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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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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2020

AI for Science: Report on the Department of Energy (DOE) Town Halls on Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Science

The report documents the DOE Town Halls held during 2019 at Argonne National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and in Washington, DC. From July to October 2019, the Argonne, Oak Ridge, and Berkeley National Laboratories hosted a series of four town hall meetings attended by more than 1,000 U.S. scientists and engineers. The goal of the town hall series was to examine scientific opportunities in the areas of artificial intelligence (AI), Big Data, and high-performance computing (HPC) in the next decade, and to capture the big ideas, grand challenges, and next steps to realizing these opportunities. In this report and in the Department of Energy (DOE) laboratory community, we use the term “AI for Science” to broadly represent the next generation of methods and scientific opportunities in computing, including the development and application of AI methods (e.g., machine learning, deep learning, statistical methods, data analytics, automated control, and related areas) to build models from data and to use these models alone or in conjunction with simulation and scalable computing to advance scientific research. The AI for Science town hall discussions focused on capturing the transformational uses of AI that employ HPC and/or data analysis, leveraging data sets from HPC simulations or instruments and user facilities, and addressing scientific challenges unique to DOE user facilities and the agency’s wide-ranging fundamental and applied science enterprise.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
NASA NTRS1975

Manned orbital facility: A user's guide

The salient conceptual features and expected evolution of the facility are discussed; the baseline design is offered as a model against which the reader can compare his needs. The overall program is discussed, supporting services and resources are described, and examples of typical payload applications are given. The general design features and configurations representing the baseline MOF developed and derived with due consideration given to applicable designs and subsystems such as those available in the Skylab, orbiter, and space lab vehicles.

Source record↗
DOE OSTI2016

DCS - A high flux beamline for time resolved dynamic compression science – Design highlights

The Dynamic Compression Sector (DCS) beamline, a national user facility for time resolved dynamic compression science supported by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) of the Department of Energy (DOE), has recently completed construction and is being commissioned at Sector 35 of the Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL). The beamline consists of a First Optics Enclosure (FOE) and four experimental enclosures. A Kirkpatrick–Baez focusing mirror system with 2.2 mrad incident angles in the FOE delivers pink beam to the experimental stations. A refocusing Kirkpatrick–Baez mirror system is situated in each of the two most downstream enclosures. Experiments can be conducted in either white, monochromatic, pink or monochromatic-reflected beam mode in any of the experimental stations by changing the position of two interlocked components in the FOE. The beamline Radiation Safety System (RSS) components have been designed to handle the continuous beam provided by two in-line revolver undulators with periods of 27 and 30 mm, at closed gap, 150 mA beam current, and passing through a power limiting aperture of 1.5 x 1.0 mm{sup 2}. A novel pink beam end station stop [1] is used to stop the continuous and focused pink beam which can achieve a peak heat flux of 105 kW/mm{sup 2}. A new millisecond shutter design [2] is used to deliver a quick pulse of beam to the sample, synchronized with the dynamic event, the microsecond shutter, and the storage ring clock.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2021

Enabling modern data discovery for atmospheric measurements

The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility is a US Department of Energy Office of Science user facility that is managed and operated through a collaborative effort led by nine US Department of Energy national laboratories. The ARM Data Center, located at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is responsible for the timely collection, processing, and delivery of data products to the scientific community. The ARM Data Center holds more than 11,000 data products, including metadata collected from field campaigns, instruments, value-added products, and principal investigator–contributed data. These data sets are checked for successful transfer (for most data, this transfer is carried out automatically via the network; however, some of the largest data sets and some of the most remote sites require manual shipping of hard disks) and both the data and metadata are processed to a standard format, which is an ARM-standardized structure, via the Network Common Data Form. The Network Common Data Form is a self-describing binary format with many compatible software tools. Once processed, the data are cataloged, stored in the ARM Data Archive, and made discoverable through association with an array of metadata-characterizing information, such as location and measurement classification. These metadata enable powerful search capabilities through the ARM Data Center Data Discovery interface. This paper discusses the workflow of how the new discovery system has been redesigned from user requirements and how the data are distributed to the scientific community.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Application of the FaMUS Methodology to the NSUF Research Outputs Through End of 2019

