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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 397 records · Page 22

A hypermatrix formulation for subspace iteration

The computational efficiency of subspace iteration is addressed relative to the data structures adopted for the very large and generally sparse coefficient matrices. The frequent triangulations and matrix multiplications demand that access to the terms in the coefficient matrices be unbiased. Reliance on virtual memory (paging) operating systems with no special considerations for localized data access is not adequate. Specific data structures must be designed that accommodate the needs of the numerical algorithm yet eliminate unnecessary paging. An implementation of the subspace iteration method using hypermatrix data structures is presented. Use of hypermatrices is shown to provide unbiased and localized data access. The various modifications to the conventional formulation are described and an example problem illustrates the potential benefits of the hypermatrix formulation. Possibilities for adapting hypermatrix data structures to new supercomputer architectures are discussed.

Schmidt, Richard J.↗

Application of Soft Computing in Coherent Communications Phase Synchronization

The use of soft computing techniques in coherent communications phase synchronization provides an alternative to analytical or hard computing methods. This paper discusses a novel use of Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference Systems (ANFIS) for phase synchronization in coherent communications systems utilizing Multiple Phase Shift Keying (MPSK) modulation. A brief overview of the M-PSK digital communications bandpass modulation technique is presented and it's requisite need for phase synchronization is discussed. We briefly describe the hybrid platform developed by Jang that incorporates fuzzy/neural structures namely the, Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Interference Systems (ANFIS). We then discuss application of ANFIS to phase estimation for M-PSK. The modeling of both explicit, and implicit phase estimation schemes for M-PSK symbols with unknown structure are discussed. Performance results from simulation of the above scheme is presented.

Drake, Jeffrey T.↗

Adaptive age replacement.

Loss structure models concerning age replacement policies, discussing mathematical aspects of maintenance with dynamic programming formulation

COST ESTIMATE↗

The structure of the antenna pattern of an adaptive array

The antenna pattern of a receiving adaptive array is investigated for the case of its operation in an environment of one desirable narrow-band signal and (K-1) narrow-band jammers. Results show that the adapted (voltage) antenna pattern of the array is a linear combination of k (or less) basis-patterns, each of which is a function of one source only. It is determined that these basis-patterns have a simple physical meaning in that the k-th basis-pattern is the pattern formed by the array when the transmission of source k is considered a desired signal and all other sources are turned off.

Zohar, S.↗

Interior Noise Reduction by Adaptive Feedback Vibration Control

The objective of this project is to investigate the possible use of adaptive digital filtering techniques in simultaneous, multiple-mode identification of the modal parameters of a vibrating structure in real-time. It is intended that the results obtained from this project will be used for state estimation needed in adaptive structural acoustics control. The work done in this project is basically an extension of the work on real-time single mode identification, which was performed successfully using a digital signal processor (DSP) at NASA, Langley. Initially, in this investigation the single mode identification work was duplicated on a different processor, namely the Texas Instruments TMS32OC40 DSP. The system identification results for the single mode case were very good. Then an algorithm for simultaneous two mode identification was developed and tested using analytical simulation. When it successfully performed the expected tasks, it was implemented in real-time on the DSP system to identify the first two modes of vibration of a cantilever aluminum beam. The results of the simultaneous two mode case were good but some problems were identified related to frequency warping and spurious mode identification. The frequency warping problem was found to be due to the bilinear transformation used in the algorithm to convert the system transfer function from the continuous-time domain to the discrete-time domain. An alternative approach was developed to rectify the problem. The spurious mode identification problem was found to be associated with high sampling rates. Noise in the signal is suspected to be the cause of this problem but further investigation will be needed to clarify the cause. For simultaneous identification of more than two modes, it was found that theoretically an adaptive digital filter can be designed to identify the required number of modes, but the algebra became very complex which made it impossible to implement in the DSP system used in this study. The on-line identification algorithm developed in this research will be useful in constructing a state estimator for feedback vibration control.

