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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 73 records · Page 4
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2002

Bioinspired engineering of exploration systems for NASA and DoD

A new approach called bioinspired engineering of exploration systems (BEES) and its value for solving pressing NASA and DoD needs are described. Insects (for example honeybees and dragonflies) cope remarkably well with their world, despite possessing a brain containing less than 0.01% as many neurons as the human brain. Although most insects have immobile eyes with fixed focus optics and lack stereo vision, they use a number of ingenious, computationally simple strategies for perceiving their world in three dimensions and navigating successfully within it. We are distilling selected insect-inspired strategies to obtain novel solutions for navigation, hazard avoidance, altitude hold, stable flight, terrain following, and gentle deployment of payload. Such functionality provides potential solutions for future autonomous robotic space and planetary explorers. A BEES approach to developing lightweight low-power autonomous flight systems should be useful for flight control of such biomorphic flyers for both NASA and DoD needs. Recent biological studies of mammalian retinas confirm that representations of multiple features of the visual world are systematically parsed and processed in parallel. Features are mapped to a stack of cellular strata within the retina. Each of these representations can be efficiently modeled in semiconductor cellular nonlinear network (CNN) chips. We describe recent breakthroughs in exploring the feasibility of the unique blending of insect strategies of navigation with mammalian visual search, pattern recognition, and image understanding into hybrid biomorphic flyers for future planetary and terrestrial applications. We describe a few future mission scenarios for Mars exploration, uniquely enabled by these newly developed biomorphic flyers.

Space Flight↗
NASA NTRS2003

Biologically-inspired navigation and flight control for Mars flyer missions

Bioinspired Engineering Exploration Systems (BEES), is enabling new bioinspired sensors for autonomous exploration of Mars. The steps towards autonomy in development of these BEES flyers are described. A future set of Mars mission that are uniquely enabled by surch flyers are finally described.

bioinspired engineering Mars mission design flight↗
NASA NTRS2003

Bio-Inspired Engineering of Exploration Systems

The multidisciplinary concept of "bioinspired engineering of exploration systems" (BEES) is described, which is a guiding principle of the continuing effort to develop biomorphic explorers as reported in a number of articles in the past issues of NASA Tech Briefs. The intent of BEES is to distill from the principles found in successful nature-tested mechanisms of specific crucial functions that are hard to accomplish by conventional methods but that are accomplished rather deftly in nature by biological organisms. The intent is not just to mimic operational mechanisms found in a specific biological organism but to imbibe the salient principles from a variety of diverse bio-organisms for the desired crucial function. Thereby, we can build explorer systems that have specific capabilities endowed beyond nature, as they will possess a combination of the best nature-tested mechanisms for that particular function. The approach consists of selecting a crucial function, for example, flight or some selected aspects of flight, and develop an explorer that combines the principles of those specific attributes as seen in diverse flying species into one artificial entity. This will allow going beyond biology and achieving unprecedented capability and adaptability needed in encountering and exploring what is as yet unknown. A classification of biomorphic flyers into two main classes of surface and aerial explorers is illustrated in the figure, with examples of a variety of biological organisms that provide the inspiration in each respective subclass. Such biomorphic explorers may possess varied mobility modes: surface-roving, burrowing, hopping, hovering, or flying, to accomplish surface, subsurface, and aerial exploration. Preprogrammed for a specific function, they could serve as one-way communicating beacons, spread over the exploration site, autonomously looking for/at the targets of interest. In a hierarchical organization, these biomorphic explorers would report to the next level of exploration mode (say, a large conventional lander/rover) in the vicinity. A widespread and affordable exploration of new/hazardous sites at lower cost and risk would thus become possible by utilizing a faster aerial flyer to cover long ranges and deploying a variety of function- specific, smaller biomorphic explorers for distributed sensing and local sample acquisition. Several conceptual biomorphic missions for planetary and terrestrial exploration applications have been illustrated in "Surface-Launched Explorers for Reconnaissance/ Scouting" (NPO-20871), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 26, No. 4 (April, 2002), page 69 and "Bio-Inspired Engineering of Exploration Systems," Journal of Space Mission Architecture, Issue 2, Fall 2000, pages 49-79.

