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At least 955 records · Page 53

1T MoS 2 nanosheets with extraordinary sodium storage properties via thermal-driven ion intercalation assisted exfoliation of bulky MoS 2

Metallic phase (1T) MoS 2 has attracted enormous attention as an appealing energy storage material for batteries, supercapacitors, and catalysts. However, a facile fabrication method is lacking and the intensive understanding of its sodium storage mechanism is absent. Herein, ultrathin 1T MoS 2 nanosheets (1-2 layers) are directly fabricated via and are investigated as an anode material for sodium-ion batteries. Interestingly, the as-prepared 1T MoS 2 nanosheets demonstrate a high reversible capacity of 450 mAh g -1 at 50 mA g -1 and outstanding cycling stability with a high capacity retention ratio of 94% after 200 cycles at 1 A g -1 , which is far superior to that of the 2H phase counterpart. Density function theory (DFT) calculations show that, in addition to significantly enhanced electronic conductivity, 1T MoS 2 also possesses much more sodium philicity and faster Na atom mobility in comparison with the 2H phase. More importantly, as revealed by ex-situ Raman, in-situ X-ray diffraction, and DFT calculations, the 1T MoS 2 is more capable of suppressing the dissolution of S species from the material structure compared with the 2H phase, leading to excellent cycling stability. Furthermore, the facile and easily scalable method as well as the deep mechanism analysis will provide a very important reference for the development of high-performance MoS 2 anodes and other SIB electrode materials.

1T MoS2↗

Non-linear dynamic characteristics and optimal control of giant magnetostrictive film subjected to in-plane stochastic excitation

The non-linear dynamic characteristics and optimal control of a giant magnetostrictive film (GMF) subjected to in-plane stochastic excitation were studied. Non-linear differential items were introduced to interpret the hysteretic phenomena of the GMF, and the non-linear dynamic model of the GMF subjected to in-plane stochastic excitation was developed. The stochastic stability was analysed, and the probability density function was obtained. The condition of stochastic Hopf bifurcation and noise-induced chaotic response were determined, and the fractal boundary of the system's safe basin was provided. The reliability function was solved from the backward Kolmogorov equation, and an optimal control strategy was proposed in the stochastic dynamic programming method. Numerical simulation shows that the system stability varies with the parameters, and stochastic Hopf bifurcation and chaos appear in the process; the area of the safe basin decreases when the noise intensifies, and the boundary of the safe basin becomes fractal; the system reliability improved through stochastic optimal control. Finally, the theoretical and numerical results were proved by experiments. The results are helpful in the engineering applications of GMF.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

A variational multiscale immersed meshfree method for heterogeneous materials

Abstract We introduce an immersed meshfree formulation for modeling heterogeneous materials with flexible non-body-fitted discretizations, approximations, and quadrature rules. The interfacial compatibility condition is imposed by a volumetric constraint, which avoids a tedious contour integral for complex material geometry. The proposed immersed approach is formulated under a variational multiscale based formulation, termed the variational multiscale immersed method (VMIM). Under this framework, the solution approximation on either the foreground or the background can be decoupled into coarse-scale and fine-scale in the variational equations, where the fine-scale approximation represents a correction to the residual of the coarse-scale equations. The resulting fine-scale solution leads to a residual-based stabilization in the VMIM discrete equations. The employment of reproducing kernel (RK) approximation for the coarse- and fine-scale variables allows arbitrary order of continuity in the approximation, which is particularly advantageous for modeling heterogeneous materials. The effectiveness of VMIM is demonstrated with several numerical examples, showing accuracy, stability, and discretization efficiency of the proposed method.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

An epoxy-reinforced ceramic sheet as a durable solid electrolyte for solid state Na-ion batteries

