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At least 199 records · Page 11

A Poisson equation method for prescribing fully developed non-Newtonian inlet conditions for computational fluid dynamics simulations in models of arbitrary cross-section

Prescribing inlet boundary conditions for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations of internal flow in complex geometries such as anatomical vascular models is challenging. In the absence of patient-specific inlet velocity data, a common approach for long blood vessels is to assume that the inlet flow is fully developed. In vessels of irregular cross section, however, prescribing fully developed conditions is complicated due to the lack of a general closed-form analytical solution. In this study, we develop a simple Poisson equation method for prescribing fully developed inlet conditions for the flow of either Newtonian or non-Newtonian fluids in CFD models of arbitrary cross-section. We first derive the generalized Poisson equation for fully developed flow of a non-Newtonian fluid and we then develop and verify a methodology for numerically computing the solution on any planar boundary domain. In addition, we develop a simple extension of the method for prescribing a non-orthogonal inlet velocity that represents fully developed flow from an upstream tube that is connected to the CFD inlet at a non-orthogonal angle. This may be used to investigate a common source of uncertainty in CFD simulations of internal flow that is due to a lack of information concerning the exact streamwise flow direction at the inlets. Comparison to several Newtonian and non-Newtonian benchmark verification solutions shows the method to be extremely accurate. As a practical demonstration case, we use the method to prescribe fully developed conditions on multiple non-circular inlets for the non-Newtonian flow of blood in a patient-specific model of the inferior vena cava (IVC). Finally, we further demonstrate the utility of the method by performing a sensitivity study using the patient-specific IVC model, wherein we investigate the influence of inlet velocity flow direction on the non-Newtonian IVC hemodynamics. Given its simplicity and computational efficiency, the method is shown to be far superior to alternative approaches for prescribing fully developed inlet conditions in such complicated geometries. In conclusion, to facilitate the adoption of our Poisson equation method, we have distributed our OpenFOAM source code and the associated test cases from this study as open-source software.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Assessment of Bird Strike Likelihood to Refine Bird Strike Risk Models

In its most basic form, bird strike risk is comprised of a frequency component that reflects the likelihood of a collision and a severity component that reflects the cost (monetary or otherwise) of the incident. The bird strike risk model currently used by United State Department of Agriculture (USDA) Wildlife Services to evaluate the risk posed by individual bird species at airports and establish priorities for management was developed in 2018. The model uses airport-specific data on the number of reported strikes for a species recorded in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)’s National Wildlife Strike Database as a measure of frequency and the species’ relative hazard score as a measure of severity. The model was tested against independent data, found to perform well overall, and is being implemented widely across the United States. However, the model has limitations, including that species known to pose risk to aircraft locally, but not present in the strike record database, are not reflected as a major component of risk. Standard bird survey methodology commonly used at airports (e.g. point counts or transects) potentially can be used to complement wildlife strike records to calculate frequency or relative abundance of species. However, these methods generally focus on airport-wide population estimation and often ignore vital information that contributes to the true likelihood of a strike, such as use of runway protection zones and other critical areas, and spatial and temporal overlap with departing or approaching aircraft. As such, a more detailed understanding of space use by birds across landcovers and population fluctuations across the year is needed to accurately estimate the likelihood of bird strikes at airports. In this manuscript, we will review the extant risk model, including a discussion on its limitations. We then discuss approaches for refining our understanding of strike likelihood and briefly touch on needs for estimating probability of strike severity (cost).

bird strike, aircraft collision, damage by wildlif↗

Utilizing physics-based input features within a machine learning model to predict wind speed forecasting error

