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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

Local p‐ and n‐Type Doping of an Oxide Semiconductor via Electric‐Field‐Driven Defect Migration

Layered oxides exhibit high ionic mobility and chemical flexibility, attracting interest as cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries and the pairing of hydrogen production and carbon capture. Recently, layered oxides emerged as highly tunable semiconductors. For example, by introducing anti-Frenkel defects, the electronic hopping conductance in hexagonal manganites is increased locally by orders of magnitude. Here, local acceptor and donor doping in Er(Mn,Ti)O3 is demonstrated, facilitated by the controlled splitting of anti-Frenkel defects under applied d.c. voltage. By combining density functional theory calculations, scanning probe microscopy, atom probe tomography, and scanning transmission electron microscopy, it is shown that the oxygen defects can readily be moved through the layered crystal structure, leading to nano-sized interstitial-rich (p-type) and vacancy-rich (n-type) regions. The resulting pattern is comparable to dipolar npn-junctions and stable on the timescale of days. These findings reveal the possibility of temporarily functionalizing oxide semiconductors at the nanoscale, giving additional opportunities for the field of oxide electronics and the development of transient electronics in general.

He, Jiali↗

Numerical evaluation of photosensitive tracers as a strategy for separating surface and subsurface transient storage in streams

For this work, we numerically evaluated photosensitive tracers as a potential strategy for separating the effects of surface and hyporheic storage zones (SSZs and HSZs, respectively) on stream corridor transport. Correctly separating HSZ and SSZ effects is critical to estimating the hydro-biogeochemical function of a stream because HSZs and SSZs expose solutes to significantly different biogeochemical conditions, like sunlight exposure, microbial processes, and oxygen availability. Our numerical experiments used a multiscale river-corridor transport model implemented in the ATS code, which accommodates multiple storage zones with distinct travel time distributions and biogeochemical reactions. For parameter inferences, we used Bayesian inverse modeling. We found that breakthrough curves for photo-decaying tracers from day and night injection can delineate surface and hyporheic transient storage contributions, but only when interpreted jointly through a two-storage zone model. Numerical experiments that used only daytime injection or interpreted breakthrough curves with a single storage zone model yielded good fit to breakthrough curves, but parameter estimates were biased and controlling processes misattributed, examples of good model fits for the wrong reasons. Using those biased parameter estimates in reactive transport simulations resulted in significantly different projections of denitrification, which underscores the potential for stream function to be mischaracterized if tracer tests are interpreted through an inappropriately simplified model for transient storage. More generally, this study highlights the role of modeling in evaluating the experimental design and identifying the potential of system mischaracterization and its implications.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

BISON Validation to In-Situ Cladding Burst Test and High Burnup LOCA Experiments

The process to develop and qualify nuclear fuels for commercial nuclear application requires fundamental material development, characterization, and design; out-of-pile testing on unirradiated materials; integral fuel rod irradiations, testing, and post irradiation examinations (PIEs); and transient analyses. The historical approach depends on the generation of large empirical datasets and series of integral fuel rod irradiations, and this approach ultimately takes approximately 20 years—or sometimes longer—to acquire data through extensive sequential testing. Thus, the qualification and eventual deployment of new fuel systems constitute a long and drawn-out process. However, recent technological advancements have provided researchers the opportunity to perform out-of-cell, in-situ measurements to assess material performance for the duration of the experiment. One such example of this capability is the use of digital image coordination and thermal imaging to assess Zircaloy cladding performance under a simulated loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA) transient condition. In general, the in-situ measurements provide high-fidelity strain, strain rates, and temperature surface maps. This is critical for the United States nuclear industry, which is actively developing a technical basis to support extending the peak rod average burnup from 62 to ~75 GWd/tU and the deployment of accident-tolerant fuel. However, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, through their research information letter, outlined a number of technical issues for the industry to address before extending burnup. One topic of specific interest is understanding the cladding balloon and rupture geometry during the LOCA heatup phase. Leveraging these advanced in-situ capabilities, this work intends to use insitu data generated from a simulated LOCA in the Severe Accident Test Station at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to better understand high-temperature creep and its impact on Zircaloy balloon and rupture performance. This work used the BISON fuel performance code to compare BISON’s high-temperature creep model predictions to in-situ data and identify limitations and gaps within the model. Additionally, BISON will subsequently be used to simulate relevant high-burnup LOCA tests. The results will be analyzed and compared to the available post-test data in a manner consistent with the approach outlined in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission research information letter.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Aerodynamically-driven condensate layer thickness distributions on isothermal cylindrical surfaces

A simple yet rather general mathematical model is presented for predicting the distribution of condensate layer thickness when aerodynamic shear is the dominant mechanism of liquid flow along the surface. The Newtonian condensate film is treated using well-known thin-layer (lubrication theory) approximations, and condensate supply is taken to be the result of either convective diffusion or inertial impaction. Illustrative calculations for a circular cylinder in a crossflow at Re = 100,000 reveal the consequences of alternate condensate arrival mechanisms and the existence of thicker reverse-flow films behind the position of gas boundary-layer separation. The present formulation is readily generalized to include transient liquid layer flows on noncircular objects of variable surface temperature, as encountered in turbine-blade materials testing or operation.

