Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “driven”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 1,243 records · Page 69

A phenology- and trend-based approach for accurate mapping of sea-level driven coastal forest retreat

The rapid replacement of upland forest by encroaching marshland is a striking manifestation of global sea-level rise (SLR). Timely and high-resolution information on the location and extent of transition forest (the ecotone between upland forest and marsh where tree mortality due to seawater intrusion begins) is fundamental to understanding the processes and patterns of SLR-driven landscape reorganization. Despite its significance, accurate characterization of salt-impacted transition forest remains challenging due to the complexity of coastal environments, scarcity of ground-truth data, and the lack of effective mapping algorithms. Here we use the full archive of Landsat images between 1984 and 2021 to investigate the spectral, temporal, and phenological characteristics of transition forest, and develop a robust framework for monitoring coastal vegetation shifts in the mid-Atlantic U.S., a global SLR hotspot. Here, we found that transition forest exhibits strong negative NDVI trends and a deviation of land surface phenology from marsh and upland forest that distinguishes itself from surrounding vegetation. By integrating temporal trends and land surface phenology, our results demonstrate superior discrimination between marsh and coastal forests to existing map products (e.g. NOAA Coastal Change Analysis Program, National Land Cover Database) that allows a reliable identification of the coastal treeline. We applied the approach to map regional land cover in 1985, 2000 and 2020 (overall classification accuracy >92%) and found that the area of coastal forest decreased by 22.0% from 1985 to 2020, the majority of which transitioned to marshland (92.3%, 5.3 × 10 3 ha). Based upon fine-scale patterns of coastal transgression, we created a practical workflow for spatially explicit quantification of forest retreat rates. Concurrent with rising sea level, coastal forests migrated upslope from 0.63 (± 0.27) m above sea level in 1985 to 0.78 (± 0.32) m above sea level in 2020, and horizontal forest retreat rates accelerated from 3.1 (range of 0–36) m yr -1 during 1985–2000 to 4.7 (0–55) m yr -1 during 2001–2020. As SLR continues to accelerate, our study may serve as a scalable solution for consistent tracking of coastal landscape evolution that is urgently needed for sustainable forest and wetland management.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Review of data-driven models for quantifying load shed by non-residential buildings in the United States

Shifting and shedding power demand in buildings can be cost-effective techniques for grids to function reliably and for end users to earn compensation. Grid operators reimburse customers in proportion to the quantity of load shed. Simple data-driven methods are used to quantify this shed, which is the difference between a measured load during the event and modeled "baseline" that would have occurred in absence of the event. These methods have evolved over the years and in many cases have been integrated with building physics, to make them a hybrid between physics based and empirical models. However, there is no comprehensive analysis that provides guidance to building operators, grid operators and researchers in selecting appropriate models based on their specific needs and available data. Here, this work aims to fill this gap by critically assessing the performance of baseline models put forward from the year 2000 through 2023. The literature reviewed includes reports generated by grid operators, reports from national laboratories and academic journal articles. The work outlines modeling features like the inputs, training period, estimation method, adjustments to fine tune the predictions and metrics to evaluate the performance. A comprehensive list of 50 models has been provided. For each model, the study explores the applicability of the model to weather sensitive buildings, variability in the building profile, timing of the event, and whether the building reduces energy consumption before an event. The work identifies the situations in which a particular model works and draws lessons based on evidence of performance. Finally, recommendations to aid in model selection are given.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

EnergyPlus-MCP: A model-context-protocol server for ai-driven building energy modeling

Traditional building energy modeling with the EnergyPlus building performance simulation engine requires domain expertise, programming skills, and intensive manual efforts limiting its effective adoption. This paper introduces EnergyPlus-MCP, the first open-source Model Context Protocol (MCP) server specifically designed for EnergyPlus simulation workflows, establishing a new foundational infrastructure for AI-driven building energy modeling. The MCP server implements a layered architecture with 35 specialized tools spanning model management, editing and analysis, HVAC and other systems configuration inspection, and simulation execution, enabling Large Language Models to interact with EnergyPlus through conversational interfaces. The server addresses critical workflow barriers by automating model validation, streamlining energy efficiency measures modification, and providing intelligent output management with interactive visualization. Through practical demonstrations using a multi-zone building retrofit analysis, we show how the EnergyPlus-MCP server significantly reduces manual efforts while maintaining full simulation rigor. By providing accessible natural language interfaces to sophisticated building energy analysis, this approach enables scalable deployment of simulation expertise across public and private organizations, educational institutions, and research teams, fundamentally transforming traditional building energy modeling practices.

