Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “Hybrid Work”

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 847 records · Page 47

Creating Satellite Data Products in the Cloud: SatCORPS Global Cloud Composites

Real time satellite observations and real time derived cloud products are becoming an important tool for both science as well as business ventures. The SatCORPS group leverages public and private cloud-based sources of satellite observations to create its Global Cloud Composite product in near real-time. This dataset allows others access to cloud information that can be accessed directly from the cloud. In this work, we describe the software algorithms and software infrastructure that we have created to create and distribute this product through our hybrid cloud and on-premises system that leverages the strengths and weaknesses of each platform. We will also describe the GCC product itself in terms of the scientific parameters available, resolution and temporal availability. Finally, we will also describe our web-based tools including our Geographic Information System that can be used for visualization and analysis. The products from the processing can be geospatially-service enabled as ArcGIS Image Services and Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Web Mapping/Coverage Services for visualization and analysis via a web mapping application and common geospatial software. The SatCORPS Global Composite Cloud product provides sophisticated global cloud products with very low latency which we see that as filling a rapidly growing need in the research, modelling and business community. We present a detailed description of the SatCORPS GCC product in terms of the capabilities and research benefits as well as the delivery architecture in AWS. We take the discussion further and describe the web tools that the SatCORPS group has developed that allow users to access and use the GIS data that it creates.

Global Cloud Composite SatCORPS SMCE AWS↗

Coaxial Rotor CFD Validation and ML Surrogate Model Generation

A fixed-pitch speed-controlled coaxial rotor system was tested in the NASA Langley Transonic Dynamics Tunnel in September 2022. The rotors have a diameter of 1.35 meters and an inter-rotor spacing of 25% of the diameter. Though this test was focused on the NASA New Frontiers Dragonfly mission, the resulting dataset is relevant to a wide array of applications of multirotor vehicles, especially those using fixed-pitch variable-speed rotors. Most notably beyond Dragonfly, perhaps, is the application of coaxial rotor pair configurations for eVTOL and Urban Air Mobility (UAM) aircraft. This work provides a thorough CFD validation study quantifying coaxial rotor performance estimation with accuracy on order 5-10% using an efficient hybrid BEMT-URANS flow solver over a wide range of operating conditions. This accuracy was achieved using novel approaches for the construction of both the C81 airfoil performance lookup tables and the BEMT rotor model. These novel approaches are combined with advanced scripting to further accelerate the commercial off-the-shelf CFD solver on GPU accelerated machines. Finally, the development of machine learning surrogate models is presented to produce highly efficient and accurate rotor performance predictions for fixed-pitch variable-speed multirotor aircraft over the complete flight regime including scout, cruise, climb, descent, as well as limiting cases of vortex-ring and windmill-brake states.

Coaxial↗

Hydrogen Enrichment for Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Gas Turbine (SOFC/GT) Hybrid Power Generation Systems Using Mechanical Gas Separation

This presentation, given at the 37 th annual Pittsburgh Coal Conference on September 8-11, 2020, includes information on the process, previous work, normal and oblique shocks model, diffuser design model, and calculation results (expansion, recompression with no losses, and recompression with mass depletion). Summary includes the concept of aerodynamic separation of water and carbon dioxide from a SYNGAS stream and that deposition was modeled by mass depletion from a compressible flow.

VanOsdol, John↗

Defect-Limited Mobility and Defect Thermochemistry in Mixed A-Cation Tin Perovskites: (CH3NH3)1-xCsxSnBr3

Hybrid organic-inorganic semiconductors crystallizing in the perovskite structure present a significant opportunity for realizing defect-tolerant semiconductors. In this work, we examine the solid solution, (CH3NH3)1-xCsxSnBr3, and identify the thermochemistry dictating the intrinsic carrier concentrations and how local structural distortions influences this electronic behavior. This family of compounds exhibits the expected systematic trend in decreasing optical gap with the cesium to methylammonium A-site mixing ratio, x, in the visible region. However, the carrier mobility, as determined from time-resolved microwave conductivity measurements, trends opposite to that expected from first-principles calculations combined with Boltzmann scattering theory calculations of the carrier mobility. We propose that this is a result of increasing carrier scattering with x in (CH3NH3)1-xCsxSnBr3 due to a significant increase in the carrier density with x. By examining the dependence of the carrier density as a function of x, we infer the compositional-dependence of the average enthalpy and nonconfigurational entropy per defect. While diffraction reveals a cubic aristotypic perovskite structure as a function of x at room temperature, the pair distribution functions obtained from synchrotron X-ray total scattering from these materials are better described by symmetry-adapted displacement modes of the Pm3m crystal structure, which we attribute to a large degree of anharmonic dynamics of the atom positions. This analysis shows that CH3NH3+-rich compositions retain mostly linear Sn-Br-Sn bonding environments through the displacements, while Cs+-rich compositions lead to more significantly bent Sn-Br-Sn environments. We propose that these bent bonding arrangements in Cs-rich compositions yield a higher propensity for defect formation. This also provides a rationale for carrier trapping that gives rise to anomalous microwave transients. Together, these results provide insight into the structure-dynamics-properties relationships in this highly anharmonic system with high amplitude atomic motions and low defect formation energies.

