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Results for “Reversible computation”

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 559 records · Page 31
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2026

Space-Charge-Limited van der Waals Spin Transistor

Integrating semiconducting and magnetic materials could combine transistorlike operation with nonvolatility and enable architectures such as logic in memory. Here, in this work, we employ correlated electrical transport and scanning nitrogen-vacancy center magnetic imaging to elucidate a spin transistor concept that amalgamates vertical and lateral hopping transport inside a 2D antiferromagnetic semiconductor, mechanistically distinct from vertical tunneling devices. Our device, based on a monolayer-bilayer junction in CrSBr, displays giant, gate-tunable magnetoresistance driven by the dual action of electrostatic doping on space-charge-limited lateral conduction and interlayer exchange coupling. Moreover, we visualize a field-trainable, layer-sharing effect that selects between coherent or domain-wall reversal at the spin-flip transition, enabling multilevel, memristive conductance states. Our layer-dependent space charge mechanism for convergent electrical and magnetic control opens opportunities to address limitations in contemporary computing.

2-dimensional systems↗
NASA NTRS1976

The minimum drag of thin wings in frictionless flow

The assumptions of the thin airfoil theory are found to provide certain necessary conditions for the minimum drag of airfoils having a given total lift, a given maximum thickness, or a given volume. The conditions are applicable to steady or unsteady motions and to subsonic or supersonic speeds without restriction on the planform. The computation of drag and the statement of the conditions for minimum drag depend on the consideration of a combined flow field, which is obtained by superimposing the disturbance velocities in forward and reversed motions. If the planform of the airfoil and its total lift are given, it is found that, for minimum drag, the lift must be distributed in such a way that the downwash in the combined field is constant over the entire planform. If the planform is given and the thickness of the airfoil is required to contain a specified volume, then the thickness must be distributed over the planform in such a way that the pressure gradient of the combined field in the direction of flight is constant at all points of the wing.

Robert T. Jones↗
NASA NTRS1996

Wave Engine Topping Cycle Assessment

The performance benefits derived by topping a gas turbine engine with a wave engine are assessed. The wave engine is a wave rotor that produces shaft power by exploiting gas dynamic energy exchange and flow turning. The wave engine is added to the baseline turboshaft engine while keeping high-pressure-turbine inlet conditions, compressor pressure ratio, engine mass flow rate, and cooling flow fractions fixed. Related work has focused on topping with pressure-exchangers (i.e., wave rotors that provide pressure gain with zero net shaft power output); however, more energy can be added to a wave-engine-topped cycle leading to greater engine specific-power-enhancement The energy addition occurs at a lower pressure in the wave-engine-topped cycle; thus the specific-fuel-consumption-enhancement effected by ideal wave engine topping is slightly lower than that effected by ideal pressure-exchanger topping. At a component level, however, flow turning affords the wave engine a degree-of-freedom relative to the pressure-exchanger that enables a more efficient match with the baseline engine. In some cases, therefore, the SFC-enhancement by wave engine topping is greater than that by pressure-exchanger topping. An ideal wave-rotor-characteristic is used to identify key wave engine design parameters and to contrast the wave engine and pressure-exchanger topping approaches. An aerodynamic design procedure is described in which wave engine design-point performance levels are computed using a one-dimensional wave rotor model. Wave engines using various wave cycles are considered including two-port cycles with on-rotor combustion (valved-combustors) and reverse-flow and through-flow four-port cycles with heat addition in conventional burners. A through-flow wave cycle design with symmetric blading is used to assess engine performance benefits. The wave-engine-topped turboshaft engine produces 16% more power than does a pressure-exchanger-topped engine under the specified topping constraints. Positive and negative aspects of wave engine topping in gas turbine engines are identified.

