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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 937 records · Page 52
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2021

Biologically Inspired Interception on an Unmanned System

Borrowing from nature, neural-inspired interception algorithms were implemented onboard a vehicle. To maximize success, work was conducted in parallel within a simulated environment and on physical hardware. The intercept vehicle used only optical imaging to detect and track the target. A successful outcome is the proof-of-concept demonstration of a neural-inspired algorithm autonomously guiding a vehicle to intercept a moving target. This work tried to establish the key parameters for the intercept algorithm (sensors and vehicle) and expand the knowledge and capabilities of implementing neural-inspired algorithms in simulation and on hardware.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2024

NEML2: A High Performance Library for Constitutive Modeling

NEML2, the New Engineering Material model Library, version 2, is an offshoot of NEML, an earlier material modeling code developed at Argonne National Laboratory. NEML2 extends the key philosophy of its predecessor, i.e., material models are flexible, modular, and can be built from smaller blocks. It also provides modern features that do not exist in the framework of its predecessor such as material model vectorization, automatic differentiation, device-portable just-in-time compilation, operator fusion, lazy tensor evaluation, etc. Moreover, NEML2 can seamlessly integrate with the popular machine learning package PyTorch to take advantage of modern and fast-growing machine learning techniques. In this fiscal year, the development of core library features and capabilities are complete. The purpose of this report is not to serve as a verbatim copy of the software API reference (which is available online at https://reverendbedford.github.io/neml2/). Instead, this report documents the motivation, implementation, design choices, and usage of each core capability as well as their applications in solving practical engineering problems. This report is compiled based on the NEML2 major release 2.0.0.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2026

Southeast Regional CO 2 Utilization and Storage Acceleration Partnership (SECARB-USA): Results of Existing CO 2 Source and Sink Databases Analysis

The “Southeast Regional CO 2 Utilization and Storage Acceleration Partnership” (SECARB-USA) project supported the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy's (FE) mission to help the United States meet its need for secure, affordable, and environmentally sound fossil energy supplies by utilizing the advancements made since 2003 by the Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (RCSP) Initiative to continue to identify and address knowledge gaps.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2023

Three-dimensional atomic structure and local chemical order of medium- and high-entropy nanoalloys

Medium- and high-entropy alloys (M/HEAs) mix several principal elements with near-equiatomic composition and represent a model-shift strategy for designing previously unknown materials in metallurgy, catalysis and other fields. One of the core hypotheses of M/HEAs is lattice distortion, which has been investigated by different numerical and experimental techniques. However, determining the three-dimensional (3D) lattice distortion in M/HEAs remains a challenge. Moreover, the presumed random elemental mixing in M/HEAs has been questioned by X-ray and neutron studies, atomistic simulations, energy dispersive spectroscopy and electron diffraction, which suggest the existence of local chemical order in M/HEAs. However, direct experimental observation of the 3D local chemical order has been difficult because energy dispersive spectroscopy integrates the composition of atomic columns along the zone axes and diffuse electron reflections may originate from planar defects instead of local chemical order. Here, in this work, we determine the 3D atomic positions of M/HEA nanoparticles using atomic electron tomography and quantitatively characterize the local lattice distortion, strain tensor, twin boundaries, dislocation cores and chemical short-range order (CSRO). We find that the high-entropy alloys have larger local lattice distortion and more heterogeneous strain than the medium-entropy alloys and that strain is correlated to CSRO. We also observe CSRO-mediated twinning in the medium-entropy alloys, that is, twinning occurs in energetically unfavoured CSRO regions but not in energetically favoured CSRO ones, which represents, to our knowledge, the first experimental observation of correlating local chemical order with structural defects in any material. We expect that this work will not only expand our fundamental understanding of this important class of materials but also provide the foundation for tailoring M/HEA properties through engineering lattice distortion and local chemical order.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2017

Measuring the effects of pore-pressure changes on seismic amplitude using crosswell continuous active-source seismic monitoring (CASSM)

Monitoring of time-varying reservoir properties, such as the state of stress, is a primary goal of geophysical investigations, including for geological sequestration of CO 2 , enhanced hydrocarbon recovery (EOR), and other subsurface engineering activities. In this work, we used Continuous Active-Source Seismic Monitoring (CASSM), with cross-well geometry, to measure variation in seismic coda amplitude, as a consequence of effective stress change (in the form of changes in pore fluid pressure). To our knowledge, the presented results are the first in-situ example of such crosswell measurement at reservoir scale and in field conditions. Data compliment the findings of our previous work which investigated the relationship between pore fluid pressure and seismic velocity (velocity-stress sensitivity) using the CASSM system at the same field site (Marchesini et al., 2017, in review). We find that P-wave coda amplitude decreases with decreasing pore pressure (increasing effective stress).

