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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 955 records · Page 53

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NASA NTRS2005

Quadratic Programming for Allocating Control Effort

A computer program calculates an optimal allocation of control effort in a system that includes redundant control actuators. The program implements an iterative (but otherwise single-stage) algorithm of the quadratic-programming type. In general, in the quadratic-programming problem, one seeks the values of a set of variables that minimize a quadratic cost function, subject to a set of linear equality and inequality constraints. In this program, the cost function combines control effort (typically quantified in terms of energy or fuel consumed) and control residuals (differences between commanded and sensed values of variables to be controlled). In comparison with prior control-allocation software, this program offers approximately equal accuracy but much greater computational efficiency. In addition, this program offers flexibility, robustness to actuation failures, and a capability for selective enforcement of control requirements. The computational efficiency of this program makes it suitable for such complex, real-time applications as controlling redundant aircraft actuators or redundant spacecraft thrusters. The program is written in the C language for execution in a UNIX operating system.

Singh, Gurkirpal↗

NASA NTRS1971

Computational techniques for design optimization of thermal protection systems for the space shuttle vehicle. Volume 1: Final report

Computational techniques were developed and assimilated for the design optimization. The resulting computer program was then used to perform initial optimization and sensitivity studies on a typical thermal protection system (TPS) to demonstrate its application to the space shuttle TPS design. The program was developed in Fortran IV for the CDC 6400 but was subsequently converted to the Fortran V language to be used on the Univac 1108. The program allows for improvement and update of the performance prediction techniques. The program logic involves subroutines which handle the following basic functions: (1) a driver which calls for input, output, and communication between program and user and between the subroutines themselves; (2) thermodynamic analysis; (3) thermal stress analysis; (4) acoustic fatigue analysis; and (5) weights/cost analysis. In addition, a system total cost is predicted based on system weight and historical cost data of similar systems. Two basic types of input are provided, both of which are based on trajectory data. These are vehicle attitude (altitude, velocity, and angles of attack and sideslip), for external heat and pressure loads calculation, and heating rates and pressure loads as a function of time.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS1977

Power converter design optimization

Utilizing the demonstrated capability of nonlinear programming algorithms, a practical design optimization approach for power converters is established to conceive a design to meet all power-circuit performance requirements and concurrently optimize a defined quantity such as weight or losses. In addition, to facilitate a cost-effective design, the computer-aided approach provides a means to readily assess (1) the weight-efficiency tradeoff, (2) impacts of converter requirements and component characteristics on a given design, and (3) optimum power system configurations.

Yu, Y.↗

NASA NTRS1985

An optimal spacecraft scheduling model for the NASA deep space network

A computer model is described which uses mixed-integer linear programming to provide optimal DSN spacecraft schedules given a mission set and specified scheduling requirements. A solution technique is proposed which uses Bender's method and a heuristic starting algorithm.

Webb, W. A.↗

DOE OSTI2017

TASK ALLOCATION IN GEO-DISTRIBUTED CYBER-PHYSICAL SYSTEMS

This paper studies the task allocation algorithm for a distributed test facility (DTF), which aims to assemble geo-distributed cyber (software) and physical (hardware in the loop components into a prototype cyber-physical system (CPS). This allows low cost testing on an early conceptual prototype (ECP) of the ultimate CPS (UCPS) to be developed. The DTF provides an instrumentation interface for carrying out reliability experiments remotely such as fault propagation analysis and in-situ testing of hardware and software components in a simulated environment. Unfortunately, the geo-distribution introduces an overhead that is not inherent to the UCPS, i.e. a significant time delay in communication that threatens the stability of the ECP and is not an appropriate representation of the behavior of the UCPS. This can be mitigated by implementing a task allocation algorithm to find a suitable configuration and assign the software components to appropriate computational locations, dynamically. This would allow the ECP to operate more efficiently with less probability of being unstable due to the delays introduced by geo-distribution. The task allocation algorithm proposed in this work uses a Monte Carlo approach along with Dynamic Programming to identify the optimal network configuration to keep the time delays to a minimum.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

DOE OSTI2011

IPIP: A new approach to inverse planning for HDR brachytherapy by directly optimizing dosimetric indices

