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At least 883 records · Page 49

Accuracy versus convergence rates for a three dimensional multistage Euler code

Using a central difference scheme, it is necessary to add an artificial viscosity in order to reach a steady state. This viscosity usually consists of a linear fourth difference to eliminate odd-even oscillations and a nonlinear second difference to suppress oscillations in the neighborhood of steep gradients. There are free constants in these differences. As one increases the artificial viscosity, the high modes are dissipated more and the scheme converges more rapidly. However, this higher level of viscosity smooths the shocks and eliminates other features of the flow. Thus, there is a conflict between the requirements of accuracy and efficiency. Examples are presented for a variety of three-dimensional inviscid solutions over isolated wings.

Turkel, Eli↗

Accuracy versus convergence rates for a three dimensional multistage Euler code

Using a central difference scheme, it is necessary to add an artificial viscosity in order to reach a steady state. This viscosity usually consists of a linear fourth difference to eliminate odd-even oscillations and a nonlinear second difference to suppress oscillations in the neighborhood of steep gradients. There are free constants in these differences. As one increases the artificial viscosity, the high modes are dissipated more and the scheme converges more rapidly. However, this higher level of viscosity smooths the shocks and eliminates other features of the flow. Thus, there is a conflict between the requirements of accuracy and efficiency. Examples are presented for a variety of three-dimensional inviscid solutions over isolated wings.

Turkel, Eli↗

Accuracy Enhancement of Nuclear Power Plant Simulators Utilizing High Accuracy Simulation Predictions

More recently, reactor core simulators for core designs associated with commercial nuclear power plants that utilize what is believed to be higher fidelity models have been developed. Features such as neutronics models that utilize transport equation solvers with fine spatial meshes and many energy-groups, thermal-hydraulic models that utilize sub-channel solvers with fine spatial mesh and capable of treating a wide range of fluid conditions, and fuel-coolant chemistry interaction models capable of treating CRUD deposition are to be found in these higher fidelity core simulators. These reactor core simulators require access to higher performance computers, characterized by many processors, cores and large memory. So associated with utilization of these simulators is access to high performance computers and ability to accommodate in one’s workflow longer execution times. By contrast, currently used core simulators by the nuclear industry can execute on engineering workstations and have execution times of seconds to minutes. The desirability for having short execution times is not only desired for support of time critical tasks but supports the mental process of decision making by engineers. The goal of the work reported upon here has the objective of retaining the fidelity of higher fidelity models while retaining the ability to utilize engineering workstations. Beyond the core simulator goal, additional goals of this work include incorporating the just described core simulator capability into a Nuclear Steam Supply System (NSSS) simulator, and to incorporate the resulting capability into an environment supportive of design and operational decision making associated with nuclear power stations. The model selected for the core neutronics model is the NESTLE code, for the core thermal-hydraulic model is the CTF code utilizing coarse mesh, and for the NSSS model is the RELAP5-3D code. WSC’s proprietary 3KEYMASTERTM platform is being used to provide software coupling, user interface, visualization, and reporting. The NESTLE core neutronics simulator was first integrated with the CTF core thermal-hydraulic simulator using CTF developed communication commands which are also used for CTF to communicate with RELAP5-3D under WSC’s proprietary 3KEYMASTERTM platform. To assure NESTLE prediction consistency with higher fidelity core neutronic simulators, buffer codes have been created to automatically generate from output files written by the VERA core simulator the NESTLE nodal neutronic parameter’ library, geometry, and pin-power reconstruction input files, thereby avoiding a number of challenges associated with utilizing lattice physics codes and providing consistency with VERA predictions. To treat absorber rod effects a multi-set library is utilized, where a set refers to a specific absorber rod fully inserted pattern. A coarse spatial mesh CTF model was developed with features added that support using CTF as envisioned in the engineering quality simulator. A hybrid meshing approach was implemented to allow for automated construction of models with mixed levels of refinement. Specifically, a core model could resolve some assemblies at a nodal level (4 subchannels per assembly) and others at a pin-resolution (one subchannel per coolant subchannel in the assembly). The intention is that this will allow for better resolution of limiting conditions such as DNBR and PCT, which are based on local rod and subchannel conditions. Further development was done of features that enhance the capabilities for the envisioned engineering quality simulator that has been developed, but now for RELAP-3D. The RELAP5-3D code development includes ability to model more than 999 components and the addition of the cross-channels turbulence mixing model and the void drift model that are implemented in CTF, aiming to achieve closer prediction agreement of the two codes for transient simulations, specifically, more accurate matches of the overall mass, momentum, and energy exchanges of both the liquid and gas phases between the neighboring core assemblies. Graphics were also developed for the Instructor Station for this project under WSC’s proprietary 3KEYMASTERTM platform to facilitate design and operational decision making.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Leveraging large language models to automate the identification of healthcare access barriers for veterans

