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At least 1,333 records · Page 74

A Multi-Year Plan for Enhancing Turbulence Modeling in Hydra-TH

The purpose of this milestone report is to document a multi-year plan for enhancing turbulence modeling in Hydra-TH. In Phase II of the Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors (CASL) program, Hydra-TH is being developed to the meet the high-fidelity, high-Reynolds number CFD based thermal hydraulic simulation needs of the program. This work will be conducted within the thermal hydraulics methods (THM) focus area. This objective will be met by; maturation of recently added models, strategic design/development of new models and systematic and rigorous testing of existing and new models and model extensions. This report will also serve to meet the requirements of CASL level three milestone, L3:THM.CFD.P10.02, scheduled for completion March 31, 2015.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Clinical Decision Support Project

As NASA plans for exploration missions into deep space, significant challenges are realized due to the distance from Earth. Beside the effects of microgravity and radiation exposure, the astronauts face the additional constraints of isolation, lack of resupply, increasingly difficult evacuation, and delayed and disrupted communication with ground-based medical care providers. These constraints require a paradigm shift from current medical care where crews rely on the real-time communications with ground-based medical care providers toward Earth-independent medical operations for astronaut medical care. Medical expertise and decision-making are ground-based for current International Space Station and planned Lunar missions. However, a deep space exploration crew will need to autonomously perform the detection, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of medical conditions. One approach to provide Earth-independent medical operations is to augment the requisite knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) of a time-constrained crew—operating under stressful conditions, combatting fatigue, and facing a potential medical crisis—with a robust clinical decision support system (CDSS). The CDSS is envisioned as an integrated, software-based tool deployed on a laptop computer or handheld device. The CDSS will assist the crew and ground support when interacting with knowledge/data bases (e.g. records, pharmacy, schedule), instrumentation (e.g. imaging, physiological monitoring devices), and habitat (e.g. wellness system, task performance system) and vehicle systems (e.g. environmental system, communication system). In addition, the human interface will employ a context-based approach that accounts for the crew’s situation. Thus, extraneous and clinically/operationally non-relevant information are reduced to avoid an increase in cognitive load. The framework of an ideal spaceflight CDSS is to include core and advanced analytical features that maintain a flexible platform for integrating new technology in the future. The Exploration Medical Capability (ExMC) Element of the Human Research Program (HRP) is expanding the boundaries of space medical systems to advance the care of astronauts on future exploration missions beyond low Earth orbit by actively identifying and testing next-generation medical care and crew health maintenance technologies. The Clinical Decision Support (CDS) project addressed ap Medical-701 within the Inflight Medical Conditions risk: “We need to increase inflight medical capabilities and identify new capabilities that (a) maximize benefit and/or (b) reduce “costs” on human system/mission/vehicle resources.” Though mass, volume, and power will face increasing constraints, the projected computational capabilities of spacecraft systems will increase exponentially as information technology advances in this decade and beyond. Hence, data, software, and computational resources will play an essential and synergistic role in maintaining crew health, wellness, and performance in deep space missions. The focus of the CDS project was to develop recommended requirements for an in-vehicle CDSS that acts as a ‘virtual assistant’ for delivering optimal health, performance, and medical care during exploration missions. In fiscal year 2022 (FY22), the CDS project was chartered to baseline and/or revise all CDS project related documentation and update the CDS project model to include the revised CDSS Concept of Operations, revised systems-based modeling language (SysML) activity diagrams, and baseline requirements. The focus of this presentation will be an overview of the CDS products and CDS model content.

Decision Support↗

Statistical Framework for Planning a Shelf Life Program with Binary Performance Data

This document outlines a statistical framework for establishing a shelf-life program for components whose performance is measured by a binary response, usually ‘pass’ or ‘fail.’ The approach applies to both single measurement devices and repeated measurement devices. The high-level objective of these plans is to quickly detect any sizeable increase in fraction defective as the product ages. The statistical approach is to choose a sample size and monitoring technique that alarms when the fraction defective increases to an unacceptably high level, but does not alarm when the process is at nominal. The nominal (acceptable) fraction defective is used, and an increased fraction defective (unacceptable) is assumed as part of the control chart design. The control chart recommended for this problem is the Bernoulli Cumulative Sum (CUSUM) control chart.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

