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NASA NTRS2005

Flexible Models for Solar Sail Control

Solar sails employ a unique form of propulsion, gaining momentum from incident and reflected photons. However, the momentum transferred by an individual photon is extremely small. Consequently, a solar sail must have an extremely large surface area and also be extremely light. The flexibility of the sail then must be considered when designing or evaluating control laws. In this paper, solar sail flexibility and its influence on control effectiveness is considered using idealized two-dimensional models to represent physical phenomena rather than a specific design. Differential equations of motion are derived for a distributed parameter model of a flexible solar sail idealized as a rotating central hub with two opposing flexible booms. This idealization is appropriate for solar sail designs in which the vibrational modes of the sail and supporting booms move together allowing the sail mass to be distributed along the booms in the idealized model. A reduced analytical model of the flexible response is considered. Linear feedback torque control is applied at the central hub. Two translational disturbances and a torque disturbance also act at the central hub representing the equivalent effect of deflecting sail shape about a reference line. Transient simulations explore different control designs and their effectiveness for controlling orientation, for reducing flexible motion and for disturbance rejection. A second model also is developed as a two-dimensional "pathfinder" model to calculate the effect of solar sail shape on the resultant thrust, in-plane force and torque at the hub. The analysis is then extended to larger models using the finite element method. The finite element modeling approach is verified by comparing results from a two-dimensional finite element model with those from the analytical model. The utility of the finite element modeling approach for this application is then illustrated through examples based on a full finite element model.

Weaver Smith, Suzanne↗

NASA NTRS2009

Flight Dynamics of Flexible Aircraft with Aeroelastic and Inertial Force Interactions

This paper presents an integrated flight dynamic modeling method for flexible aircraft that captures coupled physics effects due to inertial forces, aeroelasticity, and propulsive forces that are normally present in flight. The present approach formulates the coupled flight dynamics using a structural dynamic modeling method that describes the elasticity of a flexible, twisted, swept wing using an equivalent beam-rod model. The structural dynamic model allows for three types of wing elastic motion: flapwise bending, chordwise bending, and torsion. Inertial force coupling with the wing elasticity is formulated to account for aircraft acceleration. The structural deflections create an effective aeroelastic angle of attack that affects the rigid-body motion of flexible aircraft. The aeroelastic effect contributes to aerodynamic damping forces that can influence aerodynamic stability. For wing-mounted engines, wing flexibility can cause the propulsive forces and moments to couple with the wing elastic motion. The integrated flight dynamics for a flexible aircraft are formulated by including generalized coordinate variables associated with the aeroelastic-propulsive forces and moments in the standard state-space form for six degree-of-freedom flight dynamics. A computational structural model for a generic transport aircraft has been created. The eigenvalue analysis is performed to compute aeroelastic frequencies and aerodynamic damping. The results will be used to construct an integrated flight dynamic model of a flexible generic transport aircraft.

Nguyen, Nhan T.↗

NASA NTRS2011

Two-Arm Flexible Thermal Strap

Airborne and space infrared cameras require highly flexible direct cooling of mechanically-sensitive focal planes. A thermal electric cooler is often used together with a thermal strap as a means to transport the thermal energy removed from the infrared detector. While effective, traditional thermal straps are only truly flexible in one direction. In this scenario, a cooling solution must be highly conductive, lightweight, able to operate within a vacuum, and highly flexible in all axes to accommodate adjustment of the focal plane while transmitting minimal force. A two-armed thermal strap using three end pieces and a twisted section offers enhanced elastic movement, significantly beyond the motion permitted by existing thermal straps. This design innovation allows for large elastic displacements in two planes and moderate elasticity in the third plane. By contrast, a more conventional strap of the same conductance offers less flexibility and asymmetrical elasticity. The two-arm configuration reduces the bending moment of inertia for a given conductance by creating the same cross-sectional area for thermal conduction, but with only half the thickness. This reduction in the thickness has a significant effect on the flexibility since there is a cubic relationship between the thickness and the rigidity or bending moment of inertia. The novelty of the technology lies in the mechanical design and manufacturing of the thermal strap. The enhanced flexibility will facilitate cooling of mechanically sensitive components (example: optical focal planes). This development is a significant contribution to the thermal cooling of optics. It is known to be especially important in the thermal control of optical focal planes due to their highly sensitive alignment requirements and mechanical sensitivity; however, many other applications exist including the cooling of gimbal-mounted components.

