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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 289 records · Page 16

Classifying Urban Land Covers Using Local Indices of Spatial Complexity

The skewed statistical distributions of land cover types in complex, heterogeneous urban areas limits the effectiveness of traditional spectrally based maximum-likelihood classifiers. This work examines the utility of fractal dimension and Moran's I index of spatial autocorrelation in segmenting high-resolution panchromatic and lower-resolution multispectral imagery. Tools available in the Image Characterization and Modeling System (ICAMS) were used to analyze multi-temporal and multi-platform imagery of Atlanta, Georgia. In this example, land cover change trajectories from forest or grassland to built up land covers lead to decreased spatial autocorrelation. In lower resolution imagery such as Landsat MSS, the complex details of forested land covers and urbanized areas are smoothed, and texture-based change detection is less effective. Although segmentation of panchromatic images is possible using fractal dimension or Moran's I, widely differing land covers often yield similar values of these indices. Better results are obtained when a surface of local fractal dimension or spatial autocorrelation is combined as an additional layer in a supervised maximum-likelihood multispectral classification.

Arumugam, Mahesh↗

An innovative radial gradient material design using hot isostatic pressing for applications in extreme environments

Functionally graded materials (FGMs) are highly advanced continuous or discontinuous structures whose structural and material properties vary along a singular geometric dimension either in the axial or radial direction. Here, the radial gradient FGM design makes for an optimal structural design to incorporate a bi-metallic structure with a copper-based high entropy alloy (Cu-HEA) with good mechanical properties and high irradiation resistance, and Chromium (Cr) with great corrosion resistance. This study focuses on the experimental design of a metal powder loading mechanism to fabricate a bi-metallic radial gradient structure using Cu-HEA and 99.9 % pure Cr metal powders. The powder loading strategy uses custom-designed concentric cylindrical dividers to separate the individual compositions. Two benchtop trial runs were performed for design optimization. The optimized design was then implemented to eventually load the HEA and Cr powders for consolidation via powder metallurgy hot isostatic pressing (PM-HIP). The electron microscopy analysis reveals the successful fabrication of the radial gradient structure with the chemical mapping analysis, demonstrating the gradual composition shift from the HEA at the center to the pure-Cr at the periphery via a three-step gradient.

High Entropy Alloys (HEAs)↗

Directed self-assembly of block copolymers for high-precision patterning in the era of extreme ultraviolet lithography

Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography enables unprecedented resolution in semiconductor patterning but faces critical challenges in developing resist materials that achieve high-precision at economically viable throughput. Directed self-assembly (DSA) of block copolymers (BCPs) offers a promising solution for pattern rectification by leveraging thermodynamically determined domain structures to decouple BCP pattern quality from the imperfect original lithographic pattern. This prospective presents an overview of recent progress on the EUV + DSA strategy, covering advances in BCP material design, processing, metrology, and pattern transfer. We highlight recent advances in high-χ BCPs with perpendicular orientation and domain spacings compatible with EUV dimensions, leveraging A-b-(B-r-C) architectures. We also discuss progress in chemical pre-pattern fabrication using both positive- and negative tone resists, along with processing strategies to minimize defects and roughness based on BCP thermodynamics and assembly kinetics. We further examine metrology platforms for characterizing the thermodynamics of BCP materials and quantifying the size and shape of BCP domains. Lastly, we review pattern transfer strategies for generating functional inorganic masks suitable for semiconductor manufacturing. Together, these advances highlight the potential of DSA to complement EUV lithography, offering a pathway to address critical challenges in achieving high-precision patterning for the semiconductor industry.

Lee, Kyunghyeon [Univ. of Chicago, IL (United Stat↗

Nonreflective boundary conditions for high-order methods

A different approach to nonreflective boundary conditions for the Euler equations is presented. This work is motivated by a need for in and outflow boundary conditions that do not limit the useful accuracy of high-order accurate methods. The primary interest is in the propagation and convection of continuous acoustic and convective waves. This new approach employs the exact solution to finite waves to relate interior values and ambient conditions to boundary values. The method is first presented in one dimension and then generalized to multidimensions. Grid refinement studies are used to demonstrate high-order convergence for both one-dimensional and two-dimensional flows.

