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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 1,513 records · Page 84
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2021

Discrete modeling of a transformer with ALEGRA

We report progress on a task to model transformers in ALEGRA using the “Transient Magnetics” option. We specifically evaluate limits of the approach resolving individual coil wires. There are practical limits to the number of turns in a coil that can be numerically modeled, but calculated inductance can be scaled to the correct number of turns in a simple way. Our testing essentially confirmed this “turns scaling” hypothesis. We developed a conceptual transformer design, representative of practical designs of interest, and that focused our analysis. That design includes three coils wrapped around a rectangular ferromagnetic core. The secondary and tertiary coils have multiple layers. The tertiary has three layers of 13 turns each; the secondary has five layers of 44 turns; the primary has one layer of 20 turns. We validated the turns scaling of inductance for simple (one-layer) coils in air (no core) by comparison to available independent calculations for simple rectangular coils. These comparisons quantified the errors versus reduced number of turns modeled. For more than 3 turns, the errors are <5%. The magnetic field solver failed to converge (within 5000 iterations) for >10 turns. Including the core introduced some complications. It was necessary to capture the core surfaces in thin grid sheaths to minimize errors in computed magnetic energy. We do not yet have quantitative benchmarks with which to compare, but calculated results are qualitatively reasonable.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2015

On the Characterization of a Drop-in Miniplate Experiment–Hydraulic Analysis

The Miniplate-1, Large B (MP-1LB) vehicle is intended for future in-pile application within the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR), located at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). In order to support the safety bases for design considerations associated with this in-pile experiment, a campaign of out-of-pile testing is presently underway at the Oregon State University (OSU) Hydro-Mechanical Fuel Test Facility (HMFTF). The purpose of out-of-pile flow testing of representative in-pile geometry is intended to provide empirical information that can provide insight regarding characteristics of the vehicle and its internals that are intended to be placed in the ATR. The objectives of this testing campaign are to 1. verify that the integrity of experimental hardware and its configuration is not compromised under anticipated in-pile hydraulic loads; 2. provide experimental data to a. quantify hydraulic characteristics of the experiment, which may be used to update experiment calculations; b. quantify the transient response of experiment hardware to expected hydraulic loads and boundary conditions; and 3. potentially identify phenomena that were not identified during design and calculation process.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2018

