Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “corroborating data”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 325 records · Page 18
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2019

Dynamic Power Network State Estimation with Asynchronous Measurements: Preprint

The operation of distribution networks is becoming increasingly volatile, due to fast variations of renewables and, hence, net-loading conditions. To perform a reliable state estimation under these conditions, this paper considers the case where measurements from meters, phasor measurement units, and distributed energy resources are collected and processed in real time to produce estimates of the state at a fast time scale. Streams of measurements collected in real time and at heterogenous rates render the underlying processing asynchronous, and poses severe strains on workhorse state estimation algorithms. In this work, a real-time state estimation algorithm is proposed, where data are processed on the fly. Starting from a regularized least-squares model, and leveraging appropriate linear models, the proposed scheme boils down to a linear dynamical system where the state is updated based on the previous estimate and on the measurement gathered from a few available sensors. The estimation error is shown to be always bounded under mild condition. Numerical simulations are provided to corroborate the analytical findings.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2025

Conformational Dynamics of Bacteriochlorophyll c in Chlorosomes from the bchQ Mutant of Chlorobaculum tepidum

In contrast to the common viewpoint that bacteriochlorophyll (BChl) motion is largely absent within the chlorosome assembly, physics-based modeling points to a crucial role of the nanoscale librational motion of the macrocycle for the transfer of excitons. To elucidate this motion experimentally, compositional uniformity and high sensitivity are required. We focused on uniformly 13 C labeled chlorosome preparations from the bchQ mutant Chlorobaculum tepidum with significantly enhanced structural homogeneity. The librational motion is characterized using Rotational Echo DOuble Resonance (REDOR), and in addition, the impact of temperature on specific functionalities within BChl molecules is studied with 1-dimensional and 2-dimensional dipolar and scalar-based MAS NMR measurements. Results show the gradual freezing of the tails and side chains of the BChls with decreasing temperature. However, the librational motion analyzed by measuring the 5C–H dipolar coupling strength obtained from REDOR data sets persists at different temperatures. REDOR simulations show a close match to the experimental dephasing frequency of oscillation for a dipolar coupling strength of 17.5 ± 0.5 kHz which is considerably less than the dipolar coupling strength of 22.7 kHz in the rigid limit. Following a two-site jump model, we arrive at an estimate for BChl libration sampling at an angle of θ = 48 ± 4°, corroborating that the macrocycle indeed experiences significant librational motion on a time scale that is short compared to the NMR measurement time. This finding is in full quantitative support of the dominant rotational motion exhibited by the BChl macrocycle estimated from early MD simulations.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2015

TEMPERATURE AND ELECTRON DENSITY DIAGNOSTICS OF A CANDLE-FLAME-SHAPED FLARE

Candle-flame-shaped flares are archetypical structures that provide indirect evidence of magnetic reconnection. A flare resembling Tsuneta's famous 1992 candle-flame flare occurred on 2011 January 28; we present its temperature and electron density diagnostics. This flare was observed with Solar Dynamics Observatory/Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (SDO/AIA), Hinode/X-Ray Telescope (XRT), and Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory Ahead (STEREO-A)/Extreme Ultraviolet Imager, resulting in high-resolution, broad temperature coverage, and stereoscopic views of this iconic structure. The high-temperature images reveal a brightening that grows in size to form a tower-like structure at the top of the posteruption flare arcade, a feature that has been observed in other long-duration events. Despite the extensive work on the standard reconnection scenario, there is no complete agreement among models regarding the nature of this high-intensity elongated structure. Electron density maps reveal that reconnected loops that are successively connected at their tops to the tower develop a density asymmetry of about a factor of two between the two legs, giving the appearance of ''half-loops''. We calculate average temperatures with a new fast differential emission measure (DEM) method that uses SDO/AIA data and analyze the heating and cooling of salient features of the flare. Using STEREO observations, we show that the tower and the half-loop brightenings are not a line-of-sight projection effect of the type studied by Forbes and Acton. This conclusion opens the door for physics-based explanations of these puzzling, recurrent solar flare features, previously attributed to projection effects. We corroborate the results of our DEM analysis by comparing them with temperature analyses from Hinode/XRT.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Detailed abundances of planet-hosting wide binaries. II. HD 80606+HD 80607

