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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 613 records · Page 34
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2005

Parallel Finite Element Domain Decomposition for Structural/Acoustic Analysis

A domain decomposition (DD) formulation for solving sparse linear systems of equations resulting from finite element analysis is presented. The formulation incorporates mixed direct and iterative equation solving strategics and other novel algorithmic ideas that are optimized to take advantage of sparsity and exploit modern computer architecture, such as memory and parallel computing. The most time consuming part of the formulation is identified and the critical roles of direct sparse and iterative solvers within the framework of the formulation are discussed. Experiments on several computer platforms using several complex test matrices are conducted using software based on the formulation. Small-scale structural examples are used to validate thc steps in the formulation and large-scale (l,000,000+ unknowns) duct acoustic examples are used to evaluate the ORIGIN 2000 processors, and a duster of 6 PCs (running under the Windows environment). Statistics show that the formulation is efficient in both sequential and parallel computing environmental and that the formulation is significantly faster and consumes less memory than that based on one of the best available commercialized parallel sparse solvers.

Nguyen, Duc T.↗
NASA NTRS2010

Robustness-Based Design Optimization Under Data Uncertainty

This paper proposes formulations and algorithms for design optimization under both aleatory (i.e., natural or physical variability) and epistemic uncertainty (i.e., imprecise probabilistic information), from the perspective of system robustness. The proposed formulations deal with epistemic uncertainty arising from both sparse and interval data without any assumption about the probability distributions of the random variables. A decoupled approach is proposed in this paper to un-nest the robustness-based design from the analysis of non-design epistemic variables to achieve computational efficiency. The proposed methods are illustrated for the upper stage design problem of a two-stage-to-orbit (TSTO) vehicle, where the information on the random design inputs are only available as sparse point and/or interval data. As collecting more data reduces uncertainty but increases cost, the effect of sample size on the optimality and robustness of the solution is also studied. A method is developed to determine the optimal sample size for sparse point data that leads to the solutions of the design problem that are least sensitive to variations in the input random variables.

Zaman, Kais↗
NASA NTRS2015

Technical Report Series on Global Modeling and Data Assimilation: Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) Project Assessment Report for the Beta-Release L4_SM Data Product - Volume 40

During the post-launch SMAP calibration and validation (Cal/Val) phase there are two objectives for each science data product team: 1) calibrate, verify, and improve the performance of the science algorithm, and 2) validate the accuracy of the science data product as specified in the science requirements and according to the Cal/Val schedule. This report provides an assessment of the SMAP Level 4 Surface and Root Zone Soil Moisture Passive (L4_SM) product specifically for the product's public beta release scheduled for 30 October 2015. The primary objective of the beta release is to allow users to familiarize themselves with the data product before the validated product becomes available. The beta release also allows users to conduct their own assessment of the data and to provide feedback to the L4_SM science data product team. The assessment of the L4_SM data product includes comparisons of SMAP L4_SM soil moisture estimates with in situ soil moisture observations from core validation sites and sparse networks. The assessment further includes a global evaluation of the internal diagnostics from the ensemble-based data assimilation system that is used to generate the L4_SM product. This evaluation focuses on the statistics of the observation-minus-forecast (O-F) residuals and the analysis increments. Together, the core validation site comparisons and the statistics of the assimilation diagnostics are considered primary validation methodologies for the L4_SM product. Comparisons against in situ measurements from regional-scale sparse networks are considered a secondary validation methodology because such in situ measurements are subject to upscaling errors from the point-scale to the grid cell scale of the data product. Based on the limited set of core validation sites, the assessment presented here meets the criteria established by the Committee on Earth Observing Satellites for Stage 1 validation and supports the beta release of the data. The validation against sparse network measurements and the evaluation of the assimilation diagnostics address Stage 2 validation criteria by expanding the assessment to regional and global scales.

ubRMSE↗
NASA NTRS2016

Investigation of Unsteady Pressure-Sensitive Paint (uPSP) and a Dynamic Loads Balance to Predict Launch Vehicle Buffet Environments

