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Correlative X-ray micro-nanotomography with scanning electron microscopy at the Advanced Light Source

Geological samples are inherently multi-scale. Understanding their bulk physical and chemical properties requires characterization down to the nano-scale. A powerful technique to study the three-dimensional microstructure is X-ray tomography, but it lacks information about the chemistry of samples. To develop a methodology for measuring the multi-scale 3D microstructure of geological samples, correlative X-ray micro- and nanotomography were performed on two rocks followed by scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) analysis. The study was performed in five steps: (i) micro X-ray tomography was performed on rock sample cores, (ii) samples for nanotomography were prepared using laser milling, (iii) nanotomography was performed on the milled sub-samples, (iv) samples were mounted and polished for SEM analysis and (v) SEM imaging and compositional mapping was performed on micro and nanotomography samples for complimentary information. Correlative study performed on samples of serpentine and basalt revealed multiscale 3D structures involving both solid mineral phases and pore networks. Significant differences in the volume fraction of pores and mineral phases were also observed dependent on the imaging spatial resolution employed. This highlights the necessity for the application of such a multiscale approach for the characterization of complex aggregates such as rocks. Information acquired from the chemical mapping of different phases was also helpful in segmentation of phases that did not exhibit significant contrast in X-ray imaging. Adoption of the protocol used in this study can be broadly applied to 3D imaging studies being performed at the Advanced Light Source and other user facilities.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Steepening of Waves at the Duskside Magnetopause

Surface waves at the magnetopause flanks typically feature steeper, i.e., more inclined leading (antisunward facing) than trailing (sunward facing) edges. This is expected for Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KHI) amplified waves. Very rarely, during northward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) conditions, anomalous inverse steepening has been observed. The small-scale tetrahedral configuration of the Magnetospheric Multiscale spacecraft and their high time resolution measurements enable us to routinely ascertain magnetopause boundary inclinations during surface wave passage with high accuracy by four-spacecraft timing analysis. At the dusk flank magnetopause, 77%/23% of the analyzed wave intervals exhibit regular inverse steepening. Inverse steepening happens during northward IMF conditions, as previously reported and, in addition, during intervals of dominant equatorial IMF. Inverse steepening observed under the latter conditions may be due to the absence of KHI or due to instabilities arising from the alignment of flow and magnetic fields in the magnetosheath.

Plaschke, F.↗

Py MILab: Capturing, Analyzing and Storing Test Data

Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME) has recently received widespread attention due to its promises in reducing dependence on physical testing for engineering design by relying on simulation, reducing both time and cost to market for various applications. ICME however requires validated multiscale material models, which is heavily dependent on available test data with full material and test pedigree, including material processing, test and measurement equipment, raw data collection, and analysis methodology and results. Populating searchable information management systems with such rich data sets is often burdensome for data producers, resulting in a lack of findable data for modelers to validate and verify their models. To overcome these cultural barriers to ICME, NASA has developed of various database-integration toolsets that perform both data management activities within the organization’s best practices with additional functionality that relieves the effort of the data producer and promotes adoption of information management system. One such tool currently under development is Py MILab, an automatic framework for automatic capturing, analysis, maintenance, and storage of material test data. Py MILab uses a modular approach for capturing raw data, analyzing the data, and storing the data in a database, interfaced by neutral file structures, to promote plug-and-play capabilities for various analysis types. TMAnalysis is a Python-based tool that performs automatic data reduction and analysis of uniaxial thermomechanical test data. The TMAnalysis toolset can be implemented within the Analysis module of Py MILab, and thus requires a populated neutral file form the Raw Data Module of Py MILab and outputs a Analysis neutral file compatible with the Database Module of Py MILab. TMAnalysis is able to perform automatic segmentation of multistage tests and perform data analysis and reduction, including determination of point-wise properties in tension, compression, and shear, analysis of stress relaxation tests, creep analysis and zone identification, and combination of these stage types for tests with complex loading histories. The TMAnalysis code is accompanied with a graphical user interface (GUI) that allows users to easily analyze test data in bulk, verify the automatic, consistent analysis performed by the backend code, and edit stage segmentation if necessary before producing the output neutral files, ensuring data is properly analyzed and maintained with full traceability.

