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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 91 records · Page 5

Representation and Impact of Water Head on Power System Planning and Operation

Representing water head information in power system model files, can provide a more realistic model of the system and thereby inform operation and planning personnel in the decision-making process. This article describes a procedure for modifying the power system model files (steady-state and dynamic) to represent water head information. Additionally, the impact of representing the water head on power system reliability studies including contingency analysis, cascading failure analysis and dynamic frequency response analysis has been investigated, using the modified power system models. This paper considers the detailed Western Electricity Coordination Council model during summer and winter conditions as the test system for the impact analysis. Results show that under reduced water head: 1) the number of critical voltage and branch flow violations increases; 2) chances of cascading failure and island formation increases; and 3) frequency nadir decreases as compared to those of the base cases where the water head information is not represented.

13 - HYDRO ENERGY↗

Distributed Control and Optimization of Virtual Inertia in Power Systems

The integration of renewable energy sources into power grids through inverter-based resources (IBRs) reduces system inertia, leading to faster frequency dynamics and potential grid instability. This paper proposes a distributed, consensus-based approach for the real-time control and optimization of inertia sources during system disturbances, enhancing both system stability and economic performance. Furthermore, we integrate this approach with the traditional inertia placement problem, demonstrating its suitability for existing frameworks. We validate its effectiveness in a 4-bus test system and a two-area 8-bus test system, showcasing its potential for scalable, dynamic inertia management in low-inertia grids.

Yadav, Ajay [ORNL] (ORCID:000000016111881X)↗

Control of Low-Inertia Power Systems

Electric power systems are undergoing an unprecedented transition from fossil fuel–based power plants to low-inertia systems that rely predominantly on power electronics and renewable energy resources. This article reviews the resulting control challenges and modeling fallacies, at both the device and system level, and focuses on novel aspects or classical concepts that need to be revised in light of the transition to low-inertia systems. To this end, we survey the literature on modeling of low-inertia systems, review research on the control of grid-connected power converters, and discuss the frequency dynamics of low-inertia systems. Moreover, we discuss system-level services from a control perspective. Overall, we conclude that the system-theoretic mindset is essential to bridge different research communities and understand the complex interactions of power electronics, electric machines, and their controls in large-scale low-inertia power systems.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Detection and Perception of Sound by Eagles and Surrogate Raptors

