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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 55 records · Page 3
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Typical Use Cases for Energy Storage in Rural Areas

Public power utilities and cooperatives play a crucial role in delivering reliable and affordable electricity to remote and sparsely populated regions. Unlike their urban counterparts, these utilities often face a unique set of challenges that can complicate their operations and service delivery. One of the primary challenges is the vast geographical area they must cover, which often results in higher transmission and distribution costs per customer. Additionally, public power utilities in rural areas often cannot afford the investments required to maintain and upgrade aging grid infrastructure to provide reliable and resilient power or withstand the impacts of recurring, severe weather events, which can cause extended outages and disrupt service delivery. Energy storage has emerged as a promising tool to help public power utilities meet these challenges. By enabling the storage of excess energy during low demand periods and providing a source of backup electricity during outages, energy storage systems can help utilities balance supply and demand more effectively. Additionally, they can help integrate a portfolio of various energy sources, reduce the need for expensive peak power purchases and provide ancillary services that stabilize the grid. This white paper describes potential use cases for energy storage in rural areas as well as documents a set of relevant example projects by project types.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Small Satellite Reliability Initiative (SSRI) Knowledge Base Tool: Use Case Review and Future Functionality and Content Direction

NASA’s Small Satellite Reliability Initiative (SSRI), in conjunction with NASA’s Small Spacecraft Systems Virtual Institute (S3VI), has developed the SSRI Knowledge Base to improve mission confidence for small spacecraft. The SSRI Knowledge Base is a comprehensive and searchable online tool that consolidates and organizes resources, best practices, and lessons learned from previous small satellite missions sponsored by NASA, other government agencies, and academia. This free, publicly available tool is available to the entire SmallSat community at: NASA SSRI Knowledge Base | Explore. The SSRI Knowledge Base provides vetted, high-quality sources of information on elements that are key to successful small satellite missions. These resources include SSRI working group generated documents and presentations in addition to existing guides, publications, standards, software tools, websites, and books. The Knowledge Base is fully searchable, offers downloadable content when possible, and otherwise links to or references content directly from within the tool. All 58 of the planned topic pages that comprise the SSRI Knowledge Base have been recently completed and include over 450 unique resources that are now available for review. Over the past several months significant enhancements to the tool’s capabilities have been developed and implemented. These enhancements consist of the completed baseline content; development of an Application Programming Interface (API); improved user interfaces; scalable and searchable Best Practices and Lessons Learned (BPLL) lists with ratings; and custom website analytics. This presentation and paper will discuss the motivation for and development of the SSRI Knowledge Base, review of potential use case(s), and outline plans for further development and content generation. The SSRI is a collaborative activity with broad participation from civil, Department of Defense, and both national and international commercial space systems providers and stakeholders. The S3VI is jointly sponsored by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate and Science Mission Directorate.

Small Spacecraft↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Small Satellite Reliability Initiative (SSRI) Knowledge Base Tool: Use Case Review and Future Functionality and Content Direction

NASA’s Small Satellite Reliability Initiative (SSRI), in conjunction with NASA’s Small Spacecraft Systems Virtual Institute (S3VI), has developed the SSRI Knowledge Base to improve mission confidence for small spacecraft. The SSRI is a collaborative activity with broad participation from civil, Department of Defense, and both national and international commercial space systems providers and stakeholders. The S3VI is jointly sponsored by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate and Science Mission Directorate. The SSRI Knowledge Base is a comprehensive and searchable online tool that consolidates and organizes resources, best practices, and lessons learned from previous small satellite missions sponsored by NASA, other government agencies, and academia. This free, publicly available tool is available to the entire SmallSat community at https://s3vi.ndc.nasa.gov/ssri-kb/. The SSRI Knowledge Base provides vetted, high-quality sources of information on elements that are key to successful small satellite missions. These resources include SSRI working group generated documents and presentations in addition to existing guides, publications, standards, software tools, websites, and books. The Knowledge Base is fully searchable, offers downloadable content when possible, and otherwise links to or references content directly from within the tool. All 58 of the planned topic pages that comprise the SSRI Knowledge Base have been recently completed and include over 450 unique resources that are now available for review. Over the past several months, significant enhancements to the tool’s capabilities have been developed and implemented. These enhancements consist of the completed baseline content, an Application Programming Interface (API), improved user interfaces, new interfaces for crowdsourcing of content and user ratings, and custom website analytics to inform future development. This presentation and paper will discuss the motivation for the SSRI Knowledge Base, review educational use case(s), and outline plans for further development. The 2022 session topic that best fits the abstract (select only one): Coordinating Successful Educational Programs

