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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
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1989

Analysis of a turning point problem in flight trajectory optimization

The optimal control policy for the aeroglide portion of the minimum fuel, orbital plane change problem for maneuvering entry vehicles is reduced to the solution of a turning point problem for the bank angle control. For this problem a turning point occurs at the minimum altitude of the flight, when the flight path angle equals zero. The turning point separates the bank angle control into two outer solutions that are valid away from the turning point. In a neighborhood of the turning point, where the bank angle changes rapidly, an inner solution is developed and matched with the two outer solutions. An asymptotic analysis of the turning point problem is given, and an analytic example is provided to illustrate the construction of the bank angle control.

Gracey, C.↗
DOE OSTI2021

Global roll-out of comprehensive policy measures may aid in bridging emissions gap

Closing the emissions gap between Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and the global emissions levels needed to achieve the Paris Agreement’s climate goals will require a comprehensive package of policy measures. National and sectoral policies can help fill the gap, but success stories in one country cannot be automatically replicated in other countries. They need to be adapted to the local context. Here, we develop a new Bridge scenario based on nationally relevant, short-term measures informed by interactions with country experts. These good practice policies are rolled out globally between now and 2030 and combined with carbon pricing thereafter. We implement this scenario with an ensemble of global integrated assessment models. We show that the Bridge scenario closes two-thirds of the emissions gap between NDC and 2°C scenarios by 2030 and enables a pathway in line with the 2 °C goal when combined with the necessary long-term changes, i.e. more comprehensive pricing measures after 2030. The Bridge scenario leads to a scale-up of renewable energy (reaching 52%-88% of global electricity supply by 2050), electrification of end-uses, efficiency improvements in energy demand sectors, and enhanced afforestation and reforestation. Our analysis suggests that early action via good-practice policies is less costly than a delay in global climate cooperation.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS2005

Human System Integration: Regulatory Analysis

This document was intended as an input to the Access 5 Policy Integrated Product team. Using a Human System Integration (HIS) perspective, a regulatory analyses of the FARS (specifically Part 91), the Airman s Information Manual (AIM) and the FAA Controllers Handbook (7110.65) was conducted as part of a front-end approach needed to derive HSI requirements for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) operations in the National Airspace System above FL430. The review of the above aviation reference materials yielded eighty-four functions determined to be necessary or highly desirable for flight within the Air Traffic Management System. They include categories for Flight, Communications, Navigation, Surveillance, and Hazard Avoidance.

Source record↗
DOE OSTI2023

Model Energy Codes End-Use Opportunity Analysis

Model energy codes (ASHRAE Standard 90.1 and IECC) has significantly impacted programs and policies aimed at improving energy efficiency both in United States and across the globe. Standard 90.1, first published in 1975 (originally referred to as Standard 90) provides minimum energy efficiency guidelines for designing, constructing, operating, and maintaining new construction and renovated buildings. It is updated continuously, with new editions published every 3 years. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) conducts simulated energy and cost savings analysis of model energy codes to determine their expected impact and to track progress toward net-zero goals and efficiency targets. Additionally, the simulation outputs are examined to assess how energy is used across primary systems within prominent U.S. commercial building types to understand how energy is used in each building type at the end-use level and to identify areas for improvements in future code cycles. This end-use opportunity analysis of model energy codes provides ASHRAE technical committees and other interested parties a better understanding of how the Standard affects various building systems and end uses, specifically, those in the Standard that most prominently influence energy efficiency. Additionally, findings provide industry stakeholders guidance in identifying building types and end-uses with the most potential for energy efficiency improvements through energy codes and those that may require beyond code measures to meet energy use reduction targets. This paper summarizes features and functionalities of a webtool created by PNNL to explore and visualize the End-Use opportunity analysis.