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Structural basis for antibody binding to adenylate cyclase toxin reveals RTX linkers as neutralization-sensitive epitopes

RTX leukotoxins are a diverse family of prokaryotic virulence factors that are secreted by the type 1 secretion system (T1SS) and target leukocytes to subvert host defenses. T1SS substrates all contain a C-terminal RTX domain that mediates recruitment to the T1SS and drives secretion via a Brownian ratchet mechanism. Neutralizing antibodies against the Bordetella pertussis adenylate cyclase toxin, an RTX leukotoxin essential for B . pertussis colonization, have been shown to target the RTX domain and prevent binding to the α M β 2 integrin receptor. Knowledge of the mechanisms by which antibodies bind and neutralize RTX leukotoxins is required to inform structure-based design of bacterial vaccines, however, no structural data are available for antibody binding to any T1SS substrate. Here, we determine the crystal structure of an engineered RTX domain fragment containing the α M β 2 -binding site bound to two neutralizing antibodies. Notably, the receptor-blocking antibodies bind to the linker regions of RTX blocks I–III, suggesting they are key neutralization-sensitive sites within the RTX domain and are likely involved in binding the α M β 2 receptor. As the engineered RTX fragment contained these key epitopes, we assessed its immunogenicity in mice and showed that it elicits similar neutralizing antibody titers to the full RTX domain. The results from these studies will support the development of bacterial vaccines targeting RTX leukotoxins, as well as next-generation B . pertussis vaccines.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2019

High-Dimensional Spectral Sampling

A wide variety of applications in science and engineering depend on effectively and efficiently exploring high- dimensional parameter spaces. Common examples are uncertainty quantification, inverse problems, or various optimization approaches. In such applications, the first step is to create an initial uniform, random sampling of the space to create a baseline of knowledge. The simulations evaluated at these samples are then used for subsequent processing. In its most generic form, the goal of sampling is to produce the maximal amount of information with the minimal number of samples. However, despite being the first step and thus influencing the performance of the entire workflow, the quality of the initial sample designs is rarely analyzed or optimized. This project develops a new spectral sampling theory for analyzing and creating experiment designs in high-dimensional spaces. Further, new algorithms for estimating sample properties and sample synthesis are designed. Finally, applications of the proposed spectral sampling tools in surrogate modeling, scientific machine learning and image analysis are presented.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2021

2020 LDRD Annual Report

The largest component of Argonne’s program is LDRD Prime, which emphasizes R&D explicitly aligned with Laboratory major initiatives in support of Argonne’s strategic plan. The choice of Focus Areas under the LDRD Prime component reflects the major initiatives; the state of development of relevant technical fields; the potential value of advancing those fields to DOE/NNSA and the nation; and the compatibility of the fields with existing facilities, capabilities, and staff expertise at Argonne.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2013

