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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 991 records · Page 55
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2007

Lunar Simulation in the Lunar Dust Adhesion Bell Jar

The Lunar Dust Adhesion Bell Jar has been assembled at the NASA Glenn Research Center to provide a high fidelity lunar simulation facility to test the interactions of lunar dust and lunar dust simulant with candidate aerospace materials and coatings. It has a sophisticated design which enables it to treat dust in a way that will remove adsorbed gases and create a chemically reactive surface. It can simulate the vacuum, thermal, and radiation environments of the Moon, including proximate areas of illuminated heat and extremely cold shadow. It is expected to be a valuable tool in the development of dust repellant and cleaning technologies for lunar surface systems.

Gaier, James R.↗
DOE OSTI2025

Atoms-to-devices models for post-irradiation annealing kinetics in III-V semiconductors

Understanding atomic displacement damage and propagating this understanding into validated defect-aware radiation damage models is a critical step toward achieving predictive, atoms-to-systems assessment of radiation vulnerabilities of microelectronics. These models are essential for evaluating the performance and reliability of nuclear stockpile components or space-based electronics (satellites). The goal of this project was to bridge a fundamental science gap between defect spectroscopies and atomistic modeling of radiation-induced defects on the one hand, and simulations of device response on the other hand, to develop predictive defect-aware damage models for high-fidelity device simulations of radiation-damaged III-V semiconductors.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
NASA NTRS1985

Simulation for human factors research. A central question: Fidelity

Generalized outlines are presented for simulation in human factors research. Recent trends in aeronautical simulation are given. Some criteria for effective training devices are also given. Full system/full mission simulation in aviation and in space human factors research is presented.

Nagel, D.↗
DOE OSTI2017

Effect of Clad Fast Neutron Flux Distribution on Quarter-Core Fuel Performance Calculations with BISON

As part of the Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors (CASL), the Virtual Environment for Reactor Applications (VERA) is being developed to provide high-fidelity multiphysics simulations of nuclear reactor cores. Over the past year, a one-way coupling capability has been developed, taking power and temperature data from MPACT/CTF calculations and running standalone BISON fuel rod cases. This has allowed CASL contributors to gain insight into the fuel performance characteristics while a more tightly coupled methodology between MPACT, CTF, and BISON has been under development. Many of the initial analyses have focused on the Watts Bar Unit 1 core using a fast flux factor—the default approach—which defines the clad fast flux as a linear function of the local linear heat rate. While this approach is more valid when considering single rod cases in isolation, in larger problems such as full-sized reactors, the local linear heat rate does not directly correlate to the clad fast neutron flux. For example, variations in assembly enrichment can lead to larger neutron fluxes in neighboring assemblies that may be at lower enrichment and power. Similarly, considering axial effects, spacer grids suppress power locally, but the fast neutron flux is significantly less affected, and the approach can lead to an underestimation of the fast neutron flux at that time. A poor estimation of the clad fast flux values can affect the clad creep rate, fuel-clad gap, and clad stresses. Additionally, the fast flux factor has been considered constant throughout the life of the rod. As the cycle progresses, the spectrum will harden as burnable absorbers and 235U deplete, so the fast flux would be expected to increase as the spectrum hardens. The effect on quantities of interest are highlighted for the first cycle of the Watts Bar Unit 1 core, comparing the results from an explicit clad fast flux representation from MPACT to the constant fast flux factor approach used in previous analyses. Future work will consider multicycle effects to assess the impact at higher burnups.

Stimpson, Shane G.↗
DOE OSTI2018

Pronghorn: A Porous Media Thermal-Hydraulics Core Simulator and its Validation with the SANA Experiments

