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At least 235 records · Page 13

Aerosol Physics for the Lunar Environment: Equations for Lunar Dust Control and Mitigation Technologies

Sticky and jagged dust was ubiquitous during the Apollo missions, causing soiling and abrasion problems with seals, coatings and equipment, in addition to eye irritation and breathing discomfort in the cabin. The Artemis Program of NASA aims to place astronauts on the lunar surface by 2024 and establish a sustainable presence in the following decade. Returning to the Moon requires controlling and mitigating the dust which will be inevitably brought inside the cabins. The state-of-the-science for effective collection of aerosols is based on dynamics of airborne particulate matter under terrestrial conditions. However, the governing physics does not apply to extra-vehicular activity in the hard-vacuum lunar condition. For example, the substantial difference in gravity will dictate particle transport both outside and inside the cabin. In this study, we revisited the aerosol physical phenomena that are assumed in the design of Earth-based aerosol instruments and extend the applicability to different scenarios in lunar missions. As shown, long-term lunar habitats, transfer vehicles to lunar orbital platforms, and low pressure cabin atmospheres have different aerosol dynamics. In all cases, the impact of dust control strategies using gravitational, electrical, and thermal techniques for various mitigation and monitoring hardware is explored. The guidelines provided through this study will show how terrestrial aerosol equipment can translate to lunar dust applications.

Nima Afshar-Mohajer↗

Multi-Agency Annual Southeastern Beach Mouse Habitat Occupancy Monitoring

The southeastern beach mouse (Peromyscus polionotus niveiventris, hereafter SEBM), a federally threatened species was identified by Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge (MINWR) as one of the top five priorities for management. The Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Environmental Management Branch was asked to provide support in the form of population monitoring for SEBM on KSC and the surrounding properties. When we began the project, the SEBM was known to occupy sites ranging from Volusia through Brevard and Indian River Counties, but the exact distribution within the Federal lands encompassing the Cape Canaveral Barrier Island Complex (CCBIC) was not well known. The broad range of habitat conditions encompassing the species’ historical range and the diversity of sites historically known to contain SEBM required a landscape-scale approach for both monitoring the population and for investigating species habitat relationships. We designed a monitoring plan for the SEBM with the goal of estimating the habitat occupancy of beach mice annually each winter/spring throughout the entire area of suitable coastal habitat (approximately 72 km linear distance along the beach). Methods were tested in a 2008 pilot study, and during 2010-2018 we monitored the proportion of coastal habitat occupied by the SEBM on the CCBIC. Monitoring was focused on using dynamic habitat occupancy surveys with data collected with rapid assessment techniques (i.e., track tubes or live-traps) to detect SEBM occurrence at sampling stations. An important component of the study design was the use of repeated samples that provided the information needed to estimate detectability. Measuring detectability was required to account for the fact that surveys could fail to detect animals at sites at which they were actually present (Mackenzie et al., 2002). This monitoring framework is very flexible, allowing numerous hypothesis to be tested about how various factors influence beach mouse occupancy using habitat, geographic, and environmental covariates. Our survey has been the longest survey conducted for any of the seven extant beach mouse subspecies and has encompassed nearly the entire remaining range of the SEBM. Although occupancy surveys of other beach mouse subspecies via track tubes have been conducted on the Gulf coast of Florida by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), and various universities, we expanded previous methods to fit unique aspects of the SEBM, and thus our study was very different from any of the previous studies. To achieve this specificity, we employed an adaptive approach throughout the study, with all activities aimed at providing managers with information related to environmental compliance and natural resource management on KSC and the surrounding Federal lands.

Eric Douglas Stolen↗

Data Augmentation for Intelligent Contingency Management Using Generative Adversarial Neural Networks

Artificial intelligence (AI)-based techniques for intelligent contingency management (ICM) require that intelligent agents learn various aspects of system dynamics to create and execute contingencies. For high assurance contingency management, agents achieve the most compelling results through supervised or semi-supervised machine learning, for which agents require large datasets to learn the dynamics of the system. Unfortunately, data collection in aerospace applications can be costly, due to both time and resources. Presented work describes a framework for data augmentation of ICM databases containing training data for machine learning models. This framework populates the database with the outputs of generative adversarial network (GAN) models that were trained on flight data. Methods for evaluating the suitability of these models based on the equations of motion, as well as other physical constraints, are discussed. The paper demonstrates the utility of this database for training intelligent agents on the NASA T2 generic transport aircraft model and experimental vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) simulation model.

