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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 1,351 records · Page 75

Microstructure Modeling of 3rd Generation Disk Alloys

The objective of this program is to model, validate, and predict the precipitation microstructure evolution, using PrecipiCalc (QuesTek Innovations LLC) software, for 3rd generation Ni-based gas turbine disc superalloys during processing and service, with a set of logical and consistent experiments and characterizations. Furthermore, within this program, the originally research-oriented microstructure simulation tool will be further improved and implemented to be a useful and user-friendly engineering tool. In this report, the key accomplishment achieved during the second year (2008) of the program is summarized. The activities of this year include final selection of multicomponent thermodynamics and mobility databases, precipitate surface energy determination from nucleation experiment, multiscale comparison of predicted versus measured intragrain precipitation microstructure in quench samples showing good agreement, isothermal coarsening experiment and interaction of grain boundary and intergrain precipitates, primary microstructure of subsolvus treatment, and finally the software implementation plan for the third year of the project. In the following year, the calibrated models and simulation tools will be validated against an independently developed experimental data set, with actual disc heat treatment process conditions. Furthermore, software integration and implementation will be developed to provide material engineers valuable information in order to optimize the processing of the 3rd generation gas turbine disc alloys.

Jou, Herng-Jeng↗

Assessing Inverter-Based Resources Modeling Gaps in Commonly Used Short-Circuit Programs

Future bulk power systems are expected to operate with a high penetration of inverter-based resources (IBR). This is anticipated to fundamentally change the system’s short-circuit behaviors and demand a change in existing transmission line protection settings or schemes. Phasor-domain short circuit programs (e.g., ASPEN, CAPE, and CYME) remain the mainstream tools for developing protection settings. However, the system protection community has shared concerns about the accuracy of IBR models in short-circuit programs. This report compares the performance of existing generic IBR models in short-circuit programs with detailed electro-magnetic transient (EMT) models provided by several different IBR manufacturers in PSCAD, to quantify the short-circuit program’s IBR model accuracy, assess their ability to replicate individual IBR controls such as negative sequence current injections, and identify specific gaps in the existing generic phasor-domain IBR models that are currently available.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Planning Amidst Uncertainty: Identifying Core CCS Infrastructure Robust to Storage Uncertainty

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is a critical technology for reducing anthropogenic CO2 emissions, but its large-scale deployment is complicated by uncertainties in geological storage performance. These uncertainties pose significant financial and operational risks, as underperforming storage sites can lead to costly infrastructure modifications, inefficient pipeline routing, and economic shortfalls. To address this challenge, we propose a novel optimization workflow that is based on mixed-integer linear programming and explicitly integrates probabilistic modeling of storage uncertainty into CCS infrastructure design. This workflow generates multiple infrastructure scenarios by sampling storage capacity distributions, optimally solving each scenario using a mixed-integer linear programming model, and aggregating results into a heatmap to identify core infrastructure components that have a low likelihood of underperforming. A risk index parameter is introduced to balance trade-offs between cost, CO2 processing capacity, and risk of underperformance, allowing stakeholders to quantify and mitigate uncertainty in CCS planning. Applying this workflow to a CCS dataset from the US Department of Energy’s Carbon Utilization and Storage Partnership project reveals key insights into infrastructure resilience. Reducing the risk index from 15% to 0% is observed to lead to an 83.7% reduction in CO2 processing capacity and a 77.1% decrease in project profit, quantifying the trade-off between risk tolerance and project performance. Furthermore, our results highlight critical breakpoints, where small adjustments in the risk index produce disproportionate shifts in infrastructure performance, providing actionable guidance for decision-makers. Unlike prior approaches that aimed to cheaply repair underperforming infrastructure, our workflow constructs robust CCS networks from the ground up, ensuring cost-effective infrastructure under storage uncertainty. These findings demonstrate the practical relevance of incorporating uncertainty-aware optimization into CCS planning, equipping decision-makers with a tool to make informed project planning decisions.