Single-Crystal Sapphire Optical Fiber Sensor Instrumentation

This report summarizes technical progress on the program “Single-Crystal Sapphire Optical Fiber Sensor Instrumentation,” funded by the National Energy Technology Laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy, and performed by the Center for Photonics Technology of the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech. This project was completed in three phases, each with a separate focus. Phase I of the program, from October 1999 to April 2002, was devoted to development of sensing schema for use in high temperature, harsh environments. Different sensing designs were proposed and tested in the laboratory. Phase II of the program, from April 2002 to April 2009, focused on bringing the sensor technologies, which had already been successfully demonstrated in the laboratory, to a level where the sensors could be deployed in harsh industrial environments and eventually become commercially viable through a series of field tests. Also, a new sensing scheme was developed and tested with numerous advantages over all previous ones in Phase II. Phase III of the program, September 2009 to December 2013, focused on development of the new sensing scheme for field testing in conjunction with materials engineering of the improved sensor packaging lifetimes. In Phase I, three different sensing principles were studied: sapphire air-gap extrinsic Fabry-Perot sensors; intensity-based polarimetric sensors; and broadband polarimetric sensors. Black body radiation tests and corrosion tests were also performed in this phase. The outcome of the first phase of this program was the selection of broadband polarimetric differential interferometry (BPDI) for further prototype instrumentation development. This approach is based on the measurement of the optical path difference (OPD) between two orthogonally polarized light beams in a single-crystal sapphire disk. At the beginning of Phase II, in June 2004, the BPDI sensor was tested at the Wabash River coal gasifier facility in Terre Haute, Indiana. Due to business conditions at industrial partner and several logistical problems, this field test was not successful. An alternative high-temperature sensing system using sapphire wafer-based extrinsic Fabry-Perot interferometry was then developed as a significant improvement over the BPDI solution. From June 2006 to June 2008, three consecutive field tests were performed with the new sapphire wafer sensors at the TECO coal gasifier in Tampa, Florida. One of the sensors survived in the industrial coal gasifier for 7 months, over which time the existing thermocouples were replaced twice. The outcome of these TECO field tests suggests that the sapphire wafer sensor has very good potential to be commercialized. However packaging and sensor protection issues need additional development. During Phase III, several major improvements in the design and fabrication process of the sensor have been achieved through experiments and theoretical analysis. Studies on the property of the key components in the sensor head, including the sapphire fiber and sapphire wafer, were also conducted, for a better understanding of the sensor behavior. A final design based on all knowledge and experience has been developed, free of any issues encountered during the entire research. Sensors with this design performed well as expected in lab long-term tests, and were deployed in the sensing probe of the final coal-gasifier field test. Sensor packaging and protection was improved through materials engineering through testing of packaging designs in two blank probe packaging tests at Eastman Chemical in Kingsport, TN. Performance analysis of the blank probe packaging resulted in improve package designs culminating in a 3rd generation probe packaging utilized for the full field test of the sapphire optical sensor and materials designed sensor packaging.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2017

Engineering the Bacterial Microcompartment Domain for Molecular Scaffolding Applications

As synthetic biology advances the intricacy of engineered biological systems, the importance of spatial organization within the cellular environment must not be marginalized. Increasingly, biological engineers are investigating means to control spatial organization within the cell, mimicking strategies used by natural pathways to increase flux and reduce cross-talk. A modular platform for constructing a diverse set of defined, programmable architectures would greatly assist in improving yields from introduced metabolic pathways and increasing insulation of other heterologous systems. Here, we review recent research on the shell proteins of bacterial microcompartments and discuss their potential application as “building blocks” for a range of customized intracellular scaffolds. As a result, we summarize the state of knowledge on the self-assembly of BMC shell proteins and discuss future avenues of research that will be important to realize the potential of BMC shell proteins as predictively assembling and programmable biological materials for bioengineering.

metabolic engineering↗
DOE OSTI2017

Shales at all scales: Exploring coupled processes in mudrocks

Fine-grained sedimentary rocks – namely mudrocks, including their laminated fissile variety — shales – make up about two thirds of all sedimentary rocks in the Earth's crust and a quarter of the continental land mass. Additionally, organic-rich shales and mudstones are the source rocks and reservoirs for conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon resources. Mudrocks are relied upon as natural barriers for geological carbon storage and nuclear waste disposal. Consideration of mudrock multi-scale physics and multi-scale spatial and temporal behavior is vital to address emergent phenomena in shale formations perturbed by engineering activities. Unique physical characteristics of shales arise as a result of their layered and highly heterogeneous and anisotropic nature, low permeability fabric, compositional complexity, and nano-scale confined chemical environments. Barriers of lexicon among geoscientists and engineers impede the development and use of conceptual models for the coupled thermal-hydraulic-mechanical-chemical-biological (THMCB) processes in mudrock formations. This manuscript reviews the THMCB process couplings, resulting emergent behavior, and key modeling approaches. We identify future research priorities, in particular fundamental knowledge gaps in understanding the phase behavior under nano-scale confinement, coupled chemo-mechanical effects on fractures, the interplay between physical and chemical processes and their rates, and issues of non-linearity and heterogeneity. We develop recommendations for future research and integrating multi-disciplinary conceptual models for the coupled multi-scale multi-physics behavior of mudrocks. Lastly, consistent conceptual models across disciplines are essential for predicting emergent processes in the subsurface, such as self-focusing of flow, time-dependent deformation (creep), fracture network development, and wellbore stability.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Accurate determination of the electron spin polarization in magnetized iron and nickel foils for Møller polarimetry

