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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 649 records · Page 36

A UPC++ Actor Library and Its Evaluation On a Shallow Water Proxy Application

Programmability is one of the key challenges of Exascale Computing. Using the actor model for distributed computations may be one solution. The actor model separates computation from communication while still enabling their overlap. Each actor possesses specified communication endpoints to publish and receive information. Computations are undertaken based on the data available on these channels. We present a library that implements this programming model using UPC++, a PGAS library, and evaluate three different parallelization strategies, one based on rank-sequential execution, one based on multiple threads in a rank, and one based on OpenMP tasks. In an evaluation of our library using shallow water proxy applications, our solution compares favorably against an earlier implementation based on X10, and a BSP-based approach.

Pöppl, Alexander↗

Message Passing and Shared Address Space Parallelism on an SMP Cluster

Currently, message passing (MP) and shared address space (SAS) are the two leading parallel programming paradigms. MP has been standardized with MPI, and is the more common and mature approach; however, code development can be extremely difficult, especially for irregularly structured computations. SAS offers substantial ease of programming, but may suffer from performance limitations due to poor spatial locality and high protocol overhead. In this paper, we compare the performance of and the programming effort required for six applications under both programming models on a 32-processor PC-SMP cluster, a platform that is becoming increasingly attractive for high-end scientific computing. Our application suite consists of codes that typically do not exhibit scalable performance under shared-memory programming due to their high communication-to-computation ratios and/or complex communication patterns. Results indicate that SAS can achieve about half the parallel efficiency of MPI for most of our applications, while being competitive for the others. A hybrid MPI+SAS strategy shows only a small performance advantage over pure MPI in some cases. Finally, improved implementations of two MPI collective operations on PC-SMP clusters are presented.

Shan, Hongzhang↗

Photocurrent from Single Collision 14 MeV Neutrons in GaN and GaAs

Accurate predictions of device performance in 14 MeV neutron environments relies upon understanding the recoil cascades that may be produced. Recoils from 14 MeV neutrons impinging on both gallium nitride (GaN) and gallium arsenide (GaAs) devices were modeled and compared to the recoil spectra of devices exposed to 14 MeV neutrons. Recoil spectra were generated using nuclear reaction modeling programs and converted into an ionizing energy loss (IEL) spectrum. We measured the recoil IEL spectra by capturing the photocurrent pulses produced by single neutron interactions with the device. Good agreement, with a factor of two, was found between the model and experiment under strongly-depleted conditions. However, this range of agreement between model and experiment decreased significantly when the bias was removed, indicating partial energy deposition due to cascades that escape the active volume of the device not captured by the model. Consistent event rates across multiple detectors confirm the reliability of our neutron recoil detection method.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Approximating Joint Chance Constraints in Two-Stage Stochastic Programs

We present various approximations to joint chance constraints arising in two-stage stochastic programming models. Our approximations are derived from three classical inequalities: Markov's inequality, Chebysev's inequality, and Chernoff's bound. We provide preliminary computational results illustrating the quality of our approximation using a two-stage joint-chance-constrained stochastic program from the literature. We also briefly introduce other alternatives for constructing approximations for joint-chance-constrained two-stage programs.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Proxy Applications for Converged Workloads: DMC LDRD Initiative

Modern scientific applications are complicated and require coordination of several components. Proxy application driven software-hardware co-design plays a vital role in driving innovation among the developments of applications, software infrastructure and hardware architecture. Proxy applications are self-contained and simplified codes that are intended to model the performance-critical computations within applications. Applications executing on modern High Performance Computing (HPC) systems are susceptible to network congestion, insufficient memory bandwidth within and across compute nodes, and inadvertent loss of performance due to bugs and unoptimized programming models. Modern numerical simulations and machine learning models play a critical role in studying physical phenomenon under myriad uncertainties. Such applications often exhibit irregular computation and memory accesses at specific regions of the application code, which can contribute to various performance bottlenecks at scale. To mitigate such issues and prepare the next generation hardware for a variety of computation and data movement contingencies, a well-known practice is to consider "proxy" applications as representative motifs for various classes of scientific applications. While there is disagreement in the HPC community on the mechanisms of construction of the proxy applications, there is a strong consensus on their positive impact in co-design. Proxy Applications for Converged Workloads (PACER) is about facilitating software-hardware co-design through proxy applications with the goal of improving the performance of converged science workflows on heterogeneous systems.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Research Program for Vibration Control in Structures

Purpose of program to apply control theory to large space structures (LSS's) and design practical compensator for suppressing vibration. Program models LSS as distributed system. Control theory applied to produce compensator described by functional gains and transfer functions. Used for comparison of robustness of low- and high-order compensators that control surface vibrations of realistic wrap-rib antenna. Program written in FORTRAN for batch execution.

