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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 19 records

Continental Scale Hydrostratigraphy: Comparing Geologically Informed Data Products to Analytical Solutions

Abstract This study synthesizes two different methods for estimating hydraulic conductivity (K) at large scales. We derive analytical approaches that estimate K and apply them to the contiguous United States. We then compare these analytical approaches to three‐dimensional, national gridded K data products and three transmissivity (T) data products developed from publicly available sources. We evaluate these data products using multiple approaches: comparing their statistics qualitatively and quantitatively and with hydrologic model simulations. Some of these datasets were used as inputs for an integrated hydrologic model of the Upper Colorado River Basin and the comparison of the results with observations was used to further evaluate the K data products. Simulated average daily streamflow was compared to daily flow data from 10 USGS stream gages in the domain, and annually averaged simulated groundwater depths are compared to observations from nearly 2000 monitoring wells. We find streamflow predictions from analytically informed simulations to be similar in relative bias and Spearman's rho to the geologically informed simulations. R ‐squared values for groundwater depth predictions are close between the best performing analytically and geologically informed simulations at 0.68 and 0.70 respectively, with RMSE values under 10 m. We also show that the analytical approach derived by this study produces estimates of K that are similar in spatial distribution, standard deviation, mean value, and modeling performance to geologically‐informed estimates. The results of this work are used to inform a follow‐on study that tests additional data‐driven approaches in multiple basins within the contiguous United States.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Risk-informed Predictive Analytics To Achieve Cost-effective Condition-based Monitoring And Maintenance Strategy

The research involves developing risk-informed predictive analytic capabilities to achieve condition-based monitoring and maintenance strategies to reduce overall maintenance costs. The research utilizes data (real-time data, periodic data, and institutional knowledge) related to a particular plant asset from a specific nuclear plant site to develop risk-informed predictive analytic algorithms. The developed algorithms and codes are used to optimize the maintenance strategy and estimate/forecast generation costs based on the state of health of the plant asset. Developed codes specifically include 1. Parameter estimation code based on Bayesian inference 2. Statistical data analysis code 3. Feature engineering code 4. Health classifier code 5. Diagnosis code 6. Prognosis code 7. Hazard code 8. Generation risk code 9. Economic code

Agarwal, Vivek↗

Advanced Health Information Technology Analytic Framework and Application to Hazard Detection

Health Information Technology (HIT) aims to improve healthcare outcomes by organizing and analyzing various health-related data. With data accumulating at a staggering rate, the importance of real-time analytics has been increasing dramatically, shifting the focus of informatics from batch processing to streaming analytics. HIT is also facing unprecedented challenges in adapting to this new requirement and leveraging advanced IT technologies. This paper introduces a HIT data and compute platform that supports multi-granularity real-time analytics from heterogeneous data sources. The paper first identifies functional requirements and proposes a framework that satisfies the requirements using state-of-the-art big data technologies including Apache Kafka, Spark Structured Streaming Engine, and Delta Lake. To demonstrate its capability to support data analytics in multiple time granularities analytics, a statistical process control-based hazard detection algorithm has been implemented on top of the framework to detect unexpected hazards from order cancellation data of the Department of US Veterans Affairs (VA) in near real-time.

Kumar, Mohit↗

When physics-informed data analytics outperforms black-box machine learning: A case study in thickness control for additive manufacturing

Aerosol jet printing (AJP) has emerged as a promising noncontact additive manufacturing method for high-resolution printing for a wide range of material systems. A key challenge limiting the broader adoption of AJP in the material science community is the lack of methods to precisely control thickness. Herein, we develop a model-based design of experiment (MBDoE) framework that integrates physics-informed models, nonlinear regression, and information criteria to postulate, select and calibrate the best model to describe and optimize the AJP manufacturing process. Starting with already available data from system commissioning (e.g., prior single variable sensitivity analysis), four candidate physics-informed models are postulated and trained. MBDoE identifies a single additional optimal experiment to validate these predictive models with quantified uncertainties, which are then used to determine the best experimental conditions to control printed film thickness. As a comparative benchmark, the analysis is repeated using the same dataset with nonparametric Gaussian process regression (GPR) model that does not incorporate physical information. Using MBDoE principles, we find that only five experiments are necessary to calibrate the nonlinear physics-informed parametric model, and with said limited data, this model outperforms the black-box machine learning GPR model. This key result underscores an emerging trend in the data science community: incorporating physical information into predictive models often drastically reduces the data requirements. Leveraging MBDoE further increased the data efficiency. By design, the proposed data science framework is general in nature and can be easily extended to other experimental and additive manufacturing systems beyond AJP.

