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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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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2023

Aerosol-Jet Printed Sensors for Environmental, Safety, and Health Monitoring: A Review

An emergent direct-write approach, aerosol-jet printing (AJP), is gaining attention for the deployment of rapid and affordable microadditively manufactured energy-efficient sensors and printed electronics. AJP enables a broad range of ink viscosities (0.001–1 Pa s) for printing diverse materials ranging from ceramics and metals to polymers and biological matter. Reproducible, high-spatial-resolution features (≈10 µm), and wide standoff distances (1–11 mm) between the nozzle and the substrate facilitate conformal printing of complex geometrical designs on nonplanar—e.g., stepped or curved—surfaces. Here this paper aims to provide a comprehensive overview of state-of-the-art AJP-based sensors (e.g., strain and temperature gauges, biosensors, photosensors, humidity and surface acoustic wave sensors, dielectric elastomer actuators, and motion, smoke, and hazardous gas detectors) and to discuss prospective applications. The drive toward cost-effective devices that are smaller, lighter, and better-performing remains a frontier challenge in the field of printed electronics. Consequently, as AJP becomes increasingly utilized in the high-volume manufacturing of miniaturized active and passive sensors, it opens a pathway for facile large-scale fabrication of devices for a wide range of consumer and industrial applications, including transportation, agriculture, infrastructure, aerospace, national defense, and healthcare.

3-dimensional↗
DOE OSTI2018

A New Insight into Cross-Sensitivity to Humidity of SnO 2 Sensor

Here, the efficiency of gas sensors varies enormously from fundamental study to practical application. This big gap comes mainly from the complex and unpredictable effect of atmospheric environment, especially in humidity. Here, the cross-sensitivity to humidity of a SnO 2 sensor from local structural and lattice evolutions is studied. The sensing response of ethanol is found to be efficiently activated by adsorbing trace of water but inhibited as humidity increases. By X-ray diffraction, pair distribution function of synchrotron and ab initio calculations, the independent effect of water and ethanol on lattice and local structure are clearly revealed, which elucidate the intricate sensing reactions. The formation of hydrogen bonds and repulsion of ethoxides play key roles in the structural distortions, and also in adsorption energies that are critical to the sensitive behavior. The results show the sensor performance coupled with local structural evolution, which provides a new insight into the controversial effects of humidity on SnO 2 sensors.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2016

Highly stretchable miniature strain sensor for large dynamic strain measurement

In this paper, a new type of highly stretchable strain sensor was developed to measure large strains. The sensor was based on the piezo-resistive response of carbon nanotube (CNT)/polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) composite thin films. The piezo-resistive response of CNT composite gives accurate strain measurement with high frequency response, while the ultra-soft PDMS matrix provides high flexibility and ductility for large strain measurement. Experimental results show that the CNT/PDMS sensor measures large strains (up to 8 %) with an excellent linearity and a fast frequency response. The new miniature strain sensor also exhibits much higher sensitivities than the conventional foil strain gages, as its gauge factor is 500 times of that of the conventional foil strain gages.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2019

Temperature effect on the performance of a 1D grating-based surface-plasmon resonance sensors

We have theoretically studied the influence of temperature on the performance of a 1D grating sensor based on surface plasmon resonance. Rigorous coupled wave analysis method has been utilized to study the effect of the temperature on the sensing performance. The performance of the sensor has been evaluated on the basis of detection accuracy (DA), the sensitivity (S) and the quality parameter (χ). The effect of temperature on the DA, χ and S of the sensor with two different metals (gold and silver) has been compared. Our analysis exhibits that increasing of temperature may lead to poor detection accuracy and quality of the sensor, but the sensitivity is very stable with the change of temperature. Further, the results confirm that the room temperature T = 300 K provides a high DA and a high S, and a good quality.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2019

Comparative performance analysis of relative humidity sensor based on intermodal interference using tapered square no-core optical fiber and tapered cylindrical optical fiber

