Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “continuous improvement”

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 721 records · Page 40

Pulsed RF schemes for tearing mode stabilization

The RF stabilization of tearing modes with current condensation has the potential to increase stabilization efficiency and loosen power localization requirements. Such benefits stem from the cooperative feedback between the RF deposition and resulting island temperature perturbation governed by diffusion. A self consistent treatment of the damping of an rf ray as it traverses the island shows that low damping scenarios can require unfavorably high powers to overcome initial power leakage and effectively capitalize on the nonlinear effect. In this work it is demonstrated that for such regimes,modulated stabilization schemes can achieve significant improvements in heating and current drive contributions to stabilization for the same average power as a continuous wave scheme. The impact of modulation frequency and duty cycle on the performance is explored, the results of which suggest modulation strategies in which the pulsing periods are kept on the order of a diffusive time.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Diel, seasonal, and inter-annual variation in carbon dioxide effluxes from lakes and reservoirs

Abstract Accounting for temporal changes in carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) effluxes from freshwaters remains a challenge for global and regional carbon budgets. Here, we synthesize 171 site-months of flux measurements of CO 2 based on the eddy covariance method from 13 lakes and reservoirs in the Northern Hemisphere, and quantify dynamics at multiple temporal scales. We found pronounced sub-annual variability in CO 2 flux at all sites. By accounting for diel variation, only 11% of site-months were net daily sinks of CO 2 . Annual CO 2 emissions had an average of 25% (range 3%–58%) interannual variation. Similar to studies on streams, nighttime emissions regularly exceeded daytime emissions. Biophysical regulations of CO 2 flux variability were delineated through mutual information analysis. Sample analysis of CO 2 fluxes indicate the importance of continuous measurements. Better characterization of short- and long-term variability is necessary to understand and improve detection of temporal changes of CO 2 fluxes in response to natural and anthropogenic drivers. Our results indicate that existing global lake carbon budgets relying primarily on daytime measurements yield underestimates of net emissions.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Sorghum Association Panel whole‐genome sequencing establishes cornerstone resource for dissecting genomic diversity

SUMMARY Association mapping panels represent foundational resources for understanding the genetic basis of phenotypic diversity and serve to advance plant breeding by exploring genetic variation across diverse accessions. We report the whole‐genome sequencing (WGS) of 400 sorghum ( Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) accessions from the Sorghum Association Panel (SAP) at an average coverage of 38× (25–72×), enabling the development of a high‐density genomic marker set of 43 983 694 variants including single‐nucleotide polymorphisms (approximately 38 million), insertions/deletions (indels) (approximately 5 million), and copy number variants (CNVs) (approximately 170 000). We observe slightly more deletions among indels and a much higher prevalence of deletions among CNVs compared to insertions. This new marker set enabled the identification of several novel putative genomic associations for plant height and tannin content, which were not identified when using previous lower‐density marker sets. WGS identified and scored variants in 5‐kb bins where available genotyping‐by‐sequencing (GBS) data captured no variants, with half of all bins in the genome falling into this category. The predictive ability of genomic best unbiased linear predictor (GBLUP) models was increased by an average of 30% by using WGS markers rather than GBS markers. We identified 18 selection peaks across subpopulations that formed due to evolutionary divergence during domestication, and we found six F st peaks resulting from comparisons between converted lines and breeding lines within the SAP that were distinct from the peaks associated with historic selection. This population has served and continues to serve as a significant public resource for sorghum research and demonstrates the value of improving upon existing genomic resources.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

pnnl-predictive-phenomics/csc052-gem

Genome-Scale Metabolic Model Continuous Validation with Memote for CarbStor Community Member Bacillus These repositories contain the continuous validation environment for an organism-specific genome-scale metabolic model (GEM) using Memote. Memote is a software tool that provides a suite of tests to ensure the quality and consistency of metabolic models. By integrating Memote into a continuous integration (CI) workflow, we can automatically validate updates to the GEM, ensuring that model modifications improve or maintain the model's integrity.

