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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 883 records · Page 49
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Real Time Phasor Analytics (RTPA) and RTPA-SCR System Strength Online Tool

This presentation showcases the Real-Time Phasor Analytics (RTPA) framework for monitoring inertia and assessing system strength in power grids. RTPA is an open-source tool designed to standardize access to data from Power Management Units (PMUs) and Phasor Data Concentrators (PDCs). It facilitates real-time connectivity to multiple PDCs in accordance with the IEEE C37.118-2 standard and supports asynchronous data stream integration. Additionally, RTPA can simulate a PDC server streaming C37.118-2 data and provides Python bindings for seamless interaction with the framework, eliminating the need for direct Rust programming.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2025

Bayesian Attack Model (BAM) User Story

This document presents a user story for the Bayesian Attack Model (BAM) tool designed to aggregate and analyze cyber-attack observables for operational technology (OT) systems. BAM aims to empower cybersecurity analysts by providing a streamlined interface for collecting observable data from various sources, enabling real-time analysis of potential adversary activity. By enhancing the response capabilities of security teams, BAM facilitates risk-informed decision-making and improves organizational security posture. This user story outlines the key functionalities, user interactions, and requirements necessary to successfully integrate BAM with other security information and event management (SIEM) technology and cybersecurity operations centers (CSOCs).

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2025

Assessment of Microstructure Prediction Capabilities for Powder Bed Fusion Stainless Steel 316

The Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies program aims to accelerate the development, qualification, demonstration, and deployment of advanced materials and manufacturing technologies to enable reliable and economical nuclear energy. However, the characteristic process-structure-property relationships of additive manufacturing (AM) materials pose challenges for the qualification and certification of AM nuclear components. In particular, component-scale variations in microstructure and properties can be driven by localized changes in melt pool dynamics due to how process parameters interact with different part geometries. Computational modeling tools can play a crucial role in predicting and controlling this variability. This report presents final results on process modeling tools designed to predict microstructure variability in additively manufactured stainless steel 316 parts. It details the software packages and physical modeling approaches employed to simulate an AM component within an automated process modeling workflow. Results are demonstrated through comparisons between predicted microstructures and experimental measurements across various representative processing conditions. The report concludes by discussing identified challenges and future opportunities for connecting the developed simulation workflow with mechanics simulations for prediction of part performance.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2026

Colorado Residential Resiliency and Managed Charging

Validate and model impacts of electric vehicle (EV) home charging on service transformers; analyze diverse grid locations and configurations to determine 'risk factors'; finalize/deliver new design tools and typical EV load curves; improve/issue new construction standards for transformers, secondaries, and services. To ensure residential charging equity, smart charge management strategies will be studied and analyzed with the goal of creating affordable demand charges for customers.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Establishing Data Analysis Pipeline for Bulk ATAC-Seq Datasets

We developed an analysis pipeline for transposase-accessible chromatin sequencing (ATAC-Seq) data derived from bulk samples, which brings together publicly available R packages in addition to command-line tools designed for analysis of bulk ATAC-Seq data and can be run on any computer running a Linux-like operating system such as Ubuntu or Apple OSX.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2026

Organic Rankine Cycle Integration and Optimization for High Efficiency CHP Genset Systems (Final Technical Report)

This project successfully advanced the integration of Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) technology with reciprocating engine–based combined heat and power (CHP) systems to improve electrical efficiency, total CHP efficiency, and grid-responsive operation. Over three budget periods, the work progressed from high-temperature ORC component development and thermodynamic model validation to next-generation system design, working fluid transition, and techno-economic analysis. Key technical accomplishments include development and validation of a thermodynamic model capable of accurately predicting ORC performance across an expanded temperature and pressure envelope; successful identification and validation of low-global-warming-potential (GWP) working fluids—most notably R1233zd(E)—as viable replacements for R245fa; and demonstration of scalable ORC architectures suitable for integration with 1–20 MW class reciprocating engines. These advances enable flexible CHP configurations that can increase electrical output while maintaining high overall utilization of available thermal energy. The project also produced a clean-sheet design for a next-generation ORC system targeting substantially higher power output per unit, supported by detailed component selection, heat exchanger evaluation, and system-level modeling. Techno-economic analyses indicate that ORC-enabled flexible CHP systems can meet or exceed Department of Energy (DOE) efficiency targets while providing value to both facility operators and the electric grid.. Late-stage testing of the largest next-generation ORC prototype identified limitations related to pump net positive suction head (NPSH) requirements and condenser flooding under certain operating conditions. Although these issues constrained full validation of that configuration within the project timeframe, they provided clear and actionable design guidance for future system refinements. Importantly, validated modeling, smaller-scale testing, and working fluid evaluations confirmed the technical viability of the overall approach. In aggregate, this project met its core objectives by establishing validated design tools, de-risking key ORC technologies for CHP applications, and defining a credible pathway toward commercialization of flexible, high-efficiency CHP systems. The results form a strong foundation for continued development and deployment beyond the conclusion of the DOE-funded effort.

