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Results for “Storage Complex”

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 271 records · Page 15
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1993

Thermal control systems for low-temperature heat rejection on a lunar base

One of the important issues in the design of a lunar base is the thermal control system (TCS) used to reject low-temperature heat from the base. The TCS ensures that the base and the components inside are maintained within an acceptable temperature range. The temperature of the lunar surface peaks at 400 K during the 336-hour lunar day. Under these circumstances, direct dissipation of waste heat from the lunar base using passive radiators would be impractical. Thermal control systems based on thermal storage, shaded radiators, and heat pumps have been proposed. Based on proven technology, innovation, realistic complexity, reliability, and near-term applicability, a heat pump-based TCS was selected as a candidate for early missions. In this report, Rankine-cycle heat pumps and absorption heat pumps (ammonia water and lithium bromide-water) have been analyzed and optimized for a lunar base cooling load of 100 kW.

Sridhar, K. R.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Decision-Theoretic Control of Planetary Rovers

Planetary rovers are small unmanned vehicles equipped with cameras and a variety of sensors used for scientific experiments. They must operate under tight constraints over such resources as operation time, power, storage capacity, and communication bandwidth. Moreover, the limited computational resources of the rover limit the complexity of on-line planning and scheduling. We describe two decision-theoretic approaches to maximize the productivity of planetary rovers: one based on adaptive planning and the other on hierarchical reinforcement learning. Both approaches map the problem into a Markov decision problem and attempt to solve a large part of the problem off-line, exploiting the structure of the plan and independence between plan components. We examine the advantages and limitations of these techniques and their scalability.

Zilberstein, Shlomo↗
NASA NTRS2003

Self-Directed Cooperative Planetary Rovers

The project is concerned with the development of decision-theoretic techniques to optimize the scientific return of planetary rovers. Planetary rovers are small unmanned vehicles equipped with cameras and a variety of sensors used for scientific experiments. They must operate under tight constraints over such resources as operation time, power, storage capacity, and communication bandwidth. Moreover, the limited computational resources of the rover limit the complexity of on-line planning and scheduling. We have developed a comprehensive solution to this problem that involves high-level tools to describe a mission; a compiler that maps a mission description and additional probabilistic models of the components of the rover into a Markov decision problem; and algorithms for solving the rover control problem that are sensitive to the limited computational resources and high-level of uncertainty in this domain.

Zilberstein, Shlomo↗
DOE OSTI2025

Self-Heating Conductive Ceramic Composites for High Temperature Thermal Energy Storage

The absence of affordable and deployable large-scale energy storage poses a major barrier to providing zero-emission energy on demand for societal decarbonization. High temperature thermal energy storage is one promising option with low cost and high scalability, but it is hindered by the inherent complexity of simultaneously satisfying all of the material requirements. Here we design a class of ceramic–carbon composites based on co-optimizing mechanical, electrical, and thermal properties. Further, these composites demonstrate stability in soak-and-hold tests and direct self-heating up to 1,936 °C and 750 thermal cycles from 500 to 1,630 °C without degradation. This thermal performance derives from their composition and microstructural design as verified by in situ high-temperature transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. They offer both higher energy density and lower cost than conventional storage technologies with a projected system Levelized Cost of Storage below the U.S. Department of Energy’s 2030 target 5 ¢/kWh (electric).

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Soft interface instability and gas flow channeling in low-permeability deformable media

Understanding gas percolation through a clay layer or a shale formation is of great importance for the development of a geologic repository for nuclear waste disposal, a subsurface system for gas storage, and an engineering approach for hydrocarbon extraction from unconventional reservoirs. Gas injection experiments have revealed complex dynamic behaviours of gas percolation through water saturated compacted bentonite, characterized by a high breakthrough pressure, rapid breakthrough, a pressure/stress decay after the breakthrough, a relatively high migration rate, high-frequency periodic/nonperiodic variations in flow rate, stepwise rate reductions during relaxation, and low gas saturation over the whole process, all indicating channelling nature of the processes. Using linear stability analyses, we show that this channelling can autonomously emerge from the instability of the deformable interface between the injected gas and the compacted bentonite matrix driven by local stress concentration, pore dilation, and hydrologic gradient. Channel patterns formed would possess a fractal geometry. We further show that, once a percolating channel is established, the gas injected would percolate through the channel in a chain of gas bubbles, also due to the interface instability, resulting in periodic/chaotic variations in gas flow rate. Our work provides a unified explanation for key features observed for gas percolation in low-permeability deformable media. The work also suggests a possibility of designing an engineered barrier system for a nuclear waste repository that can have controllable gas release while limit water transport.

