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565 records · Page 19

Entropy-defect synergy for dual luminescence mechanism in spinel: Time-resolved anti-counterfeiting and fingerprint visualization

Multimodal luminescent materials, while promising for anti-counterfeiting, often lack dynamic time-dependent responses and controllable spatial distribution, limiting their encryption capabilities in the spatiotemporal dimension. Here, this work presents a coordinated control strategy based on entropy and defect engineering, and uses a backpropagation (BP) neural network for material screening to successfully prepare spinel Mg 0.8 (Fe 0.04 Co 0.04 Ni 0.04 Cu 0.04 Zn 0.04 )Cr 2 O 4 (MgA 5 CO) phosphors with time-dependent dynamic luminescence behavior. This phosphor simultaneously activated the d-d transition luminescence (∼618 nm) derived from Co 2+ /Cr 3+ and the defect luminescence (∼398 nm) related to zinc vacancies (V Zn ) in a single-phase solid solution. The phosphor exhibits a time-dependent color evolution from pink to purple under fixed-wavelength excitation, due to the different excited-state dynamics and decay lifetimes associated with the d-d transition and defect luminescence. Structural characterization and spectral analysis confirmed the existence of V Zn and its significant role in defect luminescence process. The fluorescent and dynamic luminescent properties of entropy-based spinel oxide enable its use in advanced anti-counterfeiting applications like fingerprint recognition and color-changing dedicated anti-counterfeiting mark, showing promise in high-end and time-dynamic anti-counterfeiting fields. This research not only developed a new type of fluorescent dynamic anti-counterfeiting material, but also provided a new idea for constructing advanced optical functional materials with multiple luminescence mechanisms.

Defect project

Solar Heat for Industrial Processes: Integration with Chemical Reactors

The integration of solar thermal systems with chemical reactors has been proposed as part of a larger effort to develop and deploy solar heat for industrial processes (SHIP) technologies. A strong motivation for SHIP processes and technologies is the potential for high thermal efficiency coupled with low-cost thermal energy storage (TES) which can enable commercial deployment of such systems. While there are different ways to categorize SHIP technologies, one important such distinction is between directly irradiated systems and indirect off-sun process driven by a SHIP system. While directly irradiated systems can provide high thermal efficiencies and high fluxes, they usually require complex engineering solutions due to the need for redesigning the established processes and unit operations. In most cases, it is also more challenging to couple such a process to a TES system, losing some of the benefits of SHIP. On the other hand, using a SHIP system to drive an industrial process off-sun can allow better integration with existing process chains, easier TES capabilities, and potential for more applications fitting a specific SHIP technology. However, the integration of SHIP systems with the industrial processes is not fully explored in detail, especially in the case of high-temperature processes such as reforming, cracking, cement manufacturing, and iron/steelmaking. Many of these systems require heating fluxes of >50 kW/m^2, supplied via combustion of hydrocarbons in a fire box and benefitting from radiative heat transfer between the flue gases and the reaction zones. As such, using SHIP systems for such processes is more complex than providing the same thermal input in the form of a heat transfer medium (HTM) entering the reactor, kiln, or furnace. Moreover, in case convective heat transfer using SHIP is envisioned, for example using supercritical CO2 as the HTM from a particle receiver, the thermal integration might be more challenging than initially envisioned: lower heat transfer coefficients and limited approach temperature might require large flow rates, causing a mismatch between the process thermal requirements and the thermal capacity of the SHIP system. In addition, even if the heat exchange between SHIP and reactor is effective, there is still a cold leg HTM at the reaction temperature or slightly below it. Chemical plants usually include a set of heat exchangers, heat recovery steam generators, and even power generation units - in a tightly integrated design - to recover the flue gases which are eventually vented. With SHIP systems mostly operating on a closed HTM loop, bottoming the cold leg is crucial. In this talk, we will present different modeling results for a variety of syngas production reactions, using catalytic and chemical looping processes, and discuss some of the challenges and design considerations for off-sun chemical reactors using SHIP systems.

