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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 1,783 records · Page 99
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2017

Recent results from a testbed for the reliability of the digital instrumentation and control systems and cybersecurity in nuclear power plants - 392

Transition from analog to digital instrumentation and control systems requires a systematic study of the modifications, and assessment of their reliability. Such studies are often carried out on a test bed. The test bed developed earlier includes a commercially available triple modular redundant (TMR) programmable logic controller (PLC) for testing not only the reliability of the digital I and C but also the cyber-security of the system during plant operation. This paper reports results of our preliminary analyses carried out using the test bed following the injection of faults mimicking faulty sensors. The fault injection tool generates faulty signals in single or multiple sensors located in the primary loop. These scenarios studied under steady-state operation conditions simulate a bad sensor, a cut wire, noise, etc. The faults injected can lead to information being displayed in the main control room (MCR) to not match the conditions in the plant. In addition to a fault injection module, a result analyzer module is also a part of this testbed. Operator actions can be based on information displayed in the MCR, or they can be informed by the result analyzer. Potential operator actions following these single- or multiple faulty signals are assessed. It is concluded that the result analyzer in some cases can be helpful in guiding operators to make the right decisions. (authors)

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Modeling the Transient Reactor Test Loop in TRACE for PWR Critical Heat Flux Benchmarking

Understanding transient critical heat flux (CHF) resulting from a Reactivity Insertion Accident (RIA) in nuclear systems is an extremely undeveloped field. Though many experiments have been done for CHF, remarkably few have been done for rods at PWR operating temperature and pressure (300 deg. C, 2200 psia) with a short time constant ramp in power. This leads to many concerns regarding understanding how RIA scenarios develop and evolve in commercial nuclear reactors. With a limited understanding of the phenomenology governing transient CHF, there is little hope in being able to accurately model these scenarios using today's thermal hydraulic codes. The Accident Tolerant Fuels (ATF) Program established by the Department of Energy (DOE) is seeking out new fuel and cladding systems that can be used to reduce the probability and consequences of severe accidents. To better understand this phenomenon, the DOE is restarting the Transient Reactor Test (TREAT) Facility at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). TREAT will be able to provide representative neutronic boundary conditions for testing coupled thermal hydraulics on the Transient Water Environment Recirculating Loop (TWERL) to study transient CHF with the best representation possible. To support this task, Oregon State University (OSU) is designing and building a representative flow loop that will be able to mimic the conditions of TWERL (sans the neutronic boundary conditions) to create a benchmark study for existing lumped parameter thermal-hydraulic codes such as RELAP5 and TRACE. This flow loop, the Transient Reactor Test Facility (TRTL), will support the ATF program by providing much needed NQA-1 data for transient CHF at operating temperature and pressure.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2023

CHARACTERIZATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE ALL–AQUEOUS COPPER THERMALLY REGENERATIVE AMMONIA BATTERY

Low temperature thermal energy is an abundant and untapped energy source for large scale electrical power and energy production around the world. Many different stationary sources such as industrial and thermal power plants produce significant amounts of low temperature heat that goes unused. The primary reason for the energy loss is because the temperature of the heat is often too low for traditional systems to economically generate power from this waste heat. Many different technologies are being researched to produce grid–scale power from low temperature heat to increase grid efficiency, advance decarbonization efforts, and progress electrical power production to a more distributed system. A thermally regenerative battery (TRB) is one promising technology in this space, as it has large power and energy densities relative to competitive technologies and therefore has the potential to disrupt the current power generation mix. TRBs combine two unit operations (a redox flow battery and a distillation column) which are easily scalable and mature, meaning that if a viable TRB chemistry can be identified, its development to pilot and commercial scale can be streamlined. The all–aqueous, copper thermally regenerative ammonia battery (Cuaq–TRAB) was the first TRB that did not use an electrodeposition/dissolution reaction by stabilizing Cu(I) and Cu(II) in the electrolyte, allowing all electroactive species to be stable in an aqueous phase. Through these electrolyte modifications, coulombic efficiency, open circuit potential, and copper solubility all increased, resulting in large gains to power density, energy density, and energy efficiency.