Objective: To develop and evaluate an automated system for identifying healthcare barriers focusing on transportation issues in veterans’ clinical notes using large language models (LLMs) and to assess the impact of different prompting strategies on classification performance and explanation consistency. Methods: We developed a hybrid system combining pattern matching for templated notes with LLM analysis for free-text notes. Using 2000 manually annotated clinical notes, we compared four prompting strategies (dual-role short, dual-role long, analysis-first, analysis-only) across Mistral-7B and Llama-3.1 models. We evaluated classification performance using standard metrics and assessed explanation consistency through embedding similarity analysis. Results: The analysis-first strategy achieved superior performance, with Mistral-7B reaching an F1 score of 0.914, outperforming traditional machine learning approaches (GBM: 0.786, BERT: 0.811). LLMs demonstrated higher explanation consistency within models (mean cosine similarity 0.887–0.908) compared to cross-model similarities (0.767–0.872). Pattern matching successfully handled 6.7% of templated notes deterministically. Mistral-7B showed greater internal consistency but higher abstention rates compared to Llama-3.1. Conclusion: Requiring LLMs to analyze evidence before classification improves both accuracy and explanation consistency for identifying transportation barriers in clinical notes. This approach enables automated barrier detection at scale while providing clinically relevant explanations, supporting both population-level healthcare planning and individual patient care decisions.

Healthcare access barriers↗

Tilted lidar profiling: Development and testing of a novel scanning strategy for inhomogeneous flows

The most common profiling techniques for the atmospheric boundary layer based on a monostatic Doppler wind lidar rely on the assumption of horizontal homogeneity of the flow. This assumption breaks down in the presence of either natural or human-made obstructions that can generate significant flow distortions. The need to deploy ground-based lidars near operating wind turbines for the American WAKE experimeNt (AWAKEN) spurred a search for novel profiling techniques that could avoid the influence of the flow modifications caused by the wind farms. With this goal in mind, two well-established profiling scanning strategies have been retrofitted to scan in a tilted fashion and steer the beams away from the more severely inhomogeneous region of the flow. Results from a field test at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's 135-m meteorological tower show that the accuracy of the horizontal mean flow reconstruction is insensitive to the tilt of the scan, although higher-order wind statistics are severely deteriorated at extreme tilts mainly due to geometrical error amplification. A numerical study of the AWAKEN domain based on the Weather Research and Forecasting Model and large-eddy simulation are also conducted to test the effectiveness of tilted profiling. It is shown that a threefold reduction of the error on inflow mean wind speed can be achieved for a lidar placed at the base of the turbine using tilted profiling.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

A low-complexity non-intrusive approach to predict the energy demand of buildings over short-term horizons

Reliable, non-intrusive, short-term (of up to 12 hours ahead) prediction of a building's energy demand is a critical component of intelligent energy management applications. A number of such approaches have been proposed over time, utilizing various statistical and, more recently, machine learning techniques, such as decision trees, neural networks and support vector machines. Importantly, all of these works barely outperform simple seasonal auto-regressive integrated moving average models, while their complexity is significantly higher. Here, we propose a novel low-complexity non-intrusive approach that improves the predictive accuracy of the state-of-the-art by up to ~10%. The backbone of our approach is a K-nearest neighbours search method, that exploits the demand pattern of the most similar historical days, and incorporates appropriate time-series pre-processing and easing. In the context of this work, we evaluate our approach against state-of-the-art methods and provide insights on their performance.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Joint Analysis of Small-scale Galaxy Clustering and Galaxy–Galaxy Lensing from BOSS Galaxies

