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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 415 records · Page 23
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2023

Global horizontal spectral irradiance in Albuquerque - Data and Resources

The Photovoltaic Systems Evaluation Laboratory (PSEL) at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) in Albuquerque, NM has measured global horizontal spectral irradiance nearly continuously from September 2019 to March 2022. During this time other broadband irradiance measurements (global horizontal, direct normal, diffuse horizontal and global normal) and weather variables were also recorded. For this dataset PV Performance Labs (PVPL) has pulled together data from both sources to assemble a calendar year spectral data set for use in photovoltaic research. It is composed of twelve segments of 15 days each, beginning with January 1-15 and ending with December 1-15. The segments are all taken from the two-year period October 2019 to September 2021.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Global normal spectral irradiance in Albuquerque - Data and Resources

The Photovoltaic Systems Evaluation Laboratory (PSEL) at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) in Albuquerque, NM has measured global normal spectral irradiance nearly continuously from August 2013 to April 2018. During this time other broadband irradiance measurements (global horizontal, direct normal, diffuse horizontal and global normal) and weather variables were also recorded. For this dataset PV Performance Labs (PVPL) has pulled together data from both sources to assemble a full calendar year spectral data set for use in photovoltaic research. It is composed of eight continuous segments of different durations taken from the two-year period September 2013 to August 2015.

photovoltaics↗
DOE OSTI2019

Electrospark Dispersion in Nanopowder Production for Additive Technologies

A laboratory electrospark system permits the creation of an overvoltage in the gap between dispersible electrodes. Conductive nanopowder may be produced by an electrospark method with a considerable overvoltage in the electrode gap. The production of small powder batches for additive technology by this means is promising and economical.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2016

A PURE HYDRODYNAMIC INSTABILITY IN SHEAR FLOWS AND ITS APPLICATION TO ASTROPHYSICAL ACCRETION DISKS

We provide a possible resolution for the century-old problem of hydrodynamic shear flows, which are apparently stable in linear analysis but shown to be turbulent in astrophysically observed data and experiments. This mismatch is noticed in a variety of systems, from laboratory to astrophysical flows. There are so many uncountable attempts made so far to resolve this mismatch, beginning with the early work of Kelvin, Rayleigh, and Reynolds toward the end of the nineteenth century. Here we show that the presence of stochastic noise, whose inevitable presence should not be neglected in the stability analysis of shear flows, leads to pure hydrodynamic linear instability therein. This explains the origin of turbulence, which has been observed/interpreted in astrophysical accretion disks, laboratory experiments, and direct numerical simulations. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first solution to the long-standing problem of hydrodynamic instability of Rayleigh-stable flows.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Improved method for temporally interpolating radiosonde profiles in the convective boundary layer

A significantly improved technique for temporally interpolating radiosonde (RS) profiles of potential temperature and water vapor mixing ratio in the planetary boundary layer during daytime is introduced. The key innovation of this technique is its operation on a height grid normalized with the planetary boundary layer height. This study utilized a three-month dataset of three-hourly soundings from the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Facility's Southern Great Plains site. The technique was evaluated for convective boundary layer cases, with the necessary boundary layer height data obtained from a ground-based infrared spectrometer. A total of 79 comparisons were conducted between reference soundings and interpolated profiles that did and did not employ height normalization. The results demonstrated a substantial improvement in the representation of interpolated profiles using the new technique, characterized by enhanced correlation, improved amplitude representation, and reduced bias for potential temperature, as well as improved correlation and reduced bias for water vapor mixing ratio.

