A general coarse and fine mesh solution scheme for fluid flow modeling in VHTRS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Clifford, I; Ivanov, K; Avramova, M.

2011-01-01

Coarse mesh Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) methods offer several advantages over traditional coarse mesh methods for the safety analysis of helium-cooled graphite-moderated Very High Temperature Reactors (VHTRs). This relatively new approach opens up the possibility for system-wide calculations to be carried out using a consistent set of field equations throughout the calculation, and subsequently the possibility for hybrid coarse/fine mesh or hierarchical multi scale CFD simulations. To date, a consistent methodology for hierarchical multi-scale CFD has not been developed. This paper describes work carried out in the initial development of a multi scale CFD solver intended to be used for the safety analysis of VHTRs. The VHTR is considered on any scale to consist of a homogenized two-phase mixture of fluid and stationary solid material of varying void fraction. A consistent set of conservation equations was selected such that they reduce to the single-phase conservation equations for the case where void fraction is unity. The discretization of the conservation equations uses a new pressure interpolation scheme capable of capturing the discontinuity in pressure across relatively large changes in void fraction. Based on this, a test solver was developed which supports fully unstructured meshes for three-dimensional time-dependent compressible flow problems, including buoyancy effects. For typical VHTR flow phenomena the new solver shows promise as an effective candidate for predicting the flow behavior on multiple scales, as it is capable of modeling both fine mesh single phase flows as well as coarse mesh flows in homogenized regions containing both fluid and solid materials. (author)

Coarse mesh finite element method for boiling water reactor physics analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ellison, P.G.

1983-01-01

A coarse mesh method is formulated for the solution of Boiling Water Reactor physics problems using two group diffusion theory. No fuel assembly cross-section homogenization is required; water gaps, control blades and fuel pins of varying enrichments are treated explicitly. The method combines constrained finite element discretization with infinite lattice super cell trial functions to obtain coarse mesh solutions for which the only approximations are along the boundaries between fuel assemblies. The method is applied to bench mark Boiling Water Reactor problems to obtain both the eigenvalue and detailed flux distributions. The solutions to these problems indicate the method is useful in predicting detailed power distributions and eigenvalues for Boiling Water Reactor physics problems

Variationally derived coarse mesh methods using an alternative flux representation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wojtowicz, G.; Holloway, J.P.

1995-01-01

Investigation of a previously reported variational technique for the solution of the 1-D, 1-group neutron transport equation in reactor lattices has inspired the development of a finite element formulation of the method. Compared to conventional homogenization methods in which node homogenized cross sections are used, the coefficients describing this system take on greater spatial dependence. However, the methods employ an alternative flux representation which allows the transport equation to be cast into a form whose solution has only a slow spatial variation and, hence, requires relatively few variables to describe. This alternative flux representation and the stationary property of a variational principle define a class of coarse mesh discretizations of transport theory capable of achieving order of magnitude reductions of eigenvalue and pointwise scalar flux errors as compared with diffusion theory while retaining diffusion theory's relatively low cost. Initial results of a 1-D spectral element approach are reviewed and used to motivate the finite element implementation which is more efficient and almost as accurate; one and two group results of this method are described

CMADR acceleration and its convergence analysis of the method of characteristics for neutron transport calculation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Young, Ryong Park; Nam, Zin Cho

2005-01-01

As the nuclear reactor core becomes more complex, heterogeneous, and geometrically irregular, the method of characteristics (MOC) is gaining its wide use in the neutron transport calculations. However, the long computing times require good acceleration methods. In this paper, the concept of coarse-mesh angular dependent re-balance (CMADR) acceleration is described and applied to the MOC calculation in x-y-z (z-infinite, uniform) geometry. The method is based on the angular dependent re-balance factors defined only on the coarse-mesh boundaries; a coarse-mesh consists of several fine meshes that may be heterogeneous and of mixed geometries with irregular or unstructured mesh shapes. In addition, the coarse-mesh boundaries may not coincide with the structural interfaces of the problem and can be chosen artificially for convenience. CMADR acceleration is tested on several test problems and the results show that CMADR is very effective in reducing the number of iterations and computing times of MOC calculations. Fourier analysis is also provided to investigate convergence of the CMADR method analytically and the results show that CMADR acceleration is unconditionally stable. (authors)

Network topology exploration of mesh-based coarse-grain reconfigurable architectures

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bansal, N.; Gupta, S.; Dutt, N.D.; Nicolau, A.; Gupta, R.

2004-01-01

Several coarse-grain reconfigurable architectures proposed recently consist of a large number of processing elements (PEs) connected in a mesh-like network topology. We study the effects of three aspects of network topology exploration on the performance of applications on these architectures: (a)

Simulation of gas mixing and transport in a multi-compartment geometry using the GOTHIC containment code and relatively coarse meshes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Andreani, Michele; Paladino, Domenico

2010-01-01

The recently concluded OECD SETH project included twenty-four experiments on basic flows and gas transport and mixing driven by jets and plumes in two, large, connected vessels of the PANDA facility. The experiments featured injection of saturated or superheated steam, or a mixture of steam and helium in one vessel and venting from the same vessel or from the connected one. These tests have been especially designed for providing an extensive data base for the assessment of three-dimensional codes, including CFD codes. In particular, one of the goals of the analytical activities associated with the experiments was to evaluate the detail of the model (mesh) necessary for capturing the various phenomena. This work reports an overview of the results obtained for these experimental data using the advanced containment code GOTHIC and relatively coarse meshes, which are coarser than the ones typically used for the simulation with commercial CFD codes, but are still representative of the models which are currently affordable for a full containment analysis. In general, the phenomena were correctly represented in the simulations with GOTHIC, and the agreement of the results with the data was in most cases pretty good, in some cases excellent. Only for a few tests (or particular phenomena occurring in some tests) the simulations showed noticeable discrepancies with the experimental data, which could be referred to either an insufficiently detailed mesh or to lack of specialized models for local effects.

Wire-mesh capped deposition sensors: Novel passive tool for coarse fraction flux estimation of radon thoron progeny in indoor environments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mayya, Y.S.; Mishra, Rosaline; Prajith, Rama; Sapra, B.K.; Kushwaha, H.S.

2010-01-01

Deposition-based 222 Rn and 220 Rn progeny sensors act as unique, passive tools for determining the long time-averaged progeny deposition fluxes in the environment. The use of these deposition sensors as progeny concentration monitors was demonstrated in typical indoor environments as conceptually superior alternatives to gas-based indirect monitoring methods. In the present work, the dependency of these deposition monitors on various environmental parameters is minimized by capping the deposition sensor with a suitable wire mesh. These wire-mesh capped deposition sensors measure the coarse fraction deposition flux, which is less dependent on the change in environmental parameters like ventilation rate and turbulence. The calibration of these wire-mesh capped coarse fraction progeny sensors was carried out by laboratory controlled experiments. These sensors were deployed both in indoor and in occupational environments having widely different ventilation rates. The obtained coarse fraction deposition velocities were fairly constant in these environments, which further confirmed that the signal on the wire-mesh capped sensors show the least dependency on the change in environmental parameters. This technique has the potential to serve as a passive particle sizer in the general context of nanoparticles using progeny species as surrogates. On the whole, there exists a strong case for developing a passive system that responds only to coarse fraction for providing alternative tools for dosimetry and environmental fine particle research. - Research highlights: → Wire-mesh capped deposition sensor measures the coarse fraction deposition flux → Coarse fraction deposition flux less dependent on environmental conditions → Wire-mesh capped deposition sensor as passive particle sizer

Mesh requirements for neutron transport calculations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Askew, J.R.

1967-07-01

Fine-structure calculations are reported for a cylindrical natural uranium-graphite cell using different solution methods (discrete ordinate and collision probability codes) and varying the spatial mesh. It is suggested that of formulations assuming the source constant in a mesh interval the differential approach is generally to be preferred. Due to cancellation between approximations made in the derivation of the finite difference equations and the errors in neglecting source variation, the discrete ordinate code gave a more accurate estimate of fine structure for a given mesh even for unusually coarse representations. (author)

An Innovative Three-Dimensional Heterogeneous Coarse-Mesh Transport Method for Advanced and Generation IV Reactor Core Analysis and Design

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rahnema, Farzad

2009-01-01

This project has resulted in a highly efficient method that has been shown to provide accurate solutions to a variety of 2D and 3D reactor problems. The goal of this project was to develop (1) an accurate and efficient three-dimensional whole-core neutronics method with the following features: based solely on transport theory, does not require the use of cross-section homogenization, contains a highly accurate and self-consistent global flux reconstruction procedure, and is applicable to large, heterogeneous reactor models, and to (2) create new numerical benchmark problems for code cross-comparison.

A simplified treatment of the boundary conditions of the k- ε model in coarse-mesh CFD-type codes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Analytis, G.Th.; Andreani, M.

1999-01-01

In coarse-mesh, CFD-type codes such as the containment analysis code GOTHIC, one of the options that can be used for modelling of turbulence is the k - ε model. However, in contrast to most other CFD codes which are designed to perform detailed CFD calculations with a large number of spatial meshes, codes such as GOTHIC are primarily aimed at simplified calculation of transients in large spaces (e.g., reactor containments), and generally use coarse meshes. The solution of the two parabolic equations for the k - ε model requires the definition of boundary conditions at physical boundaries and this, in turn, requires very small spatial meshes near these boundaries. Hence, while in codes like CFX this is done in a rigorous and consistent manner, codes like GOTHIC adopt an indirect and heuristic approach, due to the fact that the spatial meshes are usually large. This can have adverse consequences during the calculation of a transient and in this work, we shall give some examples of this and outline a method by which this problem can be avoided. (author)

Recent developments in the ROCS/MC code for retrieving local power information in coarse-mesh reactor analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Grill, S.F.; Jonsson, A.; Crump, M.W.

1983-01-01

The inclusion of 3-D effects in PWR analysis is necessary for accurate predictions of reactivity, power distributions, and reactivity coefficients. The ROCS/MC code system has been developed by Combustion Engineering to provide 3-D coarse mesh analysis (ROCS) with the capability to retrieve local information on flux, power and burnup (MC). A review of the finite difference representation of the MC diffusion equation, along with recent improvements to the ROCS/MC system are presented. These improvements include the implementation if fine mesh radial boundary conditions and internal calculation of coarse mesh boundary conditions, generalization of the imbedded calculation to account for the local neighboring environment, and the automation of ROCS/MC links to C-E's code system for in-core power distribution monitoring and core-follow analysis. The results of the ROCS/MC verification program are described and show good agreement with C-E's ROCS/PDQ based methodologies

Application of coarse-mesh methods to fluid dynamics equations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Romstedt, P.; Werner, W.

1977-01-01

An Asymmetric Weighted Residual (ASWR) method for fluid dynamics equations is described. It leads to local operators with a 7-point Finite Difference (FD) structure, which is independent of the degree of the approximating polynomials. An 1-dimensional problem was solved by both this ASWR-method and a commonly used FD-method. The numerical results demonstrate that the ASWR-method combines high accuracy on a coarse computational mesh with short computing time per space point. The posibility of using fewer space points consequently brings about a considerable reduction in total running time for the ASWR-method as compared with conventional FD-methods. (orig.) [de

Application-specific mesh-based heterogeneous FPGA architectures

CERN Document Server

Parvez, Husain

2011-01-01

This volume presents a new exploration environment for mesh-based, heterogeneous FPGA architectures. Readers will find a description of state-of-the-art techniques for reducing area requirements, which both increase performance and enable power reduction.

Local transport method for hybrid diffusion-transport calculations in 2-D cylindrical (R, THETA) geometry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang, Dingkang; Rahnema, Farzad; Ougouag, Abderrfi M.

2011-01-01

A response-based local transport method has been developed in 2-D (r, θ) geometry for coupling to any coarse-mesh (nodal) diffusion method/code. Monte Carlo method is first used to generate a (pre-computed) the response function library for each unique coarse mesh in the transport domain (e.g., the outer reflector region of the Pebble Bed Reactor). The scalar flux and net current at the diffusion/transport interface provided by the diffusion method are used as an incoming surface source to the transport domain. A deterministic iterative sweeping method together with the response function library is utilized to compute the local transport solution within all transport coarse meshes. After the partial angular currents crossing the coarse mesh surfaces are converged, albedo coefficients are computed as boundary conditions for the diffusion methods. The iteration on the albedo boundary condition (for the diffusion method via transport) and the incoming angular flux boundary condition (for the transport via diffusion) is continued until convergence is achieved. The method was tested for in a simplified 2-D (r, θ) pebble bed reactor problem consisting of an inner reflector, an annular fuel region and a controlled outer reflector. The comparisons have shown that the results of the response-function-based transport method agree very well with a direct MCNP whole core solution. The agreement in coarse mesh averaged flux was found to be excellent: relative difference of about 0.18% and a maximum difference of about 0.55%. Note that the MCNP uncertainty was less than 0.1%. (author)

A study of coarse mesh collision probability correction factors in slab lattices

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Buckler, A.N.

1975-07-01

Calculations of collision probability leakage estimates are performed in one dimensional slab geometry with one neutron group to gain some insight into methods of correction for the coarseness of the mesh H. The chief result is that the correction factor, beta, can be written as CD/H where C → 4 for the diffusion limit. An explicit expression for C is derived in terms of the E 3 function, for a linear flux variation across the slabs. (author)

Performance Improvements for Coarse Mesh Finite Difference Acceleration L3:RTM.PRT.P13.02

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Collins, Benjamin S.; Hamilton, Steven P.; Stimpson, Shane; Yee, Ben; Larsen, Edward W.; Kochunas, Brendan

2016-01-01

The development of VERA-CS in recent years has focused on developing the capability to simulate multiple cycles of operating commercial nuclear power plants. Now that these capabilities have advanced to the point where it is being deployed to users, the focus is on improving the computational performance of various components in VERA-CS. In this work, the focus is on the Coarse Mesh Finite Difference (CMFD) solution in MPACT. CMFD serves multiple purposes in the 2D/1D solution methodology. First, it is a natural mechanism to tie together the radial MOC transport and the axial SP3 solution. Because the CMFD system solves the multigroup three-dimensional core in one system, it pulls together the global response of the system. In addition, the CMFD solution provides a framework to accelerate the convergence of the eigenvalue problem.

The strategy of alternate direction adapted to a coarse mesh method for the solution of neutron diffusion problems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Watson, F.V.

1982-01-01

An adaptation of the alternate direction method for coarse mesh calculation, is presented. The algorithm is applicable to two-and three dimensional problems, the last being the more interesting one. (E.G.) [pt

New procedure for criticality search using coarse mesh nodal methods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pereira, Wanderson F.; Silva, Fernando C. da; Martinez, Aquilino S.

2011-01-01

The coarse mesh nodal methods have as their primary goal to calculate the neutron flux inside the reactor core. Many computer systems use a specific form of calculation, which is called nodal method. In classical computing systems that use the criticality search is made after the complete convergence of the iterative process of calculating the neutron flux. In this paper, we proposed a new method for the calculation of criticality, condition which will be over very iterative process of calculating the neutron flux. Thus, the processing time for calculating the neutron flux was reduced by half compared with the procedure developed by the Nuclear Engineering Program of COPPE/UFRJ (PEN/COPPE/UFRJ). (author)

New procedure for criticality search using coarse mesh nodal methods

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pereira, Wanderson F.; Silva, Fernando C. da; Martinez, Aquilino S., E-mail: wneto@con.ufrj.b, E-mail: fernando@con.ufrj.b, E-mail: Aquilino@lmp.ufrj.b [Coordenacao dos Programas de Pos-Graduacao de Engenharia (PEN/COPPE/UFRJ), Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil). Programa de Engenharia Nuclear

2011-07-01

The coarse mesh nodal methods have as their primary goal to calculate the neutron flux inside the reactor core. Many computer systems use a specific form of calculation, which is called nodal method. In classical computing systems that use the criticality search is made after the complete convergence of the iterative process of calculating the neutron flux. In this paper, we proposed a new method for the calculation of criticality, condition which will be over very iterative process of calculating the neutron flux. Thus, the processing time for calculating the neutron flux was reduced by half compared with the procedure developed by the Nuclear Engineering Program of COPPE/UFRJ (PEN/COPPE/UFRJ). (author)

Convergence analysis of CMADR acceleration for the method of characteristics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Park, Young Ryong; Cho, Nam Zin

2005-01-01

As the nuclear reactor core becomes more complex, heterogeneous, and geometrically irregular, the method of characteristics (MOC) is gaining its wide use in the neutron transport calculations. However, the long computer times require good acceleration methods. In our previous paper, the concept of coarse-mesh angular dependent rebalance (CMADR) acceleration was described and applied to the MOC calculations. The method is based on angular dependent rebalance factors defined on the coarse-mesh boundaries; a coarse-mesh consists of several fine meshes that may be (1) heterogeneous and (2) of mixed geometries with irregular or unstructured mesh shapes. In addition, (3) the coarse-mesh boundaries may not coincide with the structural interfaces of the problem and can be chosen artificially for convenience. The CMADR acceleration method on the MOC scheme that enables the very desirable features (1), (2), and (3) above is new in the neutron transport literature to the best of the authors knowledge. In this paper, we analyze the convergence of CMADR acceleration for MOC calculation in x-y-z (infinite) geometry by using Fourier analysis

Formulation of coarse mesh finite difference to calculate mathematical adjoint flux; Formulacao de diferencas finitas de malha grossa para calculo do fluxo adjunto matematico

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pereira, Valmir; Martinez, Aquilino Senra; Silva, Fernando Carvalho da [Universidade Federal, Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil). Coordenacao dos Programas de Pos-graduacao de Engenharia. Programa de Engenharia Nuclear

2002-07-01

The objective of this work is the obtention of the mathematical adjoint flux, having as its support the nodal expansion method (NEM) for coarse mesh problems. Since there are difficulties to evaluate this flux by using NEM. directly, a coarse mesh finite difference program was developed to obtain this adjoint flux. The coarse mesh finite difference formulation (DFMG) adopted uses results of the direct calculation (node average flux and node face averaged currents) obtained by NEM. These quantities (flux and currents) are used to obtain the correction factors which modify the classical finite differences formulation . Since the DFMG formulation is also capable of calculating the direct flux it was also tested to obtain this flux and it was verified that it was able to reproduce with good accuracy both the flux and the currents obtained via NEM. In this way, only matrix transposition is needed to calculate the mathematical adjoint flux. (author)

Hybrid Multiscale Finite Volume method for multiresolution simulations of flow and reactive transport in porous media

Science.gov (United States)

Barajas-Solano, D. A.; Tartakovsky, A. M.

2017-12-01

We present a multiresolution method for the numerical simulation of flow and reactive transport in porous, heterogeneous media, based on the hybrid Multiscale Finite Volume (h-MsFV) algorithm. The h-MsFV algorithm allows us to couple high-resolution (fine scale) flow and transport models with lower resolution (coarse) models to locally refine both spatial resolution and transport models. The fine scale problem is decomposed into various "local'' problems solved independently in parallel and coordinated via a "global'' problem. This global problem is then coupled with the coarse model to strictly ensure domain-wide coarse-scale mass conservation. The proposed method provides an alternative to adaptive mesh refinement (AMR), due to its capacity to rapidly refine spatial resolution beyond what's possible with state-of-the-art AMR techniques, and the capability to locally swap transport models. We illustrate our method by applying it to groundwater flow and reactive transport of multiple species.