This work presents the computational evaluation of a new model for relative humidity sensor based on the principle of intermodal interference using a square-section no-core tapered optical fiber compared to a classical cylindrical tapered optical fiber sensor. Attempting at a new application of this type of sensor, simulations were carried out in the range of up to 60% of relative humidity, the main interest range of the pharmaceutical industry. Several materials were used in its modeling and an analysis was developed in its constructive dimensions, in order to verify the influence of each of them on the sensor performance.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2019

Slow light enhanced bio sensing properties of silicon sensors

In this paper, we investigated slow light to increase sensitivity and quality factor of our recently designed bio-sensors. A finite difference time domain and Plane Wave Expansion methods are employed to figure out sensors’ performances. We proposed slow light based photonic crystal structures with elliptical cells and we obtained higher sensitivity and quality factor as previously reported. For the first proposed sensor, the results showed that quality factor increased from 570 to 723 and a detection limit below 10{sup −3}. For the second sensor, the sensitivity increased from 550 to 650 nm/RIU and the detection limit is around 10{sup −3}. These two proposed structures would offer great potential for novel compact biosensors in medical application.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2018

A large-scale evaluation of automated metadata inference approaches on sensors from air handling units

Building automation systems provide abundant sensor data to enable the potential of using data analytics to, among other things, improve the energy efficiency of the building. However, deployment of these applications for buildings, such as, fault detection and diagnosis (FDD) on multiple buildings remains a challenge due to the non-trivial efforts of organizing, managing and extracting metadata associated with sensors (e.g., information about their location, function, etc.), which is required by applications. One of the reasons leading to the problem is that varying conventions, acronyms, and standards are used to define this metadata. To better understand the nature of the problem, as well as the performance and scalability of existing solutions, in this report we implement and test 6 different time-series based metadata inference approaches on sensors from 614 air handling units (AHU) instrumented in 35 building sites accounting for more than 400 buildings distributed across United States of America. We infer 12 types of sensors and actuators in AHUs required by a rule-based FDD application: AHU performance and assessment rules (APAR). Our results show that: (1) the average performance of these approaches in terms of accuracy is similar across building sites, though there is significant variance; (2) the expected accuracy of classifying the type of points required by APAR for a new unseen building is, on average, 75%; (3) the performance of the model does not decrease as long as training data and testing data are extracted from adjacent months.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2021

Calibration approach and range of observed sap flow influences transpiration estimates from thermal dissipation sensors

Calibrating thermal dissipation (TD) sap flow sensors has become increasingly important to accurately estimate whole-tree transpiration, but it is unclear how the calibration approach itself influences the resulting coefficients and estimates. Here, we compare the two most common calibration approaches, gravimetric and potometric, using TD sensors inserted into Eucalyptus benthamii tree stems. The gravimetric approach uses an excised stem segment devoid of branches and leaves and pushes water through the stem using gravity, a positive force. The potometric approach uses a severed stem containing an intact canopy placed upright in a reservoir where water is pulled through the stem via transpiration, a negative force. We hypothesized that the positive pressure associated with gravimetric calibration would overestimate conductive sapwood area relative to that estimated from potometric calibration and that coefficients from these different approaches would result in different estimates of transpiration when applied to intact trees. We also predicted that calibrations could improve transpiration estimates by targeting the range of observed sap flow rates (i.e., K values) in intact trees. Conductive sapwood area was higher under gravimetric calibrations and resulting estimates of transpiration were lower compared to potometric calibrations. Segmented calibration curves, which fit two separate curves for the relationship between sap flux density (Fd) and sap flux index (K) based on the range of sap flow rates observed in intact trees, increased transpiration estimates from both gravimetric and potometric coefficients and diminished the magnitude of difference in transpiration estimates between approaches. Researchers should be aware that calibration approach and range of observed sap flow profoundly influences transpiration estimates from TD sensors and this likely applies to calibrations of other heat-based sap flow sensors.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Optimal sensor network design for multi-scale, time-varying differential algebraic equation systems: Application to an entrained-flow gasifier refractory brick

