SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “Systems Integration”

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.

SourceResearch connectionFrom yearThrough year

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

At least 847 records · Page 47

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

NASA NTRS2012

Orion ECLSS/Suit System - Ambient Pressure Integrated Suit Test

The Ambient Pressure Integrated Suit Test (APIST) phase of the integrated system testing of the Orion Vehicle Atmosphere Revitalization System (ARS) technology was conducted for the Multipurpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) Program within the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Exploration Systems Mission Directorate. Crew and Thermal Systems Division performed this test in the eleven-foot human-rated vacuum chamber at the NASA Johnson Space Center. This testing is the first phase of suit loop testing to demonstrate the viability of the Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) being developed for Orion. APIST is the first in a series, which will consist of testing development hardware including the Carbon dioxide and Moisture Removal Amine Swing-bed (CAMRAS) and the air revitalization loop fan with human test subjects in pressure suits at varying suit pressures. Follow-on testing, to be conducted in 2013, will utilize the CAMRAS and a development regulator with human test subjects in pressure suits at varying cabin and suit pressures. This paper will discuss the results and findings of APIST and will also discuss future testing.

Barido, Richard A.↗

NASA NTRS2014

Orion ECLSS/Suit System Intermediate Pressure Integrated Suit Test

The Intermediate Pressure Integrated Suit Test (IPIST) phase of the integrated system testing of the Orion Vehicle Atmosphere Revitalization System (ARS) technology was conducted for the Multipurpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) Program within the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Exploration Systems Mission Directorate. This test was performed in the eleven-foot human-rated vacuum chamber at the NASA Johnson Space Center by the Crew and Thermal Systems Division. This testing is the second phase of suit loop testing to demonstrate the viability of the Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) being developed for Orion. The IPIST configuration consisted of development hardware that included the CAMRAS, air revitalization loop fan and suit loop regulator. Two test subjects were in pressure suits at varying suit pressures. Follow-on testing, to be conducted in 2014, will utilize the same hardware with human test subjects in pressure suits at vacuum. This paper will discuss the results and findings of IPIST and will also discuss future testing.

Barido, Richard A.↗

DOE OSTI2013

Integrated High-Level Waste System Planning - Utilizing an Integrated Systems Planning Approach to Ensure End-State Definitions are Met and Executed - 13244

The Savannah River Site (SRS) is a Department of Energy site which has produced nuclear materials for national defense, research, space, and medical programs since the 1950's. As a by-product of this activity, approximately 37 million gallons of high-level liquid waste containing approximately 292 million curies of radioactivity is stored on an interim basis in 45 underground storage tanks. Originally, 51 tanks were constructed and utilized to support the mission. Four tanks have been closed and taken out of service and two are currently undergoing the closure process. The Liquid Waste System is a highly integrated operation involving safely storing liquid waste in underground storage tanks; removing, treating, and dispositioning the low-level waste fraction in grout; vitrifying the higher activity waste at the Defense Waste Processing Facility; and storing the vitrified waste in stainless steel canisters until permanent disposition. After waste removal and processing, the storage and processing facilities are decontaminated and closed. A Liquid Waste System Plan (hereinafter referred to as the Plan) was developed to integrate and document the activities required to disposition legacy and future High-Level Waste and to remove from service radioactive liquid waste tanks and facilities. It establishes and records a planning basis for waste processing in the liquid waste system through the end of the program mission. The integrated Plan which recognizes the challenges of constrained funding provides a path forward to complete the liquid waste mission within all regulatory and legal requirements. The overarching objective of the Plan is to meet all Federal Facility Agreement and Site Treatment Plan regulatory commitments on or ahead of schedule while preserving as much life cycle acceleration as possible through incorporation of numerous cost savings initiatives, elimination of non-essential scope, and deferral of other scope not on the critical path to compliance. There is currently a premium on processing and storage space in the radioactive liquid waste tank system. To enable continuation of risk reduction initiatives, the Plan establishes a processing strategy that provides tank space required to meet, or minimizes the impacts to meeting, programmatic objectives. The Plan also addresses perturbations in funding and schedule impacts. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

DOE OSTI2020

Initial Land Use/Cover Distribution Substantially Affects Global Carbon and Local Temperature Projections in the Integrated Earth System Model

Initial land cover distribution varies among Earth system models, an uncertainty in initial conditions that can substantially affect carbon and climate projections. We use the integrated Earth System Model to show that a 3.9 M km2 difference in 2005 global forest area (9–14% of total forest area) generates uncertainties in initial atmospheric CO2 concentration, terrestrial carbon, and local temperature that propagate through a future simulation following the Representative Concentration Pathway 4.5. By 2095, the initial 6 ppmv uncertainty range increases to 9 ppmv and the initial 26 PgC uncertainty range in terrestrial carbon increases to 33 PgC. The initial uncertainty range in annual average local temperature of -0.74 to 0.96 °C persists throughout the future simulation, with a seasonal maximum in Dec-Jan-Feb. These results highlight the importance of accurately characterizing historical land use and land cover to reduce overall initial condition uncertainty.

