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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 1,603 records · Page 89
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2019

Improving estimates of transmission capital costs for utility-scale wind and solar projects to inform renewable energy policy

Estimating the overall costs of transmission needed to integrate variable renewable energy (VRE) onto the grid is challenging. An improved understanding of these transmission costs would support electricity system planning as VRE penetrations increase. This paper brackets VRE transmission capital costs using multiple approaches based on interconnection studies, actual transmission projects, capacity-expansion simulation models, and aggregated U.S. VRE-related transmission expenditures. Each approach possesses advantages and drawbacks, and combining the approaches lends confidence to the results. The resulting range of average levelized VRE transmission costs is 1– 10 dollars/MWh, which is generally lower than earlier estimates in the literature. These transmission capital costs can increase the direct plant-level levelized cost of VRE by 3%–33%, based on levelized costs of energy of 29– 56 dollars/MWh for utility-scale wind and 36–46 dollars/MWh for utility-scale solar. As VRE deployment continues to expand, policy makers can use this information to (1) assess the benefits of transmission avoidance and deferral when comparing distributed energy resources versus utility-scale projects, (2) evaluate the potential costs of large-scale public transmission investments, and (3) better analyze system-level costs of utility-scale VRE technologies. Future research can expand on the framework presented here by providing a review of operation and maintenance costs for transmission systems.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2018

Predicting the effectiveness of different mulching techniques in reducing post-fire runoff and erosion at plot scale with the RUSLE, MMF and PESERA models

Highlights: • RUSLE, MMF and PESERA, were able to predict the erosive response in burned areas and their mitigation. • These models can be calibrated at a small spatial scale and provide accurate results at greater spatial scales. • RUSLE model ideal for fast and simple risk assessment. • MMF or PESERA models could be the base of a post-fire management decision tool. Wildfires have become a recurrent threat for many Mediterranean forest ecosystems. The characteristics of the Mediterranean climate, with its warm and dry summers and mild and wet winters, make this a region prone to wildfire occurrence as well as to post-fire soil erosion. This threat is expected to be aggravated in the future due to climate change and land management practices and planning. The wide recognition of wildfires as a driver for runoff and erosion in burnt forest areas has created a strong demand for model-based tools for predicting the post-fire hydrological and erosion response and, in particular, for predicting the effectiveness of post-fire management operations to mitigate these responses. In this study, the effectiveness of two post-fire treatments (hydromulch and natural pine needle mulch) in reducing post-fire runoff and soil erosion was evaluated against control conditions (i.e. untreated conditions), at different spatial scales. The main objective of this study was to use field data to evaluate the ability of different erosion models: (i) empirical (RUSLE), (ii) semi-empirical (MMF), and (iii) physically-based (PESERA), to predict the hydrological and erosive response as well as the effectiveness of different mulching techniques in fire-affected areas. The results of this study showed that all three models were reasonably able to reproduce the hydrological and erosive processes occurring in burned forest areas. In addition, it was demonstrated that the models can be calibrated at a small spatial scale (0.5 m{sup 2}) but provide accurate results at greater spatial scales (10 m{sup 2}). From this work, the RUSLE model seems to be ideal for fast and simple applications (i.e. prioritization of areas-at-risk) mainly due to its simplicity and reduced data requirements. On the other hand, the more complex MMF and PESERA models would be valuable as a base of a possible tool for assessing the risk of water contamination in fire-affected water bodies and for testing different land management scenarios.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2016

Multi-scale diffuse interface modeling of multi-component two-phase flow with partial miscibility

In this paper, we introduce a diffuse interface model to simulate multi-component two-phase flow with partial miscibility based on a realistic equation of state (e.g. Peng–Robinson equation of state). Because of partial miscibility, thermodynamic relations are used to model not only interfacial properties but also bulk properties, including density, composition, pressure, and realistic viscosity. As far as we know, this effort is the first time to use diffuse interface modeling based on equation of state for modeling of multi-component two-phase flow with partial miscibility. In numerical simulation, the key issue is to resolve the high contrast of scales from the microscopic interface composition to macroscale bulk fluid motion since the interface has a nanoscale thickness only. To efficiently solve this challenging problem, we develop a multi-scale simulation method. At the microscopic scale, we deduce a reduced interfacial equation under reasonable assumptions, and then we propose a formulation of capillary pressure, which is consistent with macroscale flow equations. Moreover, we show that Young–Laplace equation is an approximation of this capillarity formulation, and this formulation is also consistent with the concept of Tolman length, which is a correction of Young–Laplace equation. At the macroscopical scale, the interfaces are treated as discontinuous surfaces separating two phases of fluids. Our approach differs from conventional sharp-interface two-phase flow model in that we use the capillary pressure directly instead of a combination of surface tension and Young–Laplace equation because capillarity can be calculated from our proposed capillarity formulation. A compatible condition is also derived for the pressure in flow equations. Furthermore, based on the proposed capillarity formulation, we design an efficient numerical method for directly computing the capillary pressure between two fluids composed of multiple components. Finally, numerical tests are carried out to verify the effectiveness of the proposed multi-scale method.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2023

