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Information efficiency in visual communication

This paper evaluates the quantization process in the context of the end-to-end performance of the visual-communication channel. Results show that the trade-off between data transmission and visual quality revolves around the information in the acquired signal, not around its energy. Improved information efficiency is gained by frequency dependent quantization that maintains the information capacity of the channel and reduces the entropy of the encoded signal. Restorations with energy bit-allocation lose both in sharpness and clarity relative to restorations with information bit-allocation. Thus, quantization with information bit-allocation is preferred for high information efficiency and visual quality in optimized visual communication.

Alter-Gartenberg, Rachel↗

The Effect of Turbulence Modeling on the Mixing Characteristics of Several Fuel Injectors at Hypervelocity Flow Conditions

CFD analysis is presented on the effects of turbulence modeling choices on the mixing characteristics and performance of three fuel injectors at hypervelocity flow conditions. The analyses were carried out with the VULCAN-CFD solver using Reynolds-Averaged Simulations (RAS). The hypervelocity flow conditions match the high Mach number flow of the experiments conducted as a part of the Enhanced Injection and Mixing Project (EIMP) at the NASA Langley Research Center. The three injectors are the baseline configurations used in the experiments and represent three categories of injectors typically considered individually or in combination for fueling high-speed propulsive devices. The current work discusses the impact of the turbulence model and the turbulent Schmidt number on the mixing flow field behavior and the mixing performance as described by the one-dimensional values of the Mach number, total pressure recovery, and the mixing efficiency. Because planar laser induced fluorescence (PLIF) images are available from the EIMP experiments, the sensitivity of the synthetic LIF signal to turbulence modeling choices is also examined to determine whether PLIF can be extended beyond its intended qualitative visualization purpose and used to guide CFD turbulence model and parameter selections. It is found that the mixing performance, as quantified using mixing efficiency, exhibits a strong sensitivity to both turbulence model choice and turbulent Schmidt number value. However, the synthetic LIF signal only demonstrates a modest level of sensitivity, which suggests that PLIF is of limited use for guiding CFD turbulence model and parameter selections.

Drozda, Tomasz G.↗

A Toolbox Necessity: Finding Best Practices in High-Performance Homes with the Building America Solution Center

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Building America Solution Center is a free, easy-to-access web tool containing the latest building science research from the Building America program. This paper describes how the Solution Center is bringing best practices for high-performance homes to members of the building industry to help their businesses to gain an edge to help expand their markets. It includes a tour of the Solution Center’s newest features and updates. The Building America Solution Center provides full and simple access to a wealth of best practices based on building science and energy efficiency research generated by the Building America program, along with other resources to help builders specify features, train crews, complete quality installations, and sell houses. This paper supports the visual presentation with the same title. The paper will be submitted for inclusion in the ACEEE Summer Study 2018 proceedings. The poster will be presented at the ACEEE 2018 Summer Study conference.

