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

Report on studies of advanced batteries, aqueous batteries, advanced fuel cells, coal utilization, methodologies for recovery of energy from municipal waste, solid and liquid desiccants, nuclear technology related to waste management, and physical chemistry of selected materials in environments simulating those of fission, fusion, and other energy systems.

Report on research in carcinogenesis, human radiobiology, low-level radiation, molecular biology, and toxicology.

Report of the activities of the physics division at Argonne including the successful completion of Argonne Tandem-Linac Accelerator System.

Annual report of the Argonne National Laboratory Radiological and Environmental Research Division regarding activities related to molecular physics and chemistry.

Current status of epidemiological studies of the late effects of internal radium in humans, and mechanistic investigations of those effects.

The Nevada Nuclear Waste Storage Investigations (NNWSI) project is investigating the volcanic tuff beds of Yucca Mountain, Nevada, as a potential location for a high-level radioactive waste repository. This report describes a test method (Phase II) that has been developed to measure the release of radionuclides from the waste package under simulated repository conditions, and provides information on materials interactions that may occur in the repository. The results of 13 weeks of testing using the method are presented, and an analog test is described that investigates the relationship between the test method and expected repository conditions.

Section I introduces the material contained in the rest of the report. Section II presents the origin and characteristics of humic materials as we understand them today and outlines the methods that have been used to separate and analyze these substances. Section III focuses on the general problem of metal-organic interactions and treats some of the factors that are important in chelating and complexing of metal ions by humic substances. Section IV deals specifically with the complexing of radionuclides by organic substances, treated from the standpoint of both empirical and experimental studies.

Measurements are described for determining average values of fission rates in uranium-235, uranium-238 and plutonium-239 and capture rates in uranium-238 for heterogeneous cells used to construct fast critical assemblies. The measurements are based on irradiations of foils of uranium-238, uranium-235 and plutonium-239 with counting of fission and capture products using gamma-ray spectroscopy. Both plate and pin cells are considered. Procedures are described for inferring cell-average reaction rate values from a single foil location based on a cell using a quantity called a cell factor. Cell factors are determined from special measurements in which several foils are irradiated within a cell. Comparisons are presented between cell factors determined by measurements and by Monte Carlo calculations which lend credibility to the measurement procedures.

This report provides a summary of theoretical and experimental studies of actinide spectra in condensed phases. Much of the work was accomplished at Argonne National Laboratory, but references to related investigations by others are included. Spectroscopic studies of the trivlent actinides are emphasized, as is the use of energy level parameters, evaluated from experimental data, to investigate systematic trends in electronic structure and other properties. Some reference is made to correlations with atomic spectra, as well as with spectra of the (II), (IV), and higher valence states.

A data bank of field experiences with heat exchanger tube vibration reveals numerous cases of tube failures at, or near, the baffle. The objective of this study is to provide qualitative impact/fretting wear information for heat exchanger tubes through the performance of a series of tests involving the pertinent parameters: impact force level, between the tube and its support; tube to support plate hole clearance; tube support plate thickness; and tube vibration frequency. The characteristics of impact/fretting wear relative to tube motion pattern, material combination and surrounding fluid were also investigated. The test apparatus consists of a cantilevered tube with a simulated tube support plate at the ''free end''. Tube vibration is induced by an electromagnetic exciter to simulate the flow-induced tube motion occurring in a real heat exchanger at the tube/tube support plate interface. Tests are conducted in air, water, and oil, all at room temperature. Wear rate increases significantly with the magnitude of the impact force between the tube and its support plate; the degree and trend of the wear rates are highly dependent on the mechanical and metallurgical properties of the tube/support material combination; the rate of impact/fretting wear decreases with increasing frequency. An empirical formula is …

This report summarizes the flow-induced vibration of circular cylinders in quiescent fluid, axial flow, and crossflow, and applications of the analytical methods and experimental data in design evaluation of various system components consisting of circular cylinders.

A general theory of fluid-elastic instability for a tube array in crossflow is presented for application to the space shuttle main engine liquid oxygen (SSME LOX) posts. Various techniques to obtain the motion-dependent fluid-force coefficients are discussed and the general instability characteristics are summarized. The theory is also used to evaluate the results of other mathematical models for crossflow-induced instability.

Fluid forces are important in the assessment of vibration of the Space Shuttle Main Engine liquid oxygen posts. This report summarizes the available data on fluid excitation forces acting on tube arrays in turbulent crossflow, and test results for an array of tubes subject to turbulent flow. The fluctuating drag and lift forces are measured as a function of Reynolds number, incoming flow conditions, and tube location in an array.

A set of programs, gathered from major Argonne computer users, was run on the current generation of supercomputers: the CRAY X-MP-4, Fujitsu VP-200, and Hitachi S-810/20. The results show that a single processor of a CRAY X-MP-4 is a consistently strong performer over a wide range of problems. The Fujitsu and Hitachi excel on highly vectorized programs and offer an attractive opportunity to sites with IBM-compatible computers.

