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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 433 records · Page 24
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2001

High-Performance Java Codes for Computational Fluid Dynamics

The computational science community is reluctant to write large-scale computationally -intensive applications in Java due to concerns over Java's poor performance, despite the claimed software engineering advantages of its object-oriented features. Naive Java implementations of numerical algorithms can perform poorly compared to corresponding Fortran or C implementations. To achieve high performance, Java applications must be designed with good performance as a primary goal. This paper presents the object-oriented design and implementation of two real-world applications from the field of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD): a finite-volume fluid flow solver (LAURA, from NASA Langley Research Center), and an unstructured mesh adaptation algorithm (2D_TAG, from NASA Ames Research Center). This work builds on our previous experience with the design of high-performance numerical libraries in Java. We examine the performance of the applications using the currently available Java infrastructure and show that the Java version of the flow solver LAURA performs almost within a factor of 2 of the original procedural version. Our Java version of the mesh adaptation algorithm 2D_TAG performs within a factor of 1.5 of its original procedural version on certain platforms. Our results demonstrate that object-oriented software design principles are not necessarily inimical to high performance.

Riley, Christopher↗
NASA NTRS1995

Adaptively Refined Euler and Navier-Stokes Solutions with a Cartesian-Cell Based Scheme

A Cartesian-cell based scheme with adaptive mesh refinement for solving the Euler and Navier-Stokes equations in two dimensions has been developed and tested. Grids about geometrically complicated bodies were generated automatically, by recursive subdivision of a single Cartesian cell encompassing the entire flow domain. Where the resulting cells intersect bodies, N-sided 'cut' cells were created using polygon-clipping algorithms. The grid was stored in a binary-tree data structure which provided a natural means of obtaining cell-to-cell connectivity and of carrying out solution-adaptive mesh refinement. The Euler and Navier-Stokes equations were solved on the resulting grids using an upwind, finite-volume formulation. The inviscid fluxes were found in an upwinded manner using a linear reconstruction of the cell primitives, providing the input states to an approximate Riemann solver. The viscous fluxes were formed using a Green-Gauss type of reconstruction upon a co-volume surrounding the cell interface. Data at the vertices of this co-volume were found in a linearly K-exact manner, which ensured linear K-exactness of the gradients. Adaptively-refined solutions for the inviscid flow about a four-element airfoil (test case 3) were compared to theory. Laminar, adaptively-refined solutions were compared to accepted computational, experimental and theoretical results.

Coirier, William J.↗
DOE OSTI2018

In Situ Indexing and Query Processing of AMR Data

We have developed the first, holistic, Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR) capable, in situ query framework to ensure the tractability of the current- and next-generation AMR simulation analysis on the path to extreme scale. We have addressed key issues pertaining to in situ analysis, memory hierarchy, generalized parallel indexing, index-compression, and real-time access pattern detection. We have published the following research papers in high profile peer reviewed computer science conferences: (a) Parallel In Situ Detection of Connected Components in Adaptive Mesh Refinement Data; (b) AMR-aware In Situ Indexing and Scalable Querying; (c) Pattern-driven dynamic data layout optimization; (d) In situ Storage Layout Optimization for AMR Spatio-temporal Read Accesses; (e) AMRZone: A Runtime AMR Data Sharing Framework for Scientific Applications; (f) Exploring Memory Hierarchy and Network Topology for Runtime AMR Data Sharing Across Scientific Applications.

96 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND PRESERVATION↗
DOE OSTI2015

Filament capturing with the Multimaterial Moment-of-Fluid method

A novel method for capturing two-dimensional, thin, under-resolved material configurations, known as “filaments,” is presented in the context of interface reconstruction. This technique uses a partitioning procedure to detect disconnected regions of material in the advective preimage of a cell (indicative of a filament) and makes use of the existing functionality of the Multimaterial Moment-of-Fluid interface reconstruction method to accurately capture the under-resolved feature, while exactly conserving volume. An algorithm for Adaptive Mesh Refinement in the presence of filaments is developed so that refinement is introduced only near the tips of filaments and where the Moment-of-Fluid reconstruction error is still large. Comparison to the standard Moment-of-Fluid method is made. It is demonstrated that using filament capturing at a given resolution yields gains in accuracy comparable to introducing an additional level of mesh refinement at significantly lower cost.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2025

GR-Athena++: General-relativistic Magnetohydrodynamics Simulations of Neutron Star Spacetimes

