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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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NASA NTRS1973

Measured and calculated fast neutron spectra in a depleted uranium and lithium hydride shielded reactor

Measurements of MeV neutron were made at the surface of a lithium hydride and depleted uranium shielded reactor. Four shield configurations were considered: these were assembled progressively with cylindrical shells of 5-centimeter-thick depleted uranium, 13-centimeter-thick lithium hydride, 5-centimeter-thick depleted uranium, 13-centimeter-thick lithium hydride, 5-centimeter-thick depleted uranium, and 3-centimeter-thick depleted uranium. Measurements were made with a NE-218 scintillation spectrometer; proton pulse height distributions were differentiated to obtain neutron spectra. Calculations were made using the two-dimensional discrete ordinates code DOT and ENDF/B (version 3) cross sections. Good agreement between measured and calculated spectral shape was observed. Absolute measured and calculated fluxes were within 50 percent of one another; observed discrepancies in absolute flux may be due to cross section errors.

Lahti, G. P.↗

NASA NTRS1987

Galerkin/Runge-Kutta discretizations for parabolic equations with time dependent coefficients

A new class of fully discrete Galerkin/Runge-Kutta methods is constructed and analyzed for linear parabolic initial boundary value problems with time dependent coefficients. Unlike any classical counterpart, this class offers arbitrarily high order convergence while significantly avoiding what has been called order reduction. In support of this claim, error estimates are proved, and computational results are presented. Additionally, since the time stepping equations involve coefficient matrices changing at each time step, a preconditioned iterative technique is used to solve the linear systems only approximately. Nevertheless, the resulting algorithm is shown to preserve the original convergence rate while using only the order of work required by the base scheme applied to a linear parabolic problem with time independent coefficients. Furthermore, it is noted that special Runge-Kutta methods allow computations to be performed in parallel so that the final execution time can be reduced to that of a low order method.

Keeling, Stephen L.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Galerkin/Runge-Kutta discretizations for parabolic equations with time-dependent coefficients

Keeling, Stephen L.↗

NASA NTRS2007

Smooth Phase Interpolated Keying

Smooth phase interpolated keying (SPIK) is an improved method of computing smooth phase-modulation waveforms for radio communication systems that convey digital information. SPIK is applicable to a variety of phase-shift-keying (PSK) modulation schemes, including quaternary PSK (QPSK), octonary PSK (8PSK), and 16PSK. In comparison with a related prior method, SPIK offers advantages of better performance and less complexity of implementation. In a PSK scheme, the underlying information waveform that one seeks to convey consists of discrete rectangular steps, but the spectral width of such a waveform is excessive for practical radio communication. Therefore, the problem is to smooth the step phase waveform in such a manner as to maintain power and bandwidth efficiency without incurring an unacceptably large error rate and without introducing undesired variations in the amplitude of the affected radio signal. Although the ideal constellation of PSK phasor points does not cause amplitude variations, filtering of the modulation waveform (in which, typically, a rectangular pulse is converted to a square-root raised cosine pulse) causes amplitude fluctuations. If a power-efficient nonlinear amplifier is used in the radio communication system, the fluctuating-amplitude signal can undergo significant spectral regrowth, thus compromising the bandwidth efficiency of the system. In the related prior method, one seeks to solve the problem in a procedure that comprises two major steps: phase-value generation and phase interpolation. SPIK follows the two-step approach of the related prior method, but the details of the steps are different. In the phase-value-generation step, the phase values of symbols in the PSK constellation are determined by a phase function that is said to be maximally smooth and that is chosen to minimize the spectral spread of the modulated signal. In this step, the constellation is divided into two groups by assigning, to information symbols, phase values that result in equal numbers of clockwise and counter-clockwise phase rotations for equally likely symbols. The purpose served by assigning phase values in this way is to prevent unnecessary generation of spectral lines and prevent net shifts of the carrier signal. In the phase-interpolation step, the smooth phase values are interpolated over a number, n, of consecutive symbols (including the present symbol) by means of an unconventional spline curve fit.

