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At least 109 records · Page 6
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Out-of-Pile Testing and Instrumentation Transient Water Irradiation System

Current initiatives to increase the burnup of conventional nuclear fuels past the approximate 62 GWd/t limit have been spurred on by direct savings to refueling and waste storage. The technical justification for a new license limit requires extensive qualification through experimental testing. Unlike beginning-of-life fuels, high-burnup fuels are more susceptible to fuel fragmentation, relocation, and dispersal (FFRD), therefore more data is needed to characterize fuels under key accident scenarios. The Transient Reactor Test Facility (TREAT) located at the Idaho National Laboratory has developed a testing apparatus architecture to test fuels and claddings at prototypic conditions. The Transient Water Irradiation System (TWIST) is the latest iteration of a testing device capable of conducting loss of coolant accidents (LOCAs) in TREAT. The Out-of-Pile Testing and Instrumentation TWIST (OPTI-TWIST) is an electrically heated device that is analogous to TWIST. OPTI-TWIST allows for detailed instrumentation and thermal-hydraulic characterization. TWIST ultimately aims to conduct the most advanced in-situ diagnostics to evaluate FFRD in a prototypic LOCA. Moreover, it will explore the phenomenological bifurcation of a decay-energy heat up driven LOCA and a stored-energy heat up driven LOCA. The instrumentation suite includes conventional thermocouples and pressure transducers in addition to an electro impedance sensor, an acoustic emission sensor, an optical pressure sensor, and an optical pyrometer. Characterizing these instruments in OPTI-TWIST eliminates complications of irradiation effects while preserving extreme thermal-hydraulic conditions. Finally, benchmarking both devices to a thermal-hydraulic code like the Reactor Excursion and Leak Analysis Program (RELAP)5-3D provides a unique opportunity for iteration. Pre-test predictions and post-test interpretations inform the physical designs, operational procedures, test conditions, and instrumentation types and positions.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Directional infrasound sensing

A method and apparatus for determining a direction of infrasound. Infrasound is received by a directional infrasound sensor comprising a plurality of channels and a plurality of sensor devices. Each channel in the plurality of channels comprises a single opening at a first end of the channel and a closed end opposite the opening. The opening of each channel in the plurality of channels is pointed in a different direction from the opening of each other channel in the plurality of channels. The plurality of sensor devices includes a sensor device at the closed end of each channel in the plurality of channels. Each sensor device in the plurality of sensor devices is configured to generate a sensor signal in response to pressure. The sensor signals generated by the plurality of sensor devices are processed to determine the direction of the infrasound received by the directional infrasound sensor.

Rouse, Jeremy W.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Monitoring of ground water table depth and soil moisture at the Point Reyes field site

Ground water table (GWT) depth and soil moisture (SM) have been monitored at several locations at the Point Reyes field site (Californian coastal grassland) from 2021 to 2024. Monitoring is still on-going and data may be added to this archive at later time. The SM data have been acquired using Teros 12 Meter soil moisture sensors placed at 10, 30, 60 and 90 cm depth at 5 locations along a small hillslope. These sensors also collect soil temperature and bulk conductance. In addition, some collocated sensors provide pore pressure and Photochemical Reflectance Index (PRI). The GWT depth has been inferred from various type of Onset pressure transducers. The pressure measurements have been corrected for atmospheric pressure variations and sensor position relative to the ground surface to infer GWT depth, as well as with RTK GPS data to infer GWT elevation. The GWT data have been acquired at 5 distinct locations from 2020 to 2024 with the sensors placed at about 4 m depth. In addition, GWT data has been acquired for the 2023-2024 period with sensors located in 1 m deep shallow wells installed near each deeper well. This data is intended to evaluate possibly different dynamic in shallow (perched) and deep aquifer. The datasets are all provided in csv format. Please note that the interpretation of the GWT data needs to be done with consideration of environmental and well characteristics at the site and uncertainty in various variables. For more information on GWT and SM data, please contact the author.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

Groundwater table elevation and temperature from 2015 to 2024 at the Lower Montane site in the East River Watershed, Colorado.

