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At least 1,243 records · Page 69

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DOE OSTI2019

Information Science in Occupational Safety Management

Approaches to information technology in occupational safety management at industrial enterprises are considered. Obstacles to such uses of information technology are noted. Available software and approaches to workplace automation for occupational safety specialists are reviewed. Analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of the available software permits selection of the optimal product for specific problems in occupational safety.

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2022

ExaWind: Opportunity for Discovery

The predictive simulation of the dynamics of modern wind turbines and wind farms is a high-performance-computing (HPC) grand challenge. Modern wind turbines are the largest rotating machines in the world, with rotor diameters exceeding 200 meters, and with heights well into the atmospheric boundary layer. To address this grand challenge, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Wind Energy Technologies Office and the Exascale Computing Project have been supporting the creation of the ExaWind modeling and simulation environment since 2016. ExaWind is composed of the incompressible-flow computational-fluid-dynamics (CFD) solvers AMR-Wind and Nalu-Wind and the wind-turbine-dynamics solver OpenFAST. In our hybrid CFD approach, Nalu-Wind unstructured-grid models resolve the near-body flow around the turbine; those models are embedded in, and two-way coupled to, an AMR-Wind structured-grid mesh through overset meshes. In this talk I give an overview of ExaWind software stack and describe how it is being used to address important problems in wind energy.

computational fluid dynamics↗

DOE OSTI2015

Simulation of Internal Combustion Engines with High-Performance Computing Tools

Traditional Lagrangian spray modeling approaches for internal combustion engines are highly griddependent due to insufficient resolution in the near nozzle region. This is primarily because of inherent restrictions of volume fraction with the Lagrangian assumption together with high computational costs associated with small grid sizes. A state-of-the-art grid-convergent spray modeling approach was developed and implemented by Senecal et al. (ASME-ICEF2012-92043) in the CONVERGE software. The key features of the methodology include Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR), advanced liquid-gas momentum coupling, and improved distribution of the liquid phase, which enables use of cell sizes smaller than the nozzle diameter. This modeling approach was rigorously validated against nonevaporating, evaporating, and reacting data from the literature. The current numerical study focusses on further demonstration of the grid-convergent modeling approach for simulating a single-cylinder Cat® compression ignition engine. The simulated injector is characterized with a nominal nozzle exit diameter of 259 μm. Simulations using various minimum grid sizes (ranging from 125 μm to 1000 μm) are compared for engine performance and emissions parameters of interest such as pressure, heat release rate, ignition delay, NOx, HC, and soot emissions. The peak cell-count for the highest resolution simulation was on the order of 34 million. These computationally expensive simulations were facilitated at a high-performance computing facility at Argonne National Laboratory. METIS load-balancing algorithm was developed and implemented in Converge code for the simulations. Scaling studies were also performed. The validity of previously recommended grid settings (ASME-ICEF2012-92043) for accuracy/runtime trade-off is further assessed. Efficacy of a simplified combustion model is also compared against a detailed chemical kinetics based combustion model.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

DOE OSTI2013

3D Flow and Temperature Analysis of Filling a Plutonium Mold (Revision 1) [Poster]

The plutonium foundry at Los Alamos National Laboratory casts products for various special nuclear applications. However, plutonium’s radioactivity, material properties, and security constraints complicate the ability to perform experimental analysis of mold behavior. The Manufacturing Engineering and Technologies (MET-2) group previously developed a graphite mold to vacuum cast small plutonium disks to be used by the Department of Homeland Security as point sources for radiation sensor testing. A two-stage pouring basin consisting of a funnel and an angled cavity directs the liquid into a vertical runner. A stack of ten disk castings connect to the runner by horizontal gates. Volumetric flow rates were implemented to limit overflow into the funnel and minimize foundry returns. Models using Flow-3D computational fluid dynamics software are employed here to determine liquid Pu flow paths, optimal pour regimes, temperature changes, and pressure variations.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2018

FUSRAP Case Study - Benefits and Lessons Learned from Implementation of a Modern Data Solution at Maywood - 18399