Lim, Tae W.↗

Alignment Pins for Assembling and Disassembling Structures

Simple, easy-to-use, highly effective tooling has been devised for maintaining alignment of bolt holes in mating structures during assembly and disassembly of the structures. The tooling was originally used during removal of a body flap from the space shuttle Atlantis, in which misalignments during removal of the last few bolts could cause the bolts to bind in their holes. By suitably modifying the dimensions of the tooling components, the basic design of the tooling can readily be adapted to other structures that must be maintained in alignment. The tooling includes tapered, internally threaded alignment pins designed to fit in the bolt holes in one of the mating structures, plus a draw bolt and a cup that are used to install or remove each alignment pin. In preparation for disassembly of two mating structures, external supports are provided to prevent unintended movement of the structures. During disassembly of the structures, as each bolt that joins the structures is removed, an alignment pin is installed in its place. Once all the bolts have been removed and replaced with pins, the pins maintain alignment as the structures are gently pushed or pulled apart on the supports. In assembling the two structures, one reverses the procedure described above: pins are installed in the bolt holes, the structures are pulled or pushed together on the supports, then the pins are removed and replaced with bolts. The figure depicts the tooling and its use. To install an alignment pin in a bolt hole in a structural panel, the tapered end of the pin is inserted from one side of the panel, the cup is placed over the pin on the opposite side of the panel, the draw bolt is inserted through the cup and threaded into the pin, the draw bolt is tightened to pull the pin until the pin is seated firmly in the hole, then the draw bolt and cup are removed, leaving the pin in place. To remove an alignment pin, the cup is placed over the pin on the first-mentioned side of the panel, the draw bolt is inserted through the cup and threaded into the pin, then the draw bolt is tightened to pull the pin out of the hole.

Campbell, Oliver C.↗

Physical and behavioral adaptations to prevent overheating of the living wings of butterflies

The wings of Lepidoptera contain a matrix of living cells whose function requires appropriate temperatures. However, given their small thermal capacity, wings can overheat rapidly in the sun. Here we analyze butterfly wings across a wide range of simulated environmental conditions, and find that regions containing living cells are maintained at cooler temperatures. Diverse scale nanostructures and non-uniform cuticle thicknesses create a heterogeneous distribution of radiative cooling that selectively reduces the temperature of structures such as wing veins and androconial organs. These tissues are supplied by circulatory, neural and tracheal systems throughout the adult lifetime, indicating that the insect wing is a dynamic, living structure. Behavioral assays show that butterflies use wings to sense visible and infrared radiation, responding with specialized behaviors to prevent overheating of their wings. Our work highlights the physiological importance of wing temperature and how it is exquisitely regulated by structural and behavioral adaptations.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Demonstration and performance testing of extreme-resolution simulations with static meshes on Summit (CPU & GPU) for a parked-turbine configuration and an actuator-line (mid-fidelity model) wind farm configuration (ECP-Q4 FY2020 Milestone Report)

The goal of the ExaWind project is to enable predictive simulations of wind farms comprised of many megawatt-scale turbines situated in complex terrain. Predictive simulations will require computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations for which the mesh resolves the geometry of the turbines and captures the rotation and large deflections of blades. Whereas such simulations for a single turbine are arguably petascale class, multi-turbine wind farm simulations will require exascale-class resources. The primary physics codes in the ExaWind simulation environment are Nalu-Wind, an unstructured-grid solver for the acoustically incompressible Navier-Stokes equations, AMR-Wind, a block-structured-grid solver with adaptive mesh refinement capabilities, and OpenFAST, a wind-turbine structural dynamics solver. The Nalu-Wind model consists of the mass-continuity Poisson-type equation for pressure and Helmholtz-type equations for transport of momentum and other scalars. For such modeling approaches, simulation times are dominated by linear-system setup and solution for the continuity and momentum systems. For the ExaWind challenge problem, the moving meshes greatly affect overall solver costs as reinitialization of matrices and recomputation of preconditioners is required at every time step. The choice of overset-mesh methodology to model the moving and non-moving parts of the computational domain introduces constraint equations in the elliptic pressure-Poisson solver. The presence of constraints greatly affects the performance of algebraic multigrid preconditioners.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

Automated Unstructured Grid Adaptation on a Strut Fuel Injector at Hypervelocity Flow Conditions

