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At least 1,207 records · Page 67
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Nuclear spectroscopy with heavy ion nucleon knockout and (p,2p) reactions

Knockout reactions with heavy ion targets in inverse kinematics, as well as “quasifree” (p,2p) and (p,pn) reactions are useful tools for nuclear spectroscopy. We report calculations on ab initio many-body wave functions based on the no-core shell model to study the nucleon removal reactions in light nuclei, including beryllium, carbon, and oxygen isotopic chains, and explore the importance of using an ab initio method. Our study helps to clarify how the extraction of spectroscopic factors from the experiments depend on the details of the many-body wave functions being probed. We show that recent advances with the ab initio method can provide more insights on the spectroscopy information extracted from experiments.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS1978

Some aspects of powerplant airframe integration affecting fuel conservation

The performance criteria for STOL transport aircraft place many constraints on engineering design, which, in turn, may have a direct bearing on fuel efficiency: these constraints become even more severe with the introduction of powered-lift for turbofan aircraft. Consideration is given to some aspects of performance and design which arise as a result of powerplant/airframe integration and an attempt is made to assess these factors in terms of transport fuel efficiency. The drag polars of various powered lift concepts are analyzed to determine the installed thrust/weight required and a simple method of relating this to fuel efficiency is suggested. Some other factors have been identified as being important to this aspect of design and these are discussed in more general terms. Finally, special consideration is given to recent Canadian research in the realm of supercritical airfoil technology as applied to an multi-foil section which could be utilized both for the STOL regime of flight and for cruise at transonic speeds.

Farbridge, J. E.↗
NASA NTRS1992

When Does Changing Representation Improve Problem-Solving Performance?

The aim of changing representation is the improvement of problem-solving efficiency. For the most widely studied family of methods of change of representation it is shown that the value of a single parameter, called the expulsion factor, is critical in determining (1) whether the change of representation will improve or degrade problem-solving efficiency and (2) whether the solutions produced using the change of representation will or will not be exponentially longer than the shortest solution. A method of computing the expansion factor for a given change of representation is sketched in general and described in detail for homomorphic changes of representation. The results are illustrated with homomorphic decompositions of the Towers of Hanoi problem.

Holte, Robert↗
DOE OSTI2024

Diabetes-specific formula with standard of care improves glycemic control, body composition, and cardiometabolic risk factors in overweight and obese adults with type 2 diabetes: results from a randomized controlled trial

Background and aims Medical nutrition therapy is important for diabetes management. This randomized controlled trial investigated the effects of a diabetes-specific formula (DSF) on glycemic control and cardiometabolic risk factors in adults with type 2 diabetes (T2D). Methods Participants ( n = 235) were randomized to either DSF with standard of care (SOC) (DSF group; n = 117) or SOC only (control group; n = 118). The DSF group consumed one or two DSF servings daily as meal replacement or partial meal replacement. The assessments were done at baseline, on day 45, and on day 90. Results There were significant reductions in glycated hemoglobin (−0.44% vs. –0.26%, p = 0.015, at day 45; −0.50% vs. −0.21%, p = 0.002, at day 90) and fasting blood glucose (−0.14 mmol/L vs. +0.32 mmol/L, p = 0.036, at day 90), as well as twofold greater weight loss (−1.30 kg vs. –0.61 kg, p < 0.001, at day 45; −1.74 kg vs. –0.76 kg, p < 0.001, at day 90) in the DSF group compared with the control group. The decrease in percent body fat and increase in percent fat-free mass at day 90 in the DSF group were almost twice that of the control group (1.44% vs. 0.79%, p = 0.047). In addition, the percent change in visceral adipose tissue at day 90 in the DSF group was several-fold lower than in the control group (−6.52% vs. –0.95%, p < 0.001). The DSF group also showed smaller waist and hip circumferences, and lower diastolic blood pressure than the control group (all overall p ≤ 0.045). Conclusion DSF with SOC yielded significantly greater improvements than only SOC in glycemic control, body composition, and cardiometabolic risk factors in adults with T2D.