This paper focuses on data production and management practices dating back to 1999 that continue to evolve to support the project today. In 2000, the FUSRAP Maywood Project began using a software environmental data management system and laboratory information management system, developed by a single database administrator (DA) and authored in Microsoft Access{sup TM} (MS Access). The original databases included basic functionality including sample number assignment and label generation, tracking of LIMS gamma spec QC and assignment of basic qualifiers and basic database queries. The DA continued over the next fifteen years to refine the EDMS/LIMS by integrating project-specific data evaluation guidance document processes and Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC) charting and excursion warning tools. With the retirement of the original DA, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)-Cabrera Team procured and implemented a commercial-leaning solution using modern database tools and an established EDMS vendor. For the database transition process, the project team established and configured the new EDMS/LIMS with basic architecture and accessibility; evaluated existing workflows; established/revised LIMS and EDMS-related documentation (manuals and procedures); and conducted dry runs and validation testing. The overall team coordinated closely to facilitate a seamless transition from initial assessment and authoring, to data migration, and finally to resumption of normal ongoing operations. Key features of the new EDMS Subcontractor's software included lookup tables, an import wizard, data checking options and unique indexes. Since the database systems became operational, the technical staff gathered useful feedback from end users (e.g., lab staff, field engineers, task managers, and the third-party data validator) to refine the EDMS/LIMS operation. This feedback triggered improvements in the performance of onsite laboratory qualification forms, promoted consistency in sample ID numbers between the database sample planning screens and field chain-of-custodies, corrected bugs in the LIMS Duplicate Evaluation Report, eliminated data import issues such as blank, inconsistent or missing data from key fields. One of the advantages of the commercial database solution was that it allowed the project to cut cost over time due to the lower cost of database maintenance provided by the commercial database vendor versus the cost of an on-staff DA. Cost savings are estimated at $40,000 per year. There were also indirect cost savings resulting from implementation of the new database since it allowed better integration of the LIMS and EDMS. While there will always be challenges associated with long term records/data management for any old remediation site, the Maywood Team's approach to an upgraded EDMS/LIMS implementation serves as one element of the overall effort to enhance the integrity and reproducibility of critical data that supports the remediation program while at the same time, more effectively using available resources. These lessons-learned will enhance implementation of cost-effective solutions for similar environmental remediation sites. (authors)

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

DOE OSTI2025

A cost–benefit framework to evaluate capacity upgrade options in overhead line transmission planning

This paper presents the methodology behind the new Reconductoring Economic and Financial Analysis (REFA) tool, an open-access software, used by transmission utilities to evaluate transmission capacity enhancement options. The proposed methodology is intended to be used in a new planning stage, after the capacity expansion and prior to the individual transmission project engineering, allowing capacity upgrade options (reconductoring, rebuild or voltage upgrade), and respective conductor selection, to be compared under the same economic basis. Furthermore, the REFA tool implements a methodology to rank project options and conductor types based on economic criteria, considering an approximation of the ampacity and sag constraints. Results, using 5 real transmission lines in the US, show that least-cost combinations of project and conductor types can be very diverse, which emphasizes the need for the proposed methodology and tool.

Advanced conductors↗

DOE OSTI2020

Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm in Python

This is software in Python that simulates the quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA) as described in https://arxiv.org/abs/1411.4028. The software has customization that speeds up simulation and provides interface to the Rapid Optimization Library (ROL) developed at Sandia. SAND2019-8935 M Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525.

von Winckel, Gregory↗

DOE OSTI2022

sCO2 heat exchanger control software

SAND2022-6992 O The sCO2 Heat Exchanger Control Software was written for control and operation of high temperature, high pressure supercritical CO2 systems designed for use as heat exchangers. The software was written using the basic LabVIEW package with LabVIEW modules added to it. The software controls valves and actuators, displays data from pressure transducers and thermocouples, and is able to record data at different storage rates. Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525.

Garcia Maldonado, Luis↗

DOE OSTI2022

Wiretap

SAND2023-12116O Wiretap is an offensive security software package meant for penetration testers and red teams. Unlike a traditional VPN, Wiretap transparently proxies networking traffic without requiring administrator privileges. Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525.

