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DOE OSTI2024

Rapid native single cell mass spectrometry

A method for analyzing single cells by mass spectrometry includes the steps of providing a plurality of cells in a liquid medium and placing the cells and liquid medium in a single cell isolation and ejection system. Liquid medium containing a single cell is released from the single cell isolation and ejection system. The liquid medium and single cell are captured in a capture probe containing a flowing capture probe solvent. The cell is lysed by a lysis inducer in the capture probe to disperse single cell components into the medium. The lysed single cell components are transported to a mass spectrometer, where the lysed single cell components entering the mass spectrometer are spatially and temporally separated from any dispersed components of another single cell from the sample entering the mass spectrometer. Mass spectrometry is conducted on the lysed single-cell components. A system for analyzing single cells by mass spectrometry is also disclosed.

Cahill, John F.↗

DOE OSTI2026

Two-tooth bosonic quantum comb for temporal-correlation sensing

We introduce a two-tooth bosonic quantum comb that captures the sequential interactions between a thermal absorber and a long-lived coherent probe. The comb provides a causal, multi-time description of coherence transport, tracking how the probe records both instantaneous fluctuations and their temporal correlations. Using a process-tensor formulation, we derive closed form expressions showing that interference between the two interaction windows generates a non-monotonic memory response that reflects a fundamental competition between the absorbers thermal population and its dynamical correlations. By sweeping the temporal separation between the interaction windows, the probe directly samples the absorbers population correlator, enabling bosonic noise spectroscopy that discriminates Markovian temperature noise from slow or spectrally structured fluctuations. The approach is readily compatible with circuit-QED platforms and offers a general method for probing fluctuating bosonic environments.

Zhu, Shaojiang [Fermilab]↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Design of Safe Separation Bounds for Temporally Deconflicted Trajectories Under Bounded Uncertainties

This paper explores the derivation of safe separation bounds for a heterogeneous group of~$n$ Uncrewed Aerial Systems (UAS) that are assigned temporally deconflicted trajectories. Compared to spatially deconflicted trajectories, temporal deconfliction can lead to higher traffic capacities and a more efficient use of the available airspace. One challenge with this type of deconfliction is that collisions can occur if some cooperating UAS are behind or ahead of schedule. To overcome this risk, this paper derives a lower bound on the safety distance between two heterogeneous UAS in the presence of bounded uncertainties. This safety distance can be leveraged to inform trajectory generation algorithms. The proposed bound establishes a rigorous safety margin when the fleet deviates from the planned trajectories, both temporally and spatially. For its derivation the paper assumes the UAS implement a distributed coordination algorithm that allows the fleet to maintain their schedules synchronized within a bounded temporal error, and a path-following algorithm that lets the vehicles track a target that moves along the planned trajectory with a bounded spatial error.

autonomy↗

NASA NTRS2013

Optimal Integration of Departures and Arrivals in Terminal Airspace

Coordination of operations with spatially and temporally shared resources, such as route segments, fixes, and runways, improves the efficiency of terminal airspace management. Problems in this category are, in general, computationally difficult compared to conventional scheduling problems. This paper presents a fast time algorithm formulation using a non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA). It was first applied to a test problem introduced in existing literature. An experiment with a test problem showed that new methods can solve the 20 aircraft problem in fast time with a 65% or 440 second delay reduction using shared departure fixes. In order to test its application in a more realistic and complicated problem, the NSGA algorithm was applied to a problem in LAX terminal airspace, where interactions between 28% of LAX arrivals and 10% of LAX departures are resolved by spatial separation in current operations, which may introduce unnecessary delays. In this work, three types of separations - spatial, temporal, and hybrid separations - were formulated using the new algorithm. The hybrid separation combines both temporal and spatial separations. Results showed that although temporal separation achieved less delay than spatial separation with a small uncertainty buffer, spatial separation outperformed temporal separation when the uncertainty buffer was increased. Hybrid separation introduced much less delay than both spatial and temporal approaches. For a total of 15 interacting departures and arrivals, when compared to spatial separation, the delay reduction of hybrid separation varied between 11% or 3.1 minutes and 64% or 10.7 minutes corresponding to an uncertainty buffer from 0 to 60 seconds. Furthermore, as a comparison with the NSGA algorithm, a First-Come-First-Serve based heuristic method was implemented for the hybrid separation. Experiments showed that the results from the NSGA algorithm have 9% to 42% less delay than the heuristic method with varied uncertainty buffer sizes.

