Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “computer programs”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 721 records · Page 40

Nuclear Materials Packaging, Transportation, and Systems Analysis Group Software Quality Assurance Plan: ANSYS Mechanical Finite Element Analysis Software Version 2023R1

ANSYS Inc. develops and markets engineering simulation software and services used in the aerospace, automotive, manufacturing, electronics, biomedical, energy, defense, and many other industries. ANSYS is dedicated to engineering simulation and is the world’s leading software provider. ANSYS was founded in 1970 and is headquartered in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. ANSYS provides an engineering analysis tool combining structural, thermal, computational fluid dynamics, acoustic, and electromagnetic simulation capabilities. ANSYS has two main programs, which use the same solvers: (1) Mechanical APDL (ANSYS Design Parametric Language), a Fortran-based coding platform, and (2) ANSYS Workbench, which uses a graphical user interface to aid in finite element analysis implementation. This plan covers both APDL and Workbench. The ANSYS computer program is a large-scale, multipurpose finite element program that can be used to solve several classes of engineering analyses. The analysis capabilities of ANSYS include the ability to solve static and dynamic structural analyses, steady-state and transient heat transfer problems, mode-frequency and buckling eigenvalue problems, static or time-varying magnetic analyses, and various types of field and coupled-field applications. The program contains many special features that allow nonlinearities or secondary effects such as plasticity, large strain, hyperelasticity, creep, swelling, large deflections, contact, stress stiffening, temperature dependency, material anisotropy, and radiation to be included in the solution. As ANSYS has been developed, other special capabilities such as substructuring, submodeling, random vibration, kinetostatics, kinetodynamics, free convection fluid analysis, acoustics, magnetics, piezoelectrics, coupled-field analysis, and design optimization have been added to the program. These capabilities contribute further to making ANSYS a multipurpose analysis tool for varied engineering disciplines. The ANSYS program has been in commercial use for over 50 years and has been used extensively in the aerospace, automotive, construction, electronic, energy services, manufacturing, nuclear, plastics, oil, and steel industries. Additionally, many consulting firms and hundreds of universities have used ANSYS for analysis, research, and educational purposes. ANSYS is recognized worldwide as one of the most widely used and capable programs of its type. Ansys design analysis software is the first created within a quality system with ISO 9001 certification, the internationally accepted quality standard. Product development, testing, maintenance and support processes also meet the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission's quality requirements, as they have for nearly four decades. The Quality Assurance Service Agreement is suitable for the customers working in the nuclear industry who need to meet specific federal regulations including 10CRF50 Appendix B and provisions of 10CFR21. ANSYS has retained its original International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001 accreditation certificate since1995-05-04, It’s current certificate is valid until 2027-05-29.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

SIERRA Multimechanics Module: Aria Thermal Theory Manual (Version 4.46)

This document describes the theoretical foundation of thermal analysis in Sierra Mechanics. The SIERRA Multimechanics Module: Aria, henceforth referred to as Aria for brevity, was developed at Sandia National Laboratories under the ASC program, and approximates linear and nonlinear continuum models of heat transfer. Aria uses the SIERRA Framework, which provides data management services commonly required by computational mechanics software, and facilitates the development of coupled, multi-mechanics applications for massively parallel computers. The mathematical models in Aria are based heavily on those of COYOTE, a well-established thermal analysis program that was also developed at Sandia and its ASC code predecessor, Calore. Aria, Calore and COYOTE share a significant body of numerical methods, which are described in detail by Reddy and Gartling. Throughout this document, the terms software and implementation are synonymous with the Aria thermal-fluid analysis computer program.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Nuclear Physics Network Requirements Review Report

The Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) is the Office of Science’s high-performance network user facility, delivering highly reliable data transport capabilities optimized for the requirements of data-intensive science. In essence, ESnet is the circulatory system that enables the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) science mission by connecting each and every DOE lab and its user facilities. ESnet is funded and stewarded by the Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) Program and managed and operated by the Scientific Networking Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). ESnet is widely regarded as a global leader in the research and education networking community. ESnet connects DOE national laboratories, user facilities, and major experiments so scientists can use remote instruments and computing resources as well as share data with collaborators, transfer large data sets, and access distributed data repositories. While ESnet provides network connectivity, it cannot be characterized as an internet service provider as it is specifically built to provide a range of network services that are tailored to meet the unique requirements of DOE’s data-intensive science.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

The MolSSI QCArchive project: An open-source platform to compute, organize, and share quantum chemistry data

The Molecular Sciences Software Institute's (MolSSI) Quantum Chemistry Archive (QCArchive) project is an umbrella name that covers both a central server hosted by MolSSI for community data and the Python-based software infrastructure that powers automated computation and storage of quantum chemistry (QC) results. The MolSSI-hosted central server provides the computational molecular sciences community a location to freely access tens of millions of QC computations for machine learning, methodology assessment, force-field fitting, and more through a Python interface. Facile, user-friendly mining of the centrally archived quantum chemical data also can be achieved through web applications found at the website. The software infrastructure can be used as a standalone platform to compute, structure, and distribute hundreds of millions of QC computations for individuals or groups of researchers at any scale. The QCArchiveInfrastructure is open-source (BSD-3C), code repositories can be found at github, and releases can be downloaded via PyPI and Conda. This article is categorized under: Electronic Structure Theory > Ab Initio Electronic Structure Methods Software > Quantum Chemistry Data Science > Computer Algorithms and Programming

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Basic Research Needs for Inverse Methods for Complex Systems under Uncertainty

Inverse problems, which aim to infer unknown properties of a system using experimental and observational data, are central to addressing many of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) most critical scientific and engineering challenges. Accurate, computationally efficient, and data-efficient solutions to inverse problems are essential for advancing DOE mission-critical science drivers, including analyzing data from large-scale experimental facilities, optimizing fusion reactor performance, accelerating materials discovery, enhancing geophysical imaging, improving wildfire predictions, and enabling autonomous systems and digital twins. However, these problems are becoming increasingly complex, often involving nonlinear, highdimensional, and interconnected systems and models that span multiple physics and scales, while relying on data with varying quantity, quality, and information content. Compounding these challenges is the uncertainty inherent in DOE-relevant systems, where errors in inputs, noise in data, incompleteness of data, and discrepancies between models and reality constrain the accuracy and precision of solutions. At the same time, the convergence of recent scientific computing trends—scientific machine learning, artificial intelligence, and computing advances such as exascale computing—is creating unprecedented opportunities for tackling these challenges. The cross-cutting nature of inverse problems, combined with their growing complexity and rapidly evolving data and algorithmic demands, strongly motivates the formulation of a prioritized research agenda to maximize their capabilities and impact. In response to this need, DOE’s Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) program in the Office of Science convened the Workshop on Basic Research Needs for Inverse Problems for Complex Systems Under Uncertainty in June 2025. This workshop brought together experts across disciplines to identify grand challenges and major opportunities in the field. Through collaborative discussions, the workshop defined transformative research directions aimed at addressing the mathematical, statistical, and computational challenges posed by inverse problems under uncertainty. As a result of these efforts, four priority research directions (PRDs) were identified to guide future research and development in this area. These PRDs, summarized below, represent a roadmap for advancing the foundational science and mathematics of inverse problems, enabling robust, scalable, and uncertainty-aware solutions that are critical for DOE applications.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Compiler-Assisted Detection of Transient Memory Errors

