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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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Manufacturing process for 1kg plated NdFeB permanent magnet. To access the model referenced in the report, please visit https://www.netl.doe.gov/energy-analysis/details?id=BECBD786-15B5-43FC-9D31-958EB3A04576
Every year in the U.S., more than 3,500 people of all ages swallow miniature disc, coin, or “button” batteries. In recent years the number of reported battery ingestions has remained level yet the number of documented debilitating or fatal battery ingestions has increased. One particularly important approach to mitigate this risk is developing a solution that will prevent injury from accidentally swallowed batteries regardless if the ingestion is discovered or not. The primary objectives of this project were to i) develop a solution that may render a coin cell harmless if it is swallowed and ii) develop a strategy to implement the solution that would be amenable to a high-throughput manufacturing process. To accomplish these objectives, Sandia refined a previously-identified approach toward this aim and found a composite organic/inorganic material that could be applied to a battery that allowed normal battery operation when dry and that would deactivate when wet. This coating formulation is amenable to straightforward deposition onto coin cells using direct-write or extrusion based approaches that benefited from some additional changes in the ink formulation. In summary, Sandia and Duracell, enabled by DOE facilities, developed an effective solution to the rare but horrific damage ingested batteries can do. This solution could have far-reaching effects due to the ubiquity of coin cells, and the potential impact is great for reducing debilitating injury and death caused by ingested coin cells.
Over the last five years, GE Global Research, University of Colorado-Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) teamed to develop nano-engineered, high permeance membrane materials that outperform conventional RO membranes. The team explored liquid and gas-phase molecular layer by layer synthesis (mLbLS) strategies and manufacturing processes for cost effective production of the novel materials. The objective of this project was to decrease the energy consumption of reverse osmosis (RO) membrane separation processes by 50%, while also decreasing the environmental impact and cost of water. The team was successful in identify two promising approaches to achieve that end goal.
Mercury is a persistent environmental hazard that is strictly regulated. The design of a 3D printed coalescer was proposed to facilitate segregation and/or adsorption of elemental mercury from aqueous solutions. 3D printing techniques were employed to generate designed surfaces and internal geometries that would otherwise be very difficult to near impossible through traditional manufacturing processes. The proposed coalescer was designed to take advantage of advancements in 3D printing to incorporate surface sub-structures and material compositions targeted specifically at mercury adsorption. The initial phase of research targeted the design of physical structures that could assist with adsorption or segregation of mercury from acidic condensate, rendering it isolated and preventing recirculation back into the chemical process, as well as implementation into standard environmental remediation techniques for contaminated aqueous solutions. Future work was to focus on formulating reactive coalescers to improve chemisorption along with physisorption.
The reactor pressure vessel (RPV) plays the critical role of containing the reactor and coolant in a light water reactor nuclear power plant, and must be able to safely perform this function under a variety of normal and off-normal transient loading conditions. The RPV is subjected to harsh environmental conditions (elevated temperature and high neutron flux) whenever the plant is operating, which leads to embrittlement of the steel over time. RPVs contain populations of flaws introduced during the manufacturing process, and the primary safety concern is that during a transient event, a fracture could initiate at the site of one of these flaws and lead to rupture of the RPV. RPVs are very rugged structures, and the probability of this occurring is very low, but as the RPV's steel becomes embrittled over time, its resistance to fracture decreases and this becomes more likely. Assessing the likelihood of RPV fracture during a transient event involves performing a probabilistic fracture mechanics analysis, in which random sampling procedures are used to assess the probability of fracture of a population of flaws. Grizzly offers unique capabilities for modeling the RPV using 1D, 2D, or 3D representations, taking advantage of parallel computing for this type of analysis. One of the important inputs to Grizzly is the spatial distribution of the neutron fluence, which has a large impact on the material embrittlement, and should thus be characterized as accurately as possible. The VERA core simulator developed by the CASL program takes advantage of high performance computing resources to perform high-fidelity multiphysics simulations of reactor physics, including the effects of neutron transport, fuel performance, and thermal hydraulics. Recently a capability was developed to also evaluate neutron fluxes away from the reactor core through the Shift code. This allows for a detailed 3D map of the spatial variation of the fluence in components such as the RPV to be computed, which is ideal for use with Grizzly. This report documents a procedure developed to use the fluences computed in Shift in a Grizzly simulation, which allows for improved realisim in the prediction of the effects of environmental exposure on propensity for reactor pressure vessel fracture. This capability demonstrated on RPVs with multiple types of configurations.
