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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 397 records · Page 22
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2020

Site Environmental Report for Sandia National Laboratories California (2019)

Sandia National Laboratories, California (SNL/CA) is a Department of Energy (DOE) facility. The management and operations of the facility are under a contract with the DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). On May 1, 2017, the name of the management and operating contractor changed from Sandia Corporation to National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC (NTESS). The DOE, NNSA, Sandia Field Office administers the contract and oversees contractor operations at the site. DOE and its management and operating contractor for Sandia are committed to safeguarding environmental protection, compliance, and sustainability and to ensuring the validity and accuracy of the monitoring data presented in this Annual Site Environmental Report. This Site Environmental Report for 2019 was prepared in accordance with DOE Order 231.1B, Environment, S afro and Health &potting (DOE 2012). The report provides a summary of environmental monitoring information and compliance activities that occurred at SNL/CA during calendar year 2019, unless noted otherwise. General site and environmental program information is also included.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Site Environmental Report for 2020, Sandia National Laboratories, California

Sandia National Laboratories, California (SNL/CA) is a Department of Energy (DOE) facility. The management and operations of the facility are under a contract with the DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). On May 1, 2017, the name of the management and operating contractor changed from Sandia Corporation to National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC (NTESS). The DOE, NNSA, Sandia Field Office administers the contract and oversees contractor operations at the site. DOE and its management and operating contractor for Sandia are committed to safeguarding environmental protection, compliance, and sustainability and to ensuring the validity and accuracy of the monitoring data presented in this Annual Site Environmental Report. This Site Environmental Report for 2020 was prepared in accordance with DOE Order 231.1B, Environment, Safety and Health Reporting (DOE 2012). The report provides a summary of environmental monitoring information and compliance activities that occurred at SNL/CA during calendar year 2020, unless noted otherwise. General site and environmental program information is also included.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Developing and Evaluating a Smart Curtailment Strategy Integrated with a Wind Turbine Manufacturer Platform

The Renewable Energy Wildlife Institute lead a team of scientists, wind developers, and turbine manufacturers in a study to develop and test a “smart curtailment” system intended to help reduce bat collisions with wind turbines. The Vestas Bat Protection System (VBPS) is a newly developed software module within the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system of Vestas turbines. The VBPS combines data from commercially available environmental sensors and the turbine’s built-in sensors with the Vestas SCADA system. VBPS is designed to receive environmental data from sensors on the turbine such as temperature, wind speed, wind direction, time of day, and time of year, relays that information to the SCADA system to determine whether to execute turbine curtailments at any given time. The goals of this study were to 1) develop a bat fatality risk model based on bat activity data and environmental data collected in year 1, and to 2) evaluate the VBPS, using the bat fatality risk model to implement curtailment, in comparison to “blanket curtailment” (turbines curtailed when wind speed is below 5.0 meters per second (m/s)) and “control” (normally operating, feathered below 3.0 m/s) turbines in year 2. The field study took place at a wind energy facility in Iowa during the fall bat migration seasons (July – October) in 2021 and 2022. For VBPS to succeed as a viable strategy for the minimization of bat fatalities, it should meet or exceed the performance of blanket curtailment. Specifically, the VBPS should meet the following performance targets to demonstrate whether it an effective, practical risk reduction measure: (1) Turbines operating VBPS should have equal or fewer bat fatalities compared to turbines operating with blanket curtailment, and significantly fewer bat fatalities compared to control turbines; and (2) Turbines operating VBPS should have greater power production compared to turbines operating with blanket curtailment. The study was completed in accordance with the Statement of Project Objectives and within the terms of the Budget Justification. This Final Report describes the progress, challenges, and outcomes of the study.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

A Survey on Cybersecurity Challenges, Detection, and Mitigation Techniques for the Smart Grid

The world is transitioning from the conventional grid to the smart grid at a rapid pace. Innovation always comes with some flaws; such is the case with a smart grid. One of the major challenges in the smart grid is to protect it from potential cyberattacks. There are millions of sensors continuously sending and receiving data packets over the network, so managing such a gigantic network is the biggest challenge. Any cyberattack can damage the key elements, confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the smart grid. The overall smart grid network is comprised of customers accessing the network, communication network of the smart devices and sensors, and the people managing the network (decision makers); all three of these levels are vulnerable to cyberattacks. In this survey, we explore various threats and vulnerabilities that can affect the key elements of cybersecurity in the smart grid network and then present the security measures to avert those threats and vulnerabilities at three different levels. In addition to that, we suggest techniques to minimize the chances of cyberattack at all three levels.

