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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 271 records · Page 15

A high fidelity and user-friendly equation-oriented optimization model for carbon capture using a novel water-lean solvent

Research Triangle Institute (RTI) International and SLB have developed a novel water-lean solvent technology for carbon capture, demonstrating low specific reboiler duty (SRD) values at capture rates exceeding 90%. At the Technology Centre Mongstad (TCM) pilot plant, the technology achieved an SRD of 2.55 GJ/t-CO2 at 95% capture, utilizing an intercooler and a 5°C temperature approach in the lean/rich solvent cross exchanger. To meet varying carbon capture targets for Front End Engineering and Design (FEED) studies and to enable real-time optimization and advanced process control, an efficient optimization model is required. This model needs to minimize energy demand for a given capture rate and determine optimal operating parameters in response to fluctuating flue gas conditions. While an existing Aspen Plus simulation model, developed by RTI and SLB, accurately matches TCM plant data, its sequential modular (SM) strategy is too slow for real-time applications due to recycle streams and tight heat integration inherent in solvent-based carbon capture processes. Although an equation-oriented (EO) modeling strategy is more suitable for optimizing these processes, its adoption has been limited by several factors: feature limitations in Aspen Plus EO mode (e.g., lack of balance block support), a less user-friendly interface for variable identification and loop solving, complex troubleshooting of convergence issues, and the necessity for accurate initial values.

carbon capture↗

Peak-Seeking Optimization of Trim for Reduced Fuel Consumption: Flight-Test Results

A peak-seeking control algorithm for real-time trim optimization for reduced fuel consumption has been developed by researchers at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Dryden Flight Research Center to address the goals of the NASA Environmentally Responsible Aviation project to reduce fuel burn and emissions. The peak-seeking control algorithm is based on a steepest-descent algorithm using a time-varying Kalman filter to estimate the gradient of a performance function of fuel flow versus control surface positions. In real-time operation, deflections of symmetric ailerons, trailing-edge flaps, and leading-edge flaps of an F/A-18 airplane (McDonnell Douglas, now The Boeing Company, Chicago, Illinois) are used for optimization of fuel flow. Results from six research flights are presented herein. The optimization algorithm found a trim configuration that required approximately 3 percent less fuel flow than the baseline trim at the same flight condition. The algorithm consistently rediscovered the solution from several initial conditions. These results show that the algorithm has good performance in a relevant environment.

flight optimization↗

Peak-Seeking Optimization of Trim for Reduced Fuel Consumption: Flight-test Results

A peak-seeking control algorithm for real-time trim optimization for reduced fuel consumption has been developed by researchers at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Dryden Flight Research Center to address the goals of the NASA Environmentally Responsible Aviation project to reduce fuel burn and emissions. The peak-seeking control algorithm is based on a steepest-descent algorithm using a time-varying Kalman filter to estimate the gradient of a performance function of fuel flow versus control surface positions. In real-time operation, deflections of symmetric ailerons, trailing-edge flaps, and leading-edge flaps of an F/A-18 airplane (McDonnell Douglas, now The Boeing Company, Chicago, Illinois) are used for optimization of fuel flow. Results from six research flights are presented herein. The optimization algorithm found a trim configuration that required approximately 3 percent less fuel flow than the baseline trim at the same flight condition. The algorithm consistently rediscovered the solution from several initial conditions. These results show that the algorithm has good performance in a relevant environment.

flight optimization↗

Single step optimization of manipulator maneuvers with variable structure control

One step ahead optimization has been recently proposed for spacecraft attitude maneuvers as well as for robot manipulator maneuvers. Such a technique yields a discrete time control algorithm implementable as a sequence of state-dependent, quadratic programming problems for acceleration optimization. Its sensitivity to model accuracy, for the required inversion of the system dynamics, is shown in this paper to be alleviated by a fast variable structure control correction, acting between the sampling intervals of the slow one step ahead discrete time acceleration command generation algorithm. The slow and fast looping concept chosen follows that recently proposed for optimal aiming strategies with variable structure control. Accelerations required by the VSC correction are reserved during the slow one step ahead command generation so that the ability to overshoot the sliding surface is guaranteed.

