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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 1,405 records · Page 78
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2017

Study on Neutronics Calculation Method of SCWR with Annular Fuel Assembly

Supercritical Water-Cooled Reactor (SCWR) is one of Gen-IV reactor systems for its advantages over LWRs, such as high thermal efficiency, simplified reactor system and economics. Annular fuel was proposed by MIT to supplant conventional solid fuel and improve power density in LWRs. Annular fuel is cooled from both inside and outside of the fuel. Thus a lower fuel temperature and cladding surface temperature can be achieved with higher power density. SCWRs will benefit from this advantage because high cladding temperature (usually over 650 degree C) is one challenge of SCWRs. Using annular fuel in SCWRs is very promising. This is also because the inner hole of the annual fuel can provide extra neutron moderation. Supercritical water density is too low to provide enough moderation. Different analysis codes have been developed all over the world to carry out SCWR pre-conceptual core design. Yamaji et al. developed SRAC/ASMBURN/COREBN to study Japan version of SCWR. Monti et al. used ERANOS to analyze HPLWR (High Performance Light Water Reactor). WIMS-D4/CITATION was also used to calculate HPLWR by Tashakor et al.. These codes employ a two-step method used in PWRs calculation. Lattice/Assembly calculation is carried out as the first step. In the second step, few group constant of different fuel assembly types is then used in core calculation. MCNP had also been used to study SCWR by Watta et al.. Due to large computation time cost, it's used mostly to analyze fuel assembly or core performance rather than pre-conceptual design, in which much optimization is needed. In this research, a neutronics calculation code for SCWR is developed using two-step method. This code is verified by comparing with Monte-Carlo code. Fuel assembly homogenization method is studied to improve the code accuracy.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Thermal scattering law for structure-dependent-Doppler broadening in FLASSH

Traditional Doppler broadening methods assume that target nuclei velocities follow a Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution which inherently assumes that the atoms are a free gas or that their velocities are independent of each other. This approximation is reasonable at high target temperatures and high neutron energies. However, nuclei are not independent: the lattice temperature and chemical binding will define the atomic motion. The thermal scattering law (i.e., TSL or S(α,β)) is a material property which describes the chemical binding and temperature response in terms of available momentum and energy states. In the thermal energy range, this TSL will define the thermal scattering cross sections. In the resonance region, the TSL offers a first-principles description of the probability distribution function for the velocity of the target nuclei. Using the TSL in Doppler broadening captures the structure of the material consistently from the thermal range into the resonance cross sections. In this work, both traditional free-gas and precise TSL Doppler broadening methods for resonance cross section evaluation have been implemented within the Full Law Analysis Scattering System Hub (FLASSH). This framework provides a generalized formulation for evaluating low-lying resonance data and streamlines nuclear data processing methods. TSL data generated using ab initio lattice dynamics (AILD) can be used to broaden cross section libraries in ENDF format for high-fidelity input into reactor physics calculations. These capabilities are demonstrated for the lowest absorption resonances of {sup 238}U in UO{sub 2}, UC and UN. (authors)

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Control rod modeling in liquid metal-cooled fast reactors

Control rod modeling in Liquid Metal-cooled Fast Reactors (LMFRs) is important for an accurate simulation, especially in depletion calculations. Recently, control rod search and cusping models have been added to the LUPINE multiphysics fast reactor simulator. LUPINE stands for the 'LMFR Utility for Physics Informed Nuclear Engineering' and is currently being developed at North Carolina State University. LUPINE models the coupled multiphysics effects in LMFRs, including neutronics, thermal hydraulics, thermal expansion, and depletion. The control rod search has been implemented using a Newton-secant search in an inexact-Newton iteration and the cusping model uses a polynomial technique to correct for control rod cusping. The control rod cusping and search models were demonstrated by modeling the Advanced Burner Reactor (ABR) MET-1000 Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor (SFR) and a long-life Lead-cooled Fast Reactor (LFR) based on a Westinghouse Electric Company, LLC (WEC) design. A differential control rod worth curve was calculated for both reactor models to demonstrate the control rod cusping model. The SFR and LFR models were used to demonstrate the importance of modeling control rod movement during depletion calculations and the adverse effect of control rods on cycle length is demonstrated. (authors)

