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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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At least 145 records · Page 8

Electric Vehicle Managed Charging: Estimating the Potential Bulk Power System Value

With more and more electric vehicles (EVs) on the road, the grid of the future can greatly benefit from EV managed charging, which coordinates charging based on people's travel needs, electricity supply, and grid conditions. The added flexibility could be especially valuable for the bulk power system as it transitions to high shares of variable renewable generation, like wind and solar. Numerous studies have estimated the potential value of EV managed charging. In this study, NREL leveraged more detailed modeling of EV adoption, use, charging, and bulk power system operations to understand the potential value. Unique to this study, NREL modeled different charging flexibility types and dispatch mechanisms - as well as participation rates among drivers in having their EV charging managed - starting from vehicle-specific descriptions of charging flexibility. The study is based on a passenger light-duty vehicle adoption scenario with 100% EV sales by 2035 and a New England power system in 2038 with 84% clean generation and 26% of the electric load met by net imports. The 2038 New England light-duty vehicle feet is modeled as 45% electric.

ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS,ENERGY PLANNING, POLIC↗

Entrainment Makes Pollution More Likely to Weaken Deep Convective Updrafts Than Invigorate Them

Are the results of aerosol invigoration studies that neglect entrainment valid for diluted deep convective clouds? We address this question by applying an entraining parcel model to soundings from tropical and midlatitude convective environments, wherein pollution is assumed to increase parcel condensate retention. Invigoration of 5%–10% and <2% is possible in undiluted tropical and midlatitude parcels respectively when freezing is rapid. This occurs because the positive buoyancy contribution from freezing is larger than the negative buoyancy contribution from condensate loading, leading to positive net condensate contribution to buoyancy. However, aerosol-induced weakening is more likely when realistic entrainment rates occur because water losses from entrainment more substantially reduce the latent heating relative to the loading contribution. This leads to larger net negative buoyancy contribution from condensates in polluted than in clean entraining parcels. Our results demonstrate that accounting for entrainment is critical in conceptual models of aerosol indirect effects in deep convection.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Torque Limits for Fasteners in Composites

The two major classes of laminate joints are bonded and bolted. Often the two classes are combined as bonded-bolted joints. Several characteristics of fiber reinforced composite materials render them more susceptible to joint problems than conventional metals. These characteristics include weakness in in-plane shear, transverse tension/compression, interlaminar shear, and bearing strength relative to the strength and stiffness in the fiber direction. Studies on bolted joints of composite materials have been focused on joining assembly subject to in-plane loads. Modes of failure under these loading conditions are net-tension failure, cleavage tension failure, shear-out failure, bearing failure, etc. Although the studies of torque load can be found in literature, they mainly discussed the effect of the torque load on in-plane strength. Existing methods for calculating torque limit for a mechanical fastener do not consider connecting members. The concern that a composite member could be crushed by a preload inspired the initiation of this study. The purpose is to develop a fundamental knowledge base on how to determine a torque limit when a composite member is taken into account. Two simplified analytical models were used: a stress failure analysis model based on maximum stress criterion, and a strain failure analysis model based on maximum strain criterion.

Yi Zhao↗

Load limiting energy absorbing lightweight debris catcher

In the representative embodiment of the invention disclosed, a load limiting, energy absorbing net is arranged to overlay a normally-covered vent opening in the rear bulkhead of the space orbiter vehicle. Spatially-disposed flexible retainer straps are extended from the net and respectively secured to bulkhead brackets spaced around the vent opening. The intermediate portions of the straps are doubled over and stitched together in a pattern enabling the doubled-over portions to progressively separate at a predicable load designed to be well below the tensile capability of the straps as the stitches are successively torn apart by the forces imposed on the retainer members whenever the cover plate is explosively separated from the bulkhead and propelled into the net. By arranging these stitches to be successively torn away at a load below the strap strength in response to forces acting on the retainers that are less than the combined strength of the retainers, this tearing action serves as a predictable compact energy absorber for safely halting the cover plate as the retainers are extended as the net is deployed. The invention further includes a block of an energy-absorbing material positioned in the net for receiving loose debris produced by the explosive release of the cover plate.

