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DOE OSTI2018

Request for Information FEARCE: An extensible finite element multiphysics software suite for complex and reactive modeling

FEARCE is a modular multiphysics software package configured as a suite of fully-integrated tools that leverages custom templates and models alongside finite element analysis and computational fluid dynamics. FEARCE produces fast, high-fidelity solutions for any aspiring designer needing to model and predict turbulent, reactive, and otherwise complex fluid flows.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

DOE OSTI2026

Prototype Modeling for a Light-Trapping Planar-Cavity Enclosed Particle Solar Receiver

Concentrating solar thermal (CST) systems present a promising avenue for affordable and reliable energy production. Solar receivers are key components that determine the efficiency and longevity of these systems. Particle-based solar receivers have emerged as a compelling alternative to traditional technologies, offering several advantages that address limitations in current CST systems. This is especially true as next-generation CST technologies target applications including electricity generation, thermochemical processes, and industrial process heat, many of which necessitate higher operating temperatures than current commercial molten salt systems. Molten-salt thermal energy storage (TES) systems, commonly used in CSP, face challenges related to freezing and corrosion. Particle-based TES systems, in contrast, do not experience these issues, as particles are stable at high temperatures, exceeding 1000 degrees Celsius. This capability allows for a wider range of applications, including those requiring higher temperatures for industrial processes and efficient electricity generation. A novel innovation in particle-based solar receiver technology is the light-trapping planar cavity receiver (LTPCR) configuration developed by NREL. The LTPCR design consists of small cavity-like structures using opaque planar surfaces, enabling efficient capture and absorption of solar energy. A high incident flux concentration at the cavity aperture is absorbed on the receiver walls, and subsequently transferred to particles on the inside of cavities. The particles flow through the system, forming a fluidized bed inside of the receiver panels, effectively capturing the absorbed solar heat. Air is used as a fluidizing medium in this process to enhance particle heat transfer and mixing. The effectiveness of this design lies in its ability to manage solar flux conditions and ensure high solar-to-thermal receiver efficiency. A 100-kW prototype is currently being tested at the King Saud University in Saudi Arabia to assess the receiver performance. A range of modeling analyses for the optical, thermal, and mechanical effects were conducted to assess the performance of the receiver under on-sun conditions. The solar flux resulting from the KSU heliostat field was modeled using NREL SolTrace software and produced up to 600 kW/m2 at the receiver aperture. The solar flux absorbed on the receiver walls was then used within a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model to predict wall temperature distributions along with radiation and convection loss. A two-phase CFD model was developed for the fluidized bed of silica sand inside the receiver panels to predict local wall-to-particle heat transfer coefficients, particle temperature distributions, and outlet temperature of the particles. We have also conducted analyses to understand the thermomechanical behavior of these innovative enclosed light-trapping solar receivers optimized for particle heating. We used finite element analysis (FEA) to predict the receiver's performance using temperature distributions obtained from CFD and based on the resulting stress profiles, evaluated creep-fatigue damage with a goal of achieving a 30-year service life. Analysis showed a significant impact of the particle-to-wall heat transfer coefficients (HTCs) on receiver performance, with higher HTCs resulting in reduced stress and increased lifespan. For instance, when using Inconel 740H, increasing the HTC from 800 W/m2 K to 1400 W/m2 K increased the creep life from 4,000 hours to over 100,000 hours. This highlights the importance of understanding and optimizing heat transfer in the design of high-efficiency receivers.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2021

Critical analysis of velocimetry methods for particulate flows from synthetic data