The probability of bit flips in hardware memory systems is projected to increase significantly as memory systems continue to scale in size and complexity. Effective hardware-based error detection and correction requires that the complete data path, involving all parts of the memory system, be protected with sufficient redundancy. First, this may be costly to employ on commodity computing platforms and second, even on high-end systems, protection against multi-bit errors may be lacking. Therefore, augmenting hardware error detection schemes with software techniques is of consider- able interest. In this paper, we consider software-level mechanisms to comprehensively detect transient memory faults. We develop novel compile-time algorithms to instrument application programs with checksum computation codes so as to detect memory errors. Unlike prior approaches that employ checksums on computational and architectural state, our scheme verifies every data access and works by tracking variables as they are produced and consumed. Experimental evaluation demonstrates that the proposed comprehensive error detection solution is viable as a completely software-only scheme. We also demonstrate that with limited hardware support, overheads of error detection can be further reduced.

def-use analysis↗

SIERRA Multimechanics Module: Aria Thermal Theory Manual - Version 4.50.

This document describes the theoretical foundation of thermal analysis in Sierra Mechanics. The SIERRA Multimechanics Module: Aria, henceforth referred to as Aria for brevity, was developed at Sandia National Laboratories under the ASC program, and approximates linear and nonlinear continuum models of heat transfer. Aria uses the SIERRA Framework, which provides data management services commonly required by computational mechanics software, and facilitates the development of coupled, multi-mechanics applications for massively parallel computers. The mathematical models in Aria are based heavily on those of COYOTE, a well-established thermal analysis program that was also developed at Sandia and its ASC code predecessor, Calore. Aria, Calore and COYOTE share a significant body of numerical methods, which are described in detail by Reddy and Gartling. Throughout this document, the terms software and implementation are synonymous with the Aria thermal-fluid analysis computer program. Whether one uses Aria to perform heat transfer analysis, or in developing a new capability for the Aria application, this document provides the information needed understand the existing numerical algorithm implementations. Justification for the fundamental assumptions of heat transfer, nor derivation of the energy conservation equations are included in this document. For a more thorough theoretical background, one is referred to one of the many available textbooks, e.g. Another reference, which is freely available in downloadable electronic form, is Lienhard and Lienhard.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Experience Paper: Software Engineering and Community Codes Track in ATPESC

Argonne Training Program in Extreme Scale Computing (ATPESC) was started by the Argonne National Laboratory with the objective of expanding the ranks of better prepared users of high performance computing (HPC) machines. One of the unique aspects of the program was inclusion of software engineering and community codes track. The inclusion was motivated by the observation that the projects with a good scientific and software process were better able to meet their scientific goals. In this paper we present our experience of running the software track from the beginning of the program until now. We discuss the motivations, the reception, and the evolution of the track over the years. We welcome discussion and input from the community to enhance the track in ATPESC, and also to facilitate inclusion of similar tracks in other HPC oriented training programs.

Dubey, Anshu↗

SIERRA Multimechanics Module: Aria Thermal Theory Manual - Version 4.48

This document describes the theoretical foundation of thermal analysis in Sierra Mechanics. The SIERRA Multimechanics Module: Aria, henceforth referred to as Aria for brevity, was developed at Sandia National Laboratories under the ASC program, and approximates linear and nonlinear continuum models of heat transfer. Aria uses the SIERRA Framework, which provides data management services commonly required by computational mechanics software, and facilitates the development of coupled, multi-mechanics applications for massively parallel computers. The mathematical models in Aria are based heavily on those of COYOTE, a well-established thermal analysis program that was also developed at Sandia and its ASC code predecessor, Calore. Aria, Calore and COYOTE share a significant body of numerical methods, which are described in detail by Reddy and Gartling. Throughout this document, the terms software and implementation are syn onymous with the Aria thermal-fluid analysis computer program. Whether one uses Aria to perform heat transfer analysis, or in developing a new capability for the Aria application, this document provides the information needed understand the existing numerical algorithm implementations. Justification for the fundamental assumptions of heat transfer, nor derivation of the energy conservation equations are included in this document. For a more thorough theoretical background, one is referred to one of the many available textbooks, e.g. Another reference, which is freely available in downloadable electronic form, is Lienhard and Lienhard.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Q-POP-Thermo: A general-purpose thermodynamics solver for ferroelectric materials

