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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 OSTI2020

Long-Term PCT of ILAW Glasses (Final Report FY2020)

About 50 million gallons of high-level mixed waste is currently stored in underground tanks at The United States Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Hanford site in the State of Washington. The Hanford Tank Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) will provide DOE’s Office of River Protection (ORP) with a means of treating this waste by vitrification for subsequent disposal. The tank waste will be separated into low- and high-activity waste fractions, which will then be vitrified respectively into Immobilized Low Activity Waste (ILAW) and Immobilized High Level Waste (IHLW) products. The ILAW product will be disposed in a near-surface engineered facility – the Integrated Disposal Facility (IDF) – on the Hanford site, while the IHLW product is designed for deep geological disposal in a national facility for high-level nuclear waste. The ILAW and IHLW products must meet a variety of requirements with respect to protection of the environment before they can be accepted for disposal. The objective of the work described in this report is to perform testing, data collection, and analyses for the ILAW glass product for subsequent use in the performance assessment (PA) of the IDF to assess potential environmental risks associated with long-term storage.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2020

ILAW Glass Ion-Exchange Rate Testing (Final Report FY2020)

About 50 million gallons of high-level mixed waste is currently stored in underground tanks at The United States Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Hanford site in the State of Washington. The Hanford Tank Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) will provide DOE’s Office of River Protection (ORP) with a means of treating this waste by vitrification for subsequent disposal. The tank waste will be separated into low- and high-activity waste fractions, which will then be vitrified respectively into Immobilized Low Activity Waste (ILAW) and Immobilized High-Level Waste (IHLW) products. The ILAW product will be disposed of in an engineered facility – the Integrated Disposal Facility (IDF) – on the Hanford site, while the IHLW product will be directed to the national deep geological disposal facility for high-level nuclear waste. The ILAW and IHLW products must meet a variety of requirements with respect to protection of the environment before they can be accepted for disposal.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2021

Parallel-In-Time Integration for Hyperbolic Problems (Final Report)

The work for the subcontract was situated in the area of parallel-in-time integration for advection-dominated and hyperbolic partial differential equations (PDEs). Parallel-in-time integration is an active area of research due to its ability to enable faster numerical simulations for applications throughout many areas of science. Over the past two decades, much progress has been made in this area; however, this progress has largely been limited to non-hyperbolic, diffusion-dominated PDEs. Given the ubiquity of numerical simulations of advection-dominated hyperbolic PDEs throughout the sciences, there is a strong need to develop efficient parallel-in-time techniques for hyperbolic problems, which was the main topic of this subcontract.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2021

Real Time - Optimal Power Flow Based Distributed Energy Resources Management System (DERMS) (CRADA Number CRD-20-16909 Final Report)

The integration of behind-the-meter distributed energy resources (DERs) into distribution systems brings transformative changes to power systems. This requires operators and planners to find solutions to modernize electric grids and to effectively manage DERs for grid services. NREL developed novel DER management algorithms (referred to as Real-Time Optimal Power Flow, RT-OPF) through U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)-funded efforts, including Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E) Network Optimized Distributed Energy Systems (NODES) funding. This cutting-edge control technology aims to modernize distribution systems with large amounts of DER integration, which will help utilities solve issues brought by renewable integration and build resilient and renewable-based electric grids nationwide. Utilidata worked with NREL to investigate the commercialization opportunity of this RT-OPF-based distributed energy resource management system (DERMS). In this project, NREL performs the technology transfer of the RT-OPF to Utilidata to help them fully understand the RT-OPF solution, to identify potential engineering hurdles, and to assess the expected commercial value of various RT-OPF use cases and deployment. The technology transfer work includes two major tasks. First, NREL performs an in-depth knowledge transfer of the entire RT-OPF solution to Utilidata to help them gain an extensive and detailed understanding of the complete RT-OPF solution. In this task, NREL provides exhaustive information (e.g., documentation, code packages, laboratory and field trial data, performance results) while conducting in-depth training sessions to provide a thorough explanation of the entire solution. NREL hosts meetings to present different topics related to the RT-OPF solution, and question-and-answer sessions are included in each meeting to better explain the RT-OPF-related work. Second, the RT-OPF simulations are performed in a laboratory environment. The main objectives of this task are to walk through with Utilidata engineers how to set up a simulation of RT-OPF, identifying each RT-OPF code block/component in operation, learning how these components interact with each other, and eventually running RT-OPF simulations under various system conditions. This task helps Utilidata engineers understand performance limitations and constraints while also quantifying the commercial value of the RT-OPF for different use cases. Based on these two tasks, Utilidata engineers should be able to define and prioritize the next steps of RT-OPF implementation with an eye toward commercial success and scalability of the solution. The next steps are expected to be part of a new project following the conclusion of this project.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2020

