Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “inversion 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.

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

At least 829 records · Page 46

Improved surrogates in inertial confinement fusion with manifold and cycle consistencies

Neural networks have become the method of choice in surrogate modeling because of their ability to characterize arbitrary, high-dimensional functions in a data-driven fashion. This paper advocates for the training of surrogates that are 1) consistent with the physical manifold, resulting in physically meaningful predictions, and 2) cyclically consistent with a jointly trained inverse model; i.e., backmapping predictions through the inverse results in the original input parameters. We find that these two consistencies lead to surrogates that are superior in terms of predictive performance, are more resilient to sampling artifacts, and tend to be more data efficient. Using inertial confinement fusion (ICF) as a test-bed problem, we model a one-dimensional semianalytic numerical simulator and demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Electron ptychography achieves atomic-resolution limits set by lattice vibrations

Transmission electron microscopes use electrons with wavelengths of a few picometers, potentially capable of imaging individual atoms in solids at a resolution ultimately set by the intrinsic size of an atom. However, owing to lens aberrations and multiple scattering of electrons in the sample, the image resolution is reduced by a factor of 3 to 10. By inversely solving the multiple scattering problem and overcoming the electron-probe aberrations using electron ptychography, we demonstrate an instrumental blurring of less than 20 picometers and a linear phase response in thick samples. The measured widths of atomic columns are limited by thermal fluctuations of the atoms. As a result, our method is also capable of locating embedded atomic dopant atoms in all three dimensions with subnanometer precision from only a single projection measurement.

42 ENGINEERING↗

An Inverse Heat Conduction Algorithm Used to Calculate the Temperatures on the Inner and Outer Cylindrical Surfaces of an HMX-based PBX Explosive Annulus

In this work, a new Inverse Heat Conduction (IHC) algorithm is applied to estimate the surface temperatures at twelve locations on the inner and outer cylindrical boundaries of an HMX-based Plastic Bonded Explosive (PBX) annulus. This IHC algorithm was developed in references using a set of Direct Heat Conduction (DHC) solutions and a temperature correction method. The DHC solutions were calculated using a Galerkin based finite element (FE) method. This HMX based PBX annulus was used in the Large Scale Annular Cookoff (LSAC) experiment, Shot 5. The reason Shot 5 was chosen as a prototype mathematical model for this study is that the temperature was measured at eighteen locations in the midplane of the HMX-based PBX annulus. In addition, this annulus underwent an experimental thermal ignition and a deflagration that caused a thermal explosion and the disassembly of the experiment. The objective of this study is to describe how the application of the temperature correction algorithm produced the convergence of the DHC solutions to the measured temperatures at twelve internal locations in the midplane of the HMX-based PBX annulus.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Global centroid moment tensor solutions in a heterogeneous earth: the CMT3D catalogue

SUMMARY For over 40 yr, the global centroid-moment tensor (GCMT) project has determined location and source parameters for globally recorded earthquakes larger than magnitude 5.0. The GCMT database remains a trusted staple for the geophysical community. Its point-source moment-tensor solutions are the result of inversions that model long-period observed seismic waveforms via normal-mode summation for a 1-D reference earth model, augmented by path corrections to capture 3-D variations in surface wave phase speeds, and to account for crustal structure. While this methodology remains essentially unchanged for the ongoing GCMT catalogue, source inversions based on waveform modelling in low-resolution 3-D earth models have revealed small but persistent biases in the standard modelling approach. Keeping pace with the increased capacity and demands of global tomography requires a revised catalogue of centroid-moment tensors (CMT), automatically and reproducibly computed using Green's functions from a state-of-the-art 3-D earth model. In this paper, we modify the current procedure for the full-waveform inversion of seismic traces for the six moment-tensor parameters, centroid latitude, longitude, depth and centroid time of global earthquakes. We take the GCMT solutions as a point of departure but update them to account for the effects of a heterogeneous earth, using the global 3-D wave speed model GLAD-M25. We generate synthetic seismograms from Green's functions computed by the spectral-element method in the 3-D model, select observed seismic data and remove their instrument response, process synthetic and observed data, select segments of observed and synthetic data based on similarity, and invert for new model parameters of the earthquake’s centroid location, time and moment tensor. The events in our new, preliminary database containing 9382 global event solutions, called CMT3D for ‘3-D centroid-moment tensors’, are on average 4 km shallower, about 1 s earlier, about 5 per cent larger in scalar moment, and more double-couple in nature than in the GCMT catalogue. We discuss in detail the geographical and statistical distributions of the updated solutions, and place them in the context of earlier work. We plan to disseminate our CMT3D solutions via the online ShakeMovie platform.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Uncertainty quantification for Multiphase-CFD simulations of bubbly flows: a machine learning-based Bayesian approach supported by high-resolution experiments

