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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 217 records · Page 12

Tailored Fiber Placement for Complex Preforms

Tailored Fiber Placement (TFP) offers a novel approach to optimize fiber architecture for the fabrication of complex, structural parts not traditionally suitable for advanced composites. This technology not only offers new routes for weight reduction via metal substitution, it also offers cost reduction through minimization of material scrap and reduced labor. This reduction in component weight leads to increased fuel efficiency, and reduced production energy consumption, thereby, helping to achieve the stated IACMI technical goals. This technology leverages centuries of manufacturing development in support of the textile and embroidery industry. One major drawback to this technology is the lack of commercial or non- proprietary structural performance data and robust analytical tools used to optimize fiber architecture and predict performance. This project was structured to utilize common sub-element features to validate analytical performance tools, generate performance data, and gather cost and performance data on components of interest. This project was designed to give industry sponsors the confidence and ability to take full advantage of TFP to fabricate primary, highly loaded structure and integrate features such as metallic fasteners. The project focused principally on the use of high strength carbon fiber, such as T700, and the use of aerospace epoxy resin matrix to primarily support development of new composite applications in vehicle, aerospace, and industrial markets. This project applied previously developed analytical tools to predict the performance of TFP produced parts. This work focused on developing the pipeline to characterize material in order to accurately predict component performance when modifying the TFP print paths and stitch density. This focused on experimental characterization via standardized ASTM testing, alongside experimental testing of more representative service components by testing curved beam strength, beam shear performance, a large scale TFP lug, and ultimately designing a fully TFP clip bracket that reduced weight and cost compared to a traditional metallic component. The new knowledge gained from this program included: 1) development and demonstration of novel analytical tools applied to analysis of TFP preforms; 2) development and demonstration of a building block approach using coupons and sub-elements to optimize the design of a more complex component; 3) demonstration that optimized fiber orientation using TFP can exceed performance of conventional textile composite materials and can open new applications currently limited to metallic components; 4) Demonstration of performance and cost benefits of the TFP process as compared to metallic and conventional textile composites. Recommendations for follow-on work include development of design allowables to assess the impact of high temperature/moisture exposure or saturation during loading, tracking the impact of stitching needle wear on the performance of parts and ability to stitch thicker preforms, using TFP preforms as local reinforcement at areas of bearing or complex loading, and topology optimization of components by tow steering. The expertise developed during the course of this project can be leveraged to provide commercial engineering design and fabrication services using TFP. UDRI is in the process of formalizing their partnership with Spintech, who will serve as the commercialization partner for this technology and provide molding services and deliver finished components to the end user. UDRI will continue to produce the preforms until the economics allow Spintech to procure its own TFP equipment or lease UDRI equipment, at which point UDRI will step away from manufacture and serve as the engineering and design lead on product development.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Application of High Speed Digital Image Correlation in Rocket Engine Hot Fire Testing

Hot fire testing of rocket engine components and rocket engine systems is a critical aspect of the development process to understand performance, reliability and system interactions. Ground testing provides the opportunity for highly instrumented development testing to validate analytical model predictions and determine necessary design changes and process improvements. To properly obtain discrete measurements for model validation, instrumentation must survive in the highly dynamic and extreme temperature application of hot fire testing. Digital Image Correlation has been investigated and being evaluated as a technique to augment traditional instrumentation during component and engine testing providing further data for additional performance improvements and cost savings. The feasibility of digital image correlation techniques were demonstrated in subscale and full scale hotfire testing. This incorporated a pair of high speed cameras to measure three-dimensional, real-time displacements and strains installed and operated under the extreme environments present on the test stand. The development process, setup and calibrations, data collection, hotfire test data collection and post-test analysis and results are presented in this paper.

Gradl, Paul R.↗

High-performance space shuttle auxiliary propellant valve system

Several potential valve closures for the space shuttle auxiliary propulsion system (SS/APS) were investigated analytically and experimentally in a modeling program. The most promising of these were analyzed and experimentally evaluated in a full-size functional valve test fixture of novel design. The engineering investigations conducted for both model and scale evaluations of the SS/APS valve closures and functional valve fixture are described. Preliminary designs, laboratory tests, and overall valve test fixture designs are presented, and a final recommended flightweight SS/APS valve design is presented.