Rindels, Raymond↗

DOE OSTI2022

Hod Carrier

SAND2023-06720O Hod Carrier is a simple proof-of-concept library for moving data from host to NVIDIA BlueField device memory using remote direct memory access. The Hod Carrier software also facilitates research activities related to the potential uses of NVIDIA BlueField data processing unit devices. Using well-established technologies (e.g., RDMA over Infiniband), it will move data from the host to the data processing unit’s memory. This software is a middleware utility for moving data without regard to its semantic meaning. Its operation is fundamentally unaffected by storage allocation. Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525.

SciDAC↗

DOE OSTI2025

Ghidra Galore

SAND2025-00232O Ghidra Galore is a software tool that provides a test harness for running an analysis script in multiple versions of Ghidra, an open-source binary disassembler, using Docker. It allows users to understand how different versions of Ghidra evolve over time by analyzing a corpus of input files. The software includes a Python script that wraps the Docker functionality, simplifying the process of running the analysis script across different Ghidra versions. Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525.

Crussell, Jonathan [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA),↗

DOE OSTI2012

Vehicle Technologies Program Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) Report for Fiscal Year 2012

The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy has defined milestones for its Vehicle Technologies Program (VTP). This report provides estimates of the benefits that would accrue from achieving these milestones relative to a base case that represents a future in which there is no VTP-supported vehicle technology development. Improvements in the fuel economy and reductions in the cost of light- and heavy-duty vehicles were estimated by using Argonne National Laboratory's Autonomie powertrain simulation software and doing some additional analysis. Argonne also estimated the fraction of the fuel economy improvements that were attributable to VTP-supported development in four "subsystem" technology areas: batteries and electric drives, advanced combustion engines, fuels and lubricants, and materials (i.e., reducing vehicle mass, called "lightweighting"). Oak Ridge National Laboratory's MA 3 T (Market Acceptance of Advanced Automotive Technologies) tool was used to project the market penetration of light-duty vehicles, and TA Engineering's TRUCK tool was used to project the penetrations of medium- and heavy-duty trucks. Argonne's VISION transportation energy accounting model was used to estimate total fuel savings, reductions in primary energy consumption, and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions that would result from achieving VTP milestones. These projections indicate that by 2030, the on-road fuel economy of both light- and heavy-duty vehicles would improve by more than 20%, and that this positive impact would be accompanied by a reduction in oil consumption of nearly 2 million barrels per day and a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of more than 300 million metric tons of CO 2 equivalent per year. These benefits would have a significant economic value in the U.S. transportation sector and reduce its dependency on oil and its vulnerability to oil price shocks.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2012

DEVELOPMENT OF A SOFTWARE DESIGN TOOL FOR HYBRID SOLAR-GEOTHERMAL HEAT PUMP SYSTEMS IN HEATING- AND COOLING-DOMINATED BUILDINGS