Di Vittorio, Alan↗

NASA NTRS2013

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Integration in the National Airspace System (NAS) Project

NASA's UAS Integration in the NAS project, has partnered with Rockwell Collins to develop a concept Control and Non-Payload Communication system prototype radio, operating on recently allocated UAS frequency spectrum bands. The prototype radio will be used to validate initial proposed performance requirements for UAS control communications. This presentation will give an overview of the current status of the design, development, and flight test planning for this prototype radio.

Griner, James H.↗

DOE OSTI2022

Deep reinforcement learning based optimization for a tightly coupled nuclear renewable integrated energy system

New ways to integrate energy systems to maximize efficiency are being sought to meet carbon emissions goals. Nuclear-renewable integrated energy system (NR-IES) concepts are a leading solution that couples a nuclear power plant with renewable energy, hydrogen generation plants, and energy storage systems, such that thermal and electrical power are dispatchable to fulfill grid-flexibility requirements while also producing hydrogen and maximizing revenue. Here, this paper introduces a deep reinforcement learning (DRL)-based framework to address the complex decision-making tasks for NR-IES. The objective is to maximize revenue by generating and selling hydrogen and electricity simultaneously according to their time-varying prices while keeping the energy flow in the subsystems in balance. A Python-based simulator for a NR-IES concept has been developed to integrate with OpenAI Gym and Ray/RLlib to enable an efficient and flexible computational framework for DRL research and development. Three state-of-the-art DRL algorithms have been investigated, including two-delayed deep deterministic policy gradient (TD3), soft-actor critic (SAC), proximal policy optimization (PPO), to illustrate DRL’s superiority for controlling NR-IES by comparing it with a conventional control approach, particle swarm optimization (PSO). In this effort, PPO has shown more-stable performance and also better generalization capability than SAC and TD3. Comparisons with PSO have demonstrated that, on average, PPO can achieve 13.9% more mean episode returns from the training process and 29.4% more mean episode returns from the testing process when different hydrogen-production targets are applied.

08 HYDROGEN↗

NASA NTRS2014

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Integration in the National Airspace System (NAS) Project, UAS Control and Non-Payload Communication System Phase-1 Flight Test Results

NASA's UAS Integration in the NAS project, has partnered with Rockwell Collins to develop a concept Control and Non-Payload Communication (CNPC) system prototype radio, operating on recently allocated UAS frequency spectrum bands. This prototype radio is being used to validate initial proposed performance requirements for UAS control communications. This presentation will give an overview of the current status of the prototype radio development, and results from phase 1 flight tests conducted during 2013.

communication↗

NASA NTRS1984

Design considerations for a 10-kW integrated hydrogen-oxygen regenerative fuel cell system

Integration of an alkaline fuel cell subsystem with an alkaline electrolysis subsystem to form a regenerative fuel cell (RFC) system for low earth orbit (LEO) applications characterized by relatively high overall round trip electrical efficiency, long life, and high reliability is possible with present state of the art technology. A hypothetical 10 kW system computer modeled and studied based on data from ongoing contractual efforts in both the alkaline fuel cell and alkaline water electrolysis areas. The alkaline fuel cell technology is under development utilizing advanced cell components and standard Shuttle Orbiter system hardware. The alkaline electrolysis technology uses a static water vapor feed technique and scaled up cell hardware is developed. The computer aided study of the performance, operating, and design parameters of the hypothetical system is addressed.

