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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 469 records · Page 26

Ensuring statistical reproducibility of ocean model simulations in the age of hybrid computing

Novel high performance computing systems that feature hybrid architectures require large scale code refactoring to unravel underlying exploitable parallelism. Such redesign can often be accompanied with machine-precision changes as the order of computation cannot always be maintained. For chaotic systems like climate models, these round-off level differences can grow rapidly. Systematic errors may also manifest initially as machine-precision differences. Isolating genuine round off level differences from such errors remains a challenge. Here, we apply two-sample equality of distribution tests to evaluate statistical reproducibility of the ocean model component of US Department of Energy's Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM). A 2-year control simulation ensemble is compared to a modified ensemble as a test case - after a known non-bit-for-bit change in a model component is introduced - to evaluate the null hypothesis that the two ensembles are statistically indistinguishable. To quantify the false negative rates of these tests, we conduct a formal power analysis using a targeted suite of short simulation ensembles. The ensemble suite contains several perturbed ensembles, each with a progressively different climate than the baseline ensemble - obtained by perturbing the magnitude of a single model tuning parameter, the Gent and McWilliams κ, in a controlled manner. The null hypothesis is evaluated for each of perturbed ensembles using these tests. The power analysis informs on the detection limits of the tests for given ensemble size allowing model developers to evaluate the impact of an introduced non-bit-for-bit change to the model.

Mahajan, Salil↗

Reliable voltage scaled links for compressed data

Systems, apparatuses, and methods for reliably transmitting data over voltage scaled links are disclosed. A computing system includes at least first and second devices connected via a link. In one implementation, if a data block can be compressed to less than or equal to half the original size of the data block, then the data block is compressed and sent on the link in a single clock cycle rather than two clock cycles. If the data block cannot be compressed to half the original size, but if the data block can be compressed enough to include error correction code (ECC) bits without exceeding the original size, then ECC bits are added to the compressed block which is sent on the link at a reduced voltage. The ECC bits help to correct for any errors that are generated as a result of operating the link at the reduced voltage.

42 ENGINEERING↗

High-Performance I/O: HDF5 for Lattice QCD

Practitioners of lattice QCD/QFT have been some of the primary pioneer users of the state-of-the-art high-performance-computing systems, and contribute towards the stress tests of such new machines as soon as they become available. As with all aspects of high-performance-computing, I/O is becoming an increasingly specialized component of these systems. In order to take advantage of the latest available high-performance I/O infrastructure, to ensure reliability and backwards compatibility of data files, and to help unify the data structures used in lattice codes, we have incorporated parallel HDF5 I/O into the SciDAC supported USQCD software stack. Here we present the design and implementation of this I/O framework. Our HDF5 implementation outperforms optimized QIO at the 10-20% level and leaves room for further improvement by utilizing appropriate dataset chunking.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Neglecting Model Parametric Uncertainty Can Drastically Underestimate Flood Risks

Abstract Floods drive dynamic and deeply uncertain risks for people and infrastructures. Uncertainty characterization is a crucial step in improving the predictive understanding of multi‐sector dynamics and the design of risk‐management strategies. Current approaches to estimate flood hazards often sample only a relatively small subset of the known unknowns, for example, the uncertainties surrounding the model parameters. This approach neglects the impacts of key uncertainties on hazards and system dynamics. Here we mainstream a recently developed method for Bayesian inference to calibrate a computationally expensive distributed hydrologic model. We compare three different calibration approaches: (a) stepwise line search, (b) precalibration or screening, and (c) the Fast Model Calibrations (FaMoS) approach. FaMoS deploys a particle‐based approach that takes advantage of the massive parallelization afforded by modern high‐performance computing systems. We quantify how neglecting parametric uncertainty and data discrepancy can drastically underestimate extreme flood events and risks. Precalibration improves prediction skill score over a stepwise line search. The Bayesian calibration improves the uncertainty characterization of model parameters and flood risk projections.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

JobQueue-PG: A Task Queue for Coordinating Varied Tasks Across Multiple HPC Resources and HPC Jobs

The software allows for queueing and dispatch of tasks of small, varied, or uncertain runtimes across multiple HPC jobs, resources, and other computing systems. The software was designed to allow scientists to enqueue, run, and accumulate results from computational experiments in an efficient, manageable manner. For example, the software can be used to enqueue many small computational experiments and run them using several long-running multi-node HPC jobs that may or may not run simultaneously.

