Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “System resiliency”

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 703 records · Page 39
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

A Power-Hardware-in-the-Loop (PHIL) Evaluation of Service Restoration With Networked Microgrids

This paper describes the power-hardware-in-the- loop (PHIL) evaluation of the feasibility of service restoration solutions determined by the PowerModelsONM.jl tool. This tool incorporates microgrids and the networking of microgrids into its determination of an optimal service restoration solution. The paper presents PHIL simulation results for a case study based on a real distribution feeder with multiple microgrids, showcas- ing the effectiveness of networked microgrids in aiding system restoration after an outage. The study leverages high-fidelity, real- time electromagnetic transient models to ensure accuracy in the simulation results. This work is the final output from the Resilient Operation of Networked Microgrids (RONM) project funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Electricity Microgrid Program and led by Los Alamos National Laboratory. RONM focused on the application of PowerModelsONM.jl to enhance the resilience of distribution systems.

fault location isolation and service restoration (↗
DOE OSTI2026

Detection and imaging of chemicals and hidden explosives using terahertz time-domain spectroscopy and deep learning

Detecting concealed chemicals and explosives remains a critical challenge in global security. Terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) offers a promising non-invasive and stand-off detection technique owing to its ability to penetrate optically opaque materials without causing ionization damage. While many chemicals exhibit distinct spectral features in the terahertz range, conventional terahertz-based detection methods often struggle in real-world environments, where variations in sample geometry, thickness, and packaging can lead to inconsistent spectral responses. In this study, we present a chemical imaging system that integrates THz-TDS with deep learning to enable accurate pixel-level identification and classification of different explosives. Operating in reflection mode and enhanced with plasmonic nanoantenna arrays, our THz-TDS system achieves a peak dynamic range of 96 dB and a detection bandwidth of 4.5 THz, supporting practical, stand-off operation. By analyzing individual time-domain pulses with deep neural networks, the system exhibits strong resilience to environmental variations and sample inconsistencies. Blind testing across eight chemicals—including pharmaceutical excipients and explosive compounds—resulted in an average classification accuracy of 99.42% at the pixel level. Notably, the system maintained an average accuracy of 88.83% when detecting explosives concealed under opaque paper coverings, demonstrating its robust generalization capability. These results highlight the potential of combining advanced terahertz spectroscopy with neural networks for highly sensitive and specific chemical and explosive detection in diverse and operationally relevant scenarios.

Imaging and sensing↗
NASA NTRS2024

Control Effectiveness: Metric Development and Application to Resilient Lunar Habitat Design

System safety engineering in its bare essence involves identifying, assessing, and mitigating, or controlling, hazards. Appropriate safety controls are selected using hazard reduction precedence principles, prior experience, or by assessing their impact on residual risk (together with other factors like cost). We propose a control effectiveness metric as one way to systematically and consistently evaluate potential safety controls individually and thereby facilitate selecting a shortlist of potential controls for subsequent integrated evaluation. The control effectiveness metric considers a safety control’s availability when needed, the probability that its design is adequate in addressing the targeted hazard, the probability that the design will be implemented as intended, and the relationship between the time it takes for the safety control to address its target hazard and the time before the hazard propagates. We demonstrated the use of our metric on a lunar habitat design using a physics-based habitat simulator. High control effectiveness and safety controls result in a habitat with high resilience, while low control effectiveness results in lower resilience.

Rashi Jain↗
DOE OSTI2026

Assessing Energy Infrastructure Devices for Vulnerabilities

Industrial control systems prove to be vital to the health and security of the nation in our critical infrastructure. Critical infrastructure includes the most foundational systems to support modern civilization which includes water and wastewater systems, communications, and the electricity we use to name a few sectors. However, these devices' overall composition remains largely unknown and are untested from a cyber security perspective. As part of the Cyber Testing for Resilient Industrial Control Systems (CyTRICS) program, I analyzed one such energy infrastructure device to better understand how it functions, what hardware and software components are present within it, and assess it for security vulnerabilities. To achieve this, I reverse engineered binary files using Ghidra to understand system functionality and learned more about how to collaborate with other researchers on a shared Ghidra project. I learned more about how web sockets function and how to interact with them through Python to test if they are secure or not. This work led me to assess possible vulnerabilities in this device and provide a better understanding of its composition and function, which are essential to INL's mission of securing our nation's energy infrastructure.

