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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
NASA NTRS2008

Adsorption of Water on JSC-1A Lunar Simulant Samples

Remote sensing probes sent to the moon in the 1990s indicated that water may exist in areas such as the bottoms of deep, permanently shadowed craters at the lunar poles, buried under regolith. Water is of paramount importance for any lunar exploration and colonization project which would require self-sustainable systems. Therefore, investigating the interaction of water with lunar regolith is pertinent to future exploration. The lunar environment can be approximated in ultra-high vacuum systems such as those used in thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS). Questions about water dissociation, surface wetting, degree of crystallization, details of water-ice transitions, and cluster formation kinetics can be addressed by TDS. Lunar regolith specimens collected during the Apollo missions are still available though precious, so testing with simulant is required before applying to use lunar regolith samples. Hence, we used for these studies JSC-1a, mostly an aluminosilicate glass and basaltic material containing substantial amounts of plagioclase, some olivine and traces of other minerals. Objectives of this project include: 1) Manufacturing samples using as little raw material as possible, allowing the use of surface chemistry and kinetics tools to determine the feasibility of parallel studies on regolith, and 2) Characterizing the adsorption kinetics of water on the regolith simulant. This has implications for the probability of finding water on the moon and, if present, for recovery techniques. For condensed water films, complex TDS data were obtained containing multiple features, which are related to subtle rearrangements of the water adlayer. Results from JSC-1a TDS studies indicate: 1) Water dissociation on JSC-1a at low exposures, with features detected at temperatures as high as 450 K and 2) The formation of 3D water clusters and a rather porous condensed water film. It appears plausible that the sub- m sized particles act as nucleation centers.

Goering, John↗
DOE OSTI2014

Application of the TITAN Hybrid Deterministic Transport Code to Medical Physics - Paper 118

The TITAN code is a 3-dimensional parallel deterministic transport code that solves the linear Boltzmann equation. The TITAN code has hybrid algorithms that are ideal for medical physics applications: i) SN and characteristics method and ii) SN with a fictitious quadrature set and ray-tracing. These hybrid algorithms have been used in the simulation of computed tomography (CT) and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) In this paper, the hybrid algorithms developed for medical physics applications in the TITAN code are discussed. First, the TITAN code's block-oriented approach for utilizing SN and characteristic solvers for CT is presented and results for a simple test case are given. Second, the paper describes a hybrid formulation for SPECT with an SN solver in the phantom, a fictitious quadrature set for directions from the phantom surface passing through the collimator, and a simplified ray-tracing algorithm for particle transport to the detector. Finally, ongoing work is described and concluding remarks are given. The TITAN code's hybrid algorithms allow it to efficiently solve problems with low-scatter regions, which are frequently found in medical physics applications. The TITAN code has been used to solve a simplified CT problem and generate projection images for SPECT simulations. The WCOS technique was developed to improve the TITAN code's collimator representation. For these applications, the TITAN code was shown to require significantly less computation time than MCNP5. Work is currently underway to implement an iterative image reconstruction algorithm in the TITAN code. A script that calls the TITAN code to complete the forward projection step in SPECT has already been used to reconstruction a 2-dimensional phantom. The ability of TITAN to fully model particle transport in the patient in short computation times is expected to be a great advantage to iterative reconstruction. (authors)

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Iso-uncertainty control in an experimental fluoroscopy system

