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DOE OSTI2019

Containment Chamber Systems Engineering Project

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is a leading research laboratory in material properties. The most notable facility at LLNL capable of determining equation of state data for hazardous materials is the National Ignition Facility (NIF). NIF is the most energetic laser in the world and is a very versatile system that allows for a variety of laser configurations and diagnostics. The flexibility that NIF offers makes it an attractive tool for high budget programs researching specific areas of interest. Some programs require many tests to be performed, and although NIF could be an option for performing these tests, the cost and time to perform the tests would not be feasible. Also, many of these tests would underutilize the full capacity of NIF’s lasers, and NIF does not have a dedicated light source suitable for the diagnostic requirement. The needs of these tests do not align with NIF’s capabilities. The physicists are the main stakeholders for the tests, and they require a third-generation light source to meet the desired diagnostic performance. The Dynamic Compression Sector (DCS) within the Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) is the facility that will meet necessary laser performance and the X-ray diagnostic performance in order to obtain the desired data. DCS does not have the capability to test hazardous material, and therefore DCS requires a method and hardware for ensuring that no hazardous material is exposed before, during, or after the test. After taking a system engineering evaluation of the need for a solution to perform laser shock experiments on hazardous materials with certain laser and X-ray characteristics, a solution is proposed that meets the requirements of each involved stakeholder. The proposed solution is to contain the targets within sealed vacuum chamber that will meet the protection requirements of each facility. The chamber would be assembled and pumped down at LLNL in facilities that can handle hazardous material. Then, the chamber would be shipped under vacuum to DCS, where the chamber will be inserted into the beam paths. DCS’s laser will enter the sealed chamber and impart a shock into the target of hazardous material while the X-ray will simultaneously image the material. Once each target has been fired, the chamber will be removed from the beam path and shipped to the proper disposal facility.

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2017

Polarized 3He gas circulating technologies for neutron analyzers

We outline our project to develop a circulating polarized helium-3 system for developing of large, quasi-continuously operating neutron analyzers. The project consisted of four areas: 1) Development of robust external cavity narrowed diode laser output with spectral line width < 0.17 nm and power of 2000 W. 2) Development of large glass polarizing cells using cell surface treatments to obtain long relaxation lifetimes. 3) Refinements of the circulation system with an emphasis on gas purification and materials testing. 4) Design/fabrication of a new polarizer system. 5) Preliminary testing of the new polarizer. 1. Developed Robust High-Power Narrowed Laser The optical configuration of the laser was discussed in the proposal and will be reviewed in the body of this report. The external cavity is configured to mutually lock the wavelength of five 10-bar laser stacks. All the logistical milestones were been met and critical subsystems- laser stack manifold and power divider, external laser cavity, and output telescope- were assembled and tested at low power. Each individual bar is narrowed to ~0.05 nm; when combined the laser has a cumulative spectral width of 0.17 nm across the entire beam due to variations of the bars central wavelength by +/- 0.1 nm, which is similar to that of Volume Bragg Grating narrowed laser bars. This configuration eliminates the free-running “pedestal” that occurs in other external cavity diode lasers. The full-scale laser was completed in 2016 and was used in both the older and newer helium polarizers. This laser was operated at 75% power for periods of up to 8 hours. Once installed, the spectrum became slightly broader (~.25 nm) at full power; this is likely due to very slight misalignments that occurred during handling. 2. Developed the processes to create uniform sintered sol-gel coatings. Our work on cell development comprised: 1) Production of large GE180 cells and explore different means of cell preparation, and 2) Development of apply sol-gel coatings to the interior of both borosilicate and aluminosilicate cells. We applied six sol-gel coatings. By modifying the mixture and developing procedures to drain and dry the cell, we produced visually uniform coatings on the interior of the cells. We now have perfected that process as described below in our report. We were able to accelerate the testing of cells using an ex situ method that avoids installing each cell into a polarizer. In the project’s last year, we conducted 38 external tests of 8 different cells. We also installed two sol-gel coated cells in our polarizers. We created cell with long ex situ relaxation lifetimes, one of which exceeded 40 hours. However, when installed in the polarizer the measured lifetime is 8 hours or less. 3. Demonstrated cycling of polarized gas and ex situ cell testing We are now cycling polarized gas from the polarizer to glass vessels and back. This has allowed us, for the first time, to make ex situ T1 measurements of polarizing cells without installing them into the polarizer itself. This has greatly improved our productivity in producing cells and evaluating our cell preparation processes. We continued development of the gas handling system in parallel with fabricating new polarizer. The integrated system was tested by the end of 2016. We now regularly cycle gas into and out of the polarizer. 4. Completed new polarizer infrastructure and control systems. We completed the new polarizer infrastructure in November 2016. The polarizer subsystems are 1) the frame, 2) the oil flow system, 3) the gas handling system, 4) the pressure vessel, with embedded solenoid, 5) cell mounting hardware with heat spreaders, and 6) electrical power and instrumentation. 5. Carried out initial tests of polarizer. We completed initial testing of the polarizer in April and May of 2017. These tests were carried out for periods up to 6 hours with laser power between 750 and 1300 Watts. The laser performed well and the polarization with asymptotic to 45 percent, which was below expectations. This low value resulted from a stationary thermal inversion in the cell that caused most of the laser power to be absorbed near the laser inlet window and deprived the lower portions of the cell of pumping laser light. Possible solutions to this problem include enhanced cooling of the cell near the laser entry and slight detuning of the laser. 6. Ongoing work. Our polarizer development efforts are ongoing to pursue our interest in neutron analyzers, nuclear targets, and providing helium for medical imaging. Current tests in the pipeline include: 1. Testing cooling enhancements to improve laser penetration of spectrally narrow lasers; 2. Testing of a cell with isolation valves that minimizes diffusive contact with gas handling hardware during polarization; 3. Testing of smaller hybrid cells with reduced alkali loading; 4. Producing polarized helium-3 for MRI imaging at the University of Missouri.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2024

