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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 1,063 records · Page 59
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2021

Topological superconductivity in skyrmion lattices

Atomic manipulation and interface engineering techniques have provided an intriguing approach to custom-designing topological superconductors and the ensuing Majorana zero modes, representing a paradigm for the realization of topological quantum computing and topology-based devices. Magnet-superconductor hybrid (MSH) systems have proven to be experimentally suitable to engineer topological superconductivity through the control of both the complex structure of its magnetic layer and the interface properties of the superconducting surface. Here, we demonstrate that two-dimensional MSH systems containing a magnetic skyrmion lattice provide an unprecedented ability to control the emergence of topological phases. By changing the skyrmion radius, which can be achieved experimentally through an external magnetic field, one can tune between different topological superconducting phases, allowing one to explore their unique properties and the transitions between them. In these MSH systems, Josephson scanning tunneling spectroscopy spatially visualizes one of the most crucial aspects underlying the emergence of topological superconductivity, the spatial structure of the induced spin–triplet correlations.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2022

Fuel recycling control in long pulse operation with full tungsten divertors in EAST tokamak

Fuel recycling control in long pulse discharges is studied in EAST tokamak with tungsten divertors by particle balance. Double null configuration, proper Resonant Magnetic Perturbation (RMP), divertor cryopumps and realtime lithium injection, are all very effective for recycling control. High heating power discharge leads to low recycling due to the enhancement of particle exhausting. High external gas injection is required in a low fuel recycling discharge to keep a constant density, and Dα emission is increased by external injection, therefore a higher Dα emission may indicate low fuel recycling for the same plasma density. Reproducible long pulse discharges of over 100 s with core electron temperature >10 keV, and 1056 s discharge with ~1.5 MW heating power were obtained in the EAST 2021 campaign, fuel recycling was well controlled by divertor cryopumps and realtime lithium injection. The results provide a valuable reference for the high power and long pulse operation in future fusion reactors, such as ITER and CFETR.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Development of a Power Electronics-based Testbed for a Flexible Combined Heat and Power System

A flexible combined heat and power (F-CHP) concept, enabled by a power electronics-based power conditioning system (PCS), has been recently proposed as a cost-effective way for supporting the grid with high penetration of renewable energy sources. To verify the design, control, and performance of the overall system, a laboratory-scale testbed is essential. This paper focuses on the development of a power electronics-based testbed for such a F-CHP system. The developed testbed can test the control, grid-connected mode operation, islanded mode operation, and mode transitions, including planned/unplanned islanding and reconnection, of the F-CHP system. In the grid-connected mode, both the steady state and transients of the ac grid can be emulated, and various grid support functions can be tested with the help of the developed PCS converter. In the islanded mode, the external ac loads can also be supported by the F-CHP system. Also, the central controller, which is implemented in a NI CompactRIO, can be tested. Experimental test results for the grid-connected mode, islanded mode, and mode transitions are provided to validate the testbed design.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2024

Robust cooperative control strategy for a platoon of connected and autonomous vehicles against sensor errors and control errors simultaneously in a real-world driving environment

In a real-world driving environment, a platoon of connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) is subject to many internal and external disturbances, resulting in uncertain vehicle dynamics. In general, the disturbances can be categorized into two types: disturbances due to vehicle sensor errors (e.g., GPS error) and disturbances due to vehicle control errors (e.g., actuator delay). In the literature, many control strategies have been proposed to improve the robustness of the CAV platoon against uncertain vehicle dynamics induced by these disturbances. However, most of these strategies only consider one type of disturbance and cannot tackle both types of disturbances simultaneously. Furthermore, they are designed to maximize the benefits of each vehicle in the platoon independently, which can deteriorate the performance of the platoon. Here, to address these problems, this study proposes a robust cooperative control (RCC) strategy to maneuver the vehicles in the platoon cooperatively to counteract the impacts of both types of disturbances. The RCC strategy is developed based on a minimax problem, where the maximization subproblem seeks to find the worst inputs for the uncertainty terms in the vehicle dynamics equation to minimize the platoon performance, while the minimization subproblem seeks to find the optimal control decisions for all subsequent vehicles to maximize the platoon performance in the worst case. To solve the minimax problem, this study proposes a globally convergent solution algorithm. It can solve the minimax problem very efficiently to enable real time deployment of the RCC strategy. Numerical application indicates that compared to the existing methods, the RCC strategy can dramatically improve the robustness of the CAV platoon against the uncertain vehicle dynamics induced by both vehicle state detection errors and vehicle control errors. Therefore, it can maneuver the CAV platoon safely and efficiently in a real-world driving environment.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
NASA NTRS2018

