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At least 361 records · Page 20

The Green's Function Model Intercomparison Project (GFMIP) Protocol

The atmospheric Green's function method is a technique for modeling the response of the atmosphere to changes in the spatial field of surface temperature. While early studies applied this method to changes in atmospheric circulation, it has also become an important tool to understand changes in radiative feedbacks due to evolving patterns of warming, a phenomenon called the “pattern effect.” To better study this method, this paper presents a protocol for creating atmospheric Green's functions to serve as the basis for a model intercomparison project, GFMIP. The protocol has been developed using a series of sensitivity tests performed with the HadAM3 atmosphere-only general circulation model, along with existing and new simulations from other models. Our preliminary results have uncovered nonlinearities in the response of the atmosphere to surface temperature changes, including an asymmetrical response to warming versus cooling patch perturbations, and a change in the dependence of the response on the magnitude and size of the patches. These nonlinearities suggest that the pattern effect may depend on the heterogeneity of warming as well as its location. These experiments have also revealed tradeoffs in experimental design between patch size, perturbation strength, and the length of control and patch simulations. The protocol chosen on the basis of these experiments balances scientific utility with the simulation time and setup required by the Green's function approach. Running these simulations will further our understanding of many aspects of atmospheric response, from the pattern effect and radiative feedbacks to changes in circulation, cloudiness, and precipitation.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

OC6 Phase I: Investigating the underprediction of low-frequency hydrodynamic loads and responses of a floating wind turbine

Phase I of the OC6 project is focused on examining why offshore wind design tools underpredict the response (loads/motion) of the OC5-DeepCwind semisubmersible at its surge and pitch natural frequencies. Previous investigations showed that the underprediction was primarily related to nonlinear hydrodynamic loading, so two new validation campaigns were performed to separately examine the different hydrodynamic load components. In this paper, we validate a variety of tools against this new test data, focusing on the ability to accurately model the low-frequency loads on a semisubmersible floater when held fixed under wave excitation and when forced to oscillate in the surge direction. However, it is observed that models providing better load predictions in these two scenarios do not necessarily produce a more accurate motion response in a moored configuration.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

Step Bunching: Influence of Impurities and Solution Flow

Step bunching results in striations even at relatively early stages of its development and in inclusions of mother liquor at the later stages. Therefore, eliminating step bunching is crucial for high crystal perfection. At least 5 major effects causing and influencing step bunching are known: (1) Basic morphological instability of stepped interfaces. It is caused by concentration gradient in the solution normal to the face and by the redistribution of solute tangentially to the interface which redistribution enhances occasional perturbations in step density due to various types of noise; (2) Aggravation of the above basic instability by solution flowing tangentially to the face in the same directions as the steps or stabilization of equidistant step train if these flows are antiparallel; (3) Enhanced bunching at supersaturation where step velocity v increases with relative supersaturation s much faster than linear. This v(s) dependence is believed to be associated with impurities. The impurities of which adsorption time is comparable with the time needed to deposit one lattice layer may also be responsible for bunching; (4) Very intensive solution flow stabilizes growing interface even at parallel solution and step flows; (5) Macrosteps were observed to nucleate at crystal corners and edges. Numerical simulation, assuming step-step interactions via surface diffusion also show that step bunching may be induced by random step nucleation at the facet edge and by discontinuity in the step density (a ridge) somewhere in the middle of a face. The corresponding bunching patterns produce the ones observed in experiment. The nature of step bunching generated at the corners and edges and by dislocation step sources, as well as the also relative importance and interrelations between mechanisms 1-5 is not clear, both from experimental and theoretical standpoints. Furthermore, several laws controlling the evolution of existing step bunches have been suggested, though unambiguous conclusions are still missing. Addressing these issues is the major goal of the present project. The theory addressing the above problem, experimental methods, several figures which include: (1) the spatial wave numbers at which the system is neutrally stable as a function of growth velocity for linear kinetics and supersaturation for nonlinear kinetics; (2) a schematic of the experiment of lysozyme crystal growing under conditions of natural convection; (3) fluctuations in time, t, of the normal growth rate, R(t), vicinal slope, p(t) and Fourier Spectra of R(t), discussions and conclusions are presented.

