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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 361 records · Page 20

A Portable, High Resolution, Surface Measurement Device

A high resolution, portable, surface measurement device has been demonstrated to provide micron-resolution topographical plots. This device was specifically developed to allow in-situ measurements of defects on the Space Shuttle Orbiter windows, but is versatile enough to be used on a wide variety of surfaces. This paper discusses the choice of an optical sensor and then the decisions required to convert a lab bench optical measurement device into an ergonomic portable system. The necessary trade-offs between performance and portability are presented along with a description of the device developed to measure Orbiter window defects.

Ihlefeld, Curtis M.↗

Role of a microbore capillary column in the development of a portable gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer

An approach to the development of a high-performance, field portable gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer is presented which is based on a combination of a short microbore capillary column and a miniaturized, light-weight focal plane mass spectrograph. Performance results of the short microbore column for the mixture separation of the major pollutants and data on time-resolved mass spectral measurements of overlapped gas chromatograph peaks are reported.

Sinha, Mahadeva P.↗

Evaluation of short-term initial performance of a “Molekule Air” portable air cleaner

The aim of this project was to evaluate and characterize the performance of a MOLEKULE AIR air cleaner unit. The testing protocol comprised the evaluation of an unused Molekule Air unit operating at maximum (“boost” setting) fan speed setting. The device was tested over initial short-term periods of 70-80 h of continuous operation. The tested air cleaner was challenged in separate experiments with a well-characterized mixture of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and with ozone. All tests were performed at realistic pollutant levels in a 20-m 3 environmental stainless-steel chamber. Variables controlled and measured in this study included the chamber temperature, relative humidity, the composition and concentration of the challenge VOCs, and the concentrations of ozone. Potential formation of byproducts was also investigated to assess the overall performance.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

ERF: Energy Research and Forecasting Model

High performance computing (HPC) architectures have undergone rapid development in recent years. As a result, established software suites face an ever increasing challenge to remain performant on and portable across modern systems. Many of the widely adopted atmospheric modeling codes cannot fully (or in some cases, at all) leverage the acceleration provided by General-Purpose Graphics Processing Units, leaving users of those codes constrained to increasingly limited HPC resources. Energy Research and Forecasting (ERF) is a regional atmospheric modeling code that leverages the latest HPC architectures, whether composed of only Central Processing Units (CPUs) or incorporating GPUs. ERF contains many of the standard discretizations and basic features needed to model general atmospheric dynamics. The modular design of ERF provides a flexible platform for exploring different physics parameterizations and numerical strategies. ERF is built on a state-of-the-art, well-supported, software framework (AMReX) that provides a performance portable interface and ensures ERF's long-term sustainability on next generation computing systems. This paper details the numerical methodology of ERF, presents results for a series of verification/validation cases, and documents ERF's performance on current HPC systems. The roughly 5× speed up of ERF (using GPUs) over Weather Research and Forecasting (CPUs only) for a 3D squall line test case highlights the significance of leveraging GPU acceleration.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

Automated Portable Test System (APTS) - A performance envelope assessment tool

The reliability and stability of microcomputer-based psychological tests are evaluated. The hardware, test programs, and system control of the Automated Portable Test System, which assesses human performance and subjective status, are described. Subjects were administered 11 pen-and-pencil and microcomputer-based tests for 10 sessions. The data reveal that nine of the 10 tests stabilized by the third administration; inertial correlations were high and consistent. It is noted that the microcomputer-based tests display good psychometric properties in terms of differential stability and reliability.

