Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “data analytic”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 199 records · Page 11

Using Knowledge Analytics to Search and Characterize Mass Properties Aerospace Data

There is growing capability in the field of “Big Data” and “Data Analytics” which Mass Properties Engineers might like to take advantage of. This paper utilizes an implementation of the IBM Knowledge Analytics and Watson search capabilities to explore a corpus of material developed primarily with the interests of Mass Properties Engineers and vehicle concept developers at its forefront. The full collection of SAWE (Society of Allied Weight Engineers, Inc.) Technical Papers from 1939 through 2015 is a major portion of the knowledge content. Additional aerospace vehicle design information includes metadata from AIAA (American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics), and INCOSE (International Council on Systems Engineering) as well as author-provided personal search material. This data is processed with respect to certain expected content, data taxonomies and key words to become the core data in NASA Langley Research Center’s “Vehicle Analysis Analytics”, IBM Watson Content. Processed data becomes the corpus of information which is interrogated to provide examples of finding data for mass regression analysis, technology impacts on MPE (Mass Properties Engineering), mass properties control, standards, and other aspects of interest.

Cerro, Jeffrey A.↗

Inter-well connectivity detection in CO 2 WAG projects using statistical recurrent unit models

Routine well-wise injection and production measurements contain significant information on subsurface structure and properties. Data-driven technology that interprets surface data into subsurface structure or properties can assist operators in making informed decisions by providing a better understanding of field assets. Our machine-learning framework is built on the statistical recurrent unit (SRU) model and interprets well-based injection/production data into inter-well connectivity without relying on a geologic model. We test it on synthetic and field-scale CO 2 EOR projects utilizing the water-alternating-gas (WAG) process. SRU is a special type of recurrent neural network (RNN) that allows for better characterization of temporal trends, by learning various statistics of the input at different time scales. In our application, the complete states (injection rate, pressure and cumulative injection) at injectors and pressure states at producers are fed to SRU as the input and the phase rates at producers are treated as the output. Once the SRU is trained and validated, it is then used to assess the connectivity of each injector to any producer using permutation variable importance method, wherein inputs corresponding to an injector are shuffled and the increase in prediction error at a given producer is recorded as the importance (connectivity metric) of the injector to the producer. This method is tested in both synthetic and field-scale cases. The validation of the proposed data-driven inter-well connectivity assessment is performed using synthetic data from simulation models where inter-well connectivity can be easily measured using the streamline-based flux allocation. The SRU model is shown to offer excellent prediction performance on the synthetic case. Despite significant measurement noise and frequent well shut-ins imposed in the field-scale case, the SRU model offers good prediction accuracy, the overall relative error of the phase production rates at most producers ranges from 10% to 30%. It is shown that the dominant connections identified by the data-driven method and streamline method are in close agreement. This significantly improves confidence in our data-driven procedure. The novelty of this work is that it is purely data-driven method and can directly interpret routine surface measurements to intuitive subsurface knowledge. Furthermore, the streamline-based validation procedure provides physics-based backing to the results obtained from data analytics. This study results in a reliable and efficient data analytics framework that is well-suited for large field applications.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Process prediction and detection of faults using probabilistic bidirectional recurrent neural networks on real plant data

Attaining Industry 4.0 for manufacturing operations requires advanced monitoring systems and real-time data analytics of plant data, among other topics. We propose a Probabilistic Bidirectional Recurrent Network (PBRN) for industrial process monitoring for the early detection of faults. The model is based on a Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU) neural network that allows the model to retain long-term dependencies between sensor data along a time horizon, hence learning the dynamic behavior of the process. To reduce the false-positive detection rate of the model, we compel the model to learn from a highly noisy sensor reading while outputting noise-free sensor outputs. The performance of the proposed model is compared to other data-driven statistical process monitoring schemes using real plant data from an industrial Air Separations Unit (ASU) containing noisy sensor readings. We show that the model can learn from noisy data without reducing its performance. Using two different fault cases, we demonstrate the model’s ability to carry out early fault detection with average false-positive rates of 2.9% and 4.9% for both fault cases. The missed detection rates are 0.1% and 0.2%, respectively.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Dimensionality reduction using elastic measures

