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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 325 records · Page 18

Next Generation Wind Turbine

The goal of this collaborative effort between Western New England University's College of Engineering and FloDesign Wind Turbine (FDWT) Corporation to wok on a novel areodynamic concept that could potentially lead to the next generation of wind turbines. Analytical studies and early scale model tests of FDWT's Mixer/Ejector Wind Turbine (MEWT) concept, which exploits jet-age advanced fluid dynamics, indicate that the concept has the potential to significantly reduce the cost of electricity over conventional Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines while reducing land usage. This project involved the design, fabrication, and wind tunnel testing of components of MEWT to provide the research and engineering data necessary to validate the design iterations and optimize system performance. Based on these tests, a scale model prototype called Briza was designed, fabricated, installed and tested on a portable tower to investigate and improve the design system in real world conditions. The results of these scale prototype efforts were very promising and have contributed significantly to FDWT's ongoing development of a product scale wind turbine for deployment in multiple locations around the U.S. This research was mutually beneficial to Western New England University, FDWT, and the DOE by utilizing over 30 student interns and a number of faculty in all efforts. It brought real-world wind turbine experience into the classroom to further enhance the Green Engineering Program at WNEU. It also provided on-the-job training to many students, improving their future employment opportunities, while also providing valuable information to further advance FDWT's mixer-ejector wind turbine technology, creating opportunities for future project innovation and job creation.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

Girls In STEM White Coat Ceremony 2017

Like working with children? Who doesn’t? Girls in STEM has myriad opportunities for you to help local Title 1 students in the classroom. You can choose to volunteer from the Lab, from the Bradbury Science Museum, or to travel to Abiquiu Elementary School (car provided) to do a science demonstration. The best part is that you can use the Community Outreach Partnership Code.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

Custodial Services End of Year Report for 2016

Sandia’s Custodial Services Department is a full-service, in-house custodial department. The department consists of one manager, four team supervisors, three administrative support personnel, 11 lead custodians, 71 day-shift custodians, four swing shift custodians, and eight heavy floor care personnel. The department services approximately 3.5 million square feet of office, lobby, laboratory, break room, classroom, and conference room space and assists with the collection of recycling products, including aluminum, plastic, card board box, and mixed paper products. Detailed in this report are audits, awards, and certifications; department highlights; departmental promotions; custodial metrics.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

Green Power Initiative

National energy policy supports the gathering of more detailed and authoritative data on the introduction of renewable bio-based fuels into new and existing district energy systems via the application of biomass gasification. The University of Iowa developed a biomass-fueled, university-scale steam generation system based on biomass gasification technologies. The system serves as a state-of-the-art research and educational facility in the emerging application of gasification in steam generation. The facility, which includes a smaller down-draft gasifier and a larger multi-stage biomass boiler, was designed to operate primarily on wood-based fuels, but has provisions for testing other biomass fuel sources produced within a 100-mile radius, providing enough flexibility to meet the fluctuating local supply of biomass from industry and Midwest agriculture. The equipment was installed in an existing, staffed facility. The down-draft gasifier unit is operated by College of Engineering staff and students, under the direct technical supervision of qualified Utilities plant staff. The Green Power Initiative also includes a substantial, innovative educational component. In addition to an onsite, graduate-level research program in biomass fuels, the investigators have integrated undergraduate and graduate level teaching – through classroom studies and experiential learning – and applied research into a biomass-based, university-scale, functioning power plant. University of Iowa is unique in that it currently has multiple renewable energy technologies deployed, including significant biomass combustion (oat hulls) at its Main Power Plant and a new reciprocating engine based renewable district energy system. This project complements and supports the national energy policy and State of Iowa initiatives in ethanol and biodiesel. Byproducts of ethanol and biodiesel processes (distiller grains) as well as industry residues (oat hulls, wood chips, construction and demolition waste), farm related material (seed corn and soybean seed), and poplar trees for cleaning up ground water are logical feed stocks for gasification.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗

Alfalfa variety selection for maximum fiber content, protein and nitrogen fixation

The fertile soils of Southern Minnesota are highly productive from both a natural and agricultural standpoint. We chose to examine potential feedstock in both of these settings as a focus for our study. In part one of this report we detail our findings examining potential feedstock in prairie and wetlands in the Mankato, MN area in 2009. We were able to familiarize ourselves with techniques used to isolate and quantify concentrations of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin in both a classroom and laboratory setting. These techniques were then used for our experiments that examined the effects of harvest regime, irrigation and salinity on eight potential-feedstock varieties of alfalfa (Medicago sativa).

