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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 145 records · Page 8
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Community-Informed Urban Flood Modeling for Impact Mitigation

The intensification of the hydrologic cycle due to climate change poses a threat to aging and under-designed water infrastructure systems which cannot adequately manage intense storm events. Developing a comprehensive plan for managing rain-driven flooding events is challenging due to uncertainties in the magnitude and frequency of future storm events and conflicting stakeholder objectives. In the City of Baltimore, Maryland, stormwater infrastructure is struggling to keep up with rainfall-driven (pluvial) flooding events, which regularly damage housing and disrupt transportation for residents. In this study, a hybrid of community engagement, numerical modeling, and artificial intelligence techniques are employed to explore prospective urban flooding adaptations. Community engagement drives the development of an urban flooding model (EPA Storm Water Management Model) for the Baltimore Harbor watershed. The model integrates complex surface and subsurface stormwater infrastructure data from the City, high-resolution spatial data, insights from local public works experts, and the lived experiences of City residents. This co-developed model simulates adaptations of interest to stakeholders in the city, including green and grey infrastructure and operational management strategies. Stormwater management scenarios focused on inlet cleaning and spatially concentrated green infrastructure are found to be the most effective in reducing flood depths in community priority locations. Together, these adaptations can reduce the duration of intersection inundation by more than twenty minutes, allowing for quicker emergency response and restoration of typical transportation systems. Future work will combine this community engaged flooding model with the Deep Uncertainties Pathways framework to explore tradeoffs between adaptations and develop dynamic adaptations which align with community objectives, enhance climate resilience in Baltimore, and can be adjusted in response to changing future conditions.

Ava, Spangler [Pennsylvania State University]↗
DOE OSTI2021

Final Scientific Technical Report for "Microgrid RD&D and Testing of PIDC and PWD Systems"

Alstom Grid Inc’s (ALSTOM Grid) Research Design and Development (RD&D) project, “Microgrid RD&D and Testing for PIDC and PWD” was conducted in partnership with Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC) in its role as owner’s representative and manager of a vibrant commercial and industrial community, involving critical loads in one of the nation’s largest unregulated, non-military electric distribution systems. PIDC needed to develop solutions to address the planned considerable growth in Distributed Energy Resources (DER) Combined Heat Plan (CHP), Renewables, Distributed Generation (DG), Demand Response (DR) and Storage. In supporting the corporate objective, PIDC needed a new class of control systems for achieving enhanced energy resilience of their critical infrastructure operation during adverse conditions together with carbon emission reduction and optimization of the overall system operation economics through system energy efficiency during normal and emergency operating conditions. Additionally, PIDC anticipated the need to support a new class of commercial agreements with tenants, such as those for Urban Outfitters, for guaranteed one hundred percent (100%) grid resilience and electric power supply in case of utility outage conditions. The project was designed to address the challenges for the commercial & industrial (C&I) communities. But more importantly, the project included development of scalable and replicable solutions intended to target a multitude of the nation’s electric distribution communities. The project researched and developed a fully comprehensive prototype consisting of microgrid operation and control functions including islanding, synchronization and reconnection, protection, voltage, frequency, and power quality management, dispatch, and system resiliency. The project provided the foundation required to significantly enhance the overall national objectives set by the DOE for energy resilience, emission reduction and system energy efficiency improvement, including protection of critical infrastructure and public resources.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Diffractive optical computing in free space

Abstract Structured optical materials create new computing paradigms using photons, with transformative impact on various fields, including machine learning, computer vision, imaging, telecommunications, and sensing. This Perspective sheds light on the potential of free-space optical systems based on engineered surfaces for advancing optical computing. Manipulating light in unprecedented ways, emerging structured surfaces enable all-optical implementation of various mathematical functions and machine learning tasks. Diffractive networks, in particular, bring deep-learning principles into the design and operation of free-space optical systems to create new functionalities. Metasurfaces consisting of deeply subwavelength units are achieving exotic optical responses that provide independent control over different properties of light and can bring major advances in computational throughput and data-transfer bandwidth of free-space optical processors. Unlike integrated photonics-based optoelectronic systems that demand preprocessed inputs, free-space optical processors have direct access to all the optical degrees of freedom that carry information about an input scene/object without needing digital recovery or preprocessing of information. To realize the full potential of free-space optical computing architectures, diffractive surfaces and metasurfaces need to advance symbiotically and co-evolve in their designs, 3D fabrication/integration, cascadability, and computing accuracy to serve the needs of next-generation machine vision, computational imaging, mathematical computing, and telecommunication technologies.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

International Radiological/Nuclear Training for Emergency Response - Major Public Events Virtual Workshop: Radiation Detection and Emergency Response Equipment (Day 2) [Slides]

The objective of this presentation is to familiarize participants with the different types of radiation detection systems and their practical applications for radiological emergency response. The specific goals are for participants to: (1) Understand the Three Step Process for Radiological Response of (i) Search and/or Survey, (ii) Radioisotope Identification, and (iii) Source Recovery, (2) Recognize the types of radiation detection equipment and their applications, and (3) View examples of common radiation detection instrumentation with operational videos.

