Ions interacting in solution: Moving from intrinsic to collective properties
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Duignan, Timothy T. (ORCID:0000000337728057)↗
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U.S. Department of Energy Reference Model Program RM1: Experimental Results
The Reference Model Project (RMP), sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Wind and Water Power Technologies Program within the Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy (EERE), aims at expediting industry growth and efficiency by providing non-proprietary Reference Models (RM) of MHK technology designs as study objects for open-source research and development (Neary et al. 2014a,b). As part of this program, MHK turbine models were tested in a large open channel facility at the University of Minnesota’s St. Anthony Falls Laboratory (UMN-SAFL). Reference Model 1 (RM2) is a 1:40 geometric scale dual-rotor axial flow horizontal axis device with counter-rotating rotors, each with a rotor diameter d T = 0.5m. Precise blade angular position and torque measurements were synchronized with three acoustic Doppler velocimeters (ADVs) aligned with each rotor and the midpoint for RM1. Flow conditions for each case were controlled such that depth, h = 1m, and volumetric flow rate, Q w = 2.425m3s -1 , resulting in a hub height velocity of approximately U hub = 1.05ms -1 and blade chord length Reynolds numbers of R ec ≈ 3.0x105. Vertical velocity profiles collected in the wake of each device from 1 to 10 rotor diameters are used to estimate the velocity recovery and turbulent characteristics in the wake, as well as the interaction of the counter-rotating rotor wakes. The development of this high resolution laboratory investigation provides a robust dataset that enables assessing turbulence performance models and their ability to accurately predict device performance metrics, including computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models that can be used to predict turbulent inflow environments, reproduce wake velocity deficit, recovery and higher order turbulent statistics, as well as device performance metrics.
16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗
Updating a PWR Simulator in Python
A nuclear reactor is a complicated system that is comprised of many systems and components. In order to fully model a reactor, several approximations and correlations must be used for a real-time simulation. In 1984 as part of a doctoral dissertation at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a FORTRAN 77 program was developed to simulate a four-loop, Westinghouse pressurized water reactor (PWR). The program was later called PRISM and extended to include a comprehensive set of features accessible in a DOS-based user interface. This present work seeks to update the original PRISM program for cross platform deployment using the Python language. The goal of this present work is to update and improve a teaching tool for both students and reactor operators. Originally, PRISM was created as part of a PhD project in FORTRAN 77, but the code no longer works readily on modern operating systems. Python was chosen to rewrite the program because of the ease of use of the Python modules including Kivy as well as the portability of the program to various operating systems. This project aims to develop desktop and mobile versions of the software, allowing the user flexibility in choice of platform. This simulator is scheduled to be deployed in time for a live demonstration at the 2016 Annual ANS meeting. The project aims to produce a reactor simulator that will showcase the dynamics of a PWR system in real-time under various conditions. Some potential scenarios include startup conditions, scram operations, or failure conditions such as a break in a coolant leg. The user will be able to induce various failure scenarios and the program will simulate how the reactor will behave. The simulation will include a suite of monitoring functions that will allow automatic systems to attempt to adapt to the changing conditions, e.g., control rod movement. This program will provide an educational resource for anyone learning about nuclear reactor kinetics or dynamics of a reactor system. (authors)
21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
Semiglobal Safety-Filtered Extremum Seeking With Unknown CBFs
We introduce a safe extremum-seeking (Safe ES) algorithm which achieves the minimization of an unknown objective function while ensuring that an unknown, yet measured, control barrier function (CBF) remains above an arbitrarily small negative value for all time. In other words, “practical safety” is maintained during the entire period of convergence to the constrained extremum. Our design is based on quadratic program (QP) CBF style filters for safety, which is applied in an average and estimated sense. Using nonsmooth analysis tools, we guarantee semiglobal practical asymptotic (SPA) stability of the global constrained optimum, practical convergence to the safe set if starting in a condition violating the CBF, and practical safety for all time—semiglobally—if starting in safe set. The safety result of the paper is analogous with modern notions of SPA stability, guaranteeing that, for any small violation of safety, there exist design coefficients which guarantee that such a small violation is not exceeded. The paper outlines a set of sufficient conditions on the barrier and objective functions, and by way of a Lyapunov argument, we demonstrate that nonconvex constrained optimization problems can be solved. We present these results in the setting of a static map and a dynamical system. A simulation example illustrates the results.
