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At least 325 records · Page 18

Dual-energy fast neutron imaging using tunable short-pulse laser-driven sources

Here a novel dual-energy fast neutron imaging technique is presented using short-pulse laser-driven neutron sources to leverage their inherent adaptive spectral control to enable 3D volume segmentation and reconstruction. Laser-accelerated ion beams incident onto secondary targets create directional, broadband, MeV-class neutrons. Synthetic radiographs are produced of multi-material objects using ion and neutron spectra derived from analytic and numerical models. It is demonstrated that neutron images generated from small changes to the neutron spectra, controlled by altering the initial laser conditions, are sufficient to isolate materials with differing attenuation coefficients. This is first demonstrated using a simplistic combinatorial isolation method and then by employing more advanced reconstruction algorithms to reduce artifacts and generate a segmentation volume of the constituent materials.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Modelling debris and shrapnel generation in inertial confinement fusion experiments

Modelling and mitigation of damage are crucial for safe and economical operation of high-power laser facilities. Experiments at the National Ignition Facility use a variety of targets with a range of laser energies spanning more than two orders of magnitude (~14 kJ to ~1.9 MJ). Low-energy inertial confinement fusion experiments are used to study early-time x-ray load symmetry on the capsule, shock timing, and other physics issues. For these experiments, a significant portion of the target is not completely vaporized and late-time (hundreds of ns) simulations are required to study the generation of debris and shrapnel from these targets. Damage to optics and diagnostics from shrapnel is a major concern for low-energy experiments. Here, we provide the first full-target simulations of entire cryogenic targets, including the Al thermal mechanical package and Si cooling rings. We use a 3D multi-physics multi-material hydrodynamics code, ALE-AMR, for these late-time simulations. The mass, velocity, and spatial distribution of shrapnel are calculated for three experiments with laser energies ranging from 14 to 250 kJ. We calculate damage risk to optics and diagnostics for these three experiments. For the lowest energy re-emit experiment, we provide a detailed analysis of the effects of shrapnel impacts on optics and diagnostics and compare with observations of damage sites.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Radiopurity of CaWO{sub 4} crystals for direct dark matter search with CRESST and EURECA

The direct dark matter search experiment CRESST uses scintillating CaWO{sub 4} single crystals as targets for possible WIMP scatterings. An intrinsic radioactive contamination of the crystals as low as possible is crucial for the sensitivity of the detectors. In the past CaWO{sub 4} crystals operated in CRESST were produced by institutes in Russia and the Ukraine. Since 2011 CaWO{sub 4} crystals have also been grown at the crystal laboratory of the Technische Universität München (TUM) to better meet the requirements of CRESST and of the future tonne-scale multi-material experiment EURECA. The radiopurity of the raw materials and of first TUM-grown crystals was measured by ultra-low background γ-spectrometry. Two TUM-grown crystals were also operated as low-temperature detectors at a test setup in the Gran Sasso underground laboratory. These measurements were used to determine the crystals' intrinsic α-activities which were compared to those of crystals produced at other institutes. The total α-activities of TUM-grown crystals as low as 1.23±0.06 mBq/kg were found to be significantly smaller than the activities of crystals grown at other institutes typically ranging between ∼ 15 mBq/kg and ∼ 35 mBq/kg.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

TH-C-18A-02: Machine Learning and STAPLE Based Simultaneous Longitudinal Segmentation of Bone and Marrow Structures From Dual Energy CT

