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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 127 records · Page 7

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

DOE OSTI2021

Modeling the Fundamental Radiation Chemistry of the Organic Diluent, and the Effect of Metal Ion Complexation on the Radiochemical Behavior of Active Compounds

All used nuclear fuel (UNF) reprocessing technologies must operate efficiently in the presence of an intense, multi-component (predominantly alpha, beta, and gamma) radiation field. Consequently, radiation-induced degradation of reprocessing systems is of concern, as it negatively impacts process performance over time due to the destruction of both active compounds (ligands, phase modifiers, holdback agents, etc.) and the formation of degradation products. Reprocessing solvent system radiolysis has been linked to changes in separation efficiency and physical properties of solvent mixtures, solvent-recycle longevity, crud formation, and other unexpected outcomes that impact the efficient recovery of valuable materials (e.g., the actinides) and the volume of hazardous radioactive waste for final disposal, i.e., in a geological repository. Consequently, a fundamental understanding of radiolytic processes and their effects on reprocessing solvent system performance is critical for: (i) the cost-effective development and innovation of separation technologies; (ii) the design and implementation of predictive radiation chemical models for process monitoring and lifetimes; and (iii) potentially the ability to exploit radiolytic phenomenon to our benefit, e.g., strategic radiolysis of active molecules to liberate specific degradation products that aid subsequent process stages. Despite extensive investigation into the radiolytic behavior of active solvent system compounds, little attention has been given to understanding (i) the radiation chemical behavior and modification of the organic diluent and (ii) the effect of metal ion complexation on the radiochemical behavior of active compounds.

38 RADIATION CHEMISTRY, RADIOCHEMISTRY, AND NUCLEA↗

NASA NTRS1975

Understanding the NASTRAN structural plotter

Functions of the plotting hardware and the operations performed by the NASTRAN structural plotter are summarized to provide the user an insight into how the program works. The processing performed in response to each plot command is described and the interrelationships of the various parameters are explained. To assist in the effective and efficient utilization of the system, examples are provided which also illustrate several not yet documented capabilities of the Level 16 structural plotter.

Kuusinen, L. R.↗

DOE OSTI2023

Enhancing the Electrochemical Performance of Aqueous Processed Li-Ion Cathodes with Silicon Oxide Coatings

Lithium-ion battery cathode materials suffer from bulk and interfacial degradation issues, which negatively affect their electrochemical performance. Oxide coatings can mitigate some of these problems and improve electrochemical performance. However, current coating strategies have low throughput, are expensive, and have limited applicability. In this article, we describe a low-cost and scalable strategy for applying oxide coatings on cathode materials. Here, we report synergistic effects of these oxide coatings on the performance of aqueously processed cathodes in cells. The SiO 2 coating strategy developed herein improved mechanical, chemical, and electrochemical performance of aqueously processed Ni-, Mn- and Co-based cathodes. This strategy can be used on a variety of cathodes to improve the performance of aqueously processed Li-ion cells.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

DOE OSTI2025

Leveraging Pre-Built Catalogs and Object-Level Scheduling to Eliminate I/O Bottlenecks in HPC Environments

Modern High-Performance Computing (HPC) environments face mounting challenges due to the shift from large to small file datasets, along with an increasing number of users and parallelized applications. As HPC systems rely on Parallel File Systems (PFS), such as Lustre for data processing, performance bottlenecks stemming from Object Storage Target (OST) contention have become a significant concern. Existing solutions, such as LADS with its object-level scheduling approach, fall short in large-scale HPC environments due to their inability to effectively address metadata I/O bottlenecks and the growing number of I/O processes. This study highlights the pressing need for a comprehensive solution that tackles both OST contention and metadata I/O challenges in diverse HPC workloads. To address these challenges, we propose SwiftLoad, an object-level I/O scheduling framework that leverages a metadata catalog to enhance the performance and efficiency of parallel HPC utilities. The adoption of the metadata catalog mitigates the metadata I/O bottlenecks that commonly occur in HPC utilities, a challenge that is particularly pronounced in object-level I/O scheduling. SwiftLoad addresses OST contention and the uneven distribution of I/O processes across different OSTs through mathematical modeling and incorporates a Loader Configuration Module to regulate the number of I/O processes. Evaluated with two representative utilities—data deduplication profiling and data augmentation—SwiftLoad achieved performance improvements of up to 5.63x and 11.0x, respectively, on a production supercomputer.

