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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2026

Tabletop Testing for EV Charging Ecosystem PKI (Project T34PKI Final Report)

To test the communications and cybersecurity functionality, Electric Vehicle and charging station vendors have had to ship their products to in-person testing events. This is cumbersome, expensive, inefficient, and an impediment to rapid time-to-deployment. In this project Sandia used COTS hardware and Open-Source Software to develop and demonstrate a more agile, productive approach: testing low-voltage controllers independently from high-voltage power delivery sub-systems. This approach allows communications controllers to be transported easily (e.g. shipped at low cost, checked as airline baggage); set up on a table-top (“bench testing”); and use ordinary 120 VAC outlets to conduct agile testing. Table-top platforms become end nodes that can connect to laboratory and cloud-based servers to test communications and cybersecurity, specifically Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) functionality and interoperability, separately from EV battery charging (power/energy transfer) functionality.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2017

A Unit Testing Framework for Scientific Legacy Code

Large-scale scientific applications play important roles in supporting research. However, it is often very expensive and time-consuming to make changes to, maintain and evolve the scientific code due to its complexity and poor programming skills of researchers. Therefore, in order to visualize scientific code architecture to optimize software design, understand undocumented source code, and analyze software flow and functionality, we first introduce a unit testing framework (UTF). Then, because such infrastructure's performance is very crucial in practical use since the scientific legacy applications simulate instances in a long period of time, we improve the UTF by applying Message Passing based Parallelization and parallel I/O operations. Furthermore, due to the scientific code has enormous state data and the I/O capacity on the server is limited, we apply in situ data analysis method to encounter fewer resource limitations, and adopt signal processing to greatly reduce data transfer. Last, we demonstrated the correctness and high-efficiency of our framework for legacy Earth model on Titan supercomputer.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2014

WE-D-9A-06: Open Source Monitor Calibration and Quality Control Software for Enterprise Display Management

Purpose: Medical display monitor calibration and quality control present challenges to medical physicists. The purpose of this work is to demonstrate and share experiences with an open source package that allows for both initial monitor setup and routine performance evaluation. Methods: A software package, pacsDisplay, has been developed over the last decade to aid in the calibration of all monitors within the radiology group in our health system. The software is used to calibrate monitors to follow the DICOM Grayscale Standard Display Function (GSDF) via lookup tables installed on the workstation. Additional functionality facilitates periodic evaluations of both primary and secondary medical monitors to ensure satisfactory performance. This software is installed on all radiology workstations, and can also be run as a stand-alone tool from a USB disk. Recently, a database has been developed to store and centralize the monitor performance data and to provide long-term trends for compliance with internal standards and various accrediting organizations. Results: Implementation and utilization of pacsDisplay has resulted in improved monitor performance across the health system. Monitor testing is now performed at regular intervals and the software is being used across multiple imaging modalities. Monitor performance characteristics such as maximum and minimum luminance, ambient luminance and illuminance, color tracking, and GSDF conformity are loaded into a centralized database for system performance comparisons. Compliance reports for organizations such as MQSA, ACR, and TJC are generated automatically and stored in the same database. Conclusion: An open source software solution has simplified and improved the standardization of displays within our health system. This work serves as an example method for calibrating and testing monitors within an enterprise health system.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Community-Driven Methods for Open and Reproducible Software Tools for Analyzing Datasets from Atom Probe Microscopy

Atom probe tomography, and related methods, probe the three-dimensional architecture of a material. The software tools that microscopists use, and how these tools are connected into workflows, makes a substantial contribution to the accuracy and precision of such a material characterization experiment. Typically, we adapt methods from other communities like mathematics, data science, computational geometry, artificial intelligence, or scientific computing. We also realize that improving on research data management is a challenge when it comes to align with the FAIR data stewardship principles. Faced with this global challenge, we are convinced that collaborating is useful. Here, we report the results and challenges with an inter-laboratory call for developing test cases for several types of atom probe software tools. The results support why defining detailed recipes of software workflows and sharing these recipes is necessary and rewarding: Open source tools and (meta)data exchange can help to make our day-to-day data processing tasks become more efficient, the training of new users and knowledge transfer become easier, and assist us with automated quantification of uncertainties to gain access to substantiated results.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Validating automated resonance evaluation with synthetic data