Kahn, Jon B.↗

Effectiveness of Residue and Tillage Management on Runoff Pollutant Reduction from Agricultural Areas

Highlights No-till and no-till residue systems were effective in reducing runoff particulate and total nutrients but increased dissolved nutrients. Maintaining >30% residue cover reduced most runoff constituents, irrespective of no-till or tillage. No-till-residue prevented runoff nutrient losses and benefitted farm revenue by avoiding tillage. Abstract. Reduced tillage management conservation practices (No-till and Reduced-till) are widely adopted in agriculture; however, understanding their overall effectiveness for water quality protection is challenging. A meta-analysis was conducted to understand and quantify the effectiveness of residue and tillage management on runoff, sediment, and nutrient losses from agricultural fields. Annual runoff and the associated sediment, and nutrient (nitrogen and phosphorus) loads were compiled from 60 peer reviewed research articles published across the United States and Canada. A total of 1575 site-years of data were categorized into tillage (<30% surface cover), no-tillage (<30% surface cover), tillage with residue (>30% surface cover), no-tillage with residue (>30% surface cover), and pasture management. No-tillage, no-tillage-residue, and tillage-residue managements were evaluated for their effectiveness in reducing runoff, nutrients, and sediment loads compared to tillage. Synthesized and surveyed corn yield data were used to evaluate the economic cost effectiveness of no-tillage-residue management with respect to tillage. Across the site years (1968-2019) studied, median runoff depth for no-tillage and no-tillage-residue were 84% and 70% greater than tillage and tillage-residue management, respectively. No-tillage-residue management had up to 86% less sediment losses than tillage systems, on average, for both >30% and <30% surface cover. No-tillage-residue management was most effective, with a positive performance effectiveness of 65% to 90% in controlling sediments, particulate, and total nutrient losses in runoff compared to tillage. Cost effectiveness analysis revealed the benefits of no-tillage-residue management in reducing nutrient loads and increasing net-farm revenue by avoiding tillage operational costs. Except for dissolved phosphorus, no-tillage-residue management cost effectiveness for sediments and nutrient loads ranged from negative $6 to negative $102 per every Mg or kg of load reduction, indicating it had both economic and environmental benefits compared to tillage management. Overall, these results indicate that over the long-term, no-tillage and tillage, combined with greater than 30% residue cover, can effectively reduce sediment and nutrient losses. This work highlights the importance of crop residues on the soil surface to reduce runoff losses, even in no-tillage systems. Keywords: Conservation tillage, No-tillage, Residue cover, Tillage, Water quality.

Agriculture↗

IDAES Enterprise: Generation Expansion Planning with Enhanced Requirements for Capacity Adequacy Under Renewable Intermittency

Achieving net zero carbon emissions likely requires future power systems to integrate new, flexible energy technologies to accommodate higher levels of capacity from variable renewable energy sources. To determine the optimal deployment of new electricity capacity and to study the likelihood of deployments of new energy technologies, an expansion planning model has been developed as part of the IDAES-Enterprise suite of grid models. The Generation Expansion Planning (GEP) model is a multi-period model in which investment decisions occur yearly, and a Unit Commitment (UC) problem is examined on an hourly timescale. To reduce computational complexity of the GEP model, the UC problem is solved for average “representative days” which leaves out extreme, but relatively common, scenarios in which low renewable generation occurs, leaving the system with inadequacy in capacity. The IDAES-Enterprise GEP model has been modified to include these extreme scenarios while keeping the model reasonably tractable. Specifically, a lazy constraint technique was implemented to check for capacity adequacy on an hourly basis over a large data set of aligned load-wind-solar profiles. As a vast majority of the capacity constraints will not be violated, the technique lowers computational expense by searching for violated capacity constraints over an “iterative manner,” adding those infeasible constraints back into the model. Results on a test case of the Southwest Power Pool shows that the lazy constraint technique significantly reduces retirements and increases installments of natural gas combined cycles and flexible natural gas units. It also reduces some retirements of coal units. These modifications provide a more reasonable estimation of required dispatchable power generation capacity to ensure feasibility during peak net load.

