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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

A Logical Process Calculus

This paper presents the Logical Process Calculus (LPC), a formalism that supports heterogeneous system specifications containing both operational and declarative subspecifications. Syntactically, LPC extends Milner's Calculus of Communicating Systems with operators from the alternation-free linear-time mu-calculus (LT(mu)). Semantically, LPC is equipped with a behavioral preorder that generalizes Hennessy's and DeNicola's must-testing preorder as well as LT(mu's) satisfaction relation, while being compositional for all LPC operators. From a technical point of view, the new calculus is distinguished by the inclusion of: (1) both minimal and maximal fixed-point operators and (2) an unimple-mentability predicate on process terms, which tags inconsistent specifications. The utility of LPC is demonstrated by means of an example highlighting the benefits of heterogeneous system specification.

Cleaveland, Rance↗

Graph Partitioning for Parallel Applications in Heterogeneous Grid Environments

The problem of partitioning irregular graphs and meshes for parallel computations on homogeneous systems has been extensively studied. However, these partitioning schemes fail when the target system architecture exhibits heterogeneity in resource characteristics. With the emergence of technologies such as the Grid, it is imperative to study the partitioning problem taking into consideration the differing capabilities of such distributed heterogeneous systems. In our model, the heterogeneous system consists of processors with varying processing power and an underlying non-uniform communication network. We present in this paper a novel multilevel partitioning scheme for irregular graphs and meshes, that takes into account issues pertinent to Grid computing environments. Our partitioning algorithm, called MiniMax, generates and maps partitions onto a heterogeneous system with the objective of minimizing the maximum execution time of the parallel distributed application. For experimental performance study, we have considered both a realistic mesh problem from NASA as well as synthetic workloads. Simulation results demonstrate that MiniMax generates high quality partitions for various classes of applications targeted for parallel execution in a distributed heterogeneous environment.

Bisws, Rupak↗

INSPiRE – An Approach to Mission Quality Management using Network Slicing for Space Applications

Managing traffic between the Earth-Moon and Earth-Mars is a complex process requiring significant investment in resources and expertise at NASA. INSPiRE improves the performance of space networks by enabling a dynamic re-configuration process that works for any mixed topology over a heterogeneous and multi-vendor network. To achieve the desired functionality, INSPiRE incorporates a set of algorithms, machine learning processes, and policy inference to handle unpredictable, disruptive events. INSPiRE draws parallels from the current notion of the 3GPP (5G and beyond) Network Slicing approach, where the same physical network divides into several virtual networks, and for each of these virtual networks, there is a guaranteed Quality of Service for the missions that they serve.

cognitive communications↗

Evaluating the Utility of Satellite Soil Moisture Retrievals over Irrigated Areas and the Ability of Land Data Assimilation Methods to Correct for Unmodeled Processes

Earth's land surface is characterized by tremendous natural heterogeneity and human-engineered modifications, both of which are challenging to represent in land surface models. Satellite remote sensing is often the most practical and effective method to observe the land surface over large geographical areas. Agricultural irrigation is an important human-induced modification to natural land surface processes, as it is pervasive across the world and because of its significant influence on the regional and global water budgets. In this article, irrigation is used as an example of a human-engineered, often unmodeled land surface process, and the utility of satellite soil moisture retrievals over irrigated areas in the continental US is examined. Such retrievals are based on passive or active microwave observations from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for the Earth Observing System (AMSR-E), the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2), the Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission, WindSat and the Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT). The analysis suggests that the skill of these retrievals for representing irrigation effects is mixed, with ASCAT-based products somewhat more skillful than SMOS and AMSR2 products. The article then examines the suitability of typical bias correction strategies in current land data assimilation systems when unmodeled processes dominate the bias between the model and the observations. Using a suite of synthetic experiments that includes bias correction strategies such as quantile mapping and trained forward modeling, it is demonstrated that the bias correction practices lead to the exclusion of the signals from unmodeled processes, if these processes are the major source of the biases. It is further shown that new methods are needed to preserve the observational information about unmodeled processes during data assimilation.