Torres, Victor E.↗

pnnl-predictive-phenomics/csc031-gem

Genome-Scale Metabolic Model of CarbStor Community member Microbacterium (csc031) Continuous Validation with Memote These repositories contain the continuous validation environment for an organism-specific genome-scale metabolic model (GEM) using Memote. Memote is a software tool that provides a suite of tests to ensure the quality and consistency of metabolic models. By integrating Memote into a continuous integration (CI) workflow, we can automatically validate updates to the GEM, ensuring that model modifications improve or maintain the model's integrity

McNaughton, Andrew [@PNNL]↗

pnnl-predictive-phenomics/csc009-gem

Genome-Scale Metabolic Model of CarbStore Community member Curtobacterium (csc009) Continuous Validation with Memote These repositories contain the continuous validation environment for an organism-specific genome-scale metabolic model (GEM) using Memote. Memote is a software tool that provides a suite of tests to ensure the quality and consistency of metabolic models. By integrating Memote into a continuous integration (CI) workflow, we can automatically validate updates to the GEM, ensuring that model modifications improve or maintain the model's integrity

Lin, Tesia↗

pnnl-predictive-phenomics/csc040-gem

Genome-Scale Metabolic Model Continuous Validation with Memote for CarbStor Community Member Rhodococcus These repositories contain the continuous validation environment for an organism-specific genome-scale metabolic model (GEM) using Memote. Memote is a software tool that provides a suite of tests to ensure the quality and consistency of metabolic models. By integrating Memote into a continuous integration (CI) workflow, we can automatically validate updates to the GEM, ensuring that model modifications improve or maintain the model's integrity.

McNaughton, Andrew [@PNNL]↗

pnnl-predictive-phenomics/csc043-gem

Genome-Scale Metabolic Model Continuous Validation with Memote for CarbStor Community Member Paenibacillus These repositories contain the continuous validation environment for an organism-specific genome-scale metabolic model (GEM) using Memote. Memote is a software tool that provides a suite of tests to ensure the quality and consistency of metabolic models. By integrating Memote into a continuous integration (CI) workflow, we can automatically validate updates to the GEM, ensuring that model modifications improve or maintain the model's integrity.

Zucker, Jeremy [Pacific Northwest National Laborat↗

Experiment of Sea Breeze Convection, Aerosols, Precipitation, and Environment (ESCAPE)

Convective clouds play an important role in Earth’s climate system and are a known source of extreme weather. Gaps in our understanding of convective vertical motions, microphysics, and precipitation across a full range of aerosol and meteorological regimes continue to limit our ability to predict the occurrence and intensity of these cloud systems. To improve predictability, the National Science Foundation (NSF) sponsored a large field experiment entitled “Experiment of Sea Breeze Convection, Aerosols, Precipitation, and Environment (ESCAPE).” ESCAPE took place between 30 May and 30 September 2022 in the vicinity of Houston, Texas, because this area frequently experiences isolated deep convection that interacts with the region’s mesoscale circulations and its range of aerosol conditions. ESCAPE focused on collecting observations of isolated deep convection through innovative sampling and developing novel analysis techniques. This included the deployment of two research aircraft, the National Research Council of Canada Convair-580 and the Stratton Park Engineering Company Learjet, which combined conducted 24 research flights from 30 May to 17 June. On the ground, three mobile X-band radars and one mobile Doppler lidar truck equipped with soundings were deployed from 30 May to 28 June. From 1 August to 30 September 2022, a dual-polarization C-band radar was deployed and operated using a novel, multisensor agile adaptive sampling strategy to track the entire life cycle of isolated convective clouds. Analysis of the ESCAPE observations has already yielded preliminary findings on how aerosols and environmental conditions impact the convective life cycle.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

W.A.T.E.R. Water Assessment & Technical Efficiency Report

Water use at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) has become a top priority due to New Mexico’s arid climate. LANL is taking steps to reduce its current water footprint and become a national leader in water efficiency. LANL used approximately 271 million gallons of water in FY 2021. Despite the large water footprint, the Lab has reduced its water use by 2% each year since a 2007 baseline. To continue this positive trend of water conservation, the water management team at Utilities & Infrastructure – Operations Support & Improvement (UI-OSI) studied water usage across campus and developed several water reduction strategies.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Regulatory Considerations for Nuclear Energy Applications of Digital Twin Technologies

