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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 OSTI2024

The source craters of the martian meteorites: Implications for the igneous evolution of Mars

Approximately 200 meteorites come from ~10 impact events on the surface of Mars, yet their pre-ejection locations are largely unknown. Here, we combine the results of diverse sets of observations and modeling to constrain the source craters for several groups of martian meteorites. We compute that ejection-paired groups of meteorites are derived from lava flows within the top 26 m of the surface. We link ejection-paired groups to specific source craters and geologic units, providing context for these important samples, reconciling microscopic observations with remote sensing records, and demonstrating the potential to constrain the ages of their source geologic units. Furthermore, we show that there are craters that may have produced martian meteorites not represented in the world’s meteorite collections that have yet to be discovered.

Science & Technology - Other Topics↗
DOE OSTI2020

EARLY HAWAIIANS AND VOLCANIC HEAT

This research serves as the first-known compilation of accounts of early Hawaiians using volcanic heat. Western explorers in the 1800s wrote about native Hawaiians near $K\bar{i}lauea$ Volcano using volcanic heat for cooking and bathing. They cooked their food wrapped in leaves underground or above a steam crack at Sulphur Banks, $K\bar{i}lauea$ Iki, and the $N\bar{a}pau$ Crater Trail. Early Hawaiians bathed in the warm waters of Waiwelawela for health. To confirm the presence of volcanic heat, this study used geothermal resource maps by the Hawai‘i Play Fairway project. According to a probability map for volcanic heat, the areas where Hawaiians used volcanic heat have a probability of volcanic heat of 0.8 to 1.0. On a map with temperatures of water wells, water wells close to where Hawaiians used volcanic heat have elevated temperatures. Historically, the areas where Hawaiians used volcanic heat experienced volcanic steam release, volcanic eruptions, and lava flows.

Geology↗
DOE OSTI2022

Geochronology of Cambrian Sedimentary and Volcanic Rocks in the Illinois Basin: Defining the Illinois Aulacogen

The Wabash #1 well, drilled for the Wabash CarbonSAFE Project and located in Vigo County, Indiana, USA, was drilled in early 2020 as a stratigraphic test well to characterize and evaluate the basal Cambrian Mt. Simon Sandstone for carbon dioxide storage (TD=8750 ft; 2667 m). The Wabash #1 well is located along the eastern flank of a newly interpreted Cambrian aulacogen that occurs in western Indiana and eastern Illinois. Here we present 938 new detrital zircon U-Pb ages (LA-ICPMS) from early Cambrian sandstones sampled near the base of the well. A basalt lava flow was penetrated at ~8530 ft (2600 m) and has an 40 Ar/ 39 Ar age of 525.03 +/- 1.10 Ma, which represents the first known Cambrian crust in the Illinois Basin. The two sandstone samples from beneath the basalt are dominated by zircons derived from the Midcontinent Granite-Rhyolite terrane. The sandstone samples from above the basalt reflect a mixture of these locally derived Mazatzal and Granite-Rhyolite terrane zircons, but also distal Archean, Grenville, and Yavapai zircons. Each sample has small numbers of Cambrian zircons, which is consistent with those in basal Cambrian sandstones in other deep wells to the west. These early Cambrian detrital zircons and early Cambrian age of the basalt, combined with sediment thickness patterns permit the interpretation of the Illinois aulacogen, which formed during the final stage of Rodinian rifting.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Petrographic and spectral study of hydrothermal mineralization in drill core from Hawaii: A potential analog to alteration in the martian subsurface

Abstract Continuous rock core was collected for 1764 m (5786’) on the Pohakuloa Army Training base near the center of the big island of Hawaii. The core traverses basaltic lava flows from the volcano's shield-building phase, and perched aquifers and higher temperature groundwaters were encountered. The collected samples record water-rock interactions of basaltic materials in a setting that may be a model for groundwater interactions on Mars. We collected visible and infrared point spectra of materials in the lowest portion of the core, where alteration was noted to become more prominent. We identified three types of phyllosilicate spectral signatures and three types of zeolites. The phyllosilicates show similarity to those identified on Mars using data from the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM). Based on the field survey, 25 depths were selected for sampling and petrographic analysis of thin sections. The spectral data and thin section work have a strong agreement in the types of materials identified by the two different techniques. Both the spectral and petrographic data indicate low to moderate temperature geothermal alteration occurred in the lower half of the core. The field spectra are a useful reconnaissance tool for selecting mineralogic diversity for subsequent higher resolution and more time-consuming laboratory analysis.