land data↗

Origin of plagioclase-olivine inclusions in carbonaceous chondrites

The origin of plagioclase-olivine inclusions (POIs) from three CV chondrites and one ungrouped chondrite was investigated by examining the chemical, mineralogical, and isotopic characteristics of a group of POIs from these chondrites. Results of these analyses demonstrate that the mixing and the partial melting processes in these inclusions were superimposed on more ancient isotopically heterogeneous material. A comparison of the essential characteristics of POIs and CAIs suggests that the major processes leading to the formation of POIs (such as condensation, dust/gas fractionation, aggregation of chemically and isotopically disparate materials, and partial melting) are common to most CAIs and chondrules. A scenario for the origin of POIs is proposed, showing that the homogeneity of the final assemblage (whether a POI, a CAI, or a chondrite) is primarily a reflection of the thermal history rather than the nature of precursor materials.

Sheng, Y. J.↗

Nitrogen abundances and isotopic compositions in stony meteorites

Nitrogen contents range from a few parts per million in ordinary chondrites and achondrites to several hundred parts per million in enstatite chondrites and carbonaceous chondrites. Four major isotopic groups are recognized: (1) C1 and C2 carbonaceous chondrites, (2) enstatite chondrites, (3) C3 chondrites, and (4) ordinary chondrites. The major variations are primary, representing isotopic abundances established at the time of condensation and accretion. Secondary processes, such as spallation reactions, solar wind implantation and metamorphic loss may cause small but observable isotopic variations in particular cases. The large isotopic difference between enstatite chondrites and carbonaceous chondrites cannot be accounted for by equilibrium condensation from a homogeneous nebular gas, and requires either unusually large kinetic effects, or a temporal or spatial variation of isotopic composition of the nebula. Nitrogen isotopic heterogeneity in the nebula due to nuclear processes has not been firmly established, but may be required to account for the large variations found within the Allende and Leoville meteorites. The unique carbonaceous chondrite, Renazzo, also requires a special source. It is not yet possible, from the meteoritic data, to establish the mode of accretion of nitrogen onto the primitive earth.

Kung, C.-C.↗

Investigating Amino Acid Heterogeneity in Milligram-Scale Samples of the Murchison CM2 Carbonaceous Chondrite

Analyses of different aliquots of the Tagish Lake meteorite have resulted in amino acid abundance variations of an order of magnitude or more, even when performed using the same techniques, by the same personnel, in the same laboratories (e.g., Simkus et al. 2019). Up to ~five-fold variations have been observed for specific amino acids in different samples of the same meteorite, such as α aminoisobutryic acid (AIB) in Murchison. These variations are often attributed differing sample composition or differing alteration history, neither of which is mutually exclusive. Distinguishing between these two explanations is challenging and time consuming, requiring detailed mineralogical analyses to be performed in conjunction with high precision organics analysis. The potential for innate sample-level heterogeneity presents a significant complication when parsing the effects of different processes or conditions during preparation of meteorite samples for analysis, as differences in organic yields or abundances could be due to differences in laboratory processing or differences among the samples themselves. In this work, we investigated the degree of innate organic heterogeneity present in a single ~250 mg chip of divided into 21 samples.

A. S. Burton↗

Predicting the Mineral Composition of Dust Aerosols: Representing Key Processes - Part 1

Soil dust aerosols created by wind erosion are typically assigned globally uniform physical and chemical properties within Earth system models, despite known regional variations in the mineral content of the parent soil. Mineral composition of the aerosol particles is important to their interaction with climate, including shortwave absorption and radiative forcing, nucleation of cloud droplets and ice crystals, heterogeneous formation of sulfates and nitrates, and atmospheric processing of iron into bioavailable forms that increase the productivity of marine phytoplankton. Here, aerosol mineral composition is derived by extending a method that provides the composition of a wet-sieved soil. The extension accounts for measurements showing significant differences between the mineral fractions of the wetsieved soil and the emitted aerosol concentration. For example, some phyllosilicate aerosols are more prevalent at silt sizes, even though they are nearly absent at these diameters in a soil whose aggregates are dispersed by wet sieving. We calculate the emitted mass of each mineral with respect to size by accounting for the disintegration of soil aggregates during wet sieving. These aggregates are emitted during mobilization and fragmentation of the original undispersed soil that is subject to wind erosion. The emitted aggregates are carried far downwind from their parent soil. The soil mineral fractions used to calculate the aggregates also include larger particles that are suspended only in the vicinity of the source. We calculate the emitted size distribution of these particles using a normalized distribution derived from aerosol measurements. In addition, a method is proposed for mixing minerals with small impurities composed of iron oxides. These mixtures are important for transporting iron far from the dust source, because pure iron oxides are more dense and vulnerable to gravitational removal than most minerals comprising dust aerosols. A limited comparison to measurements from North Africa shows that the model extensions result in better agreement, consistent with a more extensive comparison to global observations as well as measurements of elemental composition downwind of the Sahara, as described in companion articles.

