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At least 73 records · Page 4

Method for active sensor signal optimization

A system and method for optimizing a fiber optic sensor by properly clocking or rotationally orienting a window with a fiber optic focuser. This method may include shining light through the focuser into the window and receiving with a reflectometer a first reflection from a first surface of the window and a second reflection from a second surface of the window. Next, the method may include calculating a delta of intensities between the first and second reflections, and then rotating an orientation of the window to a next rotational orientation. The steps of rotating the orientation of the window, receiving reflections, and calculating their delta may be repeated any plurality of times to solve for a plurality of deltas. Then, the method may include the steps of determining which one of the deltas is the largest and fixing the window to the focuser at a rotational orientation associated therewith.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Formulations and Valid Inequalities for Optimal Black Start Allocation in Power Systems

The restoration of a power system after a blackout starts around units with enhanced technical capabilities, referred to as black start units (BSUs). We examine the planning problem of optimally allocating these units on the grid subject to a budget constraint. We present a mixed integer programming model based on current literature in power systems. Binary variables are associated with the allocation of BSUs and with the energization state of buses, branches, and generators of the power system over a time horizon. We extract a substructure of the feasible region which imposes the requirement that each island that appears during the restoration process must have at least one operational generator. We discuss three equivalent reformulations for this requirement. We introduce a family of exponentially many, polynomially separable, valid inequalities to strengthen the formulation. Under simplifying assumptions, we show that the convex hull of the feasible region is a full-dimensional polyhedron, and prove that some of the constraints we introduced are facet-defining. We perform experiments to examine the difference in strength between the formulations as well as the computational times to solve the problem to near optimality for synthetic instances of the IEEE-39, IEEE-118, Illinois-200, WECC-225, IEEE-300, South Carolina-500, and Texas-2000 power systems. We illustrate a use case of the model. We conclude by suggesting extensions of the current work for future research.

Black Start Allocation↗

TChem v2.0 - A Software Toolkit for the Analysis of Complex Kinetic Models

TChem is an open source software library for solving complex computational chemistry problems and analyzing detailed chemical kinetic models. The software provides support for: complex kinetic models for gas-phase and surface chemistry; thermodynamic properties based on NASA polynomials; species production/consumption rates; stable time integrator for solving stiff time ordinary differential equations; and, reactor models such as homogenous gas-phase ignition (with analytical Jacobian matrices), continuously stirred tank reactor, plug-flow reactor. This toolkit builds upon earlier versions that were written in C and featured tools for gas-phase chemistry only. The current version of the software was completely refactored in C++, uses an object-oriented programming model, and adopts Kokkos as its portability layer to make it ready for the next generation computing architectures i.e., multi/many core computing platforms with GPU accelerators. We have expanded the range of kinetic models to include surface chemistry and have added examples pertaining to Continuously Stirred Tank Reactors (CSTR) and Plug Flow Reactor (PFR) models to complement the homogenous ignition examples present in the earlier versions. To exploit the massive parallelism available from modern computing platforms, the current software interface is designed to evaluate samples in parallel, which enables large scale parametric studies, e.g. for sensitivity analysis and model calibration.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Machine Learning for Fairness-Aware Load Shedding: A Real-Time Solution via Identifying Binding Constraints: Preprint

Timely and effective load shedding in power systems is critical for maintaining supply-demand balance and preventing cascading blackouts. To eliminate load shedding bias against specific regions in the system, optimization-based methods are uniquely positioned to help balance between economic and fairness considerations. However, the resulting optimization problem involves complex constraints, which can be time-consuming to solve and thus cannot meet the real-time requirements of load shedding. To tackle this challenge, in this paper we present an efficient machine learning algorithm to enable millisecond-level computation for the optimization-based load shedding problem. Numerical studies on both a 3-bus toy example and a realistic RTS-GMLC system have demonstrated the validity and efficiency of the proposed algorithm for delivering fairness-aware and real-time load shedding decisions.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Computing nuclear response functions with time-dependent coupled-cluster theory

