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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 487 records · Page 27

Shuttle/payload contamination evaluation /SPACE/ program improvements

Performance features, analytic details, and applications of the SPACE computer code for simulating the contaminant environment experienced by Shuttle payloads on-orbit are outlined. A summary is presented of the model preset, input, and output parameters, capabilities, and analytical options. The program was designed to identify the molecular column density, molecular deposition in various scenarios, and the background brightness produced by the contaminant clouds. SPACE covers payload geometries such as the Orbiter and four Spacelab modules, configurations tracing and summing the production of contamination from distributed leakage sources or concentrated sources. A total of ten chemical species can be analyzed, with consideration given to line-of-sight mass transport or scattered molecule transport. Deposition levels can be computed, as can reflection evaluation. Trial results for the analyses of three different payloads are presented. Additionally, the Mini-SPACE code, for quick-look analyses during the payload planning analyses, is outlined.

Jarossy, F. J.↗

Overview of development and design of MPACT: Michigan parallel characteristics transport code

MPACT (Michigan Parallel Characteristics Transport Code) is a new reactor analysis tool. It is being developed by students and research staff at the University of Michigan to be used for an advanced pin-resolved transport capability within VERA (Virtual Environment for Reactor Analysis). VERA is the end-user reactor simulation tool being produced by the Consortium for the Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors (CASL). The MPACT development project is itself unique for the way it is changing how students do research to achieve the instructional and research goals of an academic institution, while providing immediate value to industry. The MPACT code makes use of modern lean/agile software processes and extensive testing to maintain a level of productivity and quality required by CASL. MPACT's design relies heavily on object-oriented programming concepts and design patterns and is programmed in Fortran 2003. These designs are explained and illustrated as to how they can be readily extended to incorporate new capabilities and research ideas in support of academic research objectives. The transport methods currently implemented in MPACT include the 2-D and 3-D method of characteristics (MOC) and 2-D and 3-D method of collision direction probabilities (CDP). For the cross section resonance treatment, presently the subgroup method and the new embedded self-shielding method (ESSM) are implemented within MPACT. (authors)

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Identification of key parameters controlling demographically structured vegetation dynamics in a Land Surface Model

This dataset includes outputs of 5000 simulations of CLM4.5(ED) to quantify the sensitivity of the model outputs to changes in model parameters using the Fourier Amplitude Sensitivity Test (FAST). Each simulation is generated by simultaneously sampling from 15% deviations of the default values of >80 vegetation parameters. This dataset includes 1) model codes of CLM4.5(ED) used for the sensitivity analysis; 2) the parameter samples; and 3) the corresponding model outputs of vegetation status (e.g., Gross Primary Production, Leaf Area Index and Biomass) and demography (e.g., diameter growth and mortality rates). The outputs are organized to the format of the FAST toolbox (https://sites.google.com/site/xuchongang/uasatoolbox).

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Small arms suppression project (LLNL final report)

US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) was seeking a technological leap in small firearms weapon suppressor technology, because anticipated enemy capabilities are requiring the operators to have smaller detection cross sections to ensure the safe execution of missions. Suppressors have been developed almost exclusively through trial-and-error methods since the time of the original design by Hiram Maxim over one hundred years ago. Consequently USSOCOM deemed it prudent to perform a physicsbased study of weapon suppression to understand performance limits and possibly identify breakthrough technologies. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s (LLNL’s) high performance production level computational tool called ALE3D (Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian 3D and 2D) has unique physics models and numerical algorithms for modeling suppressor dynamics. The flexible and extendable code framework supports fully integrated hydrodynamics, heat transfer, solid and fluid dynamics, and chemistry that can be applied to simulating propellant-driven motion of a bullet down a gun barrel, the transfer of heat from the burning propellant to the barrel and suppressor, the chemistry of muzzle flash, and the shock/acoustic/optical signatures in the near-field. LLNL’s originally anticipated role was to augment ALE3D for this task, by developing the software and analysis methodologies specific to the simulation of blast and muzzle flash phenomena. It was believed that insights provided by our ALE3D simulations in tandem with a coordinated experimental component by our other team members from Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and the U. S. Army Armament, Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC), would have excellent prospects of yielding useful suppressor design improvements that could be transitioned to industry and utilized by US Special Operations Command. The three year effort has come to fruition with the development of revolutionary suppressor designs that far outperform any previous or current design by anyone outside this multi-lab team.

