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At least 1,765 records · Page 98

Slow Crack Growth and Fatigue Life Prediction of Ceramic Components Subjected to Variable Load History

Present capabilities of the NASA CARES/Life (Ceramic Analysis and Reliability Evaluation of Structures/Life) code include probabilistic life prediction of ceramic components subjected to fast fracture, slow crack growth (stress corrosion), and cyclic fatigue failure modes. Currently, this code has the capability to compute the time-dependent reliability of ceramic structures subjected to simple time-dependent loading. For example, in slow crack growth (SCG) type failure conditions CARES/Life can handle the cases of sustained and linearly increasing time-dependent loads, while for cyclic fatigue applications various types of repetitive constant amplitude loads can be accounted for. In real applications applied loads are rarely that simple, but rather vary with time in more complex ways such as, for example, engine start up, shut down, and dynamic and vibrational loads. In addition, when a given component is subjected to transient environmental and or thermal conditions, the material properties also vary with time. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate a methodology capable of predicting the time-dependent reliability of components subjected to transient thermomechanical loads that takes into account the change in material response with time. In this paper, the dominant delayed failure mechanism is assumed to be SCG. This capability has been added to the NASA CARES/Life (Ceramic Analysis and Reliability Evaluation of Structures/Life) code, which has also been modified to have the ability of interfacing with commercially available FEA codes executed for transient load histories. An example involving a ceramic exhaust valve subjected to combustion cycle loads is presented to demonstrate the viability of this methodology and the CARES/Life program.

Jadaan, Osama↗

A dynamic analysis of the motion of a low-wing general aviation aircraft about its calculated equilibrium flat spin mode

The properties of the flat spin mode of a general aviation configuration have been studied through analysis of rotary balance data, numerical simulation, and analytical study of the equilibrium state. The equilibrium state is predicted well from rotary balance data. The variations of yawing moment and pitching moment as functions of sideslip have been shown to be of great importance in obtaining accurate modeling. These dependencies are not presently available with sufficient accuracy from previous tests or theories. The stability of the flat spin mode has been examined extensively using numerical linearization, classical perturbation methods, and reduced order modeling. The stability exhibited by the time histories and the eigenvalue analyses is shown to be strongly dependent on certain static cross derivatives and more so on the dynamic derivatives. Explicit stability criteria are obtained from the reduced order models.

Tischler, M. B.↗

Review: Recent advances of ToF-SIMS for environmental analysis and imaging

Background: Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) is a powerful surface analysis technique, initially developed and applied in inorganic materials and semiconductors. In past decades, ToF-SIMS has attracted more attention in its analysis capabilities of organic materials, with increased applications in biology, medical, and health development. It has also become a versatile and effective tool in environmental analysis due to its high mass resolution, mass accuracy, and depth profiling. Results: In this review, we first give an overview of the principle of ToF-SIMS and follow with recent ToF-SIMS applications in exemplary environmental study cases, including atmospheric aerosol, soil, water, plant, and organic solvent analysis. Moreover, sample preparation techniques are summarized in relation to corresponding environmental applications. Specifically, we call attention to ToF-SIMS investigations showcasing studies in surface chemical compositions, images, and depth profile analysis. These findings emphasize the important role of interfacial chemistry in environmental processes and provide valuable insights into dynamic processes, such as chemical transformation, particle formation, plant biology, and microbial inspired biotechnology development. The mass spectral imaging results acquired by ToF-SIMS offer a deeper understanding of intermediate stages and transient phases for environmental specimens. Significance: In situ and operando imaging offer new possibilities in studying phenomena in real time with high spatial resolution. Furthermore, it is anticipated that more research groups will use ToF-SIMS in environmental research given recent advances in measurement capabilities and surging needs in chemical mapping of complex analytes and systems.

