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At least 199 records · Page 11

Advanced aircraft engine materials trends

Recent activities of the Lewis Research Center are reviewed which are directed toward developing materials for rotating hot section components for aircraft gas turbines. Turbine blade materials activities are directed at increasing metal temperatures approximately 100 C compared to current directionally solidified alloys by use of oxide dispersion strengthening or tungsten alloy wire reinforcement of nickel or iron base superalloys. The application of thermal barrier coatings offers a promise of increasing gas temperatures an additional 100 C with current cooling technology. For turbine disk alloys, activities are directed toward reducing the cost of turbine disks by 50 percent through near net shape fabrication of prealloyed powders as well as towards improved performance. In addition, advanced alloy concepts and fabrication methods for dual alloy disks are being studied as having potential for improving the life of future high performance disks and reducing the amount of strategic materials required in these components.

Dreshfield, R. L.↗

Assessing carbon storage capacity and saturation across six central US grasslands using data–model integration

Abstract. Future global changes will impact carbon (C) fluxes and pools in most terrestrial ecosystems and the feedback of terrestrial carbon cycling to atmospheric CO2. Determining the vulnerability of C in ecosystems to future environmental change is thus vital for targeted land management and policy. The C capacity of an ecosystem is a function of its C inputs (e.g., net primary productivity – NPP) and how long C remains in the system before being respired back to the atmosphere. The proportion of C capacity currently stored by an ecosystem (i.e., its C saturation) provides information about the potential for long-term C pools to be altered by environmental and land management regimes. We estimated C capacity, C saturation, NPP, and ecosystem C residence time in six US grasslands spanning temperature and precipitation gradients by integrating high temporal resolution C pool and flux data with a process-based C model. As expected, NPP across grasslands was strongly correlated with mean annual precipitation (MAP), yet C residence time was not related to MAP or mean annual temperature (MAT). We link soil temperature, soil moisture, and inherent C turnover rates (potentially due to microbial function and tissue quality) as determinants of carbon residence time. Overall, we found that intermediates between extremes in moisture and temperature had low C saturation, indicating that C in these grasslands may trend upwards and be buffered against global change impacts. Hot and dry grasslands had greatest C saturation due to both small C inputs through NPP and high C turnover rates during soil moisture conditions favorable for microbial activity. Additionally, leaching of soil C during monsoon events may lead to C loss. C saturation was also high in tallgrass prairie due to frequent fire that reduced inputs of aboveground plant material. Accordingly, we suggest that both hot, dry ecosystems and those frequently disturbed should be subject to careful land management and policy decisions to prevent losses of C stored in these systems.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Submarine Volcanic Eruptions and Potential Analogs for Venus

As part of an analysis program to better understand the diversity of volcanic processes on the terrestrial planets, an investigation of the volcanic landforms which exist on the Earth's ocean floor was initiated. In part, this analysis is focused toward gaining a better understanding of submarine volcanic landforms in their own right, but also it is hoped that these features may show similarities to volcanic landforms on Venus, due to the high ambient water (Earth) and atmospheric (Venus) pressures. A series of numerical modelling experiments was performed to investigate the relative importance of such attributes as water pressure and temperature on the eruption process, and to determine the rate of cooling and emplacement of lava flows in the submarine environment. Investigations to date show that the confining water pressure and the buoyancy effects of the surrounding water significantly affect the styles of volcanism on the ocean floor. In the case of Venusian volcanism, confining pressures will not be as great as that found at the ocean's abyssal plains, but nevertheless the general trend toward reducing magma vesiculation will hold true for Venus as well as the ocean floor. Furthermore, other analogs may also be found between submarine volcanism and Venusian activity.

