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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 1,387 records · Page 77
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2023

ProFAST (Production Financial Analysis Scenario Tool) [SWR-23-88]

The Production Financial Analysis Scenario Tool (ProFAST) provides a quick and convenient in-depth financial analysis for production facilities. The model uses a generally accepted accounting principles analysis framework and provides annual projections of income statements, cash flow statements, and balance sheets. ProFAST allows users to calculate the levelized cost of the produced commodity by providing an expected financial performance, or on the other hand, calculate the financial performance based on an input price. Model inputs generally capital expenditures, operating expenditures, and financing structure. The programmatic approach of ProFAST allows users to easily perform large sensitivity analyses and integrates easily with other python tools.

Kee, Jamie↗
DOE OSTI2024

Integrating ytopt and libEnsemble to autotune OpenMC

Ytopt is a Python machine-learning-based autotuning software package developed within the ECP PROTEAS-TUNE project. The ytopt software adopts an asynchronous search framework that consists of sampling a small number of input parameter configurations and progressively fitting a surrogate model over the input-output space until exhausting the user-defined maximum number of evaluations or the wall-clock time. libEnsemble is a Python toolkit for coordinating workflows of asynchronous and dynamic ensembles of calculations across massively parallel resources developed within the ECP PETSc/TAO project. libEnsemble helps users take advantage of massively parallel resources to solve design, decision, and inference problems and expands the class of problems that can benefit from increased parallelism. In this paper we present our methodology and framework to integrate ytopt and libEnsemble to take advantage of massively parallel resources to accelerate the autotuning process. Specifically, we focus on using the proposed framework to autotune the ECP ExaSMR application OpenMC, an open source Monte Carlo particle transport code. OpenMC has seven tunable parameters some of which have large ranges such as the number of particles in-flight, which is in the range of 100,000 to 8 million, with its default setting of 1 million. Setting the proper combination of these parameter values to achieve the best performance is extremely time-consuming. Therefore, we apply the proposed framework to autotune the MPI/OpenMP offload version of OpenMC based on a user-defined metric such as the figure of merit (FoM) (particles/s) or energy efficiency energy-delay product (EDP) on Crusher at Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility. In conclusion, the experimental results show that we achieve the improvement up to 29.49% in FoM and up to 30.44% in EDP.

Autotuning↗
DOE OSTI2020

VersaBuild: A Novel, Multi-scale, Versatile 3d Printer Concept

Our team has identified and attempted to solve a major challenge limiting the increased deployment of additive manufacturing in full-scale production environments. As engineers desire for greater flexibility of design grows, and as the diversity of properties achievable and materials usable in additive manufacturing increases, additive manufacturing becomes increasingly valuable and useful. However, the machines used to produce AM parts have largely stagnated in terms of configurability, technology, and design. We have conceptualized a system which enables a single machine to provide the functionality of multiple machines, with minimal operator changes. The gap that was identified by the team was the lack of a system that could accept user-configurable changes to the print resolution and printbed size. This would enable manufacturers flexibility in the size, quality, and quantity of parts produced in a facility of a given size. Significant floorspace savings could be achieved in a facility deploying our proposed solution due to the flexibility of the machine, lowering operational cost. Our envisioned design is similar in concept to a standard Delta robot, which is a three-armed robot that is used in many industrial applications. However, we intend for our design to have extensible delta arms that include position sensing, allowing for a greater range of motion and thus print volume while maintaining precise control over the printhead position. Some of the key risks associated with are system are caused by the novelty of the concept. Our system must undergo significant R&D and requires a fully integrated software, electrical, and mechanical system to be developed.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2023

LANL Interactive Display (LID)

The LANL Interactive Display (LID) provides a geographic-based virtual tour of the Laboratory highlighting information on cost, workforce, and facilities for each of the Laboratory’s organizations, capabilities, and programs. The tool can map laboratory business (organization, program, capability) onto the geographic base view, allowing users to explore the full breadth of work at LANL at the touch of a screen. The Display blends the visual location of the laboratory’s infrastructure with assets such as workforce, funding, and equipment for the $4B LANL enterprise.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Energy Characterization of the UMD Electron Accelerator

