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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 433 records · Page 24

Exhaled breath condensate profiles of U.S. Navy divers following prolonged hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) and nitrogen-oxygen (Nitrox) chamber exposures

Prolonged exposure to hyperbaric hyperoxia can lead to pulmonary oxygen toxicity (PO 2 tox). PO 2 tox is a mission limiting factor for special operations forces divers using closed-circuit rebreathing apparatus and a potential side effect for patients undergoing hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) treatment. In this study, we aim to determine if there is a specific breath profile of compounds in exhaled breath condensate (EBC) that is indicative of the early stages of pulmonary hyperoxic stress/PO 2 tox. Using a double-blind, randomized 'sham' controlled, cross-over design 14 U.S. Navy trained diver volunteers breathed two different gas mixtures at an ambient pressure of 2 ATA (33 fsw, 10 msw) for 6.5 h. One test gas consisted of 100% O 2 (HBO) and the other was a gas mixture containing 30.6% O 2 with the balance N 2 (Nitrox). The high O 2 stress dive (HBO) and low O 2 stress dive (Nitrox) were separated by at least seven days and were conducted dry and at rest inside a hyperbaric chamber. EBC samples were taken immediately before and after each dive and subsequently underwent a targeted and untargeted metabolomics analysis using liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (LC-MS). Following the HBO dive, 10 out of 14 subjects reported symptoms of the early stages of PO 2 tox and one subject terminated the dive early due to severe symptoms of PO 2 tox. No symptoms of PO 2 tox were reported following the nitrox dive. A partial least-squares discriminant analysis of the normalized (relative to pre-dive) untargeted data gave good classification abilities between the HBO and nitrox EBC with an AUC of 0.99 (±2%) and sensitivity and specificity of 0.93 (±10%) and 0.94 (±10%), respectively. Furthermore, the resulting classifications identified specific biomarkers that included human metabolites and lipids and their derivatives from different metabolic pathways that may explain metabolomic changes resulting from prolonged HBO exposure.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Towards machine-learning a fully-coupled constitutive model for thermal-hydraulic fracture in geothermal systems: phase I (Final Report)

This project, entitled “Towards machine-learning a fully-coupled constitutive model for thermal-hydraulic fracture in geothermal systems: phase I,” addresses challenges in understanding and controlling subsurface fracture networks, which are crucial for applications like deep geothermal heat mining and deep-crustal minerals/metals/hydrogen extraction. The research focuses on advancing the understanding of coupled thermal-hydro-mechanical-chemical (THMC) processes in geologic materials, particularly under the high temperature and pressure conditions found in the deep crust. This seed grant focused specifically on thermal cracking and the development of new constitutive models. Significant progress was made in both experimental and theoretical domains. To study micro-scale fracture formation, the project demonstrated the ability to create thermal cracking under stress in granite samples using a Paterson Gas-medium Deformation Apparatus.

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗

A coupled vacancy diffusion-dislocation dynamics model for the climb-glide motion of jogged screw dislocations

Here, we develop a novel model to study the climb/glide motion of jogged screw dislocations within the discrete dislocation dynamics (DDD) framework. We present results for the dependence of the climb velocity on the applied stress and on the jog size and distribution statistics. We show that the model predictions are consistent with experimental data in both γ-TiAl and Zircaloy-4. The ranges of the applied stress and jog spacing that determine the dominance of one of three dislocation mechanisms are identified. These are the jog dragging, dipole dragging, and dipole bypass mechanisms, respectively. The overall dislocation motion in the jog dragging regime is composed of glide of screw segments and climb of jogs, controlling the plastic strain and the creep rate, respectively. Based on current simulations and on a detailed examination of the predicted jog heights compared to experiments, we advance the hypothesis that a combination of jog dragging and dipole bypass mechanisms is necessary to reproduce the high creep rate observed in some experiments.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Extraction of mechanical properties of materials through deep learning from instrumented indentation

