Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “facility”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 937 records · Page 52
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2021

Comparative study with two reduced test facilities for air-cooled RCCS scaling law

Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) and Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) conducted steady-state tests at constant heat flux conditions to investigate the scale effect on heat removal behavior of the air-cooled Reactor Cavity Cooling System (RCCS). Two differently scaled-down test facilities were used in this study, KAERI’s ¼ scale with 4.0-m cavity height, and ANL’s ½ scale with 6.8-m cavity height. Two scaling laws were proposed to simulate the radiation across the cavity and the buoyancy-driven duct flow in the riser, respectively. The test matrix for KAERI and ANL test facilities focused on the scaling effect of the heated riser length with constant heat flux at the PMR200 RCCS design. The test results showed that mixed convection in the riser duct is an important factor for accurately extrapolating the thermo-fluid behavior in the prototype from the test results in the scale-down facilities. The system analysis code, GAMMA+, with improved heat transfer models predicted fairly well the air-cooled RCCS test data from two facilities. GAMMA+ analysis results showed that the predicted radiation fractions on the heated plate in the scale-down test conditions were larger than those on the reactor vessel in the prototype. The scaling law for air-cooled RCCS was improved by considering the mixed convection in the riser duct and the same radiation fraction on the heated plate. The mixed convection effect was calculated by the height ratio. The same radiation fraction provided a conservative extrapolation from the scale-down test results.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2021

A geospatial environmental and techno-economic framework for sustainable phosphorus management at livestock facilities

Nutrient pollution of waterbodies is a major worldwide water quality problem. Excessive use and discharge of nutrients can lead to eutrophication and algal blooms in fresh and marine waters, resulting in environmental problems associated with hypoxia, public health issues related to the release of toxins and freshwater scarcity. A promising option to address this problem is the recovery of nutrient releases prior to being discharged into the environment. Driven by the sustainable materials management concept, the COW2NUTRIENT (Cattle Organic Waste to NUTRIent and ENergy Technologies) framework is developed for the techno-economic evaluation and selection of nutrient recovery systems at livestock facilities. Furthermore, environmental vulnerability to nutrient pollution determined through a geographic information system (GIS)-based model and techno-economic information of different state-of-the-art nutrient management technologies are combined in a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) model, resulting in the selection and economic analysis of the most suitable process for each studied livestock facility. This framework has been employed for studying the implementation of sustainable phosphorus management systems at 2,217 livestock facilities in the Great Lakes area, resulting in capital expenses of 2.5 billion USD if only phosphorus recovery technologies are installed, and up to 5.2 billion USD if nutrient management is combined with biogas and power production. However, considering potential economic incentives for the recovery of phosphorus, net revenues up to 230 million USD per year can be achieved. Therefore, the framework presented reveals the potential of implementing nutrient management systems at regional scale for the abatement of phosphorus releases from livestock facilities.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Liquid Fed Pyrolysis of Polyethylene Films: Environmental and Economic Assessments of Co-located and Remotely-Located U.S. Facilities

Polyethylene (PE) films are one of the highest production volume plastic products, but they have very low recycling rates. A novel liquid fed pyrolysis process (LFP) is an advanced recycling technology that can be applied to waste PE films. In this work, two environmental and six economic metrics were evaluated for the LFP process under different scenarios with a baseline production capacity of 8,400 Metric Tons (MT) of pyrolysis products/year. The studied scenarios considered process improvement such as heat integration, changing the final product yields, and location of the LFP process facility (i.e., co-located at a petrochemical facility or located remotely). Results show that producing refined pyrolysis wax in remote areas is the most environmentally favorable and profitable scenario. The LFP process co-located at a petrochemical facility and selling only liquid and gaseous pyrolysis products to the facility would require a capacity of >18,000 MT/year to be economically feasible. Heat integration led to greenhouse gas emission savings of at least 14%, 19%, and 32% for the pyrolysis oil, gas, and wax products, respectively. Fianlly, the LFP process in remote and less populated locations producing a high yield of refined wax may be a feasible solution for increasing recycling rates of PE films.