14 SOLAR ENERGY

Numerical Investigation of Fluid Flow and Space Charge in Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber (LArTPC) Detectors

Overview This project focused on developing a high-fidelity numerical framework to simulate the multiphysics environment within Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber (LArTPC) detectors. The primary objective was to characterize the complex interplay between ion transport, background fluid dynamics, and electric field distortions—a critical factor for the calibration and sensitivity of next-generation High Energy Physics experiments, such as DUNE. Technical Achievements The research successfully yielded a hybrid numerical space-charge solver utilizing a Cell-Centered Finite Volume Method (FVM) for ion transport coupled with a Finite Element Method (FEM) for electric potential. Key accomplishments include: • Verification & Validation: The 3-D solver was rigorously verified against 1-D analytical solutions, demonstrating high numerical accuracy in predicting space-charge-induced field deviations. • Field Distortion Analysis: 3D simulations revealed that space charge effects introduce significant non-uniformities in the electric field. Critically, the research identified that background LAr flow velocities, when comparable to ion drift velocities, markedly exacerbate these distortions. • Technology Transfer: The resulting source code and comprehensive user manuals were successfully transferred to collaborators at Fermilab, providing a portable computational tool for the broader scientific community. Challenges and Future Directions While the space-charge solver achieved all performance metrics, the integrated fluid dynamics modeling encountered convergence challenges stemming from the extreme 200-fold disparity in length scales between the detector's 37 mm inlet pipes and the 8-meter global domain. To address this, the project has identified a clear technical pivot toward Hierarchical Geometric Adaptive Mesh Refinement (HG-AMR). By implementing an h-type refinement strategy with hanging nodes, future iterations of this solver will be capable of resolving localized high-gradient inlet flows without the prohibitive computational costs of regular grids. This advancement, combined with data-driven uncertainty quantification based on MicroBooNE-style calibration, will enable the precise modeling of detector responses in large-scale cryogenic environments where direct measurement remains difficult. Impact The computational tools developed under this award provide a foundation for enhancing the energy resolution and spatial reconstruction of noble liquid detectors. By bridging the gap between theoretical fluid dynamics and experimental field calibration, this work supports the DOE’s mission to advance the frontiers of neutrino physics and dark matter detection.

42 ENGINEERING

MRV Challenge 3: velocity and passive scalar comparison in a 3D turbulent flow

The third iteration of a magnetic resonance velocimetry (MRV) challenge comparison activity consisting of 3D flow measurements for a turbulent flow in a water channel moving past centrally positioned cubic obstacles is reported. In this challenge iteration, MRV measurements are coupled with either temperature or concentration measurements to extend the diagnostic utility. Five research teams from around the world conducted the measurements on a single shared apparatus. The water channel included partial elements along the channel sidewalls that varied in height and precluded easy optical accessibility. In addition to a turbulent mainstream flow, a secondary flow entered the channel between the second and third cubic elements from a square injector hole at the channel bottom wall. The injector jet interacts with the mainstream flow and mixes turbulently as it advects downstream. For the selected flow regime and water solutions used as working fluids, the mixing of the higher temperature or concentration through the secondary flow with the mainstream flow satisfies the same dynamics so that both temperature and concentration fields behave as passive scalars and can be directly compared. The measurements are explained in detail by each participating team, and the results are interpolated onto a common grid and compared using line profiles, contour plots, and isosurfaces.

Benson, Mike [ORNL] (ORCID:000000023210116X)

Surveyor Project Final Report: Part 1 - Project Description and Performance, Volume 1