Urquiza, Eugenio↗

NASA NTRS2013

Fully Printed, Flexible, Phased Array Antenna for Lunar Surface Communication

NASAs future exploration missions focus on the manned exploration of the Moon, Mars, and beyond, which will rely heavily on the development of a reliable communications infrastructure from planetary surface-to-surface, surface-to-orbit, and back to Earth. Flexible antennas are highly desired in many scenarios. Active phased array antennas (active PAAs) with distributed control and processing electronics at the surface of an antenna aperture offer numerous advantages for radar communications. Large-area active PAAs on flexible substrates are of particular interest in NASA s space radars due to their efficient inflatable package that can be rolled up during transportation and deployed in space. Such an inflatable package significantly reduces stowage volume and mass. Because of these performance and packaging advantages, large-area inflatable active PAAs are highly desired in NASA s surface-to-orbit and surface-to-relay communications. To address the issues of flexible electronics, a room-temperature printing process of active phased-array antennas on a flexible Kapton substrate was developed. Field effect transistors (FETs) based on carbon nanotubes (CNTs), with many unique physical properties, were successfully proved feasible for the PAA system. This innovation is a new type of fully inkjet-printable, two-dimensional, high-frequency PAA on a flexible substrate at room temperature. The designed electronic circuit components, such as the FET switches in the phase shifter, metal interconnection lines, microstrip transmission lines, etc., are all printed using a special inkjet printer. Using the developed technology, entire 1x4, 2x2, and 4x4 PAA systems were developed, packaged, and demonstrated at 5.3 GHz. Several key solutions are addressed in this work to solve the fabrication issues. The source/drain contact is developed using droplets of silver ink printed on the source/drain areas prior to applying CNT thin-film. The wet silver ink droplets allow the silver to wet the CNT thin-film area and enable good contact with the source and drain contact after annealing. A passivation layer to protect the device channel is developed by bonding a thin Kapton film on top of the device channel. This film is also used as the media for transferring the aligned CNT thin-film on the device substrate. A simple and cost-effective technique to form multilayer metal interconnections on flexible substrate is developed and demonstrated. Contact vias are formed on the second substrate prior to bonding on the first substrate. Inkjet printing is used to fill the silver ink into the via structure. The printed silver ink penetrates through the vias to contact with the contact pads on the bottom layer. It is then annealed to form a good connection. One-dimensional and two-dimensional PAAs were fabricated and characterized. In these circuits, multilayer metal interconnects were used to make a complete PAA system.

Subbaraman, Harish↗

NASA NTRS2014

Coupled Fluid-Structure Interaction Analysis of Solid Rocket Motor with Flexible Inhibitors

Flexible inhibitors are generally used in solid rocket motors (SRMs) as a means to control the burning of propellant. Vortices generated by the flow of propellant around the flexible inhibitors have been identified as a driving source of instabilities that can lead to thrust oscillations in launch vehicles. Potential coupling between the SRM thrust oscillations and structural vibration modes is an important risk factor in launch vehicle design. As a means to predict and better understand these phenomena, a multidisciplinary simulation capability that couples the NASA production CFD code, Loci/CHEM, with CFDRC's structural finite element code, CoBi, has been developed. This capability is crucial to the development of NASA's new space launch system (SLS). This paper summarizes the efforts in applying the coupled software to demonstrate and investigate fluid-structure interaction (FSI) phenomena between pressure waves and flexible inhibitors inside reusable solid rocket motors (RSRMs). The features of the fluid and structural solvers are described in detail, and the coupling methodology and interfacial continuity requirements are then presented in a general Eulerian-Lagrangian framework. The simulations presented herein utilize production level CFD with hybrid RANS/LES turbulence modeling and grid resolution in excess of 80 million cells. The fluid domain in the SRM is discretized using a general mixed polyhedral unstructured mesh, while full 3D shell elements are utilized in the structural domain for the flexible inhibitors. Verifications against analytical solutions for a structural model under a steady uniform pressure condition and under dynamic modal analysis show excellent agreement in terms of displacement distribution and eigenmode frequencies. The preliminary coupled results indicate that due to acoustic coupling, the dynamics of one of the more flexible inhibitors shift from its first modal frequency to the first acoustic frequency of the solid rocket motor. This insight could have profound implications for SRM and flexible inhibitor designs for current and future launch vehicles including SLS.