The Nuclear Science User Facilities (NSUF) is one of a diverse group of DOE user facilities. It is focused on advancing the understanding of radiation effects in nuclear fuels and materials in support of nuclear energy applications. The NSUF has been operating since 2007 and has developed a significant portfolio of supported research. Therefore, it is appropriate to consider its achievements and to determine its successes and shortfalls. As part of this analysis of the NSUF research program, the NSUF has developed a novel and elegant formalism for assessing the current level of understanding of nuclear fuels and materials for use in nuclear environments: the NSUF Fuels and Materials Understanding Scale (FaMUS). The FaMUS methodology is being applied to the NSUF portfolio on an ongoing basis to quantify the progress made. This report summarizes the status of the assessment exercise and highlights general lessons learned. This examination will facilitate capability balancing of future research by identifying gaps in knowledge, understanding, testing, and demonstration allowing the NSUF program office in conjunction with DOE-NE to direct resources to important aspects of the DOE-NE mission using “emphasize & enhance”, “maintain”, and “encourage excellence” classifications as well as providing increased transparency to researchers.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Charter for the ARM Climate Research Facility Science Board

The objective of the ARM Science Board is to promote the Nation’s scientific enterprise by ensuring that the best quality science is conducted at the DOE’s User Facility known as the ARM Climate Research Facility. The goal of the User Facility is to serve scientific researchers by providing unique data and tools to facilitate scientific applications for improving understanding and prediction of climate science.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Preparation and Testing of Corrosion-and Spallation-Resistant Coatings

This Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) project is designed to determine if plating APMT®, a specific highly oxidation-resistant oxide dispersion-strengthened FeCrAl alloy made by Kanthal, onto nickel-based superalloy turbine parts is a viable method for substantially improving the lifetimes and maximum use temperatures of the parts. The method for joining the APMT plate to the superalloys is called evaporative metal bonding and involves placing a thin foil of zinc (Zn) between the plate and the superalloy, clamping them together, and heating in an atmosphere-controlled furnace. Upon heating, the Zn melts and dissolves the oxide skins of the alloys at the bond line, allowing the two alloys to diffuse into each other. The Zn then diffuses through the alloys and evaporates from their surfaces. Laboratory testing to determine the diffusion rate of Zn through the alloys has been completed. We have found that we were not able to create joints when temperatures much lower than the original temperature of 1214°C are used. Therefore, we limited our diffusion rate measurements to the two hold temperatures used in the procedure: 700° and 1214°C. The diffusivity of zinc in both APMT and CM247LC is quite similar at 700°C. Diffusivity in the APMT appears to be slightly higher, but the midline composition after 30 minutes at this temperature is quite similar. At 1214°C, the situation is very different. The calculated diffusivity of zinc in APMT is approximately 15 times higher than in CM247LC or Rene® 80 (~120 vs. ~8 μm²/min) at that temperature. In addition to the diffusion work, the coefficients of thermal expansions were determined for each of the alloys as a function of temperature. This information has been entered into a finite element model using ANSYS so that appropriate force-applying structures can be designed for use in joining structures composed of APMT and the nickel alloys. Gasifier sampling activities continue to determine what types of trace contaminants may occur in cleaned syngas that could lead to corrosion or deposition in turbines firing coal syngas. The EERC has several pilot-scale gasifiers that are continually used in a variety of test configurations as determined by the needs of the projects that are funding the tests. We are sampling both noncombusted and combusted syngas produced during some of the pilot-scale gasifier tests. After modifying our sampling procedures to minimize contamination from the oxidizer, we obtained very good filter samples from both syngas and from the combustion products of the syngas blended with natural gas. Scanning electron microscopy analyses showed that the particles captured on the filter from the syngas were typically 0.2 to 0.5 μm in diameter, whereas those captured from the combusted syngas were slightly larger and more spherical. However, the particles were so small that we could not obtain good spectra from them either at the EERC or JEOL America, the maker of the EERC electron microscope systems. Therefore, the EERC applied for and received time on electron microscopes using different signal analyzers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) ShaRE User Facility, which is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy Scientific User Facilities Division of the Office of Basic Energy Sciences. At ORNL, both x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Auger electron spectroscopy were performed on the samples because these are surface analyses that analyze electrons emitted from within a few nanometers of the surfaces of the particles and filters. The XPS data show that the particles do not contain any metals and, in fact, have an atomic composition almost identical to that of the polycarbonate filter. We currently believe that this indicates that the particles are primarily soot-based and not formed from volatilization of metals in the fluid-bed gasifier. The data indicate that the soot-based particles are not well burned in the thermal oxidizer, although they are significantly oxidized, nitrided, and sulfidized in the combustor. Ion etching to remove the surfaces of the particles indicates that the oxidation, nitridation, and sulfidation of the particles are primarily surface phenomena.

