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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 109 records · Page 6

Impurity gas monitoring using ultrasonic sensing and neural networks: forward and inverse problems

Ultrasonic sensing is a non-invasive technique for monitoring impurity gas composition in various industrial applications where safety and regulatory compliance are crucial. In this study, ultrasonic sensing and neural networks were used to analyze impurity gases (i.e., air and argon) in helium. An experimental platform was established to acquire ultrasonic data. In the forward problem, an artificial neural network (ANN) model was used to forecast the response and time-of-flight (TOF) based on the excitation, and argon and air concentrations. The inverse problem was solved using a convolutional neural network (CNN) to predict the argon and air concentrations given the ultrasonic response and excitation. The results showed that the ANN accurately predicted the ultrasonic response and the change in TOF with concentration. As the air concentration was increased from 0 to 9.8%, the TOF sensitivity to detect argon decreased by 39.8% and 16.1% from ANN and sound speed theory, respectively. The CNN demonstrated high accuracy in predicting concentrations for inputs in the testing dataset. The application of the trained CNN indicated that it over-predicts air concentration while under-predicting the argon concentration. To improve accuracy, the predicted air and argon concentrations should be corrected by -0.992% and 1.027% bias, respectively.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Multi-module-based CVAE to predict HVCM faults in the SNS accelerator

We present a multi-module framework based on Conditional Variational Autoencoder (CVAE) to detect anomalies in the power signals coming from multiple High Voltage Converter Modulators (HVCMs). We condition the model with the specific modulator type to capture different representations of the $\mathcal{normal}$ waveforms and to improve the sensitivity of the model to identify a specific type of fault when we have limited samples for a given module type. We studied several Artificial Neural Network (ANN) architectures for our CVAE model and evaluated the model performance by looking at their loss landscape for stability and generalization. Our results for the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) experimental data show that the trained model generalizes well to detecting multiple fault types for several HVCM module types. The results of this study can be used to improve the HVCM reliability and overall SNS uptime.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Explaining drivers of housing prices with nonlinear hedonic regressions

Housing markets play a critical role in shaping the spatial and demographic evolution of urban areas. Simulating housing price dynamics can enhance projections of future urban development outcomes. However, traditional hedonic regressions for housing prices, which neglect nonlinear interactions among explanatory variables, often exhibit limited predictive performance. While machine learning (ML) methods can provide a more flexible representation of the relationships between predictors, they are often regarded as “black boxes” due to their complexity and lack of transparency. Interpretable ML techniques provide a promising route by combining the flexibility of ML methods with approaches to analyze the relationships between inputs and outputs. In this study, we employ interpretable ML to analyze the patterns driving the housing market in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. We train an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) to predict Baltimore housing prices based on structural characteristics (e.g., home size, number of stories) and locational attributes (e.g., distance to the city center). We then conduct sensitivity and Partial Dependence Plot (PDP) analyses to interpret the fitted ANN model. We find that the ML model achieves higher predictive accuracy and explains 16 % more of housing price variance than a traditional linear regression model. The interpretable ML model also reveals more nuanced and realistic nonlinear relationships between housing sales price and predictors as well as interactive effects underlying Baltimore home price dynamics. For instance, while the linear model indicates a steady housing price increase over time, our interpretable ML model detects a post-2008 decline, with smaller properties experiencing the sharpest drop.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Development and assessment of a model predictive controller enabling anticipatory control strategies for a heat-pipe system

To support the reliable and resilient operation of modular reactors and microreactors, anticipatory control strategies have been proposed for achieving faster-than-real-time predictions and decision-making capabilities in anticipation of potential anomalies, including setpoint changes and cyber incidents. Here this work presents how anticipatory control strategies can be implemented via model predictive control (MPC) of a single heat pipe’s temperature. Considering the uncertainty in developing and applying MPC, this work evaluates MPC performance given three different model forms: a linear response surface model, an artificial neural network (ANN), and an autoregressive model with exogenous input (ARX). This work also evaluates the impacts of different input biases and variance on MPC performance in order to account for potential sensor reading variations due to cyber incidents. We observe that nonparametric models such as the ANN and ARX result in more fluctuated control actions compared to the MPC applied to the linear response surface model. However, when the cyber incidents are of a large magnitude, the linear response surface model produces smaller feasible regions than the nonparametric models under identical constraints.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Experimental demonstration of a data-driven control system for subcritical nuclear facility

