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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 253 records · Page 14

Optimized application of regulatory human factors engineering guidelines - 314

In AREVA NP's recent projects of new plants or control room modernizations, the engineering of human factors was guided by NUREG 0711 and IEC 60964 and applied throughout the project phases. Each of the projects had a group of stakeholders, whose early mutual agreement on HFE matters was a prerequisite for successful HFE work. The group of main stakeholders comprises the utility's plant managers and members of the plant operating team, AREVA NP's project managers and members of the various technical competence centers, and representatives of the local safety authority. The objectives of each of these stakeholders and our advanced yet practice-proven HFE approach to successfully meet these objectives are described in this paper. It describes both our unique attention to the project's reference plant and its human-centered aspects thus inherited as well as our focus on those issues of the current plant which significantly depart from referenced practices. Deviations' significance and nature determine and grade the resulting HFE effort and its interdisciplinary conductance. (authors)

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Random field optimization

Herein we present a new modeling paradigm for optimization that we call random field optimization. Random fields are a powerful modeling abstraction that aims to capture the behavior of random variables that live on infinite-dimensional spaces (e.g., space and time) such as stochastic processes (e.g., time series, Gaussian processes, and Markov processes), random matrices, and random spatial fields. This paradigm involves sophisticated mathematical objects (e.g., stochastic differential equations and space-time kernel functions) and has been widely used in neuroscience, geoscience, physics, civil engineering, and computer graphics. Despite of this, however, random fields have seen limited use in optimization; specifically, existing optimization paradigms that involve uncertainty (e.g., stochastic programming and robust optimization) mostly focus on the use of finite random variables. This trend is rapidly changing with the advent of statistical optimization (e.g., Bayesian optimization) and multi-scale optimization (e.g., integration of molecular sciences and process engineering). Our work extends a recently-proposed abstraction for infinite-dimensional optimization problems by capturing more general uncertainty representations. Moreover, we discuss solution paradigms for this new class of problems based on finite transformations and sampling, and identify open questions and challenges.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Optimal Strategies for Hybrid Battery‐Storage Systems Design

As stationary hybrid energy‐storage systems (HESS) for power systems applications have recently drawn interest due to their enhanced performance and decreasing cost, developing systematic approaches for HESS design while considering controls is gaining traction. Herein, a method is presented to optimally design hybrid battery storage by proposing a mathematical modeling framework, formulated as a mixed integer linear programming model. The optimization is capable of handling multiple subsystems of batteries, considering their economic and technological performance. Decisions involve sizing of the batteries, optimal temporal and strategic dispatch to end uses, and energy sources for charging each battery. The applicability of the model is tested on four case studies for three battery chemistries representing distinct objectives: high‐power, high‐energy, and second life. Compared to traditionally designed battery storage with a homogeneous battery, optimally designed hybrid systems can save 12%–26% of system costs, depending on the nature of the dispatch profile. Findings point to design preference toward the second life battery supplemented with some high‐power or high‐energy battery capacity, or both. With the utilized electricity price structure, customers can experience approximately 10%–35% reduction in their bills.

Koleva, Mariya↗

Connected Vehicle-Based Traffic Signal Coordination

This study presents a connected vehicles (CVs)-based traffic signal optimization framework for a coordinated arterial corridor. The signal optimization and coordination problem are first formulated in a centralized scheme as a mixed-integer nonlinear program (MINLP). The optimal phase durations and offsets are solved together by minimizing fuel consumption and travel time considering an individual vehicle’s trajectories. Due to the complexity of the model, we decompose the problem into two levels: an intersection level to optimize phase durations using dynamic programming (DP), and a corridor level to optimize the offsets of all intersections. In order to solve the two-level model, a prediction-based solution technique is developed. The proposed models are tested using traffic simulation under various scenarios. Compared with the traditional actuated signal timing and coordination plan, the signal timing plans generated by solving the MINLP and the two-level model can reasonably improve the signal control performance. When considering varies vehicle types under high demand levels, the proposed two-level model reduced the total system cost by 3.8% comparing to baseline actuated plan. MINLP reduced the system cost by 5.9%. It also suggested that coordination scheme was beneficial to corridors with relatively high demand levels. For intersections with major and minor street, coordination conducted for major street had little impacts on the vehicles at the minor street.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Retargetable Optimizing Compilers for Quantum Accelerators via a Multi-Level Intermediate Representation

