Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Multi- Component”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 1,009 records · Page 56

Panel Session 62: Progress on Deep Repository Programs Around the World

This panel session focused on the progress of deep repository programs, worldwide. While efforts on a deep geological repository for SNF/UNF and HLW in the USA were terminated in 2010, several other repository programs continue to make considerable progress and deserve to be recognized. Panelists were invited from national, multi-national, and international repository programs and organizations to report upon the status and future as well as the perceived reasons underlying the success and the failure of components of their respective repository program. This panel provided a forum for interested parties to present, exchange, and take advantage of, as appropriate, repository progress, challenges, concepts/designs and other lessons learned around the world, including site characterization, site selection, research and development, licensing, construction, operation, and public acceptance and participation. Presentations proposed include: 1 - Cigeo (French Deep Geological Repository Project) update 2018 (Daniel Delort, Andra (France)); 2 - Progress on Deep Geological Repository Programs Around the World (Bruce McKirdy, Radioactive Waste Management (United Kingdom)); 3 - Geological disposal facility in Belgium (Didier Leonard, ONDRAF/NIRAS (Belgium))

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

Panel Session 89: Progress on Deep Repository Around the World

This panel focused on the progress of deep repository programs, worldwide. While efforts on a deep geological repository for SNF/UNF and HLW in the USA were terminated in 2010, several other repository programs continue to make considerable progress 10 and deserve to be recognized. Panelists from national, multi-national, and international repository programs and organizations reported on the status and future plans as well as the perceived reasons underlying the success and the failure of components of their respective repository program. This session provided a forum for interested parties to present, exchange, and take advantage of, as appropriate, repository progress, challenges, concepts/designs and other lessons learned around the world, including site characterization, site selection, research and development, licensing, construction, operation, and public acceptance and participation. Panelists with presentations: Switzerland's Geological Repository Program for Radioactive Waste (Tim Vietor); Update on NWMO's Progress in Implementing Canada's Plan (Sarah Hirschorn); Cigeo Project Progress and Next Milestones (Corinne Bauer)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

Multi-Sectoral Urban Interactions: Fundamental Science Needs to Inform Pathways to More Resilient Communities in a Changing Climate Multi-Sectoral Urban Interactions: Fundamental Science Needs to Inform Pathways to More Resilient Communities in a Changing Climate

Urban areas and the supply networks that support their resource use are inherently multisectoral systems composed of infrastructural, environmental, and socio-institutional components. These systems are vulnerable to accelerating and interacting stresses from climate change, population growth, resource scarcity, and land-use pressure at the same time as they have a major influence on regional and global systems. For instance, a majority of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, food consumption, and economic activity can be attributed to urban areas. Urban areas are highly heterogenous, both across and within cities in terms of their socio-demographic, environmental, and infrastructural characteristics. This heterogeneity shapes how urban systems interact and co-evolve and contributes to different economic, environmental, and health outcomes for communities within urban areas. Urban heterogeneity also generates differential vulnerabilities to stressors and differential capacity for adapting to change. The evolution of urban space is thus critical in shaping how human societies respond to global change as they seek to improve resilience to stressors, support prosperous and equitable communities, and use natural resources in a sustainable manner. Developing fundamental scientific understanding of urban heterogeneity and system interactions across sectors and scales is critical for mapping the resilience, sustainability, and equity implications of alternative future pathways. On July 2021 the MSD Urban Systems Working Group organized this workshop to provide a venue for coordination and identification of shared objectives, research themes, and major knowledge gaps, as well as developing a shared strategy for addressing these gaps. This report summarizes the outcomes of this workshop.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

Multi-functional cementitious materials with ultra-high damage tolerance and self-sensing ability

Cementitious materials having high damage tolerance and self-sensing ability are described herein. These materials may replace conventional concrete to serve as a major material component for infrastructure systems with greatly improved resistance to cracking, reinforcement corrosion, and other common deterioration mechanisms under service conditions, and prevents fracture failure under extreme events. These materials can also be used for the repair, retrofitting or rehabilitation of existing concrete structures or infrastructure systems. Furthermore, these materials may offer capacity for distributed and direct sensing of cracking, straining and deterioration with spatially continuous resolution wherever the material is located, without relying on installation of sensors. The present invention relates to multifunctional cementitious structural or infrastructure materials that integrate self-sensing with damage tolerance for improving safety, extending service life, and health monitoring of structures, components, and infrastructure systems.

