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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 739 records · Page 41

A Conceptual Architecture for National Biosurveillance: Moving Beyond Situational Awareness to Enable Digital Detection of Emerging Threats

Despite numerous calls for improvement, the U.S. biosurveillance enterprise remains a patchwork of uncoordinated systems that fail to take advantage of the rapid progress in information processing, communication, and analytics made in the past decade. By synthesizing components from the extensive biosurveillance literature, we propose a conceptual framework for a national biosurveillance architecture and provide suggestions for implementation. The framework differs from the current federal biosurveillance development pathway in that it is not focused on systems useful for “situational awareness,” but is instead focused on the long-term goal of having true warning capabilities. Therefore, a guiding design objective is the ability to digitally detect emerging threats that span jurisdictional boundaries, because attempting to solve the most challenging biosurveillance problem first provides the strongest foundation to meet simpler surveillance objectives. Core components of the vision are: (1) a whole-of-government approach to support currently disparate federal surveillance efforts that have a common data need, including those for food safety, vaccine and medical product safety, and infectious disease surveillance; (2) an information architecture that enables secure, national access to electronic health records, yet does not require that data be sent to a centralized location for surveillance analysis; (3) an inference architecture that leverages advances in ‘big data’ analytics and learning inference engines—a significant departure from the statistical process control paradigm that underpins nearly all current syndromic surveillance systems; and, (4) an organizational architecture with a governance model aimed at establishing national biosurveillance as a critical part of the U.S. national infrastructure. Although it will take many years to implement, and a national campaign of education and debate to acquire public buy-in for such a comprehensive system, the potential benefits warrant increased consideration within the U.S. government.

45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEF↗

SU-F-T-122: 4Dand 5D Proton Dose Evaluation with Monte Carlo

Purpose: We evaluated uncertainties in therapeutic proton doses of a lung treatment, taking into account intra-fractional geometry changes, such as breathing, and inter-fractional changes, such as tumor shrinkage and weight loss. Methods: A Monte Carlo study was performed using four dimensional CT image sets (4DCTs) and weekly repeat imaging (5DCTs) to compute fixed RBE (1.1) and variable RBE weighted dose in an actual lung treatment geometry. The MC2 Monte Carlo system was employed to simulate proton energy deposition and LET distributions according to a thoracic cancer treatment plan developed with a 3D-CT in a commercial treatment planning system, as well as in each of the phases of 4DCT sets which were recorded weekly throughout the course of the treatment. A cumulative dose distribution in relevant structures was computed and compared to the predictions of the treatment planning system. Results: Using the Monte Carlo method, dose deposition estimates with the lowest possible uncertainties were produced. Comparison with treatment planning predictions indicates that significant uncertainties may be associated with therapeutic lung dose prediction from treatment planning systems, depending on the magnitude of inter- and intra-fractional geometry changes. Conclusion: As this is just a case study, a more systematic investigation accounting for a cohort of patients is warranted; however, this is less practical because Monte Carlo simulations of such cases require enormous computational resources. Hence our study and any future case studies may serve as validation/benchmarking data for faster dose prediction engines, such as the track repeating algorithm, FDC.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

A Measure Approximation for Distributionally Robust PDE-Constrained Optimization Problems

In numerous applications, scientists and engineers acquire varied forms of data that partially characterize the inputs to an underlying physical system. This data is then used to inform decisions such as controls and designs. Consequently, it is critical that the resulting control or design is robust to the inherent uncertainties associated with the unknown probabilistic characterization of the model inputs. Here in this work, we consider optimal control and design problems constrained by partial differential equations with uncertain inputs. We do not assume a known probabilistic model for the inputs, but rather we formulate the problem as a distributionally robust optimization problem where the outer minimization problem determines the control or design, while the inner maximization problem determines the worst-case probability measure that matches desired characteristics of the data. We analyze the inner maximization problem in the space of measures and introduce a novel measure approximation technique, based on the approximation of continuous functions, to discretize the unknown probability measure. Finally, we prove consistency of our approximated min-max problem and conclude with numerical results.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Avian Activity Classification Using Recurrent Networks to Fuse Videos with Metadata on Imbalanced Datasets

