Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “dimensional changes”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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

At least 361 records · Page 20
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1990

A scheme for parameterizing ice-cloud water content in general circulation models

The optical properties of ice clouds are a primary issue for climate and climate change. Evaluating these optical properties in three-dimensional models for studying climate will require a method to calculate the ice water content of such clouds. A procedure is developed to parameterize ice water content as a function of large-scale meteorological characteristics for use in circulation models in which the ice water content is not calculated by means of a three-dimensional prognostic equation for condensed water. The technique identifies large-scale flows in which ice clouds exist and calculates their ice water content by reconstructing the trajectory associated with cloud formation. As the cloud forms, its ice content changes both by deposition of ice from water vapor and by ice removal by sedimentation. The sedimentation process is found to modify significantly the ice water content expected from deposition alone. Ice water contents predicted by the parameterization are compared with aircraft observations collected in the middle latitudes and the tropics, and show reasonable agreement over four orders-of-magnitude of ice water content. A parameterization for the sublimation of ice crystals settling into ice-subsaturated environments is also presented.

Heymsfield, Andrew J.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Mean-field limit of a hybrid system for multi-lane multi-class traffic

This article aims to study coupled mean-field equation and ODEs with discrete events motivated by vehicular traffic flow. Precisely, multi-lane traffic flow in presence of human-driven and autonomous vehicles is considered, with autonomous vehicles possibly influenced by external policymakers. First, a finite-dimensional hybrid system is developed based on the continuous Bando-Follow-the-Leader dynamics coupled with discrete events due to lane-change maneuvers. Then the mean-field limit of the finite-dimensional hybrid system is rigorously derived for the dynamics of the human-driven vehicles. The microscopic lane-change maneuvers of the human-driven vehicles generate a source term for the mean-field PDE. This leads to an infinite-dimensional hybrid system described by coupled Vlasov-type PDE, ODEs, and discrete events.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2020

Dimensional reduction upon calcium incorporation in Cs 0.3 (Ca 0.3 Ln 0.7 )PS 4 and Cs 0.5 (Ca 0.5 Ln 0.5 )PS 4

A series of Ca-containing lanthanide thiophosphates has been obtained and their structural evolution from 3D for LnPS 4 and Cs 0.3 (Ln 0.7 Ca 0.3 )PS 4 to 2D in Cs 0.5 (Ln 0.5 Ca 0.5 )PS 4 was shown as a function of Ca content. The first series with an idealized formula of Cs 0.3 (Ca 0.3 Ln 0.7 )PS 4 crystallizes in the R3¯m with combining macron]m space group and belongs to a new structure type that consists of a channel containing [(Ca 0.3 Ln 0.7 )PS 4 ] 0.3– framework, where the channels are occupied by severely disordered Cs + cations. A second new series with formula Cs 0.5 (Ca 0.5 Ln 0.5 )PS 4 crystallizes in the monoclinic C2/c space group and exhibits a layered structure consisting of [(Ca 0.5 Ln 0.5 )PS 4 ] 0.5– layers with Cs + cations located between the layers for charge balance. Together with the parent structure type, LnPS 4 , these three structure types illustrate how the LnPS 4 structure changes with Cs + cation incorporation, reducing its dimensionality from 3D to 2D. The magnetic properties of Cs 0.3 [(Ca 0.3 Ce 0.7 )PS 4 ] and Cs 0.3 [(Ca 0.3 Pr 0.7 )PS 4 ] were studied and revealed no magnetic transition down to 2 K.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2021

Holocene thinning of Darwin and Hatherton glaciers, Antarctica, and implications for grounding-line retreat in the Ross Sea

Chronologies of glacier deposits in the Transantarctic Mountains provide important constraints on grounding-line retreat during the last deglaciation in the Ross Sea. However, between Beardmore Glacier and Ross Island – a distance of some 600 km – the existing chronologies are generally sparse and far from the modern grounding line, leaving the past dynamics of this vast region largely unconstrained. We present exposure ages of glacial deposits at three locations alongside the Darwin–Hatherton Glacier System – including within 10 km of the modern grounding line – that record several hundred meters of Late Pleistocene to Early Holocene thickening relative to present. As the ice sheet grounding line in the Ross Sea retreated, Hatherton Glacier thinned steadily from about 9 until about 3 ka. Our data are equivocal about the maximum thickness and Mid-Holocene to Early Holocene history at the mouth of Darwin Glacier, allowing for two conflicting deglaciation scenarios: (1) ~500 m of thinning from 9 to 3 ka, similar to Hatherton Glacier, or (2) ~950 m of thinning, with a rapid pulse of ~600 m thinning at around 5 ka. We test these two scenarios using a 1.5-dimensional flowband model, forced by ice thickness changes at the mouth of Darwin Glacier and evaluated by fit to the chronology of deposits at Hatherton Glacier. The constraints from Hatherton Glacier are consistent with the interpretation that the mouth of Darwin Glacier thinned steadily by ~500 m from 9 to 3 ka. Rapid pulses of thinning at the mouth of Darwin Glacier are ruled out by the data at Hatherton Glacier. This contrasts with some of the available records from the mouths of other outlet glaciers in the Transantarctic Mountains, many of which thinned by hundreds of meters over roughly a 1000-year period in the Early Holocene. The deglaciation histories of Darwin and Hatherton glaciers are best matched by a steady decrease in catchment area through the Holocene, suggesting that Byrd and/or Mulock glaciers may have captured roughly half of the catchment area of Darwin and Hatherton glaciers during the last deglaciation. An ensemble of three-dimensional ice sheet model simulations suggest that Darwin and Hatherton glaciers are strongly buttressed by convergent flow with ice from neighboring Byrd and Mulock glaciers, and by lateral drag past Minna Bluff, which could have led to a pattern of retreat distinct from other glaciers throughout the Transantarctic Mountains.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

