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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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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2017

Novel Analysis and Visualization of Chemical Events for Public Health Surveillance

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory hosted an intern-based web application development contest in the summer of 2016 centered around developing novel chemical surveillance applications to aid in health situational awareness. Making up the three teams were three graduate students (n=9) from various US schools majoring in non-public health domains, such as computer science and user design. The interns successfully developed three applications that demonstrated a value-add to chemical surveillance—ChemAnalyzer (text analytics), RetroSpect (retrospective analysis of chemical events),and ToxicBusters (geo-based trend analytics). These applications will be the basis for the first chemical surveillance application to be incorporated into the DTRA Biosurveillance Ecosystem (BSVE).Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), on behalf the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA; project number CB10190), hosts an annual intern- based web app development contest. Previous competitions have focused on mobile biosurveillance. The 2016 competition pivoted away from biosurveillance to focus on addressing challenges within the field of chemical surveillance and increasing public health chemical situational awareness. The result of the app will be integrated within the DTRA BSVE. PNNL hosted nine graduate interns for a 10-week period in the summer of 2016 as participants in a summer web application development contest. Students were drawn from such fields as software engineering and user experience and design and placed into three teams of three students. The challenge presented to the interns was to design and develop a fully-functional web application that would address a critical need within the chemical surveillance community. The interns developed their own ideas (vetted by PNNL and DTRA), discovered and integrated their own data sources, and produced their own visualizations and analytics, independent of any assistance outside of that provided in an advisory capacity. The competition end with a judging event with a panel of subject matter experts and cash awards were distributed to the teams. Each team produced a unique application. Although there was mild overlap between some of the ideas, the applications were developed independently and each reflected the unique contributions of the teams. ChemAnalyzer is a text-analytics platform designed to facilitate more data-driven decision, given a corpus of text data about a chemical event. Their platform provided the ability to automatically identify and highlight key words in documents related to chemical events. The keywords are drawn from an ontology installed with the system, as well as any user-identified keywords. The ChemAnalyzer team finished in third place. The RetroSpect team developed a visual analytic tool for performing retrospective analysis and monitoring of chemical events. Their app provided the ability to search and analyze past events, as well as visualization of state and county information for the recorded chemical events. The RetroSpect team finished in second place. The Toxic busters team - the winners of the competition - created a geo-based situational awareness tool for tracking chemical events. Their app featured an updateable map overlay, search functionality for finding specific or related events, incident and city/state/national-level statistics and trends, as well as news and social media integration based on keywords related to chemical surveillance. Each of the apps developed by the teams provides value to an analyst tasked with monitoring chemical events. The apps integrated unique data sources to provides a full picture of a chemical event, and its effects upon the surrounding population. This integrated analytics provides a valuable benefit over existing workflows, where analysts must monitor news, social, and other information sources manually for real-time information. The apps developed by these interns are designed to enable identification and analysis of the incident as quickly as possible, allowing for more timely assessments of the incident and its impacts. The web app development contest provided a unique opportunity for students to learn about the emerging needs in chemical surveillance as it relates to health situational awareness. Students were drawn from a variety of fields and were tasked with developing novel web apps addressing some of the most pressing challenges in the field of chemical surveillance. The ideas generated by the students will help form the basis for future chemical surveillance application development to be integrated with the DTRABSVE.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2024

A Generalized approach to the operationalization of Software Quality Models

Comprehensive measures of quality are a research imperative, yet the development of software quality models is a wicked problem. Definitive solutions do not exist and quality is subjective at its most abstract. Definitional measures of quality are contingent on a domain, and even within a domain, the choice of representative characteristics to decompose quality is subjective. Thus, the operationalization of quality models brings even more challenges. A promising approach to quality modeling is the use of hierarchies to represent characteristics, where lower levels of the hierarchy represent concepts closer to real-world observations. Building upon prior hierarchical modeling approaches, we developed the Platform for Investigative software Quality Understanding and Evaluation (PIQUE). PIQUE surmounts several quality modeling challenges because it allows modelers to instantiate abstract hierarchical models in any domain by leveraging organizational tools tailored to their specific contexts. Here, we introduce PIQUE; exemplify its utility with two practical use cases; address challenges associated with parameterizing a PIQUE model; and describe algorithmic techniques that tackle normalization, aggregation, and interpolation of measurements.