Instrumented indentation has been developed and widely utilized as one of the most versatile and practical means of extracting mechanical properties of materials. This method is particularly desirable for those applications where it is difficult to experimentally determine the mechanical properties using stress–strain data obtained from coupon specimens. Such applications include material processing and manufacturing of small and large engineering components and structures involving the following: three-dimensional (3D) printing, thin-film and multilayered structures, and integrated manufacturing of materials for coupled mechanical and functional properties. Here, we utilize the latest developments in neural networks, including a multifidelity approach whereby deep-learning algorithms are trained to extract elastoplastic properties of metals and alloys from instrumented indentation results using multiple datasets for desired levels of improved accuracy. We have established algorithms for solving inverse problems by recourse to single, dual, and multiple indentation and demonstrate that these algorithms significantly outperform traditional brute force computations and function-fitting methods. Moreover, we present several multifidelity approaches specifically for solving the inverse indentation problem which 1) significantly reduce the number of high-fidelity datasets required to achieve a given level of accuracy, 2) utilize known physical and scaling laws to improve training efficiency and accuracy, and 3) integrate simulation and experimental data for training disparate datasets to learn and minimize systematic errors. The predictive capabilities and advantages of these multifidelity methods have been assessed by direct comparisons with experimental results for indentation for different commercial alloys, including two wrought aluminum alloys and several 3D printed titanium alloys.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Formulation, Implementation and Validation of a 1D Boundary Layer Inflow Scheme for the QUIC Modeling System

Recent studies have highlighted the importance of accurate meteorological conditions for urban transport and dispersion calculations. In this work, we present a novel scheme to compute the meteorological input in the Quick Urban & Industrial Complex () diagnostic urban wind solver to improve the characterization of upstream wind veer and shear in the Atmospheric Boundary Layer (ABL). The new formulation is based on a coupled set of Ordinary Differential Equations (ODEs) derived from the Reynolds Averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) equations, and is fast to compute. Building upon recent progress in modeling the idealized ABL, we include effects from surface roughness, turbulent stress, Coriolis force, buoyancy and baroclinicity. We verify the performance of the new scheme with canonical Large Eddy Simulation (LES) tests with the GPU-accelerated FastEddy"Equation missing" solver in neutral, stable, unstable and baroclinic conditions with different surface roughness. Furthermore, we evaluate QUIC calculations with and without the new inflow scheme with real data from the Urban Threat Dispersion (UTD) field experiment, which includes Lidar-based wind measurements as well as concentration observations from multiple outdoor releases of a non-reactive tracer in downtown New York City. Compared to previous inflow capabilities that were limited to a constant wind direction with height, we show that the new scheme can model wind veer in the ABL and enhance the prediction of the surface cross-isobaric angle, improving evaluation statistics of simulated concentrations paired in time and space with UTD measurements.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

An assessment of spall failure modes in laser powder bed fusion fabricated stainless steel 316L with low-volume intentional porosity

Here, this paper reports on spall failure and damage modes in Laser Powder Bed Fusion fabricated Stainless Steel 316L (SS316L) with intentional levels of low-volume (1–5 vol. %) porosity and pore sizes of 200, 350, and 500 μm. The fabricated specimens were subjected to uniaxial-strain plate-impact loading at ~4.5 GPa, to initiate incipient spall failure. Analysis of velocimetry profiles measured using multi-probe photon-Doppler velocimetry coupled with post-mortem analysis of soft-recovered samples reveals local suppression of spall failure (termed as spall-dominated) as a function of porosity, as the failure mechanism transitions from spall-centered tensile stress dominated to a pore-centered microstructure-dominated damage mode involving void/crack nucleation and growth at pre-existing pores. The critical porosity level where the suppression of spall failure is first observed, as well as the spall location, is dependent on both the volume fraction and the size of the initially fabricated pores. In samples of 500 μm pore size, the suppression of spall failure is observed with as little as 1 vol. % porosity, while samples with smaller pores (200 μm) still experience spall-centered tensile stress dominated failure with higher levels (5 vol. %) of porosity. In the case of pore-centered microstructure-dominated failure, spall damage can occur but the spall plane is shifted toward the rear free surface, or more generally in areas further away from the region with pores. Highly heterogeneous deformation twinning, shear banding, grain rotation, and cracking are observed in the vicinity of pre-existing pores and expected spall failure sites.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Electrolytes for iron flow battery

