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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 757 records · Page 42

Vegetation Water Content Mapping in a Diverse Agricultural Landscape: National Airborne Field Experiment 2006

Mapping land cover and vegetation characteristics on a regional scale is critical to soil moisture retrieval using microwave remote sensing. In aircraft-based experiments such as the National Airborne Field Experiment 2006 (NAFE 06), it is challenging to provide accurate high resolution vegetation information, especially on a daily basis. A technique proposed in previous studies was adapted here to the heterogenous conditions encountered in NAFE 06, which included a hydrologically complex landscape consisting of both irrigated and dryland agriculture. Using field vegetation sampling and ground-based reflectance measurements, the knowledge base for relating the Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) and the vegetation water content was extended to a greater diversity of agricultural crops, which included dryland and irrigated wheat, alfalfa, and canola. Critical to the generation of vegetation water content maps, the land cover for this region was determined from satellite visible/infrared imagery and ground surveys with an accuracy of 95.5% and a kappa coefficient of 0.95. The vegetation water content was estimated with a root mean square error of 0.33 kg/sq m. The results of this investigation contribute to a more robust database of global vegetation water content observations and demonstrate that the approach can be applied with high accuracy. Keywords: Vegetation, field experimentation, thematic mapper, NDWI, agriculture.

Cosh, Michael H.↗

An Information NEXUS: The NASA Global Hawk Link Module

The Link Module described in this paper was first developed for the NASA Global Hawk Pacific Mission (GloPAC), four flights of 30 hour duration, supporting the Aura Validation Experiment (AVE). Its second use was during the Genesis and Rapid Intensification Processes (GRIP) experiment, a NASA Earth Science field experiment to better understand how tropical storms form and develop into major hurricanes. In these missions, the Link module negotiated all communication over the high bandwidth Ku satellite link, archived al the science data from onboard experiments in a spatially enable database, routed command and control of the instruments from the Global Hawk Operations Center, and retransmitted select data sets directly to experimenters control and analysis systems. The availability of aggregated information from collections of sensors, and remote control capabilities, in real-time, is revolutionizing the way Airborne Science is being conducted. Also described is the next generation Link Module now being designed and tested to support the NASA Earth Venture missions, the Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel (HS3) mission, and Airborne Tropical Tropopause Experiment (ATTREX) mission. Advanced data fusion technologies being developed will further advance the Scientific productivity, flexibility and robustness of these systems. Historically, the Link module evolved from the instrument and communication interface controller used by NASA's Pathfinder and Pathfinder plus solar powered UAS's in the late 1990's. It later was expanded for use in the AIRDAS four channel scanner flown on the NASA Altus UAS, and then again to a module in the AMS twelve channel multispectral scanner flying on the NASA (Predator-b) Ikhana UAS. The current system is the next step in the evolution, a multi board system packaged in a Curtiss Wright MIL-spec, flight qualified enclosure.

Remote Sensing↗

Database of pharmacokinetic time-series data and parameters for 144 environmental chemicals

Time courses of compound concentrations in plasma are used in chemical safety analysis to evaluate the relationship between external administered doses and internal tissue exposures. This type of experimental data is rarely available for the thousands of non-pharmaceutical chemicals to which people may potentially be unknowingly exposed but is necessary to properly assess the risk of such exposures. In vitro assays and in silico models are often used to craft an understanding of a chemical’s pharmacokinetics; however, the certainty of the quantitative application of these estimates for chemical safety evaluations cannot be determined without in vivo data for external validation. To address this need, we present a public database of chemical time-series concentration data from 567 studies in humans or test animals for 144 environmentally-relevant chemicals and their metabolites (187 analytes total). All major administration routes are incorporated, with concentrations measured in blood/plasma, tissues, and excreta. We also include calculated pharmacokinetic parameters for some studies, and a bibliography of additional source documents to support future extraction of time-series. In addition to pharmacokinetic model calibration and validation, these data may be used for analyses of diferential chemical distribution across chemicals, species, doses, or routes, and for meta-analyses on pharmacokinetic studies.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Atomic solid state energy scale: Universality and periodic trends in oxidation state