This NESC assessment examined the accuracy of estimating buffet loads on in-line launch vehicles without booster attachments using sparse unsteady pressure measurements. The buffet loads computed using sparse sensor data were compared with estimates derived using measurements with much higher spatial resolution. The current method for estimating launch vehicle buffet loads is through wind tunnel testing of models with approximately 400 unsteady pressure transducers. Even with this relatively large number of sensors, the coverage can be insufficient to provide reliable integrated unsteady loads on vehicles. In general, sparse sensor spacing requires the use of coherence-length-based corrections in the azimuthal and axial directions to integrate the unsteady pressures and obtain reasonable estimates of the buffet loads. Coherence corrections have been used to estimate buffet loads for a variety of launch vehicles with the assumption methodology results in reasonably conservative loads. For the Space Launch System (SLS), the first estimates of buffet loads exceeded the limits of the vehicle structure, so additional tests with higher sensor density were conducted to better define the buffet loads and possibly avoid expensive modifications to the vehicle design. Without the additional tests and improvements to the coherence-length analysis methods, there would have been significant impacts to the vehicle weight, cost, and schedule. If the load estimates turn out to be too low, there is significant risk of structural failure of the vehicle. This assessment used a combination of unsteady pressure-sensitive paint (uPSP), unsteady pressure transducers, and a dynamic force and moment balance to investigate the integration schemes used with limited unsteady pressure data by comparing them with direct integration of extremely dense fluctuating pressure measurements. An outfall of the assessment was to evaluate the potential of using the emerging uPSP technique in a production test environment for future launch vehicles. The results show that modifications to the current technique can improve the accuracy of buffet estimates. More importantly, the uPSP worked remarkably well and, with improvements to the frequency response, sensitivity, and productivity, will provide an enhanced method for measuring wind tunnel buffet forcing functions (BFFs).

Schuster, David M.↗
NASA NTRS2015

Towards Characterizing the Variability in the Loading Demands of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

This paper presents a computational methodology to characterize and quantify the variability in the power demands during the take-off of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). A lithium-ion battery-based power system is used to power the unmanned aerial vehicle, and the capabilities of the unmanned aerial vehicle are driven by the amount of charge in this battery. In order to design the power system, it is necessary to analyze the power and charge requirements of the UAV. This paper focuses on the take-off segment, and aims to quantify the amount of charge that is required for this particular segment. Sparse data is available through different flight tests and this data is used to analyze the flight profile and the charge requirement during take-off. The amount of charge required for take-off depends on several factors that are not only variable but cannot be controlled in reality, and hence, the entire flight profile and the corresponding charge requirement are variable in nature. The information available through flight tests is converted into multi-dimensional sparse data and a new method is developed in this paper for variability characterization using multi-dimensional sparse data. This analysis is useful for prognostics and health management where it is necessary to anticipate future charge requirements in order to compute the end-of-discharge of the battery, and hence, the remaining useful life of the power system.

unmanned aerial vehicle↗
NASA NTRS2019

Electromagnetic Scattering by Discrete Random Media. IV: Coherent Backscattering

The problem of backscattering of light by a discrete random medium illuminated by an obliquely incident plane electromagnetic wave is considered.The analysis is performed in a linear-polarization basis and includes a complete derivation of the cross reflection matrix for a layer with densely and sparsely distributed particles, the design of an approximate method for computing the ladder and cross reflection matrices in the case of a semi-infinite medium with a sparse distribution of particles, the derivation of the relations between the elements of the ladder and cross reflection matrices in the exact backscattering direction for dense and sparse media, and the development of practical algorithms for solving the underlying integral equations by the method of Picard iterations and the discrete ordinate method. Simulation results for particles with large size parameters are also presented.

Adrian Doicu↗
NASA NTRS2020

The bioclimatic extent and pattern of the cold edge of the boreal forest: the circumpolar taiga-tundra ecotone

