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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 127 records · Page 7

A model-independent data assimilation (MIDA) module and its applications in ecology

Abstract. Models are an important tool to predict Earth system dynamics. An accurate prediction of future states of ecosystems depends on not only model structures but also parameterizations. Model parameters can be constrained by data assimilation. However, applications of data assimilation to ecology are restricted by highly technical requirements such as model-dependent coding. To alleviate this technical burden, we developed a model-independent data assimilation (MIDA) module. MIDA works in three steps including data preparation, execution of data assimilation, and visualization. The first step prepares prior ranges of parameter values, a defined number of iterations, and directory paths to access files of observations and models. The execution step calibrates parameter values to best fit the observations and estimates the parameter posterior distributions. The final step automatically visualizes the calibration performance and posterior distributions. MIDA is model independent, and modelers can use MIDA for an accurate and efficient data assimilation in a simple and interactive way without modification of their original models. We applied MIDA to four types of ecological models: the data assimilation linked ecosystem carbon (DALEC) model, a surrogate-based energy exascale earth system model: the land component (ELM), nine phenological models and a stand-alone biome ecological strategy simulator (BiomeE). The applications indicate that MIDA can effectively solve data assimilation problems for different ecological models. Additionally, the easy implementation and model-independent feature of MIDA breaks the technical barrier of applications of data–model fusion in ecology. MIDA facilitates the assimilation of various observations into models for uncertainty reduction in ecological modeling and forecasting.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Driving Next-Generation Workflows from the Data Plane

We observe the emergence of a new generation of scientific workflows that process data produced at a sustained rate by scientific instruments and large scale numerical simulations. This data is consumed by multiple analysis, visualization, or Machine Learning components not only to enable inference and justify the scientific program, but also to monitor and steer the evolution of these experiments. In such workflows, moving intermediate data efficiently is key to performance, more than efficiently scheduling computational tasks. However, most traditional workflow management systems focus on optimizing task scheduling and then deal with data management, assuming a “move little, compute for long” model, which makes them unfit to the efficient management of this new generation of workflows. Therefore, we advocate for a new way to manage scientific workflows. We propose to consider an efficiently and independently managed data plane that can store and stream data. Workflows compute components, in the application plane can then interact with the data plane, abstracted from complexities of data management. Then, the role of a workflow management system would become that of a control plane that allows users to connect services together to execute the workflow and manages connections between the application and data planes. In this position paper, we characterize several next-generation workflow motifs and describe how their interaction with the data plane is a challenge to traditional workflow management systems. Then, we express a set of requirements that a workflow management system should meet to efficiently manage next-generation workflows at different scales. Based on these requirements, we expose our vision of driving next-generation workflows from the data plane and list remaining open challenges.

Suter, Fred↗

The Exascale Framework for High Fidelity coupled Simulations (EFFIS): Enabling whole device modeling in fusion science

We present the Exascale Framework for High Fidelity coupled Simulations (EFFIS), a workflow and code coupling framework developed as part of the Whole Device Modeling Application (WDMApp) in the Exascale Computing Project. EFFIS consists of a library, command line utilities, and a collection of run-time daemons. Together, these software products enable users to easily compose and execute workflows that include: strong or weak coupling, in situ (or offline) analysis/visualization/monitoring, command-and-control actions, remote dashboard integration, and more. We describe WDMApp physics coupling cases and computer science requirements that motivate the design of the EFFIS framework. Furthermore, we explain the essential enabling technology that EFFIS leverages: ADIOS for performant data movement, PerfStubs/TAU for performance monitoring, and an advanced COUPLER for transforming coupling data from its native format to the representation needed by another application. Finally, we demonstrate EFFIS using coupled multi-simulation WDMApp workflows and exemplify how the framework supports the project’s needs. We show that EFFIS and its associated services for data movement, visualization, and performance collection does not introduce appreciable overhead to the WDMApp workflow and that the resource-dominant application’s idle time while waiting for data is minimal.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Demonstrating SolarPILOT's Python API Through Heliostat Optimal Aimpoint Strategy Use Case: Preprint