In this paper, we developed a machine learning-based Bayesian approach to inversely quantify and reduce the uncertainties of multiphase computational fluid dynamics (MCFD) simulations for bubbly flows. The proposed approach is supported by high-resolution two-phase flow measurements, including those by double-sensor conductivity probes, high-speed imaging, and particle image velocimetry. Local distributions of key physical quantities of interest (QoIs), including the void fraction and phasic velocities, are obtained to support the Bayesian inference. In the process, the epistemic uncertainties of the closure relations are inversely quantified while the aleatory uncertainties from stochastic fluctuations of the system are evaluated based on experimental uncertainty analysis. The combined uncertainties are then propagated through the MCFD solver to obtain uncertainties of the QoIs, based on which probability-boxes are constructed for validation. The proposed approach relies on three machine learning methods: feedforward neural networks and principal component analysis for surrogate modeling, and Gaussian processes for model form uncertainty modeling. The whole process is implemented within the framework of an open-source deep learning library PyTorch with graphics processing unit (GPU) acceleration, thus ensuring the efficiency of the computation. The results demonstrate that with the support of high-resolution data, the uncertainties of MCFD simulations can be significantly reduced. The proposed approach has the potential for other applications that involve numerical models with empirical parameters.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Quantum fluctuations in dense plasma simulations

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are a powerful tool for modeling warm and hot dense matter. Density functional theory (DFT) MD simulations are often preferred in dense plasmas in order to accurately model quantum electronic structure. However, DFT-MD simulations neglect interaction effects due to fluctuations in excited states. In this work, we present an MD approach that uses excited state method pseudoatoms to run dense plasma simulations with many different core-electron configurations at classical MD speeds. We also allow for transitions between different configurations in our simulations and find that these fluctuations are especially important for highly excited states. Our results suggest that finite configuration lifetimes that are comparable to the inverse ion plasma frequency need to be accounted for in order to accurately model ion distributions in dense plasma simulations. We also demonstrate that excited state fluctuations have a direct impact on ion plasma microfields, generate different plasma microfields for different excitation levels, and thereby induce absorption–emission line shape asymmetries even in steady-state plasmas.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Asymptotic errors in adiabatic evolution

The adiabatic theorem in quantum mechanics implies that if a system is in a discrete eigenstate of a Hamiltonian and the Hamiltonian evolves in time arbitrarily slowly, the system will remain in the corresponding eigenstate of the evolved Hamiltonian. Understanding corrections to the adiabatic result that arise when the evolution of the Hamiltonian is slow—but not arbitrarily slow—has become increasingly important, especially since adiabatic evolution has been proposed as a method of state preparation in quantum computing. Here, this paper identifies two regimes, an adiabatic regime in which corrections are generically small and can depend on details of the evolution throughout the path, and a hyperadiabatic regime in which the error is given by a form similar to an asymptotic expansion in the inverse of the evolution time with the coefficients depending principally on the behavior at the endpoints. However, the error in this hyperadiabatic regime is neither given by a true asymptotic series nor solely dependent on the endpoints: the coefficients combine the contributions from both endpoints, with relative phase factors that depend on the average spectral gaps along the trajectory, multiplied by the evolution time. The central result of this paper is to identify a quantity, referred to as the typical error, which is obtained by appropriately averaging the error over evolution times that are small compared to the evolution time itself. This typical error is characterized by an asymptotic series and depends solely on the endpoints of the evolution, remaining independent of the details of the intermediate evolution.

adiabatic approximation↗

Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Component-separated maps of CMB temperature and the thermal Sunyaev-Zel’dovich effect