aerosols↗

Radiobrightness Forward Modelling vs Observations from Local to Satellite Scales during the 2003 NASA Cold Land Processes Experiment

A key issue for passive microwave Earth sensing applications is subpixel heterogeneity and its role in the connection between local-scale conditions vs. what is observed at the satellite footprint scale. The recently-completed NASA Cold Land Processes Field Experiment (CLPX-1) was designed to provide microwave remote sensing observations and ground truth for studies of snow and from ground remote sensing, particularly issues related to scaling. CLPX-1 was conducted in the spring of 2003 in Colorado, USA. Measurements of radiobrightness were made with nested footprint sizes ranging from scales of meters at a single site to 25 x 25 km across the entire CLPX-1 domain. Corresponding measurements of snowpack conditions (snow depth and temperature. density, and grain size profiles) as well as weather analyses were used to provide input data for forward radiative transfer model investigations. This paper will focus on the ability of forward modelling, based primarily on Dense Medium Radiative Transfer (DMRT) theory, combined with snowpack measurements and weather data to reproduce the radiobrightness signatures observed at multiple scales during both the third and fourth Intensive Observing Periods (February and March, 2003). The conditions include both wet and dry periods as well as a variety of forest cover conditions, providing a valuable test of model performance. These analyses will help guide the choice of future snow retrieval algorithm and the design of future Cold Lands observing systems.

Kim, Edward J.↗

A Computational Study to Investigate the Effect of Defect Geometries on the Fatigue Crack Driving Forces in Powder-Bed AM Materials

Powder-bed additive manufacturing (AM) processes are associated with the formation of multiple types of process-specific pores, including but not limited to lack-of-fusion (LoF) and keyhole pores. The performance of an AM component is dependent on the type of pores, their density and their proximity to the free surface, and other heterogeneities in the microstructure. In order to characterize the influence of porosity on the mechanical behavior of AM materials, it is imperative to quantitatively analyze the heterogeneous strain accumulation in the vicinity of porosity. Process-specific microstructure models are generated using SPPARKS, an open-source process simulation code. Spherical keyhole or irregular LoF pores are embedded into the microstructure models, which are meshed and input into a finite element code, ScIFEN, to solve for the heterogeneous strain localization in the vicinity of the pores. Given the non-smooth geometries of LoF pores, they readily promote strain accumulation in their vicinity thereby increasing the propensity of initiating fatigue cracks.

Saikumar R Yeratapally↗

Fe and Mg in plagioclase

Distribution coefficients for Fe and Mg between plagioclase and basaltic liquids were measured for lunar, terrestrial and synthetic systems. The data obtained imply that lunar anorthosites crystallized from relatively iron-rich liquids, that Fe/Mg zoning in plagioclase is an indicator of crystallization processes in basaltic magmas, and that Fe/Mg heterogeneity in plagioclase is a clue to the recognition of impact melts.

Longhi, J.↗

Chemistry, classification, and petrogenesis of Apollo 17 mare basalts

Major- and trace-element data is presented for a large number of petrographically diverse Apollo 17 basalts, and an attempt is made to evaluate what proportion of the total compositional variance can be attributed to near-surface crystal fractionation and what proportion to magma-generating processes such as partial melting and source heterogeneity. Three well-defined and self-consistent basalt types were identified on the basis of data for fine-grained, rapidly-chilled samples.