Pebble bed High Temperature Reactors (HTRs) are characterized by many advantageous design features, such as excellent passive heat removal in accidents, large margins to fuel failure, and online refueling potential. However, a significant challenge in the core modeling of pebble bed reactors is the complex fuel-coolant structure. This paper presents a new porous media simulation code, Pronghorn, that aims to alleviate modeling challenges for pebble bed reactors by providing a fast-running, medium- fidelity core simulator. Pronghorn is intended to accelerate the design and analysis cycle for pebble bed and prismatic HTRs by permitting fast scoping studies and providing boundary conditions for systems-level analysis. Pronghorn is built on the Multiphysics Object-Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE) using modern software practices and a thorough testing framework. This paper describes the physical models used in Pronghorn and demonstrates Pronghorn’s capability for modeling gas-cooled pebble bed HTRs by presenting simulation results obtained for the German SANA pebble bed decay heat experiments. Within the limitations of the porous media approximation and existing available closure relationships, Pronghorn predicts the SANA experimental pebble temperatures well, expanding the code’s validation base. A brief code-to-code comparison shows a similar level of accuracy with other porous media simulation tools; this enhances Pronghorn’s advantages of an arbitrary equation of state, unstructured mesh capabilities, compressible flow models, high coupling potential to MOOSE fuels performance and systems-level thermal-hydraulics codes, and modern software design.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2017

Flexible Spatial Partitions in MPACT Through Module-Based Data Passing

As part of the Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors (CASL), the Virtual Environment for Reactor Applications (VERA) is being developed to provide high-fidelity multiphysics simulations of nuclear reactor cores. The MPACT code being developed collaboratively by Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Michigan is the primary deterministic neutron transport solver available within VERA. MPACT employs the 2D/1D method to solve 3D problems using 2D method of characteristics (MOC) radial transport solvers with 1D nodal expansion method-based P3 (NEM-P3) axial transport solvers, which are coupled using axial and radial transverse leakages. A 3D coarse mesh finite difference (CMFD) solver is used to provide accelerated convergence and stability. Quarter-core problems in MPACT are typically run on moderately sized clusters ({approx}500-10,000 cores). As such, it relies heavily on spatial decomposition, both radially and axially, using MPI data communication along spatial domain boundaries to pass angular flux boundary condition and neighboring data. The initial spatial decomposition strategy implemented into MPACT overlaid a Cartesian grid over the core to form the domain boundaries. With this approach, a single buffer spanning across the entire boundary between two spatial domains is passed to a domain's neighbor. Additionally, only one neighboring domain index was allowed in each direction. For example, the entire eastern boundary of a domain must be the entire western boundary of the corresponding neighbour's domain. This implementation helped to execute cases on several thousand cores, where substantial radial decomposition was used. The default for several years was to use assembly decomposition, which yielded 73 radial partitions in the Watts Bar Unit 1 (WBN1) models being analyzed. However, as CASL formed stronger connections with industry partners, there was a strong push to allow MPACT to run on fewer cores, preferably in the 500-1,000 core range. Such cases require much less radial decomposition, typically with 8-16 radial domains on each plane. Unfortunately, the previous decomposition strategy is very limited in its ability to yield well-balanced domains, and it does not permit partitions with an arbitrary number of domains, particularly with small numbers of radial domains (3, 5, 7, 11, 13, etc.). With these limitations, a more flexible approach that provided more even-load balancing was needed. The details of this new strategy are outlined here, along with insights to its advantages. The examples provided are for the WBN1 core, which has been the focus of several initial CASL analyses. It is worth noting that spatial decomposition strategies have been employed in many codes with focus on a number of different transport methodologies. The references cited are not exhaustive as this has been very important research topic across many areas.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Demonstration of Load-Follow Operations with Standalone BISON through VERA

