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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 1,423 records · Page 79
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1986

Fault-free validation of a fault-tolerant multiprocessor: Baseline experiments and workoad implementation

In the future, aircraft employing active control technology must use highly reliable multiprocessors in order to achieve flight safety. Such computers must be experimentally validated before they are deployed. This project outlines a methodology for doing fault-free validation of reliable multiprocessors. The methodology begins with baseline experiments, which test single phenomenon. As experiments progress, tools for performance testing are developed. This report presents the results of interrupt baseline experiments performed on the Fault-Tolerant Multiprocessor (FTMP) at NASA-Langley's AIRLAB. Interrupt-causing excepting conditions were tested, and several were found to have unimplemented interrupt handling software while one had an unimplemented interrupt vector. A synthetic workload model for realtime multiprocessors is then developed as an application level performance analysis tool. Details of the workload implementation and calibration are presented. Both the experimental methodology and the synthetic workload model are general enough to be applicable to reliable multi-processors besides FTMP.

Feather, F.↗
NASA NTRS1998

A Case Study for Probabilistic Methods Validation (MSFC Center Director's Discretionary Fund, Project No. 94-26)

Probabilistic method is not a universally accepted approach for the design and analysis of aerospace structures. The validity of this approach must be demonstrated to encourage its acceptance as it viable design and analysis tool to estimate structural reliability. The objective of this Study is to develop a well characterized finite population of similar aerospace structures that can be used to (1) validate probabilistic codes, (2) demonstrate the basic principles behind probabilistic methods, (3) formulate general guidelines for characterization of material drivers (such as elastic modulus) when limited data is available, and (4) investigate how the drivers affect the results of sensitivity analysis at the component/failure mode level.

Price J. M.↗
NASA NTRS2016

Application of Design of Experiments and Surrogate Modeling within the NASA Advanced Concepts Office, Earth-to-Orbit Design Process

Decisions made during early conceptual design have a large impact upon the expected life-cycle cost (LCC) of a new program. It is widely accepted that up to 80% of such cost is committed during these early design phases [1]. Therefore, to help minimize LCC, decisions made during conceptual design must be based upon as much information as possible. To aid in the decision making for new launch vehicle programs, the Advanced Concepts Office (ACO) at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) provides rapid turnaround pre-phase A and phase A concept definition studies. The ACO team utilizes a proven set of tools to provide customers with a full vehicle mass breakdown to tertiary subsystems, preliminary structural sizing based upon worst-case flight loads, and trajectory optimization to quantify integrated vehicle performance for a given mission [2]. Although the team provides rapid turnaround for single vehicle concepts, the scope of the trade space can be limited due to analyst availability and the manpower requirements for manual execution of the analysis tools. In order to enable exploration of a broader design space, the ACO team has implemented an advanced design methods (ADM) based approach. This approach applies the concepts of design of experiments (DOE) and surrogate modeling to more exhaustively explore the trade space and provide the customer with additional design information to inform decision making. This paper will first discuss the automation of the ACO tool set, which represents a majority of the development effort. In order to fit a surrogate model within tolerable error bounds a number of DOE cases are needed. This number will scale with the number of variable parameters desired and the complexity of the system's response to those variables. For all but the smallest design spaces, the number of cases required cannot be produced within an acceptable timeframe using a manual process. Therefore, automation of the tools was a key enabler for the successful application of an ADM approach to an ACO design study. Following the overview of the tool set automation, an example problem will be given to illustrate the implementation of the ADM approach. The example problem will first cover the inclusion of ground rules and assumptions (GR&A) for a study. The GR&A are very important to the study as they determine the constraints within which a trade study can be conducted. These trades must ultimately reconcile with the customer's desired output and any anticipated "what if" questions.