Activity classification plays a crucial role in various real-life scenarios involving both humans and animals. There is an increasing need for precise activity classification focused on avian-solar interactions, as the usage of solar energy facilities, such as photovoltaic array power stations, has been observed to impact bird species richness, behavior, and activity. However, there has been no work to develop an automated system to monitor and classify these avian-solar interactions. All current methods rely on human observers, which is time and human resources costly and subject to errors related to searcher efficiency. With the recent success of Deep Learning models in activity classification problems, this paper develops a recurrent neural network-based model to automatically classify six avian activities around solar energy facilities. Our proposed model integrates critical feature engineering metadata with video frame data, enabling improved learning and more accurate activity classification. Furthermore, we address the challenge of data imbalance during training and demonstrate the efficacy of our model in detecting and classifying different activities within video tracks. Additionally, we analyze the saliency/backpropagation map of the trained proposed model and validate its decision-making rationale.

Avian activity classification; bidirectional LSTM;↗

Risk-informed Predictive Analytics To Achieve Cost-effective Condition-based Monitoring And Maintenance Strategy

The research involves developing risk-informed predictive analytic capabilities to achieve condition-based monitoring and maintenance strategies to reduce overall maintenance costs. The research utilizes data (real-time data, periodic data, and institutional knowledge) related to a particular plant asset from a specific nuclear plant site to develop risk-informed predictive analytic algorithms. The developed algorithms and codes are used to optimize the maintenance strategy and estimate/forecast generation costs based on the state of health of the plant asset. Developed codes specifically include 1. Parameter estimation code based on Bayesian inference 2. Statistical data analysis code 3. Feature engineering code 4. Health classifier code 5. Diagnosis code 6. Prognosis code 7. Hazard code 8. Generation risk code 9. Economic code

Agarwal, Vivek↗

Daily, 30 m Resolution NDSI Data for the East River Watershed, CO for 2000-2020

This dataset contains daily Normalized Difference Snow Index (NDSI) values at 30 m spatial resolution for the East River watershed in Colorado, USA. The temporal range of these data includes water years 2001-2020. These data were created using the Spatial and Temporal Adaptive Reflectance Fusion Model (STARFM). This model fuses low spatial and high temporal resolution data from MODIS (500 m, daily) with high spatial and low temporal resolution data from Landsat (30 m, 16 days) to create a 30m synthetic daily snow product. This product allows for the analysis of historical snow covered area trends in the East River Watershed at fine spatiotemporal resolutions where it was not available previously. This research was performed as a part of the Department of Energy’s Subsurface Biogeochemical Research Program with the primary intent of better understanding the timing and spatial patterns of water delivery to the Critical Zone in mountain watersheds. Each .zip file contains one "water year" of data (October 1 - September 30; i.e., water year 2010 starts October 1, 2010 and ends September 30, 2011). Each zip file contains the following: STARFM daily Normalized Difference Snow Index (NDSI) fusion data files in GeoTiff format with one layer for each day between Landsat data acquisition dates (i.e., for dates of Landsat acquisition, the Landsat image is included for that date). The study area is located in an area of Landsat path overlap, so Landsat dates acquisitions are every 7-9 days. Landsat NDSI files containing the high spatial (30m), low temporal (7-9 days due to Landsat path overlap) resolution data used as input to STARFM in GeoTiff format with one layer for each day. Dates for which no Landsat data were obtained are included as NoData layers. MODIS NDSI files containing the high temporal (daily), low spatial (500m) resolution data used as input to STARFM in GeoTiff format with one layer for each day. Please note the MODIS data were resampled to 30m pixels for input into the STARFM model. The data have a scale factor of 10,000 and a no data value of -32767. The projection of all datasets is WGS 84 (EPSG: 4326), which has a latitude/longitude based degree resolution of 0.0002694946 X 0.0002694946, and approximates to the 30 m spatial resolution mentioned above. The Layer Index files in .csv format. They contain information for each layer in the above GeoTiff files regarding the corresponding date for each layer, the fraction of pixels in the image that contain valid data (missing data is due to either cloud cover or poor data quality; these values are not percent snow cover). Dates of Landsat overpass are indicated in these files. If no Landsat data were able to be obtained due to cloud cover or lack of Landsat Tier 1 data available on Google Earth Engine, this is also noted.