An Experimental Investigation of Fuel Staging In A Model Gas Turbine Combustor

Modern gas turbine engines are typically operated in a lean-premixed configuration in order to meet emissions requirements. Lean operation makes gas turbines more susceptible to combustion instability, which can cause catastrophic hardware failure if left unchecked. The spatially uneven distribution of fuel in a gas turbine combustor, known as fuel staging, is an effective way of suppressing instabilities. This dissertation examines the effect of both steady-state and transient fuel-staging in a model gas turbine combustor. First, the steady-state effect of fuel staging on nominally unstable operating conditions is examined. At 200 degrees Celsius and a bulk flow velocity of 26 m/s, the combustor undergoes self-excited instabilities when the equivalence ratio is between φ = 0.70 and φ = 0.74 when all nozzles are fueled equally. These instabilities are suppressed when the center nozzle equivalence ratio is increased to φ Staging = 0.85 and the outer nozzle equivalence ratio maintained at φ = 0.70 or when the global equivalence ratio is maintained at φ = 0.70 by increasing the center nozzle equivalence ratio to φ Staging = 0.74 and decreasing the outer nozzle equivalence ratio to φ Staging = 0.69. The staged p' RMS amplitudes are found to decrease with increasing equivalence ratio and the damping rates found to increase with increasing equivalence ratio. Next, axisymmetric fuel staging transients are conducted valve opening/closing timescales of 1, 16, 58, 4,000, and 10,000 ms, and equivalence ratios of φ staging = 0.75, 0.80, 0.85. It should be noted that these valve opening/closing timescales, referred to as τ Transient , differ from the actual fuel convection timescale that are summarized in Table 5.2. It is found that the combustor pressure fluctuation at the end of the transient strongly depends on staging equivalence ratio but not on τ Transient . Increasing the staging equivalence ratio decreased the staged- stable combustor pressure amplitude, similarly to the steady-state results. The staged-stable damping rate trends are insensitive to to τ Transient and increased with increasing staging equivalence ratio. The timescale of the transition, τ, is found to be sensitive to both τ Transient and the staging equivalence ratio. For a Modern gas turbine engines are typically operated in a lean-premixed configuration in order to meet emissions requirements. Lean operation makes gas turbines more susceptible to combustion instability, which can cause catastrophic hardware failure if left unchecked. The spatially uneven distribution of fuel in a gas turbine combustor, known as fuel staging, is an effective way of suppressing instabilities. This dissertation examines the effect of both steady-state and transient fuel-staging in a model gas turbine combustor. First, the steady-state effect of fuel staging on nominally unstable operating conditions is examined. At 200 degrees Celsius and a bulk flow velocity of 26 m/s, the combustor undergoes self-excited instabilities when the equivalence ratio is between φ = 0.70 and φ = 0.74 when all nozzles are fueled equally. These instabilities are suppressed when the center nozzle equivalence ratio is increased to φ Staging = 0.85 and the outer nozzle equivalence ratio maintained at φ = 0.70 or when the global equivalence ratio is maintained at φ = 0.70 by increasing the center nozzle equivalence ratio to φ Staging = 0.74 and decreasing the outer nozzle equivalence ratio to φ Staging = 0.69. The staged p' RMS amplitudes are found to decrease with increasing equivalence ratio and the damping rates found to increase with increasing equivalence ratio. Next, axisymmetric fuel staging transients are conducted valve opening/closing timescales of 1, 16, 58, 4,000, and 10,000 ms, and equivalence ratios of φ staging = 0.75, 0.80, 0.85. It should be noted that these valve opening/closing timescales, referred to as τ Transient , differ from the actual fuel convection timescale that are summarized in Table 5.2. It is found that the combustor pressure fluctuation at the end of the transient strongly depends on staging equivalence ratio but not on τ Transient . Increasing the staging equivalence ratio decreased the staged-stable combustor pressure amplitude, similarly to the steady-state results. The staged-stable damping rate trends are insensitive to to τ Transient and increased with increasing staging equivalence ratio. The timescale of the transition, τ, is found to be sensitive to both τ Transient and the staging equivalence ratio. For a Modern gas turbine engines are typically operated in a lean-premixed configuration in order to meet emissions requirements. Lean operation makes gas turbines more susceptible to combustion instability, which can cause catastrophic hardware failure if left unchecked. The spatially uneven distribution of fuel in a gas turbine combustor, known as fuel staging, is an effective way of suppressing instabilities. This dissertation examines the effect of both steady-state and transient fuel-staging in a model gas turbine combustor. First, the steady-state effect of fuel staging on nominally unstable operating conditions is examined. At 200 degrees Celsius and a bulk flow velocity of 26 m/s, the combustor undergoes self-excited instabilities when the equivalence ratio is between φ = 0.70 and φ = 0.74 when all nozzles are fueled equally. These instabilities are suppressed when the center nozzle equivalence ratio is increased to φ Staging = 0.85 and the outer nozzle equivalence ratio maintained at φ = 0.70 or when the global equivalence ratio is maintained at φ = 0.70 by increasing the center nozzle equivalence ratio to φ Staging = 0.74 and decreasing the outer nozzle equivalence ratio to φ Staging = 0.69. The staged p' RMS amplitudes are found to decrease with increasing equivalence ratio and the damping rates found to increase with increasing equivalence ratio. Next, axisymmetric fuel staging transients are conducted valve opening/closing timescales of 1, 16, 58, 4,000, and 10,000 ms, and equivalence ratios of φ staging = 0.75, 0.80, 0.85. It should be noted that these valve opening/closing timescales, referred to as τ Transient , differ from the actual fuel convection timescale that are summarized in Table 5.2. It is found that the combustor pressure fluctuation at the end of the transient strongly depends on staging equivalence ratio but not on τ Transient . Increasing the staging equivalence ratio decreased the staged- stable combustor pressure amplitude, similarly to the steady-state results. The staged-stable damping rate trends are insensitive to to τT Transient and increased with increasing staging equivalence ratio. The timescale of the transition, τ, is found to be sensitive to both τ Transient and the staging equivalence ratio. For a given τ Transient , the decay timescale decreased with increasing staging equivalence ratio. For 1, 16, and 58 ms transients, τ does not depend on τ Transient , though it does strongly depend on direction, where instability onset cases have longer and more variable τ than instability decay cases. The same dependence of τ on direction is seen for the 4,000 and 10,000 ms transients. However, unlike the short duration transients, τ does depend on τ Transient as would be expected. Phase space reconstruction shows the instability is a harmonic limit cycle with a single frequency. The instantaneous phase images shows the center region of the combustor goes out-of-phase first followed by the rest of the combustor. Finally, asymmetric fuel staging tests are conducted. It is found that non-axisymmetric staging can be as effective as axisymmetric staging, although small hardware variations between nozzles can affect the the minimum staging equivalence ratio that consistently suppresses the instability. These changes in the bifurcation equivalence ratio can make staging configurations appear less effective; however, both axisymmetric and non-axisymmetric staging configurations exhibit similar staged-stable p' RMS , damping rates, and instability transition times for equivalence ratios greater than the bifurcation equivalence ratio. Instantaneous phase images show similar instantaneous phase relationship structures in the staged nozzle (center or outer), suggesting that the instability suppression mechanism is similar in each case. This result is surprising given that the time-averaged flame shapes are very different between axisymmetric and non-axisymmetric staging configurations. The similar effectiveness of axisymmetric and non-axisymmetric staging in this geometry is attributed to the fact that the instability mode is a nominally axisymmetric plane wave. It is hypothesized that non-axisymmetric staging configurations will likely be more effective than axisymmetric staging configurations when the instability mode shape is asymmetric (such as a circumferential wave).