Purpose: To develop a fully-automatic longitudinal bone and marrow segmentation method in the pelvic region from dual energy computed tomography (DECT). Methods: We developed a two-step automatic bone and marrow segmentation method for simultaneous longitudinal evaluation of patients with metastatic bone disease using dual energy CT (DECT). Our approach transforms the DECT images into a multi-material decomposition (MMD) model that represents the voxels as a mixture of multiple materials. A support vector machine (SVM) was trained using a single scan. In the first step of the longitudinal segmentation the trained SVM model detects bone and marrow structures on all available longitudinal scans. Segmentation is further refined through active contour segmentation. In the second step, the segmentations from the individual scans are merged by employing the simultaneous truth and performance level estimation (STAPLE) algorithm. The scans are registered using affine and deformable registration. We found that our approach improves the segmentation in all the scans under reliable registration performance between the same scans. Improving registration was not under the scope of this work. Results: We applied our approach to segment bone and marrow in DECT scans in the pelvic regions for multiple patients. Each patient had three to five follow up scans. All the patients in the analysis had artificial metal prostheses which introduced challenges for the registration. Our algorithm achieved reasonable accurate segmentation despite the presence of metal artifacts and high-density oral contrast in neighboring structures. Our approach obtained an overall segmentation accuracy of 80% using DICE metric. Conclusion: We developed a two-step automatic longitudinal segmentation technique for bone and marrow region structures in the pelvic areas from dual energy CT. Our approach achieves robust segmentation despite the presence of confounding structures with similar intensities as the bone and marrow regions due to uptake of oral contrast and metal artifacts.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

TU-G-204-02: Automatic Sclerotic Bone Metastases Detection in the Pelvic Region From Dual Energy CT

Purpose: To automatically detect sclerotic bone metastases in the pelvic region using dual energy computed tomography (DECT). Methods: We developed a two stage algorithm to automatically detect sclerotic bone metastases in the pelvis from DECT for patients with multiple bone metastatic lesions and with hip implants. The first stage consists of extracting the bone and marrow regions by using a support vector machine (SVM) classifier. We employed a novel representation of the DECT images using multi-material decomposition, which represents each voxel as a mixture of different physical materials (e.g. bone+water+fat). Following the extraction of bone and marrow, in the second stage, a bi -histogram equalization method was employed to enhance the contrast to reveal the bone metastases. Next, meanshift segmentation was performed to separate the voxels by their intensity levels. Finally, shape-based filtering was performed to extract the possible locations of the metastatic lesions using multiple shape criteria. We used the following shape parameters: area, eccentricity, major and minor axis, perimeter and skeleton. Results: A radiologist with several years of experience with DECT manually labeled 64 regions consisting of metastatic lesions from 10 different patients. However, the patients had many more metastasic lesions throughout the pelvis. Our method correctly identified 46 of the marked 64 regions (72%). In addition, our method also identified several other lesions, which can then be validated by the radiologist. The missed lesions were typically very large elongated regions consisting of several islands of very small (<4mm) lesions. Conclusion: We developed an algorithm to automatically detect sclerotic lesions in the pelvic region from DECT. Preliminary assessment shows that our algorithm generated lesions agreeing with the radiologist generated candidate regions. Furthermore, our method reveals additional lesions that can be inspected by the radiologist, thereby, reducing radiologist effort in identifying all the lesions with poor contrast from the DECT images.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

polyclip

Multi-material cell clipping on GPUs.

Walsmith, Melanie Cassidy↗

Advances in Dissimilar Metals Joining through Temperature Control of Friction Stir Welding

Lightweighting of vehicles and portable structures is an important undertaking. Multi-material design is required to achieve conflicting design targets such as cost, stiffness, and weight. Friction stir welding (FSW) variants, such as friction stir dovetailing and friction stir scribe, are enabling technologies for joining of dissimilar metals. This work shows that FSW variants are capable of joining aluminum to steel. Characteristics of metallurgical bonding at the dissimilar material interface are strongly affected by weld temperature. Control of FSW process temperature enables metallurgical bonding with suppressed formation of intermetallics at the dissimilar material interface resulting in improved mechanical properties relative to competing techniques. Temperature control is a powerful tool for process development and to ensure weld quality of dissimilar material welds.

