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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 433 records · Page 24
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2026

Spatiotemporal 4D Whole-cell Modeling of a Minimal Autotroph Reveals Central Carbon Metabolism Regulated Locally by Protein Megacomplexes via Post-translational Modifications under Light Disturbance

Photosynthetic microorganisms rely on multiple pathways in central carbon metabolism to adapt to fluctuating light and energy availability across diel cycles. Mechanistic insight into the regulatory dynamics of this adaptation requires integrating processes spanning disparate timescales, from rapid redox-dependent post-translational modifications (PTMs) to slower changes in protein expression and metabolic pathway usage. To address this complexity beyond genome-based inference and traditional modeling, we develop a whole-cell four-dimensional (3D + time) model of the marine cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus marinus MED4 that explicitly represents the spatial organization of enzymatic and molecular processes in central carbon metabolism under light perturbation. We employ a perturbation-based research design to experimentally generate time-series, multi-omics measurements that provide molecular descriptors and cryo-ET derived 3D segmented volumes as constraints for this dynamic 4D framework. The integration of experiments and modeling across defined light regimes enables quantitative validation of system-level responses and forecasting under distinct light disturbances. We test the hypothesis that light-dependent redox PTMs regulating the structural assembly of a protein megacomplex, the “dark complex,” modulate metabolic flux at a conserved regulatory node of the Calvin–Benson cycle (CBC) in cyanobacteria. Our model shows that subcellular spatial organization buffers rapid light-induced changes in thylakoid reaction rates, which are followed by redox-PTM-mediated sequestration or release of CBC enzymes in the dark complex, ultimately impacting carbon fixation dynamics within carboxysomes. Comparison with an equivalently parameterized well-mixed stochastic model demonstrates that post-translational regulation not only buffers transcriptional noise and diffusion-driven fluctuations but also stabilizes phenotypic outcomes, underscoring the importance of spatial heterogeneity in phenotypic robustness. This ability to probe adaptive, spatiotemporally resolved mechanisms in photosynthetic machinery and central carbon metabolism addresses a critical gap in genotype-to-phenotype inference and expands modeling and design capabilities for understudied or genetically intractable autotrophs such as P. marinus MED4.

Johnson, Connah G.↗
DOE OSTI2021

Insight on electrolyte infiltration of lithium ion battery electrodes by means of a new three-dimensional-resolved lattice Boltzmann model

Electrolyte filling takes place between sealing and formation in Lithium Ion Battery (LIB) manufacturing process. This step is crucial as it is directly linked to LIB quality and affects the subsequent time consuming electrolyte wetting process. Although having fast, homogeneous and complete wetting is of paramount importance, this process has not been sufficiently examined and fully understood. For instance, experimentally available data is insufficient to fully capture the complex interplay upon filling between electrolyte and air inside the porous electrode. We report here for the first time a 3D-resolved Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) model able to simulate electrolyte filling upon applied pressure of LIB porous electrodes obtained both from experiments (micro X-ray tomography) and computations (stochastic generation, simulation of the manufacturing process using Coarse Grained Molecular Dynamics and Discrete Element Method). The model allows obtaining advanced insights about the impact of the electrode mesostructures on the speed of electrolyte impregnation and wetting, highlighting the importance of porosity, pore size distribution and pores interconnectivity on the filling dynamics. Furthermore, we identify scenarios where volumes with trapped air (dead zones) appear and evaluate the impact of those on the electrochemical behavior of the electrodes.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2020

Thermodynamic and kinetic properties of layered-CaCo2O4 for the Ca-ion batteries: a systematic first-principles study