Digital twins (DTs) in complex industrial and engineering applications have potential benefits that include increased operational efficiencies, enhanced safety and reliability, improved security engineering, reduced errors, faster information sharing, and better predictions. The interest in DT technologies continues to grow, and many of these advanced technologies are expected to experience rapid and wide industry adoption in the near future. Some of the potential application areas for DTs in the nuclear industry are design, licensing, plant construction, training simulators, predictive operations and maintenance, autonomous operation and control, failure and degradation prediction, physical protection modeling and simulation, and safety and reliability analyses. The Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has initiated a future-focused research project to assess the regulatory viability of DTs for nuclear power plants and other NRC-regulated activities, such as fuel cycle facilities and operations. This report explores the potential impact of DT technologies in nuclear applications on NRC-regulated activities of interest. This report describes a nuclear DT system and its capabilities for nuclear power plant applications, followed by identification and discussion of some regulated activities that merit special consideration and present opportunities in implementing DT-enabling technologies and capabilities.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

Advancing Grid Resilience through Smart Charge Management: Findings from Maryland’s Pilot

This report presents research findings from a four-year Smart Charge Management (SCM) pilot program conducted by Maryland’s largest electric utilities—Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE), Potomac Electric Power Company (Pepco), and Delmarva Power & Light (DPL)—to evaluate strategies for optimizing electric vehicle (EV) charging loads and enhancing grid stability. Supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Argonne National Laboratory collaborated with all project partners and examined the effectiveness of Time-of-Use (TOU) and Load Balancing (LB) strategies in managing peak demand, deferring costly infrastructure upgrades, and reducing grid constraints at the feeder level. Using charging data from over 4,600 EV drivers, the study analyzed SCM’s impact on the distribution systems of BGE and Pepco, which consists of over 2000 feeders. Unlike prior research that focused on system-wide trends or synthetic feeders, this analysis offers granular, feeder-level insights based on real-world operational data. It highlights how transformer density, load profiles, and infrastructure constraints influence smart charging performance. Results show feeder-level conditions play a crucial role in SCM effectiveness, with most feeders benefiting more from LB, while TOU-based SCM may be sufficient for others. By 2035, LB reduced peak charging loads by 27% on average, compared to 23% under TOU-based SCM, though some feeders saw reductions exceeding 35%, while others experienced minimal impact. Feeders with higher transformer utilization and limited capacity benefited more from LB, which more effectively distributed charging demand during off-peak hours. Beyond reducing grid constraints, SCM offers long-term operational and financial benefits. By shifting EV charging demand strategically, utilities can optimize asset utilization, delay infrastructure investments, and enhance grid performance. In terms of infrastructure upgrade deferrals, at the feeder level, LB consistently reduced peak charging loads and resulting infrastructure upgrade costs, particularly in high EV enrollment areas, decreasing the number of overloaded transformers by up to 35%, while TOU-based SCM achieved 20-30% reductions depending on feeder characteristics. At the system level, LB has the potential to defer total upgrade costs by $\$$186 million for BGE, compared to $\$$159 million under TOU-based SCM. For Pepco, TOU-based SCM performed slightly better, deferring upgrade costs by $\$$30 million, compared to $\$$29 million under LB. Section 4.5 reviews some of the system differences between BGE and Pepco. However, as EV adoption scales, TOU-based SCM will introduce secondary peak charging loads, reinforcing the need for more advanced, adaptive SCM approaches to prevent new grid challenges. As EV adoption continues to grow, feeder-level managed charging strategies will be essential for mitigating grid stress, improving infrastructure efficiency, and maintaining energy affordability for consumers. This report provides critical insights for utilities, Public Utility Commissions (PUCs), and state agencies on the role of feeder-specific smart charging in infrastructure planning, policy development, and grid modernization. The findings underscore the importance of tailored, data-driven SCM solutions that align with local grid conditions, ensuring a resilient, cost-effective transition to increasing EV adoption while safeguarding distribution system performance.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Effects of Interactions Between Produced Formation Fluid and Rock Matrix on Pore Structure of Caney Shale, Southern Oklahoma

