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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 703 records · Page 39

Development of a Method for Shape Optimization for a Gas Turbine Fuel Injector Design Using Metal-Additive Manufacturing

Adjoint shape optimization has enabled physics-based optimal designs for aerodynamic surfaces. Additive manufacturing (AM) makes it possible to manufacture complex shapes. However, there has been a gap between optimal and manufacturable surfaces due to the inherent limitations of commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) codes to implement geometric constraints during adjoint computation. In such cases, the design sensitivities are exported and used to perform constrained shape modifications using parametric information stored in computer aided design (CAD) files to satisfy manufacturability constraints. However, modifying the design using adjoint methods in CFD solvers and performing constrained shape modification in CAD can lead to inconsistencies due to different shape parameterization schemes. This paper describes a method to enable the simultaneous optimization of the fluid domain and impose AM manufacturability constraints, resolving one of the key issues of geometry definition for isogeometric analysis. Similar to a grid convergence study, the proposed method verifies the consistencies between shape parameterization techniques present within commercial CAD and CFD software during mesh movement as a part of the adjoint shape optimization routine. By identifying the appropriate parameters essential to a shape optimization study, the error metric between the different parameterization techniques converges to demonstrate sufficient consistencies for justifiable exchange of data between CAD and CFD. For the identified shape optimization parameters, the error metric to measure the deviation between the two parameterization schemes lies within the AM laser-powder bed fusion (L-PBF) process tolerance. Additionally, comparison for subsequent objective function calculations between iterations of the optimization loop showed acceptable differences within 1% variation between the modified geometries obtained using the two parameterization schemes. This method provides justification for the use of multiphysics guided adjoint design sensitivities computed in CFD software to perform shape modifications in CAD to incorporate AM manufacturability constraints during the shape optimization loop such that optimal designs are also additively manufacturable.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

ANALYSIS TOOLS FOR SIZING AND PLACEMENT OF ENERGY STORAGE IN GRID APPLICATIONS

The purpose of this report was to review pertinent literature and studies to identify current state-of-the-art models and analytical tools that optimize the siting, sizing, and economic value of energy storage in a smart grid infrastructure. In recent decades, research and development has significantly improved the cost and reliability of energy storage systems. However, a relatively small percentage of that work has focused on engineering tools for integrating energy storage into existing or future electric grids. This literature review revealed that only a small number of software tools exist, and that those tools only partially address the needs for placement, sizing, and overall control strategies of stationary energy storage within a smart grid infrastructure. None of the tools comprehensively captures the benefits of energy storage, which would reveal all of the potential values. None of the tools or models provides optimization features that identify optimal placement and sizing options within a transmission or distribution system context. This review identifies a need for tool development to fill the gap in the grid analytics and provides some recommendations of guiding principles for advancing the analytical capabilities needed for the engineering and grid planning communities.

energy storage↗

Synchrophasor Measurements-based Events Detection Using Deep Learning

Deep learning algorithms have been developed for phasor measurement units (PMUs) analysis aiming at providing grid operators to observe and react to significant real-time changes in the grid associated with multiple factors (e.g., power generation and load variations, different type of faults, and equipment mailfunction), or for offline post-event system diagnostics. In this study, a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM)-based deep neural network (DNN) is adopted and evaluated to identify the most appropriate model configurations for event detection and longer-term anomalous pattern extraction. The proposed DNN model shows the potential on long-term predictions with the ability to capture nonlinear and nonstationary mixture complex patterns in PMU datasets. Real-world PMU in the WECC system were used for model development and validation.

deep learning↗

fife-utils

This is a collection of scripts related to the FIFE project at Fermilab, including utiltities for performing bulk oprations with our SAM and MetaCat (github)data handling systems. The most heavily used is the fife_launch/fife_wrap script pair, which is used to convert physics analysis executables into distributed grid jobs.

Mengel, Marc [Fermi National Accelerator Laborator↗

Particle-in-cell (hPIC) data

Data generated from the hPIC particle-in-cell code to construct a surrogate ion energy-angle distribution (IEAD) model.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Review of Variable Generation Forecasting in the West: July 2013 - March 2014

This report interviews 13 operating entities (OEs) in the Western Interconnection about their implementation of wind and solar forecasting. The report updates and expands upon one issued by NREL in 2012. As in the 2012 report, the OEs interviewed vary in size and character; the group includes independent system operators, balancing authorities, utilities, and other entities. Respondents' advice for other utilities includes starting sooner rather than later as it can take time to plan, prepare, and train a forecast; setting realistic expectations; using multiple forecasts; and incorporating several performance metrics.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Overview of Variable Renewable Energy Regulatory Issues: A Clean Energy Regulators Initiative Report

