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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 109 records · Page 6
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2012

Large Scale Composite Manufacturing for Heavy Lift Launch Vehicles

Risk reduction for the large scale composite manufacturing is an important goal to produce light weight components for heavy lift launch vehicles. NASA and an industry team successfully employed a building block approach using low-cost Automated Tape Layup (ATL) of autoclave and Out-of-Autoclave (OoA) prepregs. Several large, curved sandwich panels were fabricated at HITCO Carbon Composites. The aluminum honeycomb core sandwich panels are segments of a 1/16th arc from a 10 meter cylindrical barrel. Lessons learned highlight the manufacturing challenges required to produce light weight composite structures such as fairings for heavy lift launch vehicles.

Stavana, Jacob↗
NASA NTRS2004

Reductions in Multi-Component Jet Noise by Water Injection

An experimental investigation was performed in the NASA Langley Low Speed Aeroacoustics Wind Tunnel to determine the extent of jet exhaust noise reduction that can be obtained using water injection in a hot jet environment. The effects of water parameters such as mass flow rate, injection location, and spray patterns on suppression of dominant noise sources in both subsonic and supersonic jets were determined, and extrapolations to full-scale engine noise reduction were made. Water jets and sprays were injected in to the shear layers of cold and hot circular jets operating at both subsonic and supersonic exhaust conditions. Use of convergent-divergent and convergent nozzles (2.7in. D) allowed for simulations of all major jet noise sources. The experimental results show that water injection clearly disrupts shock noise sources within the jet plume, with large reductions in radiated shock noise. There are smaller reductions in jet mixing noise, resulting in only a small decrease in effective perceived noise level when projections are made to full scale. The fact that the measured noise reduction in the direction upstream of the nozzle was consistently larger than in the noisier downstream direction contributed to keeping effective perceived noise reductions small. Variations in the operation of the water injection system clearly show that injection at the nozzle exit rather than further downstream is required for the largest noise reduction. Noise reduction increased with water pressure as well as with its mass flow, although the type of injector had little effect.

Norum, Thomas D.↗
DOE OSTI2025

In-Situ Atomic-Scale Revelation of Amorphous Metallic Iron Formation during Hydrogen-Driven Reduction of Iron Oxides

The transition to hydrogen as a green reductant in metal production is critical for decarbonizing the metallurgical industry, yet atomic-scale mechanisms governing reduction pathways and phase evolution remain unresolved. Using in-situ environmental transmission electron microscopy, we identify a hidden pathway that reveals dynamic formation of amorphous metallic iron (Fe) during the hydrogen-driven reduction of ferrous oxides of Fe 3 O 4 and FeO. Real-time imaging uncovers three coexisting transformation routes: (i) Fe 3 O 4 → FeO, (ii) Fe 3 O 4 → amorphous Fe, and (iii) FeO → amorphous Fe. The resulting amorphous Fe exhibits fluid-like mobility, enabling its rapid aggregation and crystallization into core-shell nanostructures, with a crystalline core enveloped by an amorphous shell. Complementary ab initio molecular dynamics simulations trace the amorphous Fe formation to interfacial strain at the metal/oxide interfaces, where large lattice mismatches destabilize the metal lattice during initial metallization. This interplay between thermodynamics and kinetics governs phase evolution: thermodynamics favors a self-limiting amorphous Fe overlayer, while rapid oxide reduction kinetics drives amorphous overgrowth. Our findings demonstrate that amorphous intermediates bypass rate-limiting crystalline steps, providing mechanistic insights to optimize H 2 -based processes for sustainable steelmaking. In conclusion, these insights bridge the gap between macroscopic process engineering and atomic-scale dynamics, with broader implications for catalysis and nanostructured material synthesis, where oxide reduction pathways critically shape functional phases and microstructures.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
NASA NTRS1992

