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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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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2020

A VXS [VITA41] Trigger Processor for the 12GEV Experimental Programs at Jefferson Lab

The VXS_Trigger_Processor [VTP] was developed and commissioned for CLAS12 in the fall of 2016. This board is a VITA41 switch card and it collects data from a variety of front-end TDC and Flash ADC modules. The VTP has since been used in several experiments at Jefferson Lab serving as the L1 trigger module for a variety of detector types, such as stacked calorimeters, strip calorimeters, time-of-flight, Cerenkov, hodoscopes, drift chambers, and silicon strips. Trigger algorithms implemented include cluster finding (1D, 2D), drift chamber segment and road finding, geometry matching between various detectors, particle counting, and general global trigger bit processing. The VTP is also capable of reading out each front-end crate with up to 40Gbps Ethernet which is an enormous increase compared to the currently used 200MB/s VME bus. Recent progress has been made to show that a firmware and software upgrade can enable existing Jefferson Lab front-end crates to operate in a streaming DAQ mode. In February 2020, tests will be performed on a full calorimeter and matched hodoscope which are components of the CLAS12 Forward Tagger detector system with beam in Hall B. This paper details the hardware performance, triggered, and streaming applications that have been implemented using the VTP for several experiments at Jefferson Lab.

ABBOTT, David↗
DOE OSTI2015

A new ensemble-based consistency test for the Community Earth System Model (pyCECT v1.0)

Abstract. Climate simulation codes, such as the Community Earth System Model (CESM), are especially complex and continually evolving. Their ongoing state of development requires frequent software verification in the form of quality assurance to both preserve the quality of the code and instill model confidence. To formalize and simplify this previously subjective and computationally expensive aspect of the verification process, we have developed a new tool for evaluating climate consistency. Because an ensemble of simulations allows us to gauge the natural variability of the model's climate, our new tool uses an ensemble approach for consistency testing. In particular, an ensemble of CESM climate runs is created, from which we obtain a statistical distribution that can be used to determine whether a new climate run is statistically distinguishable from the original ensemble. The CESM ensemble consistency test, referred to as CESM-ECT, is objective in nature and accessible to CESM developers and users. The tool has proven its utility in detecting errors in software and hardware environments and providing rapid feedback to model developers.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2016

Performance Comparison of SDN Solutions for Switching Dedicated Long-Haul Connections

We consider scenarios with two sites connected over a dedicated, long-haul connection that must quickly fail-over in response to degradations in host-to-host application performance. We present two methods for path fail-over using OpenFlowenabled switches: (a) a light-weight method that utilizes host scripts to monitor the application performance and dpctl API for switching, and (b) a generic method that uses two OpenDaylight (ODL) controllers and REST interfaces. The restoration dynamics of the application contain significant statistical variations due to the controllers, north interfaces and switches; in addition, the variety of vendor implementations further complicates the choice between different solutions. We present the impulse-response method to estimate the regressions of performance parameters, which enables a rigorous and objective comparison of different solutions. We describe testing results of the two methods, using TCP throughput and connection rtt as main parameters, over a testbed consisting of HP and Cisco switches connected over longhaul connections emulated in hardware by ANUE devices. The combination of analytical and experimental results demonstrates that dpctl method responds seconds faster than ODL method on average, while both methods restore TCP throughput.