Here this paper presents an experimental demonstration of a data-driven control system (DCS) designed for the MIT Graphite Exponential Pile (MGEP). The DCS aims to regulate the neutron flux profile such that symmetry is preserved. Neutron flux perturbations are introduced into the MGEP to test the DCS's capabilities by the movement of an initiating control rod (ICR). To realize this functionality, a control system that relies on an artificial neural network (ANN) was developed, and then demonstrated on the MGEP. A Helium-3 ( 3 He) neutron detector and dual control rods, including their moving mechanisms, were fabricated. The perturbed flux profile was monitored by the moving neutron detector. The prediction accuracy of the neural network (NN) was examined and the DCS response was presented. Our results show that neural network regression model trained by experimental data can achieve a prediction error of less than 2.5 cm with a 95% confidence interval. The demonstration experiment also shows that a perturbation of the ICR can be captured by the control system and flux symmetry can be maintained within 1% after the response of the responding control rod (RCR).

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

Efficient bifurcation and tabulation of multi-dimensional combustion manifolds using deep mixture of experts: An a priori study

This work describes and validates an approach for autonomously bifurcating turbulent combustion man-ifolds to divide regression tasks amongst specialized artificial neural networks (ANNs). This approach relies on the mixture of experts (MoE) framework, where each neural network is trained to be specialized in a given portion of the input space. The assignment of different input regions to the experts is determined by a gating network, which is a neural network classifier. In some previous studies, it has been demonstrated that bifurcation of a complex combustion manifold and fitting different ANNs for each part leads to better fits or faster inference speeds. However, the manner of bifurcation in these studies was based on heuristic approaches or clustering techniques. In contrast, the proposed technique enables automatic bifurcation using non-linear planes in high-dimensional turbulent combustion manifolds that are often associated with complex behavior due to different dominating physics in various zones. Furthermore, the proposed concept is validated using 4-dimensional (4D) and 5D flamelet tables, showing that the errors obtained with a given network size, or conversely the network size required to achieve a given accuracy, is considerably reduced. The effect of the number of experts on inference speed is also investigated, showing that by increasing the number of experts from 1 to 8, the inference time can be approximately reduced by a factor of two. Moreover, it is shown that the MoE approach divides the input manifold in a physically intuitive manner, suggesting that the MoE framework can elucidate high-dimensional datasets in a physically meaningful way.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Using soil library hyperspectral reflectance and machine learning to predict soil organic carbon: Assessing potential of airborne and spaceborne optical soil sensing

Soil organic carbon (SOC) is a key variable to determine soil functioning, ecosystem services, and global carbon cycles. Spectroscopy, particularly optical hyperspectral reflectance coupled with machine learning, can provide rapid, efficient, and cost-effective quantification of SOC. However, how to exploit soil hyperspectral reflectance to predict SOC concentration, and the potential performance of airborne and satellite data for predicting surface SOC at large scales remain relatively underknown. Here, this study utilized a continental-scale soil laboratory spectral library (37,540 full-pedon 350–2500 nm reflectance spectra with SOC concentration of 0–780 g·kg –1 across the US) to thoroughly evaluate seven machine learning algorithms including Partial-Least Squares Regression (PLSR), Random Forest (RF), K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN), Ridge, Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN), and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) along with four preprocessed spectra, i.e. original, vector normalization, continuum removal, and first-order derivative, to quantify SOC concentration. Furthermore, by using the coupled soil-vegetation-atmosphere radiative transfer model, we simulated twelve airborne and spaceborne hyper/multi-spectral remote sensing data from surface bare soil laboratory spectra to evaluate their potential for estimating SOC concentration of surface bare soils. Results show that LSTM achieved best predictive performance of quantifying SOC concentration for the whole data sets (R 2 = 0.96, RMSE = 30.81 g·kg –1 ), mineral soils (SOC ≤ 120 g·kg –1 , R 2 = 0.71, RMSE = 10.60 g·kg –1 ), and organic soils (SOC > 120 g·kg –1 , R 2 = 0.78, RMSE = 62.31 g·kg –1 ). Spectral data preprocessing, particularly the first-order derivative, improved the performance of PLSR, RF, Ridge, KNN, and ANN, but not LSTM or CNN. We found that the SOC models of mineral and organic soils should be distinguished given their distinct spectral signatures. Finally, we identified that the shortwave infrared is vital for airborne and spaceborne hyperspectral sensors to monitor surface SOC. This study highlights the high accuracy of LSTM with hyperspectral/multispectral data to mitigate a certain level of noise (soil moisture <0.4 m 3 ·m –3 , green leaf area < 0.3 m 2 ·m –2 , plant residue <0.4 m 2 ·m –2 ) for quantifying surface SOC concentration. Forthcoming satellite hyperspectral missions like Surface Biology and Geology (SBG) have a high potential for future global soil carbon monitoring, while high-resolution satellite multispectral fusion data can be an alternative.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Power generation forecasting for solar plants based on Dynamic Bayesian networks by fusing multi-source information

