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At least 127 records · Page 7

Adaptive, Active Learning, and Multifidelity Monte Carlo Methods in the MOOSE Stochastic Tools Module

MOOSE is an open-source computational platform for constructing multi-physics models and executing them in a massively parallel fashion. It has a stochastic tools module (STM) for forward/inverse uncertainty quantification (UQ) and surrogate modeling. This presentation details some recent developments to the STM with respect to the implementation of adaptive, active learning, and multifidelity Monte Carlo methods for forward UQ of computational models. Specifically, the adaptive Monte Carlo methods include Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC)-driven algorithms like adaptive importance sampling and parallelized subset simulation for statistical QoI estimation, rare events analysis, and stochastic gradient-free optimization. The active learning methods include Gaussian Process (GP) surrogates and their training via Adam optimization, design of acquisition functions, and integration with samplers like Monte Carlo, adaptive importance, and parallelized subset simulation. These active learning methods are also designed to work in a batch mode, wherein, the required calls to the full computational model are executed in parallel whenever a user-specified batch size is met. The multifidelity methods in STM are broadly divided into two categories: hierarchical, where a defined hierarchy exists among the low-fidelity models, and peer, where all the low-fidelity models are treated equally. A GP surrogate is used to learn the differences between the low- and high-fidelity models in both multifidelity categories, and acquisition functions from the active learning classes are used to decide whether to rely on a low-fidelity model or call the expensive high-fidelity model. Alongside the software description and usage, applications are also presented to nuclear engineering computational models including a TRISO nuclear fuel particle, a reactor pressure vessel, and a heat-pipe microreactor.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Persistent Sampling: Enhancing the Efficiency of Sequential Monte Carlo

Sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) samplers are powerful tools for Bayesian inference but suffer from high computational costs due to their reliance on large particle ensembles for accurate estimates. We introduce persistent sampling (PS), an extension of SMC that systematically retains and reuses particles from all prior iterations to construct a growing, weighted ensemble. By leveraging multiple importance sampling and resampling from a mixture of historical distributions, PS mitigates the need for excessively large particle counts, directly addressing key limitations of SMC such as particle impoverishment and mode collapse. Crucially, PS achieves this without additional likelihood evaluations-weights for persistent particles are computed using cached likelihood values. This framework not only yields more accurate posterior approximations but also produces marginal likelihood estimates with significantly lower variance, enhancing reliability in model comparison. Furthermore, the persistent ensemble enables efficient adaptation of transition kernels by leveraging a larger, decorrelated particle pool. Experiments on high-dimensional Gaussian mixtures, hierarchical models, and non-convex targets demonstrate that PS consistently outperforms standard SMC and related variants, including recycled and waste-free SMC, achieving substantial reductions in mean squared error for posterior expectations and evidence estimates, all at reduced computational cost. PS thus establishes itself as a robust, scalable, and efficient alternative for complex Bayesian inference tasks.

Karamanis, Minas↗

Elemental zoning enhances mass transport in zeolite catalysts for methanol to hydrocarbons

Mass transport limitations in zeolite catalysts pose major hurdles for their optimal performance in diverse chemical reactions. Most approaches to reduce these restrictions focus on the synthesis of either hierarchical or nanosized zeolites. Here we demonstrate that the existence of a siliceous, catalytically inactive exterior rim on ZSM-5 particles dramatically reduces the diffusion limitations, which leads to an enhanced catalyst lifetime for the methanol-to-hydrocarbon reaction. In this study, our findings reveal that binary inorganic and organic structure-directing agents enable a one-pot synthesis of Si-zoned ZSM-5 catalysts with diffusion properties that are characteristic of particles with a much smaller size. Operando ultraviolet–visible light diffuse reflectance spectroscopy reveals a marked reduction in external coking among Si-zoned samples. Molecular dynamics simulations to assess the diffusion of methanol and benzene in siliceous pores and in those with Brønsted acids reveal substantially reduced transport limitations in zoned regions, consistent with the improved catalyst activity of Si-zoned zeolites relative to that of ZSM-5 with a homogeneous acid-site distribution.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Functional Data Analysis for Extracting the Intrinsic Dimensionality of Spectra: Application to Chemical Homogeneity in the Open Cluster M67

