Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “PLASTICITY”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 937 records · Page 52
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2015

In situ spectroscopic study of the plastic deformation of amorphous silicon under nonhydrostatic conditions induced by indentation

Indentation-induced plastic deformation of amorphous silicon (a-Si) thin films was studied by in situ Raman imaging of the deformed contact region of an indented sample, employing a Raman spectroscopy-enhanced instrumented indentation technique (IIT). The occurrence and evolving spatial distribution of changes in the a-Si structure caused by processes, such as polyamorphization and crystallization, induced by indentation loading were observed. Furthermore, the obtained experimental results are linked with previously published work on the plastic deformation of a-Si under hydrostatic compression and shear deformation to establish a model for the deformation behavior of a-Si under indentation loading.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2017

Metastability and hysteretic vortex pinning near the order-disorder transition in NbSe 2 : Interplay between plastic and elastic energy barriers

We studied thermal and dynamic history effects in the vortex lattice (VL) near the order-disorder transition in clean NbSe 2 single crystals. Comparing the evolution of the effective vortex pinning and the bulk VL structure, we observed metastable superheated and supercooled VL configurations that coexist with a hysteretic effective pinning response due to thermal cycling of the system. A novel scenario, governed by the interplay between (lower) elastic and (higher) plastic energy barriers, is proposed as an explanation for our observations: Plastic barriers, which prevent the annihilation or creation of topological defects, require dynamic assistance to be overcome and to achieve a stable VL at each temperature. Conversely, thermal hysteresis in the pining response is ascribed to low energy barriers, which inhibit rearrangement within a single VL correlation volume and are easily overcome as the relative strength of competing interactions changes with temperature.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2017

Bright x-rays reveal shifting deformation states and effects of the microstructure on the plastic deformation of crystalline materials

The plastic deformation of crystalline materials is usually modeled as smoothly progressing in space and time, yet modern studies show intermittency in the deformation dynamics of single-crystals arising from avalanche behavior of dislocation ensembles under uniform applied loads. However, once the prism of the microstructure in polycrystalline materials disperses and redistributes the load on a grain-by-grain basis, additional length and time scales are involved. Thus, the question is open as to how deformation intermittency manifests for the nonuniform grain-scale internal driving forces interacting with the finer-scale dislocation ensemble behavior. In this work we track the evolution of elastic strain within individual grains of a creep-loaded titanium alloy, revealing widely varying internal strains that fluctuate over time. Here, the findings provide direct evidence of how flow intermittency proceeds for an aggregate of ~700 grains while showing the influences of multiscale ensemble interactions and opening new avenues for advancing plasticity modeling.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2016

Avalanches, plasticity, and ordering in colloidal crystals under compression

Using numerical simulations we examine colloids with a long-range Coulomb interaction confined in a two-dimensional trough potential undergoing dynamical compression. As the depth of the confining well is increased, the colloids move via elastic distortions interspersed with intermittent bursts or avalanches of plastic motion. In these avalanches, the colloids rearrange to minimize their colloid-colloid repulsive interaction energy by adopting an average lattice constant that is isotropic despite the anisotropic nature of the compression. The avalanches take the form of shear banding events that decrease or increase the structural order of the system. At larger compression, the avalanches are associated with a reduction of the number of rows of colloids that fit within the confining potential, and between avalanches the colloids can exhibit partially crystalline or anisotropic ordering. The colloid velocity distributions during the avalanches have a non-Gaussian form with power law tails and exponents that are consistent with those found for the velocity distributions of gliding dislocations. We observe similar behavior when we subsequently decompress the system, and find a partially hysteretic response reflecting the irreversibility of the plastic events.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2017

Thermodynamic theory of dislocation-enabled plasticity

The thermodynamic theory of dislocation-enabled plasticity is based on two unconventional hypotheses. The first of these is that a system of dislocations, driven by external forces and irreversibly exchanging heat with its environment, must be characterized by a thermodynamically defined effective temperature that is not the same as the ordinary temperature. The second hypothesis is that the overwhelmingly dominant mechanism controlling plastic deformation is thermally activated depinning of entangled pairs of dislocations. This paper consists of a systematic reformulation of this theory followed by examples of its use in analyses of experimentally observed phenomena including strain hardening, grain-size (Hall-Petch) effects, yielding transitions, and adiabatic shear banding.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2018

