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At least 145 records · Page 8

Implicit Multirate GARK Methods

This article considers multirate generalized-structure additively partitioned Runge–Kutta methods for solving stiff systems of ordinary differential equations with multiple time scales. These methods treat different partitions of the system with different timesteps for a more targeted and efficient solution compared to monolithic single rate approaches. With implicit methods used across all partitions, methods must find a balance between stability and the cost of solving nonlinear equations for the stages. In order to characterize this important trade-off, we explore multirate coupling strategies, problems for assessing linear stability, and techniques to efficiently implement Newton iterations for stage equations. Unlike much of the existing multirate stability analysis which is limited in scope to particular methods, we present general statements on stability and describe fundamental limitations for certain types of multirate schemes. New implicit multirate methods up to fourth order are derived, and their accuracy and efficiency properties are verified with numerical tests.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

A generalized class of strongly stable and dimension-free T-RPMD integrators

Here, recent work shows that strong stability and dimensionality freedom are essential for robust numerical integration of thermostatted ringpolymer molecular dynamics (T-RPMD) and path-integral molecular dynamics, without which standard integrators exhibit non-ergodicity and other pathologies [R. Korol et al., J. Chem. Phys. 151, 124103 (2019) and R. Korol et al., J. Chem. Phys. 152, 104102 (2020)]. In particular, the BCOCB scheme, obtained via Cayley modification of the standard BAOAB scheme, features a simple reparametrization of the free ring-polymer sub-step that confers strong stability and dimensionality freedom and has been shown to yield excellent numerical accuracy in condensed-phase systems with large time steps. Here, we introduce a broader class of T-RPMD numerical integrators that exhibit strong stability and dimensionality freedom, irrespective of the Ornstein–Uhlenbeck friction schedule. In addition to considering equilibrium accuracy and time step stability as in previous work, we evaluate the integrators on the basis of their rates of convergence to equilibrium and their efficiency at evaluating equilibrium expectation values. Within the generalized class, we find BCOCB to be superior with respect to accuracy and efficiency for various configuration-dependent observables, although other integrators within the generalized class perform better for velocity-dependent quantities. Extensive numerical evidence indicates that the stated performance guarantees hold for the strongly anharmonic case of liquid water. Both analytical and numerical results indicate that BCOCB excels over other known integrators in terms of accuracy, efficiency, and stability with respect to time step for practical applications.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Fast microflow kinetics and acid catalyst deactivation in glucose conversion to 5-hydroxymethylfurfural

5-Hydroxymethyl furfural (HMF) is an important platform chemical because it can be upgraded to various drop-in and performance-advantaged products. The cascade reaction of HMF production from glucose over a Lewis acid (CrCl 3 ) and a Brønsted acid (HCl) catalyst in aqueous media is investigated in a microreactor at short residence times and high temperatures. We study the formation of various chromium species using UV-visible spectrophotometry and elucidate the Cr(III) speciation. The catalyst reactivity increases sharply at short residence times, and then drops at long times. This indicates that the catalyst treatment plays a vital role in getting optimal reactivity, and recording the catalyst history is necessary. We develop a kinetic model to describe the catalyst speciation as well as the Lewis and Brønsted acid-catalyzed reaction kinetics using a hierarchical approach. Here, the model is in good agreement with experiments. We demonstrate the benefits of tandem Lewis-external added Brønsted acid catalysis in processing time, productivity, and catalyst stability. We apply this model to optimize the HMF yield and obtain ~36% yield at 200 °C in 7 min and report the highest productivity of ~15% yield per min, demonstrating the opportunity of reaching high productivity at short residence times.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Operator inference with roll outs for learning reduced models from scarce and low-quality data

Data-driven modeling has become a key building block in computational science and engineering. However, data that are available in science and engineering are typically scarce, often polluted with noise and affected by measurement errors and other perturbations, which makes learning the dynamics of systems challenging. Here, in this work, we propose to combine data-driven modeling via operator inference with the dynamic training via roll outs of neural ordinary differential equations. Operator inference with roll outs inherits interpretability, scalability, and structure preservation of traditional operator inference while leveraging the dynamic training via roll outs over multiple time steps to increase stability and robustness for learning from low-quality and noisy data. Numerical experiments with data describing shallow water waves and surface quasi-geostrophic dynamics demonstrate that operator inference with roll outs provides predictive models from training trajectories even if data are sampled sparsely in time and polluted with noise of up to 10%.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Assessing Physical Relationships Between Atmospheric State, Fluxes, and Boundary Layer Stability at McMurdo Station, Antarctica

