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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 91 records · Page 5

Growth functions of periodic space tessellations

This work analyzes the rules governing the growth of the numbers of vertices, edges and faces in all possible periodic tessellations of the 2D Euclidean space, and encodes those rules in several types of polynomial growth functions. These encodings map the geometric, combinatorial and topological properties of the tessellations into sets of integer coefficients. Several general statements about these encodings are given with rigorous mathematical proof. The variation of the growth functions is represented graphically and analyzed in orphic diagrams, so named because of their similarity to orphic art. Several examples of 3D space groups are included, to emphasize the complexity of the growth functions in higher dimensions. A freely available Python library is presented to facilitate the discovery of the growth functions and the generation of orphic diagrams.

Chemistry↗

Using AI tools to analyze periodic phenomena

Here, in this report, we describe how students can use natural language to prompt ChatGPT to conduct the analysis of complex periodic acceleration data collected using their smartphones. Students may use this approach to characterize human physiological tremor frequency. Students can choose to use their own data, or, for privacy purposes, use an anonymized set of data provided to them.

Klay, Jennifer L. [California Polytechnic State Un↗

Relative Contributions of Surface Parcel and Atmospheric Environment to Convective Potential during Interstorm Periods

Convective instability is affected by both surface heat fluxes into near-surface air parcels and the atmospheric profile encountered as these air parcels are lifted aloft. In this study, we investigate the evolution of buoyancy experienced by surface-based parcels, taking interstorm soil moisture drydowns as fundamental time periods. We use profile observations of atmospheric temperature and humidity from ground-based passive remote sensing and in situ observations available at the U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Southern Great Plains site in Oklahoma, United States, and examine drydown events during the warm seasons from 2017 to 2022. Results reveal new insights on the emergence and growth of convective available potential energy (CAPE) during drydowns. We observe that the peak convective potential appears in the afternoon and grows in the midtroposphere (68% of 66 drydown events), with the largest CAPE values toward the end of the drydown event. We also find that the near-surface parcel contributes more to the evolution of CAPE than the atmospheric environment (86% of drydown events). These findings highlight the importance of surface heat fluxes and moisture availability from surface-based parcels in modulating the evolution of atmospheric conditions favorable for convection, underscoring the interplay between surface processes and atmospheric dynamics in driving convective instability.

Atmosphere-land interaction↗

Skyrmion soliton motion on periodic substrates by atomistic and particle-based simulations

Abstract We compare the dynamical behavior of magnetic skyrmions interacting with square and triangular defect arrays just above commensuration using both atomistic and particle-based models. Under applied drives, the initial motion is a kink traveling through the pinned skyrmion lattice. For the square defect array, both models agree well and show a regime in which the soliton motion is locked along 45°. The atomistic model also produces locking of a soliton along 30°, which is absent in the particle-based model. For the triangular defect array, the atomistic model exhibits 30° soliton motion over a wide region of external current values. In contrast, the particle-based model gives 45° soliton motion over a small range of external driving force values. The difference arises because the nondeforming particle model facilitates meandering skyrmion orbits while the deformable atomistic model enables stronger skyrmion-skyrmion interactions that reduce the meandering. Our results indicate that soliton motion through pinned skyrmion lattices on a periodic substrate is a robust effect.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Sliding Dynamics for Bubble Phases on Periodic Modulated Substrates

We analyze a bubble-forming system composed of particles with competing long-range repulsive and short range attractive interactions driven over a quasi-one-dimensional periodic substrate. We find various pinned and sliding phases as a function of substrate strength and drive amplitude. When the substrate is weak, a pinned bubble phase appears that depins elastically into a sliding bubble lattice. For stronger substrates, we find anisotropic bubbles, disordered bubbles, and stripe phases. Plastic depinning occurs via the hopping of individual particles from one bubble to the next in a pinned bubble lattice, and as the drive increases, there is a transition to a state where all of the bubbles are moving but are continuously shedding and absorbing individual particles. This is followed at high drives by a moving bubble lattice in which the particles can no longer escape their individual bubbles. The transition between the plastic and elastic sliding phases can be detected via signatures in the velocity-force curves, differential conductivity, and noise. When the bubbles shrink due to an increase in the attractive interaction term, they fit better inside the pinning troughs and become more strongly pinned, leading to a reentrant pinning phase. For weaker attractive terms, the size of the bubbles becomes greater than the width of the pinning troughs and the depinning becomes elastic with a reduced depinning threshold.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Fusion Materials Semiannual Progress Report for the Period Ending June 30, 2024

