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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 775 records · Page 43
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2020

Shock-driven kinetic and diffusive mix in high-Z pusher ICF designs

Revolver and Double Shell Inertial Confinement Fusion capsule designs hope to achieve a robust volumetric thermonuclear burn via the use of a high-Z pusher shell filled with a cryogenic D–T fuel. Unfortunately, mix of the pusher material into the fuel (gas) may adversely impact the burn performance. Hydrodynamic instability of the metal/gas interface as the mix source is an obvious concern, but 1D effects may also be detrimental. Such effects include plasma diffusion at material interfaces, which has been the subject of numerous theoretical, computational, and experimental investigations. However, other 1D mix mechanisms may exist, which have yet to be thoroughly explored. In particular, plasma kinetic effects may drive the mix when a shock breaks out of the metal/gas interface. Using the state-of-the-art, hybrid (kinetic-ion/fluid electron), multi-ion Vlasov–Fokker–Planck code, iFP, we show herein that shock-driven kinetic effects can reconfigure the interface and the interfacial width subsequently grows diffusively. Finally, we consider any implications for high-Z pusher designs.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Porous transport electrodes for oxygen evolution reaction in proton exchange membrane water electrolysis -cells: Materials, designs, and diagnoses

H 2 production using proton exchange membrane (PEM) water electrolysis (PEMWE) cells has received considerable attention because of the high efficiencies of these cells and no harmful emissions from the related process. In PEMWE cells, porous transport electrodes (PTEs) composed of a catalyst layer (CL) comprising O 2 evolution reaction (OER) catalysts, porous transport layer (PTL), and PEM play key roles in the stack performance and lifetime. Herein, Ir-based and non-precious-metal OER catalysts that are highly active and stable at low pH values and high anodic potentials are reviewed to understand their OER mechanisms. Various strategies are proposed for engineering CLs and PTLs to improve the interfacial properties and mass transfers of reactants and products to and from the active sites. Additionally, diagnoses of PTEs is significantly crucial for interpreting electrochemical processes and addressing their current challenges. Therefore, half-cell analyses, including diffusion electrode (DE), floating electrode (FE), and modified rotating disk electrode (MRDE) techniques, are explored, and membrane electrode assembly (MEA)-based analyses, such as the polarization technique, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, and magnetic field analysis, are established. In conclusion, this study aims to provide an overview of recent technologies used for the engineering and diagnostic tools of PEMWE cells and insights into the advanced components and systems to be developed in this field.

Diagnosis of PEMWE Cells↗
DOE OSTI2019

Fluoroethylene Carbonate Breakdown Mechanisms and Energetics on Two Lithium Silicide Surfaces

Lithium-ion batteries are a leading energy storage technology. One challenge with lithium-ion batteries is the reductive decomposition of electrolyte on the surface, forming a passivating, solid–electrolyte interphase (SEI). The SEI prevents further electrolyte breakdown and consumption, but if not formed properly, may also consume lithium ions and prevent lithium-ion diffusion to the anode. Fluoroethylene carbonate (FEC) is currently one of the best electrolyte additives used to form a more robust SEI on silicon anodes. In this study, we use density functional theory (DFT) to investigate the spontaneous breakdown mechanisms, energies, and charge transfers of FEC on the surface of a silicon anode in a lesser lithiated LiSi and a more lithiated Li 15 Si 4 state. The reductive decomposition of FEC on LiSi and Li 15 Si 4 to F, CO 2 , and CH 2 CHO is energetically most favorable on both surfaces, but F, CO, and OCH 2 CHO can also be formed. The breakdown of FEC via either of the breakdown mechanisms is about 2 times more favorable on the Li 15 Si 4 surface than on the LiSi surface. Lastly, the Bader charge transferred from the anode to the FEC breakdown products is larger when forming F, CO 2 , and CH 2 CHO than when forming F, CO, and OCH 2 CHO and is also larger on the Li 15 Si 4 surface than on the LiSi surface.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2019