SolarPILOT is a software package that generates heliostat field layouts and characterizes the optical performance of concentrating solar power (CSP) tower systems. SolarPILOT was developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) as a stand-alone desktop application but has also been incorporated into NREL's System Advisor Model (SAM) in a simplified format. Prior means for user interaction with SolarPILOT have included the application's graphical interface, the SAM routines with limited configurability, and through a built-in scripting language called "LK." This paper presents a new, full-featured Python-based application programmable interface (API) for SolarPILOT, which we hereafter refer to as CoPylot. CoPylot provides access to all SolarPILOT's capabilities to generate and characterize power tower CSP systems seamlessly through Python. Supported capabilities include (i) creating and destroying a model instances with message reporting tools; (ii) accessing and setting any SolarPILOT variable including custom land boundaries for field layout; (iii) programmatically managing receiver and heliostat objects with varied attributes for systems with multiple receiver or heliostat types; (iv) generating, assigning, and modifying heliostat field layouts including the ability to set individual heliostat locations, aimpoints, soiling rates, and reflectivity levels; (v) simulating heliostat field performance; (vi) returning detailed results describing performance of individual heliostats, the aggregate field, and receiver flux; and, (vii) exporting Python-based model instances to multiple file formats. CoPylot enables Python users to perform detailed tower CSP analysis utilizing either the Hermite expansion technique (analytical) or the SolTrace ray-tracing engine. In addition to CoPylot's functionality, Python users have access to the over 100,000 open-source libraries to develop, analyze, optimize, and visualize CSP tower research.

41 EE - Solar Energy Technologies Office (EE-4S)↗

Demonstrating SolarPILOT’s Python API Through Heliostat Optimal Aimpoint Strategy Use Case

SolarPILOT is a software package that generates solar field layouts and characterizes the optical performance of concentrating solar power (CSP) tower systems. SolarPILOT was developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) as a stand-alone desktop application but has also been incorporated into NREL’s1 System Advisor Model (SAM) in a simplified format. Prior means for user interaction with SolarPILOT have included the application’s graphical interface, the SAM routines with limited configurability, and through a built-in scripting language called “LK.” This paper presents a new, full-featured, Python-based application programmable interface (API) for SolarPILOT, which we hereafter refer to as CoPylot. CoPylot provides access to all SolarPILOT’s capabilities to generate and characterize power tower CSP systems seamlessly through Python. Supported capabilities include (i) creating and destroying a model instance with message reporting tools; (ii) accessing and setting any SolarPILOT variable including custom land boundaries for field layouts; (iii) programmatically managing receiver and heliostat objects with varied attributes for systems with multiple receiver or heliostat types; (iv) generating, assigning, and modifying solar field layouts including the ability to set individual heliostat locations, aimpoints, soiling rates, and reflectivity levels; (v) simulating solar field performance; (vi) returning detailed results describing performance of individual heliostats, the aggregate field, and receiver flux distribution; and, (vii) exporting Python-based model instances to multiple file formats. CoPylot enables Python users to perform detailed CSP tower analysis utilizing either the Hermite expansion technique (analytical) or the SolTrace ray-tracing engine. In addition to CoPylot’s functionality, Python users have access to the over 100,000 open-source libraries to develop, analyze, optimize, and visualize power tower CSP research. This enables CSP researchers to perform analysis that was previously not possible through SolarPILOT’s existing interfaces. This paper discusses the capabilities of CoPylot and presents a use case wherein we demonstrate optimal solar field aiming strategies.

41 EE - Solar Energy Technologies Office (EE-4S)↗

OpenMC

OpenMC is an open source, community-developed framework for performing Monte Carlo particle transport calculations.It is capable of simulating neutron and photon transport below ~50 MeV and also includes a model for bremsstrahlung production of photons by electrons/positrons. Fixed source, k-eigenvalue, and subcritical multiplication problems can be solved. Problem geometries can be modeled either using constructive solid geometry or a CAD representation. A flexible and efficient tally system enables a wide variety of physical quantities to be tallied and analyzed. OpenMC can run in parallel using a hybrid MPI and OpenMP programming model and has been extensively tested on leadership class supercomputers. A built-in Bateman equation solver enables the modeling of material composition changes due to irradiation. One of the unique features of OpenMC is its rich, extensible Python and C/C++ programming interfaces that enable programming pre- and post-processing, multigroup cross section generation, workflow automation, multiphysics coupling, and the visualization of geometry and tally results. In addition to the core Monte Carlo transport solver and associated APIs, OpenMC includes a Python-based nuclear data interface that enables power users to inspect, modify,and perform various types of nuclear data processing on ENDF, ACE, and OpenMC¿s native HDF5 files

