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At least 775 records · Page 43

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

DOE OSTI2015

TU-D-201-02: Physicist’s Responsibility On “End-Of-Life for Brachytherapy Devices and Software

Brachytherapy devices and software are designed to last for a certain period of time. Due to a number of considerations, such as material factors, wear-and-tear, backwards compatibility, and others, they all reach a date when they are no longer supported by the manufacturer. Most of these products have a limited duration for their use, and the information is provided to the user at time of purchase. Because of issues or concerns determined by the manufacturer, certain products are retired sooner than the anticipated date, and the user is immediately notified. In these situations, the institution is facing some difficult choices: remove these products from the clinic or perform tests and continue their usage. Both of these choices come with a financial burden: replacing the product or assuming a potential medicolegal liability. This session will provide attendees with the knowledge and tools to make better decisions when facing these issues. Learning Objectives: Understand the meaning of “end-of-life or “life expectancy” for brachytherapy devices and software Review items (devices and software) affected by “end-of-life” restrictions Learn how to effectively formulate “end-of-life” policies at your institution Learn about possible implications of “end-of-life” policy Review other possible approaches to “end-of-life” issue.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2015

TU-D-201-03: Proposed Solutions to End-Of-Life Issue

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2019

REALIZATION OF A AUTOMATED T-WAY COMBINATORIAL TESTING APPROACH FOR A SOFTWARE BASED EMBEDDED DIGITAL DEVICE

Under the Department of Energy’s Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program, within the Plant Modernization research pathway, the Digital I&C Qualification Project is identifying new methods that would be beneficial in qualifying digital I&C systems and devices for safety-related usage. One such method that would be useful in qualifying field components such as sensors and actuators is the concept of testability. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) considers testability to be one of two design attributes sufficient to eliminate consideration of software-based or software logic-based common cause failure (the other being diversity). The NRC defines acceptable “testability” as follows: Testability – A system is sufficiently simple such that every possible combination of inputs and every possible sequence of device states are tested and all outputs are verified for every case (100% tested). [NUREG 0800, Chapter 7, Branch Technical Position (BTP) 7-19] This qualification method has never proven to be practical in view of the very large number of combinations of inputs and sequences of device states for a typical I&C device. However, many of these combinations are not unique in the sense that they represent the same state space or in that that they represent state space that would not affect the critical design basis functions of the device. Therefore, the state space of interest might possibly be reduced to a manageable dimension through such analysis. This project will focus on a representative I&C device similar in design, function, and complexity to the types of devices that would likely be deployed in nuclear power plants as digital or software based sensors and actuators (e.g. Smart Sensors). Analysis will be conducted to determine the feasibility of testing this device in a manner consistent with the NRC definition. This report describes the development of test process for Bounded Exhaustive Testing with respect to Combinatorial Test (CT) methods. The report describes the candidate Device Under Test SW – the VCU smart sensor, conceptual experimental methods for stated test objectives, description of the process, tools, resources, and computing. This information will be used to fully develop a detailed test plan (based on statistical measure needs) and test environment for conducting an I&C device testability demonstration study. The future planed experimental study of this project is to demonstrate digital qualification via Bounded Exhaustive Testability with respect to Common Cause Failure.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

NASA NTRS2012

Dispersed Fringe Sensing Analysis - DFSA

Dispersed Fringe Sensing (DFS) is a technique for measuring and phasing segmented telescope mirrors using a dispersed broadband light image. DFS is capable of breaking the monochromatic light ambiguity, measuring absolute piston errors between segments of large segmented primary mirrors to tens of nanometers accuracy over a range of 100 micrometers or more. The DFSA software tool analyzes DFS images to extract DFS encoded segment piston errors, which can be used to measure piston distances between primary mirror segments of ground and space telescopes. This information is necessary to control mirror segments to establish a smooth, continuous primary figure needed to achieve high optical quality. The DFSA tool is versatile, allowing precise piston measurements from a variety of different optical configurations. DFSA technology may be used for measuring wavefront pistons from sub-apertures defined by adjacent segments (such as Keck Telescope), or from separated sub-apertures used for testing large optical systems (such as sub-aperture wavefront testing for large primary mirrors using auto-collimating flats). An experimental demonstration of the coarse-phasing technology with verification of DFSA was performed at the Keck Telescope. DFSA includes image processing, wavelength and source spectral calibration, fringe extraction line determination, dispersed fringe analysis, and wavefront piston sign determination. The code is robust against internal optical system aberrations and against spectral variations of the source. In addition to the DFSA tool, the software package contains a simple but sophisticated MATLAB model to generate dispersed fringe images of optical system configurations in order to quickly estimate the coarse phasing performance given the optical and operational design requirements. Combining MATLAB (a high-level language and interactive environment developed by MathWorks), MACOS (JPL s software package for Modeling and Analysis for Controlled Optical Systems), and DFSA provides a unique optical development, modeling and analysis package to study current and future approaches to coarse phasing controlled segmented optical systems.

