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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 307 records · Page 17
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2013

Unit-Sphere Multiaxial Stochastic-Strength Model Applied to Anisotropic and Composite Materials

Models that predict the failure probability of brittle materials under multiaxial loading have been developed by authors such as Batdorf, Evans, and Matsuo. These "unit-sphere" models assume that the strength-controlling flaws are randomly oriented, noninteracting planar microcracks of specified geometry but of variable size. This methodology has been extended to predict the multiaxial strength response of transversely isotropic brittle materials, including polymer matrix composites (PMCs), by considering (1) flaw-orientation anisotropy, whereby a preexisting microcrack has a higher likelihood of being oriented in one direction over another direction, and (2) critical strength, or K (sub Ic) orientation anisotropy, whereby the level of critical strength or fracture toughness for mode I crack propagation, K (sub Ic), changes with regard to the orientation of the microstructure. In this report, results from finite element analysis of a fiber-reinforced-matrix unit cell were used with the unit-sphere model to predict the biaxial strength response of a unidirectional PMC previously reported from the World-Wide Failure Exercise. Results for nuclear-grade graphite materials under biaxial loading are also shown for comparison. This effort was successful in predicting the multiaxial strength response for the chosen problems. Findings regarding stress-state interactions and failure modes also are provided.

Nemeth, Noel, N.↗
DOE OSTI2014

Predicting for thermodynamic instabilities in water/oil/surfactant microemulsions: A mesoscopic modelling approach

The thermodynamics and structural properties of flexible and rigid nonionic water/oil/surfactant microemulsions have been investigated using a two level-cut Gaussian random field method based on the Helfrich formalism. Ternary stability diagrams and scattering spectra have been calculated for different surfactant rigidities and spontaneous curvatures. A more important contribution of the Gaussian elastic constants compared to the bending one is observed on the ternary stability diagrams. Furthermore, influence of the spontaneous curvature of the surfactant points out a displacement of the instability domains which corresponds to the difference between the spontaneous and effective curvatures. We enlighten that a continuous transition from a connected water in oil droplets to a frustrated locally lamellar (oil in water in oil droplets) microstructure is found to occur when increasing the temperature for an oil-rich microemulsion. This continuous transition translated in a shift in the scattering functions, points out that the phase inversion phenomenon occurs by a coalescence of the water droplets.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2016

Automated detection of vessel lumen and stent struts in intravascular optical coherence tomography to evaluate stent apposition and neointimal coverage

Purpose: Intravascular optical coherence tomography (IV-OCT) is a high-resolution imaging method used to visualize the microstructure of arterial walls in vivo. IV-OCT enables the clinician to clearly observe and accurately measure stent apposition and neointimal coverage of coronary stents, which are associated with side effects such as in-stent thrombosis. In this study, the authors present an algorithm for quantifying stent apposition and neointimal coverage by automatically detecting lumen contours and stent struts in IV-OCT images. Methods: The algorithm utilizes OCT intensity images and their first and second gradient images along the axial direction to detect lumen contours and stent strut candidates. These stent strut candidates are classified into true and false stent struts based on their features, using an artificial neural network with one hidden layer and ten nodes. After segmentation, either the protrusion distance (PD) or neointimal thickness (NT) for each strut is measured automatically. In randomly selected image sets covering a large variety of clinical scenarios, the results of the algorithm were compared to those of manual segmentation by IV-OCT readers. Results: Stent strut detection showed a 96.5% positive predictive value and a 92.9% true positive rate. In addition, case-by-case validation also showed comparable accuracy for most cases. High correlation coefficients (R > 0.99) were observed for PD and NT between the algorithmic and the manual results, showing little bias (0.20 and 0.46 μm, respectively) and a narrow range of limits of agreement (36 and 54 μm, respectively). In addition, the algorithm worked well in various clinical scenarios and even in cases with a low level of stent malapposition and neointimal coverage. Conclusions: The presented automatic algorithm enables robust and fast detection of lumen contours and stent struts and provides quantitative measurements of PD and NT. In addition, the algorithm was validated using various clinical cases to demonstrate its reliability. Therefore, this technique can be effectively utilized for clinical trials on stent-related side effects, including in-stent thrombosis and in-stent restenosis.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2012

