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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 253 records · Page 14
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1986

Single scattering from nonspherical Chebyshev particles: A compendium of calculations

A large set of exact calculations of the scattering from a class of nonspherical particles known as Chebyshev particles' has been performed. Phase function and degree of polarization in random orientation, and parallel and perpendicular intensities in fixed orientations, are plotted for a variety of particles shapes and sizes. The intention is to furnish a data base against which both experimental data, and the predictions of approximate methods, can be tested. The calculations are performed with the widely-used Extended Boundary Condition Method. An extensive discussion of this method is given, including much material that is not easily available elsewhere (especially the analysis of its convergence properties). An extensive review is also given of all extant methods for nonspherical scattering calculations, as well as of the available pool of experimental data.

Wiscombe, W. J.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Employing Sensitivity Derivatives to Estimate Uncertainty Propagation in CFD

Two methods that exploit the availability of sensitivity derivatives are successfully employed to predict uncertainty propagation through Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code for an inviscid airfoil problem. An approximate statistical second-moment method and a Sensitivity Derivative Enhanced Monte Carlo (SDEMC) method are successfully demonstrated on a two-dimensional problem. First- and second-order sensitivity derivatives of code output with respect to code input are obtained through an efficient incremental iterative approach. Given uncertainties in statistically independent, random, normally distributed flow parameters (input variables); these sensitivity derivatives enable one to formulate first- and second-order Taylor Series approximations for the mean and variance of CFD output quantities. Additionally, incorporation of the first-order sensitivity derivatives into the data reduction phase of a conventional Monte Carlo (MC) simulation allows for improved accuracy in determining the first moment of the CFD output. Both methods are compared to results generated using a conventional MC method. The methods that exploit the availability of sensitivity derivatives are found to be valid when considering small deviations from input mean values.

Putko, Michele M.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Determination of single crystal thermal expansion in Uranium-6wt%Niobium shape memory alloy using in-situ diffraction and modeling of textured polycrystalline samples

In-situ neutron diffraction and ex-situ dilatometry experiments were performed on a chemically banded, quenched uranium-6wt% niobium shape memory alloy to study the impact of deformation-(detwinning-) induced texture on the evolution of thermally induced strains (and associated stresses). Thermal heating and cooling cycles between 5K and 473K were performed in-situ with neutron diffraction, and the lattice strain evolution is reported for the observed monoclinic α" phase. Comparisons between the measured diffraction strains and macroscopic dilatometry experiments reveal relationships between micro- and macro-level thermal expansion. Softening of the texture during heating suggests that twin boundary motion can accommodate the large internal thermal strains which are approximately 2% greater than that typically observed during the 175K heating interval used to age more randomly oriented polycrystalline material. Assuming weak constraint of neighboring grains in randomly textured polycrystals, the single crystal thermal expansion tensor is extracted from measurements of lattice strains over the range 5K to 473K. Predictions of polycrystalline thermal expansion, based upon this single crystal thermal expansion tensor, are shown to compare favorably with bulk thermal expansion observations of the as quenched microstructure. However, such a lower-bound estimate is insufficient to explain all aspects of the behavior of the textured material, where the matrix is not isotropic. In conclusion, it is hypothesized that relaxation processes which occur within the quenched microstructure during heating are responsible for the distinct thermal expansion behavior observed during the initial heating cycle compared to cooling and subsequent cycling.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
NASA NTRS1989

Scattering of light by crystals - A modified Kirchhoff approximation

A modified Kirchhoff approximation (MKA) is developed for the scattering of light by randomly oriented crystals. The reflected and transmitted near fields are calculated from ray tracing; the corresponding far fields are then obtained via the vector Kirchhoff integral. On the shadow side of the particle, an additional near field exactly cancels the incident field and causes the forward diffraction. MKA contains a particle size dependence, which is not included in ray optics treatments, and satisfactory results can be obtained for size parameters larger than ten. The scattering phase functions and degrees of linear polarization are calculated for some hexagonal and cubic water ice crystals using MKA. The Kirchhoff approximation for particles other than crystals is discussed, and attention is paid to the backscattering enhancement due to the cyclic passage of internally or multiply externally reflected electromagnetic waves.

