A battery pack prototype has been designed and built to evaluate various air cooling concepts for the thermal management of Li-ion batteries. The heat generation from the Li-Ion batteries was simulated with electrical heat generation devices with the same dimensions as the Li-Ion battery (200 mm x 150 mm x 12 mm). Each battery simulator generates up to 15W of heat. There are 20 temperature probes placed uniformly on the surface of the battery simulator, which can measure temperatures in the range from -40 C to +120 C. The prototype for the pack has up to 100 battery simulators and temperature probes are recorder using a PC based DAQ system. We can measure the average surface temperature of the simulator, temperature distribution on each surface and temperature distributions in the pack. The pack which holds the battery simulators is built as a crate, with adjustable gap (varies from 2mm to 5mm) between the simulators for air flow channel studies. The total system flow rate and the inlet flow temperature are controlled during the test. The cooling channel with various heat transfer enhancing devices can be installed between the simulators to investigate the cooling performance. The prototype was designed to configure …

Superconducting radio frequency (SRF) cavities used in charged particle linear accelerators, are currently fabricated by deep drawing niobium sheets and welding the drawn dishes together. The Nb sheet has a non-uniform microstructure, which leads to unpredictable cavity shape and surface roughness, and inconsistent "spring-back" during forming. In addition, weld zones cause hot spots during cavity operation. These factors limit linear accelerator performance and increase cavity manufacturing cost. Equal channel angular extrusion (ECAE) can be used to refine and homogenize the microstructure of Nb tube for subsequent hydroforming into SRF cavities. Careful selection of deformation and heat treatment conditions during the processing steps can give a uniform and consistent microstructure in the tube, leading to improved deformability and lower manufacturing costs. Favorable microstructures were achieved in short test samples of RRR Nb tube, which may be particularly suitable for hydroforming into SRF cavity strings. The approach demonstrated could be applicable to microstructure engineering of other tube materials including tantalum, titanium, and zirconium.

The Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) was requested to lead a Law Enforcement Working Group that was formed to collaborate on common operational needs. All agencies represented on the working group ranked their need to tag, track, and locate a witting or unwitting target as their highest priority. Specifically, they were looking for technologies more robust than Global Positioning Satellite (GPS), could communicate back to the owner, and worked where normal cell phone communications did not work or were unreliable. SRNL brought together multiple technologies in a demonstration that was held in in various Alaska venues, including metropolitan, wilderness, and at-sea that met the working group's requirements. Using prototypical technologies from Boeing, On Ramp, and Fortress, SRNL was able to demonstrate the ability to track personnel and material in all scenarios including indoors, in heavily wooden areas, canyons, and in parking garages. In all cases GPS signals were too weak to measure. Bi-directional communication was achieved in areas that Wi-Fi, cell towers, or traditional radios would not perform. The results of the exercise will be presented. These technologies are considered ideal for tracking high value material such has nuclear material with a platform that allows seamless tracking anywhere in the …

From simulations, tracking of the impulse response is feasible. Potential to benefit other functions such as ranging between two nodes. Potential to combine the features of different protocols to create a new and more realistic clock-synchronization protocol.

A small scale model (length 1710 mm) of General Motor SUV was built and tested in the wind tunnel for expected wind conditions and road clearance. Two passive devices, rear screen which is plate behind the car and rear fairing where the end of the car is aerodynamically extended, were incorporated in the model and tested in the wind tunnel for different wind conditions. The conclusion is that rear screen could reduce drag up to 6.5% and rear fairing can reduce the drag by 26%. There were additional tests for front edging and rear vortex generators. The results for drag reduction were mixed. It should be noted that there are aesthetic and practical considerations that may allow only partial implementation of these or any drag reduction options.