Olson, Daniel↗

Parametric Flutter Analysis of the TCA Configuration and Recommendation for FFM Design and Scaling

The current HSR Aeroelasticity plan to design, build, and test a full span, free flying transonic flutter model in the TDT has many technical obstacles that must be overcome for a successful program. One technical obstacle is the determination of a suitable configuration and point in the sky to use in setting the scaling point for the ASE models program. Determining this configuration and point in the sky requires balancing several conflicting requirements, including model buildability, tunnel test safety, and the ability of the model to represent the flutter mechanisms of interest. As will be discussed in detail in subsequent sections, the current TCA design exhibits several flutter mechanisms of interest. It has been decided that the ASE models program will focus on the low frequency symmetric flutter mechanism, and will make no attempt to investigate high frequency flutter mechanisms. There are several reasons for this choice. First, it is believed that the high frequency flutter mechanisms are similar in nature to classical wing bending/torsion flutter, and therefore there is more confidence that this mechanism can be predicted using current techniques. The low frequency mode, on the other hand, is a highly coupled mechanism involving wing, body, tail, and engine motion which may be very difficult to predict. Second, the high frequency flutter modes result in very small weight penalties (several hundred pounds), while suppression of the low frequency mechanism inside the flight envelope causes thousands of pounds to be added to the structure. In order to successfully test the low frequency flutter mode of interest, a suitable starting configuration and point in the sky must be identified. The configuration and point in the sky must result in a wind tunnel model that (1) represents the low-frequency wing/body/engine/empennage flutter mechanisms that are unique to HSCT configurations, (2) flutters at an acceptably low frequency in the tunnel, (3) flutters at an acceptably low dynamic pressure in the tunnel, (4) allows sufficient weight for model buildability without inordinately high cost, and (5) has significant separation between the target flutter mechanism and other, potentially catastrophic, flutter mechanisms.

Baker, Myles↗

Software to model AXAF-I image quality

A modular user-friendly computer program for the modeling of grazing-incidence type x-ray optical systems has been developed. This comprehensive computer software GRAZTRACE covers the manipulation of input data, ray tracing with reflectivity and surface deformation effects, convolution with x-ray source shape, and x-ray scattering. The program also includes the capabilities for image analysis, detector scan modeling, and graphical presentation of the results. A number of utilities have been developed to interface the predicted Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility-Imaging (AXAF-I) mirror structural and thermal distortions with the ray-trace. This software is written in FORTRAN 77 and runs on a SUN/SPARC station. An interactive command mode version and a batch mode version of the software have been developed.

Ahmad, Anees↗

Life prediction and constitutive models for engine hot section anisotropic materials program

This report presents the results of the first year of a program designed to develop life prediction and constitutive models for two coated single crystal alloys used in gas turbine airfoils. The two alloys are PWA 1480 and Alloy 185. The two oxidation resistant coatings are PWA 273, an aluminide coating, and PWA 286, an overlay NiCoCrAlY coating. To obtain constitutive and/or fatigue data, tests were conducted on coated and uncoated PWA 1480 specimens tensilely loaded in the 100 , 110 , 111 , and 123 directions. A literature survey of constitutive models was completed for both single crystal alloys and metallic coating materials; candidate models were selected. One constitutive model under consideration for single crystal alloys applies Walker's micromechanical viscoplastic formulation to all slip systems participating in the single crystal deformation. The constitutive models for the overlay coating correlate the viscoplastic data well. For the aluminide coating, a unique test method is under development. LCF and TMF tests are underway. The two coatings caused a significant drop in fatigue life, and each produced a much different failure mechanism.

Swanson, G. A.↗

Fault recovery in the reliable multicast protocol

The Reliable Multicast Protocol (RMP) provides a unique, group-based model for distributed programs that need to handle reconfiguration events at the application layer. This model, called membership views, provides an abstraction in which events such as site failures, network partitions, and normal join-leave events are viewed as group reformations. RMP provides access to this model through an application programming interface (API) that notifies an application when a group is reformed as the result of a some event. RMP provides applications with reliable delivery of messages using an underlying IP Multicast (12, 5) media to other group members in a distributed environment even in the case of reformations. A distributed application can use various Quality of Service (QoS) levels provided by RMP to tolerate group reformations. This paper explores the implementation details of the mechanisms in RMP that provide distributed applications with membership view information and fault recovery capabilities.

Callahan, John R.↗

Specification and Design of a Fault Recovery Model for the Reliable Multicast Protocol

The Reliable Multicast Protocol (RMP) provides a unique, group-based model for distributed programs that need to handle reconfiguration events at the application layer. This model, called membership views, provides an abstraction in which events such as site failures, network partitions, and normal join-leave events are viewed as group reformations. RMP provides access to this model through an application programming interface (API) that notifies an application when a group is reformed as the result of a some event. RMP provides applications with reliable delivery of messages using an underlying IP Multicast media to other group members in a distributed environment even in the case of reformations. A distributed application can use various Quality of Service (QoS) levels provided by RMP to tolerate group reformations. This paper explores the implementation details of the mechanisms in RMP that provide distributed applications with membership view information and fault recovery capabilities.

