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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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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2017

An LLVM Instrumentation Plug-in for Score-P

Reducing application runtime, scaling parallel applications to higher numbers of processes/threads, and porting applications to new hardware architectures are tasks necessary in the software development process. Therefore, developers have to investigate and understand application runtime behavior. Tools such as monitoring infrastructures that capture performance relevant data during application execution assist in this task. The measured data forms the basis for identifying bottlenecks and optimizing the code.Monitoring infrastructures need mechanisms to record application activities in order to conduct measurements. Automatic instrumentation of the source code is the preferred method in most application scenarios. We introduce a plug-in for the LLVM infrastructure that enables automatic source code instrumentation at compile-time. In contrast to available instrumentation mechanisms in LLVM/Clang, our plug-in can selectively include/exclude individual application functions. This enables developers to fine-tune the measurement to the required level of detail while avoiding large runtime overheads due to excessive instrumentation.

Tschüter, Ronny↗
DOE OSTI2022

Caldera_Grid

Caldera Grid is part of Caldera software platform, a suite of collective, open-source tools that was developed to improve the state of the art in modeling the impacts of Electric Vehicle (EV) charging on the grid. Caldera Grid is a co-simulation framework implemented using Hierarchical Engine for Large scale Infrastructure Co-Simulation (HELICS). The framework facilitates the co-simulation of EV charging and Smart Charge Management (SCM) strategies in Caldera Infrastructure Charge Model (ICM) with distribution level grid models in OpenDSS. Vehicle energy needs and charge session requirements generated using Caldera Charge Decision Module (CDM) are fed in as input to Caldera Grid. The EV charging models in Caldera ICM simulates both the uncontrolled charging loads as well as loads modified by the SCM strategies to develop distributed load profiles for each grid node hosting an Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) – also known as chargers. These loads were simulated in OpenDSS alongside existing distribution feeder loads. Each of these models are co-simulated in a HELICS federate. The HELICS co-simulation framework facilitates communication and synchronization between the federates. By co-simulating EV loads and distribution feeder loads, Caldera Grid can assess the potential grid impacts of EV charging on distribution feeders under various grid conditions. A control strategy federate is implemented with an interface where control strategies based on feedback from EV charging status and grid conditions can be developed and implemented. The platform can also support multiple control strategies in a single co-simulation.

Sundarrajan, ManojKumar Cebol↗
DOE OSTI2024

minervachem

Minervachem is a tool for cheminformatics and machine learning in chemistry. It includes both algorithms from existing literature and algorithms which we have developed. Its features center around two main themes: molecular representations and algorithms, both for molecular machine learning. It provides a scikit-learn transformer interface for molecular featurization and an estimator interface for machine learning algorithms. It also provides visualization tools for explaining machine learning predictions. We aim to continue developing this software to improve its performance and usability and expand its capabilities within the realm of molecular machine learning, cheminformatics, and visualization.

Lubbers, Nicholas↗
DOE OSTI2015

Integrated PEV Charging Solutions and Reduced Energy for Occupant Comfort [Brochure]

Brochure on Vehicle Testing and Integration Facility, featuring the Vehicle Modification Facility, Vehicle Test Pad and ReCharge Integrated Demonstration System. Plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) offer the opportunity to shift transportation energy demands from petroleum to electricity, but broad adoption will require integration with other systems. While automotive experts work to reduce the cost of PEVs, fossil fueled cars and trucks continue to burn hundreds of billions of gallons of petroleum each year - not only to get from point A to point B, but also to keep passengers comfortable with air conditioning and heat. At the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), three installations form a research laboratory known as the Vehicle Testing and Integration Facility (VTIF). At the VTIF, engineers are developing strategies to address two separate but equally crucial areas of research: meeting the demands of electric vehicle-grid integration and minimizing fuel consumption related to vehicle climate control. Part of NREL's Center for Transportation Technologies and Systems (CTTS), the VTIF is dedicated to renewable and energy efficient solutions. This facility showcases technology and systems designed to increase the viability of sustainably powered vehicles. NREL researchers instrument every class of on-road vehicle, conduct hardware and software validation for electric vehicle (EV) components and accessories, and develop analysis tools and technology for the Department of Energy, other government agencies and industry partners. Research conducted at the VTIF examines the interaction of building energy systems, utility grids, renewable energy sources and PEVs, integrating energy management solutions, and maximizing potential greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction, while smoothing the transition and reducing costs for EV owners. NREL's collaboration with automakers, charging station manufacturers, utilities and fleet operators to assess technologies using VTIF resources is designed to enable PEV communication with the smart grid and create opportunities for vehicles to play an active role in building and grid management. Ultimately, this creates value for the vehicle owner and will help renewables be deployed faster and more economically, making the U.S. transportation sector more flexible and sustainable.