Aerosol↗

An integrated computational materials engineering framework to analyze the failure behaviors of carbon fiber reinforced polymer composites for lightweight vehicle applications

A bottom-up multi-scale modeling approach is used to develop an Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME) framework for carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites, which has the potential to reduce development to deployment lead time for structural applications in lightweight vehicles. In this work, we develop and integrate computational models comprising of four size scales to fully describe and characterize three types of CFRP composites. In detail, the properties of the interphase region are determined by an analytical gradient model and molecular dynamics analysis at the nano-scale, which is then incorporated into micro-scale unidirectional (UD) representative volume element (RVE) models to characterize the failure strengths and envelopes of UD CFRP composites. Then, the results are leveraged to propose an elasto-plastic-damage constitutive law for UD composites to study the fiber tows of woven composites as well as the chips of sheet molding compound (SMC) composites. Subsequently, the failure mechanisms and failure strengths of woven and SMC composites are predicted by the meso-scale RVE models. Finally, building upon the models and results from lower scales, we show that a homogenized macro-scale model can capture the mechanical performance of a hat-section-shaped part under four-point bending. Along with the model integration, we will also demonstrate that the computational results are in good agreement with experiments conducted at different scales. The present work illustrates the potential and significance of integrated multi-scale computational modeling tools that can virtually evaluate the performance of CFRP composites and provide design guidance for CFRP composites used in structural applications.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Advancing spatiotemporal forecasts of CO 2 plume migration using deep learning networks with transfer learning and interpretation analysis

Accurate and timely forecasts of CO 2 plume distribution throughout the injection and post-injection phases are crucial for detecting plume migration, assessing leakage risks, and supporting operational decisions in geologic carbon storage (GCS). Current convolutional neural network-based approaches primarily focus on spatial information and overlook temporal dependencies in plume distributions, thus limiting their ability to capture dynamic movement effects and provide accurate predictions of plume migration. In this work, we propose two deep learning models, Auto-Encoder (AE)-LSTM and Encoder-Decoder (ED)-ConvLSTM, each uniquely designed to capture both spatial and temporal features. We apply the proposed methods to forecast the dynamic distribution of CO 2 plumes based on 108 reservoir simulations over a 30-year injection and a 30-year post-injection period. The results indicate that the ED-ConvLSTM model outperforms the AE-LSTM model in accurately predicting the spatiotemporal dynamics of CO 2 plume migration, achieving R 2 values above 0.99. To provide a deeper understanding of these model predictions, we employ a gradient-based explanation method on the trained models. This approach provides insights into the influence of input variables on plume migration forecasts and uncovers the underlying prediction mechanisms of the proposed models. Furthermore, we introduce a transfer learning technique, enabling fast and accurate plume migration forecasting in the post-injection phase by leveraging the trained model during the injection phase. This reduces the necessity for extensive data collection or re-training. In conclusion, the methods proposed in our work enhances the performance and interpretability of CO 2 plume migration forecasts, thereby facilitating informed decision-making throughout the entire lifecycle of GCS applications.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Electron–Ion Covariance Reveals Geometry-Resolved Inner-Shell Spectra in CS 2 Photodissociation

The chemical shifts of inner-shell atomic orbitals are highly sensitive to chemical bonding and molecular structure. In evolving systems, however, the spectra of distinct molecular species and geometries overlap, obscuring the underlying chemical dynamics. Here we demonstrate the use of electron–ion covariance analysis to combine the structural sensitivity of Coulomb explosion imaging with inner-shell spectroscopy, yielding geometry-specific spectra of transient and product species. We apply this approach to the excited state dynamics of CS 2 probed by ionization above the S 2p edge. Electron–ion covariance with time- and momentum-selected S + and S 2+ ions isolates distinct S 2p photoelectron spectra for ground-state CS 2 , bent photoexcited CS 2 , the CS photoproduct, and bare atomic sulfur ─ species whose spectra overlap strongly in the channel-averaged measurement. Clear chemical shifts are observed in the covariance photoelectron spectrum for each of these species, all of which are consistent with high-level calculations. Here, by extracting the atomic S contribution to the photoelectron spectrum in a finely time-resolved manner we can disentangle this contribution to the overall time-resolved photoelectron spectrum as the photodissociation proceeds. These results demonstrate the promise of electron–ion covariance as a general approach to geometry-resolved inner-shell spectroscopy, opening a route to tracking structural evolution through chemical shifts in complex photoexcited molecules.