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2016

The ATWS analysis of the HTR-10GT core induced by the earthquake - 18489

The 10 MW High Temperature Gas Cooled Test Reactor (HTR-10) has been built in Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology (INET) and has been operating successfully since the beginning of 2003. The core outlet temperature of HTR-10 is 700 deg. C. To verify the technology of gas-turbine direct cycle, at first INET had a plan to increase its core outlet temperature to 750 deg. C and use a helium gas turbine instead of the steam generator (then the reactor is called HTR-10GT). Though HTR-10 has good intrinsic safety, the design basic accidents and beyond design basis accidents of HTR-10GT must be analyzed according to China s nuclear regulations due to changed operation parameters. THERMIX code system is used to study the Anticipated Transient Without Scram (ATWS) caused by an earthquake. The gravity acceleration of the earthquake will make the porosity of the pebble bed smaller, which will thus induce a positive reactivity. The packing fraction of the HTR-10GT core will increase to 0.64 from 0.61, while a reactivity of 1.24% will be inserted into an initial core and 0.788% for an equilibrium core. Then the reactor power increased and the temperature of the core increased. When the neutron flux of power measuring range exceeded 123% and the reactor period becomes less than 20 seconds, the reactor should scram. It was supposed that all the control rods in the reflectors had been blocked and the reactor could not scram. Thus the accident went on and the core temperature and the system pressure increased but the reactor shutdown at last because of its natural negative temperature reactivity feedback mechanism. The residual heat would be removed out of the core by the cavity cooling system. During the accident sequence the maximum fuel temperature was 1223 deg. C. If a temperature coefficient error of 20% was considered during analyzing, the peak temperature of the fuel during the ATWS will reach 1266 deg. C. It was a little higher than 1230 deg. C --the fuel temperature limitation of HTR-10. Now the sphere fuel used in HTR-10GT will also be used in HTR-PM and the temperature limitation has been raised to 1620 deg. C, so the HTR-10GT is safe during the ATWS caused by an earthquake. The paper also compares the analysis result of HTR10-GT to those of HTR-10. The results shows that the HTR-10GT is still safe during the accident though its operating temperature is higher than HTR-10. (authors)

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Speciation in the Fe(III)-Cl(I)-H 2 O System at 298.15 K, 313.15 K, and 333.15 K (25 °C, 40 °C, and 60 °C)

This article presents the results on speciation of ferric iron generated by the dissolution of chemical reagent hydromolysite (ferric chloride hexahydrate, FeCl 3 :6H 2 O) in water at 298.15 K, 313.15 K, and 333.15 K (25 °C, 40 °C, and 60 °C). Experiments were performed with a thermoregulated system up to the equilibrium point, as manifested by solution pH. Solution samples were analyzed in terms of concentration, pH, and electrical conductivity. Measurements of density and refractive index were obtained at different temperatures and iron concentrations. A decrease of pH was observed with the increase in the amount of dissolved iron, indicating that ferric chloride is a strong electrolyte that reacts readily with water. Experimental results were modeled using the hydrogeochemical code PHREEQC in order to obtain solution speciation. Cations and neutral and anion complexes were simultaneously present in the system at the studied conditions according to model simulations, where dominant species included Cl - , FeCl 2+ , FeCl 2 + , FeOHCl 2 0 , and H + . A decrease in the concentration of Cl - and Fe 3+ ions took place with increasing temperature due to the association of Fe-Cl species. Standard equilibrium constants for the formation of FeOHCl 2 0 obtained in this study were log K f 0 = -0.8 ± 0.01 at 298.15 K (25 °C), -0.94 ± 0.02 at 313.15 K (40 °C), and -1.03 ± 0.01 at 333.15 K (60 °C).

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2020

Simulation of MHD instabilities with fluid runaway electron model in M3D- C 1

Runaway electrons are generated in a tokamak during the start up, during normal operation and during a plasma disruption. During a disruption, runaway electrons can be accelerated to high energies, potentially damaging the first wall. To predict the consequences of runaway generation during a disruption, it is necessary to consider resonant interactions of runaways with the bulk plasma. Here we consider the interactions of runaways on low mode number tearing modes. We have developed a fluid runaway electron model for the 3D MHD code M3D-C1[Jardin,et al. J Comput. Sci Discovery 6 014002 (2012)]. To benchmark, we have reproduced the MHD linear tearing mode results (with runaway electrons) in a circular cylinder presented in previous analytic studies[[Helander, P., et al, Phys. Plasmas 14 144102 (2007)] and extended here with a numerical eigenvalue calculation. Furthermore, we find that the low mode number tearing mode has a rotation caused by the MHD - runaways interaction, and the toroidal current scale length is much smaller with runaways than that for without and decreases as the runaway speed increases.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2016