One overarching objective of this program of study was the accumulation of objective, scientifically valid information relating to auditory performance of bald and golden eagles that may be used to guide the development of acoustic alerting/deterrence technologies intended to discourage encroachment into wind energy air spaces. To that end, analyses aimed at the characterization of sensitivity to sound in bald and golden eagles, along with findings in the supra-threshold, dynamic frequency spaces related to response latencies and amplitudes, leads us to conclude that bald, and golden eagles navigate the same basic working auditory space, as in other known and thus far characterized members of the diurnal raptor family. Specifically, bald and golden eagles, along with other raptor species within the group, operate in an auditory space characterized by a frequency band at least four octaves wide and centered on 2 kHz, with an upper frequency limit between 6 and 10 kHz at 80 dB SPL and a lower frequency limit that almost certainly extends below 0.2 kHz. Consequently, we recommend that signal designers use these data as a guideline in efforts to design effective and efficient acoustic alerting/deterrent systems. It is important to note that signal energy broadcast outside of this frequency band at moderate levels will not contribute to the efficacy of a deterrent but will add an unnecessary fraction to the overall acoustic pollution budget. The importance of this consideration is heightened by contemporaneous concerns related to the transmission of noise broadcast by wind energy farms. In addition, based on analyses of data acquired from red-tailed hawks using the same experimental paradigm and data acquisition system, we conclude that auditory function in the red-tailed hawk is sufficiently like that observed in bald and golden eagles to permit its use as a surrogate species. Response waveforms, threshold-frequency curves, and input-output characteristics match those of eagles closely. It should be noted however, that differences in sensitivity and slightly extended high-frequency limits of hearing should be taken into account when extrapolating findings from one species to the others. Although the inclusion of behavioral tests of red-tailed hawks to acoustic stimuli was beyond the scope of this investigation, future efforts to assess response parameters like signal-type preference and habituation rate will further elucidate their suitability to serve as eagle surrogates in behavioral studies; nonetheless, the species in question are well matched with respect to basic auditory performance. A second essential objective of this program of study was the acoustic characterization of a subset of calls comprising the vocal repertoires of bald and golden eagles that may be used to supplement auditory performance findings in the effort to guide the development of acoustic alerting signals. With regard to that objective, the vocal repertoires of both bald and golden eagle species are rich and varied. While similar in spectrographic structure, distinctive differences are also clear. Generally, golden eagles produce some calls with shorter durations, and similar “sounding” calls exhibit distinctively different spectrographic patterns than those of bald eagles. Both species produce calls that contain a wide variety of nonlinear elements that operate to enhance the rich and varied nature of commonly observed vocal products. Comparison of the average power spectra of commonly observed bald and golden eagle calls with threshold-frequency curves leads to the conclusion that call energies fall within the frequency bounds of hearing. Further, the acoustic energy of calls considered in this report tend to fall into overlapping, but different frequency ranges of the acoustic sensitivity curve. This condition may encourage signal designers to vary the frequency content of acoustic deterrence signals in the field. Finally, preliminary observations relating to the tendencies and proclivities of bald eagles to attend to the acoustic landscape lead to the conclusion that eagles monitor their immediate sound environment assiduously. Individuals respond to a variety of natural and synthetic sound signals reliably and, perhaps most relevant in the context of the engineering of acoustic alerting/deterrence technologies, habituation to most sounds considered in this effort was minimal. These preliminary results, while calling for extended behavioral testing, are promising and set the stage for the exportation of behavioral studies into real world scenarios.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

Situational Awareness of Grid Anomalies (SAGA)

The modern power industry becomes more vulnerable to cyber events due to the growing interconnectivity, interdependence, and complexity of the electric power grid. High-fidelity modeling and simulation tools that support the preventative risk analysis on potential cyber-relevant events is essential for ensuring the situational awareness of the system operator as it provides an inexpensive and risk-free environment to test the system responses under various cyber-relevant events and hereby can support research on cyber anomaly detection, optimal protective resource allocation, and mitigation measures. In this webinar, we will share NREL's cybersecurity research capabilities by highlighting the development of a scalable cyber-physical event test bed and demonstration with real hardware in the loop. The developed cyber-physical event test bed is backboned by an integrated transmission, distribution, and communication dynamic co-simulation framework and a plug-and-play cyber event generation module. It is designed to be modular and compatible with parallel computing, and thereby supports large-scale system simulations at an affordable computation cost. The test bed can capture millisecond-to-minutes dynamic frequency and voltage responses under cyber events from the bulk transmission system to the active distribution systems and distributed energy resources at the grid edge.

co-simulation↗

Development and benchmarking of transient nodal code SIMULATE5-K neutron kinetics solver

SIMULATE5-K is Studsvik's next generation best estimate transient code. The time dependent diffusion equation is solved with a nodal method consistent with that implemented in the licensed core design code SIMULATE5. Arbitrary number of neutron and delayed neutron precursor groups can be used. For the solution of the spatial problem, the coupling coefficients used to relate the node leakages are found by first converting the time dependent diffusion equation to a static diffusion equation with the use of flux and delayed neutron precursor dynamic frequencies. Once the static-like equations are obtained, the multi-group analytical nodal model is used to obtain the coupling coefficients, expressing the node leakage in terms of adjacent node average fluxes. The coupling coefficients are then inserted into the time dependent nodal balance equation. For the time integration, the time dependent neutron balance equation is solved with the frequency transformation method. The treatment of the temporal dependence yields a fixed source problem which can be solved utilizing the existing fixed-source methodology. The primary purpose of this paper is to describe the neutron kinetics methodology implemented in SIMULATE5-K. The accuracy of the method is demonstrated for a series of well-known, neutronic-only benchmark problems. (author)

