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At least 1,261 records · Page 70

Descriptor: High Temporal Resolution Meteorological Data at Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR-HiResMet)

Access to continuous, quality assessed meteorological data is critical for understanding the climatology and atmospheric dynamics of a region. Research facilities like Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) rely on such data to assess site-specific climatology, model potential emissions, establish safety baselines, and prepare for emergency scenarios. To meet these needs, on-site towers at ORNL collect meteorological data at 15-minute and hourly intervals. However, data measurements from meteorological towers are affected by sensor sensitivity, degradation, lightning strikes, power fluctuations, glitching, and sensor failures, all of which can affect data quality. To address these challenges, we conducted a comprehensive quality assessment and processing of five years of meteorological data collected from ORNL at 15-minute intervals, including measurements of temperature, pressure, humidity, wind, and solar radiation. The time series of each variable was pre-processed and gap-filled using established meteorological data collection and cleaning techniques, i.e., the time series were subjected to structural standardization, data integrity testing, automated and manual outlier detection, and gap-filling. The data product and highly generalizable processing workflow developed in Python Jupyter notebooks are publicly accessible online. As a key contribution of this study, the evaluated 5-year data will be used to train atmospheric dispersion models that simulate dispersion dynamics across the complex ridge-and-valley topography of the Oak Ridge Reservation in East Tennessee.

Steckler, Morgan R. [Oak Ridge National Laboratory↗

GPU-Based Static Data-Flow Analysis for Fast and Scalable Android App Vetting

Many popular vetting tools for Android applications use static code analysis techniques. In particular, Interprocedural Data-Flow Graph (IDFG) construction is the computation at the core of Android static data-flow analysis and consumes most of the analysis time. Many analysis tools use a worklist algorithm, an iterative fixed-point approach, to construct the IDFG. In this paper, we observe that a straightforward GPU parallelization of the worklist algorithm leads to significant underutilization of the GPU resources. We identify four performance bottlenecks, namely, frequent dynamic memory allocations, high branch divergence, workload imbalance, and irregular memory access patterns. Accordingly, we propose GDroid, a GPU-based worklist algorithm implementation with multiple fine-grained optimizations tailored to common characteristics of Android applications. The optimizations considered are: matrix-based data structure, memory access-based node grouping, and worklist merging. Our experimental evaluation, performed on 1000 Android applications, shows that the proposed optimizations are beneficial to performance, and GDroid can achieve up to 128X speedups against a plain GPU implementation.

Android security↗

A Scalable Pipeline for Gigapixel Whole Slide Imaging Analysis on Leadership Class HPC Systems

Whole Slide Imaging (WSI) captures microscopic details of a patient's histopathological features at multiple res-olutions organized across different levels. Images produced by WSI are gigapixel-sized, and saving a single image in memory requires a few gigabytes which is scarce since a complicated model occupies tens of gigabytes. Performing a simple met-ric operation on these large images is also expensive. High-performance computing (HPC) can help us quickly analyze such large images using distributed training of complex deep learning models. One popular approach in analyzing these images is to divide a WSI image into smaller tiles (patches) and then train a simpler model with these reduced-sized but large numbers of patches. However, we need to solve three pre-processing challenges efficiently for pursuing this patch-based approach. 1) Creating small patches from a high-resolution image can result in a high number (hundreds of thousands per image) of patches. Storing and processing these images can be challenging due to a large number of I/O and arithmetic operations. To reduce I/Oand memory accesses, an optimal balance between the size and number of patches must exist to reduce I/O and memory accesses. 2) WSI images may have tiny annotated regions for cancer tissue and a significant portion with normal and fatty tissues; correct patch sampling should avoid dataset imbalance. 3) storing and retrieving many patches to and from disk storage might incur I/O latency while training a deep learning model. An efficient distributed data loader should reduce I/O latency during the training and inference steps. This paper explores these three challenges and provides empirical and algorithmic solutions deployed on the Summit supercomputer hosted at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility.