Determining Thermal Capabilities for External Transfer Operations on the International Space Station

External transfers on the International Space Station (ISS) have a degree of difficulty caused by the severity of the radiative thermal environment and the complexity of the operational choreography to perform the installation and activation of the hardware. These transfers can be performed robotically, by astronauts during an Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA - spacewalk), or combination of robotic/crew operations. Robotic transfers may include capability to intermittently power the hardware; while the hardware remains unpowered for EVA operations. Robotic transfers can be staged to occur in a favorable thermal environment, though typically take longer than a transfer by crew during an EVA where the hardware may not be robotically compatible. The hardware is under passive thermal control, use of optics/multi-layer insulation/heaters, while being transferred from/to a visiting vehicle, airlock, stowage platform, or external ISS structure and may include additional design components, such as removable protective blankets, to meet the transfer requirements. Thermal analysis must be performed to determine the capability of the hardware being transferred to provide the Mission Control team the products necessary to plan and execute the operation while establishing an awareness for any contingency response. An overview of the thermal aspects in planning these types of transfer operations, the analytical approaches and assumptions, and examples of results are provided in this paper.

Thermal↗
NASA NTRS1977

Cell-level battery charge/discharge protection system

The paper describes three design approaches to individual cell monitoring and control for sealed secondary battery cells. One technique involves a modular strap-on single cell protector which contains all the electronics required for monitoring cell voltage, responding to external commands, and forming a bypass circuit for the cell. A second technique, the multiplexed cell protector, uses common circuitry to monitor and control each cell in a battery pack. The third technique, the computerized cell protector, by replacing the hard-wired logic of the multiplexed cell protector with a microprocessor, achieves greatest control flexibility and inherent computational capability with a minimum parts count implementation.

Donovan, R. L.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Spacecraft Radiator Freeze Protection Using a Regenerative Heat Exchanger with Bypass Setpoint Temperature Control

Spacecraft radiators are sized for their maximum heat load in their warmest thermal environment, but must operate at reduced heat loads and in colder environments. For systems where the radiator environment can be colder than the working fluid freezing temperature, radiator freezing becomes an issue. Radiator freezing has not been a major issue for the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station (ISS) active thermal control systems (ATCSs) because they operate in environments that are warm relative to the freezing point of their external coolants (Freon-21 and ammonia, respectively). For a vehicle that lands at the Lunar South Pole, the design thermal environment is 215K, but the radiator working fluid must also be kept from freezing during the 0 K sink of transit. A radiator bypass flow control design such as those used on the Space Shuttle and ISS requires more than 30% of the design heat load to avoid radiator freezing during transit - even with a very low freezing point working fluid. By changing the traditional ATCS architecture to include a regenerating heat exchanger inboard of the radiator and by using a regenerator bypass flow control valve to maintain system setpoint, the required minimum heat load can be reduced by more than half. This gives the spacecraft much more flexibility in design and operation. The present work describes the regenerator bypass ATCS setpoint control methodology. It includes analytical results comparing the performance of this system to the traditional radiator bypass system. Finally, a summary of the advantages of the regenerator bypass system are presented.