Boron site preference in ternary Ta and Nb boron silicides

X-ray single crystal (XSC) and neutron powder diffraction data (NPD) were used to elucidate boron site preference for five ternary phases. Ta{sub 3}Si{sub 1-x}B{sub x} (x=0.112(4)) crystallizes with the Ti{sub 3}P-type (space group P4{sub 2}/n) with B-atoms sharing the 8g site with Si atoms. Ta{sub 5}Si{sub 3-x} (x=0.03(1); Cr{sub 5}B{sub 3}- type) crystallizes with space group I4/mcm, exhibiting a small amount of vacancies on the 4a site. Both, Ta{sub 5}(Si{sub 1-x}B{sub x}){sub 3}, x=0.568(3), and Nb{sub 5}(Si{sub 1-x}B{sub x}){sub 3}, x=0.59(2), are part of solid solutions of M{sub 5}Si{sub 3} with Cr{sub 5}B{sub 3}-type into the ternary M-Si-B systems (M=Nb or Ta) with B replacing Si on the 8h site. The D8{sub 8}-phase in the Nb-Si-B system crystallizes with the Ti{sub 5}Ga{sub 4}-type revealing the formula Nb{sub 5}Si{sub 3}B{sub 1-x} (x=0.292(3)) with B partially filling the voids in the 2b site of the Mn{sub 5}Si{sub 3} parent type. - Graphical abstract: The crystal structures of a series of compounds have been solved from X-ray single crystal diffractometry revealing details on the boron incorporation. Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Structure of a series of compounds have been solved by X-ray single crystal diffractometry. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Ta{sub 3}(Si{sub 1-x}B{sub x}) (x=0.112) crystallizes with the Ti{sub 3}P-type, B and Si atoms randomly share the 8g site. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Structure of Nb{sub 5}Si{sub 3}B{sub 1-x} (x=0.292; Ti{sub 5}Ga{sub 4}-type) was solved from NPD.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2022

Compositionally graded aluminum-silicon alloy fabricated via friction extrusion

Herein, a novel solid-phase gradient alloying technique was developed for a high throughput composition-microstructure-mechanical property assessment. Friction extrusion of a two-piece billet setup facilitated the formation of a seamless compositionally graded aluminum (Al)-silicon (Si) extrudate rod, with Si concentration in Al matrix gradually increasing from ~1 at% at one end to ~7 at% at the other end of the rod. We observed a strong dependence of the Al grain size, morphology, and texture on the Si concentration. The Si particles pinned the recrystallized grain boundaries resulting in refined (< 10 µm) and textured grains in the high Si content region, while the Al grains in the low Si region are equiaxed, randomly textured, and with a larger average size (~50 µm). The hardness of Al-Si gradient extrudate increases by ~50% percent with a 6 at% increase in Si content due to Hall Petch and particle strengthening effects. Our approach demonstrates the use of a solid phase processing technique to successfully produce a defect-free continuously compositionally graded bulk components thus overcoming the limitations of porosity and material heterogeneities commonly observed in other techniques such as by additive laser deposition.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
NASA NTRS1995

Microstructure of the IMF turbulences at 2.5 AU

A detailed analysis of small period (15-900 sec) magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulences of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) has been made using Pioneer-11 high time resolution data (0.75 sec) inside a Corotating Interaction Region (CIR) at a heliocentric distance of 2.5 AU in 1973. The methods used are the hodogram analysis, the minimum variance matrix analysis and the cohenrence analysis. The minimum variance analysis gives evidence of linear polarized wave modes. Coherence analysis has shown that the field fluctuations are dominated by the magnetosonic fast modes with periods 15 sec to 15 min. However, it is also shown that some small amplitude Alfven waves are present in the trailing edge of this region with characteristic periods (15-200 sec). The observed wave modes are locally generated and possibly attributed to the scattering of Alfven waves energy into random magnetosonic waves.