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Municipal Adaptation to Changing Curbside Demands: Findings from Semi-Structured Interviews with Ten U.S. Cities

Emerging mobility services (e.g. ride-hailing, e-commerce, micro-mobility, etc.), are generating novel and rapidly growing demands to use curbside space, with potentially large impacts on mobility, energy consumption, and related outcomes. This presents both opportunities and challenges to municipal agencies responsible for managing this interface between the road network and adjacent land uses, as legacy practices require updating. In this study, we employ a semi-structured interviewing approach to establish how municipalities are adapting to these new pressures on their curbside. We interviewed senior staff responsible for curbside policy of ten large U.S. municipalities, with populations ranging from ~250,000 to ~5,000,000 (and the majority of which are the central city of their metropolitan region). We document a trend of organizational restructuring to more formally include curbside management teams, with the majority of interviewees also reporting increased staffing. Respondents reported that operational failures at their curbside (e.g. demand in excess of capacity) have impacts on safety, capacity, and emergency vehicle mobility, with impacts highly concentrated spatially and temporally (e.g. late evenings in nightlife districts). We document a diversity of data flows between ride-hailing operators (e.g. Uber, Lyft) and municipalities, with some cities reporting obtaining types of data that other cities report not receiving, despite requesting such data. Finally, respondents consistently expressed a desire for new data streams and methodologies to help manage the curbside of the future. It is hoped that establishing the state of practice in this rapidly changing context will be of use to practitioners facing similar pressures as those of our interviewees.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2020

Multi-Stage and Multi-Timescale Robust Co-Optimization Planning for Reliable and Sustainable Power Systems. Final Report

In this project, Clarkson University, in collaboration with Southern Methodist University and University of Pittsburgh, conducted the research to model, design, and implement a sophisticated generation and transmission co-optimization planning decision tool, called Multi-stage and Multi-timescale robust Co-Optimization Planning (MMCOP). The MMCOP decision tool intends to facilitate generation and transmission co-optimization planning of emerging power systems, while mitigating risks and uncertainties in both short-term operation dynamics and long-term policy and technology changes. Long-term power system planning aims at optimizing asset utilization by investing in a proper mix of various generation technologies and transmission lines to supply the future load growth. In particular, the Clean Power Plan (CPP), which is designed to combat climate change and reduce carbon emissions by setting a national limit on carbon pollution from power plants, may dramatically change the landscape of the power industry by further promoting clean energy and phasing out emissions-intensive generation technologies. In addition, novel non-wire alternatives (e.g., demand response (DR), distributed generation (DG), energy efficiency (EE), and smart grid technologies) and the computational complexity for large-scale systems significantly complicate the system planning procedure even further. However, existing conventional planning approaches neglect short-term variability and uncertainty of renewable energy, hourly chronological operation details, and physical nonlinear characteristics of the alternating current transmission network. As a result, existing conventional planning approaches may not work properly, and power systems reliability could be in jeopardy. In observing the limitations of existing conventional planning approaches and addressing new challenges of emerging power systems, the main scope of this project to develop co-optimization planning models within a multi-stage and multi-timescale framework. In particular, random contingencies, key uncertainty factors, and AC power flows are included to derive expansion plans while considering both long-term reliability and short-term flexibility.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2023

New-generation geostationary satellite reveals widespread midday depression in dryland photosynthesis during 2020 western U.S. heatwave

Emerging new-generation geostationary satellites have broadened the scope for studying the diurnal cycle of ecosystem functions. We exploit observations from the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-R series to examine the effect of a severe U.S. heatwave in 2020 on the diurnal variations of ecosystem photosynthesis. We find divergent responses of photosynthesis to the heatwave across vegetation types and aridity gradients, with drylands exhibiting widespread midday and afternoon depression in photosynthesis. The diurnal centroid and peak time of dryland gross primary production (GPP) substantially shift toward earlier morning times, reflecting notable water and heat stress. Our geostationary satellite-based method outperforms traditional radiation-based upscaling methods from polar-orbiting satellite snapshots in estimating daily GPP and GPP loss during heatwaves. These findings underscore the potential of geostationary satellites for diurnal photosynthesis monitoring and highlight the necessity to consider the increased diurnal asymmetry in GPP under stress when evaluating carbon-climate interactions.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

