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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 577 records · Page 32
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2019

Development of a Comprehensive and Centralized Waste Management System - 19412

Information Systems Laboratories (ISL) has designed a new single, integrated, waste management and control system to administer all aspects of nuclear waste management. The overriding goal of the initiative is to provide federal, state, and local agencies with operational awareness, management, and programmatic support for all functions related to nuclear waste management. Over decades of waste management federal agencies have sponsored or directly paid for the development, operation, and control of multiple systems to track and control its waste - with varied success. Multiple contractors have generated disparate control systems/databases and literally mountains of data. Past approaches have not provided a single, integrated, real time data management system. ISL's analysis of past failed efforts has reveal four common symptoms: - Control/management systems that are not compatible; - Programmatic costs that increase with systems use and re-work; - Systems focused on specific sets of data; - Inaccurate or outdated data sets. An integrated waste management and control system that collects and displays real-time, accurate inventory, waste container certification, transportation certification, emplacement, and shipment related data improve operational awareness and overcomes these limitations. Using its vast knowledge and experience in developing numerous waste tracking and management systems, ISL has leveraged its own in-house knowledge and gathered requests from stakeholders all across the industry to design a system that meets the needs of users at all levels of the nuclear waste management process. Using the highly successful and widely used Waste Data System (WDS) designed for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant as a core component, ISL has designed a system that greatly expands on the functionality of the WDS to exceed its current focus of management of Transuranic Waste shipments. The new system is designed to provide the ability to track a wide range of waste types from Transuranic, High Level, Low Level, Mixed, and any nuclear related material. The main focus of the system is to provide federal regulators a comprehensive and real-time oversight into the handling of all nuclear waste materials. Oversight activities include, but are not limited to, strategy development, projections, metrics, incentive development, tracking, budget review, government cost estimating, and integrated schedules. The major components of the system are summarized below: - The Centralized Waste Management System (CWMS), which will include assimilating and validating known sources of data into the CWMS. - The programmatic reporting support component, which will handle queries from regulators, track compliance with regulatory requirements, and maintain the dashboard for federal management. - Both the CWMS and the programmatic reporting support component will use a standard set of business rules that govern system operations and allow site and program specific needs and limits for all waste programs and types to be captured and maintained. This presentation will provide details of each component of the system detailing its use, interfaces with other components, and value to stakeholders. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2015

Evaluation of information technology impact on effective internal control in the University system

Information Technology (IT) plays a key role in internal control system in various organizations in terms of maintaining records and other internal services. Internal control system is defined as an efficient control procedures set up by firm to safeguard resources and to assure the reliability and accuracy of both financial and non-financial records in line with applicable governance and procedure to acquire the established goal and objectives. This paper focuses on the impact of IT on internal control system in the Nigerian universities. Data are collected from three different universities via questionnaire. Descriptive statistics is used to analyze the data; Chi-square is performed to test the hypothesis. The results of the hypothesis showed that IT has a positive relationship with the effective internal control activities in the University system. It is concluded that the adoption of IT will significantly improve the effectiveness of the internal control system operations in the University in terms of quality service delivery.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
NASA NTRS2019

Command and Control System Automated Testing

The Kennedy Space Center (KSC) has developed its own Command and Control System for the launch of the Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion capsule. The Command and Control System (CCS) is used by console engineers for the launch and system checkout of aerospace vehicles. The CCS allows console engineers to read data from the flight hardware on the launch pad and from the ground control systems and allows console engineers to issue commands, like opening a valve, to the flight hardware and ground control systems. The CCS needs to interact with thousands of devices and hardware controllers for the spacecraft and ground systems, receive data from these devices, distribute the data to console engineers in real-time, and allow console engineers to issue commands to manipulate hardware on the launch pad. The system needs to be robust, fault tolerant, responsive, and fast. In order to keep up with the pace of development of the CCS, a Test Automation System (TAS) is needed to validate the integrity of the system as a whole along with its individual components. Automated tests allow for faster development time, since tests can be ran through a Continuous Integration system and allow developers to check their code faster. Currently, the different modules, classes, and functions that make up the CCS are tested at the unit level, and the system level, with all the modules working together. My project was to implement a system for the data protocol layer of the Command Control System to be tested as a complete functional unit, with all of its classes and functions working together, but independent of the other modules of the CCS.

