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At least 919 records · Page 51

Security Licensing Basis Framework Development

This report summarizes a technology-inclusive and performance-based method to determine the physical security licensing basis for a commercial nuclear reactor under the proposed 10 CFR 73.100 for Part 53 licensees. The method focuses on the identification of security functions, the contributing security systems and programs to meet those functions, the identification of security events that will provide the foundation for the security licensing basis and includes a risk-informed performance-based defense in depth adequacy method. The method can also be employed to justify performance-based alternative measures to traditional security requirements found in 10 CFR 73.55.

98 - NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL↗

Jefferson Laboratory C100 Superconducting Radio-Frequency Cavity Fault Data, 2020

The dataset was created to train machine learning models for the task of identifying the (1) cavity and (2) fault type from C100-type cryomodules at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab), thereby replacing the time-consuming efforts of a subject matter expert. Superconducting radio-frequency (SRF) cavity trips represent a significant source of accelerator downtime. Real-time – rather than post-mortem – identification of the offending cavity and classification of the fault type would give control room operators valuable feedback for corrective action planning. The anticipated benefit is increased beam-on-target time for users and provides performance metrics that can be used to improve future cavity designs. A series of 17 RF signals are recorded for each of the 8 cavities in a C100 cryomodule every time a cavity trips. These time-series signals are written to file using a specially designed data acquisition system. The dataset represents fault events recorded during Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) beam operations between January 18, 2019 and March 9, 2020. The following filtering steps were applied to collected data; (1) only 4 of the 17 signals per cavity are retained (GMES, GASK, CRFP, DETA2) (2) only events with data from each of the eight cavities in the cryomodule are kept, (3) only events that were sampled at 5 kHz were kept, (4) events from cryomodule 0L04 were neglected, (5) events occurring between February 4, 3PM and February 5, 12PM were neglected. As a result of preprocessing, the dataset is comprised of 2,375 unique events. The full dataset is comprised of three files: features.csv, cavity_labels.csv, fault_labels.csv. Each instance in faults.csv includes a timestamp (“date_time”), a label for the cryomodule which experienced the trip (“zone_label”), and 192 features (“feature_1”, “feature_2”... “feature_192”). The features correspond to 6 autoregressive features for each of 4 signals per cavity for each of the 8 cavities (6 × 4 signals/cavity × 8 cavities/cryomodule = 192). To deal with the large variation of signal amplitudes, time-series standardization via the z-score (standard score) function was applied prior to computing the features. For each instance, there is an associated label for the (1) cavity which faulted first (cavity_labels.csv) and (2) the type of fault that caused the trip (fault_labels.csv). The cavity identification can take values of [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8] and the fault type can take values of [‘Microphonics’, ‘Quench_100ms’, ‘Controls_Fault’, ‘E_Quench’, ‘Quench_3ms’, ‘Single_Cav_Turn_Off’ , ‘Heat_Riser_Choke’, ‘Multi_Cav_Turn_Off’].

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Analysis and fermentation base-lining to validate cyanobacterial-based polysaccharide production as a viable feedstock for bio-product development (CRADA Final Report)

Researchers at Heliobiosys Inc. and the Advanced Biofuels Process Demonstration Unit at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab have successfully demonstrated recovery, saccharification, and fermentation of polysaccharides excreted by a cyanobacterial consortium. These polysaccharides do not require fresh water or arable land for production and have potential applications as fermentable sugar, as bio-based plastics, and as thickeners and gels. A scalable recovery process was developed: recovery via membrane separation and diafiltration. Characterization of the polysaccharides excreted by the cyanobacterial consortium reveals a mixture of 5 and 6-carbon sugars including significant fractions of glucose, xylose, arabinose, galactose, and mannose. Fermentation baselining with Rhodosporidium toruloides reveals performance indistinguishable from a pure glucose control condition. Protocols developed as part of this collaboration will now be employed for scale-up testing of the complete cultivation and recovery system in a further collaboration between Heliobiosys Inc., Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratory, with a focus on de-risking cultivation conditions, downstream applications, and overall process economics.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

DarkNESS Project Testing

This internship involved the design and assembly of a mechanical system for testing skipper-Charge Couple Devices (CCDs) for the DarkNESS project. Skipper-CCDs are highly-sensitive sensors with ultra-low readout noise that are deployed for direct detection of dark matter. DarkNESS is a CubeSat that aims to use skipper CCDs to search for dark matter decaying into X-rays. Currently, in the testing phase, the design process involved creating 3D models of mechanical adapters to operate a prototype space Multi Chip Module (sMCM) package in existing testing chambers in the CCD lab at Fermilab's IERC. The drawings were sent out to be machined, and while waiting to receive the finished adapters, we assembled a vacuum chamber for skipper-CCD testing and performed initial testing of a single CCD controlled by the space Low Threshold Acquisition (sLTA) board that will be employed on the CubeSat. The results showed that the testing conditions are optimal for data to start being taken and analyzed.