LANL Meteorological Program Self-Assessment 2021 Update

This self-assessment, documented in Table 1, has shown that there has been continued significant progress achieved in meeting the intent of the 21 recommendations from the 2015 DMCC Assist Visit. Every year after the Assist Visit, the LANL Met Program has improved, mainly by addressing the recommendations in the Assist Visit report. The Met Program management should continue to strive to apply its limited resources and seek to acquire additional human capital and physical resources to meet the dynamic needs of its growing sitewide customer base. This includes additional upgrading of the hardware and software elements of the Met Program and implementation of its operational procedures and QAPP to ensure it will consistently meet important present program requirements, as well as anticipated future requirements. These improvements have been summarized in the “present improvements and future initiatives” column in Table 1.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Description of the NASA Hypobaric Decompression Sickness Database (1982-1998)

The availability of high-speed computers, data analysis software, and internet communication are compelling reasons to describe and make available computer databases from many disciplines. Methods: Human research using hypobaric chambers to understand and then prevent decompression sickness (DCS) during space walks has been conducted at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) from 1982 to 1998. The data are archived in the NASA Hypobaric Decompression Sickness Database, within an Access 2003 Relational Database. Results: There are 548 records from 237 individuals that participated in 31 unique tests. Each record includes physical characteristics, the denitrogenation procedure that was tested, and the outcome of the test, such as the report of a DCS symptom and the intensity of venous gas emboli (VGE) detected with an ultrasound Doppler bubble detector as they travel in the venous blood along the pulmonary artery on the way to the lungs. We documented 84 cases of DCS and 226 cases where VGE were detected. The test altitudes were 10.2, 10.1, 6.5, 6.0, and 4.3 pounds per square inch absolute (psia). 346 records are from tests conducted at 4.3 psia, the operating pressure of the current U.S. space suit. 169 records evaluate the Staged 10.2 psia Decompression Protocol used by the Space Shuttle Program. The mean exposure time at altitude was 242.3 minutes (SD = 80.6), with a range from 120 to 360 minutes. Among our test subjects, 96 records of exposures are females. The mean age of all test subjects was 31.8 years (SD = 7.17), with a range from 20 to 54 years. Discussion: These data combined with other published databases and evaluated with metaanalysis techniques would extend our understanding about DCS. A better understanding about the cause and prevention of DCS would benefit astronauts, aviators, and divers.

Wessel, J. H., III↗

Mobile Device Application for Gunshot Trilateration

The New Mexico Small Business Assistance program at Sandia National Labs and Parental Values, LLC have agreed to explore commonly known principles to describe techniques in trilateration. The objective from Parental Values' standpoint is to use these commonly known principles for the purpose of their own software development by their employees. The software would be meant for mobile devices held by minors and the software would be monitored by parent(s) and/or guardians. The software would be able to notify parent(s)/guardian(s) in the event of an active shooter in a proximity close enough for the mobile devices' onboard microphones to detect a gunshot's noise. This document is meant for the employees of Parental Values to understand the commonly known principles as it applies to their intended implementation.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

User Manual for MC 2 -3 Gamma Library Generation

This report provides the documentation for the revised procedure to generate the MC 2 -3 gamma library with the latest versions of PreGAMMA and GenGAMMA which have recently been updated to fix the program errors and inconsistent data processing for some isotopes identified in a recent verification and validation study of the MC 2 -3 gamma library. A few associated errors associated with gamma processing were also identified and fixed in the MC 2 -3 code. Addressing the changes in MC 2 -3, the procedure to generate the PMATRX and GAMISO datasets is discussed as well. The input data of PreGAMMA and GenGAMMA are discussed in detail using sample input data. In addition, the structure and formats of the MC 2 -3 gamma library are provided in detail.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

US ATLAS and US CMS HPC and Cloud Blueprint

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN houses two general purpose detectors - ATLAS and CMS - which conduct physics programs over multi-year runs to generate increasingly precise and extensive datasets. The efforts of the CMS and ATLAS collaborations lead to the discovery of the Higgs boson, a fundamental particle that gives mass to other particles, representing a monumental achievement in the field of particle physics that was recognized with the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2013 to François Englert and Peter Higgs. These collaborations continue to analyze data from the LHC and are preparing for the high luminosity data taking phase at the end of the decade. The computing models of these detectors rely on a distributed processing grid hosted by more than 150 associated universities and laboratories worldwide. However, such new data will require a significant expansion of the existing computing infrastructure. To address this, both collaborations have been working for years on integrating High Performance Computers (HPC) and commercial cloud resources into their infrastructure and continue to assess the potential role of such resources in order to cope with the demands of the new high luminosity era. US ATLAS and US CMS computing management have charged the authors to provide a blueprint document looking at current and possibly future use of HPC and Cloud resources, outlining integration models, possibilities, challenges and costs. The document will address key questions such as the optimal use of resources for the experiments and funding agencies, the main obstacles that need to be overcome for resource adoption, and areas that require more attention.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Design and aerodynamic performance evaluation of a high-work mixed flow turbine stage

