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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 181 records · Page 10
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DOE OSTI2020

Bench scale development of a hybrid membrane-absorption CO 2 capture process (Final Report)

This final technical report describes work conducted for the Department of Energy (DOE) on the development of a bench-scale hybrid membrane-absorption carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) capture system for coal-fired power plant applications (Cooperative Agreement number DE-FE0013118). The work was conducted by Membrane Technology and Research, Inc. (MTR) with major support from the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) from April 1, 2013 through September 30, 2018. The overall goal of this project was to evaluate two variations of a hybrid membrane-absorption capture system combining the MTR air-swept PolarisTM membrane technology, which enriches flue gas to ~20% CO 2 , with UT Austin’s absorption-based advanced flash stripper (AFS) using piperazine (PZ), to determine the superior hybrid variant and to assess the potential of hybrid capture systems to achieve a lower cost-of-capture, compared to NETL’s reference amine-based capture plant. This project included the evaluation, development and testing of a hybrid membrane-absorption CO 2 capture system for coal-fired power plant applications using the MTR high-gas-flow, low-pressure-drop membrane contactor. The ability of the membrane contactor to enrich coal-fired flue gas from its normal content of ~13% CO 2 into a smaller volume of gas containing 20-25% CO 2 – with minimal energy input – could reduce the cost of the final concentration process, regardless of whether it is absorption, adsorption, cryogenic, or membrane-based. In this project, we are evaluating the feasibility of a hybrid system combining the MTR sweep membrane technology with the UT Austin piperazine-based advanced flash stripper (PZAS) capture system.

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Building Tune-Up Accelerator Program (Final Technical Report)

In 2016, the City of Seattle passed a mandatory Building Tune-Up requirement for all commercial buildings 50,000 square feet (SF) and larger as part of its Climate Action strategy. The requirement is phased in by size with large buildings (greater than 200,000 SF) required first. This allowed Seattle’s Office of Sustainability & Environment (OSE) to offer the Building Tune-Up Accelerator (TUA) Program to the “mid-size” building market (less than 100,000 SF) to meet the requirements early. With funding from the US DOE, a package of technical and financial support was developed for building owners and energy service providers to encourage this hard-to-reach market to participate in the tune-up—and even go beyond requirements for greater energy savings. Seattle City Light, the municipal electric utility, offered participants a simple per square foot financial incentive. Partners at the University of Washington Integrated Design Lab, Smart Buildings Center and Pacific Northwest National Lab (PNNL) offered service provider trainings, analytical tools and technical support. This final technical report summarizes the program, projected energy and emissions savings and lessons learned from program development to implementation to final evaluation for the 102 buildings that participated.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Energy Options Analysis Project (Final Report)

This Bear River Band of Rohnerville Rancheria (BRB) Energy Options Analysis Project provides a rigorous and comprehensive near-term renewable energy implementation plan that aligns with the BRB’s long term strategic vision of “zero net annual utility energy consumption.” Final recommendations were arrived at by following four key project phases:A gas and electricity load assessment was conducted for all existing buildings using historic consumption data, and projected loads of new or anticipated buildings using building designs. A renewable energy resource assessment was conducted that estimated the gross generation potential of solar and wind, constrained to areas that could potentially be developed. Other renewable generation technologies were not considered feasible to meet the loads of the BRB. Demand-side efficiency and fuel switching opportunities were identified that can reduce electrical and gas consumption. These opportunities were not integrated into the load assessment in order to provide a conservative implementation plan, but are recommended to be pursued in order to cost-optimize projects during a feasibility assessment. A strategic vision advisory committee was organized and consulted when iterating on the viability of possible projects. These project phases resulted in finalizing the following three solar PV projects for the near term, which also lay the foundation for a future community-scale or multiple-facility microgrid for added resiliency. Additional solar PV on the hillside south of the Tish-Non Community Center. Solar plus battery storage microgrid at the Pump & Play fuel station. Solar PV at the Casino.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

ENGR 399 Final Report for NIS1U Manipulator

This summer project focused on the design and analysis of a device, denoted the manipulator, that can produce pitch and yaw manipulations to precisely align the pinhole array to the target chamber center within the National Ignition Facility. This manipulation device is limited by many factors and expected to meet strict performance requirements, so rigorous design work was done to ensure a robust concept was formed. This design work included the preliminary analysis ofthree diverse concepts, developing each concept to meet necessary requirements, secondary analysis, creation ofPugh matrix to support final concept choice, and optimization ofthe final choice. To do so, three concepts with diverse driving mechanisms were developed, analyzed, scored and the best performing concept was chosen.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2020

