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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 523 records · Page 29
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1930

An Investigation of Airplane Landing Speeds

This paper describes an investigation on airplane landing speeds which was made to determine the applicability of accepted aerodynamic theory to the prediction of this particular performance characteristic. The experimental work consisted in measuring the landing speed of several monoplanes by a new photographic method. The results of these tests supplemented by available information regarding biplanes were compared with predictions made with basic aerodynamic theory. The prediction makes use of the fundamental relation between wing loading, lift coefficient, and speed of level flight, and the effects of aspect ratio and proximity to the ground on lift curve slope.

LANDING SPEED - BIPLANES↗
NASA NTRS2015

Concepts for Multi-Speed Rotorcraft Drive System - Status of Design and Testing at NASA GRC

In several studies and on-going developments for advanced rotorcraft, the need for variable/multi-speed capable rotors has been raised. Speed changes of up to 50 percent have been proposed for future rotorcraft to improve vehicle performance. A rotor speed change during operation not only requires a rotor that can perform effectively over the operating speed/load range, but also requires a propulsion system possessing these same capabilities. A study was completed investigating possible drive system arrangements that can accommodate up to a 50 percent speed change. Key drivers were identified from which simplicity and weight were judged as central. This paper presents the current status of two gear train concepts coupled with the first of two clutch types developed and tested thus far with focus on design lessons learned and areas requiring development. Also, a third concept is presented, a dual input planetary differential as leveraged from a simple planetary with fixed carrier.

variable-speed↗
DOE OSTI2019

High-Speed Friction stir lap welding of Al alloys

Friction stir lap welding (FSLW) with linear speed of 1m/min or higher can open up opportunities for industrial implementation of FSLW. This paper will provide an overview of several challenges and mitigation strategies to produce effective joints between several Al alloys. FSLW of Al alloys at high speed presents challenges including interface hook features and defects at the interface. Combination of 5xxx, 6xxx and 7xxx Al alloys were joined and characterized. Load bearing capacity in excess of 80% of base material strength has been demonstrated at the welding speed of 2m/min for 6xxx and 5xxx similar lap joints. The effects of parameters like welding speed, RPM, tool geometry in material flow features, void volume, and hook geometry is investigated and this knowledge base is applied to improve the joint strength of 7xxx series lap welds.

Upadhyay, Piyush↗
DOE OSTI2019

Influence of Welding Speed on Zigzag Line Feature and Tensile Property of a Friction-Stir-Welded Al-Zn-Mg Aluminum Alloy

The zigzag line has significant and complicated effects on the mechanical properties of friction-stir-welded aluminum alloys. The zigzag line feature and its affecting characteristic on joint property are largely related to welding speed. In this paper, an Al-Zn-Mg aluminum alloy was butt friction-stir-welded, and the effects of welding speed on zigzag line feature and joint property were studied in detail in order to reveal the intrinsic correlations between the critical process parameter and the weld quality and, consequently, to provide guidance for the process optimization. The results indicate that at high welding speed of 300 mm/min, the loose and dilute distribution of the oxide layer fragments induces the relatively ambiguous zigzag line feature; the joint does not fail through the zigzag line during tensile test and shows superior tensile properties. With decreasing welding speed to 175 and 50 mm/min, the zigzag line feature is not weakened by the severer tool stirring action, as widely reported by previous studies, but is strengthened gradually due to the enhancement of the collective flow and more concentrated redistribution of broken oxide particles, leading to joint failure at zigzag lines and the degradation of tensile properties of joints.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2026

Effects of slope steepness and cross-slope wind speed on fire spreading behavior for various vegetation

Wildland fire behavior is significantly influenced by environmental factors such as slope steepness, wind speed, and fuel type. Understanding these interactions is critical for improving predictive models and fire management. This study explores how slope steepness and cross-slope wind speed influence fire spread dynamics in various fuel bed types. Simulations are conducted using a physics-based wildland fire model, HIGRAD/FIRETEC, across six slope angles (0–50 %), four cross-slope wind speeds (4–10 m s –1 ), and three fuel bed types (grass, shrubland, and forest). Representative cases are additionally compared with FARSITE fireline evolution. Fire behavior is categorized into distinct propagation types based on spread characteristics and analyzed. The fire propagation angle, which indicates deviation from the wind direction, generally increases with steeper slopes and decreases with stronger cross-slope winds. Secondary upslope propagation is observed in shrubland under moderate slopes, while secondary downwind propagation occurs in all fuel beds at higher wind speeds. These findings highlight fire spread characteristics that differ from predictions by traditional models like Rothermel’s. By capturing complex propagation patterns and dynamics, this study demonstrates the value of a physics-based, atmosphere-fire coupled model for accurate wildland fire prediction. Incorporating secondary propagations and the influence of fuel bed complexities into predictive models can improve the accuracy of fire spread forecasts, enabling more effective fire management and risk mitigation efforts.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

