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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 163 records · Page 9

A Green's Function Wind Turbine Induction Model That Incorporates Complex Inflow Conditions

ABSTRACT In this work, we develop a new analytical turbine induction model that can incorporate complex inflow conditions including cases where the wind velocity and temperature profiles can vary as functions of height. This induction model is derived from the linearized Navier–Stokes and leads to a second‐order ODE that can be solved using a Green's function formulation. The corresponding Green's function for several configurations are found including the infinite domain, semi‐infinite domain with ground plane, and a power law velocity inflow profile. The results of this approach are then compared with simulations of the turbine induction field using the AMR‐Wind CFD solver with a uniformly loaded actuator disk model. These comparisons show that the Green's function approach captures the centerline blockage, three‐dimensional blockage flow field, and streamwise velocity slow down, with very good agreement for lower thrust conditions and at larger distances away from rotor disk. The effects of shear on the turbine blockage were also compared using a power law inflow profile, and we show that this approach matches the CFD predictions for the cases considered.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

Efficient and stable perovskite solar cells based on blade-coated CH 3 NH 3 PbI 3 thin films fabricated using “green” solvents under ambient conditions

Metal halide perovskites are considered the most promising candidates for solar cells of the decade due to their exceptional optical and electronic properties. The power conversion efficiency of metal halide perovskites, when incorporated as the active layer of solar cells, has become comparable to that observed for conventional silicon solar cells. However, the stability, scaleup, green solvent usage, and fabrication in ambient conditions of metal halide perovskites need to be solved for commercial applications. Here, in this work, we report the fabrication of blade-coated methylammonium lead iodide (MAPbI 3 ) perovskite thin films using methylamine and acetonitrile as “green” solvents under ambient conditions. Our perovskite films are initially prepared from low purity PbI2 (99%) and are blade-coated in dry air at relative humidity (RH) levels above 30%. A significant advantage of fabricating our perovskite thin films via blade-coating protocols is that there is a minimal amount of precursors (5 μL) used compared to spin-coating methods (50μL–60μL) for a 4 cm 2 substrate. With the addition of a small amount of an organic halide salt, namely, phenethylammonium chloride, the film crystallinity is improved and non-radiative recombination is suppressed, resulting in power conversion efficiencies over 20%. In addition, the device maintains more than 95% of its initial efficiency after 500 h under continuous light illumination of 1-sun at open circuit conditions, 50 °C and 60% RH. The above method leads a path towards the commercial fabrication of perovskite solar cells.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Kit Carson Site Visit [Slides]

Greening the grid: decarbonize LANL’s electricity supply through the Los Alamos Power Pool; Net-Zero Buildings: Ensure new buildings are Net-Zero Ready and retrofit existing buildings to minimize Scope 1 emissions; Living laboratory: Leverage LANL’s clean energy R&D expertise to deploy technologies on-site at scale.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

Flexible substrata for the detection of cellular traction forces

By modulating adhesion signaling and cytoskeletal organization, mechanical forces play an important role in various cellular functions, from propelling cell migration to mediating communication between cells. Recent developments have resulted in several new approaches for the detection, analysis and visualization of mechanical forces generated by cultured cells. Combining these methods with other approaches, such as green-fluorescent protein (GFP) imaging and gene manipulation, proves to be particularly powerful for analyzing the interplay between extracellular physical forces and intracellular chemical events.