Data management↗

A Multiscale Cohesive Law for Carbon Fiber Networks

Better predictive models of mechanical failure in low-weight heat shield composites would aid material certification for missions with aggressive atmospheric entry conditions. Here, we develop such a model for the rapid engineering analysis of the failure limits of phenolic impregnated carbon ablator (PICA) - a leading heat shield material whose structural component is a carbon fiber network. We hypothesize inelastic deformation failure mechanisms and model their behavior using molecular dynamics simulations to calculate the binding energy. We then upscale this binding energy to the macroscale using a renormalization argument. The approach delivers insightful and reasonably accurate macroscale predictions that compare favorably to experiments. In application, the model is validated for a particular variety of PICA by comparison to experiment and would then be used to study design scenarios in different entry conditions.

W. SCHILL↗

Energy Infrastructure Futures: A Multiscale Evaluation of Projected Power Plant Siting Across the Western Interconnection

Energy Infrastructure Futures: A Multiscale Evaluation of Projected Power Plant Siting Across the Western Interconnection Description This dataset contains input and output data for the manuscript Mongird, K. et al. (under review) titled "Energy Infrastructure Futures: A Multiscale Evaluation of Projected Power Plant Siting Across the Western Interconnection". Input data corresponds to gridded spatial siting attributes that are necessary to conduct a random forest machine learning analysis of siting feature importance. Output data includes SHAP feature analysis outputs, and classification report values. For data on power plant siting results referred to in the manuscript, please refer to the CERF: IM3 Projected Western US Power Plant Locations data download page. The downloadable data includes values for eight different future scenarios for the Western US. The scenarios include combinations of two Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSP3 and SSP5) with four high-resolution climate projections specific to the United States (see, https://tgw-data.msdlive.org/). These climate projections include "hotter" and "cooler" variants for two Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5). The resulting eight simulations are: rcp45cooler_ssp3 rcp45cooler_ssp5 rcp45hotter_ssp3 rcp45hotter_ssp5 rcp85cooler_ssp3 rcp85cooler_ssp5 rcp85hotter_ssp3 rcp85hotter_ssp5 Technical Information The dataset includes two sets of data files: (1) CERF gridded siting parameters and (2) Feature analysis outputs and classification reports. All downloadable data is in csv file format. Files with x/y coordinate information use the Albers Equal Area Conic projection (ESRI:102003). 1. CERF Gridded Siting Parameters This directory provides a balanced sample of gridded CERF siting parameters data for eight different scenarios for the Western US through 2055, seven different technologies, and eight timesteps. This data serves as input to the feature analysis. It contains the following parameters. region_name - name of region (i.e., state) sited - binary value representing whether the grid cell received a siting of that technology type (1=True) rcp - binary value representing scenario resource concentration pathway (0 = RCP4.5, 1 = RCP8.5) ssp - binary value representing scenario shared socioeconomic pathway (0 = SSP3, 1 = SSP5) climate - binary value representing cooler (0) or hotter (1) GCM forcing tech_name - generation technology name sited_year - year that values correspond to transmission_cost - cost of transmission interconnection pipeline_cost - cost of natural gas pipeline interconnection interconnection_cost - total interconnection cost (sum of transmission cost and gas pipeline cost) lmp - associated locational marginal value ($/MWh) associated with the grid cell, timestep, scenario, and technology xcoord - x-coordinate of location ycoord - y-coordinate of location 2a. Feature Analysis Output The dataset includes the feature analysis shap output for locational marginal price and interconnection cost. It contains the following parameters. technology - generator technology name scenario - name of scenario feature - name of feature, either locational_marginal_price or interconnection_cost value - the mean of absolute value of SHAP values for given feature 2b. Feature Analysis Classification Report This download includes the classification report associated with each random forest model. The dataset contains the following parameters. technology - generation technology name scenario - name of scenario test - one of precision (the proportion of predicted positives that are actually correct), recall (the proportion of actual positives that were correctly identified), f1-score (the harmonic mean of precision and recall) 0.0 - value of test for classification of 0 (grid cell not chosen for siting) 1.0 - value of test for classification of 1 (grid cell chosen for siting) accuracy - accuracy of model (i.e., fraction of all predictions that were right) macro avg - Simple average of test values for all classes weighted avg - Weighted average of test values for all classes, weighted based on Acknowledgment IM3 is a multi-institutional effort led by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and supported by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science as part of research in MultiSector Dynamics, Earth and Environmental Systems Modeling Program. License This data is made available under a CCBY4 License Disclaimer This material was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor the United States Department of Energy, nor the Contractor, nor any or their employees, nor any jurisdiction or organization that has cooperated in the development of these materials, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness or any information, apparatus, product, software, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof, or Battelle Memorial Institute. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any agency thereof. PACIFIC NORTHWEST NATIONAL LABORATORYoperated byBATTELLEfor theUNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF ENERGYunder Contract DE-AC05-76RL01830