With the recent surge in big data analytics for hyperdimensional data, there is a renewed interest in dimensionality reduction techniques. In order for these methods to improve performance gains and understanding of the underlying data, a proper metric needs to be identified. This step is often overlooked, and metrics are typically chosen without consideration of the underlying geometry of the data. Here, in this paper, we present a method for incorporating elastic metrics into the t-distributed stochastic neighbour embedding (t-SNE) and Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection (UMAP). We apply our method to functional data, which is uniquely characterized by rotations, parameterization and scale. If these properties are ignored, they can lead to incorrect analysis and poor classification performance. Through our method, we demonstrate improved performance on shape identification tasks for three benchmark data sets (MPEG-7, Car data set and Plane data set of Thankoor), where we achieve 0.77, 0.95 and 1.00 F1 score, respectively.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

A User-Facing Metric to Quantify the Quality of Mobility (CRADA Final Report)

The leading urban mobility data analytics firm StreetLight Data, Inc. partnered with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to explore a commercial version of the Mobility Energy Productivity (MEP) metric. The commercialization effort was aimed to expand the adoption of the metric to key stakeholders in the urban planning space. Research comprised industry analysis, stakeholder feedback and conducting transportation practitioner focus groups. StreetLight concluded that commercialization of MEP is not feasible in the current market because users need a dynamic MEP tool that enables scenario planning. It should be able to calculate a MEP score dynamically (near instantaneous) when different inputs are changed.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

Evaluation of Properties for Microsample Identification

A study was conducted to determine if individual particle characteristics could be used to identify particles of interest, sub-samples, from bulk post-detonation debris. Three archived post-detonation debris samples were used for this effort. Particles from these samples were identified as active (produced fission tracks), and inactive (did not produce fission tracks), as the first defining characteristic. Morphology was the secondary characteristic to select particles for further study, i.e. spherical/non-spherical. Once particles were identified and isolated, they were characterized by optical microscopy for size in µm, number of fission tracks, morphology, transmitted light color, and reflected light color. Particles were then analyzed by scanning electron microscopy for morphology, elemental content, and compound identification. Raman spectroscopy was attempted on five particles with indeterminate results due to environmental mixing (heterogeneity) during the events of particle formation. Once all non-destructive analyses were completed all particles were analyzed by thermal ionization mass spectrometry to determine isotopic atom percents of plutonium and uranium, and an estimate of atoms of plutonium and uranium in each particle. An estimate of the ratio of uranium to plutonium was also obtained (U/Pu). Data analytics of the data from the particles showed that combining characteristics of the particles have a high probability of identifying particles of interest from bulk post-detonation debris samples. Please note that this version of the report is an abridged version of the full report (Wagnon et al. 2025) that has been edited to be appropriate for public release.

38 RADIATION CHEMISTRY, RADIOCHEMISTRY, AND NUCLEA↗

Utilization of the AEDC three-dimensional potential flow computer program

A potential flow computer program which has been in use for several years, was discussed. This program has been used primarily as a tool for flow-field analysis in support of test activities in transonic wind tunnels. Analyses have been made over a Mach number range from 0 to 0.9 for a variety of configurations from aircraft to wind tunnels, with excellent agreement between calculated flow fields and measured wind tunnel data. Analytical and experimental data for seven different flow analysis problems are presented in this paper.