Dash, Sajal↗

Securely Aggregated Coded Matrix Inversion

Coded computing is a method for mitigating straggling workers in a centralized computing network, by using erasure-coding techniques. Federated learning is a decentralized model for training data distributed across client devices. In this work we propose approximating the inverse of an aggregated data matrix, where the data is generated by clients; similar to the federated learning paradigm, while also being resilient to stragglers. To do so, we propose a coded computing method based on gradient coding. We modify this method so that the coordinator does not access the local data at any point; while the clients access the aggregated matrix in order to complete their tasks. Here, the network we consider is not centrally administrated, and the communications which take place are secure against potential eavesdroppers.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Distributed PV Hosting Capacity Evaluation Considering Equitable PV Accommodation

Distributed photovoltaic (DPV) hosting capacity is widely used by distribution system operators to evaluate how much DPV the distribution networks can accommodate without violating operational constraints. If the proliferation of DPV deployment is appropriately managed, it offers an excellent opportunity to mitigate the energy inequity issue in electric grids. Hosting capacity improvement plans that neglect energy equity can exacerbate unequal DPV access. To consider energy equity in distribution network planning to enhance DPV accommodation, hosting capacity evaluations should be improved to consider equity constraints endogenously. This paper proposes a DPV hosting capacity evaluation method that considers equitable DPV access among sub-regions of a distribution feeder partitioned by socioeconomic indicators, such as income level. The results demonstrate that considering equity in DPV hosting capacity evaluations can provide a valuable reference in the equitable energy transition. This work provides guidance for future distribution network upgrade planning for equitable DPV deployment.

distributed PV↗

Temperature-Dependent Transport Characteristics of 2D MoS2 Channel FETs Grown Using Salt-Based Precursors

D Transition Metal Dichalcogenides (TMDs), particularly MoS2, are promising candidates for sub-10 nm Gate All Around (GAA) CMOS FETs. Salt-assisted Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) enable lateral MoS2 growth at atmospheric pressure and low temperatures. This work analyzes salt-based precursor-driven CVD-grown MoS2 FETs at various temperatures. MoS2 was grown using Ammonium Molybdate salt, sulfurized at 750∘C, and transferred onto p−Si3/SiO2 substrates. At room temperature, threshold voltage (VT) ranged from -35 V to -25 V, with a peak drain current of 1.2μA/μm. As temperature increased above 325K, VT shifted exponentially, and carrier mobility dropped significantly. At 400 K, the gate lost channel control, though gate leakage current remained low. These results are compared with non-salt-based MoS2 growth to assess salt precursor effects.Notice: This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (https://www.energy.gov/doe-public-access-plan).

Jones, Andrew [ORNL] (ORCID:0009000233849687)↗

Mooring Load Monitoring of a Wave Energy Converter Using a Self-Synchronizing Underwater Acoustic Network

A self-synchronizing underwater acoustic network, designed for remote monitoring of mooring loads in Wave Energy Converters (WEC), has been developed and tested. This network uses Time Division Multiple Access and operates self-contained with the ability for users to remotely transmit commands to the network as needed. Each node is a self-contained unit, consisting of a protocol adaptor board, an underwater acoustic modem and a battery pack. A node can be connected to a load cell, to a topside user or to the WEC. Every node is swapable. The protocol adaptor board, named Protocol Adaptor for Digital LOad Cell (PADLOC) supports a variety of digital load cell message formats (CAN, MODBUS, custom ASCII) and underwater acoustic modem serial formats. PADLOC enables topside users to connect to separate load cells through a user-specific command.

acoustic↗

Data-Driven Modeling and Optimization of Building Energy Consumption: a Case Study

Installing sensors and Building Automation Systems (BAS) allows controlling the facility operations while generating data that can be analyzed for model development. This work focuses on data-driven modeling of the building to optimize energy consumption. The City of Orlando aims to reduce its energy consumption so, they provided us access to their BAS for data and studying the operation of its facilities. We selected a mid-size pilot building to conduct data analysis and modeling. We develop an Application Programming Interface (API) to login to the servers and scrape data. The scraped data contains features ranging from environmental conditions to equipment activity. This dataset is a time series so, it's handled in accordance and analyzed to investigate patterns and relations between data points that help choose parameters for predictive models for building and equipment. Finally, the models are optimized to reduce the energy consumption of the facility.

