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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 505 records · Page 28
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2014

Factors influencing the development and implementation of advanced radiographer practice in Australia – a qualitative study using an interpretative phenomenological approach

The purpose of this study was to explore the factors influencing the implementation or the lack of implementation of advanced practitioner role in Australia. This study uses an interpretative phenomenological approach to explore the in-depth real life issues, which surround the advanced practitioner as a solution to radiologist workforce shortages in Australia. Research participants are radiographers, radiation therapists and health managers registered with the Australian Institute of Radiography (AIR) and holding senior professional and AIR Board positions with knowledge of current advanced practice. In total, seven interviews were conducted revealing education, governance, technical, people issues, change management, government, costs and timing as critical factors influencing advanced practice in Australia. Seven participants in this study perceived an advanced practice role might have major benefits and a positive impact on the immediate and long-term management of patients. Another finding is the greater respect and appreciation of each other's roles and expertise within the multidisciplinary healthcare team. Engagement is required of the critical stakeholders that have been identified as ‘blockers’ (radiologists, health departments) as well as identified allies (e.g. emergency clinicians, supportive radiologists, patient advocacy groups). The research supports that the AIR has a role to play for the professional identity of radiographers and shaping the advanced practice role in Australia.

42 ENGINEERING↗
NASA NTRS2020

Small Unmanned Aircraft System Communications and Navigation Performance

NASA performed research and development of technologies and requirements for traffic management of small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS). In this effort, four measures of performance (MOPs) were developed to understand the performance of small UAS communications and navigation systems in urban operations. This Technical Memorandum (TM) describes UAS Traffic Management (UTM) operational architecture, UTM Technical Capability Level 4 (TCL4) flight tests that took place in two different urban settings, the four MOPs, and the TCL4 MOP results.

Unmanned Aviation Systems Traffic Management↗
DOE OSTI2019

Dilute Source CO 2 Capture: Management of Atmospheric Coal-Produced Legacy Emissions (Final Technical Report)

This report presents the scientific and technical findings by Carbon Engineering Ltd (CE) resulting from the DOE sponsored research and development project on Direct Air Capture (DAC) process. The work was performed by CE under the Award DE-FE0026861 from the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL). The work plan was centered on advancing the Recipient’s DAC technology, developing a better understanding of its performance and cost. The report outlines the results from two key activities that were performed under this award: Studying the performance characteristics of the DAC plant at both pilot and lab scale Techno-economic analysis (TEA) to study two implementations of CE’s proprietary DAC process: i) An early commercial DAC process that captures ~1 MT CO 2 /year of atmospheric CO 2 (Baseline case), and ii) A modified early commercial DAC process that captures 1 MT CO 2 /year of flue gas CO 2 downstream of a subcritical PC post-CCS power plant (Case 1 Option C). Within the first key activity of the project, significant operational improvements and learnings were realized, including for key equipment in the DAC process in addition to the overall system. Learnings included impact of equipment design on the capture, calcination and slaking processes, and operational parameter modifications for optimizing the pelletization process, along with the complex interactions and associated considerations of these on overall system performance. In parallel, benchtop scale equipment was successfully utilized to validate pilot scale data, such as, retention in the pellet reactor, and capture performance parameters of the air contactor. CE continues to conduct core research and development activities; the learnings from this DOE project will contribute to the design, testing and operation activities of CE’s fully integrated DAC validation plant, as well as the first commercial DAC plant. The second key activity incorporated the above learnings, as well as input from vendors and EPC experts, to produce the TEA report. More specifically, the TEA results were based on measured pilot plant performance data for all major unit operations, and on an energy and material balance for the process at commercial scale computed using an Aspen One® process simulation. The cost estimation methodology follows AACE International recommended practices; with an uncertainty range of -15%/+30%. Depending on financial assumptions, energy costs, and the specific choice of inputs and outputs, the levelized cost per ton CO 2 captured from the atmosphere for an early commercial plant for the baseline case ranges from 227 to 304 $/t-CO 2 . And, the levelized cost to capture 98% of the flue gas CO 2 emissions in a subcritical PC power plant (Case 1 Option C) through a combination of Cansolv carbon capture system and a modified DAC system was estimated to range from 109 to 160 $/MWh of net power generated. Process improvement opportunities identified during this work, in addition to cost reduction opportunities identified during the Value Engineering exercise associated with the Baseline case indicate that significant reductions in capital costs are available as CE scales up and proceeds through deployment of initial facilities.