Ionization↗

Full-polarization millimeter wavelength variability of Sagittarius A * during the 2018 EHT campaign

Context. Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, provides a unique laboratory to study accretion dynamics and plasma processes near the event horizon. Aims. We investigated the variability and polarization properties of Sgr A* using ALMA observations during the 2018 Event Horizon Telescope campaign. Methods. We analyzed high-cadence full-polarization light curves from ALMA at millimeter wavelengths, performed time-series analysis, and investigated the temporal behavior during an X-ray flare observed by Chandra on 2018 April 24. The variability characteristics are compared with expectations from standard accretion flow models. Results. We find low variability in total intensity (σ/μ < 10%), but significantly higher variability in linear and circular polarization (∼30% and ∼50%, respectively). A time-series analysis reveals red-noise variability, with power spectral densities between −2 and −3 across all Stokes parameters. Polarized intensity shows stable intra-day timescales, while total intensity exhibits more variable timescales, suggesting distinct emission regions, with polarization likely arising from a coherent structure. On April 24, a statistically significant inter-band delay in polarized intensity coincides with a near-simultaneous X-ray and millimeter peak that deviates from the typical delayed flare scenario. This event also features enhanced millimeter variability and coherent polarization loop evolution. The observed simultaneity challenges standard models of transient synchrotron emission with cooling delays, favoring instead a scenario of continuous energy injection in an optically thin region. Conclusions. Our results offer new constraints on the physical mechanisms driving variability in Sgr A*, and provide key observational input for refining theoretical models of accretion and plasma behavior in the vicinity of supermassive black holes.

Galaxy: center↗

A rapid embodied carbon assessment tool for priority materials

Embodied carbon limits within building materials are a driving factor in global trade, generating new research and analysis tools in industry. These product assessments, which require utilizing life-cycle assessment (LCA) across broad supply chains, can be expensive, time and data-intensive, and subject to significant variations. Existing methods and tools, such as specific environmental product declarations, typically do not capture these variations and dynamics in supply and manufacturing. Moreover, models and tools must enable stakeholders to assess customized supply chains and future scenarios. In this study, we present the Rapid Embodied Carbon Assessment and Target-setting for Emissions-intensive Materials (REDuCE) tool for building materials. We developed a tool that allows users to select production technologies, transportation mode and distances, concrete carbonation, fuel sources, and regional electricity mixes to supply customization for cement and concrete produced and consumed in California. We generated and integrated a material demand model using residential building stock projections. We provide the user with a wide range of mitigation alternatives through low-carbon production pathways, material use efficiency, transportation modes, and projected electricity grid mixes. In a case study application through four mitigation scenarios, we find emission savings up to 80% by maximizing user mitigation alternatives, primarily driven by reductions in material use intensities. This work represents a foundation for expanding LCA and embodied carbon tools to better enable stakeholders to rapidly and accurately assess customized supply chains while meeting trade requirements.

building materials↗

Laser Powder Bed Fusion Additive Manufacturing In-Process Monitoring and Optimization Using Thermionic Emission Detection

In this project, the emission of electrons during laser powder bed fusion additive manufacturing was identified and investigated to resolve the underlying dynamics driven by laser-material interactions. Laser powder bed fusion involves the selective laser melting of metal powder particles layer by layer which fuse together forming a larger 3D structure. Laser-based additive manufacturing approaches such as laser powder bed fusion hold the potential to revolutionize manufacturing of complex metal components in the aerospace, medical, and automotive industries. However, the difficulty in producing defect-free components by metal 3D printing is a major hurdle for widespread commercial adoption. This project resolved important dynamics in laser powder bed fusion including the identification of plasma formation mechanisms, transitions between laser-induced melting modes and stochastic precursors to defect formation. These findings were realized through implementation of electronic sensing diagnostics into an existing testbed system and harnessing capabilities developed for the time dependent analysis of laser powder bed fusion datasets. Importantly, the results advance our understanding of laser-material interactions and reveal that detection of thermionic emission can also resolve information critical to optimization of the laser powder bed fusion fabrication process. The findings are critical for advancing our fundamental understanding of the laser powder bed fusion process and can help assure the requisite fidelity of fabricated components.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Bridging Equipment Reliability Data and Robust Decisions in a Plant Operation Context

