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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 37 records · Page 2
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Physics-Informed Machine Learning Model for Ceramic Matrix Composite Creep

A physics-informed recurrent neural network (RNN) based surrogate model is developed to emulate the nonlinear, time-dependent constitutive behavior of ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) driven by matrix damage and constituent creep at the microscale. Physics-informed constraints are introduced into the surrogate model through regularization to ground the prediction in physics and improve its predictive capabilities. Training data is generated using the high-fidelity generalized method of cells (HFGMC) approach which calls appropriate creep and damage models for each of the constituents. This coupling permits simulating the nonlinear behavior of CMCs based on constituent response at the microscale along with microstructural features such as fiber and porosity volume fraction and fiber radius. The microscale repeating unit cell is loaded under creep fatigue conditions to replicate the material loading experienced in a turbine engine. Therefore, the RNN-based surrogate model is tasked with predicting, as a function of variable input stress sequence, temperature, and microstructural features, the resulting strain history response while satisfying physical constraints related to creep rate, isochoric inelastic deformation, and strain energy density. The trained surrogate model is shown to effectively match the strain history over quantified distributions of microstructural features and relevant loading regimes and temperatures. Neural network based surrogate models can offer efficient alternatives to running computationally intensive multiscale material models to simulate the nonlinear response of large structural models. Therefore, the presented work provides evidence towards the feasibility of developing, training, and running such models for CMCs with complex microstructures, nonlinear time-dependent material response, and under non-monotonic loading conditions.

ceramic matrix composites↗
DOE OSTI2026

Differentiable multiphase flow model for physics-informed machine learning in reservoir pressure management

Accurate subsurface reservoir pressure control is extremely challenging due to geological heterogeneity and multiphase fluid-flow dynamics. Predicting behavior in this setting relies on high-fidelity physics-based simulations that are computationally expensive. Yet, the uncertain, heterogeneous properties that control these flows make it necessary to perform many of these expensive simulations, which is often prohibitive. To address these challenges, we introduce a physics-informed machine learning workflow that couples a fully differentiable multiphase flow simulator, which is implemented in the DPFEHM framework with a convolutional neural network (CNN). The CNN learns to predict fluid extraction rates from heterogeneous permeability fields to enforce pressure limits at critical reservoir locations. By incorporating transient multiphase flow physics into the training process, our method enables more practical and accurate predictions for realistic injection-extraction scenarios compared to previous works. To speed up training, we pretrain the model on single-phase, steady-state simulations and then finetune it on full multiphase scenarios, which dramatically reduces the computational cost. We demonstrate that high-accuracy training can be achieved with fewer than three thousand full-physics multiphase flow simulations – compared to previous estimates requiring up to ten million. This drastic reduction in the number of simulations is achieved by leveraging transfer learning from much less expensive single phase simulations.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2025

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

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

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2026

Reactive Transport Modeling with Physics-Informed Machine Learning for Critical Minerals Applications

This study presents a physics-informed neural network (PINN) framework for reactive transport modeling for simulating fast bimolecular reactions in porous media. Accurate characterization of cAhemical interactions and product formation in surface and subsurface environments is essential for advancing critical mineral extraction and related geoscience applications. The proposed methodology sequentially addresses the flow and diffusion–reaction subproblems. The flow field is computed using a mixed formulation, while the diffusion–reaction system is modeled via two uncoupled tensorial diffusion equations reformulated in terms of chemical invariants. PINNs are employed to solve the governing equations, enabling data-efficient, mesh-free prediction of chemical concentration fields. The framework is validated through a series of benchmark problems involving flow in heterogeneous porous media. Initial verification is conducted using patch tests for the flow field, followed by validation of the transport problem with emphasis on preserving non-negativity of concentrations. The complete fast bimolecular reaction scenario is then solved, yielding spatial distributions of reactants and product species. Results demonstrate that the PINNs-based approach effectively captures sharp, mixing-limited reaction fronts and dispersive mixing behavior, offering reliable predictions of reactive plume evolution. These capabilities are crucial for evaluating long-term subsurface behavior in applications such as fluid storage, energy extraction, and efficient extraction of critical minerals.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2022

