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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.
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Tera Term is open-source telnet communications software, available from and other websites. This software provides a simple way to connect a computer to the Ethernet output of the SC-770 in a TSA radiation portal monitor (RPM). Streaming the data output can be useful for monitoring the status of an RPM, performing diagnostics, and recordkeeping.
The goal of this project was to study robust connectivity and flow patterns of complex multi-scale systems modeled as networks. Networks provide effective ways to study global, system level properties, as well as local, multi-scale interactions at a component level. Numerous applications from power systems, telecommunication, transportation, biology, social science, and other areas have benefited from novel network-based models and their analysis. Modeling and optimization techniques that employ appropriate measures of risk for identifying robust clusters and resilient network designs in networks subject to uncertain failures were investigated in this collaborative multi-university project. In many practical situations one has to deal with uncertainties associated with possible failures of network components, thereby affecting the overall efficiency and performance of the system (e.g., every node/connection has a probability of partial or complete failure). Some extreme examples include power grid component failures, airline hub failures due to weather, or freeway closures due to emergencies. These are also situations in which people, materials, or other resources need to be managed efficiently. Important practical examples include rerouting flow through power grids, adjusting flight plans, and identifying routes for emergency services and supplies, in the event network elements fail unexpectedly. Solutions that are robust under uncertainty, in addition to being economically efficient, are needed. This project has led to the development of novel models and methodologies that can tackle the optimization problems arising in such situations. A number of new concepts, which have not been previously applied in this setting, were investigated in the framework of the project. The results can potentially help decision-makers to better control and identify robust or risk-averse decisions in such situations. Formulations and optimal solutions of the considered problems need to capture uncertainty and risk using appropriate probabilistic, statistical and optimization concepts. The main difficulty arising in addressing these issues is the dramatic increase in the computational complexity of the resulting optimization problems. This project studied novel models and methodologies for risk-averse network optimization- specifically, network design, network flows and cluster detection problems under uncertainty. The approach taken was to incorporate a quantitative risk measure known as conditional value-at-risk that is widely used in financial applications. This approach presents a viable alternate modeling and optimization framework to chance-constrained optimization and mean-variance optimization, one that also facilitates the detection of risk-averse solutions.
In the first week of January 2014 Dagstuhl hosted a Perspectives Workshop on “Connecting Performance Analysis and Visualization to Advance Extreme Scale Computing”. The event brought together two previously separate communities – from Visualization and HPC Performance Analysis – to discuss a long term joined research agenda. The goal was to identify and address the challenges in using visual representations to understand and optimize the performance of extreme-scale applications running on today’s most powerful computing systems like climate modeling, combustion, material science or astro-physics simulations.
The projected trend in personal mobility is the use of range extended electric vehicles (EREVs) and plug in hybrids (PHEVs). Although batteries with high power density and compact high power electric machines provide appreciable 'all electric' range, there still exists the need for an onboard range extender. The use of connectivity information such as route, elevation/curvature, traffic etc. enables substantial real world improvement in system efficiency and fuel economy of EREVs and plug-in hybrids through efficient use of stored electrical energy.
The research conducted on this project aimed to improve our understanding of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation in the atmosphere, and how the properties of the SOA impact climate through its size, phase state, and optical properties. The goal of this project was to demonstrate that the use of molecular composition information to mechanistically connect source apportionment and climate properties can improve the physical basis for simulation of SOA formation and properties in climate models. The research involved developing and improving methods to provide online measurements of the molecular composition of SOA under atmospherically relevant conditions and to apply this technology to controlled simulation chamber experiments and field measurements. The science we have completed with the methodology will impact the simulation of aerosol particles in climate models.
As market penetration of plug-in electric vehicles (PEV) increases over time, the number of PEVs charging on the electric grid will also increase. As the number of PEVs increases, their ability to collectively impact the grid increases. The idea of a large body of PEVs connected to the grid presents an intriguing possibility. If utilities can control PEV charging, it is possible that PEVs could act as a distributed resource to provide grid services. The technology required to control charging is available for modern PEVs. However, a system for wide-spread implementation of controllable charging, including robust communication between vehicles and utilities, is not currently present. Therefore, the value of controllable charging must be assessed and weighed against the cost of building and operating such as system. In order to grasp the value of PEV charge control to the utility, the following must be understood: 1. The amount of controllable energy and power capacity available to the utility 2. The variability of the controllable capacity from day to day and as the number of PEVs in the market increases.
Interconnection equipment that connects distributed resources (DR) to an electrical power system (EPS) are expected to do so efficiently. Standardized test procedures are necessary to establish methods for verifying inverter performance that leads to comparable results. These test procedures are provided as a repeatable, independent means of measuring inverter performance regarding maximum continuous power rating, conversion efficiency, and tare loss characteristics.
The Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee’s subcommittee on non-fusion applications (FESAC NFA) is conducting a survey to obtain information from the fusion community about non-fusion work that has resulted from their DOE-funded fusion research. The subcommittee has requested that members of the community describe recent developments connected to the activities of the DOE Office of Fusion Energy Sciences. Two questions in particular were posed by the subcommittee. This document contains the authors’ responses to those questions.
This paper is intended to help inform future technology deployment opportunities for connected thermostats (CTs), based on investigation and review of the U.S. residential housing and CT markets, as well as existing, emerging, and future use cases for CT hardware and CT-generated data. The CT market has experienced tremendous growth over the last 5 years—both in terms of the number of units sold and the number of firms offering competing products—and can be characterized by its rapid pace of technological innovation. Despite many assuming CTs would become powerful tools for increasing comfort while saving energy, there remains a great deal of uncertainty about the actual energy and cost savings that are likely to be realized from deployment of CTs, particularly under different conditions.
