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At least 1,099 records · Page 61

mesoflow [SWR-22-56]

Mesoflow is a continuum scale simulation tool developed specifically for modeling transport and chemistry at the mesoscale. Our solver utilizes Cartesian block-structured adaptive mesh refinement to resolve complex surface morphologies (of catalysts/biomass particles among others) directly obtained from X-ray tomography data. An immersed boundary based formulation enables rapid representation of complex geometries prevalent in most mesoporous interfaces. The solver is developed on top of open-source performance portable library, AMReX, providing parallel execution capabilities on current and upcoming high-performance-computing (HPC) architectures. Our flexible software framework enables integration of complex chemical mechanisms at heterogenous interfaces and time-split algorithms for circumventing highly disparate reaction and flow time-scales. Our current studies indicate a ten-fold performance gain by using graphics-processing-units (GPU) compared to a single processor for representative problem sizes (2 million cell mesh).

Sitaraman, Hariswaran↗

Adorym: a multi-platform generic X-ray image reconstruction framework based on automatic differentiation

We describe and demonstrate an optimization-based X-ray image reconstruction framework called Adorym. Our framework provides a generic forward model, allowing one code framework to be used for a wide range of imaging methods ranging from near-field holography to fly-scan ptychographic tomography. By using automatic differentiation for optimization, Adorym has the flexibility to refine experimental parameters including probe positions, multiple hologram alignment, and object tilts. It is written with strong support for parallel processing, allowing large datasets to be processed on high-performance computing systems. We demonstrate its use on several experimental datasets to show improved image quality through parameter refinement.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Benchmarking characterization methods for noisy quantum circuits

Effective methods for characterizing the noise in quantum computing devices are essential for programming and debugging circuit performance. Existing approaches vary in the information obtained as well as the amount of quantum and classical resources required, with more information generally requiring more resources. Here we benchmark the characterization methods of gate set tomography, Pauli channel noise reconstruction, and empirical direct characterization for developing models that describe noisy quantum circuit performance on a 27-qubit superconducting transmon device. We evaluate these models by comparing the accuracy of noisy circuit simulations with the corresponding experimental observations. Here, we find that the agreement of noise model to experiment does not correlate with the information gained by characterization and that the underlying circuit strongly influences the best choice of characterization approach. Empirical direct characterization scales best of the methods we tested and produced the most accurate characterizations across our benchmarks.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Modeling Buried Object Brightness and Visibility for Ground Penetrating Radar

Comparing the observed brightness of various buried objects is a straightforward way to characterize the performance of a ground penetrating radar (GPR) system. However, a limitation arises. A simple comparison of buried object brightness values does not disentangle the effects of the GPR system itself from the system's operating environment and the objects being observed. Therefore, with brightness values exhibiting an unknown synthesis of systemic, environmental, and object factors, GPR system analysis becomes a convoluted affair. In this work, we use an experimentally collected dataset of over 25,000 object observations from five different multistatic radar arrays to develop models of buried object brightness and control for these various effects. Additionally, our modeling efforts provide a means for quantifying the relative brightness of GPR systems, the objects they detect, and the physical properties of those objects that influence observed brightness. To evaluate the models' performance on new object observations, we repeatedly simulate fitting them to half the dataset and predicting the observed brightness values of the unseen half. In addition, we introduce a method for estimating the probability that individual observations constitute a visible object, which aids in failure analysis, performance characterization, and dataset cleaning.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Mesoflow: An Open-Source Reacting Flow Solver for Catalysis at Mesoscale

We present the capabilities and software performance metrics of our open-source continuum solver for catalysis, Mesoflow, developed specifically for modeling transport and chemistry at the mesoscale. Our solver utilizes Cartesian block-structured adaptive mesh refinement to resolve complex catalyst surface morphologies directly obtained from X-ray tomography data. An immersed boundary based formulation enables rapid representation of complex geometries prevalent in most mesoporous catalyst interfaces. The solver is developed on top of open-source performance portable library, AMReX, providing parallel execution capabilities on current and upcoming high-performance-computing (HPC) architectures. Our flexible software framework enables integration of complex chemical mechanisms at heterogenous interfaces and time-split algorithms for circumventing highly disparate reaction and flow time-scales. Our current studies indicate a ten-fold performance gain by using graphics-processing-units (GPUs) compared to a single processor for representative problem sizes (2 million cell mesh). We will also present a brief introduction on how to build and use this software for application problems pertaining to catalytic upgrading and gas transport within porous catalyst particles.

adaptive meshing↗

QASMBench: A Low-Level Quantum Benchmark Suite for NISQ Evaluation and Simulation