Current configurations of forest structure at the cold edge of the boreal may help understand the future of ecosystem functioning in high northern latitudes. The circumpolar biome boundary at the boreal (taiga) forest and tundra interface is an ecological transition zone (taiga-tundra ecotone; TTE) experiencing changes that affect its forest structure. We accounted for the TTE's horizontal forest structure with an estimate of its extent and pattern as represented by tree canopy cover (TCC). We quantified TCC patterns with an algorithm that describes its spatial gradient, and summarized landscape patterns of structure to represent heterogeneity, capturing abrupt, diffuse, and uniform forest at mesoscales. We used these landscape patterns to constrain the spatial extent of sparse and open canopy forest, and non-forest (forest-adjacent) edge that defines the TTE extent. The resulting map of the TTE extent is based on forest structure spatial patterns resolved at 30 m, highlights structural variability across landscapes, and helps distinguish tundra from boreal domains. We classified 14 594 landscapes as those associated with the TTE within a circumpolar bioclimatic envelope (11.575 million km2), where 44.83% of the area of these landscapes were forest and non-forest edge, yet 36.43% contributed to the TTE extent. We report the overall extent of the TTE (3.032 million km2) across North America and Greenland (53%), and Eurasia (47%), where 0.697 million km2 is non-forest edge, 0.549 million km2 is sparse forest, and 1.787 million km2 is open canopy forest. Diffuse forest landscapes dominate the TTE (79%), and abrupt landscapes (~19%) indicate portions of the TTE where sparse forest and non-forest edge are the prevailing structural patterns. This account of the TTE quantifies the area of the cold edge of the boreal forest where previous global estimates show high discrepancies, and can help target monitoring and prediction of circumpolar dynamics.

Paul M Montesano↗
DOE OSTI2023

Derivative-based SINDy (DSINDy): Addressing the challenge of discovering governing equations from noisy data

Recent advances in the field of data-driven dynamics allow for the discovery of ODE systems using state measurements. One approach, known as Sparse Identification of Nonlinear Dynamics (SINDy), assumes the dynamics are sparse within a predetermined basis in the states and finds the expansion coefficients through linear regression with sparsity constraints. This approach requires an accurate estimation of the state time derivatives, which is not necessarily possible in the high-noise regime without additional constraints. We present an approach called Derivative-based SINDy (DSINDy) that combines two novel methods to improve ODE recovery at high-noise levels. First, we denoise the state variables by applying a projection operator that leverages the assumed basis for the system dynamics. Second, we use a second order cone program (SOCP) to find the derivative and governing equations simultaneously. We derive theoretical results for the projection-based denoising step, which allow us to estimate the values of hyperparameters used in the SOCP formulation. This underlying theory helps limit the number of required user-specified parameters. Finally, we present results demonstrating that our approach leads to improved system recovery for the Van der Pol oscillator, the Duffing oscillator, the Rössler attractor, and the Lorenz 96 model.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2024

A fast and accurate domain decomposition nonlinear manifold reduced order model

Here, this paper integrates nonlinear-manifold reduced order models (NM-ROMs) with domain decomposition (DD). NM ROMs approximate the full order model (FOM) state in a nonlinear-manifold by training a shallow, sparse autoencoder using FOM snapshot data. These NM-ROMs can be advantageous over linear-subspace ROMs (LS-ROMs) for problems with slowly decaying Kolmogorov n-width. However, the number of NM-ROM parameters that need to be trained scales with the size of the FOM. Moreover, for “extreme-scale” problems, the storage of high-dimensional FOM snapshots alone can make ROM training expensive. To alleviate the training cost, this paper applies DD to the FOM, computes NM-ROMs on each subdomain, and couples them to obtain a global NM-ROM. This approach has several advantages: Subdomain NM-ROMs can be trained in parallel, involve fewer parameters to be trained than global NM-ROMs, require smaller subdomain FOM dimensional training data, and can be tailored to subdomain specific features of the FOM. The shallow, sparse architecture of the autoencoder used in each subdomain NM-ROM allows application of hyper-reduction (HR), reducing the complexity caused by nonlinearity and yielding computational speedup of the NM-ROM. This paper provides the first application of NM-ROM (with HR) to a DD problem. In particular, this paper details an algebraic DD reformulation of the FOM, training a NM-ROM with HR for each sub domain, and a sequential quadratic programming (SQP) solver to evaluate the coupled global NM-ROM. Theoretical convergence results for the SQP method and a priori and a posteriori error estimates for the DD NM-ROM with HR are provided. The proposed DD NM-ROM with HR approach is numerically compared to a DD LS-ROM with HR on the 2D steady-state Burgers’ equation, showing an order of magnitude improvement in accuracy of the proposed DD NM-ROM over the DD LS-ROM.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2022

Chemical mixture exposure patterns and obesity among U.S. adults in NHANES 2005–2012