Observations at McMurdo Station, Antarctica from 24 November 2015 through 3 January 2017 were used to characterize the physical relationships between boundary layer stability and atmospheric state and fluxes. The basis of this analysis was self-organizing maps (SOMs), a neural network algorithm, used to identify the range of potential temperature profiles present in the twice-daily radiosonde data during the ARM (Atmospheric Radiation Measurement) West Antarctic Radiation Experiment (AWARE) campaign. The SOM identified profiles ranging from strongly stable to weakly stable regimes over the lowest 500 m of the atmosphere. It was found that in the winter (MJJA), moderate and strongly stable regimes occur most frequently (61%), while weakly stable regimes dominate in the summer (DJ, 83.4%). The mechanisms responsible for the dominance of different stability regimes in each season were analyzed to determine why these regimes occur with varying frequency throughout the year. This analysis found that wind speed variations and radiative cooling are responsible for the stability observed in the winter, radiative warming, as well as weaker wind speeds, are responsible for summer weak stability, and stability variations in the transition seasons (FMA, SON) are characterized by a change in sign of net radiation with increasing stability, as wind speed changes little across stability regimes. Low-level jets were observed to occur about 50% of the time below areas of enhanced stability aloft and were observed most frequently in the transition seasons. The boundary layer depth, as determined by the Bulk Richardson number, was found to decrease with increasing stability.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Unveiling the High‐Voltage Reactivity and Gas Evolution With Aluminum‐Based Chloride and Oxychloride Catholytes in Solid‐State Sodium Batteries

All-solid-state sodium batteries (ASSBs) employing halide solid electrolytes (SEs) offer a cost-effective and energy-dense alternative to conventional liquid electrolyte systems. However, their high voltage (>4 V vs. Na/Na + ) performance remains limited by interfacial instability between the cathode active material (CAM) and the SE. We present here the electrochemical and interfacial behaviors of crystalline NaAlCl 4 and amorphous sodium–aluminum–oxychloride (NACO) SEs when combined with NaNi 0.5 Mn 0.5 O 2 cathode. While oxygen incorporation in NACO enhances ionic conductivity by nearly three orders of magnitude relative to NaAlCl 4 , it does not improve high-voltage cycling stability. Cells employing NACO exhibit accelerated capacity fade, increased cell impedance growth, and intrinsic oxygen evolution above 4.5 V vs. Na 3 Sn, as revealed by operando electrochemical mass spectrometry. In contrast, the NaAlCl 4 -based cells show no detectable gas release, underscoring their superior high-voltage stability and safety. Time-of-flight secondary-ion mass spectrometry confirms the formation of Al─O and Ni/Mn─Cl species, respectively, in the SE and CAM, indicating redox-driven anion exchange that contributes to kinetic hindrance of high-voltage phase transitions. The findings establish that while oxygen incorporation enhances ionic transport, it can compromise interfacial stability, suggesting pure chloride SEs may offer a more robust and intrinsically safer pathway for developing high-energy ASSBs.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Time Delay of Wide Area Damping Control in Urban Power Grid: Model-Based Analysis and Data-Driven Compensation

Due to the rapid development of economies, large urban cities consume an increasing amount of energy and have a higher requirement for power quality. Voltage source converter based high voltage direct current (VSC-HVDC) is a promising device to transmit clean power from remote regions to urban power systems, while also providing wide area damping control (WADC) for frequency stabilization. However, the time-delay naturally existing in the VSC-HVDC system may degrade the performance of WADC and even result in instability. To address this issue, this paper develops a time-delay correction control strategy for VSC-HVDC damping control in urban power grids. First, a small signal model of WADC is built to analyze the negative impacts of time delay. Then, a data-driven approach is proposed to compensate for the inherent time delay in VSC-HVDC damping control. The extensive training data will be generated under various disturbances. After offline training, the long short-term memory network (LSTM) can be implemented online to predict the actual frequency deviation based on real-time measurements. Finally, the proposed method is validated through MATLAB-Simulink in a two-area four-machine system. The results indicate that the data-driven compensation has a strong generalization ability for random delay time constants and can improve the performance of WADC significantly.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Real-time observation of multi-electron processes in atoms and diatomic molecules

