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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
NASA NTRS1985

Nested subcritical flows within supercritical systems

In supercritical systems the design inlet and outlet pressures are maintained above the thermaodynamic critical pressure P sub C. Designers rely on this simple rule of thumb to circumvent problems associated with a subcritical pressure regime nested within the supercritical pressure system along with the uncertainties in heat transfer, fluid mechanics, and thermophysical property variations. The simple rule of thumb is adequate in many low-power designs but is inadequate for high-performance turbomachines and linear systems, where nested two-phase regions can exist. Examples for a free-jet expansion with backpressure greater than P sub C and a rotor (bearing) with ambient pressure greater than P sub C illustrate the existence of subcritical pressure regimes nested within supercritical systems.

Hendricks, R. C.↗
NASA NTRS1987

A comparative study of plasma heating by ion acoustic and modified two-stream instabilities at subcritical quasi-perpendicular shocks

Plasma heating due to the ion acoustic instability and the modified two-stream instability is examined for quasi-perpendicular subcritical shocks. Electron and ion heating is investigated as a function of upstream electron to ion temperature ratio and plasma beta using second-order heating rates. A simple shock model is employed in which the cross-field electron-ion drift speed is adjusted until the total (adiabatic plus anomalous) heating matches that required by the Rankine-Hugoniot relations. Quantities such as the width of the shock and the maximum electric field fluctuations are also calculated, and the results are compared with the ISEE data set of subcritical bow shock crossings. The observed width of the shock, the amount of plasma heating, and the low-frequency electric field intensity are in reasonably good agreement with the calculations for the modified two-stream instability. On the other hand, the wave intensities at higher frequency are about 4 orders of magnitude smaller than those predicted for the ion acoustic instability at saturation, consistent with the fact that the measured shock widths imply cross-field drift speeds that are below threshold for this instability. It is therefore concluded that the dissipation at these shocks is most likely due to the lowest frequency, modified two-stream instability.

Winske, D.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Effects of subcritical crack growth on fracture toughness of ceramics assessed in chevron-notched three-point bend tests

A numerical computational study was carried out to assess the effects of subcritical crack growth on crack stability in the chevron-notched three-point bend specimens. A power-law relationship between the subcritical crack velocity and the applied stress intensity were used along with compliance and stress-intensity relationships for the chevron-notched bend specimen to calculate the load response under fixed deflection rate and a machine compliance. The results indicate that the maximum load during the test occurs at the same crack length for all the deflection rates; the maximum load, however, is dependent on the deflection rate for rates below the critical rate. The resulting dependence of the apparent fracture toughness on the deflection rate is compared to experimental results on soda-lime glass and polycrystalline alumina.

Chao, L. Y.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Subcritical and supercritical water oxidation of CELSS model wastes

A mixture of ammonium hydroxide with acetic acid and a slurry of human feces, urine, and wipes were used as CELSS model wastes to be wet-oxidized at temperatures from 250 to 500 C, i.e. below and above the critical point of water (374 C and 218 kg/sq cm or 21.4 MPa). The effects of oxidation temperature ( 250-500 C) and residence time (0-120 mn) on carbon and nitrogen and on metal corrosion from the reactor material were studied. Almost all of the organic matter in the model wastes was oxidized in the temperature range from 400 to 500 C, above the critical conditions for water. In contrast, only a small portion of the organic matter was oxidized at subcritical conditions. A substantial amount of nitrogen remained in solution in the form of ammonia at temperatures ranging from 350 to 450 C suggesting that, around 400 C, organic carbon is completely oxidized and most of the nitrogen is retained in solution. The Hastelloy C-276 alloy reactor corroded during subcritical and supercritical water oxidation.

