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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 1,711 records · Page 95
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1999

Development of a Portable, Ground-based Ozone Lidar Instrument for Tropospheric Ozone Research and Educational Training

The objective of this research project is to develop a portable, eye-safe, ground-based ozone lidar instrument specialized for ozone differential absorption lidar (DIAL) measurements in the troposphere. This research project directly supports the goal of NASA's Earth Science Enterprise to understand the distribution and budget of tropospheric ozone (objective 1.5 of the Earth Science Strategic Enterprise Plan, 1998-2002). It can participate in ground validation experiments for TES, a tropospheric ozone satellite mission due to be launched in 2002. It can also be utilized for correlative ground measurements in future GTE (Global Tropospheric Experiment) and space-based ozone lidar missions, such as ORACLE. Multiple ground-based ozone lidar systems would improve the data obtained through current ozone-sonde networks. This prototype instrument could to serve as the basic unit for these and other future monitoring projects requiring multi-instrument networks, such as that proposed for the Global Tropospheric Ozone Project (GTOP). GTOP is currently being formulated by a scientific panel of the International Global Atmospheric Chemistry Project to meet its goal to better understand the processes that control the global distribution of tropospheric ozone. In order for the lidar to be widely deployed in networks, it must be fairly easy to use and maintain as well as being cost-competitive with a ground station launching ozonesondes several times a day. A second 2-year grant to continue this effort with students participating in ground tests and system improvements has been awarded by the Office of Equal Employment Opportunities (OEOP). This project also supports existing NASA lidar missions through its development of advanced, compact lidar technology. Innovations in both transmitters and receivers have been made in this project. Finally, this system could be modified in the future to probe more deeply into the stratosphere. This could be accomplished by increasing the emitted energy or optimizing the wavelengths for this purpose. In addition to NASA, this system has applications to the EPA, NOAA, and the DOD. An AFOSR grant has been awarded based on the results of this effort to fund advanced transmitter development at medium (20-40 mJ) energies. A second proposal to the DOD with a letter of support from Air Force Research Laboratory, has been submitted to extend this uv laser technology to 100 mJ levels. Thus, this project has enabled students and faculty at Hampton University to begin to develop research efforts in support of the mission of the DOD. This instrument will be based at Hampton University (HU) to meet our educational goal to train students in lidar technology as well as atmospheric ozone data analysis and interpretation. It will be also available for off-site measurement campaigns and will serve as a test bed for further instrument development. Later development beyond this grant to extend the scientific usefulness of the instrument may include incorporation of an aerosol channel and upgrading the laser to make stratospheric ozone measurements. Seven undergraduates, three graduate students, and one postdoctoral. researcher (formerly an HU student) have been active participants in this research effort.

Chyba, Thomas↗
DOE OSTI2017

Evaluation of a commercial automatic treatment planning system for prostate cancers

Recent developments in Radiation Oncology treatment planning have led to the development of software packages that facilitate automated intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and volumetric-modulated arc therapy (VMAT) planning. Such solutions include site-specific modules, plan library methods, and algorithm-based methods. In this study, the plan quality for prostate cancer generated by the Auto-Planning module of the Pinnacle{sup 3} radiation therapy treatment planning system (v9.10, Fitchburg, WI) is retrospectively evaluated. The Auto-Planning module of Pinnacle{sup 3} uses a progressive optimization algorithm. Twenty-three prostate cancer cases, which had previously been planned and treated without lymph node irradiation, were replanned using the Auto-Planning module. Dose distributions were statistically compared with those of manual planning by the paired t-test at 5% significance level. Auto-Planning was performed without any manual intervention. Planning target volume (PTV) dose and dose to rectum were comparable between Auto-Planning and manual planning. The former, however, significantly reduced the dose to the bladder and femurs. Regression analysis was performed to examine the correlation between volume overlap between bladder and PTV divided by the total bladder volume and resultant V70. The findings showed that manual planning typically exhibits a logistic way for dose constraint, whereas Auto-Planning shows a more linear tendency. By calculating the Akaike information criterion (AIC) to validate the statistical model, a reduction of interoperator variation in Auto-Planning was shown. We showed that, for prostate cancer, the Auto-Planning module provided plans that are better than or comparable with those of manual planning. By comparing our results with those previously reported for head and neck cancer treatment, we recommend the homogeneous plan quality generated by the Auto-Planning module, which exhibits less dependence on anatomic complexity.

