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At least 307 records · Page 17

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

NASA NTRS2005

Distributed sensing of Composite Over-wrapped Pressure Vessels using Fiber-Bragg Gratings

The increasing use of advanced composite materials in the wide range of applications including Space Structures is a great impetus to the development of smart materials. These materials offer a wide range of possibilities within the space program. But before they can be reliably incorporated into space flight applications, additional understanding is required in the area of damage tolerance of these materials. Efforts to enhance our understanding of failure modes, mechanical properties, long and short term environmental effects, cyclic damage accumulation and residual strength are needed. Thus we have employed the use of fiber optical sensors which offers an excellent opportunity exploit these materials through monitoring and characterizing their mechanical properties and thus the integrity of structures made from such materials during their life cycle. Use of these optical innovations provides an insight into structures that have not been available in the past, as well as the technology available to provide real time health monitoring throughout its life cycle. The embedded fiber optical sensor shows a clearly detectable sensitivity to changes in the near strain and stress fields of the host structure promoted by mechanical or thermal loading or, in certain conditions, structural damage. The last ten years have seen a large increase in the use of FBG based monitoring systems in a broad range of applications. Fiber Bragg gratings are use to monitor the structural properties of composite pressure vessels. These gratings optically inscribed into the core of a single mode fiber are used as a tool to monitor the stress strain relation in composite structures. The fiber Bragg sensors are both embedded within the composite laminates and bonded to the surface of the vessel with varying orientations with respect to the carbon fiber in the epoxy matrix. The response of these fiber-optic sensors is investigated by pressurizing the cylinder up to its burst pressure of around 4400 psi. This is done at both ambient and cryogenic temperatures using water and liquid nitrogen. The recorded response is compared with the response from conventional strain gauge also present on the vessel. Additionally, several vessels were tested that had been damaged to simulate different type of events, such as cut tow, delimitation and impact damage.

Grant, Joseph↗

NASA NTRS2013

Conductive Carbon Nanotube Inks for Use with Desktop Inkjet Printing Technology

Inkjet printing is a common commercial process. In addition to the familiar use in printing documents from computers, it is also used in some industrial applications. For example, wire manufacturers are required by law to print the wire type, gauge, and safety information on the exterior of each foot of manufactured wire, and this is typically done with inkjet or laser printers. The goal of this work was the creation of conductive inks that can be applied to a wire or flexible substrates via inkjet printing methods. The use of inkjet printing technology to print conductive inks has been in testing for several years. While researchers have been able to get the printing system to mechanically work, the application of conductive inks on substrates has not consistently produced adequate low resistances in the kilohm range. Conductive materials can be applied using a printer in single or multiple passes onto a substrate including textiles, polymer films, and paper. The conductive materials are composed of electrical conductors such as carbon nanotubes (including functionalized carbon nanotubes and metal-coated carbon nanotubes); graphene, a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (e.g., pentacene and bisperipentacene); metal nanoparticles; inherently conductive polymers (ICP); and combinations thereof. Once the conductive materials are applied, the materials are dried and sintered to form adherent conductive materials on the substrate. For certain formulations, increased conductivity can be achieved by printing on substrates supported by low levels of magnetic field alignment. The adherent conductive materials can be used in applications such as damage detection, dust particle removal, smart coating systems, and flexible electronic circuitry. By applying alternating layers of different electrical conductors to form a layered composite material, a single homogeneous layer can be produced with improved electrical properties. It is believed that patterning alternate layers of different conductors may improve electrical pathways through alignment of the conductors and band gap optimization. One feature of this innovation is that flexible conductive traces could be accomplished with a conductive ink having a surface resistivity of less than 10 ohms/square. Another result was that a composite material comprising a mixture of carbon nanotubes and metallic nanoparticles could be applied by inkjet printing to flexible substrates, and the resulting applied material was one to two orders of magnitude more conductive than a material made by printing inks containing carbon nanotubes alone.