Geochemistry & Geophysics↗
DOE OSTI2020

HFIRCON Version 1.0.5 User Guide

The High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) Controller (HFIRCON) code is a collection of python routines and C plugins that automate the workflow for fuel and single- or multicycle target depletion analyses for HFIR at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). This code calls the LAVAMINT (LAVA Model Interrogator) parallel (MCNP) Monte Carlo N-Particle model interrogator to stochastically calculate cell volumes and bounding boxes, the ADVANTG (Automatic Variance Reduction Generation) code package for all variance reduction and source biasing calculations, the ORNL-Transformative Neutronics/MCNP5 transport solver for all transport solutions, and the MSX_DEPLETE module to perform all depletion calculations via the ORIGEN (Oak Ridge Isotope Generation) application programming interface. It also performs a robust set of postprocessing functions to automatically provide summaries of several key metrics that are common to a wide variety of typical HFIR design and safety-basis analyses.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Evaluation of Two-Dimensional to One-Dimensional Site Response for Idaho National Laboratory

We perform two-dimensional (2D) site response analyses accounting for spatial variability of soil properties and subsurface geometry of the Eastern Snake River Plane (ESRP), and quantify their effects on ground surface motion relative to one-dimensional (1D) site response analyses at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). We first present the development of random field idealizations of the repeated basalt lava flows, heterogeneously inter-layered with sediments, from seismic velocity data collected over four decades in the ESRP. Using realizations of the stochastic fields mapped on 2D deterministic finite element models, we perform 2D viscoelastic and equivalent-linear wave propagation simulations, and quantify the mean and variance of site response aggravation factors, defined as the response spectral ratio of 2D to 1D analyses on the ground surface. Results are shown to be insensitive to the constitutive material behavior considered here, for strains induced by rock outcrop peak ground acceleration (PGA) as high as 0.7g: viscoelastic and equivalent-linear analyses predict peak mean 2D/1D aggravation factor 1.05 at period T=0.075 sec (i.e. the 2D response spectrum is 5% higher than the corresponding 1D at that period, on average), which corresponds to the wavelength of the horizontal correlation length of the random field (50m). For periods longer than the fundamental period of the site (here, T 1 =0.3125 sec), the propagating wavelengths are too long to be affected by the 1D site response and the aggravation factor becomes equal to 1. The standard deviation of the natural logarithms of the 2D/1D aggravation factors is ~0.15 for periods shorter than the fundamental period of the site, and decays thereafter at a steady rate.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

University of Hawai‘i, Shallow Geothermal Resources: Energy Technology Innovation Partnership Project (Final Report)

Scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have teamed up with the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa (UH Manoa) through the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Technology Innovation Partnership Project to evaluate the technological and market feasibility of shallow geothermal heat exchanger (GHE) technology. UH requested this analysis to evaluate opportunities in building cooling, energy efficiency, and emissions reduction applications in Hawai‘i. UH has an abundance of geologic and geothermal data and is looking to the national labs’ expertise to execute this analysis. UH is also interested in investigating policy, regulatory, and business conditions advantageous for implementation of a pilot project and more broad deployment of this technology in Hawai‘i. In many locations around the world, the demands for heating and cooling are roughly balanced over the course of the year, so GHEs do not cause significant long-term changes in subsurface temperature. This is not the case in Hawai’i, where the demand for heating is very small, meaning that, over time, GHEs will add heat to the subsurface. If temperatures increase significantly, GHE systems will not work as designed. Regional groundwater flow has the potential to sweep heated water away from boreholes, thereby maintaining the functionality of the GHE system. Significant regional groundwater flow requires two things: a sufficiently large driving hydraulic head gradient (usually closely related to surface topography), and sufficient porosity and permeability to enable groundwater to flow in large enough quantities to enable near-borehole temperatures to be maintained at ambient values. Hawai‘i’s volcanic terrain offers ample surface topographic variation. The lava itself shows an extremely large range of porosity and permeability, so sites with large enough values of these properties must be selected. Numerical modeling of coupled groundwater and heat flow can be used to determine how large is large enough. Primarily, closed-loop systems have been investigated. Other options considered are open-loop systems and using cool seawater as the chilling source. Project work investigated the feasibility of GHE technology at two scales. At the island scale, GIS layers of various attributes relevant for GHE were combined to develop an overall favorability map for employing GHE in Hawai‘i. At the local scale, a hydrogeologic model for the subsurface component of a closed-loop system was developed for the Stan Sheriff Center at the UH Manoa campus. This site is considered promising because the rock below and immediately downgradient of the borefield is highly permeable, consisting of a subsurface karst system (limestone containing high-permeability open channels), which is underlain by a thick, high-permeability fractured basalt. Moreover, the site is near the base of the Ko‘olau Range, providing a large hydraulic head gradient. Thus, groundwater flow through the site is expected to be large, enabling efficient removal of heated groundwater. A full-GHE-system model of the site was also developed, with a simplified representation of the subsurface, in which groundwater flow is not considered and heat transfer is purely by conduction. Using the building cooling load data provided by UH, simulation results show that with groundwater flow present, a GHE can operate successfully for at least 10 years, but with no groundwater flow, the subsurface begins to heat up after only one year of operation, making the GHE unviable within 2-6 years. The team also developed a techno-economic model for this site to compare the cost of cooling using a GHE system with the costs of operating the current air-conditioning system. The GHE system is advantageous economically if favorable tax incentives and interest rates can be obtained.