Montgomery, Todd↗

Software Engineering Tools for Scientific Models

Software tools were constructed to address issues the NASA Fortran development community faces, and they were tested on real models currently in use at NASA. These proof-of-concept tools address the High-End Computing Program and the Modeling, Analysis, and Prediction Program. Two examples are the NASA Goddard Earth Observing System Model, Version 5 (GEOS-5) atmospheric model in Cell Fortran on the Cell Broadband Engine, and the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) coupled atmosphere- ocean model called ModelE, written in fixed format Fortran.

Abrams, Marc↗

Integrated modeling framework (FVCOM-ICM/Toxi) to simulate the fate and transport of polychlorinated biphenyls in urban estuaries–Case study for Puget Sound, WA

Puget Sound is an urban estuary that exhibits persistent polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) contamination despite years of remediation efforts. For robust management actions, determining the timing, location, and magnitude of PCB loading sources and transport pathways using field data alone is challenging due to complex water circulation and biogeochemical processes. Here, this study aims to develop an integrated modeling framework that couples complex estuarian circulation with biogeochemical processes and associated interactions with PCB kinetics. The model simulates PCB accumulation in the lower tropic food web, demonstrating PCB intrusion into primary producers and its biomagnification in pelagic consumers. The PCB data from a new field survey was used to calibrate/validate the new PCB modeling framework for Puget Sound. The software program of the modeling framework is available to the user community for the applications of toxic contaminants transport in marine waters.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

SAM Code Development for Source Term Modeling in Fluoride-salt-cooled High-temperature Reactors

The SAM code is under development and supported by DOE-NE’s Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation program as a modern system-level modeling and simulation tool for advanced non-light water reactor safety analyses. These advanced reactor concepts incorporate novel and improved approaches to achieve safety and economic feasibility. Many concepts leverage higher operating temperatures for improved efficiency with a variety of coolants and structural materials to support those needs. Such design choices may also pose unique radiological source term risks. There are continuous efforts to incorporate new physics and phenomena relevant to advanced reactor concepts, including capabilities to enable system-level source term modeling. The Pebble-Bed Fluoride-salt-cooled High-temperature Reactor (PB-FHR) is a promising candidate among advanced nuclear reactor concepts with its improved passive safety characteristics and high thermal efficiency. In addition to past efforts to support the development and utilization of SAM for PB-FHR safety analysis, the species transport modeling capabilities in SAM have been extended to simulate source term phenomena in concepts like the PB-FHR. The PB-FHR concept utilizes pebble-form TRISO fuel and FLiBe salt coolant to provide robust barriers to the release of almost all fission products and radiological source terms. However, tritium poses a unique radiological risk due to its significant production from neutron interactions with 6 Li and 9 Be in the FLiBe as well as its high mobility at elevated temperatures where it can permeate through structural metals. Secondly, the use of graphite at elevated temperatures poses the risk of oxidation damage to any structural components or fuel pebbles that are exposed to accidental air ingress. This report summarizes progress made in modeling these phenomena in SAM, which leverages the system-level multi-physics thermal hydraulic simulation to support an effective engineering-scale source term modeling capability. A tritium transport model is developed to simulate the various transport pathways in FHR and MSR concepts and is presented through verification and validation examples as well as demonstrations simulating experimental test loops and reference plant FHR models. A graphite oxidation model is also introduced to calculate local oxidation rates and is presented with initial validation results.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

SAM Code Enhancements for Modeling of Liquid Metal-Cooled Fast Reactor Concepts

The SAM code is under development and supported by DOE-NE’s Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation program as a modern system-level modeling and simulation tool for advanced non-light water reactor safety analyses. These advanced reactor concepts incorporate novel and improved approaches to achieve safety and economic feasibility. This report summarizes two major efforts in addressing the modeling gaps in SAM for liquid-metal-cooled fast reactor (LMFR) applications, i.e. thermal mixing and stratification phenomena in large pools and corrosion-oxidation of components in flowing lead. A new one-dimensional model for thermal mixing and stratification effects in large pools and enclosures is developed and implemented. Thermal mixing and stratification occur when fluid enters a pool at a temperature different than the bulk fluid itself, a scenario often encountered during transients in pool-type systems. These phenomena are critical for the safety of reactors, impacting phenomena like natural circulation, which is essential for passive cooling. The improved model in SAM addresses limitations of state-of-the-art approaches by combining one-dimensional (1D) channels, representing the coolant jet flow, with lumped-parameter zero-dimensional (0D) pools, representing the rest of coolant in the tank. Energy exchange between the 1D jet and the 0D pools is based on heat transfer correlations calibrated against 3D simulations. It is verified that this model can handle various flow configurations, including hot jets in colder pools, cold jets in hotter pools, and the presence of features like ceilings, free surfaces, and obstacles. Additionally, validation against experimental data demonstrates the ability of the model to capture mixing and stratification effects in a wide range of conditions. The flexibility and improved accuracy of the new model make it a valuable tool for reactor safety analysis, allowing for the simulation of different geometries encountered in advanced reactors. A system-level corrosion modeling capability is developed and implemented in SAM to support Lead Fast Reactor (LFR) development. Although the initial focus of this capability will be on LFR application, this can later be expanded to include other liquid metals such as Lead-Bismuth Eutectic (LBE) and PbLi. This report summarizes the common corrosion mitigation strategies and outlines the progress on implementing and validating a corrosion-oxidation model in SAM. Verification and validation of the corrosion-oxidation portion of the model was performed using analytical solution and measured data from samples tested in the non-isothermal pumped lead loop at IPPE Obninsk. The iron transport and corrosion/precipitation portion of the model was assessed using an analytical model and measured corrosion depths from a natural convection lead loop experiment performed at CEA. It is demonstrated that the model implemented in SAM performed well in these assessments.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

