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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 289 records · Page 16
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2023

Final Report for ARPA-E LOCOMOTIVES Advanced Locomotive Technology and Rail Infrastructure Optimization System (ALTRIOS) Project

The Advanced Locomotive Technology and Rail Infrastructure Optimization System (ALTRIOS) is a unique, fully integrated, open-source software tool used to evaluate strategies for cost-effectively deploying advanced locomotive technologies and associated infrastructure. ALTRIOS simulates freight-demand-driven train scheduling, mainline meet-pass planning, locomotive dynamics, train dynamics, energy conversion efficiencies, and energy storage dynamics of line-haul train operations. Because new locomotives represent a significant long-term capital investment and new technologies must be thoroughly demonstrated before deployment, this tool provides guidance on the risk/reward trade-offs and operation integration of different technology rollout strategies. An open, integrated simulation tool is valuable for identifying future research needs and making decisions on technology development, routes, and train selection. This final report details the ALTRIOS software architecture, major modules and components, and data validation process. It demonstrates the software's utility through a 30-year rollout case study targeting high penetration of advanced powertrain technologies by 2050 for two BNSF Railway routes: loaded taconite ore trains from Hibbing, Minnesota, to Superior, Wisconsin, and mixed-freight trains from Superior to Minneapolis, Minnesota.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program: Use of Time Distributions to Predict Operator Procedure Performance in Dynamic Human Reliability Analysis

The Human Unimodel for Nuclear Technology to Enhance Reliability (HUNTER) framework affords software capable of conducting human reliability analysis (HRA) using a dynamic approach built around operating procedures (OPs) from nuclear power plants (NPPs). Previous HUNTER reports document the development of this software tool, the coupling of HUNTER to the simulator code, the collection of operator performance data by using simulators to calibrate HUNTER models, and linking HUNTER to probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) software. The present report largely addresses two topics. The first is a new function in HUNTER called the HUNTER Procedure Performance Predictor (P3). HUNTER P3 uses HUNTER’s built in Monte Carlo tools featuring human performance variability to identify potential error traps in procedures. The second topic is time distribution analysis to generate time inputs for dynamic HRA. The current analysis was performed to investigate time distributions for task primitives, which are the minimum task unit of analysis used in dynamic HRA modeling. Using the time distribution data, the elapsed time for human actions in an extended loss of AC power (ELAP) scenario is then investigated. Time data and prediction are essential for modeling procedure performance.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Enhancing occupant behavior representation for interoperability between building information modeling and building energy modeling

Building Performance Simulation (BPS) has been adopted as an essential tool for designing, operating, and retrofitting buildings to optimize energy efficiency throughout the building life cycle. The Green Building XML (gbXML) schema facilitates seamless data exchange between Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Building Energy Modeling (BEM) software tools. However, limited occupant behavior (OB) representation in BIM often leads to inconsistent and inaccurate energy simulation in BEM software. This paper presents 154 systematic enhancements to the existing occupant behavior XML (obXML) schema v1.3.4, initially developed for standardizing OB representation for BEM, to address existing limitations and improve interoperability with BIM models. The enhancements encompass improved integration with BIM models through extended building representations and system operations, expanded support for advanced OB models with additional environmental parameters and mathematical capabilities, and implementation of a standardized model documentation framework. To facilitate seamless data transformation between gbXML and obXML schemas, we developed a publicly available gb-obXML Schema Converter. Three case studies demonstrate the enhanced schema’s capabilities: representation of building information using a two-story office building model, documentation of a window operation behavior model, and validation of the schema converter’s functionality. The enhanced obXML schema v1.4 enables sophisticated modeling of occupant-building interactions while maintaining consistency with industry-standard BIM schemas. The standardized documentation framework facilitates reproducibility and knowledge sharing in the OB research community, while the schema converter automates the integration of building information into OB simulation workflows. These enhancements establish a foundation for more accurate building performance simulation by supporting sophisticated representation of occupant behavior within the BIM-to-BEM simulation workflows.

Chung, Jihoon↗
DOE OSTI2014

TU-C-BRE-11: 3D EPID-Based in Vivo Dosimetry: A Major Step Forward Towards Optimal Quality and Safety in Radiation Oncology Practice

