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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 181 records · Page 10

Operation of Natural Gas Pipeline Networks With Storage Under Transient Flow Conditions

Here, we formulate a nonlinear optimal control problem for intraday operation of a natural gas pipeline network that includes storage reservoirs. The dynamics of compressible gas flow through pipes, compressors, reservoirs, and wells are considered. In particular, a reservoir is modeled as a rigid, hollow container that stores gas under isothermal conditions and uniform density, and a well is modeled as a vertical pipe. For each pipe, flow dynamics are described by a coupled partial differential equation (PDE) system in density and mass flux variables, with momentum dissipation modeled using the Darcy–Wiesbach friction approximation. Compressors are modeled as scaling up the pressure of gas between the inlet and outlet. The governing equations for all network components are spatially discretized and assembled into a nonlinear differential-algebraic equation (DAE) system, which synthesizes above-ground pipeline and subsurface reservoir dynamics into a single reduced-order model. We seek to maximize an objective function that quantifies economic profit and network efficiency subject to the flow equations and inequalities that represent operating limitations. The problem is solved using a primal–dual interior point solver, and the solutions are validated in computational experiments and simulations on several pipeline test networks to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methodology.

03 NATURAL GAS↗

Using convolutional neural networks to detect edge localized modes in DIII-D from Doppler backscattering measurements

In H-mode tokamak plasmas, the plasma is sometimes ejected beyond the edge transport barrier. These events are known as edge localized modes (ELMs). ELMs cause a loss of energy and damage the vessel walls. Understanding the physics of ELMs, and by extension, how to detect and mitigate them, is an important challenge. In this paper, we focus on two diagnostic methods—deuterium-alpha (D α ) spectroscopy and Doppler backscattering (DBS). The former detects ELMs by measuring Balmer alpha emission, while the latter uses microwave radiation to probe the plasma. DBS has the advantages of having a higher temporal resolution and robustness to damage. These advantages of DBS diagnostic may be beneficial for future operational tokamaks, and thus, data processing techniques for DBS should be developed in preparation. In sight of this, we explore the training of neural networks to detect ELMs from DBS data, using D α data as the ground truth. With shots found in the DIII-D database, the model is trained to classify each time step based on the occurrence of an ELM event. The results are promising. When tested on shots similar to those used for training, the model is capable of consistently achieving a high f1-score of 0.93. Furthermore, this score is a performance metric for imbalanced datasets that ranges between 0 and 1. We evaluate the performance of our neural network on a variety of ELMs in different high confinement regimes (grassy ELM, RMP mitigated, and wide-pedestal), finding broad applicability. Beyond ELMs, our work demonstrates the wider feasibility of applying neural networks to data from DBS diagnostic.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Perfecting Our Set of Spectrophotometric Standard DA White Dwarfs

We verified for photometric stability a set of DA white dwarfs with Hubble Space Telescope magnitudes from the near-ultraviolet to the near-infrared and ground-based spectroscopy by using time-spaced observations from the Las Cumbres Observatory network of telescopes. The initial list of 38 stars was whittled to 32 final ones, which comprise a high-quality set of spectrophotometric standards. These stars are homogeneously distributed around the sky and are all fainter than r ~ 16.5 mag. Their distribution is such that at least two of them would be available to be observed from any observatory on the ground at any time at airmass less than 2. Light curves and different variability indices from the Las Cumbres Observatory data were used to determine the stability of the candidate standards. When available, Pan-STARRS1, Zwicky Transient Facility, and TESS data were also used to confirm the star classification. Our analysis showed that four DA white dwarfs may exhibit evidence of photometric variability, while a fifth is cooler than our established lower temperature limit, and a sixth star might be a binary. In some instances, due to the presence of faint nearby red sources, care should be used when observing a few of the spectrophotometric standards with ground-based telescopes. Light curves and finding charts for all the stars are provided.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

An underground, wireless, open-source, low-cost system for monitoring oxygen, temperature, and soil moisture

