Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Application characterization”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 325 records · Page 18

Fiber-Optic Sensor for Aircraft Lightning Current Measurement

An electric current sensor based on Faraday rotation effect in optical fiber was developed for measuring aircraft lightning current. Compared to traditional sensors, the design has many advantages including the ability to measure total current and to conform to structure geometries. The sensor is also small, light weight, non-conducting, safe from interference, and free of hysteresis and saturation. Potential applications include characterization of lightning current waveforms, parameters and paths, and providing environmental data for aircraft certifications. In an optical fiber as the sensing medium, light polarization rotates when exposed to a magnetic field in the direction of light propagation. By forming closed fiber loops around a conductor and applying Ampere s law, measuring the total light rotation yields the enclosed current. A reflective polarimetric scheme is used, where polarization change is measured after the polarized light travels round-trip through the sensing fiber. The sensor system was evaluated measuring rocket-triggered lightning over the 2011 summer. Early results compared very well against a reference current shunt resistor, demonstrating the sensor's accuracy and feasibility in a lightning environment. While later comparisons show gradually increasing amplitude deviations for an undetermined cause, the overall waveforms still compared very well.

Nguyen, Truong X.↗

Fiber-Optic Sensor for Aircraft Lightning Current Measurement

An electric current sensor based on Faraday rotation effect in optical fiber was developed for measuring aircraft lightning current. Compared to traditional sensors, the design has many advantages including the ability to measure total current and to conform to structure geometries. The sensor is also small, light weight, non-conducting, safe from interference, and free of hysteresis and saturation. Potential applications include characterization of lightning current waveforms, parameters and paths, and providing environmental data for aircraft certifications. In an optical fiber as the sensing medium, light polarization rotates when exposed to a magnetic field in the direction of light propagation. By forming closed fiber loops around a conductor and applying Ampere s law, measuring the total light rotation yields the enclosed current. A reflective polarimetric scheme is used, where polarization change is measured after the polarized light travels round-trip through the sensing fiber. The sensor system was evaluated measuring rocket-triggered lightning over the 2011 summer. Early results compared very well against a reference current shunt resistor, demonstrating the sensor s accuracy and feasibility in a lightning environment. While later comparisons show gradually increasing amplitude deviations for an undetermined cause, the overall waveforms still compared very well.

Nguyen, Truong X.↗

I/O Performance Characterization of Lustre and NASA Applications on Pleiades

In this paper we study the performance of the Lustre file system using five scientific and engineering applications representative of NASA workload on large-scale supercomputing systems such as NASA s Pleiades. In order to facilitate the collection of Lustre performance metrics, we have developed a software tool that exports a wide variety of client and server-side metrics using SGI's Performance Co-Pilot (PCP), and generates a human readable report on key metrics at the end of a batch job. These performance metrics are (a) amount of data read and written, (b) number of files opened and closed, and (c) remote procedure call (RPC) size distribution (4 KB to 1024 KB, in powers of 2) for I/O operations. RPC size distribution measures the efficiency of the Lustre client and can pinpoint problems such as small write sizes, disk fragmentation, etc. These extracted statistics are useful in determining the I/O pattern of the application and can assist in identifying possible improvements for users applications. Information on the number of file operations enables a scientist to optimize the I/O performance of their applications. Amount of I/O data helps users choose the optimal stripe size and stripe count to enhance I/O performance. In this paper, we demonstrate the usefulness of this tool on Pleiades for five production quality NASA scientific and engineering applications. We compare the latency of read and write operations under Lustre to that with NFS by tracing system calls and signals. We also investigate the read and write policies and study the effect of page cache size on I/O operations. We examine the performance impact of Lustre stripe size and stripe count along with performance evaluation of file per process and single shared file accessed by all the processes for NASA workload using parameterized IOR benchmark.

Saini, Subhash↗

The Spectral and Chemical Measurement of Pollutants on Snow Near South Pole, Antarctica

Remote sensing of light-absorbing particles (LAPs), or dark colored impurities, such as black carbon (BC) and dust on snow, is a key remaining challenge in cryospheric surface characterization and application to snow, ice, and climate models. We present a quantitative data set of in situ snow reflectance, measured and modeled albedo, and BC and trace element concentrations from clean to heavily fossil fuel emission contaminated snow near South Pole, Antarctica. Over 380 snow reflectance spectra (350-2500 nm) and 28 surface snow samples were collected at seven distinct sites in the austral summer season of 2014-2015. Snow samples were analyzed for BC concentration via a single particle soot photometer and for trace element concentration via an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer. Snow impurity concentrations ranged from 0.14 to 7000 part per billion (ppb) BC, 9.5 to 1200 ppb sulfur, 0.19 to 660 ppb iron, 0.013 to 1.9 ppb chromium, 0.13 to 120 ppb copper, 0.63 to 6.3 ppb zinc, 0.45 to 82 parts per trillion (ppt) arsenic, 0.0028 to 6.1 ppb cadmium, 0.062 to 22 ppb barium, and 0.0044 to 6.2 ppb lead. Broadband visible to shortwave infrared albedo ranged from 0.85 in pristine snow to 0.62 in contaminated snow. LAP radiative forcing, the enhanced surface absorption due to BC and trace elements, spanned from less than 1 W m(exp. -2) for clean snow to approximately 70 W m(exp. -2) for snow with high BC and trace element content. Measured snow reflectance differed from modeled snow albedo due to specific impurity-dependent absorption features, which we recommend be further studied and improved in snow albedo models.