In a conventional Na-ion battery system using liquid electrolyte, there are critical safety issues due to the instability of the liquid electrolyte. Na 3 Zr 2 Si 2 PO 12 (NASICON) solid electrolyte is a material that is sufficient to replace a liquid electrolyte as it has high ionic conductivity and thermal and electrochemical stability. However, as there is a large interfacial resistance in the NASICON solid electrolyte powder, even when used in combination with a polymer electrolyte, the advantageous effects of ceramics are not easily exhibited. In this study, we propose a top-down method of combining a polymer with a ceramic in which an ion transport channel is previously formed. In this method, a NASICON solid electrolyte is partially sintered to form ion transport channels. Then the NASICON solid electrolyte pores are filled with an epoxy polymer to increase the strength of the epoxy-NASICON composite electrolyte. This method demonstrates the possibility of our composite electrolyte being used as a thin and strong film. As a result of our methods, the ionic conductivity and thermal and electrochemical stability of NASICON were maintained, while the physical strength was enhanced by approximately 2 times. In addition, a capacity of 120 mA h g -1 and stability of 20 cycles were confirmed in a half cell with a Na 3 V 2 (PO 4 ) 3 cathode and Na metal. This method proposes a new direction for research regarding composite electrolytes created using an oxide-based solid electrolyte.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

A Lyapunov Function Based Remedial Action Screening Tool Using Real-Time Data

This report summarizes the outcome of a research project that comprised the development of a Lyapunov function based remedial action screening tool using real-time data (L-RAS). The L-RAS is an advanced computational tool that is intended to assist system operators in making real-time redispatch decisions to preserve power grid stability. The tool relies on screening contingencies using a homotopy method based on Lyapunov functions to avoid, to the extent possible, the use of time domain simulations. This enables transient stability evaluation at real-time speed without the use of massively parallel computational resources. The project combined the following components. 1. Development of a methodology for contingency screening using a homotopy method based on Lyapunov functions and real-time data. 2. Development of a methodology for recommending remedial actions based on the screening results. 3. Development of a visualization and operator interaction interface. 4. Testing of screening tool, validation of control actions, and demonstration of project outcomes on a representative real system simulated on a Real-Time Digital Simulator (RTDS) cluster. The project was led by Michigan State University (MSU), where the theoretical models including homotopy-based screening, trajectory correction using real-time data, and remedial action were developed and implemented in the form of research-grade software. Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) contributed to the development of energy margin sensitivity dynamics, which constituted a part of the remedial action portfolio. Florida State University (FSU) and Southern California Edison (SCE) developed a model of the SCE system that was implemented on FSU's RTDS cluster to simulate real-time data that was streamed over the internet to MSU where the L-RAS tool was executed and remedial actions were communicated back to FSU to execute stabilizing controls on the simulated system. LCG Consulting developed the visualization and operator interaction interface, based on specifications provided by MSU. The project was performed from October 2012 to December 2016, at the end of which the L-RAS tool, as described above, was completed and demonstrated. The project resulted in the following innovations and contributions: (a) the L-RAS software prototype, tested on a simulated system, vetted by utility personnel, and potentially ready for wider testing and commercialization; (b) an RTDS-based test bed that can be used for future research in the field; (c) a suite of breakthrough theoretical contributions to the field of power system stability and control; and (d) a new tool for visualization of power system stability margins. While detailed descriptions of the development and implementation of the various project components have been provided in the quarterly reports, this final report provides an overview of the complete project, and is demonstrated using public domain test systems commonly used in the literature. The SCE system, and demonstrations thereon, are not included in this report due to Critical Energy Infrastructure Information (CEII) restrictions.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Stability-preserving Lossy Compression for Large-scale Partial Differential Equations

Checkpoint/Restart (C/R) strategies are vital for fault tolerance in PDE-based scientific simulations, yet traditional checkpointing incurs significant I/O overhead. Lossy compression offers a scalable solution by reducing checkpoint data size, but conventional methods often lack control over physical invariants (e.g., energy), leading to instability such as oscillations or divergence in Partial Differential Equations (PDE) systems. This paper introduces a stability-preserving compression approach tailored for PDE simulations by explicitly controlling kinetic and potential energy perturbations to ensure stable restarts. Extensive experiments conducted across diverse PDE configurations demonstrate that our method maintains numerical stability with minimal error magnification—even across multiple checkpoint-restart cycles—outperforming state-of-the-art lossy compressors. Parallel evaluations on the Frontier supercomputer show up to 8.4× improvement in checkpoint write performance and 6.3× in read performance, while maintaining relative L2 errors ∼ 2e-6 throughout continued simulation. These results provide practical guidance for balancing compression accuracy, stability, and computational efficiency in large-scale PDE applications.