Heterogeneous Wireless Mesh Network Technology Evaluation for Space Proximity and Surface Applications

Science.gov (United States)

DeCristofaro, Michael A.; Lansdowne, Chatwin A.; Schlesinger, Adam M.

2014-01-01

NASA has identified standardized wireless mesh networking as a key technology for future human and robotic space exploration. Wireless mesh networks enable rapid deployment, provide coverage in undeveloped regions. Mesh networks are also self-healing, resilient, and extensible, qualities not found in traditional infrastructure-based networks. Mesh networks can offer lower size, weight, and power (SWaP) than overlapped infrastructure-perapplication. To better understand the maturity, characteristics and capability of the technology, we developed an 802.11 mesh network consisting of a combination of heterogeneous commercial off-the-shelf devices and opensource firmware and software packages. Various streaming applications were operated over the mesh network, including voice and video, and performance measurements were made under different operating scenarios. During the testing several issues with the currently implemented mesh network technology were identified and outlined for future work.

Generalized coarse-grained Becker-Doering equations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bolton, Colin D; Wattis, Jonathan A D

2003-01-01

We present and apply a generalized coarse-graining method of reducing the Becker-Doering model; originally formulated to describe the stepwise aggregation and fragmentation of clusters during nucleation. Previous formulations of the coarse-graining procedure have allowed a temporal rescaling of the coarse-grained reaction rates; this is generalized to allow the rescaling to depend on cluster size. The form of this factor is derived for general reaction rates and general mesh function so that the steady-state solution is preserved; in the case of an even mesh function the kinetics can also be accurately reproduced. With a size-dependent mesh function the equilibrium solution and the form of convergence to this state are matched for a specific example. Finally we consider reaction rates relevant to the classical nucleation theory of spherical cluster growth, and numerically compare solutions of the full system to the generalized coarse-grained system in both constant monomer and constant mass formulations, demonstrating the accuracy of the method

Modeling solute transport in a heterogeneous unsaturated porous medium under dynamic boundary conditions on different spatial scales

Science.gov (United States)

Cremer, Clemens; Neuweiler, Insa; Bechtold, Michel

2013-04-01

Understanding transport of solutes/contaminants through unsaturated soil in the shallow subsurface is vital to assess groundwater quality, nutrient cycling or to plan remediation projects. Alternating precipitation and evaporation conditions causing upward and downward flux with differing flow paths, changes in saturation and related structural heterogeneity make the description of transport in the unsaturated zone near the soil-surface a complex problem. Preferential flow paths strongly depend, among other things, on the saturation of a medium. Recent studies (e.g. Bechtold et al., 2011) showed lateral flow and solute transport during evaporation conditions (upward flux) in vertically layered sand columns. Results revealed that during evaporation water and solute are redistributed laterally from coarse to fine media deeper in the soil, and towards zones of lowest hydraulic head near to the soil surface. These zones at the surface can be coarse or fine grained depending on saturation status and evaporation flux. However, if boundary conditions are reversed and precipitation is applied, the flow field is not reversed in the same manner, resulting in entirely different transport patterns for downward and upward flow. Therefore, considering net-flow rates alone is misleading when describing transport in the shallow unsaturated zone. In this contribution, we analyze transport of a solute in the shallow subsurface to assess effects resulting from the superposition of heterogeneous soil structures and dynamic flow conditions on various spatial scales. Two-dimensional numerical simulations of unsaturated flow and transport in heterogeneous porous media under changing boundary conditions are carried out using a finite-volume code coupled to a particle tracking algorithm to quantify solute transport and leaching rates. In order to validate numerical simulations, results are qualitatively compared to those of a physical experiment (Bechtold et al., 2011). Numerical

Solution of the neutron transport equation by the Method of Characteristics using a linear representation of the source within a mesh

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mazumdar, Tanay; Degweker, S.B.

2017-01-01

Highlights: • In Method of Characteristics, the neutron source within a mesh is expanded up to linear term. • This expansion reduces the number of meshes as compared to flat source assumption. • Poor representation of circular geometry with coarser meshes is corrected. • Few benchmark problems are solved to show the advantages of linear expansion of source. • The advantage of the present formalism is quite visible in problems with large flux gradient. - Abstract: A common assumption in the solution of the neutron transport equation by the Method of Characteristics (MOC) is that the source (or flux) is constant within a mesh. This assumption is adequate provided the meshes are small enough so that the spatial variation of flux within a mesh may be ignored. Whether a mesh is small enough or not depends upon the flux gradient across a mesh, which in turn depends on factors like the presence of strong absorbers, localized sources or vacuum boundaries. The flat flux assumption often requires a very large number of meshes for solving the neutron transport equation with acceptable accuracy as was observed in our earlier work on the subject. A significant reduction in the required number of meshes is attainable by using a higher order representation of the flux within a mesh. In this paper, we expand the source within a mesh up to first order (linear) terms, which permits the use of larger sized (and therefore fewer) meshes and thereby reduces the computation time without compromising the accuracy of calculation. Since the division of the geometry into meshes is through an automatic triangulation procedure using the Bowyer-Watson algorithm, representation of circular objects (cylindrical fuel rods) with coarse meshes is poorer and causes geometry related errors. A numerical recipe is presented to make a correction to the automatic triangulation process and thereby eliminate this source of error. A number of benchmark problems are analyzed to emphasize the

HIRENASD coarse unstructured

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Unstructured HIRENASD mesh: - coarse size (5.7 million nodes, 14.4 million elements) - for node centered solvers - 01.06.2011 - caution: dimensions in mm

Development of a coarse mesh code for the solution of two group static diffusion problems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barros, R.C. de.

1985-01-01

This new coarse mesh code designed for the solution of 2 and 3 dimensional static diffusion problems, is based on an alternating direction method which consists in the solution of one dimensional problem along each coordinate direction with leakage terms for the remaining directions estimated from previous interactions. Four versions of this code have been developed: AD21 - 2D - 1/4, AD21 - 2D - 4/4, AD21 - 3D - 1/4 and AD21 - 3D - 4/4; these versions have been designed for 2 and 3 dimensional problems with or without 1/4 symmetry. (Author) [pt

Discontinuous finite element and characteristics methods for neutrons transport equation solution in heterogeneous grids

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Masiello, E.

2006-01-01

The principal goal of this manuscript is devoted to the investigation of a new type of heterogeneous mesh adapted to the shape of the fuel pins (fuel-clad-moderator). The new heterogeneous mesh guarantees the spatial modelling of the pin-cell with a minimum of regions. Two methods are investigated for the spatial discretization of the transport equation: the discontinuous finite element method and the method of characteristics for structured cells. These methods together with the new representation of the pin-cell result in an appreciable reduction of calculation points. They allow an exact modelling of the fuel pin-cell without spatial homogenization. A new synthetic acceleration technique based on an angular multigrid is also presented for the speed up of the inner iterations. These methods are good candidates for transport calculations for a nuclear reactor core. A second objective of this work is the application of method of characteristics for non-structured geometries to the study of double heterogeneity problem. The letters is characterized by fuel material with a stochastic dispersion of heterogeneous grains, and until now was solved with a model based on collision probabilities. We propose a new statistical model based on renewal-Markovian theory, which makes possible to take into account the stochastic nature of the problem and to avoid the approximations of the collision probability model. The numerical solution of this model is guaranteed by the method of characteristics. (author)

Transport theory calculation for a heterogeneous multi-assembly problem by characteristics method with direct neutron path linking technique

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kosaka, Shinya; Saji, Etsuro

2000-01-01

A characteristics transport theory code, CHAPLET, has been developed for the purpose of making it practical to perform a whole LWR core calculation with the same level of calculational model and accuracy as that of an ordinary single assembly calculation. The characteristics routine employs the CACTUS algorithm for drawing ray tracing lines, which assists the two key features of the flux solution in the CHAPLET code. One is the direct neutron path linking (DNPL) technique which strictly connects angular fluxes at each assembly interface in the flux solution separated between assemblies. Another is to reduce the required memory storage by sharing the data related to ray tracing among assemblies with the same configuration. For faster computation, the coarse mesh rebalance (CMR) method and the Aitken method were incorporated in the code and the combined use of both methods showed the most promising acceleration performance among the trials. In addition, the parallelization of the flux solution was attempted, resulting in a significant reduction in the wall-clock time of the calculation. By all these efforts, coupled with the results of many verification studies, a whole LWR core heterogeneous transport theory calculation finally became practical. CHAPLET is thought to be a useful tool which can produce the reference solutions for analyses of an LWR (author)

Solute transport with time-variable flow paths during upward and downward flux in a heterogeneous unsaturated porous medium

Science.gov (United States)

Cremer, Clemens; Neuweiler, Insa; Bechtold, Michel; Vanderborght, Jan

2014-05-01

To acquire knowledge of solute transport through the unsaturated zone in the shallow subsurface is decisive to assess groundwater quality, nutrient cycling or to plan remediation strategies. The shallow subsurface is characterized by structural heterogeneity and strongly influenced by atmospheric conditions. This leads to changing flow directions, strong temporal changes in saturation and heterogeneous water fluxes during infiltration and evaporation events. Recent studies (e.g. Lehmann and Or, 2009; Bechtold et al.,2011) demonstrated the importance of lateral flow and solute transport during evaporation conditions (upward flux). The heterogeneous structure in these studies was constructed using two types of sand with strong material contrasts and arranged in parallel with a vertical orientation. Lateral transport and redistribution of solute from coarse to fine media was observed deeper in the soil column and from fine to coarse close to the soil surface. However, if boundary conditions are reversed due to precipitation, the flow field is not necessarily reversed in the same manner, resulting in entirely different transport patterns for downward and upward flow. Therefore, considering net-flow rates alone is misleading when describing transport under those conditions. In this contribution we analyze transport of a solute in the shallow subsurface to assess effects resulting from the temporal change of heterogeneous soil structures due to dynamic flow conditions. Two-dimensional numerical simulations of unsaturated flow and transport are conducted using a coupled finite volume and random walk particle tracking algorithm to quantify solute transport and leaching rates. Following previous studies (Lehmann and Or, 2009; Bechtold et al., 2011), the chosen domain is composed of two materials, coarse and fine sand, arranged in parallel with a vertical orientation. Hence, one sharp interface of strong material heterogeneity is induced. During evaporation both sands are

Investigation on generalized Variational Nodal Methods for heterogeneous nodes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, Yongping; Wu, Hongchun; Li, Yunzhao; Cao, Liangzhi; Shen, Wei

2017-01-01

Highlights: • We developed two heterogeneous nodal methods based on the Variational Nodal Method. • Four problems were solved to evaluate the two heterogeneous nodal methods. • The function expansion method is good at treating continuous-changing heterogeneity. • The finite sub-element method is good at treating discontinuous-changing heterogeneity. - Abstract: The Variational Nodal Method (VNM) is generalized for heterogeneous nodes and applied to four kinds of problems including Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) core problem with continuous cross section profile, Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) control rod cusping effect problem, PWR whole-core pin-by-pin problem, and heterogeneous PWR core problem without fuel-coolant homogenization in each pin cell. Two approaches have been investigated for the treatment of the nodal heterogeneity in this paper. To concentrate on spatial heterogeneity, diffusion approximation was adopted for the angular variable in neutron transport equation. To provide demonstrative numerical results, the codes in this paper were developed in slab geometry. The first method, named as function expansion (FE) method, expands nodal flux by orthogonal polynomials and the nodal cross sections are also expressed as spatial depended functions. The second path, named as finite sub-element (FS) method, takes advantage of the finite-element method by dividing each node into numbers of homogeneous sub-elements and expanding nodal flux into the combination of linear sub-element trial functions. Numerical tests have been carried out to evaluate the ability of the two nodal (coarse-mesh) heterogeneous VNMs by comparing with the fine-mesh homogeneous VNM. It has been demonstrated that both heterogeneous approaches can handle heterogeneous nodes. The FE method is good at continuous-changing heterogeneity as in the MSR core problem, while the FS method is good at discontinuous-changing heterogeneity such as the PWR pin-by-pin problem and heterogeneous PWR core

Coarse Grained Transport Model for Neutrals in Turbulent SOL Plasmas

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Marandet, Y.; Mekkaoui, A.; Genesio, P.; Rosato, J.; Capes, H.; Godbert-Mouret, L.; Koubiti, M.; Stamm, R., E-mail: yannick.marandet@univ-amu.fr [PIIM, CNRS/Aix-Marseille University, Marseille (France); Reiter, D.; Boerner, P. [IEK4, FZJ, Juelich (Germany)

2012-09-15

Full text: Edge plasmas of magnetic fusion devices exhibit strong intermittent turbulence, which governs perpendicular transport of particles and heat. Turbulent fluxes result from the coarse graining procedure used to derive the transport equation, which entails time averaging of the underlying equations governing the turbulent evolution of the electron and ion fluids. In previous works, we have pointed out that this averaging is not carried out on the Boltzmann equation that describes the transport of neutral particles (atoms, molecules) in current edge code suites (such as SOLPS). Since fluctuations in the far SOL are of order unity, calculating the transport of neutral particles, hence the source terms in plasma fluid equations, in the average plasma background might lead to misleading results. In particular, retaining the effects of fluctuations could affect the estimation of the importance of main chamber recycling, hence first wall sputtering by charge exchange atoms, as well as main chamber impurity contamination and transport. In this contribution, we obtain an exact coarse-grained equation for the average neutral density, assuming that density fluctuations are described by multivariate Gamma statistics. This equation is a scattering free Boltzmann equation, where the ionization rate has been renormalized to account for fluctuations. The coarse grained transport model for neutrals has been implemented in the EIRENE code, and applications in 2D geometry with ITER relevant plasma parameters are presented. Our results open the way for the implementation of the effects of turbulent fluctuations on the transport of neutral particles in coupled plasma/neutral edge codes like B2-EIRENE. (author)

Predicting mesh density for adaptive modelling of the global atmosphere.

Science.gov (United States)

Weller, Hilary

2009-11-28

The shallow water equations are solved using a mesh of polygons on the sphere, which adapts infrequently to the predicted future solution. Infrequent mesh adaptation reduces the cost of adaptation and load-balancing and will thus allow for more accurate mapping on adaptation. We simulate the growth of a barotropically unstable jet adapting the mesh every 12 h. Using an adaptation criterion based largely on the gradient of the vorticity leads to a mesh with around 20 per cent of the cells of a uniform mesh that gives equivalent results. This is a similar proportion to previous studies of the same test case with mesh adaptation every 1-20 min. The prediction of the mesh density involves solving the shallow water equations on a coarse mesh in advance of the locally refined mesh in order to estimate where features requiring higher resolution will grow, decay or move to. The adaptation criterion consists of two parts: that resolved on the coarse mesh, and that which is not resolved and so is passively advected on the coarse mesh. This combination leads to a balance between resolving features controlled by the large-scale dynamics and maintaining fine-scale features.

Transport of Chemotactic Bacteria in Porous Media with Structured Heterogeneity

Science.gov (United States)

Ford, R. M.; Wang, M.; Liu, J.; Long, T.

2008-12-01

Chemical contaminants that become trapped in low permeability zones (e.g. clay lenses) are difficult to remediate using conventional pump-and-treat approaches. Chemotactic bacteria that are transported by groundwater through more permeable regions may migrate toward these less permeable zones in response to chemical gradients created by contaminant diffusion from the low permeability source, thereby enhancing the remediation process by directing bacteria to the contaminants they degrade. What effect does the heterogeneity associated with coarse- and fine-grained layers that are characteristic of natural groundwater environments have on the transport of microorganisms and their chemotactic response? To address this question experiments were conducted over a range of scales from a single capillary tube to a laboratory- scale column in both static and flowing systems with and without chemoattractant gradients. In static capillary assays, motile bacteria accumulated at the interface between an aqueous solution and a suspension of agarose particulates. In microfluidic devices with an array of staggered cylinders, chemotactic bacteria migrated transverse to flow in response to a chemoattractant gradient. In sand columns packed with a coarse-grained core and surrounded by a fine-grained annulus, chemotactic bacteria migrated preferentially toward a chemoattractant source along the centerline. Mathematical models and computer simulations were developed to analyze the experimental observations in terms of transport parameters from the advection- disperson-sorption equation.

NONLINEAR MULTIGRID SOLVER EXPLOITING AMGe COARSE SPACES WITH APPROXIMATION PROPERTIES

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Christensen, Max La Cour [Technical Univ. of Denmark, Lyngby (Denmark); Villa, Umberto E. [Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States); Engsig-Karup, Allan P. [Technical Univ. of Denmark, Lyngby (Denmark); Vassilevski, Panayot S. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)

2016-01-22

The paper introduces a nonlinear multigrid solver for mixed nite element discretizations based on the Full Approximation Scheme (FAS) and element-based Algebraic Multigrid (AMGe). The main motivation to use FAS for unstruc- tured problems is the guaranteed approximation property of the AMGe coarse spaces that were developed recently at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. These give the ability to derive stable and accurate coarse nonlinear discretization problems. The previous attempts (including ones with the original AMGe method, [5, 11]), were less successful due to lack of such good approximation properties of the coarse spaces. With coarse spaces with approximation properties, our FAS approach on un- structured meshes should be as powerful/successful as FAS on geometrically re ned meshes. For comparison, Newton's method and Picard iterations with an inner state-of-the-art linear solver is compared to FAS on a nonlinear saddle point problem with applications to porous media ow. It is demonstrated that FAS is faster than Newton's method and Picard iterations for the experiments considered here. Due to the guaranteed approximation properties of our AMGe, the coarse spaces are very accurate, providing a solver with the potential for mesh-independent convergence on general unstructured meshes.

The quasidiffusion method for transport problems on unstructured meshes

Science.gov (United States)

Wieselquist, William A.

2009-06-01

In this work, we develop a quasidiffusion (QD) method for solving radiation transport problems on unstructured quadrilateral meshes in 2D Cartesian geometry, for example hanging-node meshes from adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) applications or skewed quadrilateral meshes from radiation hydrodynamics with Lagrangian meshing. The main result of the work is a new low-order quasidiffusion (LOQD) discretization on arbitrary quadrilaterals and a strategy for the efficient iterative solution which uses Krylov methods and incomplete LU factorization (ILU) preconditioning. The LOQD equations are a non-symmetric set of first-order PDEs that in second-order form resembles convection- diffusion with a diffusion tensor, with the difference that the LOQD equations contain extra cross-derivative terms. Our finite volume (FV) discretization of the LOQD equations is compared with three LOQD discretizations from literature. We then present a conservative, short characteristics discretization based on subcell balances (SCSB) that uses polynomial exponential moments to achieve robust behavior in various limits (e.g. small cells and voids) and is second- order accurate in space. A linear representation of the isotropic component of the scattering source based on face-average and cell-average scalar fluxes is also proposed and shown to be effective in some problems. In numerical tests, our QD method with linear scattering source representation shows some advantages compared to other transport methods. We conclude with avenues for future research and note that this QD method may easily be extended to arbitrary meshes in 3D Cartesian geometry.

