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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 1,315 records · Page 73
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Incorporating climate change into risk-informed resilience planning

In response to the development of portfolio-wide Climate Action Plans by federal agencies, federal sites are working to incorporate the impacts of climate change into their resilience assessments. However, it can be challenging to incorporate climate change scenarios into resilience assessments given the uncertainty inherent in climate change modeling. Incorporating these factors into a resilience plan requires an understanding of what the different climate scenarios mean, as well as how to estimate potential impacts of climate change on hazard occurrence on a regional, or even local, scale under different scenarios. We discuss approaches to incorporating this data into risk-informed resilience assessment processes, such as those implemented in the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Federal Energy Management Program’s (FEMP) Technical Resilience Navigator (TRN) and the Sustainability Performance Division’s (SPD) Vulnerability Assessment and Resilience Plan (VARP) Risk Assessment Tool. We also describe the climate scenarios and the availability of hazard data for site resilience planning, based on modeling included in the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the National Climate Assessment (NCA), and state-level reports. We present examples from the TRN risk assessment and the VARP Risk Assessment Tool to illustrate how sensitivity analysis can be used to incorporate climate change projections into the resilience planning process.

Rabinowitz, Hannah S.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Enhancements to the KATE model-based reasoning system

KATE (Knowledge-based Autonomous Test Engineer) is a model-based software system developed in the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the Kennedy Space Center for monitoring, fault detection, and control of launch vehicles and ground support systems. This report describes two software efforts which enhance the functionality and usability of KATE. The first addition, a flow solver, adds to KATE a tool for modeling the flow of liquid in a pipe system. The second addition adds support for editing KATE knowledge base files to the Emacs editor. The body of this report discusses design and implementation issues having to do with these two tools. It will be useful to anyone maintaining or extending either the flow solver or the editor enhancements.

Thomas, Stan J.↗
DOE OSTI2025

CSP Systems Analysis 2022-2024 (Final Technical Report)

The CSP Systems Analysis project estimates the current market cost of CSP subsystems and technologies for use by the DOE Program and within NREL analysis tools. The project addresses upgrades to NREL's System Advisor Model (SAM) related to CSP, as well as development of new modules within SAM to expand the types of CSP systems that can be simulated and new tools for evaluating CSP subsystem performance or optimizing CSP system layouts, for example, SolarPILOT and SolTrace. The project evaluates the potential cost and performance of new CSP-relevant technologies and generally includes assessment of CSP technologies in support of the DOE subprogram. A primary goal of the CSP System Analysis project is to provide timely and accurate cost data to the DOE to assess the current state of CSP technologies as well as predict performance and cost for pre-commercial and emerging technologies that may impact the industry. Prior work in this task has produced technology cost reports and roadmaps for DOE and highlighted promising research paths that could reduce overall CSP cost, such as the supercritical CO2 power cycle and molten-salt trough systems. CSP Systems Analysis produces modeling tools to evaluate the performance of CSP systems, subsystems, or components, and journal articles, conference papers, technical reports and databases to disseminate information to the CSP industry. CSP technology costs are estimated and tracked using these tools as well as analysis of literature and industry sources. The CSP modeling tools and NREL analysis results are used by researchers; government, financial, and industry analysts; and other CSP stakeholders. The purpose of this final technical report is to summarize the key accomplishments of the past three years of this project. The project was divided into seven separate tasks, and in what follows, we describe the background, objectives, key accomplishments, and path forward for each task within the project, with one section of this report summarizing each task.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Impact of Electric Vehicle Charging Station Reliability, Resilience, and Location on Electric Vehicle Adoption