AI↗

Data-driven optimal charging decision making for connected and automated electric vehicles: A personal usage scenario

This study introduces an optimal charging decision making framework for connected and automated electric vehicles under a personal usage scenario. This framework aims to provide charging strategies, i.e. the choice of charging station and the amount of charged energy, by considering constraints from personal daily itineraries and existing charging infrastructure. A data-driven method is introduced to establish a stochastic energy consumption prediction model with consideration of realistic uncertainties. This is performed by analyzing a large scale electric vehicle data set. A real-time updating method is designed to construct this prediction model from new consecutive data points in an adaptive way for real-world applications. Based on this energy cost prediction framework from real electric vehicle data, multistage optimal charging decision making models are introduced, including a deterministic model for average outcome decision making and a robust model for safest charging strategies. A dynamic programming algorithm is proposed to find the optimal charging strategies. Detailed simulations and case studies demonstrate the performance of the proposed algorithms to find optimal charging strategies. They also show the potential capability of connected and automated electric vehicles to reduce the range anxiety and charging infrastructure dependency.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Data-driven method for electric vehicle charging demand analysis: Case study in Virginia

Electric vehicle (EV) adoption in the U.S. will be accelerated by the historic $7.5 billion public investments in EV charging infrastructure. Careful analysis of EV charging demands plays a vital role in understanding the energy requirements, power grid impact, and smart charging management opportunities of EVs. To this end, this paper develops a data-driven trip-chaining-based modeling framework including five steps: Trip data acquisition and preprocessing, EV adoption modeling, travel itinerary synthesis, EV charging demand simulation and EV load profile generation. The developed analysis framework was demonstrated using real-world data for one region in Virginia, U.S. The results show that the proposed modeling framework can work effectively. For the study region in 2040, the predicted number of plug-in EVs is 470,114, resulting in a weekly charging demand of 38,078,127 kWh (55% home, 9% work, and 36% public) in September and 45,920,358 kWh (61% home, 9% work, and 30% public) in February.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

Coupled hydro-thermal flow and radionuclide transport driven by spatial variation of heat-generating radioactive wastes in shale formations

Deep geologic disposal of multiple nuclear waste packages with various heat sources can induce nonuniform hydro-thermal behaviors in the near-field of the repository, consequently influencing the long-term radionuclide transport in the far-field once waste form breach initiates. Here, this study looks into three cases with variation in the spatial order of six groups of heat sources (10th, 50th, 75th, 90th, 95th, and 99th percentiles of heat outputs generated from 1,981 as-loaded dual-purpose canisters in the field site) in a shale-hosted repository with respect to the uni-directional groundwater flow (from west to east): (1) cooler waste packages from west to east, (2) hotter waste packages from west to east, and (3) hottest waste packages in the middle of the repository. Our field-scale PFLOTRAN simulation represents heat-driven multiphysics coupled mechanisms, including multiphase flow, heat transfer, and chemical/radioactive transport, and also, calculates the onset of waste form breach based on temperature-dependent canister vitality. The results from this sensitivity study will quantify the short- (less than 1 × 10 3 years) and long-term (up to 1 × 10 6 years) impacts of sporadic heat pulses from waste package on the spatio-temporal perturbation in hydro-thermal flow quantities and the rate of radionuclide transport in both near- and far-field of the repository system.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

Inflammation-driven colon neoplasmatogenesis in uPA-deficient mice is associated with an increased expression of Runx transcriptional regulators

