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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 145 records · Page 8

Enabling Modular Autonomous Feedback‐Loops in Materials Science through Hierarchical Experimental Laboratory Automation and Orchestration

Abstract Materials acceleration platforms (MAPs) operate on the paradigm of integrating combinatorial synthesis, high‐throughput characterization, automatic analysis, and machine learning. Within a MAP, one or multiple autonomous feedback loops may aim to optimize materials for certain functional properties or to generate new insights. The scope of a given experiment campaign is defined by the range of experiment and analysis actions that are integrated into the experiment framework. Herein, the authors present a method for integrating many actions within a hierarchical experimental laboratory automation and orchestration (HELAO) framework. They demonstrate the capability of orchestrating distributed research instruments that can incorporate data from experiments, simulations, and databases. HELAO interfaces laboratory hardware and software distributed across several computers and operating systems for executing experiments, data analysis, provenance tracking, and autonomous planning. Parallelization is an effective approach for accelerating knowledge generation provided that multiple instruments can be effectively coordinated, which the authors demonstrate with parallel electrochemistry experiments orchestrated by HELAO. Efficient implementation of autonomous research strategies requires device sharing, asynchronous multithreading, and full integration of data management in experimental orchestration, which to the best of the authors’ knowledge, is demonstrated for the first time herein.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Integrating quantum computing resources into scientific HPC ecosystems

Quantum Computing (QC) offers significant potential to enhance scientific discovery in fields such as quantum chemistry, optimization, and artificial intelligence. Yet QC faces challenges due to the noisy intermediate-scale quantum era’s inherent external noise issues. Here, this paper discusses the integration of QC as a computational accelerator within classical scientific high-performance computing (HPC) systems. By leveraging a broad spectrum of simulators and hardware technologies, we propose a hardware-agnostic framework for augmenting classical HPC with QC capabilities. Drawing on the HPC expertise of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and the HPC lifecycle management of the Department of Energy (DOE), our approach focuses on the strategic incorporation of QC capabilities and acceleration into existing scientific HPC workflows. This includes detailed analyses, benchmarks, and code optimization driven by the needs of the DOE and ORNL missions. Our comprehensive framework integrates hardware, software, workflows, and user interfaces to foster a synergistic environment for quantum and classical computing research. This paper outlines plans to unlock new computational possibilities, driving forward scientific inquiry and innovation in a wide array of research domains.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

PyHydroGeophysX: An extensible open-source platform for integrating hydrological models with geophysical measurements

Hydrological models and geophysical measurements are widely used tools for understanding subsurface hydrological processes relevant to water resource management, yet they typically remain disconnected due to technical barriers. We present PyHydroGeophysX, an open-source Python platform bridging this gap by providing standardized interfaces between hydrological modeling software (MODFLOW, ParFlow) and geophysical simulation tools (PyGIMLi, SimPEG). The platform implements bidirectional workflows: translating hydrological outputs into simulated geophysical responses through petrophysical models, and extracting hydrological information from geophysical inversions. Key features include bidirectional workflow modules, configurable petrophysical models, time-lapse inversion with temporal regularization, parallel computing, and mesh utilities for property transfer between geophysical and hydrological grids. The modular architecture of PyHydroGeophysX enables researchers to incorporate additional models and methods, fostering broader adoption of integrated hydrogeophysical approaches. The software is freely available on GitHub and is intended for researchers and practitioners working at the intersection of hydrology and geophysics.