Spacecraft COst REduction Team (SCORE): TQM/CI on a massive scale

The business of building satellites and space systems has matured. Few missions require, or can afford, excellent performance at any price. The new paradigm is doing more with less, providing quality systems at lower cost--in other words, doing our job 'Faster-Better-Cheaper.' The TRW Spacecraft COst REduction (SCORE) initiative was launched in 1990 by Daniel S. Goldin, then general manager of TRW's Space & Technology Group. The SCORE mission is to apply continuous improvement (CI) techniques to effect major reductions in the cost (our primary goal) and span time (as a corollary) required for the production of spacecraft. SCORE is a multi-year initiative that is having a profound effect on both the procedural and the cultural aspects of how we do business. The objectives of this initiative are being realized. The focus of this paper is not on the results of SCORE per se, but rather on the things we have leaned about how to do continuous improvement on a massive scale, with multilevel (hierarchical) CI teams. The following sections summarize the chronology of the SCORE initiative, from team formation to development of the year-end report for 1991. Lessons learned, the core of this presentation, are discussed--with particular focus on the unique aspects of SCORE. The SCORE initiative is continuing and, as a part of our evolving culture, will never end. It has resulted in profound insights into the way we do work and (the topic at hand) how to do CI for large and complex multidisciplinary development activities.

Bullard, Jerry D.↗
DOE OSTI2025

Rapid, efficient reduction of iron oxide with ammonia

Reducing iron oxide to iron metal with fossil fuels produces circa 4% of annual anthropogenic CO 2 , ca. 2 Gt/a, as direct chemical emissions from the process. Using ammonia instead of coke—releasing only water and nitrogen as byproducts—could be a widely deployable method of decarbonizing industrial ironmaking, because ammonia carries hydrogen and can be transported easily worldwide. However, initial reports suggest that the reaction of ammonia with iron oxide is slow and inefficient, completed only in hours and using only a few percent of the ammonia supplied. Drawing on thermodynamic and kinetic analysis of the reaction, we explored high-temperature, high-flow reaction conditions designed to increase the reaction rate and the ammonia utilization. We report the reduction of iron oxide in 1 min while using 64% of the ammonia supplied. We show that these insights translate to the gram scale and the reduction of pelletized ore, a common form used industrially.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
NASA NTRS1980

Scale effects: HCMM data simulation. Usage of filtering techniques for scaling-up simulations

Image reduction used to simulate increase in altitude of an acquisition platform is equivalent to data smoothing, and can be achieved either by neighborhood averaging or by filtering techniques. The averaging approach is limited for accurate simulation. A filtering method is described which was based on the hypothesis that all changes due to altitude increase can be represented by a point spread function. Determination of the scale function and factor are discussed as well as implementation of the filtering. Filtering can be either in the spatial or frequency domain. In the spatial domain, filtering consists of the convolution of the image with the weights mask, and then of the declination of the points according to the appropriates scale factor. A simulation of an aircraft day image in the infrared channel is examined.

Digennaro, V.↗
DOE OSTI2021

Real-time data reduction at 100 Tbps: Challenge and opportunity for AI-based data reduction for next-generation large-scale nuclear physics collider experiment

The modern large-scale nuclear physics (NP) experiments in high-energy particle colliders utilize streaming-readout electronics to digitize detector response at O(100) Tbps bandwidth. Prominent examples at Brookhaven National Lab (BNL) include the sPHENIX experiment at Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), which is under construction, and the experiments proposed for the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC), planned for the 2030s . One of the main challenges for these streaming readout systems is to manage the data rate with sufficient data reduction in real time so the end-data fit persistent storage for offline analysis, which is typically at O(1000) times smaller and O(100) Gbps. Such data reduction traditionally is achieved via real-time high level triggers, which select and save a small subset of collisions of interest. Although triggering is applicable to high energy collider experiments such as those at the Large Hardron Collider at CERN, it is insufficient for these nuclear physics experiments which study diverse collision topologies. And traditional triggering approach is inefficient to preserve the max information harvested from the operation of colliders that costs O(100)M per year to DOE. Meanwhile, in recent years, ML-based high-throughput data reduction has emerged as a promising approach to efficiently preserve max information for a given space of persistent storage, e.g. via AI data compression, feature extraction, and noise filtering.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Cost estimation of balance of plant equipment scale up for proton exchange membrane water electrolyzer systems