Machine learning is quickly becoming a commonly used technique for wind speed and power forecasting. Many machine learning methods utilize exogenous variables as input features, but there remains the question of which atmospheric variables are most beneficial for forecasting, especially in handling non-linearities that lead to forecasting error. This question is addressed via creation of a hybrid model that utilizes an autoregressive integrated moving-average (ARIMA) model to make an initial wind speed forecast followed by a random forest model that attempts to predict the ARIMA forecasting error using knowledge of exogenous atmospheric variables. Variables conveying information about atmospheric stability and turbulence as well as inertial forcing are found to be useful in dealing with non-linear error prediction. Streamwise wind speed, time of day, turbulence intensity, turbulent heat flux, vertical velocity, and wind direction are found to be particularly useful when used in unison for hourly and 3 h timescales. The prediction accuracy of the developed ARIMA–random forest hybrid model is compared to that of the persistence and bias-corrected ARIMA models. The ARIMA–random forest model is shown to improve upon the latter commonly employed modeling methods, reducing hourly forecasting error by up to 5 % below that of the bias-corrected ARIMA model and achieving an R 2 value of 0.84 with true wind speed.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

Machine learning with persistent homology and chemical word embeddings improves prediction accuracy and interpretability in metal-organic frameworks

Machine learning has emerged as a powerful approach in materials discovery. Its major challenge is selecting features that create interpretable representations of materials, useful across multiple prediction tasks. We introduce an end-to-end machine learning model that automatically generates descriptors that capture a complex representation of a material’s structure and chemistry. This approach builds on computational topology techniques (namely, persistent homology) and word embeddings from natural language processing. It automatically encapsulates geometric and chemical information directly from the material system. We demonstrate our approach on multiple nanoporous metal–organic framework datasets by predicting methane and carbon dioxide adsorption across different conditions. Our results show considerable improvement in both accuracy and transferability across targets compared to models constructed from the commonly-used, manually-curated features, consistently achieving an average 25–30% decrease in root-mean-squared-deviation and an average increase of 40–50% in R 2 scores. A key advantage of our approach is interpretability: Our model identifies the pores that correlate best to adsorption at different pressures, which contributes to understanding atomic-level structure–property relationships for materials design.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Development and experimental evaluation of new building air leakage measurement methods: measurement of interior air leaks and comparison to conventional methods

Building air leaks (both through exterior and interior surfaces) can have a significant impact on energy consumption, indoor air quality, fire safety, and moisture accumulation affecting structural durability. Blower door testing has been used to measure leaks in buildings, but commonly used testing methods do not directly measure interior leaks. In this paper, new testing methods (guarded interior test and zonal multipoint pressure testing method) are presented that directly measure these interior leaks, utilizing common blower door equipment for both single and multi-point testing. Furthermore, these new methods are compared to conventional methods in terms of the information provided, limitations and time/effort needed. In addition, building leak measurement results are analyzed to reveal a) coupling between power law model values (exponent and coefficient) for an ensemble of buildings, b) the error in using single point testing when estimating low pressure leakage, and c) how building power law models vary from low to high pressure ranges.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

Superelement reduction of substructures for sequential load calculations in OpenFAST

This article presents the superelement formulation newly implemented in OpenFAST to simulate fixed-bottom substructures with a reduced-order model similar to a common industry practice. The Guyan and Craig-Bampton methods are used to reduce the number of degrees of freedom and generate a so-called "superelement". The formulation allows manufacturers to exchange such superelements to perform load calculations without revealing sensitive information about the support structure (e.g., foundation, substructure, and/or tower) or turbine. The source code is made publicly available in the OpenFAST repository. Test cases with varying degrees of complexity are presented to validate the technique, and accuracy issues are discussed.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

What is the Right Size for a Residential Building Parcel Locker?

Common-carrier parcel lockers present a solution for decreasing delivery times, traffic congestion, and emissions in dense urban areas through consolidation of deliveries. Multi-story residential buildings with large number of residents, and thus a high volume of online package orders, are one of the best venues for installing parcel lockers. But what is the right size for a residential building locker that would suit the residents’ and building managers’ needs? Because of the novelty of parcel lockers, there is no clear guideline for determining the right locker size and configuration for a residential building given the resident population. A small locker would result in packages exceeding capacity and being left in the lobby, increasing the building manager’s workload and confusing and inconveniencing users. On the other hand, a large locker is more expensive, more difficult to install, and unappealing to residents. To answer this question, we installed a common-carrier parcel locker in a residential building in downtown Seattle, WA, U.S.A. Through collecting detailed data on locker usage from the locker provider company, we studied and quantified carriers’ delivery patterns and residents’ online shopping and package pickup behaviors. We then used this information to model the locker delivery and pickup process, and simulated several locker configurations to find the one that best suits the delivery needs of the building. These findings could aid urban planners and building managers in choosing the right size for residential building lockers that meet delivery demand while minimizing costs and contributing to environmental benefits.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Improving Common PV Module Temperature Models by Incorporating Radiative Losses to the Sky