Generative Machine Learning↗

Data Augmentation for Intelligent Contingency Management Using Generative Adversarial Neural Networks

Artificial intelligence (AI)-based techniques for intelligent contingency management (ICM) require that intelligent agents learn various aspects of system dynamics to create and execute contingencies. For high assurance contingency management, agents achieve the most compelling results through supervised or semi-supervised machine learning, for which agents require large datasets to learn the dynamics of the system. Unfortunately, data collection in aerospace applications can be costly, due to both time and resources. Presented work describes a framework for data augmentation of ICM databases containing training data for machine learning models. This framework populates the database with the outputs of generative adversarial network (GAN) models that were trained on flight data. Methods for evaluating the suitability of these models based on the equations of motion, as well as other physical constraints, are discussed. The paper demonstrates the utility of this database for training intelligent agents on the NASA T2 generic transport aircraft model and experimental vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) simulation model.

Generative Machine Learning↗

Sea Ice Drift Tracks From Autonomous Buoys in the MOSAiC Distributed Network

A network of autonomous, ice-tethered buoys was deployed around the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) experiment in late September 2019 for a year-long drift in the Arctic Transpolar Drift Stream. The buoys were deployed as part of the MOSAiC distributed network (DN) which included 12 multi-instrumented ice stations and an additional 116 GPS buoys distributed primarily within a 40 km radius of the MOSAiC Central Observatory. Buoy coverage within the DN was maintained with additional deployments throughout the year-long drift allowing for collection of data over a full sea ice growth and melt cycle. All GPS position data from buoys deployed within the DN have been assembled and processed into the collection of 216 quality-controlled buoy drift tracks presented in this dataset covering the period 26 September 2019 – 23 May 2021. The drift tracks in this collection are ideal for studies of dynamic sea ice motion around the MOSAiC experiment at cascading spatial scales ranging from 100s of meters to 100s of km.

Angela C. Bliss↗

Polarons are probes of the dynamic nanoscale environments found in electrochemically doped π-conjugated polymers

Charge carriers (i.e., polarons) in electrochemically doped organic (semi)conductors are proposed to be regulated by several physicochemical features, including the chemical compositions and structures of the π-conjugated frameworks of the semiconductor building blocks, the chemistry of the electrolyte (considering both the salt and solvent), multiscale and time-dependent morphology variations across the material as a function of electrochemical processes, and assorted permutations of these and other factors. To address these hypotheses, we investigate the energetic, optoelectronic, chemical, and local structural properties of negative polarons (radical anions) as a function of electrochemical doping in the donor–acceptor, π-conjugated redox copolymer P(NDI2OD-T2), also referred to as N2200. A critical finding is that there is not just “one type” of polaron in electrochemically doped P(NDI2OD-T2). Rather, an ensemble of polarons exists, with the polarons having optoelectronic signatures that are defined by their nanoscale environments. Importantly, the polaron optical signatures serve as local probes for how the operando electrochemical environments are dynamically working in concert to facilitate charge transport. Collectively, the distinctive and extensive integration of theory and measurement science presented here establishes a baseline for the roles that semiconductor and electrolyte chemistries and dynamic structural features have on polarons in electrochemically doped organic semiconductors and how these factors influence the energetics and rates of polaron transport.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

MDLoader: A Hybrid Model-Driven Data Loader for Distributed Graph Neural Network Training