.S. Department of Energy Building Technologies Pro↗

Performance Assessment of a Generic Nuclear Waste Repository in Shale - 18392

A performance assessment (PA) is an important component of a comprehensive safety analysis for a nuclear waste repository. In a PA, probabilistic simulations of the total repository system are performed, and results are evaluated against performance metrics. Uncertainty and sensitivity analyses help prioritize additional research and model development. The United States Department of Energy (DOE) has been developing a state of the art PA simulation software tool-kit, Geologic Disposal Safety Assessment (GDSA) Framework, that couples increasingly higher fidelity models of subsystem processes into total system PA simulations. Over the past several years, PAs of generic repositories in three geologic media (salt, shale, and crystalline rock) have demonstrated ongoing developments in capability. The current PA of a nuclear waste repository in a generic shale formation showcases GDSA Framework, including capabilities in domain discretization (Cubit), multi-physics simulations (PFLOTRAN), uncertainty and sensitivity analysis (Dakota), and visualization (Paraview). The generic shale reference case considers the disposal of 22,000 metric tons heavy metal of commercial spent nuclear fuel (SNF) in a generic shale formation. PA simulations account for the thermal load and radionuclide inventory of the waste form, components of the engineered barrier system including waste package and buffer, and components of the natural barrier system including the host rock shale and underlying and overlying stratigraphic units. Two repository layouts are considered, one for emplacement of waste packages containing 12 pressurized water reactor (PWR) assemblies, and one for 4-PWR waste package emplacement. Model domains are half-symmetry and contain between 7 and 22 million grid cells. Grid refinement captures the detail of individual waste packages, emplacement drifts, access drifts, and shafts. Simulations are run in a high-performance computing (HPC) environment on 512 or 2048 processes. The governing equations describing coupled heat and fluid flow and reactive transport are solved with PFLOTRAN, an open-source, massively parallel multiphase flow and reactive transport code. Additional simulated processes include waste package degradation; waste form dissolution; radioactive decay and ingrowth in aqueous, solid, and adsorbed phases; and a simple biosphere based on a pumping well. Simulations are run to 106 y; dose and radionuclide concentrations are observed within aquifers at a point approximately 5 km downgradient of the repository. Dakota is used to sample likely ranges of input parameters including waste form and waste package degradation rates and properties of engineered and natural materials to quantify uncertainty in predicted concentrations and sensitivity to input parameters. Given the assumptions of the reference case, results of 12-PWR and 4-PWR simulations are very similar. Dose at the pumping well 5-km downgradient of the repository does not exceed 10-9 Sv/y. I-129 is the largest contributor to dose. The dose due to Cl-36, the next largest contributor, is orders of magnitude smaller. At the pumping well, the concentration of I-129 5-km downgradient does not exceed 10-14 mol/L. Rank correlation coefficients indicate that the maximum concentration of I-129 within the aquifer is sensitive to shale (repository host rock) porosity and aquifer permeability. These results affirm that HPC-capable codes can be used to simulate important multi-physics couplings directly in a total system performance assessment of a geologic repository, and can be used in prioritization of future research and model development. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

Perfect Crystals: microgravity capillary counterdiffusion crystallization of human manganese superoxide dismutase for neutron crystallography

The NASA mission Perfect Crystals used the microgravity environment on the International Space Station (ISS) to grow crystals of human manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD)—an oxidoreductase critical for mitochondrial vitality and human health. The mission’s overarching aim is to perform neutron protein crystallography (NPC) on MnSOD to directly visualize proton positions and derive a chemical understanding of the concerted proton electron transfers performed by the enzyme. Large crystals that are perfect enough to diffract neutrons to sufficient resolution are essential for NPC. This combination, large and perfect, is hard to achieve on Earth due to gravity-induced convective mixing. Capillary counterdiffusion methods were developed that provided a gradient of conditions for crystal growth along with a built-in time delay that prevented premature crystallization before stowage on the ISS. Here, we report a highly successful and versatile crystallization system to grow a plethora of crystals for high-resolution NPC.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Effect of lift-to-drag ratio in pilot rating of the HL-20 landing task

A man-in-the-loop simulation study of the handling qualities of the HL-20 lifting-body vehicle was made in a fixed-base simulation cockpit at NASA Langley Research Center. The purpose of the study was to identify and substantiate opportunities for improving the original design of the vehicle from a handling qualities and landing performance perspective. Using preliminary wind-tunnel data, a subsonic aerodynamic model of the HL-20 was developed. This model was adequate to simulate the last 75-90 s of the approach and landing. A simple flight-control system was designed and implemented. Using this aerodynamic model as a baseline, visual approaches and landings were made at several vehicle lift-to-drag ratios. Pilots rated the handling characteristics of each configuration using a conventional numerical pilot-rating scale. Results from the study showed a high degree of correlation between the lift-to-drag ratio and pilot rating. Level 1 pilot ratings were obtained when the L/D ratio was approximately 3.8 or higher.

