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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 145 records · Page 8

As-Run Physics Analysis for the AGC-4 Experiment Irradiated in the ATR

This Engineering Calculations Analysis Report (ECAR) documents the results of the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) detailed physics analyses performed to calculate the displacements per atom (DPA) and the fast neutron fluence (E > 0.1 MeV) of the Advanced Graphite Creep (AGC) experiment, AGC-4, irradiated in the ATR East Flux Trap (EFT) (see Figure 1) during ATR Cycle 157D, 158A, 162A, 162B, 164A, 164B, 166A, and Cycle 166B. This ECAR also reports the neutron and photon heat rates for the materials of the AGC-4 experiment for ATR Cycle 158A (timestep 19), which provides to the maximum heating. The results for these evaluations and analysis are reported herein. The AGC-4 as-run specimen neutron fast fluence (E > 0.1 MeV), DPA, and material heat rate calculations were performed using a general-purpose Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP) code. All calculated results are tabulated herein.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Surveillance Test Articles Development

Material degradation in Advance Test Reactors (ATR) is governed by irradiation, corrosion, elevated temperature exposure and cyclic mechanical creep-fatigue loads. This degradation information during reactor operation condition is limited. Hence, material damage monitoring is a key aspect of the design, analysis and licensing of ATR components. The idea is to monitor material component operation conditions of component by using a surveillance test article. This test article is fabricated with bi-metal configuration with two different thermal expansion coefficients, and design is motivated by Simplified Model Test (SMT) specimen which can capture structure-like mechanical response. Upon raising temperature of the bi-metal test article configuration, expansion mismatch results tensile load on specimen. Thus, temperature dependent passively actuated loading is achieved. The idea is to place this surveillance test article in reactor at location ‘x’ to surveil the mechanical response at critical location ‘y’. By calibrating the test article design, material degradation at critical location can be surveilled through assessing the degradation in surveillance test article. This study presents test article development with different material combinations and follow-up experimental testing work through passively loading test article with temperature history. The test article geometry and observed test results are presented in presentation slides.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

ECAR-3051 As-Run Physics Analysis For The AGC-3 Experiment Irradiated In The ATR

This Engineering Calculations Analysis Report (ECAR) documents the results of the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) detailed physics analyses performed to calculate the displacements per atom (DPA) and the fast neutron fluence (E > 0.1 MeV) of the Advanced Graphite Creep (AGC) experiment, AGC-3, irradiated in the ATR East Flux Trap (EFT) (see Figure 1) during ATR Cycle 152B, Cycle 154B, Cycle 155A, and Cycle 155B. This ECAR also reports the neutron and photon heat rates for the materials of the AGC-3 experiment for ATR Cycle 152B. The results for these evaluations and analysis are reported herein.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

ECAR-2291 AS-RUN PHYSICS ANALYSIS FOR THE AGC-2 EXPERIMENT IRRADIATED IN THE ATR

This Engineering Calculations Analysis Report (ECAR) documents the results of the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) detailed physics analyses performed to calculate the displacements per atom (DPA) and the fast neutron fluence (E > 0.1 MeV) of the Advanced Graphite Creep (AGC) experiment, AGC-2, irradiated in the ATR South Flux Trap (SFT) (see Figure 1) during ATR Cycle 149A, Cycle 149B, Cycle 150B, Cycle 151A, and Cycle 151B. This ECAR also reports the neutron and photon heat rates for the materials of the AGC-2 experiment for ATR Cycle 149B. The results for these evaluations and analysis are reported herein.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Data Science Techniques, Assumptions, and Challenges in Alloy Clustering and Property Prediction

