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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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NASA NTRS2000

Evaluation of Methods for Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO)

A new MDO method, BLISS, and two different variants of the method, BLISS/RS and BLISS/S, have been implemented using iSIGHT's scripting language and evaluated in this report on multidisciplinary problems. All of these methods are based on decomposing a modular system optimization system into several subtasks optimization, that may be executed concurrently, and the system optimization that coordinates the subtasks optimization. The BLISS method and its variants are well suited for exploiting the concurrent processing capabilities in a multiprocessor machine. Several steps, including the local sensitivity analysis, local optimization, response surfaces construction and updates are all ideally suited for concurrent processing. Needless to mention, such algorithms that can effectively exploit the concurrent processing capabilities of the compute servers will be a key requirement for solving large-scale industrial design problems, such as the automotive vehicle problem detailed in Section 3.4.

Kodiyalam, Srinivas↗

DOE OSTI2024

Transitory sensitivity in automatic chemical kinetic mechanism analysis

Abstract Detailed chemical kinetic mechanisms are necessary for resolving many important chemical processes. As the chemistry of smaller molecules has become better grounded and quantum chemistry calculations have become cheaper, kineticists have become interested in constructing progressively larger kinetic mechanisms to model increasingly complex chemical processes. These large kinetic mechanisms prove incredibly difficult to refine and time‐consuming to interpret. Traditional sensitivity analysis on a large mechanism can range from inconvenient to practically impossible without special techniques to reduce the computational cost. We first present a new time‐local sensitivity analysis we term transitory sensitivity analysis. Transitory sensitivity analysis is demonstrated in an example to accurately identify traditionally sensitive reactions at an 18,000x speed up over traditional sensitivities. By fusing transitory sensitivity analysis with more traditional time‐local branching, pathway, and cluster analyses, we develop an algorithm for efficient automatic mechanism analysis. This automatic mechanism analysis at a time point is able to identify the reactions a target is most sensitive to using transitory sensitivity analysis and then propose hypotheses why the reaction might be sensitive using branching, pathway, and cluster analyses. We implement these algorithms within the reaction mechanism simulator (RMS) package, which enables us to report the automatic mechanism analysis results in highly readable text formats and in molecular flux diagrams.

Johnson, Matthew S.↗

DOE OSTI2024

Skeletal reaction models for methane combustion

A local-sensitivity-analysis technique is employed to generate new skeletal reaction models for methane combustion from the foundational fuel chemistry model (FFCM-1). Here, the sensitivities of the thermo-chemical variables with respect to the reaction rates are computed via the forced-optimally time dependent (f-OTD) methodology. In this methodology, the large sensitivity matrix containing all local sensitivities is modeled as a product of two low-rank time-dependent matrices. The evolution equations of these matrices are derived from the governing equations of the system. The modeled sensitivities are computed for the auto-ignition of methane at atmospheric and high pressures with different sets of initial temperatures, and equivalence ratios. These sensitivities are then analyzed to rank the most important (sensitive) species. A series of skeletal models with different number of species and levels of accuracy in reproducing the FFCM-1 results are suggested. The performances of the generated models are compared against FFCM-1 in predicting the ignition delay, the laminar flame speed, and the flame extinction. The results of this comparative assessment suggest the skeletal models with 24 and more species generate the FFCM-1 results with an excellent accuracy.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

NASA NTRS1991

Combustion kinetics and sensitivity analysis computations

The stiff ordinary differential equation solution methods more commonly used for chemical kinetics problems are examined, and the efficiency and accuracy of several of the methods are compared by applying them to two combustion kinetics problems. The local sensitivity analysis methods developed to date are outlined, and their advantages and difficulties are briefly discussed. Examples are used to make comparisons among the different techniques.

Radhakrishnan, K.↗

DOE OSTI2026

Uncertainty Quantification and Sensitivity Analysis of Nuclear Construction Cost Reduction Pathways

High construction costs have plagued recent nuclear projects and they hamper the widespread deployment of nuclear technology. The Nuclear Cost Reduction Tool is a plant economic framework that quantifies the impact that various plant design and construction attributes have on construction costs and cost overruns and shows the positive effects of learning over a series of deployments. However, a downside of the current model is that all model outputs and capabilities are deterministic. To provide a more comprehensive view, this study evaluated the impact of model parameter uncertainty through a sensitivity analysis applied to 18 model parameters. This approach quantified the impact of model uncertainty on the output variables of Net Overnight Capital Cost (Net OCC), Construction Duration (CD), and Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE). Monte Carlo analysis revealed uncertainty distributions for these variables, showing that absolute uncertainty decreases over a series of deployments. A local sensitivity analysis showed that even small parameter perturbations (5%) can have a significant impact on project execution, highlighting areas that could reduce costs by billions across an order book of plants. The results of this study have improved the understanding of the model and identified the most impactful model parameters and construction attributes.

