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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 127 records · Page 7

Global Precipitation Measurement - Report 9 Core Coverage Trade Space Analysis

This paper summarizes the GPM-Core coverage trade space analysis. The goal of this analysis was to determine the GPM-Core sensitivity to changes in altitude and inclination for the three onboard instruments: the radiometer, the KU band radar and the KA band radar. This study will enable a better choice of the nominal GPM-Core orbit as well as the optimal size of the maintenance box (+/-1 km, +/-5 km..). For this work, we used two different figures-of-merit: (1) the time required to cover 100% of the +/-65 deg latitude band and (2) the coverage obtained for a given propagation time (7 days and 30 days). The first figure-of-merit is used for the radiometer as it has a sensor cone half-angle between 3 to 5 times bigger than the radars. Thus, we anticipate that for this instrument the period of the orbit (i.e. altitude) will be the main driver and that the 100% coverage value will be reached within less than a week. The second figure-of-merit is used for the radar instruments as they have small sensor cone half-angle and will, in some cases, never reach the 100% coverage threshold point.

Mailhe, Laurie↗

Space Shuttle Communications Coverage Analysis for Thermal Tile Inspection

The space shuttle ultra-high frequency Space-to-Space Communication System has to provide adequate communication coverage for astronauts who are performing thermal tile inspection and repair on the underside of the space shuttle orbiter (SSO). Careful planning and quantitative assessment are necessary to ensure successful system operations and mission safety in this work environment. This study assesses communication systems performance for astronauts who are working in the underside, non-line-of-sight shadow region on the space shuttle. All of the space shuttle and International Space Station (ISS) transmitting antennas are blocked by the SSO structure. To ensure communication coverage at planned inspection worksites, the signal strength and link margin between the SSO/ISS antennas and the extravehicular activity astronauts, whose line-of-sight is blocked by vehicle structure, was analyzed. Investigations were performed using rigorous computational electromagnetic modeling techniques. Signal strength was obtained by computing the reflected and diffracted fields along the signal propagation paths between transmitting and receiving antennas. Radio frequency (RF) coverage was determined for thermal tile inspection and repair missions using the results of this computation. Analysis results from this paper are important in formulating the limits on reliable communication range and RF coverage at planned underside inspection and repair worksites.

Kroll, Quin D.↗

Spatial Coverage Planning for Exploration Robots

A report discusses an algorithm for an onboard planning and execution technology to support the exploration and characterization of geological features by autonomous rovers. A rover that is capable of deciding which observations are more important relieves the engineering team from much of the burden of attempting to make accurate predictions of what the available rover resources will be in the future. Instead, the science and engineering teams can uplink a set of observation requests that may potentially oversubscribe resources and let the rover use observation priorities and its current assessment of available resources to make decisions about which observations to perform and when to perform them. The algorithm gives the rover the ability to model spatial coverage quality based on data from different scientific instruments, to assess the impact of terrain on coverage quality, to incorporate user-defined priorities among subregions of the terrain to be covered, and to update coverage quality rankings of observations when terrain knowledge changes. When the rover is exploring large geographical features such as craters, channels, or boundaries between two different regions, an important factor in assessing the quality of a mission plan is how the set of chosen observations spatially cover the area of interest. The algorithm allows the rover to evaluate which observation to perform and to what extent the candidate observation will increase the spatial coverage of the plan.

Gaines, Daniel↗

Assessment of DSN Communication Coverage for Space Missions to Potentially Hazardous Asteroids

