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At least 1,297 records · Page 72

Making the Grid "Smart" Through "Smart" Microgrids: Real-Time Power Management of Microgrids with Multiple Distributed Generation Sources Using Intelligent Control

In this Project we collaborated with two DOE National Laboratories, Pacific Northwest National Lab (PNNL) and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBL). Dr. Hammerstrom of PNNL initially supported our project and was on the graduate committee of one of the Ph.D. students (graduated in 2014) who was supported by this project. He is also a committee member of a current graduate student of the PI who was supported by this project in the last two years (August 2014-July 2016). The graduate student is now supported be the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department at Montana State University (MSU). Dr. Chris Marney of LBL provided actual load data, and the software WEBOPT developed at LBL for microgrid (MG) design for our project. NEC-Labs America, a private industry, also supported our project, providing expert support and modest financial support. We also used the software “HOMER,” originally developed at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the most recent version made available to us by HOMER Energy, Inc., for MG (hybrid energy system) unit sizing. We compared the findings from WebOpt and HOMER and designed appropriately sized hybrid systems for our case studies. The objective of the project was to investigate real-time power management strategies for MGs using intelligent control, considering maximum feasible energy sustainability, reliability and efficiency while, minimizing cost and undesired environmental impact (emissions). Through analytic and simulation studies, we evaluated the suitability of several heuristic and artificial-intelligence (AI)-based optimization techniques that had potential for real-time MG power management, including genetic algorithms (GA), ant colony optimization (ACO), particle swarm optimization (PSO), and multi-agent systems (MAS), which is based on the negotiation of smart software-based agents. We found that PSO and MAS, in particular, distributed MAS, were more efficient and better suited for our work. We investigated the following: • Intelligent load control - demand response (DR) - for frequency stabilization in islanded MGs (partially supported by PNNL). • The impact of high penetration of solar photovoltaic (PV)-generated power at the distribution level (partially supported by PNNL). • The application of AI approaches to renewable (wind, PV) power forecasting (proposed by the reviewers of our proposal). • Application of AI approaches and DR for real-time MG power management (partially supported by NEC Labs-America) • Application of DR in dealing with the variability of wind power • Real-time MG power management using DR and storage (partially supported by NEC Labs-America) • Application of DR in enhancing the performance of load-frequency controller • MAS-based whole-sale and retail power market design for smart grid A

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Community Earth System Model (CESM) Tutorial 2016 Final Report

For the 2016 tutorial, NCAR/CGD requested a total budget of $70,000 split equally between DOE and NSF. The funds were used to support student participation (travel, lodging, per diem, etc.). Lectures and practical session support was primarily provided by local participants at no additional cost (see list below). The seventh annual Community Earth System Model (CESM) tutorial (2016) for students and early career scientists was held 8 – 12 August 2016. As has been the case over the last few years, this event was extremely successful and there was greater demand than could be met. There was continued interest in support of the NSF’s EaSM Infrastructure awards, to train these awardees in the application of the CESM. Based on suggestions from previous tutorial participants, the 2016 tutorial experience again provided direct connection to Yellowstone for each individual participant (rather than pairs), and used the NCAR Mesa Library. The 2016 tutorial included lectures on simulating the climate system and practical sessions on running CESM, modifying components, and analyzing data. These were targeted to the graduate student level. In addition, specific talks (“Application” talks) were introduced this year to provide participants with some in-depth knowledge of some specific aspects of CESM.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Comprehensive Study of the Model Mercury-Based Cuprate Superconductors

This is the Final Report on DE-SC0006858, which opened 15 August 2011 and closed 14 August 2017. The Principal Investigator is Martin Greven, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 555455 (email: greven@umn.edu). The Administrative Point of Contact is Patricia Jondahl, phone: 612-624-5599, email: awards@umn.edu. The DOE Program is the Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Program manager is Dr. P. Thiyagarajan, Neutron Scattering SC-22.2/ Germantown Bldg. (email: Thiyagarajan@science.doe.gov). The chief activity was the crystal growth, characterization, neutron and X-ray scattering study of the mercury-based cuprates, arguably the most desirable high-Tc superconductors for experimental study due to their record values of Tc and their relatively simple crystal structures. It is thought that the unusual magnetic and charge degrees of freedom of the copper-oxygen sheets that form the fundamental building block of all cuprate superconductors give rise to the high Tc and to many other unusual properties exhibited by the class of quantum materials. Neutron scattering experiments were performed to reveal the nature of the magnetic degrees of freedom of the copper-oxygen sheets, whereas X-ray scattering experiments and complementary charge-transport experiments were performed to reveal the nature of the charge degrees of freedom. In addition, collaborations were initiated with experts in the use of complementary experimental techniques. The primary products are (i) scientific articles published in peer-reviewed scientific journals, (ii) scientific presentations at national and international conferences, and (iii) education of postdoctoral researchers, PhD graduate students and undergraduate researchers by providing a research experience in crystal growth, characterization and scattering. Twenty scientific papers were published in peer-reviewed journals, thirty-one invited talks were presented at national or international conferences, or as colloquia or seminars, and three postdoctoral researchers, six PhD graduate students and nine undergraduate researchers were supported wholly or in part in the pursuit of the scientific topics of this award. This report summarizes the activity and productivity, lists highlights, publications and conference presentations, postdocs, students and collaborators. A balance of zero remained at the close of the grant.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Technical Advisor to the American Indian Research and Education Initiatives (AIREI).