Discontinuous finite element and characteristics methods for neutrons transport equation solution in heterogeneous grids; Resolution de l'equation du transport des neutrons par les methodes des elements finis discontinus et des caracteristiques structurees appliquees a des maillages heterogenes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Masiello, E

2006-07-01

The principal goal of this manuscript is devoted to the investigation of a new type of heterogeneous mesh adapted to the shape of the fuel pins (fuel-clad-moderator). The new heterogeneous mesh guarantees the spatial modelling of the pin-cell with a minimum of regions. Two methods are investigated for the spatial discretization of the transport equation: the discontinuous finite element method and the method of characteristics for structured cells. These methods together with the new representation of the pin-cell result in an appreciable reduction of calculation points. They allow an exact modelling of the fuel pin-cell without spatial homogenization. A new synthetic acceleration technique based on an angular multigrid is also presented for the speed up of the inner iterations. These methods are good candidates for transport calculations for a nuclear reactor core. A second objective of this work is the application of method of characteristics for non-structured geometries to the study of double heterogeneity problem. The letters is characterized by fuel material with a stochastic dispersion of heterogeneous grains, and until now was solved with a model based on collision probabilities. We propose a new statistical model based on renewal-Markovian theory, which makes possible to take into account the stochastic nature of the problem and to avoid the approximations of the collision probability model. The numerical solution of this model is guaranteed by the method of characteristics. (author)

Discontinuous finite element and characteristics methods for neutrons transport equation solution in heterogeneous grids; Resolution de l'equation du transport des neutrons par les methodes des elements finis discontinus et des caracteristiques structurees appliquees a des maillages heterogenes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Masiello, E

2006-07-01

The principal goal of this manuscript is devoted to the investigation of a new type of heterogeneous mesh adapted to the shape of the fuel pins (fuel-clad-moderator). The new heterogeneous mesh guarantees the spatial modelling of the pin-cell with a minimum of regions. Two methods are investigated for the spatial discretization of the transport equation: the discontinuous finite element method and the method of characteristics for structured cells. These methods together with the new representation of the pin-cell result in an appreciable reduction of calculation points. They allow an exact modelling of the fuel pin-cell without spatial homogenization. A new synthetic acceleration technique based on an angular multigrid is also presented for the speed up of the inner iterations. These methods are good candidates for transport calculations for a nuclear reactor core. A second objective of this work is the application of method of characteristics for non-structured geometries to the study of double heterogeneity problem. The letters is characterized by fuel material with a stochastic dispersion of heterogeneous grains, and until now was solved with a model based on collision probabilities. We propose a new statistical model based on renewal-Markovian theory, which makes possible to take into account the stochastic nature of the problem and to avoid the approximations of the collision probability model. The numerical solution of this model is guaranteed by the method of characteristics. (author)

Parallel unstructured mesh optimisation for 3D radiation transport and fluids modelling

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gorman, G.J.; Pain, Ch. C.; Oliveira, C.R.E. de; Umpleby, A.P.; Goddard, A.J.H.

2003-01-01

In this paper we describe the theory and application of a parallel mesh optimisation procedure to obtain self-adapting finite element solutions on unstructured tetrahedral grids. The optimisation procedure adapts the tetrahedral mesh to the solution of a radiation transport or fluid flow problem without sacrificing the integrity of the boundary (geometry), or internal boundaries (regions) of the domain. The objective is to obtain a mesh which has both a uniform interpolation error in any direction and the element shapes are of good quality. This is accomplished with use of a non-Euclidean (anisotropic) metric which is related to the Hessian of the solution field. Appropriate scaling of the metric enables the resolution of multi-scale phenomena as encountered in transient incompressible fluids and multigroup transport calculations. The resulting metric is used to calculate element size and shape quality. The mesh optimisation method is based on a series of mesh connectivity and node position searches of the landscape defining mesh quality which is gauged by a functional. The mesh modification thus fits the solution field(s) in an optimal manner. The parallel mesh optimisation/adaptivity procedure presented in this paper is of general applicability. We illustrate this by applying it to a transient CFD (computational fluid dynamics) problem. Incompressible flow past a cylinder at moderate Reynolds numbers is modelled to demonstrate that the mesh can follow transient flow features. (authors)

Approximation of scalar and vector transport problems on polyhedral meshes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cantin, Pierre

2016-01-01

This thesis analyzes, at the continuous and at the discrete level on polyhedral meshes, the scalar and the vector transport problems in three-dimensional domains. These problems are composed of a diffusive term, an advective term, and a reactive term. In the context of Friedrichs systems, the continuous problems are analyzed in Lebesgue graph spaces. The classical positivity assumption on the Friedrichs tensor is generalized so as to consider the case of practical interest where this tensor takes null or slightly negative values. A new scheme converging at the order 3/2 is devised for the scalar advection-reaction problem using scalar degrees of freedom attached to mesh vertices. Two new schemes considering as well scalar degrees of freedom attached to mesh vertices are devised for the scalar transport problem and are robust with respect to the dominant regime. The first scheme converges at the order 1/2 when advection effects are dominant and at the order 1 when diffusion effects are dominant. The second scheme improves the accuracy by converging at the order 3/2 when advection effects are dominant. Finally, a new scheme converging at the order 1/2 is devised for the vector advection-reaction problem considering only one scalar degree of freedom per mesh edge. The accuracy and the efficiency of all these schemes are assessed on various test cases using three-dimensional polyhedral meshes. (author)

Finite Element in Angle Unit Sphere Meshing for Charged Particle Transport.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ortega, Mario Ivan [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Drumm, Clifton R. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

2017-10-01

Finite element in angle formulations of the charged particle transport equation require the discretization of the unit sphere. In Sceptre, a three-dimensional surface mesh of a sphere is transformed into a two-dimensional mesh. Projection of a sphere onto a two-dimensional surface is well studied with map makers spending the last few centuries attempting to create maps that preserve proportion and area. Using these techniques, various meshing schemes for the unit sphere were investigated.

Modeling of heterogeneous elastic materials by the multiscale hp-adaptive finite element method

Science.gov (United States)

Klimczak, Marek; Cecot, Witold

2018-01-01

We present an enhancement of the multiscale finite element method (MsFEM) by combining it with the hp-adaptive FEM. Such a discretization-based homogenization technique is a versatile tool for modeling heterogeneous materials with fast oscillating elasticity coefficients. No assumption on periodicity of the domain is required. In order to avoid direct, so-called overkill mesh computations, a coarse mesh with effective stiffness matrices is used and special shape functions are constructed to account for the local heterogeneities at the micro resolution. The automatic adaptivity (hp-type at the macro resolution and h-type at the micro resolution) increases efficiency of computation. In this paper details of the modified MsFEM are presented and a numerical test performed on a Fichera corner domain is presented in order to validate the proposed approach.

Fuel-steel mixing and radial mesh effects in power excursion simulations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen, X.-N.; Rineiski, A.; Gabrielli, F.; Andriolo, L.; Vezzoni, B.; Li, R.; Maschek, W.; Kiefhaber, E.

2016-01-01

Highlights: • Fuel-steel mixing and radial mesh effects are significant on power excursion. • The earliest power peak is reduced and retarded by these two effects. • Unprotected loss of coolant transients in ESFR core are calculated. - Abstract: This paper deals with SIMMER-III once-through simulations of the earliest power excursion initiated by an unprotected loss of flow (ULOF) in the Working Horse design of the European Sodium Cooled Fast Reactor (ESFR). Since the sodium void effect is strictly positive in this core and dominant in the transient, a power excursion is initiated by sodium boiling in the ULOF case. Two major effects, namely (1) reactivity effects due to fuel-steel mixing after melting and (2) the radial mesh size, which were not considered originally in SIMMER simulations for ESFR, are studied. The first effect concerns the reactivity difference between the heterogeneous fuel/clad/wrapper configuration and the homogeneous mixture of steel and fuel. The full core homogenization (due to melting) effect is −2 $, though a smaller effect takes place in case of partial core melting. The second effect is due to the SIMMER sub-assembly (SA) coarse mesh treatment, where a simultaneous sodium boiling onset in all SAs belonging to one ring leads to an overestimated reactivity ramp. For investigating the influence of fuel/steel mixing effects, a lumped “homogenization” reactivity feedback has been introduced, being proportional to the molten steel mass. For improving the coarse mesh treatment, we employ finer radial meshes to take the subchannel effects into account, where the side and interior channels have different coolant velocities and temperatures. The simulation results show that these two effects have significant impacts on the earliest power excursion after the sodium boiling.

Nonlinear Multigrid solver exploiting AMGe Coarse Spaces with Approximation Properties

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christensen, Max la Cour; Villa, Umberto; Engsig-Karup, Allan Peter

The paper introduces a nonlinear multigrid solver for mixed finite element discretizations based on the Full Approximation Scheme (FAS) and element-based Algebraic Multigrid (AMGe). The main motivation to use FAS for unstructured problems is the guaranteed approximation property of the AMGe coarse...... properties of the coarse spaces. With coarse spaces with approximation properties, our FAS approach on unstructured meshes has the ability to be as powerful/successful as FAS on geometrically refined meshes. For comparison, Newton’s method and Picard iterations with an inner state-of-the-art linear solver...... are compared to FAS on a nonlinear saddle point problem with applications to porous media flow. It is demonstrated that FAS is faster than Newton’s method and Picard iterations for the experiments considered here. Due to the guaranteed approximation properties of our AMGe, the coarse spaces are very accurate...

Adaptive mesh refinement for a finite volume method for flow and transport of radionuclides in heterogeneous porous media

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Amaziane, Brahim; Bourgeois, Marc; El Fatini, Mohamed

2014-01-01

In this paper, we consider adaptive numerical simulation of miscible displacement problems in porous media, which are modeled by single phase flow equations. A vertex-centred finite volume method is employed to discretize the coupled system: the Darcy flow equation and the diffusion-convection concentration equation. The convection term is approximated with a Godunov scheme over the dual finite volume mesh, whereas the diffusion-dispersion term is discretized by piecewise linear conforming finite elements. We introduce two kinds of indicators, both of them of residual type. The first one is related to time discretization and is local with respect to the time discretization: thus, at each time, it provides an appropriate information for the choice of the next time step. The second is related to space discretization and is local with respect to both the time and space variable and the idea is that at each time it is an efficient tool for mesh adaptivity. An error estimation procedure evaluates where additional refinement is needed and grid generation procedures dynamically create or remove fine-grid patches as resolution requirements change. The method was implemented in the software MELODIE, developed by the French Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN, Institut de Radioprotection et de Surete Nucleaire). The algorithm is then used to simulate the evolution of radionuclide migration from the waste packages through a heterogeneous disposal, demonstrating its capability to capture complex behavior of the resulting flow. (authors)

Nonpoint source solute transport normal to aquifer bedding in heterogeneous, Markov chain random fields

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Hua; Harter, Thomas; Sivakumar, Bellie

2006-06-01

Facies-based geostatistical models have become important tools for analyzing flow and mass transport processes in heterogeneous aquifers. Yet little is known about the relationship between these latter processes and the parameters of facies-based geostatistical models. In this study, we examine the transport of a nonpoint source solute normal (perpendicular) to the major bedding plane of an alluvial aquifer medium that contains multiple geologic facies, including interconnected, high-conductivity (coarse textured) facies. We also evaluate the dependence of the transport behavior on the parameters of the constitutive facies model. A facies-based Markov chain geostatistical model is used to quantify the spatial variability of the aquifer system's hydrostratigraphy. It is integrated with a groundwater flow model and a random walk particle transport model to estimate the solute traveltime probability density function (pdf) for solute flux from the water table to the bottom boundary (the production horizon) of the aquifer. The cases examined include two-, three-, and four-facies models, with mean length anisotropy ratios for horizontal to vertical facies, ek, from 25:1 to 300:1 and with a wide range of facies volume proportions (e.g., from 5 to 95% coarse-textured facies). Predictions of traveltime pdfs are found to be significantly affected by the number of hydrostratigraphic facies identified in the aquifer. Those predictions of traveltime pdfs also are affected by the proportions of coarse-textured sediments, the mean length of the facies (particularly the ratio of length to thickness of coarse materials), and, to a lesser degree, the juxtapositional preference among the hydrostratigraphic facies. In transport normal to the sedimentary bedding plane, traveltime is not lognormally distributed as is often assumed. Also, macrodispersive behavior (variance of the traveltime) is found not to be a unique function of the conductivity variance. For the parameter range

Overview of medium heterogeneity and transport processes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tsang, Y.; Tsang, C.F.

1993-11-01

Medium heterogeneity can have significant impact on the behavior of solute transport. Tracer breakthrough curves from transport in a heterogeneous medium are distinctly different from that in a homogeneous porous medium. Usually the shape of the breakthrough curves are highly non-symmetrical with a fast rise at early times and very long tail at late times, and often, they consist of multiple peaks. Moreover, unlike transport in a homogeneous medium where the same transport parameters describe the entire medium, transport through heterogeneous media gives rise to breakthrough curves which have strong spatial dependence. These inherent characteristics of transport in heterogeneous medium present special challenge to the performance assessment of a potential high level nuclear waste repository with respect to the possible release of radio nuclides to the accessible environment. Since an inherently desirable site characteristic for a waste repository is that flow and transport should be slow, then transport measurements in site characterization efforts will necessarily be spatially small and temporally short compare to the scales which are of relevance to performance assessment predictions. In this paper we discuss the role of medium heterogeneity in site characterization and performance assessment. Our discussion will be based on a specific example of a 3D heterogeneous stochastic model of a site generally similar to, the Aespoe Island, the site of the Hard Rock Laboratory in Southern Sweden. For our study, alternative 3D stochastic fields of hydraulic conductivities conditioned on ''point'' measurements shall be generated. Results of stochastic flow and transport simulations would be used to address the issues of (1) the relationship of tracer breakthrough with the structure of heterogeneity, and (2) the inference from small scale testing results to large scale and long term predictions

Coarse Particulate Organic Matter: Storage, Transport, and Retention

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tiegs, Scott [Oakland University, Rochester, MI; Lamberti, Gary A. [University of Notre Dame, IN; Entrekin, Sally A. [University of Central Arkansas; Griffiths, Natalie A. [ORNL

2017-08-01

Coarse particulate organic matter, or CPOM, is a basal energy and nutrient resource in many stream ecosystems and is provided by inputs from the riparian zone, incoming tributaries, and to a lesser extent from in-stream production. The ability of a stream to retain CPOM or slow its transport is critical to its consumption and assimilation by stream biota. In this chapter, we describe basic exercises to measure (1) the amount of CPOM in the streambed and (2) the retention of CPOM from standardized particle releases. We further describe advanced exercises that (1) experimentally enhance the retentiveness of a stream reach and (2) measure organic carbon transport and turnover (i.e., spiraling) in the channel.

Coarse Particulate Organic Matter: Storage, Transport, and Retention

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tiegs, Scott [Oakland University, Rochester, MI; Lamberti, Gary A. [University of Notre Dame, IN; Entrekin, Sally A. [University of Central Arkansas; Griffiths, Natalie A. [ORNL

2017-06-01

Coarse particulate organic matter, or CPOM, is a basal energy and nutrient resource in many stream ecosystems and is provided by inputs from the riparian zone, incoming tributaries, and to a lesser extent from in-stream production. The ability of a stream to retain CPOM or slow its transport is critical to its consumption and assimilation by stream biota. In this chapter, we describe basic exercises to measure (1) the amount of CPOM in the streambed and (2) the retention of CPOM from standardized particle releases. We further describe advanced exercises that (1) experimentally enhance the retentiveness of a stream reach and (2) measure organic carbon transport and turnover (i.e., spiraling) in the channel.

Sierra toolkit computational mesh conceptual model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baur, David G.; Edwards, Harold Carter; Cochran, William K.; Williams, Alan B.; Sjaardema, Gregory D.

2010-01-01

The Sierra Toolkit computational mesh is a software library intended to support massively parallel multi-physics computations on dynamically changing unstructured meshes. This domain of intended use is inherently complex due to distributed memory parallelism, parallel scalability, heterogeneity of physics, heterogeneous discretization of an unstructured mesh, and runtime adaptation of the mesh. Management of this inherent complexity begins with a conceptual analysis and modeling of this domain of intended use; i.e., development of a domain model. The Sierra Toolkit computational mesh software library is designed and implemented based upon this domain model. Software developers using, maintaining, or extending the Sierra Toolkit computational mesh library must be familiar with the concepts/domain model presented in this report.

Coarse and fine sediment transportation patterns and causes downstream of the Three Gorges Dam

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Songzhe; Yang, Yunping; Zhang, Mingjin; Sun, Zhaohua; Zhu, Lingling; You, Xingying; Li, Kanyu

2017-11-01

Reservoir construction within a basin affects the process of water and sediment transport downstream of the dam. The Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR) affects the sediment transport downstream of the dam. The impoundment of the TGR reduced total downstream sediment. The sediment group d≤0.125 mm (fine particle) increased along the path, but the average was still below what existed before the reservoir impoundment. The sediments group d>0.125 mm (coarse particle) was recharged in the Yichang to Jianli reach, but showed a deposition trend downstream of Jianli. The coarse sediment in the Yichang to Jianli section in 2003 to 2007 was above the value before the TGR impoundment. However, the increase of both coarse and fine sediments in 2008 to 2014 was less than that in 2003 to 2007. The sediment retained in the dam is the major reason for the sediment reduction downstream. However, the retention in different river reaches is affected by riverbed coarsening, discharge, flow process, and conditions of lake functioning and recharging from the tributaries. The main conclusions derived from our study are as follows: 1) The riverbed in the Yichang to Shashi section was relatively coarse, thereby limiting the supply of fine and coarse sediments. The fine sediment supply was mainly controlled by TGR discharge, whereas the coarse sediment supply was controlled by the duration of high flow and its magnitude. 2) The supply of both coarse and fine sediments in the Shashi to Jianli section was controlled by the amount of total discharge. The sediment supply from the riverbed was higher in flood years than that in the dry years. The coarse sediment tended to deposit, and the deposition in the dry years was larger than that in the flood years. 3) The feeding of the fine sediment in the Luoshan to Hankou section was mainly from the riverbed. The supply in 2008 to 2014 was more than that in 2003 to 2007. Around 2010, the coarse sediments transited from depositing to scouring that was

Simulation of geothermal water extraction in heterogeneous reservoirs using dynamic unstructured mesh optimisation

Science.gov (United States)

Salinas, P.; Pavlidis, D.; Jacquemyn, C.; Lei, Q.; Xie, Z.; Pain, C.; Jackson, M.