Multiple different groups at Los Alamos National Laboratory have a cited interest in understanding the effects of ionizing radiation in materials. Of especial interest to the ISR division is understanding the effects in materials that are used in the space environment, where radiation is omnipresent and impossible to fully shield from. Development is under way to simulate the effects of radiation damage in detectors and electronics, primarily with particle transport codes such as Geant4 and RAMPART, a code that provides a user friendly interface to Geant4. However, these simulations need benchmarking to experimental tests, some of which have been performed at a variety of small electron accelerator facilities. One of these facilities is the Linear Electron Accelerator at the University of Maryland Radiation Facilities. This facility can provide electron beams on the order of 100 mA delivered in tight macropulse bunches, which allows for experiments where the behavior of electronics is monitored as a function of pulse number. While the beam rates per macropulse of this accelerator is monitored during an experiment via a current pick-off connected to a large graphite beamstop, the energy distribution of this electron beam is not measured during the experiment and has not been well characterized. The energy distribution of the beam is pertinent for these types of experiments, since dose is directly related to energy deposited in a medium. Further, these experiments are performed in open air and sample placement in the room can dictate what dose rate they receive per macropulse. We have created simulated dosemaps for the UMD vault room, but these simulations assume a given energy of the beam, both for calculating the dose and to simulate how much the beam diverges in the air. There have been two attempts now to characterize this accelerator beam energy with a plate type spectrometer, including the most recent experiment earlier this year to quantify the beam energy distribution. These results will also be compared to a dosimetry experiment performed by collaborators at the UMD facility, the details of which are described in Reference. Understanding the electron beam energy is important for future experiments, because the energy directly impacts the dose and radiation damage given to a sample and is important for properly simulating the electron beam when comparing simulation to experiment.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2023

National Ignition Facility Opacity Time Resolved Spectrometer Systems Engineering Final Project

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is the world’s largest and most energetic laser facility. The NIF system is designed to produce high energy density (temperature and pressure) conditions through the application of its 192 laser beams. One of the users of NIF is the opacity platform developed to study the opacities at temperatures and densities relevant to the solar interior and stellar evolution. The platform was developed to study iron (Fe) opacity at temperatures relevant to the solar interior. The opacity campaign uses spectrometers to gather data. Spectrometers utilize crystals to produce x-ray spectra that are recorded on time-integrated and time-resolved detectors. The opacity spectrometer (OpSpec) currently fielded and in use at NIF uses a time integrated film channel to collect data. The opacity spectrometer time resolved (OpSpecTR) will utilize novel hCMOS detectors to capture time resolved images of spectra of interest. The key stakeholders identified for OpSpecTR included the physicists responsible for OpSpec and OpSpecTR, the Target Area Science and Engineering (TASE) department at NIF, the NIF and Photon Science (NIF & PS) Opacity program, the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) Physics and Engineering program, the Sandia hCMOS manufacturing and testing program, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) program sponsor. The Target and Experimental Operations (TEXOPS) was identified as a key stakeholder because the group includes the individuals that will physically interact with the OpSpecTR system as it participates in NIF experiments. The opacity platform collects data in a unique orientation relative to the existing diagnostics fielded at NIF. The existing infrastructure at NIF uses a diagnostic manipulator (DIM) to insert the diagnostic near the target chamber center to collect data during a NIF shot. Existing diagnostics collect data through the center line of the DIM axis and collect relevant data perpendicular to this axis. The opacity platform requires crystals mounted in a specific orientation which requires data collection parallel to the DIM axis. This deviation from standard NIF practices was a key factor in developing requirements.