MURR LEU structural and thermal hydraulics analyses: Part I – Preliminary irradiation thermo-mechanical behavior

The University of Missouri Research Reactor (MURR) is expected to be converted from highly enriched uranium (HEU, ≥ 20 wt% U-235) U-Al x dispersion fuel to low-enriched uranium (LEU, < 20 wt% U-235) with U-10Mo monolithic fuel. This work introduces high-fidelity irradiation thermo–mechanical (T-M) analysis of the MURR LEU focusing on changes in coolant channel gap thickness. Three-dimensional (3D) finite element (FE) models were developed to simulate the irradiation T-M behavior of the MURR LEU element with all 23 curved fuel plates, the two side plates, and the combs. It was shown that channel gap thickness changes were influenced not only by plate thickness variations due to fuel swelling and creep but also by the radial displacement of consecutive MURR LEU plates. Modeling the fuel element assembly captured side plate displacements, which were shown to reduce radial fuel plate displacements towards the convex side. The maximum local radial displacement in the element was predicted at the end of life (EOL) as 23.7 mil (602.0 µm) on the lateral centerline of plate 23 towards the convex side. The maximum stripe-averaged reduction in channel gap thickness, particularly relevant for thermal hydraulics (TH) safety analysis, was calculated as 15.9 mil (403.9 µm) in single-side heated channel 24 (the outermost channel). These results account for the thermal resistance from the oxide build-up on cladding surfaces which was shown to be up to 0.82 mil (20.8 µm) thick. It was demonstrated that accounting for oxide layer thermal resistance led to a 10 °C higher peak fuel temperature and a 4.4 mil (111.8 µm) greater maximum local radial displacement. The impact of the calculated channel gap thickness changes on the MURR LEU TH safety analysis is evaluated in Part II.

Irradiation thermo-mechanical analysis↗
NASA NTRS1976

New horizons for study of the cardiopulmonary and circulatory systems

The paper discusses the development of computer-controlled three-dimensional reconstruction techniques designed to determine the dynamic changes in the true shape and dimensions of the epi- and endocardial surfaces of the heart, along with variable time base (stop-action to real-time) displays of the transmural distribution of the coronary microcirculation and the three-dimensional anatomy of the macrovasculature in all regions of the body throughout individual cardiac and/or respiratory cycles. A technique for reconstructing a cross section of the heart from multiplanar videoroentgenograms is outlined. The capability of high spatial and high temporal resolution scanning videodensitometry makes possible measurement of the appearance, mean transit and clearance of roentgen opaque substances in three-dimensional space through the myocardium with a degree of simultaneous anatomic and temporal resolution not obtainable by current isotope techniques. The distribution of a variety of selected chemical elements or biologic materials within a body portion can also be determined.

Wood, E. H.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Two-Dimensional Analysis of Conical Pulsed Inductive Plasma Thruster Performance

A model of the maximum achievable exhaust velocity of a conical theta pinch pulsed inductive thruster is presented. A semi-empirical formula relating coil inductance to both axial and radial current sheet location is developed and incorporated into a circuit model coupled to a momentum equation to evaluate the effect of coil geometry on the axial directed kinetic energy of the exhaust. Inductance measurements as a function of the axial and radial displacement of simulated current sheets from four coils of different geometries are t to a two-dimensional expression to allow the calculation of the Lorentz force at any relevant averaged current sheet location. This relation for two-dimensional inductance, along with an estimate of the maximum possible change in gas-dynamic pressure as the current sheet accelerates into downstream propellant, enables the expansion of a one-dimensional circuit model to two dimensions. The results of this two-dimensional model indicate that radial current sheet motion acts to rapidly decouple the current sheet from the driving coil, leading to losses in axial kinetic energy 10-50 times larger than estimations of the maximum available energy in the compressed propellant. The decreased available energy in the compressed propellant as compared to that of other inductive plasma propulsion concepts suggests that a recovery in the directed axial kinetic energy of the exhaust is unlikely, and that radial compression of the current sheet leads to a loss in exhaust velocity for the operating conditions considered here.