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗
DOE OSTI2014

A new forward spectrometer for PHENIX

In the last decade PHENIX has accessed via longitudinal double spin asymmetries the gluon helicity inside the proton, started probing flavor dependent valence and sea quark helicity distributions and started to explore the proton transverse spin structure. A major upgrade is planned for the next decade that will provide an increased acceptance and additional tracking and electromagnetic plus hadronic calorimetry in the forward region. Here, the layout of the new forward detector system will be discussed, together with the new insights in the proton spin structure that the new forward PHENIX spectrometer will provide.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2013

CWS4DB: A Customizable Web Service for Efficient Access to Distributed Nuclear Physics Relational Databases

Tech-X proposes to develop a system providing an efficient access for the High-Energy and Nuclear Physics data stored in distributed heterogeneous relational databases. The system will consist of a generic Web Service, customized client APIs, and tools that facilitate generation of custom client APIs. The access to the data will be mediated by mechanisms that provide data caching and adaptive scheduling of the query plans.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Water Network Tool for Resilience Version 0.1

Water utilities are vulnerable to a wide variety of human-caused and natural disasters. These disruptive events can result in loss of water service, contaminated water, pipe breaks, and failed equipment. Furthermore, long term changes in water supply and customer demand can have a large impact on the operating conditions of the network. The ability to maintain drinking water service during and following these types of events is critical. Simulation and analysis tools can help water utilities explore how their network will respond to disruptive events and plan effective mitigation strategies. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Sandia National Laboratories are developing new software tools to meet this need. The Water Network Tool for Resilience (WNTR, pronounced winter) is a Python package designed to help water utilities investigate resilience of water distribution systems over a wide range of hazardous scenarios and to evaluate resilience-enhancing actions. The following documentation includes installation instructions and examples, description of software features, and software license. It is assumed that the reader is familiar with the Python Programming Language.

42 ENGINEERING↗
NASA NTRS1981

Site participation in the small community experiment

The Small Community Solar Thermal Experiment, planned to test a small, developmental solar thermal power plant in a small community application, is assessed. The baseline plan is to install a field of parabolic dishes with distributed generation to provide 1 MWe of experimental power. Participation by the site proposer is an integral element of the experiment; the proposer will provide a ten-acre site, a connection to the electrical distributional system serving the small community, and various services. In addition to the primary participant, site study efforts may be pursued at as many as five alternative sites.

Holbeck, H. J.↗
NASA NTRS1984

The Pilot Land Data System: Report of the Program Planning Workshops

An advisory report to be used by NASA in developing a program plan for a Pilot Land Data System (PLDS) was developed. The purpose of the PLDS is to improve the ability of NASA and NASA sponsored researchers to conduct land-related research. The goal of the planning workshops was to provide and coordinate planning and concept development between the land related science and computer science disciplines, to discuss the architecture of the PLDs, requirements for information science technology, and system evaluation. The findings and recommendations of the Working Group are presented. The pilot program establishes a limited scale distributed information system to explore scientific, technical, and management approaches to satisfying the needs of the land science community. The PLDS paves the way for a land data system to improve data access, processing, transfer, and analysis, which land sciences information synthesis occurs on a scale not previously permitted because of limits to data assembly and access.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1990

Expanded capabilities of the Extended Duration Orbiter

The Extended Duration Orbiter (EDO) is presented emphasizing the ability of the program to enhance the stay times of Spacelab, Spacehab, and Commercially Developed Space Facility missions. An overview of EDO is given with particular attention given to the modifications required for the implementation of Environmental Control and Life Support Systems specific to the Space Shuttle. The configuration, operation, and location of proposed regenerative CO2 removal, N2 supply, improved waste-collection, and power-reactant storage and distribution systems are described in detail. The EDO also includes a trash compactor, additional cryogenic hydrogen and oxygen, extra gaseous nitrogen, and a method for reducing stowed lithium hydroxide. The first utilization of the EDO system is a 13-day mission on the space shuttle Columbia planned for March 1992.

Cerna, Peter J.↗
NASA NTRS1992

An approach to evaluating reactive airborne wind shear systems

An approach to evaluating reactive airborne windshear detection systems was developed to support a deployment study for future FAA ground-based windshear detection systems. The deployment study methodology assesses potential future safety enhancements beyond planned capabilities. The reactive airborne systems will be an integral part of planned windshear safety enhancements. The approach to evaluating reactive airborne systems involves separate analyses for both landing and take-off scenario. The analysis estimates the probability of effective warning considering several factors including NASA energy height loss characteristics, reactive alert timing, and a probability distribution for microburst strength.