A communication coverage gap exists for Deep Space Network (DSN) antennas. This communication coverage gap is on the southern hemisphere, centered at approximate latitude of -47deg and longitude of -45deg. The area of this communication gap varies depending on the altitude from the Earth s surface. There are no current planetary space missions that fall within the DSN communication gap because planetary bodies in the Solar system lie near the ecliptic plane. However, some asteroids orbits are not confined to the ecliptic plane. In recent years, Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) have passed within 100,000 km of the Earth. NASA s future space exploration goals include a manned mission to asteroids. It is important to ensure reliable and redundant communication coverage/capabilities for manned space missions to dangerous asteroids that make a sequence of close Earth encounters. In this paper, we will describe simulations performed to determine whether near-Earth objects (NEO) that have been classified as PHAs fall within the DSN communication coverage gap. In the study, we reviewed literature for a number of PHAs, generated binary ephemeris for selected PHAs using JPL s HORIZONS tool, and created their trajectories using Satellite Took Kit (STK). The results show that some of the PHAs fall within DSN communication coverage gap. This paper presents the simulation results and our analyses

Kegege, Obadiah↗

Increasing Software Testing Coverage and Portability with Spack

Adequate testing coverage is critical for successful scientific software development. For numerically intensive codes, the test matrix should cover a variety of machines, compilers, third-party library dependencies, as well as possible other features such as memory testing, parallelization paradigms, and application options that may be enabled or disabled, as some examples. Such coverage can be a major burden on developers without powerful methods for managing the matrix. Spack is a great tool developed by Lawrence Livermore National Lab for managing software on a Unix-based system and in addition to this, we are leveraging Spack to simplify application testing development and management. Here we demonstrate exploiting many of Spack's features to orchestrate the test coverage for the Nalu-Wind application we are developing under the Exascale Computing Project. By using Spack underneath our testing infrastructure, we have increased our testing coverage, portability, robustness, and software quality. While we use our Nalu-Wind application as an example, the benefits of exploiting Spack for application testing can be had for other applications as well.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

The α-WC(0001) Surface as a Hydrogen Sponge: A First Principle Study of H 2 Dissociation and Formation of Low and High Coverages

Tungsten carbide (WC) displays a Pt-like behavior in catalysis, applied in hydrogenation processes. Numerous theoretical studies have modeled the behavior and use of adsorbed hydrogen without obtaining a general picture, missing basic links between H 2 dissociation and generation of high surface coverage (Θ H >0.5 ML). Here, in this study, the capability of C- and W-terminations of the α-WC(0001) surface is analyzed to dissociate several H 2 molecules to produce coverages, Θ H , ranging from low to very high values (0.13<Θ H <2.00 ML). Density functional theory and an ab initio atomistic thermodynamic were used to achieve the conditions for H 2 dissociation. The WC–C surface has higher capacity to dissociate H 2 molecules than WC–W. However, both surfaces can reach full surface coverage, Θ H =1 ML, at mild ambient conditions, T=300 K and P=1 atm, and even up to 500 K at low and high pressures. The H-adatoms on WC–W are more labile than on WC–C. The binding of adsorbates is hindered at high Θ H , implying a need to modulate Θ H according to the application. The results give the basis to understand the capabilities of WC-based catalysts in hydrogenation-related reactions, with the advantage of WC being a hydrogen reservoir at mild practical catalytic conditions.

03 NATURAL GAS↗

Adult immunization policies in advanced economies: vaccination recommendations, financing, and vaccination coverage

Objectives: While many countries have robust child immunization programs and high child vaccination coverage, vaccination of adults has received less attention. The objective of this study was to describe the adult vaccination policies in developed countries. Methods: From 2010 to 2011, we conducted a survey of 33 advanced economies as defined by the International Monetary Fund. The survey asked about national recommendations for adults for 16 vaccines or vaccine components, funding mechanisms for recommended adult vaccines, and the availability of adult vaccination coverage estimates. Results: Thirty-one of 33 (93.9 %) advanced economies responded to the survey. Twelve of 31 (38.7 %) reported having a comprehensive adult immunization schedule. The total number of vaccines or vaccine components recommended for adults ranged from one to 15 with a median of 10. Seasonal influenza (n = 30), tetanus (n = 28), pneumococcal polysaccharide (n = 27), and hepatitis B (n = 27) were the most frequently recommended vaccines or components. Conclusions: Approximately two-thirds of survey respondents do not have a comprehensive adult vaccine schedule, and most do not measure vaccination coverage. We found that a funding mechanism is available for most recommended adult vaccines.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