Ungar, Eugene K.↗
NASA NTRS1981

The coupling between flow instabilities and incident disturbances at a leading edge

It is now generally agreed that an external disturbance field, such as an incident acoustic wave, can effectively couple to instabilities of a flow past a trailing edge. One purpose of the present paper is to show that there are situations where a similar coupling can occur at a leading edge. The process is analyzed and the effects of experimentally controllable parameters are assessed. It is important to account for such phenomena when evaluating the effect of external disturbances on transition.

Goldstein, M. E.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Torque equilibrium attitudes for the Space Station

All spacecraft orbiting in a low earth orbit (LEO) experience external torques due to environmental effects. Examples of these torques include those induced by aerodynamic, gravity-gradient, and solar forces. It is the gravity-gradient and aerodynamic torques that produce the greatest disturbances to the attitude of a spacecraft in LEO, and large asymmetric spacecraft, such as the space station, are affected to a greater degree because the magnitude of the torques will, in general, be larger in proportion to the moments of inertia. If left unchecked, these torques would cause the attitude of the space station to oscillate in a complex manner and the resulting motion would destroy the micro-gravity environment as well as prohibit the orbiter from docking. The application of control torques will maintain the proper attitude, but the controllers have limited momentum capacity. When any controller reaches its limit, propellant must then be used while the device is reset to a zero or negatively-biased momentum state. Consequently, the rate at which momentum is accumulated is a significant factor in the amount of propellant used and the frequency of resupply necessary to operate the station. A torque profile in which the area curve for a positive torque is not equal to the area under the curve for a negative torque is 'biased,' and the consequent momentum build-up about that axis is defined as secular momentum because it continues to grow with time. Conversely, when the areas are equal, the momentum is cyclic and bounded. A Torque Equilibrium Attitude (TEA) is thus defined as an attitude at which the external torques 'balance' each other as much as possible, and which will result in lower momentum growth in the controllers. Ideally, the positive and negative external moments experienced by a spacecraft at the TEA would exactly cancel each other out and small cyclic control torques would be required only for precise attitude control. Over time, the only momentum build-up in the controllers would be due to electro-mechanical losses within the device. However, the atmospheric torques are proportional to the density of the atmosphere and the density varies with the orbital position, time of day, time of year, and the solar cycle. In addition, there are unmodeled disturbances and uncertainties in the mass and inertias. Therefore, there is no constant attitude that will completely balance the environmental torques and the dynamic TEA cannot be solved in closed form. The objective of this research was to determine a method to calculate a dynamic TEA such that the rate of momentum build-up in the controllers would be minimized and to implement this method in the MATRIX(x) simulation software by Integrated Systems, Inc.

Thompson, Roger C.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Optical Control of Adaptive Nanoscale Domain Networks

Adaptive networks can sense and adjust to dynamic environments to optimize their performance. Understanding their nanoscale responses to external stimuli is essential for applications in nanodevices and neuromorphic computing. However, it is challenging to image such responses on the nanoscale with crystallographic sensitivity. Here, the evolution of nanodomain networks in (PbTiO 3 ) n /(SrTiO 3 ) n superlattices (SLs) is directly visualized in real space as the system adapts to ultrafast repetitive optical excitations that emulate controlled neural inputs. The adaptive response allows the system to explore a wealth of metastable states that are previously inaccessible. Their reconfiguration and competition are quantitatively measured by scanning x-ray nanodiffraction as a function of the number of applied pulses, in which crystallographic characteristics are quantitatively assessed by assorted diffraction patterns using unsupervised machine-learning methods. The corresponding domain boundaries and their connectivity are drastically altered by light, holding promise for light-programable nanocircuits in analogy to neuroplasticity. Phase-field simulations elucidate that the reconfiguration of the domain networks is a result of the interplay between photocarriers and transient lattice temperature. The demonstrated optical control scheme and the uncovered nanoscopic insights open opportunities for the remote control of adaptive nanoscale domain networks.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2020

