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At least 181 records · Page 10

Power density calculation of spontaneous radiation emission from a finite emittance electron beam in planar undulators

We extend the angular power density formulae for spontaneous radiation emission from planar undulators to include finite emittance and angular misalignment of the electron beam. Then we calculate and compare power densities estimated from integral approach with Gaussian beam distribution and summation approach with macro-particle allocation covering particle beam phase space. After showing that both approaches converge to each other, we apply the macro-particle approach to study power absorbed and transmitted by various apertures at front end of 9-ID beamline at National Synchrotron Light Source-II for misaligned electron beam. Our analysis indicate that the electron beam misalignment could lead to unwarranted power deposition at tighter apertures that would have been otherwise difficult to account for during the aperture design/choice process.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Thin-Film Solar Arrays for Small Spacecraft

The use of thin-film based solar arrays for space applications has long been recognized as an advantageous power generation option. Thinner materials yield a mass savings, equating to lighter launch loads, larger arrays, and/or more payload allocation. Further, their mechanical flexibility lends itself well to stowage and deployment schemes, allowing for a vast improvement to both specific power (W/kg - watts per kilogram) as well as stowed power density (W/m3 - watts per cubic meter). A key application of thin-film space solar arrays is in the small satellite community; where spacecraft are largely power-starved. Their need for higher power generation coupled with the extreme mass and volume restrictions of the small spacecraft bus is driving the requirement for advanced solar arrays. And, when coupled with the relatively short operational requirements (e.g. less than 2 years) of small spacecraft, yields the perfect application for these thin-film arrays. In this presentation, NASA’s recent work on developing the Lightweight Integrated Solar Array and anTenna (LISA-T - also known as Lightweight Integrated Solar Array and Transceiver)), a thin-film solar array for small spacecraft, will be discussed. The array configuration will be shown alongside bench top deployment videos, a summary of environmental testing to date, and forward plans to a flight test. Advanced, robotic additive manufacturing of the thin-film web will also be discussed.

Carr, John A.↗

Evolution of Electric Sector Water Use Under Alternative Electricity Futures

Increasing competition for water resources in the United States could create future challenges for allocating and using thermal cooling water in the U.S. electric power sector. While thermal power plant retirements and the growth of wind and solar technologies can reduce national aggregate power sector cooling water use, local water constraints and growing demand for agricultural or municipal supply could create greater needs for higher-cost alternative water supplies such as groundwater or recycled wastewater. For some regions, these incentives could change future electricity planning and operational decisions. These relationships and impacts are studied here using the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Regional Energy Deployment System (ReEDS), a national electric sector planning model that has recently been upgraded to include a highly detailed representation of thermal cooling water demand and supply. Thermal power technologies are differentiated by both cooling technology and water source type to track and constrain thermal cooling water use in a way that incorporates both physical and legal water considerations in the United States. This capability is exercised under a range of electricity sector futures with alternative technology costs, fuel prices, and water constraints to illustrate ways that U.S. electric sector water use could evolve under uncertain future electric sector drivers. In exploring changes to regional generation and transmission planning and operation, water requirements, and cost, we highlight the environmental and economic impacts of future power sector water decisions.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

A novel array antenna for MSAT applications

The issue of reducing the cost of phased array vehicle antennas through the use of a lens feeding arrangement instead of phase shifters at each element is addressed. In particular, the economic viability of a mobile satellite system (MSAT) is largely dependent on the efficient use of the allocated scarce spectrum and orbit as well as the satellite power. the type of vehicle antenna used will play a critical role in achieving this efficiency. A standard design approach for an electronically steered array uses phase shifters at each element to provide beam steering. A method for reducing the required number of phase shifters by using an R-KR lens feed network is outlined. The authors briefly discuss the phase shifter approach to beam steering, examine various lens feed techniques, and describe the R-KR lens approach. The lens feed network architecture is examined, a computer model for simulation of the array is presented, and the results of analysis of a suggested design for the MSAT application are given. In addition, satellite acquisition and tracking considerations are investigated.

