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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 307 records · Page 17
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2013

FABRICATION AND DEPLOYMENT OF THE 9979 TYPE AF RADIOACTIVE WASTE PACKAGING FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

This paper summarizes the development, testing, and certification of the 9979 Type A Fissile Packaging that replaces the UN1A2 Specification Shipping Package eliminated from Department of Transportation (DOT) 49 CFR 173. The DOT Specification Package was used for many decades by the U.S. nuclear industry as a fissile waste container until its removal as an authorized container by DOT. This paper will discuss stream lining procurement of high volume radioactive material packaging manufacturing, such as the 9979, to minimize packaging production costs without sacrificing Quality Assurance. The authorized content envelope (combustible and non-combustible) as well as planned content envelope expansion will be discussed.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2019

Ga2O3 Packaging and Thermal Management Challenges and Opportunities

This project addresses the early-stage research and development to design and build packages that enable practical utilization of Ga2O3 semiconductor devices in power electronic circuits. The project will encompass electrical, thermal, thermomechanical and reliability aspects in the package design. As compared to silicon (Si), SiC or GaN-based packaging, using a Ga2O3 device will require significant research and innovations in the attachment of the oxide device to substrates, attachment of the substrate to the baseplate/heat exchanger, appropriate electrical interconnections, as well as the type and location of the thermal management solutions. A thorough understanding and characterization of the thermal transport properties of the Ga2O3 device layer is also essential to understand and quantify the package performance. Addressing all these aspects will result in a high-performance, low-cost and reliable package.

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION↗
DOE OSTI2016

Modeling used fuel response to normal conditions of transportation package drops to access geometric sensitivities

The US Department of Energy Used Fuel Disposition program is performing research to determine the loading conditions that used nuclear fuel (UNF) experiences during normal conditions of transportation (NCT). This loading environment includes mechanical shock and vibration as the UNF is transported by rail or truck, and it also includes potential package free drop conditions, which are the topic of this study. NCT drop test requirements for UNF package designs are defined in 10 CFR 71.71. The free drop test height is 30 cm for the UNF packages considered in this study. Explicit dynamic finite element models of generic rail and truck UNF packages containing a highly resolved 17x17 PWR fuel assembly are used to estimate the potential range of loading experienced by UNF during NCT horizontal package drops onto an unyielding surface. There are many variables and uncertainties that can affect the loading of UNF during this type of free drop scenario. This study focuses on geometric variables, such as gap conditions and small adjustments to the angle of impact, in a number of analysis cases. The LS-DYNA finite element analyses calculate detailed results for all the components of the fuel assembly. The results show that the peak localized axial strain in the fuel cladding is estimated to be 0.006421 (nominal) with an upper bound of 0.014511, based on the peak instantaneous bending moment of 63.65 N-m and other uncertainty factors. For the assumed low burnup condition of the UNF, the cladding yield strain is 0.011027 and the failure strain is 0.015574, which means that the calculated upper bound strain approaches the cladding failure limit without exceeding it. The peak shear force on the cladding was calculated to be 7879 N. This could be significant to cladding integrity if applied to the UNF in a situation where the fuel pellets do not support the shear transfer. Further evaluation is needed to determine if this is a credible threat to cladding integrity for these 30 cm free drop scenarios.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2016

Experience with the Quality Control of Radioactive Waste Packages for the German Repository Konrad - 16493

The German repository Konrad for radioactive waste with negligible heat generation is designed to accept 303,000 m{sup 3} of waste packages in total. Based on the Konrad licensing conditions, any treatment and conditioning of radioactive waste should be planned and carried out in accordance with the waste acceptance requirements of the repository Konrad in order to produce waste packages suitable for disposal. The qualification of the waste treatment processes and the resulting products are achieved by interaction of different parties involved. On behalf of the Federal Office for Radiation Protection - the competent German authority for disposal of radioactive waste - TUV NORD EnSys Hannover GmbH and Co. KG acts as one of the independent expert organizations for more than twenty years in the field of qualification of waste treatment campaigns and review of waste packages documentations. The permitted amount of nuclide activity in the radioactive waste packages depends on the characteristics of the radioactive waste products. Projecting a suitable strategy for loading the waste containers contributes to determine in advance, what requirements the radioactive waste products have to fulfill as well as what properties of the waste products need to be verified and documented during conditioning or treatment process. On the basis of various examples, it is being demonstrated how appropriate advance process planning can ensure that radioactive waste packages are generated to comply with the waste acceptance requirements. In consequence, technical measures due to requalification can be avoided even in case of unpredictable difficulties. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2017

