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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 721 records · Page 40
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Integrated Technology for Cost-Effective CO2 Capture and Formic Acid Production: Modeling, Optimization, and Economic Analysis

A novel reactive technology is being investigated that electrochemically converts CO2 into valuable chemicals, particularly formic acid. This work focuses on identifying the optimal design and operation of an integrated membrane-based CO2 capture unit with the electrochemical conversion process. In this setup, the CO2 in the flue gas permeates through a CO2-selective membrane and enters an electrolyzer to produce formic acid, creating an integrated reaction module. To refine the chemical product, gas products from the electrolyzer are directed to a pressure swing adsorption unit, while the liquid product undergoes refinement to achieve commercial-grade formic acid using reactive distillation. A membrane CO2 capture model and an electrochemical conversion model have been developed using the IDAES Integrated Platform (Institute for the Design of Advanced Energy System), facilitating rigorous flowsheet modeling and process design and optimization.

Wang, Maojian↗
NASA NTRS1972

Optimization in the design of a 12 gigahertz low cost ground receiving system for broadcast satellites. Volume 1: System design, performance, and cost analysis

The technical and economical feasibility of using the 12 GHz band for broadcasting from satellites were examined. Among the assigned frequency bands for broadcast satellites, the 12 GHz band system offers the most channels. It also has the least interference on and from the terrestrial communication links. The system design and analysis are carried out on the basis of a decision analysis model. Technical difficulties in achieving low-cost 12 GHz ground receivers are solved by making use of a die cast aluminum packaging, a hybrid integrated circuit mixer, a cavity stabilized Gunn oscillator and other state-of-the-art microwave technologies for the receiver front-end. A working model was designed and tested, which used frequency modulation. A final design for the 2.6 GHz system ground receiver is also presented. The cost of the ground-terminal was analyzed and minimized for a given figure-of-merit (a ratio of receiving antenna gain to receiver system noise temperature). The results were used to analyze the performance and cost of the whole satellite system.

Ohkubo, K.↗
NASA NTRS1986

An improved multilevel optimization approach for the design of complex engineering systems

Multilevel optimization methods are being considered for the design of complex systems on distributed networks of computers or even parallel processors. An obstacle to the use of multilevel methods is that they can be computationally expensive because of the cycling necessary to account for the coupling between the subproblems. This research effort aims at increasing the efficiency of multilevel optimization by adapting two techniques that are widely used in conventional one-level optimization: constraint approximation and temporary constraint deletion. These improvements are implemented and tested on three-, ten- and 52-bar planar truss designs. The results show that for larger problems (approximately 100 design variables and larger), the cost of analysis dominates the total cost so that multilevel optimization is no more expensive than one-level optimization. If parallel processing is used or the analysis process itself is decomposed, then multilevel optimization stands to become more economical than one-level optimization.

Barthelemy, J.-F. M.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Computer Simulation For Multilevel Optimization Of Design

New simulator for multilevel optimization of complex hierarchical systems reduces cost of analysis in experimentation with multilevel design-optimization algorithms. Computer program mimics qualitative behavior and data couplings that occur among subsystems of complex engineering system, such as car, aircraft, or building. Eliminates engineering analyses in subsystems by replacing them with judiciously-chosen analytical functions. Serves as tool for development of strategy for multilevel optimization of design.

Padula, Sharon L.↗
NASA NTRS1993

The cost of model reference adaptive control - Analysis, experiments, and optimization

In this paper the performance of Model Reference Adaptive Control (MRAC) is studied in numerical simulations and verified experimentally with the objective of understanding how differences between the plant and the reference model affect the control effort. MRAC is applied analytically and experimentally to a single degree of freedom system and analytically to a MIMO system with controlled differences between the model and the plant. It is shown that the control effort is sensitive to differences between the plant and the reference model. The effects of increased damping in the reference model are considered, and it is shown that requiring the controller to provide increased damping actually decreases the required control effort when differences between the plant and reference model exist. This result is useful because one of the first attempts to counteract the increased control effort due to differences between the plant and reference model might be to require less damping, however, this would actually increase the control effort. Optimization of weighting matrices is shown to help reduce the increase in required control effort. However, it was found that eventually the optimization resulted in a design that required an extremely high sampling rate for successful realization.

