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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 37 records · Page 2
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Simulation of a Wireless Authentication Protocol

Abstract—A wireless authentication protocol that employs timeslots and associated frequency-channels (APEC) is simulated using Python as the simulation environment and implemented into radio hardware as a proof of concept. The APEC protocol does not rely on the use of challenge-response, multifactor authentication schemes but relies instead on the physical properties of a wireless signal. The APEC protocol provides opportunities for real-time deployment in cell phone network infrastructure, as well as in adverse civil and military applications. Description of the APEC implementation and the corresponding results of the simulation study are presented.

42 - ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2024

APEC Poster

A wireless authentication protocol that employs timeslots and associated frequency- channels (APEC) is simulated using Python as the simulation environment and implemented into radio hardware as a proof of concept. The APEC protocol does not rely o n the use of challenge -response, multifactor authentication schemes but relies instead on the physical properties of a wireless signal. The APEC protocol provides opportunities for real-time deployment in cell phone network infrastructure, as well as in adverse civil and military applications. Description of the APEC implementation and the corresponding results of the simulation study are presented.

42 - ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2021

Design Guidelines for Deployable Wind Turbines for Military Operational Energy Applications

This document aims to provide guidance on the design and operation of deployable wind systems that provide maximum value to missions in defense and disaster relief. Common characteristics of these missions are shorter planning and execution time horizons and a global scope of potential locations. Compared to conventional wind turbine applications, defense and disaster response applications place a premium on rapid shipping and installation, short-duration operation (days to months), and quick teardown upon mission completion. Furthermore, defense and disaster response applications are less concerned with cost of energy than conventional wind turbine applications. These factors impart design drivers that depart from the features found in conventional distributed wind turbines, thus necessitating unique design guidance. The supporting information for this guidance comes from available relevant references, technical analyses, and input from industry and military stakeholders. This document is not intended to be a comprehensive, prescriptive design specification. This document is intended to serve as a written record of an ongoing discussion of stakeholders about the best currently available design guidance for deployable wind turbines to help facilitate the effective development and acquisition of technology solutions to support mission success. The document is generally organized to provide high-level, focused guidance in the main body, with more extensive supporting details available in the referenced appendices. Section 2 begins with a brief qualitative description of the design guidelines being considered for the deployable wind turbines. Section 3 provides an overview of the characteristics of the mobile power systems commonly used in U.S. military missions. Section 4 covers current military and industry standards and specifications that are relevant to a deployable wind turbine design. Section 5 presents the deployable turbine design guidelines for the application cases.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Nonlinear viscoelastic response of silicone additively manufactured direct ink write (DIW) foams under repetitive compression

To investigate dynamic fatigue behavior of foam in military protective applications, such as helmets, additively manufactured (AM) foams were compressively strained into the plateau region using a reduced design of experiments. A simple power law was found to govern the decline in dynamic stiffness (complex modulus) as the foams underwent the purchase order requirement of 10,000 cycles of small deformation in the plateau region. This rate of decline was newly found to correlate with the degree of nonlinearity in the material’s deformation, quantified using total harmonic distortion. Materials with low nonlinearity exhibited relatively stable stiffness across cycles, while those with high nonlinearity experienced greater losses. The observed nonlinearity depended on both applied stress and strain rate. A strong linear correlation (R 2 = 0.78) was identified between second-order nonlinearity and the time-dependent stiffness response. Two lattice structures were examined: face-centered tetragonal (FCT) and simple cubic (SC). The SC material exhibited higher total harmonic distortion (5%) and lower stiffness retention than the FCT (2%). In conclusion, these results suggest that for cyclic compression applications in a wide variety of industries such as packaging, personal protective equipment, or aerospace, selecting materials with lower stress and greater structural uniformity can enhance the stability of dynamic performance.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2021

Geothermal Heat Recovery Complex: Large-Scale, Deep Direct-Use System in a Low-Temperature Sedimentary Basin (Final Report)

