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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 829 records · Page 46
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2017

Modernization and optimization of a legacy open-source CFD code for high-performance computing architectures

Legacy codes remain a crucial element of today's simulation-based engineering ecosystem due to the extensive validation process and investment in such software. The rapid evolution of high-performance computing architectures necessitates the modernization of these codes. One approach to modernization is a complete overhaul of the code. However, this could require extensive investments, such as rewriting in modern languages, new data constructs, etc., which will necessitate systematic verification and validation to re-establish the credibility of the computational models. The current study advocates using a more incremental approach and is a culmination of several modernization efforts of the legacy code MFIX, which is an open-source computational fluid dynamics code that has evolved over several decades, widely used in multiphase flows and still being developed by the National Energy Technology Laboratory. Two different modernization approaches,‘bottom-up’ and ‘top-down’, are illustrated. Here, preliminary results show up to 8.5x improvement at the selected kernel level with the first approach, and up to 50% improvement in total simulated time with the latter were achieved for the demonstration cases and target HPC systems employed.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2016

Clean Energy in City Codes: A Baseline Analysis of Municipal Codification across the United States

Municipal governments in the United States are well positioned to influence clean energy (energy efficiency and alternative energy) and transportation technology and strategy implementation within their jurisdictions through planning, programs, and codification. Municipal governments are leveraging planning processes and programs to shape their energy futures. There is limited understanding in the literature related to codification, the primary way that municipal governments enact enforceable policies. The authors fill the gap in the literature by documenting the status of municipal codification of clean energy and transportation across the United States. More directly, we leverage online databases of municipal codes to develop national and state-specific representative samples of municipal governments by population size. Our analysis finds that municipal governments with the authority to set residential building energy codes within their jurisdictions frequently do so. In some cases, communities set codes higher than their respective state governments. Examination of codes across the nation indicates that municipal governments are employing their code as a policy mechanism to address clean energy and transportation.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2024

The Continuum from Energy Codes to Advanced Technologies: A New Approach to Training

In July of 2020, the unamended 2018 IECC became the statewide energy code for the state of Nebraska. This represented a significant energy code advancement over the previous code – the 2009 IECC. To support the implementation of the new code, the Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (MEEA), along with in-state partners, including the Nebraska Energy Office and the Nebraska Code Officials Association, applied for and received a FOA award for an integrated and innovative training and education program.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
NASA NTRS1995

Low-Rate Turbo Codes for Deep-Space Communications

It is shown how turbo codes and decoders can be used to improve the coding gain for deep-space communications, while decreasing the decoding complexity with respect to the large constraint length convolutional codes currently in use. Similar code constructions were used to build multiple-encoder turbo codes. This generalizes the turbo decoding concept to a truly distributed decoding system.

turbo codes deep-space communications coding decod↗
DOE OSTI2019

Measuring and Increasing Residential Energy Code Compliance in Texas (Final Techincal Report)

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Building Energy Codes Program launched a series of research studies in 2014 across several U.S. states to investigate typical energy efficiency practices in residential buildings and identify opportunities to reduce household utility bills. A primary goal of the study was to help document baseline practices in new single-family construction, target areas for improvement relative to the state energy code, and quantify related savings potential. This information was intended to assist states in measuring energy compliance with their codes and to identify areas of focus for future education and training initiatives. Following the original baseline studies, project teams in each state conducted a series of education, training and outreach activities aimed at improving compliance with the state residential energy code. A second baseline study was then implemented in each state with the objective of determining whether the investment in education, training and outreach programs had produced a significant and measurable change in statewide residential energy use. Through the program, DOE planned to establish a sufficient data set to represent baseline construction trends across states and detect significant changes in energy use resulting from education and training activities.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2024

The role of above-code labeling programs in reducing CO 2 e emissions in residential buildings

