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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 55 records · Page 3
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Time-of-Flight Calculations with Multiple Beam Phase Monitors: Calibration, Jitter Analysis & Energy Measurement

This report describes time-of-flight (ToF) beam energy measurements with multiple phase monitors in a beam line with no acceleration. Measurement uncertainty is quantified via rigorous treatment of beam-based phase monitor calibration and jitter analysis of the accelerator system. Experimental results in the Superconducting Linac (SCL) of the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) are presented.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Cyber Secure Sensor Network for Fossil Fuel Power Generation Assets Monitoring

The energy sector is undergoing digital transformation which is to say more and more power generation assets have become automated and connected to the internet. The connected sensors can tap into plants to monitor the health of assets and manage fleets remotely. These are just some of the benefits digitalization is bringing to the power industry. Within a power plant, control systems are no longer concerned with one system or one piece of equipment, but rather whole fleet of assets inter-connected with smart sensors which have the function of continuously monitoring and transmitting real-time operational data to operators. These connected systems will form a part of the industrial internet of things (IIoT). The big data scenarios provide benefits of performing system prognostics and optimization which is a key selling point of power plant digitalization.

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2020

2020 State of the Science Report, Chapter 2: Marine Renewable Energy: Environmental Effects and Monitoring Strategies

As we learn more about interactions between marine renewable energy (MRE) devices, the animals and habitats near them, and the oceanographic processes with which they interact, we need to clarify the language used to discuss those interactions. For example, if an MRE device or system negatively affected a number of animals, we could say that the device or the system of foundations, anchors, and mooring lines had an impact on the population, and take steps to avoid the impact or, in some cases, mitigate the impact. However, at this stage in MRE development, there are few, if any, cases in which a negative impact has been observed or measured. Instead, we are developing the building blocks that support investigations of interactions and potential impacts. https://tethys.pnnl.gov/publications/state-of-the-science-2020-chapter-2-environmental-effects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

A Self-Synchronizing Underwater Acoustic Network for Mooring Load Monitoring of a Wave Energy Converter

This paper reports on the development of a self-synchronizing underwater acoustic network developed for remote monitoring of mooring loads in Wave Energy Converters (WECs). This network uses Time Division Multiple Access and operates self-contained with the ability for users to remotely transmit commands to the network as needed. Each node is a self-contained unit, consisting of a protocol adaptor board, an FAU-DPAM underwater acoustic modem and a battery pack. A node can be connected to a load cell, to a topside user or to the WEC. Every node is swapable. The protocol adaptor board, named Protocol Adaptor for Digital LOad Cell (PADLOC) supports a variety of digital load cell message formats (CAN, MODBUS, custom ASCII) and underwater acoustic modem serial formats. PADLOC enables topside users to connect to separate load cells through a user-specific command. This is especially important if the user is monitoring multiple load cells during deployment or maintenance, when the primary data system may be offline. Each PADLOC board handles formatting, buffering and has a one-on-one serial connection with each pair (node) of a digital load cell and acoustic modem. In addition, each PADLOC board handles the timekeeping and power saving features for each node. The only limitation is the data bit rate and delay limitations associated with the underwater acoustic modem. A four node self-synchronizing network has been developed to demonstrate the load cell monitoring capability using the PADLOC technology on the CalWave WEC.

acoustic↗
DOE OSTI2021

Cost Efficiency of Environmental DNA as Compared to Conventional Methods for Biodiversity Monitoring Purposes at Marine Energy Sites

