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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 1,765 records · Page 98
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2009

Automated CFD for Generation of Airfoil Performance Tables

A method of automated computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has been invented for the generation of performance tables for an object subject to fluid flow. The method is applicable to the generation of tables that summarize the effects of two-dimensional flows about airfoils and that are in a format known in the art as C81. (A C81 airfoil performance table is a text file that lists coefficients of lift, drag, and pitching moment of an airfoil as functions of angle of attack for a range of Mach numbers.) The method makes it possible to efficiently generate and tabulate data from simulations of flows for parameter values spanning all operational ranges of actual or potential interest. In so doing, the method also enables filling of gaps and resolution of inconsistencies in C81 tables generated previously from incomplete experimental data or from theoretical calculations that involved questionable assumptions.

Strawn, Roger↗
DOE OSTI2024

Continuous Flow Photoelectrochemical Reactor with Gas Permeable Photocathode: Enhanced Photocurrent and Partial Current Density for CO 2 Reduction

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) CO 2 reduction using a photocathode is an attractive method for making valuable chemical products due to its simplicity and lower overpotential requirements. However, previous PEC processes have often been diffusion-limited leading to low production rates of the CO 2 reduction reaction, due to inefficient gas diffusion through the liquid electrolyte to the catalyst surface, particularly at high current densities. In this study, a gas-permeable photocathode in a continuous flow PEC reactor is incorporated, which facilitates the direct supply of CO 2 gas to the photocathode-electrolyte interface, unlike dark reaction-based flow reactors. This concept is demonstrated using Ag-TiO 2 on carbon paper, illuminated through a quartz window and flowing liquid electrolyte. CO 2 supply is managed via pressure and flow control on the non-illuminated side of the carbon paper. The photocurrent density is significantly influenced by the flow rates and pressure of CO 2 gas, and the electrolyte flow rates. Compared to the traditional H-cell, the continuous PEC flow reactor achieves ≈10-fold increase in CO faradaic efficiency, 30-fold increase in production rate and 16-fold increase in stability without catalyst modifications. This work provides essential insights into the design and application of continuous gas-liquid flow PEC reactor systems, highlighting their potential for other PEC reactions.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
NASA NTRS1952

Design and Test of Mixed-flow Impellers II : Experimental Results, Impeller Model MFI-1A

An investigation was conducted to determine the performance characteristics of a mixed-flow impeller which was designed with special emphasis on the reduction or elimination of flow decelerations along wetted surfaces. The performance was investigated over a range of equivalent impeller speeds from 700 to 1600 feet per second and over a range of flow rates from maximum adiabatic temperature-rise efficiency, measured at 1-1/2 impeller diameters in a vaneless diffuser, at the design speed of 1400 feet per second were 4.00 and 0.83, respectively.

THEORY AND EXPERIMENT↗
DOE OSTI2026

Active learning of a crystal plasticity flow rule from discrete dislocation dynamics simulations

Continuum-scale material deformation models, such as crystal plasticity (CP), can significantly enhance their predictive accuracy by incorporating input from lower-scale (i.e. mesoscale) models. The procedure to generate and extract the relevant information is however typically complex and ad hoc, involving decision and intervention by domain experts, leading to long development times. In this study, we develop a principled approach for calibration of continuum-scale models using lower scale information by representing a CP flow rule as a Gaussian process model. This representation allows for efficient parameter space exploration, guided by the uncertainty embedded in the model through a process known as Bayesian optimization (BO). We demonstrate a semi-autonomous BO loop which instantiates discrete dislocation dynamics simulations whose initial conditions are automatically chosen to optimize the uncertainty of a model CP flow rule. Our self-guided computational pipeline efficiently generated a dataset and corresponding model whose error, uncertainty, and physical feature sensitivities were validated with comparison to an independent dataset four times larger, demonstrating a valuable and efficient active learning implementation readily transferable to similar material systems.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

Bromine Assisted MnO 2 Dissolution Chemistry: Toward a Hybrid Flow Battery with Energy Density of over 300 Wh L −1

