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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 685 records · Page 38
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2013

The ARM Climate Research Facility: A Review of Structure and Capabilities

The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program (www.arm.gov) is a Department of Energy, Office of Science, climate research user facility that provides atmospheric observations from diverse climatic regimes around the world. Use of ARM data is free and available to anyone through the ARM data archive. ARM is approaching 20 years of operations. In recent years, the facility has grown to add two mobile facilities and an aerial facility to its network of fixed-location sites. Over the past year, ARM has enhanced its observational capabilities with a broad array of new instruments at its fixed and mobile sites and the aerial facility. Instruments include scanning millimeter- and centimeter-wavelength radars; water vapor, cloud/aerosol extinction, and Doppler lidars; a suite of aerosol instruments for measuring optical, physical, and chemical properties; instruments including eddy correlation systems to expand measurements of the surface and boundary layer; and aircraft probes for measuring cloud and aerosol properties. Taking full advantage of these instruments will involve the development of complex data products. This work is underway but will benefit from engagement with the broader scientific community. In this article we will describe the current status of the ARM program with an emphasis on developments over the past eight years since ARM was designated a DOE scientific user facility. We will also describe the new measurement capabilities and provide thoughts for how these new measurements can be used to serve the climate research community with an invitation to the community to engage in the development and use of these data products.

Atmospheric Radiation Measurement↗
DOE OSTI2013

NGNP: High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor Key Definitions, Plant Capabilities, and Assumptions

This document provides key definitions, plant capabilities, and inputs and assumptions related to the Next Generation Nuclear Plant to be used in ongoing efforts related to the licensing and deployment of a high temperature gas-cooled reactor. These definitions, capabilities, and assumptions were extracted from a number of NGNP Project sources such as licensing related white papers, previously issued requirement documents, and preapplication interactions with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2025

The Dual-Axis Radiographic Hydrodynamic Test Facility Capability eXpansion (DCX) Strategy

This document details the strategy proposed to meet the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) requirement for the Dual-Axis Radiographic Hydrodynamic Test (DARHT) Facility Sustainment and Modernization projects identified in multiple NNSA Stockpile Stewardship and Management Plan (SSMP) reports to Congress [NNSA, 2020; 2021; 2022; 2023; 2024]. DARHT has become indispensable for the certification of the primaries of U.S. nuclear weapons since the current U.S. moratorium halted underground nuclear testing more than 30 years ago. However, aging facilities, evolving technology, and other issues are limiting or threatening the capability of DARHT to meet NNSA’s expanding mission needs now and into the future. This DARHT Capability eXpansion (DCX) strategy was developed to address NNSA needs by extending DARHT’s reliability and resilience, increasing the quality and quantity of DARHT data, and enabling hydrodynamic measurements in complex environments. The strategy can be implemented through integration of line-item projects, acquisition of major items of equipment, and other actions coordinated with the execution of the SSMP. This strategy document is intended for U.S. Government officials, particularly authorizers, appropriators, and program leaders. It may also be furnished to DARHT users, customers, collaborators, stakeholders, and visitors as needed

45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEF↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

The Multirotor Test Bed – A New NASA Test Capability for Advanced VTOL Rotorcraft Configurations

In November 2019, NASA completed the first wind tunnel test entry of the Multirotor Test Bed (MTB), a new test capability for advanced VTOL rotorcraft configurations. The MTB had been under development since 2017 when the need arose for an easily reconfigurable test stand for multirotor aircraft configurations. With the wide-ranging assortment of aircraft currently targeted at Urban Air Mobility and Unmanned Aircraft System applications, there is a need for validation data that will increase confidence in the computational modeling tools being used to develop these platforms. The MTB fills this need. This paper describes the key features of the MTB as well as its first wind tunnel test entry. A selection of results from the test is presented here, demonstrating the flexible configuration of the MTB and the types of data researchers can generate using this new test capability.

Multirotor Test Bed↗
NASA NTRS1996

Reduced Cost and Increased Capability Through Technology in the New Millennium

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA's) New Millennium Program (NMP) is designed to reduce the cost of spacecraft in the 21 st century while simultaneously increasing spacecraft capabilities, thereby increasing the return on our investment in space exploration. The NMP process ins being enacted in the following manner: We are developing a science vision for the 21 st century and identifying the attendant missions of this vision. These missions, in turn, will specify the capabilities that future spacecraft require.

New↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Surface Systems Capability Gaps for Enabling NASA’s Sustainable Lunar Operations

This paper discusses the NASA Ground, Test, and Surface Systems Taxonomy (TX-13) related capability gaps, including details of architecture, technology, engineering, and policy gaps for enabling sustainable lunar surface operations and subsequent Mars missions. Architecture gaps include standardized architectures and interfaces, multi-element systems engineering and integration, design for supportability, and nuclear payload processing and launch approach. Technology gaps, primarily focused on uncrewed surface operations, include automated/autonomous cryogenic loading, transfer, servicing, and storage of commodities; health determination and fault management; automated/autonomous planning and scheduling; automated/autonomous inspection, maintenance and repair; logistics management and reliability; launch and landing site preparation; commodity management; and advanced umbilicals and dust tolerant interfaces. Engineering gaps include high-purity propellant production for ground and surface applications and large-scale xenon servicing capabilities. The policy gap includes nuclear propulsion acceptance testing and qualification approach. Strategically identifying human/automation roles and tasks and infusing automation and autonomy practices early in a system’s lifecycle is essential for achieving the mission objectives for a sustainable human lunar presence, improving performance and mission effectiveness, reducing operations costs and reliance on humans to perform tasks, and accommodating ground communication delays.

Surface Systems↗
NASA NTRS2023

Exploration Medical Capability IMPACT Medical Database – Medical Item Database (MedID) Content Development Methods

The Informing Mission Planning via Analysis of Complex Tradespaces (IMPACT) project encompasses a suite of computational tools that are used to inform systematic trade study evaluations and research prioritizations regarding the optimization of spaceflight medical systems, including the provision of risk assessment metrics, for a given design reference mission (DRM). The IMPACT Medical Database (IMPACT-MD) is the component that virtually houses the clinical and engineering data for medical conditions, capabilities, and resources used to support these analyses. In addition, IMPACT-MD also provides data to the associated SysML model to support the Level 2, Level 3, and Level 4 requirements development needed for IMPACT. IMPACT-MD contains an internal Evidence Library (EL) sub-component that hosts the clinical evidence, treatment and outcome metric data, and incidence data for each medical condition identified for exploration-class missions. Furthermore, a separate Medical Item Database (MedID) sub-component hosts the engineering data and physical attributes (e.g., mass, volume, power, etc.) associated with each medical resource item identified to address the requisite medical conditions. The IMPACT project is conducted under the Exploration Medical Capability (ExMC) element of the Human Research Program (HRP) within NASA's Space Operations Mission Directorate (SOMD). The reader is referred to the documents in Appendix A for a more complete overview of the IMPACT tool suite and functionality as well as further detail on any associated aspects of the project. The primary purpose of this document is to describe the methods utilized in the collection and verification of engineering data content during the project development phase for the MedID sub-component of the IMPACT-MD project. Engineering content data (both existing and new/future) will be stored in IMPACT-MD for use by the IMPACT project. This document will detail the content development and data credibility for the engineering data housed within the MedID subcomponent of IMPACT-MD, which is used to inform the IMPACT 1.0 project deliverables.

Exploration Medical Capability↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Inflatable Habitat Testing Capabilities at MSFC

Since early 2022 Marshall Space Flight Center’s (MSFC) Test Lab (ET) has been the premier inflatable habitat testing organization for NASA. In the past two years the Center has strategically invested in this thriving business unit; bringing to life four distinct facilities and a dozen unique capabilities. The Center has been successful in partnering with companies developing softgoods architectures and has already executed several test campaigns for them. This poster gives an overview of the Test Lab’s capabilities and the facilities used for inflatable habitat testing.

Inflatable↗
DOE OSTI2014

Assessment of Space Nuclear Thermal Propulsion Facility and Capability Needs

The development of a Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP) system rests heavily upon being able to fabricate and demonstrate the performance of a high temperature nuclear fuel as well as demonstrating an integrated system prior to launch. A number of studies have been performed in the past which identified the facilities needed and the capabilities available to meet the needs and requirements identified at that time. Since that time, many facilities and capabilities within the Department of Energy have been removed or decommissioned. This paper provides a brief overview of the anticipated facility needs and identifies some promising concepts to be considered which could support the development of a nuclear thermal propulsion system. Detailed trade studies will need to be performed to support the decision making process.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2024

All‐Solid‐State Lithium–Sulfur Batteries of High Cycling Stability and Rate Capability Enabled by a Self‐Lithiated Sn‐C Interlayer

Abstract All‐solid‐state lithium–sulfur batteries (ASSLSBs) have attracted intense interest due to their high theoretical energy density and intrinsic safety. However, constructing durable lithium (Li) metal anodes with high cycling efficiency in ASSLSBs remains challenging due to poor interface stability. Here, a compositionally stable, self‐lithiated tin (Sn)‐carbon (C) composite interlayer (LSCI) between Li anode and solid‐state electrolyte (SSE), capable of homogenizing Li‐ion transport across the interlayer, mitigating decomposition of SSE, and enhancing electrochemical/structural stability of interface, is developed for ASSLSBs. The LSCI‐mediated Li metal anode enables stable Li plating/stripping over 7000 h without Li dendrite penetration. The ASSLSBs equipped with LSCI thus exhibit excellent cycling stability of over 300 cycles (capacity retention of ≈80%) under low applied pressure (<8 MPa) and demonstrate improved rate capability even at 3C. The enhanced electrochemical performance and corresponding insights of the designed LSCI broaden the spectrum of advanced interlayers for interface manipulation, advancing the practical application of ASSLSBs.