Zwack, Mathew R.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Quantifying Atomically Dispersed Catalysts Using Deep Learning Assisted Microscopy

The catalytic performance of atomically dispersed catalysts (ADCs) is greatly influenced by their atomic configurations, such as atom–atom distances, clustering of atoms into dimers and trimers, and their distributions. Scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) is a powerful technique for imaging ADCs at the atomic scale; however, most STEM analyses of ADCs thus far have relied on human labeling, making it difficult to analyze large data sets. Here, we introduce a convolutional neural network (CNN)-based algorithm capable of quantifying the spatial arrangement of different adatom configurations. The algorithm was tested on different ADCs with varying support crystallinity and homogeneity. Results show that our algorithm can accurately identify atom positions and effectively analyze large data sets. Here, this work provides a robust method to overcome a major bottleneck in STEM analysis for ADC catalyst research. We highlight the potential of this method to serve as an on-the-fly analysis tool for catalysts in future in situ microscopy experiments.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2014

Development and application of modeling tools for sodium fast reactor inspection

To support the development of in-service inspection methods for the Advanced Sodium Test Reactor for Industrial Demonstration (ASTRID) project led by the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), several tools that allow situations specific to Sodium cooled Fast Reactors (SFR) to be modeled have been implemented in the CIVA software and exploited. This paper details specific applications and results obtained. For instance, a new specular reflection model allows the calculation of complex echoes from scattering structures inside the reactor vessel. EMAT transducer simulation models have been implemented to develop new transducers for sodium visualization and imaging. Guided wave analysis tools have been developed to permit defect detection in the vessel shell. Application examples and comparisons with experimental data are presented.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2023

A scalable transformer model for real-time decision making in neutron scattering experiments

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) neutron research facilities at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), including the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) and the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS), are a state-of-the-art neutron scattering facility that allows researchers to study the structure and dynamics of materials at the atomic scale. At the SNS, neutrons are measured using the time-of-flight (TOF) technique as they move through a neutron beamline to interact with a sample. Large volumes of neutron scattering data are collected and recorded in neutron event mode. Optimal productivity of the TOF instrument is limited due to the lack of real-time data analysis tools. The large amount of data generated by the experiments can be challenging to process and analyze in real time, particularly for experiments that require rapid feedback and adjustment of experimental parameters. The regular computer/workstation cannot keep up with the experiment speed to provide real-time feedback to adjust experimental parameters, so connecting the supercomputers available to the neutron facility is necessary to achieve real-time data analysis and experiment steering. To address this challenge, we exploit the Frontier supercomputer at Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF) to train a scalable temporal fusion transformer model for real-time decision making of TOF neutron scattering experimentation. Here, in this paper, we present the results using Frontier to provide the processing power needed to rapidly process and analyze large volumes of single-crystal diffraction data collected at TOPAZ, a neutron time-of-flight Laue single-crystal diffractometer at the SNS.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2024

Globally Gridded Groundwater Extraction Volumes and Costs under Six Depletion and Ponded Depth Targets