The Surveyor Project planned and conducted seven unmanned lunar missions for which spacecraft were launched between May 1966 and January 1968. Each of the spacecraft was successfully launched with the then newly developed Atlas/Centaur vehicle which utilized for the first time a high-specific-impulse, liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen fueled stage. Five of the spacecraft successfully soft-landed and returned a great quantity of engineering and scientific data on extensive postlanding operations, accomplishing all mission and project objectives. Four of the spacecraft soft-landed at selected mare sites to provide data which were required to support the Apollo Program. The final spacecraft was then successfully used for scientific investigation of a contrasting site in the rugged lunar highlands. Surveyor was a fully attitude-stabilized spacecraft designed to receive and execute a wide variety of earth commands, as well as to perform certain automatic functions including the critical terminal-descent and soft-landing sequences. Significant new and advanced subsystems that were developed and/or used in combination to enable Surveyor to execute the complex terminal phase of flight were: (1) a solid-propellant main retro motor, (2) throttlable liquid-propellant vernier engines (also used for midcourse velocity correction), (3) highly sensitive velocity- and altitude-sensing radars, and (4) an automatic closed-loop guidance and control system. The first Surveyor spacecraft carried a survey television camera which, together with other engineering instrumentation, obtained in-flight and postlanding data. The complement of instruments carried on later missions included various combinations of the following additional devices: (1) a soil mechanics/surface sampler instrument for picking, digging, and handling lunar surface material; (2) an alpha scattering instrument for performing a chemical analysis of the lunar surface material; and (3) magnets attached to the spacecraft for determining magnetic properties of the soil.

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Surveyor Project Final Report: Part 1 - Project Description and Performance, Volume 2

The Surveyor Project planned and conducted seven unmanned lunar missions for which spacecraft were launched between May 1966 and January 1968. Each of the spacecraft was successfully launched with the then newly developed Atlas/Centaur vehicle which utilized for the first time a high-specific-impulse, liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen fueled stage. Five of the spacecraft successfully soft-landed and returned a great quantity of engineering and scientific data on extensive postlanding operations, accomplishing all mission and project objectives. Four of the spacecraft soft-landed at selected mare sites to provide data which were required to support the Apollo Program. The final spacecraft was then successfully used for scientific investigation of a contrasting site in the rugged lunar highlands. Surveyor was a fully attitude-stabilized spacecraft designed to receive and execute a wide variety of earth commands, as well as to perform certain automatic functions including the critical terminal-descent and soft-landing sequences. Significant new and advanced subsystems that were developed and/or used in combination to enable Surveyor to execute the complex terminal phase of flight were: (1) a solid-propellant main retro motor, (2) throttlable liquid-propellant vernier engines (also used for midcourse velocity correction), (3) highly sensitive velocity- and altitude-sensing radars, and (4) an automatic closed-loop guidance and control system. The first Surveyor spacecraft carried a survey television camera which, together with other engineering instrumentation, obtained in-flight and postlanding data. The complement of instruments carried on later missions included various combinations of the following additional devices: (1) a soil mechanics/surface sampler instrument for picking, digging, and handling lunar surface material; (2) an alpha scattering instrument for performing a chemical analysis of the lunar surface material; and (3) magnets attached to the spacecraft for determining magnetic properties of the soil.

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Prediction of prompt NO(x) in hydrocarbon air flames

The gas turbine industry is directing particular attention to very low NOx combustors, whether for aircraft or land based CCGT systems. These low NOx combustors frequently use liquid fuels or natural gas burning under very lean premixed conditions with air or under rich-lean conditions, although only the first case is studied here. In land based systems, diluted steam or nitrogen are sometimes injected into the combustion chambers to reduce flame temperature. The NOx emissions from such systems are the product of three chemical mechanisms which are interrelated: the hydrocarbon prompt NO, the thermal NO (extended Zeldovich mechanism), and the nitrous oxide route to NO. Formation of NO2 from NO also occurs, as well as emission of carbon monoxide and unburnt hydrocarbons. When the fuel-oxidant proportion decreases towards leaner conditions, flame temperatures are lowered, resulting in the total NO being reduced and the thermal-NO contribution greatly diminished to the benefit of the remaining two mechanisms of NO formation. While knowledge of the elementary reactions and their chemical kinetics concerning methane and simple hydrocarbons combustion has existed for a number of years, its use for computer modeling is limited to simple flow dynamics configurations. Nevertheless, understanding of such combusting flows under a wide range of experimental conditions allows for analogies or speculations with more complex actual systems. Such understanding can be achieved by means of one dimensional laminar premixed flame modeling, with a full chemical mechanism which incorporates the three routes of NO formation. Complementary to this understanding is the modeling of the actual combustion system using a full description of the fluid dynamics coupled with a reduced chemical scheme, which is then compared against the first model. The objective of this investigation is to evaluate the relative importance of the three mechanisms of NO formation in lean premixed methane-air combustion with increasing pressure using the one dimensional plug flow package PREMIX, and to test the validity of a three dimensional model with a global chemical mechanism against the one dimensional model in the atmospheric pressure case. Methane is chosen because it is the only mechanism which is reasonably well known and is a good guide to the behavior of other hydrocarbons. The mixture ratio chosen is richer than that in lean gas turbines, but the combustion of this mixture with the low preheat gives realistic gas turbine final flame temperatures. Conditions of NO2 formation are also analyzed in the one dimensional model and results extrapolated to the case of gas turbines.