Highlights: • Inflammation-induced cancer-prone uPA{sup -/-} mouse colon has increased Runx expression. • Immune cells and colonic preneoplastic epithelia are major cellular sources of Runx. • Runx1/2 in uPA{sup -/-} mouse preneoplastic colonic epithelia correlates with cancer risk. • Snai2, Bim and Claudin1 are overexpressed in uPA{sup -/-} mouse proneoplastic colitis. Deregulation of the bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) pathway has been documented in colorectal cancer (CRC). Previously, we investigated possible associations between urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) deficiency and expression of extracellular constituents of BMP signaling in a newly developed mouse model of inflammation-driven intestinal neoplasmatogenesis, in which chronic colitis and CRC are induced using dextran sodium sulfate (DSS). In this report, we explored the contribution of intracellular components of Smad-mediated BMP signal transduction using the same model. Interestingly, upon DSS treatment, we noticed an overexpression of Runx1/2/3 transcription factors in both wild-type and uPA-deficient mice. Moreover, Runx1 and Runx2 expression levels exhibited an even higher increase in DSS-treated/uPA-deficient mice as compared to DSS-treated/wild-type animals. In all experimental conditions, in situ investigation of Runx-expressing cell types, revealed detection of all three Runx in the immune cells, yet in the DSS-treated/uPA-deficient mice Runx1 and Runx2 were also identified in the preneoplastic epithelium of advanced high-grade dysplasia and carcinoma in-situ colonic lesions. Finally, the uPA-deficient pro-tumorigenic colitic microenvironment exhibited increased levels of the Runx-induced target genes Snai2, Bim and Claudin1, known to have a role in tumor development and progression. These findings suggest that the absence of uPA correlates with increased levels of Runx transcriptional regulators in a way that promotes inflammation-associated carcinogenesis.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Monitoring the propagation of mechanical discontinuity using data-driven causal discovery and supervised learning

Mechanical wave transmission through a material is influenced by the mechanical discontinuity in the material. The propagation of embedded discontinuities can be monitored by analyzing the wave-transmission measurements recorded by a multipoint sensor system placed on the surface of the material. The proposed workflow monitors the propagation of mechanical discontinuity through three stages, namely initial, intermediate, and final stages, by using supervised learning followed by data-driven causal discovery. To the end, the workflow processes the multipoint waveform measurements resulting from a single impulse source, while considering the effects of wave attenuation, dispersion and multiple wave-propagation modes due to the discontinuity and material boundaries. Among various feature reduction techniques ranging from decomposition methods to manifold approximation methods, the features derived based on statistical parameterizations of the measured waveforms lead to reliable monitoring that is robust to changes in precision, resolution, and signal-to-noise ratio of the multipoint sensor measurements. The numbers of zero-crossing, negative-turning, and positive turning in the waveforms are the strongest causal signatures of the propagation of mechanical discontinuity. Higher order moments of the waveforms, such as variance, skewness and kurtosis, are also strong causal signatures of the propagation. Finally, the newly discovered causal signatures confirm that the statistical correlations and conventional feature rankings are not always statistically significant indicators of causality.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Data initiatives for ocean-driven melt of Antarctic ice shelves

Ocean-driven melt of Antarctic ice shelves is an important control on mass loss from the ice sheet, but is complex to study due to significant variability in melt rates both spatially and temporally. Here we assess the strengths and weakness of satellite and field-based observations as tools for testing models of ice-shelf melt. We discuss how the complementary use of field, satellite and model data can be a powerful but underutilised tool for studying melt processes. Finally, we identify some community initiatives working to collate and publish coordinated melt rate datasets, which can be used in future for validating satellite-derived maps of melt and evaluating processes in numerical simulations.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Detonation propagation for shock-driven, subsonic and supersonic confiner flow

In this work, we study the compressible flow dynamics of two-dimensional, steady detonation wave propagation in a high explosive (HE) confined by aluminium (Al) or stainless steel (SS), outside of which is an air layer. We examine how the thickness of the confinement affects the subsonic detonation driving zone structure (DDZ) and the detonation speed (D 0 ), demonstrating a strong dependence on whether the oblique shock-driven flow in the confiner is supersonic, as for SS, or subsonic, as for Al. A characteristic path analysis is used to examine the information flow from the material boundaries through the supersonic flow regions in both the HE and confiner that can impact the sonic surfaces bounding the subsonic flow regions. It is shown that the nature of gas-dynamic wave reflection off the SS–air or Al–air boundary can significantly influence the DDZ and D 0 .