42 ENGINEERING↗
NASA NTRS1977

Planning for Materials Processing in Space

A systems design study to describe the conceptual evolution, the institutional interrelationshiphs, and the basic physical requirements to implement materials processing in space was conducted. Planning for a processing era, rather than hardware design, was emphasized. Product development in space was examined in terms of fluid phenomena, phase separation, and heat and mass transfer. The effect of materials processing on the environment was studied. A concept for modular, unmanned orbiting facilities using the modified external tank of the space shuttle is presented. Organizational and finding structures which would provide for the efficient movement of materials from user to space are discussed.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1981

The National Transonic Facility: Review and status report

The status of the National Transonic Facility (NTF) Project and some of the pertinent performance characteristics and features of the new wind tunnel are reviewed. The liquid nitrogen supply, current views of user cost, and the activation schedule are discussed.

Howell, R. R.↗
NASA NTRS1982

NASA payload interface verification requirements - Process and implementation

The separate and combinatorial roles played by NASA and STS payload contractors in the processes of interfacing cargo with the Shuttle are described. NASA personnel aid payload interface verification beginning at the hardware development level and perform independent interface verification once the payload is delivered to the payload processing facility. The cargo is first checked for operational and flight readiness, including inspection of installed devices to specification for the interface connections. Checklists furnished to the user are returned to NASA prior to integration simulation unless formal statements of compliance or waivers are exchanged. The continuance of strict adherence to predelivery interface verification testing is emphasized as necessary for meeting the turnaround times projected for the Orbiter fleet.

Huffstetler, W. J.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Description of an experimental expert system flight status monitor

This paper describes an experimental version of an expert system flight status monitor being developed at the Dryden Flight Research Facility of the NASA Ames Research Center. This experimental expert system flight status monitor (ESSFSM) is supported by a specialized knowledge acquisition tool that provides the user with a powerful and easy-to-use documentation and rule construction tool. The EESFSM is designed to be a testbed for concepts in rules, inference mechanisms, and knowledge structures to be used in a real-time expert system flight status monitor that will monitor the health and status of the flight control system of state-of-the-art, high-performance, research aircraft.

Duke, E. L.↗
NASA NTRS1985

A design study for a three-dimensional display computer terminal for meteorological information

The software developed on this project in FY-84 was put into final form and documented for McIDAS user access. The various users have been asked to utilize the techniques and to provide feedback to the developers. Researchers have received limited feedback to date, but nearly all has been helpful and generally favorable. The stereo display has been used by most of the operational users of McIDAS or its progenies. Specifically, the National Hurricane Center, the National Severe Storm Forecast Center, the National Meteorological Center, and the Cape Canaveral Forecast Facility have all made use of the 4-D display techniques to help evaluate meteorological situations on various occasions.

Suomi, V. E.↗
NASA NTRS2014

Environmentally Preferable Coatings for Structural Steel Project

The Ground Systems Development and Operations (GSDO) Program at NASA John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC) has the primary objective of modernizing and transforming the launch and range complex at KSC to benefit current and future NASA programs along with other emerging users. Described a the "launch support and infrastructure modernization program" in the NASA Authorization Act of 2010, the GSDO Program will develop and implement shared infrastructure and process improvements to provide more flexible, affordable, and responsive capabilities to a multi-user community. In support of the GSDO Program, the objective of this project is to determine the feasibility of environmentally friendly corrosion resistant coatings for launch facilities and ground support equipment. The focus of the project is corrosion resistance and survivability with the goal to reduce the amount of maintenance required to preserve the performance of launch facilities while reducing mission risk. Number of facilities/structures with metallic structural and non-structural components in a highly corrosive environment. Metals require periodic maintenance activity to guard against the insidious effects of corrosion and thus ensure that structures meet or exceed design or performance life. The standard practice for protecting metallic substrates in atmospheric environments is the application of corrosion protective coating system.

