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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 199 records · Page 11
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Application of physics-informed neural networks (PINNs) solution to coupled thermal and hydraulic processes in silty sands

Abstract The accurate modeling of water and heat transport in soils is crucial for both geo-environmental and geothermal engineering. Traditional modeling methods are problematic because they require well-defined boundaries and initial conditions. Recently, physics-informed neural networks (PINNs), which incorporate partial differential equations (PDEs) to solve forward and inverse problems, have attracted increasing attention in machine learning research. In this study, we applied PINNs to tackle hydraulic and thermal transport coupling forward problems in silty sands. A fully connected deep neural network was utilized for training. This neural network model leverages automatic differentiation to apply the governing equations as constraints, based on the mathematical approximations established by the neural network itself. We conducted forward problems and compared the solutions derived from PINNs with those from Finite Element Method (FEM) simulations. The forward problem results demonstrate the PINNs model’s capability in predicting hydraulic transport, heat transport, and thermal–hydraulic coupling in silty sands under various boundary conditions. The PINNs exhibited great performance in simulating the thermal–hydraulic coupling problem. The accuracy of the PINNs solutions shows its potential for simulation in geotechnical engineering.

Feng, Yuan↗
DOE OSTI2022

A physics‐informed learning technique for fault location of DC microgrids using traveling waves

Abstract Fast and accurate fault location in DC power systems is of particular importance to ensure their reliable operation. One of the approaches for implementing a fast‐tripping protection scheme is to use Traveling waves (TW) initiated by a fault scenario. This paper proposes a physics‐informed machine learning approach that utilizes TWs for fault location in DC microgrids. TWs are extracted by the so‐called multiresolution analysis which identifies the TW's wavelet coefficients for multiple frequency ranges. This paper deploys Parseval's theorem to find the energy of wavelet coefficients as a quantitative metric for describing TWs. The hypothesis of this paper is that once the Parseval energy curves for a specific cable are extracted, they can be utilized to locate faults along with that cable regardless of the DC system in which the cable is deployed. The fault location algorithm uses Parseval energy curves to train a Gaussian Process (GP) estimator. With the Parseval energy values of measured current at the protection device location, the GP estimator is able to estimate fault locations with high accuracy. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is verified by simulating a DC microgrid system in PSCAD/EMTDC.

Paruthiyil, Sajay Krishnan↗
DOE OSTI2025

Physics-informed transformation toward improving the machine-learned NLTE models of ICF simulations

The integration of machine-learning techniques into inertial confinement fusion (ICF) simulations has emerged as a powerful approach for enhancing computational efficiency. By replacing the costly nonlocal thermodynamic equilibrium (NLTE) model with machine-learning models, significant reductions in calculation time have been achieved. However, determining how to optimize machine-learning-based NLTE models in order to match ICF simulation dynamics remains challenging, underscoring the need for physically relevant error metrics and strategies to enhance model accuracy with respect to these metrics. Thus, we propose novel physics-informed transformations designed to emphasize energy transport, use these transformations to establish new error metrics, and demonstrate that they yield smaller errors within reduced principal-component spaces compared to conventional transformations. Published by the American Physical Society 2025

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Physics-informed machine learning assisted uncertainty quantification for the corrosion of dissimilar material joints

Jointing techniques like the Self-Piercing Riveting (SPR), Resistance Spot Welding (RSW) and Rivet-Weld (RW) joints are used for mass production of dissimilar material joints due to their high performance, short cycle time, and adaptability. However, the service life and safety usage of these joints can be largely impacted by the galvanic corrosion due to the difference in equilibrium potentials between the metals with the presence of electrolyte. Here, in this paper, we focus on Al-Fe galvanic corrosion and develop physics-informed machine learning based surrogate model for statistical corrosion analysis, which enables the reliability analysis of dissimilar material joints under corrosion environment. In this study, a physics-based finite element (FE) corrosion model has been developed to simulate the galvanic corrosion between a Fe cathode and an Al anode. Geometric and environmental factors including crevice gap, roughness of anode, conductivity, and the temperature of the electrolyte are investigated. Further, a thorough Uncertainty Quantification (UQ) analysis is conducted for the overall corrosion behavior of the Fe-Al joints. It is found that the electrolyte conductivity has the largest effects on the material loss and needs to be managed closely for better corrosion control. This will help in designing and manufacturing joints with improved corrosion performance.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2026