Hydrogeophysics↗

Tracking materials science data lineage to manage millions of materials experiments and analyses

Abstract In an era of rapid advancement of algorithms that extract knowledge from data, data and metadata management are increasingly critical to research success. In materials science, there are few examples of experimental databases that contain many different types of information, and compared with other disciplines, the database sizes are relatively small. Underlying these issues are the challenges in managing and linking data across disparate synthesis and characterization experiments, which we address with the development of a lightweight data management framework that is generally applicable for experimental science and beyond. Five years of managing experiments with this system has yielded the Materials Experiment and Analysis Database (MEAD) that contains raw data and metadata from millions of materials synthesis and characterization experiments, as well as the analysis and distillation of that data into property and performance metrics via software in an accompanying open source repository. The unprecedented quantity and diversity of experimental data are searchable by experiment and analysis attributes generated by both researchers and data processing software. The search web interface allows users to visualize their search results and download zipped packages of data with full annotations of their lineage. The enormity of the data provides substantial challenges and opportunities for incorporating data science in the physical sciences, and MEAD’s data and algorithm management framework will foster increased incorporation of automation and autonomous discovery in materials and chemistry research.

Soedarmadji, Edwin↗

The Heavy Photon Search (HPS) Software Environment

The Heavy Photon Search (HPS) is an experiment at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLab) designed to search for a hidden sector photon (A’) in fixed-target electro-production. It uses a silicon microstrip tracking and vertexing detector placed inside a dipole magnet to measure charged particle trajectories and a fast lead-tungstate crystal calorimeter located just downstream of the magnet to provide a trigger and to identify electromagnetic showers. The HPS experiment uses both invariant mass and secondary vertex signatures to search for the A’. The experimental collaboration is small and quite heterogeneous: it is composed of members of the nuclear physics as well as particle physics communities, from universities and national labs from around the US and Europe. Enabling such a disparate group to concentrate on the physics aspects of the experiment required that the software be easy to install and use, and having such limited manpower meant that existing solutions had to be exploited. HPS has successfully completed two engineering runs and completed its first physics run in the summer of 2019. We begin with an overview of the physics goals of the experiment followed by a short description of the detector design. We then describe the software tools used to design the detector layout and simulate the expected detector performance. Event reconstruction involving track, cluster and vertex finding and fitting for both simulated and real data was, to first order, adopted from existing software originally developed for Linear Collider studies. Bringing it all together into a cohesive whole involved the use of multiple software solutions with common interfaces.

Graf, Norman↗

LibERI—A portable and performant multi-GPU accelerated library for electron repulsion integrals via OpenMP offloading and standard language parallelism

A portable and performant graphics processing unit (GPU)-accelerated library for electron repulsion integral (ERI) evaluation, named LibERI, has been developed and implemented via directive-based (e.g., OpenMP and OpenACC) and standard language parallelism (e.g., Fortran DO CONCURRENT). Offloaded ERIs consist of integrals over low and high contraction s, p, and d functions using the rotated-axis and Rys quadrature methods. GPU codes are factorized based on previous developments with two layers of integral screening and quartet presorting. In this work, the density screening is moved to the GPU to enhance the computational efficacy for large molecular systems. Here, the L-shells in the Pople basis set are also separated into pure S and P shells to increase the ERI homogeneity and reduce atomic operations and the memory footprint. LibERI is compatible with any quantum chemistry drivers supporting the MolSSI Driver Interface. Benchmark calculations of LibERI interfaced with the GAMESS software package were carried out on various GPU architectures and molecular systems. The results show that the LibERI performance is comparable to other state-of-the-art GPU-accelerated codes (e.g., TeraChem and GMSHPC) and, in some cases, outperforms conventionally developed ERI CUDA kernels (e.g., QUICK) while fully maintaining portability.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Designing a Magnetic Measurement Data Acquisition and Control System With Reuse in Mind: A Rotating Coil System Example

Accelerator magnet test facilities frequently need to measure different magnets on differently equipped test stands and with different instrumentation. Designing a modular and highly reusable system that combines flexibility built-in at the architectural level as well as on the component level addresses this need. Specification of the backbone of the system, with the interfaces and dataflow for software components and core hardware modules, serves as a basis for building such a system. The design process and implementation of an extensible magnetic measurement data acquisition and control system are described, including techniques for maximizing the reuse of software. The discussion is supported by showing the application of this methodology to constructing two dissimilar systems for rotating coil measurements, both based on the same architecture and sharing core hardware modules and many software components. The first system is for production testing 10 m long cryo-assemblies containing two MQXFA quadrupole magnets for the high-luminosity upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider and the second for testing IQC conventional quadrupole magnets in support of the accelerator system at Fermilab.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Enabling Pulse-level Programming, Compilation, and Execution in XACC