Technology Portfolio System↗
DOE OSTI2025

Application of Raman Spectroscopy to Determine Uranium Content in ADUN Solution

The work presented in this report is part of the ongoing efforts to address the nuclear material control and accounting needs for advanced reactor fuel fabrication facilities. This work was supported by the Materials Protection, Accounting, and Control Technologies (MPACT) program under the US Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy‘s Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Supply Chain program. The activities and engagements under the MPACT program are designed to support a robust US civilian nuclear energy enterprise. In the work described in this report, we supported MPACT objectives by developing measurement techniques that could be used for material accounting and process monitoring and by working with industry partners to identify existing gaps and areas for improvement. Oak Ridge National Laboratory has been working with commercial tristructural isotropic (TRISO) fuel fabricators such as Standard Nuclear to develop technology for rapid and cost-effective uranium content assessment. This work has focused on demonstrating advanced measurement techniques (e.g., Raman spectroscopy) that can be used for rapid, reliable, and cost-effective routine measurements of uranium content in feed solutions and liquid waste streams as well as for monitoring in-line process measurements and product streams. Specifically, this report explores techniques for accurately determining uranium content in acid-deficient uranyl nitrate (ADUN) solutions and detecting low uranium concentrations in ammonia solutions. Developing such measurement techniques will benefit TRISO fuel fabrication facilities, facilities involved in other parts of the fuel cycle that require online monitoring of aqueous solutions, and potentially molten salt fuel reactors. This work supports developing Raman spectroscopy procedures to determine uranium concentrations in ADUN solutions, which are used as feedstock in the sol–gel process for creating TRISO fuel. Some additional benefits of using Raman spectroscopy for uranium quantification in fabrication facilities include enabling online monitoring of the chemical process, which would provide near real-time feedback; eliminating the need for sample transfers, preparation, or dilution; providing nondestructive measurements; and user friendliness. In this fiscal year, FY25, we determined the identity of the unknown Raman band at approximately 853 cm−1 that was discovered in ADUN Raman spectra in FY24, created calibration curves and determined uranium concentrations of two ADUN solutions, and compared the Raman results to results obtained from inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and Davies–Gray titration. Furthermore, we have identified focus areas for experimentation in future fiscal years. A key result is that the accuracy of using Raman can provide accuracy comparable to destructive analysist techniques, With a well-developed calibration curve, using standards and a large number of samples (more than five samples), uncertainty on the order of 1%–3% is achievable. Given that the uncertainties achieved by Raman spectroscopy were on the order of the uncertainties achieved using ICP-MS, we conclude that with a well-developed procedure Raman spectroscopy can be used to determine uranium concentrations in ADUN solutions for NMC&A applications. The benefits of such an approach are that the time and effort will be less than that of comparable destructive analysis techniques, with approximately the same level of technical expertise. This will be attractive to operators of fuel fabrication facilities as it will lower costs and improve efficiencies.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
NASA NTRS1989

Space Station Freedom solar array panels plasma interaction test facility

The Space Station Freedom Power System will make extensive use of photovoltaic (PV) power generation. The phase 1 power system consists of two PV power modules each capable of delivering 37.5 KW of conditioned power to the user. Each PV module consists of two solar arrays. Each solar array is made up of two solar blankets. Each solar blanket contains 82 PV panels. The PV power modules provide a 160 V nominal operating voltage. Previous research has shown that there are electrical interactions between a plasma environment and a photovoltaic power source. The interactions take two forms: parasitic current loss (occurs when the currect produced by the PV panel leaves at a high potential point and travels through the plasma to a lower potential point, effectively shorting that portion of the PV panel); and arcing (occurs when the PV panel electrically discharges into the plasma). The PV solar array panel plasma interaction test was conceived to evaluate the effects of these interactions on the Space Station Freedom type PV panels as well as to conduct further research. The test article consists of two active solar array panels in series. Each panel consists of two hundred 8 cm x 8 cm silicon solar cells. The test requirements dictated specifications in the following areas: plasma environment/plasma sheath; outgassing; thermal requirements; solar simulation; and data collection requirements.