Automated TestingTest Automation↗
NASA NTRS1999

Experimental Investigation of Pool Boiling Heat Transfer Enhancement in Microgravity in the Presence of Electric Fields

In boiling high heat fluxes are possible driven by relatively small temperature differences, which make its use increasingly attractive in aerospace applications. The objective of the research is to develop ways to overcome specific problems associated with boiling in the low gravity environment by substituting the buoyancy force with the electric force to enhance bubble removal from the heated surface. Previous studies indicate that in terrestrial applications nucleate boiling heat transfer can be increased by a factor of 50, as compared to values obtained for the same system without electric fields. The goal of our research is to experimentally explore the mechanisms responsible for EHD heat transfer enhancement in boiling in low gravity conditions, by visualizing the temperature distributions in the vicinity of the heated surface and around the bubble during boiling using real-time holographic interferometry (HI) combined with high-speed cinematography. In the first phase of the project the influence of the electric field on a single bubble is investigated. Pool boiling is simulated by injecting a single bubble through a nozzle into the subcooled liquid or into the thermal boundary layer developed along the flat heater surface. Since the exact location of bubble formation is known, the optical equipment can be aligned and focused accurately, which is an essential requirement for precision measurements of bubble shape, size and deformation, as well as the visualization of temperature fields by HI. The size of the bubble and the frequency of bubble departure can be controlled by suitable selection of nozzle diameter and mass flow rate of vapor. In this approach effects due to the presence of the electric field can be separated from effects caused by the temperature gradients in the thermal boundary layer. The influence of the thermal boundary layer can be investigated after activating the heater at a later stage of the research. For the visualization experiments a test cell was developed. All four vertical walls of the test cell are transparent, and they allow transillumination with laser light for visualization experiments by HI. The bottom electrode is a copper cylinder, which is electrically grounded. The copper block is heated with a resistive heater and it is equipped with 6 thermocouples that provide reference temperatures for the measurements with HI. The top electrode is a mesh electrode. Bubbles are injected with a syringe into the test cell through the bottom electrode. The working fluids presently used in the interferometric visualization experiments, water and PF 5052, satisfy requirements regarding thermophysical, optical and electrical properties. A 30kV power supply equipped with a voltmeter allows to apply the electric field to the electrodes during the experiments. The magnitude of the applied voltage can be adjusted either manually or through the LabVIEW data acquisition and control system connected to a PC. Temperatures of the heated block are recorded using type-T thermocouples, whose output is read by a data acquisition system. Images of the bubbles are recorded with 35mm photographic and 16mm high-speed cameras, scanned and analyzed using various software packages. Visualized temperature fields HI allows the visualization of temperature fields in the vicinity of bubbles during boiling in the form of fringes. Typical visualized temperature distributions around the air bubbles injected into the thermal boundary layer in PF5052 are shown. The temperature of the heated surface is 35 C. The temperature difference for a pair of fringes is approximately 0.05 C. The heat flux applied to the bottom surface is moderate, and the fringe patterns are regular. In the image a bubble penetrating the thermal boundary layer is visible. Because of the axial symmetry of the problem, simplified reconstruction techniques can be applied to recover the temperature field. The thermal plume developing above the heated surface for more intensive heating is shown. The temperature distribution in the liquid is clearly 3D, and tomographic techniques have to be applied to recover the temperature distribution in such a physical situation. A sequence of interferometric images showing the temperature distribution around the rising bubble, recorded with a high-speed camera is shown. Again, the temperature distribution is 3D, and a more complex approach to the evaluation, the tomographic reconstruction has to be taken. Measurement of the temperature distribution from the fringe pattern temperature distributions that yield important information regarding heat transfer are determined. Two algorithms that allow the quantitative evaluation of interferometric fringe patterns and the reconstruction of temperature fields during boiling have been developed at the Heat Transfer Laboratory of the Johns Hopkins University. In the first algorithm the bubble is assumed to be axially symmetrical, which significantly reduces the computational effort for quantifying the temperature distribution around the bubble. For this purpose the thermal boundary layer around the bubble is divided into equidistant concentric shells, and the refractive index is assumed to be constant in each of the shells. Since large temperature gradients are expected in the vicinity of the bubble during boiling, the deflection of the light beam cannot be neglected in boiling experiments. Since the exit angle of the light beam is known, this allows to account for the deflections and phase shifts outside the boundary layer (in the bulk fluid and in the windows of the test cell). Three dimensional temperature distributions in the vicinity of the bubble are reconstructed using tomographic techniques. In tomography, the measurement volume is sliced into 2D planes. In the present study these planes are parallel to the heated surface. The objective is to determine the values of the field parameter of interest in form of the field function in these 2D planes. The field parameter is the change of the refractive index of the liquid in the measurement volume caused by temperature changes. By superimposing data for many 2D planes recorded at the same time instant, the 3D temperature distribution in the measurement volume is recovered.