The rapid development of quantum computing (QC) in the NISQ era urgently demands a low-level benchmark suite and insightful evaluation metrics for characterizing the properties of prototype NISQ devices, the efficiency of QC programming compilers, schedulers and assemblers, and the capability of quantum system simulators in a classical computer. In this work, we fill this gap by proposing a low-level, easy-to-use benchmark suite called QASMBench based on the OpenQASM assembly representation. It consolidates commonly used quantum routines and kernels from a variety of domains including chemistry, simulation, linear algebra, searching, optimization, arithmetic, machine learning, fault tolerance, cryptography, and so on, trading-off between generality and usability. To analyze these kernels in terms of NISQ device execution, in addition to circuit width and depth, we propose four circuit metrics including gate density, retention lifespan, measurement density, and entanglement variance, to extract more insights about the execution efficiency, the susceptibility to NISQ error, and the potential gain from machine-specific optimizations. Applications in QASMBench can be launched and verified on several NISQ platforms, including IBM-Q, Rigetti, IonQ and Quantinuum. For evaluation, we measure the execution fidelity of a subset of QASMBench applications on 12 IBM-Q machines through density matrix state tomography, comprising 25K circuit evaluations. In addition we also compare the fidelity of executions among the IBM-Q machines, the IonQ QPU and the Rigetti Aspen M-1 system.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Quantum Tensor-Product Decomposition from Choi-State Tomography

The Schmidt decomposition is the go-to tool for measuring bipartite entanglement of pure quantum states. Similarly, it is possible to study the entangling features of a quantum operation using its operator-Schmidt or tensor-product decomposition. While quantum technological implementations of the former are thoroughly studied, entangling properties on the operator level are harder to extract in the quantum computational framework because of the exponential nature of sample complexity. Here, we present an algorithm for unbalanced partitions into a small subsystem and a large one (the environment) to compute the tensor-product decomposition of a unitary the effect of which on the small subsystem is captured in classical memory, while the effect on the environment is accessible as a quantum resource. This quantum algorithm may be used to make predictions about operator nonlocality and effective open quantum dynamics on a subsystem, as well as for finding low-rank approximations and low-depth compilations of quantum circuit unitaries. We demonstrate the method and its applications on a time-evolution unitary of an isotropic Heisenberg model in two dimensions. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Mansuroglu, Refik (ORCID:000000017352513X)↗

Real-Time Detection of Charge Jumps in Superconducting Qubits with a Convolutional Neural Network

Ionizing radiation from cosmic rays and gammas can induce discontinuous jumps in the environmental charge of superconducting qubits (charge jumps), causing correlated errors that challenge fault-tolerant quantum computing while simultaneously providing a detection signature for quantum sensing applications. Current detection methods operate offline, introducing latency incompatible with in-the-loop qubit control. In this paper, an online detector of charge jumps for superconducting qubits, based on a dilated causal convolutional neural network (DCCNN) designed for in-the-loop deployment on the Quantum Instrumentation Control Kit (QICK) platform, is presented. The network is trained on synthetic Ramsey tomography scans generated from qubit templates measured at the Northwestern Experimental Underground Site (NEXUS) at Fermilab, and translated to FPGA firmware via hls4ml with ap_fixed$\langle 16,6 \rangle$ quantization, reaching a per-inference latency of $6.19 μ$s on the Zynq UltraScale+ RFSoC ZCU216. At this operating point the DCCNN matches the detection efficiency of the established offline $χ^2$ algorithm ($0.843 \pm 0.022$ vs. $0.866 \pm 0.020$ on $|Δq| \in [0.1, 0.5] e$ at matched false-positive rate), while requiring no per-qubit hyperparameter tuning. This shifts charge-jump detection from a post-hoc diagnostic to a control-loop primitive, enabling adaptive protocols that respond to radiation-induced events in situ, with applications to quantum-computing error mitigation and to the use of superconducting qubits as particle detectors.

Gaytan-Villarreal, Daniel [Carnegie Mellon U.]↗

A practical and efficient approach for Bayesian quantum state estimation

Bayesian inference is a powerful paradigm for quantum state tomography, treating uncertainty in meaningful and informative ways. Yet the numerical challenges associated with sampling from complex probability distributions hampers Bayesian tomography in practical settings. In this article, we introduce an improved, self-contained approach for Bayesian quantum state estimation. Leveraging advances in machine learning and statistics, our formulation relies on highly efficient preconditioned Crank–Nicolson sampling and a pseudo-likelihood. We theoretically analyze the computational cost, and provide explicit examples of inference for both actual and simulated datasets, illustrating improved performance with respect to existing approaches.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Phenomenological opportunities at the EIC

This review presents a comprehensive overview of key phenomenological opportunities at the future Electron–Ion Collider (EIC), synthesizing discussions and collaborative research efforts developed within the Korean EIC community and the EICφ collaboration. We explore a diverse range of physics topics central to the EIC scientific program, including the multidimensional tomography of nucleon and nuclear structure, precision Quantum Chromodynamics studies through jet physics and event-shape observables, heavy quarkonium production as a probe of partonic dynamics, and the spectroscopy of exotic hadrons. Furthermore, we discuss the transformative potential of emerging technologies—specifically Machine Learning and Quantum Computing—as essential tools for addressing the computational challenges and maximizing the scientific discovery potential of the EIC era.