Purpose: X-ray fluoroscopy remains an important imaging modality in a number of image-guided procedures due to its real-time nature and excellent spatial detail. However, the radiation dose delivered raises concerns about its use particularly in lengthy treatment procedures (>0.5 h). The authors have previously presented an algorithm that employs feedback of geometric uncertainty to control dose while maintaining a desired targeting uncertainty during fluoroscopic tracking of fiducials. The method was tested using simulations of motion against controlled noise fields. In this paper, the authors embody the previously reported method in a physical prototype and present changes to the controller required to function in a practical setting. Methods: The metric for feedback used in this study is based on the trace of the covariance of the state of the system, tr(C). The state is defined here as the 2D location of a fiducial on a plane parallel to the detector. A relationship between this metric and the tube current is first developed empirically. This relationship is extended to create a manifold that incorporates a latent variable representing the estimated background attenuation. The manifold is then used within the controller to dynamically adjust the tube current and maintain a specified targeting uncertainty. To evaluate the performance of the proposed method, an acrylic sphere (1.6 mm in diameter) was tracked at tube currents ranging from 0.5 to 0.9 mA (0.033 s) at a fixed energy of 80 kVp. The images were acquired on a Varian Paxscan 4030A (2048 × 1536 pixels, ∼100 cm source-to-axis distance, ∼160 cm source-to-detector distance). The sphere was tracked using a particle filter under two background conditions: (1) uniform sheets of acrylic and (2) an acrylic wedge. The measured tr(C) was used in conjunction with a learned manifold to modulate the tube current in order to maintain a specified uncertainty as the sphere traversed regions of varying thickness corresponding to the acrylic sheets in the background. Results: With feedback engaged, the tracking error was found to correlate well with the specified targeting uncertainty. Tracking of the fiducial was found to be robust to changes in the attenuation presented by the varying background conditions. For a desired uncertainty of 5.0 mm, comparison of the feedback framework with a comparable system employing fixed exposure demonstrated dose savings of 29%. Conclusions: This work presents a relation between a state descriptor, tr(C), the x-ray tube current used, and an estimate of the background attenuation. This relation is leveraged to modulate the tube current in order to maintain a desired geometric uncertainty during fluoroscopy. The authors’ work demonstrates the use of the method in a real x-ray fluoroscopy system with physical motion against varying backgrounds. The method offers potential savings in imaging dose to patients and staff while maintaining tracking uncertainty during fluoroscopy-guided treatment procedures.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS1999

Bidirectional Reflectance of a Macroscopically Flat, High-Albedo Particulate Surface: An Efficient Radiative Transfer Solution and Applications to Regoliths

Many remote sensing applications rely on accurate knowledge of the bidirectional reflection function (BRF) of surfaces composed of discrete, randomly positioned scattering particles. Theoretical computations of BRFs for plane-parallel particulate layers are usually reduced to solving the radiative transfer equation (RTE) using one of existing exact or approximate techniques. Since semi-empirical approximate approaches are notorious for their low accuracy, violation of the energy conservation law, and ability to produce unphysical results, the use of numerically exact solutions of RTE has gained justified popularity. For example, the computation of BRFs for macroscopically flat particulate surfaces in many geophysical publications is based on the adding-doubling (AD) and discrete ordinate (DO) methods. A further saving of computer resources can be achieved by using a more efficient technique to solve the plane-parallel RTE than the AD and DO methods. Since many natural particulate surfaces can be well represented by the model of an optically semi-infinite, homogeneous scattering layer, one can find the BRF directly by solving the Ambartsumian's nonlinear integral equation using a simple iterative technique. In this way, the computation of the internal radiation field is avoided and the computer code becomes highly efficient and very accurate and compact. Furthermore, the BRF thus obtained fully obeys the fundamental physical laws of energy conservation and reciprocity. In this paper, we discuss numerical aspects and the computer implementation of this technique, examine the applicability of the Henyey-Greenstein phase function and the sigma-Eddington approximation in BRF and flux calculations, and describe sample applications demonstrating the potential effect of particle shape on the bidirectional reflectance of flat regolith surfaces. Although the effects of packing density and coherent backscattering are currently neglected, they can also be incorporated. The FORTRAN implementation of the technique is available on the World Wide Web, and can be applied to a wide range of remote sensing problems. BRF computations for undulated (macroscopically rough) surfaces are more complicated and often rely on time consuming Monte Carlo procedures. This approach is especially inefficient for optically thick, weakly absorbing media (e.g., snow and desert surfaces at visible wavelengths since a photon may undergo many internal scattering events before it exists the medium or is absorbed. However, undulated surfaces can often be represented as collections of locally flat tilted facets characterized by the BRF found from the traditional plane parallel RTE. In this way the MOnte Carlo procedure could be used only to evaluate the effects of surface shadowing and multiple surface reflections, thereby bypassing the time-consuming ray tracing inside the medium and providing a great savings of CPU time.

