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At least 1,621 records · Page 90

PSY (PowerSystems.jl) [SWR-23-105]

PowerSystems.jl is a package to organize and manipulate data for the study of energy systems with diverse modeling requirements. This software serves two main purposes: to reduce the burden of large power system data set development, and to promote reproducible research and simulation. PowerSystems.jl implements an abstract hierarchy to represent and customize power systems data and includes data containers for quasi-static and dynamic simulation applications. Key features include efficient management of large quantities of time series data, optimized serialization, and comprehensive validation capabilities. For further information regarding the Sienna modeling framework at NREL, see: https://www.nrel.gov/analysis/sienna.html

Lara Aguilar, Jose Daniel↗

IM3 GO WEST Parameter Search Dataset

GO WEST is an open-source power grid modeling framework for U.S. Western Interconnection, which allows users to tailor the model depending on their research study and science questions. It is developed to address weather and water dynamics, and associated vulnerabilities in this bulk power system. It covers 28 balancing authorities (BA) and 12 states in U.S. Western Interconnection. GO WEST allows users to select different number of nodes and come up with a simplified network by utilizing 10,000 nodal topology of U.S. Western Interconnection created by Texas A&M University. Users can try and select different number of nodes, mathematical formulations (linear programming vs. mixed-integer linear programming), transmission line limit scaling factors, and hurdle rate scaling factors. GO WEST offers a unit commitment and economic dispatch (UC/ED) module to simulate grid operations on an hourly scale. In this sense, users can calibrate and validate their model versions by comparing model outputs to historical datasets. Therefore, GO WEST can help researchers to strike a balance between model fidelity (i.e. accuracy) and computational complexity (i.e. runtime). This dataset includes model inputs and outputs from 600 model versions for each 2019, 2020, and 2021. The folder naming convention is as follows: Exp{Number of Nodes}_{Mathematical Formulation}_{Transmission Line Limit Scaling Factor in MW}_{Hurdle Rate Scaling Factor in %}_{Year}. Linear programming is designated with "simple" label whereas mixed-integer linear programming is designated with "coal" label. For example, "Exp100_simple_1000_50_2019" folder contains inputs and outputs from 2019 model version with 100 nodes, linear programming, +1000 MW transmission line limit scaling factor, and +50% hurdle rate scaling factor. GO WEST GitHub repository hosts all raw datasets, processing scripts, and model scripts. Please refer to the README file for a detailed description of the included files.

Economics↗

Benchmarking and Exploring Parameter Space of the 2-Phase Bubble Tracking Model for Liquid Mercury Target Simulation

High intensity proton pulses strike the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS)’s mercury target to provide bright neutron beams. These strikes deposit extensive energy into the mercury and its steel vessel. Prediction of the resultant loading on the target is difficult when helium gas is intentionally injected into the mercury to reduce the loading and to mitigate the pitting damage on the vessel. A 2-phase material model that incorporates the Rayleigh-Plesset (R-P) model is expected to address this complex multi-physics dynamics problem by including the bubble dynamics in the liquid mercury. We present a study comparing the measured target strains in the SNS target station with the simulation results of the solid mechanics simulation framework. We investigate a wide range of various physical model parameters, including the number of bubble families, bubble size distribution, viscosity, surface tension, etc. to understand their impact on simulation accuracy. Our initial findings reveal that using 8-10 bubble families in the model renders a simulation strain envelope that covers the experimental ones. Further optimization studies are planned to predict the strain response more accurately.

Lin, Lianshan↗

Advancing Mass Timber Buildings: Novel Methods Improve Thermal Assessment and Material Use

For nearly a century, thermal demand calculations for buildings have relied on simplified models developed to match the technical constraints of their era. The first standards, introduced in Germany and Austria in 1929, established climate zones and material conductivity coefficients that, with only incremental updates, still underpin many current assessments. Yet, methods such as Hot box testing, originally designed for lightweight insulation, continue to be applied for mass timber buildings, overlooking thermodynamic characteristics confer real-world advantages. Recent research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory incorporates updated methodologies, aligned with ASHRAE Standard 55 (ASHRAE, 2023) accounting for factors such as thermal inertia, inner surface temperatures, emissivity, solar gains, and dynamic outdoor conditions. These factors better reflect observed heating and cooling loads and highlight opportunities for efficient use of materials in mass timber construction. This work provides a framework for designing comfortable, resilient, and resource-efficient buildings while aligning with performance expectations in energy codes.

