Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “distributed simulation”

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 883 records · Page 49

Modeling delay in genetic networks: From delay birth-death processes to delay stochastic differential equations

Delay is an important and ubiquitous aspect of many biochemical processes. For example, delay plays a central role in the dynamics of genetic regulatory networks as it stems from the sequential assembly of first mRNA and then protein. Genetic regulatory networks are therefore frequently modeled as stochastic birth-death processes with delay. Here, we examine the relationship between delay birth-death processes and their appropriate approximating delay chemical Langevin equations. We prove a quantitative bound on the error between the pathwise realizations of these two processes. Our results hold for both fixed delay and distributed delay. Simulations demonstrate that the delay chemical Langevin approximation is accurate even at moderate system sizes. It captures dynamical features such as the oscillatory behavior in negative feedback circuits, cross-correlations between nodes in a network, and spatial and temporal information in two commonly studied motifs of metastability in biochemical systems. Overall, these results provide a foundation for using delay stochastic differential equations to approximate the dynamics of birth-death processes with delay.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Resolution of the vibrational energy distribution function using a direct simulation Monte Carlo-master equation approach

The direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method is the primary numerical technique for analysis of rarefied gas flows. While recent progress in computational chemistry is beginning to provide vibrationally resolved transition and reaction cross sections that can be employed in DSMC calculations, the particle nature of the standard DSMC method makes it difficult to use this information in a statistically significant way. The current study introduces a new technique that makes it possible to resolve all of the vibrational energy levels by using a master equation approach along with temperature-dependent transition rates. The new method is compared to the standard DSMC technique for several heat bath and shock wave conditions and demonstrates the ability to resolve the full vibrational manifold at the expected overall rates of relaxation. The ability of the new master equation approach to the DSMC method for resolving, in particular, the high-energy states addresses a well-known, longstanding deficiency of the standard DSMC method.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Transducer selection and application in magnetoacoustic tomography with magnetic induction

As an acoustic receiver, transducer plays a vital role in signal acquisition and image reconstruction for magnetoacoustic tomography with magnetic induction (MAT-MI). In order to optimize signal acquisition, the expressions of acoustic pressure detection and waveform collection are theoretically studied based on the radiation theory of acoustic dipole and the reception pattern of transducer. Pressure distributions are simulated for a cylindrical phantom model using a planar piston transducer with different radii and bandwidths. The proposed theory is also verified by the experimental measurements of acoustic waveform detection for an aluminum foil cylinder. It is proved that acoustic pressure with sharp and clear boundary peaks can be detected by the large-radius transducer with wide bandwidth, reflecting the differential of the induced Lorentz force accurately, which is helpful for precise conductivity reconstruction. To detect acoustic pressure with acceptable pressure amplitude, peak pressure ratio, amplitude ratio, and improved signal to noise ratio, the scanning radius of 5–10 times the radius of the object should be selected to improve the accuracy of image reconstruction. This study provides a theoretical and experimental basis for transducer selection and application in MAT-MI to obtain reconstructed images with improved resolution and definition.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Formation of snowflake domains during fast cooling of lithium tantalate crystals

Formation of the original dendrite snowflake-shape domains during fast cooling after heating above phase transition temperature by pulse laser irradiation was revealed in congruent lithium tantalate crystals. The effect was attributed to polarization reversal under the action of spatially nonuniform pyroelectric field. Two stages of the domain shape evolution at the surface were separated: (1) growth of circular domains by sideways motion of the domain walls and (2) backswitching leading to formation of the snowflake domains. The simulated spatial distribution of the pyroelectric field in regular two-dimensional structure was used for an explanation of the obtained results. The backswitching process in the surface layer has been attributed to change of the sign of the pyroelectric field at the domain wall. The snowflake domain shape is caused by the formation of isolated nanodomain fingers and hampering of their merging.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

High-speed nanoscale characterization of dewetting via dynamic transmission electron microscopy

