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This presentation describes how NREL expanded the capabilities for the Hydrogen Financial Analysis Scenario Tool (H2FAST) in FY16. It was presented at the U.S. Department of Energy Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Program 2016 Annual Merit Review and Peer Evaluation Meeting on June 8, 2016, in Washington, D.C.
The International Neutron Coincidence Counting (INCC) software plays an important role in nuclear safeguards and nuclear material control and accounting (NMC&A) measurements. While the current version, INCC5, represents the traditional standard utilized by inspectorates as well as facilities and practitioners alongside shift register hardware, LANL has recently developed an upgraded version of the software, INCC6. INCC6 offers the same analysis tools as INCC5 while adding new capabilities including acquisition and analysis of list-mode data, recording and storage of list-mode data files, and an expanded set of advanced analysis tools that make use of the additional information available from list-mode data. Here, this paper presents the first demonstration of data acquisition and analysis using INCC6 and the Advanced List Mode Multiplicity Module (ALMM). The capability of INCC6 to perform live list-mode data acquisition and analysis is demonstrated for a variety of neutron sources with a range of neutron emission rates relevant for practical applications and validated against the results obtained with INCC5 and traditional shift register hardware. Advanced list-mode analysis tools introduced by INCC6, such as time-interval and coincidence matrix analysis, are also demonstrated. Finally, the capability of INCC6 to analyze list-mode data files is tested and validated against traditional shift register results using INCC5.
Aircraft Certification by Analysis (CbA) is a broad term that describes the process by which engineering analysis tools are used to supplement flight testing to demonstrate compliance with regulatory requirements. For each requirement that is to be met through this process, the analysis tools must be sufficiently accurate to ensure that an equivalent level of safety is obtained as if the aircraft to be certified had been flight tested for the requirement. In recent decades, the ability of analysis tools to accurately predict aircraft performance has improved dramatically, leading to increasing interest and limited early adoption of Certification by Analysis across the aerospace industry. However, rigorously demonstrating the credibility of analysis tools remains a challenge for many types of certification requirements, yet is necessary for widespread adoption of CbA approaches in the future. The field of uncertainty quantification is well-suited to address this problem, but will require substantial advances in order to achieve the ambitious industry goals for Certification by Analysis. The objective of this position paper is to highlight gaps in the current technical and programmatic state of uncertainty quantification. Four main categories – Mindset & Awareness, Tools & Capabilities, Data and Benchmarks for V&V, and Applied Research & Established Processes – will be introduced. Each of these categories contains several shortcomings and impediments which, if overcome, will enable more widespread possibilities for Certification by Analysis in the 2040-2050 timeframe.
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.
This presentation provides an introduction to the Hydrogen Financial Analysis Scenario Tool (H2FAST) and includes an overview of each of the three versions of H2FAST: the Web tool, the Excel spreadsheet version, and the beta version of the H2FAST Business Case Scenario tool.
The pressure vessels needed to store hydrogen for next-generation hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are expected to be a substantial portion of the total system mass, volume, and cost. Gravimetric capacity, volumetric capacity, and cost per kilogram of usable hydrogen are key performance metrics that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) uses to determine the viability of hydrogen fuel cell systems. Research and development related to hydrogen storage systems covers a wide range of potential operating conditions, from cryogenic temperatures to high temperatures (above ambient) and low pressure to high pressure. Researchers at PNNL have developed methods for estimating these key pressure vessel characteristics to support on-board hydrogen storage system design and performance evaluation and to support decision-making about DOE hydrogen storage system research investments. This article describes the pressure tank estimation methodology that has been used as a stand-alone calculation and has been incorporated into larger system evaluation tools. The methodology estimates the geometry, mass, and material cost of type I, type III, and type IV pressure vessels based on operating pressure and material strength at the system's operating temperature, using classical thin-wall and thick-wall pressure vessel stress calculations. The geometry, mass, and material cost requirements of the pressure vessel have significant impacts on the total system performance. For example, hydrogen storage materials that can separately achieve a very high hydrogen density can be deemed impractical for use in fuel cell vehicle hydrogen storage systems because the pressure tank containing them is too large, heavy, or expensive. This article describes the design philosophy and analytical process of the tank characteristic estimation methodology, which has been implemented in spreadsheet calculation tools and system-level analysis tools used by DOE researchers. Each of the three tank types (type I, type III, and type IV) uses a different analysis methodology with some common elements. This article also provides examples of implementing the methodology to perform parametric studies of all three pressure vessel types. The goal of this article is to present the methodology in sufficient detail so it can be implemented in other hydrogen fuel cell vehicle design and analysis tools.