Gibson, Joseph P., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS2010

Operations Concepts for Deep-Space Missions: Challenges and Opportunities

Historically, manned spacecraft missions have relied heavily on real-time communication links between crewmembers and ground control for generating crew activity schedules and working time-critical off-nominal situations. On crewed missions beyond the Earth-Moon system, speed-of-light limitations will render this ground-centered concept of operations obsolete. A new, more distributed concept of operations will have to be developed in which the crew takes on more responsibility for real-time anomaly diagnosis and resolution, activity planning and replanning, and flight operations. I will discuss the innovative information technologies, human-machine interfaces, and simulation capabilities that must be developed in order to develop, test, and validate deep-space mission operations

McCann, Robert S.↗
NASA NTRS2019

The TASAR Project: Launching Aviation on an Optimized Route Toward Aircraft Autonomy

The Traffic Aware Strategic Aircrew Request (TASAR) concept applies onboard automation for the purpose of advising the pilot of route modifications that would be beneficial to the flight. Leveraging onboard computing platforms with connectivity to avionics and diverse data sources on and off the aircraft, TASAR introduces a new, powerful capability for in-flight trajectory management to the cockpit and its flight crew that is anticipated to induce a significant culture change in airspace operations. Flight crews empowered by TASAR and its derivative technologies could transform from today’s flight plan followers to proactive trajectory managers, taking an initial critical step towards increasing autonomy in the airspace system. TASAR was developed as a catalyst for operational autonomy, a future vision where the responsibilities and authorities of trajectory management reside with the aircraft operator and are distributed among participating aircraft, thus fulfilling a vision dating back decades and enabling a fully scalable airspace system. This NASA Technical Paper maps TASAR to its foundational vision and traces its research and development from initial concept generation to an operational evaluation by a U.S. airline in revenue service, the final stage before technology transfer and commercialization.

Wing, David J.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Establishing a Lunar Surface Power Grid

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is seeking to develop a lunar surface power system for its Artemis missions as well as for planned future commercial lunar surface activities. This power system is composed of a number of assets which contain electrical loads and many of these contain energy resources. These assets can be connected to form a grid, which allows power to be shared between the system’s distributed energy resources. This grid can provide backup power to existing assets as well as primary power to future assets. A trade study was conducted for an Artemis scale grid, which has identified 3 kV AC as an ideal transmission voltage. Development work has also begun for a universal modular interface converter (UMIC) which connects assets and microgrids operating at 120 V DC space power to the grid. Products from this grid definition and UMIC development work will enable highly reliable and available power for Artemis and future planetary surface missions, which is key to achieving NASA’s long term vision of space exploration.

Planetary surface power↗
DOE OSTI2023

Representing the Future Role of Hydropower and Pumped Storage Hydropower (PSH) in Electricity Planning Tools

Existing tools for long-term electric sector planning struggle to represent hydropower's nuanced site-specific technical and operating characteristics, which depend on technical specifications as well as water management practices and regulations. As a result, long-term planning models and tools insufficiently characterize hydropower value and incentives, and they cannot fully represent the role hydropower can play in a future electricity system that could include a high penetration of variable wind and solar generation, battery storage, and other low-carbon technologies. This presentation demonstrates the culmination of a multi-year effort to enhance hydropower representations in electricity planning models at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), as part of the U.S. Department of Energy (USDOE) HydroWIRES Initiative. New modeling techniques are demonstrated using the NREL Regional Energy Deployment System (ReEDS), an open-access electric sector capacity expansion model used extensively in a wide range of technology deployment and integration analysis, including the 2016 USDOE Hydropower Vision. ReEDS uses a least-cost optimization approach to understand investment and operation of electricity generation, storage, and transmission technologies under future scenarios of electricity technology innovation, demand, policy, and other sectoral drivers. ReEDS was modified to better represent value and opportunities for both pumped storage hydropower (PSH) and hydropower systems without pumping. We incorporated a new national closed-loop PSH resource and cost assessment to explore new PSH deployment opportunities and added plant-level data to better represent the existing PSH fleet. New upgrade pathways enable opportunities for enhanced hydropower flexibility by adding pumps, upgrading dispatchability, increasing capacity, or increasing energy availability. The model was also modified to better represent the value of long-duration energy storage beyond diurnal time scales, allowing both hydropower and PSH to better balance energy supply and demand variations in high-renewable systems. These new features are demonstrated under reference and high-renewable futures and a range of sensitivity scenarios to understand which hydropower and PSH deployment and upgrade opportunities are the most attractive. These scenarios indicate potential for new closed-loop PSH deployment and for hydropower flexibility improvements to have important impacts on long-term electricity system emissions and economic outcomes. Increasing flexibility of the existing hydropower fleet can reduce the need to invest in new flexible grid technologies and help achieve decarbonization goals. Systems with sufficient energy storage could also be valuable for balancing seasonal differences in renewable energy availability, particularly from solar energy. The methods developed for ReEDS and subsequent scenario results reveal important considerations for future hydropower and grid system planning, and all data and code is freely available in a public code repository for use throughout the hydropower industry.

