Quarterly report discussing fuel cell research and development work at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL). This report describes efforts directed toward seeking alternative cathode materials to NiO for molten carbonate fuel cells.

Three series of tests are performed to evaluate the effects of tube to tube-support-plate (TSP) clearance on tube dynamic characteristics and instability phenomena for tube arrays in crossflow. Test results show that, for relatively large clearances, tubes may possess TSP-inactive modes in which the tubes rattle inside some of the tube-support-plate holes, and that the natural frequencies of TSP-inactive modes are lower than those of TSP-active modes, in which the support plates provide knife-edge type support. Tube response characteristics associated with TSP-inactive modes are sensitive to tube-to-TSP clearance, TSP thickness, excitation amplitude, tube alignment, and the fluid inside the clearance. In addition, tube response is intrinsically nonlinear, with the dominance of TSP-inactive or TSP-active modes depending on the magnitudes of different system parameters. In general, such a system is difficult to model; only a full-scale test can provide all the necessary characteristics. A tube array supported by TSPs with relatively large clearances may be subjected to dynamic instability in some of the TSP-inactive modes; tube response characteristics and impact forces on TSPs for a tube row are studied in detail in this report. Tube displacements associated with the instability of a TSP-inactive mode are small; however, impacts of the tube …

This report describes the work done on development of lithium/iron sulfide batteries at Argonne National Laboratory during FY 1982. The work at ANL has been concerned principally with the electrochemical and materials aspects of lithium-alloy negative electrodes and iron sulfide positive electrodes, materials research, cell design studies, and the testing and post-test examinations of cells fabricated by two industrial contractors--Eagle-Picher Industries, Inc. and Gould Inc.

This report is concerned with eigenvalue problems of the form Au = lambda Tu, where A is a selfadjoint positive differential operator and T a selfadjoint indefinite multiplicative operator on a Hilbert space H. Three particular cases are discussed in detail. In the first case, A is positive definite and T is unitary; in the second case, A is positive definite and T is bounded, but T⁻¹ is unbounded; in the third case, A is positive, dim ker(A) = 1, and T is bounded, but T⁻¹is unbounded. Emphasis is on the full-range and half-range expansion properties of the eigenfunctions.

Metallic corrosion is one of the major impediments to using the large amounts of heat available in flue and exhaust gases. Our approach is to develop plastic coatings to eliminate this corrosion problem and make this waste heat available economically. The advantages of plastics and their limitations in this application are discussed. Laboratory testing in an acid-condensing environment has been performed on numerous plastics and has identified several plastics with good potential as corrosion barriers. Polyphenylene sulfide, in particular, has resisted sulfuric acid attack for over 5000 hours and can be used at temperatures up to 300 C.

Working fluids used in Rankine bottoming cycle systems for heat recovery from long-haul trucks, marine vessels, and railroad locomotives are examined. Rankine bottoming cycle systems improve fuel economy by converting the exhaust heat from the prime mover into useful power. The report assesses fluid property requirements on the basis of previous experience with bottoming cycle systems. Also, the exhaust gas characteristics for the transportation modes of interest are summarized and compared. Candidate working fluids are discussed with respect to their potential for use in Rankine bottoming cycle systems. Analytical techniques are presented for calculating the thermodynamic properties of single-component working fluids. The resulting equations have been incorporated into a computer code for predicting the performance of Rankine bottoming cycle systems. In evaluating candidate working fluids, the code requires the user to input only a minimal amount of fluid property data.