Kennedy, R. S.↗

SpaceDock: A Performance Task Platform for Spaceflight Operations

Preliminary evidence during both short- and long-duration spaceflight indicates that perceptual-motor coordination changes occur and persist in-flight. However, there is presently no in-flight method for evaluating astronaut performance on mission-critical tasks such as docking. We present a portable platform we have developed for attempting and evaluating docking, and describe the results of a pilot study wherein flight novices learned the docking task. Methods: A dual-joystick, six degrees of freedom platform-called SpaceDock-was developed to enable portable, adaptable performance testing in a spaceflight operations setting. Upon this platform, a simplified docking task was created, involving a constant rate of approach towards a docking target and requiring the user to correct translation in two dimensions and attitude orientation along one dimension (either pitch or roll). Ten flight naive subjects performed the task over a 45 min period and all joystick inputs and timings were collected, from which we could successfully reconstruct travel paths, input profiles and relative target displacements. Results: Subjects exhibited significant improvements in docking over the course of the experiment. Learning to compensate for roll-alterations was robust, whereas compensation for pitch-alterations was not in evidence in this population and relatively short training period. Conclusion: The SpaceDock platform can provide a novel method for training and testing subjects, on a spaceflight-relevant task, and can be used to examine behavioral learning, strategy use, and has been adapted for use in brain imaging experiments.

Marshburn, Thomas H.↗

Streaming Generalized Canonical Polyadic Tensor Decompositions

In this paper, we develop a method which we call OnlineGCP for computing the Generalized Canonical Polyadic (GCP) tensor decomposition of streaming data. GCP differs from traditional canonical polyadic (CP) tensor decompositions as it allows for arbitrary objective functions which the CP model attempts to minimize. This approach can provide better fits and more interpretable models when the observed tensor data is strongly non-Gaussian. In the streaming case, tensor data is gradually observed over time and the algorithm must incrementally update a GCP factorization with limited access to prior data. In this work, we extend the GCP formalism to the streaming context by deriving a GCP optimization problem to be solved as new tensor data is observed, formulate a tunable history term to balance reconstruction of recently observed data with data observed in the past, develop a scalable solution strategy based on segregated solves using stochastic gradient descent methods, describe a software implementation that provides performance and portability to contemporary CPU and GPU architectures and integrates with Matlab for enhanced usability, and demonstrate the utility and performance of the approach and software on several synthetic and real tensor data sets.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Methodology and Application of Physical Security Effectiveness Based on Dynamic Force-on-Force Modeling

This report describes the research and development being performed at INL towards a dynamic modeling and simulation framework to enable physical security optimization at commercial nuclear power plants. The framework is based on the dynamic modeling tool EMRALD and is demonstrated for applications that can result in physical security optimization. Two main applications are presented: 1. Integrating FLEX portable equipment performance with FOF models of a plant’s physical security posture, and 2. Location optimization of bullet resistant enclosure. The generic framework for modeling FLEX portable equipment is described in detail, followed by a case study modeling an adversarial attack aimed at causing a radiological release by sabotaging the plant’s power supply and its ultimate heat sink capabilities at a hypothetical PWR. Two distinct FLEX deployment strategies, series and parallel, are modeled with distinct timelines. The results of the adversarial attack modeled in a commercial FOF tool, AVERT, are integrated with the FLEX deployment model in EMRALD. Monte Carlo simulation is used to model the distribution of the timeline in FLEX deployment strategies. Thermal-hydraulic analysis of FLEX performance is performed in RELAP5 and integrated with the EMRALD simulations to provide more realistic timelines in the models. The results demonstrate that, even in the extreme case of a successful adversarial attack, deployment of FLEX equipment can result in a significantly high likelihood of preventing radiological release. The modeling and simulation framework of integrating FLEX equipment with FOF models enables the NPPs to credit FLEX portable equipment in the plant security posture, resulting in an efficient and optimized physical security. The objective of location optimization of BRE is to determine the best location in the plant for a new BRE being planned by the plant to enhance their physical security effectiveness. The plant physical security FOF model is integrated with EMRALD that performs Monte Carlo simulation to run different attack scenarios and a discrete set of potential BRE locations. Sensitivity analysis is used to determine the most effective location for the BRE. The optimization approach can be extended to wide applications such as location optimization of remotely operated weapons and other strategic fixed assets.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Development of a menu of performance tests self-administered on a portable microcomputer