Abstract. The use of wireless sensor networks to measure soil parameters eliminates the need to remove sensors for field operations, such as tillage, thus allowing long-term measurements without multiple disturbances to soil structure. Wireless sensors also reduce above-ground cables and the risk of undesired equipment damage and potential data loss. However, implementing wireless sensor networks in field studies usually requires advanced and costly engineering knowledge. This study presents a new underground, wireless, open-source, low-cost system for monitoring soil oxygen, temperature, and soil moisture. The process of system design, assembly, programming, deployment, and power management is presented. The system can be left underground for several years without the need to change the battery. Emphasis was given on modularity so that it can be easily duplicated or changed if needed and deployed without previous engineering knowledge. Data from this type of system have a wide range of applications, including precision agriculture and high-resolution modelling.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

FiberFlex: Real-time FPGA-based Intelligent and Distributed Fiber Sensor System for Pedestrian Recognition

In recent years, security monitoring of public places and critical infrastructure has heavily relied on the widespread use of cameras, raising concerns about personal privacy violations. To balance the need for effective security monitoring with the protection of personal privacy, we explore the potential of optical fiber sensors for this application. This article proposes FiberFlex, an intelligent and distributed fiber sensor system. Ultizing Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) high-level synthesis (HLS) acceleration, FiberFlex offers real-time pedestrian detection by co-designing the entire pipeline of optical signal acquisition, processing, and recognition networks based on the principles of optical fiber sensing. As a promising alternative to traditional camera-based monitoring systems, FiberFlex achieves pedestrian detection by analyzing the vibration patterns caused by pedestrian footsteps, enabling security monitoring while preserving individual privacy. FiberFlex comprises three modules: First , fiber-optic sensing system: A fiber-optic distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) system is built and used to measure the ground vibration waves generated by people walking. Second , algorithms: We first collect the training data by measuring the ground vibration waves, label the data, and use the data to train the neural network models to perform pedestrian recognition. Third , hardware accelerators: We use HLS tools to design hardware modules on FPGA for data collection and pre-processing and integrate them with the downstream neural network accelerators to perform in-line real-time pedestrian detection. The final detection results are sent back from FPGA to the host CPU. We implement our system FiberFlex with the in-house built DAS system and AMD/Xilinx Kintex7 FPGA KC705 board and verify the whole system using the real-world collected data. We conduct recognition tests on five test subjects of varying ages, heights, and weights in a fixed sensing area. Each subject experienced 20 real-time recognition tests using their daily walking habits, and the subjects were given adequate rest between tests. After 100 tests on five test subjects, the overall real-time recognition accuracy exceeded \(88.0\%\) . The whole system uses 55 W of power, 33 W in the optical DAS system and 22 W in the FPGA. Relying on its end-to-end interdisciplinary design, FiberFlex seamlessly combines fiber-optic sensors with FPGA accelerators to enable low-power real-time security monitoring without compromising privacy, making it a valuable addition to the existing security monitoring network. According to FiberFlex, more valuable research can be conducted in the future, such as fall monitoring for the elderly, migration of identification networks between different application scenarios, and improvement of anti-interference performance in more complex environments. In future perception networks, where the “eyes” are not feasible, let’s use fiber optic touch instead.

Distributed↗

Comparing Automated Posterior Estimation Techniques for Modeling Strong Lenses In Ground-based Survey Data

Current and future ground-based cosmological surveys, such as the Dark Energy Survey (DES), and the Vera Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), are predicted to discover thousands to tens of thousands of strong gravitational lenses. The large number of strong lenses discoverable in future surveys will make strong lensing a highly competitive and complementary cosmic probe. However, conventional lens modeling techniques are unable to scale up to the sheer number of lenses that will be discovered through upcoming surveys. Therefore, the use of automated lens analysis techniques is necessary. We demonstrate that machine learning methods can be used to automate the inference of informative model posteriors of strong lensing systems in ground-based surveys with credible uncertainty estimation. We present two Simulation-Based Inference (SBI) approaches for lens parameter estimation of galaxy-galaxy lenses. We demonstrate applications of Neural Posteriors Estima tors (NPEs) and Bayesian Neural Network (BNNs) to automate the inference of a 12-parameter lensing system for DES-like ground-based imaging data. We apply a suite of diagnostics (e.g., posterior coverage and SBC) to validate the performance of our methods. We find that NPEs outperform the BNN, producing posterior distributions that are for the most part both more accurate and more precise; in particular, several source-light model parameters are systematically biased in the BNN implementation.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

A Quantum-Inspired Tensor Network Algorithm for Constrained Combinatorial Optimization Problems