As part of the Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors (CASL), the Virtual Environment for Reactor Applications (VERA) is being developed to provide high-fidelity multiphysics simulations of nuclear reactor cores. VERA contains a number of single physics packages that are coupled together. MPACT is the primary deterministic neutron transport solver, CTF provides thermal hydraulics solutions, and BISON - which is built off of the MOOSE framework - is used for fuel performance simulations. Over the past year, a standalone BISON capability has been developed using a one-way coupling between MPACT/CTF coupling calculations and BISON. This has allowed CASL contributors to gain insight into the fuel performance characteristics while a more tightly coupled methodology between MPACT, CTF, and BISON has been under development. The standalone capability has been used to simulate Watts Bar Unit 1 (WBN1) Cycles 1-3 and to screen for quantities of interest to pellet-clad interaction in Cycles 6-7. The simulation and screening results are presented here. CASL recently partnered with Exelon and the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (UIUC) to begin simulating some of Exelon's plants, with particular focus on load-follow operations. In such operations, the power output from the plant will vary based on the demand or anticipated demand at the time. For example, demand is much lower late at night than during the day when people are awake, so it operating the plant at lower power in the evenings could be advantageous. Historically, nuclear power generation has been among the cheapest sources of energy, so most plants in the United States have been operated at full power except for outages and various small scale events. However, in the current economic climate, priorities have changed. A number of questions arise when load-follow operations are considered, particularly with respect to VERA's tools and capabilities. Can the coupled neutronics and thermal hydraulics simulations with MPACT and CTF perform well without substantial convergence issues? Can BISON handle the somewhat rapid power changes present with load-follow? Will clad hoop stresses be alarmingly high as a result of these power changes? This work addresses these questions and demonstrates operations to assess feasibility and robustness before Exelon and UIUC proceed with their simulations using VERA. To demonstrate load-follow capability, two test problems were developed. The first is a single rod that experiences nominal operations during Cycle 1, and then it simulates 18 months of representative load-follow operations in Cycle 2. This single-rod case was used to test the robustness of MPACT, CTF, and BISON on a typical rod. The second problem is a quarter-core model based on WBN1, Cycle 3, with a single month of load-follow operations inserted into the middle of the cycle. This provides better understanding of the stresses to the clad during the numerous power changes. Sections of this article are adapted from the original, full technical report on this capability.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2024

How well are hazards associated with derechos reproduced in regional climate simulations?

Abstract. A 15-member ensemble of convection-permitting regional simulations of the fast-moving and destructive derecho of 29–30 June 2012 that impacted the northeastern urban corridor of the USA is presented. This event generated 1100 reports of damaging winds, generated significant wind gusts over an extensive area of up to 500 000 km2, caused several fatalities, and resulted in widespread loss of electrical power. Extreme events such as this are increasingly being used within pseudo-global-warming experiments to examine the sensitivity of historical, societally important events to global climate non-stationarity and how they may evolve as a result of changing thermodynamic and dynamic contexts. As such it is important to examine the fidelity with which such events are described in hindcast experiments. The regional simulations presented herein are performed using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. The resulting ensemble is used to explore simulation fidelity relative to observations for wind gust magnitudes, spatial scales of convection (as is manifest in high composite reflectivity, cREF), and both rainfall and hail production as a function of model configuration (microphysics parameterization, lateral boundary conditions (LBCs), start date, use of nudging, compiler choice, damping, and number of vertical levels). We also examine the degree to which each ensemble member differs with respect to key mesoscale drivers of convective systems (e.g., convective available potential energy and vertical wind shear) and critical manifestations of deep convection, e.g., vertical velocities, cold-pool generation, and how those properties relate to the correct characterization of the associated atmospheric hazards (wind gusts and hail). Use of a double-moment, seven-class scheme with number concentrations for all species (including hail and graupel) results in the greatest fidelity of model-simulated wind gusts and convective structure to the observations of this event. All ensemble members, however, fail to capture the intensity of the event in terms of the spatial extent of convection and the production of high near-surface wind gusts. We further show very high sensitivity to the LBCs employed and specifically that simulation fidelity is higher for simulations nested within ERA-Interim compared to ERA5. Excess convective available potential energy (CAPE) in all ensemble members after the derecho passage leads to excess production of convective cells, wind gusts, cREF > 40 dBZ, and precipitation during a frontal passage on the subsequent day. This event proved very challenging to forecast in real time and to reproduce in the 15-member hindcast simulation ensemble presented here. Future work could examine if simulations with other initial and lateral boundary conditions can achieve greater fidelity.