A feasibility study of using deep direct-use (DDU) geothermal energy to heat agricultural research facilities (ARFs) was conducted at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (U of IL) and its similar application to military facilities in the Illinois Basin (ILB). The geothermal energy system (GES) investigated utilizes low-temperature (30–90°C; 90–190°F) geothermal fluid (i.e., brine) from an extraction well that is part of a deep, two-well (doublet) system that extends to the bottom of the ILB. The geothermal reservoir modeled, the Mt. Simon Sandstone (MSS), is about 1,280 m (4,200 feet) deep and 457 m thick (1,500 feet) beneath the U of IL. The DDU GES surface infrastructure includes heat exchangers connected in-parallel to pipelines carrying the geothermal fluid and fresh cold and hot water. Analysis of the GES indicated that the MSS can provide a baseload of 2 MMBtu/hr to heat the ARFs by extracting 954 m³/d (6,000 barrels/day [bbl/d]) of geothermal fluid that has a temperature of 44–46 °C (111–115 °F). In addition to analyzing the levelized cost of heat (LCOH) and life cycle costs, the environmental effects of the DDU GES were evaluated, including reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and water consumption. Multiple system designs were evaluated and then ranked based on their maximum heating performance, energy efficiency, and cost recovery. This feasibility study identified the key components of the fully-integrated DDU technology that can be implemented, both technically and economically. The results and information from this study provides end-users and policy makers with guidance for additional research on the specific components of DDU technology such that its widespread use can provide an uninterruptible energy source, increase resilience from extreme weather conditions, reduce U.S. dependency on fossil fuels, and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The site-specific part of this study gives U of IL administrators a realistic and pragmatic assessment of the financial resources necessary to add a DDU GES in the MSS to the campus’ energy portfolio.

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Characterization of Rare-Earth Elements in Lignite Coal of the Williston Basin: Past Efforts and Ongoing Work

Rare-earth elements (REEs) have been a subject area of high interest for their unique properties. REEs are crucial materials used in an incredible array of consumer goods, energy system components, and military defense applications. While the United States has one operating REE mine, the product is sent overseas for refining into usable metals making the United States 100% import-reliant on these critical materials. This has led the Federal Government to declare the REE market an issue of national security. The Energy and Environmental Research Center (EERC) under funding provided by the Department of Energy (DOE) has undertaken efforts to determine if the lignite coal found in the Williston Basin has the potential to be an ore body containing sufficient quantities of REEs and Critical Minerals (CM) for extraction and processing. In one such effort, the EERC collected over 400 samples from the Williston Basin lignite coal seams including outcrops as well as active mines. Those efforts have been followed up with ongoing work under the U.S. DOE’s Carbon Ore, Rare Earth and Critical Minerals Initiative (CORE-CM) currently ongoing in the Williston Basin as well as other basins in the United States. This ongoing work in the Williston Basin characterizing REEs in coal has focused on the collection of new sampling and analysis of REEs in coal and building upon previous characterization work. This information is being used to understand the spatial distribution of REEs through mapping and 3D modeling. The goals of these efforts are to better understand the mechanisms for distribution of the REEs in lignite coal as well as their concentration and determine knowledge gaps in characterization and to start to build the database required to understand the potential resource in the Williston Basin.

Feole, Ian K.↗
DOE OSTI2020

Computational analysis of deployable wind turbine systems in defense operational energy applications.

The U.S. military has been exploring pathways to reduce the logistical burden of fuel on virtually all their missions globally. Energy harvesting of local resources such as wind and solar can help increase the resilience and operational effectiveness of military units, especially at the most forward operating bases where the fuel logistics are most challenging. This report considers the potential benefits of wind energy provided by deployable wind turbines as measured by a reduction in fuel consumption and supply convoys to a hypothetical network of Army Infantry Brigade Combat Team bases. Two modeling and simulation tools are used to represent the bases and their operations and quantify the impacts of system design variables that include wind turbine technologies, battery storage, number of turbines, and wind resource quality. The System of Systems Analysis Toolkit Joint Operational Energy Model serves as a baseline scenario for comparison. The Hybrid Optimization of Multiple Energy Resources simulation tool is used to optimize a single base within the larger Joint Operational Energy Model. The results of both tools show that wind turbines can provide significant benefits to contingency bases in terms of reduced fuel use and number of convoy trips to resupply the base. The match between the turbine design and wind resource, which is statistically low across most of the global land area, is a critical design consideration. The addition of battery storage can enhance the benefits of wind turbines, especially in systems with more wind turbines and higher wind resources. Wind turbines may also provide additional benefits to other metrics such as resilience that may be important but not fully considered in the current analysis. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors would like to thank the following individuals for their helpful support, feedback and review to improve this report: U.S. Department of Energy Wind Energy Technologies Office, Patrick Gilman and Bret Barker; Idaho National Laboratory, Jake Gentle and Bradley Whipple; The National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Robert Preus and Tony Jimenez; Sandia National Laboratories, Alan Nanco, Dennis Anderson, and Hai Le. In addition, numerous discussions with military and industry stakeholders over the year were invaluable in focusing the efforts represented in this report.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

