skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.


Title: Photoelectron Sheath near the Lunar Surface: Fully Kinetic Modeling and Uncertainty Quantification Analysis
This paper presents a modeling and uncertainty quantification (UQ) study of the photoelectron sheath near the lunar surface. A fully kinetic 3-D finite-difference (FD) particle-in-cell (PIC) code is utilized to simulate the plasma interaction near the lunar surface and the resulting photoelectron sheath. For the uncertainty quantification analysis, this FD-PIC code is treated as a black box providing high-fidelity quantities of interest, which are also used to construct efficient reduced-order models to perform UQ analysis. 1-D configuration is chosen to present the analytic sheath solution as well as to demonstrate the procedure and capability of the UQ analysis.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1923799
PAR ID:
10163531
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
AIAA Scitech 2020 Forum
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. null (Ed.)
    Abstract This paper presents an adaptive Kriging based method to perform uncertainty quantification (UQ) of the photoelectron sheath and dust levitation on the lunar surface. The objective of this study is to identify the upper and lower bounds of the electric potential and that of dust levitation height, given the intervals of model parameters in the one-dimensional (1D) photoelectron sheath model. To improve the calculation efficiency, we employ the widely used adaptive Kriging method (AKM). A task-oriented learning function and a stopping criterion are developed to train the Kriging model and customize the AKM. Experiment analysis shows that the proposed AKM is both accurate and efficient. 
    more » « less
  2. This paper presents fully kinetic particle simulations of plasma charging at lunar craters with the presence of lunar lander modules using the recently developed Parallel Immersed-Finite-Element Particle-in-Cell (PIFE-PIC) code. The computation model explicitly includes the lunar regolith layer on top of the lunar bedrock, taking into account the regolith layer thickness and permittivity as well as the lunar lander module in the simulation domain, resolving a nontrivial surface terrain or lunar lander configuration. Simulations were carried out to study the lunar surface and lunar lander module charging near craters at the lunar terminator region under mean and severe plasma environments. The lunar module’s position is also investigated to see its effect on the plasma charging relative to the craters. Differential surface charging was clearly resolved by the simulations. For the charging of a lunar lander module made of conducting materials, the results show a near-uniform potential close to that of its surrounding environment and moderate levels of local electric fields. Additionally, the risks associated with charging and discharging increase significantly under a more severe plasma charging environment as shown in the severe plasma environment cases. 
    more » « less
  3. Assessing the effects of input uncertainty on simulation results for multiphase flows will allow for more robust engineering designs and improved devices. For example, in atomizing jets, surface tension plays a critical role in determining when and how coherent liquid structures break up. Uncertainty in the surface tension coefficient can lead to uncertainty in spray angle, drop size, and velocity distribution. Uncertainty quantification (UQ) determines how input uncertainties affect outputs, and the approach taken can be classified as non-intrusive or intrusive. A classical, non-intrusive approach is the Monte-Carlo scheme, which requires multiple simulation runs using samples from a distribution of inputs. Statistics on output variability are computed from the many simulation outputs. While non-intrusive schemes are straightforward to implement, they can quickly become cost prohibitive, suffer from convergence issues, and have problems with confounding factors, making it difficult to look at uncertainty in multiple variables at once. Alternatively, an intrusive scheme inserts stochastic (uncertain) variables into the governing equations, modifying the mathematics and numerical methods used, but possibly reducing computational cost. In this work, we extend UQ methods developed for single-phase flows to handle gas-liquid multiphase dynamics by developing a stochastic conservative level set approach and a stochastic continuous surface tension method. An oscillating droplet and a 2-D atomizing jet are used to test the method. In these test cases, uncertainty about the surface tension coefficient and initial starting position will be explored, including the impact on breaking/ merging interfaces. 
    more » « less
  4. In this review, state‐of‐the‐art studies on the uncertainty quantification (UQ) of microstructures in aerospace materials is examined, addressing both forward and inverse problems. Initially, it introduces the types of uncertainties and UQ algorithms. In the review, the forward problem of uncertainty propagation in process–structure and structure–property relationships is then explored. Subsequently, the inverse UQ problem, also known as the design under uncertainty problem, is discussed focusing on structure–process and property–structure linkages. Herein, the review concludes by identifying gaps in the current literature and suggesting key areas for future research, including multiscale topology optimization under uncertainty, implementing physics‐informed neural networks to UQ problems, investigating the effects of uncertainty on extreme mechanical behavior, reliability‐based design, and UQ in additive manufacturing. 
    more » « less
  5. Quantifying uncertainties for machine learning models is a critical step to reduce human verification effort by detecting predictions with low confidence. This paper proposes a method for uncertainty quantification (UQ) of table structure recognition (TSR). The proposed UQ method is built upon a mixture-of-expert approach termed Test-Time Augmentation (TTA). Our key idea is to enrich and diversify the table representations, to spotlight the cells with high recognition uncertainties. To evaluate the effectiveness, we proposed two heuristics to differentiate highly uncertain cells from normal cells, namely, masking and cell complexity quantification. Masking involves varying the pixel intensity to deem the detection uncertainty. Cell complexity quantification gauges the uncertainty of each cell by its topological relation with neighboring cells. The evaluation results based on standard benchmark datasets demonstrate that the proposed method is effective in quantifying uncertainty in TSR models. To our best knowledge, this study is the first of its kind to enable UQ in TSR tasks. 
    more » « less