Data aggregation↗
DOE OSTI2014

HERCULES/PL: The Pattern Language of HERCULES

Interrogating the structure of a program for patterns of interest is attractive to the broader spectrum of software engineering. The very approach by which a pattern is constructed remains a concern for the source code mining community. This paper presents a pattern programming model, for the C and Fortran programming languages, using a compiler directives approach. We discuss our specification, called HERCULES/PL, throughout a number of examples and show how different patterns can be constructed, plus some preliminary results.

Kartsaklis, Christos↗
DOE OSTI2017

Python ARM Radar Toolkit (Py-ART) Roadmap

Radar software is key for producing scientific insight from radar data. There are several platforms for interacting with radar data; the open-source variants are well documented in Heistermann et al. 2014. The Python ARM Radar Toolkit (Py-ART; Helmus and Collis, 2016) is one of these. This document is a guiding roadmap for development for Py-ART. It sets priorities for U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility-funded work and it advises the community which contributions are desired and will receive the most assistance from ARM-funded software engineers.

Python ARM Radar Toolkit, linear programming, valu↗
DOE OSTI2019

Increasing Software Testing Coverage and Portability with Spack

Adequate testing coverage is critical for successful scientific software development. For numerically intensive codes, the test matrix should cover a variety of machines, compilers, third-party library dependencies, as well as possible other features such as memory testing, parallelization paradigms, and application options that may be enabled or disabled, as some examples. Such coverage can be a major burden on developers without powerful methods for managing the matrix. Spack is a great tool developed by Lawrence Livermore National Lab for managing software on a Unix-based system and in addition to this, we are leveraging Spack to simplify application testing development and management. Here we demonstrate exploiting many of Spack's features to orchestrate the test coverage for the Nalu-Wind application we are developing under the Exascale Computing Project. By using Spack underneath our testing infrastructure, we have increased our testing coverage, portability, robustness, and software quality. While we use our Nalu-Wind application as an example, the benefits of exploiting Spack for application testing can be had for other applications as well.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2019

Measuring Degradation of Fielded Systems on an Ongoing Basis with RdTools

The solar investment community needs up-to-date and data-derived system degradation rates to use in financial models that calculate the risk and expectation of energy revenue. To date, the majority of financial models choose degradation rates from past studies that are limited and may not be representative of future solar assets (systems) they are financing. As the solar industry expands in all sectors (residential, commercial, and utility), there is a growing amount of energy production available to analyze. With the help of the open source degradation analysis code (RdTools) it is now possible to derive degradation on an ongoing basis and continuously provide up-to-date durability statistics to the investment community. Ongoing and accurate statistics of fielded photovoltaic systems allows financial stakeholders to constrain energy revenue projections, lower financial risk, and increase the bankability of solar. This poster will present considerations and software engineering best practices to encourage data owners to measure degradation of their own photovoltaic assets on an ongoing basis. This poster will also preview an upcoming DOE-funded kWh Analytics degradation project which involves applying RdTools analysis on kWh Analytics’ industry database, aggregating results across variables such as weather, hardware, system configurations etc., and sharing the aggregated results with the broader community.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2019

Hydrodynamic Analysis of a Suspended Cylinder Under Regular Wave Loading Based on Computational Fluid Dynamics: Preprint

An investigation into the computation of hydrodynamic loads on a suspended cylinder in regular waves is presented. The primary goal was to perform a three-way-validation of the loads between experimental measurements and simulations from two computational methods. Experimental measurements of the longitudinal inline force on a cylinder suspended at a fixed po- sition were available from the Offshore Code Comparison Col- laboration, Continued, with Correlation (OC5) project, Phase Ia. These measurements were compared to Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations based on the solution of Reynolds- averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations, as implemented in STAR-CCM plus. The study encompassed a sensitivity analysis of the loads computed in STAR-CCM plus based on wave modeling, boundary conditions, turbulence modeling, and spatial and tem- poral discretization. The analysis was supplemented by results generated with the offshore wind turbine engineering software OpenFAST, based on a hybrid combination of second-order po- tential flow and viscous drag fromMorison's equation. The focus of the investigation was on the assessment of the accuracy of the computation of first- and higher-order hydrodynamic loads. Sub- stantial differences were observed in the numerical prediction of the second and third harmonic force contribution. Local flow field analysis with CFD was applied to study the physics of wave run-up and diffraction dynamics to identify the causes.