Exceeding 20% Efficiency with in situ Group V Doping in Polycrystalline CdTe Solar Cells

CdTe-based solar technology has achieved one of the lowest levelized costs of electricity among all energy sources as well as state-of-the-art field stability. Yet, there is still ample headroom to improve. For decades, mainstream technology has combined fast CdTe deposition with a CdCl2 anneal and Cu doping. The resulting defect chemistry is strongly compensated and limits the useful hole density to ~10^14 cm-3, creating a ceiling for fill factor, photovoltage and efficiency. In addition, Cu easily changes energy states and diffuses spatially, creating a risk of instabilities that must be managed with care. Here, we demonstrate a significant shift by doping polycrystalline CdSexTe1-x and CdTe films with As while removing Cu entirely from the solar cell. The absorber majority-carrier density is increased by orders of magnitude to 10^16-10^17 cm-3 without compromising the lifetime, and is coupled with a high photocurrent greater than 30 mA cm-2. We demonstrate pathways for fast dopant incorporation in polycrystalline thin films, improved stability and 20.8% solar cell efficiency.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Design strategies for ion-sieving charge mosaic membranes toward sustainable lithium extraction

Membrane-based technologies are essential for realizing sustainable ion-sieving processes such as lithium extraction. Much effort was devoted to designing new membrane materials, whereas the effect of charge distribution has been largely overlooked. Here, we filled this knowledge gap by providing a quantitative transport model for selective ion diffusion through a charge mosaic membrane (CMM). Composed of alternating regions of Li-selective ceramic and anion-selective polymeric materials, CMMs offered the unique advantage of promoting the transport of both Li + and anions while blocking other cations. As a result, the membrane achieved a high Li/Mg selectivity of 62 and a high permeation rate of 59 mmol·m −2 ·h −1 at a low feeding concentration of 30 mM, without any external driving force. Systematical experiments revealed the influence of brine Mg/Li ratio and membrane ceramic/polymer ratio on the overall extraction rate, which was consistent with the prediction of our transport model. In conclusion, the model developed in this work not only presented the design strategies of CMMs for Li extraction but also provided guidance for the development of other ion-sieving processes in general.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Neural network model of the multi-mode anomalous transport module for accelerated transport simulations

Here, a neural network version of the Multi-Mode Anomalous Transport Module, known as MMMnet, has been developed to calculate plasma turbulent diffusivities in DIII-D with a calculation time suitable for control applications. MMMnet uses a simple artificial neural network structure to predict the ion thermal, electron thermal, and toroidal momentum diffusivities while reproducing Multi-Mode Model (MMM) data with good accuracy and keeping the calculation time as a fraction of that associated with MMM. Model-based control techniques require models with fast calculation times, making many existing physics-oriented predictive codes unsuitable. The control-oriented predictive code COTSIM (Control Oriented Transport SIMulator) calculates the most significant plasma dynamics in response to the different actuators while running at a speed useful for control design. In order to achieve this calculation speed, COTSIM often relies on scaling laws and control-level models. Replacing some of these scaling laws and control-level models with neural network versions of more complex physics-level models has the potential of increasing the range of validity and the level of accuracy of COTSIM without compromising its computational speed. In this work, MMMnet is integrated into COTSIM to improve the turbulent diffusivity predictions, which will in turn improve the prediction accuracy associated with the dynamics of many plasma properties.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Prediction of divertor heat flux width for ITER pre-fusion power operation using BOUT++ transport code