Review, Tutorial↗

Mission Architecture for the Green Propulsion Dual Mode Mission

Current spacecraft propulsion technologies are broadly divided into chemical and electric propulsion modes, each of which has unique advantages. It is common for both systems to have a place in interplanetary spacecraft, but the size, weight, and power required to carry two separate propulsion systems is extremely limiting for small spacecraft such as CubeSats. The upcoming NASA STMD-funded Green Propulsion Dual Mode (GPDM) mission will demonstrate on-orbit a novel dual-mode propulsion system known as the GPDM Propulsion System that uses the AF-M315E/ASCENT green monopropellant to feed both a chemical 100 mN monopropellant thruster and four electrospray thrusters. GPDM will fly a 6U CubeSat in low Earth orbit and perform orbit-raising and lowering maneuvers to characterize the performance of this dual-mode propulsion technology, enabling a new generation of future interplanetary small satellite explorers. The Georgia Institute of Technology Space Systems Design Laboratory (SSDL) is conducting the design, assembly, integration, testing, and mission operations of the GPDM host spacecraft, as well as the integration of the GPDM Propulsion System payload, designed by NASA’s Marshall Spaceflight Center (MSFC). The NASA Marshall Space Flight Center is overseeing the overall GPDM project as well as specific technology development activities of the GPDM Propulsion System, while electrospray thrusters are supplied by the MIT Space Propulsion Lab, with additional components supplied by MMA Design, Blue Canyon Technologies, Quasonix, Xiphos, and Rubicon Space Systems. The GPDM spacecraft will carry the GPDM Propulsion System into orbit and use a high-power S-band radio to enable real-time operations in low Earth orbit (LEO) via the NASA Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS). The mission is working towards a tentative launch readiness date of August 2025, in support of launch and operations commencing in January 2026. This paper describes GPDM’s overall mission concept of operations, spacecraft overview, and subsystem breakdown.

Green Propulsion Dual Mode↗

All solid-state high power visible laser

The overall objective of this Phase 2 effort was to develop and deliver to NASA a high repetition rate laser-diode-pumped solid-state pulsed laser system with output in the green portion of the spectrum. The laser is for use in data communications, and high efficiency, short pulses, and low timing jitter are important features. A short-pulse 1 micron laser oscillator, a new multi-pass amplifier to boost the infrared power, and a frequency doubler to take the amplified infrared pulsed laser light into the green. This produced 1.5 W of light in the visible at a pulse repetition rate of 20 kHz in the laboratory. The pulses have a full-width at half maximum of near 1 ns. The results of this program are being commercialized.

Grossman, William M.↗

Mission Analysis for Marine Renewable Energy to Provide Power for Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal

The mission of this project was to provide a preliminary feasibility assessment of powering different marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR), marine carbon capture, and marine carbon sequestration strategies with marine energy. In this report, carbon capture refers to methods that can separate or capture carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) from the air or ocean; carbon sequestration refers to methods that store CO 2 obtained by capture methods out of the atmosphere for long periods of time; and carbon dioxide removal (CDR) refers to methods that do both. The project found that mCDR powered by marine energy and offshore wind energy available in the United States could meet global CDR scales needed by 2040 and 2050 to limit warming to 1.5 degrees C by 2100. Note that this preliminary estimate assumes that it is possible to harvest all the marine and offshore wind resources available in the United States with existing technology options, and it does not account for the power needed for monitoring these methods, as these power needs are not yet well defined and require further research. Additionally, these CDR scales will still require emissions reductions.

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗

Integrated Systems Health Management for Sustainable Habitats (Using Sustainability Base as a Testbed)

Habitation systems provide a safe place for astronauts to live and work in space and on planetary surfaces. They enable crews to live and work safely in deep space, and include integrated life support systems, radiation protection, fire safety, and systems to reduce logistics and the need for resupply missions. Innovative health management technologies are needed in order to increase the safety and mission-effectiveness for future space habitats on other planets, asteroids, or lunar surfaces. For example, off-nominal or failure conditions occurring in safety-critical life support systems may need to be addressed quickly by the habitat crew without extensive technical support from Earth due to communication delays. If the crew in the habitat must manage, plan and operate much of the mission themselves, operations support must be migrated from Earth to the habitat. Enabling monitoring, tracking, and management capabilities on-board the habitat and related EVA platforms for a small crew to use will require significant automation and decision support software.Traditional caution and warning systems are typically triggered by out-of-bounds sensor values, but can be enhanced by including machine learning and data mining techniques. These methods aim to reveal latent, unknown conditions while still retaining and improving the ability to provide highly accurate alerts for known issues. A few of these techniques will briefly described, along with performance targets for known faults and failures. Specific system health management capabilities required for habitat system elements (environmental control and life support systems, etc.) may include relevant subsystems such as water recycling systems, photovoltaic systems, electrical power systems, and environmental monitoring systems. Sustainability Base, the agency's flagship LEED-platinum certified green building acts as a living laboratory for testing advanced information and sustainable technologies that provides an opportunity to test novel machine learning and controls capabilities. In this talk, key features of Sustainability Base that make it relevant to deep space habitat technology and its use of these kinds of subsystems previously listed will be presented. The fact that all such systems require less power to support human occupancy can be used as a focal point to serve as a testbed for deep space habitats that will need to operate within finite energy budgets.