Wilson, L.↗

Atmospheric Composition Change: Climate-Chemistry Interactions

Chemically active climate compounds are either primary compounds such as methane (CH4), removed by oxidation in the atmosphere, or secondary compounds such as ozone (O3), sulfate and organic aerosols, formed and removed in the atmosphere. Man-induced climate-chemistry interaction is a two-way process: Emissions of pollutants change the atmospheric composition contributing to climate change through the aforementioned climate components, and climate change, through changes in temperature, dynamics, the hydrological cycle, atmospheric stability, and biosphere-atmosphere interactions, affects the atmospheric composition and oxidation processes in the troposphere. Here we present progress in our understanding of processes of importance for climate-chemistry interactions, and their contributions to changes in atmospheric composition and climate forcing. A key factor is the oxidation potential involving compounds such as O3 and the hydroxyl radical (OH). Reported studies represent both current and future changes. Reported results include new estimates of radiative forcing based on extensive model studies of chemically active climate compounds such as O3, and of particles inducing both direct and indirect effects. Through EU projects such as ACCENT, QUANTIFY, and the AEROCOM project, extensive studies on regional and sector-wise differences in the impact on atmospheric distribution are performed. Studies have shown that land-based emissions have a different effect on climate than ship and aircraft emissions, and different measures are needed to reduce the climate impact. Several areas where climate change can affect the tropospheric oxidation process and the chemical composition are identified. This can take place through enhanced stratospheric-tropospheric exchange of ozone, more frequent periods with stable conditions favouring pollution build up over industrial areas, enhanced temperature-induced biogenic emissions, methane releases from permafrost thawing, and enhanced concentration through reduced biospheric uptake. During the last 510 years, new observational data have been made available and used for model validation and the study of atmospheric processes. Although there are significant uncertainties in the modelling of composition changes, access to new observational data has improved modelling capability. Emission scenarios for the coming decades have a large uncertainty range, in particular with respect to regional trends, leading to a significant uncertainty range in estimated regional composition changes and climate impact.

Atmosphere climate chemistry↗

Climate Change Implications to Vegetation Production in Alaska

Investigation of long-term meteorological satellite data revealed statistically significant vegetation response to climate drivers of temperature, precipitation and solar radiation with exclusion of fire disturbance in Alaska. Abiotic trends were correlated to satellite remote sensing observations of normalized difference vegetation index to understand biophysical processes that could impact ecosystem carbon storage. Warming resulted in disparate trajectories for vegetation growth due to precipitation and photosynthetically active radiation variation. Interior spruce forest low lands in late summer through winter had precipitation deficit which resulted in extensive fire disturbance and browning of undisturbed vegetation with reduced post-fire recovery while Northern slope moist alpine tundra had increased production due to warmer-wetter conditions during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Coupled investigation of Alaska s vegetation response to warming climate found spatially dynamic abiotic processes with vegetation browning not a result from increased fire disturbance.

Neigh, Christopher S.R.↗

Myocardial correlates of helium-cold induction and maintenance of hypothermia.

Hypothermia was induced in the golden hamster Mesocricetus auratus, using the helium-cold method. The first group of hamsters was sacrificed immediately after induction to rectal temperature 7 C, a second group was sacrificed after being maintained at a body temperature of 7 C for 18-24 hr, and a third group consisted of unexposed controls. The hearts were excised and the ventricles analyzed for hypoxic damage, glycogen, and catecholamines. In the short-term hypothermic animals, resting tension was increased while peak isometric tension, generated tension after 10 min of anoxic exposure, glycogen, and catecholamines were all reduced. All of the functional parameters recovered in the long-term hypothermic group, while glycogen and catecholamines showed a trend toward recovery. It is concluded that myocardial hypoxia develops during induction into hypothermia when using the helium-cold method. This effect is reversible and hypoxic damage does not increase as the hypothermic exposure is prolonged.

Anderson, G. L.↗

Depolymerization of Vinyl Polymers

Depolymerization is a promising approach to reduce plastic waste by regenerating monomers from polymers, presenting a compelling solution to maintain a circular polymer economy. However, vinyl polymers with all-carbon backbones are especially difficult to depolymerize due to significant thermodynamic and kinetic barriers. Developments in reversible-deactivation radical polymerization and catalytic methods demonstrate how tuning polymer structure and reaction conditions can address these challenges. This Viewpoint revisits early studies on radical depolymerization and recent advances enabling monomer recovery at lower temperatures. Exciting current trends to utilize depolymerization as a strategy for tuning polymer material properties and upcycling waste polymer to high-value products are discussed. Finally, we outline key directions to make vinyl polymer depolymerization scalable, efficient, and economically viable.

depolymerization↗

Are Stronger North-Atlantic Southwesterlies the Forcing to the Late-Winter Warming in Europe?

