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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 73 records · Page 4

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NASA NTRS1999

Microgravity Vibration Output Testing of Space Station Rotary Joints

The mission of the International Space Station is to provide a working laboratory in orbit for research in engineering, life sciences, and microgravity. Ensuring that the mechanical equipment on Space Station does not unduly disturb the microgravity environment is of paramount importance in meeting the Station's mission. The large inertia being moved by the Space Station's solar array and thermal radiator rotary joints make them one of the largest potential disturbance sources. The present paper describes the mechanical and control system design of these joints, their disturbance producing characteristics, and analytical predictions of some key performance indicators. The component and system functional tests performed to measure the actual vibration output of the joints are detailed and the test results discussed. Results of the rotary joint test program presented here show that the joints do meet the Space Station microgravity requirements, ensuring that this unique laboratory for microgravity research will be unaffected by the operation of the largest moving machinery on board.

Boucher, Robert L.↗

NASA NTRS2005

Performance Assessment of Refractory Concrete Used on the Space Shuttle's Launch Pad

The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC) maintains several facilities for launching space vehicles. During recent launches it has been observed that the refractory concrete materials that protect the steel-framed flame duct are breaking away from this base structure and are being projected at high velocities. There is significant concern that these projected pieces can strike the launch complex or space vehicle during the launch, jeopardizing the safety of the mission. A qualification program is in place to evaluate the performance of different refractory concretes and data from these tests have been used to assess the performance of the refractory concretes. However, there is significant variation in the test results, possibly making the existing qualification test program unreliable. This paper will evaluate data from past qualification tests, identify potential key performance indicators for the launch complex, and will recommend a new qualification test program that can be used to better qualify refractory concrete.

Trejo, David↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Enabling Exchange and Adequate Use of Data for Observation Based Atmospheric Research

Systematic long-term field observations have played a vital role in advancing atmospheric research over the past several decades. The use of these observations has expanded from primarily characterizing atmospheric processes and trends to evaluating satellite measurements, assessing models, and improving air quality forecasts. Consequently, the demand for atmospheric chemistry observational data have dramatically increased in terms of scope and coverage of measurements (i.e., parameters/species, spatiotemporal extent). In addition to high quality measurements, certain data reporting standards need to be agreed to ensure the data can be readily exchanged and are sufficiently documented to enable adequate use in different research activities. To this end, WMO has developed and implemented measurement guidelines and community practices for meteorology, climatology, atmospheric and hydrological sciences. In addition, the WMO Expert Team on Metadata Standards manages and evolves the existing metadata standards for the WMO Information System WIS and WMO Integrated Global Observing System WIGOS to support consistent and interoperable data descriptions, ensure relevance to research, and to apply data science principles. This team draws on a wide range of expertise from the research community, including atmospheric measurements, modeling, data management, and data science. The current activities include development of key performance indicators, vocabularies for metadata and the evolution of metadata standards to lower the barrier of application to weather/climate/water/environment data for all communities and the weather enterprise. This presentation intends to promote awareness of ongoing progress and actively solicit community feedback.

Field Observations↗

NASA NTRS2021

Romie: A Domain-Independent Tool for Computer-Aided Robust Operations Management

Romie is a decision support tool based on AI's latest advances in the domain of robust scheduling. Unlike all its predecessors, the tool allows to (i) visually model the operational problem and context entirely (ii) optimize to find near-optimal schedules while taking uncertainty into account and deals with (iii) a combination of various {key performance indicators (KPIs). It comes with a web user interface. Part or all of the modelled activities may be associated to random variables describing their stochastic durations, in order to produce schedules that are robust w.r.t. temporal uncertainty. Hence, depending on the pursued KPIs, the schedules maximize a combination of the following terms: the probability of satisfying the problem constraints, the expected return/efficiency, the expected outcome quality, and even the operators' wellness by minimizing its expected extra-hours. Initially developed for spatial exploration and demonstration in the context of Mars analog missions, this versatile tool is here applied to operations management in both biotechnology manufacturing and robots parametrization in a cave exploration context.

Chien, Steve A.↗

DOE OSTI2021

Heat Vulnerability Index Development and Mapping

Extreme heat is one of the leading causes of weather-related deaths in the U.S. Exposure to extreme heat will be exacerbated due to global climate change. It is thus crucial to design a key performance indicator, heat vulnerability index (HVI), to represent overall heat risk which can help identify susceptible regions and sub-populations in cities in the face of heatwaves. Most existing HVI tools only consider outdoor heat exposure. This paper developed an HVI web map tool incorporating both the outdoor and the indoor heat exposure, as well as population sensitivity and adaptation capability across census tracts in the city of Fresno, California. The tool can assist the planning of infrastructure and resources to reduce residents’ vulnerability to extreme heat events.