We report on the implementation of a reliable experimental approach to observe, in real-time, electron dynamics in atoms and molecules at the attosecond time scale. The experimental approach combines a source of shape-controlled attosecond pulses, a stabilized XUV/IR interferometer for time-resolved measurements, and a multi-particle imaging system (Coltrims). In addition, we report new capabilities to control electron dynamics in quantum systems.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗

Physics-Informed Evolutionary Strategy Based Control for Mitigating Delayed Voltage Recovery

Here, in this work we propose a novel data-driven, real-time power system voltage stability control method based on the physics-informed guided meta evolutionary strategy (ES). The main objective is to quickly provide an adaptive control strategy to secure system voltage stability. The problem is challenging due to the high-dimensional feature of the power system model and the fast-changing and uncertain nature of power system operation scenarios. To this end, a model-free and derivative-free guided ES method is applied. The method is further combined with a meta-learning strategy to make the learnt control policy automatically adapted to unseen operation conditions and fault scenarios, which is highly desired for real-time emergency control. Last but not least, physical knowledge is embedded in the above method through a trainable action mask technique to rule out unnecessary load shedding actions for better learning and control performance. Case studies on the IEEE 300-bus system and comparisons with other state-of-the-art benchmark methods verify the superiority of the proposed physics-informed guided meta ES method in realizing fast and adaptive power system voltage stability control.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Degradation & Performance Studies of ALD-Stabilized Nano-Composite SOFC Cathodes

This work showed, definitively, for the first time, that zirconia Atomic Layer Deposited (ALD) overcoats improve the stability of Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) cathodes by chemically gettering interfacial Sr that has segregated out of lanthanum strontium cobalt iron oxide (LSCF). The optimum ALD ZrO 2 overcoat thickness was found to be ≥5 nm and <10 nm. Gadolinium doped ceria (GDC) pre-infiltration was also shown, for the first time, to improve SOFC cathode stability through the chemical getting of Sr at the LSCF-backbone and LSCF-gas interfaces. Due to the fact that it can be performed easily in air on large-area electrodes, GDC pre-infiltration is likely more commercially viable than ALD ZrO 2 overcoating as an interfacial Sr gettering technique. Combining ZrO 2 overcoating with GDC pre-infiltration was not successful because the GDC nano-particles gettered the ZrO 2 overcoat instead of the interfacial Sr.

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION↗

Biomass Production and Nutrient Removal by Perennial Energy Grasses Produced on a Wet Marginal Land

Growing dedicated bioenergy crops on marginal land can provide beneficial outcomes including biomass production and energy, resource management, and ecosystem services. We investigated the effects of harvest timing (peak standing crop [PEAK] or after killing frost [KF]) and nitrogen (N) fertilizer rates (0, 56, and 112 kg N ha -1 ) on yield, nutrient concentrations, and nutrient removal rates of perennial grasses on a wet marginal land. We evaluated three monocultures, including switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L., SW), Miscanthus x giganteus (MG), prairie cordgrass (Spartina pectinata Link, PCG), and a polyculture mixture of big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii Vitman), Indiangrass (Sorghastrum nutans (L.) Nash), and sideoats grama (Bouteloua curtipendula Torr., MIX). Increasing the application of N did correlate with increased biomass, concentration, and subsequent removal of nutrients across almost all treatment combinations. In all grass treatments except MG, PEAK harvesting increased yield and nutrient removal. At PEAK harvest, switchgrass is ideal for optimizing both biomass production and nutrient removal. While our results also suggest short-term plasticity for farmers when selecting harvest timing for optimal nutrient removal, KF harvest is recommended to ensure long-term stand longevity and adequate nutrient removal. If the KF harvest is adopted, MG would be the ideal option for optimizing biomass yield potential. Additionally, we found that the yield of polyculture did not vary much with harvest timing, suggesting better yield stability. Future studies should give consideration for long-term evaluation of polyculture mixtures to assess their biomass yields and nutrient removal capacities.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Impact of particle arrays on phase separation composition patterns

