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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 145 records · Page 8
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2016

Stewardship of NASA's Earth Science Data and Ensuring Long-Term Active Archives

Program, NASA has followed an open data policy, with non-discriminatory access to data with no period of exclusive access. NASA has well-established processes for assigning and or accepting datasets into one of 12 Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) that are parts of EOSDIS. EOSDIS has been evolving through several information technology cycles, adapting to hardware and software changes in the commercial sector. NASA is responsible for maintaining Earth science data as long as users are interested in using them for research and applications, which is well beyond the life of the data gathering missions. For science data to remain useful over long periods of time, steps must be taken to preserve: (1) Data bits with no corruption, (2) Discoverability and access, (3) Readability, (4) Understandability, (5) Usability' and (6). Reproducibility of results. NASAs Earth Science data and Information System (ESDIS) Project, along with the 12 EOSDIS Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs), has made significant progress in each of these areas over the last decade, and continues to evolve its active archive capabilities. Particular attention is being paid in recent years to ensure that the datasets are published in an easily accessible and citable manner through a unified metadata model, a common metadata repository (CMR), a coherent view through the earthdata.gov website, and assignment of Digital Object Identifiers (DOI) with well-designed landing product information pages.

Data Management↗
NASA NTRS2002

Land Use and Land Cover Change in Forest Frontiers: The Role of Household Life Cycles

Tropical deforestation remains a critical issue given its present rate and a widespread consensus regarding its implications for the global carbon cycle and biodiversity. Nowhere is the problem more pronounced than in the Amazon basin, home to the world's largest intact, tropical forest. This article addresses land cover change processes at household level in the Amazon basin, and to this end adapts a concept of domestic life cycle to the current institutional environment of tropical frontiers. In particular, it poses a risk minimization model that integrates demography with market-based factors such as transportation costs and accessibility. In essence, the article merges the theory of Chayanov with the household economy framework, in which markets exist for inputs (including labor), outputs, and capital. The risk model is specified and estimated, using survey data for 261 small producers along the Transamazon Highway in the eastern sector of the Brazilian Amazon.

Walker, Robert↗
NASA NTRS1997

Retirement for Cause as an Alternate Means of Managing Component Lives

In the current budgetary environment, fielded equipment is often used beyond its design life. To avoid the large cost of replacing critical rotating parts as they reach their "safelife" limits, a Retirement For Cause (RFC) program may prove to be a cost-effective, yet safe, alternative. Studies indicate that a full 80 percent of parts replaced at low-cycle fatigue calculated "safe life" limits have at least a full order of magnitude of remaining fatigue life. The Air Force has embraced RFC and currently uses it successfully to manage parts life for several of their gas turbine engines.

Bonacuse, Peter J.↗
NASA NTRS2001

Transgene expression patterns indicate that spaceflight affects stress signal perception and transduction in arabidopsis

The use of plants as integral components of life support systems remains a cornerstone of strategies for long-term human habitation of space and extraterrestrial colonization. Spaceflight experiments over the past few decades have refined the hardware required to grow plants in low-earth orbit and have illuminated fundamental issues regarding spaceflight effects on plant growth and development. Potential incipient hypoxia, resulting from the lack of convection-driven gas movement, has emerged as a possible major impact of microgravity. We developed transgenic Arabidopsis containing the alcohol dehydrogenase (Adh) gene promoter linked to the beta-glucuronidase (GUS) reporter gene to address specifically the possibility that spaceflight induces the plant hypoxia response and to assess whether any spaceflight response was similar to control terrestrial hypoxia-induced gene expression patterns. The staining patterns resulting from a 5-d mission on the orbiter Columbia during mission STS-93 indicate that the Adh/GUS reporter gene was activated in roots during the flight. However, the patterns of expression were not identical to terrestrial control inductions. Moreover, although terrestrial hypoxia induces Adh/GUS expression in the shoot apex, no apex staining was observed in the spaceflight plants. This indicates that either the normal hypoxia response signaling is impaired in spaceflight or that spaceflight inappropriately induces Adh/GUS activity for reasons other than hypoxia.