Atkins, H. L.↗

Nonreflective boundary conditions for high-order methods

A different approach to nonreflective boundary conditions for the Euler equations is presented. This work is motivated by a need for inflow and outflow boundary conditions that do not limit the useful accuracy of high-order accurate methods. The primary interest is in the propagation and convection of continuous acoustic and convective waves. This new approach employs the exact solution to finite waves to relate interior values and ambient conditions to boundary values. The method is first presented in one dimension and then generalized to multidimensions. Grid refinement studies are used to demonstrate high-order convergence for both one-dimensional and two-dimensional flows.

Atkins, H.↗

Fractal Scaling of Explosively Driven Product Gases

ABSTRACT Characterization of the interface between explosive product gases and ambient air in an explosion is a complicated task due to the turbulent mixing and inherently three‐dimensional expansion of the interface. This study aims to quantify the evolution of the interface as a temporally varying Hausdorff dimension. Two test series were conducted with Composition C‐4 charges with masses of 105 and 880 g. Imaging data were collected from the time of detonation until shock wave detachment using ultra‐high‐speed cameras. Gas cloud profiles were extracted using automated image processing algorithms, and the Hausdorff dimension of these two‐dimensional slices of the gas cloud was then estimated using boxcounting algorithms. When scaled with standard gas dynamic nondimensional scalings, the Hausdorff dimension of all explosive events appears to collapse towards a single curve. The fireball was initially nonfractal and began to develop fractal properties as the shock wave separated from the detonation products. Artificial perturbation of the charged surface had no detectable impact on the evolution of the Hausdorff dimension in the early development of the fireball outside of error, despite visible phenomenological differences in the early development of mixing on the fireball surface.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Fabrication of Gate-Electrode Integrated Carbon-Nanotube Bundle Field Emitters

A continuing effort to develop carbon-nanotube-based field emitters (cold cathodes) as high-current-density electron sources has yielded an optimized device design and a fabrication scheme to implement the design. One major element of the device design is to use a planar array of bundles of carbon nanotubes as the field-emission tips and to optimize the critical dimensions of the array (principally, heights of bundles and distances between them) to obtain high area-averaged current density and high reliability over a long operational lifetime a concept that was discussed in more detail in Arrays of Bundles of Carbon Nanotubes as Field Emitters (NPO-40817), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 31, No. 2 (February 2007), page 58. Another major element of the design is to configure the gate electrodes (anodes used to extract, accelerate, and/or focus electrons) as a ring that overhangs a recess wherein the bundles of nanotubes are located, such that by virtue of the proximity between the ring and the bundles, a relatively low applied potential suffices to generate the large electric field needed for emission of electrons.

Toda, Risaku↗

Radioimaging for real-time tracking of high-voltage breakdown

Development of a radioimaging diagnostic for high-voltage component reliability testing and electrical breakdown computational model validation is described. Radioimaging has its roots in radio astronomy, where aperture synthesis (also known as synthesis imaging) has been utilized for decades to image radio sources far from Earth. Radioimaging as described herein, in contrast, seeks to image radio sources in close proximity to its receivers (i.e., in a laboratory environment). Here it is shown that corona discharge, a non-destructive precursor to catastrophic (thermal) arc discharge, electromagnetically radiates strongly within a 250 kHz – 2.5 GHz bandwidth, and is readily detected and located by postprocessing the received radio signals. The ability of radioimaging to detect both corona and arc discharge (grouped together herein as high voltage breakdown or HVB) makes it a valuable tool for 100% HVB detection in materials, components, and devices, and has the ability to indicate electrical weakness (via corona detection) prior to a destructive arc discharge event. Radioimaging enables HVB to be located both internal and external to dielectric components under test in near-real-time, with multiple and/or extended HVB events located simultaneously. In contrast, existing non-destructive diagnostics (at the time of this writing) either indicate electrical breakdown without resolving failure locations (e.g., current, voltage, and chemical measurements), locate external HVB (e.g., high-speed optical and ultraviolet (UV) measurements or photography), or locate both external and internal HVB but with low fidelity (e.g., a single HVB source can be located by existing time-of-arrival (TOA) UHF or acoustic emissions). Radioimaging instead creates a sequence of high-fidelity images similar to an optical high-speed camera but at radiofrequencies (RF), and is not limited to two-dimensions. Moreover, radioimaging has already served one internal and two external industry customers, the results of which are detailed in this report. The radioimaging results described herein were part of a three-year effort funded by the Sandia Lab Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program within the Radiation, Electromagnetic, High Energy Density Science (REHEDS) investment area.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

