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At least 667 records · Page 37

Use of Convolutional Neural Network Image Classification and High-Speed Ion Probe Data Toward Real-Time Detonation Characterization in a Water-Cooled Rotating Detonation Engine

As rotating detonation engines (RDEs) progress in maturity, the importance of monitoring advancements toward development of active control becomes more critical. Experimental RDE data processing at time scales which satisfy real-time diagnostics will likely require the use of machine learning. This study aims to develop and deploy a novel real-time monitoring technique capable of determining detonation wave number, direction, frequency, and individual wave speeds throughout experimental RDE operational windows. To do so, the diagnostic integrates image classification by a convolutional neural network (CNN) and ionization current signal analysis. Wave mode identification through single-image CNN classification bypasses the need to evaluate sequential images and offers instantaneous identification of the wave mode present in the RDE annulus. Here, real-time processing speeds are achieved due to low data volumes required by the methodology, namely one short-exposure image and a short window of sensor data to generate each diagnostic output. The diagnostic acquires live data using a modified experimental setup alongside Pylon and PyDAQmx libraries within a python data acquisition environment. Lab-deployed diagnostic results are presented across varying wave modes, operating conditions, and data quality, currently executed at 3–4 Hz with a variety of iteration speed optimization options to be considered as future work. These speeds exceed that of conventional techniques and offer a proven structure for real-time RDE monitoring. The demonstrated ability to analyze detonation wave presence and behavior during RDE operation will certainly play a vital role in the development of RDE active control, necessary for RDE technology maturation toward industrial integration.

42 ENGINEERING↗

The confluences of ideas leading to, and the flow of ideas emerging from, individual-based modeling of riverine fishes

In this review article, we trace the history of events leading to the development of individual-based models (IBMs) to represent aquatic organisms in rivers and streams. As a metaphor, we present this history as a series of confluences between individual scientists (tributaries) sharing ideas. We describe contributions of these models to science and management. One iconic feature of river IBMs is the linkage between flow and the physical habitat experienced by individual animals, and the first model that focused on this linkage is briefly described. We continue by reviewing the contributions of riverine IBMs to eight broad areas of scientific inquiry. The first four areas include research to understand the effects of flow regimes on fish populations, species interactions (e.g., size-mediated competition and predation), fish movement and habitat selection, and contaminant and water quality impacts on populations. Next, we review research using IBMs to guide conservation biology of imperiled taxa through population viability analysis, including research to understand river fragmentation by dams and reconnection, to understand genetic outcomes for riverine metapopulations, and to anticipate the future effects of temperature and climate change. This rich body of literature has contributed to both theoretical insights (e.g., about animal behavior and life history) and applied insights (e.g., population-level effects of flow regimes, temperature, and the effects of hydropower and other industries that share rivers with aquatic biota). Lastly, we finish by exploring promising branches that lie ahead in the braided, downstream channel that represents future river modeling research.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

CMLM (Co-Optimized Machine-Learned Manifolds) [SWR-23-41]

Co-optimized Machine-Learned Manifolds (CMLM) is a data-driven approach for developing reduced-order manifold models for high-dimensional chemically reacting systems. It involves a specially designed neural network, the training of which simultaneously optimizes linear combinations of species that define the manifold, nonlinear mapping to outputs of interest such as reaction rates, and (optionally) subfilter closure for large eddy simulation. This software package provides an implementation of the CMLM approach in Python using the PyTorch machine learning library. A few example cases are included, showing how the tool can be applied to different types of data from 0D and 1D reacting simulations performed using Cantera. The neural networks can be saved in a format that is readable by the Pele suite of combustion solvers for use in reacting computational fluid dynamics simulations. This software repository contains several python scripts to perform various tasks associated with the Co-optimized Machine Learned Manifolds (CMLM) model, which is described in Perry, Henry de Frahan, and Yellapantula, CNF, 2022 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.combustflame.2022.112286). This includes not only the code that defines the CMLM model, but also scripts to generate suitable training data, scripts to pre-process the data, scripts to train the CMLM model, and scripts to plot the output, as well as various other helper files. The scripts depend on several commonly used python libraries for data analysis and chemical reaction computations. The trained models that result from this tool are designed to work with the an interface being implemented in the Pele suite of reacting flow solvers (https://github.com/AMReX-Combustion).

