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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 145 records · Page 8

Development of a High-Intensity Heat Flux Gauge and Characterization Facility (Final Report)

Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) and Hukseflux Thermal Sensors (HTS) collaborated to advance the design and calibration of high-intensity heat flux gauges capable of measuring 2500 kW/m². An industry trade study was first conducted and highlighted the need for enhanced gauge designs and calibration methodology & services suited for high-intensities and broadband flux. We then developed, tested, and evaluated three prototype gauge designs along with four distinct coating types, each designed to extend the measurable flux range of existing HTS products to higher intensity levels. Following a down selection process, the project team refined the focus to a final product design, incorporating updated features to enhance its robustness during high flux exposure.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Hydrogen Infrastructure Modeling and Optimization

HyET, established in 2008, is a small business developing electro-chemical hydrogen compressors. HyET’s goals are for a low-cost, efficient, high-pressure compressor ready for market and installation into hydrogen infrastructure stations servicing mobile fuel cell applications. NLR has been working on hydrogen infrastructure research for over a decade and includes electrolyzer production via electrolysis, storage, compression, dispensing, safety, and performance validation. Accelerating technologies into the marketplace is one goal of NLR’s hydrogen research. Therefore, HyET and NLR have teamed up to provide one year of support for HyET’s modeling and small-scale experiments optimization efforts for HyET’s next-generation electro-chemical compressor.

08 HYDROGEN↗

Propagation of the 2014–2016 Northeast Pacific Marine Heatwave Through the Salish Sea

Effects and impacts of the Northeast Pacific marine heatwave of 2014–2016 on the inner coastal estuarine waters of the Salish Sea were examined using a combination of monitoring data and an established three-dimensional hydrodynamic and biogeochemical model of the region. The anomalous high temperatures reached the U.S. Pacific Northwest continental shelf toward the end of 2014 and primarily entered the Salish Sea waters through an existing strong estuarine exchange. Elevated temperatures up to + 2.3°C were observed at the monitoring stations throughout 2015 and 2016 relative to 2013 before dissipating in 2017. The hydrodynamic and biogeochemical responses to this circulating high-temperature event were examined using the Salish Sea Model over a 5-year window from 2013 to 2017. Responses of conventional water-quality indicator variables, such as temperature and salinity, nutrients and phytoplankton, zooplankton, dissolved oxygen, and pH, were evaluated relative to a baseline without the marine heatwave forcing. The simulation results relative to 2014 show an increase in biological activity (+14%, and 6% Δ phytoplankton biomass, respectively) during the peak heatwave year 2015 and 2016 propagating toward higher zooplankton biomass (+14%, +18% Δ mesozooplankton biomass). However, sensitivity tests show that this increase was a direct result of higher freshwater and associated nutrient loads accompanied by stronger estuarine exchange with the Pacific Ocean rather than warming due to the heatwave. Strong vertical circulation and mixing provided mitigation with only ≈+0.6°C domain-wide annual average temperature increase within Salish Sea, and served as a physical buffer to keep waters cooler relative to the continental shelf during the marine heatwave.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Panta Rhei benchmark dataset: socio-hydrological data of paired events of floods and droughts

As the adverse impacts of hydrological extremes increase in many regions of the world, a better understanding of the drivers of changes in risk and impacts is essential for effective flood and drought risk management and climate adaptation. However, there is currently a lack of comprehensive, empirical data about the processes, interactions, and feedbacks in complex human–water systems leading to flood and drought impacts. Here we present a benchmark dataset containing socio-hydrological data of paired events, i.e. two floods or two droughts that occurred in the same area. The 45 paired events occurred in 42 different study areas and cover a wide range of socio-economic and hydro-climatic conditions. The dataset is unique in covering both floods and droughts, in the number of cases assessed and in the quantity of socio-hydrological data. The benchmark dataset comprises (1) detailed review-style reports about the events and key processes between the two events of a pair; (2) the key data table containing variables that assess the indicators which characterize management shortcomings, hazard, exposure, vulnerability, and impacts of all events; and (3) a table of the indicators of change that indicate the differences between the first and second event of a pair. The advantages of the dataset are that it enables comparative analyses across all the paired events based on the indicators of change and allows for detailed context- and location-specific assessments based on the extensive data and reports of the individual study areas. The dataset can be used by the scientific community for exploratory data analyses, e.g. focused on causal links between risk management; changes in hazard, exposure and vulnerability; and flood or drought impacts. The data can also be used for the development, calibration, and validation of socio-hydrological models. The dataset is available to the public through the GFZ Data Services (Kreibich et al., 2023, https://doi.org/10.5880/GFZ.4.4.2023.001).

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Flux Sensor Measurement and Calibration Requirements for High-Intensity Heat Flux Applications: A Trade Study

Stakeholders of CSP and non-CSP high-intensity broadband flux measurements were surveyed and interviewed to obtain flux sensor design and calibration requirements. Existing sensor technologies and existing calibration facilities were then compared against this standard. Stakeholders require a flux sensor designed for >5,000 kW/m2 flux measurements, >1,000 life cycles, <500 ms response time, >60-minute exposure at maximum flux, and <5% measurement uncertainty. Stakeholders also require a sensor with minimal cost, short procurement lead time, and a high-intensity broadband flux calibration. Commercial CSP stakeholders primarily rely on infrared (IR) temperature measurements of receiver equipment to control CSP plant process operation, whereas CSP research and development (R&D) and non-CSP stakeholders rely on accurate flux gauge measurements for a variety of applications. It was determined that existing flux sensor technologies and calibration facilities do not comprehensively meet stakeholder needs. This study suggests a more robust circular foil gauge with a high-intensity solar flux calibration comprehensively meets stakeholder flux measurement needs. Improved circular foil gauge designs and an improved flux sensor calibration facility are discussed.