ROMANO, PaulK.↗

UrbanScaping: Community Spatial Data Visualization & Analytics

Evaluating the electrification potential of buildings through retrofitting is crucial for reducing carbon emissions and the carbon footprint of built environments. This study leverages the Automatic Building Energy Modeling (AutoBEM) software, integrating the Model America database to create an urban context-based spatial analysis platform for community engagement and development. We selected Camp Hill Borough, PA, as a case study to analyze building-specific energy performance and evaluate the electrification potential of each building by switching to different Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems and measurement components. The simulation results generated by the workflow provide retrofitting suggestions to help mitigate the carbon footprint as well as energy saving statistics of buildings. Additionally, the developed web-based interface serves as a community engagement platform, allowing residents to provide feedback and further develop interactive communication protocols. The outcomes of this project offer a baseline for community electrification planning and contribute to the design of low-carbon communities.

Chowdhury, Shovan [ORNL]↗

Visual Style Elements in Human–System Interface Design for Nuclear Power Operations: Does Style Affect Performance and Preference?

As the world increasingly adopts renewable and sustainable energy systems, transitionary solutions include nuclear power, which currently provides 20% of the United States’ electricity and is the largest single source of carbon-free electricity generation. Advanced reactors are a critical component of a carbon-free mixed energy portfolio that require careful design of first-of-a-kind control rooms. The application of Human Factors Engineering (HFE) is essential for scientific and iterative testing of novel human–system interface (HSI) concepts to ensure effective, efficient, and safe plant operations. Microworlds are simulators that use simplified physics models and control systems to distill nuclear power operations into essential functions. HFE scientists used the Rancor Microworld Simulator to obtain preference and performance metrics for novel and traditional static HSI design styles. Participants comprised advanced reactor company employees and nuclear industry consultants. A mixture of quantitative and qualitative data was captured. There was a preference for the basic graphical style that included high contrast and traditional color scheme elements. No single HSI design outperformed the others, and the participants did not perform better using their preferred HSI style. We report this experiment is the first in a series of HFE testing for HSIs in advanced reactor control room development. Clear user preferences emerged for elements within static displays. The cutting-edge neumorphic style was the least preferred. Future directions include tests of dynamic displays. HFE is used in evaluating and designing HSI devices that will improve the efficiency and safety of advanced nuclear power operations.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

Coil optimization for quasi-helically symmetric stellarator configurations

Filament-based coil optimizations are performed for several quasi-helical stellarator configurations, beginning with the one from Landreman & Paul ( Phys. Rev. Lett. , vol. 128, 2022, 035001), demonstrating that precise quasi-helical symmetry can be achieved with realistic coils. Several constraints are placed on the shape and spacing of the coils, such as low curvature and sufficient plasma–coil distance for neutron shielding. The coils resulting from this optimization have a maximum curvature 0.8 times that of the coils of the Helically Symmetric eXperiment (HSX) and a mean squared curvature 0.4 times that of the HSX coils when scaled to the same plasma minor radius. When scaled up to reactor size and magnetic field strength, no fast particle losses were found in the free-boundary configuration when simulating 5000 alpha particles launched at $3.5\,\mathrm {MeV}$ on the flux surface with a normalized toroidal flux of $s=0.5$ . An analysis of the tolerance of the coils to manufacturing errors is performed using a Gaussian process model, and the coils are found to maintain low particle losses for smooth, large-scale errors up to amplitudes of approximately $0.15\,\mathrm {m}$ . Another coil optimization is performed for the Landreman–Paul configuration with the additional constraint that the coils are purely planar. Visual inspection of the Poincaré plot of the resulting magnetic field-lines reveal that the planar modular coils alone do a poor job of reproducing the target equilibrium. Additional non-planar coil optimizations are performed for the quasi-helical configuration with $5\,\%$ volume-averaged plasma beta from Landreman et al. ( Phys. Plasma , vol. 29, issue 8, 2022, 082501), and a similar configuration also optimized to satisfy the Mercier criterion. The finite beta configurations had larger fast-particle losses, with the free-boundary Mercier-optimized configuration performing the worst, losing approximately $5.5\,\%$ of alpha particles launched at $s=0.5$ .

