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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 379 records · Page 21
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

An approach to combine neutron and ion irradiation data to accelerate material qualification for nuclear reactors

Next-generation nuclear power plants are generally characterized by higher operating temperatures, increased neutron fluences and energies, and distinct corrosive coolant environments versus the existing light water reactor fleet. Whether using existing materials in new environments, newly developed materials tailored for these environments, or new manufacturing methods, the traditional decades-long approach for materials qualification does not facilitate rapid deployment. Ion irradiation has demonstrated success in reproducing material microstructure and select property evolution resulting from neutron irradiation with three to four orders of magnitude reduction in time and cost, making it an ideal candidate for accelerated irradiation testing. Because microstructure has a large impact on bulk material properties, limited neutron irradiation data at lower damage levels can in principle be combined with accelerated ion testing results and modeling and simulation to form an accurate prediction of microstructure evolution and select properties under different neutron irradiation conditions and at higher damage levels. The objective of this work is to present a conceptual framework of specific steps to fulfill several technical challenges associated with qualifying materials for performance in radiation environments on an accelerated time frame. A brief review of the regulatory landscape for materials in nuclear environments is presented, followed by additional overviews to understand the current state of the art for correlation of materials properties across radiation environments using experimental and computational methodologies. Finally, the roles of academia, national laboratories, and industry in the advancement of this accelerated materials qualification framework are discussed as a path forward, with possible case studies presented.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
NASA NTRS1978

MSFC hot air collectors

A description of the hot air collector is given that includes a history of development, a history of the materials development, and a program summary. The major portion of the solar energy system cost is the collector. Since the collector is the heart of the system and the most costly subsystem, reducing the cost of producing collectors in large quantities is a major goal. This solar collector is designed to heat air and/or water cheaply and efficiently through the use of solar energy.

Anthony, K.↗
NASA NTRS2000

NIST Efforts to Quality-Assure Gunpowder Measurements

In the past few years, the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) has been promoting the idea of quantitatively determining the additives in smokeless gunpowder using micellar capillary electrophoresis as a means of investigating the criminal use of hand guns and pipe bombs. As a part of this effort, we have evaluated both supercritical fluid and ultrasonic solvent extractions for the quantitative recovery of nitroglycerin (NG), diphenylamine (DPA), N-nitrosodiphenylamine (NnDPA), and ethyl centralite (EC) from gunpowder. Recoveries were evaluated by repeat extraction and matrix spiking experiments. The final extraction protocol provides greater than 95 percent recoveries. To help other researches validate their own analytical method for additive determinations, NIST is exploring the development of a standard reference material, Additives in Smokeless Gunpowder. The evaluated method is being applied to two double-base (NG-containing) powders, one stabilized with diphenylamine and the other with ethyl centralite. As part of this reference material development effort, we are conducting an interlaboratory comparison exercise among the forensic and military gunpowder measurement community.

MacCrehan, William A.↗
NASA NTRS2018

NASA 2018 Green Propulsion Roadmap

The Green Propulsion Working Group (GPWG) is a technical guidance working group formed April 2017 under the Agency's Capability Leadership Team The GPWG was tasked with recommending an agency road map and providing guidance to NASA on green propulsion technology development and infusion The GPWG's efforts focus on ionic liquid propellants and related technologies The GPWG was chartered with three representatives from NASA Centers currently exploring green propulsion technologies As other Centers may explore programs that utilize green propulsion, membership of the working group can be expanded to include more interested parties Working group also solicits and coordinates with other government agencies (e.g. AFRL, MDA) In 2015, JANNAF hosted a Technical Interchange Meeting (TIM) on Green Monopropellant Alternatives to Hydrazine (GMAH) Included both Government and non-Government contributions on the State-of-the-Art in Green Propulsion Technology Following the TIM, a Government-only session (USAF/AFRL/NASA/MDA/DLA) reviewed and identified remaining technical gaps in Green Propulsion In 2016, an inter-agency team (AFRL/NASA/MDA) worked together to develop an informal inter-agency "roadmap" based on the outcome of the TIM Approach consisted of near-term, mid-term, and long-term technology advancement areas, approaching incrementally larger thrust classes The NASA Green Propulsion Working Group reviewed the work of the 2016 Inter-Agency Working Group, and concurs that the identified technical gaps and technology development areas are still relevant and necessary to see green propulsion technology advanced The GPWG recommends the 2016 roadmap be adopted as baseline for NASA needs, with some additions The focus of the 2016 inter-agency roadmap was primarily on the thruster technology. The Agency must also invest in understanding the broader propulsion system-level technology gaps in parallel. Timeframes are considered suggested from a priority standpoint, but are also flexible as some efforts will need to occur in the nearer term or concurrently in order to meet specific mission requirements The GPWG developed 2018 roadmap breaks down the technology development goals into Technology Development Areas (TDA's), and identifies the near-, mid, and long-term sub-goals within those areas. Those TDA's are: Thruster Hardware Development Modeling & Tools Development Materials Properties and Compatibility Propellant Development.