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗

Automated Blazar Light Curves Using Machine Learning

Every night in a remote clearing called Fenton Hill high in the Jemez Mountains of central New Mexico, a bank of robotically controlled telescopes tilt their lenses to the sky for another round of observation through digital imaging. Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Thinking Telescopes project is watching for celestial transients including high-power cosmic flashes called, and like all science, it can be messy work. To keep the project clicking along, Los Alamos scientists routinely install equipment upgrades, maintain the site, and refine the sophisticated machinelearning computer programs that process those images and extract useful data from them. Each week the system amasses 100,000 digital images of the heavens, some of which are compromised by clouds, wind gusts, focus problems, and so on. For a graduate student at the Lab taking a year’s break between master’s and Ph.D. studies, working with state-of-the-art autonomous telescopes that can make fundamental discoveries feels light years beyond the classroom.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Kokes Awards for the 25th North American Catalysis Society Meeting

The biennial North American Catalysis Society (NACS) meeting is the premiere conferences in the area of catalysis, surface science, and reaction engineering. The 25th installment of this meeting will be held the week of June 4-9, 2017 in Denver, CO at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. Meeting objectives include bringing together leading researchers for intensive scientific exchange, providing students with an opportunity to present their work and interact with leaders in the field, and participate in service to scientific/technical community. Financial support to offset a portion of the associated costs – and specifically, registration fees, airline tickets, and hotel accommodations – encourages greater participation by graduate and undergraduate students, and often provides them the only opportunity to attend and meaningfully contribute to the conference. The funds sought in this proposal will be in support of the Richard J. Kokes Travel Award program. The eligibility criteria for undergraduates and graduate students applying for a merit-based Awards are that they must study at a university within the United States and present either a poster or presentation at the meeting. In the previous meeting in Pittsburgh, NACS received 200 applications and funded 110 students. Similarly, during the meeting in Louisville, NACS received 225 applications and funded nearly half of them. The NACS has an on-going tradition of encouraging graduate students (and more recently, undergraduates as well) to participate in and serve at the national meetings Providing financial support is one of the most effective means of accomplishing this goal. Their attendance significantly broadens their scientific training beyond what can be accomplished in the classroom, and offers them an opportunity to improve their communication and presentation skills. As an attendee to the 25th NAM, students will participate by listening to presentations from leading researchers from the U.S. and abroad, and they will be able to interact with them and receive invaluable advice regarding their research and future career. They will be able to meet with and debate with their peers from other universities, and learn about results from the latest technological innovations that could benefit their own research projects. Through their own service at the meeting – a requirement of the Kokes Travel Award – they will become active participating members of the catalysis community. The graduate and undergraduate students of today are the scientists and engineers of tomorrow. Proper training for them now leads to scientific breakthroughs and technological innovations in the future, and these in turn benefit the US economy. Catalysis permeates numerous aspects of our lives, and advances in the field result in more energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly chemical processes (e.g., catalytic convertors), improved fuel cell and battery performance and lifetimes, efficient alternative fuel and hydrogen production, enhanced utilization of biorenewable resources, and a cleaner environment.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Teaching Game Theory to Kids and Limits of Prediction

I have once been asked to read a lecture to a group of 6th graders on Game Theory. After agreeing to it, I realized that explaining the game theory basics to 6th graders my be difficult, given that terms such as Nash equilibrium, minimax, maximin, optimization may not resonate in a 6th grade classroom. Instead I've introduced game theory using the rock-paper-scissors (RPS) game. Turns out kids are excellent gametheoreticians. In RPS, they understood both the benefits of randomizing their own strategy and of predicting their opponent's moves. They offered a number of heuristics both for the prediction and opening move. These heuristics included optimizing against past opponent moves, such as not playing rock if the opponent just played scissors, and playing a specific opening hand, such as "paper". Visualizing the effects of such strategic choices on-the-fly would be interesting and educational. This brief essay attempts demonstrating and visualizing the value of a few different strategic options in RPS. Specifically, we would like to illustrate the following: 1) what is the value of being unpredictable?; and 2) what is the value of being able to predict your opponent? In regard to prediction of human players, the question 2) has been reflected in Jon McLoone's entry in Wolfram Blog from January 20, 2014[1]. McLoone created a predictive algorithm for playing against human opponents, that learns to beat human opponents reliably after approximately 30 - 40 games. I use McLoone's implementation to represent a predictive and random strategies. The rest of this documents 1) investigates performance of this predictive strategy against a random strategy (which is optimal in RPS) and in 2) attempts to turn this predictive power against the predictive strategy by allowing the opponent the full knowledge of the predictor's strategy (but not the choices made using the strategy). This exposes a weakness in predictions made without taking risks into account by illustrating that predictive strategy may make the predictor predictable as well.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Multimedia Solar Knowledge Library

