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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 91 records · Page 5

Proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (H NMR) of Glycolate in Real Waste: Developing and Testing Analytical Methods for the Savannah River Site Liquid Waste System

In preparation for implementing the NG acid flowsheet for the SRS LWS, analytical methods for determining glycolate at low concentration are desired to support system management and safety. Previous work documented that the IC method performed well for samples with low to moderate ionic strength. That work also included a scoping effort to determine if an alternate analytical strategy using H NMR would complement and extend the capabilities of the IC method. The H NMR scoping results indicated that the method had the potential to expand glycolate analysis in LWS samples to higher ionic strength tanks/solutions. The scope of this work is to develop innovative proton NMR techniques, including demonstrating ion exchange decontamination protocols needed for application of the technique to real waste samples. Part of radioactive waste processing at SRS uses formic acid to reduce oxidized (Hg 2+ ) to more volatile elemental Hg for steam striping, collecting, and disposal. Under acidic conditions found in the Chemical Processing Cell (CPC) at the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF), formic acid has a much higher hydrogen generation rate than an alternative reductant, glycolic acid. Thus, an NG acid flowsheet has been developed utilizing glycolic acid with the benefit of easing the need for headspace monitoring requirements for hydrogen and ammonia at DWPF. Low concentrations of glycolate are conservatively assumed to be in the recycle stream, which will collect in the Recycle Collection Tank (RCT). The DWPF recycle stream collected in the RCT has a distinct pathway to the LWS waste tanks that feed the 2H and 3H Evaporator. This route involves transfer of the DWPF recycle to Tank 22 in the Concentration, Storage, and Transfer Facilities (CSTF) followed by transfer to the LWS tank farm/evaporators.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

Policy and Regulatory Environment for Utility-Scale Energy Storage: Nepal

This report—Policy and Regulatory Environment for Utility-Scale Energy Storage: Nepal—is part of a series investigating the potential for utility-scale energy storage in South Asia. This report is the second in a series of country-specific evaluations of policy and regulatory environments for energy storage in the region. These evaluations apply the previously developed Energy Storage Readiness Assessment to evaluate the policy and regulatory environment for energy storage in Nepal. A similar assessment is already complete for India and a forthcoming report will expand this analysis to Bangladesh. These evaluations are designed to provide insights on the opportunities and barriers for energy storage growth and deployment in each country.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Status of Multiphysics Modeling of Critical DPCs in a Geological Repository

A summary of previous work focused on the first two scenarios is presented as an established workflow. These canisters could reach an equilibrium at a low quasi–steady-state power level that could be sustained for thousands of years. The majority of this report describes an effort to expand the initial methodology to include the scenario in which a DPC has enough excess reactivity to boil the water inside the canister. This scenario involves a variety of tools and modeling approaches to capture the two-phase behavior, including RELAP5-3D, STAR-CCM+, and TRACE. Efforts using the high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics results to verify the accuracy of RELAP5-3D and TRACE for boiling DPCs are also presented. A new modeling strategy using TRACE appears to be the most promising approach for expanding the analysis of critical DPCs beyond the subcooled scenarios. Finally, this report describes ongoing work investigating the fourth scenario, in which a critical DPC is sealed in saturated bentonite. The primary goal in this research is to understand the power output and associated pressure increase to inform geomechanics simulations that could predict the impact on a geological repository.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

Direct Measurement of Crossover and Interfacial Resistance of Ion-Exchange Membranes in All-Vanadium Redox Flow Batteries