Properties of hot-spot emission in a warm plastic-shell implosion on the OMEGA laser system

A warm plastic-shell implosion was performed on the OMEGA laser system. The measured corona plasma evolution and shell trajectory in the acceleration phase are reasonably simulated by the one-dimensional LILAC simulation including the nonlocal and cross-beam energy transfer models. The results from analytical thin-shell model reproduce the time-dependent shell radius by LILAC simulation, and also the hot-spot x-ray emissivity profile at stagnation predicted by Spect3D. In the Spect3D simulations within a clean implosion, a “U”-shaped hot-spot radius evolution can be observed with the Kirkpatrick-Baez microscope response (the photon energy is from 4 to 8 keV). However, a fading away hot-spot radius evolution was measured in OMEGA warm plastic-shell implosion because of mixings. In order to recover the measured hot-spot x-ray emissivity profile at stagnation, a non-isobaric hot-spot model is built, and the normalized hot-spot temperature, density, and pressure profiles (normalized to the corresponding target-center values) are obtained.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2019

Rayleigh-Taylor-instability experiments with elastic-plastic materials

A rotating wheel experimental facility was developed to investigate incompressible Rayleigh-Taylor instability in elastic-plastic materials. A soft solid (mayonnaise) was chosen as the elastic-plastic material for experiments; material properties that include shear modulus and yield strength were fully characterized using a vane spindle type rheometer. Initial perturbations of varying amplitudes and wavelengths were generated on the interface of the soft solid using sinusoidal cutting guides. A backlit imaging technique was used in conjunction with a high-speed camera to track the motion of the interface at various phases of the instability. Results for both two- and three-dimensional perturbations were compared to study the acceleration required for instability and the growth after the interface yielded. Exponential growth rates were observed after instability was reached with trends of increasing growth rates for lower initial amplitudes. It was found that the acceleration required for instability increased when initial amplitude and wavelength decreased. Here, three-dimensional interfaces were found to be more stable. For both cases, a decrease in initial amplitude produced a more stable interface that increased the threshold acceleration required for the instability. Critical amplitude conditions for instability were calculated and compared with various analytical models and other experimental results.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2022

Multiplicative Shot-Noise: A New Route to Stability of Plastic Networks

Fluctuations of synaptic weights, among many other physical, biological, and ecological quantities, are driven by coincident events of two “parent” processes. Here we propose a multiplicative shot-noise model that can capture the behaviors of a broad range of such natural phenomena, and analytically derive an approximation that accurately predicts its statistics. We apply our results to study the effects of a multiplicative synaptic plasticity rule that was recently extracted from measurements in physiological conditions. Using mean-field theory analysis and network simulations, we investigate how this rule shapes the connectivity and dynamics of recurrent spiking neural networks. The multiplicative plasticity rule is shown to support efficient learning of input stimuli, and it gives a stable, unimodal synaptic-weight distribution with a large fraction of strong synapses. The strong synapses remain stable over long times but do not “run away.” Our results suggest that the multiplicative shot-noise offers a new route to understand the tradeoff between flexibility and stability in neural circuits and other dynamic networks.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Neutron Response of the EJ-254 Boron-Loaded Plastic Scintillator

Organic scintillators doped with capture agents provide a detectable signal for neutrons over a broad energy range. This work characterizes the fast and slow neutron response of EJ-254, an organic plastic scintillator with 5 loading by weight. For fast neutrons, the primary mechanism for light generation in organic scintillators is n-p elastic scattering. To study the fast neutron response, the proton light yield of EJ-254 was measured at the 88-Inch Cyclotron at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Using a broad-spectrum neutron source and a double time-of-flight technique, the EJ-254 proton light yield was obtained over the energy range of approximately 270 keV to 4.5 MeV and determined to be in agreement with other plastic scintillators comprised of the same polymer base. To isolate the slow neutron response, an AmBe source with polyethylene moderator was made incident on the EJ-254 scintillator surrounded by an array of EJ-309 observation detectors. Events in the EJ-254 target coincident with the signature 477.6 keV γ ray (resulting from de-excitation of the residual 7Li nucleus following boron neutron capture) were identified. Pulse shape discrimination was used to evaluate the temporal differences in the response of EJ-254 scintillation signals arising from γ-ray and fast/slow neutron interactions. Clear separation between γ-ray and fast neutrons signals was not achieved and the neutron capture feature was observed to overlap both the γ-ray and fast neutron bands. Taking into account the electron light nonproportionality, the neutron capture light yield in EJ-254 was determined to be 89.4±1.1 keVee.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2022