Ye, Lei↗
DOE OSTI2022

Low-Oxidized Siloxene Nanosheets with High Capacity, Capacity Retention, and Rate Capability in Lithium-Based Batteries

The mechanical degradation experienced by Si electrodes during Li (de)alloying reactions can potentially be mitigated by using Si-based materials with layered 2D geometries. Such materials are expected to exhibit favorable mechanical properties and be capable of buffering the volume change associated with (de)lithitation. In this work, 2D siloxene nanosheets are synthesized using a facile topotactic reaction followed by ultrasonication as an exfoliation step. Here, detailed structural and chemical characterization via electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and Raman spectroscopy is conducted, revealing a low-oxidized siloxene nanosheet material with only 15% surface Si-oxide. The obtained siloxene nanosheets are tested as Li-ion negative electrodes in lithium-based electrochemical cells. The cells exhibit high rate capability with a capacity of 935 mAh g –1 at 3200 mA g –1 and ≈99.5% coulombic efficiency. The inclusion of fluoroethylene carbonate (FEC) in the electrolyte improves capacity retention over 200 cycles from 13% to 77% at 1000 mA g –1 . This behavior is attributed to the FEC decomposition forming a solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) with higher ion conductivity and robust LiF/Li x PO y F z content, as characterized via XPS Raman spectroscopy.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2019

Enhancing the Rate Capability of Niobium Oxide Electrode through Rare‐Earth Doping Engineering

Abstract Niobium oxide is considered one of the most promising electrode materials for ultrafast electrochemical energy storage devices with high energy density. In this work, we first found that trace amounts (<1 %) of Yb 3+ doping remarkably enhanced the rate capability of T−Nb 2 O 5 , which was further proved to be because of the formation of a thin layer of amorphous YbNbO x . The capacity of YbNbO x ‐coated Nb 2 O 5 reached 124 mAh g −1 at 20 C, which is the highest value reported among pristine Nb 2 O 5 electrodes. Besides, we found that doping with other rare‐earth elements such as Nd 3+ , Sm 3+ , and Gd 3+ can also improve the rate capability of T−Nb 2 O 5 . It can be concluded that rare‐earth doping can be an effective and robust method to enhance the intrinsic rate performance of electrode materials without complicated modifications.

Yin, Dandan↗
DOE OSTI2023

Comparing π‐complexation capabilities of ionic liquids containing silver(I) and copper(I) ions by headspace single drop microextraction in combination with high‐performance liquid chromatography

Selective π‐complexation capabilities of silver(I) and copper(I) ions can be effectively facilitated in ionic liquids. To understand the effects of environmental factors that influence the π‐complexation of these metal ions with analytes, techniques that employ small volumes of ionic liquid that can be readily analyzed are desired. In this study, headspace single drop microextraction coupled with HPLC is used to investigate a diverse set of environmental factors on the metal ion‐mediated complexation with aromatic compounds in ionic liquid media. Silver(I) and copper(I) bis[(trifluoromethyl)sulfonyl]imide salts were both studied by dissolving them in the 1‐decyl‐3‐methylimidazolium bis[(trifluoromethyl)sulfonyl]imide ionic liquid and employing the mixture as extraction media for aromatic compounds. Water and acetonitrile within the sample solution were observed to interfere with the complexation of silver(I) ions and aromatic compounds, while ethylene glycol and triethylene glycol did not. The temperature and extraction times were optimized to fully facilitate the π‐complexation capabilities of metal ions in ionic liquid media. Partition coefficients between the sample headspace and metal ion were determined using a three‐phase equilibria model. Although no discernable difference in analyte partitioning between the headspace and ionic liquid solvent was observed, analyte partition coefficients to silver(I) ion tended to be greater compared to copper(I) ion.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2016

Development of 1100 °C Capable Alumina-Forming Austenitic Alloys

Recently dalumina-forming austenitic (AFA) alloys based on ~12–32 weight % (wt%) Ni have been developed and offer an attractive combination of oxidation resistance and creep resistance at relatively low alloy cost. But, they exhibit a transition to internal oxidation and nitridation of Al above ~750–950 °C depending on composition and exposure environment. In order to identify AFA compositions capable of higher-temperature operation for applications such as ethylene cracking, the oxidation behavior of a series of developmental, as-cast nominal Fe–(25–45)Ni–(10–25)Cr–(4–5)Al–1Si–0.15Hf–0.07Y–0.01B wt% base alloys with and without Nb, Ti, and C additions was evaluated at 1100 °C in air with 10% water vapor. Furthermore, we observed protective alumina scale formation at levels of 35Ni, 25Cr, and 4Al with additions of Nb and C, indicating promise for 1100°C capable cast AFA alloys.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2019

