Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “COMMERCIAL”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 685 records · Page 38
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2016

SU-F-T-152: Experimental Validation and Calculation Benchmark for a Commercial Monte Carlo Pencil BeamScanning Proton Therapy Treatment Planning System in Heterogeneous Media

Purpose: Eclipse AcurosPT 13.7, the first commercial Monte Carlo pencil beam scanning (PBS) proton therapy treatment planning system (TPS), was experimentally validated for an IBA dedicated PBS nozzle in the CIRS 002LFC thoracic phantom. Methods: A two-stage procedure involving the use of TOPAS 1.3 simulations was performed. First, Geant4-based TOPAS simulations in this phantom were experimentally validated for single and multi-spot profiles at several depths for 100, 115, 150, 180, 210 and 225 MeV proton beams, using the combination of a Lynx scintillation detector and a MatriXXPT ionization chamber array. Second, benchmark calculations were performed with both AcurosPT and TOPAS in a phantom identical to the CIRS 002LFC, with the exception that the CIRS bone/mediastinum/lung tissues were replaced with similar tissues that are predefined in AcurosPT (a limitation of this system which necessitates the two stage procedure). Results: Spot sigmas measured in tissue were in agreement within 0.2 mm of TOPAS simulation for all six energies, while AcurosPT was consistently found to have larger spot sigma (<0.7 mm) than TOPAS. Using absolute dose calibration by MatriXXPT, the agreements between profiles measurements and TOPAS simulation, and calculation benchmarks are over 97% except near the end of range using 2 mm/2% gamma criteria. Overdosing and underdosing were observed at the low and high density side of tissue interfaces, respectively, and these increased with increasing depth and decreasing energy. Near the mediastinum/lung interface, the magnitude can exceed 5 mm/10%. Furthermore, we observed >5% quenching effect in the conversion of Lynx measurements to dose. Conclusion: We recommend the use of an ionization chamber array in combination with the scintillation detector to measure absolute dose and relative PBS spot characteristics. We also recommend the use of an independent Monte Carlo calculation benchmark for the commissioning of a commercial TPS. Partially supported by Varian Medical System under the master agreement between Varian and University of pennsylvania.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Detection of anaerobic and aerobic bacteria from commercial tattoo and permanent makeup inks

ABSTRACT Tattooing and use of permanent makeup (PMU) have dramatically increased over the last decade, with a concomitant increase in ink-related infections. Studies have shown evidence that commercial tattoo and PMU inks are frequently contaminated with pathogenic microorganisms. Considering that tattoo inks are placed into the dermal layer of the skin where anaerobic bacteria can thrive and cause infections in low-oxygen environments, the prevalence of anaerobic and aerobic bacteria should be assessed in tattoo and PMU inks. In this study, we tested 75 tattoo and PMU inks using the analytical methods described in the FDA Bacteriological Analytical Manual Chapter 23 for the detection of both aerobic and anaerobic bacterial contamination, followed by 16S rRNA gene sequencing for microbial identification. Of 75 ink samples, we found 26 contaminated samples with 34 bacterial isolates taxonomically classified into 14 genera and 22 species. Among the 34 bacterial isolates, 19 were identified as possibly pathogenic bacterial strains. Two species, namelyCutibacterium acnes(four strains) andStaphylococcus epidermidis(two strains) were isolated under anaerobic conditions. Two possibly pathogenic bacterial strains,Staphylococcus saprophyticusandC. acnes, were isolated together from the same ink samples (n= 2), indicating that tattoo and PMU inks can contain both aerobic (S. saprophyticus) and anaerobic bacteria (C. acnes). No significant association was found between sterility claims on the ink label and the absence of bacterial contamination. The results indicate that tattoo and PMU inks can also contain anaerobic bacteria. IMPORTANCE The rising popularity of tattooing and permanent makeup (PMU) has led to increased reports of ink-related infections. This study is the first to investigate the presence of both aerobic and anaerobic bacteria in commercial tattoo and PMU inks under aerobic and anaerobic conditions. Our findings reveal that unopened and sealed tattoo inks can harbor anaerobic bacteria, known to thrive in low-oxygen environments, such as the dermal layer of the skin, alongside aerobic bacteria. This suggests that contaminated tattoo inks could be a source of infection from both types of bacteria. The results emphasize the importance of monitoring these products for both aerobic and anaerobic bacteria, including possibly pathogenic microorganisms.

Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology↗
DOE OSTI2017

A Data Driven Pre-cooling Framework for Energy Cost Optimization in Commercial Buildings

Commercial buildings consume significant amount of energy. Facility managers are increasingly grappling with the problem of reducing their buildings’ peak power, overall energy consumption and energy bills. In this paper, we first develop an optimization framework – based on a gray box model for zone thermal dynamics – to determine a pre-cooling strategy that simultaneously shifts the peak power to low energy tariff regimes, and reduces both the peak power and overall energy consumption by exploiting the flexibility in a building’s thermal comfort range. We then evaluate the efficacy of the pre-cooling optimization framework by applying it to building management system data, spanning several days, obtained from a large commercial building located in a tropical region of the world. The results from simulations show that optimal pre-cooling reduces peak power by over 50%, energy consumption by up to 30% and energy bills by up to 37%. Next, to enable ease of use of our framework, we also propose a shortest path based heuristic algorithmfor solving the optimization problemand show that it has comparable erformance with the optimal solution. Finally, we describe an application of the proposed optimization framework for developing countries to reduce the dependency on expensive fossil fuels, which are often used as a source for energy backup.We conclude by highlighting our real world deployment of the optimal pre-cooling framework via a software service on the cloud platform of a major provider. Our pre-cooling methodology, based on the gray box optimization framework, incurs no capital expense and relies on data readily available from a building management system, thus enabling facility managers to take informed decisions for improving the energy and cost footprints of their buildings

Vishwanath, Arun↗
DOE OSTI2019

Machine Learning of Commercial and Residential Load Components in Northwestern United States

The impacts of weather attributes on commercial and residential electricity demands and their components in the northwestern United States were examined. Two machine learning methods, regression tree (RT), and random forest (RF), were integrated and compared. Both RT and RF models provide reliable prediction of commercial cooling load. RF models particularly yield higher accuracy with reduced overfitting.

Zhou, Huifen↗
DOE OSTI2023

Beyond the Hype: An Evaluation of Commercially Available Machine-Learning-Based Malware Detectors

There is a lack of scientific testing of commercially available malware detectors, especially those that boast accurate classification of never-before-seen (i.e., zero-day) files using machine learning (ML). Consequently, efficacy of malware detectors is opaque, inhibiting end users from making informed decisions and researchers from targeting gaps in current detectors. In this paper, we present a scientific evaluation of four prominent commercial malware detection tools to assist an organization with two primary questions: To what extent do ML-based tools accurately classify previously and never-before-seen files? Is purchasing a network-level malware detector worth the cost? To investigate, we tested each tool against 3,536 total files (2,554 or 72% malicious, 982 or 28% benign) of a variety of file types, including hundreds of malicious zero-days, polyglots, and APT-style files, delivered on multiple protocols. We present statistical results on detection time and accuracy, consider complementary analysis (using multiple tools together), and provide two novel applications of the recent cost-benefit evaluation procedure of Iannacone & Bridges. Although the ML-based tools are more effective at detecting zero-day files and executables, the signature-based tool might still be an overall better option. Both network-based tools provide substantial (simulated) savings when paired with either host tool, yet both show poor detection rates on protocols other than HTTP or SMTP. Our results show that all four tools have near-perfect precision but alarmingly low recall, especially on file types other than executables and office files—37% of malware, including all polyglot files, were undetected. Priorities for researchers and takeaways for end users are given. Code for future use of the cost model is provided.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2018

BRICR v0.2.0 (BayREN Integrated Commercial Retrofits) [SWR 18-33]

BRICR is software for translating NREL's BuildingSync™ XML (BSXML) to OpenStudio® Workflow (OSW) files for simulation. Each BSXML contains information about a building as well as multiple possible energy efficiency upgrade options. An OSW file is created and run for each possible efficiency upgrade, the results of all simulations are stored in BSXML format. BRICR was jointly developed by NREL and LBNL for the San Francisco BayREN: Integrated Commercial Retrofits (BRICR) project funded under the DOE solicitation "Solutions to Improve the Energy Efficiency of U.S. Small and Medium Commercial Buildings (DE-FOA-0001385)": https://www.energy.gov/eere/buildings/downloads/san-francisco-bayren-integrated-commercial-retrofits

Macumber, Dan↗
DOE OSTI2020

Commercial Routing Assistance

The Commercial Routing Assistance (CRA) tool merges coordinated and vetted data streams, plots multiple automated or custom routing options, and visualizes the wide variety of state regulations and actions that a driver would encounter along a route. With CRA, commercial operators can plan vehicle movements across multiple states quickly, particularly during emergencies.