This repository contains simulated outputs from superwell – a hydro-economic tool for long-term assessment of groundwater cost and supply – providing globally gridded groundwater extractable volumes and associated unit costs ($/km³) for accessible groundwater production, based on a variety of user-defined depletion and ponded depth scenarios. Key model documentation: Niazi, H., Ferencz, S. B., Graham, N. T., Yoon, J., Wild, T. B., Hejazi, M., Watson, D. J., & Vernon, C. R. (2025). Long-term hydro-economic analysis tool for evaluating global groundwater cost and supply: Superwell v1.1. Geoscientific Model Development, 18(5), 1737-1767. https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-1737-2025 Find the source code of the superwell model on GitHub: https://github.com/JGCRI/superwell Repository Overview Main output: superwell_outputs.7z contains 6 files (4.5 GB) named as superwell_py_deep_all_0.*PD_0.*DL.csv. These files present superwell outputs of global groundwater extraction volumes and cost estimates on a 0.5° scale for six scenarios with different Ponded Depth (PD; 0.3 and 0.6 m) and Depletion Limit (DL; 5%, 25%, and 40% of available volume) targets over the entire pumping lifetime of a grid cell superwell_py_deep_all_0.3PD_0.25DL_sample_100.csv contains superwell outputs for 100 data points sampled to match the global inputs' distribution superwell_py_deep_all_0.3PD_0.25DL_Grid_72548.csv contains superwell output for a single grid cell concept_v5.png provides an overview of the superwell workflow Outputs Description year_number: year of pumping depletion_limit: set depletion limit (DL) as a volume fraction of total available groundwater Mappings: continent, country, gcam_basin_id, Basin_long_name, grid_id: geographic identifiers and basin information Inputs: grid_area (km²): area of the grid cell whyclass: hydrogeological classification of the aquifer permeability (m/day), porosity (%), total_thickness (m), depth_to_water (m): aquifer properties. The geo-processed input data has been published separately: https://doi.org/10.57931/2307831 Model outputs: orig_aqfr_sat_thickness (m), aqfr_sat_thickness (m): original and remaining/instantaneous saturated thickness of the aquifer hydraulic_conductivity (m/day), transmissivity (m²/day): hydraulic properties of the aquifer radius_of_influence (m), areal_extent (km²): well radius and area of influence from the center of the well number_of_wells (-): number of wells in a grid cell determined by a ratio of well area and grid area max_drawdown (m), drawdown (m), drawdown_interference (m): well and aquifer drawdown during extraction total_head (m): total lift for the groundwater (depth to water plus drawdown) total_well_length (m): total depth of wells drilled well_yield (m³/day): pumping rate or well yield power (kW), energy (kWh): power and energy required for pumping groundwater Volume Outputs: volume_produced_perwell (m³), cumulative_vol_produced_perwell (m³): production volume metrics per well volume_produced_allwells (m³), cumulative_vol_produced_allwells (m³): aggregate extraction volumes for all wells in a grid cell available_volume (m³): available groundwater in storage for the grid cell as determined by aquifer properties depleted_vol_fraction: fraction of total volume pumped over available volumes in a grid cell (same as depletion limit) Cost Outputs: well_installation_cost ($): well installation cost based on the hydrogeological complexity of the aquifer annual_capital_cost, maintenance_cost, nonenergy_cost ($): nonenergy costs energy_cost_rate ($/kWh): electricity rate energy_cost ($): energy cost of pumping groundwater total_cost_perwell ($), total_cost_allwells ($): total annual energy and non-energy cost for each and all wells in a grid cell a unit_cost ($/m³), unit_cost_per_km3 ($/km³), unit_cost_per_acreft ($/acre-ft): total cost of pumping a unit of groundwater, indicated for different spatial units Key Resources Model documentation: Niazi, H., Ferencz, S., Graham, N., Yoon, J., Wild, T., Hejazi, M., Watson, D., & Vernon, C. (2024; In-prep). Long-term Hydro-economic Assessment Tool for Evaluating Global Groundwater Cost and Supply: Superwell v1. Geoscientific Model Development. Input data: Niazi, H., Watson, D., Hejazi, M., Yonkofski, C., Ferencz, S., Vernon, C., Graham, N., Wild, T., & Yoon, J. (2024). Global Geo-processed Data of Aquifer Properties by 0.5° Grid, Country and Water Basins. MSD-LIVE Data repository. https://doi.org/10.57931/2307831 superwell source code: https://github.com/JGCRI/superwell Cite as Niazi, H., Ferencz, S., Yoon, J., Graham, N., Wild, T., Hejazi, M., Watson, D., & Vernon, C. (2024). Globally Gridded Groundwater Extraction Volumes and Costs under Six Depletion and Ponded Depth Targets. MSD-LIVE Data repository. https://doi.org/10.57931/2307832 Contact Reach out to Hassan Niazi or Stephen Ferencz or open an issue in the superwell repository for questions or suggestions.