Perry, Bruce↗

EGS Reservoir Modeling for Developing Geothermal District Heating at Cornell University: Preprint

Cornell University is pursuing development of an enhanced geothermal system (EGS) for providing heating to its main campus in Upstate New York. A ~10,000 ft (~3 km) deep vertical observation well ("CUBO") was drilled in 2022 to characterize the subsurface using wellbore logging, borehole imaging, fluid sampling, mini-frac tests, coring and drill cutting analysis. Down-hole temperatures measured at 3 km depth are about 80 degrees C, sufficiently high for direct-use heating. The well drilled through generally low porosity and low permeability Paleozoic sedimentary formations and into metamorphic basement rock, encountered at about 9,400 ft depth. Leveraging subsurface data obtained through CUBO, we investigated technical feasibility and design requirements of a doublet well system with horizontal laterals connected to a fracture network created through hydraulic fracturing. The EGS reservoir is sized to provide a nominal heat output in the range 5 to 10 MWth of continuous heating over a 15 year-lifetime with limited thermal drawdown. We applied the Gringarten Multiple parallel fracture model, the Cornell Discrete Fracture Simulator FOXFEM and the commercial simulator ResFrac to estimate required heat transfer area and design a potential hydraulic stimulation treatment. Reservoir simulations indicate that, depending on fluid flow rate and injection temperature, 2 to 3 km2 of effective fracture heat transfer area is required to supply the target heat output of 5 to 10 MWth over 15 years.

district heating↗

EGS Reservoir Modeling for Developing Geothermal District Heating at Cornell University

Cornell University is pursuing development of an enhanced geothermal system (EGS) for providing heating to its main campus in Upstate New York. A ~10,000 ft (~3 km) deep vertical observation well ('CUBO') was drilled in 2022 to characterize the subsurface using wellbore logging, borehole imaging, fluid sampling, mini-frac tests, coring and drill cutting analysis. Down-hole temperatures measured at 3 km depth are about 80 degrees C, sufficiently high for direct-use heating. The well drilled through generally low porosity and low permeability Paleozoic sedimentary formations and into metamorphic basement rock, encountered at about 9,400 ft depth. Leveraging subsurface data obtained through CUBO, we investigated technical feasibility and design requirements of a doublet well system with horizontal laterals connected to a fracture network created through hydraulic fracturing. The EGS reservoir is sized to provide a nominal heat output in the range 5 to 10 MWth of continuous heating over a 15 year-lifetime with limited thermal drawdown. We applied the Gringarten Multiple parallel fracture model, the Cornell Discrete Fracture Simulator FOXFEM and the commercial simulator ResFrac to estimate required heat transfer area and design a potential hydraulic stimulation treatment. Reservoir simulations indicate that, depending on fluid flow rate and injection temperature, 2 to 3 km2 of effective fracture heat transfer area is required to supply the target heat output of 5 to 10 MWth over 15 years.

district heating↗

Transport Upscaling under Flow Heterogeneity and Matrix-Diffusion in Three-Dimensional Discrete Fracture Networks

For this work, we investigate the combined effects of network scale flow variability and retention due to matrix-diffusion on the scaling behavior of transport through fractured media. Two of the principal mechanisms controlling the transport of solutes through fractured low-permeability media are broad distributions of flow velocities and retention times in the solid matrix. We study the relative impact of these two processes under different initial conditions using a set of three-dimensional discrete fracture network simulations. We use these simulations to develop and calibrate an upscaled continuous time random walk (CTRW) approach for advective transport based on an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck model for the particle velocities that accounts for the fracture-matrix coupling using a compound Poisson process. This CTRW model can be conditioned on the initial solute distribution and allows to observe late-time scaling behavior at distances beyond what is feasible to observe using high-fidelity direct numerical simulations. We determine that the initial distribution of particles leads to marked differences in the persistent long-term scale behavior in the solute travel time distributions, even those undergoing retention due to matrix diffusion through implementation and analysis of the model.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Network Modeling of the U.S. Petrochemical Industry under Raw Material and Hurricane Harvey Disruptions

