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At least 109 records · Page 6

Oregon Roadway CSZ Liquefaction and Landslide Impact Screening Analysis

The roadway transportation routes and the surrounding environments in Oregon will be subject to ground acceleration and potential associated deformation due to the propagation of waves of energy during a Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ) earthquake. Linear features such as highways may be subject to partial or complete disruption of their function resulting from ground deformations at and along the roadway. A potential source of these disruptions associated with a CSZ event are landslides and liquefaction in the soils along and beneath the highways and local roadways. The construction of the Oregon roadway system and urban development have occurred largely along the banks of the rivers—those along the Pacific coast, and along the valleys throughout the Oregon Coast Range and Cascade Mountains. These locations also represent areas where landslides and liquefaction have occurred historically, or may potentially occur in the future, presenting a significant vulnerability for the roadway system and dependent post-CSZ earthquake emergency response and recovery effort. Many of the Oregon areas with landslide- and liquefaction-prone soils have the potential to impact roadway transportation routes after a major earthquake causing delays in establishing routes to transport emergency response personnel and resources to impacted areas and communities. This report presents methods used to project the impacts that CSZ earthquake-induced landslides and liquefaction may have on roadways across Oregon. First, this report presents an approach for estimating the risk of landslides to Oregon roadways, and determining approximate reopening times. Second, this report presents a similar approach for estimating the risk of liquefaction-induced ground displacements to roadway pavements, also resulting in approximate reopening times for roadway segments. The outcomes of these two ground failure analyses serve as inputs to a broader analysis of CSZ earthquake impacts to Oregon’s surface transportation system and its ability to support post-disaster response and recovery activities, as part of the Oregon Transportation Systems Regional Resiliency Assessment Program project (CISA 2021).

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

An Evolve-Then-Correct Reduced Order Model for Hidden Fluid Dynamics

In this paper, we put forth an evolve-then-correct reduced order modeling approach that combines intrusive and nonintrusive models to take hidden physical processes into account. Specifically, we split the underlying dynamics into known and unknown components. In the known part, we first utilize an intrusive Galerkin method projected on a set of basis functions obtained by proper orthogonal decomposition. We then present two variants of correction formula based on the assumption that the observed data are a manifestation of all relevant processes. The first method uses a standard least-squares regression with a quadratic approximation and requires solving a rank-deficient linear system, while the second approach employs a recurrent neural network emulator to account for the correction term. We further enhance our approach by using an orthonormality conforming basis interpolation approach on a Grassmannian manifold to address off-design conditions. The proposed framework is illustrated here with the application of two-dimensional co-rotating vortex simulations under modeling uncertainty. The results demonstrate highly accurate predictions underlining the effectiveness of the evolve-then-correct approach toward real-time simulations, where the full process model is not known a priori.

long short-term memory↗

Beam–beam effects and mitigation in a future proton–proton collider

The beam–beam effects in a hadron collider with an unprecedented energy scale were studied. These effects are strongly related to the attainable luminosity of the collider. Long-range interactions were identified as the major factor limiting the dynamic aperture, which is strongly dependent on the crossing angle, β*, and bunch population. Different mitigation methods of the beam–beam effects were addressed, with a focus on the compensation of long-range interactions by electric current wires. The CEPC-SPPC project is a two-stage large circular collider, with a first-stage circular electron–positron collider (CEPC) and a second-stage super proton–proton collider (SPPC). The design of the SPPC aims to achieve a center-of-mass energy of 75 TeV and peak luminosity of approximately 1 × 10$^{35}$ cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$. We studied the beam–beam effects in the SPPC and tested the effectiveness of the mitigation methods. We found that with compensation using electric current wires, the dynamic aperture is at an acceptable level. Moreover, considering the significant emittance damping in this future proton–proton collider, the beam–beam effects and compensation are more complicated and are studied using long-term tracking. It was found that with a smaller emittance, the head-on interactions with a crossing angle become more prominent in reducing the beam stability, and combined head-on and long-range compensation is needed to improve the beam quality. When the reduction in population owing to burn-off was included, it was found that the coupling between the transverse and longitudinal planes at smaller emittance is the main driving source of the instabilities. Thus, crab cavities and emittance control are also necessary than just the compensation of the long-range interactions to improve the beam stability. This study serves as an example for studying the beam–beam effects in future proton–proton colliders.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