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Distributed Mafic Rock Resources for Carbon Mineralization in Arizona

Ex-situ carbon mineralization is a process by which CO2 is reacted with alkaline silicate minerals and rocks to produce stable carbonate materials, which can be used for other industrial processes. Arizona, U.S.A., hosts abundant surficial mafic rocks in three young volcanic fields, Geronimo-San Bernardino, San Francisco, and Springerville, and other distributed locations throughout the state. We created a Mafic Rock Resource Inventory (MRRI) that categorizes geochemical, physical, and textural characteristics of a diverse suite of surficial mafic rock samples and provide a benchmark reaction dataset parameterizing the temperature, pressure, and pH conditions best suited ex-situ mineralization in different rock types. MRRI data is publicly available online via a map-viewer. We establish two reaction condition sets, varied in temperature, pressure, and pH, where crystal-rich and glassy rocks reach maximum reaction extent and different carbonate phases are formed. Systematic ex-situ mineralization experiments on 21 diverse rock types show trends in geochemical, mineralogical, and reactivity behavior and establish maximum effective capture capacity. From this, scoria cones in three Arizona volcanic fields have a ~62 Gt effective CO₂ storage capacity with one of the fields having a ~42 Gt storage capacity in lava flows. Reactivity results have applications to alkaline mafic rock resources exposed globally, including producing additional effective storage capacity estimates and scaled commercialization of mafic rock ex-situ mineralization, should reaction extents be improved through advances in mineralization techniques. MRRI data were used to create a Direct Air Capture to Mineralization (DACM) systems model, technoeconomic analysis, and life-cycle assessment. These documents are presented as three appendices.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2022

Robotic Planning under Uncertainty in Spatiotemporal Environments in Expeditionary Science

In the expeditionary sciences, spatiotemporally varying environments -- hydrothermal plumes, algal blooms, lava flows, or animal migrations -- are ubiquitous. Mobile robots are uniquely well-suited to study these dynamic, mesoscale natural environments. We formalize expeditionary science as a sequential decision-making problem, modeled using the language of partially-observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs). Solving the expeditionary science POMDP under real-world constraints requires efficient probabilistic modeling and decision-making in problems with complex dynamics and observational models. Previous work in informative path planning, adaptive sampling, and experimental design have shown compelling results, largely in static environments, using data-driven models and information-based rewards. However, these methodologies do not trivially extend to expeditionary science in spatiotemporal environments: they generally do not make use of scientific knowledge such as equations of state dynamics, they focus on information gathering as opposed to scientific task execution, and they make use of decision-making approaches that scale poorly to large, continuous problems with long planning horizons and real-time operational constraints. In this work, we discuss these and other challenges related to probabilistic modeling and decision-making in expeditionary science, and present some of our preliminary work that addresses these gaps. We ground our results in a real expeditionary science deployment of an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) in the deep ocean for hydrothermal vent discovery and characterization. Our concluding thoughts highlight remaining work to be done, and the challenges that merit consideration by the reinforcement learning and decision-making community.