This groundwater level elevation and temperature data package is aimed at improving the predictive understanding of hydro-biogeochemical processes at the lower montane site in the East River Watershed, Colorado. The dataset is obtained using pressure transducers placed in shallow wells in the floodplain. This dataset contains data from wells with Location ID's ER-DOW (alias DO1West), ER-DOE (alias DO2East), ER-MBA1 (alias M1Bend1), ER-MBA2 (alias M1Bend2), ER-UPW (alias UP1West), ER-UPM (alias UP2), ER-UPE (alias UP3East). Another dataset contains the data from wells with Location ID's ER-CPA1 to ER-CPA6. Each file contains the water level elevation and the water temperature. Water level elevation has been obtained using the barometric pressure from the pressure transducer (Hobos sensor) in the well, barometric pressure from a sensor in air located at the same site (lower montane), depth from top-of-casing (TOC) to sensor measurement point, and TOC elevation. Data have been checked with a few measurements of water table depths. A real-time kinematic (RTK) global positioning system (GPS) has been used to survey the TOC (data in file Well_Location.csv). The water level elevation is given in UTM13N Geoid2012AB. While depth to water level is not present in the data files, it can be easily calculated with the TOC and distance to ground provided in the GPS coordinate file. The dataset quality is discussed in Collection/Analysis section of the methods. Time-series of measurements were initially added to the archive for the period 2015 to 2019, and later updated with time-series until 2024 (end of data collection). The dataset contains 8 *.csv data files, and 3 *.csv metadata files. Feel free to contact the author with any questions or collaboration interests. The publication year was updated from "2020" to "2025" to reflect the revised version of this dataset.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

Groundwater table elevation and temperature from 2015 to 2024 across Meander C at the Lower Montane site in the East River Watershed, Colorado.

This groundwater level elevation and temperature data package is aimed at improving the predictive understanding of hydro-biogeochemical processes at the lower montane site in the East River Watershed, Colorado. The dataset is obtained using pressure transducers placed in shallow wells in the floodplain. This dataset contains data from wells ER-CPA1 to ER-CPA6. Another dataset contains the data from wells at nearby Locations. Each file contains the water level elevation and the water temperature. Water level elevation has been obtained using the barometric pressure from the pressure transducer (Hobos sensor) in the well, barometric pressure from a sensor in air located at the same site (lower montane), depth from top-of-casing (TOC) to sensor measurement point, and TOC elevation. Data have been checked with a few measurements of water table depths. A real-time kinematic (RTK) global positioning system (GPS) has been used to survey the TOC (data in file Well_Location.csv). The water level elevation is given in UTM13N Geoid2012AB. While depth to water level is not present in the data files, it can be easily calculated with the TOC and distance to ground provided in the GPS coordinate file. The dataset quality is discussed in Collection/Analysis section of the methods. Time-series of measurements were initially added to the archive for the period 2015 to 2019, and later updated with time-series until 2024 (end of data collection). The dataset contains 7 *.csv data files, and 3 *.csv metadata files. Feel free to contact the author with any questions or collaboration interests. The publication year was updated from "2020" to "2025" to reflect the revised version of this dataset.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

UNCERTAINTY-AWARE DEEP LEARNING FRAMEWORK FOR FORECASTING COASTAL WATER LEVEL IN VIRGINIA BEACH

Coastal areas like Virginia Beach, USA, are increasingly vulnerable to flooding. To mitigate the impact of flooding, it is crucial for the City of Virginia Beach to have reliable 72-hour-ahead (3 days) forecasts of water levels at key gauge locations. To support this effort, several sensors have been installed throughout the city to monitor water levels and other environmental parameters such as wind speed, precipitation, and atmospheric pressure. Leveraging sensor data from one of these locations, we developed an uncertainty-aware deep learning model to forecast water levels. We employed deep quantile regression (DQR) to quantify variability in the predictions and examined the performance of three different model architectures. In addition to exclusively including historical data, we investigated the improvement wind forecasts provide to the accuracy of 72-hour-ahead water level predictions. The results show a twelvefold improvement in the flood forecast for a real flooding event.

Hasan, Mahmud [Thomas Jefferson National Accelerat↗
DOE OSTI2024

Single Channel Infrasound Detection Using Machine Learning

Infrasound, low frequency sound less than 20 Hz, is generated by both natural and anthropogenic sources. Infrasound sensors measure pressure fluctuations only in the vertical plane and are single channel. However, the most robust infrasound signal detection methods rely on stations with multiple sensors (arrays), despite the fact that these are sparse. Automated methods developed for seismic data, such as short-term average to long-term average ratio (STA/LTA), often have a high false alarm rate when applied to infrasound data. Leveraging single channel infrasound stations has the potential to decrease signal detection limits, though this cannot be done without a reliable detection method. Therefore, this report presents initial results using (1) a convolutional neural network (CNN) to detect infrasound signals and (2) unsupervised learning to gain insight into source type.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2021

Coolant Pressure Evaluations for a MEMS Sensor-Array Quench Detection in REBCO CICC Superconducting Cables