Abstract Mn 2+ /Mn 3+ redox pair has been considered as a promising cathode for high energy density batteries, due to its attractive features of high redox potential, solubility and outstanding kinetics. However, the disproportionation side reaction of Mn 3+ , which results in accumulation of “dead” MnO 2 limits its reversibility and further energy density. Herein, a novel catholyte based on mixture of Mn 2+ and Br − was proposed for flow batteries with high energy density and long cycle life. In the design, the “dead” MnO 2 can be fully discharged via Br − by a chemical‐electrochemical reaction. Coupled with Cd/Cd 2+ as anode, the assembled Bromine‐Manganese flow battery (BMFB) demonstrates a high energy efficiency of 76 % at 80 mA cm −2 with energy density of 360 Wh L −1 . The battery assembled with silicotungstic acid as anode could continuously run for over 2000 cycles at 80 mA cm −2 . With high power density, energy density and durability, the BMFB shows great potential for large‐scale energy storage.

Chemistry↗
DOE OSTI2019

Nanowell-mediated multidimensional separations combining nanoLC with SLIM IM-MS for rapid, high-peak-capacity proteomic analyses

Mass spectrometry (MS)–based analysis of complex biological samples is essential for biomedical research and clinical diagnostics. The separation prior to MS plays a key role in the overall analysis, with separations having larger peak capacities often leading to more identified species and improved confidence in those identifications. High-resolution ion mobility (IM) separations enabled by Structures for Lossless Ion Manipulation (SLIM) can provide extremely rapid, high-resolution separations and are well suited as a second dimension of separation following nanoscale liquid chromatography (nanoLC). However, existing sample handling approaches for offline coupling of separation modes require microliter-fraction volumes and are thus not well suited for analysis of trace biological samples. We have developed a novel nanowell-mediated fractionation system that enables nanoLC-separated samples to be efficiently preconcentrated and directly infused at nanoelectrospray flow rates for downstream analysis. When coupled with SLIM IM-MS, the platform enables rapid and high-peak-capacity multidimensional separations of small biological samples. In this study, peptides eluting from a 100 nL/min nanoLC separation were fractionated into ~?60 nanowells on a microfluidic glass chip using an in-house–developed robotic system. The dried samples on the chip were individually reconstituted and ionized by nanoelectrospray for SLIM IM-MS analysis. Using model peptides for characterization of the nanowell platform, we found that at least 80% of the peptide components of the fractionated samples were recovered from the nanowells, providing up to ~tenfold preconcentration for SLIM IM-MS analysis. The combined LC-SLIM IM separation peak capacities exceeded 3600 with a measurement throughput that is similar to current one-dimensional (1D) LC-MS proteomic analyses.

Dou, Maowei↗
DOE OSTI2014

IOPro: a parallel I/O profiling and visualization framework for high-performance storage systems

Efficient execution of large-scale scientific applications requires high-performance computing systems designed to meet the I/O requirements. To achieve high-performance, such data-intensive parallel applications use a multi-layer layer I/O software stack, which consists of high-level I/O libraries such as PnetCDF and HDF5, the MPI library, and parallel file systems. To design efficient parallel scientific applications, understanding the complicated flow of I/O operations and the involved interactions among the libraries is quintessential. Such comprehension helps identify I/O bottlenecks and thus exploits the potential performance in different layers of the storage hierarchy. To profile the performance of individual components in the I/O stack and to understand complex interactions among them, we have implemented a GUI-based integrated profiling and analysis framework, IOPro. IOPro automatically generates an instrumented I/O stack, runs applications on it, and visualizes detailed statistics based on the user-specified metrics of interest. We present experimental results from two different real-life applications and show how our framework can be used in practice. By generating an end-to-end trace of the whole I/O stack and pinpointing I/O interference, IOPro aids in understanding I/O behavior and improving the I/O performance significantly.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2018

Optimization of Hot Deformation Parameters and Constitutive Analysis for As-Cast Mg-5Li-3Zn-0.3Y Alloy Using Processing Maps

