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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 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Real Time Nitrogen Monitoring and Quality Control System for NASA Astromaterials Collection

The Nitrogen system is a vital utility supporting the curation office within NASA's Astromaterials Re-search and Exploration Science (ARES) Division at the Johnson Space center (JSC). Since the Apollo samples were returned in 1969. It has played an essential role in preserving NASA’s astromaterial collections (now nine collections) by maintaining contamination-free, controlled environments required for long term curation and advanced scientific research. To meet the stringent purity requirements for contamination control, high purity modified Grade C Liquid Nitrogen (LN2) is delivered weekly by an industrial gas vendor to a 15,000-gallon tank located outside at NASA JSC near the ARES facility. This nitrogen is vital for creating an inert atmosphere to store the collection in, ensuring they are continuously shielded from contaminants and alterations through a constant N2purge. For most of the past 65 years deliveries of LN2 have required a CoA (Certificate of Analysis) prior to delivery. If those were not available, then LN2 deliver were sent to third-party laboratories for verification, creating an operational bottleneck and quality gap. To address this challenge and maintain rigorous quality control, NASA JSC Infrastructure and Astromaterials Acquisition & Curation Office initiated the development of an on-site Analytical Gas Sampling (AGS) Laboratory. Designed to streamline quality verification if a CoA unavailable, the AGS lab was constructed by a subcontractor in Newton, NJ. After a successful factory acceptance test conducted by the NASA ARES Infrastructure team, the lab was trans-ported to NASA JSC, where it was anchored and integrated into the site’s nitrogen pressure system using stainless steel, oxygen-cleaned tubing. The ARES nitrogen system was modified to provide parallel flows to the AGS lab for quality control and to the astromaterials collection labs for maintaining an inert environment. The AGS lab features two operational modes: (1)Primary: Gaseous Nitrogen (GN2) Quality Monitoring –The AGS system continuously samples the site’s GN2 supply every 15 minutes to ensure compliance with required purity levels. (2) Secondary: LN2 Quality Verification when a comprehensive CoA is not available, a cryogenic vaporizer converts LN2 to GN2, which is then analyzed for impurities: H₂, Ar, O₂, CO, CO₂, H₂O, and total hydrocarbons (THC). By significantly enhancing on-site analytical capabilities, the AGS lab eliminates reliance on external testing, ensures uninterrupted quality monitoring of the nitrogen pressure system, and reinforces NASA’s commitment to preserving pristine astromaterials under the highest standards of curation and research integrity.

glove box↗
DOE OSTI2023

Irradiation and corrosion testing of laser powder bed fusion-manufactured materials in the AMMT program

The Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies (AMMT) program operating under the Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy is accelerating the qualification and deployment of additively manufactured materials in advanced reactor environments. Laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) has emerged as a promising additive manufacturing technique to fabricate complex components with the potential of tailored material properties. In the nuclear industry, metal additive manufacturing can offer numerous advantages, such as reduced lead times, streamlined quality assurance, and cost-effective low-volume production of new and replacement components with conventional or novel materials and geometries. The rapid and effective qualification of the effect of processing variability on the performance and degradation of additively manufactured materials is essential for the deployment of these components into advanced reactor environments. As part of this effort, AMMT is performing irradiation and corrosion testing of several materials built by LPBF, including 316L and 316H stainless steels. Our efforts encompass neutron irradiation testing, ion irradiation testing, and advanced modeling to provide a robust technical basis for understanding the effect of process variability on materials degradation and developing a sound methodology for accelerated ion irradiation testing. We develop focused irradiation test plans that align well with risk-informed and technologically inclusive approaches to licensing. We will also discuss our plans and specific concerns for corrosion testing additively manufactured material, with a primary focus on molten salt and liquid sodium environments.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Environmental Degradation in Advanced Reactor Environments

The Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies (AMMT) program operating under the Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy is accelerating the qualification and deployment of additively manufactured materials in advanced reactor environments. Laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) has emerged as a promising additive manufacturing technique to fabricate complex components with the potential of tailored material properties. In the nuclear industry, metal additive manufacturing can offer numerous advantages, such as reduced lead times, streamlined quality assurance, and cost-effective low-volume production of new and replacement components with conventional or novel materials and geometries. The rapid and effective qualification of the effect of processing variability on the performance and degradation of additively manufactured materials is essential for the deployment of these components into advanced reactor environments. This talk presents an overview of the Environmental Effects area activities within AMMT. AMMT is performing irradiation and corrosion testing of several materials built by LPBF, including 316L and 316H stainless steels. Our irradiation efforts encompass neutron irradiation testing and ion irradiation testing to provide a robust technical basis for understanding the effect of process variability on materials degradation. We develop focused irradiation test plans that align well with risk-informed and technologically inclusive approaches to licensing. We will also discuss our plans and specific concerns for corrosion testing additively manufactured material, with a primary focus on molten salt and liquid sodium environments.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Quality Practices for Highly-Constrained Projects

The presentation provides guidance and recommendations for the implementation of quality practices for space system development projects that have constraints, such that the full suite of traditional or "best" standard practices cannot be applied.

Streamlined quality↗
DOE OSTI2017

Streamlining and Standardizing Due Diligence to Ensure Quality of PV Power Plants

Those investing in PV power plants would like to have confidence that the plants will provide the anticipated return on investment. While due diligence is capably performed by independent engineers today, as PV systems mature, there will be benefit in standardization and streamlining of this process. The IECRE has defined technical information that is needed as a basis for each transaction step such as approving a design to begin construction, documenting readiness to operate, quantifying performance after a year of operation, and assessing the health of the plant in preparation for sale of the plant. The technical requirements have been defined by IEC Technical Committee 82 and have been designed to be both effective and efficient in completing the assessments. This workshop will describe these new tools that are now available to the community and will include a panel/audience discussion about how and when they can be most effectively used.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2018

Developing an Interactive Data Visualization Tool to Assess the Impact of Decision Support on Clinical Operations

Due to mandates from recent legislation, clinical decision support (CDS) software is being adopted by radiology practices across the country. This software provides imaging study decision support for referring providers at the point of order entry. CDS systems produce a large volume of data, providing opportunities for research and quality improvement. In order to better visualize and analyze trends in this data, an interactive data visualization dashboard was created using a commercially available data visualization platform. Following the integration of a commercially available clinical decision support product into the electronic health record, a dashboard was created using a commercially available data visualization platform (Tableau, Seattle, WA). Data generated by the CDS were exported from the data warehouse, where they were stored, into the platform. This allowed for real-time visualization of the data generated by the decision support software. The creation of the dashboard allowed the output from the CDS platform to be more easily analyzed and facilitated hypothesis generation. Integrating data visualization tools into clinical decision support tools allows for easier data analysis and can streamline research and quality improvement efforts.

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE↗
DOE OSTI2018

NSLS-II: Turn-by-Turn BPM Data Analysis – A Use Case Approach

A modern ring-based light source is a complex dynamic system for which the design is guided by a realistic computer model with predictable results. State-of-the-arts beam requirements translate into tight engineering tolerances. So, quality assurance for the equipment, e.g. ring magnets, girder system, power supplies, RF system, etc. is crucial to deliver on the design goals for the beam quality. For a streamlined commissioning and an effective approach for integration of insertion devices, the latter being an activity that is typically on-going for the entire life cycle of the facility, it is equally important to be able to calibrate the beam dynamics design model against the real system and pursue e.g. “gap analysis”, linear and nonlinear optics corrections, improvements to the baseline design, etc. In particular, for high-end insertion devices. Conceptually, it can be thought of as pursuing Model-Based and Adaptive Control; instead of “flying blind”. A straightforward approach is to use a pinger, a ~30 cm long hor/ver kicker that can kick the beam to about 1 mrad in each plane [1-2] and a Turn-by-Turn BPM data acquisition system that records the betatron motion on a Turn-by-Turn basis. Examples include: ALS, SLS, DIAMOND, and SOLEIL. We first outline how to measure the Beam Impulse Response (BIR) function and related Beam Transfer Function (BTF) with a Turn-by-Turn BPM data acquisition system and a pinger. In particular, how to obtain the amplitude and phase of the spectral components in the betatron spectrum with high precision by using signal processing. We also quantify how the impact of noise affects the accuracy of the measurements.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Enabling Analysis of Air Quality Data From Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of POllution (Tempo) Via Cloud-Based Tools