Optimized design of reactor cores for continuous operation of Belgian nuclear power plants

Two Belgian nuclear power plants, owned and operated by Electrabel, were initially planned to be phased out in 2015, reaching their maximum life time of operation by the initial design. The fuel management of those two units has been subsequently designed by Tractebel to make the best use of the energy in the fuel assemblies either in the core or in the storage pool and to minimize the size of the fresh reloads in the terminating cycles. However, for ensuring energy security in Belgium, the Government decided in the same year to extend the life time of operation of the two units for 10 years, which raised the need to resume their continuous operation, in the opposite direction of the core contents and with a significant break in the usual sequence of cycle reloads. All this required adaptation of the tools and process for optimized reactor core design, in order to ensure the continuous and flexible operation of those units. The Tractebel LWRWIMS-PANTHER (LWP) core physics package is based on the 3-dimensional (3D) neutronic code PANTHER and the lattice code LWRWIMS for the generation of the assembly nuclear data. Both have been qualified by Tractebel for the Belgian Units to perform a complete range of PWR reactor calculations for fuel management design safety parameters assessment, transient analysis and operational support. In-core fuel management involves calculating core reactivity, power distribution and isotopic inventory for subsequent fuel cycles of a nuclear power plant in order to maintain adequate safety margins and operating lifetime for each core loading. This paper presents Tractebel's improved core design tools and process, the approach to optimize the reactor core design, and the applications to the 2 successive but opposite design requirements.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Analysis of the structural, electronic, elastic and thermodynamic properties of CuAl2X4 (X = O, S) spinel structure

Highlights: • Fundamental properties of CuAl{sub 2}X{sub 4} (X = O, S) aluminate spinels have been investigated. • The pressure dependence of the elastic constants C{sub ij} can be successfully fit by a straight line. • CuAl{sub 2}X{sub 4} (X = O, S) compounds are mechanically stable at ambient conditions. • Temperature and pressure dependences of some macroscopic parameters are achieved. - Abstract: The structural, electronic, elastic and thermodynamic properties of oxo- and thio-spinels have been predicted based on the ultrasoft pseudo-potential scheme as implemented in the CASTEP code. The exchange-correlation potential was treated within the generalized gradient approximation (GGA-PBE). The calculated structural parameters such as lattice constants and internal parameters are in good agreement with the available experimental data. The ground state electronic band structure revealed that CuAl{sub 2}X{sub 4} (XO, S) spinels are direct band gap semiconductors with a transition along Γ-Γ symmetry points. The calculated values of elastic constants satisfy the Born criteria at ambient conditions and confirm that the spinel structures of CuAl{sub 2}O{sub 4} and CuAl{sub 2}S{sub 4} are mechanically stable. The thiospinel structure may have a phase transition under pressure, due to the negative value of C{sub 44}. The influence of temperature and pressure on macroscopic characteristics of CuAl{sub 2}O{sub 4} and CuAl{sub 2}S{sub 4} compounds was estimated using the quasi-harmonic Debye model.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2018

Exact diagonalization library for quantum electron models

We present an exact diagonalization C++ template library (EDLib) for solving quantum electron models,including the single-band finite Hubbard cluster and the multi-orbital impurity Anderson model. Theobservables that can be computed using EDLib are single particle Green’s functions and spin–spincorrelation functions. This code provides three different types of Hamiltonian matrix storage that canbe chosen based on the model.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Urban microclimate and its impact on building performance: A case study of San Francisco

Urban microclimate exerts an increasing influence on urban buildings, energy, and sustainability. This study uses 10-year measured hourly weather data at 27 sites in San Francisco, California, to (1) analyze and visualize the urban microclimate patterns and urban heat island effect; (2) simulate annual energy use and peak electricity demand of typical large office buildings and large hotels to investigate the influence of urban microclimate on building performance; (3) simulate indoor air temperature of a single-family house without air-conditioning during the record three-day heatwave of 2017, to quantify the divergence of climate resilience due to urban microclimate effect. Results show significant microclimate effects in San Francisco with up to 11 °C outdoor air temperature difference between the coastal and downtown areas on September 1, 2017, during the record three-day heatwave. The simulated energy results of the prototype large office and large hotel buildings using the 2017 weather data show over 100% difference in annual heating energy use and 65% difference in annual cooling energy use across different stations; as well as up to 30% difference in peak cooling electricity demand. The impacts on annual site or source energy use are minimal (less than 5%) as cooling and heating in a mild climate are a relatively small portion of overall building energy use in San Francisco. Results also show the microclimate effects influence indoor air temperature of unconditioned homes by up to 5 °C. Newer buildings and homes are much less affected by microclimate effects due to more stringent performance requirements of the building envelope and energy systems. Furthermore, these findings inform that San Francisco microclimate variations should be considered in urban energy planning, building energy codes and standards, as well as heat resilience policymaking.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2019