Borah, Deva K.↗

NASA NTRS2013

Simultaneous Estimation of Model State Variables and Observation and Forecast Biases Using a Two-Stage Hybrid Kalman Filter

In this paper, we present a two-stage hybrid Kalman filter to estimate both observation and forecast bias in hydrologic models, in addition to state variables. The biases are estimated using the discrete Kalman filter, and the state variables using the ensemble Kalman filter. A key issue in this multi-component assimilation scheme is the exact partitioning of the difference between observation and forecasts into state, forecast bias and observation bias updates. Here, the error covariances of the forecast bias and the unbiased states are calculated as constant fractions of the biased state error covariance, and the observation bias error covariance is a function of the observation prediction error covariance. In a series of synthetic experiments, focusing on the assimilation of discharge into a rainfall-runoff model, it is shown that both static and dynamic observation and forecast biases can be successfully estimated. The results indicate a strong improvement in the estimation of the state variables and resulting discharge as opposed to the use of a bias-unaware ensemble Kalman filter. Furthermore, minimal code modification in existing data assimilation software is needed to implement the method. The results suggest that a better performance of data assimilation methods should be possible if both forecast and observation biases are taken into account.

Data Assimilation↗

NASA NTRS1977

Digital controller design: Continuous and discrete describing function analysis of the IPS system

The dynamic equations and the mathematical model of the continuous-data IPS control system are developed. The IPS model considered included one flexible body mode and was hardmounted to the Orbiter/Pallet. The model contains equations describing a torque feed-forward loop (using accelerometers as inputs) which will aid in reducing the pointing errors caused by Orbiter disturbances.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS1980

Maximum likelihood method for estimating airplane stability and control parameters from flight data in frequency domain

A frequency domain maximum likelihood method is developed for the estimation of airplane stability and control parameters from measured data. The model of an airplane is represented by a discrete-type steady state Kalman filter with time variables replaced by their Fourier series expansions. The likelihood function of innovations is formulated, and by its maximization with respect to unknown parameters the estimation algorithm is obtained. This algorithm is then simplified to the output error estimation method with the data in the form of transformed time histories, frequency response curves, or spectral and cross-spectral densities. The development is followed by a discussion on the equivalence of the cost function in the time and frequency domains, and on advantages and disadvantages of the frequency domain approach. The algorithm developed is applied in four examples to the estimation of longitudinal parameters of a general aviation airplane using computer generated and measured data in turbulent and still air. The cost functions in the time and frequency domains are shown to be equivalent; therefore, both approaches are complementary and not contradictory. Despite some computational advantages of parameter estimation in the frequency domain, this approach is limited to linear equations of motion with constant coefficients.

Klein, V.↗

NASA NTRS1989

COBE nonspinning attitude propagation

The Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) spacecraft will exhibit complex attitude motion consisting of a spin rate of approximately -0.8 revolution per minute (rpm) about the x-axis and simultaneous precession of the spin axis at a rate of one revolution per orbit (rpo) about the nearly perpendicular spacecraft-to-Sun vector. The effect of the combined spinning and precession is to make accurate attitude propagation difficult and the 1-degree (3 sigma) solution accuracy goal problematic. To improve this situation, an intermediate reference frame is introduced, and the angular velocity divided into two parts. The nonspinning part is that which would be observed if there were no rotation about the X-axis. The spinning part is simply the X-axis component of the angular velocity. The two are propagated independently and combined whenever the complete attitude is needed. This approach is better than the usual one-step method because each of the two angular velocities look nearly constant in their respective reference frames. Since the angular velocities are almost constant, the approximations made in discrete time propagation are more nearly true. To demonstrate the advantages of this nonspinning method, attitude is propagated as outlined above and is then compared with the results of the one-step method. Over the 100-minute COBE orbit, the one-step error grows to several degrees while the nonspinning error remains negligible.

Chu, D.↗

NASA NTRS1990

An experimental modal testing/identification technique for personal computers

A PC-based system for mode shape identification is evaluated. A time-domain modal identification procedure is utilized to identify the mode shapes of a beam apparatus from discrete time-domain measurements. The apparatus includes a cantilevered aluminum beam, four accelerometers, four low-pass filters, and the computer. The method's algorithm is comprised of an identification algorithm: the Eigensystem Realization Algorithm (ERA) and an estimation algorithm called Minimum Model Error (MME). The identification ability of this algorithm is compared with ERA alone, a frequency-response-function technique, and an Euler-Bernoulli beam model. Detection of modal parameters and mode shapes by the PC-based time-domain system is shown to be accurate in an application with an aluminum beam, while mode shapes identified by the frequency-domain technique are not as accurate as predicted. The new method is shown to be significantly less sensitive to noise and poorly excited modes than other leading methods. The results support the use of time-domain identification systems for mode shape prediction.