Mishchenko, Michael I.↗
NASA NTRS2012

A Tracking Sun Photometer Without Moving Parts

This innovation is small, lightweight, and consumes very little electricity as it measures the solar energy attenuated by gases and aerosol particles in the atmosphere. A Sun photometer is commonly used on the Earth's surface, as well as on aircraft, to determine the solar energy attenuated by aerosol particles in the atmosphere and their distribution of sizes. This information is used to determine the spatial and temporal distribution of gases and aerosols in the atmosphere, as well as their distribution sizes. The design for this Sun photometer uses a combination of unique optics and a charge coupled device (CCD) array to eliminate moving parts and make the instrument more reliable. It could be selfcalibrating throughout the year. Data products would be down-welling flux, the direct-diffuse flux ratio, column abundance of gas phase constituents, aerosol optical depth at multiple-wavelengths, phase functions, cloud statistics, and an estimate of the representative size of atmospheric particles. These measurements can be used to obtain an estimate of aerosol size distribution, refractive index, and particle shape. Incident light is received at a light-reflecting (inner) surface, which is a truncated paraboloid. Light arriving from a hemispheric field of view (solid angle 2 steradians) enters the reflecting optic at an entrance aperture at, or adjacent to, the focus of the paraboloid, and is captured by the optic. Most of this light is reflected from an inner surface. The light proceeds substantially parallel to the paraboloid axis, and is detected by an array detector located near an exit aperture. Each of the entrance and exit apertures is formed by the intersection of the paraboloid with a plane substantially perpendicular to the paraboloid axis. Incident (non-reflected) light from a source of limited extent (the Sun) illuminates a limited area on the detector array. Both direct and diffuse illumination may be reflected, or not reflected, before being received on the detector array. As the Sun traverses a path in the sky over some time interval, the track of the Sun can be traced on the detector array. A suitably modified Sun photometer might be used to study the dynamics of an environment on another planet or satellite with an atmosphere.

Strawa, Anthony W.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Hybrid Solar System (Final Scientific/Technical Report)

GTI Energy (GTI) teamed with the University of California at Merced (UCM) to scaleup the hybrid solar system (HSS) technology for demonstrating its performance at the US Gypsum (USG) plant in Plaster City, California. The technology integrates two-stage concentrating solar collector with matching particle thermal transport and storage (TSS) system to deliver cost-effective, and on-demand distributed high temperature industrial process heat up to 600°C with solar thermal, in this case to a gypsum kettle, to reduce its fuel use and carbon footprint. Current solar technologies, which reach these temperatures, are not distributable (towers) or cost-effective (dish). The research team developed a conceptual system design for host site retrofit, including preliminary heat balance, process flow diagram, particle to process heat exchanger and equipment placements at the site. Subsequently, parallel efforts were carried out at UCM to design, build and test a 12 m long commercial scale prototype concentrating thermal-only collector system and at GTI to design, build and test a matching 650°C capable particle TTS system. The nominal 50 kWth collector consists of a parabolic trough and three 4 m long two-stage receivers in series. Prior to on-sun testing, a 4 m long receiver was fabricated and successfully tested at 650 °C in a laboratory setting for 100 hrs of continuous operation showing less than 15% radiation loss. A 7 m wide x 17 m long parabolic trough was then installed at UCM for on-sun testing of the 12 m long receiver, and concurrently several 4 m long receivers were built. The optics of the parabolic trough were calibrated, and on-sun test were carried out on 12 m long receivers. During tests, the intense solar radiation (53x) caused the absorber tubes in the receivers to bend, reducing the overall optical efficiency. To address the bending issue, a self-consistent algorithm that includes ray tracing, thermal and deformation models was developed to perform thermal stress analysis on absorbers for parabolic solar collectors. Results obtained with this algorithm showed a dramatic rise in deformation as absorber tube length increases. A combined efficiency parameter that includes the occluded area for the mounts was developed to obtain an optimized tube length obtained. Based on the results, a length of 2.7 m for the absorber + 0.2 m for the coupler was chosen to minimize any bending and optimize optical efficiency while maintaining ease of mounting. The associated particle TTS system was designed, built and successfully tested at GTI. It includes storage, receiving and lock hoppers and piping that simulates the transfer of captured solar energy to an actual industrial furnace. Tests over 77 charge-discharge cycles demonstrated <2% particle degradation, with no problematic particle accumulations and no flow interruptions. The piping pressure drop was about 5 psi. The team also worked with Stanley Consultants (Stanley) to prepare conceptual and preliminary engineering packages to facilitate follow-on development and commercialization efforts. These include process and instrumentation diagram’s (P&ID’s), general arrangements, electrical one-line, project definitions document, equipment data sheets, schedule, and construction cost estimate for 2 MWth system. Updated HSS technology commercialization and customer engagement plans and detailed costs and evaluated market trade-offs and manufacturing.