Martin, Donald F.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Timing in private digital telecommunication networks

For proper operation of today's large digital private networks, high quality synchronization must be achieved. A general telecommunication performance objective is to maintain long-term frequency accuracy of ten parts per trillion at all synchronous digital equipment in the network. Many times, however, this is not achieved in private networks. Low quality clocks, errored transmission facilities, and incorrectly designed synchronization plans are often cause for poor performance. It is shown that properly-designed private networks can operate with long term frequency averages between ten parts per trillion to ten parts per million. These performance levels can adversely impact customer applications. The most demanding applications are digital and voice band data, encrypted voice, facsimile, and video. In a typical private network operating at 0.01 parts per million, the user would experience reduced data throughput, dropped encrypted calls, unreadable facsimile pages, or interrupted video transmission dozens of times per day. The major contribution to poor private network synchronization performance is the interaction of Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) clocks and the network facilities used to distribute timing. The performance of typical CPE clocks and facilities, and their impact on customer applications, are discussed. CPE clock performance issues, along with private network architectural constraints, make synchronization planning extremely difficult. Planning is usually costly and requires specialized expertise.

Abate, J. E.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Materials, processes, and environmental engineering network

The Materials, Processes, and Environmental Engineering Network (MPEEN) was developed as a central holding facility for materials testing information generated by the Materials and Processes Laboratory. It contains information from other NASA centers and outside agencies, and also includes the NASA Environmental Information System (NEIS) and Failure Analysis Information System (FAIS) data. Environmental replacement materials information is a newly developed focus of MPEEN. This database is the NASA Environmental Information System, NEIS, which is accessible through MPEEN. Environmental concerns are addressed regarding materials identified by the NASA Operational Environment Team, NOET, to be hazardous to the environment. An environmental replacement technology database is contained within NEIS. Environmental concerns about materials are identified by NOET, and control or replacement strategies are formed. This database also contains the usage and performance characteristics of these hazardous materials. In addition to addressing environmental concerns, MPEEN contains one of the largest materials databases in the world. Over 600 users access this network on a daily basis. There is information available on failure analysis, metals and nonmetals testing, materials properties, standard and commercial parts, foreign alloy cross-reference, Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) data, and Materials and Processes Selection List data.

White, Margo M.↗
DOE OSTI2022

Frontier (HPE Cray EX) Exascale Supercomputer at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility

Frontier is the HPE Cray EX exascale supercomputer deployed and operated by the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Frontier is designed for large-scale modeling, simulation, and AI workloads and is built from HPE Cray EX system architecture with AMD CPUs and AMD Instinct GPU accelerators connected by the HPE Slingshot interconnect. System composition (representative production configuration): Frontier is composed of approximately 74 cabinets with 128 compute nodes per cabinet (~9,400 compute nodes total). Each compute node contains one 64-core AMD EPYC CPU and four AMD Instinct MI250X GPUs. Nodes are connected using HPE Slingshot (Slingshot-200 class) networking with multiple NIC ports per node providing high injection bandwidth. Frontier is connected to the Orion parallel file system (multi-tier Lustre) providing a large, center-wide high-performance storage namespace. Operational context: Frontier entered public prominence as the first system to reach No. 1 on the TOP500 list in May 2022 (HPL benchmark), establishing the first widely recognized exascale-era performance milestone. The system supports DOE Office of Science mission workloads and enables leadership-class computational science and AI for open science users.

AMD EPYC↗
DOE OSTI2020

Simulations of coherent scattering experiments at storage ring synchrotron radiation sources in the hard x-ray range

Detailed simulations of experiments carried out at modern light sources are directly related to the most efficient and productive use of these facilities for research in multiple branches of science and technology. The “Synchrotron Radiation Workshop” computer code with its Python interface, and Sirepo web-browser-based graphical user interface, currently supports physical optics simulations of coherent X-ray scattering and imaging experiments on user-defined virtual samples. We present examples of simulations of coherent scattering experiments that are typically performed at the Coherent Hard X-ray beamline at Brookhaven National Laboratory’s (BNL) National Synchrotron Light Source II. We also present several comparisons of the simulations with the results of actual coherent X-ray scattering experiments with nano-fabricated test samples produced at BNL’s Center for Functional Nanomaterials.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