Tufail, Shahid↗
DOE OSTI2022

kemmerl4/LTER_prairie_strip_2019-2020: Data for: Prairie strips and lower land use intensity increase biodiversity and ecosystem services

Agricultural landscapes can be managed to protect biodiversity and maintain ecosystem services. One approach to achieve this is to restore native perennial vegetation within croplands. Where rowcrops have displaced prairie, as in the US Midwest, restoration of native perennial vegetation can align with crops in so called “prairie strips.” We tested the effect of prairie strips in addition to other management practices on a variety of taxa and on a suite of ecosystem services. To do so, we worked within a 33-year-old experiment that included treatments that varied methods of agricultural management across a gradient of land use intensity. In the two lowest intensity crop management treatments, we introduced prairie strips that occupied 5% of crop area. We addressed three questions: (1) What are the effects of newly established prairie strips on the spillover of biodiversity and ecosystem services into cropland? (2) How does time since prairie strip establishment affect biodiversity and ecosystem services? (3) What are the tradeoffs and synergies among biodiversity conservation, non-provisioning ecosystem services, and provisioning ecosystem services (crop yield) across a land use intensity gradient (which includes prairie strips)? Within prairie strip treatments, where sampling effort occurred within and at increasing distance from strips, dung beetle abundance, spider abundance and richness, active carbon, decomposition, and pollination decreased with distance from prairie strips, and this effect increased between the first and second year. Across the entire land use intensity gradient, treatments with prairie strips and reduced chemical inputs had higher butterfly abundance, spider abundance, and pollination services. In addition, soil organic carbon, butterfly richness, and spider richness increased with a decrease in land use intensity. Crop yield in one treatment with prairie strips was equal to that of the highest intensity management, even while including the area taken out of production. We found no effects of strips on ant biodiversity and greenhouse gas emissions (N 2 O and CH 4 ). Our results show that, even in early establishment, prairie strips and lower land use intensity can contribute to the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services without a disproportionate loss of crop yield.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Defining a Use Case for the ADMS Test Bed: Fault Location, Isolation, and Service Restoration with Distributed Energy Resources: Preprint

Advanced distribution management systems (ADMS) integrate multiple enterprise-level functions into a single platform and offer advanced applications such as fault location, isolation, and service restoration (FLISR), to utilities to meet their operational needs for a modernized grid. These applications need to operate reliably even as distributed energy resource (DER) penetration increases on distribution systems. The ADMS test bed at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory offers utilities and vendors the opportunity to evaluate the performance of such advanced applications on distribution feeders of the future and to understand their potential benefits for a specific utility. This is done through defining use cases that address specific questions. This paper presents the definition of a use case on the performance of a commercially-available FLISR application on a feeder of an electric cooperative with DERs. Results from this use case will be disseminated to the electric utility and research community to improve understanding of the challenges and benefits that DERs present to ADMS applications and the operation of a modernized grid.

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Photoelectron Spectroscopic Determination of the Interfacial Energetics of Metal Oxide Protection Layers on p-InP Photocathodes

The interfacial energetics between p-type InP and a series of metal oxides, including TiO 2 , Nb 2 O 5 , Ta 2 O 5 , and HfO 2 , were evaluated using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS), and optical absorption spectroscopy. The energy of the conduction-band minimum ( E cb ) of TiO 2 and Nb 2 O 5 was more negative (i.e., further from the vacuum level) than the conduction-band minimum at the surface of InP ( E cb,s ), whereas E cb for Ta 2 O 5 and HfO 2 was more positive than E cb,s for InP. The data are consistent with the electrochemical behavior of p-InP coated with various metal oxide candidate protection layers, with TiO 2 and Nb 2 O 5 facilitating interfacial transfer of photogenerated minority-carrier electrons in p-InP photocathodes, and Ta 2 O 5 and HfO 2 blocking photogenerated electrons in p-InP from readily transferring across the oxide-coated photocathodes. The energy of the valence-band maximum ( E vb ) for all of the oxides was much more negative than E vb,s for InP, consistent with observations that these protection layers effectively block hole transport and consequently suppress oxidative degradation of the underlying p-InP photocathodes.