While the majority of electric vehicle (EV) charging events in the United States occur at home, issues with public charging stations are consistently found to be a top reason that potential EV buyers do not purchase an EV, demonstrating that both EVSE reliability and availability impacts EV adoption. This report explores multiple parameters that impact EVSE reliability and deployment, which in turn impact EV sales. These include extreme weather, codes and standards, region (urban vs. rural), and grid network type. Grid reliability was not found to impact EV adoption. The relationships between EV station reliability, station resilience, grid resilience, and EV adoption are largely outside the scope of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's (NREL's) Automotive Deployment Options Projection Tool (ADOPT) and other vehicle adoption models, so the methodology of this report is varied. Section 2 sets the baseline for infrastructure reliability, user satisfaction, and maintenance practices. Section 3 explores the ways that electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) reliability impacts the relationship between EVSE and EV adoption. Section 4 shows how geographical categories such as urban, rural, large grid, off-grid, or microgrid can be helpful in EVSE deployment strategies, as well as how the relationship between EVSE and EV adoption differs among these categories. Section 5 investigates the impacts of grid reliability and infrastructure resilience on EV adoption. Finally, Section 6 reverses the perspective to examine the impact that EVs and EVSE have on grid resilience and reliability. As recent funding initiatives result in an expansion of public chargers across the United States, as well as an increase in the uptime of existing chargers, EV adoption will likely grow.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2015

SU-E-P-12: Pinnacle-Based Tool to Evaluate the Effect of Prostate Rotation as Determined by Calypso

Purpose: When the Calypso reports a large prostate rotation and one does not have the means to make corrections, it is helpful to quantify its dosimetric effects. We have devised a simple scheme to achieve this in Pinnacle TPS. If it is determined that the PTV margin is inadequate, an alternate larger-margin plan may be adapted for the day. Methods: A three-step process using the Pinnacle Image fusion module was formulated to analyze the clinical effect of prostate rotation. The process includes (1) translating the image set such that the rotational axis is about the isocenter, (2) performing 3D rotations of the structures of interest, and (3) restoring the coordinates associated with the plan. The rotated structures are imported and overlayed on the original plan for evaluation. The tool was applied to three prostate cancer patients with relatively large rotations (95 fractions total). Prostate rotations are primarily due to variations in bladder and rectal filling, which may also affect the seminal vesicles. It is difficult to estimate the perturbation of seminal vesicles for a given prostate rotation. Therefore, the Calypso-derived rotation matrix was applied only to CTV and PTV (CTV+5mm). Results: The rotations were predominantly in the pitch direction with an absolute value ranging from 0–29 degrees (Median = 10°, Average = 14.5°). For various magnitudes of rotation, the CTV V100 decreased from the original 100% to 99.6%/99%/95% for 10°/15°/29° rotations, respectively. Likewise, the PTV V100 diminished from 95% to 92%/89%/82%. Conclusion: A tool, consisting only of features within a TPS, was used to evaluate the dosimetric effect of prostate rotation. Our study shows that under large uncorrected rotations, the tumor coverage is degraded and may require intervention in the form of plan adaptation. To this end, alternate plans with variable margins can be generated in advance for daily adaption.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2026

Report of the 2026 Workshop on Next-Generation Ecosystems for Scientific Computing: Harnessing Community, Software, and AI for Cross-Disciplinary Team Science

Scientific computing is undergoing rapid transformation as advances in artificial intelligence, heterogeneous computing, automation, and data-intensive research reshape not only computational tools but also the institutions, workforce models, and collaborative practices that support scientific discovery. This report synthesizes insights from the 2026 Workshop on Next-Generation Ecosystems for Scientific Computing, the second in a three-year series focused on strengthening scientific computing ecosystems through socio-technical co-design. Workshop discussions identified four interdependent strategic themes: software ecosystems for AI-enabled scientific discovery; trust, validation, and traceability; human-AI teaming and paradigm shifts; and workforce, pedagogy, and governance. The report translates these themes into eight priorities for community action spanning shared research infrastructure, trust and traceability, user experience, human-AI teaming, workforce development, cross-sector coordination, stewardship and sustainability, and evaluation of scientific value. Together, these priorities outline directions for building scientific computing ecosystems that remain trustworthy, sustainable, innovative, and resilient as AI assumes a growing role in scientific work.