97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
U.S. Department of Energy Reference Model Program RM2: Experimental Results
The Reference Model Project (RMP), sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Wind and Water Power Technologies Program within the Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy (EERE), aims at expediting industry growth and efficiency by providing non-proprietary Reference Models (RM) of MHK technology designs as study objects for open-source research and development (Neary et al. 2014a,b). As part of this program, MHK turbine models were tested in a large open channel facility at the University of Minnesota’s St. Anthony Falls Laboratory (UMN - SAFL) . Reference Model 2 (RM2) is a 1:15 geometric scale dual - rotor cross flow vertical axis device with counter - rotating rotors, each with a rotor diameter d T = 0.43m and rotor height, h T = 0.323 m. RM2 is a river turbine designed for a site modeled after a reach in the lower Mississippi River near Baton Rouge, Louisiana (Barone et al. 2014) . Precise blade angular position and torque measurements were synchronized with three acoustic Doppler velocimeters (ADV) aligned with each rotor and the midpoint for RM2 . Flow conditions for each case were controlled such that depth, h = 1m, and volumetric flow rate, Q w = 2. 35m 3 s -1 , resulting in a hub height velocity of approximately U hub = 1. 2 ms -1 and blade chord length Reynolds numbers of Re c = 6 .1x10 4 . Vertical velocity profiles collected in the wake of each device from 1 to 10 rotor diameters are used to estimate the velocity recovery and turbulent characteristics in the wake, as well as the interaction of the counter-rotating rotor wakes. The development of this high resolution laboratory investigation provides a robust dataset that enables assessing computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models and their ability to accurately simulate turbulent inflow environments, device performance metrics, and to reproduce wake velocity deficit, recovery and higher order turbulent statistics.
13 HYDRO ENERGY↗
Gluons and the Quark Sea at High Energies: Distributions, Polarization, Tomography
This report on the science case for an Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) is the result of a ten-week program at the Institute for Nuclear Theory (INT) in Seattle (from September 13-November 19, 2010), motivated by the need to develop a strong case for the continued study of the QCD description of hadron structure in the coming decades. Hadron structure in the valence quark region will be studied extensively with the Jefferson Lab 12 GeV science program, the subject of an INT program the previous year. The focus of the INT program was on understanding the role of gluons and sea quarks, the important dynamical degrees of freedom describing hadron structure at high energies. Experimentally, the most direct and precise way to access the dynamical structure of hadrons and nuclei at high energies is with a high luminosity lepton probe in collider mode. An EIC with optimized detectors offers enormous potential as the next generation accelerator to address many of the most important, open questions about the fundamental structure of matter. The goal of the INT program, as captured in the writeups in this report, was to articulate these questions and to identify golden experiments that have the greatest potential to provide definitive answers to these questions. At resolution scales where quarks and gluons become manifest as degrees of freedom, the structure of the nucleon and of nuclei is intimately connected with unique features of QCD dynamics, such as confinement and the self-coupling of gluons. Information on hadron sub-structure in DIS is obtained in the form of 'snapshots' by the 'lepton microscope' of the dynamical many-body hadron system, over different momentum resolutions and energy scales. These femtoscopic snapshots, at the simplest level, provide distribution functions which are extracted over the largest accessible kinematic range to assemble fundamental dynamical insight into hadron and nuclear sub-structure. For the proton, the EIC would be the brightest femtoscope scale lepton-collider ever, exceeding the intensity of the HERA collider a thousand fold. HERA, with its center-of-mass (CM) energy of 320 GeV, was built to search for quark substructure. An EIC, with its scientific focus on studying QCD in the regime where the sea quarks and gluons dominate, would have a lower CM energy. In a staged EIC design, the CM energy will range from 50-70 GeV in stage I to approximately twice that for the full design. In addition to being the first lepton collider exploring the structure of polarized protons, an EIC will also be the first electron-nucleus collider, probing the gluon and sea quark structure of nuclei for the first time. Following the same structure as the scientific discussions at the INT, this report is organized around the following four major themes: (1) The spin and flavor structure of the proton; (2) Three dimensional structure of nucleons and nuclei in momentum and configuration space; (3) QCD matter in nuclei; and (4) Electroweak physics and the search for physics beyond the Standard Model. In this executive summary, we will briefly outline the outstanding physics questions in these areas and the suite of measurements that are available with an EIC to address these. The status of accelerator and detector designs is addressed at the end of the summary. Tables of golden measurements for each of the key science areas outlined are presented on page 12. In addition, each chapter in the report contains a comprehensive overview of the science topic addressed. Interested readers are encouraged to read these and the individual contributions for more details on the present status of EIC science.
