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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

Understanding Plant Signaling Via Innovations in Probe Delivery and Imaging

The goal of this project was to develop tools for studying plant processes in living tissues. We wanted a method for introducing probes for studying plant processes such that plants could remain intact and imaged iteratively. Towards this end, we successfully optimized carbon nanofibers that we showed could deliver non-permeable signaling probes/biomolecules to plant cells. These were created on a rigid backing and also successfully transferred to a flexible backing to use with curved plant structures. We also built fiber optic microscopes that permit iterative non-destructive fluorescence or light micrographs and created protocols and devices to stabilize plant organs during imaging. These tools were developed in conjunction with research aimed understanding receptor-mediated peptide trafficking and responses relevant to plant cell growth and defense tradeoff. During this project, we designed and built two fiberoptic fluorescence microscopes; (b) designed, fabricated and validated different nanospike designs for delivering probes to plants, including the feasibility of delivering DNA constructs for expression studies; (c) developed fluorescent peptide probes (active and inactive versions of a secreted receptor ligand called phytosulfokine or PSK) and performed mobility tests after application to plants using microscopy; (d) used appropriate genetic plant backgrounds to facilitate PSK trafficking and response mechanisms; (e) determined the transcriptional changes due to PSK-induced signaling related to growth/defense tradeoff; (f) performed experiments showing the growth/defense tradeoff involves repression of specific defense components in response to PSK. This project also involved the training of two PhD students and five Masters students.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Centrifugal inertia effects in two-phase face seal films

A simplified, semianalytical model has been developed to analyze the effect of centrifugal inertia in two-phase face seals. The model is based on the assumption of isothermal flow through the seal, but at an elevated temperature, and takes into account heat transfer and boiling. Using this model, seal performance curves are obtained with water as the working fluid. It is shown that the centrifugal inertia of the fluid reduces the load-carrying capacity dramatically at high speeds and that operational instability exists under certain conditions. While an all-liquid seal may be starved at speeds higher than a 'critical' value, leakage always occurs under boiling conditions.

Basu, P.↗

Transient radiative cooling of an absorbing and scattering cylinder

The transient cooling of an absorbing, emitting, and scattering cylinder is studied by using the forward integration of energy transfer equations. The analysis presented here provides cooling curves for a cylindrical region, initially at uniform temperature and then suddenly exposed to a much cooler environment. Results are presented for several optical radii and different values of the scattering albedo.

Siegel, R.↗

The polar cap structure of the X-ray pulsar 4U 1538 - 52

We compare the pulse-phase-dependent spectral observations of 4U 1538 - 52 obtained from Ginga to a series of static model atmospheres of curved accreting polar caps, utilizing a magnetized radiative transfer code with relativistic polarized cross sections. A chi-squared fit was performed on the symmetrized pulse shapes, allowing the parameters of the two polar caps to vary independently. We find evidence for a significant difference between the caps, both in terms of opening angle and temperature, while the optical depth is similar and compatible with radiative deceleration models. The polar caps appear larger than what is usually estimated from dipole fields, and are not located at the antipodes of each other. A broader distribution of magnetic fields is required than expected from a dipolar field at constant radius. If the magnetic field is indeed dipolar, it should be off-center in respect to the star and the accretion shock height exhibits an unusual dependence on the polar angle. An alternative possibility is that the magnetic field is disordered on scales small compared to the polar cap radius.

Bulik, T.↗

Effect of free surface shape on combined thermocapillary and natural convection

Combined thermocapillary and natural convection in an open square cavity with differentially-heated side walls is studied numerically as well as experimentally. The test fluid is silicone oil with Prandtl number of 105. The shape of fluid-free surface is made either flat or curved to study its effect on the flow. A finite difference scheme to deal with a curved free surface is developed. The experimental results shown agree with the numerical results. With the curved-free surface, the flow and local heat transfer rate are reduced in the corner regions, and a sharp peak in heat transfer rate at the top edge of the cold wall disappears.

Kamotani, Yasuhiro↗

Forster energy transfer in chlorosomes of green photosynthetic bacteria

Energy transfer properties of whole cells and chlorosome antenna complexes isolated from the green sulfur bacteria Chlorobium limicola (containing bacteriochlorophyll c), Chlorobium vibrioforme (containing bacteriochlorophyll d) and Pelodictyon phaeoclathratiforme (containing bacteriochlorophyll e) were measured. The spectral overlap of the major chlorosome pigment (bacteriochlorophyll c, d or, e) with the bacteriochlorophyll a B795 chlorosome baseplate pigment is greatest for bacteriochlorophyll c and smallest for bacteriochlorophyll e. The absorbance and fluorescence spectra of isolated chlorosomes were measured, fitted to gaussian curves and the overlap factors with B795 calculated. Energy transfer times from the bacteriochlorophyll c, d or e to B795 were measured in whole cells and the results interpreted in terms of the Forster theory of energy transfer.