Evaluation of Exterior Shades at PNNL Lab Homes and Occupied Field Sites (Final Report)

In residential applications, heat transfer through windows accounts for a significant portion of a home’s cooling load. Exterior shades are window attachments that can be applied on the exterior-side of windows in a home. Exterior shades can reduce solar heat gain, reduce glare through a window, and improve comfort in the home. To assess the performance of residential exterior shades, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Building Technologies Office (BTO) commissioned a series of field studies for exterior fabric shades to be performed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) during the cooling seasons of 2019 and 2020. This report describes the experimental setup and results of these exterior shade field studies. PNNL, in collaboration with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), evaluated exterior shades at the PNNL Lab Homes and three occupied field sites in Richland, Washington. At the Lab Homes, the energy performance of exterior shades was evaluated in a controlled side-by-side environment. At the occupied field sites, exterior shades were characterized by measuring shade usage, documenting installation practices, and surveying customer perspectives.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2021

An Overview of Non-LWR Vessel Cooling Systems for Passive Decay Heat Removal (Technical Letter Final Report)

The following report provides a technical review of various reactor vessel cooling system (VCS) concepts under consideration for decay heat removal (DHR) in non-light water advanced reactor designs. This review focuses on ex-vessel designs, including the Reactor Cavity Cooling System (RCCS), the Reactor Vessel Auxiliary Cooling System (RVACS), and hybrid iterations, using both air and water cooling to achieve their heat removal function. Based on a literature review of publicly available sources published between 1979 and 2021, a technical summary is presented detailing existing and planned VCS design options, their applicability to specific reactor type, and review of authored research and development studies. Following an assessment of the availability of data and modeling tools, an evaluation was performed analyzing their likely performance during normal, degraded, and accident conditions, including reliability, stability, and longevity. With renewed consideration of air-based DHR systems by some US vendors, there is a need to fully understand the complexities inherent to natural circulation systems, and more importantly, how they may influence safety-related heat removal functions and system performance. For DHR systems that rely on air-based mode of cooling, this entails quantification of the impacts of low flow conditions during start-up, relative elevations of inlet and outlet ducts for below-grade installations, effects of the use of multiple parallel chimneys for redundancy, and impact of weather conditions at the plant site. For systems relying on water-based mode cooling, reliance on limited coolant inventory in an event of pipe break or extended duration accident scenarios, sensitivities related to stability of boiling flow and heat transfer conditions, and quantification of full-scale structural vibrations on balance of plant structures are among the complicating factors.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Research in Neutrinoless Double-Beta Decay (Final Report)

The research objective of the supported work was to search for neutrinoless double-beta decay in 76 Ge and investigate and identify backgrounds to a double-beta decay search. Understanding the neutrino mass generation mechanism, the absolute neutrino mass scale, the neutrino mass spectrum, and the possible Majorana nature of neutrinos are some of the future discoveries of the next generation neutrino experiments. The Majorana collaboration operated the Demonstrator experiment comprising 44 kg (30 kg enriched in 76 Ge) of Ge detectors in total split between two modules contained in a low background shield at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, South Dakota. Observation of 0νββ would have profound implications for the Standard Model of particle physics by demonstrating that neutrinos are Majorana particles, that lepton number is not conserved, and it would provide a measure of the effective Majorana neutrino mass. The decay rate of 0νββ is incredibly small and may only produce a few signature events in a detector per year. Therefore, observation of this rare process demands a careful study and implementation of signal processing, detector design, and new levels of background suppression.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Supercritical Treatment Technology for Water Purification (Annual Final Report)

