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DOE OSTI2022

Underwater Noise Measurements around a Tidal Turbine in a Busy Port Setting

Acoustic emissions from current energy converters remain an environmental concern for regulators because of their potential effects on marine life and uncertainties about their effects stemming from a lack of sufficient observational data. Several recent opportunities to characterize tidal turbine sound emissions have begun to fill knowledge gaps and provide a context for future device deployments. In July 2021, a commercial-off-the-shelf hydrophone was deployed in a free-drifting configuration to measure underwater acoustic emissions and characterize a 25 kW-rated tidal turbine at the University of New Hampshire’s Living Bridge Project in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Sampling methods and analysis were performed in alignment with the recently published IEC 62600-40 Technical Specification for acoustic characterization of marine energy converters. Results from this study indicate acoustic emissions from the turbine were below ambient sound levels and therefore did not have a significant impact on the underwater noise levels of the project site. As a component of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s Triton Field Trials (TFiT) described in this Special Issue, this effort provides a valuable use case for the IEC 62600-40 Technical Specification framework and further recommendations for cost-effective technologies and methods for measuring underwater noise at future current energy converter project sites.

tidal turbine↗
DOE OSTI2020

Additive Manufactured Metallic 3D Ox-Ox CMC Integrated Structures for 65% Combined Cycle Efficient Gas Turbine Components

To support the FOA objectives for the Area of interest “Advanced Combustion Turbines for Combined Cycle Applications”, Phase I initially targeted the integration of Metallic Additive Manufacturing (AM) and 3D Oxide-Oxide Ceramic Matrix Composites (3D Ox-Ox CMC) based design for an Advanced Vane design in support of 65% efficient gas turbines. Application of an AM-CMC-TBC vane was expected to significantly reduce cooling air consumption and result in emissions and/or performance improvements beyond the current SOTA metallic vane technology. The primary deliverable was a design concept ready for fabrication and test in a follow-on (Phase II) project.

03 NATURAL GAS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Front-End Engineering Design for Piperazine with the Advanced Stripper

This Department of Energy (DOE) funded project was executed with the goal of preparing a Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) for the capture and compression of 90% of the CO2 that would normally be emitted from an existing natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) plant. The FEED focused on the application of the piperazine advanced stripper (PZAS) process at Mustang Station of the Golden Spread Electric Cooperative (GSEC), which consists of two gas turbines with common heat recovery steam generator (HRSG). The University of Texas at Austin (UT) served as the prime contractor, and subcontracted AECOM Technical Services and Trimeric Corporation to support FEED development. This project team has worked together to advance PZAS for more than a decade. ExxonMobil, Chevron, and Total provided project co-funding. The objectives of this work included: 1. To advance engineering design such that a comprehensive estimate for the total installed cost of a full-scale PZAS CO2 Capture Plant with CO2 compression can be developed on an existing NGCC power plant. a. These detailed costs can also be used to qualify PZAS and other related second generation (2G) amine scrubbing processes for use on cogeneration facilities in refineries and chemical plants that use gas turbines with HRSGs to produce steam. b. These detailed costs will help qualify 2G amine scrubbing for use on NGCC power plants and establish a more accurate baseline cost to be used as a target by other capture technologies. 2. To provide cost details to be used in the economic optimization of the process features of PZAS and other 2G amine scrubbing processes. 3. To provide DOE with a more detailed understanding of carbon capture costs in a commercial application, enabling DOE to better design its R&D program to improve the economics for carbon capture. 4. To provide the host site and cost share partners with the information necessary to determine whether a commercial project to capture and use CO2 for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) or for sequestration can be justified (when accounting for the 45Q tax credit). A key component of the FEED is the estimated total installed cost, which provides a basis for the likely capital investment necessary to implement the PZAS carbon capture process at this location and scale. In combination with the included economic analysis, which accounts for potential revenue from the produced CO2, potential avenues to profitability are explored. The major findings of the FEED are as follows: The Mustang Station PZAS CO2 Capture Plant estimated total project cost of $698 MM of which $384 MM was direct costs. The annual operating costs were $32.6 MM. The total investment for a PZAS facility at Mustang Station is $725 MM. This estimate includes owner’s cost of $25 million and a contingency of $110 MM. • The study estimated the CO2 capture plant at Mustang Station would generate CO2 at $110/tonne for EOR, assuming a 12% IRR (internal rate of return) and an 85% capacity factor. For CO2 storage, the same case would achieve a 12% IRR at about $114/tonne. At a capacity factor of 52%, the storage and EOR cases would break even when carbon is priced ~$150/tonne. The economic analysis determined that the capacity factor and utility pricing, among other variable factors, had a significant effect on the economics and will need additional studied. • The energy penalty of the PZAS plant would be about 46 MW in connected power and 35 MW in operating load. The natural gas requirement (for the Gas Boiler package) would be about 354 MMBTU/hr. • The FEED revealed no major risks in process maturity. However, some areas were outlined for further engineering during detailed design, which included the Gas Boiler system, general arrangement and site layout, air coolers, schedule development, and optimization of the process for higher CO2 removal. • If PZAS were to be implemented at another host site, additional opportunities for cost reduction for would include cost reduction through use of cooling water and steam extraction.