Characterization and Sampling of Ultralow Permeability Geomaterials using Electrokinetics (LDRD Final Report 209234)

This final report on Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project 209234 presents background material for electrokinetics at the pore and porous media scales. We present some theoretical developments related to uncoupling electrokinetic flow solutions, from a manuscript recently accepted into Mathematical Geosciences for publication. We present a summary of two pore-scale modeling efforts undertaken as part of the academic alliance with University of Illinois, resulting in one already submitted journal publication to Transport in Porous Media and another in preparation for submission to a journal. We finally show the laboratory apparatus built in Laboratory B59 in Building 823 and discuss some of the issues that occurred with it.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Final Reports of the 2020 Los Alamos National Laboratory Computational Physics Student Summer Workshop

For the past ten years, the workshop has been bringing a highly talented and diverse group of student every summer. Students work in teams of two, alongside typically two mentors, on research projects reflecting a broad range of topics within computational physics. In addition, students attend a series of lectures on topics within computational physics, facility tours, and networking events. The program lasts ten weeks, with this year’s workshop running from June 8 to August 14. At the end of the summer, students give a final presentation, along with a written report. Those reports are what make up the remaining sections of this document. Admission to the workshop is by a competitive process, with the mentors forming the selection committee. One of the important accomplishments of the workshop has been to create a student pipeline from diverse schools that sometimes are not normally tapped by LANL recruiting. Many workshop students maintain a continuing relationship with LANL, returning as students interns, post-doctoral researchers, and staff members. Additionally, workshop alumni act as ambassadors for LANL. The result is a wider awareness both of LANL as a potential employer, and of the technical work that happens at LANL. This year, the workshop format was changed in several ways, in order to accommodate the off-site, virtual format. Students worked on LANL virtual desktop systems remotely, also accessing LANL HPC resources. In order to facilitate communication, student were given accounts on both Webex, a video teleconferencing platform, and Mattermost, an online team collaboration and chat platform, similar to Slack. Daily communication between students and mentors was primarily on Mattermost, with Webex conferencing as needed. The lectures were all done on Webex. Given the difficulty of the virtual format, and a concern that students might have video teleconferencing burn-out after an academic semester largely moved to that format, all lectures were optional this year. In spite of this, the attendance was generally high. Lecturers were asked to try to move to a more high-level, ”What is it?,” format. Once again, the students did a tremendous job. Over the course of ten weeks, they did important research across a staggering array of disciplines. The following pages contain the final report for each team’s research efforts. We hope you will find reading them as exciting as it was for us to produce them.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2020

Understanding Critical Systematics on Neutrino Oscillation Experiments from Neutrino-Nucleus Interactions. Final report

This is a final report on the DOE grant DE-SC0017946: Understanding Critical Systematics on Neutrino Oscillation Experiments from Neutrino-Nucleus Interactions. The goal of this proposal was to better understand the complex many-body dynamics of neutrino-nucleus interactions in order to control the systematic uncertainties that will dominate current and future long-baseline neutrino experiments. This work was focused on a new and experimentally challenging aspect of the problem: measuring the abundance and kinematics of final state nucleons. The research leveraged two different detectors and beam energies: the Near Detector (ND) of the NOvA Experiment, off-axis on the NuMI beam- line, and the Accelerator Neutrino Neutron Interaction Experiment (ANNIE), on the Booster Neutrino Beam (BNB). The techniques developed will also help reject the dominant neutrino-induced backgrounds limiting future proton decay searches.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Evaluation and improvement of the parameterization of aerosol hygroscopicity in global climate models using in-situ surface measurements (Final Report)

