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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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262 records · Page 15

Deterministic Multiaxial Creep and Creep Rupture Enhancements for CARES/Creep Integrated Design Code

High temperature and long duration applications of monolithic ceramics can place their failure mode in the creep rupture regime. A previous model advanced by the authors described a methodology by which the creep rupture life of a loaded component can be predicted. That model was based on the life fraction damage accumulation rule in association with the modified Monkman-Grant creep rupture criterion. However, that model did not take into account the deteriorating state of the material due to creep damage (e.g., cavitation) as time elapsed. In addition, the material creep parameters used in that life prediction methodology, were based on uniaxial creep curves displaying primary and secondary creep behavior, with no tertiary regime. The objective of this paper is to present a creep life prediction methodology based on a modified form of the Kachanov-Rabotnov continuum damage mechanics (CDM) theory. In this theory, the uniaxial creep rate is described in terms of sum, temperature, time, and the current state of material damage. This scalar damage state parameter is basically an abstract measure of the current state of material damage due to creep deformation. The damage rate is assumed to vary with stress, temperature, time, and the current state of damage itself. Multiaxial creep and creep rupture formulations of the CDM approach are presented in this paper. Parameter estimation methodologies based on nonlinear regression analysis are also described for both, isothermal constant stress states and anisothermal variable stress conditions This creep life prediction methodology was preliminarily added to the integrated design code CARES/Creep (Ceramics Analysis and Reliability Evaluation of Structures/Creep), which is a postprocessor program to commercially available finite element analysis (FEA) packages. Two examples, showing comparisons between experimental and predicted creep lives of ceramic specimens, are used to demonstrate the viability of Ns methodology and the CARES/Creep program.

Jadaan, Osama M.↗

Electron Scattering from 1-Methyl-5-Nitroimidazole: Cross-Sections for Modeling Electron Transport through Potential Radiosensitizers

In this study, we present a complete set of electron scattering cross-sections from 1-Methyl-5-Nitroimidazole (1M5NI) molecules for impact energies ranging from 0.1 to 1000 eV. This information is relevant to evaluate the potential role of 1M5NI as a molecular radiosensitizers. The total electron scattering cross-sections (TCS) that we previously measured with a magnetically confined electron transmission apparatus were considered as the reference values for the present analysis. Elastic scattering cross-sections were calculated by means of two different schemes: The Schwinger multichannel (SMC) method for the lower energies (below 15 eV) and the independent atom model-based screening-corrected additivity rule with interferences (IAM-SCARI) for higher energies (above 15 eV). The latter was also applied to calculate the total ionization cross-sections, which were complemented with experimental values of the induced cationic fragmentation by electron impact. Double differential ionization cross-sections were measured with a reaction microscope multi-particle coincidence spectrometer. Using a momentum imaging spectrometer, direct measurements of the anion fragment yields and kinetic energies by the dissociative electron attachment are also presented. Cross-sections for the other inelastic channels were derived with a self-consistent procedure by sampling their values at a given energy to ensure that the sum of the cross-sections of all the scattering processes available at that energy coincides with the corresponding TCS. This cross-section data set is ready to be used for modelling electron-induced radiation damage at the molecular level to biologically relevant media containing 1M5NI as a potential radiosensitizer. Nonetheless, a proper evaluation of its radiosensitizing effects would require further radiobiological experiments.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Blue ellipticals in compact groups

By studying galaxies in compact groups, the authors examine the hypothesis that mergers of spiral galaxies make elliptical galaxies. The authors combine dynamical models of the merger-rich compact group environment with stellar evolution models and predict that roughly 15 percent of compact group ellipticals should be 0.15 mag bluer in B - R color than normal ellipticals. The published colors of these galaxies suggest the existence of this predicted blue population, but a normal distribution with large random errors can not be ruled out based on these data alone. However, the authors have new ultraviolet blue visual data which confirm the blue color of the two ellipticals with blue B - R colors for which they have their own colors. This confirmation of a population of blue ellipticals indicates that interactions are occurring in compact groups, but a blue color in one index alone does not require that these ellipticals are recent products of the merger of two spirals. The authors demonstrate how optical spectroscopy in the blue may distinguish between a true spiral + spiral merger and the swallowing of a gas-rich system by an already formed elliptical. The authors also show that the sum of the luminosity of the galaxies in each group is consistent with the hypothesis that the final stage in the evolution of compact group is an elliptical galaxy.