Thakoor, Sanita↗
DOE OSTI2025

Geographic source attribution of honey by strontium isotope analyses: Latvia and India measurements compared to model predictions in a feasibility study

Strontium isotope ratios ( 87 Sr/ 86 Sr) can be used to determine the geographic origin of agricultural products. Here, in this study, we measured the 87 Sr/ 86 Sr of honey samples from Richland, WA, USA, Latvia, and India, and compared the results to published 87 Sr/ 86 Sr from surrounding areas and values predicted based upon a random forest isoscape model (Bataille et al., 2020). While the 87 Sr/ 86 Sr of the honey samples compared well with previously published data, the model did not accurately predict the 87 Sr/ 86 Sr of the honey samples, demonstrating that further refinement of the model would be beneficial. Because Sr cycling in terrestrial ecosystems is complex, the 87 Sr/ 86 Sr of honey is likely to reflect several sources (e.g., nectar, surface water, dust) and may change over time. In order to accurately predict the 87 Sr/ 86 Sr of honey, models must consider local geology, ecology, and bee behavior. Additional research examining how Sr is incorporated into honey is needed to inform models.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Potential of water quality wetlands to mitigate habitat losses from agricultural drainage modernization

Given widespread biodiversity declines, a growing global human population, and demands to improve water quality, there is an immediate need to explore land management solutions that support multiple ecosystem services. Agricultural water quality wetlands designed to provide both water quality benefits and wetland and grassland habitat are an emerging restoration solution that may reverse habitat declines in intensive agricultural areas. Installation of water quality wetlands in the Upper Midwest, USA, when considered alongside the repair and modification of aging agricultural tile drainage infrastructure, is a likely scenario that may mitigate nutrient pollution exported from agricultural systems and improve crop yields. The capacity of water quality wetlands to provide habitat within the wetland pool and the surrounding grassland is not well-studied, particularly with respect to potential habitat changes resulting from drainage infrastructure upgrades. For the current study, we produced spatially explicit models of 37 catchments distributed throughout an important region for agriculture and biodiversity, the Des Moines Lobe of Iowa. Four scenarios were considered - with and without improved drainage and with and without water quality wetlands - to estimate the net potential habitat implications of these scenarios for amphibians, grassland birds, and wild bees. Model results indicate that drainage modification alone will likely result in moderate direct losses of suitable amphibian habitat and large declines in overall habitat quality. However, inclusion of water quality wetlands at the catchment scale may mitigate these amphibian habitat losses while also increasing grassland bird and pollinator habitat. In conclusion, the impacts of water quality wetlands and drainage modernization on waterfowl in the region require additional study.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

NWPEsSe: an Adaptive-Learning Global Optimization Algorithm for Nanosized Cluster Systems

Global optimization constitutes an important and fundamental problem in theoretical studies in many chemical fields, such as catalysis, materials or separations problems. In this paper, a novel algorithm has been developed for the global optimization of large systems including neat and ligated clusters in gas phase, and supported clusters in periodic boundary conditions. The method is based on an updated artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm method, that allows for adaptive-learning during the search process. The new algorithm is tested against four classes of systems of diverse chemical nature: gas phase Au_55, ligated Au_8^(2+), Au_8 supported on graphene oxide and defected rutile, and a large cluster assembly ?[Co?_6 Te_8 (PEt_3 )_6][C_60 ]_n, with sizes ranging between 1 to 3 nm and containing up to 1300 atoms. Reliable global minima (GMs) are obtained for all cases, either confirming published data or reporting new lower energy structures. The algorithm and interface to other codes in the form of an independent program, Northwest Potential Energy Search Engine (NWPEsSe), is freely available and it provides a powerful and efficient approach for global optimization of nanosized cluster systems. The work described in this publication was performed at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), which is operated by Battelle for the United States Department of Energy (DOE) under Contract DE-AC05-76RL0180. J. Z. and V.-A. G. acknowledge support from DOE, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sci-ences, Chemical, Geological and Biological Sciences Division and computing resources from PNNL’s Research Computing Facility and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center.