Muinonen, Karri↗
NASA NTRS1995

Continuous phase and amplitude holographic elements

A method for producing a phase hologram using e-beam lithography provides n-ary levels of phase and amplitude by first producing an amplitude hologram on a transparent substrate by e-beam exposure of a resist over a film of metal by exposing n is less than or equal to m x m spots of an array of spots for each pixel, where the spots are randomly selected in proportion to the amplitude assigned to each pixel, and then after developing and etching the metal film producing a phase hologram by e-beam lithography using a low contrast resist, such as PMMA, and n-ary levels of low doses less than approximately 200 micro-C/sq cm and preferably in the range of 20-200 micro-C/sq cm, and aggressive development using pure acetone for an empirically determined time (about 6 s) controlled to within 1/10 s to produce partial development of each pixel in proportion to the n-ary level of dose assigned to it.

Maker, Paul D.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Absolute proper motions to B approximately 22.5: Evidence for kimematical substructure in halo field stars

Radial velocities have been obtained for six of nine stars identified on the basis of similar distances and common, extreme transverse velocities in the proper motion survey of Majewski (1992) as a candidate halo moving group at the north Galactic pole. These radial velocities correspond to velocities perpendicular to the Galactic plane which span the range -48 +/- 21 to -128 +/- 9 km/sec (but a smaller range, -48 +/- 21 to -86 +/- 19 km/sec, when only our own measurements are considered), significantly different than the expected distribution, with mean 0 km/sec, for a random sample of either halo or thick disk stars. The probability of picking such a set of radial velocities at random is less than 1%. Thus the radial velocity data support the hypothesis that these stars constitute part of a halo moving group or star stream at a distance of approximately 4-5 kpc above the Galactic plane. If real, this moving group is evidence for halo phase space substructure which may be the fossil remains of a destroyed globular cluster, Galactic satellite, or Searle & Zinn (1978) 'fragment.'

Majewski, Steven R.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Narrow-band nonlinear sea waves

Probabilistic description of nonlinear waves with a narrow-band spectrum is simplified to a form in which each realization of the surface displacement becomes an amplitude-modulated Stokes wave with a mean frequency and random phase. Under appropriate conditions this simplification provides a convenient yet rigorous means of describing nonlinear effects on sea surface properties in a semiclosed or closed form. In particular, it is shown that surface displacements are non-Gaussian and skewed, as was previously predicted by the Gram-Charlier approximation; that wave heights are Rayleigh distributed, just as in the linear case; and that crests are non-Rayleigh.

Tayfun, M. A.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Numerical simulation of solar wind density fluctuations and their effects on VLF radio interferometry

A mission consisting of an array of small satellites has been proposed to investigate radio sources at frequencies from approximately 2 to 20 MHz, a range unobservable from the ground because of ionospheric absorption and aberrations. Such a mission seems feasible and relatively inexpensive, but further investigation is still necessary. The solar wind is a major concern because it contains turbulence-induced random density variations that cause a fluctuating phase shift in any electromagnetic signal passing through, sometimes making radio source imaging by interferometry impossible. A numerical simulation has been developed which attempts to accurately characterize solar wind density fluctuations. Results have allowed more concrete conclusions to be drawn about observing constraints and have shown that interferometric imaging at radio frequencies below 10 MHz with baselines up to 100 km is possible at solar elongation angles of about 90 deg or more.