The atomic solid state energy (SSE) scale originates from a plot of the electron affinity (EA) and ionization potential (IP) versus band gap (E{sub G}). SSE is estimated for a given atom by assessing an average EA (for a cation) or an average IP (for an anion) for binary inorganic compounds having that specific atom as a constituent. Physically, SSE is an experimentally-derived average frontier orbital energy referenced to the vacuum level. In its original formulation, 69 binary closed-shell inorganic semiconductors and insulators were employed as a database, providing SSE estimates for 40 elements. In this contribution, EA and IP versus E{sub G} are plotted for an additional 92 compounds, thus yielding SSE estimates for a total of 64 elements from the s-, p-, d-, and f-blocks of the periodic table. Additionally, SSE is refined to account for its dependence on oxidation state. Although most cations within the SSE database are found to occur in a single oxidation state, data are available for nine d-block transition metals and one p-block main group metal in more than one oxidation state. SSE is deeper in energy for a higher cation oxidation state. Two p-block main group non-metals within the SSE database are found to exist in both positive and negative oxidation states so that they can function as a cation or anion. SSEs for most cations are positioned above −4.5 eV with respect to the vacuum level, and SSEs for all anions are positioned below. Hence, the energy −4.5 eV, equal to the hydrogen donor/acceptor ionization energy ε(+/−) or equivalently the standard hydrogen electrode energy, is considered to be an absolute energy reference for chemical bonding in the solid state. - Highlights: • Atomic solid-state energies are estimated for 64 elements from experimental data. • The relationship between atomic SSEs and oxidation state is assessed. • Cations are positioned above and absolute energy of −4.5 eV and anions below.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Exploring microscopic driving volatility in naturalistic driving environment prior to involvement in safety critical events—Concept of event-based driving volatility

The sequence of instantaneous driving decisions and its variations, known as driving volatility, prior to involvement in safety critical events can be a leading indicator of safety. Here, this study focuses on the component of “driving volatility matrix” related to specific normal and safety-critical events, named “event-based volatility.” The research issue is characterizing volatility in instantaneous driving decisions in the longitudinal and lateral directions, and how it varies across drivers involved in normal driving, crash, and/or near-crash events. To explore the issue, a rigorous quasi-experimental study design is adopted to help compare driving behaviors in normal vs unsafe outcomes. Using a unique real-world naturalistic driving database from the 2nd Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP), a test set of 9593 driving events featuring 2.2 million temporal samples of real-world driving are analyzed. This study features a plethora of kinematic sensors, video, and radar spatiotemporal data about vehicle movement and therefore offers the opportunity to initiate such exploration. By using information related to longitudinal and lateral accelerations and vehicular jerk, 24 different aggregate and segmented measures of driving volatility are proposed that captures variations in extreme instantaneous driving decisions. In doing so, careful attention is given to the issue of intentional vs. unintentional volatility. The volatility indices, as leading indicators of near-crash and crash events, are then linked with safety critical events, crash propensity, and other event specific explanatory variables. Owing to the presence of unobserved heterogeneity and omitted variable bias, fixed- and random-parameter discrete choice models are developed that relate crash propensity to unintentional driving volatility and other factors. Statistically significant evidence is found that driver volatilities in near-crash and crash events are significantly greater than volatility in normal driving events. After controlling for traffic, roadway, and unobserved factors, the results suggest that greater intentional volatility increases the likelihood of both crash and near-crash events. A one-unit increase in intentional volatility is associated with positive vehicular jerk in longitudinal direction increases the chance of crash and near-crash outcome by 15.79 and 12.52 percentage points, respectively. Importantly, intentional volatility in positive vehicular jerk in lateral direction has more negative consequences than intentional volatility in positive vehicular jerk in longitudinal direction. Compared to acceleration/deceleration, vehicular jerk can better characterize the volatility in microscopic instantaneous driving decisions prior to involvement in safety critical events. Finally, the magnitudes of correlations exhibit significant heterogeneity, and that accounting for the heterogeneous effects in the modeling framework can provide more reliable and accurate results. The study demonstrates the value of quasi-experimental study design and big data analytics for understanding extreme driving behaviors in safe vs. unsafe driving outcomes.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

Semi-supervised machine-learning classification of materials synthesis procedures