Roberson, Luke↗

NASA NTRS2018

Inkjet Printing of Conductive Carbon Nanotubes

Systems and methods for forming conductive materials. The conductive materials can be applied using a printer in single or multiple passes onto a substrate. The conductive materials are composed of electrical conductors such as carbon nanotubes (including functionalized carbon nanotubes and metal-coated carbon nanotubes), grapheme, a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (e.g. pentacene and bisperipentacene), metal nanoparticles, an inherently conductive polymer (ICP), and combinations thereof. Once the conductive materials are applied, the materials are dried and sintered to form adherent conductive materials on the substrate. The adherent conductive materials can be used in applications such as damage detection, particle removal, and smart coating systems.

Roberson, Luke B.↗

DOE OSTI2021

Introduction to the special issue on smart transportation

Transportation is getting smarter and smarter, with the prominence of connected automated vehicle technologies in the global auto industry’s near-term growth strategies, of big data analytics and unprecedented access to sensing data of mobility, and of integration of this analytics into the optimization of mobility and transport. Further, these developments are setting off a wave of smart transportation innovations, which are featured by new methods and applications driven by various forms of sensor data such as GPS, CAN bus, LIDA, images, etc. At the same time, complexities surrounding the use, conflation, and processing of disparate data in near real-time is of essence for the design and development of futuristic smart transportation.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

NASA NTRS2002

MAC/GMC Code Enhanced for Coupled Electromagnetothermoelastic Analysis of Smart Composites

Intelligent materials are those that exhibit coupling between their electromagnetic response and their thermomechanical response. This coupling allows smart materials to react mechanically (e.g., an induced displacement) to applied electrical or magnetic fields (for instance). These materials find many important applications in sensors, actuators, and transducers. Recently interest has arisen in the development of smart composites that are formed via the combination of two or more phases, one or more of which is a smart material. To design with and utilize smart composites, designers need theories that predict the coupled smart behavior of these materials from the electromagnetothermoelastic properties of the individual phases. The micromechanics model known as the generalized method of cells (GMC) has recently been extended to provide this important capability. This coupled electromagnetothermoelastic theory has recently been incorporated within NASA Glenn Research Center's Micromechanics Analysis Code with Generalized Method of Cells (MAC/GMC). This software package is user friendly and has many additional features that render it useful as a design and analysis tool for composite materials in general, and with its new capabilities, for smart composites as well.

Bednarcyk, Brett A.↗

NASA NTRS2014

Creating a Prototype Web Application for Spacecraft Real-Time Data Visualization on Mobile Devices

Mobile devices (smart phones, tablets) have become commonplace among almost all sectors of the workforce, especially in the technical and scientific communities. These devices provide individuals the ability to be constantly connected to any area of interest they may have, whenever and wherever they are located. The Huntsville Operations Support Center (HOSC) is attempting to take advantage of this constant connectivity to extend the data visualization component of the Payload Operations and Integration Center (POIC) to a person's mobile device. POIC users currently have a rather unique capability to create custom user interfaces in order to view International Space Station (ISS) payload health and status telemetry. These displays are used at various console positions within the POIC. The Software Engineering team has created a Mobile Display capability that will allow authenticated users to view the same displays created for the console positions on the mobile device of their choice. Utilizing modern technologies including ASP.net, JavaScript, and HTML5, we have created a web application that renders the user's displays in any modern desktop or mobile web browser, regardless of the operating system on the device. Additionally, the application is device aware which enables it to render its configuration and selection menus with themes that correspond to the particular device. The Mobile Display application uses a communication mechanism known as signalR to push updates to the web client. This communication mechanism automatically detects the best communication protocol between the client and server and also manages disconnections and reconnections of the client to the server. One benefit of this application is that the user can monitor important telemetry even while away from their console position. If expanded to the scientific community, this application would allow a scientist to view a snapshot of the state of their particular experiment at any time or place. Because the web application renders the displays that can currently be created with the POIC ground system, the user can tailor their displays for a particular device using tools that they are already trained to use.

