Lessons Learned From Performing Quality Control of KSC LC-39B Lightning Protection Tower Meteorological Data
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Electrical meters are devices that measure consumer electricity usage. The data collected by these meters is necessary for utility billing and electrical grid management but can also be used to assess the environmental impact of buildings. Prior research has found that unprotected metering data could potentially be used to infer some information about the behaviors of building tenants by detecting changes in electricity usage. For example, a period of low electricity usage could suggest that the tenants are not in the building. As smart metering becomes more common, there is a growing need for data privacy protections for metering data that do not negatively impact the quality and availability of data used for energy management and billing applications. To identify potential solutions, we developed a Python-based data aggregation platform to analyze the potential efficacy of privacy-enhancing technologies for energy metering applications. This platform aggregates groups of metering sites into virtual buildings, which could potentially detach changes in electrical activity from individual tenants, making it more difficult to track the activity of a specific tenant. To further protect data during analysis, this project utilizes homomorphic encryption as part of its initial approach. Homomorphic encryption offers a means of protecting energy consumption data while permitting mathematical operations to be performed without the need to know the data contents. This allows for data to be processed into usable statistics without revealing energy consumption information. A series of homomorphic encryption libraries were evaluated to determine their applicability and limitations in the context of metering data. The use of these techniques may help to reassure consumers and encourage further adoption of smart grid infrastructure.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) provides databases that agglomerate data provided by companies or states reporting emissions, releases, wastes generated, and other activities to meet statutory requirements. These databases, often referred to as inventories, can be used for a wide variety of environmental reporting and modeling purposes to characterize conditions in the United States. Yet, users are often challenged to find, retrieve, and interpret these data due to the unique schemes employed for data management, which could result in erroneous estimations or double-counting of emissions. To address these challenges, a system called Standardized Emission and Waste Inventories (StEWI) has been created. The system consists of four python modules that provide rapid access to USEPA inventory data in standard formats and permit filtering and combination of these inventory data. When accessed through StEWI, reported emissions of carbon dioxide to air and ammonia to water are reduced approximately two- and four-fold, respectively, to avoid duplicate reporting. StEWI will greatly facilitate the use of USEPA inventory data in chemical release and exposure modeling and life cycle assessment tools, among other things. To date, StEWI has been used to build the recent USEEIO model and the baseline electricity life cycle inventory database for the Federal LCA Commons.
The original Luby Transform (LT) coding scheme is extended to account for data transmissions where some information symbols in a message block are more important than others. Prioritized LT codes provide unequal error protection (UEP) of data on an erasure channel by modifying the original LT encoder. The prioritized algorithm improves high-priority data protection without penalizing low-priority data recovery. Moreover, low-latency decoding is also obtained for high-priority data due to fast encoding. Prioritized LT codes only require a slight change in the original encoding algorithm, and no changes at all at the decoder. Hence, with a small complexity increase in the LT encoder, an improved UEP and low-decoding latency performance for high-priority data can be achieved. LT encoding partitions a data stream into fixed-sized message blocks each with a constant number of information symbols. To generate a code symbol from the information symbols in a message, the Robust-Soliton probability distribution is first applied in order to determine the number of information symbols to be used to compute the code symbol. Then, the specific information symbols are chosen uniform randomly from the message block. Finally, the selected information symbols are XORed to form the code symbol. The Prioritized LT code construction includes an additional restriction that code symbols formed by a relatively small number of XORed information symbols select some of these information symbols from the pool of high-priority data. Once high-priority data are fully covered, encoding continues with the conventional LT approach where code symbols are generated by selecting information symbols from the entire message block including all different priorities. Therefore, if code symbols derived from high-priority data experience an unusual high number of erasures, Prioritized LT codes can still reliably recover both high- and low-priority data. This hybrid approach decides not only "how to encode" but also "what to encode" to achieve UEP. Another advantage of the priority encoding process is that the majority of high-priority data can be decoded sooner since only a small number of code symbols are required to reconstruct high-priority data. This approach increases the likelihood that high-priority data is decoded first over low-priority data. The Prioritized LT code scheme achieves an improvement in high-priority data decoding performance as well as overall information recovery without penalizing the decoding of low-priority data, assuming high-priority data is no more than half of a message block. The cost is in the additional complexity required in the encoder. If extra computation resource is available at the transmitter, image, voice, and video transmission quality in terrestrial and space communications can benefit from accurate use of redundancy in protecting data with varying priorities.