ABSTRACT: Rock-fluid interactions change properties of shales during exploitation. To investigate effects of rock-fluid interactions on pore structure of shales matrix after hydraulic fracturing, powder samples from two late Mississippian Caney Shale cores in the Ardmore Basin, southern Oklahoma, were used to react with formation produced fluid from the field in the batch reactor analysis. X-ray diffraction for mineralogy and Low-pressure nitrogen adsorption isotherms for pore structure were measured for original, after-7days, and after-30days samples. Results show that the samples consist mainly of quartz, followed by clay minerals, carbonates, and feldspar. The pore sizes of micropore (<2 nm) and mesopore (2-50 nm) increase 14%-233% due to dissolution of pyrite, feldspar, and carbonates after 7 days. Due to the transformation from smectite to illite and the increase of pore size, the specific surface area (SSA) decreases after 7-days interactions. After 30-days interactions, the micropore volume slightly increases and the mesopore and macropore volume decreases. Due to the decrease of pore size, the SSA of 30-days reacted samples increases correspondingly and is lower (for the clay-rich sample) or higher (for the calcareous sample) than that of the unreacted samples. Findings improve our understanding of dynamic alteration of shale properties during production. 1. INTRODUCTION Energy demand will continuously grow owing to the increasing global population as well as energy consumption (EIA, 2023). On the other hand, shale gas and oil reshaped the energy market in the United States, enabling the United States to become a net-export of natural gas country in 2017 (EIA, 2023). However, shale reservoirs are challenging tight formations that are still poorly understood in the extraction and production of hydrocarbons (Ross and Bustin, 2009; Curtis et al., 2012; Xiong et al., 2015, 2021a; Li Y. et al., 2016; Gong et al., 2019a; Benge et al., 2021; Awejori et al., 2022; Huang et al., 2022). One of the most challenging topics is the rock-fluid interactions post hydraulic fracturing and its subsequent impacts on the pore structures of fractured formation matrix.

Xiong, Fengyang↗

Fuel Performance Modeling Plan to Support the Advance Gas Reactor Program

This report documents the current status of the fuel performance modeling initiative to support the Advanced Gas Reactor (AGR) program in the development of tristructural isotropic (TRISO) coated fuel particles. A brief summary of the modeling codes that have been developed to support TRISO modeling is included along with a summary of the behavior of fuel particles during irradiation and the modeling used to capture these effects. In addition, this report identifies further modeling and material property needs that have been identified for further development based on experience from previously performed AGR experiments. In general, the remaining activities to support fuel performance modeling for the AGR program include continued AGR experiment support for AGR-3/4 and AGR-5/6/7 as well as modeling improvements identified throughout the course of the program. These modeling improvements can be summarized as the following: Fission product transport Thermomechanical particle behavior Additional modeling needs may be identified during the processing the data collected during the AGR post-irradiation examination (PIE) campaign and may lead to further modeling improvements that are not included in this report.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Fuel Performance Modeling Plan to Support the Advance Gas Reactor Program

This report documents the current status of the fuel performance modeling initiative to support the Advanced Gas Reactor (AGR) Fuel Development and Qualification Program in the development of tristructural-isotropic-coated fuel particles. It includes a brief summary of the codes that have been developed to support tristructural isotropic modeling along with a summary of the behavior of fuel particles during irradiation and the modeling used to capture these effects. In addition, this report identifies further modeling and material property needs for further development based on experience from previously performed AGR experiments. In general, the remaining activities to support fuel performance modeling for the AGR program include continued AGR experiment support for AGR-3/4 and AGR-5/6/7 as well as modeling improvements identified throughout the course of the program. These modeling improvements can be summarized as thermomechanical particle behavior and fission product transport. Additional modeling needs may be identified while processing the data collected during the AGR post-irradiation examination campaign and may lead to further improvements that are not included in this report.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

End-of-Winter Snow Depth, Temperature, Density, and SWE Measurements at Teller Road Site, Seward Peninsula, Alaska, 2019