The GW Solar Institute Multimedia Solar Knowledge Library has been a success. A Google search of “solar training library” brings our website (www.solar.gwu.edu) up as the first result. Our videos have been viewed over 8,000 times and downloaded more than 100 times since we started posting them in the summer of 2017 and these numbers only continue to increase. We have completed and published all thirteen of our videos, all of which have extremely high production value given the budget for this project. We have also completed the development of our second new website to host the videos as well as Phase II material, and uploaded all Phase II material from NREL. This site will serve as a hub for all things solar, from reports to webinars to fact sheets. The videos exist not only on this site but also on the website of our STEP partners where they are exposed directly to our target audiences. On our website there are approximately 50 previously unorganized webinars from NREL as well as over one hundred other resources, (also previously unorganized), broken up into 15 categories so students, researchers, solar employees, and members of the public can become experts on their own time without having to source or ask permission to access these resources themselves. NREL concluded its internal search for additional material that was not publicly accessible and we uploaded this new material to the Phase II website as well. Our videos have already been viewed around the world and our instructional films continue to be viewed and downloaded for probable use in classrooms and by industry professionals. We have been the most popular in California, and we are glad that the state at the vanguard of the solar industry has clearly found our resources valuable.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Parameterization of arctic hydrometeor physics using new precipitation measurement technologies: Final Report

Predictions of precipitation are highly sensitive to the accuracy of parameterized growth and sedimentation processes, especially in remote regions such as the Arctic where observations are scarce. The goal of this study was to combine measurements of meteorological conditions and retrievals from passive and active remote sensors to provide refined parameterizations of precipitation properties and processes with a particular focus on the Arctic. To accomplish the project goals, new instrumentation was used from the Oliktok Point Mobile Facility and the Utqiagvik (Barrow) North Slope of Alaska ARM site focusing in particular on Multi-Angle Snowflake Camera (MASC) data. The MASC is the first device able to automatically photograph precipitation particles in free-fall from multiple angles while simultaneously measuring their fall speed. The MASC installed at the ARM Oliktok Point and Utqiagvik facilities was used to examine the nature of Arctic precipitation, taking particular advantage of the unique suite of precipitation, meteorological, and remote sensing instrumentation that is available at the high latitude sites. Combined with radiometer data we were able to explore the relationship between precipitation particle characteristics and the clouds where the snow is created. Ground-based wind measurements provided detailed data on turbulence. Further theoretical work explored the physical mechanisms controlling precipitation size distributions, the physics determining hydrometeor fallspeed, and the existence of general solutions to the Navier-Stokes equations for falling particles. Outreach work introduced hydrometeor classification to classrooms across the United States.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

The Influence of Communication on the Complexity of Connected Lighting Systems

Experience in the Next Generation Lighting Systems (NGLS) ”Living Lab” at the Parsons School of Design, has clearly shown the impacts of communication on the configuration complexity of the connected lighting systems installed there. Since 2017, NGLS has invited manufacturers to submit connected lighting systems for assessment against a set of specifications. To date, 14 systems of wirelessly connected LED luminaires and controls have been installed in classrooms with existing lighting. In nine of the rooms, new LED linear pendants or recessed troffers replaced existing luminaires; in the other rooms, LED “kits” were retrofitted into the existing troffers. Eleven of the installations featured sensors integrated in the luminaires or retrofit kits; the others used ceiling mounted sensors. All systems provided wall control devices for manual operation. For half of the installations, the complete systems were furnished by single companies; for the other half, luminaires and controls were furnished by separate companies. A total of 18 different companies provided products, with four of these located outside the United States including, Korea, Poland, Germany, and the Netherlands. In addition, two different electrical contractors in New York City provided multiple installation teams totaling 10 individuals, none of whom were familiar with any of the systems.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Oklahoma State University – Industrial Assessment Center (Final Report)

