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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 1,243 records · Page 69
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2026

Pull Force Evaluation of CCS Insulated End Caps

Insulated end caps installed on DC pins of Combined Charging System (CCS) inlets have been identified as potential debris sources within electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) connectors, increasing the risk of electric shock and fire hazards. Although standards such as IEC 62196-1:2022 specify mechanical pull-force requirements for these end caps, it remains unclear whether these requirements provide adequate robustness under real-world conditions. To address this concern, the National Charging Experience (ChargeX) Consortium's Hardware Task Force conducted evaluations of insulated end caps used in OEM CCS inlets. This study assesses the performance of insulated end caps used in OEM CCS inlets, specifically those installed on DC pins, using the procedures defined in IEC 62196-1:2022 (Section Sign) 26.7 and SAE J3400, supplemented by additional experimental conditioning. To ensure relevance to real-world conditions, NLR collaborated with charging network operators (CNOs) to guide the selection of charging inlet samples. Material analyses of the insulated end cap samples were conducted to confirm that the tested materials reflected the types and properties commonly observed in the field. The selected samples underwent temperature and humidity conditioning followed by pull-force testing to evaluate the end-cap integrity. Although SAE J3400 inlets were not directly tested due to limited diversity in available field data, the underlying end-cap principles between CCS and SAE J3400 are comparable, allowing the study's insights to be relevant to both technologies. Overall, this study provides a structured evaluation framework to inform potential refinements to mechanical pull-force requirements in charging standards.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2023

A Superconducting Micro-Magnetometer for Quantum Vortex in Superconducting Nanoflakes

Superconducting quantum interferometer device (SQUID) plays a key role in understanding electromagnetic properties and emergent phenomena in quantum materials. The technological appeal of SQUID is that its detection accuracy for the electromagnetic signal can precisely reach the quantum level of a single magnetic flux. However, conventional SQUID techniques normally can only be applied to a bulky sample and do not have the capability to probe the magnetic properties of micro-scale samples with small magnetic signals. Here, in this paper, it is demonstrated that, based on a specially designed superconducting nano-hole array, the contactless detection of magnetic properties and quantized vortices in micro-sized superconducting nanoflakes is realized. An anomalous hysteresis loop and a suppression of Little–Parks oscillation are observed in the detected magnetoresistance signal, which originates from the disordered distribution of the pinned vortices in Bi 2 Sr 2 CaCu 2 O 8+δ . Therefore, the density of pinning centers of the quantized vortices on such micro-sized superconducting samples can be quantitatively evaluated, which is technically inaccessible for conventional SQUID detection. The superconducting micro-magnetometer provides a new approach to exploring mesoscopic electromagnetic phenomena of quantum materials.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2018

Americium Utilization Via Pyroelectrochemical Granulation and Vibrocompaction Technologies

An experiment in which americium is introduced into the composition of fuel pins with vibrocompacted uranium-plutonium oxide fuel is described within the scope of work performed on the development of a closed fuel cycle for a fast reactors. Possible directions of R&D work for validating the design, fabrication technology, and serviceability of fuel pins with fuel containing americium are examined. A variant based on the chemical-technological complex at the Research Institute for Atomic Reactors (NIIAR) is proposed for developing centralized production of americium burn-out elements for liquid-metal cooled fast reactors. The assimilated remote-controlled technologies of pyroelectrochemical granulation of oxide fuel compositions and vibrocompaction in radiation protected boxes as well as the automated equipment specially developed within the special federal program are proposed for manufacturing the burn-out elements.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2020

The strong influence of Ti, Zr, Hf solutes and their oxidation on microstructure and performance of Nb 3 Sn superconductors

