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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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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1995

Numerical simulation of supersonic and hypersonic inlet flow fields

This report summarizes the research performed by North Carolina State University and NASA Ames Research Center under Cooperative Agreement NCA2-719, 'Numerical Simulation of Supersonic and Hypersonic Inlet Flow Fields". Four distinct rotated upwind schemes were developed and investigated to determine accuracy and practicality. The scheme found to have the best combination of attributes, including reduction to grid alignment with no rotation, was the cell centered non-orthogonal (CCNO) scheme. In 2D, the CCNO scheme improved rotation when flux interpolation was extended to second order. In 3D, improvements were less dramatic in all cases, with second order flux interpolation showing the least improvement over grid aligned upwinding. The reduction in improvement is attributed to uncertainty in determining optimum rotation angle and difficulty in performing accurate and efficient interpolation of the angle in 3D. The CCNO rotational technique will prove very useful for increasing accuracy when second order interpolation is not appropriate and will materially improve inlet flow solutions.

Mcrae, D. Scott↗
NASA NTRS1993

Sensitivity Analysis of the Static Aeroelastic Response of a Wing

A technique to obtain the sensitivity of the static aeroelastic response of a three dimensional wing model is designed and implemented. The formulation is quite general and accepts any aerodynamic and structural analysis capability. A program to combine the discipline level, or local, sensitivities into global sensitivity derivatives is developed. A variety of representations of the wing pressure field are developed and tested to determine the most accurate and efficient scheme for representing the field outside of the aerodynamic code. Chebyshev polynomials are used to globally fit the pressure field. This approach had some difficulties in representing local variations in the field, so a variety of local interpolation polynomial pressure representations are also implemented. These panel based representations use a constant pressure value, a bilinearly interpolated value. or a biquadraticallv interpolated value. The interpolation polynomial approaches do an excellent job of reducing the numerical problems of the global approach for comparable computational effort. Regardless of the pressure representation used. sensitivity and response results with excellent accuracy have been produced for large integrated quantities such as wing tip deflection and trim angle of attack. The sensitivities of such things as individual generalized displacements have been found with fair accuracy. In general, accuracy is found to be proportional to the relative size of the derivatives to the quantity itself.

Eldred, Lloyd B.↗
NASA NTRS1997

A Numerical Method for Calculating Stellar Occultation Light Curves from an Arbitrary Atmospheric Model

We present a method for speeding up numerical calculations of a light curve for a stellar occultation by a planetary atmosphere with an arbitrary atmospheric model that has spherical symmetry. This improved speed makes least-squares fitting for model parameters practical. Our method takes as input several sets of values for the first two radial derivatives of the refractivity at different values of model parameters, and interpolates to obtain the light curve at intermediate values of one or more model parameters. It was developed for small occulting bodies such as Pluto and Triton, but is applicable to planets of all sizes. We also present the results of a series of tests showing that our method calculates light curves that are correct to an accuracy of 10(exp -4) of the unocculted stellar flux. The test benchmarks are (i) an atmosphere with a l/r dependence of temperature, which yields an analytic solution for the light curve, (ii) an atmosphere that produces an exponential refraction angle, and (iii) a small-planet isothermal model. With our method, least-squares fits to noiseless data also converge to values of parameters with fractional errors of no more than 10(exp -4), with the largest errors occurring in small planets. These errors are well below the precision of the best stellar occultation data available. Fits to noisy data had formal errors consistent with the level of synthetic noise added to the light curve. We conclude: (i) one should interpolate refractivity derivatives and then form light curves from the interpolated values, rather than interpolating the light curves themselves; (ii) for the most accuracy, one must specify the atmospheric model for radii many scale heights above half light; and (iii) for atmospheres with smoothly varying refractivity with altitude, light curves can be sampled as coarsely as two points per scale height.

Chamberlain, D. M.↗
NASA NTRS1999

A Comparative Study of Interferometric Regridding Algorithms

THe paper discusses regridding options: (1) The problem of interpolating data that is not sampled on a uniform grid, that is noisy, and contains gaps is a difficult problem. (2) Several interpolation algorithms have been implemented: (a) Nearest neighbor - Fast and easy but shows some artifacts in shaded relief images. (b) Simplical interpolator - uses plane going through three points containing point where interpolation is required. Reasonably fast and accurate. (c) Convolutional - uses a windowed Gaussian approximating the optimal prolate spheroidal weighting function for a specified bandwidth. (d) First or second order surface fitting - Uses the height data centered in a box about a given point and does a weighted least squares surface fit.