The American Indian Research & Education Initiative (AIREI) is a pilot program that started in 2011 and is funded by the US Department of Energy (DOE) Economic Impact & Diversity and National Nuclear Security Administration in partnership with the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC) and the American Indian Science and Engineering Society. AIREI brings science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) research and education funding to Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCU) and other US universities. AIREI has funded eight schools, including four pairs of tribal colleges and mainstream universities, in order for student and faculty research teams to bring energy projects to tribal lands. The research team from Southwest Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI) and Northern Arizona University (NAU) has performed a student-centric research and analysis feasibility study of a potential utility-scale solar power plant on the Jemez Pueblo reservation trust land. The research team from Navajo Technical University (NTU) and Arizona State University (ASU) has assessed the effectiveness of solar photovoltaic (PV) system designs in meeting the electricity demands of Navajo Tribal homes and public buildings in addition to the development of a solar technology curriculum that incorporates the outcomes of this study, helping to advance PV system design and installations on local Tribal lands. The Little Big Horn College (LBHC) and Montana State University-Bozeman (MSUB) team has developed fast growing strains of nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria to help advance carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technologies. The research supported the Crow Nation reservation as it evaluates opportunities for coal-to-liquid fuel and CCS projects. The Sinte Gleska University (SGU) and South Dakota School of Mines (SDSM) team developed computer modeling and simulation technologies to evaluate the feasibility of oil and gas development from the Niobrara Formation on the Rosebud Sioux reservation. Through this project, the students developed skills in applied energy-related research involving computer simulation, chemistry, geology, and petroleum engineering. AIREI supports collaboration between these universities and connects the teams with the technological expertise and mentorship opportunities provided through Sandia National Laboratories (Sandia). AIHEC consists of 37 American Indian tribally controlled colleges around the nation and provides technical assistance through professional development workshops, strategic planning meetings, and information sharing strategies.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

Final Scientific/Technical Report- Searches for New Phenomena Beyond the Standard Model and Hunt for New Physics at the Large Hadron Collider

DOE award DE-SC0007863 supports theoretical research in high energy physics. PI and students are NOT a part of any experimental collaboration, even if some works were done in collaboration with experimental colleagues. All research products are in the form of research articles and they are publicly available under inspirehep.net and arxiv.org, which are typical publication methods in high energy physics. No invention or patent is involved with this research. No equipment or hardware is involved with the research under this award (beside a laptop purchased with PI's startup). Some of research outcome is in the form of a computer code, which is available in https://launchpad.net/maddm. This is community effort and anyone has access to the program. Its source is open and anyone can participate in the development. Research outcomes and the code are used by colleagues in high energy physics, including both theorists and experimentalists. Therefore the outcome of research topics under this award supported the High Energy Physics experimental research program, both in understanding the data and in finding new directions for experimental exploration. The research materials are used to train undergraduate students, graduate students and postdoctoral scholars. We summarize research activity under this award in the following section and major products are listed in section 3. Section 4 contains professional presentations given by PI. Other products developed during the award period are in section 5. Summary of expenses, and student/postdoc support are summarized in section 6 and 7, respectively.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Nuclear Packaging Internship Final Report

The goal of this internship is for the student to become proficient in modeling the stress and deformation of mechanical structures in the ABAQUS FEA software. The research specifically performed by the student during the internship concerns measuring the crush strength of honeycomb stainless steel through FEA modeling. The student is working in the nuclear packaging department at the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL). The nuclear packaging department is developing a new package, dubbed 9982, which is a new Type B shipping package being proposed by the DOE Environmental Management program for the safe shipment of small quantities of nuclear materials (e.g. fissile contents). It is being proposed to implement honeycomb stainless steel as an energy absorber in the design for the new Type B nuclear shipping package. However, to properly implement this material, more data must be collected concerning the crush strength of different honeycomb stainless steel structures. The research makes measuring the crush strength of different honeycomb stainless steels through analytical means a viable option. This saves time and money as opposed to performing real drop tests and can verify the material’s performance as an impact energy absorber.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Computational Bayesian Framework for Quantification and Reduction of Predictive Uncertainty in Subsurface Environmental Modeling