We present a detailed chemical abundance analysis of 15 elements in the planet-hosting wide binary (PHWB) system HD 80606+HD 80607 using Keck/HIRES spectra. As in our previous analysis of the PHWB HD 20782+HD 20781, we presume that these two G5 dwarf stars formed together and therefore had identical primordial abundances. In this binary, HD 80606 hosts an eccentric (e≈0.93) giant planet at ∼0.5 AU, but HD 80607 has no detected planets. If close-in giant planets on eccentric orbits are efficient at scattering rocky planetary material into their host stars, then HD 80606 should show evidence of having accreted rocky material while HD 80607 should not. Here we show that the trends of abundance versus element condensation temperature for HD 80606 and HD 80607 are statistically indistinguishable, corroborating the recent result of Saffe et al. This could suggest that both stars accreted similar amounts of rocky material; indeed, our model for the chemical signature of rocky planet accretion indicates that HD 80606 could have accreted up to 2.5 M{sub ⊕} of rocky material—about half that contained in the Solar System and primordial asteroid belt—relative to HD 80607 and still be consistent with the data. Since HD 80607 has no known giant planets that might have pushed rocky planet material via migration onto that star, we consider it more likely that HD 80606/07 experienced essentially no rocky planet accretion. This in turn suggests that the migration history of the HD 80606 giant planet must have been such that it ejected any close-in planetary material that might have otherwise been shepherded onto the star.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

RADAMS: Resilient and adaptive alert and attention management strategy against Informational Denial-of-Service (IDoS) attacks

Attacks exploiting human attentional vulnerability have posed severe threats to cybersecurity. In this work, we identify and formally define a new type of proactive attentional attacks called Informational Denial-of-Service (IDoS) attacks that generate a large volume of feint attacks to overload human operators and hide real attacks among feints. Here, we incorporate human factors (e.g., levels of expertise, stress, and efficiency) and empirical psychological results (e.g., the Yerkes-Dodson law and the sunk cost fallacy) to model the operators’ attention dynamics and their decision-making processes along with the real-time alert monitoring and inspection. To assist human operators in dismissing the feints and escalating the real attacks timely and accurately, we develop a Resilient and Adaptive Data-driven alert and Attention Management Strategy (RADAMS) that de-emphasizes alerts selectively based on the abstracted category labels of the alerts. RADAMS uses reinforcement learning to achieve a customized and transferable design for various human operators and evolving IDoS attacks. The integrated modeling and theoretical analysis lead to the Product Principle of Attention (PPoA), fundamental limits, and the tradeoff among crucial human and economic factors. Experimental results corroborate that the proposed strategy outperforms the default strategy and can reduce the IDoS risk by as much as 20%. Besides, the strategy is resilient to large variations of costs, attack frequencies, and human attention capacities. We have recognized interesting phenomena such as attentional risk equivalency, attacker’s dilemma, and the half-truth optimal attack strategy.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2024

Robust Combined Heat and Hybrid Power (CHHP) for High Electrical Efficiency Cogeneration