Jackson, E. B.↗

Volatile Removal Assembly Flight Experiment and KC-135 Packed Bed Experiment: Results and Lessons Learned

The Volatile Removal Assembly (VRA) is a high temperature catalytic oxidation process that will be used as the final treatment for recycled water aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The multiphase nature of the process had raised concerns as to the performance of the VRA in a microgravity environment. To address these concerns, two experiments were designed. The VRA Flight Experiment (VRAFE) was designed to test a full size VRA under controlled conditions in microgravity aboard the SPACEHAB module and in a 1 -g environment and compare the performance results. The second experiment relied on visualization of two-phase flow through small column packed beds and was designed to fly aboard NASA's microgravity test bed plane (KC-135). The objective of the KC-135 experiment was to understand the two-phase fluid flow distribution in a packed bed in microgravity. On Space Transportation System (STS) flight 96 (May 1999), the VRA FE was successfully operated and in June 1999 the KC-135 packed bed testing was completed. This paper provides an overview of the experiments and a summary of the results and findings.

Holder, Donald W.↗

Qualification of UHF Antenna for Extreme Martian Thermal Environments

The purpose of this development was to validate the use of the external Rover Ultra High Frequency (RUHF) antenna for space under extreme thermal environments to be encountered during the surface operations of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission. The antenna must survive all ground operations plus the nominal 670 Martian sol mission that includes summer and winter seasons of the Mars thermal environment.The qualification effort was to verify that the RUHF antenna design and its bonding and packaging processes are adequate to survive the harsh environmental conditions. The RUHF is a quadrifilar helix antenna mounted on the MSL Curiosity rover deck. The main components of the RUHF antenna are the helix structure, feed cables, and hybrid coupler, and the high-power termination load. In the case of MSL rover externally mounted hardware, not only are the expected thermal cycle depths severe, but there are temperature offsets between the Mars summer and winter seasons. The total number of temperature cycles needed to be split into two regimes of summer cycles and winter cycles. The qualification test was designed to demonstrate a survival life of three times more than all expected ground testing, plus a nominal 670 Martian sol missions. Baseline RF tests and a visual inspection were performed prior to the start of the qualification test. Functional RF tests were performed intermittently during chamber breaks over the course of the qualification test. For the RF return loss measurements, the antenna was tested in a controlled environment outside the thermal chamber with a vector network analyzer that was calibrated over the antenna s operational frequency range. A total of 2,010 thermal cycles were performed. Visual inspection showed a dulling of the solder material. This change will not affect the performance of the antenna. No other changes were observed. RF tests were performed on the RUHF helix antenna, hybrid, and load after the 2,010 qualification cycles test. The RF performance of the RUHF antenna, hybrid, and load were almost identical before and after the complete test. Therefore, the developed design of RUHF is qualified for a long-duration MSL mission. The RUHF antenna has not been used for long-duration missions such as MSL in the past. The state-of-the-art technology of the RUHF antenna is used to develop the antennas for MSL mission survivability. This developmental test data provides the confidence in using this RUHF antenna for future NASA missions to Mars.

Ramesham, Rajeshuni↗

High-performance oxygen reduction and evolution carbon catalysis: From mechanistic studies to device integration

The development of high-performance and low-cost oxygen reduction and evolution catalysts that can be easily integrated into existing devices is crucial for the wide deployment of energy storage systems that utilize O 2 -H 2 O chemistries, such as regenerative fuel cells and metal-air batteries. Herein, we report an NH 3 -activated N-doped hierarchical carbon (NHC) catalyst synthesized via a scalable route, and demonstrate its device integration. The NHC catalyst exhibited good performance for both the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), as demonstrated by means of electrochemical studies and evaluation when integrated into the oxygen electrode of a regenerative fuel cell. The activities observed for both the ORR and the OER were comparable to those achieved by state-of-the-art Pt and Ir catalysts in alkaline environments. We have further identified the critical role of carbon defects as active sites for electrochemical activity through density functional theory calculations and high-resolution TEM visualization. As a result, this work highlights the potential of NHC to replace commercial precious metals in regenerative fuel cells and possibly metal-air batteries for cost-effective storage of intermittent renewable energy.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

A remarkable CHF of 345W/cm 2 is achieved in a wicked-microchannel using HFE-7100