An efficient three-dimensional rhizosphere modeling capability to study the effect of root system architecture on soil water and reactive transport

This research was to develop a rhizosphere modeling capability for plant-soil interactions by integrating water and ion uptake and release from three dimensional (3D) root systems and 3D variably saturated flow and multicomponent reactive transport in soil. We combined open source software for simulating plant and soil interactions with parallel processing computational technologies to address highly-resolved root system architecture and soil hydrobiogeochemical processes. Simulation capability was demonstrated on Brachypodium distachyon . Our demonstration problem showed that availability of water and plant nutrients is controlled by the interplay between 1) transpiration-driven cycles of water uptake, root zone saturation and desaturation; 2) sorption and desorption via competitive ion exchange; 3) buildup of ions not taken up during kinetic uptake of nutrients/ions from pore water; and 4) advection, dispersion, and diffusion of ions in the soil. The uptake of water and ions by individual roots leads to dynamic, local gradients in ion concentrations. The resulting higher solution ionic strength can lead to increasing sorption of K+ and NH4+ on the soil exchange sites, despite their preferential absorption by roots. The modeling framework makes it possible to explore alternative conceptual models and improve the understanding of the biogeochemical and physical environment within the rhizosphere.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Digital Image Correlation as an Experimental Modal Analysis Capability

Digital image correlation (DIC) is an established test technique in several fields including quasi-static displacement measurements. Recently there has been growing interest in using DIC to measure structural dynamic response and even extract modal parameters from that information. Although high-speed cameras have become more ubiquitous, there are no commercial end-to-end packages for modal analysis based on image data, particularly when combined with traditional data acquisition systems. As such, the practitioner is left to develop several key data processing capabilities, hardware interface equipment, and testing practices themselves. This work highlights several practical aspects that have been encountered while establishing DIC as a viable modal testing capability in a laboratory environment.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2025

New capabilities for rapid depletion analysis of pebble-bed reactors in SCALE

The SCALE Leap-In for Cores at Equilibrium (SLICE) method leverages capabilities available in the SCALE modeling and simulation suite to facilitate rapid estimation of equilibrium core inventories for flowing-pebble reactor systems in support of a variety of fuel cycle applications. New capabilities that compliment the SLICE method have been developed for the ORIGAMI interface to ORIGEN in SCALE to facilitate rapid depletion calculations for flowing-pebble systems. New features include a more generalized and flexible means of specifying interpolation dimensions, the ability to evaluate pebbles moving through user-defined “axial zones” in each of the pebble’s multiple passes through the core, and the treatment of differential velocities across radial channels (representing both pebble-to-pebble and wall-to-pebble friction effects). ORIGAMI thus provides an efficient user interface to define a pebble’s path and irradiation histories of its multiple passes through the core to calculate the pebble’s time-dependent inventories, which can be useful in various applications domains such as safeguards, criticality safety, and disposal analyses. The consistency of new ORIGAMI approach was verified against the solution obtained using the SLICE method with ORIGEN-ARP, showing excellent agreement.

Skutnik, Steven E. [Oak Ridge National Laboratory ↗
DOE OSTI2013

Development of an Absolute Gas-Counting Capability for Low to Medium Activities

ABSTRACT Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is developing a capability to measure the absolute activity concentration of various gaseous radionuclides using length-compensated proportional-counting methods. This capability will enable the validation and use of low-level, gaseous radionuclide calibration standards for use in PNNL’s shallow underground laboratory. Two sets of unequal length proportional counters have been fabricated. These detector assemblies operate on a static gas-fill principle, in contrast to continuous, flow-through configurations. One set of three counters has been fabricated using ultra-low background (ULB) electroformed copper and low-background fabrication methods. Once fully operational, these ULB counters will be used in PNNL’s shallow underground counting laboratory for analysis of gases with low activity concentrations < 1 Bq/cc. A second set of four unequal length counters has been fabricated from Oxygen-Free High-Conductivity Copper (OFHC) using similar low-background cleaning and assembly methods. These OFHC counters will be operated above ground in the analysis of gases with activity concentrations in the range of 1-10 Bq/cc. A gas delivery system is being developed to actively mix the analyte gas with an appropriate amount of count-gas and uniformly deliver it to the counters with high accuracy and repeatability. A description of both detector assemblies and gas delivery system will be given along with a preliminary uncertainty analysis of a simulated 0.05 Bq/cm3 gas measurement.

Williams, Richard M.↗