03 NATURAL GAS↗
NASA NTRS2014

Energetic Electrons in Dipolarization Events: Spatial Properties and Anisotropy

Using the electromagnetic fields of an MHD simulation of magnetotail reconnection, flow bursts, and dipolarization, we further investigate the acceleration of electrons to suprathermal energies. Particular emphasis is on spatial properties and anisotropies as functions of energy and time. The simulation results are compared with Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms observations. The test particle approach successfully reproduces several observed injection features and puts them into a context of spatial maps of the injection region(s): a dominance of perpendicular anisotropies farther down the tail and closer to the equatorial plane, an increasing importance of parallel anisotropy closer to Earth and at higher latitudes, a drop in energy fluxes at energies below approximately 10 keV, coinciding with the plasma density drop, together with increases at higher energy, a triple peak structure of flux increases near 0 deg, 90 deg, and 180 deg, and a tendency of flux increases to extend to higher energy closer to Earth and at lower latitudes. We identified the plasma sheet boundary layers and adjacent lobes as a main source region for both increased and decreased energetic electron fluxes, related to the different effects of adiabatic acceleration at high and low energies. The simulated anisotropies tend to exceed the observed ones, particularly for perpendicular fluxes at high energies. The most plausible reason is that the MHD simulation lacks the effects of anisotropy-driven microinstabilities and waves, which would reduce anisotropies.

anisotropy↗
NASA NTRS2000

Indicator Devices for Detection of Trace Gaseous Hydrazines

The relatively recent decrease in the acceptable time-weighted-average for hydrazines from 100 parts-per-billion (ppb) to 10 ppb rendered many trace hydrazine detectors either insensitive or inaccurate. Development of a rapid detection method for hydrazines at the new 10-ppb concentration was necessary so that test area personnel could reliably assess airborne hydrazines concentrations of a potentially contaminated area prior to entry. The reduction of Au(III) to Au(0) by hydrazines is a well characterized reaction and application of the corresponding yellow to purple color change was selected as a potentially useful means for detection of trace hydrazines in air. Tests with small quantities of KAuCl4 deposited on a variety of substrates were conducted using verified sources of 1,1-dimethylhydrazine, methylhydrazine, and hydrazine at approximately 10 ppb in air. Substrates tested were glass fiber filter paper, glass beads, anion exchange resin (AuCl4- form), and diatomaceous earth. The most successful of these substrates were glass fiber filter paper and diatomaceous earth. The KAuC14 impregnated glass fiber filter paper appeared to be somewhat light sensitive so further tests were conducted using the diatomaceous earth substrate. KAuCl4 concentration, substrate particle size, and sampler configuration were evaluated. Based on these tests, the device selected for further evaluation was a 5mm OD by 50mm glass tube containing 0.02-0.03g of 45/60 mesh diatomaceous earth coated with 2 percent KAuCl4. When connected to a sampling pump, response of the device to changes in relative humidity, ambient light, and high levels of other fluids, which might also be found in a propellant test area, was evaluated. False positive responses were not detected for exposures to relative humidity changes from 10 to 80 percent, sunlight for greater than 10 minutes, or percent levels of ammonia, isopropyl alcohol, nitrogen dioxide, and hydrogen. In addition, body emissions did not produce a false positive response in view of potential application for use inside protective clothing. The device was shown to reliably detect less than 10 ppb of the hydrazines tested using a 10 to 20L sample followed by a 2 to 5 minute color development time. Some field tests were conducted in parallel with conventional acidic firebrick sorbent tubes. There was generally very good agreement between the devices and firebrick sorbent tubes when greater than 10 ppb of a hydrazine was present.

