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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 937 records · Page 52
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2016

ODYSSEY: A PUBLIC GPU-BASED CODE FOR GENERAL RELATIVISTIC RADIATIVE TRANSFER IN KERR SPACETIME

General relativistic radiative transfer calculations coupled with the calculation of geodesics in the Kerr spacetime are an essential tool for determining the images, spectra, and light curves from matter in the vicinity of black holes. Such studies are especially important for ongoing and upcoming millimeter/submillimeter very long baseline interferometry observations of the supermassive black holes at the centers of Sgr A* and M87. To this end we introduce Odyssey, a graphics processing unit (GPU) based code for ray tracing and radiative transfer in the Kerr spacetime. On a single GPU, the performance of Odyssey can exceed 1 ns per photon, per Runge–Kutta integration step. Odyssey is publicly available, fast, accurate, and flexible enough to be modified to suit the specific needs of new users. Along with a Graphical User Interface powered by a video-accelerated display architecture, we also present an educational software tool, Odyssey-Edu, for showing in real time how null geodesics around a Kerr black hole vary as a function of black hole spin and angle of incidence onto the black hole.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Mapping Benthic Habitat Conditions and Seafloor Deposits using Sediment Profile Imaging and a Semiautomated Image Processing System

Objectives/Scope: Sediment profile imaging (SPI) technology characterizes in situ physical, geochemical, and biological seafloor features. SPI was required by Mexico’s Agency for Safety, Energy, and Environment in 2017 for environmental baseline surveys (EBS) of oil lease blocks in the southern Gulf of Mexico. Because of its ability to provide information on benthic community health and the distribution of very thin (down to the centimeter scale) layers of deposited materials, SPI technology is highly effective for mapping drill cuttings or drilling muds released around wellheads during exploration or production and documenting their ecological impacts. SPI technology has not been widely used in the oil and gas industry for EBS or other monitoring activities. A primary objective of this work is to improve the transparency and consistency of the SPI data generation and data management process. Methods, Procedures, Process: The SPI camera works like an inverted periscope and obtains an undisturbed 21x15-cm cross-sectional image of the upper sediment column. The camera is internally powered and can be deployed rapidly from a standard winch in depths to 4,000 m. Many stations can be sampled in a single day by “pogo-sticking” across a survey area. Sediment grain size, penetration depth, surface boundary roughness, natural and anthropogenic depositional layers, depth of the oxidized surface sediment layer, maximum biogenic mixing depth, and infaunal successional stage can be directly measured at sea or immediately following the cruise. Final SPI data sets can be provided within a few weeks of the survey. Results, Observations, Conclusions: Details on the features measured in SPI images and the underlying interpretive paradigms are presented. To standardize the SPI data generation process, Integral Consulting Inc. has developed 1) a semiautomated image analysis platform, and 2) a SPI data-specific database architecture that allows both numerical and non-numerical metrics to be incorporated into a standard database structure. An integrated, software-based SPI analysis platform has been developed that imports image files and metadata and provides a graphical user interface. The software automatically stores the data, which can then be reviewed for quality assurance, plotted, statistically analyzed, and mapped or exported to other platforms (e.g., Esri ArcGIS©) for further evaluation. Image processing algorithms have been developed using a combination of open-source and commercially available software packages (e.g., MATLAB® and OpenCV) to automatically quantify key parameters. Novel/Additive Information: SPI technology’s underutilization in the oil and gas industry may be in part due to a lack of standardization in the measurement of basic features in SPI images. A primary objective of this work is to develop a streamlined, standardized, and transparent process for generating and managing SPI data.

02 PETROLEUM↗
DOE OSTI2018

Revision of DASHMM: Dynamic Adaptive System for Hierarchical Multipole Methods

We present version 1.2.0 of DASHMM, a general library implementing hierarchical multipole methods using the asynchronous multi-tasking HPX-5 runtime system. Compared with the previous release [10], this new version: (1) enables execution in both shared and distributed memory architectures; (2) extends DASHMM’s infrastructure to support advanced multipole methods [18]; and (3) provides built-in implementations of both the Yukawa [15] potential and Helmholtz [16] potential in the low frequency regime. These additions have not impacted the user interface, which remains simple and extensible.