Preston, Victoria↗
DOE OSTI2021

Geology and Hydrothermal Alteration of the Raft River Geothermal System, Idaho

The Raft River geothermal system is located in southern Idaho, near the Utah-Idaho state boarder in the Raft River Valley. The field, which is owned and operated by U.S. Geothermal, has been selected as an EGS demonstration site by the U. S. Department of Energy. This paper summarizes ongoing geologic and petrologic investigations being conducted in support of this project. The reservoir is developed in fractured Proterozoic schist and quartzite, and Archean quartz monzonite cut by younger diabase intrusions. The basement complex was deformed during the mid Tertiary and covered by approximately 5000 ft of late Tertiary sedimentary and volcanic deposits. Listric normal faults of Cenozoic age disrupt the Tertiary deposits but do not offset the basement rocks. RRG-9, the target well, was drilled southwest of the main well field to a measured depth (MD) of 6089 ft. The well is deviated to the west and cased to a depth of 2316 ft MD. It penetrated the Proterozoic reservoir rocks at a depth of 5286 ft MD and encountered a maximum temperature of 139 degrees C. Bottomhole temperatures in other deep wells range from 133 to 149 degrees C. X-ray diffraction and thin section analyses are being conducted on samples from 5 deep wells, RRG- 1, 2, 3, 7 and 9, to determine the characteristics of the rock types and hydrothermal alteration within the geothermal system. Thin section analyses of samples from RRG-9 document the presence of strong alteration and brecciation at the contact between the Tertiary and basement complex. The Tertiary rocks consist of ash-flow tuffs, lava flows, tuffaceous siltstone, greywacke, and sandstone. No core is available from RRG-9 but core was obtained from RRG-3C. The sample is a brecciated and altered siltstone from the base of the Tertiary sequence and is similar to rocks at the base of the Tertiary deposits in RRG-9. Here, the results of thermal and quasi-static mechanical property measurements that were conducted on the core sample are presented.

Jones, Clay↗
DOE OSTI2024

Shallow Geothermal Resources for Cooling Applications at the University of Hawai‘i

Scientists at Berkeley Lab have teamed up with The University of Hawai‘i at Manoa (UH Manoa) through the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Energy Transitions Initiative Partnership Project (ETIPP) to evaluate the technological and market feasibility of shallow geothermal heat exchanger (GHE) technology for building cooling, energy efficiency, and emissions reduction applications in Hawai’i. The team is assessing the data necessary to model the feasibility of deploying this technology, the actual models that will be used, and what hurdles need to be overcome to install a demonstration case. UH has an abundance of geologic and geothermal data and is looking to the national labs’ expertise to execute this analysis. UH is also interested in investigating policy, regulatory, and business conditions advantageous for implementation of a pilot project, and more broad deployment of this technology in Hawai‘i. In many locations around the world, the demands for heating and cooling are roughly balanced over the course of the year, so GHEs do not cause significant long-term changes in subsurface temperature. This is not the case in Hawai’i, where the demand for heating is very small, meaning that over time, GHEs will add heat to the subsurface. If temperatures increase significantly, GHE systems will not work as designed. Regional groundwater flow has the potential to sweep heated water away from boreholes, thereby maintaining the functionality of the GHE system. Significant regional groundwater flow requires two things: a sufficiently large driving hydraulic head gradient (usually closely related to surface topography), and sufficient porosity and permeability to enable groundwater to flow in large enough quantities to enable near-borehole temperatures to be maintained at ambient values. Hawai‘i’s volcanic terrain offers ample surface topographic variation. The lava itself shows an extremely large range of porosity and permeability, making it crucial to select sites with large enough values of these properties. Numerical modeling of coupled groundwater and heat flow can be used to determine how large is large enough. Both closed-loop and open-loop systems are being investigated. Another option being considered is using cool seawater as the source of chill. Currently work is progressing on two fronts. A hydrogeologic model for a closed-loop system is being developed for the Stan Sheriff Center at the UH Manoa campus, where a subsurface karst system immediately downgradient of the borefield may provide efficient removal of heated groundwater. The team will also develop a technoeconomic model for this site to compare the cost of cooling using a GHE system with the costs of operating the current air conditioning system. At the state scale, geographic information system (GIS) layers of various attributes relevant for GHE are being combined to develop an overall favorability map for employing GHE in Hawai‘i.

