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At least 271 records · Page 15

Detection and Tracking of Aircraft in the Far-Field from Small Unmanned Aerial Systems

Onboard far-field aircraft detection is needed for safe non-cooperative traffic mitigation in autonomous small Unmanned Aerial System (sUAS) operations. Machine vision systems, based on standard optics and visible light detectors, possess the ideal size, weight, and power (SWaP) requirements for sUAS. This work presents the design and analysis of a novel aircraft detection and tracking pipeline based on optical sensing alone. Key contributions of the work include a refined range inequality model based on sensing and detection with FAA well-clear separation assurance distances between aircraft in mind, a detector fusion method to maximize the benefit of two image detectors, and a comparative analysis of Linear Kalman-filtering and Extended Kalman-filtering to seek optimal tracking performance. The pipeline is evaluated offline against multiple intruder platforms, using two types of flight encounters: multirotor sUAS vs. fixed-wing sUAS and multirotor sUAS vs. general aviation(GA)plane. Analysis is restricted to the rate-limiting head-on and departing collision volume cases vertically separated for safety. Results indicate that it is feasible to use the proposed optical spatial-temporal tracking algorithm to provide adequate alerting time to prevent penetration of well-clear separation volumes for both sUAS and GA aircraft.

Unmanned Aerial System↗

Development and Optimization of Additively Manufactured NASA HR-1 for Space Applications

Metal additive manufacturing (AM) processes have been demonstrated to be effective at reducing costs and lead times associated with fabrication of complex propulsion component designs. Laser powder directed energy deposition (LP-DED) and laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) are metal AM technologies that have effectively been used to produce a variety of parts for space applications. These technologies have enabled new designs and materials for these applications. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has identified the need to develop and advance new materials in unique space applications such as high-pressure hydrogen environments. One such metal alloy being developed for these applications is NASA HR-1. A high-strength Fe-Ni based superalloy, NASA HR-1 was designed to resist high pressure hydrogen environment embrittlement, oxidation, and corrosion. AM technologies have enabled the manufacturing of NASA HR-1 to be a feasible material for components in hydrogen environments. Development efforts for NASA HR-1 have completed build and heat treatment optimization, material characterization, thermophysical property testing, and mechanical testing in air and hydrogen environments to mature the understanding of the material. This presentation will summarize the development of NASA HR-1 for AM including composition and heat treatment optimization, microstructure characterization, and results of mechanical testing in air and high pressure hydrogen.

Additive Manufacturing↗

Strategy Developed for Selecting Optimal Sensors for Monitoring Engine Health

Sensor indications during rocket engine operation are the primary means of assessing engine performance and health. Effective selection and location of sensors in the operating engine environment enables accurate real-time condition monitoring and rapid engine controller response to mitigate critical fault conditions. These capabilities are crucial to ensure crew safety and mission success. Effective sensor selection also facilitates postflight condition assessment, which contributes to efficient engine maintenance and reduced operating costs. Under the Next Generation Launch Technology program, the NASA Glenn Research Center, in partnership with Rocketdyne Propulsion and Power, has developed a model-based procedure for systematically selecting an optimal sensor suite for assessing rocket engine system health. This optimization process is termed the systematic sensor selection strategy. Engine health management (EHM) systems generally employ multiple diagnostic procedures including data validation, anomaly detection, fault-isolation, and information fusion. The effectiveness of each diagnostic component is affected by the quality, availability, and compatibility of sensor data. Therefore systematic sensor selection is an enabling technology for EHM. Information in three categories is required by the systematic sensor selection strategy. The first category consists of targeted engine fault information; including the description and estimated risk-reduction factor for each identified fault. Risk-reduction factors are used to define and rank the potential merit of timely fault diagnoses. The second category is composed of candidate sensor information; including type, location, and estimated variance in normal operation. The final category includes the definition of fault scenarios characteristic of each targeted engine fault. These scenarios are defined in terms of engine model hardware parameters. Values of these parameters define engine simulations that generate expected sensor values for targeted fault scenarios. Taken together, this information provides an efficient condensation of the engineering experience and engine flow physics needed for sensor selection. The systematic sensor selection strategy is composed of three primary algorithms. The core of the selection process is a genetic algorithm that iteratively improves a defined quality measure of selected sensor suites. A merit algorithm is employed to compute the quality measure for each test sensor suite presented by the selection process. The quality measure is based on the fidelity of fault detection and the level of fault source discrimination provided by the test sensor suite. An inverse engine model, whose function is to derive hardware performance parameters from sensor data, is an integral part of the merit algorithm. The final component is a statistical evaluation algorithm that characterizes the impact of interference effects, such as control-induced sensor variation and sensor noise, on the probability of fault detection and isolation for optimal and near-optimal sensor suites.