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

On the spectral behaviour of the turbulence-driven power fluctuations of horizontal-axis turbines

In this article we consider the spectral behaviour of turbulence-driven power fluctuations for a single horizontal-axis turbine. To this end, a small-scale instrumented axial-flow hydrokinetic turbine model ( diameter=0.724 m ) is deployed in the long water flume situated in the laboratory facilities of IFREMER in Boulogne-sur-Mer, France, and synchronous measurements of the upstream velocity and the rotor are collected for different tip-speed ratios. The study confirms previous findings suggesting that the power spectra follow the velocity spectra behaviour in the large scales region and a steeper power law slope behaviour ( -11/3 ) over the inertial frequency sub-range. However, we show that both the amplitude of the power spectra and low-pass filtering effect over the inertial sub-range also depend on the rotor aero/hydrodynamics (e.g. dC L /dα) and the approaching flow deceleration and not solely on the rotational effects. In addition, we present a novel semi-analytical model to predict the dominant blade-passing frequency harmonics in the high-frequency regime using the rotationally sampled spectra technique. For all calculations, the distortion of incoming turbulence is taken into account.

42 ENGINEERING↗

A data-driven method for modelling dissipation rates in stratified turbulence

We present a deep probabilistic convolutional neural network (PCNN) model for predicting local values of small-scale mixing properties in stratified turbulent flows, namely the dissipation rates of turbulent kinetic energy and density variance, $\varepsilon$ and $\chi$ . Inputs to the PCNN are vertical columns of velocity and density gradients, motivated by data typically available from microstructure profilers in the ocean. The architecture is designed to enable the model to capture several characteristic features of stratified turbulence, in particular the dependence of small-scale isotropy on the buoyancy Reynolds number $Re_b:=\varepsilon /(\nu N^2)$ , where $\nu$ is the kinematic viscosity and $N$ is the background buoyancy frequency, the correlation between suitably locally averaged density gradients and turbulence intensity and the importance of capturing the tails of the probability distribution functions of values of dissipation. Empirically modified versions of commonly used isotropic models for $\varepsilon$ and $\chi$ that depend only on vertical derivatives of density and velocity are proposed based on the asymptotic regimes $Re_b\ll 1$ and $Re_b\gg 1$ , and serve as an instructive benchmark for comparison with the data-driven approach. When trained and tested on a simulation of stratified decaying turbulence which accesses a range of turbulent regimes (associated with differing values of $Re_b$ ), the PCNN outperforms assumptions of isotropy significantly as $Re_b$ decreases, and additionally demonstrates improvements over the fitted empirical models. A differential sensitivity analysis of the PCNN facilitates a comparison with the theoretical models and provides a physical interpretation of the features enabling it to make improved predictions.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Hydrodynamics of thermally driven chiral suspensions

Considerable effort has been directed towards the characterization of chiral mesoscale structures, as shown in chiral protein assemblies and carbon nanotubes. Here, we establish a thermally driven hydrodynamic description for the actuation and separation of mesoscale chiral structures in a fluid medium. Cross-flow of a Newtonian liquid with a thermal gradient gives rise to an effective torque that propels each particle of a chiral suspension according to its handedness. In turn, the chiral suspension alters the liquid flow, which thus acquires a transverse (chiral) velocity component. Since observation of the predicted effects requires a low degree of sophistication, our work provides an efficient and inexpensive approach to test and calibrate chiral particle propulsion and separation strategies.

Mechanics↗

Zonally dominated dynamics and Dimits threshold in curvature-driven ITG turbulence

The saturated state of turbulence driven by the ion-temperature-gradient instability is investigated using a two-dimensional long-wavelength fluid model that describes the perturbed electrostatic potential and perturbed ion temperature in a magnetic field with constant curvature (a $Z$ -pinch) and an equilibrium temperature gradient. Numerical simulations reveal a well-defined transition between a finite-amplitude saturated state dominated by strong zonal-flow and zonal temperature perturbations, and a blow-up state that fails to saturate on a box-independent scale. We argue that this transition is equivalent to the Dimits transition from a low-transport to a high-transport state seen in gyrokinetic numerical simulations (Dimits et al. , Phys. Plasmas , vol. 7, 2000, 969). A quasi-static staircase-like structure of the temperature gradient intertwined with zonal flows, which have patch-wise constant shear, emerges near the Dimits threshold. The turbulent heat flux in the low-collisionality near-marginal state is dominated by turbulent bursts, triggered by coherent long-lived structures closely resembling those found in gyrokinetic simulations with imposed equilibrium flow shear (van Wyk et al. , J. Plasma Phys. , vol. 82, 2016, 905820609). The breakup of the low-transport Dimits regime is linked to a competition between the two different sources of poloidal momentum in the system – the Reynolds stress and the advection of the diamagnetic flow by the $\boldsymbol {E}\times \boldsymbol {B}$ flow. By analysing the linear ion-temperature-gradient modes, we obtain a semi-analytic model for the Dimits threshold at large collisionality.