42 ENGINEERING↗

MONTE CARLO POPULATION SYNTHESIS OF POST-COMMON-ENVELOPE WHITE DWARF BINARIES AND TYPE Ia SUPERNOVA RATE

Binary population synthesis (BPS) studies provide a comprehensive way to understand the evolution of binaries and their end products. Close white dwarf (WD) binaries have crucial characteristics for examining the influence of unresolved physical parameters on binary evolution. In this paper, we perform Monte Carlo BPS simulations, investigating the population of WD/main-sequence (WD/MS) binaries and double WD binaries using a publicly available binary star evolution code under 37 different assumptions for key physical processes and binary initial conditions. We considered different combinations of the binding energy parameter ( λ {sub g}: considering gravitational energy only; λ {sub b}: considering both gravitational energy and internal energy; and λ {sub e}: considering gravitational energy, internal energy, and entropy of the envelope, with values derived from the MESA code), CE efficiency, critical mass ratio, initial primary mass function, and metallicity. We find that a larger number of post-CE WD/MS binaries in tight orbits are formed when the binding energy parameters are set by λ {sub e} than in those cases where other prescriptions are adopted. We also determine the effects of the other input parameters on the orbital periods and mass distributions of post-CE WD/MS binaries. As they contain at least one CO WD, double WD systems that evolved from WD/MS binaries may explode as type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) via merging. In this work, we also investigate the frequency of two WD mergers and compare it to the SNe Ia rate. The calculated Galactic SNe Ia rate with λ = λ {sub e} is comparable to the observed SNe Ia rate, ∼8.2 × 10{sup 5} yr{sup 1} – ∼4 × 10{sup 3} yr{sup 1} depending on the other BPS parameters, if a DD system does not require a mass ratio higher than ∼0.8 to become an SNe Ia. On the other hand, a violent merger scenario, which requires the combined mass of two CO WDs ≥ 1.6 M {sub ⊙} and a mass ratio >0.8, results in a much lower SNe Ia rate than is observed.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

A Generic Biogeochemical Module for Earth System Models: Next Generation BioGeoChemical Module (NGBGC), Version 1.0

Physical and biogeochemical processes regulate soil carbon dynamics and CO2 flux to and from atmosphere, influencing global climate changes. Integration of these processes into earth system models (e.g., community land models (CLM)), however, currently faces three major challenges: 1) extensive efforts are required to modify modeling structures and to rewrite computer programs to incorporate new or updated processes as new knowledge is being generated, 2) computational cost is prohibitively expensive to simulate biogeochemical processes in land models due to large variations in the rates of biogeochemical processes, and 3) various mathematical representations of biogeochemical processes exist to incorporate different aspects of fundamental mechanisms, but systematic evaluation of the different mathematical representations is difficult, if not possible. To address these challenges, we propose a new computational framework to easily incorporate physical and biogeochemical processes into land models. The new framework consists of a new biogeochemical module with a generic algorithm and reaction database so that new and updated processes can be incorporated into land models without the need to manually set up the ordinary differential equations to be solved numerically. The reaction database consists of processes of nutrient flow through the terrestrial ecosystems in plants, litter and soil. This framework facilitates effective comparison studies of biogeochemical cycles in an ecosystem using different conceptual models under the same land modeling framework. The approach was first implemented in CLM and benchmarked against simulations from the original CLM-CN code. A case study was then provided to demonstrate the advantages of using the new approach to incorporate a phosphorus cycle into the CLM model. To our knowledge, the phosphorus-incorporated CLM is a new model that can be used to simulate phosphorus limitation on the productivity of terrestrial ecosystems.

Fang, Yilin↗

Blade Row Interaction Effects on the Performance of a Moderately Loaded NASA Transonic Compressor Stage

Blade row interaction effects on loss generation in compressors have received increased attention as compressor work-per-stage and blade loading have increased. Two dimensional Laser Doppler Velocimeter measurements of the velocity field in a NASA transonic compressor stage show the magnitude of interactions in the velocity field at the peak efficiency and near stall operating conditions. The experimental data are presented along with an assessment of the velocity field interactions. In the present study the experimental data are used to confirm the fidelity of a three-dimensional, time-accurate, Navier Stokes calculation of the stage using the MSU-TURBO code at the peak efficiency and near stall operating conditions. The simulations are used to quantify the loss generation associated with interaction phenomena. At the design point the stator pressure field has minimal effect on the rotor performance. The rotor wakes do have an impact on loss production in the stator passage at both operating conditions. A method for determining the potential importance of blade row interactions on performance is presented.

