Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “early design”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 325 records · Page 18
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2020

Challenges in the designing, planning and deployment of hydrogen refueling infrastructure for fuel cell electric vehicles

Hydrogen can power transportation with near zero greenhouse gas emissions. With government support, early market development is now underway in several nations thanks to technological advances in fuel cell vehicles and electricity generation from renewable energy. Deploying a sustainable hydrogen refueling infrastructure faces methodological and practical challenges ranging from the creation of appropriate codes to managing the co-evolution of the refueling network and growth of the stock of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. Furthermore, this paper presents a comprehensive review of the challenges facing the designing, planning and deployment of hydrogen refueling infrastructure progress to date and outlook for the future. The design and costs of refueling infrastructure as well as the lifecycle environmental effects of hydrogen vehicles depend on how hydrogen is produced and delivered to refueling stations. In recent years, important advances have been made in methods for planning the numbers, sizes and location of hydrogen stations. Institutional barriers are also gradually being overcome. Co-evolving the deployment of stations and the demand for fuel cell vehicles remains a crucial subject for future research.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Design of a first-of-A-kind instrumented advanced test reactor irradiation Capsule experiment for In situ thermal conductivity measurements of metallic fuel

Metallic fuel undergoes dramatic microstructural changes early in life due to fission gas swelling until ~2–3 at% burnup which affects the conductivity of the material, however the evolution of metallic fuel thermal conductivity during this early phase burnup has never been successfully measured in situ. The Irradiated Material Properties Accelerated Characterization Test (IMPACT) experiment will be the first in a series of experiments to irradiate advanced nuclear metallic fuel specimens with novel embedded thermal conductivity probes in ATR. In the current work the IMPACT experiment final design and supporting analysis is reported in detail. Results are evaluated for various reactor operational conditions to meet the functional requirements of the experiment. Finally, the first iteration of this IMPACT experiment will provide data regarding thermal properties evolution in uranium-zirconium (U10Zr) fuel, but this experiment vehicle is envisioned for future advanced fuels and structural materials irradiations in ATR.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2022

A Convolutional Neural Network Model for Battery Capacity Fade Curve Prediction using Early Life Data

Herein, early prediction of battery performance degradation trends can facilitate research of new materials and cell designs, rapid deployment of batteries in real-world applications, timely replacement of batteries in critical applications, and even the secondary use market. In this study, we design a convolutional neural network model to predict the entire battery capacity fade curve - a critical indicator of battery performance degradation - using first 100 cycles of data (~ three weeks of testing). We use the discharge voltage-capacity curves as input to the model and automate the feature extraction process through the convolutional layers of the network. Our approach can predict the per cycle capacity fade rate and rollover cycle (knee point) in the capacity fade curve, which indicate the onset of rapid capacity decay. On the publicly available graphite/LiFePO 4 battery dataset, optimized networks predict the capacity fade curves, rollover cycle, and end of life with 3.7% (worst-case), 19%, and 17% mean absolute percentage errors, respectively.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2023

The Structural Evaluation Test Unit (SETU) Benchmark Test Results

A series of extensively instrumented tests was performed on the Structural Evaluation Test Unit in the early 1990s. The purpose of these tests was to determine the response of a minimally designed cask to impacts that were more severe than the design basis impact. This test series provides an excellent opportunity for benchmarking explicit dynamic finite element analysis programs for behaviors that may be experienced by casks during regulatory and extra-regulatory impact events. This report provides the results of the four tests that were conducted. It is meant to go along with a companion report that defines the benchmark problem and gives the locations for the instrumentation and inspection points.

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

The Structural Evaluation Test Unit (SETU) Benchmark Problem Statement

A series of extensively instrumented tests was performed on the Structural Evaluation Test Unit in the early 1990s. The purpose of these tests was to determine the response of a minimally designed cask to impacts that were more severe than the design basis impact. This test series provides an excellent opportunity for benchmarking explicit dynamic finite element analysis programs for behaviors that may be experienced by casks during regulatory and extra-regulatory impact events. This report provides the parameters of the test unit, the locations of instrumentation, the locations of inspection points, and the parameters of the four tests that were conducted. A companion report provides the results of the tests.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2020

Remediation of Temporary Storage Sites in Support of the Port Hope Area Initiative - 20295