Gong, Qian [ORNL] (ORCID:0000000235704142)↗

Hybrid data-driven cement-stabilized soil design: An integration of machine learning, multi-objective optimization, and life cycle assessment

Soil stabilization is crucial in geotechnical engineering, yet conventional methods are often time-consuming, resource-intensive, and environmentally unsustainable. Despite growing interest in Machine Learning (ML) and optimization tools for mix design, few studies integrate these methods with decision-making techniques and environmental assessment to support practical implementation. This study proposes a hybrid data-driven framework for predicting strength, optimizing mix compositions, and evaluating environmental impacts via life cycle assessment of cement-stabilized soft soils. Six ML models were evaluated, and the top-performing eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGB) model was further improved using the Grey Wolf Optimizer (GWO). The optimized XGB-GWO model, integrated with a polynomial cost function, served as the objective function in a multi-objective optimization problem solved via the Non-Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II), with final mix selection guided by the entropy-weighted TOPSIS method. Validation through a case study produced mix designs offering superior strength-cost trade-offs, with the optimal mix achieving 2243.2 kPa unconfined compressive strength and a 16.07 % reduction in carbon emissions compared to the highest-cost design. In conclusion, this study offers a sustainable, scalable approach to soil stabilization and supports informed decision-making in construction.

Life cycle assessment↗

Thermal Stability of Fractionated Bio-Oil from Fast Pyrolysis

A method was developed to simulate the rapid heating bio-oil fractions will undergo if upgraded using conventional petroleum refining processes. Bio-oil fractions were produced via fluidized bed fast pyrolysis of southern yellow pine sawmill residue. Thermal processing of the bio-oil fractions was evaluated at three temperatures (100, 200, and 300 °C) and two heating times (60 and 120 s). Thermal stability was defined as the increase in average relative molecular weight (RMW) of bio-oil samples after thermal treatment. The effect of moisture content and total acid number (TAN) on thermal stability was also investigated. Changes in chemical structures were observed via Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Bio-oil fractions exhibited considerable instability at temperatures above 100 °C with substantial increases in average RMW for both 60 and 120 s heating times. Finally, the initial concentration of acids, as measured by TAN and ion chromatography (IC), was found to be the strongest predictor of thermal instability.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗

Reliability, stability during long-term storage, and intra-individual variation of circulating levels of osteopontin, osteoprotegerin, vascular endothelial growth factor-A, and interleukin-17A

Background: Studies in many populations have reported associations between circulating cytokine levels and various physiological or pathological conditions. However, the reliability of cytokine measurements in population studies, which measure cytokines in multiple assays over a prolonged period, has not been adequately examined; nor has stability during sample storage or intra-individual variation been assessed. Methods: We assessed (1) analytical reliability in short- and long-term repeated measurements; (2) stability and analytical reliability during long-term sample storage, and (3) variability within individuals over seasons, of four cytokines—osteopontin (OPN), osteoprotegerin (OPG), vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGF-A), and interleukin-17A (IL-17A). Measurements in plasma or serum samples were made with commercial kits according to standard procedures. Estimation was performed by fitting a random or mixed effects linear model on the log scale. Results: In repeated assays over a short period, OPN, OPG, and VEGF-A had acceptable reliability, with intra- and inter-assay coefficients of variation (CV) less than 0.11. Reliability of IL-17A was poor, with inter- and intra-assay CV 0.85 and 0.43, respectively. During long-term storage, OPG significantly decayed (-33% per year; 95% confidence interval [-54, -3.7]), but not OPN or VEGF-A (-0.3% or -6.3% per year, respectively). Intra- and inter-assay CV over a long period were comparable to that in a short period except for a slight increase in inter-assay CV of VEGF-A. Within-individual variation was small for OPN and VEGF-A, with intra-class correlations (ICC) 0.68 and 0.83, respectively, but large for OPG (ICC 0.11). Conclusions: We conclude that OPN and VEGF-A can be reliably measured in a large population, that IL-17A is suitable only for small experiments, and that OPG should be assessed with caution due to degradation during storage and intra-individual variation. The overall results of our study illustrate the need for validation under relevant conditions when measuring circulating cytokines in population studies.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Analytically differentiable metrics for phase stability