This CERI report aims to provide an introductory overview of key regulatory issues associated with the deployment of renewable energy -- particularly variable renewable energy (VRE) sources such wind and solar power. The report draws upon the research and experiences from various international contexts, and identifies key ideas that have emerged from the growing body of VRE deployment experience and regulatory knowledge. The report assumes basic familiarity with regulatory concepts, and although it is not written for a technical audience, directs the reader to further reading when available. VRE deployment generates various regulatory issues: substantive, procedural, and public interest issues, and the report aims to provide an empirical and technical grounding for all three types of questions as appropriate.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Solar Technology Test, Evaluation, and Data Collection: Cooperative Research and Development Final Report, CRADA Number CRD-08-279

Under this Agreement, NREL will work with Abengoa Solar Inc. on the testing, evaluation, and collection of data related to Abengoa Solar Inc. solar technologies and systems. This work includes, but is not limited to, testing and evaluation of solar component and system technologies, data collection and monitoring, performance evaluation, reliability testing, thermal energy storage integration, solar resource measurement and forecasting, grid impact testing, and analysis. This work will be conducted at NREL, SolarTAC (Aurora), and other field test locations.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Influence of Multi-Dimension Heat Conduction on Heat Flux Calculation for HFIR LEU Analysis

Steady-state safety margins calculations are an important step in the evaluation of research reactor design. Margins for phenomena such as onset of nucleate boiling and critical heat flux are evaluated by comparing the heat flux leading to those phenomena to a local heat flux. Evaluating properly the magnitude of the heat flux is therefore important and can affect the design. Plate-type research reactors often exhibit significant power peaking on the edges of the plate, near the fuel/cladding interface. The magnitude of the heat flux calculated in these regions can be influenced by the size of the region in which they are evaluated but also by the ability to model heat transport in one or multiple dimensions. The present analysis studies the influence of these two parameters on the heat flux magnitude for the HFIR reactor. From this analysis, a fuel discretization grid is proposed that can generate one-dimension heat flux values relatively close to best estimate values obtained with a high-resolution grid and complex three-dimensional CFD modeling.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Coupling of the Electricity and Transportation Sectors - Part I: Sector Overviews

“Sector coupling” is a concept that addresses potential designs for the future power industry. Traditionally, the energy sectors, i.e., electricity supply, transport, and industry, have functioned largely independently from one another. Thus, the concept of sector coupling means that the electricity sector would become the central pillar of the energy system, supplying the other sectors – transportation and industry – with energy in various ways, a scheme described by the term “Power-to-X”. This report delves into the ambitious goal set by the United States to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, with a pivotal milestone of making half of all passenger vehicles sold in America zero-emission by 2030. Central to achieving this objective is the electrification of the transportation sector, resulting in complex interactions between this sector and the electric industry. As electric vehicles become more prevalent, a shift in the dependency on electricity for vehicle charging emerges, alongside a reduction in the electricity demand associated with maintaining the fossil fuel supply chain. Both the electricity and fossil fuel have been identified as critical infrastructure sectors, the transportation sector's historical reliance on fossil fuels, and the mature supply chain supporting them are explored. This study emphasizes the existing sectoral coupling between the electric energy and transportation sectors, extending beyond vehicle charging to essential operations at refineries, pipeline facilities, storage, and fuel extraction. Recognizing the critical dependency of fossil fuel supply chain operations on the electric sector, this research underscores the need for a comprehensive view of the evolving dynamics between the transportation and electric sectors. This study has been split into two segments, Part-I provides an overview of the existing fossil fuel supply chain architecture and the electrical sector. We provide an in-depth analysis of the grid-transportation sectoral coupling, its interactions, the vulnerabilities and essential take-aways that would help us to address them and apply towards an electrified transportation sector in the future. We engaged with stakeholders to understand their expectations in enabling an electrified transportation. We accumulate the understandings from the current fossil fuel-based system in developing a risk matrix, by identifying all the threats and vulnerabilities and how would they apply to both the current and future transportation systems in Part-II of this report.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

ECAR-6585 MARVEL Core Support Structure Analysis: Project #33526

Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is developing a small microreactor to produce electrical power utilizing a small nuclear core and stirling engines for power output under the Microreactor Application Research Validation and Evaluation (MARVEL) program. The MARVEL Reactor (Figure 1) will be installed in the Transient Reactor Test (TREAT) Facility. Walsh Engineering Services, PC (WES) has contracted with the INL to detail the final design. There are six main systems in the MARVEL, one of which is the Fuel and Core System (FCS). The FCS contains a subsystem–the Core Support Structures Subsystem (CSS)–that supports and orients each of the 36 nuclear fuel pins in the MARVEL Reactor System. The FCS (apart from the fixed Beryllium Oxide radial reflectors) is shown in light green and is depicted in more detail in Figure 1 and Figure 2. The main subject of this analysis is the lower grid plate, which is the principal item in the CSS which supports the fuel, see Figure 3. Additionally, the upper grid plate thermal expansion of the upper grid plate is presented in Appendix A.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

Connectivity, Centrality, and Bottleneckedness: On Graph Theoretic Methods for Power Systems