manned↗
NASA NTRS2010

Optical Structural Health Monitoring Device

This non-destructive, optical fatigue detection and monitoring system relies on a small and unobtrusive light-scattering sensor that is installed on a component at the beginning of its life in order to periodically scan the component in situ. The method involves using a laser beam to scan the surface of the monitored component. The device scans a laser spot over a metal surface to which it is attached. As the laser beam scans the surface, disruptions in the surface cause increases in scattered light intensity. As the disruptions in the surface grow, they will cause the light to scatter more. Over time, the scattering intensities over the scanned line can be compared to detect changes in the metal surface to find cracks, crack precursors, or corrosion. This periodic monitoring of the surface can be used to indicate the degree of fatigue damage on a component and allow one to predict the remaining life and/or incipient mechanical failure of the monitored component. This wireless, compact device can operate for long periods under its own battery power and could one day use harvested power. The prototype device uses the popular open-source TinyOS operating system on an off-the-shelf Mica2 sensor mote, which allows wireless command and control through dynamically reconfigurable multi-node sensor networks. The small size and long life of this device could make it possible for the nodes to be installed and left in place over the course of years, and with wireless communication, data can be extracted from the nodes by operators without physical access to the devices. While a prototype has been demonstrated at the time of this reporting, further work is required in the system s development to take this technology into the field, especially to improve its power management and ruggedness. It should be possible to reduce the size and sensitivity as well. Establishment of better prognostic methods based on these data is also needed. The increase of surface roughness with fatigue is closely connected to the microstructure of the metal, and ongoing research is seeking to connect this observed evidence of the fatigue state with microstructural theories of fatigue evolution to allow more accurate prognosis of remaining component life. Plans are also being discussed for flight testing, perhaps on NASA s SOFIA platform.

Buckner, Benjamin D.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Response of thick, notched laminates subjected to tension-compression cyclic loads

The fatigue response of a (0/24/90/-45)s4 T300-5208 graphite-epoxy laminate with a drilled centerhole subjected to fully reversed tension-compression (R=-1, T-C) constant amplitude loading was investigated. Damage evaluation techniques such as stiffness monitoring, penetrant-enchanced X-ray radiography, C-scan, laminate deeply and residual strength were used to establish the mechanisms of damage development as well as the relations between this damage and the stiffness, strength and life of the laminate. Damage initiated at the hole as matrix cracking parallel to the fibers in all plies. Matrix cracks had a significant effect on delamination initiation and growth. Delaminations initiated near the surface in the densely cracked region at the hole and grew along major matrix cracks. Compressive properties degraded more rapidly than tensile properties. At the stress levels used, residual tensile strength increased early in the fatigue life and remained approximately constant to near the end of life, when failure was precipitated by excessive laminate instability during the compressive portion of the loading.

Bakis, C. E.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Response of thick, notched laminates subjected to tension-compression cyclic loads

The fatigue response of a (0/24/90/-45)s4 T300-5208 graphite-epoxy laminate with a drilled centerhole subjected to fully reversed tension-compression (R=-1, T-C) constant amplitude loading was investigated. Damage evaluation techniques such as stiffness monitoring, penetrant-enhanced X-ray radiography, C-scan, laminate deply and residual strength were used to establish the mechanisms of damage development as well as the relations between this damage and the stiffness, strength and life of the laminate. Damage initiated at the hole as matrix cracking parallel to the fibers in all plies. Matrix cracks had a significant effect on delamination initiation and growth. Delaminations initiated near the surface in the densely cracked region at the hole and grew along major matrix cracks. Compressive properties degraded more rapidly than tensile properties. At the stress levels used, residual tensile strength increased early in the fatigue life and remained approximately constant to near the end of life, when failure was precipitated by excessive laminate instability during the compressive portion of the loading.

