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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
DOE OSTI2022

Weather aging effects on modified asphalt with rubber-polyethylene composites

Weather aging may cause more severe degradation on asphalt than thermal-oxidative aging due to the synergistic effect among oxygen, heat, ultraviolet (UV) radiation, and moisture. This study aimed to investigate weather aging effects and anti-aging mechanisms on asphalt modified with rubber-polyethylene (PE) composites. The modified binder blends and asphalt mixtures were subjected to outdoor weather aging. Dynamic shear rheometer (DSR), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Gel permeation chromatography (GPC), and optical microscopy tests were adopted to characterize the rheological properties, aging resistance, polymer degradation, and anti-aging mechanisms of modified binder blends, respectively. Mixture performance tests including Asphalt Pavement Analyzer (APA) and Ideal-CT tests were used to evaluate rutting and cracking resistance of asphalt mixtures. Results showed that weather aging can cause more severe aging to asphalt binders than pressure aging vessel (PAV) due to the severe degradation of PE particles. Rubber-PE composites alloyed with an extruder proved to stabilize PE particles in asphalt and significantly improve the aging resistance of modified binder blends. Furthermore, the enhanced aging resistance is attributed to the dispersion of PE particles and carbon black released by soluble rubbers.

Aging resistance↗
NASA NTRS1993

Carbon-14 terrestrial ages and weathering of 27 meteorites from the southern high plains and adjacent areas (USA)

We report on a series of 27 C-14 terrestrial ages of meteorites from four states in the central and southwestern U.S. These results were compared to the earlier work of Boeckl (1972). Our results showed that the weathering rate for destruction of meteorites is lower than suggested by Boeckl. We estimate a 'half-life' for removal of meteorites of about 10 to 15 ka, similar to that derived for Roosevelt County meteorites. We also studied the weathering of these meteorites compared to terrestrial age. Only a weak correlation was observed, and for these meteorites the degree of weathering can only be taken as a weak indicator of terrestrial residence time. We also measured the delta-C-13 and C-14 and amount of weathering-product carbonates which show some interesting variations with the length of time the meteorites have been exposed to weathering.

Jull, A. J. T.↗
NASA NTRS2017

Plagioclase-Rich Itokawa Grains: Space Weathering, Exposure Ages, and Comparison to Lunar Soil Grains

Regolith grains returned by the Hayabusa mission to asteroid 25143 Itokawa provide the only samples currently available to study the interaction of chondritic asteroidal material with the space weathering environment. Several studies have documented the surface alterations observed on the regolith grains, but most of these studies involved olivine because of its abundance. Here we focus on the rarer Itokawa plagioclase grains, in order to allow comparisons between Itokawa and lunar soil plagioclase grains for which an extensive data set exists.

Keller, L. P.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Thermal Performance of Aged and Weathered Spray-On Foam Insulation (SOFI) Materials Under Cryogenic Vacuum Conditions (Cryostat-4)

The NASA Cryogenics Test Laboratory at Kennedy Space Center conducted long-term testing of SOFI materials under actual-use cryogenic conditions with Cryostat-4. The materials included in the testing were NCFI 24-124 (acreage foam), BX-265 (close-out foam, including intertank flange and bipod areas), and a potential alternate material, NCFI 27-68, (acreage foam with the flame retardant removed). Specimens of these materials were placed at two locations: a site that simulated aging (the Vehicle Assembly Building [VAB]) and a site that simulated weathering (the Atmospheric Exposure Test Site [beach site]). After aging/weathering intervals of 3, 6, and 12 months, the samples were retrieved and tested for their thermal performance under cryogenic vacuum conditions with test apparatus Cryostat-4.

Source record↗
DOE OSTI2026

TASTI-GRID: a holistic view of Florida's grid resilience opportunities

In December of 2025, the American Society of Civil Engineers updated Florida’s infrastructure grade to a ”C+” – reflecting overall investments in recent years. With the recommendation to further strengthen the electric grid and establish consistent building standards, extreme weather, aging infrastructure, and population in-migration are still compounding Florida’s grid vulnerabilities. Key challenges related to hurricane and other tropical & marine weather events are not unique to Florida. However, the state’s topography, location, demographics, and variation among rural and urban centers for tourism and industry, demonstrate the need for unique approaches to advancing critical infrastructure resilience, particularly for large concentrations of elderly residents or in areas of historic underinvestment. Florida’s grid asset advancements are credited with a reduction in average power outage durations. Yet, improvements since 2021 have set the stage for future resilience activities – as modernization efforts have greatly improved data collection – enabling better understanding of vulnerabilities and trends across counties and localities (particularly in Central Florida).