LA17-V-InverseRadTransportProblem-PD2Kb. Final Project Report

In the inverse radiation transport problem, a radiation signal emanating from an unknown object is used to reconstruct geometric and material parameters of the object , e.g., the mass of special nuclear material (SNM), the isotopic composition of the SNM (e.g., the enrichment of 235U), the thickness of shielding, etc. The inverse radiation transport problem is one of the most fundamental and important in the emergency response mission, and has been addressed in previous NA-22 and NA-42/84 investments by using derivative-free optimization methods. Our project was aimed at (i) consolidating previous work by applying polynomial chaos expansion (PCE) for reducing significantly the number of forward model simulations required by derivative-free optimization methods; (ii) developing a general-purpose framework and stand-alone software for solving the inverse radiation transport problem by applying a new “predictive modeling” methodology (predictive modeling of coupled multi-physics systems, PM_CMPS) which enables the fusing of experimental and computational information; and (iii) developing several benchmarks (for unscattered gamma rays) for demonstrating the quantification of non-Gaussian features (e.g., skewness and kurtosis, which characterize asymmetries and long tails) of response distributions by deterministically and efficiently propagating parameter uncertainties (covariances and higher-order moments, where available) using high-order sensitivities computed by the recently developed comprehensive adjoint sensitivity analysis methodology (C-ASAM). With regard to (i), application of PCE, the most significant accomplishment of this project was an implementation of PCE into INVERSE that significantly reduced computation time for the DiffeRential Evolution Adaptive Metropolis (DREAM) and Differential Evolution (DE) methods. For inverse transport problems with measurements of neutron leakage, neutron multiplication, and neutron-induced gamma-rays, the solution times for the DREAM and DE methods were reduced by factors of 30-300, reducing run times from hours to minutes while maintaining the same accuracy as the standard (non-PCE) DREAM and DE. Speedups were further improved by exploring sparse grid quadrature sets using the Toolkit for Adaptive Stochastic Modeling and Non-Intrusive ApproximatioN (Tasmanian) toolset. An initial exploration of sparse grids indicated that further speedups factors of 5-10 are obtainable. The implementation of PCE in INVERSE is not in a form that users can easily access. With regard to (ii), solving the inverse problem using a predictive modeling paradigm, the most significant accomplishment of this project were the derivation and implementation of adjoint-based second derivatives in neutron and photon transport theory. There are two codes that compute these derivatives. SENSPG computes them for uncollided gamma rays and SENSMG computes them for neutron leakage. SENSMG is open-source code available on github. Other significant accomplishments included a stand-alone code, MULTI-PRED, that implements the predictive modeling paradigm, along with a detailed manual. The code was implemented in the existing INVERSE code for inverse problems, but a head-to-head comparison of inverse methods was not achieved. We also derived and implemented the capability to compute sensitivities for multiplicity measurements into the SENSMG code, and this capability was used in a data assimilation application, but it was not used for solving inverse problems. With regard to (iii), developing benchmarks to demonstrate the importance of high-order sensitivity and uncertainty analysis, the most significant accomplishment of this project were two test problems that showed how important second-order sensitivities are.

07 ISOTOPE AND RADIATION SOURCES↗

A review of low-rank methods for time-dependent kinetic simulations

Time-dependent kinetic models are ubiquitous in computational science and engineering. The underlying integro-differential equations in these models are high-dimensional, comprised of a six–dimensional phase space, making simulations of such phenomena extremely expensive. In this article we demonstrate that in many situations, the solution to kinetics problems lives on a low dimensional manifold that can be described by a low-rank matrix or tensor approximation. We then review the recent development of so-called low-rank methods that evolve the solution on this manifold. The two classes of methods we review are the dynamical low-rank (DLR) method, which derives differential equations for the low-rank factors, and a Step-and-Truncate (SAT) approach, which projects the solution onto the low-rank representation after each time step. Thorough discussions of time integrators, tensor decompositions, and method properties such as structure preservation and computational efficiency are included. We further show examples of low-rank methods as applied to particle transport and plasma dynamics.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Neutral pion reconstruction using machine learning in the experiment at 〈E ν〉 6 GeV

This paper presents a novel neutral-pion reconstruction that takes advantage of the machine learning technique of semantic segmentation using MINERvA data collected between 2013–2017, with an average neutrino energy of 6 GeV. Semantic segmentation improves the purity of neutral pion reconstruction from two γs from 70.7 ± 0.9% to 89.3 ± 0.7% and improves the efficiency of the reconstruction by approximately 40%. We demonstrate our method in a charged current neutral pion production analysis where a single neutral pion is reconstructed. This technique is applicable to modern tracking calorimeters, such as the new generation of liquid-argon time projection chambers, exposed to neutrino beams with 〈E ν〉 between 1–10 GeV. In such experiments it can facilitate the identification of ionization hits which are associated with electromagnetic showers, thereby enabling improved reconstruction of charged-current νe events arising from νμ → νe appearance.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Advanced Methods for Immersed Domain Multi-physics Computations

