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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 1,405 records · Page 78

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NASA NTRS1979

Development of inflatable structures for Electron Echo V

The sounding rocket experiment, Electron Echo V, was designed to carry three devices to study the neutralization effects of the rocket upon electron beams emitted into the earth's magnetosphere. One was a 500 square foot current collector screen built on a framework of inflated 'mylar' tubes. The other two were 30 foot long Langmuir probes consisting of inflated tubes with sensor pads at various intervals. These devices were designed to be deployed at an altitude of 92-118 mi (148-190 km) by compressed gas carried in the payload. The development of these large (by sounding rocket standards) inflatables and the methods of packaging and deployment are described.

Oliver, J. A.↗

NASA NTRS2012

Gamma-400 Science Objectives Built on the Current HE Gamma-Ray and CR Results

The main scientific interest of the Russian Gamma-400 team: Observe gamma-rays above approximately 50 GeV with excellent energy and angular resolution with the goals of: (1) Studying the fine spectral structure of the isotropic high-energy gamma-radiation, (2) Attempting to identify the many still-unidentified Fermi-LAT gamma-ray sources. Gamma-400 will likely be the only space-based gamma-ray observatory operating at the end of the decade. In our proposed Gamma-400-LE version, it will substantially improve upon the capabilities of Fermi LAT and AGILE in both LE and HE energy range. Measuring gamma-rays from approx 20 MeV to approx 1 TeV for at least 7 years, Gamma-400-LE will address the topics of dark matter, cosmic ray origin and propagation, neutron stars, flaring pulsars, black holes, AGNs, GRBs, and actively participate in multiwavelength campaigns.

Moiseev, Alexander↗

NASA NTRS2016

A Structured, Model-Based Systems Engineering Methodology for Operations System Design

Two widely accepted techniques for lowering the cost and risk of developing systems are (1) the use of a defined systems engineering (SE) process or methodology and (2) the reuse of existing (previously built) system components. The first technique is represented, for example, in materials published by NASA (e.g., NASA Systems Engineering Handbook) or by professional societies such as INCOSE (International Council on Systems Engineering). Well-formed SE techniques provide value by establishing the proper scope of the system (e.g., requirements), and by identifying and resolving problems relatively early in project lifecycles, when fixes are less expensive. The second technique (reuse) is applied most commonly to hardware and software; it seeks to avoid replicating design and implementation costs while also reducing risk by placing proven capabilities into operational use. In this paper, we outline a methodology combining these two techniques and extending reuse beyond hardware and software to foundational aspects of a Mission Operation System’s (MOS) design. We describe the system design artifacts that result (e.g., requirements, design documentation), as well as the reusable patterns and elements of the design, and their interrelationships. This approach is enabled by model-based systems engineering (MBSE) techniques and tools and is currently available in SysML form as a plug-in to MagicDraw. Additionally, usage of a rigorous MBSE approach allows for training materials and tutorials to be packaged within the overall model itself. The results of such an approach include decreased cost and risk during the design phase, improved ability of the MOS development team to investigate trade spaces and identify impacts to important flight-ground trade studies. Such results extend into decreased costs and risk in later phases due to improved design, decreased need for late fixes or development of "glue-ware" or scripts to fill unanticipated gaps in functionality, and improved ability to identify and plan testing and other validation activities. Finally, lower operational costs can be expected, both due to improved quality of the MOS, increased ease of maintaining updated knowledge of system configuration, and the fact that training and procedural materials are also updated at the same time as accepted system changes.

Bindschadler, Duane L.↗

DOE OSTI2019

Composition of the Holdfast Polysaccharide from Caulobacter crescentus

Surface colonization is central to the lifestyles of many bacteria. Exploiting surface niches requires sophisticated systems for sensing and attaching to solid materials. Caulobacter crescentus synthesizes a polysaccharide-based adhesin known as the holdfast at one of its cell poles, which enables tight attachment to exogenous surfaces. The genes required for holdfast biosynthesis have been analyzed in detail, but difficulties in isolating analytical quantities of the adhesin have limited efforts to characterize its chemical structure. In this report, we describe a method to extract the holdfast from C. crescentus cultures and present a survey of its carbohydrate content. Glucose, 3-O-methylglucose, mannose, N-acetylglucosamine, and xylose were detected in our extracts. Our results provide evidence that the holdfast contains a 1,4-linked backbone of glucose, mannose, N-acetylglucosamine, and xylose that is decorated with branches at the C-6 positions of glucose and mannose. Finally by defining the monosaccharide components in the polysaccharide, our work establishes a framework for characterizing enzymes in the holdfast pathway and provides a broader understanding of how polysaccharide adhesins are built.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2021