Yang, H. Q.↗

NASA NTRS2020

An Ultra-long Life, High-performance, Flexible Li-CO2Battery Based on Multifunctional Carbon Electrocatalysts

Integrating CO2 utilization and renewable energy delivery/storage, the rechargeable Li–CO2 battery has been considered as a promising candidate for next-generation secondary batteries. However, high-performance catalyst(s) for efficient formation and decomposition of the discharge product, Li2CO3, are an imperative part of a Li–CO2 battery. The development of flexible Li–CO2 batteries extends their applications into compliant and wearable devices/systems, but at the same time imposes a big challenge for battery fabrication and lifetime enhancement. In this study, a rechargeable quasi-solidus flexible Li–CO2 battery was designed and fabricated using highly active N,S-doped carbon nanotubes (N,S-doped CNTs) as the cathode catalyst, and a smart polymer gel as the flexible electrolyte. This newly-developed flexible Li–CO2 battery exhibited a capacity as high as 23560 mAh g−1 based on the catalyst mass and an ultra-long lifetime of up to 538 cycles with excellent mechanical flexibility. This work provides a platform for the design and development of high-performance flexible Li–CO2 batteries from low-cost, earth-abundant, carbon-based multifunctional cathode catalysts.

Superior stability↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Development of Flexible Energy Storage Device for Wearable Electronics using All-organic Composites

As the demands and applications of wearable electronics increase, the need of power supply for wearable electronics becomes the critical issue. Both batteries and capacitors can be used as power supplier. In terms of energy storage device, capacitors have many advantages over the batteries, but have a lower energy storage density. To improve the energy density, composites, in which inorganic particles are embedded in a polymer matrix, have been identified as a promising approach to create the dielectrics with a higher energy storage density. The physics behind the composite approach is that the inorganics have a higher dielectric constant and polymers can stand with a higher electric field so that the composites can exhibit a relative dielectric constant and stand with a relative electric field. Therefore, the composites can exhibit a higher energy storage density. However, the embedment of inorganic particles into polymer severely reduces the flexibility of the polymer. To develop flexible energy storage ultracapacitors as an energy storage device for wearable electronics, an all-organic composite approach, in which a dielectric polymer is mixed with polar organic molecules, is introduced. It is experimentally found that by adding a small amount of polar organic molecules into dielectric polymers, the polymers exhibits a high dielectric constant and can stand with a higher electric field. More importantly, the flexibility of the all-organic composites is better than the polymer matrix. Therefore, the all-organic composites can be a strong and promising candidate for the development of flexible energy storage devices for the wearable electronics. In this study, three different dielectric polymers and three different polar molecules were studied. All the all-organic composite systems exhibit a significant improvement on the energy storage density. These new flexible energy storage devices are being developed to be fabricated with on-demandadditive electronics manufacturing processes, so that they can be fabricated when needed in space on the International Space Station and planned lunar habitat and other future missions. These flexible energy storage devices will provide the storage in concert with other printed power generation devices to allow crew health and structural health monitoring sensor devices and systems to be self-powered, not requiring any external power or batteries.

energy storage↗

DOE OSTI2021

Devices and methods for additive manufacturing using flexible filaments

A method of fabricating (printing) parts utilizing flexible filaments includes anchoring a portion of a flexible filament to a substrate. A length of flexible filament is extended over the substrate while the flexible filament is in tension to thereby avoid buckling of the flexible filament. The flexible filament may comprise a thermoplastic material and fibers or other reinforcing materials whereby composite 3D parts can be fabricated.