Earth Systems↗
NASA NTRS1981

Numerical simulation of steady transonic flow about airfoils

A computer code has been developed that couples a fast transonic full-potential AF2 solver with both an efficient integral boundary-layer method and a viscous wedge approximation of the shock/boundary-layer interaction. The efficiency of the coupled analysis methods and the method of coupling has resulted in a uniquely efficient analysis tool. The airfoil geometry is modified by the displacement thickness before the shock and the displacement thickness plus the viscous wedge thickness after the shock by considering the viscous effects as an equivalent transpiration boundary condition. The flow about conventional and supercritical airfoils under moderately strong shock situations has been calculated. Comparisons with experimental data indicate that this viscous correction method has improved the accuracy of the full-potential analysis. Furthermore, the computer time required to obtain a converged solution has been reduced.

Lee, S. C.↗
DOE OSTI2015

MO-DE-BRA-03: TOPAS-edu: A Window Into the Stochastic World Through the TOPAS Tool for Particle Simulation

Purpose: The stochastic nature of the subatomic world presents a challenge for physics education. Even experienced physicists can be amazed at the varied behavior of electrons, x-rays, protons, neutrons, ions and the any short-lived particles that make up the overall behavior of our accelerators, brachytherapy sources and medical imaging systems. The all-particle Monte Carlo particle transport tool, TOPAS Tool for Particle Simulation, originally developed for proton therapy research, has been repurposed into a physics teaching tool, TOPAS-edu. Methods: TOPAS-edu students set up simulated particle sources, collimators, scatterers, imagers and scoring setups by writing simple ASCII files (in the TOPAS Parameter Control System format). Students visualize geometry setups and particle trajectories in a variety of modes from OpenGL graphics to VRML 3D viewers to gif and PostScript image files. Results written to simple comma separated values files are imported by the student into their preferred data analysis tool. Students can vary random seeds or adjust parameters of physics processes to better understand the stochastic nature of subatomic physics. Results: TOPAS-edu has been successfully deployed as the centerpiece of a physics course for master’s students at Queen’s University Belfast. Tutorials developed there takes students through a step by step course on the basics of particle transport and interaction, scattering, Bremsstrahlung, etc. At each step in the course, students build simulated experimental setups and then analyze the simulated results. Lessons build one upon another so that a student might end up with a full simulation of a medical accelerator, a water-phantom or an imager. Conclusion: TOPAS-edu was well received by students. A second application of TOPAS-edu is currently in development at Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland. It is our eventual goal to make TOPAS-edu available free of charge to any non-profit organization, along with associated tutorial materials developed by the TOPAS-edu community. Work supported in part by the U.S. Department of Energy under contract number DE-AC02-76SF00515. B. Villagomez-Bernabe is supported by CONACyT (Mexican Council for Science and Technology) project 231844.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS2021

Uncertainty Analysis of the CE-12 Free-Jet Probe Calibration Facility

This paper presents methods and results of a detailed measurement uncertainty analysis thf at was performed for the Free Jet Calibration Facility (CE-12) located at the NASA Glenn Research Center. Results for systematic uncertainty estimates in a number of fluid properties of the free jet flow are presented. Systematic uncertainty captures inaccuracies due to measurement process, calibration, installation effects or other similar sources which may introduce bias. MANTUS (Measurement Analysis Tool for Uncertainty in Systems) was used to quantify instrumentation uncertainty and engineering judgment was used to quantify other systematic uncertainty sources. The Monte Carlo method was used to propagate systematic uncertainties to determine the uncertainties of various calculated variables of interest.