DataShare Recon Assistant Tool (DSRAT) v.1.0.x

SAND2023-06798O DataShare Recon Assistant Tool (DSRAT) software is used for capturing recon data and information in an emergency response situation on an Android device. Users can capture images, video, item description and spectra information in DSRAT and upload it to DataShare, which is a multi-server application that shares data in real-time to all nodes on the network. Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525.

Gilbert, Christina↗
DOE OSTI2021

High performance protonic ceramic fuel cell systems for distributed power generation

The technology landscape around distributed generation continues to evolve in response to increasing demand for high-efficiency, low-emission, low-cost power generation. While emerging distributed power technologies, such as solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs), continue to advance, they still face challenges due to their high capital costs, and shorter lifetimes that typically arise from electrochemical stack performance degradation at high operating temperatures (>750 °C). Recent advancements in protonic ceramic fuel cells (PCFCs) offer the potential to mitigate drawbacks of their higher temperature SOFC counterparts by enabling lower operating temperatures (550 °C–600 °C) with acceptable power densities. Here the present work leverages the recent progress in protonic ceramic cell and stack technology development to generate viable system configurations and evaluate the energetic performance potential of PCFC-based systems for stationary power generation. Process system engineering of two water-neutral system concepts, which provide 25 kW of electric power and process hot water, are presented and evaluated through sensitivity studies. Stack design parameters are altered and used to gauge the effect on system performance characteristics, including fuel cell stack and balance-of-plant sizing requirements, and electric and cogeneration efficiencies. The study finds that the potentially high per-pass fuel utilization capability of PCFC stacks could enable unprecedented electric efficiencies approaching 70% without hybridization with other prime movers.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2021

The novel Mechanical Ventilator Milano for the COVID-19 pandemic

This paper presents the Mechanical Ventilator Milano (MVM), a novel intensive therapy mechanical ventilator designed for rapid, large-scale, low-cost production for the COVID-19 pandemic. Free of moving mechanical parts and requiring only a source of compressed oxygen and medical air to operate, the MVM is designed to support the long-term invasive ventilation often required for COVID-19 patients and operates in pressure-regulated ventilation modes, which minimize the risk of furthering lung trauma. The MVM was extensively tested against ISO standards in the laboratory using a breathing simulator, with good agreement between input and measured breathing parameters and performing correctly in response to fault conditions and stability tests. The MVM has obtained Emergency Use Authorization by U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in healthcare settings during the COVID-19 pandemic and Health Canada Medical Device Authorization for Importation or Sale, under Interim Order for Use in Relation to COVID-19. Furthermore, following these certifications, mass production is ongoing and distribution is under way in several countries. The MVM was designed, tested, prepared for certification, and mass produced in the space of a few months by a unique collaboration of respiratory healthcare professionals and experimental physicists, working with industrial partners, and is an excellent ventilator candidate for this pandemic anywhere in the world

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Turbo FRMAC 2021 v.11.0.0

The Turbo FRMAC analysis tool performs complex calculations to quickly evaluate radiological hazards during an emergency response by assessing impacts to the public, workers, and the food supply. Turbo FRMAC can be used to evaluate the hazard from a wide variety of radiological incidents. Turbo FRMAC calculations are based on methods established by the Federal Radiological Monitoring and Assessment (FRMAC). Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525. SAND2021-10713 O

Whitener, Dustin↗
DOE OSTI2024

Clean Energy Cybersecurity Accelerator: Cohort 2 - runZero Public Report

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER) sponsors the Clean Energy Cybersecurity Accelerator™ (CECA) to expedite the deployment of emerging security technologies that address the most urgent security concerns facing modern and future electric grids. CECA Cohort 2 assessed solutions focused on hidden risks due to incomplete system visibility and device security and configuration. Improving visibility can be achieved through operational technology (OT) asset identification solutions, including capabilities like automatic discovery, vulnerability reporting, and configuration monitoring. Solutions that monitor and identify assets in information technology (IT) networks in other domains are widely used; however, there is far less adoption of monitoring solutions for operational technology environments. Wider adoption may increase with increased confidence in the ability for these solutions to understand and respond to the specific requirements of OT environments. CECA Cohort 2 evaluated the active and passive asset discovery capabilities of market-ready solutions, documented and analyzed results, and identified gaps in functionality or capabilities. This report and describes how these results can help advance the adoption of these and similar solutions in the electric sector.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2024