43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
Retrospective Analysis of Backwater Habitat Availability Using Remote Sensing
Low-velocity channel-margin habitats serve as important nursery habitats for the endangered Colorado pikeminnow (Ptychocheilus lucius) in the middle Green River between Jensen and Ouray, Utah. These habitats, known as backwaters, are associated with emergent sandbars, and are shaped and reformed annually by peak flows. Our recent knowledge about backwater characteristics and dynamics that is summarized in the synthesis report (Grippo et al. 2015) was based on detailed annual survey data from a relatively small sample of backwaters that were collected from 2003 to 2014 and reach-wide evaluations of backwater surface area based on manual interpretation of aerial and satellite imagery. Methods that bridge the gap between the detailed surveys from a small number of backwaters and the reach-wide assessment of their surface area would enable an assessment of the availability of backwater habitats that meet the minimum depth requirements for suitable habitat for Colorado pikeminnow. In 2015 Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne) tested three regression models—linear, multiple, and partial least square (PLS) regression models—for estimating backwater depth using National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) imagery collected in July 2006 that covered the Jensen-Ouray reach of the Green River (Hamada and LaGory 2016). The results suggested that a PLS regression model showed high correlation with the reference depth (R 2 = 0.69) and had the most unbiased and consistent estimate of backwater depth. The results also indicated that the PLS model would provide reasonable estimates of the amount of habitat providing a minimum suitable depth of 30 cm for young-of-the-year Colorado pikeminnow, even though absolute depth estimates may be uncertain for backwater areas deeper than approximately 40 cm. The study also provided insights regarding the amount and the selection of calibration and validation (cal-val) data needed for improving the accuracy of depth prediction.
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
OVERVIEW OF THE SDSS-IV MaNGA SURVEY: MAPPING NEARBY GALAXIES AT APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY
We present an overview of a new integral field spectroscopic survey called MaNGA (Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory), one of three core programs in the fourth-generation Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-IV) that began on 2014 July 1. MaNGA will investigate the internal kinematic structure and composition of gas and stars in an unprecedented sample of 10,000 nearby galaxies. We summarize essential characteristics of the instrument and survey design in the context of MaNGA's key science goals and present prototype observations to demonstrate MaNGA's scientific potential. MaNGA employs dithered observations with 17 fiber-bundle integral field units that vary in diameter from 12'' (19 fibers) to 32'' (127 fibers). Two dual-channel spectrographs provide simultaneous wavelength coverage over 3600-10300 Å at R ∼ 2000. With a typical integration time of 3 hr, MaNGA reaches a target r-band signal-to-noise ratio of 4-8 (Å{sup –1} per 2'' fiber) at 23 AB mag arcsec{sup –2}, which is typical for the outskirts of MaNGA galaxies. Targets are selected with M {sub *} ≳ 10{sup 9} M {sub ☉} using SDSS-I redshifts and i-band luminosity to achieve uniform radial coverage in terms of the effective radius, an approximately flat distribution in stellar mass, and a sample spanning a wide range of environments. Analysis of our prototype observations demonstrates MaNGA's ability to probe gas ionization, shed light on recent star formation and quenching, enable dynamical modeling, decompose constituent components, and map the composition of stellar populations. MaNGA's spatially resolved spectra will enable an unprecedented study of the astrophysics of nearby galaxies in the coming 6 yr.