Levelized Cost of Electricity↗

DOE OSTI2025

A Review and Comparison of Different Sensitivity Analysis Techniques in Practice

There exist many methods for sensitivity analysis readily available to the practitioner. While each seeks to help the modeler answer the same general question – How do sources of uncertainty or changes in the model inputs relate to uncertainty in the output? – different methods are associated with different assumptions, constraints, and required resources, leading to conclusions that may vary in interpretability and level of detail. Thus, it is crucial that the practitioner selects the desired sensitivity analysis method judiciously, making sure to match the selected approach to the specifics of their problem and to their desired objectives. In this chapter, we provide a practical overview of a collection of widely used, widely available sensitivity analysis methods. We focus on global sensitivity approaches, which seek to characterize how uncertainty in the model output may be allocated to sources of uncertainty in model inputs across the entire input space. Generally, this will require the practitioner to specify a probability distribution over the input space. On the other hand, methods for local sensitivity analysis do not require this specification but they have more limited utility, providing insight into sources of uncertainty associated only with a particular, specified location in the input space. Our hope is that this chapter may serve as a decision-making tool for practitioners, helping to guide the selection of a sensitivity analysis approach that will best fit their needs. To support this goal, we have selected a suite of approaches to cover, which, while not exhaustive, we believe provides a flexible and robust sensitivity analysis toolkit. All methods included are widely used and available in standard software packages.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

NASA NTRS2017

Sensitivity Analysis Method to Address User Disparities in the Analytic Hierarchy Process

Decision makers often face complex problems, which can seldom be addressed well without the use of structured analytical models. Mathematical models have been developed to streamline and facilitate decision making activities, and among these, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) constitutes one of the most utilized multi-criteria decision analysis methods. While AHP has been thoroughly researched and applied, the method still shows limitations in terms of addressing user profile disparities. A novel sensitivity analysis method based on local partial derivatives is presented here to address these limitations. This new methodology informs AHP users of which pairwise comparisons most impact the derived weights and the ranking of alternatives. The method can also be applied to decision processes that require the aggregation of results obtained by several users, as it highlights which individuals most critically impact the aggregated group results while also enabling to focus on inputs that drive the final ordering of alternatives. An aerospace design and engineering example that requires group decision making is presented to demonstrate and validate the proposed methodology.

Marie Ivanco↗

NASA NTRS2008

Carbon-Nanotube-Based Electrodes for Biomedical Applications

A nanotube array based on vertically aligned nanotubes or carbon nanofibers has been invented for use in localized electrical stimulation and recording of electrical responses in selected regions of an animal body, especially including the brain. There are numerous established, emerging, and potential applications for localized electrical stimulation and/or recording, including treatment of Parkinson s disease, Tourette s syndrome, and chronic pain, and research on electrochemical effects involved in neurotransmission. Carbon-nanotube-based electrodes offer potential advantages over metal macroelectrodes (having diameters of the order of a millimeter) and microelectrodes (having various diameters ranging down to tens of microns) heretofore used in such applications. These advantages include the following: a) Stimuli and responses could be localized at finer scales of spatial and temporal resolution, which is at subcellular level, with fewer disturbances to, and less interference from, adjacent regions. b) There would be less risk of hemorrhage on implantation because nano-electrode-based probe tips could be configured to be less traumatic. c) Being more biocompatible than are metal electrodes, carbon-nanotube-based electrodes and arrays would be more suitable for long-term or permanent implantation. d) Unlike macro- and microelectrodes, a nano-electrode could penetrate a cell membrane with minimal disruption. Thus, for example, a nanoelectrode could be used to generate an action potential inside a neuron or in proximity of an active neuron zone. Such stimulation may be much more effective than is extra- or intracellular stimulation via a macro- or microelectrode. e) The large surface area of an array at a micron-scale footprint of non-insulated nanoelectrodes coated with a suitable electrochemically active material containing redox ingredients would make it possible to obtain a pseudocapacitance large enough to dissipate a relatively large amount of electric charge, so that a large stimulation current could be applied at a micron-scale region without exhausting the redox ingredients. f) Carbon nanotube array is more compatible with the three-dimensional network of tissues. Particularly, a better electrical-neural interface can be formed. g) A carbon nanotube array inlaid in insulating materials with only the ends exposed is an extremely sensitive electro-analysis tool that can measure the local neurotransmitter signal at extremely high sensitivity and temporal resolution.