A method of operating an iron redox flow battery system may comprise fluidly coupling a plating electrode of an iron redox flow battery cell to a plating electrolyte; fluidly coupling a redox electrode of the iron redox flow battery cell to a redox electrolyte; fluidly coupling a ductile plating additive to one or both of the plating electrolyte and the redox electrolyte; and increasing an amount of the ductile plating additive to the plating electrolyte in response to an increase in the plating stress at the plating electrode. In this way, ductile Fe can be plated on the negative electrode, and the performance, reliability and efficiency of the iron redox flow battery can be maintained. In addition, iron can be more rapidly produced and plated at the plating electrode, thereby achieving a higher charging rate for all iron flow batteries.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Arsenic Exposure Causes Global Changes in the Metalloproteome of Escherichia coli

Arsenic is a toxic metalloid with differential biological effects, depending on speciation and concentration. Trivalent arsenic (arsenite, AsIII) is more toxic at lower concentrations than the pentavalent form (arsenate, AsV). In E. coli, the proteins encoded by the arsRBC operon are the major arsenic detoxification mechanism. Our previous transcriptional analyses indicate broad changes in metal uptake and regulation upon arsenic exposure. Currently, it is not known how arsenic exposure impacts the cellular distribution of other metals. This study examines the metalloproteome of E. coli strains with and without the arsRBC operon in response to sublethal doses of AsIII and AsV. Size exclusion chromatography coupled with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (SEC-ICPMS) was used to investigate the distribution of five metals (56Fe, 24Mg, 66Zn, 75As, and 63Cu) in proteins and protein complexes under native conditions. Parallel analysis by SEC-UV-Vis spectroscopy monitored the presence of protein cofactors. Together, these data reveal global changes in the metalloproteome, proteome, protein cofactors, and soluble intracellular metal pools in response to arsenic stress in E. coli. This work brings to light one outcome of metal exposure and suggests that metal toxicity on the cellular level arises from direct and indirect effects.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Modeling of fluid injection-induced fault reactivation using coupled fluid flow and mechanical interface model

The present study is aimed at developing a numerical model to reproduce coupled hydro-mechanical processes associated with fault reactivation by fluid injection in low permeability rock, as part of the DECOVALEX-2019 project Task B. We proposed a modeling approach for simulating the processes using the TOUGH-FLAC simulator, and modeled a fault reactivation experiment conducted at Mont Terri Rock Laboratory in Switzerland. The first step of the study involved benchmark calculations considering a simplified fault plane and geometry. Fluid flow along a fault was modeled using elements of aperture-sized thickness on the basis of Darcy's law and the cubic law in TOUGH2, whereas the mechanical behavior of a single fault was represented by zero-thickness interface elements in FLAC3D upon which a slip and/or separation is allowed. A methodology to connect a TOUGH2 volume element to a FLAC3D interface element was developed for handling the hydro-mechanical interactions on the fault during fluid injection. Two different fault models for describing the evolutions of hydraulic aperture by elastic fracture opening and failure-induced aperture increase were considered in the benchmark calculations. In the coupling process, the changes in geometrical features and hydrological properties induced by mechanical deformation were continuously updated. The transient responses of the fault and host rock to stepwise pressurization were examined during the simulation. The hydro-mechanical behavior, including the injection flow rate, pressure distribution around the borehole, stress conditions, and displacements in normal and shear directions were monitored in the surrounding rock and along the fault. The results of benchmark calculations suggest that the developed model reasonably represents the hydro-mechanical behavior of a fault and the surrounding rock. This modeling approach was applied to the fault reactivation experiment of the Mont Terri Rock Laboratory. In this interpretive modeling, a parametric study was conducted to examine the effects of input parameters regarding in situ stress and fault properties on the hydro-mechanical responses of the fault to water injection. Then, an optimal parameter set to reproduce the field experiment results was chosen by trial-and-error. The injection flow rate and pressure response during fault reactivation closely matched those obtained at the site, which indicates the capability of the model to appropriately capture the progressive pathway evolution during fault reactivation tests at the site. Finally, the anchor displacements were overestimated by the model, but a fair agreement was obtained in terms of the order of magnitude and the variation tendency.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Enhancing Distribution System Resiliency Using Grid-Forming Fuel Cell Inverter: Preprint