Gardner, John M.↗

DOE OSTI2023

A Simulation Framework for Analyzing the Impact of Stochastic Occupant Behaviors on Demand Flexibility in Typical Commercial Buildings

As one of the primary users of the electric grid, buildings and building equipment, including heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, can be leveraged to provide the flexible demand needed to balance the grid. Typical strategies to achieve demand flexibility are to reduce electricity use during peak or critical periods by shutting down equipment or relaxing system setpoints, which will inevitably impact the occupants’ comfort. When occupants feel uncomfortable, they may take actions to regain their comfort, and some of those actions (such as turning on a personal fan) may have a negative impact on meeting the demand response goal. Therefore, it is important to incorporate occupant behaviors into the assessment ofthe building demand flexibility potential. In this study, a simulation framework that includes simulation of zone thermal loads, an HVAC system, and occupant behaviors, was developed to investigate the impact of occupant behaviors on demand flexibility. A case study was conducted using a small office model from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Commercial Prototype Building Models to simulate the building envelope and zone loads. An agent-based occupant thermal behavior model was adapted to forecast occupants’ thermal comfort and their resulting thermal behaviors. An artificial neural network (ANN) based airflow model trained from a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of the zone was adopted to better predict the ambient environment of each occupant. An air-source heat pump simulation model that was calibrated from a real two-stage air-source heat pump system was used as the HVAC system. A typical load shedding event during peak hours was studied. Repeated simulations were conducted to capture the stochastic effects of occupant behaviors. The interplay between the demand flexibility, occupant comfort and behavior were analyzed by evaluating key performance indicators, including the energy use, occupant discomfort duration, and occupant behavior duration during the peak period. The results suggest that this framework can be used to analyze typical commercial buildings and their HVAC systems in terms ofdemand flexibility potential under the impact of occupant behaviors.

Chen, Zhelun↗

DOE OSTI2020

Network-Cognizant Time-Coupled Aggregate Flexibility of Distribution Systems Under Uncertainties

Increasing integration of distributed energy resources (DERs) within distribution feeders provides unprecedented flexibility at the distribution-transmission interconnection. To exploit this flexibility and to use the capacity potential of aggregate DERs, feasible substation power injection trajectories need to be efficiently characterized. This paper provides an ellipsoidal inner approximation of the set of feasible power injection trajectories at the substation such that for any point in the set, there exists a feasible disaggregation strategy of DERs for any load uncertainty realization. The problem is formulated as one of finding the robust maximum volume ellipsoid inside the flexibility region under uncertainty. Though the problem is NP-hard even in the deterministic case, this paper derives novel approximations of the resulting adaptive robust optimization problem based on optimal second-stage policies. The proposed approach yields less conservative flexibility characterization than existing flexibility region approximation formulations. The efficacy of the proposed method is demonstrated on a realistic distribution feeder.

adaptive robust optimization↗

DOE OSTI2021

Super Flexible Transparent Conducting Oxide-Free Organic–Inorganic Hybrid Perovskite Solar Cells with 19.01% Efficiency (Active Area=1 cm 2 )

Highly efficient organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite solar cells (OIHP-SCs) are often fabricated on a transparent conducting oxide (TCO) substrate such as indium tin oxide (ITO). However, the presence of TCOs is disadvantageous to the development of flexible OIHP-SCs due to the brittle nature of ITO which is easily breakable during bending. Herein, a flexible TCO-free OIHP-SC is demonstrated by using lithium bis(trifluoromethane)sulfonimide (Li-TFSI) as a codopant for the single-layer graphene transparent conducting electrode and poly(triarylamine) hole-transporting material (HTM) on a flexible polydimethylsiloxane substrate. The optical and electrical properties of the Li-TFSI-doped graphene substrate are measured by controlling the doping amount and the best conditions for charge extraction are established at a doping concentration of 20 mm Li-TFSI, thus optimizing the device photovoltaic performance. As a result, a highest power conversion efficiency of 19.01% is demonstrated by the flexible TCO-free OIHP-SC devices with an active area of 1 cm 2 . In addition, the flexible TCO-free OIHP-SCs exhibit good bending stability after 5000 bending cycles at radii of 6, 4, and 2 mm and excellent light soaking stability under 1 Sun light intensity over 1000 h as opposed to the poor stability when using poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate as the HTM.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2026

Intelligent industrial demand response to increase grid flexibility and reliability: A review

The rapid transition toward renewable energy has introduced challenges in grid stability due to the intermittency of non-dispatchable sources like solar and wind. Industrial Demand Response (IDR) offers a promising, cost-effective solution that adjusts energy consumption patterns to align with supply, increases renewable utilization, and reduces costs. This review provides an updated analysis of IDR, sorting technologies into five categories: energy storage, scheduled energy usage, operational flexibility, on-site generation, and intelligent operations. Energy storage solutions, while requiring little flexibility, often have the longest payback periods. While slightly better, on-site generation also has longer payback periods, ranging from 5 to 20 years or more. Scheduled energy usage, operational flexibility, and intelligent operations allow significant peak reduction at lower capital costs but require greater flexibility. While 15–20 % peak reduction is within the range of all five categories, scheduled energy use and on-site energy generation are shown to have reductions of up to 70–80 % in select scenarios. Combining multiple IDR strategies from these five categories maximizes both financial and operational benefits. Synergistic approaches are shown to enhance grid stability while reducing costs. As the grid evolves, IDR will enable a more flexible, renewable-powered future that will benefit industrial facilities and the broader energy system.

