Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “Programming Models”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 1,495 records · Page 83

Uncertainty and Sensitivity Analysis of TREAT Transient Test no. 15

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is preparing for the resumption of transient testing using the Transient Reactor Test Facility (TREAT) located at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). In order to support the analysis of TREAT operation and experiment planning, the MAMMOTH reactor physics team has recently begun development of uncertainty and sensitivity analysis for the TREAT core simulated via MAMMOTH. MAMMOTH is a high-fidelity three-dimensional transient multi-physics code developed at INL under the DOE-NE Advanced Modeling and Simulation program (NEAMS). This research is part of the development presenting some initial uncertainty and sensitivity analysis of TREAT Transient Test no. 15. In this summary, we employ the Sobol sampling strategy implemented in RAVEN to efficiently perform the sensitivity and uncertainty analysis. The idea is using Sobol functional decomposition with generalized polynomial chaos (gPC) expansions to estimate the responses of interest. The gPC coefficients are then computed via the sparse grid spectral projection method. In addition, this strategy includes evaluation of the second or higher order sensitivity indices, allowing the study of interactions between several input variables. The principal focus of this analysis is to quantify the uncertainties in the total power and maximum fuel temperatures with respect to uncertainties in the initial transient conditions, such as rated power, fuel temperature, graphite fuel density and control rod boron concentration. In addition, both the first order and second order time-dependent sensitivity indices are computed and analyzed. The results show that the interactions between initial control rod boron concentration and the rated power will contribute at most 1% to the total uncertainty of the power peak.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

IN-CORE FLUX SENSOR EVALUATIONS AT THE ATR CRITICAL FACILITY.

As part of an Idaho State University (ISU)–led Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) National Scientific User Facility (NSUF) collaborative project that includes Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), flux detector evaluations were completed to compare their accuracy, response time, and longduration performance. Special fixturing, developed by INL, allows real-time flux detectors to be inserted into various Advanced Test Reactor Critical Facility (ATRC) core positions to perform lobe power measurements, axial flux profile measurements, and detector crosscalibrations. Detectors initially evaluated in this program included miniature fission chambers, specialized self-powered neutron detectors (SPNDs), and specially developed commercial SPNDs. Results from this program provide important insights related to flux detector accuracy and resolution for subsequent ATR and CEA experiments and yield new flux data required for benchmarking models in the ATR Life Extension Program (LEP) Modeling Update Project.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Infrastructure improvements in the National Reactor Innovation Center Virtual Test Bed

The National Reactor Innovation Center’s (NRIC) mission is to support deployment of novel reactor concepts. This is achieved by providing physical and virtual spaces for building and testing various components, systems, and complete pilot plants. The Virtual Test Bed (VTB) represents the virtual counterpart to the physical test bed. The VTB is being developed in collaboration with the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program. The mission of the VTB is to accelerate the deployment and licensing of advanced reactors by leveraging state-of-the-art modeling and simulation (M&S) tools developed by the DOE NEAMS program. This is accomplished via three primary means: (1) openly hosting simulations that showcase analysis capabilities, (2) continuously testing the models hosted against code updates to avoid deprecation, and (3) filling key M&S gaps that are relevant for the physical NRIC test beds. The VTB repository consists of two sub-entities: • A documentation website detailing the models: https://mooseframework.inl.gov/virtual_test_bed • A GitHub repository that hosts the corresponding files: https://github.com/idaholab/virtual_test_bed. This paper presents the infrastructure added to the VTB in the last two fiscal years. Additional information about the VTB can be found in various publications [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8].

22 - GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Status of New Models Hosted on the Virtual Test Bed (VTB) in 2024

The National Reactor Innovation Center (NRIC) mission is to support deployment of novel reactor concepts. This is achieved by providing physical and virtual spaces for building and testing various components, systems, and complete pilot plants. The Virtual Test Bed (VTB) represents the virtual counterpart to the physical test bed. It is in development in collaboration with the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program. The mission of the VTB is to accelerate the deployment and licensing of advanced reactors by leveraging state-of-the-art modeling and simulation (M&S) tools developed by the DOE NEAMS program. This is accomplished by three primary means: (1) openly hosting simulations that showcase analysis capabilities, (2) continuously testing the models hosted against code updates to avoid deprecation, and (3) filling key M&S gaps that are relevant for the physical NRIC test beds. The VTB repository consists of two sub-entities: 1. A documentation website detailing the models (https://mooseframework.inl.gov/virtual_test_bed). 2. A GitHub repository that hosts the corresponding files (https://github.com/idaholab/virtual_test_bed). Previous documentation on the models hosted in the VTB can be found in [1,2,3,4]. These references also include additional background information on the various NEAMS codes showcased in the VTB (which is omitted here for brevity). This paper primarily provides a status update of the most recent additions to the repository.

