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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 559 records · Page 31
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Stimulating β -Series Precipitation in Mg–Nd Alloys Via Microalloying: A Comparison of Electron Microscopy and Small-Angle Scattering Techniques

The Mg–Nd alloy system is of particular interest in the development of high-strength, lightweight structural alloys due to the formation of strengthening metastable Mg–Nd β-series precipitates during heat treatment. The strengthening is primarily provided by a combination of the β''' and β 1 precipitation. It is therefore important to understand how the precipitation behavior can be enhanced by other common alloying elements. In this work, the effects of 0.2 wt pct Zn and Ca on β-series precipitation were studied. Small-angle/ultra-small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS/USAXS) techniques in combination with scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) were used to study the evolution of precipitation microstructure. Here, it is found that the Zn additions refine the precipitates, leading to an increase in hardness with aging at 200 °C. On the other hand, the Ca additions result in an acceleration in the formation of larger β 1 precipitates and chains which provides less strengthening. The β 1 chains are surrounded by precipitate-free zones (PFZs) that further contribute to the decreases in hardness observed in the over-aged condition. This paper demonstrated that SAXS/USAXS provides a powerful tool for an in situ study of the early stages of precipitation in the Mg–Nd-based alloys.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2019

Comparison of Experimental Measurements of Thermal Conductivity of Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3} Nanofluids Against Standard Theoretical Models and Artificial Neural Network Approach

In the present work, the practicability of Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3} nanofluids for heat transfer applications has been examined. Nanofluids performance, in terms of modulation of thermal conductivity, has been investigated with increasing concentration of Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3} nanoparticles in water and ethylene glycol base fluids at 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 and 70 °C. Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3} nanoparticles have been synthesized using the wet chemical method and characterized using TEM, SEM, XRD and UV–Vis. The characterization results revealed a face-centered cubic structure having alpha phase and particle size in the range of 40-55 nm for the synthesized Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3} nanoparticles. Thermal conductivity measurement results show increases in thermal conductivity with the increase in concentration and temperature of nanofluids. 16.45 and 19.76% enhancement in thermal conductivity have been observed for Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3}–water and Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3}–ethylene glycol nanofluids of 2 vol.% at 70 °C compared to water and ethylene glycol base fluids at 10 °C, respectively. Results of the ANN approach are in good agreement with experimental results, and H–C model gives better predictions compared to other standard models. The study gives clear insights into improved heat transfer performance by material engineering.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Residual Stress in Cold Spray SS304L Measured Via Neutron Diffraction and Comparison of Analytical Models to Predict the Residual Stress

Here, this study employs neutron diffraction to investigate the relationship between residual stress and coating thickness in cold sprayed 304L austenitic stainless steel. Results show that shot peening predominantly impacts the residual stress profile, leading to substantial in-plane compressive force. The impact of laser heating, a widely used method to alter cold spray's microstructural properties, on the coating's residual stress is also analyzed. The findings indicate that the maximum compressive residual stress in the in-plane component is mainly independent of coating thickness, which suggests that the material properties determine the maximum residual stress. The cold sprayed deposits possessed compressive, nearly biaxial strain and stresses. After laser heating, these stresses were replaced by tensile residual stresses. Two analytical models, the Tsui and Clyne and the Boruah models, for predicting residual stresses are also evaluated, and both models provide reasonable fits to the experimental data. At this point, the deviations between the experimental results and the models are principally caused by the inability of the current models to address plastic deformation and relaxation, and the residual stresses generated by thermal gradients.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

Concurrent Precipitation of Nb(C,N) and Metastable M 23 C 6 in Alloy 347H at 700°C and 750°C: Computer Simulations and Comparison to Experiment

Here, we present our results for the concurrent precipitation of metastable M 23 C 6 , Nb(C,N) secondary precipitates, and the Nb(C,N) primary crystals in 347H austenitic stainless steel. For precipitation modeling, we have accounted for the elastic contribution to interfacial energy, and for the Fe-spin-polarization for NbC/Fe and M 23 C 6 /Fe interfacial energy values: for NbC/Fe ~ 0.63 J/m 2 . For M 23 C 6 precipitates, an error function was used to describe the interfacial energy growth with particle size. In precipitation simulations, the average size of the primary Nb(C,N) particles remained ~ 1 μm at 700°C and ~ 0.3 μm at 750°C. The M 23 C 6 precipitates at 750°C dissolved after 120 h (our simulations) compared to 300 h (experiments). The Nb(C,N)/Fe interfacial energy was not affected by the nitrogen additions. With these modifications, reasonable agreement with the available experimental data was obtained, which allows using them in the development of the 2nd-phase particle-informed creep theory.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2019

