Area of Interest 1: Pressure Gain Combustion
1. Pressure Gain, Stability, and Operability of Methane/Syngas Based RDEs under Steady and Transient Conditions – Regents of the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI) will develop low-loss rotating detonation engine (RDE) designs for use in power generation using natural gas/syngas mixtures. Project objectives include: developing and demonstrating a low-loss fully axial injection concept that takes advantage of stratification effects to alter the detonation structure and position the wave favorably within the combustor; obtaining stability and operability characteristics of an RDE at fixed- and transient-operating conditions and determining performance rules for full-scale operations; and developing quantitative metrics for performance gain, as well as quantitative description of the loss mechanisms through a combination of diagnostics development, reduced-order modeling, and detailed simulations.
DOE Funding: $802,400; Non-DOE Funding: $343,457; Total Value: $1,145,857
Area of Interest 2: Advanced Materials Development for Hot Gas Path Turbine
2. A Multiphysics Multiscale Simulation Platform for Damage, Environmental Degradation, and Life Prediction of CMCs in Extreme Environments – Board of Regents on behalf of Arizona State University (Tempe, AZ) will enhance the fidelity and reduce empiricism in the ability to predict ceramic matrix component (CMC) life in service environments by closing the knowledge gap in modeling the nonlinear temperature and time-dependent deformation, damage, and material degradation mechanisms in CMCs in turbine service environments. The Board of Regents will achieve this by addressing the effect of microstructural variability and manufacturing-related flaws on temperature and time-dependent deformation and progressive damage, oxidative damage and degradation mechanisms at intermediate temperatures, time-dependent inelastic deformation at high temperatures; and by coupling of the differing physical processes within a multi-scale framework.
DOE Funding: $802,400; Non-DOE Funding: $200,600; Total Value: $1,003,000
3. Development of Additive Manufacturing for Ceramic Matrix Composite Vanes – Pennsylvania State University (University Park, PA) will mature additive manufacturing (AM) of CMC airfoils with complex internal cooling features using a polymer precursor matrix pre-impregnated with ceramic fiber filaments. The project will demonstrate the ability to 3D print relevant turbine features in silicon oxycarbide; develop and characterize new silicon carbide precursor materials for AM; and develop design tools that can enable a complex cooled CMC vane capable of operation at firing temperatures of 3100 degrees Fahrenheit. The goal is to develop new insight into how AM can enable transformative levels of performance in CMC airfoils.
DOE Funding: $802,250; Non-DOE Funding: $220,024; Total Value: $1,022,274
Area of Interest 3: Advanced Manufacturing Development for Hot Gas Path Turbine
4. An Effective Quality Assurance Method for Additively Manufactured Gas Turbine Metallic Components via Machine Learning from In-Situ Monitoring, Part-scale Modeling, and Ex-Situ Characterization Data – University of Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh, PA) will develop a cost-effective, quality-assurance (QA) method that can rapidly qualify laser powder bed fusion (LPBF)-processed hot gas path turbine components (HGPTCs) through a machine learning framework that assimilates in-situ monitoring and measurement, ex-situ characterization, and simulation data. The project deliverable will be a rapid QA tool capable of building a metadata package of process-structureproperty data and models intended for LPBF-processed HGPTCs.
DOE Funding: $802,400; Non-DOE Funding: $200,600; Total Value: $1,003,000
5. Integrated Turbine Component Cooling Designs Facilitated by Additive Manufacturing and Optimization – University of Texas at Austin (Austin, TX) with researchers from Penn State University, will use AM technology to develop improved overall cooling effectiveness for turbine components, particularly vanes and blades. The project explores the use of AM to manufacture turbine components with complex features that cannot be manufactured with conventional techniques, as well as the use of AM for rapid prototyping and testing of turbine components that will ultimately be manufactured using conventional techniques.
DOE Funding: $800,930; Non-DOE Funding: $212,134; Total Value: $1,013,064
Area of Interest 4: Fundamental Research for sCO2 Power Cycle Development
6. Advanced Model Development for LES of Oxy- Combustion and Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Power Cycles – Georgia Tech Research Corp (Atlanta, GA) will develop a validated large eddy simulation model framework that supports oxy-combustion experiments relevant to direct cycles; establish a synergistic combination of computational and experimental research that will make a substantive impact on the practical design and implementation of supercritical carbon dioxide power cycles.
DOE Funding: $802,042; Non-DOE Funding: $200,914; Total Value: $1,002,956
Area of Interest 5: Fossil Fuel-Based Power Generation with Large-Scale Energy Storage
7. Techno-Economic Optimization of Advanced Energy Plants with Integrated Thermal, Mechanical, and Electro-Chemical Storage – West Virginia University Research Corporation (Morgantown, WV) will evaluate the transient response to various system concepts that minimize the levelized cost of electricity of thermal, chemical, mechanical and electro-chemical storage technologies. The project will develop dynamic models of chemical storage using hydrogen; electro-chemical storage using high temperature sodium sulfur; vanadium redox flow and lithium-ion batteries; mechanical storage using compressed air and pumped hydroelectric storage; thermal storage using phase change materials; and molten salts and cryogenics. Further, the project will develop system technology concepts where the dynamics of the fossil-fueled power plants (FFPPs) are exploited while selecting the optimal storage technology; develop reduced dynamic models using input-output data from dynamic models of storage technologies integrated with FFPPs for use in mathematical optimization for down selection of the system concepts; develop a holistic optimization-based methodology and a decision-making framework using a novel mixed-integer nonlinear programming algorithm to down select the most promising energy storage technologies; and perform detailed technoeconomic analyses of up to six system concepts selected in consultation with NETL.
DOE Funding: $602,399; Non-DOE Funding: $153,903; Total Value: $756,302