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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 325 records · Page 18
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2006

An Overview of Spray-On Foam Insulation Applications on the Space Shuttle's External Tank: Foam Applications and Foam Shedding Mechanisms

The Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) concluded that the cause of the tragic loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia and its crew was a breach in the thermal protection system on the leading edge of the left wing. The breach was initiated by a piece of insulating foam that separated from the left bipod ramp of the External Tank and struck the wing in the vicinity of the lower half of Reinforced Carbon-Carbon panel No. 8 at 81.9 seconds after launch. The CAIB conclusion has spawned numerous studies to identify the cause of and factors influencing foam shedding and foam debris liberation from the External Tank during ascent. The symposium on the Thermo-mechanics and Fracture of Space Shuttle External Tank Spray-On Foam Insulation is a collection of presentations that discuss the physics and mechanics of the ET SOFI with the objective of improving analytical and numerical methods for predicting foam thermo-mechanical and fracture behavior. This keynote presentation sets the stage for the presentations contained in this symposium by introducing the audience to the various types of SOFI applications on the Shuttle s External Tank and by discussing the various mechanisms that are believed to be the cause of foam shedding during the Shuttle s ascent to space

Sullivan, Roy M.↗
NASA NTRS2014

Colombia Mi Pronostico Flood Application: Updating and Improving the Mi Pronostico Flood Web Application to Include an Assessment of Flood Risk

Colombia is a country with highly variable terrain, from the Andes Mountains to plains and coastal areas, many of these areas are prone to flooding disasters. To identify these risk areas NASA's Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) was used to construct a digital elevation model (DEM) for the study region. The preliminary risk assessment was applied to a pilot study area, the La Mosca River basin. Precipitation data from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM)'s near-real-time rainfall products as well as precipitation data from the Instituto de Hidrologia, Meteorologia y Estudios Ambientales (the Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies, IDEAM) and stations in the La Mosca River Basin were used to create rainfall distribution maps for the region. Using the precipitation data and the ASTER DEM, the web application, Mi Pronóstico, run by IDEAM, was updated to include an interactive map which currently allows users to search for a location and view the vulnerability and current weather and flooding conditions. The geospatial information was linked to an early warning system in Mi Pronóstico that can alert the public of flood warnings and identify locations of nearby shelters.

Rushley, Stephanie↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Applications of Advanced Perception and Distributed Sensing Technology towards Autonomous Advanced Air Mobility Applications

Emerging concepts for Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) envisions responsive air transportation capabilities that can safely move people and cargo between places - including local, regional, intraregional, and urban - previously not served or underserved by aviation. Expanding traditional aviation services to these environments, particularly when autonomous operations are involved, face a number of challenges that will require advances beyond the state-of-the-art techniques for airborne sensing and perception, which goes beyond the limits of scalability and applicability of the current air transportation system infrastructure. Additionally, the emerging field of distributed sensing and ‘smart spaces’– where sensing, processing, communication, and actuation are embedded in the environment in which agents are acting and can be exploited by the agents through real-time wireless communication – may provide realistic near-time solutions to limitations imposed by traditional aviation techniques. This paper outlines the needs, challenges, and opportunities for advanced perception and distributed sensing techniques to meet the emerging needs for advanced AAM operations in the national airspace. A general roadmap for research, development, and maturation of perception and distributed sensing (P&DS) technologies is proposed to guide future development through verification, validation, certification into airborne systems. Through this analysis of challenges and the proposed roadmap for technology maturation, we hope to accelerate transition of advanced research techniques from other disciplines into this domain.

Autonomy↗
DOE OSTI2013

Very high temperature measurements: Applications to nuclear reactor safety tests; Mesures des tres hautes temperatures: Applications a des essais de surete des reacteurs nucleaires

This PhD dissertation focuses on the improvement of very high temperature thermometry (1100 deg. C to 2480 deg. C), with special emphasis on the application to the field of nuclear reactor safety and severe accident research. Two main projects were undertaken to achieve this objective: - The development, testing and transposition of high-temperature fixed point (HTFP) metal-carbon eutectic cells, from metrology laboratory precision (±0.001 deg. C) to applied research with a reasonable degradation of uncertainties (±3-5 deg. C). - The corrosion study and metallurgical characterization of Type-C thermocouple (service temp. 2300 deg. C) prospective sheath material was undertaken to extend the survivability of TCs used for molten metallic/oxide corium thermometry (below 2000 deg. C)

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Evaluations for medium- and high-mass nuclei for FUSION applications

