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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
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2015

Biomaterials Out of Thin Air: in Situ, On-Demand Printing of Advanced Biocomposites

Upmass is the single most significant limitation of our current space mission capability. Although biomaterials and biocomposites have mass, strength, flexibility, and self-healing properties that could significantly reduce upmass, their use is limited by the following drawbacks: Expensive, specific production. Many biomaterials can only be produced as part of significant support ecosystem; Inaccessible functional customization. The grain of wood, the porosity of bone, and so on are an integral part of the materials' desired mechanical properties, but are not deterministic when the material is naturally grown; Limited compositions. Most biomaterials (unlike metal, plastic, etc.) cannot be easily combined or modified to produce new materials. This project builds on recent advances in: Synthetic biology. Libraries of standardized genetic parts which can be used for controlled cellular material production, delivery, and binding; 3D printing. Commercial off-the-shelf components which can be used to make of a pico- to nanoliter cell deposition system; Tissue engineering. Proven cell-compatible support hydrogels and scaffolds can be modified to bind the deposited biomaterials of interest. Objectives: Feasibility and benefit analysis. Two mission contexts span the concept's scope (see below); Proof-of-concept demonstration. A simple grid of two proteins, fluorescent for easy detection, to validate the core technology concept; Proposed implementations for follow-on work. Avenues for future work on each core component (host cell, production control, material delivery, material binding, etc.); Complementary studies exploration. A survey of other emerging areas (in situ resource utilization, protein engineering, etc.) with the potential to multiply our technology's impact. Potential Impacts: This application could dramatically expand manufacturing capabilities on Earth and in space: In situ resource utilization. A far greater range of materials and products will be available from the limited palette offered by in situ resource extraction techniques; Reduced equipment and material upmass for off-Earth habitats. Ready- to-use highly specialized construction materials (radiation hardened, compressive/tensile, light or dense) from an extremely low starting mass; Structured biomaterial production. New ready-to-use macro, micro, and molecular manufacturing techniques for traditional biomaterials such as wood, bone and shell; New and novel biocomposite creation. The ability to create completely novel material composites from any base material that cells can be engineered to produce. Suggested Mission Contexts: ISS part manufacturing. A 'minimal working example' making a finished biomaterial part aboard the International Space Station; A long-term Mars habitat. 'Cradle-to-grave' use at a hypothetical Mars habitat, covering everything from tools to construction materials. Alternate Abstract: Imagine being able to print anything from tools and composite building materials to food and human tissues. Imagine being on Mars with the ability to replace any broken part, whether it's a part of your spacesuit, your habitat, or your own body. We propose a technique that would allow just that. By printing 3D arrays of cells engineered to secrete the necessary materials, the abundant in situ resources of atmosphere and regolith become organic, inorganic, or organic-inorganic composite materials. Such materials include novel, biologically derived materials not previously possible to fabricate.

habitats↗
NASA NTRS2015

Biomaterials Out of Thin Air: in Situ, On-demand Printing of Advanced Biocomposites