The integrity and precision of nuclear data are crucial for a broad spectrum of applications, from national security and nuclear reactor design to medical diagnostics, where the associated uncertainties can significantly impact outcomes. A substantial portion of uncertainty in nuclear data originates from the subjective biases in the evaluation process, a crucial phase in the nuclear data production pipeline. Recent advancements indicate that automation of certain routines can mitigate these biases, thereby standardizing the evaluation process and enhancing reproducibility. This research aims to provide a methodology, framework, and metrics for the validation of automated nuclear data evaluation software leveraging high-quality synthetic data that closely mimic real experimental observables. An introduced error metric provides a scale and intuitive measure of the evaluation quality by quantifying the estimate’s accuracy and performance across the specified energy range. Synthetic data provides access to experimental observables and underlying resonance parameters, enabling comparison of different evaluations. The methodology is demonstrated using Ta-181 isotope data in the resolved resonance region. The Automated Resonance Identification Subroutine (ARIS), which operates without prior resonance information, was used to test and showcase the framework’s capabilities utilizing the proposed error metrics. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach and framework for optimizing software parameters and testing hypotheses through “what-if” controlled experiments, such as modifying assumptions about experimental conditions or average resonance parameters.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Guideline 36 Conformance Test v2.0

ASHRAE Guideline 36 provides guidance for how typical commercial building HVAC systems should be controlled to reduce energy costs and improve the indoor environmental quality for occupants. An industry-led effort is developing test scripts for how control manufacturers can test that the control logic in their control products follows Guideline 36. This software intends to support that effort in two ways. First, by providing a testbed for control manufacturers to run the test scripts against their own control products and compare their generated results to the expected results provided by the test scripts. Second, by providing a testbed that can be used during the development of test scripts to rapidly and repeatably verify they exercise Guideline 36 logic as desired and generate accurate expected results that control products can be compared to. An initial version of the software has already been developed and released open-source by a previous CEC-funded project that implemented the first use case (https://github.com/LBNL-ETA/guideline36_conformance_test/blob/master/LICENSE.txt), while this software disclosure will add the functionality of the second use case, as well as update the software where needed, all open-source. We intend to extend and contribute to the existing open-source software repository.

Blum, David [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory↗
DOE OSTI2017

Interpretation of production tests in geothermal wells with T2Well-EWASG

In the geothermal sector, being able to simulate production tests by combining surface and downhole measurements can be extremely useful, improving data interpretation and reducing the impact of unavailable field data. This is possible with T2Well, a coupled wellbore-reservoir simulator. In this study, we plugged the EWASG equation of state for high enthalpy geothermal reservoirs into T2Well and extended the function to analytically compute the heat exchange between wellbore and formation at the short times. Changes to the analytical heat exchange function were verified by comparison with wellbore-formation heat exchange numerically simulated. T2Well-EWASG was validated by reproducing the flowing pressure and temperature logs taken from literature, and by using the software for the interpretation of a short production test. Lastly, simulation results indicate that T2Well-EWASG can be effectively used to improve the interpretation of production tests performed in geothermal wells.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Exploratory Investigation of Disengagements and Crashes in Autonomous Vehicles Under Mixed Traffic: An Endogenous Switching Regime Framework

Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) have a large potential to improve traffic safety but also pose some critical challenges. While AVs may help reduce crashes caused by human error, they still may experience failures of technologies and sensing, as well as decision-making errors in a mixed traffic environment. A disengagement refers to an AV transitioning control from autonomous systems to the trained test driver. The safety critical nature of disengagements makes it imperative to analyze disengagements and crashes together. In this study, we analyze both crashes and disengagements from real-world AV driving in California to fill the knowledge gap regarding the relationship between disengagements and crashes in a mixed traffic environment. A nested logit model was calibrated using three different outcomes: (1) disengagement with a crash, (2) disengagement with no crash, and (3) no disengagement with a crash. Furthermore, endogenous switching regime models were also calibrated to draw distinctions between the relation of disengagements and crashes while accounting for endogeneity effects. The results show that factors related to AV systems (such as software failures) and other roadway participants increase the propensity of a disengagement without a crash. Furthermore, AVs were observed to disengage less often as the technology matured over time. Marginal effects revealed an 8% decrease. The results thus suggest that disengagements are a part of AVs' safe performance and disengagement alerts may need to be triggered in order to avoid certain failures with current technology.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2016

SU-F-T-139: Meeting the Challenges of Quality Control in the TOPAS Monte Carlo Simulation Toolkit for Proton Therapy

Purpose: Monte Carlo particle transport simulation (MC) codes have become important tools in proton therapy and biology, both for research and practice. TOPAS is an MC toolkit serving users worldwide (213 licensed users at 95 institutions in 21 countries). It provides unprecedented ease in 4D placement of geometry components, beam sources and scoring through its user-friendly and reproducible parameter file interface. Quality control (QC) of stochastic simulation software is inherently difficult, and the versatility of TOPAS introduces additional challenges. But QC is vital as the TOPAS development team implements new features, addresses user feedback and reacts to upgrades of underlying software (i.e. Geant4). Methods: Whenever code is committed to our repository, over 50 separate module tests are automatically triggered via a continuous integration service. They check that the various module options execute successfully and that their results are statistically consistent with previous reference values. Prior to each software release, longer end-to-end tests automatically validate TOPAS against experimental data and a TOPAS benchmark. These include simulating multiple properties of spread-out Bragg peaks, validating nuclear models, and searching for differences in patient simulations. Results: Continuous integration has proven effective in catching regressions at the time they are introduced, particularly when implementing new features that involve refactoring code (e.g. multithreading and ntuple output). Code coverage statistics highlight untested portions of code and guide development of new tests. The various end-to-end tests demonstrate that TOPAS accurately describes the physics of proton therapy within clinical tolerances. Conclusion: The TOPAS QC strategy of frequent short tests and pre-release long tests has led to a more reliable tool. However, the versatility of TOPAS makes it difficult to predict how users might combine different modules, and so QC ultimately remains a partnership between the developer and the user. This work was funded by National Cancer Institute grant R01 CA 140735.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2016

SU-F-T-169: A Periodic Quality Assurance Program for a Spot-Scanning Proton Treatment Facility

Purpose: To develop daily and monthly quality assurance (QA) programs in support of a new spot-scanning proton treatment facility using a combination of commercial and custom equipment and software. Emphasis was placed on efficiency and evaluation of key quality parameters. Methods: The daily QA program was developed to test output, spot size and position, proton beam energy, and image guidance using the Sun Nuclear Corporation rf-DQA™3 device and Atlas QA software. The program utilizes standard Atlas linear accelerator tests repurposed for proton measurements and a custom jig for indexing the device to the treatment couch. The monthly QA program was designed to test mechanical performance, image quality, radiation quality, isocenter coincidence, and safety features. Many of these tests are similar to linear accelerator QA counterparts, but many require customized test design and equipment. Coincidence of imaging, laser marker, mechanical, and radiation isocenters, for instance, is verified using a custom film-based device devised and manufactured at our facility. Proton spot size and position as a function of energy are verified using a custom spot pattern incident on film and analysis software developed in-house. More details concerning the equipment and software developed for monthly QA are included in the supporting document. Thresholds for daily and monthly tests were established via perturbation analysis, early experience, and/or proton system specifications and associated acceptance test results. Results: The periodic QA program described here has been in effect for approximately 9 months and has proven efficient and sensitive to sub-clinical variations in treatment delivery characteristics. Conclusion: Tools and professional guidelines for periodic proton system QA are not as well developed as their photon and electron counterparts. The program described here efficiently evaluates key quality parameters and, while specific to the needs of our facility, could be readily adapted to other proton centers.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2019