Residential buildings account for 15 % of total U.S. carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions. Voluntary, above-code labeling programs, such as the ENERGY STAR and Zero Energy Ready Home programs, can play a crucial role in reducing the carbon footprint of the new construction residential building sector by encouraging adoption of more energy-efficient and lower emissions building practices and technologies. It's important for the industry to understand the carbon dioxide equivalent (CO 2 e) and energy cost savings potential of these programs. Here, to estimate the potential CO 2 e emissions savings for homes built to above-code labeling program levels, it is imperative to have reliable and accurate tools for estimating emissions from buildings. The open-source OpenStudio-ERI workflow employs detailed physics-based building energy modeling (BEM) to estimate energy usage and operational CO 2 e emissions. In this study we use the OpenStudio-ERI workflow and regional, time-varying emissions factors from the Cambium database to compare the CO 2 e emissions and energy costs of homes built to performance levels required by these above-code labeling programs relative to homes built to model energy codes. We present the results of our analysis and provide a range of emissions and annual energy cost savings for the above-code labeling programs.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2025

Implementation of a Mesh refinement algorithm into the quasi-static PIC code QuickPIC

Plasma-based acceleration (PBA) has emerged as a promising candidate for the accelerator technology used to build a future linear collider and/or an advanced light source. In PBA, a trailing or witness particle beam is accelerated in the plasma wave wakefield (WF) created by a laser or particle beam driver. The WF is often nonlinear and involves the crossing of plasma particle trajectories in real space and thus particle-in-cell methods are used. The distance over which the drive beam evolves is several orders of magnitude larger than the wake wavelength. This large disparity in length scales is amenable to the quasi-static approach. Three-dimensional (3D), quasi-static (QS), particle-in-cell (PIC) codes, e.g., QuickPIC, have been shown to provide high fidelity simulation capability with 2-4 orders of magnitude speedup over 3D fully explicit PIC codes. In PBA, the witness beam needs to be matched to the focusing forces of the WF to reduce the emittance growth. In some linear collider designs, the matched spot size of the witness beam can be 2 to 3 orders of magnitude smaller than the spot size (and wavelength) of the wakefield. Such an additional disparity in length scales is ideal for mesh refinement where the WF within the witness beam is described on a finer mesh than the rest of the WF. A mesh refinement scheme is described that has been implemented into the 3D QS PIC code, QuickPIC. Very fine (high) resolution is used in a small spatial region that includes the witness beam and progressively coarser resolutions in the rest of the simulation domain. A fast multigrid Poisson solver has been implemented for the field solve on the refined meshes and a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) based Poisson solver is used for the coarse mesh. The code has been parallelized with both MPI and OpenMP, and the parallel scalability has also been improved by using pipelining. A preliminary adaptive mesh refinement technique is described to optimize the computational time for simulations with an evolving witness beam size. Several test problems are used to verify that the mesh refinement algorithm provides accurate results. Additionally, the results are benchmarked against highly resolved simulations exhibiting near-azimuthal symmetry, performed using QPAD—a novel hybrid QS PIC code that uses a PIC description in the coordinates (r, ct – z) and a gridless description in the azimuthal angle, Φ.

Linear collider↗
DOE OSTI2020

Development and Implementation of a CTF Code Verification Suite.

CTF is a thermal hydraulic subchannel code developed to predict light water reactor (LWR) core behavior. It is a version of Coolant Boiling in Rod Arrays (COBRA) developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and North Carolina State University (NCSU) and used in the Consortium for the Advanced Simulation of LWRs (CASL). Here, the existing CTF code verification matrix is expanded, which ensures that the code is a faithful representation of the underlying mathematical model. The suite of code verification tests are mapped to the underlying conservation equations of CTF and significant gaps are addressed. As such, five new problems are incorporated: isokinetic advection, conduction, pressure drop, convection, and pipe boiling. Convergence behavior and numerical errors are quantified for each of the tests and all tests converge at the correct rate to their corresponding analytic solution. A new verification utility that generalizes the code verification process is used to incorporate these problems into the CTF automated test suite.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Thresholds of surface codes on the general lattice structures suffering biased error and loss