Boiling heat transfer of dielectric fluids is a promising cooling technique for thermal management of microelectronic systems. However, the critical heat flux achievable is generally low, because of the poor thermophysical properties of these fluids. Here, to address this dilemma, we propose a new cooling concept to substantially enhance global liquid supply during phase-change process using enhanced capillary-driven force. Additionally, dedicated vapor pathways are designed among a bank of micro-pillars to facilitate vapor removal. In this work, new wicks comprised of silicon micro-pinfin arrays are explored to significantly enhance the flow boiling heat transfer performance. To examine the functionalities of this wick, experiments on HFE-7100 were carried out with mass velocities varying from 247 to 3,465 kg/m 2 s. To explore the enhancement mechanisms and to analyze the capillary-assisted flow boiling process, visualization studies were conducted. The results indicate that sustainable evaporation induced by wick microstructures and efficient liquid supply are the enhancement mechanisms compared to parallel microchannels with solid walls. It is found that the overall heat transfer coefficient is substantially increased up to 75%. Remarkably, a high critical heat flux (CHF) of approximately 345 W/cm 2 is recorded at G = 3,465 kg/m 2 s at coolant inlet temperature of ~20 °C. Equally importantly, this noticeable enhancement of CHF value is associated with drastically decreased pressure drops compared to microchannels decorated with μ-pinfin fences.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Transient mixing behavior of a supercritical fluid injected into supercritical and subcritical environments

Transient, near-field mixing of a supercritical fluid injected into supercritical and subcritical environments is investigated experimentally. Fuel (propane) from a 100 μm diameter Bosch diesel injector is injected into a high-pressure test rig with a steady flow of heated, low-velocity nitrogen to control the ambient pressure and temperature. The fuel supply pressure is approximately 190 bar, allowing short injections lasting 3–4 ms to be performed in quick succession to acquire statistically significant datasets to represent the unsteady fuel–air mixing. Two test cases with the same ambient density and injector inlet pressure and temperature were chosen in an attempt to isolate effects of mixture phase behavior. Microscopic rainbow Schlieren deflectometry (RSD) is used for visualization and quantitative data acquisition. In the case of the supercritical ambient, the injector inlet and exit and ambient conditions are all supercritical. The RSD analysis reveals a mixing process similar to the single phase fluid mixing, though condensation is also observed locally, and can be explained by the adiabatic mixing theory presented in the paper. For the subcritical ambient case, the injector inlet is supercritical, but the injector exit and ambient conditions are both subcritical. The results show a rapid expansion in the near-field promoting mixing between propane and nitrogen. At downstream locations, significant condensation is also observed as predicted by the adiabatic mixing theory. As a result, the supercritical ambient case exhibited longer and narrower jet penetration compared to the subcritical ambient case.

02 PETROLEUM↗

Global trends in Akkermansia muciniphila research: A bibliometric visualization

Background Akkermansia muciniphila is a member of the gut microbiome, using mucin as sources of carbon, nitrogen, and energy. Since the first discovery of this unique bacterium in 2004, A. muciniphila has been extensively studied. It is considered a promising “next-generation beneficial microbe.” The purpose of this paper is to sort out the research status and summarize the hotspots through bibliometric analysis of the publications of A. muciniphila. Methods The publications about A. muciniphila from January 2004 to February 2022 were obtained from the Web of Science Core Collection. Visualization analyses were performed using three bibliometric tools and GraphPad Prism. Results A total of 1,478 published documents were analyzed. Annual publication number grew from 1 in 2004 to 336 in 2021, with China being the leading producer (33.36%). De Vos, Willem M was the most productive author with the highest H-index (documents = 56, H-index = 37), followed by Cani, Patrice D (documents = 35, H-index = 25). And Scientific Reports published the most papers. PNAS was the keystone taxa in this field, with high betweenness centrality (0.11) and high frequency. The keywords with high frequency in recent years include: oxidative stress, diet, metformin, fecal microbiota transplantation, short-chain fatty acids, polyphenols, microbiota metabolites and so on. The keyword “oxidative stress” was observed to be increasing in frequency recently. Conclusion Over time, the scope of the research on the clinical uses of A. muciniphila has gradually increased, and was gradually deepened and developed toward a more precise level. A. muciniphila is likely to remain a research hotspot in the foreseeable future and may contribute to human health.