Water electrolyzers that use electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen could be a key technology for increasing hydrogen supply to meet expanded and emerging market applications, although currently the capital costs of these electrolyzers are high. Here we examine cost reductions that might be achieved by scaling up proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer systems and leveraging economies of scale through balance of plant (BOP) components for system sizes between 1 MW and 1 GW. We estimate BOP equipment capital costs of about $\$$848/kW at 1 MW, potentially decreasing to $\$$87/kW at 1 GW (2022-dollar year basis) with most of the cost reduction happening as systems scale from 1 MW to 100 MW. We find that BOP subsystems hydrogen drying and water knockout benefited the most from economies-of-scale cost reductions, and piping, instrumentation, and housing and power electronics were less impacted. These cost reductions from economies of scale could be more significant than estimated cost reductions from manufacturing scale-up reported in literature. These results add to the knowledge base that could guide optimal system designs that balance process scale-up with plant modularization and numbering-up. We also estimate that scaling up BOP could potentially lower the levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH) by $\$$1.7-$\$$4.6/kg, depending on the scale-up magnitude and the plant capacity factor.

08 HYDROGEN↗
DOE OSTI2022

Strategies for breaking molecular scaling relationships for the electrochemical CO 2 reduction reaction

The electrocatalytic CO 2 reduction reaction (CO 2 RR) is a promising strategy for converting CO 2 to fuels and value-added chemicals using renewable energy sources. Molecular electrocatalysts show promise for the selective conversion of CO 2 to single products with catalytic activity that can be tuned through synthetic structure modifications. However, for the CO 2 RR by traditional molecular catalysts, beneficial decreases in overpotentials are usually correlated with detrimental decreases in catalytic activity. This correlation is sometimes referred to as a “molecular scaling relationship”. Overcoming this inverse correlation between activity and effective overpotential remains a challenge when designing new, efficient molecular catalyst systems. Here, in this perspective, we discuss some of the concepts that give rise to the molecular scaling relationships in the CO 2 RR by molecular catalysts. We then provide an overview of some reported strategies from the last decade for breaking these scaling relationships. We end by discussing strategies and progress in our own research designing efficient molecular catalysts with redox-active ligands that show high activity at low effective overpotentials for the CO 2 RR.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
NASA NTRS2010

Fluidic Injection for Jet Noise Reduction

Investigations into fluidic injection for jet noise reduction began over 50 years ago. Studies have included water and air injection for the reduction of noise in scale model jets and jet engines and water injection for the reduction of excess overpressures on the Space Shuttle at lift-off. Injection systems have included high pressure microjets as well as larger scale injectors operating at pressures that can be achieved in real jet engines. An historical perspective highlighting noise reduction potential is presented for injection concepts investigated over the last 50 years. Results from recent investigations conducted at NASA are presented for supersonic and subsonic dual-stream jets. The noise reduction benefits achieved through fluidic contouring using an azimuthally controlled nozzle will be discussed.

Henderson, Brenda↗
DOE OSTI2026

Impacts of Solar Land Availability on the Evolution of the U.S. Power System

Long-term planning scenarios of the United States electricity system have not identified solar resource availability to be a limiting factor in how much solar capacity might be deployed. However, there are some smaller regions where siting challenges indicate solar deployment could be limited by solar resource availability. In this work, we use geospatial modeling tools to develop a restrictive siting scenario that significantly reduces the amount and location of utility-scale solar resources. We use that restrictive siting regime, along with other previously defined siting scenarios, to examine how solar resource availability impacts the buildout of the electricity system using business-as-usual and decarbonization futures in a national-scale capacity expansion model. The restrictive siting scenario uses observed siting pressures to exclude many types of land on which development is allowed today and results in a greater than 90% reduction in solar resource potential-to approximately 3000 GW. Even with this drastic reduction, utility-scale solar capacity grows by more than 3 times through 2050 in the business-as-usual scenarios and by more than 6 times in the decarbonization scenarios, though less solar is deployed in scenarios with lower available solar resource. We quantify how system costs and generation mixes change as solar resource availability changes.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
NASA NTRS1985