A family of surface codes with general lattice structures is proposed. We can control the error tolerances against bit and phase errors asymmetrically by changing the underlying lattice geometries. The surface codes on various lattices are found to be efficient in the sense that their threshold values universally approach the quantum Gilbert-Varshamov bound. We find that the error tolerance of the surface codes depends on the connectivity of the underlying lattices; the error chains on a lattice of lower connectivity are easier to correct. On the other hand, the loss tolerance of the surface codes exhibits an opposite behavior; the logical information on a lattice of higher connectivity has more robustness against qubit loss. As a result, we come upon a fundamental trade-off between error and loss tolerances in the family of surface codes with different lattice geometries.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Tokamak plasma high field side response to an n = 3 magnetic perturbation: a comparison of 3D equilibrium solutions from seven different codes

In comparing equilibrium solutions for a DIII-D shot that is amenable to analysis by both stellarator and tokamak three-dimensional (3D) equilibrium codes, a significant disagreement has been seen between solutions of the VMEC stellarator equilibrium code and solutions of tokamak perturbative 3D equilibrium codes. In this research, the source of that disagreement has been investigated, and that investigation has led to new insights into the domain of validity of the different equilibrium calculations, and to a finding that the manner in which localized screening currents at low order rational surfaces are handled can affect global properties of the equilibrium solution. The perturbative treatment has been found to break down at surprisingly small perturbation amplitudes due to overlap of the calculated perturbed flux surfaces, and that treatment is not valid in the pedestal region of the DIII-D shot studied. The perturbative treatment is valid, however, further into the interior of the plasma, and flux surface overlap does not account for the disagreement investigated here. Calculated equilibrium solutions for simple model cases and comparison of the 3D equilibrium solutions with those of other codes indicate that the disagreement arises from a difference in handling of localized currents at low order rational surfaces, with such currents being absent in VMEC and present in the perturbative codes. The significant differences in the global equilibrium solutions associated with the presence or absence of very localized screening currents at rational surfaces suggests that it may be possible to extract information about localized currents from appropriate measurements of global equilibrium plasma properties. Therefore, that would require improved diagnostic capability on the high field side of the tokamak plasma, a region difficult to access with diagnostics.

3-DIMENSIONAL MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMIC EQUILIBRIA↗
DOE OSTI2016

RAY-RAMSES: a code for ray tracing on the fly in N-body simulations

We present a ray tracing code to compute integrated cosmological observables on the fly in AMR N-body simulations. Unlike conventional ray tracing techniques, our code takes full advantage of the time and spatial resolution attained by the N-body simulation by computing the integrals along the line of sight on a cell-by-cell basis through the AMR simulation grid. Moroever, since it runs on the fly in the N-body run, our code can produce maps of the desired observables without storing large (or any) amounts of data for post-processing. We implemented our routines in the RAMSES N-body code and tested the implementation using an example of weak lensing simulation. We analyse basic statistics of lensing convergence maps and find good agreement with semi-analytical methods. The ray tracing methodology presented here can be used in several cosmological analysis such as Sunyaev-Zel'dovich and integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect studies as well as modified gravity. Our code can also be used in cross-checks of the more conventional methods, which can be important in tests of theory systematics in preparation for upcoming large scale structure surveys.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Logical error rates for the surface code under a mixed coherent and stochastic circuit-level noise model inspired by trapped ions

