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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 811 records · Page 45

WE-AB-209-10: Optimizing the Delivery of Sequential Fluence Maps for Efficient VMAT Delivery

Purpose: To develop an optimization model and solution approach for computing MLC leaf trajectories and dose rates for high quality matching of a set of optimized fluence maps to be delivered sequentially around a patient in a VMAT treatment. Methods: We formulate the fluence map matching problem as a nonlinear optimization problem where time is discretized but dose rates and leaf positions are continuous variables. For a given allotted time, which is allocated across the fluence maps based on the complexity of each fluence map, the optimization problem searches for the best leaf trajectories and dose rates such that the original fluence maps are closely recreated. Constraints include maximum leaf speed, maximum dose rate, and leaf collision avoidance, as well as the constraint that the ending leaf positions for one map are the starting leaf positions for the next map. The resulting model is non-convex but smooth, and therefore we solve it by local searches from a variety of starting positions. We improve solution time by a custom decomposition approach which allows us to decouple the rows of the fluence maps and solve each leaf pair individually. This decomposition also makes the problem easily parallelized. Results: We demonstrate method on a prostate case and a head-and-neck case and show that one can recreate fluence maps to high degree of fidelity in modest total delivery time (minutes). Conclusion: We present a VMAT sequencing method that reproduces optimal fluence maps by searching over a vast number of possible leaf trajectories. By varying the total allotted time given, this approach is the first of its kind to allow users to produce VMAT solutions that span the range of wide-field coarse VMAT deliveries to narrow-field high-MU sliding window-like approaches.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Efficient smoothed particle radiation hydrodynamics I: Thermal radiative transfer

This work presents efficient solution techniques for radiative transfer in the smoothed particle hydrodynamics discretization. Two choices that impact efficiency are how the material and radiation energy are coupled, which determines the number of iterations needed to converge the emission source, and how the radiation diffusion equation is solved, which must be done in each iteration. The coupled material and radiation energy equations are solved using an inexact Newton iteration scheme based on nonlinear elimination, which reduces the number of Newton iterations needed to converge within each time step. During each Newton iteration, the radiation diffusion equation is solved using Krylov iterative methods with a multigrid preconditioner, which abstracts and optimizes much of the communication when running in parallel. The code is verified for an infinite medium problem, a one-dimensional Marshak wave, and a two and three-dimensional manufactured problem, and exhibits first-order convergence in time and second-order convergence in space. For these problems, the number of iterations needed to converge the inexact Newton scheme and the diffusion equation is independent of the number of spatial points and the number of processors.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Enhanced magnetic reconnection in the presence of pressure gradients

Magnetic reconnection in the presence of background pressure gradients is studied, with special attention to parallel (compressional) magnetic fluctuations. A process is reported that reconnects fields through coupling of drift-wave-type instabilities with current sheets. Its time scale is set not by the reconnecting field but by inhomogeneities of the background density or temperature. The observed features can be attributed to a pressure-gradient-driven linear instability which interacts with the reconnecting system but is fundamentally different from microtearing. In particular, this mode relies on parallel magnetic fluctuations and the associated drift. For turbulent reconnection, similar or even stronger enhancements are reported. In the solar corona, this yields a critical pressure gradient scale length of about 200 km below which this new process becomes dominant over the tearing instability.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

PARVMEC: An Efficient, Scalable Implementation of the Variational Moments Equilibrium Code

The ability to sustain magnetically confined plasma in a state of stable equilibrium is crucial for optimal and cost-effective operations of fusion devices like tokamaks and stellarators. The Variational Moments Equilibrium Code (VMEC) is the de-facto serial application used by fusion scientists to compute magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) equilibria and study the physics of three dimensional plasmas in confined configurations. Modern fusion energy experiments have larger system scales with more interactive experimental workflows, both demanding faster analysis turnaround times on computational workloads that are stressing the capabilities of sequential VMEC. In this paper, we present PARVMEC, an efficient, parallel version of its sequential counterpart, capable of scaling to thousands of processors on distributed memory machines. PARVMEC is a non-linear code, with multiple numerical physics modules, each with its own computational complexity. A detailed speedup analysis supported by scaling results on 1,024 cores of a Cray XC30 supercomputer is presented. Depending on the mode of PARVMEC execution, speedup improvements of one to two orders of magnitude are reported. PARVMEC equips fusion scientists for the first time with a state-of-theart capability for rapid, high fidelity analyses of magnetically confined plasmas at unprecedented scales.