Hensley, Scott↗
NASA NTRS2012

Method for Pre-Conditioning a Measured Surface Height Map for Model Validation

This software allows one to up-sample or down-sample a measured surface map for model validation, not only without introducing any re-sampling errors, but also eliminating the existing measurement noise and measurement errors. Because the re-sampling of a surface map is accomplished based on the analytical expressions of Zernike-polynomials and a power spectral density model, such re-sampling does not introduce any aliasing and interpolation errors as is done by the conventional interpolation and FFT-based (fast-Fourier-transform-based) spatial-filtering method. Also, this new method automatically eliminates the measurement noise and other measurement errors such as artificial discontinuity. The developmental cycle of an optical system, such as a space telescope, includes, but is not limited to, the following two steps: (1) deriving requirements or specs on the optical quality of individual optics before they are fabricated through optical modeling and simulations, and (2) validating the optical model using the measured surface height maps after all optics are fabricated. There are a number of computational issues related to model validation, one of which is the "pre-conditioning" or pre-processing of the measured surface maps before using them in a model validation software tool. This software addresses the following issues: (1) up- or down-sampling a measured surface map to match it with the gridded data format of a model validation tool, and (2) eliminating the surface measurement noise or measurement errors such that the resulted surface height map is continuous or smoothly-varying. So far, the preferred method used for re-sampling a surface map is two-dimensional interpolation. The main problem of this method is that the same pixel can take different values when the method of interpolation is changed among the different methods such as the "nearest," "linear," "cubic," and "spline" fitting in Matlab. The conventional, FFT-based spatial filtering method used to eliminate the surface measurement noise or measurement errors can also suffer from aliasing effects. During re-sampling of a surface map, this software preserves the low spatial-frequency characteristic of a given surface map through the use of Zernike-polynomial fit coefficients, and maintains mid- and high-spatial-frequency characteristics of the given surface map by the use of a PSD model derived from the two-dimensional PSD data of the mid- and high-spatial-frequency components of the original surface map. Because this new method creates the new surface map in the desired sampling format from analytical expressions only, it does not encounter any aliasing effects and does not cause any discontinuity in the resultant surface map.

Sidick, Erkin↗
NASA NTRS2012

Constructing an Efficient Self-Tuning Aircraft Engine Model for Control and Health Management Applications

Self-tuning aircraft engine models can be applied for control and health management applications. The self-tuning feature of these models minimizes the mismatch between any given engine and the underlying engineering model describing an engine family. This paper provides details of the construction of a self-tuning engine model centered on a piecewise linear Kalman filter design. Starting from a nonlinear transient aerothermal model, a piecewise linear representation is first extracted. The linearization procedure creates a database of trim vectors and state-space matrices that are subsequently scheduled for interpolation based on engine operating point. A series of steady-state Kalman gains can next be constructed from a reduced-order form of the piecewise linear model. Reduction of the piecewise linear model to an observable dimension with respect to available sensed engine measurements can be achieved using either a subset or an optimal linear combination of "health" parameters, which describe engine performance. The resulting piecewise linear Kalman filter is then implemented for faster-than-real-time processing of sensed engine measurements, generating outputs appropriate for trending engine performance, estimating both measured and unmeasured parameters for control purposes, and performing on-board gas-path fault diagnostics. Computational efficiency is achieved by designing multidimensional interpolation algorithms that exploit the shared scheduling of multiple trim vectors and system matrices. An example application illustrates the accuracy of a self-tuning piecewise linear Kalman filter model when applied to a nonlinear turbofan engine simulation. Additional discussions focus on the issue of transient response accuracy and the advantages of a piecewise linear Kalman filter in the context of validation and verification. The techniques described provide a framework for constructing efficient self-tuning aircraft engine models from complex nonlinear simulations.Self-tuning aircraft engine models can be applied for control and health management applications. The self-tuning feature of these models minimizes the mismatch between any given engine and the underlying engineering model describing an engine family. This paper provides details of the construction of a self-tuning engine model centered on a piecewise linear Kalman filter design. Starting from a nonlinear transient aerothermal model, a piecewise linear representation is first extracted. The linearization procedure creates a database of trim vectors and state-space matrices that are subsequently scheduled for interpolation based on engine operating point. A series of steady-state Kalman gains can next be constructed from a reduced-order form of the piecewise linear model. Reduction of the piecewise linear model to an observable dimension with respect to available sensed engine measurements can be achieved using either a subset or an optimal linear combination of "health" parameters, which describe engine performance. The resulting piecewise linear Kalman filter is then implemented for faster-than-real-time processing of sensed engine measurements, generating outputs appropriate for trending engine performance, estimating both measured and unmeasured parameters for control purposes, and performing on-board gas-path fault diagnostics. Computational efficiency is achieved by designing multidimensional interpolation algorithms that exploit the shared scheduling of multiple trim vectors and system matrices. An example application illustrates the accuracy of a self-tuning piecewise linear Kalman filter model when applied to a nonlinear turbofan engine simulation. Additional discussions focus on the issue of transient response accuracy and the advantages of a piecewise linear Kalman filter in the context of validation and verification. The techniques described provide a framework for constructing efficient self-tuning aircraft engine models from complex nonlinear simulatns.

