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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 667 records · Page 37
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Optimal CO2 Transport and Storage Cost Screening: Application Example

Poster on “Optimal CO2 Transport and Storage Cost Screening: Application Example” for the CCUS 2025 conference held in Houston, Texas March 3-5, 2025. A major challenge to commercial scale CCS deployment from the perspective of coal and natural gas-fired power plants is understanding cost-optimal CO2 transport and viable geologic storage options. This study demonstrates unique workflows, using NETL-developed, publicly-available models and tools, to efficiently estimate optimal CO2 transport and storage (T&S) costs for each of the CO2 sources in NETL’s Carbon Capture Retrofit Databases (CCRD) for Electricity Generating Units. The results demonstrate the impact of cost-drivers on optimal T&S, and trends in optimal T&S data, based on real point sources that could be retrofitted with CO2 source technologies.

application example↗
NASA NTRS1980

Electric propulsion, circa 2000

This paper discusses the future of electric propulsion, circa 2000. Starting with the first generation Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP) technology as the first step toward the next century's advanced propulsion systems, the current status and future trends of other systems such as the magnetoplasmadynamic accelerator, the mass driver, the laser propulsion system, and the rail gun are described.

Hudson, W. R.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Subsonic Single Aft Engine Narrowbody (SUSAN) Freighter Concept and Market Analysis

The dedicated air cargo and freight market has the potential to be a critical early pathway for emerging technologies in low to zero emission propulsion. This study analyzes the cargo aviation market to understand current market trends and future market viability of a mid-sized all-electric or hybrid-electric concept aircraft. While cargo aviation’s overall emissions footprint is small relative to commercial passenger aviation, it remains an important and challenging transportation sector to decarbonize. Past research has focused on small, less than 19-seat electrified aircraft propulsion concepts that could serve both passenger and air cargo markets This study extends the electrified market space into larger aircraft classes, considering if a purpose-built large hybrid electric turboprop freighter can compete in the market currently served primarily by conversion narrowbody freighters. Specifically, this paper focuses on the mid-sized cargo market with payload ranges of 40,000-50,000lbs, and an all-electric range potential up to 750 miles. The concept aircraft is based on a 4-engine turboprop configuration, with mounted wing battery packs and an aft cargo door to allow for standardized palletization. The market analysis indicates broad market coverage with 73% of the existing mid-sized cargo network within the range of 750 miles. A breakeven analysis of operating and capital costs shows potential for market competition, however, additional energy and acquisition cost savings from the concept aircraft are needed. Evidence from the breakeven analysis also points to higher rates of aircraft utilization being a critical path to lowering costs and increasing cost effectiveness.

Jacob M. Wishart↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Hybrid Electric Turboprop Commercial Freighter (HETCOF) Market Study

The dedicated air cargo and freight market has the potential to be a critical early pathway for emerging technologies in low to zero emission propulsion. This study analyzes the cargo aviation market to understand current market trends and future market viability of a mid-sized all-electric or hybrid-electric concept aircraft. While cargo aviation’s overall emissions footprint is small relative to commercial passenger aviation, it remains an important and challenging transportation sector to decarbonize. Past research has focused on small, less than 19-seat electrified aircraft propulsion concepts that could serve both passenger and air cargo markets. This study extends the electrified market space into larger aircraft classes, considering if a purpose-built large hybrid electric turboprop freighter can compete in the market currently served primarily by conversion narrowbody freighters. Specifically, this paper focuses on the mid-sized cargo market with payload ranges of 40,000-50,000lbs, and an all-electric range potential up to 750 miles. The concept aircraft is based on a 4-engine turboprop configuration, with wing mounted battery packs and an aft cargo door to allow for standardized palletization. The market analysis indicates broad market coverage with 73% of the existing mid-sized cargo network within the range of 750 miles. A breakeven analysis of operating and capital costs shows potential for market competition; however, this would require additional energy and acquisition cost savings from the concept aircraft. Evidence from the breakeven analysis also points to higher rates of aircraft utilization being a critical path to lowering costs and increasing cost effectiveness.

