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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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Online adaptive basis refinement and compression for reduced-order models via vector-space sieving

In many applications, projection-based reduced-order models (ROMs) have demonstrated the ability to provide rapid approximate solutions to high-fidelity full-order models (FOMs). However, there is no a priori assurance that these approximate solutions are accurate; their accuracy depends on the ability of the low-dimensional trial basis to represent the FOM solution. As a result, ROMs can generate inaccurate approximate solutions, e.g., when the FOM solution at the online prediction point is not well represented by training data used to construct the trial basis. To address this fundamental deficiency of standard model-reduction approaches, this work proposes a novel online-adaptive mechanism for efficiently enriching the trial basis in a manner that ensures convergence of the ROM to the FOM, yet does not incur any FOM solves. The mechanism is based on the previously proposed adaptive $h$-refinement method for ROMs, but improves upon this work in two crucial ways. First, the proposed method enables basis refinement with respect to any orthogonal basis (not just the Kronecker basis), thereby generalizing the refinement mechanism and enabling it to be tailored to the physics characterizing the problem at hand. Second, the proposed method provides a fast online algorithm for periodically compressing the enriched basis via an efficient proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) method, which does not incur any operations that scale with the FOM dimension. We report these two features allow the proposed method to serve as (1) a failsafe mechanism for ROMs, as the method enables the ROM to satisfy any prescribed error tolerance online (even in the case of inadequate training), and (2) an efficient online basis-adaptation mechanism, as the combination of basis enrichment and compression enables the basis to adapt online while controlling its dimension.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Mechanical Regulation of Photosynthesis in Cyanobacteria

Photosynthetic organisms regulate their responses to many diverse stimuli in an effort to balance light harvesting with utilizable light energy for carbon fixation and growth (source–sink regulation). This balance is critical to prevent the formation of reactive oxygen species that can lead to cell death. However, investigating the molecular mechanisms that underlie the regulation of photosynthesis in cyanobacteria using ensemble-based measurements remains a challenge due to population heterogeneity. Here, to address this problem, we used long-term quantitative time-lapse fluorescence microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, mathematical modelling and genetic manipulation to visualize and analyse the growth and subcellular dynamics of individual wild-type and mutant cyanobacterial cells over multiple generations. We reveal that mechanical confinement of actively growing Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002 cells leads to the physical disassociation of phycobilisomes and energetic decoupling from the photosynthetic reaction centres. We suggest that the mechanical regulation of photosynthesis is a critical failsafe that prevents cell expansion when light and nutrients are plentiful, but when space is limiting. These results imply that cyanobacteria must convert a fraction of the available light energy into mechanical energy to overcome frictional forces in the environment, providing insight into the regulation of photosynthesis and how microorganisms navigate their physical environment.

BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES,BIOMASS FUELS↗

Impact of non‐framework cation mixing on the structure and crystallization behavior of model high‐level waste glasses

Abstract Spinel crystallization is known to be detrimental to the operation of Joule heated ceramic melters during the vitrification of iron‐rich high‐level nuclear wastes (HLW) into borosilicate glasses. The literature on this subject focuses on tackling the problem by developing empirical constraints to design compositions, which limit the fraction of spinels formed in the melter or by developing empirical models to predict the settling behavior of spinels in the melter as a function of the glass composition. While these empirical models can predict the behavior of most of the compositions, they are not failsafe as there are always some compositions, whose behavior is beyond the predictive ability of these models. This can lead to undesirable situations during the vitrification of the nuclear waste, and therefore an in‐depth investigation of the chemo‐structural descriptors controlling the crystallization behavior in these glasses is warranted. Accordingly, the present study aims to understand the impact of non‐framework cation mixing (i.e., Li + /Na + and Ca 2+ /Na + ) on the structure (through Raman spectroscopy and Mössbauer spectroscopy) and crystallization behavior (through XRD, SEM‐EDS, and vibrating sample magnetometry) of iron‐rich model HLW glasses in the system: (mol.%) x M y O–(25− x ) Na 2 O–9.12 B 2 O 3 –6.4 Al 2 O 3 –51.25 SiO 2 –7.22 Fe 2 O 3 –0.38 MnO–0.08 Cr 2 O 3 –0.55NiO (M y O = Li 2 O or CaO).

Balasubramanya, Nikhila↗