AI↗
DOE OSTI2021

Optimizing Oil Production in Oleaginous Yeast by Cell-Wide Measurements and Genome-Based Models (Final Report)

The work funded under this DOE genomics grant focused on characterizing, modifying and developing genetic engineering tools for the then very promising but under-characterized oleaginous yeast Yarrowia lipolytica. To-date, all biodiesel production facilities rely on vegetable oils and animal fats as feedstocks, which are very limited. Nature, on the other hand, is very well equipped for making carbohydrates, which are very plentiful throughout the world and rather well distributed in various forms. While numerous (biochemical and thermochemical) technologies exist presently for carbohydrate conversion to alcohols, there is none available for the cost-efficient production of lipids from carbohydrate feedstocks. Such a technology would have wide-ranging implications in land use, renewable resource utilization and production of transportation fuels with minimal carbon footprint. The global research objectives of this award were to develop tools for cell-wide measurement of metabolites and lipids that, along with transcriptional data, will allow the construction of genome-scale metabolic models, as well as models of transcriptional regulation, that will guide the further metabolic engineering of Yarrowia lipolytica. To achieve these goals, a very strong international and diverse team consisting of research groups at MIT, UCLA, PNNL and Chalmers University was put together, whose specific goals, achievements and breakthroughs are included in this report.

10 SYNTHETIC FUELS↗
NASA NTRS2005

Team Collaboration: Lessons Learned Report

An Agency team collaboration pilot was conducted from July 2002 until June 2003 and then extended for an additional year. The objective of the pilot was to assess the value of collaboration tools and adoption processes as applied to NASA teams. In an effort to share knowledge and experiences, the lessons that have been learned thus far are documented in this report. Overall, the pilot has been successful. An entire system has been piloted - tools, adoption, and support. The pilot consisted of two collaboration tools, a team space and a virtual team meeting capability. Of the two tools that were evaluated, the team meeting tool has been more widely accepted. Though the team space tool has been met with a lesser degree of acceptance, the need for such a tool in the NASA environment has been evidenced. Both adoption techniques and support were carefully developed and implemented in a way that has been well received by the pilot participant community.

Arterberrie, Rhonda Y.↗
DOE OSTI2014

A 1:8.7 Scale Water Tunnel Verification & Validation Test of an Axial Flow Water Turbine

As interest in waterpower technologies has increased over the last few years, there has been a growing need for a public database of measured data for these devices. This would provide a basic understanding of the technology and means to validate analytic and numerical models. Through collaboration between Sandia National Laboratories, Penn State University Applied Research Laboratory, and University of California, Davis, a new marine hydrokinetic turbine rotor was designed, fabricated at 1:8.7-scale, and experimentally tested to provide an open platform and dataset for further study and development. The water tunnel test of this three-bladed, horizontal-axis rotor recorded power production, blade loading, near-wake characterization, cavitation effects, and noise generation. This report documents the small-scale model test in detail and provides a brief discussion of the rotor design and an initial look at the results with comparison against low-order modeling tools. Detailed geometry and experimental measurements are released to Sandia National Laboratories as a data report addendum.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗
NASA NTRS2000

The Plastic Flow Field in the Vicinity of the Pin-Tool During Friction Stir Welding

The plastic flow field in the vicinity of the pin-tool during Friction Stir Welding (FSW) needs to be understood if a theoretical understanding of the process is to be attained. The structure of welds does not exhibit the flow field itself, but consists in a residue of displacements left by the plastic flow field. The residue requires analysis to extract from it the instantaneous flow field around the pin-tool. A simplified merry-go-round model makes sense of some tracer experiments reported in the literature. A quantitative comparison is made of the displacements of copper wire markers with displacements computed from a hypothetical plastic flow field. The hypothetical plastic flow field consists in a circular rotation field about a translating pin tool with angular velocity varying with radius from the pin centerline. A sharply localized rotational field comprising slip on a surface around the tool agreed better with observations than a distributed slip field occupying a substantial volume around the tool. Both the tracer and the wire displacements support the "rotating plug" model, originally invoked or thermal reasons, of the FSW process.

