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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 163 records · Page 9
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2020

Experimental Validation of Calorimetric Electron Capture Spectral Theory with 193 Pt

Using microcalorimeters, a high statistics, high-resolution calorimetric spectrum of electron capture in 163 Ho can be used to determine the neutrino mass. The spectral shape can be calculated from first principles with various assumptions and approximations. To determine the validity of these choices, the theoretical calculations must be compared to data from multiple isotopes. In this work, new calorimetric data for a 193 Pt-in-Pt absorber measured with a transition edge sensor are presented and compared to theoretical calculations and values from the literature.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Experimental validation of the mechanistic scale-up methodology of gas–solid spouted beds using radioactive particle tracking (RPT)

The very high-temperature reactors (VHTRs) are highly ranked among candidates of Generation IV of nuclear reactors due to their high efficiency, safety, the resistance to proliferation, and reliability. The VHTRs are preferentially fueled by Tristructural-isometric (TRISO) coated fuel particles which has fuel kernels of fissile material coated by four coating layers: a porous buffer pyrolysis carbon layer (buffer PyC), an inner dense pyrolysis carbon layer (IPyC), a silicon carbide layer (SiC) and an outer dense pyrolysis carbon layer (OPyC). The heart of the operation and safety of the VHTRs significantly depends on the reliability of the coating layers of TRISO particles to retain metallic and gaseous fission products within the particles. The technique used for coating TRISO particles are gas-solids spouted beds via chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Fabrication of high-quality low-defect TRISO fuel particles fuel at larger scale spouted beds is required to support the commercialization of the VHTRs. In this work, our new developed mechanistic scale-up methodology of gas-solids spouted beds based on matching the radial profile of gas-holdup has been demonstrated and validated using radioactive particle tracking (RPT). Two spouted beds of small and larger scales were used in the study. Three sets of conditions were carried out which include the conditions of the reference case in the large scale, conditions that provide similar gas holdup radial profile to that of the reference case and conditions that provided dissimilar gas holdup radial in the small-scale spouted beds. The results confirm the validation of the scale-up methodology in terms of the dimensionless values of the spout diameter, cumulative probability distribution of the solids particles penetration into the spout, fraction of cycle time in each region of the bed, the radial profiles of the dimensionless values of the root-mean-square particle velocities and solids eddy diffusivity. Finally, the results further advance the knowledge and understanding of the gas-solids spouted beds provide deeper insight into their solids dynamics and presenting important benchmarking data for validating computational fluid dynamics codes and models. At last, procedures are established for the implementation of the new scale-up methodology.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Intensified biogas to liquid (IBGTL) Process: Experimental validation and modeling analysis

The Intensified Biogas to Liquid (IBGTL) process aims to overcome traditional economy-of-scale barriers in biogas-to-liquid fuel production by integrating bi-reforming and Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS) in a single IBGTL reactor. This reactor operates at uniform pressure with different optimized temperatures across two zones for efficient conversion, utilizing multifunctional bi-reforming catalysts and high-temperature FTS catalysts. Bench scale experiments were carried out using landfill gas (LFG) in a single pass process, and the yield data from these experiments were fed into process scale-up design and techno-economic analysis (TEA) across four scenarios: (1) a single pass process, (2) a process with material recycling, (3) a process with liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) co-product recovery, and (4) a process with electricity generation from the fuel gas produced. TEA identified Scenario 2 as the most cost-effective, achieving a Minimum Fuel Selling Price (MFSP) of $\$4.59$ per gallon, competitive with the current national diesel price of $\$4.7$ per gallon. However, comparison with the conventional two-reactor system highlights the need for catalyst performance improvements. Sensitivity analysis emphasized the importance of manufacturing cost, liquid fuel yield, and biogas flow rate. Further analysis determined that the IBGTL process must achieve a diesel mass yield beyond 11.7% to surpass the economic viability of the conventional TriFTS (Tri-reforming followed by Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis) process. If the IBGTL process attains the TriFTS yield of up to 17%, the resulting MFSP could be approximately 31% lower than the current TriFTS MFSP. Furthermore, renewable energy credits and carbon credits can further enhance the economic viability of BGTL processes.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Physical model and experimental validation of a high temperature proton exchange membrane electrochemical hydrogen pump cell for efficient single-stage extraction of low concentration hydrogen gas

There is interest in valorization of existing natural gas infrastructure to facilitate the co-transportation of hydrogen via blending of hydrogen gas initially at limited concentrations of 1–20 vol% H2 and to subsequently extract hydrogen at fuel cell quality standards (SAE J2719/ISO14687-2). High temperature proton exchange membrane electrochemical hydrogen pump (HT-PEM EHP) based on phosphoric acid doped polybenzimidazole (PA-PBI) exhibits good performance at elevated temperatures (>120 °C), which provides desirable tolerance to non-methane natural gas constituents that are problematic for lower temperature based EHP. To better understand the suitability of the HT-PEM EHP for such gas separation processes, a two-dimensional model of EHP based on PA-PBI was developed. The model is validated for several relevant operating conditions and across cells with differing amounts of phosphoric acid content in the electrodes. Operando micro x-ray computed tomography (CT) imaging of an HT-PEM EHP was used to further validate physical parameters and assumptions of the model. The impacts of pressure, relative humidity of the anode feed, and concentration of feed gases on separation performance are investigated. This study shows that a specific energy of separation of 5.1 kWh/kg H2 at a hydrogen recovery factor (HRF) of 50 vol% can be achieved in a single stage with the EHP, producing fuel cell quality hydrogen purity of 99.99 vol% H2 from a 2 vol% H2/CH4 feed blend, while pressurizing the product H2 at a pressure ratio of 1.3 relative to feed pressure.