Li, Jun↗

DOE OSTI2025

Predictive outlook for experiments resolving prompt vs local redeposition of high- Z materials in tokamaks

High-Z plasma facing components redeposit within the sheath through a combination of two distinct mechanisms: prompt (or geometric-driven) and local (or sheath-driven) redeposition. Experimental efforts are needed to determine the leading-order parameters influencing prompt-vs-local trade-off, which sets the fraction of material entering the scrape-off layer. In preparation for such experiments, leading-order parameters are isolated within the PYEAD-RustBCA-GITR coupled net erosion code using Sobol’ sensitivity analysis. Then, experiments resolving prompt-vs-local trade-off under variation of these leading-order parameters are proposed using an isotopic coupon design with multifaceted diagnostic coverage. The measurability of these experiments is evaluated using synthetic diagnostics.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

NASA NTRS1996

Stratospheric NO and NO2 Abundances from ATMOS Solar-Occultation Measurements

Using results from a time-dependent photochemical model to calculate the diurnal variation of NO and NO2, we have corrected Atmospheric Trace MOlecule Spectroscopy (ATMOS) solar-occultation retrievals of the NO and NO2 abundances at 90' solar zenith angle. Neglecting to adjust for the rapid variation of these gases across the terminator results in potential errors in retrieved profiles of approximately 20% for NO2 and greater than 100% for NC at altitudes below 25 km. Sensitivity analysis indicates that knowledge of the local 03 and temperature profiles, rather than zonal mean or climatological conditions of these quantities, is required to obtain reliable retrievals of NO and NO2 in the lower stratosphere. Extremely inaccurate 03 or temperature values at 20 km can result in 50% errors in retrieved NO or NO2. Mixing ratios of NO in the mid-latitude, lower stratosphere measured by ATMOS during the November 1994 ATLAS-3 mission compare favorably with in situ ER-2 observations, providing strong corroboration of the reliability of the adjusted space-borne measurements.

Newchurch, M. J.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Sensitivity analysis of a wing aeroelastic response

A variation of Sobieski's Global Sensitivity Equations (GSE) approach is implemented to obtain the sensitivity of the static aeroelastic response of a three-dimensional wing model. The formulation is quite general and accepts any aerodynamics and structural analysis capability. An interface code is written to convert one analysis's output to the other's input, and visa versa. Local sensitivity derivatives are calculated by either analytic methods or finite difference techniques. A program to combine the local sensitivities, such as the sensitivity of the stiffness matrix or the aerodynamic kernel matrix, into global sensitivity derivatives is developed. The aerodynamic analysis package FAST, using a lifting surface theory, and a structural package, ELAPS, implementing Giles' equivalent plate model are used.

Kapania, Rakesh K.↗

DOE OSTI2026

A Unified Workflow for Sensitivity-Based Kinetic Analysis in Microkinetic Models

Degrees of rate control (DRC), apparent activation energies, and apparent reaction orders are established local sensitivity diagnostics for interpreting microkinetic models, but applying them routinely to large mechanisms often requires substantial reaction-specific bookkeeping, perturbation design, and postprocessing. Here, in this study, we present a unified derivative-based workflow that evaluates these quantities from a single compiled reaction-network model and target-rate definition. For any user-provided microkinetic model, the workflow compiles the mechanism into stoichiometrically consistent mass-action rate equations, solves the surface dynamics, and uses automatic differentiation to compute sensitivities with respect to rate constants, temperature, and gas partial pressures. By combining their calculations in the same framework, the workflow clearly demonstrates the relationships between different DRCs and the apparent activation energy. Using existing examples of propylene partial oxidation and methane oxidation on Pd(100), we verify expected transient redistribution of rate control, distinguish net Campbell DRCs from one-sided directional sensitivities, and show how apparent activation energy can be reconstructed either from one-sided DRCs or from state-based DRCs while critical mechanistic insights are obtained consistently. In the methane oxidation case, a pathway-subset test further illustrates how a simplified mechanism preserves key kinetic signatures of a full model, showing the potential of our user-friendly tool for model construction beyond kinetic analysis.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2025

Hybrid Plasmonic Coupled‐Mode Metasurface Design for Shot‐Noise Limited Ppb‐Level Hydrogen Detection

Plasmonic hydrogen sensors have enabled hydrogen detection below parts-per-million (ppm) range by boosting the sensitivity using localized surface plasmonic resonant (LSPR) structures. However, the intrinsic optical losses of Palladium (Pd), the primary plasmonic metal used for hydrogen detection, result in a low quality (Q) factor LSPR, which fundamentally hinders further improvement. In this work, a hybrid plasmonic metasurface is proposed that couples Pd-based LSPR structure with an Au film supporting surface plasmon polariton mode (Au-SPP). The coupled near-perfect absorber resonance yields a spectrally narrow, high Q response that retains strong sensitivity to hydrogen while improving resonance localization. Numerical analysis shows that, under shot-noise-limited conditions, the limit of detection (LoD) can be improved by over threefold compared to the state-of-the-art designs. Furthermore, this hybrid plasmonic coupled-mode metasurface thus presents a promising pathway to achieve parts-per-billion-level (ppb-level) hydrogen detection with enhanced spectral precision and robustness.

