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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 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Intelligent Manufacturing for Extreme Environments Conference Proceedings

The Intelligent Manufacturing for Extreme Environments (IMEE) workshop was held at the Center for Advanced Energy Studies (CAES) in Idaho Falls, Idaho, May 2–3, 2023, in support of the United States (U.S.) National Science Foundation (NSF) Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research: Workshop Opportunities (EPSCoR-WO) program. This workshop featured keynote speakers, panels, and breakout sessions with 58 participants. Nuclear reactors need to operate under extreme service conditions, such as high temperatures, corrosive environments, and high-radiation doses. Hence, reactor components must be able to withstand those conditions. The participants envision a future where on demand manufacture of components for small modular reactors (SMRs), microreactors, and other advanced reactor designs are possible. In this future, regulatory bodies accept validated manufacturing processes and standardized feedstocks, thus eliminating the need for individual component testing. However, the necessary technologies and regulatory policies needed for this future do not exist today. Successful innovation would revolutionize the nuclear power sector, enable fast commercial development, create economic opportunities in the U.S., reduce the carbon footprint and associated risks, and promote a skilled and highly competitive workforce. The objective of the workshop was to convene world-class experts, researchers, educators, and students to identify gaps and envision solutions for five interrelated challenges for intelligent manufacturing in extreme environments. The key outcomes of the conference were: (1) to take the opportunity for researchers and educators to network and form collaborations; and (2) to produce a full report to inform policy-makers, industry, and the academic community of various challenges and opportunities in the nuclear energy sector.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Advanced Manufactured Strain Sensors for Extreme Environments

Experimentation at irradiation test facilities are essential for reducing the innovation time of developmental fuels, fuel cladding, and structural materials employed in next-generation nuclear reactors. However, due to the harsh conditions generated in such reactors and limited instrumentation space, the evaluation of a material’s mechanical properties is often limited to characterization after the materials have been removed from reactor conditions, or post-irradiation examination. These experiments are costly, time-consuming, and fail to capture the critical time-evolving phenomena that occur during the irradiation experiments. Advanced manufactured digital image correlation patterns and strain sensor devices serve as two promising technologies that can be deployed in the confined and challenging orientations of these irradiation experiments while also providing key insight on salient materials phenomena (i.e., mechanical properties). To guide the development of the printed strain sensors prior to their deployment in critical experiments, the adhesion strength between the substrate and printed film interface is measured via tensile testing and a non-contact laser-induced spallation technique. The establishment of these process control steps helped guide the successful fabrication and testing of direct-write strain sensing devices discussed in this work. The fabrication process controls are necessary for enabling the sustained operation of these strain sensing device through experimentation and minimize the potential for premature failure.

36 - MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Advanced Manufactured Strain Sensors for Extreme Environments

Experimentation at irradiation test facilities are essential for reducing the innovation time of developmental fuels, fuel cladding, and structural materials employed in next-generation nuclear reactors. However, due to the harsh conditions generated in such reactors and limited instrumentation space, the evaluation of a material’s mechanical properties is often limited to characterization after the materials have been removed from reactor conditions, or post-irradiation examination. These experiments are costly, time-consuming, and fail to capture the critical time-evolving phenomena that occur during the irradiation experiments. Advanced manufactured digital image correlation patterns and strain sensor devices serve as two promising technologies that can be deployed in the confined and challenging orientations of these irradiation experiments while also providing key insight on salient materials phenomena (i.e., mechanical properties).To guide the development of the printed strain sensors prior to their deployment in critical experiments, the adhesion strength between the substrate and printed film interface is measured via tensile testing and a non-contact laser-induced spallation technique. The establishment of these process control steps helped guide the successful fabrication and testing of direct-write strain sensing devices discussed in this work. The fabrication process controls are necessary for enabling the sustained operation of these strain sensing device through experimentation and minimize the potential for premature failure.

