Award Data

60419 This project will develop a three dimensional, adaptive, unstructured grid treatment of free surface magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) flow of conducting liquids, as envisioned in future fusion systems. In particular, computational fluid dynamic (CFD) tools, capable of predicting the flow behavior of conducting liquids in complex geometry with free surfaces in the presence of an intense heat ...

60176 Current high power gyrotron tubes, used for heating fusion plasmas, produce power in high order TE modes, which are converted to a Gaussian like mode through use of an internal mode converter and launcher. However, these converter systems typically achieve only 85-90% efficiency for conversion of cavity output power to a usable Gaussian mode, leading to significant efficiency degra ...

EFFECTIVE, LOW-COST SULFUR DIOXIDE (SO(2)) EMISSION CONTROLSTHAT ARE RETROFITTABLE ARE NEEDED TO ALLOW THE WIDESPREAD USE OF COAL WHILE NOT ADVERSELY IMPACTING THE ENVIRONMENT. DIRECT SORBENT INJECTION IS A RELATIVELY ECONOMICAL RETROFITTABLE SO(2) CAPTURE TECHNIQUE. HOWEVER, SO(2) SORBENT CAPTURE EFFECTIVENESS FOR THIS TECHNIQUE IS LIMITED BY NON-OPTIMAL SORBENT ACTIVE SURFACE AREA DEVELOPMENT, S ...

THIS RESEARCH WILL INVESTIGATE THE SUITABILITY OF A NEW DESIGN FOR AN ADVANCED AUTOMATED CONTROL SYSTEM FOR NUCLEAR POWERPLANTS. THIS DESIGN, CALLED THE HIERARCHICAL DISTRIBUTED RECOVERY BLOCK NHDFT) CONSISTS OF THREE SUBSYSTEMS: (1) THE KERNEL NETWORK: A SIMPLE, THOROUGHLY TESTED AND TRUSTWORTHY NETWORK OF COMPUTERS CAPABLE OF MAINTAINING THE PLANT IN A SAFE CONDITION EVEN IF OTHER PARTS OF THE H ...

BLACK LIQUOR RECOVERY BOILERS EMPLOY BLACK LIQUOR AS A PRIMARY FUEL THAT CONTAINS LARGE AMOUNTS OF SODIUM CARBONATE, SODIUM SULFIDE, AND SMALL AMOUNTS OF SODIUM SULFATE. THE FUEL, AS INTRODUCED IN THE BOILER, CONTAINS APPROXIMATELY ONE-THIRD WATER, ONE-THIRD CHEMICALS, AND ONLYONE-THIRD COMBUSTIBLE MATERIALS. THE BLACK LIQUOR RECOVERY BOILER IS AN ESSENTIAL STEP OF THE KRAFT PULPING PROCESS FOR PR ...

THE ADVANCED TANDEM-PULSE COMBUSTION SYSTEM BEING STUDIED FOR DIRECT COAL FIRING IN COMBUSTION GAS TURBINES PROVIDES INCREASED COMBUSTION EFFICIENCY AT SHORTER RESIDENCE TIMES, AS WELL AS A VERY COMPACT OVERALL COMBUSTOR ISLAND SUBSYSTEM FOR SIMULTANEOUS CONTROL OF NO(X),S0(X) PARTICULATE, AND ALKALI EMISSIONS UPSTREAD OF THE TURBINE. THE COMBUSTOR ISLAND TECHNOLOGY CONSISTS OF TANDEM-PULSE COMBUS ...

THE PRODIGIOUS FLOW OF DATA IN ELECTROMAGNETIC CALORIMETERS PROPOSED FOR EXPERIMENTS AT THE SUPERCONDUCTING SUPER COLLIDER (SSC) WILL REQUIRE THE USE OF NEW FAST RADIATION RESISTANT DETECTOR CRYSTALS SUCH AS BAF(2). HOWEVER, THE PRECISION OF THESE CALORIMETERS, AND HENCE THEIR USE FOR PHYSICAL MEASUREMENT, WILL DEPEND ON IN-SITU CALIBRATION. RECENT WORK BY U.S. COLLABORATORS DESIGNING THE LARGE BI ...

60136 The use of photovoltaic (PV) cells for thermophotovoltaic (TPV) or reflective concentration systems will require a configuration that maximizes performance through dense cell packing and provides for high reliability through the use of bypass diodes. The lack of such a method is an impediment to the commercialization of TPV and reflective concentration systems. This project will use ...

SYMBOLIC COMPUTATION IS BECOMING MORE IMPORTANT IN EXPERIMENTAL AND THEORETICAL PHYSICS FOR SYMBOLIC ALGEBRAIC MANIPULATION, FOR SIGNAL AND IMAGE PROCESSING, AND FOR EXPERT SYSTEMS. THE UTILITY INDUSTRY IS ALSO INVESTIGATING THE USE OF SYMBOLIC COMPUTATION AND EXPERT SYSTEMS FOR REACTOR MODELING, CONTROL, AND ROBOTICS APPLICATIONS. WITH THE INCREASING DEMANDS PLACED ON THESE SYSTEMS, THE COMPUTATI ...

60985 Carbon isotope ratio variations in carbon dioxide have been shown to be useful in mapping the flux of biologic versus terrestrial carbon sources. However, most current methods for making this determination rely upon field samples returned to laboratories for analysis, making contamination a serious problem. This project will develop new fieldable instrumentation that can make these d ...