Xu, Yujie↗

DOE OSTI2020

Decommissioning of the V1 Nuclear Power Plant Jaslovske Bohunice - 20270

The paper focuses on introducing the approach and method applied for decommissioning of the V1 nuclear power plant (further the 'V1 NPP') located in Jaslovske Bohunice in the Slovak Republic, to the conference participants. The Paper outlines activities and steps necessary to comply with the requirements contained in the decision of the Slovak government from 1999 regarding the early shutdown of the V1 NPP. The company responsible for the V1 NPP decommissioning is Jadrova a vyradovacia spolocnost, a.s., (further JAVYS) with the State as a sole shareholder. On the basis of the V1 NPP Decommissioning Conceptual Plan, out of four assessed options, JAVYS selected the immediate decommissioning option (the 'IDO') for the V1 NPP. On the basis of multi-criteria analysis, the IDO specified the approach of immediate and continuous dismantling of equipment followed by demolition of buildings and preparation of the site for its further potential use. The IDO also included the summary of technical, environmental, legislative information as well as the determination of assumed costs for decommissioning of the V1 NPP. Prior to commencement of the V1 NPP decommissioning, within the process of termination of operation, activities connected with de-fuelling, monitoring, processing of historical waste and, not to forget, the process of obtaining the license for the V1 NPP decommissioning were executed. JAVYS decided to divide the decommissioning process into two stages. In 2011, JAVYS obtained a license for the first stage of the V1 NPP decommissioning. Within this stage, dismantling of inactive equipment, demolitions of inactive buildings, monitoring of systems and preparatory works for the upcoming stage of decommissioning were implemented. In 2015, in line with the license for the 2. stage of the V1 NPP decommissioning, the activities of decontamination and dismantling of contaminated and active equipment as well as demolitions of remaining buildings began. In this stage radioactive waste (RAW) produced during the decommissioning is to be processed. After decontamination, the material fulfilling the free release criteria is to be released into the environment, the site is to be cleared from the scope of the Atomic Act and released from the surveillance of the national regulators. Future application of certain methods and techniques for decontamination and dismantling in similar environments might bring an added value to the operators. Paper includes a description of best practices for Nuclear Power Plant VVER type reactors decommissioning. Schedule comparison is given to show how the critical path of certain projects is being managed. Application of the International Standard for Decommissioning Costing (ISDC) methodology provides a uniform method which enables comparison of cost estimates to other nuclear facilities under decommissioning. The cost estimate for the V1 NPP decommissioning has been continuously updated based on more advanced and detailed information on the decommissioning activities and projects. Monitoring of progress of the V1 NPP decommissioning is performed via four key-performance indicators. The Earned Value Management (EVM) methodology is used for evaluating time and cost aspect of decommissioning activities while waste conditioning index is calculated by comparing the actually produced waste to planned values of waste for a respective monitored period. Radiological safety index is assessed by comparison of the personnel records on the individual yearly doses received by each respective employee to the boundary value. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

DOE OSTI2024

A Tool to Incorporate Non-Energy Impacts in Energy Efficiency Investment Decision Making for Firms

Energy efficiency is a key demand-side strategy for sustainability, recently identified by the United States Department of Energy as a pillar of industrial decarbonization. The increased focus on decarbonization and the requirement for efficiency to enable electrification, another decarbonization pillar, due to the spark spread between natural gas and electricity prices, make energy efficiency increasingly relevant. Still, industries face challenges in adopting energy efficiency measures. Researchers have long found a gap in adoption of even those measures with a profitable net present value, attributed to lack of strategic value among other barriers (see for rigorous exploration and taxonomy). One solution to facilitate energy efficiency projects is the inclusion of non-energy impacts, as this has been shown to double potential deployment of such projects at system level. Energy efficiency can provide valuable benefits outside of simple operating cost reductions, from decreased pollution to enhanced productivity. The inclusion of these benefits in decision making assessments faces hurdles due to inconsistency of ancillary benefits across projects, difficulties in quantifying impacts and the need for additional measurement to quantify them. The decision-making tools to support this have been designed primarily for the European context. We begin with a stakeholder engagement process to better characterize the U.S. decision making process surrounding adoption of energy efficiency investments. Characterization of non-energy impacts has developed substantially over recent decades. Cagno et al. provided a framework for studying the applicability of these impacts to energy efficiency projects, listing 120 key performance indicators focused mainly on reductions of costs/harms. Other researchers have included impacts on the strategic and revenue side that can be merged into this framework as well. We seek a tractable set of impacts that can be included in a decision-making tool in the US, and as such are well suited to US industry, management and decision making processes. We also seek to understand how to best quantify or characterize these impacts. This work will demonstrate the results of a survey conducted among US manufacturing industry decision makers to assess the decision making landscape of stakeholders as well as the most relevant performance indicators for energy efficiency projects.

ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION,↗

DOE OSTI2024

Dynamic Modelling of HiveWind Floating Wind Substructure in OpenFAST

Current aero-elastic modes tend to consider the wind turbine floating substructures as rigid. However, the new generation of offshore wind platforms are leaner, less rigid. The OpenFAST code has been updated to consider the flexibility of the floating substructure. This presentation shows how a numerical model of the HiveWind design was created within OpenFAST as well as some verifications performed. When comparing the flexible model to a simplified rigid model (previous state-of-the-art), there are some significant differences in key performance indicators. The new flexibility capability within OpenFAST allows to calculate ultimate and fatigue loads within the floating substructure, allowing for the development of more economical designs.

ENGINEERING,WIND ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2023

A Simulation Framework for Analyzing the Impact of Stochastic Occupant Behaviors on Demand Flexibility in Typical Commercial Buildings

As one of the primary users of the electric grid, buildings and building equipment, including heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, can be leveraged to provide the flexible demand needed to balance the grid. Typical strategies to achieve demand flexibility are to reduce electricity use during peak or critical periods by shutting down equipment or relaxing system setpoints, which will inevitably impact the occupants’ comfort. When occupants feel uncomfortable, they may take actions to regain their comfort, and some of those actions (such as turning on a personal fan) may have a negative impact on meeting the demand response goal. Therefore, it is important to incorporate occupant behaviors into the assessment ofthe building demand flexibility potential. In this study, a simulation framework that includes simulation of zone thermal loads, an HVAC system, and occupant behaviors, was developed to investigate the impact of occupant behaviors on demand flexibility. A case study was conducted using a small office model from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Commercial Prototype Building Models to simulate the building envelope and zone loads. An agent-based occupant thermal behavior model was adapted to forecast occupants’ thermal comfort and their resulting thermal behaviors. An artificial neural network (ANN) based airflow model trained from a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of the zone was adopted to better predict the ambient environment of each occupant. An air-source heat pump simulation model that was calibrated from a real two-stage air-source heat pump system was used as the HVAC system. A typical load shedding event during peak hours was studied. Repeated simulations were conducted to capture the stochastic effects of occupant behaviors. The interplay between the demand flexibility, occupant comfort and behavior were analyzed by evaluating key performance indicators, including the energy use, occupant discomfort duration, and occupant behavior duration during the peak period. The results suggest that this framework can be used to analyze typical commercial buildings and their HVAC systems in terms ofdemand flexibility potential under the impact of occupant behaviors.

Chen, Zhelun↗

DOE OSTI2023

Benchmarking Smart Thermostats

Our goal is to compute a set of key performance indicators for commercially available smart thermostats using building energy simulation. If successful, the resulting tool will enable EPA ENERGY STAR and other rating/incentive programs to objectively evaluate new thermostat products.

ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION↗

DOE OSTI2026

Techno-Economic Assessment of Data Center Load Demand Powered by Small Modular Reactors and Distributed Energy Resources

The rapid increase in data center energy demand, driven by AI and large-scale data processing, poses significant challenges to global energy infrastructure. Data centers require substantial and reliable energy for continuous operations and high-performance computing. Current electrical grids face issues such as transmission bottlenecks and aging infrastructure, making it difficult to meet these demands. Integrating inverter-based-resources (IBRs) like solar and wind presents both opportunities and challenges due to their intermittent nature. Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) offer a promising solution with their enhanced safety, modularity, reliability, and scalability, providing consistent base load power ideal for data center operations. This study presents a comprehensive techno-economic assessment of powering data center load demand using a combination of SMRs and IBRs with grid-connected and islanded mode. This study utilized Idaho National Laboratory’s (INL) HPC data center hourly load profiles and Xendee microgrid optimization platform to conduct the analysis. In this configuration, SMRs serves as the primary base load power source, consistently providing a steady supply of electricity necessary to meet the minimum load demand of the data center with support from the IBRs. Key performance indicators such as Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE), Net Present Value (NPV) has been calculated to assess the economic feasibility. The findings from this research will underscore the strategic benefits of integrating SMR plant with DERs – particularly for critical infrastructure load such as data centers.