Mavromichalaki, H.↗
DOE OSTI2014

An optimum approximation of n-point correlation functions of random heterogeneous material systems

An approximate solution for n-point correlation functions is developed in this study. In the approximate solution, weight functions are used to connect subsets of (n-1)-point correlation functions to estimate the full set of n-point correlation functions. In previous related studies, simple weight functions were introduced for the approximation of three and four-point correlation functions. In this work, the general framework of the weight functions is extended and derived to achieve optimum accuracy for approximate n-point correlation functions. Such approximation can be utilized to construct global n-point correlation functions for a system when there exist limited information about these functions in a subset of space. To verify its accuracy, the new formulation is used to approximate numerically three-point correlation functions from the set of two-point functions directly evaluated from a virtually generated isotropic heterogeneous microstructure representing a particulate composite system. Similarly, three-point functions are approximated for an anisotropic glass fiber/epoxy composite system and compared to their corresponding reference values calculated from an experimental dataset acquired by computational tomography. Results from both virtual and experimental studies confirm the accuracy of the new approximation. The new formulation can be utilized to attain a more accurate approximation to global n-point correlation functions for heterogeneous material systems with a hierarchy of length scales.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2022

Measuring representative volume elements from high-resolution grain-scale strain fields

Most crystalline materials present a highly heterogeneous response at the microscale, which can be affected by both internal factors (such as microstructural parameters) and external factors (such as loading). Relating microscale inhomogeneities to the macroscale response of a material requires the use of homogenisation techniques, usually based on the concept of a representative volume element (RVE)—the smallest volume of material that represents the global average response. Here, in this work, we present a new and robust experimental method of measuring the size of a strain-based RVE from high-resolution grain-scale strain fields obtained using digital image correlation (DIC). The proposed method is based on the statistical (stereological) nature of the RVE, which has been widely adopted in numerical studies, and involves dividing a strain field into randomly selected regions of varying sizes and statistically analysing the distributions of average strains within them. To validate the new method, we generate a large number of synthetic strain fields from a fractional Gaussian noise algorithm. The proposed stereological method is shown to be capable of producing reliable RVE measurements from a very large range of possible microscale strain fields while at the same time being robust in that it can produce RVE measurement results even in cases where other existing methods may be unable to do so. The proposed method has a low field-of-view requirement, only needing a field-of-view about 1.2 times as large as the RVE to produce reliable measurements. In addition, the stereological method offers significant flexibility since its statistical nature allows for control over how strict the RVE measurement should be in each case.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
NASA NTRS1993

Establishment of computerized numerical databases on thermophysical and other properties of molten as well as solid materials and data evaluation and validation for generating recommended reliable reference data

The Center for Information and Numerical Data Analysis and Synthesis, (CINDAS), measures and maintains databases on thermophysical, thermoradiative, mechanical, optical, electronic, ablation, and physical properties of materials. Emphasis is on aerospace structural materials especially composites and on infrared detector/sensor materials. Within CINDAS, the Department of Defense sponsors at Purdue several centers: the High Temperature Material Information Analysis Center (HTMIAC), the Ceramics Information Analysis Center (CIAC) and the Metals Information Analysis Center (MIAC). The responsibilities of CINDAS are extremely broad encompassing basic and applied research, measurement of the properties of thin wires and thin foils as well as bulk materials, acquisition and search of world-wide literature, critical evaluation of data, generation of estimated values to fill data voids, investigation of constitutive, structural, processing, environmental, and rapid heating and loading effects, and dissemination of data. Liquids, gases, molten materials and solids are all considered. The responsibility of maintaining widely used databases includes data evaluation, analysis, correlation, and synthesis. Material property data recorded on the literature are often conflicting, diverging, and subject to large uncertainties. It is admittedly difficult to accurately measure materials properties. Systematic and random errors both enter. Some errors result from lack of characterization of the material itself (impurity effects). In some cases assumed boundary conditions corresponding to a theoretical model are not obtained in the experiments. Stray heat flows and losses must be accounted for. Some experimental methods are inappropriate and in other cases appropriate methods are carried out with poor technique. Conflicts in data may be resolved by curve fitting of the data to theoretical or empirical models or correlation in terms of various affecting parameters. Reasons (e.g. phase transitions) must be found for unusual dependence or any anomaly. Such critical evaluation involves knowledge of theory, experience in measurement, familiarity with metallurgy (microstructural behavior) and not inconsiderable judgment. An examination of typical data compiled and analyzed by CINDAS shows that the thermal conductivity of a material reported in the literature may vary by a factor of two of more; the range of reported values increases as temperature increases reflecting the difficulty of high temperature measurements. Often only estimates of melt behavior are available, despite the importance of melt properties in modeling, welding, or other solidification processes. There may be only a few measurements available for properties such as kinematic viscosity, even for widely used materials such as stainless steel. In the face of such a paucity of existing data and in a national environment where too few new data are being generated it is nonetheless the responsibility of CINDAS to select and disseminate recommended values of a wide variety of thermophysical properties.