The dewetting of thin films can occur in either the solid or the liquid state for which different mass transport mechanisms are expected to control morphological changes. Traditionally, dewetting dynamics have been examined on time scales between several seconds to hours, and length scales ranging between nanometers and millimeters. The determination of mass transport mechanisms on the nanoscale, however, requires nanoscale spatial resolution and much shorter time scales. This study reports the high-speed observation of dewetting phenomena for kinetically constrained Ni thin films on crystalline SrTiO{sub 3} substrates. Movie-mode Dynamic Transmission Electron Microscopy (DTEM) was used for high-speed image acquisition during thin film dewetting at different temperatures. DTEM imaging confirmed that the initial stages of film agglomeration include edge retraction, hole formation, and growth. Finite element modeling was used to simulate temperature distributions within the DTEM samples after laser irradiation with different energies. For pulsed laser irradiation at 18 μJ, experimentally observed hole growth suggests that Marangoni flow dominates hole formation in the liquid nickel film. After irradiation with 13.8 μJ, however, the observations suggest that dewetting was initiated by nucleation of voids followed by hole growth through solid-state surface diffusion.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

A co-axial velocity map imaging spectrometer for electrons

Here, we present the design of an electron velocity map imaging (VMI) spectrometer where the ionizing laser source propagates along the symmetry axis of the spectrometer. The co-axial geometry is useful in a variety of experiments, because it provides a unique 2-dimensional projection of the 3-dimensional electron momentum distribution. Initial simulations show that this co-axial VMI can work with both high energy (more than 100 eV) and low energy (tens of eV) electrons. We demonstrate the performance of this co-axial VMI spectrometer at the Linac Coherent Light Source X-ray Free Electron Laser facility.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Reconnection from a turbulence perspective

The spectral properties associated with laminar, anti-parallel reconnection are examined using a 2.5D kinetic particle in cell simulation. Both the reconnection rate and the energy spectrum exhibit three distinct phases: an initiation phase where the reconnection rate grows, a quasi-steady phase, and a declining phase where both the reconnection rate and the energy spectrum decrease. During the steady phase, the energy spectrum exhibits approximately a double power law behavior, with a slope near −5/3 at wave numbers smaller than the inverse ion inertial length and a slope steeper than −8/3 for larger wave numbers up to the inverse electron inertial length. This behavior is consistent with a Kolmogorov energy cascade and implies that laminar reconnection may fundamentally be an energy cascade process. Consistent with this idea is the fact that the reconnection rate exhibits a rough correlation with the energy spectrum at wave numbers near the inverse ion inertial length. The 2D spectrum is strongly anisotropic with most energy associated with the wave vector direction normal to the current sheet. Reconnection acts to isotropize the energy spectrum, reducing the Shebalin angle from an initial value of 70° to about 48° (nearly isotropic) by the end of the simulation. The distribution of energy over length scales is further analyzed by dividing the domain into spatial subregions and employing structure functions.

Adhikari, S. (ORCID:0000000321607066)↗

Modeling of the spray-induced wall stress acting on the ignition assistance device

This research introduces a novel wall-stress model called the Spray-Induced Wall Stress (SIWS) model, which considers the effects of spray-wall impingement and the resulting formation of wall stress within the Lagrangian spray modeling framework. The primary objective of this paper is to provide a mathematical description of the fundamental physics underlying the model. Subsequently, the proposed model is validated using existing experimental data. Here, the remainder of the study focuses on the practical application of the model to an ignition assistance device. Specifically, this device is installed in a compression ignition engine and designed to enhance ignition in aviation-fueled high-altitude aircraft propulsion systems. The research sheds light on the mechanical impulse caused by the high-speed impact of the spray jet, leading to the accumulation of mechanical stress on the rigid body of the ignition assistance device. Previous studies on fluid-structure interaction have only considered the interaction between the gas phase and the solid wall. However, the SIWS model incorporates the additional impact of the impinging liquid spray jet. Consequently, the simulated stress distribution on the ignition assistance device can be estimated by considering both the gas-phase-induced term and the spray-induced term simultaneously.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

THE CLOSE BINARY FRACTION OF DWARF M STARS

We describe a search for close spectroscopic dwarf M star binaries using data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to address the question of the rate of occurrence of multiplicity in M dwarfs. We use a template-fitting technique to measure radial velocities from 145,888 individual spectra obtained for a magnitude-limited sample of 39,543 M dwarfs. Typically, the three or four spectra observed for each star are separated in time by less than four hours, but for {approx}17% of the stars, the individual observations span more than two days. In these cases we are sensitive to large-amplitude radial velocity variations on timescales comparable to the separation between the observations. We use a control sample of objects having observations taken within a four-hour period to make an empirical estimate of the underlying radial velocity error distribution and simulate our detection efficiency for a wide range of binary star systems. We find the frequency of binaries among the dwarf M stars with a < 0.4 AU to be 3%-4%. Comparison with other samples of binary stars demonstrates that the close binary fraction, like the total binary fraction, is an increasing function of primary mass.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

