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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 37 records · Page 2

Methodology for Determining Impulse and Quasi-Static Pressure Loading for Design of 6-ft Inner Diameter Confinement Vessel

A brief study of the TNT-equivalence of PBX-9501 is presented herein utilizing a new basis via application of one-dimensional spherical (1DS) hydrocode models in a 6-ft ID confinement vessel geometry with no internal furniture. Specifically, TNT-equivalence herein is based upon two separate features: (1) matching the peak reflected specific impulse of PBX-9501 to TNT under detonation process, and (2) matching quasi-static peak gas pressure of PBX-9501 to TNT at steady-state.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Wind farm response to mesoscale-driven coastal low level jets: a multiscale large eddy simulation study

Realistic atmospheric turbulence–wind farm interactions during coastal low-level jet (LLJ) events are captured using high-fidelity, mesoscale-driven large eddy simulations (LES) to understand wind turbine loads, wakes and overall performance. The simulation has been carried out using the ExaWind aeroelastic solver, AMR-Wind. The simulations have been compared against a baseline unstable case matching the wind speed, wind direction and TI at hub-height location. Results indicate that the LLJ has negative impacts on the turbine hub and tower loads, and opens up potential avenues for design load mitigation strategies.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

Field Validation of Air-Source Heat Pumps for Cold Climates

Heating energy is the largest end-use for U.S. residential buildings accounting for approximately one-third of residential building energy consumption (EIA 2021). Historically, air-source heat pumps have been limited to temperate climates because of subpar performance at extremely cold outdoor air temperatures. However, recent advances to cold-climate air-source heat pump technology, which typically rely on inverter-driven, variable-speed compressors and variable-speed fans, have significantly improved low-temperature heat pump performance enabling the technology to save energy for many homes in cold climates. The primary objective of this project was to measure in-field performance of centrally ducted, variable-capacity air-source heat pumps in cold climates to validate performance and develop field-based performance maps. The project focused on quantifying heat pump performance at cold temperatures. The sites identified for the study were primarily located in the Northwest United States since homes in the region tend to have all-electric space heating systems and high-efficiency heat pumps have been incentivized in the region for several years. NREL partnered with Ecotope, Inc., a small energy consulting firm located in Seattle, WA, for site recruitment, monitoring equipment installation, data quality management. All the sites included in the study had previously installed a high-efficiency, central heat pump system. One site was in a Denver, CO suburb, which was the only dual fuel heat pump in the study. We used airside and power measurements, collected at 5-second intervals, to quantify heat pump capacity, coefficient of performance (COP), and auxiliary heater energy consumption. We developed algorithms to automatically determine the heat pump operating mode including defrost and auxiliary heating operation. A whole-house thermal and duct audit was completed during the initial site visit to estimate winter heating loads and assess heat pump sizing. Whole-home heating design loads were calculated at ASHRAE 99% design temperatures and compared to manufacturer-reported maximum capacities to assess the heat pump sizing at each site.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

End-Use Savings Shapes Measure Documentation: Variable Refrigerant Flow With 25% Upsizing Allowance for Heating

This documentation focuses on a single end-use savings shape upgrade - a variable refrigerant flow with heat recovery (VRF HR) heating and cooling system coupled with a dedicated outdoor air system (DOAS) for ventilation and where 25% upsizing (or 125% of the original size) is allowed for heating in colder climates (i.e., heating dominant regions). This document will primarily discuss the additional changes to the sizing algorithm and modeling approach, while a comprehensive overview of the fundamental modeling methodology and background of the VRF HR DOAS upgrade, including applicability and other key assumptions can be found in the original documentation: Variable Refrigerant Flow with Heat Recovery and Dedicated Outdoor Air System. To provide more context on the 25% upsizing algorithm, if the building is a cooling dominant (e.g., design cooling load higher than design heating load ), then the outdoor unit capacity of the VRF heat pump is sized based on the design cooling load. However, if the building is heating dominant, then this building is a candidate for the 25% upsizing allowance. Once the 25% upsizing is allowed, if the 25% upsized capacity (or 125% from the original size) represented with design condition exceeds the design heating load, then the design heating load is used for calculating the rated capacity of the outdoor unit. And if the 25% upsized capacity represented with the design condition does not exceed the design heating load, then the 25% upsized capacity represented with rated condition is used for the capacity of the outdoor unit while the remaining heating load is handled with the supplemental/backup electric resistance coil.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Open-Loop Control of Adjustable Tuned Mass Dampers for Floating Wind Turbine Platforms

