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At least 1,315 records · Page 73

Random vortex method for combusting flows

The random vortex method (RVM) of Chorin was developed by the recirculating flows. The RVM method models turbulence from first principles, tracking the vorticity and obtaining the interaction of vorticity with the bulk flow field. A computer program was produced called MIMOC, Modeling the Interface Motion of Combustion, which can be used to calculate the reacting flow field behind a rearward facing step. Several comparisons between experimental data and calculations were made. The RVM methood computes qualitatively good results, but the quantitative agreement as yet is not completely satisfactory. Much of the difficulty may be caused by the treatment of boundary conditions and the techniques used for obtaining statistical averages of velocities and turbulence quantities. For the rearward facing step the computed reattachment length equals the experimental value. However, the reverse velocity in the recirculation zone is over predicted by 300 percent. In the calculations, a uniform entrance velocity was assumed with no boundary layer at the step lip. This high velocity may be overdriving the reverse flow region.

Marek, C. J.↗

Another Program For Generating Interactive Graphics

VAX/Ultrix version of Transportable Applications Environment Plus (TAE+) computer program provides integrated, portable software environment for developing and running interactive window, text, and graphical-object-based application software systems. Enables programmer or nonprogrammer to construct easily custom software interface between user and application program and to move resulting interface program and its application program to different computers. When used throughout company for wide range of applications, makes both application program and computer seem transparent, with noticeable improvements in learning curve. Available in form suitable for following six different groups of computers: DEC VAX station and other VMS VAX computers, Macintosh II computers running AUX, Apollo Domain Series 3000, DEC VAX and reduced-instruction-set-computer workstations running Ultrix, Sun 3- and 4-series workstations running Sun OS and IBM RT/PC's and PS/2 computers running AIX, and HP 9000 S

Costenbader, Jay↗

MPI-IO: A Parallel File I/O Interface for MPI Version 0.3

Thanks to MPI [9], writing portable message passing parallel programs is almost a reality. One of the remaining problems is file I/0. Although parallel file systems support similar interfaces, the lack of a standard makes developing a truly portable program impossible. Further, the closest thing to a standard, the UNIX file interface, is ill-suited to parallel computing. Working together, IBM Research and NASA Ames have drafted MPI-I0, a proposal to address the portable parallel I/0 problem. In a nutshell, this proposal is based on the idea that I/0 can be modeled as message passing: writing to a file is like sending a message, and reading from a file is like receiving a message. MPI-IO intends to leverage the relatively wide acceptance of the MPI interface in order to create a similar I/0 interface. The above approach can be materialized in different ways. The current proposal represents the result of extensive discussions (and arguments), but is by no means finished. Many changes can be expected as additional participants join the effort to define an interface for portable I/0. This document is organized as follows. The remainder of this section includes a discussion of some issues that have shaped the style of the interface. Section 2 presents an overview of MPI-IO as it is currently defined. It specifies what the interface currently supports and states what would need to be added to the current proposal to make the interface more complete and robust. The next seven sections contain the interface definition itself. Section 3 presents definitions and conventions. Section 4 contains functions for file control, most notably open. Section 5 includes functions for independent I/O, both blocking and nonblocking. Section 6 includes functions for collective I/O, both blocking and nonblocking. Section 7 presents functions to support system-maintained file pointers, and shared file pointers. Section 8 presents constructors that can be used to define useful filetypes (the role of filetypes is explained in Section 2 below). Section 9 presents how the error handling mechanism of MPI is supported by the MPI-IO interface. All this is followed by a set of appendices, which contain information about issues that have not been totally resolved yet, and about design considerations. The reader can find there the motivation behind some of our design choices. More information on this would definitely be welcome and will be included in a further release of this document. The first appendix contains a description of MPI-I0's 'hints' structure which is used when opening a file. Appendix B is a discussion of various issues in the support for file pointers. Appendix C explains what we mean in talking about atomic access. Appendix D provides detailed examples of filetype constructors, and Appendix E contains a collection of arguments for and against various design decisions.

Corbett, Peter↗

The Future of Computing: Integrating Scientific Computation on Neuromorphic Systems

Neuromorphic computing is known for its integration of algorithms and hardware elements that are inspired by the brain. Conventionally, this nontraditional method of computing is used for many neural or learning inspired applications. Unfortunately, this has resulted in the field of neuromorphic computing being relatively narrow in scope. In this paper we discuss two research areas actively trying to widen the impact of neuromorphic systems. The first is Fugu, a high-level programming interface designed to bridge the gap between general computer scientists and those who specialize in neuromorphic areas. The second aims to map classical scientific computing problems onto these frameworks through the example of random walks. This elucidates a class of scientific applications that are conducive to neuromorphic algorithms.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Novel Approaches Toward Scalable Composable Workflows in Hyper-Heterogeneous Computing Environments