Lang, Jeremy S.↗

NASA NTRS1991

The role of smart systems in rendezvous, close proximity operations and docking maneuvers

Various missions scenarios (Space Station logistics, LEO and GEO services, and SEI operation) will involve flexibility in mission management. This means operations will be one or a combination of the following: autonomous, supervised autonomous, and machine aided manual control. Smart Systems will likely play a significant role in making these missions successful from a safety/reliability perspective and less costly from an operations perspective. This does not imply that Smart Systems need to be super sophisticated. On the contrary, Smart Systems have been described as automated intelligence that if a person had done it wrong, it would be considered stupid. The first part of this paper will describe the types of Smart System techniques involved in AR and CC, their specifications, duties, and interactions. Next will be a discussion of the work performed under the auspice of the ALS Program to further Expert Systems applications imbedded in the control process, NASA/JSC CRAD, and other related IRAD projects. This will include issues pertaining to the following: integration, speed, knowledge encapsulation, and cooperative systems. Finally, a brief description will be offered to outline the major obstacles for the acceptance of Smart Systems in critical applications.

Szatkowski, Gerard P.↗

DOE OSTI2023

Low-Voltage Haze Tuning with Cellulose-Network Liquid Crystal Gels

Being key components of the building envelope, glazing products with tunable optical properties are in great demand because of their potential for boosting energy efficiency and privacy features while enabling the main function of allowing natural light indoors. However, windows and skylights with electric switching of haze and transparency are rare and often require high voltages or electric currents, as well as not fully meet the stringent technical requirements for glazing applications. Here, by introducing a predesigned gel material we describe an approach dubbed “Haze-Switch” that involves low-voltage tuning of the haze coefficient in a broad range of 2–90% while maintaining high visible-range optical transmittance. The approach is based on a nanocellulose fiber gel network infiltrated by a nematic liquid crystal, which can be switched between polydomain and monodomain spatial patterns of optical axis via a dielectric coupling between the nematic domains and the applied external electric field. By utilizing a nanocellulose network of nanofibers ~10 nm in diameter we achieve <10 V dielectric switching and <2% haze in the clear state, as needed for applications in window products. Finally, we characterize physical properties relevant to window and smart glass technologies, like the color rendering index, haze coefficient, and switching times, demonstrating that our material and envisaged products can meet the stringent requirements of the glass industry, including applications such as privacy windows, skylights, sunroofs, and daylighting.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

DOE OSTI2022

Digitalization of an experimental electrochemical reactor via the smart manufacturing innovation platform

The exponential increase in data produced over the last two decades has revolutionized the way we collect, store, process, analyze, model, and interpret information to improve profitability. Manufacturing is no exception. How- ever, Smart Manufacturing, the digital practice, organization, workforce, and infrastructure transformation for collection and deployment of data and models at scale and at all levels of manufacturing, is a complex, costly, and labor-intensive journey that is still seeing slow adoption. The Clean Energy Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute (CESMII), a national Manufacturing USA public-private partnership sponsored by the Department of Energy, is addressing this scaled use of data and modeling in manufacturing. CESMII has focused on how to col- lect and use operating data for numerous applications that improve productivity, precision, and performance of manufacturing operations from factory floor to supply chain using process simulation, predictive analytics, mon- itoring and control, and real-time optimization. Because contextualized data are key, CESMII has developed the Smart Manufacturing Innovation Platform (SMIP) to lower the barriers to the data that are needed to accelerate data-based model building, improve data visualization, and more quickly gain insights. Reusable, standards-based ways of doing data collection, ingestion, and contextualization are particularly important for scaling access and use of data. The SMIP uses a standards-based definition and construct for reusable information models called an SM Profile. When an SM Profile is used in conjunction with the SMIP, the SMIP ensures the availability of contextualized, operational data for model building. The present work demonstrates Smart Manufacturing and the application of the SMIP for building several data-centered models for the operation and control of an ex- perimental electrochemical reactor that reduces carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) gas to valuable liquid and gas chemicals, such as alcohols, olefins, and syngas. We describe how the SMIP plays a central role in more effective model building and we demonstrate how the electochemical reactor can be controlled and optimized for the desired products. Use of the SMIP involves the transmission of real-time sensor measurements to a cloud resource so that the operating data are available to all model building experts. The data collection and transmission process is fully automated to greatly reduce the need for manual manipulation of the data. Data-driven machine learning models are used for advanced real-time state estimation, real-time optimization, and model-based feedback control for the reactor. The application models are implemented as a system to monitor the data flow and control the electrochemical reactor with a single visualization interface. SM Profiles are used to demonstrate reusability of the information models for the reactor and the instrumentation. The application packages, algorithms, and user interfaces developed are cast as Docker images in a library to facilitate reusability of the application models.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