63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTAN↗
DOE OSTI2021

Data Fusion to Enhance Quality Control and Analysis with Instruments at the Marine and Coastal Research Laboratory

Deploying environmental monitoring instruments in the marine environment can be challenging, facing challenges around device survivability, biofouling and corrosion, and consistent data collection. This project explores the use of data fusion – the process of integrating multiple data sources to produce more consistent, accurate, and useful information – to build a consistent long-term monitoring system at the Marine and Coastal Research Laboratory (MCRL) in Sequim, Washington. Unused instruments that had been acquired from past projects were inventoried and deployments planned on the MCRL pier and floating dock. A total of 8 instruments were deployed including a tide gauge, hydrophone, acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP), photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) sensors, meteorological station, and three water quality sensors. Deployments were planned to be well-protected around the pier structure and a maintenance schedule was created for cleaning and recalibration. An automated data pipeline was created to aggregate data on edge computers that push data to Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud storage every 15 minutes, performing automated quality control and data transformations using the Time Series Data Analytical Toolkit (TSDAT). Continued efforts are underway to maintain this system into the future, take a data-driven approach to maintenance scheduling, improve the reliability of the system, and share the data with a variety of end-users.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Laser Surface Processing of Alloys for Corrosion Protection (Final Project Report of Marine Energy Seedling Project)

This is the final project report for the MHK Seedling project. The report describes use of laser surface processing (LSP) to modify the surface of test materials (Al, steel) and the corrosion testing performed on the resulting samples in different corrosion environments. Data shows that LSP improved the corrosion resistance of Al and steel used in this work relative to respective non-LSP samples. The data also showed that each material had a specific range of laser processing conditions where the beneficial effects of LSP (i.e. improvement in corrosion protection) were observed. Application of LSP to enable low-cost materials in marine environments, additional microstructural analysis and long-term testing are proposed to further develop this technology for marine renewable energy and systems.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

MIBiG 3.0: a community-driven effort to annotate experimentally validated biosynthetic gene clusters

Abstract With an ever-increasing amount of (meta)genomic data being deposited in sequence databases, (meta)genome mining for natural product biosynthetic pathways occupies a critical role in the discovery of novel pharmaceutical drugs, crop protection agents and biomaterials. The genes that encode these pathways are often organised into biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs). In 2015, we defined the Minimum Information about a Biosynthetic Gene cluster (MIBiG): a standardised data format that describes the minimally required information to uniquely characterise a BGC. We simultaneously constructed an accompanying online database of BGCs, which has since been widely used by the community as a reference dataset for BGCs and was expanded to 2021 entries in 2019 (MIBiG 2.0). Here, we describe MIBiG 3.0, a database update comprising large-scale validation and re-annotation of existing entries and 661 new entries. Particular attention was paid to the annotation of compound structures and biological activities, as well as protein domain selectivities. Together, these new features keep the database up-to-date, and will provide new opportunities for the scientific community to use its freely available data, e.g. for the training of new machine learning models to predict sequence-structure-function relationships for diverse natural products. MIBiG 3.0 is accessible online at https://mibig.secondarymetabolites.org/.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

A review of preserving privacy in data collected from buildings with differential privacy

Significant amounts of data are collected in buildings. While these data have great potential for maximizing the energy efficiency of buildings in general, only a small portion of the data are accessible to researchers, government, and industry for analyses. Concerns about privacy are one of the major barriers prohibiting access to these data. Privacy preservation techniques are generally applied to this problem not only to preserve underlying privacy but also to improve the usefulness of data. Among various privacy preserving techniques, differential privacy has become one of the more popular solutions since its introduction in 2006. Differential privacy is a mathematical measure for protecting privacy so that one's privacy cannot be incurred by participating in a database. Additionally, although significant research improvements have been made for more than a decade, applying differential privacy to data collected in buildings is still an immature field of study. Because implementing differential privacy on a certain use case is not straightforward and can be achieved with various configurations, it is important to understand variation of configurations with different use cases around data collected from buildings. This literature review aims to introduce what has been done to implement differential privacy in data collected in buildings, and to discuss associated challenges and potential future research opportunities.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2021

Security assessment and impact analysis of cyberattacks in integrated T&D power systems