Hybrid Electric↗
NASA NTRS2006

Product Reliability Trends, Derating Considerations and Failure Mechanisms with Scaled CMOS

As microelectronics is scaled into the deep sub-micron regime, space and aerospace users of advanced technology CMOS are reassessing how scaling effects impact long-term product reliability. The effects of electromigration (EM), time-dependent-dielectric-breakdown (TDDB) and hot carrier degradation (HCI and NBTI) wearout mechanisms on scaled technologies and product reliability are investigated, accelerated stress testing across several technology nodes is performed, and FA is conducted to confirm the failure mechanism(s).

CMOS integrated circuits↗
DOE OSTI2024

Optimized Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Substructure Design Trends for 10–30 MW Turbines in Low-, Medium-, and High-Severity Wave Environments

Floating offshore wind is a promising renewable energy source, as 60% of the wind resources globally are found at depths requiring floating technologies, it minimizes construction at sea, and provides opportunities for industrialization given a lower site dependency. While floating offshore wind has numerous advantages, a current obstacle is its cost in comparison to more established energy sources. One cost-reduction approach for floating wind is increasing turbine capacities, which minimizes the amount of foundations, moorings, cables, and O&M equipment. This work presents trends in mass-optimized VolturnUS hull designs as turbine capacity increases for various wave environments. To do this, a novel rapid hull optimization framework is presented that employs frequency domain modeling, estimations of statistical extreme responses, industry constructability requirements, and genetic algorithm optimization to generate preliminary mass-optimal VolturnUS hull designs for a given turbine design and set of site conditions. Using this framework, mass-optimized VolturnUS hull designs were generated for 10–30 MW turbines for wave environments of varying severities. These design studies show that scaling up turbine capacities increases the mass efficiency of substructure designs, with decreasing returns, throughout the examined turbine capacity range. Additionally, increased wave environment severity is shown to increase the required mass of a given substructure design.

VolturnUS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Trends in Global Tropical Cyclone Activity: 1990–2021

Abstract This study investigates global tropical cyclone (TC) activity trends from 1990 to 2021, a period marked by largely consistent observational platforms. Several global TC metrics have decreased during this period, with significant decreases in hurricane numbers and Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE). Most of this decrease has been driven by significant downward trends in the western North Pacific. Globally, short‐lived named storms, 24‐hr intensification events of ≥50 kt day −1 , and TC‐related damage have increased significantly. The increase in short‐lived named storms is likely due to technological improvements, while rapidly intensifying TC increases may be fueled by higher potential intensity. Damage increases are largely due to increased coastal assets. The significant decrease in hurricane numbers and global ACE are likely due to the trend toward a more La Niña‐like base state from 1990 to 2021, favoring North Atlantic TC activity and suppressing North and South Pacific TC activity.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Midwestern Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (MRCSP) Phase III (Development Phase) (Final Report)

The Midwest Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (MRCSP) was founded in 2003 as part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (RCSP) Initiative. The public/private consortium, funded through the MRCSP, brings together nearly 40 industry partners in 10 contiguous states in Mid-West and North-East regions. Battelle, as the project lead, oversees research & development, operations, and coordinates activities among various partners. Since its founding, MRCSP has made significant progress towards advancing CCS and CCUS technologies for participating states in the region. Between 2008 to 2020, Phase III of the MRCSP program focused on the development of large-scale injection tests. This report is part of a series of topical reports prepared under the MRCSP Phase III. The MRCSP Final Technical Report summarizes the research conducted while monitoring large-scale injection tests at a CO 2 -EOR facility in Northern Michigan. The project successfully injected more than one million metric tons of CO 2 into depleted oil fields in the Northern Niagaran Pinnacle Reef Trend (NNPRT) for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). These commercial-scale tests provided valuable real-world knowledge that has been used to refine technologies and methods, reduce uncertainties, and demonstrate safety and effectiveness of CCUS technologies to increase public acceptance. The Final Technical Report provides an overview of Phase III efforts including advancing the understanding of the regional geology, storage capacities, deployment of many monitoring and modeling techniques and its efficacy, and technical demonstration of large-scale CO 2 injection, containment, and associated storage in the NNPRT region. Specific topical reports on the subjects covered in the Final Technical Report are also available through EDX/OSTI.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
DOE OSTI2021