Mongird, Kendall [Pacific Northwest National Labor↗

Advanced Modeling Techniques to Study Anthropogenic Influences on Atmospheric Chemical Budgets

This research work is a collaborative effort between research groups at MCNC and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The overall objective of this research is to improve the level of understanding of the processes that determine the budgets of chemically and radiatively active compounds in the atmosphere through development and application of advanced methods for calculating the chemical change in atmospheric models. The research performed during the second year of this project focused on four major aspects: (1) The continued development and refinement of multiscale modeling techniques to address the issue of the disparate scales of the physico-chemical processes that govern the fate of atmospheric pollutants; (2) Development and application of analysis methods utilizing process and mass balance techniques to increase the interpretive powers of atmospheric models and to aid in complementary analysis of model predictions and observations; (3) Development of meteorological and emission inputs for initial application of the chemistry/transport model over the north Atlantic region; and, (4) The continued development and implementation of a totally new adaptive chemistry representation that changes the details of what is represented as the underlying conditions change.

Mathur, Rohit↗

Application of a Rapid Design Tool to a 3D Woven Structural Joint

The optimization of composite structural joints is an iterative process and a multiscale problem. High fidelity finite element modeling of joints with 3D woven and laminated materials can become computationally expensive. The aim of this paper is to establish a reliable analysis process for the optimization of a composite Y-joint (curved Pi-joint), to be used in an aircraft fuselage, using commercial rapid joint design, analysis, and optimization software. The rapid joint design tool was investigated as a substitute and/or complement to a finite element analysis software. A composite Pi-joint and a composite Y-joint were evaluated using the rapid joint design tool to determine the applicability and limits of the software. Furthermore, three main preliminary parametric studies were performed to better understand the capability of the tool in predicting the stress distributions and trends in the Y-joint. The parameters investigated were the joint curvature, the laminated skin thickness, the adhesive systems, and the ply composition. Lastly, trends in predicted failure load were produced as a function of skin thickness (16ply, 24ply and 32ply). Failure loads were found with varying joint curvature and skin thickness using stress-based adherend failure criterion. The rapid joint design tool was also validated against existing experimental results.

Bonded Joints↗

Development of Dynamic Sub-Grid Models for Variational Multiscale Methods

A dynamic Variational Multiscale Method (Hughes et al. 1998) is developed by leveraging the Germano procedure from classical Large-eddy Simulations (LES). The similarity between the classical and variational approaches is analyzed in the context of incompressible flow. This analysis leads to a consistent modeling approach for both incompressible and compressible flows, the latter being demonstrated in a priori testing for low-speed attached and separated boundary layers. Similar to the classical LES procedure from which it is derived, the variational dynamic procedure does not guarantee a positive semi-definite coefficient in the general case. However, reproducing the behavior of the classical LES dynamic approach is seen as a necessary first step to develop a VMM that automatically adjusts to the local resolution and flow physics.