Source record↗

Automated Calibration for Rapid Optical Spectroscopy Sensor Development for Online Monitoring

An automated platform has been developed to assist researchers in the rapid development of optical spectroscopy sensors to quantify species from spectral data. This platform performs calibration and validation measurements simultaneously. Real-time, in situ monitoring of complex systems through optical spectroscopy has been shown to be a useful tool; however, building calibration models requires development time, which can be a limiting factor in the case of radiological or otherwise hazardous systems. While calibration time can be reduced through optimized design of experiments, this study approached the challenge differently through automation. The ATLAS (Automated Transient Learning for Applied Sensors) platform used pneumatic control of stock solutions to cycle flow profiles through desired calibration concentrations for multivariate model construction. Additionally, the transients between desired concentrations based on flow calculations were used as validation measurements to understand model predictive capabilities. This automated approach yielded an incredible 76% reduction in model development time and a 60% reduction in sample volume versus estimated manual sample preparation and static measurements. The ATLAS system was demonstrated on two systems: a three-lanthanide system with Pr/Nd/Ho representing a use case with significant overlap or interference between analyte signatures and an alternate system containing Pr/Nd/Ni to demonstrate a use case in which broad-band corrosion species signatures interfered with more distinct lanthanide absorbance profiles. Both systems resulted in strong model prediction performance (RMSEP < 9%). Lastly, ATLAS was demonstrated as a tool to simulate process monitoring scenarios (e.g., column separation) in which models can be further optimized to account for day-to-day changes as necessary (e.g., baseline correction). Ultimately, ATLAS offers a vital tool to rapidly screen monitoring methods, investigate sensor fusion, and explore more complex systems (i.e., larger numbers of species).

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Viral‐mediated delivery of morphogenic regulators enables leaf transformation in Sorghum bicolor (L.)

Recent advancements in monocot transformation, using leaf tissue as explant material, have expanded the number of grass species capable of transgenesis. However, the complexity of vectors and reliance on inducible excision of essential morphogenic regulators have so far limited widespread application. Plant RNA viruses, such as Foxtail Mosaic Virus (FoMV), present a unique opportunity to express morphogenic regulator genes, such as Babyboom (Bbm), Wuschel2 (Wus2), Wuschel-like homeobox protein 2a (Wox2a) and the GROWTH-REGULATING FACTOR 4 (GRF4) GRF-INTERACTING FACTOR 1 (GIF1) fusion protein transiently in leaf explant tissues. Furthermore, altruistic delivery of conventional and viral vectors could provide opportunities to simplify vectors used for leaf transformation—facilitating vector optimization and reducing reliance on morphogenic regulator gene integration. In this study, both viral and conventional T-DNA vectors were tested for their ability to promote the formation of embryonic calli, a critical step in leaf transformation protocols, using Sorghum bicolor leaf explants. Although conventional leaf transformation vectors yielded viable embryonic calli (43.2 ± 2.9%: GRF4-GIF1, 50.2 ± 3%: Bbm/Wus2), altruistic conventional vectors employing the GRF4-GIF1 morphogenic regulator resulted in improved efficiencies (61.3 ± 4.7%). Altruistic delivery was further enhanced with the use of viral vectors employing both GRF4-GIF1 and Bbm/Wus2 regulators, resulting in 75.1 ± 2.3% and 79.2 ± 2.5% embryonic calli formation, respectively. Embryonic calli generated from both conventional and viral vectors produced shoots expressing fluorescent reporters, which were confirmed using molecular analysis. This work provides an important proof-of-concept for the use of both altruistic vectors and viral-expressed morphogenic regulators for improving plant transformation.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