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
Approximating Trajectory Constraints With Machine Learning – Microgrid Islanding With Frequency Constraints
Here, we introduce deep earning aided constraint encoding to tackle the frequency-constraint microgrid scheduling problem. The nonlinear function between system operating condition and frequency nadir is approximated by using a neural network, which admits an exact mixed-integer formulation (MIP). This formulation is then integrated with the scheduling problem to encode the frequency constraint. With the stronger representation power of the neural network, the resulting commands can ensure adequate frequency response in a realistic setting in addition to islanding success. The proposed method is validated on a modified 33-node system. Successful islanding with a secure response is simulated under the scheduled commands using a detailed three-phase model in Simulink. The advantages of our model are particularly remarkable when the inertia emulation functions from wind turbine generators are considered.
24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
Short-Depth QAOA circuits and Quantum Annealing on Higher-Order Ising Models (Rev.2)
The Quantum Alternating Operator Ansatz (QAOA) and Quantum Annealing (QA) are quantum algorithms that are both based on the adiabatic theorem and both have the goal of sampling the optimal solution(s) of combinatorial optimization problems. Quantum annealing has been physically instantiated on D-Wave devices using superconducting flux qubits, and QAOA can be programmed on digital gate-model quantum computers such as the programmable superconducting transmon qubits devices of the IBMQ series, for instance ibm washington. QAOA and QA address the same types of problems, but it is unclear how they will scale to large problem sizes and to larger and higher-fidelity quantum computers. In this article, we present a direct comparison between QAOA, one and two rounds, run on all 127 qubits of ibm washington and QA run on D-Wave Advantage system4.1 and Advantage system6.1. The problems which allow for this comparison are random Ising model problems whose connectivity matches the heavy hexagonal lattice topology of ibm washington and the Pegasus graph connectivity of the two D-Wave devices. We create two classes of problem instances for this comparison: one with higher order terms (ZZZ variable interactions), linear terms, and quadratic terms, and a separate problem type with only linear and quadratic terms. Our QAOA circuits are novel and extremely short depth, with a CNOT depth of 6 per round, which allows whole chip usage of ibm washington’s heavy hexagonal lattice and can be applied to future heavy-hex chips. We also test the effectiveness of the error suppression technique digital dynamical decoupling on the QAOA circuits. The QAOA circuits compiled to ibm washington are composed of several thousand circuit instructions, approximately 3, 000 depending on the details of the circuit, making these some the largest quantum circuits ever executed on a digital quantum processor. QAOA and QA are compared against the classical heuristic algorithm of simulated annealing and all problem instances are exactly solved using CPLEX in order to evaluate which samplers, if any, correctly found the ground state solution(s) of the problem instances. We find that (i) QA outperforms QAOA on all problem instances, (ii) QAOA samples the problems better than random sampling, and (iii) QAOA angle computation exhibits clear parameter concentration across the ensemble of Ising models.
127 Qubits↗
GLUE Code: A framework handling communication and interfaces between scales
Many scientific applications are inherently multiscale in nature. Such complex physical phenomena often require simultaneous execution and coordination of simulations spanning multiple time and length scales. This is possible by combining expensive small-scale simulations (such as molecular dynamics simulations) with larger scale simulations (such continuum limit/hydro solvers) to allow for considerably larger systems using task and data parallelism. However, the granularity of the tasks can be very large and often leads to load imbalance. Traditionally, we use approximations to streamline the computation of the more costly interactions and this introduces trade-offs between simulation cost and accuracy. In recent years, the available computational power and the advances in machine learning have made computing these scale-bridging interactions and multiscale simulations more feasible. One driving application has been plasma modeling in inertial confinement fusion (ICF), which is fundamentally multiscale in nature. This requires deep understanding of how to extrapolate microscopic information into macroscopically relevant scales. For example, in ICF one needs an accurate understanding of the connection between experimental observables and the underlying microphysics. The properties of the larger scales are often affected by the microscale behavior incorporated usually into the equations of state and ionic and electronic transport coefficients (Liboff, 1959; Rinderknecht et al., 2014; Rosenberg et al., 2015; Ross et al., 2017). Instead of incorporating this information using reliable molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, one often needs to use theoretical models, due to the inability of MD to reach engineering scales (Glosli et al., 2007; Marinak et al., 1998). One approach to resolve this issue is by coupling two MD simulations of different scales via force interpolation, e.g., the AdResS method (Krekeler et al., 2018; Nagarajan et al., 2013). Another approach, which we will pursue in the scope of this work, is by enabling scale bridging between MD simulations and meso/macro-scale models through the development and support of application programming interfaces that these different applications can interact through.