REBUS-PC v1.5 Verification Test Summary

Motivated in part by its usage for analysis of the University of Missouri Research Reactor (MURR), the verification of the REBUS-PC software for θ-R-Z geometries is discussed and displayed in this manuscript. Of particular importance is to show that the eigenvalue, flux, power, and burnup outputs of the software given a user problem is correct. REBUS-PC contains many features and MURR only makes use of some of those aspects. As an example, the use of region specific cross section sets, interpolation of the cross section data with respect to burnup, and automatic movement of control rods during the fuel cycle is discussed and displayed. To demonstrate the accuracy, 22 verification tests based upon 7 physical geometries are discussed. Geometry descriptions are provided in Section 2 and the REBUS-PC results for each verification test are discussed in Section 3. These verification tests consist of both analytic problems with known solutions and a more complicated input consistent with usage of REBUS-PC on the MURR reactor itself called STRZ. In this verification test summary report, the REBUS-PC software is repeatedly demonstrated to reproduce, or closely match, the eigenvalue, flux, and power distributions from analytic test problem solutions, demonstrating that the implemented finite difference approximation in θ-R-Z is working as intended. Several additional REBUS-PC features are tested, such as control rod movement by detailed comparisons of the results against reference solutions obtained using an auxiliary implemented MatLab program. As expected, the REBUS-PC software produces results that are 100% consistent with the stated capabilities and thus the verification exercise is completed. These verification tests should be executed with each re-compilation of the REBUS-PC source and after any source code changes. All output results from any such new work should be rigorously compared against the stored output of the 22 verification tests cited in this report that forms the basis of the verification process.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2013

MPACT Fast Neutron Multiplicity System Prototype Development

This document serves as both an FY2103 End-of-Year and End-of-Project report on efforts that resulted in the design of a prototype fast neutron multiplicity counter leveraged upon the findings of previous project efforts. The prototype design includes 32 liquid scintillator detectors with cubic volumes 7.62 cm in dimension configured into 4 stacked rings of 8 detectors. Detector signal collection for the system is handled with a pair of Struck Innovative Systeme 16-channel digitizers controlled by in-house developed software with built-in multiplicity analysis algorithms. Initial testing and familiarization of the currently obtained prototype components is underway, however full prototype construction is required for further optimization. Monte Carlo models of the prototype system were performed to estimate die-away and efficiency values. Analysis of these models resulted in the development of a software package capable of determining the effects of nearest-neighbor rejection methods for elimination of detector cross talk. A parameter study was performed using previously developed analytical methods for the estimation of assay mass variance for use as a figure-of-merit for system performance. A software package was developed to automate these calculations and ensure accuracy. The results of the parameter study show that the prototype fast neutron multiplicity counter design is very nearly optimized under the restraints of the parameter space.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2019

FASPAX ASIC revision 1.b first articles testing and support

Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) and Field Viewers Ltd. Inc. (FV) will work together for a period of two weeks to bring up the FASPAX_V1.0b. During this period, Fermilab will help FV come up to speed with the ASIC functionality testing and train in the usage of the FASPAX test setup at Fermilab that uses the NIPXIe architecture with FleXRIO modules. This setup will be initially used for testing of chips to ensure the basic functionality and design parameters. The NIPXIe setup was developed by the Fermilab team, but it is has not yet been verified to be capable of fully testing the FASPAX_V1.0 chip. Fermilab will offer the developed software and hardware to FV for the on-site use at Fermilab. No guarantee is given by Fermilab for the setup to be able to fully cover the scope of the necessary tests. FV will be responsible for using and modifying of the setup to achieve the DOE-BES Phase-I targets.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2023

