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At least 847 records · Page 47

AST Critical Propulsion and Noise Reduction Technologies for Future Commercial Subsonic Engines: Separate-Flow Exhaust System Noise Reduction Concept Evaluation

This report describes the work performed by General Electric Aircraft Engines (GEAE) and Allison Engine Company (AEC) on NASA Contract NAS3-27720 AoI 14.3. The objective of this contract was to generate quality jet noise acoustic data for separate-flow nozzle models and to design and verify new jet-noise-reduction concepts over a range of simulated engine cycles and flight conditions. Five baseline axisymmetric separate-flow nozzle models having bypass ratios of five and eight with internal and external plugs and 11 different mixing-enhancer model nozzles (including chevrons, vortex-generator doublets, and a tongue mixer) were designed and tested in model scale. Using available core and fan nozzle hardware in various combinations, 28 GEAE/AEC separate-flow nozzle/mixing-enhancer configurations were acoustically evaluated in the NASA Glenn Research Center Aeroacoustic and Propulsion Laboratory. This report describes model nozzle features, facility and data acquisition/reduction procedures, the test matrix, and measured acoustic data analyses. A number of tested core and fan mixing enhancer devices and combinations of devices gave significant jet noise reduction relative to separate-flow baseline nozzles. Inward-flip and alternating-flip core chevrons combined with a straight-chevron fan nozzle exceeded the NASA stretch goal of 3 EPNdB jet noise reduction at typical sideline certification conditions.

Janardan, B. A.↗

Modeling the high-energy electronic state manifold of adenine: Calibration for nonlinear electronic spectroscopy

Pump-probe electronic spectroscopy using femtosecond laser pulses has evolved into a standard tool for tracking ultrafast excited state dynamics. Its two-dimensional (2D) counterpart is becoming an increasingly available and promising technique for resolving many of the limitations of pump-probe caused by spectral congestion. The ability to simulate pump-probe and 2D spectra from ab initio computations would allow one to link mechanistic observables like molecular motions and the making/breaking of chemical bonds to experimental observables like excited state lifetimes and quantum yields. From a theoretical standpoint, the characterization of the electronic transitions in the visible (Vis)/ultraviolet (UV), which are excited via the interaction of a molecular system with the incoming pump/probe pulses, translates into the determination of a computationally challenging number of excited states (going over 100) even for small/medium sized systems. A protocol is therefore required to evaluate the fluctuations of spectral properties like transition energies and dipole moments as a function of the computational parameters and to estimate the effect of these fluctuations on the transient spectral appearance. In the present contribution such a protocol is presented within the framework of complete and restricted active space self-consistent field theory and its second-order perturbation theory extensions. The electronic excited states of adenine have been carefully characterized through a previously presented computational recipe [Nenov et al., Comput. Theor. Chem. 1040–1041, 295-303 (2014)]. A wise reduction of the level of theory has then been performed in order to obtain a computationally less demanding approach that is still able to reproduce the characteristic features of the reference data. Foreseeing the potentiality of 2D electronic spectroscopy to track polynucleotide ground and excited state dynamics, and in particular its expected ability to provide conformational dependent fingerprints in dimeric systems, the performances of the selected reduced level of calculations have been tested in the construction of 2D electronic spectra for the in vacuo adenine monomer and the unstacked adenine homodimer, thereby exciting the L{sub b}/L{sub a} transitions with the pump pulse pair and probing in the Vis to near ultraviolet spectral window.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

ActiveBAS: A Low-cost, Scalable Control Solution for Grid-Interactive Small and Medium Sized Commercial Buildings

This project aims to develop and enhance a low-cost, highly scalable control solution for Small and Medium-Sized Commercial Buildings (SMCB), assess the business potential at multiple sites, and perform commercialization efforts. The technology can be applied to any buildings served by multiple units, with the benefits being greatest for open-spaced buildings, such as banks, retail stores, restaurants, and factories. This project aims to develop an affordable control solution for: 1) SMCB grid responsiveness, 2) reduction of GHG by changing unit operations, 3) greater reduction in utility costs, and 4) rapid adoption in the marketplace. The proposed technology will be built on a previously developed and demonstrated MPC solution. The minimal sensor requirement and less need of control expertise are the unique feature of the algorithm that leads to low capital and maintenance costs, and short installation and implementation time. These attributes contribute to low capital and maintenance costs, as well as a short installation and implementation time. However, these advantages come with a trade-off: increased difficulties and unreliability when applying traditional modeling and MPC control approaches due to limited information. This final report describes the modeling approaches developed and tested to overcome these challenges. It begins by outlining the modeling challenge posed by minimal sensor requirements, then delves into the proposed modeling approaches, which primarily involve system identification. Finally, preliminary test results for a simulation case study are presented.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