Welch, Gerard E.↗
NASA NTRS2001

MHD Energy Bypass Scramjet Engine

Revolutionary rather than evolutionary changes in propulsion systems are most likely to decrease cost of space transportation and to provide a global range capability. Hypersonic air-breathing propulsion is a revolutionary propulsion system. The performance of scramjet engines can be improved by the AJAX energy management concept. A magneto-hydro-dynamics (MHD) generator controls the flow and extracts flow energy in the engine inlet and a MHD accelerator downstream of the combustor accelerates the nozzle flow. A progress report toward developing the MHD technology is presented herein. Recent theoretical efforts are reviewed and ongoing experimental efforts are discussed. The latter efforts also include an ongoing collaboration between NASA, the US Air Force Research Laboratory, US industry, and Russian scientific organizations. Two of the critical technologies, the ionization of the air and the MHD accelerator, are briefly discussed. Examples of limiting the combustor entrance Mach number to a low supersonic value with a MHD energy bypass scheme are presented, demonstrating an improvement in scramjet performance. The results for a simplified design of an aerospace plane show that the specific impulse of the MHD-bypass system is better than the non-MHD system and typical rocket over a narrow region of flight speeds and design parameters. Equilibrium ionization and non-equilibrium ionization are discussed. The thermodynamic condition of air at the entrance of the engine inlet determines the method of ionization. The required external power for non-equilibrium ionization is computed. There have been many experiments in which electrical power generation has successfully been achieved by magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) means. However, relatively few experiments have been made to date for the reverse case of achieving gas acceleration by the MHD means. An experiment in a shock tunnel is described in which MHD acceleration is investigated experimentally. MHD has several potential aerospace applications. The first is to improve the performance of hypersonic air-breathing engines for space launch and cruise vehicles. The second is to improve the performance of a high enthalpy wind tunnel. The third is to control a hypersonic vehicle. With such applications in mind, theoretical and experiments are being conducted at the NASA Ames Research Center to develop the MHD technology.

Mehta, Unmeel B.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Paleo-Pole Positions from Martian Magnetic Anomaly Data

Magnetic component anomaly maps were made from five mapping cycles of the Mars Global Surveyor's magnetometer data. Our goal was to find and isolate positive and negative anomaly pairs which would indicate magnetization of a single source body. From these anomalies we could compute the direction of the magnetizing vector and subsequently the location of the magnetic pole existing at the time of magnetization. We found nine suitable anomaly pairs and from these we computed paleo-poles that were nearly equally divided between north, south and mid-latitudes. These results suggest that during the existence of the martian main magnetic field it experienced several reversals and excursions.

Frawley, James J.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Quantum Neural Nets

The capacity of classical neurocomputers is limited by the number of classical degrees of freedom which is roughly proportional to the size of the computer. By Contrast, a Hypothetical quantum neurocomputer can implement an exponentially large number of the degrees of freedom within the same size. In this paper an attempt is made to reconcile linear reversible structure of quantum evolution with nonlinear irreversible dynamics for neural nets.

Quantum Neural nets↗
NASA NTRS2006

Evaluating the Performance of the NASA LaRC CMF Motion Base Safety Devices

This paper describes the initial measured performance results of the previously documented NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) Cockpit Motion Facility (CMF) motion base hardware safety devices. These safety systems are required to prevent excessive accelerations that could injure personnel and damage simulator cockpits or the motion base structure. Excessive accelerations may be caused by erroneous commands or hardware failures driving an actuator to the end of its travel at high velocity, stepping a servo valve, or instantly reversing servo direction. Such commands may result from single order failures of electrical or hydraulic components within the control system itself, or from aggressive or improper cueing commands from the host simulation computer. The safety systems must mitigate these high acceleration events while minimizing the negative performance impacts. The system accomplishes this by controlling the rate of change of valve signals to limit excessive commanded accelerations. It also aids hydraulic cushion performance by limiting valve command authority as the actuator approaches its end of travel. The design takes advantage of inherent motion base hydraulic characteristics to implement all safety features using hardware only solutions.

