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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 199 records · Page 11
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2003

Measurements of Erosion Wear Volume Loss on Bare and Coated Polymer Matrix Composites

An investigation was conducted to examine the erosion behavior of uncoated and coated polymer matrix composite (PMC) specimens subjected to solid particle impingement using air jets. The PMCs were carbon-Kevlar (DuPont, Wilmington, DE) fiber-epoxy resin composites with a temperature capability up to 393 K (248 F). Tungsten carbide-cobalt (WC-Co) was the primary topcoat constituent. Bondcoats were applied to the PMC substrates to improve coating adhesion; then, erosion testing was performed at the University of Cincinnati. All erosion tests were conducted with Arizona road-dust (ARD), impinging at angles of 20 and 90 on both uncoated and two-layer coated PMCs at a velocity of 229 m/s and at a temperature of 366 K (200 F). ARD contains primarily 10-m aluminum oxide powders. Vertically scanning interference microscopy (noncontact, optical profilometry) was used to evaluate surface characteristics, such as erosion wear volume loss and depth, surface topography, and surface roughness. The results indicate that noncontact, optical interferometry can be used to make an accurate determination of the erosion wear volume loss of PMCs with multilayered structures while preserving the specimens. The two-layered (WC-Co topcoat and metal bondcoat) coatings on PMCs remarkably reduced the erosion volume loss by a factor of approximately 10. The tenfold increase in erosion resistance will contribute to longer PMC component lives, lower air friction, reduced related breakdowns, decreased maintenance costs, and increased PMC reliability. The decrease in the surface roughness of the coated vanes will lead to lower air friction and will subsequently reduce energy consumption. Eventually, the coatings could lead to overall economic savings.

Miyoshi, Kazuhisa↗
NASA NTRS2004

Compiling Planning into Scheduling: A Sketch

Although there are many approaches for compiling a planning problem into a static CSP or a scheduling problem, current approaches essentially preserve the structure of the planning problem in the encoding. In this pape: we present a fundamentally different encoding that more accurately resembles a scheduling problem. We sketch the approach and argue, based on an example, that it is possible to automate the generation of such an encoding for problems with certain properties and thus produce a compiler of planning into scheduling problems. Furthermore we argue that many NASA problems exhibit these properties and that such a compiler would provide benefits to both theory and practice.

Bedrax-Weiss, Tania↗
NASA NTRS1994

Depositional and tectonic setting of the Archean Moodies Group, Barberton Greenstone Belt, South Africa

The 3.22-3.10 Ga old Moodies Group, uppermost unit of the Swaziland Supergroup in the Barberton Greenstone Belt (BGB), is the oldest exposed, well-preserved quartz-rich sedimentary sequence on earth. It is preserved in structurally separate blocks in a heavily deformed fold-and-thrust belt. North of the Inyoka Fault, Moodies strata reach up to 3700 m in thickness. Detailed mapping, correlation of measured sections, and systematic analysis of paleocurrents show that the lower Moodies Group north of the Inyoka Fault forms a deepening- and fining-upward sequence from a basal alluvial conglomerate through braided fluvial, tidal, and deltaic sandstones to offshore sandy shelf deposits. The basal conglomerate and overlying fluvial facies were derived from the north and include abundant detritus eroded from underlying Fig Tree Group dacitic volcanic rocks. Shoreline-parallel transport and extensive reworking dominate overlying deltaic, tidal, and marine facies. The lithologies and arrangement of Moodies Group facies, sandstone petrology, the unconformable relationship between Moodies strata and older deformed rocks, presence of at least one syndepositional normal fault, and presence of basaltic flow rocks and airfall fall tuffs interbedded with the terrestrial strata collectively suggest that the lower Moodies Group was deposited in one or more intramontane basins in an extensional setting. Thinner Moodies sections south of the Inyoka Fault, generally less than 1000 m thick, may be correlative with the basal Moodies Group north of the Inyoka Fault and were probably deposited in separate basins. A northerly derived, southward-thinning fan-delta conglomerate in the upper part of the Moodies Group in the central BGB overlies lower strata with an angular unconformity. This and associated upper Moodies conglomerates mark the beginning of basin shortening by south- to southeast-directed thrust faulting along the northern margin of the BGB and suggest that the upper Moodies Group was deposited in a foreland basin. Timing, orientation, and style of shortening suggest that this deformation eventually incorporated most of the BGB into a major fold-and-thrust belt.