Cavender, Dan↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Affordable Development Strategy for NEP Nuclear Systems

One nuclear electric propulsion (NEP) reactor systems under consideration is a hydride moderated thermal spectrum reactor fueled by high assay low enriched uranium (HALEU). While such a reactor is expected to yield the lightest HALEU reactor design, its development challenges grow exponentially with increasing mission demands, most notably power output, specific weight of the overall system (which may require operation at temperatures exceeding 1200 K), service lifetime, and human-rated reliability. Two of the greatest cost drivers are full-powered nuclear demonstrations and extensive material development campaigns, so it is important to consider options that can minimize the need for or complexity of such tasks. This paper discusses a structured framework being developed for assessing how NEP design choices, such as materials selection, neutronic features, and heat-removal technologies, can translate into project risk and how project performance goals can be traded with development cost.Reactors operating at high temperatures often require cutting-edge heat transfer technologies and creep-resistant materials. Use of new materials in high temperature reactors brings additional complication beyond those common to any new space materials development campaign. For example, such materials may not possess necessary neutronic cross-sectional or neutronic irradiation data. Similarly, use of new materials may significantly influence core neutronics; in some extreme cases, neutronic reactivity feed-back of certain new materials can vary during their service life as radiation damage impacts the scattering cross-section. In an affordable development approach, high fidelity modeling and simulation tools are used to identify and characterize potential ‘knees-in-the-curves’ in the relationship that exists between the mission characteristics and the project risk. Of particular significance is use of modern uncertainty management and variance reduction methods to perform gap analyses that feed into phenomena identification and ranking tables (PIRT) commonly used to communicate nuclear readiness levels. Model-based measurements techniques are used to design sub-scale experiments as a substitute to minimize orcompletely eliminate the need for nuclear demonstrations.This paper will describe the approach and present preliminary results. It will lay the groundwork for developing a set of metrics that can be broadly characterized as system nuclear readiness levels and advancement degree of difficulty for nuclear systems. Equally importantly, a goal of this paper is to initiate a dialogue among stakeholders on what is the sufficient level of maturity that is required for launching a demonstration unit.

Dasari V Rao↗
DOE OSTI2022

Design Tool for Estimating Adsorbent Hydrogen Storage System Characteristics for Light-Duty Fuel Cell Vehicles

This work combines materials development with hydrogen storage technology advancements to address onboard hydrogen storage challenges in light-duty vehicle applications. These systems are comprised of the vehicle requirements design space, balance of plant requirements, storage system components, and materials engineering culminating in the development of an Adsorbent System Design Tool that serves as a preprocessor to the storage system and vehicle-level models created within the Hydrogen Storage Engineering Center of Excellence. Computational and experimental efforts were integrated to evaluate, design, analyze, and scale potential hydrogen storage systems and their supporting components against the Department of Energy 2020 and Ultimate Technical Targets for Hydrogen Storage Systems for Light Duty Vehicles. Ultimately, the Adsorbent System Design Tool was created to assist material developers in assessing initial design parameters that would be required to estimate the performance of the hydrogen storage system once integrated with the full fuel cell system.

08 HYDROGEN↗
DOE OSTI2017

Fusion Materials Research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Fiscal Year 2017

Achieving fusion energy presents a formidable challenge to the field of materials science, to provide a suite of suitable materials in close integration to the plasma physics and other applied technologies. The technological challenge presented by the planned fusion power systems is the inability of current materials and components to withstand the harsh fusion nuclear environment. The overarching goal of the ORNL fusion materials program is to provide the applied materials science support and materials understanding to underpin the ongoing DOE Office of Science fusion energy program in parallel with developing materials for fusion power systems. In this effort the program continues to be integrated both with the larger U.S. and international fusion materials communities and with the international fusion design and technology communities. This long-running ORNL program continues to pursue development of low activation structural materials such as the Reduced Activation Ferritic/Martensitic Steels, higher strength/higher creep resistant/coolant compatible/radiation tolerant advanced steels, and Silicon Carbide Composites. Focus tasks within the steels portfolio are development of Castable Nanostructured Alloys, exploratory work on Bainitic steels and liquid metal compatibility evaluations. Parallel to this is the increased emphasis on radiation effects, high heat flux testing and the development of refractory metals. This includes the use of an ORNL Plasma Arc Lamp facility adapted for the thermal testing of irradiated materials, the development and evaluation of new tungsten materials, and the study and understanding of the irradiation performance of tungsten. In each case the materials are being developed in a design-informed fashion where properties improvements are led by fusion-relevant design studies and directed at advancing the Technology Readiness Level of the material systems.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
NASA NTRS1972

Composite material characterization for large space structures.