In this work, we present a multi-level quantum-classical intermediate representation (IR) that enables an optimizing, retargetable compiler for available quantum languages. Our work builds upon the Multi-level Intermediate Representation (MLIR) framework and leverages its unique progressive lowering capabilities to map quantum languages to the LLVM machine-level IR. We provide both quantum and classical optimizations via the MLIR pattern rewriting sub-system and standard LLVM optimization passes, and demonstrate the programmability, compilation, and execution of our approach via standard benchmarks and test cases. In comparison to other standalone language and compiler efforts available today, our work results in compile times that are 1000x faster than standard Pythonic approaches, and 5-10x faster than comparative standalone quantum language compilers. Our compiler provides quantum resource optimizations via standard programming patterns that result in a 10x reduction in entangling operations, a common source of program noise. We see this work as a vehicle for rapid quantum compiler prototyping.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

The Uniform Methods Project: Smart Thermostat Evaluation Protocol

A smart thermostat is an internet-connected device that controls home heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) equipment and can automatically adjust temperature set points to optimize performance and achieve energy savings. Smart thermostat features often include two way communication, occupancy detection (such as geofencing and occupancy sensors), schedule learning, and seasonal optimization algorithms. Smart thermostats can control most conventional HVAC systems, including central air conditioners, heat pumps, and forced air furnaces. Several types of residential utility programs offer smart thermostats as replacements measures. Working with smart thermostat vendors, utilities can offer separate optimization programs to produce energy savings beyond those achieved by installing a smart thermostat. From an evaluation perspective, smart thermostat programs have several noteworthy features. First, the energy savings from a smart thermostat may change over the life of the device. As a smart thermostat is connected to the internet, original equipment manufacturers can update the thermostat software to improve the thermostat's energy efficiency. Likewise, users can adjust the thermostat settings and schedules over time in response to changes in weather, thermal comfort, energy prices, or preferences for energy efficiency. Additionally, many thermostat manufacturers offer seasonal optimization programs that recommend changes or make minor, automated adjustments to the thermostat settings to improve energy efficiency. These opt-in programs are now standard offerings for many smart thermostat manufacturers and provided at no additional cost to users. The potential for software updates and continuous optimization and the evolving nature of user interactions mean future energy savings may differ from first-year savings and the energy savings of smart thermostats may need to be evaluated more than once. Second, smart thermostats often have small unit energy savings relative to a home's total energy consumption, especially in comparison to whole- home retrofit programs. This can make it difficult to detect the smart thermostat savings in billing or advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) meter consumption data. For example, as cooling loads in many regions average about 20% of annual electricity consumption, smart thermostat savings of 10% of cooling energy use would equate to a 2% reduction in home electricity consumption. Evaluators should use regression analysis of whole-home billing consumption or advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) meter consumption data to evaluate smart thermostat savings because, as explained at greater length below , these data are usually available to evaluators and regression can control for the impacts of weather and other potentially confounding factors on a home's energy consumption. Finally, as with other energy efficiency programs, participation in smart thermostat programs is self-selective. As discussed at greater length below , smart thermostat participants tend to be, among other things, younger, higher-income, and more likely to adopt electric vehicles (EVs) and internet connected devices than nonparticipants. These differences are often unobservable to the evaluator and correlated with a home's energy consumption, creating the potential for bias in estimating savings. Due to the small unit savings of thermostats, errors and biases from self-selection that may not be very consequential when evaluating a whole- home retrofits (e.g., ±2% of home electricity consumption) can have a major impact when evaluating the savings and cost-effectiveness of smart thermostat programs. A percentage point change in the estimated savings could affect the cost-effectiveness of a program. This means it is important for evaluators to assess and to minimize the potential for error from selection bias in estimating smart thermostat program savings. The Uniform Methods Project provides model protocols for determining energy savings and demand reductions that result from specific energy efficiency measures implemented through state and utility programs. In most cases, the measure protocols are based on a particular option identified by the International Performance Verification and Measurement Protocol ; however, this work provides a more detailed approach to implementing that option. Each chapter is written by technical experts in collaboration with their peers, reviewed by industry experts, and subject to public review and comment. The UMP protocols can be used by utilities, program administrators, public utility commissions, evaluators, and other stakeholders for both program planning and evaluation.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Comparison of Optimal Energy Management Strategies Using Dynamic Programming, Model Predictive Control, and Constant Velocity Prediction

Due to the recent advancements in autonomous vehicle technology, future vehicle velocity predictions are becoming more robust which allows fuel economy (FE) improvements in hybrid electric vehicles through optimal energy management strategies (EMS). A realworld highway drive cycle (DC) and a controls-oriented 2017 Toyota Prius Prime model are used to study potential FE improvements. We proposed three important metrics for comparison: (1) perfect full drive cycle prediction using dynamic programming, (2) 10-second prediction horizon model predictive control (MPC), and (3) 10-second constant velocity prediction. These different velocity predictions are put into an optimal EMS derivation algorithm to derive optimal engine torque and engine speed. The results show that the constant velocity prediction algorithm outperformed the baseline control strategy but underperformed the MPC strategy with an average 1.58% and 2.45% of FE improvement with highway and city-highway DC. Also, using a 10-second prediction window MPC strategy provided FE improvement results close to the full drive cycle prediction case. MPC has the potential to achieve 60%-65% and 70% - 80% of global FE improvement over highway and city-highway DC respectively.