The Port Hope Area Initiative is a community-based solution for the long-term management of historic low level radioactive waste (LLRW) resulting from 60 years of uranium and radium processing operations in the Town of Port Hope which is located in Ontario, Canada. The Eldorado refinery, on the north shore of Lake Ontario, began refining radium-226 from pitchblende ore, later transitioning to the refining of uranium. Through the history of the operation, LLRW was deposited throughout the town of Port Hope as a result of fugitive emissions from the plant and/or through the re-use of process residues as building material and backfill. Historical clean-up activities conducted in the late 1970's involved the remediation of approximately 400 properties and the relocation of 100,000 cubic metres of contaminated soil to a disposal facility in Chalk River operated by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL). Owing to space limitations at that disposal facility, any LLRW identified through construction monitoring since that time has been stored in the community at three temporary storage sites located throughout the town. These include: the Centre Pier mound that contained approximately of 19,800 m{sup 3} of LLRW-impacted soil that originated from the construction of a new water treatment plant; two mounds located at a licensed storage facility containing LLRW obtained from residential clean-up activities (11,000 m{sup 3}); and a small pad adjacent to the municipal sewage treatment plant containing 2200 m{sup 3} of LLRW-containing sludge. With the construction of a new long-term waste management facility (LTWMF) that has been designed to house all of the LLRW identified within Port Hope, the three sites were early candidates for remediation. The clean-up of the three temporary storage sites was a significant milestone for the Port Hope Area Initiative. After a decade of planning and consultation, this work represents the first sites in the municipality to be remediated with the waste being safety removed and transferred to the newly constructed LTWMF. This paper discusses the challenges associated with the clean-up activities for these three sites and the strategies employed to address those challenges. These included weather-related challenges, owing to the seasons over which the work was conducted as well as those associated with working within a closely-knit community. Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL), working on behalf of the federal government, has worked diligently to develop a positive and trusting relationship with the community. Consequently, the successful execution of this project needed to be sensitive to, and respectful of the needs of the community. In addition to the usual Health, Safety and Environment training, project staff received community awareness training that spoke to the history of this community-based initiative and the expected behavior when working within the community. Transportation routes were defined based on safety and the need to minimize disruption to local traffic while haul-times where scheduled around school bus hours to enhance public safety. The successful completion of this first of many remediation projects to be completed under the Port Hope Area Initiative reflected years of careful planning. Nevertheless, there were a number of 'lessons learned' that have been applied on other ongoing projects be completed under the Port Hope Area Initiative. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2024

High throughput battery failure experimental platform

Addressing the need to increase the sample set to understand the causes of lithium battery thermal runaway, we conceived of an experimental platform with capability to increase the number of runaway experiments (currently 3-5 per week), while also collecting detailed electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements (EIS). Once expanded, the platform would enable data collection on 10s to 100s of cells that all experience runaway, thereby creating a statistical database necessary to identify early indication of risk. A primary containment unit to house cylindrical cells of variety NMC811 and of size 21700 (21 mm diameter by 70 mm length) was designed with features such as debris containment, preloaded cells in an exchangeable port, nitrogen ventilation, and exhaust containment. We performed the first overcharge abuse experiments of several 21700 cells, handpicked because of different initial EIS, and demonstrated that EIS changes dramatically during early stages of overcharge, but in a different manner than previous pouch cell experiments. The abuse experiments also revealed the discharge pattern and debris field created during runaway, as well as the cell temperature control and overheat, that must be considered in the primary containment apparatus. We designed and built a switching relay system to permit measurement of EIS without an active charging circuit, and created instrument control software for charging, EIS, and cell temperature control. The late-start funding was insufficient to fully construct the primary containment unit, but the foundational design and knowhow is available for any future work.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2021

CFD-Guided Evaluation of Spark-Assisted Gasoline Compression Ignition for Cold Idle Operation