In order to reduce operation and maintenance (O&M) costs, nuclear power plants (NPPs) are moving from corrective and periodic maintenance to predictive maintenance strategies. Such transition requires changes on the data that needs to be retrieved and on the type of decision processes to be employed. Advanced monitoring and data analysis technologies are essential to support predictive strategies. They can in fact provide precise information about health of a component, track its degradation trends, and provide information of its expected failure time. With such information, maintenance operations for a component can be performed right before its expected failure time. This dynamic context of O&M operations requires new methods to analyze data, propagate component health information from the component to the system level, and optimize plant resources. In this respect, the risk informed asset management (RIAM) project has been tasked to develop and test this new class of methods into a risk analytics toolset. This toolset consists of data analytics tools coupled with reliability methods designed to manage plant assets and performances in a predictive maintenance context. This report shows the latest improvements on such development and the initial testing of our methods on the three main research areas that the RIAM project is focusing on. These areas are the following: equipment reliability data analytics, system reliability modeling, and plant resources optimization methods. We show how the methods developed in these areas can support predictive maintenance strategies by: 1) analyzing equipment reliability data (either in numeric and textual form), 2) assessing component and system health through an innovative margin-based reliability approach, and 3) identifying the most critical components and set optimal maintenance schedule based on plant economic and operational constraints.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Probabilistic data fusion and physics-informed machine learning: A new paradigm for modeling under uncertainty, and its application to accelerating the discovery of new materials

In this report we summarize the work conducted by PI Perdikaris and his group under this Early Career project DE–SC0019116 during the period of 09/01/2018 – 08/31/2023. The central aim of the work was to introduce a new paradigm for scientific data analysis that can seamlessly synthesize rigorous mathematical modeling with data of variable fidelity (e.g., measurements at multiple scales/resolutions or predictions of variable fidelity models) and multiple modalities (e.g., images, time–series, or scattered measurements). The setting we are interested in involves complex systems that are partially observed and whose dynamical behavior could be hard to model or totally unknown. The inherent uncertainty associated with this setting necessitates a departure from the classical deterministic realm of modeling and scientific computation, and, consequently, our main building blocks can no longer be crisp deterministic numbers and governing laws, but instead we must operate with probabilistic models.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Analyzing the Effects of Atmospheric Turbulent Fluctuations on the Wake Structure of Wind Turbines and Their Blade Vibrational Dynamics

In recent trends, a rising demand for renewable energy has driven wind turbines to larger proportions, where lighter blade designs are often adopted to reduce the costs associated with logistics and production. This causes modern utility-scale wind turbine blades to be inherently more flexible, and their amplified aeroelastic sensitivity results in complex multi-physics reactions to variant atmospheric conditions, including dynamic patterns of aerodynamic loading at the rotor and vortex structure evolutions within the wake. In this paper, we analyze the influence of inflow variance for wind turbines with large, flexible rotors through simulations of the National Rotor Testbed (NRT) turbine, located at Sandia National Labs’ Scaled Wind Farm Technology (SWiFT) facility in Lubbock, Texas. The Common Ordinary Differential Equation Framework (CODEF) modeling suite is used to simulate wind turbine aeroelastic oscillatory behavior and wind farm vortex wake interactions for a range of flexible NRT blade variations, operating in differing conditions of variant atmospheric flow. CODEF solutions of turbine operation in Steady-In-The-Average (SITA) wind conditions are compared to SITA wind conditions featuring a controlled gust-like pulse overimposed, to isolate the effects of typical wind fluctuations. Finally, simulations of realistic time-varying wind conditions from SWiFT meteorological tower measurements are compared to the solutions of SITA wind conditions. These increasingly complex atmospheric inflow variations are tested to show the differing effects evoked by various patterns of spatiotemporal atmospheric flow fluctuations. An analysis is presented for solutions of wind turbine aeroelastic response and vortex wake evolution, to elucidate the consequences of variant inflow, which pertain to wind turbine dynamics at an individual and farm-collective scale. The comparisons of simulated farm flow for SITA and measured fluctuating wind conditions show that certain regions of the wake contain up to a 12% difference in normalized axial velocity, due to the introduction of wind fluctuations. The findings of this study prove valuable for practical applications in wind farm control and optimization strategies, with particular significance for modern utility-scale wind power plants operating in variant atmospheric conditions.