With fault-tolerant quantum computing (FTQC) on the horizon, it is critical to understand sources of logical errors in plausible hardware implementations of quantum error-correcting codes. Detailed error modeling of computational instructions on particular FTQC architectures will enable the better prediction of error propagation in FT-encoded quantum circuits while revealing where greater attention is needed in hardware design. In this work, we consider logical error rates for the surface code implemented on a hypothetical grid-based trapped-ion quantum charge-coupled device architecture. Specifically, we construct logical channels for the idling surface code and examine its diamond error under a mixed coherent and stochastic circuit-level noise model inspired by trapped ions. We include the coherent dephasing noise that is known to accumulate during physical qubit idling and transport in these systems, determining idling and transport durations using the time-resolved output of an open-source trapped-ion surface code compiler. To estimate expectation values of logical Pauli observables following hardware circuits containing non-Clifford sources of noise, we utilize a Monte Carlo technique to sample from an underlying quasiprobability distribution of Clifford circuits that we independently simulate in a phase-sensitive fashion. We verify error suppression up to code distance 𝑑 = 11 at coherent dephasing rates near and below those of current-generation trapped-ion quantum computers and find that logical error rates align with those of analogous fully stochastic simulations in this regime. Exploring higher dephasing rates at 𝑑 = 3−5, we find evidence for growing coherent rotations about all three logical Pauli axes, increased diagonal logical error process matrix elements relative to those of stochastic simulations, and a reduced dephasing rate threshold. Overall, our work paves a way toward realistic hardware emulation of small fault-tolerant quantum processes, e.g., members of an FTQC instruction set.

Quantum benchmarking↗
DOE OSTI2016

Towards performance-portability of the Albany Finite Element analysis code using the Kokkos library of Trilinos

Performance portability on heterogeneous high-performance computing (HPC) systems is a major challenge faced today by code developers: parallel code needs to execute correctly as well as with high performance on machines with different architectures, operating systems, and software libraries. The Finite Element Method (FEM) is a popular and flexible method for discretizing partial differential equations arising in a wide variety of scientific, engineering, and industry applications that require HPC. This paper presents some preliminary results pertaining to our development of a performance portable implementation of the FEM-based Albany code. Performance portability is achieved using the Kokkos library of Trilinos. We present performance results for two different physics simulations modules in Albany: the Aeras global atmosphere dynamical code and the FELIX land-ice solver. As a result, numerical experiments show that our single code implementation gives reasonable performance across two multi-core/many-core architectures: NVIDIA GPUs and multi-core CPUs.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2015

Reactor Fuel Isotopics and Code Validation for Nuclear Applications

Experimentally measured isotopic concentrations of well characterized spent nuclear fuel (SNF) samples have been collected and analyzed by previous researchers. These sets of experimental data have been used extensively to validate the accuracy of depletion code predictions for given sets of burnups, initial enrichments, and varying power histories for different reactor types. The purpose of this report is to present the diversity of data in a concise manner and summarize the current accuracy of depletion modeling. All calculations performed for this report were done using the Oak Ridge Isotope GENeration (ORIGEN) code, an internationally used irradiation and decay code solver within the SCALE comprehensive modeling and simulation code. The diversity of data given in this report includes key actinides, stable fission products, and radioactive fission products. In general, when using the current ENDF/B-VII.0 nuclear data libraries in SCALE, the major actinides are predicted to within 5% of the measured values. Large improvements were seen for several of the curium isotopes when using improved cross section data found in evaluated nuclear data file ENDF/B-VII.0 as compared to ENDF/B-V-based results. The impact of the flux spectrum on the plutonium isotope concentrations as a function of burnup was also shown. The general accuracy noted for the actinide samples for reactor types with burnups greater than 5,000 MWd/MTU was not observed for the low-burnup Hanford B samples. More work is needed in understanding these large discrepancies. The stable neodymium and samarium isotopes were predicted to within a few percent of the measured values. Large improvements were seen in prediction for a few of the samarium isotopes when using the ENDF/B-VII.0 libraries compared to results obtained with ENDF/B-V libraries. Very accurate predictions were obtained for 133 Cs and 153 Eu. However, the predicted values for the stable ruthenium and rhodium isotopes varied as much as 10% of the measured values, and 109 Ag was consistently over-predicted by as much as 170%. In general, there is a larger uncertainty for modeling radioactive fission products when compared to either the actinides or the stable fission products in SNF. The relative C/E ratios ranged from a few percent for 137 Cs up to 60% and 100% for 106 Ru and 125 Sb, respectively. Limited or no radioactive fission products data exist in the current data sets for reactor types other than PWRs and BWRs. More work is needed in obtaining a greater diversity of radioactive fission product data. While performing this survey, issues leading to inconsistencies in nuclear fission yield data were discovered that specifically impacted the fission product noble gases. Emphasis was given to this legacy data, and corrective actions were taken as described in this report. After the fission yield data were corrected, the stable xenon and krypton fission products were predicted to within 5% of their measurements. However, preliminary results not explicitly given in this report indicate that the relative C/E ratio for the radioactive isotope 85 Kr varied as much as 10%. Due to the complex migration and the difficulty in measuring noble gases in the fuel, a more thorough investigation is needed to understand how accurately depletion codes can calculate these gas concentrations.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Verification and Validation of the PLTEMP/ANL Code for Thermal-Hydraulic Analysis of Experimental and Test Reactors

