Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “user research”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 325 records · Page 18
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2020

Surface Atmosphere Integrated Field Laboratory

To help improve understanding and modeling of processes connected to mountain hydrology, the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility will operate the Surface Atmosphere Integrated Field Laboratory (SAIL) field campaign in central Colorado. From September 2021 to June 2023, an ARM Mobile Facility will collect measurements with a focus on the 300-square-kilometer (116-square-mile) East River Watershed within the Upper Colorado River Basin. SAIL will combine atmospheric measurements from ARM, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) scientific user facility, with existing surface and subsurface data from partner research organizations. Researchers will develop detailed measurements of mountainous water-cycle processes as they pertain to the Colorado River, which supplies water for 40 million people in the American West. Through SAIL, researchers from DOE national laboratories, universities, and research centers and agencies will enable an atmosphere-through-bedrock understanding of mountainous water cycles. By observing what is happening above and below ground to influence hydrology at various scales across the East River Watershed, SAIL will provide insights into how Upper Colorado River watersheds interact with the atmosphere to produce water.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Machine Learning Software for Cylindrical Battery Design and Performance Prediction

A software that delivers optimal design parameters and performance predictions for cylindrical cells, which can range in size from micro batteries to EV batteries, is developed. The Cylindrical battery design V1.0 is comprised of three types of cylindrical batteries, Micro battery (Primary), Micro battery (Secondary) and 18650/21700/xxxxx cylindrical battery. The software was developed in MATLAB. The software has the capability to output the cell design with the capacity ranges from several mAh to several million Ah. The software utilizes machine learning and includes a graphical user interface to enable rapid prototyping to accelerate energy storage research, development, and manufacturing.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2023

R “SHINY” GUI DEVELOPMENT FOR URANIUM ISOTOPIC ANALYSIS WITH MATRIX-ASSISTED IONIZATION MASS SPECTROMETRY

The international nuclear safeguards community continues to seek rapid, accurate, and precise characterization capabilities for the in-field measurement of uranium isotopic compositions in nuclear facilities. Mass spectrometry (MS) is considered the “gold standard” for analysis of relatively long-lived actinides such as uranium (U) and plutonium; however, conventional MS analysis often requires time consuming sample preparation and complex analytical methodologies that are difficult to perform in-field or in-facility. Matrix assisted ionization (MAI) is a novel ambient ionization MS technique (i.e., MAI-MS) that potentially addresses these challenges due to the relative simplicity of the ionization phenomenon and ruggedness of ambient MS instrumentation. Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL, USA) has demonstrated this technique for nanogram-level 235U/238U isotope ratio measurements within seconds, with percent-level analytical uncertainties capable of discriminating depleted, natural, and low-enriched uranium. Current experimental work on developing MAI methods for uranium isotopic analysis has been enabled by parallel development of a comprehensive MAI-MS data analysis suite at SRNL. Development of this bespoke data analysis software was necessary because commercially available ambient MS software is poorly suited for uranium isotope ratio measurement. The effort leverages the power of R, a popular open-source programming language, and Shiny, an R package providing tools for graphical user interface (GUI) and web interface coding. This software allows researchers without any programming experience to harness and utilize R’s considerable data analysis/visualization power.

LaBone, Elizabeth D.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Biological and Environmental Research Network Requirements Review (Final Report)

The Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) is the high-performance network user facility for the US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science (SC) and delivers highly reliable data transport capabilities optimized for the requirements of data-intensive science. In essence, ESnet is the circulatory system that enables the DOE science mission by connecting all its laboratories and facilities in the US and abroad. ESnet is funded and stewarded by the Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) program and managed and operated by the Scientific Networking Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). ESnet is widely regarded as a global leader in the research and education (R&E) networking community. Between August 2022 and April 2023, ESnet and the Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER) of the DOE SC organized an ESnet requirements review of BER-supported activities. Preparation for these events included identification of key stakeholders: program and facility management, research groups, and technology providers. Each stakeholder group was asked to prepare formal case study documents about its relationship to the BER ESS program to build a complete understanding of the current, near-term, and long-term status, expectations, and processes that will support the science going forward. A series of pre-planning meetings better prepared case study authors for this task, along with guidance on how the review would proceed in a virtual fashion.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2022