Sigrist, Norbert↗

DOE OSTI2022

Caldera Infrastructure Charge Module (ICM)

Caldera ICM is part of Caldera software platform, a suite of collective, open-source tools that was developed to improve the state of the art in modeling the impacts of Electric Vehicle (EV) charging on the grid. The foundation of Caldera ICM is it’s first-of-its-kind library of high-fidelity charging models for a wide variety of vehicles, validated by test data under a range of operating conditions. The charging models are used to accurately model the EV charging on an electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) – also known as a charger. ICM uses as inputs, the EV characteristics such as battery size, battery chemistry (i.e. NMC, LTO), watt hour per mile, inverter efficiency and max charge rate; as well as EVSE characteristics such as max current and supply equipment type (i.e. L2 vs XFC). Using these inputs Caldera ICM creates an uncontrolled charging profile curve for each compatible EV-EVSE pair. These charge profiles can be used stand alone to estimate charge duration given start State Of Charge (SOC) and end SOC or charge energy size given start SOC and charge duration. In Caldera Grid, another tool in the Caldera software platform, these charge profiles are used to represent EV charging as a load on the grid using charge event data such as EV type, SE type, start SOC, final SOC, park start time and park end time. ICM currently supports energy shifting Smart Charge Management (SCM) strategies such as "Time Of Use (TOU) immediate”, “TOU random” and “random start” by delaying the charge to start at a preferable time with respect to the strategy and, one voltage support SCM strategy named autonomous voltage control strategy by providing reactive power back to the electric grid.

Sundarrajan, ManojKumar Cebol↗

NASA NTRS2010

Modeling Tools Predict Flow in Fluid Dynamics

"Because rocket engines operate under extreme temperature and pressure, they present a unique challenge to designers who must test and simulate the technology. To this end, CRAFT Tech Inc., of Pipersville, Pennsylvania, won Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contracts from Marshall Space Flight Center to develop software to simulate cryogenic fluid flows and related phenomena. CRAFT Tech enhanced its CRUNCH CFD (computational fluid dynamics) software to simulate phenomena in various liquid propulsion components and systems. Today, both government and industry clients in the aerospace, utilities, and petrochemical industries use the software for analyzing existing systems as well as designing new ones."

Source record↗

DOE OSTI2018

Reverse image search for scientific data within and beyond the visible spectrum

The explosion in the rate, quality and diversity of image acquisition instruments has propelled the development of expert systems to organize and query image collections more efficiently. Recommendation systems that handle scientific images are rare, particularly if records lack metadata. This paper introduces new strategies to enable fast searches and image ranking from large pictorial datasets with or without labels. The main contribution is the development of pyCBIR, a deep neural network software to search scientific images by content. This tool exploits convolutional layers with locality sensitivity hashing for querying images across domains through a user-friendly interface. Our results report image searches over databases ranging from thousands to millions of samples. We test pyCBIR search capabilities using three convNets against four scientific datasets, including samples from cell microscopy, microtomography, atomic diffraction patterns, and materials photographs to demonstrate 95% accurate recommendations in most cases. Furthermore, all scientific data collections are released.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

DOE OSTI2020

Integrated Dynamic Facade Control with an Agent-based Architecture for Commercial Buildings

Dynamic façades have significant technical potential to minimize heating, cooling, and lighting energy use and peak electric demand in the perimeter zone of commercial buildings, but the performance of these systems is reliant on being able to balance complex trade-offs between solar control, daylight admission, comfort, and view over the life of the installation. As the context for controllable energy-efficiency technologies grows more complex with the increased use of intermittent renewable energy resources on the grid, it has become increasingly important to look ahead towards more advanced approaches to integrated systems control in order to achieve optimum life-cycle performance at a lower cost. This study examines the feasibility of a model predictive control system for low-cost autonomous dynamic façades. A system architecture designed around lightweight, simple agents is proposed. The architecture accommodates whole building and grid level demands through its modular, hierarchical approach. Automatically-generated models for computing window heat gains, daylight illuminance, and discomfort glare are described. The open source Modelica and JModelica software tools were used to determine the optimum state of control given inputs of window heat gains and lighting loads for a 24-hour optimization horizon. Penalty functions for glare and view/ daylight quality were implemented as constraints. The control system was tested on a low-power controller (1.4 GHz single core with 2 GB of RAM) to evaluate feasibility. The target platform is a low-cost ($35/unit) embedded controller with 1.2 GHz dual-core cpu and 1 GB of RAM. Configuration and commissioning of the curtainwall unit was designed to be largely plug and play with minimal inputs required by the manufacturer through a web-based user interface. An example application was used to demonstrate optimal control of a three-zone electrochromic window for a south-facing zone. The overall approach was deemed to be promising. Further engineering is required to enable scalable, turnkey solutions.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