Williamson, Robert S., III↗
NASA NTRS2007

A Microfabricated Involute-Foil Regenerator for Stirling Engines

A segmented involute-foil regenerator has been designed, microfabricated and tested in an oscillating-flow rig with excellent results. During the Phase I effort, several approximations of parallel-plate regenerator geometry were chosen as potential candidates for a new microfabrication concept. Potential manufacturers and processes were surveyed. The selected concept consisted of stacked segmented-involute-foil disks (or annular portions of disks), originally to be microfabricated from stainless-steel via the LiGA (lithography, electroplating, and molding) process and EDM. During Phase II, re-planning of the effort led to test plans based on nickel disks, microfabricated via the LiGA process, only. A stack of nickel segmented-involute-foil disks was tested in an oscillating-flow test rig. These test results yielded a performance figure of merit (roughly the ratio of heat transfer to pressure drop) of about twice that of the 90 percent random fiber currently used in small approx.100 W Stirling space-power convertors-in the Reynolds Number range of interest (50 to 100). A Phase III effort is now underway to fabricate and test a segmented-involute-foil regenerator in a Stirling convertor. Though funding limitations prevent optimization of the Stirling engine geometry for use with this regenerator, the Sage computer code will be used to help evaluate the engine test results. Previous Sage Stirling model projections have indicated that a segmented-involute-foil regenerator is capable of improving the performance of an optimized involute-foil engine by 6 to 9 percent; it is also anticipated that such involute-foil geometries will be more reliable and easier to manufacture with tight-tolerance characteristics, than random-fiber or wire-screen regenerators. Beyond the near-term Phase III regenerator fabrication and engine testing, other goals are (1) fabrication from a material suitable for high temperature Stirling operation (up to 850 C for current engines; up to 1200 C for a potential engine-cooler for a Venus mission), and (2) reduction of the cost of the fabrication process to make it more suitable for terrestrial applications of segmented involute foils. Past attempts have been made to use wrapped foils to approximate the large theoretical figures of merit projected for parallel plates. Such metal wrapped foils have never proved very successful, apparently due to the difficulties of fabricating wrapped-foils with uniform gaps and maintaining the gaps under the stress of time-varying temperature gradients during start-up and shut-down, and relatively-steady temperature gradients during normal operation. In contrast, stacks of involute-foil disks, with each disk consisting of multiple involute-foil segments held between concentric circular ribs, have relatively robust structures. The oscillating-flow rig tests of the segmented-involute-foil regenerator have demonstrated a shift in regenerator performance strongly in the direction of the theoretical performance of ideal parallel-plate regenerators.

Tew, Roy↗
NASA NTRS2007

A Microfabricated Involute-Foil Regenerator for Stirling Engines

A segmented involute-foil regenerator has been designed, microfabricated and tested in an oscillating-flow rig with excellent results. During the Phase I effort, several approximations of parallel-plate regenerator geometry were chosen as potential candidates for a new microfabrication concept. Potential manufacturers and processes were surveyed. The selected concept consisted of stacked segmented-involute-foil disks (or annular portions of disks), originally to be microfabricated from stainless-steel via the LiGA (lithography, electroplating, and molding) process and EDM (electric discharge machining). During Phase II, re-planning of the effort led to test plans based on nickel disks, microfabricated via the LiGA process, only. A stack of nickel segmented-involute-foil disks was tested in an oscillating-flow test rig. These test results yielded a performance figure of merit (roughly the ratio of heat transfer to pressure drop) of about twice that of the 90% random fiber currently used in small ~ 100 W Stirling space-power convertors in the Reynolds Number range of interest (50-100). A Phase III effort is now underway to fabricate and test a segmented-involute-foil regenerator in a Stirling convertor. Though funding limitations prevent optimization of the Stirling engine geometry for use with this regenerator, the Sage computer code will be used to help evaluate the engine test results. Previous Sage Stirling model projections have indicated that a segmented-involute-foil regenerator is capable of improving the performance of an optimized involute-foil engine by 6-9%; it is also anticipated that such involute-foil geometries will be more reliable and easier to manufacture with tight-tolerance characteristics, than random-fiber or wire-screen regenerators. Beyond the near-term Phase III regenerator fabrication and engine testing, other goals are (1) fabrication from a material suitable for high temperature Stirling operation (up to 850 C for current engines; up to 1200 C for a potential engine-cooler for a Venus mission), and (2) reduction of the cost of the fabrication process to make it more suitable for terrestrial applications of segmented involute foils. Past attempts have been made to use wrapped foils to approximate the large theoretical figures of merit projected for parallel plates. Such metal wrapped foils have never proved very successful, apparently due to the difficulties of fabricating wrapped-foils with uniform gaps and maintaining the gaps under the stress of time-varying temperature gradients during start-up and shut-down, and relatively-steady temperature gradients during normal operation. In contrast, stacks of involute-foil disks, with each disk consisting of multiple involute-foil segments held between concentric circular ribs, have relatively robust structures. The oscillating-flow rig tests of the segmented-involute-foil regenerator have demonstrated a shift in regenerator performance strongly in the direction of the theoretical performance of ideal parallel-plate regenerators.