Gupton, Lawrence E.↗
DOE OSTI2019

Dust survival rates in clumps passing through the Cas A reverse shock – I. Results for a range of clump densities

ABSTRACT The reverse shock in the ejecta of core-collapse supernovae is potentially able to destroy newly formed dust material. In order to determine dust survival rates, we have performed a set of hydrodynamic simulations using the grid-based code astrobear in order to model a shock wave interacting with clumpy supernova ejecta. Dust motions and destruction rates were computed using our newly developed external, post-processing code paperboats, which includes gas drag, grain charging, sputtering, and grain–grain collisions. We have determined dust destruction rates for the oxygen-rich supernova remnant Cassiopeia A as a function of initial grain sizes and clump gas density. We found that up to $30\,\mathrm{{{\ \rm per\ cent}}}$ of the carbon dust mass is able to survive the passage of the reverse shock if the initial grain size distribution is narrow with radii around ∼10–50 nm for high gas densities, or with radii around $\sim 0.5\!-\!1.5\,\mathrm{\mu m}$ for low and medium gas densities. Silicate grains with initial radii around 10–30 nm show survival rates of up to $40\,\mathrm{{{\ \rm per\ cent}}}$ for medium- and high-density contrasts, while silicate material with micron-sized distributions is mostly destroyed. For both materials, the surviving dust mass is rearranged into a new size distribution that can be approximated by two components: a power-law distribution of small grains and a lognormal distribution of grains having the same size range as the initial distribution. Our results show that grain–grain collisions and sputtering are synergistic and that grain–grain collisions can play a crucial role in determining the surviving dust budget in supernova remnants.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Electric-field-induced crossover of polarization reversal mechanisms in Al 1–x Sc x N ferroelectrics

Scandium-doped aluminum nitride, Al 1–x Sc x N, represents a new class of displacive ferroelectric materials with high polarization and sharp hysteresis along with high-temperature resilience, facile synthesizability and compatibility with standard CMOS fabrication techniques. The fundamental physics behind the transformation of unswitchable piezoelectric AlN into switchable Al–Sc–N ferroelectrics depends upon important atomic properties such as local structure, dopant distributions and the presence of competing mechanism of polarization switching in the presence of an applied electric-field that have not been understood. We computationally synthesize Al 1–x Sc x N to quantify the inhomogeneity of Sc distribution and phase segregation, and characterize its crystal and electronic structure as a function of Sc-doping. Nudged elastic band calculations of the potential energy surface and quantum molecular dynamics simulations of direct electric-field-driven ferroelectric switching reveal a crossover between two polarization reversal mechanisms—inhomogeneous nucleation-and-growth mechanism originating near Sc-rich regions in the limit of low applied fields and nucleation-limited-switching in the high-field regime. Finally, understanding polarization reversal pathways for these two mechanisms as well as the role of local Sc concentration on activation barriers provides design rules to identify other combinations of dopant elements, such as Zr, Mg etc. to synthesize superior AlN-based ferroelectric materials.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Electric field reversals resulting from voltage waveform tailoring in Ar/O 2 capacitively coupled plasmas sustained in asymmetric systems

The etching of nanometer scale high-aspect-ratio (HAR) features into dielectric materials in low pressure radio frequency excited plasmas is often accompanied by charge accumulation inside the features which can slow etching rates and produce distortions such as twisting. The intra feature charging is at least partially produced by differences in electron and ion energy and angular distributions (EADs). Positive ions, accelerated to high energies having narrow angular spreads by the sheath electric field, can penetrate deeply into HAR features. Electrons typically arrive at the wafer with nearly thermal and isotropic distributions and do not penetrate deeply into HAR features. These disparities lead to differential charging of the inside of the feature, which can lead to reductions in etch rate and feature distortion due to ion deflection. With in-creasing aspect ratio of features, charging challenges are expected to continue for the foreseeable future. In this work, the use of tailored voltage waveforms in geometrically asymmetric capacitively coupled plasmas sustained in Ar/O 2 at 40 mTorr was computationally investigated with the goal of shaping the EAD of electrons incident onto the substrate to address differential charging. The tailored waveform consisted of a sinusoidal wave and its higher harmonics with a fundamental frequency of 1 MHz. Further, we found that electric field reversals in the sheath and presheath can occur during the anodic portion of the cycle. The electric field reversal increases the energy and decreases the angular spread of electrons incident onto the substrate. The magnitude of the electric field reversal can be controlled by the phase angle of the even harmonics and the gas composition. Due to its electronegative nature, increasing mole fractions of O 2 impedes electron transport to the surface which further increases the electric field reversal.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
NASA NTRS1982

