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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 1,243 records · Page 69

Algebraic Multigrid Solvers for Coupled PDE Systems (Final Report – B619169)

The Pennsylvania State University (“Subcontractor”) worked on the design of multigrid solvers for coupled systems of partial differential equations arising in numerical modeling of various applications, with a main emphasis on the design of new optimal algebraic multigrid interpolation. Generally, the aim of this work was to develop geometric and algebraic multilevel solvers that are robust and lend themselves to efficient implementation on massively parallel heterogeneous computers. The research in these areas built on previous works, focusing on the following topics: (1) design and analysis of algebraic coarsening algorithms for coupled PDE systems including Stokes equation, Maxwell equation and linear elasticity; (2) development of non-Galerkin coarsening techniques for the Wilson Dirac system; and (3) the use of this same Wilson MG solver for preconditioning the Overlap and Domain Wall formulations of the Dirac equation.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

HERMAN, the Nanoparticle Robot (360 video)

Science in 360°: Say hello to HERMAN, a robot that accelerates the synthesis of nanoparticles for a wide range of cool applications such as biosensors, smart window coatings, and display technologies. HERMAN (aka High-throughput Experimentation Robot for the Multiplexed Automation of Nanochemistry) is a one-of-a-kind robot at Berkeley Lab's Molecular Foundry that brings parallel processing and an extreme level of precision to the materials discovery process.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Boosting the Strength and Electrical Conductivity of Aluminum Alloys

It is common practice to use pure copper as the material of choice in applications requiring adequate strength and high electrical conductivity (EC). However, the overwhelming increase in the cost and worldwide demand for copper is becoming a major concern. As the move towards electrification throughout the world is occurring, so is a parallel move to make aluminum (Al) and Al alloys suitable as a replacement for copper. To make this goal a reality, exploration into enhancements in the strength and EC of high conductivity Al alloys is necessary. This study compiles strength and EC data for current Al powder metallurgy (PM) alloys to better understand existing data and target future research. Also highlighted are reviews of completed research projects, including studies relating to liquid metallurgy, by industry professionals and academia, noting both shortcomings and successes.

Imbrogno, Peter↗

Computer Security for I and C Systems at Nuclear Facilities - 116

Cyber-attacks on Instrumentation and Control (I and C) systems may jeopardize the safety and security of nuclear facilities by contributing to sabotage or aiding in the unauthorized removal of nuclear material. The effects of cyber-attacks on I and C systems important to safety to safety may result in a wide range of consequences, such as a temporary loss of process control or unacceptable radiological consequences. Public awareness of cyber-attacks that affect I and C systems may also undermine confidence in the safety and security of nuclear facilities. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) recognizes the need for the guidance on the protection of I and C systems that provide safety, security, or auxiliary functions at nuclear facilities from cyber-attacks. To meet this need, The IAEA has developed a new Nuclear Security Series publication with the provisional title Computer Security of Instrumentation and Control Systems at Nuclear Facilities which builds upon and expands the guidance published in Nuclear Security Series No. 17 Computer Security at Nuclear Facilities (2011) . This publication will be formally released in 2017 as Technical Guidance and will be the second international consensus publication dedicated to Computer Security at Nuclear Facilities. It was developed in parallel with the new IAEA Nuclear Safety publications providing recommendations on I and C systems at research reactors (RR) and nuclear power plants (NPP) . The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of this publication and its application. The paper will also discuss its relation to other IAEA Nuclear Security Series (NSS) publications on computer security. (authors)

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Final Technical Report: Sparse Grid Scenario Generation and Interior Algorithms for Stochastic Optimization in a Parallel Computing Environment

The support from this grant resulted in seven published papers and a technical report. Two papers are published in SIAM J. on Optimization [87, 88]; two papers are published in IEEE Transactions on Power Systems [77, 78]; one paper is published in Smart Grid [79]; one paper is published in Computational Optimization and Applications [44] and one in INFORMS J. on Computing [67]). The works in [44, 67, 87, 88] were funded primarily by this DOE grant. The applied papers in [77, 78, 79] were also supported through a subcontract from the Argonne National Lab. We start by presenting our main research results on the scenario generation problem in Sections 1–2. We present our algorithmic results on interior point methods for convex optimization problems in Section 3. We describe a new ‘central’ cutting surface algorithm developed for solving large scale convex programming problems (as is the case with our proposed research) with semi-infinite number of constraints in Section 4. In Sections 5–6 we present our work on two application problems of interest to DOE.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Refueling Infrastructure Scoping and Feasibility Assessment for Hydrogen Rail Applications