Georgia Tech (Prime Recipient), the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) and the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) investigated a hybrid fuel cell/ gas turbine system concept as a combined heat and hybrid power (CHHP) system for both robust and high power-to-process heat ratio cogeneration. The novelty of the proposed system entailed the distinct, elevated electrical efficiencies it maintains while simultaneously supporting a broad span of heating needs (e.g., supply temperatures) demanded across variable heat loads. The scope included: 1) leveraging a pioneering national lab facility configured for dynamic system operability development of hybrid fuel cell/gas turbine cycles; 2) enabling technology development to adjust and modulate the quality and quantity of thermal supply to bottoming heat loads via novel extreme temperature gas bypass valves. Hybrid fuel cell/gas turbine systems have primarily been reduced-to-practice in a constrained (e.g., initial proof-of-concept) manner and have still demonstrated considerable electrical efficiencies. However, these pre-pilot systems have focused upon electrical efficiencies and electrical power generation as the exclusive energy demand. Such hybrid systems had not been extensively researched or developed for flexible and variable operation consisting of both power and heat demands; however, these variable combined power and heat demands are characteristic of many types of manufacturers such as animal/poultry processing, bakeries and milk/flour/pastry manufacturing, textile mills, and electrochemical processing. Commercially, developing the system into a working combined heat and power system benefits these types of manufacturers by allowing them to meet their power and heat demands at a lower cost, higher efficiency, and/or through onsite generation. Therefore, the technical scope of this project was largely to study and facilitate these hybrid systems as combined heat and hybrid power (CHHP) systems that include dynamic operability for variable heat and power loads and/or grid dynamics for various types of manufacturers. Simulation results were used to predict the performance of the CHHP system and conceptually develop it to achieve desired dynamic operability. Experimentally, the primary goal was to design, manufacture, and experiment upon a high-temperature bypass valve. Experimental data included air mass flow rates through the valve orifice when the valve was changed to variable extent between fully closed and fully open. The experimental data was then used to create a semi-empirical computational model of the bypass valve. Concluded simulation goals for the research included developing computational heat exchanger models for the hybrid system inclusive of the bottoming heat exchanger and the recuperative heat exchanger, and then combining the computational recuperator model with the computational valve model. Afterwards, the computational models were then integrated to predict the dynamic operation of hybrid fuel cell/gas turbine cycles throughout a design space and reporting such. The scope stated in the preceding paragraph was packaged into five specific goals: 1) enabling the simulation of dynamic combined heat and power through the creation of computational, modular heat exchanger models; 2) simulation and exploration of the CHHP system’s performance by integrating the heat exchanger models with the national lab’s pre-existing hybrid system (computational) simulation, but without the recuperator bypass valve concept in order to initially determine how the (baseline) system behaves and can be controlled in order to meet variable heat and power demands; 3) development and initial deployment of the high-temperature recuperator bypass valve technology in order to confirm and characterize the approach; 4) usage of the experimental data for the valve to create a semi-empirical computational model for the bypass valve which could then be combined with the heat exchanger computational models; 5) repeat of the second task of simulating and exploring the system’s performance, but this time including the bypass valve to resolve its efficacy. Tasks were successfully completed, and the general notion of flexibly operating, high electrical efficiency CHHP was further corroborated. Supportive details are provided in the report.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2016

Subsea ice-bearing permafrost on the U.S. Beaufort Margin: 1. Minimum seaward extent defined from multichannel seismic reflection data: SUBSEA PERMAFROST ON THE U.S. BEAUFORT I

Subsea ice-bearing permafrost (IBPF) and associated gas hydrate in the Arctic have been subject to a warming climate and saline intrusion since the last transgression at the end of the Pleistocene. The consequent degradation of IBPF is potentially associated with significant degassing of dissociating gas hydrate deposits. Previous studies interpreted the distribution of subsea permafrost on the U.S. Beaufort continental shelf based on geographically sparse data sets and modeling of expected thermal history. The most cited work projects subsea permafrost to the shelf edge (~100 m isobath). This study uses a compilation of stacking velocity analyses from ~100,000 line-km of industry-collected multichannel seismic reflection data acquired over 57,000 km 2 of the U.S. Beaufort shelf to delineate continuous subsea IBPF. Gridded average velocities of the uppermost 750 ms two-way travel time range from 1475 to 3110 m s -1 . The monotonic, cross-shore pattern in velocity distribution suggests that the seaward extent of continuous IBPF is within 37 km of the modern shoreline at water depths < 25 m. These interpretations corroborate recent Beaufort seismic refraction studies and provide the best, margin-scale evidence that continuous subsea IBPF does not currently extend to the northern limits of the continental shelf.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2018