Palko, R. L.↗

Multi-mesh gear dynamics program evaluation and enhancements

A multiple mesh gear dynamics computer program was continually developed and modified during the last four years. The program can handle epicyclic gear systems as well as single mesh systems with internal, buttress, or helical tooth forms. The following modifications were added under the current funding: variable contact friction, planet cage and ring gear rim flexibility options, user friendly options, dynamic side bands, a speed survey option and the combining of the single and multiple mesh options into one general program. The modified program was evaluated by comparing calculated values to published test data and to test data taken on a Hamilton Standard turboprop reduction gear-box. In general, the correlation between the test data and the analytical data is good.

Boyd, L. S.↗

Preserving the Science Legacy from the Apollo Missions to the Moon

Six Apollo missions landed on the Moon from 1969-72, returning to Earth 382 kg of lunar rock, soil, and core samples-among the best documented and preserved samples on Earth that have supported a robust research program for 45 years. From mission planning through sample collection, preliminary examination, and subsequent research, strict protocols and procedures are followed for handling and allocating Apollo subsamples. Even today, 100s of samples are allocated for research each year, building on the science foundation laid down by the early Apollo sample studies and combining new data from today's instrumentation, lunar remote sensing missions and lunar meteorites. Today's research includes advances in our understanding of lunar volatiles, lunar formation and evolution, and the origin of evolved lunar lithologies. Much sample information is available to researchers at curator.jsc.nasa.gov. Decades of analyses on lunar samples are published in LPSC proceedings volumes and other peer-reviewed journals, and tabulated in lunar sample compendia entries. However, for much of the 1969-1995 period, the processing documentation, individual and consortia analyses, and unpublished results exist only in analog forms or primitive digital formats that are either inaccessible or at risk of being lost forever because critical data from early investigators remain unpublished. We have initiated several new efforts to rescue some of the early Apollo data, including unpublished analytical data. We are scanning NASA documentation that is related to the Apollo missions and sample processing, and we are collaborating with IEDA to establish a geochemical database called Moon DB. To populate this database, we are working with prominent lunar PIs to organize and transcribe years of both published and unpublished data. Other initiatives include micro-CT scanning of complex lunar samples to document their interior structure (e.g. clasts, vesicles); linking high-resolution scans of Apollo film products to samples; and new procedures for systematic high resolution photography of samples before additional processing, enabling detailed 3D reconstructions of the samples. All of these efforts will provide comprehensive access to Apollo samples and support better curation of the samples for decades to come.

Evans, Cindy↗

NASA Earth eXchange (NEX) App Store

NASA Earth Exchange (NEX), and her public cloud version OpenNEX, have become platforms supporting scientific collaboration, knowledge sharing and research for the entire Earth science community. To date, a number of custom tools and capabilities have been integrated into the platforms. However, such integration has to undergo a case-by-case manual process thus lacks scalability. This timely project builds an App Store onto OpenNEX as a building block. Climate data analytics tools/programs can be easily uploaded, shared, organized, searched, and recommended like photos and videos on the YouTube. The foundation of our App Store is a provenance server, which not only records metadata but also execution history of climate data analytics apps including the input data and parameters, output data and products, who runs the app for which purpose, and how apps may be chained into workflows. Researchers can thus understand, reproduce, and repurpose existing apps and workflows. Machine learning approaches are applied to mine provenance to provide recommend-as-you-go services for Earth scientists, such as to recommend suitable apps and workflow snippets. A browser-based workflow tool is also provided for researchers to explore the provenance server and design value-added workflows. Scalability, sustainability, extensibility, usability, adaptability, security and privacy are considered in the App Store.