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

A Brief Survey on High Performance Computing Systems Power Management

This paper provides a survey of software-based power management techniques in High Performance Computing (HPC) systems. Seven existing power management and monitoring tools and frameworks are discussed. These are: Variorum, dynamic energy-performance optimizer (DEPO), Powersched, Bull Dynamic Power Optimizer (BDPO), Energy Aware Runtime (EAR), Global Extensible Open Power Manager (GEOPM), and PoLiMEr. Each of these tools is evaluated based on hardware abstraction, optimization methods, usability, and experimental validation. This survey highlights the diversity of approaches in managing energy efficiency, from vendor-neutral APIs to algorithm-driven power capping, and dynamic frequency adjustments. Given that energy requirements for large computational systems is increasing quickly, the importance of integrating these tools into existing HPC environments and the need for further research in this rapidly evolving field is also discussed.

97 - MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Electron dynamics in radio frequency magnetron sputtering argon discharges with a dielectric target

Abstract We demonstrate a self-consistent and complete description of electron dynamics in a typical electropositive radio frequency magnetron sputtering (RFMS) argon discharge with a dielectric target. The electron dynamics, including the electron power absorption dynamics in one radio frequency (RF) period, is studied via a fully kinetic 2d3v particle-in-cell/Monte Carlo collision (PIC/MCC) electrostatic simulation. The interplay between the fundamental plasma parameters is analyzed through their spatiotemporal dynamics. Due to the influence of magnetic trap on the electron transport, a spatially dependent charging that perturbs the electric potential is observed on the dielectric target surface, resulting in a spatially dependent ion energy distribution along the target surface. The E × B drift-to-discharge current ratio is in approximate agreement with Bohm diffusion. The electron power absorption can be primarily decoupled into the positive Ohmic power absorption in the bulk plasma region and the negative pressure-induced power absorption near the target surface. Ohmic power absorption is the dominant electron power absorption mechanism, mostly contributed by the azimuthal electron current. The power absorption due to electron inertial effects is negligible on time-average. Both the maximum power absorption and dissipation of electrons appear in the bulk plasma region during the second half of the RF period, implying a strong electron trapping in magnetron discharges. The contribution of secondary electrons is negligible under typical RFMS discharge conditions.

Physics↗

Simulation of high-frequency dissolved oxygen dynamics in a shallow estuary, the Corsica River, Chesapeake Bay

Understanding shallow water biogeochemical dynamics is a challenge in coastal regions, due to the presence of highly variable land-water interface fluxes, tight coupling with sediment processes, tidal dynamics, and diurnal variability in biogeochemical processes. While the deployment of continuous monitoring devices has improved our understanding of high-frequency (12 - 24 hours) variability and spatial heterogeneity in shallow regions, mechanistic modeling of these dynamics has lagged behind conceptual and empirical models. The inherent complexity of shallow water systems is represented in the Corsica River estuary, a small basin within the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem, where abundant monitoring data have been collected from long-term monitoring stations, continuous monitoring sensors, synoptic sensor surveys, and measurements of sediment-water fluxes. A state-of-the-art modeling system, the Semi-implicit Cross-scale Hydroscience Integrated System Model (SCHISM), was applied to the Corsica domain with a high-resolution grid and nutrient loads from the most recent version of the Chesapeake Bay watershed model. The Corsica SCHISM model reproduced observed high-frequency variability in dissolved oxygen, as well as seasonal variability in chlorophyll-a and sediment-water fluxes. Time-series signal analyses using Empirical Model Decomposition and spectral analysis revealed that the diurnal and M2 tide frequencies are the dominant high-frequency modes and physical transport contributes a larger share to dissolved oxygen budgets than biogeochemical processes on an hourly time scale. Heterogeneity and patchiness in dissolved oxygen resulting from phytoplankton distributions and geometry-driven eddies amplify the physical transport effect, and on longer time scales oxygen is controlled more by photosynthesis and respiration. Our simulation demonstrates that interactions among physical and biological dynamics generate complex high-frequency variability in water quality and non-linear reposes to nutrient loading and environmental forcing in shallow water systems.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Mapping structures and dynamics with frequency-correlated diffusion exchange