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

GDSA Framework Development and Process Model Integration FY2022

The Spent Fuel and Waste Science and Technology (SFWST) Campaign of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Nuclear Energy (NE), Office of Spent Fuel & Waste Disposition (SFWD) is conducting research and development (R&D) on geologic disposal of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level nuclear waste (HLW). A high priority for SFWST disposal R&D is disposal system modeling (Sassani et al. 2021). The SFWST Geologic Disposal Safety Assessment (GDSA) work package is charged with developing a disposal system modeling and analysis capability for evaluating generic disposal system performance for nuclear waste in geologic media. This report describes fiscal year (FY) 2022 advances of the Geologic Disposal Safety Assessment (GDSA) performance assessment (PA) development groups of the SFWST Campaign. The common mission of these groups is to develop a geologic disposal system modeling capability for nuclear waste that can be used to assess probabilistically the performance of generic disposal options and generic sites. The modeling capability under development is called GDSA Framework (pa.sandia.gov). GDSA Framework is a coordinated set of codes and databases designed for probabilistically simulating the release and transport of disposed radionuclides from a repository to the biosphere for post-closure performance assessment. Primary components of GDSA Framework include PFLOTRAN to simulate the major features, events, and processes (FEPs) over time, Dakota to propagate uncertainty and analyze sensitivities, meshing codes to define the domain, and various other software for rendering properties, processing data, and visualizing results.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

FY25 MOOSE Usability Improvements: 3D Meshing Capabilities, Initiation of Geometry Support for Monte Carlo Tools, and Enhancement of MOOSE/Workbench User Input Interactions

Usability improvements have been made to MOOSE and Workbench in FY25 to enhance usability and user workflows. Assorted enhancement have been made to MOOSE’s intrinsic meshing capabilities in order to enable more flexible and complex meshing of nuclear reactor systems, in particular for 3D applications. Mesh generators have been added to perform operations such as batch mesh generation, surface mesh generation, and creation of 3D transition layers. These mesh generation capabilities make it much easier to generate high quality non-extruded 3D meshes. Additionally, work to integrate Monte Carlo reactor physics simulations into MOOSE-based multi-physics workflows has reached another milestone with the implementation of the Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG) base framework. This framework lays the foundation for mesh generators to offer the user a generic CSG output option (as opposed to a finite element mesh). To support users, workshop on the MOOSE Reactor Module was delivered which featured hands-on examples using the NEAMS Workbench on INL’s High Performance Computing system. Recent updates to the NEAMS Workbench, WASP, and the MOOSE language server have introduced several improvements aimed at making MOOSE-based simulation setup and input management faster, more accurate, and easier to use. Key capabilities that have been added include multi-tab-stop autocompletion, visual input diagnostics, developer-directed data visualizations, upgraded ParaView integration, and Workspace-level file tracking. Together, these changes make it easier for users to build, validate, and manage complex MOOSE-based simulation models — especially those involving reusable components, included files, and datasets. The improvements are designed to save time, reduce input errors, and help users get to a successful simulation run faster, with more confidence in the results.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Computational Tools and Workflows for Quantitative Risk Assessment and Decision Support for Geologic Carbon Storage Sites: Progress and Insights from the U.S. DOE’s National Risk Assessment Partnership

