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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 127 records · Page 7

Global tuning of hadronic interaction models with accelerator-based and astroparticle data

In high-energy and astroparticle physics, event generators play an essential role, even in the simplest data analyses. As analysis techniques become more sophisticated, e.g. based on deep neural networks, their correct description of the observed event characteristics becomes even more important. Physical processes occurring in hadronic collisions are simulated within a Monte Carlo framework. A major challenge is the modeling of hadron dynamics at low momentum transfer, which includes the initial and final phases of every hadronic collision. QCD-inspired phenomenological models used for these phases cannot guarantee completeness or correctness over the full phase space. These models usually include parameters which must be tuned to suitable experimental data. Until now, event generators have been developed and tuned mainly on the basis of data from high-energy physics experiments at accelerators. The wealth of data available from the latest generation of astroparticle experiments has not yet been fully exploited, and in many cases is not satisfactorily described. Both kinds of data sets are complementary as astroparticle experiments provide sensitivity especially to hadrons produced nearly parallel to the collision axis and cover center-of-mass energies up to several hundred TeV, well beyond those reached at colliders so far. In this report, we provide an overview of state-of-the-art event generators and their tuning, including the most relevant inputs from high-energy accelerator and astroparticle experiments. We present a road map that shows, for the first time, how the unified tuning of event generators with accelerator-based and astroparticle data can be performed.

Albrecht, J. [Ruhr U., Bochum, RAPP Ctr.; Ruhr U.,

The Development of Kinetic and Radiation Hydrodynamics Modeling of Thermonuclear Burn Propagation in Isochoric p - 11 B Through the Support of the INFUSE Program

The report summarizes DOE INFUSE-supported work between HB11 Energy and the University of Rochester’s TriForce Institute to improve computational modeling of advanced fusion fuels, especially proton–boron-11 (p- 11 B). The project extended the TriForce particle-in-cell/Monte Carlo collision code to include physics needed for dense, high-temperature p- 11 B burn studies, including p- 11 B fusion reactions, three-alpha-particle reaction products, relativistic Coulomb collisions, large-angle nuclear scattering, bremsstrahlung radiation, inverse bremsstrahlung absorption, and photon transport. The upgraded models were verified against focused physics tests and against known deuterium–tritium burn behavior. The study then used one-dimensional spherical simulations to estimate the conditions required for thermonuclear burn propagation in isochoric p- 11 B fuel. The calculations found that burn propagation is possible in the model, but only under very extreme hot-spot conditions, such as about 7000 g/cm 3 at 500 keV or 9000 g/cm 3 at 300 keV for a 20-micron hot spot. These conditions are much more demanding than current demonstrated inertial confinement fusion hot spots. The report concludes that the INFUSE collaboration successfully advanced kinetic and radiation modeling capabilities for p- 11 B fusion and provided useful estimates of ignition requirements. However, the simulated fuel gains remain below what would be needed for practical inertial fusion energy, and further work is needed to reconcile differences among kinetic, radiation-hydrodynamic, and analytic models and to identify more achievable target designs.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY

Improving streamflow predictions across CONUS by integrating advanced machine learning models and diverse data

Accurate streamflow prediction is crucial to understand climate impacts on water resources and develop effective adaption strategies. A global long short-term memory (LSTM) model, using data from multiple basins, can enhance streamflow prediction, yet acquiring detailed basin attributes remains a challenge. To overcome this, we introduce the Geo-vision transformer (ViT)-LSTM model, a novel approach that enriches LSTM predictions by integrating basin attributes derived from remote sensing with a ViT architecture. Applied to 531 basins across the Contiguous United States, our method demonstrated superior prediction accuracy in both temporal and spatiotemporal extrapolation scenarios. Geo-ViT-LSTM marks a significant advancement in land surface modeling, providing a more comprehensive and effective tool for better understanding the environment responses to climate change.