Hoberecht, M. A.↗

NASA NTRS1984

Design considerations for a 10-kW integrated hydrogen-oxygen regenerative fuel cell system

Hoberecht, M. A.↗

NASA NTRS2006

Comprehensive Environmental Informatics System (CEIS) Integrating Crew and Vehicle Environmental Health

Integrated Vehicle Health Management (IVHM) systems have been pursued as highly integrated systems that include smart sensors, diagnostic and prognostics software for assessments of real-time and life-cycle vehicle health information. Inclusive to such a system is the requirement to monitor the environmental health within the vehicle and the occupants of the vehicle. In this regard an enterprise approach to informatics is used to develop a methodology entitled, Comprehensive Environmental Informatics System (CEIS). The hardware and software technologies integrated into this system will be embedded in the vehicle subsystems, and maintenance operations, to provide both real-time and life-cycle health information of the environment within the vehicle cabin and of its occupants. This comprehensive information database will enable informed decision making and logistics management. One key element of the CEIS is interoperability for data acquisition and archive between environment and human system monitoring. With comprehensive components the data acquired in this system will use model based reasoning systems for subsystem and system level managers, advanced on-board and ground-based mission and maintenance planners to assess system functionality. Knowledge databases of the vehicle health state will be continuously updated and reported for critical failure modes, and routinely updated and reported for life cycle condition trending. Sufficient intelligence, including evidence-based engineering practices which are analogous to evidencebased medicine practices, will be included in the CEIS to result in more rapid recognition of off-nominal operation to enable quicker corrective actions. This will result from better information (rather than just data) for improved crew/operator situational awareness, which will produce significant vehicle and crew safety improvements, as well as increasing the chance for mission success, future mission planning as well as training. Other benefits include improved reliability, increase safety in operations and cost of operations. The cost benefits stem from significantly reduced processing and operations manpower, predictive maintenance for systems and subjects. The improvements in vehicle functionality and cost will result from increased prognostic and diagnostic capability due to the detailed total human exploration system health knowledge from CEIS. A collateral benefit is that there will be closer observations of the vehicle occupants as wrist watch sized devices are worn for continuous health monitoring. Additional database acquisition will stem from activities in countermeasure practices to ensure peak performance capability by occupants of the vehicle. The CEIS will provide data from advanced sensing technologies and informatics modeling which will be useful in problem troubleshooting, and improving NASA s awareness of systems during operation.

Nall, Mark E.↗

NASA NTRS2017

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Integration in the National Airspace System (NAS) Project

Over the past 5 years, the UAS integration into the NAS project has worked to reduce technical barriers to integration. A major focus of this work has been in support of RTCA SC-228. This committee has recently published the first UAS integration minimum performance standards (MOPS). This work has spanned detect and avoid (DAA) as well as command and control comm datalinks. I will discuss DAA efforts with focus on the human systems work. I will discuss how automation was discussed and addressed within this context. ICAO stood up a remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) panel in 2014. They have developed an RPAS manual and are now working to revise existing annexes and standards and recommended practices. The Human In The System (HITS) has worked to infuse human factors guidelines into those documents. I will discuss that effort as well as how ICAO has defined and address autonomy. There is a great deal of interest in the control of multiple vehicles by a single operator. The UAS EXCOM Science and Research Panel (SARP) is holding a workshop on this topic in late June. I will discuss research performed on this topic when I worked for the Army and on-going work within the division and a NATO working group on Human-Autonomy Teaming.

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS)↗

NASA NTRS2014

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Integration in the National Airspace System (NAS) Project - Gen-4 and Gen-5 Radio Plans

communication↗

NASA NTRS1974

The MIST /MIUS Integration and Subsystems Test/ laboratory - A testbed for the MIUS /Modular Integrated Utility System/ program

The MIUS (Modular Integrated Utility System) concept is to be an energy-conserving, economically feasible, integrated community utility system to provide five necessary services: electricity generation, space heating and air conditioning, solid waste processing, liquid waste processing, and residential water purification. The MIST (MIUS Integration and Subsystem Test) integrated system testbed constructed at the Johnson Space Center in Houston includes subsystems for power generation, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC), wastewater management, solid waste management, and control and monitoring. The key design issues under study include thermal integration and distribution techniques, thermal storage, integration of subsystems controls and displays, incinerator performance, effluent characteristics, and odor control.