An approach to identifying fibers and evolved compounds from flame resistant fabrics

Flame resistant (FR) fabrics have use in civilian, military, and industrial applications. Herein, this work describes the development of a methodology aimed at identifying the fiber composition of blended fabrics of unknown composition. Here, FR fabrics used in military uniforms, are studied using a combination of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), isothermal thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and pyrolysis gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py-GC-MS). Elemental analysis of the fabrics using XPS yielded a preliminary determination of the composition of the polymer(s) and aided in the identification of FR additives. TGA and Py-GC-MS experiments were used for subsequent compound identification. In TGA the temperature of mass loss events was compared to reference materials, and in Py-GC-MS the pyrolysis products of the blended FR fabrics were compared to those from a series of potential parent fibers. It was possible to discern the composition of the parent fibers and the type of FR treatment added to fabrics because the thermal decomposition chemistry did not significantly change by blending the fibers to make fabrics.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2022

Radiation Detection System Integration Using Multiple-Input Multiple-Output Radios

This study describes the application development of multiple-input multiple-output radios to provide persistent mobile ad hoc network (MANET) for the Department of Homeland Security. By using Man Portable Unit (MPU5) fifth generation radios (manufactured by Persistent Systems) with the Android Team Awareness Kit (ATAK), an Android smartphone geospatial infrastructure and military situational awareness application, the Remote Sensing Laboratory has developed a MANET connectivity to monitor deployed nuclear/radiological search operation assets.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2022

Isotopic discrimination of natural and anthropogenic perchlorate sources in groundwater in a semi-arid region of northeastern Oregon (USA)

Perchlorate (ClO 4 - ) has synthetic and natural sources. Synthetic ClO 4 - is released to the environment from its use as an oxidant in military and aerospace applications, and from its presence in a variety of common commercial products, such as safety flares, chlorate herbicides, and fireworks. Natural sources of ClO 4 - in the environment include imported nitrate fertilizers derived from salt deposits in the Atacama Desert of Chile and indigenous natural ClO 4 - that accumulates in unsaturated soils and groundwaters in other arid and semi-arid environments, largely from atmospheric deposition. The stable isotope ratios of chlorine ( 37 Cl/ 35 Cl) and oxygen ( 18 O/ 16 O, 17 O/ 16 O) and the isotopic abundance of radioactive 36 Cl in ClO 4 - can be used to discriminate these different sources. Perchlorate was previously detected at relatively high concentrations (3.8–34.7 μg/L) in groundwater from many wells in the Boardman-Umatilla area near the Columbia River in northeastern Oregon, which is a semi-arid, highly agricultural, heavily irrigated area that includes several past and current military installations. Eight representative groundwater wells were sampled throughout this region and isotopic characteristics of ClO 4 - collected from each well were measured along with other chemical and isotopic parameters including tritium and other groundwater age indicators. We report isotopic data indicate that indigenous natural ClO 4 - was present in groundwater from all sampled wells and was the predominant source in five of the wells. Synthetic ClO 4 - was present in the three remaining wells with natural ClO 4 - , and a minor fraction of Atacama-fertilizer-derived ClO4- was indicated in one of the wells. Data from this study expand the geographic area of the USA in which indigenous natural ClO 4 - has been detected to include the semi-arid northwest. This study also illustrates the role of irrigation recharge as a mechanism for producing relatively high concentrations of indigenous natural ClO 4 - in groundwater by flushing accumulated salts from the unsaturated zone.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2020

The Role of Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate (PETN) Aging in Determining Detonator Firing Characteristics

Pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) is one of the most commonly used explosives for both military and mining applications. PETN is used in EBW (exploding bridge wire) and EFI (exploding foil initiator) detonator devices. Due the widespread usage of PETN, studies focusing on how the explosive changes with age, primarily its function in detonators has received particular interest. Aging studies have identified several factors that affect PETN detonator function over time, most notably the specific surface area of the explosive powder. Though small-scale studies have been performed on specific detonator systems with isolated batches of material, what is missing is a large statistically-significant study focusing on PETN aging characteristics - such as powder coarsening - and their influence on detonator performance. Herein we report the first large statistically viable PETN aging study focusing on four batches of PETN powder from the same stock of PETN using two stabilizers, polysaccharide and TriPEON. PETN was aged both as a free-flowing powder as well as in modified EBW RP-2 detonators, for one month at 75 °C. The PETN powder has been analyzed chemically using Fisher specific surface area analysis, SEM imaging and light scattering particle size analysis. Additionally the detonators were tested for performance through voltage-sweep threshold testing and function time measurements. Findings from the study indicate that aging at 75 °C for one month significantly changes the specific surface area and particle size of unstabilized PETN, leading to increases in detonator function time, but not detonator threshold values. Powders stabilized with TriPEON displayed less significant increases in function time, while powder stabilized with polysaccharide exhibited no aging effects, despite the high temperature aging.

45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEF↗
DOE OSTI2025

Estimating the State of Charge in Lithium Primary Batteries: Recent Advances and Critical Insights

Lithium primary batteries (LPBs) remain essential in critical applications such as military, aerospace, medical and emergency devices, and portable electronics. Their superior energy density over lithium-ion batteries offers a significant advantage for long-duration use. Therefore, accurate estimation of the state of charge (SoC) is essential for ensuring the reliable and safe operation of these batteries. While extensive research has been conducted on SoC estimation techniques for lithium-ion secondary batteries, LPBs present unique challenges that complicate accurate SoC estimation. Moreover, research on nondestructive testing techniques for SoC estimation in LPBs is significantly lacking. In this review article, it is aimed to provide a comprehensive overview of recent advancements in SoC estimation for LPBs and generates new insights and directions for future research. Herein, existing methods are discussed and their effectiveness and mechanisms are identified, and areas for further optimization are outlined. More theoretical/experimental efforts to advance SoC detection in LPBs is recommended due to challenges identified with existing techniques.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Dynamic Charging Rendezvous and Motion Planning for a Multi-AGV Team Including a Mobile Charging Host

Teams of automated battery-powered electric vehicles have the potential to execute complex mission tasks in off-road environments for agriculture, military, and other applications. Limited onboard energy reserves hinder their adoption in large-scale resource-constrained environments, where recharging is a necessity. It may be infeasible to install a network of static charging stations in off-road environments. For this reason, dedicated mobile host vehicles with charging capabilities are proposed as a means to increase range and capabilities of the multivehicle team. Here, in this study, we consider an ad hoc planning framework, where results from a high-confidence trajectory planner are leveraged to plan charging rendezvous between a host and other worker vehicles in a receding horizon fashion to provide high confidence that energy reserves will not be prematurely exhausted. The core problem is posed so as to minimize the impact of recharging on the mission in terms of task delays, overall energy utilization, and costs of fast charging. Through extensive Monte Carlo simulations of an off-road mission, we show a decrease in task delays without substantial increases in energy needs by updating the charging rendezvous plan during the mission. However, if updates are made too often, model mismatch may cause unnecessary cycling and mission failure.

Energy constraints↗
DOE OSTI2024

Metabolic Costs of Walking with Weighted Vests

ABSTRACT Introduction The US Army Load Carriage Decision Aid (LCDA) metabolic model is used by militaries across the globe and is intended to predict physiological responses, specifically metabolic costs, in a wide range of dismounted warfighter operations. However, the LCDA has yet to be adapted for vest-borne load carriage, which is commonplace in tactical populations, and differs in energetic costs to backpacking and other forms of load carriage. Purpose The purpose of this study is to develop and validate a metabolic model term that accurately estimates the effect of weighted vest loads on standing and walking metabolic rate for military mission-planning and general applications. Methods Twenty healthy, physically active military-age adults (4 women, 16 men; age, 26 ± 8 yr old; height, 1.74 ± 0.09 m; body mass, 81 ± 16 kg) walked for 6 to 21 min with four levels of weighted vest loading (0 to 66% body mass) at up to 11 treadmill speeds (0.45 to 1.97 m·s −1 ). Using indirect calorimetry measurements, we derived a new model term for estimating metabolic rate when carrying vest-borne loads. Model estimates were evaluated internally byk-fold cross-validation and externally against 12 reference datasets (264 total participants). We tested if the 90% confidence interval of the mean paired difference was within equivalence limits equal to 10% of the measured walking metabolic rate. Estimation accuracy, precision, and level of agreement were also evaluated by the bias, standard deviation of paired differences, and concordance correlation coefficient (CCC), respectively. Results Metabolic rate estimates using the new weighted vest term were statistically equivalent (P< 0.01) to measured values in the current study (bias, −0.01 ± 0.54 W·kg −1 ; CCC, 0.973) as well as from the 12 reference datasets (bias, −0.16 ± 0.59 W·kg −1 ; CCC, 0.963). Conclusions The updated LCDA metabolic model calculates accurate predictions of metabolic rate when carrying heavy backpack and vest-borne loads. Tactical populations and recreational athletes that train with weighted vests can confidently use the simplified LCDA metabolic calculator provided as Supplemental Digital Content to estimate metabolic rates for work/rest guidance, training periodization, and nutritional interventions.