Tayal, Kshitij

Surrogate model for third-integer resonance extraction at the Fermilab Delivery Ring

We present an ongoing work in which a surrogate model is being developed to reproduce the response dynamics of the third-integer resonant extraction process in the Delivery Ring (DR) at Fermilab. This is in pursuit of smoothly extracting circulating beam to the Mu2e Experiment’s production target, whereby the goal is to extract a uniform slice of the circulating 1e12 protons in the DR over 25,000 turns (43 ms). The DR contains 3 harmonic sextupoles that excite a third-integer resonance and three fast, tune-ramping quadrupole magnets that drive the horizontal tune towards the 29/3 resonance. In our initial work, the surrogate model trains on a semi-analytical simulation provided in the same format as live data. Using Reinforcement Learning (and other potential ML methods), the trained surrogate acts as the “environment” in which a simple ML control agent could learn to dynamically adjust the quadrupole ramp at 430 break points within the 43 microsecond spill window. The controller will be hosted on a dedicated Arria 10 FPGA. In this work, we report the accuracy and fidelity of the surrogate model in comparison to the response dynamics of the physics simulator.

Narayanan, Aakaash [Fermilab]

A Multi-Model, Multi-Scale Research Program in Stressors, Responses, and Coupled Systems Dynamics at the Energy-Water-Land Nexus and for Concentrated, Interdependent Infrastructures: Toward Next Generation Capabilities in Integrated Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability (I-IAV) Modeling and a Community of Practice

The goal of this research program was to build a next generation integrated suite of science-driven modeling and analytic capabilities, and a more expanded and connected community of practice, for analyses of the stressors, impacts, adaptations and vulnerabilities of global and regional change. The emphasis was on understanding energy-water-land interactions and feedbacks and interdependent infrastructures at appropriate regional and temporal scales. Although the scope spans many complex facets of data, modeling, and analysis, as well as scales appropriate for integrated impacts and adaptation research, the focus of this effort was the development of multi-model, multi-scale capabilities spanning the domains of Multi-Sector Dynamics (MSD) models; Impact, Adaptation, and Vulnerability (IAV) models; and Earth System Models (ESMs).

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Modeling 2p-2h Interactions in Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering: A Comparative Overview of the Valencia and SuSAv2-MEC Models

2p-2h interactions are crucial for describing ν-A scattering, especially in the "dip region" between the Quasi-Elastic (QE) peak and Δ-resonance production. They involve the ejection of two nucleons, leading to two holes in the nuclear ground state. The underlying nuclear dynamics involve short-range correlations (SRC), long-range correlations (Random Phase Approximation, RPA), and the interplay of one- and two-body currents. Several models attempt to describe 2p-2h interactions, including Microscopic Models (e.g., Valencia), Scaling-Based Models (e.g., SuSAv2-MEC), and Transport Models (e.g., GiBUU). Despite progress, discrepancies exist between models and with data. I Will give an overview of 2p2h from the perspective of two Models Valencia and SuSAv2-MEC.

Hassinin, Karim [Houston U.]

The Aerosol Model Benchmarking Repository: A toolkit for model intercomparison

The Aerosol Model Benchmarking Repository and Standards (AMBRS) project was initiated to provide tools and to establish community standards for benchmarking aerosol models. This report describes a set of open-source tools for building, running, and analyzing aerosol box model simulations in a standardized framework. The framework consists of three core components: AMBuilder, a CMake-based build system that compiles supported models consistently; AMBRS, a Python module that defines unified numerical experiments and executes them with aligned inputs; and PyParticle, an aerosol analysis package that standardizes output, computes diagnostics, and visualizes simulation results. Together, these tools enable reproducible intercomparison of aerosol schemes and support process-level evaluation of how model simplifications affect predictions of size distributions, cloud condensation nuclei activity, and other relevant properties relevant for the Earth-Energy system. Beyond its role in benchmarking, AMBRS provides a platform for studying aerosol processes across scales and can be used to generate training data for AI/ML applications in support of a broader hierarchical aerosol modeling strategy.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Fracture Analysis of Cohesive Zone Models for Modeling Residual Stress Induced Delamination in Composite Structures