Upmass is the single most significant limitation of our current space mission capability. Although biomaterials and biocomposites have mass, strength, flexibility, and self-healing properties that could significantly reduce upmass, their use is limited by the following drawbacks: Expensive, specific production. Many biomaterials can only be produced as part of significant support ecosystem; Inaccessible functional customization. The grain of wood, the porosity of bone, and so on are an integral part of the materials' desired mechanical properties, but are not deterministic when the material is naturally grown; Limited compositions. Most biomaterials (unlike metal, plastic, etc.) cannot be easily combined or modified to produce new materials. This project builds on recent advances in: Synthetic biology. Libraries of standardized genetic parts which can be used for controlled cellular material production, delivery, and binding; 3D printing. Commercial off-the-shelf components which can be used to make of a pico- to nanoliter cell deposition system; Tissue engineering. Proven cell-compatible support hydrogels and scaffolds can be modified to bind the deposited biomaterials of interest. Objectives: Feasibility and benefit analysis. Two mission contexts span the concept's scope (see below); Proof-of-concept demonstration. A simple grid of two proteins, fluorescent for easy detection, to validate the core technology concept; Proposed implementations for follow-on work. Avenues for future work on each core component (host cell, production control, material delivery, material binding, etc.); Complementary studies exploration. A survey of other emerging areas (in situ resource utilization, protein engineering, etc.) with the potential to multiply our technology's impact. Potential Impacts: This application could dramatically expand manufacturing capabilities on Earth and in space: In situ resource utilization. A far greater range of materials and products will be available from the limited palette offered by in situ resource extraction techniques; Reduced equipment and material upmass for off-Earth habitats. Ready- to-use highly specialized construction materials (radiation hardened, compressive/tensile, light or dense) from an extremely low starting mass; Structured biomaterial production. New ready-to-use macro, micro, and molecular manufacturing techniques for traditional biomaterials such as wood, bone and shell; New and novel biocomposite creation. The ability to create completely novel material composites from any base material that cells can be engineered to produce. Suggested Mission Contexts: ISS part manufacturing. A 'minimal working example' making a finished biomaterial part aboard the International Space Station; A long-term Mars habitat. 'Cradle-to-grave' use at a hypothetical Mars habitat, covering everything from tools to construction materials. Alternate Abstract: Imagine being able to print anything from tools and composite building materials to food and human tissues. Imagine being on Mars with the ability to replace any broken part, whether it's a part of your spacesuit, your habitat, or your own body. We propose a technique that would allow just that. By printing 3D arrays of cells engineered to secrete the necessary materials, the abundant in situ resources of atmosphere and regolith become organic, inorganic, or organic-inorganic composite materials. Such materials include novel, biologically derived materials not previously possible to fabricate.

habitats↗
DOE OSTI2025

Investigation of ventilation-coupled high energy density sensible thermal energy storage

Low-cost energy storage will play an important role in supporting the decarbonization of the energy sector. Here, a novel approach to thermal energy storage for buildings is proposed, in which a tank of antifreeze liquid can be used to heat outdoor air in mechanical ventilation systems. If heated to a high enough temperature, the fluid can potentially undergo temperature swings of nearly 100°C during discharge in cold climates. Because the energy density of sensible storage systems scales proportionally to the system temperature change, this concept has the potential to offer higher energy densities than other liquid-based sensible storage devices used in building applications. A one-dimensional numerical model of the storage system was developed and experimentally validated using 30 wt% (wt%) potassium acetate as an aqueous antifreeze solution. Using a commercial hot water tank, energy densities of 47.0 kW-hour per cubic meter (kWh/m 3 ) were demonstrated in a laboratory setting. Material energy densities of approximately 74.7 (kWh/m 3 ) were measured. Design improvements may boost this energy storage density even further. Because of the system's relative simplicity, ventilation-coupled sensible storage has the potential to be an easily deployable, low-cost energy storage solution for building systems.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Rate capability and Ragone plots for phase change thermal energy storage

Phase change materials can improve the efficiency of energy systems by time shifting or reducing peak thermal loads. The value of a phase change material is defined by its energy and power density—the total available storage capacity and the speed at which it can be accessed. These are influenced by material properties but cannot be defined with these properties alone. In this work, we show the close link between energy and power density by developing thermal rate capability and Ragone plots, a framework widely used to describe the trade-off between energy and power in electrochemical storage systems (that is, batteries). Our results elucidate how material properties, geometry and operating conditions influence the performance of phase change thermal storage. This research sets a clear framework for comparing thermal storage materials and devices and can be used by researchers and designers to increase clean energy use with storage.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Thermal battery cost scaling analysis: minimizing the cost per kW h

Thermal and cost-scaling analyses provide the tools to optimize the geometry of thermal batteries based on cost. Figures-of-merit comprised of storage material properties are derived as the quantities that should be maximized when different components dominate cost.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2023

KBase Credit Metadata Schema

As part of KBase’s commitment to promote open science, we offer users the ability to obtain a DOI (Digital Object Identifier) for their work, which can then be cited in an associated science publication. To further support the community-wide shift towards FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) data, KBase is expanding our data descriptors so that KBase DOIs have comprehensive citations for datasets, in addition to referencing publications or software used in the workflow. This helps encourage a culture of giving attribution for all research inputs and outputs; standard practice for literature, but still relatively new for software products or datasets. It also promotes open science by building trust that contributors get credit for their work, and accelerates knowledge discovery by supporting and incentivizing the release of data.

