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At least 181 records · Page 10

Architecture Improvements and Retesting of the Microscopic Depletion Implementation in the MAMMOTH Reactor Physics Application

Nuclear fuel experiments conducted at the Transient Reactor Test Facility (TREAT) will be analyzed with the MAMMOTH reactor physics application, currently under development at Idaho National Laboratory. MAMMOTH natively couples with the BISON, RELAP-7, and Rattlesnake applications within the MOOSE framework. The implemented methods allow for simulating the irradiation of fuel in a nuclear reactor from the beginning of life in a nuclear reactor until it is placed in TREAT for fuel testing using the same finite element mesh throughout the analysis retaining a very high level of resolution and fidelity. The calculation of the isotopic distribution in fuel requires the solution to the decay and transmutation equations coupled to the neutron transport equation. This report focuses on three significant improvements to the MAMMOTH micro-depletion capability. First, the depletion architecture within MAMMOTH is modified to improve the flexibility and speed of burnup calculations. The results of various benchmark tests demonstrate that the refactoring of the previously implemented capability does not introduce any regression. The second improvement involves the expansion of the data functionality. MAMMOTH can now read the decay data files used by the Oak Ridge Isotope Generation (ORIGEN) code, thus enabling access to data of more than 1,600 isotopes. The third improvement is the capability to perform depletion at a constant power level which was verified via a comparison to ORIGEN.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

D and D knowledge management information tool feasibility study for cross-platform mobile applications - 15704

The D and D Knowledge Management Information tool (D and D KM- IT) is a web-based knowledge management information tool built for the D and D user community. A feasibility study is being conducted on cross-platform application frameworks for their viability to the D and D KM-IT mobile needs. Currently, three main Operating Systems comprise the majority of the mobile market IOS, Android, and Windows, requiring a separate application for each device. Cross-development software allows the development of one application using one language, that can be ported or deployed on multiple devices with little effort. Using Xamarin, a native cross-platform framework, create a shared mobile application using Visual Studio. Build a D and D KMIT mobile application designed for the three major mobile platforms. Use Xamarin to compile the application into native applications for the three target platforms. Build and deploy the application on all three mobile platforms. Perform benchmark tests of the developed applications to analyze the performance on the three platforms. A large portion of the business logic of the application has been shared, eliminating development redundancy and minimizing planning, design, and validation time. The user interface development could not fully be shared cross-platform and some platform specific code must be individually implemented for each device. Maintenance, testing and design phases of the software engineering process were reduced from one for each device to having just one shared cycle processes. A less diverse skill-set for developers is required with cross-platform development. Some processes within the development cycle still require redundant activities.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Continuum electromagnetic gyrokinetic simulations of turbulence in the tokamak scrape-off layer and laboratory devices

Here, we present algorithms and results from Gkeyll, a full-f continuum, electromagnetic gyrokinetic code, designed to study turbulence in the edge region of fusion devices. The edge is computationally very challenging, requiring robust algorithms that can handle large-amplitude fluctuations and stable interactions with plasma sheaths. We present an energy-conserving high-order discontinuous Galerkin scheme that solves gyrokinetic equations in Hamiltonian form. Efficiency is improved by a careful choice of basis functions and automatically generated computation kernels. Previous verification tests were performed in the straight-field-line large plasma device [Shi et al., J. Plasma Phys. 83, 905830304 (2017)] and the Texas Helimak, a simple magnetized torus [Bernard et al., Phys. Plasmas 26, 042301 (2019)], including the effect of end-plate biasing on turbulence. Results for the scrape-off layer for NSTX parameters with a model helical magnetic geometry with bad curvature have been obtained [Shi et al., Phys. Plasmas 26, 012307 (2019)]. In this paper, we present algorithms for the two formulations of electromagnetic gyrokinetics: the Hamiltonian and the symplectic. We describe each formulation and show results of benchmark tests. Although our scheme works for the Hamiltonian formulation, the presence of spurious numerical modes for high-β and large $k^2_⊥ρ^2_s$ regimes shows that the symplectic formulation is more robust. We then review our recent algorithm for the symplectic formulation [Mandell et al., J. Plasma Phys. 86, 905860109 (2020)], along with example application of this new capability. Maintaining positivity of the distribution function can be challenging, and we describe a new and novel exponential recovery based algorithm to address this.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Reduced Order Modeling for Prediction and Control of Large-Scale Systems.

