10 Jan 2024

CRREL Environmental Wind Tunnel Upgrades and the Snowstorm Library

Abstract: Environmental wind tunnels are ideal for basic research and applied physical modeling of atmospheric conditions and turbulent wind flow. The Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory's own Environmental Wind Tunnel (EWT)—an open-circuit suction wind tunnel—has been historically used for snowdrift modeling. Recently the EWT has gone through several upgrades, namely the three-axis chassis motors, variable frequency drive, and probe and data acquisition systems. The upgraded wind tunnel was used to simulate various snowstorm conditions to produce a library of images for training machine learning models. Various objects and backgrounds were tested in snowy test conditions and no-snow control conditions, producing a total of 1.4 million training images. This training library can lead to improved machine learning models for image-cleanup and noise-reduction purposes for Army operations in snowy environments.

9 Jan 2024

The Black Experience at Fort Huachuca during WWII: An Interpretation and Exhibit Plan for the Mountain View Officers’ Club

Abstract: This technical report serves as a contextual planning document for an interpretive exhibit within and surrounding the Mountain View Officers’ Club, Building 66050, at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. During World War II (WWII), the Mountain View Officers’ Club served as the installation’s Black officers’ club. It served as various other uses until 2004, at which point it became vacant. Today, Fort Huachuca is planning to rehabilitate the building into a mission use space with an indoor-outdoor exhibit space for visitor use within the rehabilitation plan footprint, an 8.15 acre Area of Potential Effect (APE) including the WWII building and associated adjacent features. This report provides numerous potential Courses of Action regarding methods of exhibiting and interpreting historic materials and information in the public spaces within the APE. The Courses of Action chosen during a future Design-Build phase will be based on factors currently unknown, such as funding and staffing; thus, this document serves as a Phase I concept plan for ideas that will be further developed and finalized during the Phase II Design-Build phase. This report also provides guidance for course of action implementation pending factors currently unknown. Fort Huachuca will keep this report in both digital and analog format in perpetuity. ERDC-CERL will also publish it online and make it available to the public free of cost.

9 Jan 2024

Cartographic Comparative Analysis of Undocumented Farmsteads at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin

Abstract: Government acquisition of farmland within the present-day boundaries of Fort McCoy is defined by two consequential events: the founding of the installation in 1909, and its expansion in the early 1940s to provide training lands during World War II. Since the 1990s, Fort McCoy’s cultural resources manager (CRM) has sponsored archaeological investigations to determine the eligibility of former farmstead sites for the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). Using geographic information systems (GISs) to compare historic cartographic sources, this project attempts to ascertain whether there are additional farmstead sites at Fort McCoy that may have been overlooked in existing archaeological investigations. Additionally, it provides a short summary of farmstead archaeological activity at Fort McCoy over the past 20 years, a brief historic context highlighting characteristics of farmsteads in the Upper Midwest, and a brief explanation of enhanced lidar techniques that personnel at Fort McCoy can explore for future use. Finally, an appendix provides a list of questions that may be used to conduct oral interviews with descendants of families who farmed within the present-day boundaries of Fort McCoy.

9 Jan 2024

Preliminary Permafrost Predictions within the Chena River Watershed, Alaska, Using Landscape Characteristics

Purpose: This Technical Note presents a method to create permafrost predictions in the Chena River watershed near Fairbanks, Alaska, using landscape characteristics. We produced probabilities for near-surface permafrost in the Chena River watershed using a published algorithm applied in a nearby region. The methodology presented serves as a proof of concept for developing permafrost maps using similar data in other cold regions.

8 Jan 2024

Scaled-Up Synthesis of Water-Retaining Alginate-Based Hydrogel

Purpose: Synthesis of a scaled-up version of a lithium-ion-based alginate/poly(acrylamide-co-stearyl methacrylate) [Li-alginate/P(AAm-co-SMA)] hydrogel with several optimizations for thermal signature investigations on various environmental substrates.

8 Jan 2024

Review of Regressive Channel Erosion and Grade Control Options on the Rio Coca, Ecuador

Purpose: The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is assisting the Ecuadorian state-run Corporación Eléctrica del Ecuador (CELEC) in addressing a water resource issue involving regressive channel erosion on the Rio Coca. Reconnaissance of the site was completed the week of 21 February 2022; parts of the river system were viewed to determine if improvements could be made to the current grade control structure (GCS) mitigation plan for reducing channel erosion and stabilizing the river system downstream of the Coca Coda Sinclair (CCS) Dam. The Rio Coca is a tributary to the Amazon River system in South America. It originates on the east side of the Andes Mountains and generally flows from southwest to northeast through the project area and then turns and flows east into the Amazon basin (Figure 1).* The Rio Coca valley is a current example of how damaging regressive erosion can be to a fluvial system (Figure 2).

