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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 OSTI2024

Transformational Regional-Scale Earthquake Simulations with the DOE EarthQuake SIMulation Exascale Framework

Earthquakes present worldwide risk to economic and human safety. The 2023 earthquakes in Turkiye provided a reminder of the potential for catastrophic consequences with 50,700 deaths and 15.7 million people affected. The ability to predict ground motions and infrastructure damage for earthquakes continues to be a challenging problem for scientists and engineers. Until now, estimates of ground motions have been performed empirically by looking at sparse data from past earthquakes. This approach can provide statistical information on intensity amplitudes but cannot inform site-specific ground motions essential to developing the most effective resilience. Interest has grown in large-scale computational models to simulate earthquakes at regional scale. The U.S. Department of Energy EarthQuake SIMulation (EQSIM) framework was developed for regional-scale earthquake simulations at unprecedented fidelity, taking advantage of emerging GPU-accelerated systems. This article describes the EQSIM workflow and demonstrates regional-scale simulations with the new computational capability available to scientists in their quest to mitigate future disasters.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS1986

System analysis for the Huntsville Operation Support Center distributed computer system

A simulation model of the NASA Huntsville Operational Support Center (HOSC) was developed. This simulation model emulates the HYPERchannel Local Area Network (LAN) that ties together the various computers of HOSC. The HOSC system is a large installation of mainframe computers such as the Perkin Elmer 3200 series and the Dec VAX series. A series of six simulation exercises of the HOSC model is described using data sets provided by NASA. The analytical analysis of the ETHERNET LAN and the video terminals (VTs) distribution system are presented. An interface analysis of the smart terminal network model which allows the data flow requirements due to VTs on the ETHERNET LAN to be estimated, is presented.

Ingels, F. M.↗
DOE OSTI2024

THERMAL MODELING OF HANFORD CESIUM AND STRONTIUM CANISTERS DURING SIMULATED LOADING

A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was built to simulate planned testing of heater assemblies within a canister and overpack for the Hanford Lead Canister (HLC) project. The HLC is a canister storage system that will contain heaters to simulate the decay heat of nuclear material and provide the canister storage system with environmental conditions equivalent to the operating conditions on a dry storage pad. The HLC will be equipped with long-term data collection and monitoring systems to provide an early warning of corrosion, pitting, cracking, or other signs of canister degradation that might threaten the integrity of the containment boundary over the potentially long term of dry storage. An important part of the HLC development is to make pretest numerical predictions for the behavior of the heated canister during the simulated radiolytic decay heat testing, which simulates the dry storage system during loading operations. The simulated radiolytic decay heat test is planned for mid-2024 in a configuration that includes the heater assembly, overpack, and canister, but with the lids removed to allow loading cesium and strontium capsules into the canister. One of the goals of the test is to evaluate the thermal behavior of the canister and overpack assembly in the ambient air of the test facility, which will provide data critical to validating the thermal models and understanding how the HLC will perform as a system once deployed. To best approximate real-world conditions, the CFD model includes the full air volume of the mock-up truck bay the heated canister test will be performed in, enabling detailed investigation of how the heated canister affects airflow around it. Rigorous pre-deployment testing of the complete HLC cask and canister system is intended to be completed before the HLC is deployed in the 2028 timeframe. This study presents the pre-test temperature predictions of the simulated radiolytic decay heat test. A description of the heater assembly, canister, and overpack system is presented. The model was developed with the commercial CFD software STAR-CCM+. An uncertainty analysis was run with the CFD model to determine the uncertainty in the temperature predictions and provide a range over which the predicted temperatures are expected to vary. The uncertainty analysis was preformed by coupling STAR-CCM+ with the software Dakota, which provides advanced parametric analyses, including quantification of margins and uncertainty with computational models. This work is expected to provide insight into SNF canister behavior.

Carpenter-Graffy, Dina E.↗
DOE OSTI2020

Sandia Electromagnetic Environment Simulator Facilities

Sandia National Laboratories’ (Sandia’s) Electrical Sciences Group (1350) provides a spectrum of solutions for electromagnetic (EM) environment effects on electrical systems to advance physical understanding including experiments, analytical and numerical model development leveraging first-principles physics, and high-performance computational modeling and simulation (M&S). The six departments in the Electrical Sciences Group provide analysis, design guidance, and experiments in support of nuclear weapons qualification in normal, abnormal, and hostile environments, as well as research and development for advanced electrical systems that can operate through these environments. This document is intended to provide a quick summary of Sandia’s EM experimental facilities, most of which provide unique national capabilities.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2023