Aluminum to Steel Joining, Friction stir welding, ↗

Verification of the CENTRM Module for Adaptation of the SCALE Code to NGNP Prismatic and PBR Core Designs

The generation of multigroup cross sections lies at the heart of the very high temperature reactor (VHTR) core design, whether the prismatic (block) or pebble-bed type. The design process, generally performed in three steps, is quite involved and its execution is crucial to proper reactor physics analyses. The primary purpose of this project is to develop the CENTRM cross-section processing module of the SCALE code package for application to prismatic or pebble-bed core designs. The team will include a detailed outline of the entire processing procedure for application of CENTRM in a final report complete with demonstration. In addition, they will conduct a thorough verification of the CENTRM code, which has yet to be performed. The tasks for this project are to: Thoroughly test the panel algorithm for neutron slowing down; Develop the panel algorithm for multi-materials; Establish a multigroup convergence 1D transport acceleration algorithm in the panel formalism; Verify CENTRM in 1D plane geometry; Create and test the corresponding transport/panel algorithm in spherical and cylindrical geometries; and, Apply the verified CENTRM code to current VHTR core design configurations for an infinite lattice, including assessing effectiveness of Dancoff corrections to simulate TRISO particle heterogeneity.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Fully-Implicit Orthogonal Reconstructed Discontinuous Petrov-Galerkin Method for Multiphysics Problems

This document is focussed on the development of reconstructed discontinuous Galerkin (RDG P n P m ) method, based on orthogonal basis functions. Orthogonality of basis functions is essential for enabling robust and efficient fully-implicit Newton-Krylov based time discretization. The method is designed for generic partial differential equations, including transient hyperbolic, parabolic and/or elliptic operators, which are attributed to many multiphysics problems. Our driving application of interest is additive manufacturing, which requires simulations of fluid-solid-gas systems, with compressibility effects and phase change (melting/ solidification). Thus, we demonstrate the method capabilities for solving nonlinear heat conduction equation coupled with multi-material Navier-Stokes based compressible fluid (in low Mach number limit) systems. We focus our attention to the method accuracy (in both time and space), as well as solvability of linear algebra involved in linear steps of the Newton-based solver. We demonstrate the accuracy and efficacy of the method, emphasizing the advantages from the orthogonality of basis functions, which makes better conditioning of underlying (approximate) Jacobian matrices, and rapid convergence of Krylov methods. iii

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Implementing and diagnosing magnetic flux compression on the Z pulsed power accelerator

We report on the progress made to date for a Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project aimed at diagnosing magnetic flux compression on the Z pulsed-power accelerator (0-20 MA in 100 ns). Each experiment consisted of an initially solid Be or Al liner (cylindrical tube), which was imploded using the Z accelerator's drive current (0-20 MA in 100 ns). The imploding liner compresses a 10-T axial seed field, B z ( 0 ) , supplied by an independently driven Helmholtz coil pair. Assuming perfect flux conservation, the axial field amplification should be well described by B z ( t ) = B z ( 0 ) x [ R ( 0 ) / R ( t )] 2 , where R is the liner's inner surface radius. With perfect flux conservation, B z ( t ) and dB z / dt values exceeding 10 4 T and 10 12 T/s, respectively, are expected. These large values, the diminishing liner volume, and the harsh environment on Z, make it particularly challenging to measure these fields. We report on our latest efforts to do so using three primary techniques: (1) micro B-dot probes to measure the fringe fields associated with flux compression, (2) streaked visible Zeeman absorption spectroscopy, and (3) fiber-based Faraday rotation. We also mention two new techniques that make use of the neutron diagnostics suite on Z. These techniques were not developed under this LDRD, but they could influence how we prioritize our efforts to diagnose magnetic flux compression on Z in the future. The first technique is based on the yield ratio of secondary DT to primary DD reactions. The second technique makes use of the secondary DT neutron time-of-flight energy spectra. Both of these techniques have been used successfully to infer the degree of magnetization at stagnation in fully integrated Magnetized Liner Inertial Fusion (MagLIF) experiments on Z [P. F. Schmit et al. , Phys. Rev. Lett. 113 , 155004 (2014); P. F. Knapp et al. , Phys. Plasmas, 22 , 056312 (2015)]. Finally, we present some recent developments for designing and fabricating novel micro B-dot probes to measure B z ( t ) inside of an imploding liner. In one approach, the micro B-dot loops were fabricated on a printed circuit board (PCB). The PCB was then soldered to off-the-shelf 0.020- inch-diameter semi-rigid coaxial cables, which were terminated with standard SMA connectors. These probes were recently tested using the COBRA pulsed power generator (0-1 MA in 100 ns) at Cornell University. In another approach, we are planning to use new multi-material 3D printing capabilities to fabricate novel micro B-dot packages. In the near future, we plan to 3D print these probes and then test them on the COBRA generator. With successful operation demonstrated at 1-MA, we will then make plans to use these probes on a 20-MA Z experiment.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