Takahashi, Y.↗
NASA NTRS2007

Subcritical Water Extraction of Amino Acids from Atacama Desert Soils

Amino acids are considered organic molecular indicators in the search for extant and extinct life in the Solar System. Extraction of these molecules from a particulate solid matrix, such as Martian regolith, will be critical to their in situ detection and analysis. The goals of this study were to optimize a laboratory amino acid extraction protocol by quantitatively measuring the yields of extracted amino acids as a function of liquid water temperature and sample extraction time and to compare the results to the standard HCl vapor- phase hydrolysis yields for the same soil samples. Soil samples from the Yungay region of the Atacama Desert ( Martian regolith analog) were collected during a field study in the summer of 2005. The amino acids ( alanine, aspartic acid, glutamic acid, glycine, serine, and valine) chosen for analysis were present in the samples at concentrations of 1 - 70 parts- per- billion. Subcritical water extraction efficiency was examined over the temperature range of 30 - 325 degrees C, at pressures of 17.2 or 20.0 MPa, and for water- sample contact equilibration times of 0 - 30 min. None of the amino acids were extracted in detectable amounts at 30 degrees C ( at 17.2 MPa), suggesting that amino acids are too strongly bound by the soil matrix to be extracted at such a low temperature. Between 150 degrees C and 250 degrees C ( at 17.2 MPa), the extraction efficiencies of glycine, alanine, and valine were observed to increase with increasing water temperature, consistent with higher solubility at higher temperatures, perhaps due to the decreasing dielectric constant of water. Amino acids were not detected in extracts collected at 325 degrees C ( at 20.0 MPa), probably due to amino acid decomposition at this temperature. The optimal subcritical water extraction conditions for these amino acids from Atacama Desert soils were achieved at 200 degrees C, 17.2 MPa, and a water- sample contact equilibration time of 10 min.

biomarkers↗
NASA NTRS2009

Subcritical-Water Extraction of Organics from Solid Matrices

An apparatus for extracting organic compounds from soils, sands, and other solid matrix materials utilizes water at subcritical temperature and pressure as a solvent. The apparatus, called subcritical water extractor (SCWE), is a prototype of subsystems of future instrumentation systems to be used in searching for organic compounds as signs of past or present life on Mars. An aqueous solution generated by an apparatus like this one can be analyzed by any of a variety of established chromatographic or spectroscopic means to detect the dissolved organic compound( s). The apparatus can be used on Earth: indeed, in proof-of-concept experiments, SCWE was used to extract amino acids from soils of the Atacama Desert (Chile), which was chosen because the dryness and other relevant soil conditions there approximate those on Mars. The design of the apparatus is based partly on the fact that the relative permittivity (also known as the dielectric constant) of liquid water varies with temperature and pressure. At a temperature of 30 C and a pressure of 0.1 MPa, the relative permittivity of water is 79.6, due to the strong dipole-dipole electrostatic interactions between individual molecular dipoles. As the temperature increases, increasing thermal energy causes increasing disorientation of molecular dipoles, with a consequent decrease in relative permittivity. For example, water at a temperature of 325 C and pressure of 20 MPa has a relative permittivity of 17.5, which is similar to the relative permittivities of such nonpolar organic solvents as 1-butanol (17.8). In the operation of this apparatus, the temperature and pressure of water are adjusted so that the water can be used in place of commonly used organic solvents to extract compounds that have dissimilar physical and chemical properties.

Amashukeli, Xenia↗
DOE OSTI2020

Feasibility Study for a Proposed Subcritical Assembly at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Nuclear Criticality Safety (NCS) staff use the guidelines in the ANSI/ANS-8.26 standard to establish and maintain their training and qualifications. Section 7.4 of the standard requires NCS staff to participate in hands-on experiments meant to “…demonstrate how varying the properties of a fissionable material system can affect neutron multiplication.” This training is performed to ensure NCS and operations staff are aware of the risks involved with conducting operations with fissionable materials outside reactors. A new, inherently safe, subcritical assembly, to be housed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is being considered to augment the current training capabilities of the US Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE/NNSA) Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP), which conducts hands-on subcritical and critical experiments to support the training and qualifications of NCS staff. This paper reports the results of a feasibility study performed by ORNL.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2023

MCNP Neutronic Design Optimization of an Accelerator-Driven Subcritical Assembly for Mo-99 Production

Molybdenum-99 (99Mo) has been in short supply in the recent decades. The most common productionmechanism, irradiation in a reactor fueled by highly enriched uranium (HEU), raisesproliferation concerns. Novel efforts are being pursued to meet the demand for 99Mo withoutHEU irradiation, relying on the processing of low-enriched uranium or natural uranium. Onesuch concept is to use an electron linear accelerator to generate bremsstrahlung that, through aphotonuclear reaction, can help multiply neutrons in a subcritical assembly. The goal of this workwas to neutronically optimize the subcritical assembly for keff and 99Mo production. This optimizationis unique for The design was optimized in terms of reflector type, pitch, and LEU andNU mass. Results of the paper show the effects of fuel mass, pitch, and reflector material on keffand the NU fission fraction. keff was found to be mostly driven by LEU mass, and the NU fissionfraction was dependent on several parameters, primarily pitch and mass.

