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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

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NASA NTRS1974

Acoustical levitation for space processing

It is pointed out that many space-manufacturing processes will require the manipulation of weightless molten material within a container in such a way that the material does not touch the container wall. A description is given of an acoustical method which can be used for the positioning and shaping of any molten material including nonconductors such as glasses. The new approach makes use of an acoustical standing wave which is excited within an enclosure or resonator.

Wang, T. G.↗

NASA NTRS1985

Typography and layout of technical reports - Survey of current practices

As part of a review of the NASA Langley Research Center scientific and technical information program, 50 technical reports from industry, research institutions, and government agencies were systematically examined and analyzed to determine current usage and practice in regard to (1) typography, including composition method, type style, type size, and margin treatment; (2) graphic design, including layout and imposition of material on the page; and (3) physical media, including paper, ink, and binding methods. The results indicate that approximately 50 percent of the reports were typeset, 70 percent used Roman (serif) type, 80 percent used 10- or 11-point type for text, 60 percent used a ragged right-hand margin, slightly more than half used paragraph indentation, 75 percent used a single-column layout, 65 percent had one or more figures or tables placed perpendicular to (not aligned with) the text, and perfect binding was the most frequently used binding method.

Pinelli, T. E.↗

NASA NTRS2002

Finite-Strain Fractional-Order Viscoelastic (FOV) Material Models and Numerical Methods for Solving Them

Fraction-order viscoelastic (FOV) material models have been proposed and studied in 1D since the 1930's, and were extended into three dimensions in the 1970's under the assumption of infinitesimal straining. It was not until 1997 that Drozdov introduced the first finite-strain FOV constitutive equations. In our presentation, we shall continue in this tradition by extending the standard, FOV, fluid and solid, material models introduced in 1971 by Caputo and Mainardi into 3D constitutive formula applicable for finite-strain analyses. To achieve this, we generalize both the convected and co-rotational derivatives of tensor fields to fractional order. This is accomplished by defining them first as body tensor fields and then mapping them into space as objective Cartesian tensor fields. Constitutive equations are constructed using both variants for fractional rate, and their responses are contrasted in simple shear. After five years of research and development, we now possess a basic suite of numerical tools necessary to study finite-strain FOV constitutive equations and their iterative refinement into a mature collection of material models. Numerical methods still need to be developed for efficiently solving fraction al-order integrals, derivatives, and differential equations in a finite element setting where such constitutive formulae would need to be solved at each Gauss point in each element of a finite model, which can number into the millions in today's analysis.

Freed, Alan D.↗

NASA NTRS2013

Bulk Moisture and Salinity Sensor

Measurement and feedback control of nutrient solutions in plant root zones is critical to the development of healthy plants in both terrestrial and reduced-gravity environments. In addition to the water content, the amount of fertilizer in the nutrient solution is important to plant health. This typically requires a separate set of sensors to accomplish. A combination bulk moisture and salinity sensor has been designed, built, and tested with different nutrient solutions in several substrates. The substrates include glass beads, a clay-like substrate, and a nutrient-enriched substrate with the presence of plant roots. By measuring two key parameters, the sensor is able to monitor both the volumetric water content and salinity of the nutrient solution in bulk media. Many commercially available moisture sensors are point sensors, making localized measurements over a small volume at the point of insertion. Consequently, they are more prone to suffer from interferences with air bubbles, contact area of media, and root growth. This makes it difficult to get an accurate representation of true moisture content and distribution in the bulk media. Additionally, a network of point sensors is required, increasing the cabling, data acquisition, and calibration requirements. measure the dielectric properties of a material in the annular space of the vessel. Because the pore water in the media often has high salinity, a method to measure the media moisture content and salinity simultaneously was devised. Characterization of the frequency response for capacitance and conductance across the electrodes was completed for 2-mm glass bead media, 1- to 2-mm Turface (a clay like media), and 1- to 2-mm fertilized Turface with the presence of root mass. These measurements were then used to find empirical relationships among capacitance (C), the dissipation factor (D), the volumetric water content, and the pore water salinity.