Seal, Sudip K↗

Anticipating gelation and vitrification with medium amplitude parallel superposition (MAPS) rheology and artificial neural networks

Abstract Anticipating qualitative changes in the rheological response of complex fluids (e.g., a gelation or vitrification transition) is an important capability for processing operations that utilize such materials in real-world environments. One class of complex fluids that exhibits distinct rheological states are soft glassy materials such as colloidal gels and clay dispersions, which can be well characterized by the soft glassy rheology (SGR) model. We first solve the model equations for the time-dependent, weakly nonlinear response of the SGR model. With this analytical solution, we show that the weak nonlinearities measured via medium amplitude parallel superposition (MAPS) rheology can be used to anticipate the rheological aging transitions in the linear response of soft glassy materials. This is a rheological version of a technique called structural health monitoring used widely in civil and aerospace engineering. We design and train artificial neural networks (ANNs) that are capable of quickly inferring the parameters of the SGR model from the results of sequential MAPS experiments. The combination of these data-rich experiments and machine learning tools to provide a surrogate for computationally expensive viscoelastic constitutive equations allows for rapid experimental characterization of the rheological state of soft glassy materials. We apply this technique to an aging dispersion of Laponite ® clay particles approaching the gel point and demonstrate that a trained ANN can provide real-time detection of transitions in the nonlinear response well in advance of incipient changes in the linear viscoelastic response of the system.

Lennon, Kyle R. (ORCID:0000000212515461)↗

Exciton Fine Structure in 2D Perovskites: The Out‐of‐Plane Excitonic State

2D Ruddlesden‐Popper metal‐halide perovskites feature particularly strong excitonic effects, making them a fascinating playground for studying exciton physics. A complete understanding of the properties of this quasi‐particle is crucial to fully exploit the tremendous potential of 2D perovskites (2DP) in light emission applications. Despite intense investigations, some of the exciton properties remain elusive to date, for example, the energy‐ordering of the exciton states within the so‐called fine structure manifold. Using optical spectroscopy, it demonstrates that in the archetypical 2DP (PEA) 2 PbI 4 , in contradiction to theoretical predictions, the energy of the bright out‐of‐plane exciton state is higher than that of two in‐plane states. Having elucidated the order of exciton fine structure, it determines the g ‐factor of the dark exciton transition, together with the values of the electron and hole g ‐factors in the direction parallel to the c ‐axis of the crystal. In this way, it provides for the first time, a complete picture of the exciton fine structure in (PEA) 2 PbI 4 2DP.

2D perovskites↗

Energy-efficient mapping of large-scale workflows under deadline constraints in big data computing systems

Large-scale workflows for big data analytics have become a main consumer of energy in data centers where moldable parallel computing models such as MapReduce are widely applied to meet high computational demands with time-varying computing resources. The granularity of task partitioning in each moldable job of such big data workflows has a significant impact on energy efficiency, which remains largely unexplored. In this paper, we analyze the properties of moldable jobs and formulate a workflow mapping problem to minimize the dynamic energy consumption of a given workflow request under a deadline constraint in big data systems. Since this problem is strongly NP-hard, we design a fully polynomial-time approximation scheme (FPTAS) for a special case with a pipeline-structured workflow on a homogeneous cluster and a heuristic for the generalized problem with an arbitrary workflow on a heterogeneous cluster. The performance superiority of the proposed solution in terms of dynamic energy saving and deadline missing rate is illustrated by extensive simulation results in comparison with existing algorithms, and further validated by real-life workflow implementation and experimental results in Hadoop/YARN systems.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Liquid–Liquid Microfluidic Flows for Ultrafast 5-Hydroxymethyl Furfural Extraction

We study the effects of liquid–liquid flow patterns on the extraction of 5-hydroxymethyl furfural from the aqueous phase into an organic phase (methyl isobutyl ketone, ethyl acetate, and 2-pentanol) at ultrashort residence times of 0.2–20 s in a coiled capillary microchannel. Slug, droplet, slug-droplet, dispersed, parallel, annular, and irregular two-phase flow patterns are generated. We evaluate the extraction efficiency and the volumetric mass transfer coefficient via experiments and computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The CFD predictions are in quantitative agreement with the experimental data. The convective and diffusive contributions to the mass transfer of different flow patterns are analyzed. For all solvent pairs, the extraction efficiency varies irregularly with increasing flow rate due to changes in the mass transfer mechanism caused by a transition between flow regimes. Overall, we demonstrate >90% extraction efficiencies with high volumetric mass transfer coefficients ranging from 0.006 to 2.17 s–1. Furthermore, a merit index is defined to assess the trade-off between the fast mass transfer and the pressure drop in biphasic microchannels. In general, the mass transfer rate increases significantly at high flow rates at the expense of a high-pressure drop. Furthermore, the ethyl acetate/water irregular flow pattern is optimal due to a large throughput, extraction efficiency, and mass transfer coefficient, with a minimal pressure drop.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Fokker-Planck simulations of fast ion ICRF and electron EC heating in a mirror plasma using CQL3D-m