NASA Program Exobiology↗

Extreme confinement of hydrogen gas within fullerenelike nanoporous carbon

Nanoporous carbons and carbon nanostructures can store hydrogen at cryogenic temperatures but lack the volumetric and gravimetric capacity to be industrially significant. Recent inelastic neutron scattering experiments suggest a highly dense phase of hydrogen at temperatures well above the melting point of solid hydrogen. However, it remains unclear how pore geometry and intermolecular interactions enable these dense phases to exist, with dispersion (van der Waals) or electrostatic/induction suggested to be the key effects in slit and curved pores but their relative contributions have yet to be quantified. In this paper, we perform benchmark electronic structure calculations allowing the interactions between planar and curved aromatic molecules with hydrogen to be accurately determined. Dispersion was found to dominate over electrostatic and inductive effects with some many-body charge transfer (Dobson type-A) effects needed to capture the most highly curved structures. Density functional methods that include type-A many-body effects were found to accurately describe the intermolecular interactions at a fraction of the cost of coupled-cluster simulations and these approaches were used to calculate the energies inside large carbon bowl and slit pores. The interaction energies inside the bowl pores were found to depend on the orientation of the hydrogen molecule. This rotational barrier, modeled as a quantum hindered rotor, could reproduce the peak splitting observed in inelastic neutron scattering experiments, with weak splitting arising from bowl-like fullerene pores and strong splitting from highly confining nanotubelike pores. Increasing the fraction of such curved pores in nanoporous carbons may therefore offer a pathway to enhance their hydrogen-storage capacity. Moreover, the preferential adsorption of ortho hydrogen on nanotubelike pores could enable the storage of high-density hydrogen without the need to remove heat produced during the ortho-para hydrogen conversion.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Patterns of transfer of adaptation among body segments

Two experiments were conducted in order to determine the patterns of transfer of visuomotor adaptation between arm and head pointing. An altered gain of display of pointing movements was used to induce a conflict between visual and somatosensory representations. Two subject groups participated in Experiment 1: group 1 adapted shoulder pointing movements, and group 2 adapted wrist pointing movements to a 0.5 gain of display. Following the adaptation regimen, subjects performed a transfer test in which the shoulder group performed wrist movements and the wrist group performed shoulder movements. The results demonstrated that both groups displayed typical adaptation curves, initially undershooting the target followed by a return to baseline performance. Transfer tests revealed that both groups had high transfer of the acquired adaptation to the other joint. Experiment 2 followed a similar design except that group 1 adapted head pointing movements and group 2 adapted arm pointing movements. The arm adaptation had high transfer to head pointing while the head adaptation had very little transfer to arm pointing. These results imply that, while the arm segments may share a common target representation for goal-directed actions, individual but functionally dependent target representations may exist for the control of head and arm movements.

NASA Center JSC↗

Patterns of Transfer of Adaptation Among Body Segments

Two experiments were conducted in order to determine the patterns of transfer of visuomotor adaptation between arm and head pointing. An altered gain of display of pointing movements was used to induce a conflict between visual and somatosensory representations. Two subject groups participated in Experiment One: group 1 adapted shoulder pointing movements, and group 2 adapted wrist pointing movements to a 0.5 gain of display. Following the adaptation regimen, subjects performed a transfer test in which the shoulder group performed wrist movements and the wrist group performed shoulder movements. The results demonstrated that both groups displayed typical adaptation curves, initially undershooting the target followed by a return to baseline performance. Transfer tests revealed that both groups had high transfer of the acquired adaptation to the other joint. Experiment Two followed a similar design except that group 1 adapted head pointing movements and group 2 adapted arm pointing movements. The arm adaptation had high transfer to head pointing while the head adaptation had very little transfer to arm pointing. These results imply that, while the arm segments may share a common target representation for goal-directed actions, individual but functionally dependent target representations may exist for the control of head and arm movements.

Seidler, R. D.↗

Heater Composite Measures Heat Transfer

Composite consisting of commercially available elements has been developed to measure heat transfer. Composite provides a simple, convenient, low-cost device for use in heat-transfer work for rapid evaluation of thermal performance of both flat and simply curved objects. Device utilizes available off-the-shelf materials and provides a convenient method, with good resolution of local temperatures and heat transfer, with measurement accuracy at near-normal room conditions.

