Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “APPEALS”

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 631 records · Page 35
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2019

Evaluating the Opportunities for Multi-Level Memory - An ASC 2016 L2 Milestone

As new memory technologies appear on the market, there is a growing push to incorporate them into future architectures. Compared to traditional DDR DRAM, these technologies provide appealing advantages such as increased bandwidth or non-volatility. However, the technologies have significant downsides as well including higher cost, manufacturing complexity, and for non-volatile memories, higher latency and wear-out limitations. As such, no technology has emerged as a clear technological and economic winner. As a result, systems are turning to the concept of multi-level memory, or mixing multiple memory technologies in a single system to balance cost, performance, and reliability.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2019

BigData Express: Toward Predictable, Schedulable, and High-Performance Data Transfer [PowerPoint]

Topics include: • BigData Express: a schedulable, predictable, and high-performance data transfer service – A peer-to-peer, scalable, and extensible data transfer model – A visually appealing, easy-to-use web portal – A high-performance data transfer engine – A time-constraint-based scheduler – On-demand provisioning of end-to-end network paths with guaranteed QoS – Robust and flexible error handling – CILogon-based security

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2019

Partition Density Functionals: Theory and Applications. Final Technical Report

Partition Density Functional Theory is a method to calculate the energy and density of a molecule via self-consistent calculations on isolated fragments. At the start of this project, Partition Density Functional Theory (PDFT) had only been applied to one-dimensional model systems of non-interacting electrons. Its most appealing feature (the reason why PDFT was born in the first place) was that it allowed one to construct an internally-consistent Density Functional Theory (DFT) valid for non-integer electron numbers to be used in the context of Chemical Reactivity Theory. Many formal properties of the quantities entering the theory, such as partition potentials, were unknown when the project started. The connections with other fragment-based electronic structure methods, and especially with embedding theories, were unclear, and the potential of PDFT for fixing problems of approximate exchange-correlation functionals was unanticipated. Supported by grant DE-SC0005031, we made progress in developing, understanding, implementing, and applying PDFT. We discovered its potential for applications in situations where approximate DFT fails, such as when stretching bonds or when calculating the energy of weakly-interacting systems, both cases of importance for energy research applications. We extended PDFT in several directions (spin-densities, current densities, external electric and magnetic fields), and carried out many calculations on diatomic molecules and small clusters to test ideas for approximate non-additive functionals. As a result, we were able to propose physically-motivated fragment-density approximations for both covalent and weak bonds. Because many applications will increasingly benefit from efficient and accurate electronic-structure calculations via density-embedding techniques, the research results enabled by this grant should prove useful for addressing complex problems in a wide variety of fields, from chemistry to molecular biology and materials engineering.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2019

Kr/Xe SeparatioKr/Xe Separation over Metal Organic Framework Membranes

The central thrust of this project is to develop a novel family of continuous membranes, composed of porous crystalline membranes (mainly metal organic frameworks) which offer the possibility of demonstrating high separation performance for Kr/Xe gas mixtures. The specific objectives of the proposed work are: (1) The development of continuous and reproducible MOF membranes on porous tubular supports displaying high Kr permeabilities and high Kr/Xe separation selectivities.(2) Demonstrating the membrane performance long term stability.(3) Establish the basic structure/separation relationships of MOF membranes in Kr/Xe separations, and (4) Demonstrating that membrane synthesis could be amenable to large scale production. We have demonstrated that porous crystalline molecular sieve membranes including metal organic frameworks, zeolites, and alumino phosphates can effectively separate Kr/Xe gas mixtures ate industrially relevant compositions. Specifically, these three compositions correspond to a different family of microporous crystals, namely zeolites (SAPO-34), metal organic frameworks (ZIF-8) and alumino phosphates (AlPO-18). SAPO-34 membranes displayed the best overall separation performance, while AlPO-18 membranes displayed the highest Kr permeances. The key factors affecting the separation selectivity and permeance of these membranes were identified, and decoupled. The presence of rigid micropores with size lying between Kr and Xe atomic sizes, lower Xe/Kr uptakes (adsorption selectivity), and lower concentration of non-selective pores led to the highest observed Kr/Xe separation selectivities among these three microporous crystals, which corresponded to SAPO-34. The Kr permeances for these three microporous crystalline membrane compositions decreased exponentially with membrane thickness. The best membranes separated Kr/Xe gas mixtures with separation selectivities as high as 45 and Kr permeances ~ as high as 1.2 x 10 -7 mol/m 2 s Pa. In addition, SAPO-34 and ZIF-8 membranes were effective in separating Air/Xe mixtures. With separation selectivities as high as 30, and air permeances of 2.3 x 10 -7 mol/m 2 s Pa. Finally, we explore the synthesis in powder form of other potentially suitable porous crystals that if prepared in membrane form could be highly appealing candidates for Kr/Xe and Air/Xe separation. These crystals are porous organic cages which potentially can molecular sieve Kr and air from Xenon based on the unimodal pore sizes lying between the size of the permeant molecules.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2020