The annual Workshop on Workflows in Support of Large-Scale Science (WORKS) is a premier venue for the scientific workflow community to present the latest advances in research and development on the many facets of scientific workflows throughout their life-cycle. The Lightning Talks at WORKS focus on describing a novel tool, scientific workflow, or concept, which are work-in-progress and address emerging technologies and frameworks to foster discussion in the community. This paper summarizes the lightning talks at the 2023 edition of WORKS, covering five topics: leveraging large language models to build and execute workflows; developing a common workflow scheduler interface; scaling uncertainty workflow applications on exascale computing systems; evaluating a transcriptomics workflow for cloud vs. HPC systems; and best practices in migrating legacy workflows to workflow management systems.

Titov, Mikhail↗

Diffusion-Limited Kinetics in Reactive Systems

A proper representation of chemical kinetics is vital to understanding, modeling, and optimizing many important chemical processes. In liquid and surface phases, where diffusion is slow, the rate at which the reactants diffuse together limits the overall rate of many elementary reactions. Commonly, the textbook Smoluchowski theory is utilized to estimate effective rate coefficients in the liquid phase. On surfaces, modelers commonly resort to much more complex and expensive Kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) simulations. Here, in this study, we extend the Smoluchowski model to allow the diffusing species to undergo chemical reactions and derive analytical formulas for the diffusion-limited rate coefficients for 3D, 2D, and 2D/3D interface cases. With these equations, we are able to demonstrate that when species react faster than they diffuse they can react orders of magnitude faster than predicted by Smoluchowski theory, through what we term “the reactive transport effect”. We validate the derived steady-state equations against particle Monte Carlo (PMC) simulations, KMC simulations, and non-steady-state solutions. Furthermore, using PMC and KMC simulations, we propose corrections that agree with all limits and the computed data for the 2D and 2D/3D interface steady-state equations, accounting for unique limitations in the associated derived equations. Additionally, we derive equations to handle couplings between diffusion-limited rate coefficients in reaction networks. We believe these equations should make it possible to run much more accurate mean-field simulations of liquids, surfaces, and liquid–surface interfaces accounting for diffusion limitations and the reactive transport effect.

Johnson, Matthew Sean↗

Boosting RDataFrame performance with transparent bulk event processing

RDataFrame is ROOT’s high-level interface for Python and C++ data analysis. Since it first became available, RDataFrame adoption has grown steadily and it is now poised to be a major component of analysis software pipelines for LHC Run 3 and beyond. Thanks to its design inspired by declarative programming principles, RDataFrame enables the development of highperformance, highly parallel analyses without requiring expert knowledge of multi-threading and I/O: user logic is expressed in terms of self-contained, small computation kernels tied together by a high-level API. This design completely decouples analysis logic from its actual execution, and opens several interesting avenues for workflow optimization. In particular, in this work we explore the benefits of moving internal data processing from an event-by-event to a bulkby-bulk loop. This refactoring dramatically reduces the framework’s runtime overheads; in collaboration with the I/O layer it improves data access patterns; it exposes information that optimizing compilers might use to auto-vectorize the invocation of user-defined computations; finally, while existing user-facing interfaces remain unaffected, it becomes possible to additionally offer interfaces that explicitly expose bulks of events, useful e.g. for the injection of GPU kernels into the analysis workflow. In order to inform similar future R&D, design challenges will be presented, as well as an investigation of the relevant timememory trade-off backed by novel performance benchmarks.

Guiraud, Enrico↗

Cement sensors with acoustic bandgaps using carbon nanotubes

Cement is widely used in wellbores to stabilize the steel casing used in wellbore operations for oil and gas production, enhanced geothermal systems and carbon sequestration, and to limit fluid movement between sub-surface strata. Flaws such as microcracks in wellbore cement can lead to leakage along the wellbore compromising wellbore integrity. There is an increasing need for methods to monitor cement crack propagation in wellbore environments. In this study, we develop and report the first cementitious sensors capable of exhibiting high frequency acoustic bandgaps (ABGs) using carbon nanotubes (CNTs). Computational simulations of a sensor unit cell are used to design cement-multi walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) sensors that show a wide bandgap. When the cement-MWCNTs sensors is embedded in cement specimens, bandgaps were measured experimentally under 300 kHz and under 600 kHz, consistent with the computationally predicted bandgaps in the range of 290–360 kHz, 410–460 kHz and 515–585 kHz. These bandgap features were absent in homogeneous cement specimens. X-ray tomographic reconstructions showed microscopic debonding at cement-MWCNTs sensor interface. Frequency response analysis of a three-dimensional computational model indicated a shift of frequency of minimum transmission due to the interface debonding, but no perturbation of bandgap response was observed. Here, the cement-MWCNTs sensors developed in this study show the potential of a packed CNT inclusion material in cementitious matrix to create ABGs in a cement matrix.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