We compute nuclear response functions by solving the time-dependent 𝐴-body Schrödinger equation, recording the time-dependent transition moment and extracting spectral information via Fourier transforms. The solution of the time-dependent many-body problem accounts for correlations on top of the mean field by taking advantage of a time-dependent formulation of coupled-cluster theory. As a validation, we focus on electric dipole transitions in 4 He and 16 O and compare moments of the response function distribution to the results of an equivalent static framework, finding negligible discrepancies. We investigate how proton and neutron densities evolve in time, and we see the traditional picture of soft and giant dipole resonances as collective oscillations of protons and neutrons emerging from our calculations in 16 O and 24 O. Furthermore, this method also allows us to investigate the behavior of the nucleus in the presence of a strong electric field. In that regime, the behavior of the system becomes chaotic. Qualitatively, the spectral information obtained in this limit is in line with previous time-dependent mean-field results.

Ab initio calculations↗

Near-Optimal Solutions for Day-Ahead Unit Commitment

Given the difficulty and the time pressure of solving unit commitment problems, near -optimal solutions (those with 0.1 or 0.001% optimality gaps) are often used in practice. The choice in which of the near -optimal solutions is used, however, is random. We investigate the impact of solution choice on the revenues obtained by generator owners across a variety of pricing schemes and problem instances.

market-clearing↗

An Online Approach to Solve the Dynamic Vehicle Routing Problem with Stochastic Trip Requests for Paratransit Services

Many transit agencies operating paratransit and microtransit services have to respond to trip requests that arrive in real-time, which entails solving hard combinatorial and sequential decision-making problems under uncertainty. To avoid decisions that lead to significant inefficiency in the long term, vehicles should be allocated to requests by optimizing a non-myopic utility function or by batching requests together and optimizing a myopic utility function. While the former approach is typically offline, the latter can be performed online. We point out two major issues with such approaches when applied to paratransit services in practice. First, it is difficult to batch paratransit requests together as they are temporally sparse. Second, the environment in which transit agencies operate changes dynamically (e.g., traffic conditions can change over time), causing the estimates that are learned offline to become stale. To address these challenges, we propose a fully online approach to solve the dynamic vehicle routing problem (DVRP) with time windows and stochastic trip requests that is robust to changing environmental dynamics by construction. We focus on scenarios where requests are relatively sparse—our problem is motivated by applications to paratransit services. We formulate DVRP as a Markov decision process and use Monte Carlo tree search to evaluate actions for any given state. Accounting for stochastic requests while optimizing a non-myopic utility function is computationally challenging; indeed, the action space for such a problem is intractably large in practice. To tackle the large action space, we leverage the structure of the problem to design heuristics that can sample promising actions for the tree search. Our experiments using real-world data from our partner agency show that the proposed approach outperforms existing state-of-the-art approaches both in terms of performance and robustness.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

TINES - Time Integration, Newton and Eigen Solver v. 1.0

SAND2021-1505 O. TINES is an open source software providing math infrastructure for solving many stiff time ordinary differential equations (ODEs) and/or differential algebraic equations (DAEs) using a batch hierarchical parallelism. The code is written using a parallel programming model (i.e., Kokkos) to future-proof the next generation parallel computing platforms such as GPU accelerators. This code is developed to support Exascale Catalytic Chemistry (ECC) Project. The code provides fundamental math helpers that can aid other research projects. Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525.

Kim, Kyungjoo↗

Semi-implicit method to solve compressible multiphase fluid flows without acoustic time step restrictions

A new 3D multiphase numerical capability is presented here for simulating multiphase flow regimes at all Mach numbers (M). The new method is a semi-implicit extension of the finite volume discrete equation method (DEM) of Chinnaya et al. (2004), which originally used explicit time-stepping. The capability is also developed to work with another extension of the DEM to moving grids for arbitrary Lagrangian-Eularian (ALE) methods detailed in Dunn (2011). Rather than solving all phase equations simultaneously, the DEM reduces the equations to a system of single-phase Riemann solves, where each phase has its own velocity and thermodynamic state. Exchanges between the phases are modeled through source terms accounting for the phase interactions. Furthermore, since the original multiphase scheme uses an explicit time-advancement scheme, it has time step restrictions dictated by the speed of sound, which limits the model's ability to simulate weakly compressible flows which typically need to be integrated for longer time periods. Here, we extend the current multiphase formulation by implementing a pressure-correcting step to enable implicit calculations and remove acoustic time step limitations. The new semi-implicit algorithm allows use of relatively large time steps compared to an explicit method. Validation and benefits of the new implicit time-step method are illustrated using several examples including weakly compressible flows and strong shock waves. The scheme presented here is general and may be used for a variety of applications which require capabilities for handling multiphase flow at a wide range of Mach numbers. However, the goal of this research is to simulate all stages of high energy explosions, including the shock formation (high Mach numbers) and evolution of the buoyant cloud (low Mach numbers).