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
High temperature ceramic heat exchanger for solid oxide fuel cell
A ceramic heat exchanger with high effectiveness and low-pressure drop has been developed for application as a cathode air preheater for a Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC). At the operating conditions of SOFCs, typical metallic alloys as those used in commercial heat exchangers may undergo chromium volatilization, which is a known cathode degradation mechanism that reduces SOFC performance and life. Use of ceramics such as alumina or alumina-silicate instead of chromium-containing metal is one approach to eliminate the effects of chromium on the SOFC cathode. This project leverages the geometric design of a heat exchanger previously prototyped and tested [1] to fabricate a novel heat exchanger made from a ceramic material. All calculations of heat exchanger performance requirements are based on state of the art SOFC operating conditions. The alumina-silicate material selected to fabricate the modular prototype heat exchanger was made via a heat transfer based trade-off analysis that shows that for low pressure-drop devices, flow convection is the limiting heat transfer mechanism, and therefore wall conductivity becomes less relevant to heat transfer effectiveness. The modular design presented allows for incremental aggregation of modules to target a broad range of operating conditions typical of present and upcoming SOFC applications (e.g., 25 to 400 kWe). The completed prototype was subjected to a series of static leak/pressure tests, dynamic pressure drop tests both at ambient and realistic service temperature conditions, and finally to a matrix of heat transfer experiments to fully characterize its heat transfer effectiveness (including tests at hot gas temperatures up to 1033 K or 1400oF). The stand-alone system was demonstrated in the laboratory to successfully satisfy the design criteria at realistic operating conditions, showing a total pressure drop at the design flow of 8 g/sec of 6 kPa (vs. 3.45 kPa approximate requirement). It was also shown to have heat transfer effectiveness of 76% (with 73% being the design requirement). Moreover, the unit was shown to operate leak-free, and the ceramic elements and seals were capable of withstanding the thermal cycling resulting from the testing procedure. The heat exchanger was then integrated into a modified fuel cell test stand and tested at steady state operation. Unfortunately, the level of performance achieved was lower than expected based on laboratory performance tests. This appears to have been the result of an unforeseen loosening of a heat exchanger structural component, which resulted into a leak that prevented proper supply of hot gas to the heat exchanger. However, in general terms, the heat exchanger/fuel cell integration process provides confidence that a future application of the unit with a SOFC is feasible, assuming structural issues are addressed. It is considered that the difficulties encountered at the last stage of the program provided invaluable input in locating shortcomings of the mechanical design and integration approach. A portion of this work was presented at the ASME Power & Energy Conference, in Charlotte, NC, on June 28th 2016 in a paper entitled “Development of a Ceramic Heat Exchanger for Application as Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Cathode Air Preheater” and the corresponding paper was published in the Proceedings of the ASME 2016 Power & Energy Conference, Paper No.: PowerEnergy2016-59333 [8].
20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS↗
Energy Reductions Using Next-Generation Remanufacturing Techniques
The goal of this project was to develop a radically new surface coating approach that greatly enhances the performance of thermal spray coatings. Rather than relying on a roughened grit blasted substrate surface for developing a mechanical bond between the coating and substrate, which is the normal practice with conventional thermal spraying, a hybrid approach of combining a focused laser beam to thermally treat the substrate surface in the vicinity of the rapidly approaching thermally-sprayed powder particles was developed. This new surface coating process is targeted primarily at enabling remanufacturing of components used in engines, drive trains and undercarriage systems; thereby providing a substantial global opportunity for increasing the magnitude and breadth of parts that are remanufactured through their life cycle, as opposed to simply being replaced by new components. The projected benefits of a new remanufacturing process that increases the quantity of components that are salvaged and reused compared to being fabricated from raw materials will clearly vary based on the specific industry and range of candidate components that are considered. At the outset of this project two different metal processing routes were considered, castings and forgings, and the prototypical components for each process were liners and crankshafts, respectively. The quantities of parts used in the analysis are based