Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “link layer”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 235 records · Page 13
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Zr 3 Mn 3 Sn 4 Ga: A new hetero-kagome bilayer antiferromagnet

Here, we report the magnetic and electrical transport properties of single-crystalline Zr 3 Mn 3 Sn 4 Ga, featuring two distinct kagome lattices: a non-magnetic breathing Zr 3 Sn 4 lattice and a magnetic intact Mn 3 Ga lattice. The material undergoes an antiferromagnetic phase transition at T N = 87 K, with neutron diffraction confirming commensurate ordering characterized by k = (1/3,1/3,0). Transport measurements show metallic behavior, a resistivity anomaly near T N , and 12% magnetoresistance at 2 K under 9 T. Deviations from the conventional second-order power law, along with negative magnetoresistance and nonlinear Hall slope variations near T N , suggest strong magneto-electronic coupling. Resonant photoemission spectroscopy identifies Zr 4d and Mn 3d orbitals as dominant contributors to the valence band, linking the material’s unique electronic properties to its kagome layers. Zr 3 Mn 3 Sn 4 Ga offers a valuable platform to study interactions between magnetism and topological electronic bands in hetero-kagome systems using the co- existence of magnetic and non-magnetic kagome layers and its tunable electronic structure.

Crystal structure↗
NASA NTRS1971

Nozzle and cavity wall cooling limitations on specific impulse of a gas-core nuclear rocket.

Experimental and theoretical study of the performance of a gas-core nuclear rocket, showing that in a uranium plasma nuclear rocket with an 8-ft cavity diameter the cavity wall can be cooled up to a power level of 7400 MW when the rocket operates at a pressure of 1000 atm and the propellant mass flow rate is 10 lbm/sec. A maximum cavity specific impulse of 5800 sec was obtained under such operating conditions. The fact that the wall heat flux was much lower for reactor powers below this level is linked to the presence of a relatively cool, opaque insulating layer of seeded propellant between the hot plasma and the solid wall. The additional coolant required for nozzle protection reduced the maximum cavity specific impulse to 5200 sec.

Kascak, A. F.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Chicxulub multiring impact basin - Size and other characteristics derived from gravity analysis

The buried Chicxulub impact structure in Mexico, which is linked to the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) boundary layer, may be significantly larger than previously suspected. Reprocessed gravity data over Northern Yucatan reveal three major rings and parts of a fourth ring, spaced similarly to those observed at multiring impact basins on other planets. The outer ring, probably corresponding to the basin's topographic rim, is almost 300 kilometers in diameter, indicating that Chicxulub may be one of the largest impact structures produced in the inner solar system since the period of early bombardment ended nearly 4 billion years ago.

Sharpton, Virgil L.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Securing Mobile Networks in an Operational Setting

This paper describes a network demonstration and three month field trial of mobile networking using mobile-IPv4. The network was implemented as part of the US Coast Guard operational network which is a ".mil" network and requires stringent levels of security. The initial demonstrations took place in November 2002 and a three month field trial took place from July through September of 2003. The mobile network utilized encryptors capable of NSA-approved Type 1 algorithms, mobile router from Cisco Systems and 802.11 and satellite wireless links. This paper also describes a conceptual architecture for wide-scale deployment of secure mobile networking in operational environments where both private and public infrastructure is used. Additional issues presented include link costs, placement of encryptors and running routing protocols over layer-3 encryption devices.

Ivancic, William D.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Low-Gain Circularly Polarized Antenna with Torus-Shaped Pattern

