The Infona portal uses cookies, i.e. strings of text saved by a browser on the user's device. The portal can access those files and use them to remember the user's data, such as their chosen settings (screen view, interface language, etc.), or their login data. By using the Infona portal the user accepts automatic saving and using this information for portal operation purposes. More information on the subject can be found in the Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. By closing this window the user confirms that they have read the information on cookie usage, and they accept the privacy policy and the way cookies are used by the portal. You can change the cookie settings in your browser.
Power Supply Controls are being developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to test transmission line components of the Electron Cyclotron Heating (ECH) system, with a focus on gyrotrons and waveguides, in support of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). The control is performed by several Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC's) located near the different equipment. A technique...
Modern sensors are often integrated into microprocessor chips or into packages with embedded processors to provide “smart sensor” capabilities or to function in networks (e.g., wireless sensor networks) to make complex measurements and to distribute the processing load by performing initial data analysis tasks close to the point of measurement. These systems have many of the operating characteristics...
Future industrial use of wireless instrumentation will undoubtedly increase dramatically in the coming years. Deployment of such instrumentation in an industrial setting - with its security and robustness criteria that are much more stringent than residential performance criteria - hinges on user acceptance of verified performance as well as meeting cost requirements. Today, circa 2011, these industrial...
We discuss how sensor technologies have enabled the development of proactive energy management (EM) systems. At the same time, we discuss how these emerging EM systems motivate the development of new sensor technologies. Proactive EM systems integrate advances in weather forecasting, sensors, predictive models, and real-time optimization algorithms to anticipate uncertain factors that affect energy...
Miscellaneous and electronic loads (MELs) consume about 30% of the electricity used in U.S. commercial buildings, but our understanding of their energy use lags the traditional end-uses. A key component of reducing energy use is understanding how devices are used, but few studies have collected field data on the long-term energy used by a large sample of devices due to the difficulty and expense of...
As the old adage goes, you can only manage what you measure. So it follows that the more you measure, the better you will manage. Unfortunately, it's not so simple. Developing systems that measure more is complex. Plus, having significantly more data can be overwhelming unless there is a strategy for how to use it.
America's 4.7 million commercial buildings account for nearly one-fifth of the U.S. energy consumption. Studies estimate that commercial building instrumentation and control systems that can provide energy management and control, HVAC commissioning, HVAC fault detection, and lighting management have the potential to reduce up to 30% energy consumption. The most significant key enabler for this progress...
A team from Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has developed an RFID Accountability System (RAS) that allows items with active RFID tags to be tracked in environments where tags may not be able to transmit their location continuously. The system uses activators that transmit a short range signal. Active RFID tags are in a sleep state until they encounter an activator. Then they transmit a signal...
Sensors for selective monitoring of gases and volatiles are needed for numerous applications including medical diagnostics, food safety, environmental, industrial, homeland protection, and many others. For these and other applications, we have developed passive radio frequency identification (RFID) sensors for vapor sensing where we apply a sensing film onto the resonant antenna of the RFID sensor,...
We have developed a new concept in passive radio frequency identification (RFID) sensors for selective vapor detection and demonstrated roll-to-roll manufacturing of these sensors on a flexible polymeric substrate on the pilot scale. Selectivity of sensors was tested using model analyte vapors and is provided by measurements of the resonance impedance spectra, multivariate analysis of spectral features,...
The paper puts forward the idea of a wider inclusion of security issues in an instrumentation agenda. We argue that the instrumentation professional community has gained the needed experience and expertise that could be employed in addressing and solving numerous security problems in modern instrumentation and computer systems. The paper presents the development concept of the instrumentation quality...
Communication delay occurs in electric power grid for various reasons, thus affects the performance of the control systems and can cause power loss. This paper analyzes the causes and effects of such communication delays in electric grid system. For the analysis, a simulated power network consisting of several generators is considered, where braking resistors (BR) are used for transient stability...
In this invited talk, we present the fabrication and characterization of optical and acoustic metamaterials, incorporating unique topological interactions between waves and matter. We propose spatially rerouting ultrasound through broadband and highly transparent metamaterials. We also observed a set of localized modes in optical metamaterials, using novel near field optical and electron probes. These...
Sandia National Laboratories' Metamaterial Science and Technology Program has developed novel HPC-based design tools, wafer scale 3D fabrication processes, and characterization tools to enable thermal IR optical metamaterial application studies.
Luminescence from a thermographic phosphor (TGP) can be very sensitive to temperature, an attribute exploited in commercial and scientific applications at various levels. Depending on the formulation and the processing method, phosphor particle sizes may range from a few nanometers to dozens of microns across. The size, then, may be comparable to or even much smaller than a typical biological cell...
Near-infrared (NIR) diffuse correlation spectroscopy (DCS) flowmeter is an emerging technique for measurement of deep tissue blood flow (up to centimeters). NIR spectroscopy (NIRS) can be used for quantification of tissue oxygenation. The combination of DCS tissue-flowmeter and NIRS tissue-oximeter allows for simultaneously quantifying tissue blood flow and oxygenation in deep tissues. A portable...
Set the date range to filter the displayed results. You can set a starting date, ending date or both. You can enter the dates manually or choose them from the calendar.