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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 55 records · Page 3

SpinDX Case Study

SpinDX, often referred to as a "lab-on-a-disk" is a portable, medical diagnostic platform that uses a disposable, centrifugal disk with microfluidic flow paths to manipulate a biological sample. This allows multiple tests to be carried out on a single sample with no preparation required. The device operates by distributing drops of raw, unprocessed samples into different channels that function as dozens of tiny test tubes. When the disc spins, the samples interact with test reagents inside the channels. If there is a chemical interaction between the sample and the reagent, the tip of the channel will produce a fluorescent glow indicating that there is an infectious agent present. The data is then transferred to a software interface that displays the test results.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

PEAR Objective 3.2

NTESS and its aviation security industry partners developed the Open Threat Assessment Platform (OTAP), an open-architecture platform project that provides a common set of software interfaces and data standards, for Transportation Security Administration airport screening.

98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL P↗

Large Volume Airborne Contamination Monitoring To Support Nuclear Processes' Deactivation and Decommissioning

Current D and D operations at Hanford have demonstrated a flaw in the current state of the art capability of defining airborne contamination boundaries - Airborne particulate emissions of Pu-239 from CM2H operations on the Hanford Pu Finishing Plant were detected well beyond areas controlled for airborne Pu, putting numerous workers at risk for radiological assimilations - Current air samplers and CAM systems were surveying insufficient volumes of air to accurately predict where respiratory protection was required - Hanford is located in a high radon environment, making air monitoring for alpha emitting actinides challenging in high alpha radon induced backgrounds. - Inexpensive HEPA based home and industrial air purifiers filter significantly higher volumes of air than commercially available continuous-air monitoring (CAM) systems. - Inexpensive models capable of filtered air volumes exceeding 1000 times that of a CAM. - Detector system can be built to detect x-rays generated from actinide decay. - Branching ratios of x-rays are 4 orders of magnitude more intense from Plutonium decay than its gamma emissions. - Detector system can be a low resolution systems, as x-ray region of interest is not terribly congested. - Detection systems evaluated will be designed based on slabs of NaI or pixelated NaI or CsI panels. - Simple graphical user interface software will be developed to operate the detection system. - Concept is to deploy some of these air-purifying systems in nonradiological areas around SRNL to confirm radon can be rejected with confidence. - Generate some filters contaminated with plutonium via electroplated Pu or lab generated simulated particles. - then deploy units in known airborne radiological environments to establish systems ability to accurately measure actinide based hot particles Lab analyses will follow up the system analyses to ensure hot particles were correctly identified. Analysis by Scintillation: - Application of scintillation media to the surface of the filters is being explored. - Evaluating slabs of ZnS(Ag), application of powdered ZnS(Cu) and spray on Perkin Elmer Enhance. - Scintillation events would then be digitized with a digital camera and quantified. - Comparing against sensitivity of a PMT or SiPD readout. - Currently evaluating a Thorlabs 8 Megapixel Monochrome Scientific CCD Camera, hermetically sealed cooled package with a wide angle lens. - Wide angle lens allows complete view of HEPA filter from 7 inches away. - Images taken of glow in the dark paint, as well as plutonium-induced fluorescence. - Plutonium was flamed mounted on a 1 inch diameter stainless steel planchet, covered with a layer of mylar and a section of scintillating ZnS obtained from Eljon. - Currently working on reducing signal-to-noise levels to boost sensitivity. - Dark box to hold contaminated or electroplated source covered filters under fabrication. Analysis by x-ray Spectroscopy: - Branching ratios for x-ray emissions from Plutonium isotopes are orders of magnitude more intense than gamma-ray emissions. - The nuclear databases are incomplete on the branching ratios of some of the isotopes. - Evaluating some custom built SrI2 x-ray spectrometers vs a conventional windowed NaI detector. - SrI2 detectors are carbon-composite-windowed 51 mm x 51 mm. - MCNP calculations to establish self absorbance of filter media on 17 keV x-ray. Radon Rejection: - Activated charcoal pre-filter acts as a Radon trap. - Adding a time lapse feature to camera to aid in radon rejection. SRS Plutonium Fuel Form D and D Operations: Currently deploying air sampler to D and D operation of Pu-238 facility at SRS to generate some field samples to analyze.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