defect thermochemistry↗

Additive-assisted synthesis and optoelectronic properties of (CH 3 NH 3 ) 4 Bi 6 I 22

Hybrid organic-inorganic halides containing Bi and Sb generally exhibit higher stability and lower toxicity compared to Pb analogues. Here, in this work, synthesis, crystal and electronic structures and optical properties of a brand-new methylammonium bismuth iodide, (MA) 4 Bi 6 I 22 (MA + = CH 3 NH 3 + ), are reported. Interestingly, we find that the presence of the HgI2 is necessary for the targeted preparation of (MA) 4 Bi 6 I 22 . (MA) 4 Bi 6 I 22 contains isolated [Bi 6 I 22 ] 4- clusters made of six edge-sharing octahedral BiI6 units, which are separated by MA + cations in its 0D crystal structure. A relatively low optical band gap of 1.9 eV was estimated for (MA) 4 Bi 6 I 22 based on diffuse reflectance measurements. An intense photoluminescence peak emerges at 636 nm at low temperatures that supports the assigned band gap value. Electronic structure calculations show the presence of flat bands in the valence and conduction bands, consistent with the low-dimensional structure of (MA) 4 Bi 6 I 22 , and slightly indirect nature of the bandgap. Our findings suggest that the use of facilitator moieties such as HgI 2 may provide a pathway to obtaining alternative methylammonium bismuth iodides to (MA) 3 Bi 2 I 9 .

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Hybridized quadrupolar excitations in the spin-anisotropic frustrated magnet FeI 2

Magnetic order is usually associated with well-defined magnon excitations. Exotic magnetic fluctuations with fractional, topological or multipolar character, have been proposed for radically different forms of magnetic matter such as spin-liquids. As a result, considerable efforts have searched for, and uncovered, low-spin materials with suppressed dipolar order at low temperatures. In this work, we report neutron-scattering experiments and quantitative theoretical modeling of an exceptional spin-1 system – the uniaxial triangular magnet FeI 2 – where a bright and dispersive band of mixed dipolarquadrupolar fluctuations emerges just above a dipolar ordered ground-state. This excitation arises from anisotropic exchange interactions that hybridize overlapping modes carrying fundamentally different quantum numbers. Remarkably, a generalization of spin-wave theory to local SU(3) degrees of freedom accounts for all details of the low-energy dynamical response of FeI 2 without going beyond quadratic order. Our work highlights that quantum excitations without classical counterparts can be realized even in presence of fully developed magnetic order.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Hybrid gels via bulk interfacial complexation of supramolecular polymers and polyelectrolytes

Hierarchical self-assembly leading to organized supramolecular structures across multiple length scales has been of great recent interest. Earlier work from our laboratory reported the complexation of peptide amphiphile (PA) supramolecular polymers with oppositely charged polyelectrolytes into a single solid membrane at a macroscopic interface. We report here the formation of bulk gels with many internal interfaces between the covalent and supramolecular polymer components formed by the rapid chaotic mixing of solutions, one containing negatively charged PA nanofibers and the other the positively charged biopolymer chitosan. We found that formation of a contact layer at the interface of the solutions locks the formation of hydrogels with lamellar microstructure. The nanofiber morphology of the supramolecular polymer is essential to this process since gels do not form when solutions of supramolecular assemblies form spherical micelles. Here, we found that rheological properties of the gels can be tuned by changing the relative amounts of each component. Furthermore, both positively and negatively charged proteins are easily encapsulated within the contact layer of the gel, which provides an interesting biomedical function for these systems.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Hybrid thermoelectric solar collector design and analysis

A flat-plate solar collector is conceived where energy cascades through thermoelectric power modules generating direct-current electricity. The intent of this work was to choose a collector configuration and to perform a steady-state thermal performance assessment. A set of energy balance equations were written and solved numerically for the purpose of optimizing collector thermal and electrical performance. The collector design involves finned columns of thermoelectric modules imbedded in the absorber plate (hot junction) over a parallel array of vertical tubes. The thermoelectric power output is limited by the small hot-junction/cold-junction temperature difference which can be maintained under steady-state conditions. The electric power per unit tube pass area is found to have a maximum as a function of a geometric parameter, while electric power is maximized with respect to an electric resistance ratio. Although the electric power efficiency is small, results indicate that there is sufficient electric power production to drive a coolant circulator, suggesting the potential for a stand-alone system.