Tey, Siew Ling↗
DOE OSTI2024

Characterization of spent nuclear fuel canister surface roughness using surface replicating molds

In this study we present a replication method to determine surface roughness and to identify surface features when a sample cannot be directly analyzed by conventional techniques. As a demonstration, this method was applied to an unused spent nuclear fuel dry storage canister to determine variation across different surface features. In this study, an initial material down-selection was performed to determine the best molding agent and determined that non-modified Polytek PlatSil23-75 provided the most accurate representation of the surface while providing good usability. Other materials that were considered include Polygel Brush-On 35 polyurethane rubber (with and without Pol-ease 2300 release agent), Polytek PlatSil73-25 silicone rubber (with and without PlatThix thickening agent and Pol-ease 2300 release agent), and Express STD vinylpolysiloxane impression putty. The ability of PlatSil73-25 to create an accurate surface replica was evaluated by creating surface molds of several locations on surface roughness standards representing ISO grade surfaces N 3 , N 5 , N 7 , and N 8 . Overall, the molds were able to accurately reproduce the expected roughness average (R a ) values, but systematically over-estimated the peak-valley maximum roughness (R z ) values. Using a 3D printed sample cell, several locations across the stainless steel spent nuclear fuel canister were sampled to determine the surface roughness. These measurements provided information regarding variability in normal surface roughness across the canister as well as a detailed evaluation on specific surface features (e.g., welds, grind marks, etc.). The results of these measurements can support development of dry storage canister ageing management programs, as surface roughness is an important factor for surface dust deposition and accumulation. This method can be applied more broadly to different surfaces beyond stainless steel to provide rapid, accurate surface replications for analytical evaluation by profilometry.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
NASA NTRS1982

The effect of barriers on wave propagation phenomena: With application for aircraft noise shielding

The frequency spectrum was divided into high and low frequency regimes and two separate methods were developed and applied to account for physical factors associated with flight conditions. For long wave propagation, the acoustic filed due to a point source near a solid obstacle was treated in terms of an inner region which where the fluid motion is essentially incompressible, and an outer region which is a linear acoustic field generated by hydrodynamic disturbances in the inner region. This method was applied to a case of a finite slotted plate modelled to represent a wing extended flap for both stationary and moving media. Ray acoustics, the Kirchhoff integral formulation, and the stationary phase approximation were combined to study short wave length propagation in many limiting cases as well as in the case of a semi-infinite plate in a uniform flow velocity with a point source above the plate and embedded in a different flow velocity to simulate an engine exhaust jet stream surrounding the source.

Mgana, C. V. M.↗
NASA NTRS1975

Satellite thermal modeling using the illuminographic camera

The application is discussed of illuminographic camera techniques to the measurement of radiative form factors for satellite modeling applications. The equation for the illuminographic mirror is derived, and the advantages of the method are discussed. Proximity error for the illuminographic mirror is defined, and estimates of this error as a function of the scale factor of the model are given, together with a method for halving this error. Designs for illuminographic mirrors are presented: the first provides a further threefold reduction in proximity error; the second permits the estimation of thermal radiation transfer coefficients to interior regions of otherwise inaccessible volumes. Finally, reflex Polaroid camera techniques appropriate to the relatively small size of the illuminographic mirror are described.

Wiesner, S. J.↗
NASA NTRS2014

Revised (Mixed-Effects) Estimation for Forest Burning Emissions of Gases and Smoke, Fire/Emission Factor Typology, and Potential Remote Sensing Classification of Types for Ozone and Black-Carbon Simulation