eXchange↗

Rahasak—Scalable blockchain architecture for enterprise applications

Blockchain-based decentralized infrastructure has been adapted in various industries to handle the sensitive data in a privacy-preserving manner without trusting third parties. However, integrating state-of-the-art blockchain platforms with the scalable, enterprise-level applications result in several challenges. Current blockchain platforms do not support high transaction throughput, lack high scalability, and cannot provide real-time transaction processing and back-pressure operation handling in high transaction throughput applications(e.g Big data, IoT). In this paper, we propose a novel permissioned blockchain platform “Rahasak” for highly scalable, enterprise applications. Rahasak blockchain adopts the Apache Kafka-based consensus on top of a “Validate-Execute-Group” blockchain architecture to handle realtime transaction execution on the blockchain. The architecture is equipped with a functional programming and actor-based smart contract platform that enables concurrent execution of transactions in the blockchain. Rahasak supports high transaction throughput, high scalability, concurrent transaction execution, data analytics features. Finally, with Rahasak, we make blockchain more scalable, secure, structured and meaningful for further data analytics.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Machine Learning Modeling Pipeline for Extracting Nuclear Proliferation Events of Interest from Open Data Sources (U)

In FY2020, the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) and the Sanghani Center for Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University entered a collaboration funded by Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Research and Development. The project’s mission was to take the first steps toward developing a demonstration prototype system that uses multiple machine learning and data analytics methods on largescale open data sources to identify new, developing, and/or undeclared nuclear programs. Given the SRNL team’s on-site perspective of events culminating in the DOE’s decision to pursue the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility (SRPPF), the team targeted the identification of events and indicators in retrospective datasets that pointed to the activity of “fissile core fabrication at the Savannah River Site” prior to the official announcement in May of 2018. A preliminary modeling pipeline was developed in FY20 that showed the datasets contained adequate signal for continuation of efforts. In FY21, a modular demonstration prototype modeling pipeline has continued in development for two text-based data sources: a broad internet archive (Webhose Ltd.) and a decahose Twitter database (i.e., a global sampling of one in every ten Tweets). The techniques that have been developed rely on graph theory and anomaly detection to identify contextual shifts in key words and phrases at various points in time such that indicators of events of interest could be identified and subsequently, events could be extracted from the corpuses. The foundational concept behind the approaches is that contextual shifts in key words and phrases can act as indicators of events of interest. Both datasets have proven successful in extracting events of interest related to pit production at the Savannah River Site prior to the official announcement. In addition, the pipelines have generated a wide range of events broadly summarized as: the awarding of DOE contracts at major sites, DOE investments in various programs, accidents at DOE national laboratories, speculations about the fate of pit production in the DOE complex, domestic and international shipments and receipts of nuclear materials at DOE sites, termination of non-proliferation agreements with Russia, termination of MOX, new weapons development approvals/testing, nuclear posture reviews, major DOE cleanup/production milestones, political opinions, and nuclear watch groups’ opinions, among many others.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Energy landscapes from cryo-EM snapshots: a benchmarking study

Abstract Biomolecules undergo continuous conformational motions, a subset of which are functionally relevant. Understanding, and ultimately controlling biomolecular function are predicated on the ability to map continuous conformational motions, and identify the functionally relevant conformational trajectories. For equilibrium and near-equilibrium processes, function proceeds along minimum-energy pathways on one or more energy landscapes, because higher-energy conformations are only weakly occupied. With the growing interest in identifying functional trajectories, the need for reliable mapping of energy landscapes has become paramount. In response, various data-analytical tools for determining structural variability are emerging. A key question concerns the veracity with which each data-analytical tool can extract functionally relevant conformational trajectories from a collection of single-particle cryo-EM snapshots. Using synthetic data as an independently known ground truth, we benchmark the ability of four leading algorithms to determine biomolecular energy landscapes and identify the functionally relevant conformational paths on these landscapes. Such benchmarking is essential for systematic progress toward atomic-level movies of continuous biomolecular function.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Analysis of SRM model nozzle calibration test data in support of IA12B, IA12C and IA36 space shuttle launch vehicle aerodynamics tests