99 - GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Roadmap to Automated Mobility Systems: Informing the Planning of a Sustainable, Resilient Transportation Ecosystem for Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) developed this report to provide Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) assistance toward a vision that considers the maturation and proliferation of mobility automation, electrification, and infrastructure integrated with Internet of Things (IoT) technologies as they present themselves on the path to 2035. In planning ongoing infrastructure investments, DFW has goals to accommodate and leverage these enabling technologies toward greater sustainability and enhanced traveler and employee experiences, ensuring that infrastructure investments are fully utilized into the future. The objective of this document is to assist DFW to anticipate and envision future airport access by travelers, employees, and goods by examining existing needs and exploring opportunities enabled by technology that informs longer-term infrastructure planning. The vast infrastructure of DFW, which includes buildings, roadways, and other physical structures, as well as growing digital and energy network infrastructures, requires long-term planning and strategy to fully leverage technology advancement and avoid abandoning assets due to functional obsolescence.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Distributed Coordination of Networked Microgrids for Voltage Support in Bulk Power Grids

The increasing deployment of distributed energy resources (DERs) and microgrids (MGs) in power distribution systems has enabled the adjustment of reactive power consumption as seen at the substation, which can be used to provide voltage support for the bulk power system (BPS). Leveraging this new capability will provide greater resiliency to the power system as a whole. Here, the goal of this paper is to develop and compare three different algorithms, namely distributed optimal power flow, distributed consensus algorithm, and fully decentralized collaborative autonomy for unbalanced distribution systems for microgrid coordination. These algorithms use networked MGs to support the BPS voltage when a contingency at the bulk grid results in abnormally low voltages, which may be a precursor to voltage collapse. Our comparative analysis includes both qualitative and quantitative assessments of the three algorithms and a discussion of the trade-offs between the decentralized and distributed methods in normal and disrupted conditions. Each algorithm was evaluated on the modified IEEE 13-bus system and a real power distribution system at Chattanooga, Tennessee, that encompasses more than 4500 buses. Each algorithms excels differently and may be suited for different scenarios depending on the condition, operations, and priorities of the power and communication systems.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
NASA NTRS1982

The containment set approach to digital system tolerance of lightning-induced transient faults

A fault model and a system model are necessary to assess the tolerance or resilience of a digital system to lightning-induced transients. It is noted that these models are usually developed separately. A new approach is outlined here for this assessment problem which combines the fault and system models into an overall model. With this approach, referred to as the containment set approach, an assessment of the effects of lightning-induced transients can be made in terms of a state transition matrix. This matrix can be generated by means of fault injection experiments. In addition, certain nonredundancy-oriented design alternatives to the achievement of lightning-induced transient tolerance in digital systems are indicated by the containment set approach.

Masson, G. M.↗
DOE OSTI2025

Investigating Resiliency of Transportation Network under Targeted and Potential Climate Change Disruptions

Ensuring robustness and resilience in intermodal transportation systems is essential for the continuity and reliability of global logistics. These systems are vulnerable to various disruptions, including natural disasters and technical failures. Despite significant research on freight transportation resilience, investigating the robustness of the system after targeted and climate-change-driven disruption remains a crucial challenge. Drawing on network science methodologies, this study models the interdependencies within the rail and water transport networks and simulates different disruption scenarios to evaluate system responses. Here, we use the data from the U.S. Department of Energy Volpe Center for network topology and tonnage projections. The proposed framework quantifies deliberate, stochastic, and climate-driven infrastructure failure, using higher resolution downscaled multiple Earth System Models’ simulations from Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase version 6. We show that the disruptions of a few nodes could have a larger impact on the total tonnage of freight transport than on network topology. For example, the removal of targeted 20 nodes can bring the total tonnage carrying capacity to 30% with about 75% of the rail freight network intact. This research advances the theoretical understanding of transportation resilience and provides practical applications for infrastructure managers and policymakers. By implementing these strategies, stakeholders and policymakers can better prepare for and respond to unexpected disruptions, ensuring sustained operational efficiency in transportation networks.