on our internal production of approximately 158,000 diesel engines in 2007. This leads to roughly 1,000,000 liners (assuming a mixture of 6- and 8-cylinder engines) and 158,000 crankshafts. Using energy intensity factors for casting and forgings, respectively, of 4450 and 5970 Btu-hr/lb along with the energy-induced CO 2 generation factor of 0.00038 lbs CO 2 /Btu, energy savings of over 17 trillion BTUs and CO 2 reductions of over 6.5 million lbs could potentially be realized by remanufacturing the above mentioned quantities of crankshafts and liners. This project supported the Industrial Technologies Program's initiative titled 'Industrial Energy Efficiency Grand Challenge.' To contribute to this Grand Challenge, we. pursued an innovative processing approach for the next generation of thermal spray coatings to capture substantial energy savings and green house gas emission reductions through the remanufacturing of steel and aluminum-based components. The primary goal was to develop a new thermal spray coating process that yields significantly enhanced bond strength. To reach the goal of higher coating bond strength, a laser was coupled with a traditional twin-wire arc (TWA) spray gun to treat the component surface (i.e., heat or partially melt) during deposition. Both ferrous and aluminum-based substrates and coating alloys were examined to determine what materials are more suitable for the laser-assisted twin-wire arc coating technique. Coating adhesion was measured by static tensile and dynamic fatigue techniques, and the results helped to guide the identification of appropriate remanufacturing opportunities that will now be viable due to the increased bond strength of the laser-assisted twin-wire arc coatings. The feasibility of the laser-assisted TWA (LATWA) process was successfully demonstrated in this current effort. Critical processing parameters were identified, and when these were properly controlled, a strong, diffusion bond was developed between the substrate and the deposited coating. Consequently, bond strengths were nearly doubled over those typically obtained using conventional grit-blast TWA coatings. Note, however, that successful LATWA processing was limited to ferrous substrates coated with steel coatings (e.g., 1020 and 1080 steel). With Al-based substrates, it was not possible to avoid melting a thin layer of the substrate during spraying, and this layer re-solidified to form a band of intermetallic phases at the substrate/coating interface, which significantly diminished the coating adhesion. The capability to significantly increase the bond strength with ferrous substrates and coatings may open new remanufacturing opportunities that were previously not considered due to concerns with the limits of the mechanical bonding of conventional TWA coatings. However, the limited results obtained within this one-year program are not sufficient to move the LATWA into a production environment. Additional work will be needed engineer the process to coat components with more complex geometries than the flat specimens studied in this work. In addition part-specific bench testing and relevant field tests will be required to fully establish the necessary confidence for introducing the LATWA process. These are typical constraints and requirements for most any new production process, and it is quite possible this new process will continue to be a viable approach for extending the usage of remanufacturing, and in turn capturing the resulting energy savings and green house gas emission reductions.
32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
ITER cold VDEs in the limit of perfectly conducting walls
Recently, it has been shown that a vertical displacement event (VDE) can occur in ITER even when the walls are perfect conductors, as a consequence of the current quench (CQ) [A. H. Boozer, Phys. Plasmas 26, 114501 (2019)]. We used the extended-MHD code M3D-C1 with an ITER-like equilibrium and induced a CQ to explore cold VDEs in the limit of perfectly conducting walls, using different wall geometries. In the case of a rectangular first wall with the side walls far away from the plasma, we obtained very good agreement with the analytical model developed by Boozer that considers a top/bottom flat-plates wall. We show that the solution in which the plasma remains at the initial equilibrium position is improved when bringing the side walls closer to the plasma. When approximating the ITER first wall as a perfect conductor, the plasma remains stable at the initial equilibrium position far beyond the value predicted by the flat-plates wall limit. When considering an opposite limit in which only the inner shell of the ITER vacuum vessel acts as a perfect conductor, the plasma is displaced during the CQ, but the edge safety factor remains above 2 longer in the current decay compared to the flat-plates wall limit. In all the simulated cases, the VDE is found to be strongly dependent on the plasma current, in agreement with a similar finding in the flat-plates wall limit, showing an important difference with hot VDEs in which the CQ is not a necessary condition.