Scalable data management is essential for processing large scientific dataset on HPC platforms for distributed deep learning. In-memory distributed storage is preferred for its speed, enabling rapid, random, and frequent data access required by stochastic optimizers. Processes use one-sided or collective communication to fetch remote data, with optimal performance depending on (i) dataset characteristics, (ii) training scale, and (iii) interconnection network. Empirical analysis shows collective communication excels with larger mini-batch sizes and/or fewer processes, whereas one-sided communication outperforms at larger scales. We propose MDLoader, a hybrid in-memory data loader for distributed graph neural network training. MDLoader features a model-driven performance estimator that dynamically selects between one-sided and collective communication at the beginning of training using Tree of Parzen Estimators (TPE). Evaluations on NERSC Perlmutter and OLCF Summit show MDLoader outperforms single-backend loaders by up to 2.83 × and predicts the suitable communication method with 96.3% (Perlmutter) and 94.3% (Summit) success rate.

Bae, Jonghyun↗

Polariton spectra under the collective coupling regime. II. 2D non-linear spectra

In our previous work [Mondal et al., J. Chem. Phys. 162, 014114 (2025)], we developed several efficient computational approaches to simulate exciton–polariton dynamics described by the Holstein–Tavis–Cummings (HTC) Hamiltonian under the collective coupling regime. Here, we incorporated these strategies into the previously developed Lindblad-partially linearized density matrix (⁠$\mathscr{L}$-PLDM) approach for simulating 2D electronic spectroscopy (2DES) of exciton–polariton under the collective coupling regime. In particular, we apply the efficient quantum dynamics propagation scheme developed in Paper I to both the forward and the backward propagations in the PLDM and develop an efficient importance sampling scheme and graphics processing unit vectorization scheme that allow us to reduce the computational costs from $\mathscr{O}$($\mathscr{K}$ 2 )$\mathscr{O}$(T 3 ) to $\mathscr{O}$($\mathscr{K}$)$\mathscr{O}$(T 0 ) for the 2DES simulation, where $\mathscr{K}$ is the number of states and T is the number of time steps of propagation. As a result, we further simulated the 2DES for an HTC Hamiltonian under the collective coupling regime and analyzed the signal from both rephasing and non-rephasing contributions of the ground state bleaching, excited state emission, and stimulated emission pathways.

2D non-linear spectra↗

Dynamics of Nuclear Regions of Galaxies

Current research carried out with the help of the ASEE-NASA Summer Faculty Program, at NASA-Ames, is concentrated on the dynamics of nuclear regions of galaxies. From a dynamical point of view a galaxy is a collection of around 10(sup 11) stars like our Sun, each of which moves in the summed gravitational field of all the remaining stars. Thus galaxy dynamics becomes a self-consistent n-body problem with forces given by Newtonian gravitation. Strong nonlinearity in the gravitational force and the inherent nonlinearity of self-consistent problems both argue for a numerical approach. The technique of numerical experiments consis of constructing an environment in the computer that is as close as possible to the physical conditions in a real galaxy and then carrying out experiments much like laboratory experiments in physics or engineering, in this environment. Computationally, an experiment is an initial value problem, and a good deal of thought and effort goes into the design of the starting conditions that serve as initial values. Experiments are run at Ames because all the 'equipment' is in place-the programs, the necessary computational power, and good facilities for post-run analysis. Our goal for this research program is to study the nuclear regions in detail and this means replacing most of the galaxy by a suitable boundary condition to allow the full capability of numerical experiments to be brought to bear on a small region perhaps 1/1000 of the linear dimensions of an entire galaxy. This is an extremely delicate numerical problem, one in which some small feature overlook, can easily lead to a collapse or blow-up of the entire system. All particles attract each other in gravitational problems, and the 1/r(sup 2) force is: (1) nonlinear; (2) strong at short range; (3) long-range, and (4) unscreened at any distance.

