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At least 1,297 records · Page 72

Laura Users Manual: 5.1-41601

This users manual provides in-depth information concerning installation and execution of LAURA, version 5. LAURA is a structured, multi-block, computational aerothermodynamic simulation code. Version 5 represents a major refactoring of the original Fortran 77 LAURA code toward a modular structure afforded by Fortran 95. The refactoring improved usability and maintainability by eliminating the requirement for problem-dependent re-compilations, providing more intuitive distribution of functionality, and simplifying interfaces required for multiphysics coupling. As a result, LAURA now shares gas-physics modules, MPI modules, and other low-level modules with the FUN3D unstructured-grid code. In addition to internal refactoring, several new features and capabilities have been added, e.g., a GNU-standard installation process, parallel load balancing, automatic trajectory point sequencing, free-energy minimization, and coupled ablation and flowfield radiation.

Mazaheri, Alireza↗

LAURA Users Manual: 5.2-43231

This users manual provides in-depth information concerning installation and execution of LAURA, version 5. LAURA is a structured, multi-block, computational aerothermodynamic simulation code. Version 5 represents a major refactoring of the original Fortran 77 LAURA code toward a modular structure afforded by Fortran 95. The refactoring improved usability and maintainability by eliminating the requirement for problem-dependent re-compilations, providing more intuitive distribution of functionality, and simplifying interfaces required for multiphysics coupling. As a result, LAURA now shares gas-physics modules, MPI modules, and other low-level modules with the FUN3D unstructured-grid code. In addition to internal refactoring, several new features and capabilities have been added, e.g., a GNU-standard installation process, parallel load balancing, automatic trajectory point sequencing, free-energy minimization, and coupled ablation and flowfield radiation.

Mazaheri, Alireza↗

LAURA Users Manual: 5.3-48528

This users manual provides in-depth information concerning installation and execution of LAURA, version 5. LAURA is a structured, multi-block, computational aerothermodynamic simulation code. Version 5 represents a major refactoring of the original Fortran 77 LAURA code toward a modular structure afforded by Fortran 95. The refactoring improved usability and maintainability by eliminating the requirement for problem-dependent re-compilations, providing more intuitive distribution of functionality, and simplifying interfaces required for multi-physics coupling. As a result, LAURA now shares gas-physics modules, MPI modules, and other low-level modules with the FUN3D unstructured-grid code. In addition to internal refactoring, several new features and capabilities have been added, e.g., a GNU-standard installation process, parallel load balancing, automatic trajectory point sequencing, free-energy minimization, and coupled ablation and flowfield radiation.

Mazaheri, Alireza↗

LAURA Users Manual: 5.4-54166

This users manual provides in-depth information concerning installation and execution of Laura, version 5. Laura is a structured, multi-block, computational aerothermodynamic simulation code. Version 5 represents a major refactoring of the original Fortran 77 Laura code toward a modular structure afforded by Fortran 95. The refactoring improved usability and maintainability by eliminating the requirement for problem dependent re-compilations, providing more intuitive distribution of functionality, and simplifying interfaces required for multi-physics coupling. As a result, Laura now shares gas-physics modules, MPI modules, and other low-level modules with the Fun3D unstructured-grid code. In addition to internal refactoring, several new features and capabilities have been added, e.g., a GNU-standard installation process, parallel load balancing, automatic trajectory point sequencing, free-energy minimization, and coupled ablation and flowfield radiation.

Mazaheri, Alireza↗

MER SPICE Interface

MER SPICE Interface is a software module for use in conjunction with the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission and the SPICE software system of the Navigation and Ancillary Information Facility (NAIF) at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. (SPICE is used to acquire, record, and disseminate engineering, navigational, and other ancillary data describing circumstances under which data were acquired by spaceborne scientific instruments.) Given a Spacecraft Clock value, MER SPICE Interface extracts MER-specific data from SPICE kernels (essentially, raw data files) and calculates values for Planet Day Number, Local Solar Longitude, Local Solar Elevation, Local Solar Azimuth, and Local Solar Time (UTC). MER SPICE Interface was adapted from a subroutine, denoted m98SpiceIF written by Payam Zamani, that was intended to calculate SPICE values for the Mars Polar Lander. The main difference between MER SPICE Interface and m98SpiceIf is that MER SPICE Interface does not explicitly call CHRONOS, a time-conversion program that is part of a library of utility subprograms within SPICE. Instead, MER SPICE Interface mimics some portions of the CHRONOS code, the advantage being that it executes much faster and can efficiently be called from a pipeline of events in a parallel processing environment.