2017-12-01

It is well known that the pressure gradient into a production well increases with decreasing distance to the well. To properly capture the local pressure drawdown into the well a high grid or mesh resolution is required; moreover, the location of the well must be captured accurately. In conventional simulation models, the user must interact with the model to modify grid resolution around wells of interest, and the well location is approximated on a grid defined early in the modelling process.We report a new approach for improved simulation of near wellbore flow in reservoir scale models through the use of dynamic mesh optimisation and the recently presented double control volume finite element method. Time is discretized using an adaptive, implicit approach. Heterogeneous geologic features are represented as volumes bounded by surfaces. Within these volumes, termed geologic domains, the material properties are constant. Up-, cross- or down-scaling of material properties during dynamic mesh optimization is not required, as the properties are uniform within each geologic domain. A given model typically contains numerous such geologic domains. Wells are implicitly coupled with the domain, and the fluid flows is modelled inside the wells. The method is novel for two reasons. First, a fully unstructured tetrahedral mesh is used to discretize space, and the spatial location of the well is specified via a line vector, ensuring its location even if the mesh is modified during the simulation. The well location is therefore accurately captured, the approach allows complex well trajectories and wells with many laterals to be modelled. Second, computational efficiency is increased by use of dynamic mesh optimization, in which an unstructured mesh adapts in space and time to key solution fields (preserving the geometry of the geologic domains), such as pressure, velocity or temperature, this also increases the quality of the solutions by placing higher resolution where required

Radiation transport code with adaptive Mesh Refinement: acceleration techniques and applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Velarde, Pedro; Garcia-Fernaandez, Carlos; Portillo, David; Barbas, Alfonso

2011-01-01

We present a study of acceleration techniques for solving Sn radiation transport equations with Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR). Both DSA and TSA are considered, taking into account the influence of the interaction between different levels of the mesh structure and the order of approximation in angle. A Hybrid method is proposed in order to obtain better convergence rate and lower computer times. Some examples are presented relevant to ICF and X ray secondary sources. (author)

Parallel Implementation and Scaling of an Adaptive Mesh Discrete Ordinates Algorithm for Transport

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Howell, L H

2004-01-01

Block-structured adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) uses a mesh structure built up out of locally-uniform rectangular grids. In the BoxLib parallel framework used by the Raptor code, each processor operates on one or more of these grids at each refinement level. The decomposition of the mesh into grids and the distribution of these grids among processors may change every few timesteps as a calculation proceeds. Finer grids use smaller timesteps than coarser grids, requiring additional work to keep the system synchronized and ensure conservation between different refinement levels. In a paper for NECDC 2002 I presented preliminary results on implementation of parallel transport sweeps on the AMR mesh, conjugate gradient acceleration, accuracy of the AMR solution, and scalar speedup of the AMR algorithm compared to a uniform fully-refined mesh. This paper continues with a more in-depth examination of the parallel scaling properties of the scheme, both in single-level and multi-level calculations. Both sweeping and setup costs are considered. The algorithm scales with acceptable performance to several hundred processors. Trends suggest, however, that this is the limit for efficient calculations with traditional transport sweeps, and that modifications to the sweep algorithm will be increasingly needed as job sizes in the thousands of processors become common

Development of a New core/reflector model for coarse-mesh nodal methods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pogosbekyan, Leonid; Cho, Jin Young; Kim, Young Il; Kim, Young Jin; Joo, Hyung Kuk; Chang, Moon Hee.

1997-10-01

This work presents two approaches for reflector simulation in coarse-mesh nodal methods. The first approach is called Interface Matrix Technique (IMT), which simulates the baffle as a banishingly thin layer having the property of reflection and transmission. We applied this technique within the frame of AFEN (Analytic Function Expansion Nodal) method, and developed the AFEN-IM (Interface Matrix) method. AFEN-IM method shows 1.24% and 0.42 % in maximum and RMS (Root Mean Square) assemblywise power error for ZION-1 benchmark problem. The second approach is L-shaped reflector homogenization method. This method is based on the integral response conservation along the L-shaped core-reflector interface. The reference reflector response is calculated from 2-dimensional spectral calculation and the response of the homogenized reflector is derived from the one-node 2-dimensional AFEN problem solution. This method shows 5 times better accuracy than the 1-dimensional homogenization technique in the assemblywise power. Also, the concept of shroud/reflector homogenization for hexagonal core have been developed. The 1-dimensional spectral calculation was used for the determination of 2 group cross sections. The essence of homogenization concept consists in the calculation of equivalent shroud width, which preserve albedo for the fast neutrons in 2-dimensional reflector. This method shows a relative error less than 0.42% in assemblywise power and a difference of 9x10 -5 in multiplication factor for full-core model. (author). 9 refs., 3 tabs., 28 figs

Heterogeneity effects in neutron transport computations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gelbard, E.M.

1975-01-01

A nuclear reactor is, generally, an intricate heterogeneous structure whose adjacent components may differ radically in their neutronic properties. The heterogeneities in the structure of the reactor complicate the work of the reactor analyst and tend to degrade the efficiency of the numerical methods used in reactor computations. Two types of heterogeneity effects are considered. First, certain singularities in the solution of the neutron transport equation, induced by heterogeneities, are briefly described. Second, the effect of heterogeneities on neutron leakage rates, and consequently on effective diffusion coefficients, are discussed. (5 figures) (U.S.)

Nonlinear multigrid solvers exploiting AMGe coarse spaces with approximation properties

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christensen, Max la Cour; Vassilevski, Panayot S.; Villa, Umberto

2017-01-01

discretizations on general unstructured grids for a large class of nonlinear partial differential equations, including saddle point problems. The approximation properties of the coarse spaces ensure that our FAS approach for general unstructured meshes leads to optimal mesh-independent convergence rates similar...... to those achieved by geometric FAS on a nested hierarchy of refined meshes. In the numerical results, Newton’s method and Picard iterations with state-of-the-art inner linear solvers are compared to our FAS algorithm for the solution of a nonlinear saddle point problem arising from porous media flow...

Performance, Accuracy and Efficiency Evaluation of a Three-Dimensional Whole-Core Neutron Transport Code AGENT

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jevremovic, Tatjana; Hursin, Mathieu; Satvat, Nader; Hopkins, John; Xiao, Shanjie; Gert, Godfree

2006-01-01

The AGENT (Arbitrary Geometry Neutron Transport) an open-architecture reactor modeling tool is deterministic neutron transport code for two or three-dimensional heterogeneous neutronic design and analysis of the whole reactor cores regardless of geometry types and material configurations. The AGENT neutron transport methodology is applicable to all generations of nuclear power and research reactors. It combines three theories: (1) the theory of R-functions used to generate real three-dimensional whole-cores of square, hexagonal or triangular cross sections, (2) the planar method of characteristics used to solve isotropic neutron transport in non-homogenized 2D) reactor slices, and (3) the one-dimensional diffusion theory used to couple the planar and axial neutron tracks through the transverse leakage and angular mesh-wise flux values. The R-function-geometrical module allows a sequential building of the layers of geometry and automatic sub-meshing based on the network of domain functions. The simplicity of geometry description and selection of parameters for accurate treatment of neutron propagation is achieved through the Boolean algebraic hierarchically organized simple primitives into complex domains (both being represented with corresponding domain functions). The accuracy is comparable to Monte Carlo codes and is obtained by following neutron propagation through real geometrical domains that does not require homogenization or simplifications. The efficiency is maintained through a set of acceleration techniques introduced at all important calculation levels. The flux solution incorporates power iteration with two different acceleration techniques: Coarse Mesh Re-balancing (CMR) and Coarse Mesh Finite Difference (CMFD). The stand-alone originally developed graphical user interface of the AGENT code design environment allows the user to view and verify input data by displaying the geometry and material distribution. The user can also view the output data such

Hybrid continuum-coarse-grained modeling of erythrocytes

Science.gov (United States)

Lyu, Jinming; Chen, Paul G.; Boedec, Gwenn; Leonetti, Marc; Jaeger, Marc

2018-06-01

The red blood cell (RBC) membrane is a composite structure, consisting of a phospholipid bilayer and an underlying membrane-associated cytoskeleton. Both continuum and particle-based coarse-grained RBC models make use of a set of vertices connected by edges to represent the RBC membrane, which can be seen as a triangular surface mesh for the former and a spring network for the latter. Here, we present a modeling approach combining an existing continuum vesicle model with a coarse-grained model for the cytoskeleton. Compared to other two-component approaches, our method relies on only one mesh, representing the cytoskeleton, whose velocity in the tangential direction of the membrane may be different from that of the lipid bilayer. The finitely extensible nonlinear elastic (FENE) spring force law in combination with a repulsive force defined as a power function (POW), called FENE-POW, is used to describe the elastic properties of the RBC membrane. The mechanical interaction between the lipid bilayer and the cytoskeleton is explicitly computed and incorporated into the vesicle model. Our model includes the fundamental mechanical properties of the RBC membrane, namely fluidity and bending rigidity of the lipid bilayer, and shear elasticity of the cytoskeleton while maintaining surface-area and volume conservation constraint. We present three simulation examples to demonstrate the effectiveness of this hybrid continuum-coarse-grained model for the study of RBCs in fluid flows.

LOO: a low-order nonlinear transport scheme for acceleration of method of characteristics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li, Lulu; Smith, Kord; Forget, Benoit; Ferrer, Rodolfo

2015-01-01

This paper presents a new physics-based multi-grid nonlinear acceleration method: the low-order operator method, or LOO. LOO uses a coarse space-angle multi-group method of characteristics (MOC) neutron transport calculation to accelerate the fine space-angle MOC calculation. LOO is designed to capture more angular effects than diffusion-based acceleration methods through a transport-based low-order solver. LOO differs from existing transport-based acceleration schemes in that it emphasizes simplified coarse space-angle characteristics and preserves physics in quadrant phase-space. The details of the method, including the restriction step, the low-order iterative solver and the prolongation step are discussed in this work. LOO shows comparable convergence behavior to coarse mesh finite difference on several two-dimensional benchmark problems while not requiring any under-relaxation, making it a robust acceleration scheme. (author)

MUSIC: a mesh-unrestricted simulation code

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bonalumi, R.A.; Rouben, B.; Dastur, A.R.; Dondale, C.S.; Li, H.Y.H.

1978-01-01

A general formalism to solve the G-group neutron diffusion equation is described. The G-group flux is represented by complementing an ''asymptotic'' mode with (G-1) ''transient'' modes. A particular reduction-to-one-group technique gives a high computational efficiency. MUSIC, a 2-group code using the above formalism, is presented. MUSIC is demonstrated on a fine-mesh calculation and on 2 coarse-mesh core calculations: a heavy-water reactor (HWR) problem and the 2-D lightwater reactor (LWR) IAEA benchmark. Comparison is made to finite-difference results

Spectral nodal methodology for multigroup slab-geometry discrete ordinates neutron transport problems with linearly anisotropic scattering

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Oliva, Amaury M.; Filho, Hermes A.; Silva, Davi M.; Garcia, Carlos R., E-mail: aoliva@iprj.uerj.br, E-mail: halves@iprj.uerj.br, E-mail: davijmsilva@yahoo.com.br, E-mail: cgh@instec.cu [Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), Nova Friburgo, RJ (Brazil). Instituto Politecnico. Departamento de Modelagem Computacional; Instituto Superior de Tecnologias y Ciencias Aplicadas (InSTEC), La Habana (Cuba)

2017-07-01

In this paper, we propose a numerical methodology for the development of a method of the spectral nodal class that will generate numerical solutions free from spatial truncation errors. This method, denominated Spectral Deterministic Method (SDM), is tested as an initial study of the solutions (spectral analysis) of neutron transport equations in the discrete ordinates (S{sub N}) formulation, in one-dimensional slab geometry, multigroup approximation, with linearly anisotropic scattering, considering homogeneous and heterogeneous domains with fixed source. The unknowns in the methodology are the cell-edge, and cell average angular fluxes, the numerical values calculated for these quantities coincide with the analytic solution of the equations. These numerical results are shown and compared with the traditional ne- mesh method Diamond Difference (DD) and the coarse-mesh method spectral Green's function (SGF) to illustrate the method's accuracy and stability. The solution algorithms problems are implemented in a computer simulator made in C++ language, the same that was used to generate the results of the reference work. (author)

Convergence study of global meshing on enamel-cement-bracket finite element model

Science.gov (United States)

Samshuri, S. F.; Daud, R.; Rojan, M. A.; Basaruddin, K. S.; Abdullah, A. B.; Ariffin, A. K.

2017-09-01

This paper presents on meshing convergence analysis of finite element (FE) model to simulate enamel-cement-bracket fracture. Three different materials used in this study involving interface fracture are concerned. Complex behavior ofinterface fracture due to stress concentration is the reason to have a well-constructed meshing strategy. In FE analysis, meshing size is a critical factor that influenced the accuracy and computational time of analysis. The convergence study meshing scheme involving critical area (CA) and non-critical area (NCA) to ensure an optimum meshing sizes are acquired for this FE model. For NCA meshing, the area of interest are at the back of enamel, bracket ligature groove and bracket wing. For CA meshing, area of interest are enamel area close to cement layer, the cement layer and bracket base. The value of constant NCA meshing tested are meshing size 1 and 0.4. The value constant CA meshing tested are 0.4 and 0.1. Manipulative variables are randomly selected and must abide the rule of NCA must be higher than CA. This study employed first principle stresses due to brittle failure nature of the materials used. Best meshing size are selected according to convergence error analysis. Results show that, constant CA are more stable compare to constant NCA meshing. Then, 0.05 constant CA meshing are tested to test the accuracy of smaller meshing. However, unpromising result obtained as the errors are increasing. Thus, constant CA 0.1 with NCA mesh of 0.15 until 0.3 are the most stable meshing as the error in this region are lowest. Convergence test was conducted on three selected coarse, medium and fine meshes at the range of NCA mesh of 0.15 until 3 and CA mesh area stay constant at 0.1. The result shows that, at coarse mesh 0.3, the error are 0.0003% compare to 3% acceptable error. Hence, the global meshing are converge as the meshing size at CA 0.1 and NCA 0.15 for this model.

NeuroTessMesh: A Tool for the Generation and Visualization of Neuron Meshes and Adaptive On-the-Fly Refinement

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Juan J. Garcia-Cantero

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Gaining a better understanding of the human brain continues to be one of the greatest challenges for science, largely because of the overwhelming complexity of the brain and the difficulty of analyzing the features and behavior of dense neural networks. Regarding analysis, 3D visualization has proven to be a useful tool for the evaluation of complex systems. However, the large number of neurons in non-trivial circuits, together with their intricate geometry, makes the visualization of a neuronal scenario an extremely challenging computational problem. Previous work in this area dealt with the generation of 3D polygonal meshes that approximated the cells’ overall anatomy but did not attempt to deal with the extremely high storage and computational cost required to manage a complex scene. This paper presents NeuroTessMesh, a tool specifically designed to cope with many of the problems associated with the visualization of neural circuits that are comprised of large numbers of cells. In addition, this method facilitates the recovery and visualization of the 3D geometry of cells included in databases, such as NeuroMorpho, and provides the tools needed to approximate missing information such as the soma’s morphology. This method takes as its only input the available compact, yet incomplete, morphological tracings of the cells as acquired by neuroscientists. It uses a multiresolution approach that combines an initial, coarse mesh generation with subsequent on-the-fly adaptive mesh refinement stages using tessellation shaders. For the coarse mesh generation, a novel approach, based on the Finite Element Method, allows approximation of the 3D shape of the soma from its incomplete description. Subsequently, the adaptive refinement process performed in the graphic card generates meshes that provide good visual quality geometries at a reasonable computational cost, both in terms of memory and rendering time. All the described techniques have been

Some efficient Lagrangian mesh finite elements encoded in ZEPHYR for two dimensional transport calculations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mordant, Maurice.

1981-04-01

To solve a multigroup stationary neutron transport equation in two-dimensional geometries (X-Y), (R-O) or (R-Z) generally on uses discrete ordinates and rectangular meshes. The way to do it is then well known, well documented and somewhat obvious. If one needs to treat awkward geometries or distorted meshes, things are not so easy and the way to do it is no longer straightforward. We have studied this problem at Limeil Nuclear Center and as an alternative to Monte Carlo methods and code we have implemented in ZEPHYR code at least two efficient finite element solutions for Lagrangian meshes involving any kind of triangles and quadrilaterals

Enhancements to the Combinatorial Geometry Particle Tracker in the Mercury Monte Carlo Transport Code: Embedded Meshes and Domain Decomposition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Greenman, G.M.; O'Brien, M.J.; Procassini, R.J.; Joy, K.I.

2009-01-01

Two enhancements to the combinatorial geometry (CG) particle tracker in the Mercury Monte Carlo transport code are presented. The first enhancement is a hybrid particle tracker wherein a mesh region is embedded within a CG region. This method permits efficient calculations of problems with contain both large-scale heterogeneous and homogeneous regions. The second enhancement relates to the addition of parallelism within the CG tracker via spatial domain decomposition. This permits calculations of problems with a large degree of geometric complexity, which are not possible through particle parallelism alone. In this method, the cells are decomposed across processors and a particles is communicated to an adjacent processor when it tracks to an interprocessor boundary. Applications that demonstrate the efficacy of these new methods are presented

Nodal methods for problems in fluid mechanics and neutron transport

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Azmy, Y.Y.

1985-01-01

A new high-accuracy, coarse-mesh, nodal integral approach is developed for the efficient numerical solution of linear partial differential equations. It is shown that various special cases of this general nodal integral approach correspond to several high efficiency nodal methods developed recently for the numerical solution of neutron diffusion and neutron transport problems. The new approach is extended to the nonlinear Navier-Stokes equations of fluid mechanics; its extension to these equations leads to a new computational method, the nodal integral method which is implemented for the numerical solution of these equations. Application to several test problems demonstrates the superior computational efficiency of this new method over previously developed methods. The solutions obtained for several driven cavity problems are compared with the available experimental data and are shown to be in very good agreement with experiment. Additional comparisons also show that the coarse-mesh, nodal integral method results agree very well with the results of definitive ultra-fine-mesh, finite-difference calculations for the driven cavity problem up to fairly high Reynolds numbers

SIMMER-III parametric studies of fuel-steel mixing and radial mesh effects on power excursion in ESFR ULOF transients - 15033

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen, X.N.; Rineiski, A.; Gabrielli, F.; Andriolo, L.; Li, R.; Maschek, W.