High-resolution spectroscopic surveys of the Milky Way have entered the Big Data regime and have opened avenues for solving outstanding questions in Galactic archeology. However, exploiting their full potential is limited by complex systematics, whose characterization has not received much attention in modern spectroscopic analyses. In this work, we present a novel method to disentangle the component of spectral data space intrinsic to the stars from that due to systematics. Using functional principal component analysis on a sample of 18,933 giant spectra from APOGEE, we find that the intrinsic structure above the level of observational uncertainties requires ≈10 functional principal components (FPCs). Our FPCs can reduce the dimensionality of spectra, remove systematics, and impute masked wavelengths, thereby enabling accurate studies of stellar populations. To demonstrate the applicability of our FPCs, we use them to infer stellar parameters and abundances of 28 giants in the open cluster M67. We employ Sequential Neural Likelihood, a simulation-based Bayesian inference method that learns likelihood functions using neural density estimators, to incorporate non-Gaussian effects in spectral likelihoods. By hierarchically combining the inferred abundances, we limit the spread of the following elements in M67: Fe ≲ 0.02 dex; C ≲ 0.03 dex; O, Mg, Si, Ni ≲ 0.04 dex; Ca ≲ 0.05 dex; N, Al ≲ 0.07 dex (at 68% confidence). Our constraints suggest a lack of self-pollution by core-collapse supernovae in M67, which has promising implications for the future of chemical tagging to understand the star formation history and dynamical evolution of the Milky Way.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

The Hubble Constant from Strongly Lensed Supernovae with Standardizable Magnifications

The dominant uncertainty in the current measurement of the Hubble constant (H 0 ) with strong gravitational lensing time delays is attributed to uncertainties in the mass profiles of the main deflector galaxies. Strongly lensed supernovae (glSNe) can provide, in addition to measurable time delays, lensing magnification constraints when knowledge about the unlensed apparent brightness of the explosion is imposed. We present a hierarchical Bayesian framework to combine a data set of SNe that are not strongly lensed and a data set of strongly lensed SNe with measured time delays. We jointly constrain (i) H 0 using the time delays as an absolute distance indicator, (ii) the lens model profiles using the magnification ratio of lensed and unlensed fluxes on the population level, and (iii) the unlensed apparent magnitude distribution of the SN population and the redshift–luminosity relation of the relative expansion history of the universe. We apply our joint inference framework on a future expected data set of glSNe and forecast that a sample of 144 glSNe of Type Ia with well-measured time series and imaging data will measure H 0 to 1.5%. We discuss strategies to mitigate systematics associated with using absolute flux measurements of glSNe to constrain the mass density profiles. Using the magnification of SN images is a promising and complementary alternative to using stellar kinematics. Future surveys, such as the Rubin and Roman observatories, will be able to discover the necessary number of glSNe, and with additional follow-up observations, this methodology will provide precise constraints on mass profiles and H 0 .

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

KGML-ag: a modeling framework of knowledge-guided machine learning to simulate agroecosystems: a case study of estimating N<sub>2</sub>O emission using data from mesocosm experiments

Abstract. Agricultural nitrous oxide (N2O) emission accounts for a non-trivial fraction of global greenhouse gas (GHG) budget. To date, estimating N2O fluxes from cropland remains a challenging task because the related microbial processes (e.g., nitrification and denitrification) are controlled by complex interactions among climate, soil, plant and human activities. Existing approaches such as process-based (PB) models have well-known limitations due to insufficient representations of the processes or uncertainties of model parameters, and due to leverage recent advances in machine learning (ML) a new method is needed to unlock the “black box” to overcome its limitations such as low interpretability, out-of-sample failure and massive data demand. In this study, we developed a first-of-its-kind knowledge-guided machine learning model for agroecosystems (KGML-ag) by incorporating biogeophysical and chemical domain knowledge from an advanced PB model, ecosys, and tested it by comparing simulating daily N2O fluxes with real observed data from mesocosm experiments. The gated recurrent unit (GRU) was used as the basis to build the model structure. To optimize the model performance, we have investigated a range of ideas, including (1) using initial values of intermediate variables (IMVs) instead of time series as model input to reduce data demand; (2) building hierarchical structures to explicitly estimate IMVs for further N2O prediction; (3) using multi-task learning to balance the simultaneous training on multiple variables; and (4) pre-training with millions of synthetic data generated from ecosys and fine-tuning with mesocosm observations. Six other pure ML models were developed using the same mesocosm data to serve as the benchmark for the KGML-ag model. Results show that KGML-ag did an excellent job in reproducing the mesocosm N2O fluxes (overall r2=0.81, and RMSE=3.6 mgNm-2d-1 from cross validation). Importantly, KGML-ag always outperforms the PB model and ML models in predicting N2O fluxes, especially for complex temporal dynamics and emission peaks. Besides, KGML-ag goes beyond the pure ML models by providing more interpretable predictions as well as pinpointing desired new knowledge and data to further empower the current KGML-ag. We believe the KGML-ag development in this study will stimulate a new body of research on interpretable ML for biogeochemistry and other related geoscience processes.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Layer size polydispersity in hydrated montmorillonite creates multiscale porosity networks

