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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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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2021

Legacy of Metropolis continues through new materials donated to classified library collections

“From the very beginning of the Los Alamos project, it was inevitable that the Laboratory would suffer total immersion in computing,” said Nicholas Constantine Metropolis in 1976, reflecting his characteristic humor. Metropolis had succinctly summarized the prominent place of computing in Los Alamos’s mission and history. Metropolis himself played no small role in that “total immersion,” exemplified by the Lab’s supercomputing center, a postdoctoral fellowship, and the world-famous algorithm that carry his name. So does a collection of legacy materials in the National Security Research Center (NSRC). The NSRC, the Lab’s classified library, which also houses unclassified artifacts, recently received a new addition to the Metropolis Collections. This donation, 22 years after his death on October 17, 1999, provides tangible evidence of Metropolis’s continuing legacy at Los Alamos.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2023

Improved Compaction Experiments and Modeling of Waste Isolation Pilot Plant Standard, Non-degraded, Waste Containers

A credible simulation of disposal room porosity at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) requires a tenable compaction model for the 55-gallon waste containers within the room. A review of the legacy waste material model, however, revealed several out-of-date and untested assumptions that could affect the model’s compaction behavior. For example, the legacy model predicted non-physical tensile out-of-plane stresses under plane strain compression. (Plane strain compression is similar to waste compaction in the middle of a long drift.) Consequently, a suite of new compaction experiments were performed on containers filled with surrogate, non-degraded, waste. The new experiments involved uniaxial, triaxial, and hydrostatic compaction tests on quarter-scale and full-scale containers. Special effort was made to measure the volume strain during uniaxial and triaxial tests, so that the lateral strain could be inferred from the axial and volume strain. These experimental measurements were then used to calibrate a pressure dependent, viscoplastic, constitutive model for the homogenized compaction behavior of the waste containers. This new waste material model’s predictions agreed far better with the experimental measurements than the legacy model’s predictions, especially under triaxial and hydrostatic conditions. Under plane strain compression, the new model predicted reasonable compressive out-of-plane stresses, instead of tensile stresses. Moreover, the new model’s plane strain behavior was substantially weaker for the same strain, yet substantially stronger for the same porosity, than the legacy model’s behavior. Although room for improvement exists, the new model appears ready for prudent engineering use.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2020

When Every Drum is a Win - Tackling a Thirty-Five Thousand Drum Legacy - 20064

Cameco Corporation's (Cameco) Port Hope Conversion Facility (PHCF) was previously owned by the federal Crown Corporation, Eldorado Nuclear, which held a significant inventory of legacy waste material at the time Cameco was formed in 1988. As a result, Cameco was granted an allocation of 150,000 cubic metres of space in the Long-Term Waste Management Facility (LTWMF) located in the Municipality of Port Hope (MPH), which opened to the receipt of Cameco material in June 2018. Cameco is currently undertaking a major site cleanup and renewal of its Port Hope Conversion Facility (PHCF) which is known as the Vision in Motion (VIM) project. Over its operating history, Eldorado accumulated an inventory of over 35,000 drums of accumulated waste that was primarily stored at two offside warehouse locations. In 2017 and 2018, the project focused on repackaging two well characterized legacy wastes (magnesium fluoride slag and depleted uranium titanium oxide) from one of the two offsite locations. At the conclusion of this work, approximately 15,000 drums of these wastes had been repackaged and disposed of at the LTWMF. There remained approximately 1000 drums from this location that either could not be repackaged safely or were different waste types and required further verification and/or processing. The buildings at this location were scheduled for demolition in early 2019, which triggered the development of a process for triaging legacy drums in August 2018, which allowed for preparation and shipment of approximately half of these drums to the LTWMF by March 2019, with the remainder moved to the second offsite warehouse location in February 2019 for further characterization which is ongoing. This paper will discuss key lessons learned as the drummed legacy waste disposal inventory has been reduced to approximately half of the initial inventory. This will include the development of an alternate packaging process; prioritization of characterization activities and selection of techniques where minimal inventory information is available; determination of next step(s) for each drum as it is assessed; key safety considerations; and how to make inroads into an overwhelming task while under public and regulatory scrutiny. In a relatively short period of time, significant progress has been made to organize and gather information about the legacy waste, update the inventory records and determine the most appropriate pathways (i.e. LTWMF disposal, disposal at another appropriate facility, site storage until future processing and/or disposal). Since 2017 the volume of the decades-old legacy waste inventory has decreased significantly. With the majority of the known materials safely disposed of at the LTWMF, every drum removed from the endless rows of 20,000 pyramidally-stacked waste drums with limited history that is safely characterized, prepared and shipped is considered a win. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
NASA NTRS2017