This report describes work performed from June 2012 through May 2014 as a part of a Sandia Early Career Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project led by the first author. The objective of the project is to investigate methods for building stable and efficient proper orthogonal decomposition (POD)/Galerkin reduced order models (ROMs): models derived from a sequence of high-fidelity simulations but having a much lower computational cost. Since they are, by construction, small and fast, ROMs can enable real-time simulations of complex systems for onthe- spot analysis, control and decision-making in the presence of uncertainty. Of particular interest to Sandia is the use of ROMs for the quantification of the compressible captive-carry environment, simulated for the design and qualification of nuclear weapons systems. It is an unfortunate reality that many ROM techniques are computationally intractable or lack an a priori stability guarantee for compressible flows. For this reason, this LDRD project focuses on the development of techniques for building provably stable projection-based ROMs. Model reduction approaches based on continuous as well as discrete projection are considered. In the first part of this report, an approach for building energy-stable Galerkin ROMs for linear hyperbolic or incompletely parabolic systems of partial differential equations (PDEs) using continuous projection is developed. The key idea is to apply a transformation induced by the Lyapunov function for the system, and to build the ROM in the transformed variables. It is shown that, for many PDE systems including the linearized compressible Euler and linearized compressible Navier-Stokes equations, the desired transformation is induced by a special inner product, termed the “symmetry inner product”. Attention is then turned to nonlinear conservation laws. A new transformation and corresponding energy-based inner product for the full nonlinear compressible Navier-Stokes equations is derived, and it is demonstrated that if a Galerkin ROM is constructed in this inner product, the ROM system energy will be bounded in a way that is consistent with the behavior of the exact solution to these PDEs, i.e., the ROM will be energy-stable. The viability of the linear as well as nonlinear continuous projection model reduction approaches developed as a part of this project is evaluated on several test cases, including the cavity configuration of interest in the targeted application area. In the second part of this report, some POD/Galerkin approaches for building stable ROMs using discrete projection are explored. It is shown that, for generic linear time-invariant (LTI) systems, a discrete counterpart of the continuous symmetry inner product is a weighted L2 inner product obtained by solving a Lyapunov equation. This inner product was first proposed by Rowley et al., and is termed herein the “Lyapunov inner product“. Comparisons between the symmetry inner product and the Lyapunov inner product are made, and the performance of ROMs constructed using these inner products is evaluated on several benchmark test cases. Also in the second part of this report, a new ROM stabilization approach, termed “ROM stabilization via optimization-based eigenvalue reassignment“, is developed for generic LTI systems. At the heart of this method is a constrained nonlinear least-squares optimization problem that is formulated and solved numerically to ensure accuracy of the stabilized ROM. Numerical studies reveal that the optimization problem is computationally inexpensive to solve, and that the new stabilization approach delivers ROMs that are stable as well as accurate. Summaries of “lessons learned“ and perspectives for future work motivated by this LDRD project are provided at the end of each of the two main chapters.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Code validation of SAM using natural-circulation experimental data from the compact integral effects test (CIET) facility

The primary objective of this study is to validate the system analysis code, SAM, using experimental data from the Compact Integral Effects Test (CIET) experimental loop. SAM is a modern system analysis code being developed at Argonne National Laboratory for safety analysis of designs for advanced non-light water reactors (non-LWRs), such as sodium-cooled fast reactors, high-temperature gas-cooled reactors, and fluoride salt-cooled high-temperature reactors (FHRs). To support SAM code development for the wide range of non-LWR applications, it is of paramount importance to validate the code against experiments highly relevant to these reactor concepts. Additionally, the CIET facility, which was designed to reproduce the thermal-hydraulics response of FHRs under both forced- and natural-circulation conditions, has been identified and selected as one of the benchmark test facilities for SAM code validation. In this study, two sets of available CIET tests were selected for SAM code validation purposes, namely, power step change transient tests and steady-state natural-circulation tests. For all selected tests, SAM-predicted results show very good agreement with experimental data. The successful validation of SAM against these selected CIET experiments demonstrates that the computer code is well suited for thermal-hydraulics analysis of FHR designs.