Influence of Boron on Austenite to Ferrite Transformation Behavior of Low Carbon Steel Under Continuous Cooling

In the current work, the influence of boron on austenite to ferrite transformation behavior under continuous cooling condition and its associated features, e.g., final microstructure, mechanical properties, etc., in low carbon steel has been studied. The steels (C 0.04 wt.%, B 10-100 ppm) prepared in an open air laboratory furnace showed identical microstructures having ferrite grains of 20-25 µm. However, tensile test data indicate variation of yield strength and ultimate tensile strength with boron content. The yield point elongation and strain aging index both were found to decrease with increase in boron content or boron-to-nitrogen ratio. As the boron nitride precipitates stimulate the nucleation of ferrite phase, the dilation curves show an increase in austenite to ferrite transformation start temperature with boron content. The resulting microstructure and hardness value also corroborate the finding. Transmission electron microscopy findings revealed the presence of ultra-fine boron nitride (BN) precipitates in both grain boundary and grain body of the steel having boron concentration of 30 ppm and beyond. The presence of these precipitates also increased with boron content. Based on austenite decomposition behavior, related microstructure and hardness values it is conjectured that these BN precipitates may act as nucleating agent for polygonal ferrite during austenite decomposition, thereby softening the steel during fast cooling.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2011

Surface Currents and Winds at the Delaware Bay Mouth

Knowledge of the circulation of estuaries and adjacent shelf waters has relied on hydrographic measurements, moorings, and local wind observations usually removed from the region of interest. Although these observations are certainly sufficient to identify major characteristics, they lack both spatial resolution and temporal coverage. High resolution synoptic observations are required to identify important coastal processes at smaller scales. Long observation periods are needed to properly sample low-frequency processes that may also be important. The introduction of high-frequency (HF) radar measurements and regional wind models for coastal studies is changing this situation. Here we analyze synoptic, high-resolution surface winds and currents in the Delaware Bay mouth over an eight-month period (October 2007 through May 2008). The surface currents were measured by two high-frequency radars while the surface winds were extracted from a data-assimilating regional wind model. To illustrate the utility of these monitoring tools we focus on two 45-day periods which previously were shown to present contrasting pictures of the circulation. One, the low-outflow period is from 1 October through 14 November 2007; the other is the high-outflow period from 3 March through 16 April 2008. The large-scale characteristics noted by previous workers are clearly corroborated. Specifically the M2 tide dominates the surface currents, and the Delaware Bay outflow plume is clearly evident in the low frequency currents. Several new aspects of the surface circulation were also identified. These include a map of the spatial variability of the M2 tide (validating an earlier model study), persistent low-frequency cross-mouth flow, and a rapid response of the surface currents to a changing wind field. However, strong wind episodes did not persist long enough to set up a sustained Ekman response.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2015

Preferential remineralization of dissolved organic phosphorus and non‐Redfield DOM dynamics in the global ocean: Impacts on marine productivity, nitrogen fixation, and carbon export

Abstract Selective removal of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) from the marine dissolved organic matter (DOM) pool has been reported in several regional studies. Because DOM is an important advective/mixing pathway of carbon (C) export from the ocean surface layer and its non‐Redfieldian stoichiometry would affect estimates of marine export production per unit N and P, we investigated the stoichiometry of marine DOM and its remineralization globally using a compiled DOM data set. Marine DOM is enriched in C and N compared to Redfield stoichiometry, averaging 317:39:1 and 810:48:1 for C:N:P within the degradable and total bulk pools, respectively. Dissolved organic phosphorus (DOP) is found to be preferentially remineralized about twice as rapidly with respect to the enriched C:N stoichiometry of marine DOM. Biogeochemical simulations with the Biogeochemical Elemental Cycling model using Redfield and variable DOM stoichiometry corroborate the need for non‐Redfield dynamics to match the observed DOM stoichiometry. From our model simulations, preferential DOP remineralization is found to increase the strength of the biological pump by ~9% versus the case of Redfield DOM cycling. Global net primary productivity increases ~10% including an increase in marine nitrogen fixation of ~26% when preferential DOP remineralization and direct utilization of DOP by phytoplankton are included. The largest increases in marine nitrogen fixation, net primary productivity, and carbon export are observed within the western subtropical gyres, suggesting the lateral transfer of P in the form of DOP from the productive eastern and poleward gyre margins may be important for sustaining these processes downstream in the subtropical gyres.

