Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Power Technology”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 595 records · Page 33
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2019

Compass Final Report: Europa Tunnelbot

The Compass Final Report: Europa Tunnelbot, is a summary of three Compass concurrent engineering team designs for penetrating the ice of Europa and reaching the ocean, while sampling for biomarkers and communicating back to the surface. These conceptual designs, while providing complete conceptual layouts for these penetrators, or 'Tunnelbots' along with the associated communication 'Repeaters' primarily focused on the power and thermal systems needed for these devices. Trades for these systems will provide advantages and challenges for each option. These results will be used to guide power technology development.

probe↗
NASA NTRS2018

Maintaining Human Health for Humans-Mars

The Human Health Research Program states that Radiation is the most challenging hazard to human spaceflight beyond LEO. The International Space Station provides an analog for evaluating techniques for dealing with Altered Gravity, the Radiation Environment of the ISS is only about 45% of the deep space values where radiation due to Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCR) dominate the spectrum. The Moon and cis-lunar space are being considered as a Mars Analog training ground for preparing crews for human mission to Mars. Spending more than 200 days in deep space is considered unsafe based on our current proxy for lifetime radiation dose. The paper outlines a way forward for spending days training near the Moon and for completing roundtrip missions to Mars while remaining below the current proxy. In the first case, a GCR overcoat shields crews from radiation during cis-lunar activities before making fast transits without in-space GCR overcoats to and from Mars. This case requires continued maturation of low TRL propulsion and power technologies currently around 4 to 5 while depending on repeatable reductions in launch costs by a factor of 6 expected of current reusable rockets. The second case requires no new technology development except for the expectation that the next near-term generation of reusable rockets will reduce launch costs by a factor of around 14. Five trajectories and GCR overcoat sizes for all mission legs are presented herein to illustrate the opportunities to maintain human health for Humans-Mars missions.

Robert W Moses↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Barry Eichmiller's Internship Presentation

Report on work with SMAB in the summer of 2019 in support of STMD. Focuses on STMD Strategic Framework development and Power technology metric analysis.

Barry Eichmiller↗
NASA NTRS2024

Global Optimization via Quadratic Disjunctive Programming for Water Networks Design with Energy Recovery

Generalized disjunctive programming (GDP) models with bilinear and concave constraints, often seen in water network design, are challenging optimization problems. This work proposes quadratic and piecewise linear approximations for nonlinear terms to reformulate GDP models into quadratic GDP (QGDP) models that suitable solvers may solve more efficiently. We illustrate the benefits of the quadratic reformulation with a water treatment network design problem in which nonconvexities arise from bilinear terms in the mixers’ mass balances and concave investment cost functions of treatment units. Given the similarities with water network design problems, we suggest quadratic approximation for the GDP model for the optimal design of a large-scale reverse electrodialysis (RED) process. This power technology can recover energy from salinity differences between by-product streams of the water sector, such as desalination brine mixed with regenerated wastewater effluents. The solver Gurobi excels in handling QGDP problems, but weighing the problem’s precision and tractability balance is crucial. The piecewise linear approximation yields more accurate, yet larger QGDP models that may require longer optimization times in large-scale process synthesis problems.

Water Networks↗
DOE OSTI2021

Hydropower Value Study: Current Status and Future Opportunities

To reveal the current landscape and prospective role and influence of hydropower operations on the nation’s electric grid, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) commissioned the Hydropower Value Study (HVS): Current Status and Future Opportunities. HVS explores current hydropower operations and resulting value in examples across the country. HVS shows that hydropower operations are changing in some regions, but hydropower continues to be a strong contributor to grid reliability and resilience.

water, hydrowires, PSH↗
DOE OSTI2021

Transforming ENERGY through Computational Excellence

Computational methods underpin advancing the science and engineering of energy efficiency, sustainable transportation, renewable power technologies, and developing a knowledge base to optimize energy systems. Researchers with access to enough computing, and the right type, can focus their ingenuity and creativity on addressing the energy challenges. NREL’s advanced computing influence spans several common themes across the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), including materials discovery, process modeling, fluid dynamics, resource mapping, and analysis of large-scale systems with real-time optimization.

advanced computing↗
DOE OSTI2022

Improved Cost Estimates to Boost Pumped Storage Hydropower Construction

Pumped storage hydropower is often overlooked in future grid planning efforts, in part because the cost to build a new facility is not always clear. That's why the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), along with the U.S. Department of Energy's Water Power Technologies Office, is developing improved cost estimates and cost models to reduce that uncertainty and give developers the data they need to decide where and when to construct new PSH facilities to support the country's evolving energy grid.

ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY,HYDRO ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

The Cybersecurity Value-at-Risk Framework

Hydropower remains one of the strongest forms of renewable energy generation methods. It is crucial to address the increasing risks associated with the rapid digitization. The push towards decarbonization also factors in the need to ensure security and resilience for grid-connected renewable energy resources. This report summarizes the U.S. Department of Energy's Water Power Technologies Office's effort to develop a cybersecurity valuation methodology that assists hydropower stakeholders in assessing risks associated with plan operations and gathers valuation guidance through a web-based applicaiton. The Hydropower Cybersecurity Value-at-Risk Framework delivers a platform for industry members to perform self assessments and make informed decisions on their cybersecurity investments.

CVF↗
DOE OSTI2024

Advanced Manufacturing and Materials for Hydropower Strategy

Advanced manufacturing and materials (AMM) are revolutionizing how the energy sector is built, and the hydropower industry stands to benefit greatly from these new opportunities. The mission of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) is to enable research, development, and testing of new technologies to advance marine energy as well as next-generation hydropower and pumped storage systems for a flexible and reliable grid. This strategic plan outlines how WPTO can support AMM technologies for hydropower and pumped storage applications.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Developing a Novel Ultrafine Coal Dewatering Process

Dewatering fine coal is needed in many applications but has remained a great challenge. The hydrophobic-hydrophilic separation (HHS) method is a powerful technology to address this problem. However, organic solvents in solvent-coal slurries produced during HHS must be recovered for the method to be economically viable. Here, the experimental studies of recovering solvents from pentane-coal and hexane-coal slurries by combining liquid-solid filtration and in-situ vaporization and removing the solvent by a carrier gas (i.e., drying) are reported. The filtration behaviors are studied under different solid mass loading and filtration pressure. It is shown that using pressure filtration driven by 20 psig nitrogen, over 95% of solvents by mass in the slurries can be recovered, and filtration cakes can be formed in 60 s. The drying behavior was studied using nitrogen and steam at different temperatures and pressures. It is shown that residual solvents in filtration cakes can be reduced below 1400 ppm within 10 s by 15 psig steam superheated to 150 degree C, while other parameter combinations are far less effective in removing solvents. Physical processes involved in drying and the structure of solvent-laden filtration cakes are analyzed in light of these results.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
DOE OSTI2024

Leveraging Hydropower Multi-Sensor Data for Inference and Age-Informed Modeling

Increased demand of operational flexibility such as faster ramp up/down in generation, and more frequent start/stops are putting hydropower plants and their associated components in unprecedented stress. Consequently, these plants are at the high risk of extended and more frequent outage to accommodate unscheduled, and unexpected maintenance. Therefore, hydropower plants are in critical need of data driven and age-informed analysis for their regular and unscheduled operation. Yet not all hydropower plants are exhaustively equipped with sensors and/or measurement streams for their respective components – demanding solutions on how to detect, identify, and locate the cause of any event from the unobservable. Idaho National Laboratory (INL) analyzed the anonymized measurements and event records from the Hydropower Research Institute (HRI) to address this issue, as part of the Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) funded one year multi-lab project. First, we investigated how time series of multiple sensor measurements can be leveraged to identify an event “root cause” as well as to develop an inference (i.e., estimate the unobservable) problem. INL also investigated how individual hydropower components’ reaction or response times vary across the pre-event, during event, and post-event conditions – enabling the hydropower dynamic models to be age-informed. Finally, the impact of clustering multi-sensor time series on short-term vibration prediction is analyzed. INL will present key findings from these analyses and recommend next steps for stakeholder adoption.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Transforming Energy Through Computational Excellence: NREL's Computational Science Center

Computational methods underpin advancing the science and engineering of energy efficiency, sustainable transportation, renewable power technologies, and developing a knowledge base to optimize energy systems. NREL's Computational Science Center (CSC) proudly focuses on providing the service of computing, advancing the science of computing, and enabling NREL's clean energy mission.

applied mathematics↗
DOE OSTI2022

Coupling coarse mesh CFD with fine mesh CFD for modeling for Molten Salt Reactors in the Virtual Test Bed VTB

The Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program aims at developing a simulation tool kit to accelerate the development and deployment of nuclear power technologies. NEAMS multiphysics tools have been designed to provide numerical simulation support for the design and licensing of GEN IV reactors. Pronghorn is NEAMS’s coarse-mesh computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tool, which is designed to run 3D core transients in GEN IV reactors at a reduced computational cost. To increase their accuracy, coarse-mesh CFD simulations require calibrated closure coefficients. One way of computing these coefficients is via the Nek5000, NEAMS’s high-fidelity CFD tool. This article discusses our current research lines in informing Pronghorn closure coefficients via Nek5000 to enable multiphysics simulations of the core cavity of the molten-salt fast reactor. We present an application in which Pronghorn mixing length turbulent viscosity has been calibrated from Nek5000 simulations. The resulting Pronghorn thermal-hydraulics model is then coupled to Griffin, the NEAMS neutron transport solver, to solve for the steady-state configuration of the molten-salt fast reactor.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2025

