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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 577 records · Page 32

Testing of the permanent magnet material Mn-Al-C for potential use in propulsion motors for electric vehicles

The development of Mn-Al-C permanent magnets is reviewed. The general properties of the material are discussed and put into perspective relative to alnicos and ferrites. The commercial material now available is described by the manufacturer's data. The traction motor designer's demands of a permanent magnet for potential use in electric vehicle drives are reviewed. From this, a list of the needed specific information is extracted. A plan for experimental work is made which would generate this information, or verify data supplied by the producer. The results of these measurements are presented in the form of tables and graphs. The tests determined magnetic design data and some mechanical strength properties. Easy axis hysteresis and demagnetization curves, recoil loops and other minor loop fields were measured over a temperature range from -50 C to +150 C. Hysteresis loops were also measured for three orthogonal directions (the easy and 2 hard axes of magnetization).

Abdelnour, Z. A.↗

Global change data sets: Excerpts from the Master Directory, version 2.0

The recent awakening to the reality of human-induced changes to the environment has resulted in an organized effort to promote global change research. The goal of this research as outlined by NASA's Earth System Science Committee (Earth System Science: A closer View, 1988) is to understand the entire Earth system on a global scale by describing how its component parts and their interactions have evolved, how they function, and how they may be expected to evolve on all timescales. The practical result is the capacity to predict that evolution over the next decade to century. Key variables important for the study of global change include external forcing factors (solar radiance, UV flux), radiatively and chemically important trace species (CO2, CH4, N2O, etc.), atmospheric response variables (temperature, pressure, winds), landsurface properties (river run-off, snow cover, albedo, soil moisture, vegetation cover), and oceanic variables (sea surface temperature, sea ice extent, sea level ocean wind stress, currents, chlorophyll, biogeochemical fluxes). The purpose of this document is to identify existing data sets available (both remotely sensed and in situ data) covering some of these variables. This is not intended to be a complete list of global change data, but merely a highlight of what is available. The information was extracted from the Master Directory (MD), an on-line scientific data information service which may be used by any researcher. This report contains the coverage dates for the data sets, sources (satellites, instruments) of the data and where they are archived.

Beier, Joy↗

Tectonic-Climate Interactions in Action Orogenic Belts: Quantification of Dynamic Topography with SRTM data

This project was undertaken to examine the approach to steady state in collisional mountain belts. Although the primary thrust of this grant was to look at larger collisional mountain belts, such as the Himalaya, the Tien Shan, and Southern Alps, we began by looking at smaller structures represented by growing and propagating folds. Like ranges that are evolving toward a topographic steady state, these folds undergo a series of morphologic changes as they are progressively uplifted and eroded. We wanted to document the nature of these changes and to try to discern some of the underlying controls on them. We initially focused on the Wheeler Ridge anticline in southern California. Subsequently, we progressed to looking at the topographic development and the effects of differential uplift and glaciation on the Kyrgyz Range in the northern Tien Shan. This range is unusual inasmuch as it is transformed along its length from a simple uplift with a largely preserved Mesozoic erosion surface arching across it to a highly dissected and heavily glaciated uplift in the region where uplift has been sustained at higher rates over longer intervals. In efforts to understand the distribution of erosion rates at 10(exp 3) - 10(exp 5) year time scales, cosmogenic radionuclide (CRN) concentrations have been gaining increasingly widespread usage (Brown et al., 1995; Riebe et al., 2004; Riebe et al., 2001; Vance et al., 2003). Most studies to date, however, have been conducted in slowly eroding ranges. In rapidly eroding mountains where landslides deliver most of the sediments to the rivers, we hypothesized that CRN concentrations could be highly perturbed by the stochastic processes of landsliding. Therefore, we undertook the development of a numerical model that simulated the effects of both landsliding and grain-by-grain attrition within fluvial catchments. This modeling effort has shown the effects of catchment size and erosion rate on CRN concentrations and allows a prediction of where to sample to obtain the optimal erosion rate estimates using CRN techniques. Finally, we developed computational techniques to operate on DEMs to extract useful information that would enable quantification of climate-erosion interactions. In particular, we worked on rapid techniques to define catchments of any given range of sizes, to extract channel gradients, to combine precipitation information to calculate discharge, and to utilize various stream-power models to determine the erosional energy within any given catchment within a transect. We briefly describe results from Wheeler Ridge, the Kyrgyz Range, the Nepal Himalaya, and our numerical modeling.