Purpose: To develop a 3D in vivo dosimetry method that is able to substitute pre-treatment verification in an efficient way, and to terminate treatment delivery if the online measured 3D dose distribution deviates too much from the predicted dose distribution. Methods: A back-projection algorithm has been further developed and implemented to enable automatic 3D in vivo dose verification of IMRT/VMAT treatments using a-Si EPIDs. New software tools were clinically introduced to allow automated image acquisition, to periodically inspect the record-and-verify database, and to automatically run the EPID dosimetry software. The comparison of the EPID-reconstructed and planned dose distribution is done offline to raise automatically alerts and to schedule actions when deviations are detected. Furthermore, a software package for online dose reconstruction was also developed. The RMS of the difference between the cumulative planned and reconstructed 3D dose distributions was used for triggering a halt of a linac. Results: The implementation of fully automated 3D EPID-based in vivo dosimetry was able to replace pre-treatment verification for more than 90% of the patient treatments. The process has been fully automated and integrated in our clinical workflow where over 3,500 IMRT/VMAT treatments are verified each year. By optimizing the dose reconstruction algorithm and the I/O performance, the delivered 3D dose distribution is verified in less than 200 ms per portal image, which includes the comparison between the reconstructed and planned dose distribution. In this way it was possible to generate a trigger that can stop the irradiation at less than 20 cGy after introducing large delivery errors. Conclusion: The automatic offline solution facilitated the large scale clinical implementation of 3D EPID-based in vivo dose verification of IMRT/VMAT treatments; the online approach has been successfully tested for various severe delivery errors.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2013

RELAP5-3D Developer Guidelines and Programming Practices

Our ultimate goal is to create and maintain RELAP5-3D as the best software tool available to analyze nuclear power plants. This begins with writing excellent programming and requires thorough testing. This document covers development of RELAP5-3D software.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2013

RELAP5-3D Developer Guidelines and Programming Practices

Our ultimate goal is to create and maintain RELAP5-3D as the best software tool available to analyze nuclear power plants. This begins with writing excellent programming and requires thorough testing. This document covers development of RELAP5-3D software, the behavior of the RELAP5-3D program that must be maintained, and code testing.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2014

RELAP5-3D Developer Guidelines and Programming Practices

Our ultimate goal is to create and maintain RELAP5-3D as the best software tool available to analyze nuclear power plants. This begins with writing excellent programming and requires thorough testing. This document covers development of RELAP5-3D software, the behavior of the RELAP5-3D program that must be maintained, and code testing. RELAP5-3D must perform in a manner consistent with previous code versions with backward compatibility for the sake of the users. Thus file operations, code termination, input and output must remain consistent in form and content while adding appropriate new files, input and output as new features are developed. As computer hardware, operating systems, and other software change, RELAP5-3D must adapt and maintain performance. The code must be thoroughly tested to ensure that it continues to perform robustly on the supported platforms. The coding must be written in a consistent manner that makes the program easy to read to reduce the time and cost of development, maintenance and error resolution. The programming guidelines presented her are intended to institutionalize a consistent way of writing FORTRAN code for the RELAP5-3D computer program that will minimize errors and rework. A common format and organization of program units creates a unifying look and feel to the code. This in turn increases readability and reduces time required for maintenance, development and debugging. It also aids new programmers in reading and understanding the program. Therefore, when undertaking development of the RELAP5-3D computer program, the programmer must write computer code that follows these guidelines. This set of programming guidelines creates a framework of good programming practices, such as initialization, structured programming, and vector-friendly coding. It sets out formatting rules for lines of code, such as indentation, capitalization, spacing, etc. It creates limits on program units, such as subprograms, functions, and modules. It establishes documentation guidance on internal comments. The guidelines apply to both existing and new subprograms. They are written for both FORTRAN 77 and FORTRAN 95. The guidelines are not so rigorous as to inhibit a programmer’s unique style, but do restrict the variations in acceptable coding to create sufficient commonality that new readers will find the coding in each new subroutine familiar. It is recognized that this is a “living” document and must be updated as languages, compilers, and computer hardware and software evolve.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2020

High Performance Computing Systems Tools, Visualization, and Management

High Performance Computing (HPC) systems are complex setups of servers, storage devices, network switches, and cables that are specifically designed to accommodate hundreds of users running highly computationally intensive applications at a time. These applications require numerous softwares, licenses, and various levels of storage as well. All of these resources must be monitored and managed by HPC administrators, which presents a daunting task. In this project, I created numerous software tools as part of an HPC Visualization and Management system, which is now used by HPC administrators on a daily basis.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2019

ProCAFD: Computer-aided Tool for Sustainable Process Synthesis, Intensification and Hybrid solutions

Process industry is always in quest for innovative designs which are both efficient, safe and sustainable. The feasible search space of all unit operations that can be combined to generate process flowsheet alternatives for a given synthesis problem can be large and difficult to manually navigate in order to determine the best processing route. Therefore, it is helpful to utilize computer-aided methods and tools to enumerate, analyze and determine within the design space, the more sustainable processes. In this study, an integrated computer-aided method and corresponding software-tool that’s capable of generating and searching the entire design space for more sustainable process options is presented. In this work a comprehensive analysis method consisting of economic, life cycle, sustainability and process safety indicators is used to identify process bottlenecks on the selected alternative which are translated to design targets. Matching of these design targets minimizes/eliminates the process hot-spots and, thereby generating non-trade-off innovative process designs.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2016

