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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 811 records · Page 45

Modular biowaste monitoring system

The objective of the Modular Biowaste Monitoring System Program was to generate and evaluate hardware for supporting shuttle life science experimental and diagnostic programs. An initial conceptual design effort established requirements and defined an overall modular system for the collection, measurement, sampling and storage of urine and feces biowastes. This conceptual design effort was followed by the design, fabrication and performance evaluation of a flight prototype model urine collection, volume measurement and sampling capability. No operational or performance deficiencies were uncovered as a result of the performance evaluation tests.

Fogal, G. L.↗

CharIN Megawatt Charging System: 4 th Event Summary Report

Medium- and heavy-duty electric vehicles require higher charging power levels than are supported by present light-duty EV charging standards. The Charging Interface Initiative (CharIN) Megawatt Charging System (MCS) Task Force is undertaking efforts to develop a new high-power charging standard for medium- and heavy-duty vehicle electrification. The fourth MCS evaluation event at NREL focused on thermal and mechanical performance evaluations of high-power MCS electric vehicle charging connectors and inlets from several different manufacturers, at current levels up to 3000A. Additionally, the event evaluated the performance of a reference inlet design, which will provide a baseline level of thermal performance for use in future evaluation and certification efforts of MCS connectors.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

CONFIDANTE Demonstration Prototype Report

This report summarizes design optimization and performance evaluation studies for a new prototype CONFIDANTE (CONfirmation using a Fast-neutron Imaging Detector with Anti-image Null-positive Time Encoding) warhead confirmation system. It was found that a spherical mask geometry and a 2” diameter cylindrical central detector is expected to best discriminate between the parametrically varied source distributions that were evaluated. The optimized design as fabricated and its performance was evaluated in a series of laboratory measurements. The performance was in good agreement with the design studies, with demonstrated discrimination between objects with differences in scale on the order of 5 centimeters or better at 1 meter stand-off

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Evaluating Model Performance of an Ensemble-based Chemical Data Assimilation System During INTEX-B Field Mission

We present a global chemical data assimilation system using a global atmosphere model, the Community Atmosphere Model (CAM3) with simplified chemistry and the Data Assimilation Research Testbed (DART) assimilation package. DART is a community software facility for assimilation studies using the ensemble Kalman filter approach. Here, we apply the assimilation system to constrain global tropospheric carbon monoxide (CO) by assimilating meteorological observations of temperature and horizontal wind velocity and satellite CO retrievals from the Measurement of Pollution in the Troposphere (MOPITT) satellite instrument. We verify the system performance using independent CO observations taken on board the NSFINCAR C-130 and NASA DC-8 aircrafts during the April 2006 part of the Intercontinental Chemical Transport Experiment (INTEX-B). Our evaluations show that MOPITT data assimilation provides significant improvements in terms of capturing the observed CO variability relative to no MOPITT assimilation (i.e. the correlation improves from 0.62 to 0.71, significant at 99% confidence). The assimilation provides evidence of median CO loading of about 150 ppbv at 700 hPa over the NE Pacific during April 2006. This is marginally higher than the modeled CO with no MOPITT assimilation (-140 ppbv). Our ensemble-based estimates of model uncertainty also show model overprediction over the source region (i.e. China) and underprediction over the NE Pacific, suggesting model errors that cannot be readily explained by emissions alone. These results have important implications for improving regional chemical forecasts and for inverse modeling of CO sources and further demonstrate the utility of the assimilation system in comparing non-coincident measurements, e.g. comparing satellite retrievals of CO with in-situ aircraft measurements. The work described above also brought to light several short-comings of the data assimilation approach for CO profiles. Because of the limited vertical resolution of the measurement, the retrievals at different altitudes are correlated which can lead to problems with numerical error and overall efficiency. This has resulted in a manuscript that is about to be submitted to JGR:

Arellano, A. F., Jr.↗

Next generation communications satellites: Multiple access and network studies

Following an overview of issues involved in the choice of promising system architectures for efficient communication with multiple small inexpensive Earth stations serving hetergeneous user populations, performance evaluation via analysis and simulation for six SS/TDMA (satellite-switched/time-division multiple access) system architectures is discussed. These configurations are chosen to exemplify the essential alternatives available in system design. Although the performance evaluation analyses are of fairly general applicability, whenever possible they are considered in the context of NASA's 30/20 GHz studies. Packet switched systems are considered, with the assumption that only a part of transponder capacit is devoted to packets, the integration of circuit and packet switched traffic being reserved for further study. Three types of station access are distinguished: fixed (FA), demand (DA), and random access (RA). Similarly, switching in the satellite can be assigned on a fixed (FS) or demand (DS) basis, or replaced by a buffered store-and-forward system (SF) onboard the satellite. Since not all access/switching combinations are practical, six systems are analyzed in detail: three FS SYSTEMS, FA/FS, DA/ES, RA/FS; one DS system, DA/DS; and two SF systems, FA/SF, DA/SF. Results are presented primarily in terms of delay-throughput characteristics.

Stern, T. E.↗

An inventory of aeronautical ground research facilities. Volume 2: Air breathing engine test facilities

The inventory covers free jet and direct connect altitude cells, sea level static thrust stands, sea level test cells with ram air, and propulsion wind tunnels. Free jet altitude cells and propulsion wind tunnels are used for evaluation of complete inlet-engine-exhaust nozzle propulsion systems under simulated flight conditions. These facilities are similar in principal of operation and differ primarily in test section concept. The propulsion wind tunnel provides a closed test section and restrains the flow around the test specimen while the free jet is allowed to expand freely. A chamber of large diameter about the free jet is provided in which desired operating pressure levels may be maintained. Sea level test cells with ram air provide controlled, conditioned air directly to the engine face for performance evaluation at low altitude flight conditions. Direct connect altitude cells provide a means of performance evaluation at simulated conditions of Mach number and altitude with air supplied to the flight altitude conditions. Sea level static thrust stands simply provide an instrumented engine mounting for measuring thrust at zero airspeed. While all of these facilities are used for integrated engine testing, a few provide engine component test capability.

Pirrello, C. J.↗

Evaluating the Performance of Integer Sum Reduction on an Intel GPU

Sum reduction is a primitive operation in parallel computing while SYCL is a promising heterogeneous programming language. In this paper, we describe the SYCL implementations of integer sum reduction using atomic functions, shared local memory, vectorized memory accesses, and parameterized workload sizes. Evaluating the reduction kernels shows that we can achieve 1.4X speedup over the open-source implementations of sum reduction for a sufficiently large number of integers on an Intel integrated GPU.

Jin, Zheming↗

Evaluating the Performance of GPM IMERG Products for Extreme Precipitation Estimation in Volta River Basin of Ghana

The Volta River basin in West Africa, covering a substantial area of Ghana, faces significant water management challenges due to highly variable rainfall and limited availability of high temporal resolution rain gauges. This study, developed under the 2024 Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Mission mentorship program, evaluates precipitation in the Volta River basin using high-resolution satellite-derived data from the Integrated Multi-satellite Retrievals for GPM (IMERG). In the absence of sub-daily rainfall data, comparisons were made between daily, monthly, and seasonal precipitation from local gauges and IMERG V06 and V07 (early and final) runs. Results indicated a very weak correlation between daily precipitation estimates from IMERG and gauge data, but a significantly improved correlation for monthly and seasonal estimates. Additionally, IMERG data were used to identify heavy rainfall events and drought periods, which were compared to known occurrences in the region. By addressing these objectives, this study contributes to more accurate extreme precipitation estimation in the Volta River basin, thereby enhancing disaster risk management and climate resilience in Ghana.

Jessica Sutton↗

The detrimental ratio ( ρ ): A critical metric complementing coulombic loss for long calendar-life silicon-based lithium-ion batteries

Silicon (Si) is a promising high-capacity anode in lithium-ion batteries but suffers from chronic chemical degradation and capacity fading during calendar aging, greatly hindering its automobile applications. Electrolyte engineering currently relies on conventional evaluation criteria of reducing coulombic consumption, which implicitly presume its equivalence to irreversible capacity loss and complicates battery development. Here, we introduce the detrimental ratio p to quantify the fraction of parasitic species that permanently degrades active material. This metric is independent and crucially complements total coulombic consumption for accurate performance evaluation. We systematically investigate multiple electrolyte formulations using high-precision leakage current measurements, open-circuit-voltage experiments, and post-mortem characterizations. Although some electrolytes exhibit similarly low coulombic consumption, they diverge significantly incapacity retention and p. Especially, dimethyl-carbonate-based localized-high concentration electrolyte can synergically achieve low coulombic consumption and detrimental ratio p during calendar aging, owing to its chemically inert and structurally resilient solidelectrolyte interface with minimal isolated Si material. By contrast, increasing fluoroethylene carbonate (FEC) additive content suppresses electrolyte breakdown but suffers aggravated chemical degradation of more LixSi isolation for irreversible capacity loss with arising p. This study critically reveals that the chemistry-characteristic detrimental ratio p establishes physically informed performance evaluation to pave the way for accelerating battery development.