Valerie Dupont

Softening the Gap between Wöhler and Paris – New Approaches for Fatigue Analysis –

Fatigue analysis tools can vary across industries. For example, automotive engineers often use the Wöhler (S-N) approach to design for safe-life, while aerospace engineers prioritize damage tolerance and inspection intervals, relying instead on crack growth models such as Paris’ law. Although both approaches may deal with the control of cracks in similar materials, their analysis tools and material characterizations are fundamentally distinct. This divide mirrors the classic split between stress-based strength analysis and linear elastic fracture mechanics. However, modern nonlinear models that incorporate material softening, such as cohesive laws, blur this boundary and capture fracture behaviors across scales. This presentation describes the CF23 fatigue model, which uses cohesive softening to link S-N crack initiation with crack propagation rates. CF23 spans the full fatigue spectrum, from initial propagation transients to steady-state growth and threshold conditions, offering a unified framework that bridges Wöhler and Paris-based methodologies. Example applications include fatigue crack propagation transients in adhesive interfaces and skin/stiffener separation.

cohesive elements

Performance of the Satellite Test Assistant Robot in JPL's Space Simulation Facility

An innovative new telerobotic inspection system called STAR (the Satellite Test Assistant Robot) has been developed to assist engineers as they test new spacecraft designs in simulated space environments. STAR operates inside the ultra-cold, high-vacuum, test chambers and provides engineers seated at a remote Operator Control Station (OCS) with high resolution video and infrared (IR) images of the flight articles under test. STAR was successfully proof tested in JPL's 25-ft (7.6-m) Space Simulation Chamber where temperatures ranged from +85 C to -190 C and vacuum levels reached 5.1 x 10 -6 torr. STAR's IR Camera was used to thermally map the entire interior of the chamber for the first time. STAR also made several unexpected and important discoveries about the thermal processes occurring within the chamber. Using a calibrated test fixture arrayed with ten sample spacecraft materials, the IR camera was shown to produce highly accurate surface temperature data. This paper outlines STAR's design and reports on significant results from the thermal vacuum chamber test.

Douglas McAffee

Mu2e Production Target Thermal Test Project

The Mu2e experiment requires a production target that is capable of operating under extreme thermal conditions caused by an 8 GeV proton beam. This project’s objective supports the development of the Mu2e Pro- duction Target by testing the Stickman model’s thermal behavior. Angel Flores Luviano has assisted Jonathan Williams in progressing this project by contributing to the development of a Radiative Cooling Test Fixture (RCTF) that will be used to evaluate the thermal behavior of the new production target model. Engineering calculations were performed to an- alyze thermal performance and pressure drop within the cold well and wa- ter cooling circuit. These calculations also determined the optimal sizing for key components of the water system. An engineering note was made to document these calculations. CAD models of the water circuit piping, thermocouple mounting bars, and radiator chimney were developed, and prototype test rig components were fabricated using 3D printing. Future work will focus on continued RCTF development which includes control system integration, heater hardware design, and interfaces that can be scaled up to increase thermal capacity.