A crystal plasticity finite element method modeling of Zircaloy with hydride phases based on scanning electron micrographs

This work developed a microstructure-based finite element model to predict the stress state of alloys with second phase inclusions. Quantitative microstructural details extracted from scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images were used to generate heterogeneous microstructures including the morphology and spatial distribution of hydrides. Generation of digital microstructure was achieved through two steps of tessellations using software Neper and Matlab. The process is demonstrated using an example of Zircaloy material with secondary phases of hydrides dispersed within and stress-strain response of Zircaloy containing hydrides was predicted. The constitutive material model for Zircaloy in this study was based on crystal plasticity theory which considers the hexagonal close-packed (HCP) atomic structure of Zircaloy material. The hydrides were modeled as isotropic elasto-plastic material. A parametric study had been conducted to understand the effect of volume fraction, and lamellae thickness of the hydride phase on the mechanical properties of the overall material. Results can help designers to alter the manufacturing process to obtain the enhanced mechanical properties for components used in nuclear applications made by Zircaloy material.

Kulkarni, Shank S.↗
DOE OSTI2019

A basis for applying elastic perfectly-plastic design methods to cyclic softening materials

Design approaches using elastic perfectly-plastic (EPP) analysis have recently been approved as Code Cases for the Section III, Division 5 design of high-temperature nuclear reactor components made from austenitic stainless steel. These methods bound the ratcheting strain and creep-fatigue damage accumulated over the life of a component with a simplified, elastic perfectly plastic analysis using a special pseudo-yield stress often not equal to the true material yield stress. The austenitic materials specified in the existing Code cases are cyclic-hardening for all allowable operating temperatures. However, other Section III, Division 5 materials, such as Grade 91 steel, are cyclic softening at expected advanced reactor operating temperatures. This work describes the extension of EPP methods to cyclic softening materials through the use of a postulated saturated material state and softening factors to be applied to the pseudo yield stress. We demonstrate the conservatism of the modified EPP method against a series of inelastic simulations of two bar tests, using a constitutive model that captures work and cyclic softening.

Messner, M. C.↗
DOE OSTI2015

Avalanches and plasticity for colloids in a time dependent optical trap

Here, with the use of optical traps it is possible to confine assemblies of colloidal particles in two-dimensional and quasi-one-dimensional arrays. Here we examine how colloidal particles rearrange in a quasi-one-dimensional trap with a time dependent confining potential. The particle motion occurs both through slow elastic uniaxial distortions as well as through abrupt large-scale two-dimensional avalanches associated with plastic rearrangements. During the avalanches the particle velocity distributions extend over a broad range and can be fit to a power law consistent with other studies of plastic events mediated by dislocations.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2015

SU-E-I-88: The Effect of System Dead Time On Real-Time Plastic and GOS Based Fiber-Optic Dosimetry Systems

Purpose: A methodology is presented to correct for measurement inaccuracies at high detector count rates using a plastic and GOS scintillation fibers coupled to a photomultiplier tube with digital readout. This system allows temporal acquisition and manipulation of measured data. Methods: The detection system used was a plastic scintillator and a separate gadolinium scintillator, both (0.5 diameter) coupled to an optical fiber with a Hamamatsu photon counter with a built-in microcontroller and digital interface. Count rate performance of the system was evaluated using the nonparalzable detector model. Detector response was investigated across multiple radiation sources including: orthovoltage x-ray system, colbat-60 gamma rays, proton therapy beam, and a diagnostic radiography x-ray tube. The dead time parameter was calculated by measuring the count rate of the system at different exposure rates using a reference detector. Results: The system dead time was evaluated for the following sources of radiation used clinically: diagnostic energy x-rays, cobalt-60 gamma rays, orthovoltage xrays, particle proton accelerator, and megavoltage x-rays. It was found that dead time increased significantly when exposing the detector to sources capable of generating Cerenkov radiation, all of the sources sans the diagnostic x-rays, with increasing prominence at higher photon energies. Percent depth dose curves generated by a dedicated ionization chamber and compared to the detection system demonstrated that correcting for dead time improves accuracy. On most sources, nonparalzable model fit provided an improved system response. Conclusion: Overall, the system dead time was variable across the investigated radiation particles and energies. It was demonstrated that the system response accuracy was greatly improved by correcting for dead time effects. Cerenkov radiation plays a significant role in the increase in the system dead time through transient absorption effects attributed to electron hole-pair creations within the optical waveguide.

