Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “Lab Testing”

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 1,225 records · Page 68
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2018

Developing quantitative capabilities for a scanning microwave impedance microscope

Currently no instrument exists to quantitatively measure electrical properties (dielectric constant and conductivity) on sub-micron regions, a capability of extreme importance to measure the functioning of sub-micron structures and devices. In particular, such electrical measurements could support the development and manufacture of advanced energy related materials used in technologies such as photovoltaic cells, fuel cells and advanced batteries, thereby increasing performance and/or lowering production costs. The goal of this project is to develop microwave imaging add-on modules and probes capable of quantitatively measuring the electrical properties of small regions of a material using microwaves. These modules for scanning probe microscopes, such as atomic force microscopes, make use of the near-field interaction between the exciting microwaves and a material and can resolve regions 10 nanometers in size (less than a million atoms) with little perturbation of the material. In Phase 1 commercial probes and modified hardware were used to establish the feasibility of using microwave imaging systems to quantify local permittivity and conductivity. Repeatable measurements that vary in a systematic way with electrical parameters were obtained from a variety of samples. In Phase 2 research prototypes of the needed hardware and probes were developed and their performance against test structures and real-world samples was demonstrated. Result of this research project include demonstration of quantification of both permittivity and doping level at precisions up to 10% using multiple technical approaches. The level of performance and ease of use meets market expectations and the technology and protocols researched under this grant are currently being commercialized. Quantitative capabilities of this sort will provide a key capability to energy related technologies, and to a wide variety of semiconductor, biological, and materials science applications. Applications include both materials research in academic and industrial labs, as well as manufacturing applications. In a manufacturing environment the quantitative measurement and imaging capabilities could be used both as metrology for process control and as a tool for failure analysis and yield improvement.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

January 2022 Operational Highlights

The Indexing Lab is now complete and includes classified and unclassified computers, safes and work stations. Staff capture metadata and catalog materials, including classified reports, directors’ correspondence and Rocky Flats materials to ensure the holdings are discoverable and retrievable. Access protocols were updated for products related to the LANL Annual Assessment in the Online Vault (OLV) classified repository. The Annual Assessment is a yearly analysis of the weapons systems in the nation’s nuclear stockpile. The Standardization Quality Assessment (SQA) for the Online Vault (OLV) classified repository was completed and contained no findings. Beta testing, or customer validation, began for the metrics database that generates metrics reports and visualizations from NSRC customer projects.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2026

PARTICULATE STUDY OF NEG PUMPS IRRADIATED IN THE CEBAF TUNNEL

Non-evaporable getter (NEG) pumps are being used to maintain ultra-high vacuum in the beamline of superconducting radio-frequency (SRF) accelerators, such as the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) at Jefferson Lab. Because of the sensitivity of the performance of SRF cavities to particulate contamination, it is important to evaluate the integrity of the NEG material after exposure to high radiation during beam operation. The particulate from two NEG pumps based on ZAO® getter alloy was measured with a particle counter in a clean-room. The pumps were assembled onto a hermetically sealed setup which was placed in the CEBAF tunnel. The setup was exposed to 24 h beam operation for ~ 230 days. The total gamma-rays dose measured on the test setup was ~ 1.6 Mrad. The total neutron dose measured at ~ 75 cm of the test setup was ~ 11 krad. The particulate count from the two pumps was measured again in the clean-room after irradiation. Whereas an increase of particulate counts was measured, compared to before irradiation, subsequent measurements indicate the absence of systematically loose particulate. The pumping speed of one of the irradiated pumps was also measured to be consistent with that of a non-irradiated one, corroborating the absence of significant damage to the ZAO® NEG material due to irradiation.

Ciovati, Gianluigi [Thomas Jefferson National Acce↗
DOE OSTI2023

Thermal energy storage in concrete utilizing a thermosiphon heat exchanger

The performance of a lab-scale concrete thermal energy storage (TES) module with a 2-kWh thermal capacity is evaluated at temperatures up to 400 °C. The TES module uses conventional normal weight concrete with thermal and mechanical properties that are tailored for use as a solid thermal energy storage media. A thermosiphon heat exchanger is used to provide rapid heat transfer into the concrete module, which is reinforced with a steel pipe outer shell. The charging and discharging cycles are examined to assess the thermal performance of the concrete and thermosiphon. Based on the results of testing, the thermosiphon is able to repeatably charge the concrete module from 300 to 400 °C over a 4-h period. After 2250 total hours of charge and discharge cycles, there was no observed delamination between the concrete and the thermosiphon or the steel jacket reinforcement. Non-destructive measurements of the concrete indicated no significant degradation of the solid storage media. The experimental results are then used to validate a numerical model of the concrete TES module for parametric study. Finally, varying insulation conditions were analyzed using this model to determine practical configurations for regular operation of the proposed concrete TES module.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2018

