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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 217 records · Page 12

Tethys: Developing a Commons for Understanding Environmental Effects of Ocean Renewable Energy

A lack of consistent widespread information on potential environmental effects, monitoring outcomes, and mitigation strategies continues to hinder the development and deployment of marine energy systems around the world. To address this need, member nations of the Ocean Energy Systems (OES) formed Annex IV, a three-year collaborative effort (2010-2013) to increase knowledge sharing, research collaborations, and efficient regulatory decision-making associated with investigating and evaluating the potential impacts of wave and tidal energy. In parallel, the US Department of Energy began development of a publically-available, searchable online database of environmental information (called Tethys), housing scientific literature pertaining to the environmental effects of marine energy and offshore wind systems, as well as metadata on international ocean energy projects and research studies collected under Annex IV. In addition to providing broad access to information on environmental effects of marine energy and offshore wind developments, Tethys can act as a commons for bringing together researchers, device and project developers, regulators, and stakeholders, to explore shared interests and information needs for the emerging marine energy industry. This paper will demonstrate the development, existing functionality, and content of Tethys, as well as discuss the future of Annex IV including information updates, improvements, and additional outreach efforts over the next several years.

marine energy, offhore wind, environmental effects↗

X-59 Air Data Probe Calibration Wind Tunnel Test

NASA's aeronautical innovators are working with Lockheed Martin to design and build a supersonic X-plane, the X-59, under the the Low Boom Flight Demonstrator (LBFD) Project, that produces a gentle thump rather than a loud sonic boom. The plane will be used to collect human response data over select U.S. communities. The data from the X-59 test flights will be provided to U.S. and international regulators to potentially allow supersonic flight over land, drastically reducing travel time within the U.S. and around the world. Two wind tunnel tests were conducted in the NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) 8- by 6-Foot Supersonic Wind Tunnel to calibrate the nose probe for the X-59. The probe was successfully tested and calibrated at 19 Mach numbers between Mach 0.25 and Mach 1.7. Most data were collected using continuous roll angle sweeps at a set Mach number and pitch angle. About 725 high quality data runs were recorded during testing to be used in the calibration of the probe. A backup nose probe was also run through the same test matrix as the primary probe. The probe will be the primary instrument for the flight test of the X-59 for determining angle of attack, angle of sideslip, airspeed, and pressure altitude of the aircraft in flight. Knowing the aircraft's speed and attitude is critical for flight safety and is also critical data for the Sonic Boom mission. Areas of interest for the test were sea level takeoff and landing at Mach 0.2, subsonic cruise at Mach 0.9, and supersonic cruise at Mach 1.4. During Phase I flight testing, the air data nose probe and air data system as a whole will be further calibrated in flight to account for additional installed effects of the airframe on the air data system.

X-59↗

X-59 Air Data Probe Calibration Wind Tunnel Test

NASA's aeronautical innovators are working with Lockheed Martin to design and build a supersonic X-plane, the X-59, under the the Low Boom Flight Demonstrator (LBFD) Project, that produces a gentle thump rather than a loud sonic boom. The plane will be used to collect human response data over select U.S. communities. The data from the X-59 test flights will be provided to U.S. and international regulators to potentially allow supersonic flight over land, drastically reducing travel time within the U.S. and around the world. Two wind tunnel tests were conducted in the NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) 8- by 6-Foot Supersonic Wind Tunnel to calibrate the nose probe for the X-59. The probe was successfully tested and calibrated at 19 Mach numbers between Mach 0.25 and Mach 1.7. Most data were collected using continuous roll angle sweeps at a set Mach number and pitch angle. About 725 high quality data runs were recorded during testing to be used in the calibration of the probe. A backup nose probe was also run through the same test matrix as the primary probe. The probe will be the primary instrument for the flight test of the X-59 for determining angle of attack, angle of sideslip, airspeed, and pressure altitude of the aircraft in flight. Knowing the aircraft's speed and attitude is critical for flight safety and is also critical data for the Sonic Boom mission. Areas of interest for the test were sea level takeoff and landing at Mach 0.2, subsonic cruise at Mach 0.9, and supersonic cruise at Mach 1.4. During Phase I flight testing, the air data nose probe and air data system as a whole will be further calibrated in flight to account for additional installed effects of the airframe on the air data system.