Purpose: Many planning methods for high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy require an iterative approach. A set of computational parameters are hypothesized that will give a dose plan that meets dosimetric criteria. A dose plan is computed using these parameters, and if any dosimetric criteria are not met, the process is iterated until a suitable dose plan is found. In this way, the dose distribution is controlled by abstract parameters. The purpose of this study is to develop a new approach for HDR brachytherapy by directly optimizing the dose distribution based on dosimetric criteria. Methods: The authors developed inverse planning by integer program (IPIP), an optimization model for computing HDR brachytherapy dose plans and a fast heuristic for it. They used their heuristic to compute dose plans for 20 anonymized prostate cancer image data sets from patients previously treated at their clinic database. Dosimetry was evaluated and compared to dosimetric criteria. Results: Dose plans computed from IPIP satisfied all given dosimetric criteria for the target and healthy tissue after a single iteration. The average target coverage was 95%. The average computation time for IPIP was 30.1 s on an Intel(R) Core{sup TM}2 Duo CPU 1.67 GHz processor with 3 Gib RAM. Conclusions: IPIP is an HDR brachytherapy planning system that directly incorporates dosimetric criteria. The authors have demonstrated that IPIP has clinically acceptable performance for the prostate cases and dosimetric criteria used in this study, in both dosimetry and runtime. Further study is required to determine if IPIP performs well for a more general group of patients and dosimetric criteria, including other cancer sites such as GYN.

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE↗

NASA NTRS2006

Multijunction Solar Cell Technology for Mars Surface Applications

Solar cells used for Mars surface applications have been commercial space qualified AM0 optimized devices. Due to the Martian atmosphere, these cells are not optimized for the Mars surface and as a result operate at a reduced efficiency. A multi-year program, MOST (Mars Optimized Solar Cell Technology), managed by JPL and funded by NASA Code S, was initiated in 2004, to develop tools to modify commercial AM0 cells for the Mars surface solar spectrum and to fabricate Mars optimized devices for verification. This effort required defining the surface incident spectrum, developing an appropriate laboratory solar simulator measurement capability, and to develop and test commercial cells modified for the Mars surface spectrum. This paper discusses the program, including results for the initial modified cells. Simulated Mars surface measurements of MER cells and Phoenix Lander cells (2007 launch) are provided to characterize the performance loss for those missions. In addition, the performance of the MER rover solar arrays is updated to reflect their more than two (2) year operation.

Mars solar cell↗

NASA NTRS1988

Spur gears: Optimal geometry, methods for generation and Tooth Contact Analysis (TCA) program

The contents of this report include the following: (1) development of optimal geometry for crowned spur gears; (2) methods for their generation; and (3) tooth contact analysis (TCA) computer programs for the analysis of meshing and bearing contact on the crowned spur gears. The method developed for synthesis is used for the determination of the optimal geometry for crowned pinion surface and is directed to reduce the sensitivity of the gears to misalignment, localize the bearing contact, and guarantee the favorable shape and low level of the transmission errors. A new method for the generation of the crowned pinion surface has been proposed. This method is based on application of the tool with a surface of revolution that slightly deviates from a regular cone surface. The tool can be used as a grinding wheel or as a shaver. The crowned pinion surface can also be generated by a generating plane whose motion is provided by an automatic grinding machine controlled by a computer. The TCA program simulates the meshing and bearing contact of the misaligned gears. The transmission errors are also determined.

Litvin, Faydor L.↗

DOE OSTI2013

Optimal guidance law in quantum mechanics

Following de Broglie’s idea of a pilot wave, this paper treats quantum mechanics as a problem of stochastic optimal guidance law design. The guidance scenario considered in the quantum world is that an electron is the flight vehicle to be guided and its accompanying pilot wave is the guidance law to be designed so as to guide the electron to a random target driven by the Wiener process, while minimizing a cost-to-go function. After solving the stochastic optimal guidance problem by differential dynamic programming, we point out that the optimal pilot wave guiding the particle’s motion is just the wavefunction Ψ(t,x), a solution to the Schrödinger equation; meanwhile, the closed-loop guidance system forms a complex state–space dynamics for Ψ(t,x), from which quantum operators emerge naturally. Quantum trajectories under the action of the optimal guidance law are solved and their statistical distribution is shown to coincide with the prediction of the probability density function Ψ{sup ∗}Ψ. -- Highlights: •Treating quantum mechanics as a pursuit-evasion game. •Reveal an interesting analogy between guided flight motion and guided quantum motion. •Solve optimal quantum guidance problem by dynamic programming. •Gives a formal proof of de Broglie–Bohm’s idea of a pilot wave. •The optimal pilot wave is shown to be a wavefunction solved from Schrödinger equation.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