At-source Recovery of Rare Earth Elements from Coal Mine Drainage

Conventional acid mine drainage (AMD) treatment consists of pH adjustment, oxidation, and separation of solid precipitates from discharge quality water. Alkaline addition increases the pH to the range 7 to 9 to precipitate the regulated metals Al and Mn ions as hydroxides. Mechanical or chemical oxidation then converts the reduced iron species Fe 2+ to Fe 3+ which precipitates at a low pH value as ferric hydroxide (Fe(OH) 3 ). Co-precipitation of Rare Earth Elements (REEs) with hydroxides creates a gangue-rich matrix from which REEs must be separated. Fe(OH)3 is generally the most abundant gangue-forming metal. Current research by the project team has shown raw, untreated AMD has an average total rare earth element content (TREE) of about 287 μg/L (0.287 ppm). Operators of AMD-producing facilities are obliged to treat it to neutralize acidity and remove regulated metals (e.g., iron (Fe), aluminum (Al), and manganese (Mn)) prior to discharge. Ongoing research indicates conventional AMD treatment concentrates TREE in resulting precipitates (AMD sludge) by an average factor of 2,635x to an average dry weight, elemental concentration of 708 g/t (ppm). While the economics of recovering REEs from AMD sludge are appealing, much of the cost of REE recovery would be incurred during separation of REEs from the gangue metals: Fe, Al, and Mn. Significant gains can be made by precipitating REEs when most of these gangue metals are still in solution. Significant improvements in REE extraction efficiency can be obtained through separation of REEs from the aqueous phase AMD, upstream of conventional AMD treatment by: 1) creating an enriched REE feedstock, 2) producing a more consistent feedstock, 3) reducing transportation costs to an REE refinery, 4) reducing acid consumption in the acid leaching step, and 5) reducing the volume of waste produced at the ALSX plant. This project is exploring two novel approaches for extracting REEs upstream of the conventional AMD treatment plants to create a purified REE feedstock while leaving the bulk of the Fe, Al, and Mn in solution for subsequent treatment. While the average TREE concentration of raw AMD is low and individual sites range between 10 and 2,200 μg/L, successful at-source REE separation will generate a superior feedstock to a conventional ALSX process and significantly improve the economics and environmental performance of REE extraction from AMD. AMD can be classified into two types: type A is net acid and iron is partly oxidized while type B is net alkaline, and iron occurs in the reduced, ferrous state. In Case A, the pH is raised slightly, which will precipitate Fe 3+ and Al 3+ but not REEs. The other important type of AMD is net alkaline water found in flooded, anoxic deep mines. These generally have a pH > 6.0 and are net alkaline. REE concentrations are also much lower than those found in acidic AMD while the volumes and flux are much higher. Most of these are pumped discharges with almost no Al. Case B AMD is strongly reduced and, like Case A water, Fe and Mn ions are similarly reduced and therefore soluble at pH <9.0. REEs and an array of transition ions will be the only trivalent cations in this type of AMD. In Case B, both upward pH adjustment under reducing conditions and application of an electrochemically stimulated supported liquid membrane strategy to separate REEs from ferrous ion will be explored.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
DOE OSTI2020

BigData Express: Toward Predictable, Schedulable, and High-Performance Data Transfer [Slides]

BigData Express: a schedulable, predictable, and high-performance data transfer service. A peer-to-peer, scalable, and extensible data transfer model; A visually appealing, easy-to-use web portal; A high-performance data transfer engine; On-demand provisioning of end-to-end network paths with guaranteed QoS; Robust and flexible error handling; CILogon-based security (certificate version); A rich set of REST APIs to support scientific workflows

96 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND PRESERVATION↗
DOE OSTI2020

Mysteries of Nuclear Fusion: How can we build a star on Earth? [Slides]