NASA NTRS2007

The Application of Metal Oxide Nanomaterials for Chemical Sensor Development

NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) has been developing miniature chemical sensors for a variety of applications including fire detection, emissions monitoring, fuel leak detection, and environmental monitoring. Smart Lick and Stick sensor technology which integrates a sensor array, electronics, telemetry, and power into one microsystem are being developed. These microsystems require low power consumption for long-term aerospace applications. One approach to decreasing power consumption is the use of nanotechnology. Nanocrystalline tin oxide (SnO2) carbon monoxide (CO) sensors developed previously by this group have been successfully used for fire detection and emissions monitoring. This presentation will briefly review the overall NASA GRC chemical sensor program and discuss our further effort in nanotechnology applications. New carbon dioxide (CO2) sensing material using doped nanocrystalline SnO2 will be discussed. Nanocrystalline SnO2 coated solid electrolyte CO2 sensors and SnO2 nanorod and nanofiber hydrogen (H2) sensors operated at reduced or room temperatures will also be discussed.

Xu, Jennifer C.↗

NASA NTRS2010

Statistical Attitude Determination

All spacecraft require attitude determination at some level of accuracy. This can be a very coarse requirement of tens of degrees, in order to point solar arrays at the sun, or a very fine requirement in the milliarcsecond range, as required by Hubble Space Telescope. A toolbox of attitude determination methods, applicable across this wide range, has been developed over the years. There have been many advances in the thirty years since the publication of Reference, but the fundamentals remain the same. One significant change is that onboard attitude determination has largely superseded ground-based attitude determination, due to the greatly increased power of onboard computers. The availability of relatively inexpensive radiation-hardened microprocessors has led to the development of "smart" sensors, with autonomous star trackers being the first spacecraft application. Another new development is attitude determination using interferometry of radio signals from the Global Positioning System (GPS) constellation. This article reviews both the classic material and these newer developments at approximately the level of, with emphasis on. methods suitable for use onboard a spacecraft. We discuss both "single frame" methods that are based on measurements taken at a single point in time, and sequential methods that use information about spacecraft dynamics to combine the information from a time series of measurements.

Markley, F. Landis↗

DOE OSTI2021

SMART Perovskite Growth: Enabling a Larger Range of Process Conditions

Cost-effective, high-throughput industrial applications of metal-halide perovskites require a highly tolerant method (i.e., wide process window) that produces high-quality materials with a short annealing time. Here, we introduce a Seed Modulation for ARTificially controlled nucleation (SMART) process that enables rapid fabrication of high-quality perovskite films under a wide set of initial input parameters. Additionally, we characterized the thin-film evolution from the perspective of crystallinity, surface potential, diffusivity, surface carrier dynamics, and interfacial recombination. We find that surface and subsurface defects primarily determine the performance of materials and devices. By modulating the seeds for perovskite nucleation, we were able to improve the overall crystallization. We achieved a >20% power conversion efficiency using only a 5 min annealing step, and we found that the annealing window is widened such that differing initial conditions achieve similar quality. Furthermore, we demonstrated reproducibility and performance improvement in larger-area perovskite cells by incorporating the SMART process.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

DOE OSTI2023

Biobased Semi-Interpenetrating Polymer Networks of Poly(ε-caprolactone) and Epoxidized Soybean Oil with Nanoscale Morphology, Shape-Memory Effect, and Biocompatibility