Hippensteele, S. A.↗

Ion beam texturing of heat transfer surfaces

Nucleate boiling heat transfer is examined as a means of energy conservation. Nucleate boiling curves were obtained for ion beam textured copper surfaces, untreated cooper surfaces, copper surfaces which had been polished and surfaces which had been coated with a plasma deposited polymer. Results show that texturing aids heat transfer while polishing has the opposite effect. The polymer coatings did not change nucleate boiling behavior. Aging effects were observed for untreated and for polished surfaces, while no such effects were noticed for textured surfaces. These data suggest that aging may be dependent on surface microgeometry, which is important in nucleate boiling heat transfer.

Agarwal, P. K.↗

Surface Reflectance of Mars Observed by CRISM-MRO: 1. Multi-angle Approach for Retrieval of Surface Reflectance from CRISM Observations (mars-reco)

This article addresses the correction for aerosol effects in near-simultaneous multiangle observations acquired by the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. In the targeted mode, CRISM senses the surface of Mars using 11 viewing angles, which allow it to provide unique information on the scattering properties of surface materials. In order to retrieve these data, however, appropriate strategies must be used to compensate the signal sensed by CRISM for aerosol contribution. This correction is particularly challenging as the photometric curve of these suspended particles is often correlated with the also anisotropic photometric curve of materials at the surface. This article puts forward an innovative radiative transfer based method named Multi-angle Approach for Retrieval of Surface Reflectance from CRISM Observations (MARS-ReCO). The proposed method retrieves photometric curves of surface materials in reflectance units after removing aerosol contribution. MARS-ReCO represents a substantial improvement regarding previous techniques as it takes into consideration the anisotropy of the surface, thus providing more realistic surface products. Furthermore, MARS-ReCO is fast and provides error bars on the retrieved surface reflectance. The validity and accuracy of MARS-ReCO is explored in a sensitivity analysis based on realistic synthetic data. According to experiments, MARS-ReCO provides accurate results (up to 10 reflectance error) under favorable acquisition conditions. In the companion article, photometric properties of Martian materials are retrieved using MARS-ReCO and validated using in situ measurements acquired during the Mars Exploration Rovers mission.

CRISM/MRO↗

Turbulent boundary layer heat transfer experiments: Convex curvature effects including introduction and recovery

Measurements were made of the heat transfer rate through turbulent and transitional boundary layers on an isothermal, convexly curved wall and downstream flat plate. The effect of convex curvature on the fully turbulent boundary layer was a reduction of the local Stanton numbers 20% to 50% below those predicted for a flat wall under the same circumstances. The recovery of the heat transfer rates on the downstream flat wall was extremely slow. After 60 cm of recovery length, the Stanton number was still typically 15% to 20% below the flat wall predicted value. Various effects important in the modeling of curved flows were studied separately. These are: the effect of initial boundary layer thickness, the effect of freestream velocity, the effect of freestream acceleration, the effect of unheated starting length, and the effect of the maturity of the boundary layer. An existing curvature prediction model was tested against this broad heat transfer data base to determine where it could appropriately be used for heat transfer predictions.

Simon, T. W.↗

Bubble Dynamics, Two-Phase Flow, and Boiling Heat Transfer in Microgravity

This report contains two independent sections. Part one is titled "Terrestrial and Microgravity Pool Boiling Heat Transfer and Critical heat flux phenomenon in an acoustic standing wave." Terrestrial and microgravity pool boiling heat transfer experiments were performed in the presence of a standing acoustic wave from a platinum wire resistance heater using degassed FC-72 Fluorinert liquid. The sound wave was created by driving a half wavelength resonator at a frequency of 10.15 kHz. Microgravity conditions were created using the 2.1 second drop tower on the campus of Washington State University. Burnout of the heater wire, often encountered with heat flux controlled systems, was avoided by using a constant temperature controller to regulate the heater wire temperature. The amplitude of the acoustic standing wave was increased from 28 kPa to over 70 kPa and these pressure measurements were made using a hydrophone fabricated with a small piezoelectric ceramic. Cavitation incurred during experiments at higher acoustic amplitudes contributed to the vapor bubble dynamics and heat transfer. The heater wire was positioned at three different locations within the acoustic field: the acoustic node, antinode, and halfway between these locations. Complete boiling curves are presented to show how the applied acoustic field enhanced boiling heat transfer and increased critical heat flux in microgravity and terrestrial environments. Video images provide information on the interaction between the vapor bubbles and the acoustic field. Part two is titled, "Design and qualification of a microscale heater array for use in boiling heat transfer." This part is summarized herein. Boiling heat transfer is an efficient means of heat transfer because a large amount of heat can be removed from a surface using a relatively small temperature difference between the surface and the bulk liquid. However, the mechanisms that govern boiling heat transfer are not well understood. Measurements of wall temperature and heat flux near the wall would add to the database of knowledge which is necessary to understand the mechanisms of nucleate boiling. A heater array has been developed which contains 96 heater elements within a 2.5 mm square area. The temperature of each heater element is held constant by an electronic control system similar to a hot-wire anemometer. The voltage that is being applied to each heater element can be measured and digitized using a high-speed Analog to Digital (A/D) converter, and this digital information can be compiled into a series of heat-flux maps. Information for up to 10,000 heat flux maps can be obtained each second. The heater control system, the A/D system and the heater array construction are described in detail. Results are presented which show that this is an effective method of measuring the local heat flux during nucleate and transition boiling. Heat flux maps are obtained for pool boiling in FC-72 on a horizontal surface. Local heat flux variations are shown to be three to six times larger than variations in the spatially averaged heat flux.