CRISTAL V2: New package for criticality calculations

A new release of the CRISTAL French criticality calculation package, named CRISTAL V2, has been developed and intensively validated by IRSN and CEA, in collaboration with AREVA. This package was designed to cover the needs of criticality practitioners in the fields of nuclear fuel cycle facilities and transportation of fissile materials. Based on an optimized modular architecture in an updated software development environment, the design of CRISTAL package V2 integrates new generation of cross-section libraries, new calculation schemes consistent with new applications, and up-to-date calculation codes capabilities. Four calculation routes are currently available allowing multi-group and continuous energy calculations. The validation database is composed of more than 3000 critical experiments, in order to cover a wide range of configurations. The CRISTAL V2 package also includes customer services covering a large scope of activities like documentations, hotline, maintenance and training courses. A significant promotion and an increased recognition referred both nationally and internationally are foreseen, including the provision of the CRISTAL V2 package to the OECD / NEA Data Bank. (authors)

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Designing Flexibility into the Authorized Radioactive Contents of the 9982 Shipping Package

The 9982 radioactive material shipping package, or the 9982, differs from the others by allowing a multitude of radionuclides instead of a single defined set. While allowing flexibility, this requires more justification on why these contents would be worthwhile and why they would not cause various safety hazards when shipped together. The latter was covered through mass limit calculations, and the potential uses for the package are shown through comparison with historical shipments. Here, the mass limits were already calculated[1] and used to show three example shipments are suitable for the 9982 as well. Plutonium stored in 3013 containers[2], training sources shipped in 9977 packages[3], and americium standards shipped in 9978 packages[4] were all analyzed. The mass of each radionuclide and the corresponding mass limit were used to first determine if the listed content could be shipped. If so, the maximum allowed mass of such contents is also calculated in order to see if the 200-gram fissile limit for the 9982 would be violated if additional material was packed. The sum-of-the-fractions method produces contents that do not violate the mass limits or exceed the 200-gram fissile limit. These sets also serve as realistic examples of what may be shipped in the 9982. Well-founded example contents will help the approval of the package by showing its compatibility with previously shipped material. Unfounded hypothetical contents would not show the usefulness of having a wide variety of allowed radionuclides. More contents may be developed in order to incorporate other radionuclides that were not present in these three examples. The light elements will also need to be evaluated due to their exclusion currently preventing some materials from being allowed in the 9982.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2016

Spent Nuclear Fuel Package Consolidation using Metallic Void Fillers

This study introduces the idea of a consolidated spent nuclear fuel (SNF) package, formed by casting a metal into a SNF canister to fill any accessible void spaces. It is well known that castings experience shrinkage during cooling resulting in air gaps between the filler and its boundaries. For a consolidated SNF package, the air gap formed between the metallic filler and package components would have a negative impact on the thermal effusivity benefit offered by the filler. Here we present one solution to this challenge based on thermodynamic/solidification and metallic bonding principles. The key idea here is to pre-coat the package components with a low melting point metal, and to oxidize the coating instead of the components during the pre-heating step of the casting process. This allows for wetting of the boundary with the filler metal without the use of a flux that wouldn't survive the preheat temperature and could also contaminate the boundary with corrosive compounds. Potential benefits of successfully adopting this idea are twofold. First, improved heat diffusion inside the package due to the absence of the gap, which is significant for conceptual SNF with higher decay heat and high peak to average ratio. Second, improved proliferation resistance by making the fissile material recovery process more complex. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2015

UK Regulatory experience with the criticality safety of transport package applications - 14519