Particle tracking methods that extract high-fidelity particle velocity data from high speed video of particle laden flows is a common experimental technique applied to chemical processes. These measurements are used to better understand the motion of particles and fluids in complex systems and create data against which computational models are validated. However, the methods, codes, and experimental setups all have limitations. It is imperative that practitioners verify the methods and their implementation as well as understand the limitations of experimental setups. This work focuses on quantifying the visible depth of field in a high particle concentration fluidized bed. Following a precedent set by the particle imaging velocimetry community, a particle velocity field is manufactured using a computational fluid dynamics and discrete element method simulation. Photo realistic high-speed videos are rendered based on the simulated data using the three-dimensional creation software Blender. Particle velocities are extracted from the synthetic high-speed videos using three variants of Particle Tracking Velocimetry and Optical Flow Velocimetry methodologies. Here, the tracked results are then compared to the known solution, quantifying the error associated with the assumed visible depth. The results indicate that at depth of one particle diameter, all three particle tracking codes give accurate measurements, largely within 5%. However, the error increases when the full bed video measurements are compared to the known solution at one particle diameter, i.e., mimicking a validation study. Finally, for some statistics the constant depth assumption only increases the error slightly, for others significantly.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

DOE OSTI2016

General Line Ampacity State Solver

INL’s General Line Ampacity State Solver (GLASS) is a high performance software platform that enables advanced grid system operations and planning efforts to be computed in real time. It enables the combination of advanced sensors and sensor networks, communication and data transfer channels, secure and reliable data management, and real-time processing through a flexible system architecture, with the ability to support and integrate with any utility enterprise system. GLASS is designed to help resolve the problems associated with thermally limited transmission and distribution networks, namely bare overhead power transmission lines. GLASS enables the methodology of Concurrent Cooling (Dynamic Line Rating) by reducing the need of using a cost-prohibited number of weather stations (reduce the number of weather stations per mile of overhead power line) to achieve the resolution necessary for individual electric transmission line span capacity calculations. GLASS achieves this by coupling real-time grid operations data and infrastructure architecture information with real-time field deployed weather station measurements and pre-computed Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)-based wind modeling interpolation parameters (look-up tables). GLASS uses mathematical models based on the IEEE 738 standard and builds off of the provided iterative solution using modern software paradigms and programming styles to provide a more robust and modular software system. GLASS also interfaces in real-time with utility companies using known transmission line spans and structures. GLASS provides real-time ampacity calculations based on recent weather station data as well as transmission line specifications. GLASS also allows the user to interact graphically with internal databases, which include information such as transmission line conductor types and thermal rating limits, weather station names and locations, specific transmission line span and structure locations, as well as recent ampacity calculations.

Gentle, Jake↗

DOE OSTI2017

What can we learn from in-soil imaging of a live plant: X-ray Computed Tomography and 3D numerical simulation of root-soil system

Plant roots play a critical role in plant-soil-microbe interactions that occur in the rhizosphere, as well as processes with important implications to farming, forest management and climate change. X-ray computed tomography (XCT) has been proven to be an effective tool for non-invasive root imaging and analysis. A combination of XCT, open-source software, and our own code was used to noninvasively image a prairie dropseed (Sporobolus heterolepis) specimen, segment the root data to obtain a 3D image of the root structure at 31µm resolution, and extract quantitative information (root volume and surface area) from the 3D data, respectively. Based on the mesh generated from the root structure, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations were applied to numerically investigate the root-soil-groundwater system. The plant root conductivity, soil hydraulic conductivity and transpiration rate were shown to control the groundwater distribution. The flow variability and soil water distributions under different scenarios were investigated. Parameterizations were evaluated to show their impacts on the average conductivity. The pore-scale modeling approach provides realistic simulations of rhizosphere flow processes and provides useful information that can be linked to upscaled models.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2024

Multiphysics Design Optimization and Additive Manufacturing of Nuclear Components (Final CRADA Report - Executive Summary)