Digitizing large collections of scientific literature can enable new informatics approaches for scientific analysis and meta-analysis. However, most content in the scientific literature is locked-up in written natural language, which is difficult to parse into databases using explicitly hard-coded classification rules. In this work, we demonstrate a semi-supervised machine-learning method to classify inorganic materials synthesis procedures from written natural language. Without any human input, latent Dirichlet allocation can cluster keywords into topics corresponding to specific experimental materials synthesis steps, such as “grinding” and “heating”, “dissolving” and “centrifuging”, etc. Guided by a modest amount of annotation, a random forest classifier can then associate these steps with different categories of materials synthesis, such as solid-state or hydrothermal synthesis. Finally, we show that a Markov chain representation of the order of experimental steps accurately reconstructs a flowchart of possible synthesis procedures. Our machine-learning approach enables a scalable approach to unlock the large amount of inorganic materials synthesis information from the literature and to process it into a standardized, machine-readable database.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Angle-Resolved Polarized Raman Study of Layered Cr 2 Se 3

The polarization-resolved Raman spectra of two-dimensional Cr 2 Se 3 synthesized via chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and chemical vapor transport (CVT) techniques were investigated in detail. The samples were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). A distinct polarization dependence was observed in the Raman intensity of all the Cr-Cr, Cr-Se, and Se-Se modes in both samples. The observed angle-dependent Raman intensities of each peak could be related to the crystal structure-specific Raman tensor. XRD results of the bulk Cr 2 Se 3 sample synthesized via CVT confirm its trigonal crystal structure, and the Raman peaks can be fitted using the Raman tensors for the A g and E g modes for both the parallel and crossed polarizations. However, for the Cr 2 Se 3 samples directly grown on Si/SiO 2 substrates by CVD, it was necessary to assume the triclinic crystal structure in order to explain the polarized Raman dependence of all the peaks in both parallel and crossed polarization directions. Furthermore, this is the first experimental result suggesting the existence of triclinic Cr 2 Se 3 crystal structure, which has been theoretically predicted in the Materials Project database.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Assessing Metal Ion Assignment Accuracy in Protein Data Bank Models via Elemental Spectroscopy

Accurate representation of metal ions in macromolecular structures is critical for chemical interpretation, computational modeling, and machine-learning methods that rely on Protein Data Bank (PDB) entries. However, the elemental identity of metals modeled in crystallographic structures is often inferred indirectly and rarely validated experimentally. Here, we combine Particle Induced X-ray Emission (PIXE) and X-ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy (XRFS) to determine the elemental composition of protein samples used to generate 70 deposited metalloprotein crystal structures. By analyzing the original protein material employed for crystallization, but before the addition of crystallization buffer solutions, we assess whether the modeled metal ions in deposited structures are consistent with experimentally detectable elemental content. We find that in a majority of cases, the metals modeled in the corresponding PDB entries are inconsistent with the metals present in the protein samples before crystallization, or that additional metals are present but not represented in the structural models. Spectroscopic results were integrated with automated crystallographic validation metrics, including real-space Z-difference (RSZD) analysis and systematic rerefinement, to evaluate atomic-number mismatch at metal sites. PIXE and XRFS show strong agreement for dominant elemental signals and provide complementary, scalable approaches for identifying suspect metal assignments. This work does not address physiological or functional metalation but instead highlights a widespread data integrity issue in deposited macromolecular structures, PDB-wide. These results establish an experimentally corroborated link between elemental identity and crystallographic validation metrics, enabling the large-scale detection of chemically inconsistent annotations in structural databases used for computational modeling and machine learning.

Crystallization↗

Text-mined dataset of gold nanoparticle synthesis procedures, morphologies, and size entities

Abstract Gold nanoparticles are highly desired for a range of technological applications due to their tunable properties, which are dictated by the size and shape of the constituent particles. Many heuristic methods for controlling the morphological characteristics of gold nanoparticles are well known. However, the underlying mechanisms controlling their size and shape remain poorly understood, partly due to the immense range of possible combinations of synthesis parameters. Data-driven methods can offer insight to help guide understanding of these underlying mechanisms, so long as sufficient synthesis data are available. To facilitate data mining in this direction, we have constructed and made publicly available a dataset of codified gold nanoparticle synthesis protocols and outcomes extracted directly from the nanoparticle materials science literature using natural language processing and text-mining techniques. This dataset contains 5,154 data records, each representing a single gold nanoparticle synthesis article, filtered from a database of 4,973,165 publications. Each record contains codified synthesis protocols and extracted morphological information from a total of 7,608 experimental and 12,519 characterization paragraphs.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Investigation of radiated-power for low aspect ratio fusion plasmas