Aerosols are tiny particles suspended on the atmosphere that can interact with incoming solar radiation and affect the Earth radiative budget. They do so by scattering and absorbing solar radiation, and these properties vary depending on the aerosol size and chemical composition. Moreover, by taking up water from the surrounding air, hygroscopic aerosol particles will grow in size and change their chemical composition, thus modifying their optical properties (scattering and absorption) and their final impact on radiative forcing calculations. An accurate knowledge of aerosol hygroscopicity is crucial for estimating the net radiative impact of aerosols. We took a three-pronged approach to improve our understanding of aerosol hygroscopicity and how it is implemented in Earth system models. In the first part of our project, we developed a benchmark dataset from existing aerosol hygroscopic growth measurements made by tandem nephelometer humidogram systems. We analyzed, using a standardized methodology, observations from 26 in-situ stations around the globe. Measurement data was collected from multiple data providers, reviewed and harmonized to create a consistent dataset of the scattering enhancement factor due to aerosol water uptake. This dataset is archived in several publicly available databases for use by interested researchers. In the second part of the project, we used the benchmark hygroscopicity dataset to perform a global study on aerosol hygroscopicity and aerosol optical properties. Measurements show a global picture of scattering enhancement with larger values for Arctic and marine sites and lower for urban and desert sites. We assessed the RH dependence of aerosol radiative forcing and showed that the overall effect of aerosol hygroscopicity on DARF is an increase in the absolute forcing effect (negative sign) by a factor of up to 4 compared to dry conditions (RH<40%). Finally, we explored using aerosol single scattering albedo (SSA) and scattering Angstrom exponent (SAE) as possible proxies for aerosol hygroscopicity. SSA showed more promise as a surrogate for the scattering enhancement factor than SAE, but neither was ideal. In the third part of the project we evaluated the output of ten Earth system models (ESMs) against the benchmark hygroscopicity dataset. ESMs utilize various schemes for aerosol hygroscopicity which had not been previously tested against observations on a global scale. We found that ESMs currently overestimate scattering enhancement due to hygroscopic growth. Model parameterizations of hygroscopicity and model chemistry are two main factors driving the observed diversity in hygroscopicity simulations among the models. In addition, our study makes several suggestions for modelers, including improving the parameterizations of organic and sea salt aerosol hygroscopicity. Future hygroscopicity model evaluation experiments should include the model data related to particles size which was not available for our study.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Wyandotte Integrated Renewable Energy Strategy (WIRES 2) (Final Technical Report)

Wyandotte Municipal Services (WMS), a Michigan Municipal Utility offering electric generation, transmission & distribution, water filtration & distribution and Broadband/Video sought to deploy a set of renewable energy projects for their Electric Utility that contributed to reducing the City’s environmental and energy impact, provided examples that would encourage businesses and citizens to adopt cleaner energy practices and help WMS meet the required renewable energy standards of the State of Michigan (10% in 2015, 15% in 2021). WMS generates and delivers roughly 280,000 megawatt hours (MWh) of electricity annually to more than 10,000 homes and 1,000 businesses within the City of Wyandotte. The Wyandotte Integrated Renewable Energy Strategy – WIRES 2 resulted in deployment of a set of community-scale micro-wind turbines, evaluation and installation of energy-efficient and low-maintenance light-emitting diode (LED) street lights and park lights in highly visible locations in the City and expansion of the geothermal heating and cooling district that already included residential geothermal systems, to include larger scale business/institutional systems at the Utility’s largest electric customer and at the City Library. Finally, WMS identified the need for job training in energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies to further develop a local skilled workforce in these areas. Partially funded by the grant, the wind turbine project provides a benchmark for WMS, local businesses and residents in the evaluation of utility-scale wind v. micro-wind in an urban environment as a renewable energy strategy. Also partially funded by the grant, the LED project benefited the City of Wyandotte by reducing load on the electric system for the public utility but also reduced City costs for streetlighting, parking lot lighting and park lighting without a compromise in security. The project also resulted in a visual success that has led to additional approvals for non-Grant related LED lighting installations resulting in further reduction in the electric load in the City. Commercial Geothermal installations resulted in the Utility being able to eliminate steam customers who formerly utilized the byproduct of steam from WMS electric production. Due to the reduction in natural gas prices and the overall reduction in market purchased power, it was no longer feasible for WMS to operate its Power Plant as a base load plant and to only operate on a market dispatch philosophy when market prices dictated that WMS could produce electricity cheaper than the market purchase price. This has resulted in fewer operating days for the WMS Power Plant, resulting in less environmental impact. WMS has now completely exited the steam business and the ability to offer a geothermal option to two (2) former steam customers (BASF-Wyandotte and the Bacon Memorial Library) allowed for that. In addition, peak loads have been shaved for these two (2) large customers due to the consistent temperature offered by geothermal heating and cooling, reducing the swings associated with thermostat changes caused by outside temperature changes during extreme high and low temperatures. Finally, energy efficiency and renewable energy college-level classes at Wayne County Community College allowed a group of interested students to pursue studies in those technologies through grant provided tuition, books and course materials. This effort provided a foundation of potential future employees not only for WMS but other energy efficiency/renewable energy employers such as Franklin Energy, a partner with WMS in energy optimization efforts with Wyandotte businesses.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Control of the Plasma-Material Interface for Long Pulse Optimization in EAST Final Report

