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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 577 records · Page 32
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2019

Bound and mobile soil water isotope ratios are affected by soil texture and mineralogy, whereas extraction method influences their measurement

Questions persist about interpreting isotope ratios of bound and mobile soil water pools, particularly relative to clay content and extraction conditions. Interactions between pools and resulting extracted water isotope composition are presumably related to soil texture, yet few studies have manipulated the bound pool to understand its influence on soil water processes. Using a series of drying and spiking experiments, we effectively labelled bound and mobile water pools in soils with varying clay content. Soils were first vacuum dried to remove residual water, which was then replaced with heavy isotope-enriched water prior to oven drying and spiking with heavy isotope-depleted water. Water was extracted via centrifugation or cryogenic vacuum distillation (at four temperatures) and analysed for oxygen and hydrogen isotope ratios via isotope ratio mass spectrometry. Water from centrifuged samples fell along a mixing line between the two added waters but was more enriched in heavy isotopes than the depleted label, demonstrating that despite oven drying, a residual pool remains and mixes with the mobile water. Soils with higher clay + silt content appeared to have a larger bound pool. Water from vacuum distillation samples have a significant temperature effect, with high temperature extractions yielding progressively more heavy isotope-enriched values, suggesting that Rayleigh fractionation occurred at low temperatures in the vacuum line. By distinctly labelling bound and mobile soil water pools, we detected interactions between the two that were dependent on soil texture. Although neither extraction method appeared to completely extract the combined bound and mobile (total water) pool, centrifugation and high temperature cryogenic vacuum distillations were comparable for both δ 2 H and δ 18 O of soil water isotope ratios.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Soil water percolation and nutrient fluxes as a function of topographical, seasonal and soil texture variation in Central Amazonia, Brazil

Abstract Understanding soil water dynamics and transport of nutrients is challenging in tropical rainforests due to the uniqueness of several properties related to soils, vegetation and seasonality that make relating patterns found in temperate environments to tropical sites difficult. We address the need for better edaphic characterization in tropical environments by investigating soil water percolation rates and chemistry across topographic, soil texture and seasonal gradients in a mature tropical rainforest in Central Amazonia, Brazil. We utilized a passive wick flux meter (e.g., drainage lysimeter) to directly measure real‐time percolation fluxes at 60‐cm depth, and to sample a suite of chemical species across plateau, slope and valley topographic positions. We found percolation flux volume and chemical exports generally increase with decreasing elevation and clay content, which was lowest in the valley. Daily percolation flux was observed to be 2.39 ± 0.44 in plateau, 3.01 ± 0.50 in slope and 6.16 ± 0.83 mm in valley. Most solutes were present in small amounts of <1 mg L −1 , such as PO₄ 3− , Fe 2+ /Fe 3+ and Mn 2+ ; however, NO 3 − concentrations were >20 mg L −1 , even exceeding 100 mg L −1 in the valley. Based on additional isotopic analysis, we speculate high NO 3 − concentrations are partially an artefact of root decomposition following installation of the flux meters. The empirical relationships we show among percolation volume and nutrient exports under varying topographies and soil textures can improve Earth System Model performance by better constraining ecohydrological relationships to nutrient fluxes, which can in‐turn better illuminate the important factors that govern their behaviour.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

Nanopinhole-Enabled, Hole-Selective Poly-Si/SioxNy Passivating Contacts on Textured c-Si for Si Solar Cells

The next-generation silicon photovoltaics will be based on passivating electron- and hole-selective contacts with both very low interface recombination and contact resistivities. While the emerging mainstream TOPCon technology has developed excellent electron-selective poly-Si/tunneling SiOx contacts, hole-selective contacts, especially on textured surfaces, have remained a significant challenge. This contribution introduces novel high-performance hole selective poly-Si contacts on pyramid-textured Si, enabled by electrochemically produced hole transport nanopinholes in a 10 nm oxynitride passivating dielectric stack capped by p+ poly-Si. The highly passivating oxynitride layer is produced via atomic intermixing of O and N atoms in the initial SiOx/SiNy layer stack upon thermal annealing. Carrier transport is governed by nanopinhole density and size are tuned by Ag nanoparticle electrodeposition and surface attachment chemistries. This results in passivating hole contact resistivities in the m..omega..-cm2 range, while preserving interface recombination current prefactor around 5 fA/cm2.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2019

