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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 217 records · Page 12

Method of Estimating Continuous Cooling Transformation Curves of Glasses

A method is proposed for estimating the critical cooling rate and continuous cooling transformation (CCT) curve from isothermal TTT data of glasses. The critical cooling rates and CCT curves for a group of lithium disilicate glasses containing different amounts of Pt as nucleating agent estimated through this method are compared with the experimentally measured values. By analysis of the experimental and calculated data of the lithium disilicate glasses, a simple relationship between the crystallized amount in the glasses during continuous cooling, X, and the temperature of undercooling, (Delta)T, was found to be X = AR(sup-4)exp(B (Delta)T), where (Delta)T is the temperature difference between the theoretical melting point of the glass composition and the temperature in discussion, R is the cooling rate, and A and B are constants. The relation between the amount of crystallisation during continuous cooling and isothermal hold can be expressed as (X(sub cT)/X(sub iT) = (4/B)(sup 4) (Delta)T(sup -4), where X(sub cT) stands for the crystallised amount in a glass during continuous cooling for a time t when the temperature comes to T, and X(sub iT) is the crystallised amount during isothermal hold at temperature T for a time t.

Zhu, Dongmei↗

Continuing Evolution of Mars Sample Return

This paper addresses the continued evolution of the Groundbreaking MSR concept over the last year. One of the tenets of the low-cost approach is to use substantial heritage from an earlier mission, Mars Science Laboratory (MSL). Recently, the MSL project developed and switched to a revolutionary landing approach, coined 'sky-crane' where the MSL, which is a rover, is lowered gently to the Martian surface from a hovering vehicle. MSR has adopted this approach, again continuing to capitalize on the heritage for a significant portion of the new lander. In parallel, a MSR Technology Board was formed to reexamine MSR technology needs and participate in a continuing refinement of architectural trades. While the focused technology program continues to be definitized through the remainder of this year, the current assessment of what technology development is required, is discussed in this paper. In addition, the results of new trade studies and considerations will be discussed.

Mars Sample Return (MSR)↗

Calibration of the Thermal Infrared Sensor on the Landsat Data Continuity Mission

The Landsat series of satellites provides the longest running continuous data set of moderate-spatial-resolution imagery beginning with the launch of Landsat 1 in 1972 and continuing with the 1999 launch of Landsat 7 and current operation of Landsats 5 and 7. The Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) will continue this program into a fourth decade providing data that are keys to understanding changes in land-use changes and resource management. LDCM consists of a two-sensor platform comprised of the Operational Land Imager (OLI) and Thermal Infrared Sensors (TIRS). A description of the applications and design of the TIRS instrument is given as well as the plans for calibration and characterization. Included are early results from preflight calibration and a description of the inflight validation.

Thome, K↗

The NASA MODIS-VIIRS Continuity Cloud Optical Properties Products

The NASA Aqua MODIS and Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership (SNPP) Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) climate data record continuity cloud properties products (CLDPROP) were publicly released in April 2019 with an update later that year (Version 1.1). These cloud products, having heritage with the NASA Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) MOD06 cloud optical properties product and the NOAA GOES-R Algorithm Working Group (AWG) Cloud Height Algorithm (ACHA), represent an effort to bridge the multispectral imager records of NASA’s Earth Observing System (EOS) and NOAA’s current generation of operational weather satellites to achieve a continuous, multi-decadal climate data record for clouds that can extend well into the 2030s. CLDPROP offers a “continuity of approach,” applying common algorithms and ancillary datasets to both MODIS and VIIRS, including utilizing only a subset of spectral channels available on both sensors to help mitigate instrument differences. The initial release of the CLDPROP_MODIS and CLDPROP_VIIRS data records spans the SNPP observational record (2012-present). Here, we present an overview of the algorithms and an evaluation of the intersensor continuity of the core CLDPROP_MODIS and CLDPROP_VIIRS cloud optical property datasets, i.e., cloud thermodynamic phase, optical thickness, effective particle size, and derived water path. The evaluation includes analyses of pixel-level MODIS/VIIRS co-locations as well as spatial and temporal aggregated statistics, with a focus on identifying and understanding the root causes of individual dataset discontinuities. The results of this evaluation will inform future updates to the CLDPROP products and help scientific users determine the appropriate use of the product datasets for their specific needs.

satellite remote sensing↗

The Global L-Band Observatory for Water Cycle Studies (Glows)– SMAP continuity Mission