HPC↗

NASA NTRS1979

Development of Surfaces Optically Suitable for Flat Solar Panels

A reflectometer which can separately evaluate the spectral and diffuse reflectivities of surfaces is described. A phase locked detection system for the reflectometer is also described. A selective coating on aluminum potentially useful for flat plate solar collector applications is presented. The coating is composed of strongly bound copper oxide (divalent) and is formed by an etching process performed on an aluminum alloy with high copper content. Fabrication costs are expected to be small due to the one stop fabrication process. A number of conclusions gathered from the literature as to the required optical properties of flat plate solar collectors are discussed.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS1978

Digital techniques for processing Landsat imagery

An overview of the basic techniques used to process Landsat images with a digital computer, and the VICAR image processing software developed at JPL and available to users through the NASA sponsored COSMIC computer program distribution center is presented. Examples of subjective processing performed to improve the information display for the human observer, such as contrast enhancement, pseudocolor display and band rationing, and of quantitative processing using mathematical models, such as classification based on multispectral signatures of different areas within a given scene and geometric transformation of imagery into standard mapping projections are given. Examples are illustrated by Landsat scenes of the Andes mountains and Altyn-Tagh fault zone in China before and after contrast enhancement and classification of land use in Portland, Oregon. The VICAR image processing software system which consists of a language translator that simplifies execution of image processing programs and provides a general purpose format so that imagery from a variety of sources can be processed by the same basic set of general applications programs is described.

Green, W. B.↗

NASA NTRS2011

Ares I-X Range Safety Analyses Overview

Ares I-X was the first test flight of NASA's Constellation Program's Ares I Crew Launch Vehicle designed to provide manned access to low Earth orbit. As a one-time test flight, the Air Force's 45th Space Wing required a series of Range Safety analysis data products to be developed for the specified launch date and mission trajectory prior to granting flight approval on the Eastern Range. The range safety data package is required to ensure that the public, launch area, and launch complex personnel and resources are provided with an acceptable level of safety and that all aspects of prelaunch and launch operations adhere to applicable public laws. The analysis data products, defined in the Air Force Space Command Manual 91-710, Volume 2, consisted of a nominal trajectory, three sigma trajectory envelopes, stage impact footprints, acoustic intensity contours, trajectory turn angles resulting from potential vehicle malfunctions (including flight software failures), characterization of potential debris, and debris impact footprints. These data products were developed under the auspices of the Constellation's Program Launch Constellation Range Safety Panel and its Range Safety Trajectory Working Group with the intent of beginning the framework for the operational vehicle data products and providing programmatic review and oversight. A multi-center NASA team in conjunction with the 45th Space Wing, collaborated within the Trajectory Working Group forum to define the data product development processes, performed the analyses necessary to generate the data products, and performed independent verification and validation of the data products. This paper outlines the Range Safety data requirements and provides an overview of the processes established to develop both the data products and the individual analyses used to develop the data products, and it summarizes the results of the analyses required for the Ares I-X launch.

Starr, Brett R.↗

NASA NTRS2011

Ares I-X Range Safety Flight Envelope Analysis

Starr, Brett R.↗

DOE OSTI2022

Crossing the Finish Line: Integration of Data-Driven Process Control for Maximization of Energy and Resource Efficiency in Advanced Water Resource Recovery Facilities

Improvements in process monitoring and control at water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs) could result in reductions in electricity consumption, chemical inputs, and greenhouse gas emissions, as well as improved energy recovery. Many current WRRF data collection, monitoring, and control approaches use 20th century process monitoring and control systems, which require large design safety factors to ensure reliability in the absence of more advanced, precise controls. Implementation of more modern data-driven control tools could lead to more efficient operations that provide intrinsic reliability with better overall process performance at full-scale. This presentation provides an overview of a recently initiated project "Crossing the Finish Line: Integration of Data-Driven Process Control for Maximization of Energy and Resource Efficiency in Advanced Water Resource Recovery Facilities" which will (1) develop and demonstrate data-driven process controls at full-scale facilities for five promising WRRF Applications (i.e., process technologies) that provide whole-plant approaches and offer substantial energy and resource recovery benefits, and (2) create a toolbox of new process control approaches and an implementation guide including five examples for application at utilities. The presentation also provides a detailed overview of the research approach and progress being made on one of the five Applications, namely Application 2: Biological Nutrient Removal (BNR): ammonium-based aeration control (ABAC) / ammonia vs. NOx (AvN) + partial denitration with anammox (PdNA), which is being implemented at Hampton Roads Sanitation District. This project is a collaboration of work being conducted by DC Water, Hampton Roads Sanitation District, Metro Water Recovery, University of Michigan, Northwestern University, US Military Academy - West Point, Black & Veatch, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Research partner: U.S. Department of Energy.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

NASA NTRS1989

Spray automated balancing of rotors - How process parameters influence performance