Flores Luviano, Angel Augusto [Unlisted, US]

Moon Base Transportation - Deliveries to the Lunar Surface

Development of the Moon Base will enable a home away from home for astronauts who will live and work at humanity’s first lunar outpost. In this effort, NASA’s Moon Transportation Office is responsible for enabling the transformational missions required to deliver habitats, supplies, science payloads, and all other elements needed to cultivate a permanent presence on the Lunar Surface. The Mission Concept (MC) is characterized through evaluation of an end-to-end architecture that can successfully deliver a generalized heavy large-volume payload, in excess of 4000 kg, to a precision landing and touchdown on the lunar surface. The mission architecture utilizes a single launch configuration of a Lunar Lander (LL) with a unique propellant system. The LL has an integral orbital transfer capability and features jettisonable elements. The design circumvents the need for prop transfer on orbit and multiple launch configurations. The launch vehicle (LV) for this work will assume the capability to deliver a payload in excess of 40,000 kg to orbit, affording multiple LV solutions. Considerations for the LL and payload deployment from the fairing are assumed to be handled through compliance with a launch providers’ Interface Requirements Document (IRD). The MC will span from launch at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) to terminal descent and touchdown on the lunar surface, requiring a total ΔV on the order of 6 km/s beyond what is required to get the vehicle stack to a 200 km circular Low Earth Orbit (LEO). Major mission phases include: launch and launch vehicle separation, transfer operations, pre-landing navigation, and lunar descent and touchdown. A Concept of Operations (ConOps) is used as the primary design driver for defining architecture of the vehicles necessary to achieve final payload delivery. Numerous ground rules and assumptions will be provided for each phase of the mission. Concept designs for the LL is presented. An emphasis of the design maximizes a feasible path for maturation, manufacturing, and operation. A self-imposed practical consideration for this effort is the incorporation of legacy designed hardware to minimize expensive, time-intensive, and high-risk hardware development cycles. The propulsion system of the LL adopts a conventional storable bipropellant configuration of monomethyl hydrazine (MMH) and mixed oxides of nitrogen (MON3). This effort will showcase a unique propellant delivery system to minimize the reliance on propellant management devices (PMDs) during descent. Numerous key constraints have been considered, across the multiple segments of the mission. These include the unique aspects of center of gravity (CG) management, thruster plume effects including self-impingement, propulsion system hardware limitations, navigation during multiple mission phases, and landing gear geometry for uneven terrain. These constraints shape the trades necessary for precision landing of heavy cargo and ensure compatibility with broader Moon Base Transportation concepts. The resulting insights inform future transportation strategies for the Moon and beyond; directly contributing to the development of cargo‑delivery standards that will support the long‑term buildup of a sustainable, continuously inhabited Moon Base.

Lunar Habitat

Chapter 12 - Flight Envelope

The term "flight envelope" is used to refer to the boundaries of aircraft loading and flight conditions within which operation of the aircraft is satisfactory, and beyond which some aspect becomes unacceptable. This flight envelope represents, in fact, the limiting conditions arising from a matrix of inter-related flight envelopes covering the appropriate variables. Thus, for each loading (i.e., external stores configuration and its associated range of weight and center of gravity (c.g.) position) and aircraft configuration (i.e., position of undercarriage (u/c), flaps, slats, etc.), the envelopes of airspeed versus altitude, airspeed versus load factor, angle of attack versus angle of sideslip, etc., must be investigated to establish the limits within which all aspects such as handling qualities, engine behavior, structural loads, etc., remain acceptable. Flight testing of new or derivative aircraft models is carried out with the initial purpose of defining a flight envelope which is, first and foremost, safe and secondarily, which enables the effective use of the vehicle for its intended purpose. Flight testing occurs only after numerous reviews of the design and review of results from ground tests and predictions of flight characteristics in such areas as structures, aerodynamics, stability and control, flight controls (particularly fly-by-wire control systems, propulsion, etc.). Accordingly, opening and expanding the envelope is a task that must be approached cautiously, systematically, and with coordination and cooperation of the many disciplines involved in the design and test of an airplane. (Sections 8 and 10 cover test planning and safety of flight considerations, respectively). The fundamental tenet in establishing a flight envelope via flight test is risk reduction. This is reflected in the typical sequence of events leading to initial flight test - design reviews (both hardware and software), then ground test involving singular disciplines (windtunnel tests for aerodynamics, structurally loading the wing/fuselage/nacelle on a ground test article with loads anticipated to occur in flight, flight control system control law checkout, propulsion test cell runs and/or flying test bed tests, etc.), and then ground tests involving multi-disciplines (See Section 9). Only after these have been accomplished will an initial, limited, low-risk, flight envelope be established. The limited envelope will typically be in the middle of the projected final flight envelope. Subsequent flight tests will then be devoted to expanding the initial envelope by operating the airplane at increasing ranges - representing increasing risk - of engine operation, airspeeds both fast and slow, altitude, load factor both above and below 1g, centers of gravity (fore and aft), and with system/subsystem failures. Whether flight tests are to define a flight envelope on a new model airplane with the attendant new airframe, new engine(s), and new subsystems (hydraulics, pressurization, etc.), or on an airplane involving only a few of these areas such as new engines in an old airframe, the fundamental approach to establishing an envelope is the same.