The feasibility and component cost of hydrogen rail refueling infrastructure is examined. Example reference stations can inform future studies on components and systems specifically for hydrogen rail refueling facilities. All of the 5 designs considered assumed the bulk storage of liquid hydrogen on-site, from which either gaseous or liquid hydrogen would be dispensed. The first design was estimated to refuel 10 multiple unit trains per day, each train containing 260 kg of gaseous hydrogen at 350 bar on-board. The second base design targeted the refueling of 50 passenger locomotives, each with 400 kg of gaseous hydrogen on-board at 350 bar. Variations from this basic design were made to consider the effect of two different filling times, two different hydrogen compression methods, and two different station design approaches. For each design variation, components were sized, approximate costs were estimated for major components, and physical layouts were created. For both gaseous hydrogen-dispensing base designs, the design of direct-fill using a cryopump design was the lowest cost due to the high cost of the cascade storage system and gas compressor. The last three base designs all assumed that liquid hydrogen was dispensed into tender cars for freight locomotives that required 7,500 kg of liquid hydrogen, and the three different designs assumed that 5, 50, or 200 tender cars were refueled every day. The total component costs are very different for each design, because each design has a very different dispensing capacity. The total component cost for these three designs are driven by the cost of the liquid hydrogen tank; additionally, delivering that much liquid hydrogen to the refueling facility may not be practical. Many of the designs needed the use of multiple evaporators, compressors, and cryopumps operating in parallel to meet required flow rates. In the future, the components identified here can be improved and scaled-up to better fit the needs of heavy-duty refueling facilities. This study provides basic feasibility and first-order design guidance for hydrogen refueling facilities serving emerging rail applications.

08 HYDROGEN↗

Electronic Bottleneck Suppression in Next‐Generation Networks with Integrated Photonic Digital‐to‐Analog Converters

Digital‐to‐analog converters (DAC) are indispensable functional units in signal processing instrumentation and wide‐band telecommunication links for both civil and military applications. As photonic systems are capable of high data throughput and low latency, an increasingly found system limitation stems from the required domain crossing such as digital to analog and electronic to optical. A photonic DAC implementation, in contrast, enables a seamless signal conversion with respect to both energy efficiency and short signal delay, often requiring bulky discrete optical components and electric–optic transformation, hence introducing inefficiencies. Herein, a novel coherent parallel photonic DAC concept along with a 4‐bit experimental prototype capable of performing this DAC without optic–electric–optic domain crossing is introduced. This new paradigm guarantees a linear intensity weighting among bits when operating at high sampling rates (50 GHz), featuring an exceptional sampling efficiency (> 100 GS ) and small footprint (≈1 mm 2 ) in an 8‐bit implementation. Importantly, this photonic DAC enables seamless interfaces of next‐generation data processing hardware with high relevance in data centers, task‐specific compute accelerators such as neuromorphic engines, and network edge processing applications.

Meng, Jiawei↗

Medium Voltage Solid State Transformer for Extreme Fast Charging Applications

A modular and scalable solid state transformer (SST) with direct medium voltage (MV) AC connectivity is proposed to enable DC extreme fast charging (XFC) of electric vehicles. Single-phase-modules (SPMs), each consisting of an active-front-end (AFE) stage and an isolated DC-DC stage, are connected in input-series-output-parallel (ISOP) configuration. The modular hardware is co-designed with decentralized control of the DC-DC stages where voltage and power balancing are achieved by each SPM using only its local sensor feedback; a centralized controller (CC) regulates the low voltage (LV) DC bus through the AFE stages without any sensor feedback form the SPMs. The controller architecture contrasts sharply with the prior art for MV AC to LV DC SSTs where high-speed bidirectional communication among SPMs and a CC are required for module-level voltage and power balancing, which severely limits the scalability and practical realization of higher voltage and higher power units. Detailed small-signal analysis and controller design guidelines are developed. Furthermore, a soft start-up strategy is presented. The proposed converter and control structure are validated through simulation and experimental results.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

A Parallel Machine Learning Workflow for Neutron Scattering Data Analysis

As part of a larger effort, this work-in-progress reports the possible advantages of modifying conventional workflows used to generate labelled training samples and train machine learning (ML) models on them. We compare results from three different workflows using neutron scattering data analysis as the motivating application and report about 20% improvement in speedup, with no appreciable loss of model accuracy, over a baseline workflow.

