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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 235 records · Page 13
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2012

Next-Generation Evaporative Cooling Systems for the Advanced Extravehicular Mobility Unit Portable Life Support System

The development of the Advanced Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AEMU) Portable Life Support System (PLSS) is currently underway at NASA Johnson Space Center. The AEMU PLSS features two new evaporative cooling systems, the Reduced Volume Prototype Spacesuit Water Membrane Evaporator (RVP SWME), and the Auxiliary Cooling Loop (ACL). The RVP SWME is the third generation of hollow fiber SWME hardware, and like its predecessors, RVP SWME provides nominal crewmember and electronics cooling by flowing water through porous hollow fibers. Water vapor escapes through the hollow fiber pores, thereby cooling the liquid water that remains inside of the fibers. This cooled water is then recirculated to remove heat from the crewmember and PLSS electronics. Major design improvements, including a 36% reduction in volume, reduced weight, and more flight like back-pressure valve, facilitate the packaging of RVP SWME in the AEMU PLSS envelope. In addition to the RVP SWME, the Auxiliary Cooling Loop (ACL), was developed for contingency crewmember cooling. The ACL is a completely redundant, independent cooling system that consists of a small evaporative cooler--the Mini Membrane Evaporator (Mini-ME), independent pump, independent feed-water assembly and independent Liquid Cooling Garment (LCG). The Mini-ME utilizes the same hollow fiber technology featured in the RVP SWME, but is only 25% of the size of RVP SWME, providing only the necessary crewmember cooling in a contingency situation. The ACL provides a number of benefits when compared with the current EMU PLSS contingency cooling technology; contingency crewmember cooling can be provided for a longer period of time, more contingency situations can be accounted for, no reliance on a Secondary Oxygen Vessel (SOV) for contingency cooling--thereby allowing a SOV reduction in size and pressure, and the ACL can be recharged-allowing the AEMU PLSS to be reused, even after a contingency event. The development of these evaporative cooling systems will contribute to a more robust and comprehensive AEMU PLSS.

Makinen, Janice V.↗
NASA NTRS2014

"Efficiency Space" - A Framework for Evaluating Joint Evaporation and Runoff Behavior

At the land surface, higher soil moisture levels generally lead to both increased evaporation for a given amount of incoming radiation (increased evaporation efficiency) and increased runoff for a given amount of precipitation (increased runoff efficiency). Evaporation efficiency and runoff efficiency can thus be said to vary with each other, motivating the development of a unique hydroclimatic analysis framework. Using a simple water balance model fitted, in different experiments, with a wide variety of functional forms for evaporation and runoff efficiency, we transform net radiation and precipitation fields into fields of streamflow that can be directly evaluated against observations. The optimal combination of the functional forms the combination that produces the most skillful stream-flow simulations provides an indication for how evaporation and runoff efficiencies vary with each other in nature, a relationship that can be said to define the overall character of land surface hydrological processes, at least to first order. The inferred optimal relationship is represented herein as a curve in efficiency space and should be valuable for the evaluation and development of GCM-based land surface models, which by this measure are often found to be suboptimal.

GCM↗
NASA NTRS2018

Remote Sensing of Evaporation

Evaporation of water from the Earth's surface into the atmosphere is central to the terrestrial energy, water and carbon cycle. Remote sensing approaches to measure evaporation (ET) combine observable inputs to the energy and water balance within statistical or process-based methodologies. These ET products draw on satellite observations from across the electro-magnetic spectrum. The ET retrievals are grouped in two main categories. One category includes approaches that combine meteorological descriptions of potential evaporation with a range of strategies to estimate evaporative stress. A second category includes surface energy balance approaches that retrieve latent heat from the thermal signatures. For each category a practical implementation example is described, including an outlook on progress towards multi-model assessment of global evaporation.

Transpiration↗
DOE OSTI2023

Differential emissivity based evaporable particle measurement

A differential emissivity imaging device for measuring evaporable particle properties can include a heated plate, a thermal camera, a memory device, and an output interface. The heated plate can have an upper surface oriented to receive falling evaporable particles. The evaporable particles have a particle emissivity and the upper surface has a plate surface emissivity. The thermal camera can be oriented to produce a thermal image of the upper surface. A memory device can include instructions that cause the imaging device to calculate a mass of the individual evaporable particle via heat conduction using a calculated surface area and an evaporation time.