terminal airspace↗

DOE OSTI2026

Temporal and spatial separations between spin glass and short-range order

Broken-symmetry-induced order parameters account for many phenomena in physics. For spin glasses, this framework dictates the theoretical construction, whereas experiments have only established dynamical behaviors but not the physical entity. Experimental techniques have limitations when the spin glass is probed as an isolated state. Here, we create an evolution from a long-range order using well-controlled non-magnetic substitution on a sublattice. Neutron magnetic diffuse scattering of pico-second timescale reveals that the dynamics of short- and long-range order formation are not affected by disorder, but their spatial ranges are. Across all specimens, the inflection point of spin correlation length’s temperature dependence fully matches with the peak in heat capacity, while spin glass can freeze at millisecond timescale either above or below this characteristic temperature of spin-order formation. Our results identify the spin glass as single, uncorrelated spins at domain walls between spin clusters, and an uncorrelated coexistence of the two.

Dronova, Margarita G [Okinawa Institute of Science↗

NASA NTRS2001

Separating Spatial and Temporal Variations of the Aurora Using Two Nearly Colocated Satellites

This final report describes the efforts accomplished during the grant's period of performance, covering the period of 1 May 1997 to 30 April 2001, of a NASA Supporting Research and Technology Program grant under the Ionospheric, Thermospheric, and Mesospheric Physics component of the Sun-Earth Connections program. We have met and exceeded the goals set forth in the proposed research objectives. Referred publications have appeared in the scientific literature and several others are in the review process. In addition, numerous invited and contributed presentations of these studies were presented at national and international meetings during the performance period. One graduate student completed his PhD and won two AGU Best Student Paper awards based on research funded by this grant. These studies are summarized below. The science goal delineated in the initial proposal was "to systematically explore the temporal and spatial characteristics of the aurora in a way heretofore impossible, using data from two coplanar DMSP spacecraft." We accomplished this goal through a series of related studies. One study used these unique data to establish the role of Ps6 waves in coupling between the magnetosphere and the auroral ionosphere (omega bands) during the recovery phase of a magnetic storm; the published paper demonstrated the causal relationships between geospace processes occurring in different regions and established a simple conceptual model based on the fortuitous constellation of observations. In the second string of papers, we used these data to explore velocity-dispersed ions (VDIS) in and near the cusp, to test region identification models, and to look at space/time structure of auroral precipitation. On the first topic, the unique DMSP data revealed a remarkable double VDIS with a latitudinal overlap. This could only be explained in terms of a unified reconnection geometry that builds on several earlier unrelated models. The paper outlining this discovery has drawn considerable attention from the community and is currently in press - it adds significantly to the debate over whether reconnection is study state versus bursty and patchy versus global. The second paper develops the model further by incorporating the electron signature - these ionospheric particle precipitation signatures reveal the presence of magnetospheric "fossilized" FTEs, demonstrating the power of ionospheric measurements as a remote diagnostic of magnetospheric processes. Finally, the general nature of aurora] stability and coherence and region identification by particle characteristics were fully explored in a final paper. We identify candidate mechanisms controlling coherence time scales and length scales and refine boundary region identification criteria. We also use the dual-DMSP observations to identify the open and closed LLBL region and related its significance to the generalized bursty, multiple x-line model developed in the first paper. All of these topics are chapters of Dr. Boudouridis' recently completed PhD thesis.