A closed-cycle, three-dimensional (3D) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis campaign was conducted to evaluate the performance of using spark plugs to assist gasoline compression ignition (GCI) combustion during cold idle operations. A conventional spark plug using single-sided J-strap design was put at a location on the cylinder head to facilitate spray-guided spark assistance. Ignition was modeled with an L-type energy distribution to depict the breakdown and the arc-to-glow phases during the energy discharge process. Several key design parameters were investigated, including injector clocking, number of nozzle holes, spray inclusion angle, number of fuel injections, fuel split ratio, and fuel injection timings. The study emphasized the region around the spark gap, focusing on flame kernel formation and development and local equivalence ratio distribution. Flame kernel development and the ignition process were found to correlate strongly with the fuel stratification and the flow velocity near the spark gap. The analysis results showed that the flame kernel development followed the direction of the local flow field. In addition, the local fuel stratification notably influenced early-stage flame kernel development due to varying injection spray patterns and the fuel injection strategies. Among these design parameters, the number of nozzle holes and fuel injection timing had the most significant effects on the engine combustion performance.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2022

Early Performance Results on 4th Gen Intel(R) Xeon (R) Scalable Processors with DDR and Intel(R) Xeon(R) processors, codenamed Sapphire Rapids with HBM

The Crossroads supercomputer was designed to simulate some of the most complex physical devices in the world. These simulations routinely require 1/2 petabyte or more of system memory running on thousands of compute nodes for months at a time on the most powerful supercomputers. Improvements in time to solutions for these workloads can have major impact on our mission capabilities. In this paper we present early results of representative application workloads on 4th Gen Intel Xeon and Intel Xeon Processors codenamed Sapphire Rapids with HBM. These results demonstrate an extremely promising 8.57x improvement (node to node) over our prior generation Intel Broadwell (BDW) based HPC systems. No code modifications were required to achieve this speedup, providing a compelling path forward toward major reductions in time to solution and the complexity of physical systems that can be simulated in the future.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2021

The Fast Modular Reactor (FMR) Pre-Application Regulatory Engagement Plan

The Fast Modular Reactor (FMR) is a 50 MWe Gascooled Fast Reactor (GFR) being developed by General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) under U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP), specifically Advanced Reactor Concepts 2020 (ARC-20). The 3-year conceptual design of the FMR is being conducted with verifications of key metrics in fuel, safety, and operational performance. GAEMS is pursuing design, licensing, and commercialization of the proposed reactor, with demonstration by 2030 and deployment by the mid-2030s. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) recommends the pre-application regulatory engagement to provide for early identification of regulatory requirements for advanced reactors and to provide all interested parties with a timely, independent assessment of the safety and security characteristics of advanced reactor designs. As such, GAEMS is developing a pre-application regulatory engagement plan (REP) of the FMR.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Design of a Two-Body Wave Energy Converter Featuring Controllable Geometry: Preprint

While the field of wave energy has been the subject of numerical simulation, scale model testing, and precommercial project testing for decades, wave energy technologies remain in the early stages of development and must continuing proving themselves as a promising modern renewable energy field. A wave energy converter (WEC) concept, currently being explored, is hoping to add an extra control option to WEC design is the variable-geometry WEC (VGWEC). These VGWECs attempt to incorporate controllable geometric features to adjust the floating body hydrodynamics to favor either power absorption, load shedding, or other operational goals. These variable geometry components have been proposed to be controlled on a sea-state-to-sea-state or wave-to-wave time scale depending on the force (or toque) and bandwidth limitations of the actuators required to manipulate just the controllable geometric hull features. The opportunities of having control over both the WEC geometry components and the power-take-off (PTO) have the potential to improve overall system performance and reliability if a cost-effective solution can be found for a given WEC architecture. This paper will present the recent developments and results of a VGWEC concept that incorporates variable geometry modules into a two-body WEC. In the proposed VGWEC concept, the variable geometry modules consist of air inflatable bags in the surface float and a water inflatable ring in the subsurface body. The surface float is tethered directly to the subsurface body through tether lines each connected to a separate PTO. Adjusting the geometry of both the surface and subsurface bodies along with the PTO coefficients can be shown to maximize power in design sea states while reducing motion response and PTO forces when transitioning to sea states where rated power is reached and load shedding is prioritized in hopes of increasing the sea state operational map.