Armstrong, Jeffrey B.↗
DOE OSTI2022

Tabulated Fluid Properties Research Report

The Multiphysics Object-Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE) enables a wide range of advanced nuclear reactor simulations.[6] Under the guidance of MOOSE’s Thermal Hydraulics Team,I worked to expand the capabilities of Tabulated Fluid Properties (TFP) in the fluid properties module. The fluid properties module allows the user to determine a variety of fluid properties by interpolating points between tabulated data. I implemented the ability to use bilinear interpolation instead of bicubic interpolation for interpolating tabulated data. I also changed the method of variable set inversions to use a 2-dimensional Newton’s Method utility that I created. Variable set inversions are often done from (v,e) to (p,T), where v is specific volume, e is specific internal energy, p is pressure and T is temperature. New routines have also been added into TFP such that it can be used with more applications, such as the Navier Stokes and Thermal Hydraulics modules in MOOSE for Pronghorn[5] and RELAP-7[1] respectively. This work was spurred by interest from NASA in testing a Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP) engine system. NTP engines have drastically different fluid properties throughout the engine and Tabulated Fluid Properties provides the flexibility needed to properly simulate and test these engines.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2020

A remapping scheme for history-dependent material state variables

Here, we present an interpolation scheme for use with material models involving history-dependent state variables. The interpolation scheme is based on the solution of a constrained optimization problem, to identify the smoothest monotone curve which produces an admissible solution. Unlike classical schemes used for transport equations, the proposed methodology accounts for the interdependence of the history variables and produces admissible interpolations of the material's state variables. After introducing a general solution scheme for the problem, a simplified and more computationally efficient method is derived. Finally, as a validation problem for the proposed methods, we consider the advection of internal state variables belonging to material models with highly nonlinear yield surfaces.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2018

Rational RBF-based partition of unity method for efficiently and accurately approximating 3D objects

We consider the problem of reconstructing 3D objects via meshfree interpolation methods. In this framework, we usually deal with large data sets and thus develop an efficient local scheme via the well-known partition of unity method. The main contribution in this paper consists in constructing the local interpolants for the implicit interpolation by means of rational radial basis functions. Numerical experiments, devoted to test the accuracy of the scheme, confirm that the proposed method is particularly performing when 3D objects, or more in general implicit functions defined by scattered points, need to be approximated.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2025

Coupling Approaches with Non-matching Grids for Classical Linear Elasticity and Bond-based Peridynamic Models in 1D

Local-nonlocal coupling approaches provide a means to combine the computational efficiency of local models and the accuracy of nonlocal models. To facilitate the coupling of the two models, non-matching grids are often desirable as nonlocal grids usually require a finer resolution than local grids. In that case, it is often convenient to resort to interpolation operators so that models can exchange information in the overlap regions when nodes from the two grids do not coincide. This paper studies three existing coupling approaches, namely 1) a method that enforces matching displacements in an overlap region, 2) a variant that enforces a constraint on the stresses instead, and 3) a method that considers a variable horizon in the vicinity of the interfaces. Further, the effect of the interpolation order and of the grid ratio on the performance of the three coupling methods with non-matching grids is carefully studied on one-dimensional examples using polynomial manufactured solutions. The numerical results show that the degree of the interpolants should be chosen with care to avoid introducing additional modeling errors, or simply minimize these errors, in the coupling approach.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2026