Hot deformation behavior of as-cast Mg-5Li-3Zn-0.3Y (wt.%) alloy has been studied by establishing processing maps covering the range of 200-450 °C in temperature and 0.001-10 s{sup −1} in strain rate. The map corresponding to the strain of 0.7 reveals that a domain of dynamic recrystallization occurred at 340-400 °C/0.01-0.158 s{sup −1} with its peak efficiency of approximately 31%. Analysis of the flow behaviors and microstructural observations indicated that dynamic recrystallization occurred in the domain, in which fine microstructure can be achieved. The above conditions represent the optimum processing parameters, and the flow instability regimes are also recognized from the maps. The average deformation in the deformed range was 136.414 kJ/mol which is close to that for lattice self-diffusion in magnesium and far smaller than that for as-cast Mg-5.75Zn-0.73Y-0.36Zr (wt.%) alloy. It is believed that a lower activation energy for Mg-5Li-3Zn-0.3Y alloy can partly result from both the weak particle pinning effects and adding Li into the Mg-Zn-Y-Zr alloy. Results of extrusion experiments conducted at 350 °C show that the alloy can be easily extruded with good mechanical properties of the yield strength of 132 MPa, the fracture strength of 215 MPa and the elongation of 20.9%, and the grains can be well refined.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2019

Predicting and analyzing the performance of biomass-burning natural draft rocket cookstoves using computational fluid dynamics

Nearly three billion people in the world today rely on biomass for their cooking needs. Indoor cooking using biomass has been identified as a major cause of respiratory illnesses, resulting in four million premature deaths every year. Improved biomass cookstoves may help mitigate this challenge. This paper presents a two-dimensional axisymmetric steady-state computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of a biomass burning, natural draft rocket cookstove. The CFD model includes coupled sub-models representing combustion, turbulence, and heat transfer. The model is validated against experimental data and used to predict temperatures and flow inside the cookstove, including the airflow rate through the cookstove and heat transfer to the cookpot. We find that the excess air is typically many times stoichiometric air during standard operating conditions and is sensitive to flow field obstructions. We analyze the effects of geometric and operational features such as the pot support height, secondary air entrainment, cone-deck shape, and baffle placement within the cookstove on the flow, airflow rate, mixing, and stove thermal efficiency. The model shows that secondary air entrainment, though ineffective by itself, increases turbulent mixing when used in conjunction with a central baffle but reduces thermal efficiencies due to enhanced heat transfer to the walls. We find that a lower pot support height decreases the airflow rate and increases thermal efficiency. We model thirty-six cone-deck configurations and find that the cone-deck shape primarily affects the airflow rate through the stove, with more constricted designs leading to higher thermal efficiencies.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Regularizing the linearly extrapolated BDF2 scheme for incompressible flows with time relaxation

This paper presents a highly-efficient finite element scheme for the time relaxation model (TRM). The efficiency is achieved through the second-order BDF2 time-stepping scheme with linear extrapolation (BDF2LE). The accuracy of the scheme is also greatly enhanced through the use of the divergence-free Scott-Vogeulis finite elements, and van Cittert approximate deconvolution. A complete finite element analysis is provided, which includes rigorous proofs for the stability, well-possessedness, and convergence of both velocity and pressure solutions. Furthermore, we also demonstrate that the inclusion of the linear time relaxation term preserves the long-time stability of the unregularized BDF2LE scheme. Finally, numerical experiments are presented that demonstrate the added stability and accuracy that time relaxation can provide.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2021

The effects of in-situ emulsion formation and superficial velocity on foam performance in high-permeability porous media

Foam has been considered as a mobility control agent for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) applications in heterogeneous and fractured reservoirs. Foam enhances sweep efficiency by enabling the injected gas to flow from high-permeability to low-permeability regions. The foam injection velocity is an essential factor affecting foam mobility control and flow behavior. Furthermore, the presence of remaining oil adversely impacts foam generation leading to a failure in governing mobility control. In this study, foam performance in establishing mobility control effect and favorable apparent viscosity was experimentally investigated under a range of total superficial velocities in the presence and absence of crude oil during foam propagation in high permeability sand packs representing a propped fracture network. In the absence of oil, a pronounced effect of total superficial velocity on the mobility control performance was observed at the transition foam quality regime. Co-injection of oil and foam led to noticeable foam destabilization, as expected. However, a further increase in oil fractional flow resulted in larger overall flow resistance. We found that the formation of in-situ surfactant/oil emulsion contributed to the high apparent viscosity exhibited at the steady-state condition. These findings suggest that the steady-state flow resistance established during foam flooding at high oil saturations should be interpreted as the mobility control effect resulting from emulsion formation rather than the development of strong foam.