Aerosol jet printing↗

EVSE Cybersecurity and Resilience

Consequence-driven Cybersecurity Analysis for Extreme Fast Charging Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Electric vehicle (EV) development and associated charging infrastructure are expected to advance rapidly. Thirty percent of all global vehicle sales may be EVs and hybrid EVs by 2025, and they will rely on increasingly sophisticated strategies for grid integration. Next-generation EV charging infrastructure is expected to include interconnected renewable resources, such as photovoltaic (PV) arrays and battery storage systems, along with grid-edge devices. Although distributed energy resources (DERs) are useful in several ways, such as peak shaving at high demand times and backup supply for added resilience, the integration of vehicle charging and DERs could create more avenues for cyberattack. Physical and/or remote access to EV charging station components, including charge ports, power electronics, controllers, and local generation (e.g., PV and energy storage) could be paths to cause power fluctuations, leading to altered operations at the charging station, escalated privileges to administrative systems, exfiltration of financial information (including personally identifiable information), and reduced grid stability. One compromised EV supply equipment component can open the door to a variety of exploitable vulnerabilities. Cloud computing and mobile application control have the potential to expand the threat surface to non-repudiation and firmware integrity challenges. Vendor clouds have access to hundreds of chargers, and if compromised, can scale the attack surface exponentially. The high power and voltage levels of xFC infrastructure (e.g., 400 kW at 1000- V DC) increase the hazards and ability to impact the grid and vehicles more than lower-power charging systems. Legacy communications systems and protocols could also put EV infrastructure at risk of cyberattacks requiring a robust patch management process. Communications networks link EVs and chargers to several stakeholders - including charging station operators, grid operators, vendors/manufacturers, and aggregators - who have both physical and network access to share information for control, monitoring, and analytics. Information in these networks that is vulnerable to compromise includes the state of charge, charging duration, payment information, electricity price, and load control. Analyzing and prioritizing these interconnections risks could help address cybersecurity related to data leakage and manipulation.

charging↗

Standard Analytical Methods for Pyrolysis Bio-Oils

There has been significant recent interest in the production of renewable fuels and chemicals from biomass and waste feedstocks. Pyrolysis pathways produce a liquid bio-oil product, which must be processed further, or upgraded, to yield fuel or chemical products. Bio-oils are very complex and often unstable samples, and research and development on upgrading processes needs reliable analytical information. In particular, chemical characterization techniques are needed to quantify both functional groups and individual compounds present in bio-oils. Reliable analytics are also needed to enable the bioenergy industry, as industrial facilities often have different analytical needs and capabilities than research facilities. In this presentation, we will discuss the development of a suite of standard analytical methods for pyrolysis bio-oils. Analytical methods to be discussed include: Determination of Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, and Oxygen in bio-oils; Accelerated Aging of Fast Pyrolysis Bio-oil using Carbonyl Titration; Determination of Water Content in Bio-oils by Volumetric Karl Fischer Titration; Determination of Carbon Functional Groups; Elemental Analysis of Bio-oils by Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES) - Na, K, Mg, Ca, S, P, and Fe; Determination of Phenolic Groups in Bio-oils using Revised Folin-Ciocalteu Methods: Single Cuvette and Plate Reader; Corrosivity of Bio-oils: Screening Test using Metal Leaching; Determination of Biogenic Content by 14C Measurement using Liquid Scintillation Counter. These new analytical methods are publicly available as Laboratory Analytical Procedures (https://www.nrel.gov/bioenergy/bio-oil-analysis.html), along with previously developed standard methods: GC-MS, Acid Titration, Carbonyl Titration, and 31P NMR. Additionally, the development of diffusion ordered NMR for characterization of bio-oil molecular weight will be discussed. Collectively, this suite of analytical methods represents the most comprehensive set of standard methods available for pyrolysis bio-oils. These standard methods are commonly used by the bioenergy community, and provide reliable information that enables research, scaleup, and industrial processing of biomass to produce renewable fuels and chemicals.