03 NATURAL GAS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Effect of Heat Treatment on Microstructure and Mechanical Property of 316L Stainless Steel Produced by Laser Powder Bed Fusion

The advanced non-light water reactor designs (Gen IV reactors), including molten salt/ very high temperature/ sodium-cooled and lead-cooled fast reactors, typically operate at higher temperatures and more extreme radiation conditions than light water reactors. An intrinsic part of the deployment and progress of Gen IV reactor designs is selecting the most suitable structural material for a specific application. Additive manufacturing (AM), a fairly new process of making physical, three-dimensional objects from a computer design file, is going to completely change the way of design, build and certify nuclear systems. It offers a range of opportunities to produce complex geometries from existing materials, offers new routes for processing of previously difficult to process materials, allows for design of new high-performance materials, and finally facilitates hybridization of dissimilar materials. This emerging technology has successfully produced cars, wind turbine blade molds and even live cells. It could also open up big opportunities for the nuclear industry to quickly deploy technologies at a fraction of the cost. So far, AM techniques have been preliminarily applied in the field of nuclear reactors, including the classical parts such as the pressure vessel of a small reactor with 508-III steel, the bottom nozzle of a fuel assembly with 304L steel, the fuel cladding with zirconium alloy and the integrated impeller of a pump and the multi-channel valve body with 316L steel [6,7]. The AM applications for operating nuclear reactors started in auxiliary plant components and have slowly migrated to metallic reactors and core components, but many of these are not safety critical components. Although many parts used for nuclear reactors have been fabricated by AM techniques, practical applications in engineering are still a long way off due to the uncertainty factors focused on the processing, material properties, analysis methods and application standards, which feeds the safety and life-cycle of the nuclear reactor. Due to rapid, repeated heating and cooling during production, a high dislocation density was present in the AM material. This microstructure feature is unstable at elevated temperature while high temperature is one of the typical operation environments for nuclear reactors. Thus, it is important to understand the thermal effect on the microstructure of AM material. The objectives of this study are to investigate the effect of heat treatment on the microstructure and mechanical properties of 316L stainless steel produced by laser powder bed fusion additive manufacturing, and to determine an appropriate heat treatment practice that will be applied to the lightweight AM lattice-structured material with the same chemistry. The heat treatment study consisted of annealing the samples at a temperature range of 800 to 1200 oC with a 50 oC increment for different times (1-24 hours), followed by vacuum or air cooling. Microstructural characterization was carried out by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). Grain size and crystallographic orientation were investigated by Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD). Vickers hardness tests with a 0.5 kg load were employed to determine the hardness of samples after different heat treatments. After heat treatment, the random crystallographic orientation was preserved, and the volume fraction of high-angle grain boundaries (grain boundary misorientation =15 oC) remained the same. The dislocation density decreased with annealing temperature due to recovery. The fine subgrain structures in the as-printed specimen were quite stable up to 1200 oC. Minimal recrystallization was observed up to 1200 oC. Recrystallization initiated only after 8.5 hours at 1200 oC. The SEM images did not show obvious dependence of microstructure on cooling rate. The hardness of the specimens decreased with increasing annealing temperature as a result of the decrease in dislocation density. It is interesting to note that the AM material showed very similar hardness to the wrought material when annealing at similar temperature, although the microstructures are very different. Annealing at 1050 oC for 1 hour followed by air cooling was selected as the heat treatment procedure for the lattice designed lightweight AM 316L material.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Micro–macro finite element modeling method for rub response in abradable coating materials

Gas turbine engines experience “rub” when the rotating blades come in contact with a static abradable coating. This results in extreme strain rates and dynamics inside a high-temperature/high-pressure environment. Current rub models are phenomenological and do not reflect the underlying microstructures, thus limiting their prediction accuracy. In this work, a microstructure-informed, reduced order modeling framework is introduced for simulating abradable coating “rub" behavior. This framework comprises a microscale model constructed based on digitized abradable microstructure and explicitly simulates the mechanical behavior of each constituent phases and their interactions. After calibration and validation with experiment data, the calibrated microscale model is used to generate data across a vast range of applied strain rates and temperature with various load paths. Then, the virtually generated data are used to fit the macroscopic-reduced order model, which enables fast component scale rub simulation without compromising the integrity of the complex material behavior. In conclusion, the proposed effort will address the technical challenge of predicting abradable material behavior during rub through the application of multiscale modeling from microstructure to engines behavior, effectively reducing the development costs and time of new abradable material for better “rub” properties.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