Data analytics methods have been increasingly applied to understanding materials chemistry, processing due to the manufacturing approach, and uni-axial and cyclic property relationships in the highly complex space of alloy design. There are several benefits to applying data analytics to this space, including the ability to manage non-linearities in the responses of the alloy attributes and the resulting mechanical properties. However, key difficulties in applying and understanding the results of data analytics include the often lack of reported assumptions and data processing steps necessary to improve interpretation and reproducibility in derived results. In this work, the methods used to generate clustering and correlation analyses for experimental 9% Cr ferritic-martensitic steel data were investigated and the resulting implications for mechanical property predictions were assessed. This work uses principal component analysis, partitioning around medoids, t-SNE, and k-means clustering to investigate trends in composition, processing and microstructure information with creep and tensile properties, building on work done previously using a smaller version of the same dataset. The initial assumptions, preprocessing steps and methods are investigated and outlined in order to depict the fine level of detail required to convey the steps taken to process data and produce analytical results. Here, the variations in the resulting analyses are explored due to the influence of new and more varied data.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DESIGN AND TESTING OF A 275 BAR 700 DEGREE CELSIUS EXPANDER FOR AN INTEGRALLY GEARED SUPERCRITICAL CO2 COMPANDER

An integrally-geared (IG) compressor-expander (compander) for use in a nominal 10 MW-scale concentrated solar power (CSP) supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) plant application was designed, manufactured, and tested. The integrally-geared compander (IGC) developed for this application comprises multiple pinion shafts interacting through a single bull gear to create a compact package and utilize a lowcost, low-speed driver. The present work will detail the design of the high-pressure high-temperature expander casing on an integrally geared frame, and illustrate how the project successfully mitigated the risk of fatigue and creep while allowing for rapid thermal transients in the design. Furthermore, test data from the test campaign will be presented supporting the analysis. Test results also show temperature profiles during operation exceeding 720° Celsius.

wilkes, jason↗

Ultrahigh temperature in situ transmission electron microscopy based bicrystal coble creep in Zirconia II: Interfacial thermodynamics and transport mechanisms

This work uses a combination of stress dependent single grain boundary Coble creep and zero-creep experiments to measure interfacial energies, along with grain boundary point defect formation and migration volumes in cubic ZrO 2 . These data, along with interfacial diffusivities measured in a companion paper are then applied to analyzing two-particle sintering. The analysis presented here indicates that the large activation volume, v * = v f + v m primarily derives from a large migration volume and suggests that the grain boundary rate limiting defects are delocalized, possibly due to electrostatic interactions between charge compensating defects. The discrete nature of the sintering and creep process observed in the small-scale experiments supports the hypothesis that grain boundary dislocations serve as sources and sinks for grain boundary point defects and facilitate strain during sintering and Coble creep. Model two-particle sintering experiments demonstrate that initial-stage densification follows interface reaction rate-limited kinetics.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

MOSAIC: An Effective FFT-based Numerical Method to Assess Aging Properties of Concrete

As the nuclear fleet in the United States ages and subsequent license renewal applications grow, the prediction of concrete durability at extended operation becomes more important. To address this issue, a Fast-Fourier Transform (FFT) method is utilized to simulate aging-related degradation of concrete within the Microstructure Oriented Scientific Analysis of Irradiated Concrete (MOSAIC) software. MOSAIC utilizes compositional phase maps to simulate damage from radiation-induced volumetric expansion (RIVE), applied force, creep, and thermal expansion. This compositional detail allows each mineral in the microstructure to be assigned specific material properties, allowing the simulation to be as accurate and representative as possible. The principal goal of MOSAIC is to simulate the effects of nonlinear aging mechanisms occurring in nuclear concrete on the macroscopic mechanical properties, using only the aggregate microstructure compositional information as a starting point. Here, several realistic example simulations are shown to demonstrate the utility and uniqueness of the MOSAIC software.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Metamodeling Time-Temperature Creep Parameters