42 ENGINEERING↗

A general hybrid radiation transport scheme for star formation simulations on an adaptive grid

Radiation feedback plays a crucial role in the process of star formation. In order to simulate the thermodynamic evolution of disks, filaments, and the molecular gas surrounding clusters of young stars, we require an efficient and accurate method for solving the radiation transfer problem. We describe the implementation of a hybrid radiation transport scheme in the adaptive grid-based FLASH general magnetohydrodyanmics code. The hybrid scheme splits the radiative transport problem into a raytracing step and a diffusion step. The raytracer captures the first absorption event, as stars irradiate their environments, while the evolution of the diffuse component of the radiation field is handled by a flux-limited diffusion solver. We demonstrate the accuracy of our method through a variety of benchmark tests including the irradiation of a static disk, subcritical and supercritical radiative shocks, and thermal energy equilibration. We also demonstrate the capability of our method for casting shadows and calculating gas and dust temperatures in the presence of multiple stellar sources. Our method enables radiation-hydrodynamic studies of young stellar objects, protostellar disks, and clustered star formation in magnetized, filamentary environments.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

SensorWeb 3G: Extending On-Orbit Sensor Capabilities to Enable Near Realtime User Configurability

This research effort prototypes an implementation of a standard interface, Web Coverage Processing Service (WCPS), which is an Open Geospatial Consortium(OGC) standard, to enable users to define, test, upload and execute algorithms for on-orbit sensor systems. The user is able to customize on-orbit data products that result from raw data streaming from an instrument. This extends the SensorWeb 2.0 concept that was developed under a previous Advanced Information System Technology (AIST) effort in which web services wrap sensors and a standardized Extensible Markup Language (XML) based scripting workflow language orchestrates processing steps across multiple domains. SensorWeb 3G extends the concept by providing the user controls into the flight software modules associated with on-orbit sensor and thus provides a degree of flexibility which does not presently exist. The successful demonstrations to date will be presented, which includes a realistic HyspIRI decadal mission testbed. Furthermore, benchmarks that were run will also be presented along with future demonstration and benchmark tests planned. Finally, we conclude with implications for the future and how this concept dovetails into efforts to develop "cloud computing" methods and standards.

Mandl, Daniel↗

Trailing Vortex Measurements in the Wake of a Hovering Rotor Blade with Various Tip Shapes

This work examined the wake aerodynamics of a single helicopter rotor blade with several tip shapes operating on a hover test stand. Velocity field measurements were conducted using three-component laser Doppler velocimetry (LDV). The objective of these measurements was to document the vortex velocity profiles and then extract the core properties, such as the core radius, peak swirl velocity, and axial velocity. The measured test cases covered a wide range of wake-ages and several tip shapes, including rectangular, tapered, swept, and a subwing tip. One of the primary differences shown by the change in tip shape was the wake geometry. The effect of blade taper reduced the initial peak swirl velocity by a significant fraction. It appears that this is accomplished by decreasing the vortex strength for a given blade loading. The subwing measurements showed that the interaction and merging of the subwing and primary vortices created a less coherent vortical structure. A source of vortex core instability is shown to be the ratio of the peak swirl velocity to the axial velocity deficit. The results show that if there is a turbulence producing region of the vortex structure, it will be outside of the core boundary. The LDV measurements were supported by laser light-sheet flow visualization. The results provide several benchmark test cases for future validation of theoretical vortex models, numerical free-wake models, and computational fluid dynamics results.