This report describes logic programming approaches to two graph theoretical problems relevant to reactor and logic circuit analysis: those of cut-set verification and subsystem detection.

Tutorial description of the Warren machine with a basic introduction to the motivation of the machine and the instructions that define it. Discussion of the fairly limited extensions required to extend the machine for more general use outside of implementations of logic programming. Substantial speedups will occur due to improvements in the implementation of the basic algorithms.

This report contains historical information on the Li-alloy/FeS system that will be useful in its future applications. This document includes the following: (1) the chemical and electrochemical reactions for the Li-alloy/FeS system, accomplishments in past cell development efforts, and performance attained by state-of-the-art cells vs performance goals; (2) detailed drawings of state-of-the-art cell designs, documentation of cell fabrication techniques, and comparisons of alternative types of cell components (such as BN felt vs MgO powder separators, stainless vs low-carbon steel cell housings) and fabrication techniques (such as charged vs uncharged electrodes); (3) results of post-test cell analyses, including cell failure mechanisms, electrode morphology and active material distribution, and in-cell corrosion rates; (4) data from trade-off studies between specific power and energy; (5) discussion of battery design considerations (e.g., volumetric energy density, battery charger, and high-efficiency thermal insulation); (6) results of cost studies, which include materials and manufacturing costs of cells and batteries and heating costs involved in battery operation; and (7) projections of cell designs having the greatest potential for meeting electric-vehicle performance requirements.

As multiprocessors become commercially available, a great deal of concern is being focused on the problems involved in writing and debugging software for such machines. Earlier work described the use of monitors implemented by macro processors to attain portable code. This work formulates a general-purpose monitor which simplifies the programming of a wide class of numeric algorithms. We believe that the approach of describing a set of schedulable units of computation advocated by Brown offers a real simplification for the applications programmer. In this paper, we propose a straight-forward programming paradigm for describing schedulable units of computation that allows the description of many algorithms with very little effort.

Annual report of the environmental monitoring program at Argonne National Laboratory, discussing activities and findings of the group.

When calculations of flux are done in less than three dimensions, leakage-absorption cross sections are normally used to model leakages (flows) in the dimensions for which the flux is not calculated. Since the neutron flux is axially dependent, the leakages, and hence the leakage-absorption cross sections, are also axially dependent. Therefore, to obtain axial flux profiles (or reaction rates) for individual subassemblies, an XY-geometry calculation delineating each subassembly has to be done at several axial heights with space- and energy-dependent leakage-absorption cross sections that are appropriate for each height. This report discusses homogeneous and heterogeneous XY-geometry calculations at various axial locations and using several differing assumptions for the calculation of the leakage-absorption cross section. The positive (outward) leakage-absorption cross sections are modeled as actual leakage absorptions, but the negative (inward) leakage-absorption cross sections are modeled as either negative leakage absorptions (+-B² method) or positive downscatter cross sections (the ..sigma../sub s/(1 ..-->.. g) method).

Typical industrial shell-and-tube heat exchanger configurations are investigated systematically for the occurrence of potentially damaging tube vibration as a function of flow-rate. In continuation of an ongoing experimental program, results from shell-side water flow tests of twenty-two additional test exchanger configurations are reported. The test cases include single- and double-segmentally baffled tube bundles having various combinations of triangular and square tube layout patterns, baffle arrangements, and baffle edge orientations. All layouts had a tube pitch-to-diameter ratio of 1.25. The testing focused on identification of the lowest critical flow-rates to initiate fluid-elastic instability and/or large amplitude tube motion and the location within the bundle of the tubes which first experience these responses. The threshold flow-rates are determined from a combination of methods based on sensory observations, vibration amplitude data, and frequency response information. Instability criteria are preliminarily evaluated. Also reported are the measured overall shell-side pressure drop and the incremental pressure drops across sections of the exchanger for all configurations.

This report documents the operation of a 28 in. long sodium heat pipe in the Heat Pipe Test Facility (HPTF) installed at Argonne National Laboratory. Experimental data were collected to simulate conditions prototypic of both a fluidized bed coal combustor application and a space environment application. Both sets of experiment data show good agreement with the heat pipe analytical model. The heat transfer performance of the heat pipe proved reliable over a substantial period of operation and over much thermal cycling. Additional testing of longer heat pipes under controlled laboratory conditions will be necessary to determine performance limitations and to complete the design code validation.

Fluid excitation forces are measured in a water loop for two circular cylinders arranged in tandem and normal to flow. The Strouhal number and fluctuating drag and lift coefficients for both cylinders are presented for various spacings and incoming flow conditions. Results show the effects of Reynolds number, pitch ratio, and upstream turbulence on the fluid excitation forces.