SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “Formal Methods”

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.

SourceResearch connectionFrom yearThrough year

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

At least 451 records · Page 25

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

DOE OSTI2019

Theory and Applications of Macroscale Models in Porous Media

Systems dominated by heterogeneity over a multiplicity of scales, like porous media, still challenge our modeling efforts. The presence of disparate length- and time-scales that control dynamical processes in porous media hinders not only models predictive capabilities, but also their computational efficiency. Macrosopic models, i.e., averaged representations of pore-scale processes, are computationally efficient alternatives to microscale models in the study of transport phenomena in porous media at the system, field or device scale (i.e., at a scale much larger than a characteristic pore size). We present an overview of common upscaling methods used to formally derive macroscale equations from pore-scale (mass, momentum and energy) conservation laws. This review includes the volume averaging method, mixture theory, thermodynamically constrained averaging, homogenization, and renormalization group techniques. We apply these methods to a number of specific problems ranging from food processing to human bronchial system, and from diffusion to multiphase flow, to demonstrate the methods generality and flexibility in handling different applications. The primary intent of such an overview is not to provide a thorough review of all currently available upscaling techniques, nor a complete mathematical treatment of the ones presented, but rather a primer on some of the tools available for upscaling, the basic principles they are based upon, and their specific advantages and drawbacks, so to guide the reader in the choice of the most appropriate method for particular applications and of the most relevant technical literature.

42 ENGINEERING↗

NASA NTRS2008

Closing the Certification Gaps in Adaptive Flight Control Software

Over the last five decades, extensive research has been performed to design and develop adaptive control systems for aerospace systems and other applications where the capability to change controller behavior at different operating conditions is highly desirable. Although adaptive flight control has been partially implemented through the use of gain-scheduled control, truly adaptive control systems using learning algorithms and on-line system identification methods have not seen commercial deployment. The reason is that the certification process for adaptive flight control software for use in national air space has not yet been decided. The purpose of this paper is to examine the gaps between the state-of-the-art methodologies used to certify conventional (i.e., non-adaptive) flight control system software and what will likely to be needed to satisfy FAA airworthiness requirements. These gaps include the lack of a certification plan or process guide, the need to develop verification and validation tools and methodologies to analyze adaptive controller stability and convergence, as well as the development of metrics to evaluate adaptive controller performance at off-nominal flight conditions. This paper presents the major certification gap areas, a description of the current state of the verification methodologies, and what further research efforts will likely be needed to close the gaps remaining in current certification practices. It is envisioned that closing the gap will require certain advances in simulation methods, comprehensive methods to determine learning algorithm stability and convergence rates, the development of performance metrics for adaptive controllers, the application of formal software assurance methods, the application of on-line software monitoring tools for adaptive controller health assessment, and the development of a certification case for adaptive system safety of flight.

Jacklin, Stephen A.↗

NASA NTRS1984

A validation methodology for fault-tolerant clock synchronization

A validation method for the synchronization subsystem of a fault-tolerant computer system is presented. The high reliability requirement of flight crucial systems precludes the use of most traditional validation methods. The method presented utilizes formal design proof to uncover design and coding errors and experimentation to validate the assumptions of the design proof. The experimental method is described and illustrated by validating an experimental implementation of the Software Implemented Fault Tolerance (SIFT) clock synchronization algorithm. The design proof of the algorithm defines the maximum skew between any two nonfaulty clocks in the system in terms of theoretical upper bounds on certain system parameters. The quantile to which each parameter must be estimated is determined by a combinatorial analysis of the system reliability. The parameters are measured by direct and indirect means, and upper bounds are estimated. A nonparametric method based on an asymptotic property of the tail of a distribution is used to estimate the upper bound of a critical system parameter. Although the proof process is very costly, it is extremely valuable when validating the crucial synchronization subsystem.