Creating biobased polymer blends with outstanding properties, nanoscale morphology, shape-memory capability, and biocompatibility is very crucial and requires a fundamental understanding of the phase behavior, macromolecular structure, and biological compatibility of the polymer blends with living cells. It is very critical to understand the complex relationships among the polymer structure, morphology, and performance of multifunctional smart materials under conditions that they are likely to encounter during use, particularly in biomedical applications. Biobased semi-interpenetrating polymer networks of poly(ε-caprolactone) and epoxidized soybean oil with nanoscale morphology have been successfully synthesized via in situ cationic polymerization and compatibilization in a homogeneous solution. Varies analytical and characterization techniques, such as Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, dynamic mechanical analysis, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray scattering, cell toxicity, and shape-memory effects (SMEs), have been employed to understand the structure–properties relationship of these smart, biobased nanostructured polymer blends. The synthesized nano blends were nontoxic or biocompatible and supported attachment of human vein endothelial cells, showing their potential use in biomedical applications. The current versatile, low-cost strategy for synthesizing the nanoscale morphology of semi-interpenetrating polymer networks with SMEs and biocompatibility should be widely applicable for polymer systems. This study is also considered as a continuation to our efforts in the area of biobased polymers to develop innovative technologies to transform natural resources into smart multifunctional materials for a wide range of applications, including coatings, adhesives, and medical devices.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2024

Numerical modeling of electromagnetic field spatiotemporal evolution to evaluate the effects on calcium carbonate crystallization

Calcium carbonate (CaCO 3 ) scaling is a significant impediment to water systems. Electromagnetic field (EMF) treatment is a promising approach to control scaling owing to its simplicity and low or no energy requirements. However, the underlying mechanisms by which EMF impacts CaCO 3 crystallization remain unclear due to the challenges in measuring the EMFs in feed solutions and the lack of a fundamental understanding of the applied EMFs and the observed physicochemical phenomena. To fill this knowledge gap, a high-fidelity COMSOL model was first developed to simulate EMFs in bulk solutions for three alternating current-induced EMF devices with different configurations and properties. These were then integrated with experimental data to unveil the underlying mechanism by which applied EMFs alter the physicochemical processes. The study revealed that even low-strength EMFs (e.g., electric fields <0.15 V/m and magnetic fields <0.03 mT) promoted CaCO 3 precipitation in bulk solutions. The electric fields created by these EMF devices resulted in higher Lorentz force compared to their induced magnetic fields. In conclusion, the methodology of this study offers the capability to predict the effectiveness of different EMF devices in facilitating crystallization processes, and these mechanistic insights lay the foundation for the smart design of EMF devices for diverse water treatment applications.

COMSOL simulation↗

DOE OSTI2021

Impacts of COVID-19 related stay-at-home restrictions on residential electricity use and implications for future grid stability

“Stay-at-home” orders and other health precautions enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic have led to substantial changes in residential electricity usage. Here, we conduct a case study to analyze data from 390 apartments in New York City (NYC) to examine the impacts of two key drivers of residential electricity usage: COVID-19 case-loads and the outdoor temperature. We develop a series of regression models to predict two characteristics of residential electricity usage on weekdays: The average occupied apartment’s consumption (kWh) over a 9am-5pm window and the hourly peak demand (Watt) over a 12pm-5pm window. Via a Monte Carlo simulation, we forecast the two usage characteristics under a possible scenario in which stay-at-home orders in NYC, or a similar metropolitan region, coincide with warm summer weather. Under the scenario, the 9am-5pm residential electricity usage on weekdays is predicted to be 15% – 24% higher than under prior, pre-pandemic conditions. This could lead to substantially higher utility costs for residents. Additionally, we predict that the residential hourly peak demand between 12pm and 5pm on weekdays could be 35% – 53% higher than that under pre-pandemic conditions. We conclude that the projected increase in peak demand - which might arise if stay-at-home guidelines coincided with hot weather conditions - could pose grid management challenges, especially for residential feeders. We also note that, if there is a longer lasting shift towards work and study-from-home, utilities will have to rethink load profile considerations. The applications of our predictive models to managing future smart-grid technology are also highlighted.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2020