DeBuhr, J.↗
DOE OSTI2015

FASTSim: A Model to Estimate Vehicle Efficiency, Cost and Performance

The Future Automotive Systems Technology Simulator (FASTSim) is a high-level advanced vehicle powertrain systems analysis tool supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Vehicle Technologies Office. FASTSim provides a quick and simple approach to compare powertrains and estimate the impact of technology improvements on light- and heavy-duty vehicle efficiency, performance, cost, and battery batches of real-world drive cycles. FASTSim’s calculation framework and balance among detail, accuracy, and speed enable it to simulate thousands of driven miles in minutes. The key components and vehicle outputs have been validated by comparing the model outputs to test data for many different vehicles to provide confidence in the results. A graphical user interface makes FASTSim easy and efficient to use. FASTSim is freely available for download from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s website (see www.nrel.gov/fastsim).

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2015

ADOPT: A Historically Validated Light Duty Vehicle Consumer Choice Model

The Automotive Deployment Option Projection Tool (ADOPT) is a light-duty vehicle consumer choice and stock model supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Vehicle Technologies Office. It estimates technology improvement impacts on U.S. light-duty vehicles sales, petroleum use, and greenhouse gas emissions. ADOPT uses techniques from the multinomial logit method and the mixed logit method estimate sales. Specifically, it estimates sales based on the weighted value of key attributes including vehicle price, fuel cost, acceleration, range and usable volume. The average importance of several attributes changes nonlinearly across its range and changes with income. For several attributes, a distribution of importance around the average value is used to represent consumer heterogeneity. The majority of existing vehicle makes, models, and trims are included to fully represent the market. The Corporate Average Fuel Economy regulations are enforced. The sales feed into the ADOPT stock model. It captures key aspects for summing petroleum use and greenhouse gas emissions This includes capturing the change in vehicle miles traveled by vehicle age, the creation of new model options based on the success of existing vehicles, new vehicle option introduction rate limits, and survival rates by vehicle age. ADOPT has been extensively validated with historical sales data. It matches in key dimensions including sales by fuel economy, acceleration, price, vehicle size class, and powertrain across multiple years. A graphical user interface provides easy and efficient use. It manages the inputs, simulation, and results.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Entanglement swapping systems toward a quantum internet

We demonstrate conditional entanglement swapping, i.e. teleportation of entanglement, between time-bin qubits at the telecommunication wavelength of 1536.4 nm with high fidelity of 87%. Our system is deployable, utilizing modular, off-the-shelf, fiber-coupled, and electrically controlled components such as electro-optic modulators. It leverages the precise timing resolution of superconducting nanowire detectors, which are controlled and read out via a custom developed graphical user interface. The swapping process is described, interpreted, and guided using characteristic function-based analytical modeling that accounts for realistic imperfections. Our system supports quantum networking protocols, including source-independent quantum key distribution, with an estimated secret key rate of approximately 0.5 bits per sifted bit.

Davis, Samantha I. [Caltech] (ORCID:00000001999481↗
DOE OSTI2017

Soda Pop: A Time-Series Clustering, Alarming and Disease Forecasting Application

To introduce Soda Pop, an R/Shiny application designed to be a disease agnostic time-series clustering, alarming, and forecasting tool to assist in disease surveillance “triage, analysis and reporting” workflows within the Biosurveillance Ecosystem (BSVE). In this poster, we highlight the new capabilities that are brought to the BSVE by Soda Pop with an emphasis on the impact of methodological decisions. The Biosurveillance Ecosystem (BSVE) is a biological and chemical threat surveillance system sponsored by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA). BSVE is intended to be user-friendly, multi-agency, cooperative, modular and threat agnostic platform for biosurveillance. In BSVE, a web-based workbench presents the analyst with applications (apps) developed by various DTRA funded researchers, which are deployed on-demand in the cloud(e.g., Amazon Web Services). These apps aim to address emerging needs and refine capabilities to enable early warning of chemical and biological threats for multiple users across local, state, and federal agencies. Soda Pop is an app developed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) to meet the current needs of the BSVE for early warning and detection of disease outbreaks. Aimed for use bya diverse set of analysts, the application is agnostic to data source and spatial scale enabling it to be generalizable across many diseases and locations. To achieve this, we placed a particular emphasis on clustering and alerting of disease signals within Soda Pop without strong prior assumptions on the nature of observed diseased counts. Although designed to be agnostic to the data source, Soda Pop was initially developed and tested on data summarizing Influenza-Like Illness in military hospitals from collaboration with the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Branch. Currently, the data incorporated also includes the CDC’s National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System(NNDSS) tables and the WHO’s Influenza A/B Influenza Data(Flunet). These data sources are now present in BSVE’s Postgres data storage for direct access. Soda Pop is designed to automate time-series tasks of data summarization, exploration, clustering, alarming and forecasting. Built as an R/Shiny application, Soda Pop is founded on the powerful statistical tool R.. Where applicable, Soda Pop facilitates nonparametric seasonal decomposition of time-series; hierarchical agglomerative clustering across reporting areas and between diseases within reporting areas; and a variety of alarming techniques including Exponential Weighted Moving Average alarms and Early Aberration Detection. Soda Pop embeds these techniques within a user-interface designed to enhance an analyst’s understanding of emerging trends in their data and enables the inclusion of its graphical elements into their dossier for further tracking and reporting. The ultimate goal of this software is to facilitate the discovery of unknown disease signals along with increasing the speed of detection of unusual patterns within these signals. Soda Pop organizes common statistical disease surveillance tasks in a manner integrated with BSVE data source inputs and outputs. The app analyzes time-series disease data and supports a robust set of clustering and alarming routines that avoid strong assumptions on the nature of observed disease counts. This attribute allows for flexibility in the data source, spatial scale, and disease types making it useful to a wide range of analysts.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2011

