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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 523 records · Page 29
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2026

Bridging Cloud and Edge Computing at NREL Using CONNECT: Cloud Optimized Networking for Next-Gen Edge Computing Technologies [Slides]

CONNECT is an innovative on-premise hardware and software solution that integrates edge and cloud computing infrastructure at NREL. Built on the AWS Greengrass middleware and leveraging the MQTT protocol, CONNECT enables real-time data streaming from IoT devices and gateways to both cloud and local services, empowering researchers to rapidly capture, analyze, and act upon edge-generated data while leveraging cloud capabilities. The platform addresses research infrastructure challenges by providing a pre-approved platform which is already configured with the correct networking and cybersecurity baselines thus eliminating procurement delays and enabling on-demand availability. CONNECT's hybrid architecture efficiently manages burstable workloads, allowing research teams to dynamically scale computational capacity, handle peak data loads, and reduce operational bottlenecks. Advanced capabilities include built-in GPU support for executing machine learning models which enables low-latency inference at the edge from models trained in the cloud. This architecture supports real-time analytics and filtering, providing a mechanism to allow only transmitting and processing high-value data. Cloud-based configuration management permits engineers to manage on-premise systems remotely, optimizing operational efficiency. By bridging edge and cloud computing, CONNECT provides NREL researchers with a flexible, scalable platform that accelerates scientific discovery while maintaining robust security and performance standards.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2026

Ultra-thick three-dimensional interpenetrating graphene electrode architectures for high volumetric density energy storage

For electrochemical energy storage, increasing the electrode thickness is an effective approach to achieving higher energy density from a given material. However, this often compromises ion transport, leading to diminished performance. Here, in this study, we present a novel platform for fabricating complex 3D interpenetrating electrode structures via photo-polymerization 3D printing, integrated with computational structural optimization for energy storage. The platform employs an acrylate resin system infused with graphene oxide (GO), enabling high-fidelity printing of optimized porous structures and facilitating efficient electron and ion transport in ultra-thick electrodes. The optimized 3D layouts substantially enhance energy and power densities compared to conventional configurations, ensuring superior material utilization and minimal ohmic losses. Supercapacitors fabricated using this approach achieved an exceptional energy density of 4.7 Wh L−1 at a power density of 1689.0 W L−1, surpassing traditional designs. This work underscores the transformative role of structural optimization in advancing electrochemical performance and establishes a versatile pathway for developing next-generation energy storage systems with exceptional efficiency and functionality.

Wang, Zhen [University of California, Berkeley, CA↗
DOE OSTI2026

or-topas: Operations Research Toolkit for Pyomo Alternative Solutions

SAND2026-16702O OR-TOPAS: Operations Research Toolkit for Pyomo Alternative Solutions is a tool that enhances optimization applications defined by the Pyomo modeling library. It offers functions to generate optimal or near-optimal solutions, operating independently of Pyomo’s solver interface. Users can configure these functions with specific solver names and options, resulting in a custom solution object that returns a list of solutions. The OR-TOPAS library includes methods tailored to the properties of the model, such as binary integer programs versus linear programs, and specific solver interfaces like Gurobi. It does not provide models for specific applications, but it is applicable to a wide range of Pyomo optimization models. Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525.

Siirola, John [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA), Live↗
DOE OSTI2021

Evaluation of Topology Optimization to Achieve Energy Savings at the Urban District Level: Preprint

Advanced district thermal energy systems have the potential to achieve significant energy savings and facilitate the integration of renewable thermal resources and waste heat, contributing to reductions in carbon emissions. Such systems, also known as fifth generation district heating and cooling (5GDHC) systems, circulate water at temperatures close to ambient, and leverage electrically-driven water-source heat pumps located at connected buildings to further temper the water. However, barriers exist to the adoption of 5GDHC systems, including the factorial growth in potential network configurations as a function of the number of considered buildings. Topology optimization, which seeks to answer the questions, “Which is the best subset of buildings, if any, to connect to a district thermal energy system, and by what network should they be connected, to minimize life cycle cost?” can accelerate the adoption of 5GDHC systems. This study is part of an effort to develop a topology optimization framework for district thermal energy systems. In this study, a heuristic for one aspect of the topology optimization problem---the use of the minimal spanning tree network to connect a given set of buildings at the least life cycle cost---is validated.