Doughty, C↗
DOE OSTI2024

Stereo-DIC Challenge 1.0 – Rigid Body Motion of a Complex Shape

Background Stereo-DIC is a widely used optical measurement technique that provides a dense full-field 3D measurement of the shape, displacement, and strain of a solid sample. When compared with 2D-DIC, Stereo-DIC provides greater flexibility and expands its use beyond flat, planar specimens. Furthermore, the widespread availability of commercial systems has led to the adoption of the technique throughout industry, academia, and government research labs. Objective Even though some research has been done to understand the effects of different experimental and stereo-DIC parameters, no reference is available to benchmark and compare the performance of current stereo-DIC algorithms to each other. Methods This paper provides the description and analysis of a carefully controlled 3D experiment and associated images used to compare the results from five subset based DIC software packages. Both the images and analysis codes used in this paper to compare the results are described here and are available for download and use for continued research. Results We show that over a very large range of motion, the 3D errors are very small, less than 80μm over a travel of ±20 mm out-of-plane and ±20 mm in-plane. While all codes performed similarly, there are important differences noted in the paper. Conclusion The image sets and results comparison software are hosted by the International DIC Society (www.iDICs.org) and are freely available for download and analysis for comparison with results in this paper. Furthermore, it is hoped that this set of images can be used for future research in improving stereo-DIC by future authors.

Algorithms comparison↗
DOE OSTI2022

Chromosome evolution and the genetic basis of agronomically important traits in greater yam

The nutrient-rich tubers of the greater yam, Dioscorea alata L., provide food and income security for millions of people around the world. Despite its global importance, however, greater yam remains an orphan crop. Here, we address this resource gap by presenting a highly contiguous chromosome-scale genome assembly of D. alata combined with a dense genetic map derived from African breeding populations. The genome sequence reveals an ancient allotetraploidization in the Dioscorea lineage, followed by extensive genome-wide reorganization. Using the genomic tools, we find quantitative trait loci for resistance to anthracnose, a damaging fungal pathogen of yam, and several tuber quality traits. Genomic analysis of breeding lines reveals both extensive inbreeding as well as regions of extensive heterozygosity that may represent interspecific introgression during domestication. These tools and insights will enable yam breeders to unlock the potential of this staple crop and take full advantage of its adaptability to varied environments.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Validation of finite-element models using full-field experimental data: Levelling finite-element analysis data through a digital image correlation engine

Full-field data from digital image correlation (DIC) provide rich information for finite-element analysis (FEA) validation. However, there are several inherent inconsistencies between FEA and DIC data that must be rectified before meaningful, quantitative comparisons can be made, including strain formulations, coordinate systems, data locations, strain calculation algorithms, spatial resolutions and data filtering. As such, in this paper, we investigate two full-field validation approaches: (1) the direct interpolation approach, which addresses the first three inconsistencies by interpolating the quantity of interest from one mesh to the other, and (2) the proposed DIC-levelling approach, which addresses all six inconsistencies simultaneously by processing the FEA data through a stereo-DIC simulator to ‘level’ the FEA data to the DIC data in a regularisation sense. Synthetic ‘experimental’ DIC data were generated based on a reference FEA of an exemplar test specimen. The direct interpolation approach was applied, and significant strain errorswere computed, even though therewas no model form error, because the filtering effect of theDIC enginewas neglected. In contrast, the levelling approach provided accurate validation results, with no strain error when no model form error was present. Next, model form error was purposefully introduced via a mismatch of boundary conditions. With the direct interpolation approach, the mismatch in boundary conditions was completely obfuscated, while with the levelling approach, it was clearly observed. Finally, the ‘experimental’ DIC datawere purposefully misaligned slightly fromthe FEA data. Both validation techniques suffered from the misalignment, thus motivating continued efforts to develop a robust alignment process. In conclusion, direct interpolation is insufficient, and the proposed levelling approach is required to ensure that the FEA and the DIC data have the same spatial resolution and data filtering. Only after the FEA data have been ‘levelled’ to the DIC data can meaningful, quantitative error maps be computed.

42 ENGINEERING↗