Roemer, Michael J.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Surface albedo from bidirectional reflectance

The validity of integrating over discrete wavelength bands is examined to estimate total shortwave bidirectional reflectance of vegetated and bare soil surfaces. Methods for estimating albedo from multiple angle, discrete wavelength band radiometer measurements are studied. These methods include a numerical integration technique and the integration of an empirically derived equation for bidirectional reflectance. It is concluded that shortwave albedos estimated through both techniques agree favorably with the independent pyranometer measurements. Absolute rms errors are found to be 0.5 percent or less for both grass sod and bare soil surfaces.

Ranson, K. J.↗

NASA NTRS1973

Design and performance of a large vocabulary discrete word recognition system. Volume 1: Technical report

The development, construction, and test of a 100-word vocabulary near real time word recognition system are reported. Included are reasonable replacement of any one or all 100 words in the vocabulary, rapid learning of a new speaker, storage and retrieval of training sets, verbal or manual single word deletion, continuous adaptation with verbal or manual error correction, on-line verification of vocabulary as spoken, system modes selectable via verification display keyboard, relationship of classified word to neighboring word, and a versatile input/output interface to accommodate a variety of applications.

Source record↗

DOE OSTI2025

A segmented approach to modeling building height: Delineating high-rise and low-rise buildings for enhanced height estimation

Understanding building height is imperative to the overall study of energy efficiency, population distribution, urban morphologies, emergency response, among others. Currently, existing approaches for modeling building height at scale are hindered by two pervasive issues. First, there is no consistent approach to quantify what a high-rise building is at a macro scale, leaving researchers unable to accurately compare results across geographies and domains. Second, high-rise buildings represent a small fraction of the built environment, implying data imbalance challenges that negatively affect current approaches. This is a problem of practical relevance since information on high-rise buildings is important for studies on urban heat islands, population dynamics, and pollution dispersion. Here, we introduce a novel approach to map building height which first identifies two distinct distributions within the built environment, with one being composed of low-rise buildings and one composed of high-rise buildings. We then develop an ensemble scheme where discrete specialist models are trained for each subset of low-rise buildings and high-rise buildings to infer building height from morphology features. For experiments mapping heights of 4.85 million buildings in Japan, we show an increase of 34 % in accuracy within 3m error when compared to the current state-of-the-art when modeling high-rise buildings, which based on KNN experimentation we define as any building > 12m . Our findings show that such an ensemble framework outperforms the current state-of-the-art approaches, which is especially relevant in relation to inferring height for high-rise buildings, a prominent issue of existing approaches for mapping the built environment.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

NASA NTRS1975

Application of spatial features to satellite land-use analysis

A Level I land-use analysis of selected training areas of the Colorado Front Range was carried out using digital ERTS-A satellite imagery. Level I land-use categories included urban, agriculture (irrigated and dryland farming), rangeland, and forests. The spatial variations in spectral response for these land-use classes were analyzed using discrete two-dimensional Fourier transforms to isolate and extract spatial features. Analysis was performed on ERTS frame 1352-17134 (July 10, 1973) and frame number 1388-17131 (August 15, 1973). On training sets, spatial features yielded 80 to 100 percent classification accuracies with commission errors ranging from 0 to 20 percent.

Smith, J.↗

NASA NTRS1978

The determination of gravity anomalies from geoid heights using the inverse Stokes' formula, Fourier transforms, and least squares collocation

A numerical method for the determination of gravity anomalies from geoid heights is described using the inverse Stokes formula. This discrete form of the inverse Stokes formula applies a numerical integration over the azimuth and an integration over a cubic interpolatory spline function which approximates the step function obtained from the numerical integration. The main disadvantage of the procedure is the lack of a reliable error measure. The method was applied on geoid heights derived from GEOS-3 altimeter measurements in the calibration area of the GEOS-3 satellite.