The Wasatch Environmental Observatory: A mountain to urban research network in the semi‐arid western US

Abstract The 2085 km 2 Jordan River Basin, and its seven sub‐catchments draining the Central Wasatch Range immediately east of Salt Lake City, UT, are home to an array of hydrologic, atmospheric, climatic and chemical research infrastructure that collectively forms the Wasatch Environmental Observatory (WEO). WEO is geographically nested within a wildland to urban land‐use gradient and built upon a strong foundation of over a century of discharge and climate records. A 2200 m gradient in elevation results in variable precipitation, temperature and vegetation patterns. Soil and subsurface structure reflect systematic variation in geology from granitic, intrusive to mixed sedimentary clastic across headwater catchments, all draining to the alluvial or colluvial sediments of the former Lake Bonneville. Winter snowfall and spring snowmelt control annual hydroclimate, rapid population growth dominates geographic change in lower elevations and urban gas and particle emissions contribute to episodes of severe air pollution in this closed‐basin. Long‐term hydroclimate observations across this diverse landscape provide the foundation for an expanding network of infrastructure in both montane and urban landscapes. Current infrastructure supports both basic and applied research in atmospheric chemistry, biogeochemistry, climate, ecology, hydrology, meteorology, resource management and urban redesign that is augmented through strong partnerships with cooperating agencies. These features allow WEO to serve as a unique natural laboratory for addressing research questions facing seasonally snow‐covered, semi‐arid regions in a rapidly changing world and an excellent facility for providing student education and research training.

Follstad Shah, Jennifer J.↗

DOE OSTI2014

AHF: Array-Based Half-Facet Data Structure for Mixed-Dimensional and Non-Manifold Meshes

We present an Array-based Half-Facet mesh data structure, or AHF, for efficient mesh query and modification operations. The AHF extends the compact array-based half-edge and half-face data structures (T.J. Alumbaugh and X. Jiao, Compact array-based mesh data structures, IMR, 2005) to support mixed-dimensional and non-manifold meshes. The design goals of our data structure include generality to support such meshes, efficiency of neighborhood queries and mesh modification, compactness of memory footprint, and facilitation of interoperability of mesh-based application codes. To accomplish these goals, our data structure uses sibling half-facets as a core abstraction, coupled with other explicit and implicit representations of entities. A unique feature of our data structure is a comprehensive implementation in MATLAB, which allows rapid prototyping, debugging, testing, and deployment of meshing algorithms and other mesh-based numerical methods. We have also developed C++ implementation built on top of MOAB (T.J. Tautges, R. Meyers, and K. Merkley, MOAB: A Mesh-Oriented Database, Sandia National Laboratories, 2004). We present some comparisons of the memory requirements and computational costs, and also demonstrate its effectiveness with a few sample applications.

Dyedov, Volodymyr↗

DOE OSTI2016

The investigation of Ag/ZnO interface system by first principle: The structural, electronic and optical properties

Ag/ZnO interfaces have been investigated for both of Zn-termination and O-termination by the first principle based on density functional theory. Our calculations demonstrate that the Ag atoms go inward from the Ag/ZnO interface, and the Zn and O atoms are all move outward bulk in the Zn-termination interface, and the changes are just opposite for O-termination. These behaviors are in agreement with the other studies in literatures. Furthermore, an expansion situation is observed in the first two Zn-O bilayer and first three Ag monolayers for both of Zn-termination and O-termination interfaces by comparing with the pure ZnO(0001) and Ag(111) surfaces. Moreover, the valence-band both of O-2p and Zn-3d states of Ag/ZnO interface gradual close to Femi level as the Zn, O atoms locate at the deeper layer for Zn-termination, but it is the other way round for O-termination. Calculated absorption spectrum indicates that the absorption intensity of Zn-termination interface is stronger than that of O-termination in the lower energy range (visible light region). These properties of ZnO surfaces are also evaluated for comparison with interfaces. - Graphical abstract: The structures of Ag/ZnO interface: Zn-termination (left) and O-termination (right). In this Ag/ZnO interface system, the ZnO (0001) surface is rotated 30°(R30), and Ag (111) surface is built (2×2) supercell, then a (2×√3) R30 Ag/ZnO interface is constructed using the supercell method (i.e. periodically repeated slabs). The lattice mismatch of (2×√3) R30 Ag/ZnO (2.6% mismatch) is smaller than that of (1×1) Ag/ZnO (11% mismatch).