analytical↗

Monitoring the Caustic Dissolution of Aluminum Alloy in a Radiochemical Hot Cell Using Raman Spectroscopy

Chemical processing of highly radioactive materials commonly takes place in heavily shielded hot cells. The remote, real-time monitoring of chemical processing streams via optical spectroscopic techniques in hot cells may be particularly useful. Here in this paper, we describe the implementation of Raman spectroscopy and chemometric analysis to monitor the dissolution of aluminum-clad targets containing irradiated aluminum–neptunium oxide cermet pellets in caustic solutions in a hot cell environment. Partial least squares regression analysis was used to generate calibration models to quantify the concentration of dissolved aluminum, nitrate, and hydroxide in solutions within the radiochemical hot cell. This work explored a systematic approach to optimize a matrix of calibration standards using a D-optimal experimental design. The Design of Experiments-based regression model, in comparison to more traditional analytical approaches, was found to be the more practical method for building calibration models, with fewer samples, to obtain informative analytical data from Raman spectra.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Energy Improvements of Fire Station 71

Since 2018, the City of Shawnee, Kansas has completed two phases of the State of Kansas Facility Conservation Improvement Program (FCIP), an initiative that guarantees operational cost and energy savings through targeted construction improvements on City facilities and infrastructure. The City is currently in the third phase of this FCIP, where one of the projects included an investment in energy improvements for Fire Station 71 (FS 71). The City partnered with Navitas, an Energy Service Company (ESCO), to implement a Photovoltaic Solar Array on FS71. The purpose of this project was to invest in sustainable building improvements with Energy Conservation Measures (ECM) to bring cost savings to the City and to provide sustainable benefits to the residents of Shawnee. In the first task of the project, Navitas collaborated with the City of Shawnee and the Community Development Department to determine the optimal layout and schedule for the installation of the solar array on FS 71. In the second task of the project, Navitas installed the 99.8 kW DC Photovoltaic solar array system. This system installation comprised of racking, inverters, optimizers, load center, and disconnect, which were all installed at a total ECM price of $\$$247,948. The third task focused on start-up and commissioning of the array. Navitas installed a real-time data analytics information management system integrated with utility meters, which evaluates the operations of the utility system and verifies operation of equipment and ensures optimum operation for energy efficiency. In the final task of this project, this analytics system was used for monitoring and verification, which will continue to be used to evaluate the success of the project for the coming years. The primary goal of the project was to install the 99.8 kW DC PV solar array at FS 71 to demonstrate the viability of solar energy systems in essential municipal facilities. Fire stations are energy demanding structures, as they require a constant intake of power and have a high baseline energy usage. The success of solar arrays on a fire station exemplifies their energy efficiency and effectiveness and displays their potential for application on other city facilities. By installing a solar array at such a facility, the City sought not only to offset electricity usage but also to serve as a model for ECMs in other municipal facilities and infrastructure projects. From an economic standpoint, this project demonstrates the feasibility of renewable energy at the municipal level. The total project cost of $\$$247,948 was split evenly between city funds and award funding, minimizing financial risk while ensuring guaranteed long-term savings. Any excess savings that are beyond the guaranteed minimums remain with the city, which enables future investment in sustainable energy initiatives. This project provides many benefits to the public. In addition to reducing the environmental footprint of city operations, it lowers taxpayer-funded utility spending and improves the energy security of a critical facility. The knowledge gained from this implementation motivates the City to focus on similar efforts across other public facilities in future FCIP phases and other City projects.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Simulation-driven optimization of high-order meshes in ALE hydrodynamics

