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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 OSTI2026

Feasibility of Correlation-Aware Inference and Universal Precision Scaling in Bonse–Hart Ultra-Small-Angle Neutron Scattering

Bonse–Hart ultra-small-angle neutron scattering (USANS) provides access to micrometre-scale structure, but useful measurements often require long counting times. In this work, we test whether the expected smoothness of the scattering profile can be exploited to improve data quality at lower counting statistics. We apply a Gaussian-process-based method to Bonse–Hart USANS data and evaluate its performance on pseudo-measurements generated from high-statistics experiments under Poisson statistics. This provides a stringent test of how well the underlying I(Q) profile can be reconstructed when the available counts are substantially reduced. We further show that, in the counting-limited regime, the reconstruction error follows a universal scaling behaviour that differs from the usual independent-counting expectation. At higher counts, the improvement crosses over to a resolution-limited regime set by analyser-angle discretization and rocking-curve width. These results clarify when correlation-aware inference is useful in USANS and provide a practical basis for improving measurement efficiency and beam-time usage.

Tung, Chi-Huan [ORNL] (ORCID:0000000221972074)↗
NASA NTRS2010

Statistical Analysis of Model Data for Operational Space Launch Weather Support at Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station

The 12-km resolution North American Mesoscale (NAM) model (MesoNAM) is used by the 45th Weather Squadron (45 WS) Launch Weather Officers at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) to support space launch weather operations. The 45 WS tasked the Applied Meteorology Unit to conduct an objective statistics-based analysis of MesoNAM output compared to wind tower mesonet observations and then develop a an operational tool to display the results. The National Centers for Environmental Prediction began running the current version of the MesoNAM in mid-August 2006. The period of record for the dataset was 1 September 2006 - 31 January 2010. The AMU evaluated MesoNAM hourly forecasts from 0 to 84 hours based on model initialization times of 00, 06, 12 and 18 UTC. The MesoNAM forecast winds, temperature and dew point were compared to the observed values of these parameters from the sensors in the KSC/CCAFS wind tower network. The data sets were stratified by model initialization time, month and onshore/offshore flow for each wind tower. Statistics computed included bias (mean difference), standard deviation of the bias, root mean square error (RMSE) and a hypothesis test for bias = O. Twelve wind towers located in close proximity to key launch complexes were used for the statistical analysis with the sensors on the towers positioned at varying heights to include 6 ft, 30 ft, 54 ft, 60 ft, 90 ft, 162 ft, 204 ft and 230 ft depending on the launch vehicle and associated weather launch commit criteria being evaluated. These twelve wind towers support activities for the Space Shuttle (launch and landing), Delta IV, Atlas V and Falcon 9 launch vehicles. For all twelve towers, the results indicate a diurnal signal in the bias of temperature (T) and weaker but discernable diurnal signal in the bias of dewpoint temperature (T(sub d)) in the MesoNAM forecasts. Also, the standard deviation of the bias and RMSE of T, T(sub d), wind speed and wind direction indicated the model error increased with the forecast period all four parameters. The hypothesis testing uses statistics to determine the probability that a given hypothesis is true. The goal of using the hypothesis test was to determine if the model bias of any of the parameters assessed throughout the model forecast period was statistically zero. For th is dataset, if this test produced a value >= -1 .96 or <= 1.96 for a data point, then the bias at that point was effectively zero and the model forecast for that point was considered to have no error. A graphical user interface (GUI) was developed so the 45 WS would have an operational tool at their disposal that would be easy to navigate among the multiple stratifications of information to include tower locations, month, model initialization times, sensor heights and onshore/offshore flow. The AMU developed the GUI using HyperText Markup Language (HTML) so the tool could be used in most popular web browsers with computers running different operating systems such as Microsoft Windows and Linux.

Bauman, William H., III↗
NASA NTRS1978

Nonparametric algorithms for the search of signals

Two algorithms for the search of signals in noise are constructed. Two independent measurable properties of a discreet time-dependent stochastic process F are described. The functions A sub K and B sub K fully satisfy conditions for the application of a test based on Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. A statistic to which the one-sided signal test can be applied is constructed under sufficiently natural assumptions about the noise process. The constructed statistics are simplified. Processing results from calculations of statistics constructed for concrete processes are presented.