Bodnar, Donald G.↗

Influence Diagram Use With Respect to Technology Planning and Investment

Influence diagrams are relatively simple, but powerful, tools for assessing the impact of choices or resource allocations on goals or requirements. They are very general and can be used on a wide range of problems. They can be used for any problem that has defined goals, a set of factors that influence the goals or the other factors, and a set of inputs. Influence diagrams show the relationship among a set of results and the attributes that influence them and the inputs that influence the attributes. If the results are goals or requirements of a program, then the influence diagram can be used to examine how the requirements are affected by changes to technology investment. This paper uses an example to show how to construct and interpret influence diagrams, how to assign weights to the inputs and attributes, how to assign weights to the transfer functions (influences), and how to calculate the resulting influences of the inputs on the results. A study is also presented as an example of how using influence diagrams can help in technology planning and investment. The Space Propulsion Synergy Team (SPST) used this technique to examine the impact of R&D spending on the Life Cycle Cost (LCC) of a space transportation system. The question addressed was the effect on the recurring and the non-recurring portions of LCC of the proportion of R&D resources spent to impact technology objectives versus the proportion spent to impact operational dependability objectives. The goals, attributes, and the inputs were established. All of the linkages (influences) were determined. The weighting of each of the attributes and each of the linkages was determined. Finally the inputs were varied and the impacts on the LCC determined and are presented. The paper discusses how each of these was accomplished both for credibility and as an example for future studies using influence diagrams for technology planning and investment planning.

Levack, Daniel J. H.↗

An Update on the Performance of Li-Ion Rechargeable Batteries on Mars Rovers

NASA's Mars Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity have been exploring the surface of Mars for the last thirty months, far exceeding the primary mission life of three months, performing astounding geological studies to examine the habitability of Mars. Such an extended mission life may be attributed to impressive performances of several subsystems, including power subsystem components, i.e., solar array and batteries. The novelty and challenge for this mission in terms of energy storage is the use of lithium-ion batteries, for the first time in a major NASA mission, for keeping the rover electronics warm, and supporting nighttime experimentation and communications. The use of Li-ion batteries has considerably enhanced or even enabled these rovers, by providing greater mass and volume allocations for the payload and wider range of operating temperatures for the power subsystem and thus reduced thermal management. After about 800 days of exploration, there is only marginal change in the end-of discharge (EOD) voltages of the batteries or in their capacities, as estimated from in-flight voltage data and corroborated by ground testing of prototype batteries. Enabled by such impressive durability from the Li-ion batteries, both from a cycling and calendar life stand point, these rovers are poised to extend their exploration well beyond 1000 sols, though other components have started showing signs of decay. In this paper, we will update the performance characteristics of these batteries on both Spirit and Opportunity.

low temperatures↗

Control Law-Control Allocation Interaction: F/A-18 PA Simulation Test - Bed

This report documents the first stage of research into Control Law - Control Allocation Interactions. A three-year research effort was originally proposed: 1. Create a desktop flight simulation environment under which experiments related to the open questions may be conducted. 2. Conduct research to determine which aspects of control allocation have impact upon control law design that merits further research. 3. Conduct research into those aspects of control allocation identified above, and their impacts upon control law design. Simulation code was written utilizing the F/A-18 airframe in the power approach (PA) configuration. A dynamic inversion control law was implemented and used to drive a state-of-the-art control allocation subroutine.