This paper addresses the application of spray-automated balancing of rotors, and the influence that various operating parameters will have on balancing performance. Spray-automated balancing uses the fuel-air repetitive explosion process to imbed short, discrete bursts of high velocity, high temperature powder into a rotating part at an angle selected to reduce unbalance of the part. The shortness of the burst, the delay in firing of the gun, the speed of the disk and the variability in speed all influence the accuracy and effectiveness of the automated balancing process. The paper evaluates this influence by developing an analytical framework and supplementing the analysis with empirical data obtained while firing the gun at a rotating disk. Encouraging results are obtained, and it is shown that the process should perform satisfactorily over a wide range of operating parameters. Further experimental results demonstrate the ability of the method to reduce vibration levels induced by mass unbalance in a rotating disk.

Smalley, A. J.↗

NASA NTRS1986

On-orbit prelaunch processing and refurbishment

As the capabilities of the operational Space Station increase, emphasis will be placed on use of the Station for final development of missions, including the launch of large, complex, and reusable launch vehicles with destinations to geosynchronous orbit; lunar exploration or lunar development bases; and planetary exploration. This paper identifies and discusses the capabilities that would be needed to support the on-orbit prelaunch processing and refurbishing of a manned Mars vehicle launched from Space Station. The on-orbit launch vehicle prelaunch and refurbishment resource requirements needed to perform processing operations are projected from experience and data developed by the actual preparation of payloads for launch at the National Space Transportation System (NSTS) launch and landing site.

Glaab, A. K.↗

DOE OSTI2021

Toward exascale whole-device modeling of fusion devices: Porting the GENE gyrokinetic microturbulence code to GPU

GENE solves the five-dimensional gyrokinetic equations to simulate the development and evolution of plasma microturbulence in magnetic fusion devices. The plasma model used is close to first principles and computationally very expensive to solve in the relevant physical regimes. In order to use the emerging computational capabilities to gain new physics insights, several new numerical and computational developments are required. Here, we focus on the fact that it is crucial to efficiently utilize GPUs (graphics processing units) that provide the vast majority of the computational power on such systems. In this paper, we describe the various porting approaches considered and given the constraints of the GENE code and its development model, justify the decisions made, and describe the path taken in porting GENE to GPUs. We introduce a novel library called gtensor that was developed along the way to support the process. Performance results are presented for the ported code, which in a single node of the Summit supercomputer achieves a speed-up of almost 15× compared to running on central processing unit (CPU) only. Typical GPU kernels are memory-bound, achieving about 90% of peak. Our analysis shows that there is still room for improvement if we can refactor/fuse kernels to achieve higher arithmetic intensity. We also performed a weak parallel scalability study, which shows that the code runs well on a massively parallel system, but communication costs start becoming a significant bottleneck.

Germaschewski, K. (ORCID:0000000284956354)↗

DOE OSTI2026

Alcoholysis of nylon 6 waste to ε-caprolactam promoted by phosphoric acid

Nylon 6 is widely used in high-performance materials. However, the inherent structural rigidity of nylon 6 inhibits catalytic depolymerization to its monomer, ε-caprolactam. Here, in this study, we demonstrate an acid-catalyzed alcoholysis process that depolymerizes nylon 6 to ε-caprolactam, achieving yields up to 74% using n-propanol as solvent and phosphoric acid as catalyst at 220°C for 2 h. We further applied the process to commercial nylon-containing products, demonstrating ε-caprolactam yields of 67% to 76%. Process modeling and techno-economic analysis estimated a minimum selling price of recycled nylon 6 at $\$$1.79/kg, 30% lower than the 5-year average market price of virgin nylon 6. These estimates depend on assumed costs and process performance and may vary with future conditions. Life cycle assessment indicated that nylon 6 produced via alcoholysis can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 63% compared with primary production. Overall, this study demonstrates a facile, cost-effective, and environmentally beneficial process for nylon 6 chemical recycling.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗

NASA NTRS2017

Radiation Hardening by Software Techniques on FPGAs: Flight Experiment Evaluation and Results

