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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 289 records · Page 16

Modeling the impact of measured and projected climate and management systems on agricultural fields: Surface runoff, soil moisture, and soil erosion

Abstract As global climate change poses a challenge to crop production, it is imperative to prioritize effective adaptation of agricultural systems based on a scientific understanding of likely impacts. In this study, we applied an integrated watershed modeling framework to examine the impacts of projected climate on runoff, soil moisture, and soil erosion under different management systems in Central Oklahoma. The proposed model uses measured climate data and three downscaled ensembles from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) at the water resources and erosion watershed to understand the impact of climate change and various climate conditions under three management systems: (1) continuous winter wheat (Triticum aestivum) under conventional tillage (WW‐CT; baseline system), (2) continuous winter wheat under no‐till (WW‐NT), and (3) cool and warm season forage cover crop mixes under no‐till (CC‐NT). The study indicates that the occurrence of agricultural drought is projected to increase while erosion rates will remain unchanged under the WW‐CT. In contrast, climate simulations imposed on the WW‐NT and CC‐NT systems significantly reduce runoff and sediment while preserving soil moisture levels. Especially, implementing the CC‐NT system can bolster food security and foster sustainable farming practices in Central Oklahoma in the face of a changing climate.

Environmental Sciences & Ecology↗

Verification of Adaptive Protection in Hardware in the Loop for Coordination with Solar Variability

As inverter-based resources continue to be installed at all levels of the electric grid, the fixed protection schemes used at the distribution level will continue to be stressed until they no longer ensure the protection of the grid. Adaptive protection has been proposed as a solution with the ability to update the protection schemes in near real-time to ensure reliability and increase the resilience of the grid. However, weather variability poses a significant challenge to the ability of these methods to keep the selectivity and reliability of these schemes coordinated. If the ramp rates, due to solar variability, of the inverter-based resources change faster than the adaptive protection can issue new settings, the protection system could be uncoordinated, with the wrong device responding to a system fault. The proposed adaptive protection method ensures that due to solar variability, communication, and protection calculation latency, it can issu e coordinated protection settings promptly, in one minute or less. The hardware-in-the-loop results show the protection settings being issued and maintaining system coordination in under a minute.

Summers, Adam↗

Optimal deformation procedure for hybrid adaptive x-ray mirror based on mechanical and piezo-driven bending system

Here, a hybrid deformable x-ray mirror consisting of a mechanical bender and a bimorph deformable mirror has been developed to realize adaptive optical systems, such as zoom condenser optics, for synchrotron-radiation-based x-ray microscopy. In the developed system, both bending mechanisms comprehensively contribute to the formation of the target mirror shape and can narrow the role of piezoelectric actuators, thereby enabling a more stable operation. In this study, the behavior of the bimorph mirror under the clamped condition was investigated, and the sharing of the deformation amount for each bending mechanism was optimized to minimize the amplitude of the voltage distribution of the bimorph mirror.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Automated, Unmanned Detection and Quantification of Fugitive Methane Emissions

Compressor stations used to move natural gas are one of the largest sources of fugitive methane emissions in the midstream sector, accounting for approximately 50% of all fugitive emissions (Zimmerle et al., 2015). This problem is most widespread at reciprocating compressors (Subramanian et al., 2015) where faulty seals are a key contributor to methane emissions (Johnson et al., 2015). As such, there is a significant need for a robust technology that could provide an early indication of an unexpected emission. Equally important, the technology needs to be able to account for biogenic versus anthropogenic sources of methane. One means of indirectly making this determination, is to leverage optical technologies that can autonomously pinpoint the source of such leaks. This presentation discusses recent work funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), focused on the development of an innovative remote sensing technology that can reliably and autonomously detect fugitive methane emissions in near real-time, using computer vision and deep learning. The technology called the Smart Methane Leak Detection (SLED/M) system was initially developed to monitor facilities such as compressor stations in a stationary, pan-tilt-zoom configuration. The system has recently been adapted to monitor facilities from an unmanned aerial system (UAS). The speed and maneuverability of UAS platforms are attractive to leak detection and repair program operators, but introduce several challenges. Many existing methane detection algorithms rely on mostly static backgrounds becoming unusable with motion. In addition, top-down views of fugitive methane emissions present differently in Optical Gas Imagers (OGI) compared to looking across the plume. Our work has focused on overcoming these challenges, enhancing the operators ability to detect methane emissions, and pinpoint their sources. Another recent adaptation to SLED/M is the ability to quantify methane emissions using passive sensors (OGI, thermal camera), environmental conditions, plume modeling, and deep learning. SLED/M advances the state-of-the-art for methane emission detection and quantification by focusing on three key critical criteria for effective methane emission mitigation: (1) autonomy (no need for a human to be in the loop), (2) high reliability (low false alarm rates), and (3) real-time performance. Results from this work will be presented.