Akouedjinoude, Kodjo↗

Hawaii Fish Company Inc. Technical Assistance Voucher (Abstract)

For the past several years, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have provided technical assistance to the recipients of Department of Energy (DOE) -funded voucher programs, namely American-Made Challenges (AMC), the Incubator Program, and the Small Business Vouchers Program. Drawing on lessons learned and from first-hand experiences, NREL is leading a new holistic and streamlined voucher program aimed at strengthening ties between American innovators and the national labs. This new program, “Vouchers to Enable Laboratory and Organizational Collaboration for Innovation and Technology Improvements,” or VELOCITI, will leverage the successful elements of past programs, create administrative efficiencies, and enable the buildout of a national program to drive strong relationships between entrepreneurs and the national labs to accelerate the roll-out of new technologies in the US solar sector. This work will evaluate Hawaii Fish Company’s (HFC’s) floating renewable energy-powered aeration systems, designed primarily for aquaculture ponds, with crossover applications to farm ponds, reservoirs, and other water bodies. Notably, HFC’s systems include a variety of configurations, such as direct-solar systems, battery-storage systems, and systems with a secondary wind turbine option. HFC is planning to refine and commercialize their renewable energy aeration platforms. Presently, HFC is fabricating multiple configurations of the systems for deployment in multiple locations in the U.S. PNNL will apply technical expertise to assist in these goals, benefitting the industry partner by giving them an understanding of the performance of their systems. The technical objectives of this project are to understand system performance and reliability, determine a path toward certification, and model the performance of the systems in different locations.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

Utility of Emulation and Simulation Computer Modeling of Space Station Environmental Control and Life Support Systems

Over the years, computer modeling has been used extensively in many disciplines to solve engineering problems. A set of computer program tools is proposed to assist the engineer in the various phases of the Space Station program from technology selection through flight operations. The development and application of emulation and simulation transient performance modeling tools for life support systems are examined. The results of the development and the demonstration of the utility of three computer models are presented. The first model is a detailed computer model (emulation) of a solid amine water desorbed (SAWD) CO2 removal subsystem combined with much less detailed models (simulations) of a cabin, crew, and heat exchangers. This model was used in parallel with the hardware design and test of this CO2 removal subsystem. The second model is a simulation of an air revitalization system combined with a wastewater processing system to demonstrate the capabilities to study subsystem integration. The third model is that of a Space Station total air revitalization system. The station configuration consists of a habitat module, a lab module, two crews, and four connecting nodes.

Yanosy, James L.↗

Development and Lab-Scale Testing of a Gas Generator Hybrid Fuel in Support of the Hydrogen Peroxide Hybrid Upper Stage Program

As part of a NASA funded contract to develop and demonstrate a gas generator cycle hybrid rocket motor for upper stage space motor applications, the development and demonstration of a low sensitivity, high performance fuel composition was undertaken. The ultimate goal of the development program was to demonstrate successful hybrid operation (start, stop, throttling) of the fuel with high concentration (90+%) hydrogen peroxide. The formulation development and lab-scale testing of a simple DOT Class 1.4c gas generator propellant is described. Both forward injected center perforated and aft injected end burner hybrid combustion behavior were evaluated with gaseous oxygen and catalytically decomposed 90% hydrogen peroxide. Cross flow and static environments were found to yield profoundly different combustion behaviors, which were further governed by binder type, oxidizer level and, significantly, oxidizer particle size. Primary extinguishment was accomplished via manipulation of PDL behavior and oxidizer turndown, which is enhanced with the hydrogen peroxide system. Laboratory scale combustor results compared very well with 11-inch and 24-inch sub-scale test results with 90% hydrogen peroxide.

