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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 73 records · Page 4
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

ORGANIC RANKINE CYCLE TURBINE AND HEAT EXCHANGER SIZING FOR LIQUID AIR COMBINED CYCLE

Cryogenic energy storage offers several opportunities to design turbomachinery and other equipment for novel cycles. This paper presents the design and analysis of turbomachinery and heat exchangers for an Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) subsystem for a hybrid energy storage concept. The Liquid Air Combined Cycle is an energy storage system that stores air at cryogenic conditions at times with high variable renewable energy to be dispatched along with a gas turbine to recover the exhaust heat. In order to re-vaporize the air, the liquid air is coupled with an ORC as an additional bottoming cycle. The ORC turbine is expected to expand the fluid with a pressure ratio of nearly 30 and a flow rate of approximately 45 kg/s. Sizing calculations for both a radial and axial turbine solution were performed over a range of speeds and stages to determine the optimal design point. The results show that either an axial (8- or 9-stage) or radial (four stages at two shaft speeds) turbine are capable of handling the pressure ratios. Further trades of the two configurations would be required to determine the best option. The ORC system also incorporates five heat exchangers to distribute heat, vaporize the liquid air, or recover exhaust heat from the gas turbine. Three heat exchangers were analyzed to understand the size of heat exchangers and pressure drop for the overall system. Different types of heat exchangers were explored for the different purposes, including plate-fin heat exchangers, gasketed plate heat exchangers and shell-in-tube heat exchangers. It was determined that the ORC recuperator, liquid-air vaporizer, and vaporized air pre-heater would be counter-flow heat exchangers using a gasketed plate design. Keywords: Energy Storage, Liquid Air Energy Storage, Organic Rankine Cycle

Pryor, Owen↗
DOE OSTI2026

An Overview of Potential Future Aviation Energy Carriers

Global jet fuel demand is projected to grow to 165 billion gallons by 2050 and there is growing interest in the aviation industry to understand the capabilities of alternative energy carriers. This report considers several potential energy carriers, reviewing their production potential, operational considerations, and economic implications to inform potential next steps in aeronautics research. The following energy carriers (i.e., fuels) were evaluated in this study for future use in aviation: sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) - both biomass-based and power-to-liquids (PtL) - based SAF - cryogenic hydrogen (LH 2 ) - also known as liquid hydrogen - liquefied natural gas (LNG), liquefied ethane (LE), and Jet X. The barriers and opportunities for the evaluated energy carriers vary. SAF is a commercially available drop-in fuel compatible with existing aircraft and infrastructure. SAF is limited by both higher prices and slow commercialization of multiple pathways using different feedstocks necessary to significantly grow supply. Cryogenic fuels, in contrast, have very different thermal, physical, and chemical properties than SAF and Jet A, requiring the construction of new airport storage and dispensing infrastructure and the design of new aircraft energy systems capable of mitigating heat transfer and boil-off. Cryogenic fuels offer an opportunity to diversify aviation fuel carriers from domestic energy relevant for both energy security and resilience. This means cryogenic fuels are more of a longer-term solution for aircraft but are worth exploring for potential future cost savings and emissions benefits. Jet X refers to non-drop-in liquid hydrocarbon fuels in the early stages of investigation seeking favorable properties. There are substantial barriers to non-drop-in liquid aviation fuels that are not compatible with existing aircraft and fuel infrastructure.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Operation of helium sub-atmospheric multistage cryogenic centrifugal compressor trains: Part 1 – Steady state modeling and speed ratio selection

Helium cryogenic systems which can provide cooling below the normal boiling point of helium (approximately 4.2 K) are often required by superconducting radio-frequency niobium resonators utilized in modern high-energy particle accelerators. Achieving temperatures below 4.2 K generally involves operating a cryogenic vessel with liquid helium under sub-atmospheric conditions, thereby lowering the saturation pressure and corresponding saturation temperature. Over the last several decades, multi-stage cryogenic centrifugal compressor trains (CC’s) have been operated efficiently and reliably within large-scale cryogenic systems to continuously evacuate helium vapor generated by a device within the vessel, maintaining sub-atmospheric conditions in the vessel while pressurizing the return vapor to above atmospheric conditions. Traditionally, these CC systems have been operated using empirically derived control philosophies and insight gathered from previous operational experience. Recent efforts at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) have been aimed at the development of a theoretical basis to characterize the operation of multi-stage cryogenic centrifugal compressor train and utilizing predictive model results to generate control parameters. The objective of this research was identifying operational points which adequately balance cryogenic system efficiency, stability, and overall ease of operation. Furthermore, this manuscript provides an overview of the predictive model development, characterization of the FRIB cryogenic centrifugal compressors and implementation of the predicted performance results during steady-state system operation.

