For many years, Sandia National Laboratories has been involved in the development and application of rapid prototyping and dmect fabrication technologies to build prototype parts and patterns for investment casting. Sandia is currently developing a process called Laser Engineered Net Shaping (LENS~) to fabricate filly dense metal parts dwectly from computer-aided design (CAD) solid models. The process is similar to traditional laser-initiated rapid prototyping technologies such as stereolithography and selective laser sintering in that layer additive techniques are used to fabricate physical parts directly from CAD data. By using the coordinated delivery of metal particles into a focused laser beam apart is generated. The laser beam creates a molten pool of metal on a substrate into which powder is injected. Concurrently, the substrate on which the deposition is occurring is moved under the beam/powder interaction zone to fabricate the desired cross-sectiwal geometry. Consecutive layers are additively deposited, thereby producing a three-dmensional part. This process exhibits enormous potential to revolutionize the way in which metal parts, such as complex prototypes, tooling, and small-lot production parts, are produced. The result is a comple~ filly dense, near-net-shape part. Parts have been fabricated from 316 stainless steel, nickel-based alloys, H13 tool steel, and titanium. …

In direct laser metal deposition technologies, such as the Laser (LENS) process, it is important to understand and control the Engineered Net Shaping thermal behavior during fabrication. With this control, components can be reliably fabricated with desired structural material properties. This talk will describe the use of contact and imaging techniques to monitor the thermal signature during LENS processing. Recent results show a direct correlation between thermal history and material properties, where the residual stress magnitude decreases as the laser power, and therefore thermal signature, increases. Development of an understanding of solidification behavior, residual stress, and microstructural evolution with respect to thermal behavior will be discussed.

A number of physics problems can be modeled by a set of N elements, which have pair-wise interactions with one another. The use of such elements for the evolution of vorticity in fluid flows and the calculation of the velocity field from the evolving vorticity field is well known. Fast multipole methods for fluid flow problems have been developed in we pmt to reduce computational effort to something less than O(N) . In this paper we develop a fast multipole solver with application to both 3-D radiation problems (calculation of the heat flux from the evolving temperature field in an absorbing medium) and 3-D fluid flow. This is accomplished by using a more general kernel for the associated volume integrals. This kernel also encompasses other applications such as gravitational fields, electrostatics, scattering, etc. The present algorithm has been designed to have a very high "parallel efficiency" when used on massively parallel computers. This feature comes at the expense of computational effort, which is less than O(N) but greater than O(N) or O(MnN).

In 1991, US and Polish officials signed a Memorandum of Understanding formally initiating and directing the Cracow Clean Fossil Fuels and Energy Efficiency Program. Developing a program approach for the most effective use of the available funds required considerable effort on the part of all project participants. The team recognized early that the cost of solving the low emissions problem even in only one city far exceeded the amount of available US funds. Economic conditions in Poland limited availability of local capital funds for environmental projects. Imposing environmental costs on struggling companies or city residents under difficult conditions of the early 1990's required careful consideration of the economic and political impacts. For all of these reasons the program sought to identify technologies for achieving air quality goals which, through improved efficiency and/or reduced fuel cost, could be so attractive economically as to lead to self-sustaining activities beyond the end of the formal project. The effort under this program has been focused into 5 main areas of interest as follows: (1) Energy Conservation and Extension of Central Station District Heating; (2) Replacement of Coal- and Coke-Fired Boilers with Natural Gas-Fired Boilers; (3) Replacement of Coal-Fired Home Stoves with Electric Heating Appliances; …

Since the mid 1940's, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) have conducted research and development activities at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in support of urgent national interests in the fields of nuclear weaponry and nuclear energy. Some of these activities resulted in radiologically hazardous waste being temporarily deposited at ORNL in Waste Area Grouping 1. At this location, waste is stored in several underground storage tanks, awaiting ultimate final disposal. There are tanks of two basic categories; one category is referred to as the "gunite" tanks, and the other category is `associated" tanks. The ORNL Gunite and Associated Tanks Treatability Study (GMT-TS) project was initiated in fiscal year (FY) 1994 to support a record of decision in selecting from seven different options of technologies for retrieval and remediation of these tanks. This decision process is part of a Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA), Remedial investigation and Feasibility Study (R1/FS) presented to DOE and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC). As part of this decision process, new waste retrieval technologies were evaluated at the 25-ft diameter gunite tanks in the North Tank Farm.

Photovoltaic (PV) technology development for building-integrated applications (commonly called PV for Buildings) is one of the fastest growing areas in the PV industry. Buildings represent a huge potential market for photovoltaics because they consume approximately two-thirds of the electricity consumed in the US. The PV and buildings industries are beginning to work together to address issues including building codes and standards, integration, after-market servicing, education, and building energy efficiency. One of the most notable programs to encourage development of new PV-for-buildings products is the PV:BONUS program, supported by the US Department of Energy. Demand for these products from building designers has escalated since the program was initiated in 1993. This paper presents a range of PV-for-buildings issues and products that are currently influencing today's PV and buildings markets.

The U.S. and Russian weapons dismantlement process is producing hundreds of tons of excess plutonium (Pu) and highly enriched uranium (HEU) fissile materials. The nuclear operations associated with the final disposition of these materials will be occurring in both countries for decades. A significant accident during these operations could delay the disposition process. Russia- U.S. collaborative efforts to address safety issues associated with disposition processes have been ongoing since 1993. The experience of these collaborative efforts have demonstrated the need for a systematic and formalized approach to identifjring and prioritizing collaborative projects. A systematic approach to the successfid implementation of a formal program will require the definition of year by year program objectives, specific technical program areas, a process for the prioritization and selection of projects, and identification of performance measures to evaluate the success of projects. Specialized working groups established for each technical area are needed to define research priorities, review research proposals, and recommend proposals for tiding. A systematic approach to the establishment of a formal U.S.-Russia cooperative program will serve to ensure the safety and continuity of disposition processes and reduce the nuclear proliferation risks presented by this material. The U.S. and Russian weapons dismantlement process is …

On some small scale each constituent of an immiscible mixture occupies a separate region of space. Given sufficient time and computing power, we could solve the continuum field equations and boundary conditions for this het erogenous system. This usually represents an enormously difficult task that is well beyond today's computational ca- pabilities. Mixture theories approximate this complex heterogeneous formulation with a set of field equations for an equivalent homoge- neous mat erial. In this work, we compare the theory for immiscible mixtures by Drumheller and Bedford with the theory of Passman, Nunziato, and Walsh. We describe the conditions under which these theories reduce to an equivalent formulation, and we also investigate the differences in their microinertial descriptions. Two variables play special roles in both theories. They are t he true material density and the volume fraction. Here we use a kinematical approach based on two new variables-t he true deformation gradient and the distention gradient. We show how the true deformation gra- dient is connected to the true material density and, in the absence of chemical reactions, the volume fraction is the inverse of the deter- minant of the distention gradient. However, when chemical reactions occur, the distention gradient and …

The B and W Hanford Company's (BWHC) 327 Facility, in the 300 Area of the Hanford Site, is preparing to ship five Pin Tubes to the 324 Facility for storage and eventual disposition. The Pin Tubes consist of legacy fuel pin pieces and drillings. They will be over-packed in new Pin Tubes and transported to 324 in three shipments. Once received at 324, two of the shipments will be combined for storage as a fissionable material batch, and the other shipment will be added to an existing batch.