Spence, Harlan E.↗

NASA NTRS2013

Scheduling and Separating Departures Crossing Arrival Flows in Shared Airspace

Flight efficiency and reduction of flight delays are among the primary goals of NextGen. In this paper, we propose a concept of shared airspace where departures fly across arrival flows, provided gaps are available in these flows. We have explored solutions to separate departures temporally from arrival traffic and pre-arranged procedures to support controllers' decisions. We conducted a Human-in-the-Loop simulation and assessed the efficiency and safety of 96 departures from the San Jose airport (SJC) climbing across the arrival airspace of the Oakland and San Francisco arrival flows. In our simulation, the SJC tower had a tool to schedule departures to fly across predicted gaps in the arrival flow. When departures were mistimed and separation could not be ensured, a safe but less efficient route was provided to the departures to fly under the arrival flows. A coordination using a point-out procedure allowed the arrival controller to control the SJC departures right after takeoff. We manipulated the accuracy of departure time (accurate vs. inaccurate) as well as which sector took control of the departures after takeoff (departure vs. arrival sector) in a 2x2 full factorial plan. Results show that coordination time decreased and climb efficiency increased when the arrival sector controlled the aircraft right after takeoff. Also, climb efficiency increased when the departure times were more accurate. Coordination was shown to be a critical component of tactical operations in shared airspace. Although workload, coordination, and safety were judged by controllers as acceptable in the simulation, it appears that in the field, controllers would need improved tools and coordination procedures to support this procedure.

shared airspace↗

NASA NTRS2014

Coordination Between Sectors in Shared Airspace Operations

Recent studies have shown that a more efficient use of airspace may involve shared airspace operations, i.e., temporal as well as spatial separation of arrival and departure flows [1][2]. Temporal separation would permit a departure aircraft to fly through an arrival flow, depending on an available gap. This would necessitate careful and precise coordination between controllers in different sectors. Three methods of coordination which permit the penetration of a controller's airspace by another controller's aircraft are described: point out, look-and-go, and prearranged coordination procedure. Requirements of each method are given, along with associated problems that have surfaced in the field as described by Aviation Safety and Reporting System (ASRS) and other reports. A Human-in-the-Loop simulation was designed to compare two of the methods: point out and prearranged coordination procedures. In prearranged coordination procedures (P-ACP), the controllers control an aircraft in another controller's airspace according to specified prearranged procedures, without coordinating each individual aircraft with another controller, as is done with point outs. In the simulation, three experienced controllers rotated through two arrival sectors and a non-involved arrival sector of a Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) airspace. Results of eighteen one-hour simulation runs (nine in each of the two conditions) showed no impact of the coordination method on separation violations nor on arrival times for 208 departing aircraft crossing an arrival stream. Participant assessment indicated that although both coordination conditions were acceptable, the prearranged coordination procedure condition was slightly safer, more efficient, timely, and overall, worked better operationally. Problems arose in the point out condition regarding controllers noticing acceptance of point outs. Also, in about half of the point-out runs, time pressure was felt to have had an impact on when and if the departures could cross an arrival stream. An additional problem with point outs may be confusion in the field about which controller has responsibility for separating point-out aircraft from other aircraft.

Parke, Bonny↗

DOE OSTI2024

Unsupervised learning-enabled pulsed infrared thermographic microscopy of subsurface defects in stainless steel

Metallic structures produced with laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) additive manufacturing method (AM) frequently contain microscopic porosity defects, with typical approximate size distribution from one to 100 microns. Presence of such defects could lead to premature failure of the structure. In principle, structural integrity assessment of LPBF metals can be accomplished with nondestructive evaluation (NDE). Pulsed infrared thermography (PIT) is a non-contact, one-sided NDE method that allows for imaging of internal defects in arbitrary size and shape metallic structures using heat transfer. PIT imaging is performed using compact instrumentation consisting of a flash lamp for deposition of a heat pulse, and a fast frame infrared (IR) camera for measuring surface temperature transients. However, limitations of imaging resolution with PIT include blurring due to heat diffusion, sensitivity limit of the IR camera. We demonstrate enhancement of PIT imaging capability with unsupervised learning (UL), which enables PIT microscopy of subsurface defects in high strength corrosion resistant stainless steel 316 alloy. PIT images were processed with UL spatial–temporal separation-based clustering segmentation (STSCS) algorithm, refined by morphology image processing methods to enhance visibility of defects. The STSCS algorithm starts with wavelet decomposition to spatially de-noise thermograms, followed by UL principal component analysis (PCA), fine-tuning optimization, and neural learning-based independent component analysis (ICA) algorithms to temporally compress de-noised thermograms. The compressed thermograms were further processed with UL-based graph thresholding K-means clustering algorithm for defects segmentation. The STSCS algorithm also includes online learning feature for efficient re-training of the model with new data. For this study, metallic specimens with calibrated microscopic flat bottom hole defects, with diameters in the range from 203 to 76 µm, were produced using electro discharge machining (EDM) drilling. While the raw thermograms do not show any material defects, using STSCS algorithm to process PIT images reveals defects as small as 101 µm in diameter. To the best of our knowledge, this is the smallest reported size of a sub-surface defect in a metal imaged with PIT, which demonstrates the PIT capability of detecting defects in the size range relevant to quality control requirements of LPBF-printed high-strength metals.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