Ultrastructure of Critical-Gel-like Polyzwitterion–Polyoxometalate Complex Coacervates: Effects of Temperature, Salt Concentration, and Shear

The structure of unconventional complex coacervates, such as polymer-nonpolymer complex coacervates, remains less investigated than that of the conventional coacervates formed between oppositely charged polyelectrolytes with symmetric charge species. Yet, their microscopic structural organization is important to further elucidate the mechanism of liquid-liquid-phase separation processes upon complexation. In this work, we characterize the microstructural organization of complex coacervates formed between inorganic polyoxometalate (POM) and polyzwitterion by small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) with in situ temperature and shear control. Furthermore, despite the apparent transparent and homogeneous morphology of dense coacervates as observed by optical microscopy, our previous results (Macromolecules 2018, 51, 22, 9405-9411) suggest that dense polyzwitterion-POM coacervates exhibit critical-gel-like networks containing both complex-poor region (mesh pore) and complex-rich region (connective network). SAXS results as reported in this work support that the complex-rich region is actually in the form of loosely packed POM aggregates linked by polyzwitterion, designated as complex particles. The structure of aggregating complex particles is further examined against varied composition and salt concentrations, temperature, and shear, thanks to the high X-ray scattering contrast of POMs from that of other components in the coacervates. The complex particles in the dense coacervates appear to grow with more tightly packed POM aggregates with increasing POM-to-polyzwitterion concentration ratio, in contrast to more loosely packed POM aggregates with decreasing salt concentration. Conversely, increasing temperature could result in smaller complex particles containing more loosely packed POM aggregates, consistent with temperature-dependent viscoelasticity of dense coacervates. Furthermore, such POM-based hybrid dense coacervates exhibit intriguing strain-hardening behavior, resulting from shear-enhanced POM packing inside the complex particles. Distinct from the shear-thinning behavior of most conventional crosslinked polymeric networks, the strain-hardening property combined with thermal- and salt-responsive characteristics of polyzwitterion-POM coacervates could broaden the applications of hybrid organic-inorganic macroion coacervates as smart functional materials working under extreme environmental conditions.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2020

Layer-Dependent Bit Error Variation in 3-D NAND Flash Under Ionizing Radiation

In this paper, we studied the total ionization dose (TID) effects on the multilevel-cell (MLC) 3-D NAND flash memory using Co-60 gamma radiation. We found a significant page-to-page bit error variation within a physical memory block of the irradiated memory chip. Our analysis showed that the origin of the bit error variation is the unique vertical layer-dependent TID response of the 3-D NAND. We found that the memory pages located at the upper and lower layers of the 3-D stack show higher fails compared to the middle-layer pages of a given memory block. We confirmed our findings by comparing radiation response of four different chips of the same specification. In addition, we compared the TID response of the MLC 3-D NAND with that of the 2-D NAND chip, which showed less page-to-page variation in bit error within a given memory block. We discuss the possible application of our findings for the radiation-tolerant smart memory controller design.

3-D NAND flash↗

DOE OSTI2021

Synchrotron Microbeam Diffraction Studies on the Alignment within 3D-Printed Smectic-A Liquid Crystal Elastomer Filaments during Extrusion

3D printing of novel and smart materials has received considerable attention due to its applications within biological and medical fields, mostly as they can be used to print complex architectures and particular designs. However, the internal structure during 3D printing can be problematic to resolve. We present here how time-resolved synchrotron microbeam Small-Angle X-ray Diffraction (μ-SAXD) allows us to elucidate the local orientational structure of a liquid crystal elastomer-based printed scaffold. Most reported 3D-printed liquid crystal elastomers are mainly nematic; here, we present a Smectic-A 3D-printed liquid crystal elastomer that has previously been reported to promote cell proliferation and alignment. The data obtained on the 3D-printed filaments will provide insights into the internal structure of the liquid crystal elastomer for the future fabrication of liquid crystal elastomers as responsive and anisotropic 3D cell scaffolds.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