capacity expansion↗
NASA NTRS1985

NASA plans for spaceborne lidar - The Earth Observing System

The use of laser techniques to observe the earth's atmosphere and surface from space is examined. An Earth Observing System is proposed as the platform for performing lidar observations. The objectives and capabilities of the Lidar Atmospheric Sounder and Altimeter (LASA) are described. The measurement techniques for collecting temperature, pressure, and water vapor profiles, the vertical distribution of ozone in the stratosphere and troposphere, and atmospheric particulates profiles are discussed. The LASA requirements for altimetry and retroranging are considered. The Doppler Lidar Wind Sensor which provides data on wind velocity is analyzed. These laser systems with increased spatial resolution and accuracy form an efficient information system for studying earth science developments.

Curran, R. J.↗
DOE OSTI2019

Data Analytics for Electrical Distribution Systems with Micro PMUs (GMLC 1.4.9 Technical Report)

This report describes how electrical utilities with residential, industrial, commercial and government customers make decisions using Data Analytics (DA) applications and discusses how OpenFMB was leveraged to share that data among disparate types of devices for DA. OpenFMB is a data standard developed by utilities for distributed communication and control of power system assets. Here we explored how OpenFMB can be used for sharing analytics and what those analytics could be for a set of representative grid devices. A review of DA applications performed by electrical utilities and customers is presented. An overview of how the testbed we used was built and configured is summarized. Several experiments which were carried out to explore the capabilities of OpenFMB alongside other data sharing mechanisms for gathering sensor measurements and sharing analytics is also discussed. And finally a comparison of OpenFMB and LBNL’s SPARK framework is summarized. Today’s electrical utilities focus on monitoring the real-time customer consumptions, offering new real-time tariff models based on customer usage habits (rewards and punishments), providing energy peak during peak load times (plan energy generation and distribution), improving the load management for transformers and power lines, and controlling the energy and grid resources efficiently. On the other hand, the DA applications for residential customers are based on modifying the customer electricity usage habit to save money, making accurate and timely decisions for electrical billing. However, the DA applications for industrial, commercial and government customers focus on creating efficient programs to improve the environmental condition (reducing CO₂ emission), developing better load forecasting for industrial and/or commercial activities. In this project, a testbed was built to explore how the OpenFMB framework can be used to distribute data among various types of representative grid edge devices. Micro PMUs (Phasor Measurement Unit) were used to collect and transmit data to an OpenPDC server alongside relays with a framework configured with a system using OpenFMB to collect and transmit data. The testbed was composed of a physical asset based on a 60 Hz AC radial power system constructed using SI-GRID components. The power system consisted of a 3-phase 14 volts line-to-ground (24 volts line-to-line) power source, three 3-phase line emulators, a programmable resistive load bank, two smart relays, two micro PMUs, and a (SCADA) and Phasor Data Concentrator (PDC) computer. This testbed configuration allowed us to perform breaker operation tests collecting data from the micro PMUs and from the relays’ sensors. During the micro PMU breaker operation tests we collected the measured and estimated fundamental voltages, currents, frequency as well as the total true, reactive and apparent power. The displacement power factor from two micro PMUs located in parallel power lines was also used. The software steps for the implementation of the Synchrophasor system are explained in detail in this report. The setting (1-2-3) and data collection (4-5) phases were performed with a free download open source software. In the setting phase, the micro PMUs were set (1), the data stream for each micro PMU was validated, and the connection and configuration files were created (2). The PDC computer was set using the connection and configuration files of the micro PMUs (3). In the data collection phase, the binary data from the micro PMUs was collected (4), and the binary data files of the micro PMUs was converted to analyze the test results (5). OpenFMB was configured to use protocol translators to read Modbus and transform the reading into the OpenFMB data model to be read for DA applications.Our experiments showed that by leveraging the OpenFMB data model and the micro PMUs together we could obtain better situational awareness of network faults, which in some cases could lead to failures in the system and would be less perceivable otherwise. For example, in one experiment the fundamental RMS current angle, and the fundamental displacement power factor (estimated by the ratio between the measured real and apparent total power) had a disturbance at the micro PMU connected to the beginning of the parallel power line because the breaker was opened without the operators or SCADA system’s knowledge, and no current was available. Based on the breaker state scenarios and micro PMU locations, the DA applications using the current angle and displacement power factor from the micro PMUs should be studied in detail to avoid a non-desired measurement that could affect the decision from the DA. Also, the sample rates for PMU, Relay and micro PMU devices were compared. The DA application improved the control and operation between the electrical utilities and their customers (residential, industrial, transportation, commercial and government). The higher the sample rate, the better the quality of the measurement for DA estimations.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2014