Culler, Wyatt↗
DOE OSTI2021

A Neural Lyapunov Approach to Transient Stability Assessment in Interconnected Microgrids

We propose a neural Lyapunov approach to assessing transient stability in power electronic-interfaced microgrid interconnections. The problem of transient stability assessment is cast as one of learning a neural network-structured Lyapunov function in the state space. Based on the function learned, a security region is estimated for monitoring the security of interconnected microgrids in real-time operation. The efficacy of the approach is tested and validated in a grid-connected microgrid and a three-microgrid interconnection. A comparison study suggests that the proposed method can achieve a less conservative characterization of the security region, as compared with a conventional approach.

Huang, Tong↗
DOE OSTI2014

CFD Model Development and validation for High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactor Cavity Cooling System (RCCS) Applications

The Reactor Cavity Cooling Systems (RCCS) is a passive safety system that will be incorporated in the VTHR design. The system was designed to remove the heat from the reactor cavity and maintain the temperature of structures and concrete walls under desired limits during normal operation (steady-state) and accident scenarios. A small scale (1:23) water-cooled experimental facility was scaled, designed, and constructed in order to study the complex thermohydraulic phenomena taking place in the RCCS during steady-state and transient conditions. The facility represents a portion of the reactor vessel with nine stainless steel coolant risers and utilizes water as coolant. The facility was equipped with instrumentation to measure temperatures and flow rates and a general verification was completed during the shakedown. A model of the experimental facility was prepared using RELAP5-3D and simulations were performed to validate the scaling procedure. The experimental data produced during the steady-state run were compared with the simulation results obtained using RELAP5-3D. The overall behavior of the facility met the expectations. The facility capabilities were confirmed to be very promising in performing additional experimental tests, including flow visualization, and produce data for code validation.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2012

Simulation of a main steam line break with steam generator tube rupture using trace