A geographically resolved network model of the U.S. chemical industry in 2017 is designed, and optimal chemical flows between units are calculated using linear programming. A baseline solution and three disruption scenarios (primary raw material disruptions, reported Hurricane Harvey ethylene cracker disruptions, and assumed capacity disruptions based on the Hurricane Harvey geographic storm track) are reported on to determine how the structure of the industry is modified to adapt to widespread and geographically specific disruptions. The calculated impacts of the assumed Hurricane Harvey disruption include 170 chemical units in 26 states that change production level as a result of supply chain disruptions during the storm. The systemic impact for the assumed Hurricane Harvey disruption is 19.3 million tonnes of gross chemical production. The day with the largest impact on gross chemical production shows a reduction from baseline operations of 1.3 million tonnes (42% of baseline). This model can be utilized for analysis of future disruption scenarios and to test resilience strategies, including impacts of new manufacturing configurations or technologies.

02 PETROLEUM↗

110th Anniversary: Microkinetic Modeling of the Vapor Phase Upgrading of Biomass-Derived Oxygenates

Bio-oil produced from fast pyrolysis of biomass is a complex mixture of more than 200 compounds, including oxygenates and acids. As these species are highly undesirable in fuels, catalytic upgrading of biomass pyrolysis product vapors, also known as catalytic fast pyrolysis, is performed to upgrade the vapors to valuable fuels and chemicals. This work presents a detailed microkinetic model, composed of elementary steps, of the catalytic upgrading of acetic acid and acetone, two common oxygenates present in bio-oil. An automated network generator was utilized to construct a reaction network composed of 580 unique species and 2160 unique reactions. The kinetic parameters for each reaction in the network were estimated using transition state theory, the Evans-Polanyi relationship, and thermodynamic data. The resulting mechanistic model is able to describe experimental data presented in the literature for the transformation of acetic acid and acetone on HZSM-5 in a fixed-bed reactor, which is modeled as a plug-flow reactor. Additionally, the model solutions reveal vital information regarding the mechanism by which acetic acid and acetone are upgraded to valuable fuels and chemicals. In the first phase of the mechanism, acetic acid is converted to acetone via acylium ion addition to acetic acid; this is followed by decarboxylation of acetoacetic acid. The second phase is dominated by the self-aldol condensation of acetone, which is shown to occur predominantly through the keto form of acetone rather than the enol form, and subsequent deoxygenation reactions leading to olefins and aromatics. Finally, net rate analysis shows that aromatics are primarily formed via a pathway including aldol condensation of mesityl oxide, whereas olefins are produced from the addition of isobutene and subsequent cracking.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗

Proceedings of the Second NASA Formal Methods Symposium

This publication contains the proceedings of the Second NASA Formal Methods Symposium sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and held in Washington D.C. April 13-15, 2010. Topics covered include: Decision Engines for Software Analysis using Satisfiability Modulo Theories Solvers; Verification and Validation of Flight-Critical Systems; Formal Methods at Intel -- An Overview; Automatic Review of Abstract State Machines by Meta Property Verification; Hardware-independent Proofs of Numerical Programs; Slice-based Formal Specification Measures -- Mapping Coupling and Cohesion Measures to Formal Z; How Formal Methods Impels Discovery: A Short History of an Air Traffic Management Project; A Machine-Checked Proof of A State-Space Construction Algorithm; Automated Assume-Guarantee Reasoning for Omega-Regular Systems and Specifications; Modeling Regular Replacement for String Constraint Solving; Using Integer Clocks to Verify the Timing-Sync Sensor Network Protocol; Can Regulatory Bodies Expect Efficient Help from Formal Methods?; Synthesis of Greedy Algorithms Using Dominance Relations; A New Method for Incremental Testing of Finite State Machines; Verification of Faulty Message Passing Systems with Continuous State Space in PVS; Phase Two Feasibility Study for Software Safety Requirements Analysis Using Model Checking; A Prototype Embedding of Bluespec System Verilog in the PVS Theorem Prover; SimCheck: An Expressive Type System for Simulink; Coverage Metrics for Requirements-Based Testing: Evaluation of Effectiveness; Software Model Checking of ARINC-653 Flight Code with MCP; Evaluation of a Guideline by Formal Modelling of Cruise Control System in Event-B; Formal Verification of Large Software Systems; Symbolic Computation of Strongly Connected Components Using Saturation; Towards the Formal Verification of a Distributed Real-Time Automotive System; Slicing AADL Specifications for Model Checking; Model Checking with Edge-valued Decision Diagrams; and Data-flow based Model Analysis.