We examine a possible mechanism leading to late-winter warming and thus to an early spring in Europe. From the NCEP Reanalysis, we extract for the years 1948-1999 ocean-surface winds over the eastern North Atlantic, and air temperatures at the surface, T(sub s), and at the 500 mb level, T(sub 500), in late-winter and spring. T(sub s) is extracted at six European locations, all at 50.5 N, ranging in longitude from 1.9 E (northeastern France) to 26.2 E (Ukraine). To quantify the advection of maritime air into Europe, we evaluate for 3-pentad groups the Index I(sub na) of the southwesterlies at 45 N; 20 W: I(sub na) is the average wind speed at this point if the direction is from the quadrant 180-270 deg (when the direction is different, the contribution counts as zero). In late winter correlations C(sub it) between the Index I(sub na) and the temperature T(sub s) are substantial, up to the 0.6 level, in western Europe (but weaker correlations for Poland and Ukraine). C(sub it) drops sharply by mid-March, taking occasionally negative values subsequently. This drop in C(sub it) indicates that maritime air advection is no longer associated closely with the surface-air warming, the role of immolation becomes important, and thus the drop in C(sub it) marks the arrival of spring. Correlations C(sub i delta) between I(sub na) and our lapse-rate parameter delta, the difference between T(sub s) and T(sub 500), indicate that the flow of warm maritime-air from the North Atlantic into this 'corridor' at 50.5 N is predominantly at low tropospheric level. By computing the best linear fit to I(sub na) and T(sub s), the trends for the period 1948-1999 are evaluated. The trends are appreciable in the second half of February and the first half of March. Our 3-pentad analysis points to the interval from mid-February to mid-March as the end-of-winter period in which the southwesterlies over the eastern North Atlantic become stronger and the surface-air temperatures in Europe rise markedly, the lapse rate becomes steeper, and concurrently the longitudinal temperature gradient between the Somme (France) and the Oder (Germany/Poland border) is reduced by 0.8 C, that is, by 20% of its 1948 value. Our thesis, that the observed late-winter warming and the corollary advancement of spring in Europe resulted at least in part from stronger southwesterlies over the North Atlantic, merits further investigations.

Otterman, J.↗

Projected Impact of Climate Change on the Energy Budget of the Arctic Ocean by a Global Climate Model

The annual energy budget of the Arctic Ocean is characterized by a net heat loss at the air-sea interface that is balanced by oceanic heat transport into the Arctic. The energy loss at the air-sea interface is due to the combined effects of radiative, sensible, and latent heat fluxes. The inflow of heat by the ocean can be divided into two components: the transport of water masses of different temperatures between the Arctic and the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and the export of sea ice, primarily through Fram Strait. Two 150-year simulations (1950-2099) of a global climate model are used to examine how this balance might change if atmospheric greenhouse gases (GHGs) increase. One is a control simulation for the present climate with constant 1950 atmospheric composition, and the other is a transient experiment with observed GHGs from 1950 to 1990 and 0.5% annual compounded increases of CO2 after 1990. For the present climate the model agrees well with observations of radiative fluxes at the top of the atmosphere, atmospheric advective energy transport into the Arctic, and surface air temperature. It also simulates the seasonal cycle and summer increase of cloud cover and the seasonal cycle of sea-ice cover. In addition, the changes in high-latitude surface air temperature and sea-ice cover in the GHG experiment are consistent with observed changes during the last 40 and 20 years, respectively. Relative to the control, the last 50-year period of the GHG experiment indicates that even though the net annual incident solar radiation at the surface decreases by 4.6 W(per square meters) (because of greater cloud cover and increased cloud optical depth), the absorbed solar radiation increases by 2.8 W(per square meters) (because of less sea ice). Increased cloud cover and warmer air also cause increased downward thermal radiation at the surface so that the net radiation into the ocean increases by 5.0 Wm-2. The annual increase in radiation into the ocean, however, is compensated by larger increases in sensible and latent heat fluxes out of the ocean. Although the net energy loss from the ocean surface increases by 0.8 W (per square meters), this is less than the interannual variability, and the increase may not indicate a long-term trend. The seasonal cycle of heat fluxes is significantly enhanced. The downward surface heat flux increases in summer (maximum 2 of 19 W per square meters or 23% in June) while the upward heat flux increases in winter (maximum of 16 W per square meters or 28% in November). The increased downward flux in summer is due to a combination of increases in absorbed solar and thermal radiation and smaller losses of sensible and latent heat. The increased heat loss in winter is due to increased sensible and latent heat fluxes, which in turn are due to reduced sea-ice cover. On the other hand, the seasonal cycle of surface air temperature is damped, as there is a large increase in winter temperature but little change in summer.