Patel, Amol Arvind↗

Comparison of Optimal Energy Management Strategies Using Dynamic Programming, Model Predictive Control, and Constant Velocity Prediction

Due to the recent advancements in autonomous vehicle technology, future vehicle velocity predictions are becoming more robust which allows fuel economy (FE) improvements in hybrid electric vehicles through optimal energy management strategies (EMS). A real- world highway drive cycle (DC) and a controls-oriented 2017 Toyota Prius Prime model are used to study potential FE improvements. We proposed three important metrics for comparison: (1) perfect full drive cycle prediction using dynamic programming, (2) 10-second prediction horizon model predictive control (MPC), and (3) 10-second constant velocity prediction. These different velocity predictions are put into an optimal EMS derivation algorithm to derive optimal engine torque and engine speed. The results show that the constant velocity prediction algorithm outperformed the baseline control strategy but underperformed the MPC strategy with an average 1.58% and 2.45% of FE improvement with highway and city-highway DC. Also, using a 10-second prediction window MPC strategy provided FE improvement results close to the full drive cycle prediction case. MPC has the potential to achieve 60%-65% and 70% - 80% of global FE improvement over highway and city-highway DC respectively.

Patel, Amol Arvind↗

MUPPET: An automated OpenMP mutation testing framework for performance optimization

MUPPET is a tool for OpenMP programs that identifies program modifications, called mutations, aimed at improving program performance. Existing performance optimization techniques, including profiling-based and auto-tuning techniques, fail to indicate program modifications at the source level thus preventing their portability across compilers. MUPPET aims to help HPC developers reason about performance defects and missed opportunities to improve performance at the source code level.

Parasyris, Konstantinos↗

Optimizing Distributed Photovoltaic System Set Points Under Uncertainty

We explore the potential for using dynamic programming (DP) and approximate dynamic programming (ADP) techniques to optimize the set points of distributed photovoltaic (DGPV) inverters under uncertainty about future DGPV deployment. We consider a case where a large (=1MW) system is installed first, and growth in deployment of small rooftop systems is anticipated, but uncertain. We find that for a real feeder (EPRI's J1 feeder), a significant reduction in the number and severity of voltage violations can be expected when DP or ADP is used compared to selecting set points based on the current conditions (the traditional myopic approach). Additionally, we find that using a simple ADP algorithm, sampled backward induction, is more than twice as fast as DP with similar outcomes.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Security-Constrained Unit Commitment with Linearized AC Optimal Power Flow.

We propose a mathematical programming-based approach to optimize the security-constrained unit commitment problem with a full AC transmission network representation. Our approach is based on our previously introduced successive linear programming (SLP) approach to solving the non-linear, nonconvex AC optimal power flow (ACOPF) problem. By linearizing the ACOPF, we are able to leverage powerful commercial mixed-integer solvers to iteratively optimize the combined unit commitment plus ACOPF model. We demonstrate our approach on six-bus, IEEE RTS-96, and IEEE 118-bus test systems. We perform a comparative analysis of the relative impacts of singlebus, DC, and AC transmission network models on the unit commitment and dispatch solutions and their associated costs.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

A Novel Framework for Optimizing Ramping Capability of Hybrid Energy Storage Systems

Hybrid Energy Storage System has been widely applied in aerospace, electric vehicle, and microgrid applications. The advantages are that they include complimentary technologies with both high power and energy capabilities. HESS have the potential to be useful to the bulk power systems, for example to increase the value of energy produced by variable generation resource through enabling participation in ancillary service markets. Actualizing the benefits of HESSs requires optimizing the combined ramping capability of aggregated HESS resources. To provide quality ancillary service, source of HESSs locating at multiple sites of variable generation resource must be optimally sized and cohesively controlled. Optimizing aggregated resources can be formulated as an optimization problem. Successfully solving this problem not only requires using effective solution methods but also depends on accurately and rapidly setting the necessary parameters in the problem formula. This article proposes a novel framework with double-layer structure to solve the optimization problem of aggregating ramping capability. Program developed on the upper layer focuses on solving the optimization of aggregating ramping capability among multiple HESSs and is compatible with most existing optimization algorithms. Program on lower layer of the framework targets at optimizing the local control of a single HESS based on a thorough analytics of HESS operation strategy presented in this article. Result of local optimization is also provided to upper layer program for updating the parameters in formula of optimization problem. Real time hardware-in-the-loop test is conducted to verify the performance of the optimization framework developed. The work presented is expected to provide guidance for implementing this framework in practical operation.