In this study, we demonstrate the ability of adjustable tuned mass dampers (TMDs) to reduce the platform motion of floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs). The TMDs are located in the hull and provide control authority by varying the amount of water ballast and compressed air in a reservoir over time. The optimal TMD settings depend on the wind and wave conditions of the FOWT. We present an open-loop control scheme that changes the TMD natural frequency based on sea state and a simple method for estimating the peak wave period and significant wave height. The performance of this open-loop control is compared to ideal control of the TMDs (set knowing the exact sea state), a TMD with a constant natural frequency targeting the design load case with the greatest platform motion, and a baseline set of simulations of the platform without TMDs. The constant natural frequency case performs nearly as effectively as the actively controlled case, suggesting that the TMDs can be simply designed for extreme load conditions and provide consistent control over a range of environments; however, the methods used to find the optimal TMD parameters and estimate sea state statistics could be used in other aspects of FOWT control and design.

artificial intelligence↗

ASME Design Code Rule Changes for Nuclear Graphite

The American Society of Mechanical Engineers Boiler Pressure and Vessel Code (ASME BPVC) Section III, Division 5, Article HHA-3000 outlines graphite core component and graphite core assembly design guidelines. Graphite core components are defined as ?components manufactured from graphite that are installed to form a graphite core assembly within the reactor pressure vessel of a high temperature, graphite moderated fission reactor.? (p. 413) Graphites? inherent defect distributions do not allow for deterministic material reliability. Rather, graphite has variable strength distributions which change by grade. Article HHA-3000 outlines two semi-probabilistic methods, the full and simplified assessments, which set design load limit targets for each of three component structural reliability classes. The Design Task Group was officially recognized as a specialized task group within ASME November of 2023, though we?ve been collaborating since 2022. The purpose of the Design Task Group is to correct, clarify, and make HHA-3000 function as intended. The Design Task Group will sunset once we?ve achieved our objectives. The Design Task Group was specifically told to not write new Code. While there may be more precise and more accurate methods to determine reliability targets, the current methods are conservative, relatively simple to implement, and have thus far been considered satisfactory for setting design reliability targets. Much of the ground-work to write proposal files and background documents for records to make the changes needed to achieve our objective have been completed. The Design Task Group has documented much of their work through papers, presentations, and memorandums. Three memorandums in which INL team members had substantial contributions are found in the Appendices: FEA Modeling for the Baseline Program, Evaluating the Effects on Margin of Updating the Threshold and Shape Parameters in the Full Assessment, and Interpretations of the Full and Simplified Assessments in ASME BPVC. Most of the on-going work to achieve the Design Task Group?s objective will be addressing comments on existing records and moving records through the balloting process. The Design Task Group met bi-weekly mostly through the end of FY2023. Since February 2024, the Design Task Group has mostly been completed with solving and documenting the technical issues associated with the assessments. Unless new tasks are identified, the remaining work of the Design Task Group will be political and editorial.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

A New Distributed Model-Free Control Strategy to Diminish Distribution System Voltage Violations

This paper proposes a new distributed model-free control (MFC) strategy for dynamic voltage control to diminish distribution systems' voltage violations. The objective is to maintain all critical load bus voltages within the acceptable ANSI Range A (+/- 5% of nominal). The distributed MFC strategy, which only requires local voltage measurements from designated load buses, controls online the reactive power generation of available synchronous generator (SG)-based and photovoltaic (PV)-based distributed generators (DGs). The distributed MFC strategy is computationally efficient and does not require modelling of the different system components and disturbances. Time-domain dynamic simulations are conducted for the 21-bus test distribution system fed by multiple DGs to verify the performance of the proposed MFC strategy, and the results are compared against the conventional model-based microgrid voltage stabilizer (MGVS) control strategy. The simulation results show that the distributed MFC strategy provides minimal voltage violations and achieves the dynamic voltage stability of the system under diverse disturbances.