Electron–Ion collider↗

Heterogenous activation of dynamic recrystallization and twinning during friction stir processing of a Cu-4Nb alloy

An interplay between high degree of shear deformation and deformation-induced heating occurs during friction stir processing (FSP) of metals. In medium-to-low stacking fault energy Cu alloys, this can lead to a complex spatially heterogenous activation of dynamic recrystallization (DRX) and twinning mechanisms. Within the Cu-Nb system, the presence of Nb is further expected to influence the DRX mechanism of the Cu matrix. However, the microstructural changes induced by the co-deformation of Nb during FSP are still not well understood. So, this study uses a combination of multimodal microstructural characterization, solution thermodynamics-based predictions, and computational crystal plasticity simulation to reveal the various microstructural evolution mechanisms that can occur during FSP of a Cu-4at.%Nb binary model alloy. The formation of softer DRX zones, and harder shear localization regions are revealed using electron backscatter diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, atom probe tomography, and crystal plasticity modeling.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Unveiling microstructure-property correlations in nuclear materials with high-energy synchrotron X-ray techniques

Understanding the microstructure-property correlation is critical for the performance evaluation of in-service materials and the development of advanced materials for nuclear reactor applications. Experimental studies are challenging for nuclear materials which are often hazardous. Recent developments in high-energy synchrotron X-ray (HEX) techniques offer the potential to address this challenge, by providing direct observations of internal responses to external stimuli in bulk-like materials, through in situ or 3D measurements. Here, in this review, developments in HEX techniques are introduced and recent applications in nuclear materials are presented. The results offer unprecedented insights into materials performance and provide unique input to computational models.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Calibration method for a spectral computerized tomography system

A calibration method for an x-ray computerized tomography system and a method of tomographic reconstruction are provided. The calibration method includes steps of measuring at least one point spread function (PSF) at each of a plurality of points, compressing each PSF, and in one or more storing operations, storing the compressed PSFs in a computer-accessible storage medium. The PSF measurements are made in a grid of calibration points in a field of view (FOV) of the system. In the measuring step, an absorber is positioned at each of the calibration points, and an x-ray projection is taken at least once at each of those absorber positions. In the method of tomographic image reconstruction, projection data from an x-ray tomographic projection system are input to an iterative image reconstruction algorithm. The algorithm retrieves and utilizes a priori system information (APSI) The APSI comprises comprising point spread functions (PSFs) of all voxels in a voxelization of the field of view that are compressed in the form of vectors of parameters. For utilization, each retrieved vector of parameters is decompressed so as to generate a discretized PSF.

Jimenez, Jr., Edward Steven↗

Extraction of Vibration Data with Imaging

To date, the primary sensing technology used to measure the vibration response has been accelerometers and strain gages mounted directly to the structure and using either wired or, more recently, wireless telemetry. Cost issues with these sensors and the associated data acquisition systems typically limit the numbers that are deployed on in situ structures. Although there are a few structures with larger sensing counts that in some cases exceed over 1000 sensors, more typical numbers range from ten to one hundred sensors resulting in low spatial resolution when they are applied to physically large systems. When one considers that nuclear power plant structures usually have complex geometries, material properties, connectivity and boundary conditions, it is clear these current approaches to vibration measurements can only provide limited information about a system’s dynamics response characteristics. As an alternative, many non-contact measurement technologies have emerged, including point wise measurement methods such as Global Positioning System (GPS), microwave interferometry, and laser Doppler vibrometry (LDV), as well as simultaneous full-field measurement methods such as electronic speckle pattern interferometry, holography interferometry, and muon tomography, some of which can provide high spatial resolution measurements. Among these methods, digital video imaging techniques have emerged as a feasible solution for full-field vibration measurements that provide significantly more detailed dynamic response information because every pixel becomes a measurement point. Furthermore, recent advances in image processing and computer vision algorithms have been successfully used to process video data for experimental and operational modal analysis. Such full-field measurements have the potential to significantly improve many current structural assessment procedures including system identification (modal parameter estimation), structural health monitoring, load reconstruction, model validation, and model updating. Furthermore, more recent full-field imaging techniques can be accomplished with relatively low-cost, commercially-available off-the-shelf cameras. However, these measurement procedures have other limitations that must be considered such as the ability to only measure visibly accessible points on a structure and a more limited dynamic range and bandwidth than can be achieved with accelerometers or strain gages.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Evaluation of gamma-ray transmission through rectangular collimator slits for application in nuclear fuel spectrometry