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
NASA NTRS1984

C-14 content of ten meteorites measured by tandem accelerator mass spectrometry

Measurements of C-14 in three North American and seven Antarctic meteorites show in most cases that this cosmogenic isotope, which is tightly bound, was separated from absorbed atmospheric radiocarbon by stepwise heating extractions. The present upper limit to age determination by the accelerator method varies from 50,000 to 70,000 years, depending on the mass and carbon content of the sample. The natural limit caused by cosmic ray production of C-14 in silicate rocks at 2000 m elevation is estimated to be 55,000 + or - 5000 years. An estimation is also made of the 'weathering ages' of the Antarctic meteorites from the specific activity of loosely bound CO2 which is thought to be absorbed from the terrestrial atmosphere. Accelerator measurements are found to agree with previous low level counting measurements, but are more sensitive and precise.

Brown, R. M.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Aeronautical research in the United States: Challenges for the 1990's

New opportunities for greater performance civil air transportation aircraft derive from the continuing advancements in the aeronautical disciplines: advancements in aerodynamics, structures and materials, propulsion, and flight control technologies. These opportunities impact future subsonic transports, high speed civil transports, and hypersonic vehicles. There are, however, new constraints within which progress will be made, including stringent environmental constraints on engine emissions and noise, old and new safety constraints on operations (especially in severe weather), aging airframes, and changing transportation marketplace demands affecting all of these vehicle classes. Some of the NASA aeronautical research programs will be discussed in four areas: (1) advanced subsonic airplanes; (2) next generation high speed civil transport aircraft (SST's); (3) high performance military aircraft; and (4) next century hypersonic vehicles. This presentation overviews the exciting progress which is possible in aeronautics during the 1990's.

Holmes, Bruce J.↗
DOE OSTI2026

SULI End of Summer Presentation

This presentation made on Power Point is a brief summary of my work enhancing the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) architecture for Idaho National Lab’s Critical Infrastructure Test Range Complex (CITRC). This work was part of an on-going project to create a digital twin of CITRC that will be implemented for resiliency research. Resiliency is growing more important as extreme weather, aging infrastructure, and increasing load all exert stress on the United States power grid. This presentation highlights how I documented the existing devices and data flow on site and then updated specific device settings to better support the needs of the project. It also examines future use of this data in the digital twin data warehouse (DeepLynx), and future Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Distribution Management System applications. It will be presented to the B751 Water and Energy Systems Analysis group at INL during my last week.

24 - POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
NASA NTRS2008

Cryogenic Moisture Uptake in Foam Insulation for Space Launch Vehicles

Rigid polyurethane foams and rigid polyisocyanurate foams (spray-on foam insulation), like those flown on Shuttle, Delta IV, and will be flown on Ares-I and Ares-V, can gain an extraordinary amount of water when under cryogenic conditions for several hours. These foams, when exposed for eight hours to launch pad environments on one side and cryogenic temperature on the other, increase their weight from 35 to 80 percent depending on the duration of weathering or aging. This effect translates into several thousand pounds of additional weight for space vehicles at lift-off. A new cryogenic moisture uptake apparatus was designed to determine the amount of water/ice taken into the specimen under actual-use propellant loading conditions. This experimental study included the measurement of the amount of moisture uptake within different foam materials. Results of testing using both aged specimens and weathered specimens are presented. To better understand cryogenic foam insulation performance, cryogenic moisture testing is shown to be essential. The implications for future launch vehicle thermal protection system design and flight performance are discussed.

Fesmire, James E.↗
DOE OSTI2020

Paleotopography controls weathering of Cambrian-age profiles beneath the Great Unconformity, St. Francois Mountains, SE Missouri, U.S.A.

ABSTRACT Precambrian (1.4 to 1.5 Ga) granite and rhyolite in the St. Francois Mountains at the northeast corner of the Ozark Plateau in Missouri has been altered down to a depth up to 8 meters below the Great Unconformity (the contact between Paleozoic sedimentary rock and underlying Precambrian). Petrographic, geochemical, and mineralogic data indicate that at least two events generated this alteration: 1) surficial weathering due to subaerial exposure of the granite before Cambrian burial—this material is preserved as a paleosol; and 2) alteration due to reaction with basinal fluids channeled along the unconformity from nearby sedimentary basins long after burial by Paleozoic strata. To assess the variation between surficial weathering and basinal fluid alteration, we measured and sampled for petrologic, geochemical, and mineralogic data in the rock at and just below the Great Unconformity at three paleoelevations. Whole-rock geochemical oxide and X-ray diffraction data indicate that K-metasomatism and highly crystalline illite occurred in each profile. The K increase reflects crystallization of authigenic feldspar and illite from basinal fluids that were channeled along the Great Unconformity during younger Paleozoic fluid-flow events. Each profile also exhibits an upward increase in altered feldspar crystals and highly crystalline kaolinite, and an upward decrease in Ca and Na. Such changes reflect soil formation due to reaction with meteoric water before Cambrian burial, indicating that the altered granite was a paleosol before Paleozoic basinal fluid-flow events. Notably, the paleosol at the highest paleoelevation displays the least amount of paleoweathering and the paleosol at the lowest displays the greatest amount of paleoweathering. These results demonstrate that not only can characteristics of the paleosol just below the Great Unconformity be recognized in the St. Francois Mountains, despite subsequent alteration, but also it is possible to detect variations in soil thickness that were controlled by slope steepness and, therefore, water availability and/or soil creep or failure. This spatial relationship is compatible with studies of modern soils which indicate that soil character varies with position on a slope.