Remote operation of the DIII-D National Fusion Facility

Abstract Full remote scientific operation of the DIII-D National Fusion Facility is now possible through significant advances in the computer science hardware and software infrastructure made over the last decade. Capabilities around information visualization, data movement, and communication have all been enhanced. The level of capability deployed to remotely operate DIII-D required an infrastructure advancement over what had previously been achieved in the fusion community. The large quantity of real-time data that is automatically displayed on DIII-D’s control room screens can now be visualized by remote participants via web-based applications. New audio/video solutions using the VoIP and instant messaging application Discord have been implemented to mimic the dynamic and ad-hoc scientific conversations that are critical in successfully operating an experimental campaign. Discord’s ability for a user to rapidly move between audio channels, text with images, and share screens is a significant enhancement over traditional videoconferencing tools. In addition, multiple combinations of broadcast audio are made available via a web-based application to allow remote participants to simultaneously listen to general announcements/sounds while conducting their own specific conversations. Secure methodologies have been put into place to allow remote control of hardware including DIII-D’s plasma control system application. Secure methods also included the ability of the on-site team to closely coordinate their work with remote team members which has been enhanced through extensions to the wireless network and the use of tablet computers for audio/video/screen sharing. However, no amount of software can fully replace the need for ‘hands on hardware.’ This infrastructure was severely stress tested during the COVID-19 pandemic where occupancy of the DIII-D control room was restricted. Operational efficiency during the pandemic, measured in discharges per hour, remained high (3.8 ± 0.8) compared to values obtained pre-pandemic (3.7 ± 0.8).

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2022

Inrush Current Mitigation for Grid-Forming Inverters in Islanded Microgrids

Virtual-inertia and droop control methods are commonly used for grid-forming inverters. While the virtual inertia is used to emulate the equation of motion/frequency, if the inverter output voltage is emulated as in synchronous generators, then the method is known as the virtual synchronous generator. An inductive pulse-load, e.g., a relatively large induction motor, connection to a microgrid fed only by grid-forming inverters may lead to blackout due to high inrush currents. This article presents virtual reactance techniques to mitigate the inrush current effects and enhance the inverter’s robustness for the safe connection of inductive and dynamic loads. This article also compares the virtual inertia and droop control methods under switching inductive-dynamic loads while the proposed techniques are implemented. Experimental tests are performed considering the linear and nonlinear virtual reactance techniques, and the findings are discussed. The mitigation significantly suppresses the inrush currents while the inverters can perform a normal operation. Furthermore, the frequency and power response of the virtual inertia control with different inertia settings to a sudden change in the load is analyzed. The virtual reactance technique is tested in a laboratory-scale hardware setup of a 208V microgrid fed by 5kVA and 10kVA inverters, and the results are presented in this article.