A Graphical User-Interface for Propulsion System Analysis

NASA LeRC uses a series of computer codes to calculate installed propulsion system performance and weight. The need to evaluate more advanced engine concepts with a greater degree of accuracy has resulted in an increase in complexity of this analysis system. Therefore, a graphical user interface was developed to allow the analyst to more quickly and easily apply these codes. The development of this interface and the rationale for the approach taken are described. The interface consists of a method of pictorially representing and editing the propulsion system configuration, forms for entering numerical data, on-line help and documentation, post processing of data, and a menu system to control execution.

Curlett, Brian P.↗

A graphical user-interface for propulsion system analysis

NASA LeRC uses a series of computer codes to calculate installed propulsion system performance and weight. The need to evaluate more advanced engine concepts with a greater degree of accuracy has resulted in an increase in complexity of this analysis system. Therefore, a graphical user interface was developed to allow the analyst to more quickly and easily apply these codes. The development of this interface and the rationale for the approach taken are described. The interface consists of a method of pictorially representing and editing the propulsion system configuration, forms for entering numerical data, on-line help and documentation, post processing of data, and a menu system to control execution.

Curlett, Brian P.↗

Atomistic Simulation of Interfaces in Materials of Solid State Ionics

The possibilities of describing correctly interfaces of different types in solids within a computer experiment using molecular statics simulation, molecular dynamics simulation, and quantum chemical calculations are discussed. Heterophase boundaries of various types, including grain boundaries and solid electrolyte‒solid electrolyte and ionic conductor‒electrode material interfaces, are considered. Specific microstructural features and mechanisms of the ion transport in real heterophase structures (cationic conductor‒metal anode and anionic conductor‒cathode) existing in solid state ionics devices (such as solid-state batteries and fuel cells) are discussed.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Equilipy: a python package for calculating phase equilibria

The CALPHAD (CALculation of PHAse Diagram) approach (Nigel Saunders & Miodownik, 1998) provides predictions for thermodynamically stable phases in multicomponent-multiphase materials across a wide range of temperatures. Consequently, the CALPHAD calculations became an essential tool in materials and process design (Luo, 2015). Such design tasks frequently require navigating a high-dimensional space due to multiple components involved in the system. This increasing complexity demands high-throughput CALPHAD calculations, especially in the rapidly evolving field of alloy design. In response to the need, we developed Equilipy an open-source Python package designed for calculating phase equilibria of multicomponent-multiphase systems. Equilipy is specifically tailored for high-throughput CALPHAD calculations, offering parallel computations across multiple processors and nodes with the given NPT input conditions namely elemental compositions (N), pressure (P), and temperature (T). Equilipy utilizes the program structure and Gibbs energy functions from the Fortran-based program, Thermochimica (Piro et al., 2013), with incorporating a new Gibbs energy minimization algorithm. This algorithm, originally developed by Capitani and Brown in 1987 (Capitani & Brown, 1987), has been revised and implemented to enhance the stability and performance of calculations. The Fortran codes are precompiled and interfaced with Python via F2PY, ensuring high computation speed. Benchmark tests shown in Figure 1 demonstrate that Equilipy’s computation speed is comparable to those of established commercial software, TC-Python and PanPython. This result highlights its efficiency and potential applications in various scientific and industrial fields.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Dynamic flux surrogate-based partitioned methods for interface problems

Loosely coupled partitioned methods for multiphysics problems treat each subproblem as a separate entity and advance them independently in time. In so doing these methods enable code reuse, increase concurrency and provide a convenient framework for plug-and-play multiphysics simulations. However, mathematically loosely coupled schemes are equivalent to a single step of an iterative solution method, which can compromise their accuracy and stability. We present a new data-driven partitioned method for coupled parametric PDEs that can improve upon the accuracy of traditional loosely coupled methods without incurring a performance penalty. To that end, we replace conventional field transfers across the interface by a surrogate for the dynamics of the interface flux exchanged between the subdomains. To develop this surrogate we apply dynamic mode decomposition to a non-standard staggered-in-time state, comprising the interface flux and small solution patches near the interface. The new approach shifts the main computational burden to an offline training phase, whereas application of the surrogate in the online phase amounts to a single matrix–vector multiplication. In conclusion, we provide stability analysis of the surrogate-based partitioned scheme and include numerical results that demonstrate its potential.