This presentation given at the Women's Physics Summer Camp focuses on nuclear fusion as an alternative to fossil fuels, renewable energy sources and nuclear fission energy. The presentation explains plasma physics and how it might be used to generate power. Current attempts and potential applications are outlined. An appeal is made for people trained in mathematics, physics, chemistry, engineering, computer science to solve these problems. If technical problems can be overcome, fusion technology will play a part in a clean, prosperous Earth and expand humanity’s reach to the stars.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Joint Conference Support (ISPP and ICMP)

Funds are requested to support the attendance of junior scientists at two international conferences: the International Symposium on Phototrophic Prokaryotes (ISPP) and the International Conference on Microbial Photosynthesis (ICMP). Both will be held on the campus of the University of British Colombia in Vancouver in August of 2018. The primary goal of the ISPP is to provide a forum for students and senior investigators to gather in an informal setting to share new scientific findings on all aspects of bacterial phototrophs (both anoxygenic and oxygenic). The ICMP will appeal to those working on photosynthetic processes in these organisms as well as in eukaryotic phototrophs for other reasons (e.g. as major producers in the oceans, as models for marine phytoplankton, as biofuel-producing systems, etc.). The ICMP was designed to follow the ISPP such that students and postdocs could attend two conferences for the travel costs of one. The funds will be used to defray the registration costs of graduate student and postdoctoral attendees to make it even more affordable for junior scientists.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2018

System Studies for Global Nuclear Assurance & Security: 3S Risk Analysis for Small Modular Reactors (Volume II). Conclusions & Implications

Coupling interests in small modular reactors (SMR) as efficient and effective method to meet increasing energy demands with a growing aversion to cost and schedule overruns traditionally associated with the current fleet of commercial nuclear power plants (NPP), SMRs are attractive because they offer a significant relative cost reduction to current-generation nuclear reactors-- increasing their appeal around the globe. Sandia's Global Nuclear Assurance and Security (GNAS) research perspective reframes the discussion around the "complex risk" of SMRs to address interdependencies between safety, safeguards, and security. This systems study provides technically rigorous analysis of the safety, safeguards, and security risks of SMR technologies. The aims of this research is three-fold. The first aim is to provide analytical evidence to support safety, safeguards, and security claims related to SMRs (Study Report Volume I). Second, this study aims to introduce a systems-theoretic approach for exploring interdependencies between the technical evaluations (Study Report Volume II). The third aim is to demonstrate Sandia's capability for timely, rigorous, and technical analysis to support emerging complex GNAS mission objectives.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Dual Purpose Canister Reactivity and Groundwater Absorption Analyses

The current spent nuclear fuel (SNF) management strategy includes reliance on dry storage. Utilities are meeting their interim storage needs on an individual basis with use of large-capacity dry storage casks, with a current focus on meeting existing storage and transportation requirements, as disposal requirements are not currently available. These casks are commonly known as dual-purpose (i.e., storage and transportation) canisters (DPCs). However, a small percentage of single-purpose (storage only) systems is also being used to meet storage needs. These are included under the “DPC” heading. This report investigates the postclosure criticality safety aspects of DPCs. Placing large, heavy waste packages containing DPCs into a repository for direct disposal has not yet been implemented domestically or internationally. Therefore, direct disposal of DPCs represents new engineering and scientific challenges. Some of the engineering challenges that have already been addressed include handling and placement, use of ramps vs. shafts, use of hoists, use of transport equipment, and thermal management. Additionally, some studies have been conducted in the past regarding the feasibility of direct disposal from a criticality analysis perspective and have concluded that while possible, demonstrating subcriticality over the disposal time period is a challenge. The alternative to direct disposal of DPCs into a repository is to repackage the SNF into different canisters. The direct disposal of DPCs without cutting them open and repackaging is appealing because it could be more cost-effective, reduce the complexity of fuel management operations both in and outside reactor facilities, and result in less cumulative worker dose during interim storage and handling before eventual disposal in a deep geologic repository.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Adaptive Mesh Refinement for Parallel in Time Methods

The project applied the multigrid-reduction-in-time (MGRIT) algorithm to an existing sub-cycled adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) code to investigate the performance of flows dominated by inertial physics. Previous work demonstrated good performance from MGRIT+AMR applied to flows dominated by diffusive physics. Consistent with previous experience, inertial physics negatively affected convergence rates and performance. Efforts to circumvent this issue by appealing to the physics of turbulence were investigated. It has been demonstrated that scales can be effectively transferred between multigrid levels for a turbulent flow resulting in a) partial convergence observed and b) nearly identical results to sequential time-stepping. Performance improvements have not yet been demonstrated - attempts at coarsening the grid on coarser MG levels compromises the solution quality and leads to divergence. This report summarize the accomplishments for the time-frame from 10/5/2020 to 12/31/2020 with an informal no-cost-extension to 05/20/2021