Nurge, Mark↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Fabrication and Characterization of A Lunar Simulant-Based Sintered Construction Material

In-situ resource utilization (ISRU) is critical to enable future efforts to have a long-term human presence on the Moon as well as Mars. ISRU technologies are being developed for radiation protection, dust mitigation, thermal insulation, and other applications. One such ISRU technology for creating construction materials out of lunar and Martian regolith is sintering, which is a thermal-based construction process that bonds finely grained material together at temperatures below the melting point. However, the conditions employed during the sintering, such as temperature, atmospheric composition, duration of the process, and pressure, can have a significant impact on the quality and strength of the resulting materials. In parallel, the development of methods for characterizing the quality, porosity, density, and other properties of these materials is critical. X-ray computed tomography (X-ray CT) can image large changes in density within a material, such as the presence of pores throughout an otherwise uniform medium, with relatively high spatial resolution. Similarly, Terahertz time-domain spectroscopic (THz-TDS) imaging is sensitive to density variations within samples, but is restricted to non-conducting materials. Specifically, previous work has shown that the refractive index (n eff ) values obtained through the analysis of THz-TDS images increases with increasing density within plastic samples. Even further, this work showed that it is possible to create a calibration curve for a given material from samples of different, but known density, which can enable one to directly convert n eff to density for samples having the same composition, but unknown density. Here, we report on the fabrication of a lunar simulant-based sintered construction material using vacuum hot pressed (VHP) sintering, then show X-ray CT and THz-TDS imaging results of the sample, which show spatial variations in the material. This has important implications for efforts to improve these types of lunar construction material processes and verify the quality of these materials in terms of consolidation. To the best of our knowledge, there is no previous work utilizing VHP sintering to make lunar simulant-based construction materials or exploring the feasibility of THz imaging to spatially map the density variation through a lunar simulant-based construction material.

Terahertz time-domain spectroscopic imaging↗

DOE OSTI2024

Synthesis and Characterization of Superconductor Diodes

In the era of modern computing, quantum bits (or qubits) are extensively researched due to their ability to perform computations exponentially faster than classical computers. One promising method for synthesizing qubits on a macroscopic scale is through superconductor diodes (SDs). Unfortunately, SDs are currently limited by their dependence on extremely low temperatures (T ≈ 0K), which restricts their practical usability at larger scales. To address this limitation, researchers are exploring new materials and methods to identify superconductors with higher critical temperatures. My research at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) focuses on synthesizing and characterizing superconductor diodes to determine their efficiency for quantum computing applications. Bismuth thin films were synthesized with magnetron sputtering with separate thicknesses which provides information on methods to alter their resistivity. Bismuth was characterized as the topological insulator used in the diode, and its resistivity was measured using a standard four-point probe technique with 1 mA current. Bismuth (99.99% pure) was then purified in a tubular furnace at 400C to use within a Josephson junction as a topological insulator. Niobium and Tantalum Josephson junctions were then synthesized, and they were characterized using a lock-in amplifier four-point probe technique. Materials such as niobium and tantalum are used in high-entropy alloy research, which is a relatively new class of material that has little research within the superconductor diode community, yet the current research shows promise. We anticipate that testing high-entropy superconductors will reveal crucial factors, potentially leading to the development of high-temperature superconductors in the future.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

NASA NTRS2012

Antimicrobial Materials for Advanced Microbial Control in Spacecraft Water Systems

Microbial detection, identification, and control are essential for the maintenance and preservation of spacecraft water systems. Requirements set by NASA put limitations on the energy, mass, materials, noise, cost, and crew time that can be devoted to microbial control. Efforts are being made to attain real-time detection and identification of microbial contamination in microgravity environments. Research for evaluating technologies for capability enhancement on-orbit is currently focused on the use of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) analysis for detection purposes and polymerase chain reaction (peR) for microbial identification. Additional research is being conducted on how to control for microbial contamination on a continual basis. Existing microbial control methods in spacecraft utilize iodine or ionic silver biocides, physical disinfection, and point-of-use sterilization filters. Although these methods are effective, they require re-dosing due to loss of efficacy, have low human toxicity thresholds, produce poor taste, and consume valuable mass and crew time. Thus, alternative methods for microbial control are needed. This project also explores ultraviolet light-emitting diodes (UV-LEDs), surface passivation methods for maintaining residual biocide levels, and several antimicrobial materials aimed at improving current microbial control techniques, as well as addressing other materials presently under analysis and future directions to be pursued.

