Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “cost-benefit analysis”

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 91 records · Page 5
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1990

Risk and value analysis of SETI

This paper attempts to apply a traditional risk and value analysis to the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence--SETI. In view of the difficulties of assessing the probability of success, a comparison is made between SETI and a previous search for extraterrestrial life, the biological component of Project Viking. Our application of simple Utility Theory, given some reasonable assumptions, suggests that SETI is at least as worthwhile as the biological experiment on Viking.

NASA Program Exobiology↗
DOE OSTI2023

The Cost and Benefit of Enhancing Cybersecurity for Hybrid AC/DC Grids

As critical interfaces of AC grids and DC grids inside a hybrid AC/DC grid, the voltage-sourced-converter (VSC) has been demonstrated to be vulnerable to false data injection (FDI) cyber-attacks. As a result, the cyber-attack-induced AC grid frequency deviations and DC grid voltage deviations threaten the secure operation. Here, to enhance cybersecurity in a not only feasible but also cost-effective manner, this paper proposes a cost-benefit-based cyber-defense strategy for a hybrid AC/DC grid. First, this paper establishes a spatial-temporal dual cyber-attack evaluation model, in which the cyber-attack-induced frequency and voltage deviations are modelled in both a spatially and temporally dual manner. Then, the proposed cost-benefit-based cyber-defense strategy is modelled as a VSC commitment problem to achieve the trade-off between maximizing the cyber-defense benefits and minimizing the cyber-defense costs. The VSC commitment problem is then mathematically convexified into a mixed-integer second-order cone programming (MISOCP) problem, which could be efficiently solved in an event-triggered manner against unfolding cyber-attack events. Simulation results on a test hybrid AC/DC grid verified the feasibility and the cost-effectiveness of the proposed cyber-defense strategy.

cost-benefit analysis↗
DOE OSTI2025

Scalable Truck Charging Demand Simulation for Cost-Optimized Infrastructure Planning

This project developed a scalable, high-resolution model to simulate medium- and heavy-duty (MHD) electric truck charging demand and assess its impact on grid infrastructure. Using generative modeling, simulation, and cost optimization, the project delivered an end-to-end software pipeline and a library of 96 real-world scenarios for the Dallas–Houston megaregion. We demonstrated a modular architecture for transportation and grid modeling, implemented cost-optimized infrastructure planning methods, and quantified grid capital, operational, and environmental costs across a wide range of truck electrification scenarios. The results have been adopted by major utility stakeholders and contributed to regional planning efforts.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2023

Geo-temporal patterns to design cost-effective interventions for zoonotic diseases -the case of brucellosis in the country of Georgia

Control of zoonosis can benefit from geo-referenced procedures. Focusing on brucellosis, here the ability of two methods to distinguish disease dissemination patterns and promote cost-effective interventions was compared. Geographical data on bovine, ovine and human brucellosis reported in the country of Georgia between 2014 and 2019 were investigated with (i) the Hot Spot (HS) analysis and (ii) a bio-geographical (BG) alternative. More than one fourth of all sites reported cases affecting two or more species. While ruminant cases displayed different patterns over time, most human cases described similar geo-temporal features, which were associated with the route used by migrant shepherds. Other human cases showed heterogeneous patterns. The BG approach identified small areas with a case density twice as high as the HS method. The BG method also identified, in 2018, a 2.6–2.99 higher case density in zoonotic (human and non-human) sites than in non-zoonotic sites (which only reported cases affecting a single species) –a finding that, if corroborated, could support cost-effective policy-making. Three dissemination hypotheses were supported by the data: (i) human cases induced by sheep-related contacts; (ii) human cases probably mediated by contaminated milk or meat; and (iii) cattle and sheep that infected one another. This proof-of-concept provided a preliminary validation for a method that may support cost-effective interventions oriented to control zoonoses. To expand these findings, additional studies on zoonosis-related decision-making are recommended.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2026