We examine the symmetry-breaking effect of fixed constellations of particles on the surface-directed spinodal decomposition of binary blends in the presence of particles whose surfaces have a preferential affinity for one of the components. Our phase-field simulations indicate that the phase separation morphology in the presence of particle arrays can be tuned to have a continuous, droplet, lamellar, or hybrid morphology depending on the interparticle spacing, blend composition, and time. In particular, when the interparticle spacing is large compared to the spinodal wavelength, a transient target pattern composed of alternate rings of preferred and non-preferred phases emerges at early times, tending to adopt the symmetry of the particle configuration. We reveal that such target patterns stabilize for certain characteristic length, time, and composition scales characteristic of the pure phase-separating mixture. To illustrate the general range of phenomena exhibited by mixture-particle systems, we simulate the effects of single-particle, multi-particle, and cluster–particle systems having multiple geometrical configurations of the particle characteristic of pattern substrates on phase separation. Our simulations show that tailoring the particle configuration, or substrate pattern configuration, a relative fluid-particle composition should allow the desirable control of the phase separation morphology as in block copolymer materials, but where the scales accessible to this approach of organizing phase-separated fluids usually are significantly larger. Limited experiments confirm the trends observed in our simulations, which should provide some guidance in engineering patterned blend and other mixtures of technological interest.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Data-driven linear time advance operators for the acceleration of plasma physics simulation

In this study, we demonstrate the application of data-driven linear operator construction for time advance with a goal of accelerating plasma physics simulation. We apply dynamic mode decomposition (DMD) to data produced by the nonlinear SOLPS-ITER (Scrape-off Layer Plasma Simulator - International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) plasma boundary code suite in order to estimate a series of linear operators and monitor their predictive accuracy via online error analysis. We find that this approach defines when these dynamics can be represented by a sequence of approximate linear operators and is essential for providing consistent projections when compared to an unconstrained application. For linear diffusion and advection–diffusion fluid test problems, we construct and apply operators within explicit and implicit time advance schemes, demonstrating that stability can be robustly guaranteed in each case. We further investigate the use of the linear time advance operators within several integration methods including forward Euler, backward Euler, and the matrix exponential. The application of this method to simulation data from SOLPS-ITER, with varying levels of Markov chain Monte Carlo numerical noise, shows that constrained DMD operators yield a capability to identify, extract, and integrate a (slow) subset of the present timescales. Example applications show that for projected speedup factors of [Formula: see text], and [Formula: see text], a mean relative error of 3%, 5%, and 8% and maximum relative error less than 20% are achievable, which appears acceptable for typical SOLPS-ITER steady-state simulations.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Dynamic Nanocrystal-Ligand Boundaries: Reversible Photoinduced Ligand Detachment from Quantum Dots in Solution

The porosity of ligand shells of colloidal quantum dots (QDs) can influence the overall rate and yield of charge transfer processes occurring at their surfaces. However, the density of ligand shells on QDs can also influence their colloidal and photochemical stability. We used time-resolved infrared spectroscopy to show that photoinduced ligand detachment, the tendency for certain ligands to detach from QD surfaces when the nanocrystals are promoted to their excitonic excited states, can be used to transiently enhance the porosity of oleic acidpassivated CdSe QDs in solution. Furthermore, we synthesized CdSe QDs with varying ligand shell densities to examine the corresponding influence that van der Waals interactions among ligands have on the yield of photoinduced ligand detachment and the time scale on which ligands return to QD surfaces. We observed that oleic acid ligands on CdSe QDs with lower shell densities have a higher probability of escape for longer periods of time. Despite this, oleic acid ligands on fully passivated CdSe QDs are still able to photodetach, resulting in a transient increase of their ligand shell porosity. In contrast, QDs with multilayer ligand coronas exhibit negligible photoinduced ligand detachment because the outer molecular layers introduce a type of cage effect, preventing the escape of the interior ligands. Our findings suggest the intriguing possibility that photoinduced ligand detachment can be used to transiently decrease the density of ligand shells of QDs to facilitate charge transfer processes while still allowing them to be fully passivated between excitation events for photochemical and colloidal stability.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Perovskite Photovoltaic Devices with Carbon-Based Electrodes Withstanding Reverse-Bias Voltages up to –9 V and Surpassing IEC 61215:2016 International Standard