Garrett, Tim↗
DOE OSTI2017

Integrity Assessment of Hanford 242-A Evaporator Facility E-A-1 Re-boiler Vessel via Fluorescein Liquid Tracer Test Methods - 17357

The 242-A Evaporator Facility is critical to the United States Department of Energy's (DOE) Hanford Site clean-up mission due to limited space within the existing Double-Shell Tanks (DSTs) used to store nuclear and chemical waste until future processing. The 242-A Evaporator Facility is currently the sole waste volume reduction process used at Hanford, and the E-A-1 Re-boiler is essential to the Evaporator process. Due to the potential for cross-contamination between the Re-boiler tubes through which waste passes and the tube sheets of uncontaminated steam, an assessment of the Re-boiler vessel's integrity is required for continuing operations of the facility. In order to meet these requirements, an independent integrity assessment was designed to use fluorescein liquid tracer (LT) to verify the leak-tightness of the Re-boiler vessel in accordance with Washington River Protection Solutions, LLC (WRPS) tightness test standards, as well as, the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel (B and PV) Code, Section III, Division 1, NB-6300. LT test methodologies were evaluated and determined to be appropriate for a vessel with restricted access, such as the E-A-1 Re-boiler, as it provided the needed sensitivity, reliability, and cost; as well as, exceeded the leak-tightness specifications required by both WRPS and ASME B and PV Code standards. The integrity test requires water laced with fluorescein be circulated through the waste processing loop of the 242-A Evaporator and samples of steam condensate be collected and analyzed for traces of fluorescein to determine leak-tightness. Liquid condensate sampling was conducted prior to and during testing and the samples were analyzed for fluorescein tracer to determine the amount of fluorescein that flowed out of the tubes of the Re-boiler into the steam side of the vessel. Given the established criteria for 'leak-tight,' test results determined that the Re-boiler passed the integrity assessment. After further scrutiny of the 2014 test and data results, it was determined that although the Re-boiler was 'leak-tight,' as established by the test criteria, there was concern of future leakage. The DOE and the DOE Office of River Protection (ORP) requested that WRPS repeat the integrity assessment in two and a half years to determine if the potential leak was growing, which could threaten continuing operations of the 242-A Evaporator. The 2017 test has been redesigned using lessons learned from the 2014 test and was modified to account for ergonomic and safety considerations, ease of repeatability, and accuracy of results. The liquid tracer methodology and test plan developed for the Re-boiler will continue to be implemented in 5 year increments to monitor current and future integrity. The method may also prove useful for other aging components across the Hanford Site, where appropriate. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2017

Detailed finite element method modeling of evaporating multi-component droplets

The evaporation of sessile multi-component droplets is modeled with an axisymmetic finite element method. The model comprises the coupled processes of mixture evaporation, multi-component flow with composition-dependent fluid properties and thermal effects. Based on representative examples of water–glycerol and water–ethanol droplets, regular and chaotic examples of solutal Marangoni flows are discussed. Furthermore, the relevance of the substrate thickness for the evaporative cooling of volatile binary mixture droplets is pointed out. It is shown how the evaporation of the more volatile component can drastically decrease the interface temperature, so that ambient vapor of the less volatile component condenses on the droplet. Finally, results of this model are compared with corresponding results of a lubrication theory model, showing that the application of lubrication theory can cause considerable errors even for moderate contact angles of 40°. - Graphical abstract:.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2020

Evaporation Dataset from a Temperate Closed-basin Lake in Minnesota 2014-2016

This data set contains observed and modeled evaporation data, eddy covariance data, and supporting information measured at White Bear Lake in the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area near St. Paul, Minnesota, USA. The data package includes csv files containing half-hourly latent heat flux, sensible heat flux, and meteorological data from 2014 to 2016. It also includes csv files containing half-hourly observed evaporation measurements, along with supporting data for validation and retrospective modeling of evaporation. This data was collected to examine current, past, and future lake evaporation to better understand how climate will impact the water balance of lakes within this region.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Membranes in Solar-Driven Evaporation: Design Principles and Applications