Sayfi, Elias↗

LAURA Users Manual: 5.6

This users manual provides in-depth information concerning installation and execution of Laura, version 5. Laura is a structured, multiblock, computational aerothermodynamic simulation code. Version 5 represents a major refactoring of the original Fortran 77 Laura code toward a modular structure afforded by Fortran 95. The refactoring improved usability and maintainability by eliminating the requirement for problem-dependent recompilations, providing more intuitive distribution of functionality, and simplifying inter- faces required for multi-physics coupling. As a result, Laura now shares gas-physics modules, MPI modules, and other low-level modules with the Fun3D unstructured-grid code. In addition to internal refactoring, several new features and capabilities have been added, e.g., a GNU-standard installation process, parallel load balancing, automatic trajectory point sequencing, free-energy minimization, and coupled ablation and flow field radiation.

Aerodynamics↗

Aerothermal Analysis of the Dragonfly Titan Entry

The Dragonfly mission will send a rotorcraft lander to the surface of Saturn’s moon Titan as part of the New-Frontiers program. This will be the first spacecraft to land on Titan since the Huygens probe’s descent in January of 2005 and only the second spacecraft to enter Titan’s atmosphere. The Dragonfly entry capsule is significantly larger than the Huygens probe and will experience higher aerothermal environments. This poster will provide an overview of the aerothermodynamic models used in the Dragonfly aeroshell design process. Titan provides a unique entry environment that has several fundamental differences from the environments at the more common entry destinations of Earth and Mars. The lack of atmospheric oxygen significantly reduces heatshield recession (expected to be negligible), which simplifies material response analysis but also reduces the efficiency of the thermal protection system. The atmos-phere is composed of mostly nitrogen and trace amounts of methane. During hypersonic entry this methane dissociates and leads to the formation of the molecule CN, which is known to radiate strongly in the shock layer. Current Dragonfly heating predictions estimate that radiation contributes about 50% of the total heat flux along the forebody and up to 90% on the aftbody, making radiation a key element of aerothermal analysis. To properly address the importance of radiation, a unique radiative-heating correlation was developed that incorporates normal-shock equilibrium chemistry predictions based on work from the Mars 2020 program. These new heating correlations agree well with Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) predictions and enable large-scale trajectory analyses by providing rapid heating predictions along candidate trajectories. Dragonfly aerothermal environments are generated with the Data Parallel Line Relaxation (DPLR) finite-volume Navier-Stokes solver alongside the Nonequilibrium Radiative Transport and Spectra (NEQAIR) radiation transport code. DPLR produces shock-aligned flowfields that incorporate the effects of both chemical and thermal nonequilibrium while NEQAIR solves the radiation transport equations along lines-of-sight through the flowfield solutions to predict the radiative heating on the aeroshell. Titan’s atmosphere produces complex thermal and chemical nonequilibria and so classical radiation approximations that extrapolate from a single line-of-sight, such as the Tangent-Slab method, were found to overpredict peak radiative heat fluxes by 10-20%. Therefore, all radiative heating is directly calculated using 3-D transport for both the forebody and aftbody to reduce unnecessary conservatism. A 21-species finite-rate chemistry model, including electrons and ionized species, is used in the CFD to ensure accurate vehicle heating predictions (the level of ionization is particularly for accurate radiative flux predictions). This poster will cover: 1) The models and assumptions used to simulate entry into Titan’s atmosphere, 2) Dragonfly aerothermal engineering correlations alongside statistical heating values, and 3) Driving aerothermal considerations for a Titan entry such as CN formation and radiation-flowfield coupling.