Prediction of divertor heat flux width is performed for the first and the second pre-fusion power operation (PFPO) phases specified in the new ITER research plan using BOUT++ transport code (Li et al 2018 Comput. Phys. Commun.228 69–82). Here the initial plasma profiles inside the separatrix are taken from CORSICA scenario studies. Transport coefficients in transport code are calculated by inverting the plasma profiles inside the separatrix and are assumed to be constants in the scrape-off-layer. An anomalous thermal diffusivity scan is performed with E × B and magnetic drifts. The results in two scenarios identifying two distinct regimes: a drift-dominant regime when diffusivity is smaller than the respective critical thermal diffusivity χ c and a turbulence-dominant regime when diffusivity is larger than it. The Goldston heuristic drift model and the ITPA multi-machine experimental scaling yield a lower limit of the width λ q . From transport simulations, we obtain the critical thermal diffusivity χ c = 0.5 m 2 s –1 for the PFPO-1 scenario with toroidal magnetic field B = 1.77 T and plasma current I p = 5 MA, and χ c = 0.3 m 2 s –1 for the PFPO-2 scenario with toroidal magnetic field B = 2.65 T and plasma current I p = 7.5 MA. Separatrix temperature and collisionality also have a significant impact on the heat flux width in the drift-dominant regime. The investigation clearly yields a scaling for critical thermal diffusivity ${\chi }_{\text{c}}\propto {A}^{1/2}/(Z{\left(1+Z\right)}^{\frac{1}{2}}{B}_{\text{p}}^{2})$ using ITER scenarios with fixed safety factor q 95 , major radius R, aspect ratio R/a, and the separatrix temperature T sep , and establishes the connection with CFETR and C-Mod discharges. This scaling implies that for a given tokamak device with q 95 , R, R/a, and T sep fixed, a reduction of poloidal magnetic field by a factor of 3 leads to a 9 times higher critical value of thermal diffusivity χ c , possibly yielding a transition from turbulence- to drift-dominant regime.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Quantum Hamiltonian algorithms for maximum independent sets

ABSTRACT We compare two quantum Hamiltonian algorithms that address the maximum independent set problem: one based on the emergent non-Abelian gauge matrix in adiabatic evolution of an energetically isolated manifold of states; the other based on designed application of single-qubit operations. We demonstrate that they are mathematically equivalent in the sense that one is the other’s interaction picture. Despite their mathematical equivalence, our numerical simulations show significant differences between them in performance, which is explained analytically. Intriguingly, this equivalence unveils that the PXP model, recently prominent in quantum dynamics research, can be viewed as quantum diffusion over the median graph of all independent sets governed by the non-Abelian gauge matrix.

Science & Technology - Other Topics↗
DOE OSTI2025

Computational Design of Cost-Effective High-Entropy Thermal/Environmental Barrier Coatings

Developing cost-effective thermal/environmental barrier coatings (TEBC) requires balance among various properties including low thermal conductivity, matching coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE), high thermal stability, high fracture toughness, and high recession resistance while being affordable. Low oxygen diffusivity is desirable as it can slow down oxygen transport to reach the underlying bond coating and hence delay oxidation of the bond coating. This project aims to design low-cost high-performance TEBC based on high entropy rare earth disilicates to protect SiC-based ceramic matrix composites from chemical and thermal attack for better performance of components in the hot section of gas turbine engines. To accelerate the TEBC design, we utilize first-principles density functional theory to predict key properties including phase stability, CTE, lattice thermal conductivity, temperature-dependent elastic constants, and oxygen diffusivity. Alloying elements including Yb, Y, Er, Eu, Gd, Lu, La, and Ce are considered, and modeling prediction are compared with available experimental results.