Smith, G. M.↗

Design Protocols and Analytical Strategies that Incorporate Structural Reliability Models

Ceramic matrix composites (CMC) and intermetallic materials (e.g., single crystal nickel aluminide) are high performance materials that exhibit attractive mechanical, thermal, and chemical properties. These materials are critically important in advancing certain performance aspects of gas turbine engines. From an aerospace engineers perspective the new generation of ceramic composites and intermetallics offers a significant potential for raising the thrust/weight ratio and reducing NO(sub x) emissions of gas turbine engines. These aspects have increased interest in utilizing these materials in the hot sections of turbine engines. However, as these materials evolve and their performance characteristics improve a persistent need exists for state-of-the-art analytical methods that predict the response of components fabricated from CMC and intermetallic material systems. This need provided the motivation for the technology developed under this research effort. Continuous ceramic fiber composites exhibit an increase in work of fracture, which allows for 'graceful' rather than catastrophic failure. When loaded in the fiber direction these composites retain substantial strength capacity beyond the initiation of transverse matrix cracking despite the fact that neither of its constituents would exhibit such behavior if tested alone. As additional load is applied beyond first matrix cracking, the matrix tends to break in a series of cracks bridged by the ceramic fibers. Any additional load is born increasingly by the fibers until the ultimate strength of the composite is reached. Thus modeling efforts supported under this research effort have focused on predicting this sort of behavior. For single crystal intermetallics the issues that motivated the technology development involved questions relating to material behavior and component design. Thus the research effort supported by this grant had to determine the statistical nature and source of fracture in a high strength, NiAl single crystal turbine blade material; map a simplistic future strength envelope of the material; develop a statistically based reliability computer algorithm; verify the reliability model and computer algorithm-, and model stator vanes for rig tests. Thus establishing design protocols that enable the engineer to analyze and predict the mechanical behavior of ceramic composites and intermetallics would mitigate the prototype (trial and error) approach currently used by the engineering community. The primary objective of the research effort supported by this short term grant is the continued creation of enabling technologies for the macro-analysis of components fabricated from ceramic composites and intermetallic material systems. The creation of enabling technologies aids in shortening the product development cycle of components fabricated from the new high technology materials.

Duffy, Stephen F.↗

Design Protocols and Analytical Strategies that Incorporate Structural Reliability Models

Ceramic matrix composites (CMC) and intermetallic materials (e.g., single crystal nickel aluminide) are high performance materials that exhibit attractive mechanical, thermal and chemical properties. These materials are critically important in advancing certain performance aspects of gas turbine engines. From an aerospace engineer's perspective the new generation of ceramic composites and intermetallics offers a significant potential for raising the thrust/weight ratio and reducing NO(x) emissions of gas turbine engines. These aspects have increased interest in utilizing these materials in the hot sections of turbine engines. However, as these materials evolve and their performance characteristics improve a persistent need exists for state-of-the-art analytical methods that predict the response of components fabricated from CMC and intermetallic material systems. This need provided the motivation for the technology developed under this research effort. Continuous ceramic fiber composites exhibit an increase in work of fracture, which allows for "graceful" rather than catastrophic failure. When loaded in the fiber direction, these composites retain substantial strength capacity beyond the initiation of transverse matrix cracking despite the fact that neither of its constituents would exhibit such behavior if tested alone. As additional load is applied beyond first matrix cracking, the matrix tends to break in a series of cracks bridged by the ceramic fibers. Any additional load is born increasingly by the fibers until the ultimate strength of the composite is reached. Thus modeling efforts supported under this research effort have focused on predicting this sort of behavior. For single crystal intermetallics the issues that motivated the technology development involved questions relating to material behavior and component design. Thus the research effort supported by this grant had to determine the statistical nature and source of fracture in a high strength, NiAl single crystal turbine blade material; map a simplistic failure strength envelope of the material; develop a statistically based reliability computer algorithm, verify the reliability model and computer algorithm, and model stator vanes for rig tests. Thus establishing design protocols that enable the engineer to analyze and predict the mechanical behavior of ceramic composites and intermetallics would mitigate the prototype (trial and error) approach currently used by the engineering community. The primary objective of the research effort supported by this short term grant is the continued creation of enabling technologies for the macroanalysis of components fabricated from ceramic composites and intermetallic material systems. The creation of enabling technologies aids in shortening the product development cycle of components fabricated from the new high technology materials.