Detailed comparison of renormalization scale-setting procedures based on the principle of maximum conformality

The Principle of Maximum Conformality (PMC), which generalizes the conventional Gell-Mann-Low method for scale-setting in perturbative QED to non-Abelian QCD, provides a rigorous method for achieving unambiguous scheme-independent, fixed-order predictions for physical observables consistent with the principles of the renormalization group. In addition to the original multi-scale-setting approach (PMCm), two variations of the PMC have been proposed to deal with ambiguities associated with the uncalculated higher order terms in the pQCD series, i.e. the single-scale-setting approach (PMCs) and the procedures based on ``intrinsic conformality" (PMC ∞ ). In this paper, we will give a detailed comparison of these PMC approaches by comparing their predictions for three important quantities R e+e– , R τ , and $Γ(H→b\bar{b}$) up to four-loop pQCD corrections. The PMCs approach determines an overall effective running coupling α s (Q) by the recursive use of the renormalization group equation, whose argument Q represents the actual momentum flow of the process. Our numerical results show that the PMCs method, which involves a somewhat simpler analysis, can serve as a reliable substitute for the full multi-scale PMCm method, and that it leads to more precise pQCD predictions with small residual scale dependence.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Femtosecond laser induced breakdown spectroscopy of Cu at the micron/sub-micron scale

While femtosecond Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy has been studied in the macro-scale (i.e. ablation crater sizes of tens to hundreds of micrometers), the spectral emission mechanisms at the micron/sub-micron scale remain largely unknown, mainly because of the challenges associated with spectral emission acquisition from the limited amounts of ablated mass at these small lengthscales. In this work we study the limits of detection, the laser-induced plasma properties and spectral emission efficiency of Cu at the micron/submicron scale. Although the corresponding number electron densities and temperatures are similar to those reported for macroscale laser ablation, our findings suggest less efficient luminous spectral emission per ablated volume as we scale down in laser energy and crater sizes. Furthermore, these results provide a first insight into fs laser-induced plasma properties at the micron/sub-micron scale regime.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2015

Micro-scale energy valorization of grape marcs in winery production plants

Highlights: • BioMethane Potential of grape marcs was investigated. • Grape marcs were characterized to realize a micro-scale energy recovery. • Comparative BMP batch-tests utilizing lab-scale reactors were performed. • Biogas valorization by grape marcs anaerobic digestion at small scale is evaluated. - Abstract: The BiochemicalMethanePotential (BMP) of winery organic waste, with reference to two Italian red and white grapes (i.e. Nero Buono and Greco) by-products was investigated. The study was carried out to verify the possibility to reduce the production impact in a green-waste-management-chain-perspective. The possibility to efficiently utilize wine-related-by-products for energy production at a micro-scale (i.e. small-medium scale winery production plant) was also verified. Results showed as a good correlation can be established between the percentage of COD removal and the biogas production, as the winery can produce, from its waste methanization, about 7800 kW h year{sup −1} electrical and 8900 kW h year{sup −1} thermal. A critical evaluation was performed about the possibility to utilize the proposed approach to realize an optimal biomass waste management and an energetic valorization in a local-energy-production-perspective.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2019

Improved scaling laws for the shock-induced dispersal of a dense particle curtain

Here, experiments were performed within Sandia National Labs’ Multiphase Shock Tube to measure and quantify the shock-induced dispersal of a shock/dense particle curtain interaction. Following interaction with a planar travelling shock wave, schlieren imaging at 75 kHz was used to track the upstream and downstream edges of the curtain. Data were obtained for two particle diameter ranges ( $d_{p}=106{-}125$ , $300{-}355~\unicode[STIX]{x03BC}\text{m}$ ) across Mach numbers ranging from 1.24 to 2.02. Using these data, along with data compiled from the literature, the dispersion of a dense curtain was studied for multiple Mach numbers (1.2–2.6), particle sizes ( $100{-}1000~\unicode[STIX]{x03BC}\text{m}$ ) and volume fractions (9–32 %). Data were non-dimensionalized according to two different scaling methods found within the literature, with time scales defined based on either particle propagation time or pressure ratio across a reflected shock. The data refelct that spreading of the particle curtain is a function of the volume fraction, with the effectiveness of each time scale based on the proximity of a given curtain’s volume fraction to the dilute mixture regime. It is observed that volume fraction corrections applied to a traditional particle propagation time scale result in the best collapse of the data between the two time scales tested here. In addition, a constant-thickness regime has been identified, which has not been noted within previous literature.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2021

