This note presents the technical basis for a proposed strain-rate and temperature independent fatigue design curve for austenitic stainless steels.

We present an algorithm for interactively extracting and rendering isosurfaces of large volume datasets in a view-dependent fashion. A recursive tetrahedral mesh refinement scheme, based on longest edge bisection, is used to hierarchically decompose the data into a multiresolution structure. This data structure allows fast extraction of arbitrary isosurfaces to within user specified view-dependent error bounds. A data layout scheme based on hierarchical space filling curves provides access to the data in a cache coherent manner that follows the data access pattern indicated by the mesh refinement.

A fundamental problem in providing high-quality surveillance images recorded over long horizontal or slant paths is the blurring caused by atmospheric turbulence, which reduces both the resolution and contrast. The objective of the work reported here is to develop a capability for long-range imaging through the atmosphere that is not limited by the atmosphere but only by the fundamental diffraction limit of the optics. This paper describes our recent horizontal and slant-path imaging experiments of point targets and extended scenes as well as simulations of point targets in comparison to experiment. We show the near-diffraction limited resolution results obtained using bispectral speckle-imaging techniques. The experiments were performed with an 8-inch diameter telescope placed either in a field, on a rooftop, or on a hillside and cover ranges of interest from 100 meters up to 10 km. The scenery includes resolution targets, people, vehicles, and other structures.

A new method that combines staggered grid Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) techniques with structured local adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) has been developed for solution of the Euler equations. The novel components of the combined ALE-AMR method hinge upon the integration of traditional AMR techniques with both staggered grid Lagrangian operators as well as elliptic relaxation operators on moving, deforming mesh hierarchies. Numerical examples demonstrate the utility of the method in performing detailed three-dimensional shock-driven instability calculations.

This report documents tests performed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to verify that the new air monitoring system for the 296-Z-1 ventilation exhaust stack meets the applicable regulatory criteria regarding the placement of the air sampling probe, sample transport, and stack flow measurement accuracy. These criteria ensure that the contaminants in the stack are well mixed with the airflow at the location of the probe so that the collected sample represents the whole. The sequence of tests addresses the acceptability of the flow angle relative to the probe uniformity of air velocity and gaseous and particle tracers in the cross section of the stack delivery of the sample from the sampler nozzle to the collection filter. The tests conducted on the air monitoring system demonstrated that the location for the air-sampling probe meets all performance criteria for air sampling systems at nuclear facilities. The performance criterion for particle transport was also met. All tests were successful, and all acceptance criteria were met.

Tritium activities decreased in all three SALDS proximal wells during FY 2002, compared with FY 2001. Activities in well 699-48-77A first decreased to less than 3,000 pCi/L in January 2002, but rose to 150,000 in July, probably as a result of tritium discharges to SALDS that resumed in February 2002. Well 699-48-77C, where tritium analysis produced a maximum value of 750,000 pCi/L in January 2002, reflects the result of the delayed penetration of effluent deeper into the aquifer from tritium discharges. SALDS proximal well 699-48-77D produced a maximum result of 240,000 pCi/L in July 2002. Timing between detections of tritium and other constituents in well 699-48-77C suggest a delay of approximately three years from detection in wells 699-48-77A and 699-48-77D. Historically maxima for tritium (790 and 860 pCi/L in successive sample periods) suggest that tritium from SALDS may be reaching the northern edge of the 200 West Area, south of the facility.

The report summarizes work to determine the nature and distribution of carbon on microcracks in crystalline rocks by time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectroscopy. It also summarizes the results of a workshop devoted to investigating how carbon in rocks influences electrical conductivity and whether carbon on fracture surfaces can account for the electrical conductivity structure of the crust.

The rigid ceramic filters have been recognized to be a most promising kind of equipment for the gas-solid separation and the cleaning of hot gases due to their unique properties and higher separation efficiency for larger than 5 {micro}m particles, which will well meet downstream system component protection and environmental standards. They have potential for increased efficiency in advanced coal-fired power generation systems like pressurized fluidized bed combustion (PFBC) and integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) process, and petrochemical process such as fluid catalyst cracking (FCC) Process. In the commercial utilization of rigid ceramic filters, the performance of pulse cleaning systems has crucial effects on the long-term structural durability and reliability of the entire design. In order to get a clear insight into the nature of this cleaning process and provide a solid basis for the industrial applications, the transient flow characteristics of the rigid ceramic candle filter during the whole pulse cleaning process should be completely analyzed.