We summarize recent progress (a) in correcting biomass burning emissions factors deduced from airborne sampling of forest fire plumes, (b) in understanding the variability in reactivity of the fresh plumes sampled in ARCTAS (2008), DC3 (2012), and SEAC4RS (2013) airborne missions, and (c) in a consequent search for remotely sensed quantities that help classify forest-fire plumes. Particle properties, chemical speciation, and smoke radiative properties are related and mutually informative, as pictures below suggest (slopes of lines of same color are similar). (a) Mixed-effects (random-effects) statistical modeling provides estimates of both emission factors and a reasonable description of carbon-burned simultaneously. Different fire plumes will have very different contributions to volatile organic carbon reactivity; this may help explain differences of free NOx(both gas- and particle-phase), and also of ozone production, that have been noted for forest-fire plumes in California. Our evaluations check or correct emission factors based on sequential measurements (e.g., the Normalized Ratio Enhancement and similar methods). We stress the dangers of methods relying on emission-ratios to CO. (b) This work confirms and extends many reports of great situational variability in emissions factors. VOCs vary in OH reactivity and NOx-binding. Reasons for variability are not only fuel composition, fuel condition, etc., but are confused somewhat by rapid transformation and mixing of emissions. We use "unmixing" (distinct from mixed-effects) statistics and compare briefly to approaches like neural nets. We focus on one particularly intense fire the notorious Yosemite Rim Fire of 2013. In some samples, NOx activity was not so suppressed by binding into nitrates as in other fires. While our fire-typing is evolving and subject to debate, the carbon-burned delta(CO2+CO) estimates that arise from mixed effects models, free of confusion by background-CO2 variation, should provide a solid base for discussion. (c) We report progress using promising links we find between emissions-related "fire types" and promising features deducible from remote observations of plumes, e.g., single scatter albedo, Angstrom exponent of scattering, Angstrom exponent of absorption, (CO column density)/(aerosol optical depth).

Remote sensing↗
NASA NTRS2004

Uncertainties in estimates of the risks of late effects from space radiation

Methods used to project risks in low-Earth orbit are of questionable merit for exploration missions because of the limited radiobiology data and knowledge of galactic cosmic ray (GCR) heavy ions, which causes estimates of the risk of late effects to be highly uncertain. Risk projections involve a product of many biological and physical factors, each of which has a differential range of uncertainty due to lack of data and knowledge. Using the linear-additivity model for radiation risks, we use Monte-Carlo sampling from subjective uncertainty distributions in each factor to obtain an estimate of the overall uncertainty in risk projections. The resulting methodology is applied to several human space exploration mission scenarios including a deep space outpost and Mars missions of duration of 360, 660, and 1000 days. The major results are the quantification of the uncertainties in current risk estimates, the identification of factors that dominate risk projection uncertainties, and the development of a method to quantify candidate approaches to reduce uncertainties or mitigate risks. The large uncertainties in GCR risk projections lead to probability distributions of risk that mask any potential risk reduction using the "optimization" of shielding materials or configurations. In contrast, the design of shielding optimization approaches for solar particle events and trapped protons can be made at this time and promising technologies can be shown to have merit using our approach. The methods used also make it possible to express risk management objectives in terms of quantitative metrics, e.g., the number of days in space without exceeding a given risk level within well-defined confidence limits. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of COSPAR.

Non-NASA Center↗
NASA NTRS1976

The effects of incomplete annealing on the temperature dependence of sheet resistance and gage factor in aluminum and phosphorus implanted silicon on sapphire

Partial annealing of damage to the crystal lattice during ion implantation reduces the temperature coefficient of resistivity of ion-implanted silicon, while facilitating controlled doping. Reliance on this method for temperature compensation of the resistivity and strain-gage factor is discussed. Implantation conditions and annealing conditions are detailed. The gage factor and its temperature variation are not drastically affected by crystal damage for some crystal orientations. A model is proposed to account for the effects of electron damage on the temperature dependence of resistivity and on silicon piezoresistance. The results are applicable to the design of silicon-on-sapphire strain gages with high gage factors.

Pisciotta, B. P.↗
DOE OSTI2021

A Discussion of Strength Reduction Factor Development for Thermal Aging Effect on Nuclear Structural Alloys

In consideration of structural alloy property deterioration during long-term exposure to elevated temperatures, the yield and ultimate tensile strength reduction factors are provided in the Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code Section III for nuclear reactor component design and operation analysis. Because the Gen IV reactor requirement of 40 ~ 60 years of service life makes it difficult to acquire such long exposure test data for developing the reduction factors, they must be derived from test data with relatively short exposure by predictive methods considered to be reasonably reliable. A novel approach with a physically-based model has recently been proposed for application to development of reduction factors for 9Cr-1Mo-V. In the model, contributors to the tensile strength are first identified and related to definite microstructural features of the alloy, then some physically-based methods are employed to simulate the microstructural evolution, and finally the model is assembled with test-data-calibrated parameters to generate the yield and ultimate tensile strength reduction factors covering elevated temperature exposure for up to 57 years. The approach is undoubtedly a trailblazing development that will, if proven reliable, lead to a paradigm shift in predicting thermal aging behavior of many other alloys. Its debut application to Section III, however, concerns nuclear safety and naturally warrants objective, impartial, and thorough technical scrutiny. In the present paper, the novel and conventional approaches are discussed. Necessary improvements to the novel approach are recommended for its application to nuclear structural component design and analysis, and for its potential expanded use to other alloys.