Zhang, Jun↗
DOE OSTI2025

Cryo-EM structures of the small-conductance Ca 2+ -activated K Ca 2.2 channel

Small-conductance Ca 2+ -activated K + (K Ca 2.1-K Ca 2.3) channels modulate neuronal and cardiac excitability. We report cryo-electron microscopy structures of the K Ca 2.2 channel in complex with calmodulin and Ca 2+ , alone or bound to two small molecule inhibitors, at 3.18, 3.50, 2.99 and 2.97 angstrom resolution, respectively. Extracellular S3-S4 loops in β-hairpin configuration form an outer canopy over the pore with an aromatic box at the canopy’s center. Each S3-S4 β-hairpin is tethered to the selectivity filter in the neighboring subunit by inter-subunit hydrogen bonds. This hydrogen bond network flips the aromatic residue (Tyr362) in the filter’s GYG signature by 180°, causing the outer selectivity filter to widen and water to enter the filter. Disruption of the tether by a mutation narrows the outer selectivity filter, realigns Tyr362 to the position seen in other K + channels, and significantly increases unitary conductance. UCL1684, a mimetic of the bee venom peptide apamin, sits atop the canopy and occludes the opening in the aromatic box. AP14145, an analogue of a therapeutic for atrial fibrillation, binds in the central cavity below the selectivity filter and induces closure of the inner gate. These structures provide a basis for understanding the small unitary conductance and pharmacology of K Ca 2.x channels.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

RANGE: A robust adaptive nature-inspired global explorer of potential energy surfaces

With the growing demand for realistic representations of chemical structures and the advent of exascale computing, the intelligent sampling of potential energy surfaces and efficient identification of global minima have become more essential but also more feasible. Building on prior studies demonstrating the efficiency of the Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) swarm intelligence algorithm, we report a hybrid metaheuristic framework that integrates the adaptive exploration capabilities of ABC coupled with the exploitation strengths of genetic algorithms (GA) in a scalable, Python-based implementation. The resulting tool, RANGE (Robust Adaptive Nature-inspired Global Explorer), provides seamless interfaces to multiple potential energy evaluators, either directly or via widely used Python libraries, and is designed for high-performance computing environments. We describe the implementation details of RANGE and evaluate its performance, relative to ABC- or GA-alone based algorithms, on a variety of chemical systems, including molecular clusters and heterogeneous surfaces. In conclusion, our results demonstrate RANGE’s efficiency, robustness, and broad applicability in addressing challenging global optimization problems in computational chemistry and materials science.

Algorithms and data structure↗
DOE OSTI2022

Perspective—Hydrogen Bonded Concentrated Electrolytes for Redox Flow Batteries: Limitations and Prospects

This perspective provides a brief overview of the recent work on electrolytes with hydrogen (H)-bonding network, specifically the deep eutectic solvents (DESs), and outlines important factors to consider when adapting these electrolytes in redox flow batteries (RFBs). The redox behavior, solubility, and stability of several redox molecules of relevance to RFBs in DESs are presented, including some of our work within the Breakthrough Electrolytes for Energy Storage (BEES)—an Energy Frontier Research Center of the United States Department of Energy. Particularly, the challenges and opportunities for further development of DESs for energy storage are discussed.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Detectability of Varied Hybridization Scenarios Using Genome-Scale Hybrid Detection Methods

Hybridization events complicate the accurate reconstruction of phylogenies, as they lead to patterns of genetic heritability that are unexpected under traditional, bifurcating models of species trees. This phenomenon has led to the development of methods to infer these varied hybridization events, both methods that reconstruct networks directly, as well as summary methods that predict individual hybridization events from a subset of taxa. However, a lack of empirical comparisons between methods – especially those pertaining to large networks with varied hybridization scenarios – hinders their practical use. Here, we provide a comprehensive review of popular summary methods: TICR, MSCquartets, HyDe, Patterson’s D-Statistic (ABBA-BABA), D3, and Dp. TICR and MSCquartets are based on quartet concordance factors gathered from gene tree topologies and HyDe, Patterson’s D-Statistic, D3, and Dp use site pattern frequencies to identify hybridization events between sets of three taxa. We then use simulated data to address questions of method accuracy and ideal use scenarios by testing methods against complex networks which depict gene flow events that differ in depth (timing), quantity (single vs. multiple, overlapping hybridizations), and rate of gene flow (γ). We find that deeper or multiple hybridization events may introduce noise and weaken the signal of hybridization, leading to higher relative false negative rates across all methods. Despite some forms of hybridization eluding quartet-based detection methods, MSCquartets displays high precision in most scenarios. While HyDe results in high false negative rates when tested on hybridizations involving extinct or unsampled ghost lineages, HyDe is the only method able to identify the direction of hybridization, distinguishing the source parental lineages from recipient hybrid lineages. Lastly, we test the methods on a dataset of ultraconserved elements from the bee subfamily Nomiinae, finding possible hybridization events between clades which correspond to regions of poor support in the species tree estimated in a previous study.