Li, Mo↗

FENIX: Towards a Fully Integrated Multiphysics Framework for Plasma Facing Component Modeling

Computational tools have a crucial role to play in accelerating the deployment of fusion as a clean, reliable, abundant, and sustainable energy source. Multiphysics, high-fidelity simulation capabilities can help model, study, and predict intricate interactions between materials performance, plasma exposure, neutron irradiation, and engineering processes. As such, they can assist in the resolution of scientific and engineering challenges underpinning design, construction, and commission of fusion power plants. To address these needs, ongoing efforts are leveraging the Multiphysics Object-Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE) framework and delivering new computational tools for the fusion community. These tools inherit crucial attributes from MOOSE. They are open-source, modular, integrated with nuclear industry-standard software quality assurance processes, and enable multiphysics, multi-fidelity, fully integrated, zero- to three-dimensional, and massively parallel simulations. After a short overview of these capabilities, we will present the development of Fusion ENergy Integrated multiphys-X (FENIX), a MOOSE-based application designed to enable plasma facing component design and performance evaluation. Throughout their lifetime, plasma facing components are exposed to extreme thermal loads, repeated thermal shocks, and irradiation by plasma ions, neutral particles, and high-energy neutrons. Consequently, designing a plasma facing component with acceptable lifetime degradation is extremely challenging. FENIX aims to model the multiphysics environment in which plasma facing components evolve to accelerate their design studies. To that end, FENIX couples existing MOOSE capabilities such as heat transfer, thermomechanics, and thermal hydraulics, with tritium transport via the MOOSE-based Tritium Migration Analysis Program, Version 8 (TMAP8), with neutronics via the MOOSE-based high-fidelity neutron-photon transport and fluid dynamics code Cardinal, and finally with Particle-in-Cell plasma simulation capabilities being developed in this project. In this study, we present the current FENIX capabilities and preliminary results of its application to model the Tritium Plasma Experiment set up at Idaho National Laboratory.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

In‐memory integration of existing software components for parallel adaptive unstructured mesh workflows

Summary Reliable mesh‐based simulations are needed to solve complex engineering problems. Mesh adaptivity can increase reliability by reducing discretization errors but requires multiple software components to exchange information. Often, components exchange information by reading and writing a common file format. This file‐based approach becomes a problem on massively parallel computers where filesystem bandwidth is a critical performance bottleneck. Our approach using data streams and component interfaces avoids the filesystem bottleneck. In this paper, we present these techniques and their use for coupling mesh adaptivity to the PHASTA computational fluid dynamics solver, the Albany multi‐physics framework, and the Omega3P linear accelerator frequency analysis applications. Performance results are reported on up to 16,384 cores of an Intel Knights Landing‐based system.

Smith, Cameron W.↗

Numerical and Experimental Analysis of Dissimilar Repair Welding Residual Stress in P91 Steel Considering Solid-State Phase Transformation