8 Jan 2024

Assessing Differences in the Wetland Functional Capacity of Wet Pine Flatwood Compensatory Mitigation Sites Managed with Prescribed Fire and Mechanical Mowing

Abstract: This report assesses the functional capacity of wet pine flatwood wetland habitats in the Gulf Coastal region of the United States, with a specific focus on compensatory mitigation sites maintained using mowing or prescribed fire, or both, as understory management strategies. The use of mowing in lieu of prescribed fire treatments has been proposed for a variety of reasons, including when mitigation sites are located near residential areas or where fires pose a risk to private property and public safety. This study evaluates the effects of mechanized mowing on ecosystem functions by using the hydrogeomorphic (HGM) wetland functional-assessment method to compare mitigation sites managed by mowing to sites managed by prescribed-fire regimes. Assessing mowing as a vegetation-control strategy in lieu of prescribed-fire regimes provides valuable information that can improve the design and management of wet pine flatwoods mitigation sites throughout portions of the southeastern United States, where this wetland class occurs.

8 Jan 2024

RISC TAMER Framework: Resilient Installation Support Against Compound Threats Analysis and Mitigation for Equipment and Resources Framework

Every day, decision-makers must allocate resources based on the best available information at the time. Military installations face a variety of threats which challenge sustained functionality of their supporting and supported deployable systems. Considering the compounding and interdependent impacts of the threats, both specified (what is known) and unspecified (what is not known) and the investments needed to address these threats adds value to the decision-making process. Current risk management practices are generally evaluated via scenario analyses that do not consider compound threats, resulting in limited risk management solutions. Current practices also challenge the ability of decision-makers to increase resilience against such threats. The Resilient Installation Support against Compound Threats Analysis and Mitigation for Equipment and Resources (RISC TAMER) Framework establishes a decision support structure to identify and categorize system components, compound threats and risks, and system relationships to provide decision-makers with more complete and comprehensive information from which to base resilience-related decisions, for prevention and response. This paper focuses on the development process for RISC TAMER framework to optimize resilience enhancements for a wide variety of deployable systems in order to implement resilience strategies to protect assets, to increase adaptability, and to support power projection and global operations.

4 Jan 2024

Radio Frequency Heating of Washable Conductive Textiles for Bacteria and Virus Inactivation

Abstract: The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has increased the use of single-use medical fabrics such as surgical masks, respirators, and other personal protective equipment (PPE), which have faced worldwide supply chain shortages. Reusable PPE is desirable in light of such shortages; however, the use of reusable PPE is largely restricted by the difficulty of rapid sterilization. In this work, we demonstrate successful bacterial and viral inactivation through remote and rapid radio frequency (RF) heating of conductive textiles. The RF heating behavior of conductive polymer-coated fabrics was measured for several different fabrics and coating compositions. Next, to determine the robustness and repeatability of this heating response, we investigated the textile’s RF heating response after multiple detergent washes. Finally, we show a rapid reduction of bacteria and virus by RF heating our conductive fabric. 99.9% of methicillin¬resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) was removed from our conductive fabrics after only 10 min of RF heating; human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) was completely sterilized after 5 min of RF heating. These results demonstrate that RF heating conductive polymer-coated fabrics offer new opportunities for applications of conductive textiles in the medical and/or electronic fields.

4 Jan 2024

Influence of Chemical Coatings on Solar Panel Performance Snow Accumulation

Abstract: Solar panel performance can be impacted when panel surfaces are coated with substances like dust, dirt, snow, or ice that scatter and/or absorb light and may reduce efficiency. As a consequence, time and resources are required to clean solar panels during and after extreme weather events or whenever surface coating occurs. Treating solar panels with chemical coatings that shed materials may decrease the operating costs associated with solar panel maintenance and cleaning. This study investigates three commercial coatings for use as self-cleaning glass technologies. Optical and thermal properties (reflectivity, absorption, and transmission) are investigated for each coating as well as their surface wettability and particle size. Incoming solar radiation was continuously monitored and snow events were logged to estimate power production capabilities and surface accumulation for each panel. In terms of power output, the commercial coatings made little impact on overall power production compared to the control (uncoated) panels. This was attributable to the overall high transmission, low absorption, and low reflection of each of the commercial coatings, making their presence on the surface of solar panels have minimal impact besides to potentially shed snow While the coatings made no observable difference to increase power production compared to the control panels, the shedding results from video monitoring suggest both the hydrophilic or hydrophobic test coatings decreased snow accumulation to a greater extent than the control panels (uncoated). Controlling the wettability properties of the solar panel surfaces has the potential to limit snow accumulation when compared to uncoated panel surfaces.