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Comparison of field measurements and large eddy simulations of the scaled wind farm technology (SWIFT) site

ASME-JSME-KSME 2019 8th Joint Fluids Engineering Conference, AJKFluids 2019

Blaylock, Myra L.; Houchens, Brent C.; Maniaci, David C.; Herges, T.; Foulk, James W.; Knaus, Robert C.; Sakievich, Philip

Power production of the turbines at the Department of Energy/Sandia National Laboratories Scaled Wind Farm Technology (SWiFT) facility located at the Texas Tech University’s National Wind Institute Research Center was measured experimentally and simulated for neutral atmospheric boundary layer operating conditions. Two V27 wind turbines were aligned in series with the dominant wind direction, and the upwind turbine was yawed to investigate the impact of wake steering on the downwind turbine. Two conditions were investigated, including that of the leading turbine operating alone and both turbines operating in series. The field measurements include meteorological evaluation tower (MET) data and light detection and ranging (lidar) data. Computations were performed by coupling large eddy simulations (LES) in the three-dimensional, transient code Nalu-Wind with engineering actuator line models of the turbines from OpenFAST. The simulations consist of a coarse precursor without the turbines to set up an atmospheric boundary layer inflow followed by a simulation with refinement near the turbines. Good agreement between simulations and field data are shown. These results demonstrate that Nalu-Wind holds the promise for the prediction of wind plant power and loads for a range of yaw conditions.

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Mixing of Liquid Methane Releases

Egbert, Scott C.; Li, Xuefang; Blaylock, Myra L.; Hecht, Ethan S.

Spontaneous Raman scattering images of liquid and near liquid methane released through 1 and 1.25 mm diameter orifices were taken using a pulsed planar laser sheet. The methane back pressure was varied between 2 and 6 barabs with methane temperatures between 130 and 220 K. Analysis of the Raman images resulted in the planar concentration and temperature fields of the methane jets. The measured methane concentration was compared with empirical relationships for warm gas releases and found to be in agreement in terms of centerline concentration decay rate, self-similarity, and half-width decay rate. Comparisons were then made for anticipated real-world CNG and LNG releases showing similar extents of flammable mass for the two fuel options. Measured images were compared to a cold gas release model, which showed good agreement over the range of methane release temperatures, pressures, and nozzle sizes. The collected measurements provide validation of this cold release model which will be used to model additional scenarios and inform LNG safety codes and standards.

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Hydrogen Quantitative Risk Assessment

Muna, Alice B.; Ehrhart, Brian D.; Hecht, Ethan S.; Bran Anleu, Gabriela A.; Blaylock, Myra L.; Lafleur, Angela (Chris)

DOE has identified consistent safety, codes, and standards as a critical need for the deployment of hydrogen technologies, with key barriers related to the availability and implementation of technical information in the development of regulations, codes, and standards. Advances in codes and standards have been enabled by risk-informed approaches to create and implement revisions to codes, such as National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 2, NFPA 55, and International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Technical Specification (TS)-19880-1. This project provides the technical basis for these revisions, enabling the assessment of the safety of hydrogen fuel cell systems and infrastructure using QRA and physics-based models of hydrogen behavior. The risk and behavior tools that are developed in this project are motivated by, shared directly with, and used by the committees revising relevant codes and standards, thus forming the scientific basis to ensure that code requirements are consistent, logical, and defensible.

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Optimal Compressed Sensing and Reconstruction of Unstructured Mesh Datasets

Data Science and Engineering

Salloum, Maher; Fabian, Nathan D.; Hensinger, David M.; Lee, Jina; Allendorf, Elizabeth M.; Bhagatwala, Ankit; Blaylock, Myra L.; Chen, Jacqueline H.; Templeton, J.A.; Tezaur, Irina K.

Exascale computing promises quantities of data too large to efficiently store and transfer across networks in order to be able to analyze and visualize the results. We investigate compressed sensing (CS) as an in situ method to reduce the size of the data as it is being generated during a large-scale simulation. CS works by sampling the data on the computational cluster within an alternative function space such as wavelet bases and then reconstructing back to the original space on visualization platforms. While much work has gone into exploring CS on structured datasets, such as image data, we investigate its usefulness for point clouds such as unstructured mesh datasets often found in finite element simulations. We sample using a technique that exhibits low coherence with tree wavelets found to be suitable for point clouds. We reconstruct using the stagewise orthogonal matching pursuit algorithm that we improved to facilitate automated use in batch jobs. We analyze the achievable compression ratios and the quality and accuracy of reconstructed results at each compression ratio. In the considered case studies, we are able to achieve compression ratios up to two orders of magnitude with reasonable reconstruction accuracy and minimal visual deterioration in the data. Our results suggest that, compared to other compression techniques, CS is attractive in cases where the compression overhead has to be minimized and where the reconstruction cost is not a significant concern.