High hydrogen coverage on graphene via low temperature plasma with applied magnetic field

The chemical functionalization of two-dimensional materials is an effective method for tailoring their chemical and electronic properties with encouraging applications in energy, catalysis, and electronics. One exemplary 2D material with remarkable properties, graphene, can be exploited for hydrogen storage and large on/off ratio devices by hydrogen termination. In this work, we describe a promising plasma-based method to provide high hydrogen coverage on graphene. A low pressure (~10 mtorr) discharge generates a fine-tunable low-temperature hydrogen-rich plasma in the applied radial electric and axial magnetic fields. Post-run characterization of these samples using Raman spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy demonstrates a higher hydrogen coverage, 35.8%, than the previously reported results using plasmas. Plasma measurements indicate that with the applied magnetic field, the density of hydrogen atoms can be more than 10 times larger than the density without the magnetic field. With the applied electric field directed away from the graphene substrate, the flux of plasma ions towards this substrate and the ion energy are insufficient to cause measurable damage to the treated 2D material. As a result, the low damage allows a relatively long treatment time of the graphene samples that contributes to the high coverage obtained in these experiments.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Non-monotonic behavior of the lateral diffusivity in an adsorbate as a function of the surface coverage

Diffusion dynamics of adsorbate particles confined on a surface strongly depends on the adsorbate surface coverage. Our molecular dynamics simulation reveals that the average lateral diffusivity of the Lennard-Jones adsorbate on a flat substrate varies non-monotonically with the surface coverage. Given that the adsorbate becomes stratified into distinct layers, we propose a novel approach to analyze the lateral diffusion of the adsorbate particles in different layers, via dividing the total lateral diffusion into consecutive lateral diffusion processes, separated by the layer boundary crossing events. A new definition of the lateral diffusivity in the specific layer has been introduced, and it is revealed that the total lateral diffusivity is equal to the sum of lateral diffusivities in different layers. Furthermore, the non-monotonic behavior of the average lateral diffusivity with the surface coverage is found to result from the difference in behavior of the lateral diffusivity between the first and other layers.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

The role of coverage effects on the structure–sensitivity of formic acid electrooxidation on Pd surfaces

Direct formic acid (FA) fuel cells (DFAFCs) with Pd anode catalysts are promising for small portable applications. During the electrooxidation of formic acid (FAO), CO accumulates on the Pd electrocatalyst, thereby decreasing its performance. In this work, we use density functional theory (DFT; RPBE) to elucidate the significance of coverage effects on the structure–sensitivity of FAO over four low–index Pd surfaces: Pd(1 1 1), Pd(1 0 0), Pd(1 1 0), and Pd(2 1 1). We construct coverage–dependent Gibbs free energy diagrams and in agreement with experiment, predict that Pd(1 0 0) and Pd(2 1 1) are the most active surfaces. Additionally, we find that the presence of CO spectator species can alter the preferred electrooxidation pathway under different applied potentials. Furthermore, such pathway transitions appear to be critical for rationalizing experimental trends regarding electrocatalytic activity and are only captured when coverage effects are accounted for. Insights derived from this work may facilitate the design of improved FAO electrocatalysts.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Improving Coverage of Test Cases Generated by Symbolic PathFinder for Programs with Loops

Symbolic execution is a program analysis technique that is used for many purposes, one of which is test-case generation. For loop-free programs, this generates a test-set that achieves path coverage. Program loops, however, imply exponential growth of the number of paths in the best case and non-termination in the worst case. In practice, the number of loop unwindings needs to be bounded for analysis. We consider symbolic execution in the context of the tool Symbolic Pathfinder. This tool extends the model-checker Java Pathfinder and relies on its bounded state-space exploration for termination. We present an implementation of k-bounded loop unwinding, which increases the amount of user-control over the symbolic execution of loops. Bounded unwinding can be viewed as a naive way to prune paths through loops. When using symbolic execution for test-case generation, naively pruning paths is likely at the cost of coverage. In order to improve coverage of branches within a loop body, we present a technique that semi-automatically concretizes variables used in a loop. The basic technique is limited and we therefore present annotations to manually steer symbolic execution towards certain branches, as well as ideas on how the technique can be extended to be more widely applicable.