High-Speed Direct Laser Writing of Silver Nanostructures via Two-Photon Reduction

Despite the widespread use of metallic nanostructures in several emerging applications, high-throughput template-free fabrication techniques that are capable of patterning arbitrarily complex nanostructures are lacking. Two-photon reduction-based direct laser writing is a promising technique due to its ability to fabricate geometrically intricate metallic structures with sub-diffraction nanoscale features. Unfortunately, the extremely low writing speed of ≈10 μm s -1 makes this process impractical for large-scale manufacturing. The operating speed is currently limited by a lack of photoresist materials that can operate under high-speed writing conditions. Herein, a silver-containing aqueous photoresist recipe is presented that increases the writing speed to 1 cm s -1 while maintaining the ability to fabricate sub-diffraction silver nanowires as thin as 500 nm. In addition, the electrical conductivity of the printed silver is within one-fifth that of bulk silver. Strikingly, it is demonstrated here that the conventional design rule of using surfactants to promote high-quality printing is faulty under high-speed conditions. Instead, surfactants limit the throughput and are eliminated to enable high-speed writing. The 1000× throughput scale-up presented here significantly improves our ability to transition nano-enabled devices from research laboratories to real-world adoption.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Facile One-Pot Block Copolymer-Mediated Solvothermal Approach for Synthesis of High-Entropy Alloy with Enhanced OER Activity

Herein, we introduce a straightforward synthesis approach for highly active dendritic multimetallic high-entropy alloy (DMHEA@PtIrPdAgRu) nanoparticles with sufficient entropic mixing, featuring uniform distribution of five noble group metals (Pt, Ir, Pd, Ag, and Ru) via a block copolymer-mediated one-pot solvothermal reduction method for oxygen evolution reaction (OER). In this synthesis, N,N -dimethylformamide (DMF) is used as a reductant as well as solvent and core–shell-corona-type (poly(styrene)- block -poly(vinylpyridine)- block -poly(ethylene oxide)) (PS-PVP-PEO) block copolymer as a structure directing agent. The cooperative effect between the copolymer architecture and the reducing environment of DMF promoted a confined nucleation mechanism for forming a single-phase dendritic structure HEA with high compositional uniformity, thereby mitigating phase segregation, a common challenge in the synthesis of multimetallic nanoparticles. This prepared DMHEA@PtIrPdAgRu catalyst exhibits a low overpotential of 490 mV to attain a high current density of 100 mA cm –2 with a Tafel slope of 442 mV dec –1 for oxygen evolution. The superior OER performance is attributed to the synergistic cooperation among its active and coordinated metal centers as well as the incorporation of corrosion-resistant metal like platinum.

block copolymer↗

Quantum-classical embedding via ghost Gutzwiller approximation for enhanced simulations of correlated electron systems

Simulating correlated materials on present-day quantum hardware remains challenging due to limited quantum resources. Quantum embedding methods offer a promising route by reducing computational complexity through the mapping of bulk systems onto effective impurity models, allowing more feasible simulations on pre- and early-fault-tolerant quantum devices. Here, this work develops a quantum-classical embedding framework based on the ghost Gutzwiller approximation to enable quantum-enhanced simulations of ground-state properties and spectral functions of correlated electron systems. Circuit complexity is analyzed using an adaptive variational quantum algorithm on a statevector simulator, applied to the infinite-dimensional Hubbard model with increasing ghost mode numbers from 3 to 5, resulting in circuit depths growing from 16 to 104. Noise effects are examined using a realistic error model, revealing significant impact on the spectral weight of the Hubbard bands. To mitigate these effects, the Iceberg quantum error detection code is employed, achieving up to 40% error reduction in simulations. Finally, the accuracy of the density matrix estimation and the derived spectral function is benchmarked on IBM and Quantinuum quantum hardware, featuring distinct qubit-connectivity and employing multiple levels of error mitigation techniques.

