Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “IHT”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

14 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2013

IHT: Tools for Computing Insolation Absorption by Particle Laden Flows

This report describes IHT, a toolkit for computing radiative heat exchange between particles. Well suited for insolation absorption computations, it is also has potential applications in combustion (sooting flames), biomass gasification processes and similar processes. The algorithm is based on the 'Photon Monte Carlo' approach and implemented in a library that can be interfaced with a variety of computational fluid dynamics codes to analyze radiative heat transfer in particle-laden flows. The emphasis in this report is on the data structures and organization of IHT for developers seeking to use the IHT toolkit to add Photon Monte Carlo capabilities to their own codes.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2013

IHT: Tools for Computing Insolation Absorption by Particle Laden Flows

INT is a toolkit for computing radiative heat exchange between particles. The algorithm is based on the the 'Photon Monte Carlo" approach described by Wang and Modest and implemented as a library that can be interfaced with a variety of CFD codes to analyze radiative heat transfer in particle laden flows.

Grout, Ray↗
DOE OSTI2015

Preliminary Design of Critical Function Monitoring System of PGSFR

A PGSFR (Prototype Gen-IV Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor) is under development at Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute. A critical function monitoring system of the PGSFR is preliminarily studied. The functions of CFMS are to display critical plant variables related to the safety of the plant during normal and accident conditions and guide the operators corrective actions to keep the plant in a safe condition and mitigate the consequences of accidents. The minimal critical functions of the PGSFR are composed of reactivity control, reactor core cooling, reactor coolant system integrity, primary heat transfer system(PHTS) heat removal, sodium water reaction mitigation, radiation control and containment conditions. The variables and alarm legs of each critical function of the PGSFR are as follows; - Reactivity control: The variables of reactivity control function are power range neutron flux instrumentation, intermediate range neutron flux instrumentation, source range neutron flux instrumentation, and control rod bottom contacts. The alarm leg to display the reactivity controls consists of status of control drop malfunction, high post trip power and thermal reactivity addition. - Reactor core cooling: The variables are PHTS sodium level, hot pool temperature of PHTS, subassembly exit temperature, cold pool temperature of the PHTS, PHTS pump current, and PHTS pump breaker status. The alarm leg consists of high core delta temperature, low sodium level of the PHTS, high subassembly exit temperature, and low PHTS pump load. - Reactor coolant system integrity: The variables are PHTS sodium level, cover gas pressure, and safeguard vessel sodium level. The alarm leg is composed of low sodium level of PHTS, high cover gas pressure and high sodium level of the safety guard vessel. - PHTS heat removal: The variables are PHTS sodium level, hot pool temperature of PHTS, core exit temperature, cold pool temperature of the PHTS, flow rate of passive residual heat removal system, flow rate of active residual heat removal system, and temperatures of air heat exchanger temperature of residual heat removal systems. The alarm legs are composed of two legs of a 'passive residual heat removal system not cooling' and 'active residual heat removal system not cooling'. - Sodium water reaction mitigation: The variables are intermediate heat transfer system(IHTS) pressure, pressure and temperature and level of sodium dump tank, the status of rupture disk, hydrogen concentration in IHTS and direct variable of sodium-water-reaction measure. The alarm leg consists of high IHTS pressure, the status of sodium water reaction mitigation system and the indication of direct measure. - Radiation control: The variables are radiation of PHTS, radiation of IHTS, and radiation of containment purge. The alarm leg is composed of high radiation of PHTS and IHTS, and containment purge system. - Containment condition: The variables are containment pressure, containment isolation status, and sodium fire. The alarm leg consists of high containment pressure, status of containment isolation and status of sodium fire. (authors)

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Reconstruction of Thermal Protection System Aeroheating using a Green’s Function Approach