Compressor train control↗
DOE OSTI2023

LBNF/DUNE Cryostats and Cryogenics Infrastructure for the DUNE Far Detector (Design Report)

DUNE is an international experiment dedicated to addressing some of the questions at the forefront of particle physics and astrophysics, including the mystifying preponderance of matter over antimatter in the early universe. The dual-site experiment will employ an intense neutrino beam focused on both a near detector and a cryogenic far detector. The DUNE far detector implements liquid argon time-projection chamber (LArTPC) technology, and combines many tens-of-kilotons of fiducial mass with sub-centimeter spatial resolution to collect neutrino events and image them with high precision. Given its size, this detector will be implemented as a set of up to four modules, each of which will require its own cryostat that will contain approximately 17.5 metric kilotons of ultra-pure liquid argon (LAr). The cryogenics infrastructure to support the detector modules includes systems to receive, transfer, store, purify, and maintain the LAr. This design report describes the cryostats and the cryogenics infrastructure required for the first two detector modules; this infrastructure is designed to support expansion to up to four far detector modules.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2022

Design and demonstration of an economical SRF structure for Continuous Wave (CW), high-energy, Megawatt-class beams

Due to its very high RF-to-beam efficiency, superconducting radiofrequency (SRF) cavities have become the technology of choice for the construction of large linear accelerators (linacs) for basic science applications (examples, ESS and PIP-II). The technology is also attractive for high volume industrial applications such as electron irradiation processing of wastewater and flue gas. However, SRF’s current reliance on liquid helium for cryogenic cooling introduces infrastructural and safety challenges for use in industrial settings. Cryocooler conduction-cooling is a recently developed novel technique for operating SRF cavities without requiring liquid helium. This project aims for technical design and economic assessment of a medium energy, high average power e-beam linac based on the conduction-cooled SRF technique for high volume irradiation treatment of wastewater. The goals of this project are (1) to design a medium energy (10 MeV), high average power (1 MW) electron beam accelerator around the cryocooler conduction-cooled SRF cavity technology, (2) demonstrate the required accelerating voltage on a prototype cavity, and (3) build a cost-model to evaluate capital and operating expense of the accelerator.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2026

Design and Commissioning of a Deuterium-Tritium Gas Delivery System for Muon Catalyzed Fusion in a Diamond Anvil Cell

We report the design, commissioning, and operation of deuterium-deuterium (DD) and deuterium-tritium (DT) gas delivery systems developed to load a diamond anvil cell (DAC) beam target for muon-catalyzed fusion (muCF). The DAC approach enables DT fuel to be compressed to GPa pressures at more than twice the liquid density and heated from cryogenic temperatures through 500 K, opening access to a substantially expanded parameter range for muCF kinetics and yield measurements. In this approach, DT is cryo-condensed to a liquid in a minichamber and then compressed in the DAC using a helium-driven pneumatic membrane, achieving high pressures in a millimeter-scale DT sample volume. A DD gas delivery system was designed and used to validate the experimental apparatus, measure the gas quantities needed for filling, develop operational experience, and collect kinetics and yield data with DD targets. The DT gas delivery system adds tritium-specific capabilities for inventory minimization, secondary containment, and activity monitoring. The DT system integrates depleted uranium storage beds and a liquid helium cryogenic condenser used for pressure building and cryopumping. High-purity delivery is provided by a rapid-response palladium permeator. The system is housed in a helium-atmosphere glovebox held at negative pressure with continuous cleanup. We present the process and instrumentation design, a failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA), and data from the experiment's in situ Raman spectrometer, which provides direct confirmation of target loading and composition through the optically clear diamond anvils. The 2024 and 2025 DT campaigns achieved repeatable target fills and operation with no measurable tritium releases to the stack, demonstrating safe, high-purity DT loading at novel density-temperature conditions for muCF studies.