The goal of this research is to investigate and characterize the dynamics of a molten metal pool through modeling and simulation. Two manufacturing processes are of interest, laser spot welding and selective laser melting. These are laser-based techniques for joining parts together and for building up parts. The laser power impacts the melt pool temperature and therefore the dynamics. Moreover, the metals used are often alloys, containing impurities, where the concentration of these impurities can have a large effect on surface tension and therefore influence the melt pool dynamics. The application space considered in this project is for laser spot welding as a case study, and is also relevant to 3D metal printing. The thermal evolution and fluid dynamics in a 2D metal block exposed to a Gaussian distributed laser source is numerically simulated using a high-order, fully-implicit code. Results are compared to published experimental data and other published numerical simulations for laser spot welding. Results confirm that unstable structures appear at higher laser powers with higher impurity concentrations compared to simulations with no impurities and lower laser powers.
As new insight is gained into the relationship between firesets and detonators, tighter control of the circuit parameters is desired to maintain consistent and optimum system performance. An analysis of the established acceptance method reveals that it has insufficient precision to guarantee a uniform population of units. While the production has been historically very uniform, the uniformity has been primarily due to the quality and consistency of the manufacturing process rather than to the stringency of the acceptance criteria. The established method of evaluating and accepting firesets for the stockpile has been to discharge the units into a representative load and to record the output current waveform. Three characteristics of the output waveform (Peak Current, Rise Time, and Pulse Width) are then analyzed and an acceptance window is applied directly to these measurements. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a new approach that incorporates these same established measurements. However, instead of applying acceptance criteria to the three measurements directly, rather these measurements are used to evaluate the circuit values of capacitance, inductance and resistance to provide a more stringent and uniform acceptance criteria.
The outline for this presentation includes the history, World War II legacy, and current mission of Los Alamos National Laboratory; detonator manufacturing in the Nuclear Security Enterprise; manufacturing processes; and expanding the supply chain.
This SBIR Phase I project developed the manufacturing capability for the production of ultra-low-background copper and lead for use in electronic interconnects and support architecture. Copper is an attractive electronic and support material because of its favorable conductivity and mechanical properties. Fortuitously, the material can also be electroplated with high radiopurity, particularly if the electroforming is performed in shielded, buried facilities within which the cosmogenic background is minimized. The machining of the electroformed copper into wires, feedthroughs, and support hardware can potentially introduce impurities through the shop environment or through the dies used in wire-drawing and part formation. During Phase I, we demonstrated an alternative low-cost solution-based approach in which copper nanoparticles are colloidally-grown and self-assembled into solids that can serve as thermal structures- such as cold-fingers, mechanical structures- such as the inner shielding lining, and electronic devices. We demonstrated ultrastrong, high-conductivity free-standing copper conductors during Phase I suitable for battery electrodes, interconnects, and cabling, all components that enable next-generation flexible electronics. In nanoparticle form, copper forms in a crystalline lattice with very low impurity content, but its self-assembly is facilitated by organic capping ligands that can serve as impurity sources. Upon the formation of a colloidal solid, the copper particles can be fused and the organic components evaporated through vacuum annealing. The study of ultra-pure copper was expanded during Phase I to include nanostructured lead, which is an important radiation-shielding material. By growing lead particles in a water-based solution the resulting solution can be poured into the desired form-factor mold, within which it will self-assemble and harden upon evaporation of the water and any organics. The effort during Phase II is designed to complete the development of the manufacturing process and to use that process to deliver high radio-purity copper and lead components to the rare-event detection community so that the noise-floor contribution from the surrounding materials is substantially eliminated.
The LANSCE accelerator is an important tool in the assessment and certification of the nation’s nuclear stockpile. LANSCE provides critical materials and nuclear data needed to develop a predictive capability for the performance of nuclear weapons. As the stockpile ages, materials are replaced, and manufacturing processes change, it is critical that we understand how these changes impact device performance. Dynamic proton radiography and neutron diffraction are ideally suited to contribute to this need. These capabilities are essential to enabling the NNSA labs to become more responsive and agile in advancing the deterrent of the future.