Inverse heat transfer (IHT) techniques are often used to reconstruct the surface heating conditions on spacecraft thermal protection systems (TPS) during atmospheric entry. Current IHT techniques for entry spacecraft applications, however, demand substantial computational resources, and are impractical for analyses such as uncertainty quantification and real-time health monitoring. In this paper, a Green’s function sensor fusion approach is used to reconstruct the TPS surface aeroheating conditions on experimental spaceflight and ground test systems from collocated temperature and heat flux sensors embedded in the TPS. The algorithm leverages Green’s functions to model the heat conduction within the spacecraft TPS and stabilizes the recovery of the surface heating condition using the direct heat flux sensor measurement. The algorithm is validated using arc-jet ground test data and applied to the reconstruction of the Mars 2020 backshell heating during Martian atmospheric entry. The performance of the algorithm is benchmarked against a current state-of-the-art IHT framework, FIAT_Opt. The Green’s function-based reconstruction algorithm recovers the net hot-wall heat flux absorbed by the TPS and the incident heat flux from the atmospheric entry environment in close agreement with FIAT_Opt. Notably, computation of the surface heating condition is completed in three orders of magnitude less time with the Green’s function sensor fusion approach using a consumer-grade PC, versus with FIAT_Opt running on a high performance computer cluster. The efficiency of the algorithm is leveraged to compute the uncertainty contributions of input parameters to the total uncertainty in reconstructed Mars 2020 backshell heating for the full atmospheric entry heat pulse. The sensitivity analysis uncovers that, at different times throughout the entry heat pulse, uncertainties in the TPS specific heat, thermal conductivity, and emissivity are all dominant drivers of the reconstruction uncertainty. These results demonstrate Green’s functions and sensor-fusion techniques as promising IHT approaches to reconstruct atmospheric entry environments from TPS-embedded measurements, and highlight how these techniques may give access to post-flight analyses previously hindered by the prohibitive cost of current methods.

Kenneth McAfee↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Reconstruction of Thermal Protection System Aeroheating using a Green’s Function Approach

Inverse heat transfer (IHT) techniques are often used to reconstruct the surface heating conditions on spacecraft thermal protection systems (TPS) during atmospheric entry. Current IHT techniques for entry spacecraft applications, however, demand substantial computational resources, and are impractical for analyses such as uncertainty quantification and real-time health monitoring. In this paper, a Green’s function sensor fusion approach is used to reconstruct the TPS surface aeroheating conditions on experimental spaceflight and ground test systems from collocated temperature and heat flux sensors embedded in the TPS. The algorithm leverages Green’s functions to model the heat conduction within the spacecraft TPS and stabilizes the recovery of the surface heating condition using the direct heat flux sensor measurement. The algorithm is validated using arc-jet ground test data and applied to the reconstruction of the Mars 2020 backshell heating during Martian atmospheric entry. The performance of the algorithm is benchmarked against a current state-of-the-art IHT framework, FIAT_Opt. The Green’s function-based reconstruction algorithm recovers the net hot-wall heat flux absorbed by the TPS and the incident heat flux from the atmospheric entry environment in close agreement with FIAT_Opt. Notably, computation of the surface heating condition is completed in three orders of magnitude less time with the Green’s function sensor fusion approach using a consumer-grade PC, versus with FIAT_Opt running on a high performance computer cluster. The efficiency of the algorithm is leveraged to compute the uncertainty contributions of input parameters to the total uncertainty in reconstructed Mars 2020 backshell heating for the full atmospheric entry heat pulse. The sensitivity analysis uncovers that, at different times throughout the entry heat pulse, uncertainties in the TPS specific heat, thermal conductivity, and emissivity are all dominant drivers of the reconstruction uncertainty. These results demonstrate Green’s functions and sensor-fusion techniques as promising IHT approaches to reconstruct atmospheric entry environments from TPS-embedded measurements, and highlight how these techniques may give access to post-flight analyses previously hindered by the prohibitive cost of current methods.