Noisy gate-model quantum processing units (QPUs) are currently available from vendors over the cloud, and digital quantum programming approaches exist to run low-depth circuits on physical hardware. These digital representations are ultimately lowered to pulse-level instructions by vendor quantum control systems to affect unitary evolution representative of the submitted digital circuit. Vendors are beginning to open this pulse-level control system to the public via specified interfaces. Robust programming methodologies, software frameworks, and backend simulation technologies for this analog model of quantum computation will prove critical to advancing pulse-level control research and development. Prototypical use cases for this include error mitigation, optimal pulse control, and physics-inspired pulse construction. Here we present an extension to the XACC quantum-classical software framework that enables pulse-level programming for superconducting, gate-model quantum computers, and a novel, general, and extensible pulse-level simulation backend for XACC that scales on classical compute clusters via MPI. Our work enables custom backend Hamiltonian definitions and gate-level compilation to available pulses with a focus on performance and scalability. We end with a demonstration of this capability, and show how to use XACC for pertinent pulse-level programming tasks.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

System Validation Platform Working Directories

A suite of software tools used to interface with power electronic equipment for laboratory testing and device certification. They are typically used as equipment drivers with using the System Validation Platform (SVP) graphical user interface (GUI). Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525. SAND2021-1185 O

Johnson, JayT↗

OpenStudio® HPXML workflow [SWR-25-13]

OpenStudio-HPXML allows running residential EnergyPlus™ simulations using an HPXML file for the building description. It is intended to be used by user interfaces or other automated software workflows that automatically produce the HPXML file. OpenStudio-HPXML can accommodate a wide range of different building technologies and geometries. End-to-end simulations typically run in 3-10 seconds, depending on complexity, computer platform and speed, etc. For more information on running simulations, generating HPXML files with the appropriate inputs to run EnergyPlus, etc., please visit the documentation linked below. https://openstudio-hpxml.readthedocs.io/en/latest

Horowitz, Scott↗

Rancor Microworld Simulation Environment for Nuclear Process Control

The Rancor Microworld is a simplified nuclear power plant simulator. It represents the process of an integrated pressurized light water reactor core with a secondary Rankine cycle turbine/generator. The reactor core is governed by simplified core physics. Operators have the ability to raise and lower control rods to change the reactivity and consequently generate more or less electricity. The microworld provides a digital human machine interface for operating and monitoring the plant efficiently to maximize profits within the simulation. The simulation supports multi-unit operations analogous to small modular reactor plants and supports faults on various components within each unit to simulate some common training scenarios such as reactor and turbine trip events. The microworld includes experimental modules to log process parameters and both automated and user control inputs and events, administer situation awareness probes, and interface with eye tracking software.

Ulrich, ThomasA.↗

Electronic Visualization Laboratory's 50th Anniversary Retrospective: Look to the Future, Build on the Past

September 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) at University of Illinois Chicago (UIC). EVL's introduction of the CAVE Automatic Virtual Environment in 1992, the first widely replicated, projection-based, walk-in, virtual-reality (VR) system in the world, put EVL at the forefront of collaborative, immersive data exploration and analytics. However, the journey did not begin then. Since its founding in 1973, EVL has been developing tools and techniques for real-time, interactive visualizations—pillars of VR. But EVL's culture is also relevant to its successes, as it has always been an interdisciplinary lab that fosters teamwork, where each person's expertise contributes to the development of the necessary tools, hardware, system software, applications, and human interface models to solve problems. Over the years, as multidisciplinary collaborations evolved and advanced scientific instruments and data resources were distributed globally, the need to access and share data and visualizations while working with colleagues, local and remote, synchronous and asynchronous, also became important fields of study. This paper is a retrospective of EVL's past 50 years that surveys the many networked, immersive, collaborative visualization and VR systems and applications it developed and deployed, as well as lessons learned and future plans.