The installation of marine energy systems may affect marine environments, and by extension, marine fish communities. Therefore, biomonitoring is an integral part of assessing impacts on species. Environmental DNA (eDNA) provides a noninvasive alternative to conventional monitoring surveys and the possibility of a more accurate assessment of species richness. Yet, its cost efficiency compared to traditional methods of monitoring is relatively unknown, especially when applied to monitoring around tidal, wave, and offshore wind energy installations. For this study, 202 peer-reviewed journal articles were dissected to inventory the diversity of supplies used for collecting and processing eDNA samples and to compile the average cost of eDNA surveys. Information collected included the type, volume, and brand of containers used in sampling; material, size, and brand of filters; and extraction methods. Cost information was gathered for the most common supplies, and a total cost was estimated for a hypothetical eDNA survey in Sequim Bay, WA, to compare with traditional methods of surveying such as beach seining and scuba surveys. The results showed a higher-than-expected diversity of supplies to collect and process eDNA samples. The most common supplies were 1 L Nalgene bottles at an average cost of 7.96 USD for collecting samples, 0.45 µm glass fiber Merck Millipore filters at an average cost of 1.51 USD for filtering samples, and the Qiagen DNeasy Blood and Tissue kit at 3.54 USD per sample for extracting DNA. When compared to beach seine and scuba surveys, eDNA surveys undertaken by senior researchers are less expensive for both initial surveys with all new materials as well as for follow-up surveys reusing some of the supplies. However, when surveys are done solely by students, eDNA surveys are more expensive than scuba surveys when no prior supplies are available and more than both beach seine and scuba surveys for follow-up surveys reusing supplies. In a professional sphere, where surveys are less often conducted by teams of students only, eDNA surveys are an effective and less-costly alternative to conventional methods. We anticipate that the development and refinement of eDNA methodology will continue to decrease surveying costs.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2026

Developing a Deep Learning-Computer Vision Framework to Monitor Avian Interactions with Solar Energy Facility Infrastructure (Final Technical Report)

The project addressed an inability to monitor avian interactions with photovoltaic (PV) solar energy facilities necessary for understanding PV solar impacts on birds. In the project, machine-vision technology that continuously monitors avian activities at PV solar facilities was developed. The technology includes four machine-learning (ML) models, each of which accomplishes a specific task in detecting birds and classifying their activities in live or recorded videos—detecting and tracking moving objects, differentiating birds from other objects, detecting bird collisions with solar panels, and classifying non-collision bird activities around PV facilities. Major project outcomes include adoption by two of DOE SETO’s SolWEB projects, providing novel observational data on birds to promote co-location of PV solar development and habitat conservation, known as ecovoltaics.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Energy Data from Heat Pumps Installed in Juneau, AK

Heat pumps offer a great low carbon emission method to heat homes. Thermalize Juneau 2021 was a clean energy campaign that helped homeowners in Juneau, Alaska install heat pumps into their homes. Juneau is located near the climactic limit of many heat pumps, and we were interested in how well the heat pumps can function in cold climates. This was done by using Sense meters to remotely monitor the energy usage of 10 homes with heat pumps. The Sense meters are small devices that connect to the electrical panel and monitor the energy use of multiple appliances through machine learning. First, we recorded the energy usage of a heat pump in the lab using both the Sense meter and the existing lab datalogger. Both recorded very similar energy usage data which confirmed that the Sense meter can accurately measure the fluctuations in the heat pump energy use. Next, we looked at the energy data from the Sense meters in the homes with heat pumps and paired it with local weather data to see how well the heat pumps functioned in the cold weather.

Alaska↗
DOE OSTI2022

An implantable biomechanical energy harvester for animal monitoring devices

Insufficient service life and the resulting need for battery replacements have been a great challenge for implantable electronic devices. This is particularly true for animal tracking applications, because recapturing animals is often unlikely once they are released to the wild. To tackle this problem, we developed a biomechanical energy harvester that uses a Macro Fiber Composite™ (MFC) piezoelectric beam to harvest the mechanical energy from animals’ body bending movements as the power source for implantable and wearable devices. Prototypes of an underwater acoustic transmitter using this technology were subdermally implanted into juvenile white sturgeon and their energy harvesting performance was evaluated through the device’s transmissions. Additionally, the fish successfully recovered from the implantation surgery and freely swam inside a tank. The transmitter prototypes in the fish continually transmitted signals for a period up to 5 weeks. A benchtop test setup was also created to emulate the fish’s body bending, estimate the device’s energy harvesting performance in the live fish, and perform accelerated fatigue testing of the energy harvester by applying test parameters learned from a video study of the fish’s body movement and behavior characteristics. The gradual depolarization of the piezoelectric ceramic material in the MFC under cyclic mechanical loading was the main limiting factor for the life span of the energy harvester. Pathways for improvement are proposed to achieve long-term efficacy of powering implantable and wearable electronic devices.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2024