Prediction of Transition-State Scaling Relationships and Universal Transition-State Vibrational and Entropic Correlations for Dehydrogenations

Linear scaling relationships (LSRs) and Brønsted–Evans–Polanyi (BEP) or transition-state scaling (TSS) relations aid with the prediction of electronic energies. However, temperature effects and pre-exponentials are often taken as constants across metal surfaces or a homologous series. Vibrational scaling relationships (VSRs) offer a way to determine such parameters. Transition-state VSRs (TSVSRs) between local minima and transition states of AH X (A = C, N, O) surface diffusions correlate with BEP relations and broaden to thermochemical property scaling. Using density functional theory, we extend TSVSRs to AHX dehydrogenation reactions on transition-metal surfaces, relating vibrational modes of local minima to transition states. We first predict the slopes of the TSS relations by incorporating bond angles using the Slater–Koster structure factors and hybridization through crystal orbital overlap population analysis and energy overlap integrals between adsorbates and metal surfaces. Additionally, we uncover universal thermochemical property scaling, enabling the estimation of entropies and temperature corrections to enthalpies across a homologous series. Here, we demonstrate both significant vibrational corrections in reactions with low intrinsic electronic barriers and considerable variation in the pre-exponential of a simple dehydrogenation reaction across metals and AH X adsorbates.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2021

Altering Linear Scaling Relationships on Metal Catalysts via Ligand–Adsorbate Hydrogen Bonding

Linear scaling relationships for adsorption energies of related molecules provide a simple tool for the prediction of catalytic properties and also reveal inherent constraints in heterogeneous catalyst design. In an effort to predict materials that preferentially stabilize intermediates capable of forming hydrogen bonds (H-bonds) and thus reduce these constraints, scaling relations for thiolate-coated fcc (111) surfaces were developed. Here, we demonstrate how ligand–adsorbate H-bonds lead to the stabilization of certain adsorbates and how this affects the linear scaling of adsorption energies for similarly bound intermediates. For H-bonds that occur remote from the surface, ligand–adsorbate H-bond strength is independent of metal composition and instead depends only on the acidities of the H-bond-forming functional groups. As the distance of H-bond-accepting groups from the surface decreases and interactions with the metal strengthen, the effect of surface composition on H-bond strength increases while additional factors, such as conformational changes and steric hinderance, can offset the stabilizing effect of the ligands. In this work, these competing factors may influence both the slope and y-intercept of adsorption strength scaling. These findings aid the rational design of enhanced catalytic materials by enabling the screening of ligand- or spectator-modified materials that do not conform to the linear scaling relations of bare metal surfaces.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Large-Scale Compatibilization of Postconsumer Polyolefins in the Presence of Paraffin Wax as a Rheology Modifier

Postconsumer polyolefins (r-POs) are leading plastic waste contributors today. This study reports, for the first time, the compatibilization of r-POs at a 50 kilogram (kg) scale with a styrene block copolymer compatibilizer in the presence of paraffin waxes as rheology modifiers (RMs). The addition of the rheological modifier (RM) and compatibilizer enhances the melt flow indices (MFIs) and mechanical properties, respectively. One aspect of this study is to compare the effectiveness of low-cost paraffin wax to that of specialized and expensive RMs in r-POs. The mechanical and rheological properties such as the melt flow index (MFI) of r-POs were compared in the presence of two types of RMs. Next, the study explores the challenges encountered when scaling the compatibilization of r-POs in the presence of paraffin wax from a 10-g to a 50-kg scale. The mechanical properties were determined and compared for samples at different scales. The study further investigated the effect of the method used for blending paraffin wax with r-PO and its impact on the value of their MFI and mechanical properties. This at-scale validation could pave the way for the commercialization of r-POs.

crystallinity↗
DOE OSTI2018

Experimental Testing Scale Considerations for the Investigation of Bare‐Soil Evaporation Dynamics in the Presence of Sustained Above‐Ground Airflow