03 NATURAL GAS↗

Photovoltaic Analysis and Response Support (PARS) Platform for Solar Situational Awareness and Resiliency Services

The project's primary objective is to develop a digital-twin based Photovoltaic (PV) Analysis and Response Support (PARS) platform, which aims to provide real-time situational awareness and optimal response plans. This platform is designed to enhance the performance of hybrid PV systems, making them competitive with or even superior to conventional generation resources. The PARS platform enabled the project team to develop and evaluate an extensive suite of grid support functionalities for the hybrid PV systems to enhance grid performance, across key areas including visibility, dispatchability, security, resilience, and reliability. Given the global push toward achieving 100% clean energy by 2035, there is a significant increase in the integration of inverter-based resources (IBRs) throughout the energy grid. Effectively managing the inherent variability and uncertainty associated with IBRs is crucial for ensuring cost-effectiveness, reliability, and security in both the main grid and islanded microgrids. Constrained to a limited array of IEEE test systems or standard feeder models, traditional IBR modeling struggles to assimilate new field data, accurately reflect system dynamics, and adapt to the evolving energy landscape. In our project, we embraced a Digital Twin (DT) strategy for crafting the PARS platform. A digital twin acts as a precise virtual counterpart of a physical system, built on historical data and continuously honed with real-time insights. This enables the high-fidelity DT to accurately mirror current system operations and forecast future scenarios. Consequently, the PARS platform becomes an ideal environment for testing and refining monitoring, control, power, and energy management algorithms designed to boost hybrid PV system performance. The defining feature of the PARS platform, distinguishing it from other advanced simulation tools, is its exceptional adaptability. This is achieved by employing actual network topologies and utilizing real-time field data for fine-tuning and calibration, ensuring a close emulation of real-world conditions. The project deliverables include: 1) High-fidelity IBR models and tools for real-time parameterization, utilizing real-time field measurements to refine IBR models for enhanced accuracy and performance; 2) Grid-forming and Grid-following capabilities to deliver resilience services, including blackstart, voltage and frequency support, cold-load pick-up, power reserves, and three-phase load balancing across grid-connected and microgrid settings; 3) Machine learning-based forecasting tools and methods for generating synthetic data and topologies, creating diverse and realistic simulation environments for evaluating varied operational scenarios; 4) Advanced microgrid power and energy management algorithms for optimizing the integration and operation of PV, storage, and demand response resources within both feeder and community scales. The power grid data sets are provided by four utility companies in North Carolina and the New York Power Administration. Acting as industry advisors, our industry partners communicated stakeholder needs and regulatory standards to the research teams, aiding technology transfer by incorporating the developed methodologies into their daily operations. This collaboration ensures that the PARS platform, functioning as a power system digital twin, enhances our understanding of IBR dynamic behaviors and enables the development and evaluation of IBR control functions that match or exceed the capabilities of conventional synchronous generators.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

A statistical model to predict ignition probability

Ignition capability is a critical design constraint for aeronautical gas turbines. However the current trend toward overall lean burn is detrimental to the engine ignition and relight and the ignition system must be adapted to ensure a fast and reliable light-round in all circumstances. As ignition is a stochastic phenomenon, the optimization of an ignition system requires to build ignition probability maps, which is difficult and costly with either experiment or numerical simulation as both require many tests. Here, this work proposes a model to predict the ignition probability map, knowing only flow statistics in non-reacting conditions, i.e., with only one test. The originality of the model is to construct statistics of the flame kernel trajectory, which are then combined with local flow indicators to evaluate the ignition probability at the considered sparking location. Application to a swirled burner operated in premixed, non-premixed and spray combustion modes illustrates the model concepts and demonstrates its ability to recover the experimental ignition map with good accuracy.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Ensemble models for circuit topology estimation, fault detection and classification in distribution systems