Durham, Wayne↗

Allocation Mechanisms in Rationed Markets

Economic theory has come to play an important role in power system operations through the design of wholesale markets that are central to their operation. Furthermore, transactive energy places economic theory as a cornerstone in its operational concept as it seeks to integrate the technical needs of the power system with the preferences of its participants. Traditionally the mechanism employed is the continuous double-auction but de-pending on the circumstances the power system find itself in, this mechanism may or may not be the most appropriate, i.e. a one-size fits all market institution cannot be recommended without regard for the features of the underlying trading environment. This paper seeks to explain the economic rationale that guides the choice of a market institution and takes recourse to a theoretical demonstration in the context of a rationed power system scenario where demand exceeds generation (due to any number of events such as outages, microgrid operation, etc) and electrical energy must be rationed to better understand which types of mechanisms are most appropriate.

transactive energy, power system economics, econom↗

Characteristics of a high-power ion beam deflection system necessary to deflect the hypothetical asteroid 2017 PD

The July 2027 impact date for the hypothetical asteroid 2017 PDC, that is the subject of an emergency response exercise, leaves just over ten years to implement a deflection approach. The analyses herein allocates four years to the design, fabrication, assembly, test and launch of a notional high-power Ion Beam Deflection (IBD) vehicle to meet a launch readiness date no later than May 2021. Using this launch date along with estimates for the vehicle mass and performance characteristics of the electric propulsion system, low-thrust trajectory analyses indicate a 2.56-year flight time to rendezvous with 2017 PDC. This would leave 3.6 years to execute the actual deflection phase. A 160-kW IBD vehicle could deflect 2017 PDC by at least one Earth radius within this time provided the asteroid’s actual diameter was less than about 140 m and its density was 2 g/cm3 or less. Larger diameters and/or higher densities would require a higher power IBD vehicle, multiple IBD vehicles, or a longer deflection phase. Ion beam deflection is largely independent of the characteristics of the threat object, but its effectiveness, like all deflection approaches, is sensitive to both the asteroid mass and the time available for deflection. The characteristics of IBD, i.e., large standoff distance between the spacecraft and the asteroid surface, as well as ion beam divergence angles of a few degrees, facilitates the possible simultaneous use of multiple IBD vehicles to improve the performance and robustness of the asteroid deflection. The 65-cm diameter, 20-kW NEXIS ion thruster developed in support of the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter mission concept is particularly well suited for application to a high-power IBD system. It has demonstrated an ion beam divergence angle of approximately 2 degrees and operation at 20 kW for over 2,000 hours. Completion of the development and flight qualification of this technology would significantly reduce the risk and time necessary to respond to the discovery of potentially hazardous asteroid in the size range of 50- to 100-m diameter.

Reeves, David↗

Description of the SSF PMAD DC testbed control system data acquisition function

The NASA LeRC in Cleveland, Ohio has completed the development and integration of a Power Management and Distribution (PMAD) DC Testbed. This testbed is a reduced scale representation of the end to end, sources to loads, Space Station Freedom Electrical Power System (SSF EPS). This unique facility is being used to demonstrate DC power generation and distribution, power management and control, and system operation techniques considered to be prime candidates for the Space Station Freedom. A key capability of the testbed is its ability to be configured to address system level issues in support of critical SSF program design milestones. Electrical power system control and operation issues like source control, source regulation, system fault protection, end-to-end system stability, health monitoring, resource allocation, and resource management are being evaluated in the testbed. The SSF EPS control functional allocation between on-board computers and ground based systems is evolving. Initially, ground based systems will perform the bulk of power system control and operation. The EPS control system is required to continuously monitor and determine the current state of the power system. The DC Testbed Control System consists of standard controllers arranged in a hierarchical and distributed architecture. These controllers provide all the monitoring and control functions for the DC Testbed Electrical Power System. Higher level controllers include the Power Management Controller, Load Management Controller, Operator Interface System, and a network of computer systems that perform some of the SSF Ground based Control Center Operation. The lower level controllers include Main Bus Switch Controllers and Photovoltaic Controllers. Power system status information is periodically provided to the higher level controllers to perform system control and operation. The data acquisition function of the control system is distributed among the various levels of the hierarchy. Data requirements are dictated by the control system algorithms being implemented at each level. A functional description of the various levels of the testbed control system architecture, the data acquisition function, and the status of its implementationis presented.