Liu, Peng↗

Integrating Concentrating Solar Power Technologies into the Hybrid Optimization and Performance Platform (HOPP)

As the world increases renewable energy deployment, there is an increasing interest in hybridizing various generation and storage technologies to maximize net benefit to the developer and/or off-taker. A particularly interesting combination of renewable technologies is concentrating solar power (CSP) with thermal energy storage (TES), photovoltaics (PV), and electrochemical battery energy storage (BESS). Due to the system complexity of CSP technology, it is difficult to evaluate the technological and financial performance of a CSP-PV hybrid system without detailed modeling of annual operations. To address this challenge, we have developed a modeling framework for evaluating the performance and financial viability of CSP systems hybridized with PV and battery technologies. This modeling effort incorporates CSP tower and trough systems into an existing modeling tool recently developed by NREL referred to as the Hybrid Optimization and Performance Platform (HOPP). This report outlines the modeling methodology as well as preliminary results from example case studies conducted using the model. The methodology describes: (i) the integration of CSP tower and troughs into HOPP using python interfaces to access System Advisor Model (SAM) underlining technology models, (ii) the mathematical formulation of the mixed integer linear program dispatch optimization model which optimizes operations of storage asset to either maximize system revenue or minimize operating cost while load following, (iii) the design analysis methods implemented within HOPP, and (iv) simulation clustering for the purposes of reducing computational expense. We exercise the model using a case study of a future scenario where we assume (i) CSP and PV technologies achieve the 2030 cost targets provided by the Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO), (ii) battery costs reduce to the 2030 mid cost projection presented by NREL. Lastly, (iii) electricity prices for southern California in 2030 are provided by NREL's Cambium database, and (iv) a capacity payment of $150/kW-yr based on the system capacity factor during the to 100 net-load hours.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Electrodynamic Tethers. 1: Power Generator in LEO. 2: Thrust for Propulsion and Power Storage

An electrodynamic tether consists of a long insulated wire in space whose orbital motion cuts across lines of magnetic flux to produce an induce voltage that in typical low orbits averages about 200 v/km. Such a system should be capable of generating substantial electrical power, at the expense of IXB drag acting on its orbital energy. If a reverse current is driven against the induced voltage, the system should act as a motor producing IXB thrust. A reference system was designed, capable of generating 20 KW of power into an electrical load located anywhere along the wire at the expense of 2.6N (20,000 J/sec) drag on the wire. In an ideal system, the conversion between mechanical and electrical energy would reach 100% efficiency. In the actual system part of the 20 KW is lost to internal resistance of the wire, plasma and ionosphere, while the drag force is increased by residual air drag. The 20 KW PMG system as designed is estimated to provide 18.7 KW net power to the load at total drag loss of 20.4 KJ/sec, or an overall efficiency of 92%. Similar systems using heavier wire appear capable of producing power levels in excess of 1 Megawatt at voltages of 2-4 KV, with conversion efficiency between mechanical and electrical power better than 95%. The hollow cathode based system should be readily reversible from generator to motor operation by driving a reverse current using onboard power.

Mccoy, J. E.↗

LAF-Net: A Deep Residual and Cross-Attention Framework for Day-Ahead Load Forecasting: Preprint

Accurate day-ahead load forecasting is essential for reliable power system operations and market efficiency. System operators such as the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) rely on forecasts from multiple vendors, yet combining them effectively remains a persistent challenge due to vendor-specific biases. This paper presents a novel LSTM-Attention Fusion Network with Error Representation (LAF-Net) that enhances day-ahead hourly load forecasting through deep residual learning and multi-modal cross-attention. The proposed model builds a historical error memory from past vendor performance and dynamically queries it with future hour context to generate adaptive, hour-specific trust weights for each vendor. A bounded residual correction further refines forecasts by mitigating systematic and temporally localized errors. Tested on real MISO LBA data with multi-vendor forecasts, LAF-Net consistently outperforms the best vendor baseline across all 38 LBAs, achieving more than a 40% reduction in system-level mean absolute error (MAE) during peak load hours relative to the best vendor baseline.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