Ho, C. Y.↗
DOE OSTI2012

Ceramographic Examinations of Irradiated AGR-1 Fuel Compacts

The AGR 1 experiment involved irradiating 72 cylindrical fuel compacts containing tri-structural isotropic (TRISO)-coated particles to a peak burnup of 19.5% fissions per initial metal atom with no in-pile failures observed out of almost 300,000 particles. Five irradiated AGR 1 fuel compacts were selected for microscopy that span a range of irradiation conditions (temperature, burnup, and fast fluence). These five compacts also included all four TRISO coating variations irradiated in the AGR experiment. The five compacts were cross-sectioned both transversely and longitudinally, mounted, ground, and polished after development of careful techniques for preserving particle structures against preparation damage. Approximately 40 to 80 particles within each cross section were exposed near enough to mid-plane for optical microscopy of kernel, buffer, and coating behavior. The microstructural analysis focused on kernel swelling and porosity, buffer densification and fracture, debonding between the buffer and inner pyrolytic carbon (IPyC) layers, and fractures in the IPyC and SiC layers. Three basic particle morphologies were established according to the extent of bonding between the buffer and IPyC layers: complete debonding along the interface (Type A), no debonding along the interface (Type B), and partial debonding (Type AB). These basic morphologies were subdivided according to whether the buffer stayed intact or fractured. The resulting six characteristic morphologies were used to classify particles within each cross section, but no spatial patterns were clearly observed in any of the cross-sectional morphology maps. Although positions of particle types appeared random within compacts, examining a total of 830 classified particles allowed other relationships among morphological types to be established.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2012

Ceramographic Examinations of Irradiated AGR-1 Fuel Compacts

The AGR-1 experiment involved irradiating 72 cylindrical fuel compacts containing tri-structural isotropic (TRISO)-coated particles to a peak burnup of 19.5% fissions per initial metal atom with no in-pile failures observed out of almost 300,000 particles. Six irradiated AGR 1 fuel compacts were selected for microscopy that span a range of irradiation conditions (temperature, burnup, and fast fluence). These six compacts also included all four TRISO coating variations irradiated in the AGR experiment. The six compacts were cross-sectioned both transversely and longitudinally, mounted, ground, and polished after development of careful techniques for preserving particle structures against preparation damage. From 36 to 79 particles within each cross section were exposed near enough to midplane for optical microscopy of kernel, buffer, and coating behavior. The microstructural analysis focused on kernel swelling and porosity, buffer densification and fracture, debonding between the buffer and inner pyrolytic carbon (IPyC) layers, and fractures in the IPyC and SiC layers. Three basic particle morphologies were established according to the extent of bonding between the buffer and IPyC layers: complete debonding along the interface (Type A), no debonding along the interface (Type B), and partial debonding (Type AB). These basic morphologies were subdivided according to whether the buffer stayed intact or fractured. The resulting six characteristic morphologies were used to classify particles within each cross section, but no spatial patterns were clearly observed in any of the cross-sectional morphology maps. Although positions of particle types appeared random within compacts, examining a total of 931 classified particles allowed other relationships among morphological types to be established.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Finding simplicity: unsupervised discovery of features, patterns, and order parameters via shift-invariant variational autoencoders *