Lund, Gary K.↗

Persistence of bacterial-mediated anti-rotifer protection in preliminary outdoor cultivation trial for Microchloropsis salina

Outdoor algal cultivation systems are susceptible to a wide variety of deleterious species. In previously published studies, we observed protection using microbial consortia at laboratory scale cultures; Microchloropsis salina in the presence of microbial consortia were protected from grazing from the marine rotifer, Brachionus plicatilis. Our objective for the present work was to determine if this protection conferred by microbial consortia in controlled laboratory experiments would persist in an open, outdoor multi-liter cultivation system. We found that algal protection did persist as evidenced by the presence of fewer motile rotifers and decreased rotifer-associated egg counts for the consortia-treated outdoor cultures. Due to the low temperature and light conditions that reduced growth of the algae outdoors, we performed an indoor laboratory assay which also confirmed the persistence of algal protection. Lastly, the lower numbers of motile rotifers and fewer rotifer-associated eggs in the consortia-treated algal cultures suggests a possible protective mechanism by the consortia through interfering with the rotifer lifecycle or reproduction. Finally, these initial results support the possibility that low cost, prophylactic treatments with microbial consortia can protect algae from deleterious species in outdoor cultivation systems.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Development and analysis of SCR requirements tables for system scenarios

We describe the use of scenarios to develop and refine requirement tables for parts of the Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS). The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is developing EOSDIS as part of its Mission-To-Planet-Earth (MTPE) project to accept instrument/platform observation requests from end-user scientists, schedule and perform requested observations of the Earth from space, collect and process the observed data, and distribute data to scientists and archives. Current requirements for the system are managed with tools that allow developers to trace the relationships between requirements and other development artifacts, including other requirements. In addition, the user community (e.g., earth and atmospheric scientists), in conjunction with NASA, has generated scenarios describing the actions of EOSDIS subsystems in response to user requests and other system activities. As part of a research effort in verification and validation techniques, this paper describes our efforts to develop requirements tables from these scenarios for the EOSDIS Core System (ECS). The tables specify event-driven mode transitions based on techniques developed by the Naval Research Lab's (NRL) Software Cost Reduction (SCR) project. The SCR approach has proven effective in specifying requirements for large systems in an unambiguous, terse format that enhance identification of incomplete and inconsistent requirements. We describe development of SCR tables from user scenarios and identify the strengths and weaknesses of our approach in contrast to the requirements tracing approach. We also evaluate the capabilities of both approach to respond to the volatility of requirements in large, complex systems.

Callahan, John R.↗

Functional and Multifunctional Polymers: Materials for Smart Structures

The ultimate goal of the research in smart structures and smart materials is the development of a new generation of products/devices which will perform better than products/devices built from passive materials. There are a few examples of multilayer polymer systems which function as smart structures, e.g. a synthetic muscle which is a multilayer assembly of a poly(ethylene) layer, a gold layer, and a poly(pyrrole) layer immersed in a liquid electrolyte. Oxidation and reductions of the active pyrrole layer causes the assembly to reversibly deflect and mimic biological muscles. The drawback of such a setup is slow response times and the use of a liquid electrolyte. We have developed multifunctional polymers which will eliminate the use of a liquid electrolyte, and also because the functionalities of the polymers are within a few hundred angstroms, an improved response time to changes in the external field should be possible. Such multifunctional polymers may be classified as the futuristic 'smart materials.' These materials are composed of a number of different functionalities which work in a synergistic fashion to function as a device. The device performs on the application of an external field and such multifunctional polymers may be scientifically labeled as 'field responsive polymers.' Our group has undertaken a systematic approach to develop functional and multifunctional polymers capable of functioning as field responsive polymers. Our approach utilizes multicomponent polymer systems (block copolymers and graft copolymers), the strategy involves the preparation of block or graft copolymers where the functionalities are limited to different phases in a microphase separated system. Depending on the weight (or volume) fractions of each of the components, different microstructures are possible. And, because of the intimate contact between the functional components, an increase in the synergism between the functionalities may be observed. In this presentation, three examples of multifunctional polymers developed in our labs will be reported. The first class of multifunctional polymers are the microphase separated mixed (ionic and electronic) conducting or MIEC block copolymers. The second class being developed in our labs are the biocompatible conductive materials and the conductive fluids. The final class may be considered microwave active smart polymers.