Volume II of the Final Report for the DeepCwind Consortium National Research Program funded by US Department of Energy Award Number: DE-EE0003278.001 summarizes the design, construction, deployment, testing, numerical model validation, retrieval, and post-deployment inspection of the VolturnUS 1:8-scale floating wind turbine prototype deployed off Castine, Maine on June 2nd, 2013. The 1:8 scale VolturnUS design served as a de-risking exercise for a commercial multi-MW VolturnUS design. The American Bureau of Shipping Guide for Building and Classing Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Installations was used to design the prototype. The same analysis methods, design methods, construction techniques, deployment methods, mooring, and anchoring planned for full-scale were used. A commercial 20kW grid-connected turbine was used and was the first offshore wind turbine in the US.
This paper is intended to help inform future technology deployment opportunities for connected thermostats (CTs), based on investigation and review of the U.S. residential housing and CT markets, as well as existing, emerging, and future use cases for CT hardware and CT-generated data. The CT market has experienced tremendous growth over the last five years — both in terms of the number of units sold and the number of firms offering competing products — and can be characterized by its rapid pace of technological innovation. Despite many assuming CTs would become powerful tools for increasing comfort while saving energy, there remains a great deal of uncertainty about the actual energy and cost savings that are likely to be realized from deployment of CTs, particularly under different conditions.
Transmission substations are key assets in bulk electric power systems. The loss of a substation can remove many electrical transmission buses from the transmission network, resulting in power flow congestion and forcing generation redispatch or load shedding to avoid subsequent, potentially cascading, failures. In addition, load-serving transmission substations are source points of electrical power into lower voltage sub-transmission and distribution networks. The loss of these substations may directly result in outages of connected networks.
The Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee’s subcommittee on non-fusion applications (FESAC NFA) is conducting a survey to obtain information from the fusion community about non-fusion work that has resulted from their DOE funded fusion research. The subcommittee has requested that members of the community describe recent developments connected to the activities of the DOE Office of Fusion Energy Sciences. Two questions in particular were posed by the subcommittee. This document contains the authors’ responses to those questions.
This Report documents the connection between DOE INL LWRS HFE R&D activities and the technical content of NUREG-0711 Results Summary Reports. Since the current and most recent LWRS HFE activities are associated with modernization and modification of nuclear power electric generating stations, this Report will limit its scope to these topics. NUREG-0711 Results Summary Reports content is shared with US nuclear generating stations by INL HFE staff through HFE Technical Reports to identify potential HEDs with planned upgrades. With such information, utilities have confidence that their upgraded HMIs, operating procedures, conduct of operations, and training with the upgraded systems will ensure their continued safe control of the nuclear plant. The utilities use the HFE Technical Reports as basis documents in their licensing processes used to modify the plant (LAR or 10CFR50.59). For plant modifications, LWRS HFE R&D activities commence as early as an agreement is reached between the utility and the LWRS Program staff. The multiple interfaces usually result in the two organizations meeting at INL, at the utility’s site, and at the vendor’s facility. Since there generally is a shortage of utility based HFE experience, INL HFE staff supports the HFE related utility modernization & modification (obsolescence) activities whenever requested.
Batteries are designed to store electrical energy. The increasing variation in time value of energy has driven the use of batteries as controllable distributed energy resources (DER). This is enabled though low-cost power electronic inverters that are able to precisely control charge and discharge. This paper describes the software implementation of an open-source battery inverter fleet models in python. The Sandia BatterylnverterFleet class model can be used by scientists, researchers, and engineers to perform simulations of one or more fleets of similar battery-inverter systems connected to the grid. The program tracks the state- of-charge of the simulated batteries and ensures that they stay within their limits while responding to separately generated service requests to charge or discharge. This can be used to analyze control and coordination, placement and sizing, and many other problems associated with the integration of batteries on the power grid. The development of these models along with their python implementation was funded by the Grid Modernization Laboratory Consortium (GMLC) project 1.4.2. Definitions, Standards and Test Procedures for Grid Services from Devices.
This unit process quantifies the amount of gas emitted to the atmosphere during natural gas production from fugitive losses through connections. To access the model referenced in the report, please visit https://www.netl.doe.gov/energy-analysis/details?id=0D8C78B7-0340-49AD-AA23-E3989E7C477C
Pulse Connect Secure © (PCS) is a trusted platform for government agencies to provide secure access to web portals. As more and more accounts are being hacked and web sites are being compromised, single factor authentication with a username and password has become insufficient to adequately protect authenticated web portals. Multi-factor authentication (MFA), granting user access only when two or more independent pieces of information are presented, has become a necessary tool in the prevention of security breaches. This paper provides an overview of three MFA solutions that utilize the features of PCS. Categories include Personal Identity Verification (PIV) card authentication, service provider initiated (SP–initiated) Security Assertion Markup Language based (SAML–based) authentication, and identity provider initiated (IdP–initiated) SAML–based authentication.
To safely and reliably operate without a human driver, connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) require more advanced computing hardware and software solutions than are implemented today in vehicles that provide driver-assistance features. A workshop was held to discuss advanced microelectronics and computing approaches that can help meet future energy and computational requirements for CAVs. Workshop questions were posed as follows: will highly automated vehicles be viable with conventional computing approaches or will they require a step-change in computing; what are the energy requirements to support on-board sensing and computing; and what advanced computing approaches could reduce the energy requirements while meeting their computational requirements? At present, there is no clear convergence in the computing architecture for highly automated vehicles. However, workshop participants generally agreed that there is a need to improve the computing performance per watt by at least 10x to advance the degree of automation. Participants suggested that DOE and the national laboratories could play a near-term role by developing benchmarks for determining and comparing CAV computing performance, developing public data sets to support algorithm and software development, and contributing precompetitive advancements in energy efficient computing.