Roberts, A. S., Jr.↗

Evaluation of Mid-Size Male Hybrid III Models for use in Spaceflight Occupant Protection Analysis

Introduction: In an effort to improve occupant safety during dynamic phases of spaceflight, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has worked to develop occupant protection standards for future crewed spacecraft. One key aspect of these standards is the identification of injury mechanisms through anthropometric test devices (ATDs). Within this analysis, both physical and computational ATD evaluations are required to reasonably encompass the vast range of loading conditions any spaceflight crew may encounter. In this study the accuracy of publically available mid-size male HIII ATD finite element (FE) models are evaluated within applicable loading conditions against extensive sled testing performed on their physical counterparts. Methods: A series of sled tests were performed at the Wright Patterson Air force Base (WPAFB) employing variations of magnitude, duration, and impact direction to encompass the dynamic loading range for expected spaceflight. FE simulations were developed to the specifications of the test setup and driven using measured acceleration profiles. Both fast and detailed FE models of the mid-size male HIII were ran to quantify differences in their accuracy and thus assess the applicability of each within this field. Results: Preliminary results identify the dependence of model accuracy on loading direction, magnitude, and rate. Additionally the accuracy of individual response metrics are shown to vary across each model within evaluated test conditions. Causes for model inaccuracy are identified based on the observed relationships. Discussion: Computational modeling provides an essential component to ATD injury metric evaluation used to ensure the safety of future spaceflight occupants. The assessment of current ATD models lays the groundwork for how these models can be used appropriately in the future. Identification of limitations and possible paths for improvement aid in the development of these effective analysis tools.

Putnam, J.↗

Satellite ATM Networks: Architectures and Guidelines Developed

An important element of satellite-supported asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) networking will involve support for the routing and rerouting of active connections. Work published under the auspices of the Telecommunications Industry Association (http://www.tiaonline.org), describes basic architectures and routing protocol issues for satellite ATM (SATATM) networks. The architectures and issues identified will serve as a basis for further development of technical specifications for these SATATM networks. Three ATM network architectures for bent pipe satellites and three ATM network architectures for satellites with onboard ATM switches were developed. The architectures differ from one another in terms of required level of mobility, supported data rates, supported terrestrial interfaces, and onboard processing and switching requirements. The documentation addresses low-, middle-, and geosynchronous-Earth-orbit satellite configurations. The satellite environment may require real-time routing to support the mobility of end devices and nodes of the ATM network itself. This requires the network to be able to reroute active circuits in real time. In addition to supporting mobility, rerouting can also be used to (1) optimize network routing, (2) respond to changing quality-of-service requirements, and (3) provide a fault tolerance mechanism. Traffic management and control functions are necessary in ATM to ensure that the quality-of-service requirements associated with each connection are not violated and also to provide flow and congestion control functions. Functions related to traffic management were identified and described. Most of these traffic management functions will be supported by on-ground ATM switches, but in a hybrid terrestrial-satellite ATM network, some of the traffic management functions may have to be supported by the onboard satellite ATM switch. Future work is planned to examine the tradeoffs of placing traffic management functions onboard a satellite as opposed to implementing those functions at the Earth station components.

vonDeak, Thomas C.↗

Building interface bonding and shield for stable Li-rich Mn-based oxide cathode

Implementation of Li-rich Mn-based oxide cathode with high-energy-density has been restrained by capacity/voltage degradation that results from irreversible lattice oxygen loss and structure rearrangements. To resolve these challenges, in this work, Li 1.2 Mn 0.54 Ni 0.13 Co 0.13 O 2 encapsulated by amorphous Co x B (CB-LRM) is rationally designed via autocatalytic plating for highly reversible cationic/anionic hybrid cathode material. Band coherency is ingeniously evoked by interface-reconstruction between bulk structure and amorphous coating layer, which lower the energy of O $2p$ states. Furthermore, this is associated with strengthened orbital hybridization of O $2p$-Mn $3d$ and increased formation energy of oxygen vacancy, which mitigates the lattice oxygen loss considerably. Additionally, interface shielding effects that protect electrode against electrolyte corrosion and the reduction of surface oxygen are also present with fully coverage of amorphous Co x B coating layer. As a result, the as-designed CBLRM cathode exhibits excellent cycle stability after 100 loops with only 0.154% per cycle capacity fade and improved voltage degradation. Given this, this work provides a potential avenue for rational design of lattice oxygen-based electrode materials with high-energy-density.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Enhancing Application Performance Using Mini-Apps: Comparison of Hybrid Parallel Programming Paradigms