Calendar aging↗

FPGA Based Reconfigurable ATM Switch Test Bed

Various issues associated with "FPGA Based Reconfigurable ATM Switch Test Bed" are presented in viewgraph form. Specific topics include: 1) Network performance evaluation; 2) traditional approaches; 3) software simulation; 4) hardware emulation; 5) test bed highlights; 6) design environment; 7) test bed architecture; 8) abstract sheared-memory switch; 9) detailed switch diagram; 10) traffic generator; 11) data collection circuit and user interface; 12) initial results; and 13) the following conclusions: Advances in FPGA make hardware emulation feasible for performance evaluation, hardware emulation can provide several orders of magnitude speed-up over software simulation; due to the complexity of hardware synthesis process, development in emulation is much more difficult than simulation and requires knowledge in both networks and digital design.

Chu, Pong P.↗

Quasi-optical grids with thin rectangular patch/aperture elements

Theoretical analysis is presented for an efficient and accurate performance evaluation of quasi-optical grids comprised of thin rectangular patch/aperture elements with/without a dielectric substrate/superstrate. The convergence rate of this efficient technique is improved by an order of magnitude with the approximate edge conditions incorporated in the basis functions of the integral equation solution. Also presented are the interesting applications of this efficient analytical technique to the design and performance evaluation of the coupling grids and beam splitters in the optical systems as well as thermal protection sunshields used in the communication systems of satellites and spacecrafts.

Wu, Te-Kao↗

LightMAT: Continous Fiber Malleable Thermoset Composites with sub-1-minute dwell times; validation of impact performance and evaluation of the efficacy of the compression forming process

Recent major advances in polymer chemistry are enabling a paradigm shift in the area of processing and re-processing/recycling of advanced composite materials. Inexpensive compression molding with short cycle times, traditionally available for thermoplastic composites only, are now possible for the thermoset resins based on polyimine chemistry. Participant will collaborate with the LightMAT consortium Labs ORNL, SNL, and PNNL to non-destructively characterize microscopic structural defects (such as voids and resin-rich areas), and perform high speed impact characterization of its malleable thermoset CFRP's. This work is critical to the validation and adoption of these materials for the automotive market and towards DOE-VTO lightweighting mission objectives.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Evaluation of Performance, Fatigue and Workload during Real-time, Reactive Telerobotic Mission Control Operations

Telerobotic operations involve a user operating a robot from a different location from where the activity is taking place. It can be difficult for humans to maintain performance when faced with physiological stressors, such as fatigue or illness. Operations require vigilance for extended periods, raising safety concerns surrounding operator’s fatigue and workload. Every hour of wakefulness increases the drive to sleep, causing decreased reaction time (RT), increased lapses in attention (RT > 500 ms), and decreased memory capability. The NASA Task Load Index (NASA-TLX) was created to evaluate the multiple attributes surrounding workload (e.g., mental and physical demands). The upcoming Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) mission involves remotely controlling a lunar vehicle from an Earth-based mission control station. The goal of VIPER is to excavate the moon for volatiles (water) deep in the surface near the South Pole for a 100-day, continuous operation.

