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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 199 records · Page 11
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Power Quality and Load Capacity Evaluations of an Electric Vehicle for Multi-Robot System Applications

This paper evaluates the capability of a fully electric pickup truck, using the Ford F-150 Lightning as an example, to provide power to the circuit of a multi-robot system. The case study was conducted on a simulated INL Autonomous Pit Exploration System (APES) designed for the inspection of nuclear waste tank pits. Through a series of controlled tests, the vehicle’s power delivery consistency, load-handling capability, and battery performance were assessed under various conditions. First of all, the load test demonstrated that the vehicle provided stable power with low distortion and no unexpected interruptions. Second, during the operational limit test, the 240V system sustained loads up to 7.4 kW before tripping, providing insights into its operational limits. Last but not least, during a simulated full-scale APES operation, the vehicle’s battery depleted by only 6% over an hour, indicating sufficient capacity for extended use while retaining reserve power for transportation needs. This study highlights the potential of electric vehicles as reliable power sources for field operations, contributing to the advancement of sustainable technologies by reducing reliance on traditional fossil fuel generators and promoting the integration of clean energy solutions in remote and challenging environments.

Electric vehicle↗
DOE OSTI2025

IEEE SusTech 2025 Presentation

This paper evaluates the capability of a fully electric pickup truck, using the Ford F-150 Lightning as an example, to provide power to the circuit of a multi-robot system. The case study was conducted on a simulated INL Autonomous Pit Exploration System (APES) designed for the inspection of nuclear waste tank pits. Through a series of controlled tests, the vehicle’s power delivery consistency, load-handling capability, and battery performance were assessed under various conditions. First of all, the load test demonstrated that the vehicle provided stable power with low distortion and no unexpected interruptions. Second, during the operational limit test, the 240V system sustained loads up to 7.4 kW before tripping, providing insights into its operational limits. Last but not least, during a simulated full-scale APES operation, the vehicle’s battery depleted by only 6\% over an hour, indicating sufficient capacity for extended use while retaining reserve power for transportation needs. This study highlights the potential of electric vehicles as reliable power sources for field operations, contributing to the advancement of sustainable technologies by reducing reliance on traditional fossil fuel generators and promoting the integration of clean energy solutions in remote and challenging environments.

42 - ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2025

A Novel Manufacturing Process of Lightweight Automotive Seats: Integration of Additive Manufacturing and Reinforced Polymer Composite

Lightweight automotive seats offer multiple benefits to original equipment manufacturers in terms of cost savings from various aspects, including less material usage, more integrated processes, and compliance with Corporate Average Fuel Economy Standards. Original equipment manufacturers have been focusing on innovative ways to produce light weight automotive seats. The commercially available automotive seats are currently made of multiple metal components combined through welding and fasteners. The use of additive manufacturing and composite structures is particularly useful for light weighting the automotive components. Additive manufacturing (AM) offers multiple advantages over traditional manufacturing processes such as freedom of design thereby enabling complex structural geometries, mass customization and waste minimization, and control over the fiber alignment through deposition in a predetermined pattern. Combining metal inserts with polymer composites through a novel manufacturing process allows design of lightweight and high-performance materials for automotive components.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Performance assessment of 3D printed multi-material energy absorber for automotive bumper: pedestrian lower extremity protection

Designing an energy absorber for automotive bumpers involves balancing low-speed and high-speed impacts to ensure safety, reduce repair costs, and meet regulatory standards. Here, this study explores a novel design using multi-material 3D printing and structural optimization to fabricate a lightweight and cost-efficient energy absorber. The design effectively dissipates energy in low-speed collisions and minimizes force transmission in high-speed pedestrain impacts, helping to meet both safety and performance requirements. The energy absorber design combines 20% carbon fiber-reinforced acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (CF-ABS) and thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) for optimal stiffness and flexibility. It uses 3D-printed lattice structures optimized through finite element simulations to help meet both low-speed and high-speed impact requirements. Full-scale energy absorbers were 3D-printed using optimized CF-ABS/TPU blends and tested under high-speed impact using the Flexible Pedestrian Legform Impactor (Flex-PLI). For fair comparison, a baseline bumper with a traditional triangular lattice structure, also 3D-printed from the same CF-ABS/TPU materials, was similarly tested. Interestingly, both the optimized and baseline 3D-printed energy absorbers showed nearly identical performance, successfully meeting injury limits. Their performances were also benchmarked against an injection-molded energy absorber. While both 3D-printed and injection-molded designs met injury limits, the 3D-printed absorber exhibited a higher tibia bending moment, indicating an opportunity for further optimization. A Techno-Economic Analysis compared the costs of producing energy absorbers using traditional manufacturing and 3D printing. The analysis highlighted that 3D printing offers cost benefits for low to medium production volumes, with the total cost per energy absorber at ∼ $\$$74, compared to traditional methods that become economical beyond 2000 units.