Arnold, S.↗

Experimental investigation of H-mode pedestal turbulence using a charge exchange imaging diagnostic system at DIII-D

Microtearing modes (MTMs) (ω ~ ω de k θ ρ s ~ 0.1, k r ρ s ~ 0.3 – 1.0) are predicted to cause substantial electron thermal transport in the H-mode pedestal, limiting fusion performance on high-power devices. Localized 2D measurements of low-to-intermediate wavenumber density fluctuations in the edge of DIII-D H-mode plasmas suggest the presence of temporally intermittent or ‘bursting’ MTMs during the inter-ELM cycle in the steep gradient region. These measurements are obtained using a new intermediate radial resolution multichannel Charge eXchange Imaging (CXI) diagnostic that analyzes the intensity of the CVI emission at 529 nm. The mode is peaked near ρ = 0.97 with a radial full-width half maximum of 1.5–2.0 cm and a normalized density fluctuation amplitude peak of $\frac{dn_C}{n_C}$ ~ 5%, peaking near 60 kHz in the lab frame. The mode additionally features a broad spectral width from 30 to 180 kHz and propagates in the electron diamagnetic direction in the plasma frame. CXI measurements taken during discharges with high density and current ramps provide evidence that MTMs become unstable at finite collisionality and remain at nearly the same location in ρ-space despite scanning of rational surface position. This indicates that the location of the peak in the electron diamagnetic frequency is a stronger driving force than individual rational surfaces.

DIII-D↗

Transfer of autocollimator calibration for use with scanning gantry profilometers for accurate determination of surface slope and curvature of state-of-the-art x-ray mirrors

X-ray optics, desired for beamlines at free-electron-laser and diffraction-limited-storage-ring x-ray light sources, must have almost perfect surfaces, capable of delivering light to experiments without significant degradation of brightness and coherence. To accurately characterize such optics at an optical metrology lab, two basic types of surface slope profilometers are used: The long trace profilers (LTPs) and nanometer optical measuring (NOM) like angular deflectometers, based on electronic autocollimator (AC) ELCOMAT-3000. The inherent systematic errors of the instrument's optical sensors set the principle limit to their measuring performance. Where autocollimator of a NOM-like profiler may be calibrated at a unique dedicated facility, this is for a particular configuration of distance, aperture size, and angular range that does not always match the exact use in a scanning measurement with the profiler. Here we discuss the developed methodology, experimental set-up, and numerical methods of transferring the calibration of one reference AC to the scanning AC of the Optical Surface Measuring System (OSMS), recently brought to operation at the ALS Xray Optics Laboratory. We show that precision calibration of the OSMS performed in three steps, allows us to provide high confidence and accuracy low-spatial-frequency metrology and not â€print into' measurements the inherent systematic error of tool in use. Here, with the examples of the OSMS measurements with a state-of-The-Art x-ray aspherical mirror, available from one of the most advanced vendors of X-ray optics, we demonstrate the high efficacy of the developed calibration procedure. The results of our work are important for obtaining high reliability data, needed for sophisticated numerical simulations of beamline performance and optimization of beamline usage of the optics. This work was supported by the U. S. Department of Energy under contract number DE-AC02-05CH11231.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

The Tropospheric Wind Lidar Technology Experiment (TWiLiTE): An Airborne Direct Detection Doppler Lidar Instrument Development Program

Global measurement of tropospheric winds is a key measurement for understanding atmospheric dynamics and improving numerical weather prediction. Global wind profiles remain a high priority for the operational weather community and also for a variety of research applications including studies of the global hydrologic cycle and transport studies of aerosols and trace species. In addition to space based winds, a high altitude airborne system flown on UAV or other advanced platforms would be of great interest for studying mesoscale dynamics and hurricanes. The Tropospheric Wind Lidar Technology Experiment (TWiLiTE) project was selected in 2005 by the NASA Earth Sun Technology Office as part of the Instrument Incubator Program. TWiLiTE will leverage significant research and development investments in key technologies made in the past several years. The primary focus will be on integrating these sub-systems into a complete molecular direct detection Doppler wind lidar system designed for autonomous operation on a high altitude aircraft, such as the NASA WB57, so that the nadir viewing lidar will be able to profile winds through the full troposphere. TWiLiTE is a collaboration involving scientists and technologists from NASA Goddard, NOAA ESRL, Utah State University Space Dynamics Lab and industry partners Michigan Aerospace Corporation and Sigma Space Corporation. NASA Goddard and it's partners have been at the forefront in the development of key lidar technologies (lasers, telescopes, scanning systems, detectors and receivers) required to enable spaceborne global wind lidar measurement. The TWiLiTE integrated airborne Doppler lidar instrument will be the first demonstration of a airborne scanning direct detection Doppler lidar and will serve as a critical milestone on the path to a fixture spaceborne tropospheric wind system. The completed system will have the capability to profile winds in clear air from the aircraft altitude of 18 h to the surface with 250 m vertical resolution and less than 2 meters per second velocity accuracy. The instrument design, technologies and predicted performance will be presented.

