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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 109 records · Page 6

Dissipation and Bathymetric Sensitivities in an Unstructured Mesh Global Tidal Model

Abstract The mechanisms and geographic distribution of global tidal dissipation in barotropic tidal models are examined using a high resolution unstructured mesh finite element model. Mesh resolution varies between 2 and 25 km and is especially focused on inner shelves and steep bathymetric gradients. Tidal response sensitivities to bathymetric changes are examined to put into context response sensitivities to frictional processes. We confirm that the Ronne Ice Shelf dramatically affects Atlantic tides but also find that bathymetry in the Hudson Bay system is a critical control. We follow a sequential frictional parameter optimization process and use TPXO9 data‐assimilated tidal elevations as a reference solution. From simulated velocities and depths, dissipation within the global model is estimated and allows us to pinpoint dissipation at high resolution. Boundary layer dissipation is extremely focused with 1.4% of the ocean accounting for 90% of the total. Internal tide friction is much more distributed with 16.7% of the ocean accounting for 90% of the total. Often highly regional dissipation can impact basin‐scale and even ocean wide tides. Optimized boundary layer friction parameters correlate very well with the physical characteristics of the locality with high friction factors associated with energetic tidal regions, deep ocean island chains, and ice covered areas. Global complex M 2 tide errors are 1.94 cm in deep waters. Total global boundary layer and internal tide dissipation are estimated, respectively, at 1.83 and 1.49 TW. This continues the trend in the literature toward attributing more dissipation to internal tides.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Second order finite volume scheme for Maxwell's equations with discontinuous electromagnetic properties on unstructured meshes

This paper presents a second order finite volume scheme for numerical solution of Maxwell's equations with discontinuous dielectric permittivity and magnetic permeability on unstructured meshes. The scheme is based on Godunov scheme and employs approaches of Van Leer and Lax–Wendroff to increase the order of approximation. To keep the second order of approximation near dielectric permittivity and magnetic permeability discontinuities a novel technique for gradient calculation and limitation is applied near discontinuities. Results of test computations for problems with linear and curvilinear discontinuities confirm second order of approximation. The scheme was applied to modelling propagation of electromagnetic waves inside photonic crystal waveguides with a bend.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Generating MCNP Input Files for Unstructured Mesh Geometries

Los Alamos National Laboratory's (LANL) Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP) transport code version 6 has the capability for tracking particles on unstructured mesh (UM) geometry models. The MCNP UM feature has been developed for performing calculations of complex geometry models. This capability tracks particles on hybrid geometries where finite element meshes are embedded into constructive solid geometry (CSG) cells. The MCNP UM feature was originally designed to read UM models created by Abaqus/CAE software suite. MCNP versions 6.2.0 and later can process UM models read from Abaqus input les or MCNPUM les converted from Abaqus input les. Sandia National Laboratory's Cubit Toolkit and other finite element analysis software packages may generate UM models and then convert these models into Abaqus input formats.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Unstructured mesh solution of the Euler and Navier-Stokes equations

Mesh generation procedures as well as solution algorithms for solving the Euler and Navier-Stokes equations on unstructured meshes are presented. The solution algorithms discussed utilize approximate Riemann solver, upwind differencing to achieve high spatial accuracy. Numerical results for Euler flow over single and multi-element airfoils are presented.

Barth, Timothy J.↗

Parameterized Pseudo-Differential Operators for Applying CNNs to Unstructured Mesh Data

SAND2021-15058 O This code accompanies the International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR) paper entitled "Parameterized Pseudo-Differential Operators for Applying CNNs to Unstructured Mesh Data." Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525.

Tencer, John↗

MCNP® Code V.6.3.0 Unstructured-mesh Quality Metrics & Assessment

This report describes a variety of metrics calculated by the MCNP code for a user to assess the quality of an input unstructured mesh (UM). These UM quality metrics are calculated automatically, but the user has the opportunity to opt-out of doing so. At present, only linear tetrahedral elements and linear hexahedral elements have extensive quality metrics calculated and reported.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

WENO schemes on arbitrary unstructured meshes for laminar, transitional and turbulent flows

This paper presents the development and implementation of weighted-essentially-non-oscillatory (WENO) schemes for viscous flows on arbitrary unstructured grids. WENO schemes up to fifth-order accurate have been implemented in conjunction with hybrid and non-hybrid unstructured grids. The schemes are investigated with reference to numerical and experimental results for the Taylor–Green vortex, as well as for laminar and turbulent flows around a sphere, and the turbulent shock-wave boundary layer interaction flow problem. The results show that the accuracy of the schemes depends on the arbitrariness of shape and orientation of the unstructured mesh elements, as well as the compactness of directional stencils. The WENO schemes provide a more accurate numerical framework compared to second-order and third-order total variation diminishing (TVD) methods, however, the fifth-order version of the schemes is computationally too expensive to make the schemes practically usable. On the other hand, the third-order variant offers an excellent numerical framework in terms of accuracy and computational cost compared to the fifth-order WENO and second-order TVD schemes. Parallelisation of the CFD code (henceforth labelled as UCNS3D), where the schemes have been implemented, shows that the present methods offer very good scalable performance.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Using CUBIT to Create Unstructured Mesh Models for MCNP Simulations

The Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP) transport code version 6 (also known as MCNP6) has the capability for tracking particles on unstructured mesh (UM) geometry models embedded into constructive solid geometry (CSG) cells. This feature has been developed for performing calculations of complex geometry models because creating CSG models is a time-consuming and error-prone process as the complexities of geometries increase. An MCNP UM calculation requires UM geometry input files. The UM capability was originally designed to work with UM models created with the Abaqus/CAE software and ASCII input files that it generates. The Abaqus-formatted input files needed for MCNP UM calculations must have the correct Abaqus syntax and meet the additional MCNP requirements. Several software packages can generate a UM model formatted as an Abaqus input file. Cubit, the Sandia National Laboratory automated mesh generation toolkit, can generate a UM model formatted as an Abaqus input file. However, the Abaqus input files created by Cubit cannot be used for MCNP simulations. A Python script has been developed to convert an Abaqus file created by Cubit to an Abaqus file that the MCNP code can process. This report describes the process of using Cubit to create UM models for MCNP calculations.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Demonstration of a new unstructured mesh IMC x-ray transport capability in LAP codes

The Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) Transport project’s Jayenne Implicit Monte Carlo (IMC) transport library now includes an unstructured mesh capability and is available in a Lagrangian Applications Project (LAP) code. In this presentation, we discuss recent work by the LAP and Transport projects that provides an IMC transport capability for radiation hydrodynamics in the Lagrangian frame. Verification problems testing the new capabilities have been simulated and analyzed, i.e. Marshak wave, Mach 45, Su-Olsen, picket fence, and crooked pipe, both in one and two dimensions. We also present results on two stretch goal problems: a simplified COAX high energy density physics experiment and a supernova shock simulation. Finally, we identify current limitations and future work needed to bring a full capability to the user community.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

A GPU ‐Accelerated 3D Unstructured Mesh Based Particle Tracking Code for Multi‐Species Impurity Transport Simulation in Fusion Tokamaks

ABSTRACT This paper presents the multi‐species global impurity transport capability developed in a GPU‐accelerated fully 3D unstructured mesh‐based code, GITRm, to simultaneously track multiple impurity species and handle interactions of these impurities with mixed‐material surfaces. Different computational approaches to model particle‐surface interaction or surface response have been developed and compared. Sheath electric field is taken into account by employing a fast distance‐to‐boundary calculation, which is carried out in parallel on distributed or partitioned meshes on multiple GPUs without the need for any inter‐process communication during the simulation. Several example cases, including two for the DIII‐D tokamak, that is, one with the SAS‐V divertor and the other with the collector probes, are used to demonstrate the utility of the current multi‐species capability. For the DIII‐D probe case, the capability of GITRm to resolve the spatial distribution of particles in localized regions, such as diagnostic probes, within non‐axisymmetric tokamak geometries is demonstrated. These simulations involve up to 320 million particles and utilize up to 48 GPUs.

Nath, Dhyanjyoti D. [Scientific Computation Resear↗

The 3-D unstructured mesh generation using local transformations

The topics are presented in viewgraph form and include the following: 3D combinatorial edge swapping; 3D incremental triangulation via local transformations; a new approach to multigrid for unstructured meshes; surface mesh generation using local transforms; volume triangulations; viscous mesh generation; and future directions.

Timothy J Barth↗

Scalable direct Vlasov solver with discontinuous Galerkin method on unstructured mesh.

This paper presents the development of parallel direct Vlasov solvers with discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method for beam and plasma simulations in four dimensions. Both physical and velocity spaces are in two dimesions (2P2V) with unstructured mesh. Contrary to the standard particle-in-cell (PIC) approach for kinetic space plasma simulations, i.e., solving Vlasov-Maxwell equations, direct method has been used in this paper. There are several benefits to solving a Vlasov equation directly, such as avoiding noise associated with a finite number of particles and the capability to capture fine structure in the plasma. The most challanging part of a direct Vlasov solver comes from higher dimensions, as the computational cost increases as N{sup 2d}, where d is the dimension of the physical space. Recently, due to the fast development of supercomputers, the possibility has become more realistic. Many efforts have been made to solve Vlasov equations in low dimensions before; now more interest has focused on higher dimensions. Different numerical methods have been tried so far, such as the finite difference method, Fourier Spectral method, finite volume method, and spectral element method. This paper is based on our previous efforts to use the DG method. The DG method has been proven to be very successful in solving Maxwell equations, and this paper is our first effort in applying the DG method to Vlasov equations. DG has shown several advantages, such as local mass matrix, strong stability, and easy parallelization. These are particularly suitable for Vlasov equations. Domain decomposition in high dimensions has been used for parallelization; these include a highly scalable parallel two-dimensional Poisson solver. Benchmark results have been shown and simulation results will be reported.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