Effects of shielding gas and spot reduction on humping suppression in high-speed laser welding

High-speed laser welding is a crucial process to enhance the production rate of fuel cell fabrication. However, exceeding a critical welding speed leads to defect formation such as humps and root concavities, which degrade weld quality and mechanical performance. This study employed shielding gas and spot reduction approaches to suppress these defects. The relationships between individual defect types and their influence on weld strength were systematically examined. Moreover, in situ high-speed synchrotron X-ray imaging was employed to comprehend the mechanisms of humping mitigation by shielding gas through analysis of instantaneous keyhole and melt pool dynamics. The observations reveal that shielding gas mitigates humping by shortening the molten pool through enhanced surface heat convection and by altering surface tension to prevent melt flow collisions. The effects of shielding gas and spot reduction were further incorporated into the dimensionless humping index (π h ) that describes the humping formation tendency. These findings provide mechanistic insights and quantitative guidance for defect control strategies in high-speed laser welding.

08 HYDROGEN↗
DOE OSTI2014

Effect of deformation path on microstructure, microhardness and texture evolution of interstitial free steel fabricated by differential speed rolling

This paper reports the effect of the deformation path on the microstructure, microhardness, and texture evolution of interstitial free (IF) steel processed by differential speed rolling (DSR) method. For this purpose, total height reductions of 50% and 75% were imposed on the samples by a series of differential speed rolling operations with various height reductions per pass (deformation levels) ranging from 10 to 50% under a fixed roll speed ratio of 1:4 for the upper and lower rolls, respectively. Microstructural observations using transmission electron microscopy and electron backscattered diffraction measurements showed that the samples rolled at deformation level of 50% had the finest mean grain size (∼ 0.5 μm) compared to the other counterparts; also the samples rolled at deformation level of 50% showed a more uniform microstructure. Based on the microhardness measurements along the thickness direction of the deformed samples, gradual evolution of the microhardness value and its homogeneity was observed with the increase of the deformation level per pass. Texture analysis showed that, as the deformation level per pass increased, the fraction of alpha fiber and gamma fiber in the deformed samples increased. The textures obtained by the differential speed rolling process under the lubricated condition would be equivalent to those obtained by the conventional rolling. - Highlights: • Effect of DSR deformation path on microstructure of IF steel is significant. • IF steel rolled at deformation level of 50% has the ultrafine grains of ∼ 0.5 μm. • Rolling texture components are pronounced with increasing deformation level.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2016

Improved the microstructures and properties of M3:2 high-speed steel by spray forming and niobium alloying

The microstructures and properties of spray formed (SF) high-speed steels (HSSs) with or without niobium (Nb) addition were studied. Particular emphasis was placed on the effect of Nb on the solidification microstructures, decomposition of M{sub 2}C carbides, thermal stability and mechanical properties. The results show that spray forming can refine the cell size of eutectic carbides due to the rapid cooling effect during atomization. With Nb addition, further refinement of the eutectic carbides and primary austenite grains are obtained. Moreover, the Nb addition can accelerate the decomposition of M{sub 2}C carbides and increase the thermal stability of high-speed steel, and also can improve the hardness and bending strength with slightly decrease the impact toughness. The high-speed steel made by spray forming and Nb alloying can give a better tool performance compared with powder metallurgy M3:2 and commercial AISI M2 high-speed steels. - Highlights: • Spray forming can effectively refine the microstructure of M3:2 steel. • Niobium accelerates the decomposition of M{sub 2}C carbides. • Niobium increases the hardness and bending strength of spray formed M3:2 steel. • Spray-formed niobium-containing M3:2 steel has the best tool performance.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2026

A Bayesian inferencing framework for ultrasound wave speed measurements in metal additive manufacturing

Process-related changes during metal additive manufacturing introduce microstructural variability in the material properties of printed parts, directly affecting component reliability. Accurate estimation of these property variations with part performance are essential for quality assurance. Ultrasound testing offers a non-destructive means to estimate mechanical properties and detect defects; however, conventional analysis methods often neglect the influence of microstructural variability, limiting their effectiveness. Here, this research presents a Bayesian inference technique for quantifying wave speed uncertainty from ultrasound measurements of metal additive manufactured parts. By integrating prior ultrasound data with a Bayesian model, the proposed approach generates posterior density estimates of wave speed that systematically account for manufacturing-induced variability and uncertainty. The novelty of this research lies in applying a Bayesian framework to analyze experimental ultrasound measurements within the context of metal additive manufacturing variability. The method enhances the accuracy of wave speed estimation by 64%, defect position by 50% and increases confidence associated with wave speed variance by 30% across different porosity levels, thereby providing a robust foundation for improved decision-making and increased reliability in additively manufactured components.