Repair welding is a popular method to repair the cracked zones of pipes in power plants. However, residual stresses induced by repair welding are inevitably generated and have a significant effect on the performance of repair-welded components during service. The purpose of this research is to investigate the effects of solid-state phase transformation (SSPT) on the repair welding residual stress distribution of multi-layer and multi-pass welding in P91 steel. Based on thermal elastic-plastic theory, a three-dimensional thermal–metallurgical–mechanical finite element model considering the SSPT is established, and shielded metal arc welding (SMAW) heat input is modelled as one double elliptical heat source. The effect of phase transformation on residual stress is investigated by considering effects with and without phase transformation in the database of materials. The results show that transverse compressive stress and a low longitudinal stress area are generated in the final pass due to martensite transformation. Compared with different zones along the thickness direction, the effect of SSPT is greater around the outer surface than around the internal fusion zone. The rationality of the developed finite element model is verified by the experimental method, and good agreement is obtained between those results from the numerical analysis and experimental methods.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Modelling Heterogeneity in Cellulose Properties Predicts the Slowdown Phenomenon during Enzymatic Hydrolysis

Fine control of the enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose is challenging due to complex process dynamics. Conversion rate from cellulose to valuable monomeric products is often significantly slowed down after an initial rapid but short-lived phase. Underlying mechanisms for this process have yet to be fully understood and as a result poorly represented in existing models. Here, we propose a new modelling platform termed Multi-Layered Population Balance Model (ML-PBM), which enables various key aspects of cellulose enzymatic hydrolysis occurring over the entire breakdown process to be captured. As a core component for predicting the slowdown phenomenon, the ML-PBM properly accounts for heterogeneity in cellulose crystallinity and chain lengths across the structural layers of cellulose particles with different morphologies. Beyond a decent quantitative fit to highly nonlinear dynamic experimental data collected across different conditions, the ML-PBM reveals that the rate slowdown phenomenon is potentially due to heterogeneity in cellulose properties coupled with cellulose morphology. Equipped with the unification of various process fundamentals, the ML-PBM is a rational framework with the potential to facilitate sound cellulose engineering.

Ahamed, Firnaaz↗

Formation and reconfiguration of tight multi-lane platoons

Advances in vehicular communication technologies are expected to facilitate cooperative driving in the future. Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAVs) are able to collaboratively plan and execute driving maneuvers by sharing their perceptual knowledge and future plans. In this paper, an architecture for autonomous navigation of tight multi-lane platoons traveling on public roads is presented. Using the proposed approach, CAVs are able to form single or multi-lane platoons of various geometrical configurations. They are able to reshape and adjust their configurations according to changes in the environment. The proposed architecture consists of two main components: an offline motion planner system and an online hierarchical control system. The motion planner uses an optimization-based approach for cooperative formation and reconfiguration in tight spaces. A constrained optimization scheme is used to plan smooth, dynamically feasible and collision-free trajectories for all the vehicles within the platoon. The paper addresses online computation limitations by employing a family of maneuvers precomputed offline and stored on a look-up table on the vehicles. The online hierarchical control system is composed of three levels: a traffic operation system (TOS), a decision-maker, and a path-follower. The TOS determines the desired platoon reconfiguration. The decision-maker checks the feasibility of the reconfiguration plan based on real-time information about the surrounding traffic. The reconfiguration maneuver is executed by a low-level path-following feedback controller in real-time. The effectiveness of the approach is demonstrated through simulations of three case studies: (1) formation reconfiguration (2) obstacle avoidance, and (3) benchmarking against behavior-based planning in which the desired formation is achieved using a sequence of motion primitives.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Lossy Compression: An Online Multi-Stage Technology for High-Fidelity Synchro- Waveform Measurements