Shepherd, Tristan (ORCID:0000000186276419)↗
DOE OSTI2022

Active learning with multifidelity modeling for efficient rare event simulation

Here, while multifidelity modeling provides a cost-effective way to conduct uncertainty quantification with computationally expensive models, much greater efficiency can be achieved by adaptively deciding the number of required high-fidelity (HF) simulations, depending on the type and complexity of the problem and the desired accuracy in the results. We propose a framework for active learning with multifidelity modeling emphasizing the efficient estimation of rare events. Our framework works by fusing a low-fidelity (LF) prediction with an HF-inferred correction, filtering the corrected LF prediction to decide whether to call the high-fidelity model, and for enhanced subsequent accuracy, adapting the correction for the LF prediction after every HF model call. The framework does not make any assumptions as to the LF model type or its correlations with the HF model. In addition, for improved robustness when estimating smaller failure probabilities, we propose using dynamic active learning functions that decide when to call the HF model. We demonstrate our framework using several academic case studies (including some high-dimensional problems) and two finite element model case studies: estimating Navier-Stokes velocities using the Stokes approximation and estimating stresses in a transversely isotropic model subjected to displacements via a coarsely meshed isotropic model. Across these case studies, not only did the proposed framework estimate the failure probabilities accurately, but compared with either Monte Carlo or a standard variance reduction method, it also required only a small fraction of the calls to the HF model.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2016

Large Eddy Simulation of a Supercritical Fuel Jet in Cross Flow using GPU-Acceleration

Fuel is routinely injected into combustion chambers at elevated pressures resulting in formation of supercritical fluid flow. The dispersion of fuel and the combustion processes are significantly different in high pressure conditions as the raditional liquid atomization and evaporation are replaced by diffusion-dominated mixing. Modeling supercritical flow is challenging due to the complex thermodynamics and transport properties of the fluids and in most cases high fidelity numerical simulations are prohibitively expensive. However, numerical investigations must incorporate the flow properties appropriate for the regime for accurate description of the physical processes involved. In this paper, we consider real-fluid properties and simulate the turbulent mixing of fuel jet in cross flow at high ambient pressure. In order to make efficient use of the computer resources and reduce the time to solution, without compromising the resolution requirements, the real-fluid property routines are accelerated via Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) computation. The numerical simulations performed at different resolutions suggest that the high fidelity computations with refined mesh are essential to capture the non-linear dynamics of vortex evolution downstream of the fuel jet and signifies the necessity for an accelerated code. The code is accelerated using the Kokkos C++ library and is demonstrated to be about 2 times faster than the non-accelerated version. Considerable computational cost associated with the thermodynamics routines is reduced in the accelerated version. The results also suggest the resource requirements to compute turbulent closures and the need for acceleration of the routines associated with the sub-grid scale closures.

Gottiparthi, Kalyana C.↗
DOE OSTI2018

High-resolution time-resolved experiments on mixing and entrainment of buoyant jets in stratified environments