Johnson, Andrew E.↗

Applications of GIS and remote sensing in public participation and stakeholder engagement for watershed management

The use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and remote sensing technologies for the development of water quality management programs and for post-implementation assessments has increased dramatically in the past decade. This increase in adoption has been made more accessible through the interfaces of many popular software tools used in the regulation and assessment of water quality. Customized applications of these tools will increase, as ease of access and affordability of directly monitored and remotely sensed datasets improve over time. Concurrently, there is a need for inclusive participatory engagement with stakeholders to achieve solutions to current watershed management challenges. This paper explores the potential of these GIS and remote sensing datasets, tools, models, and immersive engagement technologies from other domains, for improving public participation and stakeholder engagement throughout the watershed planning process. To do so, an initial review is presented about the use of GIS and remote sensing in watershed management and its role in impairment identification, model development, and planning and implementation. Then, ways in which GIS and remote sensing can be integrated with stakeholder engagement through (1) leveraging GIS and remote sensing datasets, and (2) stakeholder engagement approaches including outreach and education, modeler-led development, and stakeholder-led involvement and feedback, are discussed. Finally, future perspectives on the potential for transforming public participation and stakeholder engagement in the watershed management process through applications of GIS and remote sensing are presented.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Beowulf v2.5.3 User Guide: Revision 5

This document is a user guide for the Beowulf (rebranding of Watchmen) tool. It describes how operators can access and utilize the application's functionality. Beowulf is a research software application developed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) that incorporates the scientific and operational expertise for reviewing data from treaty monitoring radionuclide stations. These stations are part of a worldwide network to monitor for nuclear explosions, and the data they produce are critical to make the determination of whether a sample is from a nuclear explosion or some other source (i.e., nuclear reactor or medical isotope production facility). Stations deliver their measurements and system status to the International Monitoring System (IMS), which forwards it via email to all subscribers. Beowulf is capable of processing data from several radioxenon station types and development is in progress on a solution for particulate stations. Screening of data in Beowulf may be done by a number of different users such as radionuclide analysts, evaluators, and data quality experts. This guide is provided to assist those users in navigating the application. The term Beowulf is used generically throughout this document to refer to any of the various components in the software application. The user interface that is viewed with a web browser is the primary focus of this user guide. Other components include a database to store measurements and state of health (SOH) data; and the data loader that monitors incoming emails, parses the data, populates the database, does the initial analysis, and routes data for review.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Teaching Computational Reproducibility for Neuroimaging

We describe a project-based introduction to reproducible and collaborative neuroimaging analysis. Traditional teaching on neuroimaging usually consists of a series of lectures that emphasize the big picture rather than the foundations on which the techniques are based. The lectures are often paired with practical workshops in which students run imaging analyses using the graphical interface of specific neuroimaging software packages. Our experience suggests that this combination leaves the student with a superficial understanding of the underlying ideas, and an informal, inefficient, and inaccurate approach to analysis. To address these problems, we based our course around a substantial open-ended group project. This allowed us to teach: (a) computational tools to ensure computationally reproducible work, such as the Unix command line, structured code, version control, automated testing, and code review and (b) a clear understanding of the statistical techniques used for a basic analysis of a single run in an MR scanner. The emphasis we put on the group project showed the importance of standard computational tools for accuracy, efficiency, and collaboration. The projects were broadly successful in engaging students in working reproducibly on real scientific questions. We propose that a course on this model should be the foundation for future programs in neuroimaging. We believe it will also serve as a model for teaching efficient and reproducible research in other fields of computational science.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

A Tool Kit for Generating Simulated Radiation Measurements for Advanced Reactor Safeguards and Security