Launched in April 2023, the Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of POllution (TEMPO) instrument provides high-resolution measurements of key atmospheric pollutants, such as ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and formaldehyde. Maximizing the use and utility of this new source of air quality information requires streamlining data access for a wide variety of research, public health, and other interested users. These varied applications often require the data to be structured in different ways, e.g., specific formats, array shapes, or file sizes. To enable access to TEMPO data in different forms, the NASA Atmospheric Science Data Center (ASDC), as part of the NASA Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS), provides a variety of cloud-based data transformation and GIS visualization tools. This presentation demonstrates methods of accessing and working with TEMPO data through these services, while highlighting aspects of the software and algorithmic workflows that perform the necessary data transformations. Examples include data subsetting, concatenation, and visualizations accessible via Jupyter notebooks and GIS software.

Daniel Kaufman↗
NASA NTRS2007

Novel Nanotube Manufacturing Streamlines Production

Nanotubes have novel qualities that make them uniquely qualified for a plethora of uses, including applications in electronics, optics, and other scientific and industrial fields. The NASA process for creating these nanostructures involves using helium arc welding to vaporize an amorphous carbon rod and then form nanotubes by depositing the vapor onto a water-cooled carbon cathode, which then yields bundles, or ropes, of single-walled nanotubes at a rate of 2 grams per hour using a single setup. This eliminates costs associated with the use of metal catalysts, including the cost of product purification, resulting in a relatively inexpensive, high-quality, very pure end product. While managing to be less expensive, safer, and simpler, the process also increases the quality of the nanotubes. Goddard's Innovative Partnerships Program (IPP) Office promoted the technology, and in 2005, Boise-based Idaho Space Materials Inc. (ISM) was formed and applied for a nonexclusive license for the single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) manufacturing technology. ISM commercialized its products, and the inexpensive, robust nanotubes are now in the hands of the scientists who will create the next generation of composite polymers, metals, and ceramics that will impact the way we live. In fact, researchers are examining ways for these newfound materials to be used in the manufacture of transistors and fuel cells, large screen televisions, ultra-sensitive sensors, high-resolution atomic force microscopy probes, supercapacitors, transparent conducting films, drug carriers, catalysts, and advanced composite materials, to name just a few of the myriad technologies to benefit.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2014

Assessment of MSFCs Process for the Development and Activation of Space Act Agreements

A Space Act Agreement (SAA) is a contractual vehicle that NASA utilizes to form partnerships with non-NASA entities to stimulate cutting-edge innovation within the science and technology communities while concurrently supporting the NASA missions. SAAs are similar to traditional contracts in that they involve the commitment of Agency resources but allow more flexibility and are more cost effective to implement than traditional contracts. Consequently, the use of SAAs to develop partnerships has greatly increased over the past several years. To facilitate this influx of SAAs, Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) developed a process during a kaizen event to streamline and improve the quality of SAAs developed at the Center level. This study assessed the current SAA process to determine if improvements could be implemented to increase productivity, decrease time to activation, and improve the quality of deliverables. Using a combination of direct procedural observation, personnel interviews, and statistical analysis, elements of the process in need of remediation were identified and potential solutions developed. The findings focus primarily on the difficulties surrounding tracking and enforcing process adherence and communication issues among stakeholders. Potential solutions include utilizing customer relationship management (CRM) software to facilitate process coordination and co-locating or potentially merging the two separate organizations involved in SAA development and activation at MSFC.

Daugherty, Rachel A.↗
DOE OSTI2016

Sci-Fri AM: Quality, Safety, and Professional Issues 02: Recent work on TQC Suite and Data from a National survey on Community Uptake

The Canadian Partnership for Quality Radiotherapy (CPQR) and the Canadian Organization of Medical Physicist’s (COMP) Quality Assurance and Radiation Safety Advisory Committee (QARSAC) have worked together in the development of a suite of Technical Quality Control (TQC) Guidelines for radiation treatment equipment and technologies, that outline specific performance objectives and criteria that equipment should meet in order to assure an acceptable level of radiation treatment quality. Early community engagement and uptake survey data showed 70% of Canadian centers are part of this process and that the data in the guideline documents reflect, and are influencing the way Canadian radiation treatment centres run their technical quality control programs. As the TQC development framework matured as a cross-country initiative, guidance documents have been developed in many clinical technologies. Recently, there have been new TQC documents initiated for Gamma Knife and Cyberknife technologies where the entire communities within Canada are involved in the review process. At the same time, QARSAC reviewed the suite as a whole for the first time and it was found that some tests and tolerances overlapped across multiple documents as single tests could pertain to multiple quality control areas. The work to streamline the entire suite has allowed for improved usability of the suite while keeping the integrity of single quality control areas. The suite will be published by the JACMP, in the coming year.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2026