Interpretable and flexible non-intrusive reduced-order models using reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces

This paper develops an interpretable, non-intrusive reduced-order modeling technique using regularized kernel interpolation. Existing non-intrusive approaches approximate the dynamics of a reduced-order model (ROM) by solving a data-driven least-squares regression problem for low-dimensional matrix operators. Our approach instead leverages regularized kernel interpolation, which yields an optimal approximation of the ROM dynamics from a user-defined reproducing kernel Hilbert space. We show that our kernel-based approach can produce interpretable ROMs whose structure mirrors full-order model structure by embedding judiciously chosen feature maps into the kernel. The approach is flexible and allows a combination of informed structure through feature maps and closure terms via more general nonlinear terms in the kernel. We also derive a computable a posteriori error bound that combines standard error estimates for intrusive projection-based ROMs and kernel interpolants. In conclusion, the approach is demonstrated in several numerical experiments that include comparisons to operator inference using both proper orthogonal decomposition and quadratic manifold dimension reduction.

Data-driven model reduction↗
DOE OSTI2023

Electron-phonon coupling from GW perturbation theory: Practical workflow combining BerkeleyGW, ABINIT, and EPW

Here we present a workflow of practical calculations of electron-phonon (e-ph) coupling with many-electron correlation effects included using the GW perturbation theory (GWPT). This workflow combines BerkeleyGW, ABINIT, and EPW software packages to enable accurate e-ph calculations at the GW self-energy level, going beyond standard calculations based on density functional theory (DFT) and density-functional perturbation theory (DFPT). This workflow begins with DFT and DFPT calculations (ABINIT) as starting point, followed by GW and GWPT calculations (BerkeleyGW) for the quasiparticle band structures and e-ph matrix elements on coarse electron k- and phonon q-grids, which are then interpolated to finer grids through Wannier interpolation (EPW) for computations of various e-ph coupling determined physical quantities such as the electron self-energies or solutions of anisotropic Eliashberg equations, among others. A gauge-recovering symmetry unfolding technique is developed to reduce the computational cost of GWPT (as well as DFPT) while fulfilling the gauge consistency requirement for Wannier interpolation.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Mesh-free data transfer algorithms for partitioned multiphysics problems: Conservation, accuracy, and parallelism

In this study we analyze and extend mesh-free algorithms for three-dimensional data transfer problems in partitioned multiphysics simulations. We first provide a direct comparison between a mesh-based weighted residual method using the common-refinement scheme and two mesh-free algorithms leveraging compactly supported radial basis functions: one using a spline interpolation and one using a moving least square reconstruction. Through the comparison we assess both the conservation and accuracy of the data transfer obtained from each of the methods. We do so for a varying set of geometries with and without curvature and sharp features and for functions with and without smoothness and with varying gradients. Our results show that the mesh-based and mesh-free algorithms are complementary with cases where each was demonstrated to perform better than the other. We then focus on the mesh-free methods by developing a set of algorithms to parallelize them based on sparse linear algebra techniques. This includes a discussion of fast parallel radius searching in point clouds and restructuring the interpolation algorithms to leverage data structures and linear algebra services designed for large distributed computing environments. The scalability of our new algorithms is demonstrated on a leadership class computing facility using a set of basic scaling studies. Finally, these scaling studies show that for problems with reasonable load balance, our new algorithms for both spline interpolation and moving least square reconstruction demonstrate both strong and weak scalability using more than 100,000 MPI processes with billions of degrees of freedom in the data transfer operation.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2017

Higher-order triangular spectral element method with optimized cubature points for seismic wavefield modeling