Drivetrain Reliability Collaborative Update

Pitch bearings, main bearings, and gearboxes in conventional wind turbine drivetrains often do not meet their 20-year minimum specified lifetime, resulting in turbine downtime as well as expensive, time-consuming repairs or replacements. The dominant failure modes of the drivetrain components and the conditions that lead to their failure are not fully accounted for during product design or routinely modeled for life management. Drivetrain reliability improvements and O&M cost reductions remain top priorities for both land-based and offshore wind turbines, especially as wind turbines continue to be deployed in increasingly remote and offshore locations, continue to increase in size, and are becoming expected to be in service beyond their original design life, all of which correspond to an increase in the impact of any reliability issues on O&M costs. This presentation summarizes the most recent activities by NREL and ANL on drivetrain reliability.

bearing↗
DOE OSTI2022

OPEN2018 (continuation of GENSETS effort)

This project has demonstrated the key components and engineering principles to support a residential scale (1 to 2 kWe) recuperated Brayton cycle generator based upon a screw compressor and screw expander. This technical work is a continuation of the previously awarded ‘GENSETS’ program. The product goal has been to achieve a 40% fuel-to-electric LHV efficiency, an 80% overall CHP efficiency, emissions qualified to the California Air Resources Board standards, and at noise levels of 55 dB or less at 1 meter. Further, the product must operate with 8,000 hour service intervals and achieve a mean-time to overhaul of 90,000 hours. Lastly, and possibly most importantly, the product must meet demanding cost targets, exhibiting a factory cost well below $1,500/kWe. After extensive aerodynamic studies under the ‘GENSETS’ program, Brayton concluded that miniature turbomachinery could not achieve an efficiency consistent with the product’s system performance goal. Given compressor and turbine efficiency targets in the range of 78 to 81%, Brayton turned to the rotary screw machines. While the justification for a screw compressor over a conventional centrifugal compressor is well supported by industry experience, the high temperature expander represented the core technology advancement. To meet the extremely high efficiency goals, an all-ceramic rotary screw expander hot section was developed and has now been tested in the laboratory. This first-of-its-kind ceramic screw expander prototype was able to demonstrate aerodynamic efficiency in line with predictions. The test article was successfully run to full stress conditions so has also validated the mechanical design of such a unit. This has opened new avenues for the commercialization of high efficiency, small scale power generation. Interest in the technology has sparked several requests for alternate uses, an invitation to present at a screw machine conference, and continued interest from parties looking to develop a product in the spirit of the original ‘GENSETS’ goals.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2022

Wind Turbine Drivetrain Reliability [Slides]

Pitch bearings, main bearings, and gearboxes in conventional wind turbine drivetrains often do not meet their 20-year minimum specified lifetime, resulting in turbine downtime as well as expensive, time-consuming repairs or replacements. The dominant failure modes of the drivetrain components and the conditions that lead to their failure are not fully accounted for during product design or routinely modeled for life management. Drivetrain reliability improvements and O&M cost reductions remain top priorities for both land-based and offshore wind turbines, especially as wind turbines continue to be deployed in increasingly remote and offshore locations, continue to increase in size, and are becoming expected to be in service beyond their original design life, all of which correspond to an increase in the impact of any reliability issues on O&M costs. This presentation summarizes the most recent activities by NREL and ANL on drivetrain reliability.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Process Capability Study on the Volume Manufacturing of a Complex Rotating Automotive Component in Laser Powder Bed Fusion Additive Manufacturing

Oak Ridge National Lab (ORNL) and Ford Motor Company used an AddUp FormUp 350 to print a turbo wheel geometry to show feasibility of laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) additive manufacturing (AM) in producing cost-effective components for automotive industries. L-PBF AM has potential to disrupt traditional manufacturing techniques by introducing novel materials and geometries that cannot otherwise be produced. Fundamental challenges associated with L-PBF include limitations on printing overhang geometries and resulting surface finish. In this collaboration, ORNL and Ford partnered with AddUp to show the viability of using L-PBF for an AM design turbine wheel while reducing as-fabricated surface roughness. A cost model associated with mass production was produced to analyze benefits of pursing LPBF AM compared to investment casting.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