SMOS and SMAP radiometers have demonstrated the ability to monitor soil moisture and sea surface salinity and continue to provide high quality radiometric measurements to this day in extended mission operations. It is important to maintain data continuity for these science measurements. The proposed instrument concept (Global L-band active/passive Observatory for Water cycle Studies - GLOWS) will enable low-cost L-band data continuity (that includes both L-band radar and radiometer measurements). The objective of this project is to develop key instrument technology to enable L-band observations using an Earth Venture class satellite. Specifically, a new deployable reflectarray lens antenna is being developed that will enable a smaller EELV Secondary Payload Adapter (ESPA) Grande-class satellite mission to continue the L-band observations at SMAP and SMOS resolution and accuracy at substantially lower cost, size, and weight

SMAP↗

Methods of producing continuous boron carbide fibers

Methods of producing continuous boron carbide fibers. The method comprises reacting a continuous carbon fiber material and a boron oxide gas within a temperature range of from approximately 1400.degree. C. to approximately 2200.degree. C. Continuous boron carbide fibers, continuous fibers comprising boron carbide, and articles including at least a boron carbide coating are also disclosed.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Methods and systems for generating a continuous helical tool path for parts having multiple central axes

A computer-implemented method for generating a continuous helical tool path for forming a part having a plurality of central axes is provided. The method includes performing a tool path algorithm modeling and a tool path algorithm execution using a computer system. The tool path algorithm modeling includes defining a starting point location within a computer-generated three-dimensional part geometry model, defining a vector, defining a helix, defining a sweeping surface three-dimensional geometry element, and generating an intersection curve from tracing a continuous curved line of an intersection between the sweeping surface geometry element and the part geometry model. The tool path algorithm execution includes defining data for a forming tool stylus, selecting the intersection curve as a guiding element for the forming tool stylus, and generating the continuous helical tool path for the forming tool stylus. The continuous helical tool path includes a forming tool stylus centerline path in graphical space.

42 ENGINEERING↗

System, method, and computer program product for scheduling tasks associated with continuation thread blocks

A system, method, and computer program product for scheduling tasks associated with continuation thread blocks. The method includes the steps of generating a first task metadata data structure in a memory, generating a second task metadata data structure in the memory, executing a first task corresponding to the first task metadata data structure in a processor, generating state information representing a continuation task related to the first task and storing the state information in the second task metadata data structure, executing the continuation task in the processor after the one or more child tasks have finished execution, and indicating that the first task has logically finished execution once the continuation task has finished execution. The second task metadata data structure is related to the first task metadata data structure, and at least one instruction in the first task causes one or more child tasks to be executed by the processor.

Ricketts, Scott↗

Large-scale continuous carbon/glass fiber additive-compression molded composites

Additive Manufacturing (AM) or 3-D printing has advanced from small-scale desktop printers to large-scale printers. Most of the present large-scale printers utilize feedstock materials in the form of pellets to create composite structures. To create structurally robust composite parts, reinforcements in the form of short fibers (carbon or glass) are often used to impart mechanical properties to the printed parts. However, poor mechanical properties in Z-direction and high porosity of pellets-based printed composites compared to composite manufactured using traditional methods are serious concerns. The authors report a combined approach in the present work, where fiber reinforced composites are printed with a high-throughput continuous fiber deposition method followed by a secondary compression molding process. A specially designed end-effector mounted on a robotic arm is used to print composite preforms. Continuous comingled fibers (Thermofiber 12K CF-PA12, Thermofiber 12K S2-PA12, and Hybrid Thermofiber 12K CF-PA12+PEEK PA6) embedded in the thermoplastic nylon matrix are printed to create composite preform plaques. The printed preforms were further compression molded (CM) using a hydraulic hot-press to create highly consolidated composite parts. The mechanical properties of the continuous fiber composites produced by this combined approach are improved significantly due to the highly aligned continuous fibers and reduced porosity. Flexural strength, flexural modulus, and tensile modulus of AM-CM Thermofiber 12K CF-PA12 UD sample were 615.37 MPa, 75.65 GPa, and 122.23 GPa, respectively.