End-User Perspectives on Using Quantitative Real-Time PCR and Genomic Sequencing in the Field

Quantitative real-time PCR and genomic sequencing have become mainstays for performing molecular detection of biological threat agents in the field. There are notional assessments of the benefits, disadvantages, and challenges that each of these technologies offers according to findings in the literature. However, direct comparison between these two technologies in the context of field-forward operations is lacking. Most market surveys, whether published in print form or provided online, are directed to product manufacturers who can address their respective specifications and operations. One method for comparing these technologies is surveying end-users who are best suited for discussing operational capabilities, as they have hands-on experience with state-of-the-art molecular detection platforms and protocols. These end-users include operators in military defense and first response, as well as various research scientists in the public sector such as government and service laboratories, private sector, and civil society such as academia and nonprofit organizations performing method development and executing these protocols in the field. Our objective was to initiate a survey specific to end-users and their feedback. We developed a questionnaire that asked respondents to (1) determine what technologies they currently use, (2) identify the settings where the technologies are used, whether lab-based or field-forward, and (3) rate the technologies according to a set list of criteria. Of particular interest are assessments of sensitivity, specificity, reproducibility, scalability, portability, and discovery power. This article summarizes the findings from the end-user perspective, highlighting technical and operational challenges.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Project Assessment for Biological and Environmental Research: Report from the BER Advisory Committee

The construction, operation, and stewardship of large-scale scientific user facilities and cutting edge capabilities have been integral to the mission of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science from its earliest days. To help identify and prioritize new or upgraded facilities critical to scientific innovation over the next 10 years, the Office of Science director issued a charge to the federal advisory committees of six of its program offices in December 2023, including the Biological and Environmental Research (BER) program. The charge letter (see p. ii) asked the advisory committees to: 1. Consider what new or upgraded facilities will be necessary to position the Office of Science at the forefront of scientific discovery. 2. Deliver a short letter report describing each facility in terms of two criteria: (a) the potential to contribute to world-leading science in the next decade and (b) the readiness for construction.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Developing Digital Twin Visualizations: A Methodology and Case Study on Chemical Separation Processing

As advances in digital engineering continue to push the technological boundaries, digital twin (DT) visualizations for diagnostics and safeguards advancement become much more feasible and practical. DTs generate large and complex data streams that require effective user interfaces to provide monitoring and diagnostic capabilities. Unfortunately, while these frameworks exist, there is not much research on the systematic documentation of human–computer interaction (HCI) for DT visualization. This work presents a dual-mode visualization methodology (two dimensional [2D] graphical user interface dashboard and 3D mixed reality) designed to support diagnostic tasks in DT systems and building on a validated framework and applying established HCI principles. The methodology is demonstrated through a case study of aqueous processing at Idaho National Laboratory, using experimental data from the chemical solvent extraction runs. Our interfaces display real-time alerts and monitoring to inform users of safeguards anomalies. The interfaces use immersive 3D mixed-reality visualization for further system and experiment investigation. This work demonstrates how the systematic application of HCI principles can inform DT visualization design for diagnostic and safeguards applications. While formal user evaluation studies remain as future work, this paper documents the systematic design methodology and demonstrates a proof-of-concept implementation.

3D visualization↗
DOE OSTI2023

What Makes Passengers Uncomfortable In Vehicles Today? An Exploratory Study of Current Factors that May Influence Acceptance of Future Autonomous Vehicles