Sport Sciences↗
DOE OSTI2020

Functional and Operating Requirements for the Microreactor Agile Non-Nuclear Experimental Test Bed (MAGNET)

Microreactors, or small, transportable reactors with a capacity of < 20 MWTH, are sought to provide heat and power for myriad applications in remote areas, military installations, emergency operations, humanitarian missions and disaster relief zones as illustrated in Figure 1. These small, transportable reactor designs, while offering many advantages, are largely untested and unproven. System and component testing is needed to demonstrate to regulators that these designs are safe and to convince customers that the systems are robust, reliable, and efficient. The microreactor agile non-nuclear experimental test bed (MAGNET) is being constructed at Idaho National Laboratory to assist with the development, demonstration, and validation of microreactor components and systems. MAGNET will support technology maturation to reduce uncertainty and risk relative to the operation and deployment of this unique class of systems. Stakeholders for this test bed include microreactor developers, energy users, and regulators. Regulators will be engaged early in the design and testing to expedite regulatory approval and licensing. Within MAGNET, systems and components can be safely tested, providing valuable information on operating regimes, failure modes, and thresholds. Since there are various types of microreactors being proposed, which can be classified according to their core cooling method, heat-pipes, gas-cooled (pebble bed or prismatic), molten salt, light water, or light water, the goal is to provide a test bed that is broadly applicable to multiple microreactor concepts. Each reactor type poses a different set of design and operational challenges and performance claims stated by commercial vendors have not been independently verified through rigorous testing. The initial set of tests to be performed in MAGNET are targeted towards demonstrating the feasibility and performance of heat-pipe cooled reactors, since this concept is unique to very small nuclear reactors. However, the testbed will be constructed to accommodate other designs in addition to heat-pipe cooled reactors.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Integrating a Microgrid Controller with a Local OpenADR Server

When military microgrids isolate themselves from the main electrical grid, they must locally balance electricity supply and demand. Since local generation may be limited, the current strategy is to shed all but the most critical loads by tripping smart circuit breakers, which must then be reset manually (e.g., ESTCP project EW-201350). This strategy is typically applied at the building level, meaning that entire buildings housing mission critical activities must be excluded from any load management, while those considered non-critical may lose service entirely. The remotely controlled switchgear needed to manage load in this way is very expensive ($\$30,000$-$\$50,000$ per building). While effective at shedding load, this strategy disrupts installation operation and risks damaging equipment during both disconnection and re-energization. With the goals of lowering costs, protecting equipment, and enhancing the agility of DoD microgrids, this report demonstrates the use of cybersecure automated demand response (ADR) technology to manage microgrid loads during grid-independent (a.k.a. "islanded") operation. This automated approach achieves load shedding and shifting through communication signals sent to equipment controllers rather than by cutting off the flow of electricity within the microgrid itself. Because it operates only on the base network, with no connection to external entities, this strategy avoids the main cybersecurity concern raised by past applications of ADR on military bases.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2022

Laser-based ultrasound interrogation of surface and sub-surface features in advanced manufacturing materials

Abstract Structures formed by advanced manufacturing methods increasingly require nondestructive characterization to enable efficient fabrication and to ensure performance targets are met. This is especially important for aerospace, military, and high precision applications. Surface acoustic waves (SAW) generated by laser-based ultrasound can detect surface and sub-surface defects relevant for a broad range of advanced manufacturing processes, including laser powder bed fusion (LPBF). In particular, an all-optical SAW generation and detection configuration can effectively interrogate laser melt lines. Here we report on scattered acoustic energy from melt lines, voids, and surface features. Sub-surface voids are also characterized using X-ray Computed Tomography (CT). High resolution CT results are presented and compared with SAW measurements. Finite difference simulations inform experimental measurements and analysis.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