This final report describes the funded activity to understand and control the plasma-material interface to improve long pulse discharge control and performance on the EAST (Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak) facility, located in Hefei, China. The primary focus of the research was long pulse recycling control via optimization of lithium (Li) delivery systems, including flowing liquid lithium plasma facing components (PFCs), because Li persists as the main wall conditioning technique. On EAST, lithium was primarily introduced using crucible evaporation, pellet injection, and gravitationally dropped powder. Overall, the introduction of lithium into the EAST plasma had strong and persistent effects on the ELM behavior during long pulse EAST discharges demonstrating overall improved performance. Additionally, a flexible impurity injection tool, a multi-chamber impurity powder dropper, was developed and deployed on EAST, to extend powder injection to elements other than Li. Finally, improvements to the Soft X-ray diagnostic system were introduced to improve measurements of impurity transport and electron temperature.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

DECOVALEX-2019 (Task E Final Report)

The DECOVALEX Project is an on-going international research collaboration, established in 1992, to advance the understanding and modeling of coupled Thermal (T), Hydrological (H), Mechanical (M) and Chemical (C) processes in geological in geological systems. DECOVALEX was initially motivated by the recognition that prediction of these coupled effects is an essential part of the performance and safety assessment of geologic disposal systems for radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel. Later it was realized that these processes also play a critical role in other subsurface engineering activities, such as subsurface CO 2 storage, enhanced geothermal systems, and unconventional oil and gas production through hydraulic fracturing. Research teams from many countries (e.g., Canada, China, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Republic of Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom, and the United States) various institutions have participated in the DECOVALEX Project over the years, providing a wide range of perspectives and solutions to these complex problems. These institutions represent radioactive waste management organizations, national research institutes, regulatory agencies, universities, as well as industry and consulting groups. This document is the final report of Task E which was proposed and coordinated by Andra, the National Radioactive Waste Management Agency in France, presenting the technical definitions of the problems studied, approaches applied, achievements made and outstanding issues for future research. The purpose of Task E of the DECOVALEX-2019 project is to investigate upscaling THM modelling from small-scale experiments (some cubic meters) to full-scale experiments (some ten cubic meters) and finally to the scale of the waste repository (cubic kilometers). To achieve this aim, the data of two in-situ heating experiments performed by Andra (the French National Radioactive Waste Management Agency) in the Meuse/Haute-Marne Underground Research Laboratory (MHM URL) have formed the basis for the understanding of the THM behavior of the COx at different scales. The first experiment provided the reference values of the THM parameters by means of a calibration exercise and they were used for a blind prediction and an interpretative analysis of the second one.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

DECOVALEX-2019 (Task D: INBEB Final Report)

The DECOVALEX Project is an on-going international research collaboration, established in 1992, to advance the understanding and modeling of coupled Thermal (T), Hydrological (H), Mechanical (M) and Chemical (C) processes in geological in geological systems. This document is the final report of Task D which was proposed by the DECOVALEX Project and coordinated by CIMNE_UPC, presenting the technical definitions of the problems studied, approaches applied, achievements made and outstanding issues for future research. Task D of the DECOVALEX 2019 project is devoted to the study of the hydro-mechanical (HM) and thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) Interactions in Bentonite Engineered Barriers (INBEB). Special attention is paid to the evolution of barrier heterogeneity under transient conditions. A proper understanding of the processes occurring during the transient period requires the appropriate simulation of the behavior of the engineered barrier by means of coupled numerical analyses. In this context, the main objective of the Task is to assess the capabilities of numerical formulations and codes to simulate and interpret the HM and THM behavior of the bentonite barrier, with a particular focus on the final state reached on saturation.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Reduction of CO 2 Emissions Through Lightweight Body Panels (Project Final Report)