Johnson, S. C.↗

NASA NTRS1987

Fault-tolerant clock synchronization validation methodology

A validation method for the synchronization subsystem of a fault-tolerant computer system is presented. The high reliability requirement of flight-crucial systems precludes the use of most traditional validation methods. The method presented utilizes formal design proof to uncover design and coding errors and experimentation to validate the assumptions of the design proof. The experimental method is described and illustrated by validating the clock synchronization system of the Software Implemented Fault Tolerance computer. The design proof of the algorithm includes a theorem that defines the maximum skew between any two nonfaulty clocks in the system in terms of specific system parameters. Most of these parameters are deterministic. One crucial parameter is the upper bound on the clock read error, which is stochastic. The probability that this upper bound is exceeded is calculated from data obtained by the measurement of system parameters. This probability is then included in a detailed reliability analysis of the system.

Computer systems↗

NASA NTRS2000

From Livingstone to SMV: Formal Verification for Autonomous Spacecrafts

To fulfill the needs of its deep space exploration program, NASA is actively supporting research and development in autonomy software. However, the reliable and cost-effective development and validation of autonomy systems poses a tough challenge. Traditional scenario-based testing methods fall short because of the combinatorial explosion of possible situations to be analyzed, and formal verification techniques typically require a tedious, manual modelling by formal method experts. This paper presents the application of formal verification techniques in the development of autonomous controllers based on Livingstone, a model-based health-monitoring system that can detect and diagnose anomalies and suggest possible recovery actions. We present a translator that converts the models used by Livingstone into specifications that can be verified with the SMV model checker. The translation frees the Livingstone developer from the tedious conversion of his design to SMV, and isolates him from the technical details of the SMV program. We describe different aspects of the translation and briefly discuss its application to several NASA domains.

Pecheur, Charles↗

NASA NTRS2022

Reliability-Aware Requirements Development for Autonomy Software

Autonomy is the ability of a system to make decisions and take actions in the presence of uncertainty. Validating autonomy, therefore, is a matter of validating that the system makes intelligent decisions even when there might be discrepancies between the observed and the expected state of the world as well as when the possible outcome of each of the possible courses of action is uncertain. During the requirements engineering phase, the functions, including those that are required to be autonomous and their expected behavior are specified. However, in the case of autonomous software system, it is challenging to specify all possible scenarios that the software may encounter. Additionally, since autonomous behaviors cannot always be fully predetermined, it is difficult to reason about their completeness and correctness. While these challenges are also faced with non-autonomous system, they are more prevalent for autonomous system due to their complexity and emergent behavior. Our efforts have been three-fold. On one hand, we have developed a goal-based method for requirements decomposition. We have embedded this approach into a higher-level systems engineering framework and then developed methods for decision and reliability analysis within this framework. And finally, we use simulation analysis to validate the more theoretical methods and provide a feedback mechanism. The decision analysis approach (DA) helps in identifying and mitigating the run-time risks, by bringing to the forefront the uncertainties, decisions, interactions, and other factors that may cause autonomous software to make erroneous decisions. The DA framework is used to quantify, for each decision that the software can make, failure risk due to uncertainties. The information about the key decisions and circumstances that can cause autonomous system to make incorrect decisions are used to generate test scenarios to be run in a simulator to ensure that the system can handle error-prone circumstances. The results or outcomes from decisions, based on the simulated scenarios, can then be leveraged to further gain insight of the assured system. We combine a goal-based approach with simulation analysis to facilitate requirements development for autonomous systems and further provide a method for run-time systems level reliability considerations during the autonomous software development process. The DA and the reliability analysis methods provide a formalism for the consideration of uncertainty in the run time decision-making process for autonomous software. This formalism considers the uncertainty involved in the outcome of different courses of action, in terms of performance and cost, as well as a method to consider the system level reliability implications. System level reliability considerations for autonomous software decision making contribute to the satisfaction of the system level goals over the lifecycle of a given mission. We demonstrate our approach using a hypothetical rover path planning example. The requirements for our rover simulator are based on existing literature about Mars rovers and lessons learned from real world observations at JPL. The specifics of the autonomy design for the Mars rovers, that have not been previously cleared for external release, are not used for our demonstrations.