convective boundary layer↗
DOE OSTI2019

Full-Column Greenhouse Gas Sampling Field Campaign Report

The AirCore is a balloon-borne sampler patented and developed at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL) Global Monitoring Division (GMD) (Tans 2009) that has the capability to provide full-column measurements of greenhouse gases and other trace gas species (Karion et al. 2010). It consists of a long, coated stainless steel tube that is filled with a known trace gas mixture prior to balloon launch (Figure 1). The AirCore is opened at one end prior to balloon launch and, as the balloon ascends, it evacuates to ambient pressure. At 30 km, the balloon is cut away and the AirCore descends via parachute, now capturing an atmospheric air sample or “core” of air from 30 km to the surface due to the pressure gradient between the evacuated AirCore and the environment. Upon landing, the AirCore is closed, preserving the air sample collected in-flight. Because diffusion acts slowly on the AirCore sample in the four hours that it typically takes to launch, retrieve, and analyze the sample, it is possible to capture more than 100 discrete samples in the atmospheric profile collected by the AirCore. Currently, the AirCore is analyzed for carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and carbon monoxide (CO) at NOAA/ESRL GMD, but the sample collected can be measured on a variety of other analyzers to obtain full-column profiles of other trace gas species. Unlike routine aircraft measurements, the AirCore provides a low-cost alternative to atmospheric profiling and captures >95% of the atmospheric column. It has a variety of applications, including to full-column greenhouse and trace gas sampling and monitoring, to satellite and remote-sensing instrumentation evaluation, and to tropospheric and stratospheric model evaluation.

Greenhouse gases, Southern Great Plains, balloon-b↗
DOE OSTI2019

Towards Vendor and Operating System Independence of USB-based portable multi-channel analyzers

The nuclear measurements group is called on to develop portable, user friendly systems that performs at, or near, laboratory standards. These systems typically consist of a detector and a USB-based multi-channel analyzer. An ORTEC digi-Base is an example of a USB-based portable multi-channel analyzer with 14-pin photomultiplier tube base for gamma-ray spectroscopy applications with NaI(Tl) and other scintillation detectors. Operating system independence - we want to be able to develop applications that are 'future-proof' and can run on the best hardware for the job: desktop, laptop, tablet, phone, or embedded device. To do that we need our software to be operating system independent. Hardware vendor independence - to use the most appropriate equipment for the job, while still maintaining our rapid method development, we would like our software that uses this equipment to be independent of the specific vendor or model of the hardware. To do that we need a common interface to each vendor's equipment (high voltage, gain, start, stop, clear, etc.) In prior work, we were able to use an existing library to communicate with an ORTEC digi-base via Linux and Android. However the application developed did not have a user friendly front-end. Part of this work was to develop a simple user interface to control the settings of the hardware from Android. While OS independence is the final goal, another goal is standardized software for user-application development. For current purposes those standard systems are Windows 7, Windows 10, and Python 3. Our next step was to develop a common software interface between a front-end user interface and back-end hardware communication software. This was done using Python's Ctypes library. Ctypes is a foreign function library for Python. It provides C compatible data types, and allows calling functions in DLLs or shared libraries. It can be used to wrap these libraries in pure Python. Ctypes exports the cdll, and Windows windll and oledll objects, for loading dynamic link libraries. You load libraries by accessing them as attributes of these objects. cdll loads libraries which export functions using the standard cdecl calling convention. The first steps of developing the common software interface have been done. Once the software interface has been developed the next goal will be to develop hardware specific back-end software that way rapid user facing software can be developed using equipment that is 'on-hand' and once finished prototyping, the 'best' hardware can be chosen for the specific implementation.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2026

Industry Growth Forum: Innovation and Investment

The Industry Growth Forum (IGF) is the premier convening for energy innovation entrepreneurs, investors, and industry leaders. Hosted by NLR, the nation's leading energy systems integration laboratory, the IGF leverages decades of technical expertise and industry partnerships to bring together promising startups and forward-thinking investors. Gain meaningful visibility and recognition of your organization as a sponsor at the 2026 Industry Growth Forum.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2026

NETL Coal Energy Atlas: A Collection of Coal/Energy Related Maps

The NETL Coal Energy Atlas contains a comprehensive collection of coal and energy-related maps and graphics curated by the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) Systems Analysis group. It serves as a living document providing an overview of the U.S. coal and energy sectors. The volume is structurally organized into six key thematic areas. Ultimately, the atlas functions as a modular baseline for data integration, allowing researchers to drill down into specific regional locations or customize geographic base layers for advanced systems analysis.