Miller, James R.↗

Surface Ozone Variability and Trends over the South African Highveld from 1990 to 2007

Surface ozone is a secondary air pollutant formed from reactions between nitrogen oxides (NOx = NO + NO2) and volatile organic compounds in the presence of sunlight. In this work we examine effects of the climate pattern known as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and NOx variability on surface ozone from 1990 to 2007 over the South African Highveld, a heavily populated region in South Africa with numerous industrial facilities. Over summer and autumn (December-May) on the Highveld, El Niño, as signified by positive sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies over the central Pacific Ocean, is typically associated with drier and warmer than normal conditions favoring ozone formation. Conversely, La Niña, or negative SST anomalies over the central Pacific Ocean, is typically associated with cloudier and above normal rainfall conditions, hindering ozone production. We use a generalized regression model to identify any linear dependence that the Highveld ozone, measured at five air quality monitoring stations, may have on ENSO and NOx. Our results indicate that four out of the five stations exhibit a statistically significant sensitivity to ENSO at some point over the December-May period where El Niño amplifies ozone formation and La Niña reduces ozone formation. Three out of the five stations reveal statistically significant sensitivity to NOx variability, primarily in winter and spring. Accounting for ENSO and NOx effects throughout the study period of 18 years, two stations exhibit statistically significant negative ozone trends in spring, one station displays a statistically significant positive trend in August, and two stations show no statistically significant change in surface ozone.

NOx↗

Long-Term Trends for Marine Sulfur Aerosol in the Alaskan Arctic and Relationships With Temperature

Marine aerosol plays a vital role in cloud-aerosol interactions during summer in the Arctic. The recent rise in temperature and decrease in sea ice extent have the potential to impact marine biogenic sources. Compounds like methanesulfonic acid (MSA) and non-sea-salt sulfate (nss-SO 4 2- ), oxidation products of dimethyl sulfide (DMS) emitted by marine primary producers, are likely to increase in concentration. Long-term studies are vital to understand these changes in marine sulfur aerosol and potential interactions with Arctic climate. Samples were collected over three summers at two coastal sites on the North Slope of Alaska (Utqiagvik and Oliktok Point). MSA concentrations followed previously reported seasonal trends, with evidence of high marine primary productivity influencing both sites. When added to an additional data set collected at Utqiagvik, an increase in MSA concentration of + 2.5% per year and an increase in nss-SO 4 2- of + 2.1% per year are observed for the summer season over the 20-year record (1998–2017). This study identifies ambient air temperature as a strong factor for MSA, likely related to a combination of interrelated factors including warmer sea surface temperature, reduced sea ice, and temperature-dependent chemical reactions. Analysis of individual particles at Oliktok Point, within the North Slope of Alaska oil fields, showed evidence of condensation of MSA onto anthropogenic particles, highlighting the connection between marine and oil field emissions and secondary organic aerosol. Finally, this study shows the continued importance of understanding MSA in the Arctic while highlighting the need for further research into its seasonal relationship with organic carbon.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

A Curious Year on Mars - Long-Term Thermal Trends for Mars Science Laboratory Rover's First Martian Year