Expert Elicitation on Wind Farm Control

Wind farm control is an active and growing field of research in which the control actions of individual turbines in a farm are coordinated, accounting for inter-turbine aerodynamic interaction, to improve the overall performance of the wind farm and to reduce costs. The primary objectives of wind farm control include increasing power production, reducing turbine loads, and providing electricity grid support services. Additional objectives include improving reliability or reducing external impacts to the environment and communities. In 2019, a European research project (FarmConners) was started with the main goal of providing an overview of the state-of-the-art in wind farm control, identifying consensus of research findings, data sets, and best practices, providing a summary of the main research challenges, and establishing a roadmap on how to address these challenges. Complementary to the FarmConners project, an IEA Wind Topical Expert Meeting (TEM) and two rounds of surveys among experts were performed. From these events we can clearly identify an interest in more public validation campaigns. Additionally, a deeper understanding of the mechanical loads and the uncertainties concerning the effectiveness of wind farm control are considered two major research gaps.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
NASA NTRS1996

Application of pneumatic lift and control surface technology to advanced transport aircraft

The application of pneumatic (blown) aerodynamic technology to both the lifting and the control surfaces of advanced transport aircraft can provide revolutionary changes in the performance and operation of these vehicles, ranging in speed regime from Advanced Subsonic Transports to the High Speed Civil Transport, and beyond. This technology, much of it based on the Circulation Control Wing blown concepts, can provide aerodynamic force augmentations of 80 to 100 (i.e., return of 80-100 pounds of force per pound of input momentum from the blowing jet). This can be achieved without use of external mechanical surfaces. Clever application of this technology can provide no-moving-part lifting surfaces (wings/tails) integrated into the control system to greatly simplify aircraft designs while improving their aerodynamic performance. Lift/drag ratio may be pneumatically tailored to fit the current phase of the flight, and takeoff/landing performance can be greatly improved by reducing ground roll distances and liftoff/touchdown speeds. Alternatively, great increases in liftoff weights and payloads are possible, as are great reductions in wing and tail planform size, resulting in optimized cruise wing designs. Furthermore, lift generation independent of angle of attack provides much promise for increased safety of flight in the severe updrafts/downdrafts of microbursts and windshears, which is further augmented by the ability to sustain flight at greatly reduced airspeeds. Load-tailored blown wings can also reduce tip vorticity during highlift operations and the resulting vortex wake hazards near terminal areas. Reduced noise may also be possible as these jets can be made to operate at low pressures. The planned presentation will support the above statements through discussions of recent experimental and numerical (CFD) research and development of these advanced blown aerodynamic surfaces, portions of which have been conducted for NASA. Also to be presented will be predicted performance of advanced transports resulting from these devices. Suggestions will be presented for additional innovative high-payoff research leading to further confirmation of these concepts and their application to advanced efficient commercial transport aircraft.

Englar, Robert J.↗
DOE OSTI2025

Design of an 8-channel 40 GS/s 20 mW/Ch waveform sampling ASIC in 65 nm CMOS

One picosecond timing resolution is the entry point to signature based searches relying on secondary/tertiary vertices and particle identification. We describe PSEC5, an 8-channel 40 GS/s waveform-sampling ASIC in TSMC 65 nm process targetting one picosecond resolution at 20 mW power per channel. Each channel consists of four fast and one slow switched capacitor arrays (SCA), allowing for picosecond time resolution combined with a long effective buffer. Each fast SCA is 1.6 ns long and has a nominal sampling rate of 40 GS/s. The slow SCA is 204.8 ns long and samples at 5 GS/s. Recording of the analog data for each channel is triggered by a fast discriminator capable of multiple triggering during the window of the slow SCA. To achieve a large dynamic range, low leakage, and high bandwidth, the SCA sampling switches are implemented as 2.5 V nMOSFETs controlled by 1.2 V shift registers. Stored analog data are digitized by an external ADC at 10 bits or better. Specifications on operational parameters include a 4 GHz analog bandwidth and a dead time of 20 microseconds, corresponding to a 50 kHz readout rate, determined by the choice of the external ADC. PSEC5 has been submitted for fabrication.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2021

