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Results for “Impact loading”

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 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2026

Large Load Impacts to Distribution System Hosting Capacity

This work examined the impact of large loads on utility distribution system models using the Sandia-developed open-source software DREAMS. It was shown that hosting capacity varies with location and changes after any asset is added to, or removed from, a system. Despite the tested models having similar rated voltages and other characteristics, their thermal and voltage constrained hosting capacity varied over 2 MW. The addition of a 3-phase balanced constant power large load with power factor of 1.0 exhibited non-linear reductions to all voltage constrained hosting capacities. The reductions to thermal constrained hosting capacity from a load with similar characteristics was more linear, related to the size of the added load, and did not impact all model buses. Co-located capacitors were shown to accommodate demand that was beyond the baseline voltage constrained hosting capacity limits, however, the costs and benefits from this approach were found to not be 1:1 and required additional available thermal capacity.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2024

Observation and Modeling of Dynamic Fracture Behaviors of Battery Cell Under Impact Loading Using Enhanced Representative Volume Element Concept

The burgeoning electric automobile industry has increased interest in battery safety. Battery cells experience significant mechanical stress during operation, including the impact of accidents and vibrations from driving. The potential for thermal runaway reactions in battery cells raises safety concerns. Although numerous researchers have defined the dynamic behavior of battery cells and proposed numerical models to describe it, few studies have focused on the high-strain rate mechanical impact phase correlated with the onset of fracture. In this study, we describe the dynamic behavior of pouch battery cells and propose a modeling method to study their mechanical failure under impact situations. Impact tests are conducted at various velocities and heights. To overcome numerical issues commonly encountered under rapid deformation scenarios, a new finite element model is developed based on the representative volume element model. The proposed approach efficiently simulates continuous crack propagation and brittleness behavior during impact by permitting the individual behavior of the cell components. Therefore, engineers can reliably design safer electric vehicle battery cells by measuring the properties of the cell components.

ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Electrical and Thermal Load Impacts of Three District Heating and Cooling Designs for an Existing Community in Washington, DC

District energy systems that provide building heating and cooling are a promising option to provide low-cost, energy efficient heating and cooling solutions for communities. As some buildings move to electrified heating designs, there may be significant increases in electric grid demand, particularly in the winter. District energy systems may be able to help reduce these high electrical demands on the electric grid, while also providing decreased overall energy consumption with an increased flexibility in electrical energy usage. To evaluate and compare district options for district-based heating and cooling, an existing neighborhood of Washington, DC consisting of 35 existing buildings was selected as a case study. This study models and compares a fourth generation (4G) district heating and cooling systems that provide hot and chilled water from a central plant directly to each prosumer and a fifth generation (5G) district heating and cooling systems that provide near-ambient water via geothermal boreholes to interface with an energy transfer station with a heat pump at each prosumer. These district systems are compared against a baseline of the non-connected buildings with their self-contained and current HVAC systems. The neighborhood was selected as a good candidate for a district system for its diversity of loads (mix of different commercial and property types) and the availability of building characteristics. URBANopt District Energy Systems (DES) was used to model the buildings and create initial Modelica models for the district systems. Finally, the DES models were tuned and simulated in Dymola, and the outputs were post-processed for verification and to calculate the electrical and thermal grid impact metrics. This is the first documentation of this workflow and its complete analysis. The three designed systems are compared via their grid metrics including: total energy consumption, electrical demand peak loads, daily peak-to-valley ratios, and system ramping. A detailed discussion is provided about how each system impacts and interacts with the electric grid.

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Cyclic loading–unloading impacts on geomechanical stability of multiple salt caverns for underground hydrogen storage

Underground caverns in a salt dome are promising geologic features to store hydrogen because of salt’s extremely low permeability and self-healing behavior. The salt cavern storage community, however, has not fully understood the geomechanical behaviors of salt rock driven by quick operation cycles of injection–production, which may significantly impact the cost-effective storage-recovery performance of multiple caverns. Our field-scale generic model captures the impact of cyclic loading–unloading on the salt creep behavior and deformation under different cycle frequencies, operating pressure, and spatial order of operating cavern(s). This systematic simulation study indicates that the initial operation cycle and arrangement of multiple caverns play a significant role in the creep-driven loss of cavern volumes and cavern deformation. Finally, our future study will develop a new salt constitutive model based on geomechanical tests of site-specific salt rock to probe the cyclic behaviors of salt precisely both beneath and above the dilatancy boundary, including reverse (inverse transient) creep, the Bauschinger effect, and damage-healing mechanism.