Messer, R. S.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Design of ground segments for small satellites

New concepts must be implemented when designing a Ground Segment (GS) for small satellites to conform to their specific mission characteristics: low cost, one main instrument, spacecraft autonomy, optimized mission return, etc. This paper presents the key cost drivers of such ground segments, the main design features, and the comparison of various design options that can meet the user requirements.

Mace, Guy↗
DOE OSTI2021

Resilience-based Recovery Scheduling of Transportation Network in Mixed Traffic Environment: A Deep-Ensemble-Assisted Active Learning Approach

Devising effective post-hazard recovery strategies is critical in enhancing the resilience of transportation networks (TNs). However, existing work does not consider the multiclass users’ travel behavior in network functionality quantification and the metaheuristic solution procedures often suffer from extensive computational burden due to the exploration need in large solution space and the expensive functionality quantification. Here, this study develops a bilevel decision-making framework for the resilience-based recovery scheduling of the TN in a mixed traffic environment with connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) and human-driven vehicles (HDVs). The lower level quantifies the TN's functionality over time considering different travel behavior of CAV and HDV users arisen from their different levels of information perception. The upper level presents a novel deep-ensemble-assisted active learning approach to balance optimization performance and computational cost. This framework can help decision makers better quantify the TN's functionality to support effective recovery scheduling of TN with different mixed traffic scenarios ranging from HDV-only to future CAV-dominant traffic. The optimization approach bears the potential to be extended to solving general large-scale network recovery scheduling problems effectively and efficiently. The proposed methodology is demonstrated using a real-world traffic network in Southern California under earthquake considering deterministic and stochastic repair durations.

42 ENGINEERING↗
NASA NTRS1997

Near-Optimal Re-Entry Trajectories for Reusable Launch Vehicles

A near-optimal guidance law for the descent trajectory for earth orbit re-entry of a fully reusable single-stage-to-orbit pure rocket launch vehicle is derived. A methodology is developed to investigate using both bank angle and altitude as control variables and selecting parameters that maximize various performance functions. The method is based on the energy-state model of the aircraft equations of motion. The major task of this paper is to obtain optimal re-entry trajectories under a variety of performance goals: minimum time, minimum surface temperature, minimum heating, and maximum heading change; four classes of trajectories were investigated: no banking, optimal left turn banking, optimal right turn banking, and optimal bank chattering. The cost function is in general a weighted sum of all performance goals. In particular, the trade-off between minimizing heat load into the vehicle and maximizing cross range distance is investigated. The results show that the optimization methodology can be used to derive a wide variety of near-optimal trajectories.

Chou, H.-C.↗
DOE OSTI2022

Real-Time Ecodriving Control in Electrified Connected and Autonomous Vehicles Using Approximate Dynamic Programing

Connected and automated vehicles (CAVs), particularly those with a hybrid electric powertrain, have the potential to significantly improve vehicle energy savings in real-world driving conditions. In particular, the ecodriving problem seeks to design optimal speed and power usage profiles based on available information from connectivity and advanced mapping features to minimize the fuel consumption over an itinerary. This paper presents a hierarchical multilayer model predictive control (MPC) approach for improving the fuel economy of a 48 V mild-hybrid powertrain in a connected vehicle environment. Approximate dynamic programing (DP) is used to solve the receding horizon optimal control problem, whose terminal cost is approximated with the base policy obtained from the long-term optimization. The controller was tested virtually (with deterministic and Monte Carlo simulation) across multiple real-world routes, demonstrating energy savings of more than 20%. The controller was then deployed on a test vehicle equipped with a rapid prototyping embedded controller. In-vehicle testing confirm the energy savings obtained in simulation and demonstrate the real-time ability of the controller.