Wang, Tianle↗

Advancing Fusion with Machine Learning Research Needs Workshop Report

Abstract Machine learning and artificial intelligence (ML/AI) methods have been used successfully in recent years to solve problems in many areas, including image recognition, unsupervised and supervised classification, game-playing, system identification and prediction, and autonomous vehicle control. Data-driven machine learning methods have also been applied to fusion energy research for over 2 decades, including significant advances in the areas of disruption prediction, surrogate model generation, and experimental planning. The advent of powerful and dedicated computers specialized for large-scale parallel computation, as well as advances in statistical inference algorithms, have greatly enhanced the capabilities of these computational approaches to extract scientific knowledge and bridge gaps between theoretical models and practical implementations. Large-scale commercial success of various ML/AI applications in recent years, including robotics, industrial processes, online image recognition, financial system prediction, and autonomous vehicles, have further demonstrated the potential for data-driven methods to produce dramatic transformations in many fields. These advances, along with the urgency of need to bridge key gaps in knowledge for design and operation of reactors such as ITER, have driven planned expansion of efforts in ML/AI within the US government and around the world. The Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science programs in Fusion Energy Sciences (FES) and Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) have organized several activities to identify best strategies and approaches for applying ML/AI methods to fusion energy research. This paper describes the results of a joint FES/ASCR DOE-sponsored Research Needs Workshop on Advancing Fusion with Machine Learning, held April 30–May 2, 2019, in Gaithersburg, MD (full report available at https://science.osti.gov/-/media/fes/pdf/workshop-reports/FES_ASCR_Machine_Learning_Report.pdf ). The workshop drew on broad representation from both FES and ASCR scientific communities, and identified seven Priority Research Opportunities (PRO’s) with high potential for advancing fusion energy. In addition to the PRO topics themselves, the workshop identified research guidelines to maximize the effectiveness of ML/AI methods in fusion energy science, which include focusing on uncertainty quantification, methods for quantifying regions of validity of models and algorithms, and applying highly integrated teams of ML/AI mathematicians, computer scientists, and fusion energy scientists with domain expertise in the relevant areas.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Parallel and interacting stochastic approximation annealing algorithms for global optimisation

We present the parallel and interacting stochastic approximation annealing (PISAA) algorithm, a stochastic simulation procedure for global optimisation, that extends and improves the stochastic approximation annealing (SAA) by using population Monte Carlo ideas. The efficiency of standard SAA algorithm crucially depends on its selfadjusting mechanism which presents stability issues in high dimensional or rugged optimisation problems. The proposed algorithm involves simulating a population of SAA chains that interact each other in a manner that significantly improves the stability of the self-adjusting mechanism and the search for the global optimum in the sampling space, as well as it inherits SAA desired convergence properties when a square-root cooling schedule is used. It can be implemented in parallel computing environments in order to mitigate the computational overhead. As a result, PISAA can address complex optimisation problems that it would be difficult for SAA to satisfactory address. We demonstrate the good performance of the proposed algorithm on challenging applications including Bayesian network learning and protein folding. Our numerical comparisons suggest that PISAA outperforms the simulated annealing, stochastic approximation annealing, and annealing evolutionary stochastic approximation Monte Carlo.

Local trap↗

Multi-Dimensional Simulation of LWR Fuel Behavior in the BISON Fuel Performance Code

Nuclear fuel operates in an extreme environment that induces complex multiphysics phenomena occurring over distances ranging from inter-atomic spacing to meters, and times scales ranging from microseconds to years. To simulate this behavior requires a wide variety of material models that are often complex and nonlinear. The recently developed BISON code represents a powerful fuel performance simulation tool based on its material and physical behavior capabilities, finite-element versatility of spatial representation, and use of parallel computing. The code can operate in full three dimensional (3D) mode, as well as in reduced two dimensional (2D) modes, e.g., axisymmetric radial-axial (R-Z) or plane radial-circumferential (R-θ), to suit the application and to allow treatment of global and local effects. A BISON case study was used in this paper to illustrate analysis of Pellet Clad Mechanical Interaction failures from manufacturing defects using combined 2D and 3D analyses. The analysis involved commercial fuel rods and demonstrated successful computation of metrics of interest to fuel failures, including cladding peak hoop stress and strain energy density. Finally, in comparison with a failure threshold derived from power ramp tests, results corroborate industry analyses of the root cause of the pellet-clad interaction failures and illustrate the importance of modeling 3D local effects around fuel pellet defects, which can produce complex effects including cold spots in the cladding, stress concentrations, and hot spots in the fuel that can lead to enhanced cladding degradation such as hydriding, oxidation, CRUD formation, and stress corrosion cracking.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Direct I/O for RNTuple Columnar Data

RNTuple is the new columnar data format designed as the successor to ROOT’s TTree format. It allows to make use of modern hardware capabilities and is expected to be used in production by the LHC experiments during the HL-LHC. In this paper, we discuss the usage of Direct I/O to fully exploit modern SSDs, especially in the context of the recent addition of parallel RNTuple writing. We describe the alignment requirements imposed by Direct I/O and approaches to meet them for columnar data formats. Finally, we discuss performance results for both writing and reading, in synthetic benchmarks as well as real-world applications.