Comparison of conventional versus liposomal irinotecan in combination with fluorouracil for advanced pancreatic cancer: a single-institution experience

The majority of pancreatic cancers are diagnosed at an advanced stage, when surgical options are limited and treatment relies on systemic chemotherapy. In the NAPOLI-1 trial, liposomal irinotecan in combination with fluorouracil (nal-iri/5FU) was shown to improve overall survival when compared to fluorouracil alone for metastatic pancreatic cancer. Other retrospective studies have shown the combination of fluorouracil and conventional irinotecan (FOLFIRI) to be a viable option, though no randomized trials have compared nal-iri/5FU to FOLFIRI. The purpose of this single-center, retrospective, cohort study was to determine if nal-iri/5FU and FOLFIRI are similarly effective for the treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer. Due to the potential for treatment bias, inverse probability of treatment weighting was utilized to correct for baseline differences between the groups. The primary outcome of progression-free survival was similar at 4.1 months for nal-iri/5FU and 3.1 months for FOLFIRI. Overall survival and adverse effect frequency were also similar. Pegfilgrastim was used in 16% and 15% of patients, respectively, and nal-iri/5FU patients required significantly less atropine during treatment (36 vs. 70%). A cost analysis was conducted and concluded that the treatment with nal-iri/5FU was nearly 30 times more expensive than FOLFIRI treatment. Together, these data suggest a potential role for FOLFIRI for the treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer in the absence of clear benefits in effectiveness, toxicity, or cost for nal-iri/5FU.

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE↗
DOE OSTI2024

ESM data downscaling: a comparison of super-resolution deep learning models

Abstract Climate projections at fine spatial resolutions are required to conduct accurate risk assessment for critical infrastructure and design adaptation planning. Generating these projections using advanced Earth system models (ESM) requires significant computational resources. To address this issue, various statistical downscaling techniques have been introduced to generate fine-resolution data from coarse-resolution simulations. In this study, we evaluate and compare five deep learning-based downscaling techniques, namely, super-resolution convolutional neural networks, fast super-resolution convolutional neural network ESM, efficient sub-pixel convolutional neural network, enhanced deep residual network (EDRN), and super-resolution generative adversarial network (SRGAN). These techniques are applied to a dataset generated by the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM), focusing on key surface variables such as surface temperature, shortwave heat flux, and longwave heat flux. Models are trained and validated using paired fine-resolution (0.25 $$^{\circ }$$ ∘ ) and coarse-resolution (1 $$^{\circ }$$ ∘ ) monthly data obtained from a 9-year simulation. Next, blind testing is performed using monthly data obtained from two different years outside of the training and validation set. To evaluate the efficiency of each technique, different statistical metrics are used, including mean squared error (MSE), peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), structural similarity index measure (SSIM), and learned perceptual image patch similarity (LPIPS). The results show that EDRN outperforms other algorithms in terms of PSNR, SSIM, and MSE, but struggles to capture fine-scale features in the data. In contrast, SRGAN, a generative model that uses perceptual loss, excels in capturing fine details at boundaries and internal structures, resulting in lower LPIPS than other methods.

Pawar, Nikhil M. (ORCID:0000000211613289)↗
DOE OSTI2020

A Performance Comparison of Low-Cost Near-Infrared (NIR) Spectrometers to a Conventional Laboratory Spectrometer for Rapid Biomass Compositional Analysis

The performance of a conventional laboratory near-infrared (NIR) spectrometer and two NIR spectrometer prototypes (a Texas Instruments NIRSCAN Nano evaluation model (EVM) and an InnoSpectra NIR-M-R2 spectrometer) are compared by collecting reflectance spectra of 270 well-characterized herbaceous biomass samples, building calibration models using the partial least squares (PLS-2) algorithm to predict five constituents of the samples from the reflectance spectra, and comparing the resulting model statistics. The prediction models developed using spectra from the Foss XDS spectrometer were slightly better than the prediction models developed using spectra from either the TI NIRSCAN Nano EVM and the InnoSpectra NIR-M-R2 as measured by the root mean square error (RMSECV) and the correlation coefficient (R 2 _cv) for “leave-one-out” cross-validation (CV). The models built from the two prototype units were not statistically significantly different from each other (p = 0.05). The Foss spectrometer has a larger wavelength range (400–2500 nm) compared with the two prototypes (900–1700 nm). When the spectra from the Foss XDS spectrometer were truncated so their wavelength range matched the wavelength range of the two prototype units, the resulting model was not statistically significantly different from the models from either prototype.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2019