Eighteen cognitive, motor, and information processing performance subtests were screened for self-administration over 10 trials by 16 subjects. When altered presentation forms of the same test were collectively considered, the battery composition was reduced to 10 distinctly different measures. A fully automated microbased testing system was employed in presenting the battery of subtests. Successful self-administration of the battery provided for the field testing of the automated system and facilitated convenient data collection. Total test administration time was 47.2 minutes for each session. Results indicated that nine of the tests stabilized, but for a short battery of tests only five are recommended for use in repeated-measures research. The five recommended tests include: the Tapping series, Number Comparison, Short-term Memory, Grammatical Reasoning, and 4-Choice Reaction Time. These tests can be expected to reveal three factors: (1) cognition, (2) processing quickness, and (3) motor. All the tests stabilized in 24 minutes, or approximately two 12-minute sessions.

Wilkes, Robert L.↗

Porting the Nonlinear Optimization Library HiOp to Accelerator-Based Hardware Architectures

While interior point method has been the centerpiece of nonlinear programming tools used in science and engineering, its reliance on linear solvers that can tackle sparse symmetric indefinite and highly ill-conditioned problems made it difficult to implement it effectively on hardware accelerators. HiOp optimization package attempts to provide an implementation of the interior point method suitable for hardware accelerators by compressing the original sparse problem to produce an underlying linear problem that is dense and of manageable size. Implementations of dense linear solvers are more mature and utilize hardware accelerators better than their sparse counterparts. There is a number of important domain problems, such as optimal power flow analysis for power grids, where the sparse problem can be effectively compressed and deploying dense linear solver within the interior point method can improve performance. Here we describe a portable implementation of HiOp optimization engine, which uses a linear solver from Magma library and runs entirely on hardware accelerators. To compress the problem, HiOp uses customized mixed dense-sparse linear algebra. All HiOp kernels are implemented using Umpire and RAJA portability libraries. We describe details of the implementation and discuss trade-offs between performance, portability and development cost.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Optically Enhanced Bonding Workstation for Robust Bonding

Process control is one of the methods recommended by the FAA to reduce risk in fabrication of structurally bonded composite joints for aircraft structure based on guidance provided in circular AC-107B for certification of structurally bonded joints. An Optically Enhanced Bonding Workstation is presented here that reduces the risk in bonded joint fabrication. Results will be presented demonstrating the benefits of process monitoring and its ability to reduce risk in performing pre-bond composite surface preparation steps. This supports reduction in the timeline to certification of bonded composite structures through development of a robust bonding process upstream of any part certification steps. Sanding surface preparation has been identified as a high risk process step that is known to impact bond performance. Control of sanding during surface preparation can be performed using portable surface analysis tools previously identified including included gloss, color, Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and optically stimulated electron emissions (OSEE). Threshold limits for the surface analysis tool measurements were determined based on an example objective bonding system utilizing a common EA9394 paste adhesive measured using standard double cantilever beam fracture toughness testing. The patented Optically Enhanced Bonding Workstation (OEBW), was tailored to monitor and control the epoxy composite surface preparation step. Surface analysis tool threshold limits were incorporated into the OEBW to demonstrate improved composite bond performance through process control. The surface analysis tools investigated here can easily be incorporated into an automated system due to their applicability to rapidly quantify the composite sanded surface treatment and their portability.

Kutscha, Eileen O.↗

MatRIS: Addressing the Challenges for Portability and Heterogeneity Using Tasking for Matrix Decomposition (Cholesky)

The ubiquitous in-node heterogeneity of HPC and cloud computing platforms makes software portability and performance optimization extremely challenging. Described here, the MatRIS multilevel math library abstraction framework employs tasking to alleviate these difficulties. MatRIS includes the IRIS task-based runtime on the bottom level and exposes different layers of abstraction to render algorithms architecturally agnostic. MatRIS ensures the decomposition and creation of tasks that represent the necessary encapsulation of the optimized kernels from both vendor and open-source math libraries. Once built, MatRIS can select different combinations of accelerators at runtime, making it portable even on diverse heterogeneous architectures. By leveraging the IRIS runtime’s features for managing heterogeneity, MatRIS deploys algorithms that remove the need to specify orchestration and data transfer. This study describes how the serial task abstraction of a tiled Cholesky factorization is made portable and scalable in the case of multi-device and multi-vendor heterogeneity on a node with NVIDIA and AMD GPUs by using MatRIS. First, we demonstrate that Cholesky in MatRIS provides multi-GPU scalability that offers competitive performance versus cuSolverMG. Then, we present the challenges and opportunities for heterogeneous execution.

