PJM Controller Testing with Prototypic PJM Nozzle Configuration

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of River Protection’s Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) is being designed and built to pre-treat and then vitrify a large portion of the wastes in Hanford’s 177 underground waste storage tanks. The WTP consists of three primary facilities—pretreatment, low-activity waste (LAW) vitrification, and high-level waste (HLW) vitrification. The pretreatment facility will receive waste piped from the Hanford tank farms and separate it into a high-volume, low-activity liquid stream stripped of most solids and radionuclides and a much smaller volume of HLW slurry containing most of the solids and most of the radioactivity. Many of the vessels in the pretreatment facility will contain pulse jet mixers (PJM) that will provide some or all of the mixing in the vessels. Pulse jet mixer technology was selected for use in black cell regions of the WTP, where maintenance cannot be performed once hot testing and operations commence. The PJMs have no moving mechanical parts that require maintenance. The vessels with the most concentrated slurries will also be mixed with air spargers and/or steady jets in addition to the mixing provided by the PJMs. Pulse jet mixers are susceptible to overblows that can generate large hydrodynamic forces, forces that can damage mixing vessels or their internal parts. The probability of an overblow increases if a PJM does not fill completely. The purpose of the testing performed for this report was to determine how reliable and repeatable the primary and safety (or backup) PJM control systems are at detecting drive overblows (DOB) and charge vessel full (CVF) conditions. Testing was performed on the ABB 800xA and Triconex control systems. The controllers operated an array of four PJMs installed in an approximately 13 ft diameter × 15 ft tall tank located in the high bay of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) 336 Building test facility. The PJMs were fitted with 4 inch diameter discharge nozzles representative of the nozzles to be used in the WTP. This work supplemented earlier controller tests done on PJMs with 2 inch nozzles (Bontha et al. 2007). Those earlier tests enabled the selection of appropriate pressure transmitters with associated piping and resulted in an alternate overblow detection algorithm that uses data from pressure transmitters mounted in a water flush line on the PJM airlines. Much of that earlier work was only qualitative, however, due to a data logger equipment failure that occurred during the 2007 testing. The objectives of the current work focused on providing quantitative determinations of the ability of the BNI controllers to detect DOB and CVF conditions. On both control systems, a DOB or CVF is indicated when the values of particular internal functions, called confidence values, cross predetermined thresholds. There are two types of confidence values; one based on a transformation of jet pump pair (JPP) drive and suction pressures, the other based on the pressure in the flush line. In the present testing, we collected confidence levels output from the ABB and Triconex controllers. These data were analyzed in terms of the true and noise confidence peaks generated during multiple cycles of DOB and CVF events. The distributions of peak and noise amplitudes were compared to see if thresholds could be set that would enable the detection of DOB and CVF events at high probabilities, while keeping false detections to low probabilities. Supporting data were also collected on PJM operation, including data on PJM pressures and levels, to provide direct experimental evidence of when PJMs were filling, full, driving, or overblowing

Pulse Jet Mixer Overblow Testing for Assessment of Loadings During Multiple Overblows

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of River Protection’s Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) is being designed and built to pretreat and then vitrify a large portion of the wastes in Hanford’s 177 underground waste storage tanks. The WTP consists of three primary facilities: pretreatment, low-activity waste (LAW) vitrification, and high-level waste (HLW) vitrification. The pretreatment facility will receive waste feed from the Hanford tank farms and separate it into 1) a high-volume, low-activity liquid stream stripped of most solids and radionuclides and 2) a much smaller volume of HLW slurry containing most of the solids and most of the radioactivity. Many of the vessels in the pretreatment facility will contain pulse jet mixers (PJMs) that will provide some or all of the mixing in the vessels. This technology was selected for use in so-called “black cell” regions of the WTP, where maintenance capability will not be available for the operating life of the WTP. PJM technology was selected for use in these regions because it has no moving mechanical parts that require maintenance. The vessels with the most concentrated slurries will also be mixed with air spargers and/or steady jets in addition to the mixing provided by the PJMs. This report contains the results of single and multiple PJM overblow tests conducted in a large, ~13 ft-diameter × 15-ft-tall tank located in the high bay of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) 336 Building test facility. These single and multiple PJM overblow tests were conducted using water and a clay simulant to bound the lower and upper rheological properties of the waste streams anticipated to be processed in the WTP. Hydrodynamic pressures were measured at a number of locations in the test vessel using an array of nine pressure sensors and four hydrophones. These measurements were made under normal and limiting vessel operating conditions (i.e., maximum PJM fluid emptying velocity, maximum and minimum vessel contents for PJM operation, and maximum and minimum rheological properties). Test data collected from the PJM overblow tests were provided to Bechtel National, Inc. (BNI) for assessing hydrostatic, dynamic, and acoustic pressure loadings on in-tank structures during 1) single overblows; 2) multiple overlapping overblows of two to four PJMs; 3) simultaneous overblows of pairs of PJMs