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2025

Site-specific plan-view (S)TEM sample preparation from thin films using a dual-beam FIB-SEM

To fully evaluate the atomic structure, and associated properties of materials using transmission electron microscopy, examination of samples from three non-collinear orientations is needed. This is particularly challenging for thin films and nanoscale devices built on substrates due to limitations with plan-view sample preparation. In this work, a new method for preparation of high-quality, site-specific, plan-view TEM samples from thin-films grown on substrates, is presented and discussed. Here, it is based on using a dual-beam focused ion beam scanning electron microscope (FIB-SEM) system. To demonstrate the method, the samples were prepared from thin films of perovskite oxide BaSnO 3 grown on a SrTiO 3 substrate and metal oxide IrO 2 on a TiO 2 substrate, ranging from 20–80 nm in thicknesses using molecular beam epitaxy. While the method is optimized for the thin films, it can be extended to other site-specific plan-view samples and devices build on wafers. Aberration-corrected STEM was used to evaluate the quality of the samples and their applicability for atomic-resolution imaging and analysis.

BaSnO3↗

DOE OSTI2025

Materials Graph Library (MatGL), an open-source graph deep learning library for materials science and chemistry

Graph deep learning models, which incorporate a natural inductive bias for atomic structures, are of immense interest in materials science and chemistry. Here, we introduce the Materials Graph Library (MatGL), an open-source graph deep learning library for materials science and chemistry. Built on top of the popular Deep Graph Library (DGL) and Python Materials Genomics (Pymatgen) packages, MatGL is designed to be an extensible “batteries-included” library for developing advanced model architectures for materials property predictions and interatomic potentials. At present, MatGL has efficient implementations for both invariant and equivariant graph deep learning models, including the Materials 3-body Graph Network (M3GNet), MatErials Graph Network (MEGNet), Crystal Hamiltonian Graph Network (CHGNet), TensorNet and SO3Net architectures. MatGL also provides several pre-trained foundation potentials (FPs) with coverage of the entire periodic table, and property prediction models for out-of-box usage, benchmarking and fine-tuning. Finally, MatGL integrates with PyTorch Lightning to enable efficient model training.

chemistry↗

DOE OSTI2026

ENVnet provides a global molecular resource of dissolved organic matter

Dissolved organic matter (DOM) is an important component of Earth's carbon cycle and one of the planet's most chemically diverse pools, yet the molecular structures of its constituents remain largely unresolved. This limitation has hindered our ability to link DOM composition to microbial processes and ecosystem function. Here we present ENVnet, a global molecular repository built from tandem mass spectrometry data collected across 13 terrestrial and aquatic environment types, including 419 newly generated samples that expand publicly available DOM metabolomics data and cover previously underrepresented environments. By computationally deconvolving chimeric mass spectra, a longstanding challenge in environmental metabolomics, we recover high-quality fragmentation data for >22,000 distinct molecular features (defined by a specific precursor mass and fragmentation pattern). Using ENVnet, we uncover conserved and environment-specific molecular patterns in DOM composition and underlying biogeochemical processes. We also use molecular features encoded in ENVnet to train predictive models of DOM persistence, allowing molecular-level assessment of microbial turnover in independent systems.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2022

Dynamic Performance Comparison and Prediction based on Distribution-level Phasor Measurement Units

This paper introduces a new distribution level Phasor Measurement Unit (PMU) which adopts advanced hardware components and structure. The hardware parameters from the new PMU and the existing PMU are used to build a simulation model to predict the PMU performance. Therefore, a real-world testbench is built and four distribution level PMUs are tested under the steady-state and dynamic tests. The quantitative experiment result confirms the prediction model which could guide future PMU design, and also verifies the accuracy of the new PMU on the synchrophasor and frequency measurements in multiple scenarios.

Wu, Yuru↗

DOE OSTI2016

Proposed Disposition of Large-Scale Artifacts Associated with Idaho National Laboratory's Nuclear Reactor Testing Historic Context

As an active scientific and engineering laboratory with a historic mission of testing and development of nuclear power, INL presents unique challenges to historic preservation. These challenges include radiologically contaminated buildings and equipment, security restrictions, and the nearly constant modification, demolition, and replacement of structures and equipment to meet changing programmatic and mission needs. Because of these challenges, what began in 1966 as a building-by-building approach to historic preservation of the INL built environment has evolved into a more holistic management strategy and systematic procedures for identifying, evaluating, and protecting important properties within a historic contextual framework. The development of contexts, identification of historic themes, and inventories of historic INL architectural properties have been expanded following the strategies and procedures outlined within the INL Cultural Resource Management Plan (CRMP). Inventories are ongoing to catalog other important INL architectural properties that may or may not be eligible to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP), such as nuclear-era artifacts, and photographic and engineering collections.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

NASA NTRS1973

Small Interactive Image Processing System (SMIPS) system description

The Small Interactive Image Processing System (SMIPS) operates under control of the IBM-OS/MVT operating system and uses an IBM-2250 model 1 display unit as interactive graphic device. The input language in the form of character strings or attentions from keys and light pen is interpreted and causes processing of built-in image processing functions as well as execution of a variable number of application programs kept on a private disk file. A description of design considerations is given and characteristics, structure and logic flow of SMIPS are summarized. Data management and graphic programming techniques used for the interactive manipulation and display of digital pictures are also discussed.