SAM Code Improvements for Molten Salt Reactor Transient and Species Transport Modeling

The SAM code is under development and supported by DOE-NE’s Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation program as a modern system-level modeling and simulation tool for advanced non-light water reactor safety analyses. These advanced reactor concepts incorporate novel and improved approaches to achieve safety and economic feasibility. This report summarizes FY24 efforts in addressing the modeling gaps in SAM for molten salt reactor (MSR) applications. These efforts focused on the solver performance related to species transport, usability of the flowing decay heat and delayed neutron precursor capabilities, and modeling gaps related to fission product transport throughout the system.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

SAM Enhancements for Air-Ingress Event Modeling in HTGRs

The SAM code is under development and supported by DOE-NE’s Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation program as a modern system-level modeling and simulation tool for advanced non-light water reactor safety analyses. These advanced reactor concepts incorporate novel and improved approaches to achieve safety and economic feasibility. This report summarizes recent efforts and progress in addressing the code capability gaps in SAM for the modeling of the air-ingress phenomenon in High-Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactors (HTGRs). The capability enhancements implemented to the code include: a multi-component flow model to capture the air-helium mixture during air ingress, a 0-D graphite oxidation model to capture the reaction of graphite with oxygen in the air, and an isentropic critical flow model to more accurately predict the de-pressurization of the reactor system due to a small break in the primary loop. Verification cases and demonstrations are provided to showcase these capabilities in SAM. Existing gaps in the code’s capability are also identified.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Systematic and objective evaluation of Earth system models: PCMDI Metrics Package (PMP) version 3

Systematic, routine, and comprehensive evaluation of Earth system models (ESMs) facilitates benchmarking improvement across model generations and identifying the strengths and weaknesses of different model configurations. By gauging the consistency between models and observations, this endeavor is becoming increasingly necessary to objectively synthesize the thousands of simulations contributed to the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) to date. The Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison (PCMDI) Metrics Package (PMP) is an open-source Python software package that provides quick-look objective comparisons of ESMs with one another and with observations. The comparisons include metrics of large- to global-scale climatologies, tropical inter-annual and intra-seasonal variability modes such as the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and Madden–Julian Oscillation (MJO), extratropical modes of variability, regional monsoons, cloud radiative feedbacks, and high-frequency characteristics of simulated precipitation, including its extremes. The PMP comparison results are produced using all model simulations contributed to CMIP6 and earlier CMIP phases. An important objective of the PMP is to document the performance of ESMs participating in the recent phases of CMIP, together with providing version-controlled information for all datasets, software packages, and analysis codes being used in the evaluation process. Among other purposes, this also enables modeling groups to assess performance changes during the ESM development cycle in the context of the error distribution of the multi-model ensemble. Quantitative model evaluation provided by the PMP can assist modelers in their development priorities. In this paper, we provide an overview of the PMP, including its latest capabilities, and discuss its future direction.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Shuttle cryogenic supply system. Optimization study. Volume 5 B-1: Programmers manual for math models

A computer program for rapid parametric evaluation of various types of cryogenics spacecraft systems is presented. The mathematical techniques of the program provide the capability for in-depth analysis combined with rapid problem solution for the production of a large quantity of soundly based trade-study data. The program requires a large data bank capable of providing characteristics performance data for a wide variety of component assemblies used in cryogenic systems. The program data requirements are divided into: (1) the semipermanent data tables and source data for performance characteristics and (2) the variable input data which contains input parameters which may be perturbated for parametric system studies.

Source record↗