Kenneth McAfee↗
DOE OSTI2016

Modeling and Validation of Sodium Plugging for Heat Exchangers in Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor Systems

The project “Modeling and Validation of Sodium Plugging for Heat Exchangers in Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor Systems” was conducted jointly by Westinghouse Electric Company (Westinghouse) and Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), over the period October 1, 2013- March 31, 2016. The project’s motivation was the need to provide designers of Sodium Fast Reactors (SFRs) with a validated, state-of-the-art computational tool for the prediction of sodium oxide (Na 2 O) deposition in small-diameter sodium heat exchanger (HX) channels, such as those in the diffusion bonded HXs proposed for SFRs coupled with a supercritical CO 2 (sCO 2 ) Brayton cycle power conversion system. In SFRs, Na 2 O deposition can potentially occur following accidental air ingress in the intermediate heat transport system (IHTS) sodium and simultaneous failure of the IHTS sodium cold trap. In this scenario, oxygen can travel through the IHTS loop and reach the coldest regions, represented by the cold end of the sodium channels of the HXs, where Na 2 O precipitation may initiate and continue. In addition to deteriorating HX heat transfer and pressure drop performance, Na 2 O deposition can lead to channel plugging especially when the size of the sodium channels is small, which is the case for diffusion bonded HXs whose sodium channel hydraulic diameter is generally below 5 mm. Sodium oxide melts at a high temperature well above the sodium melting temperature such that removal of a solid plug such as through dissolution by pure sodium could take a lengthy time. The Sodium Plugging Phenomena Loop (SPPL) was developed at ANL, prior to this project, for investigating Na 2 O deposition phenomena within sodium channels that are prototypical of the diffusion bonded HX channels envisioned for SFR-sCO 2 systems. In this project, a Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) model capable of simulating the thermal-hydraulics of the SPPL test section and provided with Na 2 O deposition prediction capabilities, was developed. This state-of-the-art computational tool incorporates a first-principles Na 2 O deposition model developed by ANL, and combines it with predictive capabilities for the spatial and temporal variation of temperature, velocity, dissolved oxygen concentration, and wall temperature under flowing sodium conditions. The CFD model was validated under no-deposition conditions using experimental data collected with the SPPL, demonstrating the model’s capability to predict the thermal-hydraulics of the SPPL test section within the measurement uncertainty characterizing the SPPL instrumentation. The model’s deposition prediction capability was not, however, validated as the SPPL could not be operated under plugging conditions during the project, resulting in the lack of deposition data with adequate pedigree for a CFD model validation. Two novel diagnostic techniques to detect and characterize Na 2 O deposits, i.e. Ultrasonic Time Domain Reflectometry (UTDR) and Potential Drop (PD) techniques, were developed to ultimately assist in the validation effort under plugging conditions, which can be performed once the SPPL becomes operational. This development effort consisted first in demonstrating, analytically and/or computationally, the capability of these techniques to diagnose Na 2 O deposits inside of small channels (particularly the deposit’s thickness), and subsequently in the fabrication and testing of prototypical UTDR and PD instrumentation. The testing, performed on mockups of the SPPL test section, demonstrated the capability of these techniques to detect and characterize material discontinuities like those induced by sodium oxide deposition on stainless steel channel walls. Because of the mentioned impossibility to run the SPPL in a plugging mode, the developed instrumentation could not be tested in-situ, i.e. at the SPPL while deposits are being formed inside of the SPPL test section. Recommended future work includes a possible enhancement in the CFD modeling technique and installation of the developed UTDR and PD instrumentation on the test section, followed by plugging tests to be conducted with the SPPL. The installation of the UTDR and PD diagnostic instrumentation on the SPPL test section will allow collection of Na 2 O deposition data after the onset of deposition to nearly complete channel plugging, which can ultimately be used for the validation of the CFD model.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Structural Role of Iron in Nepheline-based Aluminosilicates for Nuclear Waste Applications - 18192