Beckham, W. S., Jr.↗

DOE OSTI2023

Design, modeling and simulation of nuclear-powered integrated energy systems with cascaded heating applications

Nuclear-renewable integrated energy systems (IES) consist of a variety of energy generation and conversion technologies and can be used to meet heterogeneous end uses (e.g., electricity, heat, and cooling demands). In addition to supply-demand balance, end-use heat demands usually require heat supply of certain temperature ranges. The effective and efficient utilization of heat produced within an IES is, therefore, a critical challenge. Here, this paper examines design options of an IES that includes heating processes of multiple temperature grades. We investigate a cascaded design configuration, where the remaining residual heat after high-grade heating processes [e.g., hydrogen production through high-temperature steam electrolysis (HTSE)] is recovered to meet the low-grade heating needs [e.g., district heating (DH)]. Additionally, a thermal energy storage system is integrated into the DH system to address the imbalance between heat supply and demand. This paper primarily focuses on the design and modeling of the proposed system and evaluates its operation with a 24-h transient process simulation using a DH demand profile with hourly resolution. The results indicate that the residual heat from the HTSE exhaust is insufficient for the DH demand, and additional topping heat directly from the reactor process steam is needed. Furthermore, the inclusion of thermal energy storage within the DH system provides the necessary balance between thermal generation and demand, thereby ensuring a consistent rated temperature of the DH supply water. This approach helps minimize the control actions needed on the reactor side.

08 HYDROGEN↗

DOE OSTI2014

Design and Integrate Improved Systems for Nuclear Facility Ventilation and Exhaust Operations

Objective: The objective of this R&D project would complete the development of three new systems and integrate them into a single experimental effort. However, each of the three systems has stand-alone applicability across the DOE complex. At US DOE nuclear facilities, indoor air is filtered and ventilated for human occupancy, and exhaust air to the outdoor environment must be regulated and monitored. At least three technical standards address these functions, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory would complete an experimental facility to answer at least three questions: (1) Can the drag coefficient of a new Los Alamos air mixer be reduced for better operation in nuclear facility exhaust stacks? (2) Is it possible to verify the accuracy of a new dilution method for HEPA filter test facilities? (3) Is there a performance-based air flow metric (volumetric flow or mass flow) for operating HEPA filters? In summary, the three new systems are: a mixer, a diluter and a performance-based metric, respectively. The results of this project would be applicable to at least four technical standards: ANSI N13.1 Sampling and Monitoring Releases of Airborne Radioactive Substances from the Stacks and Ducts of Nuclear Facilities; ASTM F1471 Standard Test Method for Air Cleaning Performance of a High-Efficiency Particulate Air Filter System, ASME N511: In-Service Testing of Nuclear Air Treatment, Heating, Ventilating, and Air-Conditioning Systems, and ASME AG-1: Code On Nuclear Air And Gas Treatment. All of the three proposed new systems must be combined into a single experimental device (i.e. to develop a new function of the Los Alamos aerosol wind tunnel). Technical Approach: The Radiation Protection RP-SVS group at Los Alamos has an aerosol wind tunnel that was originally (2006) designed to evaluate small air samplers (cf. US EPA 40 CFR 53.42). In 2009, the tunnel was modified for exhaust stack verifications per the ANSI N13.1 standard. In 2010, modifications were started on the wind tunnel for testing HEPA filters (cf. ASTM F1471 and ASME N511). This project involves three systems that were developed for testing the 24*24*11 (inch) HEPA filters (i.e. the already mentioned mixer, diluter and metric). Prototypes of the mixer and the diluter have been built and individually tested on a preliminary basis. However, the third system (the HEPA metric method) has not been tested, since that requires complete operability of the aerosol wind tunnel device. (The experimental wind tunnel has test aerosol injection, control and measurement capabilities, and can be heated for temperature dependent measurements.) Benefits: US DOE facilities that use HEPA filters and/or require exhaust stacks from their nuclear facility buildings will benefit from access to the new hardware (mixer and diluter) and performance-based metric (for HEPA filter air flow).

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗

DOE OSTI2013

Integral reactor system and method for fuel cells

A reactor system is integrated internally within an anode-side cavity of a fuel cell. The reactor system is configured to convert hydrocarbons to smaller species while mitigating the lower production of solid carbon. The reactor system may incorporate one or more of a pre-reforming section, an anode exhaust gas recirculation device, and a reforming section.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

DOE OSTI2017

Integral reactor system and method for fuel cells

A reactor system is integrated internally within an anode-side cavity of a fuel cell. The reactor system is configured to convert higher hydrocarbons to smaller species while mitigating the lower production of solid carbon. The reactor system may incorporate one or more of a pre-reforming section, an anode exhaust gas recirculation device, and a reforming section.

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION↗

NASA NTRS2018

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Integration in the National Airspace System (NAS) Project: Ground Based Detect and Avoid

NASA is sponsoring research and data collection with the FAA UAS Test Sites pertaining to sensor and integration of Ground Based Detect and Avoid (GBDAA). This talk will highlight the objectives of the working being conducted and data collection plans.

Murphy, Jim↗