CE-12↗
NASA NTRS2014

Mars Sample Return Using Commercial Capabilities: Propulsive Entry, Descent, and Landing of a Capsule Form Vehicle

This paper describes a critical portion of the work that has been done at NASA, Ames Research Center regarding the use of the commercially developed Dragon capsule as a delivery vehicle for the elements of a high priority Mars Sample Return mission. The objective of the investigation was to determine entry and landed mass capabilities that cover anticipated mission conditions. The "Red Dragon", Mars configuration, uses supersonic retro-propulsion, with no required parachute system, to perform Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) maneuvers. The propulsive system proposed for use is the same system that will perform an abort, if necessary, for a human rated version of the Dragon capsule. Standard trajectory analysis tools are applied to publically available information about Dragon and other legacy capsule forms in order to perform the investigation. Trajectory simulation parameters include entry velocity, flight path angle, lift to drag Ratio (L/D), landing site elevation, atmosphere density, and total entry mass, in addition engineering assumptions for the performance of the propulsion system are stated. Mass estimates for major elements of the overall proposed architecture are coupled to this EDL analysis to close the overall architecture. Three synodic launch opportunities, beginning with the 2022 opportunity, define the arrival conditions. Results state the relations between the analysis parameters as well as sensitivities to those parameters. The EDL performance envelope includes landing altitudes between 0 and -4 km referenced to the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter datum as well as minimum and maximum atmosphere density. Total entry masses between 7 and 10 mt are considered with architecture closure occurring between 9.0 and 10 mt. Propellant mass fractions for each major phase of the EDL - Entry, Terminal Descent, and Hazard Avoidance - have been derived. An assessment of the effect of the entry conditions on the Thermal Protection System (TPS) currently in use for Dragon missions shows no significant stressors. A useful payload mass of 2.0 mt is provided and includes mass and grow allowance for a Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV), Earth Return Vehicle (ERV), and mission unique equipment. The useful payload supports an architecture that receives a sample from another surface asset and sends it directly back to Earth for recovery in a high Earth orbit. The work shows that emerging commercial capabilities as well as previously studied EDL methodologies can be used to efficiently support an important planetary science objective. The work also has applications for human exploration missions that will also use propulsive EDL techniques

EDL↗
DOE OSTI2014

The Genome Portal of the Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute

The JGI Genome Portal (http://genome.jgi.doe.gov) provides unified access to all JGI genomic databases and analytical tools. A user can search, download and explore multiple data sets available for all DOE JGI sequencing projects including their status, assemblies and annotations of sequenced genomes. Genome Portal in the past 2 years was significantly updated, with a specific emphasis on efficient handling of the rapidly growing amount of diverse genomic data accumulated in JGI. A critical aspect of handling big data in genomics is the development of visualization and analysis tools that allow scientists to derive meaning from what are otherwise terrabases of inert sequence. An interactive visualization tool developed in the group allows us to explore contigs resulting from a single metagenome assembly. Implemented with modern web technologies that take advantage of the power of the computer's graphical processing unit (gpu), the tool allows the user to easily navigate over a 100,000 data points in multiple dimensions, among many biologically meaningful parameters of a dataset such as relative abundance, contig length, and G+C content.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Highly Extensible X-ray Diffraction Toolkit

This code has been previous released as open source under LLNL-CODE-529294. The HEXRD program comprises a library of X-ray diffraction analysis tools and a stand-alone GUI application. While there are many software packages that provide similar capabilities, HEXRD was designed to provide an extremely flexible and extensible basis for describing a broad array of X-ray diffraction instruments; this includes both mono- and poly-chromatic modalities as well as poly- and single-crystal samples. The high-level objects include Material: an abstraction for defining crystalline materials, including unit cell parameters and anisotropic elastic moduli Imageseries: an interface for series of diffraction images containing one or more frames, including provisions for metadata. Instrument: an abstraction of an X-ray diffraction instrument including support for the definition of multiple detector elements as well as powder, Laue, and mono-chromatic single/multi-grain diffraction analysis modalities (including attendant calibration routines). The hexrdgui package is a standalone PySide2/Qt5 GUI built on top of hexrd. The 0.8.1 release includes various bug fixes as well as some new functionality in the GUI, including: o Enhancements to the import tools for LLNL diffraction instruemtns (PXRDIP and TARDIS) o The ability to save 1-d LeBail fits of integrated diffraction spectra.