Bentonite↗
NASA NTRS1991

The role of HiPPI switches in mass storage systems: A five year prospective

New standards are evolving which provide the foundation for multi-gigabit per second data communication structures. The lowest layer protocols are so generalized that they encourage a wide range of application. Specifically, the ANSI High Performance Parallel Interface (HiPPI) is being applied to computer peripheral attachment as well as general data communication networks. The HiPPI Standards suite and technology products which incorporate the standards are introduced. The use of simple HiPPI crosspoint switches to build potentially complex extended 'fabrics' is discussed in detail. Several near term applications of the HiPPI technology are briefly described with additional attention to storage systems. Finally, some related standards are mentioned which may further expand the concepts above.

Gilbert, T. A.↗
DOE OSTI2025

Decoding the Desorption Mechanism of 2LiH:1Mg(NH2)2 Using Metal Borohydrides

The complex metal hydride 2LiH:1Mg­(NH2)2 has emerged as a promising material for stationary hydrogen storage applications, such as seasonal storage or energy backup systems, due to its high volumetric and gravimetric capacities and robust reversibility. However, its widespread adoption is hindered by sluggish reaction rates, performance degradation upon cycling, and improper end-use cases. To address these problems and better understand the desorption pathway, we used metal borohydrides (MBH4; M = Li–Cs) as chemical probes. A thorough analysis of the bulk behavior of all six materials, including hydrogen cycling experiments, X-ray absorption spectroscopy, FTIR, pXRD, solid-state NMR, and ab initio DFT simulations, shows that the borohydride additives decrease the activation energy of hydrogen release by about 20 kJ/mol for MBH4@2:1 materials versus pristine. Furthermore, more surface-sensitive studies show that the amide-to-imide desorption pathway in these materials, while essentially complete in the bulk, is incomplete in the near-surface region, suggesting an “inverse core–shell” desorption mechanism for amide dehydrogenation to imide. The kinetic enhancements produced by MBH4 additives (M = K, Rb, and Cs) are attributed to the destabilization of the amide N–H bond and interaction with the LiH/Mg­(NH2)2 interface to promote H–H bond formation. An inverse core-shell mechanism is also operative in the hydrogen desorption for the 2LiH:1LiNH2 system, suggesting this may be a general feature of amides. Given the fast dehydrogenation rate and large gravimetric capacity, these materials satisfy these requirements for telecom backups and seasonal microgrid storage applications.

Absorption↗
NASA NTRS1993

Advanced Crew Rescue Vehicle/Personnel Launch System

The Advanced Crew Rescue Vehicle (ACRV) will be an essential element of the Space Station to respond to three specific missions, all of which have occurred during the history space exploration by the U.S. and the Soviets: (1) Mission DRM-1: Return of disabled crew members during medical emergencies; (2) Mission DRM-2: Return of crew members from accidents or as a result of failures of Space Station systems; and (3) Mission DRM-3: Return of crew members during interruption of Space Shuttle launches. The ACRV will have the ability to transport up to eight astronauts during a 24-hour mission. Not only would the ACRV serve as a lifeboat to provide transportation back to Earth, but it would also be available as a immediately available safe refuge in case the Space Station were severely damaged by space debris or other catastrophe. Upon return to Earth, existing world-wide search and rescue assets operated by the Coast Guard and Department of Defense would be able to retrieve personnel returned to Earth via the ACRV. The operational approach proposed for the ACRV is tailored to satisfying mission requirements for simplicity of operation (no piloting skills or specially trained personnel are required), continuous availability, high reliability and affordability. By using proven systems as the basis for many critical ACRV systems, the ACRV program is more likely to achieve each of these mission requirements. Nonetheless, the need for the ACRV to operate reliably with little preflight preparation after, perhaps, 5 to 10 years in orbit imposes challenges not faced by any previous space system of this complexity. Specific concerns exist regarding micrometeoroid impacts, battery life, and degradation of recovery parachutes while in storage.

Craig, Jerry W.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Relationship between magnetic field evolution and flaring sites in AR 6659 in June 1991

During the international campaign of June 1991, the active region AR 6659 produced six very large, long-duration flares (X10/12) during its passage across the solar disk. We present the characteristics of four of them (June 4, 6, 9, 15). Precise measurements of the spot motions from Debrecen and Tokyo white-light pictures are used to understand the fragmentation of the main sunspot group with time. This fragmentation leads to a continuous restructuring of the magnetic field pattern while rapid changes are evidenced due to fast new flux emergence (magnetograms of Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), Huairou). The first process leads to a shearing of the field lines along which there is energy storage; the second one is the trigger which causes the release of energy by creating a complex topology. We conjecture that these two processes with different time scales are relevant to the production of flares.