Our first primary objective is to provide industrial assessments to clients in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas, and north and northwest Texas, including the Texas Panhandle (about 10% of the state of Texas). This geographical region extends about 400 miles north and south and about 600 miles east and west. In addition, the partnership links two universities, Oklahoma State University (OSU) and Wichita State University (WSU) within our region together in a significant collaboration focused on improving our region’s industrial competitiveness. Our second primary objective is to produce competent, motivated energy engineers. Student training will be a combination of classroom work, individual mentoring, and on-the-job training. The focus will be on energy conservation technologies, in conjunction with increased productivity, the economics of the same, and client relationships including client recruiting, on-site assessment, reporting, and client-related communications. Finally, we will work to provide resources and expertise to complement the first two primary objectives. The effectiveness and efficiency of our IAC will be measured, internally, by four broad criteria: (1) client benefits, (2) student development and acceptance after graduation, (3) regional/national contribution to lowering energy use and reducing pollutants, and (4) compliance with DOE/FM requirements. Client-related benefits include client contacts, timeliness of assessments and reports, the value of recommendations provided, and the value of recommendations implemented. Student development includes many students trained and the level of training provided in energy, waste, and productivity-related technologies as well as teamwork and communication skills. The contribution to lower national energy use and waste production is a natural outcome of the program. Compliance with DOE/FM requirements includes timeliness of reports, participation in Best Practices activities, contributions to EERE goals and objectives, and other requirements as communicated to the IAC.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Industrial Assessment Center for Energy Efficiency, Smart Manufacturing and Cyber Security of Illinois and Northwestern Indiana Small and Medium Sized Manufacturing Companies and Water Facilities (Final Technical Report)

The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) established and implemented a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) sponsored Industrial Assessment Center (IAC) from September 1, 2016 through December 31, 2021. The established UIC IAC focused on providing 1) technical assistance to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and water and wastewater facilities in Illinois and northwestern Indiana and 2) education and training university students developing the future energy workforce. The technical assessments incorporated energy efficiency, increasing productivity via smart manufacturing, energy management systems, enhancing on-site cyber security practices, and the promotion of DOE best practices and tools. The educational training enabled UIC faculty and staff to provide classroom education, exposure to industry research, multiple targeted training sessions, real world experience with industry professionals, and live training to implement professional grade audits and recommendations.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

Presence Detection in Connected Lighting Systems

Despite established technology and decades of experience, presence detection still faces challenges, including resistance to its use. This report provides context for current presence detection in lighting, considers various failure modes and their causes, characterizes various approaches to implementing presence detection, and describes performance evaluation as conducted in classrooms and offices at the Living Lab.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

National Virtual Biotechnology Laboratory: Report on Rapid R&D Solutions to the COVID-19 Crisis