LINAC Longitudinal Simulation and Measurement of Output Energy

The Fermilab Linac, a pivotal and historic accelerator at Fermilab, is crucial to the laboratory's operations, supplying a 400 MeV beam to various acceleration facilities. Due to daily variations in the Linac's output energy, precise monitoring and machine tuning are important to ensure the exiting energy meets the Booster's acceptance criteria. To address this, Beam Position Monitors (BPMs) are employed to assess and adjust the beam's energy, providing essential data on both the transverse position and longitudinal phase of the beam. We also aim to regulate the longitudinal phase profile to match our simulation predictions. By utilizing a Python-based simulation and beam data from three BPMs, we can determine the optimal phasing correction required for the final RF stage to achieve the desired energy. Currently, the calculations of longitudinal phase profile are based on simulations, so additional research is needed to verify if the predicted longitudinal phase distribution aligns with actual real-world data.

Safaryan, Milena↗
DOE OSTI2020

The good, the bad, and the ugly: Data-driven load profile discord identification in a large building portfolio

Reducing the overall energy consumption and associated greenhouse gas emissions in the building sector is essential for meeting our future sustainability goals. Recently, smart energy metering facilities have been deployed to enable monitoring of energy consumption data with hourly or subhourly temporal resolution. This unprecedented data collection has created various opportunities for advanced data analytics involving load profiles (e.g., building energy benchmarking programs, building-to-grid integration, and calibration of urban-scale energy models). These applications often need preprocessing steps to detect daily load profile discords, such as: 1) outliers due to system malfunctions (the bad) and 2) irregular energy consumption patterns, such as those resulting from holidays (the ugly) compared to normal consumption patterns (the good). However, current preprocessing methods predominantly focus on filtering using statistical threshold values, which fail to capture the contextual discords of daily profiles. In addition, discord detection algorithms in building research are often aimed at finding individual building-level discords, which are not suitable at a large scale. Thus, here, we develop a method for automated load profile discord identification (ALDI) in a large portfolio of buildings (more than 100 buildings). Specifically, ALDI 1) uses the matrix profile (MP) method to quantify the similarities of daily subsequences in time series meter data, 2) compares daily MP values with typical-day MP distributions using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, and 3) identifies daily load profile discords in a large building portfolio. We evaluate ALDI using the metering data of both an academic campus and a residential neighborhood. Our results demonstrate that ALDI efficiently discovers measurement errors by system malfunctions and low energy consumption days in the academic campus portfolio, and it detects unique load shape patterns likely driven by occupant behavior and extreme weather conditions in the residential neighborhood.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2025

Energy gain scale calibration of the XRISM Resolve microcalorimeter spectrometer: ground calibration results and on-orbit comparison

The Resolve instrument aboard the X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) is a 36-pixel microcalorimeter spectrometer that provides nondispersive spectroscopy with ∼ 5 eV spectral resolution in the soft X-ray waveband. Resolve has a requirement to provide an absolute energy-scale calibration of ± 2 eV from 0.3 to 12 keV. We describe our ground calibration strategy and results of a subset of the ground calibration campaigns, including a discussion of improvements in the energy scale ground calibration compared with Hitomi’s. These improvements include calibration of the low-energy band below 4 keV with the instrument in the flight dewar and the dewar aperture door open, which was not performed for Hitomi, and thorough measurements over an extended high-energy waveband to 22 keV. We also developed an improved technique for gain calibration of “mid-res” secondary events, which have suppressed gain due to proximity to a preceding X-ray event (18 to 70 ms) on the same pixel. We provide a discussion of the on-orbit energy scale monitoring campaigns and an assessment of the Resolve energy scale uncertainties, a key parameter for astrophysics analysis. Energy-scale calibration approaches for future space-based instruments, including the X-ray Integral Field Unit on Athena and microcalorimeter spectrometers proposed or under discussion for future X-ray observatory concepts, have heritage in the calibration of XRISM. We briefly comment on lessons learned from Resolve calibration that are relevant for these future instruments.

Aluminum↗