Tripp, Charles↗

Simulating the Impact of Dynamic Rerouting on Metropolitan-scale Traffic Systems

The rapid introduction of mobile navigation aides that use real-time road network information to suggest alternate routes to drivers is making it more difficult for researchers and government transportation agencies to understand and predict the dynamics of congested transportation systems. Computer simulation is a key capability for these organizations to analyze hypothetical scenarios; however, the complexity of transportation systems makes it challenging for them to simulate very large geographical regions, such as multi-city metropolitan areas. In this article, we describe enhancements to the Mobiliti parallel traffic simulator to model dynamic rerouting behavior with the addition of vehicle controller actors and vehicle-to-controller reroute requests. The simulator is designed to support distributed-memory parallel execution using discrete event simulation and be scalable on high-performance computing platforms. We demonstrate the potential of the simulator by analyzing the impact of varying the population penetration rate of dynamic rerouting on the San Francisco Bay Area road network. Using high-performance parallel computing, we can simulate a day in the San Francisco Bay Area with 19 million vehicle trips with 50 percent dynamic rerouting penetration over a road network with 0.5 million nodes and 1 million links in less than three minutes. We present a sensitivity study on the dynamic rerouting parameters, discuss the simulator’s parallel scalability, and analyze system-level impacts of changing the dynamic rerouting penetration. Furthermore, we examine the varying effects on different functional classes and geographical regions and present a validation of the simulation results compared to real-world data.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Cyber Norms for Civilian Nuclear Power Plants

The international community agrees that the safe operation of civilian nuclear infrastructure is in every population’s best interest. One challenge each government must address is defining and agreeing to a set of acceptable norms of behavior in cyberspace as they relate to these facilities. The introduction of digital systems and networking technologies into these environments has led to the possibility that control and supporting computer systems are now accessible and exploitable, especially where interconnections to global information and communications technology (ICT) networks exist. The need for norms of behavior in cyberspace includes what is expected of system architects and cyber defenders as well as adversaries who should abide by rules of engagement even while conducting acts that violate national and international laws. The goal of this paper is to offer three behavioral cyber norms to improve the overall security of the ICT and Operational Technology (OT) networks and systems that underlie the operations of nuclear facilities. These norms of behavior will be specifically defined with the goals of reducing the threats associated to the theft of nuclear materials, accidental release of radiation and sabotage of nuclear processes. These norms would also include instances where an unwitting attacker or intelligence collection entity inadvertently makes their way into a nuclear facility network or system and can recognize they are in a protected zone and an approach to ensuring that these zones are not exploitable by bad actors to place their sensitive cyber effect delivery systems.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

IRIS: A Portable Runtime System Exploiting Multiple Heterogeneous Programming Systems

Across embedded, mobile, enterprise, and HPC systems, computer architectures are becoming more heterogeneous and complex. This complexity is causing a crisis in programming systems and performance portability. Several programming systems are working to address these challenges, but the increasing architectural diversity is forcing software stacks and applications to specialize for each architecture. As we show, all of these approaches critically depend on their runtime system for discovery, execution, scheduling, and data orchestration. To address this challenge, we believe that a more agile and proactive runtime system is essential to increase performance portability and improve user productivity. In this regard, we have designed and implemented IRIS: a portable runtime system exploiting multiple heterogeneous programming systems. IRIS can discover available resources, manage multiple diverse programming systems (e.g., CUDA, Hexagon, HIP, Level Zero, OpenCL, OpenMP) simultaneously in the same execution, respect data dependencies, orchestrate data movement proactively, and provide for user-configurable scheduling. Our evaluation on three architectures, ranging from Qualcomm Snapdragon to a Summit supercomputer node, shows that IRIS improves portability across a wide range of diverse heterogeneous architectures with negligible overhead.