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

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

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2024

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

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

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

Physics-informed Machine Learning for Modeling Turbulence in Supernovae

Abstract Turbulence plays an important role in astrophysical phenomena, including core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe), but current simulations must rely on subgrid models, since direct numerical simulation is too expensive. Unfortunately, existing subgrid models are not sufficiently accurate. Recently, machine learning (ML) has shown an impressive predictive capability for calculating turbulence closure. We have developed a physics-informed convolutional neural network to preserve the realizability condition of the Reynolds stress that is necessary for accurate turbulent pressure prediction. The applicability of the ML subgrid model is tested here for magnetohydrodynamic turbulence in both the stationary and dynamic regimes. Our future goal is to utilize this ML methodology (available on GitHub) in the CCSN framework to investigate the effects of accurately modeled turbulence on the explosion of these stars.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Lagrangian large eddy simulations via physics-informed machine learning

High-Reynolds number homogeneous isotropic turbulence (HIT) is fully described within the Navier–Stokes (NS) equations, which are notoriously difficult to solve numerically. Engineers, interested primarily in describing turbulence at a reduced range of resolved scales, have designed heuristics, known as large eddy simulation (LES). LES is described in terms of the temporally evolving Eulerian velocity field defined over a spatial grid with the mean-spacing correspondent to the resolved scale. This classic Eulerian LES depends on assumptions about effects of subgrid scales on the resolved scales. Here, we take an alternative approach and design LES heuristics stated in terms of Lagrangian particles moving with the flow. Our Lagrangian LES, thus L-LES, is described by equations generalizing the weakly compressible smoothed particle hydrodynamics formulation with extended parametric and functional freedom, which is then resolved via Machine Learning training on Lagrangian data from direct numerical simulations of the NS equations. The L-LES model includes physics-informed parameterization and functional form, by combining physics-based parameters and physics-inspired Neural Networks to describe the evolution of turbulence within the resolved range of scales. The subgrid-scale contributions are modeled separately with physical constraints to account for the effects from unresolved scales. We build the resulting model under the differentiable programming framework to facilitate efficient training. We experiment with loss functions of different types, including physics-informed ones accounting for statistics of Lagrangian particles. We show that our L-LES model is capable of reproducing Eulerian and unique Lagrangian turbulence structures and statistics over a range of turbulent Mach numbers.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Physics-informed machine learning of redox flow battery based on a two-dimensional unit cell model

In this paper, we present a physics-informed neural network (PINN) approach for predicting the performance of an all-vanadium redox flow battery, with its physics constraints enforced by a two-dimensional (2D) mathematical model. The 2D model, which includes 6 governing equations and 24 boundary conditions, provides a detailed representation of the electrochemical reactions, mass transport and hydrodynamics occurring inside the redox flow battery. To solve the 2D model with the PINN approach, a composite neural network is employed to approximate species concentration and potentials; the input and output are normalized according to prior knowledge of the battery system; the governing equations and boundary conditions are first scaled to an order of magnitude around 1, and then further balanced with a self-weighting method. Our numerical results show that the PINN is able to predict cell voltage correctly, but the prediction of potentials shows a constant-like shift. To fix the shift, the PINN is enhanced by further constrains derived from the current collector boundary. Finally, we show that the enhanced PINN can be even further improved if a small number of labeled data is available.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Physics informed machine learning for chemistry tabulation

Modeling of turbulent combustion system requires modeling the underlying chemistry and the turbulent transport. Solving both systems simultaneously is computationally prohibitive. Instead, given the difference in scales at which the two sub-systems evolve, the two sub-systems are typically (re)solved separately. Popular approaches such as the Flamelet Generated Manifolds (FGM) use a two-step strategy where the governing reaction kinetics are pre-computed and mapped to a low-dimensional manifold, characterized by a few reaction progress variables (model reduction) and the manifold is then “looked-up” during the run-time to estimate the high-dimensional system state by the turbulent transport system. While existing works have focused on these two steps independently, in this work we show that joint learning of the progress variables and the look-up model, can yield more accurate results. Here, we build on the base formulation and implementation to include the dynamically generated Thermochemical State Variables (Lower Dimensional Dynamic Source Terms). We discuss the challenges in the implementation of this deep neural network architecture and experimentally demonstrate its superior performance.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2022

