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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 1,765 records · Page 98

Pure-Water-Fed Forward-Bias Bipolar Membrane CO 2 Electrolyzer

Coupling renewable electricity to reduce carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) electrochemically into carbon feedstocks offers a promising pathway to produce chemical fuels sustainably. While there has been success in developing materials and theory for CO 2 reduction, the widespread deployment of CO 2 electrolyzers has been hindered by challenges in the reactor design and operational stability due to CO 2 crossover and (bi)carbonate salt precipitation. Herein, we design asymmetrical bipolar membranes assembled into a zero-gap CO 2 electrolyzer fed with pure water, solving both challenges. By investigating and optimizing the anion-exchangelayer thickness, cathode differential pressure, and cell temperature, the forward-bias bipolar membrane CO 2 electrolyzer achieves a CO faradic efficiency over 80% with a partial current density over 200 mA cm –2 at less than 3.0 V with negligible CO 2 crossover. In addition, this electrolyzer achieves 0.61 and 2.1 mV h –1 decay rates at 150 and 300 mA cm –2 for 200 and 100 h, respectively. Postmortem analysis indicates that the deterioration of catalyst/polymer– electrolyte interfaces resulted from catalyst structural change, and ionomer degradation at reductive potential shows the decay mechanism. Furthermore, all these results point to the future research direction and show a promising pathway to deploy CO 2 electrolyzers at scale for industrial applications.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Adaptation of Commercially Available Robots for Conditioning and Packaging ILW at Sellafield - 18282

The Legacy Ponds and Silos at Sellafield site contain some of the most hazardous Intermediate Level Waste (ILW) in the UK. As part of a multi-billion pound decommissioning programme, this waste will be retrieved and transported across the site for conditioning and packaging in the Box Encapsulation Plant (BEP). Current plans are to commence plant active commissioning in 2022, which will represent a major milestone in the UK nuclear decommissioning programme. Within the plant, skips of waste will be transferred from the shielded transport package into standard 3 cubic metre ILW containers. Waste from the Pile Fuel Storage Pond and First Generation Magnox Storage Pond will be immobilised in cementitious grout before being transferred to an adjacent store. Waste from the Magnox Swarf Storage Silo will not be immobilised in grout, but will be packaged, providing multi-barrier containment. During the concept design, the project team selected commercially available robots as the most viable technology for carrying out the numerous dexterous and repetitive tasks involved in characterising, conditioning and packaging the waste within the shielded 'hot' cells. Significant technical challenges had to be overcome during the design to adapt a commercially available robot for use within a high radiation / high contamination environment, where human access is not safe even for short periods of time. These challenges included: - Designing robot assemblies that could be retrofitted into the existing cell structure that was constructed as part of an earlier project but never completed; - Designing robot assemblies that could be recovered to their 'transport' position without requiring manual intervention; - Designing robot assemblies that could be remotely removed and replaced with new ones if they failed part way through the plant operational life; - Designing through-wall service and power connections that allow maintenance and recovery; - Designing control systems and human-machine interfaces that enable both manual and automated operation of the robot, whilst avoiding collisions with the in-cell cranes and other in cell furniture; - Assessing the radiation tolerance of all items. Bespoke computer simulations and full-scale development trials have been carried out, using non-active test materials, in order to demonstrate the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) required by Sellafield Limited (SL) at each stage of the project [1]. The results of these trials have been recorded in both video and written form so that they can form part of the project's Knowledge Management database. Detailed designs and specifications for the robot assemblies have been updated to incorporate the recommendations from the development trials. Procurement and manufacture of robot assemblies has already commenced to deliver two waste handling robots, two waste container lidding / swabbing robots and associated critical spares. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