Association between CT-texture-derived tumor heterogeneity, outcomes, and BRCA mutation status in patients with high-grade serous ovarian cancer

Purpose: To assess the associations between inter-site texture heterogeneity parameters derived from computed tomography (CT), survival, and BRCA mutation status in women with high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC). Materials and methods: Retrospective study of 88 HGSOC patients undergoing CT and BRCA mutation status testing prior to primary cytoreductive surgery. Associations between texture metrics—namely inter-site cluster variance (SCV), inter-site cluster prominence (SCP), inter-site cluster entropy (SE)—and overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS) as well as BRCA mutation status were assessed. Results: Higher inter-site cluster variance (SCV) was associated with lower PFS (p = 0.006) and OS (p = 0.003). Higher inter-site cluster prominence (SCP) was associated with lower PFS (p = 0.02) and higher inter-site cluster entropy (SE) correlated with lower OS (p = 0.01). Higher values of all three metrics were significantly associated with lower complete surgical resection status in BRCA-negative patients (SE p = 0.039, SCV p = 0.006, SCP p = 0.02), but not in BRCA-positive patients (SE p = 0.7, SCV p = 0.91, SCP p = 0.67). None of the metrics were able to distinguish between BRCA mutation carrier and non-mutation carrier. Conclusion: The assessment of tumoral heterogeneity in the era of personalized medicine is important, as increased heterogeneity has been associated with distinct genomic abnormalities and worse patient outcomes. A radiomics approach using standard-of-care CT scans might have a clinical impact by offering a non-invasive tool to predict outcome and therefore improving treatment effectiveness. However, it was not able to assess BRCA mutation status in women with HGSOC.

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE↗
DOE OSTI2018

Characterization of Pulmonary Nodules Based on Features of Margin Sharpness and Texture

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the world, and one of its manifestations occurs with the appearance of pulmonary nodules. The classification of pulmonary nodules may be a complex task to specialists due to temporal, subjective, and qualitative aspects. Therefore, it is important to integrate computational tools to the early pulmonary nodule classification process, since they have the potential to characterize objectively and quantitatively the lesions. In this context, the goal of this work is to perform the classification of pulmonary nodules based on image features of texture and margin sharpness. Computed tomography scans were obtained from a publicly available image database. Texture attributes were extracted from a co-occurrence matrix obtained from the nodule volume. Margin sharpness attributes were extracted from perpendicular lines drawn over the borders on all nodule slices. Feature selection was performed by different algorithms. Classification was performed by several machine learning classifiers and assessed by the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy. Highest classification performance was obtained by a random forest algorithm with all 48 extracted features. However, a decision tree using only two selected features obtained statistically equivalent performance on sensitivity and specificity.

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE↗
DOE OSTI2017

High-Speed Friction Stir Welding of AA7075-T6 Sheet: Microstructure, Mechanical Properties, Micro-texture, and Thermal History

Friction-stir-welding (FSW) is a cost-effective and high quality joining process for aluminum alloys (especially heat-treatable allo ys) that has been applied successfully in the aerospace industry. However, the full potential of FSW on more cost-sensitive applications is still limited by the production rate, namely the welding speed of the process. The majority of literature evaluating FSW of aluminum alloys is based on welds made in the range of welding speeds around hundreds of millimeters per minute, and only a handful are at a moderate speed of 1 m/min. In this study we present a microstructural analysis of friction stir welded AA7075-T6 blanks with welding speeds up to 3 m/min. Textures, microstructures, mechanical properties, and weld quality are analyzed using TEM, EBSD, metallographic imaging, and Vickers hardness. Results are coupled with welding parameters to aid in the understanding of the complex material flow and texture gradients within the welds in an effort to optimize welding parameters for high speed processing.