Lindvall, Mikael↗

NASA NTRS1974

Lagrangian methods in plasma dynamics. II - Construction of Lagrangians for plasmas

Consideration of the construction of suitable Lagrangian functions for the dynamics of a cold plasma in such a way as to retain the relativistically covariant formalism. In one method, this is achieved by the introduction of a set of three variables which label the world lines of the particles. A second method results in a Clebsch-type representation. Sturrock's relativistic Lagrangian and Low's hot plasma Lagrangian are also briefly discussed in the context of the present work. The behavior of the canonical stress tensor is considered. The applicability of many of the general results in part I (Dougherty, 1970) is ensured by establishing the existence of the Lagrangian function.

Dougherty, J. P.↗

DOE OSTI2017

Description of ground and excited electronic states by ensemble density functional method with extended active space

An extended variant of the spin-restricted ensemble-referenced Kohn-Sham (REKS) method, the REKS(4,4) method, designed to describe the ground electronic states of strongly multireference systems is modified to enable calculation of excited states within the time-independent variational formalism. The new method, the state-interaction state-averaged REKS(4,4), i.e., SI-SA-REKS(4,4), is capable of describing several excited states of a molecule involving double bond cleavage, polyradical character, or multiple chromophoric units.We demonstrate that the newmethod correctly describes the ground and the lowest singlet excited states of a molecule (ethylene) undergoing double bond cleavage. The applicability of the new method for excitonic states is illustrated with π stacked ethylene and tetracene dimers. We conclude that the new method can describe a wide range of multireference phenomena.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

NASA NTRS1979

Dominant partition method

By use of the L'Huillier, Redish, and Tandy (LRT) wave function formalism, a partially connected method, the dominant partition method (DPM) is developed for obtaining few body reductions of the many body problem in the LRT and Bencze, Redish, and Sloan (BRS) formalisms. The DPM maps the many body problem to a fewer body one by using the criterion that the truncated formalism must be such that consistency with the full Schroedinger equation is preserved. The DPM is based on a class of new forms for the irreducible cluster potential, which is introduced in the LRT formalism. Connectivity is maintained with respect to all partitions containing a given partition, which is referred to as the dominant partition. Degrees of freedom corresponding to the breakup of one or more of the clusters of the dominant partition are treated in a disconnected manner. This approach for simplifying the complicated BRS equations is appropriate for physical problems where a few body reaction mechanism prevails.

Dixon, R. M.↗

DOE OSTI2016

The optical potential on the lattice

The extraction of hadron-hadron scattering parameters from lattice data by using the Luscher approach becomes increasingly complicated in the presence of inelastic channels. We propose a method for the direct extraction of the complex hadron-hadron optical potential on the lattice, which does not require the use of the multi-channel Luscher formalism. Furthermore, this method is applicable without modifications if some inelastic channels contain three or more particles.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

NASA NTRS1987

Quaternions as astrometric plate constants

A new method for solving problems in relative astrometry is proposed. In it, the relationship between the measured quantities and the components of the position vector of a star is modeled using quaternions, in effect replacing the plate constants of a standard four-plate-constant solution with the four components of a quaternion. The method allows a direct solution for the position vectors of the stars, and hence for the equatorial coordinates. Distortions, magnitude, and color effects are readily incorporated into the formalism, and the method is directly applicable to overlapping-plate problems. The advantages of the method include the simplicity of the resulting equations, their freedom from singularities, and the fact that trigonometric functions and tangential point transformations are not needed to model the plate material. A global solution over the entire sky is possible.

Jefferys, William H.↗

DOE OSTI2018

Hyper Open-Shell Excited Spin States of Transition-Metal Compounds: FeF 2 , FeF 2 ···Ethane, and FeF 2 ···Ethylene