We present a joint analysis of galaxy clustering and galaxy–galaxy lensing measurements from BOSS galaxies using a simulation-based emulation method combined with a halo occupation distribution model. Our emulators are constructed with the Aemulus ν simulations, a suite of wνCDM N-body simulations with massive neutrinos as independent particle species. We combine small-scale analysis of clustering from 0.1 to 60.2 h −1 Mpc and lensing from 1.7 to 60.2 h −1 Mpc to perform cosmological constraints. We split the BOSS galaxies into three redshift bins to measure their clustering and employ galaxies from Dark Energy Camera Legacy Survey and Hyper Suprime-Cam as source galaxies to measure lensing separately. We find that the addition of lensing significantly improves the constraining power on $S_8 = σ_8(Ω_m/0.3)^{0.5}$, with a weak improvement for fσ 8 . Our results of fσ 8 indicate tensions of around 1σ−4σ below the results of the cosmic microwave background observations of Planck. For S 8 , our results are also lower than Planck, and the tension can be mitigated when considering possible systematics in lensing measurement. As a by-product, our analysis prefers a nonzero neutrino mass but without strong significance, with the constraining power dominated by the clustering. Given the accuracy and precision of our model and the observational data, it is anticipated that larger and higher-quality spectroscopic data sets will improve the constraints on this fundamental property in the near future.

Gao, Wenhao [Shanghai Jiao Tong University (China)↗

Measurement of diffusion coefficients from solution rates of bubbles

The rate of solution of a stationary bubble is limited by the diffusion of dissolved gas molecules away from the bubble surface. Diffusion coefficients computed from measured rates of solution give mean values higher than accepted literature values, with standard errors as high as 10% for a single observation. Better accuracy is achieved with sparingly soluble gases, small bubbles, and highly viscous liquids. Accuracy correlates with the Grashof number, indicating that free convection is the major source of error. Accuracy should, therefore, be greatly increased in a gravity-free environment. The fact that the bubble will need no support is an additional important advantage of Spacelab for this measurement.

Krieger, I. M.↗

Mean excitation energies for stopping powers in various materials using local plasma oscillator strengths

The basic model of Lindhard and Scharff, known as the local plasma model, is used to study the effects on stopping power of the chemical and physical state of the medium. Unlike previous work with the local plasma model, in which individual electron shifts in the plasma frequency were estimated empirically, he Pines correction derived for a degenerate Fermi gas is shown herein to provide a reasonable estimate, even on the atomic scale. Thus, the model is moved to a complete theoretical base requiring no empirical adjustments, as characteristic of past applications. The principal remaining error is in the overestimation of the low-energy absorption properties that are characteristic of the plasma model in the region of the atomic discrete spectrum, although higher-energy phenomena are accurately represented, and even excitation-to-ionization ratios are given to fair accuracy. Mean excitation energies for covalent-bonded gases and solids, for ionic gases and crystals, and for metals are calculated using first-order models of the bonded states.

Wilson, J. W.↗

Power efficient optical communications for space applications

Optical communications technology promises substantial size, weight and power consumption savings for space to space high data rate communications over presently used microwave technology. These benefits are further increased by making the most efficient use of the available optical signal energy. This presentation will describe the progress to date on a project to design, build and demonstrate in the laboratory an optical communication system capable of conveying 2.5 bits of information per effective received photon. Such high power efficiencies will reduce the need for photon collection at the receiver and will greatly reduce the requirements for optical pointing accuracy, both at the transmitter as well as the receiver. A longer range program to demonstrate even higher photon efficiencies will also be described.

Lesh, J. R.↗

Solution methods for one-dimensional viscoelastic problems

A recently developed differential methodology for solution of one-dimensional nonlinear viscoelastic problems is presented. Using the example of an eccentrically loaded cantilever beam-column, the results from the differential formulation are compared to results generated using a previously published integral solution technique. It is shown that the results obtained from these distinct methodologies exhibit a surprisingly high degree of correlation with one another. A discussion of the various factors affecting the numerical accuracy and rate of convergence of these two procedures is also included. Finally, the influences of some 'higher order' effects, such as straining along the centroidal axis are discussed.

