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At least 955 records · Page 53

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

NASA NTRS2007

Preliminary Structural Sizing and Alternative Material Trade Study of CEV Crew Module

This paper presents the results of a preliminary structural sizing and alternate material trade study for NASA s Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) Crew Module (CM). This critical CEV component will house the astronauts during ascent, docking with the International Space Station, reentry, and landing. The alternate material design study considers three materials beyond the standard metallic (aluminum alloy) design that resulted from an earlier NASA Smart Buyer Team analysis. These materials are graphite/epoxy composite laminates, discontinuously reinforced SiC/Al (DRA) composites, and a novel integrated panel material/concept known as WebCore. Using the HyperSizer (Collier Research and Development Corporation) structural sizing software and NASTRAN finite element analysis code, a comparison is made among these materials for the three composite CM concepts considered by the 2006 NASA Engineering and Safety Center Composite Crew Module project.

Bednarcyk, Brett A.↗

NASA NTRS2007

Safety Verification of a Fault Tolerant Reconfigurable Autonomous Goal-Based Robotic Control System

Fault tolerance and safety verification of control systems are essential for the success of autonomous robotic systems. A control architecture called Mission Data System (MDS), developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, takes a goal-based control approach. In this paper, a method for converting goal network control programs into linear hybrid systems is developed. The linear hybrid system can then be verified for safety in the presence of failures using existing symbolic model checkers. An example task is simulated in MDS and successfully verified using HyTech, a symbolic model checking software for linear hybrid systems.

goal network↗

DOE OSTI2013

Incident Management Preparedness and Coordination Toolkit

As with many professions, safety planners and first responders tend to be specialists in certain areas. To be truly useful, tools should be tailored to meet their specific needs. Thus, general software suites aimed at the professional geographic information system (GIS) community might not be the best solution for a first responder with little training in GIS terminology and techniques. On the other hand, commonly used web-based map viewers may not have the capability to be customized for the planning, response, and recovery (PR&R) mission. Data formats should be open and foster easy information flow among local, state, and federal partners. Tools should be free or low-cost to address real-world budget constraints at the local level. They also need to work both with and without a network connection to be robust. The Incident Management Preparedness and Coordination Toolkit (IMPACT) can satisfy many of these needs while working in harmony with established systems at the local, state, and federal levels. The IMPACT software framework, termed the Geospatial Integrated Problem Solving Environment (GIPSE), organizes tasks, tools, and resources for the end user. It uses the concept of software wizards to both customize and extend its functionality. On the Tasks panel are a number of buttons used to initiate various operations. Similar to macros, these task buttons launch scripts that utilize the full functionality of the underlying foundational components such as the SQL spatial database and ORNL-developed map editor. The user is presented with a series of instruction pages which are implemented with HTML for interactivity. On each page are links which initiate specific actions such as creating a map showing various features. Additional tasks may be quickly programmed and added to the panel. The end user can customize the graphical interface to faciltate its use during an emergency. One of the major components of IMPACT is the ORNL Geospatial Viewer (OGV). It is used to provide various map displays for the Tasks and Maps panels. Unlike typical maps however, the OGV display is highly interactive and can be customized, automated, and animated to meet the needs of the user. It is also a means to both import and export geospatial data from or to existing GIS systems. The built-in simulation capability can be used as the basis of table-top exercises.

Koch, Daniel B.↗

DOE OSTI2012

A platform for effective requirements management and collaboration in nuclear compliance and licensing

Buoyed by its promise as a cost effective and low-carbon-footprint source of electricity, the nuclear industry is in the midst of a world-wide renaissance. However, significant challenges, including responding to increased safety and regulatory mandates, making a smooth transition to next-generation reactor technology, and dealing with the adoption of digital instrumentation and control (I and C) systems that rely heavily on software must be effectively addressed to ensure the momentum continues. New technology solutions, such as those developed by IBM's Rational business unit, coupled with well codified processes, policies and best practices leveraged across the nuclear ecosystem's participants have been shown to aid in overcoming these obstacles. This paper will highlight some of the compliance and collaboration challenges facing the extended nuclear ecosystem, describe a potential solution that can aid in addressing the challenges, and present several examples of where the solution has been implemented in the nuclear space. (authors)