Effective real-time monitoring and analysis of distributed grids necessitate the use of synchro-waveform measurements, which capture almost all high-frequency disturbances and transient phenomena. However, due to limitations in high-speed measurements and network bandwidth, it is challenging to transfer all high-fidelity synchro-waveforms losslessly and successfully. To cope with these challenges, a hybrid-based online multi-stage compression algorithm is proposed to significantly improve the compression efficiency for synchro-waveform measurements. Initially, the multiple discrete Wavelet transformation is deployed to deconstruct the waveform components. The delta encoding is further developed to decrease the magnitude. In conjunction with the Lempel-Ziv-Markov chain, the hybrid compression algorithm is implemented to achieve real-time compression for the synchro-waveform measurements. Moreover, an innovative error index that synergizes the time and frequency domain error and correlation is formulated to evaluate the waveform distortion. By integrating compression ratio, suitable parameters can be optimally selected. Finally, the simulation, laboratory experiments, as well as field tests across a spectrum of sampling frequencies and time intervals are conducted to substantiate the efficacy of the proposed method. Here, the outcomes demonstrated that a compression ratio of approximately 15.5 and 17.83 can be reached for 0.5 s and 1 s data under both offline and online scenarios, which equates to a substantial 93.5% to 94.39% reduction in data storage requirements.

High-fidelity synchro-waveform measurements↗

Closures for Two-fluid Five-moment Equations for Magnetized Plasmas (Final Scientific Report)

In the proposed work, we will develop a complete set of closures for two-fluid five-moment equations for magnetized plasmas. Specifically, we propose to obtain explicit formulas for electrons and ions to express heat flow, viscosity, frictional force, and collisional heating in terms of density, and temperature, flow velocity. For this purpose, we solve a set of general moment equations for the relevant closure moments. An infinite hierarchy of general moment equations is completely equivalent to the original Landau-Fokker-Planck kinetic equation. In the small gyro-period expansion, the parallel components of the general moment equations agree with the moments of the drift-kinetic equation (DKE). The advantages of solving the moment equations include (i) an exact treatment of the collision operator, (ii) closure and transport relations with no flux-surface average, and (iii) a unified form of closures for general collisionality. Practically we solve a truncated set of moment equations and hence must verify the convergence of the solutions by increasing number of moments. The parallel integral (nonlocal) closures obtained by solving a set of linearized parallel moment equations are useful only when the nonlinear coupling of moments to the temperature and magnetic field gradient terms is negligible. When the nonlinear coupling terms are substantial, we propose a Fourier transform method to solve the parallel moment equations. By Fourier-expanding the magnetic field, we can convert the differential equations of parallel moments to linear algebraic equations for Fourier components of the moments. The convergence of the solutions can be confirmed by increasing the number of Fourier modes. Our preliminary study in axisymmetric circular magnetic geometry with a large aspect ratio shows that (i) the solutions for Fourier modes n=0 and n=1 converge when modes up to n=2 are included in the expansion, and (ii) lower collisionality requires more moments for convergent closures, as in the case of the integral closures. The proposed work will start from this simple magnetic geometry to find general parallel closures and then be generalized to explore a non-circular magnetic field with finite aspect-ratio. With parallel moments known, the perpendicular component of moment closures can be obtained by inverting the generalized cross product operator in the general moment equations. These efforts will be performed in conjunction with several multi-institutional projects, NIMROD, the Center for Extended MHD Modeling (CEMM), and the Plasma Science and Innovation (PSI) Center.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

SAM Code Development for Source Term Modeling in Fluoride-salt-cooled High-temperature Reactors

The SAM code is under development and supported by DOE-NE’s Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation program as a modern system-level modeling and simulation tool for advanced non-light water reactor safety analyses. These advanced reactor concepts incorporate novel and improved approaches to achieve safety and economic feasibility. Many concepts leverage higher operating temperatures for improved efficiency with a variety of coolants and structural materials to support those needs. Such design choices may also pose unique radiological source term risks. There are continuous efforts to incorporate new physics and phenomena relevant to advanced reactor concepts, including capabilities to enable system-level source term modeling. The Pebble-Bed Fluoride-salt-cooled High-temperature Reactor (PB-FHR) is a promising candidate among advanced nuclear reactor concepts with its improved passive safety characteristics and high thermal efficiency. In addition to past efforts to support the development and utilization of SAM for PB-FHR safety analysis, the species transport modeling capabilities in SAM have been extended to simulate source term phenomena in concepts like the PB-FHR. The PB-FHR concept utilizes pebble-form TRISO fuel and FLiBe salt coolant to provide robust barriers to the release of almost all fission products and radiological source terms. However, tritium poses a unique radiological risk due to its significant production from neutron interactions with 6 Li and 9 Be in the FLiBe as well as its high mobility at elevated temperatures where it can permeate through structural metals. Secondly, the use of graphite at elevated temperatures poses the risk of oxidation damage to any structural components or fuel pebbles that are exposed to accidental air ingress. This report summarizes progress made in modeling these phenomena in SAM, which leverages the system-level multi-physics thermal hydraulic simulation to support an effective engineering-scale source term modeling capability. A tritium transport model is developed to simulate the various transport pathways in FHR and MSR concepts and is presented through verification and validation examples as well as demonstrations simulating experimental test loops and reference plant FHR models. A graphite oxidation model is also introduced to calculate local oxidation rates and is presented with initial validation results.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Conceptual Design Report -- eSPS

