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Results for “Material characterization”

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 55 records · Page 3
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Material Characterization Report of FFTF MFF 5 Fuel Element

This report was written as part of the TerraPower Cooperative Research and Development Agreement No. 11-CR-19 with Idaho National Laboratory. TerraPower provided the funding. An as-fabricated fuel element from the Fast Flux Test Facility MFF-5 experiment was sectioned and analyzed for material properties. Results reported include phase characterization, microstructural analysis, density, microhardness, and chemical composition.

11 - NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Material Characterization of Grade 91 Steel Welds using, Micro-resolution Ultrasonic Imaging System

Grade 91 (9Cr-1Mo-V) steel is a common structural material for fossil-fuel fired and nuclear power plants because of its creep strength and oxidation resistance at high temperatures. In this research, we studied the feasibility of correlating the high-resolution images obtained from the immersion ultrasonic imaging technique to microstructure regions in Grade 91 steel plate weldments. The high-resolution ultrasonic images presented in this paper were generated using a 20-MHz focused transducer as the transmitter, and a laser vibrometer as the receiver in the through transmission configuration to produce longitudinal and shear waves. This nondestructive evaluation (NDE) method was used to identify the Fusion Zone (FZ), Heat-Affected Zone (HAZ), and Base Metal (BM) regions of Grade 91 cold metal transfer (CMT) and flux core arc welds (FCAW). The ultrasonic imaging results were analyzed using beam propagation amplitudes and homogeneity, which in turn were used to relate the different microstructure regions of the FCAW and CMT welded samples. With this study, we were able to identify highly susceptible microstructures in the weld that could potentially promote creep type failures.

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Hyperspectral imaging for real-time waste materials characterization and recovery using endmember extraction and abundance detection

Hyperspectral imaging, combined with advanced spectral unmixing techniques and artificial intelligence, offers a powerful solution for improving material identification and classification. Here, this study evaluates the effectiveness of the pixel purity index and the sequential maximum angle convex cone algorithms in extracting and validating spectral signatures from pure samples of paper components (cellulose and lignin) and plastic (polypropylene). Principal-component analysis showed that both algorithms captured nearly all relevant variance for the tested materials. Spectral signatures were compared using the spectral angle mapper, revealing high similarity in the short-wave infrared region and greater variability in the visible near-infrared range. The methodology was then applied to a disposable coffee cup to detect and quantify mixed materials, accurately estimating material abundance and object area with less than 1% error. This approach enhances material classification, supporting product verification, quality control, and automated sorting for sustainable waste management and resource recovery.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Advances in scientific literature mining for interpreting materials characterization

Abstract Using synchrotron light sources, such as the National Synchrotron Light Source II at Brookhaven National Laboratory, scientists in fields as diverse as physics, biology, and materials science, identify the atomic structure, chemical composition, or other important properties of varied specimens. x-ray spectroscopy from light sources is particularly valuable for materials research with vast information available about reference spectra in the scientific literature. However, as the technique is applicable to many science domains, searching for information about select x-ray spectroscopy spectra is impeded by the sheer number of publications. Moreover, useful information about the context of an experiment or figures presented in papers can be buried among the details, which takes time to assess. This work presents a scientific literature mining system that supports data acquisition, information extraction, and user interaction for referencing x-ray spectra identification and spectral interpretation. The goal is to provide efficient access to useful spectral data to researchers who may spend only a few days at a synchrotron light source. With this system, users browse a classification tree for papers arranged according to x-ray spectroscopic methods, chemical elements, and x-ray absorption spectroscopy edges. Relevant figures are extracted with sentences from the paper that explain them, known as ‘figure explanatory text.’ Notably, this system focuses on semantic aspects (logical analysis) to find figure explanatory text using deep contextualized word embeddings techniques and contains an interface to obtain labeled data from domain experts that is used to evaluate and improve the model.

Park, Gilchan (ORCID:0000000201536646)↗
DOE OSTI2024

Development of spectroscopy apparatus for molten salt reactor safeguards and material characterization

A molten salt reactor (MSR) produces nuclear fission energy using mixture of fissile and non-fissile salts. Salt in the reactor functions as the nuclear material and the coolant allowing for a safer design. International nuclear safeguards is the monitoring of nuclear reactors, nuclear fuel, and irradiated material to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapon grade material in hostile foreign nations. The mixture of salt creates a proliferation risk as it generates a conglomeration of fuel, daughter nuclei, and corrosive material. A method to monitor and measure the materials present in the reactor is essential to the scalable deployment of MSRs. The objective of this project was to design a spectroscopy apparatus for aqueous salt so it can be measured and collected consistently in the aerosol phase.