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis is presented with the use of an automated unstructured grid adaptation tool on a strut fuel injector at hypervelocity flow conditions. The analysis was carried out with the VULCAN-CFD solver using Reynolds-averaged simulations (RAS). The hypervelocity flow conditions match the high Mach number flow of the experiments conducted as part of the Enhanced Injection and Mixing Project (EIMP) at the NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC). The current work utilizes an automated grid adaptation tool recently implemented into VULCAN-CFD, and explores this tool’s ability to solve high-speed mixing problems. Simulation results obtained using the unstructured adaptive grid approach are compared to those on a user generated structured grid. These results are evaluated by analyzing how efficiently comparable fidelity results are obtained from both adapted and structured simulations. In addition, two adaptation strategies were used to explore the impact on the final solution. In the current work, the unstructured grid adaptation tool automatically generates unstructured grids and performs adaptation of the grid based on a Hessian error estimate of a specified flow field parameter. Multiple adaptations were executed using each run strategy with the one-dimensional values of the mixing efficiency used to determine grid convergence and for comparison with the structured grid simulation results. It was found that the unstructured adaptive grid simulations were able to produce results that matched closely with those on structured grids using far fewer grid cells, and thus, requiring far less computational time to reach the solution. It was also discovered that the adaptation run strategy influenced the total number of grid cells and the efficiency with which a final grid-adapted solution was reached. Overall, the investigation demonstrated that the automated unstructured grid adaptation tool implemented in VULCAN-CFD is capable of accurately and efficiently solving complex highspeed mixing problems using only a fraction of the grid cells required to obtain comparable results using a user-generated structured grid.

grid adaptation↗

Unveiling mesoscopic structures in distorted lamellar phases through deep learning-based small angle neutron scattering analysis

Hypothesis: The formation of distorted lamellar phases, distinguished by their arrangement of crumpled, stacked layers, is frequently accompanied by the disruption of long-range order, leading to the formation of interconnected network structures commonly observed in the sponge phase. Nevertheless, traditional scattering functions grounded in deterministic modeling fall short of fully representing these intricate structural characteristics. Our hypothesis posits that a deep learning method, in conjunction with the generalized leveled wave approach used for describing structural features of distorted lamellar phases, can quantitatively unveil the inherent spatial correlations within these phases. Experiments and Simulations: This report outlines a novel strategy that integrates convolutional neural networks and variational autoencoders, supported by stochastically generated density fluctuations, into a regression analysis framework for extracting structural features of distorted lamellar phases from small angle neutron scattering data. To evaluate the efficacy of our proposed approach, we conducted computational accuracy assessments and applied it to the analysis of experimentally measured small angle neutron scattering spectra of AOT surfactant solutions, a frequently studied lamellar system. Findings: The findings unambiguously demonstrate that deep learning provides a dependable and quantitative approach for investigating the morphology of wide variations of distorted lamellar phases. It is adaptable for deciphering structures from the lamellar to sponge phase including intermediate structures exhibiting fused topological features. In conclusion, this research highlights the effectiveness of deep learning methods in tackling complex issues in the field of soft matter structural analysis and beyond.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Automated Unstructured Grid Adaptation on a Strut Fuel Injector at Hypervelocity Flow Conditions

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis is presented with the use of an automated unstructured grid adaptation tool on a strut fuel injector at hypervelocity flow conditions. The analysis was carried out with the VULCAN-CFD solver using Reynolds-averaged simulations (RAS). The hypervelocity flow conditions match the high Mach number flow of the experiments conducted as part of the Enhanced Injection and Mixing Project (EIMP) at the NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC). The current work uses an automated grid adaptation tool recently implemented in VULCAN-CFD, and explores this tool’s ability to solve highspeed mixing problems. Simulation results obtained using the unstructured adaptive grid approach are compared to those on a user-generated structured grid. These results are evaluated by analyzing how efficiently comparable fidelity results are obtained from both adapted and structured simulations. In addition, two adaptation strategies were used to explore the impact on the final solution. In the current work, the unstructured grid adaptation tool automatically generates unstructured grids and performs adaptation of the grid based on a Hessian error estimate of a specified flowfield parameter. Multiple adaptations were executed using each run strategy with the one-dimensional values of the mixing efficiency used to determine grid convergence and for comparison with the structured grid simulation results. It was found that the unstructured adaptive grid simulations were able to produce results that matched closely with those on structured grids using far fewer grid cells, and thus, requiring far less computational time to reach the solution. It was also discovered that the adaptation run strategy influenced the total number of grid cells and the efficiency with which a final grid-adapted solution was reached. Furthermore, motivated by the grid convergence index (GCI) used for structured grid simulations, a grid convergence estimate (GCE) was developed and demonstrated for the grid adaptation. Overall, the investigation demonstrated that the automated unstructured grid adaptation tool implemented in VULCAN-CFD is capable of accurately and efficiently solving complex high-speed mixing problems with only a fraction of the grid cells required to obtain comparable results on a user-generated structured grid.

hypersonics↗

Automated Unstructured Grid Adaptation on a Strut Fuel Injector at Hypervelocity Flow Conditions

