IMAGE: Oak Ridge National Laboratory is designing a neutronic monitoring engine to evaluate new materials and designs for advanced vehicles using the facilities at ORNL’s Neutron Spallation Store. view more
Credit: Jill Hemman / ORNL, U.S. Department of Energy, and Southwestern Research Institute.
EMBARGOED UNTIL DUNDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2020, 3 PM US EASTERN.
In the question of advanced vehicles with higher energy efficiency and ultra-low emissions, Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers are accelerating a search engine that will provide scientists and engineers with an unparalleled insight into the atomic-level work of engines shooting in real time.
The new capability is an engine built specifically to run within a neutron beam line. This neutronic engine provides a unique sample environment that allows the study of structural changes in new alloys designed for a high-temperature advanced combustion engine environment operating in real conditions.
ORNL first demonstrated the capability in 2017, when researchers successfully evaluated a small, prototype cylinder-head engine cast from a new high-temperature aluminum-cerium alloy created at the laboratory. This test was the first in the world in which a running engine was tested with neutron differentiation, using a VULCAN neutron diffractometer at the Department of Energy’s Neutron Spallation Source, or NHS, at ORNL.
The results of the research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, not only proved the hardness of the unique alloy, but also demonstrated the value of using non-destructive methods such as neutrons to study new materials.
Neutrons penetrate deeply even through dense metals. When neutrons disperse atoms in matter, they bring a wealth of structural information to researchers down to the atomic scale. In this case, scientists determined how the alloys perform in operating conditions such as high heat and high pressure or tension to identify even the smallest defects.
The success of the test has prompted ORNL to design a search engine specifically at the industry-relevant scale for use in VULCAN. The capacity is based on a two-liter, four-cylinder automatic engine, modified to operate on a single cylinder to conserve sample space on the rail. The engine platform can be rotated around the cylinder axis to provide maximum measurement flexibility. The engine is designed specifically for neutron research, incorporating the use of fluorocarbon-based refrigeration and oil, which improves visibility into the combustion chamber.
The ability to give researchers the experimental results they need to quickly and accurately study new materials and develop high-fidelity computing models of engine designs.
“All over the world, industry, national laboratories and academics are looking at the interface between turbulent combing that occurs in the engine, and the process of heat transfer that takes place through the hard parts. , “said Martin Wissink, project director at ORNL.” Understanding and optimizing that process is critical to improving the thermal efficiency of engines. ”
“But for now, almost all of these models have in situ validation data,” he said. “The goal is to solve pressure, pressure, and temperature in the entire range over all the metal parts in the combustion chamber.”
The engine was designed to ORNL specs and is currently undergoing final development by the Southwest Research Institute, and will be certified at the DOE National Transportation Research Center, or NTRC, at ORNL prior to use. at the NHS first, expected by the end of 2021. Both NTRC and NHS are DOE’s scientific user facilities, providing researchers across the world with access to the most advanced tools of modern science the world.
The NHS VULCAN instrument is ideal for the research, as it accepts larger structures, said Ke An, chief scientist for the instrument. VULCAN is designed for deformation, phase transformation, residual pressure, texture and microstructure studies. According to An, they are preparing the platform for the neutronic engine with a new defense system and other redesigns, including a new control interface for the engine.
“This is what inspires people, producing results on a new, larger engine,” said An. The neutronic engine “gives consumers even more options trying to test their models to solve issues such as pressure, pressure and temperature. It shows the direct value of neutrons to an important manufacturing sector.”
Measurements from the neutronic engine will be fed into high-performance computing models, or HPCs, which scientists are developing to accelerate speed for advanced combustion engines.
Researchers are interested in creating accurate predictions about onions such as heat loss, flame closure and evacuation of fuel introduced into the cylinder, especially during cold engine operation when emissions often higher. The data from the neutronic engine is expected to provide a new understanding of how the temperature of metal engine parts changes throughout the engine during the course of the engine.
The resulting high-fidelity modules can be quickly run on supercomputers such as Summit, the fastest and most capable computer in the country. Summit is hosted at ORNL as part of the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility, which is also a DOE scientific user resource.
“We’re building those basic science capabilities into applications and making measurements in real engineering tools and systems,” Wissink said. “The full measurement of layers and temperatures in engine components is something that was never possible before.” seo. It is crucial that this data serve as a validation or a boundary condition for the HPC models that can be shared with researchers in the automotive industry. ”
The neutronic engine will complement the capabilities of ORNL and other national laboratories in the work to create more energy-efficient and ultra-clean engines, said Robert Wagner, director of ORNL’s Department of Building and Transportation Science.
“The ability of the engine to operate in the neutron beamlines allows us to make unprecedented measurements under real engine conditions,” said Wagner. provide the national laboratories to improve the efficiency and emissions of combustion engines, such as the optical engine study at Sandia National Laboratories and with the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory.
The power of these specialized facilities is currently being aligned to solve the most challenging problems through a six-lab consortium called Partnership to Advance Combustion Engines, led out of the Office of Vehicle Technologies DOE.
“What separates us here at ORNL is the available science package,” said Wagner. “We use the world’s most powerful neutron source, the fastest supercomputer in the country, and materials science at a global level in coordination with our knowledge of transport to meet the great challenges of a more sustainable energy future. ”
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The neutronic engine research is supported primarily by the Office of Vehicle Technologies Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) DOE. Access to the NHS is supported by the DOE Science Office. The research on the aluminum-cerium alloy was supported by the DOE Institute for Critical Materials, which is supported by the DOE EERE Advanced Manufacturing Office, along with Eck Industries, which helped develop and test the alloy and who gave permission for the material.
UT-Battelle manages ORNL for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, the largest supporter of fundamental research in the physical sciences in the United States. The Office of Science is working to address some of the most important challenges of our time. For more information, visit energy.gov/science.