The Juno mission to Jupiter requires an antenna with a torus-shaped antenna pattern with approximately 6 dBic gain and circular polarization over the Deep Space Network (DSN) 7-GHz transmit frequency and the 8-GHz receive frequency. Given the large distances that accumulate en-route to Jupiter and the limited power afforded by the solar-powered vehicle, this toroidal low-gain antenna requires as much gain as possible while maintaining a beam width that could facilitate a +/-10deg edge of coverage. The natural antenna that produces a toroidal antenna pattern is the dipole, but the limited approx. = 2.2 dB peak gain would be insufficient. Here a shaped variation of the standard bicone antenna is proposed that could achieve the required gains and bandwidths while maintaining a size that was not excessive. The final geometry that was settled on consisted of a corrugated, shaped bicone, which is fed by a WR112 waveguide-to-coaxial- waveguide transition. This toroidal low-gain antenna (TLGA) geometry produced the requisite gain, moderate sidelobes, and the torus-shaped antenna pattern while maintaining a very good match over the entire required frequency range. Its "horn" geometry is also low-loss and capable of handling higher powers with large margins against multipactor breakdown. The final requirement for the antenna was to link with the DSN with circular polarization. A four-layer meander-line array polarizer was implemented; an approach that was fairly well suited to the TLGA geometry. The principal development of this work was to adapt the standard linear bicone such that its aperture could be increased in order to increase the available gain of the antenna. As one increases the aperture of a standard bicone, the phase variation across the aperture begins to increase, so the larger the aperture becomes, the greater the phase variation. In order to maximize the gain from any aperture antenna, the phase should be kept as uniform as possible. Thus, as the standard bicone fs aperture increases, the gain increase becomes less until one reaches a point of diminishing returns. In order to overcome this problem, a shaped aperture is used. Rather than the standard linear bicone, a parabolic bicone was found to reduce the amount of phase variation as the aperture increases. In fact, the phase variation is half of the standard linear bicone, which leads to higher gain with smaller aperture sizes. The antenna pattern radiated from this parabolic-shaped bicone antenna has fairly high side lobes. The Juno project requested that these sidelobes be minimized. This was accomplished by adding corrugations to the parabolic shape. This corrugated-shaped bicone antenna had reasonably low sidelobes, and the appropriate gain and beamwidth to meet project requirements.

Amaro, Luis R.↗
NASA NTRS2016

A Quasi-Global Approach to Improve Day-Time Satellite Surface Soil Moisture Anomalies through the Land Surface Temperature Input

Passive microwave observations from various spaceborne sensors have been linked to the soil moisture of the Earth's surface layer. A new generation of passive microwave sensors are dedicated to retrieving this variable and make observations in the single theoretically optimal L-band frequency (1-2 GHz). Previous generations of passive microwave sensors made observations in a range of higher frequencies, allowing for simultaneous estimation of additional variables required for solving the radiative transfer equation. One of these additional variables is land surface temperature, which plays a unique role in the radiative transfer equation and has an influence on the final quality of retrieved soil moisture anomalies. This study presents an optimization procedure for soil moisture retrievals through a quasi-global precipitation-based verification technique, the so-called Rvalue metric. Various land surface temperature scenarios were evaluated in which biases were added to an existing linear regression, specifically focusing on improving the skills to capture the temporal variability of soil moisture. We focus on the relative quality of the day-time (01:30 pm) observations from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for Earth Observing System (AMSR-E), as these are theoretically most challenging due to the thermal equilibrium theory, and existing studies indicate that larger improvements are possible for these observations compared to their night-time (01:30 am) equivalent. Soil moisture data used in this study were retrieved through the Land Parameter Retrieval Model (LPRM), and in line with theory, both satellite paths show a unique and distinct degradation as a function of vegetation density. Both the ascending (01:30 pm) and descending (01:30 am) paths of the publicly available and widely used AMSR-E LPRM soil moisture products were used for benchmarking purposes. Several scenarios were employed in which the land surface temperature input for the radiative transfer was varied by imposing a bias on an existing regression. These scenarios were evaluated through the Rvalue technique, resulting in optimal bias values on top of this regression. In a next step, these optimal bias values were incorporated in order to re-calibrate the existing linear regression, resulting in a quasi-global uniform LST relation for day-time observations. In a final step, day-time soil moisture retrievals using the re-calibrated land surface temperature relation were again validated through the Rvalue technique. Results indicate an average increasing Rvalue of 16.5%, which indicates a better performance obtained through the re-calibration. This number was confirmed through an independent Triple Collocation verification over the same domain, demonstrating an average root mean square error reduction of 15.3%. Furthermore, a comparison against an extensive in situ database (679 stations) also indicates a generally higher quality for the re-calibrated dataset. Besides the improved day-time dataset, this study furthermore provides insights on the relative quality of soil moisture retrieved from AMSR-E's day- and night-time observations.

soil moisture↗
DOE OSTI2023

Biomass-burning smoke's properties and its interactions with marine stratocumulus clouds in WRF-CAM5 and southeastern Atlantic field campaigns

