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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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At least 217 records · Page 12

Verification of the 3-Region Advanced Test Reactor MCNP Model

The verification of the 3-region homogenized fuel Advanced Test Reactor MCNP model. The 3-region model was compared to the 19-plate model found in the 94-CIC report. Flux tallies, energy deposition tallies, and quarter core mesh tallies were used to compare the two models. The 3-region model needed updating in order to make good comparisons between the models. The percent error from the flux and energy deposition tallies data shows that experiment positions inside the flux trap have higher errors than positions outside the fuel ring. The standard deviation data obtained from the mesh tallies shows that the two models agree within two standard deviations throughout the reactor. It is concluded that the model works adequately for what it is used for.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

Use of shape-preserving interpolation methods in surface modeling

In many large-scale scientific computations, it is necessary to use surface models based on information provided at only a finite number of points (rather than determined everywhere via an analytic formula). As an example, an equation of state (EOS) table may provide values of pressure as a function of temperature and density for a particular material. These values, while known quite accurately, are typically known only on a rectangular (but generally quite nonuniform) mesh in (T,d)-space. Thus interpolation methods are necessary to completely determine the EOS surface. The most primitive EOS interpolation scheme is bilinear interpolation. This has the advantages of depending only on local information, so that changes in data remote from a mesh element have no effect on the surface over the element, and of preserving shape information, such as monotonicity. Most scientific calculations, however, require greater smoothness. Standard higher-order interpolation schemes, such as Coons patches or bicubic splines, while providing the requisite smoothness, tend to produce surfaces that are not physically reasonable. This means that the interpolant may have bumps or wiggles that are not supported by the data. The mathematical quantification of ideas such as physically reasonable and visually pleasing is examined.

Ftitsch, F. N.↗

Pele: An Exascale-Ready Suite of Combustion Codes

High fidelity simulations of realistic combustion devices are extremely demanding computationally because of the requirements to capture complex fuel chemical decomposition, its intricate interactions with turbulent, often multiphase, flows, and the wide separation of space and time scales between the thin flame and the device boundaries. Software required to carry out such computations tends to be extremely complex, particularly when designed to exploit hardware accelerators, and can be difficult to port and maintain. We present Pele, a performance portable suite of tools for the simulation of combustion systems, including codes to evolve reactive multiphase configurations in the low Mach number and compressible flow regimes, along with a set of inter-compatible post processing and in situ analysis tools. The Pele suite of tools is built on top of the AMReX framework for block-structured adaptive mesh refinement, which provides efficient data structures and algorithms that enable the development of a wide variety of efficient mesh and particle based PDE integration schemes. A hierarchical MPI+X parallelism scheme supports CPU-only and accelerated architectures, where X can be OpenMP, CUDA, and HIP based approaches for intra-node computational work distribution. The algorithms and data structures underlying the Pele simulation and analysis tools are highly scalable and performant across a wide variety of high-performance computing platforms, including DOEs newest exascale-class machines, Frontier and Aurora. The simulation and analysis tools are fully documented and freely distributed as open source via GitHub. We present key algorithmic and software challenges, solution strategies, performance and resulting set of capabilities.

AMReX↗

Loft: An Automated Mesh Generator for Stiffened-Shell Aerospace Vehicles

Loft is an automated mesh generation code designed for aerospace vehicle structures. Based on user input, it can generate meshes for wings, noses, tanks, fuselage sections, thrust structures, etc. As the mesh is generated, each element is assigned properties that mark what part of the vehicle it is associated with. This property assignment is an extremely powerful feature making possible detailed analysis tasks such as load application and sizing. Loft can save its meshes in NASTRAN bulk data deck, EDS’ I-DEAS Universal File format, Abaqus input file format, VRML 2.0 (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) and STL (Stereo Lithography) files. The property assignment scheme was designed to make sizing in Collier Research’s HyperSizer easy. Support for other mesh storage formats can be added as needed.