Zhang, Jingyi↗
DOE OSTI2018

Microstructure, Texture, and Mechanical Properties of Ni-W Alloy After Accumulative Roll Bonding

In this study, the microstructure, texture, and mechanical properties evolution of Ni-14W (wt.%) alloy processed up to four cycles of accumulative roll-bonding (ARB) were investigated using electron backscatter diffraction, microhardness measurements, and tensile tests. The initial equiaxed grains, with an average size of 10 μm, underwent a strong refinement after ARB processing. The elongated ultrafine grains were parallel to the rolling direction, with a grain thickness of 0.2 µm. The texture after ARB processing was characterized by the typical rolling components (Copper, S and Brass), which showed a tendency toward stabilization after four cycles. The microhardness increased substantially (+ 86%) and seemed to saturate after three cycles. The tensile tests demonstrated that Ni-14W samples subjected to ARB processing exhibited high strength (> 1200 MPa after three ARB cycles) and very poor ductility.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2017

Strategy for Texture Management in Metals Additive Manufacturing

Additive manufacturing (AM) technologies have long been recognized for their ability to fabricate complex geometric components directly from models conceptualized through computers, allowing for complicated designs and assemblies to be fabricated at lower costs, with shorter time to market, and improved function. Lacking behind the design complexity aspect is the ability to fully exploit AM processes for control over texture within AM components. Currently, standard heat-fill strategies utilized in AM processes result in largely columnar grain structures. Here, we propose a point heat source fill for the electron beam melting (EBM) process through which the texture in AM materials can be controlled. Using this point heat source strategy, the ability to form either columnar or equiaxed grain structures upon solidification through changes in the process parameters associated with the point heat source fill is demonstrated for the nickel-base superalloy, Inconel 718. Mechanically, the material is demonstrated to exhibit either anisotropic properties for the columnar-grained material fabricated through using the standard raster scan of the EBM process or isotropic properties for the equiaxed material fabricated using the point heat source fill.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2019

Electric-field-induced structure and domain texture evolution in PbZrO 3 -based antiferroelectric by in-situ high-energy synchrotron X-ray diffraction

Antiferroelectrics (AFEs) have a great potential for modern electronic devices by virtue of the large strain during the antiferroelectric-to-ferroelectric (AFE-FE) phase transition under external electric fields. Although the fascinating macroscopic properties of AFE materials have been extensively studied, it is still unclear how the underlying structure evolution engenders their defining properties. Here we employ an electric biasing in-situ high-energy synchrotron X-ray diffraction technique to reveal the phase, domain texture, and lattice evolution in a high performance PbZrO 3 -based AFE material. During the reversible AFE-FE transition triggered by electric fields, the evolution of the superstructure for AFE pseudo-tetragonal and FE rhombohedral phase is found to display strong dependence on the angle with respect to the field direction. In contrast to previous prediction, it is found that there is no obvious domain reorientation in the AFE phase, when the system is far away from the AFE-FE transitions. The electric-field-induced FE rhombohedral phase exhibits an unusual microscopic behavior, distinguished from the normal one, presenting small changes in domain texture and lattice strain with electric field, and leading to a small piezoelectric response. The longitudinal, transverse, and volume strains estimated from the XRD peak profiles are well consistent with the macroscopic strain measurements. It is demonstrated that the large strain arises from the structural change associated with anisotropic lattice strain and highly preferential domain reorientation during the AFE-FE transitions. Finally, the AFE-FE switching sequence is constructed based on the present study, which provides a further understating of AFE materials.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Significant disparity of non-basal dislocation activities in hot-rolled highly-textured Mg and Mg-3Al-1Zn alloy under tension