Lightweight construction is an integral part of Volkswagen’s overall strategy of reducing CO 2 emissions. Due to its low cost, steel is the most commonly used material for automotive exterior body panels today. Unfortunately, steel has a high density, resulting in a relatively low specific strength. Glass fiber based sheet molding compounds (SMC) provide high properties in combination with lower density. The high specific strength of SMC offers an enormous lightweight potential. To unlock the full potential of SMC materials in combination with cutting edge manufacturing processes, Volkswagen Group of America worked together with IACMI (Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation) and the academic partners: University of Tennessee Knoxville, Purdue University and Michigan State University; as well as the industry partners: Ashland, IDI, Owens Corning and Continental Structural Plastics. Leveraging the expertise of all project partners, reaching over the entire supply chain the project demonstrated the potential of these materials. This report will highlight the major steps in the development process on the way to technology readiness for SMC using the example of the Volkswagen Atlas Liftgate. Over the 36-month period of the project, the work focused on three R&D areas: material development, design and simulation, and development of the manufacturing process. Material selection included alternative fibers and resin systems, and accounted for material availability, properties, and cost-efficiency. The work undertaken in the field of design and simulation has pushed the envelope of short fiber reinforced thermoset molding compound process simulation. Design iterations were virtually tested, while the final design was used to validate the simulation software against physical parts. Manufacturing development used cutting-edge technology, while experts along the supply chain were working together to ensure the best possible results. In the final stage of the project, liftgates were molded, trimmed, bonded, painted and assembled before exhaustive testing. The result is an e-coat (electrophoretic dip coating) capable Class-A SMC liftgate, which is ready for high-volume production, and can be used as a technology demonstrator. The prototypes manufactured in the scope of this work have exhibited a mass reduction for the Volkswagen Atlas liftgate of up to 35% compared to the series production steel version, without a degradation of the functionalities.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Charged Particle Transport Libraries (Final Report FY2020 Level-2 Milestone #7127)

This document is the final report on the status and developments of the Charged-Particle Transport (CPT) Level-2 (“CP2020”) ASC/PEM Milestone work. This section gives an overview of the CP2020 work partitioned into two subsections: 1) a summary of the code tools used for generating CP (and other) data in Section 1.2; and 2) and library data and codes access information for end users in Section 1.3. Section 2 gives an overview of the status of previous work on charged-particle (CP) nuclear data, particularly focused on the work of the FY2011 CP Level-2 Milestone. New work for CP2020 is detailed in the following Section 3. Section 4 discusses testing and validation of the evaluated and processed data for the CP2020 library. Conclusions based on the experience of this Level-2 work and the outlook for future development of CPT-relevant data are given in the final Section 5. Appendices, detailed throughout the report, are provided for further information. This report, related documentation, codes, and the CPT nuclear data libraries are available via online repository.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Highly Integrated Wide Bandgap Power Module for Next Generation Plug-In Vehicles (Final Report)

Wide bandgap devices are key enablers for high power density traction inverters. A highly integrated wide bandgap (WBG) power module enables higher temperature operation, higher inverter efficiency and overall smaller die area with the same power delivery. However, it requires careful design of the power module to take advantage of all the superior material properties that silicon carbide (SiC) provides over conventional silicon (Si) Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) based design. This project developed an efficient and densely packed SiC power module for an automotive traction inverter application. Extensive study was performed to select the best performing SiC die considering a wide range of temperature variation, suitability to integrate into target packaging, robust body diode performance and overall high electrical efficiency. Multiple design ideas were explored to achieve lower stray inductance for both power loop and signal loop, uniform current distribution, compact form factor, and very high thermal performance. The final power module package includes all six inverter switches in the same module (six-pack) with die sintered at both bottom and top surfaces utilizing high performance substrate to achieve high electrical and thermal performance. Two power module variants were developed using 900 V and 1200 V devices for operating at two different high voltage levels (> 600 V HV battery). Both power modules were comprehensively characterized, and high efficiency operation of the inverter was confirmed through analysis. Finally, a complete functional inverter was built with the 1200V power modules using other essential components (HV capacitors, gate driver board, controller board, current sensor, connectors etc.) and tested using GM’s standard test procedure. There are several challenges associated with adopting WBG devices for high voltage operation. In order to assess and mitigate those challenges, GM and subrecipients of this project have conducted multiple detailed studies. This includes phase current reconstruction using integrated Rogowski coil, device junction temperature estimation using on-state gate resistance, modeling and testing the effect of high voltage and fast switching on motor insulation and bearings, partial discharge inception voltage measurement under different environmental conditions. Findings of all these studies are summarized in this report.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Final Reports of the 2021 Los Alamos National Laboratory Computational Physics Student Summer Workshop