A program phase to characterize advanced composite materials for a large reflector support truss on the ATS F & G spacecraft is described. The selection of a Hercules Incorporated, 2002M graphite fiber reinforced epoxy material was based on criteria of spacecraft system requirements and the potential of this material to meet these requirements. The objective of this phase was to develop materials data required for development, design, fabrication, test, and flight of a graphite-fiber, reinforced-plastic spacecraft structure. Testing within a temperature range from -300 F to +200 F covered the generation of data for physical, mechanical, thermophysical, and space environmental properties for the selected material. Additional testing covered adhesive bonded joint materials within the temperature ranges of the spacecraft environment. Descriptions of the spacecraft, reflector support truss, design, requirements, materials, tests, and developed data are presented.

Macneill, C. E.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Advanced Electrical Materials and Component Development

The primary means to develop advanced electrical components is to develop new and improved materials for magnetic components (transformers, inductors, etc.), capacitors, and semiconductor switches and diodes. This paper will give a description and status of the internal and external research sponsored by NASA Glenn Research Center on soft magnetic materials, dielectric materials and capacitors, and high quality silicon carbide (SiC) atomically smooth substrates. The rationale for and the benefits of developing advanced electrical materials and components for the PMAD subsystem and also for the total power system will be briefly discussed.

Schwarze, Gene E.↗
DOE OSTI2020

Developing Novel Electrode Materials for Aqueous Battery

Aqueous rechargeable batteries (ARBs) are particularly interesting for large-scale energy storage due to their inherent safety, superior rate capability and environmental friendliness. However, ARBs are not widely explored as yet, so we proposed designing, preparing, and testing new intercalation materials for ARBs. Development of these electrodes will enrich the electrode chemistry of existing ARBs, open up new avenues for high-performance electrode and system design, offer opportunities to improve energy efficiency of water purification, and inform future development of controls strategies and management systems for stationary aqueous energy storage. Researchers from Bosch and LBNL collaborated on relevant materials to pursue and the general design of experiments to implement. Bosch researchers prepared and fabricated the electrodes and used various characterization facilities at LBNL to evaluate electrode performance in-device. The research collaboration resulted in identifying electrode materials capable of Na + and Ca 2+ intercalation in aqueous systems, and their application for desalination was explored using testing platform available at LBNL. Besides the specific materials and their performance, the data collected during the study was also used to inform a broader techno-economic analysis to compare intercalation-desalination technique to commercially available capacitive desalination approach. Outcomes of this research effort will be published in peer-reviewed journals.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2015

State-of-the-art Thin Film Electrolytes For Solid Oxide Fuel Cells

State-of-the-Art solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) are amongst the main candidates for clean energy technology due to their high efficiency, fuel flexibility, low air pollution, and minimal greenhouse gas emission. However, high operational temperature of SOFC is a greater challenge in commercialization these devices for low cost and portable applications. High temperature operation of SOFC degrades its performance with aging, limits the selection of materials for fuel cell components, and increases the fabrication cost. Thus, there have been enormous efforts to improve the properties of existing materials and develop new materials for SOFC components in order to lower the operating temperature of SOFC. Recent advances in thin film technology have also been utilized to develop new materials with improved properties for SOFC. One of the key components in SOFC is the electrolyte and several research groups are working on developing new electrolyte materials. In this chapter, we will discuss the recent advances in thin film SOFC electrolytes. This extensive discussion includes the evolution of doped ceria, doped zirconia, and multilayer hetero-structured thin film electrolytes. The newly developed nanoscale thin films and multi-layer hetero-structures with improved oxygen ionic conductivity will have significant impact on SOFC devices.

Thevuthasan, Suntharampillai↗
DOE OSTI2019

9Cr steel visualization and predictive modeling

The goals of this work were to develop tools to visualize and characterize materials information, to explore new alloy compositions and/or processing, to better predict tensile strength and other mechanical properties. The 9–12 wt% Cr (9Cr) steel test data were compiled from several sources. About 3000 records with 30 predictor variables represent 82 unique steel alloy compositions, variations of thermo-mechanical processing steps and temperatures (homogenization, normalization and tempering cycles), test conditions and outcomes. Detailed data processing steps such as visualization and exploratory analysis, including univariate and bivariate analysis, different clustering techniques used to segment the data, statistical post-hoc analysis to verify significance of the findings, feature engineering to identify predictors of importance, and predictive modeling with cross-validation were performed. The outcome of analysis at each step was reviewed in the context of the domain knowledge of this class of steel, to see if there were underlying physical mechanisms that explain statistical relationships. Data analytics techniques and their parameters were fine-tuned to facilitate interpretation of the results as aligned with the insights from domain experts. Here, the ensemble predictive modeling using Random Forest regressor and post-hoc means comparison corroborated domain knowledge on the role of Co which is known to increase strength of steel alloys through solid-solution strengthening and to affect diffusion of alloying elements and precipitates. Alloys with Co content of 0.7–8 wt% had significantly higher mean strength than the ones without (while having Cr locked within 10–11 wt% range in either group and keeping other compositional element ratios fixed). End products of the computational techniques exploration are presented as the tools that can be used in iterative workflow of materials development and testing.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