There is a renewed attention to nuclear fusion as a commercial source of carbon-free energy, however there are many scientific needs that must be addressed to enable the future success of fusion as an economical energy option. Among these is the proper description of the impact of radiation produced in the fusion vessel chamber and all other components of the reactor. In this work we will focus on the nuclear data needs to describe the interaction between primary and secondary neutron radiation and the medium- and high-mass nuclei commonly present in structural (such as stainless steel) and superconducting (e.g., electromagnets) materials.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Application-level regression testing framework using Jenkins

Monitoring and testing for regression of large-scale systems such as the NCSA's Blue Waters supercomputer are challenging tasks. In this paper, we describe the solution we came up with to perform those tasks. The goal was to find an automated solution for running user-level regression tests to evaluate system usability and performance. Jenkins, an automation server software, was chosen for its versatility, large user base, and multitude of plugins including collecting data and plotting test results over time. We also describe our Jenkins deployment to launch and monitor jobs on remote HPC system, perform authentication with one-time password, and integrate with our LDAP server for its authorization. We show some use cases and describe our best practices for successfully using Jenkins as a user-level system-wide regression testing and monitoring framework for large supercomputer systems.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2016

On the applicability of surrogate-based Markov chain Monte Carlo-Bayesian inversion to the Community Land Model: Case studies at flux tower sites: SURROGATE-BASED MCMC FOR CLM

The Community Land Model (CLM) has been widely used in climate and Earth system modeling. Accurate estimation of model parameters is needed for reliable model simulations and predictions under current and future conditions, respectively. In our previous work, a subset of hydrological parameters has been identified to have significant impact on surface energy fluxes at selected flux tower sites based on parameter screening and sensitivity analysis, which indicate that the parameters could potentially be estimated from surface flux observations at the towers. To date, such estimates do not exist. In this paper, we assess the feasibility of applying a Bayesian model calibration technique to estimate CLM parameters at selected flux tower sites under various site conditions. The parameters are estimated as a joint probability density function (PDF) that provides estimates of uncertainty of the parameters being inverted, conditional on climatologically-average latent heat fluxes derived from observations. We find that the simulated mean latent heat fluxes from CLM using the calibrated parameters are generally improved at all sites when compared to those obtained with CLM simulations using default parameter sets. Further, our calibration method also results in credibility bounds around the simulated mean fluxes which bracket the measured data. The modes (or maximum a posteriori values) and 95% credibility intervals of the site-specific posterior PDFs are tabulated as suggested parameter values for each site. Analysis of relationships between the posterior PDFs and site conditions suggests that the parameter values are likely correlated with the plant functional type, which needs to be confirmed in future studies by extending the approach to more sites.

Huang, Maoyi↗
DOE OSTI2012

Skutterudite Unicouple Characterization for Energy Harvesting Applications

Skutterudites are enticing thermoelectric materials due to their high figure of merit, ZT, and good thermomechanical properties. Our work reports the effective figure of merit, ZT eff , and the efficiency of skutterudite legs and a unicouple working under a large temperature difference. The p- and n-type legs are fabricated with electrodes sintered directly to the skutterudite during a hot pressing process. CoSi 2 is used as the electrode for the n-type skutterudite (Yb 0.35 Co 4 Sb 12 ) and Co2Si for the p-type skutterudite (NdFe 3.5 Co 0.5 Sb 12 ). A technique is developed to measure the ZT eff of individual legs and the efficiency of a unicouple. An ZT eff of 0.74 is determined for the n-type legs operating between 52 and 595 °C, and an ZT eff of 0.51 for the p-type legs operating between 77 and 600 °C. The efficiency of the p–n unicouple is determined to be 9.1% operating between ~70 and 550 °C.

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION↗
DOE OSTI2017

Chemical Synthesis of 3D Graphene-Like Cages for Sodium-Ion Batteries Applications

Sodium (Na) super ion conductor structured Na3V2(PO4)3 (NVP) is extensively explored as cathode material for sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) due to its large interstitial channels for Na+ migration. The synthesis of 3D graphene-like structure coated on NVP nanoflakes arrays via a one-pot, solid-state reaction in molten hydrocarbon is reported. The NVP nanoflakes are uniformly coated by the in situ generated 3D graphene-like layers with the thickness of 3 nm. As a cathode material, graphene covered NVP nanoflakes exhibit excellent electrochemical performances, including close to theoretical reversible capacity (115.2 mA h g-1 at 1 C), superior rate capability (75.9 mA h g-1 at 200 C), and excellent cyclic stability (62.5% of capacity retention over 30000 cycles at 50 C). Furthermore, the 3D graphene-like cages after removing NVP also serve as a good anode material and deliver a specific capacity of 242.5 mA h g-1 at 0.1 A g-1. The full SIB using these two cathode and anode materials delivers a high specific capacity (109.2 mA h g-1 at 0.1 A g-1) and good cycling stability (77.1% capacity retention over 200 cycles at 0.1 A g-1).

Cao, Xinxin↗