Abstract. A large part of the uncertainty in climate projections comes from uncertain aerosol properties and aerosol–cloud interactions as well as the difficulty in remotely sensing them. The southeastern Atlantic functions as a natural laboratory to study biomass-burning smoke and to constrain this uncertainty. We address these gaps by comparing the Weather Research and Forecasting with Chemistry Community Atmosphere Model (WRF-CAM5) to the multi-campaign observations ORACLES (ObseRvations of Aerosols above CLouds and their intEractionS), CLARIFY (CLoud–Aerosol–Radiation Interaction and Forcing), and LASIC (Layered Atlantic Smoke Interactions with Clouds) in the southeastern Atlantic in August 2017 to evaluate a large range of the model's aerosol chemical properties, size distributions, processes, and transport, as well as aerosol–cloud interactions. Overall, while WRF-CAM5 is able to represent smoke properties and transport, some key discrepancies highlight the need for further analysis. Observations of smoke composition show an overall decrease in aerosol mean diameter as smoke ages over 4–12 d, while the model lacks this trend. A decrease in the mass ratio of organic aerosol (OA) to black carbon (BC), OA:BC, and the OA mass to carbon monoxide (CO) mixing ratio, OA:CO, suggests that the model is missing processes that selectively remove OA from the particle phase, such as photolysis and heterogeneous aerosol chemistry. A large (factor of ∼2.5) enhancement in sulfate from the free troposphere (FT) to the boundary layer (BL) in observations is not present in the model, pointing to the importance of properly representing secondary sulfate aerosol formation from marine dimethyl sulfide and gaseous SO2 smoke emissions. The model shows a persistent overprediction of aerosols in the marine boundary layer (MBL), especially for clean conditions, which multiple pieces of evidence link to weaker aerosol removal in the modeled MBL than reality. This evidence includes several model features, such as not representing observed shifts towards smaller aerosol diameters, inaccurate concentration ratios of carbon monoxide and black carbon, underprediction of heavy rain events, and little evidence of persistent biases in modeled entrainment. The average below-cloud aerosol activation fraction (NCLD/NAER) remains relatively constant in WRF-CAM5 between field campaigns (∼0.65), while it decreases substantially in observations from ORACLES (∼0.78) to CLARIFY (∼0.5), which could be due to the model misrepresentation of clean aerosol conditions. WRF-CAM5 also overshoots an observed upper limit on liquid cloud droplet concentration around NCLD= 400–500 cm−3 and overpredicts the spread in NCLD. This could be related to the model often drastically overestimating the strength of boundary layer vertical turbulence by up to a factor of 10. We expect these results to motivate similar evaluations of other modeling systems and promote model development to reduce critical uncertainties in climate simulations.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS1992

Leading-edge receptivity for blunt-nose bodies

Boundary-layer receptivity in the leading edge region for bodies with blunt leading edges is investigated in this research program. Receptivity theory provides the link between the unsteady disturbance environment in the freestream and the initial amplitudes of instability waves in the boundary layer. This is a critical problem which must be addressed in order to develop more accurate prediction methods for boundary-layer transition.

Hammerton, P. W.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Differential absorption lidar (DIAL) for water vapor and aerosol profiling from airborne and space-based platforms

Many current challenges in weather and climate prediction involve cloud and aerosol processes, which are intimately linked to processes that initiate or take place within the planetary boundary layer (PBL). The current space-based observing system provides a wealth of information on the spatial distribution of key atmospheric variables such as profiles of water vapor (WV) and temperature, but lacks the sensitivity, accuracy, and vertical resolution in the PBL to overcome the observational gaps that inhibit the parametrization and advancement of current climate and weather models. To overcome some of these observational gaps and improve understanding and monitoring of these key processes, mature remote sensing techniques like Differential Absorption Lidar (DIAL) can be employed from various platforms to capture processes on a wide range of spatial scales. This presentation will provide an overview of NASA’s water vapor DIAL capabilities, present the strengths, weaknesses, and synergies of the DIAL technique relative to traditional methods, and provide representative data examples from the HALO airborne water vapor DIAL which was designed as a technology testbed for future space-based DIAL missions as well as a workhorse instrument in support of suborbital process studies. HALO is an airborne multifunction lidar system, simultaneously profiling WV with the DIAL technique and aerosol and cloud optical properties and PBL heights via the high spectral resolution lidar (HSRL) technique. HALO has a compact design that allows it to fly on most research aircraft, enabling nadir profiling from the lower stratosphere down through the PBL, which is critical for studying processes such as convection and cloud formation that can link the PBL and free troposphere. We will end with an outlook on the benefits and challenges of transitioning the mature DIAL technique to space to compliment other active and passive sounders and enable new PBL observations for the future Earth Observing System. The Atmospheric Boundary layer Lidar pathfindEr (ABLE), a program aimed at advancing technologies to enable the first demonstration of DIAL from space with cross-cutting observables of PBL heights, aerosol and cloud profiling, and methane columns from space will also be presented.