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
Thermal Neutron Scattering Law for Beryllium Hydride and Critical Mass Calculations
The thermal neutron scattering law (TSL) for crystalline beryllium hydride (BeH 2 ) is developed from first-principles ab initio lattice dynamics calculations and the impact of neutron thermalization in this material on critical mass is estimated. BeH 2 has a body-centered orthorhombic crystal structure with 12 molecules per unit cell and a theoretical density of 0.755 g/cm 3 . The vibrational (phonon) densities of states for H and Be bound in BeH 2 are determined using VASP density functional theory and PHONON lattice dynamics calculations. The TSLs for H bound in BeH 2 , H(BeH 2 ), and Be bound in BeH 2 , Be(BeH 2 ), are then evaluated in the incoherent approximation from the calculated H and Be partial phonon density of states using FLASSH. Finally, critical mass as a function of 235 U loading density for bare and reflected BeH 2 moderated spheres is predicted from MC21 Monte Carlo neutron transport calculations using ENDF/B-VIII.0 cross sections and the H(BeH 2 ) and Be(BeH 2 ) TSL evaluations. Comparisons are made to water (H 2 O), polyethylene (CH 2 ), and beryllium oxide (BeO) as moderators. These critical mass predictions are a refinement upon the prior work by Rao and Srinivasan that neglected thermal neutron scattering effects. The minimum critical mass of a BeH 2 moderated assembly is estimated to be 0.207 kg 235 U for a 0.20 m thick BeO reflected sphere and 0.178 kg 235 U for a 0.40 m thick BeO reflected sphere.
73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
Phasor-Measurement-Unit-Based Data Analytics Using Digital Twin and PhasorAnalytics Software
A major objective of this project was to apply GE’s commercial machine learning and data analytics toolsets to large-scale, real-world, anonymized Phasor Measurement Unit (PMU) datasets in order to extract signatures, correlated and/or causal factors, and precursor patterns associated with significant power system phenomena. The project had a particular emphasis on extraction of insights relevant to asset health monitoring, real-time load modeling and cybersecurity monitoring. Additionally, the team was directed to undertake a comprehensive data quality analysis for the provided datasets and encouraged to estimate the ‘machine-learning readiness’ of the datasets by documenting any major obstacles to the application of commercial machine learning algorithms. To accomplish the aforementioned objectives, the project team’s work centered around the identification of key event signatures and application of the identified event signatures for event detection and event classification. The industry-validated, semi-supervised machine learning strategy employed for event signature identification involved several major tasks, including data-preprocessing, generation of an overabundance of features, normal data identification, normality modeling, and event signature identification through a methodical, quantitative ranking of features in order of relevance to each studied event type. Throughout the project, data quality issues and mitigation techniques were investigated. In this report, insights are provided regarding the readiness of the provided synchrophasor datasets for application of machine learning and data analytics. The methodologies employed for this technical strategy are summarized in this report. With regards to data preprocessing and feature generation, the provided Training and Test Datasets were ingested into GE’s big data environment. Subsequently, the team applied bad data cleansing and data imputation scripts, event detection scripts, and application programming interfaces (APIs) to the datasets for convenient data access. The project team completed development and validation of dozens of physics-based, statistics-based and transformation-based feature functions used for the extraction of over 60 synchrophasor features. Using a new parallel feature generation technology developed on this project, over 60 features have been rapidly generated for the full two years’ worth of Training and Test Dataset data associated with both the Eastern and Western interconnects. Even accommodating for temporal down-sampling inherent to the feature extraction procedure, this parallel feature generation activity resulted in a massive feature set with a storage requirement approximately equal to that of the raw training dataset itself. With regards to normal data identification and normality modeling, a normality model was built using the feature data extracted from the Training Dataset and iteratively refined subsequent to incremental adjustments and expansions of the Training Dataset feature data. With respect to event characterization and signature identification, an event signature identification pipeline was developed and used in conjunction with the normality model to identify over 15 event signatures for key event categories within the Training Dataset. The identified event signatures were used to characterize hundreds of key events in terms of relative severity, duration, and location of the event. An investigation was undertaken to identify correlated and causal factors involved in transformer events. A separate investigation into temporal trends in ring-down analysis results was undertaken to determine possible associations between system dynamics and various other factors such as loading, season or year. To validate the identified event signatures, additional work was undertaken to develop signature-based anomaly detection and classification tools suitable for convenient application to the synchrophasor datasets. The anomaly detection and classification tools, suitable for online application, were then applied to the entirety of the Eastern Interconnect Training and Test Datasets. Performance of the event detection and classification tools was evaluated upon receipt of the Test Dataset event logs (i.e., the labels for events contained in the Test Dataset), and promising results were obtained despite several challenges (documented herein) associated with application of supervised or semi-supervised machine learning methods to large-scale, anonymized datasets. Finally, the detection and classification tools were used to detect, classify, and characterize thousands of new events not included in the original event logs provided by the DOE within both the Training and Test Datasets.