Monil, M. A. H.↗

Portable Programming Model Exploration for LArTPC Simulation in a Heterogeneous Computing Environment: OpenMP vs. SYCL

The evolution of the computing landscape has resulted in the proliferation of diverse hardware architectures, with different flavors of GPUs and other compute accelerators becoming more widely available. To facilitate the efficient use of these architectures in a heterogeneous computing environment, several programming models are available to enable portability and performance across different computing systems, such as Kokkos, SYCL, OpenMP and others. As part of the High Energy Physics Center for Computational Excellence (HEP-CCE) project, we investigate if and how these different programming models may be suitable for experimental HEP workflows through a few representative use cases. One of such use cases is the Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber (LArTPC) simulation which is essential for LArTPC detector design, validation and data analysis. Following up on our previous investigations of using Kokkos to port LArTPC simulation in the Wire-Cell Toolkit (WCT) to GPUs, we have explored OpenMP and SYCL as potential portable programming models for WCT, with the goal to make diverse computing resources accessible to the LArTPC simulations. In this work, we describe how we utilize relevant features of OpenMP and SYCL for the LArTPC simulation module in WCT. We also show performance benchmark results on multi-core CPUs, NVIDIA and AMD GPUs for both the OpenMP and the SYCL implementations. Comparisons with different compilers will also be given where appropriate.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Performance on HPC Platforms Is Possible Without C++

Computing at large scales has become extremely challenging due to increasing heterogeneity in both hardware and software. More and more scientific workflows must tackle a range of scales and use machine learning and AI intertwined with more traditional numerical modeling methods, placing more demands on computational platforms. These constraints indicate a need to fundamentally rethink the way computational science is done and the tools that are needed to enable these complex workflows. The current set of C++-based solutions may not suffice, and relying exclusively upon C++ may not be the best option, especially because several newer languages and boutique solutions offer more robust design features to tackle the challenges of heterogeneity. In June 2023, we held a mini symposium that explored the use of newer languages and heterogeneity solutions that are not tied to C++ and that offer options beyond template metaprogramming and Parallel. For for performance and portability. In conclusion, we describe some of the presentations and discussion from the mini symposium in this article.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

KARL: A Knowledge-Assisted Retrieval Language

Data classification and storage are tasks typically performed by application specialists. In contrast, information users are primarily non-computer specialists who use information in their decision-making and other activities. Interaction efficiency between such users and the computer is often reduced by machine requirements and resulting user reluctance to use the system. This thesis examines the problems associated with information retrieval for non-computer specialist users, and proposes a method for communicating in restricted English that uses knowledge of the entities involved, relationships between entities, and basic English language syntax and semantics to translate the user requests into formal queries. The proposed method includes an intelligent dictionary, syntax and semantic verifiers, and a formal query generator. In addition, the proposed system has a learning capability that can improve portability and performance. With the increasing demand for efficient human-machine communication, the significance of this thesis becomes apparent. As human resources become more valuable, software systems that will assist in improving the human-machine interface will be needed and research addressing new solutions will be of utmost importance. This thesis presents an initial design and implementation as a foundation for further research and development into the emerging field of natural language database query systems.