Additive manufacturing↗
DOE OSTI2025

Macro-micro multiscale modeling to assist the design of HPDC Al castings microstructure and alloys for EV super-large body structures (Phase 1)

Implementation of High Pressure Die Casting (HPDC) Aluminum (Al) body structures for high volume electrified vehicles (EV) to improve electric efficiency remains a key strategy within many original equipment manufacturers (OEM)s. In addition to high strength for safety requirements, superior Self Piercing Riveting (SPR) performance is demanded for HPDC Al alloys to be compatible with high volume SPR joining. In this work, it is proposed to extend and validate an existing Contractor finite element multiscale macro-micro modeling approach to quantify the influence of the microstructure of HPDC alloys on the fracture strain/displacement under 3-point bend and clinch testing. The success of this work will allow to replace solution treatment stage with low energy consumption heat treatment (HT) processes, or to design new non heat treatable (NHT) HPDC Al alloys to eliminate HT requirements. Ultimately, this project will facilitate the application of HPDC Al alloys for super-large vehicle structures to significantly reduce vehicle weight and thus improving energy efficiency. The purpose of this project is to extend and validate an existing f

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Develop a new integrated macro→micro←nano (MMN) multiscale modeling framework to optimize high strength aluminum alloys and processes for vehicle light-weighting​

Bending tests provide a means to study plane strain fracture performance of 6000 series aluminum alloys. Metrics from bending tests have been correlated with self-pierce riveting (SPR) performance of a high strength AA6111 automotive aluminum alloy in previous works. Using the ORNL HPC resources, this project developed an innovative macro→micro←nano (MMN) multiscale microstructure-based finite element (FE) code to further the understanding of microstructural relationship to fracture properties of high strength 6000 series alloys.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Macro-micro multiscale modeling to assist the design of HPDC Al castings microstructure and alloys for EV super-large body structures (Phase 1)

Implementation of High Pressure Die Casting (HPDC) Aluminum (Al) body structures for high volume electrified vehicles (EV) to improve electric efficiency remains a key strategy within many original equipment manufacturer (OEM)s. In addition to high strength for safety requirements, superior Self-Piercing Riveting (SPR) performance is demanded for HPDC Al alloys to be compatible with high volume SPR joining. In this work, it is proposed to extend and validate an existing Contractor finite element multiscale macro-micro modeling approach to quantify the influence of the microstructure of HPDC alloys on the fracture strain/displacement under 3-point bend and clinch testing. The success of this work will allow to replace solution treatment stage with low energy consumption heat treatment (HT) processes, or to design new non heat treatable (NHT) HPDC Al alloys to eliminate HT requirements. Ultimately, this project will facilitate the application of HPDC Al alloys for super-large vehicle structures to significantly reduce vehicle weight, and thus improving energy efficiency. The purpose of this project is to extend and validate an existing finite element code, which is based on the Contractor developed macro-micro multi-scale modeling approach, to numerically simulate the three-point bending and clinch test and study the influences of material microstructural characteristics and phase properties on the rivetability. The macro-micro modeling approach begins with a sample scale model and identify the location, which is mostly prone to failure, the deformation history of the boundaries of that location calculated will be used to drive a microstructure-based sub-models where the material microstructure and microscale properties are considered. Using this approach, the wrap-bending failure for two Al alloys are correctly predicted for the first time. This will start with phase I effort of building a framework of macro-micro three point bending test and clinch test of Al10SiMgMn HPDC alloy in the as-cast and T7 heat treated conditions. Those results will then be validated with experimental test results. The phase II effort will involve the utilization of the knowledge learned in phase I to establish the quantitative correlation between the microstructure characteristics and the riveting performance, which will be further used to guide the optimization of HPDC Al alloy microstructure using heat treatment process to achieve sufficient rivetability to join large thin-wall HPDC alloys.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Use of Captured CO2 for Production of Sustainable Polyurethane Foams in Automotive Applications