NASA NTRS2008

Space Technology 5 Observations of Auroral Field-Aligned Currents

During its three month long technology validation mission, Space Technology 5 (ST-5) returned high quality multi-point measurements of the near-Earth magnetic field. Its three micro-satellites were launched into a 300 x 4500 km, dawn - dusk, sun synchronous orbit (inclination = 105.60) orbit with a period of 138 min by a Pegasus launch vehicle on March 22, 2006. The spacecraft were maintained in a "pearls on a sting" constellation with controlled spacings ranging from just over 5000 km down to under 50 km. The individual micro-satellites were 48 cm tall octagons with diameters of 50 cm. They were spin-stabilized at approximately 20 rpm at deployment and slowly spun-down to about 15 rpm by the end of the mission. Each spacecraft carried a miniature tri-axial fluxgate magnetometer (MAG) provided by the University of California at Los Angeles mounted at the end of a ultra-low mass 72 cm boom. These data allow, for the first time, the separation of temporal and spatial variations in field-aligned current (FAC) perturbations measured in low-Earth orbit on time scales of 10 sec to 10 min. The constellation measurements are used to directly determine field-aligned current sheet motion, thickness. and current density. Two multi-point methods for the inference of FAC current density that have not previously been possible in low-Earth orbit are demonstrated: 1) the -standard method." based upon s/c velocity, but corrected for FAC current sheet motion. and 2) the "gradiometer method" which uses simultaneous magnetic field measurements at two points with known separation. Future studies will apply these methods to the entire ST-5 data sct and expand to include horizontal ionospheric currents. ULF waves and geomagnetic field gradient analyses.

Slavin, James↗

NASA NTRS2007

Space Technology 5 Multi-point Measurements of Near-Earth Magnetic Fields: Initial Results

The Space Technology 5 (ST-5) mission successfully placed three micro-satellites in a 300 x 4500 km dawn-dusk orbit on 22 March 2006. Each spacecraft carried a boom-mounted vector fluxgate magnetometer that returned highly sensitive and accurate measurements of the geomagnetic field. These data allow, for the first time, the separation of temporal and spatial variations in field-aligned current (FAC) perturbations measured in low-Earth orbit on time scales of approximately 10 sec to 10 min. The constellation measurements are used to directly determine field-aligned current sheet motion, thickness and current density. In doing so, we demonstrate two multi-point methods for the inference of FAC current density that have not previously been possible in low-Earth orbit; 1) the "standard method," based upon s/c velocity, but corrected for FAC current sheet motion, and 2) the "gradiometer method" which uses simultaneous magnetic field measurements at two points with known separation. Future studies will apply these methods to the entire ST-5 data set and expand to include geomagnetic field gradient analyses as well as field-aligned and ionospheric currents.

Slavin, James A.↗

DOE OSTI2024

Accelerating transients with NekRS: GPU overlapping domain implementation and multi-rate timestepping