Spin-state energetics are important for understanding properties that involve more than one spin state, for example, catalysis occurring on two or more potential energy surfaces corresponding to different electronic spins. Very often, multiple-spin processes involve transition-metal compounds, and therefore, it is important to understand the electronic structure and energetics of such compounds in different spin states. In this work, we benchmark relative spin-state energies of FeF 2 with respect to the quintet ground spin state using both singleconfigurational and multi-configurational methods, and we examine how they are affected by the binding of ethane and ethylene to the iron center. We also benchmark the binding energies of the complexes. The single-configurational methods used in this work are the Hartree–Fock method, 32 exchange–correlation functionals, and the CCSD(T) coupled-cluster method in both restricted and unrestricted formalisms. The multi-configurational methods that have been used are CASSCF, CASPT2, CASPT3, MRCI, MRCI+Q, and MR-ACPF. The spin-state splitting energies depend on the functional chosen and of the 32 exchange-correlation functionals investigated here we find that for the septet and spin-projected triplet states of FeF 2 , the M06 functional is the best when compared to our best estimates from multi-reference calculations. If all the nine excitation energies are considered, where there are three excited spin states (singlet, triplet, and septet) for each of the three systems (FeF 2 , FeF 2 ···ethane, and FeF 2 ···ethylene), the three best performing functionals are HLE16, SOGGA11-X, and M06-2X. We find that the binding of ethane perturbs the relative spin-state energy of FeF 2 by only a small amount, but the stronger binding of ethylene has a larger effect. For the spin-state splitting energies of FeF 2 using single-reference CCSD(T), we found the predicted results depend very strongly on precisely how the calculations are done, in particular, on the spin-restricted or spin-unrestricted character of the SCF reference state, which can differ even by around 50 kcal/mol for the SCF reference state and the subsequent CCSD(T) calculations. Furthermore, on analyzing the wave functions of both the spinrestricted or spin-unrestricted formalisms, we find that the lowest-energy singlet and triplet states of the complexes, just like FeF 2 in isolation, can have more unpaired electrons than they are usually assumed to have, i.e. they can be hyper open-shell electronic configurations, and that this can significantly lower the energy.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

NASA NTRS1993

High-order cyclo-difference techniques: An alternative to finite differences

The summation-by-parts energy norm is used to establish a new class of high-order finite-difference techniques referred to here as 'cyclo-difference' techniques. These techniques are constructed cyclically from stable subelements, and require no numerical boundary conditions; when coupled with the simultaneous approximation term (SAT) boundary treatment, they are time asymptotically stable for an arbitrary hyperbolic system. These techniques are similar to spectral element techniques and are ideally suited for parallel implementation, but do not require special collocation points or orthogonal basis functions. The principal focus is on methods of sixth-order formal accuracy or less; however, these methods could be extended in principle to any arbitrary order of accuracy.

Carpenter, Mark H.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Nonrecursive formulations of multibody dynamics and concurrent multiprocessing

Since the late 1980's, research in recursive formulations of multibody dynamics has flourished. Historically, much of this research can be traced to applications of low dimensionality in mechanism and vehicle dynamics. Indeed, there is little doubt that recursive order N methods are the method of choice for this class of systems. This approach has the advantage that a minimal number of coordinates are utilized, parallelism can be induced for certain system topologies, and the method is of order N computational cost for systems of N rigid bodies. Despite the fact that many authors have dismissed redundant coordinate formulations as being of order N(exp 3), and hence less attractive than recursive formulations, we present recent research that demonstrates that at least three distinct classes of redundant, nonrecursive multibody formulations consistently achieve order N computational cost for systems of rigid and/or flexible bodies. These formulations are as follows: (1) the preconditioned range space formulation; (2) penalty methods; and (3) augmented Lagrangian methods for nonlinear multibody dynamics. The first method can be traced to its foundation in equality constrained quadratic optimization, while the last two methods have been studied extensively in the context of coercive variational boundary value problems in computational mechanics. Until recently, however, they have not been investigated in the context of multibody simulation, and present theoretical questions unique to nonlinear dynamics. All of these nonrecursive methods have additional advantages with respect to recursive order N methods: (1) the formalisms retain the highly desirable order N computational cost; (2) the techniques are amenable to concurrent simulation strategies; (3) the approaches do not depend upon system topology to induce concurrency; and (4) the methods can be derived to balance the computational load automatically on concurrent multiprocessors. In addition to the presentation of the fundamental formulations, this paper presents new theoretical results regarding the rate of convergence of order N constraint stabilization schemes associated with the newly introduced class of methods.