PV module operating temperature is the second-most important factor influencing PV system yield–after irradiance–and a substantial contributor to uncertainty in energy system yield predictions. Models commonly used to predict operating temperature in system simulations are based on a simplified energy balance that lumps together different heat loss mechanisms–including radiation–and assumes an overall linear behavior. Radiative heat loss to the sky is usually substantial, but modeling it accurately requires additional information about down-welling long-wave radiation or sky temperature and increases the complexity of temperature model equations. In this work we show how radiative losses to the sky can be separated into two parts to improve the accuracy of modeling without additional complexity. We also predict and demonstrate the variation of these losses at different tilt angles and show that the effective view factor is reduced by the non- isotropic distribution of down-welling long-wave radiation. Finally, we demonstrate substantial reduction in bias (MBE) and scatter (RMSE) when the new radiative loss term is added to the Faiman model using one year of measurements at Sandia National Labs.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Geodyn Material Library: Pseudocap models for dry porous tocks

This report describes the second edition of the Pseudocap Strength models for porous rocks implemented in GEODYN material library. The first model was developed in 2007 and calibrated for concrete. Then, the model parameters were calibrated based on triaxial tests reported for limestones and sandstones of various porosities. In these models some key parameters were chosen as functions of the reference porosity,Φ. Since then multiple modifications were implemented in the model, therefore, it has been recalibrated for some common porous materials such as limestones, sandstones, alluvium, tuffs and granite. Two types of models are described in this repot. The first type (called Pseudocap Model or PM) is for rocks from a specific location. Parameters were calibrated for several specific geologic materials. The second type (called Generic Pseudocap Model or GPM) is useful for the sites where only basic information (rock type, porosity) is available. Generic models include built-in correlations between porosities and other mechanical properties observed for certain rock types. The models of both types were validated by comparing not only to quasi-static triaxial tests for these materials but also to shock Hugoniot data and spherical explosion data for some materials. All models were derived in the frame of isotropic plasticity. They are designed to be used in explicit finite element/difference codes. Tangent stiffness tensor is not provided but can be calculated numerically for the model to be used in implicit finite element codes. For an isotropic material the stress can be decomposed into volumetric and deviatoric parts. The volumetric part is modeled using an Equation of state (EOS) which calculates the pressure and the bulk sound speed as functions of the internal specific energy and density. Here a simple, Mie-Gruneisen EOS is presented, but tabulated EOS (LEOS) provided by the library can be used as well. The stress is limited by the yield surface which depends on three invariants of the stress tensor and specific internal energy. In addition, to capture the strain-rate dependence a simple multiplier is used for the yield surface which depends on the equivalent plastic strain rate. The failure surface (the ultimate yield, Y f , defined later) is chosen in the Hoek-Brown form, commonly used in rock mechanics. It includes measurable parameters such as Unconfined Compressive Strength (UCS) as well as scale parameters characterizing the quality of the rock such as GSI (Geologic Strength Index). Thus, even though the model is calibrated for small samples it offers a way to extrapolate the strength to the field scale using geological characterization of the rock mass. The model captures effects of brittle-ductile transition in rocks by introducing a cap multiplier to the yield function. The rate of dilatancy (bulking) is proportional to the slope of the yield surface affected by the cap. Therefore, it takes place only at low confinements when the pressure is less than the brittle-ductile transition pressure, P BD . On the contrary, the porous compaction takes place at pressures higher than P BD . The cap moves as the porosity is compacted or new porosity is generated due to dilatancy. The porous compaction is modeled using an evolution equation which includes deviatoric stress so that the onset of compaction corresponds to the cap surface. The model captures effects of shear-enhanced compaction which is an important for porous rocks. Section 2 describes the modeling framework and Section 3 presents the model calibration procedure. Section 4 compares experimental data for various rocks versus model predictions. The model parameters used for this comparison are given in Appendix. The files with material constants are available with the latest GEODYN material library distribution.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Soil Carbon Saturation: What Do We Really Know?