X-59↗

Balancing Authority Cooperation Concepts to Reduce Variable Generation Integration Costs in the Western Interconnection: Consolidating Balancing Authorities and Sharing Balancing Reserves

The study described in this chapter demonstrates the benefits of BA consolidation with the help of a detailed WECC system model and advanced methodology, which is also described in this chapter. The study aims to determine the potential savings in production cost and reduction in balancing reserve requirements in the WECC system. The study has found that effective use of the diversity in load and variable generation over a wide area can indeed help to achieve significant savings. The implementation cost for the consolidation was beyond the scope of this study. The analysis was performed for two different scenarios of VG penetration: 11% (8% wind and 3% solar) and 33% (24% wind and 9% solar) of WECC projected energy demand in 2020. In analysis of balancing reserves, the objective was to determine the reduction in balancing reserve requirements due to BA consolidation, in terms of required capacity and ramp-rates. Hour-ahead and 10-minute ahead forecast errors for load, wind, and solar were simulated. In addition, 1-minute resolution load, wind and solar data were used to derive balancing reserve requirements i.e. load-following and regulation requirements for each individual BA and for the consolidated BA (CBA). The reduction in balancing reserves was determined by calculating the difference between total reserve requirements that need to be carried by different BAs if they operate individually, and reserve requirements that need to be carried by the CBA. The study results show that the consolidated WECC system would have about a 50% overall reduction in balancing reserves for the 11% penetration scenario and a 65% reduction for the 33% penetration scenario in comparison with total reserve requirements that need to be carried by different BAs if they operate individually.

balancing authorities consolidation↗

Stochastic Adaptive Droop Control in Frequency Regulation of Power Systems With Intermittent Generators

Modern power systems (MPSs), including microgrids (MGs), are increasingly incorporating multiple renewable energy sources (RESs) such as wind and solar power, as well as battery storage and controllable loads. While environmentally beneficial, these sources pose challenges for control and management due to their intermittent and stochastic nature, especially in maintaining frequency stability with multiple interconnected generators of varying capacities. Traditional droop control methods are effective in systems with generators that are dispatchable and have fixed generation capacities, but they fall short when applied to systems with RESs, where generation capacities are dynamic and affected by unpredictable environmental conditions. To address these challenges, this paper introduces a novel stochastic adaptive droop control (SADC) method for load frequency control (LFC). The proposed method adapts droop coefficients in real time, based on the measured stochastic data of power generation capacities, enabling more effective frequency regulation in systems with variable and intermittent power generation. Unlike traditional adaptive control methods, which assume constant or slowly-varying system parameters, this approach accounts for stochastic processes by modeling them as Markov chains, enabling robust performance under highly dynamic and unpredictable conditions. The key contributions of this work include the development of real-time droop coefficient adaptation algorithms, derivation of their stability and convergence properties, and the demonstration of the advantages of the method through simulations. Case studies highlight the improved performance of frequency regulation, particularly in addressing the impact of stochastic weather conditions and the benefits of reducing dependence on battery reserves in dealing with intermittency of RESs. Finally, this paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the theoretical foundations of the method, as well as practical implementation insights for future power systems with high penetration of RESs.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Control system design for the MOD-5A 7.3 mW wind turbine generator

This paper provides descriptions of the requirements analysis, hardware development and software development phases of the Control System design for the MOD-5A 7.3 mW Wind Turbine Generator. The system, designed by General Electric Company, Advanced Energy Programs Department, under contract DEN 3-153 with NASA Lewis Research Center and DOE, provides real time regulation of rotor speed by control of both generator torque and rotor torque. A variable speed generator system is used to provide both airgap torque control and reactive power control. The wind rotor is designed with segmented ailerons which are positioned to control blade torque. The central component of the control system, selected early in the design process, is a programmable controller used for sequencing, alarm monitoring, communication, and real time control. Development of requirements for use of aileron controlled blades and a variable speed generator required an analytical simulation that combined drivetrain, tower and blade elastic modes with wind disturbances and control behavior. An orderly two phase plan was used for controller software development. A microcomputer based turbine simulator was used to facilitate hardware and software integration and test.

Barton, Robert S.↗

Control design for a wind turbine-generator using output feedback

The modeling and approach to control design for a large horizontal axis wind turbine (WT) generator are presented. The control design is based on a suboptimal output regulator which allows coordinated control of WT blade pitch angle and field voltage for the purposes of regulating electrical power and terminal voltage. Results of detailed non-linear simulation tests of this controller are shown.

Javid, S. H.↗

Total energy-rate feedback for automatic glide-slope tracking during wind-shear penetration

Low-altitude wind shear is recognized as an infrequent but significant hazard to all aircraft during the take-off and landing phases of flight. A total energy-rate sensor was developed for measuring the specific total energy rate of an airplane with respect to the air mass. Control-system designs, both with and without energy-rate feedback, for the approach to landing of a transport airplane through a severe-wind-shear and gust environment are presented in order to evaluate this application of the sensor. A system model incorporates wind-shear-dynamics equations with the airplane equations of motion to permit analysis of the control systems under various wind-shear conditions. The control systems are designed using optimal-output feedback and are analyzed using frequency-domain control-theory techniques. Control-system performance is evaluated using a complete nonlinear simulation of the airplane combined with a severe-wind-shear and gust data package. This evaluation is concerned with control system stability and regulation capability only.