This report provides an introduction to selected graph theoretic topics with pertinence to the structural analysis of electric power grid and communication systems. We focus on methodologies for defining, scoring, and identifying connectivity, spectral, and bottleneckeness properties in graphs, as well as vertex and edge importance measures such as centrality. We apply these measures to power systems and communications graph data, discuss and visualize the results, and comment on computational aspects of these methods. We show that graph theoretic methods can provide useful insights into grid and communication network structure, leading to tools and methods that could be used by electric utility engineers to improve key grid and communication network characteristics, such as resilience and scalability.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Interrupted binary mass transfer in star clusters

Binary mass transfer (MT) is at the forefront of some of the most exciting puzzles of modern astrophysics, including SNe Ia, gamma-ray bursts, and the formation of most observed exotic stellar populations. Typically, the evolution is assumed to proceed in isolation, even in dense stellar environments such as star clusters. In this paper, we test the validity of this assumption via the analysis of a large grid of binary evolution models simulated with the SeBa code. For every binary, we calculate analytically the mean time until another single or binary star comes within the mean separation of the mass-transferring binary, and compare this timescale to the mean time for stable MT to occur. We then derive the probability for each respective binary to experience a direct dynamical interruption. The resulting probability distribution can be integrated to give an estimate for the fraction of binaries undergoing MT that are expected to be disrupted as a function of the host cluster properties. We find that for lower-mass clusters (≲10{sup 4} M{sub ⊙}), on the order of a few to a few tens of percent of binaries undergoing MT are expected to be interrupted by an interloping single, or more often binary, star, over the course of the cluster lifetime, whereas in more massive globular clusters we expect ≪1% to be interrupted. Furthermore, using numerical scattering experiments performed with the FEWBODY code, we show that the probability of interruption increases if perturbative fly-bys are considered as well, by a factor ∼2.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Molecular and physical characteristics of aerosol at a remote free troposphere site: implications for atmospheric aging

Aerosol properties are transformed by atmospheric processes during long-range transport and play a key role in the Earth's radiative balance. To understand the molecular and physical characteristics of free tropospheric aerosol, we studied samples collected at the Pico Mountain Observatory in the North Atlantic. The observatory is located in the marine free troposphere at 2225 m above sea level, on Pico Island in the Azores archipelago. The site is ideal for the study of long-range-transported free tropospheric aerosol with minimal local influence. Three aerosol samples with elevated organic carbon concentrations were selected for detailed analysis. FLEXPART retroplumes indicated that two of the samples were influenced by North American wildfire emissions transported in the free troposphere and one by North American outflow mainly transported within the marine boundary layer.Ultrahigh-resolution Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry was used to determine the detailed molecular composition of the samples. Thousands of molecular formulas were assigned to each of the individual samples. On average ~60 % of the molecular formulas contained only carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms (CHO), ~30 %contained nitrogen (CHNO), and ~10 % contained sulfur (CHOS). The molecular formula compositions of the two wildfire-influenced aerosol samples transported mainly in the free troposphere had relatively low averageO/C ratios (0.48±0.13 and 0.45±0.11) despite the 7–10 days of transport time according to FLEXPART. In contrast, the molecular composition of the North American outflow transported mainly in the boundary layer had a higher average O/C ratio (0.57±0.17) with 3 days of transport time. To better understand the difference between free tropospheric transport and boundary layer transport, the meteorological conditions along the FLEXPART simulated transport pathways were extracted from the Global Forecast System analysis for the model grids. We used the extracted meteorological conditions and the observed molecular chemistry to predict the relative-humidity-dependent glass transition temperatures (T g ) of the aerosol components. Comparisons of the T g to the ambient temperature indicated that a majority of the organic aerosol components transported in the free troposphere were more viscous and therefore less susceptible to oxidation than the organic aerosol components transported inthe boundary layer. Although the number of observations is limited, the results suggest that biomass burning organic aerosol injected into the free troposphere is more persistent than organic aerosol in the boundary layer having broader implications for aerosol aging.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

An operational satellite scatterometer for wind vector measurements over the ocean

Performance requirements and design characteristics of a microwave scatterometer wind sensor for measuring surface winds over the oceans on a global basis are described. Scatterometer specifications are developed from user requirements of wind vector measurement range and accuracy, swath width, resolution cell size and measurement grid spacing. A detailed analysis is performed for a baseline fan-beam scatterometer design, and its performance capabilities for meeting the SeaSat-A user requirements. Various modes of operation are discussed which will allow the resolution of questions concerning the effects of sea state on the scatterometer wind sensing ability and to verify design boundaries of the instrument.

Grantham, W. L.↗

Effective constitutive relations for large repetitive frame-like structures

Effective mechanical properties for large repetitive framelike structures are derived using combinations of strength of material and orthogonal transformation techniques. Symmetry considerations are used in order to identify independent property constants. The actual values of these constants are constructed according to a building block format which is carried out in the three consecutive steps: (1) all basic planar lattices are identified; (2) effective continuum properties are derived for each of these planar basic grids using matrix structural analysis methods; and (3) orthogonal transformations are used to determine the contribution of each basic set to the overall effective continuum properties of the structure.

Nayfeh, A. H.↗