ASHRAE 90.1, Energy Codes, Tableau↗
DOE OSTI2024

Consequential Analysis of the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Impacts of Actions That Influence the Electric Grid: The Theory and Practice of Using Marginal Emissions Rates

This paper discusses consequential greenhouse gas emissions analysis for actions that influence the electric grid that is, the analytical approach of estimating how such actions change greenhouse gas emissions, relative to what they otherwise would have been without the action. Although the paper starts with general considerations, it ultimately focuses on consequential analysis with marginal emissions rates as an option likely more scalable than others.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
NASA NTRS2023

NASA Passive Thermal Control Engineering Guidebook

The NASA Passive Thermal Control Engineering Guidebook provides recommendations, including best practices and lessons learned, related to the passive thermal control engineering discipline. Topics include analysis (including documentation and review), thermal hardware (design/selection, vendors, and integration), testing, and flight operations. The passive thermal discipline includes thermal control and thermal protection systems. The passive thermal control discipline, which is addressed in this Guidebook, is broad and covers internal and external systems, component passive thermal analysis, vehicle on-orbit attitude timeline analysis, integrated thermal analysis, various thermal control apparatus (heaters and controls, coatings, blankets and insulations, isolators, geometric design for view factors, materials emissivity/absorptivity properties), passive cooling of avionics, purge, vent, and drain for vehicle cavities and compartments, thermal model development and correlation, thermal cycle and thermal-vacuum testing. Topics related to thermal protection systems (TPS) are not within the scope of this document. The Guidebook provides a consolidated reference for early career as well as experienced engineers embarking on a new task. Leveraging the experience of the group minimizes the learning curve that exists at the start of new projects, reduces the risk of repeating mistakes, and improves the organization’s ability to deliver high-quality products efficiently. The intent of this document is to provide guidance based on collective experience, and is not intended impose constraints on project work. Best practices can vary substantially and it is important to apply judgment wisely based on careful consideration of the specific design and requirements. Implementation of the methods described will vary from project to project and should be applied in conjunction with the judgment of the thermal engineers performing and reviewing the work. The recommendations in this document are not intended to replace program, project, branch, Center, or NASA requirements and/or policies.

thermal↗
NASA NTRS2023

NASA Passive Thermal Control Engineering Guidebook

The NASA Passive Thermal Control Engineering Guidebook provides recommendations, including best practices and lessons learned, related to the passive thermal control engineering discipline. Topics include analysis (including documentation and review), thermal hardware (design/selection, vendors, and integration), testing, and flight operations. The passive thermal discipline includes thermal control and thermal protection systems. The passive thermal control discipline, which is addressed in this Guidebook, is broad and covers internal and external systems, component passive thermal analysis, vehicle on-orbit attitude timeline analysis, integrated thermal analysis, various thermal control apparatus (heaters and controls, coatings, blankets and insulations, isolators, geometric design for view factors, materials emissivity/absorptivity properties), passive cooling of avionics, purge, vent, and drain for vehicle cavities and compartments, thermal model development and correlation, thermal cycle and thermal-vacuum testing. Topics related to thermal protection systems (TPS) are not within the scope of this document. The Guidebook provides a consolidated reference for early career as well as experienced engineers embarking on a new task. Leveraging the experience of the group minimizes the learning curve that exists at the start of new projects, reduces the risk of repeating mistakes, and improves the organization’s ability to deliver high-quality products efficiently. The intent of this document is to provide guidance based on collective experience, and is not intended impose constraints on project work. Best practices can vary substantially and it is important to apply judgment wisely based on careful consideration of the specific design and requirements. Implementation of the methods described will vary from project to project and should be applied in conjunction with the judgment of the thermal engineers performing and reviewing the work. The recommendations in this document are not intended to replace program, project, branch, Center, or NASA requirements and/or policies.

thermal↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Integrating Earth Observations and Socioeconomic Data to Address Health, Equity, and Environmental Justice

Access to reliable data about the characteristics of populations is a crucial component of decision making, policy development, and the assessment of progress towards strategic goals. Social determinants of health provide insight into the status of social and economic conditions within populations that have profound effects on public health, equity, and vulnerability. International frameworks such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) fundamentally focus on equality, but to efficiently address targets and indicators, socioeconomic data and Earth observations must be integrated to help identify populations most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, natural disasters, health disparities, and poor policy planning. The ability to identify vulnerable populations with data analysis has the potential to empower community stakeholders with spatial awareness needed to inform decision-making that addresses equity and environmental justice issues within their communities. The EPA defines environmental justice (EJ) as “the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and policies.” NASA’s Earth Science Division (ESD) recognizes the benefits that Earth observations with NASA satellites create by equipping individuals with the knowledge to address community challenges. NASA’s Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) supports the integration of socioeconomic and Earth science data as an “informational gateway.” This integration of data is advancing health, equity, and environmental justice initiatives.