Duffy, Stephen F.↗

Ionic/electronic conductivity regulation of n-type polyoxadiazole lithium sulfonate conductive polymer binders for high-performance silicon microparticle anodes

Low-cost silicon microparticles (SiMP), as a substitute for nanostructured silicon, easily suffer from cracks and fractured during the electrochemical cycle. A novel n-type conductive polymer binder with excellent electronic and ionic conductivities as well as good adhesion, has been successfully designed and applied for high-performance SiMP anodes in lithium-ion batteries to address this problem. Its unique features are attributed to the strong electron-withdrawing oxadiazole ring structure with sulfonate polar groups. The combination of rigid and flexible components in the polymer ensures its good mechanical strength and ductility, which is beneficial to suppress the expansion and contraction of SiMP s during the charge/discharge process. By fine-tuning the monomer ratio, the conjugation and sulfonation degrees of the polymer can be precisely controlled to regulate its ionic and electronic conductivities, which has been systematically analyzed with the help of an electrochemical test method, filling in the gap on the conductivity measurement of the polymer in the doping state. The experimental results indicate that the cell with the developed n-type polymer binder and SiMP (~0.5 μm) anodes achieves much better cycling performance than traditional non-conductive binders. It has been considered that the initial capacity of the SiMP anode is controlled by the synergetic effect of ionic and electronic conductivity of the binder, and the capacity retention mainly depends on its electronic conductivity when the ionic conductivity is sufficient. Here, it is worth noting that the fundamental research of this work is also applicable to other battery systems using conductive polymers in order to achieve high energy density, broadening their practical applications.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Co-design of Advanced Architectures for Graph Analytics using Machine Learning

A graph is an excellent way of representing relationships among entities. We can use graph analytics to synthesize and analyze such relational data, and extract relevant features that are useful for various tasks such as machine learning. Considering the crucial role of graph analytics in various domains, it is important and timely to investigate the right hardware configurations that can achieve optimal performance for graph workloads on future high-performance computing systems. Design space exploration studies facilitate the selection of appropriate configurations (e.g. memory) to achieve a desired system performance. Recently, the approach of accelerating graph analytics using persistent non-volatile memory has gained a lot of attention. Traditional system simulators such as Gem5 and NVMain can be used to explore the design space of these advanced memory architectures for graph workloads. However, these simulators are slow in execution thus limiting the efficiency of design space exploration studies. To overcome this challenge, we proposed a machine learning based approach to co-design advanced memory architectures for graph workloads. We tested our approach with DRAM, non-volatile memory, and hybrid memory (DRAM+NVM) using a breadth first search benchmark algorithm. Our results showed the applicability of the proposed machine learning based approach to the co-design of the advanced memory architectures. In this paper, we provide recommendations on selecting advanced memory architectures to achieve desired performance for graph workloads. We also discuss the performances of different machine learning models that were considered in this study.

Kurte, Kuldeep↗

Surface-Mediated Interconnections of Nanoparticles in Cellulosic Fibrous Materials toward 3D Sensors