High-order hydrodynamic algorithms for exascale computing

Hydrodynamic algorithms are at the core of many laboratory missions ranging from simulating ICF implosions to climate modeling. The hydrodynamic algorithms commonly employed at the laboratory and in industry (1) typically lack requisite accuracy for complex multi- material vortical flows and (2) are not well suited for exascale computing due to poor data locality and poor FLOP/memory ratios. Exascale computing requires advances in both computer science and numerical algorithms. We propose to research the second requirement and create a new high-order hydrodynamic algorithm that has superior accuracy, excellent data locality, and excellent FLOP/memory ratios. This proposal will impact a broad range of research areas including numerical theory, discrete mathematics, vorticity evolution, gas dynamics, interface instability evolution, turbulent flows, fluid dynamics and shock driven flows. If successful, the proposed research has the potential to radically transform simulation capabilities and help position the laboratory for computing at the exascale.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

On the Preconditioning of a Newton-Krylov Solver for a High-Order reconstructed Discontinuous Galerkin Discretization of All-Speed Compressible Flow with Phase Change for Application in Laser-Based Additive Manufacturing

This dissertation focuses on the development of a fully-implicit, high-order compressible ow solver with phase change. The work is motivated by laser-induced phase change applications, particularly by the need to develop large-scale multi-physics simulations of the selective laser melting (SLM) process in metal additive manufacturing (3D printing). Simulations of the SLM process require precise tracking of multi-material solid-liquid-gas interfaces, due to laser-induced melting/ solidi cation and evaporation/condensation of metal powder in an ambient gas. These rapid density variations and phase change processes tightly couple the governing equations, requiring a fully compressible framework to robustly capture the rapid density variations of the ambient gas and the melting/evaporation of the metal powder. For non-isothermal phase change, the velocity is gradually suppressed through the mushy region by a variable viscosity and Darcy source term model. The governing equations are discretized up to 4th-order accuracy with our reconstructed Discontinuous Galerkin spatial discretization scheme and up to 5th-order accuracy with L-stable fully implicit time discretization schemes (BDF2 and ESDIRK3-5). The resulting set of non-linear equations is solved using a robust Newton-Krylov method, with the Jacobian-free version of the GMRES solver for linear iterations. Due to the sti nes associated with the acoustic waves and thermal and viscous/material strength e ects, preconditioning the GMRES solver is essential. A robust and scalable approximate block factorization preconditioner was developed, which utilizes the velocity-pressure (vP) and velocity-temperature (vT) Schur complement systems. This multigrid block reduction preconditioning technique converges for high CFL/Fourier numbers and exhibits excellent parallel and algorithmic scalability on classic benchmark problems in uid dynamics (lid-driven cavity ow and natural convection heat transfer) as well as for laser-induced phase change problems in 2D and 3D.