This is the final report on the project, and describes the main accomplishments in the development of the Shifted Boundary Method (SBM), a new computational framework for embedded/immersed computational mechanics applications.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Self-Assembling Cell-Free Systems for Scalable Bioconversion

This project focused on developing cell-free systems to directly express multi-enzyme catalysts and perform CO2 bioconversions for industrial chemical production. The use of cell-free expression (CFE) systems derived from bacterial lysates is emerging as a promising approach for biomanufacturing. CFEs are genetically programmable, permit the expression of toxic enzymes, and allow for rapid prototyping of metabolic pathways. Research Contributions: 1. Understanding the Area Investigated: This research advances the understanding of cell-free systems by demonstrating their capability to perform complex multi-enzyme reactions. By directly expressing multi-gene systems, CFEs avoid the high costs and inefficiencies associated with producing and purifying enzymes for multi-step pathways. 2. Technical Effectiveness and Economic Feasibility: The project successfully engineered a CFE-based multienzyme biocatalyst for the de novo synthesis of serine and glycine from CO2 equivalents (formate and bicarbonate) and ammonia. This method achieved a 30% conversion rate of formate into these industrially important amino acids. Additionally, an 8-gene CFE biocatalyst was developed to produce malate, conserving 43% of carbon that would otherwise be lost as CO2. This approach has the potential to reach higher carbon efficiency than microbial production. 3. Public Benefit: The cell-free production of chemicals like serine, glycine, and malate using electrochemically generated formate could significantly reduce CO2 emissions. For example, satisfying the global malate market with this method could avoid approximately 400,000 tons of CO2 emissions annually. This work demonstrates the potential of CFE systems to produce platform chemicals, contributing to environmental sustainability and reducing reliance on petrochemicals. Future Prospects: The CFE-based biocatalyst process could be extended to produce a variety of chemicals, including other industrial di-acids, aromatics, terpenes, alcohols, and polymers. This project showcases the capabilities of cell-free expression systems for prototyping carbon-conserving pathways and sustainably bioproducing platform chemicals, marking a significant step towards economically-viable industrial processes.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Simultaneous Celestial Navigation

GPS technology is used in a multitude of applications around the world for navigation. However, GPS can be contested or denied and thus alternatives to GPS are needed for positioning in high-consequence systems. This project investigates a non-RF based method to produce an estimated geolocation using stellar/celestial measurements in combination with measurements from inclinometers and a real time clock. The initial iteration of this method, developed in FY20/21, achieved an estimated location accuracy within approximately 3 kilometers of the true location with a 3-sigma bound of about 8 kilometers. The next iteration aims to enhance this technology further, targeting an estimation accuracy within 100 meters of the true location, representing a 30-fold improvement over the initial method.

42 ENGINEERING↗

An efficient method to integrate polynomials over polytopes and curved solids

Here in this paper, we present an efficient approach to compute the integral of monomials and polynomials over polyhedra and regions defined by parametric curved boundary surfaces. We use Euler's theorem for homogeneous functions in combination with Stokes's theorem to reduce the integration of a monomial over a three-dimensional solid to its boundary. If the solid is a polytope, through a recursive application of these theorems, the integral is further reduced to just the evaluation of the monomial and its derivatives at the vertices of the polytope. The present approach is simpler than existing techniques that rely on repeated use of the divergence theorem, which require the antiderivative of the monomials and the projection of these functions onto hyperplanes. For convex and nonconvex polytopes, our approach does not introduce any approximation for the integration of monomials. For curved solid regions bounded by surfaces that admit a parameterization, the same approach yields simplified formulas to compute the integral of any homogeneous function, including monomials. For surfaces parameterized by polynomial surfaces (such as Bezier surface triangles and B-spline patches), the method yields machine-precision accuracy for the volumetric integration of monomials with an appropriate quadrature rule. Numerical examples over regions bounded by polynomial surfaces and rational surfaces are presented to establish the accuracy and efficiency of the method.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Separations Consortium: Counter Current Chromatography

