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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

An Efficient Storage-Driven Machine Learning Model for Performance in the Era of Multimodal Scientific Data

Scientific workflows are increasingly relying on machine learning (ML), simulation, and hybrid techniques to predict, understand, and optimize the behavior of complex experiments. High-performance computing has greatly improved researchers’ ability to acquire diverse data modalities in these workflows. Recent studies suggest that the performance of machine learning models can be improved by integrating data from various sources. Unfortunately, these workloads pose unprecedent pressure on the network storage to meet the demands associated with accessing these multimodal data. To mitigate the impact of intensive IO, we propose a solution that utilizes a multi-tier High-Performance Computing (HPC) distributed storage and data processing framework, placing computation where the data resides for better performance. By adopting this project, the scientific community will gain new opportunities to explore multimodal storage-driven possibilities, integrating multiple scientific data sources with advanced streaming frameworks. Additionally, our framework effectively utilizes computing resources and bridges the gaps identified by HPC experts. Our proposed approach tackles scalability and persistence challenges by leveraging native persistency, which has posed difficulties in traditional approaches. Furthermore, we seek to enhance fault-tolerance and load-balance of computations by leveraging real-time streaming in diverse scientific computing environments, thereby propelling advanced scientific computing research into the next generation.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Advancing Grid Resilience through Smart Charge Management: Findings from Maryland’s Pilot

This report presents research findings from a four-year Smart Charge Management (SCM) pilot program conducted by Maryland’s largest electric utilities—Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE), Potomac Electric Power Company (Pepco), and Delmarva Power & Light (DPL)—to evaluate strategies for optimizing electric vehicle (EV) charging loads and enhancing grid stability. Supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Argonne National Laboratory collaborated with all project partners and examined the effectiveness of Time-of-Use (TOU) and Load Balancing (LB) strategies in managing peak demand, deferring costly infrastructure upgrades, and reducing grid constraints at the feeder level.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

EJFAT Scientific Perspective

Presented new computing model to the test by deploying the EJFAT system alongside a data-stream processing framework running the production-level CLAS12 event reconstruction application. In this experiment, a continuous stream of CLAS12 Level-1 identified events was processed in real-time using the EJFAT load balancer, distributing the workload across 90 computing nodes located across the U.S. This marks the first-ever large-scale, real-time distributed data stream processing experiment, demonstrating that scientific data-streaming pipelines can efficiently scale across four dimensions, thanks to EJFAT’s advanced hardware and software capabilities.

Gyurjyan, Vardan [Thomas Jefferson National Accele↗

Synchronous Machine Governor Upgrade

Conventional generation sources play a critical role in the stability and reliability of the electrical grid, particularly as we transition towards more renewable energy sources. To understand and accurately emulate their behavior for optimizing grid operations and ensuring seamless integration with renewable technologies, it is essential to better emulate the grid- and plant-level impacts of conventional generation sources, such as natural gas (NG) driven heat recovery steam generators (HRSGs) and combustion turbines (CTs). Therefore, a governor model is developed in a programmable logic controller (PLC) to investigate the performance of the conventional generator under various dynamic operating conditions and to identify the impact on grid stability in a controlled environment. The governor model aims to enable the hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) based emulation of these conventional generation sources using the existing 2 MVA synchronous machine/generator that is driven by a flexible 2.5 MW variable speed drive. This setup will allow us to replicate the dynamic characteristics and response behaviors of NG-driven HRSGs and CTs. The controls for the emulated conventional plants follow the industry standard and are adjustable, ensuring they accurately reflect the operational capabilities and limitations of real-world systems. These controls include load-following capabilities, ramp rates, startup and shutdown sequences, and emissions characteristics. By incorporating these adjustable controls, we aim to capture the nuanced impacts of conventional generation, such as their ability to provide ancillary services like frequency regulation, voltage support, and spinning reserve. In this report, we simulate two types of dynamic operations: grid-connected and islanding. For each dynamic operation, representative starting sequences are tested, including turbine purge, ignition, speed ramping up, generator excitation and synchronizing, and breaker close. The HIL based tests provides insights for field deployment, specifically the high-fidelity governor model provides results to predict the potential stability and reliability risk and suggest possible integration measures (e.g., generation and load balancing, tuning of governor control parameters). Ultimately, this enhanced emulation capability will be integrated into our Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems (ARIES), enabling us to conduct comprehensive studies on the interactions between conventional and renewable energy sources. By better understanding these interactions, we can develop strategies to optimize the overall performance and reliability of the grid. This will support the deployment of advanced grid management techniques, such as demand response, grid-forming inverters, and energy storage systems. The main contributions are summarized as follows: (1) This report introduces a PLC-based governor model for gas turbines. This model accurately simulates the dynamic behavior of conventional generation sources under various operational scenarios; (2) The model is integrated with an HIL testbed that includes a 2.5 MW variable speed drive and a 2 MVA synchronous machine. This setup enables realistic, real-time emulation of conventional power plants, particularly NG driven HRSGs and CTs; (3) The developed model is adaptable to various gas turbine configurations and allows for precise control over parameters such as MW ramp rates. This flexibility makes it a valuable tool for future research and industry collaboration; and (4) By incorporating the model into the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems, the report lays the groundwork for future studies on interactions between conventional and renewable energy sources, enhancing the ability to develop advanced grid management strategies.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