Burbank, Douglas W.↗

Domain Adaptive Graph Neural Networks for Constraining Cosmological Parameters Across Multiple Data Sets

State of the art astronomical simulations have provided datasets which enabled the training of novel deep learning techniques for constraining cosmological parameters. However, differences in subgrid physics implementation and numerical approximations among simulation suites lead to differences in simulated datasets, which pose a hard challenge when trying to generalize across diverse data domains and ultimately when applying models to observational data. Recent work reveals deep learning algorithms are able to extract more information from complex cosmological simulations than summary statistics like power spectra. We introduce Domain Adaptive Graph Neural Networks (DA-GNNs), trained on CAMELS data, inspired by CosmoGraphNet (Villanueva-Domingo et al 2023). By utilizing GNNs, we can capitalize on their capacity to capture both astrophysical and topological features of galaxy distributions. Mixing these capabilities with domain adaptation techniques such as Maximum Mean Discrepancy (MMD), which enable extraction of domain-invariant features, our framework demonstrates enhanced accuracy and robustness. We present experimental results, including the alignment of distributions across domains through data visualization. These findings suggest that DA-GNNs are an efficient way of extracting domain independent cosmological information, a vital step toward robust deep learning for real cosmic survey data.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Novel estimation of aerosol processes with particle size distribution measurements: a case study with the TOMAS algorithm v1.0.0

Atmospheric aerosol microphysical processes are a significant source of uncertainty in predicting climate change. Specifically, aerosol nucleation, emissions, and growth rates, which are simulated in chemical transport models to predict the particle size distribution, are not understood well. However, long-term size distribution measurements made at several ground-based sites across Europe implicitly contain information about the processes that created those size distributions. This work aims to extract that information by developing and applying an inverse technique to constrain aerosol emissions as well as nucleation and growth rates based on hourly size distribution measurements. We developed an inverse method based upon process control theory into an online estimation technique to scale aerosol nucleation, emissions, and growth so that the model–measurement bias in three measured aerosol properties exponentially decays. The properties, which are calculated from the measured and predicted size distributions, used to constrain aerosol nucleation, emission, and growth rates are the number of particles with a diameter between 3 and 6 nm, the number with a diameter greater than 10 nm, and the total dry volume of aerosol ( N 3–6 , N 10 , V dry ), respectively. In this paper, we focus on developing and applying the estimation methodology in a zero-dimensional “box” model as a proof of concept before applying it to a three-dimensional simulation in subsequent work. The methodology is first tested on a dataset of synthetic and perfect measurements that span diverse environments in which the true particle emissions, growth, and nucleation rates are known. The inverse technique accurately estimates the aerosol microphysical process rates with an average and maximum error of 2 % and 13 %, respectively. Next, we investigate the effect that measurement noise has on the estimated rates. The method is robust to typical instrument noise in the aerosol properties as there is a negligible increase in the bias of the estimated process rates. Finally, the methodology is applied to long-term datasets of in situ size distribution measurements in western Europe from May 2006 through June 2007. At Melpitz, Germany, and Hyytiälä, Finland, the average diurnal profiles of estimated 3 nm particle formation rates are reasonable, having peaks near noon local time with average peak values of 1 and 0.15 cm –3 s –1 , respectively. The normalized absolute error in estimated N 3–6 , N 10 , and V dry at three European measurement sites is less than 15 %, showing that the estimation framework developed here has potential to decrease model–measurement bias while constraining uncertain aerosol microphysical processes.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Enabling Mission Flexibility to Battery Driven Deep Space Endeavors With Generalized Battery-Health-Monitoring Using Physics-Based and Data-Driven Reduced-Order Models