Systems engingeering for the Kepler Mission : a search for terrestrial planets

The Kepler mission will launch in 2007 and determine the distribution of earth-size planets (0.5 to 10 earth masses) in the habitable zones (HZs) of solar-like stars. The mission will monitor > 100,000 dwarf stars simultaneously for at least 4 years. Precision differential photometry will be used to detect the periodic signals of transiting planets. Kepler will also support asteroseismology by measuring the pressure-mode (p-mode) oscillations of selected stars. Key mission elements include a spacecraft bus and 0.95 meter, wide-field, CCD-based photometer injected into an earth-trailing heliocentric orbit by a 3-stage Delta II launch vehicle as well as a distributed Ground Segment and Follow-up Observing Program. The project is currently preparing for Preliminary Design Review (October 2004) and is proceeding with detailed design and procurement of long-lead components. In order to meet the unprecedented photometric precision requirement and to ensure a statistically significant result, the Kepler mission involves technical challenges in the areas of photometric noise and systematic error reduction, stability, and false-positive rejection. Programmatic and logistical challenges include the collaborative design, modeling, integration, test, and operation of a geographically and functionally distributed project. A very rigorous systems engineering program has evolved to address these challenges. This paper provides an overview of the Kepler systems engineering program, including some examples of our processes and techniques in areas such as requirements synthesis, validation & verification, system robustness design, and end-to-end performance modeling.

systems engineering↗

Next-Generation, High-temperature, High-frequency, High-efficiency, High-power-density Traction System

To meet performance and reliability requirements necessary for broader adoption of electric drive vehicles, the Electrical and Electronics Technical Team of the U.S. Drive partnership has established aggressive design goals for next-generation electric vehicle drivetrains. Specifically, the 2025 roadmap stipulates a 100 kW/L power density target and a $\$$2.7/kW cost target for power electronics, in addition to high-voltage operation (i.e., greater than 800 VDC). The additional targets for traction motor and the overall system performance impose further challenges on the power electronics design. For example, many high specific power machines have reduced iron content, and therefore reduced intrinsic filtering, thus requiring the inverter to supply a low-distortion drive current. These machines also typically have a high pole count, thus requiring drive current at a higher electrical frequency. Other motors, such as brush-less dc and switch reluctance machines, require a carefully-shaped, non-sinusoidal drive current (Yang, Shang, Brown, & Krishnamurthy, 2015), (Zhang, Bowman, O'Connel, & Haran, 2018), (Anderson, et al., 2018). Two- and three-level inverter topologies are the conventional framework for the power electronics design of the drivetrain, and some demonstrations have shown recent progress towards addressing cost, power density and efficiency goals (Gurpinar & Ozpineci, 2018), (Zhu, Kim, Chen, Erickson, & Maksimović, 2018), (Deshpande, Chen, Narayanasamy, Sathyanarayanan, & Luo, 2018), (Alizadeh, et al., 2019). However, an unconventional approach may be necessary to take the dramatic leap in power density necessitated by the roadmap—while simultaneously addressing the other system needs. Therefore, this project leverages the flying capacitor multilevel (FCML) topology, together with a scalable, modular approach, to address these needs. This type of hybrid converter has several advantages: lower voltage (i.e., less than 300 V) transistors can be used, energy-dense capacitors process most of the power, and the output current waveform is multilevel and exhibits a frequency multiplying effect—in other words, the output has reduced dv/dt and filtering requirements for the same high voltage dc bus. For example, in an electric vehicle with an 800 V bus, a 10-level FCML could leverage 100 V, commercially available GaN devices switching at 115 kHz to produce a ~1 MHz switching waveform (modulated according to the motor drive requirements) with one ninth of the dv/dt of a two-level converter. Prior work has already demonstrated promising performance and gravimetric power density figures for more electric aircraft applications (Pallo, Foulkes, Modeer, Coday, & Pilawa-Podgurski, 2018). This project leverages lessons learned to achieve the volumetric power density of 100 kW/L by employing advanced liquid cooling, address the 300,000 mile reliability challenge with redundant design, topology failure studies and online health monitoring, and reduce costs to $\$$2.7/kW through the use of low-cost GaN devices, modular converter assemblies, and modest modifications to traditional manufacturing methods. The project involved several hardware designs, each achieving increasing performance. At the conclusion of the project, a volumetric power density of 380 kW/L was achieved, in a 800V dc-ac converter, greatly surpassing even the aggressive target goal.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