Multigrid solution of compressible turbulent flow on unstructured meshes using a two-equation model

The system of equations consisting of the full Navier-Stokes equations and two turbulence equations was solved for in the steady state using a multigrid strategy on unstructured meshes. The flow equations and turbulence equations are solved in a loosely coupled manner. The flow equations are advanced in time using a multistage Runge-Kutta time stepping scheme with a stability bound local time step, while the turbulence equations are advanced in a point-implicit scheme with a time step which guarantees stability and positively. Low Reynolds number modifications to the original two equation model are incorporated in a manner which results in well behaved equations for arbitrarily small wall distances. A variety of aerodynamic flows are solved for, initializing all quantities with uniform freestream values, and resulting in rapid and uniform convergence rates for the flow and turbulence equations.

Mavriplis, D. J.↗

Multigrid solution of compressible turbulent flow on unstructured meshes using a two-equation model

The system of equations consisting of the full Navier-Stokes equations and two turbulence equations has been solved for in the steady-state using a multigrid strategy on unstructured meshes. The flow equations and turbulence equations are solved in a loosely coupled manner. The flow equations are advanced in time using a multistage Runge-Kutta time stepping scheme with a stability bound local time-step, while the turbulence equations are advanced in a point-implicit scheme with a time-step which guarantees stability and positivity. Low Reynolds number modifications to the original two-equation model are incorporated in a manner which results in well behaved equations for arbitrarily small wall distances. A variety of aerodynamic flows are solved for, initializing all quantities with uniform freestream values, and resulting in rapid and uniform convergence rates for the flow and turbulence equations.

Mavriplis, D. J.↗

CrossLink: Advancements in Scalable Unstructured Mesh Generation [Slides]

Traditional mesh generation approaches are labor intensive and have limited robustness when applied to parametric design exploration and optimization of complex geometries. While automatic mesh generation approaches exist, they tend to generate tetrahedral or mixed-hybrid meshes which are generally unsuitable for physics applications with strong shock waves, thin boundary layers, and strong gradients. In addition, simulations sizes in the billions of cells are becoming more common with traditional mesh generation methods quickly reaching scalability limits. CrossLink offers a topology-based mesh generation approach with unstructured block-filling methods and a scalable mesh generation engine. In addition, CrossLink incorporates a python based API for seamless workflow integration and robust repeatability of the geometry handling and mesh generation process. This makes it ideal for parametric design study and optimization of complex geometries. Finally, future versions of CrossLink will offer a parametric mesh capability that optimizes a high-order mesh and enables reconstruction of the final mesh in memory by the physics solver.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Adaptive Meshing Techniques for Viscous Flow Calculations on Mixed Element Unstructured Meshes

An adaptive refinement strategy based on hierarchical element subdivision is formulated and implemented for meshes containing arbitrary mixtures of tetrahendra, hexahendra, prisms and pyramids. Special attention is given to keeping memory overheads as low as possible. This procedure is coupled with an algebraic multigrid flow solver which operates on mixed-element meshes. Inviscid flows as well as viscous flows are computed an adaptively refined tetrahedral, hexahedral, and hybrid meshes. The efficiency of the method is demonstrated by generating an adapted hexahedral mesh containing 3 million vertices on a relatively inexpensive workstation.

Mavriplis, D. J.↗

Cubit for MCNP Unstructured Mesh Analysis of Oktavian Benchmarks

The Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP) transport code developed by Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) can be used to transport various particles across user defined three dimensional (3D) geometries. Traditionally, these geometries are created as constructive solid geometry (CSG), involving the use of Boolean operators on defined surfaces to create 3D regions known as cells. A newer method of geometry definition in the MCNP code is unstructured mesh (UM) embedded within a CSG cell using the universe and fill repeated-structure features. An MCNP UM calculation requires an MCNP input file and mesh geometry file. The MCNP code cannot be used to generate UM geometry models. A computer-aided design (CAD) software is typically used to construct a solid geometry model, and a CAD file is then imported into a mesh generation software to prepare and generate a mesh model. Some mesh generation software packages have the ability to create a solid geometry and thus a separate CAD software for creating a CAD model is not needed. In this work, Cubit, a geometry creation and meshing software developed by Sandia National Laboratories, is used to construct UM models for MCNP simulations.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

A New Approach to Parallel Dynamic Partitioning for Adaptive Unstructured Meshes

Classical mesh partitioning algorithms were designed for rather static situations, and their straightforward application in a dynamical framework may lead to unsatisfactory results, e.g., excessive data migration among processors. Furthermore, special attention should be paid to their amenability to parallelization. In this paper, a novel parallel method for the dynamic partitioning of adaptive unstructured meshes is described. It is based on a linear representation of the mesh using self-avoiding walks.

Heber, Gerd↗