Rosner, D. E.↗

On some reciprocal relations in the theory of nonstationary flows

In the theory of nonstationary flows about airfoils, the "indicial lift" function ksub1(s) of Wagner and the "alternating lift" function c(k) of Theodorsen have fundamental significance. This paper reports on some interesting relations of the nature of Fourier transforms that exist between these functions. General problems in transient flows about airfoils may be given a unified broad treatment when these functions are employed. Certain approximate results also are reported which are of notable simplicity, and an analogy with transient electrical flows is drawn.

Garrick, I E↗

Dynamics of a turbojet engine considered as a quasi-static system

A determination of the dynamic characteristics of a typical turbojet engine with a centrifugal compressor, a sonic-flow turbine-nozzle diaphragm, and fixed area exhaust nozzle is presented. A generalized equation for transient behavior of the engine was developed; this equation was then verified by calculations using compressor and turbine performance charts extrapolated from equilibrium operating data and by experimental data obtained from an engine operated under transients in fuel flow. The results indicate that a linear differential equation for engine acceleration as a function of fuel flow and engine speed for operation near a steady-state operating condition can be written. The coefficients of this equation can be obtained either from actual transient data or, with a fair degree of accuracy, from the steady-state performance maps of the compressor and turbine, and can be corrected for altitude in the same manner that steady-state performance data are corrected.

Otto, Edward W↗

Development of an Atomization Methodology for Spray Combustion

In liquid rocket propulsion, the knowledge and the understanding of liquid-gas interfacial phenomena are very important. This is important for predicting the onset of cavitation occurring in swirl injection elements used in STME, as well as atomization processes in shear-induced injectors (co-axial) and impinging injector elements. From the fact that all the physical processes including droplet size distribution, droplet dispersion, mixing and combustion are controlled by atomization processes, it is expected that the successful incorporation of the volume of fraction (VOF) will greatly enhance the analytical capability of predicting spray combustion processes in liquid-fueled engines. In this paper, a methodology is developed to define and track interfaces between two fluids in non-orthogonal, body-fitted grids using a single fractional volume of fluid (VOF) variable to describe the distribution of the liquid phase in a gas-liquid flow field. This method was implemented in a mature CFD code MAST (Multiphase All-Speed Transient) utilizing the general PISO-C algorithm. For the preliminary study on the analysis of spray combustion and tracking of the interface between two phases, we will report on the progress of the simulation of the instability on the liquid column; the surface wave instability and the droplet breakup from the liquid surface.

Seung, S. P.↗

Data-driven modeling of coarse mesh turbulence for reactor transient analysis using convolutional recurrent neural networks

Advanced nuclear reactors often exhibit complex thermal-fluid phenomena during transients. To accurately capture such phenomena, a coarse-mesh three-dimensional (3-D) modeling capability is desired for modern nuclear-system code. In the coarse-mesh 3-D modeling of advanced-reactor transients that involve flow and heat transfer, accurately predicting the turbulent viscosity is a challenging task that requires an accurate and computationally efficient model to capture the unresolved fine-scale turbulence. In this work, we propose a data-driven coarse-mesh turbulence model based on local flow features for the transient analysis of thermal mixing and stratification in a sodium-cooled fast reactor. The model has a coarse mesh setup to ensure computational efficiency, while it is trained by fine-mesh computational fluid dynamics (CFD) data to ensure accuracy. A novel neural network architecture, combining a densely connected convolutional network and a long-short-term-memory network, is developed that can efficiently learn from the spatial temporal CFD transient simulation results. The neural network model was trained and optimized on a loss-of flow transient and demonstrated high accuracy in predicting the turbulent viscosity field during the whole transient. The trained model's generalization capability was also investigated on two other transients with different inlet conditions. The study demonstrates the potential of applying the proposed data-driven approach to support the coarse-mesh multi-dimensional modeling of advanced reactors.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Transient radiative energy transfer in nongray gases

A general formulation is presented to investigate the transient radiative interaction in nongray absorbing-emitting species between two parallel plates. Special attention is directed to investigate the radiative interaction in a system initially at a uniform reference temperature where suddenly the temperature of the bottom plate is reduced to a lower but constant temperature. The interaction is considered for the case of radiative equilibrium as well as for combined radiation and conduction. General as well as limiting forms of the govering equations are presented and solutions are obtained numerically by employing the method of variation of parameters. Specific results are obtained for CO, CO2, H2O, and OH. The information on species H2O and OH is of special interest for the proposed scramjet engine application. The results demonstrate the relative ability of different species for radiative interactions.