Advanced recycling↗
DOE OSTI2023

Knowledge of lactation amenorrhea method among postpartum women in Ethiopia: a facility-based cross-sectional study

While the importance of knowledge about contraceptives in improving their utilization and thereby reducing the risk of unintended pregnancies is well documented, there are limited studies documented about the Lactational Amenorrhea Method (LAM). Thus, understanding the knowledge of postpartum mothers about LAM is essential for designing tailored interventions. This study assessed the level of knowledge about LAM and its associated factors among postpartum mothers in Ethiopia. A facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 3148 randomly selected postpartum participants. The study utilized multistage sampling approach in hospitals located across five regions and one city administration in Ethiopia. Data were collected using face-to-face interviews at discharge. A participant was categorized as having knowledge of LAM if she correctly answered the three LAM criteria: amenorrhea, the first 6 months, and exclusive breast feeding. A binary logistic regression model was used to identify factors associated with knowledge of LAM. Variables with p < 0.25 in the binary logistic regression were included in the multiple logistic regression. Then, associations were described using the adjusted odds ratio (AOR) along with the 95% confidence interval (CI), and statistical significance was declared at p < 0.05. Only four in 10 participants (40.6%; 95% CI 38.9–42.3) had knowledge of LAM. Participants who attended college or above educational level (AOR = 2.1, 95% CI 1.5–2.8), those with parity of two (AOR = 2.3; 95% CI 1.6–3.6) or more than two (AOR = 2.4; 95% CI 1.5–4.0), those who expressed a desire for further fertility (AOR = 1.3; 95% CI 1.1–1.5), individuals who received counselling on LAM (AOR = 3.0; 95% CI 2.6–3.7), and those who gave birth in hospital (AOR = 2.6; 95% CI 1.4–2.6) had higher odds of knowledge about LAM, compared to their counter parts. In contrary, participants resided far away from health facilities had 30% lower odd of knowledge about LAM compared to those resided near the health facilities (AOR = 0.70; 95% CI 0.6–0.8). The proportion of participants who had knowledge of LAM was low. Strengthening counseling about LAM during antenatal care and delivery with due attention to women with limited access to health facilities should be considered for increasing their level of knowledge on LAM.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

Packaging HEP Heterogeneous Mini-apps for Portable Benchmarking and Facility Evaluation on Modern HPCs

High Energy Physics (HEP) experiments are making increasing use of GPUs and GPU dominated High Performance Computer facilities. Both the software and hardware of these systems are rapidly evolving, creating challenges for experiments to make informed decisions as to where they wish to devote resources. In its first phase, the High Energy Physics Center for Computational Excellence (HEP-CCE) produced portable versions of a number of heterogeneous HEP mini-apps, such as p2r, FastCaloSim, Patatrack and the WireCell Toolkit, that exercise a broad range of GPU characteristics, enabling cross platform and facility benchmarking and evaluation. However, these miniapps still require a significant amount of manual intervention to deploy on a new facility. We present our work in developing turn-key deployments of these mini-apps, where by means of containerization and automated configuration and build techniques such as Spack, we are able to quickly test new hardware, software, environments and entire facilities with minimal user intervention, and then track performance metrics over time.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Analyzing the threat of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) to nuclear facilities

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) are among the major growing technologies that have many beneficial applications, yet they can also pose a significant threat. Recently, several incidents occurred with UAVs violating privacy of the public and security of sensitive facilities, including several nuclear power plants in France. The threat of UAVs to the security of nuclear facilities is of great importance and is the focus of this work. This paper presents an overview of UAV technology and classification, as well as its applications and potential threats. We show several examples of recent security incidents involving UAVs in France, USA, and United Arab Emirates. Further, the potential threats to nuclear facilities and measures to prevent them are evaluated. The importance of measures for detection, delay, and response (neutralization) of UAVs at nuclear facilities are discussed. An overview of existing technologies along with their strength and weaknesses are shown. Finally, the results of a gap analysis in existing approaches and technologies is presented in the form of potential technological and procedural areas for research and development. Furthermore based on this analysis, directions for future work in the field can be devised and prioritized.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2018

An x-ray optic calibration facility for high energy density diagnostics

A facility to calibrate x-ray imaging optics was built at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to support high energy density (HED) and inertial confinement fusion (ICF) diagnostics such as those at the National Ignition Facility and the Sandia Z-Machine. Calibration of the spectral reflectivity and resolution of these x-ray diagnostics enable absolute determination of the x-ray flux and wavelengths generated in the HED and ICF experiments. Measurement of the optic point spread function is used to determine spatial resolution of the optic. This facility was constructed to measure (1) the x-ray reflectivity to ±5% over a spectral range from 5 to 60 keV; (2) point spread functions with a resolution of 50 μm (currently) and 13 μm (future) in the image plane; and (3) optic distance relative to the x-ray source and detector to within ±100 μm in each dimension. Here, this article describes the capabilities of the calibration facility, concept of operations, and initial data from selected x-ray optics.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2023