The strong influence of Ti, Zr, Hf solutes and their oxidation on microstructure and performance of Nb 3 Sn superconductors Over the last few years a new type of Nb 3 Sn superconducting composite based on the internal oxidation approach has emerged and has demonstrated performance significantly superior to conventional Nb 3 Sn. It requires a supply of O and the use of a Nb alloy – Nb-X, where X is a solute element that can be selectively oxidized to form oxide particles within the Nb 3 Sn. Such oxide particles not only refine Nb 3 Sn grain size, but also have the proper size to act as artificial pinning centers (APC) directly restraining fluxon motion, and thus dramatically improve superconducting properties. In this article we show that the size and volume fraction of the oxide particles determine both the levels of grain refinement and the shift in the peak field of the flux pinning force (F p -B) curve. Additionally, we explore the factors influencing these microstructure and properties, which we find include: selection of the solute element X, solute content, O content, and heat treatment. For the selection of X, we searched the periodic table for all promising candidates but focused down on the group-IVB elements (Ti, Zr, Hf) here as the drawability of Nb 3 Sn wires made from Nb-Ti, Nb-Zr, and Nb-Hf alloys has been demonstrated in the past few decades. We found that while internally oxidizing Nb-1.5at.%Ti led to negligible grain refinement and F p -B peak shift, Nb-Zr alloys led to much more dramatic results, and internally oxidizing Nb-Hf alloys led to the strongest grain refinement and F p -B peak shift. For Hf alloying in particular, we compared our internal oxidation method with another method for grain refinement, which uses Hf alloying itself without oxidation, and found that internal oxidation led to much stronger grain refinement and F p -B peak shift. We also found that higher solute content and lower reaction temperature led to stronger grain refinement and F p -B peak shift. We conclude with a discussion of the possible mechanisms for the influence of these factors.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Stability and accuracy of 3D neutron transport simulations using the 2D/1D method in MPACT

A consistent “2D/1D” neutron transport method is derived from the 3D Boltzmann transport equation, to calculate fuel-pin-resolved neutron fluxes for realistic full-core Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) problems. The 2D/1D method employs the Method of Characteristics to discretize the radial variables and a lower order transport solution to discretize the axial variable. This paper describes the theory of the 2D/1D method and its implementation in the MPACT code, which has become the whole-core deterministic neutron transport solver for the Consortium for Advanced Simulations of Light Water Reactors (CASL) core simulator VERA-CS. Several applications have been performed on both leadership-class and industry-class computing clusters. Results are presented for whole-core solutions of the Watts Bar Nuclear Power Station Unit 1 and compared to both continuous-energy Monte Carlo results and plant data.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2025

Characterization of 4H-SiC Low Gain Avalanche Detectors (LGADs)

4H-SiC Low Gain Avalanche Detectors (LGADs) have been fabricated and characterized. The devices employ a circular mesa design with low-resistivity contacts and an SiO 2 passivation layer. The I–V and C–V characteristics of the 4H-SiC LGADs are compared with complementary 4H-SiC PiN diodes to confirm a high breakdown voltage and low leakage current. Both LGADs and PiN diodes were irradiated with alpha particles from a $^{210}_{84}$Po source. The charge collected by each device was compared, and it was observed that low-gain charge carrier multiplication is achieved in the 4H-SiC LGAD.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Superconducting properties in heavily overdoped Ba(Fe 0.86 Co 0.14 ) 2 As 2 single crystals

Here, we report the intrinsic superconducting parameters in a heavily overdoped Ba(Fe 1-x Co x ) 2 As 2 (x=0.14) single crystal and their influence in the resulting vortex dynamics. We also find a bulk superconducting critical temperature of 9.8 K, magnetic penetration depth λ ab (0)=660 ± 50 nm, coherence length ζ ab (0)=6.4 ± 0.2 nm, and the upper critical field anisotropy γ T → Tc approximate to 3.7. The vortex phase diagram, in comparison with the optimally doped compound, presents a narrow collective creep regime. Furthermore, the intrinsic pinning energy plays an important role in the resulting vortex dynamics as compared with similar pinning landscape and comparable intrinsic thermal fluctuations.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2021

Accumulation-Type Ohmic van der Waals Contacts to Nearly Intrinsic WSe 2 Nanosheet-Based Channels: Implications for Field-Effect Transistors