Final Technical Report

Statement of the problem or situation that is being addressed in your application. The DOE and its national laboratories developed the Home Energy Score™ (HES) to encourage homeowners to improve their energy performance, lower costs and to share energy information through the MLS listing, appraisal, and financing channels. While the HES is an instrumental tool, it is currently underutilized and consists of technical, structural and sector barriers which need to be addressed in order to scale and many energy efficiency contractors are understandably overwhelmed by the added time and effort and lack of incentive to sell and deliver deep retrofit projects while simultaneously meeting the DOE HES program requirements; consequently, contractors may decide to forgo participation. Home Energy Rating System (HERS) Raters have the opportunity to play the critical Assessor role in producing a Home Energy Score (HES); this role has immense potential but currently is unfulfilled. Lastly, while utilities are interested in their customer base achieving greater energy efficiency, especially to help offset growing residential loads in states like California that are accelerating electrification, utilities do not have access to the market actors who are on the front line of influence to homeowners or review and approve their permits: HERS Raters, assessors, contractors and building departments. General statement of how this problem is being addressed: ConSol will integrate the Home Energy Score™ (HES) to its State of California, approved home energy rating services (HERS) platform (CHEERS) to develop a single tool for contractors nationwide to assess, record and install recommended cost, energy, and emissions saving measures to the 140 million single-family homes throughout the U.S. and 14 million homes in California (CHEERS+HES). The CHEERS high fidelity energy code permitting data will be integrated with HES for simple, accurate, easy-to-use home energy estimation and analysis and will directly gain access to the retrofit and renovations markets with the same upgraded platform. This innovative project will assist the utilities in supporting existing homes in their jurisdictions with HES and develop measures to improve energy efficiency and reduce emissions. How is this problem being addressed? What is the overall project approach? In effort to expand the Home Energy Score™ (HES) by increasing the use of aggregable home energy asset data, ConSol proposes to integrate the DOE HES via Application Programming Interface (API) to its State of California approved home energy rating services platform (CHEERS). Once the CHEERS platform and HES are integrated (CHEERS+HES), this enhanced platform will be instantly available and actively deployed via Phase 1 pilot to HERS Raters, assessors and contractors in California to market-test the solution, understand the rate of adoption and identify opportunities for improvement prior to scaling nationally. The CHEERS high fidelity energy code permitting data will be integrated with HES for simple, accurate, easy-to-use home energy estimation and analysis and will directly gain access to the retrofit and renovations markets with the same upgraded platform. This innovative project will assist the building industry and homeowners with an easy-to-use assessment if energy and carbon impacts of existing homes, and assist the utilities in supporting existing homes in their jurisdictions with HES to improve energy efficiency and reduce emissions. What is to be done in Phase I? During Phase I of this proposed project, ConSol will (1) design software architecture that links CHEERS to the Home Energy ScoreTM via API, (2) solicit partnership from one or more California utilities for a regional pilot, (3) test the new software with its HERS Raters and contractor network in the partnership utility jurisdiction, (4) launch a pilot version of the newly developed software with HERS Raters and contractors in the utility territory, and (5) explore California’s GoGreen energy efficiency homeowner lending program in parallel with the pilot. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits. Summarize the future applications or public benefits if the project is carried over into Phase II or Phase III and beyond. The CHEERS+HES commercialized product will be ready for national market scale following a successful Phase 1 performance. The CHEERS+HES adoption is estimated to reach a 5% adoption growth rate versus the 110,000 baseline, starting in Year 1 after Phase I completion, and continuing each year. As a direct benefit to the DOE, CHEERS will set a goal of 100,000 Home Energy Score assessments for existing home alterations within the first 10 years following Phase 1 performance. The technical benefits of this proposed project include the harmonized, automated, and seamless integration of the DOE HES into the widely used and market leading California energy registry, CHEERS. The social benefits include the aggregate energy, cost and GHG savings by allowing the broader public streamlined access to the CHEERS+HES measurement and the energy efficiency recommended measures that may result. Key Words: Home Energy ScoreTM (HES); Application Programming Interface (API); Home Energy Rating Services (HERS); HERS Raters; contractors; assessors; existing homes, energy asset data; cost, energy, and emissions saving measures; energy code (Title 24) compliance; document repository; utilities; pilot; newly developed software; energy efficiency; homeowner. Summary for Members of Congress: The DOE Home Energy Score™ (HES) is a tool to encourage homeowners to improve their energy performance, lower costs and share energy information but is underutilized and consists of barriers which need to be addressed in order to scale. In effort to expand the HES, CHEERS, Inc. will integrate the HES to its State of California, approved home energy rating services (HERS) platform (CHEERS) to develop a single tool for contractors nationwide to assess, record and install recommended cost, energy, and emissions saving measures to the 140 million single-family homes throughout the U.S. and 14 million homes in California.