coefficient of thermal expansion↗
DOE OSTI2021

The Population of H ii Regions in NGC 7020

The galaxy NGC 7020 displays an exotic hexagonal ringlike central structure with conspicuous ansae located at two opposite vertices and a tenuous external ring populated by H ii regions. Inside and around the hexagonal structure, Hα emission is also present at the inner disk. To characterize the population of the H ii regions, as well as their ionizing clusters, we imaged NGC 7020 with narrowband Hα and nearby continuum filters attached to GMOS-S installed on the Gemini South telescope. We found 202 H ii regions or complexes of H ii regions evenly distributed between the outer ring and the central disk The nucleus and ansae also present Hα emission. The equivalent width of the Hα line (W {sub Hα}) is systematically greater at the regions of the outer ring relative to those of the inner disk. We discuss the influence of the metallicity gradient of the disk and the upper limit of the masses of the initial mass function on W {sub Hα}, and we conclude that the data are still consistent with the occurrence of a younger burst of H ii region formation in the outer ring. The central regions present more massive clusters, M ≥ 10{sup 6} M {sub ⊙}, than those of the outer ring (M ≤ 10{sup 6} M {sub ⊙}). Three clusters within 5″ of the nucleus present masses higher than 10{sup 8} M {sub ⊙}. The presence of diffuse Hα emission in the inner 5″ suggests gas flows in the nuclear region.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
NASA NTRS2016

Multi-Dimensional, Non-Pyrolyzing Ablation Test Problems

Non-pyrolyzingcarbonaceous materials represent a class of candidate material for hypersonic vehicle components providing both structural and thermal protection system capabilities. Two problems relevant to this technology are presented. The first considers the one-dimensional ablation of a carbon material subject to convective heating. The second considers two-dimensional conduction in a rectangular block subject to radiative heating. Surface thermochemistry for both problems includes finite-rate surface kinetics at low temperatures, diffusion limited ablation at intermediate temperatures, and vaporization at high temperatures. The first problem requires the solution of both the steady-state thermal profile with respect to the ablating surface and the transient thermal history for a one-dimensional ablating planar slab with temperature-dependent material properties. The slab front face is convectively heated and also reradiates to a room temperature environment. The back face is adiabatic. The steady-state temperature profile and steady-state mass loss rate should be predicted. Time-dependent front and back face temperature, surface recession and recession rate along with the final temperature profile should be predicted for the time-dependent solution. The second problem requires the solution for the transient temperature history for an ablating, two-dimensional rectangular solid with anisotropic, temperature-dependent thermal properties. The front face is radiatively heated, convectively cooled, and also reradiates to a room temperature environment. The back face and sidewalls are adiabatic. The solution should include the following 9 items: final surface recession profile, time-dependent temperature history of both the front face and back face at both the centerline and sidewall, as well as the time-dependent surface recession and recession rate on the front face at both the centerline and sidewall. The results of the problems from all submitters will be collected, summarized, and presented at a later conference.

Ablation↗
NASA NTRS2019

Energetic Particles of Cosmic Accelerators II: Active Galactic Nuclei and Gamma-ray Bursts

The high-energy universe has revealed that energetic particles are ubiquitous in the cosmos and play a vital role in the cultivation of cosmic environments on all scales. Our pursuit of more than a century to uncover the origins and fate of these cosmic energetic particles has given rise to some of the most interesting and challenging questions in astrophysics. Within our own galaxy, we have seen that energetic particles engage in a complex interplay with the galactic environment and even drive many of its key characteristics (for more information, see the first white paper in this series). On cosmological scales, the energetic particles supplied by the jets of active galactic nuclei (AGN) are an important source of energy for the intracluster and intergalactic media, providing a mechanism for regulating star formation and black hole growth and cultivating galaxy evolution (AGN feedback). Gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows encode information about their circumburst environment, which has implications for massive stellar winds during previous epochs over the stellar lifecycle. As such, GRB afterglows provide a means for studying very high-redshift galaxies since GRBs can be detected even if their host galaxy cannot. It has even been suggest that GRB could be used to measure cosmological distance scales if they could be shown to be standard candles. Though they play a key role in cultivating the cosmological environment and/or enabling our studies of it, there is still much we do not know about AGNs and GRBs, particularly the avenue in which and through which they supply radiation and energetic particles, namely their jets. Despite the enormous progress in particle-in-cell and magnetohydrodynamic simulations, we have yet to pinpoint the processes involved in jet formation and collimation and the conditions under which they can occur. For that matter, we have yet to identify the mechanism(s) through which the jet accelerates energetic particles – is it the commonly invoked diffusive shock acceleration process or is another mechanism, such as magnetic reconnection, required? Do AGNs and GRBs accelerate hadrons, and if so, do they accelerate them to ultra-high energies and are there high-energy neutrinos associated with them? MeV gamma-ray astronomy, enabled by technological advances that will be realized in the coming decade, will provide a unique and indispensable perspective on the persistent mysteries of the energetic universe. This White Paper is the second of a two-part series highlighting the most well-known high-energy cosmic accelerators and contributions that MeV gamma-ray astronomy will bring to understanding their energetic particle phenomena. Specifically, MeV astronomy will: 1. Determine whether AGNs accelerate CRs to ultra-high energies; 2. Provide the missing pieces for the physics of the GRB prompt emission; 3. Measure magnetization in cosmic accelerators and search for acceleration via reconnection.