02 PETROLEUM↗
DOE OSTI2016

Parallel Execution of Functional Mock-up Units in Buildings Modeling

A Functional Mock-up Interface (FMI) defines a standardized interface to be used in computer simulations to develop complex cyber-physical systems. FMI implementation by a software modeling tool enables the creation of a simulation model that can be interconnected, or the creation of a software library called a Functional Mock-up Unit (FMU). This report describes an FMU wrapper implementation that imports FMUs into a C++ environment and uses an Euler solver that executes FMUs in parallel using Open Multi-Processing (OpenMP). The purpose of this report is to elucidate the runtime performance of the solver when a multi-component system is imported as a single FMU (for the whole system) or as multiple FMUs (for different groups of components as sub-systems). This performance comparison is conducted using two test cases: (1) a simple, multi-tank problem; and (2) a more realistic use case based on the Modelica Buildings Library. In both test cases, the performance gains are promising when each FMU consists of a large number of states and state events that are wrapped in a single FMU. Load balancing is demonstrated to be a critical factor in speeding up parallel execution of multiple FMUs.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2017

Evaluation of the FIR Example using Xilinx Vivado High-Level Synthesis Compiler

Compared to central processing units (CPUs) and graphics processing units (GPUs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) have major advantages in reconfigurability and performance achieved per watt. This development flow has been augmented with high-level synthesis (HLS) flow that can convert programs written in a high-level programming language to Hardware Description Language (HDL). Using high-level programming languages such as C, C++, and OpenCL for FPGA-based development could allow software developers, who have little FPGA knowledge, to take advantage of the FPGA-based application acceleration. This improves developer productivity and makes the FPGA-based acceleration accessible to hardware and software developers. Xilinx Vivado HLS compiler is a high-level synthesis tool that enables C, C++ and System C specification to be directly targeted into Xilinx FPGAs without the need to create RTL manually. The white paper [1] published recently by Xilinx uses a finite impulse response (FIR) example to demonstrate the variable-precision features in the Vivado HLS compiler and the resource and power benefits of converting floating point to fixed point for a design. To get a better understanding of variable-precision features in terms of resource usage and performance, this report presents the experimental results of evaluating the FIR example using Vivado HLS 2017.1 and a Kintex Ultrascale FPGA. In addition, we evaluated the half-precision floating-point data type against the double-precision and single-precision data type and present the detailed results.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2021

Autonomous Discovery in Science and Engineering

The Center for Advanced Mathematics for Energy Research Applications (CAMERA) is an integrated, cross-disciplinary center aimed at inventing, developing, and delivering the fundamental new mathematics required to capitalize on experimental investigations at scientific facilities. Jointly funded by the Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) and the Office of Basic Energy Sciences (BES) within the US Department of Energy’s Office of Science, CAMERA identifies areas in experimental science that can be aided by new mathematical insights, develops the needed algorithmic tools, and delivers them as user-friendly software to the experimental community.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2021

Fixed-Energy Response-Function Analysis with Multi-Efficiency (FRAM) Software, Version 6

Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory have developed FixedEnergy Response- Function Analysis with Multiple Efficiency (FRAM), a powerful software tool for gamma-ray spectrometry isotopic analysis. This tool leverages Los Alamos expertise in nuclear safeguards, radiation detection systems, and related analysis techniques. A household name in the non-destructive assay community for over two decades, FRAM determines a special nuclear material source's isotopic composition by analyzing gamma-ray spectra. Los Alamos researchers have released the latest version of FRAM that incorporates several updates to the 2013 major release of FRAM, Version 5.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Distribution Integration Solution Cost Options (DISCO) [Slides]

DISCO is a Python-based NREL software tool for conducting scalable, repeatable distribution analyses. Although DISCO was originally developed to support photovoltaic impact analyses, it can also be used to understand the impact of other distributed energy resources and load changes on distribution systems. This presentation took place on April 9, 2024, and included NREL power grid researchers Sherin Ann Abraham and Shibani Ghosh.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Vitis CI/CD & Containerization

Modern development flows that use tooling for automated building, testing, and deployment of software are becoming the norm for large scale software and hardware projects. These flows offer quite a few advantages that make them desirable, but when attempting to implement them for projects that use FPGAs, some complications can arise when attempting to integrate them with traditional FPGA toolchains and deployment workflows. In this poster, we present early our early efforts integrating the Vitis FPGA toolchain into a modern, Kuberentes and Github actions based CI/CD pipeline.