NASA Discipline Exobiology↗
NASA NTRS2000

Analysis of shape and motion of the mitral annulus in subjects with and without cardiomyopathy by echocardiographic 3-dimensional reconstruction

The shape and dynamics of the mitral annulus of 10 patients without heart disease (controls), 3 patients with dilated cardiomyopathy, and 5 patients with hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy and normal systolic function were analyzed by transesophageal echocardiography and 3-dimensional reconstruction. Mitral annular orifice area, apico-basal motion of the annulus, and nonplanarity were calculated over time. Annular area was largest in end diastole and smallest in end systole. Mean areas were 11.8 +/- 2.5 cm(2) (controls), 15.2 +/- 4.2 cm(2) (dilated cardiomyopathy), and 10.2 +/- 2.4 cm(2) (hypertrophic cardiomyopathy) (P = not significant). After correction for body surface, annuli from patients with normal left ventricular function were smaller than annuli from patients with dilated cardiomyopathy (5.9 +/- 1.2 cm(2)/m(2) vs 7.7 +/- 1.0 cm(2)/m(2); P <.02). The change in area during the cardiac cycle showed significant differences: 23.8% +/- 5.1% (controls), 13.2% +/- 2.3% (dilated cardiomyopathy), and 32.4% +/- 7.6% (hypertrophic cardiomyopathy) (P <.001). Apico-basal motion was highest in controls, followed by those with hypertrophic obstructive and dilated cardiomyopathy (1.0 +/- 0.3 cm, 0.8 +/- 0.2 cm, 0.3 +/- 0.2 cm, respectively; P <.01). Visual inspection and Fourier analysis showed a consistent pattern of anteroseptal and posterolateral elevations of the annulus toward the left atrium. In conclusion, although area changes and apico-basal motion of the mitral annulus strongly depend on left ventricular systolic function, nonplanarity is a structural feature preserved throughout the cardiac cycle in all three groups.

Non-NASA Center↗
NASA NTRS1996

Effect of spaceflight on the functional, biochemical, and metabolic properties of skeletal muscle

This paper summarizes the effects of spaceflight on the functional, morphological, and biochemical properties of human and rodent skeletal muscle. The findings suggest that following as little as 5-6 in space there are deficits in both human and rodent motor capacity, strength, and endurance properties of skeletal muscle. The reduced strength is associated, in part, with a reduction in muscle mass as reflected in smaller cross-sectional areas of both fast- and slow-twitch fibers. Available evidence in animal models suggests that slow-twitch fibers are more sensitive to the atrophying process. Accompanying the atrophy is a transformation of slow to fast protein phenotype involving myosin heavy chain and sarcoplasmic reticulum protein isoforms. These transformations appear to be regulated, in part, by pretranslational processes. Data on the oxidative capacity of rodent skeletal muscle suggest a bias toward preferential utilization of carbohydrate as the primary substrate. These collective findings suggest that skeletal muscles comprised chiefly of slow fibers are highly dependent on gravity for the normal expression of protein mass and slow phenotype. Future studies need to focus on elucidating the mechanisms associated with the atrophy response, as well as identifying suitable exercise and other countermeasures capable of preserving the structural and functional integrity of skeletal muscle.

NASA Discipline Musculoskeletal↗
NASA NTRS2004

Crustal structure of Mars from gravity and topography

Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) topography and gravity models from 5 years of Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft tracking provide a window into the structure of the Martian crust and upper mantle. We apply a finite-amplitude terrain correction assuming uniform crustal density and additional corrections for the anomalous densities of the polar caps, the major volcanos, and the hydrostatic flattening of the core. A nonlinear inversion for Moho relief yields a crustal thickness model that obeys a plausible power law and resolves features as small as 300 km wavelength. On the basis of petrological and geophysical constraints, we invoke a mantle density contrast of 600 kg m-3; with this assumption, the Isidis and Hellas gravity anomalies constrain the global mean crustal thickness to be >45 km. The crust is characterized by a degree 1 structure that is several times larger than any higher degree harmonic component, representing the geophysical manifestation of the planet's hemispheric dichotomy. It corresponds to a distinction between modal crustal thicknesses of 32 km and 58 km in the northern and southern hemispheres, respectively. The Tharsis rise and Hellas annulus represent the strongest components in the degree 2 crustal thickness structure. A uniform highland crustal thickness suggests a single mechanism for its formation, with subsequent modification by the Hellas impact, erosion, and the volcanic construction of Tharsis. The largest surviving lowland impact, Utopia, post-dated formation of the crustal dichotomy. Its crustal structure is preserved, making it unlikely that the northern crust was subsequently thinned by internal processes.