Belcastro, C. M.↗

Physics-informed Machine Learning Method for Forecasting and Uncertainty Quantification of Partially Observed and Unobserved States in Power Grids

We present a physics-informed Gaussian Process Regression (GPR) model to predict the phase angle, angular speed, and wind mechanical power from a limited number of measurements. In the traditional data-driven GPR method, the form of the Gaussian Process covariance matrix is assumed and its parameters are found from measurements. In the physics-informed GPR, we treat unknown variables (including wind speed and mechanical power) as a random process and compute the covariance matrix from the resulting stochastic power grid equations. We demonstrate that the physics-informed GPR method is significantly more accurate than the standard data-driven one for immediate forecasting of generators' angular velocity and phase angle. We also show that the physics-informed GPR provides accurate predictions of the unobserved wind mechanical power, phase angle, or angular velocity when measurements from only one of these variables are available. The immediate forecast of observed variables and predictions of unobserved variables can be used for effectively managing power grids (electricity market clearing, regulation actions) and early detection of abnormal behavior and faults. The physics-based GPR forecast time horizon depends on the combination of input (wind power, load, etc.) correlation time and characteristic (relaxation) time of the power grid and can be extended to short and medium-range times.

machine learning, power grid, forecasting, Gaussia↗

Coordinated Control of Wind Turbine and Energy Storage System for Reducing Wind Power Fluctuation

This paper proposes a method for the coordinated control of a wind turbine and an energy storage system (ESS). Because wind power (WP) is highly dependent on wind speed, which is variable, severe stability problems can be caused in power systems, especially when the WP has a high penetration level. To solve this problem, many power generation corporations or grid operators have begun using ESSs. An ESS has very quick response and good performance for reducing the impact of WP fluctuation; however, its installation cost is high. Therefore, it is important to design the control algorithm by considering both the ESS capacity and WP fluctuation. Thus, we propose a control algorithm to mitigate the WP fluctuation by using the coordinated control between the wind turbine and the ESS by considering the ESS capacity and the WP fluctuation. Using de-loaded control, according to the WP fluctuation and ESS capacity, we can expand the ESS lifespan and improve grid reliability by avoiding the extreme value of state of charge (SoC) (i.e., 0 or 1 pu). The effectiveness of the proposed method was validated via MATLAB/Simulink by considering a small power system that includes both a wind turbine generator and conventional generators that react to system frequency deviation. We found that the proposed method has better performance in SoC management, thereby improving the frequency regulation by mitigating the impact of the WP fluctuation on the small power system.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

Kinetic instabilities in the solar wind: A short review

We know from in situ measurements that solar wind plasma is far from thermal equilibrium. Distribution functions of its main constituents -electrons, protons, and alpha particles-show several departures from Maxwellian, including temperature anisotropy, relative drifts and secondary populations streaming along the local magnetic field. We present a short review of recent solar wind observations of these non-thermal features and associated signatures of wave-particle interactions. Several kinetic instabilities are expected to be at work in the solar wind during its expansion, playing a role in the continuous shaping of particle distributions with distance, and regulating the macroscopic behavior of the plasma. Over the past years, modeling of these processes by means of numerical simulations has been successful in reproducing and explaining the observations; these include the evolution of the plasma due to radial expansion and the response of individual species to different kinetic instabilities. Finally, the impact of local inhomogeneities, like current sheets and turbulence, on the development of kinetic instabilities is also discussed.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Multifaceted drivers for onshore wind energy repowering and their implications for energy transition

Wind energy is anticipated to become a backbone of the future energy system. Ageing wind turbine fleets, increasing land-use constraints and rising relevance of societal factors make the deployment of land-based (onshore) wind energy ever more complicated. Consequently, repowering is expected to become a rapidly growing point of focus for the wind industry. Here we propose a more holistic and socially informed project-level approach to analyse repowering activity that enables a more robust understanding of the process and potentials. We demonstrate that for wind pioneer in Denmark, only 67% of the capacity removed in repowering projects was related to the physical space needed for a new turbine. Other factors that drive repowering include regulation (for example, noise-related, 8–17%), development principles (for example, aesthetics, 7–20%) and political bargaining (4–13%). The recognition of repowering as a negotiated process between host communities and wind developers will probably be critical to unlock the full potential of wind energy in the future.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

Multifaceted political and social drivers inform wind energy repowering decisions and potential

Wind energy repowering decisions are multifaceted and depend on the physical, political and social landscape, as factors such as noise regulation, aesthetics and political bargaining can significantly influence project development. In this work, policy should recognise that a technology perspective alone cannot inform implementation pathways and should be supplemented with an understanding of the political and social dimensions.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