Birmele, Michele↗

DOE OSTI2024

The damage Mechanics challenge Results: Participant predictions compared with experiment

In this article, We present results from a recent exercise where participating organizations were asked to provide model-based blind predictions of damage evolution in 3D-printed geomaterial analogue test articles. Participants were provided with a range of data characterizing both the undamaged state (e.g., ultrasonic measurements) and damage evolution (e.g., 3-point bending, unconfined compression, and Brazilian testing) of the material. In this paper, we focus on comparisons between the participants’ predictions and the previously secret challenge problem experimental observations. We present valuable lessons learned for the application of numerical methods to deformation and failure in brittle-ductile materials. The exercise also enables us to identify which specific types of calibration data were of most utility to the participants in developing their predictions. Further, we identify additional data that would have been useful for participants to improve the confidence of their predictions. Consequently, this work improves our understanding of how to better characterize a material to enable more accurate prediction of damage and failure propagation in natural and engineered brittle-ductile materials.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2025

Simulation driven adaptive sampling for neutron-diffraction based strain mapping of additively manufactured parts

Neutron diffraction based strain mapping is a useful technique for measuring residual strains in additively manufactured (AM) metal parts. The measurement is traditionally done by scanning the sample in a point-wise raster pattern to extract the strain at each position. Since the overall scan can span several hours, adaptive sampling approaches using Bayesian optimization based on Gaussian process (BO-GP) regression have been introduced—demonstrating that even with a fraction of the typically made measurements the dominant strain patterns in the sample can be reconstructed. However, the parameters of the BO-GP algorithm have to be carefully chosen for best performance, and the movement time between arbitrary points can offset the time savings from a reduced number of measurement locations. In this paper, we propose algorithms to refine the BO-GP based methods by using simulations of strain patterns in AM parts based on the materials and the process used to print them. We demonstrate that the simulated strain patterns can be used to help choose better parameters for the BO-GP based framework—leading to low reconstruction error for the final strain pattern. Furthermore, we show that the strain mapping experiment can be initialized with a sampling pattern learnt from the simulation data and ordered to reduce movement time, dramatically enabling reduction in the overall time required to run the baseline BO-GP method.

Gaussian process regression↗

NASA NTRS1974

Estimation of material properties of a nonlinearly elastic bar

A method of determining certain characteristic flexural rigidities and elastic properties of nonlinearly elastic materials is presented. An estimation method utilizing perturbation methods and a least squares fitting technique is used to solve the nonlinear differential equation derived from the moment curvature relation, subject to boundary values representing deflections of the bar at discrete points. Deflection data from numerical simulations of a nonlinearly elastic, prismatic bar are used to demonstrate the estimation method. Numerical experiments relating the accuracy of the identification to the number and accuracy of the boundary values are presented. Conclusions based on the numerical experiments are included.

Baker, B. E.↗

NASA NTRS2001

New Tool Creates a Big Stir

A new self-adjusting, retractable pin tool for friction stir welding is now used in the manufacturing of components for NASA Space Shuttles. Friction stir welding is a process that makes straight-line welds without bringing the parent material to a liquid state. This is accomplished through high-speed rotation, which generates frictional heat between the welding tool and the piece being welded. This heat causes the material to soften to the point of plasticity without allowing it to melt. The plasticized material is then transferred from the front edge of the welding tool to the trail edge, where it joins the pieces being welded. However, a major flaw of this method is its reliance on a single-piece pin tool. The weld is left unfinished and a hole remains where the pin was inserted. The hole must be covered with a rivet in order to preserve the integrity of the weld. The NASA-developed pin tool, however, eliminates the need for this finishing step, as its retraction allows continuous rewelding at lesser depths, until the hole is completely closed. With this NASA technology, welding of higher strength alloys, as well as non-planer and variable thickness structures can be achieved.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS1994