Chen, I-Chi [Ames Laboratory (AMES), Ames, IA (Uni↗

SIPHORE: Conceptual Study of a High Efficiency Neutral Beam Injector Based on Photo-detachment for Future Fusion Reactors

An innovative high efficiency neutral beam injector concept for future fusion reactors is under investigation (simulation and R and D) between several laboratories in France, the goal being to perform a feasibility study for the neutralization of intense high energy (1 MeV) negative ion (NI) beams by photo-detachment.The objective of the proposed project is to put together the expertise of three leading groups in negative ion quantum physics, high power stabilized lasers and neutral beam injectors to perform studies of a new injector concept called SIPHORE (SIngle gap PHOto-neutralizer energy REcovery injector), based on the photo-detachment of negative ions and energy recovery of unneutralised ions; the main feature of SIPHORE being the relevance for the future Fusion reactors (DEMO), where high injector efficiency (up to 70-80%), technological simplicity and cost reduction are key issues to be addressed.The paper presents the on-going developments and simulations around this project, such as, a new concept of ion source which would fit with this injector topology and which could solve the remaining uniformity issue of the large size ion source, and, finally, the presentation of the R and D program in the laboratories (LAC, ARTEMIS) around the photo-neutralization for Siphore.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Ion-acoustic K-dV and mK-dV solitons in a degenerate electron-ion dense plasma

A theoretical investigation has been made of the nonlinear propagation of ion-acoustic waves associated with a dense plasma system consisting degenerate electron and ion fluids. This fluid model, which is valid for both the non-relativistic and ultra-relativistic limits, has been employed with the reductive perturbation method. The K-dV and modified K-dV (mK-dV) equations have been derived and numerically analyzed. The basic features of solitons have been observed. It has been shown that the plasma system under consideration supports the propagation of solitons (electrostatic solitary structures) obtained from the solutions of K-dV and mK-dV equations. The implications of our results obtained from this investigation in compact astrophysical objects have been briefly discussed.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Estimating Lossy Compressibility of Scientific Data Using Deep Neural Networks

Simulation based scientific applications generate increasingly large amounts of data on high-performance computing (HPC) systems. To allow data to be stored and analyzed efficiently, data compression is often utilized to reduce the volume and velocity of data. However, a question often raised by domain scientists is the level of compression that can be expected so that they can make more informed decisions, balancing between accuracy and performance. In this letter, we propose a deep neural network based approach for estimating the compressibility of scientific data. To train the neural network, we build both general features as well as compressor-specific features so that the characteristics of both data and lossy compressors are captured in training. Our approach is demonstrated to outperform a prior analytical model as well as a sampling based approach in the case of a biased estimation, i.e., for SZ. However, for the unbiased estimation (i.e., ZFP), the sampling based approach yields the best accuracy, despite the high overhead involved in sampling the target dataset.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

The Mean Climate of the Community Atmosphere Model (CAM4) in Forced SST and Fully Coupled Experiments

The Community Atmosphere Model, version 4 (CAM4), was released as part of the Community Climate System Model, version 4 (CCSM4). The finite volume (FV) dynamical core is now the default because of its superior transport and conservation properties. Deep convection parameterization changes include a dilute plume calculation of convective available potential energy (CAPE) and the introduction of convective momentum transport (CMT). An additional cloud fraction calculation is now performed following macrophysical state updates to provide improved thermodynamic consistency. A freeze-drying modification is further made to the cloud fraction calculation in very dry environments (e.g., the Arctic), where cloud fraction and cloud water values were often inconsistent in CAM3. In CAM4 the FV dynamical core further degrades the excessive trade-wind simulation, but reduces zonal stress errors at higher latitudes. Plume dilution alleviates much of the midtropospheric tropical dry biases and reduces the persistent monsoon precipitation biases over the Arabian Peninsula and the southern Indian Ocean. CMT reduces much of the excessive trade-wind biases in eastern ocean basins. CAM4 shows a global reduction in cloud fraction compared to CAM3, primarily as a result of the freeze-drying and improved cloud fraction equilibrium modifications. Regional climate feature improvements include the propagation of stationary waves from the Pacific into midlatitudes and the seasonal frequency of Northern Hemisphere blocking events. A 1° versus 2° horizontal resolution of the FV dynamical core exhibits superior improvements in regional climate features of precipitation and surface stress. Finally, improvements in the fully coupled mean climate between CAM3 and CAM4 are also more substantial than in forced sea surface temperature (SST) simulations.