Small Spacecraft↗
NASA NTRS2003

Using CASE to Adopt Organizational Learning at NASA

The research direction was articulated in a statement of work created in collaboration between two program colleagues, an outside researcher and an internal user. The researcher was to deliver an implemented CASE tool (CasewiseTM) that was to be used to serve non-traditional (i.e., not software development related) organizational purposes. The explicitly stated functions of the tool were the support of 1) ISO-9000 compliance in the documentation of processes and 2) the management of process improvement. The collaborative team consisted of the researcher (GT), a full-time accompanying student (CRO), and the user (JD). The team originally focused on populating the CASE repository for the purpose of solving the two primary objectives. Consistent with the action research approach, several additional user requirements emerged as the project evolved, needs became apparent in discussions about how the tool would be used to solve organizational problems. These deliverables were contained within the CASE repository: 1) the creation of a paradigm diagram 2) the creation of a context diagram 3) the creation of child diagrams 4) the generation of 73 issues relating to organizational change 5) a compendium of stakeholder interview transcripts All record keeping was done manually and then keyed into the CASE interface. An issue is the difference between an organization s current situation (action) and its collective ideals.

Templeton, Gary F.↗
NASA NTRS1980

A description of the NSSL cases used for a simulated VAS retrieval study

A documentation of eight National Severe Storm Laboratory severe storm cases, which serve as a basis for a simulated VISSR Atmospheric Sounder retrieval study, is presented in this paper. Six of the selected cases provide a control data set to complete the statistical information needed for retrieval techniques based upon the use of regression matrices. The other two cases are to be used in the actual retrieval experiments. The selection was based upon the presence of moisture gradients in the analysis region, the availability of satellite images at the selected time periods, and the extent of cloud cover within the observing network.

Mostek, A.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Mesoscale simulations of the November 25-26 and December 5-6 cirrus cases using the RAMS model

The Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS), developed at Colorado State University, was used during the First ISCCP (International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project) Regional Experiment (FIRE) 2 (13 Nov. through 6 Dec. 1991) to provide real time forecasts of cirrus clouds. Forecasts were run once a day, initializing with the 0000 UTC dataset provided by NOAA (Forecast Systems Laboratory (FSL) Mesoscale Analysis and Prediction System (MAPS)). In order to obtain better agreement with observations, a second set of simulations were done for the FIRE 2 cases that occurred on 25-26 Nov. and 5-6 Dec. In this set of simulations, a more complex radiation scheme was used, the Chen/Cotton radiation scheme, along with the nucleation of ice occurring at ice supersaturations as opposed to nucleation occurring at water supersaturations that was done in the actual forecast version. The runs using these more complex schemes took longer wall clock time (7-9 hours for the actual forecasts as compared to 12-14 hrs for the runs using the more complex schemes) however, the final results of the simulations were definitely improved upon. Comparisons between these two sets of simulations are given. Now underway are simulations of these cases using a closed analytical solution for the auto-conversion of ice from a pristine ice class (sizes less than about 50 microns in effective diameter) to a snow class (effective diameters on the order of several hundred microns). This solution is employed along with a new scheme for the nucleation of ice crystals due to Meyers et al and Demott et al. The scheme is derived assuming complete gamma distributions for both the pristine and snow classes. The time rate of change of the number concentration and mass mixing-ratio of each distribution is found by calculating either the flux of crystals that grow beyond a certain critical diameter by vapor deposition in an ice supersaturated regime or by calculating the flux of crystals that evaporate to sizes below that same critical effective diameter.