Munoz, Cesar↗

Regional and Local Geothermal Potential Evaluation: Examples from the Great Basin, USA, Iceland and East Africa

In both tectonically and magmatically mediated geothermal systems, geologic structures play a crucial role in focusing geothermal fluid circulation in the upper crust. In a variety of geothermal provinces worldwide, normal and strike-slip faults, caldera related faults, as well as fractures and fissures related to dikes and other magmatic intrusions generate the fracture permeability utilized for geothermal circulation. Localities where the above structures intersect and interact are characterized by the most robust generation and maintenance of fracture permeability, and therefore are the most favorable conduits for geothermal circulation. We present an evaluation of the structural geometries that tend to generate high density faulting and fracturing and an evaluation of the orientations of those structures with respect to the ambient stress conditions in three regions of high geothermal potential; The Great Basin, USA, Iceland, and east Africa. These analyses provide first-order constraints on areas that have favorable conditions for permeability and where future exploration for geothermal resources could be focused. In the Great Basin, USA, fault step-overs, fault terminations and accommodation zones are among the most common structural settings of known geothermal activity. Analysis of the geometry of these structures with respect to the ambient stress conditions reveals locations where faults associated with these structures are favorably oriented for enhanced fracture permeability. In magmatically active extensional provinces, like Iceland and east Africa, heat associated with shallow magmatic intrusions beneath volcanic centers drives geothermal circulation in near-surface fracture permeability conduits. Accentuated fault and fracture density and fracture permeability is generated by both axially oriented faults and fractures associated with axial rift zones and radially oriented structures near volcanic centers. Although heat from magmatic intrusion is most robust at volcanic centers, a high density of young intrusions may actually result in decreased permeability through closing of fracture networks. The locations of these three types of features; axial faults and fractures, radial structures, and young magmatic intrusions, all play a critical role in determining the most favorable locations for fracture permeability and fluid flow in magmatic geothermal systems. Within and around the margins of volcanic centers, where radial structures associated with volcanic centers interact and intersect with axially oriented structures associated with axial extension are the most favorable locations for fracture permeability and geothermal fluid circulation in magmatic extensional geothermal systems.

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗

Chemical Tool Peer Review Summary.

Chemical tracers are commonly used to characterize fracture networks and to determine the connectivity between the injection and production wells. Currently, most tracer experiments involve injecting the tracer at the injection well, manually collecting liquid samples at the wellhead of the production well, and sending the samples off for laboratory analysis. While this method provides accurate tracer concentration data, it does not provide information regarding the location of the fractures conducting the tracer between wellbores. The goal of this project is to develop chemical sensors and design a prototype tool to help understand the fracture properties of a geothermal reservoir by monitoring tracer concentrations along the depth of the well. The sensors will be able to detect certain species of the ionic tracers (mainly iodide) and pH in-situ during the tracer experiment. The proposed high-temperature (HT) tool will house the chemical sensors as well as a standard logging sensor package of pressure, temperature, and flow sensors in order to provide additional information on the state of the geothermal reservoir. The sensors and the tool will be able to survive extended deployments at temperatures up to 225 °C and high pressures to provide real-time temporal and spatial feedback of tracer concentration. Data collected from this tool will allow for the real-time identification of the fractures conducting chemical tracers between wellbores along with the pH of the reservoir fluid at various depths.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Modular supply chain optimization considering demand uncertainty to manage risk