Brian J. Carroll↗
DOE OSTI2024

Finite Element Modeling of the Phase Change in Thermally-Grown SiO 2 in SiC Systems for Gas Turbines

The operating lifetimes of SiC-based components in combustion environments are directly linked to the adhesion of the protective environmental barrier coating (EBC) layer. One of the major known failure modes for EBCs is the formation of a thick SiO 2 thermally grown oxide (TGO), which decreases coating adhesion and encourages eventual coating spallation. The effect of the TGO thickness under Yb 2 Si 2 O 7 EBCs on silicon carbide was investigated using finite element models (FEMs) with various interfacial architectures and SiO 2 TGO thicknesses. Further, the FEMs incorporated a user-defined material to simulate the volume contraction of the TGO during the silica phase transformation from β-cristobalite to α-cristobalite upon cooling from the stress-free state at 1350°C to room temperature. Systems with and without a silicon bond coating intermediary layer were assessed. It was shown that the TGO phase transformation stress (1.6–1.7 GPa) dominated the increase in stress in the TGO and EBC layers. Furthermore, it was found that stress increase in the TGO was independent of TGO thickness and interface geometry. These results indicate that stabilization of the TGO to mitigate the phase transformation could dramatically improve the performance of SiC-base components with EBCs.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Structure evolution and tin redistribution during oxidation of Zircaloy-4 at 500°C

Zirconium (Zr) alloys are widely used as fuel cladding in nuclear power reactors due to their thermal stability, mechanical durability, corrosion resistance, and low neutron absorption cross-section. However, their performance is challenged by oxidation in reactor environments, making the study of Zr alloy corrosion behavior crucial for ensuring the safety, longevity, and economic viability of nuclear power systems. While the oxidation behavior of Zr-based cladding materials has been extensively studied since the 1950s, a mechanistic understanding into the relationship between structure evolution, solute element redistribution, and properties remains elusive. Valuable insights may be obtained through advanced experimental methods, such as in-situ and high resolution microscopy techniques. Here, in this study, the oxidation behavior of Zircaloy-4 at 500 °C in O 2 is characterized using a multimodal advanced characterization approach. Using in-situ X-ray diffraction, the phase evolution from metastable to stable oxides is tracked in real time. Complementary high-resolution techniques, including electron microscopy and atom probe tomography, reveal nanoscale insights into the microstructural changes and solute redistribution across the oxide/metal interface. Nanohardness mapping across the oxide/metal interface highlights localized mechanical property variations that may be linked to changes in microstructure and crystal structure within the oxide layer. These findings offer valuable insights into the microstructure and property evolution of Zircaloy-4 during oxidation, contributing to a better understanding of microstructural changes in Zr-based alloys under oxidative environments.

APT↗
DOE OSTI2020

Development of a FELIX based readout system for ITk strip hybrid module demonstrator for ATLAS Phase-II Upgrade

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will undergo a major upgrade around 2024 with a roughly tenfold increase in luminosity. It results in corresponding increases in particle rates and radiation doses that the current ATLAS Inner Tracking Detector cannot cope with. Therefore the ATLAS experiment will build a new all-silicon tracking system called the ITk (Inner Tracker) that includes an inside pixel detector close to the beam line and a strip detector in outside layer. Meanwhile the ATLAS experiment will adopt the Front-End Link eXchange (FELIX) system as the interface between the data acquisition and front-end electronics for all sub-detectors in the Phase II Upgrade. In this contribution, we present a prototype of FELIX based readout system for the strip hybrid module. Its hardware, firmware and software GUI application will be discussed, as well as integration test results.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS1992