RAP: Resource-aware Automated GPU Sharing for Multi-GPU Recommendation Model Training and Input Preprocessing

Ensuring high-quality recommendations for newly onboarded users requires the continuous retraining of Deep Learning Recommendation Models (DLRMs) with freshly generated data. To serve the online DLRM retraining, existing solutions use hundreds of CPU computing nodes designated for input preprocessing, causing significant power consumption that surpasses even the power usage of GPU trainers. To this end, we propose RAP, an end-to-end DLRM training framework that supports Resource-aware Automated GPU sharing for DLRM input Preprocessing and Training. The core idea of RAP is to accurately capture the remaining GPU computing resources during DLRM training for input preprocessing, achieving superior training efficiency without requiring additional resources. Specifically, RAP utilizes a co-running cost model to efficiently assess the costs of various input preprocessing operations, and it implements a resource-aware horizontal fusion technique that adaptively merges smaller kernels according to GPU availability, circumventing any interference with DLRM training. In addition, RAP leverages a heuristic searching algorithm that jointly optimizes both the input preprocessing graph mapping and the co-running schedule to maximize the end-to-end DLRM training throughput. The comprehensive evaluation shows that RAP achieves 78.3× speedup on average over CPU-based DLRM input preprocessing frameworks. In addition, the end-to-end training throughput of RAP is only 2.04% lower than the ideal case, which has no input preprocessing overhead.

Wang, Zheng↗

Data for "Viral-mediated Delivery of Morphogenic Regulators Enables Leaf Transformation in Sorghum bicolor (L.)"

Recent advancements in monocot transformation, using leaf tissue as explant material, have expanded the number of grass species capable of transgenesis. However, the complexity of vectors and reliance on inducible excision of essential morphogenic regulators have so far limited widespread application. Plant RNA viruses, such as Foxtail Mosaic Virus (FoMV), present a unique opportunity to express morphogenic regulator genes, such as Babyboom ( Bbm ), Wuschel2 ( Wus2 ), Wuschel-like homeobox protein 2a ( Wox2a ) and the GROWTH-REGULATING FACTOR 4 (GRF4) GRF-INTERACTING FACTOR 1 (GIF1) fusion protein transiently in leaf explant tissues. Furthermore, altruistic delivery of conventional and viral vectors could provide opportunities to simplify vectors used for leaf transformation—facilitating vector optimization and reducing reliance on morphogenic regulator gene integration. In this study, both viral and conventional T-DNA vectors were tested for their ability to promote the formation of embryonic calli, a critical step in leaf transformation protocols, using Sorghum bicolor leaf explants. Although conventional leaf transformation vectors yielded viable embryonic calli (43.2 ± 2.9%: GRF4-GIF1, 50.2 ± 3%: Bbm/Wus2), altruistic conventional vectors employing the GRF4-GIF1 morphogenic regulator resulted in improved efficiencies (61.3 ± 4.7%). Altruistic delivery was further enhanced with the use of viral vectors employing both GRF4-GIF1 and Bbm/Wus2 regulators, resulting in 75.1 ± 2.3% and 79.2 ± 2.5% embryonic calli formation, respectively. Embryonic calli generated from both conventional and viral vectors produced shoots expressing fluorescent reporters, which were confirmed using molecular analysis. This work provides an important proof-of-concept for the use of both altruistic vectors and viral-expressed morphogenic regulators for improving plant transformation.

gene editing↗

FuSED Users Manual, 5.24

The Fusion of Simulation, Experiment, and Data (FuSED) team provides a set of tools for solving inverse problems in structural dynamics and thermal physics, and also sensor placement optimization via Optimal Experimental Design (OED). These methods are used for designing experiments, model calibration, and verification/validation analysis of systems. This document provides a user’s guide to the input for the three apps that are supported for these methods. Details of input specifications, output options, and optimization parameters are included.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Land Surface Verification Toolkit (LVT) - A Generalized Framework for Land Surface Model Evaluation