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Near-Net-Shape HIP Manufacturing for sCO2 Turbomachinery Cost Reduction

sCO2 turbomachinery that operates above 650°C requires the use of γ' strengthened Ni-based superalloys, leading to high cost and barrier of market adoption. Near-net-shape (NNS) HIP manufacturing with 282® alloy powder is being developed for sCO2 turbine components, with a significant estimated cost reduction. Tensile, creep, low cycle fatigue properties of argon gas atomized and plasma atomized powders were evaluated and compared to sand cast HAYNES® 282®. While tensile strength and fatigue life outperformed sand cast material, a 10~25% debit in the creep stress capability was observed due to the fine grain size and presence of prior particle boundaries (PPBs). Finite element model calibrated by powder rheological properties accurately predicted the nonuniform shrinkage during HIP, providing HIP tooling design to achieve the target dimension. A 20 lbs. turbine nozzle ring was successfully demonstrated within 0.01 inch dimensional tolerance at the vanes. A 1700lbs. turbine casing with complex internal struts and manifolds was also demonstrated being close to the target dimension.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Developing a Vorticity-Velocity-Based Off-Body Solver to Perform Multifidelity Simulations of Wind Farms

Wind power has become a key player in satisfying the global energy needs. With increased market penetration, unanticipated unsteady loading induced failures, installation related reductions in power generation, and significant maintenance costs have underscored the need to predict the unsteady fluid-structure interactions related to turbine layout and off-design wind conditions. Contemporary turbine design tools are incapable of accounting for such loadings. As a result, researchers have started utilizing high-Performance-Computing (HPC) based Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) solvers, such as the U.S. Department of Energy sponsored ExaWind software package, to investigate these phenomena. Unfortunately, such HPC tools are computationally expensive for routine industrial use, often because of the sheer number of cells required to resolve the wake flowfield. This paper describes a preliminary effort to address this issue by developing a vorticity-velocity based CFD off-body solver, VorTran-M2-AMReX, that integrates directly with DOE's ExaWind wind turbine analysis system to perform accurate and reliable simulations of wind turbine/farm at a lower computational cost than ExaWind alone. This article summarizes work undertaken to date concerning the assembly of the proposed analysis tool, and provides preliminary validation and verification of the VorTran-M2-AMReX off-body solver.

adaptive mesh refinement↗
DOE OSTI2026

Ultra-High Vacuum Outgassing Characterization of Thermally Processed Low-Carbon Steel for Advanced Particle Accelerator and Gravitational Wave Detector Applications