Application of Quantum Machine Learning to High Energy Physics Analysis at LHC using IBM Quantum Computer Simulators and IBM Quantum Computer Hardware

Our group pioneers the use of Quantum Machine Learning (QML) on High Energy Physics analysis at LHC. We have successfully employed several QML classification algorithms in the ttH (Higgs production in association with a top quark pair) and Higgs to two muons (Higgs coupling to second generation fermions), two recent LHC flagship physics analysis, on gate-model quantum computer simulators and hardware. The simulation studies have been performed with the IBM Quantum Framework, Google Tensorflow Quantum Framework, and Amazon Braket Framework, and we have achieved good classification performance that is similar to the performances of the classical machine learning methods currently used in LHC physics analyses, classical SVM, classical BDT, and classical deep neural network for example. We have also performed our studies using IBM superconducting quantum computer hardware and the performance is promising and is approaching the performance from IBM quantum simulators. Moreover, we extend our studies to other QML areas such as quantum anomaly detection and quantum generative adversarial, and some preliminary results have been obtained. Also, we have overcome the challenges of intensive computing resources in the cases of large qubits (25 qubits or more) and large numbers of events using NVIDIA cuQuantum with NERSC Perlmutter HPC. Our studies give an example that Quantum Machine Learning performs as well as its classical counterpart for realistic High Energy Physics analysis datasets. Furthermore, our result on noisy quantum hardware provides important validation for the result on noiseless quantum simulators.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Thermal-Hydraulic-Mechanical Modeling and Simulation of Sodium-Potassium–Cooled MARVEL Microreactor Core

The U.S. Department of Energy's Microreactor Program, with Idaho National Laboratory's development of a nuclear microreactor applications test bed named MARVEL, aims to support R&D for the deployment of small, transportable reactors across civilian, industrial, and defense sectors. The MARVEL microreactor, an 85-kWth thermal fission reactor, incorporates TRIGA nuclear fuel and a sodium-potassium eutectic as its primary coolant, designed for safety and efficiency, with natural circulation eliminating the risk of critical heat flux conditions. The reliance on natural circulation for primary cooling means the reactor avoids using fuel spacers to minimize core pressure drop, which could disrupt the primary coolant's natural flow. However, the reactor core’s tight P/D ratio of 1.05, in the absence of fuel spacers, could pose a risk of fuel rod contact and increased peak cladding temperatures. To ensure the reactor safety, this study conducted computational modeling and simulations to investigate the reactor's thermal-hydraulic-mechanical characteristics, including the reactor core heat transfer coefficients, the potential for rod-to-rod contact, and assessed its impact on peak cladding temperature and overall reactor safety. The computational analyses of the MARVEL microreactor core revealed that the thermal deformation of fuel rods under worst-case scenario may lead to the fuel rod contact, but the peak cladding temperatures will remain significantly lower than the safety criteria, ensuring the safety operation reactor without fuel spacers under normal operating conditions.

21 - SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLAN↗
NASA NTRS1999

A Cooperative Human-Adaptive Traffic Simulation (CHATS)

NASA is considering the development of a Cooperative Human-Adaptive Traffic Simulation (CHATS), to examine and evaluate performance of the National Airspace System (NAS) as the aviation community moves toward free flight. CHATS will be specifically oriented toward simulating strategic decision-making by airspace users and by the service provider s traffic management personnel, within the context of different airspace and rules assumptions. It will use human teams to represent these interests and make decisions, and will rely on computer modeling and simulation to calculate the impacts of these decisions. The simulation objectives will be to examine: 1. evolution of airspace users and the service provider s strategies, through adaptation to new operational environments; 2. air carriers competitive and cooperative behavior; 3. expected benefits to airspace users and the service provider as compared to the current NAS; 4. operational limitations of free flight concepts due to congestion and safety concerns. This paper describes an operational concept for CHATS, and presents a high-level functional design which would utilize a combination of existing and new models and simulation capabilities.

Phillips, Charles T.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Constructing a Simulation Surrogate with Partially Observed Output

Gaussian process surrogates are a popular alternative to directly using computationally expensive simulation models. When the simulation output consists of many responses, dimension-reduction techniques are often employed to construct these surrogates. However, surrogate methods with dimension reduction generally rely on complete output training data. This article proposes a new Gaussian process surrogate method that permits the use of partially observed output while remaining computationally efficient. The new method involves the imputation of missing values and the adjustment of the covariance matrix used for Gaussian process inference. The resulting surrogate represents the available responses, disregards the missing responses, and provides meaningful uncertainty quantification. In conclusion, the proposed approach is shown to offer sharper inference than alternatives in a simulation study and a case study where an energy density functional model that frequently returns incomplete output is calibrated.