Emmons spot forcing for turbulent drag reduction

An Emmons spot-generation wind tunnel system has been designed to trigger closely spaced Emmons spots in the spanwise and longitudinal directions of an aerodynamic surface. For certain combinations of generator frequencies and amplitude, hole size, and hole spacing, experimental results indicate smaller turbulence scales and a reduction in skin friction of about 15 percent.

Goodman, W. L.↗
DOE OSTI2025

Technical, Economic, Energetic, and Environmental Evaluation of Pretreatment Strategies for Scaling Control in Brackish Water Desalination Brine Treatment

Effective pretreatment is essential for achieving long-term stable operation and high water recovery during the desalination of alternative waters. This study developed a process modeling approach for technical, economic, energetic, and environmental assessments of pretreatment technologies to identify the impacts of each technology treating brackish water desalination brine with high scaling propensity. The model simulations evaluated individual pretreatment technologies, including chemical softening (CS), chemical coagulation (CC), electrocoagulation (EC), and ion exchange (IX). In addition, combinations of these pretreatment technologies aiming at the effective reduction of key scaling constituents such as hardness and silica were investigated. The three evaluation parameters in this assessment consist of levelized cost of water (LCOW, $/m 3 ), specific energy consumption and cumulative energy demand (SEC|CED, kWh/m 3 ), and carbon dioxide emissions (CO 2 , kg CO 2-eq /m 3 ). The case study evaluated in this work was the desalination brine from the Kay Bailey Hutchison Desalination Plant (KBHDP) with a total dissolved solids (TDS) concentration of 11,000 mg/L and rich in hardness and silica. The evaluation of individual pretreatment units from the highest to lowest LCOW, SEC|CED, and CO 2 emissions in the KBHDP brine was IX > CS > EC > CC, CS > IX > EC > CC, and CC > CS > EC > IX, respectively. In the case of pretreatment combinations for the KBHDP, the EC + IX treatment combination was shown to be the best in terms of the LCOW and CO 2 emissions. The modeling and evaluation of these pretreatment units provide valuable guidance on the selection of cost-effective, energy-efficient, and environmentally sustainable pretreatment technologies tailored to desalination brine applications for minimal- or zero-liquid discharge.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Optimizing Communication in 2D Grid-Based MPI Applications at Exascale

The new reality of exascale computing faces many challenges in achieving optimal performance on large numbers of nodes. A key challenge is the efficient utilization of the message-passing interface (MPI), a critical component for process communication. This paper explores communication optimization strategies to harness the GPU-accelerated architectures of these supercomputers. We focus on MPI applications where processors form a two-dimensional process grid, a common arrangement in applications involving dense matrix operations. This configuration offers a unique opportunity to implement innovative strategies to improve performance and maintain effective load distribution. We study two applications— Dist-FW (Apsp:all-pair-shortest-path) and HPL-MxP (LU factorization with Mixed precision)—on two accelerated systems: Summit (IBM Power and NVIDIA V100) and Frontier (AMD EPYC and MI250X). These supercomputers are operated by the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF) and are currently ranked #1 and #5 on the Top500 list. We show how to scale up both applications to exascale levels and tackle the MPI challenges related to implementation, synchronization, and performance. We also compare the performance of several communication strategies at an unprecedented scale. Accurately predicting application performance becomes crucial for cost reduction as the computational scale grows. To address this, we suggest a hyperbolic model as a better alternative to the traditional one-sided asymptotic model for predicting future application performance at such large scales.