Hatipoglu, Kenan↗

197 MHz Waveguide Loaded Crabbing Cavity Design for the Electron-Ion Collider

The Electron-Ion Collider requires several crabbing sys-tems at both hadron storage ring and electron storage ring in order to reach the desired luminosity goal. The 197 MHz crabbing cavity system is one of the critical rf sys-tems of the collider. The crab cavity based on the rf-dipole design explores the option of waveguide load damping in suppressing the higher order modes and to meet the tight impedance specifications. The cavity is designed with compact dogbone waveguides with transi-tions to rectangular waveguides and waveguide loads. This paper presents the compact 197 MHz crab cavity design with waveguide damping and other ancillaries.

De Silva, S.U.↗

DEVELOPMENT OF INEXPENSIVE HIGH TEMPERATURE NITI-BASED SHAPE MEMORY ALLOYS FOR POWDER BED ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING

NiTi and NiTi-based Shape Memory Alloys (SMA) exhibit a reversible solid-state phase transformation from martensite to austenite driven by thermal energy. High temperature (Mf>100°C) SMAs are martensite at room temperature and can be fabricated into solid-state actuators that return to a pre-programmed shape against a designed load after heating to transformation threshold. Reactive as-fabricated additively manufactured parts (4-D printing) is the current state of the art in manufacturing of SMAs but requires compositions compliant to rapid solidification. Existing actuator designs are developed from commercially available, highly investigated material compositions. However, existing high temperature high performance (high actuation strain, low thermal hysteresis) shape memory alloys contain significant (>10% at.) portions of high-cost Platinum Group Metals (PGMs). It is of significant scientific interest to investigate material compositions that are peer performing or superior to PGMs whose constituent elements represent a significant cost savings. Shape memory alloy properties vary significantly with small (0.1% at.) compositional changes making robust investigative sample sets very large. Computational material design can be deployed to shrink the compositional space of possible alloy combinations and reduce the experimental load in material discovery. Investigating shape memory effect (SME) and validating process additive process parameters for a single novel composition is cost intensive in both time and consumed materials. Additionally, sub-optimal processing, oxygen, or solidification rate sensitivity could render additively manufacturing specimens without micro, macro cracks, or significant chemical variance impossible. Unfortunately, such failure susceptibility cannot be simulated. Therefore, a research pathway to validate novel shape memory alloy compositions for powder bed fusion additive manufacturing without the need for powdered feedstock is also proposed. This research investigates novel high temperature shape memory alloys for actuators without platinum group alloying elements to discover one that could be commercially viable as an additive manufacturing feedstock.

Sundermann, Tayler↗

Design of Muon Campus full flow purifier for varying operational conditions and horizontal shipping

Constant ingress of impurities in Muon Campus g-2 experiment at Fermilab has resulted in reduction of efficiency of cryogenic expanders and occasional undesired downtime to flush the impurities. Due to insufficiency of current 0.06 kg/s mobile purifier, a full flow purifier is designed to be used in Muon Campus which purifies 0.24 kg/s of Helium throughput of 4 compressors through charcoal bed at 80 K and returns ambient Helium back to the system. The purifier is designed to be operated near liquid Nitrogen temperature during cold operations and up to 400 K during regeneration. Both warm and cold operational range of the purifier has required use of appropriate clearances in design due to expansion and contraction. The vessel of around 5.5 m height which is designed to be operated vertically is to be shipped horizontally. The asymmetrical position of heavy stainless steel heat exchanger in the purifier support frame and 5g vertical load design consideration for shipping has required use of shipping supports and heat exchanger rotational stops to comply with design requirements. FEA of purifier system is performed in cold, warm and shipping cases to verify that the purifier satisfies the design requirements.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Status of the LCLS-II Cryogenic Distribution System

The LINAC Coherent Light Source II (LCLS-II) located at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC) in Menlo Park, CA, is a U.S. Department of Energy project tasked to design and build a world-class x-ray free-electron laser facility for scientific research. The Linac has superconducting radio frequency cryomodules that are connected to the cryogenic plant by the Cryogenic Distribution System (CDS), which consists of distribution boxes with heat exchangers and reliefs, feed caps, end caps, and surface, vertical, and bypass transfer lines. The CDS components were designed and built to specification by industry. The components have been delivered and their installation at SLAC will be discussed. The as-built relief system design will be presented, showing minimization of relief inlet pressure drops while meeting capacity requirements. The relieving flow pressure drops along the lengths of the CDS to centrally located reliefs at the distribution box were analysed to satisfy Pressure Vessel and Process Piping Code criteria to ensure relief performance. The sub-atmospheric 2 K circuit relieving approach will be discussed, which includes a three-way diverter isolation valve suitable for sub-atmospheric service. The component anchoring load design approach and installation into concrete floor will be discussed. This addresses loading, including seismic loading, along the component’s load path to floor anchoring system.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Rapid approach for structural design of the tower and monopile for a series of 25 MW offshore turbines