Facilitating Data Collection of Maintenance Events to Populate the Hydrogen Component Reliability Database (HyCReD)

The Hydrogen Component Reliability Database (HyCReD) is a collaborative project between the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the University of Maryland, and hydrogen stakeholders to improve safety and reliability for hydrogen facilities by implementing component reliability data taxonomies that support hydrogen infrastructure failure rate analysis. The project aims to quantify failure rates of hydrogen components through high-quality data collection and analysis on root causes and maintenance needed. HyCReD provides a common database for cataloging hydrogen component failures which exists for reliability research in many other mature industries [2]. The database fills a gap for the hydrogen community by providing a scientifically rigorous approach to quantitative risk assessment (QRA), prognostic health management (PHM), and reliability-centered maintenance (RCM) analysis. High level results will be aggregated and anonymized to protect company sensitive information; detailed results will be used to help address issues of hydrogen components. These advanced analytics will support accelerated deployment of hydrogen infrastructure by enabling better: design and safety of projects (safety codes and standards development), infrastructure reliability and cost (component failure rates, maintenance protocols), and component R&D needs (robust supply chain). A key to a successful HyCReD implementation is facilitating the ease of reporting and data quality in the database that can be used for analysis. Maintenance data was a previously identified gap in initial efforts to populate and validate the database taxonomies [3]. Collection of maintenance data will be instrumental in identifying failure modes and rates, identifying incipient component failures or reduced performance, cataloging best practices for maintenance routines and methods for prognostic health management, and quantifying the risk and effect of different failure modes. Several key priorities are identified for streamlined data collection to achieve quality and detailed failure data: Applicability, Ease of Use, Accessibility, and Information Security. The HyCReD team has now begun deployment of the database to several companies and groups that have signed non-disclosure agreements to facilitate the data collection of failures in industry hydrogen refueling station infrastructure. This paper will provide an update into the process of HyCReD deployment including the development of a coding guide for facility personnel to reference and ensure data quality and consistency from one station to another as well as implementation of contextually dependent data fields of system taxonomy and formatted entries to provide ease of use. The goal is to communicate the lessons learned from the roll-out to technicians and engineers in the field, and the addition of need for high level of security to protect all stakeholders.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Simulation process and data flow for a large system dynamics model

This paper documents the workflow and supporting technologies that a large system dynamics model, the biomass scenario model, employs to streamline the data preparation, simulation, quality control, and analysis process at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The workflow centers on automation of routine aspects of the flow of data between data stores, simulations, and visualizations. It enforces quality checks on data, reproducibility of computations, and traceability of results, while maintaining complete archives of modeling and analysis artifacts. The resulting frictionless simulation/analysis environment supports large-scale sensitivity analysis, interactive creation of ensembles of simulations, and rapid visualization-based exploration of simulation results.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Virtual Inspection of Advanced Manufacturing via Process-Scale Digital Twins (Abbreviated Report)

Inspection and certification comprise the most significant bottlenecks in advanced manufacturing for NNSA applications, often requiring far more time and resources than the fabrication of the parts themselves. Traditional methods, such as manual review and X-ray computed tomography, are not only slow and costly, but also struggle to provide a clear connection between manufacturing instructions and the final performance of critical components. This gap limits both the agility and assurance needed to support the modernization and safety of the United States nuclear stockpile. In response, our Strategic Initiative established a digital twin framework that integrates realtime process monitoring, automated data analysis, and immersive virtual reality collaboration into a unified inspection pipeline. By leveraging data from sensors, machine instructions, and imaging, we created high-fidelity virtual models of manufactured parts that could be rapidly analyzed and certified. This approach was first demonstrated with Direct Ink Write, and then extended to other manufacturing settings, including conventional (or “subtractive”) manufacturing and to predict the end of life performance of parts per the aging and lifetimes programs. The result is a transformational capability: inspection times have been reduced by a factor of 120,000 without loss of accuracy and while simultaneously improving traceability and confidence in part quality. This framework not only streamlines certification for critical applications, but also positions the national security enterprise to respond more flexibly to emerging challenges, supporting agile manufacturing and digital engineering practices across a broad range of mission-relevant domains.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2020