A Parametric, Data-Driven, Non-Intrusive Reduced-Order Model Framework for Crystal Plasticity Simulations of Voids

The influence of the internal structure at micrometer length scales on the deformation of polycrystalline materials can be effectively captured using crystal plasticity finite element methods (CPFEM). However, the complexity and nonlinearity of the deformation equations CPFEM solves demand significant computational power and resources to achieve accurate predictions, limiting its broader application. To address this challenge, we have identified a reduced-order representation of the complex data in order to establish a computationally efficient reduced-order models (ROM) and drastically reduce the computational expense of CPFEM. Specifically, in this work, we developed a parametric, data-driven, and non-intrusive ROM framework for CPFEM using proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) and sparse variational Gaussian process (SVGP) regression for single-crystal microstructures under tensile loading conditions. The developed protocol enables one to compress field into a latent/low-dimensional space described by principal component analysis (PCA) via the singular value decomposition (SVD) algorithm. As a result, the high-dimensional data are reduced to a significantly smaller amount of dimensions with POD bases and POD coefficients. Furthermore, we deployed an ensemble of SVGPs—extended from the classical Gaussian process (GP) regression for scalability and handling big data—in a massively parallel manner to train and predict latent POD coefficients using known POD bases from a set of previously obtained simulations results. Lastly, using the predicted POD coefficients, we reconstructed the full-field results and showed reasonable agreement compared with the true values obtained from running CPFEM. The developed framework is validated with a set of CPFEM simulations of a single embedded void in single-crystal aluminum alloy. While the framework is broadly applicable, this work specifically focuses on single-crystal microstructures, a single load case (e.g., tensile), and a specific void geometry (spherical).

Anisotropy↗

In Situ Liquid Electron Microscope Cells Strongly Attenuate Electrochemical Behavior

In situ electrochemical Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy (ec-S/TEM) probes the dynamics of electrochemical processes in real time and at high spatial resolution. This method utilizes microfabricated electrochemical cells, with enclosed dimensions of 800 μm wide, 800 μm long, and 1–2 μm tall, with electron-transparent silicon nitride windows. Working, counter, and reference electrodes in the configuration studied are deposited Pt with a planar surface area of about 1 μm 2 and a height of 50 nm. The cell confines the electrolyte within a 1 μm tall channel, and the microfabricated electrodes have a non-standard geometry, are coplanar, and are not front-facing. As such, standard assumptions of electrochemical experiments do not apply. COMSOL modeling was used to compare and contrast differences in electrochemical behavior between conventional experimental setups and the in situ ec-S/TEM cells. Cell height strongly affected voltammogram measurements: peak magnitudes and shifts correlate directly to cell height. Reactant concentration above the electrode quickly decreases during deposition, leading to a planar diffusion-dominated regime. The concentration gradient prioritizes particle growth along the thin edges of the electrode and not on the planar part of the electrode. Experiments done in the ec-S/TEM ex situ of a TEM verify the model’s accuracy.

Wittman, Reed M. [Oak Ridge National Laboratory (O↗

Scattering by spheres with nonisotropic refractive indices

Experimental scattering results using a microwave analog technique are described. Artificially constructed axially symmetric spheres with a graphite-like fine-layered composite structure and anisotropic refractive indices were employed to aid high-precision measurements of forward scattering under stable conditions (temperature, physical dimensions, electronic conditions) and to facilitate studies of the extinction and polarization of light by graphite particles in interstellar space. A theoretical approximation utilizing Mie theory for spheres with suitable orientation-dependent refractive indices is applied to account for changes in the complex forward-scattering amplitudes and phase in response to target orientation. The methods are extended to the full range of scattering angles, from the forward direction continuously to about 165 deg and at 180 deg. Agreement between experiment and prediction is close when the symmetry axis is parallel to the polarization.

Wang, R. T.↗

Evaluation of PHOENICS as a design analysis tool for SSME

The use of the computational fluid dynamics computer code PHOENICS was proposed as a design analysis tool for improving the Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSME). The PHOENICS is a general purpose computer code for the simulation of fluid-flow, heat-transfer and combustion processes arising in engineering, scientific research and environment. It analyzes one or two-phase flows, in one, two, or three dimensions. The application of PHOENICS to evaluate the performance of high-pressure gaseous-hydrogen filters is examined. The usefulness of the code and the ability of the code to handle successively more complex features of the device are demonstrated.