In support of the Bioenergy Technologies Office in recovering coproducts in biorefineries this project evaluates the use of Counter Current Chromatography (CCC) in recovering co-products from Reductive Catalytic Fractionation (RCF) oil, Alkaline Pretreatment Liquor (APL), aqueous phase Hydrothermal Liquefaction (HTL) oil, and Catalytic Fast Pyrolysis (CFP) oil. The project addresses three technology barriers in developing the bioeconomy; (1) Cost of production (2) Selective separation of organic acid species, and (3) Advanced bioprocess development. CCC is a unique, scalable, chromatographic technology that operates with two immiscible liquid phases moving counter current to one another. Unlike Simulated Moving Bed (SMB) technology, CCC is a true moving bed and because it uses liquids as both the stationary and mobile phase it can handle solids directly in the feed. This aspect of CCC allows it to skip the expensive filtration step needed prior to traditional SMB, furthermore the liquid phases are composed on relatively inexpensive organics (e.g. hexane and ethyl acetate). This project develops CCC methods for direct isolation of co-products from RCF oil, APL, HTL aqueous, and CFP oil. TechnoEconomic Analysis and process modeling is presented to compare CCC to SMB and assess its applicability in a holistic biorefinery. Initial results indicate approximately 4x reductions in solvent demand and 2x reduction in energy consumption compared to SMB.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

LBNF CMGC Delivery Method: ICE Process

The Construction Manager/General Contractor (CM/GC) delivery method is intended to benefit the design process, value engineering, risk mitigation, and schedule optimization while promoting construction and design innovation. This delivery method is particularly suited for complex projects that require significant consideration of contractor means and methods. Fermilab’s Far Site Conventional Facilities proceeded with a CM/GC delivery method to account for the unique conditions of excavating over 300,000 cubic yards of rock in tunnels and caverns that will be constructed approximately 5000-ft deep in the repurposed Homestake Mine in Lead, SD. The experiences of the Independent Cost Estimating (ICE) process are presented.

Pelletier, Douglas↗

Port Hope Area Initiative - Port Granby Project: Managing Highly Heterogeneous Low-Level Radioactive Waste - 20327

The Port Granby Project is a large remediation project currently approximately 95% complete. Initial waste characterization was provided through a borehole sampling program. As the waste was excavated, it was found to be highly heterogeneous, ranging from essentially 'clean' material to hundreds of Bq/g. This heterogeneity resulted in constantly changing site conditions. Methods to adapt to these conditions are described. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

Low-energy enhancement of the magnetic dipole radiation in odd-mass lanthanides

We compute the magnetic dipole (M1) $\gamma$-ray strength functions ($\gamma$SF) for the odd-mass lanthanides $^{\textrm{143-151}}$Nd and $^{\textrm{147-153}}$Sm using the shell-model Monte Carlo method in combination with the static-path approximation and the maximum-entropy method. In particular, we quantify the statistical uncertainties in the calculated M1 $\gamma$SFs and show that they are under control for the excitation energies relevant to the experiments despite a Monte Carlo sign problem that originates in the projection onto an odd number of neutrons. We identify a low-energy enhancement (LEE) in the M1 $\gamma$SFs of these odd-mass lanthanides, which was recently observed experimentally in some of them. We also find a scissors mode resonance (SR) in the strongly deformed isotopes. We observe that the decrease in the LEE strength with neutron number along an isotopic chain is compensated for by an increase in the SR strength in the deformed nuclei. Furthermore, we compare our results with recent experiments.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Joint iterative reconstruction and 3D rigid alignment for X-ray tomography

X-ray tomography is widely used for three-dimensional structure determination in many areas of science, from the millimeter to the nanometer scale. The resolution and quality of the 3D reconstruction is limited by the availability of alignment parameters that correct for the mechanical shifts of the sample or sample stage for the images that constitute a scan. In this paper we describe an algorithm for marker-free, fully automated and accurately aligned and reconstructed X-ray tomography data. Our approach solves the tomographic reconstruction jointly with projection data alignment based on a rigid-body deformation model. We demonstrate the robustness of our method on both synthetic phantom and experimental data and show that our method is highly efficient in recovering relatively large alignment errors without prior knowledge of a low resolution approximation of the 3D structure or a reasonable estimate of alignment parameters.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Bench Scale Testing of Next Generation Hollow Fiber Membrane Modules