Bakis, C. E.↗
DOE OSTI2020

Open Science principles for accelerating trait-based science across the Tree of Life

Synthesizing trait observations and knowledge across the Tree of Life remains a grand challenge for biodiversity science. Species traits are widely used in ecological and evolutionary science, and new data and methods have proliferated rapidly. Yet accessing and integrating disparate data sources remains a considerable challenge, slowing progress toward a global synthesis to integrate trait data across organisms. Trait science needs a vision for achieving global integration across all organisms. In this perspective, we outline how the adoption of key Open Science principles—open data, open source and open methods—is transforming trait science, increasing transparency, democratizing access and accelerating global synthesis. To enhance widespread adoption of these principles, we introduce the Open Traits Network (OTN), a global, decentralized community welcoming all researchers and institutions pursuing the collaborative goal of standardizing and integrating trait data across organisms. We demonstrate how adherence to Open Science principles is key to the OTN community and outline five activities that can accelerate the synthesis of trait data across the Tree of Life, thereby facilitating rapid advances to address scientific inquiries and environmental issues. Lessons learned along the path to a global synthesis of trait data will provide a framework for addressing similarly complex data science and informatics challenges.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

A hybrid chemical-biological approach can upcycle mixed plastic waste with reduced cost and carbon footprint

Derived from renewable feedstocks, such as biomass, polylactic acid (PLA) is considered a more environmentally friendly plastic than conventional petroleum-based polyethylene terephthalate (PET). However, PLA must still be recycled, and its growing popularity and mixture with PET plastics at the disposal stage poses a cross-contamination threat in existing recycling facilities and results in low-value and low-quality recycled products. Hybrid upcycling has been proposed as a promising sustainable solution for mixed plastic waste, but its techno-economic and life cycle environmental performance remain understudied. We propose a hybrid upcycling approach using a biocompatible ionic liquid (IL) to first chemically depolymerize plastics and then convert the depolymerized stream via biological upgrading with no extra separation. Here we show that over 95% of mixed PET/PLA was depolymerized into the respective monomers, which then served as the sole carbon source for the growth of Pseudomonas putida, enabling the conversion of the depolymerized plastics into biodegradable polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs). In comparison to conventional commercial PHAs, the estimated optimal production cost and carbon footprint are reduced by 62% and 29%, respectively.

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

Detection of Natural Oil Seeps in the Atlantic Ocean Using MODIS

Natural oil seepage is the release of crude oil into the ocean from fissures in the seabed. Oil seepage is a major contributor to the total amount of oil entering the world s oceans. According to a 2003 study by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), 47 percent of oil entering the world s oceans is from natural seeps, and 53 percent is from human sources (extraction, transportation, and consumption). Oil seeps cause smooth oil slicks to form on the water s surface. Oil seeps can indicate the location of stores of fossil fuel beneath the ocean floor. Knowledge of the effect of oil seepage on marine life and marine ecosystems remains limited. In the past, remote sensing has been used to detect oil seeps in the Gulf of Mexico and off of the coast of southern California. This project utilized sun glint MODIS imagery to locate oil slicks off of the Atlantic coast, an area that had not previously been surveyed for natural oil seeps using remote sensing. Since 1982, the Atlantic Ocean has been closed to any oil and gas drilling. Recently, however, the U.S. Minerals Management Services (MMS) has proposed a lease for oil and gas drilling off the coasts of Virginia and North Carolina. Determining the location of seepage sites in the Atlantic Ocean will help MMS locate potential deposits of oil and natural gas, thereby reducing the risk of leasing areas for petroleum extraction that do not contain these natural resources.

Reahard, Ross↗
DOE OSTI2023

Life history strategies of soil bacterial communities across global terrestrial biomes

The life history strategies of soil microbes determine their metabolic potential and their response to environmental changes. Yet these strategies remain poorly understood. Here we use shotgun metagenomes from terrestrial biomes to characterize overarching covariations of the genomic traits that capture dominant life history strategies in bacterial communities. The emerging patterns show a triangle of life history strategies shaped by two trait dimensions, supporting previous theoretical and isolate-based studies. The first dimension ranges from streamlined genomes with simple metabolisms to larger genomes and expanded metabolic capacities. As metabolic capacities expand, bacterial communities increasingly differentiate along a second dimension that reflects a trade-off between increasing capacities for environmental responsiveness or for nutrient recycling. Random forest analyses show that soil pH, C:N ratio and precipitation patterns together drive the dominant life history strategy of soil bacterial communities and their biogeographic distribution. Finally, our findings provide a trait-based framework to compare life history strategies of soil bacteria.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Cost Reduction of School Bus Fleet Electrification With Optimized Charging and Distributed Energy Resources: Preprint

