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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

Two dimensional turbulence in inviscid fluids or guiding center plasmas

Analytic theory for two-dimensional turbulent equilibria for the inviscid Navier-Stokes equations is examined mathematically. Application of the technique to electrostatic guiding center plasma is discussed. A good fit is demonstrated for the approach to a predicted energy per Fourier mode obtained from a two-temperature canonical ensemble. Negative as well as positive temperature regimes are explored. Fluctuations about the mean energy per mode also compare well with theory. In the regime of alpha less than zero, beta greater than zero, with the minimum value of alpha plus beta times k squared near zero, contour plots of the stream function reveal macroscopic vortex structures similar to those seen previously in discrete vortex simulations. Eulerian direct interaction equations, which can be used to follow the approach to inviscid equilibrium, are derived.

Seyler, C. E., Jr.↗

User's manual for the Shuttle Electric Power System analysis computer program (SEPS), volume 2 of program documentation

The Shuttle Electric Power System Analysis SEPS computer program which performs detailed load analysis including predicting energy demands and consumables requirements of the shuttle electric power system along with parameteric and special case studies on the shuttle electric power system is described. The functional flow diagram of the SEPS program is presented along with data base requirements and formats, procedure and activity definitions, and mission timeline input formats. Distribution circuit input and fixed data requirements are included. Run procedures and deck setups are described.

Bains, R. W.↗

Performance testing of a 50 kW VAWT in a built-up environment

The results of performance tests of a DAF Indal 50 kW vertical axis wind turbine are presented. Results of limited free stream turbulence and vertical wind shear measurements at the site are also presented. The close agreement between measured and predicted energy outputs, required to verify the wind turbine power output performance relationship, was not attained. A discussion is presented of factors that may have contributed to the lack of better agreement.

Schienbein, L. A.↗

Observational evidence on the origin of ions upstream of the earth's bow shock

The kinematic formalism described by Schwartz et al. (1983) is used to quantitatively compare the zeroth order predicted energies for four different source hypotheses for ions detected upstream of the earth's bow shock with previously published observations of upstream field-aligned beams and gyrating ion events. Specular reflection of a fraction of the incident solar wind is found to be the most credible explanation of gyrating ion events observed upstream of shocks ranging from quasi-parallel to nearly perpendicular. The recent hypothesis that field-aligned beams are the result of leakage from the magnetosheath of ions which were originally specularly reflected at quasi-perpendicular portions of the shock provides good agreement with observed energies of many field-aligned beams. Only magnetic moment conserving reflection of solar wind ions is capable of accounting for two very energetic beam events.

Thomsen, M. F.↗

Direction of crack growth in fibrous composites

A model for predicting the direction of crack growth in resin matrix composite materials is presented. The model is based upon the normal stress and the anisotropic tensile strength on arbitrary planes about the tip of a crack. The model is incorporated into a finite element solution which predicts energy release rates in addition to the direction of crack growth. Results are obtained for cracks in unidirectional off-axis slotted tensile coupons. Comparisons are made with other theories and experimental results.

Buczek, M. B.↗

Fourier-Legendre spectral methods for incompressible channel flow

An iterative collocation technique is described for modeling implicit viscosity in three-dimensional incompressible wall bounded shear flow. The viscosity can vary temporally and in the vertical direction. Channel flow is modeled with a Fourier-Legendre approximation and the mean streamwise advection is treated implicitly. Explicit terms are handled with an Adams-Bashforth method to increase the allowable time-step for calculation of the implicit terms. The algorithm is applied to low amplitude unstable waves in a plane Poiseuille flow at an Re of 7500. Comparisons are made between results using the Legendre method and with Chebyshev polynomials. Comparable accuracy is obtained for the perturbation kinetic energy predicted using both discretizations.