Hallock, A. K.↗
DOE OSTI2025

Radiation Response of Low Dimensional Carbon Systems

The project is aimed at understanding the fundamentals of radiation response of low dimensional carbon systems and irradiation-induced mechanical property changes, with a focus on the unique phenomena caused by their geometry, boundary, and quantum size effects. In comparison with their bulk counterparts (graphite), radiation responses of low-dimensional carbon systems are substantially different. The differences exist at almost every stage of defect development, namely, displacement creation, damage cascade, thermal spike formation defect recombination, defect clustering, and structural reconstruction. Many traditional concepts in ion-solid interaction theory do not apply at the nanoscale or require substantial modification. Through this project, we systematically studied various aspects of radiation damage development in graphene, carbon nanotubes (CNTs), and graphite.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
NASA NTRS1972

Integral dose during constant velocity motion near a space power reactor

The dose rate in a rotationally-symmetric radiation field near a space power reactor is assumed to be inversely proportional to separation distance squared and directly proportional either to a constant or a constant times the sine-cubed of a polar angle. Constant velocity motion is examined in both cases in both two and three dimensional geometries. The two dimensional geometry occurs when the line of motion and the field axis of symmetry are co-planar. The dose integral in the sine-cubed region may be integrated directly, but a more useful form is obtained after a change of variable. A coordinate system rotation greatly simplifies the results. The three dimensional problem is integrated after a change of variable. Finally, tables of normalized functions are presented and discussed.

Manning, H. S.↗
NASA NTRS1991

A computational model for the analysis of diffusive binary alloy solid/liquid phase change energy transport

A model is presented for the prediction of solid/liquid, binary alloy, phase change energy transport. The model incorporates only one-dimensional, diffusive transport of both energy and species but is not inherently limited in any way to such a restriction. The model incorporates a previously developed algorithm for single constituent phase change energy transport and is applied to the energy transport as well as the species transport aspects of the problem. The model is applied to four example cooling problems and is shown to perform exceedingly well from an algorithmic point of view.

Schneider, G. E.↗
DOE OSTI2021

A phase-field method for boiling heat transfer

Here we present a phase field method for heat transfer in two-phase flow with boiling. The vapor/liquid interface evolution is modeled by the Cahn-Hilliard equation. The phase change rate is determined by accounting for the heat conduction balance on either vapor or liquid side of the interfacial area, depending on which side the temperature is assumed to be maintained at the saturation temperature during boiling. The velocity correction scheme proposed by Dong & Shen [27] is extended to solve the Navier-Stokes equations for a non-solenoidal velocity field, and the entropy viscosity method is employed for stabilization. The phase change model is verified by two-dimensional simulations of a vapor bubble growing in super-heated liquid and in film boiling. In both cases, mesh independence of the results is systematically performed. Subsequently, the method is applied to predict the growth of three-dimensional vapor bubble in a rectangular microchannel with boiling flow, achieving good agreement with experimental measurements and available simulation results using the level-set method. The numerical experiments demonstrate that the required mesh resolution for the phase field method is comparable with that of volume of fluid (VoF) and level-set methods.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2021

Photocarrier Dynamics in MoTe 2 Nanofilms with 2 H and Distorted 1 T Lattice Structures

Molybdenum telluride (MoTe 2 ), an emerging layered two-dimensional (2D) material, possesses excellent phase-changing properties. Previous studies revealed its reversible transition between 2H and 1T' phases with a transition energy as small as 35 meV. Since 1T'-MoTe 2 is metallic, it can serve as an electrical contact for semiconducting 2H-MoTe 2 -based optoelectronic devices. Here, the photocarrier dynamics in MoTe 2 nanofilms synthesized by a one-step method and with coexisting multiple phases are investigated by transient absorption measurements. Both the energy relaxation time and the recombination lifetime of the excitons are shorter in the 1T'-MoTe 2 compared to its 2H phase. Furthermore, these results provide information on the different photocarrier dynamical properties of these two phases, which is important for future 2D optoelectronic and phase-change electronic devices based on MoTe 2 .