We present the extension of GR-Athena++ to general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamics (GRMHD) for applications to neutron star spacetimes. The new solver couples the constrained transport implementation of Athena++ to the Z4c formulation of the Einstein equations to simulate dynamical spacetimes with GRMHD using oct-tree adaptive mesh refinement. We consider benchmark problems for isolated and binary neutron star spacetimes demonstrating stable and convergent results at relatively low resolutions and without grid symmetries imposed. The code correctly captures magnetic field instabilities in nonrotating stars with total relative violation of the divergence-free constraint of 10 –16 . It handles evolutions with a microphysical equation of state and black hole formation in the gravitational collapse of a rapidly rotating star. For binaries, we demonstrate correctness of the evolution under the gravitational radiation reaction and show convergence of gravitational waveforms. We showcase the use of adaptive mesh refinement to resolve the Kelvin–Helmholtz instability at the collisional interface in a merger of magnetised binary neutron stars. GR-Athena++ shows strong scaling efficiencies above 80% in excess of 10 5 CPU cores and excellent weak scaling is shown up to ~5 × 10 5 CPU cores in a realistic production setup. GR-Athena++ allows for the robust simulation of GRMHD flows in strong and dynamical gravity with exa-scale computers.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

Nyx: A MASSIVELY PARALLEL AMR CODE FOR COMPUTATIONAL COSMOLOGY

We present a new N-body and gas dynamics code, called Nyx, for large-scale cosmological simulations. Nyx follows the temporal evolution of a system of discrete dark matter particles gravitationally coupled to an inviscid ideal fluid in an expanding universe. The gas is advanced in an Eulerian framework with block-structured adaptive mesh refinement; a particle-mesh scheme using the same grid hierarchy is used to solve for self-gravity and advance the particles. Computational results demonstrating the validation of Nyx on standard cosmological test problems, and the scaling behavior of Nyx to 50,000 cores, are presented.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS1998

A Novel Four-Node Quadrilateral Smoothing Element for Stress Enhancement and Error Estimation

A four-node, quadrilateral smoothing element is developed based upon a penalized-discrete-least-squares variational formulation. The smoothing methodology recovers C1-continuous stresses, thus enabling effective a posteriori error estimation and automatic adaptive mesh refinement. The element formulation is originated with a five-node macro-element configuration consisting of four triangular anisoparametric smoothing elements in a cross-diagonal pattern. This element pattern enables a convenient closed-form solution for the degrees of freedom of the interior node, resulting from enforcing explicitly a set of natural edge-wise penalty constraints. The degree-of-freedom reduction scheme leads to a very efficient formulation of a four-node quadrilateral smoothing element without any compromise in robustness and accuracy of the smoothing analysis. The application examples include stress recovery and error estimation in adaptive mesh refinement solutions for an elasticity problem and an aerospace structural component.

Tessler, A.↗
DOE OSTI2016

A parallel adaptive numerical method with generalized curvilinear coordinate transformation for compressible Navier–Stokes equations

A fourth-order finite-volume method for solving the Navier–Stokes equations on a mapped grid with adaptive mesh refinement is proposed, implemented, and demonstrated for the prediction of unsteady compressible viscous flows. The method employs fourth-order quadrature rules for evaluating face-averaged fluxes. Our approach is freestream preserving, guaranteed by the way of computing the averages of the metric terms on the faces of cells. The standard Runge–Kutta marching method is used for time discretization. Solutions of a smooth flow are obtained in order to verify that the method is formally fourth-order accurate when applying the nonlinear viscous operators on mapped grids. Solutions of a shock tube problem are obtained to demonstrate the effectiveness of adaptive mesh refinement in resolving discontinuities. A Mach reflection problem is solved to demonstrate the mapped algorithm on a non-rectangular physical domain. The simulation is compared against experimental results. Future work will consider mapped multiblock grids for practical engineering geometries.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2011

Effects of Varying the Three-Body Molecular Hydrogen

The transformation of atomic hydrogen to molecular hydrogen through three-body reactions is a crucial stage in the collapse of primordial, metal-free halos, where the first generation of stars (Population III stars) in the Universe are formed. However, in the published literature, the rate coefficient for this reaction is uncertain by nearly an order of magnitude. We report on the results of both adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) and smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations of the collapse of metal-free halos as a function of the value of this rate coefficient. For each simulation method, we have simulated a single halo three times, using three different values of the rate coefficient. We find that while variation between halo realizations may be greater than that caused by the three-body rate coefficient being used, both the accretion physics onto Population III protostars as well as the long-term stability of the disk and any potential fragmentation may depend strongly on this rate coefficient.