Kim, Jungwon↗

Towards Sustainable Post-Exascale Leadership Computing

As computing systems approach the limits of traditional silicon technology, the diminishing returns in performance per watt present a significant barrier to sustaining growth in HPC. From a large-scale scientific supercomputing facility point of view, we propose a multifaceted strategy toward specialized hardware and architectures that are optimized for energy efficiency in specific applications. We also emphasize the need for integrating energy-aware practices across all levels of HPC, from system design and software development to operational policies. We discuss strategic opportunities such as the adoption of application-specific accelerators, the development of energy-efficient algorithms, and the implementation of data-driven operational analytics. Our goal is to develop a comprehensive roadmap ensuring that future leadership systems at OLCF can meet scientific demands while operating within stringent energy budgets, thereby supporting sustainable computing growth.

Shin, Woong↗

Trigger Detection for Adaptive Scientific Workflows Using Percentile Sampling

The increasing complexity of both scientific simulations and high-performance computing system architectures are driving the need for adaptive workflows, in which the composition and execution of computational and data manipulation steps dynamically depend on the evolutionary state of the simulation itself. Consider, for example, the frequency of data storage. Critical phases of the simulation should be captured with high frequency and with high fidelity for postanalysis; however, we cannot afford to retain the same frequency for the full simulation due to the high cost of data movement. We can instead look for triggers, indicators that the simulation will be entering a critical phase, and adapt the workflow accordingly. In this paper, we present a methodology for detecting triggers and demonstrate its use in the context of direct numerical simulations of turbulent combustion using S3D. We show that chemical explosive mode analysis (CEMA) can be used to devise a noise-tolerant indicator for rapid increase in heat release. However, exhaustive computation of CEMA values dominates the total simulation, and thus is prohibitively expensive. To overcome this computational bottleneck, we propose a quantile sampling approach. Our sampling-based algorithm comes with provable error/confidence bounds, as a function of the number of samples. Most importantly, the number of samples is independent of the problem size, and thus our proposed sampling algorithm offers perfect scalability. Our experiments on homogeneous charge compression ignition and reactivity controlled compression ignition simulations show that the proposed method can detect rapid increases in heat release, and its computational overhead is negligible. Our results will be used to make dynamic workflow decisions regarding data storage and mesh resolution in future combustion simulations.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Co-design Center for Exascale Machine Learning Technologies (ExaLearn)

We report rapid growth in data, computational methods, and computing power is driving a remarkable revolution in what variously is termed machine learning (ML), statistical learning, computational learning, and artificial intelligence. In addition to highly visible successes in machine-based natural language translation, playing the game Go, and self-driving cars, these new technologies also have profound implications for computational and experimental science and engineering, as well as for the exascale computing systems that the Department of Energy (DOE) is developing to support those disciplines. Not only do these learning technologies open up exciting opportunities for scientific discovery on exascale systems, they also appear poised to have important implications for the design and use of exascale computers themselves, including high-performance computing (HPC) for ML and ML for HPC. The overarching goal of the ExaLearn co-design project is to provide exascale ML software for use by Exascale Computing Project (ECP) applications, other ECP co-design centers, and DOE experimental facilities and leadership class computing facilities.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Conceptual Design Report for the MATHUSLA Long-Lived Particle Detector near CMS