Zang, T. A.↗

Mathematical modeling of a thermovoltaic cell

A new type of battery named 'Vaporvolt' cell is in the early stage of its development. A mathematical model of a CuO/Cu 'Vaporvolt' cell is presented that can be used to predict the potential and the transport behavior of the cell during discharge. A sensitivity analysis of the various transport and electrokinetic parameters indicates which parameters have the most influence on the predicted energy and power density of the 'Vaporvolt' cell. This information can be used to decide which parameters should be optimized or determined more accurately through further modeling or experimental studies. The optimal thicknesses of electrodes and separator, the concentration of the electrolyte, and the current density are determined by maximizing the power density. These parameter sensitivities and optimal design parameter values will help in the development of a better CuO/Cu 'Vaporvolt' cell.

White, Ralph E.↗

A mathematical model of a CuO/Cu Vaporvolt cell

A new type of battery named 'Vaporvolt' cell is in the early stage of its development. A mathematical model of a CuO/Cu 'Vaporvolt' cell is presented that can be used to predict the potential and the transport behavior of the cell during discharge. A sensitivity analysis of the various transport and electrokinetic parameters indicates which parameters have the most influence on the predicted energy and power density of the 'Vaporvolt' cell. This information can be used to decide which parameters should be optimized or determined more accurately through further modeling or experimental studies. The optimal thicknesses of electrodes and separator, the concentration of the electrolyte, and the current density are determined by maximizing the power density. These parameter sensitivities and optimal design parameter values will help in the development of a better CuO/Cu 'Vaporvolt' cell.

Kawanami, Makoto↗

Development and use of computational techniques in Army Aviation research and development programs for crash resistant helicopter technology

During the 1960's over 30 full-scale aircraft crash tests were conducted by the Flight Safety Foundation under contract to the Aviation Applied Technology Directorate (AATD) of the U.S. Army Aviation Systems Command (AVSCOM). The purpose of these tests were to conduct crash injury investigations that would provide a basis for the formulation of sound crash resistance design criteria for light fixed-wing and rotary wing aircraft. This resulted in the Crash Survival Design Criteria Designer's Guide which was first published in 1967 and has been revised numerous times, the last being in 1989. Full-scale aircraft crash testing is an expensive way to investigate structural deformations of occupied spaces and to determine the decelerative loadings experienced by occupants in a crash. This gave initial impetus to the U.S. Army to develop analytical methods to predict the dynamic response of aircraft structures in a crash. It was believed that such analytical tools could be very useful in the preliminary design stage of a new helicopter system which is required to demonstrate a level of crash resistance and had to be more cost effective than full-scale crash tests or numerous component design support tests. From an economic point of view, it is more efficient to optimize for the incorporation of crash resistance features early in the design stage. However, during preliminary design it is doubtful if sufficient design details, which influence the exact plastic deformation shape of structural elements, will be available. The availability of simple procedures to predict energy absorption and load-deformation characteristics will allow the designer to initiate valuable cost, weight, and geometry tradeoff studies. The development of these procedures will require some testing of typical specimens. This testing should, as a minimum, verify the validity of proposed procedures for providing pertinent nonlinear load-deformation data. It was hoped that through the use of these analytical models, the designer could optimize aircraft design for crash resistance from both a weight and cost increment standpoint, thus enhancing the acceptance of the design criteria for crash resistance.

Burrows, Leroy T.↗

Load-limiting landing gear footpad energy absorption system

As a precursor to future manned missions to the moon, an inexpensive, unmanned vehicle that could carry small, scientific payloads to the lunar surface was studied by NASA. The vehicle, called the Common Lunar Lander, required extremely optimized structural systems to increase the potential payload mass. A lightweight energy-absorbing system (LAGFEAS), which also acts as a landing load-limiter was designed to help achieve this optimized structure. Since the versatile and easily tailored system is a load-limiter, it allowed for the structure to be designed independently of the ever-changing landing energy predictions. This paper describes the LAGFEAS system and preliminary verification testing performed at NASA's Johnson Space Center for the Common Lunar Lander program.