The UK Government has created the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) as an independent public body to ensure effective and efficient regulation of the nuclear industry in the UK. ONR brings together for the first time in the UK the regulation of nuclear safety, civil nuclear security, nuclear safeguards and the transport of radioactive substances within a single organization. Applications requesting approval to transport packages containing fissile material through the UK have been received for many decades from numerous organisations across the world. Each application is treated equally with the judgement of safety based on the information provided in the design safety report. In recent years, the ONR has questioned a number of criticality safety related assumptions; some of which have been held for many decades. The outcome from these discussions will be examined. Uranium hexafluoride (UF{sub 6}) has been transported across the world for many years, carried in 30B steel cylinders within a variety of overpacks. For simplicity, some criticality safety cases have not claimed for the presence of the overpack. However, it shall be shown that these safety cases will have difficulty in justifying the criticality safety of transporting uranium hexafluoride if credit for the overpack is not claimed. In addition, the applications that have been submitted for Competent Authority approval have made various assumptions regarding the shell thickness of the 30B cylinder, the distribution of the hydrogen fluoride (HF) impurity and the potential for the uranium hexafluoride residues to hydrolyse. The adequacy of these assumptions will be discussed in turn along with the need for the applicant to demonstrate compliance with any certificate restriction on the mass of heel (residue) allowed within the package. Uranium oxide (UO{sub 2}) powder is regularly transported around the world. For most designs, it is assumed that water will enter the package under accident conditions of transport. Under these conditions, a common assumption is that the grains of uranium oxide powder will evenly distribute within the water and internal volume of the package. The validity of this assumption from a realistic and pessimistic perspective will be challenged. It will then be shown that if instead the powder grains of uranium oxide are agglomerated together into larger sized groups, an increase in the k{sub eff} of the system of up to 2,000 pcm can occur. As packages are commonly loaded up to the criticality safety limit, an increase in k{sub eff} such as this is likely to be problematic. (authors)

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2015

CRISTAL V2.0: A New-generation criticality package - 14597

A new release of the CRISTAL French criticality calculation package, named CRISTAL V2.0, has been developed and intensively validated by IRSN and CEA, in collaboration with AREVA. This package was designed to cover the needs of criticality practitioners in the fields of nuclear fuel cycle facilities and transportation of fissile materials. Based on an optimized modular architecture in an updated software development environment, the design of CRISTAL package V2.0 integrates new generation of cross section libraries, new calculation schemes consistent with new applications, and up-to-date calculation codes capabilities. Four calculation routes are currently available allowing multi-group and continuous energy calculations. The validation database is composed of more than 3000 critical experiments, in order to cover a wide range of configurations. The CRISTAL V2.0 package also comprises customer services covering a range of areas of activity like documentation, hotline, maintenance and training courses. A wide promotion and an increased recognition referred both nationally and internationally are foreseen, including the provision of the CRISTAL V2.0 package to the OECD / NEA Data Bank. (authors)

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2019

On Gas Ingression of Hermetic Packages

In this paper, a closed-form mathematic equation that governs gas ingression of hermetic packages is derived from first principles and applied to moist air and water vapor ingression conditions. The equation models internal gas partial pressure change as a function of time, external conditions, and package characteristics. The equation provides the theoretical basis for direct comparisons of ingression behaviors of different gases into hermetic packages. Comparing the rates of internal air pressure increase due to air ingression and water vapor partial pressure buildup due to water vapor ingression, the authors theorize that vacuum decay may present a greater challenge to the performance of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) devices within hermetic packages than that of water vapor content induced corrosion failures. Furthermore, this paper also examines gas ingression of hermetic enclosures with multiple layers of seals.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2020

Mathematics of Gas Ingress of Hermetic Packages

Herein, we have derived a gas ingress and egress equation from the first principles of ideal gases. This work is intended to benefit the hermetic microelectronics packaging community, but it may be applied to other fields that require a deep understanding of gas ingress and egress dynamics. The equation outlined herein encompasses package material properties, package characteristics, hermetic testing conditions, and service conditions. It serves as a practical utility for calculating package pressure changes due to gas ingress and egress and, therefore, a power tool for component and system service life predictions.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2024

Foreword: Special Section on Multiphysics Aspects of Power Electronics Packaging—Power Die, Power Module, and Converter Level: Part 2

Power electronics are increasingly being used to condition electricity for a wide array of applications, such as transportation (on land, air, and water), data centers, radio frequency, directed energy, wind, solar, and grid-tied applications. Here, to increase power density, performance, efficiency, and reliability-as well as to reduce cost-innovations and developments are needed in the multiphysics packaging of power electronics at a die, module, and converter level. This includes fundamental R&D related to emerging high-voltage, high-temperature, and high-switching-frequency power electronics, packaging materials, thermal materials and interfaces, fluid-based thermal management technologies, reliability, condition monitoring, and prognostics. Latest developments in this area are published as a Special Section on Multiphysics Aspects of Power Electronics Packaging. The first part was published in the May 2024 issue of the IEEE Transactions on Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology (Volume 14, Issue 5). The second part of that Special Section is being published in this issue. A brief summary of the papers included in the second part are given below.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2019

Micro Crystalline Bamboo Cellulose Based Seaweed Biodegradable Composite Films for Sustainable Packaging Material