cloud fraction calculation↗

Development and Validation of a Gas-Fired Residential Heat Pump Water Heater (Final Report)

For gas-fired residential water heating, the U.S. and Canada is predominantly supplied by minimum efficiency storage water heaters with Energy Factors (EF) in the range of 0.59 to 0.62. Higher efficiency and higher cost ($\$$700 - $\$$2,000) options serve about 15% of the market, but still have EFs below 1.0, ranging from 0.65 to 0.95. To develop a new class of water heating products that exceeds the traditional limit of thermal efficiency, the project team designed and demonstrated a packaged water heater driven by a gas-fired ammonia-water absorption heat pump. This gas-fired heat pump water heater can achieve EFs of 1.3 or higher, at a consumer cost of $\$$2,000 or less. Led by Stone Mountain Technologies Inc. (SMTI), with support from A.O. Smith, the Gas Technology Institute (GTI), and Georgia Tech, the cross-functional team completed research and development tasks including cycle modeling, breadboard evaluation of two cycles and two heat exchanger classes, heat pump/storage tank integration, compact solution pump development, combustion system specification, and evaluation of packaged prototype GHPWHs. The heat pump system extracts low grade heat from the ambient air and produces high grade heat suitable for heating water in a storage tank for domestic use. Product features that include conventional installation practices, standard footprint and reasonable economic payback, position the technology to gain significant market penetration, resulting in a large reduction of energy use and greenhouse gas emissions from domestic hot water production.

03 NATURAL GAS↗

Aero-MINE (Motionless INtegrated Energy) for Distributed Scalable Wind Power.

The proposed Aero-MINE technology will extract energy from wind without any exterior moving parts. Aero-MINEs can be integrated into buildings or function stand-alone, and are scalable. This gives them advantages similar to solar panels, but with the added benefit of operation in cloudy or dark conditions. Furthermore, compared to solar panels, Aero-MINEs can be manufactured at lower cost and with less environmental impact. Power generation is isolated internally by the pneumatic transmission of air and the outlet air-jet nozzles amplify the effectiveness. Multiple units can be connected to one centrally located electric generator. Aero-MINEs are ideal for the built-environment, with numerous possible configurations ranging from architectural integration to modular bolt-on products. Traditional wind turbines suffer from many fundamental challenges. The fast-moving blades produce significant aero-acoustic noise, visual disturbances, light-induced flickering and impose wildlife mortality risks. The conversion of massive mechanical torque to electricity is a challenge for gears, generators and power conversion electronics. In addition, the installation, operation and maintenance of wind turbines is required at significant height. Furthermore, wind farms are often in remote locations far from dense regions of electricity customers. These technical and logistical challenges add significantly to the cost of the electricity produced by utility-scale wind farms. In contrast, distributed wind energy eliminates many of the logistical challenges. However, solutions such as micro-turbines produce relatively small amounts of energy due to the reduction in swept area and still suffer from the motion-related disadvantages of utility-scale turbines. Aero-MINEs combine the best features of distributed generation, while eliminating the disadvantages.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

Efficient Stochastic Inversion Using Adjoint Models and Kernel-PCA

Performing stochastic inversion on a computationally expensive forward simulation model with a high-dimensional uncertain parameter space (e.g. a spatial random field) is computationally prohibitive even when gradient information can be computed efficiently. Moreover, the ‘nonlinear’ mapping from parameters to observables generally gives rise to non-Gaussian posteriors even with Gaussian priors, thus hampering the use of efficient inversion algorithms designed for models with Gaussian assumptions. In this paper, we propose a novel Bayesian stochastic inversion methodology, which is characterized by a tight coupling between the gradient-based Langevin Markov Chain Monte Carlo (LMCMC) method and a kernel principal component analysis (KPCA). This approach addresses the ‘curse-of-dimensionality’ via KPCA to identify a low-dimensional feature space within the high-dimensional and nonlinearly correlated parameter space. In addition, non-Gaussian posterior distributions are estimated via an efficient LMCMC method on the projected low-dimensional feature space. We will demonstrate this computational framework by integrating and adapting our recent data-driven statistics-on-manifolds constructions and reduction-through-projection techniques to a linear elasticity model.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Charge-lattice coupling and the dynamic structure of the U–O distribution in UO 2+x