The CQL3D-m continuum bounce-average Fokker-Planck code is adapted for magnetic mirror plasmas [1] and is now routinely used in no-free-parameter classical integrated modeling of mirror devices [2, 3]. In the present effort, we report on two RF methods of plasma heating in mirror machine. The fast ions (FI) are heated by Fast waves at 2nd-4th harmonic, where FIs originate from neutral beam injection at 45 degrees to the magnetic field. The scenario shows an efficient ion heating near the FI bouncing point. The electrons are heated by X-mode launched from the high magnetic field side towards the resonance. Different from the tokamak applications, CQL3D-m provides an evolving self-consistent ambipolar parallel electric field, which determines the shape of the loss cone and hence an accurate confinement time of both ions and electrons. Also, it includes a description of ion and electron sources and sinks (related to charge exchange and impact ionization) which are updated at every time step. CQL3D-m utilizes a fully nonlinear Coulomb collision operator that is important for the significantly non-Maxwellian ion distributions typically established in mirror plasmas.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Nonlinear damping of a finite amplitude whistler wave due to modified two stream instability

A two-dimensional, fully kinetic, particle-in-cell simulation is used to investigate the nonlinear development of a parallel propagating finite amplitude whistler wave (parent wave) with a wavelength longer than an ion inertial length. The cross field current of the parent wave generates short-scale whistler waves propagating highly oblique directions to the ambient magnetic field through the modified two-stream instability (MTSI) which scatters electrons and ions parallel and perpendicular to the magnetic field, respectively. The parent wave is largely damped during a time comparable to the wave period. The MTSI-driven damping process is proposed as a cause of nonlinear dissipation of kinetic turbulence in the solar wind.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Modeling of a chain of three plasma accelerator stages with the WarpX electromagnetic PIC code on GPUs

The fully electromagnetic particle-in-cell code WarpX is being developed by a team of the U.S. DOE Exascale Computing Project (with additional non-U.S. collaborators on part of the code) to enable the modeling of chains of tens to hundreds of plasma accelerator stages on exascale supercomputers, for future collider designs. The code is combining the latest algorithmic advances (e.g., Lorentz boosted frame and pseudo-spectral Maxwell solvers) with mesh refinement and runs on the latest computer processing unit and graphical processing unit (GPU) architectures. In this paper, we summarize the strategy that was adopted to port WarpX to GPUs, report on the weak parallel scaling of the pseudo-spectral electromagnetic solver, and then present solutions for decreasing the time spent in data exchanges from guard regions between subdomains. In Sec. IV, we demonstrate the simulations of a chain of three consecutive multi-GeV laser-driven plasma accelerator stages.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Cold-hot coupled waves in a flowing magnetized plasma

Abstract Nonlinear coupling of cold and hot waves in a flowing magnetized plasma is analyzed with the Vlasov equation. An analytical solution is obtained for cold waves of a small amplitude (weak flow) and a long wavelength. The distribution function is obtained by integrating the kinetic equation along a perturbed phase-space trajectory for a time-varying plasma flow. The kinetic description presents a generalized dispersion relation that involves resonances depending on cold and hot wave dispersions. Coherent fluid motion leads to radiation peaks in addition to the cyclotron harmonics, where the wavenumber of the cold wave determines the peak frequencies. The peaks appear narrow when the wave propagates perpendicular to the time-averaged flow while they become broad due to the Doppler effect when the wave propagates parallel to the flow. Fully kinetic particle-in-cell simulations corroborate the theoretical predictions. The dispersion relation and resulting wave spectra provide information about plasma parameters and flow properties.

Physics↗

A simple, flexible technique for RF cavity wake-field calculations

It is typical in the accelerator field to model machine components, especially RF cavities, as parallel RLC resonators. In the interest of simulating and diagnosing beam instabilities, knowledge of the time-domain voltage waveform over an equivalent resonator by a bunch current often proves useful. This waveform may be found by convolving the bunch current with the RLC resonator impulse response. While analytical and quasi-analytical expressions are available in this regime for common distributions such as the Gaussian, analogous results for less standard distributions are difficult to obtain using direct methods, which opens the door for the development of a more generalized technique. In this paper, a formulation is created that allows for the simple computation of the time-domain voltage waveform of and RLC resonator. The formulation uses the Cauchy Residue Theorem to extract the convolution result from the Fourier Domain, and it only requires that the current distribution Fourier Transform be holomorphic and known at one specific evaluation point. This greatly simplifies the computation of the time domain voltage for a large amount of bunch distributions both common and uncommon.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Flow of the normal component of He-II about bluff objects observed with He$^*_2$ excimers