Scale 6.1 Enhancements for Nuclear Criticality Safety

The Scale code system developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory provides a comprehensive, verified and validated, user-friendly tool set for criticality safety, reactor physics, radiation shielding, and sensitivity and uncertainty analysis. For more than 30 years, regulators, licensees, and research institutions around the world have used Scale for safety analysis and design. Scale provides a 'plug-and-play' framework with 89 computational modules, including three deterministic and three Monte Carlo radiation transport solvers that are selected based on the desired solution. Scale's graphical user interfaces assist with accurate system modeling and convenient access to desired results. Scale 6.1 builds on the existing capabilities and ease-of-use of Scale and provides several new features such as improved options and capabilities for sensitivity and uncertainty analysis calculations, improved flexibility in shielding and criticality accident alarm system calculations with automated variance reduction, and new options for the definition of group structures for depletion calculations. The Scale 6.1 development team has focused on improved robustness via substantial additional regression testing and verification for new and existing features, providing improved performance relative to Scale 6.0, especially in reactor physics calculations and in the nuclear data used for source term characterization and shielding calculations.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2012

A Study of the Effects of Different Urban Wind Models on Dispersion Patterns Using Joint Urban 2003 Data

The Quick Urban & Industrial Complex (QUIC) Dispersion Modeling System has been developed to rapidly compute the transport and dispersion of toxic agent releases in the vicinity of buildings. It is composed of a wind solver, an 'urbanized' Lagrangian random-walk model, and a graphical user interface. QUIC has two different wind models: (a) The QUIC-URB wind solver, an empirically-based diagnostic wind model and (b) The QUIC-CFD (RANS) solver, based on the 3D Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations. In this paper, we discuss the effect of different wind models on dispersion patterns in dense built-up areas. The model-computed wind from the two urban wind models- QUIC-URB and QUIC-CFD are used to drive the dispersion model. The concentration fields are then compared to measurements from the Oklahoma City Joint Urban 2003 field experiment. QUIC produces high-resolution 3-D mean wind and concentration fields around buildings, in addition to deposition on the ground and building surfaces. It has options for different release types, including point, moving point, line, area, and volumetric sources, as well as dense gas, explosive buoyant rise, multi-particle size, bioslurry, and two-phase releases. Other features include indoor infiltration, a pressure solver, outer grid simulations, vegetative canopies, and population exposure calculations. It has been used for biological agent sensor siting in cities, vulnerability assessments for heavier-than-air chemical releases at industrial facilities, and clean-up assessments for radiological dispersal device (RDD) releases in cities (e.g., see Linger et al., 2005; Brown, 2006a, b). QUIC has also been used for dust transport studies (Bowker et al., 2007a) and for the impact of highway sound barriers on the transport and dispersion of vehicle emissions (Bowker et al., 2007b).