36 - MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

Electromagnetics and Advanced Manufacturing Simulation Development within the MOOSE Ecosystem

The MOOSE electromagnetics module (EMM) was developed to provide a general simulation tool for modeling a wide range of problems encountered in computational electromagnetics and enable MOOSE and MOOSE-based application coupling to Maxwell's equations to solve a wide class of new problems. Development of the electromagnetics module has also enabled development of new advanced manufacturing models in the MOOSE ecosystem, including that of the electric field-assisted sintering (EFAS) process. Recent results from this effort show good agreement with experimental results, and these two capabilities will be used in future projects to develop models for novel materials development and manufacturing for extreme environments.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2022

2021 Annual Report Laboratory Directed Research & Development

The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program is an essential pathway for innovation, capability growth, and research staff development at Idaho National Laboratory (INL). This program enables timely and agile response to national security, energy, and environmental challenges that motivate INL’s mission to discover and demonstrate innovative nuclear energy solutions and other clean energy options as well as securing our critical infrastructure. This report highlights INL’s LDRD projects concluding in fiscal year (FY) 2021 which included innovative research and development (R&D) across INL’s five science and technology initiatives: nuclear reactor sustainment and expanded deployment, integrated fuel cycle solutions, integrated energy systems, advanced design and manufacturing for extreme environments, and secure and resilient cyber-physical systems.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Pillars of Innovation Across Southeast Idaho & the Interstate-15 Corridor

Since 1949, Idaho National Laboratory (INL) has been home to developing civilian and defense nuclear reactor technologies and managing spent nuclear fuel. Today, INL is the nation’s nuclear energy research laboratory, sustaining the safe and efficient operation of existing reactors, powering science in space, and breaking ground on the future fleet of advanced nuclear reactors. INL is only one of many rising technology resources in the region, however. Along the Interstate 15 (I-15) corridor, technology and cybersecurity industries and intellectual assets are rapidly expanding. Creating an innovation hub in this region would unite capabilities to solve current and future challenges in nuclear reactor sustainment and expanded deployment, integrated fuel cycle solutions, integrated energy systems, advanced materials and manufacturing for extreme environments, and secure and resilient cyber-physical systems.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2023

2022 Annual Report Laboratory Directed Research & Development

Idaho National Laboratory’s (INL’s) mission is “to discover, demonstrate and secure innovative nuclear energy solutions, other clean energy options and critical infrastructure.” INL executes this mission through research and development across the continuum from basic science to applied science to engineering demonstration and then deployment. The Department of Energy (DOE) Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program enables INL to conduct high-risk, impactful research that enriches the laboratory capabilities in order to further its missions. INL’s LDRD portfolio specifically advances the core capabilities of the laboratory aligned with its five science and technology initiatives: 1) nuclear reactor sustainment and expanded deployment, 2) integrated fuel cycle solutions, 3) integrated energy systems, 4) advanced design and manufacturing for extreme environments, and 5) secure and resilient cyber-physical systems. The 45 projects that ended in fiscal year 2022 and highlighted in this report are just a small sample of the impressive breadth and depth of cutting-edge science, technology, and engineering ongoing at INL.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Coupling of Spark Plasma Sintering with Advanced Modeling to Enable Process Scale-Up: LDRD Final Project Poster

Electric-field assisted sintering (EFAS) manufacturing techniques reduce energy usage requirements, fabricate near-net-shape parts, and produce bulk nanostructured materials through rapid heating and cooling rates achievable through Joule heating. Process parameters of pulsed DC voltage and constant pressure are applied through stainless steel rams and graphite tooling to the ceramic yttrium oxide powder to be sintered. Our high-fidelity modeling code application advances manufacturing for extreme environments by enabling process-informed design and improving microstructure consistency through multiphysics multiscale process-structure-property-performance correlation simulations.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Extreme heat vulnerability of manufactured housing in arid urban environments

