image001.jpgText Box: INCOSE Region IV Autumn ‘09 Conference

 

Cleveland-Northern Ohio Chapter

Using the POWER of Applied Systems Methods

 

ABSTRACTS

 

 

 

Track 1: Power/Energy SE

 

Thorium and the Liquid-Fluoride Reactor

Mr. Kirk Sorenson

National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Marshall Space Flight Center

Abstract 1

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Return to the Moon: Future Electric Power Option

Dr. Harrison Schmitt

 

The financial, environmental, and national security carrot for a Return to the Moon consists of access to low cost lunar helium-3 fusion power.  Helium-3 fusion represents an environmentally benign means of helping to meet an anticipated eight-fold or higher increase in energy demand by 2050.  Not available in other than research quantities on Earth, this light isotope of ordinary helium-4 reaches the Moon as a component of the solar wind, along with hydrogen, helium-4, carbon and nitrogen.  Embedded continuously in the lunar dust over almost four billion years of time, concentrations have reached levels that can legitimately considered to be of economic interest.  Two square kilometers of large portions of the lunar surface, to a depth of three meters, contains 100 kg (220 pounds) of helium-3, i.e., more than enough to power a 1000 megawatt (one gigawatt) fusion power plant for a year.  In 2009, helium-3's energy equivalent value relative to $2.50 per million BTU industrial coal equaled about $1400 million a metric tonne.  One metric tonne (2200 pounds) of helium-3, fused with deuterium, a heavy isotope of hydrogen, has enough energy to supply a city of 10 million with a year's worth of electricity or over 10 gigawatts of power for that year.

The initial financial threshold for a private sector initiative to Return to the Moon is low: about $15 million.  This investment would initiate the first fusion-based bridging business, that is, production of medical isotopes for point-of-use support of diagnostic procedures using positron-emission tomography (PET).  Other terrestrial applications of helium-3 fusion technology prior to reaching sustained power production exist as well.

The entrepreneurial private sector has an obligation to support a return to the Moon to stay.  We also have an obligation to follow our own path to get there in order to be additive to the overall goals of settling the Solar System and improving lives for those who remain on Earth.  Traversing that path, with an ideally funded business plan, would require about $15 billon and 15 years.

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Challenges, Opportunities and Innovations in Wind Power Recovery Systems

Dr. Majid Rashidi

Cleveland State University

An innovative wind harnessing system has been designed and developed at Cleveland State University. The system is designed for harnessing wind energy at relatively lower wind speeds where conventional windmills do not operate efficiently. The system includes a wind speed amplifier structures. The structure increases wind velocity on its approach to standard horizontal-axis wind turbines. According to the Bernoulli principle the wind amplifier structures increase the ambient wind speed, resulting in a higher power output and lower cut-in ambient wind speed for the standard turbines. This design concept is aligned with the small distributed wind energy systems initiative of the DOE that is aimed for conversion of wind energy into electricity at geographic sites where the wind speed is relatively low. The system is adaptable as a retrofit to the existing cylindrical structures such as water towers and silos. A fully functional prototype of the design has been fabricated and installed on the rooftop of the Physical Plant Building at Cleveland State University. The name-plate-rating of the system is 8 KW. The system has an active yaw control mechanism that orients four turbines into the prevailing wind. The electricity generated by each turbine is conducted to a multi channel junction box via a multi-channel high power slip ring. Each turbine has its own inverter unit that converts the generated power from DC to AC power with adjusted phasing. The AC power is then fed into the Plant Service Building at CSU. Preliminary experimental data shows that the energy produced by a single standard turbine incorporated into this proposed wind tower system is increased by a factor or 3 to 4 folds compared to the same turbine under the same wind conditions.

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Hydrogen Fuel Cells Applied to Mobile Ground Support and Materials Handling Equipment

Mr. Frank Jakob

Battelle Memorial Institute

Systems engineering is required to ease the path to implementation for non-carbon (hydrogen) based vehicles. Lacking a hydrogen infrastructure, one-off demonstrations are doubly difficult to accomplish because both the fuel-cell device and the hydrogen refueling infrastructure have to be provided. This presentation will discuss the benefits of concentrating the density of fuel-cell vehicles use as a means of enabling affordable hydrogen refueling for those multiple devices. This applied systems approach increases the number of implementations for fuel cells in vehicles. In particular, the conversion of propane and/or battery powered materials handling equipment (fork lifts, aircraft tow tugs, etc.) can be shown to have paybacks for sufficient concentrations and usage duty-cycles for those vehicles.

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The Grid of the Future: A Systems Approach to Achieving Stability and Security

Dr. Ken Loparo

Case Western Reserve University

The development and deployment of alternative energy resources, e.g. solar and wind, will be required to meet future demands for electricity while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and carbon footprint. Because these energy resources will be highly distributed with intermittent availability and capacity factors that can be significantly below that of a conventional power generating plant, the effective integration of these systems into the grid to maintain stability, security and operational reliability is a challenging problem that requires a systems approach.