Myshenkova, T. S.↗
DOE OSTI2020

Target Detection via Cognitive Radars Using Change-Point Detection, Learning, and Adaptation

Many radar detection algorithms that assume a stationary environment (clutter) have been proposed and analyzed over the years. However, in practice, changes in the nonstationary environment can perturb the parameters of the clutter distribution, or even alter the clutter distribution family, which can greatly deteriorate the target detection capability. To avoid such potential performance degradation, cognitive radar systems are envisioned which are required to rapidly realize the nonstationarity, accurately learn the new characteristics of the environments, and adaptively update the detector. In this paper, aiming to develop a fully cognitive radar for target detection in nonstationary environments, we propose a unifying framework that integrates (i) change-point detection of clutter distributions by using a data-driven cumulative sum (CUSUM) algorithm and its extended version, (ii) learning/identification of clutter distribution by applying sparse theory and kernel density estimation methods, and (iii) adaptive target detection by automatically modifying the likelihood-ratio test and corresponding detection threshold. Further, with extensive numerical examples, we demonstrate the achieved improvements in detection performance due to the proposed framework in comparison to a nonadaptive case, an adaptive matched filter (AMF) method, and the clairvoyant case. Herein, we also use Wilcoxon rank-sum tests to evaluate the statistical significance of the performance improvements

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2019

Texture analysis of placental MRI: can it aid in the prenatal diagnosis of placenta accreta spectrum?

Purpose: To determine if texture analysis can differentiate placenta accreta spectrum (PAS) from normal placenta on MRI. Methods: We performed retrospective image analysis of 80 patients, comprised of 46 patients with PAS and 34 patients without PAS. Histopathology was used as the reference standard. Sagittal single shot fast spin echo T2-weighted MRI sequences acquired from a single institution were analyzed. Placental heterogeneity was quantified using in-house software on a Matlab platform, including the standard deviation of pixel intensity, coefficient of variation, gray-level co-occurrence matrices (GLCM), histogram-oriented gradients (HOG), and fractal analysis with box sizes from 2 to 512. Two-tailed unpaired Student’s t test was used with statistical significance of p < 0.05. Results: PAS was associated with higher values for standard deviation of pixel intensity and fractal analysis at every box size. Fractal analysis at box sizes 256 (p = 0.011) and 32 (p = 0.021), and standard deviation of pixel intensity (p = 0.023) were the most statistically significant. Fractal values at box size 256 for PAS was 0.13 versus 0.090 for patients without PAS, while standard deviation of pixel intensity was 3.7 for PAS versus 2.5 for patients without PAS. No statistically significant association between PAS and GLCM, coefficient of variation, and HOG was found. Conclusion: Statistically significant differences were found between normal and abnormal groups using standard deviation of pixel intensity and fractal analysis.

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE↗
DOE OSTI2019

The Role of a Curved Electrode with Controllable Direction in the Radiofrequency Ablation of Liver Tumors Behind Large Vessels