Sustainable Electric Vehicle Batteries for a Sustainable World: Perspectives on Battery Cathodes, Environment, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Life Cycle, and Policy

Abstract Li‐ion batteries (LIBs) can reduce carbon emissions by powering electric vehicles (EVs) and promoting renewable energy development with grid‐scale energy storage. However, LIB production and electricity generation still heavily rely on fossil fuels at present, resulting in major environmental concerns. Are LIBs as environmentally friendly and sustainable as expected at the current stage? In the past 5 years, a skyrocketing growth of the EV market has been witnessed. LIBs have garnered huge attention from academia, industry, government, non‐governmental organizations, investors, and the general public. Tremendous volumes of LIBs are already implemented in EVs today, with a continuing, exponential growth expected for the years to come. When LIBs reach their end‐of‐life in the next decades, what technologies can be in place to enable second‐life or recycling of batteries? Herein, life cycle assessment studies are examined to evaluate the environmental impact of LIBs, and EVs are compared with internal combustion engine vehicles regarding environmental sustainability. To provide a holistic view of the LIB development, this Perspective provides insights into materials development, manufacturing, recycling, legislation and policy, and beyond. Last but not least, the future development of LIBs and charging infrastructures in light of emerging technologies are envisioned.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Protonic Ceramic Electrochemical Cells for Synthesizing Sustainable Chemicals and Fuels

Abstract Protonic ceramic electrochemical cells (PCECs) have been intensively studied as the technology that can be employed for power generation, energy storage, and sustainable chemical synthesis. Recently, there have been substantial advances in electrolyte and electrode materials for improving the performance of protonic ceramic fuel cells and protonic ceramic electrolyzers. However, the electrocatalytic materials development for synthesizing chemicals in PCECs has gained less attention, and there is a lack of systematic and fundamental understanding of the PCEC reactor design, reaction mechanisms, and electrode materials. This review comprehensively summarizes and critically evaluates the most up‐to‐date progress in employing PCECs to synthesize a wide range of chemicals, including ammonia, carbon monoxide, methane, light olefins, and aromatics. Factors that impact the conversion, selectivity, product yield, and energy efficiencies are discussed to provide new insights into designing electrochemical cells, developing electrode materials, and achieving economically viable chemical synthesis. The primary challenges associated with producing chemicals in PCECs are highlighted. Approaches to tackle these challenges are then offered, with a particular focus on deliberately designing electrode materials, aiming to achieve practically valuable product yield and energy efficiency. Finally, perspectives on the future development of PCECs for synthesizing sustainable chemicals are provided.

03 NATURAL GAS↗
NASA NTRS2000

Microgravity Outreach and Education

The NASA Microgravity Research Program has been actively developing classroom activities and educator's guides since the flight of the First United States Microgravity Laboratory. In addition, various brochures, posters, and exhibit materials have been produced for outreach efforts to the general public and to researchers outside of the program. These efforts are led by the Microgravity Research Outreach/Education team at Marshall Space Flight Center, with classroom material support from the K-12 Educational Program of The National Center for Microgravity Research on Fluids and Combustion (NCMR), general outreach material development by the Microgravity Outreach office at Hampton University, and electronic/media access coordinated by Marshall. The broad concept of the NCMR program is to develop a unique set of microgravity-related educational products that enable effective outreach to the pre-college community by supplementing existing mathematics, science, and technology curricula. The current thrusts of the program include summer teacher and high school internships during which participants help develop educational materials and perform research with NCMR and NASA scientists; a teacher sabbatical program which allows a teacher to concentrate on a major educational product during a full school year; frequent educator workshops held at NASA and at regional and national teachers conferences; a nascent student drop tower experiment competition; presentations and demonstrations at events that also reach the general public; and the development of elementary science and middle school mathematics classroom products. An overview of existing classroom products will be provided, along with a list of pertinent World Wide Web URLs. Demonstrations of some hands on activities will show the audience how simple it can be to bring microgravity into the classroom.

Rogers, Melissa J. B.↗