"Der Job des Zustellers ist um einiges komplexer geworden". Franz Nigl, Personalchef bei der Österreichischen Post, über die Herausforderungen und Möglichkeiten von Digitalisierung und Industrie 4.0 in der Zustellung auf der "Letzten Meile"

Die New-Skills-Gespräche des AMS werden im Auftrag der Abt. Arbeitsmarktforschung und Berufsinformation des AMS Österreich vom Österreichischen Institut für Berufsbildungsforschung (öibf; www.oeibf.at) gemeinsam mit dem Institut für Bildungsforschung der Wirtschaft (ibw; www.ibw.at) umgesetzt. ExpertInnen aus Wirtschaft, Bildungswesen, Politik und aus den Interessenvertretungen wie auch ExpertInnen aus der Grundlagen- bzw. der angewandten Forschung und Entwicklung geben im Zuge der New-Skills-Gespräche lebendige Einblicke in die vielen Facetten einer sich rasch ändernden und mit Schlagworten wie Industrie 4.0 oder Digitalisierung umrissenen Bildungs- und Arbeitswelt. Initiiert wurden die mit dem Jahr 2017 beginnenden New-Skills-Gespräche vom AMS Standing Committee on New Skills, einer aus ExpertInnen des AMS und der Sozialpartner zusammengesetzten Arbeitsgruppe, die es sich zum Ziel gesetzt hat, die breite Öffentlichkeit wie auch die verschiedenen Fachöffentlichkeiten mit einschlägigen aus der Forschung gewonnenen Informationen und ebenso sehr mit konkreten Empfehlungen für die berufliche Aus- und Weiterbildung - sei diese nun im Rahmen von arbeitsmarktpolitischen Qualifizierungsmaßnahmen oder in den verschiedensten Branchenkontexten der Privatwirtschaft organisiert, im berufsbildenden wie im allgemeinbildenden Schulwesen, in der Bildungs- und Berufsberatung u.v.m. verankert - zu unterstützen

"Durch Initiative von waff und Arbeiterkammer ist Wien mit der Digi-Winner-Förderung im absoluten Spitzenfeld". Monika Nigl, Leiterin des Beratungszentrums für Beruf und Weiterbildung vom Wiener ArbeitnehmerInnen Förderungsfond (waff), im Gespräch

Die New-Skills-Gespräche des AMS werden im Auftrag der Abt. Arbeitsmarktforschung und Berufsinformation des AMS Österreich vom Österreichischen Institut für Berufsbildungsforschung (öibf; www.oeibf.at) gemeinsam mit dem Institut für Bildungsforschung der Wirtschaft (ibw; www.ibw.at) umgesetzt. ExpertInnen aus Wirtschaft, Bildungswesen, Politik und aus den Interessenvertretungen wie auch ExpertInnen aus der Grundlagen- bzw. der angewandten Forschung und Entwicklung geben im Zuge der New-Skills-Gespräche lebendige Einblicke in die vielen Facetten einer sich rasch ändernden und mit Schlagworten wie Industrie 4.0 oder Digitalisierung umrissenen Bildungs- und Arbeitswelt. Initiiert wurden die mit dem Jahr 2017 beginnenden New-Skills-Gespräche vom AMS Standing Committee on New Skills, einer aus ExpertInnen des AMS und der Sozialpartner zusammengesetzten Arbeitsgruppe, die es sich zum Ziel gesetzt hat, die breite Öffentlichkeit wie auch die verschiedenen Fachöffentlichkeiten mit einschlägigen aus der Forschung gewonnenen Informationen und ebenso sehr mit konkreten Empfehlungen für die berufliche Aus- und Weiterbildung - sei diese nun im Rahmen von arbeitsmarktpolitischen Qualifizierungsmaßnahmen oder in den verschiedensten Branchenkontexten der Privatwirtschaft organisiert, im berufsbildenden wie im allgemeinbildenden Schulwesen, in der Bildungs- und Berufsberatung u.v.m. verankert - zu unterstützen