We report the fabrication of ohmic van der Waals (vdW) contacts to nearly intrinsic WSe 2 nanosheet-based channels in field-effect transistors (FETs) using degenerately p-doped MoS2 (p + -MoS2) as a contact metal. We demonstrate that accumulation-type ohmic contacts and the high device performance are achievable without electrostatically gating the drain/source contact regions despite the nearly intrinsic nature of WSe 2 . Back-gated WSe 2 FETs with p + -MoS 2 bottom contacts (which screen the back-gate electric field in the drain/source regions) exhibit linear output characteristics, a high on/off ratio of 10 8 , and a high two-terminal field-effect mobility up to ~200 cm2 V –1 s –1 at room temperature. Our theoretical modeling reveals that the p + -MoS 2 /WSe 2 vdW junction behaves like a metal/semiconductor ohmic contact signified by a vanishingly thin space-charge region of ~1 nm on the p + -MoS 2 side and a substantial accumulation layer of free holes on the WSe 2 side, which is further verified by additional temperature-dependent and dual-gated measurements of WSe 2 FETs. We attribute the formation of accumulation-type ohmic contacts free of a Schottky barrier to the near absence of Fermi-level pinning at the vdW interface and the work function of p + -MoS 2 being larger than the ionization energy of WSe 2 . This study represents an important step toward achieving low-resistance ohmic contacts to two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors by eliminating the Fermi-level pinning effects, which is expected to have significant implications for next-generation 2D semiconductor-based nanoelectronics.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2015

Scattered hard X-ray and γ-ray generation from a chromatic electron beam

An array of photon diagnostics has been deployed on a high power relativistic electron beam diode. Electrons are extracted through a 17.8 cm diode from the surface discharge of a carbon fiber velvet cathode with a nominal diode voltage of 3.8 MV. <10% of the 100 ns electron pulse is composed of off energy electrons (1–3 MeV) accelerated during the rise and fall of the pulse that impact the stainless steel beam pipe and generate a Bremsstrahlung spectrum of 0.1–3 MeV photons with a total count of 10{sup 11}. The principal objective of these experiments is to quantify the electron beam dynamics and spatial dynamics of the hard X-ray and γ-ray flux generated in the diode region. A qualitative comparison of experimental and calculated results are presented, including time and energy resolved electron beam propagation and scattered photon measurements with X-ray PIN diodes and a photomultiplier tube indicating a dose dependence on the diode voltage >V{sup 4} and detected photon counts of nearly 10{sup 6} at a radial distance of 1 m which corresponds to dose ∼40 μrad at 1 m.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

An early secretory pathway mediated by GNOM-LIKE 1 and GNOM is essential for basal polarity establishment in Arabidopsis thaliana

Spatial regulation of the plant hormone indole-3-acetic acid (IAA, or auxin) is essential for plant development. Auxin gradient establishment is mediated by polarly localized auxin transporters, including PIN-FORMED (PIN) proteins. Their localization and abundance at the plasma membrane are tightly regulated by endomembrane machinery, especially the endocytic and recycling pathways mediated by the ADP ribosylation factor guanine nucleotide exchange factor (ARF-GEF) GNOM. We assessed the role of the early secretory pathway in establishing PIN1 polarity in Arabidopsis thaliana by pharmacological and genetic approaches. We identified the compound endosidin 8 (ES8), which selectively interferes with PIN1 basal polarity without altering the polarity of apical proteins. ES8 alters the auxin distribution pattern in the root and induces a strong developmental phenotype, including reduced root length. The ARF-GEF–defective mutants gnom-like 1 ( gnl1-1 ) and gnom ( van7 ) are significantly resistant to ES8. The compound does not affect recycling or vacuolar trafficking of PIN1 but leads to its intracellular accumulation, resulting in loss of PIN1 basal polarity at the plasma membrane. In conclusion, our data confirm a role for GNOM in endoplasmic reticulum (ER)–Golgi trafficking and reveal that a GNL1/GNOM-mediated early secretory pathway selectively regulates PIN1 basal polarity establishment in a manner essential for normal plant development.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2016