Pickett, Robert [International Mass Timber Allianc↗

Design of lightweight BCC multi-principal element alloys with enhanced hydrogen storage using a machine learning-driven genetic algorithm

Body-centered cubic (BCC) based multi-principal element alloy (MPEA) hydrides have demonstrated significant potential for compact and efficient hydrogen storage. In this work, we first leverage machine learning (ML) models to predict the hydrogen affinity, storage capacity and phase stability of BCC MPEAs, creating a unique hydrogen-to-metal (H/M) predictor for materials with unprecedented performance. We developed a metaheuristic optimizer high-throughput framework by interfacing ML models with a genetic algorithm for the accelerated search of {Mg, Al, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Nb, Mo} based lightweight BCC MPEAs with improved hydrogen storage characteristics. We report five new MPEAs with a predicted gravimetric hydrogen storage capacity of around 3.5 wt% or more, including Cr 0.09 Mg 0.73 Ti 0.18 (4.25 wt% H) and Cr 0.21 Nb 0.11 Ti 0.35 V 0.33 (3.5 wt% H). The electronic structure of the top-performing composition, Cr 0.09 Mg 0.73 Ti 0.18 , was analyzed using density functional theory (DFT) to understand the reasons for its improved hydrogen storage properties compared to TiFe (1.90 wt% H), LaNi 5 (1.37 wt% H) or BCC MPEAs like TiVNbCr (3.70 wt% H). Temperature-dependent molecular dynamics (MD) studies were further performed on optimized BCC MPEAs to qualitatively study hydrogen mobility and analyze the effect of different elemental composition on bulk hydrogen diffusion. Our findings demonstrate how a ML assisted genetic algorithm framework can be used for efficient search of stable, lightweight and cost-effective MPEAs while minimizing the need for expensive ab initio calculations.

DFT↗

Search for efficient formulations for Hamiltonian simulation of non-Abelian lattice gauge theories

Hamiltonian formulation of lattice gauge theories (LGTs) is the most natural framework for the purpose of quantum simulation, an area of research that is growing with advances in quantum-computing algorithms and hardware. It, therefore, remains an important task to identify the most accurate, while computationally economic, Hamiltonian formulation(s) in such theories, considering the necessary truncation imposed on the Hilbert space of gauge bosons with any finite computing resources. This paper is a first step toward addressing this question in the case of non-Abelian LGTs, which further require the imposition of non-Abelian Gauss’s laws on the Hilbert space, introducing additional computational complexity. Focusing on the case of SU(2) LGT in 1+1 dimensions coupled to one flavor of fermionic matter, a number of different formulations of the original Kogut-Susskind framework are analyzed with regard to the dependence of the dimension of the physical Hilbert space on boundary conditions, system’s size, and the cutoff on the excitations of gauge bosons. The impact of such dependencies on the accuracy of the spectrum and dynamics obtained from a Hamiltonian computation is examined, and the (classical) computational-resource requirements given these considerations are studied. Besides the well-known angular-momentum formulation of the theory, the cases of purely fermionic and purely bosonic formulations (with open boundary conditions), and the Loop-String-Hadron formulation are analyzed, along with a brief discussion of a Quantum-Link-Model formulation of the same theory. Clear advantages are found in working with the Loop-String-Hadron framework which implements non-Abelian Gauss’s laws a priori using a complete set of gauge-invariant operators. Although small lattices are studied in the numerical analysis of this work, and only the simplest algorithms are considered, a range of conclusions will be applicable to larger systems and potentially to higher dimensions. Future studies will extend this investigation to the analysis of resource requirements for quantum simulations of non-Abelian LGT, with the goal of shedding light on the most efficient Hamiltonian formulation of gauge theories of relevance in nature

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

The Ghent Hybrid model in NuWro: a new neutrino single-pion production model in the GeV regime

Neutrino-induced single-pion production constitutes an essential interaction channel in modern neutrino oscillation experiments, with its products building up a significant fraction of the observable hadronic final states. Frameworks of oscillation analyses strongly rely on Monte Carlo neutrino event generators, which provide theoretical predictions of neutrino interactions on nuclear targets. Thus, it is crucial to integrate state-of-the-art single-pion production models with Monte Carlo simulations to prepare for the upcoming systematics-dominated landscape of neutrino measurements. In this work, we present the implementation of the Ghent Hybrid model for neutrino-induced single-pion production in the NuWro Monte Carlo event generator. The interaction dynamics includes coherently-added contributions from nucleon resonances and a non-resonant background, merged into the pythia branching predictions in the deep-inelastic regime, as instrumented by NuWro. This neutrino-nucleon interaction model is fully incorporated into the nuclear framework of the generator, allowing it to account for the influence of both initial- and final-state nuclear medium effects. We compare the predictions of this integrated implementation with recent pion production data from accelerator-based neutrino experiments. The results of the novel model show improved agreement of the generator predictions with the data and point to the significance of the refined treatment of the description of pion-production processes beyond the ∆ region.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