Mars Science Laboratory: Entry, Descent, and Landing System Performance

In 2010, the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission will pioneer the next generation of robotic Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) systems, by delivering the largest and most capable rover to date to the surface of Mars. To do so, MSL will fly a guided lifting entry at a lift-to-drag ratio in excess of that ever flown at Mars, deploy the largest parachute ever at Mars, and perform a novel Sky Crane maneuver. Through improved altitude capability, increased latitude coverage, and more accurate payload delivery, MSL is allowing the science community to consider the exploration of previously inaccessible regions of the planet. The MSL EDL system is a new EDL architecture based on Viking heritage technologies and designed to meet the challenges of landing increasing massive payloads on Mars. In accordance with level-1 requirements, the MSL EDL system is being designed to land an 850 kg rover to altitudes as high as 1 km above the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter defined areoid within 10 km of the desired landing site. Accordingly, MSL will enter the largest entry mass, fly the largest 70 degree sphere-cone aeroshell, generate the largest hypersonic lift-to-drag ratio, and deploy the largest Disk-Gap-Band supersonic parachute of any previous mission to Mars. Major EDL events include a hypersonic guided entry, supersonic parachute deploy and inflation, subsonic heatshield jettison, terminal descent sensor acquisition, powered descent initiation, sky crane terminal descent, rover touchdown detection, and descent stage flyaway. Key performance metrics, derived from level-1 requirements and tracked by the EDL design team to indicate performance capability and timeline margins, include altitude and range at parachute deploy, time on radar, and propellant use. The MSL EDL system, which will continue to develop over the next three years, will enable a notable extension in the advancement of Mars surface science by delivering more science capability than ever before to the surface of Mars. This paper describes the current MSL EDL system performance as predicted by end-to-end EDL simulations, highlights the sensitivity of this baseline performance to several key environmental assumptions, and discusses some of the challenges faced in delivering such an unprecedented rover payload to the surface of Mars.

Way, David W.↗

Mars Science Laboratory: Entry, Descent, and Landing System Performance

In 2010, the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission will pioneer the next generation of robotic Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) systems, by delivering the largest and most capable rover to date to the surface of Mars. To do so, MSL will fly a guided lifting entry at a lift-to-drag ratio in excess of that ever flown at Mars, deploy the largest parachute ever at Mars, and perform a novel Sky Crane maneuver. Through improved altitude capability, increased latitude coverage, and more accurate payload delivery, MSL is allowing the science community to consider the exploration of previously inaccessible regions of the planet. The MSL EDL system is a new EDL architecture based on Viking heritage technologies and designed to meet the challenges of landing increasing massive payloads on Mars. In accordance with level-1 requirements, the MSL EDL system is being designed to land an 850 kg rover to altitudes as high as 1 km above the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter defined areoid within 10 km of the desired landing site. Accordingly, MSL will enter the largest entry mass, fly the largest 70 degree sphere-cone aeroshell, generate the largest hypersonic lift-to-drag ratio, and deploy the largest Disk-Gap-Band supersonic parachute of any previous mission to Mars. Major EDL events include a hypersonic guided entry, supersonic parachute deploy and inflation, subsonic heatshield jettison, terminal descent sensor acquisition, powered descent initiation, sky crane terminal descent, rover touchdown detection, and descent stage flyaway. Key performance metrics, derived from level-1 requirements and tracked by the EDL design team to indicate performance capability and timeline margins, include altitude and range at parachute deploy, time on radar, and propellant use. The MSL EDL system, which will continue to develop over the next three years, will enable a notable extension in the advancement of Mars surface science by delivering more science capability than ever before to the surface of Mars. This paper describes the current MSL EDL system performance as predicted by end-to-end EDL simulations, highlights the sensitivity of this baseline performance to several key environmental assumptions, and discusses some of the challenges faced in delivering such an unprecedented rover payload to the surface of Mars.