The Møller polarimeter in Hall A at Jefferson Lab in Newport News, VA, has provided reliable measurements of electron beam polarization for the past two decades. Past experiments have typically required polarimetry at the 1% level of absolute uncertainty which the Møller polarimeter has delivered. However, the upcoming proposed experimental program including MOLLER and SoLID have stringent requirements on beam polarimetry precision at the level of 0.4% (The MOLLER Collaboration, 2014; The SoLID collaboration, 2019), requiring a systematic re-examination of all the contributing uncertainties. Møller polarimetry uses the double polarized scattering asymmetry of a polarized electron beam on a target with polarized atomic electrons. The target is a ferromagnetic material magnetized to align the spins in a given direction. In Hall A, the target is a pure iron foil aligned perpendicular to the beam and magnetized out of plane parallel or antiparallel to the beam direction. The acceptance of the detector is engineered to collect scattered electrons close to 90° in the center of mass frame where the analyzing power is a maximum (-7/9). One of the leading systematic errors comes from determination of the target foil polarization. Polarization of a magnetically saturated target foil requires knowledge of both the saturation magnetization and g', the electron g-factor which includes components from both spin and orbital angular momentum from which the spin fraction of magnetization is determined. Target foil polarization has been previously addressed in a 1997 publication “A precise target for Møller polarimetry” by de Bever et al. (1997) at a level of precision sufficient for experiments up to this point. Several shortcomings with the previous published value require revisiting the result prior to MOLLER. Here, we utilize the existing world data to provide a best estimate for target polarization for both nickel and iron foils including uncertainties in magnetization, high-field and temperature dependence, and fractional contribution to magnetization from orbital effects. We determine the foil electron spin polarization at 294 K to be 0.08020 ± 0.00018 (@4 T applied field) for iron and 0.018845+/-0.000053 (@2 T applied field) for nickel. Finally, we conclude with a brief discussion of additional systematic uncertainties to Møller polarimetry using this technique.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2023

Local Rearrangement in Adsorption Layers of Nanoconfined Ethane

Fluids under nanoconfinement control many environmental and engineering processes. In particular, nanoconfined ethane commonly occurs in hydrocarbon production and gas separation applications. While previous research has measured the pore critical properties and self-diffusivity of nanoconfined ethane, the relationship between molecular organization and phase behavior in nanoporous media persists as a knowledge gap. Through experimental adsorption measurements and molecular dynamics simulations, we report the impact of pore wall proximity, pore size, and temperature on the structure of nanoconfined ethane. Finally, we offer evidence for an energetically favorable rearrangement of ethane molecules in the adsorption layer that may contribute to more accurate gas-in-place estimates and more efficient design of gas separation membranes.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2026

Perspective: Magnon-magnon coupling in hybrid magnonics

The internal coupling of magnetic excitations (magnons) with themselves has created a new research sub-field in hybrid magnonics, i.e., magnon-magnon coupling, which focuses on materials discovery and engineering for probing and controlling magnons in a coherent manner. This is enabled by, one, the abundant mechanisms of introducing magnetic interactions, with examples of exchange coupling, dipolar coupling, Ruderman–Kittel–Kasuya–Yosida (RKKY) coupling, and Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction (DMI) coupling, and two, the vast knowledge of how to control magnon band structure, including field and wavelength dependences of frequencies, for determining the degeneracy of magnon modes with different symmetries. In particular, we discuss how magnon-magnon coupling is implemented in various materials systems, with examples of magnetic bilayers, synthetic antiferromagnets, nanomagnetic arrays, layered van der Waals magnets, and (DMI spin-orbit torque materials) in magnetic multilayers. Here, we then introduce new concept of applications for these hybrid magnonic materials systems, with examples of frequency up/down conversion and magnon-exciton coupling, and discuss what properties are desired for achieving those applications.