Captured CO2 has been investigated as a feedstock for the production of polyurethane (PU) foams for automotive applications. Previous work has shown successful incorporation of CO2 into polyols via three distinct reaction pathways. These CO2-derived polyols, as well as several commercially available polyols with varying CO2 content, were used to produce PU foams for automotive seating and NVH (noise, vibration, and harshness) applications. Foam formulations were optimized to maximize sustainable content while maintaining manufacturability constraints and performance requirements for each end use application. PU foams were first formulated at lab scale to confirm free rise and molded foam properties, then scaled up to pilot and industrial scales to evaluate production manufacturing feasibility. Finally, CO2-derived foams were used to produce molded components for end use product validation. Life cycle assessment (LCA) was used to quantify the environmental impact of using captured CO2 and bio-renewable content into polyols and PU foams through the metrics of global warming potential and embodied energy. Tradeoffs among environmental impacts, energy usage, manufacturability, and PU foam performance from the incorporation of CO2 and bio-renewable content will be discussed.

Lee, Ellen [Ford Motor Company]↗
DOE OSTI2026

The Interstellar Mapping And Acceleration Probe High Energy (IMAP-Hi) Neutral Atom Imager

The IMAP-Hi Energetic Neutral Atom (ENA) Imager on NASA’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) mission (McComas et al. 2018a, 2025) is designed to measure ENAs from the global interaction between the heliosphere and the local interstellar medium (LISM). These ENAs are initially plasma ions of solar wind origin that are neutralized by charge exchange with the cold neutral atoms of LISM that freely flow through the heliosphere-LISM interaction region. IMAP-Hi consists of two identical single-pixel sensors, each covering the ENA spectral range from 0.44 keV to 15.6 keV over nine contiguous energy passbands and having an approximately conical field-of-view (FOV) of 4.1o full width at half maximum (FWHM). The Hi-45 sensor points 45o relative to the spacecraft spin axis from the antisunward direction; each spacecraft spin, it measures ENA intensity over a circular swath with half-cone angle 45o centered on the ecliptic plane. The Hi-90 sensor points 90o relative to the spin axis; each spacecraft spin, it measures ENA intensity over a great circle in the sky, sampling both the north and south ecliptic poles. As the IMAP spin vector is re-pointed daily toward the Sun, the ecliptic longitude of the swaths moves daily by ∼1o such that a full sky map is acquired by Hi-90 every six months and a complete low latitude (−45o to +45o) map is acquired by Hi-45 annually. The IMAP-Hi sensor design has direct heritage from the IBEX-Hi imager on the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) mission, with substantial improvements in energy range, energy resolution, angular resolution, signal-to-noise ratio, and, for ecliptic latitudes within ±45o, temporal resolution and exposure time. The global ENA maps acquired by IMAP-Hi partially overlap in energy and viewing with the ENA maps acquired by the IMAP-Lo and IMAP-Ultra ENA imagers, which we combine to answer fundamental questions about the structure and dynamics of the interaction of the heliosphere and the LISM.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Circular economy pathways for decarbonizing aluminum and steel automotive body sheet components in the United States