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Analyses in Support of Risk-Informed Natural Gas Vehicle Maintenance Facility Codes and Standards: Phase II

Blaylock, Myra L.; Lafleur, Angela (Chris); Muna, Alice B.; Ehrhart, Brian D.

Safety standards development for maintenance facilities of liquid and compressed natural gas fueled vehicles is required to ensure proper facility design and operating procedures. Standard development organizations are utilizing risk-informed concepts to develop natural gas vehicle (NGV) codes and standards so that maintenance facilities meet acceptable risk levels. The present report summarizes Phase II work for existing NGV repair facility code requirements and highlights inconsistencies that need quantitative analysis into their effectiveness. A Hazardous and Operability study was performed to identify key scenarios of interest using risk ranking. Detailed simulations and modeling were performed to estimate the location and behavior of natural gas releases based on these scenarios. Specific code conflicts were identified, and ineffective code requirements were highlighted and resolutions proposed. These include ventilation rate basis on area or volume, as well as a ceiling offset which seems ineffective at protecting against flammable gas concentrations. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors gratefully acknowledge Bill Houf (SNL -- Retired) for his assistance with the set-up and post-processing of the numerical simulations. The authors also acknowledge Doug Horne (retired) for his helpful discussions. We would also like to acknowledge the support from the Clean Cities program of DOE's Vehicle Technology Office.

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Informing hazardous zones for on-board maritime hydrogen liquid and gas systems

Blaylock, Myra L.; Pratt, Joseph W.; Bran Anleu, Gabriela A.; Proctor, Camron

The significantly higher buoyancy of hydrogen compared to natural gas means that hazardous zones defined in the IGF code may be inaccurate if applied to hydrogen. This could place undue burden on ship design or could lead to situations that are unknowingly unsafe. We present dispersion analyses to examine three vessel case studies: (1) abnormal external vents of full blowdown of a liquid hydrogen tank due to a failed relief device in still air and with crosswind; (2) vents due to naturally-occurring boil-off of liquid within the tank; and (3) a leak from the pipes leading into the fuel cell room. The size of the hydrogen plumes resulting from a blowdown of the tank depend greatly on the wind conditions. It was also found that for normal operations releasing a small amount of "boil- off" gas to regulate the pressure in the tank does not create flammable concentrations.

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Hydrogen Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle Tunnel Safety Study

Lafleur, Angela (Chris); Bran Anleu, Gabriela A.; Muna, Alice B.; Ehrhart, Brian D.; Blaylock, Myra L.; Houf, William G.

Several jurisdictions with critical tunnel infrastructure have expressed the need to understand the risks and implications of traffic incidents in tunnels involving hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. A risk analysis was performed to estimate what scenarios were most likely to occur in the event of a crash. The results show that the most likely consequence is no additional hazard from the hydrogen, although some factors need additional data and study to validate. This includes minor crashes and scenarios with no release or ignition. When the hydrogen does ignite, it is most likely a jet flame from the pressure relief device release due to a hydrocarbon fire. This scenario was considered in detailed modeling of specific tunnel configurations, as well as discussion of consequence concerns from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation. Localized concrete spalling may result where the jet flame impinges the ceiling, but this is not expected to occur with ventilation. Structural epoxy remains well below the degradation temperature. The total stress on the steel structure was significantly lower than the yield stress of stainless steel at the maximum steel temperature even when the ventilation was not operational. As a result, the steel structure will not be compromised. It is important to note that the study took a conservative approach in several factors, so observed temperatures should be lower than predicted by the models.

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Aero-MINE (Motionless INtegrated Energy) for Distributed Scalable Wind Power

Houchens, Brent C.; Blaylock, Myra L.