Here, in this work, a long-established but sparsely documented method of obtaining semi-analytic derivatives of thermodynamic properties with respect to equilibrium conditions is briefly reviewed and rigorously derived. This procedure is then leveraged to construct general forms of derivatives of the residual driving force, a metric for measuring phase stability used in CALPHAD model optimization, with respect to overall system and individual phase compositions. Applied examples – calculating heat capacity in the Al-Fe system, thermodynamic factors in the Nb-V-W system, and residual driving force derivatives in the Ni-Ti system – demonstrate the versatility, accuracy, and extensibility of this method. Using the developed method, residual driving force gradients can be applied directly in CALPHAD model optimizers, as well as in materials design frameworks, to identify regions of phase stability with an efficient, gradient-based approach.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Realizability-preserving discontinuous Galerkin method for spectral two-moment radiation transport in special relativity

Here we present a realizability-preserving numerical method for solving a spectral two-moment model to simulate the transport of massless, neutral particles interacting with a steady background material moving with relativistic velocities. The model is obtained as the special relativistic limit of a four-momentum-conservative general relativistic two-moment model. Using a maximum-entropy closure, we solve for the Eulerian-frame energy and momentum. The proposed numerical method is designed to preserve moment realizability, which corresponds to moments defined by a nonnegative phase-space density. The realizability-preserving method is achieved with the following key components: (i) a discontinuous Galerkin phase-space discretization with specially constructed numerical fluxes in the spatial and energy dimensions; (ii) a strong stability-preserving implicit-explicit time-integration method; (iii) a realizability-preserving conserved to primitive moment solver; (iv) a realizability-preserving implicit collision solver; and (v) a realizability-enforcing limiter. Component (iii) is necessitated by the closure procedure, which closes higher order moments nonlinearly in terms of primitive moments. The nonlinear conserved to primitive and the implicit collision solves are formulated as fixed-point problems, which are solved with custom iterative solvers designed to preserve the realizability of each iterate. With a series of numerical tests, we demonstrate the accuracy and robustness of this discontinuous-Galerkin-implicit-explicit method.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Using surface segregation to design stable Ru-Ir oxides for the oxygen evolution reaction in acidic environments.

The methods used to improve catalytic activity are well-established, however elucidating the factors that simultaneously control activity and stability is still lacking, especially for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts. Here, by studying fundamental links between the activity and stability of well-characterized monometallic and bimetallic oxides, we found that there is generally an inverse relationship between activity and stability. To overcome this limitation, we developed a new synthesis strategy that is based on tuning the near-surface composition of Ru and Ir elements by surface segregation, thereby resulting in the formation of a nanosegregated domain that balances the stability and activity of surface atoms. We demonstrate that a Ru0.5Ir0.5 alloy synthesized by using this method exhibits four-times higher stability than the best Ru-Ir oxygen evolution reaction materials, while still preserving the same activity.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Gradient-Descent-Based Learning Gain for Backstepping Controller and Disturbance Observer of Nonlinear Systems

This paper proposes a gradient-descent-based learning (GL) gain for backstepping controller and disturbance observer (DOB) of nonlinear system. The proposed method consists of the GL gain update law, controller, and DOB. The GL gain update law is proposed to adapt the control gain and DOB gain according to the direction that minimizes the cost function. The mathematical analysis reveals that the GL gain always has a positive sign and upper bound. The controller is designed via a backstepping procedure to track the desired output with GL control gain. The DOB is designed to estimate the unknown external disturbance with the GL DOB gain. Because the control and DOB gains are simultaneously tuned to achieve improved performance, the time consumption for tuning can be reduced. In addition, the peaking phenomenon can be avoided initially by a small initial value of GL gains. The stability of the closed-loop system is guaranteed using the input-to-state stability property. The performance of the proposed method was validated via simulations and experiments using a DC motor.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Probing the Effectiveness in Stabilizing Lithium Metal Anodes through Functional Additives