Rummel, R.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Efficient grid generation

Because the governing equations in fluid dynamics contain partial differentials and are too difficult in most cases to solve analytically, these differentials are generally replaced by finite difference terms. These terms contain terms in the solution at nearby states. This procedure discretizes the field into a finite number of states. These states, when plotted, form a grid, or mesh, of points. It is at these states, or field points, that the solution is found. The optimum choice of states, the x, y, z coordinate values, minimizes error and computational time. But the process of finding these states is made more difficult by complex boundaries, and by the need to control step size differences between the states, that is, the need to control the spacing of field points. One solution technique uses a different set of state variables, which define a different coordinate system, to generate the grid more easily. A new method, developed by Dr. Joseph Steger, combines elliptic and hyperbolic partial differential equations into a mapping function between the physical and computational coordinate systems. This system of equations offers more control than either equation provides alone. The Steger algorithm was modified in order to allow bodies with stronger concavities to be used, offering the possibility of generating a single grid about multiple bodies. Work was also done on identifying areas where grid breakdown occurs.

Seki, Rycichi↗

NASA NTRS1998

Input Shaping to Reduce Solar Array Structural Vibrations

Structural vibrations induced by actuators can be minimized using input shaping. Input shaping is a feedforward method in which actuator commands are convolved with shaping functions to yield a shaped set of commands. These commands are designed to perform the maneuver while minimizing the residual structural vibration. In this report, input shaping is extended to stepper motor actuators. As a demonstration, an input-shaping technique based on pole-zero cancellation was used to modify the Solar Array Drive Assembly (SADA) actuator commands for the Lewis satellite. A series of impulses were calculated as the ideal SADA output for vibration control. These impulses were then discretized for use by the SADA stepper motor actuator and simulated actuator outputs were used to calculate the structural response. The effectiveness of input shaping is limited by the accuracy of the knowledge of the modal frequencies. Assuming perfect knowledge resulted in significant vibration reduction. Errors of 10% in the modal frequencies caused notably higher levels of vibration. Controller robustness was improved by incorporating additional zeros in the shaping function. The additional zeros did not require increased performance from the actuator. Despite the identification errors, the resulting feedforward controller reduced residual vibrations to the level of the exactly modeled input shaper and well below the baseline cases. These results could be easily applied to many other vibration-sensitive applications involving stepper motor actuators.

Doherty, Michael J.↗

DOE OSTI2020

A software‐defined networks ‐based measurement method of network traffic for 6G technologies

Abstract In software‐defined networks (SDN) for 6G technologies, the controller should accurately and efficiently measure the flow traffic in switches for traffic engineering. Fine‐grained flow measurement can more accurately describe the traffic in the network, but it also consumes much more resources. To reduce the overhead incurred in the measurement process and obtain the approximate fine‐grained measurements, we propose a novel lightweight measurement scheme that runs in the controller. The novel lightweight measurement architecture consists of two parts: coarse‐grained measurement and interpolation‐optimization. In the first part, based on the SDN architecture, we use the pull‐based random sampling method to quickly obtain the coarse‐grained measurement of flow traffic through OpenFlow protocol. In the second part, we insert some discrete values into the coarse‐grained measurement with the interpolation theory, then we optimize interpolation results until finding the optimal fine‐grained flow traffic measurement by utilizing the multiconstraint method. We verified the feasibility of the proposed measurement method, and simulation results show that the measurement error of the proposed method is under 25%, but the flow measurement overhead of this method occupies only 3.3% compared with that of the fine‐grained method.

Huo, Liuwei↗

DOE OSTI2025

A robust fourth-order finite-difference discretization for the strongly anisotropic transport equation in magnetized plasmas

We propose a second-order temporally implicit, fourth-order-accurate spatial discretization scheme for the strongly anisotropic heat transport equation characteristic of hot, fusion-grade plasmas. Following Du Toit et al. (2018), the scheme transforms mixed-derivative diffusion fluxes (which are responsible for the lack of a discrete maximum principle) into nonlinear advective fluxes, amenable to nonlinear-solver-friendly monotonicity-preserving limiters. The scheme enables accurate multi-dimensional heat transport simulations with up to seven orders of magnitude of heat-transport-coefficient anisotropies with low cross-field numerical error pollution and excellent algorithmic performance, with the number of linear iterations scaling very weakly with grid resolution and grid anisotropy, and scaling with the square-root of the implicit timestep. We propose a multigrid preconditioning strategy based on a lower-order approximation that renders the scheme efficient and scalable under grid refinement. Several numerical tests are presented that display the expected spatial convergence rates and strong algorithmic performance, including fully nonlinear magnetohydrodynamics simulations of kink instabilities in a Bennett pinch in 2D helical geometry and of ITER in 3D toroidal geometry.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