This paper presents a methodology for simultaneous fault detection, classification, and topology estimation for adaptive protection of distribution systems. The methodology estimates the probability of the occurrence of each one of these events by using a hybrid structure that combines three sub-systems, a convolutional neural network for topology estimation, a fault detection based on predictive residual analysis, and a standard support vector machine with probabilistic output for fault classification. The input to all these sub-systems is the local voltage and current measurements. A convolutional neural network uses these local measurements in the form of sequential data to extract features and estimate the topology conditions. The fault detector is constructed with a Bayesian stage (a multitask Gaussian process) that computes a predictive distribution (assumed to be Gaussian) of the residuals using the input. Since the distribution is known, these residuals can be transformed into a Standard distribution, whose values are then introduced into a one-class support vector machine. The structure allows using a one-class support vector machine without parameter cross-validation, so the fault detector is fully unsupervised. Finally, a support vector machine uses the input to perform the classification of the fault types. All three sub-systems can work in a parallel setup for both performance and computation efficiency. In conclusion, we test all three sub-systems included in the structure on a modified IEEE123 bus system, and we compare and evaluate the results with standard approaches.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Tuning Phase Lock Loop Controller of Grid Following Inverters by Reinforcement Learning to Support Networked Microgrid Operations

The dynamic operation of networked microgrids leads to varying topological configurations and generator commitments and dispatches. These variations correspond to systems with different electrical characteristics. The fixed control gains of high-speed power electronic devices may result in undesirable system performance when the electrical characteristics change significantly. As such, it is necessary to tune the control gains of power electronics devices to adapt to the changing system characteristics. This paper uses observer-based reinforcement learning to automatically tune the proportional-integral (PI) gains of phase lock loop (PLL) controller of grid-following (GFL) inverters to adapt to the changing system strengths, that would be seen in networked microgrid operations. Simulation results using an operational electric distribution system, modeled as networked microgrids, are presented to demonstrate the need and effectiveness of the proposed adaptive controls.

networked microgrids, reinforcement learning, grid↗

Adaptive protection opportunities, gap assessments, and designs

This report provides a comprehensive overview of adaptive protection schemes in use by distribution systems for protection, switching and control on their systems. A significant focus is placed on how existing schemes can be impacted by increasing penetrations of DER as well as how these schemes can enable DER penetrations to increase. EPRI have conducted a survey of member utilities and performed a comprehensive literature review with the goal of baselining the research and identifying gaps with a focus on the issues that were encountered with adaptive protection on real systems. The five adaptive protection applications that are most prevalent on systems today are discussed in detail. These are weather-based fuse-saving, adaptive protection to reduce short-circuit current, adaptive protection for DER, adaptive protection for microgrids, and distribution automation. A broad overview of the technology is given for each scheme. Issues that have been encountered by utilities are highlighted and the safety and reliability impacts are also examined. As distribution systems, intelligent electronic devices, grid equipment and distribution management systems are rapidly evolving, adaptive protection techniques and technologies will become more widely adopted. This report proposes a framework for a conceptual automatic adaptive protection system. EPRI have ongoing research, development and demonstration projects in all of the constituent elements, however challenges remain to link the elements together in a secure and reliable way. EPRI will continue research into automated adaptive protection applications and challenges for the systems of today and future applications to assist system operators in managing the evolving system.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

HPC I/O innovations in the exascale era

As high performance computing architecture evolves to deliver ever-increasing performance, the middleware tools also need to adapt in order for applications to better use these higher-performance features. Here, the Adaptable Input Output System (ADIOS), which provides scalable IO performance for exascale HPC applications is one such middleware. During the Exascale Computing Project (ECP), key portions of the ADIOS environment were adapted to respond to ongoing developments in exascale computing and the stresses and opportunities inherent in those changes. This paper examines those changes and where appropriate compares them to pre-exascale implementations.