Koukina, Elena [Acceleron Fusion]↗
DOE OSTI2026

Long-term stability-degradation analysis of DUNE SiPMs in Liquid Nitrogen

We developed a cryogenic photon readout system to monitor arrays of DUNE SiPMs operating at various over-voltages in liquid nitrogen (LN2) for over three months. Photoelectron signals were read out simultaneously via weak capacitive coupling to the micro-FEMB, a 32-channel charge sensitive readout board designed for 77 K to 300 K operation in liquid argon time projection chambers (LAr-TPCs). A waveform snippet acquisition scheme was implemented to capture waveform signals whenever they exceeded a predetermined trigger level; consequently, empty waveforms were discarded. Selected SiPM parameters were monitored to detect any deviations beyond statistical fluctuations. While some parameters exhibited ~1σ variations over the 3-month test period, there was no evidence of drift being enhanced when operating at 4 V or 5 V compared to a 3 V over-voltage. However, a discernible PDE drop was observed across all channels, which warrants further investigation. In addition, we demonstrated that our system can simultaneously read out single photons from a selected group of SiPMs at room temperature.

Tsang, Thomas [Brookhaven]↗
DOE OSTI2020

Distributed fibre-optic temperature sensor for cryogenic applications based on detection of boson components of Raman light scattering

The possibility of designing a distributed fibre-optic sensor, allowing one to measure cryogenic temperatures (to liquid nitrogen boiling point), is experimentally demonstrated. The principle of operation of the sensor is based on measuring the intensity of boson peaks of Raman scattering in a fibre material, which are spaced by 1 to 3 THz from the probe frequency. The measurements are performed using a single-mode telecommunication fibre with a 15-μm-thick polyimide coating. The probe wavelength is 1.55 μm, the sensor spatial resolution is 4 m, and the averaging time is 60 s. Experiments are carried out in the temperature range of 75.6 – 79.6 K, with a temperature resolution of 0.5 K. (paper)

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2026

Assessment of Vibration and Shock Loading Environments on Steels Used in Railroad Applications Considering Hydrogen Embrittlement

Studies that examine the combined effects of hydrogen and rail loading environments in the context of hydrogen embrittlement of steels have not been performed. Large-scale hydrogen storage requires either gaseous hydrogen stored in pressure vessels and tubing or liquid hydrogen in cryogenic, insulated tanks. Since the focus of this study is on steels, we examine the influence of hydrogen on stainless steel used for high pressure tubing and cryogenic tanks and Cr-Mo steel liners used in gaseous pressure vessels. Literature studies show that despite hydrogen degradation, these steels can be used effectively and safely if the stresses are managed. The shock and vibration environment on railcars present unique environments where stresses and loading rates can be high. A literature review was conducted to understand the accelerations experienced in rail by examining instrumented railcars of nuclear fuel casks. Hydrogen studies were examined that focused on steel pressure hardware with an emphasis on fatigue, fast loading rates, and low temperatures. A simplified fatigue assessment was performed to examine design cycles for three different hydrogen components: stainless steel tubing, stainless steel cryogenic tanks, and gaseous pressure vessels. The assessments were idealized and used bounding cases of accelerations in both normal rail conditions and coupling events. In normal shock and vibration environments when accelerations were less than 2 g, infinite design life was calculated. In extreme shock or coupling environments, finite design life was calculated which was shown to be dependent on unsupported lengths of pressure components. It was shown that adjusting the unsupported length can reduce the bending stress thereby increasing design life.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2020

