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At least 397 records · Page 22

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

DOE OSTI2021

A novel framework for hosting capacity analysis with spatio-temporal probabilistic voltage sensitivity analysis

Smart grids are envisioned to accommodate high penetration of distributed photovoltaic (PV) generation, which may cause adverse grid impacts in terms of voltage violations. Therefore, PV Hosting capacity is being used as a planning tool to determine the maximum PV installation capacity that causes the first voltage violation and above which would require infrastructure upgrades. Additionally, traditional methods of Hosting capacity analysis are scenario based and computationally complex as they rely on iterative load flow algorithms that require investigating a large number of scenarios for accurate assessment of PV impacts. Therefore, this paper presents a computationally efficient analytical approach to compute the probability distribution of voltage change due to random behavior of randomly located multiple distributed PVs. The proposed approach is based on Spatio-temporal probabilistic voltage sensitivity analysis that exploits both spatial and temporal uncertainties associated with PV injections. Thereafter, the derived distribution is used to quantify voltage violations for various PV penetration levels and subsequently determine the hosting capacity of the system without the need to examine large number of scenarios. Results of the proposed framework are validated via conventional load flow based simulation approach on the IEEE 37 and IEEE 123 node test systems.

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2025

Establishing a silica gel zone in well annulus and evaluating its performance in blocking vertical water flow

Wells are often constructed for monitoring purposes with relatively long screen lengths (e.g., >10 m). Vertical water flows can occur within the artificial or natural filterpack annulus that surrounds the screened interval, bypassing packer assemblies installed inside the wellbore. Attempts to isolate discrete vertical zones during groundwater sampling are unsuccessful when annular flow occurs and lead to remedy decisions based on biased or incorrect interpretations. Blocking vertical annular water flow and contaminant transport will help obtain more accurate concentrations of contaminants from sampling in targeted depth intervals. The application of silica gels formed from the injected colloidal silica CS suspensions is a novel approach to minimize or prevent movement of vertical movement of groundwater in the surrounding filterpack annulus. In this work, we tested the feasibility of injecting CS suspensions to target locations and developed a modified CS formulation that is injectable and prevents gravity sinking. We studied the distribution and penetration of silica gel at laboratory scale in mock well annulus with surrounding formations. We evaluated the performance of the silica gel in blocking vertical water flow in the annulus and in minimizing chemical transport through the gel zone. CS suspension formulations have been defined that are ready for injection, stay in target locations, and form gel within desired time frames. Injection of CS suspensions achieved uniform distribution in a well annulus filter pack, fully occupied the annulus pore space, and penetrated the formation surrounding the filter packer with a sufficient distance to create a hydraulic annular seal when the injection was applied at a sufficient rate. The depth of penetration into the formation was dependent on the permeability contrast between the filter pack and the surrounding formation. Silica gel that formed in the annulus blocked vertical water flow and stopped the chemical transport through the gel zone. In conclusion, this research reveals that using CS suspension injection and sequential gelation (CS-GEL) is a promising technology for blocking vertical water flow and chemical transport through the filter pack in targeted zones within the annulus of long-screened well systems.

Colloidal silica suspension↗

DOE OSTI2021

Modeling impurity concentrations in liquid argon detectors

Impurities in noble liquid detectors used for neutrino and dark matter experiments can significantly impact the quality of data. We present an experimentally verified model for describing the dynamics of impurity distributions in liquid argon (LAr) detectors. The model considers sources, sinks, and transport of impurities within and between the gas and liquid argon phases. Measurements of oxygen concentrations in a 20-L LAr multi-purpose test stand are compared to calculations made with this model to show that an accurate description of the concentrations under various operational conditions can be obtained. A result of this analysis is a determination of Henry’s coefficient for oxygen in LAr. Additionally, these calculations also show that some processes have small effects on the impurity dynamics and excluding them yields a solution as a sum of two exponential terms. This solution provides a simple way to extract Henry’s coefficient with negligible approximation error. It is applied to the data and the Henry’s coefficient for oxygen in LAr is obtained as 0.84 +0.09 -0.05 , consistent with literature results. Finally, based on the analysis of the data with the model, we further suggest that, for a large liquid argon detector, barriers to flow (“baffles”) installed in the gas phase to restrict flow can help reduce the ultimate impurity concentration in the LAr.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2024