ON THE EFFECTS OF THE EVOLUTION OF MICROBIAL MATS AND LAND PLANTS ON THE EARTH AS A PLANET. PHOTOMETRIC AND SPECTROSCOPIC LIGHT CURVES OF PALEO-EARTHS

Understanding the spectral and photometric variability of the Earth and the rest of the solar system planets has become of utmost importance for the future characterization of rocky exoplanets. As this is not only interesting at present times but also along the planetary evolution, we studied the effect that the evolution of microbial mats and plants over land has had on the way our planet looks from afar. As life evolved, continental surfaces changed gradually and non-uniformly from deserts through microbial mats to land plants, modifying the reflective properties of the ground and most likely the distribution of moisture and cloudiness. Here, we used a radiative transfer model of the Earth, together with geological paleo-records of the continental distribution and a reconstructed cloud distribution, to simulate the visible and near-IR radiation reflected by our planet as a function of Earth's rotation. We found that the evolution from deserts to microbial mats and to land plants produces detectable changes in the globally averaged Earth's reflectance. The variability of each surface type is located in different bands and can induce reflectance changes of up to 40% in period of hours. We conclude that by using photometric observations of an Earth-like planet at different photometric bands it would be possible to discriminate between different surface types. While recent literature proposes the red-edge feature of vegetation near 0.7 {mu}m as a signature for land plants, observations in near-IR bands can be equally or even better suited for this purpose.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Jet emission in young radio sources: A Fermi large area telescope gamma-ray view

We investigate the contribution of the beamed jet component to the high-energy emission in young and compact extragalactic radio sources, focusing for the first time on the γ-ray band. We derive predictions on the γ-ray luminosities associated with the relativistic jet assuming a leptonic radiative model. The high-energy emission is produced via Compton scattering by the relativistic electrons in a spherical region at the considered scales (≲10 kpc). Simulations show a wide range of γ-ray luminosities, with intensities up to ∼10{sup 46}-10{sup 48} erg s{sup –1} depending on the assumed jet parameters. We find a highly linear relation between the simulated X-ray and γ-ray luminosities that can be used to select candidates for γ-ray detection. We compare the simulated luminosity distributions in the radio, X-ray, and γ-ray regimes with observations for the largest sample of X-ray-detected young radio quasars. Our analysis of ∼4-yr Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) data does not yield any statistically significant detections. However, the majority of the model-predicted γ-ray fluxes for the sample are near or below the current Fermi-LAT flux threshold and compatible with the derived upper limits. Our study gives constraints on the minimum jet power (L {sub jet,} {sub kin}/L {sub disk} > 0.01) of a potential jet contribution to the X-ray emission in the most compact sources (≲ 1 kpc) and on the particle-to-magnetic field energy density ratio that are in broad agreement with equipartition assumptions.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Gravitational wave source counts at high redshift and in models with extra dimensions

Gravitational wave (GW) source counts have been recently shown to be able to test how gravitational radiation propagates with the distance from the source. Here, we extend this formalism to cosmological scales, i.e. the high redshift regime, and we discuss the complications of applying this methodology to high redshift sources. We also allow for models with compactified extra dimensions like in the Kaluza-Klein model. Furthermore, we also consider the case of intermediate redshifts, i.e. 0 < z ∼< 1, where we show it is possible to find an analytical approximation for the source counts dN / d ( S / N ). This can be done in terms of cosmological parameters, such as the matter density Ω {sub m} {sub ,0} of the cosmological constant model or the cosmographic parameters for a general dark energy model. Our analysis is as general as possible, but it depends on two important factors: a source model for the black hole binary mergers and the GW source to galaxy bias. This methodology also allows us to obtain the higher order corrections of the source counts in terms of the signal-to-noise S / N . We then forecast the sensitivity of future observations in constraining GW physics but also the underlying cosmology by simulating sources distributed over a finite range of signal-to-noise with a number of sources ranging from 10 to 500 sources as expected from future detectors. We find that with 500 events it will be possible to provide constraints on the matter density parameter at present Ω {sub m} {sub ,0} on the order of a few percent and with the precision growing fast with the number of events. In the case of extra dimensions we find that depending on the degeneracies of the model, with 500 events it may be possible to provide stringent limits on the existence of the extra dimensions if the aforementioned degeneracies can be broken.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Distributed deep reinforcement learning for simulation control