The needs and requirements for an electrochemical energy storage for deep space exploration is well explored. It is often understood that different mission sites and environmental conditions require different battery chemistries or technologies. Additionally, various engineering solutions are deployed to overcome specific chemical challenges. One often overlooked need is the “health” monitoring of an electrochemical storage system. The term generalized health monitoring, as envisioned in this work, refers to the monitoring of various aspects such as electrode health, electrolyte health, reaction pathway health, cooling system health, sensor health, and BMS health [1]. Generalized health monitoring allows mission leads, engineers, and scientists to incorporate flexibility in mission designs, make on-the-fly mission changes, and extend the duration of science missions. Moreover, it enables automation and data-driven decision-making without compromising safety and performance. Recently, our group developed a hierarchy of thermal reduced-order models (TROM) by combining a physics-based modeling approach and data-driven model reduction techniques applied to flight data [2]. The resulting TROMs were found to be not only accurate but also identifiable from the flight data. Consequently, the coefficient of variance of the model parameters is small over the course of hundreds of flights, allowing for monitoring the parameter evolution trajectories as the battery ages and degrades. These parameters constitute the metrics of the generalized health of a battery. Monitoring their evolution allows such models to be used for anomaly detection and prognostics, improving early detection of abnormal behavior and thus enabling timely maintenance, longer battery life, and enhanced battery safety. For this presentation, the practicality of the thermal model will be validated on a pack of 14cells under various topology configurations such as 1S14P, 2P7S, 7S2P, and 1P14S. It is well known that manufacturing and non-uniform aging lead to variability in the performance of a cell, which is exacerbated by cell balancing during active load. Additionally, in extreme scenarios, the paramount objective is to complete the mission, regardless of the stresses on the battery. Topology-induced balancing issues further stress the battery. The goal of this study is to determine if the noise (identifiability) in the reduced-order thermal model parameters is sensitive to topology, cell spacing, cooling strategy, and manufacturing or age variability. The variability in cells is considered by assuming a multimodal distribution for microscopic parameters of a cell (such as porosity, tortuosity, reaction kinetics, volumetric thermal conductivity, and volumetric heat capacity). The compounded effect of manufacturing variability, topological selection, cooling strategies, and cell balancing ages each cell in a battery differently. The study aims to clarify whether the challenge in extracting maximum information depends on the minimum number of sensors or models used for data extraction.

Automation↗

Visual information for judging temporal range

Work in our laboratory suggests that pilots can extract temporal range information (i.e., the time to pass a given waypoint) directly from out-the-window motion information. This extraction does not require the use of velocity or distance, but rather operates solely on a 2-D motion cue. In this paper, we present the mathematical derivation of this information, psychophysical evidence of human observers' sensitivity, and possible advantages and limitations of basing vehicle control on this parameter.

Kaiser, Mary K.↗

Combining variational autoencoders and physical bias for improved microscopy data analysis *

Electron and scanning probe microscopy produce vast amounts of data in the form of images or hyperspectral data, such as electron energy loss spectroscopy or 4D scanning transmission electron microscope, that contain information on a wide range of structural, physical, and chemical properties of materials. To extract valuable insights from these data, it is crucial to identify physically separate regions in the data, such as phases, ferroic variants, and boundaries between them. In order to derive an easily interpretable feature analysis, combining with well-defined boundaries in a principled and unsupervised manner, here we present a physics augmented machine learning method which combines the capability of variational autoencoders to disentangle factors of variability within the data and the physics driven loss function that seeks to minimize the total length of the discontinuities in images corresponding to latent representations. Our method is applied to various materials, including NiO-LSMO, BiFeO 3 , and graphene. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach in extracting meaningful information from large volumes of imaging data. The customized codes of the required functions and classes to develop phyVAE is available at https://github.com/arpanbiswas52/phy-VAE.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

A cloud classification scheme applied to the breakup region of marine stratocumulus