Westinghouse Electric Company (WEC) actively participated in the advancement of the nuclear fuel and reactor design space and requested the help of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in the creation of a new design tool set. This report details the creation of a collection of software tool sets that are linked together to collectively assist WEC design engineers in developing novel ideas outside the normal scope of traditional nuclear fuel and reactor design formulas. Specifically, Siemens HEEDS, a design space exploration and parametric optimization software, monitored and changed parameters in a collection of softwares to meet the team’s objective. The HEEDS parametric optimization method, SHERPA, was developed to control the Siemens NX CAD platform to adjust the native CAD of a hexahedral spacer grid. This new geometry can be used to execute a topological design optimization by the NX Topology software add-in. The resulting geometry is additively manufacturable. This topological optimization occurred twice—once on the spacer grid’s spring, and once on the dimple geometry. These new geometries were imported by Siemens’ STAR-CCM+, a multiphysics structural and fluid dynamic computational solver in which the spring geometry is deflected to match the rod insertion configuration. Along with the dimple geometry, this new deflected spring was used to complete a hydraulic assessment of a single-unit cell comprising one rod, one spring, and two dimples. The HEEDS SHERPA algorithm ranks the design based on the final mass of the unit cell and the hydraulic pressure drop performance. The ORNL team demonstrated the ability to use this software and provided engineering judgement to apply modern aerospace aerodynamic design. The effort has been focused on thinking outside the conventional design space and redesigning a spacer grid to perform beyond the WEC set objectives. Furthermore, the ORNL team also demonstrated that the HEEDS optimization routine can independently develop a design that meets the WEC design goals. Although these designs were at a low technology readiness level, their demonstration confirmed the team’s capability to create novel advanced nuclear concepts.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

DOE OSTI2022

CFD Simulation of Biomass Pyrolysis Vapor Upgrading over a Pt/TiO 2 Catalyst in Fixed and Moving Beds

This report presents a comprehensive computational fluid dynamics (CFD) study of the biomass pyrolysis vapor phase upgrading and the catalyst regeneration in different reactors under various operational conditions. This study used the open-source software Multiphase Flow with Interphase eXchanges (MFiX), developed at National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) for simulating hydrodynamics, heat transfer, and chemical reactions in multiphase systems. This simulation solved the conservation of mass, momentum, energy, species for gas and solid phases with chemical reactions.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗

DOE OSTI2020

Computational Fluid Dynamics Analysis of a 12 MW Circulating Fluidized Bed Rise

A three-dimensional (3D) two fluid model (TFM) model of the 12 MW circulating fluidized bed (CFB) riser at Chalmers University was developed using the open-source Multiphase Flow with Interphase eXchanges (MFiX) Software Suite. The hydrodynamic behavior of the riser was validated by comparing axial pressure profiles from experimental measurements with the results from the simulations. Under some of the operating conditions where there was no external circulation of solids, the pressure profiles from the simulation matched well with the experimental measurements. For the cases where there was external circulation of solids, the pressure profiles with the monodisperse solid phase modeling underpredicted the solids concentration in the freeboard region. With the inclusion of polydispersity in the model, the predicted pressure profiles agreed well with the experimental measurements. A two-dimensional (2D) model of the riser was used to perform simulations of coal combustion. The predicted flue gas outlet compositions of oxygen and carbon dioxide compared reasonably to experiments. The experiments also reported some concentration of carbon monoxide which was overpredicted in the simulations. Additional experimental data such as axial oxygen concentration profile and pressure profiles were also compared with the experiment. It was observed that the oxygen concentration in the bottom bed from the simulations was higher than in the experiments, which suggested that most of the oxidation reactions occurred in the bottom bed. The concentration of volatiles and char in the simulations was lower in the bottom bed than in the experiments, which suggest that there is not sufficient penetration of the solid phase species into the bed.

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS↗

DOE OSTI2012

Enforcing elemental mass and energy balances for reduced order models

Development of economically feasible gasification and carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) technologies requires a variety of software tools to optimize the designs of not only the key devices involved (e., g., gasifier, CO{sub 2} adsorber) but also the entire power generation system. High-fidelity models such as Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) models are capable of accurately simulating the detailed flow dynamics, heat transfer, and chemistry inside the key devices. However, the integration of CFD models within steady-state process simulators, and subsequent optimization of the integrated system, still presents significant challenges due to the scale differences in both time and length, as well the high computational cost. A reduced order model (ROM) generated from a high-fidelity model can serve as a bridge between the models of different scales. While high-fidelity models are built upon the principles of mass, momentum, and energy conservations, ROMs are usually developed based on regression-type equations and hence their predictions may violate the mass and energy conservation laws. A high-fidelity model may also have the mass and energy balance problem if it is not tightly converged. Conservations of mass and energy are important when a ROM is integrated to a flowsheet for the process simulation of the entire chemical or power generation system, especially when recycle streams are connected to the modeled device. As a part of the Carbon Capture Simulation Initiative (CCSI) project supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, we developed a software framework for generating ROMs from CFD simulations and integrating them with Process Modeling Environments (PMEs) for system-wide optimization. This paper presents a method to correct the results of a high-fidelity model or a ROM such that the elemental mass and energy are conserved perfectly. Correction factors for the flow rates of individual species in the product streams are solved using a minimization algorithm based on Lagrangian multiplier method. Enthalpies of product streams are also modified to enforce the energy balance. The approach is illustrated for two ROMs, one based on a CFD model of an entrained-flow gasifier and the other based on the CFD model of a multiphase CO{sub 2} adsorber.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗

DOE OSTI2017

Computational Fluid Dynamics Modeling of the Fuel Reactor in NETL's 50 kW th Chemical Looping Facility

The National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) has explored chemical looping in its 50 kW th facility using a number of oxygen carriers. In this work, the results for methane conversion in the fuel reactor with a hematite iron ore as the oxygen carrier are analyzed. The experimental results are compared to predictions using CPFD's barracuda computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code with kinetics derived from the analysis of fixed bed data. It has been found through analytical techniques from thermal gravimetric analysis data as well as the same fixed bed data that the kinetics for the methane–hematite reaction follows a nucleation and growth or Johnson–Mehl–Avrami (JMA) reaction mechanism. barracuda does not accept nucleation and growth kinetics; however, there is enough sufficient variability of the solids dependence within the software such that the nucleation and growth behavior can be mimicked. This paper presents the method to develop the pseudo-JMA kinetics for barracuda extracted from the fixed bed data and then applies these values to the fuel reactor data to compare the computational results to experimental data obtained from 50 kW th unit for validation. Lastly, a fuel reactor design for near complete conversion is proposed.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

DOE OSTI2016

CASL VMA Milestone Report FY16 (L3:VMA.VUQ.P13.08): Westinghouse Mixing with STAR-CCM+

STAR-CCM+ (STAR) is a high-resolution computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code developed by CD-adapco. STAR includes validated physics models and a full suite of turbulence models including ones from the k-ε and k-ω families. STAR is currently being developed to be able to do two phase flows, but the current focus of the software is single phase flow. STAR can use imported meshes or use the built in meshing software to create computation domains for CFD. Since the solvers generally require a fine mesh for good computational results, the meshes used with STAR tend to number in the millions of cells, with that number growing with simulation and geometry complexity. The time required to model the flow of a full 5x5 Mixing Vane Grid Assembly (5x5MVG) in the current STAR configuration is on the order of hours, and can be very computationally expensive. COBRA-TF (CTF) is a low-resolution subchannel code that can be trained using high fidelity data from STAR. CTF does not have turbulence models and instead uses a turbulent mixing coefficient β. With a properly calibrated β, CTF can be used a low-computational cost alternative to expensive full CFD calculations performed with STAR. During the Hi2Lo work with CTF and STAR, STAR-CCM+ will be used to calibrate β and to provide high-resolution results that can be used in the place of and in addition to experimental results to reduce the uncertainty in the CTF results.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

DOE OSTI2021

A Poisson equation method for prescribing fully developed non-Newtonian inlet conditions for computational fluid dynamics simulations in models of arbitrary cross-section