Natasha Johnson-Griffin↗
NASA NTRS1983

Control of a heterogeneous two-server exponential queueing system

A dynamic control policy known as 'threshold queueing' is defined for scheduling customers from a Poisson source on a set of two exponential servers with dissimilar service rates. The slower server is invoked in response to instantaneous system loading as measured by the length of the queue of waiting customers. In a threshold queueing policy, a specific queue length is identified as a 'threshold,' beyond which the slower server is invoked. The slower server remains busy until it completes service on a customer and the queue length is less than its invocation threshold. Markov chain analysis is employed to analyze the performance of the threshold queueing policy and to develop optimality criteria. It is shown that probabilistic control is suboptimal to minimize the mean number of customers in the system. An approximation to the optimum policy is analyzed which is computationally simple and suffices for most operational applications.

Larsen, R. L.↗
DOE OSTI2021

Treatment of uncertainties for security-related design aspects of advanced reactors when using a risk-informed licensing approach

Sabotage of nuclear plants and theft of special nuclear material are different from many other issues potentially affecting public health and safety, and some of those differences drive the content of the present report. A high-level indication of these differences is provided in the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Safety Goal Policy. Promulgated in the mid-1980’s, when it had become reasonably clear that risk analysis had improved to the point where it was possible to understand the risks associated with plant operation, the Safety Goal Policy articulates qualitative safety goals and quantitative health objectives that are meant to guide regulatory and risk management activities, with the following key exceptions noted in the original policy statement: The possible effects of sabotage or diversion of nuclear material are also not presently included in the safety goals. At present there is no basis on which to provide a measure of risk on these matters. It is the Commission’s intention that everything that is needed will be done to keep these types of risks at their present very low level; and it is the Commission’s expectation that efforts on this point will continue to be successful. With these exceptions, it is the Commission’s intent that the risks from all the various initiating mechanisms be considered to the best of the capability of current evaluation techniques. The present report discusses extensions of classical risk management to address some of the special issues that arise in the context of security. Although the present emphasis is on physical security, some attention will be paid to cyber security. A particular focus of the report is on quantitative framework to manage and address uncertainties. This framework is demonstrated via a couple of hypothetical examples.

98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL P↗
DOE OSTI2020

An Edge-Cloud Integrated Solution for Buildings Demand Response Using Reinforcement Learning

Buildings, as major energy consumers, can provide great untapped demand response (DR) resources for grid services. However, their participation remains low in real-life. One major impediment for popularizing DR in buildings is the lack of cost-effective automation systems that can be widely adopted. Existing optimization-based smart building control algorithms suffer from high costs on both building-specific modeling and on-demand computing resources. To tackle these issues, this paper proposes a cost-effective edge-cloud integrated solution using reinforcement learning (RL). Beside RL’s ability to solve sequential optimal decision-making problems, its adaptability to easy-to-obtain building models and the off-line learning feature are likely to reduce the controller’s implementation cost. Using a surrogate building model learned automatically from building operation data, an RL agent learns an optimal control policy on cloud infrastructure, and the policy is then distributed to edge devices for execution. Simulation results demonstrate the control efficacy and the learning efficiency in buildings of different sizes. A preliminary cost analysis on a 4-zone commercial building shows the annual cost for optimal policy training is only 2.25% of the DR incentive received. Results of this study show a possible approach with higher return on investment for buildings to participate in DR programs.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
NASA NTRS1992