Combinatorial optimization is of general interest for both theoretical study and real-world applications. Fast-developing quantum algorithms provide a different perspective on solving combinatorial optimization problems. In this paper, we propose a quantum-inspired tensor-network-based algorithm for general locally constrained combinatorial optimization problems. Our algorithm constructs a Hamiltonian for the problem of interest, effectively mapping it to a quantum problem, then encodes the constraints directly into a tensor network state and solves the optimal solution by evolving the system to the ground state of the Hamiltonian. We demonstrate our algorithm with the open-pit mining problem, which results in a quadratic asymptotic time complexity. Our numerical results show the effectiveness of this construction and potential applications in further studies for general combinatorial optimization problems.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Slip Tendency Analysis of Fracture Networks to Determine Suitability of Candidate Testbeds for the EGS Collab Hydroshear Experiment

Experiment 2 of the EGS Collab project is aimed at testing stimulation by hydro-shearing of existing natural fractures, versus Experiment 1, which is focused on hydraulic fracturing a rock mass to enhance permeability. The main criterion for the testbed selection in Experiment 2 is the presence of an interconnected network of fractures, at least 10 meters in extent, and with orientations such that shear slip can be induced at injection pressures less than the minimum horizontal stress (Shmin). The feasibility analysis for this experiment requires a well-constrained stress state along with well-characterized fracture networks. The fracture systems at two candidate locations in the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF), the 4850 Level (number refers to depth below ground surface in feet) and the 4100 Level, have been characterized to different extents. The 4850 Level has a well-characterized Discrete Fracture Network (DFN) from borehole (drilled for an experimental test bed) and drift observations. In contrast, the 4100 level has a fracture network characterized only by observations from the drift wall, which provides little constraint on fracture extents. This paper will present assessments for the interpreted slip potential for the natural fractures at the two locations. Data uncertainties are addressed by performing a probabilistic analysis that takes into account the uncertainty in the stress state, uncertainty in the fracture properties, and preliminary borehole locations. There is strong evidence of shear stimulation of some natural fractures in Experiment 1 on the 4850 level. We use examples of natural fractures strongly linked to shear stimulation in Experiment 1 from multiple monitoring indicators to test the consistency of the stress model and guide the uncertainty interpretation. This analysis is intended to guide the site selection process for Experiment 2 by highlighting the fracture orientations that are likely to be shear-stimulated in a majority of modeled realizations.

40 EE - Geothermal Technologies Office (EE-4G)↗

Neuralized fermionic tensor networks for quantum many-body systems

In this work, we describe a class of neuralized fermionic tensor network states (NN-fTNSs) that introduce nonlinearity into fermionic tensor networks through configuration-dependent neural network transformations of the local tensors. The construction uses the fTNS algebra to implement a natural fermionic sign structure and is compatible with standard tensor network algorithms but gains enhanced expressivity through the neural network parametrization. Using the 1D and 2D Fermi-Hubbard models as benchmarks, we demonstrate that NN-fTNSs achieve order of magnitude improvements in the ground-state energy compared to pure fTNSs with the same bond dimension and can be systematically improved through both the tensor network bond dimension and the neural network parametrization. Compared to existing fermionic neural quantum states based on Slater determinants and Pfaffians, NN-fTNSs offer a physically motivated alternative fermionic structure. Furthermore, compared to such states, NN-fTNSs naturally exhibit improved computational scaling and we demonstrate a construction that achieves linear scaling with the lattice size.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Conformal field theories are magical

“Magic” is the degree to which a state cannot be approximated by Clifford gates. We study mana, a measure of magic, in the ground state of the Z 3 Potts model, and argue that it is a broadly useful diagnostic for many-body physics. In particular we find that the q = 3 ground state has large mana at the model's critical point, and that this mana resides in the system's correlations. Here, we explain the form of the mana by a simple tensor-counting calculation based on a MERA representation of the state. Because mana is present at all length scales, we conclude that the conformal field theory describing the three-state Potts model critical point is magical. These results control the difficulty of preparing the Potts ground state on an error-corrected quantum computer and constrain tensor network models of AdS-CFT.