This article explores the role of land cover in relation to housing type and tenure in shaping exposure to extreme urban heat, focusing on residents of mobile and manufactured housing (MH). We hypothesize that MH residents will experience greater exposure to extreme heat than those living in other housing types due to lower levels of proximate vegetation. This hypothesis is based on the unique property relations and tenure regimes that characterize MH, which may disincentivize investments in planting and maintaining trees and vegetation in arid environments. To test this hypothesis, we compare the amount of vegetation on properties across housing types, within-type tenure arrangements and between three urbanized areas in Arizona with different levels of exposure to extreme heat. To conduct this comparison, we combine multispectral land cover data for 1.7 million parcels with tax assessor data and building footprints to measure land cover at a high resolution. We find that MH units have significantly less vegetation than single-family residential properties, and that MH units in MH parks have less vegetation than those on individual lots. We conclude that municipalities should promote (e.g. through incentives or other policy interventions) the planting of more vegetation around MH units where there is a risk of extreme heat exposure. Future research can expand this analysis with a closer examination of how municipal ordinances and policies affect land cover by housing type and tenure.

heat↗
DOE OSTI2022

Development of self-sensing materials for extreme environments based on metamaterial concept and additive manufacturing

Structural health monitoring of an engineered component in a harsh environment is critical for multiple DOE missions including nuclear fuel cycle, subsurface energy production/storage, and energy conversion. Supported by a seeding Laboratory Directed Research & Development (LDRD) project, we have explored a new concept for structural health monitoring by introducing a self-sensing capability into structural components. The concept is based on two recent technological advances: metamaterials and additive manufacturing. A self-sensing capability can be engineered by embedding a metastructure, for example, a sheet of electromagnetic resonators, either metallic or dielectric, into a material component. This embedment can now be realized using 3-D printing. The precise geometry of the embedded metastructure determines how the material interacts with an incident electromagnetic wave. Any change in the structure of the material (e.g., straining, degradation, etc.) would inevitably perturbate the embedded metastructures or metasurface array and therefore alter the electromagnetic response of the material, thus resulting in a frequency shift of a reflection spectrum that can be detected passively and remotely. This new sensing approach eliminates complicated environmental shielding, in-situ power supply, and wire routing that are generally required by the existing active-circuit-based sensors. The work documented in this report has preliminarily demonstrated the feasibility of the proposed concept. The work has established the needed simulation tools and experimental capabilities for future studies.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

SiC Receiver/Reactor by Additive Manufacturing for Concentrated Solar Thermocatalysis with Thermal Energy Storage (Final Technical Report - Public)

The direct use of solar thermal energy provides opportunities for low-cost heating sources for a variety of applications. Ultra-high temperatures around 1000°C are high value and highly useful for energy-demanding industries. Many materials cannot withstand these conditions. In the area of Sustainable Chemicals, further limitations on material stability exist. Combining state-of-the-art materials with new designs provides a promising pathway for harvesting solar thermal energy and performing high temperature chemical processes. However, conventional manufacturing limits the potential for design flexibility. In this project, Additive Manufacturing was combined with advanced materials and new chemical reactor designs. In addition, 24/7 energy is necessary for chemical processing, and designs for ultra-high temperature thermal storage were devised. Specifically, preliminary design of a novel solar thermal receiver was developed in this project and designed to work with thermocatalytic reactors for producing sustainable chemicals and fuels. An ultra-high temperature particle storage system and heat exchangers were proposed to transport ultra-hot air as thermal fluid for the system. On a broader scale, this system could be used to tap solar thermal energy for a centralized facility with capability of transferring that heat to various segments at a full range of temperatures to 1000°C. The project pushed the temperature boundaries past those in current use, and Additive Manufacturing was envisaged for fabricating the receiver to meet requirements of extreme environments. An extensive analysis of silicon carbide additive manufacturing was performed to compare the thermal and mechanical properties of complex geometries compared to conventional material and those manufactured via other methods. The Additive Manufacturing via Binder-Jet printing was optimized and characterized to provide high quality and reproducible components capable of withstanding the proposed extreme environments. The designs for the concentrating solar thermal cavity with ultra-hot air thermal fluid showed high performance in simulations, attributable to the complex optimized geometries of the 3D printed systems. The bright future of Additive Manufacturing with advanced materials developments should provide more options and even higher quality as the technology further develops. Current costs for Additive Manufacturing of advanced ceramics is relatively low, however post-processing of the materials for extreme environments is currently high. There is little industrial-scale infrastructure for these, but it is growing as niche applications become more mainstream. The results of the project can be translated into similar extreme environments for concentrating solar thermal energy as well as its integration with ultra-hot air thermal fluids. A number of industries that require ultra-high temperatures need to electrify or otherwise decarbonize for climate goals, and this project showed that theoretically there is a pathway to do so with direct concentrated solar thermal power.