A fracture study of coupon-scale composite cylinders with embedded defects was conducted with an objective to assess and validate a modeling approach using two available cohesive material models. The study included experimental and simulation evaluations of initiation of crack growth and progression. Interrupted thermal experiments used acoustic emissions monitoring to identify the onset of crack progression during each cooling interval and ultrasonic scanning provided images of defect growth. Verification, validation, and uncertainty quantification (VVUQ) processes were performed in the assessment of the simulation predicted temperature at which crack propagation begins (quantity of interest). The Sobol sensitivity analysis identified the hoop direction elastic modulus in the carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) plies as the most influential parameter for simulations using both cohesive models, accounting for at least 70% of the variation in the temperature at crack propagation. The UQ temperature range for the Tvergaard-Hutchinson model was higher (more conservative) than the experimental acoustic measurement indicators of crack progression, while the temperature range for the Thouless-Parmigiani model enveloped the experimental data points for the primary defect size of 0.75 x 1 in. The simulations could not capture the stable crack growth indicated in the experiments. This is likely due to the models’ inability to represent anisotropic fracture toughness attributed to the structure of the orthotropic fiber weave in a woven composite laminate.

42 ENGINEERING

Modeling Temperature Profiles in the Pedestal of NSTX with Reduced Models

This paper describes new modeling capabilities for predicting H-mode pedestal profiles in spherical tokamaks. Temperature profiles for NSTX discharges 132543 and 132588 are modeled by coupling the \textsc{astra} transport solver with neoclassical transport and gyrokinetic-based reduced models for electron temperature gradient (ETG) and kinetic ballooning mode (KBM) instabilities. A quasi-linear surrogate model for ion-scale transport is developed using linear \textsc{gene} simulations, requiring only a single free parameter calibrated to one discharge. Time-evolving the temperatures with fixed density yields good agreement with experiments for both discharges. Systematic analysis of the transport mechanisms reveals that neoclassical transport is huge across the entire pedestal region for the ion channel. ETG turbulence is large in the plasma edge and low density gradient region, contributing substantially to the electron channel. However, KBM/MHD-like modes also drive significant transport in both the ion and electron thermal channels, making them essential for accurate pedestal modeling. Further refinements, including explicit E×B shear suppression and scaled ETG transport, produce quantitative but not qualitative improvements. This work lays the foundation for predictive modeling of future devices. This paper is on arxiv and has been submitted to Nuclear Fusion.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY

Subsurface hydrological controls on the short-term effects of hurricanes on nitrate–nitrogen runoff loading: a case study of Hurricane Ida using the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) Land Model (v2.1)

When the nutrient level in the soil surpasses vegetation demand, nutrient losses due to surface runoff and subsurface leaching are the major reasons for the deterioration of water quality. The lower Mississippi River basin (LMRB) is one of the sub-basins that deliver the highest nitrogen loads to the Gulf of Mexico. Potential changes in episodic events induced by hurricanes may exacerbate water quality issue in the future. However, uncertainties in modeling the hydrologic response to hurricanes may limit the modeling of nutrient losses during such events. Using a machine learning approach, we calibrated the land component of the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM), or ELM, version 2.1, based on the water table depth (WTD) of a calibrated 3D subsurface hydrology model. While the overall performance of the calibrated ELM is satisfactory, some discrepancies in WTD remain in slope areas with low precipitation due to the missing lateral flow process in ELM. Simulations including biogeochemistry performed using ELM with and without model calibration showed important influences of soil hydrology, precipitation intensity, and runoff parameterization on the magnitude of nitrogen runoff loss and the leaching pathway. Despite such sensitivities, both ELM simulations produced reduced WTD and increased runoff and accelerated nitrate–nitrogen runoff loading during Hurricane Ida in August 2021, consistent with the observations. With observations suggesting more pronounced effects of Hurricane Ida on nitrogen runoff than the simulations, we identified factors for model improvement to provide a useful tool for studying hurricane-induced nutrient losses in the LMRB region.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha′apai Volcano Impact Model Observation Comparison (HTHH-MOC) project: experiment protocol and model descriptions