The simulation of nuclear transients using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) presents significant computational challenges due to the inherent complexity and the wide separation in temporal scales between various flow physical phenomena. These disparities lead to high computational costs, often making the simulation of transients impractical without advanced techniques. Consequently, multiple research initiatives are being pursued by the NEAMS thermal-hydraulic area, some driven by academic institutions and some by national laboratories. Overall, they are exploring novel methods to make transient simulations more feasible and efficient. This report delves into recent advancements within the CFD code NekRS, specifically those achieved in Fiscal Year 2024 under the CONNECT effort, aimed at improving the performance and feasibility of transient simulations. The first major advancement involves the porting of NekRS to Aurora, one of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) most powerful supercomputers. Additionally, the report discusses the implementation of an overlapping domain capability within NekRS. This novel GPU-accelerated capability allows different spatial regions of the domain to be solved independently, enhancing the code’s efficiency, particularly when running large-scale simulations in complex domains. The scalability of this approach is demonstrated, highlighting its potential to transform how transients are approached in CFD simulations. Lastly, the report focuses on how this overlapping domain capability specifically accelerates transient simulations through multi-rate timestepping. By decoupling different regions and facilitating faster computations, this method offers a promising pathway to making nuclear transient simulations more computationally feasible, addressing one of the critical bottlenecks in the field. Together, these advancements represent a significant leap forward in transient simulation technology, bringing closer the possibility of handling highly complex nuclear scenarios with greater efficiency and accuracy.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

NASA NTRS1994

Formation and eruption of Sun-aligned arcs at the polar cap-auroral oval boundary

This paper reports on results from a study of the poleward edge of the auroral oval in the morning sector using a comprehensive blend of in-situ and ground-based measurements. Three rockets, equipped to measure electric and magnetic fields, energetic particles, and plasma density flew into an auroral display whose dynamical features were reorded with a digital image into an auroral display intensified all-sky camera as well as with an incoherent scatter radar. In addition, a number of DMSP satellite measurements bracketed the launch time. Evidence is presented here that in a condition of declining magnetic activity Sun-aligned arcs are injected into the polar cap at velocities approximately 7 km/s from locations of periodic brightening along the morningside of the auroral oval. The multipoint in situ measurements allow some separation of temporal and spatial effects and strongly suggest a poleward contraction of the convention pattern of about 0.25 deg INVL in 70 s. The most equatorward of the two brightest arcs studied erupted into a region which already was characterized by strong sunward convection. The most poleward, however, pushed into a region that had been convecting in an antisunward direction at velocities exceeding 1 km/s less than 2 min earlier, and it is likely that sunward convection subsequently pertained poleward of that arc as well. We believe that these events mark the reconfiguration of the magnetosphere into a system characterized by a smaller polar cap.

Berg, G. A.↗

NASA NTRS2002

Trends in lignin modification: a comprehensive analysis of the effects of genetic manipulations/mutations on lignification and vascular integrity