The aim of the actual investigations is to integrate the catalytic reduction of carbon monoxide and particularly nitric oxides into the hot gas filtration process with ceramic filter elements of fluidized bed combustors which mainly represent an important N2O-source. According to Klein (Klein 1994) worldwide approx. 260 coal-fired power plants with fluidized bed combustors in the power range > 50 MWel existed in 1994, to which approx. 1% of the global coal dissipation corresponds. These emitted dinitrogen oxide with 70 kt/a, however, 20% of the entire N2O amounts from stationary firing plants. After Kleins calculations an increase of coal-fired fluidized bed combustors only by 10% triples the N2O emission.

In recent years a significant amount of effort has been devoted to develop damage-tolerant hot gas filter elements, which can withstand chemical, high pressure and extreme thermal cyclic loading in the coal-based environment (Alvin 1999, Spain and Starrett 1999). Ceramic candle filters have proven to be an effective filter for the ash laden gas streams, protecting the gas turbine components from exposure to particulate matter (Lippert et al. 1994). Ceramic candle filters need to sustain extreme thermal environment and vibration-induced stresses over a great period of time. Destructive tests have been used to describe physical, mechanical and thermal properties of the filters and to relate these properties and behaviors to in-service performance, and ultimately to predict the useful life of the filter materials (Pontius and Starrett 1994, Alvin et al. 1994). Nondestructive evaluation (NDE) techniques have been developed to determine the deterioration or the presence of damage and to estimate the remaining stiffness of ceramic candle filters (Chen and Kiriakidis 2001). This paper presents a study of parameters involved in the prediction of remaining life of ceramic candle filters under service conditions. About one hundred ceramic candle filters from previous studies (Chen and Kiriakidis 2000) and forty-six filters received during …

High-performance GaInAsSb/AlGaAsSb/GaSb thermophotovoltaic (TPV) devices with quantum efficiency and fill factor near theoretical limits and open-circuit voltage within about 15% of the limit can be routinely fabricated. To achieve further improvements in TPV device performance, detailed materials studies of GaInAsSb epitaxial growth, the microstructure, and minority carrier lifetime, along with device structure considerations are reported. This paper discusses the materials and device issues, and their implications on TPV device performance. In addition, improvements in TPV performance with integrated distributed Bragg reflectors and back-surface reflectors are discussed.

Hot gas filtration from industrial processes offers various advantages in terms of improvement of process efficiencies, heat recovery and protection of plant installation. Especially hot gas filtration is an essential technology for pressurized fluidized bed combustion (PFBC) and integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC).

The objective of this work was to develop a nondestructive (NDE), cost-effective and reliable method to assess the condition of rigid ceramic hot gas filters. The work was intended to provide an end user, as well as filter producers, with a nondestructive method to assess the ''quality'' or status of the filters.

This paper describes an attempt to divide the total sulfur capacity into its contribution from zinc and iron using a pressurized-type thermobalance. The methodology to estimate the sulfur capacities corresponding to zinc and iron was applied to evaluate the variation in performance during multiple-cycle desulfurization. Primary objective of this paper is providing information on the stability of zinc-related sulfur capacity, which is essentially important to the sulfur removal performance at the concentration of the part-per-million level.

The Power Systems Development Facility (PSDF) is a joint Department of Energy/Industry sponsored engineering-scale facility for testing advanced coal-based power generation technologies. High temperature, high pressure gas cleaning is critical to many of these advanced technologies. Barrier filter elements that can operate continuously for nearly 9000 hours are required for a successful gas cleaning system for use in commercial power generation. Since late 1999, the Kellogg Brown & Root Transport reactor at the PSDF has been operated in gasification mode. This paper describes the test results for filter elements operating in the Siemens-Westinghouse particle collection device (PCD) with the Transport reactor in gasification mode. Operating conditions in the PCD have varied during gasification operation as described elsewhere in these proceedings (Martin et al, 2002).