Damage Simulation in Composite Materials: Why It Matters and What Is Happening Currently at NASA in This Area

Use of lightweight composite materials in space and aircraft structure designs is often challenging due to high costs associated with structural certification. Of primary concern in the use of composite structures is durability and damage tolerance. This concern is due to the inherent susceptibility of composite materials to both fabrication and service induced flaws. Due to a lack of general industry accepted analysis tools applicable to composites damage simulation, a certification procedure relies almost entirely on testing. It is this reliance on testing, especially compared to structures comprised of legacy metallic materials where damage simulation tools are available, that can drive costs for using composite materials in aerospace structures. The observation that use of composites can be expensive due to testing requirements is not new and as such, research on analysis tools for simulating damage in composite structures has been occurring for several decades. A convenient approach many researchers/model-developers in this area have taken is to select a specific problem relevant to aerospace structural certification and develop a model that is accurate within that scope. Some examples are open hole tension tests, compression after impact tests, low-velocity impact, damage tolerance of an embedded flaw, and fatigue crack growth to name a few. Based on the premise that running analyses is cheaper than running tests, one motivation that many researchers in this area have is that if generally applicable and reliable damage simulation tools were available the dependence on certification testing could be lessened thereby reducing overall design cost. It is generally accepted that simulation tools if applied in this manner would still need to be thoroughly validated and that composite testing will never be completely replaced by analysis. Research and development is currently occurring at NASA to create numerical damage simulation tools applicable to damage in composites. The Advanced Composites Project (ACP) at NASA Langley has supported the development of composites damage simulation tools in a consortium of aerospace companies with a goal of reducing the certification time of a commercial aircraft by 30%. And while the scope of ACP does not include spacecraft, much of the methodology and simulation capabilities can apply to spacecraft certification in the Space Launch System and Orion programs as well. Some specific applications of composite damage simulation models in a certification program are (1) evaluation of damage during service when maintenance may be difficult or impossible, (2) a tool for early design iterations, (3) gaining insight into a particular damage process and applying this insight towards a test coupon or structural design, and (4) analysis of damage scenarios that are difficult or impossible to recreate in a test. As analysis capabilities improve, these applications and more will become realized resulting in a reduction in cost for use of composites in aerospace vehicles. NASA is engaged in this process from both research and application perspectives. In addition to the background information discussed previously, this presentation covers a look at recent research at NASA in this area and some current/potential applications in the Orion program.

McElroy, Mack↗
DOE OSTI2023

Material Property Determinations for Rock Valley Legacy Samples in Support of Source Physics Experiment

The Source Physics Experiment (SPE) is a long-term NNSA research and development effort designed to improve nonproliferation verification and monitoring capabilities. The overarching goals of the SPE program are to improve understanding of prompt signals and physical signatures that develop from underground chemical explosions and associated modeling capabilities. Our work focuses on a primary factor controlling chemical explosion induced signals and signatures: the material properties of the rocks in which the chemical explosion takes place. This document reports on material property determinations of legacy core USGS Test Well F and outcrop analogs for the subsurface stratigraphy for the third phase of SPE in the Rock Valley (RV) area of the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS). The objective of this work is to establish a baseline set of lithologic descriptions and material properties expected prior to observatory borehole drilling in support of the SPE-RVDC (Rock Valley Direct Comparison) experiment. We determine for each rock type the compressional failure envelope, elastic properties as a function of stress (bulk modulus versus mean stress, shear modulus versus shear stress, Young’s modulus versus axial stress and Poisson’s ratio versus axial stress), indirect tensile strength, and porosity. Geologic characterization, both at the core-scale and microscale, provides context for using the data in modeling efforts and to inform interpretations for the material properties testing.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2020