VanZante, Dale E.↗

Numerical Investigation of the Effect of Cooling Airflow inside High-Pressure Turbine using the Source Term Approach

In this study, the Open National Combustion code (OpenNCC) is applied to simulate the airflow inside the high-pressure turbine (HPT) of the energy efficient engine (EEE). The main objective of this study is to compare the characteristics of the HPT performance obtained by using three different approaches (Case 1: the realistic combustion products are considered at the HPT inlet, but the cooling airflows are not included, Case 2: the working fluid is assumed to be a single gas (i.e., air), and the cooling airflows are considered, Case 3: the cooling airflow and the combustion products at the HPT inlet are included). To mimic the cooling airflows at the HPT surface, we use the surface source team approach, in which we impose the source term at a specific area of a cooling airflow hole at the solid surfaces by specifying an injection angle, temperature, turbulent intensity, and mass flowrate of each cooling airflow. For the validation of the model, the data for the EEE model was obtained from the General Electric (GE) test campaign (RDG10), and the full scale warm-air rig test condition representing a test point close to the integrated core/low spool design condition was considered. This validation test was done using the stationary uniform inflow condition (i.e., the reported total temperature and total pressure). Secondly, we considered the Sea-Level Take-off (SLTO) engine condition and separately performed the combustor simulation to obtain a more realistic time-averaged, spatially-nonuniform HPT inflow condition. This work provides a better understanding the effect of the cooling airflow model with different assumptions on the HPT performance. It is found that using different working gas have a minor effect on the performance metric, however the presence of the cooling airflows significantly affects the HPT performance such as the turbine efficiency.

CFD Hot-streaks↗

Wind-US Users Guide Version 3.0

Wind-US is a computational platform which may be used to numerically solve various sets of equations governing physical phenomena. Currently, the code supports the solution of the Euler and Navier-Stokes equations of fluid mechanics, along with supporting equation sets governing turbulent and chemically reacting flows. Wind-US is a product of the NPARC Alliance, a partnership between the NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) and the Arnold Engineering Development Complex (AEDC) dedicated to the establishment of a national, applications-oriented flow simulation capability. The Boeing Company has also been closely associated with the Alliance since its inception, and represents the interests of the NPARC User's Association. The "Wind-US User's Guide" describes the operation and use of Wind-US, including: a basic tutorial; the physical and numerical models that are used; the boundary conditions; monitoring convergence; the files that are read and/or written; parallel execution; and a complete list of input keywords and test options. For current information about Wind-US and the NPARC Alliance, please see the Wind-US home page at http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/winddocs/ and the NPARC Alliance home page at http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/wind/. This manual describes the operation and use of Wind-US, a computational platform which may be used to numerically solve various sets of equations governing physical phenomena. Wind-US represents a merger of the capabilities of four CFD codes - NASTD (a structured grid flow solver developed at McDonnell Douglas, now part of Boeing), NPARC (the original NPARC Alliance structured grid flow solver), NXAIR (an AEDC structured grid code used primarily for store separation analysis), and ICAT (an unstructured grid flow solver developed at the Rockwell Science Center and Boeing).

Navier-Stokes equation↗

Final Technical Report on “Center for Nonlinear Simulation of Energetic Particles in Burning Plasmas (CSEP)”

The gyrokinetic turbulence code GEM is used to study reverse shear Alfven eigenmodes in the DIII-D tokamak, cylindrical tearing mode, the nonlinear saturation mechanism of Alfven eigenmodes, and verify other gyrokinetic codes. It is used to study the stability of Alfven waves in the presence of fusion product alpha particles in ITER. New algorithm features and physics capabilities are added to GEM, including a novel discretization method for the Poisson equation, a vorticity approach to the fluid electron model and a low-n solver in cylindrical geometry.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