The mass-lumped method avoids the cost of inverting the mass matrix and simultaneously maintains spatial accuracy by adopting additional interior integration points, known as cubature points. To date, such points are only known analytically in tensor domains, such as quadrilateral or hexahedral elements. Thus, the diagonal-mass-matrix spectral element method (SEM) in non-tensor domains always relies on numerically computed interpolation points or quadrature points. However, only the cubature points for degrees 1 to 6 are known, which is the reason that we have developed a p-norm-based optimization algorithm to obtain higher-order cubature points. In this way, we obtain and tabulate new cubature points with all positive integration weights for degrees 7 to 9. The dispersion analysis illustrates that the dispersion relation determined from the new optimized cubature points is comparable to that of the mass and stiffness matrices obtained by exact integration. Simultaneously, the Lebesgue constant for the new optimized cubature points indicates its surprisingly good interpolation properties. As a result, such points provide both good interpolation properties and integration accuracy. The Courant–Friedrichs–Lewy (CFL) numbers are tabulated for the conventional Fekete-based triangular spectral element (TSEM), the TSEM with exact integration, and the optimized cubature-based TSEM (OTSEM). A complementary study demonstrates the spectral convergence of the OTSEM. A numerical example conducted on a half-space model demonstrates that the OTSEM improves the accuracy by approximately one order of magnitude compared to the conventional Fekete-based TSEM. In particular, the accuracy of the 7th-order OTSEM is even higher than that of the 14th-order Fekete-based TSEM. Furthermore, the OTSEM produces a result that can compete in accuracy with the quadrilateral SEM (QSEM). The high accuracy of the OTSEM is also tested with a non-flat topography model. In terms of computational efficiency, the OTSEM is more efficient than the Fekete-based TSEM, although it is slightly costlier than the QSEM when a comparable numerical accuracy is required. - Highlights: • Higher-order cubature points for degrees 7 to 9 are developed. • The effects of quadrature rule on the mass and stiffness matrices has been conducted. • The cubature points have always positive integration weights. • Freeing from the inversion of a wide bandwidth mass matrix. • The accuracy of the TSEM has been improved in about one order of magnitude.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

Improved initial guess for minimum energy path calculations

A method is presented for generating a good initial guess of a transition path between given initial and final states of a system without evaluation of the energy. An objective function surface is constructed using an interpolation of pairwise distances at each discretization point along the path and the nudged elastic band method then used to find an optimal path on this image dependent pair potential (IDPP) surface. This provides an initial path for the more computationally intensive calculations of a minimum energy path on an energy surface obtained, for example, by ab initio or density functional theory. The optimal path on the IDPP surface is significantly closer to a minimum energy path than a linear interpolation of the Cartesian coordinates and, therefore, reduces the number of iterations needed to reach convergence and averts divergence in the electronic structure calculations when atoms are brought too close to each other in the initial path. The method is illustrated with three examples: (1) rotation of a methyl group in an ethane molecule, (2) an exchange of atoms in an island on a crystal surface, and (3) an exchange of two Si-atoms in amorphous silicon. In all three cases, the computational effort in finding the minimum energy path with DFT was reduced by a factor ranging from 50% to an order of magnitude by using an IDPP path as the initial path. The time required for parallel computations was reduced even more because of load imbalance when linear interpolation of Cartesian coordinates was used.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2015

Adaptive Multilinear Tensor Product Wavelets

Many foundational visualization techniques including isosurfacing, direct volume rendering and texture mapping rely on piecewise multilinear interpolation over the cells of a mesh. However, there has not been much focus within the visualization community on techniques that efficiently generate and encode globally continuous functions defined by the union of multilinear cells. Wavelets provide a rich context for analyzing and processing complicated datasets. In this paper, we exploit adaptive regular refinement as a means of representing and evaluating functions described by a subset of their nonzero wavelet coefficients. We analyze the dependencies involved in the wavelet transform and describe how to generate and represent the coarsest adaptive mesh with nodal function values such that the inverse wavelet transform is exactly reproduced via simple interpolation (subdivision) over the mesh elements. This allows for an adaptive, sparse representation of the function with on-demand evaluation at any point in the domain. In conclusion, we focus on the popular wavelets formed by tensor products of linear B-splines, resulting in an adaptive, nonconforming but crack-free quadtree (2D) or octree (3D) mesh that allows reproducing globally continuous functions via multilinear interpolation over its cells.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2013