This project provides an easy-to-use, menu-driven, software tool for designing hybrid solar-geothermal heat pump systems (GHP) for both heating- and cooling-dominated buildings. No such design tool currently exists. In heating-dominated buildings, the design approach takes advantage of glazed solar collectors to effectively balance the annual thermal loads on the ground with renewable solar energy. In cooling-dominated climates, the design approach takes advantage of relatively low-cost, unglazed solar collectors as the heat rejecting component. The primary benefit of hybrid GHPs is the reduced initial cost of the ground heat exchanger (GHX). Furthermore, solar thermal collectors can be used to balance the ground loads over the annual cycle, thus making the GHX fully sustainable; in heating-dominated buildings, the hybrid energy source (i.e., solar) is renewable, in contrast to a typical fossil fuel boiler or electric resistance as the hybrid component; in cooling-dominated buildings, use of unglazed solar collectors as a heat rejecter allows for passive heat rejection, in contrast to a cooling tower that consumes a significant amount of energy to operate, and hybrid GHPs can expand the market by allowing reduced GHX footprint in both heating- and cooling-dominated climates. The design tool allows for the straight-forward design of innovative GHP systems that currently pose a significant design challenge. The project lays the foundations for proper and reliable design of hybrid GHP systems, overcoming a series of difficult and cumbersome steps without the use of a system simulation approach, and without an automated optimization scheme. As new technologies and design concepts emerge, sophisticated design tools and methodologies must accompany them and be made usable for practitioners. Lack of reliable design tools results in reluctance of practitioners to implement more complex systems. A menu-driven software tool for the design of hybrid solar GHP systems is provided that is based on mathematically robust, validated models. An automated optimization tool is used to balance ground loads and incorporated into the simulation engine. With knowledge of the building loads, thermal properties of the ground, the borehole heat exchanger configuration, the heat pump peak hourly and seasonal COP for heating and cooling, the critical heat pump design entering fluid temperature, and the thermal performance of a solar collector, the total GHX length can be calculated along with the area of a supplemental solar collector array and the corresponding reduced GHX length. An economic analysis module allows for the calculation of the lowest capital cost combination of solar collector area and GHX length. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This project was funded by the United States Department of Energy DOE-DE-FOA-0000116, Recovery Act Geothermal Technologies Program: Ground Source Heat Pumps. The lead contractor, The University of Hartford, was supported by The University of Dayton, and the Oak Ridge National Laboratories. All funding and support for this project as well as contributions of graduate and undergraduate students from the contributing institutions are gratefully acknowledged.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2018

A Numerical Tool for the Design of Enhanced Geothermal Reservoirs based on Modeling of Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical Processes and Explicit Representation of 3D Discrete Fracture Networks

This project has developed a coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical numerical modeling tool for prediction of energy production from Enhanced Geothermal Reservoirs (EGS). The tool is unique because it can explicitly represent thousands of pre-existing natural fractures. The capabilities developed in this project were built on the already existing expertise of Itasca arising from thirty years of research and development in discrete element modeling of fractured rocks. A thermal module suitable for analysis of different heat transfer mechanisms in fractured rocks percolated by fluids was developed and coupled with the already existing hydro-mechanical calculation in 3DEC, a commercial software for analysis of jointed rock based on the discrete element method (DEM). The heat transfer module simulates heat conduction, heat advection by moving fluid in rock fractures, and convective heat exchange at the fracture walls between the rock and the moving fluid. Techniques for spatial discretization of heat transfer in EGS-type problems were evaluated, and a boundary layer meshing approach was developed. Also, given the significant differences in time scale of physical processes involved, temporal integration schemes for coupled advection-diffusion processes and coupled thermal-hydro-mechanical processes were developed by taking advantage of both implicit and explicit time integration and also optimizing the coupling intervals. These improvements were necessary for modeling EGS reservoirs. Also, the DFN capacities in 3DEC were extended to include a larger number of fractures. Research was carried out on approaches to simplify the DFN so that the model can meet computational demands, while preserving thermo-hydro-mechanical characteristics of the DFN. The developed modules were coupled with the already existing capabilities of 3DEC. The results were presented as a submitted conference paper (Riahi et al., 2018a). A series of benchmark and test examples showed the developed capabilities. Finally, the developed tool was tested for a large-scale reservoir model for longer periods of injection and production. The thermal draw-down curves were generated and presented. The project successfully met all the milestones laid out in the proposal. Results demonstrated the feasibility of developing a fast and reliable software for the EGS community to use for assessment and prediction of reservoir performance. Some of its applications include assessment of stimulated volume and produced temperature and power. It can also be used for improved engineering, design and optimization of EGS reservoirs as well as other unconventional resources such as shale gas. Finally, the 3D analysis presented in this study showed that simulating EGS reservoirs with tens of thousands of fractures is feasible, and confirmed that the developed tool can serve toward meeting the goals and objectives of Geothermal Technologies Office in overcoming technical barriers associated with commercial EGS development.