Li, Zitong↗

Residual Stresses and Plastic Deformation in Self-Pierce Riveting of Dissimilar Aluminum-to-Magnesium Alloys

In this study, the complex relationship between deformation history and residual stresses in a magnesium-to-aluminum self-pierce riveted (SPR) joint is elucidated using numerical and experimental approaches. Non-linear finite element (FE) simulations incorporating strain rate and temperature effects were performed to model the deformation in the SPR process. In order to accurately capture the deformation, a stress triaxiality-based damage material model was employed to capture the sheet piercing from the rivet. Strong visual comparison between the physical cross-section of the SPR joint and the simulation was achieved. To aid in understanding of the role of deformation in the riveting process and to validate the modeling approach, several experimental measurements were conducted. To quantify the plastic deformation from the piercing of the rivet, micro hardness mapping was performed on a cross-section of the SPR joint. The FE model showed very strong correlation to the experimental hardness mapping results suggesting the nonlinear model captured the plastic deformation with high accuracy. To measure the elastic residual stresses in the SPR joint, neutron and x-ray diffraction mapping techniques were conducted and in general, the FE model correlated well to the trends and magnitudes of the elastic stresses. While some error occurred in between the model and the neutron and x-ray diffraction results, the numerical approach developed in this study shows potential as a tool for understanding SPR behavior as well as optimizing the process parameters.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Real-time tracking using stereo and motion: Visual perception for space robotics

The state-of-the-art in computing technology is rapidly attaining the performance necessary to implement many early vision algorithms at real-time rates. This new capability is helping to accelerate progress in vision research by improving our ability to evaluate the performance of algorithms in dynamic environments. In particular, we are becoming much more aware of the relative stability of various visual measurements in the presence of camera motion and system noise. This new processing speed is also allowing us to raise our sights toward accomplishing much higher-level processing tasks, such as figure-ground separation and active object tracking, in real-time. This paper describes a methodology for using early visual measurements to accomplish higher-level tasks; it then presents an overview of the high-speed accelerators developed at Teleos to support early visual measurements. The final section describes the successful deployment of a real-time vision system to provide visual perception for the Extravehicular Activity Helper/Retriever robotic system in tests aboard NASA's KC135 reduced gravity aircraft.

Nishihara, H. Keith↗

Low-speed wind-tunnel investigation of a porous forebody and nose strakes for yaw control of a multirole fighter aircraft

Low-speed wind-tunnel tests were conducted in the Langley 12-Foot Low-Speed Tunnel on a model of the Boeing Multirole Fighter (BMRF) aircraft. This single-seat, single-engine configuration was intended to be an F-16 replacement that would incorporate many of the design goals and advanced technologies of the F-22. Its mission requirements included supersonic cruise without afterburner, reduced observability, and the ability to attack both air-to-air and air-to-ground targets. So that it would be effective in all phases of air combat, the ability to maneuver at angles of attack up to and beyond maximum lift was also desired. Traditional aerodynamic yaw controls, such as rudders, are typically ineffective at these higher angles of attack because they are usually located in the wake from the wings and fuselage. For this reason, this study focused on investigating forebody-mounted controls that produces yawing moments by modifying the strong vortex flowfield being shed from the forebody at high angles of attack. Two forebody strakes were tested that varied in planform and chordwise location. Various patterns of porosity in the forebody skin were also tested that differed in their radial coverage and chordwise location. The tests were performed at a dynamic pressure of 4 lb/ft(exp 2) over an angle-of-attack range of -4 deg to 72 deg and a sideslip range of -10 deg to 10 deg. Static force data, static pressures on the surface of the forebody, and videotapes of flow-visualization using laser-illuminated smoke were obtained.