Variational multiscale↗

Multiscale Experiments and Multiphysics Simulation of Multiphase Flow for Transportable Small Modular Reactors

A new type of safe, small, transportable nuclear reactor would address the intense and ever-growing global demand for energy produced via a resilient, carbon-free energy source. In this regard, transportable small modular reactors (SMRs) are being designed and developed for electricity generation within small/micro-grid/off-grid isolated systems, as well as for heat generation in industrial/residential applications. These reactors feature the capability to be fully factory fabricated and then directly transported to utilities’ sites as “plug-and-play” systems. Research and development (R&D) programs are underway at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) to successfully design, develop, and demonstrate such safe-by-design mobile reactor technologies, in collaboration with partner organizations. Multiscale experimental facilities and multiphysics simulation tools are required for reactor design verification and validation (V&V), and licensing. These advanced reactors are intended to feature passive safety systems such as passive containment cooling systems (PCCS), which consist of multiphase flows and multispecies distributions. This seminar talk will focus on designing and analyzing transportable SMR PCCS by using multiscale experiments and multiphysics computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations to support reactor licensing and safety. The corresponding research challenges are addressed via supportive verification and validation results generated by the models and simulation tools in combination with selective parametric and uncertainty analysis. This solution approach could blaze the trail for commercial adoption of such technologies. The facilities, simulation capabilities, and research opportunities available at INL in regard to such reactors and the integrated energy systems with which they go hand in hand are also discussed briefly, and may spark interest in deeper research as well as new collaborative projects.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

A comparative study of two-way and offline coupled WRF v3.4 and CMAQ v5.0.2 over the contiguous US: performance evaluation and impacts of chemistry–meteorology feedbacks on air quality

The two-way coupled Weather Research and Forecasting and Community Multiscale Air Quality (WRF-CMAQ) model has been developed to more realistically represent the atmosphere by accounting for complex chemistry–meteorology feedbacks. In this study, we present a comparative analysis of two-way (with consideration of both aerosol direct and indirect effects) and offline coupled WRF v3.4 and CMAQ v5.0.2 over the contiguous US. Long-term (5 years from 2008 to 2012) simulations using WRF-CMAQ with both offline and two-way coupling modes are carried out with anthropogenic emissions based on multiple years of the U.S. National Emission Inventory and chemical initial and boundary conditions derived from an advanced Earth system model (i.e., a modified version of the Community Earth System Model/Community Atmospheric Model). The comprehensive model evaluations show that both two-way WRF-CMAQ and WRF-only simulations perform well for major meteorological variables such as temperature at 2 m, relative humidity at 2 m, wind speed at 10 m, precipitation (except for against the National Climatic Data Center data), and shortwave and longwave radiation. Both two-way and offline CMAQ also show good performance for ozone (O3) and fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ). Due to the consideration of aerosol direct and indirect effects, two-way WRF-CMAQ shows improved performance over offline coupled WRF and CMAQ in terms of spatiotemporal distributions and statistics, especially for radiation, cloud forcing, O 3 , sulfate, nitrate, ammonium, elemental carbon, tropospheric O 3 residual, and column nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ). For example, the mean biases have been reduced by more than 10 W m –2 for shortwave radiation and cloud radiative forcing and by more than 2 ppb for max 8 h O 3 . However, relatively large biases still exist for cloud predictions, some PM 2.5 species, and PM 10 that warrant follow-up studies to better understand those issues. The impacts of chemistry–meteorological feedbacks are found to play important roles in affecting regional air quality in the US by reducing domain-average concentrations of carbon monoxide (CO), O 3 , nitrogen oxide (NO x ), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and PM 2.5 by 3.1 % (up to 27.8 %), 4.2 % (up to 16.2 %), 6.6 % (up to 50.9 %), 5.8 % (up to 46.6 %), and 8.6 % (up to 49.1 %), respectively, mainly due to reduced radiation, temperature, and wind speed. The overall performance of the two-way coupled WRF-CMAQ model achieved in this work is generally good or satisfactory and the improved performance for two-way coupled WRF-CMAQ should be considered along with other factors in developing future model applications to inform policy making.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