42 ENGINEERING↗
NASA NTRS1985

Atomization data for spray combustion modeling

Computer models that simulate the energy release processes in spray combustion are highly dependent upon the quality of atomization data utilized. This paper presents results of analyses performed with a state-of-the-art rocket combustion code, demonstrating the important effects of initial droplet sizes and size distributions on combustion losses. Also, the questionable aspects and inapplicability of the generally available atomization data are discussed. One important and misunderstood aspect of the atomization process is the difference between spatial (concentration) and flux (temporal) droplet size distributions. These are addressed, and a computer model developed to assess this difference is described and results presented. Finally, experimental results are shown that demonstrate the often neglected effects of the local gas velocity field on the atomization process.

Ferrenberg, A. J.↗
DOE OSTI2022

ASC FY2023 Implementation Plan Revision 0

The DOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Stockpile Stewardship Program (SSP) is an integrated technical program for maintaining the safety, security, and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile. The SSP incorporates nuclear test data, computational modeling and simulation, and experimental facilities to advance understanding of nuclear weapons. The suite of data analyzed comes from activities including previous nuclear tests, stockpile surveillance, experimental research, and development and engineering programs. This integrated national program requires the continued use of experimental facilities and the computational capabilities to support the SSP missions. These component parts, in addition to an appropriately scaled production capability, enable NNSA to support stockpile requirements. The ultimate goal of the SSP, and thus of the Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) Program, is to ensure that the U.S. maintains a safe, secure, and effective strategic deterrent.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
NASA NTRS1983

Simulation of cardiovascular response to acceleration stress following weightless exposure

Physiological adjustments taking place during space flight tend to reduce the tolerance of the crew to headward (+Gz) acceleration experienced during the reentry phase of the flight. This reduced tolerance to acceleration stress apparently arises from an adaptation to the microgravity environment of space, including a decrease in the total circulating blood volume. Countermeasures such as anti-g garments have long been known to improve the tolerance to headward g-force, but their effectiveness in space flight has not been fully evaluated. The simulation study presented in this paper is concerned with the response of the cardiovascular system to g-stress following cardiovascular deconditioning, resulting from exposure to weightlessness, or any of its ground-based experimental analogs. The results serve to demonstrate the utility of mathematical modeling and computer simulation for studying the causes of orthostatic intolerance and the remedial measures to lessen it.

Srinivasan, R.↗
NASA NTRS1991

An experimental study of curved mixing layers: Flow visualization using volume rendering

The existence and importance of large-scale spanwise vortical structures for 2-D straight mixing layers has been well documented in the last decade. Computer models and simulations have sought to reproduce these vortical structures associated with the Kelvin-Helmholtz (K-H) instability mode which is due to the shear per se. Secondary streamwise vortical structures for the same flows were also seen experimentally and have recently been given importance in computational efforts. Curved mixing layers can be characterized as stable (the high-speed stream is placed on the outside of the longitudinal bend), leading to a suppression of the Taylor-Gortler (T-G) instability, and unstable (high-speed stream on the inside of the bend), leading to an enhancement of the T-G instability. The T-G instability is associated with the centripetal acceleration that the curvature imparts. Thus, curvature superimposed on 2-D shear layer flows provides a way for studying the importance of streamwise vorticity, its competition with spanwise vorticity, and changes to entrainment and mixing. Furthermore, the outcome of the competition of a relatively enhanced or suppressed T-G instability with the K-H instability offers the possibility of achieving passive mixing enhancement. As a first step in understanding the competition between the K-H and the T-G instabilities and the resulting changes to the structure of the flow, highly resolved visualizations of the flow structure for the stable and the unstable configurations are provided. The straight layer is also visualized for comparison with earlier works.

Karasso, Paris S.↗
NASA NTRS2021

Boundary and Initial Condition Issues for Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and Modeling and Simulation (Mod-Sim)

For many important classes of Mod-Sim problems, even quantum computing will not enable accurate predictions/computation vis-à-vis the real world due to boundary/initial condition shortfalls in terms of both range of parameters and requisite amplitudes/coverage. The Mod-Sim community needs to consider going forward the knowability of initial and boundary conditions.