A Dynamic Bayesian network (DBN) model for solar power generation forecasting in solar plants is proposed in this paper. The key idea is to fuse sensor data, operational indicators, meteorological data, lagged output power information, and model errors for more accurate short-term (e.g., hours) and mid-term (e.g., days to weeks) power generation forecasting. The proposed DBN augments automated data-driven structure learning with expert knowledge encoding using continuous and categorical data given constraints to represent causal relationships within a solar inverter system. Additionally, an error compensation mechanism is proposed to capture temporal fluctuation. The effectiveness of the DBN on solar power generation forecasting was evaluated by rolling window analysis with one-year testing data collected from a local solar plant. The proposed DBN is compared with four state-of-art methods including support-vector regression (SVR), k-nearest neighbors (kNN), artificial neural network (ANN), and long short-term memory (LSTM) models. The result show that the proposed DBN achieves better accuracy in general, and it is not as data-hungry as some neural network-based models. The proposed DBN is also shown to have robust and consistent forecasting power with different forecasting horizons. The accuracy is 92% - 95% from one hour to one week ahead forecasting.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Accurate Free Energies for Complex Condensed-Phase Reactions Using an Artificial Neural Network Corrected DFTB/MM Methodology

Semiempirical methods like density functional tight-binding (DFTB) allow extensive phase space sampling, making it possible to generate free energy surfaces of complex reactions in condensed-phase environments. Such a high efficiency often comes at the cost of reduced accuracy, which may be improved by developing a specific reaction parametrization (SRP) for the particular molecular system. Thiol–disulfide exchange is a nucleophilic substitution reaction that occurs in a large class of proteins. Its proper description requires a high-level ab initio method, while DFT-GAA and hybrid functionals were shown to be inadequate, and so is DFTB due to its DFT-GGA descent. We develop an SRP for thiol–disulfide exchange based on an artificial neural network (ANN) implementation in the DFTB+ software and compare its performance to that of a standard SRP approach applied to DFTB. Furthermore, as an application, we use both new DFTB-SRP as components of a QM/MM scheme to investigate thiol–disulfide exchange in two molecular complexes: a solvated model system and a blood protein. Demonstrating the strengths of the methodology, highly accurate free energy surfaces are generated at a low cost, as the augmentation of DFTB with an ANN only adds a small computational overhead.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Machine Learning Predictions of Simulated Self-Diffusion Coefficients for Bulk and Confined Pure Liquids

Diffusion properties of bulk fluids have been predicted using empirical expressions and machine learning (ML) models, suggesting that predictions of diffusion also should be possible for fluids in confined environments. The ability to quickly and accurately predict diffusion in porous materials would enable new discoveries and spur development in relevant technologies such as separations, catalysis, batteries, and subsurface applications. Here in this work, we apply artificial neural network (ANN) models to predict the simulated self-diffusion coefficients of real liquids in both bulk and pore environments. The training data sets were generated from molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of Lennard-Jones particles representing a diverse set of 14 molecules ranging from ammonia to dodecane over a range of liquid pressures and temperatures. Planar, cylindrical, and hexagonal pore models consisted of walls composed of carbon atoms. Our simple model for these liquids was primarily used to generate ANN training data, but the simulated self-diffusion coefficients of bulk liquids show excellent agreement with experimental diffusion coefficients. ANN models based on simple descriptors accurately reproduced the MD diffusion data for both bulk and confined liquids, including the trend of increased mobility in large pores relative to the corresponding bulk liquid.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Using Computationally-Determined Properties for Machine Learning Prediction of Self-Diffusion Coefficients in Pure Liquids