Initial design concepts for solid boron injection in ITER

As part of ITER’s consideration to change its first wall material from beryllium to tungsten, the ITER Organization has proposed studying the feasibility of real-time solid boron injection (SBI) into the plasma to coat the walls and divertor to supplement glow discharge boronization (GDB). Boron deposits getter oxygen and reduce sputtering of tungsten from plasma facing components (PFCs). Particularly in areas with significant plasma wall interactions, boron coatings are expected to be short-lived under high performance plasma conditions. The proposed SBI system aims to maintain boron layers in these areas to avoid excessive radiation from tungsten in the plasma as a risk mitigation to ensure ITER will be able to reach and sustain Q = 10 conditions. The system will be used sparingly, as redeposition of boron can lead to significant tritium retention, which must be minimized in ITER to comply with nuclear safety concerns. SBI is proposed to limit and precisely control the amount of boron injected in real-time during plasma operation. Here, some of the design requirements and initial concepts for an SBI system in ITER are presented based on previous results carried out with SBI systems on a number of tokamaks and stellarators around the world. Previous results using SBI systems installed by PPPL have injected boron particles from 5 µm–2 mm diameter at calibrated rates of 2–200 mg/s in real-time during plasma operation on AUG, DIII-D, EAST, KSTAR, LHD, TFTR, WEST, and W7-X, leading to improved wall conditions with reduced plasma impurity concentrations and radiated power and improved plasma performance. The boron is ionized in the plasma edge and then deposited on plasma-wetted surfaces. On AUG, EAST and WEST reduced tungsten sputtering sources were observed following several discharges with SBI. Extrapolation of these SBI results are presented to estimate the amount of boron needed for wall conditioning in ITER. Real-time SBI control requirements and plasma operation scenarios for ITER are also described.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2021

Diagnosing nuclear power plant pipe wall thinning due to flow accelerated corrosion using a passive, thermal non-destructive evaluation method: Feasibility assessment via numerical experiments

Flow accelerated corrosion (FAC) in nuclear power plant pipes is one of the leading causes of accidents, fatalities, damage and outages. Current FAC identification methods employ expensive sensing technology and are “active” methods, where the response of the piping system to an externally-generated thermal, mechanical or optical excitation must be measured. As a result, these techniques require a disruptive and time-consuming setup. Here we propose a method that utilizes pipe surface temperature measurements to passively monitor for FAC-induced pipe wall thinning without the need for expensive equipment or post-installation setup time. This diagnostic method utilizes a simulation data-driven diagnostic model to estimate the amount of thickness reduction in a pipe based on changes in measured steady-state pipe temperatures. In order to reduce the computational burden of generating large, simulation-based datasets, the behavior of the insulation of the pipe was modeled using a suitably calibrated heat transfer boundary parameter. Additionally, global sensitivity analysis was performed to determine system parameter(s), such as the temperature of water flowing inside the pipe, which significantly affect the steady state pipe wall temperature and could cause errors in diagnosis. Two diagnostic models, one using only the change in steady-state temperature as an indicator for FAC-induced pipe wall thinning and the other using water temperature as an additional diagnostic model input were evaluated for their ability to estimate thickness reductions in a pipe using simulated pipe wall temperature data. For the numerical experiments conducted in this work, both models estimated wall thickness with errors within 0.5 mm, indicating that the proposed technique can potentially be used as a low-cost, first-pass method for FAC monitoring.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

DOE OSTI2025

Calibration and characterization of the line-VISAR diagnostic at the HED-HIBEF instrument at the European XFEL

In dynamic-compression experiments, the line-imaging Velocity Interferometer System for Any Reflector (VISAR) is a well-established diagnostic used to probe the velocity history, including wave profiles derived from dynamically compressed interfaces and wavefronts, depending on material optical properties. Knowledge of the velocity history allows for the determination of the pressure achieved during compression. Such a VISAR analysis is often based on Fourier transform techniques and assumes that the recorded interferograms are free from image distortions. In this paper, we describe the VISAR diagnostic installed at the HED-HIBEF instrument located at the European XFEL along with its calibration and characterization. It comprises a two-color (532, 1064 nm), three-arm (with three velocity sensitivities) line imaging system. We provide a procedure to correct VISAR images for geometric distortions and evaluate the performance of the system using Fourier analysis. We finally discuss the spatial and temporal calibrations of the diagnostic. As an example, we compare the pressure extracted from the VISAR analysis of shock-compressed polyimide and silicon.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