A simulation of the OECD/NEA ROSA-2 Project Test 5 was made with the thermal-hydraulic code TRACE5. Test 5 performed in the Large Scale Test Facility (LSTF) reproduced a Main Steam Line Break (MSLB) with a Steam Generator Tube Rupture (SGTR) in a Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR). The result of these simultaneous breaks is a depressurization in the secondary and primary system in loop B because both systems are connected through the SGTR. Good approximation was obtained between TRACE5 results and experimental data. TRACE5 reproduces qualitatively the phenomena that occur in this transient: primary pressure falls after the break, stagnation of the pressure after the opening of the relief valve of the intact steam generator, the pressure falls after the two openings of the PORV and the recovery of the liquid level in the pressurizer after each closure of the PORV. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis has been performed to know the effect of varying the High Pressure Injection (HPI) flow rate in both loops on the system pressures evolution. (authors)

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Compatibility Screening of Explosive‐Inert Mixtures

Inert materials are necessary components in explosive devices and they must be tested for compatibility with the explosive materials to ensure that the device will function as expected over its lifetime in representative environments. True compatibility testing is time-consuming and expensive and so compatibility screening is often used as an early assessment. The screening is carried out with analytical methods run at temperatures exceeding those that the device will encounter in its lifetime. Shortcomings of this approach are discussed and improvements using a transient contact method and microcalorimetry are proposed. Typical screening results and microcalorimetry results are compared for a polyurethane adhesive—PBX 9502 combination.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2023

HOLISMOKES IX. Neural network inference of strong-lens parameters and uncertainties from ground-based images

Modeling of strong gravitational lenses is a necessity for further applications in astrophysics and cosmology. With the large number of detections in current and upcoming surveys, such as the Rubin Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), it is pertinent to investigate automated and fast analysis techniques beyond the traditional and time-consuming Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling methods. Building upon our (simple) convolutional neural network (CNN), we present here another CNN, specifically a residual neural network (ResNet), that predicts the five mass parameters of a singular isothermal ellipsoid (SIE) profile (lens center x and y, ellipticity e x and e y , Einstein radius θ E ) and the external shear (γ ext, 1 , γ ext, 2 ) from ground-based imaging data. In contrast to our previous CNN, this ResNet further predicts the 1σ uncertainty for each parameter. To train our network, we use our improved pipeline to simulate lens images using real images of galaxies from the Hyper Suprime-Cam Survey (HSC) and from the Hubble Ultra Deep Field as lens galaxies and background sources, respectively. We find very good recoveries overall for the SIE parameters, especially for the lens center in comparison to our previous CNN, while significant differences remain in predicting the external shear. From our multiple tests, it appears that most likely the low ground-based image resolution is the limiting factor in predicting the external shear. Given the run time of milli-seconds per system, our network is perfectly suited to quickly predict the next appearing image and time delays of lensed transients. Therefore, we use the network-predicted mass model to estimate these quantities and compare to those values obtained from our simulations. Unfortunately, the achieved precision allows only a first-order estimate of time delays on real lens systems and requires further refinement through follow-up modeling. Nonetheless, our ResNet is able to predict the SIE and shear parameter values in fractions of a second on a single CPU, meaning that we are able to efficiently process the huge amount of galaxy-scale lenses expected in the near future.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Flow Assisted Evaporative Cooling for Electric Motor

This paper examines a novel concept of flow assisted latent heat driven two-phase evaporative cooling (EC) confined in-between slot liner and active-winding of electric motor. Wicking micro-structure enhanced PDMS liner axially sucks coolant in the form of thin film between the PDMS liner and active-winding and eventually enables thin film evaporation on the outer surface of the active-winding. Therefore, EC based thermal management eliminates contact resistance between the winding and slot-liner and, enhances the heat extraction from the winding without compromising the electro-magnetic performance. Two-way coupled electro-magnetic (EM) – computational fluid dynamics/heat transfer (CFD/HT) and EM - lumped parameter thermal network (LPTN) models have been developed to assess the electro-thermal performance of the EC under steady and transient conditions. Taking a case study of a 125 kW jacket cooled BMW i3 motor and dielectric coolant FC-84, EC is shown to be capable of handling a maximum steady state rms current density of 26 A/mm2 at a evaporative heat transfer coefficient of 5,000 W/m2.K, which is about 78.7% higher compared to the traditional jacket cooling (JC). In case of EC, a maximum steady state and transient rms current density of 30 A/mm2 (106.2% higher compared to the JC), and 40.8 A/mm2 have been realized by using high thermal conductivity epoxy (1.9 W/m.K) impregnation material. Thermal performance of the EC is also assessed and compared with JC over a dynamic drive cycle. Lastly, a motorette testing has been performed to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed EC method and to validate the developed modeling framework.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2015