96 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND PRESERVATION↗
NASA NTRS2012

Custom Machines Advance Composite Manufacturing

Here is a brief list of materials that NASA will not be using to construct spacecraft: wood, adobe, fiberglass, bone. While it might be obvious why these materials would not make for safe space travel, they do share a common characteristic with materials that may well be the future foundation of spacecraft design: They all are composites. Formed of two or more unlike materials - such as cellulose and lignin in the case of wood, or glass fibers and plastic resin in the case of fiberglass-composites provide enhanced mechanical and physical properties through the combination of their constituent materials. For this reason, composites are used in everything from buildings, bathtubs, and countertops to boats, racecars, and sports equipment. NASA continually works to develop new materials to enable future space missions - lighter, less expensive materials that can still withstand the extreme demands of space travel. Composites such as carbon fiber materials offer promising solutions in this regard, providing strength and stiffness comparable to metals like aluminum but with less weight, allowing for benefits like better fuel efficiency and simpler propulsion system design. Composites can also be made fatigue tolerant and thermally stable - useful in space where temperatures can swing hundreds of degrees. NASA has recently explored the use of composites for aerospace applications through projects like the Composite Crew Module (CCM), a composite-constructed version of the aluminum-lithium Multipurpose Crew Capsule. The CCM was designed to give NASA engineers a chance to gain valuable experience developing and testing composite aerospace structures.

Source record↗
DOE OSTI2022

Preprocessing of municipal solid waste towards thermal insulating material

Municipal solid waste (MSW) is one of the significant challenges in today’s world. A continuous surge in population, increasing living standards, and rapid urbanization are generating an enormous quantity of MSW. For example, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported that the total generation of MSW in the United States in 2018 was 292.4 million tons. Improper management of this MSW often leads to the release of greenhouse gases, emission of particulate matters, and formation of dioxins, which all ultimately contributes to climate change. Recycling these wastes via landfills with gas recovery and/or energy and material production via thermal and chemical conversions could be viable options to manage these challenges. Depending on the inherent chemical and structural properties of unrecycled wastes, the carbon structures can be tailored for processing and reuse in manufacturing of structural composites, building materials such as insulation, carbon dense reactant materials such as activated carbon, and so on. According to the EPA’s estimation, MSW in the United States is approximately 23% paper and paperboard, 12% plastics, 6% wood and 6% is textiles. Thus, this research focused on the feasibility of using the MSW as insulation material for the construction sector. The goal of this work was to determine the range of particle sizes, consolidation ratios, and component blends that can achieve insulation R-values within at least 70% that of traditional blown cellulose fiber. To achieve this goal, we designed the testing matrix based on five different component blends, three different particle sizes, and three different compaction level. An American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) method (C-739) was used to measure the R-value of the insulation material. Results showed that, adding more paper component in addition to smaller particle size and loose compaction made the insulation similar to the traditional blown cellulose fiber insulation as the R-value was within a range of 2.5-3.0 per inch.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2022

Heating and Cooling Energy Modeling of 3D-Printed Concrete Construction of Residential Buildings [Slides]

3D printed concrete construction (C3DP) is an emerging technology that comes with the associated benefits of high thermal mass walls. We investigated using BEopt software the heating and cooling energy use of a single story C3DP-constructed house. We then compared the heating/cooling energy use of the C3DP house against the corresponding energy use in a traditional timber (wood) frame construction (WFC), as well as a concrete masonry unit (CMU) construction. Both peak energy use for heating and cooling (Btu), as well as base energy use for both heating and cooling (MMBtu/yr) of the C3DP design were compared against the WFC and CMU baseline construction of identical geometries and orientations across all eight climate zones defined in the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC). The BEopt models for all three constructions (C3DP, WFC, and CMU) were built to comply with the 2018 IECC code. Results indicate that C3DP construction has significant heating and cooling energy benefits in certain climate zones, with the highest peak cooling energy savings (9% compared to WFC, and 5% compared to CMU) in the IECC Climate Zone 1 in the month of July. The peak heating and cooling energy demand reduction of C3DP were found to be more significant than the base heating and cooling energy demand in all IECC climate zones. The 2018 IECC compliance-related U-Factor adjustments of all models also resulted in more peak energy savings of the C3DP design in the cooling-dominated climate zones (climate zones 1 and 2), moderate energy savings in moderate climate zones (climate zones 3, 4, and 6), and little to no change in energy savings in very cold climates (climate zones 7 and 8).