Tew, Roy↗
DOE OSTI2024

Node-degree aware edge sampling mitigates inflated classification performance in biomedical random walk-based graph representation learning

Motivation: Graph representation learning is a family of related approaches that learn low-dimensional vector representations of nodes and other graph elements called embeddings. Embeddings approximate characteristics of the graph and can be used for a variety of machine-learning tasks such as novel edge prediction. For many biomedical applications, partial knowledge exists about positive edges that represent relationships between pairs of entities, but little to no knowledge is available about negative edges that represent the explicit lack of a relationship between two nodes. For this reason, classification procedures are forced to assume that the vast majority of unlabeled edges are negative. Existing approaches to sampling negative edges for training and evaluating classifiers do so by uniformly sampling pairs of nodes. Results: We show here that this sampling strategy typically leads to sets of positive and negative examples with imbalanced node degree distributions. Using representative heterogeneous biomedical knowledge graph and random walk-based graph machine learning, we show that this strategy substantially impacts classification performance. If users of graph machine-learning models apply the models to prioritize examples that are drawn from approximately the same distribution as the positive examples are, then performance of models as estimated in the validation phase may be artificially inflated. We present a degree-aware node sampling approach that mitigates this effect and is simple to implement. Availability and implementation: Our code and data are publicly available at https://github.com/monarch-initiative/negativeExampleSelection.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Formation of Amorphous Carbon Multi‐Walled Nanotubes from Random Initial Configurations

Amorphous carbon nanotubes (a‐CNT) with up to four walls and sizes ranging from 200 to 3200 atoms have been simulated, starting from initial random configurations and using the Gaussian Approximation Potential. The important variables (like density, height, and diameter) required to successfully simulate a‐CNTs were predicted with the machine learning random forest technique. The width of the a‐CNT models ranged between 0.55–2 nm with an average inter‐wall spacing of 0.31 nm. The topological defects in a‐CNTs were analyzed and new defect configurations were observed. The electronic density of states and localization in these phases were discussed and delocalized electrons in the π subspace were identified as an important factor for inter‐layer cohesion. Spatial projection of the electronic conductivity favors axial transport along connecting hexagons, while non‐hexagonal parts of the network either hinder or bifurcate the electronic transport. A vibrational density of states was calculated and is potentially an experimentally comparable fingerprint of the material. The appearance of a low‐frequency radial breathing mode was discussed and the thermal conductivity at 300 K was estimated using the Green‐Kubo formula.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2024

Porting Classical Approaches for Quantum Simulations to Quantum Computers

Simulating quantum many-body systems is one of the most promising problems in which we might anticipate that quantum computers should show quantum advantage. Unfortunately, there is still a gap between this promise and actual practice. New quantum algorithms need to be developed and the current quantum algorithms have various difficulties - e.g efficient state preparation - which must be overcome and improved upon. In many cases, classical approaches need to be ported over to quantum devices. In this project we have developed a suite of new quantum algorithms which makes progress in this regard. We developed a new optimization scheme for variational quantum eigensolvers, UBOS, which mitigates problems with local minimas and barren plateaus while improving convergence to the ground state by an order of magnitude. We developed a new way to utilize qubitization to find ground states of nearly frustration-free Hamiltonians faster than all previous methods. We developed a series of state preparation techniques which helps initialize parameterized quantum circuits into reasonable starting points on which quantum algorithms are then applied. In addition to the development of novel algorithms, it is critical to have classical simulation techniques for approximately simulating quantum circuits which can be used to benchmark and understand quantum algorithms. Toward that end, we developed a novel POVM formalism to simulate quantum circuits as well as exemplify the massive parallelization of tensor network methodologies. Finally, we developed physical understanding of entanglement phase transitions such as many-body localization and random tensor networks.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
NASA NTRS1988