Additive manufacturing↗
DOE OSTI2025

The Role of Wind Speed in Prolonging Large Fire Durations in the Western US

Abstract The duration of large wildfires in the western US has increased significantly from 1992 to 2020 in the two fire seasons, by 0.76 days yr −1 in summer and 0.55 days yr −1 in fall. The factors driving the trend and variability were analyzed using multiple linear regression models. Our analysis identified the maximum daily wind speed during large fires, which has also increased during the study period, as the primary predictor for the large fire duration. Despite the observed rise in maximum wind speed specifically during large fires, there are no corresponding trends in the average daily mean wind speed throughout the fire seasons. The mechanisms underlying the increase in maximum wind speed during large fires remain unclear and warrant further investigation, as they may pose growing challenges for fire control.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

A database of hourly wind speed and modeled generation for US wind plants based on three meteorological models

Abstract In 2022, wind generation accounted for ~10% of total electricity generation in the United States. As wind energy accounts for a greater portion of total energy, understanding geographic and temporal variation in wind generation is key to many planning, operational, and research questions. However, in-situ observations of wind speed are expensive to make and rarely shared publicly. Meteorological models are commonly used to estimate wind speeds, but vary in quality and are often challenging to access and interpret. The Plant-Level US multi-model WIND and generation (PLUSWIND) data repository helps to address these challenges. PLUSWIND provides wind speeds and estimated generation on an hourly basis at almost all wind plants across the contiguous United States from 2018–2021. The repository contains wind speeds and generation based on three different meteorological models: ERA5, MERRA2, and HRRR. Data are publicly accessible in simple csv files. Modeled generation is compared to regional and plant records, which highlights model biases and errors and how they differ by model, across regions, and across time frames.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

High temperature measurement using very high shutter speed to avoid image saturation

This paper explores the adaptation of the two-colour principle to develop a high-speed colour temperature correlation system, which is able to cover a range of temperature that is challenging to achieve before. A colour digital camera has built in RGB filters. It is possible to measure the temperature from the ratio of intensity of the green and red pixels using the two-colour principle based on the expansion of the Plank’s radiation law. In this study, experiments were carried out using a temperature calibrated tungsten ribbon lamp which can be tuned to vary from 1300 to 2200°C. Using very high shutter speed and small aperture, the high-speed camera successfully captured the tungsten ribbon without image saturation at the full temperature scale. Tests have been carried out at different temperature and camera settings. The sensitivity and errors have been analysed, and experiment results demonstrate the potential of using very high shutter speed is available for measuring the temperature even beyond 2200°C.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2014

High-speed force mapping on living cells with a small cantilever atomic force microscope

The imaging speed of the wide-spread force mapping mode for quantitative mechanical measurements on soft samples in liquid with the atomic force microscope (AFM) is limited by the bandwidth of the z-scanner and viscous drag forces on the cantilever. Here, we applied high-speed, large scan-range atomic force microscopy and small cantilevers to increase the speed of force mapping by ≈10−100 times. This allowed resolving dynamic processes on living mouse embryonic fibroblasts. Cytoskeleton reorganization during cell locomotion, growth of individual cytoskeleton fibers, cell blebbing, and the formation of endocytic pits in the cell membrane were observed. Increasing the force curve rate from 2 to 300 Hz increased the measured apparent Young's modulus of the cells by about 10 times, which facilitated force mapping measurements at high speed.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2014

Examining the temporal evolution of hypervelocity impact phenomena via high-speed imaging and ultraviolet-visible emission spectroscopy

The temporal evolution of a previously observed hypervelocity impact-induced vapor cloud [Mihaly et al., Int. J. Impact Eng. 62, 13 (2013)] was measured by simultaneously recording several full-field, near-IR images of the resulting emission using an OMA-V high-speed camera. A two-stage light-gas gun was used to accelerate 5 mg Nylon 6/6 right-cylinders to speeds between 5 km/s and 7 km/s to impact 1.5 mm thick 6061-T6 aluminum target plates. Complementary laser-side-lighting [Mihaly et al., Int. J. Impact Eng. 62, 13 (2013); Proc. Eng. 58, 363 (2013)] and front-of-target (without laser illumination) images were also captured using a Cordin ultra-high-speed camera. The rapid expansion of the vapor cloud was observed to contain a bright, emitting exterior, and a darker, optically thick interior. The shape of this phenomenon was also observed to vary considerably between experiments due to extremely high-rate (>250 000 rpm) of tumbling of the cylindrical projectiles. Additionally, UV-vis emission spectra were simultaneously recorded to investigate the temporal evolution of the atomic and molecular composition of the up-range, impact-induced vapor plume. A PI-MAX3 high-speed camera coupled to an Acton spectrograph was utilized to capture the UV-vis spectra, which shows an overall peak in emission intensity between approximately 6–10 μs after impact trigger, corresponding to an increased quantity of emitting vapor/plasma passing through the spectrometer slit during this time period. The relative intensity of the numerous spectral bands was also observed to vary according to the exposure delay of the camera, indicating that the different atomic/molecular species exhibit a varied temporal evolution during the vapor cloud expansion. Higher resolution spectra yielded additional emission lines/bands that provide further evidence of interaction between fragmented projectile material and the 1 mmHg atmosphere inside the target chamber. A comparison of the data to down-range emission spectra also revealed differences in the relative intensities of the atomic/molecular composition of the observed vapor clouds.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