3D tomodosimetry using long scintillating fibers: A feasibility study

Purpose: 3D dosimetry is recognized as an ideal for patient-specific quality assurance (QA) of highly conformal radiotherapy treatments. However, existing 3D dosimeters are not straightforward to implement in the clinic, as their read-out procedure is often tedious and their accuracy, precision, and/or sample size exhibit limitations. The purpose of this work is to develop a 3D dosimeter based on the concept of tomodosimetry inside concentric cylindrical planes using long scintillating fibers for the QA of modern radiotherapy techniques such as intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) or intensity-modulated arc therapy (IMAT).Methods: Using a model-based simulation, scintillating fibers were modeled on three concentric cylindrical planes of radii 2.5, 5.0, and 7.5 cm, inside a 10 cm radius water-equivalent cylinder phantom. The phantom was set to rotate around its central axis, made parallel to the linac gantry axis of rotation. Light acquisitions were simulated using the calculated dose from the treatment planning software and reconstructed in each cylindrical plane at a resolution of 1 mm{sup 2} using a total-variation minimization iterative reconstruction algorithm. The 3D dose was then interpolated from the reconstructed cylindrical plane doses at a resolution of 1 mm{sup 3}. Different scintillating fiber patterns were compared by varying the angle of each fiber in its cylindrical plane and introducing a light-tight cut in each fiber. The precision of the reconstructed cylindrical dose distribution was evaluated using a Poisson modeling of the acquired light signals and the accuracy of the interpolated 3D dose was evaluated using an IMRT clinical plan for a prostate case.Results: Straight scintillating fiber patterns with light-tight cuts were the most accurate in cylindrical dose reconstruction, showing less than 0.5 mm distance-to-agreement in dose gradients and a mean local dose difference of less than 0.2% in the high dose region for a 10 × 10 cm{sup 2} field. The precision attained with this fiber configuration was less than 0.9% in the high dose, low gradient region of an IMRT segment for light acquisitions of 0.1 MU over a 360 degree rotation of the cylinder phantom. 3D dose interpolation for the IMRT clinical plan yielded an overall dose difference with the reference input of less than 1%, except in high dose gradients.Conclusions: Using long scintillating fibers inside rotating, concentric cylindrical planes, the authors demonstrate that their tomodosimetry method has the potential for high resolution, precise, and accurate 3D dosimetry. Moreover, because of its water-equivalence and rotational symmetry, this design should find interesting application for both treatment QA and machine commissioning.

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE↗
DOE OSTI2014

SU-E-I-41: Non-Cartesian MR Image Reconstruction with Integrated Gradient Non-Linearity Correction

Purpose: Nonlinearities in the spatial encoding gradients of MRI systems cause geometric distortion in images. Typically, this is retrospectively corrected via image-domain interpolation (a.k.a., “gradwarp”) albeit with a loss of spatial resolution. For non-Cartesian MRI, the latter problem is exaggerated by noise and undersampling artifact. In this study, we describe a novel correction strategy that accounts for gradient nonlinearities during — rather than after — non-Cartesian MRI reconstruction, and demonstrate that this approach mitigates the resolution loss that can occur with standard methods. Methods: To test the proposed method, the American College of Radiology (ACR) quality control phantom was scanned on at 1.5 T (General Electric, v16.0, “zoom” gradient) using a 1.6x undersampled 3D non- Cartesian Shells trajectory (GRE, FOV=24 cm3, 120 shells, 16552 shots, 512 readout, matrix=2403). Image reconstruction was first performed via standard k-space density-compensated gridding and retrospectively corrected via cubic spline interpolation. Image reconstruction was then separately performed using a k-space and image-domain densitycompensated type-3 non-uniform fast Fourier transform (NUFFT), which provides a direct mapping between non-Cartesian k-space samples and warped image space voxel locations. Thus, no separate distortion correction procedure is needed for the proposed approach. The gradient distortion field was determined using vendor provided calibration data. Results: Phantom scan results show that both processing approaches successfully correct geometric distortion. However, visual inspection of the ACR phantom spatial resolution inserts shows that the proposed strategy preserves the resolution of the nominal (uncorrected) reconstruction while “gradwarp” imparts marked spatial blurring (especially for the 1.0 and 1.1 mm inserts) and thus resolution loss. Conclusion: We've presented a novel reconstruction strategy for non-Cartesian MRI that corrects for gradient nonlinearities during — rather than after — reconstruction, and thus better preserves image resolution than traditional interpolation-based methods. This approach is expected to be especially advantageous when imaging with non-standard magnet geometries. NIH RR018898; NIH EB10065.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