Considerations for electrifying school buses are presented with an analysis of battery sizing to match bus driving requirements. The charging and vehicle-to-building dispatch of the electric school buses were optimized to evaluate the potential to reduce the impact of the bus charging on the school's electric utility bill. Distributed energy resources (DER) and flexible building loads were also considered with the school bus electrification to evaluate the further reduction in energy costs with enhanced system integration and optimized dispatch. The effect of degradation on the school bus batteries was analyzed to determine if the smart charging and vehicle-to-building battery operation decreases the life of the battery. The results show that there is an opportunity to mitigate the increase of electric utility bills with improved charging controls and bi-directionally operating the school bus batteries to reduce building demand charges. The battery degradation analysis using dispatch with optimized charging and discharging shows acceptable battery life.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2022

Hyperaccumulation of Gadolinium by Methylorubrum extorquens AM1 Reveals Impacts of Lanthanides on Cellular Processes Beyond Methylotrophy

Lanthanides (Ln) are a new group of life metals, and many questions remain regarding how they are acquired and used in biology. Methylotrophic bacteria can acquire, transport, biomineralize, and use Ln as part of a cofactor complex with pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ) in alcohol dehydrogenases. For most methylotrophic bacteria use is restricted to the light Ln, which range from lanthanum to samarium (atomic numbers 57–62). Understanding how the cell differentiates between light and heavy Ln, and the impacts of these metals on the metabolic network, will advance the field of Ln biochemistry and give insights into enzyme catalysis, stress homeostasis, and metal biomineralization and compartmentalization. We report robust methanol growth with the heavy Ln gadolinium by a genetic variant of the model methylotrophic bacterium Methylorubrum extorquens AM1, named evo -HLn, for “ evo lved for H eavy L antha n ides.” A non-synonymous single nucleotide polymorphism in a cytosolic hybrid histidine kinase/response regulator allowed for sweeping transcriptional alterations to heavy metal stress response, methanol oxidation, and central metabolism. Increased expression of genes for Ln acquisition and uptake, production of the Ln-chelating lanthanophore, PQQ biosynthesis, and phosphate transport and metabolism resulted in gadolinium hyperaccumulation of 36-fold with a trade-off for light Ln accumulation. Gadolinium was hyperaccumulated in an enlarged acidocalcisome-like compartment. This is the first evidence of a bacterial intracellular Ln-containing compartment that we name the “lanthasome.” Carotenoid and toblerol biosynthesis were also upregulated. Due to its unique capabilities, evo -HLn can be used to further magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and bioremediation technologies. In this regard, we show that gadolinium hyperaccumulation was sufficient to produce MRI contrast in whole cells, and that evo -HLn was able to readily acquire the metal from the MRI contrast agent gadopentetic acid. Finally, hyperaccumulation of gadolinium, differential uptake of light and heavy Ln, increased PQQ levels, and phosphate transport provide new insights into strategies for Ln recovery.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS1992

Fracture mechanics expert system

Attention is given to fracture mechanics, an analytical method used extensively in the National Space Transportation System to conservatively predict the remaining service life of an article when a flaw or a material defect is detected. These analyses are performed on hardware containing material defects that have been detected by various nondestructive inspection techniques. An expert system being developed to streamline the process so that hardware dispositions may be obtained in a timely and consistent manner is discussed. The expert system reduces the potential for errors due to the manual transcription between the various software programs involved in completing a fracture mechanics analysis. NEXPERT Object, the expert system development shell selected for this purpose, allows the various software programs used in fracture mechanics analyses to be accessed and manipulated from the same platform.