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2021

MicroResonators for Compacts Optical Sensors (μRCOS)

As the demand for continuous, in-situ surveillance of health of systems and environments rapidly increases, miniaturized sensors with fast responses are sought. Optical dielectric resonators supporting Whispering Gallery Modes (WGMs) have exceptional properties, like very high-power density, very narrow spectral linewidth, and extremely small mode volume. As the footprint of these sensors is drastically reduced, measurements of microvolumes samples with dramatic reduction in analysis time are possible, enabling large numbers of parallel analyses using microarrays. The high sensitivity and speed of WGM resonators combined with the ability to detect molecules in their native state have great future potential for basic and applied research such as reliable single molecule, trace-gas detection, environmental monitoring, chemical threat sensing, and biodefense Such appealing peculiarities motivated us developing WMG resonators (WGMRs) for Cavity Enhanced Absorption Spectroscopy (CEAS) for chem-bio detection. Specifically, we designed and batch-fabricated microspheres and fiber tapers for resonances excitation. We successfully detected gases (N 2 and CO 2 ) in customized environmental chambers, and bio-organisms (Inf. A and E. Coli) with integrated microfluidic systems. Background calibration and environmental isolation were always accounted for in proving the performances.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

MicroResonators for Compacts Optical Sensors (μRCOS)

As the demand for continuous, in-situ surveillance of health of systems and environments rapidly increases, miniaturized sensors with fast responses are sought. Optical dielectric resonators supporting Whispering Gallery Modes (WGMs) have exceptional properties, like very high-power density, very narrow spectral linewidth, and extremely small mode volume. As the footprint of these sensors is drastically reduced, measurements of microvolumes samples with dramatic reduction in analysis time are possible, enabling large numbers of parallel analyses using microarrays. The high sensitivity and speed of WGM resonators combined with the ability to detect molecules in their native state have great future potential for basic and applied research such as reliable single molecule, trace-gas detection, environmental monitoring, chemical threat sensing, and biodefense Such appealing peculiarities motivated us developing WMG resonators (WGMRs) for Cavity Enhanced Absorption Spectroscopy (CEAS) for chem-bio detection. Specifically, we designed and batch-fabricated microspheres and fiber tapers for resonances excitation. We successfully detected gases (N 2 and CO 2 ) in customized environmental chambers, and bio-organisms (Inf. A and E. Coli) with integrated microfluidic systems. Background calibration and environmental isolation were always accounted for in proving the performances.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Investigating Wireless Quantum Key Distribution for Advanced Reactor Communications

Remote operation of small modular reactor (SMR) facilities is an appealing prospect for streamlined operation costs, safety concerns, and user convenience. The ability to guarantee security of communication channels between offsite users and nuclear reactor facilities is critical to enabling remote operations, given the sensitive nature of reactor state data. This report proposes a configuration implementing quantum key distribution (QKD) and advanced encryption standard (AES) protocols to establish secure reactor data feeds. The model outlined, which utilizes the Argonne-developed SeQUeNCe software package and custom MATLAB code, determines free-space channel losses for microwave-band communications in a variety of weather conditions and simulates QKD via ground-satellite links. This report demonstrates the feasibility of repeatable, real-time key generation and distribution for this configuration towards enabling secure wireless reactor communications.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Material Control & Accountancy for Molten Salt Reactors (FY2021 Report)

