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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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Thermal neutron flux perturbations in cylinders in test reactors, using regression analysis to obtain polynomials for flux perturbation, depression, self shielding factors, etc
A linear perturbation method developed by White (1972) to improve the correlation between analytical models and experimental data is applied to modeling of the Viking Propulsion Subsystem (VPS), flown successfully as part of the Viking Spacecraft launch of 1975. Analytical models and modal test data developed for the VPS are employed in the application; a set of mathematically generated data and a corresponding perturbed analytical model, representative of actual flight hardware, are also subjected to the White method. It is found that the linear perturbation method does not yield a single unique improved model.
Results are presented for the performance capabilities of a multistream droplet generator suitable for use in a spacecraft liquid droplet radiator heat-rejection system. The nozzle-motion mode of stream perturbation initiation was tested with a single droplet stream and found to produce data similar to those generated with the resonant cavity mode of perturbation. Tests then proceeded to a 26-orifice array; the streams of the array responded to the perturbation satisfactorily, forming uniformly separated drops.
The Mt. Agung volcanic eruption in 1963 is used as a test case to examine the climatic response to a global-scale radiative perturbation of the earth's atmosphere.
Development of facility for experimental evaluation of centrifugal pump operating under periodic fluctuations of inlet pressure and flow
The Mount Agung volcanic eruption in 1963 provides the best-documented global radiative perturbation to the earth's atmosphere currently available. Data on stratospheric aerosols produced by this eruption have been used as input to a model for the atmospheric thermal structure. The computed magnitude, sign, and phase lag of the temperature changes in both the stratosphere and the troposphere are in good agreement with observations, providing evidence that the climatic response to a global radiative perturbation is significant as well as support for the use of theoretical models to predict climatic effects.
With increased adoption of supervised deep learning methods for work with cosmological survey data, the assessment of data perturbation effects (that can naturally occur in the data processing and analysis pipelines) and the development of methods that increase model robustness are increasingly important. In the context of morphological classification of galaxies, we study the effects of perturbations in imaging data. In particular, we examine the consequences of using neural networks when training on baseline data and testing on perturbed data. We consider perturbations associated with two primary sources: (a) increased observational noise as represented by higher levels of Poisson noise and (b) data processing noise incurred by steps such as image compression or telescope errors as represented by one-pixel adversarial attacks. We also test the efficacy of domain adaptation techniques in mitigating the perturbation-driven errors. We use classification accuracy, latent space visualizations, and latent space distance to assess model robustness in the face of these perturbations. For deep learning models without domain adaptation, we find that processing pixel-level errors easily flip the classification into an incorrect class and that higher observational noise makes the model trained on low-noise data unable to classify galaxy morphologies. On the other hand, we show that training with domain adaptation improves model robustness and mitigates the effects of these perturbations, improving the classification accuracy up to 23% on data with higher observational noise. Domain adaptation also increases up to a factor of ${\approx}2.3$ the latent space distance between the baseline and the incorrectly classified one-pixel perturbed image, making the model more robust to inadvertent perturbations. Successful development and implementation of methods that increase model robustness in astronomical survey pipelines will help pave the way for many more uses of deep learning for astronomy.
Simulating the Earth's climate is an important and complex problem, thus climate models are similarly complex, comprised of millions of lines of code. In order to appropriately utilize the latest computational and software infrastructure advancements in Earth system models running on modern hybrid computing architectures to improve their performance, precision, accuracy, or all three; it is important to ensure that model simulations are repeatable and robust. This introduces the need for establishing statistical or non-bit-for-bit reproducibility, since bit-for-bit reproducibility may not always be achievable. Here, we propose a short-simulation ensemble-based test for an atmosphere model to evaluate the null hypothesis that modified model results are statistically equivalent to that of the original model. We implement this test in version 2 of the US Department of Energy's Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM). The test evaluates a standard set of output variables across the two simulation ensembles and uses a false discovery rate correction to account for multiple testing. The false positive rates of the test are examined using re-sampling techniques on large simulation ensembles and are found to be lower than the currently implemented bootstrapping-based testing approach in E3SM. We also evaluate the statistical power of the test using perturbed simulation ensemble suites, each with a progressively larger magnitude of change to a tuning parameter. The new test is generally found to exhibit more statistical power than the current approach, being able to detect smaller changes in parameter values with higher confidence.