EDL↗

Development of ARCHER towards clinical use: modeling and simulation of Varian Linac for radiation therapy dose calculations - 25449

Monte Carlo particle transport methods are well recognized as the most accurate approach to dose calculations for radiation therapy treatment planning. However, the lengthy calculation time has prevented Monte Carlo methods from being applied to dose calculations in the planning of radiation therapy. Recently, the emerging parallel computing hardware accelerators, such as general-purpose Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), have significantly boosted the performance of Monte Carlo codes. The accuracy of a clinical dose engine depends greatly on the accuracy of source term modeling and the methodology of dose calculations. Hence, in this study, an efficient and accurate source model of the Varian TrueBeam{sup R} Linac is developed and integrated with a fast photon-electron transport module of the recently developed high-performance Monte Carlo code, ARCHER. The validity of the source model and the particle transport physics are verified with established dose calculation codes such as EGSnrc and validated with experimental measurements. To demonstrate the capability of the platform in clinical applications, three clinical treatment plans (the lung, breast, and prostate) are simulated and analyzed. From the perspective of performance, the entire simulation of each clinical plan, starting from the source modeling to the end of particle transport within the patient phantom, can be finished in less than one minute using a single Titan X GPU card with 1% statistical error. In comparison, the same cases take the EGSnrc code hundreds of CPU hours to finish. The results suggest that this new version of ARCHER code has been successfully developed and tested as a clinically deployable dose engine for external photon beam IMRT plans in the clinical setting. (authors)

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗

New Gear Transmission Error Measurement System Designed

The prime source of vibration and noise in a gear system is the transmission error between the meshing gears. Transmission error is caused by manufacturing inaccuracy, mounting errors, and elastic deflections under load. Gear designers often attempt to compensate for transmission error by modifying gear teeth. This is done traditionally by a rough "rule of thumb" or more recently under the guidance of an analytical code. In order for a designer to have confidence in a code, the code must be validated through experiment. NASA Glenn Research Center contracted with the Design Unit of the University of Newcastle in England for a system to measure the transmission error of spur and helical test gears in the NASA Gear Noise Rig. The new system measures transmission error optically by means of light beams directed by lenses and prisms through gratings mounted on the gear shafts. The amount of light that passes through both gratings is directly proportional to the transmission error of the gears. A photodetector circuit converts the light to an analog electrical signal. To increase accuracy and reduce "noise" due to transverse vibration, there are parallel light paths at the top and bottom of the gears. The two signals are subtracted via differential amplifiers in the electronics package. The output of the system is 40 mV/mm, giving a resolution in the time domain of better than 0.1 mm, and discrimination in the frequency domain of better than 0.01 mm. The new system will be used to validate gear analytical codes and to investigate mechanisms that produce vibration and noise in parallel axis gears.

Oswald, Fred B.↗

A survey of inlet/engine distortion compatibility

The history of distortion analysis is traced back to its origin in parallel compressor theory which was initially proposed in the late fifties. The development of this theory is reviewed up to its inclusion in the complex computer codes of today. It is found to be a very useful tool to guide development but not quantitative enough to predict compatibility. Dynamic or instantaneous distortion methodology is also reviewed from its origins in the sixties, to its current application in the eighties. Many of the requirements for interpreting instantaneous distortion are considered and illustrated. Statistical methods for predicting the peak distortion are described, and their limitations and advantages discussed. Finally, some Reynolds number and scaling considerations for inlet testing are considered. It is concluded that the deterministic instantaneous distortion methodology combined with distortion testing of engines with screens will remain the primary method of predicting compatibility for the near future. However, parallel compressor analysis and statistical peak distortion prediction will be important tools employed during the development of inlet/engine compatibility.

Bowditch, D. N.↗

A survey of inlet/engine distortion compatibility

The history of distortion analysis is traced back to its origin in parallel compressor theory which was initially proposed in the late fifties. The development of this theory is reviewed up to its inclusion in the complex computer codes of today. It is found to be a very useful tool to guide development but not quantitative enough to predict compatibility. Dynamic or instantaneous distortion methodology is also reviewed from its origins in the sixties, to its current application in the eighties. Many of the requirements for interpreting instantaneous distortion are considered and illustrated. Statistical methods for predicting the peak distortion are described, and their limitations and advantages discussed. Finally, some Reynolds number and scaling considerations for inlet testing are considered. It is concluded that the deterministic instantaneous distortion methodology combined with distortion testing of engines with screens will remain the primary method of predicting compatibility for the near future. However, parallel compressor analysis and statistical peak distortion prediction will be important tools employed during the development of inlet/engine compatibility. Previously announced in STAR as N83-27991