The effect of chemical exposure on obesity has raised great concerns. Real-world chemical exposure always imposes mixture impacts, however their exposure patterns and the corresponding associations with obesity have not been fully evaluated. To discover obesity-related mixed chemical exposure patterns in the general U.S. population. Sparse Decompositional Regression (SDR), a model adapted from sparse representation learning technique, was developed to identify exposure patterns of chemical mixtures with exclusion (non-targeted model) and inclusion (targeted model) of health outcomes. We assessed the relationships between the identified chemical mixture patterns and obesity-related indexes. We also conducted a comprehensive evaluation of this SDR model by comparing to the existing models, including generalized linear regression model (GLM), principal component analysis (PCA), and Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR). Eight core exposure patterns were identified using the non-targeted SDR model. Patterns of high levels of MEP, high levels of naphthalene metabolites (ΣOH-Nap), and a pattern of high exposure levels of MCOP, MCNP, and MCPP were positively associated with obesity. Patterns of high levels of BP3, and a pattern of higher mixed levels of MPB, PPB, and MEP were found to have negative associations. Associations were strengthened using the targeted SDR model. In the single chemical analysis by GLM, BP3, MBP, PPB, MCOP, and MCNP showed significant associations with obesity or body indexes. The SDR model exceeded the performance of PCA in pattern identification. Both SDR and BKMR identified a positive contribution of ΣOH-Nap and MCOP, as well as a negative contribution of BP3 and PPB to obesity. Our study identified five core exposure patterns of chemical mixtures significantly associated with obesity using the newly developed SDR model. The SDR model could open a new avenue for assessing health effects of environmental mixture contaminants.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

GenMod: A generative modeling approach for spectral representation of PDEs with random inputs

Here, we propose a method for quantifying uncertainty in high-dimensional PDE systems with random parameters, where the number of solution evaluations is small. Parametric PDE solutions are often approximated using a spectral decomposition based on polynomial chaos expansions. For the class of systems we consider (i.e., high dimensional with limited solution evaluations) the coefficients are given by an underdetermined linear system in a regression formulation. This implies additional assumptions, such as sparsity of the coefficient vector, are needed to approximate the solution. Here, we present an approach where we assume the coefficients are close to the range of a generative model that maps from a low to a high dimensional space of coefficients. Our approach is inspired be recent work examining how generative models can be used for compressed sensing in systems with random Gaussian measurement matrices. Using results from PDE theory on coefficient decay rates, we construct an explicit generative model that predicts the polynomial chaos coefficient magnitudes. The algorithm we developed to find the coefficients, which we call GenMod, is composed of two main steps. First, we predict the coefficient signs using Orthogonal Matching Pursuit. Then, we assume the coefficients are within a sparse deviation from the range of a sign-adjusted generative model. This allows us to find the coefficients by solving a nonconvex optimization problem, over the input space of the generative model and the space of sparse vectors. We obtain theoretical recovery results for a Lipschitz continuous generative model and for a more specific generative model, based on coefficient decay rate bounds. We examine three high-dimensional problems and show that, for all three examples, the generative model approach outperforms sparsity promoting methods at small sample sizes.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2021

MATAR: A performance portability and productivity implementation of data-oriented design with Kokkos

There is a need for simple, fast, and memory-efficient multidimensional data structures for dense and sparse storage that arise with numerical methods and in software applications. The data structures must perform equally well across multiple computer architectures, including CPUs and GPUs. For this purpose, we developed MATAR, a C++ software library that allows for simple creation and use of intricate data structures that is also portable across disparate architectures using Kokkos. Here, the performance aspect is achieved by forcing contiguous memory layout (or as close to contiguous as possible) for multidimensional and multi-size dense or sparse MATrix and ARray (hence, MATAR) types. Our results show that MATAR has the capability to improve memory utilization, performance, and programmer productivity in scientific computing. This is achieved by fitting more work into the available memory, minimizing memory loads required, and by loading memory in the most efficient order. This document describes the purpose of the work, the implementation of each of the data types, and the resulting performance both in some simple baseline test cases and in an application code.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2021

Linear solvers for power grid optimization problems: A review of GPU-accelerated linear solvers