Fluid jets interacting with a stratified layer play an important role in the safety of several reactor designs. In the containment of nuclear power plants, fluid jets dominate the transport and mixing of gaseous species and consequent hydrogen distribution in case of a severe accident. The mixing phenomena in the containment are driven by buoyant high-momentum injections (jets) and low momentum injection plumes. Mixing near the postulated break is initially dominated by high flow velocities. Plumes with moderate flow velocities are instead relevant in the break compartment during the long-term pressurization phase, or in any of the apertures between two connected compartments if the mass flows are sufficiently high and the density differences between efflux and ambient are sufficiently low. Phenomena of interest include free plumes (as produced by the efflux from the break compartment in a larger room or directly from a break flow), wall plumes (such those produced by low mass flows through inter-compartment apertures), and propagating stratification fronts in the ambient (for any stably stratified conditions). These phenomena have been highly ranked about nuclear reactor design, especially regarding of safety protocols. During a Pressurized Thermal Shock (PTS) scenario, the interaction between the cold ECCS injection plume and the stratified fluid present in the cold (or hot) leg is important in order to determine the temperature at the time-dependent temperature at the inlet of the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) and the potential to cause a thermal shock on the RPV wall. In sodium-cooled fast reactors (SFRs), core channels are typically hydro-dynamically isolated so that there exists a considerable temperature variation at the exit of adjacent fuel assemblies. All the above phenomena are characterized by the interaction of buoyant jets with the stratified flow. In stratified layers baroclinic forces create significant redistribution of turbulent kinetic energy and scales, which leads to anisotropy. This important physical phenomenon is highly three dimensional and is challenging to capture even with high-fidelity CFD simulations, due in part to lack of sufficiently resolved validation data. Furthermore, the experimental data available in the open literature do not feature the level of fidelity needed for an extensive validation of turbulence models in lower order CFD. To shed new lights into the crucial phenomena object of the present research project, it was proposed to conduct coordinated experiments and simulations at the University of Michigan and the George Washington University. The project has resulted in an experimental database of high-resolution time-resolved measurements of jets in uniform and stratified environments. The novel experimental data will be used to validate computational fluid dynamic (CFD) codes, including both Large Eddy Simulations (LES) and unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations (URANS) methodologies. In the Experimental and Multiphase flow (ECMF) laboratory at Univerisity of Michigan, we built two experimental facilities to investigate also the effect of scaling. The first facility, DESTROJER (DEnsity Stratified Turbulent ROund free Jet ExpeRiment), featuring a contoured jet nozzle with a diameter of D=12.7mm and a 1m×1m×1m cubic tank, which is made of acrylic glass for optical access. The ratio between the tank width and the nozzle diameter is equal to 78, which ensures that there is no direct interaction between the jet and the side walls. A second, modular experimental facility, features three different tank sizes of size 10×10×30, 20×20×30, 30×30×30 cm3 respectively (all tanks have the same height of 30 cm), and a jet diameter of 2mm. For the modular facility, tank-to-nozzle ratio of 50, 100, and 150 are obtained respectively. Experiments with different-density jet impactions and sharp interface with a density difference of 3.16% In the Laboratory at George Washington University, complementary experiments have been carried out at a facility featuring the same dimensions as DESTROYER. Experiments with different jet diameters have been carried out as well. High-resolution time-resolved measurements have been performed at all facilities using high-speed particle image velocimetry (PIV) and planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF). In this way, simultaneous measurements of velocity and density fields have been carried out. At the University of Michigan, wire-mesh sensors have been designed and built to gather high-resolution, time-dependent data of the stratified front in the tank. These measurements are important to provide accurate initial conditions for the CFD simulations. An important outcome of the project has been the development of novel techniques to achieve refractive index matching (RIM) of acqueous solutions with high density differences. RIM is crucial if optical techniques such as PIV are used to measure velocity fields. Previous to this project, experiments up to 3% density difference had been reported in the literature. With the methodology developed in this project, we have been able to push the envelop to density differences up to 9%. The experiments have been used to validate Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) turbulence models and Large Eddy Simulations (LES) models. Both NEK5000 and the commercial CFD code STAR-CCM+ have been used. The experimental data will be made available to the community through the NE-KAMS databasehave been successfully conducted in the scaled facility.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2025

AMR-Wind: A Performance-Portable, High-Fidelity Flow Solver for Wind Farm Simulations

We present AMR-Wind, a verified and validated high-fidelity computational-fluid-dynamics code for wind farm flows. AMR-Wind is a block-structured, adaptive-mesh, incompressible-flow solver that enables predictive simulations of the atmospheric boundary layer and wind plants. It is a highly scalable code designed for parallel high-performance computing with a specific focus on performance portability for current and future computing architectures, including graphical processing units (GPUs). In this paper, we detail the governing equations, the numerical methods, and the turbine models. Establishing a foundation for the correctness of the code, we present the results of formal verification and validation. The verification studies, which include a novel actuator line test case, indicate that AMR-Wind is spatially and temporally second-order accurate. The validation studies demonstrate that the key physics capabilities implemented in the code, including actuator disk models, actuator line models, turbulence models, and large eddy simulation (LES) models for atmospheric boundary layers, perform well in comparison to reference data from established computational tools and theory. We conclude with a demonstration simulation of a 12-turbine wind farm operating in a turbulent atmospheric boundary layer, detailing computational performance and realistic wake interactions.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
NASA NTRS2011