Automation & Control Systems↗
NASA NTRS2011

JWST Wavefront Control Toolbox

A Matlab-based toolbox has been developed for the wavefront control and optimization of segmented optical surfaces to correct for possible misalignments of James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) using influence functions. The toolbox employs both iterative and non-iterative methods to converge to an optimal solution by minimizing the cost function. The toolbox could be used in either of constrained and unconstrained optimizations. The control process involves 1 to 7 degrees-of-freedom perturbations per segment of primary mirror in addition to the 5 degrees of freedom of secondary mirror. The toolbox consists of a series of Matlab/Simulink functions and modules, developed based on a "wrapper" approach, that handles the interface and data flow between existing commercial optical modeling software packages such as Zemax and Code V. The limitations of the algorithm are dictated by the constraints of the moving parts in the mirrors.

Shin, Shahram Ron↗
NASA NTRS1974

Control system design using frequency domain models and parameter optimization, with application to supersonic inlet controls

A technique is described for designing feedback control systems using frequency domain models, a quadratic cost function, and a parameter optimization computer program. FORTRAN listings for the computer program are included. The approach is applied to the design of shock position controllers for a supersonic inlet. Deterministic or random system disturbances, and the presence of random measurement noise are considered. The cost function minimization is formulated in the time domain, but the problem solution is obtained using a frequency domain system description. A scaled and constrained conjugate gradient algorithm is used for the minimization. The approach to a supersonic inlet included the calculations of the optimal proportional-plus integral (PI) and proportional-plus-integral-plus-derivative controllers. A single-loop PI controller was the most desirable of the designs considered.

Seidel, R. C.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Inspection planning development: An evolutionary approach using reliability engineering as a tool

This paper proposes an evolutionary approach for inspection planning which introduces various reliability engineering tools into the process and assess system trade-offs among reliability, engineering requirement, manufacturing capability and inspection cost to establish an optimal inspection plan. The examples presented in the paper illustrate some advantages and benefits of the new approach. Through the analysis, reliability and engineering impacts due to manufacturing process capability and inspection uncertainty are clearly understood; the most cost effective and efficient inspection plan can be established and associated risks are well controlled; some inspection reductions and relaxations are well justified; and design feedbacks and changes may be initiated from the analysis conclusion to further enhance reliability and reduce cost. The approach is particularly promising as global competitions and customer quality improvement expectations are rapidly increasing.

Graf, David A.↗
DOE OSTI2025

AI-powered municipal solid waste management: a comprehensive review from generation to utilization

The accumulation of municipal solid waste (MSW) continues to rise due to burgeoning population, rapid global urbanization and economic growth, intensifying ecological concerns associated with landfills and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Over the past 2 decades, global waste generation has surged by 50%, with one-third remaining uncollected and about 70% sent to landfills. This review examines the critical role of integrating emerging technologies, such as advanced sensors and artificial intelligence (AI), into end-to-end MSW management to alleviate landfill burdens. The suitability of various AI tools for different stages of MSW management is assessed, alongside the deployment of advanced sensors including hyperspectral cameras, computer vision systems, and internet of things (IoT) devices for material identification. Applications of genetic algorithms and reinforcement learning for optimizing collection routes, reducing costs, and lowering emissions are highlighted. Life cycle assessment (LCA) across all stages of MSW management is also reviewed, along with future trends in leveraging generative AI, natural language processing (NLP), and agent-based AI systems to analyze waste generation patterns and public sentiment. Efficient collection and handling can be enhanced through route optimization with geographic information systems and real-time bin-level monitoring. Furthermore, sensor-embedded, real-time object detection systems paired with robotics enable material characterization and automated sorting, thereby lowering costs and diverting waste from landfills into value-added products for diverse industrial sectors including packaging, chemicals, textiles, metals and glass, transportation, and electronics industries. Without intervention, global waste is projected to reach 4.54 billion tons by 2050, contributing direct economic costs of $\$$400 billion and roughly 2.38 billion tons of CO 2 -equivalent emissions annually. This review demonstrates how AI-driven, end-to-end solutions for MSW management can mitigate economic and environmental challenges, while directly supporting the United Nations Sustainable Development (UNDP) goals related to innovation and infrastructure (SDG 9), sustainable cities (SDG 11), responsible consumption and production (SDG 12), and climate action (SDG 13).