Schmieder, B.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Visualization Techniques in Space and Atmospheric Sciences

Unprecedented volumes of data will be generated by research programs that investigate the Earth as a system and the origin of the universe, which will in turn require analysis and interpretation that will lead to meaningful scientific insight. Providing a widely distributed research community with the ability to access, manipulate, analyze, and visualize these complex, multidimensional data sets depends on a wide range of computer science and technology topics. Data storage and compression, data base management, computational methods and algorithms, artificial intelligence, telecommunications, and high-resolution display are just a few of the topics addressed. A unifying theme throughout the papers with regards to advanced data handling and visualization is the need for interactivity, speed, user-friendliness, and extensibility.

Szuszczewicz, E. P.↗
NASA NTRS1999

STS-96 FD Highlights and Crew Activities Report: Flight Day 05

On this fifth day of the STS-96 Discovery mission, the flight crew, Commander Kent V. Rominger, Pilot Rick D. Husband, and Mission Specialists Ellen Ochoa, Tamara E. Jernigan, Daniel T. Barry, Julie Payette, and Valery Ivanovich Tokarev are seen performing logistics transfer activities within the Discovery/International Space Station orbiting complex. The crew transfers supplies, equipment, and water. Payette and Tokarev perform maintenance activities on the storage batteries in the Zarya module. Barry and Tokarev install acoustic insulation around some of the fans inside Zarya. Jernigan and Husband install shelving in 2 soft stowage racks. Husband and Barry troubleshoot and perform maintenance activities on the Early Communications System. At the end of the workday, Rominger, Jernigan, and Barry discussed the progress of the mission with NBC's "Today," CBS "This Morning," and CNN.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2013

Ultrascale Visualization of Climate Data

Fueled by exponential increases in the computational and storage capabilities of high-performance computing platforms, climate simulations are evolving toward higher numerical fidelity, complexity, volume, and dimensionality. These technological breakthroughs are coming at a time of exponential growth in climate data, with estimates of hundreds of exabytes by 2020. To meet the challenges and exploit the opportunities that such explosive growth affords, a consortium of four national laboratories, two universities, a government agency, and two private companies formed to explore the next wave in climate science. Working in close collaboration with domain experts, the Ultrascale Visualization Climate Data Analysis Tools (UV-CDAT) project aims to provide high-level solutions to a variety of climate data analysis and visualization problems.

analysis tools↗
NASA NTRS2013

Mass Flow Rate and Isolation Characteristics of Injectors for Use with Self-Pressurizing Oxidizers in Hybrid Rockets

Self-pressurizing rocket propellants are currently gaining popularity in the propulsion community, particularly in hybrid rocket applications. Due to their high vapor pressure, these propellants can be driven out of a storage tank without the need for complicated pressurization systems or turbopumps, greatly minimizing the overall system complexity and mass. Nitrous oxide (N2O) is the most commonly used self pressurizing oxidizer in hybrid rockets because it has a vapor pressure of approximately 730 pounds per square inch (5.03 megapascals) at room temperature and is highly storable. However, it can be difficult to model the feed system with these propellants due to the presence of two-phase flow, especially in the injector. An experimental test apparatus was developed in order to study the performance of nitrous oxide injectors over a wide range of operating conditions. Mass flow rate characterization has been performed to determine the effects of injector geometry and propellant sub-cooling (pressurization). It has been shown that rounded and chamfered inlets provide nearly identical mass flow rate improvement in comparison to square edged orifices. A particular emphasis has been placed on identifying the critical flow regime, where the flow rate is independent of backpressure (similar to choking). For a simple orifice style injector, it has been demonstrated that critical flow occurs when the downstream pressure falls sufficiently below the vapor pressure, ensuring bulk vapor formation within the injector element. It has been proposed to leverage the insensitivity of critical mass flow rate to downstream pressure as a means of preventing the occurrence of feed system coupled combustion instabilities in hybrid rockets utilizing nitrous oxide. Additionally, observations indicate that the existence of two-phase flow can attenuate pressure fluctuations traveling upstream through the injector, providing a degree of isolation between the feed line and downstream pressure disturbances. In consideration of safety, carbon dioxide (CO2) has been used as an analog to nitrous oxide in many of these studies. It has been observed experimentally that carbon dioxide serves as a good analog to nitrous oxide in both the single-phase and two-phase flow regimes.

Oxidizer↗
NASA NTRS2019

Cost-Effective High Reliability for Space Life Support Requires Using Storage

Cost-effective high reliability can be achieved in future space life support systems through careful systems analysis and design. This paper outlines a comprehensive approach. Potential future human space missions are described. The mission parameter impacts on life support system design and reliability requirements are discussed. Not all human space missions require high reliability life support. The potential reliability and cost of storage and of recycling life support systems are investigated. Simple storage systems can provide cost-effective high reliability life support where it is needed. More complex recycling systems with lower reliability and higher cost can be used when suitable.