Luo, Yushen↗

Optimization of Integrated Energy Systems

Integrated energy systems that couple nuclear power plants with additional products including hydrogen, storage, or synthetic fuels provide a more flexible energy source that can be more economical than generating electricity alone. Determining the size and shape of these systems and optimizing their operation is challenging. INL, through the IES program, has developed optimization software to help solve these challenges. Holistic Energy Resource Optimization Network (HERON) is a software tool to optimize the size and capacity of integrated energy systems using stochastic optimization. Optimization of Real-time Capacity Allocation (ORCA) is a software tool under development to perform real-time economic optimization of these systems using economic model predictive control. An overview of these tools and a discussion of their optimization methods will be presented in this talk.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Optimal mitigation and control over power system dynamics for stochastic grid resilience

Optimal mitigation planning for highly disruptive contingencies to a transmission-level power system requires optimization with dynamic power system constraints, due to the key role of dynamics in system stability to major perturbations. We formulate a generalized disjunctive program to determine optimal grid component hardening choices for protecting against major failures, with differential algebraic constraints representing system dynamics (specifically, differential equations representing generator and load behavior and algebraic equations representing instantaneous power balance over the transmission system). We optionally allow stochastic optimal pre-positioning across all considered failure scenarios, and optimal emergency control within each scenario. This novel formulation allows, for the first time, analyzing the resilience interdependencies of mitigation planning, preventive control, and emergency control. Using all three strategies in concert is particularly effective at maintaining robust power system operation under severe contingencies, as we demonstrate on the western system coordinating council 9-bus test system using synthetic multi-device outage scenarios.

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION↗

Parallel Evolutionary Optimization for Neuromorphic Network Training

One of the key impediments to the success of current neuromorphic computing architectures is the issue of how best to program them. Evolutionary optimization (EO) is one promising programming technique; in particular, its wide applicability makes it especially attractive for neuromorphic architectures, which can have many different characteristics. In this paper, we explore different facets of EO on a spiking neuromorphic computing model called DANNA. We focus on the performance of EO in the design of our DANNA simulator, and on how to structure EO on both multicore and massively parallel computing systems. We evaluate how our parallel methods impact the performance of EO on Titan, the U.S.'s largest open science supercomputer, and BOB, a Beowulf-style cluster of Raspberry Pi's. We also focus on how to improve the EO by evaluating commonality in higher performing neural networks, and present the result of a study that evaluates the EO performed by Titan.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Parallel Evolutionary Optimization for Neuromorphic Network Training

One of the key impediments to the success of current neuromorphic computing architectures is the issue of how best to program them. Evolutionary optimization (EO) is one promising programming technique; in particular, its wide applicability makes it especially attractive for neuromorphic architectures, which can have many different characteristics. In this paper, we explore different facets of EO on a spiking neuromorphic computing model called DANNA. We focus on the performance of EO in the design of our DANNA simulator, and on how to structure EO on both multicore and massively parallel computing systems. We evaluate how our parallel methods impact the performance of EO on Titan, the U.S.'s largest open science supercomputer, and BOB, a Beowulf-style cluster of Raspberry Pi's. We also focus on how to improve the EO by evaluating commonality in higher performing neural networks, and present the result of a study that evaluates the EO performed by Titan.

Schuman, Catherine D↗

Frhodo: A program for simulating chemical kinetic measurements and optimizing kinetic mechanisms

Chemical kinetic simulations are frequently used to extract kinetic and mechanistic information from experimental data by fitting simulations to the data. For simple systems of consecutive single channel reactions this is a relatively straightforward task. However, as the complexity of the system increases and particularly for systems involving competitive multi-channel reactions manually optimizing a mechanism to obtain the best fits to a range of experimental data quickly becomes a time-intensive and challenging process, especially when rate coefficients have pressure and temperature dependencies. There is considerable potential for exploiting automated optimization methods to rapidly screen reaction mechanisms and optimize the fit by adjusting rate coefficients within well-defined constraints. A new chemical kinetics simulation program, Frhodo, has been developed for this purpose. The program allows either manual simulation of individual experiments or fully automated optimization against a range of experimental data by adjusting user selected reactions within user defined constraints. Frhodo incorporates machine learning-based optimization routines that work by either minimizing standardized residuals or through Bayesian parameter estimation. Frhodo's optimization capabilities are demonstrated by reexamining two previously studied systems of relevance to combustion. Dissociation of diacetyl followed by recombination of methyl radicals is an example of a sequence of single channel, consecutive reactions. Pyrolysis of 2-methyl furan exemplifies multi-channel, unimolecular reactions that are often encountered and have temperature and pressure dependencies in the rate coefficients of the channels and branching ratios between them. For both systems the optimization routines resulted in solutions similar to the original studies. Finally, comments are made on the strengths and limitations of the approach.

0D simulation↗