Abstract At the fundamental process level, many of the concepts that form the foundation of our understanding of bare‐soil evaporation dynamics have advanced little since their initial formation. This investigation explores experimental scaling issues that should be considered during the study of bare‐soil evaporation dynamics under conditions of sustained above‐ground airflow. Results are presented from a series of large‐scale laboratory experiments conducted for various soil conditions (i.e., heterogeneity and surface roughness). Fundamental experimental research of this nature is not feasible in the field or small laboratory columns that are limited by system control and scale. All experimentation was therefore conducted in a test facility that couples a climate‐controlled, low‐speed wind tunnel with a 7.15‐m‐long soil tank—allowing for control over soil properties and initial and boundary conditions. Measured flow phenomena supported, and agreed well with, existing wind tunnel and field study literature. These data were in turn, used to explain observed evaporative water loss and soil moisture distribution spatiotemporal trends and patterns. Results demonstrated that relatively large length scales are required for the impacts of atmospheric feedbacks on the subsurface hydrodynamics to manifest themselves and become quantifiable. Airflow had the greatest impact in the case of a flat homogeneous soil; the strength of this feedback was significantly weaker in the presence of soil heterogeneities and surface undulations that were dominated by other transport phenomena. Comparison of these results with those of past studies furthermore cautions against the use of column scale data to make generalizations about bare‐soil evaporation dynamic upscaling.

Trautz, Andrew C.↗
DOE OSTI2019

Size of the Atmospheric Blocking Events: Scaling Law and Response to Climate Change

Abstract Understanding the response of atmospheric blocking events to climate change has been of great interest in recent years. However, potential changes in the blocking area (size), which can affect the spatiotemporal characteristics of the resulting extreme events, have not received much attention. Using two large‐ensemble, fully coupled general circulation model (GCM) simulations, we show that the size of blocking events increases with climate change, particularly in the Northern Hemisphere (by as much as 17%). Using a two‐layer quasi‐geostrophic model and a dimensional analysis technique, we derive a scaling law for the size of blocking events, which shows that area mostly scales with width of the jet times the Kuo scale (i.e., the length of stationary Rossby waves). The scaling law is validated in a range of idealized GCM simulations. Predictions of this scaling law agree well with changes in blocking events' size under climate change in fully coupled GCMs in winters but not in summers.

Nabizadeh, Ebrahim↗
DOE OSTI2021

Scale-Dependent Bedform Migration and Deformation in the Physical and Spectral Domains

Multi-scale bathymetries observed in laboratory channels and natural rivers have posed several challenges to the description of bedform geometry and kinematics. To better quantify scale-dependent migration velocity, high resolution spatio-temporal bed evolution data are analyzed using three independent methods: (i) a bedform tracking method that identifies individual bedforms in longitudinal bed elevation profiles, (ii) a cross-correlation based, image matching technique in consecutive bathymetry scans similar to Particle Image Velocimetry, and (iii) two-dimensional frequency-wavenumber spectra marking a dispersion relation between bedform period and length, allowing estimation of Fourier-based, scale-dependent migration velocities. The comparative studies show that the spectral and bedform tracking methods present small differences in the migration velocity of medium-large bedforms. However, significant deviations occur in the small bedforms, mostly due to bedform sheltering or amplified exposure to the flow, which also contribute to their enhanced scale-dependent deformation. The analysis also shows that some form of scale separation is needed to extract the large and slowly migrating bedforms as they are masked by secondary features when several bedform orders coexist. Bathymetric Image Velocimetry reasonably estimates the averaged migration velocity and exhibits potential to study relations between spanwise bed surface velocity and local bedform kinematics.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

How Does Land Cover and Its Heterogeneity Length Scales Affect the Formation of Summertime Shallow Cumulus Clouds in Observations From the US Southern Great Plains?

This study investigates the effects of heterogeneous land covers on shallow cumulus (ShCu) clouds at the US Southern Great Plains using high-resolution satellite and land cover data. During late summer, ShCu occurs over cities the most frequently and over open waters the least frequently, and more often over forest than over grassland. The preferential occurrence of ShCu over forest relative to grassland is consistent with surface measurements showing larger heat fluxes over forests. This preferential occurrence also varies with the length scales of land patches with the largest cloud occurrence difference shifting from smaller length scales (<9 km) during midday to larger scales (>9 km) in the early afternoon. Consistent with theory, these signals are more pronounced under low wind conditions. The preferential length scale shift with time suggests the existence of secondary circulations that strengthen and promote convergence over larger spatial scales as the differential land surface heating intensifies.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Formulation of a Consistent Multi‐Species Canopy Description for Hydrodynamic Models Embedded in Large‐Scale Land‐Surface Representations of Mixed‐Forests