By the time of this writing, Curiosity, the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Rover, has weathered four seasons in Gale Crater, just south of and approaching the foothills of the 5-km high Aeolis Mons, known as "Mount Sharp," at 4.59 deg south latitude. The mission design included a much broader latitude range of 30 deg north to 30 deg south constraining some of the Rover environmental requirements and operations. To date, Curiosity has relayed over 150 MB of thermal telemetry. Curiosity has relayed over 150 MB of thermal telemetry through four seasons. The trends and idiosyncrasies revealed through four seasons of telemetry from Mars are discussed. The better-characterized thermal environment allows for less conservatism in operational models and increases the amount of science data collection. Examples include: the elimination of overheating concerns for some cameras and the use of the previous sol's temperature telemetry along with the conservative soak temperature curve from the winter thermal model, to produce a custom heating prescription for the upcoming weeks thus increasing operation time and reducing heating times. This paper discusses the lessons learned for Rover operation as well as general idiosyncrasies discovered about the local environment-such as the effect of orientation on subsystem temperature variation, a regular morning and afternoon wind, ground and air microclimates with distinct temperature differences from other terrain, and how the Rover affects the local environment. This paper further documents and explains some of the interesting highs and lows of the temperature telemetry data as well as offers explanations for sudden temperature changes on board the Rover.

HRS↗

Experimental Study on Flow Condensation of Low Global Warming Potential Refrigerants in a Micro-fin Aluminum Tube

This study investigates the dynamic shifts in refrigerant technologies driven by environmental regulations, particularly emphasizing low global warming potential (GWP). Moreover, there is a rising trend in the adoption of aluminum tubes with internal axial micro-fin structures in heat exchangers to reduce costs. The research focuses on the condensation process within an expanded axial micro-fin aluminum tube with a 5.96 mm fin-tip diameter. Various refrigerants are analyzed, including both single compounds (R-32, R-1234yf, R-1234ze(E)) and zeotropic mixtures (R-454B, R-454C, R-455A). Experimental procedures cover a range of condensation temperatures (35~45 °C), reduced pressures (0.21~0.55), and mass fluxes (150~350 kg/(m² s)), providing crucial data on heat transfer coefficients (HTC) and frictional pressure gradient (FPG). This data is particularly significant for high-glide refrigerants and is instrumental in the design of advanced air conditioning and refrigeration systems aimed at mitigating global warming.

Hu, Yifeng↗

The Effects of a 1998 Observing System Change on MERRA-2-Based Ozone Profile Simulations

Model simulations of ozone (O3) driven by meteorological reanalyses are useful for filling observational gaps and interpreting observed O3 variability and trends. However, the transport circulation of reanalysis products is impacted by changes to the observing system (the data assimilated into the reanalyses). We examine the impacts of these changes on simulated O3 from two models, Global Modeling Initiative (GMI) Chemistry Transport Model (GMI CTM) and Modern‐Era Retrospective Analysis for Research Applications version 2 (MERRA‐2) GMI Replay (M2 GMI Replay) simulation, using observations from global ozonesondes (>50,000 profiles) and satellites from 1980 to 2016. Both models are constrained by meteorology from the NASA MERRA‐2 reanalysis, and both use versions of NASA's GMI chemical mechanism. We focus on an observing system change affecting simulated O3 after 1998, associated with the assimilation of temperature and humidity data from new microwave profiling satellites. A large post‐1998 O3 increase, mainly confined to 15–20‐km altitude, of ~10 Dobson units (DU) in midlatitudes occurs in the GMI CTM, worsening the bias compared to observations. In contrast, an increase in M2 GMI Replay simulation O3 of ~10 DU is observed only near −60° latitude, reducing the bias compared to observations. The GMI CTM O3 high biases display a Quasi‐Biennial Oscillation (QBO)‐like periodicity that result from excessive transport from the tropical stratosphere to the midlatitude lower stratosphere during the QBO westerly phase. We quantify O3 discontinuities caused by MERRA‐2 observing system changes and demonstrate how the MERRA‐2 Global Modeling Initiative Replay simulation dampens the effects of these changes and QBO‐driven artifacts on simulated lower stratospheric and total O3. We caution against using simulations driven by a reanalysis to derive multidecadal O3 trends, especially prior to 1998.