longhaul↗
DOE OSTI2016

Modeling and Analysis Methods for an On-line Enrichment Monitor

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has developed an On-Line Enrichment Monitor (OLEM) as one possible component in a new generation of safeguards measures for uranium enrichment plants. The OLEM measures 235U emissions from the UF6 gas flowing through a unit header pipe using NaI(Tl) spectrometers, and corrects for gas density changes using pressure and temperature sensors in order to determine the enrichment of the gas as a function of time. In parallel with the OLEM instrument development, a Virtual OLEM (VOLEM) software tool has been developed that is capable of producing synthetic gamma-ray, pressure, and temperature data representative of a wide range of enrichment plant operating conditions. VOLEM complements instrument development activities and allows the study of OLEM for scenarios that will be difficult or impossible to evaluate empirically. Uses of VOLEM include: investigation of hardware design options; inter-comparison of candidate gamma-ray spectral analysis and enrichment estimation algorithms; uncertainty budget analysis and performance prediction for typical and atypical operational scenarios; and testing of the OLEM data acquisition, analysis and reporting software. This paper describes the technical foundations of VOLEM and illustrates how it can be used. An overview of the nominal instrument design and deployment scenario for OLEM is provided, with emphasis on the key online-assay measurement challenge: accurately determining the portion of the total 235U signal that comes from a background that includes solid uranium deposits on the piping walls. Monte Carlo modeling tools, data analysis algorithms and uncertainty quantification methods are described. VOLEM is then used to quantitatively explore the uncertainty budgets and predicted instrument performance for a plausible range of typical plant operating parameters, and one set of candidate analysis algorithms. Additionally, a series of VOLEM case studies illustrates how an online enrichment monitor might respond in scenarios expected to be atypical, for example weak pressure transients or significant changes in background levels.

Smith, Leon E.↗
DOE OSTI2020

Reconstruction of Charged Particle Tracks in Realistic Detector Geometry Using a Vectorized and Parallelized Kalman Filter Algorithm

One of the most computationally challenging problems expected for the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC) is finding and fitting particle tracks during event reconstruction. Algorithms used at the LHC today rely on Kalman filtering, which builds physical trajectories incrementally while incorporating material e ects and error estimation. Recognizing the need for faster computational throughput, we have adapted Kalman-filterbased methods for highly parallel, many-core SIMD and SIMT architectures that are now prevalent in high-performance hardware. Previously we observed significant parallel speedups, with physics performance comparable to CMS standard tracking, on Intel Xeon, Intel Xeon Phi, and (to a limited extent) NVIDIA GPUs. While early tests were based on artificial events occurring inside an idealized barrel detector, we showed subsequently that our mkFit software builds tracks successfully from complex simulated events (including detector pileup) occurring inside a geometrically accurate representation of the CMS-2017 tracker. Here, we report on advances in both the computational and physics performance of mkFit, as well as progress toward integration with CMS production software. Recently we have improved the overall eciency of the algorithm by preserving short track candidates at a relatively early stage rather than attempting to extend them over many layers. Moreover, mkFit formerly produced an excess of duplicate tracks; these are now explicitly removed in an additional processing step. We demonstrate that with these enhancements, mkFit becomes a suitable choice for the first iteration of CMS tracking, and eventually for later iterations as well. We plan to test this capability in the CMS High Level Trigger during Run 3 of the LHC, with an ultimate goal of using it in both the CMS HLT and oine reconstruction for the HL-LHC CMS tracker.

Cerati, Giuseppe↗
DOE OSTI2024

Hls4ml Synthesis Testing

HLS4ml (high level synthesis for machine learning) Is a Python package used to translate commonly used open-source machine learning models into HLS. This is useful in machine learning applications on FPGAs. Machine learning algorithms are only as fast as the hardware that they are used on, and some applications require high speed without sacrificing accuracy. In these situations, an FPGA is a good choice since it is faster than a CPU or a GPU, but programming an FPGA is difficult. This is where HLS4ml can be used to simplify the process, as a well-known learning model can be converted to HLS and more easily deployed onto an FPGA. There are many use cases for a machine learning algorithm running on an FPGA. For example, detectors in a particle accelerator cannot keep every event that they detect, and so a computer must decide which events to keep and which to discard. Using an FPGA with a machine learning algorithm would be a good way to keep as many events as possible.