Hansen, Chris↗

An Improved Analytic Model for Microdosimeter Response

An analytic model used to predict energy deposition fluctuations in a microvolume by ions through direct events is improved to include indirect delta ray events. The new model can now account for the increase in flux at low lineal energy when the ions are of very high energy. Good agreement is obtained between the calculated results and available data for laboratory ion beams. Comparison of GCR (galactic cosmic ray) flux between Shuttle TEPC (tissue equivalent proportional counter) flight data and current calculations draws a different assessment of developmental work required for the GCR transport code (HZETRN) than previously concluded.

Shinn, Judy L.↗

Autonomous Navigation over Europa Analogue Terrain for an Actively Articulated Wheel-on-Limb Rover

The ocean world Europa is a prime target forexploration given its potential habitability [1]. We proposea mobile robotic system that is capable of autonomouslytraversing hundreds of meters to visit multiple sites of intereston a Europan analogue surface. Due to the topology of Europanterrain being largely unknown, it is desired that this mobilitysystem traverse a large variety of terrain types. The mobilitysystem should also be capable of crossing unstructured terrainin an autonomous manner given the communications limitationsbetween Earth and Europa.A wheel-on-limb robotic rover is presented that may activelyconform to terrain features up to 1.5 wheel diameters tall whiledriving. The robot uses a sampling-based motion planner togenerate paths that leverage its unique locomotive capabilities.The planner assesses terrain hazards and wheel workspacelimits as obstacles. It may also select a mobility mode basedon predicted energy usage and the need for limb articulationon the terrain being traversed. This autonomous mobility wasevaluated on the chaotic salt-evaporite terrain found in DeathValley, CA, an analogue to the Europan surface. Over the courseof 38 trials, the rover autonomously traversed 435m of extremeterrain while maintaining a rate of 0.64 traverse ending failuresfor every 10m driven.

Meirion-Griffith, Gareth↗

Core Modeling & Decision Support Capabilities: FASTSim, RouteE, T3CO & OpenPATH

These are the slides on NREL's Core Modeling and Decision Support Capabilities project for presentation at the 2023 Annual Merit Review for the U.S. Department of Energy, Vehicle Technologies Office. The project is funded by the Energy-Efficient Mobility Systems program to support four core tools: the Future Automotive Systems Technology Simulator (FASTSim), the Route Energy Prediction Model (RouteE), the Transportation Technology Total Cost of Ownership (T3CO) tool, and the Open Platform for Agile Trip Heuristics (OpenPATH).

ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

Ductless Heat Pump Energy Monitoring in a Cold Climate

In 2018, the City and Borough of Juneau, Alaska set the goal of reaching 80% renewable energy for heating and transportation by 2045. An important factor to help reach this goal is finding energy efficiency home heating technologies such as ductless air source heat pumps (DHPs), which rely on the local hydropower electric grid to provide space heating for an entire home or a main living area. To help residents reduce energy costs and move toward the community renewable energy goal, a team of local, state, and national partners joined to run Thermalize Juneau 2021, an energy campaign that provided education, a simplified installation process, and a bulk purchase discount. Overall, the campaign enrolled 165 participants, resulting in 75 DHP installations and over 30 energy efficiency improvements. To evaluate the reliability and energy use of the DHPs installed during the Thermalize Juneau campaign, researchers installed energy monitors on heat pumps of 14 participants and conducted interviews with homeowners. Data from two heating seasons (2021-2022 and 2022-2023) has allowed researchers to examine the accuracy of pre-campaign energy savings predictions, establish energy savings for a small group of households, and provide insights on the energy use and occupant satisfaction of DHPs which will help to inform future heat pump deployment efforts in the area.