In this study, solar-driven evaporation process brings exciting opportunities to recover clean water and resources in a sustainable way from diverse sources like seawater and wastewater. Separation membranes, as a vital material in many environmental and energy applications, can contribute significantly to this process owing to their structural features. However, the unique roles of membranes in solar evaporator construction and process design are seldom recognized and not summarized yet from scientific principles and application demands, which forms the motivation of this review. Herein, the roles of membranes in different processes based on solar-driven evaporation are focused and the design principles of membrane materials and devices to meet the requirements of these applications are discussed. Fabrication strategies for photothermal membranes are introduced primarily, followed by a discussion on how to design membrane materials, devices, and processes to pursue optimal performance and realize advanced functions accompanied by evaporation. Furthermore, the future of this field is forecast with both challenges and opportunities.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Evaporation due to infrared heating and natural convection

The results obtained from a drying experiment under infrared heating are compared to those obtained from correlations for the mass transfer coefficients, which are commonly used to obtain evaporation rates for drying applications. It was shown that the mass transfer coefficients evaluated by natural convection correlations are approximately ten times lower than those measured under infrared (IR) exposure. In this work, an attempt to explain this discrepancy, which has been also observed in other studies and explained on the basis of thermal radiation effects, optical properties of NMP are presented and the implications of the IR and near infrared (NIR) spectrum on the thermal radiation effects and ensuing evaporation rates are discussed. The results show that expected raise in the film temperature, which would be due to the thermal radiation effects, cannot be used to describe the measured evaporation rates for this solvent. Therefore, this study provides important evaporation mass flux data, which cannot be predicted using traditional correlations, for the design of IR assisted drying systems used in membrane fabrication.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2022

Droplet Evaporation-Based Approach for Microliter Fuel Property Measurements

Small-volume, high-throughput screening techniques are sought to enable downselection from a large candidate pool of bio-blendstocks to a select few, having physical properties consistent with requirements of downsized, turbo-boosted internal combustion engines. Herein, this work presents a droplet evaporation-based approach to predict heat of vaporization, vapor pressure, diffusion coefficient, and Lennard–Jones parameters for an unknown fuel. Two different schemes, considering the isothermal evaporation of a moving droplet in ambient air, are proposed, which combine droplet velocity and temperature measurements, with some known properties to predict unknown properties. The schemes utilize an inverse solution of a transient model of droplet evaporation solved in an iterative fashion. A baseline scheme, which only requires droplet size change measurements, is evaluated using test data for three liquid fuels, comprising of alkanes and alcohols, as obtained in a temperature-controlled chamber. Results yield temperature-dependent heat of vaporization and vapor pressure predictions within 10 % and 22 %, respectively, of reference values. The advanced scheme, which additionally requires droplet temperature measurement, is numerically evaluated in the current work and will be experimentally validated in future efforts. The advanced scheme is found to significantly improve prediction quality, with deviations less than 2 % and 1 % for heat of vaporization and vapor pressure, while also predicting diffusion coefficient and Lennard–Jones parameters within 5 % and 8 %, respectively. The combined set of approaches, which primarily track droplet evaporation, can be incorporated into a small-volume, high-throughput fuel screening process.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Evaporation of Water Droplets Moving Through High-Temperature Gases

With the use of high-speed recording and diagnostic facilities, an experimental study has been made of the evaporation of droplets (of characteristic size R{sub m} ≈ 0.05–0.035 mm) of atomized flow of water-based suspensions with typical soil impurities (silt and clay) moving in a high-temperature (about 1100 K) gaseous medium (with the example of acetone combustion products). The relative mass concentration of soil components in the suspension was varied over the range of γ = 0–1%. A strong influence of the above impurities on the main characteristic of evaporation — the relative change in the droplet radius ΔR — has been established. The influence of the initial temperature (varied over the range of T{sub w} = 278–320 K) of the atomized suspension on the evaporation rate of the latter has been determined. It has been shown that the values of integral characteristics of the process of evaporation of suspensions with soil impurities can be much (2–3 times) higher than for water without these components.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2017