This study is aimed to fabricate and characterize the seaweed- biodegradable films incorporated with varying concentrations of microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) which was extracted from two bamboo sources: Schizostachyum brachycladum (BLMCC) and Gigantochloa scortechinii (BSMCC). Pure biodegradable seaweed film was directly fabricated from red seaweed (Kappaphycus alvarezii). In this demonstrated work, commercial MCC (CMCC), BLMCC and BSMCC were used to reinforce the pure seaweed bio-degradable film at different loading concentrations (0, 1, 3, 5, 7, 10 and 15%) based on the dried-weight of seaweed, for packaging applications. There was substantial improvement in the tensile strength and contact angle values while reduction in the water vapor permeability and elongation at break values with the incorporation of the CMCC, BLMCC and BSMCC into the seaweed pure film matrix, which is highly desirable for the packaging material in the current scenario. The morphology of the fabricated films confirmed that there was good dispersion of the 7% of CMCC, 5% of BLMCC and 3% of BSMCC in the pure seaweed films, which resulted in the enhanced mechanical properties. So far, this is the first report on the microcrystalline cellulose based seaweed films with excellent mechanical properties, which makes them suitable for packaging application. The demonstrated work proved that both BSMCC and BLMCC based seaweed composite films have the huge potential to be used as biodegradable packaging material for wide range of applications. Graphical Abstract: .

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Pressure-assisted thermal sterilization of avocado puree in high barrier polymeric packaging

The aim of this study was to examine the influence of pressure-assisted thermal sterilization (PATS) on properties of polymeric packaging and packaged avocado puree. High pressure of 600 MPa and initial vessel temperature of 90 °C were used over 5 min processing time. We used two high barrier film pouches: Film A-(PE/PA6//EVOH//PA6/PE) and film B-(AlO x -coated PET//AlO x -coated PET//PA//CPP). Oxygen transmission rates (OTR) changed from 0.16 ± 0.07 to 3.24 ± 0.52 cm 3 /m 2 .day for film A after processing while OTRs were not detected for film B. Water vapor transmission rates (WVTR) changed from 3.72 ± 0.06 to 4.97 ± 0.14 g/m 2 .day for film A and 0.11 ± 0.02 to 0.62 ± 0.0.6 g/m 2 .day for film B. The dissolved oxygen in packaged avocado puree reduced from 21% to 3% after PATS for both films. Reduced oxygen level in packaged avocado may help extend its shelf life. Dielectric properties and X-ray diffraction helped explain PATS induced changes in film barrier properties. The total chlorophyll, greenness, and lightness decreased significantly (p < 0.05) after PATS. The thiobarbituric acid activity reduced after PATS. PATS showed potential to produced shelf-stable avocado puree; however, shelf-life studies are needed to further develop PATS process.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2014

Rapid discrimination of plastic packaging materials using MIR spectroscopy coupled with independent components analysis (ICA)

Highlights: • An innovative technique, MIR-ICA, was applied to plastic packaging separation. • This study was carried out on PE, PP, PS, PET and PLA plastic packaging materials. • ICA was applied to discriminate plastics and 100% separation rates were obtained. • Analyses performed on two spectrometers proved the reproducibility of the method. • MIR-ICA is a simple and fast technique allowing plastic identification/classification. - Abstract: Plastic packaging wastes increased considerably in recent decades, raising a major and serious public concern on political, economical and environmental levels. Dealing with this kind of problems is generally done by landfilling and energy recovery. However, these two methods are becoming more and more expensive, hazardous to the public health and the environment. Therefore, recycling is gaining worldwide consideration as a solution to decrease the growing volume of plastic packaging wastes and simultaneously reduce the consumption of oil required to produce virgin resin. Nevertheless, a major shortage is encountered in recycling which is related to the sorting of plastic wastes. In this paper, a feasibility study was performed in order to test the potential of an innovative approach combining mid infrared (MIR) spectroscopy with independent components analysis (ICA), as a simple and fast approach which could achieve high separation rates. This approach (MIR-ICA) gave 100% discrimination rates in the separation of all studied plastics: polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS) and polylactide (PLA). In addition, some more specific discriminations were obtained separating plastic materials belonging to the same polymer family e.g. high density polyethylene (HDPE) from low density polyethylene (LDPE). High discrimination rates were obtained despite the heterogeneity among samples especially differences in colors, thicknesses and surface textures. The reproducibility of the proposed approach was also tested using two spectrometers with considerable differences in their sensitivities. Discrimination rates were not affected proving that the developed approach could be extrapolated to different spectrometers. MIR combined with ICA is a promising tool for plastic waste separation that can help improve performance in this field; however further technological improvements and developments are required before it can be applied at an industrial level given that all tests presented here were performed under laboratory conditions.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2023

