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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

High-Temperature Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage (HT-ATES) Projects in Germany and the Netherlands—Review and Lessons Learned

Aquifer thermal energy storage (ATES) is a concept that can help to address heating and cooling needs through the use of the subsurface as a seasonal thermal energy storage (STES) system. Over 2800 ATES systems have been deployed with storage temperatures typically below 25 °C and only a few with higher temperatures (>40 °C), which would increase the energy density and utility of the stored thermal fluids. Until now, only a few high-temperature aquifer thermal energy storage (HT-ATES) projects have been initiated and are still in operation. These HT-ATES projects have encountered a range of technical and non-technical challenges. This study reviews ten such projects: four in Germany and six in the Netherlands. The non-technical issues include public acceptance, a lack of regulatory framework for these systems, managing overlapping uses of the subsurface, managing changes with the providers and off-takers of thermal energy, and obtaining financing to implement these projects. Common technical issues include geological factors such as incomplete characterization of the subsurface and reservoir heterogeneity; geochemical issues such as mineral scaling, corrosion, and biofouling; lower than expected thermal recovery; and issues with system design and reliability. This review highlights benefits and challenges faced by HT-ATES projects with the goal to use the lessons learned to improve the siting, design, development, and operation of such systems. Recommendations include improved initial subsurface site characterization, use of coupled process models to optimize system design and predict system performance, cascaded uses of stored thermal energy to better utilize the stored heat, monitoring networks to provide feedback on system performance, and expanded system scale to allow for continued operation even when maintenance of some system components is required. Techno-economic modeling and risk analysis could be used to optimize such HT-ATES project design and identify key factors that will affect sustained economic viability. In addition, design flexibility is important for these systems to allow for changing conditions regarding the supply and demand of thermal energy. Adopting these findings should improve the performance and reduce the risks for future HT-ATES projects worldwide.

15 - GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Implications of phonon anisotropy on thermal conductivity of fluorite oxides

Abstract Fluorite oxides are attractive ionic compounds for a range of applications with critical thermal management requirements. In view of recent reports alluding to anisotropic thermal conductivity in this face-centered cubic crystalline systems, we perform a detailed analysis of the impact of direction-dependent phonon group velocities and lifetimes on the thermal transport of fluorite oxides. We demonstrate that the bulk thermal conductivity of this class of materials remains isotropic despite notable anisotropy in phonon lifetime and group velocity. However, breaking the symmetry of the phonon lifetime under external stimuli including boundary scattering present in nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations of finite size simulation cell gives rise to apparent thermal conductivity anisotropy. We observe that for accurate determination of thermal conductivity, it is important to consider phonon properties not only along high symmetry directions commonly measured in inelastic neutron or x-ray scattering experiments but also of those along lower symmetry. Our results suggests that certain low symmetry directions have a larger contribution to thermal conductivity compared to high symmetry ones.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2023

PIPII cryoplant non thermal cycling updates

The Proton Improvement Plan-II (PIP-II) is a crucial upgrade to the Fermilab accelerator complex, featuring a new 800-MeV Superconducting Radio-Frequency (SRF) linear accelerator (LINAC) with 23 cryomodules operating at 2K. The LINAC thermohydraulic conditions are satisfied by the cryogenic subsystems: Cryogenic Distribution System (CDS), a helium refrigerator cold box (CB), a warm compression station (WCS) and a helium recovery system (RSYS). The accelerator has a strict requirement of non-thermal cycling of the LINAC cryomodules during planned and unplanned subsystem outages. This paper presents an integrated operating modes analysis of the of the LINAC/CDS thermohydraulic loads satisfied by the CB/WCS cooling system supported by the RSYS inventory management system. The study is based on latest cryoplant and CDS engineering deliverables, as well as the recent performance data from single cryomodule qualification tests performed at the Fermilab PIP-II Injector Test test s tand. The study evaluates both normal and abnormal operating modes, with a focus on identifying integrated scenarios that put subsystems components under stress. The conclusions of this study will help build redundancy to reduce the risk of thermal cycles during planned and unplanned subsystem outages.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2022