There is significant domestic and international interest, investment, and research and development momentum to pursue advanced nuclear reactor technologies. Molten salt reactor (MSR) concepts display the largest variability in fuel type and design features among the current advanced concepts. MSRs have been proposed with various core designs, sizes (power), and fuel cycles. Salt-fueled molten salt systems represent the only advanced reactor type with fuel that is not in a solid form during operation. These “liquid-fueled” MSRs are unique from perspectives of fuel fabrication, spent irradiated fuel and waste components, licensing, and material control and accountability (MC&A) including the potential of fissile material holdup. The liquid fuel salt is the defining distinction in comparison to other advanced reactors that propose TRI-structural ISOtropic particle fuel pebbles, various coolant options (e.g., molten salts or metals, high temperature gas), or small modular alternatives using solid fuel variants including both light water reactors and non-light water reactors. MSRs are appealing to the nuclear energy industry because of the diverse reactor characteristics they can support including various neutron energy spectra, fueling requirements, fuel cycles, and/or fuel utilization. However, because of the significant deviation and diversity of a salt-fueled system compared to traditional solid fuel light water-cooled reactors (LWRs), the history, regulatory licensing framework, modeling capabilities, and supporting engineering technology are either lacking or, in some cases, nonexistent. Therefore, the research community is actively supporting advanced MSR development on many of these fronts in particular to assist MSR vendors with licensing requirements. ORNL is leading the research and development of respective MC&A approaches for salt-fueled MSRs. This report summarizes the research performed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) under the US Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy, Advanced Reactor Safeguards (ARS) program to investigate safeguards and security by design concepts, licensing and regulatory considerations, and dynamic system-level modeling to understand radioisotope concentrations for salt-fueled MSRs. The report builds upon the previous research and literature, identifies the MC&A challenges inherent to a salt-fueled MSR, reviews current regulatory frameworks for LWRs and their applicability towards salt-fueled MSRs, summarizes the status and progress of an MSR dynamic modeling tool, and discusses a prospective MC&A approach based on the Molten Salt Demonstration Reactor (MSDR) model.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2022

6.26 Low Cost Basalt Fiber for Automotive Applications

Vehicle lightweighting is an essential component to the automotive industry to improve fuel economy of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles to meet ever improving emission standards and to improve the range of electric vehicles (EV). Composite materials offer high specific modulus and specific strength, which makes them appealing for these light weighting efforts. Sheet molding compounds (SMC) are particularly interesting from an automotive perspective because of the relatively low cost and high volume of producing SMC parts. Traditionally, composite materials for automotive application are glass fiber reinforced because of the attractive price - performance ratio, but basalt fibers are a cost and recycling competitive reinforcement alternative in this market. The aim of this project was to examine the feasibility of utilizing basalt fiber for automotive applications. More specifically, an effort was made to examine different fiber sizings on basalt fiber combined with vinyl-ester (VE) resin, and their performance as part of an SMC process. In addition to offering vehicle lightweighting with fiber reinforced polymer composites, basalt fiber is a fully recyclable material and thus supports the IACMI technical goal of: Demonstrate that the technology is capable at a sufficient scale for >80% recyclability or reuse of fiber reinforced polymer composites in five years into useful components with projected cost and quality at commercial scale competitive with virgin materials on a pathway to 95% recyclability or reuse starting in ten years. Three different fiber sizings were applied to a continuous roving of basalt fiber and compared to a traditional Electrical/Chemical Resistance (E-CR) glass fiber that is typically used in these types of applications. Fiber tows were examined for Loss on Ignition percentage (LOI%), Tex, and tow strength. Some sizings clearly outperformed others, and the ability to process these fibers on a pilot scale SMC line was demonstrated. A test plan for the manufacturing and mechanical testing of SMC panels was developed. This work continues outside the time frame allocated for this project. When this work is completed, it will be added to this report and posted as Appendix C. Glass fiber reinforced SMC materials have already proven feasible as a light weighting method for traditionally steel parts like the Volkswagen (VW) Atlas lift-gate (Figure 1); this project team is seeking the feasibility of basalt fiber as a drop-in replacement for glass fiber reinforced SMC. Sizing development for basalt fibers has proven that the mechanical properties are better than E-glass and closer to S-glass, which makes it an interesting material for SMC applications. Better mechanical properties translate to less material needed to achieve load case requirement for target applications. The business case has already been demonstrated for 100,000 parts per year of glass fiber reinforced SMC Atlas lift-gates compared to traditional steel manufacturing processes. Reduced overhead and assembly costs are offset by glass fiber SMC higher cost per kg beyond 100,000 parts per year, which is still a relatively low volume for the automotive industry. For basalt fiber reinforced SMC to become feasible for automotive applications, the price-performance ratio has to be precisely determined. Based on the mechanical performance it is possible to establish a range of applications and technical solutions in which the potential of basalt SMC can be utilized, while the price of the material can be used to compile the business case for such applications. Based on these business cases and the sustainability indicators, glass fiber reinforcement (or other) materials can be directly substituted. Volkswagen’s commitment to reducing carbon emissions cannot be understated. Basalt fiber shows promise of reducing the carbon footprint in SMC materials, especially if sizing optimizations can be made with thermoplastic based SMC. To fully realize the value of basalt fiber reinforced materials, a lifecycle cost analysis should be performed on basalt’s production and recycling, and then compared against E-glass. From this assessment, a true judgement can be made on the commercialization potential of this material. Figure 1. Example of Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composite Liftgate As a conclusion, we can state that Mafic basalt fiber is not a direct replacement for E-glass or E-CR glass based on price, but should be considered a technical solution when E-glass does not provide adequate performance in a composite design and S-glass, aramid and carbon fibers are too costly. Mafic basalt fiber can be placed on the high-performance fiber spectrum next to S-glass for performance but at one third the price. It should be considered for more technically challenging structural designs wherein the performance can demonstrate 20-25% performance enhancement over E-glass to elicit more strength or a weight reduction. Both Michelman and Mafic produce thermoplastic sizings which, in combination with Nylon and polypropylene resin and fibers, can further advance high speed composite implementations while maintaining an eco-friendly manufacturing process.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