42 ENGINEERING↗

CEED-MS8:Initial Integration of CEED Software in ECP Applications

Key components of CEED software development involve fast finite element operator storage and evaluation, architecture optimizations, performant algorithms for all orders, global kernels for finite element operators, efficient use of the memory sub-system, optimal data locality and motion, enhanced scalability and parallelism, and fast tensor contractions. As ultimate goals of the project, CEED is exploring and identifying the best algorithms for the full range of discretizations and applying algorithmic and software development to support ECP applications’ needs. In this milestone we report on the initial integration of CEED software in the selected first-wave ECP/CEED apps and the continued exploration of other ECP applications as second-wave (milestone CEED-MS23) and third-wave (milestone CEED-MS35) ECP/CEED application candidates. An extensive evaluation of various approaches for GPU acceleration of the CEED computational motives is also a major focus of the report, both in the settings of CEED’s Nekbone and Laghos miniapps, as well as versions of CEED’s bake-off problems (introduced in milestone CEED-MS6). The first-wave ECP applications targeted for coupling with CEED software include the ExaSMR and MARBL applications. We also report on near-term collaboration with the seed-funded Urban Systems project, as well as engagements with ACME, ExaAM, GEOS and the Application Assessment and Proxy App projects. The ExaSMR project involves coupled thermal-hydraulics/neutronics, with the latter based on Monte Carlo methods and the former based on high-order discretizations of the Navier-Stokes and energy equations for accurate simulation of turbulent transport. The project requires fast and efficient turbulence simulation capabilities that will scale to exascale platforms. Work within CEED will ensure that all aspects of the Nek5000 workflow scale to the target problem space, which involves > 10 10 degrees of freedom in typical production runs. CEED’s goal is to provide implementations that perform with maximum attainable efficiency and deliver low turn-around times. A deliverable for this milestone is beta-release of the GPU-based variant of Nek5000. MARBL is targeting high-energy-density physics problems, including single fluid multi-material hydrodynamics and radiation/magnetic diffusion simulation, with applications in inertial confined fusion, pulsed power experiments, and equation of state/material strength analysis. The code uses high-order methods based arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian, direct Eulerian, and unstructured adaptive mesh refinement. A deliverable for this milestone is collaboration with MARBL for improved performance based on partially-assembled operators. The Urban exascale project is planning to couple real-time data with high performance simulations to study particulate transport in cities. Nek5000 will be used for large eddy and RANS (Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes) simulations of turbulent transport in these domains. Areas where the CEED team is aiding the Urban Canyon group include creating high-order meshes for urban geometries and developing boundary conditions appropriate for simulations close to real-life urban conditions. The software artifacts delivered as part of this milestone include GPU-enabled versions of the Nekbone and Laghos miniapps, which are provided through the CEED website, http://ceed.exascaleproject.org and the CEED GitHub organization, http://github.com/ceed. In addition to details and results from the above R&D efforts, in this document we are also reporting on other project-wide activities performed in Q4 of FY17, including: the CEED first annual meeting and participation of CEED researchers in a variety of outreach activities.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Crosslink V.0.11.x User Manual

CrossLink is a novel two-dimensional and three-dimensional geometry and mesh generation software package developed by the Simulation Tools team at Los Alamos National Laboratory. This software represents the third generation of topology-based mesh generation technology developed by the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy with a special focus on complex multi-material hydrodynamic applications, mesh scalability, and high-order element mesh generation. The topology-based meshing approach offered by CrossLink enables users to quickly and easily mesh complex geometries in a repeatable and robust manner. CrossLink’s topology-based meshing approach is well-suited for parametric design studies, parametric design optimization, damage scenario assessment, and iterative design modification (i.e. feature addition and/or removal). CrossLink’s python API allows workflow scripting of the geometry creation and mesh generation process for traceability, repeatability, data provenance, and version control. CrossLink consists of three main components: a graphical user interface (GUI), a geometry creation and mesh generation engine, and a python API that provides a workflow scripting interface to the geometry and meshing functions.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

REYNO: A Reactive Hydrodynamics Modeling Suite

REYNO is a Python library that is primarily designed as a platform for the agile development and testing of novel reactive flow models. Equations of state and multi-step rate laws can be implemented using the provided class hierarchy with different thermodynamic closure conditions. The library includes a one-dimensional Lagrangian hydrodynamic solver to simulate multi-material reactive or inert problems in planar, cylindrical, or spherical coordinates. Custom time-dependent boundary conditions are also available for problems such as ramp compression. This document describes the different numerical methods and algorithms that are included in REYNO.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Coupling hydrodynamics to a rigid-body motion solver for fluid-structure interaction [Slides]

Quinoa is a massively parallel computational fluid dynamics with multi-material and programmed burn capabilities developed from Programmatic and LDRD funds. Overset is a well-established method of using an “inset” mesh that communicates with a background mesh. Solutions transfer freely from one to another and operate as boundary conditions on the opposite mesh. Either mesh can move at specified velocity! This project couples the existing Mesh-to-mesh transfer with Quinoa and demonstrates use of resulting Overset solver in computational simulation of blast effects on a re-entry body for survivability assessments.

42 ENGINEERING↗