Electric↗
DOE OSTI2020

LaserNetUS. Final report

In this proposal we have formed a consortium in response to a request from the DoE Office of Fusion Energy Sciences to establish a national network of Petawatt-class laser systems to act as domestic user facilities that can enable a broad range of frontier scientific research. This new entity is called LaserNet US. The network formed here is directly responsive to recommendations made in a recently released National Academy of Sciences Report with regard to US strategy for high intensity laser research, “Opportunities in Intense Ultrafast Lasers: Reaching for the Brightest Light”. As detailed in this report, the research in this area has the potential to transform science in a number of research fields and to open up new areas of fundamental research. High field science was initiated in the US in the 1990’s, and subsequently Europe and Asia have embraced this research field, investing more than a billion dollars in this area over the past several years. Our network includes five academic and two national lab-based high intensity laser facilities. These facilities are distributed geographically throughout the US and the network provides access to complementary facilities which have unique world-class laser and experimental capabilities. LaserNet US will make these existing Petawatt-class laser facilities available to users from around the country who until now have not had regular access to such machines. Consequently, the network, which will develop over time, will also become a key element in driving forward national research in high field and high energy density plasma science. In particular, the University of Michigan provides access to the Hercules laser facility and the T-cubed laser facility for collaborative experiments as part of the first year operation. In the second year - to begin in summer 2019 - the experiments will be chosen via proposal submission and review by an outside panel formed by DOE.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Performance and Reliability Assessment of the U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Data Advisor (ADA)

The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) User Facility provides one of the world's largest openly accessible repositories of atmospheric observations through the ARM Data Discovery platform. Although the repository contains more than three decades of measurements collected from permanent observatories, mobile facilities, aircraft campaigns, and field experiments, identifying appropriate datasets can be challenging, particularly for new users unfamiliar with ARM instrumentation and datastream organization. To improve data accessibility, the ARM Data Center developed the ARM Data Advisor (ADA), an artificial intelligence-powered assistant designed to facilitate scientific data discovery, dataset interpretation, and user guidance. This report evaluates ADA's performance as a domain-specific scientific assistant using realistic atmospheric science workflows. The evaluation examines five key capabilities: data retrieval and curation efficiency, hallucination resistance, scientific reasoning, response to ambiguous queries, and content retention and session continuity. Representative prompts were developed to simulate typical interactions between researchers and the ARM Data Discovery platform, and ADA's responses were assessed for retrieval completeness, scientific accuracy, consistency, and practical usefulness. In these representative tests, ADA reduced the complexity of discovering and accessing ARM datasets by recommending appropriate datastreams, explaining instrumentation, interpreting metadata, and assisting with data processing workflows. ADA also exhibits strong domain knowledge of atmospheric science terminology and generally resists hallucination by acknowledging unavailable datasets and requesting clarification when appropriate. Overall, the results indicate that ADA represents a promising advancement in scientific data discovery within the ARM User Facility and has considerable potential to improve researcher productivity, particularly for new users and interdisciplinary scientists seeking efficient access to ARM observations.

Salvador, Christian [ORNL] (ORCID:0000000283287777↗
DOE OSTI2022

FACET-II

FACET-II is a National User Facility at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory providing 10 GeV electron beams with µm·rad normalised emittance and peak currents exceeding 100 kA. FACET-II operates as a National User Facility while engaging a broad User community to develop and execute experimental proposals that advance the development of plasma wakefield accelerators. FACET-II is currently commissioned and has started with first experiments. The special features of FACET-II will be shown and first results from the experiments.

