2,038 research outputs found
DETC2006-99643 MODELING DESIGN SPACES WITH DISCONTINUOUS VARIABLES USING NURBS HYPERMODELS
Abstract The vast majority of metamodeling demonstrations focuses on problems composed of continuous variables. However, important engineering design problems often include one or more discontinuous variables that require special attention. Previous work demonstrated the ability of Non-Uniform Rational B-spline HyPerModels to represent highly nonlinear functions composed of continuous variables. With minor modifications those capabilities can be extended to include functions defined by combinations of discontinuous input and output variables of different types, including discrete integer variables, feasibility variables and membership functions. Examples are used to demonstrate these modeling capabilities including applications developed from real engineering design problems such as the optimal positioning of a construction site crane and the optimal lay-up of a composite material I-beam
Biomass burning and pollution aerosol over North America: Organic components and their influence on spectral optical properties and humidification response
Thermal analysis of aerosol size distributions provided size resolved volatility up to temperatures of 400°C during extensive flights over North America (NA) for the INTEX/ICARTT experiment in summer 2004. Biomass burning and pollution plumes identified from trace gas measurements were evaluated for their aerosol physiochemical and optical signatures. Measurements of soluble ionic mass and refractory black carbon (BC) mass, inferred from light absorption, were combined with volatility to identify organic carbon at 400°C (VolatileOC) and the residual or refractory organic carbon, RefractoryOC. This approach characterized distinct constituent mass fractions present in biomass burning and pollution plumes every 5–10 min. Biomass burning, pollution and dust aerosol could be stratified by their combined spectral scattering and absorption properties. The “nonplume” regional aerosol exhibited properties dominated by pollution characteristics near the surface and biomass burning aloft. VolatileOC included most water-soluble organic carbon. RefractoryOC dominated enhanced shortwave absorption in plumes from Alaskan and Canadian forest fires. The mass absorption efficiency of this RefractoryOC was about 0.63 m2 g−1 at 470 nm and 0.09 m2 g−1 at 530 nm. Concurrent measurements of the humidity dependence of scattering, γ, revealed the OC component to be only weakly hygroscopic resulting in a general decrease in γ with increasing OC mass fractions. Under ambient humidity conditions, the systematic relations between physiochemical properties and γ lead to a well-constrained dependency on the absorption per unit dry mass for these plume types that may be used to challenge remotely sensed and modeled optical properties
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Generic sequential sampling for metamodel approximations
Metamodels approximate complex multivariate data sets from simulations and experiments. These data sets often are not based on an explicitly defined function. The resulting metamodel represents a complex system's behavior for subsequent analysis or optimization. Often an exhaustive data search to obtain the data for the metalnodel is impossible, so an intelligent sampling strategy is necessary. While inultiple approaches have been advocated, the majority of these approaches were developed in support of a particular class of metamodel, known as a Kriging. A more generic, cotninonsense approach to this problem allows sequential sampling techniques to be applied to other types of metamodeis. This research compares recent search techniques for Kriging inetamodels with a generic, inulti-criteria approach combined with a new type of B-spline metamodel. This B-spline metamodel is competitive with prior results obtained with a Kriging metamodel. Furthermore, the results of this research highlight several important features necessary for these techniques to be extended to more complex domains
The well-aligned orbit of WASP-84b: evidence for disc migration
We report the sky-projected orbital obliquity (spin-orbit angle) of WASP-84b,
a 0.70- planet in a 8.52-day orbit around a G9V/K0V star, to be
. We obtain a true obliquity of from a measurement of the inclination of the stellar spin axis with
respect to the sky plane. Due to the young age and the weak tidal forcing of
the system, we suggest that the orbit of WASP-84b is unlikely to have both
realigned and circularised from the misaligned and/or eccentric orbit likely to
have arisen from high-eccentricity migration. Therefore we conclude that the
planet probably migrated via interaction with the protoplanetary disc. This
would make it the first short-orbit, giant planet to have been shown to have
migrated via this pathway. Further, we argue that the distribution of
obliquities for planets orbiting cool stars ( < 6250 K) suggests
that high-eccentricity migration is an important pathway for the formation of
short-orbit, giant planets.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, submitted to ApJ
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Robotics for Nuclear Material Handling at LANL:Capabilities and Needs
Nuclear material processing operations present numerous challenges for effective automation. Confined spaces, hazardous materials and processes, particulate contamination, radiation sources, and corrosive chemical operations are but a few of the significant hazards. However, automated systems represent a significant safety advance when deployed in place of manual tasks performed by human workers. The replacement of manual operations with automated systems has been desirable for nearly 40 years, yet only recently are automated systems becoming increasingly common for nuclear materials handling applications. This paper reviews several automation systems which are deployed or about to be deployed at Los Alamos National Laboratory for nuclear material handling operations. Highlighted are the current social and technological challenges faced in deploying automated systems into hazardous material handling environments and the opportunities for future innovations
A comparison of spectroscopic methods for detecting starlight scattered by transiting hot Jupiters, with application to Subaru data for HD 209458b and HD 189733b
The measurement of the light scattered from extrasolar planets informs
atmospheric and formation models. With the discovery of many hot Jupiter
planets orbiting nearby stars, this motivates the development of robust methods
of characterisation from follow up observations. In this paper we discuss two
methods for determining the planetary albedo in transiting systems. First, the
most widely used method for measuring the light scattered by hot Jupiters
(Collier Cameron et al.) is investigated for application for typical echelle
spectra of a transiting planet system, showing that detection requires high
signal-to-noise ratio data of bright planets. Secondly a new Fourier analysis
method is also presented, which is model-independent and utilises the benefits
of the reduced number of unknown parameters in transiting systems. This
approach involves solving for the planet and stellar spectra in Fourier space
by least-squares. The sensitivities of the methods are determined via Monte
Carlo simulations for a range of planet-to-star fluxes. We find the Fourier
analysis method to be better suited to the ideal case of typical observations
of a well constrained transiting system than the Collier Cameron et al. method.
We apply the Fourier analysis method for extracting the light scattered by
transiting hot Jupiters from high resolution spectra to echelle spectra of HD
209458 and HD 189733. Unfortunately we are unable to improve on the previous
upper limit of the planet-to-star flux for HD 209458b set by space-based
observations. A 1{\sigma}upper limit on the planet-to-star flux of HD 189733b
is measured in the wavelength range of 558.83-599.56 nm yielding {\epsilon} <
4.5 \times 10-4. Improvement in the measurement of the upper limit of the
planet-to-star flux of this system, with ground-based capabilities, requires
data with a higher signal-to-noise ratio, and increased stability of the
telescope.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables. Monthly Notices of the Royal
Astronomical Society, in press. Accepted 2011 March 17. Received 2011 March
17; in original form 2010 June 2
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