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2012

Handheld portable real-time tracking and communications device

Portable handheld real-time tracking and communications devices include; a controller module, communications module including global positioning and mesh network radio module, data transfer and storage module, and a user interface module enclosed in a water-resistant enclosure. Real-time tracking and communications devices can be used by protective force, security and first responder personnel to provide situational awareness allowing for enhance coordination and effectiveness in rapid response situations. Such devices communicate to other authorized devices via mobile ad-hoc wireless networks, and do not require fixed infrastructure for their operation.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2012

A QUEST FOR SYSTEM FRIENDLINESS WITH THE SNS ION BEAM BUNCH SHAPE MONITOR

A new system for measuring the SNS ion beam longitudinal profile was recently upgraded to operational status. The hardware for this device was developed and delivered by Institute of Nuclear Research to the SNS as a part of its initial construction. The supplied LabVIEW user interface software was intended for proof-of-operation and initial setup of the instrument. While satisfactory for this, it was tedious to use in a practical context and lacked any form of interface to the SNS EPICS based control system. This paper will describe the software features added to make this instrument both easily tunable to the prevalent beam conditions by system engineers and easily usable by accelerator physicists only interested in its output data.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2012

A common path forward for the immersive visualization community

Immersive visualization makes use of the medium of virtual reality (VR) - it is a subset of virtual reality focused on the application of VR technologies to scientific and information visualization. As the name implies, there is a particular focus on the physically immersive aspect of VR that more fully engages the perceptual and kinesthetic capabilities of the scientist with the goal of producing greater insight. The immersive visualization community is uniquely positioned to address the analysis needs of the wide spectrum of domain scientists who are becoming increasingly overwhelmed by data. The outputs of computational science simulations and high-resolution sensors are creating a data deluge. Data is coming in faster than it can be analyzed, and there are countless opportunities for discovery that are missed as the data speeds by. By more fully utilizing the scientists visual and other sensory systems, and by offering a more natural user interface with which to interact with computer-generated representations, immersive visualization offers great promise in taming this data torrent. However, increasing the adoption of immersive visualization in scientific research communities can only happen by simultaneously lowering the engagement threshold while raising the measurable benefits of adoption. Scientists time spent immersed with their data will thus be rewarded with higher productivity, deeper insight, and improved creativity. Immersive visualization ties together technologies and methodologies from a variety of related but frequently disjoint areas, including hardware, software and human-computer interaction (HCI) disciplines. In many ways, hardware is a solved problem. There are well established technologies including large walk-in systems such as the CAVE{trademark} and head-based systems such as the Wide-5{trademark}. The advent of new consumer-level technologies now enable an entirely new generation of immersive displays, with smaller footprints and costs, widening the potential consumer base. While one would be hard-pressed to call software a solved problem, we now understand considerably more about best practices for designing and developing sustainable, scalable software systems, and we have useful software examples that illuminate the way to even better implementations. As with any research endeavour, HCI will always be exploring new topics in interface design, but we now have a sizable knowledge base of the strengths and weaknesses of the human perceptual systems and we know how to design effective interfaces for immersive systems. So, in a research landscape with a clear need for better visualization and analysis tools, a methodology in immersive visualization that has been shown to effectively address some of those needs, and vastly improved supporting technologies and knowledge of hardware, software, and HCI, why hasn't immersive visualization 'caught on' more with scientists? What can we do as a community of immersive visualization researchers and practitioners to facilitate greater adoption by scientific communities so as to make the transition from 'the promise of virtual reality' to 'the reality of virtual reality'.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2012

Visual Analytics for Roof Savings Calculator Ensembles

The Roof Savings Calculator (RSC) has been deployed for DOE as an industry-consensus, web-based tool for easily running complex building energy simulations. These simulations allow both homeowners and experts to determine building-specific cost and energy savings for modern roof and attic technologies. Using a database of over 3 million RSC simulations for different combinations of parameters, we have built a visual analytics tool to assist in the exploration and identification of features in the data. Since the database contains multiple variables, both categorical and continuous, we employ a coordinated multi-view approach that allows coordinated feature exploration through multiple visualizations at once. The main component of our system, a parallel coordinates view, has been adapted to handle large-scale, mixed data types as are found in RSC simulations. Other visualizations include map coordinated plots, high dynamic range (HDR) line plot rendering, and an intuitive user interface. We demonstrate these techniques with several use cases that have helped identify software and parametric simulation issues.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2013

ADVANCED SIMULATION CAPABILITY FOR ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT- CURRENT STATUS AND PHASE II DEMONSTRATION RESULTS