Investigating radiated power in fusion plasmas is of utmost importance to understand the effect of undesired impurities, such as metals, in present devices, or also desired impurities, such as noble gasses, to purposefully radiate a large fraction of power in future devices. These studies are especially important for high Z impurities which will play a crucial role in future generation fusion pilot plants. In this work, we have developed a power radiation analysis module, which is used to investigate 2D distributions of impurity densities and radiated power asymmetries caused due to both plasma rotation and the cooling rate dependence on temperature profile for the cases of experimental NSTX plasmas and designed scenarios for the spherical tokamak advanced reactor (STAR), both being low aspect ratio tokamaks. Two different atomic databases have been tested during this work to study their impact on the radiated power distribution, especially for high Z impurities. Also in PRAM, self-consistent calculations of two-dimensional electron, main ion, and impurity ion densities are carried out using one-dimensional input density, temperature, and rotation profiles. In the case of NSTX, discharges with high rotation of ∼ 170 km s, measured with charge exchange recombination spectroscopy, have been investigated. Rotation-induced charge separation, leading to an electrostatic potential, is calculated iteratively to a self-consistent solution while testing high Z impurities to observe any 2D asymmetry in the core radiated power due to centrifugal forces. The STAR design, being much larger (R = 4 m), is projected to have a much lower rotation, and is shown to have low rotation-induced asymmetries, on the order of ten percent or less, between the low field and high field sides. However, another effect not due to rotation but to the dependence of impurity cooling rates on temperature can lead to radiation peaking off-axis, near the plasma edge. This effect is noticeable for argon in NSTX, for example, but can also be enhanced for certain impurities at much higher temperatures projected for STAR (T e0 ~ 32 keV), for example for undesired tungsten or possibly desired xenon.

NSTX↗

Updated analysis of the Er 170 ( p , t ) Er 168 reaction data

More than 200 states up to 4.1 MeV excitation have been populated in 168 Er with the 170 Er ( p , t ) reaction at 25 MeV incident energy. About 80 of these states, with 0 + and 2 + assignments, were reported in a previous publication [D. Bucurescu et al., Phys. Rev. C 73, 064309 (2006)]. Here, the present work considerably enriches the knowledge of this nucleus. A multistep coupled-channels analysis of the angular distributions is now presented for all the states observed in this experiment. Spin and parity values between 0 + and 7 - are newly assigned for more than 100 states. For the states already reported in the ENSDF database with J π values there is a good agreement with our values. The 168 Er nucleus remains one of the best experimentally known nuclei for states with low and medium spins below 4 MeV excitation energy, representing a challenge for future microscopic structure model calculations aiming to disentangle the contributions of different excitation degrees of freedom.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

CLAS Database for Studies of the Structure of Hadrons in Electromagnetic Processes

The CLAS Physics Database (CLAS DB) has been developed in collaboration between SINP at MSU and Hall B at Jefferson Lab. CLAS DB contains most experimental results on inclusive, semi-inclusive, and exclusive reactions on proton and nuclei obtained with the CLAS detector. The substantial part of these experimental results represents the only data sets available in the world. The results and analysis tools provided by the CLAS DB are of particular importance for studies of the structure of the ground and excited hadron states, offering insight into strong nonperturbative QCD dynamics, which underlie the generation of hadrons from quarks and gluons.

Chesnokov, V. V.↗

Molten Salt Thermophysical Properties Database Development: 2019 Update

This report provides an update on the molten salt reactor thermophysical properties database that is being developed as part of the U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Reactor Technology Program Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) campaign. A summary of recent MSR-relevant literature and a discussion of data gaps are provided. The structure of the new MSR thermophysical properties database is outlined and three datasets are reviewed in detail to provide examples of the data and metadata that will be included in the database. Despite the availability of some high quality MSR-relevant data-sets, there remains a need for a thermophysical properties experimental program to generate data focused on addressing the design and licensing needs of current MSR concept developers. This report represents the work product milestone M4AT-19AN040601045 for work package Salt Chemistry work package AT-19AN04060104 of the Advanced Reactor Technology Program’s MSR campaign.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