The Role of Regional Connections in Planning for Future Power System Operations Under Climate Extremes

Identifying the sensitivity of future power systems to climate extremes must consider the concurrent effects of changing climate and evolving power systems. We investigated the sensitivity of a Western U.S. power system to isolated and combined heat and drought when it has low (5%) and moderate (31%) variable renewable energy shares, representing historic and future systems. We used an electricity operational model combined with a model of historically extreme drought (for hydropower and freshwater-reliant thermoelectric generators) over the Western U.S. and a synthetic, regionally extreme heat event in Southern California (for thermoelectric generators and electricity load). We found that the drought has the highest impact on summertime production cost (+10% to +12%), while temperature-based deratings have minimal effect (at most +1%). The Southern California heat wave scenario impacting load increases summertime regional net imports to Southern California by 10-14%, while the drought decreases them by 6-12%. Combined heat and drought conditions have a moderate effect on imports to Southern California (-2%) in the historic system and a stronger effect (+8%) in the future system. Southern California dependence on other regions decreases in the summertime with the moderate increase in variable renewable energy (-34% imports), but hourly peak regional imports are maintained under those infrastructure changes. By combining synthetic and historically driven conditions to test two infrastructures, we consolidate the importance of considering compounded heat wave and drought in planning studies and suggest that region-to-region energy transfers during peak periods are key to optimal operations under climate extremes.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

The Use of MERRA-2 Near Surface Meteorology to Understand the Behavior of Planetary Boundary Layer Heights Derived from Wind Profiler Data over the US Great Plains

The atmospheric general circulation model (GCM) that underlies the MERRA-2 reanalysis includes a suite of physical parameterizations that describe the processes that occur in the planetary boundary layer (PBL). The data assimilation system assures that the atmospheric state variables used as input to these parameterizations are constrained to the best fit to all of the available observations. Many studies, however, have shown that the GCM-based estimates of MERRA-2 PBL heights are biased high, and so are not reliable for boundary layer studies.A 20-year record of PBL heights was derived from Wind Profiler (WP) backscatter data measured at a wide network of stations throughout the US Great Plains and has been validated against independent estimates. The behavior of these PBL heights shows geographical and temporal variations that are difficult to attribute to particular physical processes without additional information that are not part of the observational record.In the present study, we use information on physical processes from MERRA-2 to understand the behavior of the WP derived PBL heights. The behavior of the annual cycle of both MERRA-2 and WP PBL heights shows four classes of behavior: (i) canonical, characterized by a monthly progression in PBL height that follows the solar insolation, (ii) double peak, characterized by canonical behavior that is interrupted by a minimum in July, (iii) late peak, characterized by a suppressed heights in May and June, and return to canonical in July and August, and (iv) early peak where the PBL height rises with solar insolation but is suppressed later in the summer. The explanation for these behaviors and the relationship to local precipitation, temperature, sensible and latent heat fluxes, net radiation and aerosol load is articulated using information from MERRA-2.

Salmun, Haydee↗

Expandable Compartmental Storage

Storage cabinet equipped with racks to hold articles in net compartments. Elastic net expands to accommodate articles. Articles are visible and accessible, loaded in rack quickly and easily moved. Netted compartments in doors hold articles securely. Pockets on inside of rear doors offer convenient storage of small objects.

Thomas, Elray P.↗

Ducted Fuel Injection Provides Consistently Lower Soot Emissions in Sweep to Full-Load Conditions