A Transfer of Training Study of Control Loader Dynamics

The control inceptor used in a simulated vehicle is an important part in maintaining the fidelity of a simulation. The force feedback provided by the control inceptor gives the operator important cues to maintain adequate performance. The dynamics of a control inceptor are typically based on a second order spring mass damper system with damping, force gradient, breakout force, and natural frequency parameters. Changing these parameters can have a great effect on pilot or driver control of the vehicle. The neuromuscular system has a very important role in manipulating the control inceptor within a vehicle. Many studies by McRuer, Aponso, and Hess have dealt with modeling the neuromuscular system and quantifying the effects of a high fidelity control loader as compared to a low fidelity control loader. Humans are adaptive in nature and their control behavior changes based on different control loader dynamics. Humans will change their control behavior to maintain tracking bandwidth and minimize tracking error. This paper reports on a quasi-transfer of training experiment which was performed at the NASA Langley Research Center. The quasi transfer of training study used a high fidelity control loader and a low fidelity control loader. Subjects trained in both simulations and then were transferred to the high fidelity control loader simulation. The parameters for the high fidelity control loader were determined from the literature. The low fidelity control loader parameters were found through testing of a simple computer joystick. A disturbance compensatory task is employed. The compensatory task involves implementing a simple horizon out the window display. A disturbance consisting of a sum of sines is used. The task consists of the subject compensating for the disturbance on the roll angle of the aircraft. The vehicle dynamics are represented as 1/s and 1/s2. The subject will try to maintain level flight throughout the experiment. The subjects consist of non-pilots to remove any effects of pilot experience. First, this paper discusses the implementation of the disturbance compensation task. Second, the high and low fidelity parameters used within the experiment are presented. Finally, an explanation of results from the experiments is presented.

Cardullo, Frank M.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Investigating the interactions between wakes and floating wind turbines using FAST.Farm

As floating offshore wind progresses to commercial maturity, wake and array effects across a farm of floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs) will become increasingly important. While wakes of land-based and bottom-fixed offshore wind turbines have been extensively studied, only recently has this topic become relevant for floating turbines. This work presents an investigation of the mutual interaction between the motions of floating wind turbines and wakes using FAST.Farm. While FAST.Farm has been extensively validated across a wide range of conditions, it has never been validated for FOWT applications. Hence, in the first part of this work, we validate FAST.Farm by comparing simulations of a single FOWT against high-fidelity results from large-eddy simulations available in the literature. The validation is based on wake meandering, mean wake deflection, and velocity deficit at different downstream locations. This validation showed that the original axisymmetric (polar) wake model of FAST.Farm overpredicts the vertical wake deflection induced by shaft tilt and floater pitch, while the new curled wake model is capable of properly capturing the vertical wake deflection. In the second part, we use FAST.Farm to analyze a small three-unit array of FOWTs with a spacing of 7 diameters across a wide range of environmental conditions. The same National Renewable Energy Laboratory 5 MW reference wind turbine atop the OC4-DeepCwind semisubmersible is adopted for the three FOWTs and for the validation against high-fidelity simulations. To assess the effect of the floating substructure, we compare the power production, tower-base moments, and blade-root moments obtained for the floating turbines with the results obtained in a fixed-bottom configuration. The main differences introduced by the floating substructure are the motions induced by the waves, the change in the natural frequencies of the tower caused by differences in the boundary condition at its base, and the larger vertical deflection of the wake deficit due to the mean pitch of the platform. The impact of these differences, as well as other minor effects, are analyzed in detail.