Model evaluation and verification are key in improving the usage and applicability of simulation models for real-world applications. In this article, the development and capabilities of a formal system for land surface model evaluation called the Land surface Verification Toolkit (LVT) is described. LVT is designed to provide an integrated environment for systematic land model evaluation and facilitates a range of verification approaches and analysis capabilities. LVT operates across multiple temporal and spatial scales and employs a large suite of in-situ, remotely sensed and other model and reanalysis datasets in their native formats. In addition to the traditional accuracy-based measures, LVT also includes uncertainty and ensemble diagnostics, information theory measures, spatial similarity metrics and scale decomposition techniques that provide novel ways for performing diagnostic model evaluations. Though LVT was originally designed to support the land surface modeling and data assimilation framework known as the Land Information System (LIS), it also supports hydrological data products from other, non-LIS environments. In addition, the analysis of diagnostics from various computational subsystems of LIS including data assimilation, optimization and uncertainty estimation are supported within LVT. Together, LIS and LVT provide a robust end-to-end environment for enabling the concepts of model data fusion for hydrological applications. The evolving capabilities of LVT framework are expected to facilitate rapid model evaluation efforts and aid the definition and refinement of formal evaluation procedures for the land surface modeling community.

Kumar, Sujay V.↗

Modeling of Stress and Temperature Effects on Creep of Reduced Activation Ferritic-Martensitic Steel Alloy F82H (Tertiary Creep Modeling of RAFM Steel)

A Bayesian optimization procedure is presented for calibrating a multi-mechanism micromechanical model for creep to experimental data of F82H steel. Reduced activation ferritic martensitic (RAFM) steels based on are the most promising candidates for some fusion reactor structures. Although there are indications that RAFM steel could be viable for fusion applications at temperatures up to 600 °C, the maximum operating temperature will be determined by the creep properties of the structural material and the breeder material compatibility with the structural material. Due to the relative paucity of available creep data on F82H steel compared to other alloys such as Grade 91 steel, micromechanical models are sought for simulating creep based on relevant deformation mechanisms. As a point of departure, this work recalibrates a model form that was previously proposed for Grade 91 steel to match creep curves for F82H steel. Due to the large number of parameters (9) and cost of the nonlinear simulations, an automated approach for tuning the parameters is pursued using a recently developed Bayesian optimization for functional output (BOFO) framework [1]. Incorporating extensions such as batch sequencing and weighted experimental load cases into BOFO, a reasonably small error between experimental and simulated creep curves at two load levels is achieved in a reasonable number of iterations. Validation with an additional creep curve provides confidence in the fitted parameters obtained from the automated calibration procedure to describe the creep behavior of F82H steel at 600 °C. The model is further extended using a temperature dependent scaling law approach to simulate creep response between 550 °C and 650 °C. The efficacy of this extension is compared with the previously used scaling law approach for Grade 91 steel.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

FuSED – Users Manual – (V.5.26)

The Fusion of Simulation, Experiment, and Data (FuSED) team provides a set of tools for solving inverse problems in structural dynamics (InverseSD) and thermal physics (InverseAria), a sensor placement optimization tool via Optimal Experimental Design (OED), and a decision boundary tool using SVMs (TRACE). These methods are used for designing experiments, model calibration, and verification/validation analysis of systems. This document provides a user’s guide.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Additive manufacturing of amorphous metal soft magnetic composites

Soft magnet alloys are used as magnetic cores for electric motors, transformers, wind turbines and other power generation systems. Soft magnetic cores are expensive and time consuming to manufacture in the complex shapes required for next-generation devices using conventional press and sinter powder metallurgy. The objective of this effort is to additively manufacture high performance soft magnets, with reduced cost and reduced material waste and 10x lower energy (core) loss at the high operating frequencies of many electric machines. Laser powder bed fusion additive manufacturing is used as the fabrication method. Electrical steel and amorphous alloys atomized powders are used as a feedstock materials. Magnetic cores are printed in topology optimized structures such as the Hilbert curve because this has been shown to reduce energy losses by minimizing the eddy currents that circulate within the magnet at high frequencies. In our project, we succeed in printing FeSi 3.5wt% and FeSi 6.5wt% electrical steels, and iron-based soft magnetic amorphous alloys in the shape of Hilbert and Peano curve topology optimized structures. We found that the Peano curve has a higher cut-off frequency than the Hilbert curve, and that amorphous alloys have high cut-off frequencies and higher mechanical hardness than electrical steels. Processing conditions such as laser power, scan speed, and hatching pattern were optimized to achieve high density prints, and optimize magnetic performance. We find that the printing of amorphous alloy soft magnetic cores may be technoeconomically feasible for large scale applications such as transformers, for which supply chain issues and the labor costs of manual fabrication of magnetic cores is prohibitive in some cases.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO) New Observing Strategies (NOS) and NOS-Testbed (NOS-T)

