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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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Wintap is an extensible, general purpose agent framework for the Windows operating system. It provides an easy-to-use plugin architecture, an integrated streaming analytics engine, and real-time event subscriptions for host-based data. Wintap can support a wide variety of applications across production operations, cyber security operations, and cyber security research.
Underground explosions often produce Rayleigh waves with non-circular radiation patterns. The presence of significant anisotropic radiation patterns from isotropic sources is often attributed to the coincident release of tectonic strain across faults that are spatially near the explosion working point. However, poor instrument deployment geometries can lead to misinterpretations of these fields as isotropic when the are non-circular. In this work, we construct a physical representation for the first two moments of the Rayleigh wave radiation pattern triggered by a shallow, underground explosion. We then construct a hypothesis test for discriminating between the isotropic and anisotropic portion of the radiated Rayleigh wavefield, using these moments. We find that the screening power is completely quantified by a single parameter λ that depends on azimuthal deployment geometry as well as wavefield sampling. To improve radiation pattern discrimination, we present an algorithm for iteratively including receivers to sample the radiation pattern that increases the performance (power) of the hypothesis test at each iteration. Last, we discuss future applications of our method to data recorded from the Source Physics Experiment taking place at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS).
This project is funded under Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) Strategic Partnership Project (SPP) 17-005 between BPA and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The project in a BPA Technology Improvement Project (TIP) that builds on and validates the Composite Load Model developed by the Western Electric Coordinating Council's (WECC) Load Modeling Task Force (LMTF). The composite load model is used by the WECC Modeling and Validation Work Group to study the stability and security of the western electricity interconnection. The work includes development of load composition data sets, collection of load disturbance data, and model development and validation. This work supports reliable and economic operation of the power system. This report was produced for Deliverable 1A of the BPA TIP-371 Project entitled \TIP 371: Advancing the Load Composition Model". The deliverable documents the proposed work ow for the Composite Load Model, which provides the basis for the instrumentation, data acquisition, analysis and data dissemination activities addressed by later phases of the project.
This report provides progress update for the development of a outage management, feeder restoration, and restoration action feasibility check modules as part of the AGGREGATE project. Details for integration with controllability module, data driven situational awareness of network and distributed energy resources as well cyber security plan for these modules integrated with GE ADMS are also presented in the report. These three modules for outage management, feeder restoration, and restoration action feasibility check modules are developed in MATLAB and validated with a modified IEEE 123-node feeder. Results demonstrate ability of these new modules to improve the restoration process post-disaster to enhance the system resilience.
Advanced manufacturing techniques and digital twin technology are rapidly transforming the nuclear industry, offering the potential to enhance productivity, safety, and cost-effectiveness. Customized parts are being produced using additive manufacturing, automation, and robotics, while digital twin technology enables the virtual modeling and optimization of complex systems. These advanced technologies can significantly improve operational efficiency, predict system behavior, and optimize maintenance schedules in the nuclear energy sector, leading to heightened safety and reduced downtime. However, the nuclear industry demands the highest levels of safety and security, as well as intricate manufacturing processes and operations. Thus, challenges such as data management and cybersecurity must be addressed to fully realize the potential of advanced manufacturing techniques and digital twin technology in the nuclear industry. This comprehensive review highlights the critical role of digital twin technology with advanced manufacturing toward nuclear energy to improve performance, minimize downtime, and heighten safety, ultimately contributing to the global energy mix by providing dependable and low-carbon electricity.