Conant, Andrew↗
DOE OSTI2020

Leak detection in a subcritical boiler

Thermal power plants experience cycling duty leading to the fatigue of the boiler and heat exchanger tubes. As a result, tube failures occur frequently in coal fired fleets leading to forced outages. Furthermore, because the tube leaks have been the major source of unwanted shutdowns and the number of outages is increasing, present work focuses on the detection and isolation of the leak in a subcritical boiler based upon the process data from a commercial coalfired power plant. The mass balance equation around the steam drum was analyzed using timeseries data collected from a 300 MW power plant. The ratio of the feed water mass flow rate to the steam mass flow rate was defined as a key parameter for detecting leaks. The difference in slope between the feedwater and steam mass flow rate during the normal and faulty operations was established as the upper control limit for real time monitoring. To reduce false alarm rates that arise when raw signal is directly compared against the threshold due to common process fluctuations, an optimal filter was derived for smoothing. It was found that the optimal filter reacted much more quickly to process changes than an exponential moving average filter, around 8 h earlier on average. Occurrence of relatively high false alarm rates even in the filtered responses was related to the cycling of the boiler from the base load condition. Variable threshold was established to keep false alarm rates to the minimum while maintaining the leak detection rate. Finally, the leak was located at the economizer and this could readily be isolated by investigating the magnitude of the mass flow rates ratio and the temperature at the economizer outlet.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2025

Osmotic control of the spacing of parallel shear cracks in shale growing subcritically in geologic past

The geological genesis of natural cracks in sedimentary rocks such as shale is a problem that needs to be understood to improve the technology of hydraulic fracturing as well as deep sequestration of harmful fluids. Why are the vertical natural cracks roughly parallel and equidistant, and why is the spacing roughly 10 cm rather than 1 cm or 100 cm? Fracture mechanics of critical cracks cannot answer this question. Neither can the material heterogeneity. The growth of critical parallel cracks is impossible because the relative crack face displacements would immediately localize into one crack, leading to an earthquake. The cracks must have formed, on the tectonic time scale, by a slow growth of subcritical shear cracks governed by the Charles-Evans law. The idea advanced here is that what controls the crack spacing is the balance between the reduction, due to shear dilatancy, of the concentration of ions such as Na + and Cl - in each fracture process zone (PFZ), which decelerates the cracks, and the restoration of ion concentration by diffusion of ions from the space between the cracks into the FPZ. This diffusion of water is driven mainly by the osmotic pressure gradient, which offsets the deceleration and depends strongly on the crack spacing. A simple analytical solution of the steady state is rendered possible by approximating the ion concentration profiles between adjacent cracks by parabolic arcs. Applying this theory to Woodford shale yields the approximate crack spacing of 10 cm, which is realistic. Furthermore, the stability of unlimited parallel mode II frictional crack growth is proven by examining the second variation of the free energy. Water concentration drop in the FPZ due to shear dilatancy and its restoration by water diffusion from the inter-crack space have similar effect, although probably much weaker.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2021