Swanson, Caiden↗
DOE OSTI2022

Variational approaches to constructing the many-body nuclear ground state for quantum computing

Here, we explore the preparation of specific nuclear states on gate-based quantum hardware using variational algorithms. Large-scale classical diagonalizations of the nuclear shell model have reached sizes of 10 9 –10 10 basis states but are still severely limited by computational resources. Quantum computing can, in principle, solve such systems exactly with exponentially fewer resources than classical computing. Exact solutions for large systems require many qubits and large gate depth, but variational approaches can effectively limit the required gate depth. We use the unitary coupled cluster approach to construct approximations of the ground-state vectors, later to be used in dynamics calculations. The testing ground is the phenomenological shell model space, which allows us to mimic the complexity of the internucleon interactions. We find that often one needs to minimize over a large number of parameters, using a large number of entanglements that makes the application on existing hardware challenging. Prospects for rapid improvements with more capable hardware are, however, very encouraging.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

FY2021 Status Report on the Computing Systems for the Yucca Mountain Project TSPA-LA Models and Testing of Selected Process Models

Sandia National Laboratories continued evaluation of the total system performance assessment (TSPA) for License Application (LA) computing systems for the previously considered Yucca Mountain Project (YMP). This was done to maintain the operational readiness of the computing infrastructure (computer hardware and software) and knowledge capability for total system performance assessment) type analysis, as directed by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), DOE 2010. The FY21 task included continued operation of the cluster; maintenance of the TSPA-LA models (with GoldSim 9.60.300); continued assessment of the status of the Infiltration Model; (a process model that feeds the TSP -LA) and preliminary assessments of the Unsaturated Zone Flow Model and the Saturated Zone Flow and Transport Model Abstraction (process models that feed the TSPA-LA). The 2014 cluster and supporting software systems are currently fully operational to support TSPA-LA type analyses.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2020

Using Low-Cost “Garage Band” Recording Technology for Acquiring High Resolution High-Speed Data

The Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has developed and tested a novel system architecture for acquiring high fidelity high-speed data. The approach uses a consumer grade audio recording device that is normally associated with “garage band” recording of music. ORNL has coupled this low-cost data acquisition hardware with computing technology running open-source software. The main advantage of this approach is per-channel cost; an instrument grade data acquisition system typically costs between $800 to $2000 per channel compared to less than $50 per channel for these consumer grade components. Three systems, each featuring four channels, have been deployed for acquiring data from geophones and the electrical supply system that supports the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) and the Radiochemical Engineering Development Center (REDC) at ORNL. Each channel samples at 96 kHz at 24-bit resolution. The deployed systems operate continuously 24/7 and produce about 4 terabytes of data per month per system. This paper provides a technical overview of this approach, its implementation, and some preliminary results from qualification testing. This work was conducted in support of the Multi-Informatics for Nuclear Operations Scenarios (MINOS).Keywords: Data acquisition Measurement Informatics

Wetherington Jr, G↗
DOE OSTI2021

TRITON: A Multi-GPU open source 2D hydrodynamic flood model

A new open source multi-GPU 2D flood model called TRITON is presented in this work. The model solves the 2D shallow water equations with source terms using a time-explicit first order upwind scheme based on an Augmented Roe's solver that incorporates a careful estimation of bed strengths and a local implicit formulation of friction terms. Here, the scheme is demonstrated to be first order accurate, robust and able to solve for flows under various conditions. TRITON is implemented such that the model effectively utilizes heterogeneous architectures, from single to multiple CPUs and GPUs. Different test cases are shown to illustrate the capabilities and performance of the model, showing promising runtimes for large spatial and temporal scales when leveraging the computer power of GPUs. Under this hardware configuration, communication and input/output subroutines may impact the scalability. The code is developed under an open source license and can be freely downloaded in https://code.ornl.gov/hydro/triton.

2D flood model↗
DOE OSTI2021

Exploring Coupled Extreme Environments via In-situ Transmission Electron Microscopy

In-situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM) provides an avenue to explore time-dependent nanoscale material changes induced by a wide range of environmental conditions that govern material performance and degradation. The In-situ Ion Irradiation TEM (I 3 TEM) at Sandia National Laboratories is a JEOL 2100 microscope that has been highly modified with an array of hardware and software that makes it particularly well suited to explore fundamental mechanisms that arise from coupled extreme conditions. Here, examples pertaining to multibeam ion irradiation, rapid thermal cycling, and nanomechanical testing on the I 3 TEM are highlighted, along with prospective advancements in the field of in-situ microscopy.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2023

Implementation of a High-Speed Multichannel Data Acquisition System for Magnetic Diagnostics and Plasma Centroid Position Control in ISTTOK