Coolant delivery via an independent cooling circuit

An embodiment of an independent cooling circuit for selectively delivering cooling fluid to a component of a gas turbine system includes: at least one coolant feed channel fluidly coupled to a supply of cooling fluid; and an interconnected circuit of cooling channels, including: an interconnected circuit of cooling channels embedded within an exterior wall of the component; an impingement plate; and a plurality of feed tubes connecting the impingement plate to the exterior wall of the component and fluidly coupling a supply of cooling fluid to the interconnected circuit of cooling channels; wherein the cooling fluid flows through the plurality of feed tubes into the interconnected circuit of cooling channels only in response to a formation of a breach in the exterior wall of the component that exposes at least one of the cooling channels.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2022

Integrated Transpiration and Lattice Cooling Systems developed by Additive Manufacturing with Oxide-Dispersion-Strengthened (ODS) Alloys (Final Report)

The primary goal of this research was to develop an innovative approach to provide a significantly improved level of thermal protection for hot-section components, such as turbine airfoils, in modern and future gas turbines. Current and future designs for “air breathing” turbine systems are targeting turbine inlet temperatures of 1700°C or higher, which is well beyond the substrate melting temperature, and a combined cycle energy efficiency of 65%. Meanwhile, targeted cycle efficiency calls for a reduction of the amount of coolant air significantly below the current level. Hence the development of novel internal airfoil designs that provide a satisfactory level of component durability with affordable coolant management is critical to the further advances of today’s turbine technology. This project was a response to this grand challenge with the research efforts primarily focused on the development of integrating transpiration cooling with lattice enhanced internal cooling. The research on these advanced cooling technologies was accompanied with development of anti-oxidation material in the form of oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) alloy which also possessed enhanced high temperature strength. A novel approach of fabricating the ODS alloy as powder with high compatibility with state-of-the-art additive manufacturing (AM) process was also developed.

03 NATURAL GAS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Planar turbulent wakes under pressure gradient: Integral and self-similarity analyses

By using a combination of integral and self-similarity analyses, the generalized analytical solutions for the mean transverse velocity and Reynolds shear stress are rigorously derived for the first time for the far field of planar turbulent wakes under arbitrary pressure gradients. Specifically, by assuming self-similarity for the mean axial velocity, the analytical formulation for the mean transverse velocity is obtained from the integral of the mean continuity equation, and the analytical formulation for the Reynolds shear stress is obtained from the integral of the momentum equation. The generalized analytical formulations for the mean transverse velocity and Reynolds shear stress consist of multiple components, each with its unique scale and physical mechanism. In the zero pressure gradient limit, the generalized formulations recover the single-scale equations reported by Wei, Liu, and Livescu. Furthermore, simpler approximate formulations for the mean transverse velocity and Reynolds shear stress are also obtained, and show excellent agreement with the experimental measurements. Here, the findings provide new insights into the properties of planar turbulent wakes under pressure gradients, filling some long-standing gaps in the existing literature.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2021

Implementation of Disruptive Designs for Gas Turbine Components Utilizing Additive Manufacturing

Electron beam melting (EBM) is an additive manufacturing process used to print metallic components with complex geometries for aerospace applications. A preheating characteristic enables this technology to avoid large accumulation of residual stress during printing. However, cracking mechanisms particularly in Ni-based superalloys are associated with not only residual stress but also with microstructure (i.e., solidification morphology, transient evolution of γ'). Siemens is committed to AM technology for gas turbine applications. The ability to novel predictive designs of turbine blades would reduce process development time and allow acquisition of key microstructure and performance data early in a design campaign. Siemens initiated a project to establish the design rules for the fabrication of non-printable Nibased superalloys. This phase 1 program demonstrates the feasibility for virtual fabrication of the actual blade geometries through EBM process.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2024

Percheron Power Archimedes Screw Turbine Analysis (Abstract)

The development of the Percheron Power (Percheron) composite Archimedes screw turbine (AST) is based upon employing newly developed theoretical mathematical models for optimizing the water volume carried through the AST for a given diameter, combined with minimizing efficiency losses due to bypass flow and friction. The key feasibility issues associated with producing the composite blades will be to understand the strength, fatigue, and wear performance of the AST blades and associated components, and how these factors change along the length of the turbine. To get to this understanding of material property requirements, Percheron needs free-surface computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models of the AST designs and to perform interactive modeling between the turbine blade optimization and component design based on finite element method stress analysis (FEA). The workscope and analyses requested by Percheron in the Small Business Voucher (SBV) program are well aligned with PNNL capability and recent work experience in performing CFD and FEA analysis for hydropower and marine energy turbines. The CFD analysis will provide estimates of power, efficiency, and surface forces on the blades. The forces on the blade will be transferred to the FEA analysis that will be used to evaluate the material stresses. The CFD and FEA analyses will be repeated for different AST designs provided to PNNL by Percheron. The work conducted in this SBV project will complement the existing Percheron FOA project by providing better defined parameters for design and material selection for the turbine unit prior to manufacture of initial test units.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2024