Structural modeling↗

Scalable hierarchical PDE sampler for generating spatially correlated random fields using nonmatching meshes: Scalable hierarchical PDE sampler using nonmatching meshes

This work describes a domain embedding technique between two nonmatching meshes used for generating realizations of spatially correlated random fields with applications to large-scale sampling-based uncertainty quantification. The goal is to apply the multilevel Monte Carlo (MLMC) method for the quantification of output uncertainties of PDEs with random input coefficients on general and unstructured computational domains. We propose a highly scalable, hierarchical sampling method to generate realizations of a Gaussian random field on a given unstructured mesh by solving a reaction–diffusion PDE with a stochastic right-hand side. The stochastic PDE is discretized using the mixed finite element method on an embedded domain with a structured mesh, and then, the solution is projected onto the unstructured mesh. This work describes implementation details on how to efficiently transfer data from the structured and unstructured meshes at coarse levels, assuming that this can be done efficiently on the finest level. We investigate the efficiency and parallel scalability of the technique for the scalable generation of Gaussian random fields in three dimensions. An application of the MLMC method is presented for quantifying uncertainties of subsurface flow problems. Here, we demonstrate the scalability of the sampling method with nonmatching mesh embedding, coupled with a parallel forward model problem solver, for large-scale 3D MLMC simulations with up to 1.9·109 unknowns.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Physics-informed machine learning

Despite great progress in simulating multiphysics problems using the numerical discretization of partial differential equations (PDEs), one still cannot seamlessly incorporate noisy data into existing algorithms, mesh generation remains complex, and high-dimensional problems governed by parameterized PDEs cannot be tackled. Moreover, solving inverse problems with hidden physics is often prohibitively expensive and requires different formulations and elaborate computer codes. Machine learning has emerged as a promising alternative, but training deep neural networks requires big data, not always available for scientific problems. Instead, such networks can be trained from additional information obtained by enforcing the physical laws (for example, at random points in the continuous space-time domain). Such physics-informed learning integrates (noisy) data and mathematical models, and implements them through neural networks or other kernel-based regression networks. Moreover, it may be possible to design specialized network architectures that automatically satisfy some of the physical invariants for better accuracy, faster training and improved generalization. Furthermore, we review some of the prevailing trends in embedding physics into machine learning, present some of the current capabilities and limitations and discuss diverse applications of physics-informed learning both for forward and inverse problems, including discovering hidden physics and tackling high-dimensional problems.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

A Tool for Low Noise Procedures Design and Community Noise Impact Assessment: The Rotorcraft Noise Model (RNM)

To improve aircraft noise impact modeling capabilities and to provide a tool to aid in the development of low noise terminal area operations for rotorcraft and tiltrotors, the Rotorcraft Noise Model (RNM) was developed by the NASA Langley Research Center and Wyle Laboratories. RNM is a simulation program that predicts how sound will propagate through the atmosphere and accumulate at receiver locations located on flat ground or varying terrain, for single and multiple vehicle flight operations. At the core of RNM are the vehicle noise sources, input as sound hemispheres. As the vehicle "flies" along its prescribed flight trajectory, the source sound propagation is simulated and accumulated at the receiver locations (single points of interest or multiple grid points) in a systematic time-based manner. These sound signals at the receiver locations may then be analyzed to obtain single event footprints, integrated noise contours, time histories, or numerous other features. RNM may also be used to generate spectral time history data over a ground mesh for the creation of single event sound animation videos. Acoustic properties of the noise source(s) are defined in terms of sound hemispheres that may be obtained from theoretical predictions, wind tunnel experimental results, flight test measurements, or a combination of the three. The sound hemispheres may contain broadband data (source levels as a function of one-third octave band) and pure-tone data (in the form of specific frequency sound pressure levels and phase). A PC executable version of RNM is publicly available and has been adopted by a number of organizations for Environmental Impact Assessment studies of rotorcraft noise. This paper provides a review of the required input data, the theoretical framework of RNM's propagation model and the output results. Code validation results are provided from a NATO helicopter noise flight test as well as a tiltrotor flight test program that used the RNM as a tool to aid in the development of low noise approach profiles.

Conner, David A.↗

Multilevel Techniques for Compression and Reduction of Scientific Data---The Unstructured Case

Previous work on multilevel techniques for compression and reduction of scientific data is extended to the case of data given on unstructured meshes in two and three dimensions. The centerpiece of the work is a decomposition algorithm which is shown to be optimal, in terms of both storage and operational complexity, applicable to unstructured grids in both two and three dimensions, and which implicitly gives a Riesz basis that can be exploited to reduce the data while maintaining rigorous bounds on the loss incurred. The flexibility of the approach is illustrated by applications to potential flow around an airfoil and the effect of compression on quantities of interest relevant to airfoil design; compression of computational simulation of a nonlinear reaction-diffusion system with special attention given to the problem of time series reduction; and, data from a simulation of magnetically confined plasma in a fusion reactor reduced so as to preserve the electric field computed from the data.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Evaluation of the effect of VAS data on some NMC analyses and forecasts

The effect of visible/infrared atmospheric sounder (VAS) data on the limited area fine mesh model (LFM) analysis forecast system were examined. The VAS data obtained from the Pacific geostationary satellite are valuable for LFM analysis because temperatures from the polar orbiting satellite over the east Pacific are received too late for 1200 GMT LFM analysis. Because the VISSR has only infrared channels, retrievals are possible only in regions with little or no cloudiness.