ADIOS↗

Investigation into the Performance Benefits of Exposing Network Backpressure in UPC++ and GASNet-EX

This document is a brief summary of the research, and supporting development efforts, conducted by the project "Investigation into Improving Dynamic Adaptivity to System-Level Asynchrony in UPC++". We tested the hypothesis "The UPC++ and GASNet-EX runtimes can expose information from the network stack that enables applications to dynamically adapt to congestion, improving total throughput". We present experimental results from both a microbenchmark and an application benchmark that support this hypothesis.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

In situ spin coater for multimodal grazing incidence x-ray scattering studies

We present herein a custom-made, in situ, multimodal spin coater system with an integrated heating stage that can be programmed with spinning and heating recipes and that is coupled with synchrotron-based, grazing-incidence wide- and small-angle x-ray scattering. The spin coating system features an adaptable experimental chamber, with the ability to house multiple ancillary probes such as photoluminescence and visible optical cameras, to allow for true multimodal characterization and correlated data analysis. This system enables monitoring of structural evolutions such as perovskite crystallization and polymer self-assembly across a broad length scale (2 Å–150 nm) with millisecond temporal resolution throughout a complete thin film fabrication process. The use of this spin coating system allows scientists to gain a deeper understanding of temporal processes of a material system, to develop ideal conditions for thin film manufacturing.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Functional characterization of diverse type I-F CRISPR-associated transposons

CRISPR-Cas systems generally provide adaptive immunity in prokaryotes through RNA-guided degradation of foreign genetic elements like bacteriophages and plasmids. Recently, however, transposon-encoded and nuclease-deficient CRISPR-Cas systems were characterized and shown to be co-opted by Tn7-like transposons for CRISPR RNA-guided DNA transposition. As a genome engineering tool, these CRISPR-Cas systems and their associated transposon proteins can be deployed for programmable, site-specific integration of sizable cargo DNA, circumventing the need for DNA cleavage and homology-directed repair involving endogenous repair machinery. Here, we selected a diverse set of type I-F3 CRISPR-associated transposon systems derived from Gammaproteobacteria, predicted all components essential for transposition activity, and deployed them for functionality testing within Escherichia coli. Our results demonstrate that these systems possess a significant range of integration efficiencies with regards to temperature, transposon size, and flexible PAM requirements. Additionally, our findings support the categorization of these systems into functional compatibility groups for efficient and orthogonal RNA-guided DNA integration. This work expands the CRISPR-based toolbox with new CRISPR RNA-guided DNA integrases that can be applied to complex and extensive genome engineering efforts.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Opening Up Transactive Systems: Introducing TESS and Specification in a Field Deployment

Transactive energy systems (TS) use automated device bidding to access (residential) demand flexibility and coordinate supply and demand on the distribution system level through market processes. In this work, we present TESS, a modularized platform for the implementation of TS, which enables the deployment of adjusted market mechanisms, economic bidding, and the potential entry of third parties. TESS thereby opens up current integrated closed-system TS, allows for the better adaptation of TS to power systems with high shares of renewable energies, and lays the foundations for a smart grid with a variety of stakeholders. Furthermore, despite positive experiences in various pilot projects, one hurdle in introducing TS is their integration with existing tariff structures and (legal) requirements. In this paper, we therefore describe TESS as we have modified it for a field implementation within the service territory of Holy Cross Energy in Colorado. Importantly, our specification addresses challenges of implementing TS in existing electric retail systems, for instance, the design of bidding strategies when a (non-transactive) tariff system is already in place. We conclude with a general discussion of the challenges associated with “brownfield” implementation of TS, such as incentive problems of baseline approaches or long-term efficiency.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Risk-Adaptive Experimental Design for High-Consequence Systems: LDRD Final Report

Constructing accurate statistical models of critical system responses typically requires an enormous amount of data from physical experiments or numerical simulations. Unfortunately, data generation is often expensive and time consuming. To streamline the data generation process, optimal experimental design determines the 'best' allocation of experiments with respect to a criterion that measures the ability to estimate some important aspect of an assumed statistical model. While optimal design has a vast literature, few researchers have developed design paradigms targeting tail statistics, such as quantiles. In this project, we tailored and extended traditional design paradigms to target distribution tails. Our approach included (i) the development of new optimality criteria to shape the distribution of prediction variances, (ii) the development of novel risk-adapted surrogate models that provably overestimate certain statistics including the probability of exceeding a threshold, and (iii) the asymptotic analysis of regression approaches that target tail statistics such as superquantile regression. To accompany our theoretical contributions, we released implementations of our methods for surrogate modeling and design of experiments in two complementary open source software packages, the ROL/OED Toolkit and PyApprox.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

The ReSWARM microgravity flight experiments: Planning, control, and model estimation for on‐orbit close proximity operations