Baez, Anastacio N.↗

An overview of the artificial intelligence and expert systems component of RICIS

Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems are the important component of RICIS (Research Institute and Information Systems) research program. For space applications, a number of problem areas that should be able to make good use of the above tools include: resource allocation and management, control and monitoring, environmental control and life support, power distribution, communications scheduling, orbit and attitude maintenance, redundancy management, intelligent man-machine interfaces and fault detection, isolation and recovery.

Feagin, Terry↗

The Constellation-X Spectroscopy X-ray Telescope: Recent Technology Development

We describe recent progress in the technology development program for the mirror system for the Constellation-X Spectroscopy X-ray Telescope (SXT). Development of this mirror represents a significant technology challenge, as it must provide a combination of large effective area (3 sq. m) and modest angular resolution (15 arc second half power diameter requirement; 5 arc second goal) with a limited mass allocation. The baseline design incorporates over 200 nested Wolter 1 mirrors. Each of these in turn is segmented in order to simplify handling of the mirrors and facilitate mass production. The X-ray reflecting surfaces are fabricated from thin, thermally formed glass sheets. Production improvements have yielded mirror segments that approach the performance requirement without the need for epoxy replication. A mounting and alignment approach incorporating piezoelectric actuators has been shown to manipulate mirror segments with the required precision without introducing significant distortion. Substantial improvements in metrology methodology have provided insights into the mirror segment forming and alignment processes. An X-ray demonstration of a mirror segment pair is planned for early 2006.

Petre, Robert↗

Peak Satellite-to-Earth Data Rates Derived From Measurements of a 20 Gbps Bread-Board Modem

A prototype data link using a Ka-band space qualified, high efficiency 200 W TWT amplifier and a bread-board modem emulator were created to explore the feasibility of very high speed communications in satellite-to-earth applications. Experiments were conducted using a DVB-S2-like waveform with modifications to support up to 20 Gbps through the addition of 128-Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM). Limited by the bandwidth of the amplifier, a constant peak symbol rate of 3.2 Giga-symbols/sec was selected and the modulation order was varied to explore what peak data rate might be supported by an RF link through this amplifier. Using 128-QAM, an implementation loss of 3 dB was observed at 20 Gbps, and the loss decreased as data rate or bandwidth were reduced. Building on this measured data, realistic link budget calculations were completed. Low-Earth orbit (LEO) missions based on this TWTA with reasonable hardware assumptions and antenna sizing are found to be bandwidth-limited, rather than power-limited, making the spectral efficiency of 9/10-rate encoded 128-QAM very attractive. Assuming a bandwidth allocation of 1 GHz, these computations indicate that low-Earth orbit vehicles could achieve data rates up to 5 Gbps-an order of magnitude beyond the current state-of-practice, yet still within the processing power of a current FPGA-based software-defined modem. The measured performance results and a description of the experimental setup are presented to support these conclusions.

Landon, David G.↗

Organizing principles for vegetation dynamics

Understanding vegetation dynamics is very challenging because of the multitude of contributing processes at 64widely different spatial and temporal scales. In this Perspective we propose that understanding of vegetation dynamics can be improved, permitting better predictions, based on organizing principles that constrain plant and ecosystem be haviour: natural selection, self-organization, and entropy maximization. Although these ideas are increasingly used,a limited common understanding of their theoretical basis has prevented their full potential to be realized. We explain the power of natural selection-based optimality to predict photosynthesis and carbon allocation responses to multiple environmental drivers, and how individual plasticity leads to the predictable self-organization of forest canopies. We show how models of natural selection acting on a few key traits can generate realistic plant communities, and how entropy maximization can distinguish between stochastic and deterministic drivers of vegetation patterns. In combination with empirical exploration of patterns in plant functional variation, these principles can accelerate the development of dynamic vegetation models as well as trait-based ecology resting on strengthened theoretical and empirical foundations.