Harrington, J. L.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Human and Robotic Space Mission Use Cases for High-Performance Spaceflight Computing

Spaceflight computing is a key resource in NASA space missions and a core determining factor of spacecraft capability, with ripple effects throughout the spacecraft, end-to-end system, and mission. Onboard computing can be aptly viewed as a "technology multiplier" in that advances provide direct dramatic improvements in flight functions and capabilities across the NASA mission classes, and enable new flight capabilities and mission scenarios, increasing science and exploration return. Space-qualified computing technology, however, has not advanced significantly in well over ten years and the current state of the practice fails to meet the near- to mid-term needs of NASA missions. Recognizing this gap, the NASA Game Changing Development Program (GCDP), under the auspices of the NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate, commissioned a study on space-based computing needs, looking out 15-20 years. The study resulted in a recommendation to pursue high-performance spaceflight computing (HPSC) for next-generation missions, and a decision to partner with the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) in this development.

use cases↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

The Potential of Medical Drones: An Analysis of Current and Future Use Cases

Modern Application of Medical-Based Drone Delivery Drones have been used advantageously by militaries for nearly a century, but their uses in civilian life are still mostly cutting-edge, if not theoretical. After a decade of bold proclamations, Amazon’s “PrimeAir” drone delivery system is still in the stage of “preparing” for deliveries, while the public awaits for start ups like SkyDrop (formerly Flirtey) to follow through on impressive promises. Despite the well-publicized disappointment so far in commercial drone delivery, medical drone delivery has already proven itself practical and cheap in several countries, and it promises to expand in the coming years. Drones are uniquely suited to make valuable and urgent deliveries to remote areas, quickly transporting medical supplies where road transportation is prohibitively slow or not available at all. Drones have been used notably to deliver AEDs for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, frequently beating first-responders to the scene; to deliver blood when there is none on hand at hospitals; to deliver vaccines to an island nation with little transportation infrastructure; and to respond flexibly to medical emergencies in a war zone. Economics make the delivery of food and other cheap goods by drone unattractive in the near-term, but the value and time-sensitivity of medical deliveries mean that drones are already saving lives in healthcare. “We believe the value of new technology is most valuable where it is clearly needed...that’s why we wanted to focus on drones delivering medicine and not delivering pizzas, ”said one executive of a drone system manufacturer. The immediate prospects for the expansion of medical drone use are many; however, they do not exist without their own drawbacks and challenges. Most obvious is the limited range of current commercially-available drones, most of which are isolated to a perimeter of roughly 18 miles. Technological know-how presents another barrier to integration of medical drones on a larger scale. Reports from the United Nations frequently cite a“skill deficit”—a prohibitively low number of qualified drone operators in low-and moderate-income countries (LMICs). Another perhaps more discreet speed bump in global drone development and usage are the various regulations on drone usage. Drone technology has developed so quickly that many states, out of an excess of caution, have nearly snuffed out the fledgling industry with regulation. There also exist significant concerns over the security of private citizens, the efficacy of medical deliveries, and the costs of drone operation. It is these last three barriers which this study will seek to overcome. Put simply, the prospect for human development in LMICs from drone-based medical delivery is far too great to disregard. As of 2020, 3.4 billion people live in rural communities, containing fewer than 5,000 people/km^2. Often lacking infrastructure, these communities are largely isolated from their more populated, urban counterparts. In drones lies the potential to reshape the geographic and developmental distinctions that divide the global population. This development must, therefore, begin first and foremost with advancement in regional well-being and life expectancy. Life expectancy makes up a key facet of human development. The United Nations relies on it as a key indicator of a state’s health. Lars Kunze of the Dortmund University Department of Economic sex plains this as a matter of physical capital accumulation. The longer people live, the more they save as opposed to spend. The more they save, the more which eventually gets invested in themselves and the community as a whole. In providing medical products via drone, it is the intention of this study to enable communities with the means and incentives for long-run savings and investment for future economic development. Through a close analysis of Vanuatu, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Ukraine—four states where drones are currently used to deliver medical supplies—this study develops a framework that LMICs in general and Mexico and particular can adopt and to use medical drones in difficult-to-reach communities for the sake of long-run human developmental initiatives.