Measurements of end-of-winter snow properties were collected at the NGEE Arctic Teller Road Site at mile marker 27 (TL_MM27) from March 31 to April 7, 2019. This dataset contains three *.csv data files of spatially distributed values of snow depth, snow water equivalent (SWE), and temperature at the snow surface and at the bottom of the snowpack. Data were collected toward the end of the winter season from late March to early April, when the snowpack would be near its maximum. A Snow-Hydro MagnaProbe (http://www.snowhydro.com/products/column2.html) was used to improve collection efficiency and enhance spatial coverage. A user guide included as a *.pdf. This dataset is a continuation of the previous end- of-winter snow surveys conducted at the Teller Road Site in 2016-2018 (Wilson et al., 2020; https://doi.org/10.5440/1592103). The Next-Generation Ecosystem Experiments: Arctic (NGEE Arctic), was a research effort to reduce uncertainty in Earth System Models by developing a predictive understanding of carbon-rich Arctic ecosystems and feedbacks to climate. NGEE Arctic was supported by the Department of Energy's Office of Biological and Environmental Research.The NGEE Arctic project had two field research sites: 1) located within the Arctic polygonal tundra coastal region on the Barrow Environmental Observatory (BEO) and the North Slope near Utqiagvik (Barrow), Alaska and 2) multiple areas on the discontinuous permafrost region of the Seward Peninsula north of Nome, Alaska.Through observations, experiments, and synthesis with existing datasets, NGEE Arctic provided an enhanced knowledge base for multi-scale modeling and contributed to improved process representation at global pan-Arctic scales within the Department of Energy's Earth system Model (the Energy Exascale Earth System Model, or E3SM), and specifically within the E3SM Land Model component (ELM).

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

State-of-the-art of data collection, analytics, and future needs of transmission utilities worldwide to account for the continuous growth of sensing data

Nowadays, transmission system operators require higher degree of observability in real-time to gain situational awareness and improve the decision-making process to guarantee a safe and reliable operation. Digitalization of energy systems allows utilities to monitor the system dynamic performance in real-time at fast time scales. The use of such technologies has unlocked new opportunities to introduce new data driven algorithms for improving the stability assessment and control of the system. Motivated by these challenges, a group of experts have worked together to highlight and establish a baseline set of these common concerns, which can be used as motivation to propose innovative analytics and data-driven solutions. In this document, the results of a survey on 10 transmission system operators around the world are presented and it aims to understand the current practices of the participating companies, in terms of data acquisition, handling, storage, modelling and analytics. The overall objective of this document is to capture the actual needs from the interviewed utilities, thereby laying the groundwork for setting valid assumptions for the development of advanced algorithms in this field.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

End-of-Winter Snow Depth, Temperature, Density, and SWE Measurements at Teller Road Site, Seward Peninsula, Alaska, 2022

Measurements of end-of-winter snow properties were collected at the NGEE Arctic Teller Road Site at mile marker 27 (TL_MM27) from March 28 to April 1, 2022. This dataset contains three *.csv data files of spatially distributed values of snow depth, snow water equivalent (SWE), and temperature at the snow surface and at the bottom of the snowpack. Data were collected toward the end of the winter season from late March to early April, when the snowpack would be near its maximum. A Snow-Hydro MagnaProbe (http://www.snowhydro.com/products/column2.html) was used to improve collection efficiency and enhance spatial coverage. A user guide included as a *.pdf. This dataset is a continuation of the previous end-of-winter snow surveys conducted at the Teller Road Site in 2016-2018 (Wilson et al., 2020; https://doi.org/10.5440/1592103) and 2019 (Bennett et al., 2021; https://doi.org/10.5440/1798170). The Next-Generation Ecosystem Experiments: Arctic (NGEE Arctic), a research effort to reduce uncertainty in Earth System Models by developing a predictive understanding of carbon-rich Arctic ecosystems and feedbacks to climate. NGEE Arctic was supported by the Department of Energy's Office of Biological and Environmental Research. The NGEE Arctic project had two field research sites: 1) located within the Arctic polygonal tundra coastal region on the Barrow Environmental Observatory (BEO) and the North Slope near Utqiagvik (Barrow), Alaska and 2) multiple areas on the discontinuous permafrost region of the Seward Peninsula north of Nome, Alaska. Through observations, experiments, and synthesis with existing datasets, NGEE Arctic provided an enhanced knowledge base for multi-scale modeling and contributed to improved process representation at global pan-Arctic scales within the Department of Energy's Earth system Model (the Energy Exascale Earth System Model, or E3SM), and specifically within the E3SM Land Model component (ELM).

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