Understanding molecular motion in diffusion-driven complex environments is critical for designing sustainable materials and improving chemical processes. Here, we introduce a multidimensional nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) method that captures how molecular populations exchange across different dynamic regimes. By extending the modulated gradient spin-echo technique to include frequency-frequency correlations, our approach reveals diffusion pathways that are otherwise obscured in heterogeneous systems. Implemented on a unilateral NMR magnet, the method eliminates gradient pulsing constraints and accesses dynamics in the kilohertz regime. We apply this technique to swelling and acid-catalyzed deconstruction of cross-linked and linear polymers to observe how structural heterogeneity evolves over time. By linking molecular motion to topology and chemical state, we extract physical metrics such as fractal surface dimensionality and reaction wavefront velocity, properties inaccessible with standard diffusion measurements. This work expands the capabilities of NMR for probing soft matter, with implications for polymer recycling and materials design.

Fricke, Sophia N. [University of California, Berke↗

Stabilizing a strongly nonlinear structure through shaker dynamics in fixed frequency voltage control tests

Bifurcations are commonly encountered during force controlled swept and stepped sine testing of nonlinear structures, which generally leads to the so-called jump-down or jump-up phenomena between stable solutions. There are various experimental closed-loop control algorithms, such as control-based continuation and phase-locked loop, to stabilize dynamical systems through these bifurcations, but they generally rely on specialized control algorithms that are not readily available with many commercial data acquisition software packages. A recent method was developed to experimentally apply sequential continuation using the shaker voltage that can be readily deployed using commercially available software. By utilizing the stabilizing effects of electrodynamic shakers and the force dropout phenomena in fixed frequency voltage control sine tests, this approach has been demonstrated to stabilize the unstable branch of a nonlinear system with three branches, allowing for three multivalued solutions to be identified within a specific frequency bandwidth near resonance. Recent testing on a strongly nonlinear system with vibro-impact nonlinearity has revealed jumping behavior when performing sequential continuation along the voltage parameter, like the jump phenomena seen during more traditional force controlled swept and stepped sine testing. Here, this paper investigates the stabilizing effects of an electrodynamic shaker on strongly nonlinear structures in fixed frequency voltage control tests using both numerical and experimental methods. The harmonic balance method is applied to the coupled shaker-structure system with an electromechanical model to simulate the fixed voltage control tests and predict the stabilization for different parameters of the model. The simulated results are leveraged to inform the design of a set of experiments to demonstrate the stabilization characteristics on a fixture-pylon assembly with a vibro-impact nonlinearity. Through numerical simulation and experimental testing on two different strongly nonlinear systems, the various parameters that influence the stability of the coupled shaker-structure are revealed to better understand the performance of fixed frequency voltage control tests.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Effects of low-frequency voltage on nonlinear standing wave excitation, plasma uniformity, and ion dynamics in dual-frequency asymmetric capacitive discharges