Among various components commonly used in redox flow batteries (RFBs), the separator plays a significant role, influencing resistance to current as well as capacity decay via unintended crossover. It is well-established that the ohmic overpotential is dominated by the membrane and interfacial resistance in most aqueous RFBs. The ultimate goal of engineering membranes is to improve the ionic conductivity while keeping crossover at a minimum. One of the major issues yet to be addressed is the contribution of interfacial phenomena in the influence of ionic and water transport through the membrane. In this work, we have utilized a novel experimental system capable of measuring the ionic crossover in real-time to quantify the permeability of ionic species. Specifically, we have focused on quantifying the contributions from the interfacial resistance to ionic crossover. The trade-off between the mass and ionic transport impedance caused by the interface of the membranes has been addressed. The MacMullin number has been quantified for a series of electrolyte configurations and a correlation between the ionic conductivity of the contacting electrolyte and the Nafion® membrane has been established. The performance of individual ion-exchange membranes along with a stack of various separators have been explored. We have found that utilizing a stack of membranes is significantly beneficial in reducing the electroactive species crossover in redox flow batteries compared to a single membrane of the same fold thickness. For example, we have demonstrated that the utilization of five layers of Nafion ® 211 membrane reduces the crossover by 37% while only increasing the area-specific resistance (ASR) by 15% compared to a single layer Nafion ® 115 membrane. Therefore, the influence of interfacial impedance in reducing the vanadium ion crossover is substantially higher compared to a corresponding increase in ASR, indicating that mass and ohmic interfacial resistances are dissimilar. We have expanded our analysis to a combination of commercially available ion-exchange membranes and provided a design chart for membrane selection based on the application of interest (short duration/high-performance vs. long-term durability). The results of this study provide a deeper insight into the optimization of all-vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs).

UV/Vis spectroscopy↗

Response Surface Energy Modeling of an Electric Vehicle over a Reduced Composite Drive Cycle

Response surface methodology (RSM) techniques were applied to develop a predictive model of electric vehicle (EV) energy consumption over the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) standardized drive cycles. The model is based on measurements from a synthetic composite drive cycle. The synthetic drive cycle is a minimized statistical composite of the standardized urban (UDDS), highway (HWFET), and US06 cycles. The composite synthetic drive cycle is 20 minutes in length thereby reducing testing time of the three standard EPA cycles by over 55%. Vehicle speed and acceleration were used as model inputs for a third order least squared regression model predicting vehicle battery power output as a function of the drive cycle. The approach reduced three cycles and 46 minutes of drive time to a single test of 20 minutes. Application of response surface modeling to the synthetic drive cycle is shown to predict energy consumption of the three EPA cycles within 2.6% of the actual measured values. Additionally, the response model may be used to predict energy consumption of any cycle within the speed/acceleration envelope of the synthetic cycle. This technique results in reducing test time, which additionally provides a model that may be used to expand the analysis and understanding of the vehicle under consideration.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

Macroscopic impacts of cloud and precipitation processes on maritime shallow convection as simulated by a large eddy simulation model with bin microphysics

This paper discusses impacts of cloud and precipitation processes on macrophysical properties of shallow convective clouds as simulated by a large eddy model applying warm-rain bin microphysics. Simulations with and without collision–coalescence are considered with cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentrations of 30, 60, 120, and 240 mg -1 . Simulations with collision–coalescence include either the standard gravitational collision kernel or a novel kernel that includes enhancements due to the small-scale cloud turbulence. Simulations with droplet collisions were discussed in Wyszogrodzki et al. (2013) focusing on the impact of the turbulent collision kernel. The current paper expands that analysis and puts model results in the context of previous studies. Despite a significant increase of the drizzle/rain with the decrease of CCN concentration, enhanced by the effects of the small-scale turbulence, impacts on the macroscopic cloud field characteristics are relatively minor. Model results show a systematic shift in the cloud-top height distributions, with an increasing contribution of deeper clouds for stronger precipitating cases. We show that this is consistent with the explanation suggested in Wyszogrodzki et al. (2013); namely, the increase of drizzle/rain leads to a more efficient condensate offloading in the upper parts of the cloud field. A second effect involves suppression of the cloud droplet evaporation near cloud edges in low-CCN simulations, as documented in previous studies (e.g., Xue and Feingold, 2006). We pose the question whether the effects of cloud turbulence on drizzle/rain formation in shallow cumuli can be corroborated by remote sensing observations, for instance, from space. Although a clear signal is extracted from model results, we argue that the answer is negative due to uncertainties caused by the temporal variability of the shallow convective cloud field, sampling and spatial resolution of the satellite data, and overall accuracy of remote sensing retrievals.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Making Risk Models Operational for Situational Awareness and Decision Support