As axial and radial turbine designs have been pushed to their aerothermodynamic and mechanical limits, the mixed-flow turbine (MFT) concept has been projected to offer performance and durability improvements, especially when ceramic materials are considered. The objective of this NASA/U.S. Army sponsored mixed-flow turbine (AMFT) program was to determine the level of performance attainable with MFT technology within the mechanical constraints of 1997 projected ceramic material properties. The MFT geometry is similar to a radial turbine, exhibiting a large radius change from inlet to exit, but differing in that the inlet flowpath is not purely radial, nor axial, but mixed; it is the inlet geometry that gives rise to the name 'mixed-flow'. The 'mixed' orientation of the turbine inlet offers several advantages over radial designs by allowing a nonzero inlet blade angle yet maintaining radial-element blades. The oblique inlet not only improves the particle-impact survivability of the design, but improves the aerodynamic performance by reducing the incidence at the blade inlet. The difficulty, however, of using mixed-flow geometry lies in the scarcity of detailed data and documented design experience. This paper reports the design of a MFT stage designed with the intent to maximize aerodynamic performance by optimizing design parameters such as stage reaction, rotor incidence, flowpath shape, blade shape, vane geometry, and airfoil counts using 2-D, 3-D inviscid, and 3-D viscous computational fluid dynamics code. The aerodynamic optimization was accomplished while maintaining mechanical integrity with respect to vibration and stress levels in the rotor. A full-scale cold-flow rig test was performed with metallic hardware fabricated to the specifications of the hot ceramic geometry to evaluate the stage performance.

Neri, Remo N.↗

A Prototype Software to Demonstrate a Data Catalog for Hanford Environmental Datasets

Ensuring that data on long-term environmental remediation at the Hanford Site is high-quality, traceable, and easily accessible is an ongoing challenge, complicated by decades of data collection, multiple contractors maintaining data sources, and the wide range of data types. A centralized data catalog, known as the Hanford Environmental Information and Data Index (HEIDI), has been under development as part of the Hanford Environmental Data Management (HEDM) program to address these challenges. HEIDI fulfills a critical need to bring together a wide range of data types and sizes from multiple authoritative data sources, while documenting the data pedigree and quality information (i.e., traceable to the data source/originator). This document describes additional development and maturation of the HEIDI prototype. Key accomplishments included deploying the catalog software, Esri Geoportal Server, on a server accessible to Hanford Local Area Network users, conducting cybersecurity evaluations, investigating integrated authentication solutions, and conducting functional testing of the catalog prototype. The server-based deployment enabled targeted feedback, leading to enhancements including improved accessibility features and an expanded metadata schema. Specifications for the server-based deployment of the prototype catalog and the HEIDI metadata schema are provided in this document to support subsequent HEIDI deployment by the U.S. Department of Energy Richland Operations Office.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Radiological Monitoring Plan for the Oak Ridge Y-12 National Security Complex: Surface Water

DOE Order 458.1 requires that dose estimates consider contributions from all facilities. In the Y-12 Radiological Monitoring Plan (RMP), surface water is monitored at points that reflect individual facilities, as well as at points that reflect the combined contributions of all facilities. This monitoring plan does not consider other potential routes (i.e., airborne releases and food chains). Thus, a complete determination of total effective dose (TED) cannot be made based on this plan alone. The other routes from Y-12, and all routes from other DOE facilities on the Oak Ridge Reservation (e.g., Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and The Heritage Center), must be considered in order to satisfy DOE Order 458.1 requirements. Determination of TED from all sites and pathways is done through the use of dose-assessment models and is documented in the Annual Site Environmental Report. This monitoring plan provides adequate monitoring goals for Y-12 surface water releases to provide input of sufficient sensitivity and accuracy to reliably determine the Y-12 surface water component of the TED. The routine radiological monitoring program is designed to monitor effluents at four types of locations: (1) treatment facilities, (2) other point and area source discharges, (3) instream locations, and (4) production building roof run-off. With this sampling and analysis program, data will be obtained on primary point sources as well as on locations that represent the composite of other potential sources. This plan will be reviewed periodically to determine necessary modifications to the sampling frequencies, parameters, and locations. Modifications, if any, will be based on the analysis of the previous data and its effectiveness in satisfying the objectives of this plan. Appendix A contains graphs of the sum of the DCS fractions for locations and frequencies contained in a previous version of this plan. The data was collected from January 2009 through December 2019. Each sample was analyzed, and each result was divided by the appropriate DCS to compute a DCS fraction. These fractions were summed for all isotopes. According to DOE –STD-1196-2011, the annual average of these sums should be below 1.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Multicolor pyrometer for materials processing in space