This dissertation investigated AISI 1020 low-carbon steel as an alternative vacuum chamber material to conventional stainless steel for ultra-high vacuum (UHV) and extreme-high vacuum (XHV) applications. After a 400 °C/48 h bake, AISI 1020 tube chambers achieved a hydrogen outgassing rate of 2.4 × 10¿¹6 Torr·L·s¿¹·cm¿², approximately 2,300 times lower than the prebaked 316L stainless-steel comparator, among the lowest hydrogen outgassing rates ever reported for an uncoated metallic vacuum chamber. Bare and magnetite-coated AISI 1020 chambers were then compared using throughput and rate-of-rise methods. The magnetite coating yielded 5× lower water outgassing at room temperature, but this advantage disappeared after 80 °C baking. After full thermal conditioning (400 °C/48 h prebake followed by 150 °C/96 h and 200 °C/110 h), bare steel achieved 25× lower hydrogen outgassing than the magnetite-coated chamber (9.6 × 10¿¹6 Torr·L·s¿¹·cm¿²) and >99% H2 purity with carbon species below RGA detection. Monte Carlo molecular flow simulations of a CEBAF photogun beamline (96 scenarios) showed that replacing 304L stainless steel with AISI 1020 reduces equilibrium H2 pressure by a factor of 833; a single 304L electrode contributes 98.8% of the gas load despite occupying only 9.1% of the internal surface area. A 500-m Einstein Telescope beampipe screening showed that corrugated bellows contribute 18% of the gas load from only 0.7% of the surface area. A five-model adsorption isotherm framework applied to 22 pumpdown datasets (164 fits with AR(1)-GLS correction) established that the experimental protocol, not the material, controls isotherm identifiability: Dubinin–Radushkevich wins isothermal pipe pumpdowns; Langmuir wins thermally dominated chamber bakes. Cross-dataset joint fitting of the AISI 1020 pipe pumpdowns yielded an H2 diffusion activation energy Ed = 7.24 ± 1.28 kcal·mol¿¹, consistent with trap dominated diffusion in commercial low-carbon steels. Two companion innovations were developed: a Variable Conductance Device (VCD, patent pending IDF-00723) for XHV outgassing measurement, and VacuumDesignerPro (VDP), a MATLAB-based design tool validated against LIGO benchmarks.

Al-Allaq, Aiman H [Old Dominion University]↗
DOE OSTI2021

Efficient Hydrogen Delivery for Microbial Electrosynthesis via 3D-Printed Cathodes

The efficient delivery of electrochemically in situ produced H 2 can be a key advantage of microbial electrosynthesis over traditional gas fermentation. However, the technical details of how to supply large amounts of electric current per volume in a biocompatible manner remain unresolved. Here, we explored for the first time the flexibility of complex 3D-printed custom electrodes to fine tune H 2 delivery during microbial electrosynthesis. Using a model system for H 2 -mediated electromethanogenesis comprised of 3D fabricated carbon aerogel cathodes plated with nickel-molybdenum and Methanococcus maripaludis, we showed that novel 3D-printed cathodes facilitated sustained and efficient electromethanogenesis from electricity and CO 2 at an unprecedented volumetric production rate of 2.2 L CH4 /L catholyte /day and at a coulombic efficiency of 99%. Importantly, our experiments revealed that the efficiency of this process strongly depends on the current density. At identical total current supplied, larger surface area cathodes enabled higher methane production and minimized escape of H 2 . Specifically, low current density (<1 mA/cm 2 ) enabled by high surface area cathodes was found to be critical for fast start-up times of the microbial culture, stable steady state performance, and high coulombic efficiencies. Our data demonstrate that 3D-printing of electrodes presents a promising design tool to mitigate effects of bubble formation and local pH gradients within the boundary layer and, thus, resolve key critical limitations for in situ electron delivery in microbial electrosynthesis.

03 NATURAL GAS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Energy and Exergy Analysis of Low-Global Warming Potential Refrigerants as Replacement for R410A in Two-Speed Heat Pumps for Cold Climates

Heat pumps (HPs) are being developed with a new emphasis on cold climates. To lower the environmental impact of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, alternate low global warming potential (GWP) refrigerants must also replace the exclusive use of the refrigerant R410A, preferably without re-engineering the mechanical hardware. In this paper, we analyze the performance of four low-GWP alternative refrigerants (R32, R452B, R454B, and R466A) relative to the conventional R410A and draw conclusions on the relative performances for providing heating in cold climates based on the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) 210/240 standard for two-speed heat pumps. The simulations are carried using the Department of Energy, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (DOE/ORNL) Heat Pump Design Model (HPDM), a well-known heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) modeling and design tool in the public domain and the HVAC research and development community. The results of the simulation are further scrutinized using exergy analysis to identify sources of systemic inefficiency, the root cause of lost work. This rigorous approach provides an exhaustive analysis of alternate low-GWP refrigerants to replace R410A using available compressors and system components, without compromising performance.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2021