Decarbonizing via disparities: Problematizing the relationship between social identity and solar energy transitions in the United States

As solar adoption across the United States continues to grow, so do the gaps between rural and urban communities in how they choose to embrace these technologies, leading to serious questions of social justice and equity by researchers and policymakers alike. While recent studies have examined the racial and social justice elements of solar adoption alongside institutions' role in shaping pro-solar policies, codes, and code enforcement, an opportunity exists to discuss how the place and composition of the body politic in terms of race/ethnicity and rurality exists. This paper establishes a methodology for examining location and body politic composition concerning adopting all types of solar (residential, non-residential, utility-scale), utilizing the State of Georgia as a case study. Results indicate that the approach yields useful and informative findings; namely, there is a significant difference in adopting non-residential and utility-scale solar between rural and urban counties. We conclude by discussing further opportunities to expand on this analysis and the impact of assessing solar adoption in terms of value alignment between a body politic and the policies that shape the adoption of sustainable energy technologies. Finally, combining solar adoption information for the State of Georgia with Census data, this study compares solar adoption trends across counties--grouped by urban/rural classification and racial and ethnic majority.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
NASA NTRS1972

Overview of technology sessions

Short takeoff aircraft technology development related to the requirements for an expanded and improved short-haul air transportation system is discussed. Systems requirements are summarized, principal aircraft requirements are identified, the status of STOL technology is analyzed, and the scope of the technology efforts covered by the conference are outlined. Charts and diagrams are provided to explain system requirements, lift capability trends, and terminal airspace requirements.

Wick, B. H.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Reliability evaluation methodology for NASA applications

Liquid rocket engine technology has been characterized by the development of complex systems containing large number of subsystems, components, and parts. The trend to even larger and more complex system is continuing. The liquid rocket engineers have been focusing mainly on performance driven designs to increase payload delivery of a launch vehicle for a given mission. In otherwords, although the failure of a single inexpensive part or component may cause the failure of the system, reliability in general has not been considered as one of the system parameters like cost or performance. Up till now, quantification of reliability has not been a consideration during system design and development in the liquid rocket industry. Engineers and managers have long been aware of the fact that the reliability of the system increases during development, but no serious attempts have been made to quantify reliability. As a result, a method to quantify reliability during design and development is needed. This includes application of probabilistic models which utilize both engineering analysis and test data. Classical methods require the use of operating data for reliability demonstration. In contrast, the method described in this paper is based on similarity, analysis, and testing combined with Bayesian statistical analysis.

Taneja, Vidya S.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Impact of Ada in the Flight Dynamics Division: Excitement and frustration

In 1985, NASA Goddard's Flight Dynamics Division (FDD) began investigating how the Ada language might apply to their software development projects. Although they began cautiously using Ada on only a few pilot projects, they expected that, if the Ada pilots showed promising results, they would fully transition their entire development organization from FORTRAN to Ada within 10 years. However, nearly 9 years later, the FDD still produces 80 percent of its software in FORTRAN, despite positive results on Ada projects. This paper reports preliminary results of an ongoing study, commissioned by the FDD, to quantify the impact of Ada in the FDD, to determine why Ada has not flourished, and to recommend future directions regarding Ada. Project trends in both languages are examined as are external factors and cultural issues that affected the infusion of this technology. This paper is the first public report on the Ada assessment study, which will conclude with a comprehensive final report in mid 1994.