A multiscale cohesive law for carbon fiber networks

Better predictive models of mechanical failure in low-weight heat shield composites would aid material certification for missions with aggressive atmospheric entry conditions. In this study, we develop such a model for the rapid engineering analysis of the failure limits of phenolic impregnated carbon ablator (PICA) - a leading heat shield material whose structural component is a carbon fiber network. We hypothesize inelastic deformation failure mechanisms and model their behavior using molecular dynamics simulations to calculate the binding energy. We then upscale this binding energy to the macroscale using a renormalization argument. The approach delivers insightful and reasonably accurate macroscale predictions that compare favorably to experiments. In application, the model is validated for a particular variety of PICA by comparison to experiment and would then be used to study design scenarios in different entry conditions.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Sol-gel derived silicate-phosphate glass SiO 2 –P 2 O 5 –CaO–TiO 2 : The effect of titanium isopropoxide on porosity and thermomechanical stability

Despite of several decades lasting extensive research of bioactive and bioresorbable glasses the systematic parametrization and determination of the key factors affecting porosity and thermomechanical characteristics still remains challenging. Here, we present silica-phosphate glasses, with the composition 70SiO 2 - 20P 2 O 5 - (10-x)CaO-xTiO 2 (mol%; x = 0, 2.5, 5, and 7.5), prepared by sol -gel method and reinforced by titanium dioxide via titanium isopropoxide (TTIP) incorporation which demonstrated tunable variation of porosity from micro-to macro -region and superb mechanical integrity during the calcination process. The presence of 7.5 mol% TiO 2 promotes dimensional stability up to 1000°C as investigated by thermomechanical analysis. The XRD showed the dominant presence of silicon phosphate [Si(P 2 O 7 )], titanium phosphate [Ti(P 2 O 7 )] and calcium phosphates [β-Ca(P 2 O 6 ) and γ- Ca 2 (P 2 O 7 )]. The effect of TiO 2 doping on the multiscale morphology and porosity was investigated by means of SEM, MIP, μCT, N 2 adsorption and USAXS/SAXS. Increasing TiO 2 content leads to the formation of open porosity up to 70vol% and drives the formation of a refined interconnected macroporosity of 2-30 μm. In contrast, mesoporosity with a dominance of 3-6nm pores decreases in all samples with increasing TiO 2 content. USAXS/SAXS revealed an increase in primary particle size with increasing TiO 2 content which is in good agreement with the nitrogen physisorption analysis showing that microporosity decreases with increasing TiO2 content.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Annual PM2.5 and cardiovascular mortality rate data: Trends modified by county socioeconomic status in 2,132 US counties

This article contains data on county-level socioeconomic status for 2132 US counties and each county's average annual cardiovascular mortality rate (CMR) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentration for 21 years (1990e2010). County CMR, PM2.5, and socioeconomic data were obtained from the US National Center for Health Statistics, US Environmental Protection Agency's Community Multiscale Air Quality modeling system, and the US Census, respectively. Annual socioeconomic indices were created using seven county-level measures from the 1990, 2000, and 2010 US Census using factor analysis. Quintiles of this index were used to generate categories of county socioeconomic status. This national data set contains data for annual PM2.5 and CMR changes over a time-period when there was a significant reduction in US air pollutants (following the enactment of the 1970 Clean Air Act). These data are associated with the article “The contribution of improved air quality to reduced cardiovascular mortality: Declines in socioeconomic differences over time” [1]. Data are stored in a comma separated value format and can be downloaded from the USEPA ScienceHub data repository (https://doi.org/10.23719/ 1506014).