Chernov, A. A.↗

Develop and verify soil/structure interaction for pile/foundation interaction

Phase II of the Offshore Code Comparison Collaboration, Continued, with Correlation and unCertainty (OC6) project was used to verify the implementation of a new soil-structure interaction (SSI) model for use within offshore wind turbine modeling software. The REDWIN Macro-element model implemented and verified in this study enables a computationally efficient way to model the linear and nonlinear SSI problem, including hysteretic damping, of a monopile structure. The modeling approach was integrated into several modeling tools and a series of increasingly complex simulations was conducted using the IEA 10MW reference turbine mounted on a monopile support structure to verify the coupling between the tools and the REDWIN Macro-element SSI model. This campaign includes only numerical verification between various software and modeling approaches so no experimental measurements are available. The load cases (LC) considered include: LC1 – static response of the tower and substructure LC2 – frequency and mode-shape analysis of the tower and substructure LC3 – response of the tower and substructure due to wind-only loading LC4 – response of the tower and substructure due to wave-only loading LC5 – response of the tower and substructure due to wind and wave loading. Detailed properties of the modeled system are found in the following reference, “Bergua, Roger, Amy Robertson, Jason Jonkman, and Andy Platt. 2021. "Specification Document for OC6 Phase II: Verification of an Advanced Soil-Structure Interaction Model for Offshore Wind Turbines.” Golden, CO: National Renewable Energy Laboratory. NREL/TP-5000-79938. https://www.nlr.gov/docs/fy21osti/79938.pdf. Details on the results from the OC6 Phase II project can be found in the following reference, “Bergua R, Robertson A, Jonkman J, et al. OC6 Phase II: Integration and verification of a new soil–structure interaction model for offshore wind design.” Wind Energy. 2022;25(5):793-810. doi:10.1002/we.2698

17 WIND ENERGY↗

The behavior of elastic anisotropic laminated composite flat structures subjected to deterministic and random loadings

Within this research project, the following topics were studied: (1) foundation of the refined theory of flat cross-ply laminated composite flat and curved panels as well as their static and dynamic response analysis; (2) foundation of a geometrically-nonlinear shear-deformable theory of composite laminated flat panels including the effect of initial geometric imperfections and its application in the postbuckling analysis; (3) the study of the dynamic response of shear deformable elastic laminated composite panels to deterministic time-dependent external excitations as the sonic boom and explosive blast type-loadings; (4) the study of the dynamic response of shear deformable elastic laminated composite panels to random excitation as e.g. the one produced by a jet noise or by any time-dependent external excitation whose characteristics are expressed in a statistical sense; and (5) the dynamic stability of fiber-reinforced composite flat panels whose materials (due to e.g. an ambient high temperature field) exhibit a time-dependent physical behavior.

Librescu, Liviu↗

Quantifying albedo susceptibility biases in shallow clouds

The evaluation of radiative forcing associated with aerosol–cloud interactions remains a significant source of uncertainty in future climate projections. The problem is confounded by the fact that aerosol particles influence clouds locally and that averaging to larger spatial and/or temporal scales carries biases that depend on the heterogeneity and spatial correlation of the interacting fields and the nonlinearity of the responses. Mimicking commonly applied satellite data analyses for calculation of albedo susceptibility S o , we quantify S o aggregation biases using an ensemble of 127 large eddy simulations of marine stratocumulus. We explore the cloud field properties that control this spatial aggregation bias and quantify the bias for a large range of shallow stratocumulus cloud conditions manifesting a variety of morphologies and ranges of cloud fractions. We show that S o spatial aggregation biases can be on the order of hundreds of percent, depending on the methodology. Key uncertainties emanate from the typically applied adiabatic drop concentration N d retrieval, the correlation between aerosol and cloud fields, and the extent to which averaging reduces the variance in cloud albedo A c and N d . So biases are more often positive than negative and are highly correlated with biases in the liquid water path adjustment. Temporal aggregation biases are shown to offset spatial aggregation biases. Both spatial and temporal biases have significant implications for observationally based assessments of aerosol indirect effects and our inferences of underlying aerosol–cloud–radiation effects.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Measurements of the Five-Dimensional Phase Space Distribution of an Intense Ion Beam

No simulation of intense beam transport has accurately reproduced measurements at the level of beam halo. One potential explanation of this discrepancy is a lack of knowledge of the initial distribution of particles in six-dimensional (6D) phase space. A direct 6D measurement of an ion beam was recently performed at the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) Beam Test Facility (BTF), revealing nonlinear transverse-longitudinal correlations in the beam core that affect downstream evolution. Unfortunately, direct 6D measurements are limited in resolution and dynamic range; here, we discuss the use of three slits and one screen to measure a 5D projection of the 6D phase space distribution, overcoming these limitations at the cost of one dimension. We examine the measured 5D distribution before and after transport through the BTF and compare to particle-in-cell simulations. We also discuss the possibility of reconstructing the 6D distribution from 5D and 4D projections.