Miller, Richard H.↗

Creating the Distributed Energy Resources Education Center (DEREC)

The built environment in the United States consumes 40% of the energy generated and emits roughly the same percentage of total carbon footprint. Distributed energy resources (DER), small or modular energy generation and storage technologies, present the nation with an opportunity to substantially improve those metrics while securing the nation’s energy independence. As opportunities increase for implementing such technologies, they also continue to evolve and often outpace the nation’s traditional building practices. In an effort to effectively and proactively incorporate distributed energy resources into the nation’s energy supply, Southface Energy Institute convened with national and regional partners to create the Distributed Energy Resources Education Center (DEREC). Using national model codes and their regionally amended versions as a collective starting point, the DEREC team collaborated with industry experts and identified impediments to effective implementation of DERs, developing discipline-specific curriculum to eliminate those impediments. The center, developed in collaboration with Interstate Renewable Energy Committee (IREC) and National Buildings Institute (NBI), leverages existing DER education content as well as new and dynamic training materials and online courses that collectively engage the many roles necessary for DER implementations, including designers, code officials, builders and skilled trades, and building owners who specify, inspect, build, operate, and maintain buildings with DERs.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

CEAS/AIAA/ICASE/NASA Langley International Forum on Aeroelasticity and Structural Dynamics 1999

The proceedings of a workshop sponsored by the Confederation of European Aerospace Societies (CEAS), the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Washington, D.C., and the Institute for Computer Applications in Science and Engineering (ICASE), Hampton, Virginia, and held in Williamsburg, Virginia June 22-25, 1999 represent a collection of the latest advances in aeroelasticity and structural dynamics from the world community. Research in the areas of unsteady aerodynamics and aeroelasticity, structural modeling and optimization, active control and adaptive structures, landing dynamics, certification and qualification, and validation testing are highlighted in the collection of papers. The wide range of results will lead to advances in the prediction and control of the structural response of aircraft and spacecraft.

Woodrow Whitlow, Jr.↗

The Fourth SeaWiFS HPLC Analysis Round-Robin Experiment (SeaHARRE-4)

Ten international laboratories specializing in the determination of marine pigment concentrations using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) were intercompared using in situ samples and a mixed pigment sample. Although prior Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) Round-Robin Experiment (SeaHARRE) activities conducted in open-ocean waters covered a wide dynamic range in productivity, and some of the samples were collected in the coastal zone, none of the activities involved exclusively coastal samples. Consequently, SeaHARRE-4 was organized and executed as a strictly coastal activity and the field samples were collected from primarily eutrophic waters within the coastal zone of Denmark. The more restrictive perspective limited the dynamic range in chlorophyll concentration to approximately one and a half orders of magnitude (previous activities covered more than two orders of magnitude). The method intercomparisons were used for the following objectives: a) estimate the uncertainties in quantitating individual pigments and higher-order variables formed from sums and ratios; b) confirm if the chlorophyll a accuracy requirements for ocean color validation activities (approximately 25%, although 15% would allow for algorithm refinement) can be met in coastal waters; c) establish the reduction in uncertainties as a result of applying QA procedures; d) show the importance of establishing a properly defined referencing system in the computation of uncertainties; e) quantify the analytical benefits of performance metrics, and f) demonstrate the utility of a laboratory mix in understanding method performance. In addition, the remote sensing requirements for the in situ determination of total chlorophyll a were investigated to determine whether or not the average uncertainty for this measurement is being satisfied.

Hooker, Stanford B.↗

Determination of load sequence effects on the degradation and failure of composite materials

A theoretical model was established to predict the fatigue behavior of composite materials, with emphasis placed on predictions of the degradation of residual strength and residual stiffness during fatigue cycling. The model parameters were evaluated from three test series including static strength fatigue life and residual strength tests. The tests were applied to two graphite/epoxy laminates. Load sequence effects were emphasized for both laminates and the predicted results agreed quite well with subsequent verification tests. Dynamic as well as static stiffness reduction data were collected by use of a PDP11-03 computer, which performed quite satisfactorily and permitted the recording of a substantial amount of dynamic stiffness reduction data.