Klett, TimothyR.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Commercial Vehicle Electrification Evaluation Toolkit (CVEET)

The CVEET can identify and characterize charging and battery capacity challenges for class 3-8 commercial vehicle electrification, including battery electric and plug in hybrid vehicles for various trucks, vans and buses, over a wide range of vehicle operation. The tool can help build the understanding of the impact of commercial vehicle electrification on energy consumption, payload penalty, and GHG (i.e., CO2) emissions. The tool employs a quantitative approach to estimate electric vehicle energy consumption, characterize component performance and determine appropriate charging assumptions to conduct a comprehensive priority analysis of MD/HD vehicle electrification using public domain data.

Gao, Zhiming↗
DOE OSTI2026

FLOW BATTERY COST AND COMMERCIALIZATION TOOL (FlowBaCC) v.1.0

The Flow Battery Cost and Commercialization Tool (FlowBaCC) is a python-based framework used to project the costs and commercialization timelines for redox flow batteries. FlowBaCC combines learning curves for component costs and performance with adoption curves for market diffusion to project future system costs. The tool uses the bottom-up, spreadsheet-based Battery Performance and Cost Model for Flow Batteries (BatPaC-Flow) as the engine to translate learning curve inputs into full system costs. FlowBaCC provides capital costs and levelized costs of energy storage. The tool enables scenario analysis, sensitivity analysis, and uncertainty quantification (via grid and Monte Carlo methods).

Fu, Xiaoxu [Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Arg↗
DOE OSTI2021

Adapting a Low-Cost and Open-Source Commercial Pipetting Robot for Nanoliter Liquid Handling

Nanoliter liquid handling capabilities in bioanalytical workflows can reduce reagent costs and improve sample processing efficiency. Here we report the successful modification of a low-cost commercially available pipetting robot, the Opentrons 1 (OT1), using inexpensive 3D-printed parts to accommodate low-nanoliter volumes. The pipetting accuracy and precision of the modified OT1 for 50 nL volumes of water was 0.2% and 2%, respectively. The accuracy and precision at 20 nL was 1% and 3.8%, respectively. The platform was successfully applied to the preparation of low-nanogram proteomic samples for liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis. The modified OT1 is thus an effective platform for nanoliter liquid handling and, at a total cost of less than $6000 including the commercial liquid handler and all modifications, is far less expensive and more versatile than other platforms with similar capabilities, placing this technology within reach of a far broader scientific community.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2017

Assessing Air Velocity Distribution in Three Sizes of Commercial Broiler Houses During Tunnel Ventilation

Abstract. Convective cooling is a critical management strategy for maintaining an environment that promotes production efficiency, thermal comfort, and animal well-being in commercial broiler houses. Variations in house size, design, and equipment configuration contribute greatly to the air velocity distribution within the facility. This study assessed total airflow, air velocity distribution, and quantified the floor area in three facilities experiencing insufficient air velocity for maintenance of production efficiency, thermal comfort, and animal well-being. Test facility 1 was an 18.3 × 170.7 m solid side-wall broiler house, test facility 2 was a 15.24 × 144.8 m solid side-wall broiler house, and test facility 3 was a 12.19 × 121.9 m curtain side-wall broiler house. Total airflow of each facility, measured with a Fan Assessment and Numeration System, was 512,730, 389,495, and 329,270 m 3 h -1 for test facilities 1, 2, and 3, respectively. Air velocity distribution patterns were characterized in each house with a Scalable Environment Assessment System (SEAS) and spatial statistics. The air velocity distributions within the test facilities were variable, with notable maxima immediately downstream of the tunnel inlets, which serve as a well-defined vena contracta, and local minima near the leading end of the evaporative pads and the exhaust fans. Equipment within the facilities had an impact on the air velocity distribution by creating reduced cross-sectional areas that resulted in localized increases in air velocity. The percentage of total bird-level floor area in each facility experiencing air velocities below 1.5 m s -1 was 14.3%, 20.7%, and 10.0% for test facilities 1, 2, and 3, respectively. The effective design velocity (V ed ) was calculated from total airflow using the measured building cross-sectional area. The V ed measured 2.97, 2.45, and 2.34 m s -1 for test facilities 1, 2, and 3, respectively. Mean cross-sectional air velocity (V cs ) was calculated from SEAS data and normalized using each facility’s V ed to account for differences in building size for comparison. Test facility 1, the largest of the three houses, generated substantially higher V cs /V ed than test facilities 2 and 3. Test facilities 2 and 3 maintained a larger proportion of V cs above V ed than test facility 1. Test facility 1 showed 26.5% of the total house length below V ed , while test facilities 2 and 3 had only 20.8% and 17.5%, respectively, of the total house length below V ed . The lower-velocity regions were due to the length of the evaporative cooling pad inlet and the use of tunnel doors, and the exhaust fan placement on the side-walls in test facility 1 created an additional pronounced low-velocity area. Placement of tunnel ventilation fans on the end-wall of the facility, rather than the side-wall, eliminated the low-velocity region at the exhaust end of the facility. Modifications to current practices for broiler production facility construction and evaporative cooling pad inlet installation would be required to minimize the low-velocity region at the inlet end of these facilities. Consideration of house width and physical arrangement of the air inlets, tunnel fans, and internal equipment are critical for improving the uniformity of air velocity in commercial broiler houses. Keywords: Air velocity, Anemometer, Broiler house, FANS, Tunnel ventilation.