Technical Basis for the International Export of Handheld Spectroscopy Detectors

The international export of handheld spectroscopy detectors by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to partner states will provide state regulatory authorities and nuclear material owners a way to improve accountancy for accidental gains of nuclear material, including the provision of reports to the IAEA, in order to meet their safeguards agreements. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards agreements for non-nuclear weapons states requires accountancy for all nuclear material. As defined in Article XX of the IAEA statute, nuclear material includes source materials: "uranium containing the mixture of isotopes occurring in nature," and special fissionable material: "plutonium-239; uranium-233; uranium enriched in the isotopes 235 or 233". For IAEA Member States to meet their requirements under comprehensive safeguards agreements (CSA), safeguards are to be applied on "all source or special fissionable material," which "includes all nuclear material subject to IAEA safeguards". Therefore, accidental gains and losses of nuclear material must be reported to the IAEA. An accidental gain occurs when a state unexpectedly adds nuclear material to their inventory by various means such as seizing smuggled material or the discovery of legacy items previously unaccounted for. The material type and quantity must be added to the State's inventory by updating domestic records and then communicated to the IAEA.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
NASA NTRS2022

NASA Ground-based Layered Pressure Vessels Materials Report

A significant portion of Layered Pressure Vessels (LPVs) manufactured for NASA in the 1950s and ’60s are of non-code construction. These vessels were constructed to the standards of individual manufacturers rather than an industry or consensus standard and often contain legacy or proprietary materials, which have poor or no characterization. Obtaining correct material properties is the first step in assuring vessel safety and predicting life and critical failure modes before they happen. This report details the efforts of the LPV Project related to material properties and characterization. The goal in testing materials from deconstructed vessels was to provide material characterization utilizing modern test methods that would give a strong probabilistic base as an option for future analysis. ASTM E1820, Standard Test Method for Measurement of Fracture Toughness was used for fracture toughness; ASTM E1921, Standard Test Method for Determination of Reference Temperature, T0, for Ferritic Steels in the Transition Range for transition temperature; and ASTM E647, Standard Test Method for Measurement of Fatigue Crack Growth Rates for fatigue crack growth. Particular focus was placed on determination of transition temperature through evaluation of the T0 reference temperature in accordance with ASTM E1921. Transition temperature testing allows for a probabilistic analysis of vessel materials that may be operating at temperatures below the transition from ductile tearing to brittle cleavage failure. This test method was not available at the time of construction and has proved invaluable to the characterization of older ferritic steels. The values reported are specific to the largest body of materials found in the current NASA fleet, but do not claim to be all inclusive. As demonstrated in this report, some materials contain extreme lot-to-lot variability. In some cases, this can be comfortably bounded by worst case probabilistic methods, however it is always recommended that vessel specific data be collected in as much depth as possible to ensure correct assumptions and avoid unduly restricting vessel usage.

