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Christon, Mark A.

Publications and source records attributed to Christon, Mark A..

TeMPI Shim

This is the manual for the TeMPI Shim library, whose goal is to facilitate scientific apps being loosely coupled through MPI. TeMPI Shim can be used to create and manage Message Passing Interface (MPI, see [MPI]) Communicators for Single Program, Multiple Data (SPMD, see [SPMD]) and Multiple Programs, Multiple Data (MPMD, see [MPMD]) workflows. MPI provides the MPI_APPNUM command number to each of the processes within its context. This number, starting at 0, is the application number being executed. In a case where 3 applications are being run in MPMD mode, there would be MPI_APPNUM values of 0, 1, and 2. TeMPI Shim creates intra- and inter-communicators between each pair of MPI_APPNUM values. In the aforementioned case, application 0 would have intra- and inter-communicators to speak to itself, application 1, and application 2. This is replicated for each of the applications. Additionally, TeMPI Shim creates intra- and inter-communicators for the first MPI rank of each application to directly communicate only with each other. Finally, TeMPI Shim creates its own copy of the default world communicator, i.e., MPI_COMM_WORLD. In the case where there is only a single application, it will have the communicators to only speak with itself. TeMPI Shim is useful in this case since it is considered good practice for MPI applications to copy the default world communicator and reference this copy (see [Duplicate World]_) anyways. Ultimately, it provides value independent of the number of applications present.

96 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND PRESERVATION↗

An Immersed Finite Element Lagrangian-Eulerian Code-Coupling Framework

This report presents an assessment of immersed Eulerian-Lagrangian code-coupling techniques suitable for use in a broad range of mechanics applications. The coupling algorithm is based on an immersed finite element method that considers the Lagrangian and Eulerian overlap regions in the overall variational formulation. In this report the basic formulation details are presented followed by various aspects of the code-coupling algorithm using OpenIFEM as the Lagrangian/coupling framework. A series of representative test cases that illustrate the code-coupling algorithm are discussed. The current work provides an in-depth investigation into the immersed finite element method for the purposes of providing a rigorous coupling technique that is minimally invasive in the respective Eulerian and Lagrangian codes. A number of extensions to the base immersed finite element method have been examined. These extension include nodal and quadrature-based indicator functions, a Lagrangian volume-fraction calculation in regions of overlap, and the use of penalty constraints between the Lagrangian and Eulerian domains. A unique MPI-based coupling strategy that retains the independent MPI structure of each code has been demonstrated.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Large-eddy simulation, fuel rod vibration and grid-to-rod fretting in pressurized water reactors

Grid-to-rod fretting (GTRF) in pressurized water reactors is a flow-induced vibration phenomenon that results in wear and fretting of the cladding material on fuel rods. GTRF is responsible for over 70% of the fuel failures in pressurized water reactors in the United States. Predicting the GTRF wear and concomitant interval between failures is important because of the large costs associated with reactor shutdown and replacement of fuel rod assemblies. The GTRF-induced wear process involves turbulent flow, mechanical vibration, tribology, and time-varying irradiated material properties in complex fuel assembly geometries. This paper presents a new approach for predicting GTRF induced fuel rod wear that uses high-resolution implicit large-eddy simulation to drive nonlinear transient dynamics computations. The GTRF fluid–structure problem is separated into the simulation of the turbulent flow field in the complex-geometry fuel-rod bundles using implicit large-eddy simulation, the calculation of statistics of the resulting fluctuating structural forces, and the nonlinear transient dynamics analysis of the fuel rod. Ultimately, the methods developed here, can be used, in conjunction with operational management, to improve reactor core designs in which fuel rod failures are minimized or potentially eliminated. Furthermore, robustness of the behavior of both the structural forces computed from the turbulent flow simulations and the results from the transient dynamics analyses highlight the progress made towards achieving a predictive simulation capability for the GTRF problem.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

A hybrid incremental projection method for thermal-hydraulics applications

In this paper, a new second-order accurate, hybrid, incremental projection method for time-dependent incompressible viscous flow is introduced in this paper. The hybrid finite-element/finite-volume discretization circumvents the well-known Ladyzhenskaya–Babuška–Brezzi conditions for stability, and does not require special treatment to filter pressure modes by either Rhie–Chow interpolation or by using a Petrov–Galerkin finite element formulation. The use of a co-velocity with a high-resolution advection method and a linearly consistent edge-based treatment of viscous/diffusive terms yields a robust algorithm for a broad spectrum of incompressible flows. The high-resolution advection method is shown to deliver second-order spatial convergence on mixed element topology meshes, and the implicit advective treatment significantly increases the stable time-step size. The algorithm is robust and extensible, permitting the incorporation of features such as porous media flow, RANS and LES turbulence models, and semi-/fully-implicit time stepping. A series of verification and validation problems are used to illustrate the convergence properties of the algorithm. The temporal stability properties are demonstrated on a range of problems with 2 ≤ CFL ≤ 100. The new flow solver is built using the Hydra multiphysics toolkit. The Hydra toolkit is written in C++ and provides a rich suite of extensible and fully-parallel components that permit rapid application development, supports multiple discretization techniques, provides I/O interfaces, dynamic run-time load balancing and data migration, and interfaces to scalable popular linear solvers, e.g., in open-source packages such as HYPRE, PETSc, and Trilinos.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

A Multi-Year Plan for Enhancing Turbulence Modeling in Hydra-TH

The purpose of this milestone report is to document a multi-year plan for enhancing turbulence modeling in Hydra-TH. In Phase II of the Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors (CASL) program, Hydra-TH is being developed to the meet the high-fidelity, high-Reynolds number CFD based thermal hydraulic simulation needs of the program. This work will be conducted within the thermal hydraulics methods (THM) focus area. This objective will be met by; maturation of recently added models, strategic design/development of new models and systematic and rigorous testing of existing and new models and model extensions. This report will also serve to meet the requirements of CASL level three milestone, L3:THM.CFD.P10.02, scheduled for completion March 31, 2015.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