MITgcm-AD v2: Open source tangent linear and adjoint modeling framework for the oceans and atmosphere enabled by the Automatic Differentiation tool Tapenade

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology General Circulation Model (MITgcm) is widely used by the climate science community to simulate planetary atmosphere and ocean circulations. A defining feature of the MITgcm is that it has been developed to be compatible with an algorithmic differentiation (AD) tool, TAF, enabling the generation of tangent-linear and adjoint models. These provide gradient information which enables dynamics-based sensitivity and attribution studies, state and parameter estimation, and rigorous uncertainty quantification. Importantly, gradient information is essential for computing comprehensive sensitivities and performing efficient large-scale data assimilation, ensuring that observations collected from satellites and in-situ measuring instruments can be effectively used to optimize a large uncertain control space. As a result, the MITgcm forms the dynamical core of a key data assimilation product employed by the physical oceanography research community: Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean (ECCO) state estimate. Although MITgcm and ECCO are used extensively within the research community, the AD tool TAF is proprietary and hence inaccessible to a large proportion of these users. The new version 2 (MITgcm-AD v2) framework introduced here is based on the source-to-source AD tool Tapenade, which has recently been open-sourced. Another feature of Tapenade is that it stores required variables by default (instead of recomputing them) which simplifies the implementation of efficient, AD-compatible code. The framework has been integrated with the MITgcm model’s main branch and is now freely available.

Adjoints↗

Sequential Bayesian Parameter Estimation of Stochastic Dynamic Load Models

In this paper we focus on the parameter estimation of dynamic load models with stochastic terms-in particular, load models where protection settings are uncertain, such as in aggregated air conditioning units. We show how the uncertainty in the aggregated protection characteristics can be formulated as a stochastic differential equation with process noise. We cast the parameter inversion within a Bayesian parameter estimation framework, and we present methods to include process noise. We demonstrate the benefits of considering stochasticity in the parameter estimation and the risks of ignoring it.

Bayesian Statistics↗

High Ammonia Adsorption in MFM-300 Materials: Dynamics and Charge Transfer in Host–Guest Binding

Ammonia (NH 3 ) is a promising energy resource owing to its high hydrogen density. However, its widespread application is restricted by the lack of efficient and corrosion-resistant storage materials. In this work, we report high NH 3 adsorption in a series of robust metal-organic framework (MOF) materials, MFM-300(M) (M = Fe, V, Cr, In). MFM-300(M) (M = Fe, V III , Cr) show fully reversible capacity for >20 cycles, reaching capacities of 16.1, 15.6, and 14.0 mmol g -1 , respectively, at 273 K and 1 bar. Under the same conditions, MFM-300(V IV ) exhibits the highest uptake among this series of MOFs of 17.3 mmol g -1 . In situ neutron powder diffraction, single-crystal X-ray diffraction, and electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy confirm that the redox-active V center enables host-guest charge transfer, with V IV being reduced to V III and NH 3 being oxidized to hydrazine (N 2 H 4 ). A combination of in situ inelastic neutron scattering and DFT modeling has revealed the binding dynamics of adsorbed NH 3 within these MOFs to afford a comprehensive insight into the application of MOF materials to the adsorption and conversion of NH 3 .

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Enabling Large-Scale Condensed-Phase Hybrid Density Functional Theory Based Ab Initio Molecular Dynamics. 1. Theory, Algorithm, and Performance

