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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 163 records · Page 9
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2015

Sensitivities and correlations of critical experiments due to uncertainties of system parameters and nuclear data - 14416

With increasing demand on accuracy of criticality calculations, correlations between benchmark experiments due to system parameter uncertainties become of interest in bias determination. The impact of different interpretations of system parameter uncertainties on the calculation of covariances and correlations of k{sub eff} is discussed in this article. Following the suggestion of the OECD/NEA EGUACSA Benchmark phase IV [1], 21 experiments from the ICSBEP international Handbook of Evaluated Criticality Safety Benchmarks [2] are used for this analysis (LEU-COMP-THERM series 07, exp. 01-04 and 39, exp. 01-17). The experiments share certain assembly and fuel features and were carried out in the same lab. Therefore, correlations in the calculation of k{sub eff} appear. Correlation coefficients between experiments due to nuclear data uncertainties are calculated with TSUNAMI [3] and show high values for most experiments. For the correlation analysis due to system parameter uncertainties mainly two scenarios are considered: In scenario A all uncertain parameters are varied mutually for all fuel rods, representing a systematic deviation of the actual experimental setup from the design value. This analysis is performed for all experiments listed above. In scenario E certain parameters like the outer cladding diameter are varied for each fuel rod individually, representing a random scattering of the varied parameter. Scenarios B, C and D represent intermediate scenarios between A and E, which are discussed shortly. Uncertainty and sensitivity calculations of k{sub eff} on the uncertain experimental parameters based on Monte Carlo sampling are presented and discussed. The calculations were performed with SUnCISTT (Sensitivities and Uncertainties in Criticality Inventory and Source Term Tool [4]) and SCALE 6.1.2 [3]. For the 21 EGUACSA proposed experiments the outer cladding diameter is the leading effect for the uncertainty of k{sub eff} for scenario A. In contrast, for scenario E the impact of the cladding diameter on k{sub eff} cancels out due to rod wise variations leaving the fuel diameter as the leading effect. The correlation analysis based on system parameter uncertainties indicates a significant dependence of the correlation coefficients on the interpretation of the uncertainties. It shows high values for scenario A, if the neutronic features are similar (EALF, H/U). For scenario E the overall correlations are significantly smaller and variations between experiments decrease. The impact of the determined correlations on bias calculations of application cases will be discussed by the authors in the accompanying paper 'Impact of correlated data in validation procedures'. (authors)

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2015

Impact of correlated data in validation procedures - 14483

The increasing demand on accuracy of criticality calculations leads to the question, how to treat correlated data of benchmark experiments correctly. Correlations in the process of validation arise for example if a configuration in a series of experiments shares certain components, e.g. fuel rods. Traditional methods of code validation do not treat correlations explicitly, but give a more conservative estimation of the bias. Including correlations can lead to a more precise estimation. In the work at hand, a method is discussed based on Bayes theorem to include correlations in the experimental data when estimating an application case k{sub eff}. After a short introduction to the applied method and the demonstration of the general capability of it to predict the k{sub eff} correctly, it is shown how the calculated k{sub eff} of an application case depends on correlations in experimental data for a simple Toy Model. The impact of ignoring correlations and taking to account lower and higher correlations is shown and discussed. Further results are shown using a database of correlated experimental data from the International Handbook of Criticality Safety Experiments to estimate the bias of two application cases. The experiments were chosen following the suggestion of the OECD/NEA EGUACSA Benchmark phase IV and consists of 21 experiments from the LEU-COMP-THERM series 007 and 039. With the extracted data results the calculated k{sub eff} values of the application cases are shown and discussed for different examples of correlations. The calculations were done by applying Monte-Carlo sampling methods with the GRS tool SUnCISTT, using ORNL's SCALE 6.1.2. This work discusses a possible way of treating correlations in the recalculation of critical experiments to get a more precise bias estimation of the used code system. It will be shown, that the presented method is capable to treat similarities in experimental setups of data used to calculate the bias correctly, independent of the size of similarities. The presented method is in principle capable of assessing regimes with little experimental data to estimate a bias. (authors)

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2015

The composition of seawater and the effect of seawater immersion on reactivity - 14499

Following the Fukushima Daiichi accident a need arose to perform defense-in-depth analyses to assess the effect of seawater immersion on the reactivity of nuclear fuel. This paper derives a composition for Standard Seawater based on the Reference Composition using the International Thermodynamic Equation of Seawater - 2010 (TEOS-10). The Reference Composition for seawater is based on measurements of the Atlantic surface seawater and assumes no organic or inorganic material is entrained in the seawater. Using the Reference Composition, a methodology for determining the composition of seawater as a function of temperature, pressure and salinity is developed. These seawater compositions may be used in nuclear criticality safety analyses to determine the effect of seawater immersion on reactivity. Results of a sensitivity study are presented that illustrate the effect of seawater immersion and salinity on the reactivity of a representative low-enriched uranium critical assembly, LEU-COMP-THERM-002. (author)