The aluminosilicate layers of the swelling clay mineral montmorillonite, and the saturated pores they delineate, control the mechanical properties and the transport of solutes in many natural and engineered environments. However, the structural basis of montmorillonite porosity remains poorly characterized due to the difficulty in visualizing hydrated samples in their native state. Here in this paper, we used cryogenic transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM) and cryo electron tomography (cryo-ET) to show that stacking defects within minimally altered, fully hydrated montmorillonite particles define multiscale porosity networks. Variations in layer lateral dimensions over tens to thousands of nanometers cause a range of topological and dynamic defects that generate pervasive curvature and introduce previously uncharacterized solute transport pathways. Observations of long-range rotational order between neighboring layers indicate that the layer-layer interactions that govern clay swelling involve three dimensional orienting forces that operate across nanoscale pores. These direct observations of the hierarchical structure of hydrated montmorillonite pore networks with nanoscale resolution reveal potentially general aspects of colloidal interactions in fluid-saturated clay minerals.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Mechanical responses of architected boron carbide-aluminum lattice composites fabricated via reactive metallic infiltration of hierarchical pore structures

The incorporation of micro and nanoscale constituents in a hierarchical order improves mechanical properties of bulk structures while inducing controlled deformation. However, these features have seldomly been applied to the fabrication of cermet materials due to manufacturing constraints. Here, overcoming previous limitations, boron carbide cermets with embedded aluminum lattices were produced using a combination of additive manufacturing and gelcasting techniques. Kelvin cell and octet truss scaffolds were printed, cast and burned out so the negative volume could be infiltrated with metal to form an architected cermet. Computed microtomography scans reveal full aluminum infiltration of the volume with high fidelity to the target architecture. Equibiaxial flexural tests showed localized crack propagation in lattice-reinforced cermets and that samples with imbedded architecture required nearly double the energy for complete failure. Overall, the addition of an internal aluminum lattice limits abrupt fracture of the composite and provides a method for tuning its mechanical response with architected ratios of metal to ceramic.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Spatially resolved microlensing time-scale distributions across the Galactic bulge with the VVV survey

ABSTRACT We analyse 1602 microlensing events found in the VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) near-infrared (NIR) survey data. We obtain spatially resolved, efficiency-corrected time-scale distributions across the Galactic bulge (|ℓ| < 10°, |b| < 5°), using a Bayesian hierarchical model. Spatially resolved peaks and means of the time-scale distributions, along with their marginal distributions in strips of longitude and latitude, are in agreement at a 1σ level with predictions based on the Besançon model of the Galaxy. We find that the event time-scales in the central bulge fields (|ℓ| < 5°) are on average shorter than the non-central (|ℓ| > 5°) fields, with the average peak of the lognormal time-scale distribution at 23.6 ± 1.9 d for the central fields and 29.0 ± 3.0 d for the non-central fields. Our ability to probe the structure of the bulge with this sample of NIR microlensing events is limited by the VVV survey’s sparse cadence and relatively small number of detected microlensing events compared to dedicated optical surveys. Looking forward to future surveys, we investigate the capability of the Roman telescope to detect spatially resolved asymmetries in the time-scale distributions. We propose two pairs of Roman fields, centred on (ℓ = ±9, 5°, b = −0.125°) and (ℓ = −5°, b = ±1.375°) as good targets to measure the asymmetry in longitude and latitude, respectively.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Using Bayesian Methodology to Estimate Liquefied Natural Gas Leak Frequencies