Subsurface environmental systems are open and complex, in which intricate hydrologic, microbiologic, and geochemical processes occur and interact at multiple scales. Understanding and predicting system responses to natural forces (e.g., climate changes) and human activities (e.g., contaminant remediation and CO 2 sequestration) is indispensable for managing water resources, cleaning subsurface contamination at many sites of the Department of Energy (DOE), and providing expert analysis to inform policy-making on long-term stewardship of nuclear waste disposal and CO 2 storage sites. Groundwater reactive transport modeling is necessary for understanding and predicting the complex subsurface environmental system. However, as complex systems are never completely predictable, model predictions of the subsurface system are inherently uncertain, and uncertainty is one of the greatest obstacles in simulating the subsurface environment. Quantifying predictive uncertainty of the complex system is critical to test model predictive power, support decision-making, and guide experimental design and data collection for uncertainty reduction. This project tackled two major obstacles to efficient and effective quantification and reduction of predictive uncertainty in simulating the complex subsurface environment. One obstacle is that existing methods of uncertainty quantification are too fragmented and incomplete for understanding and predicting the complex subsurface environment as a whole. The other obstacle is that existing methods of uncertainty quantification are computationally demanding and may not be applicable to groundwater reactive transport modeling that is always computationally expensive. The above two obstacles to uncertainty quantification directly affect the design of data collection schemes for uncertainty reduction. In this project, we developed a comprehensive Bayesian framework to remove the first obstacle. The second obstacle was tackled by using the sparse grid methods, which were originally developed and analyzed for numerical integration in the field of applied mathematics. We integrated the sparse grid methods into the Bayesian framework seamlessly, which led to a sparse-grid-based method of Bayesian uncertainty analysis. The developed computational Bayesian framework has been applied to a number of subsurface environmental problems through collaborating with scientists at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The applications demonstrated that the computational Bayesian framework is general and compatible with any models and numerical codes of subsurface modeling. It is thus can be applied to gain insights for subsurface environmental modeling. This project helped the PI achieve his career goal to advance the state-of-the-art computational methods in uncertainty quantification for subsurface environmental modeling. This project supported two doctoral students, two master students, and one post-doc. The two doctoral students, after their graduation, worked as post-docs at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The project produced a total of 29 journal articles (four under review), one book chapter, and a number of conference proceedings and abstracts.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

2019 Theoretical Division Lightning Talk Series

All members of the Theoretical (T) Division Community, students, staff members, group leaders, division management and other interested individuals are invited to come and support the following student(s) during their Lightning Talk presentation. The Lightning Talk Series is a forum for T Division students to present information about their current projects.

2019 Theoretical Division Lightning Talk Series↗

Scientific and Historic Impacts from the Manhattan Project [Slides]

The Manhattan Project (MP) was the international project that led to production of the first nuclear weapons. It opened up a new chapter in human history that we now call the atomic age. The MP is an example of living history where multiple generations continue to learn and evaluate the full magnitude of its history, science, technology, and deterrence and security implications throughout time. The idea to have a student symposium about the MP grew out of conversations with colleagues and students. The prevailing opinion was indeed that there is a growing interest in history, science, politics, and security implications of the MP. We thought it would be useful to keep the direct dialog and discussion going to allow younger generations the chance to formulate their own opinion. The scope of the symposium is large, covers multiple topics, and is impossible to cover in detail in one day. We are trying to embrace a very wide spectrum of questions. The world around us is evolving and it is important to present, as completely as possible, an arc of facts about the MP and what followed. Hence, we have presentations covering the MP and broad issues of the nuclear age from the initial stages of the MP in 1942 to modern day. I believe it is important to have a forum that enables better appreciation and understanding of the MP among younger generations. Our hope is that this symposium will strengthen the ongoing dialog and create an open student forum to hear and learn about the MP.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