A major goal of the marine stratocumulus (MSc) segment of FIRE is to describe and explain the temporal and spatial variability in fractional cloud cover. The challenge from a theoretical standpoint is to correctly represent the mechanisms leading to the transitions between solid stratus, stratocumulus and trade wind cumulus. The development and testing of models accounting for fractional cloudiness require an observational data base that will come primarily from satellites. This, of course, is one of the missions of the ISCCP. There are a number of satellite cloud analysis programs that are being undertaken as part of FIRE. One that has already produced data from the FIRE MSc experiment is the spatial coherence method (COAKLEY and Baldwin, 1984). This method produces information on fractional cloud coverage and cloud heights. It may be possible, however, to extract more information on cloud structure from satellite data that might be of use in describing the transitions in the marine stratocumulus cloud deck. Potential applications are explored of a cloud analysis scheme relying on more detailed analysis of visible and infrared cloud radiance statistics. For this preliminary study, data is examined from three days during the 1987 FIRE MSc field work. These case studies provide a basis for comparison and evaluation of the technique.

Khalsa, Siri Jodha Singh↗

DISARM: Target Electronic Device Informed Mitigation of Software Runtime Side-Channel Vulnerabilities

Program runtime/timing attacks exploit variations in a program’s execution times to extract sensitive information from the program (e.g. encryption keys, sensitive variable data, intellectual property). State-of-the-art solutions to runtime side-channel attacks attempt to balance the execution time of the sensitive code for different control flow paths to eliminate the timing leakage. However, during the mitigation process, most techniques do not consider the underlying hardware/device on which the target program is supposed to run on. This can lead to over-fixing (unnecessary extra operations), under-fixing (not solving the imbalance properly), and even failures. Here, we propose DISARM, a joint hardware-software methodology (unlike any existing solution) for mitigating runtime side-channel vulnerabilities that utilizes timing values from real embedded devices to generate targeted software fixes. We implement DISARM to support C/C++/Java source codes and validate it across 22 standard benchmarks. DISARM outperforms state-of-the-art solutions such as PENDULUM and DifFuzzaR in terms of execution time overhead, code size overhead, and correctness on five different embedded/edge devices.

Timing/runtime side-channel↗

On the Reliability of Parameter Inferences in a Multiscale Model for Transport in Stream Corridors

Nonreacting tracer tests capture information about physical processes in transient storage zones including the hyporheic zone (HZ). However, reliably extracting this information from breakthrough curves (BTCs) and distinguishing the effects of in-channel dispersion and transient storage are well-known challenges. Using BTCs from a nonreacting tracer test monitored at multiple locations, we explore ways for reliable parameter estimations. The identifiability of parameters is greatly influenced by the choice of forward and inverse modeling frameworks in addition to the quality of the data. Our forward model is a recently proposed multiscale model that uses subgrid transport models written in the Lagrangian form to represent transport along a diverse set of HZ pathways with a shape-free distribution of travel times. Joint distributions of HZ and channel parameters are estimated using the Markov Chain Monte Carlo technique. Numerical experiments show ambiguity between channel dispersion and HZ transport when the reach length is too short to allow significant solute-HZ interaction, the observation period is too brief to observe the tailing behavior, or the solute source is spread in time. In contrast, we obtained reliable parameter estimates by simultaneously fitting BTCs observed at different locations in the test reach using a single set of HZ parameters and section-specific channel areas and dispersion coefficients. Furthermore, this study demonstrates the estimation of travel time distributions, HZ exchange rates, and channel parameters in a new multiscale approach and offers guidance for extracting reliable parameter estimates from multiple BTCs.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Isolating contour information from arbitrary images

Aspects of natural vision (physiological and perceptual) serve as a basis for attempting the development of a general processing scheme for contour extraction. Contour information is assumed to be central to visual recognition skills. While the scheme must be regarded as highly preliminary, initial results do compare favorably with the visual perception of structure. The scheme pays special attention to the construction of a smallest scale circular difference-of-Gaussian (DOG) convolution, calibration of multiscale edge detection thresholds with the visual perception of grayscale boundaries, and contour/texture discrimination methods derived from fundamental assumptions of connectivity and the characteristics of printed text. Contour information is required to fall between a minimum connectivity limit and maximum regional spatial density limit at each scale. Results support the idea that contour information, in images possessing good image quality, is (centered at about 10 cyc/deg and 30 cyc/deg). Further, lower spatial frequency channels appear to play a major role only in contour extraction from images with serious global image defects.