This analysis provides estimates on the leak frequencies of nine components found in liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities. Data was taken from a variety of sources, with 25 different data sets included in the analysis. A hierarchical Bayesian model was used that assumes that the log leak frequency follows a normal distribution and the logarithm of the mean of this normal distribution is a linear function of the logarithm of the fractional leak area. This type of model uses uninformed prior distributions that are updated with applicable data. Separate models are fit for each component listed. Five order-of-magnitude fractional leak areas are considered, based on the flow area of the component. Three types of supporting analyses were performed: sensitivity of the model to the data set used, sensitivity of the leak frequency estimates to differences in the model structure or prior distributions, and sufficiency of sample sized used for convergence. Recommended leak frequency distributions for all component types and leak sizes are given. These leak frequency predictions can be used for quantitative risk assessments in the future.

03 NATURAL GAS↗

Self-sorting in supramolecular assemblies

Supramolecular self-assembly enables living organisms to form highly functional hierarchical structures with individual components self-organized across multiple length scales. This has inspired work on multicomponent supramolecular materials to understand factors behind co-assembly versus self-sorting of molecules. We report here on a supramolecular system comprised of negatively charged peptide amphiphile (PA) molecules, in which only a tiny fraction of the molecules (0.7 mol%) were covalently conjugated to one of two different fluorophores, half to fluorescein isothiocyanate (FTIC) and the other half to tetramethylrhodamine (TAMRA). Confocal microscopy of the system revealed self-sorting of the two different fluorescent PA molecules, where TAMRA PA is concentrated in micron-scale domains while FITC PA remains dispersed throughout the sample. From Förster resonance energy transfer and fluorescence recovery experiments, we conclude that conjugation of the negatively charged FITC to PA significantly disrupts its co-assembly with the 99.3 mol% of unlabeled molecules, which are responsible for formation of micron-scale domains. Conversely, conjugation of the zwitterionic TAMRA causes no such disruption. Interestingly, this dissimilar behavior between FITC and TAMRA PA causes them to self-sort at large length scales in the supramolecular system, mediated not by specific interactions among the individual fluorophores but instead by their different propensities to co-assemble with the majority component. We also found that greater ionic strength in the aqueous environment of the system promotes mixing by lowering the electrostatic barriers involved in self-sorting. Furthermore, our results demonstrate great thermodynamic subtlety in the driving forces that mediate self-sorting versus co-assembly in supramolecular peptide assemblies.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Hierarchical Bayesian Thermonuclear Rate for the 7 Be(n,p) 7 Li Big Bang Nucleosynthesis Reaction

Big Bang nucleosynthesis provides the earliest probe of standard model physics, at a time when the universe was less than 1000 seconds old. It determines the abundances of the lightest nuclides, which give rise to the subsequent history of the visible matter in the universe. This work derives new 7 Be(n,p) 7 Li thermonuclear reaction rates based on all available experimental information. This reaction sensitively impacts the primordial abundances of 7 Be and 7 Li during big bang nucleosynthesis. We critically evaluate all available data and disregard experimental results that are questionable. For the nuclear model, we adopt an incoherent sum of single-level, two-channel, R -matrix approximation expressions, which are implemented into a hierarchical Bayesian model, to analyze the remaining six data sets we deem most reliable. In the fitting of the data, we consistently model all known sources of uncertainty, including discrepant absolute normalizations of different data sets, and also take the variation of the neutron and proton channel radii into account, hence providing less biased estimates of the 7 Be(n,p) 7 Li thermonuclear rates. From the resulting posteriors, we extract R -matrix parameters ($E_r, γ^2_n, γ^2_p$) and derive excitation energies and partial and total widths. Our fit is sensitive to the contributions of the first three levels above the neutron threshold. Reaction rates were computed by integrating 10,000 samples of the reduced cross section. Our 7 Be(n,p) 7 Li thermonuclear rates have uncertainties between 1.5% and 2.0% at temperatures of ≤1 GK. Finally, we compare our rates to previous results and find that the 7 Be(n,p) 7 Li rates most commonly used in big bang simulations have uncertainties that are too optimistic.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

A protocol and analysis of year-long simulations of global storm-resolving models and beyond