Clark, Christine↗
DOE OSTI2016

Controlling Proton Delivery with Catalyst Structural Dynamics

The fastest synthetic molecular catalysts for production and oxidation of H2 emulate components of the active site of natural hydrogenases. The role of controlled structural dynamics is recognized as a critical component in the catalytic performance of many enzymes, including hydrogenases, but is largely neglected in the design of synthetic molecular cata-lysts. In this work, the impact of controlling structural dynamics on the rate of production of H2 was studied for a series of [Ni(PPh2NC6H4-R2)2]2+ catalysts including R = n-hexyl, n-decyl, n-tetradecyl, n-octadecyl, phenyl, or cyclohexyl. A strong correlation was observed between the ligand structural dynamics and the rates of electrocatalytic hydrogen production in acetonitrile, acetonitrile-water, and protic ionic liquid-water mixtures. Specifically, the turnover frequencies correlate inversely with the rates of ring inversion of the amine-containing ligand, as this dynamic process dictates the positioning of the proton relay in the second coordination sphere and therefore governs protonation at either catalytically productive or non-productive sites. This study demonstrates that the dynamic processes involved in proton delivery can be controlled through modifications of the outer coordination sphere of the catalyst, similar to the role of the protein architecture in many enzymes. The present work provides new mechanistic insight into the large rate enhancements observed in aqueous protic ionic liquid media for the [Ni(PPh2NR2)]2+ family of catalysts. The incorporation of controlled structural dynamics as a design parameter to modulate proton delivery in molecular catalysts has enabled H2 production rates that are up to three orders of magnitude faster than the [Ni(PPh2NPh2)]2+complex. The observed turnover frequencies are up to 106 s-1 in acetonitrile-water, and over 107 s-1 in protic ionic liquid-water mixtures, with a minimal increase in overpotential. This material is based upon work supported as part of the Center for Molecular Electrocatalysis, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, and was performed in part using the Molecular Science Computing Facility (MSCF) in the William R. Wiley Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a DOE national scientific user facility located at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). PNNL is operated by Battelle for DOE.

electrocatalysis, structural dynamics↗
DOE OSTI2026

ARM Lead Mentor Selection Process

The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program was created in 1989 with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to develop several highly instrumented ground stations to study cloud-formation processes and their influence on radiative transfer. This scientific infrastructure provides for fixed sites, mobile facilities, an aerial facility, and a data archive available for use by scientists worldwide through the ARM Climate Research Facility—a scientific user facility. The ARM Climate Research Facility currently operates more than 300 instrument systems that provide ground-based observations of the atmospheric column. To keep ARM at the forefront of climate observations, the ARM infrastructure depends heavily on instrument scientists and engineers, known as Mentors. Mentors must have an excellent understanding of instrumentation theory and operation for their instrument areas and have comprehensive knowledge of critical scale-dependent atmospheric processes. They must also possess the technical and analytical skills to develop new data retrievals that provide innovative approaches for creating research-quality data sets. The ARM Facility seeks the best overall qualified candidate, or team when appropriate, that can fulfill Mentor requirements in a timely manner. The roles and responsibilities of the ARM Instrument Operations Manager are provided in Appendix A. The key role and responsibilities and detailed responsibilities of ARM Lead Mentors are provided in Appendix B and Appendix C, respectively.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2019

Announcing Aurora The nation's first exascale computing system

Slated for delivery in 2021, Aurora (capable of a billion-billion calculations per second) is an exascale computing system built for AI that will usher in a new generation of computing power in the United States. Imagine a computer so powerful that it can map all the connections in the human brain, simulate every activity of a cancer cell or unlock the secrets of dark matter. That is just the beginning of the impacts Aurora will have our community, our region, our nation and the world. Argonne is partnering with the U.S. Department of Energy and industry collaborators Intel and Cray Inc. to build Aurora which will be housed at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility, a DOE User Facility, in a new state-of-the-art building.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2025

Upgrading Fermilab s Accelerator Control System with ACORN

The Fermilab Accelerator Complex is the largest national user facility in the Office of High Energy Physics (DOE/HEP) program and the only national user facility operating at Fermilab. Fermilab serves as the host to the Long Baseline Neutrino Facility/Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (LBNF/DUNE), the laboratory’s flagship project for neutrino science that is under construction. LBNF/DUNE will be powered by megawatt beams from an upgraded accelerator, the Proton Improvement Plan II (PIP-II) that will replace the laboratory’s aging linear accelerator with a new one based on superconducting radio-frequency cavities. The Accelerator Controls Operations Research Network (ACORN) Project will support LBNF/DUNE and PIP-II by modernizing the accelerator control system. The project is at the conceptual design phase and looking to achieve Critical Decision 1 (CD-1) later this year. The scope and structure of the project will be presented, along with an overview of how that has changed in the past year. Current design and technology choices will be shared. Specific challenges facing the project will be addressed, along with current thinking on solutions.