Cross, Nicholas↗
DOE OSTI2024

Control, Fault Management, and Grid Support Functionality of an MV AC-DC Solid State Transformer based EV Extreme Fast Charging Station

Electric vehicles (EVs) have become increasingly popular in recent times while revolutionizing the consumer and commercial transportation market. The development of charging infrastructure has become one of the priorities for increasing the adoption of EVs. Extreme fast charging (XFC) technology can reduce the so-called ’range anxiety’ of consumers as they significantly reduce the charging time. With the advent of wide band-gap (WBG) power devices and improvement in power electronic converters, medium voltage (MV) solid state transformer (SST) based XFC system has the potential to replace the traditional XFC stations because of the lower footprint, ease of installation, enhanced control feature, and better system efficiency. The control system design is one of the critical aspects of the SST development process. Careful consideration and detailed analysis are required to find out suitable control method for the SST based on its topology among different centralized and decentralized control architectures. Also, the control parameters selection and potential improvement to the transient response of the controller ought to be investigated. Another major concern of the SST is different types of internal fault which reduces the overall reliability of the XFC system. As a result, designing a robust protection system is essential. Among different fault modes, open circuit switch faults have received significant attention as an active research area because of their likelihood and severe effects on converters. Therefore, the power stages used in the XFC system require functional and accurate open circuit switch fault management methods. An equally significant aspect of this SST based XFC is its compatibility in a microgrid where there is no synchronous generator present. When the grid is not available, the XFC SSTs can provide grid forming capability and continue supplying the critical loads in islanded mode. The transition between grid connected and islanded mode, especially the grid resynchronization process has to be carefully performed for the safety of the microgrid components. The challenges posed by the aforementioned issues have inspired the work done in this dissertation. Here, a 13.2 kV, 1 MVA, AC/DC SST for the XFC system is examined and a comparative analysis is conducted to select the control architecture based on feasibility of implementation and performance. A detailed control parameter design process is demonstrated considering the sensor dynamics and delay. The selected decentralized control method is augmented by introducing a novel sensor-less load current feedforward method to provide better voltage regulation at the DC bus during a change of load. Next, in the fault management section, a hierarchical failure mode effect analysis (FMEA) is proposed to enable a systematic design of the internal fault protection of the XFC SST as there are limited examples in the literature regarding the analysis of the safety and design of the protection of a power electronic converter system. Novel open circuit switch fault management methods for the converters in the system are presented. Finally, XFC SST based MV microgrid operations in grid connected mode and islanded mode are explored. A secondary control method for grid resynchronization is presented and a design process of control parameters is shown to ensure the stability of the secondary voltage and frequency regulation.

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION↗
NASA NTRS1982

30/20 GHz communications systems baseband processor development

The architecture and system design concepts for a commercial satellite communications system planned for the 1990's has been developed. The system provides data communications between the individual users via trunking and customer premise service terminals utilizing a central switching satellite operating in a time-division multiple-access mode. Baseband processing is employed to route and control traffic on an individual message basis while providing significant advantages in improved link margins and system flexibility. Key technology developments required to prove the flight readiness of the baseband processor design are being verified in the baseband processor proof-of-concept model described herein.

Brown, L.↗
NASA NTRS1996

Large Format Multifunction 2-Terabyte Optical Disk Storage System

The Kodak Digital Science OD System 2000E automated disk library (ADL) base module and write-once drive are being developed as the next generation commercial product to the currently available System 2000 ADL. Under government sponsorship with the Air Force's Rome Laboratory, Kodak is developing magneto-optic (M-O) subsystems compatible with the Kodak Digital Science ODW25 drive architecture, which will result in a multifunction (MF) drive capable of reading and writing 25 gigabyte (GB) WORM media and 15 GB erasable media. In an OD system 2000 E ADL configuration with 4 MF drives and 100 total disks with a 50% ration of WORM and M-O media, 2.0 terabytes (TB) of versatile near line mass storage is available.