Supply chain under demand uncertainty has been a challenging problem due to increased competition and market volatility in modern markets. Flexibility in planning decisions makes modular manufacturing a promising way to address this problem. We report the problem of multiperiod process and supply chain network design is considered under demand uncertainty. A mixed integer two-stage stochastic programming problem is formulated with integer variables indicating the process design and continuous variables to represent the material flow in the supply chain. The problem is solved using a rolling horizon approach. Benders decomposition is used to reduce the computational complexity of the optimization problem. To promote risk-averse decisions, a downside risk measure is incorporated in the model. The results demonstrate the several advantages of modular designs in meeting product demands. A pareto-optimal curve for minimizing the objectives of expected cost and downside risk is obtained.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Artificial Neural Network Representation of Dynamic Criticality Excursion Experiment Data

This paper outlines time dependent considerations in applying the artificial neural network (ANN) paradigm to dynamic nuclear criticality excursion experiment data. The ANN amongst a variety of uses, can apply to function fitting of multiple input-multiple output data sets, pattern recognition, cluster analysis, and time series prediction. The ANN is a component of Machine Learning (ML) data analysis. The practical application of ML to criticality safety has been funded through the Y-12 Plant Directed Research and Demonstration (PDRD) program to support criticality safety and emergency planning efforts. The initial effort considered function fitting of criticality excursion data. Recent efforts successfully extended the ANN to criticality safety code validation. The initial ANN work applied to criticality excursions centered around multivariate function fitting of static (tabular) data taken from the French Consequences Radiologiques d'un Accident de Criticite (CRAC) and SILENE reactor campaigns. The former report (LeCorche) summarized important tabular data for the first 44 CRAC experiments. The initial ANN was trained to specific time-independent inputs, then applied to predict peak fission rate and total fissions for a wide variety of fissile solutions process conditions. This work extends that effort to apply the ANN paradigm to dynamic prediction of time-dependent criticality excursion experiment data. A dynamic criticality excursion in fissile solution represents a complex multiphysics phenomenon. Factors include among other things, coupled neutronic, multiphase fluid flow, temperature, pressure, acoustic shock, boiling heat transfer, reactivity feedback, and radiolytic gas considerations. There have been many efforts to model (over time) as coupled ordinary and (space) as partial differential equations (ODE, PDE). The ANN representation noted here does not rely on solving explicit ODE or PDEs. Rather the intent is to demonstrate that as a time series, the criticality excursion can be predicted by training specific ANN architectures to experimental input and output time series exclusively. The rationale for extending this work to the time-dependent regime is important in developing a 'criticality excursion emulator' solely on the basis of learning characteristics from experiment dynamic data. An emulator is different than a computer code simulator driven by the solution of ODEs and PDEs given select 'tuning parameters' that match outputs to experiments. A criticality excursion emulator, derived exclusively from an ANN or ML, could predict most likely excursion characteristics, trained from historic dynamic experiment data, presented with input values within the range of those experiments. The work noted shows that generic time-series ANN architectures can be satisfactorily applied to the prediction of dynamic, extremely chaotic criticality excursion power given an initial time dependent input series. In reality, an excursion emulator could be driven by user-supplied initial (t=0), time independent or constant values to generate time dependent outputs. Thus ongoing work includes developing a custom ANN such that initial dynamic conditions would be predicted. Those results then serve as inputs to a customized ANN architecture currently in development. (author)

42 ENGINEERING↗

Enhanced Resistance Pines for Improved Renewable Biofuel and Chemical Production (Technical Report)