Yang, J. N.↗

A fully-integrated lattice Boltzmann method for fluid–structure interaction

Here we present a fully-integrated lattice Boltzmann (LB) method for fluid–structure interaction (FSI) simulations that efficiently models deformable solids in complex suspensions and active systems. Our Eulerian method (LBRMT) couples finite-strain solids to the LB fluid on the same fixed computational grid with the reference map technique (RMT). An integral part of the LBRMT is a new LB boundary condition for moving deformable interfaces across different densities. With this fully Eulerian solid–fluid coupling, the LBRMT is well-suited for parallelization and simulating multi-body contact without remeshing or extra meshes. We validate its accuracy via a benchmark of a deformable solid in a lid-driven cavity, then showcase its versatility through examples of soft solids rotating and settling. The LBRMT achieves a spatial convergence rate between first-order and second-order for FSI simulations and is designed for low to intermediate Reynolds number flows with finite inertia at small Mach numbers. With simulations of complex suspensions mixing, we highlight the potential of the LBRMT for studying collective behavior in soft matter and biofluid dynamics.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

FIRE - The First ISCCP Regional Experiment

The First International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project Regional Experiment (FIRE) designed to study the roles of clouds, in particular marine stratocumulus and cirrus-cloud systems, in the global climate is discussed. The objectives of FIRE are: (1) to develop a cloud-classification scheme; (2) to validate and improve satellite cloud-retrieval techniques; (3) to improve cloud radiation models; (4) to collect cloud space/time statistics; (5) to improve cloud dynamics models; and (6) to validate and improve GCM cloud parameterizations. The methods used to acquire extended time data and intensive field observations are described. The extended time and intensive field data collected during the FIRE are to be archived in the NASA Pilot Climate Data System at Goddard Space Flight Center.

Cox, Stephen K.↗

Theory of Ion-Mediated Segmental Localization, Activated Structural Relaxation, and the Glass Transition in Polymerized Ionic Liquids

Here we combine polymer integral equation theory for structural correlations with a force-level theory for activated segmental relaxation to construct a microscopic theory for how ions modify the onset of segmental localization, the polymer alpha relaxation time, and glass transition temperature, T g , in dry polymerized ionic liquids (PolyILs). Our most important findings concerning the behavior of T g are (i) a weak dependence on anion–cation Coulomb attraction strength due to strong decoupling of ion and segmental dynamics, (ii) strong reduction with increasing mobile ion size due to both plasticization effects and weakening of ion-modified monomer caging, and (iii) increase with backbone rigidity and intrachain dynamic cooperativity. We quantitatively estimate T g variations as ion size and polymer static and dynamic rigidity are widely varied. The experimental data of 19 PolyILs are organized into a specific pattern consistent with the theoretical predictions with glass transition temperatures varying over a very wide range (~250 K) as observed experimentally. Based on the theoretical results, suggestions are made concerning the search for high conductivity Li- or Na-based PolyILs based on further lowering of T g via new polymer synthesis. Calculations of the alpha time as a function of packing fraction reveal the dynamic fragility increases for larger mobile ions, a more flexible backbone, and/or a smaller degree of intrachain dynamic cooperativity, as a consequence of the increasing importance of collective elasticity in determining the activation barrier. An analysis of transient segmental localization and a crossover to activated dynamics reveals similar, but not identical, trends as predicted at the laboratory vitrification timescale.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Design and initial testing of a one-bladed 30-meter-diameter rotor on the NASA/DOE mod-O wind turbine

The concept of a one-bladed horizontal-axis wind turbine has been of interest to wind turbine designers for many years. Many designs and economic analyses of one-bladed wind turbines have been undertaken by both United States and European wind energy groups. The analyses indicate significant economic advantages but at the same time, significant dynamic response concerns. In an effort to develop a broad data base on wind turbine design and operations, the NASA Wind Energy Project Office has tested a one-bladed rotor at the NASA/DOE Mod-O Wind Turbine Facility. This is the only known test on an intermediate-sized one-bladed rotor in the United States. The 15.2-meter-radius rotor consists of a tip-controlled blade and a counterweight assembly. A rigorous test series was conducted in the Fall of 1985 to collect data on rotor performance, drive train/generator dynamics, structural dynamics, and structural loads. This report includes background information on one-bladed rotor concepts, and Mod-O one-bladed rotor test configuration, supporting design analysis, the Mod-O one-blade rotor test plan, and preliminary test results.

Corrigan, R. D.↗