Jobson, Daniel J.↗

Development of an Information Fusion System for Engine Diagnostics and Health Management

Aircraft gas-turbine engine data are available from a variety of sources including on-board sensor measurements, maintenance histories, and component models. An ultimate goal of Propulsion Health Management (PHM) is to maximize the amount of meaningful information that can be extracted from disparate data sources to obtain comprehensive diagnostic and prognostic knowledge regarding the health of the engine. Data Fusion is the integration of data or information from multiple sources, to achieve improved accuracy and more specific inferences than can be obtained from the use of a single sensor alone. The basic tenet underlying the data/information fusion concept is to leverage all available information to enhance diagnostic visibility, increase diagnostic reliability and reduce the number of diagnostic false alarms. This paper describes a basic PHM Data Fusion architecture being developed in alignment with the NASA C17 Propulsion Health Management (PHM) Flight Test program. The challenge of how to maximize the meaningful information extracted from disparate data sources to obtain enhanced diagnostic and prognostic information regarding the health and condition of the engine is the primary goal of this endeavor. To address this challenge, NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC), NASA Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) and Pratt & Whitney (P&W) have formed a team with several small innovative technology companies to plan and conduct a research project in the area of data fusion as applied to PHM. Methodologies being developed and evaluated have been drawn from a wide range of areas including artificial intelligence, pattern recognition, statistical estimation, and fuzzy logic. This paper will provide a broad overview of this work, discuss some of the methodologies employed and give some illustrative examples.

Volponi, Allan J.↗

Data Fusion for Enhanced Aircraft Engine Prognostics and Health Management

Aircraft gas-turbine engine data is available from a variety of sources, including on-board sensor measurements, maintenance histories, and component models. An ultimate goal of Propulsion Health Management (PHM) is to maximize the amount of meaningful information that can be extracted from disparate data sources to obtain comprehensive diagnostic and prognostic knowledge regarding the health of the engine. Data fusion is the integration of data or information from multiple sources for the achievement of improved accuracy and more specific inferences than can be obtained from the use of a single sensor alone. The basic tenet underlying the data/ information fusion concept is to leverage all available information to enhance diagnostic visibility, increase diagnostic reliability and reduce the number of diagnostic false alarms. This report describes a basic PHM data fusion architecture being developed in alignment with the NASA C-17 PHM Flight Test program. The challenge of how to maximize the meaningful information extracted from disparate data sources to obtain enhanced diagnostic and prognostic information regarding the health and condition of the engine is the primary goal of this endeavor. To address this challenge, NASA Glenn Research Center, NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, and Pratt & Whitney have formed a team with several small innovative technology companies to plan and conduct a research project in the area of data fusion, as it applies to PHM. Methodologies being developed and evaluated have been drawn from a wide range of areas including artificial intelligence, pattern recognition, statistical estimation, and fuzzy logic. This report will provide a chronology and summary of the work accomplished under this research contract.

Volponi, Al↗

Emergency Locating Transmitter and Receiver System

A receiver and transmitter are provided for a distress incident locating telecommunications system. The receiver is a superheterodyne AM receiver which applies the received distress transmissions to a normally unlocked phaselock loop which locks onto the unmodulated carrier signal portion of the distress transmission. The duration of the phaselock loop being locked, and unlocked immediately after being locked, are measured and compared to predetermined values to find a match. Each of the predetermined values corresponds to an item of information, and if a match is found, the receiver indicates it. The receiver is also capable of extracting audio information present in the distress transmission. The transmitter generates three signals which can be applied to a transmitting antenna. These signals are a radio frequency carrier signal, and a carrier signal modulated by a distress waveform or by an audio signal. The signal which is ultimately applied to the transmitting antenna will have four parameters where each set of parameters corresponds to a different item of information. The parameters are which one or more of the three signals will be applied to the antenna, the sequence of application of the signals to the antenna, the duration of each of the signals, and the frequency of the audio signal.