28 EE - Advanced Manufacturing Office (EE-5A)↗
DOE OSTI2025

Design and Study of Inductively Coupled Plasma Chamber Components Using the SupRISE Test Device at DIII-D

The DIII-D National Fusion Facility aims to increase the auxiliary heating power for the tokamak by upgrading the Neutral Beam Injection (NBI) system. In collaboration with North Carolina State University, the conventional ‘arc and filament’ NBI ion sources will be converted to inductively coupled plasma (ICP) sources which utilize radio frequency (RF) coupling to maximize reliability for high power operation. In support of this initiative, a full scale test device (SupRISE, Superior Radiofrequency Ion Source Experiment) is currently under construction at the DIII-D Facility. In preparation for the construction of a full scale prototype that can be installed on the DIII-D NBI system, experiments on SupRISE will be conducted to determine the optimal RF frequency for high power coupling, Faraday shield slit configuration, and ICP chamber length. SupRISE is comprised of an approximately 30 x 70 cm quartz dielectric vessel with an internal Faraday shield enclosed in a secondary vacuum chamber to ensure structural stability of the dielectric. Actively cooled front and back plates are designed to reduce the thermal stresses on the plasma facing components and mate with the existing accelerator used by the NBI system at DIII-D. 50 kW of RF power will be coupled to the plasma through the quartz over a variable frequency range of 4-8 MHz to sustain a plasma density of ∼ 10 18 m −3 for a 10 s ON, 210 s OFF duty cycle. Various modelling efforts have been employed to simulate the thermal and stress profiles over the primary components of the SupRISE device as well as the inductance behavior of the RF antenna. These simulation results and the final design for SupRISE will be presented. An additional reduced-scale predecessor ICP source (called RISE) has been used to develop a predictive match model that will be applied to frequency optimization studies on SupRISE. Furthermore, the outcomes of this research and complementary efforts at North Carolina State University are essential for the incorporation of ICP NBI positive ion sources at the DIII-D facility.

DIII-D↗
DOE OSTI2024

Automatic Extraction of Network Configurations for Realistic Simulation and Validation

Popular HPC network interconnection simulators such as SST Macro provide a variety of configurable parameters to explore the design space of hardware components such as network links and switches. While such knobs provide flexibility to explore design trade-offs for novel hardware, manually configuring simulations for existing hardware to focus on topology exploration can be cumbersome and error-prone, leading to widely inaccurate simulations. This challenge is compounded when specifications of various (proprietary) technologies are not readily available or are intentionally omitted. In this work, we provide a methodology to automatically tune the simulation configuration of the multiple network models running within SST Macro using Bayesian optimization. We perform this optimization in the context of multiple messaging regimes (i.e., small to large and latency to bandwidth-bound messages) and provide a detailed analysis of the simulation error for four systems. With our automated framework, we achieve a 5x improvement in accuracy over best-effort configurations based on available hardware specifications.

Suetterlein, Joshua D.↗
DOE OSTI2022

Automated Production of Optimization-Based Control Logics for Dynamic Facade Systems, with Experimental Application to Two-Zone External Venetian Blinds

The primary goal of this research is to devise a system that produces controllers for complex fenestration systems that perform nearly as well as Model Predictive Control but at a level of cost and implementation complexity that rivals simple heuristic controls. To this end, a cloud-based automated controller production system has been set up for a motorized external Venetian blind device, with a simple web interface that can be used by non-experts. The computation cost per controller is in the range of a few dollars, and the control logic is simple enough to be implemented on small and cheap distributed controllers. The web interface allows the user to specify some details of their particular building and window configuration, including orientation, latitude, interior geometries, and lighting and HVAC system parameters. Upon submittal, a cloud-based system configures the necessary files and commands, and then runs thousands of optimizations with them. Once the calculations are finished, the system produces a lookup table and interpolation-based controller scripts that can be used on a simple and cheap distributed controller. This paper describes the underlying models and optimization processes. It also describes the resulting control logics for two cases tested at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Advanced Windows Testbed Facility: illuminance maximization subject to glare constraints; and lighting + HVAC energy minimization. The performance of the model-based controllers produced by the automated web-based system are compared to a heuristic ‘block beam’ controller in physical experiments at the Testbed. The experimental results are supplemented by simulation experiments with the same configuration as the Testbed. The results show the illuminance maximizing controller significantly outperforms the heuristic controller in terms of glare avoidance, and also outperforms it in terms of hours of daylight autonomy. The energy minimizing controller also outperforms the heuristic controller. This paper also discusses how the web-based system may be extended to consider other configurations, such as electrochromic windows and thermally massive HVAC systems. Potential roles for this type of system within the building design and construction industry are discussed.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2025