This is the seventy-sixth in a series of semiannual technical progress reports on fusion materials science activity supported by the Fusion Energy Sciences Program of the U.S. Department of Energy. It covers the period ending June 30, 2024. This report focuses on research addressing the effects on materials properties and performance of exposure to the neutronic, thermal and chemical environments anticipated in the chambers of fusion experiments and energy systems. This research is a major element of the national effort to establish the materials knowledge base for an economically and environmentally attractive fusion energy source. Research activities on issues related to the interaction of materials with plasmas are reported separately. The results reported are the products of a national effort involving a number of national laboratories and universities. A large fraction of this work, particularly in relation to fission reactor irradiations, is carried out collaboratively with partners in Japan, Russia, and the European Union. The purpose of this series of reports is to provide a working technical record for the use of program participants, and to provide a means of communicating the efforts of fusion materials scientists to the broader fusion community, both nationally and worldwide. This report has been compiled by Stephanie Melton, Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Her efforts, and the efforts of the many persons who made technical contributions, are gratefully acknowledged.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

A Method for Estimation and Suppression of Quasi-Periodic Noise

Electromagnetic interference, particularly from sources such as light fixtures and power supplies, negatively affects the function and performance of electronic systems. This noise, often quasi-periodic in nature, contains harmonic structure that can be used for noise estimation and suppression. This work proposes a novel method for tracking and filtering such noise signals that reduces the comb filter bandwidth required for noise estimation and suppression by tracking the instantaneous frequency of the fundamental component.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Shaping Symmetry and Molding Morphology of Triply-Periodic Network Assemblies via Molecular Design and Processing of Block Copolymers

This project aimed to uncover molecular design rules for block copolymer (BCP) assemblies of triply-periodic network (TPN) phases, which are highly sought after, yet elusive, nanostructures for many functional material applications that rely on their combination of symmetry and polycontinuous domain connectivity [R1, R2], such as topological-photonics, supercapacitors and ultrafiltration media. While they have been a target of “bottom up” approaches to nanostructured, hybrid materials, the ability to manipulate the tubular network morphology of TPN assemblies beyond the cubic double-gyroid (DG) phase has advanced relatively little.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Structural uncertainty assessment for low-Mach wall-resolved large-eddy simulations: Plane Channel and Periodic Hill Use Cases

A structural uncertainty assessment is provided for a set of wall-resolved large-eddy simulations (WRLES) using a turbulent channel flow (𝑅𝑒 𝜏 395) and a periodic hill in the turbulent regime (𝑅𝑒 𝑏 2800) validation suite. The standard one-equation subgrid scale turbulent kinetic energy model (𝑘 𝑠𝑔𝑠 ) using both a static and dynamic coefficient approach along with Wall Adapting Local Eddy Viscosity (WALE) are exercised. The 𝑘 𝑠𝑔𝑠 model activated in this study also allows for a correction that supports theoretical turbulent viscosity and total kinetic energy scaling (cubit and quadratic, respectively) in the near-wall regime. Channel and hill results showcase very good agreement between prediction and simulation for the WALE and the dynamic coefficient 𝑘 𝑠𝑔𝑠 model. The study also demonstrates that near-wall damping improves predictivity for the static coefficient 𝑘 𝑠𝑔𝑠 model, while proving an unnecessary additional contribution for the dynamic coefficient 𝑘 𝑠𝑔𝑠 model as near-wall scaling is naturally captured. Overall conclusions are that this suite of WRLES models are well suited for production usage in the Sierra-based low-Mach codes.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

ComStock Measure Documentation: Thermostat Setbacks During Unoccupied Periods

This report assesses the potential for nationwide adoption of thermostat setbacks in appropriate applications. Building on the 3-year End-Use Load Profiles project to calibrate and validate the U.S. Department of Energy’s ResStock™ and ComStock™ models, this work produces national datasets that enable cities, states, utilities, and other stakeholders to answer a broad range of questions regarding their commercial building stock. ComStock is a highly granular, bottom-up model that uses various data sources, statistical sampling methods, and advanced building energy simulations to estimate the annual sub-hourly energy consumption of the commercial building stock across the United States. The “baseline” model intends to represent the U.S. commercial building stock as it existed in 2018. The methodology of the baseline model is discussed in the ComStock Reference Documentation. The goal of this work is to develop energy efficiency and demand flexibility measures that cover market-ready technologies and study their mass-adoption impact on the baseline building stock. “Measures” refers to various “what-if” scenarios that can be applied to buildings. The results for the baseline and measure scenario simulations are published in public datasets that provide insights into building stock characteristics, operational behaviors, utility bill impacts, and annual and sub-hourly energy usage by fuel type and end use. This report describes the modeling methodology for a single ComStock measure scenario— Thermostat Setbacks During Unoccupied Periods—and briefly introduces key results. The full public dataset can be accessed on the ComStock data lake or via the Data Viewer at comstock.nrel.gov. The public dataset enables users to create custom aggregations of results for their use cases (e.g., filter to a specific county or building type).