Kumar, Vipin↗

Application of wavelet scaling function expansion continuous-energy resonance calculation method to MOX fuel problem

More and more MOX fuels are used in all over the world in the past several decades. Compared with UO{sub 2} fuel, it contains some new features. For example, the neutron spectrum is harder and more resonance interference effects within the resonance energy range are introduced because of more resonant nuclides contained in the MOX fuel. In this paper, the wavelets scaling function expansion method is applied to study the resonance behavior of plutonium isotopes within MOX fuel. Wavelets scaling function expansion continuous-energy self-shielding method is developed recently. It has been validated and verified by comparison to Monte Carlo calculations. In this method, the continuous-energy cross-sections are utilized within resonance energy, which means that it's capable to solve problems with serious resonance interference effects without iteration calculations. Therefore, this method adapts to treat the MOX fuel resonance calculation problem natively. Furthermore, plutonium isotopes have fierce oscillations of total cross-section within thermal energy range, especially for {sup 240}Pu and {sup 242}Pu. To take thermal resonance effect of plutonium isotopes into consideration the wavelet scaling function expansion continuous-energy resonance calculation code WAVERESON is enhanced by applying the free gas scattering kernel to obtain the continuous-energy scattering source within thermal energy range (2.1 eV to 4.0 eV) contrasting against the resonance energy range in which the elastic scattering kernel is utilized. Finally, all of the calculation results of WAVERESON are compared with MCNP calculation. (authors)

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Hybrid method of deterministic and probabilistic approaches for continuous energy neutron transport problem

This paper presents a new hybrid method of continuous energy Monte Carlo (MC) and multi-group Method of Characteristics (MOC). For a continuous energy neutron transport analysis, the hybrid method employs a continuous energy MC for resonance energy range to treat the resonances accurately and a multi-group MOC for high and low energy ranges for efficiency. Numerical test with a model problem confirms that the hybrid method can produce consistent results with the reference continuous energy MC-only calculation as well as multi-group MOC-only calculation. (authors)

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

A Continuous-Discontinuous Hybrid Finite Element Method for S{sub N} Transport

Particle transport phenomenon for neutral particles, such as neutrons and photons, is governed by the linear Boltzmann equation, which is a first-order partial differential equation (PDE). In order to solve the transport equation, discontinuous finite element method (DFEM) is heavily developed. However, the large memory consumption due to the extra degrees of freedom is problematic in multi-D calculations. Another path is to recast the transport equation to a second-order form, such as the well-known self-adjoint angular flux equation (SAAF) and the even parity equations, and spatially discretize the equation using continuous finite element method (CFEM). Yet, such forms generally have problems in void situation as the streaming operator contains a 1/σ{sub t} term and becomes singular in void, which draws numerous efforts on developing void-treatment methods. An intuition to mitigate the shortcomings of both methods is then to develop a method that utilizes DFEM in part of the problem where CFEM has issues while in the other part, CFEM is employed to avoid DFEM's high cost. In this work, we present a novel continuous-discontinuous finite element method (CDFEM) for solving the discrete-ordinates (S{sub N}) transport equations. We perform the hybridization between 1/σ{sub t}-weighted least-squares finite element methods (1/σ{sub t}-LSFEM), with continuous basis functions, and first-order solver. Different solvers are defined in different regions, or subdomains, of the problem. The resulting scheme is such that CFEM-SAAF is performed in subdomains with continuous basis functions while upwinding based DFEM solver is utilized in subdomains with discontinuous basis functions. The connection between subdomains is through an upwinding operation on the interface, which can be performed via the sweep procedure. A foreseeable benefit is such a scheme is compatible with void as first-order DFEM solver can be used in void. On the other hand, as DFEM is only used in part of the problem, CDFEM can effectively avoid the notorious memory consumption of DFEM in multi-D calculation for the future work.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Business Continuity, Cybersecurity, and Backup Control Center: Standards, References, and Recommendations (White Paper)

This Whitepaper provides an overview and synopsis of relevant standards for Control Center, Cyber Security and Continuity of Operations for electric power utilities. It also provides suggestions and recommendations for the outline of a cybersecurity plan and a business continuity plan, and suggests training and certification opportunities for both cybersecurity and business continuity.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Continuous Flow Photoelectrochemical Reactor with Gas Permeable Photocathode: Enhanced Photocurrent and Partial Current Density for CO 2 Reduction

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) CO 2 reduction using a photocathode is an attractive method for making valuable chemical products due to its simplicity and lower overpotential requirements. However, previous PEC processes have often been diffusion-limited leading to low production rates of the CO 2 reduction reaction, due to inefficient gas diffusion through the liquid electrolyte to the catalyst surface, particularly at high current densities. In this study, a gas-permeable photocathode in a continuous flow PEC reactor is incorporated, which facilitates the direct supply of CO 2 gas to the photocathode-electrolyte interface, unlike dark reaction-based flow reactors. This concept is demonstrated using Ag-TiO 2 on carbon paper, illuminated through a quartz window and flowing liquid electrolyte. CO 2 supply is managed via pressure and flow control on the non-illuminated side of the carbon paper. The photocurrent density is significantly influenced by the flow rates and pressure of CO 2 gas, and the electrolyte flow rates. Compared to the traditional H-cell, the continuous PEC flow reactor achieves ≈10-fold increase in CO faradaic efficiency, 30-fold increase in production rate and 16-fold increase in stability without catalyst modifications. This work provides essential insights into the design and application of continuous gas-liquid flow PEC reactor systems, highlighting their potential for other PEC reactions.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Characterizing Reaction Space in the Continuous-Flow Esterification of Oleic Acid Using a Sulfonated Hydrothermal Carbon Catalyst