Although bacterial amendments can enhance algal productivity and stability, the development of algal-bacteria consortia for commercial-scale utilization is limited. Here, for this work, we used an established high-throughput approach to generate algal-bacteria consortia, and tested consortia performance at spatial scales from microplates to 320 L raceway ponds. We used both lab and field-reared strains of Nannochloropsis oceanica to build consortia. In some experiments, we imposed environmental perturbations to test the ability of bacteria to enhance algal culture stability. In repeated assays at the scale of well plates, flasks, and bioreactors, strong effects of bacterial amendments on N. oceanica were observed. These effects were most dramatic when cultures experienced stressors such as temperature perturbations or removal of CO 2 augmentation. Isolates that were advanced for field testing included species in the genera Algoriphagus, Oceanicaulis, and Marinobacter. When consortia were generated in the field, positive effects of bacterial amendments were not observed. The amended bacteria were outcompeted, and bacterial community composition across treatments converged after the first grow out. These results highlight the complexity of using consortia in open systems, where interactions between the existing bacterial community, inoculated bacteria, and changing environmental conditions are layered upon other differences in scale and cultivation regimes. Moreover, functionally redundant bacteria are likely present in the field. Following this work, we hypothesize that tight interactions (e.g., obligate relationships between partners) will scale more predictably to outdoor systems. We suggest relying on true synthetic ecological approaches in which the relationships between bacteria and algae partners are well understood, or synthetic ecological approaches coupled with high throughput approaches to design and test consortia. We also recommend future work to examine the effect of algae-bacteria inoculation ratios on productivity and stability, track dynamics of partners through time, and manage ponds to retain beneficial symbioses.
The effect of aerosol on clouds poses one of the largest uncertainties in estimating the anthropogenic contribution to climate change. Small human-induced perturbations to cloud characteristics via aerosol pathways can create a change in the top-of-atmosphere radiative forcing of hundreds of Wm(exp-2) . Here we focus on links between aerosol and deep convective clouds of the Atlantic and Pacific Intertropical Convergence Zones, noting that the aerosol environment in each region is entirely different. The tops of these vertically developed clouds consisting of mostly ice can reach high levels of the atmosphere, overshooting the lower stratosphere and reaching altitudes greater than 16 km. We show a link between aerosol, clouds and the free atmosphere wind profile that can change the magnitude and sign of the overall climate radiative forcing. We find that increased aerosol loading is associated with taller cloud towers and anvils. The taller clouds reach levels of enhanced wind speeds that act to spread and thin the anvi1 clouds, increasing areal coverage and decreasing cloud optical depth. The radiative effect of this transition is to create a positive radiative forcing (warming) at top-of-atmosphere. Furthermore we introduce the cloud optical depth (r), cloud height (Z) forcing space and show that underestimation of radiative forcing is likely to occur in cases of non homogenous clouds. Specifically, the mean radiative forcing of towers and anvils in the same scene can be several times greater than simply calculating the forcing from the mean cloud optical depth in the scene. Limitations of the method are discussed, alternative sources of aerosol loading are tested and meteorological variance is restricted, but the trend of taller clouds; increased and thinner anvils associated with increased aerosol loading remains robust through all the different tests and perturbations.
Fiducial and differential cross-section measurements of W + W - production in association with at least one hadronic jet are presented. These measurements are sensitive to the properties of electroweak-boson self-interactions and provide a test of perturbative quantum chromodynamics and the electroweak theory. The analysis is performed using proton-proton collision data collected at $ \sqrt{s} $ = 13 TeV with the ATLAS experiment, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb -1 . Events are selected with exactly one oppositely charged electron-muon pair and at least one hadronic jet with a transverse momentum of p T > 30 GeV and a pseudorapidity of |η| < 4.5. After subtracting the background contributions and correcting for detector effects, the jet-inclusive W + W - + ≥ 1 jet fiducial cross-section and W + W - + jets differential cross-sections with respect to several kinematic variables are measured. These measurements include leptonic quantities, such as the lepton transverse momenta and the transverse mass of the W + W - system, as well as jet-related observables such as the leading jet transverse momentum and the jet multiplicity. Limits on anomalous triple-gauge-boson couplings are obtained in a phase space where interference between the Standard Model amplitude and the anomalous amplitude is enhanced.