Olenic, E. A.↗

Feedbacks Between Surface Deformation and Permafrost Degradation in Ice Wedge Polygons: Modeling Archive

This Modeling Archive is in support of an NGEE Arctic publication "Feedbacks between surface deformation and permafrost degradation in ice wedge polygons," submitted for review to the Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface. The goals of the study were: 1) to determine how variability in microtopographic conditions (i.e., rim height, trough width, and trough depth) and hydrologic conditions in the trough (i.e., inundated or well-drained) of an ice wedge polygon impact active layer thickness above an ice wedge; and 2) to determine how microtopographic and hydrologic controls on active layer thickness may influence thermokarst trajectories in ice wedge polygon terrain. Toward these objectives, an ensemble of fine-scale simulations of the hydrologic and thermal regimes in ice wedge polygons of variable microtopography was conducted, each polygon being subjected to identical meteorological forcing data, characteristic of the last twenty years near Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. Simulations incorporated solutions of conservation of water and mass at the surface, in the subsurface, and in the snowpack. Active layer thickness in the trough (i.e., above the ice wedge) was extracted from each simulation at the end of a 19 year spin-up, and at the end of a markedly warm summer which followed the spin-up. This archive includes mesh files, meteorological forcing data, and input files needed to reproduce the analysis described in the paper. Due to the large file sizes, raw model output has been omitted. However, post-processing scripts and time series of several variables extracted from the raw output have been included. All data are included in one zipped file with a user guide as a pdf. All simulations were conducted using Amanzi-ATS, v 0.86 (https://doi.org/10.11578/dc.20190911.1).The Next-Generation Ecosystem Experiments: Arctic (NGEE Arctic), was a research effort to reduce uncertainty in Earth System Models by developing a predictive understanding of carbon-rich Arctic ecosystems and feedbacks to climate. NGEE Arctic was supported by the Department of Energy's Office of Biological and Environmental Research.The NGEE Arctic project had two field research sites: 1) located within the Arctic polygonal tundra coastal region on the Barrow Environmental Observatory (BEO) and the North Slope near Utqiagvik (Barrow), Alaska and 2) multiple areas on the discontinuous permafrost region of the Seward Peninsula north of Nome, Alaska.Through observations, experiments, and synthesis with existing datasets, NGEE Arctic provided an enhanced knowledge base for multi-scale modeling and contributed to improved process representation at global pan-Arctic scales within the Department of Energy's Earth system Model (the Energy Exascale Earth System Model, or E3SM), and specifically within the E3SM Land Model component (ELM).

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Method and system for progressive mesh storage and reconstruction using wavelet-encoded height fields

Systems and methods are provided for progressive mesh storage and reconstruction using wavelet-encoded height fields. A method for progressive mesh storage includes reading raster height field data, and processing the raster height field data with a discrete wavelet transform to generate wavelet-encoded height fields. In another embodiment, a method for progressive mesh storage includes reading texture map data, and processing the texture map data with a discrete wavelet transform to generate wavelet-encoded texture map fields. A method for reconstructing a progressive mesh from wavelet-encoded height field data includes determining terrain blocks, and a level of detail required for each terrain block, based upon a viewpoint. Triangle strip constructs are generated from vertices of the terrain blocks, and an image is rendered utilizing the triangle strip constructs. Software products that implement these methods are provided.

Baxes, Gregory A.↗

Method and system for progressive mesh storage and reconstruction using wavelet-encoded height fields

Systems and methods are provided for progressive mesh storage and reconstruction using wavelet-encoded height fields. A method for progressive mesh storage includes reading raster height field data, and processing the raster height field data with a discrete wavelet transform to generate wavelet-encoded height fields. In another embodiment, a method for progressive mesh storage includes reading texture map data, and processing the texture map data with a discrete wavelet transform to generate wavelet-encoded texture map fields. A method for reconstructing a progressive mesh from wavelet-encoded height field data includes determining terrain blocks, and a level of detail required for each terrain block, based upon a viewpoint. Triangle strip constructs are generated from vertices of the terrain blocks, and an image is rendered utilizing the triangle strip constructs. Software products that implement these methods are provided.