ViBRANT Applied as a Closed Loop Flux and Thermal Surrogate

Surrogate testing platforms provide a means to develop a target aspect of a larger system. Some systems target single aspects while others are more wholistic. ViBRANT (Visual Benign Reactor as Analog for Nuclear Testing) aims to be a wholistic system by representing the primary reactor behaviors through an accessible LED driven reactor core, photodiodes, thermocouples, and high-performance software interfaces being developed to the standards required for actual microreactor deployment such as MARVEL. With the ability to drive control drums enabled with full reactor capability (e.g. speed/angle/torque capability/limits for operation and clutch/spring scram capability), drive ViBRANT’s high fidelity 36 pin hexagon core to represent phenomena via LEDs, and capture the analog response of distributed photodiodes/thermocouples, this paper will show the system’s ability to operate in a closed-loop fashion and do well at matching reactor power/temperature distribution in an accessible reactor surrogate environment.

22 - GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

iSPECTRON: a simulation interface for linear and nonlinear spectra with ab-initio quantum chemistry software

We introduce iSPECTRON, an open source (under the Educational Community License version 2.0) program that parses data from common quantum chemistry software (NWChem, OpenMolcas, Gaussian, Cobramm, etc.), produces the input files for the simulation of linear and nonlinear spectroscopy of molecules with the Spectron code, and analyzes the spectra with a broad range of tools. Vibronic spectra are expressed in term of the electronic eigenstates, obtained through quantum chemistry computations, and vibrational/bath effects are incorporated in the framework of the displaced harmonic oscillator model, where all required quantities are computed at the Franck-Condon point. The code capabilities are illustrated by simulating linear absorption, transient absorption and two dimensional electronic spectra of the pyrene molecule. Two levels of electronic structure theory, TDDFT (with NWChem) and RASSCF/RASPT2 (with OpenMolcas), are compared where possible. Acknowledgements: F.S., A.N., D.R.N., N.G., S.M, M.G. acknowledge support from the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Chemical Sciences, Geosciences, and Biosciences Division under Award Nos. DE-SC0019484, KC-030103172684. The Spectron code was developed with support from the National Science Foundation (Grant CHE- 1953045). This research benefited from computational resources provided by EMSL, a DOE Office of Science User Facility sponsored by the Office of Biological and Environmental Research and located at PNNL. PNNL is operated by Battelle Memorial Institute for the United States Department of Energy under DOE Contract No. DE-AC05-76RL1830.

Segatta, Francesco↗

R and DE Robotic Sensor Intern Team: Sensor Suite Software and User Interface

The sensor tree developed for the H-Canyon tunnel inspection project produces a large quantity of camera and Lidar data. A postprocessing pipeline was created to facilitate the analysis of these data. The pipeline follows the following routine: 1) Registration - Salient local features in subsequent scans are identified and used to align the scans with one another. This allows production of a single cohesive map of the tunnel. 2) Sensor Fusion - RGB camera data is 'painted' onto the depth data created by the Lidar. 3) Segmentation - Individual surfaces from within the scene are segmented out separately for individual analysis. 4) Degradation Analysis - Automatic mapping of local deviation from the plane in position or surface normal is performed, as is detection of exposed rebar using Lidar return intensity. 5) Obstacle Detection - Lidar data is also used in real time to detect obstacles in the environment. This could give feedback to the operator to successfully drive in the tunnel. 6) Graphic User Interface - a custom GUI was created to facilitate customer use of the system. The system provides real-time feedback from both the cameras and Lidar. During alignment, local features are used to recognize points within the walls that are especially unique and noticeable (salient) based on their deviation from the expected surface of the wall. These are used as landmarks to register the clouds, which also informs precise localization of the base at each scan point. After registration, clouds are 'painted' with RGB data from the spherical cameras, as shown below. The painted clouds provide a 3D, colorized model of the environment which improves the realism of the experience for the user. Painting also labels high-resolution color imagery from the 3D cameras with depth values. Following sensor fusion, individual walls and cylindrical duct surfaces are segmented from the scene for individual analysis using a Random Sample Consensus algorithm. This algorithm allows segmentation of planar walls and cylindrical ducts. Once individual walls are identified, each point within the wall can be compared to its neighbors and the wall overall in order to detect local areas with damaged concrete. Automatic rebar detection is also performed using the contrast in Lidar return intensity between iron and concrete. The Lidar point-cloud data is also used for obstacle detection. As the Lidar spins, various algorithms are run to analyze the current 'slice' and obstacles in the environment are determined and registered on a cost-map. A Graphical User Interface (GUI) was developed to allow the user to easily command the crawler to set the rotational speed of the Lidar, perform a scan, and register and save the 3D generated cloud after a scan is done. For the good of the crawler, a critical aspect of the GUI design is to allow the user to cancel a scan any time after it is commanded and before it is saved.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