Mingori, D. L.↗

WFIRST Coronagraph Detector Trap Modeling Results and Improvements

The WFIRST coronagraph is being designed to detect and characterize mature exoplanets through the starlight reflected from their surfaces and atmospheres. The light incident on the detector from these distant exoplanets is estimated to be on the order of a few photons per pixel per hour. To measure such small signals, the project has baselined the CCD201 detector made by e2v, a low-noise and high-efficiency electron-multiplying charge-coupled device (EMCCD), and has instituted a rigorous test and modeling program to characterize the device prior to flight. An important consideration is detector performance degradation over the proposed mission lifetime due to radiation exposure in space. To quantify this estimated loss in performance, the project has built a detector trap model that takes into account detailed trap interactions at the sub-pixel level, including stochastic trap capture and release, and the deferment of charge into subsequent pixels during parallel and serial clocking of the pseudo-two-phase CCD201 device. This paper describes recent detector trap model improvements and modeling results.

Holland, Andrew↗

A Decentralized Bi-Level Fuzzy Two-Stage Decision Model for Flood Management

Flood, as a serious worldwide environment problem, can lead to detrimental economic losses and fatalities. Effective flood control is desired to mitigate the adverse impacts of flooding and the associated flood risk through development of cost-effective and efficient flood management decisions and policies. A bi-level fuzzy two-stage stochastic programming model, named BIFS model is developed in this study to provide decision support for economic analysis of flood management. The BIFS model is capable of not only addressing the sequential decision making issue involving the two-level decision makers, but also correcting the pre-regulated flood management decisions before the occurrence of a flood event in the two-stage environment. The probabilistic and non-probabilistic uncertainties expressed as probability density functions and fuzzy sets are quantitatively analyzed. The overall satisfaction solution is obtained for meeting the goals of the two-level decision makers by compromising, reflecting the tradeoffs among various decision makers in the two decision-making levels. The results of application of the BIFS model to a representative case study indicate informed decision strategies for flood management. Tradeoffs between economic objectives and uncertainty-averse attitudes of decision makers are quantified.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Implementing Arbitrary/Common Concurrent Writes of CRCW PRAM

The Parallel Random Access Machines (PRAM) abstraction is the simplest and most elegant algorithmic model for the design and analysis of parallel algorithms. It consists of different models categorized based on the underlying memory access mode used, the most powerful of which is the Concurrent Read Concurrent Write (CRCW) model. A PRAM algorithm describes a series of rounds, each of which consists of a collection of operations that can be executed concurrently within the same time step. However, the lack of support for concurrent memory accesses and the prevalence of asynchronous programming models led to the belief that implementing CRCW PRAM algorithms is unattainable and prompted many to avoid this model except for theoretical studies of optimal performance.In this work, we study the arbitrary and common concurrent writes in the CRCW PRAM model and explore implementation challenges on general-purpose systems. Moreover, we examine current practices for implementing common/arbitrary concurrent writes and propose a new efficient lightweight and thread-safe method to implement concurrent writes through leveraging atomic instructions. To demonstrate the efficacy of our method, we developed OpenMP kernels for classical CRCW PRAM algorithms and provide experimental results and comparisons based on run time performance measured over the x86 multicore architecture. Our results show a performance speedup compared to current practices up to 4.5x across all our benchmarks.

Ghanim, Fady↗

Small Business Innovations (Helicopters)

The amount of engine power required for a helicopter to hover is an important, but difficult, consideration in helicopter design. The EHPIC program model produces converged, freely distorted wake geometries that generate accurate analysis of wake-induced downwash, allowing good predictions of rotor thrust and power requirements. Continuum Dynamics, Inc., the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) company that developed EHPIC, also produces RotorCRAFT, a program for analysis of aerodynamic loading of helicopter blades in forward flight. Both helicopter codes have been licensed to commercial manufacturers.

Source record↗

The use of a model of human thermoregulation during the Apollo and Skylab programs

A model of thermoregulation in man was used operationally during the Apollo and Skylab programs. The evolution of this description of thermoregulation is discussed as well as the supporting research programs that led to its growth in representational detail and operational accuracy. A discussion of the operational use of the model is presented as well as future applications of the model.

Waligora, J. M.↗

Multi-Stage Stochastic Programming to Joint Economic Dispatch for Energy and Reserve With Uncertain Renewable Energy

To address the uncertain renewable energy in the day-ahead optimal dispatch of energy and reserve, a multi-stage stochastic programming model is established in this paper to minimize the expected total costs. The uncertainties over the multiple stages are characterized by a scenario tree and the optimal dispatch scheme is cast as a decision tree which guarantees the flexibility to decide the reasonable outputs of generation and the adequate reserves accounting for different realizations of renewable energy. Most importantly, to deal with the “Curse of Dimensionality” of stochastic programming, stochastic dual dynamic programming (SDDP) is employed, which decomposes the original problem into several sub-problems according to the stages. Specifically, the SDDP algorithm performs forward pass and backward pass repeatedly until the convergence criterion is satisfied. At each iteration, the original problem is approximated by creating a linear piecewise function. Besides, an improved convergence criterion is adopted to narrow the optimization gaps. The results on the IEEE 118-bus system and real-life provincial power grid show the effectiveness of the proposed model and method.

economic dispatch↗

SCI model structure determination program (OSR) user's guide

The computer program, OSR (Optimal Subset Regression) which estimates models for rotorcraft body and rotor force and moment coefficients is described. The technique used is based on the subset regression algorithm. Given time histories of aerodynamic coefficients, aerodynamic variables, and control inputs, the program computes correlation between various time histories. The model structure determination is based on these correlations. Inputs and outputs of the program are given.