Bernstein, E. L.↗
NASA NTRS2016

NIAC Phase I Study Final Report on Large Ultra-Lightweight Photonic Muscle Space Structures

The research goal is to develop new tools support NASA's mission of understanding of the Cosmos by developing cost effective solutions that yield a leap in performance and science data. 'Maikalani' in Hawaiian translates to, "knowledge we gain from the cosmos." Missions like Hubble have fundamentally changed humanity's view of the cosmos. Last year's Nobel prize in physics was a result of astronomical discoveries. $9B class JWST size (6.5 meter diameter) space telescopes, when launched are anticipated to rewrite our knowledge of physics. Here we report on a neoteric meta-material telescope mirror technology designed to enable a factor of 100 or more reduction in areal density, a factor of 100 reduction in telescope production and launch costs as well as other advantages; a leap to enable missions to image the cosmos in unprecedented detail, with the associated gain in knowledge. Whether terahertz, visible or X-ray, reflectors used for high quality electromagnetic imaging require shape accuracy (surface figure) to far better than 1 wavelength (lambda) of the incident photons, more typically lambda/10 or better. Imaging visible light therefore requires mirror surfaces that approximate a desired curve (e.g. a sphere or paraboloid) with smooth shape deviation of th less than approximately 1/1000 the diameter of a human hair. This requires either thick high modulus material like glass or metal, or actuators to control mirror shape. During Phase I our team studied a novel solution to this systems level design mass/shape tradespace requirement both to advance the innovative space technology concept and also to help NASA and other agencies meet current operational and future mission requirements. Extreme and revolutionary NASA imaging missions such as Terrestrial Planet Imager (TPI) require lightweight mirrors with minimum diameters of 20 to 40 meters. For reference, NASA's great achievement; the Hubble space telescope, is only 2.4 meters in diameter. What is required is a way to make large inexpensive deployable mirrors where the cost is measured in millions, not billions like current efforts. For example we seek an interim goal within 10 years of a Hubble size (2.4m) primary mirror weighing 1 pound at a cost of 10K in materials. Described here is a technology using thin ultra lightweight materials where shape can be controlled simply with a beam of light, allowing imaging with incredibly low mass yet precisely shaped mirrors. These " Photonic Muscle" substrates will eventually make precision control of giant s p a c e apertures (mirrors) possible. OCCAM substrates make precision control of giant ultra light-weight mirror apertures possible. This technology is posed to create a revolution in remote sensing by making large ultra lightweight space telescopes a fiscal and material reality over the next decade.

Cosmos↗
DOE OSTI2024

Phase-Field Modeling of Thermally-Grown Oxide and the Induced Damage Evolution in Environmental Barrier Coatings

The advent of next-generation hydrogen-based engines necessitates materials capable of withstanding temperatures beyond the reach of current superalloys. SiC-based ceramic matrix composites, augmented with environmental barrier coatings (EBCs), present a promising materials solution. Given the active search for effective and durable EBCs, there is a pressing need for modeling tools to understand and predict damage evolution in these materials to help accelerate their development. This study introduces a phase-field model (PFM) designed to simulate the critical role of thermally grown oxides (TGO) in the degradation and failure of EBCs. The model accounts for the severe volume expansion due to oxidation, alongside phase transformations and microstructural evolution during thermal cycling, offering a comprehensive view of the damage processes. Simulation results are validated against experimental findings reported in the literature, establishing the model's potential as a significant tool for understanding and improving the resilience of EBCs in cyclic oxidative environments.

Cheng, Tianle↗
DOE OSTI2025

Phase Field Modeling of Chemical Reaction Related Damage Evolution in Environmental Barrier Coatings

The advent of next-generation engines necessitates materials capable of withstanding temperatures beyond the reach of current superalloys. SiC-based ceramic matrix composites, augmented with environmental barrier coatings (EBCs), present a promising materials solution. Given the active search for effective and durable EBCs, there is a pressing need for modeling tools to understand and predict damage evolution in these materials to help accelerate their development. This study introduces a phase-field model (PFM) designed to simulate the thermally grown oxides (TGO) and phase transformation in the degradation and failure of EBCs. The model accounts for the severe volume expansion due to oxidation, alongside phase transformations and porosity evolution during thermal cycling, offering a comprehensive view of the damage processes. Simulation results are validated against experimental findings reported in the literature, establishing the model's potential as a significant tool for understanding and improving the resilience of EBCs in cyclic oxidative environments.