By including a fraction of exact exchange (EXX), hybrid functionals reduce the self-interaction error in semilocal density functional theory (DFT) and thereby furnish a more accurate and reliable description of the underlying electronic structure in systems throughout biology, chemistry, physics, and materials science. However, the high computational cost associated with the evaluation of all required EXX quantities has limited the applicability of hybrid DFT in the treatment of large molecules and complex condensed-phase materials. To overcome this limitation, we describe a linear-scaling approach that utilizes a local representation of the occupied orbitals (e.g., maximally localized Wannier functions (MLWFs)) to exploit the sparsity in the real-space evaluation of the quantum mechanical exchange interaction in finite-gap systems. In this work, we present a detailed description of the theoretical and algorithmic advances required to perform MLWF-based ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations of large-scale condensed-phase systems of interest at the hybrid DFT level. We focus our theoretical discussion on the integration of this approach into the framework of Car–Parrinello AIMD, and highlight the central role played by the MLWF-product potential (i.e., the solution of Poisson’s equation for each corresponding MLWF-product density) in the evaluation of the EXX energy and wave function forces. We then provide a comprehensive description of the exx algorithm implemented in the open-source Quantum ESPRESSO program, which employs a hybrid MPI/OpenMP parallelization scheme to efficiently utilize the high-performance computing (HPC) resources available on current- and next-generation supercomputer architectures. Furthermore, this is followed by a critical assessment of the accuracy and parallel performance (e.g., strong and weak scaling) of this approach when AIMD simulations of liquid water are performed in the canonical (NVT) ensemble. With access to HPC resources, we demonstrate that exx enables hybrid DFT-based AIMD simulations of condensed-phase systems containing 500–1000 atoms (e.g., (H₂O)₂₅₆) with a wall time cost that is comparable to that of semilocal DFT. In doing so, exx takes us one step closer to routinely performing AIMD simulations of complex and large-scale condensed-phase systems for sufficiently long time scales at the hybrid DFT level of theory.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Exploring Hydrologic Model Process Connectivity at the Continental Scale Through an Information Theory Approach

Exploring water fluxes between hydrological model (HM) components is essential to assess and improve model realism. Many classical metrics for HM diagnosis rely solely on streamflow and hence provide limited insights into model performance across processes. This study applies an information theory measure known as “transfer entropy” (TE) to systematically quantify the transfer of information among major HM components. To test and demonstrate the benefits of TE, we use the Framework for Understanding Structural Errors (FUSE) model to mimic and compare four commonly used HM structures, VIC, PRMS, SACRAMENTO, and TOPMODEL, across 671 catchments spanning a variety of hydrologic regimes in the conterminous United States. We explore connections between HM components and catchment landscape characteristics (e.g., climate, topography, soil, and vegetation) and characterize their nonlinear associations using distance correlation and Spearman correlation coefficients. Our results indicate that while the information transferred from precipitation to runoff is similar across model structures (likely as a result of calibration), the information transferred among other components can vary significantly from a FUSE structure to another. We find that aridity, precipitation duration and frequency, snow fraction, mean elevation, forest area, and leaf area index are often significantly associated with TE between the main HM components. Here, we propose that the presence of meaningful nonlinear associations can be used to diagnose process representation in HMs. Our results highlight the necessity to enhance the conventional streamflow-only calibration approach for a more realistic representation of water dynamics in the models.

large-sample hydrology↗

Dynamic Modeling, Trajectory Optimization, and Linear Control of Cable-Driven Parallel Robots for Automated Panelized Building Retrofits

The construction industry faces a growing need for automation to reduce costs, improve accuracy and productivity, and address labor shortages. One area that stands to benefit significantly from automation is panelized prefabricated building envelope retrofits, which can improve a building’s energy efficiency in heating and cooling interior spaces. In this paper, we propose using cable-driven parallel robots (CDPRs), which can effectively lift and handle large objects, to install these panels. However, implementing CDPRs presents significant challenges because of their nonlinear dynamics, complex trajectory planning, and precise control requirements. To tackle these challenges, this work focuses on a new application of established control and trajectory optimization theories in a CDPR simulation of a building envelope retrofit under real-world conditions. We first model the dynamics of CDPRs, highlighting the critical role of damping in system behavior. Building on this dynamic model, we formulate a trajectory optimization problem to generate feasible and efficient motion plans for the robot under operational and environmental constraints. Given the high precision required in the construction industry, accurately tracking the optimized trajectory is essential. However, challenges such as partial observability and external vibrations complicate this task. To address these issues, a Linear Quadratic Gaussian control framework is applied, enabling the robot to track the optimized trajectories with precision. Simulation results show that the proposed controller enables precise end effector positioning with errors under 4 mm, even in the presence of external wind disturbances. Through comprehensive simulations, our approach allows for an in-depth exploration of the system’s nonlinear dynamics, trajectory optimization, and control strategies under controlled yet highly realistic conditions. The results demonstrate the feasibility of CDPRs for automating panel installation and provide insights into their practical deployment.