Purpose: To investigate the role of a novel curved radiofrequency ablation (RFA) electrode with controllable direction in the ablation of tumors behind large hepatic vessels in ex vivo bovine and in vivo canine liver experiments. Materials and Methods: Approval from the institutional animal care and use committee was obtained. In ex vivo experiments, conventional multi-tines expandable electrodes, conventional monopolar straight electrodes and novel curved electrodes were used in the ablation of the bovine liver (n = 90). The ablated area, parallel axis, vertical axis and shape of different electrodes were compared. Then, 24 beagle dogs (10 months old, female) were used for in vivo experiments. Visual tumor targets deeply located in the portal vein were established, and ultrasound-guided liver ablation was performed with different electrodes. The ablation range, target coverage rate, percentage of normal tissue injury and damage to adjacent vessels were evaluated. The Kruskal–Wallis test and the Chi-squared test were used for statistical analysis. Results: For the ex vivo study with a 3-cm electrode, the ablation area of the multi-tines expandable electrode group (7.14 ± 0.16 cm{sup 2}) was significantly larger than that of the novel curved electrode group (5.01 ± 0.30 cm{sup 2}, P < 0.001) and the monopolar straight electrode group (5.43 ± 0.15 cm{sup 2}, P < 0.001). The results obtained with the 4-cm electrode in the three groups were in accordance with those of the 3-cm electrode. In vivo, the normal tissue damage area of the novel curved electrode group was smaller than that of the multi-tines expandable electrode group (1.10 ± 0.18 cm{sup 2} vs. 4.00 ± 0.18 cm{sup 2}, P < 0.001). The target coverage rate of the novel curved electrode group was better than that of the monopolar straight electrode group (100% vs. 80.86 ± 1.68%, P < 0.001). The hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) and TUNEL staining results showed that the ablation necrosis area was adjacent to large vessels, but the vascular wall was not significantly damaged in the novel curved electrode group. Conclusion: Our preliminary results showed that the novel curved RFA electrode with controllable direction could achieve accurate ablation for tumors behind large hepatic vessels, with a better target coverage rate and less damage to normal tissue, than conventional multi-tines expandable electrodes and monopolar straight electrodes.

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE↗
DOE OSTI2019

Z-Pinning approach for 3D printing mechanically isotropic materials

Conventional 3D printing approaches are restricted to building up material in a layer-by-layer format, which is more appropriately considered “2.5-D” printing. The layered structure inherently results in significant mechanical anisotropy in printed parts, causing the tensile strength in the build direction (z-axis) to be only a fraction of the in-plane strength – a decrease of 50–75% is common. In this study, a novel “z-pinning” approach is described that allows continuous material to be deposited across multiple layers within the volume of the part. Here, the z-pinning process is demonstrated using a Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) printer for polylactic acid (PLA) and carbon fiber reinforced PLA. For both materials, z-pinning increased the tensile strength and toughness in the z-direction by more than a factor of 3.5. Direct comparisons to tensile strength in the x-axis showed a significant decrease in mechanical anisotropy as the volume of the pin was increased relative to the void in the rectilinear grid structure. In fact, the PLA sample with the largest pin volume demonstrated mechanically isotropic properties within the statistical uncertainty of the tests. Tensile test results were also analyzed relative to the functional area resisting deformation for each sample.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Experimental investigation of probabilistic failure of SiC/SiC composite tubes under multiaxial loading

This paper presents an experimental investigation of the failure behavior of SiC fiber-reinforced SiC matrix (SiC/SiC) composite tubes under multiaxial loading. A new testing apparatus is designed to independently apply axial stress and internal pressure to SiC/SiC tubes. Acoustic emission (AE) is used to monitor the damage growth in the specimen. Based on the measured stress–strain response, a strain-based criterion is proposed to determine the proportional limit stress (PLS). The proposed strain-based criterion is compared with the PLS determined by the AE measurement. The PLS is determined for different loading ratios to form a multiaxial failure surface. By testing multiple replicates, the statistical variations of the PLS are determined. In conclusion, based on the experimental results, a mathematical model is developed to characterize the probability distribution of the PLS of SiC/SiC composites under multiaxial loading.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Improving ChemCam LIBS long-distance elemental compositions using empirical abundance trends

The ChemCam instrument on the Curiosity rover provides chemical compositions of Martian rocks and soils using remote laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). The elemental calibration is stable as a function of distance for Ti, Fe, Mg, and Ca. The calibration shows small, systematically increasing abundance trends as a function of distance for Al, Na, K, and to some extent, Si. The distance effect is known to be due to a dependence with distance on the relative strengths of atomic transition lines. Emission lines representing transitions from relatively low energy levels remain intense at longer distances while emission lines representing transitions from higher energy levels decrease in intensity more rapidly as a function of distance. The multivariate algorithms used to determine elemental compositions rely on a large number of emission lines in many cases, so rather than trying to correct all emission lines, a study was made of the predicted compositions as a function of distance, in order to determine an empirical correction. Abundance trends can be well approximated by a linear trend with distance within the ranges of abundances and distances observed up to ~6 m. Data from 11 distinct geological members and data groups of the Murray formation in Gale crater, Mars, were used to form the model, selecting the members and data groups yielding the best statistics. The model was tested using data from several targets observed from two different distances, and using data from the Kimberley formation, the composition of which is significantly different from the Murray formation, showing that the model works on other compositions beyond those used to build the model. For long-distance observations up to ~6 m, corrections can be made back to an equivalent composition at the median distance of ChemCam observations (2.6 m). Finally, the model has been validated up to 6.2 m, although ChemCam is able to observe bedrock targets to >7 m, and iron meteorites to distances of >9 m.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2026