NON-NEWTONIAN FLUID CAVERN AND NEWTONIAN CLOUD HEIGHT TESTS TO CHARACTERIZE PULSE JET MIXER OPERATION AJK2011-0

ABSTRACT Pulse jet mixing systems are being developed for use in the Waste Treatment Plant in Washington State. To assist with system development, scaled tests were conducted to obtain experimental measurements of the cloud height for Newtonian slurries and cavern heights for a Non-Newtonian yield stress material. The measurements were required to assess the effective mixing and material mobilization produced during pulse jet mixer operation. The cloud height measurements were obtained for a single steady-state jet directed downward in a spherical-bottom tank. The cloud tests used glass beads in water to evaluate the height of the suspended slurry as a function of jet velocity. Cloud testing revealed that the glass bead material was suspended in the tank quickly and developed a distinctive height for each combination of flow rate and particulate size tested. The solids loading had minimal impact on the cloud height for a given particle size. During all cloud tests, the surface of the tank remained relatively calm, indicating that the slurry was dissipating the mixing energy of the relatively high velocity jet. Cavern tests were conducted to obtain experimental data of non-Newtonian fluid mixing for fluid properties similar to those of certain tank wastes. A transparent material that exhibited a yield stress and shear thinning behavior was used to obtain measurements of steady-state cavern heights as a function of jet velocity. For the non-Newtonian fluid cavern tests, distinct cavern volumes were readily developed for the four velocities tested. A linear relationship was observed to exist between cavern height and nozzle velocity. Since the experimental work detailed in this paper was completed, additional scaled tests have been conducted with pneumatic drive systems and direct drive systems similar to that described for this effort. Data from both types of measurements are shown to be linear; however, effects from the reciprocating drive systems that are not yet incorporated into models may be affecting the ability to collapse this data independent of scale. It is recommended that future efforts to assess performance of PJM operations using scaled tests consider employing direct drive systems to aid in evaluating scaling trends. A test system can be configured to allow testing at both reciprocating and direct drive conditions; thereby allowing direct comparison between them

Multi-Material Food Printing with Complex Internal Structure Suitable for Conventional Post-Processing

Solid Freeform Fabrication (SFF) of food provides an exciting application for additive manufacturing technologies. A variety of materials has been used to demonstrate food printing. However, these materials were not suited for traditional food processing techniques (Baking, slow cooking, frying, etc) and thus eliminating the majority of today‟s consumed food. We demonstrated new materials suitable for baking, broiling and frying. Turkey, scallop, celery were processed and modified using transglutaminase to enable them to be slow cooked or deep-fried after printing. Mutli-material constructs of turkey meat and celery were successfully printed. A cookie recipe was modified to be printable while retaining shape during baking. By adding cocoa powder to the modified recipe a second, visually and differently tasting material was created. A complex shape of the cocoa modified material was printed within a block of the modified material. The complex internal geometry printed was fully preserved during baking.Mechanical Engineerin