Modernization of nuclear power operations control systems, in particular the move to digital control systems, creates an opportunity to modernize existing legacy infrastructure and extend plant life. We describe here decision support tools that allow the assessment of different facets of risk and support the optimization of available resources to reduce risk as plants are upgraded and maintained. This methodology could become an integrated part of the design review process and a part of the operations management systems. The methodology can be applied to the design of new reactors such as small nuclear reactors (SMR), and be helpful in assessing the risks of different configurations of the reactors. Our tool provides a low cost evaluation of alternative configurations and provides an expanded safety analysis by considering scenarios while early in the implementation cycle where cost impacts can be minimized. The effects of failures can be modeled and thoroughly vetted to understand their potential impact on risk. The process and tools presented here allow for an integrated assessment of risk by supporting traditional defense in depth approaches while taking into consideration the insertion of new digital instrument and control systems.

cyber security↗

MULTI-SCALE COHERENT TURBULENCE AT TIDAL ENERGY SITES

Turbulence is known to affect the performance and survivability of tidal turbines, yet characterization of turbulence in the field remains limited. Here, we refine and demonstrate a new approach to turbulence measurements, in which an array of multiple Acoustic Doppler Velocimeters (ADV) is suspended above the seabed at the hub height of a tidal turbine. These measurements provide information on the intensity, structure, and coherence of turbulence across the scale of a turbine rotor (< 10 m). Deployment of multiple moorings expands the analysis to array scales (> 10 m). Motion correction of the moored ADV data is essential to this approach and is verified using the turbulent kinetic energy spectra. Additional measurements include a bottommounted 5-beam Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler, from which scales can be assessed using the velocities a separation distances along a given beam. These methods are demonstrated with data collected at the site of the Snohomish PUD pilot project in Admiralty Inlet, Puget Sound, WA (USA). Coherent motion is found to be largely isotropic, such that coherence is high only at scales less than the advective length scale or the water depth, whichever is less.

ADV↗

Toward Greater Understanding of Upstream and Downstream Manufacturing Processes for Automotive of Li-Ion Batteries

This work focuses on cost associated with extraction and purification of raw materials used in Li-ion batteries such as Co, Ni, Mn and graphite. This work also attempts to expand cost analysis to cover costs associated with cells and modules packaging. Value chain analysis will be used to facilitate understanding of costs in the manufacturing processes of Li-ion batteries.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Cost-Benefit Analysis For Indonesia Building Sector: Whole-Building Cooling Solutions