Time Matters: A Survival Analysis of Public Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Utilization

The rapid adoption of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) places significant demands on public charging infrastructure, making it critical to understand and optimize charger utilization. This study provides one of the most comprehensive analyses of charging behavior to date by applying a survival analysis to a dataset of nearly 16 million level 2 (L2) and direct current (DC) fast charger sessions across the United States from 2017 to 2022. Using Kaplan-Meier curves and log rank tests, our analysis reveals statistically significant and distinct duration patterns influenced by charger type, time of day, and day of the week. We find that L2 charging sessions exhibit high variability tied to venue type, whereas DC sessions are more uniform, typically lasting 30-45 min. This study introduces the operational efficiency score (OES), a metric for standardizing the performance evaluation of charging stations. Our findings offer actionable insights for optimizing charger deployment, developing dynamic pricing strategies to reduce vehicle dwell time, and improving load management for grid operators, ultimately enhancing the efficiency and availability of public charging infrastructure.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2023

Batch Scale Production of 3D Printed Extraction Sorbents Using a Low-Cost Modification to a Desktop Printer

This study reports a simple modification to a commercial resin 3D printer that significantly reduces the amount of prepolymer material needed for the production of extraction sorbents. Here, the modified printing platform is demonstrated in the printing of two imidazolium-based ionic liquid (IL) monomers. Two geometries resembling a blade-type polymeric ionic liquid (PIL) sorbent used in thin-film microextraction and a fiber-type sorbent used in solid-phase microextraction (SPME) were printed. The SPME PIL sorbents were used to extract 10 organic contaminants, including plasticizers, antimicrobial agents, UV filters, and pesticides, from water followed by high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) analysis. To compare the extraction performance of the SPME sorbents, seven fibers printed with the same prepolymer composition from the same printing batch as well as different batches were evaluated. The results revealed highly reproducible extraction efficiencies for all tested sorbents with no statistical difference in their extraction performance. Method validation showed acceptable linearity ($R$ 2 > 0.92) for all analytes with limits of detection and limits of quantification ranging from 0.13 to 45 μg L –1 and 0.43 to 150 μg L –1 , respectively.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2019

Accelerated Fill‐Up of the Arbuckle Group Aquifer and Links to U.S. Midcontinent Seismicity

The Arbuckle Group aquifer is the principal disposal zone for oil and gas field brines and hazardous/nonhazardous wastewater across the U.S. midcontinent and is traditionally viewed as an infinite capacity aquifer. Thousands of wells annually dispose hundreds of millions of barrels of wastewater into the aquifer across Kansas and Oklahoma, but direct links between injection and recent increases in seismicity have been hindered by a lack of pressure data for the Arbuckle Group. Here we present a newly compiled data set for 49 wells across Kansas that provides a unique perspective on the aquifer's performance over two decades. Statistical analysis of falloff test pressures, static fluid levels, and injection volumes shows that Arbuckle pressures and fluid levels are rising, recently at faster rates, likely associated with increased wastewater injection. The new data also suggest that the pressure diffusion, the primary driver of induced seismicity, can reach distances up to 25 km from an injection point and is connected to static fluid level rises. The compiled dataset explains the recent surge in midcontinent seismicity. The data set also suggests that the Arbuckle has finite storage capacity and that wastewater disposal across parts of the midcontinent may soon require alternatives.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