It is well-established that Mg-3Al-1Zn (AZ31) alloy exhibits much better tensile ductility than pure Mg. However, the underlying mechanisms for such difference still remain relatively unexplored at the dislocation level. In this work, we deformed hot-rolled highly-textured pure Mg and AZ31 samples with similar initial microstructures (i.e., grain size and texture) under tension along the rolling direction. Apparent shear banding was only observed in the pure Mg samples from the early stage of the deformation. Shear bands could act as easy paths for crack propagation, leading to low ductility in pure Mg. Apparent shear banding was not noted in deformed AZ31 samples. We then investigated the deformation mechanisms at the dislocation level using transmission electron microscopy. Systematic tilting experiments and statistical analyses of multiple grains at different strain levels revealed a significant disparity of non-basal dislocation activities between pure Mg and AZ31. For pure Mg, dislocations were activated since the early stage of plastic deformation. For AZ31, dislocations were mostly absent at all strain levels, even in the strain-to-failure samples. Non-basal dislocations, including prismatic and pyramidal dislocations, were observed. The promotion of the non-basal dislocation activities and the suppression of dislocations in AZ31 are expected to offer more sustainable hardening, which could elucidate the absence of apparent shear banding and much-improved ductility in AZ31 compared to pure Mg.

Zhao, Dexin↗
DOE OSTI2017

Effect of anisotropy and texture on the low cycle fatigue behavior of Inconel 718 processed via electron beam melting

Here in this study, the impact of texture (columnar/equiax grain structure) and influence of material orientation on the low cycle fatigue (LCF) behavior of hot isostatic pressed (HIP) and heat-treated Inconel 718 fabricated through electron beam melting (EBM) is investigated. Material was tested both parallel and perpendicular (transverse) to the build direction. In all instances, the EBM HIP and heat-treated Inconel 718 performed similarly or exceeded the LCF life of wrought Inconel 718 plate and bar stock under fully reversed strain-controlled loading at 650 °C. Amongst the textures, the columnar grains oriented parallel to the build direction exhibited the highest life on average compared to the transverse columnar and equiax EBM material. Further, in relation to the reference wrought material the parallel columnar grain material exhibited a greater life. While a negligible life difference was observed in the equiax grained material between the two orientations, a consistently lower accumulated inelastic strain was measured for the material loaded parallel to the build direction than the transverse orientation. Failure of the parallel columnar material occurred in a transgranular manner with cracks emanating from the surface whereas the transverse columnar material failed in a intergranular manner, with crack growth occurring through repeated rupture of oxide at the crack-tip. Finally, in the case of the equiax material, an influence of material orientation was not observed on the failure mechanism with crack propagation occurring through a combination of debonded/cracked carbides and void formation along twin boundaries resulting in a mixture of intergranular and transgranular crack propagation.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

Textured ceramic membranes for desilting and deoiling of produced water in the Permian Basin

Oil production in the Permian Basin gives rise to large volumes of produced water contaminated by silt, emulsified oil, and additives used for enhanced oil recovery. There is intense interest in the design of membrane modules as sustainable alternatives for produced water treatment to enable the reuse of produced water for agricultural applications, injection into aquifers, and redeployment in oil recovery. Here, we report a hierarchically textured cement-based membrane exhibiting orthogonal wettability, specifically, superhydrophilic and underwater superoleophobic characteristics. The in situ formation of ettringite needles accompanied by embedding of glass spheres imbues multiscale texturation to stainless-steel mesh membranes, enabling the separation of silt and oil from produced water at high flux rates (1600 L h -1 ∙m -2 , at ca. 2.7 bar). Oil concentration is reduced as low as 1 ppb with an overall separation efficiency of 99.7% in singlepass filtration. The membranes show outstanding mechanical resilience and retention of performance across multiple cycles.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2023