14 - SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2025

Conflict Detection in Open RAN with Recurrent Neural Networks Using Geometric Manifolds

Allowing third-party applications on Radio Access Network (RAN) Intelligent Controllers (RICs) within the OpenRAN (O-RAN) framework introduces conflicting interactions that are often difficult to detect in advance. These conflicts, occurring between third-party applications in the Near RealTime RIC (Near-RT RIC), known as xApps, can lead to performance degradation and instability in O-RAN if not identified early. Existing conflict detection and mitigation solutions in the literature assume that the conflicts are known beforehand, which is not always accurate due to the complex and often hidden relationships between control parameters and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). In this paper, we propose a novel Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) to detect both known and unknown conflicts in O-RAN xApps as specified in the O-RAN standards. We model the xApps, control parameters, and KPIs with nodes and edges to create graph structures and use the hidden nonEuclidean geometric properties of the Riemannian manifold to train the RNN model. The performance of this proposed model is validated using evaluation metrics and compared with benchmarks. Results demonstrate that the proposed RNN model, leveraging Riemannian geometric properties, can achieve 100% of the F1-score provided by an optimal solution in just 20 iterations.

5G↗

DOE OSTI2025

Conflict Detection in Open RAN with Recurrent Neural Networks Using Geometric Manifolds

5G↗

DOE OSTI2021

The number of catalytic cycles in an enzyme’s lifetime and why it matters to metabolic engineering

Metabolic engineering uses enzymes as parts to build biosystems for specified tasks. Although a part’s working life and failure modes are key engineering performance indicators, this is not yet so in metabolic engineering because it is not known how long enzymes remain functional in vivo or whether cumulative deterioration (wear-out), sudden random failure, or other causes drive replacement. Consequently, enzymes cannot be engineered to extend life and cut the high energy costs of replacement. Guided by catalyst engineering, we adopted catalytic cycles until replacement (CCR) as a metric for enzyme functional life span in vivo. CCR is the number of catalytic cycles that an enzyme mediates in vivo before failure or replacement, i.e., metabolic flux rate/protein turnover rate. We used estimated fluxes and measured protein turnover rates to calculate CCRs for ~100–200 enzymes each from Lactococcus lactis, yeast, and Arabidopsis. CCRs in these organisms had similar ranges (<10 3 to >10 7 ) but different median values (3–4 × 10 4 in L. lactis and yeast versus 4 × 10 5 in Arabidopsis). In all organisms, enzymes whose substrates, products, or mechanisms can attack reactive amino acid residues had significantly lower median CCR values than other enzymes. Taken with literature on mechanism-based inactivation, the latter finding supports the proposal that 1) random active-site damage by reaction chemistry is an important cause of enzyme failure, and 2) reactive noncatalytic residues in the active-site region are likely contributors to damage susceptibility. Enzyme engineering to raise CCRs and lower replacement costs may thus be both beneficial and feasible.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2020

Performance Monitoring of African Micro-Grids: Good Practices and Operational Data

This report investigates the current understanding and use of performance monitoring in the micro-grid sector by developers. It highlights the importance of performance monitoring by providing key performance monitoring indicators and suggesting performance monitoring activities that improve projects and programs. This report also presents the analysis of the performance data of 36 micro-grids currently operating in Africa, in one of the largest such assessments conducted to date within the sector and concludes by recommending potential next steps towards integrating performance monitoring into the micro-grid sector.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

NASA NTRS1989

Advances in space robotics

The problem of the remote control of space operations is addressed by identifying the key technical challenge: the management of contact forces and the principal performance parameters. Three principal classes of devices for remote operation are identified: anthropomorphic exoskeletons, computer aided teleoperators, and supervised telerobots. Their fields of application are described, and areas in which progress has reached the level of system or subsystem laboratory demonstrations are indicated. Key test results, indicating performance at a level useful for design tradeoffs, are reported.

Varsi, Giulio↗

DOE OSTI2021

Program Overview Laboratory Directed Research and Development FY2020 (Annual Report)

Throughout this year’s report, we highlight how the LDRD program invests in ideas that make the world a safer place. We review key accomplishments and performance indicators, and we share snapshots of some of our talented staff. I also encourage you to visit our LDRD website and learn more about the 244 projects that we supported during fiscal year 2020. Looking to the future, I am confident that LDRD investments will continue to help LLNL remain at the forefront of innovative research.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

DOE OSTI2024

Techno-economic Analysis and Optimization of Point Source Solvent-Based Carbon Capture Systems at High CO2 Capture Levels for NGCC Power Plants

This poster was presented at the 2024 FECM / NETL Carbon Management Research Project Review Meeting held during Aug 5-9, 2024. It summarizes the research done as a part of CCSI2 for determining the optimal design and operating conditions of an MEA solvent-based carbon capture system connected to a commercial scale NGCC plant, operating at CO2 capture levels beyond 90%. The techno-economic optimization approach is outlined, along with the trends of key cost and performance indicators across high capture levels.

Deshpande, Anuja↗