Autonomous vehicles have the potential to transform lives by providing transportation to a wider range of users. However, with this new method of transportation, user acceptance and comfort are critical for widespread adoption. This exploratory study aims to investigate what makes passengers uncomfortable in existing vehicles to inform the design of future autonomous vehicles. In order to predict what may impact user acceptance for a diverse rider population for future autonomous vehicles, it is important to understand what makes a broad range of passengers uncomfortable today. In this study, interviews were conducted for a total of 75 participants from three diverse groups, including 20 automotive engineering graduate students who are building an autonomous concept vehicle, 21 non-technical adults, and 34 senior citizens. The results revealed both topics which made different groups of passengers uncomfortable as well as how these varied between the groups. The leading contributors to the highest discomfort for all groups were being a passenger in situations with a distracted driver, being in a vehicle that is following too closely, being near a vehicle that is following too closely, and being in foggy conditions. In addition, the results showed that passenger discomfort can be attributed to a broad range of factors ranging from behaviors of the driver/vehicle that one is traveling with/in, the behaviors of other surrounding vehicles, the environmental conditions and the vehicle’s interior, all of which may differ between different groups of passengers. This research provides important findings and insights into factors that may influence users’ acceptance and use of future autonomous vehicles.

Mims, Lauren K.↗
DOE OSTI2022

Resource Allocation for Single Carrier Massive MIMO Systems

Resource allocation in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems is performed through allocating blocks of subcarriers to each user. Even though OFDM is the primary waveform for 5G NR systems, research reports have noted that single carrier modulation (SCM) offers several advantages over OFDM in massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO) systems, making it a preferred candidate for some future applications such as massive machine type communications (mMTC). This paper presents a method for SCM resource allocation and the relevant information recovery algorithms at the receiver. Our emphasis is on cyclic prefixed SCM, where highly flexible and efficient frequency domain detection algorithms enable the operation of many simultaneous users in a massive MIMO uplink scenario. The proposed resource allocation method allows the number of users to exceed the number of antennas at the base station (BS). Each single carrier transmission is partitioned into L interleaved streams, and each user is allocated a number of such streams. One major benefit of SCM is that each data symbol is spread over the entire bandwidth. As such, the receiver performance is dictated by the average channel gain across the transmission band rather than the channel gain at a given frequency bin or a small group of frequencies. In the proposed setup, each stream may be thought of as a resource block in SCM, analogous to resource blocks in OFDM. Hence, in the context of this paper, the terms resource blocks and streams may be used interchangeably.

5G and Beyond Communications↗
DOE OSTI2024

Discovery Science and Inertial Fusion Energy Research at the Jupiter Laser Facility (Research Performance Progress Report)

The goal of this project is to provide operational support to run the Jupiter Laser Facility within the LaserNetUS network to achieve the following four objectives: • Develop new science, techniques, and platforms for discovery science and IFE research, in partnership with academia, other LaserNetUS nodes, and the greater community. • Advance the development of secondary sources of photons and particles for applications relevant to discovery science and IFE; • Serve as a testbed for new laser, optical, target, and diagnostic capabilities that will advance IFE; • Attract, train, and retain talent in high-energy-density and laser science that will be essential in furthering development of IFE, and help build new collaborations between national laboratory and academic researchers. We have accomplished our four objectives by: • Providing access to the three JLF platforms (Titan, Janus, and COMET) to LaserNetUS users after their proposals have been independently reviewed and ranked by the LaserNetUS PRP; • Providing expertise and technical capabilities to support focused science research thrusts at the facility; • Promoting and maintaining technical relationships and collaborations with other members of the LaserNetUS community to nurture and grow the discovery science and IFE workforce— especially students and early career scientists—on LaserNetUS facilities. • Augmenting JLF with specific improvements while coordinating efforts with LLNL organizations and collaborators to provide users with optimal laser, target, and diagnostic resources to help them maximize technical impact.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Visualizing the NIOSH Pocket Guide: Open-source web application for accessing and exploring the NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards

The NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards is a trusted resource that displays key information for a collection of chemicals commonly encountered in the workplace. Entries contain chemical structures—occupational exposure limit information ranging from limits based on full-shift time-weighted averages to acute limits such as short-term exposure limits and immediately dangerous to life or health values, as well as a variety of other data such as chemical-physical properties and symptoms of exposure. The NIOSH Pocket Guide (NPG) is available as a printed, hardcopy book, a PDF version, an electronic database, and a downloadable application for mobile phones. All formats of the NIOSH Pocket Guide allow users to access the data for each chemical separately, however, the guide does not support data analytics or visualization across chemicals. This project reformatted existing data in the NPG to make it searchable and compatible with exploration and analysis using a web application. The resulting application allows users to investigate the relationships between occupational exposure limits, the range and distribution of occupational exposure limits, and the specialized sorting of chemicals by health endpoint or to summarize information of particular interest. These tasks would have previously required manual extraction of the data and analysis. The usability of this application was evaluated among industrial hygienists and researchers and while the existing application seems most relevant to researchers, the open-source code and data are amenable to modification by users to increase customization.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2021

The case for free and open source software in research and scholarship

Free and open source software (FOSS) is any computer program released under a licence that grants users rights to run the program for any purpose, to study it, to modify it, and to redistribute it in original or modified form. Here, our aim is to explore the intersection between FOSS and computational reproducibility. We begin by situating FOSS in relation to other ‘open’ initiatives, and specifically open science, open research, and open scholarship. In this context, we argue that anyone who actively contributes to the research process today is a computational researcher, in that they use computers to manage and store information. We then provide a primer to FOSS suitable for anyone concerned with research quality and sustainability—including researchers in any field, as well as support staff, administrators, publishers, funders, and so on. Next, we illustrate how the notions introduced in the primer apply to resources for scientific computing, with reference to the GNU Scientific Library as a case study. We conclude by discussing why the common interpretation of ‘open source’ as ‘open code’ is misplaced, and we use this example to articulate the role of FOSS in research and scholarship today.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2020

Securing Vehicle Charging Infrastructure

As the US electrifies the transportation sector, cyber attacks targeting vehicle charging could bring consequences to electrical system infrastructure. This is a growing area of concern as charging stations increase power delivery and must communicate to a range of entities to authorize charging, sequence the charging process, and manage load (grid operators, vehicles, OEM vendors, charging network operators, etc.). The research challenges are numerous and are complicated because there are many end users, stakeholders, and software and equipment vendors interests involved. Poorly implemented electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE), electric vehicle (EV), or grid communication system cybersecurity could be a significant risk to EV adoption because the political, social, and financial impact of cyberattacks - or public perception of such - ripples across the industry and has lasting and devastating effects. Unfortunately, there is no comprehensive EVSE cybersecurity approach and limited best practices have been adopted by the EV/EVSE industry. There is an incomplete industry understanding of the attack surface, interconnected assets, and unsecured interfaces. Thus, comprehensive cybersecurity recommendations founded on sound research are necessary to secure EV charging infrastructure. This project is providing the power, security, and automotive industry with a strong technical basis for securing this infrastructure by developing threat models, determining technology gaps, and identifying or developing effective countermeasures. Specifically, the team is creating a cybersecurity threat model and performing a technical risk assessment of EVSE assets, so that automotive, charging, and utility stakeholders can better protect customers, vehicles, and power systems in the face of new cyber threats.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2020

A Test Bed for Evaluating Frequency Estimation Algorithms in Synthetic Inertia Control: User Manual

As penetration of converter interfaced generators (CIGs) increases, the need for CIG frequency control participation increases. Traditionally, research in this area has been performed using positive sequence simulation software, which provides voltage magnitude and phase measurements, but not point-on-wave (POW) measurements. This means that the effect of frequency estimation algorithms cannot be accurately modeled, especially when the voltage waveform is distorted by faults or load connection events. This report serves as a user manual for an electromagnetic transient simulation testbed, which allows for accurate modeling of frequency estimation and control techniques.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2023