A comprehensive assessment of lignin configuration in transgenic and mutant plants is long overdue. This review thus undertook the systematic analysis of trends manifested through genetic and mutational manipulations of the various steps associated with monolignol biosynthesis; this included consideration of the downstream effects on organized lignin assembly in the various cell types, on vascular function/integrity, and on plant growth and development. As previously noted for dirigent protein (homologs), distinct and sophisticated monolignol forming metabolic networks were operative in various cell types, tissues and organs, and form the cell-specific guaiacyl (G) and guaiacyl-syringyl (G-S) enriched lignin biopolymers, respectively. Regardless of cell type undergoing lignification, carbon allocation to the different monolignol pools is apparently determined by a combination of phenylalanine availability and cinnamate-4-hydroxylase/"p-coumarate-3-hydroxylase" (C4H/C3H) activities, as revealed by transcriptional and metabolic profiling. Downregulation of either phenylalanine ammonia lyase or cinnamate-4-hydroxylase thus predictably results in reduced lignin levels and impaired vascular integrity, as well as affecting related (phenylpropanoid-dependent) metabolism. Depletion of C3H activity also results in reduced lignin deposition, albeit with the latter being derived only from hydroxyphenyl (H) units, due to both the guaiacyl (G) and syringyl (S) pathways being blocked. Apparently the cells affected are unable to compensate for reduced G/S levels by increasing the amounts of H-components. The downstream metabolic networks for G-lignin enriched formation in both angiosperms and gymnosperms utilize specific cinnamoyl CoA O-methyltransferase (CCOMT), 4-coumarate:CoA ligase (4CL), cinnamoyl CoA reductase (CCR) and cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogenase (CAD) isoforms: however, these steps neither affect carbon allocation nor H/G designations, this being determined by C4H/C3H activities. Such enzymes thus fulfill subsidiary processing roles, with all (except CCOMT) apparently being bifunctional for both H and G substrates. Their severe downregulation does, however, predictably result in impaired monolignol biosynthesis, reduced lignin deposition/vascular integrity, (upstream) metabolite build-up and/or shunt pathway metabolism. There was no evidence for an alternative acid/ester O-methyltransferase (AEOMT) being involved in lignin biosynthesis.The G/S lignin pathway networks are operative in specific cell types in angiosperms and employ two additional biosynthetic steps to afford the corresponding S components, i.e. through introduction of an hydroxyl group at C-5 and its subsequent O-methylation. [These enzymes were originally classified as ferulate-5-hydroxylase (F5H) and caffeate O-methyltransferase (COMT), respectively.] As before, neither step has apparently any role in carbon allocation to the pathway; hence their individual downregulation/manipulation, respectively, gives either a G enriched lignin or formation of the well-known S-deficient bm3 "lignin" mutant, with cell walls of impaired vascular integrity. In the latter case, COMT downregulation/mutation apparently results in utilization of the isoelectronic 5-hydroxyconiferyl alcohol species albeit in an unsuccessful attempt to form G-S lignin proper. However, there is apparently no effect on overall G content, thereby indicating that deposition of both G and S moieties in the G/S lignin forming cells are kept spatially, and presumably temporally, fully separate. Downregulation/mutation of further downstream steps in the G/S network [i.e. utilizing 4CL, CCR and CAD isoforms] gives predictable effects in terms of their subsidiary processing roles: while severe downregulation of 4CL gave phenotypes with impaired vascular integrity due to reduced monolignol supply, there was no evidence in support of increased growth and/or enhanced cellulose biosynthesis. CCR and CAD downregulation/mutations also established that a depletion in monolignol supply reduced both lignin contents supply reduced both lignin contents and vascular integrity, with a concomitant shift towards (upstream) metabolite build-up and/or shunting.The extraordinary claims of involvement of surrogate monomers (2-methoxybenzaldehyde, feruloyl tyramine, vanillic acid, etc.) in lignification were fully disproven and put to rest, with the investigators themselves having largely retracted former claims. Furthermore analysis of the well-known bm1 mutation, a presumed CAD disrupted system, apparently revealed that both G and S lignin components were reduced. This seems to imply that there is no monolignol specific dehydrogenase, such as the recently described sinapyl alcohol dehydrogenase (SAD) for sinapyl alcohol formation. Nevertheless, different CAD isoforms of differing homology seem to be operative in different lignifying cell types, thereby giving the G-enriched and G/S-enriched lignin biopolymers, respectively. For the G-lignin forming network, however, the CAD isoform is apparently catalytically less efficient with all three monolignols than that additionally associated with the corresponding G/S lignin forming network(s), which can more efficiently use all three monolignols. However, since CAD does not determine either H, G, or S designation, it again serves in a subsidiary role-albeit using different isoforms for different cell wall developmental and cell wall type responses.The results from this analysis contrasts further with speculations of some early investigators, who had viewed lignin assembly as resulting from non-specific oxidative coupling of monolignols and subsequent random polymerization. At that time, though, the study of the complex biological (biochemical) process of lignin assembly had begun without any of the (bio)chemical tools to either address or answer the questions posed as to how its formation might actually occur. Today, by contrast, there is growing recognition of both sophisticated and differential control of monolignol biosynthetic networks in different cell types, which serve to underscore the fact that complexity of assembly need not be confused any further with random formation. Moreover, this analysis revealed another factor which continues to cloud interpretations of lignin downregulation/mutational analyses, namely the serious technical problems associated with all aspects of lignin characterization, whether for lignin quantification, isolation of lignin-enriched preparations and/or in determining monomeric compositions. For example, in the latter analyses, some 50-90% of the lignin components still cannot be detected using current methodologies, e.g. by thioacidolysis cleavage and nitrobenzene oxidative cleavage. This deficiency in lignin characterization thus represents one of the major hurdles remaining in delineating how lignin assembly (in distinct cell types) and their configuration actually occurs.