High-speed GPU-based finite element simulations for NDT

The finite element method solved with explicit time increments is a general approach which can be applied to many ultrasound problems. It is widely used as a powerful tool within NDE for developing and testing inspection techniques, and can also be used in inversion processes. However, the solution technique is computationally intensive, requiring many calculations to be performed for each simulation, so traditionally speed has been an issue. For maximum speed, an implementation of the method, called Pogo [Huthwaite, J. Comp. Phys. 2014, doi: 10.1016/j.jcp.2013.10.017], has been developed to run on graphics cards, exploiting the highly parallelisable nature of the algorithm. Pogo typically demonstrates speed improvements of 60-90x over commercial CPU alternatives. Pogo is applied to three NDE examples, where the speed improvements are important: guided wave tomography, where a full 3D simulation must be run for each source transducer and every different defect size; scattering from rough cracks, where many simulations need to be run to build up a statistical model of the behaviour; and ultrasound propagation within coarse-grained materials where the mesh must be highly refined and many different cases run.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2017

Effect of wheel speed on magnetic and mechanical properties of melt spun Fe-6.5 wt.% Si high silicon steel

Here, Fe-Si electric steel is the most widely used soft magnetic material in electric machines and transformers. Increasing the silicon content from 3.2 wt.% to 6.5 wt.% brings about large improvement in the magnetic and electrical properties. However, 6.5 wt.% silicon steel is inherited with brittleness owing to the formation of B2 and D0 3 ordered phase. To obtain ductility in Fe-6.5wt.% silicon steel, the ordered phase has to be bypassed with methods like rapid cooling. In present paper, the effect of cooling rate on magnetic and mechanical properties of Fe-6.5wt.% silicon steel is studied by tuning the wheel speed during melt spinning process. The cooling rate significantly alters the ordering and microstructure, and thus the mechanical and magnetic properties. X-ray diffraction data shows that D0 3 ordering was fully suppressed at high wheel speeds but starts to nucleate at 10m/s and below, which correlates with the increase of Young’s modulus towards low wheel speeds as tested by nanoindentation. The grain sizes of the ribbons on the wheel side decrease with increasing wheel speeds, ranging from ~100 μm at 1m/s to ~8 μm at 30m/s, which lead to changes in coercivity.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2018

The reduction of magnetic reconnection outflow jets to sub-Alfvénic speeds

The outflow velocity of jets produced by collisionless magnetic reconnection is shown to be reduced by the ion exhaust temperature in fully kinetic particle in cell simulations and in situ satellite observations. We derive a scaling relationship for the outflow velocity based on the upstream Alfvén speed and the parallel ion exhaust temperature, which is verified in kinetic simulations and observations. The outflow speed reduction is shown to be due to the firehose instability criterion, and so, for large enough guide fields, this effect is suppressed and the outflow speed reaches the upstream Alfvén speed based on the reconnecting component of the magnetic field.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

High speed ultraviolet digital image correlation (UV-DIC) for dynamic strains at extreme temperatures

Digital Image Correlation (DIC) is a camera-based method of measuring full-field displacements and strains from the surface of a deforming object. It can be applied at any length scale (determined by the lenses) and any time scale (determined by the camera), and because it is non-contacting, it can also be used at temperatures much higher than can be withstood by bonded strain gauges. At extreme temperatures, materials emit light in the form of blackbody radiation, which can saturate the camera sensor. It has previously been shown that the emitted light can be effectively screened by using ultraviolet (UV) cameras, lenses, and filters; however, commercially available UV cameras are relatively slow, which limits the speed of combined UV-DIC measurements. In this study, a UV intensifier was paired with a high-speed camera, and its ability to perform UV-DIC at high temperature and high speed was investigated. The system was compared over three different experiments: (A) a quasi-static thermal expansion test at high temperature, (B) a vibration test at room temperature, and (C) the same vibration test repeated at high temperature. The system successfully performed DIC up to at least 1600 °C at frame rates of 5000 fps, which is more than 100 times faster than other examples of UV-DIC in the literature. In all cases, measurements made using the UV intensifier were much noisier than those made without the intensifier, but the intensifier enabled measurements at temperatures well above those which an unfiltered high-speed camera otherwise saturates.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