Engineering topics
Publications and source records attributed to Ferraro, R. D..
We provide an overview of the REE project and provide a perspective on where the radiation effects characterization and prediction fits in the overall project development strategy.
A parallel implementation of the finite volume method for three-dimensional, time-dependent, thermal convective flows is presented.
Parallel computation for thermal convective flows in cavities with adiabatic horizontal boundaries and driven by differential heating of the two vertical end walls, is investigated using supercomputers. A parallel computation code has been implemented using a finite-difference method with a multigrid elliptic solver and a Dufort-Frankel scheme. The domain decomposition techniques are discussed in detail. The parallel code is numerically stable, computationally efficient, and portable to various parallel architectures which support either PVM or NX libraries for communications. Finally, numerical results for various Rayleigh numbers and Prandtl numbers are presented.
A three-dimensional electrostatic particle-in-cell (PIC) plasma simulation code has been developed on coarse-grain distributed-memory massively parallel computers with message passing communications. Our implementation is the generalization to three-dimensions of the general concurrent particle-in-cell (GCPIC) algorithm. In the GCPIC algorithm, the particle computation is divided among the processors using a domain decomposition of the simulation domain. In a three-dimensional simulation, the domain can be partitioned into one-, two-, or three-dimensional subdomains ("slabs," "rods," or "cubes") and we investigate the efficiency of the parallel implementation of the push for all three choices. The present implementation runs on the Intel Touchstone Delta machine at Caltech; a multiple-instruction-multiple-data (MIMD) parallel computer with 512 nodes. We find that the parallel efficiency of the push is very high, with the ratio of communication to computation time in the range 0.3%-10.0%. The highest efficiency (> 99%) occurs for a large, scaled problem with 64(sup 3) particles per processing node (approximately 134 million particles of 512 nodes) which has a push time of about 250 ns per particle per time step. We have also developed expressions for the timing of the code which are a function of both code parameters (number of grid points, particles, etc.) and machine-dependent parameters (effective FLOP rate, and the effective interprocessor bandwidths for the communication of particles and grid points). These expressions can be used to estimate the performance of scaled problems--including those with inhomogeneous plasmas--to other parallel machines once the machine-dependent parameters are known.
A general purpose solver package for constructing and solving a range of sparse linear systems arising from discretization of PDEs on unstructured meshes is developed. Once the sparse symmetric complex matrix is constructed, it can be solved by either a preconditioned bi-conjugate gradient solver, a two-stage Cholesky LDLT factorization solver, or a hybrid solver combining the above two methods. (More detailed than 95-0127).
A parallel algorithm for 3D FFTs is implemented as a series of local 1D FFTs combined with data transposes. This allows the use of vendor supplied (often fully optimized) sequential 1D FFTs. The FFTs are carried out in-place by using an in-place data transpose across the processors.
A general purpose solver package for constructing and solving a range of sparse linear systems arising from discretization of PDEs on unstructured meshes is developed. Once the sparse symmetric complex matrix is constructed, it can be solved by either a preconditioned bi-conjugate gradient solver, a two-stage Cholesky LDLT factorization solver, or a hybrid solver combining the above two methods.
A parallel partitioner for partitioning unstructured finite element meshes on distributed memory architectures is developed. The element based partitioner can handle mixtures of different element types. All algorithms adopted in the partitioner are scalable, including a communication template for unpredictable incoming messages, as shown in actual timing measurements.
Parallel computation for two-dimensional convective flows in.
Two-dimensional convective flows in shallow cavities with adiabatic.
Several algorithms were added to the Physical-space Statistical Analysis System (PSAS) from Goddard, which assimilates observational weather data by correcting for different levels of uncertainty about the data and different locations for mobile observation platforms. The new algorithms and use of the 512-node Intel Paragon allowed a hundred-fold decrease in processing time.
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Two dimensional plasma particle simulations of the evolution of large amplitude circularly polarized Alfven waves propagating parallel to the magnetic field show that the waves decay via both one- and two- dimensional parametric decay instabilities. For parameters studied, one-dimensional processes dominate the simulations, but two-dimensional decay processes, including the recently predicted filamentation instability are also observed. The daughter waves generated by the parametric decay are primarily damped by the ions, leading to ion heating. The parametric decay processes efficiently convert the ordered fluid ion motion in the Alfven wave into ion thermal energy. These processes may be important for the dissipation of Alfven waves in the solar wind, the corona and other space plasma environments. The computations were performed on the Intel Touchstone parallel supercomputer.
Cosmic-ray-produced Mn-53 has been determined by neutron activation in nine Allan Hills-77 meteorites. Additionally, Cl-36 has been measured in seven of these objects using tandem accelerator mass spectrometry. These results, along with C-14 and Al-26 concentrations determined elsewhere, yield terrestrial ages ranging from 10,000 to 700,000 years. Weathering was not found to result in Mn-53 loss.
Concentrations of the cosmogenic radioisotope Cl-36 in Antarctic ice, rain, and an upper limit of the seawater value are determined using van de Graaff accelerator high energy mass spectrometry. Cl-36 concentrations in Antarctic ice range between 2.5 to 8.7 x 10 to the 6th atoms Cl-36/kg, while those concentrations in samples collected at the Alan Hills ice field locations where meteorites have been brought to the surface by glacial flow and ablation are found to vary by more than a factor of three. This variation is attributed either to the effects of atmospheric mixing and scavenging or to radioactive decay in old ice. The Cl-36 concentration found in a present sample of rainwater is much lower than that reported in samples collected in the early 1960's, suggesting the occurrence of a decrease in the concentration of atmospheric Cl-36 derived from nuclear weapons tests over this time period.
The paper presents measurements of cosmic-ray produced (Cl-36) in Antarctic meteorites and ice using a Van de Graaff accelerator as an ultrasensitive mass spectrometer. Results from this ion counting technique are used to support a two-stage irradiation model for the Yamato-7301 and Allan Hills-76008 meteorites and to show a long terrestrial age for Allan Hills-77002. Yamato-7304 has a terrestrial age of less than 0.1 m.y., and the (Cl-36) content of the Antarctic ice sample from the Yamato mountain is consistent with levels expected in currently depositing snow implying that the age of the ice cap at this site is less than on (Cl-36) half-life.