An algorithm for optimal sensor network design for multi-scale, time-varying differential algebraic equation systems with non-separable dynamics is presented. As the process is time-varying, an integral normalized posterior error covariance of a multi-scale filter is minimized to obtain the optimal sensor locations. For reducing the computational cost, an adaptive sampling rate approach is considered for the slowly-varying variables. The algorithm is applied to a smart refractory brick with embedded sensors as part of an entrained-flow gasifier. Thermistors and interdigital capacitors are considered as candidate measurement technologies for estimating temperature and slag penetration profile along the gasifier wall. Finally, when the optimal set of sensors obtained from the algorithm is used for estimating temperature and slag penetration profiles in a multi-scale Kalman filter framework, satisfactory estimates are obtained despite high measurement noise and model mismatch.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2018

Localized real-time information on outdoor air quality at kindergartens in Oslo, Norway using low-cost sensor nodes

Highlights: • We show that low-cost sensors can provide an indication of outdoor air quality. • We employed a data fusion method to provide real-time air quality maps. • Localized real-time air quality information can help parents and kindergarten staff. In Norway, children in kindergartens spend significant time outdoors under all weather conditions, and there is thus a natural concern about the quality of outdoor air. It is well known that air pollution is associated with a wide variety of adverse health impacts for children, with greater impact on children with asthma. Especially during winter and spring, kindergartens in Oslo that are situated close to streets with busy traffic, or in areas where wood burning is used for house heating, can experience many days with bad air quality. During these periods, updated information on air quality levels can help the kindergarten teachers to plan appropriate outdoor activities and thus protect children's health. We have installed 17 low-cost air quality nodes in kindergartens in Oslo. These nodes are smaller, cheaper and less complex to use than traditional equipment. Performance evaluation shows that while they are less accurate and suffer from higher uncertainty than reference equipment, they still can provide reliable coarse information about local pollution. The main challenge when using this technology is that calibration parameters might change with time depending on the atmospheric conditions. Thus, even if the sensors are calibrated a priori, once deployed, and especially if they are deployed for a long time, it is not possible to determine if a node is over- or under-estimating the concentration levels. To enhance the data from the sensors, we employed a data fusion technique that allows generating a detailed air quality map merging the data from the sensors and the data from an urban model, thus being able to offer air quality information to any location within Oslo. We arranged a focus group with the participation of local administration, kindergarten staff and parents to understand their opinion and needs related to the air quality information that was provided to the participant kindergartens. They expressed concern about the data quality but agree that having updated information on the air quality in the surroundings of kindergartens can help them to reduce children's exposure to air pollution.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2017

Utilization of optical sensors for phasor measurement units

With the help of GPS signals for synchronization, increasingly ubiquitous phasor measurement units (PMUs) provide power grid operators unprecedented system monitoring and control opportunities. However, the performance of PMUs is limited by the inherent deficiencies in traditional transformers. To address these issues, an optical sensor is used in PMU for signal acquisition to replace the traditional transformers. This is the first time the utilization of an optical sensor in PMUs has ever been reported. The accuracy of frequency, angle, and amplitude are evaluated via experiments. Lastly, the optical sensor based PMU can achieve the accuracy of 9.03 × 10 –4 Hz for frequency, 6.38 × 10 –3 rad for angle and 6.73 × 10 –2 V for amplitude with real power grid signal, demonstrating the practicability of optical sensors in future PMUs.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2017

Mesoporous Ag/In{sub 2}O{sub 3} composite derived from indium organic framework as high performance formaldehyde sensor