Kaiser, David R.↗
NASA NTRS2010

Bacteria Provide Cleanup of Oil Spills, Wastewater

Through Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contracts with Marshall Space Flight Center, Micro-Bac International Inc., of Round Rock, Texas, developed a phototrophic cell for water purification in space. Inside the cell: millions of photosynthetic bacteria. Micro-Bac proceeded to commercialize the bacterial formulation it developed for the SBIR project. The formulation is now used for the remediation of wastewater systems and waste from livestock farms and food manufacturers. Strains of the SBIR-derived bacteria also feature in microbial solutions that treat environmentally damaging oil spills, such as that resulting from the catastrophic 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1978

Shoreline as a controlling factor in commercial shrimp production

An ecological model was developed that relates marsh detritus export and shrimp production, based on the hypothesis that the shoreline is a controlling factor in the production of shrimp through regulation of detritus export from the marsh. LANDSAT data were used to develop measurements of shoreline length and area of marsh having more than 5.0 km shoreline/sq km for the coast of Louisiana, demonstrating the capability of remote sensing to provide important geographic information. These factors were combined with published tidal ranges and salinities to develop a mathematical model that predicted shrimp production for nine geographic units of the Louisiana coast, as indicated by the long term average commercial shrimp yield. The mathematical model relating these parameters and the shrimp production is consistent with an energy flow model describing the interaction of detritus producing marshlands with shrimp nursery grounds and inshore shrimping areas. The analysis supports the basic hypothesis and further raises the possibility of applications to coastal zone management requirements.

Faller, K. H.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Facile and Scalable Synthesis of Metal- and Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Nanotubes for Efficient Electrochemical CO 2 Reduction

Metal- and nitrogen-doped carbon (M–N–C) is a promising material to catalyze electrochemical CO 2 reduction reaction (CO 2 RR). However, most M–N–C catalysts in the literature require complicated synthesis procedures and produce small quantities per batch, limiting the commercialization potential. In this work, we developed a simple and scalable synthesis method to convert metal-impurity-containing commercial carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and nitrogen-containing organic precursors into M–N–C via one-step moderate-temperature (650 °C) pyrolysis without any other treatment nor the need to add metal precursors. Batches of catalysts in varied mass up to 10 g (150 mL in volume) per batch were synthesized, and repeatable catalytic performances were demonstrated. To the best of our knowledge, the 10 g batch is one of the largest batches of CO2RR catalysts synthesized in the literature while requiring minimal synthesis steps. The catalyst possessed single-atomic iron–nitrogen (Fe–N) sites, enabling a high performance of >95% CO product selectivity at a high current density of 400 mA/cm 2 and high stability for 45 h at 100 mA/cm 2 in a flow cell testing. The catalyst outperformed a benchmark noble-metal nanoparticle catalyst and achieved longer stability than many other reported M–N–C catalysts in the literature. The scalable and cost-effective synthesis developed in this work paves a pathway toward practical CO 2 RR applications. The direct utilization of metal impurities from raw CNTs for efficient catalyst synthesis with minimal treatment is a green and sustainable engineering approach.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2026

Kinetics Modeling and Reactor Design Study of Glucose-to-Terpenes Cell-Free Conversion

Cell-free systems offer many advantages over traditional biological conversion by eliminating biological growth constraints. It also offers easy manipulation and finetuning of the reaction conditions for each individual enzyme. The conversion of cellulosic glucose to Limonene, a terpene, is a promising pathway for producing fuels and chemicals. Recent advances in developing cell-free systems focuses on bench scale optimization of terpene yield and to demonstrate its feasibility towards commercialization [1,2]. There is significant knowledge gap regarding reaction kinetics of these cell-free systems to further study how it will perform at larger scale. We present here, our studies on reaction kinetics and reactor design implications of cell-free glucose to Limonene conversion to facilitate the further development and commercialization of this process. We developed a novel kinetic model based on the metabolic-network structure of the cell-free system with multi-substrate reversible Michaelis-Menten rate law. To estimate kinetic parameters for this system of rate equations, we employed Bayesian optimization to perform global search with the assistance of gaussian processes to balance exploration and exploitation. The model parameters estimated showed good results compared with experimental data. The estimated parameters were used to perform sensitivity analysis. We found that Hexokinase is one of the most critical enzymes that affect the conversion of the glucose. We also observed that abundance of co-factors is also critical to the conversion of glucose to limonene. We investigated packed bed reactors with enzymes immobilized on the surface of particles to convert glucose stream into Limonene for larger scale production. The reactor design such as particle size, enzyme loading, and flow rate are found to be critical for improving yields. [1] Dudley, Q.M., Nash, C.J. and Jewett, M.C., 2019. Synthetic Biology, 4(1), p.ysz003. [2] Korman, T.P., Opgenorth, P.H. and Bowie, J.U., 2017. Nature communications, 8(1), p.15526.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Fast Neutron Irradiation of a Multichannel JFET-Based Optical Encoder