Fears, Scott P.↗

Subscale Flight Testing for Aircraft Loss of Control: Accomplishments and Future Directions

Subscale flight-testing provides a means to validate both dynamic models and mitigation technologies in the high-risk flight conditions associated with aircraft loss of control. The Airborne Subscale Transport Aircraft Research (AirSTAR) facility was designed to be a flexible and efficient research facility to address this type of flight-testing. Over the last several years (2009-2011) it has been used to perform 58 research flights with an unmanned, remotely-piloted, dynamically-scaled airplane. This paper will present an overview of the facility and its architecture and summarize the experimental data collected. All flights to date have been conducted within visual range of a safety observer. Current plans for the facility include expanding the test volume to altitudes and distances well beyond visual range. The architecture and instrumentation changes associated with this upgrade will also be presented.

Cox, David E.↗

Experimental Results for Mars Rotorcraft Airfoils (roamx-0201 and clf5605) at Low Reynolds Number and Compressible Flow in a Mars Wind Tunnel

Experimental results are obtained for a roamx-0201 type airfoil and the clf5605 airfoil at highsubsonic, low Reynolds number conditions using the Tohoku University Mars Wind Tunnel, Japan. The tests are conducted at a Mach number of M = 0.60, and a Reynolds number of Re = 20,000 to reflect representative aerodynamics of a rotor blade for Mars exploration. The angle of attack is varied between α = −2.0 deg and α = 6.0 deg. The roamx-0201 type airfoil is an unconventional airfoil optimized for the chosen tunnel operating conditions using the Evolutionary aLgorithm for Iterative Studies of Aeromechanics (ELISA), developed under the Rotor Optimization for the Advancement of Mars eXploration (ROAMX) project. ELISA is utilized here to optimize aerodynamic airfoil performance using a Genetic Algorithm and two-dimensional high-fidelity CFD simulations, ultimately resulting in a Pareto-optimal airfoil set. The clf5605 airfoil is the outboard airfoil used on the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter and provides a baseline against which the roamx-0201, as well as possible future airfoil profiles for the compressible low Reynolds number regime, can be compared against. Lift and drag data are recorded using a balance, pressure distributions are obtained using Pressure Sensitive Paint (PSP) application, and Schlieren images are obtained to visualize the flowfield. The data is tabulated to aid future research.

Roamx↗

Heat Transfer Efficiency in Various Prandtl Number Turbulent Flows using DNS approach

Convective heat transfer in turbulent flows utilized in many nuclear reactor designs with various coolants. While the traditional light water reactors (LWR) rely on water coolant, some advanced next-generation designs propose to use gas, molten salt, liquid metal coolants. Due to large presence of LWRs, most of the convective heat transfer correlations are focused on fluids with properties similar to water. However, some of the next-generation reactor designs cannot directly apply those correlations to advanced coolants, such as liquid metal, which has very low Prandtl number. Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) is one of the promising approaches to study the details of fluid flow and heat transfer using first principles. The advances of high performance computing (HPC) in recent years made it possible to apply DNS to a wide variety of flow conditions. Kim and Moin studied heat transfer in fully developed turbulent channel flow using DNS. Kawamura et al. investigated the turbulent heat transfer in channel flow with low to medium-high Prandtl number fluid (ranging between 0.025 and 5.0). They take Reynolds number effects into consideration as well. However, most of these studies focus on medium and high Prandtl number. Low Prandtl number flow (like liquid metal) DNS studies are very limited. In the presented research the effect of low Prandtl number is studied in the turbulent channel flow. The second-order accurate spatial and time discretization is used for the flow solver in the presented work. The instantaneous velocity and temperature fields are visualized in the simulation. The effect of Prandtl number on the heat transfer is investigated by comparing different turbulent flow cases. In the same hydrodynamic conditions, the heat conduction enhances as the Prandtl number decreases in the low Prandtl number range. The behavior of the thermal boundary layer follows the empirical correlation. As the Prandtl number decreases, the conductive sublayer region becomes wider, where is out of the range of the empirical correlation. In the future work, we plan to estimate the Nusselt number as well to compare the total heat transfer rate with respect to different Prandtl number flow, especially the very low Prandtl number cases.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