22 - GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

An Update on Improvements to NiCE Support for PROTEUS

The Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy's Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program has supported the development of the NEAMS Integrated Computational Environment (NiCE), a modeling and simulation workflow environment that provides services and plugins to facilitate tasks such as code execution, model input construction, visualization, and data analysis. This report details the development of workflows for the reactor core neutronics application, PROTEUS. This advanced neutronics application (primarily developed at Argonne National Laboratory) aims to improve nuclear reactor design and analysis by providing an extensible and massively parallel, finite-element solver for current and advanced reactor fuel neutronics modeling. The integration of PROTEUS-specific tools into NiCE is intended to make the advanced capabilities that PROTEUS provides more accessible to the nuclear energy research and development community. This report will detail the work done to improve existing PROTEUS workflow support in NiCE. We will demonstrate and discuss these improvements, including the development of flexible IO services, an improved interface for input generation, and the addition of advanced Fortran development tools natively in the platform.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

MARMOT update for oxide fuel modeling

This report summarizes the lower-length-scale research and development progresses in FY16 at Idaho National Laboratory in developing mechanistic materials models for oxide fuels, in parallel to the development of the MARMOT code which will be summarized in a separate report. This effort is a critical component of the microstructure based fuel performance modeling approach, supported by the Fuels Product Line in the Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program. The progresses can be classified into three categories: 1) development of materials models to be used in engineering scale fuel performance modeling regarding the effect of lattice defects on thermal conductivity, 2) development of modeling capabilities for mesoscale fuel behaviors including stage-3 gas release, grain growth, high burn-up structure, fracture and creep, and 3) improved understanding in material science by calculating the anisotropic grain boundary energies in UO$_2$ and obtaining thermodynamic data for solid fission products. Many of these topics are still under active development. They are updated in the report with proper amount of details. For some topics, separate reports are generated in parallel and so stated in the text. The accomplishments have led to better understanding of fuel behaviors and enhance capability of the MOOSE-BISON-MARMOT toolkit.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Developing a Validation Methodology for Expert-Informed Bayesian Network Models Supporting Nuclear Nonproliferation Analysis

Under the auspices of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s Signature Discovery Initiative (SDI), the research team developed a series of Bayesian Network models to assess multi-source signatures of nuclear programs. A Bayesian network is a mathematical model that can be used to marshal evidence to assess competing hypotheses. The purpose of the models was to allow non-expert analysts to benefit from the use of expert-informed mathematical models to assess nuclear programs, because such assessments require significant technical expertise ranging from the nuclear fuel cycle, construction and engineering, imagery analysis, and so forth. One such model developed under this research was aimed at assessing the consistency of open-source information about a nuclear facility with the facility’s declared use. The model incorporates factors such as location, security and safety features among others identified by subject matter experts as crucial to their assessments. The model includes key features, observables and their relationships. The model also provides documentation, which serves as training materials for the non-experts.

White, Amanda M.↗

Progress on Plant-Level Components for Nuclear Fuel Recycling: Commonality

Progress made in developing a common mathematical modeling framework for plant-level components of a simulation toolkit for nuclear fuel recycling is summarized. This ongoing work is performed under the DOE Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program, which has an element focusing on safeguards and separations (SafeSeps). One goal of this element is to develop a modeling and simulation toolkit for used nuclear fuel recycling. The primary function of the SafeSeps simulation toolkit is to enable the time-dependent coupling of separation modules and safeguards tools (either native or third-party supplied) that simulate and/or monitor the individual separation processes in a separations plant. The toolkit integration environment will offer an interface for the modules to register in the toolkit domain based on the commonality of diverse unit operations. This report discusses the source of this commonality from a combined mathematical modeling and software design perspectives, and it defines the initial basic concepts needed for development of application modules and their integrated form, that is, an application software. A unifying mathematical theory of chemical thermomechanical network transport for physicochemical systems is proposed and outlined as the basis for developing advanced modules. A program for developing this theory from the underlying first-principles continuum thermomechanics will be needed in future developments; accomplishment of this task will enable the development of a modern modeling approach for plant-level models. Rigorous, advanced modeling approaches at the plant-level can only proceed from the development of reduced (or low-order) models based on a solid continuum field theory foundation. Such development will pave the way for future programmatic activities on software verification, simulation validation, and model uncertainty quantification on a scientific basis; currently, no satisfactory foundation exists for considering these activities. The exploitation of mathematical commonality for unit operations with the intent of developing generic and comprehensive software for nuclear reprocessing has not been considered to this author's knowledge. Past attention has been given to plant-level processes on an individual and isolated basis, which has led to various models and corresponding codes implementing non-systematic approaches based on elementary principles of chemical processing. This practice has built an initial knowledge base, but it was not fruitful in producing a lasting and extensible simulation capability. In contrast, a common, rigorous, mathematical modeling framework for all plant-level operations, as proposed here, has a tremendous practical and theoretical value because it will reduce the software implementation work, creates a well-defined modeling standard to compare past and future models, and, more importantly, opens the doors for scientific considerations of simulation fidelity; the latter has an obvious beneficial impact in supporting experimental validation programs. Therefore, the proposed framework is likely to generate a solid foundation for modeling plant-level processes for physicochemical nuclear (and non-nuclear) applications. Demonstration of concrete module implementation is the subject of future communications including prototypes for several modules, namely, voloxidation, dissolver, digester, accountability tank, and solvent extraction. Unit-operation commonality is a key aspect to be explored for a successful implementation of these modules aimed at realizing various flowsheets and plant configurations.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Comparison of Real-Time Pressure Rail Selection Algorithms for the Hybrid Hydraulic Electric Architecture: Case Study on a Track Loader