The Transformational Challenge Reactor (TCR) program seeks to demonstrate an advanced 3D printed nuclear reactor core. A binder jet additive manufacturing process is used to fabricate the complex SiC ceramic components of the TCR core. After printing, the components are densified via chemical vapor infiltration (CVI). This process allows complex cavities to be created in which sensors can be placed at strategic locations. Inserting the sensors during the CVI process allows the sensors to be embedded within the component as it is infiltrated. The primary challenge for embedding the sensors is identifying the sensors and sensor sheath materials that can survive the temperatures (>1,000°C) and chemical exposure to H 2 and HCl during CVI. The embedded sensors that are being investigated for use during TCR operation include thermocouples, self-powered neutron detectors, and spatially distributed fiber-optic temperature sensors. This report describes the CVI materials compatibility tests and initial trials for embedding functional sensors. Mo is identified as the most suitable sensor sheath material based on its availability in small diameter tubing, relatively low neutron absorption cross section, and compatibility with H 2 , HCl, and the surrounding SiC matrix at the process temperatures. Amorphous SiO2 fiber-optic samples with Au and Cu metal coatings were successfully embedded in SiC along with bare fibers, although the metal coatings showed some evidence of localized melting during CVI. Initial experiments attempting to embed functional sensors showed that the sensors can be embedded in 3D printed SiC parts, but there are still challenges that must be overcome to ensure that the sensors and sensor sheaths do not fail during CVI. In particular, Nb-sheathed Mo-Nb thermocouples failed at temperatures far lower than expected despite thermodynamic calculations and materials compatibility tests that show the Nb sheath to be compatible with the CVI environment. One potential explanation for the large expansion of the Nb sheath could be related to hydride formation in the lower temperature region of the sheath. Future work will focus on Mo-sheathed thermocouples instead of Nb. The fiberoptic sensors tested during the instrumented experiment broke due to the lack of mechanical protection after their polymer-based coatings were vaporized. Future instrumented experiments will use metal-coated optical fibers for strain sensing to provide additional mechanical protection. However, custom coatings with higher melting points than commercially available Au and Cu might be required. Regardless, fiber-optic sensors are still candidates for spatially distributed temperature measurements since they can be inserted into an embedded metal sheath after CVI.
The Transformational Challenge Reactor (TCR) is being developed to demonstrate a revolutionary approach to deploying new nuclear power systems by building and operating an additively manufactured microreactor. This initiative provides a unique opportunity to investigate the possibility of taking advantage of the recent development of the 3D-printed concrete system using the Sky Big Area Additive Manufacturing (SkyBAAM) printer at the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility (MDF) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Two pathways have been pursued in parallel since the end of the second quarter of FY19: 1. Development of methods to characterize the performance of additive manufacturing concrete using traditional Portland-cement based solution, and 2. Investigation of the opportunity to develop innovation of printable materials with higher irradiation-resistance performance using nontraditional concrete solutions in favor of carbonated cementitious materials (CCMs). This report describes the results achieved to date for both pathways. The main results are listed below: 1. A test protocol has been established to characterize the fracture properties of 3D-printed concrete; this protocol will be used to assess the performance of printed traditional and nontraditional cementitious materials, with a focus on performance of the interfaces inherent to the additive manufacturing process. 2. A state-of-the-art review of the mechanisms, fabrication method, and performance of CCMs was conducted. CCMs appear to be a viable, highly innovative, more performant alternative to Portland-based cementitious solution for the erection of biological shield pending some materials development.