Fatigue↗

University of Missouri Research Reactor LEU Fuel Element Flow Test Conceptual Design—Hydraulic Reactor Design Parameters

The University of Missouri-Columbia Research Reactor (MURR®) is one of five U.S. high performance research reactors (USHPRR), plus one critical facility, that actively collaborates with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Material Management and Minimization(M 3 ) Reactor Conversion Program to convert to the use of low-enriched uranium (LEU, < 20 wt.% U-235) fuel. A new type of LEU fuel with very high density, based on an alloy of uranium and 10 weight percent molybdenum (U-10Mo), is expected to allow the conversion to LEU of USHPRR that have been found unable to be converted with previously qualified uranium silicide-aluminum (U 3 Si 2 -Al) dispersion fuel. MURR has been working with the USHPRR Reactor Conversion (RC) Pillar at Argonne National Laboratory to perform fuel element design and fuel cycle performance analyses, steady-state thermal hydraulics safety analyses, and accident safety analyses in preparation for the conversion of MURR and to support a preliminary Safety Analysis Report (SAR) for conversion to LEU fuel. This work is performed in preparation for the flow test campaign that will be conducted by the USHPRR RC Pillar. The purpose of the hydraulic performance evaluation of the MURR LEU fuel element designed by the RC Pillar is to test a prototypic commercially fabricated LEU fuel element to determine whether any failure modes are observed or predicted in the fuel element, including significant deformations such as plate bending, twisting, or plate detachment from the side plate under selected safety-basis limits for reactor hydraulic conditions. To support the design of the flow test for MURR LEU fuel element hydraulic performance evaluation, design parameters for hydraulic testing of the LEU fuel element are laid out in this report.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Evaluating the Performance of Single and Double Moment Microphysics Schemes During a Synoptic-Scale Snowfall Event

Increases in computing resources have allowed for the utilization of high-resolution weather forecast models capable of resolving cloud microphysical and precipitation processes among varying numbers of hydrometeor categories. Several microphysics schemes are currently available within the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, ranging from single-moment predictions of precipitation content to double-moment predictions that include a prediction of particle number concentrations. Each scheme incorporates several assumptions related to the size distribution, shape, and fall speed relationships of ice crystals in order to simulate cold-cloud processes and resulting precipitation. Field campaign data offer a means of evaluating the assumptions present within each scheme. The Canadian CloudSat/CALIPSO Validation Project (C3VP) represented collaboration among the CloudSat, CALIPSO, and NASA Global Precipitation Measurement mission communities, to observe cold season precipitation processes relevant to forecast model evaluation and the eventual development of satellite retrievals of cloud properties and precipitation rates. During the C3VP campaign, widespread snowfall occurred on 22 January 2007, sampled by aircraft and surface instrumentation that provided particle size distributions, ice water content, and fall speed estimations along with traditional surface measurements of temperature and precipitation. In this study, four single-moment and two double-moment microphysics schemes were utilized to generate hypothetical WRF forecasts of the event, with C3VP data used in evaluation of their varying assumptions. Schemes that incorporate flexibility in size distribution parameters and density assumptions are shown to be preferable to fixed constants, and that a double-moment representation of the snow category may be beneficial when representing the effects of aggregation. These results may guide forecast centers in optimal configurations of their forecast models for winter weather and identify best practices present within these various schemes.

Molthan, Andrew L.↗

Solar heating system installed at Blakedale Professional Center, Greenwood, South Carolina

Information on the solar heating system installed at the Blakedale Professional Center, in Greenwood, South Carolina is presented. The information consists of site and building description, solar system description, performance evaluation, system problems and installation drawings. The solar system was designed to provide approximately 85 percent of the building's heating requirements. The system was installed concurrently with building construction and heats 4,440 square feet of the building. There are 954 square feet of liquid flat plate collectors that are proof-mounted and have a drain-down system to protect the collectors from freezing. A 5,000 gallon steel, polyurethane insulated tank buried underground provides storage. The system was fully instrumented for performance evaluation and integrated into the National Solar Data Network.

Source record↗

Performance and Evaluation of the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office Observing System Simulation Experiment

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (NASA/GMAO) has spent more than a decade developing and implementing a global Observing System Simulation Experiment framework for use in evaluting both new observation types as well as the behavior of data assimilation systems. The NASA/GMAO OSSE has constantly evolved to relect changes in the Gridpoint Statistical Interpolation data assimiation system, the Global Earth Observing System model, version 5 (GEOS-5), and the real world observational network. Software and observational datasets for the GMAO OSSE are publicly available, along with a technical report. Substantial modifications have recently been made to the NASA/GMAO OSSE framework, including the character of synthetic observation errors, new instrument types, and more sophisticated atmospheric wind vectors. These improvements will be described, along with the overall performance of the current OSSE. Lessons learned from investigations into correlated errors and model error will be discussed.

OSS↗