Fibrous materials serve as an intriguing class of 3D materials to meet the growing demands for flexible, foldable, biocompatible, biodegradable, dis- posable, inexpensive, and wearable sensors and the rising desires for higher sensitivity, greater miniaturization, lower cost, and better wearability. The use of such materials for the creation of a fibrous sensor substrate that interfaces with a sensing film in 3D with the transducing electronics is however difficult by conventional photolithographic methods. Here, a highly effective pathway featuring surface-mediated interconnection (SMI) of metal nanoclusters (NCs) and nanoparticles (NPs) in fibrous materials at ambient conditions is demon- strated for fabricating fibrous sensor substrates or platforms. Bimodally distrib- uted gold–copper alloy NCs and NPs are used as a model system to demonstrate the semiconductive-to-metallic conductivity transition, quantized capacitive charging, and anisotropic conductivity characteristics. Upon coupling SMI of NCs/NPs as electrically conductive microelectrodes and surface-mediated assembly (SMA) of the NCs/NPs as chemically sensitive interfaces, the resulting fibrous chemiresistors function as sensitive and selective sensors for gaseous and vaporous analytes. Finally, this new SMI–SMA strategy has significant implications for manufacturing high-performance fibrous platforms to meet the growing demands of the advanced multifunctional sensors and biosensors.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

An improved turbine disk design to increase reliability of aircraft jet engines

An analytical study was performed on a novel disk design to replace the existing high-pressure turbine, stage 1 disk on the CF6-50 turbofan engine. Preliminary studies were conducted on seven candidate disk design concepts. An integral multidisk design with bore entry of the turbine blade cooling air was selected as the improved disk design. This disk has the unique feature of being redundant such that if one portion of the disk would fail, the remaining portion would prevent the release of large disk fragments from the turbine system. Low cycle fatigue lives, initial defect propagation lives, burst speed, and the kinetic energies of probable disk fragment configurations were calculated, and comparisons were made with the existing disk, both in its current material, IN 718, and with the substitution of an advanced alloy, Rene 95. The design for redundancy approach which necessitated the addition of approximately 44.5 kg (98 lb) to the design disk substantially improved the life of the disk. The life to crack initiation was increased from 30,000 cycles to more than 100,000 cycles. The cycles to failure from initial defect propagation were increased from 380 cycles to 1564 cycles. Burst speed was increased from 126 percent overspeed to 149 percent overspeed. Additionally, the maximum fragment energies associated with a failure were decreased by an order of magnitude.

Barack, W. N.↗

High capacity heat pipe performance demonstration

A high capacity heat pipe which will operate in one-g and in zero-g is investigated. An artery configuration which is self-priming in one-g was emphasized. Two artery modifications were evolved as candidates to achieve one-g priming and will provide the very high performance: the four artery and the eight artery configurations. These were each evaluated analytically for performance and priming capability. The eight artery configuration was found to be inadequate from a performance standpoint. The four artery showed promise of working. A five-inch long priming element test article was fabricated using the four artery design. Plexiglas viewing windows were made on each end of the heat pipe to permit viewing of the priming activity. The five-inch primary element would not successfully prime in one-g. Difficulties on priming in one-g raised questions about zero-g priming. Therefore a small test element heat pipe for verifying that the proposed configuration will self-prime in zero-g was fabricated and delivered.

Source record↗

Rocket thrust chamber thermal barrier coatings

A research program was conducted to generate data and develop analytical techniques to predict the performance and reliability of ceramic thermal barrier coatings in high heat flux environments. A finite element model was used to analyze the thermomechanical behavior of coating systems in rocket thrust chambers. Candidate coating systems (using a copper substrate, NiCrAlY bond coat and ZrO2.8Y2O3 ceramic overcoat) were selected for detailed study based on photomicrographic evaluations of experimental test specimens. The effects of plasma spray application parameters on the material properties of these coatings were measured and the effects on coating performance evaluated using the finite element model. Coating design curves which define acceptable operating envelopes for seleted coating systems were constructed based on temperature and strain limitations. Spray gun power levels was found to have the most significant effect on coating structure. Three coating systems were selected for study using different power levels. Thermal conductivity, strain tolerance, density, and residual stress were measured for these coatings. Analyses indicated that extremely thin coatings ( 0.02 mm) are required to accommodate the high heat flux of a rocket thrust chamber and ensure structural integrity.