Scaled Implementation of Smart Charge Management for Electric Vehicles

Smart charge management (SCM) has become a critical strategy for mitigating potential grid impacts and reducing electricity costs for all customers. This study will evaluate the economics of implementing light-duty EV SCM at scale across the United States. This work will enhance distribution system analysis by estimating SCM implementation costs, exploring viable business cases, and developing a framework for national-level applications. The primary methodology involves leveraging detailed grid modeling from a specific service territory and using spatial extrapolation techniques to generalize findings to other regions. The analysis will develop key metrics to quantify the costs and benefits of SCM, including implementation costs relative to strategy and scale, the cost of distribution system upgrades with and without SCM, and the percentage of peak-load reduction. The objective is to produce a comprehensive report and a parameterized framework that enables utilities to self-assess the value of SCM in their own service territories. This will support the development of cost-effective charging strategies, accelerate the energization of new EV chargers, and facilitate the seamless integration of EVs into the nation's power grid.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
NASA NTRS2000

Holter monitoring: are two days better than one?

The optimal duration of Holter monitoring (HM) to minimize costs and maximize yield is unknown. In a retrospective review of 164 patients referred to a tertiary care center for evaluation with 2 days of HM, we found that 48 hours was not cost effective when compared with the traditional 24-hour period.

NASA Discipline Cardiopulmonary↗
NASA NTRS1998

Diagnostic yield and optimal duration of continuous-loop event monitoring for the diagnosis of palpitations. A cost-effectiveness analysis

BACKGROUND: Continuous-loop event recorders are widely used for the evaluation of palpitations, but the optimal duration of monitoring is unknown. OBJECTIVE: To determine the yield, timing, and incremental cost-effectiveness of each week of event monitoring for palpitations. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. PATIENTS: 105 consecutive outpatients referred for the placement of a continuous-loop event recorder for the evaluation of palpitations. MEASUREMENTS: Diagnostic yield, incremental cost, and cost-effectiveness for each week of monitoring. RESULTS: The diagnostic yield of continuous-loop event recorders was 1.04 diagnoses per patient in week 1, 0.15 diagnoses per patient in week 2, and 0.01 diagnoses per patient in week 3 and beyond. Over time, the cost-effectiveness ratio increased from $98 per new diagnosis in week 1 to $576 per new diagnosis in week 2 and $5832 per new diagnosis in week 3. CONCLUSIONS: In patients referred for evaluation of palpitations, the diagnostic yield of continuous-loop event recording decreases rapidly after 2 weeks of monitoring. A 2-week monitoring period is reasonably cost-effective for most patients and should be the standard period for continuous-loop event recording for the evaluation of palpitations.

NASA Discipline Cardiopulmonary↗
NASA NTRS2004

The minimal cost of life in space

The cost of keeping people alive in space is assessed from a theoretical viewpoint and using two actual designs for plant growth systems. While life support is theoretically not very demanding, our ability to implement life support is well below theoretical limits. A theoretical limit has been calculated from requirements and the state of the art for plant growth has been calculated using data from the BIO-Plex PDR and from the Cornell CEA prototype system. The very low efficiency of our current approaches results in a high mission impact, though we can still see how to get a significant reduction in cost of food when compared to supplying it from Earth. Seeing the distribution of costs should allow us to improve our current designs. c2004 COSPAR. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

NASA Discipline Life Support Systems↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

A Cost and Benefit Analysis of Orbital Debris Remediation, Mitigation,Tracking, and Characterization

Orbital debris may collide with crewed and robotic spacecraft, placing them at risk. The wide range of debris, from 9,000-kilogram rocket bodies to millions of millimeter-size debris, has led to a similarly wide range of proposed actions for addressing the risks posed by debris. However, the costs and benefits of these actions have historically been unknown. This is a challenge for decision makers who are choosing which actions to support through technology development or policy changes. NASA’s Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy is addressing these technical and economic uncertainties by building a capability to (1) complete rigorous calculations of the net present value of each action, (2) identify an optimal portfolio of actions to reduce risk, and (3) quantitatively analyze policies related to space sustainability. This report describes our progress toward that capability and to solicit feedback from the space and economic communities. Our previous work(Colvin, Karcz, and Wusk. 2023), referred to here as Phase 1, assessed the costs and benefits of performing debris remediation on operationally relevant timescales. The current paper summarizes the work of Locke and Colvin (2024), which contains major updates to the risk model used in Phase 1 and expands the breadth of actions considered to include mitigating the creation of debris, improving the ability to track debris, and more methods for cleaning up existing debris. We demonstrate that our approach of measuring risks in dollars allows for the effectiveness of seemingly incommensurate actions to be compared and generates insights that other approaches to measuring risk have missed.