This publication presents a thermophysical property survey on materials that could potentially be used for future spacecraft thermal protection systems (TPS). This includes data that was reported in the 1960's as well as more current information reported through the 1980's. An attempt was made to cite the manufacturers as well as the data source in the bibliography. This volume represents an attempt to provide in a single source a complete set of thermophysical data on a large variety of materials used in spacecraft TPS analysis. The property data is divided into two categories: ablative and reusable. The ablative materials have been compiled into twelve categories that are descriptive of the material composition. An attempt was made to define the Arrhenius equation for each material although this data may not be available for some materials. In a similar manner, char data may not be available for some of the ablative materials. The reusable materials have been divided into three basic categories: thermal protection materials (such as insulators), adhesives, and structural materials.
This paper introduces an end-to-end microgrid protection framework that offers real-time system monitoring, fault-related decision making, and circuit breaker control. This is achieved through the design of distributed data-driven techniques based on the support vector machine method, where each relay is responsible for distributed data collection, fault detection, fault localization, and fault isolation. Local communication is established among neighboring relays, fostering cooperative fault localization and isolation. This decentralized design not only reduces the computational and communication requirements but also enables the adaptability of each relay under varying operational dynamics. The proposed end-to-end protection framework was validated using MATLAB/Simulink simulations on a 100% renewable microgrid, achieving an accuracy of 93.1% with response time of 0.0523 s, in protecting against a range of fault scenarios that are characterized by various types, locations, impedances, load conditions, photovoltaic power levels, and microgrid operating modes.
Over the past decade, given the higher number of data sources (e.g., Cloud applications, Internet of things) and critical business demands, Big Data transitioned from batch-oriented to real-time analytics. Stream storage systems, such as Apache Kafka, are well known for their increasing role in real-time Big Data analytics. For scalable stream data ingestion and processing, they logically split a data stream topic into multiple partitions. Stream storage systems keep multiple data stream copies to protect against data loss while implementing a stream partition as a replicated log. This architectural choice enables simplified development while trading cluster size with performance and the number of streams optimally managed. This paper introduces a shared virtual log-structured storage approach for improving the cluster throughput when multiple producers and consumers write and consume in parallel data streams. Stream partitions are associated with shared replicated virtual logs transparently to the user, effectively separating the implementation of stream partitioning (and data ordering) from data replication (and durability). We implement the virtual log technique in the KerA stream storage system. When comparing with Apache Kafka, KerA improves the cluster ingestion throughput by up to 4x when multiple producers write over hundreds of data streams.
This paper focuses on the policy and definitional issues associated with providing adequate and reasonable levels of protection for sensitive systems and data in an agency whose basic charter mandates the open sharing of information and transfer of technology into the market economy. An information model based on current Federal regulatory issuances is presented. A scheme for determining sensitivity levels, based on a categorization taxonomy,is provided.
This presentation highlights the overall objectives of the SETO funded protection project. The main technical approaches are also highlighted. This high impact project produces multiple innovative outcomes, including comprehensive impact study of how IBR affects protection elements, simplified low-order IBR model for protection engineers, enhanced and data-driven protection design, co-design concept for coordination protection and IBRs.