pollution↗

Monitoring of Ionic Silver Biocide with Capacitively-Coupled Contactless Conductivity Detection (C4D)

Monitoring of biocide dosing in spacecraft potable water systems is desirable to ensure dosing system operation and resultant microbial control. Electrolytic conductivity is linearly related to the concentration ionic silver (Ag+, the baseline biocide for future NASA missions) chemically dosed into highly purified water, and could serve as a proxy measurement. Traditional conductivity cells rely on immersed metal or graphite electrodes, which may potentially be subject to significant current-induced or auto-galvanic deposition of Ag+. Furthermore, oxide fouling may potentially induce measurement errors. Capacitively-coupled contactless conductivity detection (C4D) is a promising alternative. C4D uses electrodes placed outside an inert, non-conductive flow path, potentially mitigating such problems. We identified and purchased a commercial C4D system with claimed performance (conductivity range: 20 nS/cm to 4 µS/cm) appropriate for this application. We characterized the instrument’s performance with conductivity standards and Ag+ solutions. We began investigations considering practical and long-term detector operation, including potential current-induced deposition of conductive deposits at the tubing wall. In addition, we designed a side-stream flow system to provide liquid flow through the narrow tubing (1/16” outer diameter) required by the detector and characterized the performance of the combined C4D detector/flow system. Finally, we completed theoretical modeling of expected conductivity change with multiple dosing techniques and water chemistries.

Lance Dean Delzeit↗

Using an Explainable Machine Learning Approach to Characterize Earth System Model Errors: Application of SHAP Analysis to Modeling Lightning Flash Occurrence

Computational models of the Earth System are critical tools for modern scientific inquiry. Effortstoward evaluating and improving errors in representations of physical and chemical processes inthese large computational systems are commonly stymied by highly nonlinear and complexerror behavior. Recent work has shown that these errors can be effectively predicted usingmodern Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) techniques. In this work, we go beyond these previousstudies to apply an interpretable A.I. technique to not only predict model errors but also movetoward understanding the underlying reasons for successful error prediction. We use XGBoostclassification trees and SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) analysis to explore the errors inthe prediction of lightning occurrence in the NASA GEOS model, a widely used Earth SystemModel. This explainable error prediction system can effectively predict the model error andindicates that the errors are strongly related to convective processes and the characteristics ofthe land surface.

Artificial intelligence↗

Single Event Effects Test Report IXYS IXTA96P085T P-Channel -85V MOSFET

This study was undertaken to determine the destructive single event effect and degradation susceptibility of the IXTA96P085T P-Channel -85V MOSFET from IXYS. The device was monitored for destructive single event effects and degradation during exposure to a heavy ion beam at the Berkeley Accelerator Space Effects (BASE) Facility at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). Gate and drain currents were measured during irradiation and a basic set of electrical characterizations was performed following each fluence exposure to assess heavy ion induced damage. The test date was April 10, 2024. This characterization is application specific.

MOSFET↗

High Throughput Laser Processing for Enhanced Battery Performance and Manufacturing

For widespread adoption of electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries (LiBs) need to achieve energy densities of >275 Wh/kg, cell costs less than $100/kWh, and charge to more than 80% capacity within 15 minutes. Recently, it has been shown that introducing a secondary pore network in thick battery electrodes enables higher extracted capacity without a severe reduction in charge/discharge rate performance. Secondary pore networks consisting of ordered arrays of microstructures reduce tortuosity of Li+-ion transport deep into the thick electrodes, diminishing detrimental concentration gradients within the cell. Ultrafast (femtosecond)-pulsed laser ablation is a promising method to introduce such micro pores or channels in thick battery electrodes as it allows for precise control of pattern geometries, results in minimal damage to the electrode, and can be introduced into existing roll-to-roll electrode manufacturing lines. We have explored laser patterning to create secondary pore networks in a variety of battery electrode materials for both anode and cathode applications and characterized the laser-material interaction parameters. In addition, advanced materials characterization techniques (SEM-EDS, XRD) were used to explore whether ultrafast laser ablation affects the remaining electrode materials' morphology and structure. Furthermore, we have translated lab-scale laser ablation to high-throughput roll-to-roll processing at industrially relevant scales. Finally, we worked with Argonne National Laboratory, developers of the battery cost-analysis package BatPac, to estimate the additional manufacturing costs (CapEx and OpEx) for incorporation of laser-ablation processing to current battery electrode manufacturing. We estimate that ultrafast laser processing will add only -$1kWh, which for considerable improvements in cell performance, creates a compelling case for industry adoption.