Managing soils to increase organic carbon storage presents a potential opportunity to mitigate and adapt to global change challenges, while providing numerous co-benefits and ecosystem services. However, soils differ widely in their potential for carbon sequestration, and knowledge of biophysical limits to carbon accumulation may aid in informing priority regions. Consequently, there is great interest in assessing whether soils exhibit a maximum capacity for storing organic carbon, particularly within organo–mineral associations given the finite nature of reactive minerals in a soil. While the concept of soil carbon saturation has existed for over 25 years, recent studies have argued for and against its importance. Here, we summarize the conceptual understanding of soil carbon saturation at both micro- and macro-scales, define key terminology, and address common concerns and misconceptions. We review methods used to quantify soil carbon saturation, highlighting the theory and potential caveats of each approach. Critically, we explore the utility of the principles of soil carbon saturation for informing carbon accumulation, vulnerability to loss, and representations in process-based models. We highlight key knowledge gaps and propose next steps for furthering our mechanistic understanding of soil carbon saturation and its implications for soil management.

Environmental sciences↗

Scrambling and quantum chaos indicators from long-time properties of operator distributions

Scrambling is a key concept in the analysis of nonequilibrium properties of quantum many-body systems. Most studies focus on its characterization via out-of-time-ordered correlation (OTOC) functions, particularly through the early-time decay of the OTOC. However, scrambling is a complex process which involves operator spreading and operator entanglement, and a full characterization requires one to access more refined information on the operator dynamics at several timescales. In this work we analyze operator scrambling by expanding the target operator in a complete basis and studying the structure of the expansion coefficients treated as a coarse-grained probability distribution in the space of operators. Here we study different features of this distribution, such as its mean, variance, and participation ratio, for the Ising model with longitudinal and transverse fields, kicked collective spin models, and random circuit models. We show that the long-time properties of the operator distribution display common features across these cases and discuss how these properties can be used as a proxy for the onset of quantum chaos. Finally, we discuss the connection with OTOCs and analyze the cost of probing the operator distribution experimentally using these correlation functions.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Inferring Stochastic Rates from Heterogeneous Snapshots of Particle Positions

Many imaging techniques for biological systems—like fixation of cells coupled with fluorescence microscopy—provide sharp spatial resolution in reporting locations of individuals at a single moment in time but also destroy the dynamics they intend to capture. In this study, these snapshot observations contain no information about individual trajectories, but still encode information about movement and demographic dynamics, especially when combined with a well-motivated biophysical model. The relationship between spatially evolving populations and single-moment representations of their collective locations is well-established with partial differential equations (PDEs) and their inverse problems. However, experimental data is commonly a set of locations whose number is insufficient to approximate a continuous-in-space PDE solution. Here, motivated by popular subcellular imaging data of gene expression, we embrace the stochastic nature of the data and investigate the mathematical foundations of parametrically inferring demographic rates from snapshots of particles undergoing birth, diffusion, and death in a nuclear or cellular domain. Toward inference, we rigorously derive a connection between individual particle paths and their presentation as a Poisson spatial process. Using this framework, we investigate the properties of the resulting inverse problem and study factors that affect quality of inference. One pervasive feature of this experimental regime is the presence of cell-to-cell heterogeneity. Rather than being a hindrance, we show that cell-to-cell geometric heterogeneity can increase the quality of inference on dynamics for certain parameter regimes. Altogether, the results serve as a basis for more detailed investigations of subcellular spatial patterns of RNA molecules and other stochastically evolving populations that can only be observed for single instants in their time evolution.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Quality Guidelines for Energy System Studies: Process Modeling Design Parameters