Earlier studies have proven how ducted fuel injection (DFI) substantially reduces soot for low- and mid-load conditions in heavy-duty engines, without significant adverse effects on other emissions. Nevertheless, no comprehensive DFI study exists showing soot reductions at high- and full-load conditions. This study investigated DFI in a single-cylinder, 1.7-L, optical engine from low- to full-load conditions with a low-net-carbon fuel consisting of 80% renewable diesel and 20% biodiesel. Over the tested load range, DFI reduced engine-out soot by 38.1–63.1% compared to conventional diesel combustion (CDC). This soot reduction occurred without significant detrimental effects on other emission types. Thus, DFI reduced the severity of the soot–NO x tradeoff at all tested conditions. While DFI delivered considerable soot reductions in thepresent study, previous DFI studies at low- and mid-load conditions delivered larger soot reductions (>90%) compared to CDC operation at the same conditions. Therefore, the DFI configuration used here has been deemed nonoptimal (in terms of parameters such as the injector-spray and piston geometries), and several improvements are recommended for future studies with high-load DFI. Further, these improvements include employing better spray-duct alignment, a deeper piston bowl with a smaller injector umbrella angle, and a fuel injector that opens and closes faster. The study also suggests future research to make DFI ready for commercialization, such as metal-engine tests to ensure desirable DFI performance over an engine’s complete speed/load map. Overall, this study supports the continued development and commercialization of DFI to meet upcoming emissions regulations for heavy-duty vehicles. Specifically, multicylinder engine experiments and CFD simulations should be utilized to optimize the performance and clarify the full potential of DFI.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

Infinitely rugged intra-cage potential energy landscape in metallic glasses caused by many-body interaction

The absence of translational symmetry in glassy materials poses a significant challenge in establishing effective structure-property relationships in real space. Consequently, the potential energy landscape (PEL) in phase space is widely utilized to comprehend the complex phenomena in glasses. The classical PEL features a two-scale profile comprising mega-basins and sub-basins, corresponding to α-relaxations (e.g. glass transition) and β-relaxations (e.g. local cage-breaking atomic rearrangements), respectively. Recent studies, however, reveal that sub-basins are not smooth and contain finer structures, the origins of which remain elusive. Here we probe the smoothness of sub-basin bottoms in glasses' PEL by introducing small intra-cage cyclic loading and then measuring the net changes in atomic-level stresses. Compared to glasses with pair interaction, glasses with many-body interaction exhibit orders-of-magnitude larger and loading-dependent stress changes even before the first cage-breaking event takes place, which reflect much more feature-rich sub-basins. We further demonstrate this stark contrast stems from the spatial distribution of individual atom's constraining force field. Specifically, at vanishing perturbations, many-body interactions disrupt the positive-definite synchrony in energy variations of the perturbed atom and the whole system, causing inherently less confined atomic responses and infinitely rugged sub-basins. The implications of these findings for the selective addition or removal of fine structures in the PEL and the subsequent tuning of glassy materials' responses to external stimuli are also explored.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Heat Loss Characteristics and Energy Use of Piperazine with the Advanced Stripper (PZAS) at the UT-SRP Pilot Plant

Heat duty and heat loss were measured at the pilot plant at UT Austin. Heat loss was measured with energy balances using water. Heat loss was studied using surface temperature measurements over 68 different locations at the pilot plant. Surface temperature measurements indicated that bare metal surfaces were the primary source of heat loss from the pilot plant. Heat loss from bare metal surfaces was at least 50% controlled by natural convection and in many cases was as high as 75% natural convection controlled. Measured heat loss at the pilot plant was 20100 BTU/hr and overall heat loss did not show any dependence on the heat rate of the plant. Compared to PZAS™ at the National Carbon Capture Center, heat loss relative to heat rate was higher at 38%. The relative heat loss at the pilot plants was found to decrease by 20% per MW of added capacity. Measured net heat duty was found to be dependent on measured lean loading and cold rich bypass flow rate. Measured net heat duty was between 2.2 and 2.4 GJ/tonne at an optimum lean loading of 0.2–0.21 mol/mol. Data reconciliation by Aspen Plus® Data Fit™ underpredicted CO2 flow rate by 20% due to an overprediction of lean loading by 19%, indicating a necessary change in thermodynamic parameters in the model. This resulted in an over prediction of heat duty by 33% on average.