Estimating Critical Customer Outages Resulting from Extreme Hurricanes

US power outage data has been collected by organizations such as Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) through Environment for Analysis Geo-Located Energy Infrastructure (EAGLE-I: freely available) and poweroutage.us (commercial data: available to purchase). However, these sources do not provide information specific to outages of critical customers. Critical customers include entities, facilities, and individuals whose continuous access to electricity is essential for public safety, emergency response, disaster recovery, the well-being of vulnerable populations, public safety and order, and public utilities such as natural gas, communications, water and sanitation. Identification and geolocation of critical customers is crucial for understanding and addressing the effects of power outages on essential services and ensuring that necessary measures are taken to maintain their operations during power disruptions. This work is a first step towards estimating the occurrences of critical customer outages and developing a critical customer power outage data repository. This work estimates outage incidents of critical customers through spatiotemporal mapping of power outage data, weather data, building data, and critical infrastructure network data. Our results show that critical customer effects vary across different counties. We provide appropriate mathematical explanations and simplifications to define and systematize the proposed approach.

Bhusal, Narayan [ORNL] (ORCID:0000000222752145)↗
DOE OSTI2024

Clean Energy Cybersecurity Accelerator: Cohort 2 - Asimily Public Report

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER) sponsors the Clean Energy Cybersecurity Accelerator (TM) (CECA) to expedite the deployment of emerging security technologies that address the most urgent security concerns facing modern and future electric grids. CECA Cohort 2 assessed solutions focused on hidden risks due to incomplete system visibility and device security and configuration. Improving visibility can be achieved through operational technology (OT) asset identification solutions, including capabilities like automatic discovery, vulnerability reporting, and configuration monitoring. Solutions that monitor and identify assets in information technology (IT) networks in other domains are widely used; however, there is far less adoption of monitoring solutions for operational technology environments. Wider adoption may increase with increased confidence in the ability for these solutions to understand and respond to the specific requirements of OT environments. CECA Cohort 2 evaluated the active and passive asset discovery capabilities of market-ready solutions, documented and analyzed results, and identified gaps in functionality or capabilities. This report and describes how these results can help advance the adoption of these and similar solutions in the electric sector.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2022

Development of a water source heat pump hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing facility for smart building applications

Over the last decade, the global fight against climate change through electrification has led to an increase in research on building heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems that utilize intelligent control algorithms to provide demand-side grid service while maintaining the thermal comfort of building occupants. As the pivotalpoint between building electricity consumption and indoor thermal comfort, high-efficiency electrical heatpumps are at the center of these emerging studies, and various grid-interactive and occupant-comfort control algorithms have been developed for them. The impact of these algorithms on the heatpump operation andperformance under different weather, building load, and grid requests calls for investigation and verification via experimental tests with actual heat pumps integrated with real-time building and grid responses. This study presents a Water-Source Heat Pump Hardware-in-The-Loop (HIL) Test Facility developed with the capability to perform such tests. The hardware configuration for this testfacility introduces a hydronic system that emulates the conditions for the heat pump water-side, and a duct system that emulates conditions for the heat pump airside. Both data acquisition and emulator control are implemented through the National Instruments (NI) LabVIEW software running on an NI PXIplatform. The HIL mechanism based on the hardware-software integration that allows the testbed to communicate with a generic simulation environment is also discussed. Currently, the test facility setup includes a single heatpump and virtual building model in EnergyPlus coupled with an occupant behavioral model in MATLAB. Preliminary test results of the current setup demonstrate the building load emulator's ability to track the simulated gone temperature with a Root Mean Square Deviation (RSME) below 0.12°C (0.216°F). An uncertainty analysis based on sensor accuracies shows that the heat pump coefficient of performance (COP) can be measured with a relative uncertainty of 10.4% in cooling and 3.7% in heating. Apartfrom the current testing on a single heat pump, the test facility also provides the flexibility to include additional heat pumps to form a heat pump cluster, as well as coupling the heat pump with active thermal storage to provide enhanced demandflexibility.