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Evaluation of an unexpected reflector temperature effect for water-isolated array configurations - 14500

It has been conventional wisdom in the criticality safety discipline that for spent fuel systems like water pit storage and transportation, modeling water at its peak density will maximize reactivity. Thus, modeling water at 3.96 deg. C will produce a conservatively bounding k{sub eff} for that configuration. This assumption has been found to be incorrect for certain high-leakage water-isolated array configurations. In fact, temperatures up to the boiling point of water can in fact be more reactive, and the most reactive temperature is highly dependent upon the specific fuel configuration being analyzed. In light of the accident at Fukushima-Daiichi - where the spent fuel pool temperature increased - knowledge of this unexpected behavior is essential to ensuring that criticality safety evaluations are conservatively bounding. To illustrate the reflector temperature effect, MC21 calculations are provided for a sensitivity study based on LEU-COMP-THERM-044, which models the IPEN/MB-01 reactor at various temperatures between 3.9 deg. C and 93.3 deg. C. (authors)

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2023

The Case for and Against a Gadolinium Bias in SCALE: Round 2

The “Opening Arguments” for and against a gadolinium bias in SCALE were presented at the American Nuclear Society Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in June, 2018. Some critical experiments included in the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Verified, Archived Library of Inputs and Data (VALID) indicate a significant bias as a function of gadolinium concentration. Other experiments indicate that no significant bias exists. The work presented here develops a larger suite of gadolinium-bearing benchmark models to further examine code, data, and benchmark performance. The new benchmark models have been reviewed for accuracy, but documentation and review for addition to the VALID library have not been completed. The problematic benchmarks included in VALID are HEU-SOL-THERM-014 and -016. These are two evaluations from a series of experiments from the Institute for Physics and Power Engineering (IPPE), Russia, documented in the International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP) Handbook. The entire set of evaluations also includes HEU-SOL-THERM-015, -017, -018, -019, and -025. Each evaluation contains a different uranium concentration, and different configurations within each evaluation include different gadolinium concentrations. These 7 evaluations contain a total of 52 configurations and form the largest subset of experiments considered, and they allow for a more complete assessment of the performance of these benchmarks than has historically been possible using just the HEU-SOL-THERM-014 and -016 results. Additional solution experiments are considered, including MIX-SOL-THERM-006 and -007 and PU-SOL-THERM-034. MIX-SOL-THERM-007 is in the VALID library, whereas MIX-SOL-THERM-006 and PU-SOL-THERM-034 are not. The results for MIX-SOL THERM-007 have not shown a gadolinium trend. These mixed- and plutonium-fueled solutions include 28 configurations. Some experiments including solid fuel and solid gadolinium are also included. These experiments include highly enriched uranium (HEU) foils moderated with polyethylene in HEU-MET-THERM-010, -016, and -034, and low enriched uranium (LEU) pin arrays with gadolinia absorber rods in LEU-COMP THERM-036 and -043. A total 32 cases with solid fuel are included. The IPPE solution benchmarks show a fairly high degree of variability, but no clear trend as a function of gadolinium concentration can be observed. The mixed- and plutonium-fueled solutions show less variability than the HEU solutions and also no trend relative to gadolinium concentration. The solid-fueled experiments also show no trend as a function of gadolinium content. The entire set of benchmarks shows no clear trend on gadolinium content or the energy of the average neutron lethargy causing fission.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2013

An algorithm for online optimization of accelerators

We developed a general algorithm for online optimization of accelerator performance, i.e., online tuning, using the performance measure as the objective function. This method, named robust conjugate direction search (RCDS), combines the conjugate direction set approach of Powell's method with a robust line optimizer which considers the random noise in bracketing the minimum and uses parabolic fit of data points that uniformly sample the bracketed zone. Moreover, it is much more robust against noise than traditional algorithms and is therefore suitable for online application. Simulation and experimental studies have been carried out to demonstrate the strength of the new algorithm.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Fast, clash-free RNA conformational morphing using molecular junctions

Non-coding ribonucleic acids (ncRNA) are functional RNA molecules that are not translated into protein. They are extremely dynamic, adopting diverse conformational substates, which enables them to modulate their interaction with a large number of other molecules. The flexibility of ncRNA provides a challenge for probing their complex 3D conformational landscape, both experimentally and computationally. As a result, despite their conformational diversity, ncRNAs mostly preserve their secondary structure throughout the dynamic ensemble. Here we present a kinematics-based procedure to morph an RNA molecule between conformational substates, while avoiding inter-atomic clashes. We represent an RNA as a kinematic linkage, with fixed groups of atoms as rigid bodies and rotatable bonds as degrees of freedom. Our procedure maintains RNA secondary structure by treating hydrogen bonds between base pairs as constraints. The constraints define a lower-dimensional, secondary-structure constraint manifold in conformation space, where motions are largely governed by molecular junctions of unpaired nucleotides. On a large benchmark set, we show that our morphing procedure compares favorably to peer algorithms, and can approach goal conformations to within a low all-atom RMSD by directing fewer than 1% of its atoms. Furthermore, our results suggest that molecular junctions can modulate 3D structural rearrangements, while secondary structure elements guide large parts of the molecule along the transition to the correct final conformation.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2019