Stable operation, in other words the achievement of a succession of uniform filtration cycles of reasonable length is a key issue in high-temperature gas filtration with ceramic media. Its importance has rather grown in recent years, as these media gain in acceptance due to their excellent particle retention capabilities. Ash properties have been known for some time to affect the maximum operating temperature of filters. However, softening and consequently ''stickiness'' of the ash particles generally depend on composition in a complex way. Simple and accurate prediction of critical temperature ranges from ash analysis--and even more so from coal analysis--is still difficult without practical and costly trials. In general, our understanding of what exactly happens during break-down of filtration stability is still rather crude and general. Early work was based on the concept that ash particles begin to soften and sinter near the melting temperatures of low-melting, often alkaline components. This softening coincides with a fairly abrupt increase of stickiness, that can be detected with powder mechanical methods in a Jenicke shear cell as first shown by Pilz (1996) and recently confirmed by others (Kamiya et al. 2001 and 2002, Kanaoka et al. 2001). However, recording {sigma}-{tau}-diagrams is very time consuming …

The purpose of this study is to characterize microstructural changes and analyze their possible effect to long term durability and reliability of SiC-based clay bonded hot gas filters.

In this study, we investigate the regeneration characteristics, desulfurization performance after regeneration and the durability of zinc ferrite sorbent in the desulfurization/regeneration cycles.

We see the sorbent reaction performance in a HGD process consisting of a transport desulfurizer and a fluidized regenerator in this study. We have obtained the solid hold-up and solid circulation rate necessary to reach the target desulfurization efficiency. A major obstacle for fluidized- or transport bed sorbent developments is sorbent durability withstanding attrition. Continuous operation only makes similar conditions of real processes such as rapid temperature swing, chemical transformations between sulfidation and regeneration, stresses induced by fluidization and continuous particle circulation between two reactors. Therefore, an integrated system of transport desulfurizer and bubbling regenerator is operated continuously more than 150 hours to see system reliability, sorbent reaction characteristics, sorbent morphology before and after test.

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Advanced coal and biomass-based gas turbine power generation technologies (IGCC, PFBC, PCFBC, and Hipps) are currently under development and demonstration. Efforts at Siemens Westinghouse Power Corporation (SWPC) have been focused on the development and demonstration of hot gas filter systems as an enabling technology for power generation. This paper reviews SWPC's material and component assessment efforts, identifying the performance, stability, and life of porous metal, advanced alloy, and intermetallic filters under simulated, pressurized fluidized-bed combustion conditions.

Two different technologies that are being considered for generating electric power on a large scale by burning coal are Pressurized Fluid Bed Combustion (PFBC) systems and Integrated Gasification and Combined Cycle (IGCC) systems. Particulate emission regulations that have been proposed for future systems may require that these systems be fitted with large scale Hot Gas Clean-Up (HGCU) filtration systems that would remove the fine particulate matter from the hot gas streams that are generated by PFBC and IGCC systems. These hot gas filtration systems are geometrically and aerodynamically complex. They typically are constructed with large arrays of ceramic candle filter elements (CFE). The successful design of these systems require an accurate assessment of the rate at which mechanical energy of the gas flow is dissipated as it passes through the filter containment vessel and the individual candle filter elements that make up the system. Because the filtration medium is typically made of a porous ceramic material having open pore sizes that are much smaller than the dimensions of the containment vessel, the filtration medium is usually considered to be a permeable medium that follows Darcy's law. The permeability constant that is measured in the lab is considered to be a …

In this study, behaviors of released dust and pressure inside and outside the filter element were observed very precisely. Based on the observation, a simple model correlating between momentum acting on released dust, pressure and, shear and tensile stresses has been proposed. Then its validity was discussed by comparing calculated and experimental results.

The objective of the present study is to develop a computational model for simulating the gas flow, thermal condition and ash transport and deposition pattern in the hot-gas filtration systems. The computational model is to provide a virtual tool for design and operation modifications. Particular attention is given to the Particle Control Device (PCD) at the Power Systems Development Facility (PSDF) in Wilsonville, Alabama. For evaluation of gas velocity and temperature field in the vessel, the FLUENT commercial CFD computer code is used. Ash particle transport and deposition pattern was analyzed with the Lagrangian particle tracking approach.