The ability to predict transport properties of liquids quickly and accurately will greatly improve our understanding of fluid properties both in bulk and complex mixtures, as well as in confined environments. Such information could then be used in the design of materials and processes for applications ranging from energy production and storage to manufacturing processes. As a first step, we consider the use of machine learning (ML) methods to predict the diffusion properties of pure liquids. Recent results have shown that Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) can effectively predict the diffusion of pure compounds based on the use of experimental properties as the model inputs. In the current study, a similar ANN approach is applied to modeling diffusion of pure liquids using fluid properties obtained exclusively from molecular simulations. A diverse set of 102 pure liquids is considered, ranging from small polar molecules (e.g., water) to large nonpolar molecules (e.g., octane). Self-diffusion coefficients were obtained from classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Since nearly all the molecules are organic compounds, a general set of force field parameters for organic molecules was used. The MD methods are validated by comparing physical and thermodynamic properties with experiment. Computational input features for the ANN include physical properties obtained from the MD simulations as well as molecular properties from quantum calculations of individual molecules. Furthermore, fluid properties describing the local liquid structure were obtained from center of mass radial distribution functions (COM-RDFs). Feature sensitivity analysis revealed that isothermal compressibility, heat of vaporization, and the thermal expansion coefficient were the most impactful properties used as input for the ANN model to predict the MD simulated self-diffusion coefficients. The MD-based ANN successfully predicts the MD self-diffusion coefficients with only a subset (2 to 3) of the available computationally determined input features required. A separate ANN model was developed using literature experimental self-diffusion coefficients as model targets. Although this second ML model was not as successful due to a limited number of data points, a good correlation is still observed between experimental and ML predicted self-diffusion coefficients.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Prediction of Self-Diffusion in Binary Fluid Mixtures Using Artificial Neural Networks

Artificial neural networks (ANNs) were developed to accurately predict the self-diffusion constants for individual components in binary fluid mixtures. The ANNs were tested on an experimental database of 4328 self-diffusion constants from 131 mixtures containing 75 unique compounds. The presence of strong hydrogen bonding molecules may lead to clustering or dimerization resulting in non-linear diffusive behavior. To address this, self- and binary association energies were calculated for each molecule and mixture to provide information on intermolecular interaction strength and were used as input features to the ANN. An accurate, generalized ANN model was developed with an overall average absolute deviation of 4.1%. Forward input feature selection reveals the importance of critical properties and self-association energies along with other fluid properties. Additional ANNs were developed with subsets of the full input feature set to further investigate the impact of various properties on model performance. The results from two specific mixtures are discussed in additional detail: one providing an example of strong hydrogen bonding and the other an example of extreme pressure changes, with the ANN models predicting self-diffusion well in both cases.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Application of First-Principles-Based Artificial Neural Network Potentials to Multiscale-Shock Dynamics Simulations on Solid Materials

The use of artificial neural network (ANN) potentials trained with first-principles calculations has emerged as a promising approach for molecular dynamics (MD) simulations encompassing large space and time scales while retaining first-principles accuracy. To date, however, the application of ANN-MD has been limited to near-equilibrium processes. Here we combine first-principles-trained ANN-MD with multiscale shock theory (MSST) to successfully describe far-from-equilibrium shock phenomena. Overall, our ANN-MSST-MD approach describes shock-wave propagation in solids with first-principles accuracy but a 5000 times shorter computing time. Accordingly, ANN-MD-MSST was able to resolve fine, long-time elastic deformation at low shock speed, which was impossible with first-principles MD because of the high computational cost. This work thus lays a foundation of ANN-MD simulation to study a wide range of far-from-equilibrium processes.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Machine Learning-Based Upscaling of Finite-Size Molecular Dynamics Diffusion Simulations for Binary Fluids

Molecular diffusion coefficients calculated using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations suffer from finite-size (i.e., finite box size and finite particle number) effects. Results from finite-sized MD simulations can be upscaled to infinite simulation size by applying a correction factor. For self-diffusion of single-component fluids, this correction has been well-studied by many researchers including Yeh and Hummer (YH); for binary fluid mixtures, a modified YH correction was recently proposed for correcting MD-predicted Maxwell–Stephan (MS) diffusion rates. In this study we use both empirical and machine learning methods to identify improvements to the finite-size correction factors for both self-diffusion and MS diffusion of binary Lennard-Jones (LJ) fluid mixtures. Using artificial neural networks (ANNs), the error in the corrected LJ fluid diffusion is reduced by an order of magnitude versus existing YH corrections, and the ANN models perform well for mixtures with large dissimilarities in size and interaction energies where the YH correction proves insufficient.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Artificial Neural Networks as Mappings between Proton Potentials, Wave Functions, Densities, and Energy Levels