Bayesian Optimization for Reactor Design Optimization

This study present a test case in which the Bayesian Optimization method is applied to a simulation-based reactor core design optimization problem. The test case aims to showcase the potential of an automated design optimization algorithm for reactor designs by streamlining the reactor core design workflow, given the high computational cost of simulations. The contributions of this work are threefold. First, the existing HTGR model is converted into a simulation-based design optimization test case by developing a pipeline that enables modification of key design parameters and evaluates design performance based on simulation outputs. Second, Bayesian Optimization is implemented and adapted to demonstrate the feasibility of automatic design optimization for nuclear reactor core. Proposed approach leverages Gaussian Process models to characterize the relationship between design variables and performance metrics, while incorporating novel acquisition functions that balance exploration of the design space with exploitation of promising configurations. This implementation lays the foundation for the future developments of reactor design optimization algorithms.

22 - GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Design and Cooling Performance of Additively Manufactured Ceramic Turbine Vanes

Ceramic materials are of significant interest in aviation and power generation gas turbine engines due to their low density and ability to withstand high temperatures. Increased cycle thermal efficiency and higher specific power output is possible by incorporating ceramic components that enable high turbine inlet temperatures and lower required cooling airflow levels. However, ceramics can be difficult and costly to form into the complex shapes used in gas turbine components, often requiring specialized multi-step processes. Furthermore, ceramic components in the hottest areas of a gas turbine, such as vanes or blade shroud seals, will still likely require cooling which is challenging to implement in conventional ceramic manufacturing approaches. Therefore, this study presents a multidisciplinary approach that investigates the design, fabrication and overall cooling effectiveness evaluation of additively manufactured (AM), polymer derived ceramic (PDC) turbine vanes. A thermo-mechanically optimized vane design was generated, ceramic additive manufacturing of the complex cooling configuration was developed, and quantification of the increase in overall cooling effectiveness was performed in a 1X scale, high-speed facility using infrared thermography. This study produced a PDC AM process, capable of printing complex internal cooling schemes in 1X scale turbine vanes. It was found that the optimized vane more than doubled the overall cooling effectiveness observed in the baseline design, which reasonably agreed with thermomechanical optimization model predictions. Additionally, the optimized ceramic vane outperformed an identical metal vane, in terms of area averaged cooling effectiveness, suggesting that the ceramic vane could operate at reduced coolant flow rates to achieve comparable levels of cooling performance.

Fox, Andrew↗
DOE OSTI2024

Design and Cooling Performance of Additively Manufactured Ceramic Turbine Vanes

Ceramic materials are of significant interest in aviation and power generation gas turbine engines due to their low density and ability to withstand high temperatures. Increased cycle thermal efficiency and higher specific power output is possible by incorporating ceramic components that enable high turbine inlet temperatures and lower required cooling airflow levels. However, ceramics can be difficult and costly to form into the complex shapes used in gas turbine components, often requiring specialized multi-step processes. Furthermore, ceramic components in the hottest areas of a gas turbine, such as vanes or blade shroud seals, will still likely require cooling which is challenging to implement in conventional ceramic manufacturing approaches. Therefore, this study presents a multidisciplinary approach that investigates the design, fabrication, and overall cooling effectiveness evaluation of additively manufactured (AM), polymer derived ceramic (PDC) turbine vanes. A thermo-mechanically optimized vane design was generated, ceramic additive manufacturing of the complex cooling configuration was developed, and quantification of the increase in overall cooling effectiveness was performed in a 1X scale, high-speed facility using infrared thermography. This study produced a PDC AM process, capable of printing complex internal cooling schemes in 1X scale turbine vanes. Furthermore, it was found that the optimized vane more than doubled the overall cooling effectiveness observed in the baseline design, which reasonably agreed with thermomechanical optimization model predictions. Additionally, the optimized ceramic vane outperformed an identical metal vane, in terms of area averaged cooling effectiveness, suggesting that the ceramic vane could operate at reduced coolant flowrates to achieve comparable levels of cooling performance.