bituminous coal↗
DOE OSTI2016

DEVELOPMENT AND TESTING OF FAULT-DIAGNOSIS ALGORITHMS FOR REACTOR PLANT SYSTEMS

Argonne National Laboratory is further developing fault diagnosis algorithms for use by the operator of a nuclear plant to aid in improved monitoring of overall plant condition and performance. The objective is better management of plant upsets through more timely, informed decisions on control actions with the ultimate goal of improved plant safety, production, and cost management. Integration of these algorithms with visual aids for operators is taking place through a collaboration under the concept of an operator advisory system. This is a software entity whose purpose is to manage and distill the enormous amount of information an operator must process to understand the plant state, particularly in off-normal situations, and how the state trajectory will unfold in time. The fault diagnosis algorithms were exhaustively tested using computer simulations of twenty different faults introduced into the chemical and volume control system (CVCS) of a pressurized water reactor (PWR). The algorithms are unique in that each new application to a facility requires providing only the piping and instrumentation diagram (PID) and no other plant-specific information; a subject-matter expert is not needed to install and maintain each instance of an application. The testing approach followed accepted procedures for verifying and validating software. It was shown that the code satisfies its functional requirement which is to accept sensor information, identify process variable trends based on this sensor information, and then to return an accurate diagnosis based on chains of rules related to these trends. The validation and verification exercise made use of GPASS, a one-dimensional systems code, for simulating CVCS operation. Plant components were failed and the code generated the resulting plant response. Parametric studies with respect to the severity of the fault, the richness of the plant sensor set, and the accuracy of sensors were performed as part of the validation exercise. The background and overview of the software will be presented to give an overview of the approach. Following, the verification and validation effort using the GPASS code for simulation of plant transients including a sensitivity study on important parameters will be presented

Fault Diagnosis Algorithm↗
DOE OSTI2014

Validation experiment of a numerically processed millimeter-wave interferometer in a laboratory

We propose a new interferometer system for density profile measurements. This system produces multiple measurement chords by a leaky-wave antenna driven by multiple frequency inputs. The proposed system was validated in laboratory evaluation experiments. We confirmed that the interferometer generates a clear image of a Teflon plate as well as the phase shift corresponding to the plate thickness. In another experiment, we confirmed that quasi-optical mirrors can produce multiple measurement chords; however, the finite spot size of the probe beam degrades the sharpness of the resulting image.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2016

Cold Climate Heat Pumps Using Tandem Compressors

In cold climate zones, e.g. ASHRAE climate regions IV and V, conventional electric air-source heat pumps (ASHP) do not work well, due to high compressor discharge temperatures, large pressure ratios and inadequate heating capacities at low ambient temperatures. Consequently, significant use of auxiliary strip heating is required to meet the building heating load. We introduce innovative ASHP technologies as part of continuing efforts to eliminate auxiliary strip heat use and maximize heating COP with acceptable cost-effectiveness and reliability. These innovative ASHP were developed using tandem compressors, which are capable of augmenting heating capacity at low temperatures and maintain superior part-load operation efficiency at moderate temperatures. Two options of tandem compressors were studied; the first employs two identical, single-speed compressors, and the second employs two identical, vapor-injection compressors. The investigations were based on system modeling and laboratory evaluation. Both designs have successfully met the performance criteria. Laboratory evaluation showed that the tandem, single-speed compressor ASHP system is able to achieve heating COP = 4.2 at 47 F (8.3 C), COP = 2.9 at 17 F (-8.3 C), and 76% rated capacity and COP = 1.9 at -13 F (-25 C). This yields a HSPF = 11.0 (per AHRI 210/240). The tandem, vapor-injection ASHP is able to reach heating COP = 4.4 at 47 F, COP = 3.1 at 17 F, and 88% rated capacity and COP = 2.0 at -13 F. This yields a HSPF = 12.0. The system modeling and further laboratory evaluation are presented in the paper.

Shen, Bo↗