Using Additives to Control the Decomposition Temperature of Sodium Borohydride

Hydrogen (H 2 ) shows great promise as zero-carbon emission fuel, but there are several challenges to overcome in regards to storage and transportation to make it a more universal energy solution. Gaseous hydrogen requires high pressures and large volume tanks while storage of liquid hydrogen requires cryogenic temperatures; neither option is ideal due to cost and the hazards involved. Storage in the solid state presents an attractive alternative, and can meet the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) constraints to find materials containing > 7 % H 2 (gravimetric weight) with a maximum H 2 release under 125 °C. While there are many candidate hydrogen storage materials, the vast majority are metal hydrides. Of the hydrides, this review focuses solely on sodium borohydride (NaBH 4 ), which is often not covered in other hydride reviews. However, as it contains 10.6% (by weight) H 2 that can release at 133 ± 3 JK -1 mol -1 , this inexpensive material has received renewed attention. NaBH 4 should decompose to H 2 (g), Na(s), and B(s), and could be recycled into its original form. Unfortunately, metal to ligand charge transfer in NaBH 4 induces high thermodynamic stability, creating a high decomposition temperature of 530 °C. In an effort make H 2 more accessible at lower temperatures, researchers have incorporated additives to destabilize the structure. This review highlights metal additives that have successfully reduced the decomposition temperature of NaBH 4 , with temperatures ranging from 522 °C (titanium (IV) fluoride) to 379 °C (niobium (V) fluoride). We describe synthetic methods employed, chemical pathways taken, and the challenges of boron derivative formation on H 2 cycling. Though no trends can be found across all additives, it is our hope that compiling the data here will enable researchers to gain a better understanding of the additives’ influence and to determine how a new system might be designed to make NaBH 4 a more viable H 2 fuel source.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2025

Minimization of thermal deformation in crystal optics for high repetition-rate FEL

Minimizing thermal deformation in X-ray crystal optics is crucial for preserving coherence and wavefront in high-repetition-rate free-electron lasers (FELs). This study presents two approaches to reduce pulse-by-pulse transient thermal deformation in diamond crystals used in cavity-based X-ray FELs (CBXFELs): (1) cryogenic cooling with liquid nitrogen (LN₂), and (2) second-order correction via focusing optics. We revisit the temperature-dependent thermal-mechanical properties of diamond and silicon, implement a finite-element analysis (FEA) method to accelerate convergence to a quasisteady-state regime. Results show that LN₂-cooled diamond crystals meet the stringent deformation requirement of less than 15 pm RMS for the pulse at mJ scale at 1 MHz repetition frequency, and up to 1.5 mJ for 100 kHz. Second-order correction by using focusing elements within the cavity can reduce the impact of thermal deformation for both liquid nitrogen and water cooling.

free electron laser↗
DOE OSTI2022

Parameterization of electron attachment rate constants for impurities in LArTPC detectors

The ability of free electrons to drift long distances at high velocities in pure liquid argon under an applied electric field has been exploited for the past forty years to implement detectors with increasingly larger volumes for high energy physics research. The attachment of free electrons to impurities in the LAr is an important limit on the free instrumented volume of these extremely large detectors, and impurity concentrations as small as 100 ppt can reduce their resolution and efficiency. In this paper, we summarize the electron attachment rate constants as a function of the applied electric field, for common impurities in LArTPCs, obtained from data in the literature. Here, we further provide analytical functions to parameterize the data, which are useful to compare with new measurements, to model and analyze the performance of existing detectors, and to predict the performance of new detectors.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Automated cryogenic refilling system

An improved system and method for the automated refilling of cryogenic helium is provided. In one embodiment, the system includes a dewar in fluid communication with a liquid helium cryostat through a cryogen transfer line. A controller regulates operation of a three-way valve to pre-cool the transfer line and to cause gaseous helium to flow to the dewar and force liquid helium through the transfer line into the cryostat. The controller is coupled to the output of a cryogenic level sensor, such that the controller regulates the helium liquid level within the cryostat. During filling cycles, the dewar liquid level is also monitored by the cryogenic level sensor and an alarm sounds if the dewar liquid level is undesirably low. Between filling cycles, the controller is operable to ventilate the dewar through a solenoid vent valve in fixed time intervals to ensure the dewar pressure is sufficiently low so as to not bleed liquid helium into the cryostat.