Here, the initial quench pressure developments for a CICC cable of REBCO tapes have been investigated by numerical analyzing the first law of thermodynamics. The temperature and pressure rise due to the quench has been evaluated for a REBCO CICC conductor operated in helium gas coolant at 26 K. Additionally, a MEMS sensor-in-tube array method has been proposed and discussed for quench detection.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2020

In-Sodium Testing of a Prototype Thermoacoustic Power Sensor for Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactors

The ultimate goal of this project is to develop and demonstrate a thermoacoustic power sensor (TAPS) for Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactors (SFRs), with potential application also envisioned to other nuclear technologies such as Lead-Cooled Fast Reactors (LFRs), Molten Salt Reactors (MSRs), in addition to Light Water Reactors (LWRs). The project was led by Westinghouse Electric Company, LLC (Westinghouse) and carried out in collaboration with Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) and the University of Pittsburgh. A TAPS is a passive (self-powered), non-invasive (wireless) sensor envisioned for measuring key parameters, such as local temperature and neutron flux, in a nuclear reactor core. The sensor generates pressure waves (i.e., sound waves) with a frequency and amplitude dependent upon nuclear operating conditions (coolant temperature or power changes). The acoustic waves are able to travel through the core and associated structures, and reach to the sensor network placed outside and/or inside of the reactor vessel. These sensors require a very small amount of power which, during loss of power events, can be provided, for example, by harvesting gamma radiation energy, thus resulting in a monitoring system that can function both during normal operation and during loss of power events. Westinghouse and the University of Pittsburgh designed and fabricated TAPS prototypes for Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) to carry out in-sodium testing to evaluate the effects of sodium on the TAPS and the performance of the TAPS technique in sodium. Argonne received a TAPS prototype from Westinghouse, and the prototype was modified such that it can be installed into a test vessel and function in sodium at elevated temperature without potentially leaking. A water mockup test apparatus was constructed to validate proper working of the prototype. An instrumentation and control (I&C) system, running on the National Instruments (NI) LabView platform, was developed to: 1) operate both the water mockup test and the in-sodium test facility; and 2) process and analyze the received acoustic signals from an array of accelerometers and the Argonne sodium-submersible high-temperature acoustic sensor. The prototype was successfully tested in a water bath at different temperatures. Water mockup tests demonstrated that the TAPS prototype is working properly and its resonance frequency changes linearly with the coolant (water) temperature. A TAPS test apparatus was constructed and integrated with the upgraded Under-Sodium Viewing (USV) sodium test facility. The integrated USV-TAPS sodium test facility has been operational. The TAPS prototype and a high-temperature sodium-submersible acoustic sensor (SSAS) developed by Argonne were both installed inside the TAPS test vessel. Being operated within argon cover gas under ambient conditions, the TAPS prototype demonstrated that it was functioning properly with a resonance frequency at 1407.2 Hz, which was successfully detected by the accelerometers mounted on the external wall of the vessel and the high-temperature SSAS installed inside the vessel. After successfully transferring sodium into the vessel, in-sodium tests of the prototype were conducted. Tests of the TAPS prototype demonstrated that the resonance frequency of the TAPS changes linearly with respect to the temperature difference between the interior of the TAPS and bulk sodium. The early tests showed that the TAPS prototype could not establish a continuous and consistent resonance in sodium. The resonance diminished before the prototype reached its operating temperature. A signal postprocessor was added to the DAQ module latterly to isolate interferences, enhance signal conditioning, improve peak detection, and generate resonance frequency versus temperature plots. After testing in molten sodium and immersion at higher temperature for several weeks, the TAPS prototype was able to establish a continuous resonance. Performance evaluation of the TAPS prototype was then conducted in sodium. The tests included the investigation of 1) the effects of the temperature difference between the TAPS and bulk sodium, 2) the effects of sodium flowrate; and 3) the performance of the different sensor-receiver systems positioned inside or outside the vessel. Results of a test demonstrated that, with limited sodium circulation, a continuous and consistent resonance of the TAPS prototype was established occasionally. The tests also demonstrated that, because of the nature of detection principles and mounting methods, the high temperature SSAS is more affected by acoustic noise, while accelerometers are more affected by vibrations, in the test environment. It is unknown why the TAPS prototype only occasionally established a continuous and consistent resonance when the TAPS temperature reached its operating temperature in molten sodium, and why it ultimately failed to resonate at all. A failure modes assessment was conducted and a few potential causes of failure were identified. Different post in-sodium tests were conducted to obtain additional information potentially relevant to the cause of the failure. Nondestructive evaluation techniques are suggested to examine the internal integrity as well as the gas mixture of the prototype. If they prove inconclusive, the prototype should be cut open to conduct a thorough inspection of its internal integrity and determine the state of the gas mixture.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2021