Amine scrubbing, stripper, energy requirement, hea↗

Pathways to commercial building plug and process load efficiency and control

Abstract To accomplish net-zero carbon emissions in the built environment by 2050, we must equitably decarbonize commercial buildings, including reducing plug and process loads (PPLs). PPLs are plug-in or hardwired electric and gas loads that are not associated with major building end uses like lighting and HVAC. Research shows PPL energy reduction strategies and control technologies have the potential to save energy. But even when implemented, these savings have rarely been achieved and there has not been widespread uptake in U.S. commercial buildings. We investigate why these technologies and strategies have not seen widespread adoption and identify behavior and technology pathways to increase PPL reduction in U.S. commercial buildings. We examined behaviors of commercial building stakeholders through 44 interviews and cross-referenced qualitative analysis findings with in-depth technical knowledge of existing PPL control technologies and reduction strategies. PPL control implementation must be paired with management strategies, such as occupant engagement and training, to achieve optimal savings, and best practices should be disseminated across the industry. We found that increasing access to cost and energy savings data will promote uptake of PPL control technologies and allow designers to better incorporate PPLs into building design. Improving access to funding for PPL energy efficiency projects and addressing the split-incentive problem will increase adoption of PPL efficiency and control. Code bodies should continue to include PPL monitoring and reduction measures in energy codes. Key building stakeholders, including cybersecurity and information technology teams, should be involved in PPL monitoring and reduction strategy processes for successful implementation.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Ducted fuel injection with Low-Net-Carbon fuels as a solution for meeting future emissions regulations

Several studies have proven how ducted fuel injection (DFI) reduces soot emissions for compression-ignition engines. Nevertheless, no comprehensive study has investigated how DFI performs over a load range in combination with low-net-carbon fuels. In this study, optical-engine experiments were performed with four different fuels—conventional diesel and three low-net-carbon fuels—at low and moderate load, to measure emissions levels and performance. The 1.7-liter single-cylinder optical engine was equipped with a high-speed camera to capture natural luminosity images of the combustion event. Conventional diesel and DFI combustion were investigated at four different dilution levels (to simulate exhaust-gas recirculation effects), from 14 to 21 mol% oxygen in the intake. At a given dilution level, with commercial diesel fuel, DFI reduced soot by 82% at medium load, and 75% at low load without increasing NO x . The results further show how DFI with dilution reduces soot and NO x without compromising engine performance or other emission types, especially when combined with low-net-carbon fuels. DFI with the oxygenated low-net-carbon blend HEA67 simultaneously reduced soot and NO x by as much as 93 % and 82 %, respectively, relative to conventional diesel combustion with commercial diesel fuel. These soot and NO x reductions occurred while lifecycle CO 2 was reduced by at least 70 % when using low-net-carbon fuels instead of conventional diesel. All emissions changes were compared with future emissions regulations for different vehicle sectors to investigate how DFI can be used to facilitate achievement of the regulations. Finally, the results show how the DFI cases fall below several future emissions regulation levels, rendering less need for aftertreatment systems and giving a possible lower cost of ownership.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

Io's Plasma Environment During the Galileo Flyby: Global Three-Dimensional MHD Modeling with Adaptive Mesh Refinement

The first results for applying a three-dimensional multimedia ideal MHD model for the mass-loaded flow of Jupiter's corotating magnetospheric plasma past Io are presented. The model is able to consider simultaneously physically realistic conditions for ion mass loading, ion-neutral drag, and intrinsic magnetic field in a full global calculation without imposing artificial dissipation. Io is modeled with an extended neutral atmosphere which loads the corotating plasma torus flow with mass, momentum, and energy. The governing equations are solved using adaptive mesh refinement on an unstructured Cartesian grid using an upwind scheme for AHMED. For the work described in this paper we explored a range of models without an intrinsic magnetic field for Io. We compare our results with particle and field measurements made during the December 7, 1995, flyby of to, as published by the Galileo Orbiter experiment teams. For two extreme cases of lower boundary conditions at Io, our model can quantitatively explain the variation of density along the spacecraft trajectory and can reproduce the general appearance of the variations of magnetic field and ion pressure and temperature. The net fresh ion mass-loading rates are in the range of approximately 300-650 kg/s, and equivalent charge exchange mass-loading rates are in the range approximately 540-1150 kg/s in the vicinity of Io.

Combi, M. R.↗