Grover, Divas↗

Outage Forecast-Based Preventative Scheduling Model for Distribution System Resilience Enhancement

Distribution system resilience enhancement is an important topic to ensure customers have access to power supply during extreme events. In fact, certain weather-related extreme events can be predicted ahead of time. Therefore, it is important to investigate how to predict grid outages using extreme weather forecasts, and how outage predictions can be incorporated into distribution system resilience enhancement. In this paper, a preventative scheduling model for distribution systems is proposed. The model targets at allocating resources, especially mobile responsive resources such as mobile backup generators and mobile energy storage systems, to prepare for an extreme event in the day-ahead context. To achieve efficient resource allocation and scheduling, a machine learning-based outage prediction module is developed to predict vulnerable or risky segments of the distribution system based on historical operating records and extreme weather event forecast. By integrating the outage prediction results into the scheduling model, optimal resource allocation can be derived to help distribution systems prepare for an upcoming event and improve resilience performance. A real distribution feeder in North Carolina, U.S. is used in the case study to validate the proposed approach.

distributed energy resources↗

Digital zero noise extrapolation for quantum error mitigation

Zero-noise extrapolation (ZNE) is an increasingly popular technique for mitigating errors in noisy quantum computations without using additional quantum resources. We review the fundamentals of ZNE and propose several improvements to noise scaling and extrapolation, the two key components in the technique. We introduce unitary folding and parameterized noise scaling. Furthermore, these are digital noise scaling frameworks, i.e. one can apply them using only gate-level access common to most quantum instruction sets. We also study different extrapolation methods, including a new adaptive protocol that uses a statistical inference framework. Benchmarks of our techniques show error reductions of 18X to 24X over non-mitigated circuits and demonstrate ZNE effectiveness at larger qubit numbers than have been tested previously. In addition to presenting new results, this work is a self-contained introduction to the practical use of ZNE by quantum programmers.

quantum computing↗

Molecular Symmetry in VQE: A Dual Approach for Trapped-Ion Simulations of Benzene

Understanding complex chemical systems—such as biomolecules, catalysts, and novel materials—is a central goal of quantum simulations. Near-term strategies hinge on the use of variational quantum eigensolver (VQE) algorithms combined with a suitable ansatz. However, straightforward application of many chemically-inspired ansatze yields prohibitively deep circuits. In this work, we employ several circuit optimization methods tailored for trapped-ion quantum devices to enhance the feasibility of intricate chemical simulations. The techniques aim to lessen the depth of the unitary coupled cluster with singles and doubles (uCCSD) ansatz's circuit compilation, a considerable challenge on current noisy quantum devices. Furthermore, we use symmetry-inspired classical post-selection methods to further refine the outcomes and minimize errors in energy measurements, without adding quantum overhead. Our strategies encompass optimal mapping from orbital to qubit, term reordering to minimize entangling gates, and the exploitation of molecular spin and point group symmetry to eliminate redundant parameters. The inclusion of error mitigation via post-selection based on known molecular symmetries improves the results to near milli-Hartree accuracy. These methods, when applied to a benzene molecule simulation, enabled the construction of an 8-qubit circuit with 69 two-qubit entangling operations, pushing the limits for variational quantum eigensolver (VQE) circuits executed on quantum hardware to date. 1 1 This manuscript has been authored in part by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-000R22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The publisher acknowledges the US government license to provide public access under the DOE Public Access Plan(https://energy.gov/doe-public-access-plan).

Goings, Joshua↗

Assessing VQLS for Fluid Dynamics on a Hybrid Quantum-HPC Stack

Recent advances in quantum linear solvers offer a promising direction for accelerating extreme scientific computations such as fluid dynamics. However, the deep and complex circuits required by many quantum algorithms limit their practical use on current quantum hardware. The Variational Quantum Linear Solver (VQLS) presents a viable alternative for near-term quantum devices (NISQ), and initial efforts have explored its application to select fluid dynamics problems. In this work, we evaluate the use of VQLS for canonical fluid dynamics problems, aiming to identify pathways for generalizing its implementation across a broader class of systems. We analyze the impact of various circuit ansatz and classical optimizers on solution quality and convergence behavior. Furthermore, we assess the algorithm's feasibility within a hybrid quantum–high-performance computing (HPC) framework by porting it to QFw, a state-of-the-art quantum-HPC software stack. 11This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan. This research used resources of the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which is supported by the Office of Science of the US DOE under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725.