geometry control↗
DOE OSTI2025

Prototype Hanford Barrier Performance Monitoring Report: Fiscal Year 2024

This report provides an annual update on performance monitoring of the Prototype Hanford Barrier (PHB) at the Hanford Site. The PHB is part of a long-term study that serves as the scientific basis for many of the evapotranspiration-capillary barrier designs currently used globally and for future engineered barrier designs planned for remedial actions over waste and demolition sites at the Hanford Site. The PHB allows us to identify potential future issues and develop better monitoring techniques before these engineered barriers are constructed. Surface barriers like the PHB are essential for preventing water infiltration and curbing the spread of contaminants to groundwater. Effective monitoring of soil moisture levels above and below these barriers is crucial given that performance metrics could span up to 1,000 years. From July 2023 to June 2024, the water flux (as measured by tipping buckets) through the 2-m-thick silt loam layer of the PHB – a fine silty material that stores water under high capillary tension – remained well below the 0.5-mm-per-year performance threshold, demonstrating its effectiveness in preventing water penetration. In 2024, degraded tipping bucket gauges were replaced to ensure the accuracy of future data. Additionally, neutron probes revealed that the wetting front from the rainy season only penetrated to a maximum depth of 1.2 m into the silt loam. This further demonstrated the barrier's efficiency, as the wetting front did not fully penetrate the 2-m-thick capillary barrier. The western gravel slope of the PHB, composed of Hanford Site pit gravel of varying sizes, demonstrated low flux rates. In contrast, the eastern riprap slope exhibited higher flux rates. Zhang (2017) found that the riprap side slope of the PHB had the highest drainage rates in January and the lowest in late summer or early fall, indicating significant summer evaporation. Drainage rates increased significantly under enhanced precipitation conditions, far exceeding the design criterion, which could lead to water infiltration into the waste zone. The study introduced the “edge effect,” where elevated drainage rates from the riprap may migrate laterally beneath the barrier, compromising its ability to isolate waste, and recommended expanding the barrier and conducting further research to mitigate this issue. This report provides a review on surface barrier edge effects and their potential impact to subsurface contaminant migration.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2022

Resurgence of Electron Quantum Tunneling Sensors

Quantum tunneling sensors are typically ultra-sensitive devices that have been specifically designed to convert a stimulus into an electronic signal using the wondrous principles of quantum mechanical tunneling. In the early 1990s, William Kaiser developed one of the first micromachined quantum tunneling sensors as part of his work with the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Since then, there have been scattered attempts at utilizing this phenomenon for the development of a variety of physical and chemical sensors. Although these devices demonstrate unique characteristics, such as high sensitivity, the principle of quantum tunneling often acts as a double-edged sword and is responsible for certain drawbacks of this sensor family. In this review, we briefly explain the underlying working principles of quantum tunneling and how they are used to design miniaturized quantum tunneling sensors. We then proceed to describe an overview of the various attempts at developing such sensors. Next, we discuss their current necessity and recent resurgence. Finally, we describe various advantages and shortcomings of these sensors and end this review with an insight into the potential of this technology and prospects.

Banerjee, Aishwaryadev↗
DOE OSTI2021

NREL’s Wind Turbine Drivetrain Condition Monitoring and Wind Plant Operation and Maintenance Research During the 2010s: A US Land-Based Perspective

The wind industry has seen tremendous growth during the past two decades, with the global cumulative installation capacity reaching more than 650 gigawatts by the end of 2019. Despite performance and reliability improvements of utility-scale wind turbines over the years, the industry still experiences premature component failures, leading to increased operation and maintenance (O&M) costs. Among various turbine components, gearboxes—and, more broadly, drivetrains—have shown to be costly to maintain throughout the design life of a wind turbine. The problem of premature component failure is industry wide. As early as 2007, the US Department of Energy (DOE) started to address this challenge through the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL’s) reliability initiative that first focused on gearboxes and more recently expanded to entire drivetrains. The wind turbine drivetrain condition monitoring and wind plant O&M research that is the subject of this paper is part of the NREL initiative and includes a few research and development (R&D) activities conducted during the 2010s. These activities included technology evaluation during the first few years; novel monitoring technique investigation (specifically, compact filter analysis) during the middle years; and data and physics domain modeling for fault detection and prediction in recent years. A high-level summary of these activities is provided in this paper along with some key observations from each activity. Most of the work discussed has been published and can be referred to for more information. They reflect the expected evolution of wind turbine condition monitoring and O&M in the US market—primarily, a land-based perspective. In addition, we have identified several R&D opportunities that can be picked up by the research community to help industry advance in related areas, making wind power more cost competitive in the future.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Wave energy in season: a comparative approach to feasibility of seasonal deployments for remote coastal communities