air source heat pump↗

Ductless Heat Pump Energy Monitoring in a Cold Climate

In 2018, the City and Borough of Juneau, Alaska, set the goal of reaching 80% renewable energy for heating and transportation by 2045. An important factor to help reach this goal is energy-efficient home heating technologies such as ductless air- source heat pumps (DHPs), which rely on the local hydropower electric grid to provide space heating for an entire home or a main living area. To help residents reduce energy costs and move toward the community renewable energy goal, a team of local, state, and national partners joined together to run Thermalize Juneau 2021, an energy campaign that provided education, a simplified installation process, and a bulk purchase discount. Overall, the campaign enrolled 165 participants, resulting in 75 DHP installations and over 30 other energy efficiency improvements. To evaluate the reliability and energy use of the DHPs installed during the Thermalize Juneau campaign, researchers installed energy monitors on heat pumps of 14 participants and conducted interviews with homeowners. Data from two heating seasons (2021-2022 and 2022-2023) allowed researchers to examine the accuracy of pre-campaign energy savings predictions, establish energy savings for a small group of households, and provide insights on the energy use and occupant satisfaction of DHPs, which will help inform future heat pump deployment efforts in the area.

air source heat pump↗

Predicting industrial building energy consumption with statistical and machine-learning models informed by physical system parameters

The industrial sector consumes about one-third of global energy, making them a frequent target for energy use reduction. Variation in energy usage is observed with weather conditions, as space conditioning needs to change seasonally, and with production, energy-using equipment is directly tied to production rate. Previous models were based on engineering analyses of equipment and relied on site-specific details. Others consisted of single-variable regressors that did not capture all contributions to energy consumption. Further, new modeling techniques could be applied to rectify these weaknesses. Applying data from 45 different manufacturing plants obtained from industrial energy audits, a supervised machine-learning model is developed to create a general predictor for industrial building energy consumption. The model uses features of air enthalpy, solar radiation, and wind speed to predict weather-dependency; motor, steam, and compressed air system parameters to capture support equipment contributions; and operating schedule, production rate, number of employees, and floor area to determine production-dependency. Results showed that a model that used a linear regressor over a transformed feature space could outperform a support vector machine and utilize features more representative of physical systems. Using informed parameters to build a reliable predictor will more accurately characterize a manufacturing facility's energy savings opportunities.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

A technique for predicting mode I energy release rates using a first-order shear deformable plate theory

Utilizing a first order shear deformable plate theory, a technique is described for predicting the distribution of the energy release rate along a curved or straight mode I planar crack in the plane of a plate (such as a delamination crack). Accuracy of the technique is assessed by comparing the distributions of energy release rate with those predicted by two- and three-dimensional finite element analyses of double cantilever beam specimens with straight crack fronts.

Davidson, B. D.↗

Fast and Accurate Predictions of Total Energy for Solid Solution Alloys with Graph Convolutional Neural Networks

We use graph convolutional neural networks (GCNNs) to produce fast and accurate predictions of the total energy of solid solution binary alloys. GCNNs allow us to abstract the lattice structure of a solid material as a graph, whereby atoms are modeled as nodes and metallic bonds as edges. This representation naturally incorporates information about the structure of the material, thereby eliminating the need for computationally expensive data pre-processing which would be required with standard neural network (NN) approaches. We train GCNNs on ab-initio density functional theory (DFT) for copper-gold (CuAu) and iron-platinum (FePt) data that has been generated by running the LSMS-3 code, which implements a locally self-consistent multiple scattering method, on OLCF supercomputers Titan and Summit. GCNN outperforms the ab-initio DFT simulation by orders of magnitude in terms of computational time to produce the estimate of the total energy for a given atomic configuration of the lattice structure. We compare the predictive performance of GCNN models against a standard NN such as dense feedforward multi-layer perceptron (MLP) by using the root-mean-squared errors to quantify the predictive quality of the deep learning (DL) models. We find that the attainable accuracy of GCNNs is at least an order of magnitude better than that of the MLP.

Lupo Pasini, Massimiliano↗