Disordered vortex matter out of equilibrium: a Langevin molecular dynamics study

We discuss the use of Langevin molecular dynamics in the investigation of the non-equilibrium properties of disordered vortex matter. Here, our special focus is set on values of system parameters that are realistic for disordered high-T c superconductors such as YBCO. Using a discretised elastic line model, we study different aspects of vortices far from thermal equilibrium. On the one hand, we investigate steady-state properties of driven magnetic flux lines in a disordered environment, namely the current–voltage characteristics, the gyration radius and the pinning time statistics. On the other hand, we study the complex relaxation processes and glassy-like dynamics that emerge in type-II superconductors due to the intricate competition between the long-range vortex–vortex repulsion and flux pinning due to randomly placed point defects. To this end, we consider different types of sudden perturbations: temperature, magnetic field and external current quenches.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

ac susceptibility studies of intra- and intergrain properties of high-$J_c$ Bi-2212 wires

Bi 2 Sr 2 CaCu 2 O x (Bi-2212) is the only high-$T_c$ superconductor (HTS) available as a multifilamentary round wire with multiple architectures and it is a very promising conductor for the realization of high-field applications. Despite their relatively simple wire fabrication by the powder-in-tube technique, Bi-2212 wires require a tightly controlled overpressure heat treatment (HT) with a multi-parameter time-temperature schedule to achieve high critical current density, $J_c$. Further, the variation of these HT parameters, changes in the wire design, wire diameter and powder quality can lead to variations in both the microstructure and the superconducting performance. Particularly noticeable are variations in $J_c$ performance and degree of filament bridging. In this work, we focus on the use of different magnetic characterization techniques to estimate the bridging level and assess the balance of INTER-grain and intra-grain superconducting properties including the irreversibility field ($H_{\text{irr}}$) and the pinning energy ($U_0$) in differently processed wires. Regardless of the actual bridging level, we find that the supercurrent flows at the filament bundle level, not just at the individual filament level. Moreover, using AC susceptibility we identify two distinct supercurrent contributions, one related to the intra-grain and one to the INTER-grain properties, whose irreversibility fields are different but without large sample-to-sample variation. Moreover, an additional component of intra-grain pinning mechanism becomes effective at low temperatures with positive effects also on the INTER-grain performance. The work clearly shows that detailed magnetic characterizations can become valuable tools to investigate the performance of differently processed Bi-2212 wires, correlating their microstructure and overall transport $J_c$, to obtain a deeper understanding of the causes of performance variation and paths to achieve further improvement.

2212↗
DOE OSTI2015

MCNP Simulation of Discrete Gamma-ray Spectra for PGNAA Applications

Prompt Gamma Neutron Activation (PGNAA) systems use the neutron-induced gamma-ray spectra from test objects in order to identify their compositions. The U.S. Army in particular uses these systems to identify the contents of field-recovered munitions in order to determine the presence of chemical warfare materiel (CWM) or explosives. These field-recovered munitions can have a variety of different fills, including experimental fills, have a large range of sizes, and be assessed in different field conditions. All these variations can have a significant effect on the neutron-induced gamma-ray spectrum and therefore a large impact on automatic fill identification algorithms. In order to develop robust identification algorithms, parametric studies of the effects of munition size, fill composition, and assessment conditions are very useful but time-consuming and expensive in the laboratory. Monte Carlo modeling of the system response to these variations is a very attractive alternative, provided the modeling accurately reflects real gamma spectra and can be performed quickly and inexpensively when compared to experiment. At Idaho National Laboratory we have used the Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP6) code [2] to calculate the response of the Portable Isotopic Neutron Spectroscopy (PINS) system to a number of simulated chemical warfare munitions as well as performed laboratory measurements with the system. Two versions of PINS system were used; one excited the test object with neutrons from a 252C f source and one with neutrons from a portable deuterium-deuterium (DD) neutron generator. The sets of measurements and simulations with the two different neutron sources provided experimental data for development of automatic fill identification algorithms as well as providing a good test of the agreement between the MCNP calculations and experiment.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Microwave Vortex Motion Characterization of Nb$_{3}$ Sn Coatings for Applications in High Magnetic Fields