ParFlow Sand Tank: A tool for groundwater exploration

The ParFlow Sand Tank model is an open source application designed to allow users to interactively simulate and visualize groundwater movement through the subsurface. The app is designed for both research and education; teaching hydrogeology concepts and making it easy explore and run sophisticated groundwater simulations. Our goal is to support increased accessibility and usability of research grade hydrology tools for research and teaching. The Sand Tank application simulates groundwater and surface water fluxes as well as contaminant transport in real time using the integrated physical hydrology model ParFlow (Kollet & Maxwell, 2006; Maxwell & Miller, 2005; Osei-Kuffuor et al., 2014) and the particle tracking code EcoSlim (Maxwell et al., 2019). ParFlow is a numerical hydrology model that simulates spatially distributed groundwater and surface water flow. It is a well established research tool with more than 90 publications documenting its development use to advance our understanding of groundwater dynamics and groundwater surface water interactions from the hillslope to the continental scale e.g. (Condon et al., 2020; Condon & Maxwell, 2019; Maxwell & Condon, 2016). It is designed for efficient parallel computation and has been run on many platforms spanning from laptops to supercomputers. However, one of the challenges of ParFlow is that it requires significant training and hydrologic expertise to develop simulations. The Sand Tank application makes this model accessible to anyone for education and exploration. Our application uses ParFlow for its simulation backend and ParaView for the data loading and processing. The communication infrastructure relies on the ParaViewWeb framework. We use model templates deployed in Docker images to setup the Sand Tank framework. Users can build the application locally or interact with it through our web deployment. When interacting with a template users can interactively change model parameters like subsurface processes or pump/inject water into the subsurface and watch the system respond to their changes in real time as the simulation runs. Additionally, our template setup will allow more advanced users to build custom templates of increasing complexity for both research and educational purposes.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

Impacts and emerging research opportunities in Vehicle-Grid Integration for transportation: A review

This review provides a comprehensive examination of Vehicle-Grid Integration (VGI) technologies and their impacts on transportation systems, with a particular emphasis on the transportation-energy nexus. It systematically explores how VGI affects key transportation applications such as charging infrastructure planning, electric vehicle (EV) routing, smart charging coordination, shared mobility, and dynamic pricing. By synthesizing recent literature from both transportation and energy systems perspectives, this study highlights how advanced methodologies, such as reinforcement learning, game theory, and optimization techniques, are used to model the complex interactions between EVs, mobility patterns, and distributed energy systems. Furthermore, the review also identifies critical challenges, including behavioral factors, data limitations, and system scalability. Drawing on these insights, the paper outlines emerging research opportunities to support the design of integrated, resilient, and user-centric VGI solutions that advance sustainable mobility and energy system efficiency.

Charging coordination↗
DOE OSTI2021

Cryogenic Vibrationally Resolved Photoelectron Spectroscopy of OH–(H2O): Confirmation of Multidimensional Franck-Condon Simulation Results for the Transition State of the OH + H2O Reaction

We present a transition state spectroscopic study of the OH + H2O reaction using the experimental technique of cryogenic Negative Ion Photoelectron Spectroscopy (NIPES). The recorded NIPE spectrum at 193 nm exhibits multiple vibrational progressions that include excitations to the shared H atom antisymmetric stretching mode with an interval of 0.32 eV as well as other progressions, mainly involving the H bending and O…O symmetric stretching modes. The Vertical Detachment Energy (VDE) was measured at 3.53 eV, whereas an upper limit for the Adiabatic Detachment Energy (ADE) was estimated at 2.90 eV. These values are in excellent agreement with the theoretically computed values of 3.51 eV and 2.83 eV respectively, obtained at the CCSD(T)/aug-cc-pV5Z level of theory. The recorded NIPE spectrum is in very good agreement when compared to the one recently reported from four-dimensional Franck-Condon simulations, in which a similar spectral profile was predicted. Besides observing the ground state, a charge-transfer excited state in the form of [OH–(H2O)+] is identified with a relative energy of 1.39 eV, well matching the previous prediction of 1.36 eV. This work was supported by U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Chemical Sciences, Geosciences, and Biosciences, and performed using EMSL, a national scientific user facility sponsored by DOE’s Office of Biological and Environmental Research and located at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, which is operated by Battelle Memorial Institute for the DOE. The theoretical calculations were conducted on EMSL’s “Cascade” Supercomputer. This research also used resources of the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, which is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231.

Cao, Wenjin↗