Hoover, Austin↗

Nonlinear Electrostatic Properties of Lunar Dust

A laboratory experiment was designed to study the induction charging and charge decay characteristics of small dielectric particles, or glass beads. Initially, the goal of the experiment was further understanding of induction charging of lunar dust particles. However, the mechanism of charging became a point of greater interest as the project continued. Within an environmentally-controlled acrylic glove box was placed a large parallel plate capacitor at high-voltage (HV) power supply with reversible polarity. Spherical 1-mm and 0.5-mm glass beads, singly, were placed between the plates, and their behaviors recorded on video and quantified. Nearly a hundred trials at various humidities were performed. The analysis of the results indicated a non-linear relationship between humidity and particle charge exchange time (CET), for both sizes of beads. Further, a difference in CET for top-resting beads and bottom-resting beads hinted at a different charging mechanism than that of simple induction. Results from the I-mm bead trials were presented at several space science and physics conferences in 2008 and 2009, and were published as a Master's thesis in August 2009. Tangential work stemming from this project resulted in presentations at other international conferences in 2010, and selection to attend workshop on granular matter flow 2011.

Irwin, Stacy A.↗

Roses in the nonperturbative current response of artificial crystals

In two-dimensional artificial crystals with large real-space periodicity, the nonlinear current response to a large applied electric field can feature a strong angular dependence, which encodes information about the band dispersion and Berry curvature of isolated electronic Bloch minibands. Within the relaxation-time approximation, we obtain analytic expressions up to infinite order in the driving field for the current in a band-projected theory with time-reversal and trigonal symmetry. For a fixed field strength, the dependence of the current on the direction of the applied field is given by rose curves whose petal structure is symmetry constrained and is obtained from an expansion in real-space translation vectors. We illustrate our theory with calculations on periodically buckled graphene and twisted double bilayer graphene, wherein the discussed physics can be accessed at experimentally relevant field strengths.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Non-linear controls influence functions in an aircraft dynamics simulator

In the development and testing of novel structural and controls concepts, such as morphing aircraft wings, appropriate models are needed for proper system characterization. In most instances, available system models do not provide the required additional degrees of freedom for morphing structures but may be modified to some extent to achieve a compatible system. The objective of this study is to apply wind tunnel data collected for an Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV), that implements trailing edge morphing, to create a non-linear dynamics simulator, using well defined rigid body equations of motion, where the aircraft stability derivatives change with control deflection. An analysis of this wind tunnel data, using data extraction algorithms, was performed to determine the reference aerodynamic force and moment coefficients for the aircraft. Further, non-linear influence functions were obtained for each of the aircraft s control surfaces, including the sixteen trailing edge flap segments. These non-linear controls influence functions are applied to the aircraft dynamics to produce deflection-dependent aircraft stability derivatives in a non-linear dynamics simulator. Time domain analysis of the aircraft motion, trajectory, and state histories can be performed using these nonlinear dynamics and may be visualized using a 3-dimensional aircraft model. Linear system models can be extracted to facilitate frequency domain analysis of the system and for control law development. The results of this study are useful in similar projects where trailing edge morphing is employed and will be instrumental in the University of Maryland s continuing study of active wing load control.

Guerreiro, Nelson M.↗

Multi-Stage and Multi-Timescale Robust Co-Optimization Planning for Reliable and Sustainable Power Systems. Final Report

In this project, Clarkson University, in collaboration with Southern Methodist University and University of Pittsburgh, conducted the research to model, design, and implement a sophisticated generation and transmission co-optimization planning decision tool, called Multi-stage and Multi-timescale robust Co-Optimization Planning (MMCOP). The MMCOP decision tool intends to facilitate generation and transmission co-optimization planning of emerging power systems, while mitigating risks and uncertainties in both short-term operation dynamics and long-term policy and technology changes. Long-term power system planning aims at optimizing asset utilization by investing in a proper mix of various generation technologies and transmission lines to supply the future load growth. In particular, the Clean Power Plan (CPP), which is designed to combat climate change and reduce carbon emissions by setting a national limit on carbon pollution from power plants, may dramatically change the landscape of the power industry by further promoting clean energy and phasing out emissions-intensive generation technologies. In addition, novel non-wire alternatives (e.g., demand response (DR), distributed generation (DG), energy efficiency (EE), and smart grid technologies) and the computational complexity for large-scale systems significantly complicate the system planning procedure even further. However, existing conventional planning approaches neglect short-term variability and uncertainty of renewable energy, hourly chronological operation details, and physical nonlinear characteristics of the alternating current transmission network. As a result, existing conventional planning approaches may not work properly, and power systems reliability could be in jeopardy. In observing the limitations of existing conventional planning approaches and addressing new challenges of emerging power systems, the main scope of this project to develop co-optimization planning models within a multi-stage and multi-timescale framework. In particular, random contingencies, key uncertainty factors, and AC power flows are included to derive expansion plans while considering both long-term reliability and short-term flexibility.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Weak-Form Latent Space Dynamics Identification