Modulation of Photoinduced Iodine Expulsion in Mixed Halide Perovskites with Electrochemical Bias

Hole trapping at iodine (I) sites in MAPbBr 1.5 I 1.5 mixed halide perovskites (MHP) is responsible for iodine migration and its eventual expulsion into solution. We have now modulated the photoinduced iodine expulsion in MHP through an externally applied electrochemical bias. At positive potentials, electron extraction at TiO 2 /MHP interfaces becomes efficient, leading to hole buildup within MHP films. This improved charge separation, in turn, favors iodine migration as evident from the increased apparent rate constant of iodine expulsion (k expulsion = 0.0030 s –1 ). Conversely, at negative potentials (-0.3 V vs Ag/AgCl) electron–hole recombination is facilitated within MHP, slowing down iodine expulsion by an order of magnitude (k expulsion = 0.00018 s –1 ). The tuning of the EFermi level through external bias modulates electron extraction at the TiO 2 /MHP interface and indirectly controls the buildup of holes, ultimately inducing iodine migration/expulsion. Suppressing iodine migration in perovskite solar cells is important for attaining greater stability since they operate under internal electrical bias.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Sputtered p-Type Cu x Zn 1– x S Back Contact to CdTe Solar Cells

As thin-film cadmium telluride (CdTe) solar cells gain prominence, one particular challenge is optimizing contacts and their interfaces to transfer charge without losses in efficiency. Back contact recombination is still significant and will prevent CdTe solar technology from reaching its full potential in device efficiency, and transparent back contacts have not been developed for bifacial solar technology or multijunction solar cells. To address these challenges, here we investigate sputtered Cu x Zn 1– x S as a p-type semi-transparent back contact material to thin-film polycrystalline CdTe solar cells at Cu concentrations x = 0.30, 0.45, and 0.60. This material is selected for its high hole conductivity (160–2120 S cm –1 ), wide optical band gap (2.25–2.75 eV), and variable ionization potential (approximately 6–7 eV) that can be aligned to that of CdTe. We report that without device optimization, CdTe solar cells with these Cu x Zn 1– x S back contacts perform as well as control cells with standard ZnTe:Cu back contacts. We observe no reduction in external quantum efficiency, low contact barrier heights of approximately 0.3 eV, and carrier lifetimes on par with those of baseline CdTe. These cells are relatively stable over one year in air, with V OC and efficiency of the x = 0.30 cell decreasing by only 1 and 3%, respectively. Using scanning electron microscopy and scanning transmission electron microscopy to investigate the Cu x Zn 1– x S/CdTe interface, we demonstrate that the Cu x Zn 1– x S layer segregates into a bilayer of Cu-Te-S and Zn-Cd-S, and thermodynamic reaction calculations support these findings. Despite its bilayer formation, the back contact still functions well. This investigation explains some of the physical mechanisms governing the device stack, inspires future work to understand interfacial chemistry and charge transfer, and elicits optimization to achieve higher-efficiency CdTe cells.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Physics basis for the reference flat-top plasma scenario in the ST–E1 fusion power plant