Orbital Debris↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

IAC Abstract for Orbital Debris Phase II Report

Orbital debris poses a growing risk for spacecraft operations. This risk has most often been measured by proxies, like the number of debris or expected collisions, but few have attempted quantify the consequences of orbital debris or the costs and benefits of different methods to address the problem. This has made it difficult to assess the trade-offs and relative value among proposed actions for the mitigation, tracking, and remediation of debris. In March of 2023, the NASA Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy (OTPS) took a step toward quantifying these relative values when we released Cost and Benefit Analysis of Orbital Debris Remediation. Since that time, OTPS has continued to build on this work. We have increased the fidelity of our risk model. For example, we added an ensemble of risk models that use varying assumptions of debris populations and lethality, included debris as small as 1mm, and incorporated atmospheric drag to naturally deorbit debris. We have also expanded our cost-benefit calculations to include action that mitigate and track debris, both large and small. The analysis has several important findings regarding the conditions under which debris remediation is more cost-effective than mitigation and tracking, the value of increased shielding of spacecraft and faster timelines for post-mission disposal, and how changes in the portfolio have interdependent effects. This presentation summarizes the body of work, with a particular focus on the risks and benefits to the global spacecraft population.

orbital debris↗
NASA NTRS2000

Improving The Discipline of Cost Estimation and Analysis

The need to improve the quality and accuracy of cost estimates of proposed new aerospace systems has been widely recognized. The industry has done the best job of maintaining related capability with improvements in estimation methods and giving appropriate priority to the hiring and training of qualified analysts. Some parts of Government, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in particular, continue to need major improvements in this area. Recently, NASA recognized that its cost estimation and analysis capabilities had eroded to the point that the ability to provide timely, reliable estimates was impacting the confidence in planning many program activities. As a result, this year the Agency established a lead role for cost estimation and analysis. The Independent Program Assessment Office located at the Langley Research Center was given this responsibility. This paper presents the plans for the newly established role. Described is how the Independent Program Assessment Office, working with all NASA Centers, NASA Headquarters, other Government agencies, and industry, is focused on creating cost estimation and analysis as a professional discipline that will be recognized equally with the technical disciplines needed to design new space and aeronautics activities. Investments in selected, new analysis tools, creating advanced training opportunities for analysts, and developing career paths for future analysts engaged in the discipline are all elements of the plan. Plans also include increasing the human resources available to conduct independent cost analysis of Agency programs during their formulation, to improve near-term capability to conduct economic cost-benefit assessments, to support NASA management's decision process, and to provide cost analysis results emphasizing "full-cost" and "full-life cycle" considerations. The Agency cost analysis improvement plan has been approved for implementation starting this calendar year. Adequate financial and human resources are being made available to accomplish the goals of this important effort, and all indications are that NASA's cost estimation and analysis core competencies will be substantially improved within the foreseeable future.

Piland, William M.↗
NASA NTRS1998

Terminal Area Productivity Airport Wind Analysis and Chicago O'Hare Model Description

This paper describes two results from a continuing effort to provide accurate cost-benefit analyses of the NASA Terminal Area Productivity (TAP) program technologies. Previous tasks have developed airport capacity and delay models and completed preliminary cost benefit estimates for TAP technologies at 10 U.S. airports. This task covers two improvements to the capacity and delay models. The first improvement is the completion of a detailed model set for the Chicago O'Hare (ORD) airport. Previous analyses used a more general model to estimate the benefits for ORD. This paper contains a description of the model details with results corresponding to current conditions. The second improvement is the development of specific wind speed and direction criteria for use in the delay models to predict when the Aircraft Vortex Spacing System (AVOSS) will allow use of reduced landing separations. This paper includes a description of the criteria and an estimate of AVOSS utility for 10 airports based on analysis of 35 years of weather data.