Moik, J. G.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Tools for distributed application management

Distributed application management consists of monitoring and controlling an application as it executes in a distributed environment. It encompasses such activities as configuration, initialization, performance monitoring, resource scheduling, and failure response. The Meta system (a collection of tools for constructing distributed application management software) is described. Meta provides the mechanism, while the programmer specifies the policy for application management. The policy is manifested as a control program which is a soft real-time reactive program. The underlying application is instrumented with a variety of built-in and user-defined sensors and actuators. These define the interface between the control program and the application. The control program also has access to a database describing the structure of the application and the characteristics of its environment. Some of the more difficult problems for application management occur when preexisting, nondistributed programs are integrated into a distributed application for which they may not have been intended. Meta allows management functions to be retrofitted to such programs with a minimum of effort.

Marzullo, Keith↗

NASA NTRS1992

Space Station Freedom common berthing mechanism

The Common Berthing Mechanism (CBM) is a generic device used to join the pressurized elements of the Space Station Freedom (SSF) utilizing the Space Shuttle Orbiter Remote Manipulator System (SRMS) or the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS). The two berthing halves, the active, and the passive, maintain a pressurized atmosphere to allow astronaut passage, as well as to provide a structural linkage between elements. The generic design of the CBM allows any Passive Berthing Mechanism to berth with any Active Berthing Mechanism, permitting a variety of pressurized module patterns to be built.

Illi, Erik↗

NASA NTRS1922

Causes of failure of airship shed

The causes of the collapse of airship shed, which was being taken down at Niediergorsdorf, are discussed. This shed, which was built of iron, was 184 m long, 28 m high, and 35 m wide. The demolition of the shed had been assigned to unskilled men who proceeded to remove certain key structural supports, leaving the structure in such a condition that relatively small eccentricities of the columns or spans or of lateral forces could easily have caused the columns or spans to break down. A small gust of wind would have perhaps sufficed to bring the building down. An analysis is also given of the suction effects on the roof of an air shed in Staaken. The damage to this shed, which occurred during a storm, was due to the fact that the shed had no opening in its top for equalizing the air pressure within and without. The location of the plates blown off the roof correspond to the point of greatest suction.

Sonntag, R↗

NASA NTRS1993

A parallel adaptive mesh refinement algorithm

Over recent years, Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR) algorithms which dynamically match the local resolution of the computational grid to the numerical solution being sought have emerged as powerful tools for solving problems that contain disparate length and time scales. In particular, several workers have demonstrated the effectiveness of employing an adaptive, block-structured hierarchical grid system for simulations of complex shock wave phenomena. Unfortunately, from the parallel algorithm developer's viewpoint, this class of scheme is quite involved; these schemes cannot be distilled down to a small kernel upon which various parallelizing strategies may be tested. However, because of their block-structured nature such schemes are inherently parallel, so all is not lost. In this paper we describe the method by which Quirk's AMR algorithm has been parallelized. This method is built upon just a few simple message passing routines and so it may be implemented across a broad class of MIMD machines. Moreover, the method of parallelization is such that the original serial code is left virtually intact, and so we are left with just a single product to support. The importance of this fact should not be underestimated given the size and complexity of the original algorithm.

Quirk, James J.↗

NASA NTRS2004

Goddard Space Flight Center's Structural Dynamics Data Acquisition System

Turnkey Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) data acquisition systems typically perform well and meet most of the objectives of the manufacturer. The problem is that they seldom meet most of the objectives of the end user. The analysis software, if any, is unlikely to be tailored to the end users specific application; and there is seldom the chance of incorporating preferred algorithms to solve unique problems. Purchasing a customized system allows the end user to get a system tailored to the actual application, but the cost can be prohibitive. Once the system has been accepted, future changes come with a cost and response time that's often not workable. When it came time to replace the primary digital data acquisition system used in the Goddard Space Flight Center's Structural Dynamics Test Section, the decision was made to use a combination of COTS hardware and in-house developed software. The COTS hardware used is the DataMAX II Instrumentation Recorder built by R.C. Electronics Inc. and a desktop Pentium 4 computer system. The in-house software was developed using MATLAF3 from The Mathworks. This paper will describe the design and development of the new data acquisition and analysis system.

McLeod, Christopher↗