Verification of Subcritical Limits in ANSI/ANS-8.1-2014

The first edition of the current American National Standards Institute (ANSI)/American Nuclear Society (ANS) standard ANSI/ANS-8.1-2014, “Nuclear Criticality Safety in Operations with Fissionable Materials Outside Reactors,” was published in 1964 as ASA N6.1-1964, “Safety Standard for Operations with Fissionable Materials Outside Reactors.” In 1969, that standard was revised as ANSI N16.1-1969, “Nuclear Criticality Safety in Operations with Fissionable Materials Outside Reactors.” ANSI N16.1-1969 includes a variety of subcritical limits (SCLs) for uniform aqueous solutions and metals containing fissile nuclides of 233 U, 235 U, and 239 Pu. Furthermore, SCLs are also included for uranium-water lattices. In the 1983 version of ANSI/ANS-8.1 (a revision of ANSI N16.1-1975), the suite of SCLs in the standard was expanded to include 235 U enrichment limits for homogeneous uranium-water mixtures and dry/damp oxides, uniform aqueous solutions of low-enriched uranium, and uniform aqueous mixtures of Pu(NO 3 ) 4 containing 240Pu in addition to the SCLs included in ANSI N16.1-1969. The SCLs have changed little in subsequent revisions (ANSI/ANS-8.1-1998 and ANSI/ANS-8.1-2014). The ANSI/ANS-8.1-2014 standard is currently being revised to include new SCLs (uranium metal and compounds with enrichments up to 20 wt% 235 U) and possible updates to the current SCLs already in the standard, although these new/updated SCLs will not be available to the nuclear criticality safety (NCS) community for a number of years. The original bases for these SCLs were documented in papers in journals such as Nuclear Science and Engineering and in ANS meeting transactions; however, these bases are ambiguous enough that sites and regulators in the United States have not widely endorsed them for safety purposes. Overall, the purpose of this paper is to present the results of a comparison study for the SCLs in the ANSI/ANS-8.1-2014 standard using modern codes (SCALE and MCNP) and cross sections (ENDF/B-VIII.0) to provide some assurance about their quality (bias and bias uncertainty) for use in NCS applications and for consideration by the ANS-8.1 Working Group as a reference for future revisions.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2021

Numerical investigation of inertial sphere impaction on a cylinder in subcritical flow

We investigated the accuracy of a Lagrangian scheme for simulating both the motion and wall impaction of neutrally buoyant inertial spheres (8.85 ≤ St ≤ 18.04) moving in the subcritical regime (Re = 10,972 and 22,366) of flows past a circular cylinder. The accuracy of the eddy-resolving simulations of the flow field was verified based on available data at nearly comparable flow conditions. The accuracy of the eddy-resolving simulations of the flow field was verified based on available data at nearly comparable flow conditions. The accuracy of the particle tracking scheme was verified with respect to corresponding experimental data in a laboratory flume. Particle dispersion en route to the circular cylinder is mostly driven by the flow disturbance from the particle injector tube. The trends in collision rates are largely explained by the rate of particle entertainment into the boundary layer around the cylinder and the inertial condition of the spheres in this proximity region—both of which can be better assessed by post-processing of the numerical outcomes. Here, the primary incentive to undertake this work was the need for validating a particle-based method for quantifying the hydraulic stressors leading to bodily damage of fish passing flows influenced by hydraulic infrastructure.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2022

Investigation of methods for targeted search of dominant higher modes in subcritical systems

The reactor physics modeling of subcritical systems requires a substantially different approach from that of a critical reactor due to the presence of the so-called higher modes. Earlier investigations showed that the dominant higher modes lie in the inner part of the eigenvalue spectrum, making the conventional eigenvalue searches unfeasible and calling for a targeted search. This paper investigates the possibility of targeted and multitudinous eigenvalue calculation by testing the Krylov-Schur and the Dynamic Modes Decomposition (DMD) method for simple, analytically tractable problems. While the DMD method clearly showed its efficiency in a one-group homogeneous problem, modal analysis of a three-dimensional reflected reactor in two-groups approximation demonstrated that the increasing complexity poses challenges for both methods. (authors)

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Predictive modeling of a subcritical pulverized-coal power plant for optimization: Parameter estimation, validation, and application

As renewable power generation deployment increases, fossil fuel plants are increasingly required to operate more flexibly. Many coal-fired power plants were originally designed to operate at base load and do not operate optimally at partial load. Predictive first-principles plant-wide models can be employed to identify opportunities for flexibility improvements and diagnose low-load operating issues. This paper describes the application of the Institute for the Design of Advanced Energy Systems Integrated Platform (IDAES) to model and optimize flexible power plant operations. The key benefits of using IDAES are that it provides an open-source, fully equation-oriented modeling framework for efficient modular model construction, reuse, and customization, together with a mathematical optimization framework leveraging powerful, state-of-the-art solvers. The process systems engineering workflow from predictive process simulation to parameter estimation, model validation, and plant optimization is applicable to a variety of existing and next-generation energy systems as well as other chemical and environmental processes. Here, to demonstrate this capability, a physics-based, steady-state model was developed to improve full- and part-load performance of the Escalante Generating Station, a 245 MWe (net) subcritical pulverized coal-fired power plant owned and operated by Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association. Specifically, sixty-nine model parameters were simultaneously estimated from several months of operating data enabling prediction of flow rates, temperatures, pressures, and steam quality throughout the plant. The validated model was leveraged by Escalante to reduce the minimum operating load from 90 MW to 50 MW by diagnosing a low-load water-hammer issue, enabling coal usage and emissions reductions during periods of low power demand. Additionally, opportunities for heat rate reduction (i.e., efficiency improvement) through a steeper sliding-pressure approach to load-following and optimization of other boiler operating variables were also identified and quantified. For example, a potential efficiency improvement of 0.7 percentage points was observed at half-load operation.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
DOE OSTI2020