Application Programming Interface (API)↗
DOE OSTI2013

Plug-and -Play Model Architecture and Development Environment for Powertrain/Propulsion System - Final CRADA Report

Several tools already exist to develop detailed plant model, including GT-Power, AMESim, CarSim, and SimScape. The objective of Autonomie is not to provide a language to develop detailed models; rather, Autonomie supports the assembly and use of models from design to simulation to analysis with complete plug-and-play capabilities. Autonomie provides a plug-and-play architecture to support this ideal use of modeling and simulation for math-based automotive control system design. Models in the standard format create building blocks, which are assembled at runtime into a simulation model of a vehicle, system, subsystem, or component to simulate. All parts of the graphical user interface (GUI) are designed to be flexible to support architectures, systems, components, and processes not yet envisioned. This allows the software to be molded to individual uses, so it can grow as requirements and technical knowledge expands. This flexibility also allows for implementation of legacy code, including models, controller code, processes, drive cycles, and post-processing equations. A library of useful and tested models and processes is included as part of the software package to support a full range of simulation and analysis tasks, immediately. Autonomie also includes a configuration and database management front end to facilitate the storage, versioning, and maintenance of all required files, such as the models themselves, the model’s supporting files, test data, and reports. During the duration of the CRADA, Argonne has worked closely with GM to implement and demonstrate each one of their requirements. A use case was developed by GM for every requirement and demonstrated by Argonne. Each of the new features were verified by GM experts through a series of Gate. Once all the requirements were validated they were presented to the directors as part of GM Gate process.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Simulation of Watts Bar Unit 1 Initial Startup Tests with Continuous Energy Monte Carlo Methods

The Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors* is developing a collection of methods and software products known as VERA, the Virtual Environment for Reactor Applications. One component of the testing and validation plan for VERA is comparison of neutronics results to a set of continuous energy Monte Carlo solutions for a range of pressurized water reactor geometries using the SCALE component KENO-VI developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Recent improvements in data, methods, and parallelism have enabled KENO, previously utilized predominately as a criticality safety code, to demonstrate excellent capability and performance for reactor physics applications. The highly detailed and rigorous KENO solutions provide a reliable nu-meric reference for VERAneutronics and also demonstrate the most accurate predictions achievable by modeling and simulations tools for comparison to operating plant data. This paper demonstrates the performance of KENO-VI for the Watts Bar Unit 1 Cycle 1 zero power physics tests, including reactor criticality, control rod worths, and isothermal temperature coefficients.