battery↗

Application of Robotics Technology to D and D - 17249

The Knowledge Management Information Tool (KM-IT) is a web-based system developed to maintain and preserve the deactivation and decommissioning (D and D) knowledge base across the Department of Energy (DOE) complex. The system was developed by the Applied Research Center (ARC) at Florida International University (FIU) with the support of the D and D community, including the DOE Office of Environmental Management (DOE EM), and with the active collaboration and support of the DOE's Energy Facility Contractors Group (EFCOG). The KM-IT system is a D and D community driven system tailored to serve the technical issues faced by the D and D workforce across the DOE Complex. As part of the D and D KM-IT, FIU has developed a robotics database in collaboration with DOE EM and Nuvision/Cogentus which currently contains over 500 robotics technologies along with information about the robotics technology vendors. This information is aggregated in real time and presented as a robotics technology fact sheet to the end user based on the selected technology. FIU is researching these technologies and studying their capabilities and application to D and D. As part of the research, FIU is categorizing each technology into specific application areas: characterization, decontamination, inspection, and demolition. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

ENRESA's Spent Nuclear Fuel and Special Waste Database - 18115

Empresa Nacional de Residuos Radiactivos S.A. (ENRESA, by its initials in Spanish) Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) and Special Waste (SW) database development was initiated in a common effort between ENRESA and UNESA (the Spanish Association of the Electricity Industry) as a consequence of new regulatory requirements in the frame of radioactive waste management plans. Although these requirements were only mandatory for operators of nuclear power plants, ENRESA deemed necessary to have a centralized database which collected the data from the plant operators. The most relevant features of this database are: - The information collected covers not only the general characteristics of the SNF and SW but also the operation details needed for their characterization. - An application, named Gestion de Elementos Combustibles y Residuos Especiales (GECYRE, by its initials in Spanish) has been implemented for easing the queries and the generation of predefined reports. - An agile data transfer scheme, based on XML files, is used for an effective communication between ENRESA and the operators. The database is currently in production phase since 2014. During this phase it has demonstrated its effectiveness as an information repository to address the SNF and SW interim storage projects in Spain foreseen in the near future. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

Surface Characterization of NbTiN Films for Accelerator Applications

The development of next-generation SRF cavities requires the deployment of innovative material solutions with RF performance beyond bulk Nb. Theoretical interest has stimulated efforts to grow and characterize thin multi-layer superconductor/insulator/superconductor (SIS) structures for their potential capability of supporting otherwise inaccessible surface magnetic fields in SRF cavities *. The ternary B1-compound NbTiN is among the candidate superconducting materials for SIS structures. Single crystal NbTiN films with thicknesses below 15 nm are also of interest for the development of high resolution, high sensitivity (SNSPD) detectors for particle physics application. Using DC reactive magnetron sputtering, NbTiN can be deposited with nominal superconducting parameters. This contribution presents the on-going material surface and superconducting properties characterization in order to optimize the NbTiN films for each application.

Beverstock, David R.↗

Characterization of solar cells for space applications. Volume 11: Electrical characteristics of 2 ohm-cm, 228 micron wraparound solar cells as a function of intensity, temperature, and irradiation

Parametric characterization data on Spectrolab 2 by 4 cm, 2 ohm/cm, 228 micron thick wraparound cell, a candidate for the Solar Electric Propulsion Mission, are presented. These data consist of the electrical characteristics of the solar cell under a wide range of temperature and illumination intensity combinations of the type encountered in space applications.

Anspaugh, B. E.↗

A Biosequence-based Approach to Software Characterization

For many applications, it is desirable to have some process for recognizing when software binaries are closely related without relying on them to be identical or have identical segments. Some examples include monitoring utilization of high performance computing centers or service clouds, detecting freeware in licensed code, and enforcing application whitelists. But doing so in a dynamic environment is a nontrivial task because most approaches to software similarity require extensive and time-consuming analysis of a binary, or they fail to recognize executables that are similar but nonidentical. Presented herein is a novel biosequence-based method for quantifying similarity of executable binaries. Using this method, it is shown in an example application on large-scale multi-author codes that 1) the biosequence-based method has a statistical performance in recognizing and distinguishing between a collection of real-world high performance computing applications better than 90% of ideal; and 2) an example of using family tree analysis to tune identification for a code subfamily can achieve better than 99% of ideal performance.

cyber security↗