H Walgemoed

The DUNE Far Detector Vertical Drift Technology. Technical Design Report

DUNE is an international experiment dedicated to addressing some of the questions at the forefront of particle physics and astrophysics, including the mystifying preponderance of matter over antimatter in the early universe. The dual-site experiment will employ an intense neutrino beam focused on a near and a far detector as it aims to determine the neutrino mass hierarchy and to make high-precision measurements of the PMNS matrix parameters, including the CP-violating phase. It will also stand ready to observe supernova neutrino bursts, and seeks to observe nucleon decay as a signature of a grand unified theory underlying the standard model. The DUNE far detector implements liquid argon time-projection chamber (LArTPC) technology, and combines the many tens-of-kiloton fiducial mass necessary for rare event searches with the sub-centimeter spatial resolution required to image those events with high precision. The addition of a photon detection system enhances physics capabilities for all DUNE physics drivers and opens prospects for further physics explorations. Given its size, the far detector will be implemented as a set of modules, with LArTPC designs that differ from one another as newer technologies arise. In the vertical drift LArTPC design, a horizontal cathode bisects the detector, creating two stacked drift volumes in which ionization charges drift towards anodes at either the top or bottom. The anodes are composed of perforated PCB layers with conductive strips, enabling reconstruction in 3D. Light-trap-style photon detection modules are placed both on the cryostat's side walls and on the central cathode where they are optically powered. This Technical Design Report describes in detail the technical implementations of each subsystem of this LArTPC that, together with the other far detector modules and the near detector, will enable DUNE to achieve its physics goals.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION

Gear Test Assembly - Experimental Testing and Analysis of Gears and Bearings - FY2026

The Gear Test Assembly (GTA) is an experimental test apparatus built and installed in the Mechanisms and Engineering Test Loop (METL) at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL). While designed to accommodate a variety of components intended for use in advanced compact in-vessel transfer machine, the focus of GTA been the testing of large radial spur gears. The performance of the components used in GTA motivates the choices made in the design, components, and material choices for the forthcoming METL test articles; the Gripper Test Assembly (GrTA), and the Bearing Test Assembly (BTA). To date, GTA has completed nine experimental testing campaigns and achieved over 21 million revolutions under prototypic sodium fast reactor loads and operating conditions. This report provides an overview and results for the two most recent experiments Campaign #8 and Campaign #9. `Campaign #8 was the first campaign to make use of a set of nickel alloy radial spur gears, made from Hastelloy C-22HS, and combined with heat-treated tapered roller bearings. The bearings and torque profile used allowed Campaign #8 to be directly compared with Campaign #1 where Inconel 718 gears were used instead. Campaign #8 attained 1,058,880 shaft revolutions within 23% of the 1,314,855 revolutions achieved in Campaign #1. These results demonstrate that the heat-treated tapered roller bearings show consistent increased lifetimes, approximately three times longer than for non heat-treated taper rollers, and that the particular material of the gear does not play a substantial role in performance. Similar to Campaign #7 where bearing failure resulted in fragmentation and transport of bearing material into the gear teeth led to tooth damage in the Inconel gears, a similar process led to the damage of the Hastelloy gears. Subsequent NDE analysis showed that the damage was only limited to the tooth surface and does not extend into the gear interiors. Based on the NDE reports, the Hastelloy gears can be reconditioned and put back into service for future campaigns as was done for the Inconel gears. Reconditioned Inconel 718 gears damaged in Campaign #7 were returned to service in Campaign #9 and paired with non heat-treated tapered roller bearings. In Campaign #9 a novel set of operating conditions were implemented whereby the gears and bearings were cycled between hot, submerged refueling conditions where fuel handling operations occurred and cold, dry, and inert conditions where the sodium was drained and the vessel was allowed to cool simulating long, ex-vessel storage of the fuel handling machine. A total of eight of these operating cycles were achieved before a bearing failure occurred after the accumulation of 475,692 shaft revolutions were achieved. During Campaign #9, one of the drive motors was damaged and over the course of a 240 day standby period, the entire GTA drive system was upgraded from a 480VAC system to a 240VAC system that provided the opportunity to consolidate wall-space in the METL facility and provide more space for additional test articles being installed in the coming year. The over 475,000 shaft revolutions achieved in Campaign #9 eclipses the previous record for lifetime of non heat-treated tapered roller bearings held by Campaign #3 of 392,000 shaft revolutions. Further analysis and future campaigns hope to shed light on the cause of this approximately 17% increase in lifetime.