Gursoy, Mehmetcan↗

DOE OSTI2026

From Cell to System: Accelerated hpc Simulations of BESS Aging under Frequency Regulation and Arbitrage use cases

Lithium-ion battery energy storage systems (BESS) packs have emerged as a leading solution for grid-scale energy storage, enhancing resiliency and balancing load fluctuations. Yet, experimental characterization of large-format LIB packs-particularly to assess performance and degradation over hundreds of cycles - demands substantial hardware investment and multi-year testing campaigns. In this work, we couple a hierarchical, physics-based modeling framework agnostic to electrode chemistries with high-performance computing to accelerate systems level evaluation by upto two orders of magnitude. Building on the open-source liionpack platform, we implement cell, module, and pack-scale electrochemical models enriched with mechanistic aging mechanisms and deploy them on an HPC cluster to simulate 150−200kWh systems over 500 - 1,000 cycles with in days. We subject these virtual B ESS to both constant-current cycling and realistic grid service profiles spanning frequency regulation, ramp-rate support, and energy arbitrage-and quantify the resulting degradation patterns. Our results reveal that localized cell aging can induce substantial nonuniformity at module and pack levels, with service-specific cycling protocols driving distinct aging modes. This rapid, multiscale modeling approach provides a powerful design-space exploration tool for optimizing electrical architecture, control strategies, and operational schedules to prolong pack lifetime and lower total cost of ownership.

Ayalasomayajula, Surya [ORNL] (ORCID:0009000860788↗

DOE OSTI2022

Dynamic Load Inrush Current Mitigation in Islanded Microgrids Powered by Grid-Forming Inverters

Grid-forming inverters in a microgrid may trip due to high inrush current caused by a switched connection of an inductive load, e.g., a relatively large induction motor. The control scheme presented in this article includes virtual inertia control method superimposed on the cascaded controller. This article studies the impact of cascaded control scheme used for grid-forming inverter to mitigate the inrush current effects and enhance the inverter’s robustness for the safe connection of inductive and dynamic loads. Experimental tests are performed using the virtual inertia method for generating the reference angle for synchronous frame conversion. The experimental performance and sensitivity of the controller to different controller gain settings for a switched connection of an induction motor are discussed. The cascaded operation significantly mitigates the inrush currents while the inverters can perform a normal operation. The performance of the control method is tested in a laboratory-scale hardware setup of a 208V microgrid fed by 5kVA and 10kVA inverters, and the results are presented.

Gursoy, Mehmetcan↗

DOE OSTI2016

A Bloom Filter Based Scalable Data Integrity Check Tool for Large-Scale Dataset

Large scale HPC applications are becoming increasingly data intensive. At Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF), we are observing the number of files curated under individual project are reaching as high as 200 millions and project data size is exceeding petabytes. These simulation datasets, once validated, often needs to be transferred to archival system for long term storage or shared with the rest of the research community. Ensuring the data integrity of the full dataset at this scale is paramount important but also a daunting task. This is especially true considering that most conventional tools are serial and file-based, unwieldy to use and/or can't scale to meet user's demand.To tackle this particular challenge, this paper presents the design, implementation and evaluation of a scalable parallel checksumming tool, fsum, which we developed at OLCF. It is built upon the principle of parallel tree walk and work-stealing pattern to maximize parallelism and is capable of generating a single, consistent signature for the entire dataset at extreme scale. We also applied a novel bloom-filter based technique in aggregating signatures to overcome the signature ordering requirement. Given the probabilistic nature of bloom filter, we provided a detailed error and trade-off analysis. Using multiple datasets from production environment, we demonstrated that our tool can efficiently handle both very large files as well as many small-file based datasets. Our preliminary test showed that on the same hardware, it outperforms conventional tool by as much as 4×. It also exhibited near-linear scaling properties when provisioned with more compute resources.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

DOE OSTI2017

Experimental Evaluation of Load Rejection Over-Voltage from Grid-Tied Solar Inverters