Data analytics for leak detection in a subcritical boiler

For decades, boiler leaks have been the leading cause of forced outages in the coal-fired unit. The leak occurrences are currently escalating since the existing plants must satisfy faster-ramping rates to support grid operation. Data analytics including Principal Component Analysis, Canonical Variate, and Fisher Discriminant Analysis were combined for detecting and characterizing the leak in a commercial 650 MW subcritical coal-fired power plant. The combined approach was shown to be highly effective in the fault investigation that would not have been easily achieved by an individual technique. The variability in both training and validation datasets was first evaluated using PCA. Then, the CV-FDA was employed to discriminate among faults, and to categorize the processed data into two main groups: no-leak (0) and leak (1), providing the timeframe and location of the leak occurrence. Furthermore, about 8,014 observations from 81 process variables were initially included in the calculation, while the variable count was reduced to 4 with less than 1% misclassification rate in total observations. Finally, the leak was isolated in the waterwall section. Thus, the outcome of this research may provide early detection and isolation of faulty operations in the coal-fired power plant that involves a considerable number of process variables.

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Atomic force microscopy monitoring of subcritical slow crack growth in soda lime silicate glass

Prediction of brittle fracture in silicate glasses requires a fundamental understanding of slow crack growth rates, far below the critical stress intensity (K IC ) of the material. Here, in this study, atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used to characterize slow crack propagation in soda lime silicate glasses. Using large-sample AFM systems with specialized tips and scanners, fractures less than 20 nm wide were measured as a function of relative humidity (RH). The results were found to be sensitive to the type of AFM tip used and to the dryness of the surface. Continuous scanning and image capture over several days allowed the determination of the crack tip velocity. The dependance of crack tip velocity on RH was measured by enclosing the sample and AFM head in a humidity-controlled chamber. The crack tip velocity was measured as low 4.0×10 -12 m/s at 15 % RH and as high as 3.7×10 -10 m/s at 40 % RH. Overall crack growth was smooth during the AFM scan. Additionally, recession of the crack tip was noted as the sample dried, indicating crack tip closure may be occurring. Further studies on alternative compositions will provide details on subcritical fracture processes in a range of different environmental conditions.

Atomic force microscopy↗
DOE OSTI2021

Development and validation of a gamma-ray detection response model for neutron-diagnosed subcritical experiments

In a neutron-diagnosed subcritical experiment, a highly sensitive and fast detector is required to accurately determine the true fission γ-ray emission rate from an object composed of special nuclear material under interrogation, in addition to a proper detector response model for use in forward modeling. We present the development of a detector response model that is based in GEANT4 and uses post-processing techniques to include photomultiplier tube time and pulse height response effects. We also define a set of detector performance evaluation metrics that emphasized our experimental objectives. A suite of time and pulse height response measurements for several diverse detector assemblies are described. These assemblies were simulated with this response model and benchmarked against the laboratory measurements. This response model reproduces the pulse height curve shapes and performance hierarchy of the measured detectors well. Additionally, the simulated time response curves exhibit reasonable agreement with counterpart measurements. These measurements and simulation results together suggest that a large volume EJ-299-49 plastic scintillator that is mated to an ultraviolet transmitting plastic light guide and relies on total internal reflection for light transport to the photocathode will provide significantly faster timing, increase pulse height by a factor of 3, and require 25% less γ rays to meet experimental needs, compared to the candidate detector design developed prior to the availability of this response model. Application of this response model and associated performance metrics in the context of large-scale design sensitivity studies is also discussed.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