Bowditch, D. N.↗

The role of B T -dependent flows on W accumulation at the edge of the confined plasma

Abstract Near-separatrix impurity accumulation between the crown and the outer midplane of tokamaks is a common feature in results from codes such as SOLPS-ITER and DIVIMP; however, experimental evidence of accumulation has only recently been obtained and is reported here. The codes find that the poloidal distribution of impurity ions in the scrape-off layer (SOL) depends primarily on toroidal field ( B T )-dependent parallel flow patterns of the background plasma and the parallel ion temperature gradient (∇ ‖ T ion ) force. Experimentally, Mach probes used in L-mode plasmas with favorable (for H-mode access) B T measure fast ( M ∼ 0.3–0.5) inner-target-directed (ITD) background plasma flows at the crown of single-null discharges. This study reports a set of DIVIMP simulations for two similar H-mode discharges from the DIII-D W metal rings campaign differing primarily in B T -direction to assess the effect that fast ITD flows have on the distribution of W ions in the SOL. It is found that for imposed ITD flows of M = 0.3, W ions that otherwise accumulate due to the ∇ ‖ T ion -force are largely flushed out. It is also found that doubling the radial diffusion coefficient from 0.3 to 0.6 m 2 s −1 prevents accumulation due to rapid cross-field transport into the far-SOL, where background plasma flows drain W ions to the divertors. Far-SOL W distributions from DIVIMP are then used to specify input to the impurity transport code 3DLIM, which is used to interpretively model collector probe (CP) deposition patterns measured in the ‘wall-SOL’. It is demonstrated that the deposition patterns are consistent with the DIVIMP predictions of near-SOL accumulation for the unfavorable- B T direction, and little/no accumulation for the favorable- B T direction. The wall-SOL CPs have thus provided the first experimental evidence, albeit indirect, of near-SOL W accumulation—finding it occurs for the unfavorable- B T direction only. For the favorable- B T direction, fast flows can largely prevent accumulation from occurring.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Performance Measurement, Visualization and Modeling of Parallel and Distributed Programs

This paper presents a methodology for debugging the performance of message-passing programs on both tightly coupled and loosely coupled distributed-memory machines. The AIMS (Automated Instrumentation and Monitoring System) toolkit, a suite of software tools for measurement and analysis of performance, is introduced and its application illustrated using several benchmark programs drawn from the field of computational fluid dynamics. AIMS includes (i) Xinstrument, a powerful source-code instrumentor, which supports both Fortran77 and C as well as a number of different message-passing libraries including Intel's NX Thinking Machines' CMMD, and PVM; (ii) Monitor, a library of timestamping and trace -collection routines that run on supercomputers (such as Intel's iPSC/860, Delta, and Paragon and Thinking Machines' CM5) as well as on networks of workstations (including Convex Cluster and SparcStations connected by a LAN); (iii) Visualization Kernel, a trace-animation facility that supports source-code clickback, simultaneous visualization of computation and communication patterns, as well as analysis of data movements; (iv) Statistics Kernel, an advanced profiling facility, that associates a variety of performance data with various syntactic components of a parallel program; (v) Index Kernel, a diagnostic tool that helps pinpoint performance bottlenecks through the use of abstract indices; (vi) Modeling Kernel, a facility for automated modeling of message-passing programs that supports both simulation -based and analytical approaches to performance prediction and scalability analysis; (vii) Intrusion Compensator, a utility for recovering true performance from observed performance by removing the overheads of monitoring and their effects on the communication pattern of the program; and (viii) Compatibility Tools, that convert AIMS-generated traces into formats used by other performance-visualization tools, such as ParaGraph, Pablo, and certain AVS/Explorer modules.