We completed phenotyping constitutive and inducible oleoresin flow across two seasons, constitutive resin canal number and density and wood terpene content in our ADEPT2 and CCLONES populations. We completed genetic association between 19 oleoresin phenotypes and a total of 523,192 SNP markers from ADEPT2 and 13,883 SNP markers in CCLONES using four mixed linear models. A total of 293 significant SNPs (FDR = 0.20) were identified. We used the MENTOR tool to mine mechanistic connections from a multiplex network constructed from poplar multi-omic data to construct a conceptual model for a subset of these significant SNPs. Our model contains 6 transcriptional regulators in addition to 3 monoterpene synthases. To generate more lines of evidence for these significant SNPs, we completed a time course RNAseq experiment after inducing vascular zone cells to differentiate into new resin canals with a methyl jasmonate treatment, a single nuclei RNAseq that identified differentiating resin canal epithelial cells and are completing analysis for a QTL study in a hybrid pine population. The time course identified 4634 significantly down and 1890 significantly up regulated transcripts after treatment with methyl jasmonate, an inducer of new resin canal formation in the vascular cambial meristem. To analyze this large set of differentially regulated genes, we created a predictive expression network and analyzed it with random walk restart using 6 seed genes coding for transcription factors regulating xylem differentiation in poplar. Of the top ranked 200 transcripts, 119 transcripts were significant differentially expressed supporting these transcripts as potential candidates regulating resin canal formation. Analysis of single nuclei sequencing of shoot tips that contain differentiating resin canals, identified 10 clusters. One cluster was highly enriched in transcripts coding for 9 of the enzymes in the MEP pathway 3 prenyl synthetases, and 3 monoterpene synthases strongly suggesting that this cluster represents resin canal epithelial cells. We are mining the additional transcripts to create a trajectory analysis. In summary, we have identified > 10 novel genes that are strongly supported candidates for further analysis in breeding lines and for genetic engineering over- and under- expressing lines to increase wood terpene content to improve resistance to insect and fungal pathogens while simultaneously increasing terpene supplies for renewable chemicals and biofuels.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Development and Testing of a Variable Conductance Thermal Acquisition, Transport, and Switching System

This paper describes the development and testing of a scalable thermal control architecture for instruments, subsystems, or systems that must operate in severe space environments with wide variations in sink temperature. The architecture is comprised by linking one or more hot-side variable conductance heat pipes (VCHPs) in series with one or more cold-side loop heat pipes (LHPs). The VCHPs provide wide area heat acquisition, limited distance thermal transport, modest against gravity pumping, concentrated LHP startup heating, and high switching ratio variable conductance operation. The LHPs provide localized heat acquisition, long distance thermal transport, significant against gravity pumping, and high switching ratio variable conductance operation. Combining two variable conductance devices in series ensures very high switching ratio isolation from severe environments like the Earth's moon, where each lunar day spans 15 Earth days (270 K sink, with a surface-shielded/space viewing radiator) and each lunar night spans 15 Earth days (80-100 K radiative sink, depending on location). The single VCHP-single LHP system described herein was developed to maintain thermal control of International Lunar Network (ILN) anchor node lander electronics, but it is also applicable to other variable heat rejection space missions in severe environments. The LHPVCHP system utilizes a stainless steel wire mesh wick ammonia VCHP, a Teflon wick propylene LHP, a pair of one-third square meter high  radiators (one capillary-pumped horizontal radiator and a second gravity-fed vertical radiator), a half-meter of transport distance, and a wick-bearing co-located flow regulator (CLFR) to allow operation with a hot (deactivated) radiator. The VCHP was designed with a small reservoir formed by extending the length of its stainless steel heat pipe tubing. The system was able to provide end-to-end switching ratios of 300-500 during thermal vacuum testing at ATK, including 3-5 W/K ON conductance and 0.01 W/K OFF conductance. The test results described herein also include an in-depth analysis of VCHP condenser performance to explain VCHP switching operation in detail. Future multi-VCHP/multi-LHP thermal management system concepts that provide scalability to higher powers/longer transport lengths are also discussed in the paper.