Dennis M. Bushnell↗
DOE OSTI2022

Computational Design of Alloys for Energy Technologies

Advanced materials that maintain their mechanical performance under elevated temperatures, corrosive environments, and a range of static and evolving stresses are needed to improve the efficiency and reduce the environmental impact of a wide spectrum of energy technologies. For instance, cost-efficient alloys that can withstand high temperatures (e.g., 700 °C) have a critical role in improving the efficiency and economics of power generation to support decarbonization of the energy sector; such is true of both the nuclear and fossil energy sectors. Considering both the threats of the energy crisis, namely soaring costs of greenhouse gas emission-producing energy and climate change, it is essential to increase the pace of material discovery and enable rapid paths for material qualification to advance clean energy technologies. Conventionally, alloy development has followed a slow Edisonian process that uses repeated cycles of making, characterizing, and modifying to arrive at optimum composition and processing conditions to achieve the desired component performance. This optimization is followed by the necessary stepwise materials qualification. Furthermore, the increasing adoption of sound data management and physics-informed machine learning represents the next step in the acceleration of materials design and development. In the integrated computational materials engineering (ICME) approach, computational modeling and simulation data from different length and time scales can be combined with complex microstructural details from multimodal experimental characterization and selective property testing to close the design loop for rapid alloy development.

Computational Design Of Materials↗
NASA NTRS1994

Technology transfer of operator-in-the-loop simulation

The technology developed for operator-in-the-loop simulation in space teleoperation has been applied to Caterpillar's backhoe, wheel loader, and off-highway truck. On an SGI workstation, the simulation integrates computer modeling of kinematics and dynamics, real-time computational and visualization, and an interface with the operator through the operator's console. The console is interfaced with the workstation through an IBM-PC in which the operator's commands were digitized and sent through an RS-232 serial port. The simulation gave visual feedback adequate for the operator in the loop, with the camera's field of vision projected on a large screen in multiple view windows. The view control can emulate either stationary or moving cameras. This simulator created an innovative engineering design environment by integrating computer software and hardware with the human operator's interactions. The backhoe simulation has been adopted by Caterpillar in building a virtual reality tool for backhoe design.

Yae, K. H.↗
DOE OSTI2024

All-Atom Biomolecular Simulation in the Exascale Era

Exascale supercomputers have opened the door to dynamic simulations, facilitated by AI/ML techniques, that model biomolecular motions over unprecedented length and time scales. This new capability holds the potential to revolutionize our understanding of fundamental biological processes. Herein we report on some of the major advances that were discussed at a recent CECAM workshop in Pisa, Italy, on the topic with a primary focus on atomic-level simulations. First, we highlight examples of current large-scale biomolecular simulations and the future possibilities enabled by crossing the exascale threshold. Next, we discuss challenges to be overcome in optimizing the usage of these powerful resources. Finally, we close by listing several grand challenge problems that could be investigated with this new computer architecture.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
NASA NTRS1992

A comparison between theoretical prediction and experimental measurement of the dynamic behavior of spur gears

A comparison was made between computer model predictions of gear dynamics behavior and experimental results. The experimental data were derived from the NASA gear noise rig, which was used to record dynamic tooth loads and vibration. The experimental results were compared with predictions from the DSTO Aeronautical Research Laboratory's gear dynamics code for a matrix of 28 load speed points. At high torque the peak dynamic load predictions agree with the experimental results with an average error of 5 percent in the speed range 800 to 6000 rpm. Tooth separation (or bounce), which was observed in the experimental data for light torque, high speed conditions, was simulated by the computer model. The model was also successful in simulating the degree of load sharing between gear teeth in the multiple tooth contact region.

Rebbechi, Brian↗
NASA NTRS2011

Taurus II Stage Test Simulations: Using Large-Scale CFD Simulations to Provide Critical Insight into Plume Induced Environments During Design

This paper describes the use of targeted Loci/CHEM CFD simulations to evaluate the effects of a dual-engine first-stage hot-fire test on an evolving integrated launch pad/test article design. This effort was undertaken as a part of the NESC Independent Assessment of the Taurus II Stage Test Series. The underlying conceptual model included development of a series of computational models and simulations to analyze the plume induced environments on the pad, facility structures and test article. A pathfinder simulation was first developed, capable of providing quick-turn around evaluation of plume impingement pressures on the flame deflector. Results from this simulation were available in time to provide data for an ongoing structural assessment of the deflector. The resulting recommendation was available in a timely manner and was incorporated into construction schedule for the new launch stand under construction at Wallops Flight Facility. A series of Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) quasi-steady simulations representative of various key elements of the test profile was performed to identify potential concerns with the test configuration and test profile. As required, unsteady Hybrid-RANS/LES simulations were performed, to provide additional insight into critical aspects of the test sequence. Modifications to the test-specific hardware and facility structures thermal protection as well as modifications to the planned hot-fire test profile were implemented based on these simulation results.

Struzenberg, L. L.↗