The design of a primary electron beam facility at CERN is described. It re-enables the SPS as an electron accelerator, and leverages the development invested in CLIC technology for its injector and as accelerator R&D infrastructure. The facility would be relevant for several of the key priorities in the 2020 update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics, such as an electron-positron(e-p) Higgs factory, accelerator R&D, dark sector physics, and neutrino physics. In addition, it could serve experiments in nuclear physics. The electron beam delivered by this facility would provide access to light dark matter production significantly beyond the targets predicted by a thermal dark matter origin, and for natures of dark matter particles that are not accessible by direct detection experiments. It would also enable electro-nuclear measurements crucial for precise modelling the energy dependence of neutrino-nucleus interactions, which is needed to precisely measure neutrino oscillations as a function of energy. The implementation of the facility is the natural next step in the development of X-band high-gradient acceleration technology, a key technology for compact and cost-effective electron/positron linacs. It would also become the only facility with multi-GeV drive bunches and truly independent electron witness bunches for plasma wakefield acceleration. The facility would be used for the development and studies of a large number of components and phenomena for a future e-p Higgs and electroweak factory as the first stage of a next circular collider at CERN, and its cavities in the SPS would be the same type as foreseen for such a future collider. The operation of the SPS with electrons would train a new generation of scientists. The facility could be made operational in about five years and would operate in parallel and without interference with Run 4 at the LHC.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Multi-Objective Cycle Optimization of an Integrally Geared Waste Heat Recovery Unit for a Combined Cycle Power System

This paper has presented the cycle design and optimization details for a sCO2-based WHRS targeting the Solar Turbines Titan 130. The PreheatSR cycle layout was chosen to effectively address the issue of acid dew point corrosion and ensure high system performance is not significantly impacted by use of alternative fuels. The optimization process discussed uses a multi-objective optimization to discover a series of optimal cycle configurations given ambient temperature variability for a chosen site location while considering the initial capital cost of the cycle components. Cycle models built that incorporated off-design methods for the heat exchangers and turbomachinery allowed for the investigation of cycle operation that maximizes power output for individual cycle conditions. The resulting Pareto front serves as a guide for how to configure the WHRS cycle for the highest yearly energy extracted for a given investment.

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS↗

Modeling the adsorbate coverage distribution over a multi-faceted catalytic grain in the presence of an electric field: O/Fe from first principles

The impact of an external electric field on the concerted behavior of oxygen over a multi-faceted catalytic Fe grain is determined via the interpolation of ab initio models of oxygen adsorption on Fe(100), Fe(110), and Fe(111) in the presence of an external electric field. The application of both negative and positive electric fields weaken the adsorption strength for oxygen on all three surface facets, with Fe(110) experiencing the greatest effect. Kinetic models of a multi-faceted catalytic Fe grain show that the average oxygen coverage over the grain surface is reduced under the influence of both a negative and positive electric field, which are consistent with phase diagram results at comparable pressures. Furthermore, we show that there is a weak synergistic effect between a Pd promoter and a positive electric field on the oxygen adsorption energy, i.e. the Pd promoter and electric field combination weaken the oxygen adsorption energy to a greater degree than the simple addition of both components separately. Overall, the work shows that the application of an applied external electric field may be a useful tool in fine-tuning chemical properties of Fe-based catalysts in hydrodeoxygenation applications.