MAGNETICALLY SUSPENDED CANNED ROTOR PUMPS FOR THE INTEGRAL MOLTEN SALT REACTOR

This project developed a molten salt pump design for small modular reactors, concentrated solar, and Gen IV nuclear reactors with a magnetically levitated rotor that can operate at temperatures of up to 700 °C. This eliminates the need for rotating seals and roller element bearings which require maintenance and are prone to failure. The pump design is also more compact than existing molten salt pump designs which require long shafts to thermally isolate the electric motor. The aims of the project are to: 1) design and test the molten salt pump, 2) develop and test a high temperature position sensor needed for magnetic bearing control, and 3) develop and test high temperature coil fabrication methods for electric motor and magnetic bearing fabrication. To develop the high temperature coils, conductor materials were analyzed for oxidation, diffusion, cladding, and resistivity. Of the candidate conductor materials that met the requirements, silver was chosen. The long-term impact of radiation on silver resistivity was analyzed by developing a model of a generic molten salt fast reactor to model the conductor irradiation in worst case scenarios. The analysis showed that increased resistivity due to transmutation of silver decreases exponentially with the reactor reflector thickness. Different electrical insulation materials were tested and the final high temperature coils developed were able to withstand conductor to ground voltages up to 1800 V before insulation breakdown. Magnetic bearings require high-precision high-speed measurements of the rotor position to operate. Current commercial position sensors can only operate up to 550 °C so a novel position sensor was developed that can operate up to 800 °C. These sensors were also designed to measure the position of the metallic rotor through a thin metallic corrosion barrier that protects that coils, insulation, and magnetic cores so that the salt containment barrier does not have any penetrations. The high-temperature sensor was tested and had comparable performance to commercially available inductive position sensors. The sensor design and signal processing has led to several invention disclosures. The magnetically levitated molten salt pump design was completed and analyzed. The chloride salt test loop at Oak Ridge National Laboratory was chosen to test the pump and the pump hydraulics and power were designed for the test loop flow and pressure requirements. Classes of motor designs that do not utilize permanent magnetic were considered for the high-temperature motor. After extensive analysis of their performance, a synchronous reluctance motor was chosen for the pump. The design was refined and analyzed to optimize performance. The magnetic bearings were designed to meet the force and frequency requirements necessary to levitate the rotor and reject disturbances from rotor imbalance, motor forces, and hydraulic forces. Compliant mounts for the position sensors were designed that would not damage the ceramic sensor components and maintain sensor alignment over a wide temperature range. A thermal hydraulic analysis of the molten salt coolant flow used to cool the rotor and stator was performed to ensure that the maximum temperature in the rotor and stator will not exceed 725 °C. The corrosion barrier and casing were designed to maintain the salt fluid boundary by using compliant features to absorb large expansion mismatches due to different coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE). Finally, the salt drain and fill systems were designed along with the pump support structure, integration with the test loop, and thermal insulation and heating. Corrosion barrier fabrication experiments were performed to assess using laser cladding to apply a sub-millimeter corrosion barrier to the surface of a Fe-Co-V magnetic core material. The cladding method showed minimal mixing between materials at their interface and withstood temperature cycling without damage to the cladding. The technology commercialization is focused on the high-temperature position sensors and there has been significant interest from the nuclear industry in utilizing these sensors along with some interest from the aerospace industry. The project also led to a research collaboration with a fusion energy industrial partner to study barriers to scaling the pump design from the kW size to the MW size. This research collaboration will also study methods to create high-temperature coils that have conductor to ground breakdown voltages above 5 kV. The successful development of high-temperature electromagnetic coils and high-temperature position sensors greatly increases the temperature limits for electromagnetic devices that don’t rely on permanent magnets. This includes electric motors, magnetic bearings, linear actuators, rotary position and velocity sensing, actuated valves, and generators to name a few. This will fill a current need in molten salt reactors, concentrated solar, and fusion energy for these critical peripheral devices needed for practical reactor designs that do not currently have commercial solutions.