Deposition Velocities of Newtonian and Non-Newtonian Slurries in Pipelines

The WTP pipe plugging issue, as stated by the External Flowsheet Review Team (EFRT) Executive Summary, is as follows: “Piping that transports slurries will plug unless it is properly designed to minimize this risk. This design approach has not been followed consistently, which will lead to frequent shutdowns due to line plugging.” A strategy was employed to perform critical-velocity tests on several physical simulants. Critical velocity is defined as the point where a stationary bed of particles deposits on the bottom of a straight horizontal pipe during slurry transport operations. Results from the critical velocity testing provide an indication of slurry stability as a function of fluid rheological properties and transport conditions. The experimental results are compared to the WTP design guide on slurry transport velocity in an effort to confirm minimum waste velocity and flushing velocity requirements as established by calculations and critical line velocity correlations in the design guide. The major findings of this testing is discussed below. Experimental results indicate that the use of the Oroskar and Turian (1980) correlation in the design guide is conservative—Slurry viscosity has a greater affect on particles with a large surface area to mass ratio. The increased viscous forces on these particles result in a decrease in predicted critical velocities from this traditional industry derived equations that focus on particles large than 100 m in size. Since the Hanford slurry particles generally have large surface area to mass ratios, the reliance on such equations in the Hall (2006) design guide is conservative. Additionally, the use of the 95% percentile particle size as an input to this equation is conservative. However, test results indicate that the use of an average particle density as an input to the equation is not conservative. Particle density has a large influence on the overall result returned by the correlation. Lastly, the viscosity correlation used in the WTP design guide has been shown to be inaccurate for Hanford waste feed materials. The use of the Thomas (1979) correlation in the design guide is not conservative—In cases where 100% of the particles are smaller than 74 m or particles are considered to be homogeneous due to yield stress forces suspending the particles the homogeneous fraction of the slurry can be set to 100%. In such cases, the predicted critical velocity based on the conservative Oroskar and Turian (1980) correlation is reduced to zero and the design guide returns a value from the Thomas (1979) correlation. The measured data in this report show that the Thomas (1979) correlation predictions often fall below that measured experimental values. A non-Newtonian deposition velocity design guide should be developed for the WTP— Since the WTP design guide is limited to Newtonian fluids and the WTP expects to process large quantities of such materials, the existing design guide should be modified address such systems. A central experimental finding of this testing is that the flow velocity required to reach turbulent flow increases with slurry rheological properties due to viscous forces dampening the formation of turbulent eddies. The flow becomes dominated by viscous forces rather than turbulent eddies. Since the turbulent eddies necessary for particle transport are not present, the particles will settle when crossing this boundary called the transitional deposition boundary. This deposition mechanism should be expected and designed for in the WTP

Pulse Jet Mixer Overblow Testing for Assessment of Loadings During Multiple Overblows

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of River Protection’s Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) is being designed and built to pretreat and then vitrify a large portion of the wastes in Hanford’s 177 underground waste storage tanks. The WTP consists of three primary facilities: pretreatment, low-activity waste (LAW) vitrification, and high-level waste (HLW) vitrification. The pretreatment facility will receive waste feed from the Hanford tank farms and separate it into 1) a high-volume, low-activity liquid stream stripped of most solids and radionuclides and 2) a much smaller volume of HLW slurry containing most of the solids and most of the radioactivity. Many of the vessels in the pretreatment facility will contain pulse jet mixers (PJMs) that will provide some or all of the mixing in the vessels. This technology was selected for use in so-called “black cell” regions of the WTP, where maintenance capability will not be available for the operating life of the WTP. PJM technology was selected for use in these regions because it has no moving mechanical parts that require maintenance. The vessels with the most concentrated slurries will also be mixed with air spargers and/or steady jets in addition to the mixing provided by the PJMs. This report contains the results of single and multiple PJM overblow tests conducted in a large, ~13 ft-diameter × 15-ft-tall tank located in the high bay of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) 336 Building test facility. These single and multiple PJM overblow tests were conducted using water and a clay simulant to bound the lower and upper rheological properties of the waste streams anticipated to be processed in the WTP. Hydrodynamic pressures were measured at a number of locations in the test vessel using an array of nine pressure sensors and four hydrophones. These measurements were made under normal and limiting vessel operating conditions (i.e., maximum PJM fluid emptying velocity, maximum and minimum vessel contents for PJM operation, and maximum and minimum rheological properties). Test data collected from the PJM overblow tests were provided to Bechtel National, Inc. (BNI) for assessing hydrostatic, dynamic, and acoustic pressure loadings on in-tank structures during 1) single overblows; 2) multiple overlapping overblows of two to four PJMs; 3) simultaneous overblows of pairs of PJMs