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Space-Time Block Preconditioning for Incompressible Flow

Parallel-in-time methods have become increasingly popular in the simulation of time-dependent numerical PDEs, allowing for the efficient use of additional message passing interface processes when spatial parallelism saturates. Most methods treat the solution and parallelism in space and time separately. In contrast, all-at-once methods solve the full space-time system directly, largely treating time as simply another spatial dimension. All-at-once methods offer a number of benefits over separate treatment of space and time, most notably significantly increased parallelism and faster time to solution (when applicable). However, the development of fast, scalable all-at-once methods has largely been limited to time-dependent (advection-)diffusion problems. This paper introduces the concept of space-time block preconditioning for the all-at-once solution of incompressible flow. By extending well-known concepts of spatial block preconditioning to the space-time setting, we develop a block preconditioner whose application requires the solution of a space-time (advection-)diffusion equation in the velocity block, coupled with a pressure Schur complement approximation consisting of independent spatial solves at each time-step, and a space-time matrix-vector multiplication. The new method is tested on four classical models in incompressible flow. Finally, the results indicate perfect scalability in refinement of spatial and temporal mesh spacing, perfect scalability in nonlinear Picard iteration count when applied to a nonlinear Navier--Stokes problem, and minimal overhead in terms of number of preconditioner applications compared with sequential time-stepping.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Fault isolation and fault-tolerant control for Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy time-varying delay stochastic distribution systems

A fault isolation, estimation, and fault-tolerant control (FTC) scheme for nonlinear time-varying delay stochastic distribution control systems was presented in this paper. The Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy model was adopted to approach the nonlinear dynamics of time-varying delay systems. According to the output equivalence principle and Laplace transformation, an augmented state vector was given to solve the time-varying delay problem. When multiple actuator faults and interference occur simultaneously, fault detection, isolation and fault estimation was designed to obtained the fault information. To decouple faults and obtain the value and location information of the fault, the system was separated into two parts through the designed multiple conversion matrices, in which one subsystem was only affected by one actuator fault. This has simplified the design of fault isolation and estimation. A adaptive observer for fault estimation was given. Then, fault information such as the time, location, and size was determined. The observer gain matrices were calculated using linear matrix inequality (LMI). When a fault was detected and diagnosed, a FTC algorithm was devised using the proportional-integral control scheme to compensate the fault as much as possible. It has been shown that even if multiple faults actuator occurred simultaneously, the FTC controller still ensured the output probability density function of the system traced the desired probability density function when a fault occurred. Finally, the expected results were obtained through the simulation example, which confirmed the effectiveness of the method.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Direct reconstruction of isolated XUV or soft x-ray attosecond pulses from high-harmonic generation streaking spectra

Characterization of an isolated attosecond pulse (IAP) in the extreme ultraviolet (XUV) or soft x-ray (SXR) region is essential for its applications. Here we propose to retrieve an IAP in the time domain directly through the modulation of high-harmonic generation (HHG) spectra in the presence of a time-delayed intense few-cycle infrared or mid-infrared laser. The retrieval algorithm is derived based on the strong-field approximation and an extended quantitative rescattering model. We show that both isolated XUV pulses with a narrow spectral bandwidth and isolated SXR pulses with a broad bandwidth can be well characterized through the HHG streaking spectra. Such an all-optical method for characterizing the IAP differs from the commonly used approach based on the streaked photoelectron spectra that would require electron spectrometers. We check the robustness of the retrieval method by changing the dressing laser or by adjusting the steps of time delay. We also show that the XUV pulse can be accurately retrieved by treating the HHG streaking spectra calculated from solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation for single atoms as the ‘experimental’ data.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Quasi-Steady Simulation of Glaze Ice Accretion and Heat Transfer in the Supercooled Large Droplet Regime in Atmospheric Turbulent Air Flow