1-dimensional spin chains↗

Magnetic dilution in the triangular lattice antiferromagnet NaYb 1−𝑥 ⁢Lu 𝑥 ⁢O 2

The delafossitelike compound NaYbO 2 hosts a triangular lattice of Yb 3+ moments and is a promising candidate for the realization of a quantum spin liquid ground state—an exotic, quantum-disordered magnetic phase featuring long-range entanglement of spins. Tuning this system away from this quantum-disordered regime toward classical order or spin freezing is a powerful approach to shed light on the nature of the parent ground state. Here we leverage the substitution of nonmagnetic Lu 3+ onto the Yb 3+ sites to study the effects of magnetic disorder in NaYbO 2 using low-temperature ac susceptibility, heat capacity, and muon spin relaxation (𝜇⁢SR) measurements. Here, our 𝜇⁢SR measurements reveal resilient, correlated magnetic fluctuations that persist to at least 15% dilution, precluding conventional spin freezing and magnetic inhomogeneity. Heat capacity and magnetic susceptibility resolve a rapid suppression of the field-induced “up-up-down” magnetic order upon dilution and a crossover in the power-law behavior of the low-temperature magnetic excitations associated with the zero-field quantum disordered ground state. Taken together, these results support the notion of a robust network of entangled moments in NaYbO 2 and provide experimental validation of several models of a Heisenberg triangular lattice antiferromagnet in the presence of disorder.

Muon spin relaxation & rotation↗

Albedo Data Sets for Bifacial PV Systems

For use by the PV and financial communities to better estimate the performance and to reduce the risk of bifacial PV systems, data sets of ground albedo and associated meteorological data were developed by using existing measurement network data and data contributed by the PV industry. The data sets include time-series data as well as summary information of tabular monthly and yearly data and plots of monthly and hourly albedo values. Complete information is presented in a user's guide and data are available for download from NREL's DuraMAT website.

albedo↗

Application of machine learning to estimate fireball characteristics and their uncertainty from infrared spectral data

Experiments or events involving high explosives (HE) can be monitored remotely by infrared (IR) sensors to gather information about the configuration or materials involved in the device. Researchers at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) developed a phenomenological model for HE fireball spectra in the IR range that allows for parameters to be extracted from Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) data. This model includes parameters tied to physical characteristics of the fireball: temperature, size, soot, and gas concentrations. Previous works have sought to recover these parameters by the fitting of either whole spectra or select wavenumber bands to this phenomenological model. Difficulties arise due to the complex relationships between the parameters to be fit. Uncertainty quantification of the estimated fireball parameters is also problematic since HE experiments do not have any ground truth information on the parameters. It is suggested that artificial neural network (ANN) based approaches may be well suited to this problem, because of their ability to capture complex and highly nonlinear relationships. As such, this work seeks to explore the efficacy of deep artificial neural networks (DNNs) for this problem of parameter recovery from spectra and to also investigate the uncertainty of recovering the fireball parameters from FTIR data. Networks are designed using the hyperparameter optimization tool Hyperopt and trained/tested on artificial data generated using the phenomenological model developed by AFIT. The results of applying the network to the artificial data set are compared to a physics-based band approach that uses a selected number of bands based on their physical properties. Information on the uncertainty of estimating parameters from remotely sensed experimental data is obtained by treating the accuracy of the DNN model on artificial data as an upper bound and by examining the impact of emissivity due to soot on parameter estimation error; the results for artificial data are likely to be optimistic as compared to recovering parameters from experimental data.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Graph Generation with a Focusing Lexicon

Reference datasets are an essential part of developing effective data exploration tools. Many reference datasets are synthetic in nature, seeding real-world properties into generation routines. Others are laboriously curated from original source materials. This is a time-consuming process that requires significant domain expertise all along the process. This paper presents a third path: deriving a network from real-world source materials using automated tools. By properly grounding the tools in a small collection of curated documents, a larger corpus be automatically processed with greater confidence. The end system leverages human knowledge (in the initial document curation), but with much less time commitment enabled by automation. Our ultimate goal is to produce reference datasets, derived from real-world data that capture aspects salient to a specific activity in the context of all of the activities in the data-set. Our reference datasets take the form of graphs.