Climate Change Disruptions↗
DOE OSTI2025

Energy Equity: From Sociological Concept to Engineering Perspective of Electric Power Systems

The implementation of energy equity has emerged as a pivotal goal of the global energy transition, driven by widespread recognition of energy inequities worldwide. Because energy equity is broadly regarded as a sociological concept rather than an engineering one, the current absence of technical engineering methods necessitates the development of a justified and sound approach to making energy equity an actionable practice in the broader realms of energy, environment, and sustainability. This Perspective discusses different terms related to energy equity and proposes a generalized definition of energy equity from the engineering perspective of electric power systems. To address these challenges related to energy equity, policies in Europe and the U.S. are introduced, although their effectiveness is limited. Further, current energy equity research is classified into four categories: quantifying energy equity, improving equity in the accessibility of electricity, improving equity in the affordability of electricity, and improving equity in the resilience of power systems. Then, we classify the ongoing research challenges in energy equity into two categories, technical challenges and application challenges, and provide corresponding insights. Finally, we discuss equity of resilience or reliability, income disparity, and environmental equity, followed by a summary of this Perspective.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Community Resilience Options: A Menu for Enhancing Local Energy Resilience

This document highlights areas of potential community resilience improvements, especially those that relate to clean energy deployment for communities and municipalities. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) defines resilience as "a system's ability to anticipate, prepare for, and adapt to changing conditions and withstand, respond to, and recover rapidly from disruptions through sustainable, adaptable, and holistic planning and technical solutions." This document introduces 10 categories of resilience-enhancing projects at a high level, intended for community members and decision-makers new to the topic to build their understanding of which solutions fit their community best. These categories focus primarily on community-scale measures and different options may be available at larger scales. Full implementation of the measures described here requires in-depth, site-specific considerations that go beyond the scope of this document.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Multisource Data Fusion Outage Location in Distribution Systems via Probabilistic Graphical Models

Efficient outage location is critical to enhancing the resilience of power distribution systems. However, accurate outage location requires combining massive evidence received from diverse data sources, including smart meter (SM) last gasp signals, customer trouble calls, social media messages, weather data, vegetation information, and physical parameters of the network. This is a computationally complex task due to the high dimensionality of data in distribution grids. In this paper, we propose a multi-source data fusion approach to locate outage events in partially observable distribution systems using Bayesian networks (BNs). A novel aspect of the proposed approach is that it takes multi-source evidence and the complex structure of distribution systems into account using a probabilistic graphical method. Our method can radically reduce the computational complexity of outage location inference in high-dimensional spaces. The graphical structure of the proposed BN is established based on the network’s topology and the causal relationship between random variables, such as the states of branches/customers and evidence. Utilizing this graphical model, accurate outage locations are obtained by leveraging a Gibbs sampling (GS) method, to infer the probabilities of de-energization for all branches. Compared with commonly-used exact inference methods that have exponential complexity in the size of the BN, GS quantifies the target conditional probability distributions in a timely manner. As a result, a case study of several real-world distribution systems is presented to validate the proposed method.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2020

Validating Extreme Scale Resilience with Veracity (Final Project Report)

As semiconductor technology continues to scale to smaller dimensions and as power-consumption of processor chips continues to increase in importance, there is significant uncertainty about the reliability of future large-scale computers. This uncertainty impacts algorithm design and application development, as well as decisions about system operation policy and provisioning decisions. The Veracity endeavored to answer pertinent questions regarding system reliability and resilience with the goal of enabling reliable science on future leadership machines while keeping overprovisioning low.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
NASA NTRS2017

Preliminary Investigation of Impact of Technological Impairment on Trajectory-Based Operations

The Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) incorporates collaborative air traffic management and Trajectory-Based Operations (TBO) in order to significantly increase the capacity, efficiency, and predictability of operations in the National Airspace System (NAS), without decreasing safety. This is enabled by airspace users and service providers sharing knowledge about operations that allows prediction of the complete 4D flight trajectory with as little uncertainty as possible. Additionally, new software and hardware technology is critical to reaching NextGen goals, especially with regard to TBO. What if the technologies that are critical for TBO were to be impaired or fail completely? Should there be a malfunction of a piece of the technology, it must be ensured that the whole system does not break down completely or suffer severe impairment. Instead, operations need to be maintained proportionally to the problem and safety needs to be ensured (graceful degradation). This paper proposes a systematic framework to investigate the vulnerability of TBO to technology disruption, and determine the impact of technological impairment on TBO. Two representative technologies are chosen for detailed investigation and the impact of their impairment on the degradation of TBO is illustrated using a weather-related scenario. XXXX There are several possible directions of future work. We believe it is desirable to develop methods to quantitatively assess the impact of technological disruption on TBO and to have the simulation tools to validate the impact. The availability of prognostics and health management methods could be leveraged to predict technological failure/disruption, thus predicting how TBO will be a ected, and possibly pro-actively mitigating the impact. It is important to develop large-scale scenarios where the e ect of technological impairment is prominent, and identify methods to quantitatively assess the extent of TBO degradation. An important goal of such an investigation is the development of failure-resistant resilient trajectory-based oper- ations. Resilience14, 15 is the property of a system to \bounce back" and resume at least a signi cant portion of its functionalities after degradation due to technological impairment(s). A systems resilience includes properties such as \bu ering capacity" (quantifying disruptions the system can absorb or adapt to without a fundamental breakdown in performance or in the systems structure), \ exibility" (ability to restructure itself in response to external changes or pressures), "margin" (how closely the system is currently operating rela- tive to one or another kind of performance boundary), \tolerance" (whether the system gracefully degrades as stress/pressure increase, or collapses quickly when pressure exceeds adaptive capacity), etc. Future work needs to focus on quantifying and improving the resilience of TBO, and identifying resilient design solutions for aviation.

TBO↗
DOE OSTI2023

Introduction to ALERT: A User-Interface Tool for Resilient Optimization

As the cyber-physical systems grow in complexity, there is a need for proactive resilience strategies that involve online, adaptive control actions to best prepare for any impending adversarial events. In this technical effort, supported by RD2C LDRD initiative, the project team designed and demonstrated online strategies – referred to as ALERT controls – for proactive and adaptive tuning of existing optimal controls in a microgrid, with quantifiably assured margins of resilience to various cyber-physical adversarial events. This ALERT functionality is made available to the end-users, e.g., the system operators, via an interactive user-interface. The end-users will not only be able to use the interface to visualize the system’s operation under various cyber-physical adversarial scenarios, but also evaluate the amount of tolerance the system has against selected adversarial perturbations of interest (e.g., malfunctioning sensors, suspected attacked measurements) via the adversarial plots. In this technical report, we briefly outline the algorithmic modules of the developed ALERT control technology, and introduce the user-interface tool that allows end-users (e.g., microgrid operators) to enter their system description, specify various operational and resilience requirements, and evaluate the impact of the control decisions via illustrative plots.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2021

Study of microgrid resilience through co-simulation of power system dynamics and communication systems

The interdependence of power and communication systems in smart grid technologies is acknowledged, but difficult to quantify. Communication systems can be essential to maintaining stability in microgrids that are islanded due to extreme events. Though many power system studies assume the presence of communication networks, detailed modeling of power and communication systems for dynamic studies of microgrids is rare. The work presented in this paper develops a framework for power and communication system co-simulation to study the impact of communications system on microgrid stability. An operational use case is examined where a battery energy storage system operates to offset the loss of generation in an islanded microgrid. The framework is evaluated for different communication technologies, network structures, and communication media.

Thekkumparambath Mana, Priya↗