Neumann, G. A.↗
NASA NTRS2008

High Temperature Aerogels in the Al2O3-SiO2 System

Al2O3-SiO2 aerogels are of interest as constituents of thermal insulation systems for use at high temperatures. Al2O3 and mullite aerogels are expected to crystallize at higher temperatures than their SiO2 counterparts, hence avoiding the shrinkages that accompany the formation of lower temperature SiO2 phases and preserving pore structures into higher temperature regimes. The objective of this work is to determine the influence of processing parameters on shrinkage, gel structure (including surface area, pore size and distribution) and pyrolysis behavior.

Hurwitz, Frances I.↗
NASA NTRS2009

Geologic Mapping Investigations of the Northwest Rim of Hellas Basin, Mars

The Hellas impact basin, spanning 2000+ km in the cratered highlands, is the largest well-preserved impact structure on Mars and its deepest depositional sink. The Hellas region is significant for evaluating Mars hydrogeologic and climate histories, given the nature, diversity, and range in ages of potential water- and ice-related landforms [e.g., 1-2], including possible paleolakes on the basin floor [2-4]. The circum-Hellas highlands are of special interest given recent studies of potential localized fluvial/lacustrine systems [2, 5-17] and evidence for phyllosilicates around and within impact craters north of the basin [18-26].

Crown, David A.↗
NASA NTRS2010

Evidence for an Ancient Buried Landscape on the NW Rim of Hellas Basin, Mars

Hellas basin is the largest (2000+ km across) well-preserved impact structure on Mars and its deepest depositional sink [e.g., 1]. The Hellas rim and adjacent highlands are of special interest given the possibility of paleolakes on the basin floor [2-4], recent studies of potential localized fluvial/lacustrine systems [2, 5-17], and evidence for phyllosilicates around and within impact craters north of the basin [18-26]. We are producing a 1:1.5M-scale geologic map of eight MTM quadrangles (-25312, -25307, -25302, -25297, -30312, -30307, -30302, -30297) along Hellas NW rim. The map region (22.5-32.5degS, 45- 65degE) includes a transect across the cratered highlands of Terra Sabaea, the degraded NW rim of Hellas, and basin interior deposits of NW Hellas Planitia. No previous mapping studies have focused on this region, although it has been included in earlier global and regional maps [27-29].

Crown, David A.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Sampling the Uppermost Surface of Airless Bodies

The uppermost surface of an airless body is a critical source of ground-truth information for the various remote sensing techniques that only penetrate nanometers to micrometers into the surface. Such samples will also be vital for understanding conditions at the surface and acquiring information about how the body interacts with its environment, including solar wind interaction, grain charging and levitation [1]. Sampling the uppermost surface while preserving its structure (e.g. porosity, grain-to-grain contacts) however, is a daunting task that has not been achieved on any sample return mission to date.

Noble, S. K.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Lessons Learned from the Space Shuttle Engine Hydrogen Flow Control Valve Poppet Breakage

The Main Propulsion System (MPS) uses three Flow Control Valves (FCV) to modulate the flow of pressurant hydrogen gas from the Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSME) to the hydrogen External Tank (ET). This maintains pressure in the ullage volume as the liquid level drops, preserving ET structural integrity and assuring the engines receive a sufficient amount of head pressure. On Space Transportation System (STS)-126 (2009), with only a handful of International Space Station (ISS) assembly flights from the end of the Shuttle program, a portion of a single FCV?s poppet head broke off at about a minute and a half after liftoff. The risk of the poppet head failure is that the increased flow area through the FCV could result in excessive gaseous hydrogen flow back to the external tank, which could result in overboard venting of hydrogen ullage pressure. If the hydrogen venting were to occur in first stage (i.e., lower atmosphere), a flammability hazard exists that could lead to catastrophic loss of crew and vehicle. Other failure risks included particle impact damage to MPS downstream hardware. Although the FCV design had been plagued by contamination-related sluggish valve response problems prior to a redesign at STS-80 (1996), contamination was ruled out as the cause of the STS-126 failure. Employing a combination of enhanced hardware inspection and a better understanding of the consequences of a poppet failure, safe flight rationale for subsequent flights (STS-119 and later) was achieved. This paper deals with the technical lessons learned during the investigation and mitigation of this problem at a time when assembly flights were each in the critical path to Space Station success.