Herman, Cila↗
NASA NTRS2014

Adapting a Large-Scale Multi-Mission Ground System for Low-Cost CubeSats

The majority of today's CubeSat fleet consists of Earth-orbiting missions that mostly use existing ground systems developed by universities because of availability, simplicity, and low-cost. The Interplanetary NanoSpacecraft Pathfinder In Relevant Environment (INSPIRE) mission is a revolutionary CubeSat mission that will launch a pair of CubeSats into deep space to study the feasibility of CubeSats beyond low-Earth orbit. This uncovers a new set of systems and software engineering challenges to the development of a robust and reliable ground system in a low-cost environment. In this paper, we discuss the approach to these challenges by using the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's (JPL) Advanced Multimission Operation System (AMMOS) Ground Data System (GDS) as well as the methodologies used to engineer the flight system to work with an existing ground system developed for large-scale missions. Specifically we will focus on the command and telemetry subsystem of AMMOS, the Multimission Data Processing and Control System. We conclude with a retrospective on the challenges encountered and a brief discussion on our efforts to provide AMMOS to support future deep space CubeSat missions.

Quach, William L.↗
NASA NTRS1976

A microprocessor controlled pressure scanning system

A microprocessor-based controller and data logger for pressure scanning systems is described. The microcomputer positions and manages data from as many as four 48-port electro-mechanical pressure scanners. The maximum scanning rate is 80 pressure measurements per second (20 ports per second on each of four scanners). The system features on-line calibration, position-directed data storage, and once-per-scan display in engineering units of data from a selected port. The system is designed to be interfaced to a facility computer through a shared memory. System hardware and software are described. Factors affecting measurement error in this type of system are also discussed.

Anderson, R. C.↗
NASA NTRS1976

A microprocessor controlled pressure scanning system

A microprocessor-based controller and data logger for pressure scanning systems is described. The microcomputer positions and manages data from as many as four 48-port electro-mechanical pressure scanners. The maximum scanning rate is 80 pressure measurements per second (20 ports per second on each of four scanners). The system features on-line calibration, position-directed data storage, and once-per-scan display in engineering units of data from a selected port. The system is designed to be interfaced to a facility computer through a shared memory. System hardware and software are described. Factors affecting measurement error in this type of system are also discussed.

Anderson, R. C.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Qualification testing for a central station

Qualification testing for a Central Station Photovoltaic (PV) Facility depends to a great extent on the system design, (fixed versus tracking), and the level of data acquisition/control which is incorporated into the system. The basic elements which require qualification tests include: dc power production/collection; tracker conversion systems; ac utility interface; system level control; and data acquisition/reporting. The qualification tests from the Lungo (ARCO) 1 MW Facility which were completed in January 1983 are discussed. The philosophy and many of the procedures are applicable to any central station PV facility.

Forrester, D. L.↗
DOE OSTI2020

HIDES: Hybrid Intrusion Detector for Energy Systems

The establishment of a resilient electric grid accompanied by a secure communications network is an ongoing battle as advanced persistent threats continue to exploit existing vulnerabilities in legacy supervisory control and data acquisition system (SCADA) infrastructure. Traditional intrusion detection systems (IDSs) lack consistent performance because of the continuously evolving attack surface of SCADA systems. These shortcomings can be overcome by integrating logical system behavior, protocol-specific knowledge, and data-based learning to develop a comprehensive IDS solution. In this paper, we present a Hybrid Intrusion Detector for Energy Systems by integrating a network-based IDS, state-of-the-art machine learning-based IDS, and model-based IDS to detect unknown and stealthy cyberattacks targeting the SCADA networks. The proposed IDS uses synchrophasor measurements and cyber logs to learn patterns of different scenarios based on spatiotemporal behaviors of power systems. As a proof of concept, we implement and validate the proposed IDS by leveraging resources available at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Energy Systems Integration Facility test bed. Experimental results show promising performance in detecting cyberattacks while providing realtime visualization of power system measurements and cyber logs.