coupled modes↗

NASA NTRS1993

Sensitivity analysis of aeroelastic response of a wing using piecewise pressure representation

A sensitivity analysis scheme of the static aeroelastic response of a wing is developed, by incorporating a piecewise panel-based pressure representation into an existing wing aeroelastic model to improve the model's fidelity, including the sensitivity of the wing static aeroelastic response with respect to various shape parameters. The new formulation is quite general and accepts any aerodynamics and structural analysis capability. A program is developed which combines the local sensitivities, such as the sensitivity of the stiffness matrix or the aerodynamic kernel matrix, into global sensitivity derivatives.

Eldred, Lloyd B.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Sensitivity Analysis of the Static Aeroelastic Response of a Wing

A technique to obtain the sensitivity of the static aeroelastic response of a three dimensional wing model is designed and implemented. The formulation is quite general and accepts any aerodynamic and structural analysis capability. A program to combine the discipline level, or local, sensitivities into global sensitivity derivatives is developed. A variety of representations of the wing pressure field are developed and tested to determine the most accurate and efficient scheme for representing the field outside of the aerodynamic code. Chebyshev polynomials are used to globally fit the pressure field. This approach had some difficulties in representing local variations in the field, so a variety of local interpolation polynomial pressure representations are also implemented. These panel based representations use a constant pressure value, a bilinearly interpolated value. or a biquadraticallv interpolated value. The interpolation polynomial approaches do an excellent job of reducing the numerical problems of the global approach for comparable computational effort. Regardless of the pressure representation used. sensitivity and response results with excellent accuracy have been produced for large integrated quantities such as wing tip deflection and trim angle of attack. The sensitivities of such things as individual generalized displacements have been found with fair accuracy. In general, accuracy is found to be proportional to the relative size of the derivatives to the quantity itself.

Eldred, Lloyd B.↗

NASA NTRS1988

Observation of airplane flow fields by natural condensation effects

In-flight condensation patterns can illustrate a variety of airplane flow fields, such as attached and separated flows, vortex flows, and expansion and shock waves. These patterns are a unique source of flow visualization that has not been utilized previously. Condensation patterns at full-scale Reynolds number can provide useful information for researchers experimenting in subscale tunnels. It is also shown that computed values of relative humidity in the local flow field provide an inexpensive way to analyze the qualitative features of the condensation pattern, although a more complete theoretical modeling is necessary to obtain details of the condensation process. Furthermore, the analysis revealed that relative humidity is more sensitive to changes in local static temperature than to changes in pressure.

Campbell, James F.↗

NASA NTRS1985

Photometric Analysis of Jupiter-illuminated Images of Io

Several sequences of the dark (Jupiter-illuminated) side of Io obtained during the Voyager 2 encounter present opporunity for understanding several problems relating to the surface composition of Io. The existence or absence of SO2 condensates on the night side is a sensitive indicator of an SO2 atmosphere. Preliminary analysis of the night side Io images suggests localized brightenings of approximately 25% may exist. Examination of the night side images represents an even more sensitive indicator for pure sulfur. Between 60 and 130 degrees (the minimum nighttime and maximum daytime temperatures, respectively), the relative spectral reflectance for yellow sulfur observed in the Voyager green and clear filters decreases by 25%. This decrease should be detectable on the nightside images. A search of the Voyager 2 Jupiter-illuminated images yielded a single pair of green and clear images. In these images one hemisphere of Io is Sun-illuminated and the other is Jupiter illuminated. Geologically similar regions of Io are being selected to obtain average color ratios of specific geologic units for both day and night sides.

Buratti, B. J.↗

NASA NTRS1981

Sensitivity of wind analyses to barotropic energetics during summer

Three analysis schemes - the extended correction method of the University of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM), the National Meteorological Center (NMC) Hough analysis, and Sadler's subjective stream analysis (SUB) - were used to obtain grid-point winds using data for a five-day period in late summer, and barotropic energetics computations obtained using the three schemes for six limited regions in the Pacific and Indian Oceans were compared. Few differences were observed between UHM and NMC stream-function analyses, but significant differences were found in the wind fields and energetics obtained using the subjective method and the two objective methods in data-sparse regions. Major features in the local barotropic criteria field were found to be less sensitive to the analysis scheme used.

Sumi, A.↗