The Net Zero World (NZW) Initiative Collaborative Work Program with the Government of Indonesia (GoI) includes technical assistance and investment mobilization facilitation to accelerate deployment of energy efficiency technologies and solutions for the building sector. A February 2023 U.S.–Indonesia Joint Workshop on Decarbonizing the Building Sector yielded a NZW Indonesia Building Decarbonization Working Group (NZW IBDWG) with four sub-working groups (SWG): SWG-A National Center, SWG-B Capacity Building, SWG-C Investment and Financing, and SWG-D Pilot Projects. Technical analysis of whole-building cooling solutions for tropical climates of Indonesia was conducted by SWG-A to quantify energy savings, carbon dioxide reductions, and comfort improvements offered by 12 passive or low-energy cooling strategies: ceiling fans with and without thermostat setbacks; cool roofs; cool walls; exterior awnings; exterior shades; interior shades; insulated roofs; insulated walls; low-e windows; solar window films; and natural ventilation. Leveraging the results from SWG-A, cost-benefit analysis (CBA) was conducted by SWG-C to assess the consumer and national costs and impacts associated with these 12 cooling solutions. The evaluation involved estimating life-cycle costs (LCC), payback period (PBP), net present values (NPV), annual electricity burden change for low-income households, and reduced national annual power-sector generation demand by 2030, 2040, 2050, and 2060. This evaluation can help guide Indonesia’s Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) investments in policies and programs to advance research, development, deployment, and commercial adoption (RDDCA) of efficient residential building sector cooling technologies and solutions in Indonesia. Four key energy conservation measures (ECM) have been identified to reduce air-conditioning (AC) energy demand in single-family housing in Indonesia: ceiling fan with temperature setback (to 28.1 °Celcius from 25 °C); insulated walls; insulated roof; and cool roof. This study found that low-income households with AC installations in Indonesia currently face a high energy cost burden of approximately 10%. However, by implementing a ceiling fan with temperature setback, this burden could decrease to 2.5% today and further reduce to 1.3% by the year 2060. The PBP for a ceiling fan with temperature setback is one year, indicating one of the lowest LCC and best NPV. In the planned upcoming phase of CBA, a series of building cooling improvement scenarios can be further defined, incorporating more than one ECM in combination with socio-economic factors evaluated in the initial CBA phase. Additionally, the analysis of ECM effects in multifamily housing can be expanded. This broader national analysis aims to encompass a holistic and comprehensive system-level perspective, including factors such as avoided power sector infrastructure investments, domestic job creation, domestic manufacturing job creation, and gross domestic product (GDP) growth.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

Stability of expanding accretion shocks for an arbitrary equation of state

We present a theoretical stability analysis for an expanding accretion shock that does not involve a rarefaction wave behind it. The dispersion equation that determines the eigenvalues of the problem and the explicit formulae for the corresponding eigenfunction profiles are presented for an arbitrary equation of state and finite-strength shocks. For spherically and cylindrically expanding steady shock waves, we demonstrate the possibility of instability in a literal sense, a power-law growth of shock-front perturbations with time, in the range of $h_c< h<1+2 {\mathcal {M}}_2$ , where $h$ is the D'yakov-Kontorovich parameter, $h_c$ is its critical value corresponding to the onset of the instability and ${\mathcal {M}}_2$ is the downstream Mach number. Shock divergence is a stabilizing factor and, therefore, instability is found for high angular mode numbers. As the parameter $h$ increases from $h_c$ to $1+2 {\mathcal {M}}_2$ , the instability power index grows from zero to infinity. This result contrasts with the classic theory applicable to planar isolated shocks, which predicts spontaneous acoustic emission associated with constant-amplitude oscillations of the perturbed shock in the range $h_c< h<1+2 {\mathcal {M}}_2$ . Examples are given for three different equations of state: ideal gas, van der Waals gas and three-terms constitutive equation for simple metals.

Huete, César (ORCID:0000000232278520)↗

Atmospheric neutrino oscillation analysis with neutron tagging and an expanded fiducial volume in Super-Kamiokande I–V

We present a measurement of neutrino oscillation parameters with the Super-Kamiokande detector using atmospheric neutrinos from the complete pure-water SK I–V (April 1996–July 2020) dataset, including events from an expanded fiducial volume. The dataset corresponds to 6511.3 live days and an exposure of 484.2 kiloton-years. Measurements of the neutrino oscillation parameters Δ⁢𝑚$^2_{3⁢2}$, sin 2 ⁡𝜃 2⁢3 , sin 2⁡ 𝜃 1⁢3 , 𝛿 CP , and the preference for the neutrino mass ordering are presented with atmospheric neutrino data alone, and with constraints on sin 2 ⁡𝜃 1⁢3 from reactor neutrino experiments. Our analysis including constraints on sin 2 ⁡𝜃 1⁢3 favors the normal mass ordering at the 92.3% level.