Calfa, Caleb↗
DOE OSTI2023

Multi-Unit Dwelling Plug-in EV Charging Innovation Pilots (Final Report)

Nearly one-third of residences in the U.S. are multi-unit dwellings (MUDs), e.g., apartments and condominiums, and MUDs with five or more units account for approximately 45% of rental households. While 80% of EV charging takes place at home, less than 5% of home charging takes place at MUDs. With public electric vehicle (EV) charging still underdeveloped, lack of access to reliable home charging is a major barrier to EV adoption for MUD residents. Challenges to siting electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) at MUDs include the high upfront cost of EVSE installation, physical and/or electrical infrastructure constraints, a lack of clear incentives for property managers to invest in installing EV charging for tenants, and a limited number of EV charging service providers that offer solutions adapted to the unique needs of MUDs. Through award DE-EE0008473 from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Center for Sustainable Energy (CSE), Energetics, and Forth, along with a diverse team of partners, led a three-year project to address barriers to EV charging at MUDs by developing an online toolkit geared toward residents, homeowner associations (HOAs), and property managers. The project, referred to as Vehicle Charging Innovations – Multi-Unit Dwellings (VCI-MUD project), engaged stakeholders across the country to identify real and perceived barriers to EV charging at MUDs and explored innovative technologies that attempt to alleviate the identified barriers. Over the course of three and a half years, the project conducted 60 interviews with industry stakeholders, compiled findings in an easy-to-use toolkit, and disseminated the toolkit across national, regional, state, and local channels. Key findings and outcomes of the VCI-MUD project include: Identifying six primary barriers to the installation of EV charging at MUDs; Developing five fact sheets and eight case studies highlighting innovative charging solutions to address barriers, including real-world operational and financial data; Developing a user-friendly, online empowerment toolkit with five important points for “making your pitch” to support EV charging to assist residents, property managers, building managers, and HOAs explore options for MUD charging. The VCI-MUD online toolkit was designed with replicability in mind. It includes general tools and guides to evaluate EV charging demand, gauge readiness for EV charging installation, and develop actionable plans. The fact sheets and case studies highlight the diversity of emerging MUD EV charging solutions, featuring different geographic and structural installation scenarios and providing interested parties with a menu of options, rather than prescribing a one-size-fits-all solution. The following resources are included in the toolkit to provide MUD stakeholders with all the information needed to navigate EV charging installation at their MUD location: Empowerment Toolkit – Easy-to-read FAQ overview, stakeholder roles and responsibilities, and additional resources for MUD EV charging installations; Charging Basics – Glossary of terms and descriptions of charging features, installation and operating expenses; EV Charging Survey Templates – Resident-to-Resident, Property Manager-to-Resident and HOA-to-Resident template letters with pre-populated template questions; Technology Selection Tool – Charging barrier fact sheets and case study examples; Installation Checklist – Submittal document requirements for EVSE installations; MUD Building Self-Evaluation Survey – Self-guided evaluation of potential barriers to EV charging installation at MUD locations; Curbside Resources – Case studies and fact sheets for curbside charging options; Find a Certified Electrician – Approved list of certified EV charging installers; “Right-to-Charge” State Legal References – Legal requirements for charging equipment at MUD locations. The online toolkit was promoted extensively in the final six months of the project and will continue to be disseminated by the Clean Cities Coalitions and other partners after the end of the VCI-MUD project to encourage, support, and demonstrate viable solutions for vehicle charging infrastructure in MUDs.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2025

Natural Hazard Forecast Alert Grid Risk System

Weather events cause most power outages. Often, we even get notifications on our phones to take cover or be prepared for an imminent event. If electric grid utilities had a similar warning that also included probable scenarios and the equipment involved, they could prepare and minimize the effects. Idaho National Laboratory had a project with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response program to develop a grid alert application that receives messages from the existing emergency alert system, filters and determines components possibly affected by the emergency event, calculates probable scenarios using MASTERRI (Modeling And Simulation for Targeted Reliability and Resilience Improvement). For high-risk events, the application can then send alert links to subscribed electric distribution utility operations staff to allow them to see and evaluate the scenarios and the impact in a web based interactive map tool. This proof of concept application used data from utilities and organizations, such as the international regulatory body North American Electric Reliability Corporation, which have complied historical failure data of elements that comprise the U.S. electric grid. Nominal failure rates are obtained from this data. To make this tool possible, estimated failure rates were calculated for different component types given the alert type, severity, and location. Historic weather-related grid element failures were correlated with historic weather events from the Integrated Public Alert & Warning System. These correlated events and failures are used along with Bayesian updates from the historical norms to provide a modified failure rate for grid elements in the alert areas and calculate probable scenarios. Working with an industry collaborator, actual grid models and data were used for demonstration cases. This report outlines the work performed for this project.

24 - POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