Ab Initio Investigation of Charge Trapping Across the Crystalline- Si -Amorphous- Si O 2 Interface

Accurate microscopic description of the charge-trapping process from semiconductor to defects in the dielectric-oxide layer is of paramount importance for understanding many microelectronic devices such as complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) transistors, as well as electrochemical reactions. Unfortunately, most current microscopic descriptions of such processes are based on empirical models with parameters fitted to experimental device performance results or simplified approximations like the Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin (WKB) method. Some critical questions are still unanswered, including: What controls the charge-hopping rate, the coupling strength between the defect level to semiconductor level, or the energy difference? How does the hopping rate decay with defect-semiconductor distance? What is the fluctuation of the defect level, especially in amorphous dielectrics? Many of these questions can be answered by ab initio calculations. However, to date, there are few ab initio studies for this problem mainly due to technical challenges from atomic-structure construction to large-system calculations. Here, using the latest advances in calculation methods and codes, we study the carrier-trapping problem using density-functional theory (DFT) based on the Heyd-Scuseria-Ernzerhof (HSE) exchange correlation functional. The valence bond random-switching method is used to construct the crystalline-Si-amorphous-SiO2 (c-Si/a-SiO2) interfacial atomic structure, and the HSE yields a band offset that agrees well with experiments. The hopping rate is calculated with the Marcus theory, and the hopping-rate dependences on the gate potential and defect distances are revealed, as well as the range of fluctuation results from amorphous structural variation. We also analyze the result with the simple WKB model and find a major difference in the description of the coupling constant decay with the defect-semiconductor distance. Our results provide the ab initio simulation insights for this important carrier-trapping process for device operation.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2016

OpenACC to FPGA: A Framework for Directive-based High-Performance Reconfigurable Computing

This paper presents a directive-based, high-level programming framework for high-performance reconfigurable computing. It takes a standard, portable OpenACC C program as input and generates a hardware configuration file for execution on FPGAs. We implemented this prototype system using our open-source OpenARC compiler; it performs source-to-source translation and optimization of the input OpenACC program into an OpenCL code, which is further compiled into a FPGA program by the backend Altera Offline OpenCL compiler. Internally, the design of OpenARC uses a high- level intermediate representation that separates concerns of program representation from underlying architectures, which facilitates portability of OpenARC. In fact, this design allowed us to create the OpenACC-to-FPGA translation framework with minimal extensions to our existing system. In addition, we show that our proposed FPGA-specific compiler optimizations and novel OpenACC pragma extensions assist the compiler in generating more efficient FPGA hardware configuration files. Our empirical evaluation on an Altera Stratix V FPGA with eight OpenACC benchmarks demonstrate the benefits of our strategy. To demonstrate the portability of OpenARC, we show results for the same benchmarks executing on other heterogeneous platforms, including NVIDIA GPUs, AMD GPUs, and Intel Xeon Phis. This initial evidence helps support the goal of using a directive-based, high-level programming strategy for performance portability across heterogeneous HPC architectures.

Lee, Seyong↗
DOE OSTI2016

Harmonic generation under small signal conditions in a traveling wave tube

In a klystron, charge overtaking of electrons leads to an infinity of AC current. The harmonic content therein can be calculated exactly, with or without space charge effects. This paper extends the klystron theory to a traveling wave tube (TWT). We assume that the electron motion is described by linear theory. The crowding of these linear orbits may lead to harmonic generation, as in a klystron. We calculate the buildup of harmonic content as a function of distance from the input, and compare these analytic results with the CHRISTINE code. Reasonable agreement was found. A dimensionless “bunching parameter” for TWT, 2 /( ) X P PC = in b , is identified, which characterizes the harmonic content in the AC current, where Pin is the power of the inputsignal, Pb is the DC beam power, and C is Pierce’s gain parameter.