Stubstad, John M.↗

Effect of motion cues during complex curved approach and landing tasks: A piloted simulation study

A piloted simulation study was conducted to examine the effect of motion cues using a high fidelity simulation of commercial aircraft during the performance of complex approach and landing tasks in the Microwave Landing System (MLS) signal environment. The data from these tests indicate that in a high complexity MLS approach task with moderate turbulence and wind, the pilot uses motion cues to improve path tracking performance. No significant differences in tracking accuracy were noted for the low and medium complexity tasks, regardless of the presence of motion cues. Higher control input rates were measured for all tasks when motion was used. Pilot eye scan, as measured by instrument dwell time, was faster when motion cues were used regardless of the complexity of the approach tasks. Pilot comments indicated a preference for motion. With motion cues, pilots appeared to work harder in all levels of task complexity and to improve tracking performance in the most complex approach task.

Scanlon, Charles H.↗

The HYDICE instrument design and its application to planetary instruments

The Hyperspectral Digital Imagery Collection Experiment (HYDICE) instrument represents a significant advance in the state of the art in hyperspectral sensors. It combines a higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and significantly better spatial and spectral resolution and radio metric accuracy than systems flying on aircraft today. The need for 'clean' data, i.e., data free of sampling artifacts and excessive spatial or spectral noise, is a key driver behind the difficult combination of performance requirements laid out for HYDICE. Most of these involve the sensor optics and detector. This paper presents an optimized approach to those requirements, one that comprises push broom scanning, a single, mechanically cooled focal plane, a double-pass prism spectrometer, and an easily fabricated yet wide-field telescope. Central to the approach is a detector array that covers the entire spectrum from 0.4 to 2.5 microns. Among the major benefits conferred by such a design are optical and mechanical simplicity, low polarization sensitivity, and coverage of the entire spectrum without suffering the spectral gaps caused by beam splitters. The overall system minimizes interfaces to the C-141 aircraft on which it will be flown, can be calibrated on the ground and in flight to accuracies better than those required, and is designed for simple, push-button operation. Only unprocessed data are recorded during flight. A ground data processing station provides quick-look, calibration correction, and archiving capabilities, with a throughput better than the requirements. Overall performance of the system is expected to provide the solid database required to evaluate the potential of hyperspectral imagery in a wide variety of applications. HYDICE can be regarded as a test bed for future planetary instruments. The ability to spectrally image a wide field of view over multiple spectral octaves offers obvious advantages and is expected to maximize science return for the required cost and weight.

Basedow, R.↗

Integrated INS/GPS Navigation from a Popular Perspective

Inertial navigation, blended with other navigation aids, Global Positioning System (GPS) in particular, has gained significance due to enhanced navigation and inertial reference performance and dissimilarity for fault tolerance and anti-jamming. Relatively new concepts based upon using Differential GPS (DGPS) blended with Inertial (and visual) Navigation Sensors (INS) offer the possibility of low cost, autonomous aircraft landing. The FAA has decided to implement the system in a sophisticated form as a new standard navigation tool during this decade. There have been a number of new inertial sensor concepts in the recent past that emphasize increased accuracy of INS/GPS versus INS and reliability of navigation, as well as lower size and weight, and higher power, fault tolerance, and long life. The principles of GPS are not discussed; rather the attention is directed towards general concepts and comparative advantages. A short introduction to the problems faced in kinematics is presented. The intention is to relate the basic principles of kinematics to probably the most used navigation method in the future-INS/GPS. An example of the airborne INS is presented, with emphasis on how it works. The discussion of the error types and sources in navigation, and of the role of filters in optimal estimation of the errors then follows. The main question this paper is trying to answer is 'What are the benefits of the integration of INS and GPS and how is this, navigation concept of the future achieved in reality?' The main goal is to communicate the idea about what stands behind a modern navigation method.