This report documents the work performed by Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI), under contract to NASA JPL, during a 2.5-year SBIR Phase 2 Program. The program goals were to design, construct, and program a prototype passive imaging pyrometer capable of measuring, as accurately as possible, and controlling the temperature distribution across the surface of a moving object suspended in space. These goals were achieved and the instrument was delivered to JPL in November 1989. The pyrometer utilizes an optical system which operates at short wavelengths compared to the peak of the black-body spectrum for the temperature range of interest, thus minimizing errors associated with a lack of knowledge about the heated sample's emissivity. To cover temperatures from 900 to 2500 K, six wavelengths are available. The preferred wavelength for measurement of a particular temperature decreases as the temperature increases. Images at all six wavelengths are projected onto a single CCD camera concurrently. The camera and optical system have been calibrated to relate the measured intensity at each pixel to the temperature of the heated object. The output of the camera is digitized by a frame grabber installed in a personal computer and analyzed automatically to yield temperature information. The data can be used in a feedback loop to alter the status of computer-activated switches and thereby control a heating system.

Frish, M. B.↗

Database for propagation models

A propagation researcher or a systems engineer who intends to use the results of a propagation experiment is generally faced with various database tasks such as the selection of the computer software, the hardware, and the writing of the programs to pass the data through the models of interest. This task is repeated every time a new experiment is conducted or the same experiment is carried out at a different location generating different data. Thus the users of this data have to spend a considerable portion of their time learning how to implement the computer hardware and the software towards the desired end. This situation may be facilitated considerably if an easily accessible propagation database is created that has all the accepted (standardized) propagation phenomena models approved by the propagation research community. Also, the handling of data will become easier for the user. Such a database construction can only stimulate the growth of the propagation research it if is available to all the researchers, so that the results of the experiment conducted by one researcher can be examined independently by another, without different hardware and software being used. The database may be made flexible so that the researchers need not be confined only to the contents of the database. Another way in which the database may help the researchers is by the fact that they will not have to document the software and hardware tools used in their research since the propagation research community will know the database already. The following sections show a possible database construction, as well as properties of the database for the propagation research.

Kantak, Anil V.↗

Evolution of International Space Station Program Safety Review Processes and Tools

The International Space Station Program at NASA is constantly seeking to improve the processes and systems that support safe space operations. To that end, the ISS Program decided to upgrade their Safety and Hazard data systems with 3 goals: make safety and hazard data more accessible; better support the interconnection of different types of safety data; and increase the efficiency (and compliance) of safety-related processes. These goals are accomplished by moving data into a web-based structured data system that includes strong process support and supports integration with other information systems. Along with the data systems, ISS is evolving its submission requirements and safety process requirements to support the improved model. In contrast to existing operations (where paper processes and electronic file repositories are used for safety data management) the web-based solution provides the program with dramatically faster access to records, the ability to search for and reference specific data within records, reduced workload for hazard updates and approval, and process support including digital signatures and controlled record workflow. In addition, integration with other key data systems provides assistance with assessments of flight readiness, more efficient review and approval of operational controls and better tracking of international safety certifications. This approach will also provide new opportunities to streamline the sharing of data with ISS international partners while maintaining compliance with applicable laws and respecting restrictions on proprietary data. One goal of this paper is to outline the approach taken by the ISS Progrm to determine requirements for the new system and to devise a practical and efficient implementation strategy. From conception through implementation, ISS and NASA partners utilized a user-centered software development approach focused on user research and iterative design methods. The user-centered approach used on the new ISS hazard system utilized focused user research and iterative design methods employed by the Human Computer Interaction Group at NASA Ames Research Center. Particularly, the approach emphasized the reduction of workload associated with document and data management activities so more resources can be allocated to the operational use of data in problem solving, safety analysis, and recurrence control. The methods and techniques used to understand existing processes and systems, to recognize opportunities for improvement, and to design and review improvements are described with the intent that similar techniques can be employed elsewhere in safety operations. A second goal of this paper is to provide and overview of the web-based data system implemented by ISS. The software selected for the ISS hazard systemMission Assurance System (MAS)is a NASA-customized vairant of the open source software project Bugzilla. The origin and history of MAS as a NASA software project and the rationale for (and advantages of) using open-source software are documented elsewhere (Green, et al., 2009).