Farrell, Alayna (ORCID:000000023555720X)↗

Deep-Learning-Based Segmentation of Keyhole in In-Situ X-ray Imaging of Laser Powder Bed Fusion

In laser powder bed fusion processes, keyholes are the gaseous cavities formed where laser interacts with metal, and their morphologies play an important role in defect formation and the final product quality. The in-situ X-ray imaging technique can monitor the keyhole dynamics from the side and capture keyhole shapes in the X-ray image stream. Keyhole shapes in X-ray images are then often labeled by humans for analysis, which increasingly involves attempting to correlate keyhole shapes with defects using machine learning. However, such labeling is tedious, time-consuming, error-prone, and cannot be scaled to large data sets. To use keyhole shapes more readily as the input to machine learning methods, an automatic tool to identify keyhole regions is desirable. In this paper, a deep-learning-based computer vision tool that can automatically segment keyhole shapes out of X-ray images is presented. The pipeline contains a filtering method and an implementation of the BASNet deep learning model to semantically segment the keyhole morphologies out of X-ray images. The presented tool shows promising average accuracy of 91.24% for keyhole area, and 92.81% for boundary shape, for a range of test dataset conditions in Al6061 (and one AliSi10Mg) alloys, with 300 training images/labels and 100 testing images for each trial. Prospective users may apply the presently trained tool or a retrained version following the approach used here to automatically label keyhole shapes in large image sets.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Data Management Symposium, Huntsville, Ala., October 18, 19, 1977, Proceedings

The transfer, processing, and use of satellite data are discussed. Topics relating to simulation and processing techniques include computer design assessments through simulation, data system dynamic simulation, and future timing accuracy requirements and procedures for data processing. Subjects relevant to data base management systems and users and their needs include an image-based information system architecture for correlation satellite and topological data base, efficient searching and sorting applications using an associative array processor, analysis of user's needs for a large technical data base, and variable length data formats. The technology development outlook was considered with attention to data systems technology outlook for supporting NASA programs, a user-oriented interactive information extraction system, and flow control and sorting techniques for telemetry packets.

Castelli, A.↗

Methodology for measurement of fault latency in a digital avionic miniprocessor

Investigations regarding the synthesis of a reliability assessment capability for fault-tolerant computer-based systems have been conducted for several years. In 1978 a pilot study was conducted to test the feasibility of measuring detection coverage and investigating the dynamics of fault propagation in a digital computer. A description is presented of an investigation concerned with the applicability of previous results to a real avionics processor. The obtained results show that emulation is a practicable approach to failure modes and effects analysis of a digital processor. The run time of the emulated processor on a PDP-10 host computer is only 20,000 to 25,000 times slower than the actual processor. As a consequence large numbers of faults can be studied at relatively little cost and in a timely manner.

Mcgough, J. G.↗

Nonlinear dynamic analysis of deploying flexible space booms

The dynamics of the planar deployment and lock-up of two flexible boom-type appendages on a spacecraft are analyzed by establishing nonlinear equations of motion for the deployment phase and linear for the post-lock-up phase. Nondimensional parameters and threshold values are identified in terms of boom tip deflections, deployment time and root moments for appendages with tip masses attached to a central rigid body through a rotational spring; an account is taken of the nonlinear kinematic and structural terms. It was found that, in general, the solution is influenced only by two mass ratios and one nondimensional stiffness parameter.

Mcgowan, P. E.↗

Real-time open-loop frequency response analysis of flight test data

A technique has been developed to compare the open-loop frequency response of a flight test aircraft real time with linear analysis predictions. The result is direct feedback to the flight control systems engineer on the validity of predictions and adds confidence for proceeding with envelope expansion. Further, gain and phase margins can be tracked for trends in a manner similar to the techniques used by structural dynamics engineers in tracking structural modal damping.

Bosworth, J. T.↗

Data processing and case study analysis of thunderstorm studies

A case study analysis of the anvil top structure of a May 19,1984, thunderstorm was performed. Wind data were both listed and plotted as time series of direction, horizontal velocity, and vertical velocity. A two-dimensional display of the horizontal winds along the flight track was also provided. The microphysical, dynamic, and thermodynamic characteristics of the overshooting tops and the downwind cirrus anvil top were studied. This included spatial and temporal distributions of cloud particle types and concentrations, horizontal and vertical wind in the cloud and its vinicity, and profiles of thermodynamic parameters.

Poellot, M. R.↗