Kurdila, Andrew J.↗

DOE OSTI2020

Degree of rate control and De Donder relations – An interpretation based on transition state theory

We describe sensitivities of elementary steps as salient parameters in determining the rate determining character of elementary steps within a reaction network and develop a formalism wherein the overall composite reaction is described by an apparent rate-determining step that is a sensitivity-weighted average of the elementary steps that comprise the reaction. Reaction parameters—apparent reaction orders, apparent enthalpy and entropy of activation—of the composite reaction network are determined within the framework we develop by application of transition state theory to the apparent rate-determining step. From this formalism we develop methods for determination of surface coverages by measuring only reaction orders, novel methods for discrimination between proposed mechanisms, a proof that the kinetic degrees of rate control sum to unity, and a proof for the relationship between fractional coverages and thermodynamic degrees of rate control. Two complementary formalisms for identifying rate-limiting transition states are broadly employed in chemical kinetics—De Donder relations based on measuring the thermodynamic driving forces of elementary steps during reaction and degrees of rate control based on knowledge of the kinetics of elementary reaction steps. Here, the formalism developed herein unifies these two strategies to elucidate in the most general case a relationship between the thermodynamic driving forces of elementary steps captured by the reversibilities and the kinetic and thermodynamic degrees of rate control.

42 ENGINEERING↗

NASA NTRS1990

Laboratory measurements and modeling of microwave absorption by ammonia in gas mixtures applicable to giant planet atmospheres

Accurate knowledge of the microwave absorption behavior of ammonia is critical to the correct interpretation of radio astronomical and radio occultation data from the giant planets. New cavity resonator techniques developed at the Stanford Center for Radar Astronomy have allowed accurate laboratory measurements of the microwave absorptivity and refractivity spectra of gas mixtures containing trace amounts of ammonia. A parameterized version of the modified Ben-Reuven formalism of Berge and Bulkis was optimized to fit the new data. The new formalism produced by this method predicts ammonia absorptivity much more accurately than previous formalism over a significant range of conditions.

Spilker, T. R.↗

DOE OSTI2018

On the Question of the Total Energy in the Fermi–Löwdin Orbital Self-Interaction Correction Method

The Fermi-Löwdin orbital self-interaction correction (FLOSIC) formalism is a novel method for implementing the Perdew-Zunger self-interaction correction (PZ-SIC) in density functional theory calculations. In this paper we consider how the use of Fermi orbitals affects total energies and other calculated properties compared to a standard approach to PZ-SIC that utilizes the localization equation conditions. Here, we directly compare the results of the two methods using identical basis sets and numerical techniques in calculations for isolated atoms up to Kr and for a large test set of molecules. We find differences in total energies that increase with increasing atomic number and show that these differences can be traced to a less negative SIC correction for the 1s orbital in FLOSIC. Importantly, energies for highest occupied orbitals and molecular atomization energies are nearly identical in the two methods.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

NASA NTRS1997

Automated Reuse of Scientific Subroutine Libraries through Deductive Synthesis

Systematic software construction offers the potential of elevating software engineering from an art-form to an engineering discipline. The desired result is more predictable software development leading to better quality and more maintainable software. However, the overhead costs associated with the formalisms, mathematics, and methods of systematic software construction have largely precluded their adoption in real-world software development. In fact, many mainstream software development organizations, such as Microsoft, still maintain a predominantly oral culture for software development projects; which is far removed from a formalism-based culture for software development. An exception is the limited domain of safety-critical software, where the high-assuiance inherent in systematic software construction justifies the additional cost. We believe that systematic software construction will only be adopted by mainstream software development organization when the overhead costs have been greatly reduced. Two approaches to cost mitigation are reuse (amortizing costs over many applications) and automation. For the last four years, NASA Ames has funded the Amphion project, whose objective is to automate software reuse through techniques from systematic software construction. In particular, deductive program synthesis (i.e., program extraction from proofs) is used to derive a composition of software components (e.g., subroutines) that correctly implements a specification. The construction of reuse libraries of software components is the standard software engineering solution for improving software development productivity and quality.

Lowry, Michael R.↗