The different structures and behaviors of UO 2+x observed in crystallographic and local structure measurements were examined by extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) measurements of pristine UO 2.0 , p + and He 2+ irradiated UO 2.0 , and, at multiple temperatures, bulk U 4 O 9 and U 3 O 7 and thin film U 4 O 9-δ on an epitaxial substrate. The disorder caused by irradiation is mostly limited to increased widths of the existing U–O/U pair distributions, with any new neighbor shells being minor. As has been previously reported, the disorder caused by oxidative addition to U 4 O 9 and U 3 O 7 is much more extensive, resulting in multisite U–O distributions and greater reduction of the U–U amplitude with different distributions in bulk and thin-film U 4 O 9 . This includes the significant spectral feature near R = 1.2 Å for all U 4 O 9 and U 3 O 7 samples fit with a U-oxo type moiety with a U–O distance around 1.7 Å. In addition to indicating that these anomalies only occur in mixed valence materials, this work confirms the continuous rearrangement of the U–O distributions from 10 to 250 K. Although these variations of the structure are not observed in crystallography, their prominence in the EXAFS indicates that the dynamic structure underlying these effects is an essential factor of these materials.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Development and evaluation of television tubes for space astronomy

An improved vidicon image sensor for space astronomy applications is developed that features reliably sealed ultraviolet transmitting windows and achieves acceptable photocathode quantum efficiency on these MgF2 windows. New preamplifier designs improve the dynamic range by reduction of the readout noise.

Spitzer, L.↗

Enhancement of the CAVE computer code

The computer code CAVE (Conduction Analysis via Eigenvalues) is a convenient and efficient computer code for predicting two dimensional temperature histories within thermal protection systems for hypersonic vehicles. The capabilities of CAVE were enhanced by incorporation of the following features into the code: real gas effects in the aerodynamic heating predictions, geometry and aerodynamic heating package for analyses of cone shaped bodies, input option to change from laminar to turbulent heating predictions on leading edges, modification to account for reduction in adiabatic wall temperature with increase in leading sweep, geometry package for two dimensional scramjet engine sidewall, with an option for heat transfer to external and internal surfaces, print out modification to provide tables of select temperatures for plotting and storage, and modifications to the radiation calculation procedure to eliminate temperature oscillations induced by high heating rates. These new features are described.

Rathjen, K. A.↗

VLBI monitoring of the superluminal quasar 3C 273, 1977-1982

The compact ratio structure of the quasar 3C 273 has been monitored with a VLBI array at 5.0 and 10.7 GHz at six-month intervals during 1977-1982. THe VLBI monitoring observations, data reduction, calibration, and mapping techniques are described, and hybrid maps from the monitoring program are presented along with a brief discussion of the main features. Results on the source kinematics (superluminal motion of the knots and their time evolution) are given, and synchro-Compton models of the knots are presented and limits to their Doppler factors (delta) derived from X-ray measurements. The constraints on jet geometry provided by the combined measurements of delta and v/c are considered. For the core, the inhomogeneous jet model of Koenigl (1981) is compared with the available data. The relation between 3C 273 and the similar superluminal source 3C 345 is discussed.

Unwin, S. C.↗

The European Southern Observatory-MIDAS table file system

The new and substantially upgraded version of the Table File System in MIDAS is presented as a scientific database system. MIDAS applications for performing database operations on tables are discussed, for instance, the exchange of the data to and from the TFS, the selection of objects, the uncertainty joins across tables, and the graphical representation of data. This upgraded version of the TFS is a full implementation of the binary table extension of the FITS format; in addition, it also supports arrays of strings. Different storage strategies for optimal access of very large data sets are implemented and are addressed in detail. As a simple relational database, the TFS may be used for the management of personal data files. This opens the way to intelligent pipeline processing of large amounts of data. One of the key features of the Table File System is to provide also an extensive set of tools for the analysis of the final results of a reduction process. Column operations using standard and special mathematical functions as well as statistical distributions can be carried out; commands for linear regression and model fitting using nonlinear least square methods and user-defined functions are available. Finally, statistical tests of hypothesis and multivariate methods can also operate on tables.

Peron, M.↗