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS↗
NASA NTRS2016

Expanded Guidance for NASA Systems Engineering. Volume 2: Crosscutting Topics, Special Topics, and Appendices

Historically, most successful NASA projects have depended on effectively blending project management, systems engineering, and technical expertise among NASA, contractors, and third parties. Underlying these successes are a variety of agreements (e.g., contract, memorandum of understanding, grant, cooperative agreement) between NASA organizations or between NASA and other Government agencies, Government organizations, companies, universities, research laboratories, and so on. To simplify the discussions, the term "contract" is used to encompass these agreements. This section focuses on the NASA systems engineering activities pertinent to awarding a contract, managing contract performance, and completing a contract. In particular, NASA systems engineering interfaces to the procurement process are covered, since the NASA engineering technical team plays a key role in the development and evaluation of contract documentation. Contractors and third parties perform activities that supplement (or substitute for) the NASA project technical team accomplishment of the NASA common systems engineering technical process activities and requirements outlined in this guide. Since contractors might be involved in any part of the systems engineering life cycle, the NASA project technical team needs to know how to prepare for, allocate or perform, and implement surveillance of technical activities that are allocated to contractors.

Steven R Hirshorn↗
NASA NTRS2008

Benchmarking Gas Path Diagnostic Methods: A Public Approach

Recent technology reviews have identified the need for objective assessments of engine health management (EHM) technology. The need is two-fold: technology developers require relevant data and problems to design and validate new algorithms and techniques while engine system integrators and operators need practical tools to direct development and then evaluate the effectiveness of proposed solutions. This paper presents a publicly available gas path diagnostic benchmark problem that has been developed by the Propulsion and Power Systems Panel of The Technical Cooperation Program (TTCP) to help address these needs. The problem is coded in MATLAB (The MathWorks, Inc.) and coupled with a non-linear turbofan engine simulation to produce "snap-shot" measurements, with relevant noise levels, as if collected from a fleet of engines over their lifetime of use. Each engine within the fleet will experience unique operating and deterioration profiles, and may encounter randomly occurring relevant gas path faults including sensor, actuator and component faults. The challenge to the EHM community is to develop gas path diagnostic algorithms to reliably perform fault detection and isolation. An example solution to the benchmark problem is provided along with associated evaluation metrics. A plan is presented to disseminate this benchmark problem to the engine health management technical community and invite technology solutions.

Simon, Donald L.↗
DOE OSTI2018

Best Practices for Modeling and Simulation of CO 2 Storage

The purpose of this best practices manual (BPM) is to describe lessons learned and best practices for modeling and simulation of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) geologic storage (herein “storage”) projects. Information presented here is derived from laboratory and field storage project activities conducted by the Plains CO 2 Reduction (PCOR) Partnership. Modeling and simulation collectively comprise one of four technical elements of the adaptive management approach (AMA) formalized by the PCOR Partnership for storage project development. The other technical elements are site characterization; risk assessment; and monitoring, verification, and accounting (MVA) of injected CO 2 .

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2017

Best Practices Manual (BPM) for Site Characterization

The purpose of this best practices manual (BPM) is to describe lessons learned and best practices for site characterization of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) geologic storage (herein “storage”) projects. Information presented is derived from field and laboratory storage project activities conducted by the Plains CO 2 Reduction (PCOR) Partnership. Site characterization is one of four technical elements of the adaptive management approach (AMA) formalized by the PCOR Partnership for storage project development. The other technical elements are modeling and simulation; risk assessment; and monitoring, verification, and accounting (MVA) of injected CO 2 .