Zepf, Stephen E.↗

High-throughput screening tools facilitate calculation of a combined exposure-bioactivity index for chemicals with endocrine activity

High-throughput and computational tools provide a new opportunity to calculate combined bioactivity of exposure to diverse chemicals acting through a common mechanism. We used high throughput in vitro bioactivity data and exposure predictions from the U.S. EPA’s Toxicity and Exposure Forecaster (ToxCast and ExpoCast) to estimate combined estrogen receptor (ER) agonist activity of non-pharmaceutical chemical exposures for the general U.S. population. High-throughput toxicokinetic (HTTK) data provide conversion factors that relate bioactive concentrations measured in vitro (µM), to predicted population geometric mean exposure rates (mg/kg/day). These data were available for 22 chemicals with ER agonist activity and were estimated for other ER bioactive chemicals based on the geometric mean of HTTK values across chemicals. For each chemical, ER bioactivity across ToxCast assays was compared to predicted population geometric mean exposure at different levels of in vitro potency and model certainty. Dose additivity was assumed in calculating a Combined Exposure-Bioactivity Index (CEBI), the sum of exposure/bioactivity ratios. Combined estrogen bioactivity was also calculated in terms of the percent maximum bioactivity of chemical mixtures in human plasma using a concentration-addition model. Estimated CEBIs vary greatly depending on assumptions used for exposure and bioactivity. In general, CEBI values were <1 when using median of the estimated general population chemical intake rates, while CEBI were ≥1 when using the upper 95th confidence bound for those same intake rates for all chemicals. Concentration-addition model predictions of mixture bioactivity yield comparable results. Based on current in vitro bioactivity data, HTTK methods, and exposure models, combined exposure scenarios sufficient to influence estrogen bioactivity in the general population cannot be ruled out. Future improvements in screening methods and computational models could reduce uncertainty and better inform the potential combined effects of estrogenic chemicals.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Energetics of muscle contraction: the whole is less than the sum of its parts

Understanding muscle energetics is a problem in optimizing supply of ATP to the demands of ATPases. The complexity of reactions and their fluxes to achieve this balance is greatly reduced by recognizing constraints imposed by the integration of common metabolites at fixed stoichiometry among modular units. ATPase is driven externally. Oxidative phosphorylation and glycogenolysis are the suppliers. We focus on their regulation which involves different controls, but reduces to two principles that enable facile experimental analysis of the supply and demand fluxes. The ratio of concentration of phosphocreatine (PCr) to ATP, not their individual values, sets the range of achievable concentrations of ADP in resting and active muscle (at fixed pH) in different cell types. This principle defines the fraction of available flux of oxidative phosphorylation utilized (at fixed enzyme activities). Then the kinetics of PCr recovery defines the kinetics of oxygen supply and substrate utilization. The second principle is the constancy of PCr and H(+) (lactate) production by glycogenolysis due to the coupling of ATPase and glycolysis. This principle enables glycogenolytic flux to be measured from intracellular proton loads. Further simplification occurs because the magnitude of the interacting fluxes and metabolite concentrations are specified within narrow limits when both the resting and active fluxes are quantified. Thus there is a small set of rules for assessing and understanding the thermodynamics and kinetics of muscle energetics.

NASA Program Biomedical Research and Countermeasur↗

Directions of Moving Plaids is Biased by Asymmetric Viewing Windows

Directionally selective V1 neurons are tuned to particular spatio-temporal frequencies and respond to local 1-D edge motion. At least some MT neurons however appear to respond to the actual velocity of moving 2D patterns. To better understand how the 1D local motion information available from VI is integrated to derive a 2D velocity signal we investigated human perception of moving plaids, 2-D patterns composed of the sum of two 1-D sinusoidal gratings of different orientations. We measured the effect of the shape of the viewing window on the perceived direction of plaid motion. The plaids were spatially windowed by 2-D Gaussians with unequal standard deviations (sigma 1, sigma 2). Four observers indicated perceived direction by adjusting a pointer. Direction errors were measured as a function of the difference between window orientation and true plaid direction (DELTA THETA) for several grating spatial frequencies (SF = 0.3, 0.6, 1.2 c/d) and window aspect ratios (AR = sigma 1/sigma 2 = 1, 1.4, 2, 4). Observers showed systematic errors in perceived direction (approx. 15 for AR = 4 and SF = 0.6 c/d) that peaked at DELTA THETA approx. 40. The errors increased for increasing aspect ratio and decreased for increasing spatial frequencies (or number of cycles). These results show that despite the unambiguous motion of the plaids, under these conditions human misperceive the motion. These data constrain models of motion integration from V1 to MT and, in particular, are inconsistent with algorithms that use either the Intersection of Constraints rule or cross correlation to compute the perceived direction of motion.