Rhodes, J. M.↗

Heterogeneous atmospheric reactions - Sulfuric acid aerosols as tropospheric sinks

The reaction probabilities of various atmospheric species incident on a bulk sulfuric acid surface are measured in order to determine the role of sulfuric acid aerosols as pollutant sinks. Reaction products and unreacted starting materials leaving a Knudsen cell flow reactor after collision at 300 K with a H2SO4 surface or a soot surface were detected by mass spectrometry. Significant collision reaction probabilities are observed on a H2SO4 surface for H2O2, HNO3, HO2NO2, ClONO2, N2O5, H2O and NH3, and on soot for NH3. Estimates of the contribution of heterogeneous reactions to pollutant removal under atmospheric conditions indicate that while aerosol removal in the stratosphere is insignificant (loss rate constants approximately 10 to the -10th/sec), heterogeneous reactions may be the dominant loss process for several tropospheric species (loss rate constant approximately 10 to the -5th/sec, comparable to photolysis rate constants).

Baldwin, A. C.↗

High Performance Parallel Analysis of Coupled Problems for Aircraft Propulsion

In order to predict the dynamic response of a flexible structure in a fluid flow, the equations of motion of the structure and the fluid must be solved simultaneously. In this paper, we present several partitioned procedures for time-integrating this focus coupled problem and discuss their merits in terms of accuracy, stability, heterogeneous computing, I/O transfers, subcycling, and parallel processing. All theoretical results are derived for a one-dimensional piston model problem with a compressible flow, because the complete three-dimensional aeroelastic problem is difficult to analyze mathematically. However, the insight gained from the analysis of the coupled piston problem and the conclusions drawn from its numerical investigation are confirmed with the numerical simulation of the two-dimensional transient aeroelastic response of a flexible panel in a transonic nonlinear Euler flow regime.

Felippa, C. A.↗

Performance of BLAS 3, FFTs and NAS Parallel Benchmarks on Cray T3D

Recently, a Cray T3D Emulator has been made available on the Cray Y-MP and C90 computers. The Pittsburgh Supercomputer Center has acquired a CRAY T3D system and many other centers like Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) will have it by the end of 1994. The Cray T3D system is the firstphase system in Cray Research, Inc.'s (CRI) three-phase massively parallel processing (MPP) program. This system features a heterogeneous architecture that closely couples DEC's ALPHA microprocessors and CRI's parallel-vector technology, i.e. the Cray Y-MP and Cray C90. The Cray T3D Emulator will give prospective users a valuable experience in developing high performance applications on the MPP system. This emulator runs programs written in CRI's MPP Fortran programming model (data sharing and work sharing) or Parallel Virtual Machine (PVM) programming model. It will help the users to study data layout, data locality, and data reference patterns thereby providing feedback which will enable one to write more efficient parallel codes. An overview of the Cray T3D hardware, software, and three of its available programming models is presented.The Cray Fortran Programming Model comprising (a) Data Sharing, (b) Worksharing and (c) Message Passing, will be discussed with examples. We have also implemented distributed BLAS 3 (matrix-matrix multiplication) in data parallel model (using only CSHIFT); worksharing model using block distribution and collapsed distribution; and message passing model using PVM. We have also implemented 2D and 3D FFTs for radix-2 using PVM. The performance of NAS Parallel 'Benchmarks (NPB) on CRAY T3D will be compared with other highly parallel systems such as CM-5, Paragon, C90 etc.

Saini, Subhash↗

High Performance Programming Using Explicit Shared Memory Model on Cray T3D1

The Cray T3D system is the first-phase system in Cray Research, Inc.'s (CRI) three-phase massively parallel processing (MPP) program. This system features a heterogeneous architecture that closely couples DEC's Alpha microprocessors and CRI's parallel-vector technology, i.e., the Cray Y-MP and Cray C90. An overview of the Cray T3D hardware and available programming models is presented. Under Cray Research adaptive Fortran (CRAFT) model four programming methods (data parallel, work sharing, message-passing using PVM, and explicit shared memory model) are available to the users. However, at this time data parallel and work sharing programming models are not available to the user community. The differences between standard PVM and CRI's PVM are highlighted with performance measurements such as latencies and communication bandwidths. We have found that the performance of neither standard PVM nor CRI s PVM exploits the hardware capabilities of the T3D. The reasons for the bad performance of PVM as a native message-passing library are presented. This is illustrated by the performance of NAS Parallel Benchmarks (NPB) programmed in explicit shared memory model on Cray T3D. In general, the performance of standard PVM is about 4 to 5 times less than obtained by using explicit shared memory model. This degradation in performance is also seen on CM-5 where the performance of applications using native message-passing library CMMD on CM-5 is also about 4 to 5 times less than using data parallel methods. The issues involved (such as barriers, synchronization, invalidating data cache, aligning data cache etc.) while programming in explicit shared memory model are discussed. Comparative performance of NPB using explicit shared memory programming model on the Cray T3D and other highly parallel systems such as the TMC CM-5, Intel Paragon, Cray C90, IBM-SP1, etc. is presented.