Abstract There exist many time-temperature parameter (TTP) models for creep rupture prediction of components including the Larson–Miller (LM), Manson–Haferd (MH), Manson–Brown (MB), Orr–Sherby–Dorn (OSD), Manson–Succop (MS), Graham–Walles (GW), Chitty–Duval (CD), Goldhoff–Sherby (GS) models. It remains a challenge to determine which model is “best”, capable of accurate interpolation and physically realistic extrapolation of creep rupture data for a given material. In this study, metamodeling is applied to create a unified TTP metamodel that combines and regresses into twelve TTP models (eight existing and four newly derived). An analysis of the mathematical problems that exist in TTP models is provided. A matlab code is written that can: (1) calibrate the material constants of any of the twelve TTP models (using the metamodel); (2) determine the most suitable stress-parameter function; (3) and report the normalized mean square error (NMSE) of rupture predictions for a given material database. Using the metamodel, and code, a design engineer can make an intelligent selection of the “best” TTP model for creep resistant design. This process is demonstrated using four isotherms of alloy P91 creep rupture data. To assess the influence of material, further validation is performed on alloys Hastelloy X, 304SS, and 316SS. It is determined that the “best” model is dependent on material type and the quality and quantity of available data.

Engineering↗

Nuclear Materials Packaging, Transportation, and Systems Analysis Group Software Quality Assurance Plan: ANSYS Mechanical Finite Element Analysis Software Version 2023R1

ANSYS Inc. develops and markets engineering simulation software and services used in the aerospace, automotive, manufacturing, electronics, biomedical, energy, defense, and many other industries. ANSYS is dedicated to engineering simulation and is the world’s leading software provider. ANSYS was founded in 1970 and is headquartered in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. ANSYS provides an engineering analysis tool combining structural, thermal, computational fluid dynamics, acoustic, and electromagnetic simulation capabilities. ANSYS has two main programs, which use the same solvers: (1) Mechanical APDL (ANSYS Design Parametric Language), a Fortran-based coding platform, and (2) ANSYS Workbench, which uses a graphical user interface to aid in finite element analysis implementation. This plan covers both APDL and Workbench. The ANSYS computer program is a large-scale, multipurpose finite element program that can be used to solve several classes of engineering analyses. The analysis capabilities of ANSYS include the ability to solve static and dynamic structural analyses, steady-state and transient heat transfer problems, mode-frequency and buckling eigenvalue problems, static or time-varying magnetic analyses, and various types of field and coupled-field applications. The program contains many special features that allow nonlinearities or secondary effects such as plasticity, large strain, hyperelasticity, creep, swelling, large deflections, contact, stress stiffening, temperature dependency, material anisotropy, and radiation to be included in the solution. As ANSYS has been developed, other special capabilities such as substructuring, submodeling, random vibration, kinetostatics, kinetodynamics, free convection fluid analysis, acoustics, magnetics, piezoelectrics, coupled-field analysis, and design optimization have been added to the program. These capabilities contribute further to making ANSYS a multipurpose analysis tool for varied engineering disciplines. The ANSYS program has been in commercial use for over 50 years and has been used extensively in the aerospace, automotive, construction, electronic, energy services, manufacturing, nuclear, plastics, oil, and steel industries. Additionally, many consulting firms and hundreds of universities have used ANSYS for analysis, research, and educational purposes. ANSYS is recognized worldwide as one of the most widely used and capable programs of its type. Ansys design analysis software is the first created within a quality system with ISO 9001 certification, the internationally accepted quality standard. Product development, testing, maintenance and support processes also meet the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission's quality requirements, as they have for nearly four decades. The Quality Assurance Service Agreement is suitable for the customers working in the nuclear industry who need to meet specific federal regulations including 10CRF50 Appendix B and provisions of 10CFR21. ANSYS has retained its original International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001 accreditation certificate since1995-05-04, It’s current certificate is valid until 2027-05-29.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Report on FY 2020 testing of Alloy 709 in support of EPP analysis

Research activities in support of the development of a 500,000 hr, 760ºC ASME Code Case (CC) for Alloy 709 are ongoing at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Argonne National Laboratory, and Idaho National Laboratory. Integration of the simplified Elastic-Perfectly Plastic (EPP) methods for the design of Alloy 709 reactor components is a requirement for the Alloy 709 CC. This report documents the research plans and initiation of testing in support of integrating EPP analysis methods for Alloy 709 at ORNL in FY 2020. Tests are designed and initiated to evaluate the effect of cyclic loading on the creep properties of Alloy 709. The preliminary results show that cyclic loading has an insignificant effect on the minimum creep rate, although additional tests are recommended to confirm this conclusion. A preliminary testing plan for multi-axial creep rupture has been established and the specimens are machined. Execution of the testing plan will continue in FY 2021.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Critical Evaluation of a Novel Analysis Technique for Assessment of Printed Circuit Heat Exchangers in High-Temperature Nuclear Service