Venters, Tonia M.↗
DOE OSTI2024

"Source Term Modeling for Advanced Gas Micro-Reactors"

Maintaining the safety of the public, environment, and operating personnel is the most important factor in designing, operating, maintaining, and decommissioning nuclear reactors. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the development of micro-reactors employing TRi-structural ISOtropic (TRISO)-coated particle fuel. In gas reactors, TRISO fuel plays an important role in the safety case for high temperature reactors because of the fission product retention properties of the fuel. This ability enables the use of a functional containment strategy for the reactor where multiple barriers are used to prevent fission product release to the environment. Part of the safety analysis of these advanced reactors is the assessment of radionuclide releases under normal and accident conditions through the multiple credited safety barriers. Using conservative assumptions, a mechanistic analysis can be performed to quantify these releases that combines the probabilistic assessment of failure with analytic solutions to radionuclide transport equations. Source term modeling for TRISO fuel has been performed for previous reactor designs; however, these models are outdated, in many cases proprietary, and need updates to be applied to the current state of TRISO fuel technology and alternative gas reactor core configurations [1]. Currently, the only publicly available source term assessment for gas reactors is an expert-based Monte Carlo simulation based on the effectiveness of the fuel kernel, coating layers, and graphite block in a modular high temperature gas reactor [2]. Thus, there is a need to develop a simple, versatile, and mechanistic model of fission product release and transport in gas reactor cores that could be applied to a variety of reactors through user inputs and reactor-specific radionuclide inventories. The release is calculated by the diffusion of the key safety important fission products through the kernel, silicon carbide (SiC), graphite for both intact and defective TRISO particles based on fuel and graphite temperatures in the reactor under normal operation. These releases from the fuel enter the coolant where they can plate-out on cooler surfaces. A clean-up model is included for designs with a coolant purification system to remove fission gases. This initial distribution of fission products in the reactor serves as an initial condition for potential releases under postulated accident conditions. The model then can calculate the fission product release for any transient temperature profile and fission product releases can then be used to assess radiological dose to the workers and the public using conventional dose tools. Data on the diffusion of fission products is based on historic German TRISO experiments and the more current Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Gas Reactor (AGR) TRISO fuel development program. The model is coded in python with inputs and outputs in excel spreadsheets, as well as python plotting utilities to aid in the interpretation of the results. References: [1] INL, NGNP Mechanistic Source Term White Paper, INL-10-17997, July 2010. [2] David A. Petti, Richard R. Hobbins, Peter Lowry, Hans Gougar, “Representative Source Terms and The Influence of Reactor Attributes on Functional Containment in Modular High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactors,” Nuclear Technology, Vol. 184, p. 181-197, Nov. 2013.