Hemm, Robert↗
NASA NTRS1978

A method for the analysis of the benefits and costs for aeronautical research and technology

A relatively simple, consistent, and reasonable methodology for performing cost-benefit analyses which can be used to guide, justify, and explain investments in aeronautical research and technology is presented. The elements of this methodology (labeled ABC-ART for the Analysis of the Benefits and Costs of Aeronautical Research and Technology) include estimation of aircraft markets; manufacturer costs and return on investment versus aircraft price; airline costs and return on investment versus aircraft price and passenger yield; and potential system benefits--fuel savings, cost savings, and noise reduction. The application of this methodology is explained using the introduction of an advanced turboprop powered transport aircraft in the medium range market in 1978 as an example.

Williams, L. J.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Marginal Damage of Methane Emissions: Ozone Impacts on Agriculture

Methane directly contributes to air pollution, as an ozone precursor, and to climate change, generating physical and economic damages to different systems, namely agriculture, vegetation, energy, human health, or biodiversity. The methane-related damages to climate, measured as the Social Cost of Methane, and to human health have been analyzed by different studies and considered by government rulemaking in the last decades, but the ozone-related damages to crop revenues associated to methane emissions have not been incorporated to policy agenda. Using a combination of the Global Change Analysis Model and the TM5-FASST Scenario Screening Tool, we estimate that global marginal agricultural damages range from ~ 423 to 556 $2010/t-CH 4 , of which 98 $2010/t-CH 4 occur in the USA, which is the most affected region due to its role as a major crop producer, followed by China, EU-15, and India. These damages would represent 39–59% of the climate damages and 28–64% of the human health damages associated with methane emissions by previous studies. The marginal damages to crop revenues calculated in this study complement the damages from methane to climate and human health, and provides valuable information to be considered in future cost-benefits analyses.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS1974

Agriculture, forestry, range resources

In the area of crop specie identification, it has been found that temporal data analysis, preliminary stratification, and unequal probability analysis were several of the factors that contributed to high identification accuracies. Single data set accuracies on fields of greater than 80,000 sq m (20 acres) are in the 70- to 90-percent range; however, with the use of temporal data, accuracies of 95 percent have been reported. Identification accuracy drops off significantly on areas of less than 80,000 sq m (20 acres) as does measurement accuracy. Forest stratification into coniferous and deciduous areas has been accomplished to a 90- to 95-percent accuracy level. Using multistage sampling techniques, the timber volume of a national forest district has been estimated to a confidence level and standard deviation acceptable to the Forest Service at a very favorable cost-benefit time ratio. Range specie/plant community vegetation mapping has been accomplished at various levels of success (69- to 90-percent accuracy). However, several investigators have obtained encouraging initial results in range biomass (forage production) estimation and range readiness predictions. Soil association map correction and soil association mapping in new area appear to have been proven feasible on large areas; however, testing in a complex soil area should be undertaken.

Crea, W. J.↗
DOE OSTI2025

Thoroughly testing and integrating hundreds of Pull Requests per month: ROOT’s new Cost-efficient and Feature Rich GitHub-based CI

ROOT is an open source framework, freely available on GitHub, at the heart of data acquisition, processing and analysis of HE(N)P experiments, and beyond. It is developed collaboratively: contributions are not authored only by ROOT team members, but also by the user community at large: developers and scientists from universities, labs as well as the private sector. More than 1500 GitHub Pull Requests are merged on average per year. It is in this context that code integration acquires a primary role. The review of code contributions isn’t enough: not only they need to be thoroughly reviewed, they also need to be thoroughly tested through a powerful CI infrastructure on several different platforms to comply with the high code quality standards of the project. Since the end of 2023, ROOT moved its continuous integration system from Jenkins to GitHub Actions. In this contribution, we characterise the transition to the GitHub CI, focussing on our strategy, its implementation and the lessons learned, as well as the advantages the new system offers with respect to the previous one. Particular emphasis will be given to the evaluation of the cost-benefit ratio for Jenkins and GitHub Actions for the ROOT project. We also describe how we manage to run in less than one hour thousands of unit, integration, functional and end-to-end tests on different flavours of Windows, four versions of macOS, as well as about ten of the most used Linux distributions, taking advantage of the CERN computing infrastructure.