The goal of further reducing the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) has driven the investigation of large-scale wind turbines. This work presents a simple, rapid and detailed approach for the structural design of the tower and monopile without a controller, but with frequency and high fidelity structural verification. The approach uses an optimization to reduce the mass of the structures while meeting strength, buckling and geometric constraints by using analytical equations. A verification of frequency constraints is performed with BModes, and ANSYS Mechanical APDL is used for high fidelity verification of stress and buckling. The approach is applied to study the design space of three 25 MW offshore wind turbines with different rotor diameters and cone angles, and to evaluate the nacelle center of mass fore-aft location effect. Results obtained show that the tower and monopile are more susceptible to changes in the rotor thrust than the overturning moment even for designs with high pre-cone angle and large distance of the nacelle center of mass from the tower axis. But it is possible to obtain structurally feasible tower and monopile designs for the three 25 MW turbines studied while not exceeding diameter and wall thickness limits. However, mass penalties can be decreased by 0.8-14%, to further reduce the cost of energy, by increasing the diameter limit which may require manufacturing technology development. The approach applied and studies serve to understand the design space of the tower and monopile for a 25 MW turbine, and provide baseline designs that can be used in the development of a controller and evaluation of a full suite of design load cases.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

Efficient derivative computation for unsteady fatigue-constrained nonlinear aero-structural wind turbine blade optimization

Gradient-based optimization offers significant efficiency advantages for wind turbine blade design, but its application has often been limited by the cost and accuracy of finite-difference derivative calculations, especially when fatigue constraints are considered. In this work, we systematically compare and evaluate four differentiation techniques, namely algorithmic differentiation, implicit differentiation, sparsity exploitation, and parallelization, to determine their effectiveness in computing accurate gradients through time-domain aero-structural simulations. By integrating these techniques with unsteady nonlinear aerodynamic and structural models, we develop software designed for accurate gradient computation. We show that combining these techniques addresses memory and runtime challenges associated with long simulations required by design load cases. Specifically, the most effective combination reduces derivative computation wall time by over an order of magnitude compared to finite differencing while maintaining superior accuracy. We demonstrate this approach in a proof-of-concept aero-structural optimization of a wind turbine blade that improves the cost of energy by 12.78 %. This comparative study establishes a viable approach for fatigue-aware blade design that balances computational efficiency with modeling accuracy.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

Peridynamics and surrogate modeling of pressure-driven well stimulation

In this work we use the peridynamics theory of solid mechanics to simulate fracture in an annular rock domain subject to an in-situ stress and create surrogate models that predict the area of the resulting cracks. Peridynamics is a non-local formulation of continuum mechanics that naturally accommodates material discontinuities. Furthermore, unlike other fracture modeling techniques there is no need to provide information about the crack path. We utilize the peridynamics code Peridigm and take a two-stage approach to fracture modeling. First an implicit solve is performed to compute the in-situ stress state. We then execute an explicit solve where a pressure loading designed to emulate fluid-driven hydraulic fracture is applied at the borehole and transmitted to the pre-stressed rock. We present results from polynomial and single and multi-level Gaussian process surrogate models constructed from a sampling study of the peridynamics model. The surrogates predict crack area given a measure of the in-situ stress anisotropy and rise time and amplitude of the pressure loading. These surrogates take a minuscule fraction of peridynamics model's running time to evaluate and are a step towards enabling advanced optimization and uncertainty quantification workflows that require many model evaluations.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Cabin Thermal Management Analysis for SuperTruck II Next-Generation Hybrid Electric Truck Design