Abstract It is known that in very-high-frequency (VHF) capacitively coupled plasmas, the higher harmonics generated by nonlinear sheath motion can enhance the standing wave effect (SWE), which can lead to center-peaked plasma density profiles. In this work, an improved nonlinear electromagnetic model incorporating a transmission line model, an electron momentum balance model, a bulk plasma model, a collisionless nonlinear numerical sheath model, and an ion Monte-Carlo collision (MCC) model is developed to study the effects of low-frequency (LF) voltage V L on the nonlinear standing wave excitation, plasma uniformity, and ion energy and angular distribution functions (IEDFs and IADFs) in dual-frequency (DF) asymmetric capacitive argon discharges at relatively low pressure of 3 Pa. The plasma diffusion in the radial direction and ion dynamics within the LF oscillating sheath are self-consistently considered. The LF voltage V L at 2 MHz varies from 0 to 700 V while the HF voltage V H at 60 MHz is fixed at 100 V. Simulation results indicate that without the addition of an LF source (i.e. V L = 0 V), there are a considerable number of high-order harmonics with short wavelengths, leading to significant SWE and central peak in the radial plasma density profile. Nevertheless, the high-order harmonic excitations tend to be weakened and merely occur around the phase of the full LF sheath collapse due to a shorter characteristic damping time of the surface waves as V L increases. This, combined with increased surface wavelengths of both the driving frequency and the higher harmonics at a higher V L , leads to suppressed standing waves and improved plasma uniformity. Meanwhile, the simulations show that both the low and the high energy peaks of IEDF move towards higher energies, and the energy peak separation width ΔEbecomes wider with the increase of V L . The IEDF at the radial center of the powered electrode exhibits a broader ΔEthan that at the edge. For the IADF, an increased V L results in more ions incident on the electrode with a smaller deflection angle. Because of a thinner sheath and a higher sheath voltage at the electrode center, the peak value of IADF at the electrode center is greater than that at the edge.

Physics↗

Dynamic gain and frequency comb formation in exceptional-point lasers

Abstract Exceptional points (EPs)—singularities in the parameter space of non-Hermitian systems where two nearby eigenmodes coalesce—feature unique properties with applications such as sensitivity enhancement and chiral emission. Existing realizations of EP lasers operate with static populations in the gain medium. By analyzing the full-wave Maxwell–Bloch equations, here we show that in a laser operating sufficiently close to an EP, the nonlinear gain will spontaneously induce a multi-spectral multi-modal instability above a pump threshold, which initiates an oscillating population inversion and generates a frequency comb. The efficiency of comb generation is enhanced by both the spectral degeneracy and the spatial coalescence of modes near an EP. Such an “EP comb” has a widely tunable repetition rate, self-starts without external modulators or a continuous-wave pump, and can be realized with an ultra-compact footprint. We develop an exact solution of the Maxwell–Bloch equations with an oscillating inversion, describing all spatiotemporal properties of the EP comb as a limit cycle. We numerically illustrate this phenomenon in a 5-μm-long gain-loss coupled AlGaAs cavity and adjust the EP comb repetition rate from 20 to 27 GHz. This work provides a rigorous spatiotemporal description of the rich laser behaviors that arise from the interplay between the non-Hermiticity, nonlinearity, and dynamics of a gain medium.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

AFM Microcantilever With a Collocated AlN Sensor-Actuator Pair: Enabling Efficient Q-Control for Dynamic Imaging

This manuscript presents a novel microcantilever with an embedded piezoelectric sensor-actuator pair for dynamic atomic force microscopy (AFM). The transducer pair is constructed from a two-layered AlN stack. Stacking the piezoelectric transducers in this manner leads to a minimal feedthrough from actuation to sense electrode, granting a high dynamic range frequency response for dynamic mode AFM. The cantilever's design allows for dual mode operation at 1 st and 2 nd resonance modes. High resolution tapping mode imaging results are reported, while the cantilever is operated at these modes. A feedback control loop is used to modify quality factor of the 1 st mode of the cantilever, using a positive position feedback (PPF) controller. Here, a faster response time is achieved by reducing the Q-factor, enabling the cantilever to track the topography at a higher scan rate. Results of bimodal AFM imaging are reported, using amplitude changes of the 1 st mode for surface topography, while material properties are encoded in phase changes of the 2 nd mode.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