Abstract Sponges are abundant components of coral reefs known for their filtration capabilities and intricate interactions with microbes. They play a crucial role in maintaining the ecological balance of coral reefs. Humic substances (HS) affect bacterial communities across terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems. However, the specific effects of HS on sponge-associated microbial symbionts have largely been neglected. Here, we used a randomized-controlled microcosm setup to investigate the independent and interactive effects of HS, elevated temperature, and UVB radiation on bacterial communities associated with the sponge Chondrilla sp. Our results indicated the presence of a core bacterial community consisting of relatively abundant members, apparently resilient to the tested environmental perturbations, alongside a variable bacterial community. Elevated temperature positively affected the relative abundances of ASVs related to Planctomycetales and members of the families Pseudohongiellaceae and Hyphomonadaceae. HS increased the relative abundances of several ASVs potentially involved in recalcitrant organic matter degradation (e.g., the BD2-11 terrestrial group, Saccharimonadales, and SAR202 clade). There was no significant independent effect of UVB and there were no significant interactive effects of HS, heat, and UVB on bacterial diversity and composition. The significant, independent impact of HS on the composition of sponge bacterial communities suggests that alterations to HS inputs may have cascading effects on adjacent marine ecosystems.
We present measurements of cross sections for production of a leptonically decaying $Z$ boson in association with a large-radius jet in 13 TeV proton-proton collisions at the LHC, using 36 fb –1 of data from the ATLAS detector. Integrated and differential cross sections are measured at particle level in both a flavor inclusive and a doubly $b$-tagged fiducial phase space. The large-radius jet mass and transverse momentum, its kinematic relationship to the Z boson, and the angular separation of $b$-tagged small-radius track jets within the large-radius jet are measured. This measurement constitutes an important test of perturbative quantum chromodynamics in kinematic and flavor configurations relevant to several Higgs boson and beyond-Standard-Model physics analyses. The results highlight issues with modeling of additional hadronic activity in the flavor-inclusive selection, and a distinction between flavor-number schemes in the $b$-tagged phase space.
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A primitive equation linear model is shown to be capable of quantitatively predicting the neutral curve for a baroclinic annulus. Flows unstable to small nonaxisymmetric perturbations are assumed to lie on the nonaxisymmetric side of a transition curve, while the stable flows are on the axisymmetric side. The stability in the presence of perturbations is tested with linearized hydrostatic primitive equations. Attention is given to the fastest growing eigenmodes, demonstrating that the linear and nonlinear wave have similar structures at a particular point in the nonaxisymmetric regime. All the waves are similar to the Eddy wave except at the extreme to the transition curve, where the waves maintain little structure with height. The eddy kinetic energy is baroclinic with a potential energy suppresed by the large static stability of the basic state. Eddy dissipation is noted to be significant near all boundaries.
Information on sensitivity analysis in computational aerodynamics is given in outline, graphical, and chart form. The prediction accuracy if the MCAERO program, a perturbation analysis method, is discussed. A procedure for calculating perturbation matrix, baseline wing paneling for perturbation analysis test cases and applications of an inviscid sensitivity matrix are among the topics covered.
Based on an optimization formulation, a procedure has been developed to evaluate Mach number and angle-of-attack corrections. The Euler equations are assumed to be the flow governing equations. To obtain efficient solutions for the optimization problem, the iterative solutions for the flow variables and the design parameters are simultaneously updated. In addition to the model lift and geometry, the procedure requires pressure measurements near the tunnel walls. The accuracy and efficiency of several optimization techniques are investigated. The effect of perturbing certain test conditions on the residual interference is investigated.
Design and performance of three-dimensional and two-dimensional backscatter laser velocimeter, both used in low-speed wind tunnels, described in report together with historical overview of development of laser velocimetry (LV). Provides measurements of airflow in wind-tunnel tests without perturbing effects of probes and probe-supporting structures. Applicable in such related fields as ventilation engineering and possibly in detection of wing vortexes from large aircraft at airports.