Barton, NathanR.↗
DOE OSTI2015

The path to clean energy: direct coupling of nuclear and renewable technologies for thermal and electrical applications

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recognizes the need to transform the energy infrastructure of the U.S. and elsewhere to systems that can significantly reduce environmental impacts in an efficient and economically viable manner while utilizing both clean energy generation sources and hydrocarbon resources. Thus, DOE is supporting research and development that could lead to more efficient utilization of clean nuclear and renewable energy generation sources. A concept being advanced by the DOE Offices of Nuclear Energy (NE) and Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) is tighter coupling of nuclear and renewable energy sources in a manner that better optimizes energy use for the combined electricity, industrial manufacturing, and the transportation sectors. This integration concept has been referred to as a “hybrid system” that is capable of providing energy (thermal or electrical) where it is needed, when it is needed. For the purposes of this work, the hybrid system would integrate two or more energy resources to generate two or more products, one of which must be an energy commodity, such as electricity or transportation fuel. This definition requires coupling of subsystems ‘‘behind’’ the electrical transmission bus, where energy flows are dynamically apportioned as necessary to meet demand and the system has a single connection to the grid that provides dispatchable electricity as required while capital intensive generation assets operate at full capacity. Development of integrated energy systems for an “energy park” must carefully consider the intended location and the associated regional resources, traditional industrial processes, energy delivery infrastructure, and markets to identify viable region-specific system configurations. This paper will provide an overview of the current status of regional hybrid energy system design, development and application of dynamic analysis tools to assess technical and economic performance, and roadmap development to identify and prioritize component, subsystem and system testing that will lead to prototype demonstration.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2023

WOMBAT Tutorial

This workshop will provide a comprehensive overview to Windfarm Operations and Maintenance cost-Benefit Analysis Tool (WOMBAT), NREL's first wind O&M software model. The session will discuss how to utilize WOMBAT to answer O&M research questions covering land-based, offshore, and distributed wind farms. It will offer an introduction to the model and how it operates. The team will then offer a demonstration of the various modeling parameters by converting the CORE Wind Floating Wind Strategies O&M Assessment assumptions into an analysis-ready configuration, diving into the results, and exploring further model variations.

discrete event simulation↗
DOE OSTI2021

Clean Grid Vision: A U.S. Perspective - Chapter 2. Distribution Issues and Tools

The continued growth in distributed energy resources is fundamentally changing the way the distribution system is operated and planned. Additionally, an increasing number of grid issues are being regularly experienced by distribution engineers within an increasing number of utilities. Fortunately, these fundamental changes and increasingly regular issues are being addressed via continual improvements in existing distribution system modeling tools—for both tools used by industry and researchers—and via novel modeling methods, which are combining transmission and distribution system modeling to investigate new, often complex, system interactions at the transmission/distribution power system interface. As DERs continue to increase more and more utilities, regulators, and developers are finding usable solutions in the deployment of smart inverters with ever more capable functionalities. This increase in functionality is welcome but comes at the cost of more complex analysis when determining what specific settings should be used for an individual interconnection. With more time, experience, and likely the further development of advanced analysis tools, even higher levels of DER integration will result in a reliable, resilient, low-cost, and safely operating grid.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
NASA NTRS2014

11-by 11-Foot Transonic Leg of the Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel (UPWT) CAD Model

A ProEngineer CAD model of the 11 Unitary Plan wind tunnel test section, diffuser inlet, plenum chamber, strut and aft diffuser has been created for use with analysis tools such as Cart3D and Star CCM+. Separate parts of the tunnel are created as parts files and assembled in an assembly file. Two merged solid parts are used for meshing. This report describes each of the parts files and features of the merged models.

computational analysis↗