02 PETROLEUM↗
DOE OSTI2018

Conceptual design study for heat exhaust management in the ARC fusion pilot plant

The ARC pilot plant conceptual design study has been extended beyond its initial scope to explore options for managing ∼525 MW of fusion power generated in a compact, high field (B 0 = 9.2 T) tokamak that is approximately the size of JET (R 0 = 3.3 m). Taking advantage of ARC’s novel design – demountable high temperature superconductor toroidal field (TF) magnets, poloidal magnetic field coils located inside the TF, and vacuum vessel (VV) immersed in molten salt FLiBe blanket – this follow-on study has identified innovative and potentially robust power exhaust management solutions. The superconducting poloidal field coil set has been reconfigured to produce double-null plasma equilibria with a long-leg X-point target divertor geometry. Here this design choice is motivated by recent modeling which indicates that such configurations enhance power handling and may attain a passively-stable detachment front that stays in the divertor leg over a wide power exhaust window. A modified VV accommodates the divertor legs while retaining the original core plasma volume and TF magnet size. The molten salt FLiBe blanket adequately shields all superconductors, functions as an efficient tritium breeder, and, with augmented forced flow loops, serves as an effective single-phase, low-pressure coolant for the divertor, VV, and breeding blanket. Advanced neutron transport calculations (MCNP) indicate a tritium breeding ratio of ∼1.08. The neutron damage rate (DPA/year) of the remote divertor targets is ∼3–30 times lower than that of the first wall. The entire VV (including divertor and first wall) can tolerate high damage rates since the demountable TF magnets allow the VV to be replaced every 1–2 years as a single unit, employing a vertical maintenance scheme. A tungsten swirl tube FLiBe coolant channel design, similar in geometry to that used by ITER, is considered for the divertor heat removal and shown capable of exhausting divertor heat flux levels of up to 12 MW/m 2 . Several novel, neutron tolerant diagnostics are explored for sensing power exhaust and for providing feedback control of divertor conditions over long time scales. These include measurement of Cherenkov radiation emitted in FLiBe to infer DT fusion reaction rate, measurement of divertor detachment front locations in the divertor legs with microwave interferometry, and monitoring “hotspots” on the divertor chamber walls via IR imaging through the FLiBe blanket.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

A numerical extension of the spatially-filtered Euler equations for contact discontinuities

Solving the spatially-filtered Euler equations with a kinetic energy-preserving centered discretization is an efficient framework for simulating shock-dominated flows. Here, the present work describes a numerical treatment of the spatially-filtered Euler equations to minimize oscillations when simulating contact discontinuities. To counteract dispersive errors inherent to centered schemes, a WENO-like correction term is applied to the enthalpy transport in the energy equation.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2022

Preactivated zeolite nanosheet plate-tiled membrane on porous PVDF film: Synthesis and study of proton-selective ion conduction