Nanosecond Gated CMOS Camera (NSGCC) ICD (Rev. 2.1)

The Ultra-Fast X-ray Imager (UXI) program is an ongoing effort at Sandia National Laboratories to create high speed, multi-frame, time-gated Read Out Integrated Circuits (ROICs), and a corresponding suite of photodetectors to image a wide variety of High Energy Density (HED) physics experiments on both Sandia’s Z-Machine and LLNL’s National Ignition Facility (NIF). Several cameras have been designed over the length of the program; one of the most recent is the Icarus, which is an improvement on past imagers (Furi and Hippogriff). A second sensor that can be connected is the Daedalus sensor. The Icarus is a 1024 × 512-pixel array with either 25 μm or 8 µm spatial resolution containing four frames of storage per pixel and has improved timing generation and distribution components while achieved 2 ns time gating. The Daedalus sensor is also a 1024 x 512-pixel array with 25 µm special resolution containing three frames of storage per pixel and has an increased set of features for a wider variety of applications from interlacing of rows in each frame to configurability of all shutters. See Section 14 for details regarding the Icarus implementation of the firmware and Section 15 for details regarding the Daedalus implementation. Due to the unique test environments UXI sensors are targeted for, full custom hardware was required to physically mount an Icarus or Daedalus sensor, manage its various functions, and read out pixel data for transfer to a host computer. Beyond experimental functionality, the hardware also needed to accommodate sensor characterization requirements. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s ‘Version 4.0 Board’ was the result of these efforts. It mounts all the components required to fully utilize the Icarus and Daedalus sensors including analog to digital converters to convert pixel data and various system voltages to digital form for readout and analysis, DAC channels for remote configuration of critical bias voltages, static random-access memories to buffer pixel data, RS422 and Gigabit Ethernet communications for remote access, and an FPGA to tie these components together. This document describes the FPGA electrical interfaces in detail to allow the reader a greater understanding of the device, and to facilitate implementation of custom software to control and manage it. The Version 4.0 Board is a continuation of the Nano-second Gated CMOS hardware design that retains much of the functionality of the Version 1.0 Board while adding features including a DAC instead of digital potentiometers, as well as sensors for pressure and radiation. The Version 4.0 board is intended for applications requiring tight form-factor enclosures. It is composed of two stacking boards; one holds the FPGA and regulators to power the various components of the board while the other contains the mating connector to the sensor, image-readoff ADCs, the DAC, and other components.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2020

Development of a Stress Sensor for In-Situ High-Pressure Deformation Experiments Using Radial X-Ray Diffraction

We developed a stress sensor for in-situ deformation experiments using synchrotron radial X-ray diffraction. This stress sensor provided nearly diffraction-plane-independent stress that, when used in series with a sample, reduced the uncertainty of the average stress estimation acting on a sample. Here, we present the results of a study where pyrope was used as a stress sensor. Using a Deformation-DIA (D-DIA) high-pressure deformation apparatus, pyrope, olivine and alumina were deformed in the same run/cell assembly placed in series along the compression direction. Deformation experiments were conducted at pressures between 4 and 5 GPa and temperatures between 730 and 1273 K with strain-rates between 10 –5 and 10 –6 s –1 . Stresses estimated from various (hkl) planes in pyrope were nearly the same; i.e., pyrope is plastically isotropic with ≤10 % variation with (hkl). However, stresses from various (hkl) planes in olivine and alumina varied by approximately a factor of 3. Comparisons between average stresses inferred from pyrope and those from different diffraction planes in olivine and alumina showed that the average stress in these materials evolved from low-end stress, estimated from various (hkl) planes at small strain, to high-end stress at a large strain. This suggests that the rate-controlling slip system in these materials changes from the soft to the hard slip system with strain.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Integrated system to reduce emissions from natural gas-fired reciprocating engines