Deep Learning for Fish Identification from Sonar Data: CRADA 481 [Abstract only]

To help solve the challenges of hydropower energy production related to the potential for eel injury and mortality from passage through hydropower turbines, we will develop a deep learning method for identifying migrating eels from imaging sonar. This project continues with a prior project conducted by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) in FY2018-2019. The proposed method employs Convolution Neural Network (CNN), a powerful deep learning method for image classification, to distinguish between images of eels and non-eel moving objects. We propose to collect more laboratory data and add more existing field data to train a powerful deep learning model. In addition to eels and sticks as classified in previous studies, we will add images containing several non-eel fish species and macrophyte mats to the training data. A multi-class classification model will be developed to distinguish these objects. Object detection algorithm will be explored and developed to locate and identify multiple objects in each sonar frame. Motion analysis will be performed to track the movement of objects in sonar video clips. We will also improve the data conversion algorithm so that it can read in both DIDSON and ARIS (both are imaging sonars developed by Sound Metrics Corp) data files and convert them to images with comparably high resolution, regardless of the varying detection ranges in different environments. The developed algorithms will be packaged as a software with a graphic user interface. The software will be evaluated by external collaborators in the field. The developed framework can be generalized for automatic monitoring of fish passage and migration using other imaging sonars like ARIS and will benefit the design and operation of ecologically friendly hydroelectric projects. The developed wavelet and CNN model configuration parameters can potentially be transferred to lamprey detection in similar riverine environments.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗

Residential (Secondary-Use) Energy Storage System with Modular Software and Hardware Power Electronic Interfaces

Secondary-use energy storage systems (ESS) are a potential low-cost energy storage system for the electric grid. These systems propose a low-cost solution to the challenge, what to do with electric vehicle batteries once EV end-of-life has been reached. However, the development of an ESS is complex by nature. Typically, the bidirectional power electronics conversion (PEC) system has hardware which includes power stages, auxiliary circuits, protection circuits, and the control interfaces all embedded and integrated as a system. This leads to interoperability challenges and vendor dependencies that increase balance of system costs. This paper proposes a modular approach of software and hardware interfaces to reduce the costs of an ESS.

Starke, Michael↗

Towards Vendor and Operating System Independence of USB-based portable multi-channel analyzers

The nuclear measurements group is called on to develop portable, user friendly systems that performs at, or near, laboratory standards. These systems typically consist of a detector and a USB-based multi-channel analyzer. An ORTEC digi-Base is an example of a USB-based portable multi-channel analyzer with 14-pin photomultiplier tube base for gamma-ray spectroscopy applications with NaI(Tl) and other scintillation detectors. Operating system independence - we want to be able to develop applications that are 'future-proof' and can run on the best hardware for the job: desktop, laptop, tablet, phone, or embedded device. To do that we need our software to be operating system independent. Hardware vendor independence - to use the most appropriate equipment for the job, while still maintaining our rapid method development, we would like our software that uses this equipment to be independent of the specific vendor or model of the hardware. To do that we need a common interface to each vendor's equipment (high voltage, gain, start, stop, clear, etc.) In prior work, we were able to use an existing library to communicate with an ORTEC digi-base via Linux and Android. However the application developed did not have a user friendly front-end. Part of this work was to develop a simple user interface to control the settings of the hardware from Android. While OS independence is the final goal, another goal is standardized software for user-application development. For current purposes those standard systems are Windows 7, Windows 10, and Python 3. Our next step was to develop a common software interface between a front-end user interface and back-end hardware communication software. This was done using Python's Ctypes library. Ctypes is a foreign function library for Python. It provides C compatible data types, and allows calling functions in DLLs or shared libraries. It can be used to wrap these libraries in pure Python. Ctypes exports the cdll, and Windows windll and oledll objects, for loading dynamic link libraries. You load libraries by accessing them as attributes of these objects. cdll loads libraries which export functions using the standard cdecl calling convention. The first steps of developing the common software interface have been done. Once the software interface has been developed the next goal will be to develop hardware specific back-end software that way rapid user facing software can be developed using equipment that is 'on-hand' and once finished prototyping, the 'best' hardware can be chosen for the specific implementation.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