Vitrified high-level nuclear wastes (HLW) at Hanford are susceptible to unwanted nepheline (nominally NaAlSiO{sub 4}) crystallization. We have studied simplified HLW glass compositions along the NaAlSiO{sub 4}-NaFeSiO{sub 4} join to assess the structural behavior of iron in nepheline-based aluminosilicates as a function of Fe-Al substitution. The samples were melted and subsequently heat-treated to promote crystallization. X-ray diffraction (XRD) shows that Fe promotes the crystallization of nepheline over its high temperature polymorph (carnegieite) when substituted for Al in low additions. Thermal analysis reveals that glass transition temperature, T{sub g}, and crystallization temperature, T{sub c}, decrease with substituting Fe for Al, while staying within the range of 500 deg. C<T{sub g}<800 deg. C and 700 deg. C<T{sub c}<850 deg. C, respectively. Electron micrographs demonstrate that Fe oxides (hematite and magnetite) are present even when their fractions are below the XRD detection limit. Iron redox determination reveals that Fe{sup 3+} /ΣFe is lower for the as-quenched glasses with lower Fe content at the expense of Al (Fe{sup 3+} /ΣFe ∼ 0.76 ± 0.02 for Na(Al{sub 0.9}Fe{sub 0.1})SiO{sub 4} glass). On the other hand, for high-Fe glasses, where there is not adequate Al in the structure to take the glass-forming role, iron tends to oxidize to Fe{sup 3+} and behave as a glass former, leading to higher Fe{sup 3+} /ΣFe (∼1 for Na(Al{sub 0.3}Fe{sub 0.7})SiO{sub 4} glass). The iron redox obtained by wet chemistry method is discussed. Moessbauer spectra also indicate the presence of Fe magnetic oxides (magnetite, hematite, and maghemite) in heat-treated samples, which is consistent with the microstructural images. In addition to the isothermal heat-treatment (IHT) on all samples, an alternative canister centerline cooling (CCC) treatment was applied to some of the compositions along the join. Comparing the XRD analyses of the CCC samples to the IHT samples, it is found that almost all compositions form higher fractions of the crystalline phases (nepheline, carnegieite, hematite) in CCC compared to IHT. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Observations of the Age of Air from the Northern Hemisphere Midlatitude Surface

Understanding and modeling the interhemispheric transport (IHT) of trace gases and aerosols is important for interpreting past (and projecting future) changes in atmospheric composition. One IHT measure -- the mean age since air was last at the Northern Hemisphere (NH) midlatitude surface – represents a fundamental property of tropospheric transport that can be estimated from measurements of sulfur hexafluoride (SF6). Here we use SF6 measurements obtained from the recent NASA Atmospheric Tomography Mission (ATom) to construct observational estimates of the mean age throughout the troposphere. We compare the ATom based ages, which span all four seasons during the period 2016-2018 over both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, with previous in situ-based estimates obtained from the HIAPER Pole‐to‐Pole Observations (HIPPO) project, which are available only for the Pacific. In order to interpret the observed variations in mean age and their relationship with the large-scale flow we use simulations of the Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS) general circulation model, constrained with meteorological fields derived from the Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications, Version 2 (MERRA-2), performed over the entire MERRA-2 period (including ATom). We confirm results from previous studies showing that the model ages are biased old compared to the observational estimates. However, we also show that this model bias is reduced in more recent years, which we interpret in terms of changes in the latitudinal distribution of SF6 emissions over the 2000s.

interhemispheric transport (IHT)↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Direct Reconstruction of Ablative Thermal Protection System Aeroheating Using A Green's Function Approach

A Green’s function inverse heat transfer (IHT) approach is used to reconstruct the surface heating conditions on ablative thermal protection system (TPS) materials from embedded heat flux sensor and temperature probe measurements. The approach models the temperature time-history at the measurement location as a discrete linear system, allowing for the heat flux boundary condition to be recovered directly without the need for time-marching schemes. The effects of material decomposition and pyrolysis gas transport are modeled using an energy source/sink analogue. The performance of the reconstruction approach is analyzed on a 1D test case representative of an atmospheric entry heating scenario. The approach can recover the TPS surface heat flux to within 4% of the input heating condition with a computation time of 2-3 seconds (>3 orders of magnitude faster than current time-marching IHT methods). As a byproduct of the surface heating reconstruction, the algorithm also captures the surface pyrolysis gas mass flux and solid decomposition at multiple through-thickness locations within the TPS.