Prescribing inlet boundary conditions for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations of internal flow in complex geometries such as anatomical vascular models is challenging. In the absence of patient-specific inlet velocity data, a common approach for long blood vessels is to assume that the inlet flow is fully developed. In vessels of irregular cross section, however, prescribing fully developed conditions is complicated due to the lack of a general closed-form analytical solution. In this study, we develop a simple Poisson equation method for prescribing fully developed inlet conditions for the flow of either Newtonian or non-Newtonian fluids in CFD models of arbitrary cross-section. We first derive the generalized Poisson equation for fully developed flow of a non-Newtonian fluid and we then develop and verify a methodology for numerically computing the solution on any planar boundary domain. In addition, we develop a simple extension of the method for prescribing a non-orthogonal inlet velocity that represents fully developed flow from an upstream tube that is connected to the CFD inlet at a non-orthogonal angle. This may be used to investigate a common source of uncertainty in CFD simulations of internal flow that is due to a lack of information concerning the exact streamwise flow direction at the inlets. Comparison to several Newtonian and non-Newtonian benchmark verification solutions shows the method to be extremely accurate. As a practical demonstration case, we use the method to prescribe fully developed conditions on multiple non-circular inlets for the non-Newtonian flow of blood in a patient-specific model of the inferior vena cava (IVC). Finally, we further demonstrate the utility of the method by performing a sensitivity study using the patient-specific IVC model, wherein we investigate the influence of inlet velocity flow direction on the non-Newtonian IVC hemodynamics. Given its simplicity and computational efficiency, the method is shown to be far superior to alternative approaches for prescribing fully developed inlet conditions in such complicated geometries. In conclusion, to facilitate the adoption of our Poisson equation method, we have distributed our OpenFOAM source code and the associated test cases from this study as open-source software.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

DOE OSTI2023

Coupled Monte Carlo Transport and Conjugate Heat Transfer for Wire-Wrapped Bundles Within the MOOSE Framework

Cardinal is an open-source application that couples OpenMC Monte Carlo transport and NekRS computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to the Multiphysics Object-Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE), closing neutronics and thermal-fluid gaps in conducting high-resolution multiscale and multiphysics analyses of nuclear systems. We first provide a brief introduction to Cardinal's software design, data mapping, and coupling strategy to highlight our approach to overcoming common challenges in high-fidelity multiphysics simulations. Here we then present two Cardinal simulations for hexagonal pin bundles. The first is a validation of Cardinal's conjugate heat transfer coupling of NekRS's Reynolds-Averaged Navier Stokes model with MOOSE's heat conduction physics for a bare seven-pin Freon-12 bundle flow experiment. Predictions for pin surface temperatures under three different heating modes agree reasonably well with experimental data and similar CFD modeling from the literature. The second simulation is a multiphysics coupling of OpenMC, NekRS, and BISON for a reduced-scale, seven-pin wire-wrapped version of an Advanced Burner Reactor bundle. Wire wraps are approximated using a momentum source model, and coupled predictions are provided for velocity, temperature, and power distribution.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2011

DOE SciDAC's Earth System Grid Center for Enabling Technologies Final Report

The mission of the Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF) is to provide the worldwide climate-research community with access to the data, information, model codes, analysis tools, and intercomparison capabilities required to make sense of enormous climate data sets. Its specific goals are to (1) provide an easy-to-use and secure web-based data access environment for data sets; (2) add value to individual data sets by presenting them in the context of other data sets and tools for comparative analysis; (3) address the specific requirements of participating organizations with respect to bandwidth, access restrictions, and replication; (4) ensure that the data are readily accessible through the analysis and visualization tools used by the climate research community; and (5) transfer infrastructure advances to other domain areas. For the ESGF, the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Earth System Grid Center for Enabling Technologies (ESG-CET) team has led international development and delivered a production environment for managing and accessing ultra-scale climate data. This production environment includes multiple national and international climate projects (such as the Community Earth System Model and the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project), ocean model data (such as the Parallel Ocean Program), observation data (Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Best Estimate, Carbon Dioxide Information and Analysis Center, Atmospheric Infrared Sounder, etc.), and analysis and visualization tools, all serving a diverse user community. These data holdings and services are distributed across multiple ESG-CET sites (such as ANL, LANL, LBNL/NERSC, LLNL/PCMDI, NCAR, and ORNL) and at unfunded partner sites, such as the Australian National University National Computational Infrastructure, the British Atmospheric Data Centre, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, the German Climate Computing Centre, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The ESGF software is distinguished from other collaborative knowledge systems in the climate community by its widespread adoption, federation capabilities, and broad developer base. It is the leading source for present climate data holdings, including the most important and largest data sets in the global-climate community, and - assuming its development continues - we expect it to be the leading source for future climate data holdings as well. Recently, ESG-CET extended its services beyond data-file access and delivery to include more detailed information products (scientific graphics, animations, etc.), secure binary data-access services (based upon the OPeNDAP protocol), and server-side analysis. The latter capabilities allow users to request data subsets transformed through commonly used analysis and intercomparison procedures. As we transition from development activities to production and operations, the ESG-CET team is tasked with making data available to all users seeking to understand, process, extract value from, visualize, and/or communicate it to others. This ongoing effort, though daunting in scope and complexity, will greatly magnify the value of numerical climate model outputs and climate observations for future national and international climate-assessment reports. The ESG-CET team also faces substantial technical challenges due to the rapidly increasing scale of climate simulation and observational data, which will grow, for example, from less than 50 terabytes for the last Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment to multiple Petabytes for the next IPCC assessment. In a world of exponential technological change and rapidly growing sophistication in climate data analysis, an infrastructure such as ESGF must constantly evolve if it is to remain relevant and useful. Regretfully, we submit our final report at the end of project funding. To continue to serve the climate-science community, we are currently seeking additional funding. Such funding would allow us to maintain and enhance ESGF production and operation of this vital endeavor of cataloging, serving, and analyzing ultra-scale climate science data. At this time, the entire ESG-CET team would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank our funding agencies in the DOE Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing (SciDAC) program and the Office of Biological and Environmental Research (OBER) - as well as our national and international collaborators, stakeholders, and partners - for allowing us to work with you and serve the community these past several years.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2013