In this paper, we examine the impact of cyberattacks in an integrated transmission and distribution (T&D) power grid model with distributed energy resource (DER) integration. We adopt the OCTAVE Allegro methodology to identify critical system assets, enumerate potential threats, analyze and prioritize risks for threat scenarios. Based on the analysis, attack strategies and exploitation scenarios are identified which could lead to system compromise. Specifically, we investigate the impact of data integrity attacks in inverted-based solar PV controllers, control signal blocking attacks in protective switches and breakers, and coordinated monitoring and switching time-delay attacks. Index Terms—Cyberattacks, security assessment, impact analysis, case studies, integrated power systems.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Spy in the GPU-box: Covert and Side Channel Attacks on Multi-GPU System

The deep learning revolution has been enabled in large part by GPUs, and more recently accelerators, which make it possible to carry out computationally demanding training and inference in acceptable times. As the size of machine learning networks and workloads continues to increase, multi-GPU machines have emerged as an important platform offered on High Performance Computing and cloud data centers. Since these machines are shared among multiple users, it becomes increasingly important to protect applications against potential attacks. In this paper, we explore the vulnerability of Nvidia's DGX multi-GPU machines to covert and side channel attacks. These machines consist of a number of discrete GPUs that are interconnected through a combination of custom interconnect (NVLink) and PCIe connections. We reverse engineer the interconnected cache hierarchy and show that it is possible for an attacker on one GPU to cause contention on the L2 cache of another GPU. We use this observation to first develop a covert channel attack across two GPUs, achieving the best bandwidth of around 4 MB/s. We also develop a prime and probe attack on a remote GPU allowing an attacker to recover the cache access pattern of another workload. This access pattern can be used in any number of side channel attacks: we demonstrate a proof of concept attack that fingerprints the application running on the remote GPU, with high accuracy. We also develop a proof of concept attack to extract hyperparameters of a machine learning workload. Our work establishes for the first time the vulnerability of these machines to microarchitectural attacks and can guide future research to improve their security.

Dutta, Sankha↗
DOE OSTI2020

Improved Stability and Cyclability of Ceramic Solid Electrolyte by Coating Polymer

Rechargeable all-solid-state lithium (Li) metal batteries show better safety and energy density compared to commercial Li-ion batteries using liquid electrolyte. As the key component of Li metal batteries, ceramic solid-state electrolyte has attracted great interest because of its high ion conductivity and great potential in interfacing with Li metal. Ceramic electrolyte has a more stable interface with Li metal than liquid electrolyte, but chemical reaction and Li dendrite growth at the electrolyte/Li interface are still significant, which causes device degradation and failure by cycling of Li plating and stripping. Unlike ceramic electrolyte, polymer electrolyte has a relatively stable interface with Li metal and better mechanical flexibility. Therefore, we introduced a polymer electrolyte coating to protect the ceramic electrolyte from direct contact with Li metal. The galvanotactic cycling Li plating/striping data on the devices with (without) the coating illustrates increased (decreased) overall conductivity and cyclability of the test cell by the cycling. Nanometer-scale ionic-transport imaging, based on atomic force microscopy, shows that cycling degrades the ceramic-only electrolyte by partially blocking ionic transport in areas; in contrast, cycling on the polymer-coated electrolyte improves ionic conductivity. Compared with the ceramic-only electrolyte, this novel polymer electrolyte coating on ceramic electrolyte shows less degradation when in contact with Li metal.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2020

Technical Gaps in Hanford High-Level Waste Solids Settling Behavior and Settling Time Evaluation for Direct Feed High-Level Waste (DFHLW) Operations