Dispersion Validation for Flow Involving a Large Structure

The atmospheric dispersion of contaminants in the wake of a large urban structure is a challenging fluid mechanics problem of interest to the scientific and engineering communities. Magnetic Resonance Velocimetry (MRV) is a relatively new technique that leverages diagnostic equipment used primarily by the medical field to make 3D engineering measurements of flow and contaminant dispersal. SIERRA/Fuego, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code at Sandia National Labs is employed to make detailed comparisons to the dataset to evaluate the quantitative and qualitative accuracy of the model. The comparison exercise shows good comparison between model and experimental results, with the wake region downstream of the tall building presenting the most significant challenge to the quantitative accuracy of the model. Model uncertainties are assessed through parametric variations. Some observations are made in relation to the future utility of MDV and CFD, and some productive follow-on activities are suggested that can help mature the science of flow modeling and experimental testing.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2019

Development of eXternal Nuclear Reaction Analysis (XNRA) Detection Technique for Quantifying Light Isotope Concentrations

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s Tritium Sustainment Program is responsible for the design, development, demonstration, testing, analysis, and characterization of tritium-producing burnable absorber rods (TPBARs) and their components used to produce tritium for the nation’s strategic stockpile. The FY19 call for proposals included the specific basic science research topic, “Demonstration and evaluation of advanced characterization methods, particularly for quantifying the concentration of light isotopes ( 1 H, 3 H, 3 He, and 4 He, 6 Li and 7 Li) in metal or ceramic matrices”. Last year the same language appeared in the call for proposals, and a project IWO-389859 was awarded to the Ion Beam Lab (IBL) at Sandia-NM which was successful using Elastic Recoil Detection, but in the future could have resulted in tritium contamination that jeopardized other equally important NNSA projects. An alternative approach using deuterium nuclear reaction analysis was proposed and funded in FY2019 which was also successful and eliminated any possibility of contaminating the Ion Beam Laboratory with tritium, and will be described in this report.

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Experimental Demonstration of Alkalinity Concentration Swing for Direct Air Capture of CO 2

This work constitutes the first lab-scale experimental demonstration of the alkalinity concentration swing (ACS) for direct air capture (DAC) of CO 2 . ACS can be implemented by taking a dilute alkaline solution that has contacted ambient air, and then concentrating it using commercially available desalination technologies. The more concentrated solution has a higher partial pressure of CO 2 relative to the initial solution, allowing the CO 2 to be separated and stored. The ACS approach is based on simple thermodynamics but had never been verified experimentally in terms of extracting CO 2 from air until now. We tested two distinct methods for concentrating the alkaline liquid: reverse osmosis (RO) and capacitive deionization (CDI). We found that to complete the DAC cycle in feasible operating conditions, a bicarbonate-enrichment step needed to be introduced, which selects on bicarbonate ions over carbonate ions. Two approaches for CO 2 extraction to measure the CO 2 yield per amount of water processed by the ACS method were tested. The energy required per amount of CO 2 captured was quantified. We further applied an energy model to study how operating the ACS cycle under different conditions would affect energy requirements.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2019

Signal Processing for Beam Loss Monitor System at Jefferson Lab

Ion Chamber and Photomultiplier Tube (PMT) are both used for beam loss monitor in the Machine Protection System (MPS) at Jefferson Lab. The requirements of signal processing of these detectors are different, so two VME-based signal processing boards, Beam Loss Monitor (BLM) board and Ion-Chamber board, were developed. The BLM board has fast response (< 1us) and 5 decades dynamic range from 10nA to 1 mA, while the Ion-Chamber board has 8 decades dynamic range from 100 pA to 10 mA and slower response. Both of boards provide functions of machine protection and beam diagnostics, and features of fast shutdown (FSD) interface, beam sync interface, built-in-self-test, remotely controlled bias signals, and on-board memory buffer.