Tiwari, S. N.↗

Role of thermo-mechanical gyrations on the α/β interface stability in a Ti6Al4V AM alloy

Fluctuating energy distributions experienced during Additive Manufacturing yield an evolution of spatial and temporal transients within a part. In general, the in-situ monitoring of these transients is near to impossible during manufacturing. In order to then gain perspective into the impact on these localized thermo-mechanical transients on the interface stability, rapid thermo-mechanical reversals with known boundary conditions are imposed on an AM Ti6Al4V alloy which resulted in a phase transformation leading to an increased β phase stability. Our goal with this study is to comprehend the kinetics of this phase transformation with concepts of stored energy due to plastic strain accumulation and diffusion kinetics. Atom Probe Tomography is employed to study the partitioning of the solute elements across the interface. As expected, the thermo-mechanically cycled samples showed a reduced Vanadium concentration across the β phase. Finally, this concentration profile across the interface, alongside a full-width-half-max analysis, provided insight on the potential phase transformation kinetics involved in the α → β transformation subject to thermo- mechanical gyrations.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Failure analysis of nuclear transient-tested UN tristructural isotropic fuel particles in a 3D printed SiC matrix

Fully ceramic microencapsulated fuel elements containing UN tristructural isotropic (TRISO) fuel particles within a 3D printed SiC matrix were subjected to transient testing with varying energy depositions. Detailed post-irradiation examinations were performed, including leaching in hot HNO3 and post-leaching X-ray computed tomography, to quantify the percentage of failed TRISO particles and crack propagation within the particles and surrounding fuel matrix. In parallel, detailed finite element analyses were performed for comparison with experimental findings and to better evaluate transient failure modes. The lowest transient energy deposition—which still exceeded bounding values for high-temperature gas-cooled reactor applications—resulted in no detectable TRISO particle failures or matrix cracking, which was consistent with the simulations. Simulations of the higher-energy transients for which significant TRISO particle failure was expected were generally able to reproduce the transient temperatures and matrix cracking. Thus, the TRISO particle failures were explained based on the effects of local SiC matrix thickness and porosity. Results generally confirmed the high strength of the additively manufactured SiC matrix but also affirmed the need for a modified UN TRISO architecture to prevent SiC matrix cracks from propagating through TRISO layers. This unique failure mode has not historically been considered for TRISO fuels contained in weaker graphite matrices.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Preliminary Performance Data on General Electric Integrated Electronic Control Operating on J47 RX1-3 Turbojet Engine in NACA Altitude Wind Tunnel

Performance data obtained with recording oscillographs are presented to show the transient response of the General Electric Integrated Electronic Control operating on the J47 RXl-3 turbo-Jet engine over a range of altitudes from 10,000 to 45,000 feet and at ram pressure ratios of 1.03 and 1.4. These data represent the performance of the final control configuration developed after an investigation of the engine transient behavior in the NACA altitude wind tunnel. Oscillograph traces of controlled accelerations (throttle bursts),oontrolled decelerations (throttle chops), and controlled altitude starts are presented.

Darnold Blivas↗

The leaking mode problem in atmospheric acoustic-gravity wave propagation

The problem of predicting the transient acoustic pressure pulse at long horizontal distances from large explosions in the atmosphere is examined. Account is taken of poles off the real axis and of branch line integrals in the general integral governing the transient waveform. Perturbation techniques are described for the computation of the imaginary ordinate of the poles and numerical studies are described for a model atmosphere terminated by a halfspace with c = 478 m/sec above 125 km. For frequencies less than 0.0125 rad/sec, the GR sub 1 mode, for example, is found to have a frequency dependent amplitude decay of the order of 0.0001 nepers/km. Examples of numerically synthesized transient waveforms are exhibited with and without the inclusion of leaking modes. The inclusion of leaking modes results in waveforms with a more marked beginning rather than a low frequency oscillating precursor of gradually increasing amplitude. Also, the revised computations indicate that waveforms invariably begin with a pressure rise, a result supported by other theoretical considerations and by experimental data.

Kinney, W. A.↗

Water Hammer Simulations of MMH Propellant - New Capability Demonstration of the Generalized Fluid Flow Simulation Program

Fluid Transient analysis is important for the design of spacecraft propulsion system to ensure structural stability of the system in the event of sudden closing or opening of the valve. Generalized Fluid System Simulation Program (GFSSP), a general purpose flow network code developed at NASA/MSFC is capable of simulating pressure surge due to sudden opening or closing of valve when thermodynamic properties of real fluid are available for the entire range of simulation. Specifically GFSSP needs an accurate representation of pressure-density relationship in order to predict pressure surge during a fluid transient. Unfortunately, the available thermodynamic property programs such as REFPROP, GASP or GASPAK does not provide the thermodynamic properties of Monomethylhydrazine (MMH). This paper will illustrate the process used for building a customized table of properties of state variables from available properties and speed of sound that is required by GFSSP for simulation. Good agreement was found between the simulations and measured data. This method can be adopted for modeling flow networks and systems with other fluids whose properties are not known in detail in order to obtain general technical insight. Rigorous code validation of this approach will be done and reported at a future date.

Burkhardt, Z.↗