Homoclinic tangles in the DIII-D divertor tokamak

A new approach was developed for the calculation of homoclinic tangles of the primary unperturbed separatrix in divertor tokamaks. This new approach is different than calculating tangles by following single trajectories in phase space [M. V. Berry, Topics in Nonlinear Dynamics (Ed. S. Jorna), Am. Inst. Phys. Conf. Proc. 46, 16-120 (1978)] or calculating the trajectories asymptotically in canonical time [R. K. W. Roeder, B. I. Rapoport, and T. E. Evans, Phys. Plasmas 10, 3796 (2003)]. The approach is to consider an equilibrium manifold as a whole and to calculate how the entire manifold evolves in phase space in time under the influence of perturbations. When the forward moving and the backward moving manifolds meet in a poloidal plane and intersect, they form tangles to preserve the topological invariance of the Hamiltonian system. This approach was applied to the DIII-D tokamak. The low mn, the high mn, the peeling-ballooning modes, and topological noise and field error perturbations were considered. The results of the peeling-ballooning modes were analyzed. It was found that the perturbations create very complicated structures in phase space [A. Punjabi and A. Boozer, Phys. Lett A 378, 2410-2416 (2014); A. Punjabi, Phys. Plasmas 21, 122516 (2014)]. The structure of tangles gives a possible cause for generation of radial electric fields in divertor tokamaks, and the possible consequent drifts, currents, shears, and curvature effects from the resulting complicated electric fields can possibly indicate a path to L to H mode transition [F. Wagner F et al, Phys. Rev. Lett. 49, 1408 (1982)] in divertor tokamaks. During the present period, four (4) refereed paper were published; six (6) contributed papers were presented at the EPS Conference on Plasma Physics and published in the EPS conference proceedings; six (6) contributed poster papers, co-authored with HU undergraduate students, were presented at APS/DPP Annual Meetings; three contributed papers were presented at HU School of Science Annual Research Symposia; four (4) invited talks were given; one talk, co-authored by Dr. Allen Boozer and the PI, was given by Dr. Boozer at the 20th International Stellarator-Heliotron Workshop 2015, in Greifswald, Germany; and four (4) graduate students and nine (9) undergraduate students were mentored and provided research experience in fusion science. For the renewal period, it is planned to work on four (4) new problems. These are: Homoclinic tangles of the separatrices of the DIII-D and the simple map, magnetic topology and homoclinic tangles of separatrices in divertor tokamaks, resonant stellarator divertors, and nonresonant stellarator divertors.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

MST e-News October 2019

Don Brown (Materials Science in Radiation and Dynamics Extremes, MST-8) has received a 2019 Los Alamos Distinguished Mentor Award. Presented by the Student Programs Advisory Committee, the awards recognize outstanding performance by Lab mentors. Brown was nominated by his current student, Tom Stockman (Finishing Manufacturing Science, Sigma-2), with support from current and previous students, including Nathan Johnson, Nicholas Bachus, and Nicholas Ferreri, and former postdoctoral researchers Maria Strantza and Eloisa Zepeda-Alarcon (all MST-8).

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Improving the Success of Underrepresented Populations in Computer and Computational Science Research with the CRA-W Women and URMD Grad Cohort Workshops

The Computing Research Association’s Committee on Widening Participation (CRA-WP) aims to increase the number of individual researchers from underrepresented groups in computing (UGC) (including women, underrepresented minorities, and persons with disabilities) who participate and succeed in computer science research at every stage of the research pipeline. Achieving these objectives requires that an increasing number of individuals from UGC start and progress to the next stage. The CRA-WP Grad Cohort Workshops are focused at the graduate level to maximize the likelihood participants will successfully complete their graduate degrees. Factors such as role models, skills, competence, confidence, mentoring, social support, and development of identity as a researcher help students to persist in graduate school, while factors such as sexism, racism, and dissatisfaction with their graduate program may cause them to leave. We, therefore, help first, second, and third year students build their skills, research strategies, and confidence; meet potential mentors from outside their institutions; develop connections with each other and with their research communities; and inform them about strategies for successful publishing, speaking, and advisor management strategies. By targeting early graduate students, we seek to help them stay in graduate school and in research.

96 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND PRESERVATION↗

Clean Energy Trust Challenge

Over the past three years, Clean Energy Trust (CET) supported student education and early-stage entrepreneurship in the clean energy sector by managing and effectively executing the Cleantech University Prize (Cleantech UP) initiative. CET has a long track record running these competition-style events; CET built on its past successes with the National Clean Energy Business Plan Competition (NCEBPC) and the Clean Energy Trust Challenge (the Challenge) - CET's annual business plan competition and summit event - to excel during this initiative. CET's goals with this Cleantech UP program were to enhance student engagement and participation across colleges and universities in the Midwest region. This broad objective was outlined by increasing the number of applicants, the number and geographic footprint of universities and colleges actively engaged and, most importantly, the trajectory for the student businesses that participate in our programs.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