SEEMS: A Single Event Effects and Muon Spectroscopy facility at the Spallation Neutron Source

This study outlines a concept that would leverage the existing proton accelerator at the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) of Oak Ridge National Laboratory to enable transformative science via one world-class facility serving two missions: Single Event Effects (SEE) and Muon Spectroscopy (μSR). The μSR portion would deliver the world’s highest flux and highest resolution pulsed muon beams for material characterization purposes, with precision and capabilities well beyond comparable facilities. The SEE capabilities deliver neutron, proton, and muon beams for aerospace industries that are facing an impending challenge to certify equipment for safe and reliable behavior under bombardment from atmospheric radiation originating from cosmic and solar rays. With negligible impact on the primary neutron scattering mission of the SNS, the proposed facility will have enormous benefits for both science and industry. Herein, we have designated this facility “SEEMS.”

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2023

DIII-D's role as a national user facility in enabling the commercialization of fusion energy

The path to fusion in the United States requires partnership between public and private sector. While the private sector provides the vigor to take some of the major steps necessary, there is a depth of expertise and capability in the public sector that is vital to resolving feasible approaches. As an open national user facility, DIII-D provides a crucial testbed to develop the required new technologies and approaches in relevant conditions. It has unparalleled potential to meet this challenge, thanks to its extreme flexibility and world leading diagnostics. This provides a basis to rapidly develop solutions that project to future reactors with confidence. The program has thus been redeveloped to enable public and private sector engagement and testing of new concepts. A new technology program has been launched to resolve plasma interacting technologies. With modest heating upgrades, the facility can confront the crucial “Integrated Tokamak Exhaust and Performance” gap, to resolve core, exhaust and technology solutions together. The device is also being redeveloped as a training facility, with dedicated student run time, a mentorship program, and open access to all opportunity roles, part of wider efforts to diversify and open pathways through inclusion, access, and equity. This exciting agenda is enabling scientists and technology researchers to pioneer the solutions needed for a Fusion Pilot Plant (FPP) and ITER this decade. As a national user facility, DIII D has singular potential to provide the tools, teams, and insight necessary, to do its part in moving the United States rapidly toward the commercialization of fusion energy.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2018

Conceptual Design of a Pilot-Scale Pyroprocessing Facility

Argonne National Laboratory and Merrick & Company introduced the conceptual design of a pilot-scale (100 T/year) pyroprocessing facility for the treatment of used fuel generated by commercial light water reactors and subsequent treatment of waste streams generated during the process. The primary purpose of this study was to perform sufficient engineering for the pilot facility conceptual design so that credible capital and operating cost estimates could be developed. Initial safety, safeguards, and security assessments were also completed to provide a detailed evaluation in these areas that can significantly affect both capital and operating costs. Electrorefining-based pyroprocessing resulted in a compact hot-cell facility with few process equipment systems. The process equipment and support systems were estimated to cost $93 million and the facility $305 million for a project total cost of $398 million. The annual operating cost was estimated at $53 million/year Scaling up to a commercial-scale (400 T/year) was also assessed and the capital cost was estimated at $911 million with annual operating cost of $90 million/year.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Systems Engineering and Analysis in Support of a US Federal Staging Facility for UNF

The US Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE) Office of Spent Fuel and High-Level Waste Disposition is examining a set of system options and conducting supporting analyses to inform the development of an integrated waste management system, which may include one or more federal staging facilities (FSFs) for used nuclear fuel (UNF ) sited using a collaborative siting process. This paper focuses on the ongoing activities in two systems engineering and analysis work areas: (1) data and tools development, validation, and maintenance and (2) systems engineering execution. Within the first work area, the STANDARDS 5.0 UNF data and analysis tool, formerly known as UNF-ST&DARDS, is being developed as a foundational resource to assist in the management of UNF data. It has the key capability to model UNF throughout the entire back end of the fuel cycle. STANDARDS also includes several compatible analysis tools for the time-dependent characterization of UNF and related systems by interfacing with the SCALE code system for nuclear analysis and COBRA-SFS for thermal analysis. Also, within the data and tools area is the Next Generation System Analysis Model (NGSAM), which is an agent-based simulation software tool expressly designed to be capable of modeling the waste management system, including the transportation of UNF to and from a FSF. NGSAM has been developed to enable informed decision-making by providing the capability to analyze various potential system options for the management of UNF and high-level radioactive waste. Finally, in the systems engineering execution area, the team has begun to apply a disciplined systems engineering approach at the system level along with supporting analysis to guide the development of the FSF project requirements (including associated transportation infrastructure). Systems engineering principles and practices and their adaptation/application to design and development activities will ensure that the waste management system is effectively implemented as work proceeds. Other activities include investigating the implications of changes in various assumptions and parameters related to waste management systems, such as UNF acceptance rates, receipt logic, facility capacities and capabilities, use of standardized canisters, and different assumed facility operation start dates. Keywords: federal staging facility (FSF), used nuclear fuel (UNF), integrated waste management (IWM) system, Next Generation System Analysis Model (NGSAM), STANDARDS, systems engineering