Hines, J Wesley↗
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 OSTI2023

Design and Techno-Economic Analysis of a 150-MW Hybrid CSP-PV Plant

The interest in concentrated solar power (CSP) has increased significantly over the years since it is dispatchable and requires thermal storage instead of electric storage. When compared to photovoltaics (PV), CSP has a higher Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE). In this paper, we present the design of a hybrid power plant using CSP and PV technologies. The hybrid system offers a lower LCOE than CSP but will still have dispatchability. The 150-MW hybrid system consists of 100-MW CSP and 50-MW PV capacity. Furthermore, the CSP system (central receiver system) has a molten salt-based thermal storage of 12 hours. The geographical focus of this study is Pakistan, which is a developing country struggling with energy crises, but which has high solar potential. The hybrid system is modeled using the System Advisor Model (SAM). The results show that by hybridizing CSP with PV, the LCOE can be reduced by 18.5%.

concentrated solar power↗
DOE OSTI2021

Towards a Techno-Economic Analysis of PCM Integrated Hybrid HVAC Systems

Thermal end uses dominate building energy consumption and are a major driver of peak demand. As heating is electrified, peak electrical power required will surge, prompting a need for innovative HVAC system designs and controls.These designs must incorporate novel technologies at the component level and new integration techniques at the system level. One such possibility involves the addition of thermal energy storage (TES) in heating and cooling equipment using a phase change material (PCM) heat exchanger. Here, thermal energy storage via phase change can be used to shift the HVAC system loads to times of lower electricity cost, reduced carbon intensity, and greater energy efficiency. Most of the current utilization of PCM in buildings involves passive components. By actively controlling when heat is stored and released from PCM, we can optimize the building HVAC system to cost-effectively meet consumer needs with the flexibility to draw on renewable energy resources when they are abundant and available. While this combination of technologies is promising in theory, simulation-based evaluation of a prototype can be difficult due to the modeling requirements at the component level and the large number of possible configurations and operating modes at the system level. To conduct this evaluation, we use the Modelica language for modeling and simulation because it enables users to represent the important physics of the problem, interchange and rearrange components in an efficient manner, and implement a range of control configurations. In this work, we considered three case studies: a portable building, a large commercial retail store, and a multifamily residential apartment unit. Each of these employs a different system design, ranging from a single package vertical unit incorporating PCM to a central plant with independent heat pump, evaporative cooling, and thermal energy storage components. This paper describes the technologies in question, presents modeling at the component and system levels, and demonstrates building energy and demand charge cost savings with local time-of-use tariffs in a hot-dry climate.

Helmns, Dre↗
DOE OSTI2025

Multi-device analysis of energy loss duration and pellet penetration with implications for shattered pellet injection in ITER

A robust disruption mitigation system (DMS) requires accurate characterization of key disruption timescales, one of the most notable being the thermal quench (TQ). Recent modeling of shattered pellet injection (SPI) into ITER plasmas, using JOREK and INDEX, suggests long TQ durations (6–10 ms) and slow cold front propagation due to the large plasma size. If validated, these predictions would have an impact on the desired pellet parameters and mitigation strategies for the ITER DMS. To resolve these questions, a database of SPI experiments from several small-to-large sized devices (J-TEXT, KSTAR, AUG, DIII-D, and JET) has been compiled under the auspices of the International Tokamak Physics Activity MHD, disruptions, and control topical group. Analysis of the energy loss duration (proxy for the TQ duration) with machine size is presented for both mixed neon/deuterium (Ne/D) SPI and pure deuterium (D) SPI. Several metrics for the energy loss onset (e.g. soft x-ray signal drop, I p dip, and radiation flash) were considered as the conventional metric, electron cyclotron emission, is often cut-off during SPI. Several scalings with different onset metrics showed an increase in energy loss duration with machine size. The energy loss duration was additionally shown to be a function of the ratio between the number of SPI neon atoms injected and the stored energy. Analysis of the pellet shard position relative to the cold front found that in larger devices, pellets are typically found inboard of the q = 2 surface at the energy loss onset. Lastly, the delay between the pellet shards hitting the q = 2 surface and the energy loss onset was additionally found to increase with machine size. This suggests that the pellet shards in large devices will penetrate faster and further than the cooling front.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