Since 2011, the Los Alamos National Laboratory Computational Physics Student Summer Workshop has been bringing together a highly talented and diverse group of students every summer. Students work in teams of two, alongside typically two mentors, on research projects reflecting a broad range of topics within computational physics. In addition, students attend a series of lectures on topics within computational physics, facility tours, and networking events. The program lasts ten weeks, with this year’s workshop running from June 7 to August 13. At the end of the summer, students give a final presentation, along with a written report. Those reports are what make up the remaining sections of this document. Admission to the workshop is by a competitive process, with the mentors forming the selection committee. One of the important accomplishments of the workshop has been to create a student pipeline from diverse schools that sometimes are not normally tapped by LANL recruiting. Many workshop students maintain a continuing relationship with LANL, returning as student interns, post-doctoral researchers, and staff members. Additionally, workshop alumni act as ambassadors for LANL. The result is a wider awareness both of LANL as a potential employer, and of the technical work that happens at LANL. This year, the workshop was once again in an off-site, virtual format. Students worked on LANL virtual desktop systems remotely, also accessing LANL HPC resources. In order to facilitate communication, student were given accounts on both Webex, a video teleconferencing platform, and Mattermost, an online team collaboration and chat platform, similar to Slack. Daily communication between students and mentors was primarily on Mattermost, with Webex conferencing as needed. The lectures were all done on Webex. Given the difficulty of the virtual format, and a concern that students might have video teleconferencing burn-out, all lectures were optional this year. In spite of this, the attendance was generally high. Lecturers were asked to try to move to a more high-level, ”What is it?,” format. Once again, the students did a tremendous job. Over the course of ten weeks, they did important research across a staggering array of disciplines. The following pages contain the final report for each team’s research efforts. Enjoy!

45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEF↗
DOE OSTI2021

Thermal Hydraulic Experimental Test Article (FY21 Final Report)

The Thermal Hydraulic Experimental Test Article (THETA) is a facility that will be used to develop sodium components and instrumentation as well as acquire experimental data for validation of reactor thermal hydraulic and safety analysis codes. The facility will simulate nominal conditions as well as protected/unprotected loss of flow accidents in a sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR). High fidelity distributed temperature profiles of the developed flow field will be acquired with Rayleigh backscatter based optical fiber temperature sensors. The facility is being designed in partnership with systems code experts to tailor the experiment to ensure the most relevant and highest quality data for code validation. THETA is comprised of a traditional primary and secondary system. The primary system is submerged in the pool of sodium and consists of a pump, electrically heated core, intermediate heat exchanger, and connected piping and thermal barriers (redan). The secondary system, located outside of the sodium pool, consists of a pump, sodium to air heat exchanger, and connected piping and valves. Figure 1 illustrates the main components of the primary system. THETA has been installed in the Mechanisms Engineering Test Loop (METL) with the primary system in the 28 inch Test Vessel #4, Figure 2 and Figure 3. Since the FY20 THETA status report, further water shakedown testing was performed, some final welding modifications were performed, all system components were sanitized, dry assembled, and commissioned. The THETA submersible electromagnetic flowmeter was welded closed to hermetically seal internal components from sodium followed by a helium leak check for the final time. Following installation of THETA into vessel #4, all data acquisition and control systems were brought online and commissioned at room temperature in the argon gas space of the empty vessel. The vessel zone 1 heaters were reinstalled and the flange was then insulated. The vessel 4 heaters were brought to a temperature of 100 °C and the THETA pump was jogged at 600 RPM to ensure it was functioning correctly. The secondary, AC Conduction based electromagnetic pump from CMI Novacast (product number CA-15) was ordered and will be delivered in late calendar year 2021. The custom designed permanent magnet based secondary flowmeter was designed, a drawing package and manufacturing specification created and quote requested from a machine shop. The intermediate heat exchanger design was completed and a drawing package is currently in progress. During the middle of calendar year 2021 the Building 308 sodium scrubber system was shut down in order to replaced some corroded piping and facilitate improvements on the system, thus requiring the sodium in METL to remain frozen. This has imposed a delay in filling vessel 4 with sodium to begin THETA testing. Sodium testing is expected to begin in early fiscal year 2022 as all THETA primary systems are operational.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