Modern electrical components are susceptible to damage from high levels of radiation and extreme temperatures found near reactors in terrestrial nuclear power plants and in aerospace applications. Radiation-hardened electronics are being developed, largely for the aerospace industry, but they sometimes rely on application-specific, small-batch semiconductor fabrication processes. These processes tend to be prohibitively expensive to develop and maintain outside major industrial facilities or governmental agencies. Recently, commercially available, nonradiation-rated junction-gate field-effect transistors (JFETs) were shown to maintain their functionality at gamma doses exceeding 1 MGy, suggesting that nonrated, commercially available electrical components could be used to develop systems that are tolerant to ionizing radiation. However, gamma ray survival is not indicative of neutron dose survival, and few studies characterize JFETs under neutron irradiation. To address this knowledge gap, a JFET-based analog multiplexer and optical pulsewidth modulation (PWM) encoder was developed and irradiated using a 252 Cf source to 1.6×10 13 n/cm 2 . The multiplexed optical encoder (MOE) system maintained functionality throughout testing and showed little evidence of radiation effects. These results indicate that circuitry tolerant to fast neutron damage can be developed using low-cost, nonradiation-rated, commercially available JFETs, which could provide a lower production cost alternative to specialized semiconductor processes when designing and building electronics better able to survive neutron irradiation.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS1980

Coal liquefaction processes and development requirements analysis for synthetic fuels production

Focus of the study is on: (1) developing a technical and programmatic data base on direct and indirect liquefaction processes which have potential for commercialization during the 1980's and beyond, and (2) performing analyses to assess technology readiness and development trends, development requirements, commercial plant costs, and projected synthetic fuel costs. Numerous data sources and references were used as the basis for the analysis results and information presented.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1984

Polycrystalline silicon study: Low-cost silicon refining technology prospects and semiconductor-grade polycrystalline silicon availability through 1988

Photovoltaic arrays that convert solar energy into electrical energy can become a cost effective bulk energy generation alternative, provided that an adequate supply of low cost materials is available. One of the key requirements for economic photovoltaic cells is reasonably priced silicon. At present, the photovoltaic industry is dependent upon polycrystalline silicon refined by the Siemens process primarily for integrated circuits, power devices, and discrete semiconductor devices. This dependency is expected to continue until the DOE sponsored low cost silicon refining technology developments have matured to the point where they are in commercial use. The photovoltaic industry can then develop its own source of supply. Silicon material availability and market pricing projections through 1988 are updated based on data collected early in 1984. The silicon refining industry plans to meet the increasing demands of the semiconductor device and photovoltaic product industries are overviewed. In addition, the DOE sponsored technology research for producing low cost polycrystalline silicon, probabilistic cost analysis for the two most promising production processes for achieving the DOE cost goals, and the impacts of the DOE photovoltaics program silicon refining research upon the commercial polycrystalline silicon refining industry are addressed.