Ventrice, M. B.↗

High resolution video monitoring of coating thickness during plasma spraying

A new approach to monitoring the thickness of plasma sprayed coatings during application is described. The method employs a high resolution video camera and width analyzer to accurately measure the dimensions of samples having simple geometries. This approach is best suited for cylindrical or flat substrates but it may also work for selected locations on more complex geometries. Measurement accuracy is a function of specimen dimensions and extent of magnification. Tolerances of plus or minus 0.5 mil (0.13 mm) on final coating thickness can be achieved. Additionally, the plot of cumulative coating thickess versus the number of passes has proven to be a useful diagnostic tool. While the ideal plot is linear, strong deviations from linearity - indicating the need for corrective action - may be observed.

Miller, Robert A.↗

Gravitational instability with high resolution

A series of very high resolution simulations have been performed for gravitational clustering in two dimensions. It is shown that mass resolution, achieved by having large numbers of particles, is as important as spatial resolution. New objects arising inside pancakes are found, which are coherent with structure on much larger scales. The evolution of structure in hierarchical clustering models with a sufficiently flat power spectrum includes pancake-like structures, confirming the presence of filaments in cold dark matter universes.

Melott, Adrian L.↗

Reliable design of H-2 optimal reduced-order controllers via a homotopy algorithm

Due to control processor limitations, the design of reduced-order controllers is an active area of research. Suboptimal methods based on truncating the order of the corresponding linear-quadratic-Gaussian (LQG) compensator tend to fail if the requested controller dimension is sufficiently small and/or the requested controller authority is sufficiently high. Also, traditional parameter optimization approaches have only local convergence properties. This paper discusses a homotopy algorithm for optimal reduced-order control that has global convergence properties. The exposition is for discrete-time systems. The algorithm has been implemented in MATLAB and is applied to a benchmark problem.

Collins, Emmanuel G.↗

Landing Site Engineering Constraints

Based upon the lander design, constraints are placed upon the landing site selection process in order to mitigate landing risk and optimize mission performance. Constraints are placed on the landing site latitude, elevation, measured rock abundance and terrain slopes within the landing footprint. Estimated mission lifetime and power availability as a function of landing site latitude will be presented. The dimensions of the landing footprint will be given. Plans for obtaining high resolution MOC images of candidate landing sites will be discussed.

Spencer, D.↗

Nanowire sensors and arrays for chemical/biomolecule detection

We report electrochemical growth of single nanowire based sensors using e-beam patterned electrolyte channels, potentially enabling the controlled fabrication of individually addressable high density arrays. The electrodeposition technique results in nanowires with controlled dimensions, positions, alignments, and chemical compositions. Using this technique, we have fabricated single palladium nanowires with diameters ranging between 75 nm and 300 nm and conducting polymer nanowires (polypyrrole and polyaniline) with diameters between 100 nm and 200 nm. Using these single nanowires, we have successfully demonstrated gas sensing with Pd nanowires and pH sensing with polypirrole nanowires.

sensor array↗

Single-Photon-Sensitive HgCdTe Avalanche Photodiode Detector

The purpose of this program was to develop single-photon-sensitive short-wavelength infrared (SWIR) and mid-wavelength infrared (MWIR) avalanche photodiode (APD) receivers based on linear-mode HgCdTe APDs, for application by NASA in light detection and ranging (lidar) sensors. Linear-mode photon-counting APDs are desired for lidar because they have a shorter pixel dead time than Geiger APDs, and can detect sequential pulse returns from multiple objects that are closely spaced in range. Linear-mode APDs can also measure photon number, which Geiger APDs cannot, adding an extra dimension to lidar scene data for multi-photon returns. High-gain APDs with low multiplication noise are required for efficient linear-mode detection of single photons because of APD gain statistics -- a low-excess-noise APD will generate detectible current pulses from single photon input at a much higher rate of occurrence than will a noisy APD operated at the same average gain. MWIR and LWIR electron-avalanche HgCdTe APDs have been shown to operate in linear mode at high average avalanche gain (M > 1000) without excess multiplication noise (F = 1), and are therefore very good candidates for linear-mode photon counting. However, detectors fashioned from these narrow-bandgap alloys require aggressive cooling to control thermal dark current. Wider-bandgap SWIR HgCdTe APDs were investigated in this program as a strategy to reduce detector cooling requirements.

Huntington, Andrew↗