On the implications of the Bekenstein bound for black hole evaporation

Highlights: •The Bekenstein bound may imply that classical spacetimes are emergent. •Similarly, particles deemed to be elementary are “quasi particles”. •Black hole evaporation is then necessarily non unitary in any quantum gravity. •Modified Page curves are produced for simple cases. -- Abstract: We elaborate on the possible impact of the Bekenstein bound on the unitarity of black hole evaporation. As such maximal bound on the entropy of any system may be regarded as due to the existence of entities more elementary than the ordinary ones, and since at our energy scales such fundamental degrees of freedom must organize themselves into quantum fields acting on classical spacetimes, we then propose that both, quantum fields and geometries, are emergent phenomena stemming from the same underlying dynamics. We investigate the kinematical and model independent effects of this “quasi-particle picture” on black hole evaporation within a simple toy model, that we construct. We conclude that the information associated to the quantum fields in the “phase” before the formation of the black hole is, in general, only partially recovered in the “phase” after the black hole has evaporated. This information loss is shown to be due to the entanglement between fields and geometry. Such modifications of the Page curve should be regarded as common features of any theory of quantumgravity.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2022

Regimes of evaporation and mixing behaviors of nanodroplets at transcritical conditions

The objective of this paper is to examine the fundamental mechanisms responsible for the transition between subcritical evaporation and supercritical dense-fluid-mixing in the absence of convection effects, specifically focusing on the liquid–vapor interfacial dynamics. To isolate the dynamics of this transition process, we characterize the different physical behaviors exhibited by an -dodecane nanoscale droplet placed in different nitrogen ambient conditions across the fuel’s critical point. We employ a continuum-based interface-resolving diffuse-interface method to explore the underlying phase-exchange mechanisms that bring about such distinct dynamics. Following the comparison against molecular dynamics simulations and experiments of evaporating droplets and experimental data for vapor–liquid equilibria, a parametric study at various ambient conditions and droplet sizing is performed to identify four regimes of evaporation/mixing behaviors: sub- and supercritical droplet evaporation, and sub- and supercritical dense-fluid-mixing. It is shown that the distinction in the phase-exchange mechanisms in these four regimes are brought about by the different thermodynamic phases the droplet center can exhibit during the evaporation/mixing process: subcritical liquid, supercritical liquid-like, subcritical gaseous, and supercritical gas-like, respectively. It is shown that the subcritical dense-fluid-mixing behavior is a direct result of nanoconfinement of the liquid–vapor interfacial structure and thus is not present for large droplet sizes. Finally, the present study also shows that the supercritical phase-exchange dynamics can follow two different pathways: supercritical droplet-like evaporation and supercritical dense-fluid-mixing. Furthermore, promoting the early transition to supercritical dense-fluid-mixing can significantly expedite the phase-exchange process through the disintegration of the liquid-like droplet core.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2024

From phase decomposition to evaporation: A multi-modal evaluation of thermally degraded model lightweight high-entropy alloy

Lightweight high-entropy alloys (LHEAs) have the potential to replace conventional lightweight materials due to their superior mechanical properties and thermal stability. However, the thermal degradation pattern of LHEAs from phase decomposition to evaporation is not clear. We develop a new Al-based dual phase (FCC + HCP) LHEA—AlTi 0.45 CuZn, and further investigate its thermal degradation behavior for potential high-temperature structural applications. Using multimodal advanced characterization techniques such as differential scanning calorimetry/thermogravimetric analysis, scanning/transmission electron microscopy, and synchrotron X-ray diffraction/pair distribution function (XRD/PDF), a sequence of thermal degradation events beyond the thermal phase stability limit—between 250 and 360 °C—is observed. These include phase decomposition at ~360 °C, Zn evaporation at ~750 °C, and LHEA melting at 880 °C which results in ~25% cumulative weight loss. The formation of Al-Ti phase off the AlTi 0.45 CuZn matrix is due to the largest negative mixing enthalpy for Al-Ti than other binary pairs. Similarly, Zn evaporation from AlTi 0.45 CuZn LHEA is due to its faster evaporation rate than other constituent elements. The high-resolution synchrotron XRD and PDF results support the aforementioned observations; in addition, they reveal local atomic arrangements, local strain, and sluggish grain growth in the LHEA. Among other LHEAs of close density range (5.55 ≤ ρ ≤ 5.85 g/cc), the investigated LHEA exhibits outstanding nano-indentation hardness values due to the coupled grain size effect and HCP phase strengthening of the FCC matrix. As the search for LHEAs for lightweight applications grows, this study shows the potential use of AlTi 0.45 CuZn LHEA for structural applications even at elevated temperatures.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Evaporation of a Reactive Nanofluid Sessile Drop: Capturing Rapid Emergence of Surface Crystals with In Situ Synchrotron X-ray Diffraction