This paper investigates the impact of load rejection over-voltage (LRO) from commercially available grid-tied photovoltaic (PV) solar inverters. LRO can occur when a local feeder or breaker opens and the power output from a distributed energy resource exceeds the load power. Simplified models of current controlled inverters can over-predict over-voltage magnitudes, thus it is useful to quantify testing. The load rejection event was replicated using a hardware testbed at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), and a set of commercially available PV inverters was tested to quantify the impact of LRO for a range of generation-to-load ratios. The magnitude and duration of the over-voltage events are reported in this paper along with a discussion of characteristic inverter output behavior. The results for the inverters under test showed that maximum over-voltage magnitudes were less than 200 percent of nominal voltage, and much lower in many test cases. These research results are important because utilities that interconnect inverter-based DER need to understand their characteristics under abnormal grid conditions.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2019

Development of a Host-Based Intrusion Detection and Control Device for Industrial Field Control Devices

Industrial control systems contain a multitude of devices deployed into the field to observe and control a physical process. Currently, most of these devices lack common host-based cybersecurity features, which can lead them to be seen as vulnerable targets. The Cymbiote device was developed to address this problem by examining multiple streams of data to determine what might indicate a potential threat, and to evaluate and execute appropriate response actions. This paper discusses the evolution of the Cymbiote device in response to evaluation and testing done on real-world hardware. Experimental results are discussed, as are the new developments that have been made to the device in response to the findings. In addition, we describe future research directions for this approach along with the experimental setup changes in response to the requirements for statistical rigor.

Rice, Theora R.↗

DOE OSTI2021

HIL Testbed and Motion Control Strategy for the Hybrid Hydraulic-Electric Architecture (HHEA)

The Hybrid Hydraulic-Electric Architecture (HHEA) was proposed in recent years to increase system efficiency of high power mobile machines and to reap the benefits of electrification without the need for large electric machines. It uses a set of common pressure rails to provide the majority of power hydraulically and small electric motors to modulate that power for precise control. This paper presents the development of a Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) test-bed for testing motion control strategies for the HHEA. Precise motion control is important for off-road vehicles whose utility requires the machine being dexterous and performing tasks exactly as commanded. Motion control for the HHEA is challenging due to its intrinsic use of discrete pressure rail switches to minimize system efficiency or to keep the system within the torque capabilities of the electric motor. The motion control strategy utilizes two different controllers: a nominal passivity based back-stepping controller used in between pressure rail switches and a transition controller used to handle the event of a pressure rail switch. In this paper, the performance of the nominal control under various nominal and rail switching scenarios is experimentally evaluated on the HIL testbed.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

DOE OSTI2021

TEAMER - AquaHarmonics High Fidelity WEC Sim PTO and Control Model Validation, Test Logs and Results

Collaborative effort between AquaHarmonics, Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to revise and validate Aquaharmonics' full wave to wire model, allowing for reduced uncertainty and increased understanding of design requirements of a utility scale wave energy converter (WEC). SNL and NREL in collaboration with AquaHarmonics, will set up and run WEC Simulator (WEC-Sim) models of the AquaHarmonics WEC, building off past model developments for inclusion of custom PTO (power take-off) dynamics. The intent is to review, update, and verify or validate a new WEC-Sim model against wave tank experimental data. Furthermore, the WEC-Sim model will be coupled to an energy storage system model to better understand the wave-to-wire functionality. This data set is described in the "Test Log" excel file. Please refer to that document for details on each specific test date/time, constraint parameters and model hardware setup details. Sim model can be found in the associated MHKDR link below.

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗

DOE OSTI2018

Environmental Cracking and Irradiation Resistant Stainless Steels by Additive Manufacturing

Metal additive manufacturing (AM), or metal 3D printing is an emergent advanced manufacturing method that can create near net shape geometries directly from computer models. This technology can provide the capability to rapidly fabricate complex parts that may be required to enhance the integrity of reactor internals components. Such opportunities may be observed during a plant refueling outage and AM parts can be rapidly custom designed, manufactured and deployed within the outage interval. Additive manufacturing of stainless steel (SS) components can add business benefits on fast delivery on repair hardware, installation tooling, new design prototypes tests, etc. For the nuclear industry, the supply chain is always an issue for reactor service. AM can provide through-life supply chain (40-60 years) for high-value low-volume components. In the meantime, the capability of generating complex geometries and functional gradient materials will improve the performance, reduce the overall component cost, plant asset management cost and increase the plant reliability by the improvement in materials performance in nuclear environments. While extensive work has been conducted regarding additively manufacturing of austenitic SS parts, most efforts focused only on basic attributes such as porosity, residual stress, basic tensile properties, along with components yield and process monitoring. Little work has been done to define and evaluate the material requirements for nuclear applications. Technical gaps exist, which limit this technology adoption in the nuclear industry, which includes high manufacturing cost, unknown risks, limited nuclear related data, lack of specification and qualification methods, and no prior business experience. The main objective of this program was to generate research data to address all these technical gaps and establish a commercial practice to use AM technology in the nuclear power industry. The detailed objectives are listed as follows: (1) Evaluate nuclear related properties of AM 316L SS, including microstructure, tensile properties, impact toughness, stress corrosion cracking (SCC), corrosion fatigue (CF), irradiation effects, and irradiation assisted stress corrosion cracking (IASCC). (2) Understand the correlations among laser processing, heat treatment, microstructure and SCC/irradiation properties; (3) Optimize and improve the manufacturing process to achieve enhanced nuclear application properties; (4) Fabricate, evaluate, qualify and test a prototype reactor component to demonstrate the commercial viability and cost benefit; (5) Create regulatory approval path and commercialization plans for the production of a commercial reactor component.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