Stansberry, John M↗
DOE OSTI2026

Modeling and Experimental Validation of a Direct-Contact Counter-Flow Fluidized Bed Heat Exchanger for Thermal Energy Storage (TES) Applications

Particle-based thermal energy storage (TES) systems are an emerging energy storage technology. The technological advances have reduced costs, making TES more competitive and reliable in the marketplace but an efficient and reliable operation is heavily dependent on coherent heat transfer between air to particles or vice versa. The particle-based TES technologies provide an intermediate system that can store energy for short (0-10 h), long (10-200 h) and seasonal (> 200 h) timescales. The TES systems store energy by converting electricity to thermal energy; electricity can be directly sourced intermittent generation technologies and/or the grid, helping manage peak loads and other mismatches in supply and demand. The overall efficiency of the TES system depends on the performance of system components (particle storage silos and particle transfer mechanism etc.). The particle heat exchanger is one of the key system components that affects the system efficiency. The pressurized fluidized bed heat exchanger (PFB HX) performance is challenging to predict due to the chaotic behavior of particle and fluid interaction. This research presents a computational study of a novel direct-contact, counter-flow and air-to-particles PFB HX, that contributes in advancing the particle-based long-duration TES technologies. For the current analysis an unsteady Eulerian-Eulerian CFD model was developed and validated against experiments performed at the National Laboratory of the Rockies for two particle sizes (600 ..mu..m and 825 ..mu..m ). Following validation, parametric simulations were conducted to evaluate the effects of interphase drag models (Syamlal-O'Brien and Gidaspow), particle size, bed height and the influence of a frictional-viscosity term on hydrodynamics and heat transfer between the air & particles. The key findings from the analysis are: (1) for the studied operating window Syamlal-O'Brien provides superior agreement with measured gas temperatures (errors generally < 10%) while Gidaspow shows large deviations for the coarse particle case; (2) model predictions are most sensitive in the lower 0.2 m above the air distributor where bubble initiation and local mixing dominate interphase heat transfer; (3) representation of the distributor (number of inlet ports) materially affects predicted local mixing and temperature stratification; and (4) the Eulerian-Eulerian framework reproduces bulk thermal trends but shows regime dependent limitations for coarse particles, motivating mesoscale informed closures for scale-up analysis for future studies. These results provide validated guidance for drag selection and distributor design in particle-based thermal energy storage applications. Collectively, the validated model and parametric results quantify key drivers of PHB-HX performance and provide practical guidance for design and optimization. The results provide confidence in the model predictability and provide a step forward to improve on heat exchange performance. The demonstrated performance and modeling approach support the deployment and further development of this novel PHB-HX concept for robust, particle-based long-duration thermal energy storage systems.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Numerical investigation and experimental validation of water condensation in the gas diffusion layer with different properties

Liquid water in porous media hinders the transport of reactant to catalyst layer, where the electrochemical reactions occur, which in turn, reduces performance and lifetime of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). In this study, two types of gas diffusion layer (GDL) materials are used to study the two-phase saturation distribution in a PEMFC. The correlations between the effective and anisotropic transport properties and porosity of the two GDLs are solved by the pore scale model. In addition, the anisotropic liquid water permeability and the relationship between saturation pressure and capillary pressure is determined by using the Lattice-Boltzmann method. Fuel cell performance as well as liquid water distribution in the GDL using neutron radiography are obtained for validation. Under wet conditions, the cell with Freudenberg GDL performs better than that using Toray GDL, especially at high current densities. The results of the two-phase model simulation show that the peak water saturation for Toray GDL occurs in the catalyst layer and can reach 40%, while the peak water saturation for Freudenberg GDL occurs inside the GDL directly under the ribs and only reaches 25% saturation. The combined results provide key insights to enable high power density operation of a PEMFC through GDL material optimization.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2025

Complete coverage fouling model for constant flux crossflow ultrafiltration and experimental validation

A complete coverage model is proposed to describe fouling in constant flux crossflow ultrafiltration. Constant flux crossflow fouling experiments were conducted using dilute latex bead suspensions and commercial poly(ether sulfone) flat sheet ultrafiltration membranes to investigate the influence of operating conditions on evolution of transmembrane pressure (ΔP, TMP) with time. Changes in permeate flux or crossflow rate had little influence on the normalized TMP profile at high latex bead concentration (i.e., above 25 ppm) because the membrane surface was covered with latex beads. At low concentration (i.e., below 25 ppm), increases in permeate flux or foulant concentration increased normalized ΔP. However, this increase in normalized ΔP with permeate flux or foulant concentration diminishes when the permeate flux/concentration is high enough to overwhelm particle removal due to crossflow. Furthermore, these results are in good agreement with the new complete coverage model which describes the influence of operating parameters on fouling better than the previous model.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2020

Experimental validation of scintillator detector response to correlated neutrons with MCNP and associated packages

Time, energy, and angle correlated neutrons are emitted in nuclear fission. New, physics-based fission event generators that capture these correlations have been incorporated into MCNP6.2 because correlations can impact nuclear non-proliferation and safeguards systems response. DRiFT is a detector response code that takes MCNP outputs and reproduces laboratory analogous detector quantities. Previous work has compared DRiFT to single detector experiment data and has discussed recent updates to DRiFT specific to correlated fission experiments. In this work, we demonstrate a validation of recent updates to DRiFT for organic scintillator response in correlated fission neutron experiments using a 252Cf source. Furthermore, outputs from MCNP with the FREYA fission event generator were post-processed with DRiFT and compared to experiment data. Simulation and experiment results are in reasonably good agreement for multiple correlated neutron quantities.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