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗
DOE OSTI2018

Experimental validation of thermodynamic mixture rules at extreme pressures and densities

Accurate modeling of a mixed material Equation of State (EOS) at high pressures (~1 to 100 Mbar) is critical for simulating inertial confinement fusion and high energy density systems. Here, this paper presents a comparison of two mixing rule models to the experiment to assess their applicability in this regime. The shock velocities of polystyrene, aluminum, and nickel aluminide (NiAl) were measured at a shock pressure of ~3 TPa (~30 Mbar) on the Omega EP laser facility (Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester, New York). The resultant shock velocities were compared to those derived from the RAGE (Eulerian) hydrodynamics code to validate various mixing rules used to construct an EOS for NiAl. The simulated shock transit time through the sample (Al or NiAl) matched the measurements to within the ±45ps measurement uncertainty. The law of partial volume (Amagat) and the law of partial pressure (Dalton) mixture rules provided equally good matches to the NiAl shock data. Other studies showed that the Amagat mixing rule is superior, and we recommend it since our results also show a satisfactory match. In conclusion, the comparable quality of the simulation to data for the Al and NiAl samples implies that a mixture rule can supply an EOS for plasma mixtures with adequate fidelity for simulations where mixing takes place, such as advective mix in an Eulerian code or when two materials are mixed together via diffusion, turbulence, or other physical processes.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
NASA NTRS2018

Objective Motion Cueing Criteria for Commercial Transport Simulators

This paper adds data to establish fidelity criteria for the simulator motion system diagnostic test now required during commercial aircraft simulator approval in the United States. Nineteen airline transport pilots flew three tasks under six different motion conditions in an experiment on the NASA Vertical Motion Simulator. The motion conditions allowed refinement of the initial fidelity criteria developed in previous experiments. In line with these previous experiments, the motion condition significantly affected (1) false motion cue pilot ratings, and sink rate and longitudinal deviation at touchdown in the approach and landing task, (2) false motion cue pilot ratings, roll deviations, and maximum pitch rate in the stall task, and (3) false motion cue pilot ratings, heading deviation, and pedal reaction time after an engine failure in the take-off task. Combining data from three experiments, significant differences in pilot-vehicle performance were used to define objective motion cueing criteria boundaries. These fidelity boundaries suggest that some hexapod simulators can possibly produce motion cues with improved fidelity in several degrees of freedom.

simulator motion↗
DOE OSTI2017

VUSAT - A VERA-CS Uncertainty and Sensitivity Analysis Toolkit

VERA-CS (the Virtual Environment for Reactor Applications, Core Simulator) is a high-fidelity multiphysics core simulator under development by the Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors (CASL). VERA-CS includes three main components: MPACT for reactor physics and neutron transport, COBRA-TF for thermal-hydraulics, and ORIGEN for isotopic depletion. VERA-CS has been applied to an array of problems including core physics analysis, and the modeling for all of the fuel cycles of Watts Bar Nuclear Unit 1 (WBN1). MPACT is a 3D pin-resolved reactor transport code developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and the University of Michigan. COBRA-TF (CTF) is a three-field two-phase flow subchannel analysis code developed by ORNL and North Carolina State University. CTF solves the mass, momentum, and energy equations for the liquid, vapor, and droplet phases for each subchannel in the core and captures the axial flow within each channel as well as cross-flow between channels. Direct coupling between neutronics (MPACT) and thermal-hydraulics (CTF) in VERA-CS provides temperature and density feedback. CTF includes a number of models important for LWR safety and design analysis including flow regime dependent two-phase wall heat transfer, inter-phase heat transfer and drag, droplet breakup, and quench-front tracking. ORIGEN is developed by ORNL and released through the SCALE package. ORIGEN is directly integrated in MPACT through its API to calculate the changes in nuclides for every depletable cross-section region. Uncertainties exist in safety calculations with computer codes for nuclear reactor modeling and simulation, and they come from code limitations, scaling inaccuracies embedded in the experimental data, and uncertainties associated with the state of the reactor at the initiation of the transient. Consequently, for applications of high fidelity calculations using VERA-CS, proper uncertainty quantification (UQ) and sensitivity analysis (SA) of the computing models of reactor neutronics and thermal-hydraulics are important to comprehensively understand the results. New methods in UQ and SA have to be developed in multi-physics calculations using VERA-CS. Toward this end, a software package called VUSAT which stands for VERA-CS Uncertainty and Sensitivity Analysis Toolkit has been developed to facilitate the applications of VERA-CS within the context of best estimate plus uncertainty (BEPU) analysis framework. In this work, the VUSAT application to analyze departure from nucleate boiling (DNB) is presented.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