Abstract The hybrid hydraulic electric architecture (HHEA) seeks to combine the high power/torque/force density of hydraulics with the efficiency of electric machines. A set of common pressure rails is used to provide a majority of the power and this power is modulated by small electric machines to provide precise control for the operator. The HHEA has been studied in previous work using off-line dynamic programming optimization to determine energy efficient pressure rail selections, but this approach requires drive cycle information apriori. A Lagrange multiplier method has also been investigated where a set of gains (Lagrange multipliers) are optimized off-line with the idea the these gains, once determined, could be used for real-time operation. In this work, three new real-time pressure rail selection algorithms that do not require future drive cycle information are investigated; greedy, torque minimizing, and thresholding. The greedy control is found to only use 1% more energy than the globally optimal dynamic programming solution; but a model of energy loss is required.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

A model-data intercomparison of CO2 exchange across North America: Results from the North American Carbon Program Site Synthesis

There is a continued need for models to improve consistency and agreement with observations [Friedlingstein et al., 2006], both overall and under more frequent extreme climatic events related to global environmental change such as drought [Trenberth et al., 2007]. Past validation studies of terrestrial biosphere models have focused only on few models and sites, typically in close proximity and primarily in forested biomes [e.g., Amthor et al., 2001; Delpierre et al., 2009; Grant et al., 2005; Hanson et al., 2004; Granier et al., 2007; Ichii et al., 2009; Ito, 2008; Siqueira et al., 2006; Zhou et al., 2008]. Furthermore, assessing model-data agreement relative to drought requires, in addition to high-quality observedCO2 exchange data, a reliable drought metric as well as a natural experiment across sites and drought conditions.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

A cross-platform execution engine for the quantum intermediate representation

Hybrid languages like the quantum intermediate representation (QIR) are essential for programming systems that mix quantum and conventional computing models, while execution of these programs is often deferred to a system-specific implementation. Here, we develop the QIR Execution Engine (QIR-EE) for parsing, interpreting, and executing QIR across multiple hardware platforms. QIR-EE uses LLVM to execute hybrid instructions specifying quantum programs and, by design, presents extension points that support customized runtime and hardware environments. We demonstrate an implementation that uses the XACC quantum hardware-accelerator library to dispatch prototypical quantum programs on different commercial quantum platforms and numerical simulators, and we validate execution of QIR-EE on IonQ, Quantinuum, and IBM hardware. Our results highlight the efficiency of hybrid executable architectures for handling mixed instructions, managing mixed data, and integrating with quantum computing frameworks to realize cross-platform execution.

LLVM↗

Risk-Based Distributionally Robust Optimal Power Flow With Dynamic Line Rating

In this paper, we propose a risk-based data-driven distributionally robust approach to investigating the optimal power flow with dynamic line rating. The risk terms, including penalties for load shedding, wind generation curtailment and line overload, are embedded into the objective function. To robustify the solution, we consider a distributional uncertainty set based on the second-order moment, that captures the correlation between wind generation outputs and line ratings, and also the Wasserstein distance, that hedges against data perturbations. We show that the proposed model can be reformulated as a convex conic program. Approximations of the proposed model are suggested, which leads to a significant reduction of the number of the constraints. For practical large-scale test systems, a distributionally robust optimal power flow model with Wasserstein-distance-based distributional uncertainty set and its convex reformulation are also provided. Simulation results on the 5-bus, the IEEE 118-bus and the Polish 2736-bus test systems validate the effectiveness of the proposed models.