Remote coastal communities, which could be early adopters of wave energy projects, have concerns over costs, conflicts, and potential risks of development. Designers and developers are challenged to address these community concerns as they continue to develop wave energy technologies. One potential means of reducing costs, conflicts, and risks, especially for demonstration and pilot-scale projects, could be planning a deployment that operates for only a portion of the year—a seasonal deployment. Here, in this paper, we examine the impacts of a seasonal deployment in terms of cost, electricity production, operations and maintenance, environmental impacts, and community benefits. We take a holistic, comparative approach to feasibility that can be replicated for other comparative studies. We estimate electricity production using a point absorber WEC modeled near Sitka, AK, USA and optimized for the given sea conditions. We determine that, for remote community sized projects, seasonal deployments could result in small cost savings (less than 10 %), but larger decreases in annual energy production (around 30 % for our case study area). Seasonal deployments could be preferable in places with seasonal energy needs, if failures and device access become a major hindrance to wave energy technology development, or as a cautionary approach to introducing new technology to the oceans. We also determine that a highly seasonal wave resource is not necessarily a requirement for seasonal deployments to be considered. Seasonal deployments are an alternative to year-round deployments that can be considered in places where marine spatial conflict is a seasonal concern.

WEC optimizations↗
DOE OSTI2025

Risk assessment of wellbore leakage during underground hydrogen storage

The expansion of renewable energy sources would require large-scale energy storage options to overcome the intermittent nature of these sources. Underground hydrogen storage (UHS) in depleted hydrocarbon reservoirs offers a scalable and practical energy storage solution. These reservoirs are chosen for their availability and large capacity, but the unique properties of hydrogen raise concerns about potential leakage pathways, particularly through wellbores. In this study, we develop and apply, for the first time, reduced-order models (ROMs) specifically designed for efficient leakage risk prediction in UHS systems operating in depleted hydrocarbon reservoirs. Using 3,000 high-fidelity simulation scenarios, we examine the influence of 11 key parameters, including reservoir and aquifer depths, wellbore permeability and porosity, initial saturations of water, oil and gas fractions (hydrogen, light, intermediate, and heavy hydrocarbons), reservoir pressure multiplier, and the aquifer-to-reservoir volume ratio, to simulate leakage behavior over a 1,000-year timescale. We train ROMs using a two-step classification-regression approach, achieving R 2 values exceeding 99 % across all targets. These ROMs effectively capture the leakage evolution and identify critical controls of leakage, guiding the design of mitigation strategies. Results indicate that gas leakage occurs in about 27 % of scenarios as early as five years post-operation, reaching volumes of up to 106 ft3. Oil leakage is less frequent (~17 %) and typically begins decades later. Our findings also show that hydrogen often migrates first, owing to its smaller molecular size and higher buoyancy, followed by heavier hydrocarbons. Over time, these heavier components contribute significantly to the total leaked volume, reinforcing the need for targeted monitoring and remediation strategies. Our analysis highlights that deeper storage reservoirs, shallower aquifers, and low-permeability wellbores significantly reduce leakage risks. In conclusion, this work offers a robust framework for risk-informed UHS deployment, supporting energy security through reliable large-scale hydrogen storage while safeguarding environmental integrity.

08 HYDROGEN↗
DOE OSTI2021

Bayesian learning for rapid prediction of lithium-ion battery-cycling protocols

Advancing lithium-ion battery technology requires the optimization of cycling protocols. A new data-driven methodology is demonstrated for rapid, accurate prediction of the cycle life obtained by new cycling protocols using a single test lasting only 3 cycles, enabling rapid exploration of cycling protocol design spaces with orders of magnitude reduction in testing time. We achieve this by combining lifetime early prediction with a hierarchical Bayesian model (HBM) to rapidly predict performance distributions without the need for extensive repetitive testing. The methodology is applied to a comprehensive dataset of lithium-iron-phosphate/graphite comprising 29 different fast-charging protocols. HBM alone provides high protocol-lifetime prediction performance, with 6.5% of overall test average percent error, after cycling only one battery to failure. Here, by combining HBM with a battery lifetime prediction model, we achieve a test error of 8.8% using a single 3-cycle test. In addition, the generalizability of the HBM approach is demonstrated for lithium-manganese-cobalt-oxide/graphite cells.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