SCALE Enhancements for Detailed Cask Dose Rate Analysis - Paper 37

The Nuclear Fuels Storage and Transportation Planning Project and the Used Fuel Disposition Campaign, both under the US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Nuclear Energy, require the ability to predict k{sub eff}, heat generation and temperature distributions, and external dose rates from any combination of commercial spent nuclear fuel assemblies loaded into any type of licensed cask. Work in the Reactor and Nuclear Systems Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has begun to develop the UNF-ST[and]DARDS system (Used Nuclear Fuel Storage, Transportation and Disposal Analysis Resource and Data System) that uses many of the nuclear analysis codes from the SCALE package, a comprehensive database of used nuclear fuel inventories from utilities, and a library of model template files to produce complete input files for the various types of UNF computational analyses. UNF-ST[and]DARDS uses the template files and input parameters that are applicable to a safety analysis to assemble and execute a complete input file, collect the output files and relevant information for subsequent calculations, and illustrate calculation results as a function of decay time and other relevant analysis parameters. This paper will focus on the shielding aspects and the ability to predict external dose rates from as-loaded casks. Realistic dose rate values based on actual canister fuel contents may be used in developing appropriate plans, procedures, and methods to keep personnel radiation exposures as low as reasonably achievable during cask repackaging and transportation operations, as well as in performing total system analyses and transportation risk evaluations. The MAVRIC shielding sequence of the SCALE package was created for the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission for analyzing dose rates outside of storage, transfer, or transportation casks loaded with spent nuclear fuel. MAVRIC contains automated variance reduction capabilities based on the CADIS and FW-CADIS methods that are effective for optimizing deep penetration Monte Carlo shielding problems for achieving low relative uncertainties in short computing times. MAVRIC uses the Denovo discrete ordinates code to compute importance maps and biased source terms for the Monaco fixed-source Monte Carlo code, which can use multi-group or continuous-energy cross section data. ORIGEN (Oak Ridge Isotope Generation and Depletion) is the SCALE computer code for calculating time-dependent isotopic concentrations during irradiation and decay for more than 2,200 nuclides that can be produced by nuclear fuel irradiation and activation. A series of SCALE enhancements was implemented to enable automatic decay heat and radiation source term generation and shielding safety analysis of as-loaded casks. The enhancements to SCALE made under this project will be a part of the SCALE 6.2 release expected in fall 2014. (authors)

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2016

SU-F-T-270: A Technique for Modeling a Diode Array Into the TPS for Lung SBRT Patient Specific QA

Purpose: To accurately match the treatment planning system (TPS) with the measurement environment, where quality assurance (QA) devices are used to collect data, for lung Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy (SBRT) patient specific QA. Incorporation of heterogeneities is also studied. Methods: Dual energy computerized tomography (DECT) and single energy computerized tomography (SECT) were used to model phantoms incorporating a 2-D diode array into the TPS. A water-equivalent and a heterogeneous phantom (simulating the thoracic region of a patient) were studied. Monte Carlo and pencil beam planar dose distributions were compared to measured distributions. Composite and individual fields were analyzed for normally incident and planned gantry angle deliveries. γ- analysis was used with criteria 3% 3mm, 2% 2mm, and 1% 1mm. Results: The Monte Carlo calculations for the DECT resulted in improved agreements with the diode array for 46.4% of the fields at 3% 3mm, 85.7% at 2% 2mm, and 92.9% at 1% 1mm.For the SECT, the Monte Carlo calculations gave no agreement for the same γ-analysis criteria. Pencil beam calculations resulted in lower agreements with the diode array in the TPS. The DECT showed improvements for 14.3% of the fields at 3% 3mm and 2% 2mm, and 28.6% at 1% 1mm.In SECT comparisons, 7.1% of the fields at 3% 3mm, 10.7% at 2% 2mm, and 17.9% at 1% 1mm showed improved agreements with the diode array. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that modeling the diode array in the TPS is viable using DECT with Monte Carlo for patient specific lung SBRT QA. As recommended by task groups (e.g. TG 65, TG 101, TG 244) of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM), pencil beam algorithms should be avoided in the presence of heterogeneous materials, including a diode array.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