Hawks, Benjamin G. [Fermilab]↗
NASA NTRS1983

Automated control and data acquisition for a tunable diode laser heterodyne spectrometer

This paper describes the hardware and software design, development, and implementation of the control and data electronics of a laser heterodyne spectrometer instrument being built at NASA Langley Research Center for a technology demonstration. Functional partitioning, applied at all levels of hardware and software, has been found to provide expedient design, development, and testing of the instrument. The instrument is composed of distributed microprocessor-based units. A master/slave protocol is presented which can be simulated by a terminal for unit checkout. All but one of the units are implemented using a set of core boards, plus unique boards where necessary. This design has led to reduced hardware development, reduced parts inventory, and replication of software modules, while providing the flexibility needed for a development instrument. The development tools and documentation guidelines are discussed.

Shull, T. S.↗
NASA NTRS1985

DEASEL: An expert system for software engineering

For the past ten year, the Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL) has been collecting data on software projects carried out in the Systems Development Branch of the Flight Dynamics Division at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Through a series of studies using this data, much knowledge has been gained on how software is developed within this environment. Two years ago work began on a software tool which would make this knowledge readily available to software managers. Ideally, the Dynamic Management Information Tool (DynaMITe) will aid managers in comparison across projects, prediction of a project's future, and assessment of a project's current state. This paper describes an effort to create the assessment portion of DynaMITe, called the DynaMITe Expert Advisor for the SEL (DEASEL).

Valett, J. D.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Interdisciplinary analysis procedures in the modeling and control of large space-based structures

The paper describes a computer software system called the Integrated Multidisciplinary Analysis Tool, IMAT, that has been developed at NASA Langley Research Center. IMAT provides researchers and analysts with an efficient capability to analyze satellite control systems influenced by structural dynamics. Using a menu-driven interactive executive program, IMAT links a relational database to commercial structural and controls analysis codes. The paper describes the procedures followed to analyze a complex satellite structure and control system. The codes used to accomplish the analysis are described, and an example is provided of an application of IMAT to the analysis of a reference space station subject to a rectangular pulse loading at its docking port.

Cooper, Paul A.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Controls and guidance: Space

The Space Controls and Guidance Research and Technology Program is directed toward enabling the next generation of space transportation systems, large future spacecraft, and space systems such as the Space Station to have large communication antennas and high precision segmented reflector astrophysical telescopes. The new generation of transportation vehicles has demanding requirements to provide for an order of magnitude reduction in cost as well as an increase in capability. The future orbital facilities have demanding control requirements for pointing and stabilization, momentum management, build-up and growth accomodation, and disturbance management. To address these advanced requirements, the research and development program is designed to provide the generic technology base to support the implementation of advanced guidance, navigation, and control. The area of computational controls will be stressed in order to develop cost effective, high speed, high fidelity control system simulation and analysis and synthesis tools. The trust of this work will be to develop methods and software to enable analysis and real-time hardware-in-the-loop simulation of complex spacecraft for control design certification. To address future orbital facilities requirements, an advanced technology program is underway in system identification, distributed control, integrated controls/structures design methods, and advanced sensors and actuators. Because the behavior of large, light weight per unit area deployable/assembled spacecraft is greatly influenced by the ground environment, the testing and verification activity is both ground- and space-based.

Dibattista, John D.↗
NASA NTRS1992

A monitor for the laboratory evaluation of control integrity in digital control systems operating in harsh electromagnetic environments

This paper presents a strategy for dynamically monitoring digital controllers in the laboratory for susceptibility to electromagnetic disturbances that compromise control integrity. The integrity of digital control systems operating in harsh electromagnetic environments can be compromised by upsets caused by induced transient electrical signals. Digital system upset is a functional error mode that involves no component damage, can occur simultaneously in all channels of a redundant control computer, and is software dependent. The motivation for this work is the need to develop tools and techniques that can be used in the laboratory to validate and/or certify critical aircraft controllers operating in electromagnetically adverse environments that result from lightning, high-intensity radiated fields (HIRF), and nuclear electromagnetic pulses (NEMP). The detection strategy presented in this paper provides dynamic monitoring of a given control computer for degraded functional integrity resulting from redundancy management errors, control calculation errors, and control correctness/effectiveness errors. In particular, this paper discusses the use of Kalman filtering, data fusion, and statistical decision theory in monitoring a given digital controller for control calculation errors.