Abstract On‐orbit close proximity operations involve robotic spacecraft maneuvering and making decisions for a growing number of mission scenarios demanding autonomy, including on‐orbit assembly, repair, and astronaut assistance. Of these scenarios, on‐orbit assembly is an enabling technology that will allow large space structures to be built in situ, using smaller building block modules. However, like many of these scenarios, robotic on‐orbit assembly involves several technical hurdles, such as changing system models. For instance, grappled modules moved by a free‐flying “assembler” robot can cause significant changes in the combined system inertia, which have cascading impacts on motion planning and control portions of the autonomy stack. Further, on‐orbit assembly and other scenarios require collision‐avoiding motion planning, particularly when operating in a “construction site” scenario of multiple assembler robots and structures. Multiple key technologies that address these complicating factors for autonomous microgravity close proximity operations are detailed in this work, in particular: (1) application of global long‐horizon planning, accomplished using offline and online sampling‐based planner options that consider the system dynamics; (2) adaptation of the recently proposed RATTLE information‐aware planning framework for on‐orbit reconfiguration model learning; and (3) connection with robust control tools to provide low‐level control robustness using current system knowledge. These approaches were demonstrated for an autonomous on‐orbit assembly use case by the RElative Satellite sWarming and Robotic Maneuvering (ReSWARM) experiments using NASA's Astrobee robots on the International Space Station. Results of the ReSWARM experiments are provided along with significant operational and implementation detail discussing the practicalities of hardware implementation and unique aspects of working with the Astrobee free‐flyer robots in microgravity. ReSWARM provides a base set of planning and control tools for robotic close proximity operations, demonstrates them in microgravity, and outlines some of the important hardware aspects that future autonomous free‐flyers will need to consider.

Robotics↗

Probabilistic measures for biological adaptation and resilience

This paper introduces an approach to quantifying ecological resilience in biological systems, particularly focusing on noisy systems responding to episodic disturbances with sudden adaptations. Incorporating concepts from nonequilibrium statistical mechanics, we propose a measure termed “ecological resilience through adaptation,” specifically tailored to noisy, forced systems that undergo physiological adaptation in the face of stressful environmental changes. Randomness plays a key role, accounting for model uncertainty and the inherent variability in the dynamical response among components of biological systems. Our measure of resilience is rooted in the probabilistic description of states within these systems and is defined in terms of the dynamics of the ensemble average of a model-specific observable quantifying success or well-being. Our approach utilizes stochastic linear response theory to compute how the expected success of a system, originally in statistical equilibrium, dynamically changes in response to a environmental perturbation and a subsequent adaptation. Importantly, the resulting mathematical derivations allow for the estimation of resilience in terms of ensemble averages of simulated or experimental data. Finally, through a simple but clear conceptual example, we illustrate how our resilience measure can be interpreted and compared to other existing frameworks in the literature. The methodology is general but inspired by applications in plant systems, with the potential for broader application to complex biological processes.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Vehicle Localization in 3D World Coordinates Using Single Camera at Traffic Intersection

Optimizing traffic control systems at traffic intersections can reduce the network-wide fuel consumption, as well as emissions of conventional fuel-powered vehicles. While traffic signals have been controlled based on predetermined schedules, various adaptive signal control systems have recently been developed using advanced sensors such as cameras, radars, and LiDARs. Among these sensors, cameras can provide a cost-effective way to determine the number, location, type, and speed of the vehicles for better-informed decision-making at traffic intersections. In this research, a new approach for accurately determining vehicle locations near traffic intersections using a single camera is presented. For that purpose, a well-known object detection algorithm called YOLO is used to determine vehicle locations in video images captured by a traffic camera. YOLO draws a bounding box around each detected vehicle, and the vehicle location in the image coordinates is converted to the world coordinates using camera calibration data. During this process, a significant error between the center of a vehicle’s bounding box and the real center of the vehicle in the world coordinates is generated due to the angled view of the vehicles by a camera installed on a traffic light pole. As a means of mitigating this vehicle localization error, two different types of regression models are trained and applied to the centers of the bounding boxes of the camera-detected vehicles. The accuracy of the proposed approach is validated using both static camera images and live-streamed traffic video. Based on the improved vehicle localization, it is expected that more accurate traffic signal control can be made to improve the overall network-wide energy efficiency and traffic flow at traffic intersections.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