DOE OSTI2010

Optimization of Mechanical Systems Parameters

We present a specific mathematical programming problem that allows us to obtain the optimal parameters for mechanical systems' stabilizers. The general approach is described, and the method is applied to optimization of two mechanical systems, namely, a harmonic oscillator and a satellite with gravitational stabilizer.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

NASA NTRS2018

Methodology and Application of HPC I/O Characterization with MPIProf and IOT

Combining the strengths of MPIProf and IOT, an efficient and systematic method is devised for I/O characterization at the per-job, per-rank, per-file and per-call levels of HPC programs running on the NASA Advanced Supercomputing Center. This method is applied to answer four I/O questions in this paper. A total of 13 MPI programs and 15 cases, ranging from 24 to 5968 ranks, are analyzed to establish the I/O landscape from answers to the four questions. Four of the 13 programs use MPI I/O and the behavior of their collective writes depends on the specific implementation of the MPI library used. The SGI MPT library, the prevailing MPI library for our systems, was found to gather small writes from a large number of ranks to perform larger writes by a small subset of collective buffering ranks. The number of collective buffering ranks invoked by MPT depends on the Lustre stripe count and the number of nodes used for the run. A demonstration of varying the stripe count to achieve double-digit speedup of one program's I/O was presented. Another program, which concurrently opens private files by all ranks and could potentially create a heavy load on the Lustre servers, was identified. The ability to systematically characterize I/O for a large number of programs running on a supercomputer, seek I/O optimization opportunity and identify programs that could cause a high load and instability on the filesystems is important for pursuing exascale in a real production environment.

Characterization↗

NASA NTRS1981

Optimum structural design with plate bending elements - A survey

A survey is presented of recently published papers in the field of optimum structural design of plates, largely with respect to the minimum-weight design of plates subject to such constraints as fundamental frequency maximization. It is shown that, due to the availability of powerful computers, the trend in optimum plate design is away from methods tailored to specific geometry and loads and toward methods that can be easily programmed for any kind of plate, such as finite element methods. A corresponding shift is seen in optimization from variational techniques to numerical optimization algorithms. Among the topics covered are fully stressed design and optimality criteria, mathematical programming, smooth and ribbed designs, design against plastic collapse, buckling constraints, and vibration constraints.

Haftka, R. T.↗

DOE OSTI2015

Evaluating Performance Portability of OpenACC

Accelerator-based heterogeneous computing is gaining momentum in High Performance Computing arena. However, the increased complexity of the accelerator architectures demands more generic, high-level programming models. OpenACC is one such attempt to tackle the problem. While the abstraction endowed by OpenACC offers productivity, it raises questions on its portability. This paper evaluates the performance portability obtained by OpenACC on twelve OpenACC programs on NVIDIA CUDA, AMD GCN, and Intel MIC architectures. We study the effects of various compiler optimizations and OpenACC program settings on these architectures to provide insights into the achieved performance portability.

Sabne, Amit J↗

NASA NTRS1986

The expanded LaGrangian system for constrained optimization problems

Smooth penalty functions can be combined with numerical continuation/bifurcation techniques to produce a class of robust and fast algorithms for constrainted optimization problems. The key to the development of these algorithms is the Expanded Lagrangian System which is derived and analyzed in this work. This parameterized system of nonlinear equations contains the penalty path as a solution, provides a smooth homotopy into the first-order necessary conditions, and yields a global optimization technique. Furthermore, the inevitable ill-conditioning present in a sequential optimization algorithm is removed for three penalty methods: the quadratic penalty function for equality constraints, and the logarithmic barrier function (an interior method) and the quadratic loss function (an interior method) for inequality constraints. Although these techniques apply to optimization in general and to linear and nonlinear programming, calculus of variations, optimal control and parameter identification in particular, the development is primarily within the context of nonlinear programming.