DUNE Rucio Server Scalabiilty Studies

The DUNE collaboration has an ongoing production effort to simulate the full detectors and to analyze the various prototypes that are currently running. Rucio is used to manage the 40PB of files made to date. When 500 or more jobs were sending output to Rucio simultaneously via Rucio upload, we observed timeouts, unhandled exceptions, and Rucio server restarts due to slow performance. In collaboration with the core Rucio team we did a full review of the Rucio upload code and identified several optimizations that can be made. We also have deployed the Ingress load balancer in front of our Rucio servers and added a database connection pooling utility. These changes led to significant improvement both in reliability and scalability, yet we anticipate even better performance will eventually be required. We describe in this paper the initial state of the system, the various debugging processes that were used, and our plans to further improve scalability.

Calcutt, J. [Brookhaven Natl. Lab.]↗

Terminal area energy management regime investigations utilizing an 0.030-scale model (47-0) of the space shuttle vehicle orbiter configuration 140A/B/C/R in the Ames Research Center 11 x 11 foot transonic wind tunnel (0A148), volume 1

Data obtained in wind tunnel tests are presented. The objectives of the tests were to: (1) obtain pressure distributions, forces and moments over the vehicle 5 Orbiter in the terminal area energy management (TAEM) and approach phases of flight; (2) obtain elevon and rudder hinge moments in the TAEM and approach phases of flight; (3) obtain body flap and elevon loads for verification of loads balancing with integrated pressure distributions; and (4) obtain pressure distributions near the short OMS pods in the high subsonic, transonic and low supersonic Mach number regimes. Testing was conducted over a Mach number range from 0.6 to 1.4 with Reynolds number variations from 4.57 million to 2.74 million per foot. Model angle-of-attack was varied from -4 to 16 degrees and angles of side slip ranged from -8 to 8 degrees.

Hawthorne, P. J.↗

Terminal area energy management regime investigations utilizing an 0.030-scale model (47-0) of the space shuttle vehicle orbiter configuration 140A/B/C/R in the Ames Research Center 11 x 11 foot transonic wind tunnel (OA148), volume 5

Data obtained in wind tunnel test OA148 are presented. The objectives of the test series were to: (1) obtain pressure distributions, forces and moments over the vehicle 5 orbiter in the thermal area energy management (TAEM) and approach phases of flight; (2) obtain elevon and rudder hinge moments in the TAEM and approach phases of flight; (3) obtain body flap and elevon loads for verification of loads balancing with integrated pressure distributions; and (4) obtain pressure distributions near the short OMS pods in the high subsonic, transonic and low supersonic Mach number regimes.

Hawthorne, P. J.↗

Terminal area energy management regime investigations utilizing an 0.030-scale model (47-0) of the space shuttle vehicle orbiter configuration 140A/B/C/R in the Ames Research Center 11 x 11 foot transonic wind tunnel (OH/48)

Data obtained in a wind tunnel test were examined to: (1) obtain pressure distributions, forces and moments over the vehicle 5 Orbiter in the terminal area energy management (TAEM) and approach phases of flight; (2) obtain elevon and rudder hinge moments in the TAEM and approach phases of flight; (3) obtain body flap and elevon loads for verification of loads balancing with integrated pressure distributions; and (4) obtain pressure distributions near the short OMS pods in the high subsonic, transonic and low supersonic Mach number regimes. Testing was conducted over a Mach number range from 0.6 to 1.4 with Reynolds number variations from 7.57 x 1 million to 2.74 x 1 million per foot. Model angle of attack was varied from -4 to 16 degrees and angles of sideslip ranged from -8 to 8 degrees.

Hawthorne, P. J.↗

Preliminary results of the first static calibration of the RSRA helicopter active-isolator rotor balance system

The helicopter version of the Rotor Systems Research Aircraft (RSRA) is designed to make simultaneous measurements of all rotor forces and moments in flight analogous to a wind tunnel balance. Loads are measured by a combination of load cells, strain gages, and hydropneumatic active isolators which use pressure gages to measure loads. Complete evaluation of system performance required calibration of the rotor force and moment measuring system when installed in the aircraft. Measurement system responses to rotor loads obtained during the first static calibration of the RSRA helicopter are plotted and discussed. Plots of the raw transducer data are included.

Acree, C. W., Jr.↗

Numerical analysis of the first static calibration of the RSRA helicopter active-isolator rotor balance system

The helicopter version of the Rotor Systems Research Aircraft (RSRA) is designed to make simultaneous measurements of all rotor forces and moments in a manner analogous to a wind-tunnel balance. Loads are measured by a combination of load cells, strain gages, and hydropneumatic active isolators with built-in pressure gages. Complete evaluation of system performance requires calibration of the rotor force- and moment-measurement system when installed in the aircraft. Derivations of calibration corrections for various combinations of calibration data are discussed.