2015-01-01

This paper deals with SIMMER-III once-through simulations of the first power excursion initiated by an unprotected loss of flow (ULOF) in the Working Horse design of the European Sodium Cooled Fast Reactor (ESFR). Since the sodium void effect is strictly positive in this core and dominant in the transient, a power excursion is initiated by sodium boiling in the ULOF case. Two major effects, namely (1) reactivity effects due to fuel-steel mixing after melting and (2) the radial mesh size, which were not considered initially in SIMMER simulations for ESFR, are studied. The first effect concerns the reactivity difference between the heterogeneous fuel/clad/wrapper configuration and the homogeneous mixture of steel and fuel. The full core homogenization (due to melting) effect is ∼ 2 dollars, though a smaller effect takes place in case of partial core melting. The second effect is due to the SIMMER sub-assembly coarse mesh treatment, where a simultaneous sodium boiling onset in all sub-assemblies belonging to one ring leads to an overestimated reactivity ramp. For investigating the influence of fuel/steel mixing effects, a lumped 'homogenization' reactivity feedback has been introduced, being proportional to the molten steel mass. For improving the coarse mesh treatment, we employ finer radial meshes to take the subchannel effects into account, where the side and interior channels have different coolant velocities and temperatures. The simulation results show that these two effects have significant impacts on the first power excursion after the sodium boiling: both effects delay the power excursion and significantly reduce the height of the power peaks in case of a ULOF

Grid adaptation using chimera composite overlapping meshes

Science.gov (United States)

Kao, Kai-Hsiung; Liou, Meng-Sing; Chow, Chuen-Yen

1994-01-01

The objective of this paper is to perform grid adaptation using composite overlapping meshes in regions of large gradient to accurately capture the salient features during computation. The chimera grid scheme, a multiple overset mesh technique, is used in combination with a Navier-Stokes solver. The numerical solution is first converged to a steady state based on an initial coarse mesh. Solution-adaptive enhancement is then performed by using a secondary fine grid system which oversets on top of the base grid in the high-gradient region, but without requiring the mesh boundaries to join in any special way. Communications through boundary interfaces between those separated grids are carried out using trilinear interpolation. Application to the Euler equations for shock reflections and to shock wave/boundary layer interaction problem are tested. With the present method, the salient features are well-resolved.

An expert system for automatic mesh generation for Sn particle transport simulation in parallel environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Apisit, Patchimpattapong; Alireza, Haghighat; Shedlock, D.

2003-01-01

An expert system for generating an effective mesh distribution for the SN particle transport simulation has been developed. This expert system consists of two main parts: 1) an algorithm for generating an effective mesh distribution in a serial environment, and 2) an algorithm for inference of an effective domain decomposition strategy for parallel computing. For the first part, the algorithm prepares an effective mesh distribution considering problem physics and the spatial differencing scheme. For the second part, the algorithm determines a parallel-performance-index (PPI), which is defined as the ratio of the granularity to the degree-of-coupling. The parallel-performance-index provides expected performance of an algorithm depending on computing environment and resources. A large index indicates a high granularity algorithm with relatively low coupling among processors. This expert system has been successfully tested within the PENTRAN (Parallel Environment Neutral-Particle Transport) code system for simulating real-life shielding problems. (authors)

An expert system for automatic mesh generation for Sn particle transport simulation in parallel environment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Apisit, Patchimpattapong [Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, Office of Corporate Planning, Bangkruai, Nonthaburi (Thailand); Alireza, Haghighat; Shedlock, D. [Florida Univ., Department of Nuclear and Radiological Engineering, Gainesville, FL (United States)

2003-07-01

An expert system for generating an effective mesh distribution for the SN particle transport simulation has been developed. This expert system consists of two main parts: 1) an algorithm for generating an effective mesh distribution in a serial environment, and 2) an algorithm for inference of an effective domain decomposition strategy for parallel computing. For the first part, the algorithm prepares an effective mesh distribution considering problem physics and the spatial differencing scheme. For the second part, the algorithm determines a parallel-performance-index (PPI), which is defined as the ratio of the granularity to the degree-of-coupling. The parallel-performance-index provides expected performance of an algorithm depending on computing environment and resources. A large index indicates a high granularity algorithm with relatively low coupling among processors. This expert system has been successfully tested within the PENTRAN (Parallel Environment Neutral-Particle Transport) code system for simulating real-life shielding problems. (authors)

Isotropic 2D quadrangle meshing with size and orientation control

KAUST Repository

Pellenard, Bertrand

2011-12-01

We propose an approach for automatically generating isotropic 2D quadrangle meshes from arbitrary domains with a fine control over sizing and orientation of the elements. At the heart of our algorithm is an optimization procedure that, from a coarse initial tiling of the 2D domain, enforces each of the desirable mesh quality criteria (size, shape, orientation, degree, regularity) one at a time, in an order designed not to undo previous enhancements. Our experiments demonstrate how well our resulting quadrangle meshes conform to a wide range of input sizing and orientation fields.

Hybrid diffusion–transport spatial homogenization method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kooreman, Gabriel; Rahnema, Farzad

2014-01-01

Highlights: • A new hybrid diffusion–transport homogenization method. • An extension of the consistent spatial homogenization (CSH) transport method. • Auxiliary cross section makes homogenized diffusion consistent with heterogeneous diffusion. • An on-the-fly re-homogenization in transport. • The method is faster than fine-mesh transport by 6–8 times. - Abstract: A new hybrid diffusion–transport homogenization method has been developed by extending the consistent spatial homogenization (CSH) transport method to include diffusion theory. As in the CSH method, an “auxiliary cross section” term is introduced into the source term, making the resulting homogenized diffusion equation consistent with its heterogeneous counterpart. The method then utilizes an on-the-fly re-homogenization in transport theory at the assembly level in order to correct for core environment effects on the homogenized cross sections and the auxiliary cross section. The method has been derived in general geometry and tested in a 1-D boiling water reactor (BWR) core benchmark problem for both controlled and uncontrolled configurations. The method has been shown to converge to the reference solution with less than 1.7% average flux error in less than one third the computational time as the CSH method – 6 to 8 times faster than fine-mesh transport

Grid adaption using Chimera composite overlapping meshes

Science.gov (United States)

Kao, Kai-Hsiung; Liou, Meng-Sing; Chow, Chuen-Yen

1993-01-01

The objective of this paper is to perform grid adaptation using composite over-lapping meshes in regions of large gradient to capture the salient features accurately during computation. The Chimera grid scheme, a multiple overset mesh technique, is used in combination with a Navier-Stokes solver. The numerical solution is first converged to a steady state based on an initial coarse mesh. Solution-adaptive enhancement is then performed by using a secondary fine grid system which oversets on top of the base grid in the high-gradient region, but without requiring the mesh boundaries to join in any special way. Communications through boundary interfaces between those separated grids are carried out using tri-linear interpolation. Applications to the Euler equations for shock reflections and to a shock wave/boundary layer interaction problem are tested. With the present method, the salient features are well resolved.

Coupling of neutron transport equations. First results; Couplage d`equations en transport neutronique. premiere approche 1D monocinetique

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bal, G.

1995-07-01

To achieve whole core calculations of the neutron transport equation, we have to follow this 2 step method: space and energy homogenization of the assemblies; resolution of the homogenized equation on the whole core. However, this is no more valid when accidents occur (for instance depressurization causing locally strong heterogeneous media). One solution consists then in coupling two kinds of resolutions: a fine computation on the damaged cell (fine mesh, high number of energy groups) coupled with a coarse one everywhere else. We only deal here with steady state solutions (which already live in 6D spaces). We present here two such methods: The coupling by transmission of homogenized sections and the coupling by transmission of boundary conditions. To understand what this coupling is, we first restrict ourselves to 1D with respect to space in one energy group. The first two chapters deal with a recall of basic properties of the neutron transport equation. We give at chapter 3 some indications of the behaviour of the flux with respect to the cross sections. We present at chapter 4 some couplings and give some properties. Chapter 5 is devoted to a presentation of some numerical applications. (author). 9 refs., 7 figs.

Coarse-grained Simulations of Sugar Transport and Conformational Changes of Lactose Permease

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Jin; Jewel, S. M. Yead; Dutta, Prashanta

2016-11-01

Escherichia coli lactose permease (LacY) actively transports lactose and other galactosides across cell membranes through lactose/H+ symport process. Lactose/H+ symport is a highly complex process that involves sugar translocation, H+ transfer, as well as large-scale protein conformational changes. The complete picture of lactose/H+ symport is largely unclear due to the complexity and multiscale nature of the process. In this work, we develop the force field for sugar molecules compatible with PACE, a hybrid and coarse-grained force field that couples the united-atom protein models with the coarse-grained MARTINI water/lipid. After validation, we implement the new force field to investigate the transport of a β-D-galactopyranosyl-1-thio- β-D-galactopyranoside (TDG) molecule across a wild-type LacY during lactose/H+ symport process. Results show that the local interactions between TDG and LacY at the binding pocket are consistent with the X-ray experiment. Protonation of Glu325 stabilizes the TDG and inward-facing conformation of LacY. Protonation of Glu269 induces a dramatic protein structural reorganization and causes the expulsion of TDG from LacY to both sides of the membrane. The structural changes occur primarily in the N-terminal domain of LacY. This work is supported by NSF Grants: CBET-1250107 and CBET -1604211.

Homogenization technique for strongly heterogeneous zones in research reactors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, J.T.; Lee, B.H.; Cho, N.Z.; Oh, S.K.

1991-01-01

This paper reports on an iterative homogenization method using transport theory in a one-dimensional cylindrical cell model developed to improve the homogenized cross sections fro strongly heterogeneous zones in research reactors. The flux-weighting homogenized cross sections are modified by a correction factor, the cell flux ratio under an albedo boundary condition. The albedo at the cell boundary is iteratively determined to reflect the geometry effects of the material properties of the adjacent cells. This method has been tested with a simplified core model of the Korea Multipurpose Research Reactor. The results demonstrate that the reaction rates of an off-center control shroud cell, the multiplication factor, and the power distribution of the reactor core are close to those of the fine-mesh heterogeneous transport model

TLC scheme for numerical solution of the transport equation on equilateral triangular meshes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Walters, W.F.

1983-01-01

A new triangular linear characteristic TLC scheme for numerically solving the transport equation on equilateral triangular meshes has been developed. This scheme uses the analytic solution of the transport equation in the triangle as its basis. The data on edges of the triangle are assumed linear as is the source representation. A characteristic approach or nodal approach is used to obtain the analytic solution. Test problems indicate that the new TLC is superior to the widely used DITRI scheme for accuracy

Isotropic 2D quadrangle meshing with size and orientation control

KAUST Repository

Pellenard, Bertrand; Alliez, Pierre; Morvan, Jean-Marie

2011-01-01

We propose an approach for automatically generating isotropic 2D quadrangle meshes from arbitrary domains with a fine control over sizing and orientation of the elements. At the heart of our algorithm is an optimization procedure that, from a coarse

HEXNOD23, 2-D, 3-D Coarse Mesh Solution of Steady State Diffusion Equation in Hexagonal Geometry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Grundmann, Ulrich

1986-01-01

1 - Description of program or function: Two- or three dimensional coarse mesh solution of steady state two group neutron diffusion equation in arrays of regular hexagons or hexagonal subassemblies. 2 - Method of solution: The neutron flux in a hexagonal node is expanded in a series of Bessel functions in the hexagonal plane. Polynomials up to the 4. order are used for the approximation of neutron flux in axial direction of three dimensional cases. Resulting relations between node averaged fluxes and mean partial currents of node faces in connection with the neutron balance of nodes are used to calculate the eigenvalue Keff, mean fluxes and mean powers of nodes. The iterations process is divided into inner and outer iterations. The iterations are accelerated by Ljusternik and Tschebyscheff extrapolation schemes. The power densities in the nodes and subassembly powers are computed for given reactor power in three dimensional cases. 30 degree reflectional, 60 and 120 degree rotational core symmetry and the whole core can be treated. 3 - Restrictions on the complexity of the problem: If the problem size designated by LIAR and LRAR exceeds 3000 and 50000 respectively, the lengths of the working array MIAR and MRAR in the main program can be increased. External sources are not permitted

A posteriori estimator and adaptive mesh refinement for finite volume finite element method for monophasic flow and solute transport in porous media

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Amor, H.; Bourgeois, M.

2012-01-01

using an adaptive mesh refinement strategy was introduced in MELODIE for the simulation of groundwater flow and solute transport in saturated porous media in 2 dimensions. The selected estimator, based on the explicit residual error, is expected to allow local refinements and thus minimization of the discretization error at an optimal computational cost. Test case: a realistic heterogeneous case with fracturing. In addition to theoretical test cases a more complex case was tested. The purpose of this test case was twofold: - to move from pure theoretical work to an illustrative case within a realistic generic context; however parameter values for hydrodynamic characteristics were chosen so as to highlight the investigated phenomena; - to account for large time and space scales, representative for those required for the simulation of radioactive waste repositories. The general shape of the geological media was designed to cover main features representative of sedimentary formations. Three distinct radionuclide source locations were chosen in order to obtain a set of flow and transport configurations. The entire layer sequence was structured into three hydrogeological units intersected by three sub-vertical faults. The vertical 2D cross-section dimensions are 5 km long by 500 m thick. Two source terms are located in a 100 m-thick layer in the right part of the domain and another one is located in a larger layer in the left part. These two 'host rock' layers consist of the same sedimentary unit with a low permeability, though an offset due to the middle fault. Faults are considered as conductive features. Radionuclides are assumed to be instantaneously released from the three source term locations at t = 0. The a posteriori error estimator and the adaptive mesh algorithm were applied to this heterogeneous problem. Preliminary calculations showed that the implemented a posteriori error estimator method is efficient to solve the equations of flow and advective

Multiscale Simulations for Coupled Flow and Transport Using the Generalized Multiscale Finite Element Method

KAUST Repository

Chung, Eric; Efendiev, Yalchin R.; Leung, Wing; Ren, Jun

2015-01-01

In this paper, we develop a mass conservative multiscale method for coupled flow and transport in heterogeneous porous media. We consider a coupled system consisting of a convection-dominated transport equation and a flow equation. We construct a coarse grid solver based on the Generalized Multiscale Finite Element Method (GMsFEM) for a coupled system. In particular, multiscale basis functions are constructed based on some snapshot spaces for the pressure and the concentration equations and some local spectral decompositions in the snapshot spaces. The resulting approach uses a few multiscale basis functions in each coarse block (for both the pressure and the concentration) to solve the coupled system. We use the mixed framework, which allows mass conservation. Our main contributions are: (1) the development of a mass conservative GMsFEM for the coupled flow and transport; (2) the development of a robust multiscale method for convection-dominated transport problems by choosing appropriate test and trial spaces within Petrov-Galerkin mixed formulation. We present numerical results and consider several heterogeneous permeability fields. Our numerical results show that with only a few basis functions per coarse block, we can achieve a good approximation.

Multiscale Simulations for Coupled Flow and Transport Using the Generalized Multiscale Finite Element Method

KAUST Repository

Chung, Eric

2015-12-11

In this paper, we develop a mass conservative multiscale method for coupled flow and transport in heterogeneous porous media. We consider a coupled system consisting of a convection-dominated transport equation and a flow equation. We construct a coarse grid solver based on the Generalized Multiscale Finite Element Method (GMsFEM) for a coupled system. In particular, multiscale basis functions are constructed based on some snapshot spaces for the pressure and the concentration equations and some local spectral decompositions in the snapshot spaces. The resulting approach uses a few multiscale basis functions in each coarse block (for both the pressure and the concentration) to solve the coupled system. We use the mixed framework, which allows mass conservation. Our main contributions are: (1) the development of a mass conservative GMsFEM for the coupled flow and transport; (2) the development of a robust multiscale method for convection-dominated transport problems by choosing appropriate test and trial spaces within Petrov-Galerkin mixed formulation. We present numerical results and consider several heterogeneous permeability fields. Our numerical results show that with only a few basis functions per coarse block, we can achieve a good approximation.

BOT3P5.2, 3D Mesh Generator and Graphical Display of Geometry for Radiation Transport Codes, Display of Results

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Orsi, Roberto; Bidaud, Adrien

2007-01-01

1 - Description of program or function: BOT3P was originally conceived as a set of standard FORTRAN 77 language programs in order to give the users of the DORT and TORT deterministic transport codes some useful diagnostic tools to prepare and check their input data files. Later versions extended the possibility to produce the geometrical, material distribution and fixed neutron source data to other deterministic transport codes such as TWODANT/THREEDANT of the DANTSYS system, PARTISN and, potentially, to any transport code through BOT3P binary output files that can be easily interfaced (see, for example, the Russian two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) discrete ordinates neutron, photon and charged particle transport codes KASKAD-S-2.5 and KATRIN-2.0). As from Version 5.1 BOT3P contained important additions specifically addressed to radiation transport analysis for medical applications. BOT3P-5.2 contains new graphics capabilities. Some of them enable users to select space sub-domains of the total mesh grid in order to improve the zoom simulation of the geometry, both in 2D cuts and in 3D. Moreover the new BOT3P module (PDTM) may improve the interface of BOT3P geometrical models to transport analysis codes. The following programs are included in the BOT3P software package: GGDM, DDM, GGTM, DTM2, DTM3, RVARSCL, COMPARE, MKSRC, CATSM, DTET, and PDTM. The main features of these different programs are described. 2 - Methods: GGDM and GGTM work similarly from the logical point of view. Since the 3D case is more general, the following description refers to GGTM. All the co-ordinate values that characterise the geometrical scheme at the basis of the 3D transport code geometrical and material model are read, sorted and all stored if different from the neighbouring ones more than an input tolerance established by the user. These co-ordinates are always present in the fine-mesh boundary arrays independently of the mesh grid refinement options, because they

GENERATION OF IRREGULAR HEXAGONAL MESHES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vlasov Aleksandr Nikolaevich

2012-07-01

Decomposition is performed in a constructive way and, as option, it involves meshless representation. Further, this mapping method is used to generate the calculation mesh. In this paper, the authors analyze different cases of mapping onto simply connected and bi-connected canonical domains. They represent forward and backward mapping techniques. Their potential application for generation of nonuniform meshes within the framework of the asymptotic homogenization theory is also performed to assess and project effective characteristics of heterogeneous materials (composites.

Texturing of continuous LOD meshes with the hierarchical texture atlas

Science.gov (United States)

Birkholz, Hermann

2006-02-01

For the rendering of detailed virtual environments, trade-offs have to be made between image quality and rendering time. An immersive experience of virtual reality always demands high frame-rates with the best reachable image qual-ity. Continuous Level of Detail (cLoD) triangle-meshes provide an continuous spectrum of detail for a triangle mesh that can be used to create view-dependent approximations of the environment in real-time. This enables the rendering with a constant number of triangles and thus with constant frame-rates. Normally the construction of such cLoD mesh representations leads to the loss of all texture information of the original mesh. To overcome this problem, a parameter domain can be created, in order to map the surface properties (colour, texture, normal) to it. This parameter domain can be used to map the surface properties back to arbitrary approximations of the original mesh. The parameter domain is often a simplified version of the mesh to be parameterised. This limits the reachable simplification to the domain mesh which has to map the surface of the original mesh with the least possible stretch. In this paper, a hierarchical domain mesh is presented, that scales between very coarse domain meshes and good property-mapping.

The three-dimensional, discrete ordinates neutral particle transport code TORT: An overview

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Azmy, Y.Y.

1996-01-01

The centerpiece of the Discrete Ordinates Oak Ridge System (DOORS), the three-dimensional neutral particle transport code TORT is reviewed. Its most prominent features pertaining to large applications, such as adjustable problem parameters, memory management, and coarse mesh methods, are described. Advanced, state-of-the-art capabilities including acceleration and multiprocessing are summarized here. Future enhancement of existing graphics and visualization tools is briefly presented

Chloride Transport in Heterogeneous Formation

Science.gov (United States)

Mukherjee, A.; Holt, R. M.