Yan, J.↗
DOE OSTI2023

ABF Industry Engagement Lab Call with Danimer Scientific

This Agile BioFoundry Directed Funding Opportunity project with Danimer Scientific focuses on the development of a strain and a corresponding bioprocess to convert bio-based feedstocks to mixed composition polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs). Danimer Scientific produces PHAs today at industrial scale in proprietary strains and for many applications where bio-based, biodegradable materials are advantaged. The project team consists of NREL to lead the strain engineering efforts, PNNL to conduct systems biology experiments that will inform further strain engineering, and Danimer to conduct bioprocess development and materials development. To date, we have on-boarded Danimer strains and demonstrated successful engineering thereof. We anticipate conducting systems biology studies in Spring 2023. Overall, the impact of this DFO project could be improved material properties accessed through the Design-Build-Test-Learn cycle for designer PHA production.

bio-based feedstocks↗
DOE OSTI2023

A comprehensive review on regeneration strategies for direct air capture

Direct air capture (DAC), which removes CO 2 directly from ambient air, is a critical negative emission technology for mitigating global climate change. Efficiency and the source of energy are crucial considerations for DAC to enable negative emissions. Substantial technological progress has been made in DAC technologies, and promising opportunities exist for commercial-scale deployments. However, DAC technologies require high regeneration energy to release CO 2 from sorbents. Various approaches have been tested and optimized for different DAC systems. This review demonstrates that the work equivalent regeneration energy demand (supported by either the electric grid or fossil fuel combustion) ranges from 0.5–18.75 GJ/t-CO 2 for solid sorbent DAC systems and 0.62–17.28 GJ/t-CO 2 for liquid solvent DAC systems. The regeneration process is the energy-demanding process in DAC that is a key step for efficient operation. Potential methods to lower the regeneration energy demand include microwave, ultrasound, magnetic particle heating, and electric swing. Although the potential methods to date are still at the lab scale, significant work is being done to optimize DAC system processes.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2019

Final Report for Large Scale Laboratory Experiments on Kinetic Magnetic Reconnection

Magnetic reconnection plays a fundamental role in nearly all magnetized plasmas as it enables magnetic energy to be converted into high speed flows, and thermal energy. It allows the magnetic field lines to change topology in collisionless plasmas, and it thereby controls the spatial and temporal evolution of explosive phenomena such as solar flares, coronal mass ejections, and internal disruptions in fusion devices. Because of its strong impact on the plasma dynamics, understanding the physics of magnetic reconnection is one of the most important topics in plasma physics. New frontiers have now emerged in reconnection research with an emphasis on particle energization, reconnection with multiple X-lines in large systems, and the role of kinetic effects in collisionless reconnection. These research topics are closely linked and large scale computer simulations show that 3D effects are likely important to explain the detailed observations of reconnection in solar, interplanetary and magnetospheric plasmas. For experiments to remain relevant in this maturing field of research and help push forward the new frontiers, new devices are needed which access the regimes of large system size and low normalized collisionallity. To address this need, the project the new Terrestrial Reconnection EXperiment (TREX), which is spatially the largest dedicated reconnection experiment constructed to date. With the use of the 3m diameter spherical vacuum vessel of the Madison Plasma Dynamo Experiment (MPDX), the TREX is highly leveraged by earlier NSF investments. MPDX was constructed with funds from NSF's MRI program and is now being operated as a multi-investigator facility, which we name the Wisconsin Plasma Physics Laboratory (WiPPL). The project was carried out mainly by two UW-Madison graduate students, for reconnection in parameter regimes and configurations in TREX not attainable by previous experiments. The implementation of TREX within WiPPL renders the upgraded facility unique in its capabilities to extend the frontiers of experimental reconnection research, including access to reconnection in the collisionless regime at large system sizes and compatible with three-dimensional configurations. The theoretical teams in reconnection research have been given full access to the experimental results. Our experimental results havel allowed us to test existing theoretical models, provide resolution to controversy, and stimulate new understanding of magnetic reconnection. The WiPPAL, with its large basic plasma physics device, is largely operated by graduate and undergraduate students. It has proven an ideal facility for students to become immersed in state of the art research while learning the fundamental principles of plasma physics. The program has also proven effective in attracting new outstanding students into plasma physics and providing them with exciting learning experiences. While our research program and experimental results successfully compete with those of professional scientists at national labs, the most important legacy of our research is, perhaps, the broad training in experimental plasma physics of the large number of students affiliated with our program.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Defect And Damage Characterization Of Additively Manufactured Titanium Alloy Ti-5553 Using Traditional Computed Tomography Volume Segmentation And Machine Learning Algorithms