The intact capture of hypervelocity dust particles using underdense foams

The impact of a hypervelocity projectile (greater than 3 km/s) is a process that subjects both the impactor and the impacted material to a large transient pressure distribution. The resultant stresses cause a large degree of fragmentation, melting, vaporization, and ionization (for normal densities). The pressure regime magnitude, however, is directly related to the density relationship between the projectile and target materials. As a consequence, a high-density impactor on a low-density target will experience the lowest level of damage. Historically, there have been three different approaches toward achieving the lowest possible target density. The first employs a projectile impinging on a foil or film of moderate density, but whose thickness is much less than the particle diameter. This results in the particle experiencing a pressure transient with both a short duration and a greatly reduced destructive effect. A succession of these films, spaced to allow nondestructive energy dissipation between impacts, will reduce the impactor's kinetic energy without allowing its internal energy to rise to the point where destruction of the projectile mass will occur. An added advantage to this method is that it yields the possibility of regions within the captured particle where a minimum of thermal modification has taken place. Polymer foams have been employed as the primary method of capturing particles with minimum degradation. The manufacture of extremely low bulk density materials is usually achieved by the introduction of voids into the material base. It must be noted, however, that a foam structure only has a true bulk density of the mixture at sizes much larger than the cell size, since for impact processes this is of paramount importance. The scale at which the bulk density must still be close to that of the mixture is approximately equal to the impactor. When this density criterion is met, shock pressures during impact are minimized, which in turn maximizes the probability of survival for the impacting particle. The primary objectives of the experiment are to (1) Examine the morphology of primary and secondary hypervelocity impact craters. Primary attention will be paid to craters caused by ejecta during hypervelocity impacts of different substrates. (2) Determine the size distribution of ejecta by means of witness plates and collect fragments of ejecta from craters by means of momentum-sensitive mcropore foam. (3) Assess the directionality of the flux by means of penetration-hole alignment of thin films placed above the cells. (4) Capture intact the particles that perforated the thin film and entered the cell. Capture media consisted of both previously flight-tested micropore foams and aerogel. The foams had different latent heats of fusion and, accordingly, will capture particles over a range of momenta. Aerogel was incorporated into the cells to determine the minimum diameter than can be captured intact.

Maag, Carl R.↗

DOE OSTI2024

A finite difference informed random walker (FDiRW) solver for strongly inhomogeneous diffusion problems

In nature, many complex multi-physics coupling problems exhibit strong diffusivity inhomogeneity. For instance, in the context of radionuclide absorption by porous wasteform materials within a flowing waste stream, the difference of species’ diffusivity in solid and liquid phases spans by 3~8 orders of magnitude. To solve the diffusion equations with strongly inhomogeneous diffusivity, traditional discretization-based methods, such as the Finite Difference Method (FDM), require infinitesimally small time steps (<10 -10 ) as high spatial resolutions are employed in most microstructure evolution processes, leading to prohibitively high computational costs. Here, this work developed an integrated numerical approach (FDiRW: Finite Difference informed Random Walk) to tackle this challenge. The idea is that utilizing the Random Walk concept, the fast diffusion is modeled as a superposition of point source’s solution for a concentration distribution while FDM is used to obtain the point source’s solution at each node. A mesh-coarsening algorithm is developed to generate an exclusive coarse mesh for FDiRW approach to maximize its efficiency. The effectiveness of the coarse mesh-based FDiRW approach is validated by benchmarking Finite Difference solutions. Numerical results demonstrated that FDiRW achieves a remarkable 1000x computational efficiency improvement over FDM while preserving desired accuracy for a medium-sized model of 192 × 192 × 192 grids. Finally, as models scale up, a floating-point operations (PLOPs) analysis of the FDiRW algorithm reveals that its computational complexity grows quadratically in terms of the number of nodes employed in computation.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