Failure analysis of tooling boss weld in lower bulkhead of Saturn 1C stage fuel tank
The mission of the Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF) is to provide the worldwide climate-research community with access to the data, information, model codes, analysis tools, and intercomparison capabilities required to make sense of enormous climate data sets. Its specific goals are to (1) provide an easy-to-use and secure web-based data access environment for data sets; (2) add value to individual data sets by presenting them in the context of other data sets and tools for comparative analysis; (3) address the specific requirements of participating organizations with respect to bandwidth, access restrictions, and replication; (4) ensure that the data are readily accessible through the analysis and visualization tools used by the climate research community; and (5) transfer infrastructure advances to other domain areas. For the ESGF, the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Earth System Grid Center for Enabling Technologies (ESG-CET) team has led international development and delivered a production environment for managing and accessing ultra-scale climate data. This production environment includes multiple national and international climate projects (such as the Community Earth System Model and the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project), ocean model data (such as the Parallel Ocean Program), observation data (Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Best Estimate, Carbon Dioxide Information and Analysis Center, Atmospheric Infrared Sounder, etc.), and analysis and visualization tools, all serving a diverse user community. These data holdings and services are distributed across multiple ESG-CET sites (such as ANL, LANL, LBNL/NERSC, LLNL/PCMDI, NCAR, and ORNL) and at unfunded partner sites, such as the Australian National University National Computational Infrastructure, the British Atmospheric Data Centre, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, the German Climate Computing Centre, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The ESGF software is distinguished from other collaborative knowledge systems in the climate community by its widespread adoption, federation capabilities, and broad developer base. It is the leading source for present climate data holdings, including the most important and largest data sets in the global-climate community, and - assuming its development continues - we expect it to be the leading source for future climate data holdings as well. Recently, ESG-CET extended its services beyond data-file access and delivery to include more detailed information products (scientific graphics, animations, etc.), secure binary data-access services (based upon the OPeNDAP protocol), and server-side analysis. The latter capabilities allow users to request data subsets transformed through commonly used analysis and intercomparison procedures. As we transition from development activities to production and operations, the ESG-CET team is tasked with making data available to all users seeking to understand, process, extract value from, visualize, and/or communicate it to others. This ongoing effort, though daunting in scope and complexity, will greatly magnify the value of numerical climate model outputs and climate observations for future national and international climate-assessment reports. The ESG-CET team also faces substantial technical challenges due to the rapidly increasing scale of climate simulation and observational data, which will grow, for example, from less than 50 terabytes for the last Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment to multiple Petabytes for the next IPCC assessment. In a world of exponential technological change and rapidly growing sophistication in climate data analysis, an infrastructure such as ESGF must constantly evolve if it is to remain relevant and useful. Regretfully, we submit our final report at the end of project funding. To continue to serve the climate-science community, we are currently seeking additional funding. Such funding would allow us to maintain and enhance ESGF production and operation of this vital endeavor of cataloging, serving, and analyzing ultra-scale climate science data. At this time, the entire ESG-CET team would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank our funding agencies in the DOE Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing (SciDAC) program and the Office of Biological and Environmental Research (OBER) - as well as our national and international collaborators, stakeholders, and partners - for allowing us to work with you and serve the community these past several years.