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗
DOE OSTI2019

Battery Thermal Characterization

A well-designed thermal management system is critical to the life and performance of electric-drive vehicles (EDVs) hybrids (HEVs), plug-in hybrids (PHEVs), and all-electric vehicles (EVs). Temperature and temperature uniformity both significantly affect the performance, lifespan, and safety of vehicle energy storage devices. NREL conducts thermal management research and development (R&D) to optimize battery performance and extend useful life. A recognized leader in battery thermal analysis and characterization, NREL evaluates electrical and thermal performance of battery cells, modules, and packs, full energy storage systems, and the interaction of these systems with other vehicle components. The lab's performance assessments factor in the design of the thermal management system, the thermal behavior of the cell, battery lifespan, and safety of the energy storage system, as well as full integration into a vehicle. The lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries found in most of today's electric-drive vehicles are smaller and more lightweight than previous nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) technology, but they are also more sensitive to overheating, overcharging, and extreme spikes in temperature known as thermal runaway. High temperatures diminish battery life and increase battery replacement costs, while low temperatures decrease battery power and capacity, all of which impact vehicle range, performance, and affordability. NREL's breakthrough research is focused on reducing thermal barriers to achieve more uniform temperatures. NREL uses its R&D 100 Award-winning Isothermal Battery Calorimeters, the only instruments in the world capable of such precise thermal measurements, for much of this research. Calorimeter readings are paired with thermal imaging of batteries using infrared cameras to evaluate battery temperature distribution. In addition, NREL is working with industry to develop computer-aided engineering software tools to optimize thermal management of batteries. NREL's analysis for the U.S. Advanced Battery Consortium (USABC) show that optimized thermal management can increase battery power by more than 10%. Without proper thermal management, an EDV battery can last more than 10 years in a temperate climate, like in Minnesota, but only 7 years in a hot climate, such as in Arizona. In extreme instances, battery overheating can pose safety hazards, including fires. Performance: Maintaining desired temperature ranges is critical in optimizing EDV battery storage capacity, lifespan, and performance, and eventually impacts cost and consumer acceptance. NREL's breakthrough research focuses on achieving more uniform temperatures while a vehicle is in motion and actively generating heat, as well as when it is parked and exposed to ambient temperatures over prolonged periods of time. Safety: Most energy storage systems deliver maximum performance at higher temperatures. However, this extreme heat can overload systems and create dangerous conditions. NREL evaluation helps to more effectively regulate thermal characteristics, providing greater safeguards and stronger performance. NREL has invented a device that emulates internal short circuits in batteries to better understand how to prevent future failures and related hazards.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Reusability First: Toward FAIR Workflows

The FAIR principles of open science (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) have had transformative effects on modern large-scale computational science. In particular, they have encouraged more open access to and use of data, an important consideration as collaboration among teams of researchers accelerates and the use of workflows by those teams to solve problems increases. How best to apply the FAIR principles to workflows themselves, and software more generally, is not yet well understood. We argue that the software engineering concept of technical debt management provides a useful guide for application of those principles to workflows, and in particular that it implies reusability should be considered as ‘first among equals’. Moreover, our approach recognizes a continuum of reusability where we can make explicit and selectable the tradeoffs required in workflows for both their users and developers.To this end, we propose a new abstraction approach for reusable workflows, with demonstrations for both synthetic workloads and real-world computational biology workflows. Through application of novel systems and tools that are based on this abstraction, these experimental workflows are refactored to rightsize the granularity of workflow components to efficiently fill the gap between end-user simplicity and general customizability. Our work makes it easier to selectively reason about and automate the connections between trade-offs across user and developer concerns when exposing degrees of freedom for reuse. Additionally, by exposing fine-grained reusability abstractions we enable performance optimizations, as we demonstrate on both institutional-scale and leadership-class HPC resources.

Wolf, Matthew↗
DOE OSTI2022

Lattice QCD and the Computational Frontier

The search for new physics requires a joint experimental and theoretical effort. Lattice QCD is already an essential tool for obtaining precise model-free theoretical predictions of the hadronic processes underlying many key experimental searches, such as those involving heavy flavor physics, the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon, nucleon-neutrino scattering, and rare, second-order electroweak processes. As experimental measurements become more precise over the next decade, lattice QCD will play an increasing role in providing the needed matching theoretical precision. Achieving the needed precision requires simulations with lattices with substantially increased resolution. As we push to finer lattice spacing we encounter an array of new challenges. They include algorithmic and software-engineering challenges, challenges in computer technology and design, and challenges in maintaining the necessary human resources. In this white paper we describe those challenges and discuss ways they are being dealt with. Overcoming them is key to supporting the community effort required to deliver the needed theoretical support for experiments in the coming decade.