Natural gas-fired reciprocating engines (NGFRE), which are naturally aspirated are used in the oil and gas industry for the production, storage, processing, and transmission of natural gas extracted from wells. These stationary, lean-burn engines exhibit increased combustion instability and higher emissions of methane (CH 4 ) and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) at lower loads, resulting in restrictions on the operational envelope of such engines. Here, in this paper, some of the emission reduction technologies for NGFREs are reviewed. Also, an experimental investigation of an integrated system to reduce emissions and improve the combustion performance of an NGFRE is presented. The integrated system consists of an air management package and integrated sensors including an amperometric NOx/O 2 sensor, exhaust temperature thermocouple, pressure transducers and vibration sensors. Experiments were carried out using natural gas and natural gas/propane blends at different load steps, and combustion performance, as well as emissions, were analyzed. For natural gas fuel, the results show that the standard deviation of peak pressure and indicated thermal efficiency (ITE) improved by 67.4 psi and 4.2% respectively, at 40% load. Similarly, CH 4 and Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) emissions reduced considerably by 84% and 63% respectively. However, CO emissions increased from 8 ppm to 152 ppm. At 60% load, the ITE improved by 3.8% and the CH 4 emissions were reduced by 68%. The reduction in VOCs emissions was 63% at 40% load and 69% at 60% load. The findings of this research provide evidence of the effectiveness of the integrated air management system in improving the sustainability of NGFREs. In general, this technology can be implemented on air-assisted combustion applications to improve combustion performance and, consequently, reduce emissions.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Overcoming the sensitivity vs. throughput tradeoff in Coulter counters: A novel side counter design

We report microfabricated Coulter counters are attractive for point of care (POC) applications since they are label free and compact. However, these approaches inherently suffer from a trade off between sample throughput and sensitivity. The counter measures a change in impedance due to displaced fluid volume by passing cells, and thus the counter's signal increases with the fraction of the sensing volume displaced. Reducing the size of the sensing region requires reductions in volumetric throughput in the absence of increased hydraulic pressure and sensor bandwidth. The risk of mechanical clog formation, rendering the counter inoperable, increases markedly with reductions in the size of the constriction aperture. We present here a microfluidic coplanar Coulter counter device design that overcomes the problem of constriction clogging while capable of operating in microfluidic channels filled entirely with highly conductive sample. The device utilizes microfabricated planar electrodes projecting into one side of the microfluidic channel and is easily integrated with upstream electronic, hydrodynamic, or other focusing units to produce efficient counting which could allow for dramatically increased volumetric and sample throughput. The design lends itself to simple, cost effective POC applications.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2024

Challenges in Rotor Aerodynamic Modeling for Non-Uniform Inflow Conditions

Within an international collaboration framework, the accuracy of rotor aerodynamic models used for design load calculations of wind turbines is being assessed. Where the use of high-fidelity computation fluid dynamics (CFD) and mid-fidelity free-vortex wake (FVW) models has become commonplace within the wind energy community, these still fail to meet the requirements in terms of execution time and computational cost needed for design load calculations. The fast but engineering fidelity blade-element/momentum (BEM) method can therefore still be considered the industry workhorse for design load simulations. At the same time, upscaling of wind turbine rotors makes inflow non-uniformities (e.g. shear, veer, turbulence) more important. The objective of this work is to assess model accuracy in non-uniform inflow conditions, which violate several BEM assumptions. Thereto a comparison in turbulent inflow has been executed including a wide variety of codes, focusing on the DanAero field measurements, where a 2.3-MW turbine was equipped with, among other sensors, a pressure measurement apparatus. The results indicate that, although average load patterns are in good agreement, this does not hold for the unsteady loads that drive fatigue damage and aero-elastic stability. A simplified comparison round in vertical shear was initiated to investigate the observed differences in a more controlled manner. A consistent offset in load amplitude was observed between CFD and free-vortex codes on the one hand and BEM-type codes on the other hand. To shed more light on the observations, dedicated efforts are ongoing to pinpoint the cause for these differences, in the end leading to guidelines for an improved BEM implementation.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Comparison of Infrasound Wind Noise Reduction Systems for Use in Temporary Deployments

Infrasound, or low frequency sound 20 Hz, is produced by a variety of natural and anthropogenic sources. Wind also generates signals within this frequency band and serves as a persistent source of infrasonic noise. Infrasound sensors measure pressure fluctuations, which scale with the ambient density and velocity fluctuations of ground winds. Here we compare four different wind noise reduction systems, or "filters", and make recommendations for their use in temporary infrasound deployments. Our results show that there are two filters that are especially effective at reducing wind noise: (1) a Hyperion high frequency (HF) shroud with a 1 m diameter metal mesh dome placed on top and (2) a Hyperion Four Port Garden Hose shroud with 4 Miracle-Gro Soaker System garden hoses. We also find that placing a 5-gallon bucket over the HF wind shroud should not be done as it provides a negligible decrease in noise up to ~ 1 Hz and then an increase in noise. We conclude that it is up to the researcher to determine which of the other filters is best for their needs based on location and expense. We anticipate this study will be used as a resource for future deployments when a wind noise reduction method is necessary but only needed for a limited time period.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