Martinez, Hugo E.↗
NASA NTRS2017

Automated Analysis of Stateflow Models

Stateflow is a widely used modeling framework for embedded and cyber physical systems where control software interacts with physical processes. In this work, we present a framework a fully automated safety verification technique for Stateflow models. Our approach is two-folded: (i) we faithfully compile Stateflow models into hierarchical state machines, and (ii) we use automated logic-based verification engine to decide the validity of safety properties. The starting point of our approach is a denotational semantics of State flow. We propose a compilation process using continuation-passing style (CPS) denotational semantics. Our compilation technique preserves the structural and modal behavior of the system. The overall approach is implemented as an open source toolbox that can be integrated into the existing Mathworks Simulink Stateflow modeling framework. We present preliminary experimental evaluations that illustrate the effectiveness of our approach in code generation and safety verification of industrial scale Stateflow models.

Stateflow↗
NASA NTRS2026

Investigating Dual Electrospinning as a Means of Enhancing Passive Thermal Control Coatings for Cryogenic Propellant Storage in Extraterrestrial Environments

Passive thermal control is necessary as space exploration becomes increasingly widespread. Materials with superior optical properties (high solar reflectance and infrared emittance) are critical for passive thermal control because they can reject most of the incident solar radiation and promote thermal emission from cryogenic propellant storage tanks, enabling the extraterrestrial storage of cryogens. We have demonstrated in previous studies that electrospun nanofibers exhibit exceptional optical properties, offering significant benefits for passive radiative cooling in space. Particularly, electrospun polyvinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene PVDF-HFP nanofibers demonstrate exceptionally high solar reflectance (>99%) and strong thermal emittance (measured at ~300 K). However, they exhibit nanostructural changes in the presence of atomic oxygen, which is prevalent in Low Earth Orbit. This study focuses on creating a unique blend of polymeric (PVDF-HFP) and ceramic-based (silica) nanofibers by leveraging the chemical stability and atomic oxygen resistance of silica, using the dual electrospinning manufacturing method. This approach aims to preserve the structural properties of the polymeric counterpart without compromising its optical performance, thereby providing an innovative method for manufacturing environmentally resilient passive thermal control nanofibers with desirable optical and thermal control functionalities for extraterrestrial storage of cryogenic propellants.

Chieloka Ibekwe↗
DOE OSTI2021

Nonlinear Matrix Approximation with Radial Basis Function Components

We introduce and investigate matrix approximation by decomposition into a sum of radial basis function (RBF) components. An RBF component is a generalization of the outer product between a pair of vectors, where an RBF function replaces the scalar multiplication between individual vector elements. Even though the RBF functions are positive definite, the summation across components is not restricted to convex combinations and allows us to compute the decomposition for any real matrix that is not necessarily symmetric or positive definite. We formulate the problem of seeking such a decomposition as an optimization problem with a nonlinear and non-convex loss function. Several modern versions of the gradient descent method, including their scalable stochastic counterparts, are used to solve this problem. We provide extensive empirical evidence of the effectiveness of the RBF decomposition and that of the gradient-based fitting algorithm. While being conceptually motivated by singular value decomposition (SVD), our proposed nonlinear counterpart outperforms SVD by drastically reducing the memory required to approximate a data matrix with the same L2 error for a wide range of matrix types. For example, it leads to 2 to 6 times memory save for Gaussian noise, graph adjacency matrices, and kernel matrices. Moreover, this proximity-based decomposition can offer additional interpretability in applications that involve, e.g., capturing the inner low-dimensional structure of the data, retaining graph connectivity structure, and preserving the acutance of images.

Rebrova, Elizaveta↗
DOE OSTI2023

Nanometer flat blazed x-ray gratings using ion beam figure correction

With the development of nanometer accuracy stitching interferometry, ion beam figuring (IBF) of x-ray mirrors can now be achieved with unprecedented performance. However, the process of producing x-ray diffraction gratings on these surfaces may degrade the figure quality due to process errors introduced during the ruling of the grating grooves. To address this challenge, we have investigated the post-production correction of gratings using IBF, where stitching interferometry is used to provide in-process feedback. A concern with ion beam correction in this case is that ions will induce enough surface mobility of atoms to cause smoothing of the grating structure and degradation of diffraction efficiency. In this study we found however that it is possible to achieve a nanometer-level planarity of the global grating surface with IBF, while preserving the grating structure. The preservation was so good, that we could not detect a change in the diffraction efficiency after ion beam correction. This is of major importance in achieving ultra-high spectral resolution, and the preservation of brightness for coherent x-ray beams.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Coarse-graining Hamiltonian systems using WSINDy