Boyle, Peter↗
DOE OSTI2022

Real-World Experiences Adopting Workflows at Exascale on the ExaAM Project

The purpose of this study is to discuss the experiential lessons associated with adopting scientific workflows in the Exascale Additive Manufacturing project (ExaAM) through the lens of Perceived Characteristic of Innovation (PCI). Besides the implementation, the factors we considered critical to the adoption of the workflow are provenance, sustainable automation, implementation challenges, and integration/compatibility challenges. Through conversations and interviews among the program managers, project leads, and software engineers, we have developed critical insight and strategies to overcome the obstacles and augment the successful adoption and long-term use of these workflows in ExaAM and beyond. We hope our work will pave the way for others in the research community to develop and use workflows in their respective science domains.

Malviya, Addi Thakur↗
DOE OSTI2015

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↗
DOE OSTI2018

Direct Current Arc-Flash Hazards of Solar Photovoltaic Systems

An arc-flash is a rapid release of thermal energy, pressure waves, and electromagnetic interference from a high-power electrical system, caused by such events as unintentional shorting or equipment malfunction. Arc-flashes are hazardous to people and equipment. Incident energy (IE) is a means of quantifying the degree of thermal hazard posed by an arc-flash event. The calculated IE value dictates what level of personal protective equipment (PPE) workers are required to wear when servicing equipment. Overly burdensome PPE may increase a worker’s discomfort and decrease dexterity, which could lead to unintentional shorting, while inadequate PPE also comes with increased safety risks. The majority of arc-flash research to date has focused on alternating current (ac) systems. For example, IE calculations and PPE for ac systems are relatively well understood and have been applied across many equipment types and voltages. IE calculation methodologies in ac systems are backed by a wide range of industry tests and are included in Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standards. However, very little is known about direct current (dc) arc-flash and its hazards. This is a significant knowledge gap, as an increasing number of dc systems are being deployed: solar photovoltaic (PV) plants, battery storage, and electric vehicles and their charging infrastructure. The dc arc-flash hazard publications are rooted primarily in theory, and their IE calculation methods contradict each other. Insufficient knowledge and data are preventing the formation of industry consensus and standards around dc arc-flash hazard assessment. Here, this white paper highlights the current status and research opportunities for assessing arc-flash hazards in dc systems, with a focus on PV plants. The nonlinear current-voltage characteristics of PV modules make them unique in comparison to other linear dc sources, such as batteries. Also, PV equipment has rapidly evolved from 600 Vdc to 1,500 Vdc (in the United States), increasing potential arc-flash hazards. The operating regime of a PV-array within its I-V characteristic curve during an arc-flash event and the sustainability of arc-flash events in a utility-scale PV plant need to be investigated. Arc-flash experiments on a 1-MWdc nameplate capacity utility-owned ground-mount photovoltaic plant suggest that the PV array acts as a constant-current supply with currents near the short-circuit portion of the I-V characteristic curve of the array, with median arc voltage as 1/3 of the rated voltage. Various engineering software packages (CYME7 by EATON, PTW by SKM, ArcFlash™ by EasyPower, ETAP, and so on) have started offering dc arc-flash calculation features to estimate the risk of arc-flash in dc and PV systems. However, they are reliant on the same simplified arc-flash models, which contradict each other due to differences in assumptions such as characteristics of the power source, arc current, voltage and impedance, arc-operating regime, and so on. Physical arc-flash testing and improved physics-based modeling with correct assumptions representing practical scenarios are two methods to improve understanding and quantify the risks associated with dc arc-flash hazards. The results would inform development of a more accurate calculation procedure for IE and proper PPE levels.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Refinement and Modeling of a Blackbody-Based Calibration Method in the InfraBREAD Detector

The Broadband Reflector Experiment for Axion Detection (BREAD) is an ongoing collaboration searching for the conversion of yet undiscovered axion-like dark matter particles to photons in the presence of a magnetic field. InfraBREAD, an experiment of BREAD, uses a superconducting nanowire single photon detector (SNSPD), a high-efficiency and low-noise device, to specifically detect infrared-range photons produced by $\mathcal{O}$(eV) axion-like particles. The unique BREAD reflector setup allows for the focusing of converted signal photons to a 1mm $\times$ 1mm SNSPD. However, when the detector is cooled to cryogenic temperatures during operation, uneven thermal contraction of reflector components may lead to a small shift in the location of the focal spot. A novel calibration method using blackbody radiation is proposed to locate the true focal spot of the detector \textit{in situ}. Through ray tracing simulations done in FRED Optical Engineering Software, this method is demonstrated to locate the focus to within $\SI{50}{\micro\metre}$ in the $z$ dimension.