Preactivated MFI zeolite nanosheet plates (ZNPs) with large areas (~2.0 × 2.0 μm 2 ) and nanometer thicknesses (~60 nm) were prepared directly in liquid-dispersed state. The individual ZNP was a stack of 4-nm-thick single crystalline zeolite nanosheets (ZNs) interlinked by Si–O–Si bonds between neighboring ZN surfaces. The dispersed open-pore ZNPs allowed formulating suspensions for tiling ZNP membranes on polymer substrates without requiring post-coating activation. A pinhole-free ZNP-tiled (ZNPT) membrane has been achieved on macroporous PVDF film by a self-repairing vacuum-assisted filtration coating method. The resultant ZNPT layer was ~500 nm-thick consisting of about 7 ZNP layers with inter-ZNP width and inter-ZNP entrance porosity around 9 nm and 2%, respectively. The ZNPT-PVDF membrane exhibited high selectivity to proton transport over vanadyl ion and low resistances to proton conduction in aqueous solutions. The membrane also demonstrated to function as an efficient ion separator for the vanadium redox flow battery. The reported synthesis of preactivated ZNP suspension may overcome the major hurdle to realizing polymer-supported ZN membranes, which is the inefficiency of existing methods in obtaining readily dispersible open-pore ZNs. Finally, the ZNPT-PVDF membrane can be a more affordable and sustainable alternative to the Nafion-based ion separation membranes.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Modeling a divertor with mid-leg pumping for high-power H-mode scenarios in DIII-D considering E x B drift flows

Edge-plasma simulations of a baffled, long-legged divertor in DIII-D, performed using the multi-fluid code UEDGE, indicate that the position of the detachment front is constrained to the location of the pump duct along the low-field side (LFS) baffle. Simulations including magnetic and E x B drifts were performed for 12.5 MW deuterium plasmas including intrinsic carbon and seeded neon to assess the optimal location of the LFS divertor pump to create a stable detachment front between the target and the X-point. The radiation front position in the simulations, taken to be indicative of the detachment front, can be controlled between the pump and X-point in the favorable magnetic field direction for H-mode access by moving the pump duct location upstream of the target along the LFS baffle. In the unfavorable magnetic field direction, the radial E θ x B drift flows are directed towards the pumping surface, efficiently removing the injected deuterium gas and limiting the sensitivity of the radiation front location to the gas injection rate. The role of pumping rate and drift direction on the pumping efficiency are also found to affect the divertor plasma conditions and detachment front location in UEDGE simulations.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2018

Ultralow Damping in Nanometer-Thick Epitaxial Spinel Ferrite Thin Films

Pure spin currents, unaccompanied by dissipative charge flow, are essential for realizing energy-efficient nanomagnetic information and communications devices. Thin-film magnetic insulators have been identified as promising materials for spin-current technology because they are thought to exhibit lower damping compared with their metallic counterparts. However, insulating behavior is not a sufficient requirement for low damping, as evidenced by the very limited options for low-damping insulators. Here, we demonstrate a new class of nanometer-thick ultralow-damping insulating thin films based on design criteria that minimize orbital angular momentum and structural disorder. Specifically, we show ultralow damping in <20 nm thick spinel-structure magnesium aluminum ferrite (MAFO), in which magnetization arises from Fe 3+ ions with zero orbital angular momentum. Here, these epitaxial MAFO thin films exhibit a Gilbert damping parameter of ~0.0015 and negligible inhomogeneous linewidth broadening, resulting in narrow half width at half-maximum linewidths of ~0.6 mT around 10 GHz. Our findings offer an attractive thin-film platform for enabling integrated insulating spintronics.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Super-Resolution Mapping of Photogenerated Electron and Hole Separation in Single Metal-Semiconductor Nanocatalysts

Metal–semiconductor heterostructures are promising visible light photocatalysts for many chemical reactions. Here, we use high-resolution superlocalization imaging to reveal the nature and photocatalytic properties of the surface reactive sites on single Au–CdS hybrid nanocatalysts. We experimentally reveal two distinct, incident energy-dependent charge separation mechanisms that result in completely opposite photogenerated reactive sites (e– and h+) and divergent energy flows on the hybrid nanocatalysts. We find that plasmon-induced hot electrons in Au are injected into the conduction band of the CdS semiconductor nanorod. The specifically designed Au-tipped CdS heterostructures with a unique geometry (two Au nanoparticles at both ends of each CdS nanorod) provide more convincing high-resolution single-turnover mapping results and clearly prove the two charge separation mechanisms. Engineering the direction of energy flow at the nanoscale can provide an efficient way to overcome important challenges in photocatalysis, such as controlling catalytic activity and selectivity. These results bear enormous potential impact on the development of better visible light photocatalysts for solar-to-chemical energy conversion.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