Martin, Preston B.↗

Frequency-domain vs time-domain SP{sub N} equations to simulate neutron noise

Inside the reactor core mechanical vibrations of fuel assemblies can produce high fluctuations around a steady-state configuration, known as neutron noise. This effect can cause the triggering of power reduction measures. Classically, diffusion theory has been used to simulate this behavior. However, this equation has some limitations if the materials of the reactor have strong variations. In this work, we use the diffusive time-dependent simplified spherical harmonics equations that improve the previous results without the necessity of using high computational requirements. In particular, two types of analyses with these equations (SP{sub 3}) are made: a frequency-domain and a time-domain. A numerical neutron noise benchmark tests the methodology and compare both formulations. First, numerical results show a good agreement between the amplitudes and phases of the SP3 equations computed with the frequency-domain and time-domain. Therefore, as the frequency-domain computation only requires to solve a linear system, it is a recommendable option for neutron noise computations. Second, one can conclude that for this type of nuclear systems, where the assemblies are not homogenized, the SP{sub 3} approximation results improve considerably the accuracy of the diffusion theory.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Multiresolution molecular mechanics: Implementation and efficiency

Atomistic/continuum coupling methods combine accurate atomistic methods and efficient continuum methods to simulate the behavior of highly ordered crystalline systems. Coupled methods utilize the advantages of both approaches to simulate systems at a lower computational cost, while retaining the accuracy associated with atomistic methods. Many concurrent atomistic/continuum coupling methods have been proposed in the past; however, their true computational efficiency has not been demonstrated. The present work presents an efficient implementation of a concurrent coupling method called the Multiresolution Molecular Mechanics (MMM) for serial, parallel, and adaptive analysis. First, we present the features of the software implemented along with the associated technologies. The scalability of the software implementation is demonstrated, and the competing effects of multiscale modeling and parallelization are discussed. Then, the algorithms contributing to the efficiency of the software are presented. These include algorithms for eliminating latent ghost atoms from calculations and measurement-based dynamic balancing of parallel workload. The efficiency improvements made by these algorithms are demonstrated by benchmark tests. The efficiency of the software is found to be on par with LAMMPS, a state-of-the-art Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulation code, when performing full atomistic simulations. Speed-up of the MMM method is shown to be directly proportional to the reduction of the number of the atoms visited in force computation. Finally, an adaptive MMM analysis on a nanoindentation problem, containing over a million atoms, is performed, yielding an improvement of 6.3–8.5 times in efficiency, over the full atomistic MD method. For the first time, the efficiency of a concurrent atomistic/continuum coupling method is comprehensively investigated and demonstrated.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Conservative, special-relativistic smoothed particle hydrodynamics

We present and test a new, special-relativistic formulation of smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH). Our approach benefits from several improvements with respect to earlier relativistic SPH formulations. It is self-consistently derived from the Lagrangian of an ideal fluid and accounts for the terms that stem from non-constant smoothing lengths, usually called 'grad-h terms'. In our approach, we evolve the canonical momentum and the canonical energy per baryon and thus circumvent some of the problems that have plagued earlier formulations of relativistic SPH. We further use a much improved artificial viscosity prescription which uses the extreme local eigenvalues of the Euler equations and triggers selectively on (a) shocks and (b) velocity noise. The shock trigger accurately monitors the relative density slope and uses it to fine-tune the amount of artificial viscosity that is applied. This procedure substantially sharpens shock fronts while still avoiding post-shock noise. If not triggered, the viscosity parameter of each particle decays to zero. None of these viscosity triggers is specific to special relativity, both could also be applied in Newtonian SPH. The performance of the new scheme is explored in a large variety of benchmark tests where it delivers excellent results. Generally, the grad-h terms deliver minor, though worthwhile, improvements. As expected for a Lagrangian method, it performs close to perfect in supersonic advection tests, but also in strong relativistic shocks, usually considered a particular challenge for SPH, the method yields convincing results. For example, due to its perfect conservation properties, it is able to handle Lorentz factors as large as {gamma} = 50,000 in the so-called wall shock test. Moreover, we find convincing results in a rarely shown, but challenging test that involves so-called relativistic simple waves and also in multi-dimensional shock tube tests.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