Research Needs for Uranium-Zirconium- Based Metallic Fuels

The purpose of this report is to summarize the needs and present recommendations related to the future direction for U-Zr-based metallic fuel research (including binary U-Zr and ternary U-Pu-Zr alloys). These needs and recommendations were determined by subject matter experts from various institutions during a two-day workshop held at the University of Florida in November, 2019. During open-floor discussions, the highest priority gaps in our understanding of U-Zr-based fuels were down-selected, and near- and long-term needs that directly impact the implementation of these metallic fuels were identified. The identified near-term needs include investigation of the following phenomena: i) swelling and fission gas release, ii) fuel-cladding chemical interaction, iii) phase evolution/constituent redistribution, and iv) thermal properties of the fuels. The long-term needs are: i) investigation of fuel creep and plasticity and ii) fission product (lanthanide) transport. In addition, there was general agreement that all institutions and subject matter experts would benefit from an open-source metallic fuels database with thermophysical property and microstructural data, along with fuel operation/irradiation history, which should be regularly updated with vetted information from new experimental and computational investigations and used to advance metallic fuels research and development. Finally, we recommend that metallic fuel research should be ongoing and that fuel qualification and fuel optimization should be equally prioritized; research combining experiments with modeling and simulation has the largest potential impact.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Low Reynolds number separation bubble research at UTRC

The facilities and techniques being applied in investigations of laminar separation bubbles on low Re airfoils at the United Technologies Research Center are described. The research is focused on developing a database and predictive models for use in designing compressor, fan and turbine blades. Flow data are gathered primarily by laser Doppler velocimetry. Experimental procedures are being devised which will permit formation of a short bubble for characterizations of the velocity profiles in and around the bubble and boundary layer. Further tests are directed at defining the size and location of the bubble and the transition in the separated shear layer. The sensitivity of the bubble to alterations in the Re, pressure gradient, turbulence intensity and the turbulence scales will be examined. The effects of surface curvature and roughness on the bubble will also be studied. Details of the wind tunnel facility and the steps being taken to define conditions for reliably producing the short bubble are outlined.

Patrick, W. P.↗

Methods for heat transfer and temperature field analysis of the insulated diesel, phase 3

Work during Phase 3 of a program aimed at developing a comprehensive heat transfer and thermal analysis methodology for design analysis of insulated diesel engines is described. The overall program addresses all the key heat transfer issues: (1) spatially and time-resolved convective and radiative in-cylinder heat transfer, (2) steady-state conduction in the overall structure, and (3) cyclical and load/speed temperature transients in the engine structure. These are all accounted for in a coupled way together with cycle thermodynamics. This methodology was developed during Phases 1 and 2. During Phase 3, an experimental program was carried out to obtain data on heat transfer under cooled and insulated engine conditions and also to generate a database to validate the developed methodology. A single cylinder Cummins diesel engine was instrumented for instantaneous total heat flux and heat radiation measurements. Data were acquired over a wide range of operating conditions in two engine configurations. One was a cooled baseline. The other included ceramic coated components (0.050 inches plasma sprayed zirconia)-piston, head and valves. The experiments showed that the insulated engine has a smaller heat flux than the cooled one. The model predictions were found to be in very good agreement with the data.

Morel, Thomas↗

Experimental study of the effects of Reynolds number on high angle of attack aerodynamic characteristics of forebodies during rotary motion

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Defense Research Agency (United Kingdom) have ongoing experimental research programs in rotary-flow aerodynamics. A cooperative effort between the two agencies is currently underway to collect an extensive database for the development of high angle of attack computational methods to predict the effects of Reynolds number on the forebody flowfield at dynamic conditions, as well as to study the use of low Reynolds number data for the evaluation of high Reynolds number characteristics. Rotary balance experiments, including force and moment and surface pressure measurements, were conducted on circular and rectangular aftbodies with hemispherical and ogive noses at the Bedford and Farnborough wind tunnel facilities in the United Kingdom. The bodies were tested at 60 and 90 deg angle of attack for a wide range of Reynolds numbers in order to observe the effects of laminar, transitional, and turbulent flow separation on the forebody characteristics when rolling about the velocity vector.

Pauley, H.↗

LEWICE 2.2 Capabilities and Thermal Validation

A computational model of bleed air anti-icing and electrothermal de-icing have been added to the LEWICE 2.0 software by integrating the capabilities of two previous programs, ANTICE and LEWICE/ Thermal. This combined model has been released as LEWICE version 2.2. Several advancements have also been added to the previous capabilities of each module. This report will present the capabilities of the software package and provide results for both bleed air and electrothermal cases. A comprehensive validation effort has also been performed to compare the predictions to an existing electrothermal database. A quantitative comparison shows that for deicing cases, the average difference is 9.4 F (26%) compared to 3 F for the experimental data while for evaporative cases the average difference is 2 F (32%) compared to an experimental error of 4 F.

Wright, William B.↗