Kenneth McAfee↗
DOE OSTI2020

Quantum complexity of time evolution with chaotic Hamiltonians

We study the quantum complexity of time evolution in large-N chaotic systems, with the SYK model as our main example. This complexity is expected to increase linearly for exponential time prior to saturating at its maximum value, and is related to the length of minimal geodesics on the manifold of unitary operators that act on Hilbert space. Using the Euler-Arnold formalism, we demonstrate that there is always a geodesic between the identity and the time evolution operator e -iHt whose length grows linearly with time. This geodesic is minimal until there is an obstruction to its minimality, after which it can fail to be a minimum either locally or globally. We identify a criterion — the Eigenstate Complexity Hypothesis (ECH) — which bounds the overlap between offdiagonal energy eigenstate projectors and the k-local operators of the theory, and use it to argue that the linear geodesic will at least be a local minimum for exponential time. We show numerically that the large-N SYK model (which is chaotic) satisfies ECH and thus has no local obstructions to linear growth of complexity for exponential time, as expected from holographic duality. In contrast, we also study the case with N = 2 fermions (which is integrable) and find short-time linear complexity growth followed by oscillations. Our analysis relates complexity to familiar properties of physical theories like their spectra and the structure of energy eigenstates and has implications for the hypothesized computational complexity class separations PSPACE * BQP/poly and PSPACE * BQSUBEXP/subexp, and the “fast-forwarding” of quantum Hamiltonians.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

Universal construction of controlled-unitary gates using dynamical decoupling and the quantum Zeno effect

We present two new algorithms that universally construct a quantum circuit approximating a controlled-U(t) up to a global phase factor of U(t), denoted by Λ{sub θ}U(t), where U(t) = e{sup −iHt} is the unitary evolution operator of an unknown Hamiltonian H of the system, and is given as a black box with tunable parameter t. We show that it is possible to approximately construct Λ{sub θ}U(t) with arbitrarily high accuracy. This algorithm is based on the dynamical decoupling effect [1]. If another black box consisting of a time-inverted version of U(t), namely U(−t), is also available we can implement Λ{sub θ}U(t) exactly with arbitrarily high success probability. This algorithm is based on the quantum Zeno effect.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2025

Strategies for simulating the time evolution of Hamiltonian lattice field theories

Simulating the time evolution of quantum field theories given some Hamiltonian H requires developing algorithms for implementing the unitary operator e -iHt . A variety of techniques exist that accomplish this task, with the most common technique used so far being Trotterization, which is a special case of the application of a product formula. However, other techniques exist that promise better asymptotic scaling in certain parameters of the theory being simulated, the most efficient of which are based on the concept of block encoding. In this work we study the performance of such algorithms in simulating lattice field theories. We derive and compare the asymptotic gate complexities of several commonly used simulation techniques in application to Hamiltonian lattice field theories. Using the scalar $\hat{φ}$ 4 theory as a test, we also perform numerical studies and compare the gate costs required by product formulas and signal-processing-based techniques to simulate time evolution. For the latter, we use the linear combination of unitaries (LCU) construction augmented with the quantum Fourier transform circuit to switch between the field and momentum eigenbases, which leads to immediate order-of-magnitude improvement in the cost of preparing the block encoding. Further, this paper also includes a pedagogical review of the techniques used, in particular product formulas, LCU, qubitization, quantum signal processing, as well as the technique for simulating geometrically-local Hamiltonians developed by Haah, Hastings, Kothari, and Low.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Safety Analyses of Design Basis and Design Extended Condition Events for the PGSFR

KAERI (Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute) has been developing the PGSFR (Prototype Gen-IV Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor), which is a pool type sodium-cooled fast reactor with the thermal power of 392.2 MWt, uses metallic fuel of U-10%Zr for a core. The preliminary specific design of PGSFR is completed in 2015. The main parts of PGSFR consist of PHTS (Primary Heat Transport System), IHTS (Intermediate Heat Transport System), two SG (Steam Generator), and DHRS (Decay Heat Removal System). The main feature of PGSFR in safety is from the adoption of metallic fuel core, leading to inherent reactivity feedback mechanisms and high thermal conductivity. In this work, safety analysis on DBE (Design Basis Event) and DEC (Design Extended Condition event) for PGSFR preliminary specific design is conducted using MARS-LMR code. Conservative and best-estimated approaches are applied to DBA and DEC, respectively. It is found that the most severe accidents in the AOO, DBA class 1, DBA class 2, and DEC are LOF, OPS, TOP and ULOF event, respectively. And all analysis results are found to meet safety acceptance criteria requirements. (authors)

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