CDPR↗

Out-of-time-order correlators bridge classical transport and quantum dynamics

The out-of-time-order correlator (OTOC) has emerged as a central tool for quantifying decoherence across wide-ranging physical platforms. Here, we demonstrate its direct measurement in a classical ensemble using nuclear magnetic resonance with a modulated gradient spin echo sequence and extend the method into a multidimensional correlation to track exchange phenomena. Position is encoded through magnetic field gradients and momentum through the velocity autocorrelation function, enabling experimental access to OTOCs for proton motion confined within the self-similar lattice of the metal–organic framework MOF-808. Here, water confined to specified geometries within the MOF pores gives rise to spatially distinct diffusive eigenmodes with characteristic relative entropies. We demonstrate that periodic radio frequency driving combined with gradient modulation yields entropy evolution through the selection of distinct diffusion modes. Frequency-resolved diffusion spectra connect these entropy dynamics to classical heat exchange laws, revealing how operational features of quantum systems are mirrored in confined, macroscopic spin ensembles.

Fricke, Sophia N. [University of California, Berke↗

Unsupervised discovery of nonlinear plasma physics using differentiable kinetic simulations

Plasma supports collective modes and particle–wave interactions that lead to complex behaviour in, for example, inertial fusion energy applications. While plasma can sometimes be modelled as a charged fluid, a kinetic description is often crucial for studying nonlinear effects in the higher-dimensional momentum–position phase space that describes the full complexity of the plasma dynamics. We create a differentiable solver for the three-dimensional partial-differential equation describing the plasma kinetics and introduce a domain-specific objective function. Using this framework, we perform gradient-based optimization of neural networks that provide forcing function parameters to the differentiable solver given a set of initial conditions. We apply this to an inertial-fusion-relevant configuration and find that the optimization process exploits a novel physical effect.

plasma nonlinear phenomena↗

Bayesian Conavigation: Dynamic Designing of the Material Digital Twins via Active Learning

Scientific advancement is universally based on the dynamic interplay between theoretical insights, modeling, and experimental discoveries. However, this feedback loop is often slow, including delayed community interactions and the gradual integration of experimental data into theoretical frameworks. This challenge is particularly exacerbated in domains dealing with high-dimensional object spaces, such as molecules and complex microstructures. Hence, the integration of theory within automated and autonomous experimental setups, or theory in the loop-automated experiment, is emerging as a crucial objective for accelerating scientific research. The critical aspect is to use not only theory but also on-the-fly theory updates during the experiment. Furthermore, we introduce a method for integrating theory into the loop through Bayesian conavigation of theoretical model space and experimentation. Our approach leverages the concurrent development of surrogate models for both simulation and experimental domains at the rates determined by latencies and costs of experiments and computation, alongside the adjustment of control parameters within theoretical models to minimize epistemic uncertainty over the experimental object spaces. This methodology facilitates the creation of digital twins of material structures, encompassing both the surrogate model of behavior that includes the correlative part and the theoretical model itself. While being demonstrated here within the context of functional responses in ferroelectric materials, our approach holds promise for broader applications, such as the exploration of optical properties in nanoclusters, microstructure-dependent properties in complex materials, and properties of molecular systems.

Microscopy↗

Identification of Solid-Electrolyte Interphase Species by Joint Characterization of Li-Ion Battery Chemistry by Mass Spectrometry and Electrochemical Reaction Networks

The formation and stability of the solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI) play central roles in determining the long-term performance and safety of modern electrochemical energy storage systems. Despite decades of research, the SEI’s heterogeneous, dynamic, and multiphase nature has defied comprehensive molecular-level characterization, creating a critical knowledge gap that limits rational battery design. In this work, we introduce a computational−experimental framework that integrates high-throughput quantum chemistry calculations, data-driven electrochemical reaction networks (eCRNs), stochastic algorithms, and laser desorption/ionization Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (LDI-FTICR-MS) to unravel SEI formation in carbonatebased electrolytes without imposing predefined mechanisms. We constructed the most comprehensive eCRN to date, spanning over 10,000 species and 209 million reactions. Through stochastic network analysis, we successfully recovered 27 species that were previously reported in the literature and predicted 28 novel SEI species nearly doubling our scientific knowledge in this area. Each new species was rigorously confirmed through advanced mass spectral analysis of its distinct molecular and isotopic signatures. We kinetically refined the formation pathways for a select set of both previously reported and novel SEI products, revealing kinetically feasible elementary reaction mechanisms with activation barriers below 1 eV. This computational−experimental approach deepens our molecular-level understanding of SEI chemistry by resolving which species form and through which decomposition mechanisms they emerge. Such knowledge provides the foundation necessary to connect electrolyte composition to the resulting SEI components, a critical step toward a more informed electrolyte development in next-generation lithium-based batteries.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