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS1999

Lithium-Ion Batteries for Aerospace Applications

This presentation reviews: (1) the goals and objectives, (2) the NASA and Airforce requirements, (3) the potential near term missions, (4) management approach, (5) the technical approach and (6) the program road map. The objectives of the program include: (1) develop high specific energy and long life lithium ion cells and smart batteries for aerospace and defense applications, (2) establish domestic production sources, and to demonstrate technological readiness for various missions. The management approach is to encourage the teaming of universities, R&D organizations, and battery manufacturing companies, to build on existing commercial and government technology, and to develop two sources for manufacturing cells and batteries. The technological approach includes: (1) develop advanced electrode materials and electrolytes to achieve improved low temperature performance and long cycle life, (2) optimize cell design to improve specific energy, cycle life and safety, (3) establish manufacturing processes to ensure predictable performance, (4) establish manufacturing processes to ensure predictable performance, (5) develop aerospace lithium ion cells in various AH sizes and voltages, (6) develop electronics for smart battery management, (7) develop a performance database required for various applications, and (8) demonstrate technology readiness for the various missions. Charts which review the requirements for the Li-ion battery development program are presented.

Surampudi, S.↗
DOE OSTI2012

Knowledge Management Initiatives Used to Maintain Regulatory Expertise in Transportation and Storage of Radioactive Materials - 12177

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) was established in 1974 with the mission to license and regulate the civilian use of nuclear materials for commercial, industrial, academic, and medical uses in order to protect public health and safety, and the environment, and promote the common defense and security. Currently, approximately half (∼49%) of the workforce at the NRC has been with the Agency for less than six years. As part of the Agency's mission, the NRC has partial responsibility for the oversight of the transportation and storage of radioactive materials. The NRC has experienced a significant level of expertise leaving the Agency due to staff attrition. Factors that contribute to this attrition include retirement of the experienced nuclear workforce and mobility of staff within or outside the Agency. Several knowledge management (KM) initiatives have been implemented within the Agency, with one of them including the formation of a Division of Spent Fuel Storage and Transportation (SFST) KM team. The team, which was formed in the fall of 2008, facilitates capturing, transferring, and documenting regulatory knowledge for staff to effectively perform their safety oversight of transportation and storage of radioactive materials, regulated under Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) Part 71 and Part 72. In terms of KM, the SFST goal is to share critical information among the staff to reduce the impact from staff's mobility and attrition. KM strategies in place to achieve this goal are: (1) development of communities of practice (CoP) (SFST Qualification Journal and the Packaging and Storing Radioactive Material) in the on-line NRC Knowledge Center (NKC); (2) implementation of a SFST seminar program where the seminars are recorded and placed in the Agency's repository, Agency-wide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS); (3) meeting of technical discipline group programs to share knowledge within specialty areas; (4) development of written guidance to capture 'administrative and technical' knowledge (e.g., office instructions (OIs), generic communications (e.g., bulletins, generic letters, regulatory issue summary), standard review plans (SRPs), interim staff guidance (ISGs)); (5) use of mentoring strategies for experienced staff to train new staff members; (6) use of Microsoft SharePoint portals in capturing, transferring, and documenting knowledge for staff across the Division from Division management and administrative assistants to the project managers, inspectors, and technical reviewers; and (7) development and implementation of a Division KM Plan. A discussion and description of the successes and challenges of implementing these KM strategies at the NRC/SFST will be provided. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
NASA NTRS1994

Performance measurement: A tool for program control

Performance measurement is a management tool for planning, monitoring, and controlling as aspects of program and project management--cost, schedule, and technical requirements. It is a means (concept and approach) to a desired end (effective program planning and control). To reach the desired end, however, performance measurement must be applied and used appropriately, with full knowledge and recognition of its power and of its limitations--what it can and cannot do for the project manager. What is the potential of this management tool? What does performance measurement do that a traditional plan vs. actual technique cannot do? Performance measurement provides an improvement over the customary comparison of how much money was spent (actual cost) vs. how much was planned to be spent based on a schedule of activities (work planned). This commonly used plan vs. actual comparison does not allow one to know from the numerical data if the actual cost incurred was for work intended to be done.