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis is presented with the use of an automated unstructured grid adaptation tool on a strut fuel injector at hypervelocity flow conditions. The analysis was carried out with the VULCAN-CFD solver using Reynolds-averaged simulations (RAS). The hypervelocity flow conditions match the high Mach number flow of the experiments conducted as part of the Enhanced Injection and Mixing Project (EIMP) at the NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC). The current work uses an automated grid adaptation tool recently implemented in VULCAN-CFD, and explores this tool’s ability to solve highspeed mixing problems. Simulation results obtained using the unstructured adaptive grid approach are compared to those on a user-generated structured grid. These results are evaluated by analyzing how efficiently comparable fidelity results are obtained from both adapted and structured simulations. In addition, two adaptation strategies were used to explore the impact on the final solution. In the current work, the unstructured grid adaptation tool automatically generates unstructured grids and performs adaptation of the grid based on a Hessian error estimate of a specified flowfield parameter. Multiple adaptations were executed using each run strategy with the one-dimensional values of the mixing efficiency used to determine grid convergence and for comparison with the structured grid simulation results. It was found that the unstructured adaptive grid simulations were able to produce results that matched closely with those on structured grids using far fewer grid cells, and thus, requiring far less computational time to reach the solution. It was also discovered that the adaptation run strategy influenced the total number of grid cells and the efficiency with which a final grid-adapted solution was reached. Furthermore, motivated by the grid convergence index (GCI) used for structured grid simulations, a grid convergence estimate (GCE) was developed and demonstrated for the grid adaptation. Overall, the investigation demonstrated that the automated unstructured grid adaptation tool implemented in VULCAN-CFD is capable of accurately and efficiently solving complex high-speed mixing problems with only a fraction of the grid cells required to obtain comparable results on a user-generated structured grid.

hypersonics↗

Demonstration of repairability and repair quality on graphite/epoxy structural subelements

The considered program has the objective to develop and validate repair procedures for composite structures which are adaptable to commercial airline maintenance operations. Questions concerning the design and the fabrication of repairs are discussed, taking into account a vertical fin cover panel, a wing cover panel, and a vertical fin spar. The test results indicate that the use of graphite patch repairs, either precured bonded or employing cure-in-place, is satisfactory for the repair of lightly loaded and highly loaded parts. The use of bolted repairs is satisfactory for lightly loaded structural components. The repair of composite substructures can be accomplished using comparable approaches to those evaluated for skin cover repairs in many previous programs.

Knauss, J. F.↗

Stability analysis of Centaur-in-Shuttle composite corrugated adapters

This paper evaluates analytically the structural integrity of discretely-loaded, graphite-epoxy, corrugated adapters for the Centaur-in-Shuttle, where combined compression and shear are the critical loads involved. With normal build-ups in the thickness at load introduction boundaries, the structural integrity for both compression and shear buckling was little (or not al all) affected by the discrete load introductions. The analytical tool employed was the STAGSC computer code, and both bifurction buckling and nonlinear collapse options were used; the latter option was limited to shear since postbuckling strength in compression for plate-type structures is governed by crippling strengths, which is not attainable by existing computer codes.

Spier, E. E.↗

Accelerate microstructure evolution simulation using graph neural networks with adaptive spatiotemporal resolution

Abstract Surrogate models driven by sizeable datasets and scientific machine-learning methods have emerged as an attractive microstructure simulation tool with the potential to deliver predictive microstructure evolution dynamics with huge savings in computational costs. Taking 2D and 3D grain growth simulations as an example, we present a completely overhauled computational framework based on graph neural networks with not only excellent agreement to both the ground truth phase-field methods and theoretical predictions, but enhanced accuracy and efficiency compared to previous works based on convolutional neural networks. These improvements can be attributed to the graph representation, both improved predictive power and a more flexible data structure amenable to adaptive mesh refinement. As the simulated microstructures coarsen, our method can adaptively adopt remeshed grids and larger timesteps to achieve further speedup. The data-to-model pipeline with training procedures together with the source codes are provided.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Inertia-Wheel Vibration-Damping System

Proposed electromechanical system would damp vibrations in large, flexible structure. In active vibration-damping system motors and reaction wheels at tips of appendages apply reaction torques in response to signals from accelerometers. Velocity signal for vibrations about one axis processes into control signal to oppose each of n vibrational modes. Various modes suppressed one at a time. Intended primarily for use in spacecraft that has large, flexible solar panels and science-instrument truss assembly, embodies principle of control interesting in its own right and adaptable to terrestrial structures, vehicles, and instrument platforms.

Fedor, Joseph V.↗