Cherenkov detectors↗

Nuclear Data Management and Analysis System Plan

The United States Department of Energy Advanced Reactor Technologies Program was formed in Fiscal Year 2015 and encompasses the Next Generation Nuclear Plant Project and Very High Temperature Reactor (VHTR) Program as they were known previously. The VHTR Program was created to support design and licensing of the first VHTR nuclear plant. Data created for and used by the program must be qualified for use, stored in a readily accessible electronic form, categorized to assure the correct data are used, and controlled to prevent data corruption or inadvertent changes. The Nuclear Data Management and Analysis System was designed to support the data needs of the VHTR Program, at the time and now the Advanced Reactor Technologies Program. Since its inception, use of the Nuclear Data Management and Analysis System has expanded to support additional projects and programs with similar requirements for control, analysis, and availability of large data sets.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

Dose Rate Analysis Capability for Actual Spent Fuel Transportation Cask Contents

The approved contents for a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) licensed spent nuclear fuel casks are typically based on bounding used nuclear fuel (UNF) characteristics. However, the contents of the UNF canisters currently in storage at independent spent fuel storage installations are considerably heterogeneous in terms of fuel assembly burnup, initial enrichment, decay time, cladding integrity, etc. Used Nuclear Fuel Storage, Transportation & Disposal Analysis Resource and Data System (UNF ST&DARDS) is an integrated data and analysis system that facilitates automated cask-specific safety analyses based on actual characteristics of the as-loaded UNF. The UNF-ST&DARDS analysis capabilities have been recently expanded to include dose rate analysis of as-loaded transportation packages. Realistic dose rate values based on actual canister contents may be used in place of bounding dose rate values to support development of repackaging operations procedures, evaluation of radiation-related transportation risks, and communication with stakeholders. This paper describes the UNF-ST&DARDS dose rate analysis methodology based on actual UNF canister contents and presents sample dose rate calculation results.

Radulescu, Georgeta↗

Reachability Analysis for FollowerStopper: Safety Analysis and Experimental Results

Motivated by earlier work and the developer of a new algorithm, the FollowerStopper, this article uses reachability analysis to verify the safety of the FollowerStopper algorithm, which is a controller designed for dampening stop-and-go traffic waves. With more than 1100 miles of driving data collected by our physical platform, we validate our analysis results by comparing it to human driving behaviors. The FollowerStopper controller has been demonstrated to dampen stop-and-go traffic waves at low speed, but previous analysis on its relative safety has been limited to upper and lower bounds of acceleration. To expand upon previous analysis, reachability analysis is used to investigate the safety at the speeds it was originally tested and also at higher speeds. Two formulations of safety analysis with different criteria are shown: distance-based and time headway-based. The FollowerStopper is considered safe with distance-based criterion. However, simulation results demonstrate that the FollowerStopper is not representative of human drivers - it follows too closely behind vehicles, specifically at a distance human would deem as unsafe. On the other hand, under the time headway-based safety analysis, the FollowerStopper is not considered safe anymore. A modified FollowerStopper is proposed to satisfy time-based safety criterion. Simulation results of the proposed FollowerStopper shows that its response represents human driver behavior better.

Chou, Fang-Chieh↗

Studies of new Higgs boson interactions through nonresonant $HH$ production in the $ b\overline{b}\gamma \gamma $ final state in $pp$ collisions at $ \sqrt{s} $ = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for nonresonant Higgs boson pair production in the $ b\overline{b}\gamma \gamma $ final state is performed using 140 fb –1 of proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. This analysis supersedes and expands upon the previous nonresonant ATLAS results in this final state based on the same data sample. The analysis strategy is optimised to probe anomalous values not only of the Higgs (H) boson self-coupling modifier κλ but also of the quartic HHVV (V = W, Z) coupling modifier κ 2V . No significant excess above the expected background from Standard Model processes is observed. An observed upper limit μHH < 4.0 is set at 95% confidence level on the Higgs boson pair production cross-section normalised to its Standard Model prediction. The 95% confidence intervals for the coupling modifiers are –1.4 < κ λ < 6.9 and –0.5 < κ 2V < 2.7, assuming all other Higgs boson couplings except the one under study are fixed to the Standard Model predictions. The results are interpreted in the Standard Model effective field theory and Higgs effective field theory frameworks in terms of constraints on the couplings of anomalous Higgs boson (self-)interactions.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