In tokamak and other fusion devices, magnetic control is the main tool that allows to regulate the plasma current, position and shape; it is in charge of actuating the desired plasma current waveform, steering the plasma position to a given set point and maintain the plasma shape close to a prescribed plasma equilibrium. This work describes the application of several physics concepts and computational tools in order to obtain a novel optimal controller for the plasma centroid position, which has been implemented and tested in the real-time plasma control system at the ISTTOK tokamak. A key point for the development of the new control system was the installation of a recently upgraded hardware, that numerically integrates in real-time the magnetic probes signals.

poloidal field coils↗
DOE OSTI2015

Artificial Neural Network as the FPGA Trigger in the Cyclone V based Front-End for a Detection of Neutrino-Origin Showers

Neutrinos play a fundamental role in the understanding of the origin of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays. They interact through charged and neutral currents in the atmosphere generating extensive air showers. However, their a very low rate of events potentially generated by neutrinos is a significant challenge for a detection technique and requires both sophisticated algorithms and high-resolution hardware. A trigger based on a artificial neural network was implemented into the Cyclone{sup R} V E FPGA 5CEFA9F31I7 - the heart of the prototype Front-End boards developed for tests of new algorithms in the Pierre Auger surface detectors. Showers for muon and tau neutrino initiating particles on various altitudes, angles and energies were simulated in CORSICA and Offline platforms giving pattern of ADC traces in Auger water Cherenkov detectors. The 3-layer 12-8-1 neural network was taught in MATLAB by simulated ADC traces according the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm. Results show that a probability of a ADC traces generation is very low due to a small neutrino cross-section. Nevertheless, ADC traces, if occur, for 1-10 EeV showers are relatively short and can be analyzed by 16-point input algorithm. We optimized the coefficients from MATLAB to get a maximal range of potentially registered events and for fixed-point FPGA processing to minimize calculation errors. New sophisticated triggers implemented in Cyclone{sup R} V E FPGAs with large amount of DSP blocks, embedded memory running with 120 - 160 MHz sampling may support a discovery of neutrino events in the Pierre Auger Observatory. (authors)

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2014

Evaluation of the Computing Systems for Yucca Mountain Repository TSPA-LA Model Operational Readiness

Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) was tasked to conduct an evaluation of the legacy computing systems of the now-closed Yucca Mountain Project (YMP) to maintain the operational readiness of the computing infrastructure (computer hardware and software) and knowledge capability for total system performance assessment (TSPA) type analysis, in the event that the License Application (LA) review by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is re-started and involves additional requests for information (RAIs). Six problem areas or components of the computing system were identified and subsequently resolved or improved to ensure the operational readiness of the TSPA-LA model capability on the server cluster. As part of this readiness review, the legacy TSPA computational cluster that was relocated from the SNL YMP Lead Lab Project Office in Las Vegas, Nevada to the SNL offices in Albuquerque, New Mexico was replaced with new hardware. Three floating licenses of Goldsim Version 9.60.300 were installed on the new cluster head node, and its distributed processing capability was mapped on the cluster processors. Other supporting software was tested and installed to support the TSPA- type analysis on the server cluster. TSPA-LA modeling cases were tested and verified for the model reproducibility on the current server cluster. All test runs were executed on multiple processors on the server cluster utilizing the Goldsim distributed processing capability, and all runs were completed successfully. The model reproducibility verification was evaluated by two approaches: numerical value comparison and graphical comparison, and the analysis demonstrated an excellent reproducibility of the TSPA-LA model runs on the server cluster. The current server cluster and supporting software systems are fully operational to support TSPA-LA type analysis.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2016

SDN solutions for switching dedicated long-haul connections: Measurements and comparative analysis