2017-12-01

The chloride mass balance (CMB) is a commonly-used method for estimating groundwater recharge. Observations of the vertical distribution of pore-water chloride are related to the groundwater infiltration rates (i.e. recharge rates). In CMB method, the chloride distribution is attributed mainly to the assumption of one dimensional piston flow. In many places, however, the vertical distribution of chloride will be influenced by heterogeneity, leading to horizontal movement of infiltrating waters. The impact of heterogeneity will be particularly important when recharge is locally focused. When recharge is focused in an area, horizontal movement of chloride-bearing waters, coupled with upward movement driven by evapotranspiration, may lead to chloride bulges that could be misinterpreted if the CMB method is used to estimate recharge. We numerically simulate chloride transport and evaluate the validity of the CMB method in highly heterogeneous systems. This simulation is conducted for the unsaturated zone of Ogallala, Antlers, and Gatuna (OAG) formations in Andrews County, Texas. A two dimensional finite element model will show the movement of chloride through heterogeneous systems. We expect to see chloride bulges not only close to the surface but also at depths characterized by horizontal or upward movement. A comparative study of focused recharge estimates in this study with available recharge data will be presented.

Multiscale analysis and computation for flows in heterogeneous media

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Efendiev, Yalchin [Texas A & M Univ., College Station, TX (United States); Hou, T. Y. [California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States); Durlofsky, L. J. [Stanford Univ., CA (United States); Tchelepi, H. [Stanford Univ., CA (United States)

2016-08-04

Our work in this project is aimed at making fundamental advances in multiscale methods for flow and transport in highly heterogeneous porous media. The main thrust of this research is to develop a systematic multiscale analysis and efficient coarse-scale models that can capture global effects and extend existing multiscale approaches to problems with additional physics and uncertainties. A key emphasis is on problems without an apparent scale separation. Multiscale solution methods are currently under active investigation for the simulation of subsurface flow in heterogeneous formations. These procedures capture the effects of fine-scale permeability variations through the calculation of specialized coarse-scale basis functions. Most of the multiscale techniques presented to date employ localization approximations in the calculation of these basis functions. For some highly correlated (e.g., channelized) formations, however, global effects are important and these may need to be incorporated into the multiscale basis functions. Other challenging issues facing multiscale simulations are the extension of existing multiscale techniques to problems with additional physics, such as compressibility, capillary effects, etc. In our project, we explore the improvement of multiscale methods through the incorporation of additional (single-phase flow) information and the development of a general multiscale framework for flows in the presence of uncertainties, compressible flow and heterogeneous transport, and geomechanics. We have considered (1) adaptive local-global multiscale methods, (2) multiscale methods for the transport equation, (3) operator-based multiscale methods and solvers, (4) multiscale methods in the presence of uncertainties and applications, (5) multiscale finite element methods for high contrast porous media and their generalizations, and (6) multiscale methods for geomechanics. Below, we present a brief overview of each of these contributions.

Coupling LaGrit unstructured mesh generation and model setup with TOUGH2 flow and transport: A case study

Science.gov (United States)

Sentís, Manuel Lorenzo; Gable, Carl W.

2017-11-01

There are many applications in science and engineering modeling where an accurate representation of a complex model geometry in the form of a mesh is important. In applications of flow and transport in subsurface porous media, this is manifest in models that must capture complex geologic stratigraphy, structure (faults, folds, erosion, deposition) and infrastructure (tunnels, boreholes, excavations). Model setup, defined as the activities of geometry definition, mesh generation (creation, optimization, modification, refine, de-refine, smooth), assigning material properties, initial conditions and boundary conditions requires specialized software tools to automate and streamline the process. In addition, some model setup tools will provide more utility if they are designed to interface with and meet the needs of a particular flow and transport software suite. A control volume discretization that uses a two point flux approximation is for example most accurate when the underlying control volumes are 2D or 3D Voronoi tessellations. In this paper we will present the coupling of LaGriT, a mesh generation and model setup software suite and TOUGH2 (Pruess et al., 1999) to model subsurface flow problems and we show an example of how LaGriT can be used as a model setup tool for the generation of a Voronoi mesh for the simulation program TOUGH2. To generate the MESH file for TOUGH2 from the LaGriT output a standalone module Lagrit2Tough2 was developed, which is presented here and will be included in a future release of LaGriT. In this paper an alternative method to generate a Voronoi mesh for TOUGH2 with LaGriT is presented and thanks to the modular and command based structure of LaGriT this method is well suited to generating a mesh for complex models.

Improved stiffness confinement method within the coarse mesh finite difference framework for efficient spatial kinetics calculation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Park, Beom Woo; Joo, Han Gyu

2015-01-01

Highlights: • The stiffness confinement method is combined with multigroup CMFD with SENM nodal kernel. • The systematic methods for determining the shape and amplitude frequencies are established. • Eigenvalue problems instead of fixed source problems are solved in the transient calculation. • It is demonstrated that much larger time step sizes can be used with the SCM–CMFD method. - Abstract: An improved Stiffness Confinement Method (SCM) is formulated within the framework of the coarse mesh finite difference (CMFD) formulation for efficient multigroup spatial kinetics calculation. The algorithm for searching for the amplitude frequency that makes the dynamic eigenvalue unity is developed in a systematic way along with the methods for determining the shape and precursor frequencies. A nodal calculation scheme is established within the CMFD framework to incorporate the cross section changes due to thermal feedback and dynamic frequency update. The conditional nodal update scheme is employed such that the transient calculation is performed mostly with the CMFD formulation and the CMFD parameters are conditionally updated by intermittent nodal calculations. A quadratic representation of amplitude frequency is introduced as another improvement. The performance of the improved SCM within the CMFD framework is assessed by comparing the solution accuracy and computing times for the NEACRP control rod ejection benchmark problems with those obtained with the Crank–Nicholson method with exponential transform (CNET). It is demonstrated that the improved SCM is beneficial for large time step size calculations with stability and accuracy enhancement

Parallel adaptation of general three-dimensional hybrid meshes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kavouklis, Christos; Kallinderis, Yannis

2010-01-01

A new parallel dynamic mesh adaptation and load balancing algorithm for general hybrid grids has been developed. The meshes considered in this work are composed of four kinds of elements; tetrahedra, prisms, hexahedra and pyramids, which poses a challenge to parallel mesh adaptation. Additional complexity imposed by the presence of multiple types of elements affects especially data migration, updates of local data structures and interpartition data structures. Efficient partition of hybrid meshes has been accomplished by transforming them to suitable graphs and using serial graph partitioning algorithms. Communication among processors is based on the faces of the interpartition boundary and the termination detection algorithm of Dijkstra is employed to ensure proper flagging of edges for refinement. An inexpensive dynamic load balancing strategy is introduced to redistribute work load among processors after adaptation. In particular, only the initial coarse mesh, with proper weighting, is balanced which yields savings in computation time and relatively simple implementation of mesh quality preservation rules, while facilitating coarsening of refined elements. Special algorithms are employed for (i) data migration and dynamic updates of the local data structures, (ii) determination of the resulting interpartition boundary and (iii) identification of the communication pattern of processors. Several representative applications are included to evaluate the method.

Mass-corrections for the conservative coupling of flow and transport on collocated meshes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Waluga, Christian, E-mail: waluga@ma.tum.de [Institute for Numerical Mathematics (M2), Technische Universität München, Boltzmannstraße 3, D-85748 Garching bei München (Germany); Wohlmuth, Barbara [Institute for Numerical Mathematics (M2), Technische Universität München, Boltzmannstraße 3, D-85748 Garching bei München (Germany); Rüde, Ulrich [Department of Computer Science 10, University Erlangen–Nuremberg, Cauerstr. 11, D-91058 Erlangen (Germany)

2016-01-15

Buoyancy-driven flow models demand a careful treatment of the mass-balance equation to avoid spurious source and sink terms in the non-linear coupling between flow and transport. In the context of finite-elements, it is therefore commonly proposed to employ sufficiently rich pressure spaces, containing piecewise constant shape functions to obtain local or even strong mass-conservation. In three-dimensional computations, this usually requires nonconforming approaches, special meshes or higher order velocities, which make these schemes prohibitively expensive for some applications and complicate the implementation into legacy code. In this paper, we therefore propose a lean and conservatively coupled scheme based on standard stabilized linear equal-order finite elements for the Stokes part and vertex-centered finite volumes for the energy equation. We show that in a weak mass-balance it is possible to recover exact conservation properties by a local flux-correction which can be computed efficiently on the control volume boundaries of the transport mesh. We discuss implementation aspects and demonstrate the effectiveness of the flux-correction by different two- and three-dimensional examples which are motivated by geophysical applications.

New improvements in the self-shielding formalism of the Apollo-2 code

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Coste, M.; Tellier, H.; Ribon, P.; Raepsaet, V.; Van der Gucht, C.

1993-01-01

One important modelization of a transport code working on a coarse energy mesh is the self-shielding. The French transport code APPOLO 2, developed at the Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique, uses a self-shielding formalism based on a double equivalence. First a homogenization gives the reaction rates in a heterogeneous geometry, and then a multigroup equivalence gives, once the reaction rates are known, the self-shielded cross-sections. The homogenization is a very sensitive part because it is the one which requires physical modelizations. We have added a new model which allows us to treat numerous narrow resonances statistically distributed in the same group of the multigroup mesh. It is important to notice that for a narrow resonance isolated in a group, that new model is equivalent to the previous narrow resonance model (NR)

Transport lattice models of heat transport in skin with spatially heterogeneous, temperature-dependent perfusion

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Martin Gregory T

2004-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Investigation of bioheat transfer problems requires the evaluation of temporal and spatial distributions of temperature. This class of problems has been traditionally addressed using the Pennes bioheat equation. Transport of heat by conduction, and by temperature-dependent, spatially heterogeneous blood perfusion is modeled here using a transport lattice approach. Methods We represent heat transport processes by using a lattice that represents the Pennes bioheat equation in perfused tissues, and diffusion in nonperfused regions. The three layer skin model has a nonperfused viable epidermis, and deeper regions of dermis and subcutaneous tissue with perfusion that is constant or temperature-dependent. Two cases are considered: (1 surface contact heating and (2 spatially distributed heating. The model is relevant to the prediction of the transient and steady state temperature rise for different methods of power deposition within the skin. Accumulated thermal damage is estimated by using an Arrhenius type rate equation at locations where viable tissue temperature exceeds 42°C. Prediction of spatial temperature distributions is also illustrated with a two-dimensional model of skin created from a histological image. Results The transport lattice approach was validated by comparison with an analytical solution for a slab with homogeneous thermal properties and spatially distributed uniform sink held at constant temperatures at the ends. For typical transcutaneous blood gas sensing conditions the estimated damage is small, even with prolonged skin contact to a 45°C surface. Spatial heterogeneity in skin thermal properties leads to a non-uniform temperature distribution during a 10 GHz electromagnetic field exposure. A realistic two-dimensional model of the skin shows that tissue heterogeneity does not lead to a significant local temperature increase when heated by a hot wire tip. Conclusions The heat transport system model of the

Continuous Production of Isomalto-oligosaccharides by Thermo-inactivated Cells of Aspergillus niger J2 with Coarse Perlite as an Immobilizing Material.

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Zhihua; Li, Zhihong; Su, Yongjian; Zhu, Yongfeng; Zeng, Wei; Chen, Guiguang; Liang, Zhiqun

2018-02-13

The coarse perlite 40-80 mesh was selected as an immobilizing material and put into a packed bed reactor (PBR) to continuously convert maltose to isomalto-oligosaccharides (IMOs). The PBR was prepared by mixing the thermo-inactivated cells (TIC) from Aspergillus niger J2 strain with the coarse perlite, then the mixture was put into an overpressure-resistant column. Compared with diatomite 40-80 mesh and thin perlite 80-120 mesh in PBR, coarse perlite was chosen as the best filtration aid, when the ratio of coarse perlite versus TIC was 1:1. The thermal and pH stability of the free and immobilized TIC and the optimum conditions for the transglycosylation reactions were determined. The results show that approximately 75 and 82% and 87 and 91% of α-glucosidase activity were reserved for free and immobilized TIC at temperatures from 30 to 60 °C and pH from 3.00 to 7.00 for 12 h, respectively. With 30% malt syrup under the conditions of 50 °C and pH 4.00, a mini-scale packed bed reactor (Mi-PBR) and medium-scale packed bed reactor (Me-PBR) could continuously produce IMO over 25 and 34 days with the yield of effective IMO (eIMO) ≥ 35% and total IMO (tIMO) ≥ 50%, respectively. The strategy of mixing the coarse perlite with TIC in PBR is a novel approach to continuously produce IMO and has great application potential in industry.

Effects of reservoir heterogeneity on scaling of effective mass transfer coefficient for solute transport

Science.gov (United States)

Leung, Juliana Y.; Srinivasan, Sanjay

2016-09-01

Modeling transport process at large scale requires proper scale-up of subsurface heterogeneity and an understanding of its interaction with the underlying transport mechanisms. A technique based on volume averaging is applied to quantitatively assess the scaling characteristics of effective mass transfer coefficient in heterogeneous reservoir models. The effective mass transfer coefficient represents the combined contribution from diffusion and dispersion to the transport of non-reactive solute particles within a fluid phase. Although treatment of transport problems with the volume averaging technique has been published in the past, application to geological systems exhibiting realistic spatial variability remains a challenge. Previously, the authors developed a new procedure where results from a fine-scale numerical flow simulation reflecting the full physics of the transport process albeit over a sub-volume of the reservoir are integrated with the volume averaging technique to provide effective description of transport properties. The procedure is extended such that spatial averaging is performed at the local-heterogeneity scale. In this paper, the transport of a passive (non-reactive) solute is simulated on multiple reservoir models exhibiting different patterns of heterogeneities, and the scaling behavior of effective mass transfer coefficient (Keff) is examined and compared. One such set of models exhibit power-law (fractal) characteristics, and the variability of dispersion and Keff with scale is in good agreement with analytical expressions described in the literature. This work offers an insight into the impacts of heterogeneity on the scaling of effective transport parameters. A key finding is that spatial heterogeneity models with similar univariate and bivariate statistics may exhibit different scaling characteristics because of the influence of higher order statistics. More mixing is observed in the channelized models with higher-order continuity. It

Monte Carlo method for neutron transport problems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Asaoka, Takumi

1977-01-01

Some methods for decreasing variances in Monte Carlo neutron transport calculations are presented together with the results of sample calculations. A general purpose neutron transport Monte Carlo code ''MORSE'' was used for the purpose. The first method discussed in this report is the method of statistical estimation. As an example of this method, the application of the coarse-mesh rebalance acceleration method to the criticality calculation of a cylindrical fast reactor is presented. Effective multiplication factor and its standard deviation are presented as a function of the number of histories and comparisons are made between the coarse-mesh rebalance method and the standard method. Five-group neutron fluxes at core center are also compared with the result of S4 calculation. The second method is the method of correlated sampling. This method was applied to the perturbation calculation of control rod worths in a fast critical assembly (FCA-V-3) Two methods of sampling (similar flight paths and identical flight paths) are tested and compared with experimental results. For every cases the experimental value lies within the standard deviation of the Monte Carlo calculations. The third method is the importance sampling. In this report a biased selection of particle flight directions discussed. This method was applied to the flux calculation in a spherical fast neutron system surrounded by a 10.16 cm iron reflector. Result-direction biasing, path-length stretching, and no biasing are compared with S8 calculation. (Aoki, K.)

Recycled Coarse Aggregate Produced by Pulsed Discharge in Water

Science.gov (United States)

Namihira, Takao; Shigeishi, Mitsuhiro; Nakashima, Kazuyuki; Murakami, Akira; Kuroki, Kaori; Kiyan, Tsuyoshi; Tomoda, Yuichi; Sakugawa, Takashi; Katsuki, Sunao; Akiyama, Hidenori; Ohtsu, Masayasu

In Japan, the recycling ratio of concrete scraps has been kept over 98 % after the Law for the Recycling of Construction Materials was enforced in 2000. In the present, most of concrete scraps were recycled as the Lower Subbase Course Material. On the other hand, it is predicted to be difficult to keep this higher recycling ratio in the near future because concrete scraps increase rapidly and would reach to over 3 times of present situation in 2010. In addition, the demand of concrete scraps as the Lower Subbase Course Material has been decreased. Therefore, new way to reuse concrete scraps must be developed. Concrete scraps normally consist of 70 % of coarse aggregate, 19 % of water and 11 % of cement. To obtain the higher recycling ratio, the higher recycling ratio of coarse aggregate is desired. In this paper, a new method for recycling coarse aggregate from concrete scraps has been developed and demonstrated. The system includes a Marx generator and a point to hemisphere mesh electrode immersed in water. In the demonstration, the test piece of concrete scrap was located between the electrodes and was treated by the pulsed discharge. After discharge treatment of test piece, the recycling coarse aggregates were evaluated under JIS and TS and had enough quality for utilization as the coarse aggregate.

ONETRAN, 1-D Transport in Planar, Cylindrical, Spherical Geometry for Homogeneous, Inhomogeneous Problem, Anisotropic Source

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1982-01-01

1 - Description of problem or function: ONETRAN solves the one- dimensional multigroup transport equation in plane, cylindrical, spherical, and two-angle plane geometries. Both regular and adjoint, inhomogeneous and homogeneous (K-eff and eigenvalue searches) problems subject to vacuum, reflective, periodic, white, albedo or inhomogeneous boundary flux conditions are solved. General anisotropic scattering is allowed and anisotropic inhomogeneous sources are permitted. 2 - Method of solution: The discrete ordinates approximation for the angular variable is used with the diamond (central) difference approximation for the angular extrapolation in curved geometries. A linear discontinuous finite element representation for the angular flux in each spatial mesh cell is used. Negative fluxes are eliminated by a local set-to-zero and correct algorithm. Standard inner (within-group) iteration cycles are accelerated by system re-balance, coarse mesh re-balance, or Chebyshev acceleration. Outer iteration cycles are accelerated by coarse-mesh re-balance. 3 - Restrictions on the complexity of the problem: Variable dimensioning is used so that any combination of problem parameters leading to a container array less than MAXCOR can be accommodated. On CDC machines MAXCOR can be about 25 000 words and peripheral storage is used for most group-dependent data

The ADO-nodal method for solving two-dimensional discrete ordinates transport problems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barichello, L.B.; Picoloto, C.B.; Cunha, R.D. da

2017-01-01

Highlights: • Two-dimensional discrete ordinates neutron transport. • Analytical Discrete Ordinates (ADO) nodal method. • Heterogeneous media fixed source problems. • Local solutions. - Abstract: In this work, recent results on the solution of fixed-source two-dimensional transport problems, in Cartesian geometry, are reported. Homogeneous and heterogeneous media problems are considered in order to incorporate the idea of arbitrary number of domain division into regions (nodes) when applying the ADO method, which is a method of analytical features, to those problems. The ADO-nodal formulation is developed, for each node, following previous work devoted to heterogeneous media problem. Here, however, the numerical procedure is extended to higher number of domain divisions. Such extension leads, in some cases, to the use of an iterative method for solving the general linear system which defines the arbitrary constants of the general solution. In addition to solve alternative heterogeneous media configurations than reported in previous works, the present approach allows comparisons with results provided by other metodologies generated with refined meshes. Numerical results indicate the ADO solution may achieve a prescribed accuracy using coarser meshes than other schemes.