NASA NTRS2017

Using CCSDS Standards to Reduce Mission Costs

NASA's open source Core Flight System (cFS) software framework has been using several Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) standards since its inception. Recently developed CCSDS standards are now being applied by NASA, ESA and other organizations to streamline and automate aspects of mission development, test, and operations, speeding mission schedules and reducing mission costs. This paper will present the new CCSDS Spacecraft Onboard Interfaces Services (SOIS) Electronic Data Sheet (EDS) standards and show how they are being applied to data interfaces in the cFS software framework, tool chain, and ground systems across a range of missions at NASA. Although NASA is focusing on the cFS, it expected that these technologies are well suited for use in other system architectures and can lower costs for a wide range of both large and small satellites.

Wilmot, Jonathan↗

DOE OSTI2022

A Common Tracking Software Project

Abstract The reconstruction of the trajectories of charged particles, or track reconstruction, is a key computational challenge for particle and nuclear physics experiments. While the tuning of track reconstruction algorithms can depend strongly on details of the detector geometry, the algorithms currently in use by experiments share many common features. At the same time, the intense environment of the High-Luminosity LHC accelerator and other future experiments is expected to put even greater computational stress on track reconstruction software, motivating the development of more performant algorithms. We present here A Common Tracking Software (ACTS) toolkit, which draws on the experience with track reconstruction algorithms in the ATLAS experiment and presents them in an experiment-independent and framework-independent toolkit. It provides a set of high-level track reconstruction tools which are agnostic to the details of the detection technologies and magnetic field configuration and tested for strict thread-safety to support multi-threaded event processing. We discuss the conceptual design and technical implementation of ACTS, selected applications and performance of ACTS, and the lessons learned.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

DOE OSTI2016

SU-F-J-180: A Reference Data Set for Testing Two Dimension Registration Algorithms

Purpose: To create and characterize a reference data set for testing image registration algorithms that transform portal image (PI) to digitally reconstructed radiograph (DRR). Methods: Anterior-posterior (AP) and Lateral (LAT) projection and DRR image pairs from nine cases representing four different anatomical sites (head and neck, thoracic, abdominal, and pelvis) were selected for this study. Five experts will perform manual registration by placing landmarks points (LMPs) on the DRR and finding their corresponding points on the PI using computer assisted manual point selection tool (CAMPST), a custom-made MATLAB software tool developed in house. The landmark selection process will be repeated on both the PI and the DRR in order to characterize inter- and -intra observer variations associated with the point selection process. Inter and an intra observer variation in LMPs was done using Bland-Altman (B&A) analysis and one-way analysis of variance. We set our limit such that the absolute value of the mean difference between the readings should not exceed 3mm. Later on in this project we will test different two dimension (2D) image registration algorithms and quantify the uncertainty associated with their registration. Results: Using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) there was no variations within the readers. When Bland-Altman analysis was used the variation within the readers was acceptable. The variation was higher in the PI compared to the DRR.ConclusionThe variation seen for the PI is because although the PI has a much better spatial resolution the poor resolution on the DRR makes it difficult to locate the actual corresponding anatomical feature on the PI. We hope this becomes more evident when all the readers complete the point selection. The reason for quantifying inter- and -intra observer variation tells us to what degree of accuracy a manual registration can be done. Research supported by William Beaumont Hospital Research Start Up Fund.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

NASA NTRS1992

Desirable features of an infrared imaging system for aerodynamic research

Advantage of non-intrusiveness, capability for field measurement, and increased availability of IR imaging systems have resulted in their wider use for aerodynamic research. However, certain difficulties persist while using currently available systems for such applications. A critical evaluation of the IR imaging systems is presented on the basis of the state-of-the-art of IR imaging technology and experiences in wind tunnel and flight testing at NASA's Langley Research Center. The requirements for using IR thermography as a measurement tool in aerodynamic research are examined in terms of range, sensitivity, and accuracy of temperature measurement, temporal and spatial resolution, and features of target. Deficiencies of present IR imaging systems are identified, and user precautions to avoid such problems by proper selection and operation of these units are suggested. Different aspects of imager performance such as imager optics, video capabilities, and environmental tolerance are discussed. Electronic data recording and image processing hardware and software requirements are evaluated. Slit response tests and spatial resolution are discussed with the objective of obtaining reliable, accurate, and meaningful information from IR thermography measurements for aerodynamic studies.