We consider a scenario of two sites connected over a dedicated, long-haul connection that must quickly fail-over in response to degradations in host-to-host application performance. The traditional layer-2/3 hot stand-by fail-over solutions do not adequately address the variety of application degradations, and more recent single controller Software Defined Networks (SDN) solutions are not effective for long-haul connections. We present two methods for such a path fail-over using OpenFlow enabled switches: (a) a light-weight method that utilizes host scripts to monitor application performance and dpctl API for switching, and (b) a generic method that uses two OpenDaylight (ODL) controllers and REST interfaces. For both methods, the restoration dynamics of applications contain significant statistical variations due to the complexities of controllers, north bound interfaces and switches; they, together with the wide variety of vendor implementations, complicate the choice among such solutions. We develop the impulse-response method based on regression functions of performance parameters to provide a rigorous and objective comparison of different solutions. We describe testing results of the two proposed methods, using TCP throughput and connection rtt as main parameters, over a testbed consisting of HP and Cisco switches connected over longhaul connections emulated in hardware by ANUE devices. Lastly, the combination of analytical and experimental results demonstrate that the dpctl method responds seconds faster than the ODL method on average, even though both methods eventually restore original TCP throughput.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2020

Classical Optimizers for Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum Devices

We present a collection of optimizers tuned for usage on Noisy Inter-mediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) devices. Optimizers have a range of applications in quantum computing, including the Variational Quantum Eigensolver (VQE) and Quantum Approximate Optimization (QAOA) algorithms. They have further uses in calibration, hyperparameter tuning, machine learning, etc. We employ the VQE algorithm as a case study. VQE is a hybrid algorithm, with a classical minimizer step driving the next evaluation on the quantum processor. While most results to date concentrated on tuning the quantum VQE circuit, our study indicates that in the presence of quantum noise the classical minimizer step is a weak link and a careful choice combined with tuning is required for correct results. We explore state-of-the-art gradient-free optimizers capable of handling noisy, black-box, cost functions and stress-test them using a quantum circuit simulation environment with noise injection capabilities on individual gates. Our results indicate that specifically tuned optimizers are crucial to obtaining valid science results on NISQ hardware, as well as projecting forward on fault tolerant circuits.

Lavrijsen, Wim↗
DOE OSTI2026

Characterizing the Electromagnetic Response of the NOvA Detectors

The NOvA Test Beam Program was commissioned to complement the full-scale NOvA experiment in its goal of measuring neutrino oscillations. The NOvA Experiment consists of a 300-ton Near Detector and a 14-kton Far Detector, both exposed to the same beam, which can be operated in neutrino or antineutrino mode from Fermilab at an off-axis angle of 14.6~mrad. These detectors can discriminate between $\nu_\mu$-CC and $\nu_e$-CC neutrino (or corresponding antineutrino) events, enabling appearance and disappearance measurements of these flavors across the \SI{810}{\kilo\meter} near-to-far detector baseline. From these measurements, the underlying parameters of the three-flavor PMNS oscillations framework are measured. The NOvA Test Beam uses identical technology to the full-scale detectors, but scaled down to 30~tons. It is exposed to a beam of charged particles closely matched to the daughter products of NOvA (anti)neutrino interactions in both energy and species. An instrumented beamline determines both particle momentum and species upstream of the NOvA detector, allowing for a crisp measurement of the NOvA detector response to these known inputs. This dissertation presents an analysis of the electromagnetic response of the NOvA hardware and establishes a framework for incorporating these results to enhance the physics reach of the experiment. Prior to this work, the electromagnetic energy response of the NOvA detector relied primarily on simulation-driven calibration together with a globally applied energy scale uncertainty. The measurements presented here provide direct test beam constraints on the detector response, enabling particle-dependent and potentially energy-dependent uncertainty models derived from controlled electromagnetic inputs.

Myers, Dalton Grant [U. Texas, Austin (main)] (ORC↗
DOE OSTI2019

Real-Time Signal-to-Noise Ratio Estimation by Universal Grid Analyzer

This paper presents a real-time Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) estimation performed by the distribution level phasor measurement unit, Universal Grid Analyzer (UGA). The hardware and software architectures of the UGA are discussed followed by the introduction of SNR estimation algorithm. To verify the effectiveness of both SNR estimation algorithm and its implementation, a real world test bench is set up in the laboratory. The experimental results validate the implementation of the existing SNR algorithm which has maximum of 5 dB error in real-time measurement.

Bhandari, Apsana↗