Programs With Loops↗

Determination of Percent Area Coverage of Lunar Simulant on a Surface and Observations of Fairy Castle Structures

With NASA’s goal of returning humans to the Moon, it has become increasingly important to understand the impact of lunar regolith on spacecraft systems. The ability to measure the level of dust coverage on a surface is essential. Developing an accurate technique to determine percent area coverage is challenging due to the unique and complex layering of the dust particles on the surface, creating fairy castle structures that form complex towers, bridges, and buttresses using the smallest of dust particles as building blocks. For this study, these structures have been simulated using a unique dust distributor device and imaged with a scanning electron microscope. The results show the dusted surface’s complex topology, thus demonstrating the difficulty with determining the percent area of dust coverage. Implications for dust buildup on spacecraft, even at the microscopic level, can include degraded heat transfer and altered optical properties, making continuation of this research critical to support future human exploration of the Moon.

lunar dust↗

Lunar Dust level sensor & Effects on Surfaces (LDES): Percent Area Coverage of Lunar Simulant on a Surface and Fairy Castle Structures

With NASA’s goal of returning humans to the Moon, it has become increasingly important to understand the impact of lunar regolith on spacecraft systems. The ability to measure the level of dust coverage on a surface is essential. Developing an accurate technique to determine percent area coverage is challenging due to the unique and complex layering of the dust particles on the surface, creating fairy castle structures that form complex towers, bridges, and buttresses using the smallest of dust particles as building blocks. For this study, these structures have been simulated using a unique dust distributor device and imaged with a scanning electron microscope. The results show the dusted surface’s complex topology, thus demonstrating the difficulty with determining the percent area of dust coverage. Implications for dust buildup on spacecraft, even at the microscopic level, can include degraded heat transfer and altered optical properties, making continuation of this research critical to support future human exploration of the Moon.

percent area coverage↗

Methane dehydrogenation on Cu and Ni surfaces with low and moderate oxygen coverage

First-principles density functional theory calculations are carried out to evaluate energy barriers and mechanisms for the dehydrogenation reactions of CH 4 on clean and oxygen-covered surfaces of Cu (111) and Ni (111) with low and moderate oxygen coverage. In the presence of oxygen, two possible pathways have been evaluated. The more likely pathway, which is further analyzed, is that CH 4 loses an H to the surface O. Results from this pathway agree with previous findings showing that oxygen promotes CH 4 dissociation on Cu (111) and hinders that on Ni (111). In addition, our results show lower energy barriers on Cu with higher oxygen coverages up to 0.38 monolayer. However, such an increase in oxygen coverage did not show any favorable effect for CH 4 dissociation on Ni (111). Fianlly, the findings are analyzed through electronic factors revealed by charge analysis and density of states.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Discrete One-Dimensional Coverage Process on a Renewal Process

Consider the following coverage model on ℕ, for each site i∈ℕ associate a pair (ξ{sub i},R{sub i}) where (ξ{sub i}){sub i≥0} is a 1-dimensional undelayed discrete renewal point process and (R{sub i}){sub i≥0} is an i.i.d. sequence of ℕ-valued random variables. At each site where ξ{sub i}=1 start an interval of length R{sub i}. Coverage occurs if every site of ℕ is covered by some interval. We obtain sharp conditions for both, positive and null probability of coverage. As corollaries, we extend results of the literature of rumor processes and discrete one-dimensional Boolean percolation.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Coverage, repulsion, and reactivity of hydrogen on High-Entropy alloys