Wright, Robert E., Jr.↗

DOE OSTI2016

Infrastructure for Multiphysics Software Integration in High Performance Computing-Aided Science and Engineering

The project described in this report constructed and exercised an innovative multiphysics coupling toolkit called the Illinois Rocstar MultiPhysics Application Coupling Toolkit (IMPACT). IMPACT is an open source, flexible, natively parallel infrastructure for coupling multiple uniphysics simulation codes into multiphysics computational systems. IMPACT works with codes written in several high-performance-computing (HPC) programming languages, and is designed from the beginning for HPC multiphysics code development. It is designed to be minimally invasive to the individual physics codes being integrated, and has few requirements on those physics codes for integration. The goal of IMPACT is to provide the support needed to enable coupling existing tools together in unique and innovative ways to produce powerful new multiphysics technologies without extensive modification and rewrite of the physics packages being integrated. There are three major outcomes from this project: 1) construction, testing, application, and open-source release of the IMPACT infrastructure, 2) production of example open-source multiphysics tools using IMPACT, and 3) identification and engagement of interested organizations in the tools and applications resulting from the project. This last outcome represents the incipient development of a user community and application echosystem being built using IMPACT. Multiphysics coupling standardization can only come from organizations working together to define needs and processes that span the space of necessary multiphysics outcomes, which Illinois Rocstar plans to continue driving toward. The IMPACT system, including source code, documentation, and test problems are all now available through the public gitHUB.org system to anyone interested in multiphysics code coupling. Many of the basic documents explaining use and architecture of IMPACT are also attached as appendices to this document. Online HTML documentation is available through the gitHUB site. There are over 100 unit tests provided that run through the Illinois Rocstar Application Development (IRAD) lightweight testing infrastructure that is also supplied along with IMPACT. The package as a whole provides an excellent base for developing high-quality multiphysics applications using modern software development practices. To facilitate understanding how to utilize IMPACT effectively, two multiphysics systems have been developed and are available open-source through gitHUB. The simpler of the two systems, named ElmerFoamFSI in the repository, is a multiphysics, fluid-structure-interaction (FSI) coupling of the solid mechanics package Elmer with a fluid dynamics module from OpenFOAM. This coupling illustrates how to combine software packages that are unrelated by either author or architecture and combine them into a robust, parallel multiphysics system. A more complex multiphysics tool is the Illinois Rocstar Rocstar Multiphysics code that was rebuilt during the project around IMPACT. Rocstar Multiphysics was already an HPC multiphysics tool, but now that it has been rearchitected around IMPACT, it can be readily expanded to capture new and different physics in the future. In fact, during this project, the Elmer and OpenFOAM tools were also coupled into Rocstar Multiphysics and demonstrated. The full Rocstar Multiphysics codebase is also available on gitHUB, and licensed for any organization to use as they wish. Finally, the new IMPACT product is already being used in several multiphysics code coupling projects for the Air Force, NASA and the Missile Defense Agency, and initial work on expansion of the IMPACT-enabled Rocstar Multiphysics has begun in support of a commercial company. These initiatives promise to expand the interest and reach of IMPACT and Rocstar Multiphysics, ultimately leading to the envisioned standardization and consortium of users that was one of the goals of this project.

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2016

An optimized treatment for algorithmic differentiation of an important glaciological fixed-point problem

We apply an optimized method to the adjoint generation of a time-evolving land ice model through algorithmic differentiation (AD). The optimization involves a special treatment of the fixed-point iteration required to solve the nonlinear stress balance, which differs from a straightforward application of AD software, and leads to smaller memory requirements and in some cases shorter computation times of the adjoint. The optimization is done via implementation of the algorithm of Christianson (1994) for reverse accumulation of fixed-point problems, with the AD tool OpenAD. For test problems, the optimized adjoint is shown to have far lower memory requirements, potentially enabling larger problem sizes on memory-limited machines. In the case of the land ice model, implementation of the algorithm allows further optimization by having the adjoint model solve a sequence of linear systems with identical (as opposed to varying) matrices, greatly improving performance. Finally, the methods introduced here will be of value to other efforts applying AD tools to ice models, particularly ones which solve a hybrid shallow ice/shallow shelf approximation to the Stokes equations.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