Comparative Performance of Low Global Warming Potential (GWP) Refrigerants as Replacement for R-410A in a Regular 2-Speed Heat Pump for Sustainable Cooling

Heat pumps are currently being developed to reduce the energy footprint for residential and commercial building space conditioning and water heating loads in cold climates. To mitigate the nocuous impact of greenhouse gas emissions on the environment, and to create a carbon-neutral building stock, alternate lower-GWP refrigerants must also replace the predominant use of R-410A, without re-engineering the mechanical hardware. In this paper, we analyze the performance of lower-GWP alternative refrigerants (R-32, R-452B, R-454B, and R-466A) relative to the conventional R-410A and draw conclusions on the relative performances to meet cooling loads. The simulations are accomplished using the heat pump design model, a well-known, public-domain design tool with a free web interface and downloadable desktop version to support public use and the HVAC R&D community. The contributions contain detailed, hardware-based heat exchanger and system analyses to provide a comprehensive assessment. The results of the simulation are scrutinized from the first (capacity and energy efficiency) and second laws (exergy analysis) to identify sources of systemic inefficiency, the root cause of lost work. This rigorous approach provides an exhaustive analysis of alternate lower-GWP refrigerants to replace R-410A using the same hardware. The results have practical value in engineering heat pumps in an economy that is compelled to alter by the consequences and uncertainties of climate change, to reduce its anthropogenic carbon footprint.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2026

Solar Resource Measurements in Eugene, OR: Cooperative Research and Development Final Report, CRADA Number CRD-07-00252

Site-specific, long-term, continuous, and high-resolution measurements of solar irradiance are important for developing renewable resource data. These data are used for several research and development activities consistent with the NLR mission: establish a national 3-year climatological database of measured solar irradiances; provide high quality ground-truth data for satellite remote sensing validation; support development of radiative transfer models for estimating solar irradiance from available meteorological observations; provide solar resource information needed for technology deployment and operations. Data acquired under this agreement will be available to the public through NLR's Measurement & Instrumentation Data Center – MIDC (http://www.nlr.gov/midc) Or the Renewable Resource Data Center - RReDC (http://rredc.nlr.gov). The MIDC offers a variety of standard data display, access, and analysis tools designed to address the needs of a wide user audience (e.g., industry, academia, and government interests).

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Exploring MDSplus data-acquisition software and custom devices

MDSplus is a software tool designed for data acquisition, storage, and analysis of complex scientific experiments. Over the years, MDSplus has primarily been used for data management for fusion experiments. This paper demonstrates that MDSplus can be used for a much wider variety of systems and experiments. We present a step-by-step tutorial describing how to create a simple experiment, manage the data, and analyze it using MDSplus and Python. To this end, a custom example device was developed to be used as the data source. This device was built on an opensource electronic hardware platform, and it consists of a microcontroller and two sensors. We read data from these sensors, store it in MDSplus, and use JupyterLab to visualize and process it. This project and code demo are available on the GitHub site at this URL: https://github.com/santorofer/MDSplusAndCustomeDevices

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
NASA NTRS1966

Hollow needle used to cut metal honeycomb structures

Hollow needle tool cuts metal honeycomb structures without damaging adjacent material. The hollow needle combines an electrostatic discharge and a stream of oxygen at a common point to effect rapid, accurate metal cutting. The tool design can be varied to use the hollow needle principle for cutting a variety of shapes.

Gregg, E. A.↗
NASA NTRS1967

Pipe joints reinforced in place with fitted aluminum sleeves

Installation of an aluminum sleeve, using specially designed tools, reinforces solder- sealed ferrule joints in installed small-diameter aluminum tubing. Tubing joints reinforced by this method withstand considerable torsional tensional, and vibrational stresses at moderately elevated temperatures.

Cortez, I., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1968

Thermal resistances of solder-boss/potting compound combinations

Formulas, which can be used as a design tool, are derived to calculate the thermal resistance of solder-boss/potting compound combinations, for different depths of a solder boss, in electronic cordwood modules. Since the solder boss is the heat source, its shape and position will affect the thermal resistance of the surrounding potting compound.

Veilleux, E. D.↗