Tetrapodal textured Janus textiles for accessible menstrual health

Menstruating individuals without access to adequate hygiene products often improvise with alternatives that pose health risks and limit their participation in society. We describe here a menstrual hygiene product based on low-cost materials, which are integrated onto fabrics to imbue unidirectional permeability. A body-facing "Janus" fabric top layer comprising ZnO tetrapods spray-coated onto polyester mosquito netting imparts hierarchical texturation, augmenting the micron-scale texturation derived from the weave of the underlying fabric. The asymmetric coating establishes a gradient in wettability, which underpins flash spreading and unidirectional permeability. The hygiene product accommodates a variety of absorptive media, which are sandwiched between the Janus layer and a second outward-facing coated densely woven fabric. An assembled prototype demonstrates outstanding ability to wick saline solutions and a menstrual fluid simulant while outperforming a variety of commercially alternatives. The results demonstrate a versatile menstrual health product that provides a combination of dryness, discretion, washability, and safety.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2015

The evolution with strain of the stored energy in different texture components of cold-rolled IF steel revealed by high resolution X-ray diffraction

During the deformation of low carbon steel by cold-rolling, dislocations are created and stored in grains depending on local crystallographic orientation, deformation, and deformation gradient. Orientation dependent dislocation densities have been estimated from the broadening of X-ray diffraction lines measured on a synchrotron beamline. Different cold-rolling levels (from 30% to 95% thickness reduction) have been considered. It is shown that the present measurements are consistent with the hypothesis of the sole consideration of screw dislocations for the analysis of the data. The presented evolutions show that the dislocation density first increases within the α fiber (=(hkl)<110>) and then within the γ fiber (=(111) ). A comparison with EBSD measurements is done and confirms that the storage of dislocations during the deformation process is orientation dependent and that this dependence is correlated to the cold-rolling level. If we assume that this dislocation density acts as a driving force during recrystallization, these observations can explain the fact that the recrystallization mechanisms are generally different after moderate or large strains. - Highlights: • Dislocation densities are assessed by XRD in main texture components of a steel sheet. • Dislocation densities vary with both strain and texture components. • The analysis relies on the sole presence of screw dislocations. • The measured dislocation densities include the contribution of both SSD and GND.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2017

Surface defects on the Gd{sub 2}Zr{sub 2}O{sub 7} oxide films grown on textured NiW technical substrates by chemical solution method

Epitaxial growth of oxide thin films has attracted much interest because of their broad applications in various fields. In this study, we investigated the microstructure of textured Gd{sub 2}Zr{sub 2}O{sub 7} films grown on (001)〈100〉 orientated NiW alloy substrates by a chemical solution deposition (CSD) method. The aging effect of precursor solution on defect formation was thoroughly investigated. A slight difference was observed between the as-obtained and aged precursor solutions with respect to the phase purity and global texture of films prepared using these solutions. However, the surface morphologies are different, i.e., some regular-shaped regions (mainly hexagonal or dodecagonal) were observed on the film prepared using the as-obtained precursor, whereas the film prepared using the aged precursor exhibits a homogeneous structure. Electron backscatter diffraction and scanning electron microscopy analyses showed that the Gd{sub 2}Zr{sub 2}O{sub 7} grains present within the regular-shaped regions are polycrystalline, whereas those present in the surrounding are epitaxial. Some polycrystalline regions ranging from several micrometers to several tens of micrometers grew across the NiW grain boundaries underneath. To understand this phenomenon, the properties of the precursors and corresponding xerogel were studied by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and coupled thermogravimetry/differential thermal analysis. The results showed that both the solutions mainly contain small Gd−Zr−O clusters obtained by the reaction of zirconium acetylacetonate with propionic acid during the precursor synthesis. The regular-shaped regions were probably formed by large Gd−Zr−O frameworks with a metastable structure in the solution with limited aging time. This study demonstrates the importance of the precise control of chemical reaction path to enhance the stability and homogeneity of the precursors of the CSD route. - Highlights: •We investigate microstructure of Gd{sub 2}Zr{sub 2}O{sub 7} films grown by a chemical solution route. •The aging effect of precursor solution on formation of surface defect was thoroughly studied. •Gd−Zr−O clusters are present in the precursor solutions.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2018