We report that Q-POP-Thermo is a program designed to compute thermodynamic monodomain equilibrium states and their properties for ferroelectric single crystals and thin films based on the Landau-Ginzburg-Devonshire (LGD) Theory. Utilizing symbolic manipulation with the SymPy Library, the governing equations along with appropriate boundary conditions are solved for speedy minimization of the free energy of a crystal. Utilizing the popular Differential Evolution algorithm, with appropriate hybridization, multiple phase diagrams, such as the pressure-temperature phase diagram for bulk single crystals and the common strain-temperature phase diagram for monodomain thin-film systems can be readily generated. Furthermore, a variety of material properties of stable ferroelectric phases, including dielectric, piezoelectric, and electrocaloric properties, can simultaneously be calculated. Validation studies are presented for both thin-film and single crystal systems to test the effectiveness and capability of the open-source program.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Stockpile Stewardship: How We Ensure the Nuclear Deterrent Without Testing

In the 1990s, the U.S. nuclear weapons program shifted emphasis from developing new designs to dismantling thousands of existing weapons and maintaining a much smaller enduring stockpile. The United States ceased underground nuclear testing, and the Department of Energy created the Stockpile Stewardship Program to maintain the safety, security, and reliability of the U.S. nuclear deterrent without full-scale testing. This video gives a behind the scenes look at a set of unique capabilities at Lawrence Livermore that are indispensable to the Stockpile Stewardship Program: high performance computing, the Superblock category II nuclear facility, the JASPER a two stage gas gun, the High Explosive Applications Facility (HEAF), the National Ignition Facility (NIF), and the Site 300 contained firing facility.

98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL P↗

Nucleon mass with highly improved staggered quarks

We present the first computation in a program of lattice-QCD baryon physics using staggered fermions for sea and valence quarks. For this initial study, we present a calculation of the nucleon mass, obtaining 964 ±16 MeV with all sources of statistical and systematic errors controlled and accounted for. This result is the most precise determination to date of the nucleon mass from first principles. We use the highly improved staggered quark action, which is computationally efficient. Three gluon ensembles are employed, which have approximate lattice spacings 𝑎 ≈ 0.09, 0.12, and 0.15 fm, each with equal-mass 𝑢/𝑑, 𝑠, and 𝑐 quarks in the sea. Further, all ensembles have the light valence and sea 𝑢/𝑑 quarks tuned to reproduce the physical pion mass, avoiding complications from chiral extrapolations. Our work opens a new avenue for precise calculations of baryon properties, which are both feasible and relevant to experiments in particle and nuclear physics.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Verified lifting of stencil computations

This paper demonstrates a novel combination of program synthesis and verification to lift stencil computations from low-level Fortran code to a high-level summary expressed using a predicate language. The technique is sound and mostly automated, and leverages counter-example guided inductive synthesis (CEGIS) to find provably correct translations. Lifting existing code to a high-performance description language has a number of benefits, including maintainability and performance portability. For example, our experiments show that the lifted summaries can enable domain specific compilers to do a better job of parallelization as compared to an off-the-shelf compiler working on the original code, and can even support fully automatic migration to hardware accelerators such as GPUs. We have implemented verified lifting in a system called STNG and have evaluated it using microbenchmarks, mini-apps, and real-world applications. Here, we demonstrate the benefits of verified lifting by first automatically summarizing Fortran source code into a high-level predicate language, and subsequently translating the lifted summaries into Halide, with the translated code achieving median performance speedups of 4.1X and up to 24X for non-trivial stencils as compared to the original implementation.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Feasibility Study for Electrical Discharge Machining of Large DU-Mo Castings