08 HYDROGEN↗
DOE OSTI2012

Low-Cost Parallel Algorithms for 2:1 Octree Balance

The logical structure of a forest of octrees can be used to create scalable algorithms for parallel adaptive mesh refinement (AMR), which has recently been demonstrated for several petascale applications. Among various frequently used octree-based mesh operations, including refinement, coarsening, partitioning, and enumerating nodes, ensuring a 2:1 size balance between neighboring elements has historically been the most expensive in terms of CPU time and communication volume. The 2:1 balance operation is thus a primary target to optimize. One important component of a parallel balance algorithm is the ability to determine whether any two given octants have a consistent distance/size relation. Based on new logical concepts we propose fast algorithms for making this decision for all types of 2:1 balance conditions in 2D and 3D. Since we are able to achieve this without constructing any parent nodes in the tree that would otherwise need to be sorted and communicated, we can significantly reduce the required memory and communication volume. In addition, we propose a lightweight collective algorithm for reversing the asymmetric communication pattern induced by non-local octant interactions. We have implemented our improvements as part of the opensource “p4est” software. Benchmarking this code with both synthetic and simulation-driven adapted meshes we are able to demonstrate much reduced runtime and excellent weak and strong scalability. On our largest benchmark problem with 5.13 × 10 11 octants the new 2:1 balance algorithm executes in less than 8 seconds on 112,128 CPU cores of the Jaguar Cray XT5 supercomputer.

Computer Science↗
DOE OSTI2011

YT: A Multi-Code Analysis Toolkit for Astrophysical Simulation Data

The analysis of complex multiphysics astrophysical simulations presents a unique and rapidly growing set of challenges: reproducibility, parallelization, and vast increases in data size and complexity chief among them. In order to meet these challenges, and in order to open up new avenues for collaboration between users of multiple simulation platforms, we present yt (available at http://yt.enzotools.org/) an open source, community-developed astrophysical analysis and visualization toolkit. Analysis and visualization with yt are oriented around physically relevant quantities rather than quantities native to astrophysical simulation codes. While originally designed for handling Enzo's structure adaptive mesh refinement data, yt has been extended to work with several different simulation methods and simulation codes including Orion, RAMSES, and FLASH. We report on its methods for reading, handling, and visualizing data, including projections, multivariate volume rendering, multi-dimensional histograms, halo finding, light cone generation, and topologically connected isocontour identification. Furthermore, we discuss the underlying algorithms yt uses for processing and visualizing data, and its mechanisms for parallelization of analysis tasks.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMIC EFFECTS ON PULSED YOUNG STELLAR OBJECT JETS. I. 2.5D SIMULATIONS

In this paper, we explore the dynamics of radiative axisymmetric magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) jets at high resolution using adaptive mesh refinement methods. The goal of the study is to determine both the dynamics and emission properties of such jets. To that end, we have implemented microphysics enabling us to produce synthetic maps of Hα and [S II]. The jets are pulsed either sinusoidally or randomly via a time-dependent ejection velocity which leads to a complicated structure of internal shocks and rarefactions as has been seen in previous simulations. The high resolution of our simulations allows us to explore in great detail the effect of pinch forces (due to the jet's toroidal magnetic field) within the ''working surfaces'' where pulses interact. We map the strong Hα emission marking shock fronts and the strong [S II] emission inside cooling regions behind shocks as observed with high-resolution images of jets. We find that pinch forces in the stronger field cases produce additional emission regions along the axis as compared with purely hydrodynamic runs. These simulations are a first step to understanding the full three-dimensional emission properties of radiative MHD jets.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2012