We describe how the prompt fission neutron spectrum (PFNS) was determined for the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos. Early work before World War II at American and British universities is described, together with theoretical work by Feather at Cambridge and Bethe at Los Alamos. As the Manhattan Project was being planned in 1942, two experiments on natural uranium were commissioned that proved to be influential: 1) An integral experiment at Chicago by Christy and Manley that accurately determined the average PFNS spectrum energy, 2.2 ± 0.2 MeV; 2) Bloch and Staub’s Stanford cyclotron measurement of the PFNS spectrum, which obtained an average energy of 1.70 ± 0.34 MeV. These two papers, previously unavailable outside of Los Alamos, are reproduced in the Supplementary Appendix. From these data, at the beginning of the project in 1943 Serber estimated an average 235 U PFNS energy of 2 MeV, and indeed this agrees with today’s best estimate. The challenges facing the scientists involved both the availability of only very small samples of enriched uranium and plutonium targets, and fast neutron detection technologies. During the project, 235 U and 239 Pu PFNS were measured by Nicodemus and Staub. These also proved to be quite accurate and gave an average spectrum energy of 2 MeV for 235 U. [This is not reproduced in the Appendix because it was published after the war in Physical Review 89, 1288 (1953)]. New methods were developed to enable more accurate measurements, and this paper describes how the PFNS was determined surprisingly well by 1945. We end by describing the post-war measurements in the 50s, including the PFNS data used by Ford and Wheeler in their simulations in 1951, the Bonner 1952 data, the seminal 1952 Watt paper with a new empirical parametrization of the PFNS, and the accurate PFNS measurement undertaken at Los Alamos by Cranberg et al. in 1956. We compare the measurements with our best understanding today as embodied in the Evaluated Nuclear Data File ENDF/B-VIII.0. Some images from historical documents in our Los Alamos National Security Research Center (NSRC) archives are shown.
The ability to maintain quality information is essential to securing the confidence in any system for which the information serves as a data source. NASA's Global Change Master Directory (GCMD), an online Earth science data locator, holds over 9000 data set descriptions and is in a constant state of flux as metadata are created and updated on a daily basis. In such a system, the importance of maintaining the consistency and integrity of these-metadata is crucial. The GCMD has developed a metadata management system utilizing XML, controlled vocabulary, and Java technologies to ensure the metadata not only adhere to valid syntax, but also exhibit proper semantics.
DARWIN is a NASA developed, Internet-based system for enabling aerospace researchers to securely and remotely access and collaborate on the analysis of aerospace vehicle design data, primarily the results of wind-tunnel testing and numeric (e.g., computational fluid dynamics) model executions. DARWIN captures, stores and indexes data, manages derived knowledge (such as visualizations across multiple data sets) and provides an environment for designers to collaborate in the analysis of the results of testing. DARWIN is an interesting application because it supports high volumes of data, integrates multiple modalities of data display (e.g. images and data visualizations), and provides non-trivial access control mechanisms. DARWIN enables collaboration by allowing not only sharing visualizations of data, but also commentary about and view of data.
The SIRTF Science Center's (SSC) Science Operations System (SOS) has to contend with nearly one hundred critical operations files via comprehensive file management services. The management is accomplished via the registered file system (otherwise known as TFS) which manages these files in a registered file repository composed of a virtual file system accessible via a TFS server and a file registration database. The TFS server provides controlled, reliable, and secure file transfer and storage by registering all file transactions and meta-data in the file registration database. An API is provided for application programs to communicate with TFS servers and the repository. A command line client implementing this API has been developed as a client tool. This paper describes the architecture, current implementation, but more importantly, the evolution of these services based on evolving community use cases and emerging information system technology.
The Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) has been developing data and communications standards since 1982, with the objective of providing interoperability for enabling international collaboration for spaceflight missions. As data and communications technology has advanced, CCSDS has progressed to capitalize on existing products when available and suitable for spaceflight, and to develop innovative new approaches when available products fail. The current scope of the CCSDS architecture spans the end-to-end data architecture of a spaceflight mission, with ongoing efforts to develop and standardize cutting-edge technology. This manuscript describes the overall architecture, the position of CCSDS in the standards and international mission community, and some CCSDS processes. It then highlights in detail several of the most interesting and critical technical areas in work right now, and how they support collaborative missions. Special topics include: Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN), Asynchronous Message Service (AMS), Multispectral/Hyperspectral Data Compression (MHDC), Coding and Synchronization, Onboard Wireless, Spacecraft Monitor and Control, Navigation, Security, and Time Synchronization/Correlation. Broad international participation in development of CCSDS standards is encouraged.