This project continued the development of the Supercritical Water Extraction – Enhanced Targeted Recovery (SWEETR™) technology, a novel desalination process for treating hypersaline brines. The overall objective is to demonstrate the technical and economic feasibility of an innovative, energy efficient, and robust supercritical desalination technology to treat hypersaline solutions and separating saltwater into a pure water stream and valuable recovered solids, resulting in zero liquid discharge (ZLD). The proposed technology, focuses on innovative methods of applying supercritical water to treat highly concentrated brine solutions without incurring a high energy penalty. Integrating the technology with solar energy reduces the energy cost for the system. The results obtained during the proof-of-concept testing demonstrate that the SWEETR™ concept is technically feasible and that supercritical water treatment is a viable option with strong merit for treating high salinity waters. The strategic design of the system provides the opportunity to localize the supercritical zone, which helps reduce the overall energy cost associated with the desalination process. The process can be tuned to remove only the amount of salts required to make the treated water “fit for purpose”, providing further opportunities to minimize energy costs. The ability to destroy organic compounds associated with the water while simultaneously being able to desalinate makes SWEETR™ uniquely fitted for treating aqueous streams such as produced water from oil and gas extraction which contain small amounts of organics. Such mixed contaminant streams pose an extreme challenge for other treatment options. Future work will further develop the SWEETR™ technology to take it from the bench-scale to the pilot-scale, and ready the technology for commercial application.

04 OIL SHALES AND TAR SANDS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Variable Precision Computing (VPC) (Final Report)

The overall goal of the Variable Precision Computing project is exploring and identifying ways to reduce internodal communication cost in production physics simulation experiments running on a distributed-memory systems by compressing data, either in a lossy or lossless way, thus resulting in a significant computational performance increase. Among the several approaches proposed, the one discussed here has been proposed, designed and implemented by me. It concerns the application of information theory-derived metrics to classical molecular dynamics and computational fluid dynamics simulation experiments.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2020

In-situ X-ray Evaluation of Traumatic Brain Injury Dynamic Impacts (Final Report)

The goal of this project was to create an in-situ model of traumatic brain injury that allows for analysis of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) development. CTE is a neurodegenerative disease that occurs as a result of traumatic brain injuries. The resulting neurodegeneration and atrophying of cortical brain tissue develop as tau proteins build-up around small blood vessels and at the base of cortical sulci. Aggregation of tau proteins results in blood vessel damage and neurological function loss, leading to cortical tissue atrophy. This occurs only at some neuronal junctions in the brain after trauma. It has been conjectured that the geometrical distribution of force along neurons is responsible for initiation of tau deposition. However, to assess the validity of this proposition, it is necessary to analyze the mechanical response under dynamic loading associated with brain trauma in-situ

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2021

An Accelerated Creep Testing (ACT) Program for Advanced Creep Resistant Alloys for High Temperature Fossil Energy (FE) Applications (Final Report)

The research objective of this study is to develop an accelerated creep testing (ACT) program for advanced creep resistant alloys for high temperature FE applications. This research produced a new ACT for metallic materials based on Time-Temperature-Stress Superposition (TTSSP). In TTSSP, there exists a fundamental relationship between creep resistance, time, temperature, and stress that can be manipulated to reduce test durations. In our study, the stepped isostress method was employed where step increases of load during creep testing accelerated the time-to-rupture. Well-posed constitutive models including sin-hyperbolic and Wilshire-Cano-Stewart where calibrated using the SSM data and employed to predict the conventional creep response of the material. In our best experiments, <100-hour tests on lnconel 718 at 750 deg C produced over a 64x acceleration of data when compared to conventional data from Japan's National Institute of Materials Science. The ACTs enable the rapid screening of candidate materials, where a small test matrix of short duration tests can be employed to determine the creep resistance (minimum-creep-strain-rate, stress-rupture, and creep deformation) of a material across decades.