fast-diffusion path↗
DOE OSTI2023

Structural insights into the unique recognition module between α-synuclein peptide and nanobody

Nanobodies are single-domain fragments of antibodies with comparable specificity and affinity to antibodies. They are emerging as versatile tools in biology due to their relatively small size. Here, we report the crystal structure of a specific nanobody Nbα-syn01, bound to a 14 amino acid long peptide of α-synuclein (αSyn), a 140-residue protein whose aggregation is associated with Parkinson's disease. The complex structure exhibits a unique binding pattern where the αSyn peptide replaces the N-terminal region of nanobody. Recognition is mediated principally by extended main chain interaction of the αSyn peptide and specificity of the interaction lies in the central 48–52 region of αSyn peptide. Structure-guided truncation of Nbα-syn01 shows tighter binding to αSyn peptide and improved inhibition of α-synuclein aggregation. The structure of the truncated complex was subsequently determined and was indistinguishable to full length complex as the full-length form had no visible electron density for the N-terminal end. These findings reveal the molecular basis for a previously unobserved binding mode for nanobody recognition of α-synuclein, providing an explanation for the enhanced binding, and potential for an alternate framework for structure-based protein engineering of nanobodies to develop better diagnostic and therapeutic tools.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Status on Development of Graphite Analytical Tool (GAT)

The DOE-ART Graphite R&D program has been generating significant amounts of irradiated and unirradiated graphite data since 2006 when the program was part of the DOE NGNP (Next Generation Nuclear Plant) Project. This data includes critical irradiation creep and irradiated material property changes from the Advanced Graphite Creep (AGR) experiment as well as significant amounts of data on unirradiated material property values on several current nuclear graphite grades (Baseline program). Previously, Idaho National Laboratory has developed an internal analysis tool to assist with analysis of the unirradiated and irradiated data. The Graphite Analytical Tool (GAT) is intended to provide easy access to the graphite data in the form of comparing unirradiated and irradiated material property changes, comparison of material property differences between various nuclear graphite grades, and illustrate trends within the irradiated and unirradiated data generated within the DOE-ART Graphite R&D program. This report summarizes the progress to-date on the development of this analytical tool.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Quantitative Performance Assessment of Proxy Apps and Parents (Report for ECP Proxy App Project Milestone ADCD-504-11)

The ECP Proxy Application Project has an annual milestone to assess the state of ECP proxy applications. Our FY21 milestone (ADCD-504-11) proposed to: "Assess the performance and fidelity of proxy applications, including those in the ECP Proxy App Suite, relative to the ECP Application workload on heterogeneous platforms. Use proxy applications and selected ECP applications to assess the utility of critical elements of the Exascale toolchain, especially tools used to collect performance data. Identify gaps in coverage and/or common situations in which proxies may fail to adequately represent ECP applications." To satisfy this milestone, the following specific tasks were completed: Study ability of MACSio to represent I/O workloads of adaptive mesh codes; Prepare report on assessed performance and debugging tools; Perform cosine similarity study on Intel and P9 and submit paper; Complete LDMS/GPU subcontract, complete and receive report; Complete validation of LDMS data collection for GPUs and submit paper; and Perform cosine similarity study on GPUs.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2015

Simulation and Field Evaluation Support for ESTCP Dynamic Windows: Cooperative Research and Development Final Report, CRADA Number CRD-12-492

We will leverage new building performance and daylighting simulation tools to characterize the performance of a new electrochromic (EC) glazing as well as perform a field evaluation of the same product installed in a DoD facility. The in situ data will be used to validate and calibrate the simulation model, which will then be used to extrapolate the performance of the product across all US climate zones. The property as part of this agreement will be installed at MCAS Miramar, California.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