In many fields, real-world applications for High Performance Computing have already been developed. For these applications to stay up-to-date, new parallel strategies must be explored to yield the best performance; however, restructuring or modifying a real-world application may be daunting depending on the size of the code. In this case, a mini-app may be employed to quickly explore such options without modifying the entire code. In this work, several mini-apps have been created to enhance a real-world application performance, namely the VULCAN code for complex flow analysis developed at the NASA Langley Research Center. These mini-apps explore hybrid parallel programming paradigms with Message Passing Interface (MPI) for distributed memory access and either Shared MPI (SMPI) or OpenMP for shared memory accesses. Performance testing shows that MPI+SMPI yields the best execution performance, while requiring the largest number of code changes. A maximum speedup of 23 was measured for MPI+SMPI, but only 11 was measured for MPI+OpenMP.

Lawson, Gary↗

Rechargeable metal-metal alkaline batteries: Recent advances, current issues and future research strategies

Over the past few decades, remarkable advancement has been attained in the field of rechargeable metal–metal alkaline batteries (RABs). In terms of safety, energy density, charge-discharge capacity, and long-term storage capability, metal-metal RABs (e.g., Ni–Zn, Ni–Fe, Ni–Bi, Ni–MH, Ag–Zn, Co–Zn, Cu–Zn, and Bi–Zn systems) are contemplated as the promising energy storage devices for the applications in electric vehicles (EVs), hybrid EVs, grid-scale energy storage, as well as various implantable and wearable electronic devices. Especially, Ni-MH batteries become competitive with Li-ion batteries for EVs and hybrid EVs applications due to their high tolerance against mechanical abuse, stability under wide temperature ranges, and considerable charge/discharge capacity. Meanwhile, earlier works reviewed only specific topics, so, as a rapidly growing research topic, providing a deep understanding on metal–metal RABs is timely and worthwhile. So here, in this work, we discuss the electrochemistry of all metal-metal RABs, then full cell designing with their performance will be discussed thoroughly. Further, issues associated with the existing metal–metal RABs and corresponding improvement approaches will be provided for future advances in high-performance and reliable metal-metal RABs.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Multi-fidelity information fusion with concatenated neural networks

Recently, computational modeling has shifted towards the use of statistical inference, deep learning, and other data-driven modeling frameworks. Although this shift in modeling holds promise in many applications like design optimization and real-time control by lowering the computational burden, training deep learning models needs a huge amount of data. This big data is not always available for scientific problems and leads to poorly generalizable data-driven models. This gap can be furnished by leveraging information from physics-based models. Exploiting prior knowledge about the problem at hand, this study puts forth a physics-guided machine learning (PGML) approach to build more tailored, effective, and efficient surrogate models. For our analysis, without losing its generalizability and modularity, we focus on the development of predictive models for laminar and turbulent boundary layer flows. In particular, we combine the self-similarity solution and power-law velocity profile (low-fidelity models) with the noisy data obtained either from experiments or computational fluid dynamics simulations (high-fidelity models) through a concatenated neural network. We illustrate how the knowledge from these simplified models results in reducing uncertainties associated with deep learning models applied to boundary layer flow prediction problems. The proposed multi-fidelity information fusion framework produces physically consistent models that attempt to achieve better generalization than data-driven models obtained purely based on data. While we demonstrate our framework for a problem relevant to fluid mechanics, its workflow and principles can be adopted for many scientific problems where empirical, analytical, or simplified models are prevalent. In line with grand demands in novel PGML principles, this work builds a bridge between extensive physics-based theories and data-driven modeling paradigms and paves the way for using hybrid physics and machine learning modeling approaches for next-generation digital twin technologies.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Enhancing the accuracy of density functional tight binding models through ChIMES many-body interaction potentials