Demand flexibility↗

DOE OSTI2023

Face mask integrated with flexible and wearable manganite oxide respiration sensor

Face masks are key personal protective equipment for reducing exposure to viruses and other environmental hazards such as air pollution. Integrating flexible and wearable sensors into face masks can provide valuable insights into personal and public health. The advantages that a breath-monitoring face mask requires, including multi-functional sensing ability and continuous, long-term dynamic breathing process monitoring, have been underdeveloped to date. Here, we design an effective human breath monitoring face mask based on a flexible La 0.7 Sr 0.3 MnO 3 (LSMO)/Mica respiration sensor. The sensor’s capabilities and systematic measurements are investigated under two application scenes, namely clinical monitoring mode and daily monitoring mode, to monitor, recognise, and analyse different human breath status, i.e., cough, normal breath, and deep breath. This sensing system exhibits super-stability and multi-modal capabilities in continuous and long-time monitoring of the human breath. We determine that during monitoring human breath, thermal diffusion in LSMO is responsible for the change of resistance in flexible LSMO/Mica sensor. Both simulated and experimental results demonstrate good discernibility of the flexible LSMO/Mica sensor operating at different breath status. Our work opens a route for the design of novel flexible and wearable electronic devices.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2025

Combining Theory and Experiment to Map the Atomic-Level Structure–Energy Pathways of Adsorbate-Mediated Phase Changes in a Cooperatively Flexible Metal–Organic Framework

An important subclass of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) exhibits cooperative flexibility, wherein individual crystallites undergo global structural phase changes in response to external stimuli. Where cooperative flexibility results in reversible changes between crystalline states of distinct accessible porosity, these frameworks can exhibit rare yet desirable behaviors that cannot be explained by local dynamics alone. Yet, the chemical and structural origins of cooperative flexibility and how frameworks undergo these reversible phase changes at the atomic level remain poorly understood. Deliberate design for specific applications is therefore exceedingly difficult, and there is great impetus to develop a fundamental understanding of this phenomenon. Here, an effective and widely accessible computational approach is developed, which is designed to provide microscopic resolution via direct comparison to experimental data along the desorption-guided pathway. The strategy is applied to explain the desorption-induced phase change in an experimentally well-characterized framework, CdIF-13 (sod-Cd(benzimidazolate)2), where experiment alone was unable to resolve the atomistically detailed phase change landscape. Our findings reveal that the cooperative phase change pathways are adsorbate dependent with thermodynamics of intermediate structural states dictated by a nuanced interplay of ligand orientation, skeletal symmetry, and modes of surface adsorption. The results reveal that this isotropically flexible framework is “chaperoned” through a complex energy landscape by specific adsorbates, revealed by the reported computational approach with atomic-level insight and validated by experimentally determined structures. Thus, this work facilitates both understanding and future design of flexible materials for applications in gas storage, transport, delivery, and separation technologies.

03 NATURAL GAS↗

DOE OSTI2024

Advanced co-simulation framework for assessing the interplay between occupant behaviors and demand flexibility in commercial buildings

With buildings contributing significantly to electricity usage, enabling demand flexibility becomes a challenge, especially when accounting for occupant comfort. This study introduces an innovative co-simulation framework integrating multiple models: heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system, building zone load, indoor airflow, supervisory control, and occupant comfort and behavior. Uniquely, this framework allows for a comprehensive and dynamic analysis of building systems and occupant interactions in demand response events. Using this framework, we conducted a case study using a typical small office building model. Specifically, we focused on three areas: (1) the impact of indoor airflow modeling on energy use, occupant comfort, and behaviors forecasting, (2) the impact of occupant behaviors on demand flexibility, and (3) occupant comfort and behaviors under demand response events. Key performance indicators such as energy use, flexibility factor, durations of occupant discomfort and occupant behaviors were analyzed. Our findings indicated variations in energy usage and occupant comfort within demand flexibility events, marked by uncertainty boundaries, with variability in demand shedding up to 57.9%. Here, we concluded that this framework is suitable for analyzing typical commercial buildings and their HVAC systems in terms of demand flexibility potential under the impact of occupant behaviors.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2024