Way, David W.↗

Research Update: Towards designed functionalities in oxide-based electronic materials

One of the grand challenges facing materials-by-design approaches for complex oxide deployment in electronic devices is how to balance transformative first-principles based predictions with experimental feasibility. Here, we briefly review the functionality-driven approach (inverse design) for materials discovery, encapsulated in three modalities for materials discovery (m{sup 3}D) that integrate experimental feedback. We compare it to both traditional theoretical and high-throughput database-directed approaches aimed at advancing oxide-based materials into technologies.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Liquid lithium loop system to solve challenging technology issues for fusion power plant

Here, steady-state fusion power plant designs present major divertor technology challenges, including high divertor heat flux both in steady-state and during transients. In addition to these concerns, there are the unresolved technology issues of long term dust accumulation and associated tritium inventory and safety issues. It has been suggested that radiation-based liquid lithium (LL) divertor concepts with a modest lithium-loop could provide a possible solution for these outstanding fusion reactor technology issues, while potentially improving reactor plasma performance. The application of lithium (Li) in NSTX resulted in improved H-mode confinement, H-mode power threshold reduction, and reduction in the divertor peak heat flux while maintaining essentially Li-free core plasma operation even during H-modes. These promising results in NSTX and related modeling calculations motivated the radiative liquid lithium divertor (RLLD) concept and its variant, the active liquid lithium divertor concept (ARLLD), taking advantage of the enhanced or non-coronal Li radiation in relatively poorly confined divertor plasmas. To maintain the LL purity in a 1 GW-electric class fusion power plant, a closed LL loop system with a modest circulating capacity of ~ 1 liter/second (l/sec) is envisioned. We examined two key technology issues: 1) dust or solid particle removal and 2) real time recovery of tritium from LL while keeping the tritium inventory level to an acceptable level. By running the LL-loop continuously, it can carry the dust particles and impurities generated in the vacuum vessel to the outside where the dust / impurities can be removed by relatively simple dust filter, cold trap and/or centrifugal separation systems. With ~ 1 l/sec LL flow, even a small 0.1% dust content by weight (or 0.5 g per sec) suggests that the LL-loop could carry away nearly 16 tons of dust per year. In a 1 GW-electric (or ~ 3 GW fusion power) fusion power plant, about 0.5 g / sec of tritium is needed to maintain the fusion fuel cycle assuming ~ 1 % fusion burn efficiency. It appears feasible to recover tritium (T) in real time from LL while maintaining an acceptable T inventory level. Laboratory tests are being conducted to investigate T recovery feasibility with the surface cold trap (SCT) concept.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Design of a Metal–Organic Framework with Enhanced Back Bonding for Separation of N 2 and CH 4

Gas separations with porous materials are economically important and provide a unique challenge to fundamental materials design, as adsorbent properties can be altered to achieve selective gas adsorption. Metal–organic frameworks represent a rapidly expanding new class of porous adsorbents with a large range of possibilities for designing materials with desired functionalities. Given the large number of possible framework structures, quantum mechanical computations can provide useful guidance in prioritizing the synthesis of the most useful materials for a given application. Here, we show that such calculations can predict a new metal–organic framework of potential utility for separation of dinitrogen from methane, a particularly challenging separation of critical value for utilizing natural gas. In conclusion, an open V(II) site incorporated into a metal–organic framework can provide a material with a considerably higher enthalpy of adsorption for dinitrogen than for methane, based on strong selective back bonding with the former but not the latter.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Parametrically designed surface topography on CAD models of additively manufactured lattice structures for improved design validation