Letscher, Robert T.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Comprehensive characterization of the structure of Zr-based metallic glasses

Structure of metallic glasses fascinates as the generic amorphous structural template for ubiquitous systems. Its specification necessitates determination of the complete hierarchical structure, starting from short-range-order (SRO) → medium-range-order (MRO) → bulk structure and free volume (FV) distribution. This link has largely remained elusive since previous investigations adopted one-technique-at-a-time approach, focusing on limited aspects of any one domain. Reconstruction of structure from experimental data inversion is non-unique for many of these techniques. As a result, complete and precise structural understanding of glass has not emerged yet. In this work, we demonstrate the first experimental pathway for reconstruction of the integrated structure, for and glasses. Our strategy engages diverse (×7) multi-scale techniques [XAFS, 3D-APT, ABED/NBED, FEM, XRD, PAS, FHREM] on the same glass. This strategy complemented mutual limitations of techniques and corroborated common parameters to generate complete, self-consistent and precise parameters. Further, MRO domain size and inter-void separation were correlated to identify the presence of FV at MRO boundaries. This enabled the first experimental reconstruction of hierarchical subset: SRO → MRO → FV → bulk structure. The first ever image of intermediate region between MRO domains emerged from this link. We clarify that determination of all subsets is not our objective; the essence and novelty of this work lies in directing the pathway towards finite solution, in the most logical and unambiguous way.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2020

Beirut Explosion Yield and Mushroom Cloud Height - Effects of the Source Environment

I use crater dimensions to estimate the yield of the August 4th, 2020 Beirut explosion to be equivalent to approximately 1.4 kilotons of TNT with a lower bound of about 0.7 kilotons. Based on the amount of ammonium nitrate reported to have been stored at the Beirut harbor, I assume an upper bound for the yield of 2.75 kilotons. However, it is highly likely that the yield was less than 2.75 kilotons, since reported values for TNT equivalence of ammonium nitrate are typically much less than one hundred percent. The crater-size based yield estimates are based on crater radius estimates from satellite imagery and empirical curves and data for scaled crater radius from past chemical and nuclear explosions. I present evidence that suggests that the relatively large crater radius is due to a high degree of coupling of shock wave energy to the surrounding medium and a reduction of the effective stress because of a high level of saturation of the geologic media beneath the explosion. I provide yield estimates based on seismic body-wave magnitude and crater depth as corroborating evidence. I compare preliminary estimates for the maximum debris cloud height, based on cell phone videos/images, with predicted maximum heights for this yield range from empirical formulas and numerical cloud-rise models. Based on a preliminary analysis of cell phone footage, the observed maximum cloud height appears to be approximately 1600 m. This is much lower than that predicted using standard empirical formulas and buoyant cloud rise models. I present results from a modified buoyant cloud rise model that more accurately predicts the maximum cloud height by allowing for the inclusion of a fixed amount of air and/or water into the fireball at the start of cloud rise. The amount of mass that needs to be added at the start, to reproduce the observed maximum cloud height, is relatively small compared to the total mass entrained during cloud rise. A much greater amount of dry air or debris is required, relative to water, for an equivalent reduction in maximum cloud height. The ammonium nitrate is one possible source for water in the fireball since it was being stored in a very humid environment and ammonium nitrate is known to be hygroscopic. The ground beneath the explosion, especially if it were saturated, and the nearby harbor could also have been sources for water or debris in the fireball.