Bray, Jacob E.↗

Using Pb Isotope to Quantify the Effect of Various Sources on Multi-Metal Polluted soil in Guiyu

Guiyu is known as one of the largest e-waste disposal and recycling sites in China, which suffers greatly from heavy metal pollution. By evaluating the concentrations and distribution of 21 metal elements with Principal Component Analyses (PCA), five principal components were identified, which accounted for 70.4% of the information of the initial data matrix, including one e-waste recycling source, two geological sources, one source of human activities and one ocean aerosol source. Among them, the source of human activities cannot be detailed only by PCA. By using Pb isotope, the unexplained source was judged as battery sludge. Combining 21 metallic and metalloid element datasets with Pb isotope concentrations is more accurate and effective to identify uncertain sources in soil.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

A Unification Framework for Euclidean and Hyperbolic Graph Neural Networks

Hyperbolic neural networks have recently gained significant attention due to their promising results on several graph problems including node classification and link prediction. The primary reason for this success is the effectiveness of hyperbolic space in capturing the inherent hierarchy of graph datasets. However, they are limited in terms of generalization, scalability, and have inferior performance when applied to non-hierarchical datasets. In this paper, we take a completely different perspective for modeling hyperbolic networks and answer the following question: is an Euclidean model able to approximate a function or behavior in the hyperbolic space? Extending the universal approximation theory developed for Euclidean models, We draw an analogy from the hyperbolic components to the Euclidean counterparts and conclude that, in order to capture hierarchical features, it is possible to generalize hyperbolic models to be a special case of Euclidean models with the proposed Pseudo-Poincaré technique. We applied our non-linear hyperbolic normalization to the current state-of-the-art homogeneous and multi-relational graph networks and demonstrate significant improvements in performance compared to both Euclidean and hyperbolic counterparts. The primary impact of this work lies in its ability to capture hierarchical features in the Euclidean space, and thus, can replace hyperbolic networks without any loss in performance metrics while simultaneously leveraging the power of Euclidean networks such as interpretability and efficient execution of various model components.

Khatir, Mehrdad↗

Multi-physics Modeling of Radiative Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow for the Reactor Cavity Cooling System

High-temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGRs) are notable for their high thermal efficiency and potential for combined heat and power applications. These reactors are particularly appealing due to their advanced passive safety features. HTGRs utilize passive safety systems that function without requiring active components like pumps or compressors during emergencies. These reactor designs depend on a Reactor Cavity Cooling System (RCCS) to manage decay heat removal from the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) during accident conditions. The RCCS consists of vertical rectangular channels known as "risers" or riser ducts positioned around the RPV. These risers receive heat from the RPV through both convective and radiative heat transfer mechanisms. Understanding the interplay of multiple physical phenomena, such as fluid dynamics, heat transfer, and neutron interactions, is essential for the effective design and operation of nuclear reactors, particularly for systems like the RCCS. Multi-physics simulations provide a comprehensive approach to studying these interactions, offering detailed insights and enhancing accuracy. They are especially important in RCCS designs, where the interaction between radiative and convective heat transfer can significantly impact system performance. By leveraging multi-physics simulations, complex reactor behaviors can be modeled without compromising the fidelity of the underlying physical processes. This work aims to establish a robust methodology for coupling multiple physical processes in an air-cooled RCCS. By focusing on validating this multi-physics approach, the study involves designing test cases that simulate various conditions to verify the numerical models employed. The outcomes of this research will provide critical insights for accurately modeling and optimizing complex nuclear systems like the RCCS.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