Ren, Weiju↗
NASA NTRS2003

Analysis of the Effects of Residual Strains and Defects on Skin/Stiffener Debonding using Decohesion Elements

Delamination is one of the predominant forms of failure in laminated composites especially when there is no reinforcement in the thickness direction. To develop composite structures that are more damage tolerant, it is necessary to understand how delamination develops and how it can affect the residual performance. A number of factors such as residual thermal strains, matrix curing shrinkage, and manufacturing defects affect how damage will grow in a composite structure. It is important to develop analysis methods that are computationally efficient that can account for all such factors. The objective of the current work is to apply a newly developed decohesion element to investigate the debond strength of skin/stiffener composite specimens. The process of initiation of delaminations and the propagation of delamination fronts is investigated. The numerical predictions are compared with published experimental results.

Davila, Carlos G.↗
DOE OSTI2021

Quantum simulation of second-quantized Hamiltonians in compact encoding

We describe methods for simulating general second-quantized Hamiltonians using the compact encoding, in which qubit states encode only the occupied modes in physical occupation number basis states. These methods apply to second-quantized Hamiltonians composed of a constant number of interactions, i.e., linear combinations of ladder operator monomials of fixed form. Compact encoding leads to qubit requirements that are optimal up to logarithmic factors. Here, we show how to use sparse Hamiltonian simulation methods for second-quantized Hamiltonians in compact encoding, give explicit implementations for the required oracles, and analyze the methods. We also describe several example applications including the free boson and fermion theories, the φ 4 -theory, and the massive Yukawa model, all in both equal-time and light-front quantization. Our methods provide a general-purpose tool for simulating second-quantized Hamiltonians, with optimal or near-optimal scaling with error and model parameters.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
NASA NTRS1996

A Method for the Constrained Design of Natural Laminar Flow Airfoils

A fully automated iterative design method has been developed by which an airfoil with a substantial amount of natural laminar flow can be designed, while maintaining other aerodynamic and geometric constraints. Drag reductions have been realized using the design method over a range of Mach numbers, Reynolds numbers and airfoil thicknesses. The thrusts of the method are its ability to calculate a target N-Factor distribution that forces the flow to undergo transition at the desired location; the target-pressure-N-Factor relationship that is used to reduce the N-Factors in order to prolong transition; and its ability to design airfoils to meet lift, pitching moment, thickness and leading-edge radius constraints while also being able to meet the natural laminar flow constraint. The method uses several existing CFD codes and can design a new airfoil in only a few days using a Silicon Graphics IRIS workstation.

Green, Bradford E.↗
NASA NTRS1988

A re-evaluation of finite-element models and stress-intensity factors for surface cracks emanating from stress concentrations

A re-evaluation of the 3-D finite-element models and methods used to analyze surface crack at stress concentrations is presented. Previous finite-element models used by Raju and Newman for surface and corner cracks at holes were shown to have ill-shaped elements at the intersection of the hole and crack boundaries. These ill-shaped elements tended to make the model too stiff and, hence, gave lower stress-intensity factors near the hole-crack intersection than models without these elements. Improved models, without these ill-shaped elements, were developed for a surface crack at a circular hole and at a semi-circular edge notch. Stress-intensity factors were calculated by both the nodal-force and virtual-crack-closure methods. Both methods and different models gave essentially the same results. Comparisons made between the previously developed stress-intensity factor equations and the results from the improved models agreed well except for configurations with large notch-radii-to-plate-thickness ratios. Stress-intensity factors for a semi-elliptical surface crack located at the center of a semi-circular edge notch in a plate subjected to remote tensile loadings were calculated using the improved models. The ratio of crack depth to crack length ranged form 0.4 to 2; the ratio of crack depth to plate thickness ranged from 0.2 to 0.8; and the ratio of notch radius to the plate thickness ranged from 1 to 3. The models had about 15,000 degrees-of-freedom. Stress-intensity factors were calculated by using the nodal-force method.