PowerModelsGAT-AI: Physics-Informed Graph Attention for Multi-System Power Flow With Continual Learning

Solving the alternating current power flow equations in real time is essential for secure grid operation, yet classical Newton–Raphson solvers can be slow under stressed conditions. Existing graph neural networks for power flow are typically trained on a single system and often degrade on different systems. We present PowerModelsGAT-AI, a physics-informed graph attention network that predicts bus voltages and generator injections. The model uses bus-type-aware masking to handle different bus types and balances multiple loss terms, including a power-mismatch penalty, using learned weights. We evaluate the model on 14 benchmark systems (4 to 6,470 buses) and train a unified model on 13 of these under contingency conditions with up to two branch outages, achieving an average normalized mean absolute error of 0.89% for voltage magnitudes and R 2 >0.99 for voltage angles. We also show continual learning: when adapting a base model to a new 1,354-bus system, standard fine-tuning causes severe forgetting with error increases exceeding 1000% on base systems, while our experience replay and elastic weight consolidation strategy keeps error increases below 2% and in some cases improves base-system performance. Interpretability analysis shows that learned attention weights correlate with physical branch parameters (susceptance: r=0.38 ; thermal limits: r=0.22 ), and feature importance analysis supports that the model captures established power flow relationships.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2022

Physics Informed Reinforcement Learning for Power Grid Control using Augmented Random Search

Wide adoption of deep reinforcement learning need to overcome several challenges in energy system domain, including scalability, learning from limited samples, and high-dimensional continuous state and action spaces. In this paper, we integrated physics-based information from the normal generator operation state formula in the reinforcement learning agent's neural network loss function, and applied an augmented random search agent to optimize the generator control under dynamic contingency. Simulation results demonstrated the reliability performance improvements in training speed, reward convergence, sampling efficiency, scalability, and transferability.

physics informed ML, Physics Informed Neural Netwo↗
DOE OSTI2024

Compensating for Sintering Distortion in Additively Manufactured Shaped Charge Liners using Physics-Informed Machine Learning

Copper is a challenging material to process using laser-based additive manufacturing due to its high reflectivity and high thermal conductivity. Sintering-based processes can produce solid copper parts without the processing challenges and defects associated with laser melting; however, sintering can also cause distortion in copper parts, especially those with thin walls. In this study, we use physics-informed Gaussian process regression to predict and compensate for sintering distortion in thin-walled copper parts produced using a Markforged Metal X bound powder extrusion (BPE) additive manufacturing system. Through experimental characterization and computational simulation of copper’s viscoelastic sintering behavior, we can predict sintering deformation. We can then manufacture, simulate, and test parts with various compensation scaling factors to inform Gaussian process regression and predict a compensated as-printed (pre-sintered) part geometry that produces the desired final (post-sintered) part.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Learning the solution operator of parametric partial differential equations with physics-informed DeepONets

Partial differential equations (PDEs) play a central role in the mathematical analysis and modeling of complex dynamic processes across all corners of science and engineering. Their solution often requires laborious analytical or computational tools, associated with a cost that is markedly amplified when different scenarios need to be investigated, for example, corresponding to different initial or boundary conditions, different inputs, etc. In this work, we introduce physics-informed DeepONets, a deep learning framework for learning the solution operator of arbitrary PDEs, even in the absence of any paired input-output training data. We illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework in rapidly predicting the solution of various types of parametric PDEs up to three orders of magnitude faster compared to conventional PDE solvers, setting a previously unexplored paradigm for modeling and simulation of nonlinear and nonequilibrium processes in science and engineering.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2023