Here we propose tools for high-order mesh optimization and demonstrate their benefits in the context of multi-material Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) compressible shock hydrodynamic applications. The mesh optimization process is driven by information provided by the simulation which uses the optimized mesh, such as shock positions, material regions, known error estimates, etc. These simulation features are usually represented discretely, for instance, as finite element functions on the Lagrangian mesh. The discrete nature of the input is critical for the practical applicability of the algorithms we propose and distinguishes this work from approaches that strictly require analytical information. Our methods are based on node movement through a high-order extension of the Target-Matrix Optimization Paradigm (TMOP). The proposed formulation is fully algebraic and relies only on local Jacobian matrices, so it is applicable to all types of mesh elements, in 2D and 3D, and any order of the mesh. We discuss the notions of constructing adaptive target matrices and obtaining their derivatives, reconstructing discrete data in intermediate meshes, node limiting that enables improvement of global mesh quality while preserving space-dependent local mesh features, and appropriate normalization of the objective function. The adaptivity methods are combined with automatic ALE triggers that can provide robustness of the mesh evolution and avoid excessive remap procedures. The benefits of the new high-order TMOP technology are illustrated on several simulations performed in the high-order ALE application BLAST.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Assessment of the Impact of Realistic Sensor Physics and the Integration of Ex-Core Sensors on Reactor Power Synthesis

In the work documented in this report, a weighting function–based core power synthesis method was applied to multiple Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP) reactor models, which are informed based on simulated self-powered neutron detector (SPND) responses. The weighting function method used has been coined the point-based iterative (PBI) method. The goal of this application is to assess the impact of considering realistic sensor physics in the generation of the simulated SPND outputs as well as to consider how the synthesis is impacted based on the inclusion of ex-core detectors in the model. The NuScale small modular reactor (SMR) and Westinghouse AP1000 pressurized water reactor (PWR) are the models that served as the testbeds for the assessment of realistic sensor physics; this was achieved by using Geant4 SPND models in comparison with analytical models, such that the effect of electron transport in realistic SPND geometries in the Geant4 model can be understood in terms of synthesis error and convergence time. The comparison was considered for fuel burnup–induced perturbations, for a range of sensor string densities and synthesized power distribution axial fidelities. The Texas A&M Testing, Research, Isotopes, General Atomics Reactor (TAMU TRIGA) reactor MCNP model was used to assess the impact of ex-core sensors; this was done by performing synthesis with and without the ex-core detectors and by quantifying the synthesis error and number of iterations associated with Gaussian-type perturbations in many locations in the core. The TAMU TRIGA model was particularly pertinent for this study because of the interest in future experimental tests with SPNDs in this reactor, as well as the ease of modifying the MCNP model to include ex-core detectors with heterogeneously described response functions. Results from the comparison between the Geant4 and analytical SPND models indicate that similar average and maximum synthesis errors were obtained for burnup-induced perturbations in both the NuScale SMR and the AP1000. This was true for a range of sensor string densities and axial fidelities. However, there were marked differences between both the Geant4 and analytically informed models in terms of the iterations required to converge on the synthesized power distribution. Namely, the Geant4-informed models tended to lead to fewer iterations, except for a few sensor–core configurations that had particularly numerous iterations. Results from the ex-core sensor assessment with the TAMU TRIGA model indicate that the inclusion of ex-core sensors drastically reduces the synthesis error of Gaussian-type perturbations close to the edge of the core, and it slightly reduces synthesis errors for perturbations closer to the center of the core. This was achieved with a minimal increase in computational cost—that is, the number of iterations required for convergence. The errors were identified to be in the same location as the perturbation in the core, indicating that the methodology remains robust for unperturbed regions of the core. A secondary result from this study with the TAMU TRIGA was yielded by analysis of the neutron flux levels in the in-core and ex-core sensor locations of the core; these flux levels indicate that SPNDs could be used as both in-core and ex-core sensors, so long as the emitter material is sensitive to thermal neutrons. The results from these studies provide a quantitative understanding of the importance of considering realistic sensor physics and including ex-core sensors to perform accurate and timely power distribution synthesis of a reactor core.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Analysis of X-ray images and spectra (aXis2000): A toolkit for the analysis of X-ray spectromicroscopy data