We present the Conceptual Design Report (CDR) for the MATHUSLA (MAssive Timing Hodoscope for Ultra-Stable neutraL pArticles) long-lived particle detector at the HL-LHC, covering the design, fabrication and installation at CERN Point 5. MATHUSLA is a 40 m-scale detector with an air-filled decay volume that is instrumented with scintillator tracking detectors, to be located near CMS. Its large size, close proximity to the CMS interaction point and about 100 m of rock shielding from HL-LHC backgrounds allows it to detect LLP production rates and lifetimes that are one to two orders of magnitude beyond the ultimate sensitivity of the HL-LHC main detectors for many highly motivated LLP signals. Data taking is projected to commence with the start of HL-LHC operations. We present a new 40m design for the detector: its individual scintillator bars and wavelength-shifting fibers, their organization into tracking layers, tracking modules, tower modules and the veto detector; define a high-level design for the supporting electronics, DAQ and trigger system, including supplying a hardware trigger signal to CMS to record the LLP production event; outline computing systems, civil engineering and safety considerations; and present preliminary cost estimates and timelines for the project. We also conduct detailed simulation studies of the important cosmic ray and HL-LHC muon backgrounds, implementing full track/vertex reconstruction and background rejection, to ultimately demonstrate high signal efficiency and $\ll 1$ background event in realistic LLP searches for the main physics targets at MATHUSLA. This sensitivity is robust with respect to detector design or background simulation details. Appendices provide various supplemental information.

Aitken, Branden [Victoria U.]↗

Solving differential‐algebraic equations in power system dynamic analysis with quantum computing

Abstract Power system dynamics are generally modeled by high dimensional non‐linear differential‐algebraic equations (DAEs) given a large number of components forming the network. These DAEs' complexity can grow exponentially due to the increasing penetration of distributed energy resources, whereas their computation time becomes sensitive due to the increasing interconnection of the power grid with other energy systems. This paper demonstrates the use of quantum computing algorithms to solve DAEs for power system dynamic analysis. We leverage a symbolic programming framework to equivalently convert the power system's DAEs into ordinary differential equations (ODEs) using index reduction methods and then encode their data into qubits using amplitude encoding. The system non‐linearity is captured by Hamiltonian simulation with truncated Taylor expansion so that state variables can be updated by a quantum linear equation solver. Our results show that quantum computing can solve the power system's DAEs accurately with a computational complexity polynomial in the logarithm of the system dimension. We also illustrate the use of recent advanced tools in scientific machine learning for implementing complex computing concepts, that is, Taylor expansion, DAEs/ODEs transformation, and quantum computing solver with abstract representation for power engineering applications.

computational complexity↗

A Graph Theory Method for Identification of a Minimum Breakpoint Set for Directional Relay Coordination

The energy grid becomes more complex with increasing penetration of renewable resources, distributed energy storage, distributed generators, and more diverse loads such as electric vehicle charging stations. The presence of distributed energy resources (DERs) requires directional protection due to the added potential for energy to flow in both directions down the line. Additionally, contingency requirements for critical loads within a microgrid may result in looped or meshed systems. Computation speeds of iterative methods required to coordinate loops are improved by starting with a minimum breakpoint set (MBPS) of relays. A breakpoint set (BPS) is a set of breakers such that, when opened, breaks all loops in a mesh grid creating a radial system. A MBPS is a BPS that consists of the minimum possible number of relays required to accomplish this goal. In this paper, a method is proposed in which a minimum spanning tree is computed to indirectly break all loops in the system, and a set difference is used to identify the MBPS. The proposed method is found to minimize the cardinality of the BPS to achieve a MBPS.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Development and Experimental Optimization of High-Temperature Modeling Tools and Methods for Concentrated Solar Power Particle - Systems