distributionally robust optimization↗

NEAMS Technical Area Support in MOOSE

The Multiphysics Object-Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE) framework is a foundational capability used by the Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program to create over 15 different simulation tools for advanced nuclear reactors. Due to this ubiquity, improvements to the framework in support of modeling and simulation goals are critical to the program. These improvements can take many forms, including optimization, improved user experience, streamlined application programming interfaces (APIs), parallelism, and new capabilities. The work transcribed in this report was conducted in direct support of the simulation tools and has already been deployed. The capabilities outlined in this report include a factor of 10^4 improvement in dependency resolution speed, sorting of user objects, ability to compute residuals and Jacobians together, transfer fixes, support for the mortar method in finite volume discretizations, addition of generalized advection schemes for fluid simulations, 10^2 speedup in some Griffin simulations due to a new matrix-only solve type, and much more.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

User-oriented Improvements in the MOOSE Framework in Support of Multiphysics Simulation

The Multiphysics Object-Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE) framework is a foundational capability used by the Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program to create over 15 different simulation tools for advanced nuclear reactors. Due to this ubiquity, improvements to the framework in support of modeling and simulation goals are critical to the program. These improvements can take many forms, including optimization, improved user experience, streamlined application programming interfaces (APIs), parallelism, and new capabilities. The work transcribed in this report was conducted in direct support of the simulation tools and has already been deployed or will be deployed in the coming months. The capabilities were implemented in the same order as they are covered in this report: chainable execution objects or executors, support for transfers between same-level applications in a coupling scheme, support for boundary/subdomain restricted transfers, support for transfers between applications with different coordinate or unit systems, support for MOOSE applications in the NEAMS Workbench, deployment of the MOOSE application of the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) high-performance computing (HPC) OnDemand platform, the addition of a triangular meshing library in libMesh, and increased support of face variables.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

NEAMS Technical Area Support in MOOSE

The Multiphysics Object-Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE) framework is a foundational capability used by the Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program to create over 15 different simulation tools for advanced nuclear reactors. Due to this ubiquity, improvements to the framework in support of modeling and simulation goals are critical to the program. These improvements can take many forms, including optimization, improved user experience, streamlined application programming interfaces (APIs), parallelism, and new capabilities. The work transcribed in this report was conducted in direct support of the simulation tools and has already been deployed. The capabilities outlined in this report include addition of Times and Positions systems, redesign of mechanical contact constraints to enable the augmented Lagrange algorithm, overhaul of the restart system, and incorporation of p-refinement in MOOSE.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

NEAMS Technical Area Support in MOOSE

The Multiphysics Object-Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE) framework is a foundational capability used by the Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program to create over 15 different simulation tools for advanced nuclear reactors. Due to this ubiquity, improvements to the framework in support of modeling and simulation goals are critical to the program. These improvements can take many forms, including optimization, improved user experience, streamlined application programming interfaces (APIs), parallelism, and other new capabilities. The work described in this report was conducted in direct support of the simulation tools and has already been deployed. The capabilities outlined in this report include implementing hash table matrix assembly for efficient sparsity pattern construction for contact in BISON, developing re-step testing infrastructure for ensuring the viability of overlapping domain coupling between SAM and Pronghorn, allowing unique preconditioners for single-input multi-system solves, supporting multi-system in MOOSE’s workhorse executioners, and many more smaller feature enhancements and bug fixes.

97 - MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Roofline model toolkit: A practical tool for architectural and program analysis

We present preliminary results of the Roofline Toolkit for multicore, many core, and accelerated architectures. This paper focuses on the processor architecture characterization engine, a collection of portable instrumented micro benchmarks implemented with Message Passing Interface (MPI), and OpenMP used to express thread-level parallelism. These benchmarks are specialized to quantify the behavior of different architectural features. Compared to previous work on performance characterization, these microbenchmarks focus on capturing the performance of each level of the memory hierarchy, along with thread-level parallelism, instruction-level parallelism and explicit SIMD parallelism, measured in the context of the compilers and run-time environments. We also measure sustained PCIe throughput with four GPU memory managed mechanisms. By combining results from the architecture characterization with the Roofline model based solely on architectural specifications, this work offers insights for performance prediction of current and future architectures and their software systems. To that end, we instrument three applications and plot their resultant performance on the corresponding Roofline model when run on a Blue Gene/Q architecture.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Useability and Optimization Improvements in MOOSE

The Multiphysics Object-Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE) framework is a foundational capability used by the Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program to create over 15 different simulation tools for advanced nuclear reactors. Due to this broad use, improvements to the framework in support of modeling and simulation goals are critical to the program. These improvements can take many forms, including optimization, improved user experience, streamlined application programming interfaces (APIs), parallelism, and new capabilities. The work transcribed in this report was conducted in direct support of the simulation tools and has already been deployed or will be deployed in the coming months. The capabilities were implemented in the same order as they are covered in this report: increased support of face variables, arbitrary spatial and temporal evaluation of material properties, and the addition of a triangular meshing library in libMesh.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