The National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) conducts systems analysis studies that require a large number of inputs, from ambient conditions to parameters for Aspen Plus ® (Aspen) process blocks. The sheer number of assumptions required makes it impractical to document all of them in each issued report. The purpose of the Quality Guidelines for Energy System Studies (QGESS) is to document the assumptions most commonly used in system analysis studies and the basis for those assumptions. In order to develop the systems analysis models presented in various NETL reports, significant vendor data have been obtained, and these data enhance the model outputs. Much of the vendor data obtained are considered proprietary and not suitable for public release or attribution to a specific vendor. As such, several sub-systems common in NETL reports and their process parameter data are not reported in this document to protect proprietary vendor information. The values and ranges of values presented in this report represent assumptions that have been made in previous studies.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Guided Resilience Self Assessment Application

Reliable electricity access is vital for everything from hospitals to national security. When grid disturbances occur, it is crucial to minimize the amount of time it takes to recover. Grid resiliency considers both the preparation for and recovery from high-impact low-frequency disturbances (HILF) such as weather events and cyber attacks. The Department of Energy (DOE) Wind Energy Technologies Office (WETO) funds the multi-laboratory Microgrids, Infrastructure Resilience, and Advanced Control Launchpad (MIRACL) project to investigate technologies to support and grow distributed wind. Researchers at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) contribute to resilience and cybersecurity efforts for the project, and have produced a resilience framework to evaluate system resilience based on individual system specifications. In order to make this framework easy for anyone to apply, I have coded a web application that allows users to input their power system qualities, goals, and perceived risks and then receive suggestions on how to improve their grid resiliency. The web application follows the seven steps in the planning stage of the framework process, allowing the user to input information about their grid and select from common goals, metrics, and hazards, as well as add their own. The application currently provides information about how to complete each step, requiring minimal prior knowledge of the framework. Future work for this application will include allowing the user to submit line drawings of their system and incorporate modeling tools so that the hazard simulations of applying the framework is completed for the user.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

A new era of observationally-infused E3SM: GANs for unifying imagery archives

This paper presents an idea to develop a “Rosetta Stone” for unifying observations from various satellite or remote sensors into a common format that would vastly advance our ability to exploit existing datasets for improving predictability within Earth System Models (ESMs). While the applications of such a unified archive are broad, we believe it will be a critical step toward ushering in a new generation of ESMs that are richly informed, guided by, and validated by extensive observational data. With the vast quantity of both remotely-sensed and in-situ data streams available and coming online, new approaches are needed that can harmonize and thus fully exploit these expensive datasets. While we present the broader idea, we point to examples of applications that impact the water cycle and its representation in ESMs.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

ChIMES: A Machine-Learned Interatomic Model Targeting Improved Description of Condensed Phase Chemistry in Energetic Materials