Source record↗

Instrumentation and telemetry systems for free-flight drop model testing

This paper presents instrumentation and telemetry system techniques used in free-flight research drop model testing at the NASA Langley Research Center. The free-flight drop model test technique is used to conduct flight dynamics research of high performance aircraft using dynamically scaled models. The free-flight drop model flight testing supplements research using computer analysis and wind tunnel testing. The drop models are scaled to approximately 20 percent of the size of the actual aircraft. This paper presents an introduction to the Free-Flight Drop Model Program which is followed by a description of the current instrumentation and telemetry systems used at the NASA Langley Research Center, Plum Tree Test Site. The paper describes three telemetry downlinks used to acquire the data, video, and radar tracking information from the model. Also described are two telemetry uplinks, one used to fly the model employing a ground-based flight control computer and a second to activate commands for visual tracking and parachute recovery of the model. The paper concludes with a discussion of free-flight drop model instrumentation and telemetry system development currently in progress for future drop model projects at the NASA Langley Research Center.

Hyde, Charles R.↗

Cryogenic Pressure Control Modeling for Ellipsoidal Space Tanks in Reduced Gravity

A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model is developed to simulate pressure control of an ellipsoidal-shaped liquid hydrogen tank under external heating in low gravity. Pressure control is provided by an axial jet thermodynamic vent system (TVS) centered within the vessel that injects cooler liquid into the tank, mixing the contents and reducing tank pressure. The two-phase cryogenic tank model considers liquid hydrogen in its own vapor with liquid density varying with temperature only and a fully compressible ullage. The axisymmetric model is developed using a custom version of the commercially available FLOW-3D software and simulates low gravity extrapolations of engineering checkout tests performed at Marshall Space Flight Center in 1999 in support of the Solar Thermal Upper Stage Technology Demonstrator (STUSTD) program. Model results illustrate that stable low gravity liquid-gas interfaces are maintained during all phases of the pressure control cycle. Steady and relatively smooth ullage pressurization rates are predicted. This work advances current low gravity CFD modeling capabilities for cryogenic pressure control and aids the development of a low cost CFD-based design process for space hardware.

Hedayat, Ali↗

Virtual Power Plants and Energy Justice

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC) Order 2222, issued in September 2020, removes barriers for distributed energy resources (DERs) to participate in wholesale energy markets by allowing DERs to aggregate and participate in wholesale markets as a single entity, known as a virtual power plant (VPP). VPPs can provide balancing, reliability, and resiliency grid services and can participate in capacity, energy and ancillary services markets. They can also increase customer energy access and lower electricity bills. This report focuses on VPP business models, including considerations of energy justice (EJ). Through an analysis of the VPP value chain, business models, programs, and pilots, several VPP applications are identified and grouped by their ability to have quantitatively measurable or monetized benefits. Benefits and barriers specific to underserved communities are outlined, and VPP programs with an intentional focus on underserved communities are compared to those without such a focus.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

Simultaneous Process and Heat Exchanger Network Synthesis Using a Discrete Temperature Grid

We present mixed-integer linear programming models for utility targeting and heat exchanger network synthesis that account for variable stream temperatures and flow rates as well as unclassified streams and thus can be combined with process synthesis optimization models. By projecting temperature information onto a fixed discrete temperature grid, the model remains linear even under variable temperatures and flow rates, leading to a more tractable optimization model. The proposed model is well suited to address problems in the area of process intensification where the close interaction between different phenomena naturally leads to process synthesis problems with unclassified process streams. Several extensions are presented, including nonisothermal mixing as well as phase changes. Moreover, we show how a nonuniform grid can be adopted to reduce the complexity of the model for medium and large-size problems.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Optimizing the Performance of Sparse-Matrix Vector Products on Next-Generation Processors

Matrix-vector products are ubiquitous in high-performance scientific applications and have a growing set of occurrences in advanced data analysis activities. Achieving high performance for these kernels is therefore paramount, in part, because these operations can consume vast amounts of application execution time. In this report we document the development of several sparse-matrix vector product kernel implementations using a variety of programming models and approaches. Each kernel is run on a broad set of matrices selected to demonstrate the wide variety of matrix structure and sparsity that is possible with a single, generic kernel. For benchmarking and performance analysis, we utilize leading computing architectures for the NNSA/ASC program including Intel's Knights Landing processor and IBM's POWER8.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