Joseph, Robert↗
DOE OSTI2014

Facility for high heat flux testing of irradiated fusion materials and components using infrared plasma arc lamps

A new high-heat flux testing facility using water-wall stabilized high-power high-pressure argon Plasma Arc Lamps (PALs) has been developed for fusion applications. It can handle irradiated plasma facing component materials and mock-up divertor components. Two PALs currently available at ORNL can provide maximum incident heat fluxes of 4.2 and 27 MW/m2 over a heated area of 9x12 and 1x10 cm2, respectively, which are fusion-prototypical steady state heat flux conditions. The facility will be described and the main differences between the photon-based high-heat flux testing facilities, such as PALs, and the e-beam and particle beam facilities more commonly used for fusion HHF testing are discussed. The components of the test chamber were designed to accommodate radiation safety and materials compatibility requirements posed by high-temperature exposure of low levels irradiated tungsten articles. Issues related to the operation and temperature measurements during testing are presented and discussed.

Sabau, Adrian S↗
DOE OSTI2017

Virtual machine provisioning, code management, and data movement design for the Fermilab HEPCloud Facility

The Fermilab HEPCloud Facility Project has as its goal to extend the current Fermilab facility interface to provide transparent access to disparate resources including commercial and community clouds, grid federations, and HPC centers. This facility enables experiments to perform the full spectrum of computing tasks, including data-intensive simulation and reconstruction. We have evaluated the use of the commercial cloud to provide elasticity to respond to peaks of demand without overprovisioning local resources. Full scale data-intensive workflows have been successfully completed on Amazon Web Services for two High Energy Physics Experiments, CMS and NOνA, at the scale of 58000 simultaneous cores. This paper describes the significant improvements that were made to the virtual machine provisioning system, code caching system, and data movement system to accomplish this work. The virtual image provisioning and contextualization service was extended to multiple AWS regions, and to support experiment-specific data configurations. A prototype Decision Engine was written to determine the optimal availability zone and instance type to run on, minimizing cost and job interruptions. We have deployed a scalable on-demand caching service to deliver code and database information to jobs running on the commercial cloud. It uses the frontiersquid server and CERN VM File System (CVMFS) clients on EC2 instances and utilizes various services provided by AWS to build the infrastructure (stack). We discuss the architecture and load testing benchmarks on the squid servers. We also describe various approaches that were evaluated to transport experimental data to and from the cloud, and the optimal solutions that were used for the bulk of the data transport. Finally, we summarize lessons learned from this scale test, and our future plans to expand and improve the Fermilab HEP Cloud Facility.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Heavy ion beam physics at Facility for Rare Isotope Beams

The Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) will be the world's premier rare-isotope beam facility. Experiments with the majority (~80%) of the isotope predicted to exist will become available. The FRIB facility is based on a superconducting (SC) heavy ion linac with output energy above 200 MeV/u for any ions at beam power of 400 kW. FRIB includes a target facility for in-flight production of rare isotopes. A three-stage fragment separator will be used to prepare fast rare isotope beams with high-purity for nuclear physics experiments. The installation work of the accelerator and experimental systems is approaching completion and multi-stage beam commissioning activities started in summer 2017 with expected project completion in early 2022. In conclusion, the commencement of operation for users' experiments is planned immediately following the project completion.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Integration of a new Cryogenic Liquefier into the IB-1 Cryogenic Test Facility