machine-learning intrusion detection system↗
NASA NTRS2001

Data Synchronization Discrepancies in a Formation Flight Control System

Aircraft hardware-in-the-loop simulation is an invaluable tool to flight test engineers; it reveals design and implementation flaws while operating in a controlled environment. Engineers, however, must always be skeptical of the results and analyze them within their proper context. Engineers must carefully ascertain whether an anomaly that occurs in the simulation will also occur in flight. This report presents a chronology illustrating how misleading simulation timing problems led to the implementation of an overly complex position data synchronization guidance algorithm in place of a simpler one. The report illustrates problems caused by the complex algorithm and how the simpler algorithm was chosen in the end. Brief descriptions of the project objectives, approach, and simulation are presented. The misleading simulation results and the conclusions then drawn are presented. The complex and simple guidance algorithms are presented with flight data illustrating their relative success.

Ryan, Jack↗
DOE OSTI2020

Combustion Performance and Emissions Optimization Through Integration of a Miniaturized High-Temperature Multi Process Monitoring System

The main objective of this research program is to design, manufacture, and demonstrate a miniaturized, multi-process, monitoring system (mMPMS) for boiler condition management and easy system deployment to obtain a higher spatial resolution. This system will facilitate a Condition-Based Maintenance (CBM) philosophy that actively monitors the health of assets to predict and prevent failures and maximize availability and generating capacity at a reduced cost. CBM systems can provide boiler data that the advanced process control (APC) system can utilize for plant performance optimization, which is increasingly relevant as coal power plants shift from predominantly base-load operation to predominantly transient operation involving large load swings. The mMPMS is based on an electrochemical sensor that provides a real-time indication of the risk of damage to key locations in the radiant or convective section of a coal-fired boiler such as metal loss rates, heat flux, metal surface temperature, and deposit thickness. These indications can be utilized to optimize boiler performance as well as improve boiler availability in conjunction with corresponding operating conditions. This monitoring system was developed and tested in the high-temperature regions of coal-fired utility boilers in this project but can be applied to many other industries and applications as well. This project leveraged the existing electrochemical noise-based monitoring system and the new sensor design is small enough to be installed through the webbing of the waterwalls without the need for long shut-downs to bend tubes and to make it feasible to obtain high spatial resolution in the boiler. Data is transferred to the plant distributed control system (DCS) and any other control system. The sensor body that houses the sensor assembly was designed to ensure good conductive contact with boiler tubes to ensure the sensor is held at an identical temperature to the tube surface temperature. The data acquisition and signal conditioning modules were redesigned into a small footprint with optimized cooling of the module. System software was developed specifically for the new signal conditioning module and is compatible with plant PLCs. After the preliminary testing at a pilot-scale facility, five mMPMS were installed at a full-scale pulverized coal-fired plant, Basin Electric Power Cooperative’s Leland Olds Unit 1. The systems were demonstrated over a 6-week period during typical operation. Sensor measurements of deposit thickness were validated during the demonstration and subsequently leveraged to determine sensor-based boiler cleaning strategies. These strategies have the benefit of reduced thermal stresses on boiler tubes from over-cleaning and improved boiler water management. At the end of the project, continued development of the sensor technology was carried out at PacifiCorp’s Hunter Station. REI leveraged the permanent installation of the mMPMS in Unit 3 made possible by DOE funding on a separate program. The work at Hunter Plant focused on application of machine learning and artificial intelligence-based models for integration of sensor signals into control and optimization of Hunter Unit 3 processes.