Legacy inverters interfacing distributed energy re-sources are traditionally grid-following (GFL) in nature. GFL assets typically follow real power and reactive power set points. Recently, inverters with grid-forming (GFM) capability are gaining attention as GFM assets can increase the resiliency of the distribution system under stressed conditions. These GFM inverters can use photovoltaics, batteries, or fuel cells as their energy source. In this paper, we present information on inverters interfacing fuel cell assets, specifically with GFM capability. By introducing a fuel cell powered GFM coupled with hydrogen production and storage, the GFM can continuously provide GFM activities during periods of low renewable resource availability, and/or during power outages exceeding typical electric battery duration. Finally, we present information on the need for updates on interconnection and interoperability standards that can be leveraged by utilities for including fuel cell inverters in their asset mix.

fuel cell inverters↗

Cellular signaling within aged skeletal muscle reveals a dysregulated stress-induced remodeling response following volumetric muscle loss in female mice

Severe muscle trauma disrupts endogenous repair mechanisms, producing chronic functional deficits that are incompletely characterized in aged populations. This study investigated inflammatory, molecular, and physiological responses to volumetric muscle loss in young adult and aged female mice. Serum cytokine profiling revealed elevated baseline inflammation in aged animals and a blunted response to injury, with cytokines such as IL-6 increasing 4.4-fold in young versus 1.8-fold in aged mice at day 3 compared to baseline. By day 28 post-injury, histological analyses showed comparable reductions in muscle size and increases in fibrosis across ages. Despite these similar tissue-level outcomes, age-dependent differences emerged in downstream functional and molecular responses. Muscle functional testing demonstrated persistent force deficits independent of age but altered muscle relaxation kinetics in aged mouse muscles (p < 0.001), suggesting dysregulated excitation-contraction coupling. Additionally, mice displayed age-associated differences in post-injury limb loading. Global proteomic analyses further confirmed age-associated enrichment of complement and antigen-processing pathways alongside metabolic dysfunction (p < 0.05). Phosphoproteomic profiling revealed reduced basal kinase activity in the muscles of aged mice yet exaggerated injury-induced phosphorylation of Mapk1-associated phosphosites, indicating a dysregulated stress response. Collectively, these findings suggest that aged murine muscles function within a heightened inflammatory and perturbed kinase-signaling environment that may hinder the coordination of regenerative programs, underscoring the need for regenerative strategies that address age-specific molecular contexts to improve functional recovery across the lifespan.