Costogue, E. N.↗
DOE OSTI2018

Environmental and Radiological Readiness of Fixatives, Foams, and Intumescent Coatings for D and D Applications - 18553

During D and D operations of legacy nuclear facilities, the ability to effectively stabilize contamination in large cavities is a significant challenge. For items that must be removed, such as gloveboxes and entry hoods, a method of simply filling the volume to stabilize any residual contamination after contamination efforts have concluded would be of great benefit, and further the As Low As Reasonably Achievable (ALARA) culture of the DOE complex. The development, testing, and characterization of commercial fixatives and foams for applicability towards fixating contamination provides a potential structural reinforcement and fire resiliency in legacy nuclear facility equipment. Much of the equipment, such as gloveboxes, shielded cells, and radiological hoods left over from nuclear processing leave large cavities. Filling these voids after decontamination efforts provides a means of shielding workers from excess radiation exposure while immobilizing residual contamination. As such, we look to continue the development of fixatives/intumescent coatings from the previous year and test commercially available polymer-based foam products for use in filling these cavities, providing a secondary level of protection and shielding during the D and D process This research is funded as part of the In-Situ Decommissioning and Technology Development and sponsored by DOE- Office of Environmental Management Technology Development. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2018

DEVELOPMENT OF A HYBRID LAGRANGIAN-EULERIAN MODEL TO DESCRIBE SPARK-IGNITION PROCESSES AT ENGINE-LIKE TURBULENT FLOW CONDITIONS

With the engine technology moving towards more challenging (highly dilute and boosted) operation, spark-ignition processes play a key role in determining flame propagation and completeness of the combustion process. On the computational side, there is plenty of spark-ignition models available in literature and validated under conventional, stoichiometric SI operation. Nevertheless, these models need to be expanded and developed on more physical grounds since at challenging operation they are not truly predictive. This paper reports on the development of a dedicated model for the spark-ignition event at non-quiescent, engine-like conditions, performed in the commercial CFD code CONVERGE. The developed methodology leverages previous findings that have expanded the use and improved the accuracy of Eulerian-type energy deposition models. In this work, the Eulerian energy deposition is coupled at every computational time-step with a Lagrangian-type evolution of the spark channel. Typical features such as spark channel elongation, stretch, attachment to the electrodes are properly described to deliver realistic energy deposition along the channel during the entire ignition process. The numerical results are validated against schlieren images from an optical constant volume chamber and show the improvement in the simulation of the spark channel during the entire ignition event, with respect to the most commonly used energy deposition approach. Further development pathways are discussed to provide more physics-based features from the developed ignition model in the future.

Scarcelli, Riccardo↗
NASA NTRS2018

In-Space Manufacturing at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center: A Portfolio of Fabrication and Recycling Technology Development for the International Space Station

The in-space manufacturing project at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center seeks to mature the manufacturing capabilities which will be needed on long duration, long endurance human spaceflight missions. The ability to manufacture materials and parts in space rather than launching them from earth has the potential to reduce logistics requirements and enhance crew safety. The International Space Station serves as a unique orbiting test bed for in-space manufacturing technology development for NASA and its commercial partners. This paper provides an overview of the projects currently in the in-space manufacturing technology portfolio and key technology development efforts in the past year.

Prater, Tracie↗
NASA NTRS2021

SmallSat Ka-band Operations User Terminal (SKOUT)

SKOUT is a Ka-band communications system for future NASA mission spacecraft that operates with both NASA and commercial relay satellite constellations in GEO and potentially LEO as well as direct-to-Earth (DTE) networks. This project encompasses the development and demonstration of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) 5G, Ka band, phased array technologies compatible with commercial space networks, including actively phases array antennas, software defined modems, power optimization algorithms, and high data rate to ground using the DVB-S2 standard.

space communications↗
DOE OSTI2023

The Zap Energy approach to commercial fusion

Zap Energy is a private fusion energy company developing the sheared-flow-stabilized (SFS) Z-pinch concept for commercial energy production. Spun out from the University of Washington, these experimental and computational efforts have resulted in devices with quasi-steady DD fusion yields above 109 per pulse. These devices support scaling toward energy breakeven on existing devices as well as beyond to commercially relevant engineering fusion gains. This article discusses the strategy behind Zap's development path, which is derived directly from the engineering and scientific elegance of the confinement method. Without need for external confinement or heating technologies, the SFS Z pinch relies on plasma self-organization. This compact magnetic confinement technology could, in turn, provide the basis for a cost-effective fusion power plant, vastly reduced in complexity from its competitors.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