A variety of electrolyte additives were comprehensively evaluated to understand their relative capability in stabilizing lithium metal anode. Although the Li||Cu test is an effective test to rule out ineffective additives, a reliable assessment of individual additives cannot be obtained just by a single evaluation method. Therefore, various methods must be combined to truly assess the stabilization of a lithium anode. Moreover, it was also discovered that a significant depletion of electrolytes occurred during the end-of-life of the lithium batteries, which partially contributed to the sudden failure of the lithium batteries during cycling. However, the main culprit of the sudden failure was identified as the significant increase in the resistance of the lithium metal anode. Further, when used as an additive, cyclic fluorinated carbonates are the most effective in stabilizing the lithium anode and improving the cycling performance of lithium batteries among all the common additives. Despite its cost-effectiveness, the additive in the conventional electrolyte approach provides insufficient protection for lithium metal due to the complete consumption of the additive materials, which is necessary to repair the solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI). Therefore, it is suggested that a larger ratio (>15 wt %) of the SEI former should be employed to achieve effective lithium stabilization.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Spectrum and Stabilization in Hyperbolic Problems

We study the connection between the stabilization of solutions of a mixed hyperbolic problem and spectral properties of the corresponding elliptic boundary value problem. We consider the first mixed problem for the wave equation in bounded and unbounded domains in ℝ{sup n}, determine the class of its energy solutions, and represent the solutions in terms of the Bochner–Stieltjes integral. We study how the spectrum of the elliptic operator affects the behavior of local energy of a solution and describe a method which allows us to study the stabilization of solutions with the help of estimates in the spectral parameter for solutions of the stationary problem on the upper half-plane.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Passivity-Based Control of Grid Forming and Grid Following Converters in Microgrids

With the integration of more and more power electronics devices into the grid, it is not easy to guarantee the stability of the whole system due to the complexity of the control structure of various power converters. In this paper, we consider grid-forming and grid-following converters in one microgrid, in which the grid-forming converters support the voltage and frequency of the microgrid and the grid-following converters inject their maximum power into the microgrid. To handle the stability issue, the passivity principle is applied to guarantee the stability of the whole microgrid. We ensure every grid-following converter satisfies the passivity via the port-controlled Hamiltonian method. In addition, we apply the passivity-based proportional-resonant controller to the grid-forming converter. One of the advantages of the proposed method is that the phase lock loop system is eliminated, which may cause stability issues. Simulation results show that the proposed method can control the microgrid effectively.

Gui, Yonghao (Young)↗

Assessing the numerical stability of physics models to equilibrium variation through database comparisons on DIII-D

High fidelity kinetic equilibria are crucial for tokamak modeling and analysis. Manual workflows for constructing kinetic equilibria are time consuming and subject to user error, motivating development of automated equilibrium reconstruction tools to provide accurate and consistent reconstructions for downstream physics analysis. These automated tools also provide access to kinetic equilibria at large database scales, which enables the quantification of general uncertainties arising from equilibrium reconstruction techniques. In this paper, we compare a large database of DIII-D kinetic equilibria generated manually by physics experts to equilibria from automated kinetic reconstruction tools, assessing the impact of reconstruction method on equilibrium parameters and resulting magnetohydrodynamic stability calculations. We find agreement among scalar parameters, whereas profile quantities, such as the bootstrap current, show larger disagreements. We analyze ideal kink and classical tearing stability with DCON and STRIDE respectively, finding that the kink stability calculation is generally more robust than the tearing index Δ' calculation. We find that in 90% of cases, both kink stability classifications are unchanged between the manual expert and automated kinetic equilibria.

CAKE↗

Lagrangian particle method for compressible fluid dynamics

A new Lagrangian particle method for solving Euler equations for compressible inviscid fluid or gas flows is proposed. Similar to smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH), the method represents fluid cells with Lagrangian particles and is suitable for the simulation of complex free surface / multi-phase flows. The main contributions of our method, which is different from SPH in all other aspects, are (a) significant improvement of approximation of differential operators based on a polynomial fit via weighted least squares approximation and the convergence of prescribed order, (b) a second-order particle-based algorithm that reduces to the first-order upwind method at local extremal points, providing accuracy and long term stability, and (c) more accurate resolution of entropy discontinuities and states at free inter-faces. While the method is consistent and convergent to a prescribed order, the conservation of momentum and energy is not exact and depends on the convergence order . The method is generalizable to coupled hyperbolic-elliptic systems. As a result, numerical verification tests demonstrating the convergence order are presented as well as examples of complex multiphase flows.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