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Tracking and Rejection of Biased Sinusoidal Signals Using Generalized Predictive Controller

Some novel applications require the tracking/rejection of biased sinusoidal reference/distur-bances. According to the internal model principle (IMP), a controller must embed the model of a biased sinusoidal signal to track references and also reject perturbations modeled through the aforementioned signal. However, the design of that kind of controller is not straightforward, especially when they are implemented in digital processors. This paper presents a controller, based on generalized predictive control (GPC), designed for tracking/rejection of biased sinusoidal signals. In general, GPC is based on the prediction of the plant responses through an augmented prediction model. The proposed approach develops an augmented model that predicts the future errors. The prediction model and the control law used in the proposed approach embed the discrete-time model of a biased sinusoidal signal. Thus, the proposed controller can track/reject biased sinusoidal references/disturbances. The predicted errors and the future inputs of the proposed augmented model are used to define the cost function that measures the control performance. An optimization technique was applied to obtain the solution of the cost function, which is the optimal sequence of future model inputs that allows defining the control law. Experimental tests prove that the proposed controller can asymptotically track and reject biased sinusoidal signals.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2020

Approaching scalable VQE of interacting bosons with NISQ devices [Slides]

Scaling up variational quantum eigensolver (VQE) algorithms to practical applications utilizing quantum advantage with noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) devices is challenging. The expansive cost-function evaluation and demanding optimization quickly exhaust the precious quantum resource available on NISQ devices. In this work, we discuss the appropriate VQE strategy suitable for multi-site interacting boson systems, for example, the Holstein model and the Rabi lattice model. We investigate the cost-function setup and the optimization tactics to utilize the limited quantum resource efficiently. Our strategy illustrates that the scalable VQE algorithms of interacting bosons have a promising future.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
NASA NTRS1985

Optimal landing of a helicopter in autorotation

Gliding descent in autorotation is a maneuver used by helicopter pilots in case of engine failure. The landing of a helicopter in autorotation is formulated as a nonlinear optimal control problem. The OH-58A helicopter was used. Helicopter vertical and horizontal velocities, vertical and horizontal displacement, and the rotor angle speed were modeled. An empirical approximation for the induced veloctiy in the vortex-ring state were provided. The cost function of the optimal control problem is a weighted sum of the squared horizontal and vertical components of the helicopter velocity at touchdown. Optimal trajectories are calculated for entry conditions well within the horizontal-vertical restriction curve, with the helicopter initially in hover or forwared flight. The resultant two-point boundary value problem with path equality constraints was successfully solved using the Sequential Gradient Restoration Technique.

Lee, A. Y. N.↗
DOE OSTI2020

LCOE Design Optimization Using Genetic Algorithm with Improved Component Models for Medium-Voltage Transformerless PV Inverters

For real-world installations of photovoltaic and other renewable energy resources, the critical design metric is the levelized cost of energy (LCOE); however, many power electronics design optimizations are performed with efficiency and power density as the primary design goals. Recent work has shown that a new LCOE-focused optimization approach can yield improved system designs balancing cost and energy generation. This paper expands the LCOE optimization approach by considering comprehensive optimization parameters, adding new modeling of inductor cost, extending the semiconductor model to include effects of losses on housing cost, and implementing a genetic algorithm to improve computation efficiency.

41 EE - Solar Energy Technologies Office (EE-4S)↗