Semi-empirical quantum models such as Density Functional Tight Binding (DFTB) are attractive methods for obtaining quantum simulation data at longer time and length scales than possible with standard approaches. However, application of these models can require lengthy effort due to the lack of a systematic approach for their development. In this work, we discuss the use of the Chebyshev Interaction Model for Efficient Simulation (ChIMES) to create rapidly parameterized DFTB models, which exhibit strong transferability due to the inclusion of many-body interactions that might otherwise be inaccurate. We apply our modeling approach to silicon polymorphs and review previous work on titanium hydride. We also review the creation of a general purpose DFTB/ChIMES model for organic molecules and compounds that approaches hybrid functional and coupled cluster accuracy with two orders of magnitude fewer parameters than similar neural network approaches. In all cases, DFTB/ChIMES yields similar accuracy to the underlying quantum method with orders of magnitude improvement in computational cost. In conclusion, our developments provide a way to create computationally efficient and highly accurate simulations over varying extreme thermodynamic conditions, where physical and chemical properties can be difficult to interrogate directly, and there is historically a significant reliance on theoretical approaches for interpretation and validation of experimental results.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

The JOREK non-linear extended MHD code and applications to large-scale instabilities and their control in magnetically confined fusion plasmas

JOREK is a massively parallel fully implicit non-linear extended magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) code for realistic tokamak X-point plasmas. It has become a widely used versatile simulation code for studying large-scale plasma instabilities and their control and is continuously developed in an international community with strong involvements in the European fusion research programme and ITER organization. This article gives a comprehensive overview of the physics models implemented, numerical methods applied for solving the equations and physics studies performed with the code. A dedicated section highlights some of the verification work done for the code. A hierarchy of different physics models is available including a free boundary and resistive wall extension and hybrid kinetic-fluid models. The code allows for flux-surface aligned iso-parametric finite element grids in single and double X-point plasmas which can be extended to the true physical walls and uses a robust fully implicit time stepping. Particular focus is laid on plasma edge and scrape-off layer (SOL) physics as well as disruption related phenomena. Among the key results obtained with JOREK regarding plasma edge and SOL, are deep insights into the dynamics of edge localized modes (ELMs), ELM cycles, and ELM control by resonant magnetic perturbations, pellet injection, as well as by vertical magnetic kicks. Also ELM free regimes, detachment physics, the generation and transport of impurities during an ELM, and electrostatic turbulence in the pedestal region are investigated. Regarding disruptions, the focus is on the dynamics of the thermal quench (TQ) and current quench triggered by massive gas injection and shattered pellet injection, runaway electron (RE) dynamics as well as the RE interaction with MHD modes, and vertical displacement events. Also the seeding and suppression of tearing modes (TMs), the dynamics of naturally occurring TQs triggered by locked modes, and radiative collapses are being studied.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Origin of gaplike behaviors in URu 2 Si 2 : Combined study via quasiparticle scattering spectroscopy and resistivity measurements

In this work, we address two long-standing questions regarding the hidden order in URu 2 Si 2 : Is it associated with the hybridization process, and what are the distinct roles played by the localized and itinerant electrons? Our quasiparticle scattering spectroscopy reveals a hybridization gap ubiquitous in the entire phase space spanned by P and Fe substitutions in URu 2 Si 2 , including the no-order and antiferromagnetic regions, with minimal change upon crossing the phase boundary. This indicates its opening is not associated with the ordering, and thus localized electrons must be the major player. Towards a consistent understanding of all the other gaplike behaviors observed only below transition temperatures, we analyze the electrical resistivity using a model in which gapped bosonic excitations are the dominant scattering source. With their stiffness set to follow an unusual temperature dependence (decreasing with decreasing temperature), this model fits all of our resistivity data well including the jump at the transition. Remarkably, the extracted gap increases slowly with increasing Fe content, similarly to the gap detected by inelastic neutron scattering at $Q_1$ = (1.4, 0, 0), suggesting a common origin. Such a model can also naturally explain the Hall effect temperature dependence without invoking Fermi surface gapping.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Uncertainty-Proof Hosting Capacity with Surrogate Affine Policy

Physical constraints must be enforced when dis-tributed energy resources, such as PV, are integrated into distribution network. Hosting capacity (HC) is thus introduced to define the maximum renewable that distribution system can accommodate. When the grid is further pushed towards low-carbon, many research efforts are devoted to increasing HC. Security and cost-efficiency become even more important in determining HC. This work proposes an uncertainty-proof HC with surrogate affine policy. Flexible resources are leveraged to increase HC. We propose a novel hybrid two-stage AC model with variable uncertainty set. An iterative algorithm is designed to solve the problem. The proposed model and solution approach are validated in modified 141-node feeders, and HC performance is also analyzed.

hosting capacity↗