Publications

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Concentrating solar power systems coupled to energy storage schemes, e.g. storage of sensible energy in a heat transfer fluid, are attractive options to reduce the transient effects of clouding on solar power output and to provide power after sunset and before sunrise. Common heat transfer fluids used to capture heat in a solar receiver include steam, oil, molten salt, and air. These high temperature fluids can be stored so that electric power can be produced on demand, limited primarily by the size of the capacity and the energy density of the storage mechanism. Phase changing fluids can increase the amount of stored energy relative to non-phase changing fluids due to the heat of vaporization or the heat of fusion. Reversible chemical reactions can also store heat; an endothermic reaction captures the heat, the chemical products are stored, and an exothermic reaction later releases the heat and returns the chemical compound to its initial state. Ongoing research is investigating the scientific and commercial potential of such reaction cycles with, for example, reduction (endothermic) and re-oxidation (exothermic) of metal oxide particles. This study includes thermodynamic analyses and considerations for component sizing of concentrating solar power towers with redox active metal oxide based thermochemical storage to reach target electrical output capacities of 0.1 MW to 100 MW. System-wide analyses here use one-dimensional energy and mass balances for the solar field, solar receiver reduction reactor, hot reduced particle storage, re-oxidizer reactor, power block, cold particle storage, and other components pertinent to the design. This work is part of a US Department of Energy (DOE) SunShot project entitled High Performance Reduction Oxidation of Metal Oxides for Thermochemical Energy Storage (PROMOTES).

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Certain details of the additive manufacturing process known as selective laser melting (SLM) affect the performance of the final metal part. To unleash the full potential of SLM it is crucial that the process engineer in the field receives guidance about how to select values for a multitude of process variables employed in the building process. These include, for example, the type of powder (e.g., size distribution, shape, type of alloy), orientation of the build axis, the beam scan rate, the beam power density, the scan pattern and scan rate. The science-based selection of these settings con- stitutes an intrinsically challenging multi-physics problem involving heating and melting a metal alloy, reactive, dynamic wetting followed by re-solidification. In addition, inherent to the process is its considerable variability that stems from the powder packing. Each time a limited number of powder particles are placed, the stacking is intrinsically different from the previous, possessing a different geometry, and having a different set of contact areas with the surrounding particles. As a result, even if all other process parameters (scan rate, etc) are exactly the same, the shape and contact geometry and area of the final melt pool will be unique to that particular configuration. This report identifies the most important issues facing SLM, discusses the fundamental physics associated with it and points out how modeling can support the additive manufacturing efforts.

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