The overall goal of this Manufacturing Demonstration Facility (MDF) technical collaboration project is to extend the use of the laser blown powder additive manufacturing process to enable the repair of polycrystalline high γ' Ni base super alloys, and to qualify the repaired parts for end use. The goal of phase 1 of this project was to evaluate the cracking susceptibility of Inconel 100 samples, and to identify parameters that would yield crack free repair deposits on representative geometries using a surrogate material as a substrate. A detailed design of experiments was performed in conjunction with thermomechanical modeling to determine processing conditions. A set of process parameters were identified which yielded minimal cracking. Further modeling was used to identify the preheat condition necessary to obtain crack free deposits. Following identification of the preheat, a furnace was integrated within the chamber of the blown powder Direct Energy Deposition (DED) system, and deposits were fabricated with on a preheated furnace. The results show that crack free deposits with dimensions 35x15x0.5 mm 3 can be fabricated. With this success obtained in phase 1 the goal of phase 2, if awarded, would be to fabricate the deposit on the actual IN 100 substrates develop heat treatment procedures and qualify the repair procedures.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has developed a manufacturing process for nanodispersion-strengthened materials that could be used as fuel cladding or reactor core materials. This report describes the design concept of irradiation capsules intended to accommodate specimens from such materials. The capsules will be irradiated in the flux trap of Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s High Flux Isotope Reactor at three different fluence levels. The goal of this neutron irradiation is to investigate the effects of irradiation on those materials at the nanoscale. In addition, the report describes the irradiation test matrix and the successful assembly of the irradiation capsules.
Understanding mesoscale heterogeneity is important for evaluating fatigue and failure of structural materials and for manufacturing processes. Data-driven tools can facilitate in guiding effort investment (measurements and computations) at various stages of the materials development. Our 3D reconstruction approach is to find a set of coefficients which define a bounding surface of the electron density. Data for training the 3D CNN was generated by sampling coefficients from uniform distributions. Test vs. prediction values are shown for the 28 even-valued coefficients for 1000 test structures, with the best and worst performers highlighted. The adaptive part of this work utilized a model independent extremum seeking (ES). The predictions of the CNN were used as the starting point for the ES algorithm. The convergence of the ES algorithm for 3 different structures is illustrated, and the robustness of the adaptive ML approach was demonstrated on experimentally measured 3D crystal from high energy diffraction microscopy. Reconstruction of a non-uniform density volume with different levels of Poisson noise is also shown. Preliminary attempts at reconstructing measured La 2-x Ba x CuO 4 diffraction patterns have so far failed.
This report describes the first successful embedding of sensors in stainless steel pipe specimens and a miniature hex block to support structural health monitoring of microreactor components during electrically heated testing in non-nuclear testbed facilities. Sensors were embedded with an ultrasonic additive manufacturing process that uses a combination of downward pressure and an ultrasonic scrubbing motion to bond stainless steel foils to underlying materials. After placing sensors within cavities that have been machined to the size of the sensors, the ultrasonic bonding process fills the gaps around the sensors and embeds them within the part. Both Type K thermocouples and spatially distributed fiber-optic strain sensors were successfully embedded within two pipe specimens and a miniature hex block. After the fiber-optic sensors were embedded, they were interrogated and found to have minimal signal attenuation within the embedded region—a significant improvement compared to previous trials. This is likely because of the low-bend-loss fiber that was used, which greatly reduces microbending losses that occur after the embedding process. In addition to showing minimal signal attention, the fibers also showed adequate compressive strain, which is a strong indication that the sensors are physically embedded in the parts as opposed to simply being loosely contained inside the machined cavities. The embedded fibers were able to capture the strain induced in one of the pipe specimens while the pipe was actively heated with a moving heat source.
Tardigrade is an effort to create tunable thermal expansion materials for use in a ruggedized lens housing. This requires new computational algorithms to model and predict thermal performance of meta-materials composed of multiple structured base materials and void-space, along with matching and developing 3D print technology to demonstrate the housing. Project is 13 months into the 30 month on complete project plan. We are continuing effort on 3 main technical thrusts: algorithm development, multi-material additive manufacturing process exploration, and sensor/optics design and engineering. In FY20 we underspent the initial budget, partly due to work restrictions from Covid-19 pandemic, but are working to make up lost time
Tardigrade is an effort to create small, passive remote sensor for material detection and identification. The microbolometer based sensor design uses custom bandpass filter bands combined with tuned thermal expansion materials in a ruggedized lens housing to provide passive mechanical correction for optical changes across a wide temperature range. This requires developing computational tools to model and predict thermal performance of meta-materials composed of multiple structured base materials and void-space, along with matching and developing 3D print technology to demonstrate the housing. Current efforts in the project are in 3 areas: material design algorithm development (transitioning into full 3D material design space), multi-material additive manufacturing process exploration, and sensor/optics design and engineering.