98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL P↗
DOE OSTI2020

Analysis of RF losses and material characterization of samples removed from a Nb 3 Sn-coated superconducting RF cavity

Nb 3 Sn (T c ≈18 K and H sh ≈400 mT) is a prospective material to replace Nb (T c ≈9 K and H sh ≈200 mT) in SRF accelerator cavities for significant cost reduction and performance enhancement. Because of its material properties, Nb3Sn is best employed as a thin film (coating) inside an already built RF cavity structure. A particular test cavity noted as C3C4 was a 1.5 GHz single-cell Nb cavity, coated with Nb3Sn using Sn vapor diffusion process at Jefferson Lab. Cold measurements of the coated cavity indicated the superconducting transition temperature of about 18 K. Subsequent RF measurements indicated field-dependent surface resistance both at 4.3 K and 2.0 K. After initial cold measurements, the cavity RF loss distribution was studied with a thermometry mapping system. Loss regions were identified with thermometry and were cut out for material analysis. The presence of significantly thin patchy regions and other carbon-rich defects is associated with strong local field-dependent surface resistance. This paper summarizes RF and thermometry results correlated with material science findings.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2022

Material Characterization for Large Scale Additive Manufacturing (AM)

The objective of this project was to enable prediction of residual stresses and warpage for extrusion deposition additive manufacturing (EDAM) fabricated carbon fiber thermoplastic matrix parts with three different materials systems produced by Techmer. The materials selected include Polyphenylene sulfide reinforced with 50% by weight of carbon fiber (CF-PPS), Polyethersulfone reinforced with 25% by weight of carbon fiber (CF-PESU), Polysulfone reinforced with 25% by weight of carbon fiber (CF-PSU). ADDITIVE3D © , a physics-based simulation workflow for EDAM, provided the simulation capabilities required for this project. Simulation predictions were validated against measurements carried out during and after the printing process carried out in the CAMRI and LSAM systems . Predictions for temperature, degree of crystallinity and deformation were carried out for the three material systems and two different geometries. Predictions for temperature were correlated very well with the experimental measurements for the two geometries printed using the three-material systems. The crystallinity level was verified for CF-PPS. The predictions for part deformation were in good agreement with the experimental measurements. In the best-case, predictions were within 8% of the maximum displacement observed in the 3-direction whereas predictions were within 14% for the worst-case. The adoption of this technology in commercial large-scale EDAM production processes would dramatically reduce the costs associated with producing articles by that process. Many thousands of dollars in materials, energy, and machine time could be saved by utilizing this simulation technology to develop articles rather than iterative printings to arrive at the optimal or correct design. The avoidance of a single failed print has the possibility of saving tens of thousands of dollars involved in the cost of material, machine and operators’ time.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

Uncertainty evaluation in reference material characterization by double isotope dilution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ID-ICP-MS)

Double isotope dilution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ID-ICP-MS) is one of the most important measurement methods in the establishment of measurement standards for inorganic analysis. However, there is still no good consensus on approaches for uncertainty evaluation in double ID-ICP-MS. Particularly, approaches to treating the instrumental isotopic fractionation (IIF) phenomenon and correlation between uncertainty sources are diverse and often unclear in the literature. Here, an approach for uncertainty evaluation in double ID-ICP-MS measurements is described. Using three certified reference materials (CRMs), it is shown that the IIF effects cancel out and should not be included in the uncertainty budget. Further, a consistent way of considering correlated sources of uncertainty to prevent double counting of uncertainties is described in detail along with an example of measuring the mass fraction of magnesium in an oyster powder CRM.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2023

Binder Jet Additive Manufacturing Process and Material Characterization for High Temperature Heat Exchangers Used in Concentrated Solar Power Applications

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Sunshot 2030 initiative has a goal of reducing the cost of concentrating solar power (CSP) to 5 cents per kWh for baseload power plants. One of the potential pathways to this goal includes a reduction in the cost of the supercritical CO2 (sCO2) power block to 0.9 cents per kWh. Recuperators—high and low temperatures, used in the sCO2 power cycle, contribute to >50% of the cost of the power cycle. This work studies the feasibility towards a ≥10% cost reduction for High Temperature Recuperators (HTR) used in the sCO2 power cycle. One way to address the cost reduction is by leveraging low-cost additive manufacturing, specifically, Binder Jet Additive Manufacturing (BJAM) to 3D print HTRs at scale. This study focuses on the development of a BJAM process towards 3D printing HTR cores using Stainless Steel alloy 316L (SS316L). To evaluate the suitability of the BJ process towards the HTR, high level specifications of the application are translated to materials capability requirements. Subsequently, at-temperature materials testing is conducted on as-printed and sintered additively manufactured coupons. Data from the coupons are compared against cast and wrought SS316L data obtained from the literature. Results show that the tensile properties from the BJ process compare well against cast properties. Furthermore, a baseline analysis of creep testing data is established for the BJ process, and insights are drawn from the results towards future improvements of the process.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