2022 Component Innovation Awardee: Pecos Wind Power

Distributed wind energy systems supply electricity for nearby homes and businesses, often in remote and rural regions. Systems capable of capturing energy in areas with low wind speeds make it possible to deploy these clean energy systems in many geographic locations. Pecos Wind Power's 85-kilowatt (kW) horizontal-axis PW85 wind turbine shows potential to reduce the levelized cost of energy by approximately 55% when compared to typical small wind systems while achieving utility-scale capacity factors of more than 40% in areas with lower wind speeds. To maximize cost competitiveness, the Pecos Wind Power turbine needs a blade optimized for low wind speeds. Through its 2022 Competitiveness Improvement Project (CIP) award, Pecos Wind Power and partner Wetzel Wind Energy Services will model, optimize, fabricate, and validate a 14.5-meter wind turbine blade made specifically for these applications. Three prior CIP awards supported Pecos Wind Power's initial development of the PW85 turbine.

CIP↗
DOE OSTI2025

Fused Deposition Modeling Additive Manufacturing of Carbonized Structures via Waste-Enhanced Filaments

This report details the development, characterization, and use of coal-enhanced composite materials in additive manufacturing applications. High coal loading formulations—containing up to 70 wt.% coal—were successfully extruded and processed using commercially available 3D printers. Extensive experimental testing was conducted to assess the mechanical, thermal, and microstructural properties of the composites. In parallel, multi-scale computational modeling was employed to elucidate atomistic interactions and evaluate the effects of printing-induced defects on structural performance. Large-scale printability trials demonstrated the feasibility of fabricating complex components for tooling and construction applications, including wind turbine blade molds and modular wall sections. Techno-economic analyses demonstrated the cost-effectiveness and scalability of coal-enhanced composites for large-scale additive manufacturing applications such as wind turbine blade tooling.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
DOE OSTI2024

A three-dimensional model of terrain-induced updrafts for movement ecology studies

Abstract Background Spatially explicit simulation models of animal movements through the atmosphere necessarily require a representation of the spatial and temporal variation of atmospheric conditions. In particular, for movements of soaring birds that rely extensively on vertical updrafts to avoid flapping flight, accurate and reliable estimation of the vertical component of wind is critical. The interaction between wind and complex terrain shapes both the horizontal and vertical wind fields, highlighting the need to model the coupling between local terrain features and atmospheric conditions at scales relevant to animal movement. Methods In this work, we propose a new empirical model for estimating the orographic updraft field. The model is developed using computational fluid dynamics simulations of canonical atmospheric conditions over moderately complex terrain. To isolate buoyancy and thermal effects, and focus on terrain-induced effects, we use only simulations of a neutrally stratified atmosphere to develop the model. The model, which we name Engineering Vertical Velocity Estimator (EVVE), is simple to implement and is a function of the underlying terrain elevation map, the desired height above ground level (AGL), and wind conditions at a reference height (80 m). We validate the model with data from the Alaiz mountain (Spain) field campaign. Results Compared to observations, the proposed improved model estimates the updrafts at 120 m AGL with a mean error of 0.11 m/s ( $$\sigma =0.28$$ σ = 0.28 m/s), compared to 0.85 m/s ( $$\sigma =0.58$$ σ = 0.58 m/s) for its baseline. For typical land-based wind turbine hub heights of 80 m AGL, the proposed model has a mean error of 0.04 m/s ( $$\sigma =0.25$$ σ = 0.25 m/s), compared to baseline 0.54 m/s ( $$\sigma =0.45$$ σ = 0.45 m/s) estimations. We illustrate an application of the model in movement ecology by comparing simulated tracks and presence maps of golden eagles ( Aquila chrysaetos ) moving across two distinct landscapes. The tracks and presence maps are obtained using a simple heuristic-based movement model, with the updraft field given by the proposed model and a wind vector-based estimation approach that is currently in wide use in movement ecology studies of raptors and other soaring birds. Conclusions We highlight that movement model results can be sensitive to the underlying orographic updraft model, especially in studies of fine-scale movements in regions of complex topography. We suggest adopting the proposed model rather than the wind vector estimation method for studies of soaring bird movements.

17 WIND ENERGY↗