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2020

Heterostructure design to achieve high quality, high density GaAs 2D electron system with g -factor tending to zero

Hydrostatic pressure is a useful tool that can tune several key parameters in solid state materials. For example, the Landé g-factor in GaAs two-dimensional electron systems (2DESs) is expected to change from its bulk value g ≃ -0.44 to zero and even to positive values under sufficiently large hydrostatic pressure. Although this presents an intriguing platform to investigate electron-electron interaction in a system with g = 0, studies are quite limited because the GaAs 2DES density decreases significantly with increasing hydrostatic pressure. Here, we show that a simple model, based on pressure-dependent changes in the conduction band alignment, quantitatively explains this commonly observed trend. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the decrease in the 2DES density can be suppressed by more than a factor of 3 through an innovative heterostructure design.

Physics↗
DOE OSTI2025

Soft X-Ray Tomography Has Evolved into a Powerful Tool for Revealing Cell Structures

Over the past three decades, soft X-ray tomography (SXT) has rapidly evolved from a proof-of-concept microscopy method into a high-throughput quantitative imaging modality. This advancement enables researchers to address central questions in cell biology. Despite its relatively short developmental period compared to light and electron microscopy, SXT has emerged as a powerful imaging technology. It enables measuring chemical changes in cellular organelles, analyzing three-dimensional structures of whole cells and creating digital cellular models to study cell motility. We discuss the unique nature of SXT to visualize cells without fixation or labeling, enabling quantitative analyses of organelle chemical composition. We explore SXT microscopes available worldwide, SXT segmentation software, and the diverse cell types studied using this technique. We conclude with emerging directions in SXT imaging, including a brief discussion of recent discoveries that are highly influential and likely to become integral to cell biology textbooks.

Weinhardt, Venera↗
DOE OSTI2024

Understanding Event Trajectories Across Massive Temporal Datasets with Word Embeddings and Visualization

In collaboration with researchers from Virginia Tech, Savannah River National Laboratory has continued development of a natural language processing pipeline to identify and extract events of interest from massive open data sources in the domain of worldwide state-sponsored civil nuclear energy. The foundation of the pipeline is built on compass aligned temporal word embedding models, whereby contextual shifts are automatically identified by comparing keyword embedding vectors across successive time windows. Within the approach, a contextual shift indicates the occurrence of a potential event of interest. However, in such a broad topical domain that captures events at a global scale, across various life cycle stages, and across numerous different technology types, a user that is monitoring events may have broad interests in capturing many different event types with varying degrees of signal. As such, the quantity of information that may be returned from an automated event extraction pipeline can be substantial, requiring manual effort to sift through the information to identify any relevant bits of information. Therefore, a more streamlined workflow that aids in directing a user toward specific information at different points in time is necessary. The workflow presented here has been developed with this concept in mind, built on top of the initial prototype event extraction pipeline, whereby a user can analyze temporal text-based data sources at multiple different contextual levels to isolate key points in time and key subdomains captured within a data corpus. Using multiple corpuses that consist of approximately 7 million Tweets and 7 million news articles, the team has extended compass aligned temporal word embedding models to establish an interconnected and hierarchical structure that relates known key words of interest to documents, local topics (i.e., within a time window), and global topics across the corpuses. All of this information is packaged into a visual analytics system that is linked to the information extraction pipeline and enables a user to identify contextual information that describes the evolution of a high dimensional embedding space across time to isolate changes of interest and explore associated events. This report demonstrates the use of these analytics and a means to fuse information across multiple datasets.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
NASA NTRS1973

Performance optimized, small structurally integrated ion thruster system

A 5-cm structurally integrated ion thruster has been developed for attitude control and stationkeeping of synchronous satellites. As optimized with a conventional ion extraction system, the system demonstrates a thrust T = 0.47 mlb at a beam voltage of 1600 V, total mass efficiency of 76%, and electrical efficiency of 56%. Under the subject contract effort, no significant performance change was noted for operation with two dimensional electrostatic thrust-vectoring grids. Structural integrity with the vectoring grids was demonstrated for shock (+ or - 30 G), sinusoidal (9 G), and random (19.9 G rms) accelerations. System envelope is 31.2 cm long by 13.4 cm flange bolt circle, with a mass of 9.0 Kg, including 6.8 Kg mercury propellant.

Hyman, J., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1975

Compressible flow computer program for gas film seals

Computer program, AREAX, calculates properties of compressible fluid flow with friction and area change. Program carries out quasi-one-dimensional flow analysis which is valid for laminar and turbulent flows under both subsonic and choked flow conditions. Program was written to be applied to gas film seals.

Zuk, J.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Effect of anisotropy and rotation on turbulence production

The dynamical equations for the Reynolds stresses in a form which is suitable for incompressible homogeneous flows are used as a starting point in the investigation. It is assumed that the mean flow is two-dimensional. The equation for the rate of change of the kinetic energy of turbulence is derived. If the turbulence is isotropic, there is no turbulence production. However, the isotropic condition is not stable. The production mechanism is found to be autocatalytic. Rotation always inhibits production because it reduces anisotropy.

Ferziger, J. H.↗