Systems Health Management↗

Quieting a noisy antenna reproduces photosynthetic light-harvesting spectra

Photosynthesis achieves near unity light-harvesting quantum efficiency yet it remains unknown whether there exists a fundamental organizing principle giving rise to robust light harvesting in the presence of dynamic light conditions and noisy physiological environments. Here, we present a noise-canceling network model that relates noisy physiological conditions, power conversion efficiency, and the resulting absorption spectra of photosynthetic organisms. Using light conditions in full solar exposure, light filtered by oxygenic phototrophs, and light filtered under seawater, we derived optimal absorption characteristics for efficient solar power conversion. We show how light-harvesting antennae can be tuned to maximize power conversion efficiency by minimizing excitation noise, thus providing a unified theoretical basis for the observed wavelength dependence of absorption in green plants, purple bacteria, and green sulfur bacteria.

Science & Technology - Other Topics↗

Integration of Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES) Systems Optimized with Second-Generation, High-Temperature Superconducting (2G-HTS) Technology with a Major Fossil-Fueled Asset

Utility companies and fossil fueled generation assets are seeking combinations of “hybrid energy storage” to allow power to be provided in advance of, and to otherwise complement, peaking natural gas-fired generation. American Maglev Technology of Florida Inc. (AMT) learned during the Phase I program based on interactions with NRG Energy (NRG) that energy storage such as superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) can qualify as a Black Start unit in most markets, ensuring orderly re-start of grid operations and fossil fueled power plants and serving as an important asset of hybrid energy storage technology. In conjunction with the University of Houston (UH), AMT and NRG are working together to scale up low-cost, high- efficiency, second-generation high-temperature superconducting (2G-HTS) technology for deployment across several markets, with a primary focus on the commercial development of utility grid-scale SMES (g-SMES) systems. Ultimately the program confirmed that the novel g-SMES design can meet the performance and financial requirements of the fossil power plant industry, while exhibiting continuous grid-voltage regulation; cost-effective, peak-hour energy storage with almost infinite life; increased input/output efficiency; and the capability to undergo millions of charging cycles, without degradation, representing a significant improvement over lithium ion and other conventional storage technologies. We believe wide scale deployment of this technology is feasible and practical when compared to the higher life cycle cost and relatively short lifespan of chemical batteries. Based on these findings, the future for deployment of SMES at many fossil-fueled power plants exceeding 100MW capability is bright. Further de-risking g-SMES technology would pave the way for the construction of a subscale prototype. Eventually, scaled-down versions of SMES are expected to be competitive with the multi-billion-dollar lithium-ion market for a wide range of commercial, industrial, and transportation uses. There is long-term potential for commercialization and widespread deployment of this disruptive technology, which would spawn a new worldwide supply chain and create domestic, high-tech manufacturing jobs in the green industry.

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS↗

The effect of a hot, spherical scattering cloud on quasi-periodic oscillation behavior

A Monte Carlo technique is used to investigate the effects of a hot electron scattering cloud surrounding a time-dependent X-ray source. Results are presented for the time-averaged emergent energy spectra and the mean residence time in the cloud as a function of energy. Moreover, after Fourier transforming the scattering Green's function, it is shown how the cloud affects both the observed power spectrum of a time-dependent source and the cross spectrum (Fourier transform of a cross correlation between energy bands). It is found that the power spectra intrinsic to the source are related to those observed by a relatively simple frequency-dependent multiplicative factor (a transmission function). The cloud can severely attenuate high frequencies in the power spectra, depending on optical depth, and, at lower frequencies, the transmission function has roughly a Lorentzian shape. It is also found that if the intrinsic energy spectrum is constant in time, the phase of the cross spectrum is determined entirely by scattering. Finally, the implications of the results for studies of the X-ray quasi-periodic oscillators are discussed.