Abstract Recent advances in scanning tunneling and transmission electron microscopies (STM and STEM) have allowed routine generation of large volumes of imaging data containing information on the structure and functionality of materials. The experimental data sets contain signatures of long-range phenomena such as physical order parameter fields, polarization, and strain gradients in STEM, or standing electronic waves and carrier-mediated exchange interactions in STM, all superimposed onto scanning system distortions and gradual changes of contrast due to drift and/or mis-tilt effects. Correspondingly, while the human eye can readily identify certain patterns in the images such as lattice periodicities, repeating structural elements, or microstructures, their automatic extraction and classification are highly non-trivial and universal pathways to accomplish such analyses are absent. We pose that the most distinctive elements of the patterns observed in STM and (S)TEM images are similarity and (almost-) periodicity, behaviors stemming directly from the parsimony of elementary atomic structures, superimposed on the gradual changes reflective of order parameter distributions. However, the discovery of these elements via global Fourier methods is non-trivial due to variability and lack of ideal discrete translation symmetry. To address this problem, we explore the shift-invariant variational autoencoders (shift-VAEs) that allow disentangling characteristic repeating features in the images, their variations, and shifts that inevitably occur when randomly sampling the image space. Shift-VAEs balance the uncertainty in the position of the object of interest with the uncertainty in shape reconstruction. This approach is illustrated for model 1D data, and further extended to synthetic and experimental STM and STEM 2D data. We further introduce an approach for training shift-VAEs that allows finding the latent variables that comport to known physical behavior. In this specific case, the condition is that the latent variable maps should be smooth on the length scale of the atomic lattice (as expected for physical order parameters), but other conditions can be imposed. The opportunities and limitations of the shift VAE analysis for pattern discovery are elucidated.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2023

Sensitivity of UO 2 fuel performance to microstructural evolutions driven by dilute additives

Use of dilute additives to nuclear fuel is being considered to increase the security of commercial fuel management through traceability of fabricated fuel elements. Taggants, as additives are denoted when included for traceability purposes, may also improve fuel performance, as demonstrated in Cr-containing uranium dioxide as described in the literature, and they may also improve fuel safety. In fact, studies have shown that some additives affect fuel material properties such as grain size and density after sintering. Given the possible range of elements that could be used as additives, the impact of such fuel property variations on the fuel’s thermomechanical behavior becomes relevant. These effects can be evaluated through a sensitivity study of standard fuel models to analyze changes in these properties using a fuel performance code. In this work, the BISON code is being used to investigate these effects through a 2D axisymmetric model of smeared UO 2 fuel pellets and ZIRLO® cladding under realistic pressurized water reactor core irradiation conditions. Here, randomly sampled densities and grain sizes within specified ranges are used as input parameters in the simulations, and several fuel model-related outputs are evaluated. The thermomechanical response of the cladding is also addressed in this study. The simultaneous variation of both input parameters offers a more comprehensive path to identify key sensitivities. Outputs explored include temperature, fission gas release, creep, and radial stress. Results show that although most of these outputs are sensitive to grain size to a certain extent, density mainly affects fuel temperature and elastic strain. Furthermore, sensitivities can vary depending on the radial position within the fuel pellet.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
NASA NTRS1984

Interlaminar fracture of random short-fiber SMC composite

In the experimental phase of the present study of the interlaminar fracture behavior of a randomly oriented short fiber sheet molding compound (SMC) composite, the double cantilever beam fracture test is used to evaluate the mode I interlaminar fracture toughness of different composite thicknesses. In the analytical phase of this work, a geometrically nonlinear analysis is introduced in order to account for large deflections and nonlinear load deflection curves in the evaluation of interlaminar fracture toughness. For the SMC-R50 material studied, interlaminar toughness is an order of magnitude higher than that of unreinforced neat resin, due to unusual damage mechanisms ahead of the crack tip, together with significant fiber bridging across crack surfaces. Composite thickness effects on interlaminar fracture are noted to be appreciable, and a detailed discussion is given on the influence of SMC microstructure.