One of the more promising directions in multivalent energy storage is systems based on Ca ion intercalation due to the potential for high voltage and capacity. A major challenge for enabling such a battery is to find cathode materials capable of fast ionic diffusion and reversible insertion of Ca ions. Here, on the basis of first-principles calculations, we have demonstrated that layered CaCo 2 O 4 exhibits favorable thermodynamic and kinetic properties that should enable topotactic Ca ion intercalation reactions. The P3-type layered Ca x Co 2 O 4 (0 < x < 1) with either of space groups of P 1 or P 2 1 / m are stable at multiple Ca concentrations and show a smooth voltage plateau higher than 3 V up to X = 0.5. The energy barriers of the single Ca ion migration are as low as 0.36 eV and 0.27 eV at the dilute and high vacancy concentration limits, respectively. Therefore, although varying the vacancy environments of the diffusing atom influences the migration barriers, they do not exceed 0.6 eV. Stochastic analysis of Ca hopping events performed by ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulation has shown that the migration barriers are lower than 0.32 eV. Therefore, the Ca diffusivity at room temperature extrapolated from the AIMD results is comparable to Li diffusivity (>10 -10 cm 2 s -1 ) in conventional Li cathode materials, suggesting the feasibility of layered Ca x Co 2 O 4 as multivalent cathode materials. Finally, the structural factors that enable fast diffusion are discussed.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Needle bacterial community structure across the species range of limber pine

Abstract Bacteria on and inside leaves can influence forest tree health and resilience. The distribution and limits of a tree species’ range can be influenced by various factors, with biological interactions among the most significant. We investigated the processes shaping the bacterial needle community across the species distribution of limber pine, a widespread Western conifer inhabiting a range of extreme habitats. We tested four hypotheses: (i) Needle community structure varies across sites, with site-specific factors more important to microbial assembly than host species selection; (ii) dispersal limitation structures foliar communities across the range of limber pine; (iii) the relative significance of dispersal and selection differs across sites in the tree species range; and (iv) needle age structures bacterial communities. We characterized needle communities from the needle surface and tissue of limber pine and co-occurring conifers across 16 sites in the limber pine distribution. Our findings confirmed that site characteristics shape the assembly of bacterial communities across the host species range and showed that these patterns are not driven by dispersal limitation. Furthermore, the strength of selection by the host varied by site, possibly due to differences in available microbes. Our study, by focusing on trees in their natural setting, reveals real needle bacterial dynamics in forests, which is key to understanding the balance between stochastic and deterministic processes in shaping forest tree-microbe interactions. Such understanding will be necessary to predict or manipulate these interactions to support forest ecosystem productivity or assist plant migration and adaptation in the face of global change.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Joint Resource Modeling and Assessment for Hybrid Distributed Solar and Wind Systems

The inherent variability and uncertainty in distributed energy resources can presents myriad challenges to the planning and operations of power systems. These risks are poised to become larger as the penetration of renewable energy sources rises in the power generation mix. Hybrid solar-wind energy systems are able to mitigate some of these risks by their complementary resource availability. Surface solar and wind fields are coupled and correlated in both space and time. Appropriately estimating the hybrid solar wind energy system requires simulating the spatio-temporal structure of these fields that can be produced for each time horizon. We introduce a novel joint spatio-temporal stochastic differential equation (SPDE) approach that captures the spatio-temporal dynamics of solar and wind fields and their joint dependency over a domain for each time step. In the case study on Colorado, we consider nonstationary three-level hierarchical spatio temporal models for both hourly solar irradiance data and wind speed data in Colorado. Dependence between the solar irradiance data and wind speed data is captured by a shared spatio-temporal random effect. Our approach performs well in terms of the prediction score criterion.

joint modeling↗
NASA NTRS1984

Algorithms for output feedback, multiple-model, and decentralized control problems

The optimal stochastic output feedback, multiple-model, and decentralized control problems with dynamic compensation are formulated and discussed. Algorithms for each problem are presented, and their relationship to a basic output feedback algorithm is discussed. An aircraft control design problem is posed as a combined decentralized, multiple-model, output feedback problem. A control design is obtained using the combined algorithm. An analysis of the design is presented.