Settling of high-level waste (HLW) solids in process vessels is a key conceptual process step in providing HLW feed directly to the Hanford Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) HLW Vitrification Facility. Direct Feed High-Level Waste (DFHLW) is a potential approach to initiating HLW vitrification prior to completing of the WTP Pretreatment Facility. Settling would be used with subsequent supernatant decant to concentrate HLW feed. To support planning for DFHLW, Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) requested support from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to evaluate the current data set available to predict the time needed for HLW solids to settle, to identify gaps in the understanding and predictive capability of HLW solids waste settling times, and to provide scoping estimates of the potential settling time. Eight technical gaps were identified for predicting settling times and characteristics of the formed sediment layers including: Gap 1: In-Tank Settling Rates Faster than Settling of Laboratory Samples, Gap 2: Effect of Sludge Leaching/Washing on Predicted Settling Times, Gap 3: Predicting Waste Settling from Waste Chemistry (Waste Type), Gap 4: Predicting Waste Settling from Particle Size and Density Distributions (PSDDs), Gap 5: Insufficient Laboratory and In-Tank Settling Data to Represent Hanford Waste, Gap 6: Methods for Real-Time, In-Tank Tracking of Settling, Gap 7: Prediction of Sediment Erosion Resistance as a Function of Settling Time, and Gap 8: Prediction of Sediment Solids Content as a Function of Settling Time. In addition to the data gaps, an overarching observation of the settling rate and settled layer data is the significant variation in behavior. At similar solids concentrations, settling rates can vary by as much as 3 orders of magnitude depending on the source waste tank, and significantly different settling rates are noted between laboratory and in situ tests for the same waste tank. The range of average solids concentration in existing HLW sediment, which may have been quiescent for decades, can vary from less than 7 wt% to greater than 74 wt% solids. The shear strengths (or yield stresses) measured on laboratory samples range from less than 27 Pa to greater than 6400 Pa. These variations can challenge process planning for the application of a settle/decant process for DFHLW. This report describes the significance of the gaps to the settle/decant process and presents uncertainties by way of examples. Potential technical approaches for resolving these gaps are described and the estimated difficulty in resolving these gaps is evaluated. Based on the significance of the gap and the difficulty of resolution, recommendations are made to address specific gaps. Scoping estimates of the potential settling times for DFHLW solids have been made based on the existing data set with its associated gaps. Depending on the process vessel depth and final sediment concentration, substantial fractions of the scoping estimate results for settling times for characterized HLW exceed the 2-week period that has been previously assumed for process planning. There is also significant disparity, potentially greater than a factor of 5000 difference, in the estimated settling times depending on process vessel depth and final sediment solid concentration. This variation in results underscores the significance of the identified gaps and uncertainties with respect to process planning for utilizing settle/decant operations for DFHLW.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2025

District Geothermal Heating + Cooling Deployment in a CT Environmental Justice Community

The report marks the team’s completion of all required tasks and milestones. Work completed for Task 1 (Technical and Economic Feasibility Assessment & Procurement Drafting) included development of analysis and design model; completion of technical, economic, and environmental assessments; and technical outreach and coalition design. Components for Task 2 (Outreach & Community Engagement) involved broad outreach and community-engagement efforts (including stakeholder meetings and a webinar as well as development of a formal engagement plan) and development of a web page and a case study. For Task 3 (Workforce Transition, Development, & Training Plan), the team undertook a formal statewide geothermal workforce needs assessment, developed corresponding recommendations for both the state as a whole and the Wallingford project, and held several workshops. For Task 4 (Project Management & Data Sharing), the team drafted a data-sharing plan.

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

The Construction of Reduced Order Models for the HYBRID Repository

Reduced order models (ROMs) present an opportunity to reduce the computational burden of IES analysis using HYBRID models without significantly sacrificing data accuracy. Other applications of ROMs are digital twins, stochastic optimization studies, model exporting, and protection of proprietary information. In this paper the capability of creating ROMs of the models within the HYBRID repository will be demonstrated. Specifically, a linear regression ROM of a gas turbine and a dynamic mode decomposition with control (DMDc) ROM of a lithium-ion battery are constructed.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2023

From Count Rates to Quantifying Isotopic Activities – Field Analysis of Radiation Monitoring Data

The Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) provides a comprehensive bicoastal radiological and nuclear emergency response to United States Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration. A major part of the support is to provide systematic radiological search for lost or stolen sources, Radiological search is a core competency of the NNSS with its origin dating back to nuclear weapons test era. Search operations from multiple platforms is the common thread among the various NNSS assets, which include Aerial Measuring System (AMS), Maritime Support Team (MST), National Capitol Response (NCR), National Search Team (NST) and Radiological Assistance Program (RAP). Information collected and analyzed during search operations add to the actionable intelligence for the law enforcement agencies and provide valuable guidance for the tactical resolution of a nuclear or radiological crisis. Search is an intelligence and situational awareness driven operation and most often called upon during a radiological emergency, however it can be brought into play to thwart a potential threat by providing monitoring and surveillance support. The Office of Nuclear Incident Response (NA-84) serves as the technical leader in responding to and resolving nuclear and radiological threats worldwide and integrates its efforts with other NNSA stakeholders (e.g., NNSA office of Defense Nuclear Non-proliferation NA-22). The response includes expertise in the areas of radiological search, render safe, and consequence management. This article will discuss the methodologies, tools, procedures, and techniques to extract maximum radiological characterization information (isotopic composition, activities for individual isotopes, threat assessment etc.) from field monitoring or Search operation data.

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