Mesoporous Ag/In{sub 2}O{sub 3} composite materials with different concentrations of Ag particles have been prepared by the calcination of Ag{sup +}-entrapped indium-organic frameworks (InOFs). The structures and components of these MOF-derived Mesoporous Ag/In{sub 2}O{sub 3} composite materials have been characterized thoroughly. Gas sensing measurements indicated that the incorporation of metallic Ag particles into the mesoporous structure significantly improves the gas-sensing properties of In{sub 2}O{sub 3}. Specially, the response of 5% Ag-loaded In{sub 2}O{sub 3} sensor to 50 ppm formaldehyde is 5 times higher than that of pure In{sub 2}O{sub 3} particles at 210 °C, which is among the best formaldehyde sensor materials reported to date. Also, Ag/In{sub 2}O{sub 3} composite sensor exhibit short response time (~22 s) and excellent recovery. These results indicated that the InOF-derived mesoporous Ag/In{sub 2}O{sub 3} materials maybe can be used to fabricate high performance formaldehyde sensors in practice. - Graphical abstract: Mesoporous Ag/In{sub 2}O{sub 3} materials have been produced by calcining indium-organic frameworks showing very fast and extremely high response towards HCHO. - Highlights: • Thermal decomposition of indium-organic framework. • Ag-loaded mesoporous In{sub 2}O{sub 3} materials. • Fast and high responses to HCHO.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2023

A greedy Galerkin method to efficiently select sensors for linear dynamical systems

A key challenge in inverse problems is the selection of sensors to gather the most effective data. In this paper, we consider the problem of inferring the initial condition to a linear dynamical system and develop an efficient control-theoretical approach for greedily selecting sensors. Our method employs a Galerkin projection to reduce the size of the inverse problem, resulting in a computationally efficient algorithm for sensor selection. As a byproduct of our algorithm, we obtain a preconditioner for the inverse problem that enables the rapid recovery of the initial condition. Here, we analyze the theoretical performance of our greedy sensor selection algorithm as well as the performance of the associated preconditioner. Finally, we verify our theoretical results on various inverse problems involving partial differential equations.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2015

A novel rapid synthesis of Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3}/graphene nanocomposite using ferrate(VI) and its application as a new kind of nanocomposite modified electrode as electrochemical sensor

Highlights: • A novel rapid synthesis of rGO–Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3} nanocomposite was developed using Fe(VI). • Fe(VI) as an environmentally friendly oxidant was introduced for GO synthesis. • Synthesized rGO–Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3} nanocomposite was applied as electrochemical sensor. • A non-enzymatic sensor was developed for H{sub 2}O{sub 2}. - Abstract: In this study, a novel, simple and sensitive non-enzymatic hydrogen peroxide electrochemical sensor was developed using reduced graphene oxide/Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3} nanocomposite modified glassy carbon electrode. This nanocomposite was synthesized by reaction of sodium ferrate with graphene in alkaline media. This reaction completed in 5 min and the products were stable and its deposition on the surface of electrode is investigated. It has been found the apparent charge transfer rate constant (ks) is 0.52 and transfer coefficient (α) is 0.61 for electron transfer between the modifier and glassy carbon electrode. Electrochemical behavior of this electrode and its ability to catalyze the electro-reduction of H{sub 2}O{sub 2} has been studied by cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry at different experimental conditions. The analytical parameters showed the good ability of electrode as a sensor for H{sub 2}O{sub 2} amperometric reduction.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2019

Iodine detection in Ag-mordenite based sensors: Charge conduction pathway determinations

Detection of radiological iodine gas after nuclear accidents or in nuclear fuel reprocessing is necessary for the safety of human life and the environment. The development of sensors for the detection of iodine benefits from the incorporation of nanoporous materials with high selectivity for I 2 from common competing gases in air. Silver mordenite zeolite (Ag-MOR) is widely-used material for capture of gaseous iodine (I 2 ). In this paper, thin film zeolite coatings were applied to Pt interdigitated electrodes (IEDs) to fabricate iodine gas sensors with direct electrical readout responses. Correlations between occluded ion, exposure to iodine gas, resultant AgI nanoparticle polymorphs and location in zeolite with resultant impedance spectroscopy (IS) properties are described. Furthermore, IS is leveraged to elucidate the changes in charge conduction pathways as determined by the cation-zeolite film incorporated in the sensor. Silver mordenite reveals a significant change in impedance upon exposure to gaseous I 2 at 70 °C, and the magnitude and direction of the response is dependent on whether the Ag + -mordenite is reduced (Ag 0 ) before I 2 exposure. An equivalent circuit model is developed to describe the movement of charge along the surface and through the pores of the mordenite grains. Relative changes in the impedance of these conduction pathways are related to the chemical changes from Ag + or Ag 0 to resultant AgI polymorph phase. Lastly, together, these results inform design of a compact Ag-mordenite sensor for direct electrical detection of gaseous I 2 .