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Passive House:  The World’s Most Demanding Energy Efficiency Standard

Mr. Mark Hoberecht

National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Glenn Research Center

The Passive House standard represents a paradigm shift in residential construction by saving nearly 90% in heating/cooling costs over conventional homes.  These homes rely mostly on “passive” solar orientation and “passive” heat gains from people, appliances, consumer electronics, etc.  Any remaining heating/cooling loads are typically met with very small supplementary systems, such as room-specific radiant heaters and ductless mini-split systems.  Conventional furnaces and even geothermal systems are oversized and therefore unnecessary in Passive Houses.

 All Passive Houses are characterized by super-insulation, high performance windows and doors, virtually air-tight construction, and energy-recovery ventilation.  Not only are these homes energy efficient, they also provide exceptional health and comfort.  Over 15,000 projects in Europe, from the Mediterranean to Scandinavia, attest to the viability of the Passive House.  The standard has been so successful that several European countries are now considering making Passive House the minimum code requirement by the middle of the next decade.

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Cleveland's Green Solution for Using Renewable Energy Sources to Generate Hydrogen Fuel for Transportation

Dr. Valerie Lyons

National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Glenn Research Center

Abstract 7

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Track 2: Systems Methods

 

System Engineering: 12 Essential Practices for System Development Success

Charles Wasson

Wasson Strategics, LLC

Organizations developing systems and products often face budgetary constraints that limit the level of the System Engineering effectiveness. To meet this challenge, technical programs often resort to traditional "Build-Test-Fix" methods on the false assumption of economy and schedule knowing the methods are prone to failure, especially on large, complex development efforts. In contrast, SE practices tailored within budgetary constraints provide the most significant return on investment (ROI) and improved probability for system development success.

 This presentation identifies 12 System Engineering practices essential to system development success. Mr. Wasson examines each of the SE practices as contributory performance effecters that provide the greatest ROI for achieving technical program success and improving SE effectiveness. Topics include: requirements analysis, allocation, lowdown, and traceability; system architecture selection and development; interface definition and control; complexity management; model-based system engineering (MBSE); baseline management; SE metrics; verification & validation (V&V); et al.

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Getting More for Less with a Systems Approach: An Innovative Architecture for Integrating Requirements, Risk and Verification/Validation Management

Jack Stein

Terumo Cardiovascular Systems Corporation

Organizations and project teams must comply with an increasing number of process management and documentation requirements. This is especially true in the medical device, DoD, government, and commercial sectors where the design and development of products and systems is regulated or bound by stringent contractual obligations. Without careful consideration to data and information management efficiency and quality, compliance to these requirements can be very burdensome and costly.

This paper presents an integrated process/data management architecture that achieves compliance while improving efficiency and effectiveness of the requirements, risk, verification and validation processes. This is accomplished by eliminating redundancy of data and tasks, ensuring traceability, enhancing communication and understanding, and facilitating rapid learning. The system is complete and closed loop, which ensures ease of compliance demonstration and facilitates ease of creating error-free documentation. It is adaptable to different levels of system complexity and hierarchical structures and enables metrics on project deliverables. It is reusable and maintainable throughout the system full life cycle, speeds the design & development process, and better ensures satisfaction of customer requirements.

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Framing the Question; Key to Understanding Stakeholder Expectations

John R. Chiorini, Ph.D.

The Center for Systems Management

Top level requirements and the associated acceptance criteria make the assumption that we understand the stakeholder’s expectations of success for a project. Helping the stakeholders frame their problem and in fact selecting the proper frame to begin questioning stakeholders about their expectations is a key step in defining the problem and its candidate solutions. I recommend understanding the “cloud of expectations” before stating acceptance criteria and their associated top level requirements.

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Modeling, Simulation and Analysis of Integrated Multi-Disciplinary System of Systems

Dr. Eric A. Walters

PC Krause and Associates, Inc.

PC Krause and Associates, Inc. (PCKA) is a high-tech consulting firm that has been involved for more than two decades in modeling, simulation and analysis (MS&A) focused on modern aircraft/spacecraft systems, which contain various components and subsystems. These typically include electromagnetic, electromechanical, aerodynamic, prognostics and health management, and thermal management subsystems. Often the models of the components/subsystems are of differing levels of fidelity and developed using simulation tools/languages that are discipline-specific. During the various stages of system design, it becomes desirable to connect these models to form an integrated (system of systems) simulation. Such integrated MS&A capability is essential to ensure that the design and system-level optimization requirements will be satisfied. PCKA has developed several custom software tools to augment popular commercial-off-the-shelf software simulation packages in order to meet its customer’s needs. These tools have been applied to several notable DoD development programs, particularly in the areas of More-Electric and Energy-Optimized Aircraft. In this presentation, a brief overview of some of PCKA’s tools is provided while highlighting their impact on such programs.

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INCOSE Cleveland-Northern Ohio Chapter

Last Updated October 30, 2009

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