The U.S. Department of Energy (USDOE) Office of Environmental Management (EM), Office of Soil and Groundwater, is supporting development of the Advanced Simulation Capability for Environmental Management (ASCEM). ASCEM is a state-of-the-art scientific tool and approach for understanding and predicting contaminant fate and transport in natural and engineered systems. The modular and open source high-performance computing tool facilitates integrated approaches to modeling and site characterization that enable robust and standardized assessments of performance and risk for EM cleanup and closure activities. The ASCEM project continues to make significant progress in development of computer software capabilities with an emphasis on integration of capabilities in FY12. Capability development is occurring for both the Platform and Integrated Toolsets and High-Performance Computing (HPC) Multiprocess Simulator. The Platform capabilities provide the user interface and tools for end-to-end model development, starting with definition of the conceptual model, management of data for model input, model calibration and uncertainty analysis, and processing of model output, including visualization. The HPC capabilities target increased functionality of process model representations, toolsets for interaction with Platform, and verification and model confidence testing. The Platform and HPC capabilities are being tested and evaluated for EM applications in a set of demonstrations as part of Site Applications Thrust Area activities. The Phase I demonstration focusing on individual capabilities of the initial toolsets was completed in 2010. The Phase II demonstration completed in 2012 focused on showcasing integrated ASCEM capabilities. For Phase II, the Hanford Site deep vadose zone (BC Cribs) served as an application site for an end-to-end demonstration of capabilities, with emphasis on integration and linkages between the Platform and HPC components. Other demonstrations, addressing attenuation-based remedies at the Savannah River Site F Area and performance assessment for a representative waste tank, illustrate integration of linked ASCEM capabilities and initial integration efforts with tools from the Cementitious Barriers Partnership.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2012

DEVELOPMENT OF A FLEXIBLE, MULTIZONE, MULTIFAMILY BUILDING SIMULATION MODEL

Weatherization of multifamily buildings is gaining increased attention in the U.S. Available energy audit tools for multifamily buildings were found to need desirable improvements. On the wish list of field experts for enhanced features was the basic ability to model multizone buildings (i.e., one thermal zone per dwelling unit) with simplified user inputs, which allows a better analysis of decentralized and centralized HVAC and domestic hot water systems of multifamily buildings without having to create detailed building models. To address the desired capabilities, development of an enhanced energy audit tool was begun in 2011. The tool is a strategically structured, flexible, one-zone-per-unit, DOE-2.1e model coupled with a simplified user interface to model small to large multifamily buildings with decentralized or centralized systems and associated energy measures. This paper describes the modeling concept and its implementation.

Malhotra, Mini↗
DOE OSTI2013

Robots, systems, and methods for hazard evaluation and visualization

A robot includes a hazard sensor, a locomotor, and a system controller. The robot senses a hazard intensity at a location of the robot, moves to a new location in response to the hazard intensity, and autonomously repeats the sensing and moving to determine multiple hazard levels at multiple locations. The robot may also include a communicator to communicate the multiple hazard levels to a remote controller. The remote controller includes a communicator for sending user commands to the robot and receiving the hazard levels from the robot. A graphical user interface displays an environment map of the environment proximate the robot and a scale for indicating a hazard intensity. A hazard indicator corresponds to a robot position in the environment map and graphically indicates the hazard intensity at the robot position relative to the scale.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2013

Medical imaging systems

A medical imaging system provides simultaneous rendering of visible light and diagnostic or functional images. The system may be portable, and may include adapters for connecting various light sources and cameras in open surgical environments or laparascopic or endoscopic environments. A user interface provides control over the functionality of the integrated imaging system. In one embodiment, the system provides a tool for surgical pathology.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2013

Combinational pixel-by-pixel and object-level classifying, segmenting, and agglomerating in performing quantitative image analysis that distinguishes between healthy non-cancerous and cancerous cell nuclei and delineates nuclear, cytoplasm, and stromal material objects from stained biological tissue materials

Quantitative object and spatial arrangement-level analysis of tissue are detailed using expert (pathologist) input to guide the classification process. A two-step method is disclosed for imaging tissue, by classifying one or more biological materials, e.g. nuclei, cytoplasm, and stroma, in the tissue into one or more identified classes on a pixel-by-pixel basis, and segmenting the identified classes to agglomerate one or more sets of identified pixels into segmented regions. Typically, the one or more biological materials comprises nuclear material, cytoplasm material, and stromal material. The method further allows a user to markup the image subsequent to the classification to re-classify said materials. The markup is performed via a graphic user interface to edit designated regions in the image.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