With the advancement of space hardware technologies such as smaller spacecraft, component and instrument miniaturization and high performance space processors, and with the advancement of software technologies in artificial intelligence, big data analysis and autonomous decision making, Earth Science is looking at novel ways to observe phenomena that previously could not have been studied or would have been too expensive to study with traditional missions. In particular, the New Observing Strategies (NOS) component of the NASA Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO) Advanced Information Systems Technology (AIST) Program aims at leveraging these novel technologies as well as low cost and easy access to space to acquire multi-temporal or simultaneous multi-angular, multi-locations, multi-resolution and multi-spectral observations that will provide better multi-source measurements and will build a more dynamic and comprehensive picture of Earth Science phenomena that need to be studied and analyzed. For applications such as water resources management, air quality monitoring, biodiversity studies or disaster management, NOS will integrate the use of small instruments, small spacecraft, constellations of spacecraft and networks of sensors to design new missions that will provide the necessary measurements to improve future forecast and science modeling systems.Measurement acquisition will therefore be approached as a system of systems rather than on a mission basis, and a system of this complexity should not be expected to work without full integration and experimental characterization. Although most of the individual technologies enabling to link and coordinate multi-source observations are more or less mature, a few technologies need to be developed and all of them need to be integrated and tested as a system. In order for this validation to occur, the AIST Program is developing the NOS Testbed that includes 3 main goals:1.Validate novel NOS technologies, independently and as a system2.Demonstrate novel distributed operations concepts3.Socialize new Distributed Spacecraft Mission (DSM) and SensorWeb (SW) technologies and concepts to the science community by significantly retiring the risk of integrating these new technologies.The NOS Testbed will consist of multiple sensing nodes, simulated or actual, representing space, air and/or ground measurements, that are interconnected by a communications fabric (infrastructure that permits nodes to transmit and receive data between one another and interact with each other). Each node will be supported by hardware capabilities required to perform nodes monitoring and command & control, as well as intelligent "onboard" computing. The nodes will work together in a collaborative manner to demonstrate optimal science capabilities. The testbed will enable to validate technologies such as inter-node communication models, techniques and protocols; inter-node coordination; real-time data fusion and understanding; planning; sensor re-targeting; etc. Additionally, the testbed will have the capability to interact with various mission design tools, OSSEs and one or several forecast models. More details about the NOS Testbed will be presented at the confererence.

Earth Science missions; Advanced information Syste↗

Design Overview of a High-Pressure Helium Flow Visualization Apparatus for Blanket Cooling Studies

Cooling of the fusion blanket first wall remains a significant challenge given the adverse conditions of heat and particle flux encountered near the plasma. Helium emerges as an attractive cooling candidate because of its chemical and neutronic inertness and separability from hydrogenic species (e.g. tritium). Because of the low thermal mass of helium, optimization of these coolant channels is warranted to provide high heat transfer performance at low pumping costs. Increasingly, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations are employed to model and optimize these flow channels, and accompanying experimental data are needed to validate the predictions of these models. To provide the aforementioned experimental data, a high-pressure helium flow visualization upgrade has been designed for the Helium Flow Loop Experiment facility. This apparatus was built to American Society of Mechanical Engineers boiler and pressure vessel standards to withstand operating pressure of 4 MPa and mated to high-pressure glass windows. Seedless flow visualization is performed via high-speed background oriented schlieren (BOS), with image correlation used for time-resolved two-dimensional velocimetry at frequencies in excess of 60 kHz. Rectangular flow channel test articles are additively manufactured via laser powder bed fusion and installed into this visualization apparatus, with one-sided heating supplied by resistive heaters. In conclusion, the chosen test geometries were informed by prior CFD simulations, and the helium flow structures observed via BOS (detachment, recirculation, etc.) will be used for the validation of these accompanying models, in support of the design and optimization of blanket cooling channel configurations.