Water Network Tool for Resilience Version 0.1

Water utilities are vulnerable to a wide variety of human-caused and natural disasters. These disruptive events can result in loss of water service, contaminated water, pipe breaks, and failed equipment. Furthermore, long term changes in water supply and customer demand can have a large impact on the operating conditions of the network. The ability to maintain drinking water service during and following these types of events is critical. Simulation and analysis tools can help water utilities explore how their network will respond to disruptive events and plan effective mitigation strategies. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Sandia National Laboratories are developing new software tools to meet this need. The Water Network Tool for Resilience (WNTR, pronounced winter) is a Python package designed to help water utilities investigate resilience of water distribution systems over a wide range of hazardous scenarios and to evaluate resilience-enhancing actions. The following documentation includes installation instructions and examples, description of software features, and software license. It is assumed that the reader is familiar with the Python Programming Language.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2024

lanl-ansi/MG-RAVENS

The MG-RAVENS project with the DOE Office of Electricity Microgrid R&D Program is a project to develop a completely free, open-source data exchange standard (API) for the Department of Energy, targeted at software tools related to infrastructure modeling, particularly the modeling of microgrids and electric power distribution systems that are created with funding from the Microgrid R&D Program. This software produces formal definitions of an API, documentation, contains supporting functions for parsing, validating, etc., and will contain examples of workflows enabled by the developed API.

Fobes, David M↗
DOE OSTI2022

GeoRePORT 2.0 - Protocols and Reporting Tools

Version 2 of the GeoRePORT protocols and excel-based reporting tools. Software allows users to grade the geologic, technical, and socio-economic conditions at a geothermal resource location for both electricity generation and direct-use. Includes tool and protocols for: * Geologic Assessment Tool * Technical Assessment Tool * Socio-Economic Assessment Tool * International Socio-Economic Assessment Tool In addition, GeoRePORT now includes a Resource Size Assessment tool and protocol.

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Microwave Cavity Simulation Using Ansys HFSS

The design of microwave cavity detectors for axion dark matter research is often accomplished using advanced full-wave electromagnetic simulation software tools. These tools provide a cost-effective approach to evaluate a wide variety of cavity configurations, frequency tuning mechanisms, and conductive or dielectric materials and coatings. One simulation software package used for this application is Ansys High Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS), which is based upon the well-established finite element method. HFSS includes numerous features useful for microwave cavity design such as parametric geometry modeling, adaptive meshing algorithm, curvilinear mesh elements, driven modal and eigenmode matrix solvers, and optimization algorithms. This paper describes the use of the HFSS software to simulate microwave cavities for axion haloscope detectors, with an example tutorial for a cylindrical cavity. Excellent agreement between the simulated and analytical results is shown for the resonant frequency, quality factor, and form factor.

Ansys HFSS, Cavity simulation, finite element mode↗
DOE OSTI2023

Virtual Engineering Software Framework for Integrated Biomass Conversion Modeling

This presentation covers the design and implementation of a software tool to systematically connect computational models of unit operations to simulate an integrated process of low-temperature conversion of biomass to fuel. This virtual engineering (VE) software was designed with the overarching goal of connecting unit models written in various programming languages and requiring different computational resources within a single, flexible framework. The models and features currently considered for the VE library include mechanistic models for pretreatment, enzymatic hydrolysis, and aerobic bioreaction; high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations for enzymatic hydrolysis and aerobic bioreaction; and the capability to perform techno-economic analyses (TEA) using Aspen Plus, a commercial software package. The CFD models require access to high-performance computing (HPC) resources, so in addition to handling multiple programming languages and interfaces, the VE software must also be capable of interacting with an HPC scheduler to submit, run, and post-process jobs. Using the Python programming language, a new VE software package has been developed that contains functionality to manage the input-output communication between various unit models, schedule simulations to run on NREL's HPC and analyze those results, and interface with existing TEA software workflows. A Jupyter-notebook GUI was also created to solicit user input and provide documentation. In cases where multiple models for a particular unit-operation exist, selection between models is accomplished through a simple checkbox, with the appropriate inputs and outputs being parsed and converted seamlessly in the background. Each operation makes use of a different programming language, but the flow of information from pretreatment to enzymatic hydrolysis to bioreaction is managed with an intuitive, centralized file-communication strategy. In this talk, the programming approach and implementation details of the notebook are presented for multiple possibilities of the conversion process, including a demonstration of the ability to manage HPC resources. Additionally, an example of a sensitivity study of treatment parameters governing the overall conversion outcome is shown which highlights the ease of defining new problems using the VE Notebook workflow and leads into a discussion of ongoing work to enable outer-loop optimization studies.