Optimal analyses of many signals in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) require map-level extraction of individual components in the microwave sky, rather than measurements at the power spectrum level alone. To date, nearly all map-level component separation in CMB analyses has been performed exclusively using satellite data. In this paper, we implement a component separation method based on the internal linear combination (ILC) approach which we have designed to optimally account for the anisotropic noise (in the 2D Fourier domain) often found in ground-based CMB experiments. Using this method, we combine multi-frequency data from the Planck satellite and the Atacama Cosmology Telescope Polarimeter (ACTPol) to construct the first wide-area, arcminute-resolution component-separated maps (≈ 2100 sq. deg.) of the CMB temperature anisotropy and the thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (tSZ) effect sourced by the inverse-Compton scattering of CMB photons off hot, ionized gas. Our ILC pipeline allows for explicit deprojection of various contaminating signals, including a modified blackbody approximation of the cosmic infrared background (CIB) spectral energy distribution. The cleaned CMB maps will be a useful resource for CMB lensing reconstruction, kinematic SZ cross-correlations, and primordial non-Gaussianity studies. Here, the tSZ maps will be used to study the pressure profiles of galaxies, groups, and clusters through cross-correlations with halo catalogs, with dust contamination controlled via CIB deprojection. The data products described in this paper are available on LAMBDA.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Eddy diffusivity operator in homogeneous isotropic turbulence

Here, we use the recently developed macroscopic forcing method to compute the scale-dependent eddy diffusivity characterizing ensemble-averaged scalar and momentum transport in incompressible homogeneous isotropic turbulence. For scales larger than the energy containing eddies, eddy diffusivity is found to be constant and consistent with the Boussinesq approximation. However, for small scales eddy diffusivity is found to vanish inversely proportional to the wave number. Behavior at all scales is reasonably captured by a nonlocal eddy diffusivity operator modeled as D/$\sqrt{I - l^2∇^2}$, where D is the eddy diffusivity in the Boussinesq limit, and l is a constant on the order of the large-eddy length. These results present a direct measurement of eddy diffusivity in turbulence with implications in turbulence modeling.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Multi-Fidelity Active Subspaces for Wind Farm Uncertainty Quantification

Wind plants operate in stochastic environments characterized by complex turbulent flow dynamics and high-dimensional random variables. A key step in uncertainty quantification studies is sensitivity analysis and dimension reduction that can facilitate the development of surrogate models to be used for forward and inverse propagation or optimization under uncertainty. Prior work has shown active subspaces are an effective tool for identifying important directions in the space of stochastic inputs; however, they have only been applied to single-fidelity wind plant models. In this study, we investigate the efficacy of a multi-fidelity active subspace method for analyzing the uncertainty in wind plant power output. The multi-fidelity active subspace estimator offers the promise of increased accuracy in identifying active subspaces as compared to a single-fidelity estimator for the same computational cost, or a reduction in cost for the same accuracy. This makes the study of uncertainty in larger wind plants and with higher fidelity physics tractable. The multi-fidelity active subspace method is applied to gridded and existing wind plant layouts with single and multiple inflow conditions and its performance for surrogate modeling and uncertainty propagation is compared against a single-fidelity active subspace method. This multi-fidelity approach yields substantial computational speedups of 2x - 3.4x across the test cases along with acceptable accuracy in surrogate modeling and computing statistical moments.

active subspace↗

Monitoring Offshore CO 2 Sequestration Using Marine CSEM Methods; Constraints Inferred from Field- and Laboratory-Based Gas Hydrate Studies

Offshore geological sequestration of CO 2 offers a viable approach for reducing greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere. Strategies include injection of CO 2 into the deep-ocean or ocean-floor sediments, whereby depending on pressure–temperature conditions, CO 2 can be trapped physically, gravitationally, or converted to CO 2 hydrate. Energy-driven research continues to also advance CO 2 -for-CH 4 replacement strategies in the gas hydrate stability zone (GHSZ), producing methane for natural gas needs while sequestering CO 2 . In all cases, safe storage of CO 2 requires reliable monitoring of the targeted CO 2 injection sites and the integrity of the repository over time, including possible leakage. Electromagnetic technologies used for oil and gas exploration, sensitive to electrical conductivity, have long been considered an optimal monitoring method, as CO 2 , similar to hydrocarbons, typically exhibits lower conductivity than the surrounding medium. We apply 3D controlled-source electromagnetic (CSEM) forward modeling code to simulate an evolving CO 2 reservoir in deep-ocean sediments, demonstrating sufficient sensitivity and resolution of CSEM data to detect reservoir changes even before sophisticated inversion of data. Laboratory measurements place further constraints on evaluating certain systems within the GHSZ; notably, CO 2 hydrate is measurably weaker than methane hydrate, and >1 order of magnitude more conductive, properties that may affect site selection, stability, and modeling considerations.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Analyzing Potential Failures and Effects in a Pilot-Scale Biomass Preprocessing Facility for Improved Reliability