Tan, P. W.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Determination of the Fracture Parameters in a Stiffened Composite Panel

A modified J-integral, namely the equivalent domain integral, is derived for a three-dimensional anisotropic cracked solid to evaluate the stress intensity factor along the crack front using the finite element method. Based on the equivalent domain integral method with auxiliary fields, an interaction integral is also derived to extract the second fracture parameter, the T-stress, from the finite element results. The auxiliary fields are the two-dimensional plane strain solutions of monoclinic materials with the plane of symmetry at x(sub 3) = 0 under point loads applied at the crack tip. These solutions are expressed in a compact form based on the Stroh formalism. Both integrals can be implemented into a single numerical procedure to determine the distributions of stress intensity factor and T-stress components, T11, T13, and thus T33, along a three-dimensional crack front. The effects of plate thickness and crack length on the variation of the stress intensity factor and T-stresses through the thickness are investigated in detail for through-thickness center-cracked plates (isotropic and orthotropic) and orthotropic stiffened panels under pure mode-I loading conditions. For all the cases studied, T11 remains negative. For plates with the same dimensions, a larger size of crack yields larger magnitude of the normalized stress intensity factor and normalized T-stresses. The results in orthotropic stiffened panels exhibit an opposite trend in general. As expected, for the thicker panels, the fracture parameters evaluated through the thickness, except the region near the free surfaces, approach two-dimensional plane strain solutions. In summary, the numerical methods presented in this research demonstrate their high computational effectiveness and good numerical accuracy in extracting these fracture parameters from the finite element results in three-dimensional cracked solids.

Lin, Chung-Yi↗
DOE OSTI2020

Distributed non-negative matrix factorization with determination of the number of latent features

The holistic analysis and understanding of the latent (that is, not directly observable) variables and patterns buried in large datasets is crucial for data-driven science, decision making and emergency response. Such exploratory analyses require devising unsupervised learning methods for data mining and extraction of the latent features, and non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) is one of the prominent such methods. NMF is based on compute-intense non-convex constrained minimization, which, for large datasets requires fast and distributed algorithms. However, current parallel implementations of NMF fail to estimate the number of latent features. In practice, identifying these features is both difficult and significant for pattern recognition and latent feature analysis, especially for large dense matrices. Here, we introduce a distributed NMF algorithm coupled with distributed custom clustering followed by a stability analysis on dense data, which we call DnMFk, to determine the number of latent variables. The results on synthetic data and the classical Swimmer data set demonstrate the accuracy of model determination while scaling nearly linearly across multiple processors for large data. Further, we employ DnMFk to determine the number of hidden features from a terabyte matrix.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Quantitative Analysis of Spaceflight Drug Stability Data to Support a Predictive Pharmaceutical Testing Strategy

To systematically quantify the time-dependent effect of spaceflight on active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) degradation, data were extracted from available published and unpublished spaceflight drug stability studies. Seven studies were identified that investigated the stability of individual medications following storage aboard crewed spacecraft. Medications stored for up to 2.4 years in low earth orbit (LEO) show limited change in API potency that, in all cases, falls within 10% of matched terrestrial controls, and within 5% of controls for the most drugs. This investigation shows that spaceflight is associated with a ~1.5-fold increase in the degradation rate relative to lot-matched terrestrial controls. Spaceflight is associated with an increased probability of drug failure over time; however, the incremental increase in degradation risk associated with spaceflight is minor compared to the baseline risk associated with terrestrial controls. Since most drugs across all NASA-supported studies were repackaged solid oral formulations that had been removed from protective manufacturer packaging, it is likely that prolonged exposure to atmospheric factors during both terrestrial and spaceflight treatments is a key contributor to degradation. Unique spaceflight environmental factors, particularly ionizing radiation and elevated CO2, may contribute to the additional cumulative effect of spaceflight. The results of this study show that the effect of spaceflight on drug stability is minor relative to the terrestrial baseline; however, the degradation rate and time-dependent failure of terrestrial controls highlights an extremely critical need to evaluate the effect of current repackaging methods and development of operationally appropriate methods to protected repackaged solid oral medications from environmental factors that mediate degradation.

J F Reichard↗