This software showcases the enhanced capabilities of the Latent Space Dynamics Identification (LaSDI) algorithm through the application of the weak form, resulting in WLaSDI. WLaSDI first compresses the data, then projects it onto test functions, and subsequently learns the local latent space models. Notably, WLaSDI demonstrates significantly improved robustness to noise. Using weak-form equation learning techniques, WLaSDI achieves local latent space modeling. Compared to the standard sparse identification of nonlinear dynamics (SINDy) used in LaSDI, the variance reduction of the weak form ensures robust and precise latent space recovery, enabling fast, robust, and accurate simulations. We demonstrate the efficacy of WLaSDI against LaSDI using several common benchmark examples, including viscid and inviscid Burgers', radial advection, and heat conduction. For instance, in 1D inviscid Burgers' simulations with up to 100% Gaussian white noise, WLaSDI maintains relative errors consistently below 6%, whereas LaSDI errors can exceed 10,000%. Similarly, in radial advection simulations, WLaSDI keeps relative errors below 16%, compared to potential errors of up to 10,000% with LaSDI. Additionally, WLaSDI achieves significant speedups, such as a 140X speedup in 1D Burgers' simulations compared to the corresponding full order model.

Choi, Youngsoo↗

From Ensemble Climate to Ensemble Impacts

Many climate-risk tools rely on ensemble mean projections or endpoint climate snapshots to characterize future hazards. Although convenient for communication, these representations remove the statistical, temporal, and physical information that real infrastructure systems respond to. Infrastructure degradation and failure arise from extremes, sequences, cumulative stress, compound hazards, and nonlinear fragility relationships, none of which survive ensemble averaging or temporal compression. Power-system failure statistics and cascading failure models further show that infrastructure risk is dominated by tail events and path-dependent dynamics rather than by mean conditions. This paper demonstrates why ensemble mean or endpoint-only climate representations are mathematically and physically inconsistent with engineering-grade risk analysis. We outline a model-resolved, time-series-based workflow that preserves extremes, variability, and sequencing by propagating each climate-model realization independently through hazard formation, exposure, fragility, and cascading failure mechanisms. Taking the ensemble of impacts—rather than the ensemble of climate—provides a defensible, physically coherent foundation for infrastructure resilience planning, regulatory compliance, and long-term investment decisions.

54 - ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES/GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE ↗

SUHMO: an adaptive mesh refinement SUbglacial Hydrology MOdel v1.0

Abstract. Water flowing under ice sheets and glaciers can have a strong influence on ice dynamics, particularly through pressure changes, suggesting that a comprehensive ice sheet model should include the effect of basal hydrology. Modeling subglacial hydrology remains a challenge, however, mainly due to the range of spatial and temporal scales involved – from subglacial channels to vast subglacial lakes. Additionally, networks of subglacial drainage channels dynamically evolve over time. To address some of these challenges, we have developed an adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) model based on the Chombo software framework. We extend the model proposed by Sommers et al. (2018) with a small but significant change to accommodate the transition from unresolved to resolved flow features. We handle the strong nonlinearities present in the equations by resorting to an efficient nonlinear full approximation scheme multigrid (FAS-MG) algorithm. We outline the details of the algorithm and present convergence analysis results demonstrating its good performance. Additionally, we present results validating our approach, using test cases from the Subglacial Hydrology Model Intercomparison Project (SHMIP) (de Fleurian et al., 2018). We finish by presenting a more complex, 100 km-by-100 km synthetic test case with peaks and valleys that we use to investigate the effective pressure distribution as the number of AMR levels increases. These preliminary results suggest that a minimum spatial resolution is needed to properly capture channel features, but additional work is required to precisely quantify this and its impact on accurately modeling the coupled ice sheet–hydrology system. The efficiency of our approach, relying on localized refinement, is also demonstrated. Future work will include coupling the SUbglacial Hydrology MOdel (SUHMO) with the BISICLES AMR ice sheet model (Cornford et al., 2013), both built on the same numerical framework.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Beamed-Energy Propulsion (BEP): Considerations for Beaming High Energy-Density Electromagnetic Waves Through the Atmosphere