A physics informed bayesian optimization approach for material design: application to NiTi shape memory alloys

Abstract The design of materials and identification of optimal processing parameters constitute a complex and challenging task, necessitating efficient utilization of available data. Bayesian Optimization (BO) has gained popularity in materials design due to its ability to work with minimal data. However, many BO-based frameworks predominantly rely on statistical information, in the form of input-output data, and assume black-box objective functions. In practice, designers often possess knowledge of the underlying physical laws governing a material system, rendering the objective function not entirely black-box, as some information is partially observable. In this study, we propose a physics-informed BO approach that integrates physics-infused kernels to effectively leverage both statistical and physical information in the decision-making process. We demonstrate that this method significantly improves decision-making efficiency and enables more data-efficient BO. The applicability of this approach is showcased through the design of NiTi shape memory alloys, where the optimal processing parameters are identified to maximize the transformation temperature.

Chemistry↗
DOE OSTI2023

A physics-informed deep learning model of the hot tail runaway electron seed

A challenging aspect of the description of a tokamak disruption is evaluating the hot tail runaway electron seed that emerges during the thermal quench. This problem is made challenging due to the requirement of describing a strongly non-thermal electron distribution, together with the need to incorporate a diverse range of multiphysics processes, including magnetohydrodynamic instabilities, impurity transport, and radiative losses. Here this work develops a physics-informed neural network (PINN) tailored to the solution of the hot tail seed during an axisymmetric thermal quench. Here, a PINN is developed to identify solutions to the adjoint relativistic Fokker–Planck equation in the presence of a rapid quench of the plasma's thermal energy. It is shown that the PINN is able to accurately predict the hot tail seed across a range of parameters, including the thermal quench timescale, initial plasma temperature, and local current density, in the absence of experimental or simulation data. The hot tail PINN is verified by comparison with direct Monte Carlo simulations, with excellent agreement found across a broad range of thermal quench conditions.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

The development of thermodynamically consistent and physics-informed equation-of-state model through machine learning

Ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations have become an important tool used in the construction of equations of state (EOS) tables for warm dense matter. Due to computational costs, only a limited number of system state conditions can be simulated, and the remaining EOS surface must be interpolated for use in radiation-hydrodynamic simulations of experiments. In this work, we develop a thermodynamically consistent EOS model that utilizes a physics-informed machine learning approach to implicitly learn the underlying Helmholtz free-energy from AIMD generated energies and pressures. The model, referred to as PIML-EOS, was trained and tested on warm dense polystyrene producing a fit within a 1% relative error for both energy and pressure and is shown to satisfy both the Maxwell and Gibbs–Duhem relations. In addition, we provide a path toward obtaining thermodynamic quantities, such as the total entropy and chemical potential (containing both ionic and electronic contributions), which are not available from current AIMD simulations.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Physics-Informed Recurrent Neural Networks to Predict Reactor Operations of the AGN-201 Nuclear Reactor

4 page paper submitted to ANS Student conference. Summary of paper similar to the following abstract: The ability to predict how a reactor will operate, understand when anomalous conditions arise, and ensure a reactor is being operated as expected is crucial for deploying new nuclear facilities. Digital twins serve as a unique solution to recognizing reactor behavior; however, they require data to be useful. For next-generation reactors, this data may not currently be available. To explore how synthetic physics-informed reactor data can be used to predict reactor operations, a recurrent neural network was implemented for the Idaho State University AGN-201 digital twin. The goal of this work is to determine how synthetic data can be used to train a recurrent neural network model for predicting the reactor power of the AGN-201. The recurrent neural network was validated using both synthetic and real operational data. We envision this approach will help bridge the gap between the virtual and physical sides of a digital twin, where reactor physics models based on as-built data can be corrected for actual operating parameters to ensure the virtual model mirrors reality.