Geology↗
DOE OSTI2022

The throughput calibration of the VERITAS telescopes

Context. The response of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes to incident γ -ray-initiated showers in the atmosphere changes as the telescopes age due to exposure to light and weather. These aging processes affect the reconstructed energies of the events and γ -ray fluxes. Aims. This work discusses the implementation of signal calibration methods for the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS) to account for changes in the optical throughput and detector performance over time. Methods. The total throughput of a Cherenkov telescope is the product of camera-dependent factors, such as the photomultiplier tube gains and their quantum efficiencies, and the mirror reflectivity and Winston cone response to incoming radiation. This document summarizes different methods to determine how the camera gains and mirror reflectivity have evolved over time and how we can calibrate this changing throughput in reconstruction pipelines for imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes. The implementation is validated against seven years of observations with the VERITAS telescopes of the Crab Nebula, which is a reference object in very-high-energy astronomy. Results. Regular optical throughput monitoring and the corresponding signal calibrations are found to be critical for the reconstruction of extensive air shower images. The proposed implementation is applied as a correction to the signals of the photomultiplier tubes in the telescope simulation to produce fine-tuned instrument response functions. This method is shown to be effective for calibrating the acquired γ -ray data and for recovering the correct energy of the events and photon fluxes. At the same time, it keeps the computational effort of generating Monte Carlo simulations for instrument response functions affordably low.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS2011

Spray-On Foam Insulations for Launch Vehicle Cryogenic Tanks

Spray-on foam insulation (SOFI) has been developed for use on the cryogenic tanks of space launch vehicles beginning in the 1960s with the Apollo program. The use of SOFI was further developed for the Space Shuttle program. The External Tank (ET) of the Space Shuttle, consisting of a forward liquid oxygen tank in line with an aft liquid hydrogen tank, requires thermal insulation over its outer surface to prevent ice formation and avoid in-flight damage to the ceramic tile thermal protection system on the adjacent Orbiter. The insulation also provides system control and stability with throughout the lengthy process of cooldown, loading, and replenishing the tank. There are two main types of SOFI used on the ET: acreage (with the rind) and closeout (machined surface). The thermal performance of the seemingly simple SOFI system is a complex of many variables starting with the large temperature difference of from 200 to 260 K through the typical 25-mm thickness. Environmental factors include air temperature and humidity, wind speed, solar exposure, and aging or weathering history. Additional factors include manufacturing details, launch processing operations, and number of cryogenic thermal cycles. The study of the cryogenic thermal performance of SOFI under large temperature differentials is the subject of this article. The amount of moisture taken into the foam during the cold soak phase, termed Cryogenic Moisture Uptake, must also be considered. The heat leakage rates through these foams were measured under representative conditions using laboratory standard liquid nitrogen boiloff apparatus. Test articles included baseline, aged, and weathered specimens. Testing was performed over the entire pressure range from high vacuum to ambient pressure. Values for apparent thermal conductivity and heat flux were calculated and compared with prior data. As the prior data of record was obtained for small temperature differentials on non-weathered foams, analysis of the different methods is provided. Recent advancements and applications of SOFI systems on future launch vehicles and spacecraft are also addressed.

Fesmire, J. E.↗
NASA NTRS2015

Surface Exposure Ages of Space-Weathered Grains from Asteroid 25143 Itokawa

We use the observed effects of solar wind ion irradiation and the accumulation of solar flare particle tracks recorded in Itokawa grains to constrain the rates of space weathering and yield information about regolith dynamics. The track densities are consistent with exposure at mm depths for 104-105 years. The solar wind damaged rims form on a much faster timescale, <10(exp 3) years.

Keller, L. P.↗
NASA NTRS2015

Surface Exposure Ages of Space-Weathered Grains from Asteroid 25143 Itokawa

Space weathering processes such as solar wind ion irradiation and micrometeorite impacts are widely known to alter the properties of regolith materials exposed on airless bodies. The rates of space weathering processes however, are poorly constrained for asteroid regoliths, with recent estimates ranging over many orders of magnitude. The return of surface samples by JAXA's Hayabusa mission to asteroid 25143 Itokawa, and their laboratory analysis provides "ground truth" to anchor the timescales for space weathering processes on airless bodies.