Titanium dioxide and table sugar enhance the leaching of silver out of nanosilver packaging

We manufactured laboratory-scale food packages containing 2.57 ± 0.18 × 10 –3 wt% silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and used them to show that table sugar (sucrose) and microcrystalline titanium dioxide (μTiO 2 ) enhance Ag migration from these packages and into aqueous food simulants. Ag migration into purified water was detected but was below the limit of ICP-MS quantitation, giving a range of potential Ag migration between 0.059 and 0.082 ng cm –2 packaging surface area. Ag migration into 9 wt% aqueous sucrose solution was 0.547 ± 0.084 ng cm –2 and migration into 9 wt% sucrose solution containing 0.01 wt% μTiO 2 was 0.724 ± 0.032 ng cm –2 . Total Ag migration into a 0.01 wt% μTiO 2 aqueous dispersion without sucrose was between 0.122 and 0.162 ng cm –2 , with upper and lower limits defined by the detectability of Ag in the supernatant phase of the simulant. If the midpoint of this range is taken as a baseline, these results imply that, compared to purified water, Ag migration was increased by approximately 10.3 times when the water simulant contained μTiO 2 and sucrose at commercially-relevant concentrations. Notably, the Ag migrated into water containing both ingredients exceeded the total Ag migrated into either of the single-ingredient simulants, pointing to a potential cooperative relationship between sucrose and μTiO 2 that possibly derives from binding and redox interactions between these two ingredients. Sucrose and μTiO 2 also both reduced a portion of migrated Ag + back into AgNPs, and μTiO 2 particles efficiently captured (>25% by mass) migrated Ag on their surfaces. Similar effects on migration were observed with nanocrystalline TiO 2 . Furthermore, these experiments are the first to show that TiO 2 particles exert a strong influence on the quantity and form of Ag that could migrate from AgNP-enabled packaging, suggesting that food formulations and interactions between individual food components may be important to consider when evaluating the fate of nanoparticles in these consumer applications.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2020

Parametric Design Study of a Power Electronics Package for Improving Solder Joint Reliability

The lifetime of a power electronics package is, to a large extent, determined by the reliability of its bonded interfaces under major loading conditions in an operational environment. Based on the application-level requirements of the package, bonded interface material is selected based on the results obtained from accelerated tests such as thermal cycling and power cycling. In addition to evaluating the reliability through accelerated tests, it is important to consider the impact of other component layers on the thermomechanical performance of the interface material, both from a material and geometric perspective. The co-efficient of thermal expansion (CTE) mismatch introduced by the use of different materials within a package and its structural design plays a critical role in determining the interface material reliability. In this paper, we present the results of a parametric modeling study of a power electronics package under thermal cycling in which the materials and geometric design of the different component layers were varied with respect to a baseline design to understand their impact on the reliability of the interface material. We chose the volume-averaged strain energy density per cycle computed at the corner region of the interface material as the metric for the reliability comparisons. Our results indicate that in addition to the CTE mismatch, the stiffness of individual component layers has a major impact on reliability. Among the different baseplates that we studied, aluminum silicon-carbide baseplates offered superior reliability over their copper and aluminum counterparts. We also found that the magnitude of the impact of stiffness variation—amongst the adjacent layers—on the reliability of the solder joint is dependent on the inherent CTE mismatch between the layers.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2020

Biclique: an R package for maximal biclique enumeration in bipartite graphs

Bipartite graphs are widely used to model relationships between pairs of heterogeneous data types. Maximal bicliques are foundational structures in such graphs, and their enumeration is an important task in systems biology, epidemiology and many other problem domains. Thus, there is a need for an efficient, general purpose, publicly available tool to enumerate maximal bicliques in bipartite graphs. The statistical programming language R is a logical choice for such a tool, but until now no R package has existed for this purpose. Our objective is to provide such a package, so that the research community can more easily perform this computationally demanding task. Biclique is an R package that takes as input a bipartite graph and produces a listing of all maximal bicliques in this graph. Input and output formats are straightforward, with examples provided both in this paper and in the package documentation. Biclique employs a state-of-the-art algorithm previously developed for basic research in functional genomics.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