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Development of a Framework for Data Integration, Assimilation, and Learning for Geological Carbon Sequestration (DIAL-GCS) (Final Report)

This project aimed to develop and demonstrate a Data Integration, Assimilation, and Learning framework for geologic carbon sequestration projects (DIAL-GCS). DIAL-GCS is an intelligence monitoring system (IMS) for automating GCS closed-loop management by leveraging recent developments in machine learning technologies, complex event processing (CEP), and reduced-order modeling. The safe and efficient operation of GCS repositories requires integrated monitoring to track the injected CO¬2 as it moves within a storage reservoir. GCS projects are data intensive, as a result of proliferation of digital instrumentation and smart-sensing technologies. GCS projects are also resource intensive, often requiring multidisciplinary teams performing different monitoring, verification, accounting (MVA) tasks throughout the lifecycle of a project to ensure secure containment of injected CO2. The success of GCS thus depends in a large part on our ability to access, assimilate, and analyze heterogeneous data and information sources in a timely manner. This project included a number of meaningful and necessary tasks to transform the human domain knowledge into machine-interpretable rules for automating knowledge extraction and discovery in GCS. The specific technical objectives of the proposed DIAL-GCS project were to develop an ontology-driven GCS data management module for storing, querying, and exchanging GCS data (both historic and live sensor data) from multiple sources and in heterogeneous formats. Incorporate a CEP engine for detecting abnormal situations by seamlessly combining expert knowledge, rule-based reasoning, and machine learning. Enable uncertainty quantification and predictive analytics using a combination of coupled-process modeling, AI/ML methods, and reduced-order modeling, and integrate and demonstrate the system’s capabilities with both real and simulated data. As far as we know, this is one of the first projects aimed to develop intelligent monitoring systems (IMS) targeting the GCS. Under this project, the team had developed a large number of web applications and scientific algorithms that contribute the main theme of intelligent monitoring. The team has published more than a dozen peer reviewed papers and disseminated the research results at multiple technical meetings.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Validation of Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulations for Biological Performance Assessment in Hydropower units (Final Report)

The biological performance assessment (BioPA) toolset developed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) estimates the relative biological performance of fish passage at a hydroelectric power turbine unit. The tool is based on the use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and fish biological response relationships. The recent release, BioPA-v3, is based on directly computed trajectory and collision of material Lagrangian particles using CFD simulation codes rather than the prior version that relies on Tecplot to compute streamtrace trajectories. Before modifying the toolset, a series of validation tests were performed at the various steps of modification in the toolset. Validation is a critical step of any numerical investigation that reflects the accuracy and reliability of the predicted results. It raises the confidence level of the user to use the modified version of the BioPA toolset. Several test cases were simulated and compared, where available, to observed data. The trajectory and collision of the small spherical and cylindrical particles in a water flume were compared to in-house experiments. The CFD predicted collision rate and flow field compared well with experimental observation for vane array and large cylinder as target bodies. Next, the CFD-predicted flow field and hydraulic performance of a laboratory-scale model of a Francis turbine was also successfully validated. Note that the trajectory of the particles is significantly affected by the flow field in such extreme conditions. In addition to the particle trajectories and flow field, the collision detection method employed in the CFD simulations was also successfully validated. The CFD predicted impact velocity, collision time, velocity, and trajectory of a sphere excellently matched with analytical value for a bouncing ball in the elastic collision. A similar approach was also tested and successfully validated for a collision of sphere with a 45° inclined plane. After successfully validating different cases, the BioPA toolset was modified to use direct output of the CFD prediction and the new version can be used in evaluating biological performance at hydroelectric turbines.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center Building Energy Efficiency (CERC-BEE) Open-Source Retrofit Targeting Tool (CRADA FP00007338 Final Report)