Flow of the normal fluid component of He II about a cylinder and flat plate in a channel with a square cross-section was observed by tracking clouds of He$^*_2$ excimers. Flow was produced using a lithographically patterned heater. The direction and speed of flow projected onto a plane parallel to the axis of the channel and perpendicular to the heater exhibited significant change with time even after the heater was turned off. Flow was recorded in movies. Excimers moved at least as fast as could be recorded by the camera. Velocity vector field maps of flow suggest formation of structures downstream of the cylinder object that are consistent with parts of eddies. Here, in this paper, we establish a foundation to observe normal component flow of a quantum fluid over centimeters.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Floquet-driven indirect exchange interaction mediated by topological insulator surface states

Light drives offer a potential tool for the dynamical control of magnetic interactions in matter. We theoretically investigate the indirect exchange coupling between two parallel chains of magnetic impurities on the surface of a topological insulator, driven by a time-periodic circularly polarized light field in the high-frequency, off-resonant regime. We derive a closed-form analytic expression for the spin susceptibility of the photon-dressed topological insulator surface states and obtain the irradiation dependence of the Ising, Heisenberg, and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya exchange couplings between the impurity chains. Our results show a two-pronged modification of these exchange couplings by periodic drives. First, the Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida (RKKY) oscillation period of the exchange couplings can be extended by enhancing the driving strength. Second, increasing driving strength enhances the envelope of RKKY oscillations of the Ising type while suppressing those of the Heisenberg type and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya type. Furthermore, our work provides useful insights for realizing Floquet engineering of collinear and noncollinear indirect exchange interactions in topological insulating systems.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Concurrent conversation modeling and parallel simulation of the naming game in social networks

The Naming Game is an effective self-organization model to understand the emergence of linguistic consensus and to investigate the system dynamics in a variety of phenomena over social networks of autonomous agents. The Naming Game is an effective description for the evolution of consensus despite the absence of any central coordination or specialized initialization even in large-scale networks. While the classical game is effective in description, it was defined with inherently sequential evaluation semantics over the entire network. Here, we develop a new concurrent model as a relaxation of the classical formulation and express it in a discrete event style of evaluation. Further, with the uncovered concurrency that was absent in the classical algorithm, we map the concurrent model to parallel discrete event simulation. Using a prototype implementation, we present an initial parallel performance study on networks containing hundreds of thousands of individuals, with a decrease in simulation time in the best-observed case from 4800 seconds down to 1400 seconds.

Perumalla, Kalyan↗

Avoiding Communication in Primal and Dual Block Coordinate Descent Methods

Primal and dual block coordinate descent methods are iterative methods for solving regularized and unregularized optimization problems. Distributed-memory parallel implementations of these methods have become popular in analyzing large machine learning datasets. However, existing implementations communicate at every iteration, which, on modern data center and supercomputing architectures, often dominates the cost of floating-point computation. Recent results on communication-avoiding Krylov subspace methods suggest that large speedups are possible by re-organizing iterative algorithms to avoid communication. We show how applying similar algorithmic transformations can lead to primal and dual block coordinate descent methods that only communicate every $s$ iterations---where $s$ is a tuning parameter---instead of every iteration for the regularized least-squares problem. We show that the communication-avoiding variants reduce the number of synchronizations by a factor of $s$ on distributed-memory parallel machines without altering the convergence rate and attain strong scaling speedups of up to $6.1\times$ over the “standard algorithm" on a Cray XC30 supercomputer.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Dynamical regimes of vortex flow in type-II superconductors with parallel twin boundaries

We explore the dynamics of driven magnetic flux lines in disordered type-II superconductors in the presence of twin boundaries oriented parallel to the direction of the applied magnetic field, using a three-dimensional elastic line model simulated with Langevin molecular dynamics. The lines are driven perpendicular to the planes to model the effect of an electric current applied parallel to the planes and perpendicular to the magnetic field. A study of the long-time non-equilibrium steady states for varying sample orientation and thickness reveals a rich collection of dynamical regimes spanning the depinning crossover region that separates the pinned and moving-lattice states of vortex matter. We observe the emergence of a preferred direction for the ordering of the Abrikosov lattice in the free- owing vortex regime due to asymmetric pinning by the planar defects. Furthermore, we have performed novel direct measurements of flux line excitations such as half-loops and double kinks to aid the characterization of the topologically rich flux flow profile.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