A novel, open-source radiative modeling toolset was developed to extend the functionality of particle-based modeling software (e.g. discrete element method (DEM)) to environmental conditions relevant to concentrated solar power applications. This toolset was optimized for deployment on desktop workstations instead of high-performance computing systems, to render such tools more accessible to the research community. Both particle-based modeling and radiative exchange modeling are computationally expensive and often require specialized programming expertise, making these methods cumbersome to use. Recent developments in DEM software by DCS Computing have greatly reduced these challenges, providing a graphical-user-interface based platform and modeling optimization for desktop workstations, HPCs, and cloud computing. The University of Dayton leveraged the experience of DCS Computing in developing a user-friendly, open-source radiative heat transfer expansion for DEM modeling. The University of Dayton DEM+ radiative modeling toolset was developed using a combination of fundamental experimental measurements, modeling, and simplified flow experiments over a range of temperatures and flow conditions. The toolset provides researchers with access to multiple radiative models including an accelerated Monte-Carlo Ray Tracing (application agnostic, highly computationally expensive), an expanded database of distance-based approximations (application limited, computationally light), and a weighted blending of the two methods capable of achieving over 90% reduction in computation time with equivalent accuracy compared to Monte-Carlo Ray Tracing. Through a graphical user interface, users can customize the radiative models to match their desired accuracy and available computational resources, improving access to particle based modeling for the research community. Ceramic sintered bauxite proppants were used in modeling and experimentally as a baseline. Both the radiative heat transfer and flow properties for particulate systems were investigated at elevated temperatures up to 800 °C. The major accomplishments for this work include a verified, open-source radiative modeling toolset to be distributed amongst the research community and the fabrication of three small-scale test facilities to investigate particle behavior and tune DEM flow properties for operation up to 800 °C. The findings have been shared with the research community via conference modeling workshops, deployment of the tools in DCS Computing Aspherix®, and open-source access to the developed radiative modeling tool. The development of next-generation CSP facilities and thermal energy storage systems based on ceramic particles requires providing access to computationally efficient and accurate modeling tools. Particles will experience a wide range of environments (20-800 °C) and handling conditions (dilute curtains or dense packing), requiring specially designed and optimized equipment. Optimizing solid particle physics models and establishing best-practices for particle modeling in CSP environments will assist researchers with designing optimized equipment, accelerating the deployment of more economically-competitive CSP facilities.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Managing code transformations for better performance portability

Code optimization is an intricate task that is getting more complex as computing systems evolve. Managing the program optimization process, including the implementation and evaluation of code variants, is tedious, inefficient, and errors are likely to be introduced in the process. Moreover, because each platform typically requires a different sequence of transformations to fully harness its computing power, the optimization process complexity grows as new platforms are adopted. To address these issues, systems and frameworks have been proposed to automate the code optimization process. They, however, have not been widely adopted and are primarily used by experts with deep knowledge about underlying architecture and compiler intricacies. This article describes the requirements that we believe necessary for making automatic performance tuning more broadly used, especially in complex, long-lived high-performance computing applications. Besides discussing limitations of current systems and strategies to overcome these, we describe the design of a system that is able to semi-automatically generate efficient platform-specific code. In the proposed system, the code optimization is programmer-guided, separately from application code, on an external file in what we call optimization programming. The language to program the optimization process is able to represent complex collections of transformations and, as a result, generate efficient platform-specific code. A database manages different optimized versions of code regions, providing a pragmatic approach to performance portability, and the framework itself has separate components, allowing the optimized code to be used on systems without installing all of the modules required for the code generation. We present experiments on two different platforms to illustrate the generation of efficient platform-specific code that performs comparable to hand-optimized, vendor-provided code.

Computer Science↗

Implementing Software Resiliency in HPX for Extreme Scale Computing

The DOE Office of Science Exascale Computing Project (ECP) outlines the next milestones in the supercomputing domain. The target computing systems under the project will deliver 10x performance while keeping the power budget under 30 megawatts. With such large machines, the need to make applications resilient has become paramount. The benefits of adding resiliency to mission critical and scientific applications, includes the reduced cost of restarting the failed simulation both in terms of time and power. Most of the current implementation of resiliency at the software level makes use of a Coordinated Checkpoint and Restart (C/R). This technique of resiliency generates a consistent global snapshot, also called a checkpoint. Generating snapshots involves global communication and coordination and is achieved by synchronizing all running processes. The generated checkpoint is then stored in some form of persistent storage. On failure detection, the runtime initiates a global rollback to the most recent previously saved checkpoint. This involves aborting all running processes, rolling them back to the previous state and restarting them.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

System, method, and computer program product for a two-phase queue

A system, method, and computer program product are provided for accessing a queue. The method includes receiving a first request to reserve a data record entry in a queue, updating a queue state block based on the first request, and returning a response to the request. A second request is received to commit the data record entry and the queue state block is updated based on the second request.

Dally, William J.↗