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

NASA NTRS2013

Modeling Complex Cross-Systems Software Interfaces Using SysML

The complex flight and ground systems for NASA human space exploration are designed, built, operated and managed as separate programs and projects. However, each system relies on one or more of the other systems in order to accomplish specific mission objectives, creating a complex, tightly coupled architecture. Thus, there is a fundamental need to understand how each system interacts with the other. To determine if a model-based system engineering approach could be utilized to assist with understanding the complex system interactions, the NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) sponsored a task to develop an approach for performing cross-system behavior modeling. This paper presents the results of applying Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) principles using the System Modeling Language (SysML) to define cross-system behaviors and how they map to crosssystem software interfaces documented in system-level Interface Control Documents (ICDs).

Earth orbit↗

DOE OSTI2017

A Simulation Framework for Battery Cell Impact Safety Modeling Using LS-DYNA

The development process of electrified vehicles can benefit significantly from computer-aided engineering tools that predict themultiphysics response of batteries during abusive events. A coupled structural, electrical, electrochemical, and thermal model framework has been developed within the commercially available LS-DYNA software. The finite element model leverages a three-dimensional mesh structure that fully resolves the unit cell components. The mechanical solver predicts the distributed stress and strain response with failure thresholds leading to the onset of an internal short circuit. In this implementation, an arbitrary compressive strain criterion is applied locally to each unit cell. A spatially distributed equivalent circuit model provides an empirical representation of the electrochemical responsewith minimal computational complexity.The thermalmodel provides state information to index the electrical model parameters, while simultaneously accepting irreversible and reversible sources of heat generation. The spatially distributed models of the electrical and thermal dynamics allow for the localization of current density and corresponding temperature response. The ability to predict the distributed thermal response of the cell as its stored energy is completely discharged through the short circuit enables an engineering safety assessment. A parametric analysis of an exemplary model is used to demonstrate the simulation capabilities.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

DOE OSTI2025

Automatic Generation of Chemical Mechanisms for Electrochemical Systems: Solid Electrolyte Interphase Formation in Lithium Batteries

Electrolytes in many lithium ion batteries decompose at the low potentials near the anode. The decomposition products form a layer termed the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI). The composition and growth of the SEI layer significantly affect both the capacity fade and safety of lithium ion batteries. However, SEI formation and growth kinetics are not well understood. In this work, we present an extension of the Reaction Mechanism Generator (RMG) software to automatically generate mechanisms for SEI formation. We extend RMG’s solvation correction framework to account for kinetic solvent effects and demonstrate the accuracy of our technique. We calculate thermochemical parameters for 252 species and rate coefficients for 69 reactions, most with associated solvation corrections. This and additional quantum chemistry data are used to extend RMG’s thermodynamic group additivity and solute parameter estimation schemes to handle lithiated species and add 14 new reaction families to RMG. RMG is additionally extended to simulate electrocatalytic systems. Lastly, we demonstrate RMG on the decomposition of acetonitrile and ethylene carbonate near a battery anode. Furthermore, while this framework does not yet resolve individual ions, as appropriate thermochemistry estimators are not available, and thus, cannot yet resolve more complex electrochemical pathways, RMG is able to generate reasonable pathways for SEI formation that match literature pathways and products. In particular, RMG identifies a new important reaction pathway that is not present in literature.