DOE SciDAC’s Earth System Grid Center for Enabling Technologies Final Report for University of Southern California Information Sciences Institute

The mission of the Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF) is to provide the worldwide climate-research community with access to the data, information, model codes, analysis tools, and intercomparison capabilities required to make sense of enormous climate data sets. Its specific goals are to (1) provide an easy-to-use and secure web-based data access environment for data sets; (2) add value to individual data sets by presenting them in the context of other data sets and tools for comparative analysis; (3) address the specific requirements of participating organizations with respect to bandwidth, access restrictions, and replication; (4) ensure that the data are readily accessible through the analysis and visualization tools used by the climate research community; and (5) transfer infrastructure advances to other domain areas. For the ESGF, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Earth System Grid Center for Enabling Technologies (ESG-CET) team has led international development and delivered a production environment for managing and accessing ultra-scale climate data. This production environment includes multiple national and international climate projects (such as the Community Earth System Model and the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project), ocean model data (such as the Parallel Ocean Program), observation data (Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Best Estimate, Carbon Dioxide Information and Analysis Center, Atmospheric Infrared Sounder, etc.), and analysis and visualization tools, all serving a diverse user community. These data holdings and services are distributed across multiple ESG-CET sites (such as ANL, LANL, LBNL/NERSC, LLNL/PCMDI, NCAR, and ORNL) and at unfunded partner sites, such as the Australian National University National Computational Infrastructure, the British Atmospheric Data Centre, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, the German Climate Computing Centre, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The ESGF software is distinguished from other collaborative knowledge systems in the climate community by its widespread adoption, federation capabilities, and broad developer base. It is the leading source for present climate data holdings, including the most important and largest data sets in the globalclimate community, and—assuming its development continues—we expect it to be the leading source for future climate data holdings as well. Recently, ESG-CET extended its services beyond data-file access and delivery to include more detailed information products (scientific graphics, animations, etc.), secure binary data-access services (based upon the OPeNDAP Data Access Protocol), and server-side analysis. The latter capabilities allow users to request data subsets transformed through commonly used analysis and intercomparison procedures. As we transition from development activities to production and operations, the ESG-CET team is tasked with making data available to all users seeking to understand, process, extract value from, visualize, and/or communicate it to others—this is of course if funding continues at some level. This ongoing effort, though daunting in scope and complexity, would greatly magnify the value of numerical climate model outputs and climate observations for future national and international climate-assessment reports. The ESG-CET team also faces substantial technical challenges due to the rapidly increasing scale of climate simulation and observational data, which will grow, for example, from less than 50 terabytes for the last Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment to multiple Petabytes for the next IPCC assessment. In a world of exponential technological change and rapidly growing sophistication in climate data analysis, an infrastructure such as ESGF must constantly evolve if it is to remain relevant and useful.