Roehrig, Christian [Fermilab]↗
DOE OSTI2023

Genomes to Structure and Function Workshop Report 2022

The goal of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Biological and Environmental Research (BER) Program is to achieve a predictive understanding of complex biological, earth, and environmental systems with the aim of advancing the nation’s energy and infrastructure security. (https://www.energy.gov/science/ ber/biological-and-environmental-research). To pursue this goal, collaborations among experts in diverse research areas that lead to multidisciplinary projects are indispensable. The roles of DOE’s User Facilities, which offer unique and powerful resources for such research projects, are evolving, and expectations for the facilities are increasing. To respond to Users’ needs, the Joint Genome Institute (JGI) and Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL) initiated the Facilities Integrating Collaborations for User Science (FICUS) program in 2014. This collaboration has grown into a popular and successful program, advancing more than 100 multidisciplinary projects to date. Similarly, the new interFacility collaborations among the JGI, EMSL, and User resources for BER structural biology and imaging at the Basic Energy Science (BES) Program’s synchrotron and neutron facilities are becoming essential for cutting-edge transdisciplinary science. To further explore the need for the BER research community to combine genomic, functional, and structural approaches to advance their research, an organizing committee was formed to develop and jointly host a 3-part workshop. The committee’s members represented seven DOE National Laboratory User Facilities (Appendix 1 lists the members). The “Genomes to Structure and Function” virtual workshop (see Appendices 2–5) was composed of three sessions. The first session, titled “Molecular Structures” (October 27– 28, 2021), highlighted diverse integrative experimental and computational approaches correlating structural data with sequencing and functional information, as well as predicting protein structures to model complex biological systems. The second session, “Intracellular Organization, and Material Synthesis and Decomposition” (December 15–16, 2021), covered imaging methods for observing, quantifying, and manipulating biosystems. The third session, “Imaging the Rhizosphere and Cellular Organization” (January 26–27, 2022) emphasized advanced and non-invasive imaging techniques applied to plant root-microbe-soil interactions.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Evaluation of Low Dose Silicon Carbide Temperature Monitors

Thermocouples are generally used to provide real-time temperature indications in instrumented tests performed at materials and test reactors. Melt wires or paint spots are often included in such tests as an independent technique of detecting peak temperatures incurred during irradiation. In addition, less expensive static capsule tests, which have no leads attached for real-time data transmission, often rely on melt wires and paint spots as a post-irradiation technique for peak temperature indication. Unfortunately, these techniques are limited in that they can only detect whether a single temperature is or is not exceeded. Silicon carbide (SiC) monitors are advantageous because a single monitor can be used to determine the peak temperature reached within a relatively broad range (200 – 800°C). Although the use of SiC monitors was proposed more than five decades ago, the ultimate performance limits of this technique are not fully understood. The Nuclear Science User Facilities (NSUF) is the United States Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy's only designated nuclear energy user facility. Its mission is to provide nuclear energy researchers access to world-class capabilities and to facilitate the advancement of nuclear science and technology. This mission is supported by providing access to state-of-the-art experimental irradiation testing, post irradiation examination facilities, and high performance computing capabilities as well as technical and scientific assistance for the design and execution of projects. As part of an NSUF project, low dose silicon carbide monitors were irradiated in the Belgian Reactor 2 and were then evaluated both at the SCK•CEN and at Idaho National Laboratory's High Temperature Test Laboratory to determine their peak temperature achieved during irradiation. The technical significance of this work was that the monitors were irradiated to a dose that was significantly less than recommended in published literature. This paper will discuss the evaluation process, the irradiation test, and the performance of the low dose silicon carbide temperature monitors.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2020

NSUF Melt Wire Evaluations for BSU 8242 and GE Hitachi-10393 Irradiation Experiments

The Nuclear Science User Facilities (NSUF) is the United States Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy's only designated nuclear energy user facility. Its mission is to provide nuclear energy researchers access to world-class capabilities and to facilitate the advancement of nuclear science and technology. This mission is supported by providing access to state-of-the-art experimental irradiation testing, post-irradiation examination facilities, and high-performance computing capabilities as well as technical and scientific assistance for the design and execution of projects. Two NSUF irradiation experiments, Boise State University-8242 and General Electric Hitachi, used melt wire packs to determine peak temperatures reached during irradiation testing. This report will discuss the temperature evaluation process and present the associated data.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2024

2024 Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Annual Report

This report provides an overview of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility and a sample of achievements for fiscal year 2024 (FY2024). Strong collaborations between nine DOE national laboratories enable ARM to successfully operate in remote locations around the world. This unique partnership supports the DOE mission to provide for the energy security of the nation. Without the support of the following laboratories, ARM would not be the state-of-the-art facility that it is today. ARM is a multi-laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science user facility and a key contributor to national and international atmospheric and climate research efforts. ARM offers scientists cutting-edge, ground-based observatories, aerial observation capabilities, and high-performance computing. ARM’s capabilities have enabled more than 30 years of continuous measurements of cloud and aerosol properties and their effects on Earth’s energy balance.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