The mechanical response of a component is affected by defects, such as porosity, arising from the laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) fabrication process. Thus, it is important to develop accurate and efficient inspection methods for identifying porosity. In this work, porosity identified in an X-ray computed tomography (XCT) volume of a Ti-5553 coupon was compared to pores identified in a serial sectioned volume that represented the ground truth. The porosity of the XCT scan was identified using contrast-based, ISO-based, and machine learning (ML) methods for segmentation. Large inherent porosity was easy to identify, but the ISO thresholding still struggled due to the intensity gradient resulting from both the beam hardening in XCT and the uneven lighting of the serial sectioning panels. Further, the results show that ML-based methods were better suited for identifying small pores and reducing the amount of false positives. Additionally, high strain-rate impact testing was done on some of the XCT samples as well as post-mortem XCT inspection, and the same suite of segmentation and quantification tools were used to identify the large spallation cavities. The comparison of porosity pre- and post-mortem provides insight on the influence of the LPBF porosity on the formation of spall cavities.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

In Situ Plasma Processing of Superconducting Cavities at JLab

Jefferson Lab has an ongoing R&D program in plasma processing which is close to going into production pro-cessing in the CEBAF accelerator. Plasma processing is a common technique for removing hydrocarbons from surfaces, which increases the work function and reduces the secondary emission coefficient[1]. The initial focus of the effort is processing C100 cavities by injecting RF power into the HOM coupler ports. The goal will be to improve the operational gradients and the energy margin of the CEBAF linacs by processing cryomodules in situ. Results from processing cryomodule in the cryomodule test bunker as well as vertical test results will be present-ed. This work will describe the systems and methods used at JLAB for processing cavities using an argon oxygen gas mixture. Before and after plasma processing results will also be presented.

Powers, T.↗
DOE OSTI2022

Experimental Evaluation of Thermal Storage Performance of a Dual-Purpose Underground Thermal Battery

A geothermal heat pump (GHP) system is an energy-efficient building heating and cooling technology with great potential for reducing energy consumption and decarbonization. However, applications of GHP are still limited due to the high cost, of which 30% is related to the cost of installing the conventional vertical bore ground heat exchangers, which are usually installed in boreholes 60 meters deep. A dual-purpose underground thermal battery (DPUTB) has been developed to offer a low-cost ground heat exchanger with a built-in thermal storage capacity. The DPUTB innovatively integrates a shallow-bore ground heat exchanger (the outer tank), which can be installed in a borehole less than 6 m deep, with thermal energy storage (TES) (the inner tank). DPUTB has the potential to reduce the cost of a ground source heat pump system while allowing shifting the electric demand of the building served by the GHP system from peak to off-peak hours of the electric grid by charging and discharging the thermal storage. A lab-scale (1:125 in volume) DPUTB prototype was built. Phase change material (PCM) was added to increase the thermal storage capacity and maintain the supply water temperature from the TES within the desired range for direct cooling operation during the discharge period. As PCMs are critical to the TES performance of the DPUTB, this study compared the influence of different PCMs (including salt hydrate and organic PCMs) on the discharge performance of the DPUTB. The thermal State of Charge (SoC) of the DPUTB was used to compare the performance resulting from using different PCMs. Test results indicate that the organic PCM (Methyl Laurate) outperforms salt-hydrate PCMs due to a lower melting temperature and a narrower melting temperature range during the phase change process. The results of this study provide a guide for PCM selection and the optimal design of DPUTB.

Wang, Lingshi↗
DOE OSTI2026

Comparison of the performance of TLD, OSL and RPL personal dosimetry systems to the American National Standard Institute (ANSI) test categories

The Laboratory Accreditation Program (LAP) tests the capability and performance of the United States Department of Energy's (USDOE) facilities to accurately measure and quantify the whole-body and extremity radiation equivalent doses to the occupational workers. The dosimetry methods used in personal dosimetry can be Thermoluminescence (TL), Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) and Radiophotoluminescence (RPL), among other techniques available. Currently, the TL (LiF:Mg,Ti) and OSL (Al 2 O 3 :C) dosimetry systems are DOELAP-accredited for occupational dose measurements and regulatory reporting. In this study, the performance of a beryllium oxide (BeO) OSL dosimetry system and of a silver-doped phosphate glass RPL dosimetry system is compared against the performance of an accredited LiF:Mg,Ti TL dosimetry system. The bias and standard deviation in each of the performance test categories are compared between these three systems for exposures to photons, beta, and mixed radiation fields with the criteria established by the American National Standard Institute (ANSI) and Health Physics Society (HPS) N13.11-2022 standard. The practical implementation of the dosimetry program and its equivalency to the occupational personal equivalent dose H p (0.07) and H p (10) measurements were evaluated. The TL, OSL and RPL dosimetry systems passed the ANSI performance test criteria for H p (0.07) and H p (10) occupational dose measurements and met the DOELAP accreditation requirements.