The proposed Aero-MINE technology will extract energy from wind without any exterior moving parts. Aero-MINEs can be integrated into buildings or function stand-alone, and are scalable. This gives them advantages similar to solar panels, but with the added benefit of operation in cloudy or dark conditions. Furthermore, compared to solar panels, Aero-MINEs can be manufactured at lower cost and with less environmental impact. Power generation is isolated internally by the pneumatic transmission of air and the outlet air-jet nozzles amplify the effectiveness. Multiple units can be connected to one centrally located electric generator. Aero-MINEs are ideal for the built-environment, with numerous possible configurations ranging from architectural integration to modular bolt-on products. Traditional wind turbines suffer from many fundamental challenges. The fast-moving blades produce significant aero-acoustic noise, visual disturbances, light-induced flickering and impose wildlife mortality risks. The conversion of massive mechanical torque to electricity is a challenge for gears, generators and power conversion electronics. In addition, the installation, operation and maintenance of wind turbines is required at significant height. Furthermore, wind farms are often in remote locations far from dense regions of electricity customers. These technical and logistical challenges add significantly to the cost of the electricity produced by utility-scale wind farms. In contrast, distributed wind energy eliminates many of the logistical challenges. However, solutions such as micro-turbines produce relatively small amounts of energy due to the reduction in swept area and still suffer from the motion-related disadvantages of utility-scale turbines. Aero-MINEs combine the best features of distributed generation, while eliminating the disadvantages.

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Methodology for assessing the safety of Hydrogen Systems: HyRAM 1.1 technical reference manual

Groth, Katrina M.; Hecht, Ethan S.; Reynolds, John; Blaylock, Myra L.; Carrier, Erin E.

The HyRAM software toolkit provides a basis for conducting quantitative risk assessment and consequence modeling for hydrogen infrastructure and transportation systems. HyRAM is designed to facilitate the use of state-of-the-art science and engineering models to conduct robust, repeatable assessments of hydrogen safety, hazards, and risk. HyRAM is envisioned as a unifying platform combining validated, analytical models of hydrogen behavior, a stan- dardized, transparent QRA approach, and engineering models and generic data for hydrogen installations. HyRAM is being developed at Sandia National Laboratories for the U. S. De- partment of Energy to increase access to technical data about hydrogen safety and to enable the use of that data to support development and revision of national and international codes and standards. This document provides a description of the methodology and models contained in the HyRAM version 1.1. HyRAM 1.1 includes generic probabilities for hydrogen equipment fail- ures, probabilistic models for the impact of heat flux on humans and structures, and computa- tionally and experimentally validated analytical and first order models of hydrogen release and flame physics. HyRAM 1.1 integrates deterministic and probabilistic models for quantifying accident scenarios, predicting physical effects, and characterizing hydrogen hazards (thermal effects from jet fires, overpressure effects from deflagrations), and assessing impact on people and structures. HyRAM is a prototype software in active development and thus the models and data may change. This report will be updated at appropriate developmental intervals.

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Uncertainty quantification in LES of channel flow

International Journal for Numerical Methods in Fluids

Safta, Cosmin; Blaylock, Myra L.; Templeton, J.A.; Domino, Stefan P.; Sargsyan, Khachik; Najm, Habib N.

In this paper, we present a Bayesian framework for estimating joint densities for large eddy simulation (LES) sub-grid scale model parameters based on canonical forced isotropic turbulence direct numerical simulation (DNS) data. The framework accounts for noise in the independent variables, and we present alternative formulations for accounting for discrepancies between model and data. To generate probability densities for flow characteristics, posterior densities for sub-grid scale model parameters are propagated forward through LES of channel flow and compared with DNS data. Synthesis of the calibration and prediction results demonstrates that model parameters have an explicit filter width dependence and are highly correlated. Discrepancies between DNS and calibrated LES results point to additional model form inadequacies that need to be accounted for. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Analysis of a Full Scale Blowdown Due to a Mechanical Failure of a Pressure Relief Device in a Natural Gas Vehicle Maintenance Facility

Blaylock, Myra L.; Bozinoski, Radoslav; Ekoto, Isaac W.

A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis of a natural gas vehicle experiencing a mechanical failure of a pressure relief device on a full CNG cylinder was completed to determine the resulting amount and location of flammable gas. The resulting overpressure if it were to ignite was also calculated. This study completes what is discussed in Ekoto et al. which covers other related leak scenarios. We are not determining whether or not this is a credible release, rather just showing the result of a possible worst case scenario. The Sandia National Laboratories computational tool Netflow was used to calculate the leak velocity and temperature. The in - house CFD code Fuego was used to determine the flow of the leak into the maintenance garage. A maximum flammable mass of 35 kg collected along the roof of the garage. This would result in an overpressure that could do considerable damage if it were to ignite at the time of this maximum volume. It is up to the code committees to decide whet her this would be a credible leak, but if it were, there should be preventions to keep the flammable mass from igniting.

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Results 51–100 of 112
Results 51–100 of 112