Halyo, N.↗
NASA NTRS2000

The Impact of ENSO on Extratropical Low Frequency Noise in Seasonal Forecasts

This study examines the uncertainty in forecasts of the January-February-March (JFM) mean extratropical circulation, and how that uncertainty is modulated by the El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The analysis is based on ensembles of hindcasts made with an Atmospheric General Circulation Model (AGCM) forced with sea surface temperatures observed during; the 1983 El Nino and 1989 La Nina events. The AGCM produces pronounced interannual differences in the magnitude of the extratropical seasonal mean noise (intra-ensemble variability). The North Pacific, in particular, shows extensive regions where the 1989 seasonal mean noise kinetic energy (SKE), which is dominated by a "PNA-like" spatial structure, is more than twice that of the 1983 forecasts. The larger SKE in 1989 is associated with a larger than normal barotropic conversion of kinetic energy from the mean Pacific jet to the seasonal mean noise. The generation of SKE due to sub-monthly transients also shows substantial interannual differences, though these are much smaller than the differences in the mean flow conversions. An analysis of the Generation of monthly mean noise kinetic energy (NIKE) and its variability suggests that the seasonal mean noise is predominantly a statistical residue of variability resulting from dynamical processes operating on monthly and shorter times scales. A stochastically-forced barotropic model (linearized about the AGCM's 1983 and 1989 base states) is used to further assess the role of the basic state, submonthly transients, and tropical forcing, in modulating the uncertainties in the seasonal AGCM forecasts. When forced globally with spatially-white noise, the linear model generates much larger variance for the 1989 base state, consistent with the AGCM results. The extratropical variability for the 1989 base state is dominanted by a single eigenmode, and is strongly coupled with forcing over tropical western Pacific and the Indian Ocean, again consistent with the AGCM results. Linear calculations that include forcing from the AGCM variance of the tropical forcing and submonthly transients show a small impact on the variability over the Pacific/North American region compared with that of the base state differences.

Schubert, Siegfried D.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Comments to Irreversibility in Thermodynamics

The problem of irreversibility in thermodynamics was revisited and analyzed on the microscopic, stochastic, and macroscopic levels of description. It was demonstrated that Newtonian dynamics can be represented in the Reynolds form, a new phenomenological force with non-Lipschitz properties was introduced, and additional non- Lipschitz thermodynamical forces were incorporated into macroscopic models of transport phenomena.

thermodynamics irreversibility↗
NASA NTRS2008

NASA Tech Briefs, June 2008

Topics covered include: Charge-Control Unit for Testing Lithium-Ion Cells; Measuring Positions of Objects Using Two or More Cameras; Lidar System for Airborne Measurement of Clouds and Aerosols; Radiation-Insensitive Inverse Majority Gates; Reduced-Order Kalman Filtering for Processing Relative Measurements; Spaceborne Processor Array; Instrumentation System Diagnoses a Thermocouple; Chromatic Modulator for a High-Resolution CCD or APS; Commercial Product Activation Using RFID; Cup Cylindrical Waveguide Antenna; Aerobraking Maneuver (ABM) Report Generator; ABM Drag_Pass Report Generator; Transformation of OODT CAS to Perform Larger Tasks; Visualization Component of Vehicle Health Decision Support System; Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Uplink Analysis Tool; Problem Reporting System; G-Guidance Interface Design for Small Body Mission Simulation; DSN Scheduling Engine; Replacement Sequence of Events Generator; Force-Control Algorithm for Surface Sampling; Tool for Merging Proposals Into DSN Schedules; Micromachined Slits for Imaging Spectrometers; Fabricating Nanodots Using Lift-Off of a Nanopore Template; Making Complex Electrically Conductive Patterns on Cloth; Special Polymer/Carbon Composite Films for Detecting SO2; Nickel-Based Superalloy Resists Embrittlement by Hydrogen; Chemical Passivation of Li+-Conducting Solid Electrolytes; Organic/Inorganic Polymeric Composites for Heat-Transfer Reduction; Composite Cathodes for Dual-Rate Li-Ion Batteries; Improved Descent-Rate Limiting Mechanism; Alignment-Insensitive Lower-Cost Telescope Architecture; Micro-Resistojet for Small Satellites; Using Piezoelectric Devices to Transmit Power through Walls; Miniature Latching Valve; Apparatus for Sampling Surface Contamination; Novel Species of Non-Spore-Forming Bacteria; Chamber for Aerosol Deposition of Bioparticles; Hyperspectral Sun Photometer for Atmospheric Characterization and Vicarious Calibrations; Dynamic Stability and Gravitational Balancing of Multiple Extended Bodies; Simulation of Stochastic Processes by Coupled ODE-PDE; Cluster Inter-Spacecraft Communications; Genetic Algorithm Optimizes Q-LAW Control Parameters; Low-Impact Mating System for Docking Spacecraft; Non-Destructive Evaluation of Materials via Ultraviolet Spectroscopy; Gold-on-Polymer-Based Sensing Films for Detection of Organic and Inorganic Analytes in the Air; and Quantum-Inspired Maximizer.