Bjorner, Marianne B.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Extending the Air and Moisture Leakage Calculator to add Residential Buildings and Additional Commercial Buildings

The DOE Windows and Building Envelope Research and Development Roadmap for Emerging Technologies shows that in 2010, infiltration was responsible for 4 quads of space conditioning primary energy use in the residential and commercial sectors. The relative contribution of air leakage in building heating and cooling load is increasing with improvement in the thermal resistance of building envelopes. Advanced air barrier technologies and construction practices have been developed to reduce air leakage in buildings. However, limited information on the impact of air barrier technologies on energy consumption and the durability of buildings has hindered their adoption. In the past Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Air Barrier Association of America (ABBA), and U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center for Building Energy Efficiency (CERC-BEE) collaborated to develop an online calculator that estimates the potential energy and cost savings in major U.S., Canadian and Chinese cities from improvement in air tightness in commercial buildings. In 2018–2019, the calculator was expanded to add moisture transfer calculations given that air leakage through the building envelope can have a significant impact on moisture transfer and associated impacts. In this study, the calculator is expanded further by adding data for two additional commercial buildings (strip mall and primary school) and a residential building. The team investigated the impact of airtightness on energy consumption and moisture transfer of the added buildings. The study includes the analysis of air tightness in 52 major cities in the U.S. and 5 cities in Canada.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2021

Invertebrate and Plant Community Diversity of an Illinois Corn–Soybean Field with Integrated Shrub Willow Bioenergy Buffers

Perennial bioenergy crop production within intensively managed agricultural landscapes has the potential to improve the sustainability, resiliency, and diversity of these landscapes. Perennial crops are ideal because of their high production potential on marginal lands relative to grain crops (e.g., corn and soybean) and their ability to provide additional ecosystem service benefits. When agricultural landscapes are designed to target specific services, determining the non-targeted services of perennial bioenergy crops can further promote their adoption. This 3-year study addresses this proposition by evaluating the canopy invertebrates and understory plant (non-target crop) communities using bee bowls and point measurement of ground coverage, respectively, within a grain field integrated with shrub willow buffer systems designed for nutrient loss reduction. Greater plant diversity and richness were observed under willow than under grain, resembling that of the surrounding riparian community with more perennial, native species. However, the same relationship did not hold true for invertebrates, with seasonality having a significant influence resulting in similar communities observed in willow and grain plots. The presence of unique plant and invertebrate species in both willow and grain crops as well as foraging pollinators on both crop and non-target crop species highlights the importance of habitat heterogeneity for supporting biodiversity and the potential benefits of buffer bioenergy landscape designs.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2020

A Vertex-Aligned Model for Packing 4-Hexagonal Clusters in a Regular Hexagonal Container

This paper deals with a problem the packing polyhex clusters in a regular hexagonal container. It is a common problem in many applications with various cluster shapes used, but symmetric polyhex is the most useful in engineering due to its geometrical properties. Hence, we concentrate on mathematical modeling in such an application, where using the “bee” tetrahex is chosen for the new Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) design upgrade, which is one of four detectors used in Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiment at European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN). We start from the existing hexagonal containers with hexagonal cells packed inside, and uniform clustering applied. We compare the center-aligned (CA) and vertex-aligned (VA) models, analyzing cluster rotations providing the increased packing efficiency. We formally describe the geometrical properties of clustering approaches and show that cluster sharing is inevitable at the container border with uniform clustering. In addition, we propose a new vertex-aligned model decreasing the number of shared clusters in the uniform scenario, but with a smaller number of clusters contained inside the container. Also, we describe a non-uniform tetrahex cluster packing scheme in the proposed container model. With the proposed cluster packing solution, it is accomplished that all clusters are contained inside the container region. Since cluster-sharing is completely avoided at the container border, the maximal packing efficiency is obtained compared to the existing models.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
NASA NTRS1973

Stream network analysis from orbital and suborbital imagery, Colorado River Basin, Texas