Poore, A. B.↗

NASA NTRS1988

The expanded Lagrangian system for constrained optimization problems

Smooth penalty functions can be combined with numerical continuation/bifurcation techniques to produce a class of robust and fast algorithms for constrained optimization problems. The key to the development of these algorithms is the Expanded Lagrangian System which is derived and analyzed in this work. This parameterized system of nonlinear equations contains the penalty path as a solution, provides a smooth homotopy into the first-order necessary conditions, and yields a global optimization technique. Furthermore, the inevitable ill-conditioning present in a sequential optimization algorithm is removed for three penalty methods: the quadratic penalty function for equality constraints, and the logarithmic barrier function (an interior method) and the quadratic loss function (an interior method) for inequality constraints. Although these techniques apply to optimization in general and to linear and nonlinear programming, calculus of variations, optimal control and parameter identification in particular, the development is primarily within the context of nonlinear programming.

Poore, A. B.↗

DOE OSTI2024

Flexible dynamic boundary microgrid operation considering network and load unbalances

Flexible microgrids with dynamic boundaries have recently been introduced in the literature. With the ability to reconfigure the topology of the microgrids dynamically through remotely controlled switches, flexible microgrids with dynamic boundaries can further improve the resiliency and energy efficiency of microgrids with distributed energy resources (DERs). This paper focuses on the optimal operation considering one of the predominant characteristics of microgrids and distribution systems – unbalanced networks and loads. In existing literature, balanced modeling of microgrids is more common due to its attractive simplicity. The three-phase power unbalance has not been considered as a constraint on the generation units in a microgrid. Further, negative sequence constraints have also been neglected. In this article, we propose a set of constraints that is specifically related to the capabilities of inverter interfaced resources to supply unbalanced current/power when the microgrid is islanded from the main distribution grid. We incorporate the new set of constraints into two optimization formulations leveraging two convex relaxations of the three-phase power flow equations: mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) and mixed-integer semidefinite programming (MISDP) that optimize the dispatch of controllable switches and DERs in the microgrid. The algorithms are then extended to networked microgrids with grid-forming sources. We test the algorithms on a realistic community microgrid model in Puerto Rico as well as standardized IEEE distribution test feeders. The testing results demonstrate the performance of the proposed algorithms. The MILP is fast and scalable, and the MISDP enforces the negative sequence voltage constraints.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

DOE OSTI2020

1st Computational Physics School for Fusion Research (2019 CPS-FR)

The rising number of applications of machine learning and computational statistics in fusion energy research requires flexibility in adopting a growing variety of tools. The Computational Physics School for Fusion Research (CPS-FR) aims at providing young researchers with critical skill sets to deal with modern fusion energy research challenges. The School aims at covering essentials of: Computational Statistics, Machine Learning, Deep Learning and optimization methods, Parallel Programming and HPC. As the first edition of the CPS-FR just concluded, this report highlights its main results and summarizes its contents.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2015

Understanding Portability of a High-Level Programming Model on Contemporary Heterogeneous Architectures

Accelerator-based heterogeneous computing is gaining momentum in the high-performance computing arena. However, the increased complexity of heterogeneous architectures demands more generic, high-level programming models. OpenACC is one such attempt to tackle this problem. Although the abstraction provided by OpenACC offers productivity, it raises questions concerning both functional and performance portability. In this article, the authors propose HeteroIR, a high-level, architecture-independent intermediate representation, to map high-level programming models, such as OpenACC, to heterogeneous architectures. They present a compiler approach that translates OpenACC programs into HeteroIR and accelerator kernels to obtain OpenACC functional portability. They then evaluate the performance portability obtained by OpenACC with their approach on 12 OpenACC programs on Nvidia CUDA, AMD GCN, and Intel Xeon Phi architectures. They study the effects of various compiler optimizations and OpenACC program settings on these architectures to provide insights into the achieved performance portability.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