Tuscaloosa Marine Shale Laboratory

The Tuscaloosa Marine Shale (TMS) in Louisiana and Mississippi is an Upper Cretaceous source rock formation sandwiched between the sands of the upper and lower Tuscaloosa sections. The TMS is believed to be the source rock for underlying prolific Tuscaloosa sand formation. The TMS has an unproven estimate of 7,000,000,000 bbls of recoverable oil while its current total average production is about 3,000 bbls of oil per day in 2017. In 2013 and 2014, more than 80 wells were drilled horizontally into the TMS that were fractured using multi-stage fracturing technology. The results from this have been mixed, but recent production for several wells show an appealing initial oil production rate of more than 1000 bbl/day. The preliminary core analysis by industry partners and a few literature studies shows that the TMS is one of the most clay-rich and sensitive shales to water. Due to these and other technical problems, there is high risk for the economic development of TMS compared to other shale plays. The experiences of major industrial players in the TMS show the necessity of open and collaborative efforts to better understand the critical gaps in the development of this challenging and potentially highly economic shale play to enable more cost-efficient and environmentally-sound recovery from this unconventional liquid-rich shale play. The overall objective of this project is to form a consortium of science and industry partners to address the following six major objectives using scientific and technical approaches: 1. To improve wellbore integrity by better understanding the sources of the wellbore instability issues, proposing innovative mud and cement design for the TMS. 2. To improve formation evaluation using laboratory techniques for the evaluation of mineralogical composition, organic content, and produced-water chemistry as well as well log and geophysical analysis. 3. To determine the role of geologic discontinuities on fracture growth and shale creep behavior using digital image correlation technique. 4. To investigate the application of stable CO 2 foam and super-hydrophobic proppants for improved reservoir stimulation. 5. To better understand the nature of water/hydrocarbon/CO 2 flow in clay and organic-rich formation and the role of water/fluid interaction on recovery. 6. To prepare better socio-economic environment for TMS development by community engagement. Subsequently, the TMS virtual laboratory conducted testing and analysis of various properties of rock and formation fluids from the TMS, including but not limited to the following: Analyzing reports and logs to better understand the source of wellbore instability in TMS wells; Experiments to design a customized cement based on TMS requirements; Experiments to obtain the mineralogical and geochemical composition of TMS samples; Seismic analysis of TMS geophysical data to better predict total organic carbon (TOC) content and brittleness in TMS; Well log analysis to better estimate the TOC and geo-mechanical properties of TMS; Experiments on formation water to understand the chemistry of produced water; Experiments to determine the role of lamination and natural fractures on fracture propagation or rock deformation using digital image correlation technique in in-direct tensile tests, semi-circular bend test and creep tests Experiments to determine the stability and rheological properties of nanoparticle-stabilized CO 2 foam in TMS rock samples; Experiments to determine fluid dynamics in un-propped TMS fractures and the role of nano-coating of proppants on fluid dynamics in fractures with proppants; Micro-fluidics experiments to enhance the understanding of fluid dynamics in tight liquidrich pores with high clay content; Socio-economic studies to better engage communities in TMS development.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

A Step Toward Working with Untrusted Ground Stations

We are witnessing a shift toward outsourcing satellite and ground station services to third-party commercial entities. As with any enterprise, these third parties can be vulnerable to cyber compromise, including image tampering and deepfake injection. The multimedia community is beginning to establish standards and technology to enable authenticity verification of multimedia created and edited by others. While appealing to the remote sensing domain, the nature of raw satellite imagery is incompatible with the proposed change verification tools, resulting in the need for a means to validate updates made to image products. We present a simple method for verifying a specific class of algorithms. Our inverse processing approach eliminates the need to see the original image as the reversed data can be checked against an original digital signature. We demonstrate our approach on basic image restoration routines and conclude with a discussion on open challenges and next steps.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