The author has identified the following significant results. Orbital SL-2 imagery (earth terrain camera S-190B), received September 5, 1973, was subjected to quantitative network analysis and compared to 7.5 minute topographic mapping (scale: 1/24,000) and U.S.D.A. conventional black and white aerial photography (scale: 1/22,200). Results can only be considered suggestive because detail on the SL-2 imagery was badly obscured by heavy cloud cover. The upper Bee Creek basin was chosen for analysis because it appeared in a relatively cloud-free portion of the orbital imagery. Drainage maps were drawn from the three sources digitized into a computer-compatible format, and analyzed by the WATER system computer program. Even at its small scale (1/172,000) and with bad haze the orbital photo showed much drainage detail. The contour-like character of the Glen Rose Formation's resistant limestone units allowed channel definition. The errors in pattern recognition can be attributed to local areas of dense vegetation and to other areas of very high albedo caused by surficial exposure of caliche. The latter effect caused particular difficulty in the determination of drainage divides.

Baker, V. R.↗
NASA NTRS1982

NSTA-NASA Shuttle Student Involvement Project. Experiment Results: Insect Flight Observation at Zero Gravity

The flight responses of common houseflies, velvetbean caterpillar moths, and worker honeybees were observed and filmed for a period of about 25 minutes in a zero-g environment during the third flight of the Space Shuttle Vehicle (flight number STS-3; March 22-30, 1982). Twelve fly puparia, 24 adult moths, 24 moth pupae, and 14 adult bees were loaded into an insect flight box, which was then stowed aboard the Shuttle Orbiter, the night before the STS-3 launch at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC). The main purpose of the experiment was to observe and compare the flight responses of the three species of insects, which have somewhat different flight control mechanisms, under zero-g conditions.

Nelson, T. E.↗
NASA NTRS1988

NNEPEQ: Chemical equilibrium version of the Navy/NASA Engine Program

The Navy NASA Engine Program, NNEP, currently is in use at a large number of government agencies, commercial companies and universities. This computer code has bee used extensively to calculate the design and off-design (matched) performance of a broad range of turbine engines, ranging from subsonic turboprops to variable cycle engines for supersonic transports. Recently, there has been increased interest in applications for which NNEP was not capable of simulating, namely, high Mach applications, alternate fuels including cryogenics, and cycles such as the gas generator air-turbo-rocker (ATR). In addition, there is interest in cycles employing ejectors such as for military fighters. New engine component models had to be created for incorporation into NNEP, and it was found necessary to include chemical dissociation effects of high temperature gases. The incorporation of these extended capabilities into NNEP is discussed and some of the effects of these changes are illustrated.

Fishbach, Laurence H.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Force/torque and tactile sensors for sensor-based manipulator control

The autonomy of manipulators, in space and in industrial environments, can be dramatically enhanced by the use of force/torque and tactile sensors. The development and future use of a six-component force/torque sensor for the Hermes Robot Arm (HERA) Basic End-Effector (BEE) is discussed. Then a multifunctional gripper system based on tactile sensors is described. The basic transducing element of the sensor is a sheet of pressure-sensitive polymer. Tactile image processing algorithms for slip detection, object position estimation, and object recognition are described.

Vanbrussel, H.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Upwind schemes and bifurcating solutions in real gas computations

The area of high speed flow is seeing a renewed interest due to advanced propulsion concepts such as the National Aerospace Plane (NASP), Space Shuttle, and future civil transport concepts. Upwind schemes to solve such flows have become increasingly popular in the last decade due to their excellent shock capturing properties. In the first part of this paper the authors present the extension of the Osher scheme to equilibrium and non-equilibrium gases. For simplicity, the source terms are treated explicitly. Computations based on the above scheme are presented to demonstrate the feasibility, accuracy and efficiency of the proposed scheme. One of the test problems is a Chapman-Jouguet detonation problem for which numerical solutions have been known to bifurcate into spurious weak detonation solutions on coarse grids. Results indicate that the numerical solution obtained depends both on the upwinding scheme used and the limiter employed to obtain second order accuracy. For example, the Osher scheme gives the correct CJ solution when the super-bee limiter is used, but gives the spurious solution when the Van Leer limiter is used. With the Roe scheme the spurious solution is obtained for all limiters.

Suresh, Ambady↗