Continuous-flow catalytic esterification of free fatty acids (FFA) with methanol in the presence of sulfonated hydrothermal carbon (SHTC) as catalyst was studied. Using a Box-Behnken experimental design protocol, the effects of residence time, methanol:acid molar ratio, and water concentration on the conversion of oleic acid into methyl oleate were investigated. The optimum conditions for achieving esterification greater than 90 % at 100 °C were determined to be 11-minute residence time, a MeOH:FFA molar ratio >14.6 and up to 14.9 % water. The SHTC was used continuously for 4.5 days without a significant decrease in catalytic performance. The results confirmed that SHTC is an effective solid acid catalyst in a continuous flow system for the esterification of FFA.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Consequences and benefits of utilizing continuous vibro-impact representations in constrained pipeline conveying fluid systems

Here, the effectiveness of continuous vibro-impact forcing representations for the cantilevered pipe that conveys fluid is explored and analyzed. The previously accepted forcing model utilizing a smoothened trilinear spring is estimated using three continuous forcing representations, namely, polynomial, rational polynomial, and hyperbolic tangent. The accuracy of the estimated forcing functions is investigated and analyzed by calculating the root mean square error, and bifurcation diagrams are generated and compared to the nominal system. Additionally, the dynamic response of the system is further characterized using Poincare maps, power spectra, and basins of attraction. Once all continuous forcing representations are analyzed and compared to the nominal system, the computational cost of each method is examined, and further limitations of the hyperbolic tangent method are discovered. It is proved that the hyperbolic tangent forcing representation most accurately captures the dynamic response of the pipeline, and the least accurate representation is the rational polynomial representation. Additionally, considerable computational cost is saved when employing the hyperbolic tangent representation compared to the discontinuous representation.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Continuous-variable quantum Boltzmann machine

Here, we propose a continuous-variable quantum Boltzmann machine (CVQBM) using a powerful energy-based neural network. It can be realized experimentally on a continuous-variable (CV) photonic quantum computer. We used a CV quantum imaginary time evolution (QITE) algorithm to prepare the essential thermal state and then designed the CVQBM to proficiently generate continuous probability distributions. We applied our method to both classical and quantum data. Using real-world classical data, such as synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) images, we generated probability distributions. For quantum data, we used the output of CV quantum circuits. We obtained high fidelity and low Kullback–Leibler (KL) divergence showing that our CVQBM learns distributions from given data well and generates data sampling from that distribution efficiently. We also discussed the experimental feasibility of our proposed CVQBM. Our method can be applied to a wide range of real-world problems by choosing an appropriate target distribution (corresponding to, e.g., SAR images, medical images, and risk management in finance). Moreover, our CVQBM is versatile and could be programmed to perform tasks beyond generation, such as anomaly detection.

SAR images↗

Gauge invariance of the helicity continuity equation

The derivation of the helicity continuity equation in electromagnetic theory is performed without specifying a gauge. In contrast with previous proposals, the form of this equation is shown to be gauge invariant without invoking a Helmholtz decomposition. The helicity and its flow, the latter associated with the spin in quantized fields, involve two sets of a vector and a scalar potential, where each set can independently undergo a gauge transformation. There are alternative definitions of the helicity and flow densities that arise from different grouping of terms in the continuity differential equation. The various definitions acquire an unambiguous meaning, depending on the gauge and the physical context. The helicity density, defined as ϱ{sub A{sub C}{sup (2)}} : =με(A·B-C·E) and flow density J{sub AC}{sup (2)} : =με(E-∇ϕ{sub A})×A+(B-∇ϕ{sub C})×C, include all the rotational content of the free fields regardless of the gauge. In free space, these quantities satisfy a gauge invariant conservation equation without gauge-fixing source terms. A further asset of the present formulation is that charge and current source terms can be readily incorporated. The helicity source terms are of the form μB·∫Jdt-μ∫Bdt·J. A helicity continuity equation in terms solely of transverse fields is derived in the Coulomb gauge.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