All Kitted Out

The Hydropower Knowledge Sharing and Succession Planning Toolkit, created by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO), can help your organization effectively plan for workforce changes and share knowledge across employees. By proactively implementing knowledge sharing and succession planning strategies, hydropower organizations can safeguard institutional knowledge, enhance workforce resilience, and ensure long-term operational stability in an evolving industry landscape.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Low-Energy Radon Backgrounds from Electrode Grids in Dual-Phase Xenon TPCs

The dual-phase xenon time projection chamber (TPC) is a powerful technology to detect rare interactions such as scatters of dark matter particles on nuclei. In particular, the built-in gain of ionization signals in a dual-phase TPC makes it sensitive to events in the few-electron regime, as expected from low-mass dark matter interactions. The pursuit of this low-energy sensitivity through ionization-only signal detection has so far been hindered by excessive electron backgrounds observed across experiments. Much of this background is attributed to the plate-out of $^{222}$Rn decay chain isotopes on the high voltage electrode grid surfaces that span the full cross section of the TPC. This work presents a first-principle model constructed for this background, the predictions of which are consistent with data from the LZ and LUX experiments. We then discuss mitigation strategies of this background in future dual-phase TPCs and the possibility of applying this grid background model to ionization-only dark matter searches.

Akerib, D. S. [SLAC; KIPAC, Menlo Park]↗
NASA NTRS1989

Free-piston Stirling technology for space power

An overview is presented of the NASA Lewis Research Center free-piston Stirling engine activities directed toward space power. This work is being carried out under NASA's new Civil Space Technology Initiative (CSTI). The overall goal of CSTI's High Capacity Power element is to develop the technology base needed to meet the long duration, high capacity power requirements for future NASA space missions. The Stirling cycle offers an attractive power conversion concept for space power needs. Discussed here is the completion of the Space Power Demonstrator Engine (SPDE) testing-culminating in the generation of 25 kW of engine power from a dynamically-balanced opposed-piston Stirling engine at a temperature ratio of 2.0. Engine efficiency was approximately 22 percent. The SPDE recently has been divided into two separate single-cylinder engines, called Space Power Research Engine (SPRE), that now serve as test beds for the evaluation of key technology disciplines. These disciplines include hydrodynamic gas bearings, high-efficiency linear alternators, space qualified heat pipe heat exchangers, oscillating flow code validation, and engine loss understanding.

Slaby, Jack G.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Free-piston Stirling technology for space power

An overview is presented of the NASA Lewis Research Center free-piston Stirling engine activities directed toward space power. This work is being carried out under NASA's new Civil Space Technology Initiative (CSTI). The overall goal of CSTI's High Capacity Power element is to develop the technology base needed to meet the long duration, high capacity power requirements for future NASA space missions. The Stirling cycle offers an attractive power conversion concept for space power needs. Discussed here is the completion of the Space Power Demonstrator Engine (SPDE) testing-culminating in the generation of 25 kW of engine power from a dynamically-balanced opposed-piston Stirling engine at a temperature ratio of 2.0. Engine efficiency was approximately 22 percent. The SPDE recently has been divided into two separate single-cylinder engines, called Space Power Research Engine (SPRE), that now serve as test beds for the evaluation of key technology disciplines. These disciplines include hydrodynamic gas bearings, high-efficiency linear alternators, space qualified heat pipe heat exchangers, oscillating flow code validation, and engine loss understanding.

Slaby, Jack G.↗
NASA NTRS1978

Aircraft gas turbine low-power emissions reduction technology program

Advanced aircraft turbine engine combustor technology was used to reduce low-power emissions of carbon monoxide and unburned hydrocarbons to levels significantly lower than those which were achieved with current technology. Three combustor design concepts, which were designated as the hot-wall liner concept, the recuperative-cooled liner concept, and the catalyst converter concept, were evaluated in a series of CF6-50 engine size 40 degree-sector combustor rig tests. Twenty-one configurations were tested at operating conditions spanning the design condition which was an inlet temperature and pressure of 422 K and 304 kPa, a reference velocity of 23 m/s and a fuel-air-ration of 10.5 g/kg. At the design condition typical of aircraft turbine engine ground idle operation, the best configurations of all three concepts met the stringent emission goals which were 10, 1, and 4 g/kg for CO, HC, and Nox, respectively.

Dodds, W. J.↗