07 ISOTOPE AND RADIATION SOURCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Disease resistance in coral is mediated by distinct adaptive and plastic gene expression profiles

Infectious diseases are an increasing threat to coral reefs, resulting in altered community structure and hindering the functional contributions of disease-susceptible species. We exposed seven reef-building coral species from the Caribbean to white plague disease and determined processes involved in (i) lesion progression, (ii) within-species gene expression plasticity, and (iii) expression-level adaptation among species that lead to differences in disease risk. Gene expression networks enriched in immune genes and cytoskeletal arrangement processes were correlated to lesion progression rates. Whether or not a coral developed a lesion was mediated by plasticity in genes involved in extracellular matrix maintenance, autophagy, and apoptosis, while resistant coral species had constitutively higher expression of intracellular protein trafficking. This study offers insight into the process involved in lesion progression and within- and between-species dynamics that lead to differences in disease risk that is evident on current Caribbean reefs.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2026

Plasticizer-Free Gradient-Crosslinked Polyurethane Electrolyte for Room-Temperature Solid-State Lithium Batteries

Polymer-based solid-state electrolytes are promising for next-generation lithium metal batteries, yet their limited ionic conductivity and mechanical stability at ambient conditions remain key challenges. Herein, we report a novel gradient crosslinked polymer electrolyte (PU/PUA/PU) synthesized via a sequential in situ UV-curing process that integrates a mechanically robust polyurethane acrylate (PUA) core with soft linear polyurethane (PU) interfaces. This all-solid membrane operates without any liquid plasticizer and the interfacial PU layers ensure low interfacial resistance and intimate electrode contact, while the PUA core provides enhanced dimensional stability and dendrite suppression. As a result, the gradient electrolyte delivers an impressive ∼2.6 × 10 −4 S cm −1 ionic conductivity at 25 °C (two orders of magnitude higher than conventional PEO) and remains electrochemically stable >5 V (vs Li + /Li). Structural analysis confirms the formation of a well-defined crosslinked network with suppressed crystallinity and expanded interchain spacing. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) further validate these properties. When applied in a Li||NMC811 cell, the PU/PUA/PU electrolyte delivers stable cycling with high capacity at both 60 °C and 25 °C, demonstrating its potential for room-temperature solid-state battery applications without reliance on plasticizers or heating. In conclusion, this gradient design offers a practical path toward ambient-condition operation of solid-state lithium batteries, providing a paradigm for overcoming the traditional trade-off between ionic conductivity and mechanical robustness.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Nir/ai Identification Of Waste Plastics

The program reads a near infrared reflectance (NIR) spectrum from an item of plastic waste, and identifies the type of plastic using an AI model. The spectra and results are displayed to the operator, and recorded in a database.

Bonebright, PatrickN [Idaho National Laboratory (I↗
DOE OSTI2017

Plastic Recycling Emissions And Economics (prise) Model

To provide more information to researchers and potential adopters of flexible plastic packaging recycling products, the SD model was developed to provide more information regarding the economics and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of potential rFlex (recycled flexible plastic packaging) products. Additionally, the model aimed to provide more insight into potential scenarios and/or policies that could be enacted to improve the economic and GHG emission outcomes of rFlex.

Severson, MichaelH [Idaho National Laboratory (INL↗
DOE OSTI2023

plastic-abm [SWR 23-74]

The plastic agent-based model (ABM) built with the MESA python library simulates agents decisions to recycle plastic waste according to an extended version of the theory of planned behavior.

Walzberg, Julien↗