Predicting the viscoplastic response of a crystallizing fluoropolymer using transient network theory

We employ a molecular theory of dynamic polymer networks to describe the viscoplastic response of rubbery FK-800, a thermoplastic copolymer of chlorotrifluoroethylene and vinylidene fluoride, over a broad range of thermal histories. The kinetics of crystallization at different annealing temperatures was modeled using a modified Avrami equation, whose parameters were found to evolve through simple relationships over the full temperature range of the rubbery state. By fitting experimental compression data, we discovered predictable trends for the physical parameters in our mechanical model over its full range of crystallinities (up to ≈20%) and provided insights based on molecular-level physics to justify them. Using this, an end-to-end model was developed to predict the yielding and post-yield behavior of rubbery FK-800 for arbitrary thermal histories. The model successfully predicted the highly nonlinear evolution of characteristic mechanical signatures (stiffness, yield point, post-yield drop) throughout the crystallization process. A statistical analysis of variance test was employed to determine that the measured variations in the mechanical behavior of rubbery FK-800 are primarily dictated by its fractional crystallinity, regardless of its exact thermal history.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Modelling the impact of host galaxy dust on type Ia supernova distance measurements

Type Ia Supernovae (SNe Ia) are a critical tool in measuring the accelerating expansion of the universe. Recent efforts to improve these standard candles have focused on incorporating the effects of dust on distance measurements with SNe Ia. In this paper, we use the state-of-the-art Dark Energy Survey 5 year sample to evaluate two different families of dust models: empirical extinction models derived from SNe Ia data and physical attenuation models from the spectra of galaxies. In this work, we use realistic simulations of SNe Ia to forward-model different models of dust and compare summary statistics in order to test different assumptions and impacts on SNe Ia data. Among the SNe Ia-derived models, we find that a logistic function of the total-to-selective extinction R V best recreates the correlations between supernova distance measurements and host galaxy properties, though an additional 0.02 mag of grey scatter is needed to fully explain the scatter in SNIa brightness in all cases. These empirically derived extinction distributions are highly incompatible with the physical attenuation models from galactic spectral measurements. From these results, we conclude that SNe Ia must either preferentially select extreme ends of galactic dust distributions, or that the characterization of dust along the SNe Ia line-of-sight is incompatible with that of galactic dust distributions.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Testing the impact of electromagnetic fields on the directed flow of constituent quarks in heavy-ion collisions

It has been proposed that strong electromagnetic fields produced in the early stages of heavy-ion collisions can lead to splitting of the rapidity-odd directed flow of positive and negative hadrons. For light hadrons, the interpretation of such measurements is complicated by the low magnitude of directed flow as well as by ambiguities arising from transported quarks. To overcome these complications, we propose measurements using only hadrons carrying produced quarks (u¯, d¯, s s¯ ). Here, we discuss how to identify the kinematics where such hadrons are produced via the coalescence mechanism and therefore their flow is the sum of the flow of their constituent quarks. With this sum rule verified for certain combinations of hadrons, the expected systematic violation of this rule with increasing electric charge can be measured, which could be a consequence of the electromagnetic fields produced in the collisions. Our approach can be tested with the high statistics data from Phase II of the Beam Energy Scan program at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Modeling iterative reconstruction and displacement field in the large scale structure

The next generation of galaxy surveys like the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument and Euclid will provide datasets orders of magnitude larger than anything available to date. Our ability to model nonlinear effects in late time matter perturbations will be a key to unlock the full potential of these datasets, and the area of initial condition reconstruction is attracting growing attention. Iterative reconstruction developed by Marcel Schmittfull et al. is a technique designed to reconstruct the displacement field from the observed galaxy distribution. The nonlinear displacement field and initial linear density field are highly correlated. Therefore, reconstructing the nonlinear displacement field enables us to extract the primordial cosmological information better than from the late time density field at the level of the two-point statistics. This paper will test to what extent the iterative reconstruction can recover the true displacement field and construct a perturbation theory model for the postreconstructed field. We model the iterative reconstruction process with Lagrangian perturbation theory (LPT) up to third order for dark matter in real space and compare it with N-body simulations. Here we find that the simulated iterative reconstruction does not converge to the nonlinear displacement field, and the discrepancy mainly appears in the shift term, i.e., the term correlated directly with the linear density field. On the contrary, our 3LPT model predicts that the iterative reconstruction should converge to the nonlinear displacement field. We discuss the sources of discrepancy, including numerical noise/artifacts on small scales, and present an ad hoc phenomenological model that improves the agreement.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2024