When there is a fault, the protection system automatically removes one or more transmission lines on a fast time scale of less than one minute. The outaged lines form a pattern in the transmission network. We extract these patterns from utility outage data, determine some key statistics of these patterns, and then show how to generate new patterns consistent with these statistics. The generated patterns provide a new and easily feasible way to model the overall effect of the protection system at the scale of a large transmission system. This new data-driven generative modeling of protection is expected to contribute to simulations of disturbances in large grids so that they can better quantify the risk of blackouts. Analysis of the pattern sizes suggests an index that describes how much outages spread in the transmission network at the fast timescale.
Photographic meteor data - significance in design of meteoroid protection for large space vehicles
The highly competitive marketplace and increasing cost of energy has motivated manufacturers of general aviation aircraft to utilize composite materials and metal-to-metal bonding in place of conventional fasteners and rivets to reduce weight, obtain smoother outside surfaces and reduce drag. The purpose of this program is protection of these new structures from hazardous lightning effects. The program began with a survey of advance-technology materials and fabrication methods under consideration for future designs. Sub-element specimens were subjected to simulated lightning voltages and currents. Measurements of bond line voltages, electrical sparking, and mechanical strength degradation were made to comprise a data base of electrical properties for new technology materials and basic structural configurations. The second hase of the program involved tests on full scale wing structures which contained integral fuel tanks and which were representative of examples of new technology structures and fuel systems. The purpose of these tests was to provide a comparison between full scale structural measurements and those obtained from the sub-element specimens.
Microgrid deployments increasingly favor the potential to form networks for greater benefits to resilience, reliability, and energy sovereignty. Both independent and networked micro-grids predominantly have a single-entity-ownership and control, where the associations from ownership to data requirements to control functions to microgrid objectives is linear. The emerging model, however, is cyclical, with bidirectional causal impacts between each of the 4 pillars: there are more complex mixed ownership models across the physical, electrical, data, communications, protection, and control boundaries that impact the data requirements for meeting control functions that help realize the use-cases or objectives. This paper is the first to delineate the pillars for effective ownership and controllability of both independent as well as networked microgrids through the cyclical model, and present barriers to the adoption of such a model.
This paper examines national and tribal collaborative opportunities to get ahead of the critical infrastructure insecurity problem. Recommendations are viewed through the lens of the Sandia Labs Tribal Cyber-Energy initiative and national security projects. Recommendations include 1) Collaboratively address national priority and shared challenges to gain faster and better solutions to national priority problems on a smaller yet comprehensive American Indian and Alaskan Native sovereign single-point of authority scale 2) Utilize newer standards-based technologies to provide scalable, capable, and manageable solutions for greatly expanded and connected national critical infrastructures 3) Employ Cyber-Physical-Resilient design preliminary analysis to define concept- to-disposition design requirements for preemptive critical infrastructure risk mitigation and baked-in security; 4) Develop data-centric protection to provide increased information asset protection as data shifts from data-owner operated on-premises infrastructure to virtual service provider data-steward owned and operated off-premises infrastructure; and 5) Balance shared solutions with the National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity and Risk Management frameworks, and the System Security Engineering Guidelines. As yet unallocated federal funding would support research, development, the timely application of National-Tribal critical infrastructure protection, and critical infrastructure Cyber disruption response and recovery with extraordinary mutual benefits for the foreseeable future. The Critical Infrastructure Insecurity Problem: Rapid modernization and expansive connectivity are due to advances in Information and Communications Technologies that have sweeping cyber impact across all critical infrastructure sectors. Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition and Industrial Control Systems are particularly impacted as systems long separated from the Internet are now being connected and computerized. Virtualization and mobility create a Data Everywhere-User Anywhere paradigm that has evaporated the enterprise network perimeter. There are multi-front technological challenges at play, where long depended on technologies simply don't scale to current needs resulting in a digital dichotomy of competing old and new standards. New standards-based technologies scale but are not as well-known or as widely deployed, which leaves decision makers, stakeholders, and the workforce in a quandary, caught mid-stream between the technological past and the virtual future. Rapid and expansive cyber threat accompanies disruptive change in connectivity and computational dependencies. A lack of action will exacerbate the problem if new technologies roll out without baked-in security design. The Risk: If National-Tribal CIP collaboration to design in security is not done, then an ongoing state of insufficient bolt-on security and elevated threat exposure will remain for years to come.