The increase over the last years of the testing activities related to quantum systems, SRF cavities for the PIP-II and the LCLS-II projects, as well as superconducting magnets for the HL-LHC project and Fusion research activities, has required the addition of a new Helium cryogenic plant into the existing IB-1 Industrial Cryogenic Test Facility. The new cryogenic plant is composed of a cryogenic liquefier (Cold Box) able to provide up to 340 L/h, a 4 kL Dewar and two Mycom ® compressors providing up to 120 g/s. AL-AT (Air Liquide Advanced Technologies) has taken part of this project by designing and manufacturing the cryogenic liquefier. This new cryogenic plant is connected through a cryogenic distribution system to a 10 kL Dewar, which is part of the existing cryogenic test facility, itself composed of another Cold Box and a Sullair ® compressor. The new cryogenic plant has two main operating modes: one allows to transfer liquid helium at 1.7 bar between the two Dewars, the other allows to transfer supercritical Helium at 2 bar or more between the new Cold Box and the 10 kL Dewar. The entire industrial cryogenic facility is handled by a common Inventory Control System, composed of three control valves, and 9 tanks giving a total buffer volume of more than 1000 m3. This paper presents the technical features of the new Helium cryogenic plant, as well as the main results of the liquefier commissioning phase and details of the helium transfer between the two Dewars, making the connection between the cryogenic plants at the IB-1 Industrial Cryogenic Test Facility.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Cryogenic and safety design of the future high field cable test facility at Fermilab

The HFVMTF (High Field Vertical Magnet Test Facility) is a new experimental facility under development at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL) to test large superconducting magnets (up to 20 tons weight and 1.3 m diameter) in a double bath superfluid helium cryostat (1.9 K and 1.2 bar). Coupled with a superconducting dipole magnet fabricated by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), this facility will be able to test future high-temperature superconductor (HTS) cables under a background magnetic field of 15 T for fusion magnets. This paper describes the design of the cryostat and its 1.4-meter diameter lambda plate, as well as the different components for a safe operation of the facility, even during critical events such a magnet quench or a vacuum breaking situation. The project is funded by US DOE Offices of Science, High Energy Physics (HEP), and Fusion Energy Sciences (FES).

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Methods to Account for CAP-88 PC-Omitted Nuclides in Radioactive Air Emissions From DOE Facilities

Routine research and development activities at US Department of Energy facilities can result in the release of radioactive emissions, potentially exposing the public and the environment. Such emissions are subject to certain Clean Air Act regulations, specifically those outlined in 40 CFR Part 61, Subpart H, which are enforced by the US Environmental Protection Agency. Compliance is determined in part with a dose standard. Doses to members of the public from most US Department of Energy facility airborne emissions are modeled using CAP-88 PC software, the latest version of which contains more than 1,200 radionuclides. Radioactive effluents from US Department of Energy facilities may contain radioisotopes that are not available in CAP-88 PC, and those radioisotopes must still be evaluated to determine whether doses to members of the public are below established limits. CAP-88 PC-omitted radionuclides can be accounted for using alternate methods, including the use of surrogate radionuclides. Here, this paper elucidates the process of accounting for CAP-88 PC-omitted radionuclides by providing criteria and rationale for surrogate selection, a compilation of surrogate radionuclides used in the past by US Department of Energy facilities, a discussion of alternate methods used to account for CAP-88 PC-omitted radionuclides and a comparison of methods and impacts on receptor doses. Ultimately, this paper aims to aid in the process of surrogate selection and consequently to simplify and expedite compliance with Clean Air Act regulations.

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Aqueous harvesting of 88 Zr at a radioactive-ion-beam facility for cross-section measurements

Isotope harvesting is a method of collecting the long-lived radioisotopes that build up during the operation of ion-beam facilities in a way that is useful for subsequent research. As a demonstration of this method for the collection of a group IV metal at a fragmentation facility, the high-energy Zr 88 secondary beam produced from a 140-MeV/u Mo 92 primary beam at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL) was stopped in a water target. The setup aimed to mimic the aqueous beam dump that will be implemented at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB). The collected Zr 88 and accompanying Y 88 decay daughter were radiochemically extracted from the solution and made into target samples suitable for neutron-capture cross-section measurements. These samples were then irradiated at two reactor facilities, and the Zr 88 average thermal-neutron-capture cross section ( σ T ) and resonance integral ( I ) were determined to be σ T = ( 8.04 ± 0.63 ) × 10 5 b and I = ( 2.53 ± 0.28 ) × 10 6 b. The σ T value agrees well with previous results and I , determined for the first time here, was found to be the largest measured resonance integral by two orders of magnitude. The Y 88 thermal-neutron-capture cross section was determined to be less than 1.8 × 10 4 b. This work demonstrates the steps needed to make cross-section measurements with samples produced via aqueous isotope harvesting.

38 RADIATION CHEMISTRY, RADIOCHEMISTRY, AND NUCLEA↗