Baxes, Gregory A.↗

Fast and Invertible Simplicial Approximation of Magnetic‐Following Interpolation for Visualizing Fusion Plasma Simulation Data

We introduce a fast and invertible approximation for fusion plasma simulation data represented as 2D planar meshes with connectivities approximating magnetic field lines along the toroidal dimension in deformed 3D toroidal spaces. Scientific variables (e.g., density and temperature) in these fusion data are interpolated following a complex magnetic-field-line-following scheme in the toroidal space represented by a cylindrical coordinate system. This deformation in the 3D space poses challenges for root-finding and interpolation. To this end, we propose a novel paradigm for visualizing and analyzing such data based on a newly developed algorithm for constructing a 3D simplicial mesh within the deformed 3D space. Our algorithm generates a tetrahedral mesh that connects the 2D meshes using tetrahedra while adhering to the constraints on node connectivities imposed by the magnetic field-line scheme. Specifically, we first divide the space into smaller partitions to reduce complexity based on the input geometries and constraints on connectivities. Then, we independently search for a feasible tetrahedralization of each partition, considering nonconvexity. We demonstrate our method with two X-Point Gyrokinetic Code (XGC) simulation datasets on the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) and Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X), and use an ocean simulation dataset to substantiate broader applicability of our method. An open source implementation of our algorithm is available at https://github.com/rcrcarissa/DeformedSpaceTet.

Ren, Congrong [The Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH ↗

Fourier-based methods for removing mesh anomalies from angle resolved photoemission spectra

Recent improvements to spatial resolution in angle-resolved photo-emission spectroscopy (ARPES) have made it common to perform measurements with a very brief dwell time, for the purpose of mapping the spectral function over large surface regions. However, rapid measurement modalities can suffer a grid-like intensity modulation due to a wire mesh that is typically placed in front of the ARPES detector to block stray electrons. Here, we explore Fourier-based methods that can effectively remove this artifact, and improve the quality of ARPES images obtained in rapid scanning modes. In conclusion, an open source software package is provided containing implementations of demonstrated algorithms.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Verification of a Reduced-Order Extension Spring Model

Adopting reduced order models (ROMs) of springs lowers the computational cost of stronglink simulations. However, ROMs introduce currently unquantified error to such analyses. This study addresses that lack of data by comparing a hexahedral mesh to a commonly used ROM beam mesh. Two types of analyses were performed, a quasi-static displacement-controlled pull and a haversine shock, examining basic spring properties as well as dynamics and stress/strain data. Both tests showed good similarities between the hexahedral and beam meshes, especially when comparing reaction force and stress trends and maximums. Equivalent plastic strain results were not quite as favorable, indicating that the beam model may be less likely to correctly predict spring failure. Despite reducing computation times by over 48 hours in all shock cases, appropriate use of the ROM should carefully balance this advantage with its reduction in accuracy, especially when examining spring failure and outputting variables such as equivalent plastic strain.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Computationally efficient CFD prediction of bubbly flow using physics-guided deep learning

To realize efficient computational fluid dynamics (CFD) prediction of two-phase flow, a multi-scale framework was proposed in this paper by applying a physics-guided data-driven approach. Instrumental to this framework, Feature Similarity Measurement (FSM) technique was developed for error estimation in two-phase flow simulation using coarse-mesh CFD, to achieve a comparable accuracy as fine-mesh simulations with fast-running feature. In this work, by defining physics-guided parameters and variable gradients as physical features, FSM has the capability to capture the underlying local patterns in the coarse-mesh CFD simulation. Massive low-fidelity data and respective high-fidelity data are used to explore the underlying information relevant to the main simulation errors and the effects of phenomenological scaling. By learning from previous simulation data, a surrogate model using deep feedforward neural network (DFNN) can be developed and trained to estimate the simulation error of coarse-mesh CFD. In a demonstration case of two-phase bubbly flow, the DFNN model well captured and corrected the unphysical “peaks” in the velocity and void fraction profiles near the wall in the coarse-mesh configuration, even for extrapolative predictions. The research documented supports the feasibility of the physics-guided deep learning methods for coarse mesh CFD simulations which has a potential for the efficient industrial design.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