Joint Conference Support (ISPP and ICMP)

Funds are requested to support the attendance of junior scientists at two international conferences: the International Symposium on Phototrophic Prokaryotes (ISPP) and the International Conference on Microbial Photosynthesis (ICMP). Both will be held on the campus of the University of British Colombia in Vancouver in August of 2018. The primary goal of the ISPP is to provide a forum for students and senior investigators to gather in an informal setting to share new scientific findings on all aspects of bacterial phototrophs (both anoxygenic and oxygenic). The ICMP will appeal to those working on photosynthetic processes in these organisms as well as in eukaryotic phototrophs for other reasons (e.g. as major producers in the oceans, as models for marine phytoplankton, as biofuel-producing systems, etc.). The ICMP was designed to follow the ISPP such that students and postdocs could attend two conferences for the travel costs of one. The funds will be used to defray the registration costs of graduate student and postdoctoral attendees to make it even more affordable for junior scientists.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

American Chemical Society's summer school in nuclear and radiochemistry. Final report

The ACS Summer Schools in Nuclear and Radiochemistry (herein called “Summer Schools”) were held each year at San Jose State University (SJSU) and Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). The Summer Schools are an intensive, six-week program that includes both a lecture component covering fundamental principles of nuclear chemistry and radiochemistry and a laboratory component providing hands-on experience for the students to observe and test many of the basic principles that they learn about in lecture and in the special seminars. Each site hosts 12 undergraduate students annually. Participants are selected from a nation-wide pool of applicants who are currently enrolled as undergraduates seeking bachelors’ degrees, preferably in disciplines of physical sciences or engineering. To broaden the students’ perspectives on nuclear science, prominent research scientists active in nuclear and/or radiochemical research participate in a Guest Lecture Series. Symposia emphasizing nuclear security, nuclear medicine, and career opportunities are conducted as a part of the program.

07 ISOTOPE AND RADIATION SOURCES↗

New Physics in the Hot Electron Furnace (Final Report)

The primary purpose of this award was experiments and simulations related to the idea of a ‘Hot Electron Furnace’ where nonlocal heat transport would allow unique new experimental opportunities at x-ray free electron lasers. The period of this award included beamtime at the MEC endstation of the LCLS, and the execution of those experiments was a primary goal. Unfortunately, the beamtime had limited success due to (1) inability of the LCLS to deliver the expected two-color operations mode, and (2) failure of the MEC endstation’s own software to save the cavity timing data that would have allowed inference of time delays for the few hours when two-color mode briefly operated. The beamtime was then switched to operate in single-color (one pulse) mode, and studies were performed of x-ray heating and probe, simultaneously. Two interesting manuscripts are finally near submission, having been delayed by student graduations, need for collaborator simulations of x-ray heating processes, and then COVID. I am hopeful that they will soon be submitted (especially the paper on x-ray heating of MgO) because one of the principal students involved has returned from industry to take a postdoc position at SLAC. Below, we first list all publications and other work products (including the two that are nearing submission) and then summarize several outcomes from this effort. During the term of this award three UW physics graduate students were at least partially supported, and all three received their Ph.D.’s with significant components of their supported work in the dissertation.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Load Deflection Data (LDDATA)

The current data set is load deflection data (Stress vs strain for compression stress and stress vs elongation for tension stress) from a material test. The goal of the test was to characterize this rubber-like material by looking at different variables: sample creation process, anisotropy, temperature, etc. The data will be used with the Texas A&M Online Research Experience for Undergraduates (O-REU) program. This program is joint with LANL. The student is not an official LANL student so they will not be able to access data and documents on the yellow. The load deflection data set is unclassified and will be sent to the student for analysis. Analysis will include curve fitting, scalar value analysis (stiffness, toughness, etc.) and analysis of variance to determine what variables statistically affect the response while correcting for covariates (temperature soak time and humidity). Data will be stored as Matlab structs and as HDF5 files. Same data, different formats.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Quantum Workforce Development at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

The students applying to LLNL that are interested in quantum computing are being brought up with a universal quantum algorithm experience. The candidates we see have played with Qiskit or the IBM experience, they understand spin dynamics, and a few of them have attended hackathons by Rigetti or another company. These students have all been exposed to universal quantum computing, but not quantum engineering, quantum hardware, or even descriptions of noise. This is in a large part due to the simplified interface in current commercial quantum systems. To broaden the applicant pool, we have begun collaborating with several institutions to train quantum scientists and engineers. We are using the LLNL whitebox approach to testbed access in order to give students a look under the hood of quantum computing operations because that is what we desire in research scientists.

42 ENGINEERING↗