Rao, Shardul↗
DOE OSTI2024

Modeling and Proof-of-Concept of a Blackbody-Based Calibration Method in the InfraBREAD Detector

The Broadband Reflector Experiment for Axion Detection (BREAD) is an ongoing collaboration searching for the conversion of yet undiscovered axion-like dark matter particles to photons in the presence of a magnetic field. InfraBREAD, a pilot experiment realization of BREAD, uses a superconducting nanowire single photon detector (SNSPD), a high-efficiency and low-noise device, to specifically detect infrared-range photons produced by $\mathcal{O}$(eV) axion-like particles. The unique BREAD coaxial reflector setup allows for the focusing of converted signal photons to a 1mm $\times$ 1mm SNSPD. However, when the detector is cooled to cryogenic temperatures during operation, uneven thermal contraction of reflector components may lead to a small shift in the location of the focal spot. A novel calibration method using blackbody radiation is proposed to locate the true focal spot of the detector \textit{in situ}. Through ray tracing simulations done in FRED Optical Engineering Software, this method is demonstrated to locate the focus to within $\SI{50}{\micro\metre}$ in the axial dimension. Additionally, it is demonstrated that the blackbody photon source used in this calibration must be at a temperature of at least $\SI{15}{\kelvin}$ to $\SI{40}{\kelvin}$, depending on the sensitivity of the SNSPD.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2016

Selection of software for mechanical engineering undergraduates

A major problem with the undergraduate mechanical course is the limited exposure of students to software packages coupled with the long learning curve on the existing software packages. This work proposes the use of appropriate software packages for the entire mechanical engineering curriculum to ensure students get sufficient exposure real life design problems. A variety of software packages are highlighted as being suitable for undergraduate work in mechanical engineering, e.g. simultaneous non-linear equations; uncertainty analysis; 3-D modeling software with the FEA; analysis tools for the solution of problems in thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, mechanical system design, and solid mechanics.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2021

User Guide to the Advanced Dimensional Depletion for Engineering of Reactors (ADDER) Software (V.1.0)

The Advanced Dimensional Depletion for Engineering of Reactors (ADDER) software is being developed in the Research and Test Reactor (RTR) Program at Argonne National Laboratory to meet the reactor design and analysis needs of the Conversion Program. ADDER is a flexible tool that (1) provides a depletion capability through coupling external neutronics codes with a built-in CRAM solver or external depletion code and (2) provides a user-friendly interface to perform fuel management and criticality search operations. The ADDER software is a Python 3 application written using modern software development practices subject to a compliant implementation of NQA-1 and applicable Department of Energy software quality assurance standards. This report is the user guide for the initial software release as ADDER v1.0.0. The motivation for a software to have flexible capabilities that ADDER possesses is the need to support a wide variety of geometries that are commonly required in analysis of research and test reactors. These reactors can have complex fuel, experiment, or control material shuffling patterns that persist over several years with many fuel management and partial refueling intervals. The scale of fuel management analysis can require tracking of an inventory that is multiple times the core loading. Many reactors, both power and non-power reactors of various types, will find the features of ADDER useful to facilitate key tasks that a fuel or core design engineer must perform with the convenience of concise input and validated functionality.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2022

User Guide to the Advanced Dimensional Depletion for Engineering of Reactors (ADDER) Software (V.1.01)

The Advanced Dimensional Depletion for Engineering of Reactors (ADDER) software is being developed in the Research and Test Reactor (RTR) Program at Argonne National Laboratory to meet the reactor design and analysis needs of the Conversion Program. ADDER is a flexible tool that (1) provides a depletion capability through coupling external neutronics codes with a built-in CRAM solver or external depletion code and (2) provides a user-friendly interface to perform fuel management and criticality search operations. The ADDER software is a Python 3 application written using modern software development practices subject to a compliant implementation of NQA-1 and applicable Department of Energy software quality assurance standards. This report is the user guide for the software release referred to as ADDER v1.0.1. The motivation for a software to have flexible capabilities that ADDER possesses is the need to support a wide variety of geometries that are commonly required in analysis of research and test reactors. These reactors can have complex fuel, experiment, or control material shuffling patterns that persist over several years with many fuel management and partial refueling intervals. The scale of fuel management analysis can require tracking of an inventory that is multiple times the core loading. Many reactors, both power and non-power reactors of various types, will find the features of ADDER useful to facilitate key tasks that a fuel or core design engineer must perform with the convenience of concise input and validated functionality.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