Additively Manufactured (AM) lattice structures of the laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) process generally have different surface geometries depending on the overhang angle and location. This means that the design validation stage is often challenging, considering it is based on an ideal Computer Aided Design (CAD) model that is not truly representative, since the AM part will be different in terms of dimensional accuracy and surface finish. Previous studies have relied on the design of surface textures that are independent of the overhang angle, or techniques based on directly using X-ray Computed Tomography (XCT) data. In this paper, a new technique for designing surface texture on the CAD of lattices has been investigated and correlated with areal surface roughness parameters. After extracting areal surface parameters from the XCT data of the lattice, the method allowed for the design of this surface texture on the part CAD taking in consideration if its up skin or down skin, without using XCT data as the main input. By applying this method, it is possible to obtain a lattice CAD model with a designed surface texture and geometry that is more representative of the actual AM lattice. The mean deviation between the CAD model with the designed surface and the XCT was a third of the one between the XCT and the initial CAD. The proposed method allows for designing and replicating LPBF AM surfaces on the CAD of a lattice, taking into consideration the dimensional deviation caused by AM surfaces, especially on overhangs. Assuming that an LPBF AM process is stable and produces approximately the same AM surface, this method can be used to predict the geometry of a lattice, providing a cost-effective and efficient methodology that minimizes the time needed for design validation.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Material Plasma Exposure eXperiment High Heat Flux Microwave Absorber Design, Manufacture, and Articles Test

The Material Plasma Exposure eXperiment (MPEX) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is in the final design phase. MPEX will be capable of exposing neutron-irradiated materials to plasmas for the study of plasma-material interaction. This facility will provide information about the complex effects of plasmas on materials and contribute to examining new materials that can withstand high heat fluxes and high ion fluences for future fusion devices. MPEX plasma is heated by 70-GHz or 105-GHz electron Bernstein wave/electron cyclotron heating (ECH), and the high-frequency microwaves are prone to scattering microwave power, which can have detrimental effects, especially on diagnostic components. A large portion of the injected ECH power is expected to be absorbed by plasma, but the remainder requires that microwave absorbers be placed immediately upstream and downstream of the ECH launcher to minimize stray microwaves leaving the ECH region. These microwaves can inadvertently heat components that cannot be shielded or otherwise protected. The microwave absorber design is based on an array of pyramid-shaped ceramic tiles brazed to a water-cooled explosion-bonded heat sink and a stainless steel plate to produce one tile module. Computational fluid dynamics and structural analyses were performed to optimize and validate the design. Multiple test coupons were produced to validate the process for brazing the two different tile materials to the Glidcop AL-15 baseplate. The articles were tested to evaluate the reliability and thermal performance through exposure to an electron beam with a heat flux of up to 1.5 MW/m2. Nondestructive testing was performed before and after testing to identify voids or separations that may have been introduced by the high heat flux. This paper discusses the details of high heat flux microwave absorber design, manufacturing details and associated challenges, and test results, demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed design.

Hussain, Aftab↗

Progress in the Development of Oxygen Reduction Reaction Catalysts for Low-Temperature Fuel Cells

In this paper, we present a brief summary on the most recent progress in the design of catalysts for electrochemical reduction of oxygen. The main challenge in the wide spread of fuel cell technology is to lower the content of, or even eliminate, Pt and other precious metals in catalysts without sacrificing their performance. Pt-based nanosized catalysts with novel and refined architectures continue to dominate in catalytic performance, and formation of Pt-skin-like surfaces is key to achieving the highest values in activity. Moreover, durability has also been improved in Pt-based systems with addition of Au, which plays an important role in stabilizing the Pt topmost layers against dissolution. However, various carbon-based materials without precious metal have shown improvement in activity and durability and have been explored to serve as catalyst supports. Finally, understanding how the doped elements interact with each other and/or carbon is challenging and necessary in the design of robust fuel cell catalysts.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Additive Manufacturing of Nickel Superalloys: Opportunities for Innovation and Challenges Related to Qualification

Innovative designs for turbines can be achieved by advances in nickel-based superalloys and manufacturing methods, including the adoption of additive manufacturing. In this regard, selective electron beam melting (SEBM) and selective laser melting (SLM) of nickel-based superalloys do provide distinct advantages. Furthermore, the direct energy deposition (DED) processes can be used for repair and reclamation of nickel alloy components. The current paper explores opportunities for innovation and qualification challenges with respect to deployment of AM as a disruptive manufacturing technology. Here in the first part of the paper, fundamental correlations of processing parameters to defect tendency and microstructure evolution will be explored using DED process. In the second part of the paper, opportunities for innovation in terms of site-specific control of microstructure during processing will be discussed. In the third part of the paper, challenges in qualification of AM parts for service will be discussed and potential methods to alleviate these issues through in situ process monitoring, and big data analytics are proposed.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Simplified Vehicle Control Concept for a Lift Plus Cruise eVTOL Vehicle

Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) vehicles have the potential to enable cost effective Urban Air Mobility (UAM) applications. These concepts may also pose several challenging handling and control problems, which must be addressed prior to safe and reliable urban operations. This paper investigates a simplified vehicle control concept that is designed to address some of these challenges for a conceptual Lift Plus Cruise vehicle designed by NASA’s Revolutionary Vertical Lift Technology (RVLT) project. The command and control architecture for this concept is presented along with preliminary findings. Initial results explore the vehicle performance in an approach to hover transition scenario, designed to explore the challenge of dissipating energy across all flight regimes. Operational concepts with varying aggressiveness are evaluated through changing glideslope and deceleration rates. Preliminary results show that the simplified control concept is effective over these operational conditions, with control strategies and envelope protection limits able to maintain control though aggressive operations despite saturation at steeper slopes with higher deceleration rates. Final results will show piloted simulation evaluations in the the Aerospace Cognitive Engineering Lab – Rapid Automation Test Environment (ACEL-RATE) laboratory at NASA Ames Research Center. The planned tests will build on these operations with additional test cases exploring variations in wind conditions as well as transition-to-hover automation strategies and display information.

simplified vehicle control↗

Personalizing knowledge delivery services: a conceptual framework

Consistent with the call of the Minnesota Symposium for new theory in knowledge management, we offer a new conceptualization of Knowledge Management Systems (KMS) as a portfolio of personalized knowledge delivery services. Borrowing from research on online consumer behavior, we describe the challenges imposed by personalized knowledge delivery services, and suggest design parameters that can help to overcome these challenges. We develop our design constructs through a set of hypotheses and discuss the research implications of our new conceptualization. Finally, we describe practical implications suggested by our conceptualization - practical suggestions that we hope to gain some experience with as part of an ongoing action research project at our partner organization.

knowledge management↗

Low-cost & Energy Dense Batteries for Transportation

The project sought to explore development of novel polymer separator materials and additives for Li-S and Li-ion batteries that would solve critical failure modes and performance bottlenecks for these chemistries. This technology presented significant advanced manufacturing challenges and opportunities in getting to scale, including materials synthesis scale-up, large-area polymer processing techniques, electrode formulation, and the development of coin and pouch cells for electrochemical energy storage. Specific accomplishments included synthesis of organic molecular and polymer materials designed to solve outstanding challenges in electrochemical cells. The primary focus of new materials design was aimed at improving longevity, power, cost reduction, and environmental sustainability of said electrochemical devices. The project also involved assembly and characterization of electrochemical devices with standard galvanostatic and potentiostatic techniques as well as electrochemical impedance spectroscopy.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Oscillating surge wave energy converter using a novel above-water power takeoff with belt-arc speed amplification

We investigate the performance of a novel power takeoff (PTO) featuring belt-arc speed amplification for oscillating surge wave energy converters (OSWECs), aiming to address the challenges of extremely low rotary speed and large torque under the low-frequency ocean wave excitations. The belt-arc design significantly increases the rotary speed of the generator, enabling generator downsizing and decreasing the powertrain friction losses. The design also allows for placing the generator above water, eliminating the need for high Ingress Protection ratings for the generator and powertrain, and potentially leading to substantial reductions in capital and maintenance costs. Using the linear potential wave theory, the dynamics of the integrated system are analyzed, and key parameters are identified. To validate the numerical analysis, a 1:10 scale model is designed, fabricated, and tested in a wave tank. Performance evaluations are conducted under regular and irregular wave conditions, with quantified effects of parameter tuning. The results reveal an optimal wave-to-electric efficiency of 48% under regular wave excitation and 20% under irregular excitation. Furthermore, these findings underscore the effectiveness of the proposed novel PTO design in addressing the challenges of low rotation speed and large torque inherent in OSWECs, demonstrating its ability to efficiently convert wave power into electricity.

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