Wong, Patrick↗
DOE OSTI2021

Steady-State Thermal-Hydraulic Analysis of the LEU-Fueled Dalat Nuclear Research Reactor

This paper presents results of steady-state thermal-hydraulic analysis for the designed working core of the Dalat Nuclear Research Reactor (DNRR) using the PLTEMP/ANL code. The core was designed to be loaded with 92 low-enriched uranium (LEU) VVR-M2 fuel bundles (FBs) and 12 beryllium rods surrounding a neutron trap at the core center, for replacement of the previous core with 104 high-enriched uranium (HEU) VVR-M2 FBs. Before using this code for thermohydraulic analysis of the designed LEU working core, it was validated by comparing calculation results with experimental data collected from the HEU working core of the DNRR. The discrepancy between calculated results and measured data was at the maximum about 0.8°C and 1.5°C of fuel cladding and outlet coolant temperatures, respectively. In the design calculation, thermohydraulic safety was confirmed through evaluation of the fuel cladding and coolant temperatures, as well as of other safety parameters such as Departure from Nucleate Boiling Ratio (DNBR) and Onset of Nucleate Boiling Ratio (ONBR). The calculation results showed that, in normal operation conditions at full nominal thermal power of 500 kW without uncertainty parameters, the maximum fuel cladding temperature of the hottest FB was about 90.4°C, which is lower than its limit value of 103°C, the minimum DNBR was 32.0, which is much higher than the recommended value of 1.5, and the minimum ONBR was 1.43, which is higher than the recommended value of 1.4 for VVR-M2 LEU fuel type. When the global and local hot channel factors were taken into account, the maximum temperature of fuel cladding at the hottest FB was about 98.4 °C, for global only, and 114.3°C, for global together with local hot channel factors. The calculation results confirm the safety operation of the designed LEU core loaded with 92 fresh VVR-M2 FBs.

Nguyen, Kien-Cuong↗
DOE OSTI2025

Real Vector Framework

SAND2025-11463O The Real Vector Framework (RVF) is a modern and flexible C++ vector math library for developing scientific computing software that involves vector computations. RVF allows an opt-in approach to functionality that parallels the familiar base-class and override structures of object-oriented programming. Users can reuse and customize the code without inheritance entanglements and dynamic dispatch, while enabling seamless interoperability between diverse container types. Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525.

von Winckel, Gregory [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA↗
DOE OSTI2016

FY 2016 Fusion Energy Sciences (FES) Theory and Simulation Performance Target

Annual target: Predicting the magnitude and scaling of the divertor heat load width in magnetically confined burning plasmas is a high priority for the fusion program and ITER. One of the key unresolved physics issues is what sets the heat flux width at the entrance to the divertor region. Perform massively parallel simulations using 3D edge kinetic and fluid codes to determine the parameter dependence of the heat load width at the divertor entrance and compute the divertor plate heat flux applicable to moderate particle recycling conditions. Comparisons will be made with data from DIII-D, NSTX-U, and C-Mod.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2017

EDS V26 Vessel Clamp Explosive Test Report

This report documents the results of explosive re-qualification tests of the EDS V26 Vessel that were conducted at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico in May 2015 following the retrofitting of the vessel with a three piece clamp for use on the P2A system. The V26 containment vessel is the second EDS vessel to be fabricated under Code Case 2564 of the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code, which provides rules for the design of impulsively loaded vessels. The explosive rating for the vessel, based on the code case, is nine (9) pounds TNT-equivalent for up to 637 detonations. The goals of the tests were to qualify the vessel, particularly the clamping system, for explosive use. The explosive tests consisted of a 9 pound bare charge of Composition C-4 (equivalent to 11.25 pounds TNT), followed by a 7.2 pound bare charge of Composition C-4 (equivalent to 9 pounds of TNT). Helium permeation measurements of the seal and strain measurements using a pi tape and strain gauges were made. All vessel acceptance criteria were met.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

An update to δ-ray production in MCNP6

As originally introduced in MCNP6.2, the δ-ray production subroutine had a number of flaws related to treatment of particle or nuclear spin contributions to the production cross section. A recent update by the author to the MCNP6 code corrects these flaws. This report documents those changes for the benefit of MCNP6 users who use the delta ray production capability. Additionally, this report aims to provide a more comprehensive documentation of the delta ray production, building on the prior documentation by C. Anderson and coworkers. On this latter point, the goal is to save future MCNP developers from a visit to the library to dig out ancient texts from 1952, or at least to provide useful points of reference should such a visit be necessary.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