McLaughlin, Luke (ORCID:0000000303711310)↗

Second generation detector for low order global solar oscillations

The first observations of long period low order global solar oscillations grew out of diameter measurements made over an extended period of time. As a result of these investigations, a detailed understanding of the surface properties of the oscillations evolved, allowing development of a second generation detector. This new detector, currently under development directly utilizes various surface properties of the oscillations and does not, therefore, directly involve diameter measurements. The specifications of the detector, its supporting telescope and the observing program are reviewed.

Forbes, F. F.↗

Sclera solar diameter observations

Focus is given to possible variations in solar luminosity and accurate methods of monitoring it. Aside from direct bolometry, one methodology for this type of research makes use of measurements of the solar diameter and limb darkening function as indirect indicators of the solar luminosity. This approach was reviewed.

Hill, H. A.↗

Observed Spatial Properties of the Solar Eigenfunctions and the Implications for the Existence of Resolved Multiplets

Solar oscillations are manifested in the solar atmosphere as spatial and temporal perturbations in the local thermodynamical and mechanical properties. When measuring the solar radius/diameter, these perturbations enter the observation through changes in the radiative source function and opacity at the extreme limb. When compared to the disk center, the observable portion of these perturbations is changed in spatial character by projection effects and oblique optical depth geometry. The time varying solar radius signal at SCLERA (Santa Catalina Laboratory for Experimental Relativity) is produced by an edge definition sensitive to the resultant changes in the spatial shape of the limb intensity profile. An attempt is made to further determine the shape and properties of the limb signals which display global solar oscillations.

Caudell, T. P.↗

The OH distribution in cometary atmospheres - A collisional Monte Carlo model for heavy species

The study presents an extension of the cometary atmosphere Monte Carlo particle trajectory model formalism which makes it both physically correct for heavy species and yet computationally reasonable. The derivation accounts for the collision path and scattering redirection of a heavy radical traveling through a fluid coma with a given radial distribution in outflow speed and temperature. The revised model verifies that the earlier fast-H atom approximations used in earlier work are valid, and it is applied to a case where the heavy radical formalism is necessary: the OH distribution. It is found that a steeper variation of water production rate with heliocentric distance is required for a water coma which is consistent with the velocity-resolved observations of Comet P/Halley.

Combi, Michael R.↗

Model-based monitoring and diagnosis of a satellite-based instrument

For about a decade model-based reasoning has been propounded by a number of researchers. Maybe one of the most convincing arguments in favor of this kind of reasoning has been given by Davis in his paper on diagnosis from first principles (Davis 1984). Following their guidelines we have developed a system to verify the behavior of a satellite-based instrument GOME (which will be measuring Ozone concentrations in the near future (1995)). We start by giving a description of model-based monitoring. Besides recognizing that something is wrong, we also like to find the cause for misbehaving automatically. Therefore, we show how the monitoring technique can be extended to model-based diagnosis.

Bos, Andre↗

Analysis of Mars HST Observations

During the 1997 Mars opposition, several observations of Mars were obtained with the Wide Field/Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). We have analyzed two sets of those observations obtained on March 30 and March 31 of 1997 as part of HST GO Programs 6741 and 6793. Our analysis has included a search for evidence of the coarse-grained hematite deposit reported by the Mars Global Surveyor Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES) as well as other materials. Although no compelling evidence has verified the TES discovery, spectral signatures have been identified at other locations on the Martian disk that may be consistent with coarse-grained hematite. Additional information is contained in the original extended abstract.

Smith, P. H.↗

Continuous Beam Steering From a Segmented Liquid Crystal Optical Phased Array

Optical communications to and from deep space probes will require beams possessing divergence on the order of a microradian, and must be steered with sub-microradian precision. Segmented liquid crystal spatial phase modulators, a type of optical phased array, are considered for this ultra-high resolution beam steering. It is shown here that in an ideal device of this type, there are ultimately no restrictions on the angular resolution. Computer simulations are used to obtain that result, and to analyze the influence of beam truncation and substrate flatness on the performance of this type of device.

Titus, Charles M.↗

Diffraction Efficiency of Thin Film Holographic Beam Steering Devices

Dynamic holography has been demonstrated as a method for correcting aberrations in space deployable optics, and can also be used to achieve high-resolution beam steering in the same environment. In this paper, we consider some of the factors affecting the efficiency of these devices. Specifically, the effect on the efficiency of a highly collimated beam from the number of discrete phase steps per period is considered for a blazed thin film beam steering grating. The effect of the number of discrete phase steps per period on steering resolution is also considered. We also present some result of Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) calculations of light propagating through liquid crystal "blazed" gratings. Liquid crystal gratings are shown to spatially modulate both the phase and amplitude of the propagating light.

Titus, Charles M.↗

Continuous Beam Steering From A Segmented Liquid Crystal Optical Phased Array

Optical communications to and from deep space probes will require beams possessing divergence on the order of a microradian, and must be steered with sub-microradian precision. Segmented liquid crystal spatial phase modulators, a type of optical phased array, are considered for this ultra-high resolution beam steering. It is shown here that in an ideal device of this type, there are ultimately no restrictions on the angular resolution. Computer simulations are used to obtain that result, and to analyze the influence of beam truncation and substrate flatness on the performance of this type of device.

Pouch, John↗