Dominick, Wayne D.↗

INTEGRATION OF FLEX EQUIPMENT AND OPERATOR ACTIONS IN PLANT FORCE-ON-FORCE MODELS WITH DYNAMIC RISK ASSESSMENT

The overall operation and maintenance cost to protect nuclear power plants accounts for approximately 7% of the total cost of power generation, with labor accounting for half of this cost. In the current research, from interaction with utilities and other stakeholders, it was determined that physical security forces account for nearly 20% of the entire workforce at several nuclear power plants. Labor costs continue to rise in the U.S., so any measures to reduce the cost of operating a nuclear power plant will need to include a reduction in labor. The physical security pathway within the DOE’s Light Water Reactor Sustainability program aims to lower the cost of physical security through directed research into modeling and simulation, application of advanced sensors or deployment of advanced weapons. This report presents a modeling and simulation framework for integrating Diverse and Flexible Mitigation Capability (FLEX) portable equipment performance with Force on Force models of a plant’s physical security posture. The generic framework is described in detail, followed by a case study of modeling an adversarial attack aimed at causing a radiological release by sabotaging the plant’s power supply and its ultimate heat sink capabilities at a hypothetical nuclear power plant. Two different FLEX deployment strategies, series and parallel, are modeled with distinct timelines. The results of the adversarial attack modeled in a commercial Force on Force tool are integrated with the FLEX deployment model in INL’s dynamic modeling tool EMRALD. Monte Carlo simulation is used to model the distribution of the timeline in FLEX deployment strategies. The results demonstrate that, even in the extreme case of a successful adversarial attack, deployment of FLEX equipment can result in a significantly high likelihood of preventing radiological release. The modeling and simulation framework integrating FLEX equipment with Force on Force models enables the nuclear power plants to credit FLEX portable equipment in the plant security posture, resulting in an efficient and optimized physical security.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Static Subspace Approximation for Random Phase Approximation Correlation Energies: Implementation and Performance

Developing theoretical understanding of complex reactions and processes at interfaces requires using methods that go beyond semilocal density functional theory to accurately describe the interactions between solvent, reactants and substrates. Methods based on many-body perturbation theory, such as the random phase approximation (RPA), have previously been limited due to their computational complexity. However, this is now a surmountable barrier due to the advances in computational power available, in particular through modern GPU-based supercomputers. In this work, we describe the implementation of RPA calculations within BerkeleyGW and show its favorable computational performance on large complex systems relevant for catalysis and electrochemistry applications. Our implementation builds off of the static subspace approximation which, by employing a compressed representation of the frequency dependent polarizability, enables the evaluation of the RPA correlation energy with significant acceleration and systematically controllable accuracy. We find that the computational cost of calculating the RPA correlation energy scales only linearly with system size for systems containing up to 50 thousand bands, and is expected to scale quadratically thereafter. We also show excellent strong scaling results across several supercomputers, demonstrating the performance and portability of this implementation.

algorithmic development↗

Automatic Code Generation for High-Performance Graph Algorithms

Graph problems are common across fields of scientific computing and social sciences. However, despite their importance, implementing graph algorithms effectively on modern computing systems is a challenging task that requires significant programming effort and generally results in customized implementations. Current computing and memory hierarchies are not architected for irregular computations resulting in challenges for graph algorithms to achieve high performance on those architectures. In this paper, we present GraphX, a novel compiler framework and DSL designed to simplify the development of efficient graph algorithms and achieve high performance on modern computing systems. GraphX consists of a DSL for efficient implementation of graph algorithms, various optimizations, such as support for sparse linear algebra and workspace transformations, optimized graph primitives, including semiring and masking, and a high-performance code generation engine. Using GraphX, users can implement graph algorithms using a semantically-rich language with graph-oriented operators. GraphX uses these semantics to automatically generate efficient code for target architectures, increasing performance and portability across architectures. The composable nature of GraphX makes it possible to extend the set of optimizations and architectures without modifying the source code. We demonstrate GraphX outperforms state-of-the-art graph libraries, such as LAGraph, up to $3.7 speedup in semiring operations, $2.19 speedup in an important sparse computational kernel, and $9.05 speedup in graph processing algorithms.

compiler, graph algorithms, semiring, masking, wor↗