Spectromicroscopy refers to analytical methods that combine imaging and spectroscopy to provide detailed, spatially resolved analytical information about a sample, such as the type and quantitative spatial distributions of chemical components, geometric or magnetic alignment information, crystal structure, etc. The analysis of X-ray images and spectra (aXis2000) software described in this work provides a set of routines within a single, integrated, graphical-oriented package to read, display, manipulate and analyze spectromicroscopy data, with particular focus on soft X-ray spectromicroscopy methods such as scanning transmission X-ray microscopy (STXM), X-ray photoemission electron microscopy (XPEEM), scanning photoelectron X-ray microscopy (SPEM) and transmission X-ray microscopy (TXM). Here, this free software is described and compared to other software that can provide similar or complementary capabilities. Examples of spectromicroscopic analyses using advanced features of aXis2000 are provided.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Learning Global Proliferation Expertise Evolution Using AI-Driven Analytics and Public Information

Detecting and anticipating global proliferation expertise and capability evolution from unstructured, noisy, and incomplete public data streams is a highly desired, but extremely challenging task. Here, in this article, we present our pioneering data-driven approach to support the non-proliferation mission to detect and explain the evolution of proliferation expertise and capability development globally from terabytes of publicly available information (PAI), focusing on our knowledge extraction pipeline and descriptive analytics. We first discuss how we fuse nine open-source data streams, including multilingual data, to convert 4 TB of unstructured data to structured knowledge and encode dynamically evolving proliferation expertise representations—content and context graphs. For this, we rely on natural language processing (NLP) and deep learning (DL) models to perform information extraction, topic modeling, and distributed text representation (aka embedding) learning. We then present interactive, usable, and explainable descriptive analytics to refine domain knowledge and present it in a human-understandable form. Finally, we introduce future work avenues that will leverage our dynamic knowledge representations and descriptive analytics to enable predictive and prescriptive inferences to achieve real-time domain understanding and contextual reasoning about global proliferation expertise and capability evolution.

98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL P↗

Scalable Predictive And Risk Technologies

The research involves developing scalable technologies for risk-informed predictive analytics to achieve condition-based monitoring and maintenance strategies to reduce overall maintenance costs. The research utilizes data (real-time data, periodic data, and institutional knowledge) related to a particular plant asset from a specific nuclear plant site to develop technologies to scale risk-informed predictive analytic algorithms across different plant assets at the plant site and across the nuclear fleet. The developed algorithms and codes are used to optimize the maintenance strategy and estimate/forecast generation costs based on the state of health of the plant asset. Developed codes specifically include 1. Parameter estimation using plant operation data 2. Federated and Transfer learning model 3. Feature group based Multi-kernel SVM 4. Three state markov model

Manjunatha, KoushikAraseethota↗

Analytic insights on the information content of new observables

Uncertainty quantification has emerged as a rapidly growing field in nuclear science. Theoretical predictions of physical observables often involve extrapolations to regions that are poorly constrained by laboratory experi- ments and astrophysical observations. Without properly quantified theoretical errors, such model predictions are of limited value. Also, one often deals with theoretical constructs that involve fundamental quantities that are not accessible to experiment or observation. Particularly relevant in this context is the pressure of pure neutron matter. Furthermore, in this Rapid Communication, we develop an analytic framework to answer the question of “How can new data reduce uncertainties of current theoretical models?” Simple and insightful expressions are obtained to quantify the impact of one or two new observables on theoretical uncertainties in two critical quantities: The slope of the symmetry energy at saturation density and the pressure of pure neutron matter at twice nuclear matter saturation density.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