IUE observations of Si and C lines and comparison with non-LTE models

Classical model atmosphere techniques are applied to analyze IUE spectra, and to determine abundances, effective temperatures and gravities. Measurements of the equivalent widths and other properties of the line profiles of 24 photospheric lines of Si II, Si III, Si IV, C II, C III and C IV are presented in the range of 1175-1725 A for seven B and two O stars. Observed line profiles are compared with theoretical profiles computed using non-LTE theory and models, and using line-blanketed model atmospheres. Agreement is reasonably good, although strong lines are calculated to be systematically stronger than those observed, while the reverse occurs for weak lines, and empirical profiles have smaller wings than theoretical profiles. It is concluded that the present theory of line formation when used with solar abundances, represents fairly well observed UV photospheric lines of silicon and carbon ions in the atmospheres of main sequence stars of types B5-O9.

Kamp, L. W.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Navier-Stokes analysis of two- and three-dimensional flow field in solid rocket motors with segment joints

A multidimensional implicit Navier-Stokes analysis which uses numerical solution of ensemble-averaged Navier-Stokes equations in a nonorthogonal bodyfitted cylindrical-polar coordinate system has been applied to simulation of the internal flow field in solid-propellant rocket motor chambers with segment joints. The calculation procedure incorporates a two-equation (k-epsilon) turbulence model and utilizes a consistently split, linearized block-implicit algorithm for numerical solution of the governing equations. Computations performed to simulate the axisymmetric flow field in the vicinity of the aft field joint in the Space Shuttle SRB using 14,725 grid points show the presence of a region of reversed axial flow near the downstream edge of the slot. Calculations were also performed for two cases involving asymmetric three-dimensional flow in the vicinity of the aft field joint in the SRB using 721,525 grid points to estimate circumferential velocities and pressure gradients at the joint.

Sabnis, J. S.↗
DOE OSTI2022

Preventing Reverse Engineering of Critical Industrial Data with DIOD

Business analytics augmented by artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) have revolutionized the role of data in the modern world. In recent years, businesses have incorporated data into their decision-making process for better prediction, risk-assessment, content creation, etc. While such businesses often seek to leverage the full use of their data through third-party AI/ML services, they are often hampered by the risks of data leaks, reverse-engineering, stolen technology, etc. that often have disastrous consequences for businesses and their stakeholders alike. Thus, there arises a need for data masking prior to its transmission that obfuscates proprietary information while preserving the information relevant for AI/ML applications. In order to meet the needs of industrial data which are significantly different from those of data warehouses, previous work proposed an efficient time and space-scalable data masking paradigm known as the deceptive infusion of data (DIOD) methodology. The present work expands upon this work by leveraging existing reverse-engineering capabilities to facilitate the decomposition of industrial data into its proprietary and AI/ML-relevant parts, referred to as fundamental and inference metadata respectively. Both sets of metadata are further obfuscated in accordance with the DIOD methodology to create the DIOD rendition of the industrial data, which is rendered immune to reverse-engineering by discarding proprietary information and only preserving AI/ML-relevant information. Additionally, constraints of the original DIOD manuscript are relaxed using mutual information by configuring the methodology to the target AI/ML application to unlock the full potential of the DIOD methodology. As an example, data from a nuclear reactor is transformed into that from a nonlinear spring-mass system with different levels of data masking as required by the generic system and the target application.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
NASA NTRS1982

Improving the computer-human interface: The qualitative monitor display

A technique for displaying the information needed by DSN operators for monitoring station performance is described. Known as a 'qualitative monitor,' it presents continuous variables in quasi-analog form on a digital cathode ray tube (CRT) display. Color changes, field reverses and blinking symbols assist the operator in identifying variables that are within acceptable limits and in performing corrective action when needed.