Bugby, D. C.↗

Development of 3D Geological Model of Tuscarora Sandstone for Feasibility of Deep Direct-Use Geothermal at West Virginia University Main Campus

The subsurface uncertainty at West Virginia University Main Campus is dominated by the uncertainty in the projections of geofluid flowrate in the target formation, the Tuscarora Sandstone. In this paper, three cores from the heterogeneous reservoir, available through West Virginia Geologic and Economic Survey, are analyzed by performing core analysis using CT scanning and permeability measurements via minipermeameter. Additional geological data are collected through cores, published literature, seismic data, and nearby, existing wells to estimate thickness, fracture network configuration and geothermal gradient to minimize the uncertainty of well deliverability. Using these estimated reservoir properties; a 3D conceptual model for the proposed geothermal site is developed. This dataset includes a GRC conference publication along with the data used to produce results explained in the paper including minipermeability measurement data for Preston -119 core and thin section analysis photos and data for Clay-513 core.

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗

ASDFL: An adaptive super‐pixel discriminative feature‐selective learning for vehicle matching

Abstract There are a large number of cameras in modern transportation system that capture numerous vehicle images continuously. Therefore, automatic analysis of these vehicle images is helpful for traffic flow management, criminal investigations and vehicle inspections. Vehicle matching, which aims to determine whether two input images depict an identical vehicle, is one of the core tasks in vehicle analysis. Recent relevant studies have focused on local feature extraction instead of global extraction, since local details can provide crucial cues to distinguish between cars. However, these methods do not select local features; that is, they do not assign weights to local features. Therefore, in this research, we systematically study the vehicle matching task, and present a novel annotation‐free local‐based deep learning method called Adaptive super‐pixel discriminative feature‐selective learning (ASDFL) to address this issue. In ASDFL, vehicle images are segmented into clusters of super‐pixels of similar size by considering the location and colour similarities of pixels without using any component‐level annotation. These super‐pixels are deemed to be the virtual components of vehicles. Moreover, a convolutional neural network is used to extract the deep features of these virtual components. Thereafter, an instance‐specific mask generation module driven by the extracted global features is enhanced to produce a mask to select the most distinctive virtual components of each vehicle image pair in the feature space. Finally, the vehicle matching task is accomplished by classifying the selected virtual component features of each imaged vehicle pair. Extensive experiments on two popular vehicle identification benchmarks demonstrate that our method is 1.57% and 0.8% more accurate than the previous baselines in a vehicle matching task on the VeRi and VehicleID datasets, respectively, which demonstrates the effectiveness of our method.

Qin, Rong↗

Numerical Investigation and Optimization of a Flushwall Injector for Scramjet Applications at Hypervelocity Flow Conditions

An investigation utilizing Reynolds-averaged simulations (RAS) was performed in order to demonstrate the use of design and analysis of computer experiments (DACE) methods in Sandia’s DAKOTA software package for surrogate modeling and optimization. These methods were applied to a flow- path fueled with an interdigitated flushwall injector suitable for scramjet applications at hyper- velocity conditions and ascending along a constant dynamic pressure flight trajectory. The flight Mach number, duct height, spanwise width, and injection angle were the design variables selected to maximize two objective functions: the thrust potential and combustion efficiency. Because the RAS of this case are computationally expensive, surrogate models are used for optimization. To build a surrogate model a RAS database is created. The sequence of the design variables comprising the database were generated using a Latin hypercube sampling (LHS) method. A methodology was also developed to automatically build geometries and generate structured grids for each design point. The ensuing RAS analysis generated the simulation database from which the two objective functions were computed using a one-dimensionalization (1D) of the three-dimensional simulation data. The data were fitted using four surrogate models: an artificial neural network (ANN), a cubic polynomial, a quadratic polynomial, and a Kriging model. Variance-based decomposition showed that both objective functions were primarily driven by changes in the duct height. Multiobjective design optimization was performed for all four surrogate models via a genetic algorithm method. Optimal solutions were obtained at the upper and lower bounds of the flight Mach number range. The Kriging model predicted an optimal solution set that exhibited high values for both objective functions. Additionally, three challenge points were selected to assess the designs on the Pareto fronts. Further sampling among the designs of the Pareto fronts may be required to lower the surrogate model errors and perform more accurate surrogate-model-based optimization.

Shenoy, Rajiv R.↗