The mission of the Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF) is to provide the worldwide climate-research community with access to the data, information, model codes, analysis tools, and intercomparison capabilities required to make sense of enormous climate data sets. Its specific goals are to (1) provide an easy-to-use and secure web-based data access environment for data sets; (2) add value to individual data sets by presenting them in the context of other data sets and tools for comparative analysis; (3) address the specific requirements of participating organizations with respect to bandwidth, access restrictions, and replication; (4) ensure that the data are readily accessible through the analysis and visualization tools used by the climate research community; and (5) transfer infrastructure advances to other domain areas. For the ESGF, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Earth System Grid Center for Enabling Technologies (ESG-CET) team has led international development and delivered a production environment for managing and accessing ultra-scale climate data. This production environment includes multiple national and international climate projects (such as the Community Earth System Model and the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project), ocean model data (such as the Parallel Ocean Program), observation data (Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Best Estimate, Carbon Dioxide Information and Analysis Center, Atmospheric Infrared Sounder, etc.), and analysis and visualization tools, all serving a diverse user community. These data holdings and services are distributed across multiple ESG-CET sites (such as ANL, LANL, LBNL/NERSC, LLNL/PCMDI, NCAR, and ORNL) and at unfunded partner sites, such as the Australian National University National Computational Infrastructure, the British Atmospheric Data Centre, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, the German Climate Computing Centre, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The ESGF software is distinguished from other collaborative knowledge systems in the climate community by its widespread adoption, federation capabilities, and broad developer base. It is the leading source for present climate data holdings, including the most important and largest data sets in the globalclimate community, and—assuming its development continues—we expect it to be the leading source for future climate data holdings as well. Recently, ESG-CET extended its services beyond data-file access and delivery to include more detailed information products (scientific graphics, animations, etc.), secure binary data-access services (based upon the OPeNDAP Data Access Protocol), and server-side analysis. The latter capabilities allow users to request data subsets transformed through commonly used analysis and intercomparison procedures. As we transition from development activities to production and operations, the ESG-CET team is tasked with making data available to all users seeking to understand, process, extract value from, visualize, and/or communicate it to others—this is of course if funding continues at some level. This ongoing effort, though daunting in scope and complexity, would greatly magnify the value of numerical climate model outputs and climate observations for future national and international climate-assessment reports. The ESG-CET team also faces substantial technical challenges due to the rapidly increasing scale of climate simulation and observational data, which will grow, for example, from less than 50 terabytes for the last Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment to multiple Petabytes for the next IPCC assessment. In a world of exponential technological change and rapidly growing sophistication in climate data analysis, an infrastructure such as ESGF must constantly evolve if it is to remain relevant and useful.
Waste is not a rejected item to dispose anymore but increasingly a secondary resource to exploit, influencing waste allocation among treatment operations in a waste management (WM) system. The aim of this methodological paper is to present a new method for the assessment of the WM system, the “analytical method of the waste allocation process” (AMWAP), based on the concept of the “waste allocation process” defined as the aggregation of all processes of apportioning waste among alternative waste treatment operations inside or outside the spatial borders of a WM system. AMWAP contains a conceptual framework and an analytical approach. The conceptual framework includes, firstly, a descriptive model that focuses on the description and classification of the WM system. It includes, secondly, an explanatory model that serves to explain and to predict the operation of the WM system. The analytical approach consists of a step-by-step analysis for the empirical implementation of the conceptual framework. With its multiple purposes, AMWAP provides an innovative and objective modular method to analyse a WM system which may be integrated in the framework of impact assessment methods and environmental systems analysis tools. Its originality comes from the interdisciplinary analysis of the WAP and to develop the conceptual framework. AMWAP is applied in the framework of an illustrative case study on the household WM system of Geneva (Switzerland). It demonstrates that this method provides an in-depth and contextual knowledge of WM. - Highlights: • The study presents a new analytical method based on the waste allocation process. • The method provides an in-depth and contextual knowledge of the waste management system. • The paper provides a reproducible procedure for professionals, experts and academics. • It may be integrated into impact assessment or environmental system analysis tools. • An illustrative case study is provided based on household waste management in Geneva.