Hahnfeld, Jonas [CERN; Goethe U., Frankfurt (main)↗

Orbital orientation mapping of V 2 O 5 thin films

We report the effects of growth methods on the orbital orientation in vanadium pentoxide (V 2 O 5 ) thin films, an important factor to consider when selecting growth techniques for highly selective catalysts and devices. Thermal evaporation and sol-gel methods were used to synthesize the V 2 O 5 films. The surface morphology, roughness, and orientation of the films were characterized by atomic force microscopy and x-ray diffraction. Surface electronic properties and oxidation states were assessed by x-ray photoemission spectroscopy. Polarized x-ray absorption spectroscopy demonstrated that the thermally evaporated film [which was in the (001) orientation] exhibited greater anisotropy than the (100) oriented sol-gel film. The observed increase in anisotropy agrees well with computational findings which revealed that more vanadyl bonds are present at the surface of the thermally evaporated film than at the surface of the sol-gel film. The same computational study also found that the orientation of these bonds is more parallel to the film surface in the thermally evaporated film than in the sol-gel film. Finally, the data suggest that the method of growth may be used as a controlled variable to select key film characteristics for potential applications.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

CarcSeq Measurement of Rat Mammary Cancer Driver Mutations and Relation to Spontaneous Mammary Neoplasia

Abstract The ability to deduce carcinogenic potential from subchronic, repeat dose rodent studies would constitute a major advance in chemical safety assessment and drug development. This study investigated an error-corrected NGS method (CarcSeq) for quantifying cancer driver mutations (CDMs) and deriving a metric of clonal expansion predictive of future neoplastic potential. CarcSeq was designed to interrogate subsets of amplicons encompassing hotspot CDMs applicable to a variety of cancers. Previously, normal human breast DNA was analyzed by CarcSeq and metrics based on mammary-specific CDMs were correlated with tissue donor age, a surrogate of breast cancer risk. Here we report development of parallel methodologies for rat. The utility of the rat CarcSeq method for predicting neoplastic potential was investigated by analyzing mammary tissue of 16-week-old untreated rats with known differences in spontaneous mammary neoplasia (Fischer 344, Wistar Han, and Sprague Dawley). Hundreds of mutants with mutant fractions ≥ 10−4 were quantified in each strain, most were recurrent mutations, and 42.5% of the nonsynonymous mutations have human homologs. Mutants in the mammary-specific target of the most tumor-sensitive strain (Sprague Dawley) showed the greatest nonsynonymous/synonymous mutation ratio, indicative of positive selection consistent with clonal expansion. For the mammary-specific target (Hras, Pik3ca, and Tp53 amplicons), median absolute deviation correlated with percentages of rats that develop spontaneous mammary neoplasia at 104 weeks (Pearson r = 1.0000, 1-tailed p = .0010). Therefore, this study produced evidence CarcSeq analysis of spontaneously occurring CDMs can be used to derive an early metric of clonal expansion relatable to long-term neoplastic outcome.

McKim, Karen L.↗

smoothG

smoothG is a collection of parallel C++ classes/functions that algebraically constructs reduced models of different resolutions from a given high-fidelity graph model. In addition, smoothG also provides efficient linear solvers for the reduced models. Other than pure graph problem, the software finds its application in subsurface flow and power grid simulations in which graph Laplacians are found

Barker, AndrewT.↗

FasTensor (FT) v0.0.1

The FasTensor implements the native array data programming mode namely SLOPE for modern data analysis tasks. It is designed to work in parallel on supercomputer and can handle terabyte data analysis tasks. It is thousand times faster than other data analysis systems such as Apache Spark and 38% faster than TensorFlow in dealing with large scale scientific data analysis. It has wide applications in image data analysis and mesh data analysis tasks in physical simulations and other fields.

Wu, Kesheng↗

Neutron (and other Particle) Transport at LANL: An Overview [Presentation]

For decades, Los Alamos National Laboratory has been at the forefront of neutron transport methods research and code development. One such code is PARTISN, the LANL parallel time-dependent discrete ordinate neutron transport code. In this presentation, we describe the various research efforts currently underway by the PARTISN and other code teams. Some examples of current research are a block automated mesh refinement scheme, the application of tensor trains to the discretized neutron transport equation, and GPU code porting. The block automated mesh refinement scheme uses cross section information to refine and coarsen the solution mesh to improve time to solution and reduce memory. The tensor train approach expresses discretized transport operators as tensor products of vectors and matrices to compress the size of linear systems being solved by transport codes. Rather than relying on matrix-free methods such as the transport sweep, we have access to an operator that can be inverted, reshaped, or manipulated algebraically. Finally, we describe how PARTISN is used, what problems we are looking to solve, and what the future holds for neutron transport at LANL. In addition to this, we briefly describe the various research efforts in other particle transport teams using both deterministic and Monte Carlo methods. In the presentation, we list possible opportunities for collaboration between the laboratory and faculty and students.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