Photonic curing for innovative fabrication of flexible metal oxide optoelectronics

Abstract Flexible optoelectronics, based on non-planar substrates, hold promise for diverse applications such as wearables, health monitors, and displays due to their cost-effective manufacturing methods. Despite the superior properties of metal oxides, the challenge of processing them at high temperatures incompatible with plastic substrates necessitates innovative annealing approaches. Photonic curing, which delivers microsecond to millisecond broadband (200–1500 nm) light pulses on a sample, emerges as a viable solution. Depending on the optical properties, the targeted film absorbs the radiant energy resulting in rapid heating while the transparent substrate absorbs a minimal amount of light and remains at ambient temperature. The light intensity can be high, but since the light pulse is short, the total energy absorbed by the sample remains low and will not damage the plastic substrate. This perspective explores the innovative application of photonic curing to fabricate flexible metal oxide optoelectronics, including thin-film transistors, metal–insulator–metal devices, solar cells, transparent conductors, and Li batteries, emphasizing the conversion of sol–gel precursors to metal oxides. However, this technique was initially developed for sintering metal nanoparticles to conductive patterns and poses intriguing challenges in explaining its mechanism for metal oxide conversion, especially considering the limited absorption of visible light by most sol–gel precursors. The review delves into UV-induced photochemistry, common flexible metal-oxide optoelectronic components, and non-intuitive distinctions between photonic curing and thermal annealing. By elucidating the distinctive role of photonic curing in overcoming temperature-related challenges and advancing the fabrication of flexible metal oxide optoelectronics, this perspective offers valuable insights that could shape the future of flexible optoelectronics.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

DOE OSTI2025

Flexibility Options: A Proposed Product for Managing Imbalance Risk

The presence of variable renewable energy resources with uncertain outputs in day-ahead electricity markets results in additional balancing needs in real-time. Addressing those needs cost-effectively and reliably within a competitive market with unbundled products is challenging as both the demand for and the availability of flexibility depends on day-ahead energy schedules. Existing approaches for reserve procurement usually rely either on oversimplified demand curves that do not consider how system conditions that particular day affect the value of flexibility, or on bilateral trading of hedging instruments that are not co-optimized with day-ahead schedules. This article proposes a new product, ‘Flexibility Options', to address these two limitations. The demand for this product is endogenously determined in the day-ahead market and it is met cost-effectively by considering real-time supply curves for product providers, which are co-optimized with the energy supply. As we illustrate with numerical examples and mathematical analysis, the product addresses the hedging needs of participants with imbalances cost-effectively, provides a less intermittent revenue stream for participants with flexible outputs, promotes value-driven pricing of flexibility, and ensures that the system operator is revenue-neutral. This article provides a comprehensive design that can be further tested and applied in large-scale systems.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

DOE OSTI2025

Final Technical Report of a Feasibility Investigation of a Hydropower Flexibility Upgrade Kit

The project studied the feasibility of a concept for a flexibility upgrade kit called h-Dynamyk to improve the flexibility of U.S. hydropower plants and assessed its potential impact on the U.S. hydropower industry. This concept addresses the growing need for grid flexibility amid rising renewable energy adoption, such as wind and solar, which often introduce intermittency. The upgrade kit is intended to address challenges posed by aging turbine designs in meeting modern grid demands for flexibility services like frequency response, voltage control, spinning reserve, and black-start capabilities. Key features of the h-Dynamyk kit include siphon turbine assemblies, medium-voltage variable frequency drives (VFDs), and smart controls integrated with plant systems to optimize operations and extend equipment life. This nine-month discovery project successfully achieved its objectives by defining a baseline design and performance metrics for the h-Dynamyk flexibility upgrade kit, analyzing this baseline, and incorporating lessons learned from this analysis into a modified set of metrics and recommendations for future design and testing, which were further guided by field site studies.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