Modeling hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) activity probability on IrPdPtRhRu(1 1 1) high-entropy alloys. Determining hydrogen coverages based on ligand effects and generalized hydrogen–hydrogen repulsion. The rate of H 2 formation is highly impacted by the level of hydrogen coverage on the catalyst surface. In search of optimal catalytic properties high-entropy alloys (HEA) are promising candidates that utilize the compositional space of multiple elements. Based on simulations of HEA model (1 1 1) surfaces with a range of hydrogen coverages, distributions of binding energies are used to construct a framework that approximates the probability that adsorbed hydrogen may lead to the formation of H 2 as a function of applied potential. By optimizing the alloy compositions for the highest activity probability at given potentials the best and most efficient catalyst candidates for HER can be identified. Treating hydrogen–hydrogen repulsion effects and binding energy separately, we find that the repulsion is larger for HEAs than for pure metals. Differing isotherm slopes in the mean adsorption and desorption energies demonstrate a possible hysteresis for hydrogen adsorption on HEAs.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Spine stereotactic body radiation therapy plans: Achieving dose coverage, conformity, and dose falloff

We report our experience of establishing planning objectives to achieve dose coverage, conformity, and dose falloff for spine stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) plans. Patients with spine lesions were treated using SBRT in our institution since September 2009. Since September 2011, we established the following planning objectives for our SBRT spine plans in addition to the cord dose constraints: (1) dose coverage—prescription dose (PD) to cover at least 95% planning target volume (PTV) and 90% PD to cover at least 99% PTV; (2) conformity index (CI)—ratio of prescription isodose volume (PIV) to the PTV < 1.2; (3) dose falloff—ratio of 50% PIV to the PTV (R{sub 50%}); (4) and maximum dose in percentage of PD at 2 cm from PTV in any direction (D{sub 2cm}) to follow Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) 0915. We have retrospectively reviewed 66 separate spine lesions treated between September 2009 and December 2012 (31 treated before September 2011 [group 1] and 35 treated after [group 2]). The χ{sup 2} test was used to examine the difference in parameters between groups. The PTV V{sub 100%} {sub PD} ≥ 95% objective was met in 29.0% of group 1 vs 91.4% of group 2 (p < 0.01) plans. The PTV V{sub 90%} {sub PD} ≥ 99% objective was met in 38.7% of group 1 vs 88.6% of group 2 (p < 0.01) plans. Overall, 4 plans in group 1 had CI > 1.2 vs none in group 2 (p = 0.04). For D{sub 2cm}, 48.3% plans yielded a minor violation of the objectives and 16.1% a major violation for group 1, whereas 17.1% exhibited a minor violation and 2.9% a major violation for group 2 (p < 0.01). Spine SBRT plans can be improved on dose coverage, conformity, and dose falloff employing a combination of RTOG spine and lung SBRT protocol planning objectives.

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗

A coverage dependent study of the adsorption of pyridine on the (111) coinage metal surfaces

Using density functional theory we explore the adsorption of pyridine (NC 5 H 5 ) on Cu, Ag, and Au(111) surfaces. To study the effect of coverage we run calculations on a 3 × 4 (12 atom), 4 × 4 (16 atom), 5 × 4 (20 atom), and 4 × 6 (24 atom) surface. To examine the role of the van der Waals interaction we use the following vdW inclusive functionals: optB86-vdW, optB88-vdW, optPBE-vdW, revPBE-vdW, rPW86-vdW2, SCAN+rVV10 along with the PBE functional. Regardless of functional, metal, and coverage we find the most energetically stable adsorption site to be a vertical site with the pyridine's N atom directly above a metal atom, which contradicts the available experimental literature. Introducing the vdW interaction lowers the energy gap between the most energetically favorable flat and vertical adsorption configurations. Moving to a higher coverage increases the overall interaction of the pyridine molecule with the surface. We also find that the SCAN+rVV10 functional performs similarly to the optB86b-vdW and optB88-vdW functional. Along with the geometric properties of the substrate/adsorbate system, here we report several electronic properties of the substrate/adsorbate system such as charge transfer from the surface to the molecule, change in the surface's work function, and change in d-band of the atoms in the first layer of the substrate.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