Habing, Krista M.↗

Attaining regularization length insensitivity in phase-field models of ductile failure

In this work, a cohesive phase-field model of ductile fracture in a finite-deformation setting is presented. The model is based on a free-energy function in which both elastic and plastic work contributions are coupled to damage. Using a strictly variational framework, the field evolution equations, damage kinetics, and flow rule are jointly derived from a scalar least-action principle. Particular emphasis is placed on the use of a rational function for the stress degradation that maintains a fixed effective strength with decreasing regularization length. The model is employed to examine crack growth in pure mode-I problems through the generation of crack growth resistance (J-R) curves. In contrast to alternative models, the current formulation gives rise to J-R curves that are insensitive to the regularization length. Numerical evidence suggests convergence of local fields with respect to diminishing regularization length as well.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Global Corn Heat Stress: Mean and SD of Degree Days Above 29°C based on NEX-GDDP-CMIP6 Climate Projections

Description This global dataset provides the estimated mean and standard deviation (SD) of corn heat stress (degree days above 29°C) for a set of climate models in NEX-GDDP-CMIP6 at 0.25-degree resolution. The NEX-GDDP-CMIP6 dataset is comprised of global downscaled climate scenarios derived from the General Circulation Model (GCM) runs conducted under the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6). The current dataset includes: Long-Term Average Degree Days Above 29°C- Historical Long-Term Average Degree Days Above 29°C- SSP245 Long-Term Standard Deviation of Degree Days Above 29°C- Historical Long-Term Standard Deviation of Degree Days Above 29°C- SSP245 The mean and SD are calculated over 1985-2014 for the historical period and over 2035-2064 for future projections. A full description of methods, including growing season, daily temperature distribution, and statistical coefficients, can be found in Haqiqi (2024). The source climate data are obtained from https://ds.nccs.nasa.gov/thredds2/catalog/catalog.html and are described in Thrasher et al (2022). The codes used to create this dataset are available at https://github.com/ihaqiqi/dd29c_nex_cmip6. Acknowledgments This work was supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Biological and Environmental Research Program, Earth and Environmental Systems Modeling, MultiSector Dynamics under Cooperative Agreement DE-SC0022141. The data processing, computation, and storage were completed on Purdue Anvil supercomputer and cyberinfrastructure supported by the National Science Foundation HDR award # 2118329: "NSF Institute for Geospatial Understanding through an Integrative Discovery Environment (I-GUIDE)". References Haqiqi. I. (2024). Trade can buffer climate-induced risks and volatilities in crop supply. Environmental Research: Food Systems. https://doi.org/10.1088/2976-601X/ad7d12 Thrasher, B., Wang, W., Michaelis, A., Melton, F., Lee, T., & Nemani, R. (2022). NASA global daily downscaled projections, CMIP6. Scientific Data, 9(1), 262. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01393-4

Climate Change↗

Structural basis of DNA recognition of the Campylobacter jejuni CosR regulator

Campylobacter jejuni is a foodborne pathogen commonly found in the intestinal tracts of animals. This pathogen is a leading cause of gastroenteritis in humans. Besides its highly infectious nature, C. jejuni is increasingly resistant to a number of clinically administrated antibiotics. As a consequence, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has designated antibiotic-resistant Campylobacter as a serious antibiotic resistance threat in the United States. The C. jejuni CosR regulator is essential to the viability of this bacterium and is responsible for regulating the expression of a number of oxidative stress defense enzymes. Importantly, it also modulates the expression of the CmeABC multidrug efflux system, the most predominant and clinically important system in C. jejuni that mediates resistance to multiple antimicrobials. Here, we report structures of apo-CosR and CosR bound with a 21 bp DNA sequence located at the cmeABC promotor region using both single-particle cryo-electron microscopy and X-ray crystallography. These structures allow us to propose a novel mechanism for CosR regulation that involves a long-distance conformational coupling and rearrangement of the secondary structural elements of the regulator to bind target DNA.