Powers, E.↗
DOE OSTI2026

Performance Characterization of InCharge™ ICE-66 V2X Bidirectional DC Fast Charger

Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology extends the role of Plug-in Hybrid Vehicle’s (PHEV) and Battery Electric Vehicle’s (BEV) batteries beyond transportation by enabling bidirectional power transfer between the vehicle's onboard energy storage and the utility grid. Modern battery-powered vehicles are equipped with high-capacity battery packs that remain stationary and underutilized for the majority of their operational life. A vehicle used for daily commuting may be parked and connected to charging infrastructure for 18–20 hours per day, representing a significant untapped energy resource. When considered at scale, the aggregated storage capacity of a modest fleet of 10–15 vehicles within a single parking facility can reach the MWh range, sufficient to partially offset peak demand for a mid-size commercial building or contribute meaningful ancillary services to the local grid. The ability to charge during off-peak periods when electricity prices are low and discharge during peak demand when prices are high positions EV batteries as distributed energy arbitrage assets, with the potential to offset vehicle ownership and charging costs. Beyond energy arbitrage, V2G-capable assets can provide ancillary grid services through active and reactive power injections. Active power supports grid frequency regulation, while reactive power supports local voltage regulation. Together, these capabilities establish V2G as a technically promising and economically relevant pathway toward greater integration of battery-powered vehicles into the broader energy system.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
NASA NTRS1991

Alkali metal pool boiler life tests for a 25 kWe advanced Stirling conversion system

The overall operating temperature and efficiency of solar-powered Stirling engines can be improved by adding an alkali metal pool boiler heat transport system to supply heat more uniformly to the heater head tubes. One issue with liquid metal pool boilers is unstable boiling. Stable boiling is obtained with an enhanced boiling surface containing nucleation sites that promote continuous boiling. Over longer time periods, it is possible that the boiling behavior of the system will change. An 800-h life test was conducted to verify that pool boiling with the chosen fluid/surface combination remains stable as the system ages. The apparatus uses NaK boiling on a - 100 + 140 stainless steel sintered porous layer, with the addition of a small amount of xenon. Pool boiling remained stable to the end of life test. The pool boiler life test included a total of 82 cold starts, to simulate startup each morning, and 60 warm restarts, to simulate cloud cover transients. The behavior of the cold and warm starts showed no significant changes during the life test. In the experiments, the fluid/surface combination provided stable, high-performance boiling at the operating temperature of 700 C. Based on these experiments, a pool boiler was designed for a full-scale 25-kWe Stirling system.

Anderson, W. G.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Sputtered protective coatings for die casting dies

Three experimental research designs investigating candidate materials and processes involved in protective die surface coating procedures by sputter deposition, using ion beam technologies, are discussed. Various pre-test results show that none of the coatings remained completely intact for 15,000 test cycles. The longest lifetime was observed for coatings such as tungsten, platinum, and molybdenum which reduced thermal fatigue, but exhibited oxidation and suppressed crack initiation only as long as the coating did not fracture. Final test results confirmed earlier findings and coatings with Pt and W proved to be the candidate materials to be used on a die surface to increase die life. In the W-coated specimens, which remained intact on the surface after thermal fatigue testing, no oxidation was found under the coating, although a few cracks formed on the surface where the coating broke down. Further research is planned.

Mirtich, M. J.↗
NASA NTRS2006

Material Issues in Space Shuttle Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessels

Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessels (COPV) store gases used in four subsystems for NASA's Space Shuttle Fleet. While there are 24 COPV on each Orbiter ranging in size from 19-40", stress rupture failure of a pressurized Orbiter COPV on the ground or in flight is a catastrophic hazard and would likely lead to significant damage/loss of vehicle and/or life and is categorized as a Crit 1 failure. These vessels were manufactured during the late 1970's and into the early 1980's using Titanium liners, Kevlar 49 fiber, epoxy matrix resin, and polyurethane coating. The COPVs are pressurized periodically to 3-5ksi and therefore experience significant strain in the composite overwrap. Similar composite vessels were developed in a variety of DOE Programs (primarily at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories or LLNL), as well as for NASA Space Shuttle Fleet Leader COPV program. The NASA Engineering Safety Center (NESC) formed an Independent Technical Assessment (ITA) team whose primary focus was to investigate whether or not enough composite life remained in the Shuttle COPV in order to provide a strategic rationale for continued COPV use aboard the Space Shuttle Fleet with the existing 25-year-old vessels. Several material science issues were examined and will be discussed in this presentation including morphological changes to Kevlar 49 fiber under stress, manufacturing changes in Kevlar 49 and their effect on morphology and tensile strength, epoxy resin strain, composite creep, degradation of polyurethane coatings, and Titanium yield characteristics.

Sutter, James K.↗