The Stakeholder Tool for Assessing Radioactive Transportation (START) is a web-based geospatial decision-support tool being developed by the US Department of Energy’s Office of Integrated Waste Management (IWM) to support federal interim storage for spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and associated transportation. START provides many functions for the IWM program including: serving as a communications tool for conveying geospatial data and information, an options analysis tool for exploring potential transport modes and routes for transporting SNF from nuclear power plants to future federal interim storage facilities, an emergency response planning tool for Tribes and States to identify training needs along potential SNF transport corridors, an environmental analysis tool for estimating potential radiation dose exposure from incident-free and incident-case SNF transport conditions, and a systems analysis support tool providing route-related inputs for system throughput analysis. As part of the START development process, a verification and validation (V&V) effort is being undertaken. In the initial V&V phase, several outputs of the START tool were checked such as the total distance, population and population densities within the buffer zone, and incident free dose. The V&V process is fluid as it will be utilized after each version change to ensure that the core functionalities of the tool are maintained and the results are consistent with the previous versions. Efforts have also been put into developing scripts to aid in the process of automating certain sections of the V&V work. As some of the V&V efforts use Environmental Systems Research Institute’s (ESRI) tools upon which the START framework is built, the START data were compared against outputs from tools like Quantum Geographic Information System (QGIS) for buffer zone populations and route lengths to ensure independence of the V&V process. Good agreement was observed between the START results and the independent V&V studies with the majority of the differences falling between 1% and 5% for populations within the buffer zone and route distance. This presentation describes the development and design of the START tool, V&V methods employed for various metrics of interest and their respective results, and future plans.
Metagenomic sequencing has produced significant amounts of data in recent years. For example, as of summer 2013, MGRAST has been used to annotate over 110,000 data sets totaling over 43 Terabases. With metagenomic sequencing finding even wider adoption in the scientific community, the existing web-based analysis tools and infrastructure in MG-RAST provide limited capability for data retrieval and analysis, such as comparative analysis between multiple data sets. Moreover, although the system provides many analysis tools, it is not comprehensive. By opening MG-RAST up via a web services API (application programmers interface) we have greatly expanded access to MG-RAST data, as well as provided a mechanism for the use of third-party analysis tools with MG-RAST data. This RESTful API makes all data and data objects created by the MG-RAST pipeline accessible as JSON objects. As part of the DOE Systems Biology Knowledgebase project (KBase, http:// kbase.us) we have implemented a web services API for MG-RAST. This API complements the existing MG-RAST web interface and constitutes the basis of KBase’s microbial community capabilities. In addition, the API exposes a comprehensive collection of data to programmers. This API, which uses a RESTful (Representational State Transfer) implementation, is compatible with most programming environments and should be easy to use for end users and third parties. It provides comprehensive access to sequence data, quality control results, annotations, and many other data types. Where feasible, we have used standards to expose data and metadata. Code examples are provided in a number of languages both to show the versatility of the API and to provide a starting point for users. We present an API that exposes the data in MG-RAST for consumption by our users, greatly enhancing the utility of the MG-RAST service.
To support the NASA Space Exploration Mission, an in-house program called Combustion Devices Injector Technology (CDIT) is being conducted at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) for the fiscal year 2005. CDIT is focused on developing combustor technology and analysis tools to improve reliability and durability of upper-stage and in-space liquid propellant rocket engines. The three areas of focus include injector/chamber thermal compatibility, ignition, and combustion stability. In the compatibility and ignition areas, small-scale single- and multi-element hardware experiments will be conducted to demonstrate advanced technological concepts as well as to provide experimental data for validation of computational analysis tools. In addition, advanced analysis tools will be developed to eventually include 3-dimensional and multi- element effects and improve capability and validity to analyze heat transfer and ignition in large, multi-element injectors.
The Supersonic Inlet Design and Analysis Tool (SUPIN) is a computational program that performs geometric modeling and aerodynamic design and analysis of a set of supersonic inlets whose types include the axisymmetric pitot, three-dimensional pitot, axisymmetric, two-dimensional, two-dimensional bifurcated-duct, and streamline-traced inlets. The inlets are modeled by dividing the inlet flowpath into components that start at the freestream and ends at the engine face. The primary components of the inlet include the external supersonic diffuser, throat section, and subsonic diffuser. Each component is characterized by a set of inputs that include geometric and aerodynamic factors. Examples of the geometric factors are angles, lengths, area ratios, and coordinates that describe the geometry of the components. Examples of the aerodynamic factors are Mach numbers, flow ratios, and pressure ratios that set constraints or desired aerodynamic properties of the component. These input factors are specified within a text-based input data file that is read into SUPIN. SUPIN is a Fortran 95 program that performs the inlet design and analysis as a batch or non-interactive process. SUPIN writes output data files describing the inlet geometry and aerodynamic performance. SUPIN uses analytic, empirical, and numerical methods to perform the inlet design and analysis. The inlet geometry is constructed using planar and three-dimensional geometry constructs and is represented by coordinates, angles, areas, profiles, and surfaces. Surfaces are output in the form of a Plot3D surface grid file. SUPIN does have some capability to automatically generate planar and three-dimensional, multi-block, structured grids for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis. The aerodynamic analysis performed by SUPIN computes quasi-one-dimensional properties, such as Mach numbers, pressures, and temperatures, through the inlet flowpath. Planar aerodynamic properties, such as those for shock and Mach waves, are computed for the supersonic compression of the external supersonic diffuser and throat section. The inlet performance is characterized by the inlet flow rates, total pressure recovery, and inlet drag. The primary intent of this document is to describe the usage of SUPIN. The methods used within SUPIN are documented and may serve as a useful reference for understanding the aerodynamic design and analysis of supersonic inlets.