ON THE STRUCTURE AND STABILITY OF MAGNETIC TOWER JETS

Modern theoretical models of astrophysical jets combine accretion, rotation, and magnetic fields to launch and collimate supersonic flows from a central source. Near the source, magnetic field strengths must be large enough to collimate the jet requiring that the Poynting flux exceeds the kinetic energy flux. The extent to which the Poynting flux dominates kinetic energy flux at large distances from the engine distinguishes two classes of models. In magneto-centrifugal launch models, magnetic fields dominate only at scales {approx}< 100 engine radii, after which the jets become hydrodynamically dominated (HD). By contrast, in Poynting flux dominated (PFD) magnetic tower models, the field dominates even out to much larger scales. To compare the large distance propagation differences of these two paradigms, we perform three-dimensional ideal magnetohydrodynamic adaptive mesh refinement simulations of both HD and PFD stellar jets formed via the same energy flux. We also compare how thermal energy losses and rotation of the jet base affects the stability in these jets. For the conditions described, we show that PFD and HD exhibit observationally distinguishable features: PFD jets are lighter, slower, and less stable than HD jets. Unlike HD jets, PFD jets develop current-driven instabilities that are exacerbated as cooling and rotation increase, resulting in jets that are clumpier than those in the HD limit. Our PFD jet simulations also resemble the magnetic towers that have been recently created in laboratory astrophysical jet experiments.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Advanced Turbulence Models for Large-Scale Atmospheric Boundary Layer Flows

We present high-fidelity large-eddy-simulation (LES) modeling approaches for the turbulent atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) flows. Wind energy is a prime example of an application driven by ABL. Generation of electrical energy from farms of wind turbines at night in the stable ABL is a particularly interesting situation. In this report, we consider the well-known GEWEX (Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment) Atmospheric Boundary Layer Study (GABLS) stably stratified benchmark LES case. We use a high-order spectral element code Nek5000/RS, which is supported under the DOE's Exascale Computing Project (ECP) Center for Efficient Exascale Discretizations (CEED) project, targeting application simulations on various acceleration-device based exascale computing platforms. In our earlier ANL report, we demonstrated our newly developed subgrid-scale (SGS) models based on high-pass filter (HPF), mean-field eddy viscosity (MFEV), and Smagorinsky (SMG) with no-slip and traction boundary conditions, provided with low-order statistics, convergence and turbulent structure analysis. In this report, we extend the range of our SGS modeling approaches in the context of the mean-field eddy viscosity (MFEV), to include the solution of an SGS turbulent kinetic energy equation (TKE). We demonstrate the model fidelity of Nek5000/RS in comparison to that of AMR-Wind, a block-structured second-order finite-volume code with adaptive-mesh-refinement capabilities, with which we studied scaling performance for both codes in comparison on DOE's leadership computing platforms.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

The deflagration stage of Chandrasekhar mass models for type Ia supernovae. I. Early evolution

We present high-resolution, full-star simulations of the post-ignition phase of Type Ia supernovae using the compressible hydrodynamics code Castro. Initial conditions, including the turbulent velocity field and ignition site, are imported directly from a simulation of the last few hours of presupernova convection using a low Mach number code, Maestro. Adaptive mesh refinement allows the initial burning front to be modeled with an effective resolution of 36,864{sup 3} zones (136 m zone{sup –1}). The initial rise and expansion of the deflagration front are tracked until burning reaches the star's edge and the role of the background turbulence on the flame is investigated. The effect of artificially moving the ignition location closer to the star's center is explored. The degree to which turbulence affects the burning front decreases with increasing ignition radius since the buoyancy force is stronger at larger radii. Even central ignition—in the presence of a background convective flow field—is rapidly carried off-center as the flame is carried by the flow field. We compare our results to analytic models for burning thermals, and find that they reproduce the general trends of the bubble's size and mass, but underpredict the amount of buoyant acceleration due to simplifying assumptions of the bubble's properties. Overall, we find that the amount of mass that burns prior to flame break out is small, consistent with a gravitationally confined detonation' occurring at a later epoch, but additional burning will occur following breakout that may modify this conclusion.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

A common origin for globular clusters and ultra-faint dwarfs in simulations of the first galaxies