An interlaboratory effort has developed a probabilistic framework to characterize uncertainty in data products that are developed by the US Department of Energy Consequence Management Program in support of the Federal Radiological Monitoring and Assessment Center. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the probability distributions of input variables and the statistical methods used to propagate and quantify the overall uncertainty of the derived response levels that are used as contours on data products due to the uncertainty in input parameters. Uncertainty analysis results are also presented for several study scenarios. This paper includes an example data product to illustrate the potential real-world implications of incorporating uncertainty analysis results into data products that inform protective action decisions. Data product contours that indicate areas where public protection actions may be warranted can be customized to an acceptable level of uncertainty. Finally, the investigators seek feedback from decision makers and the radiological emergency response community to determine how uncertainty information can be used to support the protective action decision-making process and how it can be presented on data products.
This paper presents an integrated technical framework to protect pipelines against both malicious intrusions and piping degradation using a distributed fiber sensing technology and artificial intelligence. A distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) system based on phase-sensitive optical time-domain reflectometry (φ-OTDR) was used to detect acoustic wave propagation and scattering along pipeline structures consisting of straight piping and sharp bend elbow. Signal to noise ratio of the DAS system was enhanced by femtosecond induced artificial Rayleigh scattering centers. Data harnessed by the DAS system were analyzed by neural network-based machine learning algorithms. The system identified with over 85% accuracy in various external impact events, and over 94% accuracy for defect identification through supervised learning and 71% accuracy through unsupervised learning.
Advanced Flexible Reusable Surface Insulation (AFRSI) was developed as a replacement for the low-temperature (white) tiles on the Space Shuttle. The first use of the AFRSI for an Orbiter flight was on the OMS POD of Orbiter (OV-099) for STS-6. Post flight examination after STS-6 showed that damage had occurred to the AFRSI during flight. The failure anomaly between previous wind-tunnel tests and STS-6 prompted a series of additional wind tunnel tests to gain an insight as to the cause of the failure. An assessment of all the past STS-6 wind tunnel tests pointed out the sensitivity of the test results to scaling of dynamic loads due to the difference of boundary layer thickness, and the material properties as a result of exposure to heating. The thread component of the AFRSI was exposed to fatigue testing using an apparatus that applied pulsating aerodynamic loads on the threads similar to the loads caused by an oscillating shock. Comparison of the mean values of the number-of-cycles to failure showed that the history of the thread was the major factor in its performance. The thread and the wind tunnel data suggests a mechanism of failure for the AFRSI.
Traditional transmission line protection relies on predictable synchronous-based fault signatures, which frequently fail under the non-standard, current-limited fault characteristics of Inverter-Based Resources (IBRs). This study investigates how to achieve secure, communication-free fault isolation in IBR-dominated weak grids without relying on opaque, computationally heavy "black-box" machine learning algorithms. To address this, we propose a novel, standalone, and inherently interpretable data-driven protection framework. Unlike centralized methods requiring multi-terminal communication, this decentralized approach relies solely on local measurements using a hierarchical linear-kernel Support Vector Machine (SVM). The methodology decomposes the protection task into four sequential stages that mimic traditional protection elements: fault detection and fault direction identification, fault type classification, zone classification, and location estimation. This multi-stage architecture allows for specialized feature engineering at each stage, combining high computational efficiency with logic traceability. The framework's end-to-end performance was validated via C-code and PSCAD/EMTDC co-simulation, utilizing a real-world utility network and an OEM black-box IBR model. The proposed relay achieves 97.2% overall accuracy and provides a reliable trip decision within a 2.5-cycle window. The results confirm 100% accuracy in fundamental fault detection, reliable zone selectivity across low to moderate fault resistances, and robust security against non-fault transients, proving its immediate viability for integration into commercial numerical relays.