Batakis, A. P.↗

Caustic Singularities Of High-Gain, Dual-Shaped Reflectors

Report presents study of some sources of error in analysis, by geometric theory of diffraction (GTD), of performance of high-gain, dual-shaped antenna reflector. Study probes into underlying analytic causes of singularity, with view toward devising and testing practical methods to avoid problems caused by singularity. Hybrid physical optics (PO) approach used to study near-field spillover or noise-temperature characteristics of high-gain relector antenna efficiently and accurately. Report illustrates this approach and underlying principles by presenting numerical results, for both offset and symmetrical reflector systems, computed by GTD, PO, and PO/GO methods.

Galindo, Victor↗

Process for ultra-sensitive quantification of target analytes in complex biological systems

Antibody-free processes are disclosed that provide accurate quantification of a wide variety of low-abundance target analytes in complex samples. The processes can employ high-pressure, high-resolution chromatographic separations for analyte enrichment. Intelligent selection of target fractions may be performed via on-line Selected Reaction Monitoring (SRM) or off-line rapid screening of internal standards. Quantification may be performed on individual or multiplexed fractions. Applications include analyses of, e.g., very low abundance proteins or candidate biomarkers in plasma, cell, or tissue samples without the need for affinity-specific reagents.

Shi, Tujin↗

Improving and Automating Building Model Data Exchange

There are many instances throughout a project’s lifecycle where there arises a need for quick and accurate risk assessment of building designs. For example, an unexpected design change during construction may necessitate structural engineers to perform a seismic risk assessment on analytical models of the updated building design using high fidelity structural analysis software, such as ANSYS or Abaqus. However, the efficiency of such workflows often depends upon the interoperability of architectural design software and structural analysis software. When the quality of this interoperability is lacking or even non-existent, the efficiency of virtual engineering workflows is hampered, which increases project costs. A McGraw Hill industry survey of professional users of Building Information Modeling (BIM) technologies found that there is high demand for BIM interoperability for structural analysis, but that the value/difficulty ratio is currently too low for practical use. There have been efforts by the academic community to facilitate model data exchange between the architectural design and structural analysis domains, but such solutions have not been widely adopted by industry, face technical challenges, and oftentimes are limited in applicability for users of various BIM software. Therefore, INL is developing capabilities to improve, automate, and generalize model data exchange between architectural BIM software (e.g., Revit) and structural analysis software (e.g., SAP2000, ANSYS). The goal is to help expedite and automate as much of the pre-processing step for creating analytical models in finite element analysis software as reasonably as possible. Such a "BIM-to-FEA" conversion tool should provide direct benefit to end-users through accuracy, automation, quick turn-around, and wide applicability. To generalize the application of this BIM-to-FEA conversion tool and increase its useability among the many different commercial BIM software currently used by industry, the program is being developed with the concept of openBIM. OpenBIM is the application of non-proprietary, open data standards that allow for BIM model data exchange in a format that is accessible, retainable, and useable for all users. The most widely used open, non-proprietary data exchange format for BIM is the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) schema. IFC is developed by buildingSMART international and is ISO certified (ISO 16739-1:2018). The BIM-to-FEA conversion tool is being developed for compatibility with typical commercial building designs of steel framed structures. The tool is currently capable of importing architectural BIM data of framed building structures, recognizing and extracting the aspects of the model that are required for structural analysis, adjusting the connectivity of frame members, and finally exporting to an analytical model stored in the IFC format. The exported IFC analytical model can then be imported into various openBIM compliant software, such as SAP2000. Such capabilities have already been tested on commercial software, as shown above, and continue to be improved. Work is underway to test the conversion on various commercial BIM software, develop a user-friendly interface, incorporate the program into the broader DeepLynx data warehouse project being developed by INL, and to eventually open-source the tool for the benefit of the community. Future development of the tool envisions the ability for efficient iterative risk assessment of generative building designs, all within a workflow utilizing open-source tools. One such open-source tool will be MOOSE, an advanced finite element analysis tool developed at INL. The conversion tool will also branch out from typical commercial building designs and will aim to incorporate nuclear construction. The aim will be to convert both structural and non-structural components of nuclear facilities, such as curved concrete containment structures and piping systems, respectively.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

On the measurement of hardness at high strain rates by nanoindentation impact testing