CosR-DNA complex↗

Gravitational causality and the self-stress of photons

We study causality in gravitational systems beyond the classical limit. Using on-shell methods, we consider the 1-loop corrections from charged particles to the photon energy-momentum tensor — the self-stress — that controls the quantum interaction between two on-shell photons and one off-shell graviton. The self-stress determines in turn the phase shift and time delay in the scattering of photons against a spectator particle of any spin in the eikonal regime. We show that the sign of the β-function associated to the running gauge coupling is related to the sign of time delay at small impact parameter. Our results show that, at first post-Minkowskian order, asymptotic causality, where the time delay experienced by any particle must be positive, is respected quantum mechanically. Contrasted with asymptotic causality, we explore a local notion of causality, where the time delay is longer than the one of gravitons, which is seemingly violated by quantum effects.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Performance of Microreactor Test Article with Embedded Sensors During Testing in The Single Primary Heat Extraction and Removal Emulator

The nuclear industry is pursuing microreactors that can be factory assembled and deployed to remote regions for reliable power generation. One class of microreactors uses a monolithic metal core block coupled to heat pipes that use passive heat flow, increasing the surface area for heat transfer without requiring active coolant flow through the reactor core. Additional experimental testing is required to understand the heat rejection limitations of heat pipes and thermal stresses in the monolithic core block due to significant temperature gradients. This report describes the initial characterization and testing of a stainless-steel test article that was fabricated with embedded sensors to measure heat pipe performance limits, as well as spatially distributed temperatures and strains during electrically heated thermal testing to simulate nuclear heating. The electrically heated testing was performed in the Single Primary Heat Extraction and Removal Emulator facility located at Idaho National Laboratory. The ultimate goals of this work are to (1) accurately monitor temperature and strain distributions that result from differential thermal expansion in the test articles and (2) quantify the heat rejection limits of heat pipes as a function of operating temperature and working fluid during steady-state and transient operations. Initial tests focused on the feasibility of using advanced fiber-optic sensors and other sensor technologies to improve the understanding of temperature and strain distributions within the electrically heated experiments. However, these sensing capabilities could benefit the broader microreactor community if the sensors could be used to monitor component and system health during nuclear operations to inform a limited number of microreactor operators, ultimately reducing operation and maintenance costs and moving toward semiautonomous operation.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Assessment of critical flaw sizes and crack driving forces during additive manufacturing of metallic materials

Additive manufacturing (AM) of complex engineering components is often plagued by a high susceptibility to cracking, particularly in high-strength metallic materials. While alloy design efforts have made progress in mitigating solidification defects, there remains a need for mechanistic guidelines to predict susceptibility to solid-state cracking. To address this gap, driving forces for the growth of melt pool cracks are calculated across a wide range of alloys using an efficient computational framework. Calculations are coupled with rapid single track laser experiments to elucidate trends in cracking from laser melting. The analyses conducted here highlight the important role of material properties in susceptibility to cracking, notably fracture toughness and elastic modulus. An important finding is that residual stresses that are limited in magnitude to the yield stress of the material are likely insufficient to drive cracking during cooling. Furthermore, the implications of these results are discussed in the context of alloy design for AM and residual stress accumulation during AM.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Electrochemo-mechanics unlocks hidden dynamics of lithium plating under stacking pressure

Understanding and mitigating lithium plating remains one of the most pressing challenges in advancing the safety and longevity of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Here, we present a novel integrative framework that combines in-operando swelling force measurements with a physics-based electro-chemo-mechanical model to uncover previously inaccessible insights into lithium plating dynamics under mechanical constraints. Unlike existing approaches that focus primarily on electrochemical signatures, our approach captures the coupled mechanical responses of commercial pouch cells during cycling, revealing how mechanical constraints fundamentally alter degradation pathways. We demonstrate that the use of a moderate stacking pressure suppresses lithium plating and enhances lithium stripping. This mechanically driven structural effect, coupled with the electrochemical process, significantly extends the linear aging regime in LIBs. Intriguingly, intermittent capacity recovery events that were observed during the battery cycling suggest dynamic lithium reactivation, a phenomenon rarely captured in real-time. This study pioneers a stress-aware methodology for diagnosing and managing lithium plating, establishing a new paradigm for real-time battery health monitoring. The findings offer transformative implications for the design of durable, high-performance LIB systems, opening new avenues for intelligent control strategies in battery management systems.

Bhowmick, Amit↗