Reynolds number↗
DOE OSTI2020

Improving AHU Performance by Minimizing Approach Temperature, Reducing Air Maldistribution, and Efficiently Handling Sensible and Latent Loads (Phase 1 Interim Final Technical Report)

Residential air handling units (AHUs) have stayed the same in form and efficiency for the past 30+ years, with incremental improvements made to address safety, functionality, and energy-efficiency. The purpose of this research in Phase I, Topic 9a: Next Generation Residential Air Handlers, was to improve AHU performance by minimizing heat exchanger (HX) approach temperature, reducing air maldistribution, and developing alternative system configurations which more efficiently handle sensible and latent loads. In this research Optimized Thermal Systems (OTS) developed, modeled, and evaluated multiple alternative system concepts. A dual vapor compression system separate sensible and latent cooling (SSLC) concept was studied to inform work on alternative concepts and to show best-case performance benefit. System concepts included ejector enhanced vapor compression cycles, desiccant assisted dehumidification, dual evaporator SSLC, and alternative AHU HX configurations. A dual vapor compression system showed COP improvement of 20%, however, required additional components, increased unit size, and increased cost. Two types of ejector enhanced vapor compression cycles with dual evaporators improved system COP by 9 to 11%, and reduced AHU losses by as much as 18%, with design changes limited to the AHU, no unit physical size increase, and a moderate increase to system first cost. Desiccant assisted air-conditioning required increased air flow rate resulting in higher fan power and the desiccant wheel increased sensible heat load leading to increased compressor power and reduced system COP. Dual evaporator cycles were found to degrade performance due to increased expansion losses. Optimized single slab HX designs used in place of the traditional A-coil HX led to 44–49% reduction in aluminum, 47–60% less refrigerant charge, and improved HX velocity distribution.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2025

Core design and performance of the Westinghouse lead fast reactor with UO 2 and MOX configurations

For this work, Westinghouse partnered with Argonne National Laboratory to design, model and optimize UO 2 - and MOX-fueled core designs for a medium size (950 MWt) Lead Fast Reactor that was pursued by Westinghouse. Using Argonne’s suite of reactor analysis codes together with Westinghouse fuel cost economic models, thousands of candidate cores were considered to achieve the economics-optimized cores presented in this paper. This optimization process considered detailed reactor physics, fuel performance, transient performance, and fuel economics models. The reactor performance of the resulting optimized UO 2 - and MOX-fueled core designs are described and compared in this paper. Both cores show fuel performance and transient behavior that is considered acceptable for the optimization presented herein, while further testing campaigns on material performance in high-temperature liquid lead will be required to confirm acceptability at the operating conditions chosen. A multi-batch strategy was selected for the UO 2 core for best fuel utilization with minimum fuel inventory costs. A single-batch fuel management was instead selected for the MOX core to maximize cycle length and minimize the impact of the longer refueling outage resulting from the higher decay heat of the discharged MOX fuel relative to the discharged UO 2 fuel, requiring a longer cooling time before dry-lift of discharged fuel could take place.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Optimizing Geant4 Hadronic Models

Geant4, the leading detector simulation toolkit used in high energy physics, employs a set of physics models to simulate interactions of particles with matter across a wide range of energies. These models, especially the hadronic ones, rely largely on directly measured cross-sections and inclusive characteristics, and use physically motivated parameters. However, they generally aim to cover a broad range of possible simulation tasks and may not always be optimized for a particular process or a given material. The Geant4 collaboration recently made many parameters of the models accessible via a configuration interface. This opens a possibility to fit simulated distributions to the thin target experimental datasets and extract optimal values of the model parameters and the associated uncertainties. Such efforts are currently undertaken by the Geant4 collaboration with the goal of offering alternative sets of model parameters, also known as "tunes", for certain applications. The effort should subsequently lead to more accurate estimates of the systematic errors in physics measurements given the detector simulation role in performing the physics measurements. Results of the study are presented to illustrate how Geant4 model parameters can be optimized through applying fitting techniques, to improve the agreement between the Geant4 and the experimental data.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2023

Modelling and Optimizing CSP-PV Hybrid Systems Using the Hybrid Optimization and Performance Platform (HOPP)