STAT7 v1.2 User Guide: The STAT7 Code for Statistical Propagation of Uncertainties in Steady-State Thermal Hydraulics Analysis of Plate-Fueled Reactors

The STAT7 software was developed to perform steady-state, single-phase thermal hydraulics analysis of plate-fueled reactors based on statistical propagation of uncertainties. Application of the software is for non-power research and test reactors, including conversion to low-enriched uranium fuel of U.S. High-Performance Research Reactors such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology Research Reactor. Since it can be necessary to repeat analysis during fuel reloading, STAT7 accommodates flexibility in analyzing many realistic aspects of reactor fuel management. STAT7 uses a Monte Carlo approach to model uncertainty in common fuel fabrication parameters and other key reactor operating parameters required for thermal hydraulics analyses of research and test reactors. These safety calculations are ultimately intended to protect against high fuel plate temperatures due to critical heat flux, or onset of flow instability. STAT7 supports water properties based on the IAPWS-IF97 functions (The International Association for the Properties of Water and Steam Industrial Formulation 1997 for the Thermodynamic Properties of Water and Steam) in addition to the fit functions. STAT7 predicts axial profiles of fuel, cladding, and coolant temperature along a lateral stripe that runs the full length of the fuel plate from the bottom to the top. STAT7 can simultaneously analyze all of the axial nodes of all of the fuel plates and all of the coolant channels for one latera stripe of a fuel element. Power splits are calculated for each axial node of each plate to determine how much of the power goes out each face of the plate. By running STAT7 multiple times, full core analysis can be performed by analyzing the margin to onset of nucleate boiling and onset of flow instability for each axial node of each stripe of each plate of each fuel element in the core.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2024

The Design of B1APF Dipole for the EIC

Brookhaven National Laboratory has been chosen to host the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC). Part of this is to install an additional electron ring to the existing RHIC tunnel. The electron hadron Interaction Region (IR) will host nine superconducting magnets on the forward side and six superconducting magnets on the rear side of the Interaction Point (IP). B1APF dipole is the last magnet of the near IR in the outgoing hadron direction. Further, the magnet has a physical aperture of 370 mm diameter and is 1.5 m long. This large aspect ratio makes this magnet particularly challenging. It is a collared magnet and uses a NbTi Rutherford cable with 15.1 mm X 1.9 mm. It is expected to operate at a maximum current of 13400 A at 2 K. The required integrated dipole field is 4.05 Tm. This paper discusses the current design status of the B1ApF dipole and presents the electromagnetic analysis and thermal quench propagation analysis.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Initial Development of Fusion Magnet Simulation Capabilities for Performance and Safety Evaluation Using the MOOSE Framework

Fusion energy holds the promise of being a transformative technology as a carbon-neutral, sustainable source of energy. Whole device modeling and the development of fusion digital twins will be increasingly important for emerging fusion device concepts at both national laboratories and within the commercial fusion industry. However, meeting the challenge of whole device modeling of fusion energy devices requires robust, multiphysics, multiscale modeling and simulation technologies capable of running on large-scale supercomputers. Detailed analysis of individual systems at-scale is also required to ensure safe and efficient operation as well as provide the safety basis for future device designs and licensing activities. In a tokamak, toroidal and poloidal magnets confine and shape the fusion plasma to promote the fusion reaction. High plasma temperatures and high magnetic field requirements in modern design concepts (leading to high amounts of energy stored within each magnet) impose electrical, thermal, and mechanical loads on the magnet components, which in turn impacts the safety considerations of the magnet and their supporting systems. Idaho National Laboratory (INL) has a history of working in this space, including development and benchmarking of the Magnetic System Circuitry Analysis Program (MSCAP) and Magnet Arcing (MAGARC) codes to study magnet quench events; notably, MAGARC was used to study quenching during the ITER Engineering Design Activity. However, these legacy codes and capabilities are not parallel and scalable, and new tools are required for future advances in this area, which leads to the INL-developed Multiphysics Object-Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE) framework. Developed originally for fission reactor systems under United States Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy modeling and simulation programs, the MOOSE framework has been well-suited to multiscale, multiphysics modeling and simulation needs for nuclear systems. The framework is open-source, well-tested, under continuous development and deployment, and developed to a Nuclear Quality Assurance, Level 1 software quality standard. MOOSE has also been used in the fusion space previously in several projects: INL’s Tritium Migration Analysis Program, Version 8 (TMAP8) for tritium migration, UK Atomic Energy Authority’s A Unified Resource for OpenMC (fusion) Reactor Applications (AURORA) code for fusion thermo-mechanical and neutronics analysis, and Argonne National Laboratory’s Cardinal for high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics and neutronics. However, to model superconducting magnets, several MOOSE enhancements are required: additions to the current MOOSE electromagnetic capabilities, new material libraries for superconductors of interest (such as YBCO), as well as fusion-specific models for thermo-mechanics. This talk will discuss initial development activities to build these capabilities in MOOSE, focusing on initial validation and benchmarking activities. Proposed coupling workflows and future work to support the simulation of fusion magnets and magnet structural assemblies for performance and safety evaluation in MOOSE will also be discussed.