EARTH SCIENCE > CRYOSPHERE > SNOW/ICE↗

Analysis of ISO NE Balancing Requirements: Uncertainty-based Secure Ranges for ISO New England Dynamic Inerchange Adjustments

The document describes detailed uncertainty quantification (UQ) methodology developed by PNNL to estimate secure ranges of potential dynamic intra-hour interchange adjustments in the ISO-NE system and provides description of the dynamic interchange adjustment (DINA) tool developed under the same contract. The overall system ramping up and down capability, spinning reserve requirements, interchange schedules, load variations and uncertainties from various sources that are relevant to the ISO-NE system are incorporated into the methodology and the tool. The DINA tool has been tested by PNNL and ISO-NE staff engineers using ISO-NE data.

Etingov, Pavel V.↗

In-Situ Acoustic Measurements of Temperature Profile in Extreme Environments

A gasifier’s temperature is the primary characteristic that must be monitored to ensure its performance and the longevity of its refractory. One of the key technological challenges impacting the reliability and economics of coal and biomass gasification is the lack of temperature sensors that are capable of providing accurate, reliable, and long-life performance in an extreme gasification environment. This research has proposed, demonstrated, and validated a novel approach that uses a noninvasive ultrasound method that provides real-time temperature distribution monitoring across the refractory, especially the hot face temperature of the refractory. The essential idea of the ultrasound measurements of segmental temperature distribution is to use an ultrasound propagation waveguide across a refractory that has been engineered to contain multiple internal partial reflectors at known locations. When an ultrasound excitation pulse is introduced on the cold side of the refractory, it will be partially reflected from each scatterer in the US propagation path in the refractory wall and returned to the receiver as a train of partial echoes. The temperature in the corresponding segment can be determined based on recorded ultrasonic waveform and experimentally defined relationship between the speed of sound and temperature. The ultrasound measurement method offers a powerful solution to provide continuous real time temperature monitoring for the occasions that conventional thermal, optical and other sensors are infeasible, such as the impossibility of insertion of temperature sensor, harsh environment, unavailable optical path, and more. Our developed ultrasound system consists of an ultrasound engineered waveguide, ultrasound transducer/receiver, and data acquisition, logging, interpretation, and online display system, which is simple to install on the existing units with minimal modification on the gasifier or use with new units. This system has been successfully tested with a 100 kW pilot scale down flow oxyfuel combustor, capturing in real time temperature changes during all relevant combustion process changes. The ultrasound measurements have excellent agreement with thermo- couple measurements, and appear to be more sensitive to temperature changes before the thermocouples response, which is believed to be the first demonstration of ultrasound measurements segmental temperature distribution across refractories.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

ASCR Cybersecurity for Scientific Computing Integrity

The Department of Energy (DOE) has the responsibility to address the energy, environmental, and nuclear security challenges that face our nation. Much of DOE’s enterprise involves distributed, collaborative teams; a significant fraction involves “open science,” which depends on multi-institutional, often international collaborations that must access or share significant amounts of information between institutions and over networks around the world. The mission of the Office of Science is the delivery of scientific discoveries and major scientific tools to transform our understanding of nature and to advance the energy, economic, and national security of the United States. The ability of DOE to execute its responsibilities depends critically on its ability to assure the integrity and availability of scientific facilities and computer systems, and of the scientific, engineering, and operational software and data that support its mission.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Magnetic Tuning of 2.8 min In-Vacuum Undulator

This report presents the magnetic tuning results and the final magnetic performance of the In-Vacuum Undulator 2.8 m S/N A13006. In order to improve the magnetic field quality in term of phase error and to reduce the field integral errors as well as the multipole field errors, different inhouse corrections have been carried out with Neomax's engineers. Although the vendor’s data were found satisfactory, the discrepancy between their magnetic field measurement results and BNL’s was not acceptable both for field integrals and phase error [1].