The 2005 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on CCS raised the profile of CO2 capture and storage (CCS) as an important technology for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. CCS is now recognized as a key component of most climate change mitigation scenarios. Since publication of that report the international research, development, and deployment (RD&D) community has advanced key technical aspects, clarified regulatory requirements, explored value chain and infrastructure solutions, and developed incentive paradigms to enable and promote large-scale deployment of CCS. These efforts have included research to better characterize geologic storage resources, to improve injection performance and storage efficiency, to assess and manage subsurface environmental risks, and to advance monitoring technologies to assure system conformance. These efforts have helped to build confidence in the viability of geologic carbon storage (GCS), but stakeholder concerns about long-term risks and liability associated with GCS remain a hurdle to broad acceptance and large-scale deployment of CCS. Since 2010, the U.S. DOE’s National Risk Assessment Partnership (NRAP) – a research collaboration between five contributing national laboratories – has worked to establish and demonstrate methods and tools to quantify and manage the subsurface environmental risks associated with GCS, amidst uncertainty. This work supports the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management Carbon Transport and Storage Program’s goal of advancing safe and secure commercial-scale GCS deployment. To address the technical challenge of simulating the physical response of the GCS site to large-scale CO2 injection, NRAP has adopted an approach that relies on coupling computationally efficient reduced-order and/or data-driven proxy models of important system components (i.e., storage reservoir, sealing caprock, leakage pathways, intermediate formations, overlying groundwater aquifers, and the atmosphere) in integrated assessment framework. That integrated model of the physical system is complemented with fit-for purpose functionality to support site characterization and risk-related decisions. The recently released NRAP Phase II toolset includes the Open-Source Integrated Assessment Model (NRAP-Open-IAM) for evaluation of trends in leakage risk and potential impact, tools to support monitoring design optimization (Designs for Risk Evaluation and Management – DREAM v3.0 and Passive Seismic Monitoring Tool - PSMT), and tools for state of stress evaluation (State-of-Stress Analysis Tool - SOSAT) and forecasting induced seismicity risk. The NRAP team has also released a pair of reports describing conceptual workflows to incorporate physics-based, quantitative risk assessment into many of the design, planning, operation, and closure decisions for GCS projects. An online catalogue highlights published studies where these tools and methods are demonstrated. In this presentation, the utility of these products to assess risks and address key stakeholder questions will be highlighted through examples, and related insights about the safety and security of geologic carbon storage in qualified storage sites will be discussed. The prospect of rapid, large-scale deployment of GCS technology to aggressively reduce anthropogenic CO2 emissions requires careful consideration of interference between multiple commercial-scale storage projects within a basin. Going forward, NRAP is expanding and adapting site-scale risk quantification tools and methods to enable assessment of risks and inform management decisions for basin-scale deployment. Increasingly, this work will leverage next-generation approaches for surrogate modelling, fast prediction, and advanced visualization enabled by machine learning and artificial intelligence to promote virtual learning, scenario evaluation, and augment risk-based decision making.

quantitative risk assessment, geologic carbon stor↗

Metrics for evaluating tropical cyclones in climate data

This manuscript describes a software suite that can be used for objective evaluation of tropical cyclones (TCs) in gridded climate data. Using cyclone trajectories derived from 6-hourly data, a comprehensive set of metrics is defined to systematically compare and contrast products to one another. In addition to annual TC climatologies, attention is paid to spatial and temporal patterns of storm occurrence and intensity. Assessment can be performed either on the global scale or regional domains. Simple to visualize ‘scorecards’ allow for rapid credibility assessment. We showcase three key findings enabled by this suite. First, we compare the representation of TCs in seven current-generation global reanalyses and conclude that higher resolution models and those with TC-specific assimilation contain more accurate storm climatologies. Second, using a free-running Earth system model (ESM) we find that full basin refinement is required in variable-resolution configurations to adequately simulate North Atlantic TC frequency. Furthermore, upstream refinement over northern Africa offers little benefit in simulating storm occurrence but spatial genesis patterns are improved. Finally, we show that TCs simulated by ESMs can be highly sensitive to individual parameterizations in climate models, with North Atlantic TC metrics varying greatly depending on version of the Morrison-Gettelman microphysics package.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Collaborative: in situ visual analytics technologies for extreme scale combustion simulations