Abstract Weak form equation learning and surrogate modeling has proven to be computationally efficient and robust to measurement noise in a wide range of applications including ODE, PDE, and SDE discovery, as well as in coarse-graining applications, such as homogenization and mean-field descriptions of interacting particle systems. In this work we extend this coarse-graining capability to the setting of Hamiltonian dynamics which possess approximate symmetries associated with timescale separation. A smooth $$\varepsilon$$ ε -dependent Hamiltonian vector field $$X_\varepsilon$$ X ε possesses an approximate symmetry if the limiting vector field $$X_0=\lim _{\varepsilon \rightarrow 0}X_\varepsilon$$ X 0 = lim ε → 0 X ε possesses an exact symmetry. Such approximate symmetries often lead to the existence of a Hamiltonian system of reduced dimension that may be used to efficiently capture the dynamics of the symmetry-invariant dependent variables. Deriving such reduced systems, or approximating them numerically, is an ongoing challenge. We demonstrate that WSINDy can successfully identify this reduced Hamiltonian system in the presence of large perturbations imparted in the $$\varepsilon >0$$ ε > 0 regime, while remaining robust to extrinsic noise. This is significant in part due to the nontrivial means by which such systems are derived analytically. WSINDy naturally preserves the Hamiltonian structure by restricting to a trial basis of Hamiltonian vector fields. The methodology is computationally efficient, often requiring only a single trajectory to learn the global reduced Hamiltonian, and avoiding forward solves in the learning process. In this way, we argue that weak-form equation learning is particularly well-suited for Hamiltonian coarse-graining. Using nearly-periodic Hamiltonian systems as a prototypical class of systems with approximate symmetries, we show that WSINDy robustly identifies the correct leading-order system, with dimension reduced by at least two, upon observation of the relevant degrees of freedom. While our main contribution is computational, we also provide a contribution to the literature on averaging theory by proving that first-order averaging at the level of vector fields preserves Hamiltonian structure in nearly-periodic Hamiltonian systems. This provides theoretical justification for our approach as WSINDy’s computations occur at the level of Hamiltonian vector fields. We illustrate the efficacy of our proposed method using physically relevant examples, including coupled oscillator dynamics, the Hénon–Heiles system for stellar motion within a galaxy, and the dynamics of charged particles.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2025

Block-Structured Operator Inference for Coupled Multiphysics Model Reduction

This work presents a block-structured formulation of Operator Inference as a way to learn structured reduced-order models for multiphysics systems. The approach specifies the governing equation structure for each physics component and the structure of the coupling terms. Once the multiphysics structure is specified, the reduced-order model is learned from snapshot data following the nonintrusive Operator Inference methodology. In addition to preserving physical system structure, which in turn permits preservation of system properties such as stability and second-order structure, the block-structured approach has the advantages of reducing the overall dimensionality of the learning problem and admitting tailored regularization for each physics component. The numerical advantages of the block-structured formulation over a monolithic Operator Inference formulation are demonstrated for aeroelastic analysis, which couples aerodynamic and structural models. For the benchmark test case of the AGARD 445.6 wing, block-structured Operator Inference provides an average 20% online prediction speedup over monolithic Operator Inference across subsonic and supersonic flow conditions in both the stable and fluttering parameter regimes while preserving the accuracy achieved with monolithic Operator Inference.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2026

AstraAI v1

AstraAI is an open-source, structure-aware AI coding agent designed for large scientific and DOE-HPC codebases such as AMReX-based applications. Unlike general-purpose coding assistants, AstraAI combines retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) with compiler-level Abstract Syntax Tree (AST) analysis to perform precise, scope-constrained code modifications. It identifies exact function spans, enforces locality of edits, and maintains cross-file invariants, enabling deterministic and build-safe transformations in complex C++/GPU environments. AstraAI is intended for developers working on large, evolving HPC frameworks where correctness, reproducibility, and structural integrity are critical. Typical use cases include modifying physics kernels, updating GPU device lambdas, and performing multi-file refactors without breaking compilation or runtime semantics. Compared to conventional LLM-based coding agents - even those with repository access - AstraAI provides structural guarantees rather than free-form text patches. It minimizes unintended diffs, prevents scope drift, preserves formatting and build stability, and reduces structural hallucinations. By integrating compiler tooling directly into the generation loop, AstraAI transforms AI-assisted coding from probabilistic text editing into deterministic, structure-preserving program transformation suitable for mission-critical scientific software.

Natarajan, Mahesh [Lawrence Berkeley National Labo↗