CASL↗
DOE OSTI2014

SU-D-BRE-01: A Realistic Breathing Phantom of the Thorax for Testing New Motion Mitigation Techniques with Scanning Proton Therapy

Purpose: A prototype breathing phantom (named LuCa) has been developed which simulates the anatomy and motion of a patient thorax.In this work, we describe the results of the first commissioning tests with LuCa. Methods: The phantom provides a close representation of the human thorax. The lungs,contained within a tissue-equivalent ribcage and skin,are made from a polymer foam,which is inflated and deflated using a custommade ventilator. A tumor is simulated using a wooden ball with cutplanes for placing GafChromic films. The ventilator,controlled with Labview software,simulates a full range of breathing motion types.Commissioning tests were performed to assess its performance using imaging (CT and radiographic) and film dosimetry as follows:i)maximum Tumor excursion at acceptable pressure ranges, ii)tumor Motion repeatability between breathing periods,iii)reproducibility between measurement days,iv)tumor-to-surface motion correlation and v)reproducibility of film positioning in phantom. Results: The phantom can generate repeatable motion patterns with sin{sup 4},sin,breath-hold (tumor amplitude repeatability <0.5mm over 10min),aswell as patient-specific motion types. Maximum excursions of the tumor are 20mm and 14mm for the large and small tumor inserts respectively. Amplitude reproducibility (Coefficient of Variation) averaged at 16% for the workable pressure range over 2 months. Good correlation between tumor and surface motion was found with R{sup 2}=0.92. Reproducibility of film positioning within the thorax was within 0.9mm, and maximum 3° error from the coronal plane. Film measurements revealed that the film repositioning error yields relative errors in the mean dose over the planned target volume (PTV) of up to 2.5% and 4.5% for films at the center and on the edge of the PTV respectively. Conclusion: Commissioning tests have shown that the LuCa phantom can produce tumor motion with excellent repeatability. However,a poorer performance in reproducibility of tumor amplitude for a given peak pressure week-to-week. Film set-up reproducibility is adequate for detection of dosimetric errors resulting from motion of >3%. This work is funded by Swiss National Fund Grants 320030-127569 and 320030-1493942-1.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Improving Cost and Efficiency of the Scalable Solid Oxide Fuel Cells Power System

The objective of this project was to design and develop a 20kW range small-scale solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) power system for applications such as data centers and commercial buildings. The original plan included a 5,000 hours demonstration and a Techno-Economic Analysis (TEA) which were dropped as part of project termination. The original project plan was to use a stack with a cross-flow cell design which had previously been tested for 500 hours at a community college in Malta, NY. However, it was decided to move to the advanced R-SOFC co-flow cell developed under Department of Energy Award DE-FE0031971. The advanced cell design has the advantage of a larger active area for the same manufacturing footprint which results in fewer required cells for the same stack power, hence a higher volumetric power density (kW/L) and lower cost per kW than the original cross-flow cell design. A full SOFC system Simulink model was developed and calibrated with testing data from a fuel cell stack and BOP (balance of plant) components. The simulation results from the calibrated model showed an acceptable match with the experimental data. A structural analysis conducted for various load scenarios indicated no high stress areas for all spatial directions. Major electrical system components were acquired, built and successfully tested. System sensors were verified and validated against controls. Safety checks, a diagnostic check, PID tuning, and control software commissioning tasks were also conducted. The power electronics prototype was delivered and trial testing completed. Balance of Plant component testing and simulation work was conducted to characterize Reformer-Heat Exchanger heat transfer and backpressure and reformer catalyst methane conversion and product selectivity. Simulations were conducted to design the Anode and Cathode fluid passages and size the air-air and fuel-fuel heat exchangers. A Burner operation map was created from test data and the Anode Gas Recirculation blower was tested to evaluate its durability. The SOFC system used a horizontal style design where components sit directly on a casting with a direct connection to the skid. This design has efficient packaging and a small footprint with approximate dimensions of 750 mm x 700 mm x 1700 mm. An SOFC system was built and successfully tested at the Malta, NY facility The system for over 500 hours under load of which over 300 hours was at full load of 20 kW.

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION↗