Application of printed circuit heat exchangers (PCHEs) to very high-temperature reactors (VHTRs) requires mechanical performance assessment methodologies. The PCHE morphology consists of thousands of millimeter-scale channels, for enhanced thermal efficiency, enclosed in a meter-scale PCHE core. PCHE geometry under thermomechanical creep-fatigue transients results in multi-axial interactions between its different segments, such as channeled core, walls, and headers. These global-level interactions influence the local channel-level responses. Hence, developing a PCHE performance assessment methodology, following the ASME Code, Section III, Division 5 provisions, is a critical gap to be filled. There is no analysis or design methodology available in ASME Code to assess a PCHE for its global and local level performances under high temperature and pressure loadings. This paper critically evaluates a recently proposed two-step analysis technique to estimate global interactions and local channel-level responses of PCHEs. In this novel analysis technique, the channeled PCHE core is replaced with orthotropic solid blocks of representative stiffness properties for the global thermomechanical analysis. Here, subsequent channel scale submodel analysis with detailed channel geometry, loading, and elastic-perfectly plastic (EPP) material model estimates the local responses for PCHE performance assessment. This paper critically evaluates this novel technique for its effectiveness in PCHE performance assessment. Finite element (FE) models imitating various analysis issues are developed, and FE analysis results are scrutinized. An important outcome of this study is the validation of the novel two-step PCHE analysis technique for application to the performance assessment of PCHEs in VHTRs.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Linking microstructure to creep behavior in vertically and horizontally built LPBF Haynes 282 compared with wrought material via θ -projection

Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) has emerged as a promising route for fabricating intricate geometries in high-performance alloys. Haynes 282 (H282) is a strong candidate for applications such as heat exchangers or engines due to its excellent creep strength and thermal stability; however, the long-term creep behavior of LPBF-processed H282 remains poorly understood. In this study, the θ -projection method is used to analyze and extrapolate the creep behavior of vertically built LPBF, horizontally built LPBF, compared to wrought H282 tested at 816 °C. Vertically built LPBF H282 exhibits the lowest minimum creep rate (MCR), while the horizontally built condition shows a higher MCR comparable to that of wrought H282. Despite these differences, both LPBF conditions exhibit significantly shorter rupture life and reduced rupture strain than the wrought material, with the most severe degradation observed in the horizontal builds, consistent with an earlier onset of tertiary creep and accelerated strain-rate evolution. Microstructural characterization reveals that both LPBF and wrought H282 exhibit abundant twin-related boundary character; however, their grain boundary topologies differ markedly. The wrought alloy contains a higher fraction of low-angle grain boundaries and continuous twin lamellae, whereas the LPBF microstructure is characterized by a suppressed low-angle boundary population and fragmented twin-related boundaries embedded within irregular high-angle grain boundary networks. Fractographic analysis further reveals predominantly intergranular cracking in LPBF H282, accompanied by grain-boundary-decorated carbides, Al 2 O 3 inclusions, and high-aspect-ratio pores. These results demonstrate that grain boundary topology, rather than minimum creep rate alone, plays a critical role in governing creep damage accumulation and rupture behavior in LPBF and wrought H282.

Creep↗

BISON Capability to Account for Dopant Sensitivity in Relevant UO 2 Material Models

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation program aims to develop predictive capabilities using computational methods for the analysis and design of advanced reactor and fuel cycle systems. This program has been supporting the development of BISON, a high-fidelity and high-resolution fuel performance tool at the engineering scale. Incorporation of more physics-based models in BISON for the accident tolerant fuel applications motivated this study. This document details integration of new modeling capabilities in BISON, including: a tensile strength model for uranium dioxide (UO 2 ) fuel to incorporate the microstructural effects (e.g., grain size, fabrication pore size, and porosity), and atomistic-informed creep model for UO 2 fuel that is developed by Los Alamos National Laboratory. Sensitivity analyses are conducted on these models separately as well as a two-dimensional full rod application under normal operating conditions. Lastly, these new modeling capabilities in BISON are exercised in Halden IFA-677.1 and IFA-716.1 assessment cases.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Inelastic peridynamic model for molecular crystal particles