Gopalakrishnan Meena, Murali [ORNL] (ORCID:0000000↗

Fabrication Development for SPT-SLIM, a Superconducting Spectrometer for Line Intensity Mapping

Line Intensity Mapping (LIM) is a new observational technique that uses low-resolution observations of line emission to efficiently trace the large-scale structure of the Universe out to high redshift. Common mm/sub-mm emission lines are accessible from ground-based observatories, and the requirements on the detectors for LIM at mm-wavelengths are well matched to the capabilities of large-format arrays of superconducting sensors. We describe the development of an R = lambda/Delta lambda = 300 on-chip superconducting filter-bank spectrometer covering the 120-180 GHz band for future mm-LIM experiments, focusing on SPT-SLIM, a pathfinder LIM instrument for the South Pole Telescope. Radiation is coupled from the telescope optical system to the spectrometer chip via an array of feedhorn-coupled orthomode transducers. Superconducting microstrip transmission lines then carry the signal to an array of channelizing half-wavelength resonators, and the output of each spectral channel is sensed by a lumped element kinetic inductance detector (leKID). Key areas of development include incorporating new low-loss dielectrics to improve both the achievable spectral resolution and optical efficiency and development of a robust fabrication process to create a galvanic connection between ultra-pure superconducting thin-films to realize multi-material (hybrid) leKIDs. We provide an overview of the spectrometer design, fabrication process, and prototype devices.

microstrip resonators↗

On the Development of Compact HTS Coil Modules for Large Bore High Field Superconducting Magnets

Lower cost, high current density superconducting coil modules producing higher magnetic fields and cooled affordably are crucial for obtaining cost-effective, compact commercial fusion reactors. Accessibility to low cost, higher field magnets (>30 T) is also critical for the discovery of new quantum phenomena in materials, cosmic frontier and other topics in basic science research. The Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) is working with Princeton University to develop unique large bore, compact superconducting magnets to support science experiments including the development of new instrumentation for condensed matter physics and Axion dark matter search in the cosmic frontier. Core elements of these experiments are unique for access to lower cost, simple fabrication of compact superconducting magnets that can be cooled affordably, while integrated with dedicated science instruments. Conductor qualification and coil design concepts are discussed in support of needs for these experiments. PPPL has the unique expertise and experimental facilities to design, construct and test subscale coil modules for these projects. Compact high field coil modules were fabricated and tested to validate coil design concepts and coil performance. Finally, the design and model coil integration challenges are discussed to identify performance risks and demonstrate feasibility for deploying full scale large bore compact superconducting magnets for cost effective operations of multiple laboratory experiments.