DOE OSTI2019

Facility to Alleviate Salt Technology Risks (FASTR): Preliminary Design Report with Failure Modes and Effects Analysis

The Facility to Alleviate Salt Technology Risks (FASTR) is a versatile, high-temperature (>600°C) molten chloride salt test facility designed to enable a variety of testing to advance the Generation 3 (Gen 3) Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) molten salt technology. FASTR includes a salt preparation system and a forced flow test loop with a suite of instrumentation. The FASTR loop is capable of 725°C operation, flow rates of 3–7 kg/s, includes heated and cooled sections, and swappable components to enable testing of future vendor-supplied hardware. The salt preparation system supplies large batches (e.g., 200 kg) of clean salt for use in the FASTR forced convection loop. This report summarizes the planned design and capabilities of FASTR. In addition, a failure modes and effects analysis of the system is reported.

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2022

Facility to Alleviate Salt Technology Risks (FASTR): Design Report

The Facility to Alleviate Salt Technology Risks (FASTR) is a versatile, high-temperature (>600°C) molten chloride salt test facility designed to enable a variety of testing to advance the Generation 3 (Gen 3) Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) molten salt technology. FASTR includes a salt preparation system and a forced flow test loop with a suite of instrumentation. The FASTR loop is capable of 725°C operation and flow rates of 3–7 kg/s, and it includes heated and cooled sections and swappable components to enable testing of future vendor-supplied hardware. The salt preparation system supplies large batches (e.g., 200 kg) of clean salt for use in the FASTR forced convection loop. This report summarizes the design and capabilities of FASTR in its as-built form as of December 2022.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2024

Synchrophasor-Based Zonal Current Differential Protection for Secondary Low Voltage Networks

This report describes an approach to utilizing phasor measurement unit (PMU) data from multiple Intelligent Electronics Devices (IEDs) in a low-voltage network to produce a differential scheme for protecting the medium-voltage feeder and low-voltage network transformers. The proposed protection scheme is designed and prototyped on a real-time automation controller. Its performance is evaluated using real-time controller hardware-in-the-loop simulation. Lab testing results indicate that the proposed protection scheme allows significant distributed energy resources (DER) backfeed and enables selective and fast protection of medium voltage feeders.

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2025

One-Turn Delay Feedback (OTFB) Implementation for the EIC

This paper discusses the implementation of the One-Turn Delay Feedback (OTFB) for the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC). The theory of the OTFB is well documented, therefore, this paper will mainly discuss the details of the implementation. After a short introduction, the paper will discuss the building-blocks of the OTFB, simulation testing of the OTFB, and finally hardware validation of the OTFB.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

DOE OSTI2021

Electricity and Gas IDS Dataset

The following dataset was collected from a set of cybersecurity experiments conducted in an Electricity and Natural Gas environment. The architecture was instantiated within the powerNET testbed at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and is comprised of both simulated components and hardware-in-the-loop devices. The test environment consisted of a substation and control center network representative of electrical systems. In addition, it also contained a compressor station, and an odorizer and pressure regulation station representative of oil and natural gas systems. The various devices on the electrical and gas systems were organized into multiple networks to mimic real-world deployments. There were 14 testing scenarios overall that covered a wide variety of cybersecurity and infrastructure events.

Industrial Control↗

DOE OSTI2021

Electricity and Gas IDS Dataset

Industrial Control↗