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Fusion Materials Semiannual Progress Report for the Period Ending June 30, 2025

This is the seventy-eighth in a series of semiannual technical progress reports on fusion materials science activity supported by the Fusion Energy Sciences Program of the U.S. Department of Energy. It covers the period ending June 30 th , 2025. This report focuses on research addressing the effects on materials properties and performance of exposure to the neutronic, thermal and chemical environments anticipated in the chambers of fusion experiments and energy systems. This research is a major element of the national effort to establish the materials knowledge base for an economically and environmentally attractive fusion energy source. Research activities on issues related to the interaction of materials with plasmas are reported separately. The results reported are the products of a national effort involving a number of national laboratories and universities. A large fraction of this work, particularly in relation to fission reactor irradiations, is carried out collaboratively with international partners, e.g., Japan and the UK. The purpose of this series of reports is to provide a working technical record for the use of program participants, and to provide a means of communicating the efforts of fusion materials scientists to the broader fusion community, both nationally and worldwide. This report has been compiled by Stephanie Melton, Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Her efforts, and the efforts of the many persons who made technical contributions, are gratefully acknowledged.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Tethered Balloon System Ozone Profiles during CoURAGE Summer Intensive Operational Period Field Campaign Report

During the summer IOP, the small ARM field campaign CRGTBSO3 collected measurements to gain an improved understanding of differences between the atmospheric composition in and just above the marine layer at the CoURAGE TBS site near the eastern shore of Chesapeake Bay. CRGTBSO3 included guest instrumentation with ozone (O 3 ) profile measurements on the TBS and surface O3 and meteorological measurements at the TBS site. An En-Sci 2Z electrochemical cell (ECC) ozonesonde (Komhyr 1969, 1986, Witte et al. 2018) was included on the TBS. The ozonesonde was connected to an InterMet iMet-4RSB radiosonde, and the overall data collected included vertical profiles of ozone, relative humidity, temperature, pressure, and altitude. The CRGTBSO3 iMet-4 radiosonde data is identical to that of the iMet in the Tethered Balloon System Merged Data Product (TBSMERGED; Gaustad and Dexheimer 2025). The TBSMERGED data product also includes meteorological data from a different sensor, the iMet XQ2. In some cases, the iMet XQ2 relative humidity (RH) data may be more accurate than the iMet-4, such as for some instances when the iMet-4 RH data stays at 100% for an extended period throughout a profile.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Special Observing Period (SOP) data for the Year of Polar Prediction site Model Intercomparison Project (YOPPsiteMIP)

The rapid changes occurring in the polar regions require an improved understanding of the processes that are driving these changes. At the same time, increased human activities such as marine navigation, resource exploitation, aviation, commercial fishing, and tourism require reliable and relevant weather information. One of the primary goals of the World Meteorological Organization's Year of Polar Prediction (YOPP) project is to improve the accuracy of numerical weather prediction (NWP) at high latitudes. During YOPP, two Canadian “supersites” were commissioned and equipped with new ground-based instruments for enhanced meteorological and system process observations. Additional pre-existing supersites in Canada, the United States, Norway, Finland, and Russia also provided data from ongoing long-term observing programs. These supersites collected a wealth of observations that are well suited to address YOPP objectives. In order to increase data useability and station interoperability, novel Merged Observatory Data Files (MODFs) were created for the seven supersites over two Special Observing Periods (February to March 2018 and July to September 2018). All observations collected at the supersites were compiled into this standardized NetCDF MODF format, simplifying the process of conducting pan-Arctic NWP verification and process evaluation studies. This paper describes the seven Arctic YOPP supersites, their instrumentation, data collection and processing methods, the novel MODF format, and examples of the observations contained therein. MODFs comprise the observational contribution to the model intercomparison effort, termed YOPP site Model Intercomparison Project (YOPPsiteMIP). All YOPPsiteMIP MODFs are publicly accessible via the YOPP Data Portal (Whitehorse: https://doi.org/10.21343/a33e-j150, Huang et al., 2023a; Iqaluit: https://doi.org/10.21343/yrnf-ck57, Huang et al., 2023b; Sodankylä: https://doi.org/10.21343/m16p-pq17, O'Connor, 2023; Utqiagvik: https://doi.org/10.21343/a2dx-nq55, Akish and Morris, 2023c; Tiksi: https://doi.org/10.21343/5bwn-w881, Akish and Morris, 2023b; Ny-Ålesund: https://doi.org/10.21343/y89m-6393, Holt, 2023; and Eureka: https://doi.org/10.21343/r85j-tc61, Akish and Morris, 2023a), which is hosted by MET Norway, with corresponding output from NWP models.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