diBELLA: Distributed Long Read to Long Read Alignment

© 2019 ACM. We present a parallel algorithm and scalable implementation for genome analysis, specifically the problem of finding overlaps and alignments for data from "third generation" long read sequencers [29]. While long sequences of DNA offer enormous advantages for biological analysis and insight, current long read sequencing instruments have high error rates and therefore require different approaches to analysis than their short read counterparts. Our work focuses on an efficient distributed-memory parallelization of an accurate single-node algorithm for overlapping and aligning long reads. We achieve scalability of this irregular algorithm by addressing the competing issues of increasing parallelism, minimizing communication, constraining the memory footprint, and ensuring good load balance. The resulting application, diBELLA, is the first distributed memory overlapper and aligner specifically designed for long reads and parallel scalability. We describe and present analyses for high level design trade-offs and conduct an extensive empirical analysis that compares performance characteristics across state-of-the-art HPC systems as well as a commercial cloud architectures, highlighting the advantages of state-of-the-art network technologies.

Ellis, Marquita↗
DOE OSTI2017

Method for computationally efficient design of dielectric laser accelerator structures

Here, dielectric microstructures have generated much interest in recent years as a means of accelerating charged particles when powered by solid state lasers. The acceleration gradient (or particle energy gain per unit length) is an important figure of merit. To design structures with high acceleration gradients, we explore the adjoint variable method, a highly efficient technique used to compute the sensitivity of an objective with respect to a large number of parameters. With this formalism, the sensitivity of the acceleration gradient of a dielectric structure with respect to its entire spatial permittivity distribution is calculated by the use of only two full-field electromagnetic simulations, the original and ‘adjoint’. The adjoint simulation corresponds physically to the reciprocal situation of a point charge moving through the accelerator gap and radiating. Using this formalism, we perform numerical optimizations aimed at maximizing acceleration gradients, which generate fabricable structures of greatly improved performance in comparison to previously examined geometries.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Using NVMe Gen3 PCIe SSD Cards in High-density Servers for High-performance Big Data Transfer Over Multiple Network Channels

This Technical Note describes how the Zettar team came up with a data transfer cluster design that convincingly proved the feasibility of using high-density servers for high-performance Big Data transfers. It then outlines the tests, operations, and observations that address a potential over-heating concern regarding the use of Non-Volatile Memory Host Controller Interface Specification (NVMHCI aka NVM Express or NVMe) Gen 3 PCIe SSD cards in high-density servers. Finally, it points out the possibility of developing a new generation of high-performance Science DMZ data transfer system for the data-intensive research community and commercial enterprises.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2015

A Massively Parallel Solver for the Mechanical Harmonic Analysis of Accelerator Cavities

ACE3P is a 3D massively parallel simulation suite that developed at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory that can perform coupled electromagnetic, thermal and mechanical study. Effectively utilizing supercomputer resources, ACE3P has become a key simulation tool for particle accelerator R and D. A new frequency domain solver to perform mechanical harmonic response analysis of accelerator components is developed within the existing parallel framework. This solver is designed to determine the frequency response of the mechanical system to external harmonic excitations for time-efficient accurate analysis of the large-scale problems. Coupled with the ACE3P electromagnetic modules, this capability complements a set of multi-physics tools for a comprehensive study of microphonics in superconducting accelerating cavities in order to understand the RF response and feedback requirements for the operational reliability of a particle accelerator. (auth)

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2015

An Overview of High-performance Parallel Big Data transfers over multiple network channels with Transport Layer Security (TLS) and TLS plus Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS)

This Technical Note provides an overview of high-performance parallel Big Data transfers with and without encryption for data in-transit over multiple network channels. It shows that with the parallel approach, it is feasible to carry out high-performance parallel "encrypted" Big Data transfers without serious impact to throughput. But other impacts, e.g. the energy-consumption part should be investigated. It also explains our rationales of using a statistics-based approach for gaining understanding from test results and for improving the system. The presentation is of high-level nature. Nevertheless, at the end we will pose some questions and identify potentially fruitful directions for future work.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2016

A New Multiphase Equation of State for Composition B

We describe the construction of a complete equation of state for the high explosive Composition B in its unreacted (inert) form, as well as chemical equilibrium calculations of its detonation products. The multiphase reactant EOS is of SESAME type, and was calibrated to ambient thermal and mechanical data, the shock initiation experiments of Dattelbaum, et al., and the melt line of trinitrotoluene (TNT).

45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEF↗