Belcastro, Celeste M.↗
NASA NTRS1992

The ALEXIS data processing package: An IDL based system

The Array of Low Energy X-ray Imaging Sensors (ALEXIS) experiment consists of a mini-satellite containing six wide angle EUV/ultrasoft x-ray telescopes. Its purpose is to map out the sky in three narrow (approximately 5 percent) bandpasses around 66, 71, and 93 eV. The 66 and 71 eV bandpasses are centered on intense Fe emission lines which are characteristic of million degree plasmas such as the one thought to produce the soft x-ray background. The 93 eV bandpass is not near any strong emission lines and is more sensitive to continuum sources. The mission will be launched on the Pegasus Air Launched Vehicle in the second half of 1992 into a 400-nautical-mile, high inclination orbit and will be controlled entirely from a small ground station located at Los Alamos. The project is a collaborative effort between Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratory, and the University of California-Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory. The six telescopes are arranged in three pairs. As the satellite spins twice a minute they scan the entire anti-solar hemisphere. Each f/1 telescope consists of a spherical, multilayer-coated mirror with a curved, microchannel plate detector located at the prime focus. The multilayer coatings determine the bandpasses of the telescopes. The field of view of each telescope is 30 degrees with a spatial resolution of 0.5 degree, limited by spherical aberration. The data processing requirements for ALEXIS are large. Each event is one of the six telescopes is telemetered to the ground with its time of arrival and position on the detector. This information must be folded with the aspect solution for the satellite to reconstruct the direction on the sky from which the photon came. Because of the way the six telescopes scan the sky, the effective exposure calculation is also very computationally intensive. ALEXIS may generate up to 100 megabytes of raw data per day, which are converted into a gigabyte per day of processed data. While the processing job for ALEXIS is sizable, the programming staff is small. To maximize programming efficiency, and to make the best use of tools available in the public domain, we chose IDL as our software development platform. IDL was used from the start of instrument development through flight. We use IDL as a top-level executive for the processing tasks (replacing Unix shell scripts), as a device independent graphics engine, as a database manager, and as a final data manipulator. IDL routines spawn special purpose C programs to perform detailed telemetry deconvolution and other specialized functions. We discuss the use of IDL and C within the processing and archiving strategy for the ALEXIS data anlaysis system as implemented on a SPARCstation platform. We also show results from our End-to-End software simulation capability as processed by our analysis codes.

Bloch, J. J.↗
NASA NTRS1996

Finite Element Simulation of Smart Structures

Finite element equations representing the behavior of piezoelectric materials when bounded to a typical structure and used as sensors and actuators were developed. Emphasis was placed on generating sensor output equations of piezoelectric sensors and responses of a typical structure bonded with piezoelectric sensors and actuators on the basis of finite element formulation. The model can predict not only structural responses due to both mechanical and electrical loading but also electrical potential due to mechanical or thermal effects. The resulted finite element equations were then used for simple control design and performance evaluation. In the control algorithm, voltages coming out from piezoelectric sensors, which are proportional to strains at sensing locations, are taken as input. The voltages applied to the piezoelectric actuators are used as output. The feasibility of integrating control algorithm with the element routine developed herein and FEAP was demonstrated. In particular, optimal independent modal space control was implemented in a software package on the basis of finite element formulation. A rudimentary finite element-control algorithm package was also developed to evaluate the performance of candidate control laws. A few numerical simulations using the software package developed herein were given. The integrated software package will provide a design tool to address issues such as how adaptive smart systems will scale to a full size aircraft, the amount of piezoelectric materials and the powers needed to actuate it for desired performance. It will also provide a viable new structural control design concept for practical applications in large flexible structures such as aerospace vehicles and aircraft.

Cui, Y. Lawrence↗
NASA NTRS1999

Goddard Space Flight Center IVS Technology Development Center

The GSFC IVS Technology Development Center (TDC) develops station software including the Field System (FS), scheduling software (SKED), hardware including tools for station timing and meteorology, scheduling algorithms, operational procedures, and provides a pool of individuals to assist with station implementation, check-out, upgrades, and training.

Himwich, Ed↗