The peridynamic theory of solid mechanics is applied to modeling the deformation and fracture of micrometer-sized particles made of organic crystalline material. A new peridynamic material model is proposed to reproduce the elastic–plastic response, creep, and fracture that are observed in experiments. The model is implemented in a three-dimensional, meshless Lagrangian simulation code. In the small deformation, elastic regime, the model agrees well with classical Hertzian contact analysis for a sphere compressed between rigid plates. Under higher load, material and geometrical nonlinearity is predicted, leading to fracture. Finally, the material parameters for the energetic material CL-20 are evaluated from nanoindentation test data on the cyclic compression and failure of micrometer-sized grains.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Support of the Development of EPP Plus SMT Design Method (FY2020 Test Results)

Experiments in support of the development of the integrated Elastic–Perfectly Plastic (EPP) analysis and Simplified Model Test (SMT) design methodology continued in FY 2020. The previously developed single-bar SMT (SBSMT) technique was successfully extended to tubular shaped Alloy 617 specimens for evaluation of the effect of primary pressure load on SMT creep-fatigue (CF) properties at 950°C. A series of pressurized SMT tests were performed with various elastic follow-up factors and strain ranges. The results show that the primary pressure load reduces the SMT CF cycles. The reduction of SMT CF life due to primary load was found to be dependent on strain ranges, elastic follow up and test temperatures. These results are crucial for verification of the EPP strain range analysis in the EPP+SMT evaluation procedure. Additionally, hold time effect on the SMT CF life cycles is a determining factor for generating the EPP+SMT CF design curves. Lack of test data in the high cycle and low strain range region results in major uncertainty in developing the design curves. In FY2020, experiments were designed, and testing started on Alloy 617 at 950°C to fill the gap in experimental data. The on-going CF and additional SMT CF with elastic follow-up at low strain ranges will generate the information needed to verify the methods for extrapolation to long hold time and finalize the EPP+SMT design method.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Uniaxial compressive creep tests by spark plasma sintering of 70% theoretical density α -uranium and U-10Zr

Metallic fuels hold numerous advantages over conventional uranium dioxide fuels and are a key component of several liquid metal-cooled advanced reactor concepts including sodium fast reactors. These fuels undergo rapid swelling during early burnup; consequently, they spend most of their reactor lifetime in a porous state. The presence of this porosity alters many of the mechanical properties of the fuel including creep impacting fuel deformation during axial swelling. This work investigates the creep behavior of the porous fuel using a spark plasma sintering technique. Creep tests were performed for the first time on porous α-phase uranium and uranium with 10 wt. % zirconium (U-10Zr) samples. The samples of α-phase uranium and U-10Zr were fabricated from depleted uranium by spark plasma sintering and subjected to uniaxial compressive creep testing. Calculated stress exponents were found to be 2.6±1.6 and 5.7±1.4 for α-U and U-10Zr, respectively, and calculated activation energies were found to be 61.6±1.1kJ/mol for α-U. The creep data were also used to evaluate existing porosity inclusive in creep models.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

A New Reduced Order Model For The Mechanistic Creep Behavior Of UO 2

This manuscript describes an ongoing NEAMS effort to better determine the performance of advanced nuclear fuels, in particular the creep behavior of doped UO$_2$ for light water reactors. In our previous work, we outlined a method to utilize data generated from lower length scale simulations and implement it into the engineering scale fuel performance analysis. This process has been further refined, and in addition, new data has been used to train the surrogate model which has also been substantially improved since the previous iteration. The new model is compared against the current empirical model used in BISON using both scoping calculations to define the performance over the parameter space and using integral instrumented fuel assessment cases to determine the impact of these models on the overall fuel performance. Suggestions and guidance for future improvements to this method are provided to ensure the model covers relevant parameter space and phenomena.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