The hybridization of concentrating solar power (CSP) with thermal energy storage (TES), photovoltaics (PV), and electrochemical battery energy storage systems (BESS) has the potential to provide continuous, high-capacity-factor energy production at a lower cost than a PV-BESS or CSP with TES alone. Because of the system complexity of CSP technology, it is challenging to evaluate the technological and financial performance of a CSP-PV hybrid system without detailed modeling of annual operations. To address this challenge, we have developed a modeling framework for evaluating the performance and financial viability of CSP systems hybridized with PV and BESS technologies. This modeling effort incorporates CSP tower and trough configurations into an existing modeling tool recently developed by NREL, the Hybrid Optimization and Performance Platform (HOPP). This paper provides a brief overview of our methodology, as well as an example case study. CSP with TES hybridized with PV provides the best benefit-to-cost ratio compared to the other simulated technology combinations. However, for the conditions considered, this configuration only increases the benefit-to-cost ratio by about 1% compared to the CSP with TES configuration. The PV-BESS system provides the lowest benefit-to-cost ratio compared to the other configurations explored because of the relatively low capacity credit received by the system.

Hamilton, William (ORCID:0000000244654239)↗
DOE OSTI2021

Direct Integration of Strained-Pt Catalysts into Proton-Exchange-Membrane Fuel Cells with Atomic Layer Deposition

The design and fabrication of lattice-strained platinum catalysts achieved by removing a soluble core from a platinum shell synthesized via atomic layer deposition, is reported. The remarkable catalytic performance for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), measured in both half-cell and full-cell configurations, is attributed to the observed lattice strain. By further optimizing the nanoparticle geometry and ionomer/carbon interactions, mass activity close to 0.8 A mg Pt -1 @0.9 V iR-free is achievable in the membrane electrode assembly. Nevertheless, active catalysts with high ORR activity do not necessarily lead to high performance in the high-current-density (HCD) region. More attention shall be directed toward HCD performance for enabling high-power-density hydrogen fuel cells.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Concept of Very-Asymmetric lepton Collider for dark matter search

Accelerator-based searches for dark matter are aiming for high sensitivity and need an experimental setup with high luminosity. This field of research is often called intensity frontier physics. One of the best motivated portals of interaction between dark matter and ordinary matter is a dark photon which could be observed as a resonance in the invariant mass of the decay products. Electron–positron collisions are known to be the cleanest interaction for such a study. In this paper we propose a scheme for a collider which allows for a luminosity of a few orders of magnitude higher than could be obtained in a conventional symmetric collider and with a few times higher accessible mass than is possible using a positron beam and a fixed target approach. The key concept is based on asymmetric energies: a high-energy circulating positron beam and a low-energy high-intensity electron beam, and optimization of the beam interaction region. We present here a configuration of a collision region of 10 MeV electron and 4 GeV positron beams.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2024

A flexible data acquisition system architecture for the Nab experiment

Here, the Nab experiment will measure the electron–neutrino correlation and Fierz interference term in free neutron beta decay to test the Standard Model and probe Beyond the Standard Model physics. Using National Instrument’s PXIe-5171 Reconfigurable Oscilloscope module, we have developed a data acquisition system that is not only capable of meeting Nab’s specifications, but flexible enough to be adapted in situ as the experimental environment dictates. The L1 and L2 trigger logic can be reconfigured to optimize the system for coincidence event detection at runtime through configuration files and LabVIEW controls. This system is capable of identifying L1 triggers at a rate of at least 1 MHz, while reading out a peak signal rate of approximately 2 GB/s. During the commissioning phase of the experiment, the system ran at a sustained readout rate of 400 MB/s of detector signal data originating from roughly 6 kHz L2 triggers, well within the peak performance of the system.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2023

Effect of aspect ratio on plasma response to resonant magnetic perturbations in tokamak devices

A systematic numerical study is carried out, computing and comparing the plasma response to the resonant magnetic perturbation (RMP) field, applied for controlling edge localized modes (ELMs), in a series of tokamak plasmas with varying aspect ratio and utilizing the MARS-F code. The aspect ratio is scanned either by varying the plasma major radius at a fixed minor radius or by varying the latter while fixing the former. Both approaches yield similar results when compared in terms of quantities with proper normalizations. In general, a non-monotonic dependence of the resonant response field (normalized by the vacuum counterpart) near the plasma edge is found with varying aspect ratio, indicating that a given ELM control coil current configuration strongly favors plasmas with a certain aspect ratio. This optimal aspect ratio, on the other hand, depends on the toroidal as well as poloidal (i.e., coil phasing) spectra of the applied RMP field. The equilibrium (edge) safety factor, the plasma shape, and the plasma toroidal flow are all fixed to ensure that the effects identified here are predominantly due to the plasma aspect ratio.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