Advanced Sensors, Corrosion, Ash Deposition, Optim↗
NASA NTRS2020

Investigation of a Helicopter Individual Blade Control (IBC) System in Two Full-Scale Wind Tunnel Tests: Volume II—Tabulated Data

This volume presents the tabulated data acquired during the testing of an individual blade control (IBC) system for a full-scale BO-105 helicopter rotor in the NASA Ames 40- by 80-Foot Wind Tunnel. The data are divided into appendices according to the data type. Table 6 in Volume I presents a summary of the data acquired during the 1993 and 1994 IBC wind tunnel tests. The data have been tabulated according to test year, run number, and point number (e.g., 1993 IBC Test, Run 20, pt. 3). The 1993 and 1994 IBC tests were each started with a run number of 1. A new run number was assigned each time the wind tunnel and rotor were restarted, even if no data were acquired during the previous run. For this reason, some run numbers appear to be missing, yet all of the IBC data is included in the tabulated data, with one notable exception. The Fourier series data presented in Appendices H, L, and N are provided only for the data points identified with the ”•“ symbol in the last column of Table 6 in Volume I. This was done to keep the physical size of the data tables reasonable. The table below shows which data were included in these appendices; the data encompass the majority of the IBC inputs tested in the wind tunnel. Data for the points not included in Appendices H, L, and N have been retained in the BO-105 IBC database and are electronically available from NASA Ames Research Center.

Investigation↗
NASA NTRS1992

Program Handles Environmental-Test Data

S3 Data Acquisition and Control System, (S3DACS) monitors, controls, and records information acquired during tests and presents it in various formats for easy access by large number of users. Results automatically stored. Data used in computations, and selectively presented in tabular, graphical, or electronic form. Reports show current or historical events. Network software written in FoxPro/LAN 1.02 and 80386 Assembler.

De Freitas Bart, Frances↗
NASA NTRS1992

How to handle 6GBytes a night and not get swamped

The Macho Project has undertaken a 5 year effort to search for dark matter in the halo of the Galaxy by scanning the Magellanic Clouds for micro-lensing events. Each evening's raw image data will be reduced in real-time into the observed stars' photometric measurements. The actual search for micro-lensing events will be a post-processing operation. The theoretical prediction of the rate of such events necessitates the collection of a large number of repeated exposures. The project designed camera subsystem delivers 64 Mbytes per exposure with exposures typically occurring every 500 seconds. An ideal evening's observing will provide 6 Gbytes of raw image data and 40 Mbytes of reduced photometric measurements. Recognizing the difficulty of digging out from a snowballing cascade of raw data, the project requires the real-time reduction of each evening's data. The software team's implementation strategy centered on this non-negotiable mandate. Accepting the reality that 2 full time people needed to implement the core real-time control and data management system within 6 months, off-the-shelf vendor components were explored to provide quick solutions to the classic needs for file management, data management, and process control. Where vendor solutions were lacking, state-of-the-art models were used for hand tailored subsystems. In particular, petri nets manage process control, memory mapped bulletin boards provide interprocess communication between the multi-tasked processes, and C++ class libraries provide memory mapped, disk resident databases. The differences between the implementation strategy and the final implementation reality are presented. The necessity of validating vendor product claims are explored. Both the successful and hindsight decisions enabling the collection and processing of the nightly data barrage are reviewed.

Allsman, R.↗
NASA NTRS2018

RESTful CFDP: Managing GDS Complexity with Microservices

NASA's Advanced Multi-Mission Operations System (AMMOS) is currently adding capability to support the CCSDS File Delivery Protocol (CFDP). This feature is being added as part of the AMMOS Mission Data Processing and Control System (AMPCS). In order to address the system’s increasing complexity, AMPCS has recently been re-architected to break down its monolithic applications into smaller, individually deployable microservices. The CFDP capability is the first new AMPCS feature to leverage this new architecture. The CFDP microservice provides a web-based Representational State Transfer (REST) application programming interface (API) for complete monitor and control of its operations, and this enables it to be decoupled from other AMPCS microservices. This also results in better scalability for redundancy and load balancing. AMPCS's CFDP microservice is designed to support generic CFDP operations, agnostic to AMPCS's legacy concept of Downlink Products. An optional runtime plug-in allows the CFDP microservice to simulate CFDP artifacts as Downlink Products. Applying the microservices software architecture pattern both in the latest release of AMPCS and in providing the new CFDP capability has resulted in a more flexible system with improved extensibility and maintainability. System complexity has also become more manageable.

Choi, Joshua S.↗