70 - PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Accurate and Fast Anomaly Detection in Additive Composite-Based Manufacturing using Thermal Cameras

Today, large-scale additive manufacturing with plastics and composite materials requires continuous monitoring by experienced staff to prevent, detect and correct anomalous events affecting the performance of the printed part. We address the complexity of this demanding task by designing a camera-based anomaly detection system utilizing probabilistic principal component analysis (PPCA). This is a machine learning technique is trained with thermal images collected during normal operation of the large-scale printer (Cincinnati BAAM). This technique is advantageous for practical applications as there is no need to artificially introduce anomalous conditions into model training. During deployment, we challenge this model by introducing deliberate variations of the extruder speed. We reduce extrusion speed to a lower level, between 70 and 95% of the nominal value to collected test images. Our results show that images are easily identified as anomalous for extruder speeds at or below 85% of the nominal speed, meaning that an anomalous reduction of the material deposition rate can be detected within seconds of its onset. We show that our results are robust to (a) camera-to-camera variability and (b) print-to-print variability.

Pike, John [ORNL]↗
DOE OSTI2020

Sub-critical assembly die-away analysis with organic scintillators

Determining the reactivity of systems containing fissile material is essential for verifying safety, and possession and enrichment levels. The goal of this experiment was to characterize a subcritical nuclear fuel assembly irradiated by a pulsed neutron generator through differential die-away analysis. Similar characterizations are commonly performed with thermal neutron detectors, but these detectors are bulky and cumbersome, the materials are not widely available, and timing can be clouded by the required thermalization time. In this work, an organic scintillator capable of detecting both neutrons and photons was used to measure the die-away profiles of both particles. These time profiles were then used to estimate the reactivity of the assembly. Here, the calculated reactivity estimates compare favorably to simulated estimates, and therefore provide a useful tool for fissile material characterization.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2022

CO 2 zonal injection rate allocation and plume extent evaluation through wellbore temperature analysis

Temperature analysis during a pause in injection operations, known as warmback analysis, has been used in the petroleum industry for evaluating the injection conformance and estimating the location of the flooded front in applications, such as waterflooding oil reservoirs. Here in this work, methods are introduced to extend the application of temperature warmback analysis to estimate the zonal CO 2 injection rate and zonal CO 2 plume extent during geologic CO 2 storage in a saline aquifer. First, novel analytical solutions are developed to model transient temperature in the aquifer during the injection and subsequent shut-in periods considering two-phase flow (gaseous CO 2 and aqueous brine) conditions in the aquifer. The solution involves a discretization of the aquifer into regions; the energy and mass conservation equations for the regions are solved simultaneously considering appropriate boundary conditions at the interfaces. Two solutions techniques are presented: multi-region and three-region solutions. Inverse models are developed accordingly to evaluate the injection profile and estimate the extent of the plume front in the reservoir during the injection period. The multi-region solution results in an inversion approach that requires regression analysis. However, the three-region formulation results in a simple graphical technique for inverse modeling. The analytical solutions are validated against a thermally coupled reservoir simulation tool using different synthetic cases for CO 2 injection in deep saline aquifers. The results of the developed solutions provide a good match with numerical results during forward and inverse modeling.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Photoluminescence of CdTe and CdZnTe compounds doped with 2% selenium