38 RADIATION CHEMISTRY, RADIOCHEMISTRY, AND NUCLEA↗
DOE OSTI2019

Learning from Five-year Resource-Utilization Data of Titan System

Titan was the flagship supercomputer at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF). It was deployed in late 2012, became the fastest supercomputer in the world and was retired on August 2, 2019. With Titan's mission complete, this paper provides a first-order examination of the usage of its critical resources (CPU, Memory, GPU, and I/O) over a five-year production period (2015-2019). In particular, we show quantitatively that the majority of CPU time was spent on the large-scale jobs, which is consistent with the policy of driving ground-breaking science through leadership computing. We also corroborate the general observation of the low CPU-memory usage with 95% jobs utilizing only 15% or less available memory. Additionally, we correlate the increase of total job submissions and the decrease of GPU-enabled jobs during 2016 with the GPU reliability issue which impacted the large-scale runs. We further show the surprising read/write ratio over the five-year period, which contradicts the general mindset of the large-scale simulation machines being “write-heavy”. This understanding will have potential impact on how we design our next-generation large-scale storage systems. We believe that our analyses and findings are going to be of great interest to the high-performance computing (HPC) community at large.

Wang, Feiyi↗
DOE OSTI2011

Collisions of low-energy electrons with isopropanol

We report measured and calculated cross sections for elastic scattering of low-energy electrons by isopropanol (propan-2-ol). The experimental data were obtained using the relative flow technique with helium as the standard gas and a thin aperture as the collimating target gas source, which permits use of this method without the restrictions imposed by the relative flow pressure conditions on helium and the unknown gas. The differential cross sections were measured at energies of 1.5, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 10, 15, 20, and 30 eV and for scattering angles from 10 deg. to 130 deg. The cross sections were computed over the same energy range employing the Schwinger multichannel method in the static-exchange plus polarization approximation. Agreement between theory and experiment is very good. The present data are compared with previously calculated and measured results for n-propanol, the other isomer of C{sub 3}H{sub 7}OH. Although the integral and momentum transfer cross sections for the isomers are very similar, the differential cross sections show a strong isomeric effect: In contrast to the f-wave behavior seen in scattering by n-propanol, d-wave behavior is observed in the cross sections of isopropanol. These results corroborate our previous observations in electron collisions with isomers of C{sub 4}H{sub 9}OH.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Investigation of the redox-dependent modulation of structure and dynamics in human cytochrome c

Redox-dependent changes in the structure and dynamics of human cytochrome c (Cyt c) were investigated by solution NMR. We found significant structural changes in several regions, including residues 23–28 (loop 3), which were further corroborated by chemical shift differences between the reduced and oxidized states of Cyt c. These differences are essential for discriminating redox states in Cyt c by cytochrome c oxidase (CcO) during electron transfer reactions. Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill (CPMG) relaxation dispersion experiments identified that the region around His33 undergoes conformational exchanges on the μs-ms timescale, indicating significant redox-dependent structural changes. Because His33 is not part of the interaction site for CcO, our data suggest that the dynamic properties of the region, which is far from the interaction site for CcO, contribute to conformational changes during electron transfer to CcO. - Highlights: • Solution structure and dynamics analysis for human Cyt c by NMR. • Structural changes responsible for the discrimination of the redox state in Cyt c. • Conformational exchange in the region outside of the interaction site for CcO. • Less flexibility and rigid structure of the interaction site on Cyt c for CcO.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2015

MO-FG-303-02: BEST IN PHYSICS (THERAPY): Cherenkov Emission Dosimetry: Feasibility for Electron Radiotherapy