With funding from the CARES Act, the U.S Department of Energy (DOE) established the National Virtual Biotechnology Laboratory (NVBL) in March 2020 to address key challenges associated with the COVID-19 crisis. NVBL brought together the broad scientific and technical expertise and resources of DOE’s 17 national laboratories to help tackle medical supply short ages, discover potential drugs to fight the virus, develop and validate COVID-19 testing methods, model disease spread and impact across the nation, and understand virus transport in buildings and the environment. National laboratory resources leveraged for this effort include a suite of world-leading user facilities broadly available to the research community, such as light and neutron sources, nanoscale science research centers, sequencing and biocharacterization facilities, and high-performance computing facilities. Within months, NVBL teams produced innovations in materials and advanced manufacturing that mitigated shortages in test kits and personal protective equipment (PPE), creating nearly 1,000 new jobs. They used DOE’s high-performance computers and light and neutron sources to identify promising candidates for antibodies and antivirals that universities and drug companies are now evaluating. NVBL researchers also developed new diagnostic targets and sample collection approaches, and supported U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) efforts to establish national guidelines used in administering millions of tests. Researchers used artificial intelligence and high-performance computing to produce near-real-time data analysis to forecast disease transmission, stress on public health infrastructure, and economic impact, which supported decision-makers at the local, state, and national levels. NVBL teams also studied how to control indoor virus movement to minimize uptake and protect human health. NVBL’s accomplishments demonstrate not only the powerful resource represented by DOE’s national laboratories working together to meet national needs, but also the effectiveness of the integrated NVBL framework for rapidly responding to emergencies with research and development (R&D) solutions. As the fight against COVID continues, sustained efforts are needed to confront this pandemic as well as future threats. Examples include: 1) Establishing “supply chains on demand” to meet emergency production needs by leveraging the materials and manufacturing expertise of DOE national laboratories and developing advances in electronics, sensing, robotics, and automation capabilities; 2) Improving the speed and robustness of drug discovery by integrating experimental platforms with DOE’s computational and experimental user facilities, which provide unique resources to support the discovery of high-potential therapeutic agents; 3) Protecting public, environmental, and animal health by developing new testing protocols and instrumentation adaptable to diverse sample types (both physiological and environmental) to quickly detect a wide range of pathogens and monitor other biorisks; 4) Supporting near-real-time data needs of decision-makers at the local, regional, state, and national levels by advancing data curation, analysis, and modeling using artificial intelligence and new data science tools for managing and evaluating large diverse datasets; 5) Harnessing DOE’s expertise in environmental modeling to design rooms and air handling for offices, classrooms, restaurants, and other structures to minimize biorisk transmissions. Going forward, NVBL is poised to apply the unique capabilities and expertise of the national laboratory complex to future national and international emergencies, both natural and engineered. Through this framework, the Office of Science will continue to be an integral component of agency wide efforts to prepare for and respond to biorisks and other crises.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Installing MCNP6.2 on Microsoft Windows

This video shows how to install the MCNP code, version 6.2, on a Microsoft Windows 10 computer. After installation, the Xming software is installed, a quick calculation is performed, and geometry is plotted. At this point, this setup is ready for use in an MCNP classroom setting and/or for performing calculations of the viewer’s own creation.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Space-Time Quantum Information from the Entangled States of Magnetic Molecule (STI Product)

This collaborative project combines synthesis, measurement, and theory by three faculty members at the Eddleman Quantum Institute of UC Irvine to effectively investigate the quantum properties of molecules in the space, time, and frequency domains. Through synthetic chemistry, molecules are tailored for their magnetic and coherent properties. By combining femtosecond (fs) terahertz (THz) light and a continuous wave (cw) THz laser with a low temperature scanning tunneling microscope (STM), quantum phenomena are probed with simultaneous femtosecond temporal and atomic-scale spatial resolution. In particular, the invention of the quantum superposition microscope (QSM) advances quantum sensing for enhanced spectroscopy and imaging capabilities. Coupling theory to the experimental efforts offers a deeper understanding and predictive power for the molecular systems. The phenomena of superposition, entanglement, and coherence is central to quantum information science and can be realized in qubit states. Many systems can be modeled by a double-well potential in which two levels are formed in the two lowest energy states interacting with the environment and external radiation. In focusing on molecules as two-level systems, the underlying expectation is that their tunable composition and structure allows an effective parameter space to optimize their use as qubits for quantum sensing and computing. The THz radiation induces the superposition between the two states, appearing as temporal oscillations that damp in amplitude. Enhanced spectroscopy and imaging in the time and frequency domains is achieved through the extreme sensitivity of the frequency and damping of coherence of two-level systems to its environment. A single hydrogen molecule trapped in the STM tunneling gap experiences a double-well potential and absorption of THz femtosecond pulses of light creates the superposition of its two levels, appearing as damped oscillations in the light induced direct current (DC). The oscillation frequency depends sensitively on the electric field distribution of the copper nitride (Cu 2 N) surface, through the Stark effect, and associated with the different charge distributions at the copper and nitrogen sites and in between. This QSM can resolve variation in the surface electric field with 0.02 nanometer resolution. In addition, the single hydrogen molecule entaes with nearby hydrogen molecules as seen in the avoided level crossings of energy (oscillation frequency) versus the voltage across the tunneling gap. Thus, the first application of the QSM senses and images the surface electric field at the atomic scale. Results from this project advance fundamental understanding of quantum phenomena, develop novel synthesis, measurement, and theory, provide the knowledge foundation for molecule-based qubits and sensing that enable the development of the QSM and emergent technologies. This project trained researchers in quantum information science, extended knowledge in classrooms, and outreached to the community.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