As part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Milestone-Based Fusion Energy Development Program, Tokamak Energy has completed the pre-concept design of the ST–E1 fusion power plant. ST–E1 is envisaged to operate in two phases: a pilot plant phase, targeting sustained net power production of 300 - 500 MWe for a duration >1 hr, followed by a commercial power plant phase targeting steady-state operations and a normalised overnight capital cost of ⩽12 000 $\$$/kWe. The design process adopted was highly iterative, integrating all major plant systems and progressing in a phased fidelity approach. At the pre-conceptual stage, the emphasis has been on exploring the design space, identifying the main system-level trade-offs, and making the key decisions that define the overall plant concept, rather than optimising a single operating point. This paper, part of a focused collection detailing the ST–E1 pre-concept design, addresses the development of a series of reference flat-top plasma operating points for the pilot plant phase. A modelling workflow was established to develop and assess candidate plasma design points and explore key dependencies. The workflow includes integrated core plasma modelling, magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) stability assessment, equilibrium generation, scrape-off-layer and exhaust modelling, heating & current drive design and optimisation, and turbulent transport modelling. Using this framework, the impact of several key parameters on the flat-top operating space was investigated, including the density limit, core radiation fraction and divertor power loading, level of external heating and curent drive power and assumed pedestal characteristics. The MHD stability, controllability and micro-stability characteristics of these plasmas were also analysed. These investigations informed the definition of a set of fully non-inductive, flat-top reference operating points that satisfy the high-level ST–E1 mission, including a low and high density case, a case that is stable to resistive wall modes and a case with reduced divertor power loading.

ST–E1↗
DOE OSTI2022

Origins of magnetic memory and strong exchange bias bordering magnetic compensation in mixed-lanthanide systems

Here, the unexpected physical phenomena resulting from the seemingly inconsequential substitutions of chemically similar lanthanide elements in the Pr 1-x Gd x ScGe system are exploited to further the understanding of rare-earth magnetism and inform materials design. By directly probing magnetic moments of crystallographically indistinguishable Pr and Gd we solve the puzzles of how an unusual magnetic memory and strong exchange bias emerge at specific, easily predictable chemistries. Both effects are rooted in a robust antiparallel arrangement of large 4f magnetic moments of light and heavy lanthanides. This enables precise control of nearly zero net magnetization either opposed to, or aligned with, the external magnetic field that persists over a wide range of temperatures and fields. Further, spontaneous perturbations in the random distribution of lanthanide ions makes strong exchange bias possible in bulk single-phase compounds bordering magnetic compensation, consequently expanding the materials base beyond artificial magnetic multilayers and broadening the range of potential applications of the phenomenon.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2022

The Impact of Increased Requirements for Verification Measurements of Category III and IV Receipts

As part of the regular nuclear material accounting and control process, sites that have accountable nuclear material regularly perform measurements of the material in their possession. The expectation for the type of measurements and their frequency is set out in Department of Energy (DOE) Order 474.2, and further detailed in each site’s respective material control and accountability (MC&A) plan and associated controlling documents. The measurements of interest in this report are those performed on external (between DOE sites) transfer receipts of Category III or IV accountable materials. In 2020, a revision of DOE Order 474.2 was proposed that would significantly increase the requirement that measurements be performed upon receipt of material, and further, that those measurements be quantitative verification (rather than qualitative confirmatory) measurements. A survey was performed of DOE sites to discuss the impact on their MC&A measurements program if more rigorous verification measurements requirements for Category III and IV receipts were implemented. An assessment of nondestructive assay (NDA) measurement instruments to meet those needs was also performed. Across the board, sites indicated that personnel and budget would cause the largest impact. Sites which are qualified as Category I/II indicated a reduced impact as these sites already have the measurement capabilities and some personnel but would require the acquisition of additional measurement systems. Category III/IV sites indicated a much larger impact as these sites generally have smaller MC&A programs. A few smaller sites stated a measurement program would need to be created to handle the demand. Calorimetry, quantitative gamma spectroscopy and neutron coincidence counting systems were identified as common systems that could meet the verification measurement requirements. The other, and perhaps larger issue is the need for calibration standards for the calorimetry and neutron coincidence counting systems. It is proposed that a comparative study be performed for ISOCS and ISOTOPICS, qualification of a COTS calorimetry system be performed, and development of an AWCC system that uses a neutron generator.

98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL P↗