Layered Pressure Vessel↗
NASA NTRS2019

Fracture Control for Additively Manufactured Spacecraft Structures

This paper describes how the intent of current NASA fracture control requirements may be applied to “fracture critical” additively manufactured spacecraft hardware. Fracture control is a multi-discipline design and certification methodology that is applied in order to mitigate catastrophic failure of structures resulting from growth of an undetected crack-like defect. The methodology is defined in existing NASA standards and is required on all human-rated space structures. As legacy spacecraft structures have been built using primarily metallic and composite materials manufactured using well established methods, guidance for application of fracture control to parts composed of these material types has been established and is documented in several NASA requirements. Additive manufactured structures offer advantages in design flexibility and manufacturing efficiency and as a result are expected to continue to be used more and more in the future. Recently, relevant guidance has been published by NASA to define materials and processes requirements for certain additive manufactured hardware, but procedures for fracture control are not addressed yet in any requirements or guidance document. While use of additive manufactured parts in non-critical scenarios may be of relatively low concern in current structural certification processes, there is a need for new fracture control guidance in order to use and certify additively manufacture hardware that is “fracture critical” where failure of the part may result in loss of life or loss of vehicle. Assurance of damage tolerance, i.e., that as-built flaws in a given part either do not exist or will not grow to become catastrophic, is of particular interest to the fracture control community. This poses a challenge due to the fact that damage tolerance behavior is not well understood in additive manufactured parts compared to legacy material types and manufacturing techniques. The discussion contained herein is necessary at this time as new guidance in this area should be founded collaboratively by the technical community at large. Different hardware types (e.g., pressure vessel, structural member) are described to highlight specific challenges and solutions for each. The discussion concludes with considering specific disciplines within fracture control (non-destructive evaluation, materials & processes, fracture mechanics, and structural certification) in a proposed extension of existing fracture control requirements to additive manufactured parts.

McElroy, Mark↗
NASA NTRS2019

Fracture Control for Additive Manufactured Spacecraft Structures

This paper describes how the intent of current NASA fracture control requirements may be applied to “fracture critical” additively manufactured spacecraft hardware. Fracture control is a multi-discipline design and certification methodology that is applied in order to mitigate catastrophic failure of structures resulting from growth of an undetected crack-like defect. The methodology is defined in existing NASA standards and is required on all human-rated space structures. As legacy spacecraft structures have been built using primarily metallic and composite materials manufactured using well established methods, guidance for application of fracture control to parts composed of these material types has been established and is documented in several NASA requirements. Additive manufactured structures offer advantages in design flexibility and manufacturing efficiency and as a result are expected to continue to be used more and more in the future. Recently, relevant guidance has been published by NASA to define materials and processes requirements for certain additive manufactured hardware, but procedures for fracture control are not addressed yet in any requirements or guidance document. While use of additive manufactured parts in non-critical scenarios may be of relatively low concern in current structural certification processes, there is a need for new fracture control guidance in order to use and certify additively manufacture hardware that is “fracture critical” where failure of the part may result in loss of life or loss of vehicle. Assurance of damage tolerance, i.e., that as-built flaws in a given part either do not exist or will not grow to become catastrophic, is of particular interest to the fracture control community. This poses a challenge due to the fact that damage tolerance behavior is not well understood in additive manufactured parts compared to legacy material types and manufacturing techniques. The discussion contained herein is necessary at this time as new guidance in this area should be founded collaboratively by the technical community at large. Different hardware types (e.g., pressure vessel, structural member) are described to highlight specific challenges and solutions for each. The discussion concludes with considering specific disciplines within fracture control (non-destructive evaluation, materials & processes, fracture mechanics, and structural certification) in a proposed extension of existing fracture control requirements to additive manufactured parts.

McElroy, Mark↗
DOE OSTI2025

Purification of legacy Ra-226 from ingrown Pb-210 using cation exchange chromatography

With the growing interest in using radium-226 (Ra-226) as a source material to produce essential radionuclides for targeted alpha therapies, the global demand for Ra-226 has surged, rendering its acquisition difficult. The shortage necessitates the exploration of alternative pathways to obtain this isotope beyond traditional commercial vendors. Legacy radium sources remain widespread due to Ra-226’s historical use but require the removal of ingrown daughter products to obtain a pure Ra-226 product. In conclusion, a straightforward and effective purification method for legacy Ra-226 ampoules has been developed using cation exchange chromatography, enabling the reliable conversion of legacy materials into high-purity Ra-226 solutions.