To increase the cost-saving energy and carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions reductions in buildings and portfolios at the scale and speed necessary to limit climate change, researchers at LBNL and Johnson Controls (JCI) developed the Building Efficiency Targeting Tool for Energy Retrofits (BETTER). BETTER is a software tool that consists of three components: (1) the BETTER analytical engine source code (which was developed with intellectual property provided by JCI under CRADA FP00007338); (2) the BETTER web application, developed by LBNL and McQuillen Interactive Pty. Ltd; and (3) the BETTER application programming interface (API), also developed by LBNL and McQuillen Interactive Pty. Ltd. BETTER enables building and portfolio owners, managers, and service providers worldwide to quickly, easily identify cost-saving energy efficiency retrofits in existing buildings and portfolios without expensive site visits or complex modeling. With minimal data input, the tool benchmarks a building’s electric and fossil energy usage against peers; quantifies energy, cost and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction potentials at the building and portfolio levels; and recommends energy efficiency measures to decarbonize and electrify buildings and portfolios, targeting specific energy savings levels. No other tool so comprehensively analyzes buildings and portfolios with such ease. If fully implemented, it is estimated that BETTER could help reduce emissions equivalent to planting 1.3 billion trees globally by 2030. Moreover, an additional 50-75% of embodied GHG emissions could be avoided in each case where BETTER results in a building being retrofitted instead of demolished and replaced, providing substantial additional decarbonization benefits for the buildings sector. BETTER has garnered multiple awards and avid interest from investors. In 2020, it earned a R&D 100 Award for innovation and a LBNL Director’s Award for Technology Transfer. In 2021, BETTER was named an EarthX E-Capital Summit Climate Tech Prize semi-finalist

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2021

Next-Generation Metal-Supported SOFC Phase 1 (CRADA Final Report)

This project is a paper study of Metal-Supported Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (MS-SOFC) development. The literature from 2017-2021 regarding MS-SOFCs and SOFCs was reviewed and analyzed. The findings were used to develop a set of ideas for improving MS-SOFCs. If implemented, improved MS-SOFCs will contribute to increased fuel efficiency and reduced greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation sector.

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION↗
DOE OSTI2021

Mixed Precision Numerical Linear Algebra (Final Report)

The objective of this subcontract was to identify opportunities for the use of mixed precision within iterative solvers and to explore these opportunities both theoretically and experimentally. All quarterly milestones were achieved. We summarize the achievements each quarter in sections below.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2021

Evaluation and optimization for the decontamination/sterilization of personal protective equipment using a novel ozone chamber (CRADA Final Report)

Personal protective equipment slows the spread of the SARS-Cov-2 virus and protects first responders and the general population. However, there is a significant and well-publicized shortage of personal protective equipment for healthcare workers. Treatment with ozone may be a compelling, affordable, and scalable method to rapidly decontaminate personal protective equipment but more work is needed to verify these claims. Together with colleagues at the University of Nevada Reno and FATHHOME we helped design the experiments that evaluated the virucidal efficacy of FATHHOME’s device on N95 face masks and face shields. The results of our study were published in the journal Pathogens.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Lightweight Materials - Carbon Fiber and Polymer Composites, Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME) Predictive Tools Development for Low-Cost Carbon Fiber for Lightweight Vehicles (University of Virginia) (Final Report)

This project aimed to develop low-cost alternative precursors and processing techniques through the implementation of an integrated computational materials engineering (ICME) framework to evaluate precursor conversion kinetics. Once established, this framework was then used to down-select precursors for laboratory- and pilot-scale production to validate resulting carbon fiber (CF) material properties and process cost-savings. The two most promising approaches to reduce the cost of CFs were to (1) use new low-cost precursors and (2) reduce the energy requirements of CF processing. These approaches were investigated over the course of three phases of work, spanning 3.5 years. This report describes the overall project objectives, approach, and the key accomplishments in each phase.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