Geosciences↗

Grid Strength Analysis for Integrating 30 GW of Offshore Wind Generation by 2030 in the U.S. Eastern Interconnection

Offshore wind is a key player in the transition to a decarbonized electric gird, and the United States has set ambitious goals of integrating 30 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030 and 110 GW by 2050. To facilitate this integration, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory are conducting the Atlantic Offshore Wind Transmission Study to assess transmission solutions. To achieve the 110-GW target by 2050, meticulous planning for network expansion and resource allocation is essential; however, meeting the 2030 goals requires integrating offshore wind power with minimal system upgrades, thus necessitating a careful study of grid strength and stability. The study team developed the Automated System-wide Strength Evaluation Tool (ASSET) to assess system strength under various operating conditions and contingencies, focusing on the proposed integration of 30 GW of offshore wind power by 2030. In this paper, we provide a summary of key features of the ASSET software and results of the grid strength analysis for integrating 30 GW of offshore wind generation by 2030 in the U.S. Eastern Interconnection.

Automated System-wide Strength Evaluation Tool (AS↗

A metric framework for evaluating the resilience contribution of hydropower to the grid

This paper will describe a proposed framework for expressing the resilience of hydropower generation and provide initial case studies for three classes of hydropower, run-of-river hydropower, hydropower with reservoirs, and pumped storage hydropower. Hydropower has great flexibility to provide support during and after natural and man-made events that can disrupt critical infrastructure functionality. The concept of the framework provides for consideration of policy and rules, constraints of the water shed and other allocations of water, storage and plant capabilities to produce real and reactive power, and the strength of the delivery network. The paper details a resilience response metric that has inputs of state of storage and plant level constraints on real and reactive power production. Using the definition of resilience, based on maintaining a minimally normal operations, we provide a qualitative assessment of hydropower’s ability to address the various time scales comprising the “R”s of resilience.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗

Transactive Energy System Deployment Over Insecure Communication Links

Here, in this paper, the privacy and security issues associated with the transactive energy system (TES) deployment over insecure communication links are addressed. In particular, it is ensured that 1) individual agents’ bidding information is kept private throughout hierarchical market-based interactions; and 2) any extraneous data injection attack can be quickly and easily detected. An implementation framework is proposed to enable the cryptography-based enhancement of privacy and security for the deployment of any general hierarchical systems including TESs. Under the proposed framework, a unified cryptography-based approach is developed to achieve both privacy and security simultaneously. Specifically, privacy preservation is realized by an enhanced Paillier encryption scheme, where a block design is proposed to significantly improve computational efficiency. Attack detection is further achieved by an enhanced Paillier digital signature scheme, where a stamp-concatenation mechanism is proposed to enable detection of data replace and reorder attacks. Simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed cyber-resilient design for transactive energy systems. Note to Practitioners—This paper is motivated by addressing the issues of cyber resiliency for practically deploying transactive energy system (TES) but it is also applicable to the problem of enhancing the privacy and security for any general hierarchical control systems. TES is an emerging control approach that engages energy suppliers and customers through market operations and uses the price to optimally allocate energy resources. While it has been shown to be promising for power system applications, the underlying market-based interactions raise significant concerns of privacy (data leakage) and security (data tampering). However, existing TES works only focus on the coordination mechanism instead of privacy and security issues. This paper proposes a new cryptography-based TES design for practical deployment. Specifically, to protect privacy, individual supply and demand amounts to be exchanged are all encrypted in a particular way such that the original amounts cannot be inferred from the encrypted amounts, while the desired computation for setting the market clearing price can be carried out over the encrypted amounts, thus generating an encrypted result which, when decrypted, matches that of the same computation over the original amounts. To achieve security, for each exchanged data, its sender generates a particular digital signature which is exchanged together with the data. This enables the receiver to automatically detect the integrity by checking whether a mathematical relationship holds for the pair of data and signature. In our future research, we will investigate more challenging scenarios where some suppliers and customers themselves could be corrupted and purposely submit distorted amounts.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