Bussard, R. W.↗

NASA Power: Global Solar Insolation, Meteorological Parameter Data, and Web Services to Support Sustainable Building Design and Operations

The buildings industry is currently striving to adopt green solutions to make infrastructure more energy-efficient in order to meet the 2050 net-zero climate goals. This planning requires reliable environmental datasets that are crucial in designing, building, and maintaining our world’s-built environment, as well as other energy-related processes and investments. This webinar for the National Institute of Building Sciences provides an overview of NASA’s Prediction Of Worldwide Energy Resources (POWER) Project that informs decision-making and development for sustainable building design and operations by enabling public open discovery, efficient access, and convenient distribution of NASA’s Earth Observations and global atmospheric model datasets. POWER’s datastore is comprised of solar radiation and surface meteorology parameters, spanning nearly 40 years of hourly data, that are easily accessible via several access methods and tools to support three focus areas: 1) renewable energy deployment and management, 2) sustainable infrastructure, and 3) agroclimatology applications. POWER and NASA Earth Science both plan future data parameters, updated tools, and improved observations that could directly support U.S. and international sustainable development goals, climate strategies, and building information modeling. To this end, solar data from several NASA projects and meteorological data from NASA assimilation models have already been reformatted and disseminated to the public via a user-friendly web GIS-enabled based data portal through the POWER Project. POWER data is analysis-ready and accessible through an Application Programming Interface (API), ArcGIS Image Services, and the project’s Data Access Viewer enhanced (DAVe), an interactive online tool. The POWER DAVe also features data consistent with ASHRAE Climate Design Conditions and has developed web image services showing Building Climate Zones and their variability. Through those tools, the data can be downloaded into multiple formats that support the infrastructure community, including CSV and Energy Plus Weather (EPW). POWER’s entire data product catalog is available through Amazon Web Services (AWS) Open Data Registry (ODR) via a free and publicly accessible Simple Storage Service (S3). This webinar provides a full overview of the NASA POWER Project's data and services developed in collaboration with the sustainable infrastructure community. Examples of how the renewable energy and building communities have utilized POWER data products to make decisions and a preview of future data product expansion, including climate projections, and web services will also be provided. Additionally, use case stories from our broad community of users will be presented.

Paul W. Stackhouse↗

The Direct Measurement of Engine Power on an Airplane in Flight with a Hub Type Dynamometer

This report describes tests made to obtain direct measurements of engine power in flight. Tests were made with a Bendemann hub dynamometer installed on a modified DH-4 Airplane, Liberty 12 Engine, to determine the suitability of this apparatus. This dynamometer unit, which was designed specially for use with a liberty 12 engine, is a special propeller hub in which is incorporated a system of pistons and cylinders interposed between the propeller and the engine crankshaft. The torque and thrust forces are balanced by fluid pressures, which are recorded by instruments in the cockpit. These tests have shown the suitability of this type of hub dynamometer for measurement of power in flight and for the determination of the torque and power coefficients of the propeller. (author)

Gove, W D↗

Balancing molecular level influences of intermolecular frustrated Lewis pairs (FLP) for successful design of FLP catalysts for hydrogen storage applications

The rise in energy demands and the deleterious environmental issues related to fossil fuels has led to a surge of interest in hydrogen as a "green" alternative. Hydrogen's extraordinary energy density makes it a potential energy and economic "power"-house. Significant research has been dedicated to materials-based hydrogen storage. One area, liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHC) is of substantial interest for the reversible transportation of hydrogen from production to end-use facilities. There are challenges associated with this technology including the dependency on precious metal-based catalysts. Recent work in frustrated Lewis pair (FLP) catalysis demonstrates promise for addressing these challenges. Here this review is focused on assessing recent literature on the utilization of intermolecular FLP main group catalysts for improved hydrogenation/dehydrogenation of various substrates including potential LOHC complexes. This review will present an overview of FLPs, highlight potential hydrogen storage applications, and propose areas where knowledge gaps exist that require further investigations.

08 HYDROGEN↗

Analysis of Base Heating Environment During Ground Testing of a Lunar Lander Demonstrator

Introduction: This lunar lander demonstrator, known as XL-1T (terrestrial), is a collaborative effort between Masten Space Systems and NASA, under NASA’s Lunar CATALYST (also known as Lunar Cargo Transportation and Landing by Soft Touchdown) initiative; The lunar lander is a reusable terrestrial test bed for Masten’s powered decent landing system, and will be controlled by four throttleable main engines utilizing green hypergolic propellants; One of the concerns for a four-engine vehicle like this demonstrator, is the potential for a severe base-heating environment, caused by the formation of a “fountain jet” during testing. Fountain jet is an unique base flow physics which was discovered during the development of the DC-X vehicle.

Wang, Ten-See↗