Data returned by the OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security–Regolith Explorer) spacecraft have shown that asteroid (101955) Bennu has a globally low-albedo surface covered in boulders with diverse texture, color, and albedo properties, and an aqueously altered composition dominated by phyllosilicates. To test whether Bennu’s color and albedo diversity could be caused by texture and/or composition variations, we performed a laboratory-based study using simple two-component mixtures (called “mudpies”) of the phyllosilicate saponite and carbon-rich opaques. Each mudpie is prepared in four different textures: fine powder, coarse particles, sanded slab, and textured rock. We find that a sanded slab made from 90% saponite and 10% lampblack is a good analog for Bennu, and the color and albedo changes due to texture variations are substantial. At 550 nm, texture changes alone can create up to 36% brightness contrast, and in color measured as a 473 nm/847 nm ratio, texture changes can provide up to 18% color contrast. In comparison, Bennu shows approximately 25% albedo and <1% color contrasts from boulder type to boulder type. These findings suggest that if texture contributes to color on Bennu, the texture variations are typically more subtle than what we simulated in the laboratory. According to our study, the color and albedo properties of different boulder types on Bennu are consistent with different concentrations of carbon-rich opaques (and possibly consistent with variations in carbonate concentration). The variations within each boulder group are consistent with textural differences.
The evolution from “document-centric” to “data-centric” and “model-centric” information leveraging structured data and model-based approaches is at the heart of digital engineering transformational efforts underway across industry and government. It is these approaches that pave the way for data lakes, Authoritative Sources of Truth (ASOTs), and systems- of-systems interoperability and the corresponding transformational benefits thereof. Such benefits include increased data availability, data access equity, data traceability, real-time analytics, batch analytics, and (most importantly) acceleration of the time-to-value and time-to-insights associated with engineering products and analyses. The longer-term benefits of reusability, customization and traceability are even more promising. For Safety and Mission Assurance (SMA), and Mission Success (SMS) activities; realization of such benefits is essential to provide engineers and analysts alike vital information when needed to support critical decision making throughout the entire life cycle. The SMA community often operate in parallel with engineering activities, for which information exchange with relevant context is paramount. Far too often, such information lags key decision points and/or is absent of the robust, integrated, knowledge needed, given inherent barriers associated with traditional document-centric means to data sharing, analysis, and reporting. This paper provides an overview of how NASA’s Office of Safety and Mission Assurance (OSMA) is evolving its policies, standards, guidance, and training to transform to eliminate such barriers, thus realizing the benefits emerging in this new digital era. A roadmap for achieving this digital future is presented along with key building blocks involving use and implementation of concepts such as: Objectives-Hierarchies, Objective-Driven Requirements, Accepted Standards, Safety and Assurance Cases, data digitization (i.e., ontologies, structured data, and model-centric data), FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, & Reusable) and/or FAIRUST (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable, Understandable, Secure, and Trusted) principles [1]. This paper also describes how OSMA, leveraging the Agency’s overall commitment to Digital Transformation (DT), is using the power of Policy, “Digital” Domain representation, Product Evolution, and Community Outreach and Engagement as part of a strategic vision and roadmap to evolve and transform its SMA organizations to become better able to serve its stakeholders and customers. Future publications will elaborate on these building blocks and deeper concepts.
Current methods for characterizing Earth’s subsurface, such as standard inverse techniques, are not sufficiently accurate to meet the needs of modern applications in the fields of energy exploration, environmental management, and global security. While increasing the quantity of field measurements and robustness of the applied data-/model-analysis methods can improve accuracy, such approaches can be computationally impractical for large data sets and complex site conditions. Thus, there is a need to develop economically-feasible and robust computational methods while maintaining accuracy. For example, in-field drilling for geothermal operations may yield high failure rates, resulting in unacceptably high costs; errors and/or large uncertainties in the estimated subsurface characteristics are the main impediment to the successful siting of an in-field well. This problem is not uniquely geothermal. Accurate characterization of uncertain subsurface properties is also essential for monitoring storage of carbon dioxide, estimating pathways of subsurface contaminant transport, and supervising ground-based nuclear-explosion tests.
Apparatuses and methods for tapping serial communications and transforming the serial data into a format appropriate for routable networks are significant for purposes of security and troubleshooting, especially in critical infrastructure networks. Communication taps should be completely passive such that any failure would not interrupt the serial communications. Furthermore, automatic determination of unspecified serial protocol frames allow general implementation across various networks, or across devices within a single network, without the need to customize for each implementation.