Physics↗

Regulation of the normalized rate of driven magnetic reconnection through shocked flux pileup

Magnetic reconnection is explored on the Terrestrial Reconnection Experiment (TREX) for asymmetric inflow conditions and in a configuration where the absolute rate of reconnection is set by an external drive. Magnetic pileup enhances the upstream magnetic field of the high-density inflow, leading to an increased upstream Alfvén speed and helping to lower the normalized reconnection rate to values expected from theoretical consideration. In addition, a shock interface between the far upstream supersonic plasma inflow and the region of magnetic flux pileup is observed, important to the overall force balance of the system, thereby demonstrating the role of shock formation for configurations including a supersonically driven inflow. Despite the specialized geometry where a strong reconnection drive is applied from only one side of the reconnection layer, previous numerical and theoretical results remain robust and are shown to accurately predict the normalized rate of reconnection for the range of system sizes considered. This experimental rate of reconnection is dependent on system size, reaching values as high as 0.8 at the smallest normalized system size applied.

Physics↗

A learned closure method applied to phase mixing in a turbulent gradient-driven gyrokinetic system in simple geometry

We present a new method for formulating closures that learn from kinetic simulation data. We apply this method to phase mixing in a simple gyrokinetic turbulent system – temperature-gradient-driven turbulence in an unsheared slab. The closure, called the learned multi-mode (LMM) closure, is constructed by, first, extracting an optimal basis from a nonlinear kinetic simulation using singular value decomposition. Subsequent nonlinear fluid simulations are projected onto this basis and the results are used to formulate the closure. We compare the closure with other closures schemes over a broad range of the relevant two-dimensional parameter space (collisionality and gradient drive). We find that the turbulent kinetic system produces phase-mixing rates much lower than the linear expectations, which the LMM closure is capable of capturing. We also compare radial heat fluxes. A Hammett–Perkins closure, generalized to include collisional effects, is quite successful throughout the parameter space, producing ${\sim }14\,\%$ root-mean-square (r.m.s.) error. The LMM closure is also very effective: when trained at three (two) points (in a 35 point parameter grid), the LMM closure produces $8\,\%$ ( $12\,\%$ ) r.m.s. errors. The LMM procedure can be readily generalized to other closure problems.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

A general infrastructure for data-driven control design and implementation in tokamaks

A general infrastructure for tokamak controllers based on data-driven neural net models is presented. The paradigm allows for more flexible choices of both the underlying model and the desired controlled variables and targets. The system is implemented and tested on the DIII-D tokamak, enacting simultaneous pressure and temperature control via a finite-set model-predictive controller. Traditional control methods such as proportional–integral–derivative (PID) have proven effective for decoupled control tasks, but scale poorly when trying to achieve more complicated goals such as full state control. This is exactly where model-based controllers succeed.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

A quasi-linear model of electromagnetic turbulent transport and its application to flux-driven transport predictions for STEP

A quasi-linear reduced transport model is developed from a database of high-β electromagnetic nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations performed with spherical tokamak for energy production (STEP) relevant parameters. The quasi-linear model is fully electromagnetic and accounts for the effect of equilibrium flow shear using a novel approach. Its flux predictions are shown to agree quantitatively with predictions from local nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations across a broad range of STEP-relevant local equilibria. This reduced transport model is implemented in the T3D transport solver that is used to perform the first flux-driven simulations for STEP to account for transport from hybrid kinetic ballooning mode turbulence, which dominates over a wide region of the core plasma. Nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations of the final transport steady state from T3D return turbulent fluxes that are consistent with the reduced model, indicating that the quasi-linear model may also be appropriate for describing the transport steady state. Within the assumption considered here, our simulations support the existence of a transport steady state in STEP with a fusion power comparable to that in the burning flat top of the conceptual design, but do not demonstrate how this state can be accessed.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