Helium flow↗

Calibration of RAFM Micromechanical Model for Creep Using Bayesian Optimization for Functional Output

A Bayesian optimization procedure is presented for calibrating a multimechanism micromechanical model for creep to experimental data of F82H steel. Reduced activation ferritic martensitic (RAFM) steels based on Fe(8–9)%Cr are the most promising candidates for some fusion reactor structures. Although there are indications that RAFM steel could be viable for fusion applications at temperatures up to 600°C, the maximum operating temperature will be determined by the creep properties of the structural material and the breeder material compatibility with the structural material. Due to the relative paucity of available creep data on F82H steel compared to other alloys such as Grade 91 steel, micromechanical models are sought for simulating creep based on relevant deformation mechanisms. As a point of departure, this work recalibrates a model form that was previously proposed for Grade 91 steel to match creep curves for F82H steel. Due to the large number of parameters (9) and cost of the nonlinear simulations, an automated approach for tuning the parameters is pursued using a recently developed Bayesian optimization for functional output (BOFO) framework (Huang et al., 2021, “Bayesian optimization of functional output in inverse problems,” Optim. Eng., 22, pp. 2553–2574). Incorporating extensions such as batch sequencing and weighted experimental load cases into BOFO, a reasonably small error between experimental and simulated creep curves at two load levels is achieved in a reasonable number of iterations. In conclusion, validation with an additional creep curve provides confidence in the fitted parameters obtained from the automated calibration procedure to describe the creep behavior of F82H steel.

42 ENGINEERING↗

An ignition criterion for inertial fusion boosted by microturbulence

Turbulence on fine spatial scales enhances fusion reactivity, enabling ignition at lower temperature. A modified Lawson-like ignition criterion is derived for inertially confined plasmas harboring turbulent kinetic energy. For some turbulent energy spectra, hot spots ignite at lower energy density and smaller volume. While detrimental mixing effects typically accompany turbulence and obscure these advantages, targets might be engineered to drive flow in regions where it is beneficial. The optimal length scale for this driving is identified, typically lying in the micrometer range.

Alpha particles↗

Computational investigation on the combined effect of pore attributes on strain concentrators in metal additively manufactured materials

Metal additive manufacturing provides a pathway for creating highly optimized components. However, porosity continues to be a prevalent issue for fatigue performance despite best efforts in optimizing process parameters and postprocessing techniques. This work uses finite element analysis to conduct a parametric study to link various pore attributes (i.e., aspect ratio, orientation, and location) to strain concentration factors (SCF) under elastic/plastic deformation during uniaxial loading. Keyhole and lack-of-fusion pores are idealized by prolate and oblate ellipsoids, respectively. Each simulation of the parametric study assumes a single isolated pore in a Ti-6Al-4V material, modeled with J2-plasticity. A reduced-order model is developed to relate pore attributes to SCF, and then used to quantify the variability in SCF for a given experimentally characterized probability distribution of pore attributes. This reduced-order model can be used in a production environment to provide a first-order evaluation to rapidly screen sub-optimally performing components.

Additive Manufacturing↗

Reduction or Enhancement of Stellarator Turbulence by Impurities

A systematic study of the impact of impurities on the turbulent heat fluxes is presented for the stellarator Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) and, for comparison, the Large Helical Device and ITER. By means of nonlinear multispecies gyrokinetic simulations, it is shown that impurities, depending on the sign of their density gradient, can significantly enhance or reduce turbulent ion heat losses. For the relevant scenario of turbulence reduction, an optimal impurity concentration that minimizes the ion heat diffusivity emerges as a universal feature. This result demonstrates the potential of impurities for controlling turbulence and accessing enhanced confinement regimes in fusion plasmas and, in particular, in W7-X. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