The Klonos is a compiler-based tool that can help users for scientific application porting. The tool is based on the similarity analysis with the help of the OpenUH compiler (a branch of Open64 compiler). This tool combines syntactic and cost-model-provided metrics clusters, which aggregate similar subroutines that can be ported similarity. The generated porting plan, which allows programmers and compilers to reuse porting experience as much as possible during the porting process.
Microarray technologies facilitate high-throughput gene expression analysis. However, the diversity of platforms for rice gene expression analysis hinders efficient analysis. Tools to broadly integrate microarray data from different platforms are needed. In this study, we developed the Rice Oligonucleotide Array Database (ROAD, http://www.ricearray.org) to explore gene expression across 1,867 publicly available rice microarray hybridizations. The ROAD’s user-friendly web interface and variety of visualization tools facilitate the extraction of gene expression profiles using gene and microarray element identifications. The ROAD supports meta-analysis of genes expressed in different tissues and at developmental stages. Co-expression analysis tool provides information on co-regulation between genes under general, abiotic and biotic stress conditions. Additionally, functional analysis tools, such as Gene Ontology and KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) Orthology, are embedded in the ROAD. These tools facilitate the identification of meaningful biological patterns in a list of query genes. The Rice Oligonucleotide Array Database provides comprehensive gene expression profiles for all rice genes, and will be a useful resource for researchers of rice and other grass species.
Reverse engineering (RE) analysts struggle to address critical questions about the safety of binary code accurately and promptly, and their supporting program analysis tools are simply wrong sometimes. The analysis tools have to approximate in order to provide any information at all, but this means that they introduce uncertainty into their results. And those uncertainties chain from analysis to analysis. We hypothesize that exposing sources, impacts, and control of uncertainty to human binary analysts will allow the analysts to approach their hardest problems with high-powered analytic techniques that they know when to trust. Combining expertise in binary analysis algorithms, human cognition, uncertainty quantification, verification and validation, and visualization, we pursue research that should benefit binary software analysis efforts across the board. We find a strong analogy between RE and exploratory data analysis (EDA); we begin to characterize sources and types of uncertainty found in practice in RE (both in the process and in supporting analyses); we explore a domain-specific focus on uncertainty in pointer analysis, showing that more precise models do help analysts answer small information flow questions faster and more accurately; and we test a general population with domain-general sudoku problems, showing that adding "knobs" to an analysis does not significantly slow down performance. This document describes our explorations in uncertainty in binary analysis.
This paper presents advancements in the frequency domain stability analysis for landing and ascent vehicle configurations with dual centerline propellant tanks, developed in support of Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) insight activities for the Human Landing System project. The study focuses on the impact of axial thrust on the dual tank slosh danger zone solution. The frequency domain stability analysis tool is developed within the GeneraLized Aerospace Simulation in Simulink® (GLASS) framework at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. The frequency domain stability analysis tool is used to determine slosh damping and control systems design requirements. The accuracy of the tool’s instability predictions is validated against time-domain outcomes within the GLASS simulation environment, showing consistent and anticipated results. Additionally, the method is validated by comparing its results with Frequency Domain Analysis and Comparison Tool Assuming Linearity (FRACTAL), a frequency domain analysis tool with extensive heritage and rigorous verification and validation using NASA Ares I-X and SLS flight data. The findings of this paper contribute to a better understanding of dual-tank slosh instability and support improved design and operation margins of space vehicles.