Piparo, Danilo [CERN]↗
NASA NTRS2024

Looking to the Future: A Call to Action for Advanced GNC Algorithm Verification and Validation

Future space systems will rely on autonomous Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) functions to efficiently manage safe and precise self-directed operations in uncertain complex environments. Fundamentally, the GNC system plays a key role in mission performance and safety because it computes the ideal trajectory (Guidance), determines the actual trajectory (Navigation), and executes the ideal trajectory (Control) of a vehicle’s position and attitude. Our current GNC systems are highly automated and already have a high degree of complexity. As missions become more ambitious, GNC systems for launch vehicles and space platforms (e.g., spacecraft, probes, and landers) will require higher levels of performance and autonomous operation than previously encountered, for example, this includes GNC for optimizing aerodynamic and/or propulsion performance during planetary entry. This GNC Verification and Validation (V&V) paper highlights concerns with what undoubtedly will be a trend towards increased complexity as fully autonomous GNC systems are developed for future space missions. Clearly, complex GNC systems pose challenges in the prelaunch V&V phase, which is a relatively expensive part of a mission’s life cycle. Essentially the V&V phase is focused on checking that the system effectively meets all the design and operational requirements for the mission. The authors of this paper (i.e., the Inter-Agency Working Group of GNC subject matter experts) focused on this fundamental question over the past few years: Will the GNC engineering community of practice be sufficiently prepared to perform the necessary V&V on evolving GNC architectures that are driven by very demanding requirements for autonomy, resiliency, reconfigurability, adaptability, and mission cost-benefit balance? It is the viewpoint of our Inter-Agency team that the GNC V&V approaches and processes needed to address the next generation of complex GNC systems, which likely will employ various forms of modern GNC technology, are not currently established to the level the community will need in the future. While researchers and practitioners have made some progress in developing new GNC V&V methods for modern GNC systems, a good deal of work remains to be done to codify such methods in a comprehensive and systematic manner. Thus, the Inter-Agency team’s partner organizations [the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the European Space Agency (ESA), the National Centre for Space Studies (CNES), the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the French Aerospace Lab (ONERA), and ISAE-SUPAERO] have conducted preliminary investigations into advancing GNC V&V techniques, which resulted in the identification of the need for education, new V&V tools, and benchmark problems for the GNC community. The necessary proactive steps to be taken to meet the challenges and fill the gaps in GNC V&V are summarized in this paper. The first steps include identifying advanced analysis tools, developing a GNC V&V roadmap, and expanding education and training programs for GNC practitioners. This paper is a call to action and proposes a comprehensive set of recommended actions for all our stakeholders: space agencies, researchers, and industry.

Samir Bennani↗
DOE OSTI2023

Measuring environmental and cost benefits of riparian buffers for drinking water production in a Midwest watershed

Here, this study focuses on the economic value and carbon benefits of riparian buffers in urban drinking water production. The impact of riparian buffers on the waterworks operation in the Raccoon River watershed was quantified using the following metrics: nitrate concentration, days of nitrate removal operation, material and energy cost (based on 17 years of historical records with a watershed model), regression, and cost analysis. The findings indicate that the presence of riparian buffers in agricultural land can substantially decrease nitrate concentration in the water intake of the waterworks during the crop-growing season: 19% in April, 9% in May, and 11% in June. These reductions mean less nitrate treatment of the plant intake flow: 23% in April, 12% in May, and 3% in June. These changes lead to significant resource savings: 425 metric tons of sodium chloride (NaCl), 147 810 kWh of electricity, 253 metric tons of powdered activated carbon, and 20.8 million liters of fresh water. The buffers would also reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 86.9 metric tons (CO 2 equivalent) in 17 years. The total cost saving was estimated at $\$$327 326, with the highest potential savings in May ($\$$215 100), followed by April ($\$$65 465), and June ($\$$46 761). When factoring in buffer installation, cropland loss, nitrate removal, and cost associated with buffer harvest for biofuel in an established biomass market, the benefit to the entire watershed community would be $\$$2.63 million annually. The results underscore the significant cost benefits and environmental benefits associated with cropland riparian buffers in a watershed community. The approach employed in this study holds promise for assessing riparian buffer benefits in other watersheds, contributes to an understanding of sustainable water management practices, and provides a basis for decision making in a wide range of agricultural regions.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