Sorption Modeling and Verification for Off-Gas Treatment

The project has made progress toward developing a comprehensive modeling capability for the capture of target species in off gas evolved during the reprocessing of nuclear fuel. The effort has integrated experimentation, model development, and computer code development for adsorption and absorption processes. For adsorption, a modeling library has been initiated to include (a) equilibrium models for uptake of off-gas components by adsorbents, (b) mass transfer models to describe mass transfer to a particle, diffusion through the pores of the particle and adsorption on the active sites of the particle, and (c) interconnection of these models to fixed bed adsorption modeling which includes advection through the bed. For single-component equilibria, a Generalized Statistical Thermodynamic Adsorption (GSTA) code was developed to represent experimental data from a broad range of isotherm types; this is equivalent to a Langmuir isotherm in the two-parameter case, and was demonstrated for Kr on INL-engineered sorbent HZ PAN, water sorption on molecular sieve A sorbent material (MS3A), and Kr and Xe capture on metal-organic framework (MOF) materials. The GSTA isotherm was extended to multicomponent systems through application of a modified spreading pressure surface activity model and generalized predictive adsorbed solution theory; the result is the capability to estimate multicomponent adsorption equilibria from single-component isotherms. This advance, which enhances the capability to simulate systems related to off-gas treatment, has been demonstrated for a range of real-gas systems in the literature and is ready for testing with data currently being collected for multicomponent systems of interest, including iodine and water on MS3A. A diffusion kinetic model for sorbent pellets involving pore and surface diffusion as well as external mass transfer has been established, and a methodology was developed for determining unknown diffusivity parameters from transient uptake data. Two parallel approaches have been explored for integrating the kernels described above into a mass-transport model for adsorption in fixed beds. In one, the GSTA isotherm kernel has been incorporated into the MOOSE framework; in the other approach, a focused finite-difference framework and PDE kernels have been developed. Issues, including oscillatory behavior in MOOSE solutions to advection-diffusion problems, and opportunities have been identified for each approach, and a path forward has been identified toward developing a stronger modeling platform. Experimental systems were established for collection of microscopic kinetics and equilibria data for single and multicomponent uptake of gaseous species on solid sorbents. The systems, which can operate at ambient temperature to 250°C and dew points from -69 to 17°C, are useful for collecting data needed for modeling performance of sorbents of interest. Experiments were conducted to determine applicable models and parameters for isotherms and mass transfer for water and/or iodine adsorption on MS3A. Validation experiments were also conducted for water adsorption on fixed beds of MS3A. For absorption, work involved modeling with supportive experimentation. A dynamic model was developed to simulate CO 2 absorption with chemical reaction using high alkaline content water solutions. A computer code was developed to implement the model based upon transient mass and energy balances. Experiments were conducted in a laboratory-scale column to determine model parameters. The influence of geometric parameters and operating variables on CO 2 absorption was studied over a wide range of conditions. This project has resulted in 7 publications, with 3 manuscripts in preparation. Also, 15 presentations were given at national meetings of ANS and AIChE and at Material Recovery and Waste Forms Campaign Working Group meetings.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Physics-Informed Neural Network Solution of Point Kinetics Equations for a Nuclear Reactor Digital Twin