and nuclear chemistry↗
DOE OSTI2026

Raman Spectroscopic In Situ Monitoring of Highly Turbid Media

The ability to run chemical processing more efficiently and cost effectively is a need that spans critical materials recovery and legacy nuclear waste cleanup. Sensors integrated to provide online monitoring are essential to addressing this need by providing near-real time feedback on process conditions, which can improve efficiency, aid in decision making, and reduce the need for grab sample measurements. Optical spectroscopy is well-suited for providing online chemical composition information and has been widely applied in varied chemical systems. However, applications in turbid matrices continue to represent substantial challenges to sensor performance, where absorption or scattering of excitation light can cause significant signal interference. Here, in this study, close-focus Raman probes are investigated for use in turbid media as a way to overcome the signal loss from the scattering of the Raman excitation source. This, paired with advanced data science techniques, allowed for the development of chemometric models for the accurate quantification of several analytes of interest (NO 3 – , NO 2 – , and PO 4 3– ) in highly turbid solutions with solids loadings of up to 20 wt %. This work focuses on offline sample measurement and characterization as an initial step toward the development of online monitoring capabilities. Chemical systems of interest were focused on nuclear waste at the Hanford Site, which represents highly complex matrices that could realize significant processing benefits through the integration of online monitoring.

Felmy, Heather M. [Pacific Northwest National Labo↗
DOE OSTI2025

Assessment of minnealloy fabrication via three routes

Transformer cores exhibiting higher operating power and improved efficiency are of great interest to electrical utilities, industry, and the de-carbonization effort. Minnealloy, α″-Fe16(C,N)2, a martensite made only of iron, nitrogen, and carbon, has shown the largest saturation magnetization of any soft ferromagnet, 250 emu/g, and tunable magnetocrystalline anisotropy. Given this represents a significant increase in power transferred per cycle compared to legacy transformer core materials, we investigate three novel, industrially scalable routes for fabricating Minnealloy. The martensite phase content is investigated for each route. Vibrating sample magnetometry is used to investigate the change in saturation magnetization and coercivity with respect to the relative content of the desired phase and other iron, iron-nitride, and iron oxide phase impurities. The relationship between structure and magnetic properties of bulk α″-Fe16(C,N)2 is investigated using LDA, PBE, and PBEsol exchange-correlation functionals within the frameworks of Hubbard-corrected density functional theory (DFT+U).

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

First NCSP Sponsored Experiment at LANSCE

Uranium-233 has played an important role in solution critical experiments going back to the 50's and 60's, including experiments from the Falstaff Program. More recently, management of legacy 233 U material across the DOE complex has led to a requirement for improved nuclear cross sections.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
NASA NTRS2005

Modeling and Simulation Verification, Validation and Accreditation (VV&A): A New Undertaking for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate

and Accreditation (VV&A) session audience, a snapshot review of the Exploration Space Mission Directorate s (ESMD) investigation into implementation of a modeling and simulation (M&S) VV&A program. The presentation provides some legacy ESMD reference material, including information on the then-current organizational structure, and M&S (Simulation Based Acquisition (SBA)) focus contained therein, to provide a context for the proposed M&S VV&A approach. This reference material briefly highlights the SBA goals and objectives, and outlines FY05 M&S development and implementation consistent with the Subjective Assessment, Constructive Assessment, Operator-in-the-Loop Assessment, Hardware-in-the-Loop Assessment, and In Service Operations Assessment M&S construct, the NASA Exploration Information Ontology Model (NExIOM) data model, and integration with the Windchill-based Integrated Collaborative Environment (ICE). The presentation then addresses the ESMD team s initial conclusions regarding an M&S VV&A program, summarizes the general VV&A implementation approach anticipated, and outlines some of the recognized VV&A program challenges, all within a broader context of the overarching Integrated Modeling and Simulation (IM&S) environment at both the ESMD and Agency (NASA) levels. The presentation concludes with a status on the current M&S organization s progress to date relative to the recommended IM&S implementation activity. The overall presentation was focused to provide, for the Verification, Validation,