This project seeks to develop a next generation membrane material (PI-2) for application in Air Liquide’s (AL) hybrid process. Combining the cold membrane operation with an integrated CO 2 Compression and Purification Unit (CPU) significantly reduces the overall cost of CO 2 capture. The proposed work will accelerate the membrane bundle fabrication, scale-up and performance validation of this new material. The proposed novel membrane development, combined with the results of the previous Cold Membrane Project, will provide the best opportunity for AL to meet the long term development targets of the DOE with respect to timing, cost, and performance for CO 2 capture. Our previous field test program (DE-FE0013163) showed promising results for the hybrid process utilizing the existing commercial AL membrane bundles (PI-1 material). The project work has also shown the potential for significant improvements through initial laboratory tests with the novel material (PI-2). The initial PI-2 results show a step-change in membrane permeance. This will enable further reduction in the cost of CO 2 capture by reducing the number of membrane modules and associated equipment in the system. In order to capture this value, however, the new material needs to be validated by field testing of large bundles, representative of commercial production. Lastly, a comprehensive evaluation of novel hybrid processes and costs needs to be completed to ensure optimal use of this improved material performance. The current project seeks to develop this next generation membrane to TRL 5 (approximately 600 - 1,000 Nm3/h flue gas, 350 - 600 scfm, 0.2 - 0.3 MWe equivalent). Air Liquide manufacturing methodology will be applied to fabricate prototype (4”) membrane modules from PI-2 material. Once the manufacturing methods prove reliable with the new material, and performance is demonstrated in line with expectation, 6” commercial scale bundles will be fabricated. Recognizing that a low cost membrane solution by itself may not meet DOE’s LCOE target for CO 2 capture, we will also perform simulation studies of novel hybrid processes in combination with the next generation membrane technology. This approach has the best potential for exceeding the DOE targets. The best evaluation of the new commercial units will be performance testing under real flue gas at the NCCC. Finally, a rigorous TEA, which incorporates the novel process studies and field performance, will be completed.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Regression Based Approach for Robust Finite Element Analysis on Arbitrary Grids. LDRD Final Report

This report summarizes the work performed under a one-year LDRD project aiming to enable accurate and robust numerical simulation of partial differential equations for meshes that are of poor quality. Traditional finite element methods use the mesh to both discretize the geometric domain and to define the finite element shape functions. The latter creates a dependence between the quality of the mesh and the properties of the finite element basis that may adversely affect the accuracy of the discretized problem. In this project, we propose a new approach for defining finite element shape functions that breaks this dependence and separates mesh quality from the discretization quality. At the core of the approach is a meshless definition of the shape functions, which limits the purpose of the mesh to representing the geometric domain and integrating the basis functions without having any role in their approximation quality. The resulting non-conforming space can be utilized within a standard discontinuous Galerkin framework providing a rigorous foundation for solving partial differential equations on low-quality meshes. We present a collection of numerical experiments demonstrating our approach in a wide range of settings: strongly coercive elliptic problems, linear elasticity in the compressible regime, and the stationary Stokes problem. We demonstrate convergence for all problems and stability for element pairs for problems which usually require inf-sup compatibility for conforming methods, also referring to a minor modification possible through the symmetric interior penalty Galerkin framework for stabilizing element pairs that would otherwise be traditionally unstable. Mesh robustness is particularly critical for elasticity, and we provide an example that our approach provides a greater than 5x improvement in accuracy and allows for taking an 8x larger stable timestep for a highly deformed mesh, compared to the continuous Galerkin finite element method. The report concludes with a brief summary of ongoing projects and collaborations that utilize or extend the products of this work.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Detection of open cluster rotation fields from Gaia EDR3 proper motions

Context: Most stars from in groups which with time disperse, building the field population of their host galaxy. In the Milky Way, open clusters have been continuously forming in the disk up to the present time, providing it with stars spanning a broad range of ages and masses. Observations of the details of cluster dissolution are, however, scarce. One of the main difficulties is obtaining a detailed characterisation of the internal cluster kinematics, which requires very high-quality proper motions. For open clusters, which are typically loose groups with tens to hundreds of members, there is the additional difficulty of inferring kinematic structures from sparse and irregular distributions of stars. Aims: Here, we aim to analyse internal stellar kinematics of open clusters, and identify rotation, expansion, or contraction patterns. Methods: We use Gaia Early Data Release 3 (EDR3) astrometry and integrated nested Laplace approximations to perform vector-field inference and create spatio-kinematic maps of 1237 open clusters. The sample is composed of clusters for which individual stellar memberships were already known, thus minimising contamination from field stars in the velocity maps. Projection effects were corrected using EDR3 data complemented with radial velocities from Gaia Data Release 2 and other surveys. Results: We report the detection of rotation patterns in eight open clusters. Nine additional clusters display possible rotation signs. We also observe 14 expanding clusters, with 15 other objects showing possible expansion patterns. Contraction is evident in two clusters, with one additional cluster presenting a more uncertain detection. In total, 53 clusters are found to display kinematic structures. Within these, elongated spatial distributions suggesting tidal tails are found in five clusters. These results indicate that the approach developed here can recover kinematic patterns from noisy vector fields, as those from astrometric measurements of open clusters or other stellar or galactic populations, thus offering a powerful probe for exploring the internal kinematics and dynamics of these types of objects.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