Wang, S. S.↗
DOE OSTI2026

Structural Heterogeneity in Medium-Entropy AgMnSbPbTe 4 for Glassy Thermal Transport and High Thermoelectric Performance

Medium-entropy semiconductors represent a unique category of entropy-engineered materials. They possess a considerable level of randomness in atomic mixing, although this is not sufficient to conclusively achieve single-phase structure stabilization, in contrast to high-entropy materials. This introduces strong competition between the formation of different phases, which can potentially lead to structural heterogeneity. Here, in this work, we uncover endotaxial nanoprecipitates in the microscopically identified homogeneous medium-entropy semiconductor AgMnSbPbTe 4 . These nanoprecipitates initially crystallize in a cubic phase $(Fm\bar{3}m)$ within kinetically stabilized AgMnSbPbTe 4 , subsequently evolving into a thermodynamically stable monoclinic phase $(P2_1/c)$ during thermal annealing while maintaining an endotaxial relationship with the matrix lattice. This nanophase segregation and the resultant lattice mismatch at interfaces introduce strain fluctuations up to 5% at intervals of 20 nm across the entire microstructure. Within the matrix phase, atomic displacement of up to 23 pm was observed. This structural heterogeneity results in glass-like thermal transport behavior, achieving an ultralow lattice thermal conductivity κ L = 0.312 Wm –1 K –1 at 800 K, which is in accordance with the amorphous limit predicted by the Cahill model. The synergy of band convergence effect and well-maintained carrier mobility leads to a maximum ZT of 1.72 at 800 K and an average ZT avg of 1.02 over the temperature range of 300–825 K. This study highlights that the underexplored structural heterogeneity in medium-entropy semiconductors can potentially yield beneficial phenomena, such as the phonon-glass electron-crystal transport behavior in this case, which holds promise for advancing thermoelectric applications.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
NASA NTRS1987

Crack diffusion coefficient - A candidate fracture toughness parameter for short fiber composites

In brittle matrix composites, crack propagation occurs along random trajectories reflecting the heterogeneous nature of the strength field. Considering the crack trajectory as a diffusive process, the 'crack diffusion coefficient' is introduced. From fatigue crack propagation experiments on a set of identical SEN polyester composite specimens, the variance of the crack tip position along the loading axis is found to be a linear function of the effective 'time'. The latter is taken as the effective crack length. The coefficient of proportionality between variance of the crack trajectory and the effective crack length defines the crack diffusion coefficient D which is found in the present study to be 0.165 mm. This parameter reflects the ability of the composite to deviate the crack from the energetically most efficient path and thus links fracture toughness to the microstructure.

Mull, M. A.↗
DOE OSTI2025

Texture Analysis of Inconel 718 with Different Modes During Single-Track Laser Surface Re-Melting

An in-depth understanding of the texture formation in melt pools allows for the modification of the surface layer microstructure and corresponding material properties, providing an opportunity to integrate laser surface re-melting into metal additive manufacturing. This study investigates crystallographic texture formation at different cooling rates in single melting tracks on the Inconel 718 (IN718) plate produced by laser surface re-melting. The cooling rate varies from 2.31 × 10 5 °C/s to 9.56 × 10 5 °C/s with the increase in scanning rates from 400 mm/s to 1200 mm/s, measured by recently developed real-time temperature monitoring of melt pools. Columnar grains are dominant, with distinct crystallographic textures forming in the melt pools. At a slower scanning speed, the keyhole mode shows three different textures forming at different depths (crystallographically layered structure), while, at a faster scanning speed, the conduction mode shows only random grain orientation. There are no pores/voids detected, and the columnar grain morphology and columnar grain width (8.6 μm to 12.4 μm) follow the analysis framework in terms of thermal gradient and solidification rate analysis. This implies that laser surface re-melting provides the potential to modify the surface structure from a random grain orientation to a crystallographically layered structure.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