Chandra Shekar, Mayanka↗

Albedo Data for Bifacial PV Systems Update

For use by the PV and financial communities to better estimate the performance and to reduce the risk of bifacial PV systems, data sets of ground albedo and associated meteorological data were developed by using existing measurement network data and data contributed by the PV industry. The data sets include time-series data as well as summary information of tabular monthly and yearly data and plots of monthly and hourly albedo values. Complete information is presented in a user’s guide and data are available for download from NREL’s DuraMAT website.

albedo↗

Albedo Data Sets for Bifacial PV Systems: Preprint

For use by the PV and financial communities to better estimate the performance and to reduce the risk of bifacial PV systems, data sets of ground albedo and associated meteorological data were developed by using existing measurement network data and data contributed by the PV industry. The data sets include time-series data as well as summary information of tabular monthly and yearly data and plots of monthly and hourly albedo values. Complete information is presented in a user’s guide and data are available for download from NREL’s DuraMAT website.

41 EE - Solar Energy Technologies Office (EE-4S)↗

Enriching OpenStreetMap network data for transportation applications: Insights into the impact of urban congestion on accessibility

OpenStreetMap (OSM) data is a valuable open-source resource for various transportation, traffic, and planning applications. However, OSM network data lack operating traffic speed information, which is critical for transport planning and operations. Addressing this shortcoming, this study leverages commercial vendor data (to serve as ground truth) with exogenous, open-source variables characterizing local transport infrastructure, land use, and demographic information to predict average congested traffic speeds on OSM networks. Three machine-learning models were tested and estimated for OSM links with and without speed limit information in the Denver metropolitan region. Among these, XGBoost performed best, with mean absolute errors of 3.27 and 3.62 mph for links with and without speed limits, respectively. The developed models accurately predicted traffic speeds for different hours and days of the week compared to ground truth data. Using these predicted speeds, drive accessibility scores were computed for the Denver region for different time periods using the Mobility Energy Productivity (MEP) metric to understand the impact of congestion on energy-efficient accessibility. Results show that congestion-adjusted drive accessibility can be significantly lower compared to accessibility calculated using free flow speeds. Specifically, weekday evening hours saw a 42 % drop in accessibility due to reduced speeds, particularly around downtown Denver. Across the Denver metro region, approximately half as many opportunities and jobs are accessible in under 20 min by car during the evening peak period relative to free flow conditions. These findings underscore the importance of using congestion-adjusted operating speeds rather than speed limits in accessibility calculations, as reliance on speed limits can substantially overestimate energy-efficient drive accessibility in large, car-centric cities susceptible to significant congestion. In conclusion, the methodology presented here could further enrich OSM network data, making them useful for an even broader range of transportation applications.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

RG-CAT: Detection pipeline and catalogue of radio galaxies in the EMU pilot survey

Abstract We present source detection and catalogue construction pipelines to build the first catalogue of radio galaxies from the 270$\rm deg^2$pilot survey of the Evolutionary Map of the Universe (EMU-PS) conducted with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope. The detection pipeline uses Gal-DINO computer vision networks (Gupta et al. 2024, PASA, 41, e001) to predict the categories of radio morphology and bounding boxes for radio sources, as well as their potential infrared host positions. The Gal-DINO network is trained and evaluated on approximately 5 000 visually inspected radio galaxies and their infrared hosts, encompassing both compact and extended radio morphologies. We find that the Intersection over Union (IoU) for the predicted and ground-truth bounding boxes is larger than 0.5 for 99% of the radio sources, and 98% of predicted host positions are within$3^{\prime \prime}$of the ground-truth infrared host in the evaluation set. The catalogue construction pipeline uses the predictions of the trained network on the radio and infrared image cutouts based on the catalogue of radio components identified using theSelavysource finder algorithm. Confidence scores of the predictions are then used to prioritiseSelavycomponents with higher scores and incorporate them first into the catalogue. This results in identifications for a total of 211 625 radio sources, with 201 211 classified as compact and unresolved. The remaining 10 414 are categorised as extended radio morphologies, including 582 FR-I, 5 602 FR-II, 1 494 FR-x (uncertain whether FR-I or FR-II), 2 375 R (single-peak resolved) radio galaxies, and 361 with peculiar and other rare morphologies. Each source in the catalogue includes a confidence score. We cross-match the radio sources in the catalogue with the infrared and optical catalogues, finding infrared cross-matches for 73% and photometric redshifts for 36% of the radio galaxies. The EMU-PS catalogue and the detection pipelines presented here will be used towards constructing catalogues for the main EMU survey covering the full southern sky.

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