Agriculture↗
DOE OSTI2023

Laboratory evaluation of open source and commercial electrical conductivity sensor precision and accuracy: How do they compare?

Variation in the electrical conductivity (EC) of water can reveal environmental disturbance and natural dynamics, including factors such as anthropogenic salinization. Broader application of open source (OS) EC sensors could provide an inexpensive method to measure water quality. While studies show that other water quality parameters can be robustly measured with sensors, a similar effort is needed to evaluate the performance of OS EC sensors. To address this need, we evaluated the accuracy (mean error, %) and precision (sample standard deviation) of OS EC sensors in the laboratory via comparison to EC calibration standards using three different OS and OS/commercial-hybrid (OS/C) EC sensors and data logger configurations and two commercial (C) EC sensors and data logger configurations. We also evaluated the effect of cable length (7.5 m and 30 m) and sensor calibration on OS sensor accuracy and precision. We found a significant difference between OS sensor mean accuracy (3.08%) and all other sensors combined (9.23%). Our study also found that EC sensor precision decreased across all sensor configurations with increasing calibration standard EC. There was also a significant difference between OS sensor mean precision (2.85 μS/cm) and the mean precision of all other sensors combined (9.12 μS/cm). Cable length did not affect OS sensor precision. Furthermore, our results suggest that future research should include evaluating how performance is impacted by combining OS sensors with commercial data loggers as this study found significantly decreased performance in OS/commercial-hybrid sensor configurations. To increase confidence in the reliability of OS sensor data, more studies such as ours are needed to further quantify OS sensor performance in terms of accuracy and precision across different settings and OS sensor and data collection platform configurations.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Data and Scripts associated with: “Laboratory evaluation of open source and commercial electrical conductivity sensor precision and accuracy”

This data package is associated with the publication “Laboratory evaluation of open source and commercial electrical conductivity sensor precision and accuracy: How do they compare?” submitted to PLOS ONE and accepted for publication (Fulton, S.G. et al. 2023; doi not yet available).Variation in electrical conductivity (EC) of water is important to reveal environmental disturbance and natural dynamics, including factors such as anthropogenic salinization. This data package supports a study addressing the need for a robust performance assessment of open source (OS) EC sensors. We evaluated the accuracy (mean error, %) and precision (sample standard deviation) of OS EC sensors in the laboratory via comparison to EC calibration standards using three different OS and OS/commercial-hybrid (OS/C) EC sensors and data logger configurations and two commercial (C) EC sensors and data logger configurations. We also evaluated the effect of cable length (7.5 m and 30 m) and sensor calibration on OS sensor accuracy and precision. This data package presents the results from the different testing laboratory configurations. It also includes an R script for statistical analysis of the data and an Arduino IDE file used to calibrate and collect data with the OS Atlas EC sensor. File types are .csv, .pdf, .R, and .ino.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Towards a Stronger Foundation: Digitizing Commercial Buildings with Brick to Enable Portable Advanced Applications

Most large commercial buildings have digital controls for their heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) and lighting systems with the potential to implement advanced control strategies and data analytics. However, advanced control strategies and data analytics are rarely deployed at scale due to non-standard naming conventions and heterogenous building configurations. Semantic metadata standards, like Brick, show promise to proliferate these applications across many buildings, but they have not been widely adopted by industry due to barriers such as perceived risk and unfamiliarity with the technology. This paper describes the workflow we established and evaluated while using it to develop over ten Brick models of existing buildings. Through this process, we observed that digitizing existing commercial buildings is a cost and labor-intensive effort in which understanding the buildings’ data streams is the major bottleneck. Yet, we conclude this investment is worthwhile since various use case applications such as fault detection and diagnostics, thermal comfort analysis, and HVAC control optimization can utilize the same Brick model. The paper also explores the challenges and lessons learned we encountered while creating these data models, such as: 1) difficulties in finding metadata descriptions and relationships for existing buildings; 2) handling missing concepts in the schema needed to model a building; 3) lack of guidance on how to structure the data model or how much detail to include; 4) unfamiliarity with technologies, which makes the learning curve steep for applications developers. Finally, we also describe future directions for semantic metadata research and development to make such transformative technologies more accessible to practitioners.