Mechanisms for surface pattern formation from evaporation of a reactive nanofluid sessile drop are not well understood. In contrast to the coffee-ring effect from inert particles, rapid chemical and morphological transformation of reactive nanoparticles upon rapid evaporative drying are challenging to probe experimentally. Here, using grazing-incidence X-ray surface scattering, the nanostructure of nascent surface patterns has been probed as a ZnO nanofluid sessile drop rapidly dries. The high temporal resolution enabled by the high flux of synchrotron X-rays allows the observation of the emergence of Zn(OH) 2 surface crystals from the onset of evaporation and their rapid evolution into the final residual surface pattern, via transient layered complexes evident from the temporary appearance of X-ray diffraction peaks preceding Zn(OH) 2 formation. The results offer mechanistic insights of morphogenesis of surface patterns from evaporation-induced self-assembly and self-organization of reactive nanofluids, previously untenable using other experimental methods.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Flow Evaporimeter To Assess Evaporative Resistance of Human Tear-Film Lipid Layer

A novel in vivo flow evaporimeter is developed to measure human tear-evaporation rates. The flow evaporimeter relies on a well-defined flow field to the eye with known and adjustable flow rates and relative humidities, and quantitatively reproduces evaporation rates for pure water. Mass-transfer analysis of the evaporimeter data elucidates, for the first time, the resistance of the human tear-film lipid layer (TFLL) toward minimizing tear loss to the environment. A pilot study on human subjects validates the feasibility of the flow evaporimeter to obtain the tear-film evaporation rates in vivo. Resistance of the TFLL against tear evaporation is found subject specific. Our flow evaporimeter offers an accurate, safe, and convenient diagnostic tool for clinical evaluation of dry-eye-related maladies.

atmospheric chemistry↗
DOE OSTI2020

Effects of deposition and annealing conditions on the crystallisation of NiTi thin films by e-beam evaporation

This Letter demonstrates the effects of deposition and annealing conditions on the crystallisation of nickel–titanium (NiTi) thin films deposited by the e-beam evaporation. NiTi thin films of 0.5 μm thick are fabricated on P-type (110) silicon substrates using the e-beam evaporation technique. We find that with the characterisations using the X-ray diffraction method, the results indicate that low e-beam deposition rate and argon employed annealing procedures can be beneficial to the formation of NiTi crystalline structure. Additionally, the as-deposited NiTi thin films without annealing procedures are amorphous, when deposited on the substrates at low temperatures. The differential scanning calorimetry studies show NiTi thin films formed by the e-beam evaporation are Ni-rich. Furthermore, SEM images illustrate that high-precision patterned NiTi thin film microstructures can be fabricated by combining with the e-beam evaporation and lift-off resist methods, without any wet or dry etching procedures. The proposed fabrication process for NiTi thin film microstructures shows great potential for application in shape memory alloy medical devices, as well as the micro-robotics.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2013

Evaporative cooling of antiprotons for the production of trappable antihydrogen

We describe the implementation of evaporative cooling of charged particles in the ALPHA apparatus. Forced evaporation has been applied to cold samples of antiprotons held in Malmberg-Penning traps. Temperatures on the order of 10 K were obtained, while retaining a significant fraction of the initial number of particles. We have developed a model for the evaporation process based on simple rate equations and applied it succesfully to the experimental data. We have also observed radial re-distribution of the clouds following evaporation, explained by simple conservation laws. We discuss the relevance of this technique for the recent demonstration of magnetic trapping of antihydrogen.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