A digital twin (DT) for nuclear reactor monitoring can be implemented using either a differential equations-based physics model or a data-driven machine learning model. The challenge of a physics-model-based DT consists of achieving sufficient model fidelity to represent a complex experimental system, whereas the challenge of a data-driven DT consists of extensive training requirements and a potential lack of predictive ability. We investigate the performance of a hybrid approach, which is based on physics-informed neural networks (PINNs) that encode fundamental physical laws into the loss function of the neural network. We develop a PINN model to solve the point kinetic equations (PKEs), which are time-dependent, stiff, nonlinear, ordinary differential equations that constitute a nuclear reactor reduced-order model under the approximation of ignoring spatial dependence of the neutron flux. The PINN model solution of PKEs is developed to monitor the start-up transient of Purdue University Reactor Number One (PUR-1) using experimental parameters for the reactivity feedback schedule and the neutron source. The results demonstrate strong agreement between the PINN solution and finite difference numerical solution of PKEs. We investigate PINNs performance in both data interpolation and extrapolation. For the test cases considered, the extrapolation errors are comparable to those of interpolation predictions. Extrapolation accuracy decreases with increasing time interval.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2022

SNAD transient miner: Finding missed transient events in ZTF DR4 using k-D trees

Here we report the automatic detection of 11 transients (7 possible supernovae and 4 active galactic nuclei candidates) within the Zwicky Transient Facility fourth data release (ZTF DR4), all of them observed in 2018 and absent from public catalogs. Among these, three were not part of the ZTF alert stream. Our transient mining strategy employs 41 physically motivated features extracted from both real light curves and four simulated light curve models (SN Ia, SN II, TDE, SLSN-I). These features are input to a k-D tree algorithm, from which we calculate the 15 nearest neighbors. After pre-processing and selection cuts, our dataset contained approximately a million objects among which we visually inspected the 105 closest neighbors from seven of our brightest, most well-sampled simulations, comprising 89 unique ZTF DR4 sources. Our result illustrates the potential of coherently incorporating domain knowledge and automatic learning algorithms, which is one of the guiding principles directing the SNAD team. It also demonstrates that the ZTF DR is a suitable testing ground for data mining algorithms aiming to prepare for the next generation of astronomical data.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Poly(lactic acid)-Based Ink for Biodegradable Printed Electronics With Conductivity Enhanced through Solvent Aging

Biodegradable electronics is a rapidly growing field, and the development of controllably biodegradable, high-conductivity materials suitable for additive manufacturing under ambient conditions remains a challenge. Here, printable conductive pastes that employ poly(lactic acid) (PLA) as a binder and tungsten as a conductor are demonstrated. These composite conductors can provide enhanced stability in applications where moisture may be present, such as environmental monitoring or agriculture. Post-processing the printed traces using a solvent-aging technique increases their conductivity by up to 2 orders of magnitude, with final conductivities approaching 5000 S/m. Such techniques could prove useful when thermal processes including heating or laser sintering are limited by the temperature constraints of typical biodegradable substrates. Finally, both accelerated oxidative and hydrolytic degradation of the printed composite conductors are examined, and a fully biodegradable capacitive soil moisture sensor is fabricated and tested.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2016

Numeric Modified Adomian Decomposition Method for Power System Simulations

This paper investigates the applicability of numeric Wazwaz El Sayed modified Adomian Decomposition Method (WES-ADM) for time domain simulation of power systems. WESADM is a numerical method based on a modified Adomian decomposition (ADM) technique. WES-ADM is a numerical approximation method for the solution of nonlinear ordinary differential equations. The non-linear terms in the differential equations are approximated using Adomian polynomials. In this paper WES-ADM is applied to time domain simulations of multimachine power systems. WECC 3-generator, 9-bus system and IEEE 10-generator, 39-bus system have been used to test the applicability of the approach. Several fault scenarios have been tested. It has been found that the proposed approach is faster than the trapezoidal method with comparable accuracy.