Chung, Jacob N.↗

Technoeconomic Analysis of Changing PV System Layout and Convection Heat Transfer

This work includes analysis of potential economic improvements for PV systems for changing system parameters such as ground coverage ratio that alter the convective cooling consideration on PV modules through a newly proposed convective curve fit. Accounting for the spatial layout of the system in the convection heat transfer calculations allows for more accuracy in convective cooling load and subsequent module temperature calculations. The changing heat transfer considerations can be shown to improve system LCOE along with improved incident irradiance from increased row spacing despite the additional system costs incurred with increased module spacing. State-level analyses show that the impact of decreasing system GCR is greatest for climates with cold average annual ambient temperatures and moderate to high average annual wind speeds. Further waterfall analysis of changing system parameters reveals that the changing heat transfer dynamics have a non-negligible impact on system LCOE when compared to the changes in incident irradiance that serve as the primary driver of annual energy performance changes.

ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY,SOLAR ENERGY↗

Significance of thermal contact resistance in two-layer thermal-barrier-coated turbine vanes

The importance of thermal contact resistance between layers in heat transfer through two layer, plasma sprayed, thermal barrier coatings applied to turbine vanes was investigated. Results obtained with a system of NiCrAlY bond and yttria stabilized zirconia ceramic show that thermal contact resistance between layers is negligible. These results also verified other studies which showed that thermal contact resistance is negligible for a different coating system of NiCr bond calcia stabilized zirconia ceramic. The zirconia stabilized ceramic thermal conductivity data scatter presented in the literature is ?20 to -10 percent about a curve fit of the data. More accurate predictions of heat transfer and metal wall temperatures are obtained when the thermal conductivity values are used at the ?20 percent level.

Liebert, C. H.↗

Calculated and measured stresses in simple panels subject to intense random acoustic loading including the near noise field of a turbojet engine

Flat 2024-t3 aluminum panels measuring 11 inches by 13 inches were tested in the near noise fields of a 4-inch air jet and turbojet engine. The stresses which were developed in the panels are compared with those calculated by generalized harmonic analysis. The calculated and measured stresses were found to be in good agreement. In order to make the stress calculations, supplementary data relating to the transfer characteristics, damping, and static response of flat and curved panels under periodic loading are necessary and were determined experimentally. In addition, an appendix containing detailed data on the near pressure field of the turbojet engine is included.

Lassiter, Leslie W↗

Probing Venus's cloud structure with Galileo NIMS

The spectral image cubes obtained by the Near-Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (NIMS) on Galileo as it flew by Venus have been analyzed to constrain the vertical structure of the clouds, the nature of the aerosol particles, and the location and particle properties of the opacity variations responsible for high-contrast features observed in the near-infrared windows at 1.7 and 2.3 micrometers. A radiative transfer program was used to simulate mid-latitude curves of limb darkening at 3.7 micrometers. Best-fit models to these curves demonstrate that the upper clouds are dominated by mode 2 particles (r-bar = 1.0 micrometers), with a contribution of approximately 15% of opacity from mode 1 particles (r-bar = 0.3 micrometers). The low-latitude upper cloud is well represented by a dual scale-height model, with a particle scale height of approximately 1 km from an altitude of 61-63 km, and a scale height of approximately 6 km above this, up to the level where tau = 1 at approximately 71 km. This model also successfully simulates limb-darkening curves at 11.5 micrometers from the Pioneer Venus Orbiter Infrared Radiometer. Successful simulations of correlation plots of 1.7 vs 2.3 micrometers intensities reveal that mode 3 particles (r-bar = 3.65 micrometers) represent the dominant source of opacity in the lower and middle clouds, and that variation in total cloud opacity reflects chiefly the addition and removal of mode 3 particles near the cloud base. We find that the full spectrum of brightnesses at 1.7 and 2.3 micrometers implies that the total cloud optical depth varies from approximately 25 to approximately 40.

Grinspoon, D. H.↗