NASA NTRS2008

Tetravalent chromium doped laser materials and NIR tunable lasers

A method is described to improve and produce purer Cr.sup.4+-doped laser materials and lasers with reduced co-incorporation of chromium in any other valence states, such as Cr.sup.3+, Cr.sup.2+, Cr.sup.5+, and Cr.sup.6+. The method includes: 1) certain crystals of olivine structure with large cation (Ca) in octahedral sites such as Cr.sup.4+:Ca.sub.2GeO.sub.4, Cr.sup.4+:Ca.sub.2SiO.sub.4, Cr.sup.4+:Ca.sub.2Ge.sub.xSi.sub.1-xO.sub.4 (where 0<x<1), and/or 2) high-temperature solution growth techniques that enable the growth of the crystals below the temperature of polymorphic transitions by using low melting point solvent based on oxide, fluoride and/or chloride compounds. Purer Cr.sup.4+-doped laser materials are characterized by a relatively high concentration of Cr.sup.4+-lasing ion in crystalline host that makes these materials suitable for compact high power (thin disk/wedge) NIR laser applications.

Alfano, Robert R.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Impact of Thermoplastic Composites: Testing and Modeling

Thermoplastic Composites (TPCs) are being increasingly considered for aerospace applications given their faster manufacturing cycles and lower cost. The NASA High-Rate Composite Aircraft Manufacturing (HiCAM) project aims to evaluate and mature thermoplastic manufacturing technologies to achieve a 4X – 6X increase in the production rate of Next Generation Single Aisle (NGSA) commercial aircraft. Within the purview of the NASA HiCAM project, this work investigates the response of thermoplastic composites under High Energy Dynamic Impact (HEDI) conditions. HEDI tests were conducted on panels fabricated with a carbon fiber reinforced low melt semi-crystalline resin TC1225 LMPAEK T700G (T700/LMPAEK) material system. A blunt metal projectile was chosen as the impactor which impacted the T700/LMPAEK panels over a range of impact velocities imparted by a gas gun test setup. As expected, lower velocity impacts caused the projectile to rebound, whereas higher velocity impacts resulted in the projectile penetrating the test panels. For the test cases in which the projectile rebounded, the predominant damage modes recorded with Ultrasonic (UT) scans included interlaminar delaminations which exhibited a “rotating fan” like structure when viewed in the through-thickness direction. Additionally, the dynamic deflection of the center point of the back face of the test panels and the velocity of the projectile was also measured during the test. Finite element models were developed to model a test case in which the projectile rebounded. These models were developed using LS-DYNA® wherein the primary objective was to evaluate the ability of the material model MAT299 to capture the dynamic response and damage modes in the T700/LMPAEK test panels. MAT299 is a Deformation Gradient Decomposition (DGD) based Continuum Damage Mechanics (CDM) material model. The interlaminar delaminations were modeled using the cohesive contact formulation available within LS-DYNA, wherein the mixed-mode fracture is captured via the Benzegaggh-Kenane (B-K) mode-dependent fracture energy interpolation law. The above-mentioned modeling methods have mostly been applied to thermoset composites and adapting them to TPCs involves addressing challenges associated with appropriately representing material behavior. Therefore, the proposed paper would discuss the systematic approach taken to adapt thermoset composites modeling practices for applications to TPCs, while appropriately addressing material behavior. The proposed paper would show that the predicted back face center point deflection correlated reasonably well with experimental data and the peak deflection was predicted to be within 5% of the experimental measurements. The projectile rebound velocity, while predicted to be higher than the experimental measurement, was within reasonable bounds. Additionally, it will be shown that the predicted delamination shapes were in reasonable agreement with experimental data.

Composite Materials↗

DOE OSTI2025

Electronic structure and exchange interactions in altermagnetic MnGeP 2 in the quasiparticle self-consistent G W approach