Purpose: To investigate from first principles, corroborated by Monte Carlo simulations and experimental measurements, the feasibility of developing a relative Cherenkov emission (CE) dosimetry protocol for electron beam radiotherapy. Methods: Monte Carlo (MC) simulations of mono-energetic electrons incident on water were carried out in Geant4. Percent depth Cherenkov emission (PDCE) and dose (PDD) distributions were scored for incidence energies of 4, 6, 9, 12, 15, and 18 MeV. PDCE-to-PDD analytical conversion models were developed from least-squares data fits generated for PDD as a function of PDCE at the same depth and at different depths. Experimental techniques for validation of these models are examined. Results: Same-depth PDD versus PDCE data fits indicate that although the relationship is linear to first order (correlation r > 0.9 for all energies), it is much more accurately approximated by separate linear and quadratic models for the build-up and drop-off regions, respectively (r > 0.999), which is theoretically underpinned. To understand the source of this relationship and its basis for developing robust conversion models, an approximate quadratic first-principles model was derived and found in agreement with MC/measured data (20% deviation at worst). Conversely, data fits of PDD versus different-depth PDCE unveiled a depth-invariant effective point of measurement of 1.5–2.1 mm downstream with 4–18 MeV incidence, respectively (r > 0.999 in the drop-off region). We present an analytical first-principles justification for this shift. This method led to errors of <1% in drop-off region PDD (<2% for PDD<20% with 4 MeV incidence) and <0.2 mm in practical range prediction. Conclusion: We present robust quantitative prediction models, derived from first-principles and supported by simulation and measurement, for relative dose from Cherenkov emission by high-energy electrons. This constitutes a major step towards development of protocols for routine clinical quality assurance as well as real-time in vivo Cherenkov dosimetry in radiotherapy. The authors acknowledge partial support by Fonds de recherche du Quebec - Nature et technologies (FRQNT), CREATE Medical Physics Research Training Network grant of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), CREATE Integrated Sensor Systems grant of NSERC, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), and NSERC.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2016

A well-posed and stable stochastic Galerkin formulation of the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations with random data

We present a well-posed stochastic Galerkin formulation of the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations with uncertainty in model parameters or the initial and boundary conditions. The stochastic Galerkin method involves representation of the solution through generalized polynomial chaos expansion and projection of the governing equations onto stochastic basis functions, resulting in an extended system of equations. A relatively low-order generalized polynomial chaos expansion is sufficient to capture the stochastic solution for the problem considered. We derive boundary conditions for the continuous form of the stochastic Galerkin formulation of the velocity and pressure equations. The resulting problem formulation leads to an energy estimate for the divergence. With suitable boundary data on the pressure and velocity, the energy estimate implies zero divergence of the velocity field. Based on the analysis of the continuous equations, we present a semi-discretized system where the spatial derivatives are approximated using finite difference operators with a summation-by-parts property. With a suitable choice of dissipative boundary conditions imposed weakly through penalty terms, the semi-discrete scheme is shown to be stable. Numerical experiments in the laminar flow regime corroborate the theoretical results and we obtain high-order accurate results for the solution variables and the velocity divergence converges to zero as the mesh is refined.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Numerical simulations challenged on the prediction of massive subhalo abundance in galaxy clusters: the case of Abell 2142

In this Letter we compare the abundance of the member galaxies of a rich, nearby (z = 0.09) galaxy cluster, Abell 2142, with that of halos of comparable virial mass extracted from sets of state-of-the-art numerical simulations, both collisionless at different resolutions and with the inclusion of baryonic physics in the form of cooling, star formation, and feedback by active galactic nuclei. We also use two semi-analytical models to account for the presence of orphan galaxies. The photometric and spectroscopic information, taken from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 12 database, allows us to estimate the stellar velocity dispersion of member galaxies of Abell 2142. This quantity is used as proxy for the total mass of secure cluster members and is properly compared with that of subhalos in simulations. We find that simulated halos have a statistically significant (≳7 sigma confidence level) smaller amount of massive (circular velocity above 200 km s{sup −1}) subhalos, even before accounting for the possible incompleteness of observations. These results corroborate the findings from a recent strong lensing study of the Hubble Frontier Fields galaxy cluster MACS J0416 and suggest that the observed difference is already present at the level of dark matter (DM) subhalos and is not solved by introducing baryonic physics. A deeper understanding of this discrepancy between observations and simulations will provide valuable insights into the impact of the physical properties of DM particles and the effect of baryons on the formation and evolution of cosmological structures.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