Baugh, H. W.↗
DOE OSTI2021

Santa Barbara Desalination Digital Twin Technical Report

A digital twin is a computer model that has sufficient breadth and fidelity to enable diagnostic and predictive analyses for outputs of interest. We have constructed a digital twin of the SB desal plant using the ProteusLib software developed for NAWI under task 4.2.2, and specifically the ProteusLib models of pumps, filters, mixers, splitters, and reverse osmosis units and a seawater property model. The steps needed to configure this digital twin with the real conditions of the SB desal plant are: (1) Data reconciliation, which is gathering the data and plant connectivity and ensure that all relevant values are present and in the correct units and validating the data using material and energy balances, and correct for errors, gaps, or deviations; (2) Parameter estimation, which is matching model parameters with data from previous step, filling missing parameters with initial estimates, then iteratively refining estimated values. Once we completed the digital twin, we used the optimization capabilities of ProteusLib to compute outputs of interest over a chosen range of inputs. The primary output of interest to the owners of the plant is its specific energy consumption (kWh/acre-foot). The remainder of this report will provide more detail on the data reconciliation, parameter estimation, and analyses we performed.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2021

Integrability, normal forms, and magnetic axis coordinates

Integrable or near-integrable magnetic fields are prominent in the design of plasma confinement devices. Such a field is characterized by the existence of a singular foliation entirely consisting of invariant submanifolds. A compact regular leaf (a flux surface) of this foliation must be diffeomorphic to the two-torus. In a neighborhood of a flux surface, it is known that the magnetic field admits several exact smooth normal forms in which the field lines are straight. However, these normal forms break down near singular leaves, including elliptic and hyperbolic magnetic axes. In this work, the existence of exact smooth normal forms for integrable magnetic fields near elliptic and hyperbolic magnetic axes is established. In the elliptic case, smooth near-axis Hamada and Boozer coordinates are defined and constructed. Ultimately, these results establish previously conjectured smoothness properties for smooth solutions of the magnetohydrodynamic equilibrium equations. The key arguments are a consequence of a geometric reframing of integrability and magnetic fields: they are presymplectic systems.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2020

A Hierarchical Volt-var Optimization with Discrete Variables in Unbalanced Distribution Systems

This paper proposes a framework to determine the optimal active and reactive power dispatch of distributed photovoltaic (PV) generation, switched capacitors, and voltage regulators in multi-phase unbalanced distribution systems. The objectives of the optimal dispatch are minimization of the energy loss, PV real power curtailment, and switching operations of capacitors and voltage regulators, in addition to elimination of voltage violation and reverse power flow. The optimization problem is formulated in rectangular coordinates as a nonlinear, nonconvex problem with discrete variables. A hierarchical twostage framework is proposed to effectively handle those discrete variables and reduce the computational time compared to the unified approach in which all variables are solved simultaneously. The efficacy of the proposed approach and the accuracy of the obtained numerical solution is validated using the unbalanced multi-phase IEEE 34-bus with 15-minute load and PV data.

Nguyen, Quan H.↗
DOE OSTI2019

Scalable Polymer Precursor Based LiPON Type Li-Metal Interface Enabled High Performance Li-Sulfur Battery

The Battery 500 program objective is to research, develop, and demonstrate lithium battery technologies capable of achieving 500 Wh/kg with stable lifetime of 1000 cycles. This Battery 500 seedlings project has demonstrated a new approach and a pathway toward the program’s goals in just one awarded and executed phase. Cells have been assembled, tested, and evaluated. This report details efforts to develop polymer precursor electrolytes that offer properties anticipated to be similar or superior to LiPON glasses. Such precursors offer the potential to be used to process LiPON-like thin glass/ceramic coatings for use in lithium batteries. LiPON glasses provide a design basis for the synthesis of sets of oligomers/polymers by lithiation of OP(NH 2 ) 3-x (NH) x [from OP(NH) 3 ], OP(NH 2 ) 3-x (NHSiMe 3 ) x and [P=N] 3 (NHSiMe 3 ) 6-x (NH) x . Polymer electrolytes impregnated in/on celgard exhibit Li+ conductivities up to ~1×10 -5 S/cm at room temperature and are thermally stable to ≈150 °C. A Li-S battery assembled using a Li 6 SiPON composition polymer electrolyte exhibits an initial reversible capacity of 1500 mAh/g sulfur and excellent cycle performance at 0.25 and 0.5 C rate over 120 cycles, declining to 750 mAh/g at after a 220 h test period. At the same time, computational studies were performed to understand the conduction mechanism of LIPON and its interaction with Li metal. These initial project results provide a foundation for further development of the system to achieve the program goal.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