10 SYNTHETIC FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Mechanical Behavior of Additively Manufactured Molybdenum and Fabrication of Microtextured Composites

Refractory metals are a class of high-melting-temperature materials suitable for use in extreme environment applications. Interestingly, during additive manufacturing many pure refractory metals exhibit a switch from (001) to (111) build direction fiber preference with increasing surface energy density. Here we exploit this solidification physics to fabricate material with “mesoscale composite” engineered structures consisting of features with contrasting (001) and (111) build direction microtextures. Separately, elevated temperature tensile testing of EBM fabricated material with a randomized distribution of mixed (001)/(111)-fiber grains is shown to exhibit excellent properties. These results are utilized to build a crystal plasticity model for evaluating the local inelastic response of the composite mesoscale structures. Analysis of printed microstructures and microstructure-scale simulations indicate that both macro-scale and localized material behavior may be tailored. This strategy can be potentially used to synthesize materials with optimized performance for high-temperature applications.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Creep Deformation and Damage Mechanisms in an Advanced High-Temperature Additively Manufactured Nickel-Base Superalloy

Abstract This research investigates the processing–structure–properties–performance relationship in a novel nickel-base superalloy, ABD ® -900AM, designed for extreme environments. Specifically tailored for additive manufacturing (AM), ABD ® -900AM maintains mechanical integrity at high temperatures and is comparable to other nickel-based superalloys with a 30–40% gamma-prime volume fraction. A comprehensive study was conducted using laser-beam powder bed fusion and electron-beam powder bed fusion methods. Factors such as heat treatment, porosity, build orientation, and hot isostatic pressing were evaluated to understand their effects on microstructure and mechanical performance. Microstructural characterization revealed significant differences in grain size and orientation across build processes and heat treatments. High-temperature mechanical testing indicated that grain size, heat treatment, and orientation significantly influence creep behavior. A super-solvus heat treatment led to recrystallization and grain growth, significantly improving creep properties compared to a near-solvus heat treatment. Various creep mechanisms were identified across different conditions, and creep rupture models were developed for each build process. Post-test microstructural analysis showed grain boundary damage, with differences in creep cavitation morphology under varying stress conditions. It was shown that MC carbides grow at the expense of gamma-prime near grain boundaries, leading to precipitate-free zones in specimens tested at higher temperatures. This study fills a significant gap in fundamental research by offering a deeper insight into the high-temperature mechanical behavior of additively manufactured nickel-base superalloys. It also explores critical research questions regarding the role of carbides and the significance of heat treatment. The insights gained enhance confidence in the industry adoption of ABD ® -900AM and similar alloys for high-temperature applications, bridging the knowledge gap and supporting the development of reliable AM processes for extreme environments.