Simulation of transients with space-dependent feedback by coarse mesh flux expansion method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Langenbuch, S.; Maurer, W.; Werner, W.

1975-01-01

For the simulation of the time-dependent behaviour of large LWR-cores, even the most efficient Finite-Difference (FD) methods require a prohibitive amount of computing time in order to achieve results of acceptable accuracy. Static CM-solutions computed with a mesh-size corresponding to the fuel element structure (about 20 cm) are at least as accurate as FD-solutions computed with about 5 cm mesh-size. For 3d-calculations this results in a reduction of storage requirements by a factor 60 and of computing costs by a factor 40, relative to FD-methods. These results have been obtained for pure neutronic calculations, where feedback is not taken into account. In this paper it is demonstrated that the method retains its accuracy also in kinetic calculations, even in the presence of strong space dependent feedback. (orig./RW) [de

Effect of chemical and physical heterogeneities on colloid-facilitated cesium transport

Science.gov (United States)

Rod, Kenton; Um, Wooyong; Chun, Jaehun; Wu, Ning; Yin, Xialong; Wang, Guohui; Neeves, Keith

2018-06-01

A set of column experiments was conducted to investigate the chemical and physical heterogeneity effect on colloid facilitated transport under slow pore velocity conditions. Pore velocities were kept below 100 cm d-1 for all experiments. Glass beads were packed into columns establishing four different conditions: 1) homogeneous, 2) mixed physical heterogeneity, 3) sequentially layered physical heterogeneity, and 4) chemical heterogeneity. The homogeneous column was packed with glass beads (diameter 500-600 μm), and physical heterogeneities were created by sequential layering or mixing two sizes of glass bead (500-600 μm and 300-400 μm). A chemical heterogeneity was created using 25% of the glass beads coated with hydrophobic molecules (1H-1H-2H-2H-perfluorooctyltrichlorosilane) mixed with 75% pristine glass beads (all 500-600 μm). Input solution with 0.5 mM CsI and 50 mg L-1 colloids (1-μm diameter SiO2) was pulsed into columns under saturated conditions. The physical heterogeneity in the packed glass beads retarded the transport of colloids compared to homogeneous (R = 25.0), but showed only slight differences between sequentially layered (R = 60.7) and mixed heterogeneity(R = 62.4). The column with the chemical, hydrophobic/hydrophilic, heterogeneity removed most of the colloids from the input solution. All column conditions stripped Cs from colloids onto the column matrix of packed glass beads.

Coarse-grained Simulations of Substrate Export through Multidrug Efflux Transporter AcrB

Science.gov (United States)

Jewel, Yead; Dutta, Prashanta; Liu, Jin

2017-11-01

The treatment of bacterial infectious diseases hampered by the overexpression of multidrug resistance (MDR) systems. The MDR system actively pumps the antibiotic drugs as well as other toxic compounds out of the cells. During the pumping, AcrB (one of the key MDR components) undergoes a series of large-scale proton/substrate dependent conformational changes. In this work, we implement a hybrid coarse-grained PACE force field that couples the united-atom protein model with the coarse-grained MARTINI water/lipid, to investigate the conformational changes of AcrB. We first develop the substrate force field which is compatible with PACE, then we implement the force field to explore large scale structural changes of AcrB in microsecond simulations. The effects of the substrate and the protonation states of two key residues: Asp407 and Asp408, are investigated. Our results show that the drug export through AcrB is proton as well as substrate dependent. Our simulations explain molecular mechanisms of substrate transport through AcrB complex, as well as provide valuable insights for designing proper antibiotic drugs. Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R01GM122081.

Optimization of the spatial mesh for numerical solution of the neutron transport equation in a cluster-type lattice cell

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Davis, R.S.

2012-01-01

For programs that solve the neutron transport equation with an approximation that the neutron flux is constant in each space in a user-defined mesh, optimization of that mesh yields benefits in computing time and attainable precision. The previous best practice does not optimize the mesh thoroughly, because a large number of test runs of the solving software would be necessary. The method presented here optimizes the mesh for a flux that is based on conventional approximations but is more informative, so that a minimal number of parameters, one per type of material, must be adjusted by test runs to achieve thorough optimization. For a 37 element, natural-uranium, CANDU lattice cell, the present optimization yields 7 to 12 times (depending on the criterion) better precision than the previous best practice in 37% less computing time. (author)

Discrete nodal integral transport-theory method for multidimensional reactor physics and shielding calculations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lawrence, R.D.; Dorning, J.J.

1980-01-01

A coarse-mesh discrete nodal integral transport theory method has been developed for the efficient numerical solution of multidimensional transport problems of interest in reactor physics and shielding applications. The method, which is the discrete transport theory analogue and logical extension of the nodal Green's function method previously developed for multidimensional neutron diffusion problems, utilizes the same transverse integration procedure to reduce the multidimensional equations to coupled one-dimensional equations. This is followed by the conversion of the differential equations to local, one-dimensional, in-node integral equations by integrating back along neutron flight paths. One-dimensional and two-dimensional transport theory test problems have been systematically studied to verify the superior computational efficiency of the new method

Modelisation of transport in fractured media with a smeared fractures modeling approach: special focus on matrix diffusion process.

Science.gov (United States)

Fourno, A.; Grenier, C.; Benabderrahmane, H.

2003-04-01

Modeling flow and transport in natural fractured media is a difficult issue due among others to the complexity of the system, the particularities of the geometrical features, the strong parameter value contrasts between the fracture zones (flow zones) and the matrix zones (no flow zones). This lead to the development of dedicated tools like for instance discrete fracture network models (DFN). We follow here another line applicable for classical continuous modeling codes. The fracture network is not meshed here but presence of fractures is taken into account by means of continuous heterogeneous fields (permeability, porosity, head, velocity, concentration ...). This line, followed by different authors, is referred as smeared fracture approach and presents the following advantages: the approach is very versatile because no dedicated spatial discretization effort is required (we use a basic regular mesh, simulations can be done on a rough mesh saving computer time). This makes this kind of approach very promising for taking heterogeneity of properties as well as uncertainties into account within a Monte Carlo framework for instance. Furthermore, the geometry of the matrix blocks where transfers proceed by diffusion is fully taken into account contrary to classical simplified 1D approach for instance. Nevertheless continuous heterogeneous field representation of a fractured medium requires a homogenization process at the scale of the mesh considered. Literature proves that this step of homogenization for transport is still a challenging task. Consequently, the level precision of the results has to be estimated. We precedently proposed a new approach dedicated to Mixed and Hybrid Finite Element approach. This numerical scheme is very interesting for such highly heterogeneous media and in particular guaranties exact conservation of mass flow for each mesh leading to good transport results. We developed a smeared fractures approach to model flow and transport limited to

Adaptive upscaling with the dual mesh method

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Guerillot, D.; Verdiere, S.

1997-08-01

The objective of this paper is to demonstrate that upscaling should be calculated during the flow simulation instead of trying to enhance the a priori upscaling methods. Hence, counter-examples are given to motivate our approach, the so-called Dual Mesh Method. The main steps of this numerical algorithm are recalled. Applications illustrate the necessity to consider different average relative permeability values depending on the direction in space. Moreover, these values could be different for the same average saturation. This proves that an a priori upscaling cannot be the answer even in homogeneous cases because of the {open_quotes}dynamical heterogeneity{close_quotes} created by the saturation profile. Other examples show the efficiency of the Dual Mesh Method applied to heterogeneous medium and to an actual field case in South America.

Contribution to gamma ray transport calculation in heterogeneous media

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bourdet, L.

1985-04-01

This thesis presents the development of gamma transport calculation codes in three dimension heterogeneous geometries. These codes allow us to define the protection against gamma-rays or verify their efficiency. The laws that govern the interactions of gamma-rays with matters are briefly revised. A library with the all necessary constants for these codes is created. TRIPOLI-2, a code that treats in exact way the neutron transport in matters using Monte-Carlo method, has been adapted to deal with the transport of gamma-rays in matters as well. TRINISHI, a code which considers only one collision, has been realized to treat heterogeneous geometries containing voids. Elaborating a formula that calculates the albedo for gamma-ray reflection (the code ALBANE) allows us to solve the problem of gamma-ray reflection on plane surfaces. NARCISSE-2 deals with gamma-rays that suffer only one reflection on the inner walls of any closed volume (rooms, halls...) [fr

A 3D coarse-mesh time dependent code for nuclear reactor kinetic calculations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Montagnini, B.; Raffaelli, P.; Sumini, M.; Zardini, D.M.

1996-01-01

A course-mesh code for time-dependent multigroup neutron diffusion calculation based on a direct integration scheme for the time dependence and a low order nodal flux expansion approximation for the space variables has been implemented as a fast tool for transient analysis. (Author)

Conception and development of an adaptive energy mesher for multigroup library generation of the transport codes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mosca, P.

2009-12-01

The deterministic transport codes solve the stationary Boltzmann equation in a discretized energy formalism called multigroup. The transformation of continuous data in a multigroup form is obtained by averaging the highly variable cross sections of the resonant isotopes with the solution of the self-shielding models and the remaining ones with the coarse energy spectrum of the reactor type. So far the error of such an approach could only be evaluated retrospectively. To remedy this, we studied in this thesis a set of methods to control a priori the accuracy and the cost of the multigroup transport computation. The energy mesh optimisation is achieved using a two step process: the creation of a reference mesh and its optimized condensation. In the first stage, by refining locally and globally the energy mesh, we seek, on a fine energy mesh with subgroup self-shielding, a solution equivalent to a reference solver (Monte Carlo or pointwise deterministic solver). In the second step, once fixed the number of groups, depending on the acceptable computational cost, and chosen the most appropriate self-shielding models to the reactor type, we look for the best bounds of the reference mesh minimizing reaction rate errors by the particle swarm optimization algorithm. This new approach allows us to define new meshes for fast reactors as accurate as the currently used ones, but with fewer groups. (author)

Geological entropy and solute transport in heterogeneous porous media

Science.gov (United States)

Bianchi, Marco; Pedretti, Daniele

2017-06-01

We propose a novel approach to link solute transport behavior to the physical heterogeneity of the aquifer, which we fully characterize with two measurable parameters: the variance of the log K values (σY2), and a new indicator (HR) that integrates multiple properties of the K field into a global measure of spatial disorder or geological entropy. From the results of a detailed numerical experiment considering solute transport in K fields representing realistic distributions of hydrofacies in alluvial aquifers, we identify empirical relationship between the two parameters and the first three central moments of the distributions of arrival times of solute particles at a selected control plane. The analysis of experimental data indicates that the mean and the variance of the solutes arrival times tend to increase with spatial disorder (i.e., HR increasing), while highly skewed distributions are observed in more orderly structures (i.e., HR decreasing) or at higher σY2. We found that simple closed-form empirical expressions of the bivariate dependency of skewness on HR and σY2 can be used to predict the emergence of non-Fickian transport in K fields considering a range of structures and heterogeneity levels, some of which based on documented real aquifers. The accuracy of these predictions and in general the results from this study indicate that a description of the global variability and structure of the K field in terms of variance and geological entropy offers a valid and broadly applicable approach for the interpretation and prediction of transport in heterogeneous porous media.

Mesh generation and energy group condensation studies for the jaguar deterministic transport code

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kennedy, R. A.; Watson, A. M.; Iwueke, C. I.; Edwards, E. J.

2012-01-01

The deterministic transport code Jaguar is introduced, and the modeling process for Jaguar is demonstrated using a two-dimensional assembly model of the Hoogenboom-Martin Performance Benchmark Problem. This single assembly model is being used to test and analyze optimal modeling methodologies and techniques for Jaguar. This paper focuses on spatial mesh generation and energy condensation techniques. In this summary, the models and processes are defined as well as thermal flux solution comparisons with the Monte Carlo code MC21. (authors)

Mesh generation and energy group condensation studies for the jaguar deterministic transport code

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kennedy, R. A.; Watson, A. M.; Iwueke, C. I.; Edwards, E. J. [Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory, Bechtel Marine Propulsion Corporation, P.O. Box 1072, Schenectady, NY 12301-1072 (United States)

2012-07-01

The deterministic transport code Jaguar is introduced, and the modeling process for Jaguar is demonstrated using a two-dimensional assembly model of the Hoogenboom-Martin Performance Benchmark Problem. This single assembly model is being used to test and analyze optimal modeling methodologies and techniques for Jaguar. This paper focuses on spatial mesh generation and energy condensation techniques. In this summary, the models and processes are defined as well as thermal flux solution comparisons with the Monte Carlo code MC21. (authors)

On the validity of effective formulations for transport through heterogeneous porous media

Science.gov (United States)

de Dreuzy, Jean-Raynald; Carrera, Jesus

2016-04-01

Geological heterogeneity enhances spreading of solutes and causes transport to be anomalous (i.e., non-Fickian), with much less mixing than suggested by dispersion. This implies that modeling transport requires adopting either stochastic approaches that model heterogeneity explicitly or effective transport formulations that acknowledge the effects of heterogeneity. A number of such formulations have been developed and tested as upscaled representations of enhanced spreading. However, their ability to represent mixing has not been formally tested, which is required for proper reproduction of chemical reactions and which motivates our work. We propose that, for an effective transport formulation to be considered a valid representation of transport through heterogeneous porous media (HPM), it should honor mean advection, mixing and spreading. It should also be flexible enough to be applicable to real problems. We test the capacity of the multi-rate mass transfer (MRMT) model to reproduce mixing observed in HPM, as represented by the classical multi-Gaussian log-permeability field with a Gaussian correlation pattern. Non-dispersive mixing comes from heterogeneity structures in the concentration fields that are not captured by macrodispersion. These fine structures limit mixing initially, but eventually enhance it. Numerical results show that, relative to HPM, MRMT models display a much stronger memory of initial conditions on mixing than on dispersion because of the sensitivity of the mixing state to the actual values of concentration. Because MRMT does not restitute the local concentration structures, it induces smaller non-dispersive mixing than HPM. However long-lived trapping in the immobile zones may sustain the deviation from dispersive mixing over much longer times. While spreading can be well captured by MRMT models, in general non-dispersive mixing cannot.

Development of perturbation theory expressions for the evaluation of reactivity effects and sensitivity coefficient of reactivity effect to the group cross-sections on the basis of improved coarse mesh method for 3D diffusion problem

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Seregin, A.S.

2000-01-01

In the paper the formulae for perturbation theory functionals calculation are given and equations are based on improved coarse mesh discretization of diffusion problem in 3-dimensional geometry (Hex-Z). Expressions for the reactivity effect components and reactivity coefficients, written in the framework of the first order perturbation theory, are presented. On this basis the formulae for estimation of the sensitivity coefficients of different reactivity effects group cross-sections were derived. Expressions for the reactivity effect and its components obtained in the framework of the strict perturbation theory, are also presented in the paper. (author)

Bacterial Transport in Heterogeneous Porous Media: Laboratory and Field Experiments

Science.gov (United States)

Fuller, M. E.

2001-12-01

A fully instrumented research site for examining field-scale bacterial transport has been established on the eastern shore of Virginia. Studies employing intact sediment cores from the South Oyster site have been performed to examine the effects of physical and chemical heterogeneity, to derive transport parameters, and to aid in the selection of bacterial strains for use in field experiments. A variety of innovative methods for tracking bacteria were developed and evaluated under both laboratory and field conditions, providing the tools to detect target cell concentrations in groundwater down to effects of physical and chemical heterogeneity on field-scale bacterial transport. The results of this research not only contribute to the development of more effective bioremediation strategies, but also have implications for a better understanding of bacterial movement in the subsurface as it relates to public health microbiology and general microbial ecology.

Impact of Subsurface Heterogeneities on nano-Scale Zero Valent Iron Transport

Science.gov (United States)

Krol, M. M.; Sleep, B. E.; O'Carroll, D. M.

2011-12-01

Nano-scale zero valent iron (nZVI) has been applied as a remediation technology at sites contaminated with chlorinated compounds and heavy metals. Although laboratory studies have demonstrated high reactivity for the degradation of target contaminants, the success of nZVI in the field has been limited due to poor subsurface mobility. When injected into the subsurface, nZVI tends to aggregate and be retained by subsurface soils. As such nZVI suspensions need to be stabilized for increased mobility. However, even with stabilization, soil heterogeneities can still lead to non-uniform nZVI transport, resulting in poor distribution and consequently decreased degradation of target compounds. Understanding how nZVI transport can be affected by subsurface heterogeneities can aid in improving the technology. This can be done with the use of a numerical model which can simulate nZVI transport. In this study CompSim, a finite difference groundwater model, is used to simulate the movement of nZVI in a two-dimensional domain. CompSim has been shown in previous studies to accurately predict nZVI movement in the subsurface, and is used in this study to examine the impact of soil heterogeneity on nZVI transport. This work also explores the impact of different viscosities of the injected nZVI suspensions (corresponding to different stabilizing polymers) and injection rates on nZVI mobility. Analysis metrics include travel time, travel distance, and average nZVI concentrations. Improving our understanding of the influence of soil heterogeneity on nZVI transport will lead to improved field scale implementation and, potentially, to more effective remediation of contaminated sites.

Horizontal Residual Mean Circulation: Evaluation of Spatial Correlations in Coarse Resolution Ocean Models

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Y.; McDougall, T. J.

2016-02-01

Coarse resolution ocean models lack knowledge of spatial correlations between variables on scales smaller than the grid scale. Some researchers have shown that these spatial correlations play a role in the poleward heat flux. In order to evaluate the poleward transport induced by the spatial correlations at a fixed horizontal position, an equation is obtained to calculate the approximate transport from velocity gradients. The equation involves two terms that can be added to the quasi-Stokes streamfunction (based on temporal correlations) to incorporate the contribution of spatial correlations. Moreover, these new terms do not need to be parameterized and is ready to be evaluated by using model data directly. In this study, data from a high resolution ocean model have been used to estimate the accuracy of this HRM approach for improving the horizontal property fluxes in coarse-resolution ocean models. A coarse grid is formed by sub-sampling and box-car averaging the fine grid scale. The transport calculated on the coarse grid is then compared to the transport on original high resolution grid scale accumulated over a corresponding number of grid boxes. The preliminary results have shown that the estimate on coarse resolution grids roughly match the corresponding transports on high resolution grids.