Beutter, B. R.↗

Direction of Moving Plaids is Biased by Asymmetric Viewing Windows

Directionally selective V1 neurons are tuned to particular spatiotemporal frequencies and respond to local 1-D edge motion. At least some MT neurons however appear to respond to the actual velocity of moving 2D patterns (Movshon et al., EBR, 11:117, 1986). To better understand how the 1D local motion information available from V1 is integrated to derive a 2D velocity signal we investigated human perception of moving plaids, 2-D patterns composed of the sum of two 1-D sinusoidal gratings of different orientations. We measured the effect of the shape of the viewing window on the perceived direction of plaid motion. The plaids were spatially windowed by 2-D Gaussians with unequal standard deviations (sigma l, sigma 2). Four observers indicated perceived direction by adjusting a pointer. Direction errors were measured as a function of the difference between window orientation and true plaid direction (delta theta) for several grating spatial frequencies (SF = 0.3, 0.6, 1.2 c/d) and window aspect ratios (AR = sigma 1/sigma 2 = 1, 1.4, 2,4). Observers showed systematic errors in perceived direction (approx. 15 degrees for R = 4 and SF = 0.6 c/d) that peaked at delta theta approximately 40 degrees. The errors increased for increasing aspect ratio and decreased for increasing spatial frequencies (or number of cycles). These results show that despite the unambiguous motion of the plaids, within asymmetric windows, human can systematically misperceive plaid direction. These data constrain models of motion integration within extrastriate cortex and, in particular, are inconsistent with algorithms that use either the Intersection of Constraints rule or cross correlation to compute velocity.

Beutter, Brent Robert↗

Materials Development: Pitfalls, Successes, and Lessons

The incorporation of new or improved materials in aerospace systems, or indeed any systems, can yield tremendous payoffs in the system performance or cost, and in many cases can be enabling for a mission or concept. However, the availability of new materials requires advance development, and too often this is neglected or postponed, leaving a project or mission with little choice. In too many cases, the immediate reaction is to use what was used before; this usually turns out not to be possible and results in large sums of money, and amounts of time, being expended on reinvention rather than development of a material with extended capabilities. Material innovation and development is time consuming, with some common wisdom claiming that the timeline is at least 20 years. This time expands considerably when development is stopped and restarted, or knowledge is lost. Down selection of materials is necessary, especially as the Technical Readiness Level (TRL) increases. However, the costs must be considered and approaches should be taken to retain knowledge and allow for restarting the development process. Regardless of the exact time required, it is clear that it is necessary to have materials, at all stages of development, in a research and development pipeline and available for maturation as required. This talk will discuss some of theses issues, including some of the elements for a development path for materials. Some history of materials developments will be included. The usefulness of computational materials science, as a route to decreasing material development time, will be an important element of this discussion. Collaboration with outside institutions and nations is also critical for innovation, but raises the issues of intellectual property and protections, and national security (ITAR rules, for example).

Johnson, Sylvia M.↗

Energy Saving Estimation of ASHRAE Guideline 36 Supervisory Setpoint Reset Controls in a Commercial Large Office Building