08 HYDROGEN↗
DOE OSTI2022

Real-time sensor measurements to evaluate impacts of load cycling on high-temperature fire-side corrosion in a PC boiler

The main objective of this research program is to design, manufacture, and demonstrate a miniaturized, multi-process, monitoring system (mMPMS) for boiler condition management and easy system deployment to obtain a higher spatial resolution. This system will facilitate a Condition-Based Maintenance (CBM) philosophy that actively monitors the health of assets to predict and prevent failures and maximize availability and generating capacity at a reduced cost. CBM systems can provide boiler data that the advanced process control (APC) system can utilize for plant performance optimization, which is increasingly relevant as coal power plants shift from predominantly base-load operation to predominantly transient operation involving large load swings. The mMPMS is based on an electrochemical sensor that provides a real-time indication of the risk of damage to key locations in the radiant or convective section of a coal-fired boiler such as metal loss rates, heat flux, metal surface temperature, and deposit thickness. These indications can be utilized to optimize boiler performance as well as improve boiler availability in conjunction with corresponding operating conditions. This monitoring system was developed and tested in the high-temperature regions of coal-fired utility boilers in this project but can be applied to many other industries and applications as well. This project leveraged the existing electrochemical noise-based monitoring system and the new sensor design is small enough to be installed through the webbing of the waterwalls without the need for long shut-downs to bend tubes and to make it feasible to obtain high spatial resolution in the boiler. Data is transferred to the plant distributed control system (DCS) and any other control system. The sensor body that houses the sensor assembly was designed to ensure good conductive contact with boiler tubes to ensure the sensor is held at an identical temperature to the tube surface temperature. The data acquisition and signal conditioning modules were redesigned into a small footprint with optimized cooling of the module. System software was developed specifically for the new signal conditioning module and is compatible with plant PLCs. After the preliminary testing at a pilot-scale facility, the three mMPMS were installed at a full-scale pulverized coal-fired plant, PacifiCorp’s Hunter 3. The systems were demonstrated over 20,000 hours at the plant during regular operation. Also, the sensor data was fed to the plant’s advanced process control system to evaluate the corrosion control by the operation changes and utilized to understand the impacts of load cycling with different ramping up and down speeds. At the end of the project, the systems were converted to the permanent installation at the power plant to be used with the advanced process control system installed at the plant.

Advanced Sensors, Corrosion, Ash Deposition, Optim↗
DOE OSTI2021

Impact-induced twinning in a magnesium alloy under different stress conditions

We investigate deformation twinning in a highly textured magnesium alloy plate of Mg-3.1%Al-0.9%Zn-0.4%Mn under edge-on impact with in situ, synchrotron-based, ultrafast X-ray diffraction measurements, and corresponding stress states are simulated with the finite element method. Deformation twinning and its anisotropy under the triaxial stress condition are explained by a statistical analysis of resolved shear stress. The critical resolved shear stress criterion is applicable under complicated stress conditions induced by high strain rate impact loading. Three typical simple stress conditions are further explored as verification and application cases: uniaxial-stress, uniaxial-strain, and plane-stress. Extension twinning in the magnesium alloy is prone to occur for impact loading applied perpendicular to the crystallographic c-axis, regardless of the exact stress conditions.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Coupling system for reducing fatigue and dynamic amplification of loads in objects

A coupling system can include an energy transfer device and a load mitigation system. The energy transfer device can include a shaft, gear, chain or piston-cylinder arrangement to transfer the energy from a power supply to an object to be moved. The load mitigation system can be used to limit or prevent the transfer of forces from the object to the drive unit as a result of external loads being applied to the object. The load mitigation system can be pre-loaded such that external loads on the object having an excessive impulsive or resonant cyclic force greater than the pre-load force on the load mitigation system are reduced and only partially transferred to the energy transfer device and power supply. The load mitigation system can dampen both resonant loads and impulsive impact loads occurring at the object thereby preventing damage and extending life.