Mercury speciation using microcolumns with a direct mercury analyzer (DMA). Development of analytical method for the Savannah River Site liquid system

Mercury in the Savannah River Site (SRS) Liquid Waste System (LWS) exists in various forms, including: a) ionic inorganic mercury, organomercury (e.g., methyl Hg), and other less abundant species dissolved in LWS fluids, b) mercury solids such as oxides, hydroxides, amalgams, sulfides, and sorbed mercury, c) accumulations of dense liquid elemental mercury, and d) vapor phase elemental and organomercury mercury in tank headspace gas and in evaporators. Strategic and proactive management of the estimated 60,000 Kg mercury in the LWS requires deployment of efficient and effective paradigms for sampling and analysis of the total quantity of mercury in the various physical-chemical forms. Scoping tests of selective gas-phase sorbents for mercury speciation were performed to support LWS objectives. This research specifically focused on developing and testing streamlined methods to obtain high-quality analytical results for gaseous mercury species. The proposed methods are straightforward, using small columns (microcolumns) filled with materials that selectively sorb one or more target forms of mercury. Simple differentiation of mercury species and quantification is then achieved using an efficient thermal-desorption-based total mercury analyzer as the final step. Benefits associated with transitioning from multistep procedures such as EPA Methods 245.1, 1630 and 1631to streamlined microcolumn approaches include reduced analysis time, labor, and waste generation. Such transitioning would maximize the value of the current deployment of direct mercury analysis (EPA Method 7473) at SRS. This work has two target end uses: 1) simplifying the analysis steps and reducing costs for liquid samples (e.g., developing a total organic mercury (TOM) method), and 2) providing options for high-quality onsite analysis and rapid turnaround for gas samples in support of SRS LWS industrial hygiene (IH) objectives.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2022

Best Practices for NERSC Training

The National Energy Research Supercomputing Center (NERSC) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) organizes approximately 20 training events per year for its 8,000 users from 800 projects, who have varying levels of High Performance Computing (HPC) knowledge and familiarity with NERSC's HPC resources. Due to the novel circumstances of the pandemic, NERSC began transforming our traditional smaller-scale, on-site training events to larger-scale, fully virtual sessions in March 2020. We treated this as an opportunity to try new approaches and improve our training best practices. This paper describes the key practices we have developed since the start of this transformation, including considerations for organizing events; collaboration with other HPC centers and the DOE ECP Program to increase reach and impact of events; targeted emails to users to increase attendance; efficient management of user accounts for computational resource access; strategies for preventing Zoombombing; streamlining the publication of professional-quality, closed-captioned videos on the NERSC YouTube channel for accessibility; effective communication channels for Q&A; tailoring training contents to NERSC user needs via close collaboration with vendors and presenters; standardized training procedures and publishing of training materials; and considerations for planning HPC training topics. Additionally, most of these practices will be continued after the pandemic as effective norms for training.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
NASA NTRS2000

The MAP Autonomous Mission Control System

The Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP) mission is the second mission in NASA's Office of Space Science low-cost, Medium-class Explorers (MIDEX) program. The Explorers Program is designed to accomplish frequent, low cost, high quality space science investigations utilizing innovative, streamlined, efficient management, design and operations approaches. The MAP spacecraft will produce an accurate full-sky map of the cosmic microwave background temperature fluctuations with high sensitivity and angular resolution. The MAP spacecraft is planned for launch in early 2001, and will be staffed by only single-shift operations. During the rest of the time the spacecraft must be operated autonomously, with personnel available only on an on-call basis. Four (4) innovations will work cooperatively to enable a significant reduction in operations costs for the MAP spacecraft. First, the use of a common ground system for Spacecraft Integration and Test (I&T) as well as Operations. Second, the use of Finite State Modeling for intelligent autonomy. Third, the integration of a graphical planning engine to drive the autonomous systems without an intermediate manual step. And fourth, the ability for distributed operations via Web and pager access.

Breed, Juile↗