Chemical reactions↗

DOE OSTI2014

SU-E-T-502: Biometrically Accepted Patient Records

Purpose: To implement a clinically useful palm vein pattern recognition biometric system to treat the correct treatment plan to the correct patient each and every time and to check-in the patient into the department to access the correct medical record. Methods: A commercially available hand vein scanning system was paired to Aria and utilized an ADT interface from the hospital electronic health system. Integration at two points in Aria, version 11 MR2, first at the appointment tracker screen for the front desk medical record access and second at the queue screen on the 4D treatment console took place for patient daily time-out. A test patient was utilized to check accuracy of identification as well as to check that no unintended interactions take place between the 4D treatment console and the hand vein scanning system. This system has been in clinical use since December 2013. Results: Since implementation, 445 patients have been enrolled into our biometric system. 95% of patients learn the correct methodology of hand placement on the scanner in the first try. We have had two instances of patient not found because of a bad initial scan. We simply erased the scanned metric and the patient enrolled again in those cases. The accuracy of the match is 100% for each patient, we have not had one patient misidentified. We can state this because we still use patient photo and date of birth as identifiers. A QA test patient is run monthly to check the integrity of the system. Conclusion: By utilizing palm vein scans along with the date of birth and patient photo, another means of patient identification now exits. This work indicates the successful implementation of technology in the area of patient safety by closing the gap of treating the wrong plan to a patient in radiation oncology. FOJP Service Corporation covered some of the costs of the hardware and software of the palm vein pattern recognition biometric system.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

DOE OSTI2021

Bluecrab: Comprehensive Reactor Analysis Bundle

BlueCRAB is a combination of existing codes created in close collaboration with the U.S. NRC useful for various reactor safety analysis simulations. For the purpose of classification it should be noted that BlueCRAB (the bundle) can be split up in several ways. At the heart of the software is "wrapping" and "coupling" code for brining in several non-INL projects from the NRC and Argonne National Laboratory (SAM). These codes facilitate the building and linking of these various codes during compilation and assist with data movement during execution. BlueCRAB can optionally link in several other applications including the following: BISON: fuels performance Griffin: Reactor Physics Pronghorn: CFD IAPS95: EOS for water, helium, nitrogen TRACE: NRC Code for 2 phase flow (system analysis) FAST: NRC Code for fuels performance SAM: ANL Code for single phase system analysis

Permann, Cody↗

DOE OSTI2021

Development of Enabling Technologies for a Pressurized Dry Feed Oxy-Coal Reactor

Researchers at Brigham Young University (3 faculty, 9 graduate students, and 35 undergraduate students) completed this 5-year research program with the main objective to build and test a 100 kWth pressurized dry-feed oxy-coal combustor (POC). This objective was achieved through the development and testing of a unique pressurized dry coal fluidization feed system that operates in conjunction with a pressurized oxycoal combustor. The project included a series of R&D tasks, including design, modeling, bench-scale testing, construction, safety reviews, and reactor testing which are detailed in this report. BYU researchers were supported in some modeling tasks by project partners Reaction Engineering International (REI) and CPFD Software.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗

NASA NTRS1993

Integrated failure detection and management for the Space Station Freedom external active thermal control system

This paper presents the integrated approach toward failure detection, isolation, and recovery/reconfiguration to be used for the Space Station Freedom External Active Thermal Control System (EATCS). The on-board and on-ground diagnostic capabilities of the EATCS are discussed. Time and safety critical features, as well as noncritical failures, and the detection coverage for each provided by existing capabilities are reviewed. The allocation of responsibility between on-board software and ground-based systems, to be shown during ground testing at the Johnson Space Center, is described. Failure isolation capabilities allocated to the ground include some functionality originally found on orbit but moved to the ground to reduce on-board resource requirements. Complex failures requiring the analysis of multiple external variables, such as environmental conditions, heat loads, or station attitude, are also allocated to ground personnel.

Mesloh, Nick↗

NASA NTRS2005

A Survey of Intelligent Control and Health Management Technologies for Aircraft Propulsion Systems

Intelligent Control and Health Management technology for aircraft propulsion systems is much more developed in the laboratory than in practice. With a renewed emphasis on reducing engine life cycle costs, improving fuel efficiency, increasing durability and life, etc., driven by various government programs, there is a strong push to move these technologies out of the laboratory and onto the engine. This paper describes the existing state of engine control and on-board health management, and surveys some specific technologies under development that will enable an aircraft propulsion system to operate in an intelligent way--defined as self-diagnostic, self-prognostic, self-optimizing, and mission adaptable. These technologies offer the potential for creating extremely safe, highly reliable systems. The technologies will help to enable a level of performance that far exceeds that of today s propulsion systems in terms of reduction of harmful emissions, maximization of fuel efficiency, and minimization of noise, while improving system affordability and safety. Technologies that are discussed include various aspects of propulsion control, diagnostics, prognostics, and their integration. The paper focuses on the improvements that can be achieved through innovative software and algorithms. It concentrates on those areas that do not require significant advances in sensors and actuators to make them achievable, while acknowledging the additional benefit that can be realized when those technologies become available. The paper also discusses issues associated with the introduction of some of the technologies.