This study demonstrates a failure identification methodology applied to a preprocessing facility generating conversion-ready feedstocks from biomass meeting conversion process critical quality attribute (CQA) specifications. Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) was used as an industrially relevant risk analysis approach to evaluate a logging residue preprocessing system to prepare feedstock for pyrolysis conversion. Risk evaluations considered both system-level and operation unit-level assessments considering process efficiency, product quality, cost, sustainability, and safety. Key outputs included estimations of semi-quantitative risk scores for each failure, identification of the failure impacts, identification of failure causes associated with material attributes and process parameters, ranking success rates of failure detection methods, and speculation of potential mitigation strategies for decreasing failure risk scores. Results showed that deviations from moisture specifications had cascading consequences for other CQAs along with process safety implications. Failures linked to fixed carbon specifications carried the highest risk scores for product quality and process efficiency impacts. As increased throughput can be inversely related to meeting product quality specifications; achieving throughput and other material-based CQAs simultaneously will likely require system optimization or prioritization based on system economics. Ultimately, this work successfully demonstrates FMEA as a risk analysis approach for other bioenergy process systems.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗

ML Classifier Fusion for Three Data Streams with Quality Inversely Proportional to Time Resolution

We consider a monitoring scenario of phenomenon using three different streams of measurements whose quality is proportional to their constant inter-arrival times. Each measurement of a stream needs to be binary-classified to reflect the state of interest of the phenomenon. A set of classifiers is separately trained and fused for each stream at its time resolution using measurements collected under known states. We present a machine learning method to fuse the outputs of these fusers to provide a final classification at the finest time resolution. We show that this fused-fusers method provides decisions with likely superior classification probability compared to the best individual classifiers and fused-classifiers. We derive generalization equations that guarantee a superior classification probability of fused-fusers with a confidence probability specified by the classifiers’ generalization equations. We apply these results to study a practical problem of classifying Pu/Np target dissolution events at a radiochemical processing facility using gamma spectral measurements of effluent flows.

Rao, Nageswara↗

Level density within a micro-macroscopic approach

Statistical level density $ρ$($E, A$) is derived for nucleonic system with a given energy $E$, particle number $A$ and other integrals of motion in the micro-macroscopic approximation beyond the standard saddle-point method of the Fermi gas model. This level density reaches the two limits; the well-known Fermi gas grand-canonical ensemble limit for a large entropy $S$ related to large excitation energies, and the finite micro-canonical limit for a small combinatorical entropy $S$ at low excitation energies. In conclusion, the inverse level density parameter $K$ as function of the particle number $A$ in the semiclassical periodic orbit theory, taking into account the extended Thomas-Fermi and Strutinsky shell corrections, is calculated and compared with experimental data.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Radar-Based Bayesian Estimation of Ice Crystal Growth Parameters within a Microphysical Model

The potential for polarimetric Doppler radar measurements to improve predictions of ice microphysical processes within an idealized model–observational framework is examined. In an effort to more rigorously constrain ice growth processes (e.g., vapor deposition) with observations of natural clouds, a novel framework is developed to compare simulated and observed radar measurements, coupling a bulk adaptive-habit model of vapor growth to a polarimetric radar forward model. Bayesian inference on key microphysical model parameters is then used, via a Markov chain Monte Carlo sampler, to estimate the probability distribution of the model parameters. The statistical formalism of this method allows for robust estimates of the optimal parameter values, along with (non-Gaussian) estimates of their uncertainty. To demonstrate this framework, observations from Department of Energy radars in the Arctic during a case of pristine ice precipitation are used to constrain vapor deposition parameters in the adaptive habit model. The resulting parameter probability distributions provide physically plausible changes in ice particle density and aspect ratio during growth. A lack of direct constraint on the number concentration produces a range of possible mean particle sizes, with the mean size inversely correlated to number concentration. Consistency is found between the estimated inherent growth ratio and independent laboratory measurements, increasing confidence in the parameter PDFs and demonstrating the effectiveness of the radar measurements in constraining the parameters. Furthermore, the combined Doppler and polarimetric observations produce the highest-confidence estimates of the parameter PDFs, with the Doppler measurements providing a stronger constraint for this case.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Nonlinear sparse Bayesian learning for physics-based models