Omerbashich, Mensur↗

Apperception of Clouds in AIRS Data

Our capacity to simulate the radiative characteristics of the Earth system has advanced greatly over the past decade. However, new space based measurements show that idealized simulations might not adequately represent the complexity of nature. For example, AIRS simulated multi-layer cloud clearing research provides an excellent groundwork for early Atmospheric Infra-Red Sounder (AIRS) operational cloud clearing and atmospheric profile retrieval. However, it doesn't reflect the complicated reality of clouds over land and coastal areas. Thus far, operational AIRS/AMSU (Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit) cloud clearing is not only of low yield but also of unsatisfying quality. This is not an argument for avoiding this challenging task, rather a powerful argument for exploring other synergistic approaches, and for adapting these strategies toward improving both indirect and direct use of cloudy infrared sounding data. Ample evidence is shown in this paper that the indirect use of cloudy sounding data by way of cloud clearing is sub-optimal for data assimilation. Improvements are needed in quality control, retrieval yield, and overall cloud clearing retrieval performance. For example, cloud clearing over land, especially over the desert surface, has led to much degraded retrieval quality and often a very low yield of quality controlled cloud cleared radiances. If these indirect cloud cleared radiances are instead to be directly assimilated into NWP models, great caution must be used. Our limited and preliminary cloud clearing results from AIRS/AMSU (with the use of MODIS data) and an AIRS/MODIS synergistic approach have, however, shown that higher spatial resolution multispectral imagery data can provide much needed quality control of the AIRS/AMSU cloud clearing retrieval. When AIRS and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) are used synergistically, a higher spatial resolution over difficult terrain (especially desert areas) can be achieved and with a much improved accuracy. Preliminary statistical analyses of cloud cleared radiances derived from (1) operational AIRS/AMSU, (2) operational AIRS/AMSU plus the use of MODIS data as quality control, and (3) AIRS/MODIS synergistic single channel and two field of views cloud clearing are Our capacity to simulate the radiative characteristics of the Earth system has

Huang, Hung-Lung↗

Feedback Augmented Sub-Ranging (FASR) Quantizer

This innovation is intended to reduce the size, power, and complexity of pipeline analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) that require high resolution and speed along with low power. Digitizers are important components in any application where analog signals (such as light, sound, temperature, etc.) need to be digitally processed. The innovation implements amplification of a sampled residual voltage in a switched capacitor amplifier stage that does not depend on charge redistribution. The result is less sensitive to capacitor mismatches that cause gain errors, which are the main limitation of such amplifiers in pipeline ADCs. The residual errors due to mismatch are reduced by at least a factor of 16, which is equivalent to at least 4 bits of improvement. The settling time is also faster because of a higher feedback factor. In traditional switched capacitor residue amplifiers, closed-loop amplification of a sampled and held residue signal is achieved by redistributing sampled charge onto a feedback capacitor around a high-gain transconductance amplifier. The residual charge that was sampled during the acquisition or sampling phase is stored on two or more capacitors, often equal in value or integral multiples of each other. During the hold or amplification phase, all of the charge is redistributed onto one capacitor in the feedback loop of the amplifier to produce an amplified voltage. The key error source is the non-ideal ratios of feedback and input capacitors caused by manufacturing tolerances, called mismatches. The mismatches cause non-ideal closed-loop gain, leading to higher differential non-linearity. Traditional solutions to the mismatch errors are to use larger capacitor values (than dictated by thermal noise requirements) and/or complex calibration schemes, both of which increase the die size and power dissipation. The key features of this innovation are (1) the elimination of the need for charge redistribution to achieve an accurate closed-loop gain of two, (2) a higher feedback factor in the amplifier stage giving a higher closed-loop bandwidth compared to the prior art, and (3) reduced requirement for calibration. The accuracy of the new amplifier is mainly limited by the sampling networks parasitic capacitances, which should be minimized in relation to the sampling capacitors.

Guilligan, Gerard↗

Three Dimensional Cross-Sectional Properties From Bone Densitometry

Bone densitometry has previously been used to obtain cross-sectional properties of bone in a single scan plane. Using three non-coplanar scans, we have extended the method to obtain the principal area Moments of inertia and orientations of the principal axes at each cross-section along the length of the scan. Various 5 aluminum phantoms were used to examine scanner characteristics to develop the highest accuracy possible for in vitro non-invasive analysis of mass distribution. Factors considered included X-ray photon energy, initial scan orientation, the included angle of the 3 scans, and Imin/Imax ratios. Principal moments of inertia were accurate to within 3.1% and principal angles were within 1 deg. of the expected value for phantoms scanned with included angles of 60 deg. and 90 deg. at the higher X-ray photon energy. Low standard deviations in error also 10 indicate high precision of calculated measurements with these included angles. Accuracy and precision decreased slightly when the included angle was reduced to 30 deg. The method was then successfully applied to a pair of excised cadaveric tibiae. The accuracy and insensitivity of the algorithms to cross-sectional shape and changing isotropy (Imin/Imax) values when various included angles are used make this technique viable for future in vivo studies.

Cleek, Tammy M.↗