One of the key challenges of perovskite photovoltaics (PV) is the long-term stability. Although efforts are made to improve the lifetime of perovskite PV devices, their degradation under reverse-bias conditions is barely addressed. Herein, perovskite solar cells with carbon-based electrodes are presented which demonstrate superior resilience against reverse-bias-induced degradation. Although their breakdown voltage is identified to be at approximately -3.6 V, cells do not degrade until the applied reverse-bias exceeds -9 V. Two main degradation mechanisms are identified: 1) iodine loss due to hole tunneling into perovskite, which takes place even at low reverse-bias but decomposes the perovskite only after long time durations; and 2) rapid heating at large reverse-bias leading to formation of PbI2, which starts at shunts and then follows the path of the least resistance for the cell current, which is primarily influenced by the electrode sheet resistances. Finally, perovskite solar modules with carbon-based electrodes are demonstrated, which are subjected to a "hotspot" test described in the IEC 61215:2016 international standard at an accredited module testing laboratory. Passing this accelerated test for the first time confirms the superior stability of perovskite PV devices with carbon-based electrodes and highlights their large industrialization potential.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Global relationships between crop diversity and nutritional stability

Nutritional stability – a food system’s capacity to provide sufficient nutrients despite disturbance – is an important, yet challenging to measure outcome of diversified agriculture. Using 55 years of data across 184 countries, we assemble 22,000 bipartite crop-nutrient networks to quantify nutritional stability by simulating crop and nutrient loss in a country, and assess its relationship to crop diversity across regions, over time and between imports versus in country production. We find a positive, saturating relationship between crop diversity and nutritional stability across countries, but also show that over time nutritional stability remained stagnant or decreased in all regions except Asia. These results are attributable to diminishing returns on crop diversity, with recent gains in crop diversity among crops with fewer nutrients, or with nutrients already in a country’s food system. Finally, imports are positively associated with crop diversity and nutritional stability, indicating that many countries’ nutritional stability is market exposed.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Long-term effects of cycle time and volume exchange ratio on poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) production from food waste digestate by Haloferax mediterranei cultivated in sequencing batch reactors for 450 days

Food waste digestate was fed into a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) for Haloferax mediterranei (HM) to produce poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV). This SBR was operated uninterruptedly for 450 days to test its stability, during which the cycle time and volume exchange ratio were varied to understand their impacts on the PHBV fermentation performance under ranged organic loading rates (OLR). Results showed that 1) PHBV productivity was proportional to OLR of food waste digestate; 2) substrate and product inhibitions were two limiting factors constraining substrate utilization and PHBV yields; 3) PHBV titer was dependent on the hydraulic retention time of the SBR while a volume exchange ratio lower than 0.5 is unfavorable due to the product inhibitor accumulation. Furthermore, this study for the first time demonstrated that the long-term stability of food waste-fed PHBV production by HM and revealed that inhibition effects could be barriers in SBR limiting the full-scale application of the technology.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗

How machine learning can help select capping layers to suppress perovskite degradation

Environmental stability of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) has been improved by trial-and-error exploration of thin low-dimensional (LD) perovskite deposited on top of the perovskite absorber, called the capping layer. In this study, a machine-learning framework is presented to optimize this layer. We featurize 21 organic halide salts, apply them as capping layers onto methylammonium lead iodide (MAPbI 3 ) films, age them under accelerated conditions, and determine features governing stability using supervised machine learning and Shapley values. We find that organic molecules’ low number of hydrogen-bonding donors and small topological polar surface area correlate with increased MAPbI 3 film stability. The top performing organic halide, phenyltriethylammonium iodide (PTEAI), successfully extends the MAPbI3 stability lifetime by 4 ± 2 times over bare MAPbI 3 and 1.3 ± 0.3 times over state-of-the-art octylammonium bromide (OABr). Through characterization, we find that this capping layer stabilizes the photoactive layer by changing the surface chemistry and suppressing methylammonium loss.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