This paper addresses the issue of overfitting while calibrating unknown parameters of over-parameterized physics-based models with noisy and incomplete observations. Here, a semi-analytical Bayesian framework of nonlinear sparse Bayesian learning (NSBL) is proposed to identify sparsity among model parameters during Bayesian inversion. NSBL offers significant advantages over machine learning algorithm of sparse Bayesian learning (SBL) for physics-based models, such as 1) the likelihood function or the posterior parameter distribution is not required to be Gaussian, and 2) prior parameter knowledge is incorporated into sparse learning (i.e. not all parameters are treated as questionable). NSBL employs the concept of automatic relevance determination (ARD) to facilitate sparsity among questionable parameters through parameterized prior distributions. The analytical tractability of NSBL is enabled by employing Gaussian ARD priors and by building a Gaussian mixture-model approximation of the posterior parameter distribution that excludes the contribution of ARD priors. Subsequently, type-II maximum likelihood is executed using Newton's method whereby the evidence and its gradient and Hessian information are computed in a semi-analytical fashion. We show numerically and analytically that SBL is a special case of NSBL for linear regression models. Subsequently, a linear regression example involving multimodality in both parameter posterior pdf and model evidence is considered to demonstrate the performance of NSBL in cases where SBL is inapplicable. Next, NSBL is applied to identify sparsity among the damping coefficients of a mass-spring-damper model of a shear building frame. These numerical studies demonstrate the robustness and efficiency of NSBL in alleviating overfitting during Bayesian inversion of nonlinear physics-based models.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Chain extension epoxide polymerization to well‐defined block polymers using a N‐Al Lewis pair catalyst

Block polyethers comprised of poly(propylene oxide) (PPO) and poly(ethylene oxide) (PEG or PEO) segments form the basis of ABA-type PEO-b-PPO-b-PEO poloxamer materials. The inverse architecture with an internal hydrophilic PEO segment flanked by hydrophobic blocks can be difficult to prepare with control of architecture by use of traditional anionic polymerization. These oxyanionic polymerizations are plagued by chain-transfer-to-monomer side reactions that occur with substituted epoxides such as propylene oxide (PO). Herein, we report a new method for the preparation of block polymers through a controlled polymerization involving a N-Al Lewis adduct catalyst and an aluminum alkoxide macroinitiator. The Lewis pair catalyst was able to chain-extend commercial PEO macroinitiators to prepare di-, tri-, and pentablock polyethers with low dispersity and reasonable monomer tolerance. Chain extension was confirmed using size exclusion chromatography and diffusion ordered nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. In conclusion, the resulting block polymers were additionally analyzed with small-angle X-ray scattering to correlate the morphology to molecular architecture.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Gradient-based surface nuclear magnetic resonance for groundwater investigation

In medical magnetic resonance imaging, spatial localization (imaging) is based upon the application of controlled magnetic field gradients on top of the main magnetic field to spatially modulate the frequency and/or phase of the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) signal across the volume of investigation. In this work, we have applied similar physical principles to produce controlled magnetic field gradients during surface NMR-based groundwater investigations. In this approach, a gradient pulse of variable amplitude or duration is applied immediately after the excitation pulse to cause predictable phase encoding of the NMR signal as a function of depth. This approach is also applicable to emerging surface NMR detection methods that use a prepolarization field with fast nonadiabatic turn-off to generate detectable NMR signals from the shallow subsurface. In this case, the gradient pulse is applied after terminating the prepolarization field and provides a heretofore unavailable means of localizing the NMR response as a function of depth. The application of gradients can also be combined with tip-angle-based modulation to yield higher imaging resolution than can be achieved through either gradient- or tip-angle-based imaging alone. We implemented this new gradient-based capability into a surface NMR gradient generation accessory that is compatible with the GMR-Flex instrument and developed surface NMR-specific forward modeling and linear inverse models. We validated the accuracy of this novel gradient-based sNMR technology using computer simulations, experiments using a small pool filled with a discrete layer of bulk water, and field experiments at well-characterized groundwater test sites along Ebey Island, WA, and Larned, KS. The gradient-based sNMR imaging observations were compared with high-resolution direct push NMR results observed at these sites. The results of computer simulations and field experiments indicate improvements in both the detection (signal-to-noise ratio) and spatial resolution of shallow subsurface water content using gradient-based surface NMR, compared with traditional surface NMR imaging methods.

Geochemistry & Geophysics↗