Source record↗
DOE OSTI2022

Framework for idealized climate simulations with spatiotemporal stochastic clouds and planetary-scale circulations

In climate predictions, clouds are the leading source of uncertainty. This is partly because, to simulate the fluid dynamics of climate over the entire globe, a large grid spacing must be used, so clouds are a subgrid-scale parametrization rather than a resolved feature. Here, a framework is investigated with finer grid spacing of O(1) or O(10)km so that some clouds are not subgrid-scale; instead, clouds evolve on the numerical grid. This cloud evolution is achieved using stochastic modeling. Hence, the framework is idealized in the sense that the full fluid dynamics of cloud circulations is still not resolved, and simplified vertical structures are used. Nevertheless, the fluid dynamics model includes evolving clouds that interactively adjust in size, shape, lifetime, and regional coverage. In addition, different cloud types are included with different roles in the climate system, including deep convective clouds and also boundary-layer clouds such as shallow cumulus and stratocumulus clouds. Other basic aspects of the idealized climate system are planetary-scale circulations (e.g., Walker circulation) and radiation. With these ingredients (evolving clouds, planetary-scale circulations, and radiation), the framework has the potential for idealized investigations of climate change with interactive cloud–radiative feedback of individual clouds. Here, the formulation of the model equations is presented, and numerical simulations are shown to illustrate the model dynamics and climate change.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Simulation of Alfvénic avalanche onset in NSTX

In some tokamak discharges, a number of Alfvén eigenmodes (AEs) have been observed to cause a large-scale collapse of the high energy particle distribution, a phenomenon referred to as an avalanche. We examine the necessary conditions for an avalanche using the available experimental information from NSTX on the equilibrium and mode properties for two cases, one with a measurable but benign AE activity and one with an AE activity leading up to an avalanche. To produce an avalanche, the modes present in the discharge must possess resonances that can overlap with a modest increase in instability magnitude, providing a path to global particle stochastic motion. In this paper, we find that the modes present in the avalanche-free discharge do not provide such a path even at a very large amplitude. During the discharge which subsequently produces an avalanche, the high energy population is growing and the Alfvén frequency is dropping due to increasing density, and we find that both these changes, producing a small increased drive or an increased resonance width for the Alfvén modes, can lead in this case to uncontrolled mode growth and large-scale beam particle loss.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
NASA NTRS1991

A statistical rain attenuation prediction model with application to the advanced communication technology satellite project. 3: A stochastic rain fade control algorithm for satellite link power via non linear Markow filtering theory

The dynamic and composite nature of propagation impairments that are incurred on Earth-space communications links at frequencies in and above 30/20 GHz Ka band, i.e., rain attenuation, cloud and/or clear air scintillation, etc., combined with the need to counter such degradations after the small link margins have been exceeded, necessitate the use of dynamic statistical identification and prediction processing of the fading signal in order to optimally estimate and predict the levels of each of the deleterious attenuation components. Such requirements are being met in NASA's Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS) Project by the implementation of optimal processing schemes derived through the use of the Rain Attenuation Prediction Model and nonlinear Markov filtering theory.