Bridges, Alex (ORCID:000000030338759X)↗
DOE OSTI2023

Investigating microstructural evolution in SolidStir™ extruded oxide dispersion strengthened 14YWT alloy fuel cladding tube

Structural components for extreme environments require advanced materials and manufacturing processes. One such advanced material is oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) Fe–14 wt.%Cr–3W–0.4Ti–0.3Y 2 O 3 (14YWT), which is developed for components to be used in Gen IV and fusion nuclear reactors. However, the conventional manufacturing processes to produce components, such as fuel cladding tubes, either do not retain the desired microstructural attributes or are costly and less efficient. As a result, a more attractive option is a novel manufacturing process developed on the principle of friction stir welding or processing (FSW/P) and commercially referred to as SolidStir™ Extrusion (SSE). Here this study used the SSE technique to study the manufacturing and microstructural evolution of a fuel cladding tube made of ODS 14YWT alloy. The cladding extrusion by the SSE technique involved the use of ball-milled 14YWT powders with Y, Ti, and O in the solid solution and the use of a specially designed W-25Re-Hf tool for consolidation and extrusion of the powders. A scanning electron microscope (SEM), electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD), and transmission electron microscope (TEM) were utilized for microstructural characterization. A Keyence microscope captured macrostructural photographs of the extruded tube. EBSD examination of the extruded tube on both transverse and longitudinal cross-sections showed the presence of dynamically recrystallized grains and revealed that the average grain size of the transverse cross-section was smaller than that of the longitudinal cross-section. The texture was weak and consisted of some amount of shear texture. The presence of nano-oxide clusters or precipitates of Y, Ti, and O (pyrochlores) in the extruded tube was determined by TEM. Aging heat treatment caused the average precipitate size to decrease and the density to increase compared to the as-processed condition. The results indicated that SSE is a viable tool for manufacturing fuel cladding tubes with the desired microstructural attributes.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Experimental investigation of thermal conductivity of high entropy ceramics

In this talk, we will present the experimental investigation of thermal conductivity of high entropy carbides (HEC) and borides (HEB) with different compositions. Thermal conductivity determines the capability of a material to transport thermal energy and is considered as one critical physical property, specially in the energy industry. Due to the presences of disordered cation sublattice, it is expected that thermal conductivity of high entropy ceramics is lower than the counterparts with simpler compositions, but the experimental studies are relatively few. Using laser-based spatial-domain and frequency-domain thermoreflectance technique, we measured thermal conductivity of HECs and HEBs in a temperature range from 77K to 773K. Furthermore, by focusing the laser using an objective lens, we were able to perform the thermal property mapping on samples with the spatial resolution of micrometer. Such measurements could reveal important microstructure information in a rapid and efficient way without using scanning electron microscopy. The high spatial resolution also enables thermal conductivity measurements on ion-irradiated HECs with the damage layer of merely 1.1µm. These measurements can provide valuable information to predict the performances of HECs and HEBs with different compositions and from different manufacturing processes, and in the extreme environments such as nuclear reactors.

36 - MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2024

High plasticity in refractory composite fabrication by ultrasonic additive manufacturing

Refractory metal composites are desirable for use in extreme environments that require materials with high specific strengths and resilience to external environments such as that found in nuclear and aerospace. However, due to the high melting temperature of refractories, liquid state joining processes such as welding remains difficult. Ultrasonic additive manufacturing (UAM) provides a potential route for processing refractory composites because it is a solid-state (i.e., no-melting) process and allows for intermittent machining operations to be performed between welds. Further, to demonstrate refractory composite fabrication, this study utilized UAM to machine a cavity to locate and sequester a Mo foil in a Zircaloy-4 (Zry-4) baseplate and additively build over the top with Zry-4 foils, thereby embedding the Mo in Zry-4 matrix. Significant deformation of the Zry-4 microstructure was observed: this deformation caused adiabatic heating and subsequent dynamic recrystallization through the transformation from α→β and then back to α as the material cooled. Flexural testing of the Zr–Mo composite revealed no delamination or failure, but the strength was not as expected, falling lower than a cold-worked Zry-4 sample. Finite element analysis supported that some bonding must have existed between the Zry-4 and Mo. There was indeed an interdiffusion zone at the Zry-4 foil–Mo foil interface, observing a metastable body-centered cubic β-Zr lathe. It was determined that sufficient strain energy was present to encourage the nucleation of the β-Zr grain along α-Zr grains. Future work is warranted to investigate UAM for refractory composite fabrication.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