In Situ Visualization and Production of Extract Databases

Simulations running at high concurrency on HPC systems generate large volumes of data that are impractical to write to disk due to time and storage constraints. Applications often adapt by saving data infrequently, resulting in datasets with poor temporal resolution. This can make datasets difficult to interpret during post hoc visualization and analysis, or worse, it can lead to lost science. In Situ visualization and analysis can enable efficient production of small data products such as rendered images or surface extracts that consist of polygonal geometry plus fields. These data products are far smaller than their source data and can be processed much more economically in a traditional post hoc workflow using far fewer computational resources. We used the SENSEI and Libsim in situ infrastructures to implement rendering workflow and surface data extraction workflows in the AVF-LESLIE combustion code. Finally, these workflows were then demonstrated at high levels of concurrency and showed significant data reductions and limited impact on the simulation runtime.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Advanced multiphysics coupling for LWR fuel performance analysis

Even the most basic nuclear fuel analysis is a multiphysics undertaking, as a credible simulation must consider at a minimum coupled heat conduction and mechanical deformation. The need for more realistic fuel modeling under a variety of conditions invariably leads to a desire to include coupling between a more complete set of the physical phenomena influencing fuel behavior, including neutronics, thermal hydraulics, and mechanisms occurring at lower length scales. This paper covers current efforts toward coupled multiphysics LWR fuel modeling in three main areas. The first area covered in this paper concerns thermomechanical coupling. The interaction of these two physics, particularly related to the feedback effect associated with heat transfer and mechanical contact at the fuel/clad gap, provides numerous computational challenges. An outline is provided of an effective approach used to manage the nonlinearities associated with an evolving gap in BISON, a nuclear fuel performance application. A second type of multiphysics coupling described here is that of coupling neutronics with thermomechanical LWR fuel performance. DeCART, a high-fidelity core analysis program based on the method of characteristics, has been coupled to BISON. DeCART provides sub-pin level resolution of the multigroup neutron flux, with resonance treatment, during a depletion or a fast transient simulation. Two-way coupling between these codes was achieved by mapping fission rate density and fast neutron flux fields from DeCART to BISON and the temperature field from BISON to DeCART while employing a Picard iterative algorithm. Finally, the need for multiscale coupling is considered. Fission gas production and evolution significantly impact fuel performance by causing swelling, a reduction in the thermal conductivity, and fission gas release. The mechanisms involved occur at the atomistic and grain scale and are therefore not the domain of a fuel performance code. However, it is possible to use lower length scale models such as those used in the mesoscale MARMOT code to compute average properties, e.g. swelling or thermal conductivity. These may then be used by an engineering-scale model. Examples of this type of multiscale, multiphysics modeling are shown.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

CMS Full Simulation for Run 3

We report the status of the CMS full simulation for Run 3. During the long shutdown of the LHC a significant update has been introduced to the CMS code for simulation. The CMS geometry description is reviewed. Several important modifications were needed. CMS detector description software is migrated to the DD4Hep community developed tool. We will report on our experience obtained during the process of this migration. Geant4 10.7 is the CMS choice for Run 3 simulation productions. We will discuss arguments for this choice, the strategy of adaptation of a new Geant4 version, and will report on the physics performance of the CMS simulation. A special Geant4 Physics List configuration FTFP_BERT_EMM will be described, which provides a compromise between simulation accuracy and CPU performance. A significant fraction of time for simulation of CMS events is spent on tracking of charged particles in a magnetic field. In the CMS simulation a dynamic choice of Geant4 parameters for tracking in field is implemented. A new method is introduced into simulation of electromagnetic components of hadronic showers in the electromagnetic calorimeter of CMS. For low-energy electrons and positrons a parametrization of GFlash type is applied. Results of tests of this method will be discussed. In summary, we expect about 25% speedup of the CMS simulation production for Run 3 compared to the Run 2 simulations.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Electrostatic Particle-In-Cell Code For Hypercube Computer

Code simulates two-dimensional motions of plasma particles in self-consistent electrostatic field and externally applied magnetic field developed for execution on Mark IIIfp hypercube computer. Based on generalization of one-dimensional particle-in-cell algorithm applicable to many different parallel computing architectures. Intermediate product of continuing effort to speed particle-in-cell computations by taking advantage of distributed-memory parallel computers like those of hypercube class.