This project aims to drastically enhance the usability of in situ analysis and visualization for extreme-scale scientific simulations. Current exascale computing capabilities promise to offer greater predictive ability of simulations and to further push the frontiers of science and technology. However, to validate the simulation output at extreme scale, examine the modeled phenomena, and discover previously unknowns from the output data, the output must be reduced or transformed in situ as it is being generated during the simulation such that the amount of data to examine and store is kept to a minimum. Such in situ approaches allow us to process and analyze the data and any embedded geometry to an extent that would be prohibitively expensive, if not impossible, to perform as a post hoc task. While in situ processing has been demonstrated to be a feasible and promising approach, its full potential has not yet been leveraged. In this project, we have developed comprehensive enhancements to in situ technology based on probability distributions in data. Our research focuses on jointly developing new ways of interacting with massive statistical samples while creatively utilizing new state-of-the-art computational resources to push the boundaries of in situ exploration. Moreover, we have developed new time-dependent techniques to enable previously unattainable capabilities in areas such as intelligent simulation steering and precise feature identification. We have experimentally studied our design and implementation at NERSC and OLCF, and are able to leverage existing in situ infrastructures whenever possible. While the exemplar in this project is combustion, many other fields for which turbulent transport is important, e.g., fusion, climate, astrophysics among others, encounter similar issues as simulations scale up to the exascale. This project shows its potential to generate high impact on DOE missions since the resulting technology promises to improve scientists’ ability to rapidly and correctly interpret and tune extreme-scale simulations, leading to new scientific understanding and advancements.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Investigation of thermal hydraulic behavior of the High Temperature Test Facility's lower plenum via large eddy simulation

A high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis was performed using the Large Eddy Simulation (LES) model for the lower plenum of the High–Temperature Test Facility (HTTF), a ¼ scale test facility of the modular high temperature gas-cooled reactor (MHTGR) managed by Oregon State University. In most next–generation nuclear reactors, thermal stress due to thermal striping is one of the risks to be curiously considered. This is also true for HTGRs, especially since the exhaust helium gas temperature is high. In order to evaluate these risks and performance, organizations in the United States led by the OECD NEA are conducting a thermal hydraulic code benchmark for HTGR, and the test facility used for this benchmark is HTTF. HTTF can perform experiments in both normal and accident situations and provide high-quality experimental data. However, it is difficult to provide sufficient data for benchmarking through experiments, and there is a problem with the reliability of CFD analysis results based on Reynolds–averaged Navier–Stokes to analyze thermal hydraulic behavior without verification. To solve this problem, high-fidelity 3-D CFD analysis was performed using the LES model for HTTF. It was also verified that the LES model can properly simulate this jet mixing phenomenon via a unit cell test that provides experimental information. As a result of CFD analysis, the lower the dependency of the sub-grid scale model, the closer to the actual analysis result. In the case of unit cell test CFD analysis and HTTF CFD analysis, the volume-averaged sub-grid scale model dependency was calculated to be 13.0% and 9.16%, respectively. As a result of HTTF analysis, quantitative data of the fluid inside the HTTF lower plenum was provided in this paper. As a result of qualitative analysis, the temperature was highest at the center of the lower plenum, while the temperature fluctuation was highest near the edge of the lower plenum wall. The power spectral density of temperature was analyzed via fast Fourier transform (FFT) for specific points on the center and side of the lower plenum. FFT results did not reveal specific frequency-dominant temperature fluctuations in the center part. It was confirmed that the temperature power spectral density (PSD) at the top increased from the center to the wake. The vortex was visualized using the well-known scalar Q-criterion, and as a result, the closer to the outlet duct, the greater the influence of the mainstream, so that the inflow jet vortex was dissipated and mixed at the top of the lower plenum. Additionally, FFT analysis was performed on the support structure near the corner of the lower plenum with large temperature fluctuations, and as a result, it was confirmed that the temperature fluctuation of the flow did not have a significant effect near the corner wall. In addition, the vortices generated from the lower plenum to the outlet duct were identified in this paper. It is considered that the quantitative and qualitative results presented in this paper will serve as reference data for the benchmark.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

ZeoNet: 3D convolutional neural networks for predicting adsorption in nanoporous zeolites