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Test Information Management System (Report FY 2020 and FY 2021)

Delivery Environments supported work in Fiscal Years 2020 and 2021 to develop the Test Information Management System (TIMS). This effort involved creating a suite of tools consisting of a database and the uploading and downloading scripts. It has been demonstrated that the TIMS database is suitable for archiving raw measurements performed on various measured test articles. The TIMS database has been populated with data from the TRUST projects in FY 20 and FY 21. This included the functional data in the Sensors records as well as metadata stored in records in several other tables. The performed work demonstrated that a database archiving validation test data and integrating it with engineering analysis simulations has a great potential to increase the efficiency, responsiveness, and confidence in the modeling, simulation, and validation efforts for future (and current) weapon systems and assemblies in normal and abnormal environments. In this report, we also discuss how the records belonging to the same project should be arranged, what are the minimum requirements for linking the records using the tabular links, and we provide several recommendations to the projects engineers and the database administrator to improve the TIMS database.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Uncertainty Quantification of Monolithic Tungsten Target Block Fatigue

The current STS spallation target design consists of 21 water cooled, tantalum clad, monolithic tungsten blocks. The target wheel assembly rotates such that each target block receives a direct proton pulse every 1.4 seconds (21 blocks / 15 Hz pulses). The quasi-steady heating induced by the repetitive beam pulses creates a significant mean stress distribution in the target. On top of this, the rapid energy deposition from a proton pulse induces dynamic stress waves that are of the same order of magnitude as the mean stresses. Over the design goal of 5,000 operational hours per year for a decade, each target must withstand over 130 million repetitions of these dynamic stress events. The fatigue life prediction of the target blocks is a complex sequence of simulations that depend upon a set of input parameters. For the tungsten block, the end goal is the fatigue factor-of-safety (FOS). This study documents a new structural analysis routine using software available to U.S. national laboratories (e.g. CUBIT, Sierra Multiphysics, Dakota) that enables more rapid target fatigue analysis. The increased throughput is amenable to parameter sensitivity and uncertainty quantification (UQ) studies. A set of input parameters (ultimate strength, fatigue strength, density, elastic modulus, Poisson’s ratio, thermal conductivity, coefficient of thermal expansion, specific heat, flow rate) with expected ranges are documented based on literature data, recent experimental testing, and engineering judgement. UQ bounds the resulting fatigue FOS at [0.5, 3.4] using epistemic interval analysis. These bounds are expected to be wider due to model effects (discretization) and beam effects (focus, offset) that were not included. Parameter sensitivity underscores the importance of ultimate strength and fatigue strength of irradiated tungsten on the fatigue calculations.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Heating Ventilation Air-Conditioning (HVAC) System Analysis and Optimization for Revit with the OpenStudio Analytical Framework (CRADA Final Report)

This project proposes to integrate the NREL-developed OpenStudio (OS) and its accompanying Analytical Framework (OSAF) into Autodesk’s (ADSK’s) market leading suite of building information modeling (BIM) tools. As a result, BIM users will gain access to advanced (but user-friendly) building energy modeling (BEM), calibration, and design optimization capabilities. Following integration, the BIM software will automatically generate a consistent OS-based BEM model, allowing users to develop projects in an integrated manner, moving back and forth between architectural and engineering perspectives without redundancy or data loss, saving time and effort.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DME-Propane Autoignition Measurements inside a Shock Tube

Dimethyl ether (DME) is a biofuel that has the potential to replace diesel in heavy-duty engines. A blend of propane (C3H8) and DME could reduce emissions when compared to diesel at heavy-duty compression engine-relevant conditions. Testing a potential new mixture in a compression engine requires a high-fidelity chemical kinetics model that accurately predicts autoignition delay times, which is especially necessary for a compression engine. In this work, autoignition data has been gathered at an equivalence ratio of 2.0 for pressures of 60 and 80 bar. DME and propane were combusted in synthetic air while excited hydroxyl (OH*) chemiluminescence was used to gather ignition delay times. Data was compared to recent chemical kinetic mechanisms for the two different pressures. Using the mechanism with the best fit of autoignition data, a sensitivity analysis was conducted to analyze the chemical kinetics of the DME/C3H8 combustion at elevated pressures.