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
NASA NTRS2021

Dendroarchaeological Analysis of the Terminal Warehouse in New York City Reveals A History of Long-Distance Timber Transport During the Gilded Age

The Gilded Age of the late 19th century marked a period of rapid development and urbanization in New York City, U.S. To accommodate the high demand in wood products during that time, the timbers used for development of the city were increasingly sourced from locations distant from the northeastern United States. The Terminal Warehouse in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City was one of many large buildings erected during this period of city expansion, and is an important symbol of New York City commerce during the late 1800s. To determine the history and provenance of timbers used in the construction of the Terminal Warehouse, we used tree-ring analysis on longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) joists that were original to the building. The ring-width patterns on the joists cross dated well internally, suggesting a common origin of the sampled lumber. Further, our Terminal Warehouse tree-ring chronology (1512–1891 C.E.) correlated strongly with existing tree-ring chronologies from western/central Georgia and eastern Alabama, indicating that the timbers were extracted from this region of the southeastern United States. The provenancing and dating of the Terminal Warehouse timbers underscores the important role that southern pines played in the expansion and development of New York City during the Gilded Age.

Dendroprovenance↗
DOE OSTI2024

Grid Interactive Micro-Distributed Refrigerated Display Case

Open-vertical medium-temperature refrigerated display cases comprise nearly 50% of total case lineups in a typical supermarket, with more than 80% of their cooling load attributed to infiltration of warm and moist air from the surrounding space. The infiltration takes place across the air curtain system of the display case. While the air curtain acts as a thermal shield and as a cooling mechanism to maintain product temperature, it also entrains large amounts of heat and moisture from the adjacent space. Additionally, from food safety and quality standpoints, these fixtures are vulnerable to electric outages and traditionally cannot participate in load flexibility events. This paper describes key features of an innovative design of a self-contained, water-cooled, medium-temperature, open-vertical display case. The novel concept will eliminate the inefficient air curtain system and incorporate a hybrid radiant and low-airflow convective cooling design with a thermal-energy-storage-coupled heat exchanger integrated into the refrigeration circuit. The focus of this paper is on evaluating the thermal performance of the novel hybrid design in maintaining target product temperature. It presents thermal performance findings from thermo-fluid system modeling and robust state-of-the-art laboratory experiments used to validate those models. Load flexibility attributes from thermal energy storage are not discussed. A controlled-environment chamber at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory was leveraged to validate the thermal performance of the novel technology. Final results from bench-scale experiments indicate the proposed design maintained mean product temperatures within food safety guidelines.

commercial refrigeration↗
DOE OSTI2026

Local Resource Assessment: Beetle-Killed Spruce in Alaska

This report synthesizes forest inventory and spatial data from federal and state sources to present a snapshot of beetle-killed spruce across Southcentral and Interior Alaska. This natural resource is under investigation for use in cellulose-based products, particularly building insulation. Research funded by the Department of Energy's ARPA-E program, has successfully developed insulation - Celium - using beetle-killed spruce combined with mycelium, the root network of fungi. The resulting insulation product can be manufactured locally and used across all Alaskan climate zones for residential, commercial, and shipping applications. Removing standing dead wood also contributes to wildfire risk reduction and mitigates associated public health impacts. This Local Resource Assessment, funded by the Denali Commission, contextualizes and reconciles unaligned forestry data sources, establishing a pathway to refined, replicable analysis and, ultimately, presenting estimates of beetle-killed spruce biomass to inform the potential scale and development of a Celium industry.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2024