U-10 wt. % Mo (U-10Mo) alloys are being developed as low enrichment monolithic fuel for the CONVERT program. Optimization of processing for the monolithic fuel is being pursued with the use of electrical discharge machining (EDM) under CONVERT HPRR WBS 1.2.4.5 Optimization of Coupon Preparation. The process is applicable to manufacturing experimental fuel plate specimens for the Mini-Plate-1 (MP-1) irradiation campaign. The benefits of EDM are reduced machining costs, ability to achieve higher tolerances, stress-free, burr-free surfaces eliminating the need for milling, and the ability to machine complex shapes. Kerf losses are much smaller with EDM (tenths of mm) compared to conventional machining (mm). Reliable repeatability is achievable with EDM due to its computer-generated machining programs.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Basic Energy Sciences Network Requirements Review (Final Report)

The Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) is the high-performance network user facility for the US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science (SC) and delivers highly reliable data transport capabilities optimized for the requirements of data-intensive science. In essence, ESnet is the circulatory system that enables the DOE science mission by connecting all of its laboratories and facilities in the US and abroad. ESnet is funded and stewarded by the Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) program and managed and operated by the Scientific Networking Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). ESnet is widely regarded as a global leader in the research and education networking community. Between March and September 2022, ESnet and the Office of Basic Energy Sciences (BES) of the DOE SC organized an ESnet requirements review of BES-supported activities. Preparation for these events included identification of key stakeholders: program and facility management, research groups, and technology providers. Each stakeholder group was asked to prepare formal case study documents about its relationship to the BES program to build a complete understanding of the current, near-term, and long-term status, expectations, and processes that will support the science going forward. A series of pre-planning meetings better prepared case study authors for this task, along with guidance on how the review would proceed in a virtual fashion.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

E-PVT: enhanced position-velocity-time scheduler for computer-controlled optical finishing with comprehensive considerations of dynamics constraints, continuity and efficiency

Deterministic computer-controlled optical finishing is an essential approach for achieving high-quality optical surfaces. Its determinism and convergence rely heavily on precise and smooth motion control to guide the machine tool over an optical surface to correct residual errors. One widely supported and smooth motion control model is position-velocity-time (PVT), which employs piecewise cubic polynomials to describe positions. Our prior research introduced a PVT-based velocity scheduling method, demonstrating sub-nanometer level convergence in ion beam figuring (IBF) processes. However, three challenges remained. Firstly, this method relies on quadratic programming, resulting in computational intensiveness for dense tool paths. Secondly, the dynamics constraints and velocity and acceleration continuities are not comprehensively considered, limiting the full potential of PVT-based control. Thirdly, no compensation mechanism existed when dynamics constraints are exceeded. In this study, in response to these challenges, we proposed the Enhanced PVT (E-PVT) method, reducing the time complexity from O ( n 3 ) to O ( n ) while fully addressing dynamics constraints and continuities. A novel compensation method utilizing particle swarm optimization was proposed to address situations where dynamics constraints might be exceeded while maintaining the overall processing efficiency. Validation through simulation and experimentation confirmed the improved performance of E-PVT.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Quantum Accelerators for High-performance Computing Systems

We define some of the programming and system-level challenges facing the application of quantum processing to high-performance computing. Alongside barriers to physical integration, prominent differences in the execution of quantum and conventional programs challenges the intersection of these computational models. Following a brief overview of the state of the art, we discuss recent advances in programming and execution models for hybrid quantum-classical computing. We discuss a novel quantum-accelerator framework that uses specialized kernels to offload select workloads while integrating with existing computing infrastructure. We elaborate on the role of the host operating system to manage these unique accelerator resources, the prospects for deploying quantum modules, and the requirements placed on the language hierarchy connecting these different system components. We draw on recent advances in the modeling and simulation of quantum computing systems with the development of architectures for hybrid high-performance computing systems and the realization of software stacks for controlling quantum devices. Finally, we present simulation results that describe the expected system-level behavior of high-performance computing systems composed from compute nodes with quantum processing units. We describe performance for these hybrid systems in terms of time-to-solution, accuracy, and energy consumption, and we use simple application examples to estimate the performance advantage of quantum acceleration.

Humble, Travis↗