THE METALLICITY OF THE CM DRACONIS SYSTEM

The CM Draconis system comprises two eclipsing mid-M dwarfs of nearly equal mass in a 1.27 day orbit. This well-studied eclipsing binary has often been used for benchmark tests of stellar models, since its components are among the lowest mass stars with well-measured masses and radii ({approx}< 1% relative precision). However, as with many other low-mass stars, non-magnetic models have been unable to match the observed radii and effective temperatures for CM Dra at the 5%-10% level. To date, the uncertain metallicity of the system has complicated comparison of theoretical isochrones with observations. In this Letter, we use data from the SpeX instrument on the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility to measure the metallicity of the system during primary and secondary eclipses, as well as out of eclipse, based on an empirical metallicity calibration in the H and K near-infrared (NIR) bands. We derive an [Fe/H] = -0.30 {+-} 0.12 that is consistent across all orbital phases. The determination of [Fe/H] for this system constrains a key dimension of parameter space when attempting to reconcile model isochrone predictions and observations.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

MAGNETIC ENERGY CASCADE IN SPHERICAL GEOMETRY. I. THE STELLAR CONVECTIVE DYNAMO CASE

We present a method to characterize the spectral transfers of magnetic energy between scales in simulations of stellar convective dynamos. The full triadic transfer functions are computed thanks to analytical coupling relations of spherical harmonics based on the Clebsch-Gordan coefficients. The method is applied to mean field {alpha}{Omega} dynamo models as benchmark tests. From a physical standpoint, the decomposition of the dynamo field into primary and secondary dynamo families proves very instructive in the {alpha}{Omega} case. The same method is then applied to a fully turbulent dynamo in a solar convection zone, modeled with the three-dimensional MHD Anelastic Spherical Harmonics code. The initial growth of the magnetic energy spectrum is shown to be non-local. It mainly reproduces the kinetic energy spectrum of convection at intermediate scales. During the saturation phase, two kinds of direct magnetic energy cascades are observed in regions encompassing the smallest scales involved in the simulation. The first cascade is obtained through the shearing of the magnetic field by the large-scale differential rotation that effectively cascades magnetic energy. The second is a generalized cascade that involves a range of local magnetic and velocity scales. Non-local transfers appear to be significant, such that the net transfers cannot be reduced to the dynamics of a small set of modes. The saturation of the large-scale axisymmetric dipole and quadrupole is detailed. In particular, the dipole is saturated by a non-local interaction involving the most energetic scale of the magnetic energy spectrum, which points to the importance of the magnetic Prandtl number for large-scale dynamos.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Outcomes and Conclusions from the 2022 AM Bench Measurements, Challenge Problems, Modeling Submissions, and Conference

The Additive Manufacturing Benchmark Test Series (AM Bench) provides rigorous measurement data for validating additive manufacturing (AM) simulations for a broad range of AM technologies and material systems. AM Bench includes extensive in situ and ex situ measurements, simulation challenges for the AM modeling community, and a corresponding conference series. In 2022, the second round of AM Bench measurements, challenge problems, and conference were completed, focusing primarily upon laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) processing of metals, and both material extrusion processing and vat photopolymerization of polymers. In all, more than 100 people from 10 National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) divisions and 21 additional organizations were directly involved in the AM Bench 2022 measurements, data management, and conference organization. The international AM community submitted 138 sets of blind modeling simulations for comparison with the in situ and ex situ measurements, up from 46 submissions for the first round of AM Bench in 2018. Analysis of these submissions provides valuable insight into current AM modeling capabilities. The AM Bench data are permanently archived and freely accessible online. The AM Bench conference also hosted an embedded workshop on qualification and certification of AM materials and components.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

On the implicit immersed boundary method in coupled discrete element and lattice Boltzmann method