Decarbonizing vehicle production is essential to reducing automotive sector emissions. This study quantifies greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from aluminum and steel auto-body sheet components produced in the US. It evaluates the effectiveness of circular economy (CE) strategies (greater closed-loop recycling of pre-consumer scrap, post-consumer scrap, and increased manufacturing yields) to reduce supply chain emissions across different process technology and electricity grid decarbonization pathways. We combine dynamic material flow analysis (2025–2050) with cradle-to-gate life-cycle modeling to assess production emissions and the potential reductions associated with the CE strategies under frozen, moderate, and aggressive technology and grid decarbonization scenarios. Current emissions intensities are estimated at approximately 12.3 kg.CO₂eq/kg of aluminum and 4.3 kg.CO₂eq/kg of steel sheet embedded in the vehicle. Under the frozen decarbonization scenario and current levels of circularity, annual emissions attributable to US aluminum and steel auto-body sheet supply chains could rise by 54 % and 18 % respectively by 2050. Rapid deployment of the CE strategies can cut these annual emissions in 2050 by 52 % for aluminum and 44 % for steel. However, scrap quality constraints lead to saturation points, limiting these benefits unless addressed. Aggressive deployment of low-carbon production technologies and a low-carbon grid reduces the relative benefit of implementing the CE strategies; however, even under the aggressive technology and grid decarbonization scenario, the CE strategies reduce annual emissions by a further 23 %-54 % by 2050. These findings highlight the urgent need to integrate CE strategies into the sheet metal supply chain to support decarbonization efforts and help meet climate targets.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2022

Reconfigurable Electrical Networks within a Conductive Hydrogel Composite

Soft materials that exhibit compliance, programmability, and reconfigurability can have a transformative impact as electronic skin for applications in wearable electronics/soft robotics. There has been significant progress in soft conductive materials; however, achieving electrically controlled and reversible changes in conductivity and circuit connectivity remains challenging. To overcome this limitation, a soft material architecture with reconfigurable conductive networks of silver flakes embedded within a hydrogel matrix is presented. The conductive networks can be reversibly created/disconnected through various stimuli, including current, humidity, or temperature. Such stimuli affect electrical connectivity of the hydrogel by controlling its water content, which can be modulated by evaporation under ambient conditions (passive dehydration), evaporation through electrical Joule heating (active dehydration), or absorption of additional water (rehydration). The resulting change in electrical conductivity is reversible and repeatable, endowing the composite with on-demand reconfigurable conductivity. To highlight this material's unique properties, it is shown that conductive traces can be reconfigured after severe damage and revert to lower conductivity after rehydration. Additionally, a quadruped robot is demonstrated that can respond to stimuli by changing direction following exposure to excess water, thereby achieving reprogrammable locomotion behaviors.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

3D Printing of Transparent Silicone Elastomers

Here in this paper, inks for transparent elastomers that are formulated by matching the refractive index of silica and polysiloxanes are described. The transparent inks transmit up to ≈90% of 700 nm light through 1 cm and remain transparent when solidified. The inks and solidified materials exhibit a thermochromic effect. This thermochromic effect can be controlled by the refractive index mismatch. Transparency may increase or decrease as temperature increases, depending on the refractive index mismatch of the base polysiloxane and silica. It is found that the rheological properties of the ink depend on the distribution of silica particles, which is dictated by silica functionality, weight content, and processing. Siloxane precursors that vary in chemical functionality are introduced to tailor the mechanical properties of the printed elastomers, which obtain stretchability >65% along with a tensile modulus of 1.9 MPa. After optimizing siloxane chemistry and ink processing, the authors are able to print transparent elastomers. Potential applications are demonstrated for printed structures by printing encapsulation structures for light-emitting diodes, semitransparent dye-filled structures, a microfluidic mixing device, and a multimaterial structure that exhibits temperature-dependent camouflage.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Tunable Metamaterials for Impact Mitigation

Traditional methods of shielding fragile goods and human tissues from impact energy rely on isotropic foam materials. The mechanical properties of these foams are inferior to an emerging class of metamaterials called plate lattices, which have predominantly been fabricated in simple 2.5-dimensional geometries using conventional methods that constrain the feasible design space. Here in this work, additive manufacturing is used to relax these constraints and realize plate lattice metamaterials with nontrivial, locally varying geometry. The limitations of traditional computer-aided design tools are circumvented and allow the simulation of complex buckling and collapse behaviors without a manual meshing step. By validating these simulations against experimental data from tests on fabricated samples, sweeping exploration of the plate lattice design space is enabled. Numerical and experimental tests demonstrate plate lattices absorb up to six times more impact energy at equivalent densities relative to foams and shield objects from impacts ten times more energetic while transmitting equivalent peak stresses. In contrast to previous investigations of plate lattice metamaterials, designs with nonuniform geometric prebuckling in the out-of-plane direction is explored and showed that these designs exhibit 10% higher energy absorption efficiency on average and 25% higher in the highest-performing design.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