Replay↗

Transforming ESM Physical Parameterization Development Using Machine Learning Trained on Global Cloud-Resolving Models and Process Observations

ESMs robustly predict that 21st century greenhouse warming will slowly increase global mean precipitation, rapidly increase extreme precipitation, and increase subtropical drought. ESMs agree less about precipitation trends and extremes over particular land regions critical to human societies, e. g. in semi-arid regions such as California or the Sahel, or in wetter climates prone to monsoonal rainfall (e. g. southeast Asia) or to tropical cyclones and flooding from mesoscale convective systems (e. g. the southeastern U.S.) Deep convective parameterizations and poor representation of orography and complex vegetated land surfaces contribute to this inter-model spread; clouds, aerosols and sea-surface temperature biases are also key. Reducing regional precipitation projection uncertainty has enormous planning value for water supplies, land use, wildfire, hydropower, flood control, etc. IPCC-class ESMs are making painfully slow progress on this.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Reliability and Creep/Fatigue Analysis of a CMC Component

High temperature ceramic matrix composites (CMC) are being explored as viable candidate materials for hot section gas turbine components. These advanced composites can potentially lead to reduced weight and enable higher operating temperatures requiring less cooling; thus leading to increased engine efficiencies. There is a need for convenient design tools that can accommodate various loading conditions and material data with their associated uncertainties to estimate the minimum predicted life as well as the failure probabilities of a structural component. This paper presents a review of the life prediction and probabilistic analyses performed for a CMC turbine stator vane. A computer code, NASALife, is used to predict the life of a 2-D woven silicon carbide fiber reinforced silicon carbide matrix (SiC/SiC) turbine stator vane due to a mission cycle which induces low cycle fatigue and creep. The output from this program includes damage from creep loading, damage due to cyclic loading and the combined damage due to the given loading cycle. Results indicate that the trends predicted by NASALife are as expected for the loading conditions used for this study. In addition, a combination of woven composite micromechanics, finite element structural analysis and Fast Probability Integration (FPI) techniques has been used to evaluate the maximum stress and its probabilistic distribution in a CMC turbine stator vane. Input variables causing scatter are identified and ranked based upon their sensitivity magnitude. Results indicate that reducing the scatter in proportional limit strength of the vane material has the greatest effect in improving the overall reliability of the CMC vane.

Murthy, Pappu L. N.↗

Cluster Variation Method Analysis of Correlations and Entropy in BCC Solid Solutions

Solid solutions occur when multiple chemical species share sites of a common crystal lattice. Although the single site occupation is random, chemical interaction preferences bias the occupation probabilities of neighboring sites, and this bias reduced the entropy of mixing below its ideal value. Sufficiently strong bias leads to symmetry-breaking phase transitions. Here, we apply the cluster variation method to explore solid solutions on body centered cubic lattices in the context of two specific compounds that exhibit opposite ordering trends. Employing density functional theory to model the energetics, we show that CuZn exhibits an order-disorder transition to the CsCl prototype structure, while AlLi instead takes the NaTl prototype structure, and we evaluate their temperature-dependent order parameters, correlations and entropies.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Mechanics of vitrimer particle compression and fusion under heat press

The compression and fusion of vitrimer particles is a fundamental problem underlying the recycling of vitrimers. Incomplete particle compression can lead to voids in the fused vitrimer, thereby impacting its mechanical property. In this work, we present a two-dimensional finite element model to capture the interplay of multiple complex mechanisms including random particle packing, large deformation, inter-particle contact, thermally activated bulk stress relaxation, and interface healing. Specifically, we focus on understanding two key components of this problem: i) evolution of porosity during compression and fusion of randomly packed vitrimer particles, and ii) effective tensile modulus and strength of fused vitrimer. Using the finite element model, we first show that using smaller particles can reduce the porosity in the fused vitrimer, which only slightly increases the effective modulus, but the increase in tensile strength is more pronounced. In addition, under the same processing conditions, particles with mixed sizes can achieve better densification and higher tensile strength after fusion than uniformly sized particles with the same average radius. Regarding the effects of processing conditions, we discuss how the porosity and effective modulus of the fused vitrimer depend on the processing time, temperature and pressure, and find a general trend consistent with experimental observations, i.e. longer processing time, higher temperature or higher pressure can lead to lower porosity and higher modulus of the fused vitrimer. Finally, the theoretical insights towards the compression and fusion process as well as the simulation framework can be useful in optimizing the powder-based heat press process of vitrimer and its composites.

42 ENGINEERING↗