A tool kit was developed to simulate and analyze passive radiation measurements of molten salt reactor (MSR) operations to support development of nuclear safeguards approaches for this emerging reactor technology. A Transient Simulation Framework of Reconfigurable Modules (TRANSFORM) multiphysics simulation of an MSR produces time-dependent isotopic inventories at user-selected locations within the model. The tool kit implements the Gamma Detector Response and Analysis Software (GADRAS) application programming interface to inject the TRANSFORM isotopic inventories extracted/processed by a Python pipeline into GADRAS models of user-defined geometries. The TRANSFORM inventories are the source terms used to obtain synthetic measurements from GADRAS-defined detectors. The speed of TRANSFORM and GADRAS simulations enables surveying the large design space of MSRs (e.g., fuel type, fuel salt composition, number of loops) and the plethora of measurements (e.g., location, detector type, and collimation) within the reactor. This has enabled timely assessment of the various measurement locations and detectors to identify the most effective and efficient safeguards approach for a specific MSR design. Lastly, the tool kit also simulates extracted samples that can be aged to a desired dose, enabling stakeholders to optimize a measurement plan to use sample analysis as an element within a broader material accountancy plan.

Westphal, Greg↗

Simulation of Isotopic Concentrations and Gamma Spectra from Dynamic Fission Sources

A tool was developed to rapidly generate synthetic gamma-ray spectra to evaluate safeguards material control and accounting methods for liquid-fueled molten salt reactors. Molten salt reactor operations pose unique challenges to nuclear safeguards methods and protocols compared to deployed reactors designs (e.g., light water reactors). This research evaluates the use of gamma-ray spectroscopy to monitor fission product isotopic flow through a reactor model to understand expected operations and investigate changes to the spectra with material diversion scenarios. The large design space of molten salt reactors (e.g., liquid-fueled, liquid-cooled, online separations) could potentially lead to many measurement points within the reactor system. The developed analytical tool generates and evaluates synthetic gamma-ray spectra from dynamic reactor simulations by extracting isotopic inventory to generate source terms. An implementation in the Gamma Detector Response and Analysis Software (GADRAS) Application Program Interface (API) uses the source terms, a model of the reactor component, a detector response function, and measurement plan to quickly generate and analyze spectra. Prospective measurements are then evaluated in the more accurate but slower Geant4 simulations. Utilization of the developed modeling tool and analysis of the subsequent spectra enables optimization of collimation, shielding requirements, and expected count rates that are used to determine key measurement points in the modeled reactor design.

O'Brien, Sean↗

BatteryPro: A Python Toolkit for Battery Data Analysis and Machine Learning Predictions

Analyzing battery test data for research & development can be time-consuming since battery tests often run on the order of months to years, generating large volumes of data. BatteryPro is a comprehensive Python package and software designed to facilitate advanced analysis and performance predictions for battery test data. Developed for battery researchers, it supports data types from widely used battery testing instruments, including MACCOR and Biologic cycling systems. The software provides a variety of tools for extracting and plotting key battery parameters such as time, voltage, capacity, current, and pressure. In addition to its extensive data analysis capabilities, BatteryPro features a dedicated machine learning module that employs a Bayesian Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) to predict battery performance and degradation. Users can generate synthetic capacity fade data, calculate fade metrics, and leverage predictive models to forecast long-term battery behavior. The software's graphical user interface (GUI) enhances usability, allowing researchers to upload, merge, and analyze multiple data files with full customizability. The GUI also supports machine learning predictions, enabling users to fit models and make predictions based on selected data and parameters. BatteryPro is built using QtDesigner, scikit-learn, matplotlib, and pandas, ensuring a high level of customization, flexibility, and accuracy in battery data analysis. This tool aims to empower researchers with the ability to perform detailed battery analysis and make informed predictions, ultimately advancing the field of battery research.

25 - ENERGY STORAGE↗