Measuring the Moisture Content of Wood Sheathing with Continuous Wave Radars

Radars were studied for measuring the moisture content of wood-based materials because of their non-destructive nature and their ability to measure the moisture content of several layers at once. These convenient characteristics enable a quick and non-invasive method to find areas of high moisture content in building envelopes so that problems can be fixed before the structure degrades. The need to operate the radar at millimeter ranges required the development of new techniques and methods for analyzing and calculating the moisture content of individual layers of building material. The techniques are providing accurate results for oriented strand board, and efforts are continuing for investigating other construction materials, meeting FCC requirements, and building a system that will be easy to deploy.

Killough, Stephen M↗
DOE OSTI2020

Extended Plate Wall System Expands Adoption of High-R Envelope Solutions

For decades, the residential building industry has worked to expand opportunities to increase the thermal resistance of walls. Multiple high-R wall construction methods have been developed, yet market adoption remains low because of perceived complexity and cost. One appealing solution is an extended plate wall system (EPW). Framing for top and bottom plates is one nominal dimension larger than for studs, which provides space for a 2-inch layer of foam plastic insulative sheathing (FPIS). Wood structural sheathing (OSB or plywood) is then installed on the exterior, fastened directly to the plates and nailed through the foam to the studs. In contrast to the conventional method of installing FPIS as a fully exterior layer, the EPW greatly simplifies air sealing, installation and detailing of windows and doors, an application of a weather resistive barrier, and attachment of cladding.

Building America↗
DOE OSTI2026

Transformative Efficiency and Automation in Modular Homes (TEAMH)

This report documents the Transformative Efficiency and Automation in Modular Homes (TEAMH) project, which evaluates the integration of advanced building envelope technologies and automation-assisted modular construction to improve residential energy performance and construction efficiency. The study investigates high-performance insulation systems, including vacuum insulation panels (VIPs), combined with light gauge steel (LGS) modular construction and factory automation. Laboratory testing, whole-building energy modeling across multiple climate zones, and factory demonstrations were conducted to assess thermal performance, energy savings, and production efficiency. Results indicate that upgraded envelope assemblies can achieve up to ~50% heating and ~34% cooling energy savings relative to IECC 2018 code-compliant homes, while automation-assisted construction can reduce wall assembly time by 24%–46% compared to conventional wood framing. The findings demonstrate the potential for scalable, high-performance modular homes that deliver significant energy savings with competitive projected costs.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2020

Extended Plate Wall System Expands Adoption of High-R Envelope Solution

For decades, the residential building industry has worked to expand opportunities to increase the thermal resistance of walls. Multiple high-R wall construction methods have been developed, yet market adoption remains low because of perceived complexity and cost. One appealing solution is an extended plate wall system (EPW). Framing for top and bottom plates is one nominal dimension larger than for studs, which provides space for a 2-inch layer of foam plastic insulative sheathing (FPIS). Wood structural sheathing (OSB or plywood) is then installed on the exterior, fastened directly to the plates and nailed through the foam to the studs. In contrast to the conventional method of installing FPIS as a fully exterior layer, the EPW greatly simplifies air sealing, installation and detailing of windows and doors, an application of a weather resistive barrier, and attachment of cladding.

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION↗
NASA NTRS1983

Cumulus clouds - Interactions between laboratory experiments and observations as foundations for models

Early Woods Hole cumulus observations conducted with the aid of an aircraft suggested that buoyancy dilution by entrainment was a major brake upon tropical cumulus growth. The mechanism by which entrainment occurred, however, was not well understood. Ludlam and Scorer (1953) postulated that buoyant bubbles were the building blocks of cumulus clouds and that it was aerodynamic drag which caused the tops to cease rising. The present investigation is concerned with laboratory experiments and analyses which have been conducted to clarify remaining questions. Attention is given to bubbles in water of uniform density, bubbles released into stably stratified fluids, bubbles released into a two-layer fluid, some observational questions, and buoyant plumes and thermals. The considered experiments provide some insight concerning the mechanism involved in the conversion of buoyancy into motion, taking into account a simpler fluid situation.

Simpson, J.↗