We report artificial neural networks (ANNs) have become important in quantum chemistry. Herein, applications to nuclear quantum effects, such as zero-point energy, vibrationally excited states, and hydrogen tunneling, are explored. ANNs are used to solve the time-independent Schrödinger equation for single- and double-well potentials representing hydrogen-bonded molecular systems capable of proton transfer. ANN mappings are trained to predict the lowest five proton vibrational energies, wave functions, and densities from the proton potentials and to predict the excited state proton vibrational energies and densities from the proton ground state density. For the inverse problem, ANN mappings are trained to predict the proton potential from the proton vibrational energy levels or the proton ground state density. This latter mapping is theoretically justified by the first Hohenberg-Kohn theorem establishing a one-to-one correspondence between the external potential and the ground state density. ANNs for two- and three-dimensional systems are also presented to illustrate the straightforward extension to higher dimensions.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Machine Learning-Assisted Recovery of Delicate Kinetic Information from Transient Reactor Experiments

Identifying active sites and their roles in chemical reaction steps remains a vital challenge in heterogeneous catalysis. Transient experiments offer a unique way to probe active sites and distinguish subtle kinetic features. Although physics-based analysis methods may be well-developed, they can be highly susceptible to experimental noise, and smoothing methods may erase or even distort important features; a smooth curve is not always the best curve. We demonstrate a new workflow for the direct interpretation of intrinsic kinetic information from exit flux curves measured in transient reactor experiments. This workflow contains three artificial neural networks (ANNs), including a noise reducer, a concentration predictor, and a rate predictor to analyze experimental data, followed by the virtual TAP (VTAP) physics-based reactor model and density functional theory (DFT) calculations of adsorption energies on specific sites. We use this workflow to analyze the data from experiments titrating Pt/Al 2 O 3 and Pt/SiO 2 catalysts with carbon monoxide (CO) in the temporal analysis of products (TAP) reactor. Our workflow separates the time-evolving chemical reaction and mass transfer information contained in the TAP pulse response. The existence of strong- and weak-binding sites on the Pt/Al 2 O 3 catalyst is observed in the catalyst titration experiment in the transient reactor. The structures of the strong- and weak-binding sites are then identified by using DFT calculations. We find that the Pt/SiO 2 catalyst has only strong-binding sites, which aligns with the inactive support effect of SiO 2 . We demonstrate how machine learning methods provide unique insights with high-resolution data analysis that cannot be achieved by using state-of-the-art physics-based methods.

Adsorption↗

Indicator Patterns of Forced Change Learned by an Artificial Neural Network

Abstract Many problems in climate science require the identification of signals obscured by both the “noise” of internal climate variability and differences across models. Following previous work, we train an artificial neural network (ANN) to predict the year of a given map of annual‐mean temperature (or precipitation) from forced climate model simulations. This prediction task requires the ANN to learn forced patterns of change amidst a background of climate noise and model differences. We then apply a neural network visualization technique (layerwise relevance propagation) to visualize the spatial patterns that lead the ANN to successfully predict the year. These spatial patterns thus serve as “reliable indicators” of the forced change. The architecture of the ANN is chosen such that these indicators vary in time, thus capturing the evolving nature of regional signals of change. Results are compared to those of more standard approaches like signal‐to‐noise ratios and multilinear regression in order to gain intuition about the reliable indicators identified by the ANN. We then apply an additional visualization tool (backward optimization) to highlight where disagreements in simulated and observed patterns of change are most important for the prediction of the year. This work demonstrates that ANNs and their visualization tools make a powerful pair for extracting climate patterns of forced change.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Modeled Surface-Atmosphere Fluxes From Paired Sites in the Upper Great Lakes Region Using Neural Networks

The eddy covariance (EC) method is one of the most widely used approaches to quantify surface-atmosphere fluxes. However, scaling up from a single EC tower to the landscape remains an open challenge. To address this, we used 63 site years of data to examine simulated annual and growing season sums of carbon fluxes from three paired land-cover type sites of corn, restored-prairie, and switchgrass ecosystems. This was also done across the landscape by modeling fluxes using different land-cover type input data. An artificial neural network (ANN) approach was used to model net ecosystem exchange (NEE), ecosystem respiration (R eco ), and gross primary production (GPP) at one paired site using environmental observations from the second site only. With a mean spatial separation of 11 km between paired sites, we were able to model annual sums of NEE, R eco , and GPP with uncertainties of 20%, 22%, and 8%, respectively, relative to observation sums. When considering the growing season only, model uncertainties were 17%, 22%, and 9%, respectively for the three flux terms. We also show that ANN models can estimate sums of R eco and GPP fluxes without needing the constraint of similar land-cover-type, with annual uncertainties of 12% and 10%. These results provide new insights to scaling up observations from one EC site beyond the footprint of the EC tower to multiple land-cover types across the landscape.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