Variations of nozzle performance characteristics of the model nozzles used in the Space Shuttle IA12B, IA12C, IA36 power-on launch vehicle test series are shown by comparison between experimental and analytical data. The experimental data are nozzle wall pressure distributions and schlieren photographs of the exhaust plume shapes. The exhaust plume shapes were simulated experimentally with cold flow while the analytical data were generated using a method-of-characteristics solution. Exhaust plume boundaries, boundary shockwave locations and nozzle wall pressure measurements calculated analytically agree favorably with the experimental data from the IA12C and IA36 test series. For the IA12B test series condensation was suspected in the exhaust plumes at the higher pressure ratios required to simulate the prototype plume shapes. Nozzle calibration tests for the series were conducted at pressure ratios where condensation either did not occur or if present did not produce a noticeable effect on the plume shapes. However, at the pressure ratios required in the power-on launch vehicle tests condensation probably occurs and could significantly affect the exhaust plume shapes.

Baker, L. R., Jr.↗

Machine Learning Using Open Data Sources for Detection of Nuclear Proliferation Activities (U)

In FY2020, Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) in collaboration with the Sanghani Center for Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics (SCAIDA) at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (VT) and funded by the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Research and Development, began developing a demonstration prototype system that uses multiple machine learning and data analytic methods on large-scale open data sources to identify new, developing, and/or undeclared nuclear programs. Using the announcement in May 2018 of the proposed Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility (SRPPF) as a test subject, the goal of this 2-year project is to forecast the SRPPF using only data prior to May 2018. The project work is split into a preliminary prototype development for the first year with an initial evaluation of viability followed by the second year of development to create an integrated prototype system and more extensive performance evaluation. This report documents the results of the preliminary-phase tasks.

98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL P↗

Information Fusion & Analytics for Human Lunar Exploration

The Information Fusion & Data Analytics (IFDA) project commenced in FY20, continued through FY21, and its final platform development phase continues in FY22. The objective remains the fusion and rapid accessibility of large quantities of disparate sourced human spaceflight data. IFDA is a platform tailored for NA (S&MA) to develop highly advanced operational data integration and analysis techniques. IFDA leverages the JSC ER7 modeling, simulation,and data fusion capabilities to collect, warehouse, and augment data human exploration data integration and analysis techniques. The IFDA project’s integrated data visualizations have been demonstrated in two validation scenarios in FY21, and provided the architecture and platform basis for development of a full-scale data analysis suite and storage solution useful to all JSC organizations engaged in real time operations and safety tasks. Scenarioand prototypical development including the construction of a full scale data analysis suite and storage solution, useful to all JSC organizations engaged in real time operations and safety tasks, is central to IFDA Phase 3 and provides a demonstrable pathway for the Digital Transformation Program. IFDA Phase 3 is focused on data provider, data utilizer, and SME hands-on workshops that will conclude the Dem / Valphase and deliver a program-ready data integration tool as a product.

information fusion↗

Expanding Access to Science Participation: A FAIR Framework for Petascale Data Visualization and Analytics

The massive data generated by scientists daily serve as both a major catalyst for new discoveries and innovations, as well as a significant roadblock that restricts access to the data. Here, our paper introduces a new approach to removing Big Data barriers and democratizing access to petascale data for the broader scientific community. Our novel data fabric abstraction layer allows user-friendly querying of scientific information while hiding the complexities of dealing with file systems or cloud services. We enable FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) access to datasets such as NASA’s petascale climate datasets. Our paper presents an approach to managing, visualizing, and analyzing petabytes of data within a browser on equipment ranging from the top NASA supercomputer to commodity hardware like a laptop. Our novel data fabric abstraction utilizes state-of-the art progressive compression algorithms and machine-learning insights to power scalable visualization dashboards for petascale data. The result provides users with the ability to identify extreme events or trends dynamically, expanding access to scientific data and further enabling discoveries. We validate our approach by improving the ability of climate scientists to visually explore their data via three fully interactive dashboards. We further validate our approach by deploying the dashboards and simplified training materials in the classroom at a minority-serving institution. These dashboards, released in simplified form to the general public, contribute significantly to a broader push to democratize the access and use of climate data.

Computer science↗