PV backsheets survey protocol: A framework for geo-spatial field surveys for bulk material characterization and reliability analysis applied across 41 PV systems

As widespread adoption of photovoltaic (PV) technologies continues, understanding the lifetime of modules is paramount to the viability of the industry as an environmentally conscious alternative to traditional energy generation. Although power degradation can affect the total energy production of a module over its lifetime, module safety failures necessitate the removal of a module leading to a loss of not only the particular asset, but the earning potential of the device. Therefore, it is critical to ensure that the components that provide essential safety functions for PV module operate for their entire rated lifetime. PV backsheets provide necessary electrical insulation to the completed device and failure of this component is cause for a immediate removal of the module. Degradation of the PV module backsheet has led to module safety failures in large-scale installations, costing millions of dollars in damages and lost potential revenue. The spatio-temporal degradation of fielded PV modules is important to study in order to identify which modules within installations are experiencing the greatest exposure conditions and in turn have the highest chance of failure. This paper describes a comprehensive field survey protocol developed for monitoring PV module backsheet performance using solely non-destructive methods in commercial PV fields. The protocol establishes a field naming convention, sampling method, data handling requirements, and measurement procedures. By ensuring consistent data collection practices, the field survey protocol enables research groups to obtain data of uniform quality on backsheet performance over multiple years and locations. In this study, the developed protocol was implemented at forty-one PV sites. Eight different types of airside layer backsheet materials including poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF), acrylic PVDF, poly(tetrafluoroethylene-co-hexafluoropropylene-co-vinylidene fluoride) (THV), poly(vinyl fluoride) (PVF), poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET), fluoroethylene vinyl ether (FEVE), polyethylene naphthalate (PEN), and glass were identified using attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy. The field survey results show that the spatial distribution of degradation indicators are non-uniform within a particular module, individual site, and across site locations. The degradation of PV modules increased in severity for modules mounted at the edge of rows (across a field) and near the junction box (within a module). This study demonstrates the sensitivity of material performance to exposure length across different materials and climates.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Material Characterization Study of Magnetite Nanocrystals for RF Sensing

Magnetite nanocrystals show promise for electrically small gigahertz frequency applications, which could lead to miniaturizing transformer cores and new sensing technologies. This work presents a rigorous radiofrequency characterization of these nanocrystals using vector network analyzer (VNA) ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) measurements. For the first time, two different average diameters of Fe 3 O 4 nanocrystals are investigated (7.3 and 20.2 nm). When the VNA–FMR results were compared to micromagnetic simulations, the magnetic anisotropy (K 1 ) deviated from the ideal mean orientation value of K 1 /2 to K 1 /80 for the 7.3 nm nanocrystal. In contrast, the obtained magnetic anisotropy in 20.2 nm nanocrystals slightly deviated to K 1 /11 due to less structural deformations. These findings resulted in a newly proposed methodology for an approximate simulation based on VNA–FMR measurements. In addition, this work estimates the approximate amount of nanocrystals needed to measure a useful VNA–FMR spectrum.

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

Material Characterization of Hierarchical Tunable Pore Size Polymer Foams Used in the MARBLE Mix Morphology Experiment

One of the great challenges of inertial confinement fusion and high energy density experiments is understanding the effects of mix on thermonuclear burn. The MARBLE campaign, conceived at Los Alamos National Laboratory, aims to gather new insights into this issue by utilizing unique target capsules containing polymer foams of variable pore sizes, tunable over an order of magnitude. Such capsules allow the degree of initial heterogeneity to be controlled experimentally for the first time. Here, we describe the various characterization efforts used to gain understanding of the chemical structure and behavior of the foam. Previous experiments were not sensitive to foam physical properties, and the MARBLE platform has aided in the development of techniques to measure foam properties such as deuterium content, density variation, hydrogen adsorption, and pore size and volume distribution.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Spectral gratings-based phase-contrast imaging for materials characterization

Spectral X-ray detectors provide a direct observation of the energy spectrum of a transmitted X-ray beam, both for typical and phase-contrast gratings-based systems. The sensitivity of a gratings-based X-ray system to small-angle deflections from a given particle size is dependent on X-ray energy. Therefore, spectral (energy-sensitive) detectors could be sensitive to particle size, even with a broad spectrum from a commercial X-ray generator. Furthermore, these detectors allow direct observation of how the X-ray spectrum is changing as the beam is passing through an object and gratings, and how this affects grating visibilities used to determine the presence of small-angle deflections. This is a particular issue for higher-energy systems where artifacts from beam hardening are common. We present results exploring the particle-size dependent signatures that are available from a spectral gratings-based phase-contrast X-ray imaging system, and the feasibility of observing them with lab-based, broad-spectrum X-ray generators.

Gilbert, Andrew J.↗