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Plasma Processing of SRF Cavities at Jefferson Lab

Jefferson Lab has an ongoing R&D program in plasma processing which is close to going into production pro-cessing in the CEBAF accelerator. Plasma processing is a common technique for removing hydrocarbons from surfaces, which increases the work function and reduces the secondary emission coefficient [1]. The initial focus of the effort is processing C100 cavities by injecting RF power into the HOM coupler ports. The goal will be to improve the operational gradients and the energy margin of the CEBAF linacs by processing cryomodules in situ. Results from processing a cryomodule in the cryomodule test bunker as well as cavity vertical test results will be presented. This work describes the systems and methods used at JLAB for processing cavities using an ar-gon/oxygen gas mixture.

Powers, T.↗
DOE OSTI2025

Experiences with SYCL on AMD GPUs with Kokkos

With the recent diversification of the hardware landscape in the high-performance computing (HPC) community, performance-portability solutions are becoming more and more important. One of the most popular choices is Kokkos, which recently became a Linux Foundation project. Most of its development is supported by the US Department of Energy and the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission. Kokkos is implemented as a C++ library with multiple backends to support CPUs as well as various GPU architectures. These backends include OpenMP, CUDA, HIP, and also SCYL. This approach enables users to leverage the preferred vendor toolchain for the respective platform (e.g. CUDA, ROCm, OneAPI). The SYCL backend is used to target Intel GPUs, in particular to support the Aurora exascale supercomputer. However, SYCL itself also offers a large degree of portability, and in fact Kokkos’ CI for SYCL has been running on NVIDIA hardware due to a lack of access to Intel GPUs. In this report, we describe our experience with using Kokkos SYCL backend on AMD GPUs targeting the Frontier supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The two major SYCL implementations are DPC++ and AdaptiveCpp. While the Kokkos SYCL backend has been implemented using the former, the latter was the first implementation to target AMD GPUs. We will discuss the experience with both of these SYCL implementations in terms of functionality and performance. Using Kokkos to evaluate SYCL toolchains has a number of benefits. Kokkos’ use of SYCL is fairly complex, exercising features such as graphs, relocatable device functions, atomics – including for non-arithmetic types, as well as pinned and page migratable memory allocations. Kokkos also needs to implement capabilities such as Kokkos’ hierarchical parallelism that are not a straight-forward mapping to SYCL capabilities. Furthermore, a large number of libraries and applications that represent diverse use cases are implemented in Kokkos, providing readily available test cases for a toolchain evaluation. Preliminary results show that support for AMD GPUs in DPC++ is much less mature than for NVIDIA GPUs or Intel GPUs. While the situation has improved significantly over the last year, we still encounter many runtime failures, dispatching problems, and code generation issues. With AdaptiveCpp the challenges arise even earlier in the evaluation process. Since Kokkos’ SYCL implementation is largely focused on supporting Intel GPUs, we opted to leverage SYCL extensions which are available in DPC++ but not in AdaptiveCpp. Furthermore, AdaptiveCpp appears to be less conformant with the SYCL2020 standard which Kokkos relies on. In some cases, we are able to work around the lack of feature support, in other cases we have to disable certain Kokkos capabilities to evaluate the toolchain. Our evaluation will leverage Kokkos’ unit tests to establish basic functionality and feature completeness. We then use simple benchmarks for components of a CG implementation as a measure of usability and performance of the SYCL toolchains.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2024

Summer 2024 INL Intern Poster Session Submission - Brian Schumitz

This LRS submission is my poster for the INL Intern Poster Session, Summer 2024. Abstract: The Software Engineering and Cybersecurity Lab (SECL) at Montana State University has developed PIQUE, a system for evaluating software quality. PIQUE's adaptability allows for language-specific static-analysis operations, including a model for assessing cloud microservice ecosystems. These ecosystems often rely on Docker for efficient deployment and management of containerized services. Our research focuses on evaluating the network quality within these microservice ecosystems. To automate this process, we're utilizing Snort, an open-source intrusion detection system renowned for its ability to detect and log network traffic. By leveraging Snort's customizable rules, we aim to construct comprehensive testing methods for measuring and quantifying the network quality based on traffic between Docker containers. This research aims to enhance the overall security and reliability of cloud microservice ecosystems by providing automated and robust quality evaluation mechanisms, ultimately contributing to the advancement of software engineering practices in these environments

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