Ryan Teoh↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

WMLES for the Fifth High-Lift PredictionWorkshop Cases Using FUN3D

This paper presents solution assessments and grid convergence studies for the test cases outlined in the Fifth High-Lift Prediction Workshop (HLPW-5), focusing on the high-lift Common Research Models (CRM-HL). The study utilizes a wall-modeled large-eddy simulation (WMLES) methodology developed in the unstructured-grid, node-centered flow solver FUN3D. The second-order accurate simulations conducted in this study utilize a finite-volume spatial discretization and an implicit temporal scheme. Large-scale turbulent features are resolved away from the wall, with small-scale effects captured by the Vreman subgrid-scale model. An equilibrium wall function uses the first grid point off the wall serving as the critical interface between the wall model and the large-eddy simulation region, thus requiring careful placement in grid design. WMLES solutions are assessed for HLPW-5 cases, including a clean wing-body configuration and geometry-buildup configurations corresponding to the 5.1\% ONERA CRM-HL model. Grid-convergence studies are systematically conducted using uniformly refined grids. Moreover, simulation results and grid sensitivity are presented for the NASA 5.2\% CRM-HL configuration at both moderate and flight-scale Reynolds numbers. Overall, WMLES results are satisfactory and agree well with available experimental data, especially on sufficiently fine grids.

high-lift aerodynamics↗
DOE OSTI2026

Microgrid Hardening Design Toolkit: Puerto Rico Use Case

This document provides a comprehensive example of the microgrid hardening framework and the Sandia developed Microgrid Hardening Design Toolkit v0.27 using a census tract in a coastal area of southern Puerto Rico as a case study. The census tract (72123953100) is located in the municipality of Salinas. Currently, the La Margarita neighborhood within this census tract is part of the Department of Energy’s Cohort 5 of the Energy Technology Innovation and Partnership Program (ETIPP). The neighborhood’s local energy cooperative, Abeyno Coop, has been operating several residential solar photovoltaic (PV) and battery energy storage system (BESS) installations (with around 30 rooftop solar systems as of 2026). As part of the ETIPP project, Abeyno Coop is planning to integrate a larger microgrid into the existing distribution feeder in the area, including solar PV and BESS to supply energy for homes and critical loads such as the medical facilities and the community center that provides emergency shelter and backup power during outages.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
NASA NTRS2017

A CubeSat-Payload Radiation-Reliability Assurance Case using Goal Structuring Notation

CubeSats have become an attractive platform for universities, industry, and government space missions because they are cheaper and quicker to develop than full-scale satellites. One way CubeSats keep costs low is by using commercial off-the-shelf parts (COTS) instead of space-qualified parts. Space-qualified parts are often costlier, larger, and consume more power than their commercial counterparts precluding their use within the CubeSat form-factor. Given typical power budgets, monetary budgets, and timelines for CubeSat missions, conventional radiation hardness assurance, like the use of space-qualified parts and radiation testing campaigns of COTS parts, is not practical. Instead, a system-level approach to radiation effects mitigation is needed. In this paper an assurance case for a system-level approach to mitigate radiation effects of a CubeSat science experiment is expressed using Goal Structuring Notation (GSN), a graphical argument standard. The case specifically looks at three main mitigation strategies for the radiation environment: total ionizing dose (TID) screening of parts, detection and recovery from single-event latch-ups (SEL) and single-event functional interrupts (SEFI). The graphical assurance case presented makes a qualitative argument for the radiation reliability of the CubeSat experiment using part and system-level mitigation strategies.