In this article, we present a multistage, coupled thermal management simulation approach, informed by physical testing where available, to aid design decisions for PACCAR's SuperTruck II hybrid truck cabin concept. Focus areas include cabin insulation, battery sizing, and sleeper curtain position, as well as heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC) component and accessory configurations, to maintain or improve thermal comfort while saving energy. The authors analyzed weather data and determined the national vehicle miles traveled weighted temperature and solar conditions for long-haul trucks. Example weather day profiles were selected to approximate the 5th and 95th percentile weighted conditions. A daylong drive cycle was developed to impose appropriate external wind conditions during rest and driving periods. Using the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's vehicle HVAC modeling and simulation tool VTCab, HVAC load design trade-off studies for the new truck geometry concept were completed. Parameters analyzed included effects of paint color, insulation, glass transmissivity, and curtain location. Simulation results helped with early design material selections for efficient cabin climate control. A detailed three-dimensional computer-aided engineering (CAE), computational fluid dynamics (CFD), radiation, and human physiology co-simulation, referred to in this article as CAE Thermal-CFD, was used to evaluate thermal comfort and energy impacts of diffuser configurations and air supply settings in driving and hoteling modes. Analysis revealed that it is more difficult to heat the cabin in hoteling mode during the winter than to cool the space in the summer. This seasonal load profile drives the requirement of additional energy storage for heating comfort. To determine the battery capacity requirement, multiday HVAC operation drive cycle simulations were then completed, showing that a 15-kWh battery would be required for HVAC operation during hoteling. Results helped reduce cabin thermal loads, determine component sizing requirements, and improve occupant comfort to save fuel and contribute to the economic viability of the hybrid system.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

IEA Wind Task 32 and Task 37: Optimizing Wind Turbines with Lidar-Assisted Control Using Systems Engineering

Lidar-assisted control is a promising technology for reducing the levelized cost of energy from wind turbines, but quantifying its impact at the overall system level requires sophisticated systems engineering analysis and optimization frameworks. The joint workshop on Optimizing Wind Turbines with Lidar-Assisted Control Using Systems Engineering was held by the International Energy Agency Wind Task 32 (Lidar) and Task 37 (Systems Engineering) in October 2019 to address this challenge. This paper summarizes the outcome of the workshop and presents a road map for further research. The most promising applications of lidar-assisted control identified at the workshop and discussed here include 1) increasing annual energy production, 2) decreasing capital expenditure costs by reducing design loads, 3) extending turbine lifetime by reducing operating loads, and 4) enabling wind turbine class upgrades. For each application, we review the state of the art and highlight remaining research needs. Finally, we discuss strategies for addressing these research needs by conducting high-fidelity systems engineering optimizations.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

Experimental Determination of Constitutive Response of Alloy 800H in Support of Viscoplastic Constitutive Model Development for ASME Section III, Division 5, Class A Applications

In FY 2022, a development effort was initiated at the US Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to develop the Alloy 800H viscoplastic constitutive model so that inelastic analysis methods can support high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) designs. The viscoplastic constitutive equations will be developed at Argonne. The ORNL effort focuses on generating test data from various high-temperature experiments with specially designed loading histories to probe Alloy 800H’s constitutive response.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Design of a shipping fixture for a compact cryomodule hermetic assembly

Two conduction-cooled 915 MHz superconducting radio frequency hermetic assemblies must be safely transported from the Jefferson Lab in Newport News, VA to General Atomics in San Diego, CA for perfor-mance testing in a custom horizontal test cryostat. One hermetic assembly consists of a 2-cell 915 MHz cavity, a coaxial fundamental power coupler, and the warm-to-cold transition beam tubes. The second hermetic assembly consists of a 2-cell 915 MHz cavity only. The assemblies will be transported on a flatbed air-ride trailer over the approximate 4000 km distance. Design requirements included adequate attenuation of 4g vertical axis, 5g beamline axis, and 1.5g lateral axis shock events. The isolation system was designed using helical wire-rope isolators with modal and transient finite element analysis performed in Ansys. Results show shock attenuation of a 10 ms half-sine pulse input to < 1g in the vertical axis, < 1.5g in the beam-line axis, and < 0.5g in the lateral axis for both assem-blies at the specified design loads and all structural stresses are kept below the material yield limits. Addi-tionally, the natural frequencies of both isolation sys-tems adequately attenuate the fundamental modes of the critical structures.

Accelerator Physics↗