Trust Model Measurements for the Energy Grid of Things

Information security is essential for the reliable operation of an Energy Grid of Things (EGoT). In addition to basic information security protocols as defined by published standards, there is a need for a monitoring function that measures the trustworthiness of the various actors participating in an EGoT. We describe in this paper the implementation and evaluation of a Distributed Trust Model that was developed specifically for monitoring communication within an EGoT. We then show how the model parameters are set using statistical measures for hypothesis testing.

Energy Grid of Things, EGoT, Smart Grid Security, ↗
DOE OSTI2022

Development of an Open-source Alloy Selection and Lifetime Assessment Tool for Structural Components in CSP

Lack of sufficient data on high temperature mechanical and corrosion behavior of structural materials is a huge barrier in the technological maturity of current and future Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) technologies. Rapid development and selection of materials cannot be achieved by expensive and time-consuming acquisition of experimental data. The goal of the proposed work is development of an open-source alloy selection and lifetime prediction tool that will integrate validated physics-based models to describe influence of temperature, alloy composition, environment and component geometry (thickness) on mechanical and corrosion behavior of Ni and Fe-based alloys employed in molten salts/sCO 2 heat exchangers. This one-year project leveraged the extensive dataset on the creep\corrosion behavior of candidate materials generated at ORNL through past projects and input from current collaborations with industrial partners. Based on previous experience and the feedback provided by industry (Brayton Energy and Echogen), three candidate materials of interest, Ni-based alloys 740H, 282 and 625 and application-specific operating conditions (max. temperature of 730 °C and stress of 150 MPa) were identified for the heat exchanger. An extensive corrosion and creep dataset was assimilated for the relevant operating conditions and was supported by detailed characterization of about 100 metallographic cross-sections. The corrosion dataset consisted of scanning electron microscopy images (secondary electron and backscatter electron), measured concentration profiles of alloying elements using energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), widths of denuded zones (dissolution of strengthening phases) and depths of attack in molten KCl-MgCl 2 mixtures using image analyses. The creep dataset comprised of creep rupture data and creep strain curves (for 740H and 282). Coupled thermodynamic-kinetic microstructure-based models were employed to predict the stress-corrosion induced compositional and phase evolutions in the alloy during operation under the identified operating conditions. Reduced order models were developed from advanced physics-based models and were integrated in a user-friendly alloy selection tool. The corrosion model was able to predict the time to a critical Cr concentration at the oxide/alloy interface (chemical lifetime) within ±10% (1 standard deviation) of typical statistical variation in corrosion tests and EDS measurement errors (±0.5 wt%). The initial scope of the project was limited to predict creep rupture times (Larson-Miller parameter). Based on the input provided by industry, the mechanical lifetime of the heat exchanger is governed by accumulated creep strains (2%) rather than creep rupture. To be able to predict the times to specific creep strains, a more extensive creep model development was undertaken largely beyond the initial scope of the project. The continuum damage mechanics creep model was able to predict times to 2% creep strain, t 2% with an accuracy of ±500h. Ultimately, a screening protocol for SiC was generated to demonstrate the pathway for integration of one of the currently immature materials from a commercial adoption standpoint in the current material evaluation tool. The modeling tool developed here is accessible to the science community and stakeholders and lays the foundation for methods that will enable a rapid evaluation of optimum materials for CSP applications and reliable prediction of material degradation thereby considerably reducing operational costs, improving reliability and increasing overhaul intervals. However, the complete potential of such a tool to include a wider range of materials and test conditions can only be realized with a more concentrated combined experimental-characterization-computation effort.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