Keller, L. P.↗
DOE OSTI2022

Effects of physical, chemical, and biological ageing on the mineralization of pine wood biochar by a Streptomyces isolate

If biochar is to be used for carbon (C) management, we must understand how weathering or ageing affects biochar C mineralization. Here, we incubated aged and unaged eastern white pine wood biochar produced at 350 and 550°C with a Streptomyces isolate, a putative biochar-decomposing microbe. Ageing was accelerated via three different processes, namely, (a) physical ageing–subjecting biochar to alternating freeze-thaw and wet-dry cycles, (b) chemical ageing–treating biochar with concentrated hydrogen peroxide and (c) biological ageing–incubating biochar in the presence of nutrients and microorganisms. Elemental composition and surface chemistry (Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy) of biochar samples were compared before and after ageing. Biochar C mineralization between ageing treatments was significantly different in the case of 350°C biochar ( p value = 0.03). Among the 350°C biochars, physical ageing resulted in the greatest increase (by 103%) in biochar C mineralization ( p value = 0.05). However, in the case of 550°C biochar, ageing did not result in a significant change in biochar C mineralization ( p value = 0.40). Biochar C mineralization was positively correlated with an increase in O/C ratio post-ageing ( r s = 0.86, p value = 0.01). In the case of 350°C biochar, surface oxidation during ageing enhanced biochar degradation by the isolate. For 550°C biochar, however, ageing did not significantly increase biochar C mineralization, likely due to high condensed aromatic C content and lower surface oxidation during ageing. The results from our study suggest that low temperature aged biochar is more susceptible to biological degradation by soil microbes. These findings have implications for the use of biochar for long term C storage in soils.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS2017

Transmission Electron Microscopy of Plagioclase-Rich Itokawa Grains: Space Weathering Effects and Solar Flare Track Exposure Ages

Limited samples are available for the study of space weathering effects on airless bodies. The grains returned by the Hayabusa mission to asteroid 25143 Itokawa provide the only samples currently available to study space weathering of ordinary chondrite regolith. We have previously studied olivine-rich Itokawa grains and documented their surface alteration and exposure ages based on the observed density of solar flare particle tracks. Here we focus on the rarer Itokawa plagioclase grains, in order to allow comparisons between Itokawa and lunar soil plagioclase grains for which an extensive data set exists.

Keller, Lindsay P.↗
DOE OSTI2026

A Community Guide to Regulatory Barriers Affecting Microgrids (Reports 1-3)

In response to growing risks of power outages from extreme weather and aging infrastructure, communities are increasingly exploring the potential of microgrids to provide reliable energy access. Microgrids offer promising solutions to meet this challenge but face a complex landscape of non-technical barriers, particularly regulations concerning the provision and distribution of energy. Most existing legal and regulatory frameworks were designed for a centralized, one-way power system, and are often poorly suited to handle systems that independently balance distributed energy resources with local load. This three-part report series provides a strategic analysis of existing regulatory and legal factors affecting microgrid deployments to help non-technical community leaders and decision-makers better understand the feasibility of a microgrid in their community. -Report No. 1: Foundational Issues Facing Microgrids details the universal policy barriers all microgrids face, including utility interconnection processes, rate structures, and local permitting. -Report No. 2: Single Property Microgrids outlines how direct asset ownership and operating behind-the-meter can bypass some regulatory oversight, using the Blue Lake Rancheria microgrid as a case study. -Report No. 3: Multi-Property Microgrids tackles the complex challenges of crossing public rights-of-way and navigating utility franchise rights, highlighting the Coventry microgrid project. The series equips decision-makers with phased frameworks to navigate financial and regulatory complexities, engage effectively with local utilities and Authorities Having Jurisdiction (AHJs), and structure successful microgrid projects.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
NASA NTRS1978

Measurement requirements and techniques for degradation studies and lifetime prediction testing of photovoltaic modules

Tests of weathering and aging behavior are being developed to characterize the degradation and predict the lifetimes of low-cost photovoltaic arrays. Environmental factors which affect array performance include UV radiation, thermal energy, water, oxygen (generally involved in synergistic effects with UV radiation or high temperatures), physical stress, pollutants (oxides of nitrogen, sulfur dioxide and ozone), abrasives and dirt. A survey of photovoltaic array testing has shown the need to establish quantitative correlations between certain measurable properties (carbonyl formation, glass transition temperature, and molecular weight change) and modes of degradation and failure.

Noel, G. T.↗