We propose a protocol to evaluate and analyze year-long simulations of global storm-resolving models (GSRMs). The proposed protocol complements an earlier 40-day simulation protocol under the DYAMOND (DYnamics of the Atmospheric general circulation Modeled On Non-hydrostatic Domains) project to allow the analysis of the seasonal cycle and associated climatic relevant phenomena. This intercomparison aims to reveal how GSRMs, which can simulate mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) in the global domain, reproduce atmospheric large-scale structures related to convection beyond month-long simulations. The intercomparison for one-year simulations is conducted by either atmosphere-only models or atmosphere–ocean coupled models with atmospheric horizontal mesh sizes less than 5 km. We recommend the continuous four seasons from March 2020 to February 2021 as a target period for the intercomparison but with options for many groups to join more flexibly. The output variables are collected at 0.25° resolution, and archives of a small set of native grid variables are encouraged to analyze tropical cyclones and MCSs. Through the proposed global storm-resolving simulation, we will evaluate the climatological distributions of the atmospheric large-scale circulations, such as the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), monsoon, midlatitude jets, their time evolution, and the upscale impacts on them. We present sample analyses from a one-year simulation using the 3.5 km mesh Nonhydrostatic Icosahedral Atmospheric Model (NICAM), revealing the realistic zonal contrast of tropical precipitation, no double ITCZ structure, the reasonable midlatitude jet position and intensity but a weak bias of storm track activities, and a warm bias over the Eurasia during boreal winter. We also clarify the cross-scale interaction, such as the effects of cold pools on mean precipitation over the Maritime Continent through the precipitation diurnal cycle and the effects of resolved gravity waves on midlatitude mean flows. The proposed one-year simulation protocol is referred to as the “Sendai Protocol.” This protocol is not unique or definite for evaluating GSRMs; we prospect a hierarchical set of experiments from short-term to multi-year simulations as GSRM intercomparisons.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Mechanical Behavior of Al–Al2Cu–Si and Al–Al2Cu Eutectic Alloys

In this study, laser rapid solidification technique was used to refine the microstructure of ternary Al–Cu–Si and binary Al–Cu eutectic alloys to nanoscales. Micropillar compression testing was performed to measure the stress–strain response of the samples with characteristic microstructure in the melt pool regions. The laser-remelted Al–Al2Cu–Si ternary alloy was observed to reach the compressive strength of 1.59 GPa before failure at a strain of 28.5%, which is significantly better than the as-cast alloy with a maximum strength of 0.48 GPa at a failure strain of 4.8%. The laser-remelted Al–Cu binary alloy was observed to reach the compressive strength of 2.07 GPa before failure at a strain of 26.5%, which is significantly better than the as-cast alloy with maximum strength of 0.74 GPa at a failure strain of 3.3%. The enhanced compressive strength and improved compressive plasticity were interpreted in terms of microstructural refinement and hierarchical eutectic morphology.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

A Method for Producing Hierarchical and Statistically Calibrated Predictions of Nuclear Material Properties from Existing Models

Computer vision-based analysis of micrographs of nuclear materials is an emerging technique for property prediction, synthetic route identification, and other material analysis tasks. These analysis tasks play a pivotal role in many material characterization applications such as signature development for treaty verification, process optimization, etc. The backbone in many of the recent computer vision-based techniques is a deep learning model, which takes a fixed-size set of pixels and provides a class prediction for that set of pixels. For example, previous work developed a deep convolutional neural network (CNN) to predict the synthetic route from a 256 px x 256 px patch taken from a larger image of uranium ore concentrates. In this work, we present several methods for first calibrating these models in a manner that they can provide accurate probabilities of their predictions’ veracity, and several methods of combining these probabilities. Overall, the combination of these two steps into a pipeline allows for full-image and even full-sample (where a sample has many images) predictions with associated confidence values. Finally, we show that one can also use the patch predictions and confidence to produce a visualization to map predicted constituents through the image. Results and examples for predicting and mapping uranium ore concentrates’ synthetic process from imagery will be presented.

artificial intelligence↗

Weak Lensing Mass Calibration of the ACT DR5 Galaxy Clusters with the DES Year 3 Weak Lensing Data