Chen, N.↗

RTLS entry load relief parameter optimization

The results are presented of a study of a candidate load relief control law for use during the pullup phase of Return-to-Launch-Site (RTLS) abort entries. The control law parameters and cycle time which optimized performance of the normal load factor limiting phase (load relief phase) of an RTLS entry are examined. A set of control law gains, a smoothing parameter, and a normal force coefficient curve fit are established which resulted in good load relief performance considering the possible aerodynamic coefficient uncertainties defined. Also, the examination of various guidance cycle times revealed improved load relief performance with decreasing cycle time. A .5 second cycle provided smooth and adequate load relief in the presence of all the aerodynamic uncertainties examined.

Crull, T. J.↗

Leveraging Multitime Hamilton–Jacobi PDEs for Certain Scientific Machine Learning Problems

Hamilton-Jacobi partial differential equations (HJ PDEs) have deep connections with a wide range of fields, including optimal control, differential games, and imaging sciences. By considering the time variable to be a higher dimensional quantity, HJ PDEs can be extended to the multi-time case. In this paper, we establish a novel theoretical connection between specific optimization problems arising in machine learning and the multi-time Hopf formula, which corresponds to a representation of the solution to certain multi-time HJ PDEs. Through this connection, we increase the interpretability of the training process of certain machine learning applications by showing that when we solve these learning problems, we also solve a multi-time HJ PDE and, by extension, its corresponding optimal control problem. As a first exploration of this connection, we develop the relation between the regularized linear regression problem and the Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR). We then leverage our theoretical connection to adapt standard LQR solvers (namely, those based on the Riccati ordinary differential equations) to design new training approaches for machine learning. Lastly, we provide some numerical examples that demonstrate the versatility and possible computational advantages of our Riccati-based approach in the context of continual learning, post-training calibration, transfer learning, and sparse dynamics identification.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Robust Passification via Optimal Sensor Blending and Control Allocation

Robust passification is considered for uncertain linear, time invariant, systems having redundant actuators and sensors. The approach is to obtain optimal sensor blending and control allocation matrices that maximize the region in the parameter space in which the system remains passive. The approach results in a generalized eigenvalue problem consisting of a number of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Reduction of the number of LMIs is investigated, and a numerical example is given for demonstrating the approach.

Joshi, S. M.↗

Robust Passification via Optimal Sensor Blending and Control Allocation

Robust passification is considered for uncertain linear, time invariant systems having redundant actuators and sensors. The approach is to obtain optimal sensor blending and control allocation matrices that maximize the region in the parameter space in which the system remains passive. The approach results in a generalized eigenvalue problem consisting of a number of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Reduction of the number of LMIs is investigated, and a numerical example is given for demonstrating the approach.

Joshi, S. M.↗

Lax-Oleinik-Type Formulas and Efficient Algorithms for Certain High-Dimensional Optimal Control Problems

Two of the main challenges in optimal control are solving problems with state-dependent running costs and developing efficient numerical solvers that are computationally tractable in high dimension. In this paper, we provide analytical solutions to certain optimal control problems whose running cost depends on the state variable and with constraints on the control. We also provide Lax-Oleinik-type representation formulas for the corresponding Hamilton-Jacobi partial differential equations with state-dependent Hamiltonians. Additionally, we present an efficient, grid-free numerical solver based on our representation formulas, which is shown to scale linearly with the state dimension, and thus, to overcome the curse of dimensionality. Using existing optimization methods and the min-plus technique, we extend our numerical solvers to address more general classes of convex and nonconvex initial costs. We demonstrate the capabilities of our numerical solvers using implementations on a central processing unit (CPU) and a field-programmable gate array (FPGA). In several cases, our FPGA implementation obtains over a 10 times speedup compared to the CPU, which demonstrates the promising performance boosts FPGAs can achieve. Furthermore, our numerical results show that our solvers have the potential to serve as a building block for solving broader classes of high-dimensional optimal control problems in real-time.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Analysis of Different Cost Functions in the Geosect Airspace Partitioning Tool