24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
Dynamics of an Adiabatic Point Reactor
Here, the problem of adiabatic excursions in a reactor is studied in general. We let the prompt temperature reactivity feedback be an unspecified function of temperature, ρ = ρ 0 = ρ 0 + f(T), where ρ is total reactivity, ρ 0 initial step reactivity and f(T) the feedback function. The similarity of the behavior of the reactor for different f(T) is established by means of a topological (qualitative) analysis. A quantitative asymptotic solution of the non-linear system of DE describing the reactor is presented. In delayed critical excursions, the delayed neutrons play a determining role. In the first part of a prompt excursion, the delayed-neutron source is nil; however this is not so in the second part, where it contributes appreciably to the excursion. These conclusions are shown to be valid in general, and allow us to write down almost directly the (approximate) quantitative solution of the non-linear system for any f(T). These results are correlated with the experimental data for the adiabatic excursions of a UO 2 core in SPERT I; in this case the (prompt) dependence of the reactivity on energy is of the form ρ = ρ 0 - 4.588 × 10 -4 E 0.74 .
21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
Fuel Cycle System Analysis Implications of Sodium-Cooled Metal-Fueled Fast Reactor Transuranic Conversion Ratio
If advanced fuel cycles are to include a large number of fast reactors (FRs), what should be the transuranic (TRU) conversion ratio (CR)? The nuclear energy era started with the assumption that they should be breeder reactors (CR > 1), but the full range of possible CRs eventually received attention. For example, during the recent U.S. Global Nuclear Energy Partnership program, the proposal was burner reactors (CR < 1). Yet, more recently, Massachusetts Institute of Technology's "Future of the Nuclear Fuel Cycle" proposed CR [approximately] 1. Meanwhile, the French company EDF remains focused on breeders. At least one of the reasons for the differences of approach is different fuel cycle objectives. To clarify matters, this paper analyzes the impact of TRU CR on many parameters relevant to fuel cycle systems and therefore spans a broad range of topic areas. The analyses are based on a FR physics parameter scan of TRU CR from 0 to [approximately]1.8 in a sodium-cooled metal-fueled FR (SMFR), in which the fuel from uranium-oxide-fueled light water reactors (LWRs) is recycled directly to FRs and FRs displace LWRs in the fleet. In this instance, the FRs are sodium cooled and metal fueled. Generally, it is assumed that all TRU elements are recycled, which maximizes uranium ore utilization for a given TRU CR and waste radiotoxicity reduction and is consistent with the assumption of used metal fuel separated by electrochemical means. In these analyses, the fuel burnup was constrained by imposing a neutron fluence limit to fuel cladding to the same constant value. This paper first presents static, time-independent measures of performance for the LWR [right arrow] FR fuel cycle, including mass, heat, gamma emission, radiotoxicity, and the two figures of merit for materials for weapon attractiveness developed by C. Bathke et al. No new fuel cycle will achieve a static equilibrium in the foreseeable future. Therefore, additional analyses are shown with dynamic, time-dependent measures of performance including uranium usage, TRU inventory, and radiotoxicity to evaluate the complex impacts of transition from the current uranium-fueled LWR system, and other more realistic impacts that may not be intuited from the time-independent steady-state conditions of the end-state fuel cycle. These analyses were performed using the Verifiable Fuel Cycle Simulation Model VISION. Compared with static calculations, dynamic results paint a different picture of option space and the urgency of starting a FR fleet. For example, in a static analysis, there is a sharp increase in uranium utilization as CR exceeds 1.0 (burner versus breeder). However, in dynamic analyses that examine uranium use over the next 1 to 2 centuries, behavior as CR crosses the 1.0 threshold is smooth, and other parameters such as the time required outside of reactors to recycle fuel become important. Overall, we find that there is no unambiguously superior value of TRU CR; preferences depend on the relative importance of different fuel cycle system objectives.
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