DOE OSTI2024

2020 U.S. Lighting Market Characterization

The Lighting Market Characterization report details how many lighting products (lamps and luminaires) were installed in the U.S. as of 2020, where they were installed, and how much energy they consumed. It also highlights key changes in U.S. lighting market characteristics between 2015 and 2020. This is the fourth edition of the LMC report; previous versions were released in 2002, 2012 and 2017. By publishing summary estimates of installed stock and energy use of various general illumination lighting products, these reports help DOE and others plan effective lighting research and development programs based on changing needs.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2024

2020 U.S. Lighting Market Characterization

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2024

2020 U.S. Lighting Market Characterization

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2024

Battery Energy Storage Systems Report

Battery energy storage systems (BESS) are a critical component of grid reliability and resilience today, providing rapid response capabilities while enabling grid modernization and capacity expansion across the United States. As utilities, communities, and customers prepare to deploy significant BESS capacity over the next several years, the United States has an opportunity to build security into battery system design and deployments. This report provides a framework for assessing the current dominance of foreign-manufactured components in the supply chains for BESS, inverter-based resources, and transformers. It offers high-impact, actionable solutions to service partners, industry, and government to address supply chain risks for currently installed, in design, and future deployments.

24 - POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

DOE OSTI2023

Cost of Fish Exclusion Technologies for Hydropower

This dataset compiles data on the costs of environmental mitigations related to fish exclusion for 35 hydropower projects based on documents obtained from the U.S Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Data for all measures and their associated project-specific information, including installed and hydraulic capacities, were manually extracted from environmental impact statements and/or environmental assessment (EIS/EA) documents. All data were consolidated in a comma-separated (.csv) file, referred to as the Cost of Fish Exclusion Technologies for Hydropower Database.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2023

Real-Time, Simultaneous Soil Water Content and Meteorological Data Measurement to Support TRACER over Harris County, Texas (Field Campaign Report: Part I)

The main purpose of this project was to provide ground-truth and satellite-based soil water content data in the Houston, Texas, area to support the U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility’s 2022 field campaign, the Tracking Aerosol Convection Interactions ExpeRiment (TRACER). This involved installing four soil monitoring stations at different locations in the Houston area, two of which were part of the ARM facility and two were ancillary. The two stations associated directly with ARM were installed alongside other facilities managed and maintained by the TRACER research team during the intensive operational period (IOP), one located at the La Porte, Texas airport and the other near Guy, Texas. Data from these stations were assimilated with similar data collected by the Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) to improve the spatial coverage of the real-time monitoring network. The ground-truth data were compared to the satellite-based (National Aeronautics and Space Administration [NASA]’s Soil Moisture Active Passive [SMAP] mission) data in the TRACER area of interest, and analyzed further to nowcast gridded data over the Houston area. The nowcasted, gridded data product was made available to TRACER researchers for use in climate and land-atmosphere interaction modeling that can help understand formation and persistence of convective storms in dense urban areas, and predict possible environmental events such as floods.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2023

Real-Time, Simultaneous Soil Water Content and Meteorological Data Measurement to Support TRACER over Harris County, Texas Field Campaign Report: Part II

The main purpose of this project was to provide ground-truth and satellite-based soil water content data in the Houston, Texas, area to support the U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility’s 2022 field campaign, the Tracking Aerosol Convection Interactions ExpeRiment (TRACER). This involved installing four soil monitoring stations at different locations in the Houston area, two of which were part of the ARM facility and two were ancillary. The two stations associated directly with ARM were installed alongside other facilities managed and maintained by the TRACER research team during the intensive operational period (IOP), one located at the La Porte, Texas airport and the other located near Guy, Texas. Data from these stations were assimilated with similar data collected by the Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) to improve the spatial coverage of the real-time monitoring network. The ground-truth data were compared to the satellite-based (National Aeronautics and Space Administration [NASA]’s Soil Moisture Active Passive [SMAP] mission) data in the TRACER area of interest, and analyzed further to nowcast gridded data over the Houston area. The nowcasted, gridded data product was made available to TRACER researchers for use in climate and land-atmosphere interaction modeling that can help understand formation and persistence of convective storms in dense urban areas, and predict possible environmental events such as floods.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2024

Precise Motion Control of Hybrid Hydraulic Electric Architecture (HHEA)