42 ENGINEERING

NASA Systems Autonomy Demonstration Project: Advanced Automation Demonstration of Space Station Freedom Thermal Control System

The NASA Systems Autonomy Demonstration Project (SADP) was initiated in response to Congressional interest in Space station automation technology demonstration. The SADP is a joint cooperative effort between Ames Research Center (ARC) and Johnson Space Center (JSC) to demonstrate advanced automation technology feasibility using the Space Station Freedom Thermal Control System (TCS) test bed. A model-based expert system and its operator interface were developed by knowledge engineers, AI researchers, and human factors researchers at ARC working with the domain experts and system integration engineers at JSC. Its target application is a prototype heat acquisition and transport subsystem of a space station TCS. The demonstration is scheduled to be conducted at JSC in August, 1989. The demonstration will consist of a detailed test of the ability of the Thermal Expert System to conduct real time normal operations (start-up, set point changes, shut-down) and to conduct fault detection, isolation, and recovery (FDIR) on the test article. The FDIR will be conducted by injecting ten component level failures that will manifest themselves as seven different system level faults. Here, the SADP goals, are described as well as the Thermal Control Expert System that has been developed for demonstration.

Jeffrey Dominick

Advanced Liquid Propulsion Systems

The Advanced Liquid Propulsion Systems program is investigating selected problems generated by spacecraft operational requirements for propulsion systems capable of high inherent reliability, long-term storage in the space environment, multiple start in free fall (zero gravity), and engine throttling. The solutions proposed to satisfy these requirements are coordinated for practical application in a system.

PROPULSION SYSTEM

Form Factors, Grey Bodies and Radiation Conductances (Radks)

With today's analysis tools, large, complex thermal radiation problems are easily solved; But, as with any analytical tool, lack of an understanding of the fundamental equations and technique limitations may leave you with the wrong answer; Whether you are a new engineer or a seasoned veteran, an understanding of the techniques employed by these powerful analysis tools is crucial.

Fluids

1998 Research and Technology

This report selectively summarizes the NASA Lewis Research Center's research and technology accomplishments for the fiscal year 1998. It comprises 134 short articles submitted by the staff scientists and engineers. The report is organized into five major sections: Aeronautics, Research and Technology, Space, Engineering and Technical Services, and Commercial Technology. A table of contents and an author index have been developed to assist readers in finding articles of special interest. This report is not intended to he a comprehensive summary of all the research and technology work done over the past fiscal year. Most of the work is reported in Lewis-published technical reports, journal articles, and presentations prepared by Lewis staff and contractors. In addition, university grants have enabled faculty members and graduate students to engage in sponsored research that is reported at technical meetings or in journal articles. For each article in this report, a Lewis contact person has been identified, and where possible, reference documents are listed so that additional information can be easily obtained. The diversity of topics attests to the breadth of research and technology being pursued and to the skill mix of the staff that makes it possible. At the time of publication, NASA Lewis was undergoing a name change to the NASA John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field.

Donald J Campbell