Lu, Hao↗
DOE OSTI2024

Atomic-scale identification of active sites of oxygen reduction nanocatalysts

Heterogeneous nanocatalysts play a crucial role in both the chemical and energy industries. Despite substantial advancements in theoretical, computational and experimental studies, identifying their active sites remains a major challenge. Here we utilize atomic electron tomography to determine the three-dimensional atomic structure of PtNi and Mo-doped PtNi nanocatalysts for the electrochemical oxygen reduction reaction. We then employ the experimental atomic structures as input to first-principles-trained machine learning to identify the active sites of the nanocatalysts. Through the analysis of the structure–activity relationships, we formulate an equation termed the local environment descriptor, which balances the strain and ligand effects to provide physical and chemical insights into active sites in the oxygen reduction reaction. The ability to determine the three-dimensional atomic structure and chemical composition of realistic nanoparticles, combined with machine learning, could transform our fundamental understanding of the active sites of catalysts and guide the rational design of optimal nanocatalysts.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2026

Multi-Scale Modeling and Prototype Development for Electrochemical CO2 Reduction (CRADA Final Report)

In this CRADA project, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Stanford University, SLAC National Laboratory, and TotalEnergies collaboratively executed a multidisciplinary investigation of electrochemical reduction of CO2 to produce sustainable fuels and chemicals. Overall, the project led to an increased understanding of the fundamental processes involved in CO2 electrolysis, from the atomistic scale to the full electrolyzer device scale, ultimately leading to design guidelines for CO2 electrolyzers that will help in their future commercialization. As the model systems, Ag- and Cu-based catalysts were investigated in various forms depending on the electrochemical platform that was utilized to study the activity, selectivity, and durability towards electrochemical CO2 reduction. By employing experimental, theoretical, and computational techniques, the project team experimentally validated multi-physics models, evaluated the experimental levers that lead to increased electrolyzer reaction selectivity and energy efficiency, and used computational optimization to design higher performance electrodes. The learnings of this project were extensively documented in publicly available peer-reviewed journal publications and conference presentations, which serve as a foundation for further work to build from.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2021

Passive cooling designs to improve heat resilience of homes in underserved and vulnerable communities

Disadvantaged communities face a growing threat to staying safe during heat waves, especially during coincident power outages. This study develops a methodology to evaluate the effectiveness of passive cooling measures (those that operate without power) to improve residential building heat resilience. Building performance is simulated for representative homes and on district scales in two disadvantaged communities in Fresno, California. Eleven passive measures are evaluated using four heat resilience metrics with and without grid power. Results show performance of the mitigation measures varies by building characteristics, surrounding environment, and power scenario. The two most effective measures were installing solar-control window films and adding roof insulation. For pre-1978 single-family homes, these two measures can reduce unmet degree-hours (UDH) indoors by 12% and 11% respectively without grid power, or 28% and 37% with grid power. Their respective UDH reductions at district scale typically range 8% — 20% and 4% — 12% without grid power, or 14% — 44% and 8% — 51% with grid power. Top floors have higher overheating risk than lower floors during extreme heat events with coincident power outages. Natural ventilation can help, reducing UDH by 21% — 26%. The methodology and findings from this study can help cities, communities, and utilities develop effective and targeted strategies to promote greater residential heat resilience.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Projecting the Performance of a Continuous Bosch Carbon Dioxide Reduction System

Kinetic studies using a subscale reactor were used to develop power-law rate equations for the two primary reactions contributing to the Bosch carbon dioxide reduction process: the reverse water-gas shift reaction and the carbon monoxide hydrogenation reaction. An alloy catalyst in bead form was used in these studies, which investigated both the dependence on gas composition and the dependence on time as the beads gradually disintegrate during carbon formation. Bead disintegration impacts both the rates and the relative activities of the two primary reactions. Although the kinetic testing was conducted in a single-pass mode, the target Bosch application requires operation in a recycle mode to achieve high conversion. Further, the proposed design concept for a full-scale carbon dioxide reduction system would allow carbon to be removed continuously in contrast to previous Bosch processes that required replacement of expendable catalyst cartridges. The developed power-law kinetic rate equations were used in conjunction with a reactor model to project the operating conditions, performance, and sizing of a continuous Bosch system.

carbon dioxide reduction↗