Yan, Jerry C.↗

A new environment to simulate the dynamics in the close proximity of rubble-pile asteroids

This paper presents a new environment to simulate close-proximity dynamics around rubble-pile asteroids. The code provides methods for modeling the asteroid’s gravity field and surface through granular dynamics. It implements stateof-the-art techniques to model both gravity and contact interaction between particles: 1) mutual gravity as either direct N2 or Barnes-Hut GPU-parallel octree and 2) contact dynamics with a soft-body (force-based, smooth dynamics), hard-body (constraint-based, non-smooth dynamics), or hybrid (constraint-based with compliance and damping) approach. A very relevant feature of the code is its ability to handle complex-shaped rigid bodies and their full 6D motion. Examples of spacecraft close-proximity scenarios and their numerical simulations are shown.

Ferrari, Fabio↗

Dakota, A Multilevel Parallel Object-Oriented Framework for Design Optimization Parameter Estimation Uncertainty Quantification and Sensitivity Analysis: Version 6.12 User's Manual

The Dakota toolkit provides a flexible and extensible interface between simulation codes and iterative analysis methods. Dakota contains algorithms for optimization with gradient and nongradient-based methods; uncertainty quantification with sampling, reliability, and stochastic expansion methods; parameter estimation with nonlinear least squares methods; and sensitivity/variance analysis with design of experiments and parameter study methods. These capabilities may be used on their own or as components within advanced strategies such as surrogate-based optimization, mixed integer nonlinear programming, or optimization under uncertainty. By employing object-oriented design to implement abstractions of the key components required for iterative systems analyses, the Dakota toolkit provides a flexible and extensible problem-solving environment for design and performance analysis of computational models on high performance computers. This report serves as a user's manual for the Dakota software and provides capability overviews and procedures for software execution, as well as a variety of example studies.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Dakota, A Multilevel Parallel Object-Oriented Framework for Design Optimization, Parameter Estimation, Uncertainty Quantification, and Sensitivity Analysis: Version 6.13 User's Manual

The Dakota toolkit provides a flexible and extensible interface between simulation codes and iterative analysis methods. Dakota contains algorithms for optimization with gradient and nongradient-based methods; uncertainty quantification with sampling, reliability, and stochastic expansion methods; parameter estimation with nonlinear least squares methods; and sensitivity/variance analysis with design of experiments and parameter study methods. These capabilities may be used on their own or as components within advanced strategies such as surrogate-based optimization, mixed integer nonlinear programming, or optimization under uncertainty. By employing object-oriented design to implement abstractions of the key components required for iterative systems analyses, the Dakota toolkit provides a flexible and extensible problem-solving environment for design and performance analysis of computational models on high performance computers. This report serves as a user’s manual for the Dakota software and provides capability overviews and procedures for software execution, as well as a variety of example studies.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Dakota, A Multilevel Parallel Object-Oriented Framework for Design Optimization, Parameter Estimation, Uncertainty Quantification, and Sensitivity Analysis: Version 6.15 User's Manual

The Dakota toolkit provides a flexible and extensible interface between simulation codes and iterative analysis methods. Dakota contains algorithms for optimization with gradient and nongradient-based methods; uncertainty quantification with sampling, reliability, and stochastic expansion methods; parameter estimation with nonlinear least squares methods; and sensitivity/variance analysis with design of experiments and parameter study methods. These capabilities may be used on their own or as components within advanced strategies such as surrogate-based optimization, mixed integer nonlinear programming, or optimization under uncertainty. By employing object-oriented design to implement abstractions of the key components required for iterative systems analyses, the Dakota toolkit provides a flexible and extensible problem-solving environment for design and performance analysis of computational models on high performance computers.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

National Combustion Code: A Multidisciplinary Combustor Design System

The Internal Fluid Mechanics Division conducts both basic research and technology, and system technology research for aerospace propulsion systems components. The research within the division, which is both computational and experimental, is aimed at improving fundamental understanding of flow physics in inlets, ducts, nozzles, turbomachinery, and combustors. This article and the following three articles highlight some of the work accomplished in 1996. A multidisciplinary combustor design system is critical for optimizing the combustor design process. Such a system should include sophisticated computer-aided design (CAD) tools for geometry creation, advanced mesh generators for creating solid model representations, a common framework for fluid flow and structural analyses, modern postprocessing tools, and parallel processing. The goal of the present effort is to develop some of the enabling technologies and to demonstrate their overall performance in an integrated system called the National Combustion Code.

Stubbs, Robert M.↗