We present our work on implementing Radiation Hardening by Software (RHBSW) techniques on the Xilinx Virtex5 FPGAs PowerPC 440 processors on the SpaceCube 2.0 platform. The techniques have been matured and tested through simulation modeling, fault emulation, laser fault injection and now in a flight experiment, as part of the Space Test Program- Houston 4-ISS SpaceCube Experiment 2.0 (STP-H4-ISE 2.0). This work leverages concepts such as heartbeat monitoring, control flow assertions, and checkpointing, commonly used in the High Performance Computing industry, and adapts them for use in remote sensing embedded systems. These techniques are extremely low overhead (typically <1.3%), enabling a 3.3x gain in processing performance as compared to the equivalent traditionally radiation hardened processor. The recently concluded STP-H4 flight experiment was an opportunity to upgrade the RHBSW techniques for the Virtex5 FPGA and demonstrate them on-board the ISS to achieve TRL 7. This work details the implementation of the RHBSW techniques, that were previously developed for the Virtex4-based SpaceCube 1.0 platform, on the Virtex5-based SpaceCube 2.0 flight platform. The evaluation spans the development and integration with flight software, remotely uploading the new experiment to the ISS SpaceCube 2.0 platform, and conducting the experiment continuously for 16 days before the platform was decommissioned. The experiment was conducted on two PowerPCs embedded within the Virtex5 FPGA devices and the experiment collected 19,400 checkpoints, processed 253,482 status messages, and incurred 0 faults. These results are highly encouraging and future work is looking into longer duration testing as part of the STP-H5 flight experiment.

Hybrid Flight Architectures↗

DOE OSTI2023

Active predation, phylogenetic diversity, and global prevalence of myxobacteria in wastewater treatment plants

The operation of modern wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is driven by activated sludge microbiota, a complex assemblage of trophically interacting microorganisms. Microbial predation is crucial to fundamental understanding of how biological interactions drive microbiome structuring and functioning of WWTPs. However, predatory bacteria have received little attention regarding their diversity, activity, and ecological function in activated sludge, limiting the exploitation of food web interactions for wastewater microbiome engineering. Here, by using rRNA-stable isotope probing of activated sludge microbiota with 13 C-labeled prey bacteria, we uncovered diverse as-yet-uncultivated putative predatory bacteria that actively incorporated 13 C-biomass. Myxobacteria, especially Haliangium and the mle1-27 clade, were found as the dominant active predators, refreshing conventional views based on a few predatory isolates of Bdellovibrionota from WWTPs. The identified predatory bacteria showed more selective predation on prey compared with the protists dominated by ciliates, providing in situ evidence for inter-domain predation behavior divergence in activated sludge. Putative predatory bacteria were tracked over a two-year microbiome monitoring effort at a local WWTP, revealing the predominance of Myxococcota (6.5 ± 1.3%) over Bdellovibrionota (1.0 ± 0.2%) lineages. Phylogenetic analysis unveiled highly diverse myxobacteria inhabiting activated sludge and suggested a habitat filtering effect in global WWTPs. Further mining of a global activated sludge microbiome dataset revealed the prevalence of Myxococcota (5.4 ± 0.1%) species and potential impacts of myxobacterial predation on process performance. Collectively, our findings provided unique insights into the predating activity, diversity, and prevalence of Myxococcota species in activated sludge, highlighting their links with wastewater treatment processes via trophic regulation of enteric and functional bacteria.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

NASA NTRS1972

Post-analysis report on Chesapeake Bay data processing

The additional processing performed on data collected over the Rhode River Test Site and Forestry Site in November 1970 is reported. The techniques and procedures used to obtain the processed results are described. Thermal data collected over three approximately parallel lines of the site were contoured, and the results color coded, for the purpose of delineating important scene constituents and to identify trees attacked by pine bark beetles. Contouring work and histogram preparation are reviewed and the important conclusions from the spectral analysis and recognition computer (SPARC) signature extension work are summarized. The SPARC setup and processing records are presented and recommendations are made for future data collection over the site.

Thomson, F.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Modular Containerless Processing Facility

The Modular Containerless Processing Facility (MCPF) of the Space Station Freedom, being developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is described. The MCPF will be capable of positioning, manipulating, and performing processing operations on samples completely free of container walls. It will be comprised of a host facility and a series of interchangeable plug-in modules. Initial iterations of MCPF modules will be flown on the U.S. Microgravity Laboratory (USML) series of Shuttle flights. The Drop Physics Module schedualed to fly on USML-1 in March 1992 is also considered.

Morrison, Andrew D.↗

NASA NTRS1992

SAR data processing for the Magellan prime mission

The Magellan prime mission involves mapping the planet of Venus once around its rotational axis. The Magellan synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data processing facility processes all SAR data collected by the Magellan spacecraft into image data on an orbit-by-orbit basis. About 1700 million bits of radar data were collected. A complete description of the Magellan SAR Data Processing Facility is provided with emphasis on key design features of the data processors that satisfied the project data processing requirements. A summary of the attained data processing performance is included, as well as a brief discussion of some of the constraints and considerations regarding the applicability of the processors to meeting the data processing goals anticipated for the follow-on mission phases (i.e., cycles II, III, and beyond).

Leung, K.↗