NGEE Arctic Tram: Periodic Soil Moisture, Temperature, and Thaw Depth Measurements across Polygonal Tundra, Utqiagvik (Barrow), Alaska, 2014-2015

Manual measurements of soil moisture, temperature, and thaw depth were collected in the footprint of the NGEE Arctic Tram starting 2014-07-20 and continuing through 2015-07-16. There were 10 periodic sampling events with measurements in one *.csv file. These measurements were collected under the Tram observational platform. Probes were inserted into ground beneath the track closest to Tram sensors measurement locations at each Tram measurement position (Position # marked on the tracks). A MiniTrase Time Domain Reflectometry (TDR) instrument was used to measure volumetric water content (VWC; units = m3/m3). Soil temperature was measured with a thermocouple probe. Depth of thawed soil was measured from the top of the moss layer or top of soil. See user guide for more information *.pdf. The Next-Generation Ecosystem Experiments: Arctic (NGEE Arctic), was a research effort to reduce uncertainty in Earth System Models by developing a predictive understanding of carbon-rich Arctic ecosystems and feedbacks to climate. NGEE Arctic was supported by the Department of Energy's Office of Biological and Environmental Research. The NGEE Arctic project had two field research sites: 1) located within the Arctic polygonal tundra coastal region on the Barrow Environmental Observatory (BEO) and the North Slope near Utqiagvik (Barrow), Alaska and 2) multiple areas on the discontinuous permafrost region of the Seward Peninsula north of Nome, Alaska. Through observations, experiments, and synthesis with existing datasets, NGEE Arctic provided an enhanced knowledge base for multi-scale modeling and contributed to improved process representation at global pan-Arctic scales within the Department of Energy's Earth system Model (the Energy Exascale Earth System Model, or E3SM), and specifically within the E3SM Land Model component (ELM).

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Experimental characterization of a triply periodic minimal surface PCM-to-air thermal energy storage device

Here, the expansion of energy production has intensified research into thermal energy storage (TES) to manage variability and improve system efficiency. Heat exchanger design is critical to achieving high power densities in TES systems. This study presents a high-surface-area phase change material (PCM)-to-air heat exchanger fabricated via resin-based stereolithography with a novel gyroid-based geometry tailored for enhanced performance. Material properties of the commercial PCM and resin were characterized using analytical techniques. A controlled air loop was used to evaluate heat transfer and pressure drop at various flow rates and inlet temperatures. Results show a strong dependence on the inlet temperature difference (ΔT) relative to the PCM melting point. During charging at the highest flow rate, increasing the inlet air temperature from ΔT = 5 °C to 20 °C above the melting point increased the average heat transfer rate by 187%. During discharging, decreasing the inlet temperature by the same ΔT below the melting point led to a 232% increase. Notably, the high-surface-area design enabled nearly symmetric charging and discharging behavior, a novel result for PCM-based TES systems which are often restricted by natural convection and other effects. The overall heat transfer coefficient was calculated and compared to values from standard design correlations. The maximum thermal effectiveness reached 95% at ΔT = 20 °C and a moderate flow rate of 34 m 3 /h. Peak coefficients of performance (COP) of 7 during charging and 6.4 during discharging were observed at ΔT = 20 °C and a low flow rate of 20 m 3 /h. These results demonstrate the viability of additively manufactured geometries for advanced TES applications.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Glycerol Adsorption on TiO 2 Surfaces: A Systematic Periodic DFT Study

Abstract Conversion of glycerol to added‐value products is desirable due to its surplus during biodiesel synthesis. TiO 2 has been the most explored catalyst. We performed a systematic study of glycerol adsorption on anatase (101), anatase (001), and rutile (110) TiO 2 at the Density Functional Theory level. We found several adsorption modes on these surfaces, with anatase (101) being the less reactive one, leading to adsorption energies between −0.8 and −0.4 eV, with all adsorptions molecular in nature. On the contrary, anatase (001) is the most reactive surface, leading to both molecular and dissociative adsorption modes, with energies ranging from −4 to −1 eV and undergoing severe surface reconstructions in some cases. Rutile (110) also shows both molecular and dissociative adsorptions, but it is less reactive than anatase (001). Surfaces with oxygen vacancies affects the adsorbed states and energies. The electronic structure analysis reveals that glycerol adsorption mainly affects the band gap of the material and not the individual contributions to the valence and conduction band. Bader charge analysis shows that strong adsorption modes on anatase (001) and rutile (110) are associated with large charge transfer from glycerol to the surface, while weak and molecular adsorption modes involve low charge transfer.

Chemistry↗