A muiti-mode modulation and demodulation system and method

An improved system and method for modulation, demodulation and signal processing for single sideband communications systems which provides correction for the adverse effects of rapid fading characteristics in a mobile environment. The system provides modulation through a modified Weaver modulator in which the audio input is processed to produce an output in the form of an upper sideband having a pilot tone in a spectral gap at approximately midband. The receiver includes a modified Weaver demodulator and a correction signal generating circuit which processes the received faded audio input and pilot tone to produce a correcting signal. The correcting signal is mixed with the received signal to regenerate unfaded versions of both the signal and pilot by removing random amplitude and phase modulations imposed on them by the fading.

Stevenson, Carl R.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Formation Energy of Disordered Alloys form the Energetics of Ordered Compounds

The cluster expansion technique is used in combination with first-principles calculations of the total energy of ordered compounds to study the energetics of the disordered phase for a number of alloy systems. The effect of short-range order, as seen in the energy differences between an alloy with the configuration corresponding to finite temperature and the perfectly random one is studied. The role of relaxation due to large size mismatch is discussed in terms of an effective cluster volume approximation. Very good agreement with measured energies of formation is obtained when short-range order and relaxation effects are taken into account.

Amador, Carlos↗
NASA NTRS1977

Concatenated shift registers generating maximally spaced phase shifts of PN-sequences

A large class of linearly concatenated shift registers is shown to generate approximately maximally spaced phase shifts of pn-sequences, for use in pseudorandom number generation. A constructive method is presented for finding members of this class, for almost all degrees for which primitive trinomials exist. The sequences which result are not normally characterized by trinomial recursions, which is desirable since trinomial sequences can have some undesirable randomness properties.

Hurd, W. J.↗
NASA NTRS1985

A theory of satellite sweeping

A theory of energetic charged particle absorption by insulating moons is presented that includes gyrophase dependence of the absorption probability when the gyroradius is not small compared to the satellite radius. This effect increases the average lifetime against absorption by factors of approximately 2 to 6 above previous estimates at Saturn. The sweeping lifetime then becomes significantly greater than the strong diffusion lifetime. A rigorous expression for the average lifetime against absorption, appropriate for a drift phase averaged radial diffusion equation, is derived assuming (1) a uniform distribution of gyrocenter equatorial plane crossing points in the sweeping corridor and (2) randomization of gyrophase. The pitch angle and energy dependences of the sweeping lifetime are found to be significantly different from the predictions of previous analytical estimates.

Paonessa, M.↗
NASA NTRS2001

The Steady Spin-down Rate of 4U 1907+09

Using X-ray data from the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer, we report the pulse timing results of the accretion-powered, high-mass X-ray binary pulsar 4UU 1907+09, covering a time-span of almost two years. We measured three new pulse periods in addition to the previously measured four pulse periods. We are able to connect pulse arrival times in phase for more than a year. The source has been spinning down almost at a constant rate, with a spin-down rate of v = (- 3.54 +/- 0.02) x 10(exp -14) Hz s(exp -1) for more than 15 yr. Residuals of pulse arrival times yield a very low level of random-walk noise, with a strength of approximately 2 x 10(exp -20) rad(exp 2) s(exp -3) on a time-scale of 383 d, which is 40 times lower than that of the high-mass X-ray binary pulsar Vela X-1. The noise strength is only a factor of five greater than that of the low-mass X-ray binary pulsar 4U 1626-67. The low level of the timing noise and the very stable spin-down rate of 4U 1907+09 make this source unique among the high-mass X-ray binary pulsars, providing another example, in addition to 4U 1626-67, of long-term quiet spin down from an accruing source. These examples show that the extended quiet spin-down episodes observed in the anomalous X-ray pulsars 1RXS J170849.0-400910 and 1E 2259+586 do not necessarily imply that these sources are not accreting pulsars.

Baykal, Altan↗