The document compiles in a single volume several verification and validation works done for the PLTEMP/ANL code during the years of its development and improvement. Some works that are available in the open literature are simply referenced at the outset, and are not included in the document. PLTEMP has been used in conversion safety analysis reports of several US and foreign research reactors that have been licensed and converted. A list of such reactors is given. Each chapter of the document deals with the verification or validation of a specific model. The model verification is usually done by comparing the code with hand calculation, Microsoft spreadsheet calculation, or Mathematica calculation. The model validation is done by comparing the code with experimental data or a more validated code like the RELAP5 code.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2016

High-fidelity plasma codes for burn physics

Accurate predictions of equation of state (EOS), ionic and electronic transport properties are of critical importance for high-energy-density plasma science. Transport coefficients inform radiation-hydrodynamic codes and impact diagnostic interpretation, which in turn impacts our understanding of the development of instabilities, the overall energy balance of burning plasmas, and the efficacy of self-heating from charged-particle stopping. Important processes include thermal and electrical conduction, electron-ion coupling, inter-diffusion, ion viscosity, and charged particle stopping. However, uncertainties in these coefficients are not well established. Fundamental plasma science codes, also called high-fidelity plasma codes, are a relatively recent computational tool that augments both experimental data and theoretical foundations of transport coefficients. This paper addresses the current status of HFPC codes and their future development, and the potential impact they play in improving the predictive capability of the multi-physics hydrodynamic codes used in HED design.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2017

Code Verification Capabilities and Assessments in Support of ASC V&V Level 2 Milestone #6035

This document provides a summary of the code verification activities supporting the FY17 Level 2 V&V milestone entitled “Deliver a Capability for V&V Assessments of Code Implementations of Physics Models and Numerical Algorithms in Support of Future Predictive Capability Framework Pegposts.” The physics validation activities supporting this milestone are documented separately. The objectives of this portion of the milestone are: 1) Develop software tools to support code verification analysis; 2) Document standard definitions of code verification test problems; and 3) Perform code verification assessments (focusing on error behavior of algorithms). This report and a set of additional standalone documents serve as the compilation of results demonstrating accomplishment of these objectives.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2018

The Alabama Energy Code Compliance Project

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Building Energy Codes Program launched a series of research studies in 2014 across eight U.S. states (shown in Figure 1) to investigate typical energy efficiency practices in residential buildings and identify opportunities to reduce household utility bills. A primary goal of the study was to help document baseline practices for new single-family construction, target areas for improvement relative to the state energy code, and quantify the related savings potential. This information is intended to assist states in measuring compliance with their energy codes and to identify areas of focus for future education and training initiatives. Following the original baseline studies, project teams in each state conducted a series of education, training, and outreach activities aimed at improving compliance with the state residential energy code. A second baseline study was then implemented in each state with the objective of determining whether the investment in education, training, and outreach programs had produced a significant and measurable change in statewide residential energy use. Through the program, DOE planned to establish a sufficient data set to represent baseline construction trends across states and detect significant changes in energy use resulting from education and training activities. This report outlines the application of the study in the state of Alabama, which was led by the Institute for Market Transformation (IMT). Data gathered have been submitted to Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) for analysis. Findings available to date are published as PNNL technical reports on the DOE Building Energy Codes Program website.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