NASA NTRS1985

Designing a priority driven multi-frame rate flight executive

The Advanced Transport Operating System (ATOPS) project is a NASA operational research flight project which is concerned with upgrading the new generation of flight computers. In connection with this work, it becomes also necessary to reassess the adequacy of the flight executive and flight software. In the present discussion, attention is given to the ATOPS project upgrade, the operating flight system, the design criteria for the new flight executive, the implementation of the executive, a sample real-time execution, a real-time debug and test tool, and several experiences which could be useful to others considering a similar exercise.

Smith-Taylor, R.↗

NASA NTRS2001

A Simplified Model of ARIS for Optimal Controller Design

Many space-science experiments require active vibration isolation. Boeing's Active Rack Isolation System (ARIS) isolates experiments at the rack (vs. experiment or sub-experiment) level, with multi e experiments per rack. An ARIS-isolated rack typically employs eight actuators and thirteen umbilicals; the umbilicals provide services such as power, data transmission, and cooling. Hampton, et al., used "Kane's method" to develop an analytical, nonlinear, rigid-body model of ARIS that includes full actuator dynamics (inertias). This model, less the umbilicals, was first implemented for simulation by Beech and Hampton; they developed and tested their model using two commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) software packages. Rupert, et al., added umbilical-transmitted disturbances to this nonlinear model. Because the nonlinear model, even for the untethered system, is both exceedingly complex and "encapsulated" inside these COTS tools, it is largely inaccessible to ARIS controller designers. This paper shows that ISPR rattle-space constraints and small ARIS actuator masses permit considerable model simplification, without significant loss of fidelity. First, for various loading conditions, comparisons are made between the dynamic responses of the nonlinear model (untethered) and a truth model. Then comparisons are made among nonlinear, linearized, and linearized reduced-mass models. It is concluded that these three models all capture the significant system rigid-body dynamics, with the third being preferred due to its relative simplicity.

Beech, Geoffrey S.↗

NASA NTRS2001

A Genuine TEAM Player

Qualtech Systems, Inc. developed a complete software system with capabilities of multisignal modeling, diagnostic analysis, run-time diagnostic operations, and intelligent interactive reasoners. Commercially available as the TEAMS (Testability Engineering and Maintenance System) tool set, the software can be used to reveal unanticipated system failures. The TEAMS software package is broken down into four companion tools: TEAMS-RT, TEAMATE, TEAMS-KB, and TEAMS-RDS. TEAMS-RT identifies good, bad, and suspect components in the system in real-time. It reports system health results from onboard tests, and detects and isolates failures within the system, allowing for rapid fault isolation. TEAMATE takes over from where TEAMS-RT left off by intelligently guiding the maintenance technician through the troubleshooting procedure, repair actions, and operational checkout. TEAMS-KB serves as a model management and collection tool. TEAMS-RDS (TEAMS-Remote Diagnostic Server) has the ability to continuously assess a system and isolate any failure in that system or its components, in real time. RDS incorporates TEAMS-RT, TEAMATE, and TEAMS-KB in a large-scale server architecture capable of providing advanced diagnostic and maintenance functions over a network, such as the Internet, with a web browser user interface.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS2011

Space Telecommunications Radio System (STRS) Compliance Testing

The Space Telecommunications Radio System (STRS) defines an open architecture for software defined radios. This document describes the testing methodology to aid in determining the degree of compliance to the STRS architecture. Non-compliances are reported to the software and hardware developers as well as the NASA project manager so that any non-compliances may be fixed or waivers issued. Since the software developers may be divided into those that provide the operating environment including the operating system and STRS infrastructure (OE) and those that supply the waveform applications, the tests are divided accordingly. The static tests are also divided by the availability of an automated tool that determines whether the source code and configuration files contain the appropriate items. Thus, there are six separate step-by-step test procedures described as well as the corresponding requirements that they test. The six types of STRS compliance tests are: STRS application automated testing, STRS infrastructure automated testing, STRS infrastructure testing by compiling WFCCN with the infrastructure, STRS configuration file testing, STRS application manual code testing, and STRS infrastructure manual code testing. Examples of the input and output of the scripts are shown in the appendices as well as more specific information about what to configure and test in WFCCN for non-compliance. In addition, each STRS requirement is listed and the type of testing briefly described. Attached is also a set of guidelines on what to look for in addition to the requirements to aid in the document review process.

Handler, Louis M.↗