axion dark matter↗

Design and Analysis of High Heat Flux Plasma-Facing Components for NSTX Upgrade

The National Spherical Tokamak Experiment (NSTX) upgrade (NSTX-U) requirements lead to enhanced heat loads on plasma-facing components (PFCs) especially in the divertor regions, where normal heat flux density can reach up to 8 MW/m 2 . For these high heat flux (HHF) regions, the PFCs were redesigned, to use castellations which relieved the thermal stresses associated with high incident heat flux. Another design feature of HHF PFCs is the absence of front face mounting holes which create localized areas of high temperature and thermal stress concentrations. Optimized shaping of the front face of the HHF PFCs eliminates regions where the front face is perpendicular to the heat flux direction during normal helicity operation and spreads the heat load. A unique mechanism was designed to connect PFC tiles to the NSTX-U center stack casing using locking features accessible from the low heat flux regions. Isotropic graphite was selected as the HHF PFC tile material. Initial tile design parameters were accessed using analytical expressions for pulsed heat flux loading. A working prototype of the locking mechanism was created during the initial stages of the design to prove the concept performance. This article presents an overview of the divertor HHF PFC design and the results of the thermal and structural analyses performed using ANSYS software. The results of the analyses cover normal operating conditions and disruptions which impose electromagnetic (EM) loads from eddy and halo currents. The 3-D, transient, nonlinear analyses took into account the temperature-dependent properties of the materials, friction interfaces between the parts, and variable electric properties of the parts and interfaces. The results confirm that the HHF PFC tiles remain within the allowable limits for the loads defined by the NSTX-U Recovery Project. In addition, tolerance stack up analyses were performed to ensure tile performance in the worst possible assembly configuration. Finally, the design process was completed successfully, and the NSTX HHF PFC tiles are currently in the production phase.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Numerical Analysis of Liquid Metal MHD Flow and Heat Transfer for Open-Surface Li Divertor in FNSF

Within the ongoing U.S.-based program on the development of liquid metal plasma-facing components, numerical simulations and analyses are performed to address the feasibility of the open-surface Li divertor. In the previous scoping studies (Smolentsev, 2021), heat-removal capabilities of the divertor were assessed using a simplified flow model for a slug-type velocity profile and constant flow thickness. Here, new analyses take into account forces acting on the flowing Li layer. Three reduced-order mathematical models are applied under the conditions of the U.S. Fusion Nuclear Science Facility (FNSF) to access magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) flow development effects, velocity distribution, and surface waves: 1) fully developed MHD flow; 2) quasi-2-D developing MHD flow; and 3) multiphase MHD flow. The obtained results for MHD flows and the surface heat flux computed with the plasma code scrape-off layer plasma simulation for ITER (SOLPS-ITER) are then used as input data to compute the temperature distribution in the divertor by solving the convection–diffusion energy equation.

Smolentsev, Sergey↗

Secrecy Analysis of Uplink IM-OFDMA Systems in the Presence of IQ Imbalance

This article introduces the secrecy analysis of the index modulation-based orthogonal frequency division multiple access (IM-OFDMA) schemes by considering the in-phase and quadrature imbalance (IQI) presence at the users' RF front ends. In particular, by assuming the existence of an eavesdropper, the secrecy performance of the considered uplink multiple-access system is investigated through the strictly positive secrecy capacity and secrecy outage probability, and closed-form expressions are derived for both quantities. Moreover, the secrecy performance is conducted regarding IQI compensation based on a preamble-based estimation method. Further, analysis of the impact of the different parameters of IM-OFDMA, IQI, and estimation method is included via analytical and simulation-based results. In conclusion, the results reveal that IM-OFDMA is more reliable in secrecy performance than OFDMA, regardless of whether IQI is present. Also, IQI compensation can lead to a better secrecy performance compared to the case of no IQI.

42 ENGINEERING↗

A Comprehensive Calibration Framework for the Northwest River Forecast Center

We present a comprehensive framework developed by the Northwest River Forecast Center for calibrating hydrologically diverse basins. The framework includes models for snow, soil moisture, routing, channel loss, and consumptive use. Data inputs include a wide range of open-access datasets for meteorology, land use, topography, and land cover. The framework uses conceptual hydrologic models to handle basins with various hydrologic regimes including rain-driven and snowmelt-dominated basins. We also develop a flexible automatic calibration system that can handle numerous unobservable model parameters in a computationally efficient manner. A single-basin automatic calibration run can typically be completed on a modern laptop in under 10 min. We found that model performance metrics for this new approach match the quality of the NWRFC's previous labor-intensive manual calibrations. The model performance also rivals that of a state-of-the-art deep learning model at a fraction of the computational cost. This framework presents a new standard for the quality of calibrations possible with lumped conceptual hydrologic models, combining careful data curation, an objective calibration framework, and expert local knowledge. In addition, we have made software packages available for the entire suite of National Weather Service River Forecast System models, including SAC-SMA, SNOW-17, and Lag-K. These modern interfaces are intended to increase accessibility and facilitate future research.

Forecasting↗