Manning, Robert M.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Euler–Lagrange stochastic modeling of droplet breakup and impact in supersonic flight

Blunt bodied aircraft traveling supersonically in weather environments may be damaged by impacts with water droplets and other airborne particles, such as snow and ice. Prior to an impact, these particles will encounter a bow shock that causes a discontinuity in their relative velocity with the gas phase, which can lead droplets to breakup into smaller droplets. These smaller droplets are more easily diverted from colliding with the blunt body due to their significantly reduced inertia relative to the initial rain droplets. One-way coupled Euler–Lagrange simulations are used to study the dynamics of droplets approaching a blunt body in steady two dimensional and axi-symmetric flow fields using a stochastic version of the Taylor analogy breakup model for the breakup dynamics. Ultimately, the dominant mechanism determining engineering quantities of interest was observed to be a competition between breakup time and the time available for a droplet to reach the body after encountering the bow shock. At Mach numbers 2, 3, and 6, the competition between these mechanisms was the dominant factor determining the momentum transfer to the blunt body via droplet collisions, which can be well characterized by a scaling relation.

Briney, Sam (ORCID:0000000179061081)↗
DOE OSTI2023

Low-pass spectral analysis of time-resolved serial femtosecond crystallography data

Low-pass spectral analysis (LPSA) is a recently developed dynamics retrieval algorithm showing excellent retrieval properties when applied to model data affected by extreme incompleteness and stochastic weighting. In this work, we apply LPSA to an experimental time-resolved serial femtosecond crystallography (TR-SFX) dataset from the membrane protein bacteriorhodopsin (bR) and analyze its parametric sensitivity. While most dynamical modes are contaminated by nonphysical high-frequency features, we identify two dominant modes, which are little affected by spurious frequencies. The dynamics retrieved using these modes shows an isomerization signal compatible with previous findings. We employ synthetic data with increasing timing uncertainty, increasing incompleteness level, pixel-dependent incompleteness, and photon counting errors to investigate the root cause of the high-frequency contamination of our TR-SFX modes. By testing a range of methods, we show that timing errors comparable to the dynamical periods to be retrieved produce a smearing of dynamical features, hampering dynamics retrieval, but with no introduction of spurious components in the solution, when convergence criteria are met. Using model data, we are able to attribute the high-frequency contamination of low-order dynamical modes to the high levels of noise present in the data. Finally, we propose a method to handle missing observations that produces a substantial dynamics retrieval improvement from synthetic data with a significant static component. Reprocessing of the bR TR-SFX data using the improved method yields dynamical movies with strong isomerization signals compatible with previous findings.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Discrete-Time Causal Control of a Wave Energy Converter With Finite Stroke in Stochastic Waves

We consider feedback control design for a wave energy converter (WEC) for which the power takeoff (PTO) system has a finite stroke limit. Stationary stochastic wave loading is assumed, with a known spectrum, and the plant dynamics are assumed to be linear. We develop a technique for the design of a discrete-time controller, which has three design stages. In the first stage, a linear controller is optimized while imposing a relaxation of the maximum stroke constraint on the design. In the second stage, a tandem nonlinear feedback loop is designed for the purpose of stroke protection. In the third stage, the two designs (linear and nonlinear) are fused in a manner that preserves the stability of the overall system. The technique is demonstrated in a simulation of a simple cylindrical buoy. We show that the controller may be tuned through the adjustment of scalar design parameters, which adjust the tradeoff between the mean generated power and the force levels required to protect the stroke.

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗
NASA NTRS1976

Frequency domain approach for evaluation of stochastic control of elastic spacecraft

An attempt is made to develop a reduced-order filter for an elastic spacecraft. The frequency-domain approach is resorted to both for arriving at an appropriate ROF and for evaluating the resulting stochastic flight controller. The frequency-domain approach employed is contrasted to the time-domain approach previously utilized by the authors. A linearized deterministic dynamical model of a solar electric propulsion spacecraft is analyzed. Flexibility modes were incorporated profitably into the ROF model, and the stochastic controllers exhibit notching of structural resonances reminiscent of classical notch filters. Accurate estimates of modal parameters (damping, natural frequency) are deemed crucial, and use of worst-case values in the ROF design is recommended.

Larson, V.↗