Review, Academic↗

NASA NTRS1972

Stellar X-ray temporal variations

Two separate theoretical models of X-ray sources were proposed, based on the premise that a pulsar can be hidden underneath a thick plasma cloud. The X-ray emission would come secondarily from the pulsar energy from the cloud underneath. Upper limits to the pulsed fraction for those conditions causing the most difficult detection of fluctuations are shown, along with power density and source of power spectra.

Holt, S. S.↗

DOE OSTI2020

Quality Control of Additively Manufactured Metallic Structures with Machine Learning of Thermography Images

Additive manufacturing (AM) of high-strength metals is currently based on the laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) process, which can introduce internal material flaws, such as pores and anisotropy. Quality control (QC) requires nondestructive evaluation of actual AM structures. Flash thermography is a potentially promising QC technique because it is scalable to arbitrary structure size. However, the detection sensitivity of this method is limited by noise. We investigate separation of signal from noise in thermography images using several machine learning (ML) methods, including new spatial–temporal blind source separation and spatial–temporal sparse dictionary learning methods. Performance of the ML methods is benchmarked using thermography data obtained from imaging stainless steel 316L and Inconel 718 specimens produced by the LPBF method with imprinted calibrated porosity defects. The ML methods are ranked by F-score and execution runtime. Finally, the ML methods with higher accuracy require a longer runtime. However, this runtime is sufficiently short to perform QC within a realistic time frame.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2020

Detection of Defects in Additively Manufactured Metallic Materials with Machine Learning of Pulsed Thermography Images

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

DOE OSTI2020

Pulsed Thermal Tomography Nondestructive Examination of Additively Manufactured Reactor Materials (Second Annual Progress Report)

Additive manufacturing (AM) is an emerging method for cost-efficient fabrication of nuclear reactor parts. AM of metallic structures for nuclear energy applications is currently based on laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) process, which can introduce internal material flaws, such as pores and anisotropy. Integrity of AM structures needs to be evaluated nondestructively because material flaws could lead to premature failures due to exposure to high temperature, radiation and corrosive environment in a nuclear reactor. Thermal tomography (TT) provides a capability for non-destructive evaluation of sub-surface defects in arbitrary size structures. Thermal tomography is a computational method for heat diffusion-based imaging of solids, which provides 3D visualization of data from flash thermography measurements. We investigate thermal tomography imaging and nondestructive evaluation of stainless steel and nickel super alloy metallic structures produced with laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) additive manufacturing (AM) process. Metallic structures produced with LPBF contain defects, and there are limited capabilities to evaluate these structures non-destructively. Thermal tomography reconstruction of 3D apparent spatial effusivity provides information about AM structure geometry and internal material flaws. We study performance of thermal tomography in imaging of metallic structures through COMSOL computer simulations of transient heat transfer, and through reconstruction of data obtained from experimental measurements. Reconstruction of internal defects is investigated using a stainless steel 316L specimen with flat bottom hole (FBH) indentations, and Inconel 718 plate produced with laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) method, which contains imprinted hemispherical shape low density regions containing non-sintered metallic powder. The FBH’s have the same sizes as the imprinted defects in the LPBF specimens, but offer better imaging contrast. Thermal tomography reconstructions provide visualizations of internal defects, and allow for estimation of their sizes and locations. Detection sensitivity of TT is limited by noises. We investigate separation of signal from noise in thermography images using several machine learning (ML) methods, including new spatio-temporal blind source separation (STBSS) and spatio-temporal sparse dictionary learning (STSDL) methods. Performance of the ML methods is benchmarked using thermography data obtained from imaging stainless steel 316L and Inconel 718 specimens produced LPBF method with imprinted calibrated porosity defects. The ML methods are ranked by F-score and execution runtime. Finally, we investigate TT of AM stainless steel 316L specimen with imprinted internal porosity defects using relatively low-cost, small form factor infrared (IR) camera based on uncooled micro bolometer detector. Sparse coding related K-means singular value decomposition (SVD) machine learning, image processing algorithms are developed to improve quality of TT images through removal of Additive white Gaussian noise without blurring the images. Following initial qualification of an AM component for deployment in a nuclear reactor, a compact TT can also be used for in-service nondestructive evaluation (NDE). With capability to perform in-service NDE of the AM component lifecycle, TT data can be used for development of a component digital twin.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