Gamma-ray spectrometry is widely applied in several science fields, and in particular in non-destructive gamma scanning and gamma emission tomography of irradiated nuclear fuel. Usually, a collimator is used in the experimental setup, to selectively interrogate a region of interest in the fuel. For the optimization of instrument design, as well as for planning measurement campaigns, predictive models for the transmitted gamma-ray intensity through the collimator are needed. Commonly, Monte Carlo Radiation Transport tools are used for accurate prediction of gamma-ray transport, however, the long computation time requirements when used in low-efficiency experimental setups present challenges. Here, the full-energy peak intensity transmitted through a rectangular collimator slit was examined. A uniform planar surface source emitting isotropically was considered, and the rate of photons reaching an ideal counter plane on the opposite side of the collimator was evaluated by analytical integration. To find a closed-form primitive function, some idealizations were required, and thereby parametric models were obtained for the optical field of view, dependent on slit dimensions (length, height and width) and source-to-collimator distance. For contributions from outside the optical field of view, where a closed-form expression cannot be found, fast numerical integral methods were instead used. The results were validated using the Monte Carlo code MCNP6 and show an agreement within three percent for the numerical method. For the analytical method, deviations up to tens of percent were obtained, which is deemed to still be sufficient for instrument design and measurement planning, where often the order of magnitude of the count rate is not a priori known. The method is planned for use in iterative optimization routines in the design of Gamma Emission Tomography devices, as well as for the prediction of gamma spectra obtained in the planning of fuel inspections. An application of the proposed method was demonstrated in spectrum prediction for a short cooling-time fuel rod test from the Halden reactor.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Community-Driven Methods for Open and Reproducible Software Tools for Analyzing Datasets from Atom Probe Microscopy

Atom probe tomography, and related methods, probe the three-dimensional architecture of a material. The software tools that microscopists use, and how these tools are connected into workflows, makes a substantial contribution to the accuracy and precision of such a material characterization experiment. Typically, we adapt methods from other communities like mathematics, data science, computational geometry, artificial intelligence, or scientific computing. We also realize that improving on research data management is a challenge when it comes to align with the FAIR data stewardship principles. Faced with this global challenge, we are convinced that collaborating is useful. Here, we report the results and challenges with an inter-laboratory call for developing test cases for several types of atom probe software tools. The results support why defining detailed recipes of software workflows and sharing these recipes is necessary and rewarding: Open source tools and (meta)data exchange can help to make our day-to-day data processing tasks become more efficient, the training of new users and knowledge transfer become easier, and assist us with automated quantification of uncertainties to gain access to substantiated results.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Creep strength boosted by a high-density of stable nanoprecipitates in high-chromium steels

There is a need worldwide to develop materials for advanced power plants with steam temperatures of 700°C and above that will achieve long-term creep-rupture strength and low CO 2 emissions. The creep resistance of actual 9-12Cr steels is not enough to fulfil the engineering requirements above 600°C. In this paper, the authors report their advances in the improvement of creep properties of this type of steels by the microstructural optimization through nano-precipitation using two methodologies. 1) Applying a high temperature austenitization cycle followed by an ausforming step (thermomechanical treatment, TMT) to G91 steel, to increase the martensite dislocation density and, thus, the number density of MX precipitates (M = V,Nb; X = C,N) but at the expense of deteriorating the ductility. 2) Compositional adjustments, guided by computational thermodynamics, combined with a conventional heat treatment (no TMT), to design novel steels with a good ductility while still possessing a high number density of MX precipitates, similar to the one obtained after the TMT in G91. The microstructures have been characterized by optical, scanning and transmission electron microscopy, EBSD and atom probe tomography. The creep behaviour at 700°C has been evaluated under a load of 200 N using small punch creep tests.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

A deep learning framework for layer-wise porosity prediction in metal powder bed fusion using thermal signatures

Abstract Part quality manufactured by the laser powder bed fusion process is significantly affected by porosity. Existing works of process–property relationships for porosity prediction require many experiments or computationally expensive simulations without considering environmental variations. While efforts that adopt real-time monitoring sensors can only detect porosity after its occurrence rather than predicting it ahead of time. In this study, a novel porosity detection-prediction framework is proposed based on deep learning that predicts porosity in the next layer based on thermal signatures of the previous layers. The proposed framework is validated in terms of its ability to accurately predict lack of fusion porosity using computerized tomography (CT) scans, which achieves a F1-score of 0.75. The framework presented in this work can be effectively applied to quality control in additive manufacturing. As a function of the predicted porosity positions, laser process parameters in the next layer can be adjusted to avoid more part porosity in the future or the existing porosity could be filled. If the predicted part porosity is not acceptable regardless of laser parameters, the building process can be stopped to minimize the loss.

42 ENGINEERING↗