Simon, Horst D.↗

Multiscale and Multiphysics Modeling of Additive Manufacturing of Advanced Materials

The objective of this proposed project is to research and develop a prediction tool for advanced additive manufacturing (AAM) processes for advanced materials and develop experimental methods to provide fundamental properties and establish validation data. Aircraft structures and engines demand materials that are stronger, useable at much higher temperatures, provide less acoustic transmission, and enable more aeroelastic tailoring than those currently used. Significant improvements in properties can only be achieved by processing the materials under nonequilibrium conditions, such as AAM processes. AAM processes encompass a class of processes that use a focused heat source to create a melt pool on a substrate. Examples include Electron Beam Freeform Fabrication and Direct Metal Deposition. These types of additive processes enable fabrication of parts directly from CAD drawings. To achieve the desired material properties and geometries of the final structure, assessing the impact of process parameters and predicting optimized conditions with numerical modeling as an effective prediction tool is necessary. The targets for the processing are multiple and at different spatial scales, and the physical phenomena associated occur in multiphysics and multiscale. In this project, the research work has been developed to model AAM processes in a multiscale and multiphysics approach. A macroscale model was developed to investigate the residual stresses and distortion in AAM processes. A sequentially coupled, thermomechanical, finite element model was developed and validated experimentally. The results showed the temperature distribution, residual stress, and deformation within the formed deposits and substrates. A mesoscale model was developed to include heat transfer, phase change with mushy zone, incompressible free surface flow, solute redistribution, and surface tension. Because of excessive computing time needed, a parallel computing approach was also tested. In addition, after investigating various methods, a Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics Model (SPH Model) was developed to model wire feeding process. Its computational efficiency and simple architecture makes it more robust and flexible than other models. More research on material properties may be needed to realistically model the AAM processes. A microscale model was developed to investigate heterogeneous nucleation, dendritic grain growth, epitaxial growth of columnar grains, columnar-to-equiaxed transition, grain transport in melt, and other properties. The orientations of the columnar grains were almost perpendicular to the laser motion's direction. Compared to the similar studies in the literature, the multiple grain morphology modeling result is in the same order of magnitude as optical morphologies in the experiment. Experimental work was conducted to validate different models. An infrared camera was incorporated as a process monitoring and validating tool to identify the solidus and mushy zones during deposition. The images were successfully processed to identify these regions. This research project has investigated multiscale and multiphysics of the complex AAM processes thus leading to advanced understanding of these processes. The project has also developed several modeling tools and experimental validation tools that will be very critical in the future of AAM process qualification and certification.

Liou, Frank↗

The Effects of Gravity on Combustion and Structure Formation During Combustion Synthesis in Gasless Systems

There have been relatively few publications examining the role of gravity during combustion synthesis (CS), mostly involving thermite systems. The main goal of this research was to study the influence of gravity on the combustion characteristics of heterogeneous gasless systems. In addition, some aspects of microstructure formation processes which occur during gasless CS were also studied. Four directions for experimental investigation have been explored: (1) the influence of gravity force on the characteristic features of heterogeneous combustion wave propagation (average velocity, instantaneous velocities, shape of combustion front); (2) the combustion of highly porous mixtures (with porosity greater than that for loose powders), which cannot be obtained in normal gravity; (3) the effect of gravity on sample expansion during combustion, in order to produce highly porous materials under microgravity conditions; and (4) the effect of gravity on the structure formation mechanism during the combustion synthesis of poreless composite materials.

Varma, Arvind↗