Adomian Decomposition↗
DOE OSTI2016

Mitigating Interconnection Challenges of the High Penetration Utility-Interconnected Photovoltaic (PV) in the Electrical Distribution Systems: Cooperative Research and Development Final Report, CRADA Number CRD-14-563

Various interconnection challenges exist when connecting distributed PV into the electrical distribution grid in terms of safety, reliability, and stability of the electric power systems. Some of the urgent areas for research, as identified by inverter manufacturers, installers and utilities, are potential for transient overvoltage from PV inverters, multi-inverter anti-islanding, impact of smart inverters on volt-VAR support, impact of bidirectional power flow, and potential for distributed generation curtailment solutions to mitigate grid stability challenges. Under this project, NREL worked with SolarCity to address these challenges through research, testing and analysis at the Energy System Integration Facility (ESIF). Inverters from different manufacturers were tested at ESIF and NREL's unique power hardware-in-the-loop (PHIL) capability was utilized to evaluate various system-level impacts. Through the modeling, simulation, and testing, this project eliminated critical barriers on high PV penetration and directly supported the Department of Energy's SunShot goal of increasing the solar PV on the electrical grid.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Control Oriented Models for Co-Design: Technical Overview of MT HVDC, MVDC, and Solid State Transformer Building Blocks

The electric power system is shifting toward a power electronics–enabled grid, where converter based “building blocks” (e.g., high voltage direct current (HVDC) links, multi terminal HVDC (MT HVDC) networks, medium voltage DC (MVDC) links, and solid state transformers (SSTs)) provide fast, precise control of power flows, voltage, and frequency. This report develops and applies publicly shareable electromagnetic transient (EMT) and phasor models to examine how such building blocks can be composed and coordinated to support offshore wind integration, inter area transfers, feeder support, and resilience. Section 2 documents a modular multilevel converter (MMC)–based MT HVDC modeling framework and two use cases: a compact WSCC/IEEE 9 bus test system and a 240 bus “mini WECC” case with five offshore wind plants (OWFs). Phasor to EMT transfer, initialization, and sanity checks are summarized, and neutral demonstrations of normal and contingency operation are reported. Section 3 frames the problem of wind plant inertial frequency response (IFR): shaping energy release and recovery to improve nadir while avoiding aerodynamic stall; representative simulations illustrate the issues without disclosing proprietary control. Section 4 develops MVDC concepts through an IEEE 16 bus loop and an Olympic Peninsula case study that compares AC vs. MVDC corridors and shows how feeder headroom can be pooled via DC couplers. Section 5 surveys SST architectures and identifies a gap: scalable, communication free coordination of multiple SSTs for islanded feeder networks. Across the report, novel methods and configurations under separate publication and IP review are not disclosed; only topic oriented, replicable setups and non proprietary results are shown. These models and use cases are intended as foundations for future publications and co design studies on architecture, control, and coordination of PE enabled grids.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2024

Analysis of Grid-Forming Inverter Controls for Grid-Connected and Islanded Microgrid Integration

Autonomous grid-forming (GFM) inverter testbeds with scalable platforms have attracted interest recently. In this study, a self-synchronized universal droop controller (SUDC) was adopted, tested, and scaled in a small network and a test feeder using a real-time simulation tool to operate microgrids without synchronous generators. We presented a novel GFM inverter control adoption to better understand the dynamic behavior of the inverters and their scalability, which can impact the distribution system (DS). This paper provides a steady-state and transient analysis of the GFM power inverter controller via simulation to better understand voltage and frequency stabilization and ensure that the critical electric loads are not affected during a prolonged power outage. The controllers of the GFM inverter are simulated in HYPERSIM to examine voltage and frequency fluctuations. This analysis includes assessing the black start capability for photovoltaic microgrids, both grid-connected and islanded, during transient fault conditions. The high photovoltaic PV penetration levels open exciting opportunities and challenges for the DS. The GFM inverter control demonstrated appropriate response times for synchronization, connection, and disconnection to the grid. The DS has become more resilient and independent of fossil fuels by increasing the penetration of inverter-based distributed energy resources (DERs).

Ward, Laura (ORCID:0000000345501581)↗