Blackmon, James B.↗
DOE OSTI2022

Coupling system for reducing fatigue and dynamic amplification of loads in objects

A coupling system can include an energy transfer device and a load mitigation system. The energy transfer device can include a shaft, gear, chain or piston-cylinder arrangement to transfer the energy from a power supply to an object to be moved. The load mitigation system can be used to limit or prevent the transfer of forces from the object to the drive unit as a result of external loads being applied to the object. The load mitigation system can be pre-loaded such that external loads on the object having an excessive impulsive or resonant cyclic force greater than the pre-load force on the load mitigation system are reduced and only partially transferred to the energy transfer device and power supply. The load mitigation system can dampen both resonant loads and impulsive impact loads occurring at the object thereby preventing damage and extending life.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2023

Mitigation of spall fracture by evolving porosity

Ductile materials subject to impact loading conditions can undergo spall fracture when an incoming compressive stress wave reflects off interfaces and free surfaces as a tensile stress wave. Experimental observations suggest that in ductile materials, spall fracture is driven by the evolution of porosity. However, the presence of initial porosity in ductile materials also introduces plastic compressibility, which can attenuate the incoming compressive stress wave and, as a result, reduce the amplitude of the reflected tensile stress wave. This, in turn, can mitigate or delay spall fracture. In this work, we report on finite deformation finite element calculations that analyze the response of porous ductile materials subjected to impact loading conditions. Two sets of calculations are carried out, in the first set the material contains initial porosity values ranging from 0% to 5% while in the second set the material also undergoes stress-controlled porosity nucleation. Both sets of calculations are carried out for a wide range of imposed impact velocities. Here, our results show that porosity in ductile materials can, under certain circumstances, mitigate spall fracture by attenuating stress waves. Results correlating the effects of impact velocity, initial porosity, and porosity nucleation on spall fracture are presented and the underlying mechanisms are discussed.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2020

A Novel Design of Guiding Stress Wave Propagation

Impact loads can induce a series of undesirable physical phenomena including vibration, acoustical shock, perforation, fracture and fragmentation, etc. The energy associated with the impact loads can lead to severe structure damage and human injuries. A design approach which effectively reduces these negative impacts through shock/stress wave diversion is highly needed. In this paper, a computational model which predicts stress wave propagation by considering different beam geometries and configurations is developed. Additionally, a novel concept of wave guide design which modifies the stress wave propagation path without disturbance is also presented. Furthermore, this design approach is not only useful for material property characterization particularly at intermediate or high strain rates, but also allows stress wave propagation in a desired direction as the shock/impact energy can be redistributed in controllable paths. The numerical results are experimentally verified through a Drop-Hopkinson bar apparatus at Sandia National Laboratories.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Small-Signal Stability Impacts of Load and Network Dynamics on Grid-Forming Inverters

This paper presents several stability analyses for grid-forming inverters and synchronous generators considering the dynamics of transmission lines and different load models. Load models are usually of secondary importance compared to generation source models, but as the results show, they play a crucial role in stability studies with the introduction of inverter-based resources. Given inverter control time scales, the implications of considering or neglecting electromagnetic transients of the network are very relevant in the stability assessments. In this paper, we perform eigenvalue analyses for inverter-based resources and synchronous machines connected to a load and explore the effects of multiples models under different network representations. We explore maximum loadability of inverter-based resources and synchronous machines, while analyzing the effects of load and network dynamic models on small-signal stability. The results show that the network representation plays a fundamental role in the stability of the system of different load models. The resulting stability regions are significantly different depending on the source and load model considered.

grid forming inverters↗
DOE OSTI2022

Impact of Load Tap Changer Control Operation Under Microgrid Conditions

Every microgrid is unique in its diversity of assets, operation, and network structure. This uniqueness presents challenges for each microgrid implementation that need to be understood and addressed to prevent power quality concerns, stability issues, and blackouts. In this research work, we present one challenge faced during microgrid operation that could potentially cause a blackout in some microgrid configurations. Through the incorrect operation of the load tap changer controller during an islanding event for a microgrid with generation present on both primary and secondary busses, the primary voltage will increase or decrease beyond allowable bounds, causing a cascading failure. This work presents the issue first with simulation results to demonstrate the phenomenon and then presents results of load tap changer controller operation using a controller-hardware-in-the-loop experiment. Finally, details of the complete sequence of operation and the blackout scenarios are presented and summarized.

blackout↗