COTS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Structural uncertainty assessment for low-Mach wall-resolved large-eddy simulations: Plane Channel and Periodic Hill Use Cases

A structural uncertainty assessment is provided for a set of wall-resolved large-eddy simulations (WRLES) using a turbulent channel flow (𝑅𝑒 𝜏 395) and a periodic hill in the turbulent regime (𝑅𝑒 𝑏 2800) validation suite. The standard one-equation subgrid scale turbulent kinetic energy model (𝑘 𝑠𝑔𝑠 ) using both a static and dynamic coefficient approach along with Wall Adapting Local Eddy Viscosity (WALE) are exercised. The 𝑘 𝑠𝑔𝑠 model activated in this study also allows for a correction that supports theoretical turbulent viscosity and total kinetic energy scaling (cubit and quadratic, respectively) in the near-wall regime. Channel and hill results showcase very good agreement between prediction and simulation for the WALE and the dynamic coefficient 𝑘 𝑠𝑔𝑠 model. The study also demonstrates that near-wall damping improves predictivity for the static coefficient 𝑘 𝑠𝑔𝑠 model, while proving an unnecessary additional contribution for the dynamic coefficient 𝑘 𝑠𝑔𝑠 model as near-wall scaling is naturally captured. Overall conclusions are that this suite of WRLES models are well suited for production usage in the Sierra-based low-Mach codes.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
NASA NTRS1981

Why use case studies rather than simulation-gaming techniques or library research?

Method which present a student with a more challenging and true to life situation of needing to conduct research in a problem solving context--and not thinking about organization of format until research and thinking are complete are investigated. Simulation-gaming techniques which attempt to teach initiative and creativity that library research are used for this purpose. However, it is shown case studies provide the greatest opportunities to engage the students in problem solving situations in which they develop skills as researchers and writers.

Mcdonald, S. W.↗
DOE OSTI2025

Predictive Modeling and Uncertainty Quantification in Condition Monitoring of Active Components: A Reactor Coolant Pump Use Case

This work develops data-driven models for onset of thermal barrier leakage in reactor coolant pumps. It incorporates uncertainty quantification to enhance the reliability and robustness of pre- dictions. Using synthetic data generated by the Generic Pressurized Water Reactor simulator, realistic degradation scenarios were simulated across lifecycle stages—beginning, middle, and end of life. Key variables, including differential pressure, flow rate, vibration, and temperatures, were analyzed using machine learning framework. The fully connected neural network models demonstrated exceptional performance, achieving R2 scores exceeding 0.99 and root mean square errors as low as around 8.23 × 10-2 gallon per minute (gpm) for the three stages of the lifecy- cle. UQ analysis further validated the model’s robustness, with narrow uncertainty bounds during steady-state operations and appropriately wider bounds during transitional phases, reflecting the physical behavior of the system. This work addresses important gaps in real-time condition moni- toring and regulatory compliance by integrating advanced condition monitoring technologies with UQ into IST programs. The ability to detect thermal barrier leakage early and quantify prediction reliability supports optimizing maintenance strategies while ensuring nuclear power plants’ safe and reliable operation.

99 - GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Technology pathways for energy- and water-efficient controlled environment agriculture: A review of technologies, implementation pathways, and regional use cases

Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) offers high-yield, climate-resilient food production, but high energy and resource demands challenge its sustainability. This paper synthesizes technologies that can improve outcomes across six categories—energy, CO 2 utilization, building envelope, hardware, water, and process—plus colocation strategies. We evaluate 80 technologies and define ten implementation pathways bundling complementary technologies to reduce energy use, optimize water consumption, and minimize emissions. Regional application is demonstrated through five U.S. case studies spanning different climates. A logic framework guides pathway selection for case studies based on climate, infrastructure, and regulatory context, informing context-sensitive technology deployment. Results show energy intensity reductions of 3–55 %, ranging from energy management programs to comprehensive lighting retrofits; water savings of 20–40 % through closed-loop recirculation; and emissions reductions of 3–100 %, with strategic energy management achieving 3–5 % and renewable electricity paired with electrified heating achieving up to 100 %. Text mining revealed that energy, hardware, and process technologies account for 91 % of literature coverage. Water, building envelope, and CO 2 utilization remain underexplored, indicating priorities for future research. This integrative approach to technology assessment supports growers, developers, and policymakers in aligning CEA system design with local conditions, improving resource efficiency and addressing gaps in cross-domain technology coverage.

Controlled environment agriculture↗