Today’s connected lighting systems have the potential to reduce energy consumption and operational costs via the use of the data they collect and share with other building systems (e.g., HVAC, building automation, security). However, many market available products are new to being networked, and when networked components in lighting and other building systems are not sufficiently secured, they present opportunities for criminals to exploit. Further, security vulnerabilities in one system can be used as lateral steppingstones that allow access to other prized assets on the same network. These cybersecurity concerns could deter the adoption and use of connected systems, which then could jeopardize long-term national objectives for reduced energy usage. The workflows described here and presented in more detail in the referenced reports are examples of how these frameworks and tools can be put to practical use during system design and specification.
Apparatuses and methods for tapping serial communications and transforming the serial data into a format appropriate for routable networks are significant for purposes of security and troubleshooting, especially in critical infrastructure networks. Communication taps should be completely passive such that any failure would not interrupt the serial communications. Furthermore, automatic determination of unspecified serial protocol frames allow general implementation across various networks, or across devices within a single network, without the need to customize for each implementation.
Berkeley Lab’s “Utility-Scale Solar, 2021 Edition” provides an overview of key trends in the U.S. market, with a focus on 2020. Highlights of this year’s update include: A record of nearly 9.6 GWAC of new utility-scale PV capacity came online in 2020, bringing cumulative installed capacity to more than 38.7 GWAC across 43 states. 89% of all new utility-scale PV capacity added in 2020 uses single-axis tracking. Median installed project costs declined to $\$$1.4/WAC (or $\$$1.1/WDC) in 2020. Project-level capacity factors vary widely, from 9% to 36% (on an AC basis), with a sample median of 24%. The report explores drivers of this variation. Utility-scale PV’s LCOE fell to $\$$34/MWh in 2020 ($\$$28/MWh if factoring in the federal investment tax credit, or ITC). PPA prices have largely followed the decline in solar’s LCOE over time, but have stagnated more recently. Prices from a sample of recent contracts average just above $\$$20/MWh (levelized). In 2020, solar’s average market value (defined in the report to include only energy and capacity value) exceeded average wholesale prices in 12 of the 17 balancing authorities analyzed (including 4 of the 7 independent system operators across the United States). Adding battery storage is one way to increase the value of solar. Our public data file tracks metadata for more than 150 PV+battery hybrid projects that are already online or that have secured offtake arrangements. At the end of 2020, there were at least 460 GW of utility-scale solar power capacity within the interconnection queues across the nation, 160 GW of which include batteries. For more information, and to explore related interactive data visualizations, go to utilityscalesolar.lbl.gov.
In modern electrical grids, the numbers of customer-owned distributed energy resources (DERs) have increased, and consequently, so have the numbers of points of common coupling (PCC) between the electrical grid and customer-owned DERs. The disruptive operation of and out-of-tolerance outputs from DERs, especially owned DERs, present a risk to power system operations. A common protective measure is to use relays located at the PCC to isolate poorly behaving or out-of-tolerance DERs from the grid. Ensuring the integrity of the data from these relays at the PCC is vital, and blockchain technology could enhance the security of modern electrical grids by providing an accurate means to translate operational constraints into actions/commands for relays. This study demonstrates an advanced power system application solution using distributed ledger technology (DLT) with smart contracts to manage the relay operation at the PCC. The smart contract defines the allowable total power factor (TPF) of the DER output, and the terms of the smart contract are implemented using DLT with a Cyber Grid Guard (CGG) system for a customer-owned DER (wind farm). This article presents flowcharts for the TPF smart contract implemented by the CGG using DLT. The test scenarios were implemented using a real-time simulator containing a CGG system and relay in-the-loop. The data collected from the CGG system were used to execute the TPF smart contract. The desired TPF limits on the grid-side were between +0.9 and +1.0, and the operation of the breakers in the electrical grid and DER sides was controlled by the relay consistent with the provisions of the smart contract. The events from the real-time simulator, CGG, and relay showed a successful implementation of the TPF smart contract with CGG using DLT, proving the efficacy of this approach in general for implementing electrical grid applications for utilities with connections to customer-owned DERs.