Off-highway heavy-duty vehicles have been long-standing users of hydraulic systems for power transmission and control. However, traditional hydraulic systems suffer from significant energy losses which lead to increased operating costs and a larger carbon footprint due to higher CO2 emissions. Improving the efficiency of these mobile machines is crucial not only for reducing their environmental impact but also for saving billions of dollars in operating costs. Currently, the state-of-the-art Load Sensing Architecture uses throttling valves for control, which significantly reduces its efficiency and does not recuperate energy from over-running loads. Researchers have developed several architectures such as Common Pressure Rail systems, Displacement Control, STEAM, and Electrohydraulic Architecture to improve the efficiency of off-road mobile machines. However, each of these architectures has its drawbacks. To increase system efficiency and take advantage of electrification benefits, our research group has developed a novel Hybrid Hydraulic-Electric Architecture (HHEA). The HHEA can significantly improve efficiency, decrease the size of electrical components, and maintain control performance. This new architecture has the potential to revolutionize the off-highway mobile machine industry and lead to a more sustainable future. The HHEA uses a set of common pressure rails to provide the majority of power to the actuators via power-dense hydraulics and uses electric motors for precise control and power modulation. In the context of off-road mobile machines, energy savings are undoubtedly important but it is equally important to consider the machines’ ability to perform tasks with precision and accuracy according to given commands. Therefore, precise motion control is of utmost importance to maintain the utility of Hybrid Hydraulic-Electric Architecture (HHEA). The HHEA presents a unique challenge to motion control due to the discrete pressure changes that occur when the system switches between selected pressure rails. These changes are made to minimize system inefficiencies or to keep the system within the torque capability of the electric motor. Hence, it is important to solve the motion control challenges for HHEA. This thesis aims at developing an effective motion control strategy for HHEA. The dissertation presents a two-tiered control strategy for HHEA, comprising a high-level and a low-level controller. The primary responsibility of the high- level controller is to optimize energy efficiency by making informed pressure rail selections. On the other hand, the low-level controller is focused on achieving precise motion control of the HHEA, which is crucial for realizing the desired reference trajectories. To achieve this, the low-level controller utilizes a passivity-based backstepping integral controller as the nominal control, which handles the motion control between two pressure rail switches. Additionally, a separate least norm controller is utilized as a transition controller to manage motion control during pressure rail transitions. The effectiveness of the combined control strategy is demonstrated through experiments conducted on two hardware-in-the-loop testbeds. Furthermore, the HHEA is installed on the boom and stick actuators of a backhoe arm to build a Human-in-the-Loop system that a human operator can control. A real-time rail switching algorithm is developed to determine pressure rail switching based on present duty cycle information from the operator. Modifications have been made to the human-machine interface to achieve more intuitive control. Modifications include performing control in the task-oriented coordinates, incorporating pressure feedback to enhance control with physical interaction, and using velocity field control to simplify multi-degree-of-freedom tasks and to enable novice operators to perform them with reduced risk, improved efficiency, and productivity. The research in this dissertation makes significant contributions to the field of off-road mobile machine control, providing a novel and effective control strategy for the HHEA, and demonstrating the potential for simplified machine operation.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

DOE OSTI2022

Application of Manufacturing Quality Management Principles to PV System Installations

To help SETO/DOE achieve its goals, the IBTS team proposed a project addressing system reliability by improving installation standards and quality management. The proposed approach was designed to help achieve measurable reductions in installation defect density and improvements in the performance of PV systems by optimizing design and installation of residential and commercial PV systems. This approach addressed the soft costs associated with installations and quality management. The project demonstrated improved system reliability and reduced PV system installation costs. The software developed improved operations, decreased risk, and increased the overall value of PV systems across their lifecycle. The project used several data collection methods, including extensive industry surveys, face-to-face high-level interviews at industry conferences, stakeholder teleconferences, and in-depth interviews conducted by IBTS staff. Results from the research found the industry needs a uniform assessment method for national providers to be more efficient; the software should support both code officials and installers; most industry stakeholders would find value in a centralized software system that allows them to collect, report, and review information on in-process and completed solar installations; and mobile solutions that bridge existing knowledge gaps with inspectors and integrate with existing methodologies (such as permitting software) are of great value. The software solution developed is web-based, allowing for national access, and is built on a Google Firebase platform that can handle significant users and data. It can be used onsite or remotely, allowing for code compliance to continue despite ongoing pandemic related delays or shutdowns for local economies. The information provided by the software tool allows users to uniformly assess a system for compliance and use that aggregated data to identify training topics or create internal process designed to improving issues and reducing occurrence. This solution has multiple benefits in managing quality at time of use and promoting an increase in future safety and quality through education. Perhaps most importantly, this software increases public safety by ensuring compliance of installed systems and allows for local AHJs to remotely engage specialized and qualified solar specific expertise for oversite of the installation in their jurisdictions. Data analysis provides the quality feedback loop identifying the root cause of failure and drives installation practices to improve through training and education, resulting in systems with higher performance, greater reliability, and reduced operations and maintenance costs. With the successful completion of this project, the industry can expect reduced soft costs and increased performance and safety and will ultimately benefit from longer performing systems that cost less to operate.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2021