98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL P↗
DOE OSTI2023

The Feasibility of Incorporating a 3D Velocity Model Into Earthquake Location Around Salt Lake City, UT Using a Physics Informed Neural Network

Earthquake location algorithms typically require travel time calculation. Doing this calculation in 3D, despite advances in algorithm efficiency and computational power, can still be prohibitively expensive in terms of resources and storage. Implementation of high-resolution 3D models in routine earthquake location would be a significant step forward in most of the world. Machine learning algorithms have potential to act as substitutes for travel time calculation algorithms or stored travel time tables. We investigate EikoNet - a physics informed neural network machine learning model that estimates travel times very quickly and comes with negligible memory-overhead. Specifically, we apply EikoNet to the Wasatch Fault Community Velocity Model (WFCVM), a highly detailed and complex 3D velocity model of the Salt Lake City, UT region. While routine locations in the area and studies of the 2020 Magna, UT earthquake sequence used a 1D velocity model, a 3D model may help better our understanding the structure of the major fault in the region. Our primary goal was to test the speed, memory requirements, and accuracy of EikoNet compared to a reference eikonal solver. We find that while the EikoNet is exceedingly fast and requires little memory overhead, achieving acceptable accuracy in estimated travel times is difficult and requires extensive computational resources.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Physics-Informed Learning for Predictive Multi-Scale Modeling of Water Cycle and Extreme Events

Climate and earth system models have limited skill in predicting water cycle and associated extremes such as intense rain- and wind-producing storms and resulting hazards across all timescales. Water cycle predictions are inherently limited by the predictability of the chaotic system, but large potential for improving predictions remains untapped due to limited use of data-model integration to improve predictive modeling. This white paper proposes a hybrid data-physics paradigm based on physics-informed neural networks (PINNs) to improve the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM). In particular, we aim to predict and quantify uncertainties of water cycle processes and low probability high impact events.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Evaluation of GlassNet for physics-informed machine learning of glass stability and glass-forming ability

Glassy materials form the basis of many modern applications, including nuclear waste immobilization, touch-screen displays, and optical fibers, and also hold great potential for future medical and environmental applications. However, their structural complexity and large composition space make design and optimization challenging for certain applications. Of particular importance for glass processing and design is an estimate of a given composition's glass-forming ability (GFA). However, there remain many open questions regarding the underlying physical mechanisms of glass formation, especially in oxide glasses. It is apparent that a proxy for GFA would be highly useful in glass processing and design, but identifying such a surrogate property has proven itself to be difficult. While glass stability (GS) parameters have historically been used as a GFA surrogate, recent research has demonstrated that most of these parameters are not accurate predictors of the GFA of oxide glasses. Here, in this work, we explore the application of an open-source pre-trained neural network model, GlassNet, that can predict the characteristic temperatures necessary to compute GS with reasonable performance and assess the feasibility of using these physics-informed machine learning (PIML)-predicted GS parameters to estimate GFA. In doing so, we track the uncertainties at each step of the computation—from the original ML prediction errors to the compounding of errors during GS estimation, and finally to the final estimation of GFA. While GlassNet exhibits reasonable accuracy on all individual properties, we observe a large compounding of error in the combination of these individual predictions for the PIML prediction of GS, finding that random forest models offer similar accuracy to GlassNet. We also break down the performance of GlassNet on different glass families and find that the error in GS prediction is correlated with the error in crystallization peak temperature prediction. Lastly, we utilize this finding to assess the relationship between top-performing GS parameters and GFA for two ternary glass systems: sodium borosilicate and sodium iron phosphate glasses. We conclude that to obtain true ML predictive capability of GFA, significantly more data needs to be collected.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Accelerating charge estimation in molecular dynamics simulations using physics-informed neural networks: corrosion applications

Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations are used to understand the effects of corrosion on metallic materials in salt brine. Reactive force fields in classical MD enable accurate modeling of bond formation and breakage in the aqueous medium and at the metal-electrolyte interface, while also facilitating dynamic partial charge equilibration. However, MD simulations are computationally intensive and unsuitable for modeling the long time scales characteristic of corrosive phenomena. To address this, we develop reduced-order machine learning models that provide accurate and efficient predictions of charge density in corrosive environments. Specifically, we use Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) networks to forecast charge density evolution based on atomic environments represented by Smooth Overlap of Atomic Positions (SOAP) descriptors. A physics-informed loss function enforces charge neutrality and electronegativity equivalence. The atomic charges predicted by the deep learning model trained on this work were obtained two orders of magnitude faster than those from molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, with an error of less than 3% compared to the MD-obtained charges, even in extrapolative scenarios, while adhering to physical constraints. This demonstrates the excellent accuracy, computational efficiency, and validity of the developed model. Lastly, even though developed for corrosion, these protocols are formulated in a phenomenon-agnostic manner, allowing application to various variable-charge interatomic potentials and related fields.

Atomistic models↗
DOE OSTI2023

Physics informed deep neural network embedded in a chemical transport model for the Amazon rainforest

Secondary organic aerosols (SOA) are fine particles in the atmosphere, which interact with clouds, radiation and affect the Earth’s energy budget. SOA formation involves chemistry in gas phase, aqueous aerosols, and clouds. Simulating these chemical processes involve solving a stiff set of differential equations, which are computationally expensive steps for three-dimensional chemical transport models. Deep neural networks (DNNs) are universal function approximators that could be used to represent the complex nonlinear changes in aerosol physical and chemical processes; however, key challenges such as generalizability to extended time periods, preservation of mass balance, simulating sparse model outputs, and maintaining physical constraints have limited their use in atmospheric chemistry. Here, we develop an approach of using a physics-informed DNN that overcomes previous such challenges and demonstrates its applicability for the chemical formation processes of isoprene epoxydiol SOA (IEPOX-SOA) over the Amazon rainforest. The DNN is trained with data generated by simulating IEPOX-SOA over the entire atmospheric column, using the Weather Research and Forecasting Model coupled with Chemistry (WRF-Chem). The trained DNN is then embedded within WRF-Chem to replace the computationally expensive default solver of IEPOX-SOA formation. The trained DNN predictions generalizes well with the default model simulation of the IEPOX-SOA mass concentrations and its size distribution (20 size bins) over several days of simulations in both dry and wet seasons. The embedded DNN reduces the computational expense of WRF-Chem by a factor of 2. Our approach shows promise in terms of application to other computationally expensive chemistry solvers in climate models.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

Inferring Plant Acclimation and Improving Model Generalizability With Differentiable Physics‐Informed Machine Learning of Photosynthesis

Net photosynthesis (A N ) is a key component of the global carbon cycle influencing climate feedback over decadal scales. Although plant acclimation to environmental changes can modify A N , traditional vegetation models in Earth system models (ESMs) often rely on plant functional type (PFT)-specific parameterizations or simplified acclimation assumptions limiting generalizability across time, space, and PFTs. In this study, we developed a differentiable photosynthesis model to learn the environmental dependencies of V c,max25 (maximum carboxylation rate at 25°C, representing photosynthetic capacity), as this genre of hybrid physics-informed machine learning can seamlessly train neural networks and process-based equations together. Compared to PFT-specific parameterization of V c,max25 , learning the environment dependencies of key photosynthetic parameters improved model spatiotemporal generalizability. Applying environmental acclimation to V c,max25 led to substantial variations in global mean A N indicating the need to address acclimation in ESMs. The model effectively captured multivariate observations (V c,max25 , A N , and stomatal conductance (g s )) simultaneously with multivariate constraints, improving generalization across space and PFTs. It also learned sensible acclimation relationships of V c,max25 to different environmental conditions. The model explained more than 54%, 57%, and 62% of the variance of A N , g s , and V c,max25 , respectively, presenting a first global-scale spatial test benchmark of A N and g s . These results highlight the potential for differentiable modeling to enhance process-based modules in ESMs and effectively leverage information from large, multivariate data sets.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