Ruiz-Rodriguez, Mariano M.↗
DOE OSTI2026

Real-Time GPU-Accelerated OFDR With an Integrated Auxiliary Interferometer

A GPU-accelerated optical frequency domain reflectometry (OFDR) system with an improved integrated auxiliary interferometer is proposed. Unlike conventional approaches that require separate auxiliary interferometers and multiple detection channels, the proposed OFDR system embeds this functionality directly into the signal via an intentional beat component. This enables self-calibration of laser nonlinearity while maintaining a cost-effective hardware configuration. Building on this simplified configuration, the system leverages GPU acceleration with an NVIDIA RTX 4070 Ti to achieve real-time performance, delivering high-throughput signal processing for continuous OFDR interrogation. The signal processing pipeline comprises signal capture, resampling for nonlinearity compensation, and frequency shift computation, all optimized for parallel execution. Hardware benchmarking demonstrates substantial acceleration over CPU implementations, achieving up to a 45× speedup for resampling and frequency shift computations and enabling processing latencies below 30 ms. Thermal response validation is conducted under two complementary scenarios: localized heating using a water bath and cryogenic-temperature conditions using liquid nitrogen. Under localized heating, the system achieves an accuracy of 0.249 °C with a thermal sensitivity of 5.971 GHz/°C, while cryogenic-temperature validation demonstrates a frequency shift response with a sensitivity of 2.383 GHz/°C and an accuracy of 2.04 °C. The high acceleration of the proposed GPU-accelerated OFDR system and its accuracy are achieved by exploiting CUDA-based stride indexing, enabling efficient parallel segmentation and processing of large datasets without additional memory copies. The benchmarking results confirm the robustness, accuracy, and deployability of the proposed OFDR system across a wide temperature range, establishing it as a practical platform for real-time distributed fiber sensing in structurally dynamic environments.

Harb, Salah [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory↗
DOE OSTI2023

Scintillation light detection performance for the DUNE ND-LAr 2 × 2 modules

The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) will be using a liquid argon time projection chamber (LAr TPC) with optically separated modules in the Near Detector (ND) complex. A prototype experiment, DUNE ND-LAr 2 × 2, is composed of four test modules. They detect ionization charge through a pixel-based readout and scintillation light through fibers in light collection modules and light traps called ArCLights. The light detection performance for two modules of DUNE ND-LAr 2 × 2 that took cosmic ray data at the University of Bern is shown. We present further the role of the 2 × 2 prototype in DUNE and how it is used to demonstrate the reconstruction capabilities of its light detectors in terms of energy thresholds and timing resolution.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2024

Monitoring Helium Cryogen Usage with iFix Software at IB1 Test Facility

At the IB1 facility of the Applied Physics and Superconducting Technology Directorate within the Cryogenic Division at Fermilab, liquid helium is essential to the testing activities. The test stands used require large amounts of Helium to test the thermal and superconducting cavities and magnets. The liquid helium that enters the test stand is monitored through a series of valves and controls to determine the start and stop for monitoring time. There are 3 phases of cryogen usage that must be considered for each stand, cooldown, warming and overnight mode. With a new system in place, cold hour tracking will be more objective and precise within each test stand ensuring better calculations for user s fees that will provide funding for the replenishment of helium and continual operation at IB1.

Trillo, Angelica↗
DOE OSTI2024

Monitoring Helium Cryogen Usage with iFix Software at IB1 Test Facility

At the IB1 facility of the Applied Physics and Superconducting Technology Directorate within the Cryogenic Division at Fermilab, Liquid Helium is essential to the testing activities. The test stands require large amounts of Helium to test the thermal and superconducting cavities and magnets. The Liquid Helium that enters the test stand is monitored through a series of valves and controls to determine the start and stop for monitoring time. There are 3 phases of cryogen usage that must be considered for each stand, cooldown, warming and overnight mode. With a new system in place, cold hour tracking will be more objective and precise within each test stand ensuring better calculations for User s fees which are charged to various groups that employ the facility and aid replenishment of Helium and continual operation at IB1.

Trillo, Angelica↗
DOE OSTI2024

Novel Liquid Argon Time-Projection Chamber Readouts

Liquid argon time-projection chambers (LArTPCs) have become a prominent tool for experiments in particle physics. Recent years have yielded significant advances in the techniques used to capture the signals generated by these cryogenic detectors. This article summarizes these novel developments for detection of ionization electrons and scintillation photons in LArTPCs. New methods to capture ionization signals address the challenges of scaling traditional techniques to the large scales necessary for future experiments. Pixelated readouts improve signal fidelity and expand the applicability of LArTPCs to higher-rate environments. Methods that leverage amplification in argon enable measurements in the keV regime and below. Techniques to enhance collection of argon scintillation photons improve calorimetry and expand the physics program for very large detectors. Future efforts aim to demonstrate systems for the combined detection of both electrons and photons.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