Dynamic mode decomposition (DMD)↗

Advances in Clayff Molecular Simulation of Layered and Nanoporous Materials and Their Aqueous Interfaces

As a general-purpose force field for molecular simulations of layered materials and their fluid interfaces, Clayff continues to see broad usage in atomistic computational modeling for numerous geoscience and materials science applications due to its (1) success in predicting properties of bulk nanoporous materials and their interfaces, (2) transferability to a range of layered and nanoporous materials, and (3) simple functional form which facilitates incorporation into a variety of simulation codes. Here, we review applications of Clayff to model bulk phases and interfaces not included in the original parameter set and recent modifications for modeling surface terminations such as hydroxylated nanoparticle edges. Overall, we conclude with a discussion of expectations for future developments.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Distribution of Copper States, Phases, and Defects across the Depth of a Cu-Doped CdTe Solar Cell

Copper has been used as a p-type dopant in cadmium telluride (CdTe) for decades. However, the density of Cu atoms in the finished device is much higher than that of holes, which means that most Cu atoms are not activated as acceptors during incorporation. Furthermore, studies have demonstrated that the distribution of copper (Cu) atoms across the device is highly inhomogeneous, with reports citing Cu substitution on Cd sites and segregation to grain boundaries. Fast diffusion along these boundaries and Cu accumulation at the CdTe/CdS interface have also been observed and validated computationally. These levels of inhomogeneity make it difficult to accurately characterize and correlate the performance with the nature of the Cu atomic species present. To address this challenge, we utilize X-ray microscopy and, specifically, nanoscale fluorescence-mode X-ray absorption near-edge structure to resolve the atomic Cu environment throughout the depth of the CdTe layer. Our results suggest that the majority of Cu atoms are in the form of Cu x Te phases (or similar local environments) near the ZnTe|CdTe interface, Cu x O phases in the CdTe absorber, and present in various oxidation states, including Cu 1+ and Cu 2+ , near the CdS/CdTe junction. Here this work also provides experimental evidence for the first time of the presence of CuS around the ZnTe|CdTe interface and the hypothesized Cu Cd -Cl i complex in the CdTe absorber.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Development and Validation of a Slosh-Based Ullage Collapse Model

Ullage collapse modeling is an essential tool for the success of spacecraft powered by cryogenic propellants. The degree of ullage collapse can have a major impact on the design of cryogenic propellant tanks as well as the mission’s concept of operations. Additional commodities (e.g., helium gas for pressure control) and their quantities are dependent on the amount of heat transfer and phase change of propellants expected during flight. Currently, high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics (CFD) with heat transfer and phase change is the most accurate method for predicting ullage collapse. CFD simulations of this kind, however, can become very costly for problems requiring large domains, long simulation times, or significant liquid motion. Consequently, there is a need for a reduced order model to provide fast responses which can be used in engineering design decisions. The proposed numerical model is a nodal approach, augmented by outputs from CFD analyses that are generated rapidly and reliably. These outputs include transient values for liquid-vapor interface area, interface velocity, and liquid position using a volume of fluid (VoF) method. There are several benefits of combining a nodal approach with slosh predictions from CFD simulations: leveraging of the Loci/STREAM-VoF solver that has been validated in high-g and low-g environments, rapid modeling of VoF with isothermal propellant simplifications and relatively coarse meshes, and improved model predictions from the nodal tool. The nodal approach, informed by the slosh predictions from CFD, assumes uniform conditions in the liquid and gas domains. Modifications to account for temperature stratification in the liquid and gas may be implemented as a future improvement. Thermodynamic changes within the tank are solved at user-defined timesteps. First, impacts due to mass entering or leaving the control volume are captured. Second, heat transfer impacts are accounted for by tracking the volume of the gas which has been contacted by liquid in that timestep and rebalancing the internal energy. Finally, phase change is approximated using the area and velocity of the interface. The tank conditions are re-computed by conserving mass and energy. Calibration of the model to several test flights and experiments are required to baseline the predictive power and uncertainty. The final product will enable designers and engineers to create quick-turnaround predictions for ullage collapse and inform design feasibility.

Computational Fluid Dynamics↗

Computer Aided Modeling and Post Processing with NASTRAN Analysis

Computer aided engineering systems are invaluable tools in performing NASTRAN finite element analysis. These techniques are implemented in both the pre-processing and post-processing phases of the NASTRAN analysis. The finite element model development, or pre-processing phase, was automated with a computer aided modeling program called Supertabl, and the review and interpretation of the results of the NASTRAN analysis, or post-processing phase, was automated with a computer aided plotting program called Output Display. An intermediate program, Nasplot, which was developed in-house, has also helped to cut down on the model checkout time and reduce errors in the model. An interface has been established between the finite element computer aided engineering system and the Learjet computer aided design system whereby data can be transferred back and forth between the two. These systems have significantly improved productivity and the ability to perform NASTRAN analysis in response to product development requests.

Boroughs, R. R.↗