A new cost function representing air traffic controller workload is implemented in the Geosect airspace partitioning tool. Geosect currently uses a combination of aircraft count and dwell time to select optimal airspace partitions that balance controller workload. This is referred to as the aircraft count/dwell time hybrid cost function. The new cost function is based on Simplified Dynamic Density, a measure of different aspects of air traffic controller workload. Three sectorizations are compared. These are the current sectorization, Geosect's sectorization based on the aircraft count/dwell time hybrid cost function, and Geosect s sectorization based on the Simplified Dynamic Density cost function. Each sectorization is evaluated for maximum and average workload along with workload balance using the Simplified Dynamic Density as the workload measure. In addition, the Airspace Concept Evaluation System, a nationwide air traffic simulator, is used to determine the capacity and delay incurred by each sectorization. The sectorization resulting from the Simplified Dynamic Density cost function had a lower maximum workload measure than the other sectorizations, and the sectorization based on the combination of aircraft count and dwell time did a better job of balancing workload and balancing capacity. However, the current sectorization had the lowest average workload, highest sector capacity, and the least system delay.

Wong, Gregory L.↗

VAN-DAMME: GPU-accelerated and symmetry-assisted quantum optimal control of multi-qubit systems

We present an open-source software package, VAN-DAMME (Versatile Approaches to Numerically Design, Accelerate, and Manipulate Magnetic Excitations), for massively-parallelized quantum optimal control (QOC) calculations of multi-qubit systems. To enable large QOC calculations, the VAN-DAMME software package utilizes symmetry-based techniques with custom GPU-enhanced algorithms. This combined approach allows for the simultaneous computation of hundreds of matrix exponential propagators that efficiently leverage the intra-GPU parallelism found in high-performance GPUs. In addition, to maximize the computational efficiency of the VAN-DAMME code, we carried out several extensive tests on data layout, computational complexity, memory requirements, and performance. These extensive analyses allowed us to develop computationally efficient approaches for evaluating complex-valued matrix exponential propagators based on Padé approximants. To assess the computational performance of our GPU-accelerated VAN-DAMME code, we carried out QOC calculations of systems containing 10 - 15 qubits, which showed that our GPU implementation is 18.4× faster than the corresponding CPU implementation. Our GPU-accelerated enhancements allow efficient calculations of multi-qubit systems, which can be used for the efficient implementation of QOC applications across multiple domains.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

MMMnet: A Neural Network Surrogate for Real-Time Transport Prediction Based on the Updated Multi-Mode Model

The Multi-Mode Model (MMM) is a physics-based anomalous transport model integrated into TRANSP for predicting electron and ion thermal transport, electron and impurity particle transport, and toroidal and poloidal momentum transport. While MMM provides valuable predictive capabilities, its computational cost, although manageable for standard simulations, is too high for real-time control applications. MMMnet, a neural network-based surrogate model, is developed to address this challenge by significantly reducing computation time while maintaining high accuracy. Trained on TRANSP simulations of DIII-D discharges, MMMnet incorporates an updated version of MMM (9.0.10) with enhanced physics, including isotopic effects, plasma shaping via effective magnetic shear, unified correlation lengths for ion-scale modes, and a new physics-based model for the electromagnetic electron temperature gradient mode. A key advancement is MMMnet’s ability to predict all six transport coefficients, providing a comprehensive representation of plasma transport dynamics. MMMnet achieves a two-order-of-magnitude speed improvement while maintaining strong correlation with MMM diffusivities, making it well-suited for real-time tokamak control and scenario optimization.

DIII-D↗

A Markovian reset problem

Optimal control of systems with time transitions described by finite state stationary Markov chain, noting resetting control

Kolesar, P.↗

Application of modern control theory to the design of optimum aircraft controllers

A procedure is described for synthesis of optimal aircraft control systems by application of the concepts of optimal control theory to time-invariant linear systems with quadratic performance criteria. Essential in this synthesis procedure is the solution of the Riccati matrix equation which results in a constant linear feedback control law for an output regulator which maintains a plant in an equilibrium in the presence of impulse disturbances. An algorithm is derived for designing maneuverable output regulators with selected state variables for feedback.

Power, L. J.↗