Dee, Lou A.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Force Balance and Substorm Effects in the Magnetotail

A model of the quiet time middle magnetotail is developed using a consistent orbit tracing technique. The momentum equation is used to calculate geocentric solar magnetospheric components of the particle and electromagnetic forces throughout the current sheet. Ions generate the dominant x and z force components. Electron and ion forces almost cancel in the y direction because the two species drift earthward at comparable speeds. The force viewpoint is applied to a study of some substorm processes. Generation of the rapid flows seen during substorm injection and bursty bulk flow events implies substantial force imbalances. The formation of a substorm diversion loop is one cause of changes in the magnetic field and therefore in the electromagnetic force. It is found that larger forces are produced when the cross-tail current is diverted to the ionosphere than would be produced if the entire tail current system simply decreased. Plasma is accelerated while the forces are unbalanced resulting in field lines within a diversion loop becoming more dipolar. Field lines become more stretched and the plasma sheet becomes thinner outside a diversion loop. Mechanisms that require thin current sheets to produce current disruption then can create additional diversion loops in the newly thinned regions. This process may be important during multiple expansion substorms and in differentiating pseudoexpansions from full substorms. It is found that the tail field model used here can be generated by a variety of particle distribution functions. However, for a given energy distribution the mixture of particle mirror or reflection points is constrained by the consistency requirement. The study of uniqueness also leads to the development of a technique to select guiding center electrons that will produce charge neutrality all along a flux tube containing nonguiding center ions without the imposition of a parallel electric field.

Kaufmann, Richard L.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Bounce-Averaged Hamiltonian for Charged Particles in an Axisymmetric but Nondipolar Model Magnetosphere

In order to facilitate bounce-averaged guiding center simulations of geomagnetically trapped particles, we express the kinetic energy of a particle with magnetic coordinates (L,phi) as an analytic function of the first two adiabatic invariants (M, J) and the L value of the field line. The magnetic field model is axisymmetric, consisting of a dipolar B field plus a uniform southward magnetic field parallel to the dipole moment mu(sub E). This model magnetosphere is surrounded by a circular equatorial neutral line whose radius b is an adjustable parameter. The L value of a field line is (by definition) inversely proportional to the flux enclosed by the corresponding magnetic shell of equatorial radius r(sub 0), and the L value at the neutral line (r(sub 0) = b) is denoted L*. The azimuthal coordinate phi measures magnetic local time. The best functional representation found for the normalized difference (L(exp 3)a(exp 3)/mu(sub E))(B(sub m) - B(sub 0)) between mirror-point field B(sub m) and equatorial field B(sub 0) along any field line is a 5-term expansion in powers (2/3 through 6/3) of the quantity X equivalent to (La/mu(sub E))(exp 1/2)K, where K equivalent to (J(exp 2)/8m(sub 0)M)(exp 1/2) is an adiabatically conserved quantity independent of particle energy, m(sub 0) is the rest mass of the particle, and a is the radius of the Earth. This functional form is motivated by results for limiting cases in which particles mirror very near and very far from the magnetic equator. Expansion coefficients corresponding to various powers of X are obtained from least squares fits to numerically computed results for X as a function of L and B(sub m). These are accurately expressible as fourth-order polynomials in (r(sub 0)/b)(exp 3), hence indirectly as functions of L/L* = 3La/2b. This representation, which leads (except for a manageably small region of parameter space) to better than 1% accuracy in the specification of B(sub m) as a function of K and L, allows bounce-averaged guiding center simulations to be performed without actually tracing the bounce motions of individual particles. Bounce-averaged drifts L' (meridional) and phi' (azimuthal) are proportional to derivatives of the Hamiltonian H (sum of kinetic and potential energies) with respect to phi and L, respectively. Our formulation thus provides a computationally efficient method for tracing the bounce-averaged adiabatic motion (conserving all three invariants) and nonadiabatic transport (violating the third invariant while conserving the first two invariants) of geomagnetically trapped particles in the model magnetosphere.

Schulz, Michael↗