The coupled discrete element method and lattice Boltzmann method (DEMLBM) has increasingly drawn attention of researchers in geomechanics due to its mesoscopic nature since 2000. Immersed boundary method (IBM) and immersed moving boundary (IMB) are two popular schemes for coupling fluid particle in DEMLBM. This work aims at coupling DEM and LBM using the latest IBM algorithm and investigating its accuracy, computational efficiency, and applicability. Two benchmark tests, interstitial fluid flow in an ideal packing and single particle sedimentation in viscous fluid, are carried out to demonstrate the accuracy of IBM through semi-empirical Ergun equation, finite element method (FEM), and IMB. Then, simulations of particle migration with relatively large velocity in Poiseuille flow are utilized to address limitations of IBM in DEMLBM modeling. In addition, advantages and deficiencies of IBM are discussed and compared with IMB. It is found that the accuracy of IBM can be only guaranteed when sufficient boundary points are used and it is not suitable for geomechanical problems involving large fluid or particle velocity.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Instability and treatments of the coupled discrete element and lattice Boltzmann method by the immersed moving boundary scheme

The immersed moving boundary (IMB) scheme has been extensively used to couple the discrete element method (DEM) with the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM). In the literature, only the formulation of IMB for lattice nodal cells covered by a single-solid particle was given. The treatment of situations where a nodal cell is covered by two or more solid particles is seldom discussed. It is found that some numerical instability can occur for such situations due to an inappropriate computation of the weighting function in the IMB formulation. This work presents an enhanced treatment that can resolve the issue and validates it using some benchmark tests. Furthermore, to avoid the extra costs associated with the treatment and simplify the complicated procedure introduced, a simplified IMB scheme is proposed. The accuracy of both enhanced and simplified IMB schemes are validated by test cases including single-particle sedimentation, two-particle drafting-kissing-tumbling phenomenon, and multiple-particle sedimentation. Then, the robustness of both schemes is examined and discussed using a specially designed flow past cylinders test. Overall, the simplified IMB scheme is proved to be robust and sufficiently accurate and simpler and more effective than the enhanced scheme.

42 ENGINEERING↗

An enhanced AUSM + -up scheme for high-speed compressible two-phase flows on hybrid grids

Here in this work, an enhanced AUSM + -up scheme is presented for high-speed compressible two-phase flows using a six-equation two-fluid single-pressure model. Based on the observation that the AUSM + -up flux function does not take into account relative velocity between the two phases and thus is not stable and robust for computation of two-phase flows involving interaction of strong shock waves and material interfaces, the enhancement is in the form of a volume fraction coupling term and a modification of the velocity diffusion term, both proportional to the relative velocity between the two phases. These modifications in the flux function obviate the need to employ the exact Riemann solver, leading to a significantly less expensive yet robust flux scheme. Furthermore, the Tangent of Hyperbola for INterface Capturing (THINC) scheme is used in order to provide a sharp resolution for material interfaces. A number of benchmark test cases are presented to assess the performance and robustness of the enhanced AUSM + -up scheme for compressible two-phase flows on hybrid unstructured grids. Lastly, the numerical experiments demonstrate that the enhanced AUSM + -up scheme along with THINC scheme can efficiently compute high-speed two-fluid flows such as shock–bubble interactions, while accurately capturing material interfaces.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Optimization of stepwise clustering algorithm in backward trajectory analysis

In recent years, the backward trajectory model has been widely used in the research of meteorological and atmospheric environmental quality. This paper presents a comprehensive study on a stepwise clustering analysis algorithm in the clustering process of backward trajectory model and an application of the clustering analysis of single-particle backward trajectory in 2016 in Changchun City. This study starts with an analysis of the original stepwise clustering algorithm and its application to a clustering process of 8784 backward trajectories during 48 h in Changchun City as a benchmark test case. Then, two improvements are made in the algorithm: First, in the process of finding the optimal classification, the algorithm complexity is improved from original O(n 3 ) to O(log(n)*n 2 ) through algorithm improvement. The algorithm performance is enhanced by log(n) times. Next, in the process of re-establishing the classification, the algorithm complexity is improved from the original O(m*n 2 ) to O(m*log(n)*n), that is another algorithm performance improvement by a factor of log(n). Therefore, the accumulative execution efficiency improvement through the algorithm optimization is 2*log(n) times, which has been further verified in the practical application in Changchun City.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