Mohammed, Zuhayr Pasha↗

Simulative Prediction of Solar Illuminance and Application of the Du-Sharples Model in Estimating Adapted Daylighting Metrics for an Urban Environment

The practice of daylighting in indoor spaces can significantly reduce electricity consumption and carbon emissions, improve human productivity, and enhance mood and cognitive perception. This work discussed the recent developments in daylighting science and practice, computed the periodic variations in average diurnal daylight levels for each month, quantified in terms of global horizontal illuminance and diffuse horizontal illuminance, for Kolkata, India, a city with tropical wet and dry climate, with two empirical luminous efficacy models of estimating solar illuminance, and assessed daylighting metrics with the Du-Sharples model. A program was formulated that could compute and generate daylight data with monthly-hourly solar irradiation data and the Du-Sharples model was utilized to predict dirt-corrected daylighting metrics for three glazing transmittance values and five elemental carbon deposition levels on glazing material. The highest monthly average global horizontal illuminance is recorded in April (64.05 klx for Littlefair model and 66.82 klx for Muneer-Kinghorn model) and the highest monthly average diffuse horizontal illuminance is recorded in July (33.23 klx for Littlefair model and 30.63 klx for Muneer-Kinghorn model). Further, the computed yearly average global and diffuse horizontal illuminance levels agree well with a previous study that applied the Perez model. Yearly average horizontal work surface illuminance level remained >1.5 klx for window-towall area ratio >30 %. The approach adopted in this work and the temporal variation charts of computed exterior daylight level data may assist building service engineers, architects, and indoor lighting practitioners in making informed policy decisions at different stages of building planning.

Engineering↗

3D Imaging of Geothermal Faults from a Vertical DAS Fiber at Brady Hot Spring, NV USA

In March 2016, arguably the most ambitious 4D (3D space + over time) active-source seismic survey for geothermal exploration in the U.S. was acquired at Brady Natural Laboratory, outside Fernley, Nevada. The four-week experiment included 191 vibroseis source locations, and approximately 130 m of distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) in a vertical well, located at the southern end of the survey area. The imaging of the geothermal faults is done with reverse time migration of the DAS data for both P-P and P-S events in order to generate 3D models of reflectivity, which can identify subsurface fault locations. Three scenarios of receiver data are explored to investigate the reliability of the reflectivity models obtained: (1) Migration of synthetic P-P and P-S DAS data, (2) migration of the observed field DAS data and (3) migration of pure random noise to better assess the validity of our results. The comparisons of the 3D reflectivity models from these three scenarios confirm that sections of three known faults at Brady produce reflected energy observed by the DAS. Two faults that are imaged are ~1 km away from the DAS well; one of these faults (middle west-dipping) is well-constructed for over 400 m along the fault’s strike, and 300 m in depth. These results confirm that the DAS data, together with an imaging engine such as reverse time migration, can be used to position important geothermal features such as faults.

10 SYNTHETIC FUELS↗

What’s the Difference? The Potential for Convolutional Neural Networks for Transient Detection without Template Subtraction

Abstract We present a study of the potential for convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to enable separation of astrophysical transients from image artifacts, a task known as “real–bogus” classification, without requiring a template-subtracted (or difference) image, which requires a computationally expensive process to generate, involving image matching on small spatial scales in large volumes of data. Using data from the Dark Energy Survey, we explore the use of CNNs to (1) automate the real–bogus classification and (2) reduce the computational costs of transient discovery. We compare the efficiency of two CNNs with similar architectures, one that uses “image triplets” (templates, search, and difference image) and one that takes as input the template and search only. We measure the decrease in efficiency associated with the loss of information in input, finding that the testing accuracy is reduced from ∼96% to ∼91.1%. We further investigate how the latter model learns the required information from the template and search by exploring the saliency maps. Our work (1) confirms that CNNs are excellent models for real–bogus classification that rely exclusively on the imaging data and require no feature engineering task and (2) demonstrates that high-accuracy (>90%) models can be built without the need to construct difference images, but some accuracy is lost. Because, once trained, neural networks can generate predictions at minimal computational costs, we argue that future implementations of this methodology could dramatically reduce the computational costs in the detection of transients in synoptic surveys like Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space and Time by bypassing the difference image analysis entirely.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Advanced Models and Controls for Prediction and Extension of Battery Lifetime (Presentation)

Predictive models of capacity and power fade must consider a multiplicity of degradation modes experienced by Li-ion batteries in the automotive environment. Lacking accurate models and tests, lifetime uncertainty must presently be absorbed by overdesign and excess warranty costs. To reduce these costs and extend life, degradation models are under development that predict lifetime more accurately and with less test data. The lifetime models provide engineering feedback for cell, pack and system designs and are being incorporated into real-time control strategies.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