Ferraro, Robert D.↗

Integration of the QMSFRG Database into the HZETRN Code

Accurate nuclear interaction data bases are needed for describing the transport of space radiation in matter including space craft structures, atmospheres, and tissues. Transport models support the identification and development of new material concepts for human and electronic part protection. Quantum effects are manifested in nuclear reactions in several ways including interference effects between terms in the multiple scattering series, the many-body nuclear wave functions (for e.g. the roles of shell structure and Fermi momentum) and nuclear clustering. The quantum multiple scattering fragmentation model (QMSFRG) is a comprehensive model for generating nuclear interaction databases for galactic cosmic ray (GCR) transport. Other nuclear databases including the NUCFRG model and Monte-Carlo simulation codes such as FLUKA, LAHET, HETC, and GEANT ignore quantum effects. These codes fail to describe many important features of nuclear reactions and are thus inaccurate for the evaluation of materials for radiation protection. Previously we have shown that quantum effects are manifested through constructive interference in forward production spectra, the effects of Fermi momentum on production spectra, cluster nuclei knockout, and the nuclear response function. Quantum effects are especially important for heavy ions with mass numbers less than 20 that dominate radiation transport in human tissues and for the materials that are expected to be superior in space radiation protection. We describe the integration of the QMSFRG model into the HZETRN transport code. Integration milestones include proper treatment of odd-even charge-mass effects in nuclear fragmentation and the momentum distribution of nucleon production from GCR primary heavy ions. We have also modified the two-body amplitudes in the model to include nuclear medium effects. In order to include a comprehensive description of the GCR isotopic composition in materials, we have described the isotopic composition of the GCR by extending the 59-isotope version of HZETRN to an 120-isotope version. The isotopic composition of most primary GCR elements (including H, He, C, N, O, Ne, Mg, Si, Ar, Ca, Cr, and Fe) are included in the extended model. We discuss results for the high-energy neutron composition inside materials, and the charge and mass distribution for benchmark GCR problems.

Cucinotta, F. A.↗

Error-Free Software

001 is an integrated tool suited for automatically developing ultra reliable models, simulations and software systems. Developed and marketed by Hamilton Technologies, Inc. (HTI), it has been applied in engineering, manufacturing, banking and software tools development. The software provides the ability to simplify the complex. A system developed with 001 can be a prototype or fully developed with production quality code. It is free of interface errors, consistent, logically complete and has no data or control flow errors. Systems can be designed, developed and maintained with maximum productivity. Margaret Hamilton, President of Hamilton Technologies, also directed the research and development of USE.IT, an earlier product which was the first computer aided software engineering product in the industry to concentrate on automatically supporting the development of an ultrareliable system throughout its life cycle. Both products originated in NASA technology developed under a Johnson Space Center contract.

Source record↗

Computational Aero-acoustics As a Tool For Turbo-machinery Noise Reduction

This talk will provide an overview of the field of computational aero-acoustics and its use in fan noise prediction. After a brief history of computational fluid dynamics, some of the recent developments in computational aero-acoustics will be explored. Computational issues concerning sound wave production, propagation, and reflection in practical turbo-machinery applications will be discussed including: (a) High order/High Resolution Numerical Techniques. (b) High Resolution Boundary Conditions. [c] MIMD Parallel Computing. [d] Form of Governing Equations Useful for Simulations. In addition, the basic design of our Broadband Analysis Stator Simulator (BASS) code and its application to a 2 D rotor wake-stator interaction will be shown. An example of the noise produced by the wakes from a rotor impinging upon a stator cascade will be shown.

Dyson, Rodger W.↗

Multiscale modeling for high burnup structure formation and associated pulverization

This report summarizes the lower length scale modeling work performed in the fiscal year 2023 under the Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program to capture the microstrutural evolution and associated pulverization criteria in the high burnup regions. This year, the resolution mechanisms within the cluster dynamics code has been updated and it influence on the bubble growth in HBS regions at the mesoscale is studied. To improve the accuracy of phase-field models of fission gas bubble growth, a new Helmholtz free energy for high-density Xe gas is derived from a virial equation of state. Two previously used strategies for representing net vacancy production in phase-field models of fission gas bubble growth are compared with each other and with analytical models of bubble growth. The vacancy source only model is found to be more convenient to parameterize realistically compared with the vacancy source+sink model. Furthermore, the phase-field-fracture simulation have been performed using MD- informed failure stress values and realistic HBS structure obtained from the phase-field simulations. We also present the uncertainty bands on prediction of the critical stress to account for the effect of the lower length scale variabilities on the failure criteria at the mesoscale. It is observed that pulverization may occur in partially restructured regions with restructuring fraction as low as 17%. In light of this, an update to the BISON’s pulverization criteria is recommended.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