Development of Real-Time High-Density Pulsar Data Transmission and Processing for Grid Synchronization

Taking advantage of the extreme stability of the pulsar period, it can serve as the timing source for grid synchronization to compensate for the timing drift instigated by the loss of GPS signal. Nevertheless, the real-time transmission and processing of the pulsar data suffer from its high-frequency data rate, varying from megahertz to gigahertz, resulting in reduced computing speed and increased time delay. To mitigate this issue, the hardware and software frameworks are implemented for the high-density pulsar data transmission and processing for grid synchronization in this research. Initially, the high-density pulsar data is transferred using open-source software. The complementary duty cycle timing module is designed to coordinate the operation of the dual-channel high-speed interface and software. Subsequently, the multiple-threading is applied to the receiving, parsing, and splicing pulsar data. Next, the pulsar signal extraction method is implemented based on the polyphase filterbank and time of arrival estimation. Ultimately, real-time performance verification experiments are carried out for different components under two hardware platforms. Finally, the results demonstrate that only 0.482 s is required for processing 4 Gigabyte data through multiple-threading, which is 3.8 times faster than the single thread. The pulsar signal extraction can also be executed within 707 ms for 4.8 seconds of data, thereby indicating that real-time requirements can be met.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Cross-Facility Orchestration of Electrochemistry Experiments and Computations

Instrument-computing ecosystems supporting automated electrochemical workflows typically require the integration of disparate instruments such as syringe pump, fraction collector, and potentiostat, all connected to an electrochemical cell. These specialized instruments with custom software and interfaces are not typically designed for network integration and remote automation. We developed a networked ecosystem of these instruments and computing platforms, which includes software to enable automated workflow orchestration from remote computers. Specifically, we developed Python wrappers of APIs and custom Pyro client-server modules to support remote operation of these instruments over the ecosystem network. Herein, we describe a specific workflow for generating and validating voltammogram (I-V) measurements of an electrolyte solution pumped into the electrochemical cell. We demonstrate the orchestration of this workflow which is composed using a Jupyter notebook and executed on a remote computer.

Al Najjar, Anees↗

From Data to Models and Analytics: An Integrated Scientific Computing Platform to Accelerate Environmental Research SBIR Phase I (Final Technical Report)

Phase I research was conducted to investigate the technical feasibility of an integrated open source platform GeoLib to provide turnkey solutions for model-data integration for environmental systems science (ESS), using modern web technologies, advances in HPC and cloud computing and high-performance visualization. A key feature of our platform is that it minimizes and automates data movement between data storage and computing systems. Another critical feature of the design is that it enables users to perform high-fidelity post-processing by performing high-performance visualization server-side and in-situ on the compute cluster close to the data. The investigation, which was performed over a 12-month period ending April 2019, centered on developing prototype software to demonstrate the key enabling technologies required for this system. This included: (i) rapid access to data from multiple remote sources, via a unified data interface; (ii) software for scalable geospatial visualization of raster, vector, and point cloud data on the web; (iii) development of an easy-to-use API for creating simulation and modeling workflows; (iv) remote data visualization and processing on middle-tier servers; and (v) remote data processing on high-performance computing systems. A critical part of this work is that all of these capabilities be accessible to end users through standard desktop tools such as Project Jupyter, which is widely adopted for ESS simulation and modeling.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Deep Learning for Fish Identification from Sonar Data (CRADA 481 Final Report)