Wren, Paul E.↗

Extending Aquatic Spectral Information with the First Radiometric IR-B Field Observations

Planetary radiometric observations enable remote sensing of biogeochemical parameters to describe spatiotemporal variability in aquatic ecosystems. For approximately the last half century, the science of aquatic radiometry has established a knowledge base using primarily, but not exclusively, visible wavelengths. Scientific subdisciplines supporting aquatic radiometry have evolved hardware, software, and procedures to maximize competency for exploiting visible wavelength information. This perspective culminates with the science requirement that visible spectral resolution must be continually increased to extract more information. Other sources of information, meanwhile, remain underexploited, particularly information from nonvisible wavelengths. Herein, absolute radiometry is used to evaluate spectral limits for deriving and exploiting aquatic data products, specifically the normalized water-leaving radiance, Γ(λ)⁠, and its derivative products. Radiometric observations presented herein are quality assured for individual wavebands, and spectral verification is conducted by analyzing celestial radiometric results, comparing agreement of above- and in-water observations at applicable wavelengths, and evaluating consistency with bio-optical models and optical theory. The results presented include the first absolute radiometric field observations of Γ(λ) within the IR-B spectral domain (i.e. spanning 1400–3000 nm), which indicate that IR-B signals confer greater and more variable flux than formerly ascribed. Black-pixel processing, a routine correction in satellite and in situ aquatic radiometry wherein a spectrum is offset corrected relative to a nonvisible waveband (often IR-B or a shorter legacy waveband) set to a null value, is shown to degrade aquatic spectra and derived biogeochemical parameters.

aquatic optics↗

py4DSTEM: A Software Package for Four-Dimensional Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy Data Analysis

Scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) allows for imaging, diffraction, and spectroscopy of materials on length scales ranging from microns to atoms. By using a high-speed, direct electron detector, it is now possible to record a full two-dimensional (2D) image of the diffracted electron beam at each probe position, typically a 2D grid of probe positions. These 4D-STEM datasets are rich in information, including signatures of the local structure, orientation, deformation, electromagnetic fields, and other sample-dependent properties. However, extracting this information requires complex analysis pipelines that include data wrangling, calibration, analysis, and visualization, all while maintaining robustness against imaging distortions and artifacts. In this paper, we present py4DSTEM, an analysis toolkit for measuring material properties from 4D-STEM datasets, written in the Python language and released with an open-source license. We describe the algorithmic steps for dataset calibration and various 4D-STEM property measurements in detail and present results from several experimental datasets. We also implement a simple and universal file format appropriate for electron microscopy data in py4DSTEM, which uses the open-source HDF5 standard. We hope this tool will benefit the research community and help improve the standards for data and computational methods in electron microscopy, and we invite the community to contribute to this ongoing project.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Pulse-shape analysis in Cd 0.9 Zn 0.1 Te 0.98 Se 0.02 room-temperature radiation detectors

The effect of trapping of charge carriers on the shape of the charge pulses from room temperature nuclear detectors, based on a recently discovered quaternary semiconductor Cd 0.9 Zn 0.1 Te 0.98 Se 0.02 (CZTS), has been studied. Here, we present a charge-trapping model that explains the pulse shapes for its entire duration from radiation detectors containing multiple defect types. A piecewise continuous model, based on the movement of a large number of charge carriers rather than a single charge, has been proposed to explain the pulse shapes from planar room temperature nuclear detectors. An experimental method based on the model has been described to extract charge-trapping information. This model can be applied to similar semiconductor detectors with electrically active trap centers, in general, to extract information like pre-trapping drift times. Charge pulses from a CZTS planar detector, exposed to 5486 keV alpha particles emitted by a 241Am source, were acquired using a digitizer, and the pulse shapes were explained based on the proposed model. The pre-trapping drift times for electrons as well as holes in CZTS were calculated and studied as a function of operating bias voltage, and a contrast between their bias dependent behaviors was noticed, indicating the behavioral difference of electron and hole traps.

42 ENGINEERING↗