Abstract To avoid the use of a computationally intensive full unsteady simulation while providing an accurate solution, a quasi-steady simulation has been performed to study glaze and mixed ice accretion in the supercooled large droplet (SLD) regime in turbulent flow of atmospheric air. We have attempted to find the minimum time-step necessary to adequately simulate the icing process on an airfoil surface. Based on node displacement, a mesh morphing scheme has been adopted in the computations to account for the moving boundaries that are caused by the continuous ice buildup. We have modeled ice accretion on an airfoil surface for a time period of 232 s using several time steps. At each time-step we solved the steady-state conservation equations for the air and droplet phases and then used the results as initial conditions for the next time position. The magnitude of the time-step ranged from a least accurate two-shot simulation (where the time-step is 116 s) to a most accurate 2320-shot simulation (where the time-step is 0.1 s). In-between these two extreme time steps, we have performed a three-shot simulation (where the time-step is 77.33 s), a four-shot simulation (where the time-step is 58 s), a six-shot simulation (where the time-step is 38.67 s), a 46-shot simulation (where the time-step is 5 s), and a 232-shot simulation (where the time-step is 1 s). We have done so to find out the degree of accuracy (or inaccuracy) of the multishot simulation approach and to find out the appropriate time-step needed for a successful and valid quasi-steady simulation. A valid quasi-steady simulation needs to use a time-step that is small enough to reproduce the full time-dependent solution within a very small error band. We have found that both the 1 s and the 0.1 s time steps produce virtually identical results. This is the primary litmus test that proves the validity of the quasi-steady-state assumption. The results adopted in this paper are thus all based on the more conservative 0.1 s time-step. In the process of performing the simulations, remeshing was required in order to maintain the grid density in zones of high curvature to be able to capture the full physics in those zones. After successfully modeling glaze ice accretion over the airfoil surface using the 0.1 s quasi-steady simulation approach, the effects of supercooled large droplets (SLDs) impacting the surface have been examined and presented in terms of the variation of the local collection efficiency, the water film thickness, and the heat transfer rate. Examination of the variation of the angle that the ice horn makes with the airfoil chord line demonstrated a 20% improvement in angle prediction when the time-step is reduced from 116 s to 0.1 s. The analysis also reveals a 12% or 8.5% increase in the maximum collection efficiency, βmax, depending on whether the value of the liquid water content (LWC) has been doubled from 0.5 g/m3 to 1 g/m3, or the value of the freestream velocity has been doubled from 75 m/s to 150 m/s, respectively. Because of the need to monitor the local collection efficiency and convective heat fluxes at each shot (regardless of the number of shots employed), the approach adopted here was found to be effective in successively and successfully reproducing the curvature of the glaze ice horn.

Engineering↗

An efficient iterative method for dynamical Ginzburg-Landau equations

Here we propose a new finite element approach to solving the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau equations for superconductivity under the temporal gauge and design an efficient preconditioner for the Newton iteration of the resulting discrete system. It solves the vector magnetic potential in $H$(curl) space by the lowest order of the second kind N´ed´elec element. This approach offers a simple way to deal with the boundary conditions, leading to a stable and reliable performance for superconductor geomtry with reentrant corners. The bench-marking in numerical simulations verifies the efficiency of the proposed preconditioner, which can be employed to significantly speed up in large-scale computations.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Dynamic Learning of Correlation Potentials for a Time-Dependent Kohn-Sham System

We develop methods to learn the correlation potential for a time-dependent Kohn-Sham (TDKS) system in one spatial dimension. We start from a low-dimensional two-electron system for which we can numerically solve the time-dependent Schr¨odinger equation; this yields electron densities suitable for training models of the correlation potential. We frame the learning problem as one of optimizing a least-squares objective subject to the constraint that the dynamics obey the TDKS equation. Applying adjoints, we develop efficient methods to compute gradients and thereby learn models of the correlation potential. Our results show that it is possible to learn values of the correlation potential such that the resulting electron densities match ground truth densities. We also show how to learn correlation potential functionals with memory, demonstrating one such model that yields reasonable results for trajectories outside the training set.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Solving gyrokinetic systems with higher-order time dependence