A study to determine the feasibility of employing beamed electromagnetic energy for vehicle propulsion within and outside the Earth's atmosphere was co-funded by NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency that began in June 2010 and culminated in a Summary Presentation in April 2011. A detailed report entitled "Beamed-Energy Propulsion (BEP) Study" appeared in February 2012 as NASA/TM-2012-217014. Of the very many nuances of this subject that were addressed in this report, the effects of transferring the required high energy-density electromagnetic fields through the atmosphere were discussed. However, due to the limitations of the length of the report, only a summary of the results of the detailed analyses were able to be included. It is the intent of the present work to make available the complete analytical modeling work that was done for the BEP project with regard to electromagnetic wave propagation issues. In particular, the present technical memorandum contains two documents that were prepared in 2011. The first one, entitled "Effects of Beaming Energy Through the Atmosphere" contains an overview of the analysis of the nonlinear problem inherent with the transfer of large amounts of energy through the atmosphere that gives rise to thermally-induced changes in the refractive index; application is then made to specific beamed propulsion scenarios. A brief portion of this report appeared as Appendix G of the 2012 Technical Memorandum. The second report, entitled "An Analytical Assessment of the Thermal Blooming Effects on the Propagation of Optical and Millimeter- Wave Focused Beam Waves For Power Beaming Applications" was written in October 2010 (not previously published), provides a more detailed treatment of the propagation problem and its effect on the overall characteristics of the beam such as its deflection as well as its radius. Comparisons are then made for power beaming using the disparate electromagnetic wavelengths of 1.06 microns and 2.0 millimeters..

Beamed Energy↗

A multiresolution adaptive wavelet method for nonlinear partial differential equations

We report the multiscale complexity of modern problems in computational science and engineering can prohibit the use of traditional numerical methods in multi-dimensional simulations. Therefore, novel algorithms are required in these situations to solve partial differential equations (PDEs) with features evolving on a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. To meet these challenges, we present a multiresolution wavelet algorithm to solve PDEs with significant data compression and explicit error control. We discretize in space by projecting fields and spatial derivative operators onto wavelet basis functions. We provide error estimates for the wavelet representation of fields and their derivatives. Then, our estimates are used to construct a sparse multiresolution discretization which guarantees the prescribed accuracy. Additionally, we embed a predictor-corrector procedure within the temporal integration to dynamically adapt the computational grid and maintain the accuracy of the solution of the PDE as it evolves. We present examples to highlight the accuracy and adaptivity of our approach.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Weak-form latent space dynamics identification

Recent work in data-driven modeling has demonstrated that a weak formulation of model equations enhances the noise robustness of a wide range of computational methods. In this paper, we demonstrate the power of the weak form to enhance the LaSDI (Latent Space Dynamics Identification) algorithm, a recently developed data-driven reduced order modeling technique. We introduce a weak form-based version WLaSDI (Weak-form Latent Space Dynamics Identification). WLaSDI first compresses data, then projects onto the test functions and learns the local latent space models. Notably, WLaSDI demonstrates significantly enhanced robustness to noise. With WLaSDI, the local latent space is obtained using weak-form equation learning techniques. Compared to the standard sparse identification of nonlinear dynamics (SINDy) used in LaSDI, the variance reduction of the weak form guarantees a robust and precise latent space recovery, hence allowing for a fast, robust, and accurate simulation. We demonstrate the efficacy of WLaSDI vs. LaSDI on several common benchmark examples including viscid and inviscid Burgers', radial advection, and heat conduction. For instance, in the case of 1D inviscid Burgers' simulations with the addition of up to 100% Gaussian white noise, the relative error remains consistently below 6% for WLaSDI, while it can exceed 10,000% for LaSDI. Similarly, for radial advection simulations, the relative errors stay below 15% for WLaSDI, in stark contrast to the potential errors of up to 10,000% with LaSDI. Moreover, speedups of several orders of magnitude can be obtained with WLaSDI. For example applying WLaSDI to 1D Burgers' yields a 140X speedup compared to the corresponding full order model.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Program in acoustics

Relevant research projects conducted by faculty and graduate students in the general area of aeroacoustics to further the understanding of noise generation by aircraft and to aid in the development of practical methods for noise suppression are listed. Special activities summarized relate to the nonlinear acoustic wave theory and its application to several cases including that of the acoustic source located at the throat of a near-sonic duct, a computer program developed to compute the nonlinear wave theory, and a parabolic approximation for propagation of sounding in moving stratified media.

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