Assessment of acute myocarditis by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging: Comparison of qualitative and quantitative analysis methods

Background: To compare cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) qualitative and quantitative analysis methods for the noninvasive assessment of myocardial inflammation in patients with suspected acute myocarditis (AM). Methods: A total of 61 patients with suspected AM underwent coronary angiography and CMR. Qualitative analysis was performed applying Lake-Louise Criteria (LLC), followed by quantitative analysis based on the evaluation of edema ratio (ER) and global relative enhancement (RE). Diagnostic performance was assessed for each method by measuring the area under the curves (AUC) of the receiver operating characteristic analyses. The final diagnosis of AM was based on symptoms and signs suggestive of cardiac disease, evidence of myocardial injury as defined by electrocardiogram changes, elevated troponin I, exclusion of coronary artery disease by coronary angiography, and clinical and echocardiographic follow-up at 3 months after admission to the chest pain unit. Results: In all patients, coronary angiography did not show significant coronary artery stenosis. Troponin I levels and creatine kinase were higher in patients with AM compared to those without (both P < .001). There were no significant differences among LLC, T2-weighted short inversion time inversion recovery (STIR) sequences, early (EGE), and late (LGE) gadolinium-enhancement sequences for diagnosis of AM. The AUC for qualitative (T2-weighted STIR 0.92, EGE 0.87 and LGE 0.88) and quantitative (ER 0.89 and global RE 0.80) analyses were also similar. Conclusions: Qualitative and quantitative CMR analysis methods show similar diagnostic accuracy for the diagnosis of AM. These findings suggest that a simplified approach using a shortened CMR protocol including only T2-weighted STIR sequences might be useful to rule out AM in patients with acute coronary syndrome and normal coronary angiography.

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE↗
DOE OSTI2019

Comparison of two software systems for quantification of myocardial blood flow in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

Backgorund: Quantification of myocardial blood flow (MBF) by positron emission tomography (PET) is important for investigation of angina in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). Several software programs exist for MBF quantification, but they have been mostly evaluated in patients (with normal cardiac geometry), referred for evaluation of coronary artery disease (CAD). Software performance has not been evaluated in HCM patients who frequently have hyperdynamic LV function, LV outflow tract (LVOT) obstruction, small LV cavity size, and variation in the degree/location of LV hypertrophy. Aim: We compared results of MBF obtained using PMod, which permits manual segmentation, to those obtained by FDA-approved QPET software which has an automated segmentation algorithm. Methods: {sup 13}N-ammonia PET perfusion data were acquired in list mode at rest and during pharmacologic vasodilation, in 76 HCM patients and 10 non-HCM patients referred for evaluation of CAD (CAD group.) Data were resampled to create static, ECG-gated and 36-frame-dynamic images. Myocardial flow reserve (MFR) and MBF (in ml/min/g) were calculated using QPET and PMod softwares. Results: All HCM patients had asymmetric septal hypertrophy, and 50% had evidence of LVOT obstruction, whereas non-HCM patients (CAD group) had normal wall thickness and ejection fraction. PMod yielded significantly higher values for global and regional stress-MBF and MFR than for QPET in HCM. Reasonably fair correlation was observed for global rest-MBF, stress-MBF, and MFR using these two softwares (rest-MBF: r = 0.78; stress-MBF: r = 0.66.; MFR: r = 0.7) in HCM patients. Agreement between global MBF and MFR values improved when HCM patients with high spillover fractions (> 0.65) were excluded from the analysis (rest-MBF: r = 0.84; stress-MBF: r = 0.72; MFR: r = 0.8.) Regionally, the highest agreement between PMod and QPET was observed in the LAD territory (rest-MBF: r = 0.82, Stress-MBF: r = 0.68) where spillover fraction was the lowest. Unlike HCM patients, the non-HCM patients (CAD group) demonstrated excellent agreement in MBF/MFR values, obtained by the two softwares, when patients with high spillover fractions were excluded (rest-MBF: r = 0.95; stress-MBF: r = 0.92; MFR: r = 0.95). Conclusions: Anatomic characteristics specific to HCM hearts contribute to lower correlations between MBF/MFR values obtained by PMod and QPET, compared with non-HCM patients. These differences indicate that PMod and QPET cannot be used interchangeably for MBF/MFR analyses in HCM patients.

