTM standard sized creep specimens of additively-manufactured 316L stainless steel (AM 316L SS) for evaluation of the effect of post-build heat treatment on the creep property. Two different teat treatments were conducted on the as-built specimens, namely 1050°C/1h and 650°C/1h before creep testing. All specimens were creep tested at 550°C and 275 MPa to understand the effect of heat treatments. We have also received AM 316L SS printed in various forms including rods and sheets, wrought 316 L SS (as a reference material), and AM IN718 for tensile, creep and fatigue testing. Both ASTM standard sized specimens and subsized specimens are being fabricated or tested to contribute to a comprehensive mechanical property database of AM materials and to provide location-specific property data to the TCR digital platform. Mechanical testing at Argonne is conducted to ASME NQA-1 or its lab equivalent for quality assurance. This report presents the results of the creep tests at 550°C and microstructural characterization for the assessment of the effect of the post-build heat treatment on the creep behavior of AM 316L SS. It also discusses ongoing efforts on obtaining location-dependent properties of AM 316L SS.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Final Technical Report for project entitled Highly Active, Durable, and Ultra-Low PGM NSTF Thin Film ORR Catalysts and Support

In this project, the objective was to develop new oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) electrocatalysts for proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) which could exceed all of the Department of Energy (DOE) 2020 targets listed in DE-FOA-0001224, Subtopic 1b, Table I. The expected outcome was development of one or more electrocatalysts which are substantially improved over the current state-of-the-art in terms of overall activity, durability, and cost, and are suitable for automotive traction and stationary fuel cell applications. This report summarizes this project’s progress towards meeting the stated objectives and includes a summary of key findings and conclusions. The development activities towards new highly active and durable thin film electrocatalysts has led to the discovery of several electrocatalysts which approached or exceeded several DOE 2020 targets for activity, durability, and performance in proton exchange membrane fuel cell (membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs). In this project, electrocatalyst development focused on systematic physical and electrochemical characterization of electrocatalyst activity, durability, and performance in MEAs as a function of electrocatalyst fabrication, compositional and structural variables. The project approach was to develop relationships between the catalyst functional responses (activity, durability and performance) with catalyst physical properties and catalyst fabrication methods. Additionally, the thin film catalysts were integrated onto the unique and durable 3M Nanostructured Thin Film (NSTF) support, consisting of arrays of self-assembled organic crystalline whiskers. The catalysts were evaluated against the project targets via extensive electrochemical characterization in MEA format at 3M, advanced structural and compositional microscopy at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), and atomic structure analysis via XAFS at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL). The extensive electrochemical and physical characterization resulted in development of several trends which correlate the catalysts’ electrochemical properties to their physical properties, including composition, structure, and method of fabrication. The development was guided by density functional theory (DFT) modeling at Purdue University and kinetic Monte Carlo (kMC) modeling at Johns Hopkins University. The catalyst simulations provided key insights into the observed experimental activity and durability trends, and additionally were utilized to assess new electrocatalyst concepts prior to or coincident with physical catalyst development. This development has led to several electrocatalyst candidates with activity and durability which approach or exceed DOE targets. One class of catalysts, based on nm-scale thin layers of Pt on Ir, met or exceeded 6 of the 6 DOE targets the project addressed.

08 HYDROGEN↗

Binder Jet Tooling for Automotive Lighting Industry. CRADA Final Report

The goal of this collaborative project between Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s (ORNL) Manufacturing Demonstration Facility (MDF) and Grote Industries, LLC was to develop additively manufactured tooling to produce lighting products in a production environment. The project explored the use of metal powder bed systems to rapidly manufacture moderately sized injection molding tools (less than 8” x 8” x 2”) for automotive lamps. The team designed the mold (male and female), manufactured the mold using the binder jet process, experimented with finishing processes, manufactured parts using the molds, and monitored the wear on the mold to predict life.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

SCALE Code System

The SCALE Code System is a widely used modeling and simulation suite for nuclear safety analysis and design that is developed, maintained, tested, and managed by the Reactor and Nuclear Systems Division (RNSD) of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). SCALE provides a comprehensive, verified and validated, user-friendly tool set for criticality safety, reactor and lattice physics, radiation shielding, spent fuel and radioactive source term characterization, and sensitivity and uncertainty analysis. Since 1980, regulators, licensees, and research institutions around the world have used SCALE for safety analysis and design. SCALE provides an integrated framework with dozens of computational modules, including three deterministic and three Monte Carlo radiation transport solvers that are selected based on the desired solution strategy. SCALE includes current nuclear data libraries and problem-dependent processing tools for continuous-energy (CE) and multigroup (MG) neutronics and coupled neutron-gamma calculations, as well as activation, depletion, and decay calculations. SCALE includes unique capabilities for automated variance reduction for shielding calculations, as well as sensitivity and uncertainty analysis. SCALE’s graphical user interfaces assist with accurate system modeling, visualization of nuclear data, and convenient access to desired results.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