96 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND PRESERVATION↗

DOE OSTI2021

Air Blast Mesh Sensitivity and Pressure Mapping Study

Nose cone structural and aerodynamic characteristics are essential for intelligent design of aircraft, spacecraft, and ballistic systems. Finite element analysis can be used to help understand the structural integrity and flight characteristics of different nose cones. A mesh sensitivity study was undertaken for a particular nose cone geometry that was used in tests at LANL facilities in order to confirm the integrity of the meshed geometry. A simple cone that best matched closed-form theoretical solutions was modeled, and received good correlation to the theory. Complexity was then added back to the nose cone. Parameters applied to the simple cone were then implemented in the nose cone geometry giving assurance of accuracy after the geometry was changed. Nose cone results averaged 6.3% error for radial displacement when compared with the theoretical. Hoop stress averaged 6.0% error and meridional stress averaged 5.7% error at the finest mesh level. Meshes showed signs of convergence when compared to all three theoretical solutions. Finally, pressure time-history data from LANL computational fluid dynamics simulations was applied to the surface of the final nose cone geometry. The pressure data was interpolated from pressure gauge locations onto nearby meshed elements, which allowed for FEA software to run simulations on the cone with the pressure data as a loading condition. The pressure mapping resulted in the ability to understand the nose cone’s rigid body motion that in turn can inform design of future nose cones.

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2023

Thermomechanical Stress and Creep-Fatigue Analysis of a High-Temperature Prototype Receiver for Heating Particles

This work presents a three-dimensional (3D) thermomechanical model of a prototype-scale enclosed light trapping solar receiver for heating particles. Results of the thermoelastic model are used to estimate receiver lifetime under maximum flux conditions. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model is first developed to predict the temperature fields in a multi-panel assembly under steady operating conditions. Solar flux distributions on the receiver are obtained from the software package SolTrace and applied to the 3D thermal model. The subsequent particle heating is captured through a simplified 1D energy balance. Panel reradiation is considered through a surface-to-surface radiation model and natural convection loss to the surrounding air is captured in a representative fluid domain surrounding the receiver. The resulting temperature fields from the CFD analysis are used as inputs for a thermoelastic mechanical model with representative boundary conditions. With the resultant temperature and stress fields, a creep-fatigue damage and lifetime analysis is performed using the linear damage accumulation (LDA) theory. The Manson-Coffin formula and Larson Miller correlation are used to calculate the fatigue and creep, respectively. A maximum damage (corresponding to a 30-year service life) is defined for design assessment. The model was first developed and verified in detail by comparing with published results in the literature (temperature and stress profiles and distributions, and creep/fatigue damage fractions) for tubular solar receivers with supercritical carbon dioxide as the working fluid. It was then implemented to model a planar-cavity receiver with various design parameters. Specifically, three different design geometries are considered, and the results show that a maximum temperature of approximately 1200 K could be reached for each design with the given incident solar flux, with the main difference being the distribution of these temperatures. Preliminary resulting stresses for the small-scale prototype without design optimization vary from 20 MPa to 250 MPa for each design, with the maximum stresses occurring on the front face and concave geometry on the side of the panel. In future work, the developed methodology shown here will be applied to analyze a full-scale (50-150 MWth) receiver.

concentrated solar power↗

DOE OSTI2015

Specification of the Advanced Burner Test Reactor Multi-Physics Coupling Demonstration Problem

This document specifies the multi-physics nuclear reactor demonstration problem using the SHARP software package developed by NEAMS. The SHARP toolset simulates the key coupled physics phenomena inside a nuclear reactor. The PROTEUS neutronics code models the neutron transport within the system, the Nek5000 computational fluid dynamics code models the fluid flow and heat transfer, and the DIABLO structural mechanics code models structural and mechanical deformation. The three codes are coupled to the MOAB mesh framework which allows feedback from neutronics, fluid mechanics, and mechanical deformation in a compatible format.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