Socioeconomic status↗

Statistical Study of the Properties of Magnetosheath Lion Roars

Lion roars are narrowband whistler wave emissions that have been observed in several environments, such as planetary magnetosheaths, the Earth's magnetosphere, the solar wind, downstream of interplanetary shocks, and the cusp region. We present measurements of more than 30,000 such emissions observed by the Magnetospheric Multiscale spacecraft with high‐cadence (8,192 samples/s) search coil magnetometer data. A semiautomatic algorithm was used to identify the emissions, and an adaptive interval algorithm in conjunction with minimum variance analysis was used to determine their wave vector. The properties of the waves are determined in both the spacecraft and plasma rest frame. The mean wave normal angle, with respect to the background magnetic field (B(sub 0)), plasma bulk flow velocity (V(sub b)), and the coplanarity plane (V(sub b) × B(sub 0)) are 23°, 56°, and 0°, respectively. The average peak frequencies were ∼31% of the electron gyrofrequency (ω(sub ce)) observed in the spacecraft frame and ∼18% of ω(sub ce) in the plasma rest frame. In the spacecraft frame, ∼99% of the emissions had a frequency <ω(sub ce), while 98% had a peak frequency <0.72 ω(sub ce) in the plasma rest frame. None of the waves had frequencies lower than the lower hybrid frequency, ω. From the probability density function of the electron plasma β(sub e), the ratio between the electron thermal and magnetic pressure, ∼99.6% of the waves were observed with β(sub e)<4 with a large narrow peak at 0.07 and two smaller, but wider, peaks at 1.26 and 2.28, while the average value was ∼1.25.

Magnetosheath emissions↗

Improved Plate and Beam Models for Thermoviscoelastic Constitutive Modeling of Composites

The effective properties of composites are influenced by the time-dependent behavior of polymer matrices very sensitive to changes in temperature. Improved plate and beam models are required to efficiently design, and simulate composite structures when the long-term performance of large anisotropic composite structures is the matter of interest. In this work, mechanics of structure genome (MSG) is used to con-struct linear thermoviscoelastic plate and beam models that can homogenize three-dimensional heterogeneous materials made of constituents with time- and temperature-dependent behavior. The formulation derives the transient strain energy based on integral formulation for thermorheologically simple materials subject to finite temperature changes with the restriction that the strain is small. The reduced time parameter is introduced to relate the time-temperature dependency of the anisotropic material by means of master curves at reference conditions. The new formulation has been implemented in SwiftCompTM, a general-purpose multiscale constitutive modeling code based on MSG. Experimental data and three-dimensional direct numerical simulations of thin-ply high-strain composites (TP-HSC) using a commercial finite element analysis (FEA) package are conducted to verify the accuracy of SwiftCompTM results. The paper also analyzes the relationship between the shift factor of the polymer matrix and the temperature dependencies of the effective beam properties.

Finite element analysis↗

Multiscale Physics of Atomic Nuclei from First Principles

Atomic nuclei exhibit multiple energy scales ranging from hundreds of MeV in binding energies to fractions of an MeV for low-lying collective excitations. As the limits of nuclear binding are approached near the neutron and proton drip lines, traditional shell structure starts to melt with an onset of deformation and an emergence of coexisting shapes. It is a long-standing challenge to describe this multiscale physics starting from nuclear forces with roots in quantum chromodynamics. Here, we achieve this within a unified and nonperturbative quantum many-body framework that captures both short- and long-range correlations starting from modern nucleon-nucleon and three-nucleon forces from chiral effective field theory. The short-range (dynamic) correlations which account for the bulk of the binding energy are included within a symmetry-breaking framework, while long-range (static) correlations (and fine details about the collective structure) are included by employing symmetry projection techniques. Our calculations accurately reproduce—within theoretical error bars—available experimental data for low-lying collective states and the electromagnetic quadrupole transitions in 20−30 Ne. In addition, we reveal coexisting spherical and deformed shapes in 30 Ne, which indicates the breakdown of the magic neutron number 𝑁 = 20 as the key nucleus 28 O is approached, and we predict that the drip line nuclei 32,34 Ne are strongly deformed and collective. By developing reduced-order models for symmetry-projected states, we perform a global sensitivity analysis and find that the subleading singlet 𝑆-wave contact and a pion-nucleon coupling strongly impact nuclear deformation in chiral effective field theory. The techniques developed in this work clarify how microscopic nuclear forces generate the multiscale physics of nuclei spanning collective phenomena as well as short-range correlations and allow one to capture emergent and dynamical phenomena in finite fermion systems such as atom clusters, molecules, and atomic nuclei.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗

Fast multiscale contrast independent preconditioners for linear elastic topology optimization problems

The goal of this work is to present a fast and viable approach for the numerical solution of the high-contrast state problems arising in topology optimization. The optimization process is iterative, and the gradients are obtained by an adjoint analysis, which requires the numerical solution of large high-contrast linear elastic problems with features spanning several length scales. The size of the discretized problems forces the utilization of iterative linear solvers with solution time dependent on the quality of the preconditioner. The lack of clear separation between the scales, as well as the high-contrast, imposes severe challenges on the standard preconditioning techniques. Thus, here we propose new methods for the high-contrast elasticity equation with performance independent of the high-contrast and the multi-scale structure of the elasticity problem. The solvers are based on two-levels domain decomposition techniques with a carefully constructed coarse level to deal with the high-contrast and multi-scale nature of the problem. The construction utilizes spectral equivalence between scalar diffusion and each displacement block of the elasticity problems and, in contrast to previous solutions proposed in the literature, is able to select the appropriate dimension of the coarse space automatically. The new methods inherit the advantages of domain decomposition techniques, such as easy parallelization and scalability. Finally, the presented numerical experiments demonstrate the excellent performance of the proposed methods.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

A multiscale landscape approach for prioritizing river and stream protection and restoration actions

River and stream conservation programs have historically focused on a single spatial scale, for example, a watershed or stream site. Recently, the use of landscape information (e.g., land use and land cover) at multiple spatial scales and over large spatial extents has highlighted the importance of incorporating a landscape perspective into stream protection and restoration activities. Previously, we developed a novel framework that links information about watershed-, catchment-, and reach-scale integrity with stream biological condition using scatterplots and a landscape integrity map. Here we examined an application of this approach for streams in urban and other settings in King County, Washington State, United States, where we related stream macroinvertebrate condition to two indices of landscape integrity, the US Environmental Protection Agency's (USEPA) nationally available Index of Watershed Integrity (IWI) and Index of Catchment Integrity (ICI). We generated a scatterplot of IWI versus ICI for sample sites, where points represented site macroinvertebrate condition from poor to good. The same data were also visualized as a landscape integrity map that displayed catchments of King County according to the level of watershed and catchment integrity (high or low IWI/ICI). Almost three-quarters of poor-condition sites were associated with high-integrity watersheds and catchments (i.e., underperforming sites), which suggested that either one or both national indicators were insufficient for this area, and that sites underperformed because of local-scale factors. In response, we used a catchment-scale indicator related to forest condition (PctForestCat) after examining several GIS-based dispersal indicators from the National Hydrography Dataset and other candidates from the USEPA's StreamCat dataset. We then compared the results of the scatterplots and maps based on the current and original analyses and found that many of the sites previously classified as underperforming now performed as expected, that is, they were poor-condition sites in poor-condition catchments. This analysis demonstrates how results based on a national dataset can be improved by developing an alternative that represents regionally important stressors. The methods used to develop an effective landscape indicator based on StreamCat datasets, and the utility of the multiscale approach, could provide important tools for prioritizing, optimizing, and communicating stream conservation actions.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