Abell, Nancy↗
NASA NTRS2015

Integrated Space Asset Management Database and Modeling

Effective Space Asset Management is one key to addressing the ever-growing issue of space congestion. It is imperative that agencies around the world have access to data regarding the numerous active assets and pieces of space junk currently tracked in orbit around the Earth. At the center of this issues is the effective management of data of many types related to orbiting objects. As the population of tracked objects grows, so too should the data management structure used to catalog technical specifications, orbital information, and metadata related to those populations. Marshall Space Flight Center's Space Asset Management Database (SAM-D) was implemented in order to effectively catalog a broad set of data related to known objects in space by ingesting information from a variety of database and processing that data into useful technical information. Using the universal NORAD number as a unique identifier, the SAM-D processes two-line element data into orbital characteristics and cross-references this technical data with metadata related to functional status, country of ownership, and application category. The SAM-D began as an Excel spreadsheet and was later upgraded to an Access database. While SAM-D performs its task very well, it is limited by its current platform and is not available outside of the local user base. Further, while modeling and simulation can be powerful tools to exploit the information contained in SAM-D, the current system does not allow proper integration options for combining the data with both legacy and new M&S tools. This paper provides a summary of SAM-D development efforts to date and outlines a proposed data management infrastructure that extends SAM-D to support the larger data sets to be generated. A service-oriented architecture model using an information sharing platform named SIMON will allow it to easily expand to incorporate new capabilities, including advanced analytics, M&S tools, fusion techniques and user interface for visualizations. In addition, tight control of information sharing policy will increase confidence in the system, which would encourage industry partners to provide commercial data. Combined with the integration of new and legacy M&S tools, a SIMON-based architecture will provide a robust environment that can be extended and expanded indefinitely.

MacLeod, Todd↗
DOE OSTI2012

Use of the Waste-Incidental-to-Reprocessing Citation Process at the West Valley Demonstration Project - 12250

The West Valley Demonstration Project recently achieved a breakthrough in management of radioactive waste from reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel by taking advantage of lessons learned at other Department of Energy (DOE) sites in implementation of the waste-incidental-to-reprocessing citation process of DOE Manual 435.1-1, Radioactive Waste Management. This breakthrough involved a revision to the site procedure on waste-incidental to reprocessing. This procedure revision served as the basis for a determination by the DOE West Valley field office using the citation process that three secondary waste streams consisting of equipment that had once been contaminated by association with HLW are not HLW following decontamination and may be disposed of as low-level waste (LLW) or transuranic waste. These waste streams, which comprised much of the approximately 380 cubic meters of West Valley waste contaminated by association with HLW, included several vessels and certain tank farm equipment. By making use of lessons learned in use of the citation process by other DOE sites and information developed to support use of the citation process at the Hanford site and the Savannah River Site, the team developed a technical basis for showing that use of the citation process of DOE Manual 435.1-1 for the three new waste stream was appropriate and technically justified. The Waste Management Working Group of the EFCOG assisted in transferring lessons learned by drawing on experience from around the DOE complex. This process shared knowledge about effective implementation of the citation process in a manner that proved to be beneficial to the West Valley Demonstration Project and resulted in a technical basis document that could be used to determine that the three new waste streams were not HLW. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
NASA NTRS1997

Risk Management of NASA Projects

Various NASA Langley Research Center and other center projects were attempted for analysis to obtain historical data comparing pre-phase A study and the final outcome for each project. This attempt, however, was abandoned once it became clear that very little documentation was available. Next, extensive literature search was conducted on the role of risk and reliability concepts in project management. Probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) techniques are being used with increasing regularity both in and outside of NASA. The value and the usage of PRA techniques were reviewed for large projects. It was found that both civilian and military branches of the space industry have traditionally refrained from using PRA, which was developed and expanded by nuclear industry. Although much has changed with the end of the cold war and the Challenger disaster, it was found that ingrained anti-PRA culture is hard to stop. Examples of skepticism against the use of risk management and assessment techniques were found both in the literature and in conversations with some technical staff. Program and project managers need to be convinced that the applicability and use of risk management and risk assessment techniques is much broader than just in the traditional safety-related areas of application. The time has come to begin to uniformly apply these techniques. The whole idea of risk-based system can maximize the 'return on investment' that the public demands. Also, it would be very useful if all project documents of NASA Langley Research Center, pre-phase A through final report, are carefully stored in a central repository preferably in electronic format.