Jones, Harry W.↗
NASA NTRS2019

Forming Aggregations using Virtual Sharding: Lessons Learned from Simple Scalable Storage (S3)

Data aggregation is the ability to combine separate datasets to form a single new logical dataset provides users with a powerful abstraction. The advantage of an aggregate dataset is that the users are freed from having to understand, and incorporate into their workflow, knowledge about the (ad hoc) organization of the constituent datasets. However, aggregating large numbers of files can be computationally complex with data server systems performing many repetitive operations. As part of the authors work on subsetting data stored on Amazon Web Service (AWS) Simple Storage Service (S3), we developed technology to read portions of otherwise monolithic data files. This enables the formation of virtual shards for user in subsetting data stored in HDF5 (hierarchical data format, version 5) files. This same tool can be used to form aggregations that combine data stored in many HDF5 files when those files are stored on S3. The nature of the virtual sharding and the algorithm that exploits it for subsetting is such that it can also be used for aggregation with the need for many of the repetitive operations required by the per file aggregation techniques. We will present timing information that demonstrates the flexibility of this approach. However, the lessons learned is that while this is a useful result in and of itself, these very same techniques can be applied in other contexts where data are stored in services and on media other than S3. For example, this same technique can be applied to data stored on spinning disk. Pushing the envelope for S3 forced a reexamination of our data access techniques which lead to unexpected positive benefits.

Gallagher, James↗
NASA NTRS1992

The role of HiPPI switches in mass storage systems: A five year prospective

New standards are evolving which provide the foundation for novel multi-gigabit per second data communication structures. The lowest layer protocols are so generalized that they encourage a wide range of application. Specifically, the ANSI High Performance Parallel Interface (HiPPI) is being applied to computer peripheral attachment as well as general data communication networks. This paper introduces the HiPPI standards suite and technology products which incorporate the standards. The use of simple HiPPI crosspoint switches to build potentially complex extended 'fabrics' is discussed in detail. Several near term applications of the HiPPI technology are briefly described with additional attention to storage systems. Finally, some related standards are mentioned which may further expand the concepts above.

Gilbert, T. A.↗
DOE OSTI2025

An Efficient Storage-Driven Machine Learning Model for Performance in the Era of Multimodal Scientific Data

Scientific workflows are increasingly relying on machine learning (ML), simulation, and hybrid techniques to predict, understand, and optimize the behavior of complex experiments. High-performance computing has greatly improved researchers’ ability to acquire diverse data modalities in these workflows. Recent studies suggest that the performance of machine learning models can be improved by integrating data from various sources. Unfortunately, these workloads pose unprecedent pressure on the network storage to meet the demands associated with accessing these multimodal data. To mitigate the impact of intensive IO, we propose a solution that utilizes a multi-tier High-Performance Computing (HPC) distributed storage and data processing framework, placing computation where the data resides for better performance. By adopting this project, the scientific community will gain new opportunities to explore multimodal storage-driven possibilities, integrating multiple scientific data sources with advanced streaming frameworks. Additionally, our framework effectively utilizes computing resources and bridges the gaps identified by HPC experts. Our proposed approach tackles scalability and persistence challenges by leveraging native persistency, which has posed difficulties in traditional approaches. Furthermore, we seek to enhance fault-tolerance and load-balance of computations by leveraging real-time streaming in diverse scientific computing environments, thereby propelling advanced scientific computing research into the next generation.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2026

Optimal CO 2 storage management considering safety constraints in multi-stakeholder multi-site GCS projects: A Markov game perspective

Geological carbon storage (GCS) projects could involve a diverse array of stakeholders or players from public, private, and regulatory sectors, each with different objectives and responsibilities. Given the complexity, scale, and long-term nature of GCS operations, determining whether individual stakeholders can independently optimize their interests — or whether collaborative coalition agreements are needed — remains a central question for effective GCS project planning and management. To access large, high-quality storage resources, future GCS deployment may increasingly occur in geologically connected sites, where shared geological features such as pressure space and reservoir pore capacity can lead to competitive behavior among stakeholders. In this work, we propose a paradigm based on Markov games to quantitatively investigate how different coalition structures affect the goals of stakeholders. We frame this multi-stakeholder multi-site problem as a multi-agent reinforcement learning problem with safety constraints. Our approach enables agents to learn optimal strategies while complying with safety regulations. We present an example where multiple operators are injecting CO 2 into their respective project areas in a geologically connected basin. To address the high computational cost of repeated simulations of high fidelity models, a previously developed surrogate model based on the Embed-to-Control (E2C) framework is employed. Our results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework in addressing optimal management of CO 2 storage when multiple stakeholders with different objectives and goals are involved.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