All-YBa2Cu3O(7-x) edge-geometry weak links

High quality YBa2Cu3O(7-x)/normal-metal/YBa2Cu3O(7-x) edge-geometry weak links are fabricated using nonsuperconducting Y-Ba-Cu-O barrier layers deposited by laser ablation at reduced growth temperatures. Devices incorporating 25-100-A-thick barrier layers exhibit current-voltage characteristics consistent with the resistively-shunted-junction model, as well as ac Josephson steps. Magnetic field modulation of the critical currents shows Fraunhofer-like behavior with a periodicity which scales with device area. The critical currents vary exponentially with barrier thickness indicating an effective normal metal coherence length of 20 A. The average resistances scale linearly with Y-Ba-Cu-O interlayer thickness and device area. The scaling behavior of the device parameters combined with the well-behaved magnetic field modulation of the critical currents demonstrates good barrier-layer uniformity with low pinhole densities. Near the transition temperature, the critical currents exhibit a temperature dependence proportional to (1 - T/Tc) squared.

Hunt, B. D.↗
NASA NTRS1993

NELS 2.0 - A general system for enterprise wide information management

NELS, the NASA Electronic Library System, is an information management tool for creating distributed repositories of documents, drawings, and code for use and reuse by the aerospace community. The NELS retrieval engine can load metadata and source files of full text objects, perform natural language queries to retrieve ranked objects, and create links to connect user interfaces. For flexibility, the NELS architecture has layered interfaces between the application program and the stored library information. The session manager provides the interface functions for development of NELS applications. The data manager is an interface between session manager and the structured data system. The center of the structured data system is the Wide Area Information Server. This system architecture provides access to information across heterogeneous platforms in a distributed environment. There are presently three user interfaces that connect to the NELS engine; an X-Windows interface, and ASCII interface and the Spatial Data Management System. This paper describes the design and operation of NELS as an information management tool and repository.

Smith, Stephanie L.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Separation shock motion in fin, cylinder, and compression ramp - Induced turbulent interactions

In conjunction with new experimental results at Mach 5, an examination has been made of published data on unsteadiness of shock-induced turbulent boundary-layer separation. The data are all wall pressure fluctuation measurements made under the unsteady separation shock and are from interactions induced by compression ramps, blunt and sharp fins, and circular cylinders. There is little evidence of a link between the separation shock zero-crossing frequency and characteristic frequency of the incoming boundary layer. The low shock frequencies and low shock speeds, and the trends with changes in model geometric parameters and incoming boundary layer, suggest that turbulent or global fluctuations at the upstream boundary of the separated flow drive the shock motion.

Dolling, D. S.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Kinetics of copper ion absorption by cross-linked calcium polyacrylate membranes

The absorption of copper ions from aqueous copper acetate solutions by cross-linked calcium acrylate membranes was found to obey parabolic kinetics similar to that found for oxidation of metals that form protective oxide layers. For pure calcium polyacrylate membranes the rate constant was essentially independent of copper acetate concentration and film thickness. For a cross-linked copolymer film of polyvinyl alcohol and calcium polyacrylate, the rate constant was much greater and dependent on the concentration of copper acetate. The proposed mechanism in each case involves the formation of a copper polyacrylate phase on the surface of the membrane. The diffusion of the copper ion through this phase appears to be the rate controlling step for the copolymer film. The diffusion of the calcium ion is apparently the rate controlling step for the calcium polyacrylate. At low pH, the copper polyacrylate phase consists of the normal copper salt; at higher pH, the phase appears to be the basic copper salt.

Philipp, W. H.↗
DOE OSTI2020

4D Printing via an Unconventional Fused Deposition Modeling Route to High-Performance Thermosets

An unprecedented four-dimensional (4D) printing process allowing high-performance and shape memory thermoset to be printed, for the first time, by fused deposition modeling (FDM) with isotropic properties has been achieved. Here, bisphenol A-based epoxy and benzoxazine were formulated to a low-temperature thermoplastic and high-temperature thermoset resin, which is melt-extrudable and can be postcured into covalently cross-linked material. Carbon nanotube (CNT) was added in the resin to work as both mechanical enhancement filler and rheology modifier to prevent shape deformation during postcuring process. The cross-layer reaction fuses individual layers into an integrity, thus eliminating layer delamination induced by FDM, offering isotropic mechanical properties regardless of the printing orientations. The highly cross-linked network provides outstanding mechanical strength and superb thermal stability. The excellent shape memory performance with fast recovery rate and large recovery degree is also obtained in the three-dimensional (3D) printed composites.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