The linear equations that arise in interior methods for constrained optimization are sparse symmetric indefinite, and they become extremely ill-conditioned as the interior method converges. These linear systems present a challenge for existing solver frameworks based on sparse LU or LDL T decompositions. Here, we benchmark five well known direct linear solver packages on CPU- and GPU-based hardware, using matrices extracted from power grid optimization problems. The achieved solution accuracy varies greatly among the packages. None of the tested packages delivers significant GPU acceleration for our test cases. For completeness of the comparison we include results for MA57, which is one of the most efficient and reliable CPU solvers for this class of problem.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2024

Towards optimal sensor placement for inverse problems in spaces of measures

The objective of this work is to quantify the reconstruction error in sparse inverse problems with measures and stochastic noise, motivated by optimal sensor placement. To be useful in this context, the error quantities must be explicit in the sensor configuration and robust with respect to the source, yet relatively easy to compute in practice, compared to a direct evaluation of the error by a large number of samples. In particular, we consider the identification of a measure consisting of an unknown linear combination of point sources from a finite number of measurements contaminated by Gaussian noise. The statistical framework for recovery relies on two main ingredients: first, a convex but non-smooth variational Tikhonov point estimator over the space of Radon measures and, second, a suitable mean-squared error based on its Hellinger–Kantorovich distance to the ground truth. To quantify the error, we employ a non-degenerate source condition as well as careful linearization arguments to derive a computable upper bound. This leads to asymptotically sharp error estimates in expectation that are explicit in the sensor configuration. Thus they can be used to estimate the expected reconstruction error for a given sensor configuration and guide the placement of sensors in sparse inverse problems.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2023

Feeder Power Disaggregation: A Data-Efficient Matrix Completion Approach

This paper presents a data-driven algorithm for the feeder power disaggregation problem in distribution systems. Leveraging spatio-temporal power patterns in residential homes, residential power is discomposed into three components: sparse-switching loads, periodic loads, and photovoltaic (PV) generation, which are characterized through the design of two sparse matrices and a low-rank matrix. The matrix completion process is data-efficient because of the matrix sparsity and low rankness, along with the use of power system models. The proposed approach is tested using real-world residential data set on a 33-bus distribution system, demonstrating accurate power disaggregation with efficient matrix completion.

distribution system↗
DOE OSTI2021

Online Voltage Event Detection Using Synchrophasor Data with Structured Sparsity-Inducing Norms

This paper develops an accurate and computationally efficient data-driven framework to detect voltage events from PMU data streams. It develops an innovative Proximal Bilateral Random Projection (PBRP) algorithm to quickly decompose the PMU data matrix into a low-rank matrix, a row-sparse event-pattern matrix and a noise matrix. Here, the row-sparse pattern matrix significantly distinguishes events from normal behavior. These matrices are then fed into a clustering algorithm to separate voltage events from normal operating conditions. Large-scale numerical study results on real-world PMU data show that the proposed algorithm is computationally more efficient and achieves higher F scores than state-of-the-art benchmarks.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2021

A New Class of AMG Interpolation Methods Based on Matrix-Matrix Multiplications

A new class of distance-two interpolation methods for algebraic multigrid (AMG) that can be formulated in terms of sparse matrix-matrix multiplications is presented and analyzed. Compared with similar distance-two prolongation operators, the proposed algorithms exhibit improved efficiency and portability to various computing platforms, since they allow one to easily exploit existing high-performance sparse matrix kernels. The new interpolation methods have been implemented in hypre, a widely used parallel multigrid solver library. With the proposed interpolations, the overall time of hypre's BoomerAMG setup can be considerably reduced, while sustaining equivalent, sometimes improved, convergence rates. Numerical results for a variety of test problems on parallel machines are presented that support the superiority of the proposed interpolation operators over the existing ones in hypre.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2022

Large-Scale Optimization with Linear Equality Constraints Using Reduced Compact Representation

For optimization problems with linear equality constraints, we prove that the (1,1) block of the inverse KKT matrix remains unchanged when projected onto the nullspace of the constraint matrix. In this work, we develop reduced compact representations of the limited-memory inverse BFGS Hessian to compute search directions efficiently when the constraint Jacobian is sparse. Orthogonal projections are implemented by a sparse QR factorization or a preconditioned LSQR iteration. In numerical experiments two proposed trust-region algorithms improve in computation times, often significantly, compared to previous implementations of related algorithms and compared to IPOPT.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