07 ISOTOPE AND RADIATION SOURCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

Self‐Assembled Membranes for High Ion Selectivity and Proton Blocking in Electrochemical Applications

Anion-exchange membranes (AEMs) with high anion/cation selectivity and exceptional proton-blocking ability are critical for applications such as bipolar membrane electrodialysis and electrochemical acid recovery. However, existing AEMs are constrained by a trade-off between ionic conductivity and selectivity, largely due to the intrinsic coupling between charge density and water content, and they suffer from excessive proton leakage facilitated by the Grotthuss hopping mechanism. In this work, poly(vinylimidazolium) membranes functionalized with long alkyl side chains that self-assemble into well-defined microphase-separated morphologies stabilized by hydrophobic and electrostatic interactions are reported. These unique structures localize the charge density along the polymer backbone to promote fast and selective ion transport. As a result, these membranes exhibit ionic conductivities and counter-ion diffusivities surpassing those of conventional homogeneous membranes, along with unprecedented counter-ion/co-ion selectivity and proton-blocking ability. These results establish a new design paradigm for high-performance, phase separated charged polymer membranes that overcome the limitations of homogeneous membranes, with broad implications for advanced electrochemical technologies.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
NASA NTRS1996

Naval Research Laboratory's programs in advanced indium phosphide solar cell development

The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) has been involved in the development of solar cells for space applications since the 1960s. It quickly became apparent in this work that radiation damage caused to solar cells by electrons and protons trapped by the earth's magnetic field would seriously degrade the power output of photovoltaic arrays in extended missions. Techniques were therefore developed to harden the cells by shielding them with coverglass, etc. Ultimately, however, there is a limit to such approaches, which is determined by the radiation response of the semiconductor material employed. A desire for high efficiency and radiation resistance led to the development of alternative cell technologies such as GaAs, which has since become the technology of choice for many applications. InP cells are currently the most radiation resistant, high efficiency, planar cells known. NRL first sponsored InP solar cell technology in 1986, when Arizona State University was contracted to grow p/n cells by liquid phase epitaxy. NRL's interest in InP cells was generated by the results presented by Yamaguchi and his co-workers in the early 1980s on the remarkable radiation resistance of cells grown by diffusion of S into Zn doped p-type InP substrates. These cells also had beginning of life (BOL) efficiencies approximately 16%(AM0). Related to the radiation resistance of the cells was the fact that radiation-induced damage could be optically annealed by sunlight. Relatively large quantities of 1 x 2 cm(exp 2) diffused junction cells were made and were used on the MUSES-A and the EXOS-D satellites. These cells were also available in the U.S. through NIMCO, and were studied at NRL and elsewhere. Workers at NASA Lewis became involved in research in InP cells about the same time as NRL.

Summers, Geoffrey P.↗
NASA NTRS2021

Water Recovery from Bioreactor Mixed Liquors Using Forward Osmosis with Polyelectrolyte Draw Solutions

This paper reports on the use of forward osmosis (FO) with polyelectrolyte draw solutions to recover water from bioreactor mixed liquors. The work was motivated by the need for new regenerative water purification technologies to enable long-duration space missions. Osmotic membrane bioreactors may be an option for water and nutrient recovery in space if they can attain high water flux and reverse solute flux selectivity (RSFS), which quantifies the mass of permeated water per mass of draw solute that has diffused from the draw solution into a bioreactor. Water flux was measured in a direct flow system using wastewater from a municipal wastewater treatment plant and draw solutions prepared with two polyelectrolytes at different concentrations. The direct flow tests displayed a high initial flux (>10 L/m2/h) that decreased rapidly as solids accumulated on the feed side of the membrane. A test with deionized water as the feed revealed a small mass of polyelectrolyte crossover from the draw solution to the feed, yielding an RSFS of 80. Crossflow filtration experiments demonstrated that steady state flux above 2 L/m2·h could be maintained for 70 h following an initial flux decline due to the formation of a foulant cake layer. This study established that FO could be feasible for regenerative water purification from bioreactors. By utilizing a polyelectrolyte draw solute with high RSFS, we expect to overcome the need for draw solute replenishment. This would be a major step towards sustainable operation in long-duration space missions.

Calen R Raulerson↗