A Multi-Site Networked Hardware-in-Loop Platform for Evaluation of Interoperability and Distributed Intelligence at Grid-Edge

Electric power systems have experienced large increases in the number of intelligent, connected and controllable devices being deployed, leading to a high degree of distributed intelligence at the grid-edge. These devices, both utility-owned and consumer-owned, include but are not limited to: renewable generation sources, energy storage, remote switches, voltage regulators, and smart controllable loads such as electric vehicles. These new devices provide significant potential for increased operational flexibility that can be leveraged to achieve system reconfiguration, resiliency improvements, power quality improvements, and distribution system automation. However, there are two significant challenges that must be addressed before these assets can be leveraged for operations: interoperability and system level validation prior to deployment. Because of the complexity of distributed control systems, and their interactions with legacy centralized controls, a purely simulations-based approach for pre-deployment validation is not sufficient. It requires hardware-in-loop testing to emulate the operational hardware devices and evaluate their performance. Additionally, securely integrating multiple test facilities at utility operators and vendors might enable rapid scale-up of evaluation platforms, and remove the need for multiple expensive standalone installations. Presented in this paper, is the development of a multi-site evaluation platform that employs Advanced Distribution Management Systems (ADMS), distributed control devices, real-time hardware-in-loop assets, secure communication links, and protocol adapters. This platform uses standards-based approaches and open-source tools, and hence can serve as a template for other researchers and institutions to implement their multi-site evaluation frameworks for pre-deployment testing.

Essakiappan, Somasundaram↗

DOE OSTI2021

Modulation of CO 2 adsorption in novel pillar-layered MOFs based on carboxylate–pyrazole flexible linker

Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) have attracted significant attention as sorbents due to their high surface area, tunable pore volume and pore size, coordinatively unsaturated metal sites, and ability to install desired functional groups by post-synthetic modification. Herein, we report three new MOFs with pillar–paddlewheel structures that have been synthesized solvothermally from the mixture of the carboxylate–pyrazole flexible linker (H 2 L), 4,4-bipyridine (BPY)/triethylenediamine (DABCO), and Zn(II)/Cu(II) ions. The MOFs obtained, namely [Zn II (L)BPY], [Cu II (L)BPY], and [Cu II (L)DABCO], exhibit two-fold interpenetration and dinuclear paddle–wheel nodes. The Zn(II)/Cu(II) cations are coordinated by two equatorial L linkers that result in two-dimensional sheets which in turn are pillared by BPY or DABCO in the perpendicular direction to obtain a neutral three-dimensional framework that shows one-dimensional square channels. The three pillar-layered MOFs were characterized as microporous materials showing high crystalline stability after activation at 120 °C and CO 2 adsorption. All MOFs contain uncoordinated Lewis basic pyrazole nitrogen atoms in the framework which have an affinity toward CO 2 and hence could potentially serve as CO 2 adsorption material. The CO 2 uptake capacity was initially enhanced by replacing Zn with Cu and then replacing the pillar, going from BPY to DABCO. Overall, all the MOFs exhibit low isosteric heat (Q st ) of adsorption which signifies an advantage due to the energy required for the adsorption and regeneration processes.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

DOE OSTI2021

SiC-Based Wireless Power Transformation for Data Centers & Medium Voltage Applications

Data centers have grown in physical size and their electrical power consumption has grown to levels of several 100kW and approaching 1 GW in large installations. The low voltage electrical distribution inside of Data Centers consists of several conversion stages and a lot of wiring to bring the power from medium voltage (MV) levels outside of the building to the low voltage levels that the servers and racks require. Energy losses during distribution and conversion and high incident arc flash energy levels at the point of use are significant. The electrical distribution system is complex and costly.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