Litt, Jonathan S.↗

NASA NTRS2008

Visualization Component of Vehicle Health Decision Support System

The visualization front-end of a Decision Support System (DSS) also includes an analysis engine linked to vehicle telemetry, and a database of learned models for known behaviors. Because the display is graphical rather than text-based, the summarization it provides has a greater information density on one screen for evaluation by a flight controller.This tool provides a system-level visualization of the state of a vehicle, and drill-down capability for more details and interfaces to separate analysis algorithms and sensor data streams. The system-level view is a 3D rendering of the vehicle, with sensors represented as icons, tied to appropriate positions within the vehicle body and colored to indicate sensor state (e.g., normal, warning, anomalous state, etc.). The sensor data is received via an Information Sharing Protocol (ISP) client that connects to an external server for real-time telemetry. Users can interactively pan, zoom, and rotate this 3D view, as well as select sensors for a detail plot of the associated time series data. Subsets of the plotted data can be selected and sent to an external analysis engine to either search for a similar time series in an historical database, or to detect anomalous events. The system overview and plotting capabilities are completely general in that they can be applied to any vehicle instrumented with a collection of sensors. This visualization component can interface with the ISP for data streams used by NASA s Mission Control Center at Johnson Space Center. In addition, it can connect to, and display results from, separate analysis engine components that identify anomalies or that search for past instances of similar behavior. This software supports NASA's Software, Intelligent Systems, and Modeling element in the Exploration Systems Research and Technology Program by augmenting the capability of human flight controllers to make correct decisions, thus increasing safety and reliability. It was designed specifically as a tool for NASA's flight controllers to monitor the International Space Station and a future Crew Exploration Vehicle.

Jacob, Joseph↗

NASA NTRS2004

Human-Robot Planetary Exploration Teams

The EVA Robotic Assistant (ERA) project at NASA Johnson Space Center studies human-robot interaction and robotic assistance for future human planetary exploration. Over the past four years, the ERA project has been performing field tests with one or more four-wheeled robotic platforms and one or more space-suited humans. These tests have provided experience in how robots can assist humans, how robots and humans can communicate in remote environments, and what combination of humans and robots works best for different scenarios. The most efficient way to understand what tasks human explorers will actually perform, and how robots can best assist them, is to have human explorers and scientists go and explore in an outdoor, planetary-relevant environment, with robots to demonstrate what they are capable of, and roboticists to observe the results. It can be difficult to have a human expert itemize all the needed tasks required for exploration while sitting in a lab: humans do not always remember all the details, and experts in one arena may not even recognize that the lower level tasks they take for granted may be essential for a roboticist to know about. Field tests thus create conditions that more accurately reveal missing components and invalid assumptions, as well as allow tests and comparisons of new approaches and demonstrations of working systems. We have performed field tests in our local rock yard, in several locations in the Arizona desert, and in the Utah desert. We have tested multiple exploration scenarios, such as geological traverses, cable or solar panel deployments, and science instrument deployments. The configuration of our robot can be changed, based on what equipment is needed for a given scenario, and the sensor mast can even be placed on one of two robot bases, each with different motion capabilities. The software architecture of our robot is also designed to be as modular as possible, to allow for hardware and configuration changes. Two focus areas of our research are safety and crew time efficiency. For safety, our work involves enabling humans to reliably communicate with a robot while moving in the same workspace, and enabling robots to monitor and advise humans of potential problems. Voice, gesture, remote computer control, and enhanced robot intelligence are methods we are studying. For crew time efficiency, we are investigating the effects of assigning different roles to humans and robots in collaborative exploration scenarios.

Tyree, Kimberly↗

NASA NTRS2011

Negative Stress Margins - Are They Real?