We discuss theoretical and numerical aspects of gyrokinetics as a Lagrangian field theory when the field perturbation is introduced into the symplectic part. A consequence is that the field equations and particle equations of motion in general depend on the time derivatives of the field. The most well-known example is when the parallel vector potential is introduced as a perturbation, where a time derivative of the field arises only in the equations of motion, so an explicit equation for the fields may still be written. We will consider the conceptually more problematic case where the time-dependent fields appear in both the field equations and equations of motion, but where the additional term in the field equations is formally small. The conceptual issues were described by Burby (J. Plasma Phys., vol. 82 (3), 2016, 905820304): these terms lead to apparent additional degrees of freedom to the problem, so that the electric field now requires an initial condition, which is not required in low-frequency (Darwin) Vlasov–Maxwell equations. Also, the small terms in the Euler–Lagrange equations are a singular perturbation, and these two issues are interlinked. For well-behaved problems the apparent additional degrees of freedom are spurious, and the physically relevant solution may be directly identified. Because we needed to assume that the system is well behaved for small perturbations when deriving gyrokinetic theory, we must continue to assume that when solving it, and the physical solutions are thus the regular ones. The spurious nature of the singular degrees of freedom may also be seen by changing coordinate systems so the varying field appears only in the Hamiltonian. We then describe how methods appropriate for singular perturbation theory may be used to solve these asymptotic equations numerically. We then describe a proof-of-principle implementation of these methods for an electrostatic strong-flow gyrokinetic system; two basic test cases are presented to illustrate code functionality.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Master State Distributed Estimator (masde)

The MSE technology provides a distributed state estimation scheme for power utilities by making it a real time dynamic system, versus the static snapshot method used today. This will allow utilities to verify power grid readings and identify false data on the communication network. The prevailing method of estimation takes all the data from the system into a single load flow equation at the utilities command center. This becomes a large algorithm that is very time consuming to solve, providing the engineers only snap shots of the system. The MFD distributes an algorithm to devises that are already installed at various locations on the power grid. This allows for much faster computer times because the algorithms contain magnitudes less data. When each distributed estimator completes its calculation, it sends the results back to the master device to check against all other distributed estimators.

Reen, DylanW.↗

Computational Algorithms for Unit Commitment with AC Power Flows (Final Report)

Security-constrained unit commitment (SCUC) is a key component in power system operations. When AC power flow constraints are considered in the SCUC model (AC-SCUC), the problem becomes extremely difficult due to its discrete and non-convex nature, as described in “Grid Optimization Competition Challenge 3 Problem Formulation (GOCC)”. There are four main challenges: (i) Discrete decisions regarding unit online/offline status and start-up/shut-down procedures for every single unit. The number of discrete decision variables increases considerably when a system integrates multiple generators; (ii) Configuration-based combined-cycle formulations, and multi-commodity models that include ramping products, spin/non-spin products, and regulation up/down products. The combined-cycle units introduce additional discrete decision variables and auxiliary service products further complicate the model by connecting multi-commodity products’ continuous and discrete variables; (iii) SCUC models with AC power flow constraints are far more complex due to massive bilinear terms in the large-scale nonlinear power balance equations. The nonlinear power balance equations are further complicated by the discrete step control variables of shunts; (iv) N − 1 contingency analysis. The size of the model increases linearly with the number of contingencies considered, greatly increasing the size of the optimization model. Accordingly, there is an emergent need to develop a robust algorithm capable of deriving a high-quality solution in a short time and passing through contingency tests simultaneously. In this project, we explore innovative techniques to address this challenging problem by integrating advanced polyhedral theory, approximation methods, relaxation strategies, decomposition techniques, and parallel computing. Each technique approaches the problem from a different perspective, leveraging its specific strengths to tackle distinct challenges. Each individual method has demonstrated its effectiveness in the PI’s previous research. Their integration is expected to significantly reduce the computational time required to solve the proposed complex problem. Successful completion of this project has the potential to transform the industry by enhancing optimization solvers capable of handling large-scale day-ahead energy market clearing models within strict time constraints, while incorporating AC power flow constraints. This advancement will lead to reduced overall generation costs and, consequently, increased social welfare.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