In this report we detail completion of a Physics and Engineering Model Level Two Milestone targeting improved reactive interatomic potentials (IAPs) for energetic materials (EM) through machine learning. The specific goals of this milestone were to develop, validate, and document a new reactive molecular dynamics method for EM, based on machine learning by (1) generating databases of first-principles-derived forces, stresses, and energies for HN3 and 3,4-bis(3-nitrofurazan- 4-yl)furoxan (DNTF) (2) generate atomistic force fields from these databases via ML, and (3) benchmark model performance against first principles calculations. These goals were achieved by (1) further developing a machine learned reactive IAP and generation approach (i.e. the Chebyshev Interaction Model for Efficient Simulation or “ChIMES”), for which resulting IAPs can approach the predictive power of quantum-mechanical approaches at a fraction of the computational expense, and (2) applying the ChIMES framework to develop models for HN3 and DNTF. We find that for simple energetic materials like HN3, high accuracy ChIMES models can be obtained through application of a fitting approach that does not use active machine learning. We demonstrate the suitability of ChIMES models for simulations involving EM by using the HN3 model in multiscale shock technique simulations to predict the HN3 Chapman-Jouguet detonation state and investigate chemical evolution out to 1 ns following shock compression. This model is then used in larger direct shock (DS) simulations for a preliminary investigation of how bubbles (i.e. voids) influence material response under shock compression. We find that more complex EM (i.e. DNTF) necessitate a more sophisticated fitting approach, and develop a new active learning method and python tool to meet this challenge. We demonstrate that this fitting approach yields ChIMES models that out-perform commonly used standard reactive IAPs as well as semi-empirical quantum methods, and discuss the systematic improvability of these actively learned ChIMES models. We also describe challenges related to model development for EM such as DNTF, for which few experimental or previous simulation data are available (e.g. which could otherwise inform generation of training data). To overcome this issue, we establish a semi-empirical quantum ChIMES capability which can be used to efficiently map out relevant thermodynamic and configurational space, and generate ChIMES-IAP training data in a multiscale manner. We also show that these semi-empirical quantum ChIMES models can be used to generate predictions for the shock Hugoniot (the Hugoniot is the locus of thermodynamic states found in a shocked material) equation of state, investigate related thermochemistry, and explore carbon condensation following shock compression. This work represents a substantial advance in our atomistic modeling capability for EM that will provide much needed information on the chemistry of detonation for continued development of continuum models based on the Cheetah thermochemical code.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

A Reduced-form Cost Model for Prefeasibility Analysis of Hydropower at Non-Powered Dams

This study presents a reduced-form model to support a better understanding of the capacity potential and drivers of costs for hydropower development at U.S. non-powered dams (NPD), which are existing dams that are not currently used for hydropower. With information on nineteen reference sites, a set of reduced-form design and cost equations were estimated to enable rapid assessments of aggregate costs and their components for a large number of NPD sites. The model was then applied to 36,000+ potential U.S. NPD sites using the limited data commonly available. Although the cost estimates span a wide range, there exists a significant amount of U.S. NPD hydropower capacity potential, which are considered cost-competitive in the current market using baseline technologies.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗

High-Resolution Frequency-Domain Spectroscopic and Modeling Studies of Photosystem I (PSI), PSI Mutants and PSI Supercomplexes

Photosystem I (PSI) is one of the two main pigment–protein complexes where the primary steps of oxygenic photosynthesis take place. This review describes low-temperature frequency-domain experiments (absorption, emission, circular dichroism, resonant and non-resonant hole-burned spectra) and modeling efforts reported for PSI in recent years. In particular, we focus on the spectral hole-burning studies, which are not as common in photosynthesis research as the time-domain spectroscopies. Experimental and modeling data obtained for trimeric cyanobacterial Photosystem I (PSI 3 ), PSI 3 mutants, and PSI 3 –IsiA 18 supercomplexes are analyzed to provide a more comprehensive understanding of their excitonic structure and excitation energy transfer (EET) processes. Detailed information on the excitonic structure of photosynthetic complexes is essential to determine the structure–function relationship. We will focus on the so-called “red antenna states” of cyanobacterial PSI, as these states play an important role in photochemical processes and EET pathways. The high-resolution data and modeling studies presented here provide additional information on the energetics of the lowest energy states and their chlorophyll (Chl) compositions, as well as the EET pathways and how they are altered by mutations. We present evidence that the low-energy traps observed in PSI are excitonically coupled states with significant charge-transfer (CT) character. The analysis presented for various optical spectra of PSI 3 and PSI 3 -IsiA 18 supercomplexes allowed us to make inferences about EET from the IsiA 18 ring to the PSI 3 core and demonstrate that the number of entry points varies between sample preparations studied by different groups. In our most recent samples, there most likely are three entry points for EET from the IsiA 18 ring per the PSI core monomer, with two of these entry points likely being located next to each other. Therefore, there are nine entry points from the IsiA 18 ring to the PSI 3 trimer. We anticipate that the data discussed below will stimulate further research in this area, providing even more insight into the structure-based models of these important cyanobacterial photosystems.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