The Impact of Transformer Winding Connections of A Grid-Connected PV on Voltage Quality Improvement

In this paper, the high-power PV plant is connected to the weak grid by means of a three-phase power transformer. The selection of transformer winding connection is critical especially when the PV inverter has a reactive power controller. In general, transformer winding connection can be arranged in star-star (with neutral earthed) or star-delta. The reactive power controller supports voltage regulation of the power system particularly under transient faults. Its control strategy is based on utilizing the grid currents to make a three-phase reactive unbalanced current with a small gain. The gain is determined by the system impedance. Simulation results exhibit that the control strategy works very well particularly under disturbance conditions when the transformer winding connection is star-star with both neutrals grounded. The power quality in terms of the voltage quality is improved.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

North American Renewables Integration Study (NARIS): Cooperative Research and Development Final Report, CRADA Number CRD-16-00633

The goal of the study is to help inform and assist power system planning entities, electricity system operators, government energy agencies, legislators and regulators to better understand the planning, engineering, operational, and economic implications of integrating large amounts of wind, solar and hydro energy into the Canadian, US and Mexican electrical systems.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

The 10 kW power electronics for hydrogen arcjets

A combination of emerging mission considerations such as 'launch on schedule', resource limitations, and the development of higher power spacecraft busses has resulted in renewed interest in high power hydrogen arcjet systems with specific impulses greater than 1000 s for Earth-space orbit transfer and maneuver applications. Solar electric propulsion systems with about 10 kW of power appear to offer payload benefits at acceptable trip times. This work outlines the design and development of 10 kW hydrogen arcjet power electronics and results of arcjet integration testing. The power electronics incorporated a full bridge switching topology similar to that employed in state of the art 5 kW power electronics, and the output filter included an output current averaging inductor with an integral pulse generation winding for arcjet ignition. Phase shifted, pulse width modulation with current mode control was used to regulate the current delivered to arcjet, and a low inductance power stage minimized switching transients. Hybrid power Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors were used to minimize conduction losses. Switching losses were minimized using a fast response, optically isolated, totem-pole gate drive circuit. The input bus voltage for the unit was 150 V, with a maximum output voltage of 225 V. The switching frequency of 20 kHz was a compromise between mass savings and higher efficiency. Power conversion efficiencies in excess of 0.94 were demonstrated, along with steady state load current regulation of 1 percent. The power electronics were successfully integrated with a 10 kW laboratory hydrogen arcjet, and reliable, nondestructive starts and transitions to steady state operation were demonstrated. The estimated specific mass for a flight packaged unit was 2 kg/kW.

Hamley, John A.↗

The galaxy as a self-regulated star-forming system - The case of the OB associations

It is proposed that the energy and momentum injected from OB associations can act as the regulators of high-mass star formation throughout the disk of a spiral galaxy. The mechanism, interacting blast waves driven by supernovae and stellar winds, leads to a generalized Schmidt law for the star formation rate and could explain in a natural way the galactic gradients of metals and star formation rate. The formation of massive stars is determined by the average ambient density in the disk while low-mass star formation is regulated by the density in molecular clouds. That is, there are two modes of star formation, but the physical mechanism is the same in both cases.

Franco, J.↗

Down-regulation of gibberellic acid in poplar has negligible effects on host-plant suitability and insect pest response

Abstract Endogenous levels and signaling of gibberellin plant hormones such as gibberellic acid (GA) have been genetically down-regulated to create semi-dwarf varieties of poplar. The potential benefits of semi-dwarf stature include reduced risk of wind damage, improved stress tolerance, and improved wood quality. Despite these benefits, modification of growth traits may have consequences for non-target traits that confer defense against insect herbivores. According to the growth-differentiation balance hypothesis, reductions in growth may shift allocation of carbon from growth to chemical resistance traits, thereby altering plant defense. To date, host-plant suitability and pest response have not been comprehensively evaluated in GA down-regulated plants. We quantified chemical resistance and nitrogen (an index of protein) in GA down-regulated and wild-type poplar (Populus alba × P. tremula) genotypes. We also evaluated performance of both generalist (Lymantria dispar) and specialist (Chrysomela scripta) insect pests reared on these genotypes. Our evaluation of resistance traits in four GA down-regulated genotypes revealed increased phenolic glycosides in one modified genotype and reduced lignin in two modified genotypes relative to the non-transgenic wild type. Nitrogen levels did not vary significantly among the experimental genotypes. Generalists reared on the four GA down-regulated genotypes exhibited reduced performance on only one modified genotype relative to the wild type. Specialists, however, performed similarly across all genotypes. Results from this study indicate that although some non-target traits varied among GA down-regulated genotypes, the differences in poplar pest susceptibility were modest and highly genotype-specific.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