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2015

A low-noise CMOS pixel direct charge sensor, Topmetal-II -

In this paper, we report the design and characterization of a CMOS pixel direct charge sensor, Topmetal-II-, fabricated in a standard 0.35 μm CMOS Integrated Circuit process. The sensor utilizes exposed metal patches on top of each pixel to directly collect charge. Each pixel contains a low-noise charge-sensitive preamplifier to establish the analog signal and a discriminator with tunable threshold to generate hits. The analog signal from each pixel is accessible through time-shared multiplexing over the entire array. Hits are read out digitally through a column-based priority logic structure. Tests show that the sensor achieved a <15e - analog noise and a 200e - minimum threshold for digital readout per pixel. The sensor is capable of detecting both electrons and ions drifting in gas. Lastly, these characteristics enable its use as the charge readout device in future Time Projection Chambers without gaseous gain mechanism, which has unique advantages in low background and low rate-density experiments.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2019

Radiation tolerance study on irradiated AC-coupled, poly-silicon biased, p-on-n silicon strip sensors developed in India

The silicon sensors to be deployed in the next generation high energy physics experiments for operation in high luminosity scenarios, will require a high level of radiation tolerance. AC-coupled silicon strip sensors integrated with biasing poly-silicon resistors have been fabricated in collaboration with the Bharat Electronics Limited foundry using 4 inch n-type wafers in p-on-n configuration. Several sensors were irradiated with protons at different fluences at the Karlsruhe Cyclotron facility under the Advanced European Infrastructures for Detectors at Accelerators (AIDA) program. This paper reports on these radiation hardness study performed on the AC-coupled silicon sensors fabricated in India. The characterization comprises of electrical tests, including total current, voltage and strip scans and charge collection studies.

AC-coupled↗
DOE OSTI2023

Irradiation of ultrasonic sensors and adhesive couplants for application in light water reactor primary loop piping and components

The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) Nuclear Sector and US Department of Energy Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program are committed to engaging in research and development endeavors to address materials aging issues specific to long term operation of light water power reactors. To this effect, EPRI launched an industry initiative to develop nondestructive evaluation systems for online monitoring of existing cracks in light water reactor primary coolant loop piping and components. One of the goals of this initiative is to develop a sensor system (or systems) that can determine nondestructively if cracks are growing or arrested and, in the case of the former, to characterize their growth rates. A missing component of this initiative is an experimental assessment of how sensors and adhesive couplants will perform in service when exposed to chronic energetic neutron radiation, particularly at the primary coolant loop hot and cold leg dissimilar metal welds, which join the primary loop piping to the reactor pressure vessel and reside in the vicinity of the reactor core. The objective of this experimental study was to determine how ultrasonic transducers and adhesive couplants perform when exposed to irradiation in a test reactor to simulate and accelerate in-service exposure. Further, to achieve this objective, the signal stability of piezoelectric transducers and performance of adhesive couplants as a function of accumulated fast neutron fluence were characterized by collecting ultrasonic data in-situ during irradiation. Of particular interest were the ultrasonic signal quality and time decay of the amplitude of acoustic reflections as a function of fast neutron fluence. The results of the study showed that, of the 8 transducer/substrate sample assemblies tested, only 3 generated usable ultrasonic signals through the conclusion of the irradiation campaign. It was found that high temperature epoxy tends to ultrasonically couple the sensors to the substrates better than three types of refractory ceramic cements studied, as is supported by post irradiation examination. The results obtained through this experimental study will be utilized in the achievement of the overall goal of development of a sensor system to perform online monitoring of primary loop components.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