Materials science↗
DOE OSTI2019

Simulation of site and topographic effects on ground motion in Los Alamos, NM mesas

Mesas, which consist of an elevated area of land with a flat top and steep cliffs at the sides, are one of the common geological formations present in the Los Alamos region. Previous research has shown that geological formations such as sedimentary canyons can amplify soil response during earthquakes. There have also been parametric studies to understand the response of an idealized and isolated mountain/canyon under inclined plane waves. In this study, a 2-D linear anelastic soil domain, with topography modelled after the Los Alamos region with many mesas and canyons, is considered to understand site-specific topographic effects in the presence of non-isolated topographical features. Various earthquake sources configurations ranging from point sources to finite faults with varying rupture length, dip angles and spatial slip distributions are considered. To isolate the effect of topography, three other soil domains—a homogeneous half-space, homogeneous half-space with mesas and canyons, and a computational domain with just the soil properties from the Los Alamos region on a flat soil domain is also considered. 2-D site-response analyses of these soil domains under earthquake excitation show that the free-field response of the soil can be amplified or de-amplified depending on the topography of the region and the location of the station relative to the fault. These studies also show that even relatively small mesas with height less than 100 m can significantly amplify the response (by a factor of 2 or more), which differ from the much smaller amplification factors (≤1.2) specified by standard building codes such as Eurocode-8 (2000) for topographical features with a similar slope. De-amplifications are also fairly common, especially close to the canyons. The results from this study agree qualitatively with those from the ambient vibration study conducted by Stolte et al. on a mesa from the Los Alamos region. Furthermore, such site-specific studies provide important insights into the variability of the topographic amplification factors within a region of interest. Such knowledge is important in the design of safety-related critical infrastructure located within that region.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Sequential infiltration of two-photon polymerized 3D photonic crystals for mid-IR spectroscopic applications

Photonic crystals (PhCs) are spatially organized structures with lattice parameters equivalent to the operational wavelength of light. PhCs have been subject to extensive research efforts in the last two decades and are known for controlling light propagation with applications in sensing and time-delayed communication due to the slow-light phenomenon. Despite their exceptional properties, PhCs are difficult to fabricate using planar micromachining techniques due to their periodic structures. Techniques like two-photon stereolithography have been discussed for PhC fabrication in the literature, but the inherent disadvantage of poor refractive index (RI) contrast results in limited application. In this work, we present sequential infiltration synthesis performed on two-photon stereolithographically printed 3D PhCs for infiltration with zinc oxide to increase the RI of 3D PhCs. Further, finite element analysis was performed over a range of RI contrast values to study the change in photonic bandgap (PBG) with RI contrast. The transmission spectra were recorded on 3D PhCs before and after infiltration to demonstrate the change experimentally. An increase in the PBG width and absorbance is seen postinfiltration due to enhanced RI. This work presents the first, to our knowledge, sequentially infiltrated enhanced 3D PhC fabricated with two-photon stereolithography.

3D printing↗
DOE OSTI2022

Multi-process tooling for discontinuous carbon and hybrid glass fiber thermoplastics

Expensive tooling often constraints the use of composites in the design and development of automotive parts. While there is significant confidence and knowledge in sheet and bulk metals, composite processes are less understood in mass production environment. The processes used to produce composites and resulting properties are influenced by fiber length attrition, resin to fiber ratio, process waste etc. Tool designs are determined very early in the engineering process. It is cost prohibitive to build additional tools, in the event it becomes obvious a better processing method and material would be beneficial, the original decision is not easily changed. In the present work we recognize the bottleneck of tooling costs and provide an approach of multi-process tooling. The innovation of this work is the design and demonstration of a single tool for different processes namely injection, injection-compression and extrusion-compression. The materials used in this study were long and short fiber thermoplastics (LFTs and SFTs). The resulting structure-property relationships have been reported for the materials and processing methods with a battery tray (BT) tool.

Vaidya, Uday↗
DOE OSTI2013

Alliance for NanoHealth (ANH) Training Program for the development of future generations of interdisciplinary scientists and collaborative research focused upon the advancement of nanomedicine

The objectives of this program are to promote the mission of the Department of Energy (DOE) Science, Technology, Engineering, Math (STEM) Program by recruiting students to science and engineering disciplines with the intent of mentoring and supporting the next generation of scientists; to foster interdisciplinary and collaborative research under the sponsorship of ANH for the discovery and design of nano-based materials and devices with novel structures, functions, and properties; and to prepare a diverse work force of scientists, engineers, and clinicians by utilizing the unique intellectual and physical resources to develop novel nanotechnology paradigms for clinical application.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