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2018

Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing

Project highlight. This project designs and implements a new additive manufacturing capability at Savannah River National Laboratory. Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing is an Advanced Manufacturing technology that enables materials and energy savings by producing materials that are in near net shapes to minimize material losses compared to conventional forging and machining techniques. Wire arc additive manufacturing is an evolving technology that can be used to fabricate large components with significantly less materials waste than conventional processing. This project includes an engineering model, an aspect that is largely overlooked in the Additive Manufacturing modeling work where the emphasis has been on mechanistic and microscopic modeling, to estimate the residual stresses and distortions. The Abaqus Weld Interface software coupled with user subroutines in Fortran enable the local cooling rates to be estimated to provide a coarse scale model for the secondary dendrite arm spacing, a parameter useful to estimate mechanical properties.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2019

Technical Specification Surveillance Interval Extension of Digital Equipment in Nuclear Power Plants: Review and Research. Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program report

The nuclear industry has been slow to incorporate digital technology into nuclear plant designs for several reasons, including: The high cost of design change modifications to implement them, versus simply replacing them with like for like technology when the components fail; Digital technology qualification issues, particularly in safety related applications that are susceptible to software common cause failure. This is a concern both for current operating plants as well as new builds; and, General familiarity and comfort with the existing analog technology on the part of the nuclear plant engineering staff, in spite of the superior performance and reduced maintenance costs of the digital replacements. At the same time, the nuclear industry is under significant cost pressure in the electric marketplace due to the abundance of natural gas generation and renewables. The industry would benefit by investment in new technologies that could lower future operating costs while addressing obsolescence and reliability issues of the current analog technologies. However, the industry has been unable to formulate the business cases to take advantage of these labor savings and production reliability improvements. This paper discusses another potential cost savings benefit of a transition to digital technology, extending the surveillance intervals of technical specification required equipment.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

DOE OSTI2023

Can the United States Maintain Its Leadership in High-Performance Computing? - A report from the ASCAC Subcommittee on American Competitiveness and Innovation to the ASCR Office

The United States (U.S.) is no longer the unambiguous leader in the vitally important field of high performance computing (HPC). Japan, the European Union (EU), and China have fielded systems that are on par with our fastest supercomputers. The supply chain for everything from semiconductors to scientific software is globally distributed. Yet our economic future and security depend critically on our ability to innovate faster than our competitors, and the speed of innovation depends increasingly on large-scale computational science and engineering and thus HPC. How should the United States respond to this challenge? This report seeks to initiate a new and potentially transformative national discussion on this vital question. The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) program is well-positioned to make informed, targeted decisions about where the United States should cooperate and where it should compete in the global market for scientific exploration and discovery. By setting its sights on problems critical to our nation and the world, by establishing productive new collaborations, and by making strategic investments, ASCR can restore and maintain U.S. scientific leadership in the critical areas described in this report while strengthening our research infrastructure and training a large, diverse cohort of scientists. In doing so, ASCR and its scientists will pave the way for a secure and prosperous future for America. For more than 30 years, the ASCR program has provided the HPC and networking capabilities and expertise needed to support DOE’s mission to advance the national, economic, and energy security of the United States. The program now faces the challenge of developing and deploying the next generation of HPC systems and technologies, as well as supporting the application of HPC and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to a wide range of scientific and engineering research problems. Through its research and development efforts, the ASCR program must also advance the state of the art in HPC and accelerate the pace of scientific discovery and technological innovation. Fulfilling this promise will require significantly increased investments, as well as innovative policies and programs. This subcommittee is aware that we are making recommendations and calls for action at a time when federal resources are limited. We understand that a wide range of competing priorities must be balanced by the nation’s leaders and that there is a need to leverage resources in new ways and seek efficiencies in facilities and operations. However, we must not let these realities limit our imagination or silence our advocacy. The ASCR program is a key part of the U.S. research infrastructure and an important component of economic growth and U.S. competitiveness. ASCR has a responsibility to pursue its mission, including advanced scientific computing, applications of AI technologies, and the required advanced research facilities, with determination and enthusiasm. To fulfill the scientific enterprise’s responsibility to the nation, the ASCR program must not only develop and publish a clear vision with an associated list of goals, priorities, and recommendations but also demonstrate scientific leadership by consistently securing long-term funding. This will allow the program to build on its achievements to date, to realize its ambitious vision, and to make lasting contributions to the field.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

DOE OSTI2012

Hybrid Solar GHP Simulator

Yavuzturk, Cy↗