The addition of 2 % of selenium in CdTe and CdZnTe (CZT) exhibited an additional acceptor-bound exciton in photoluminescence (PL). From the PL and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP/MS) analyses, the additional acceptor-bound exciton emission is associated with a Cu impurity in the relatively low-purity (5N) precursor CdSe starting material. Additionally, thermal quenching of the acceptor/donor bound exciton emissions do not require a shift to any higher excited states or to the free exciton state. ICP/MS analysis also showed a higher concentration of Sn in CdZnTeSe (CZTS) compared to CdTe and CZT which is known to form a deep level trap at around E C – 0.83 eV. The trapping and de-trapping times indicate that the Sn-related deep trap acts as an electron trapping center. The relatively low electron mobility-lifetime product of CZTS might be correlated with the concentration of Sn in the impure CdSe material. Pulse height spectra using an Eu-152 gamma-ray source was taken for a 2-mm-thick planar CZTS detector. The spectra clearly showed all the expected gamma peaks with energy lower than 344.3 keV.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2022

Production of β-ketoadipic acid from glucose in Pseudomonas putida KT2440 for use in performance-advantaged nylons

Biomass-derived chemicals can offer unique chemical functionality relative to petroleum-derived building blocks. To this end, here we report that β-ketoadipic acid (βKA), a C6 diacid with a β-ketone group, can be used as a performance-advantaged replacement for adipic acid in a nylon-6,6 analog. Building on our previous efforts to produce shikimate-derived products from carbohydrates, Pseudomonas putida KT2440 is engineered to produce βKA from glucose, achieving a 26 g/L titer. Following purification, βKA imparts an increase of 69 degrees C above the nylon-6,6 glass transition temperature and 20% reduced water permeability, equivalent to nylon-6,10. Molecular simulations predict that the enhanced thermal properties result from rigidity introduced by the β-ketone. Process analysis predicts that βKA can be produced for US$1.94/kg from sugars, requiring 63% less energy and emitting 43% less greenhouse gases than fossil-based adipic acid. Overall, this study illustrates the potential for βKA to serve as a useful building block for bio-based polymers.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Quantify Sodium Fluoride / Beryllium Fluoride Salt Properties for a Liquid Fueled Fluoride Molten Salt Reactor (CRADA C2018-18168 Final Report)

ThorCon is developing a thermal thorium-uranium fueled molten salt reactor that uses a fuel salt consisting of NaF - BeF 2 - ThF 4 - UF 4 - UF 3 , which uses 19.75% enriched uranium. It is not a breeder reactor but requires regular additions of fissile material. A thorough understanding of the thermophysical properties of the fuel salt at the beginning (BOL) and end (EOL) of its life is critical to establishing its thermal hydraulic behavior and enables ThorCon to design a system with the required natural convection. Experimentally determining the heat capacity and thermal conductivity of the fuel salt will provide data necessary for detailed system design and safety analysis.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Chemical structure and curing dynamics of bisphenol S, PEEK™-like, and resveratrol phthalonitrile thermoset resins

This effort provides a multifaceted analysis of the structural changes and material dynamics of thermally driven softening and curing of three distinct phthalonitrile (PN) resins that cross-link into thermally stable and oxidation-resistant thermosets. Although this material system has yielded a large subset of fire-retardant composites that require facile processing and low-temperature curing, to date, insufficient information had been available on the fundamental processes that drive their softening and curing stages. Our approach conducted a complementary analysis the chemistry, monomer mobility, and rheology of three PN polymers in order to correlate the curing processes with corresponding structural and behavioral transformations of thermosets. Here, we focused on PNs with a bisphenol S backbone, a bisphenol A (PEEK™-like) backbone, and a resveratrol backbone. We relied on quasi-elastic neutron scattering (QENS) in order to analyze the in situ dynamics and self-diffusion properties of PN monomers, and to track changes in their mobilities during cross-linking and staging. Our analysis facilitates proper control over the staging and final curing of these resins and enables more efficient processing of these thermosets.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