Designing, commissioning, and retrofitting HVAC control systems for energy efficiency is crucial, but the use of ad-hoc control sequences by designers and contractors, based on scattered information, results in diverse and sub-optimal sequences. ASHRAE Guideline 36 (G36) addresses the challenge by providing standardized, rule-based HVAC control sequences that prioritize energy efficiency. However, there is limited evaluation of their energy performance at the building level, with only a few studies primarily focused on HVAC airside systems in small-to-medium-sized commercial buildings. In this study, the energy performance of ASHRAE Guideline 36 control sequences was assessed using a large office building emulator in Chicago. The emulator features a central plant system with multiple chillers and boilers as well as multiple variable air volume (VAV) systems with terminal reheat. To achieve a high-fidelity representation, we developed a Spawn-of-EnergyPlus-based model for the large office building, maintaining the DOE prototype large office building setup but substituting the HVAC system with its Modelica counterpart. This substitution ensures that the building thermal load, HVAC system's dynamics, and detailed control sequences are all accurately represented. The study involved evaluating and implementing control strategies outlined in ASHRAE Guideline 36-2021 to replace conventional controls. These strategies include the demand-based supply air temperature and duct static pressure setpoint reset and the request logic for demand-based reset of chilled/hot water supply temperature setpoints and pipe static pressure setpoints. Energy performance was evaluated under various load conditions, including cooling, heating, and transitional seasons, both for individual control strategies and in combination. The results indicate that the collective control strategies retrofit yield greater energy savings than the sum of individual strategies, highlighting the synergistic benefits of incorporating both airside and plant-side control retrofits. Additionally, energy savings of up to 41% in the heating season, 18% in the shoulder season, and 20 % in the cooling season were observed compared to baseline control while maintaining the thermal comfort level.

ASHRAE Guideline 36, Commercial buildings, Control↗

Completed SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: Cosmological implications from two decades of spectroscopic surveys at the Apache Point Observatory

We present the cosmological implications from final measurements of clustering using galaxies, quasars, and Lyα forests from the completed Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) lineage of experiments in large-scale structure. These experiments, composed of data from SDSS, SDSS-II, BOSS, and eBOSS, offer independent measurements of baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) measurements of angular-diameter distances and Hubble distances relative to the sound horizon, r d , from eight different samples and six measurements of the growth rate parameter, fσ 8 , from redshift-space distortions (RSD). This composite sample is the most constraining of its kind and allows us to perform a comprehensive assessment of the cosmological model after two decades of dedicated spectroscopic observation. We show that the BAO data alone are able to rule out dark-energy-free models at more than eight standard deviations in an extension to the flat, ΛCDM model that allows for curvature. When combined with Planck Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) measurements of temperature and polarization, under the same model, the BAO data provide nearly an order of magnitude improvement on curvature constraints relative to primary CMB constraints alone. Independent of distance measurements, the SDSS RSD data complement weak lensing measurements from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) in demonstrating a preference for a flat ΛCDM cosmological model when combined with Planck measurements. The combined BAO and RSD measurements indicate σ 8 =0.85±0.03, implying a growth rate that is consistent with predictions from Planck temperature and polarization data and with General Relativity. When combining the results of SDSS BAO and RSD, Planck, Pantheon Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), and DES weak lensing and clustering measurements, all multiple-parameter extensions remain consistent with a ΛCDM model. Regardless of cosmological model, the precision on each of the three parameters, Ω Λ , H 0 , and σ 8 , remains at roughly 1%, showing changes of less than 0.6% in the central values between models. In a model that allows for free curvature and a time-evolving equation of state for dark energy, the combined samples produce a constraint Ω K =-0.0022±0.0022. The dark energy constraints lead to w 0 =-0.909±0.081 and w a =$-0.49_{-0.30}^{+0.35}$, corresponding to an equation of state of w p =-1.018±0.032 at a pivot redshift z p =0.29 and a Dark Energy Task Force Figure of Merit of 94. The inverse distance ladder measurement under this model yields H 0 =68.18±0.79 km s -1 Mpc -1 , remaining in tension with several direct determination methods; the BAO data allow Hubble constant estimates that are robust against the assumption of the cosmological model. In addition, the BAO data allow estimates of H 0 that are independent of the CMB data, with similar central values and precision under a ΛCDM model. Our most constraining combination of data gives the upper limit on the sum of neutrino masses at Σm ν <0.115 eV (95% confidence). Finally, we consider the improvements in cosmology constraints over the last decade by comparing our results to a sample representative of the period 2000-2010. We compute the relative gain across the five dimensions spanned by w, Ω k , Σm ν , H 0 , and σ 8 and find that the SDSS BAO and RSD data reduce the total posterior volume by a factor of 40 relative to the previous generation. Finally, adding again the Planck, DES, and Pantheon SN Ia samples leads to an overall contraction in the five-dimensional posterior volume of 3 orders of magnitude.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