The quasiparticle self-consistent 𝐺⁡𝑊 method is used to study the electronic band structure, optical dielectric function, and exchange interactions in chalcopyrite, 𝐼⁢ ‾ 4 ⁢2⁢𝑑, structure MnGeP 2 . The material is found to be an antiferromagnetic semiconductor with a lowest direct gap of 2.44 eV at the Γ point and a lower indirect gap of 1.87 eV from Γ to 𝑀. The material is an altermagnet because the two magnetic atoms of opposite spin are related by a twofold rotation operation perpendicular to the main fourfold rotation inversion axis. The spin splittings along a low symmetry line like 𝑃⁢𝑁 is sizable while at k points on the diagonal mirror planes or on the twofold symmetry axes the spin splitting is zero. The exchange interactions are calculated using a linear response approach. The antiferromagnetic exchange interaction between nearest neighbors in the primitive unit cell is dominating and found to be slightly decreasing upon carrier doping but not sufficiently to change the interaction to become ferromagnetic. The bare (noninteracting) and interacting transverse spin susceptibilities, which provide interatomic site exchange interactions after averaging over the muffin-tin spheres, are calculated from the 𝐺⁡𝑊 band structure and wave functions. From these exchange interactions, the spin wave spectra are obtained along the high symmetry lines and the Néel temperature is calculated using the mean-field and Tyablikov estimations. The dielectric function and the optical absorption spectra are calculated including excitonic effects using the Bethe Salpeter equation. The exchange interactions around Mn Ge defect sites is also studied. While we find it can generate ferromagnetic interactions with neighboring spins, we did not find direct evidence of producing an overall ferromagnetic phase. First, if Mn antisites are introduced by exchanging Mn with a nearby Ge, the interactions stay largely antiferromagnetic. Second, when we add additional Mn, in other words in Mn-rich stoichiometry, the Mn Ge antisites produce a strong ferromagnetic interaction primarily with the Mn in the same basal plane but weaker ferromagnetic interaction with adjacent plane Mn. The interactions between regular lattice Mn stay antiferromagnetic as before and thus favor keeping the antiferromagnetic order along the [001] direction. Adding Mn antisites, however, does lead to a metallic band structure.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

NASA NTRS1989

Specialty functions singularity mechanics problems

The focus is in the development of more accurate and efficient advanced methods for solution of singular problems encountered in mechanics. At present, finite element methods in conjunction with special functions, boolean sum and blending interpolations are being considered. In dealing with systems which contain a singularity, special finite elements are being formulated to be used in singular regions. Further, special transition elements are being formulated to couple the special element to the mesh that models the rest of the system, and to be used in conjunction with 1-D, 2-D and 3-D elements within the same mesh. Computational simulation with a least squares fit is being utilized to construct special elements, if there is an unknown singularity in the system. A novel approach is taken in formulation of the elements in that: (1) the material properties are modified to include time, temperature, coordinate and stress dependant behavior within the element; (2) material properties vary at nodal points of the elements; (3) a hidden-symbolic computation scheme is developed and utilized in formulating the elements; and (4) special functions and boolean sum are utilized in order to interpolate the field variables and their derivatives along the boundary of the elements. It may be noted that the proposed methods are also applicable to fluids and coupled problems.

Sarigul, Nesrin↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Modeling the Effective Elasticity of Anisotropic Porous Materials

The development and optimization of composite materials designed for thermal protection of NASA’s spacecraft require understanding their physical response to high-enthalpy environments. To predict their macro-scale properties and behavior, high-fidelity 3D simulations are performed at the microscale on realistic representations of these composites. The digital microstructures are generated either synthetically or through X-ray micro-computed tomography reconstructions. One of the main challenges in the prediction of the structural response of heatshield materials is the computation of the effective elasticity of the fibrous composite, as well as the understanding of the deformation and stresses generated at the microscale. These are driven by the fiber layout within the microstructure and the distribution of the infused matrix. In this effort, the micro-mechanical linear elastic behavior of fibrous ablators is modeled using a numerical method based on the Multi-Point Stress Approximation (MPSA) finite volume scheme, a generalization of the more commonly used Multi-Point Flux Approximation (MPFA) that was presented at the 10th Ablation Workshop. To predict the behavior of fibrous and woven architectures, algorithms that compute the local fiber orientation are used. The implementation of the MPSA was verified using analytical solutions, engineering test cases, and compared against legacy Finite Element Analysis (FEA) software. The stress analysis models were then applied to real geometries used by NASA in thermal protection systems such as fibrous preforms and woven materials and the results were compared to experimental data.

Elasticity↗