Advances in modeling and simulation, new finite element software, modeling engines and powerful computers are providing opportunities to interrogate designs in a very different manner and in a more detailed approach than ever before. Margins of safety are also often evaluated using local stresses for various design concepts and design parameters quickly once analysis models are defined and developed. This paper suggests that not all the negative margins of safety evaluated are real. The structural areas where negative margins are frequently encountered are often near stress concentrations, point loads and load discontinuities, near locations of stress singularities, in areas having large gradients but with insufficient mesh density, in areas with modeling issues and modeling errors, and in areas with connections and interfaces, in two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) transitions, bolts and bolt modeling, and boundary conditions. Now, more than ever, structural analysts need to examine and interrogate their analysis results and perform basic sanity checks to determine if these negative margins are real.

Raju, Ivatury S.↗

NASA NTRS2005

Autonomous Navigation by a Mobile Robot

ROAMAN is a computer program for autonomous navigation of a mobile robot on a long (as much as hundreds of meters) traversal of terrain. Developed for use aboard a robotic vehicle (rover) exploring the surface of a remote planet, ROAMAN could also be adapted to similar use on terrestrial mobile robots. ROAMAN implements a combination of algorithms for (1) long-range path planning based on images acquired by mast-mounted, wide-baseline stereoscopic cameras, and (2) local path planning based on images acquired by body-mounted, narrow-baseline stereoscopic cameras. The long-range path-planning algorithm autonomously generates a series of waypoints that are passed to the local path-planning algorithm, which plans obstacle-avoiding legs between the waypoints. Both the long- and short-range algorithms use an occupancy-grid representation in computations to detect obstacles and plan paths. Maps that are maintained by the long- and short-range portions of the software are not shared because substantial localization errors can accumulate during any long traverse. ROAMAN is not guaranteed to generate an optimal shortest path, but does maintain the safety of the rover.

Huntsberger, Terrance↗

NASA NTRS2011

Negative stress margins – are they real?

Raju, Ivatury S.↗

DOE OSTI2012

An Overview of Public Domain Tools for Measuring the Sustainability of Environmental Remediation - 12060

The application of sustainability principles to the investigation and remediation of contaminated sites is an area of rapid development within the environmental profession, with new business practices, tools, and performance standards for identifying, evaluating, and managing the 'collateral' impacts of cleanup projects to the environment, economy and society coming from many organizations. Guidelines, frameworks, and standards of practice for 'green and sustainable remediation' (GSR) have been released and are under development by the Sustainable Remediation Forum (SURF), the American Society for Testing Materials (ASTM), the Interstate Technology Roundtable Commission (ITRC) and other organizations in the U.S. and internationally. In response to Executive Orders from the President, Federal government agencies have developed policies, procedures and guidelines for evaluating and reporting the sustainability of their environmental restoration projects. Private sector companies in the petroleum, utility, manufacturing, defense, and other sectors are developing their own corporate GSR programs to improve day-to-day management of contaminated sites and to support external reporting as part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts. The explosion of mandates, policy, procedures and guidance raises the question of how to determine whether a remediation technology or cleanup approach is green and/or sustainable. The environmental profession has responded to this question by designing, developing and deploying a wide array of tools, calculators, and databases that enable regulatory agencies, site managers and environmental professionals to calculate the collateral impacts of their remediation projects in the environmental, social, and economic domains. Many of these tools are proprietary ones developed by environmental engineering/consulting firms for use in their consulting engagements and/or tailored specifically to meet the needs of their clients. When it comes to the public domain, Federal government agencies are spearheading the development of software tools to measure and report emissions of air pollutants (e.g., carbon dioxide, other greenhouse gases, criteria air pollutants); consumption of energy, water and natural resources; accident and safety risks; project costs and other economic metrics. Most of the tools developed for the Government are available to environmental practitioners without charge, so they are growing in usage and popularity. The key features and metrics calculated by the available public-domain tools for measuring the sustainability of environmental remediation projects share some commonalities but there are differences amongst the tools. The SiteWise{sup TM} sustainability tool developed for the Navy and US Army will be compared with the Sustainable Remediation Tool (SRT{sup TM}) developed for the US Air Force (USAF). In addition, the USAF's Clean Solar and Wind Energy in Environmental Programs (CleanSWEEP), a soon-to-be-released tool for evaluating the economic feasibility of utilizing renewal energy for powering remediation systems will be described in the paper. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