Sarper, Hueseyin↗
NASA NTRS2007

Program Management Tool

The Program Management Tool (PMT) is a comprehensive, Web-enabled business intelligence software tool for assisting program and project managers within NASA enterprises in gathering, comprehending, and disseminating information on the progress of their programs and projects. The PMT provides planning and management support for implementing NASA programmatic and project management processes and requirements. It provides an online environment for program and line management to develop, communicate, and manage their programs, projects, and tasks in a comprehensive tool suite. The information managed by use of the PMT can include monthly reports as well as data on goals, deliverables, milestones, business processes, personnel, task plans, monthly reports, and budgetary allocations. The PMT provides an intuitive and enhanced Web interface to automate the tedious process of gathering and sharing monthly progress reports, task plans, financial data, and other information on project resources based on technical, schedule, budget, and management criteria and merits. The PMT is consistent with the latest Web standards and software practices, including the use of Extensible Markup Language (XML) for exchanging data and the WebDAV (Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning) protocol for collaborative management of documents. The PMT provides graphical displays of resource allocations in the form of bar and pie charts using Microsoft Excel Visual Basic for Application (VBA) libraries. The PMT has an extensible architecture that enables integration of PMT with other strategic-information software systems, including, for example, the Erasmus reporting system, now part of the NASA Integrated Enterprise Management Program (IEMP) tool suite, at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). The PMT data architecture provides automated and extensive software interfaces and reports to various strategic information systems to eliminate duplicative human entries and minimize data integrity issues among various NASA systems that impact schedules and planning.

Gawadiak, Yuri↗
DOE OSTI2013

Analysis of Offshore Wind Energy Leasing Areas for the Rhode Island/Massachusetts Wind Energy Area

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), under an interagency agreement with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), is providing technical assistance to BOEM on the identification and delineation of offshore leasing areas for offshore wind energy development within the Atlantic Coast Wind Energy Areas (WEAs) established by BOEM in 2012. This report focuses on NREL's evaluation of BOEM's Rhode Island/Massachusetts (RIMA) WEA leasing areas. The objective of the NREL evaluation was to assess the proposed delineation of the two leasing areas and determine if the division is reasonable and technically sound. Additionally, the evaluation aimed to identify any deficiencies in the delineation. As part of the review, NREL performed the following tasks: 1. Performed a limited review of relevant literature and RIMA call nominations. 2. Executed a quantitative analysis and comparison of the two proposed leasing areas 3. Conducted interviews with University of Rhode Island (URI) staff involved with the URI Special Area Management Plan (SAMP) 4. Prepared this draft report summarizing the key findings.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2017

Automatic generation and simulation of urban building energy models based on city datasets for city-scale building retrofit analysis

Buildings in cities consume 30–70% of total primary energy, and improving building energy efficiency is one of the key strategies towards sustainable urbanization. Urban building energy models (UBEM) can support city managers to evaluate and prioritize energy conservation measures (ECMs) for investment and the design of incentive and rebate programs. This paper presents the retrofit analysis feature of City Building Energy Saver (CityBES) to automatically generate and simulate UBEM using EnergyPlus based on cities’ building datasets and user-selected ECMs. CityBES is a new open web-based tool to support city-scale building energy efficiency strategic plans and programs. The technical details of using CityBES for UBEM generation and simulation are introduced, including the workflow, key assumptions, and major databases. Also presented is a case study that analyzes the potential retrofit energy use and energy cost savings of five individual ECMs and two measure packages for 940 office and retail buildings in six city districts in northeast San Francisco, United States. The results show that: (1) all five measures together can save 23–38% of site energy per building; (2) replacing lighting with light-emitting diode lamps and adding air economizers to existing heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems are most cost-effective with an average payback of 2.0 and 4.3 years, respectively; and (3) it is not economical to upgrade HVAC systems or replace windows in San Francisco due to the city's mild climate and minimal cooling and heating loads. Furthermore, the CityBES retrofit analysis feature does not require users to have deep knowledge of building systems or technologies for the generation and simulation of building energy models, which helps overcome major technical barriers for city managers and their consultants to adopt UBEM.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