Recent advances in electronics have enabled nanomechanical measurements with very low noise, fast time constants and high data acquisition rates. Furthermore, these capabilities open the door for a wide range of ultra-fast nanomechanical testing. Given the inherent dynamic nature of high-speed testing, a thorough understanding of the testing system's dynamics and electronics is extremely important for accurate measurements. In this work, an analytical framework that includes the mechanical and electronic contributions of the instrument and the material constitutive response is presented to provide guidelines for performing high strain rate measurements of hardness by nanoindentation testing. Simple closed-form solutions that provide insights on the choice of test methodology, test parameters and instrument design are presented along with the strain rate range over which accurate measurements can be performed with the commercially available nanoindenters.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Artificial Intelligence for Data Center Operations (AIOps): Cooperative Research and Development (Final Report)

High performance computing data centers will increasingly need to rely on automation to keep pace with exascale growth in compute capability and to manage and optimize the data center environment and facility resources. Artificial intelligence and machine learning approaches provide the means to improve HPC data center operational efficiency, by learning historical trends and training models to operate on real-time data collected from both IT and facilities sources. NREL has developed methods of real-time collection, aggregation and streaming of these data in the ESIF HPC Data Center and has collected a significant dataset of relevant metrics across computer systems, racks, environmental, building and utility sources for research into various predictive analytics problems. HPE's Advanced Technology Group (ATG) is doing comprehensive research into exascale monitoring and management for High Performance Computing (HPC) systems (hereinafter HPE's Data Monitoring/ Management Technology). NREL and HPE will collaborate to add Artificial Intelligence (AI) to NREL's real-time data collection/ aggregation/ streaming system and HPE's Data Monitoring/ Management System, with the goal of improving the operational efficiency of NREL's Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF) HPC Data Center through data analytics on both historical and real-time data from IT systems and facilities operations. This collaboration will consist of efforts in Data Management, Data Analytics, and AI/ML Optimization for both manual and autonomous intervention in data center operations. This will be a multi-year, multi-staged effort with a goal towards building capabilities for an Advanced Smart Facility, and demonstration of these techniques in the NREL ESIF HPC Data Center.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Special Topic on High Performance Computing in Chemical Physics

Computational modeling and simulation have become indispensable scientific tools in virtually all areas of chemical, biomolecular, and materials systems research. Computation can provide unique and detailed atomic level information that is difficult or impossible to obtain through analytical theories and experimental investigations. In addition, recent advances in micro-electronics have resulted in computer architectures with unprecedented computational capabilities, from the largest supercomputers to common desktop computers. In conclusion, combined with the development of new computational domain science methodologies and novel programming models and techniques, this has resulted in modeling and simulation resources capable of providing results at or better than experimental chemical accuracy and for systems in increasingly realistic chemical environments.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Biopolymer‐assisted Synthesis of P‐doped TiO 2 Nanoparticles for High‐performance Lithium‐ion Batteries: A Comprehensive Study

Abstract TiO 2 material has gained significant attention for large‐scale energy storage due to its abundant, low‐cost, and environmentally friendly properties, as well as the availability of various nanostructures. Phosphorus doping has been established as an effective technique for improving electronic conductivity and managing the slow ionic diffusion kinetics of TiO 2 . In this study, non‐doped and phosphorus doped TiO 2 materials were synthesized using sodium alginate biopolymer as chelating agent. The prepared materials were evaluated as anode materials for lithium‐ion batteries (LIBs). The electrodes exhibit remarkable electrochemical performance, including a high reversible capacity of 235 mAh g −1 at 0.1 C and excellent first coulombic efficiency of 99 %. An integrated approach, combining operando XRD and ex‐situ XAS, comprehensively investigates the relationship between phosphorus doping, material structure, and electrochemical performance, reinforced by analytical tools and first principles calculations. Furthermore, a full cell was designed using 2 %P‐doped TiO 2 anode and LiFePO 4 cathode. The output voltage was about 1.6 V with high initial specific capacity of 148 mAh g −1 , high rate‐capability of 120 mAh g −1 at 1 C, and high‐capacity retention of 96 % after 1000 cycles at 1 C.

El Halya, Nabil↗