The 2022 Hunga volcanic eruption injected a significant amount of water vapor and a moderate amount of sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere, causing observable responses in the climate system. We have developed a model–observation comparison project to investigate the evolution of volcanic water and aerosols and their impacts on atmospheric dynamics, chemistry, and climate, using several state-of-the-art chemistry climate models. The project goals are (1) to evaluate the current chemistry–climate models to quantify their performance in comparison to observations and (2) to understand atmospheric responses in the Earth system after this exceptional event and investigate the potential impacts in the projected future. To achieve these goals, we designed specific experiments for direct comparisons to observations, for example from balloons and the Microwave Limb Sounder satellite instrument. Experiment 1 consists of two sets of free-running ensemble experiments from 2022 to 2031: one with fixed sea-surface temperatures and sea ice and one with coupled ocean. These experiments will help to understand the long-term evolution of water vapor and aerosols; quantify HTHH effects on stratospheric and mesospheric temperatures, dynamics, and transport; understand the impact of dynamic changes on ozone chemistry; quantify the net radiative forcings; and evaluate any surface climate impact. Experiment 2 is a nudged-run experiment from 2022 to 2023 using observed meteorology. To allow participation of more climate models with varying complexities of aerosol simulation, we include two sets of simulations in Experiment 2: Experiment 2a is designed for models with internally generated aerosol, while Experiment 2b is designed for models using prescribed aerosol surface area density. This experiment will help to analyze H 2 O and aerosol evolution, quantify the net radiative forcings, understand the impacts on mid-latitude and polar O 3 chemistry, and allow close comparisons with observations.

Zhu, Yunqian [Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (Unit

Stochastic symplectic reduced-order modeling for model-form uncertainty quantification in molecular dynamics simulations in various statistical ensembles

Here, this work focuses on the representation of model-form uncertainties in molecular dynamics simulations in various statistical ensembles. In prior contributions, the modeling of such uncertainties was formalized and applied to quantify the impact of, and the error generated by, pair-potential selection in the microcanonical ensemble (NVE). In this work, we extend this formulation and present a linear-subspace reduced-order model for the canonical (NVT) and isobaric (NPT) ensembles. The symplectic reduced-order basis is randomized on the tangent space of the Stiefel manifold to provide topological relationships and capture model-form uncertainty. Using the Large-scale Atomic/Molecular Massively Parallel Simulator (LAMMPS), we assess the relevance of these stochastic reduced-order atomistic models on canonical problems involving a Lennard-Jones fluid and an argon crystal melt.

42 ENGINEERING

Jacobian-based model diagnostics and application to equation oriented modeling of a carbon capture system

It can be difficult to identify the specific variables or equations responsible for convergence issues in large mathematical programming models. The Institute for the Design of Advanced Energy Systems Integrated Platform (IDAES-IP) contains a tool to identify poorly scaled constraints and variables by searching for rows and columns of the Jacobian matrix with small L2-norms. A singular value decomposition is then performed to identify degenerate sets of equations and remaining scaling issues. Here, this work presents a flowsheet developed for post-combustion carbon capture using a monoethanolamine (MEA) solvent system as a case study. This work takes the reader through the entire process of model diagnostics and reformulation, from a basic introduction to the mathematics behind these model diagnostics to the reformulations necessary to make the model numerically robust, including a significantly modified enhancement factor model.

IDAES

Modeling the Effects of Artificial Drainage on Agriculture-Dominated Watersheds Using a Fully Distributed Integrated Hydrology Model

In agriculture-dominated watersheds where natural drainage is poor, agricultural ditches (narrow engineered channels) and tile drains (perforated pipes) are widely employed to enhance surface and subsurface drainage, respectively. Despite their relatively small scale, these features exert substantial control over the hydro-biogeochemical function of watersheds and their effects need to be represented in the models. We introduce a novel strategy to incorporate the effects of artificial agricultural drainage into a fully distributed basin-scale integrated surface-subsurface hydrology models. In our approach, narrow agriculture ditches for surface drainage are resolved efficiently using ditch-aligned computational meshes that are hydrologically conditioned to ensure connectivity in the stream/ditch network. For tile drainage in the subsurface, we use the physically based Hooghoudt's drainage equation as a subgrid model and route the water drained through tiles to the nearest ditch. Without site-specific calibration, this model reproduced observed streamflow in the Portage River Watershed (>1,000 km 2 ) as recorded by a USGS gauge with good accuracy (normalized KGE = 0.81) and outperformed a calibrated SWAT model (normalized KGE = 0.68). Numerical experiments confirm that artificial drainage reduces surface inundations and effectively controls the water table. At the watershed scale, artificial drainage increases baseflow but has little effect on watershed discharges above the 90th percentile. The strong physical underpinnings and reduced need for calibration allow us to study the impacts of artificial drainage on distributed hydrological response in terms of fluxes and states and provide a platform for investigating watershed-scale nutrient transport.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Data-based filtered dissipation rate modelling for multi-modal turbulent combustion: evaluating a priori model generalizability