Gentry, Bruce↗

Helicopter Flight Test of a Compact, Real-Time 3-D Flash Lidar for Imaging Hazardous Terrain During Planetary Landing

A second generation, compact, real-time, air-cooled 3-D imaging Flash Lidar sensor system, developed from a number of cutting-edge components from industry and NASA, is lab characterized and helicopter flight tested under the Autonomous Precision Landing and Hazard Detection and Avoidance Technology (ALHAT) project. The ALHAT project is seeking to develop a guidance, navigation, and control (GN&C) and sensing system based on lidar technology capable of enabling safe, precise crewed or robotic landings in challenging terrain on planetary bodies under any ambient lighting conditions. The Flash Lidar incorporates a 3-D imaging video camera based on Indium-Gallium-Arsenide Avalanche Photo Diode and novel micro-electronic technology for a 128 x 128 pixel array operating at a video rate of 20 Hz, a high pulse-energy 1.06 μm Neodymium-doped: Yttrium Aluminum Garnet (Nd:YAG) laser, a remote laser safety termination system, high performance transmitter and receiver optics with one and five degrees field-of-view (FOV), enhanced onboard thermal control, as well as a compact and self-contained suite of support electronics housed in a single box and built around a PC-104 architecture to enable autonomous operations. The Flash Lidar was developed and then characterized at two NASA-Langley Research Center (LaRC) outdoor laser test range facilities both statically and dynamically, integrated with other ALHAT GN&C subsystems from partner organizations, and installed onto a Bell UH-1H Iroquois "Huey" helicopter at LaRC. The integrated system was flight tested at the NASA-Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on simulated lunar approach to a custom hazard field consisting of rocks, craters, hazardous slopes, and safe-sites near the Shuttle Landing Facility runway starting at slant ranges of 750 m. In order to evaluate different methods of achieving hazard detection, the lidar, in conjunction with the ALHAT hazard detection and GN&C system, operates in both a narrow 1deg FOV raster-scanning mode in which successive, gimbaled images of the hazard field are mosaicked together as well as in a wider, 4.85deg FOV staring mode in which digital magnification, via a novel 3-D superresolution technique, is used to effectively achieve the same spatial precision attained with the more narrow FOV optics. The lidar generates calibrated and corrected 3-D range images of the hazard field in real-time and passes them to the ALHAT Hazard Detection System (HDS) which stitches the images together to generate on-the-fly Digital Elevation Maps (DEM's) and identifies hazards and safe-landing sites which the ALHAT GN&C system can then use to guide the host vehicle to a safe landing on the selected site. Results indicate that, for the KSC hazard field, the lidar operational range extends from 100m to 1.35 km for a 30 degree line-of-sight angle and a range precision as low as 8 cm which permits hazards as small as 25 cm to be identified. Based on the Flash Lidar images, the HDS correctly found and reported safe sites in near-real-time during several of the flights. A follow-on field test, planned for 2013, seeks to complete the closing of the GN&C loop for fully-autonomous operations on-board the Morpheus robotic, rocket-powered, free-flyer test bed in which the ALHAT system would scan the KSC hazard field (which was vetted during the present testing) and command the vehicle to landing on one of the selected safe sites.

Roback, VIncent E.↗

In-Situ Gamma Radiation Mapping Device - 19353

The SRNL developed GrayQb{sup TM} is a passive, low cost gamma radiation mapping device which uses a tungsten pinhole and a phosphor storage plate (PSP) to generate images. Presently, the device requires retrieval to extract images off the PSP using an external scanner. In partnership with Los Alamos National Lab (LANL), SRNL has developed an in-situ GrayQb{sup TM} radiation mapping device eliminating the need to remove the radiation sensitive phosphor storage plate (PSP) from the device for scanning between exposures. By incorporating a customized version of the LANL patented MiniMax camera-based PSP reader system into the GrayQb{sup TM} housing, the exposed PSP can now be read in-situ and digitally transmitted to a remote computer for viewing. In-situ imaging is a valuable addition to GrayQb{sup TM} because of the reduced need of personnel interaction which mitigates risk as well as the option for multiple images being acquired during one deployment. Upgrades implemented which allow for in-situ imaging to be performed include using the tungsten pinhole, a PSP, red LEDs, a blue light filter, and a commercial off the shelf (COTS) color camera. The images are transmitted wirelessly to an external computer. This presentation will discuss the selection, characteristics, and testing of the camera-based PSP reading system, improved PSP materials, and the results/performance of the upgraded GrayQb{sup TM} device. Testing has been performed with simulated radiation exposures as well as A-241 and Cs-137 button sources. These upgrades and tests have been performed over a 12-month period and this presentation will be a summary and conclusion to this year long project. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