We use weak gravitational lensing measurements from Year 3 Dark Energy Survey data to calibrate the masses of 443 galaxy clusters selected via the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect from Atacama Cosmology Telescope Data Release 5 maps of the cosmic microwave background. We incorporate redshift and SZ measurements for individual clusters into a hierarchical model for the stacked lensing signals and perform Bayesian analyses to constrain the hydrostatic mass bias of the clusters. Our treatment of systematic uncertainties includes a prescription for measuring and accounting for the weak lensing boost factor, consideration of a miscentering effect, as well as marginalization over uncertainties in the source galaxy photometric redshift distributions and shear calibration. The resultant constraints on the normalization of the mass-observable relation have a precision of approximately 7%, with the mean WL halo mass of M $_{500c}$ = 5.4 × 10$^{14}$ M $_{⊙}$. We measure the bias between the true cluster mass and the mass estimated from the SZ signal based on an X-ray-calibrated scaling relation assuming hydrostatic equilibrium, to be 1 - b = 0.74$^{+0.06}$ $_{-0.05}$ over the full sample. When splitting the clusters into high (z = 0.43-0.70) and low (z = 0.15-0.43) redshift bins, we measure 1 - b = 0.58$^{+0.06}$ $_{-0.05}$ and 0.81$^{+0.08}$ $_{-0.06}$, respectively. When introducing additional freedom in redshift and mass to the hydrostatic bias model, we find that 1 - b decreases with redshift (with the power law of -1.8$^{+0.5}$ $_{-0.6}$, 99.95% confidence), consistent with findings from other recent studies, while we do not find any significant trend in mass. We also demonstrate that our result is robust against various systematics such as a scale cut, priors on baryonic and miscentering parameters, and degree of scatter in mass-observable relation. The weak-lensing mass calibration presented in this study will be a useful tool for using the ACT clusters as probes of astrophysics, and as a step towards using their abundance as a cosmological probe.

Shin, T. [Carnegie Mellon U.] (ORCID:0000000263895↗

Surfactant-Free Synthesis of Three-Dimensional Perovskite Titania-Based Micron-Scale Motifs Used as Catalytic Supports for the Methanol Oxidation Reaction

We synthesized and subsequently rationalized the formation of a series of 3D hierarchical metal oxide spherical motifs. Specifically, we varied the chemical composition within a family of ATiO 3 (wherein “A” = Ca, Sr, and Ba) perovskites, using a two-step, surfactant-free synthesis procedure to generate structures with average diameters of ~3 microns. In terms of demonstrating the practicality of these perovskite materials, we have explored their use as supports for the methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) as a function of their size, morphology, and chemical composition. The MOR activity of our target systems was found to increase with decreasing ionic radius of the “A” site cation, in order of Pt/CaTiO 3 (CTO) > Pt/SrTiO 3 (STO) > Pt/BaTiO 3 (BTO). With respect to morphology, we observed an MOR enhancement of our 3D spherical motifs, as compared with either ultra-small or cubic control samples. Moreover, the Pt/CTO sample yielded not only improved mass and specific activity values but also a greater stability and durability, as compared with both commercial TiO 2 nanoparticle standards and precursor TiO 2 templates.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

High throughput automated characterization of enamel microstructure using synchrotron tomography and optical flow imaging

The remarkable damage-tolerance of enamel has been attributed to its hierarchical microstructure and the organized bands of decussated rods. A thorough characterization of the microscale rod evolution within the enamel is needed to elucidate this complex structure. While prior efforts in this area have made use of single particle tracking to track a single rod evolution to various degrees of success, such a process can be both computationally and labor intensive, limited to the evolution path of a single rod, and is therefore prone to error from potentially tracking outliers. Particle image velocimetry (PIV) is a well-established algorithm to derive field information from image sequences for processes that are time-dependent, such as fluid flows and structural deformation. In this work, we demonstrate the use of PIV in extracting the full-field microstructural distribution of rods within the enamel. Further, enamel samples from a wild African lion were analyzed using high-energy synchrotron X-ray micro-tomography. Results from the PIV analysis provide sufficient full-field information to reconstruct the growth of individual rods that can potentially enable rapid analysis of complex microstructures from high resolution synchrotron datasets. Such information can serve as a template for designing damage-tolerant bioinspired structures for advanced manufacturing.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