ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Utility companies and corporate project developers now have help assessing how much money adding an energy storage system will save them thanks to new Sandia National Laboratories software. The software, called Quest, can also be used by energy researchers to evaluate different energy storage scenarios and model the potential of new solutions. […]
Author Archives: Mollie Rappe
Simulating sneezes and coughs to show how COVID-19 spreads
May 11, 2021 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Two groups of researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have published papers on the droplets of liquid sprayed by coughs or sneezes and how far they can travel under different conditions. Both teams used Sandia’s decades of experience with advanced computer simulations studying how liquids and gases move for its nuclear stockpile stewardship […]
Retaining knowledge of nuclear waste management
April 7, 2021 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Have you ever started a new job and spent a lot of time figuring out everything from how to get paper for the printer to whether an important customer prefers quick phone calls to emails? Imagine if that important customer was the federal government and the project you were working on was […]
Finding fire and ice: Modeling the probability of methane hydrate deposits on the seafloor
March 17, 2021 – 5:00 am
RALEIGH, N.C. — Methane hydrate, an ice-like material made of compressed natural gas, burns when lit and can be found in some regions of the seafloor and in Arctic permafrost. Thought to be the world’s largest source of natural gas, methane hydrate is a potential fuel source, and if it “melts” and methane gas is […]
Catching energy-exploration caused earthquakes before they happen
March 10, 2021 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Geoscientists at Sandia National Laboratories used 3D-printed rocks and an advanced, large-scale computer model of past earthquakes to understand and prevent earthquakes triggered by energy exploration. Injecting water underground after unconventional oil and gas extraction, commonly known as fracking, geothermal energy stimulation and carbon dioxide sequestration all can trigger earthquakes. Of course, […]
Thin explosive films provide snapshot of how detonations start
March 4, 2021 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Using thin films — no more than a few pieces of notebook paper thick — of a common explosive chemical, researchers from Sandia National Laboratories studied how small-scale explosions start and grow. Sandia is the only lab in the U.S. that can make such detonatable thin films. These experiments advanced fundamental knowledge […]
Search and rescue volunteers from Sandia respond to wilderness misadventures
March 1, 2021 – 8:48 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — By day, Craig Tenney is a chemical engineer at Sandia National Laboratories. But sometimes as he readies for bed, he gets a call and instead finds himself on an icy trail, mere feet from a cliff high above the city in the Sandia Mountains rescuing a couple of hikers who thought they […]
New tool at Sandia brings some West Texas wind to the Duke City — virtually
February 2, 2021 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have a new tool that allows them to study wind power and see whether it can be efficiently used to provide power to people living in remote and rural places or even off the grid, through distributed energy. A new, custom-built wind turbine emulator has been installed […]
Generating electrical power from waste heat
July 9, 2018 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Directly converting electrical power to heat is easy. It regularly happens in your toaster, that is, if you make toast regularly. The opposite, converting heat into electrical power, isn’t so easy. Researchers from Sandia National Laboratories have developed a tiny silicon-based device that can harness what was previously called waste heat and […]
Smarter, safer bridges with Sandia sensors
July 3, 2018 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Along with flying cars and instantaneous teleportation, smart bridges, roads and subway lines that can send out warnings when they’re damaged are staples of futuristic transportation systems in science fiction. Sandia National Laboratories has worked with Structural Monitoring Systems PLC, a U.K.-based manufacturer of structural health monitoring sensors, for over 15 years […]
Sandia’s robotic work cell conducts high-throughput testing ‘in an instant’
June 11, 2018 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Today with 3D printing you can make almost anything in a matter of hours. However, making sure that part works reliably takes weeks or even months. Until now. Sandia National Laboratories has designed and built a six-sided work cell, similar to a circular desk, with a commercial robot at its center that […]
Sandia’s Robot Rodeo provides training for bomb squads
June 8, 2018 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — For a dozen years, robotics experts from the national laboratories have shared their skill with first responders who use robots for hazardous tasks by coordinating annual training competitions to help prepare them for dangerous real-world situations. Next week, Sandia National Laboratories will host the 12th annual Western National Robot Rodeo, a weeklong, […]
Magnetic nanoparticles leap from lab bench to breast cancer clinical trials
April 30, 2018 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories materials chemist Dale Huber has been working on the challenge of making iron-based nanoparticles the exact same size for 15 years. Now, he and his long-term collaborators at Imagion Biosystems will use these magnetic nanoparticles for their first breast cancer clinical trial later this year. The nanoparticles stick to […]