In eastern regions of the United States, the American eel is a species of management and regulatory concern because of significant population declines, despite the species’ previous abundance in all tributaries of rivers flowing into the Atlantic Ocean. The American eel is also a candidate for listing under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. While hydropower construction and operation are only one of several factors contributing to this population decline, such a listing could impose additional regulatory challenges for a large number of hydropower projects. In this CRADA project, we improved technologies for identifying migrating eels with the goal of reducing the cost and time required for future American eel hydropower impact assessment and mitigation studies, while maintaining accuracy. We built on results from a previous FOA project (FOA# DE-FOA-0001662), led by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), which developed a highly accurate, deep-learning method for identifying migrating eels from imaging sonar data. The current study aimed to further optimize this deep-learning model, originally designed for image classification, and to develop an object detection software capable of identifying fish from sonar videos in real time, enabling the detection of events like fish migrations and specific species, such as the American eel, at hydropower dams. The data conversion algorithms were packaged as software with a graphical user interface, and the software is evaluated by external collaborators. We focused on the American eel in this project and explored the transferability of the developed deep learning models to the sea lamprey, given the similar body shape and swimming behavior between the two species.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗

Moore Machine Motion Controls Refurbishment Statement of Work and Specification

Diamond Turning Machines known as “Moore” machines are used in the production of Potassium diHydrogen Phosphate (KDP) optics required for the National Ignition Facility (NIF). These machines are owned by the Department of Energy, as provided by Lawrence Livermore National Security LLC (LLNS). Moore Machines 1 and 2 are located at the Gooch & Housego (G&H) facility in Highland Heights, OH. The existing Aerotech motion controllers, motor drivers/amplifiers, input/output (I/O) hardware, control computer, software user interface, human machine interface (HMI), cabling, and encoders are beyond service life and require replacement. This Statement of Work (SoW) defines the motion control system refurbishment requirements for the Moore diamond turning machines designated Moore 1 and Moore 2. The motion controls system design shall include a motion control computer, control software, motor drive amplifiers and controllers, linear scale encoders, rotary encoders, HMI, power distribution, emergency stop (E-Stop) and interlocks, cabling, switches, solenoids, transducers, sensors, actuators, ancillary system interfaces, and related components necessary for a complete machine tool control system. The Subcontractor shall include effort to standardize systems between the two machines if reasonably possible.

42 ENGINEERING↗

PigmentHunter: A point-and-click application for automated chlorophyll-protein simulations

Chlorophyll proteins (CPs) are the workhorses of biological photosynthesis, working together to absorb solar energy, transfer it to chemically active reaction centers, and control the charge-separation process that drives its storage as chemical energy. Yet predicting CP optical and electronic properties remains a serious challenge, driven by the computational difficulty of treating large, electronically coupled molecular pigments embedded in a dynamically structured protein environment. To address this challenge, we introduce here an analysis tool called PigmentHunter, which automates the process of preparing CP structures for molecular dynamics (MD), running short MD simulations on the nanoHUB.org science gateway, and then using electrostatic and steric analysis routines to predict optical absorption, fluorescence, and circular dichroism spectra within a Frenkel exciton model. Inter-pigment couplings are evaluated using point-dipole or transition-charge coupling models, while site energies can be estimated using both electrostatic and ring-deformation approaches. The package is built in a Jupyter Notebook environment, with a point-and-click interface that can be used either to manually prepare individual structures or to batch-process many structures at once. Here, we illustrate PigmentHunter’s capabilities with example simulations on spectral line shapes in the light harvesting 2 complex, site energies in the Fenna–Matthews–Olson protein, and ring deformation in photosystems I and II.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Opportunities for retrieval and tool augmented large language models in scientific facilities

Upgrades to advanced scientific user facilities such as next-generation x-ray light sources, nanoscience centers, and neutron facilities are revolutionizing our understanding of materials across the spectrum of the physical sciences, from life sciences to microelectronics. However, these facility and instrument upgrades come with a significant increase in complexity. Driven by more exacting scientific needs, instruments and experiments become more intricate each year. This increased operational complexity makes it ever more challenging for domain scientists to design experiments that effectively leverage the capabilities of and operate on these advanced instruments. Large language models (LLMs) can perform complex information retrieval, assist in knowledge-intensive tasks across applications, and provide guidance on tool usage. Using x-ray light sources, leadership computing, and nanoscience centers as representative examples, we describe preliminary experiments with a Context-Aware Language Model for Science (CALMS) to assist scientists with instrument operations and complex experimentation. With the ability to retrieve relevant information from facility documentation, CALMS can answer simple questions on scientific capabilities and other operational procedures. With the ability to interface with software tools and experimental hardware, CALMS can conversationally operate scientific instruments. By making information more accessible and acting on user needs, LLMs could expand and diversify scientific facilities’ users and accelerate scientific output.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