Manifold-based models offer a computationally efficient alternative to directly transporting the thermochemical state in computational simulations of turbulent reacting flows, projecting the high-dimensional thermochemical state-space onto a low-dimensional manifold. Recent efforts have yielded a manifold-based model applicable to multi-modal combustion, enabling reconstruction of the thermochemical state from solutions to two-dimensional manifold equations in mixture fraction and generalized progress variable that are parameterised by three scalar dissipation rates. In coarse-grained simulations such as Large Eddy Simulation (LES), closure of the multi-modal manifold equations and subfilter variances/covariance requires closure of three filtered scalar dissipation rates. Here, the present work adopts a data-based approach, providing closure for the three filtered scalar dissipation rates via deep neural networks (DNNs). High-fidelity datasets corresponding to an autoigniting n-dodecane jet flame and a bluff body swirl-stabilized confined lifted spray flame of two aviation fuels (Jet-A and C1) with different ignition propensities are leveraged to generate training data that spans a diverse range of thermodynamic conditions and combustion modes, including low- and high-temperature ignition regimes in addition to premixed and nonpremixed behaviour. A final DNN model is trained to enforce inherent physical constraints by learning nonlinear functional transformations of the three filtered scalar dissipation rates. The generalizability of this constrained DNN model is demonstrated a priori via conditional statistics evaluated on the lifted spray flame with C1–a configuration that had not been included in the training data. Excellent DNN agreement with conditional DNS statistics is observed, and integrated gradients are computed to identify the most sensitive input variables. The similarity of the marginal PDFs of the most informative input variables and outputs across configurations are quantified via the Wasserstein metric, demonstrating that data-based models may successfully generalize to unseen parametric conditions so long as the most informative input variables share similar distributions across training and testing datasets.

Data-based modelling

Surrogate modelling for urban building energy simulation based on the bidirectional long short-term memory model

Here, the urban microclimate is essential for accurate simulation-based urban building energy modelling (UBEM). However, a high spatial-resolution microclimate can increase the computational resources demands of UBEM. Surrogate modelling is one of the promising approaches for fast UBEM. This study proposes a bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM)-based approach for simulation-based UBEM surrogate modelling. The estimations are aggregated into census tracts using total building floor area. A case study using UBEM to estimate annual hourly building energy use and anthropogenic heat from all existing buildings in Los Angeles County found that most of the surrogate models can complete the annual hourly simulation within 90 minutes with a normalized mean absolute error lower than 10%, and that the bidirectional LSTM outperforms the standard LSTM in accuracy. This study demonstrates the advantages of bidirectional RNN architecture in building energy surrogate modelling and is expected to promote long-term and high-resolution UBEM with detailed microclimates.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI

Hacking Kilometer-Scale Models: A Participative Model for Climate Information

In May 2025, nearly 700 participants from all around the world coalesced at 10 regional nodes and a few satellite nodes to take part in a global hackathon of kilometer-scale (horizontal grid spacing < 10 km) regional and global Earth system models. Exciting science is emerging from these efforts, ranging across novel model analysis, new ways of integrating with satellite data, and emulation with machine learning. New technologies were trialed that enable the community to work in new and complementary ways to democratize access to global information at a local scale from a set of the world’s highest-resolution climate models. The hackathon demonstrated how exascale data can be organized to be accessible to anyone. Fundamentally, the community could apply these techniques and technologies to move toward more participative models for coproduction and delivery of diverse sources of climate information for climate scientists and citizens alike.

Climate models

Towards an open model intercomparison platform for integrated assessment models scenarios

The majority of scenarios in the IPCC database are generated by integrated assessment models (IAMs) and come from model intercomparison projects. However, the way in which the current model intercomparison projects are organized is not open to all IAM teams worldwide. Here we propose a transparent and inclusive platform that is open to anyone with an IAM regarding protocols development, scenario submissions and results evaluation. We discuss the challenges of this approach, particularly human resources and financial support. Here, we identify diversity in the level of model capability and quality of model output as possibly critical issues. Despite such challenges, the IAM community and its scientific activities can improve and benefit from the proposed platform, ultimately contributing to better climate policymaking.

IAM