Research in geosciences policy

The general task was to look beyond the adverse physical impacts and to defining the policy problem. In order for policy actions to be effective, they must address the right policy problems, which will be different from and broader than the physical problems. We will work on defining the policy problems with a view to indicating how practical solutions might be implemented. In particular, public officials need advice on what should be said, and done, and for what purposes. That advice needs to be based on systematic analysis of: (1) the scholarly literature in the social sciences, and related disciplines; (2) the charging content of the policy debate at the center of attention; and (3) how citizens perceive and understand issues related to global change. We will conduct this analysis. Chapter 1 and 2 each reports work on defining the policy problem and analyzing the scholarly literature. Chapters 3 and 4, respectively, address the policy debate and citizen viewpoints in issues related to global change.

Brunner, Ronald D.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Marginal Damage of Methane Emissions: Ozone Impacts on Agriculture

Methane directly contributes to air pollution, as an ozone precursor, and to climate change, generating physical and economic damages to different systems, namely agriculture, vegetation, energy, human health, or biodiversity. The methane-related damages to climate, measured as the Social Cost of Methane, and to human health have been analyzed by different studies and considered by government rulemaking in the last decades, but the ozone-related damages to crop revenues associated to methane emissions have not been incorporated to policy agenda. Using a combination of the Global Change Analysis Model and the TM5-FASST Scenario Screening Tool, we estimate that global marginal agricultural damages range from ~ 423 to 556 $2010/t-CH 4 , of which 98 $2010/t-CH 4 occur in the USA, which is the most affected region due to its role as a major crop producer, followed by China, EU-15, and India. These damages would represent 39–59% of the climate damages and 28–64% of the human health damages associated with methane emissions by previous studies. The marginal damages to crop revenues calculated in this study complement the damages from methane to climate and human health, and provides valuable information to be considered in future cost-benefits analyses.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

The good, the bad, and the future: Systematic review identifies best use of biomass to meet air quality and climate policies in California

Abstract California has large and diverse biomass resources and provides a pertinent example of how biomass use is changing and needs to change, in the face of climate mitigation policies. As in other areas of the world, California needs to optimize its use of biomass and waste to meet environmental and socioeconomic objectives. We used a systematic review to assess biomass use pathways in California and the associated impacts on climate and air quality. Biomass uses included the production of renewable fuels, electricity, biochar, compost, and other marketable products. For those biomass use pathways recently developed, information is available on the effects—usually beneficial—on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and there is some, but less, published information on the effects on criteria pollutants. Our review identifies 34 biomass use pathways with beneficial impacts on either GHG or pollutant emissions, or both—the “good.” These included combustion of forest biomass for power and conversion of livestock‐associated biomass to biogas by anaerobic digestion. The review identified 13 biomass use pathways with adverse impacts on GHG emissions, criteria pollutant emissions, or both—the “bad.” Wildfires are an example of one out of eight pathways which were found to be bad for both climate and air quality, while only two biomass use pathways reduced GHG emissions relative to an identified counterfactual but had adverse air quality impacts. Issues of high interest for the “future” included land management to reduce fire risk, future policies for the dairy industries, and full life‐cycle analysis of biomass production and use.

Agriculture↗
DOE OSTI2021

Final Technical Report-WestSmart EV: Western Smart Plug-in Electric Vehicle Community Partnership

The WestSmartEV (WSEV) project has accelerated adoption of plug-in electric vehicles (PEV) throughout the PacifiCorp/Rocky Mountain Power’s (RMP) service territory in the intermountain west by developing a large-scale, sustainable PEV charging infrastructure network with coordinated PEV adoption programs. The project objectives have strategically deployed 79 DC fast charging to create two primary electric interstate highway corridors along I-15 and I-80; incentivized installation of Level 2 AC chargers at workplace locations; incentivized the purchase of PEVs; provided all electric solutions for first-mile and last-mile trips, including electrified mobility service; provided centralized data collection, analysis, modeling, and tool development to inform investment and policy decisions; and developed education outreach materials and conducted workshops across the WSEV region.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