Bailey, John↗
NASA NTRS1996

The Impact of Ada and Object-Oriented Design in NASA Goddard's Flight Dynamics Division

This paper presents the highlights and key findings of 10 years of use and study of Ada and object-oriented design in NASA Goddard's Flight Dynamics Division (FDD). In 1985, the Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL) began investigating how the Ada language might apply to FDD software development projects. Although they began cautiously using Ada on only a few pilot projects, they expected that, if the Ada pilots showed promising results, the FDD would fully transition its entire development organization from FORTRAN to Ada within 10 years. However, 10 years later, the FDD still produced 80 percent of its software in FORTRAN and had begun using C and C++, despite positive results on Ada projects. This paper presents the final results of a SEL study to quantify the impact of Ada in the FDD, to determine why Ada has not flourished, and to recommend future directions regarding Ada. Project trends in both languages are examined as are external factors and cultural issues that affected the infusion of this technology. The detailed results of this study were published in a formal study report in March of 1995. This paper supersedes the preliminary results of this study that were presented at the Eighteenth Annual Software Engineering Workshop in 1993.

Waligora, Sharon↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Nuclear Electric Propulsion Modular Power Conversion Model

This work builds upon a previously examined single loop power conversion cycle for nuclear electric propulsion systems. The intent of this model is to enable examination of trends within the system and extract system parameters that could be used in a mass model to understand how technology performance may impact overall system mass.Several model upgrades were made since the previous work which included physics-based sizing of the turbomachinery and pressure loss inside the radiator. A higher fidelity and modular fluid property code was also developed to help understand the impact of variable fluid properties more accurately and allow for the analysis of different fluids in the same model. The upgraded model features radiator and reactor loops with separate fluids from the Brayton cycle to understand advantages and disadvantages of using multiple working fluids as well as the capability of simulating off nominal system performance. The latter provides a steppingstone for modeling the transient performance of the power conversion system.

NEP↗
NASA NTRS1985

Advanced Propfan Engine Technology (APET) definition study, single and counter-rotation gearbox/pitch change mechanism design

Single-rotation propfan-powered regional transport aircraft were studied to identify key technology development issues and programs. The need for improved thrust specific fuel consumption to reduce fuel burned and aircraft direct operating cost is the dominant factor. Typical cycle trends for minimizing fuel consumption are reviewed, and two 10,000 shp class engine configurations for propfan propulsion systems for the 1990's are presented. Recommended engine configurations are both three-spool design with dual spool compressors and free power turbines. The benefits of these new propulsion system concepts were evaluated using an advanced airframe, and results are compared for single-rotation propfan and turbofan advanced technology propulsion systems. The single-rotation gearbox is compared to a similar design with current technology to establish the benefits of the advanced gearbox technology. The conceptual design of the advanced pitch change mechanism identified a high pressure hydraulic system that is superior to the other contenders and completely external to the gearboxes.

Anderson, R. D.↗
NASA NTRS2017

The Contribution of Solar Brightening to the US Maize Yield Trend

Predictions of crop yield under future climate change are predicated on historical yield trends1,2,3, hence it is important to identify the contributors to historical yield gains and their potential for continued increase. The large gains in maize yield in the US Corn Belt have been attributed to agricultural technologies4, ignoring the potential contribution of solar brightening (decadal-scale increases in incident solar radiation) reported for much of the globe since the mid-1980s. In this study, using a novel biophysical/empirical approach, we show that solar brightening contributed approximately 27% of the US Corn Belt yield trend from 1984 to 2013. Accumulated solar brightening during the post-flowering phase of development of maize increased during the past three decades, causing the yield increase that previously had been attributed to agricultural technology. Several factors are believed to cause solar brightening, but their relative importance and future outlook are unknown, making prediction of continued solar brightening and its future contribution to yield gain uncertain. Consequently, results of this study call into question the implicit use of historical yield trends in predicting yields under future climate change scenarios.

Matthijs Tollenaar↗