Abstract The plant hydrodynamic approach represents a recent advancement to land surface modeling, in which stomatal conductance responds to water availability in the xylem rather than in the soil. To provide a realistic representation of tree hydrodynamics, hydrodynamic models must resolve processes at the level of a single modeled tree, and then scale the resulting fluxes to the canopy and land surface. While this tree‐to‐canopy scaling is trivial in a homogeneous canopy, mixed‐species canopies require careful representation of the species properties and a scaling approach that results in a realistic description of both the canopy and individual‐tree hydrodynamics, as well as leaf‐level fluxes from the canopy and their forcing. Here, we outline advantages and pitfalls of three commonly used approaches for representing mixed forests in land surface models and present a new framework for scaling vegetation characteristics and fluxes in mixed forests. The new formulation scales fluxes from the tree to canopy level in an energy‐ and mass‐conservative way and allows for a consistent multi‐species/multi‐type canopy description by hydrodynamic models.

Bohrer, G.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Physics–Informed Neural Networks of the Saint–Venant Equations for Downscaling a Large–Scale River Model

Large-scale river models are being refined over coastal regions to improve the scientific understanding of coastal processes, hazards and responses to climate change. However, coarse mesh resolutions and approximations in physical representations of tidal rivers limit the performance of such models at resolving the complex flow dynamics near the river-ocean interface, resulting in inaccurate simulations of flood inundation. In this research, we propose a machine learning (ML) framework based on the state-of-the-art physics-informed neural network (PINN) to simulate the downscaled flow at the subgrid scale. First, we demonstrate that PINN is able to assimilate observations of various types and solve the one-dimensional (1-D) Saint-Venant equations (SVE) directly. We perform the flow simulations over a floodplain and along an open channel in several synthetic case studies. The PINN performance is evaluated against analytical solutions and numerical models. Our results indicate that the PINN solutions of water depth have satisfactory accuracy with limited observations assimilated. In the case of flood wave propagation induced by storm surge and tide, a new neural network architecture is proposed based on Fourier feature embeddings that seamlessly encodes the periodic tidal boundary condition in the PINN's formulation. Furthermore, we show that the PINN-based downscaling can produce more reasonable subgrid solutions of the along-channel water depth by assimilating observational data. The PINN solution outperforms the simple linear interpolation in resolving the topography and dynamic flow regimes at the subgrid scale. This study provides a promising path towards improving emulation capabilities in large-scale models to characterize fine-scale coastal processes.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Air‐Ice‐Ocean Coupling During a Strong Mid‐Winter Cyclone: Observing Coupled Dynamic Interactions Across Scales

Abstract Arctic cyclones are key drivers of sea ice and ocean variability. During the 2019–2020 Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition, joint observations of the coupled air‐ice‐ocean system were collected at multiple spatial scales. Here, we present observations of a strong mid‐winter cyclone that impacted the MOSAiC site as it drifted in the central Arctic pack ice. The sea ice dynamical response showed spatial structure at the scale of the evolving and translating cyclonic wind field. Internal ice stress and ocean stress play significant roles, resulting in timing offsets between the atmospheric forcing and the ice response and post‐cyclone inertial ringing in the ice and ocean. Ice motion in response to the wind field then forces the upper ocean currents through frictional drag. The strongest impacts to the sea ice and ocean from the passing cyclone occur as a result of the surface impacts of a strong atmospheric low‐level jet (LLJ) behind the trailing cold front and changing wind directions between the warm‐sector LLJ and post cold‐frontal LLJ. Impacts of the cyclone are prolonged through the coupled ice‐ocean inertial response. Local impacts of the approximately 120 km wide LLJ occur over a 12 hr period or less and at scales of a kilometer to a few tens of kilometers, meaning that these impacts occur at combined smaller spatial scales and faster time scales than most satellite observations and coupled Earth system models can resolve.

Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences↗
DOE OSTI2017

Observing a scale anomaly and a universal quantum phase transition in graphene

One of the most interesting predictions resulting from quantum physics, is the violation of classical symmetries, collectively referred to as anomalies. A remarkable class of anomalies occurs when the continuous scale symmetry of a scale-free quantum system is broken into a discrete scale symmetry for a critical value of a control parameter. This is an example of a (zero temperature) quantum phase transition. Such an anomaly takes place for the quantum inverse square potential known to describe ‘Efimov physics’. Broken continuous scale symmetry into discrete scale symmetry also appears for a charged and massless Dirac fermion in an attractive 1/r Coulomb potential. Furthermore, the purpose of this article is to demonstrate the universality of this quantum phase transition and to present convincing experimental evidence of its existence for a charged and massless fermion in an attractive Coulomb potential as realized in graphene.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