From Theory to Practice: Feasibility Study of a Thermal Microgrid at a DoD Installation: Preprint

Advanced district thermal energy systems, also known as thermal microgrids, can electrify and decarbonize urban districts in a highly efficient way, but adoption of such systems, especially in the US, has been slow. Thermal microgrids use a network circulating water at near-ambient (60-80 degree F) (15- 25 degree C) temperatures, and water-source heat pumps at connected buildings to boost or lower the temperature for space conditioning and domestic hot water. Addressing challenges related to retrofits of existing buildings for integration with such systems, as well as quantifying the benefits of different configurations, will be key to unlocking the full potential of thermal microgrids for energy savings, decarbonization, and resiliency. This paper will do that, by reporting on preliminary results from a feasibility study of a thermal microgrid, and illustrating the process of conceptual design to seek the best possible performance, within the many constraints of existing buildings. The feasibility study focuses on a cluster of existing buildings, including a grocery store, big box style retail store, motel, and clinic, at a US Department of Defense installation in Germany. The study will assess the performance of a pilot-scale thermal microgrid serving those buildings, in terms of energy, emissions, and life cycle cost, and assess practical considerations (such as building retrofits and scalability) for future implementation. A significant opportunity exists for waste heat recovery from refrigeration at the grocery store (more than offsetting the entire building s space heating load in terms of waste heat availability), and modeling of the proposed thermal microgrid will assess the benefits of the waste heat integration. The moderate operating temperatures of thermal microgrids facilitate the integration of waste heat from a variety of sources, and the networks allow waste heat to be shared amongst buildings in proximity. Along with results on expected energy and emissions performance, as well as waste heat integration, the paper will assess implications of load diversity on system performance. The paper will also discuss the process of evaluating existing building HVAC systems for compatibility with a thermal microgrid, including the feasibility of lower heating hot water temperatures compatible with currently-available water-to-water heat pumps. The cluster of buildings under consideration in this study has much in common with commercial buildings in the United States. The process of and results from this feasibility study can inform assessment of the potential for thermal microgrids in other locations and help unlock the benefits of such systems for decarbonization and energy savings.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Mesoscale Connections Summer 2017

Our challenge derives from the fact that in metals or explosives grains, interfaces and defects control engineering performance in ways that are neither amenable to continuum codes (which fail to rigorously describe the heterogeneities derived from microstructure) nor computationally tractable to first principles atomistic calculations. This is a region called the mesoscale, which stands at the frontier of our desire to translate fundamental science insights into confidence in aging system performance over the range of extreme conditions relevant in a nuclear weapon. For dynamic problems, the phenomena of interest can require extremely good temporal resolutions. A shock wave traveling at 1000 m/s (or 1 mm/μs) passes through a grain with a diameter of 1 micron in a nanosecond (10-9 sec). Thus, to observe the mesoscale phenomena—such as dislocations or phase transformations—as the shock passes, temporal resolution better than picoseconds (10-12 sec) may be needed. As we anticipate the science challenges over the next decade, experimental insights on material performance at the micron spatial scale with picosecond temporal resolution—at the mesoscale— are a clear challenge. This is a challenge fit for Los Alamos in partnership with our sister labs and academia. Mesoscale Connections will draw attention to our progress as we tackle the mesoscale challenge. We hope you like it and encourage suggestions of content you are interested in.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

HERON

HERON is a modeling toolset and plugin for RAVEN to accelerate stochastic technoeconomic assessment of the economic viability of various grid-energy system configurations, especially with application to electrical grids and integrated energy systems (IES). The frameworks enabling this toolset are INL's RAVEN and its TEAL plugin. The toolset includes automated RAVEN workflow generation tools for performing stochastic analysis and optimization driven by technoeconomic factors. The workflows generated employ RAVEN for parametric or optimizing study of grid component characteristics, and again for stochastic sampling of regulated and deregulated markets, load, and weather histories. The toolset further provides methods for economically-optimal dispatch of system components given the stochastic samples of market, load, and weather histories. The toolset allows assembling of existing and new models through the RAVEN interface to the Modelica process modeling language.

Talbot, PaulW↗