Abstract Several applications in the scientific simulation of physical systems can be formulated as control/optimization problems. The computational models for such systems generally contain hyperparameters, which control solution fidelity and computational expense. The tuning of these parameters is non-trivial and the general approach is to manually ‘spot-check’ for good combinations. This is because optimal hyperparameter configuration search becomes intractable when the parameter space is large and when they may vary dynamically. To address this issue, we present a framework based on deep reinforcement learning (RL) to train a deep neural network agent that controls a model solve by varying parameters dynamically. First, we validate our RL framework for the problem of controlling chaos in chaotic systems by dynamically changing the parameters of the system. Subsequently, we illustrate the capabilities of our framework for accelerating the convergence of a steady-state computational fluid dynamics solver by automatically adjusting the relaxation factors of the discretized Navier–Stokes equations during run-time. The results indicate that the run-time control of the relaxation factors by the learned policy leads to a significant reduction in the number of iterations for convergence compared to the random selection of the relaxation factors. Our results point to potential benefits for learning adaptive hyperparameter learning strategies across different geometries and boundary conditions with implications for reduced computational campaign expenses 4 4 Data and codes available at https://github.com/Romit-Maulik/PAR-RL . .

42 ENGINEERING↗

Cosmological constraints using Minkowski functionals from the first year data of the Hyper Suprime-Cam

We use Minkowski functionals to analyse weak lensing convergence maps from the first-year data release of the Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC-Y1) survey. Minkowski functionals provide a description of the morphological properties of a field, capturing the non-Gaussian features of the Universe matter-density distribution. Using simulated catalogues that reproduce survey conditions and encode cosmological information, we emulate Minkowski functionals predictions across a range of cosmological parameters to derive the best-fit from the data. By applying multiple scales cuts, we rigorously mitigate systematic effects, including baryonic feedback and intrinsic alignments. From the analysis, combining constraints of the angular power spectrum and Minkowski functionals, we obtain S8≡σ8Ωm/0.3=0.808−0.046+0.033 and Ωm=0.293−0.043+0.157⁠. These results represent a 40 per cent improvement on the S8 constraints compared to using power spectrum only. Minkowski functionals results are consistent with other two-point, and higher order statistics constraints using the same data, being in agreement with CMB results from the Planck S8 measurements. Our study demonstrates the power of Minkowski functionals beyond two-point statistics to constrain and break the degeneracy between Ωm and σ8⁠.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Giant clumps in simulated high- z Galaxies: properties, evolution and dependence on feedback

Here, we study the evolution and properties of giant clumps in high- z disc galaxies using adaptive mesh refinement cosmological simulations at redshifts z &sim; 6–1. Our sample consists of 34 galaxies, of halo masses 10 11 –10 12 M⊙ at z = 2, run with and without radiation pressure (RP) feedback from young stars. While RP has little effect on the sizes and global stability of discs, it reduces the amount of star-forming gas by a factor of &sim;2, leading to a similar decrease in stellar mass by z &sim; 2. Both samples undergo extended periods of violent disc instability continuously forming giant clumps of masses 10 7 –10 9 M ⊙ at a similar rate, though RP significantly reduces the number of long-lived clumps (LLCs). When RP is (not) included, clumps with circular velocity ≲ 40 (20) km s -1 , baryonic surface density ≲ 200 (100)M ⊙ pc -2 and baryonic mass ≲ 10 8.2 (10 7.3 ) M ⊙ are short-lived, disrupted in a few free-fall times. More massive and dense clumps survive and migrate towards the disc centre over a few disc orbital times. In the RP simulations, the distribution of clump masses and star formation rates (SFRs) normalized to their host disc is similar at all redshifts, exhibiting a truncated power law with a slope slightly shallower than -2. The specific SFR (sSFR) of the LLCs declines with age as they migrate towards the disc centre, producing gradients in mass, stellar age, gas fraction, sSFR and metallicity that distinguish them from the short-lived clumps which tend to populate the outer disc. Ex situ mergers comprise ~37 percent of the mass in clumps and ~29 percent of the SFR. They are more massive and with older stellar ages than the in situ clumps, especially near the disc edge. Lastly, roughly half the galaxies at redshifts z = 4–1 are clumpy, with ~3–30 percent of their SFR and ~0.1–3 percent of their stellar mass in clumps.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