Prill, Mark E.↗
NASA NTRS2010

Developing a Logistics Data Process for Support Equipment for NASA Ground Operations

The United States NASA Space Shuttle has long been considered an extremely capable yet relatively expensive rocket. A great part of the roughly US $500 million per launch expense was the support footprint: refurbishment and maintenance of the space shuttle system, together with the long list of resources required to support it, including personnel, tools, facilities, transport and support equipment. NASA determined to make its next rocket system with a smaller logistics footprint, and thereby more cost-effective and quicker turnaround. The logical solution was to adopt a standard Logistics Support Analysis (LSA) process based on GEIA-STD-0007 http://www.logisticsengineers.org/may09pres/GEIASTD0007DEXShortIntro.pdf which is the successor of MIL-STD-1388-2B widely used by U.S., NATO, and other world military services and industries. This approach is unprecedented at NASA: it is the first time a major program of programs, Project Constellation, is factoring logistics and supportability into design at many levels. This paper will focus on one of those levels NASA ground support equipment for the next generation of NASA rockets and on building a Logistics Support Analysis Record (LSAR) for developing and documenting a support solution and inventory of resources for. This LSAR is actually a standards-based database, containing analyses of the time and tools, personnel, facilities and support equipment required to assemble and integrate the stages and umbilicals of a rocket. This paper will cover building this database from scratch: including creating and importing a hierarchical bill of materials (BOM) from legacy data; identifying line-replaceable units (LRUs) of a given piece of equipment; analyzing reliability and maintainability of said LRUs; and therefore making an assessment back to design whether the support solution for a piece of equipment is too much work, i.e., too resource-intensive. If one must replace or inspect an LRU too much, perhaps a modification of the design of the equipment can make such operational effort unnecessary. Finally, this paper addresses processes of tying resources to a timeline of tasks performed in ground operations: this enables various overarching analyses, e.g., a summarization of all resources used for a given piece of equipment. Quality Control of data will also be discussed: importing and exporting data from product teams, including spreadsheets-todatabase or data exchange between databases.

Chakrabarti, Suman↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Expanding the Capability of A Legacy Combustion Flametube to Test High Temperature Engine Materials in Relevant Environments

New materials and component designs are needed to advance gas turbine engine technology and provide the performance and efficiency needs for future applications. In order to advance these materials, testing in combustion environments is a critical step prior to engine testing. In this work, we detail the design and the fabrication of a materials test sector in a flametube combustor facility. The facility simulates a combustion environment similar to that experienced by components in gas turbine engines. The flow regime is characterized by a combination of high-temperature, high-velocity, high-heat flux, and high-velocity that components experience in gas turbine engines. Exposure of components in this facility allows for the study of combined environmental effects and the impact on both coating and substrate durability. The test facility may operate across a wide range of pressures from 275-400 psig (1,896-2,758 kPa) and an air flow rate of 5 lb/s (2.27 kg/s). While combustion gas temperature is expected in excess of 3,000°F (1,649°C), 900°F (482°C) cooling air may be supplied to the backside of components or test articles. The flametube combustor was previously used to evaluate fuel injectors and combustion products, and the new test configuration will also allow for materials exposure to complex, engine-like conditions. The interior of the Test Section was additively manufactured from GRCop-84 and cryogenically fit and brazed to a stainless steel 304 housing. The use of a copper liner minimizes welds and with active cooling, is expected to provide better durability over traditional hardware using stainless steel or Inconel with a ceramic liner. The Test Section has two opposing removable windows approximately 230 mm x 80 mm that can accommodate articles up to 85 mm tall. This modular design allows for custom platforms to hold coupons, panels, or airfoil shapes to be tested with minimal re-engineering or fabrication. The bolted joint and sealing remains consistent, so any new testing only needs to work within the existing design footprint. This paper will provide an overview of the facility capabilities, design considerations, as well as thermal and structural analysis of the hardware. Future testing of ceramic matrix composite (CMC) airfoils and advanced environmental barrier coatings (EBCs) will also be discussed.

Combustion↗