Physically Informed Machine Learning Prediction of Electronic Density of States

The electronic structure of a material, such as its density of states (DOS), provides key insights into its physical and functional properties and serves as a valuable source of high-quality features for many materials screening and discovery workflows. Still, the computational cost of calculating the DOS, most commonly with density functional theory (DFT), becomes prohibitive for meeting high-fidelity or high-throughput requirements, necessitating a cheaper but sufficiently accurate surrogate. To fulfill this demand, we develop a general machine learning method based on graph neural networks for predicting the DOS purely from atomic positions, six orders of magnitude faster than DFT. This approach can effectively use large materials databases and be applied generally across the entire periodic table to materials classes of arbitrary compositional and structural diversity. We furthermore devise a highly adaptable scheme for physically informed learning which encourages the DOS prediction to favor physically reasonable solutions defined by any set of desired constraints. This functionality provides a means for ensuring that the predicted DOS is reliable enough to be used as an input to downstream materials screening workflows to predict more complex functional properties, which rely on accurate physical features.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Improving River Routing Using a Differentiable Muskingum‐Cunge Model and Physics‐Informed Machine Learning

Recently, rainfall-runoff simulations in small headwater basins have been improved by methodological advances such as deep neural networks (NNs) and hybrid physics-NN models—particularly, a genre called differentiable modeling that intermingles NNs with physics to learn relationships between variables. However, hydrologic routing simulations, necessary for simulating floods in stem rivers downstream of large heterogeneous basins, had not yet benefited from these advances and it was unclear if the routing process could be improved via coupled NNs. We present a novel differentiable routing method (δMC-Juniata-hydroDL2) that mimics the classical Muskingum-Cunge routing model over a river network but embeds an NN to infer parameterizations for Manning's roughness (n) and channel geometries from raw reach-scale attributes like catchment areas and sinuosity. The NN was trained solely on downstream hydrographs. Synthetic experiments show that while the channel geometry parameter was unidentifiable, n can be identified with moderate precision. With real-world data, the trained differentiable routing model produced more accurate long-term routing results for both the training gage and untrained inner gages for larger subbasins (>2,000 km2) than either a machine learning model assuming homogeneity, or simply using the sum of runoff from subbasins. The n parameterization trained on short periods gave high performance in other periods, despite significant errors in runoff inputs. The learned n pattern was consistent with literature expectations, demonstrating the framework's potential for knowledge discovery, but the absolute values can vary depending on training periods. The trained n parameterization can be coupled with traditional models to improve national-scale hydrologic flood simulations.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Data-driven modeling of dislocation mobility from atomistics using physics-informed machine learning

Dislocation mobility, which dictates the response of dislocations to an applied stress, is a fundamental property of crystalline materials that governs the evolution of plastic deformation. Traditional approaches for deriving mobility laws rely on phenomenological models of the underlying physics, whose free parameters are in turn fitted to a small number of intuition-driven atomic scale simulations under varying conditions of temperature and stress. This tedious and time-consuming approach becomes particularly cumbersome for materials with complex dependencies on stress, temperature, and local environment, such as body-centered cubic crystals (BCC) metals and alloys. In this paper, we present a novel, uncertainty quantification-driven active learning paradigm for learning dislocation mobility laws from automated high-throughput large-scale molecular dynamics simulations, using Graph Neural Networks (GNN) with a physics-informed architecture. We demonstrate that this Physics-informed Graph Neural Network (PI-GNN) framework captures the underlying physics more accurately compared to existing phenomenological mobility laws in BCC metals.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2024

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

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

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Multi-fidelity physics-informed machine learning for probabilistic damage diagnosis

Machine learning (ML) models are gaining popularity in structural health monitoring (SHM) because of their ability to learn the complex relationship between damage and sensor data. However, the lack of sufficient experimental data for structures with different degrees of damage is a key problem in training ML models for SHM. This problem can be alleviated by using physics-based models to generate the required training data to build physics-informed ML (PIML) models for SHM. However, it takes significant computational effort to perform enough high-fidelity simulations of the diagnostic test. It is thus desirable to know whether the available computational resource budget should be expended on numerous low-fidelity physics simulations, or a small number of high-fidelity simulations, or their combination. In this paper, we investigate this aspect of generating adequate training data for PIML, by constructing multi-fidelity PIML models. We evaluate the performance of several PIML models, trained with different amounts of low-fidelity and high-fidelity data, in locating hidden cracks in concrete structures using a nonlinear dynamics-based diagnosis technique. Here, we find that high-fidelity physics simulations that do not cover the (test and damage) parameter space do not improve the performance of diagnostic PIML models built using data from many low-fidelity physics simulations.

42 ENGINEERING↗