Acree, C. W., Jr.↗

EOS: A project to investigate the design and construction of real-time distributed embedded operating systems

The EOS project is investigating the design and construction of a family of real-time distributed embedded operating systems for reliable, distributed aerospace applications. Using the real-time programming techniques developed in co-operation with NASA in earlier research, the project staff is building a kernel for a multiple processor networked system. The first six months of the grant included a study of scheduling in an object-oriented system, the design philosophy of the kernel, and the architectural overview of the operating system. In this report, the operating system and kernel concepts are described. An environment for the experiments has been built and several of the key concepts of the system have been prototyped. The kernel and operating system is intended to support future experimental studies in multiprocessing, load-balancing, routing, software fault-tolerance, distributed data base design, and real-time processing.

Campbell, R. H.↗

Computations for the 16-foot transonic tunnel, NASA, Langley Research Center, revision 1

The equations used by the 16 foot transonic tunnel in the data reduction programs are presented in eight modules. Each module consists of equations necessary to achieve a specific purpose. These modules are categorized in the following groups: tunnel parameters; jet exhaust measurements; skin friction drag; balance loads and model attitudes calculations; internal drag (or exit-flow distributions); pressure coefficients and integrated forces; thrust removal options; and turboprop options. This document is a companion document to NASA TM-83186, A User's Guide to the Langley 16 Foot Transonic Tunnel, August 1981.

Mercer, Charles E.↗

Mapping a battlefield simulation onto message-passing parallel architectures

Perhaps the most critical problem in distributed simulation is that of mapping: without an effective mapping of workload to processors the speedup potential of parallel processing cannot be realized. Mapping a simulation onto a message-passing architecture is especially difficult when the computational workload dynamically changes as a function of time and space; this is exactly the situation faced by battlefield simulations. This paper studies an approach where the simulated battlefield domain is first partitioned into many regions of equal size; typically there are more regions than processors. The regions are then assigned to processors; a processor is responsible for performing all simulation activity associated with the regions. The assignment algorithm is quite simple and attempts to balance load by exploiting locality of workload intensity. The performance of this technique is studied on a simple battlefield simulation implemented on the Flex/32 multiprocessor. Measurements show that the proposed method achieves reasonable processor efficiencies. Furthermore, the method shows promise for use in dynamic remapping of the simulation.

Nicol, David M.↗

Optimal pre-scheduling of problem remappings

A large class of scientific computational problems can be characterized as a sequence of steps where a significant amount of computation occurs each step, but the work performed at each step is not necessarily identical. Two good examples of this type of computation are: (1) regridding methods which change the problem discretization during the course of the computation, and (2) methods for solving sparse triangular systems of linear equations. Recent work has investigated a means of mapping such computations onto parallel processors; the method defines a family of static mappings with differing degrees of importance placed on the conflicting goals of good load balance and low communication/synchronization overhead. The performance tradeoffs are controllable by adjusting the parameters of the mapping method. To achieve good performance it may be necessary to dynamically change these parameters at run-time, but such changes can impose additional costs. If the computation's behavior can be determined prior to its execution, it can be possible to construct an optimal parameter schedule using a low-order-polynomial-time dynamic programming algorithm. Since the latter can be expensive, the performance is studied of the effect of a linear-time scheduling heuristic on one of the model problems, and it is shown to be effective and nearly optimal.

Nicol, David M.↗

Performance analysis of parallel branch and bound search with the hypercube architecture

With the availability of commercial parallel computers, researchers are examining new classes of problems which might benefit from parallel computing. This paper presents results of an investigation of the class of search intensive problems. The specific problem discussed is the Least-Cost Branch and Bound search method of deadline job scheduling. The object-oriented design methodology was used to map the problem into a parallel solution. While the initial design was good for a prototype, the best performance resulted from fine-tuning the algorithm for a specific computer. The experiments analyze the computation time, the speed up over a VAX 11/785, and the load balance of the problem when using loosely coupled multiprocessor system based on the hypercube architecture.

Mraz, Richard T.↗

Spectral element methods: Algorithms and architectures

Spectral element methods are high-order weighted residual techniques for partial differential equations that combine the geometric flexibility of finite element methods with the rapid convergence of spectral techniques. Spectral element methods are described for the simulation of incompressible fluid flows, with special emphasis on implementation of spectral element techniques on medium-grained parallel processors. Two parallel architectures are considered: the first, a commercially available message-passing hypercube system; the second, a developmental reconfigurable architecture based on Geometry-Defining Processors. High parallel efficiency is obtained in hypercube spectral element computations, indicating that load balancing and communication issues can be successfully addressed by a high-order technique/medium-grained processor algorithm-architecture coupling.

Fischer, Paul↗

Rotor self-lubricating axial stop

A series of lubricating plugs is located in the stationary backup face adjacent to the axial stop face of a rotating impeller mounted in a turbopump for pumping liquid oxygen or liquid hydrogen. The stop face and the backup face are those surfaces which engage when the axial load on the impeller exceeds the load balancing capability. The plugs have a truncated conical configuration so as to be trapped in the backup face, and are placed at varying radii on the face to provide complete surface lubrication. The plugs may be formed from Teflon, Kel-F or bronze filled Teflon.

Blount, Dale H.↗