Ratterman, Christian D.↗

SCALE Calculations Replicating ARH-600 Data

This report documents Standardized Computer Analyses for Licensing Evaluation (SCALE) calculations replicating data from the ARH-600 criticality handbook. These calculations complement those reproduced with MCNP in PRC-NS-00009. Calculations were performed with SCALE version 6.1, using the v7-238 cross section library. The original ARH-600 data were calculated by the Atlantic Richfield Hanford (ARH) Company starting in the 1960s, and Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP) calculations were performed by the Hanford Plateau Remediation Company in 2010. This report is not intended to replace final analysis of fissile systems by qualified criticality personnel.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

National Hurricane Program Metrics Framework

The need for metrics for planning and response measures was identified as key gap to be addressed in the National Hurricane Program's (NHP) Technology Modernization effort. This document proposes a framework for defining a set of metrics for planning and response that will be implemented in the NHP products of hurricane evacuation studies (HES) and post-storm assessments (PSA). To determine the feasibility of this framework, a survey of current HES and PSAs was carried out followed by and then used to determine if the proposed metrics are currently captured. While there is a wide variety in data availability and detail, the implementation of these metrics is not only feasible but presents an opportunity to improve on current practices. The final implementation of this framework shall require the ongoing feedback from local, state, tribal, and federal stakeholders.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

A case study of tuning MapReduce for efficient Bioinformatics in the cloud

The combination of the Hadoop MapReduce programming model and cloud computing allows biological scientists to analyze next-generation sequencing (NGS) data in a timely and cost-effective manner. Cloud computing platforms remove the burden of IT facility procurement and management from end users and provide ease of access to Hadoop clusters. However, biological scientists are still expected to choose appropriate Hadoop parameters for running their jobs. More importantly, the available Hadoop tuning guidelines are either obsolete or too general to capture the particular characteristics of bioinformatics applications. In this paper, we aim to minimize the cloud computing cost spent on bioinformatics data analysis by optimizing the extracted significant Hadoop parameters. When using MapReduce-based bioinformatics tools in the cloud, the default settings often lead to resource underutilization and wasteful expenses. We choose k-mer counting, a representative application used in a large number of NGS data analysis tools, as our study case. Experimental results show that, with the fine-tuned parameters, we achieve a total of 4× speedup compared with the original performance (using the default settings). Finally, this paper presents an exemplary case for tuning MapReduce-based bioinformatics applications in the cloud, and documents the key parameters that could lead to significant performance benefits.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Abstract Machine Models and Proxy Architectures for Exascale Computing

To achieve exascale computing, fundamental hardware architectures must change. The most significant consequence of this assertion is the impact on the scientific and engineering applications that run on current high performance computing (HPC) systems, many of which codify years of scientific domain knowledge and refinements for contemporary computer systems. In order to adapt to exascale architectures, developers must be able to reason about new hardware and determine what programming models and algorithms will provide the best blend of performance and energy efficiency into the future. While many details of the exascale architectures are undefined, an abstract machine model is designed to allow application developers to focus on the aspects of the machine that are important or relevant to performance and code structure. These models are intended as communication aids between application developers and hardware architects during the co-design process. We use the term proxy architecture to describe a parameterized version of an abstract machine model, with the parameters added to elucidate potential speeds and capacities of key hardware components. These more detailed architectural models are formulated to enable discussion between the developers of analytic models and simulators and computer hardware architects. They allow for application performance analysis and hardware optimization opportunities. In this report our goal is to provide the application development community with a set of models that can help software developers prepare for exascale. In addition, through the use of proxy architectures, we can enable a more concrete exploration of how well new and evolving application codes map onto future architectures. This second version of the document addresses system scale considerations and provides a system-level abstract machine model with proxy architecture information.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