biofuel↗
DOE OSTI2019

The Next Generation System Analysis Model: Capabilities for Simulating a Waste Management System - 19131

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Nuclear Energy Office of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition's Integrated Waste Management System (IWMS) program is applying integrated waste management system architecture analysis, system engineering, and decision analysis principles to inform potential future decisions regarding potential nuclear waste management system architectures. Architecture analyses of the IWMS are being conducted to support the future deployment of a comprehensive system for managing nuclear waste that considers all major aspects of the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle (i.e., transportation, storage, and disposal). The system architecture analyses consider alternative disposition pathways for commercial spent nuclear fuel (SNF) being stored dry in at-reactor Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installations (ISFSIs) or wet in spent-fuel pools. One method for evaluating these alternatives is simulating the movement of SNF throughout the system components. Successfully simulating a system on the scale of a national waste management system requires - accurate baseline information (e.g., historic fuel discharges from reactors and dry storage loadings at reactor sites), - modeling all logistic interactions between components of the proposed system, and - tracking and reporting all relevant details regarding the simulation's execution. The Next Generation System Analysis Model (NGSAM) is an agent-based simulation software tool designed for the express purpose of modeling the IWMS. It is based on the Performance Analysis Tool, a simulation platform that has been used to model logistics for the Department of Defense and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Using existing, government-owned software allows NGSAM developers to modify the software at the level of source code and to develop flexible usability and modeling solutions for developing and running simulations of the IWMS. NGSAM imports data from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Unified Database (e.g., historic assembly information, thermal profiles for assembly heat, at-reactor dry storage loadings) to ensure that the simulation initializes with a realistic representation of the state of commercial SNF in the United States. NGSAM is designed with the flexibility to model and track the behavior of virtually any IWMS architecture assumptions or design considerations. For example, NGSAM can model multiple interim storage facilities or repositories or none at all. Similarly, all assumptions regarding shipment schedules, operating schedules, and reactor operation assumptions can be modeled and adjusted in NGSAM with relative ease. The development of NGSAM was targeted to waste management system analysts as the primary users. With that in mind, analysts from ORNL, Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), and Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) were intimately involved in the development process. That involvement extended beyond merely defining requirements. System analysts have been involved with design decisions and software benchmarking and tests, and they have provided subject-matter expertise where necessary. The result is a high degree of interaction between professional software developers and system analysts, with a multitude of benefits to both groups. This paper explores some of the underlying methodology of the agile software development process used in the creation of NGSAM. It illustrates the capabilities of NGSAM. Some example use cases are discussed as well, with relevant results providing context for how NGSAM is used by system analysts to gain a greater understanding of alternative waste management system architectures. This is a technical paper that does not take into account the contractual limitations under the Standard Contract for Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and/or High-Level Radioactive Waste (Standard Contract) (10 CFR Part 961). Under the provisions of the Standard Contract, DOE does not consider spent nuclear fuel in multi-assembly canisters to be an acceptable waste form, absent a mutually agreed-to contract amendment. To the extent discussions or recommendations in this paper conflict with the provisions of the Standard Contract, the Standard Contract provisions prevail. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2019

Biosecurity Risk Assessment Methodology (BioRAM) v. 2.0

Sandia National Laboratories International Biological Threat Reduction Dept (SNL/IBTR) has an ongoing mission to enhance biosecurity assessment methodologies, tools, and guise. These will aid labs seeking to implement biosecurity as advocated in the recently released WHO's Biorisk Management: Lab Biosecurity Guidance. BioRAM 2.0 is the software tool developed initially using the SNL LDRD process and designed to complement the "Laboratory Biosecurity Risk Handbook" written by Ren Salerno and Jennifer Gaudioso defining biosecurity risk assessment methodologies.

Caskey, Susan↗
DOE OSTI2021

Simulations of future particle accelerators: issues and mitigations

The ever increasing demands placed upon machine performance have resulted in the need for more comprehensive particle accelerator modeling. Computer simulations are key to the success of particle accelerators. Many aspects of particle accelerators rely on computer modeling at some point, sometimes requiring complex simulation tools and massively parallel supercomputing. Examples include the modeling of beams at extreme intensities and densities (toward the quantum degeneracy limit), and with ultra-fine control (down to the level of individual particles). In the future, adaptively tuned models might also be relied upon to provide beam measurements beyond the resolution of existing diagnostics. Much time and effort has been put into creating accelerator software tools, some of which are highly successful. However, there are also shortcomings such as the general inability of existing software to be easily modified to meet changing simulation needs. In this paper possible mitigating strategies are discussed for issues faced by the accelerator community as it endeavors to produce better and more comprehensive modeling tools. This includes lack of coordination between code developers, lack of standards to make codes portable and/or reusable, lack of documentation, among others.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