Zeolites are one of the most widely used materials in the chemical industry due to their nanometer-sized pores that can adsorb and react upon molecules selectively. With hundreds of known framework topologies and hundreds of thousands of computationally predicted structures, the ability to rapidly predict zeolite performance allows researchers to prioritize their efforts on the most promising structures for a given application. Although the accuracy of forcefield-based atomistic simulations has advanced significantly in the past two decades, these simulations can be computationally expensive, especially for long-chain, complex molecules. Here, we present ZeoNet, a representation learning framework using convolutional neural networks (ConvNets) and 3D volumetric representations for predicting adsorption in zeolites. ZeoNet was trained on the task of predicting Henry's constants for adsorption, k H , of n-octadecane in more than 330 000 known and predicted zeolite materials. Employing a 3D grid based on the distances to solvent-accessible surfaces, a volumetric representation that can be generated efficiently, the best-performing ZeoNet achieved a correlation coefficient r 2 = 0.977 and a mean-squared error MSE = 3.8 in ln k H , which corresponds to an error of 9.3 kJ mol -1 in adsorption free energy. In comparison, a model based on hand-designed geometric features has values of r 2 = 0.783 and MSE = 35.7. ZeoNet is also relatively efficient and can process ≈8 structures per second on an Nvidia RTX 2080TI GPU, orders of magnitude faster than forcefield-based simulations. A systematic analysis was conducted to investigate how the choice of ConvNet architectures, the linear dimension (L) and spatial resolution (Δd) of the distance grids, batch size, optimizer, and learning rate impact the model performance. We found that ConvNets based on the ResNet architecture offer the best tradeoff between expressiveness and efficiency. The performance for all models reaches a plateau at L = 30–45 Å and depends less sensitively on grid resolution, with a small benefit around Δd = 0.30–0.45 Å. Finally, saliency maps were visualized to identify which regions of the materials contributed the most to model predictions. It was found, interestingly, that the predictions are driven primarily by the accessible pore volume rather than the region occupied by the framework atoms.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Biomimetic tissue phantoms for neurosurgical near-infrared fluorescence imaging

Neurosurgical fluorescence imaging is a well-established clinical approach with a growing range of indications for use. However, this technology lacks effective phantom-based tools for development, performance testing, and clinician training. Our primary aim was to develop and evaluate 3D-printed phantoms capable of optically and morphologically simulating neurovasculature under fluorescence angiography. Volumetric digital maps of the circle of Willis with basilar and posterior communicator artery aneurysms, along with surrounding cerebral tissue, were generated. Phantoms were fabricated with a stereolithography printer using custom photopolymer composites, then visualized under white light and near-infrared fluorescence imaging. Feature sizes of printed components were found to be within 13% of digital models. Phantoms exhibited realistic optical properties and convincingly recapitulated fluorescence angiography scenes. Methods identified in this study can facilitate the development of realistic phantoms as powerful new tools for fluorescence imaging.

3D modeling↗

Volumetric Rendering on Wavelet-Based Adaptive Grid

Numerical modeling of physical phenomena frequently involves processes across a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. In the last two decades, the advancements in wavelet-based numerical methodologies to solve partial differential equations, combined with the unique properties of wavelet analysis to resolve localized structures of the solution on dynamically adaptive computational meshes, make it feasible to perform large-scale numerical simulations of a variety of physical systems on a dynamically adaptive computational mesh that changes both in space and time. Volumetric visualization of the solution is an essential part of scientific computing, yet the existing volumetric visualization techniques do not take full advantage of multi-resolution wavelet analysis and are not fully tailored for visualization of a compressed solution on the wavelet-based adaptive computational mesh. Our objective is to explore the alternatives for the visualization of time-dependent data on space-time varying adaptive mesh using volume rendering while capitalizing on the available sparse data representation. Two alternative formulations are explored. The first one is based on volumetric ray casting of multi-scale datasets in wavelet space. Rather than working with the wavelets at the finest possible resolution, a partial inverse wavelet transform is performed as a preprocessing step to obtain scaling functions on a uniform grid at a user-prescribed resolution. As a result, a solution in physical space is represented by a superposition of scaling functions on a coarse regular grid and wavelets on an adaptive mesh. An efficient and accurate ray casting algorithm is based just on these coarse scaling functions. Additional details are added during the ray tracing by taking an appropriate number of wavelets into account based on support overlap with the interpolation point, wavelet coefficient magnitude, and other characteristics, such as opacity accumulation (front to back ordering) and deviation from frontal viewing direction. The second approach is based on complementing of wavelet-based adaptive mesh to the traditional Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR) mesh. Both algorithms are illustrated and compared to the existing volume visualization software for Rayleigh-Benard thermal convection and electron density data sets in terms of rendering time and visual quality for different data compression of both wavelet-based and AMR adaptive meshes.

Vezolainen, Alexei V.↗