In this paper, the first in a series on galaxy formation before reionization, we focus on understanding what determines the size and morphology of stellar objects in the first low-mass galaxies, using parsec-scale cosmological simulations performed with an adaptive mesh hydrodynamics code. Although the dense gas in which stars are formed tends to have a disk structure, stars are found in spheroids with little rotation. Halos with masses between 10{sup 6} M{sub ⊙} and 5×10{sup 8} M{sub ⊙} form stars stochastically, with stellar masses in the range 10{sup 4} M{sub ⊙} to 2×10{sup 6} M{sub ⊙}. We observe, nearly independent of stellar mass, a large range of half-light radii for the stars, from a few parsecs to a few hundred parsecs and surface brightnesses and mass-to-light ratios ranging from those typical of globular clusters to ultra-faint dwarfs. In our simulations, stars form in dense stellar clusters with high gas-to-star conversion efficiencies and rather uniform metallicities. A fraction of these clusters remain bound after the gas is removed by feedback, but others are destroyed, and their stars, which typically have velocity dispersions of 20–40 km s{sup −1}, expand until they become bound by the dark matter halo. We thus speculate that the stars in ultra-faint dwarf galaxies may show kinematic and chemical signatures consistent with their origin in a few distinct stellar clusters. On the other hand, some globular clusters may form at the center of primordial dwarf galaxies and may contain dark matter, perhaps detectable in the outer parts.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2012

OBSERVING SIMULATED PROTOSTARS WITH OUTFLOWS: HOW ACCURATE ARE PROTOSTELLAR PROPERTIES INFERRED FROM SEDs?

The properties of unresolved protostars and their local environment are frequently inferred from spectral energy distributions (SEDs) using radiative transfer modeling. In this paper, we use synthetic observations of realistic star formation simulations to evaluate the accuracy of properties inferred from fitting model SEDs to observations. We use ORION, an adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) three-dimensional gravito-radiation-hydrodynamics code, to simulate low-mass star formation in a turbulent molecular cloud including the effects of protostellar outflows. To obtain the dust temperature distribution and SEDs of the forming protostars, we post-process the simulations using HYPERION, a state-of-the-art Monte Carlo radiative transfer code. We find that the ORION and HYPERION dust temperatures typically agree within a factor of two. We compare synthetic SEDs of embedded protostars for a range of evolutionary times, simulation resolutions, aperture sizes, and viewing angles. We demonstrate that complex, asymmetric gas morphology leads to a variety of classifications for individual objects as a function of viewing angle. We derive best-fit source parameters for each SED through comparison with a pre-computed grid of radiative transfer models. While the SED models correctly identify the evolutionary stage of the synthetic sources as embedded protostars, we show that the disk and stellar parameters can be very discrepant from the simulated values, which is expected since the disk and central source are obscured by the protostellar envelope. Parameters such as the stellar accretion rate, stellar mass, and disk mass show better agreement, but can still deviate significantly, and the agreement may in some cases be artificially good due to the limited range of parameters in the set of model SEDs. Lack of correlation between the model and simulation properties in many individual instances cautions against overinterpreting properties inferred from SEDs for unresolved protostellar sources.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2012

FEEDBACK EFFECTS ON LOW-MASS STAR FORMATION

Protostellar feedback, both radiation and bipolar outflows, dramatically affects the fragmentation and mass accretion from star-forming cores. We use ORION, an adaptive mesh refinement gravito-radiation-hydrodynamics code, to simulate low-mass star formation in a turbulent molecular cloud in the presence of protostellar feedback. We present results of the first simulations of a star-forming cluster that include both radiative transfer and protostellar outflows. We run four simulations to isolate the individual effects of radiation feedback and outflow feedback as well as the combination of the two. We find that outflows reduce protostellar masses and accretion rates each by a factor of three and therefore reduce protostellar luminosities by an order of magnitude. This means that, while radiation feedback suppresses fragmentation, outflows render protostellar radiation largely irrelevant for low-mass star formation above a mass scale of 0.05 M{sub Sun }. We find initial fragmentation of our cloud at half the global Jeans length, around 0.1 pc. With insufficient protostellar radiation to stop it, these 0.1 pc cores fragment repeatedly, forming typically 10 stars each. The accretion rate in these stars scales with mass as predicted from core accretion models that include both thermal and turbulent motions; the accretion rate does not appear to be consistent with either competitive accretion or accretion from an isothermal sphere. We find that protostellar outflows do not significantly affect the overall cloud dynamics, in the absence of magnetic fields, due to their small opening angles and poor coupling to the dense gas. The outflows reduce the mass from the cores by 2/3, giving a core to star efficiency, {epsilon}{sub core} {approx_equal} 1/3. The simulations are also able to reproduce many observation of local star-forming regions. Our simulation with radiation and outflows reproduces the observed protostellar luminosity function. All of the simulations can reproduce observed core mass functions, though we find they are sensitive to telescope resolution. We also reproduce the two-point correlation function of these observed cores. Lastly, we reproduce the initial mass function itself, including the low-mass end, when outflows are included.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