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE↗
DOE OSTI2019

Comparison of maximal Rubidium-82 activities for myocardial blood flow quantification between digital and conventional PET systems

Background: PET-based myocardial blood flow (MBF) quantification can be inaccurate when using high tracer activities. Our aim was to derive the maximal Rubidium-82 activity for MBF assessment using a new digital PET system and compare the results with conventional analog systems. Methods: 1.8 GBq Rubidium-82 was injected into the cardiac insert of an anthropomorphic torso phantom. Data were acquired for 10 min using an Ingenuity TF (Philips Healthcare), Discovery 690 (D690, GE Healthcare), and digital PET prototype system (Philips Healthcare). The dynamic ranges, defined as the maximal measured activity in the reconstructed images deviating < 10% from the true present activity, were determined in all scans. Results: The dynamic ranges were 312 MBq for Ingenuity TF, 650 MBq for D690, and 654 MBq for digital PET prototype. Conclusions: The maximal Rb-82 activity for MBF assessment using digital PET prototype is higher than that for its analog counterpart (Ingenuity TF), but seems comparable to the D690.

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE↗
DOE OSTI2019

A kinematic comparison of meshfree and mesh-based Lagrangian approximations using manufactured extreme deformation fields

Meshfree methods for solid mechanics have been in development since the early 1990's. Initial motivations included alleviation of the burden of mesh creation and the desire to overcome the limitations of traditional mesh-based discretizations for extreme deformation applications. Here, the accuracy and robustness of both mesh-free and meshbased Lagrangian discretizations are compared using manufactured extreme-deformation fields. For the meshfree discretizations, both moving least squares and maximum entropy are considered. Quantitative error and convergence results are presented for the best approximation in the H 1 norm.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

A comparison of efficiency-aware model-predictive control approaches for wave energy devices

In this study, we compare four different formulations of model predictive control that attempt to maximise electrical power generated by a wave energy converter (WEC). Control laws include (1) pure maximisation of mechanical power, (2) maximisation of mechanical power with a control penalty factor, (3) maximisation of electrical power using power conversion efficiency, and (4) maximisation of electrical power using the full electro-mechanical model of a system. For this study, a wave-to-wire model is developed for a floating spherical buoy connected to a permanent magnet synchronous generator. The performance of the controllers, including the mechanical and electrical power outputs, is compared in irregular wave conditions for the unconstrained and force-constrained scenarios. The results demonstrate that the controller designed to maximise mechanical power is not suitable for practical applications and may lead to negative electrical power output due to the non-ideal power take-off efficiency. Moreover, the replacement of the power take-off dynamics by the efficiency coefficient does not guarantee the maximum electrical power production.

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗
DOE OSTI2025

Quantitative Comparisons of Image Quality for Flash X-Ray Detectors

Due to X-rays’ ability to penetrate materials, flash X-ray radiography can be used for high-speed measurements where direct optical access is not possible. Choice of detector has a pronounced impact on resulting image quality. Four different detector systems were evaluated with a 450kVp flash source to quantitatively compare image quality metrics. The scintillating digital detector had less image noise than the three different storage phosphor computed radiography detectors across all transmission levels, but lacked the spatial resolution of the computed radiography detectors. For the screens tested here, the HPX-DR digital system had the highest signal to noise ratio of 68.24 and contrast to noise ratio of 35.53, but had the lowest spatial resolution, resolving 2.5 line pairs per millimeter at 1.78% contrast. At a value of 37.59, the Flex GP imaging plate had a signal to noise value above its storage phosphor counterparts under a 450kVp flash source. For radiographic setups typically used for dynamic experiments, the Flex XL Blue and Flex HR detectors had signal to noise ratios of 18.44 and 26.56 respectively. The highest resolved spatial frequencies of the Flex GP, Flex XL Blue, and Flex HR with the flash source are 3.85, 5.00, and 3.85 line pairs per millimeter, respectively. In conclusion, the Flex GP detector had the best combination of signal to noise ratio, contrast to noise ratio, and spatial resolution under a flash source.

computed radiography↗