In this work, microwave measurements carried out in dielectric-loaded resonators exposed to high magnetic fields are exploited to yield the surface impedance of Nb$_3$ Sn superconducting coatings deposited via two different techniques: vapor tin diffusion, and DC magnetron sputtering. The obtained data lead to qualitative interpretations on both the Nb$_3$ Sn superconducting properties, and vortex-dynamics and pinning, of each coating separately, as well as simple distinctive features when comparing those. When examining the respective surface impedances at varying field, it is expected that the studied films perform at substantially diverse magnitudes of flux-flow resistivity, but also in well-differentiated pinning regimes, yet the obtained surface resistances of both samples are comparable, thus demonstrating that there is room for film optimization at the expense of certain compromise between the parameters involved.

Nb3Sn↗
DOE OSTI2021

Morphological and molecular characterization of Paratylenchus beltsvillensis n. sp. (Tylenchida: Paratylenchidae) from the rhizosphere of pine tree ( Pinus virginiana Mill) in Maryland, USA

The pin nematode, Paratylechus beltsvillensis sp. collected from rhizosphere soil of a Virginia pine tree (Pinus virginiana Mill) growing in Little Paint Branch Park, Beltsville, Prince George’s County, Maryland, USA, is described and illustrated along with light and scanning electron photomicrographs. Females, males, and juveniles of this new species were recovered from soil samples using the sugar centrifugal flotation and Baermann funnel extraction methods. Morphologically, females are short, body length ranging from 245 to 267 μm, stylet from 70 to 75 μm long with anchor shaped knobs, vulva located at 70–73% and small vulval flap, spermatheca large, and ovoid filled with sperms. Lateral field with three incisures, of which the outer two are prominent. Tail slender, having a rounded tail terminus. Males without stylet and have a degenerated pharynx, spicules = 17–20 µm and gubernaculum = 5.0–5.5 µm. Both morphological observations and molecular analysis of ITS and partial 28S ribosomal RNA gene sequences indicated that the specimens collected from the soil at Beltsville Park from rhizosphere soil samples from Virginia pine represents a new pin nematode species.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2016

Testsofa Design Details and Theory of Operation

The Testsofa is used to explore the functioning of an integrated circuit. It characterizes pin functions via pin profiling, then serves as an interface to a Boss server which creates a finite state machine (FSM) model using branch exploration. This exploration is done via a stimulus/response process, which will be explained in the Internal Logic Testing section.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2014

Investigation of the Feasibility of Utilizing Gamma Emission Computed Tomography in Evaluating Fission Product Migration in Irradiated TRISO Fuel Experiments

In the High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor (HTGR) the TRISO particle fuel serves as the primary fission product containment. However the large number of TRISO particles present in proposed HTGRs dictates that there will be a small fraction (~10 -4 to 10 -5 ) of as manufactured and in-pile particle failures that will lead to some fission product release. The matrix material surrounding the TRISO particles in fuel compacts and the structural graphite holding the TRISO particles in place can also serve as sinks for containing any released fission products. However data on the migration of solid fission products through these materials is lacking. One of the primary goals of the AGR-3/4 experiment is to study fission product migration from failed TRISO particles in prototypic HTGR components such as structural graphite and compact matrix material. In this work, the potential for a Gamma Emission Computed Tomography (GECT) technique to non-destructively examine the fission product distribution in AGR-3/4 components and other irradiation experiments is explored. Specifically, the feasibility of using the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Hot Fuels Examination Facility (HFEF) Precision Gamma Scanner (PGS) system for this GECT application is considered. To test the feasibility, the response of the PGS system to idealized fission product distributions has been simulated using Monte Carlo radiation transport simulations. Previous work that applied similar techniques during the AGR-1 experiment will also be discussed as well as planned uses for the GECT technique during the post irradiation examination of the AGR-2 experiment. The GECT technique has also been applied to other irradiated nuclear fuel systems that were currently available in the HFEF hot cell including oxide fuel pins, metallic fuel pins, and monolithic plate fuel.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