Roa, Carlos Duarte↗
DOE OSTI2013

The commercial development of water repellent coatings for high voltage transmission lines

The purpose of the Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) between UT-Battelle, LLC and Southwire Company was to jointly develop a low cost, commercially viable, water-repellant anti-icing coating system for high voltage transmission lines. Icing of power lines and other structures caused by freezing rain events occurs annually in the United States, and leads to severe and prolonged power outages. These outages cause untold economic and personal distress for many American families and businesses. Researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee have previously developed a set of superhydrophobic coatings with remarkable anti-icing properties that could potentially be sprayed or painted onto high-tension power lines and pylons. These coatings drastically reduce ice accumulation on these structures during freezing rain events. The project involved obtaining technical input, supplies and test high voltage cables from Southwire, along with the joint development of anti-icing coating techniques, which would result in a commercial license agreement between Southwire and ORNL, and potentially other companies requiring water repellent anti-icing coatings.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2013

TidGen Power System Commercialization Project

ORPC Maine, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ocean Renewable Power Company, LLC (collectively ORPC), submits this Final Technical Report for the TidGen® Power System Commercialization Project (Project), partially funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DE-EE0003647). The Project was built and operated in compliance with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) pilot project license (P-12711) and other permits and approvals needed for the Project. This report documents the methodologies, activities and results of the various phases of the Project, including design, engineering, procurement, assembly, installation, operation, licensing, environmental monitoring, retrieval, maintenance and repair. The Project represents a significant achievement for the renewable energy portfolio of the U.S. in general, and for the U.S. marine hydrokinetic (MHK) industry in particular. The stated Project goal was to advance, demonstrate and accelerate deployment and commercialization of ORPC’s tidal-current based hydrokinetic power generation system, including the energy extraction and conversion technology, associated power electronics, and interconnection equipment capable of reliably delivering electricity to the domestic power grid. ORPC achieved this goal by designing, building and operating the TidGen® Power System in 2012 and becoming the first federally licensed hydrokinetic tidal energy project to deliver electricity to a power grid under a power purchase agreement in North America. Located in Cobscook Bay between Eastport and Lubec, Maine, the TidGen® Power System was connected to the Bangor Hydro Electric utility grid at an on-shore station in North Lubec on September 13, 2012. ORPC obtained a FERC pilot project license for the Project on February 12, 2012 and the first Maine Department of Environmental Protection General Permit issued for a tidal energy project on January 31, 2012. In addition, ORPC entered into a 20-year agreement with Bangor Hydro Electric Company on January 1, 2013 for up to 5 megawatts at a price of $215/MWh, escalating at 2.0% per year.

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗
DOE OSTI2015

Roadmap for the Future of Commercial Energy Codes

Building energy codes have significantly increased building efficiency over the last 38 years, since the first national energy code was published in 1975. The most commonly used path in energy codes, the prescriptive path, appears to be reaching a point of diminishing returns. The current focus on prescriptive codes has limitations including significant variation in actual energy performance depending on which prescriptive options are chosen, a lack of flexibility for designers and developers, the inability to handle optimization that is specific to building type and use, the inability to account for project-specific energy costs, and the lack of follow-through or accountability after a certificate of occupancy is granted. It is likely that an approach that considers the building as an integrated system will be necessary to achieve the next real gains in building efficiency. This report provides a high-level review of different formats for commercial building energy codes, including prescriptive, prescriptive packages, capacity constrained, outcome based, and predictive performance approaches. This report also explores a next generation commercial energy code approach that places a greater emphasis on performance-based criteria.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2015

Consortium for Algal Biofuel Commercialization (CAB-COMM) Final Report

The Consortium for Algal Biofuel Commercialization (CAB-Comm) was established in 2010 to conduct research to enable commercial viability of alternative liquid fuels produced from algal biomass. The main objective of CAB-Comm was to dramatically improve the viability of algae as a source of liquid fuels to meet US energy needs, by addressing several significant barriers to economic viability. To achieve this goal, CAB-Comm took a diverse set of approaches on three key aspects of the algal biofuels value chain: crop protection; nutrient utilization and recycling; and the development of genetic tools. These projects have been undertaken as collaboration between six academic institutions and two industrial partners: University of California, San Diego; Scripps Institution of Oceanography; University of Nebraska, Lincoln; Rutgers University; University of California, Davis; Johns Hopkins University; Sapphire Energy; and Life Technologies.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