Microstructure, texture and mechanical properties of 6061 aluminum laser beam welded joints

Highlights: • Strong cube texture ({001}<100>) is observed in columnar dendrites. • The ratio of equiaxed dendrites shows proportional relationship with the strength. • The relations between process-microstructure-property are accurately established. - Abstract: In the present study, laser beam welding was carried out with 6061 Al alloy plate to study the microstructural evolution under various welding heat input (ηP/v = 30 J/mm, 38 J/mm, 46 J/mm, and 58 J/mm). The width of the weld metals increased continuously with the heat input values. Quantitatively correlation of the microstructure distribution with welding parameters was developed based on the EBSD results. The weld metals mainly consisted of coarse columnar dendrites and equiaxed dendrites. The ratio of equiaxed dendrites which were controlled by constitutional supercooling and heterogeneous nuclei showed directly proportional relationship with the weld strength. Strong cube texture ({001}<100>) was observed in columnar dendrites, which showed harmful effect on the weld strength. Slight softening in heat affected zone due to recrystallization was identified by nanoindentation tests. All specimens failed in weld metal and the fracture surfaces showed the characteristics of ductile fracture.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2013

Manipulating the morphology and textural property of γ-AlOOH by modulating the alkyl chain length of cation in ionic liquid

Graphical abstract: - Highlights: • γ-AlOOH was the only product in all experiments. • Different morphology of γ-AlOOH was obtained according to the alkyl chain length. • The textural property of γ-AlOOH was changed according to the alkyl chain length. • The possible formation mechanisms for hollow sphere and microflower were proposed. - Abstract: We demonstrated that the morphology and textural property of γ-AlOOH can be tuned by modulating the alkyl chain length of cation in [C{sub n}mim]{sup +}Cl{sup −} (n = 4, 8, 16). Using the short alkyl chain length-based [C{sub 4}mim]{sup +}Cl{sup −} as the structure-directed reagent, the morphology of γ-AlOOH was not changed and preserved as the hollow sphere structure in all experiments. The specific area and the number of small meso-pores of γ-AlOOH increased with the increase of [C{sub 4}mim]{sup +}Cl{sup −} dosage. While, using the larger alkyl chain length-based ionic liquids as the soft-template, such as [C{sub 8}mim]{sup +}Cl{sup −} and [C{sub 16}mim]{sup +}Cl{sup −}, the morphologies of γ-AlOOH were changed from initiative hollow spheres into the final microflowers. The specific areas of γ-AlOOH firstly increased then decreased with the increase of their dosage. The samples were characterized by X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR), Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). Furthermore, the possible formation mechanisms of γ-AlOOH have been proposed.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Controlled growth of ZnO nanorods on textured silicon wafer and the application for highly effective and recyclable SERS substrate by decorating Ag nanoparticles

Highlights: • The growth behavior of ZnO nanorods (NRs) is studied on the textured Si wafer. • A new surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate has been achieved by assembling Ag nanoparticles onto the ZnO NRs. • The SERS substrate exhibits good performance in terms of high sensitivity, good reproducibility and recyclability. - Abstract: Based on the study of growth behavior of ZnO nanorods on the textured Si wafer, a new three-dimensional surface-enhanced Raman scattering substrate has been achieved by assembling Ag nanoparticles onto the ZnO nanorods to form a radial plasmonic nanostructure. It is found that the new substrate exhibits good performance in terms of high sensitivity and good reproducibility for surface-enhanced Raman scattering. The determined enhancement factor is in the order of 10{sup 7} and the Raman spectra exhibit the remarkable consistency with the deviation below 5.0%. Compared to the substrate fabricated with ZnO nanorod array on the flat Si wafer, the new substrates have the higher utility of excitation light. Meanwhile, the new substrate is demonstrated to be recyclable after the irradiation of ultraviolet light.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