Confinement of electron beams by mesh arrays in a relativistic klystron amplifier

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang Pingshan; Gu Binlin

1998-01-01

Theoretical and experimental results of intense beam confinement by conducting meshes in a relativistic klystron amplifier (RKA) are presented. Electron motions in a steady intense electron beam confined by conducting meshes are analyzed with an approximate space charge field distribution. And the conditions for steady beam transportation are discussed. Experimental results of a long distance (60 cm) transportation of an intense beam (400 kV, 2.5 kA) generated by a linear induction accelerator are presented. Experimental results of modulated beam transportation confined by the mesh array are presented also. The results show that the focusing ability of the conducting meshes is not very sensitive to the beam energy. And the meshes can be used effectively in a RKA to replace the magnetic field system

CONSTRAINED-TRANSPORT MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMICS WITH ADAPTIVE MESH REFINEMENT IN CHARM

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Miniati, Francesco; Martin, Daniel F.

2011-01-01

We present the implementation of a three-dimensional, second-order accurate Godunov-type algorithm for magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) in the adaptive-mesh-refinement (AMR) cosmological code CHARM. The algorithm is based on the full 12-solve spatially unsplit corner-transport-upwind (CTU) scheme. The fluid quantities are cell-centered and are updated using the piecewise-parabolic method (PPM), while the magnetic field variables are face-centered and are evolved through application of the Stokes theorem on cell edges via a constrained-transport (CT) method. The so-called multidimensional MHD source terms required in the predictor step for high-order accuracy are applied in a simplified form which reduces their complexity in three dimensions without loss of accuracy or robustness. The algorithm is implemented on an AMR framework which requires specific synchronization steps across refinement levels. These include face-centered restriction and prolongation operations and a reflux-curl operation, which maintains a solenoidal magnetic field across refinement boundaries. The code is tested against a large suite of test problems, including convergence tests in smooth flows, shock-tube tests, classical two- and three-dimensional MHD tests, a three-dimensional shock-cloud interaction problem, and the formation of a cluster of galaxies in a fully cosmological context. The magnetic field divergence is shown to remain negligible throughout.

Phase behavior and reactive transport of partial melt in heterogeneous mantle model

Science.gov (United States)

Jordan, J.; Hesse, M. A.

2013-12-01

The reactive transport of partial melt is the key process that leads to the chemical and physical differentiation of terrestrial planets and smaller celestial bodies. The essential role of the lithological heterogeneities during partial melting of the mantle is increasingly recognized. How far can enriched melts propagate while interacting with the ambient mantle? Can the melt flow emanating from a fertile heterogeneity be localized through a reactive infiltration feedback in a model without exogenous factors or contrived initial conditions? A full understanding of the role of heterogeneities requires reactive melt transport models that account for the phase behavior of major elements. Previous work on reactive transport in the mantle focuses on trace element partitioning; we present the first nonlinear chromatographic analysis of reactive melt transport in systems with binary solid solution. Our analysis shows that reactive melt transport in systems with binary solid solution leads to the formation of two separate reaction fronts: a slow melting/freezing front along which enthalpy change is dominant and a fast dissolution/precipitation front along which compositional changes are dominated by an ion-exchange process over enthalpy change. An intermediate state forms between these two fronts with a bulk-rock composition and enthalpy that are not necessarily bounded by the bulk-rock composition and enthalpy of either the enriched heterogeneity or the depleted ambient mantle. The formation of this intermediate state makes it difficult to anticipate the porosity changes and hence the stability of reaction fronts. Therefore, we develop a graphical representation for the solution that allows identification of the intermediate state by inspection, for all possible bulk-rock compositions and enthalpies of the heterogeneity and the ambient mantle. We apply the analysis to the partial melting of an enriched heterogeneity. This leads to the formation of moving precipitation

Uranium (VI) transport in saturated heterogeneous media: Influence of kaolinite and humic acid.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Chong; Zhao, Kang; Shang, Jianying; Liu, Chongxuan; Wang, Jin; Yan, Zhifeng; Liu, Kesi; Wu, Wenliang

2018-05-07

Natural aquifers typically exhibit a variety of structural heterogeneities. However, the effect of mineral colloids and natural organic matter on the transport behavior of uranium (U) in saturated heterogeneous media are not totally understood. In this study, heterogeneous column experiments were conducted, and the constructed columns contained a fast-flow domain (FFD) and a slow-flow domain (SFD). The effect of kaolinite, humic acid (HA), and kaolinite/HA mixture on U(VI) retention and release in saturated heterogeneous media was examined. Media heterogeneity significantly influenced U fate and transport behavior in saturated subsurface environment. The presence of kaolinite, HA, and kaolinite/HA enhanced the mobility of U in heterogeneous media, and the mobility of U was the highest in the presence of kaolinite/HA and the lowest in the presence of kaolinite. In the presence of kaolinite, there was no difference in the amount of U released from the FFD and SFD. However, in the presence of HA and kaolinite/HA, a higher amount of U was released from the FFD. The findings in this study showed that medium structure and mineral colloids, as well as natural organic matter in the aqueous phase had significant effects on U transport and fate in subsurface environment. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Parallel FE Electron-Photon Transport Analysis on 2-D Unstructured Mesh

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Drumm, C.R.; Lorenz, J.

1999-01-01

A novel solution method has been developed to solve the coupled electron-photon transport problem on an unstructured triangular mesh. Instead of tackling the first-order form of the linear Boltzmann equation, this approach is based on the second-order form in conjunction with the conventional multi-group discrete-ordinates approximation. The highly forward-peaked electron scattering is modeled with a multigroup Legendre expansion derived from the Goudsmit-Saunderson theory. The finite element method is used to treat the spatial dependence. The solution method is unique in that the space-direction dependence is solved simultaneously, eliminating the need for the conventional inner iterations, a method that is well suited for massively parallel computers

Simulation of contaminant transport in fractured porous media on triangular meshes

KAUST Repository

Dong, Chen

2010-12-01

A mathematical model for contaminant species passing through fractured porous media is presented. In the numerical model, we combine two locally conservative methods, i.e. mixed finite element (MFE) and the finite volume (FV) methods. Adaptive triangle mesh is used for effective treatment of the fractures. A hybrid MFE method is employed to provide an accurate approximation of velocities field for both the fractures and matrix which are crucial to the convection part of the transport equation. The FV method and the standard MFE method are used to approximate the convection and dispersion terms respectively. Numerical examples in a medium containing fracture network illustrate the robustness and efficiency of the proposed numerical model. © 2010 IEEE.

Simulation of contaminant transport in fractured porous media on triangular meshes

KAUST Repository

Dong, Chen; Sun, Shuyu

2010-01-01

A mathematical model for contaminant species passing through fractured porous media is presented. In the numerical model, we combine two locally conservative methods, i.e. mixed finite element (MFE) and the finite volume (FV) methods. Adaptive triangle mesh is used for effective treatment of the fractures. A hybrid MFE method is employed to provide an accurate approximation of velocities field for both the fractures and matrix which are crucial to the convection part of the transport equation. The FV method and the standard MFE method are used to approximate the convection and dispersion terms respectively. Numerical examples in a medium containing fracture network illustrate the robustness and efficiency of the proposed numerical model. © 2010 IEEE.

Development of new multigrid schemes for the method of characteristics in neutron transport theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Grassi, G.

2006-01-01

This dissertation is based upon our doctoral research that dealt with the conception and development of new non-linear multigrid techniques for the Method of the Characteristics (MOC) within the TDT code. Here we focus upon a two-level scheme consisting of a fine level on which the neutron transport equation is iteratively solved using the MOC algorithm, and a coarse level defined by a more coarsely discretized phase space on which a low-order problem is considered. The solution of this problem is then used in order to correct the angular flux moments resulting from the previous transport iteration. A flux-volume homogenization procedure is employed to evaluate the coarse-level material properties after each transport iteration. This entails the non-linearity of the methods. According to the Generalised Equivalence Theory (GET), additional degrees of freedom are introduced for the low-order problem so that the convergence of the acceleration scheme can be ensured. We present two classes of non-linear methods: transport-like methods and discussion-like methods. Transport-like methods consider a homogenized low-order transport problem on the coarse level. This problem is iteratively solved using the same MOC algorithm as for the transport problem on the fine level. Discontinuity factors are then employed, per region or per surface, in order to reconstruct the currents evaluated by the low-order operator, which ensure the convergence of the acceleration scheme. On the other hand, discussion-like methods consider a low-order problem inspired by diffusion. We studied the non-linear Coarse Mesh Finite Difference (CMFD) method, already present in literature, in the perspective of integrating it into TDT code. Then, we developed a new non-linear method on the model of CMFD. From the latter, we borrowed the idea to establish a simple relation between currents and fluxes in order to obtain a problem involving only coarse fluxes. Finally, those non-linear methods have been

MeshVoro: A Three-Dimensional Voronoi Mesh Building Tool for the TOUGH Family of Codes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Freeman, C. M.; Boyle, K. L.; Reagan, M.; Johnson, J.; Rycroft, C.; Moridis, G. J.

2013-09-30

Few tools exist for creating and visualizing complex three-dimensional simulation meshes, and these have limitations that restrict their application to particular geometries and circumstances. Mesh generation needs to trend toward ever more general applications. To that end, we have developed MeshVoro, a tool that is based on the Voro (Rycroft 2009) library and is capable of generating complex threedimensional Voronoi tessellation-based (unstructured) meshes for the solution of problems of flow and transport in subsurface geologic media that are addressed by the TOUGH (Pruess et al. 1999) family of codes. MeshVoro, which includes built-in data visualization routines, is a particularly useful tool because it extends the applicability of the TOUGH family of codes by enabling the scientifically robust and relatively easy discretization of systems with challenging 3D geometries. We describe several applications of MeshVoro. We illustrate the ability of the tool to straightforwardly transform a complex geological grid into a simulation mesh that conforms to the specifications of the TOUGH family of codes. We demonstrate how MeshVoro can describe complex system geometries with a relatively small number of grid blocks, and we construct meshes for geometries that would have been practically intractable with a standard Cartesian grid approach. We also discuss the limitations and appropriate applications of this new technology.

The impacts of pore-scale physical and chemical heterogeneities on the transport of radionuclide-carrying colloids

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

WU, Ning

2018-04-24

Independent of the methods of nuclear waste disposal, the degradation of packaging materials could lead to mobilization and transport of radionuclides into the geosphere. This process can be significantly accelerated due to the association of radionuclides with the backfill materials or mobile colloids in groundwater. The transport of these colloids is complicated by the inherent coupling of physical and chemical heterogeneities (e.g., pore space geometry, grain size, charge heterogeneity, and surface hydrophobicity) in natural porous media that can exist on the length scale of a few grains. In addition, natural colloids themselves are often heterogeneous in their surface properties (e.g., clay platelets possess opposite charges on the surface and along the rim). Both physical and chemical heterogeneities influence the transport and retention of radionuclides under various groundwater conditions. However, the precise mechanisms how these coupled heterogeneities influence colloidal transport are largely elusive. This knowledge gap is a major source of uncertainty in developing accurate models to represent the transport process and to predict distribution of radionuclides in the geosphere.

Transport of Cryptosporidium parvum Oocysts in Charge Heterogeneous Porous Media: Microfluidics Experiment and Numerical Simulation

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Y.; Meng, X.; Guo, Z.; Zhang, C.; Nguyen, T. H.; Hu, D.; Ji, J.; Yang, X.

2017-12-01

Colloidal attachment on charge heterogeneous grains has significant environmental implications for transport of hazardous colloids, such as pathogens, in the aquifer, where iron, manganese, and aluminium oxide minerals are the major source of surface charge heterogeneity of the aquifer grains. A patchwise surface charge model is often used to describe the surface charge heterogeneity of the grains. In the patchwise model, the colloidal attachment efficiency is linearly correlated with the fraction of the favorable patches (θ=λ(θf - θu)+θu). However, our previous microfluidic study showed that the attachment efficiency of oocysts of Cryptosporidium parvum, a waterborne protozoan parasite, was not linear correlated with the fraction of the favorable patches (λ). In this study, we developed a pore scale model to simulate colloidal transport and attachment on charge heterogeneous grains. The flow field was simulated using the LBM method and colloidal transport and attachment were simulated using the Lagrange particle tracking method. The pore scale model was calibrated with experimental results of colloidal and oocyst transport in microfluidic devices and was then used to simulate oocyst transport in charge heterogeneous porous media under a variety of environmental relative conditions, i.e. the fraction of favorable patchwise, ionic strength, and pH. The results of the pore scale simulations were used to evaluate the effect of surface charge heterogeneity on upscaling of oocyst transport from pore to continuum scale and to develop an applicable correlation between colloidal attachment efficiency and the fraction of the favorable patches.

Computational Modeling of a Time-Independent, Heterogeneous Reactor Core Using Simplified Discrete Ordinates Neutron Transport Techniques

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Labowski, Kristofer

2001-01-01

The Linear Characteristic (LC) method on rectangular boxoid meshes is a discrete ordinate neutron transport technique that uses both zeroth and first moments of the angular neutron flux to construct a relatively accurate...

Symmetries applied to reactor calculations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Makai, M.

1982-03-01

Three problems of a reactor-calculational model are discussed with the help of symmetry considerations. 1/ A coarse mesh method applicable to any geometry is derived. It is shown that the coarse mesh solution can be constructed from a few standard boundary value problems. 2/ A second stage homogenization method is given based on the Bloch theorem. This ensures the continuity of the current and the flux at the boundary. 3/ The validity of the micro-macro separation is shown for heterogeneous lattices. A formula for the neutron density is derived for cell homogenization. (author)

Adaptive moving mesh methods for simulating one-dimensional groundwater problems with sharp moving fronts

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, W.; Zheng, Lingyun; Zhan, X.

2002-01-01

Accurate modelling of groundwater flow and transport with sharp moving fronts often involves high computational cost, when a fixed/uniform mesh is used. In this paper, we investigate the modelling of groundwater problems using a particular adaptive mesh method called the moving mesh partial differential equation approach. With this approach, the mesh is dynamically relocated through a partial differential equation to capture the evolving sharp fronts with a relatively small number of grid points. The mesh movement and physical system modelling are realized by solving the mesh movement and physical partial differential equations alternately. The method is applied to the modelling of a range of groundwater problems, including advection dominated chemical transport and reaction, non-linear infiltration in soil, and the coupling of density dependent flow and transport. Numerical results demonstrate that sharp moving fronts can be accurately and efficiently captured by the moving mesh approach. Also addressed are important implementation strategies, e.g. the construction of the monitor function based on the interpolation error, control of mesh concentration, and two-layer mesh movement. Copyright ?? 2002 John Wiley and Sons, Ltd.

From medium heterogeneity to flow and transport: A time-domain random walk approach

Science.gov (United States)

Hakoun, V.; Comolli, A.; Dentz, M.

2017-12-01

The prediction of flow and transport processes in heterogeneous porous media is based on the qualitative and quantitative understanding of the interplay between 1) spatial variability of hydraulic conductivity, 2) groundwater flow and 3) solute transport. Using a stochastic modeling approach, we study this interplay through direct numerical simulations of Darcy flow and advective transport in heterogeneous media. First, we study flow in correlated hydraulic permeability fields and shed light on the relationship between the statistics of log-hydraulic conductivity, a medium attribute, and the flow statistics. Second, we determine relationships between Eulerian and Lagrangian velocity statistics, this means, between flow and transport attributes. We show how Lagrangian statistics and thus transport behaviors such as late particle arrival times are influenced by the medium heterogeneity on one hand and the initial particle velocities on the other. We find that equidistantly sampled Lagrangian velocities can be described by a Markov process that evolves on the characteristic heterogeneity length scale. We employ a stochastic relaxation model for the equidistantly sampled particle velocities, which is parametrized by the velocity correlation length. This description results in a time-domain random walk model for the particle motion, whose spatial transitions are characterized by the velocity correlation length and temporal transitions by the particle velocities. This approach relates the statistical medium and flow properties to large scale transport, and allows for conditioning on the initial particle velocities and thus to the medium properties in the injection region. The approach is tested against direct numerical simulations.

A continuous time random walk model for Darcy-scale anomalous transport in heterogeneous porous media.

Science.gov (United States)

Comolli, Alessandro; Hakoun, Vivien; Dentz, Marco

2017-04-01

Achieving the understanding of the process of solute transport in heterogeneous porous media is of crucial importance for several environmental and social purposes, ranging from aquifers contamination and remediation, to risk assessment in nuclear waste repositories. The complexity of this aim is mainly ascribable to the heterogeneity of natural media, which can be observed at all the scales of interest, from pore scale to catchment scale. In fact, the intrinsic heterogeneity of porous media is responsible for the arising of the well-known non-Fickian footprints of transport, including heavy-tailed breakthrough curves, non-Gaussian spatial density profiles and the non-linear growth of the mean squared displacement. Several studies investigated the processes through which heterogeneity impacts the transport properties, which include local modifications to the advective-dispersive motion of solutes, mass exchanges between some mobile and immobile phases (e.g. sorption/desorption reactions or diffusion into solid matrix) and spatial correlation of the flow field. In the last decades, the continuous time random walk (CTRW) model has often been used to describe solute transport in heterogenous conditions and to quantify the impact of point heterogeneity, spatial correlation and mass transfer on the average transport properties [1]. Open issues regarding this approach are the possibility to relate measurable properties of the medium to the parameters of the model, as well as its capability to provide predictive information. In a recent work [2] the authors have shed new light on understanding the relationship between Lagrangian and Eulerian dynamics as well as on their evolution from arbitrary initial conditions. On the basis of these results, we derive a CTRW model for the description of Darcy-scale transport in d-dimensional media characterized by spatially random permeability fields. The CTRW approach models particle velocities as a spatial Markov process, which is

Nucleotide-induced conformational dynamics in ABC transporters from structure-based coarse grained modelling.

Science.gov (United States)

Flechsig, Holger

2016-02-01

ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters are integral membrane proteins which mediate the exchange of diverse substrates across membranes powered by ATP molecules. Our understanding of their activity is still hampered since the conformational dynamics underlying the operation of such proteins cannot yet be resolved in detailed molecular dynamics studies. Here a coarse grained model which allows to mimic binding of nucleotides and follow subsequent conformational motions of full-length transporter structures in computer simulations is proposed and implemented. To justify its explanatory quality, the model is first applied to the maltose transporter system for which multiple conformations are known and we find that the model predictions agree remarkably well with the experimental data. For the MalK subunit the switching from open to the closed dimer configuration upon ATP binding is reproduced and, moreover, for the full-length maltose transporter, progression from inward-facing to the outward-facing state is correctly obtained. For the heme transporter HmuUV, for which only the free structure could yet be determined, the model was then applied to predict nucleotide-induced conformational motions. Upon binding of ATP-mimicking ligands the structure changed from a conformation in which the nucleotide-binding domains formed an open shape, to a conformation in which they were found in tight contact, while, at the same time, a pronounced rotation of the transmembrane domains was observed. This finding is supported by normal mode analysis, and, comparison with structural data of the homologous vitamin B12 transporter BtuCD suggests that the observed rotation mechanism may contribute a common functional aspect for this class of ABC transporters. Although in HmuuV noticeable rearrangement of essential transmembrane helices was detected, there are no indications from our simulations that ATP binding alone may facilitate propagation of substrate molecules in this transporter

Impact of Variable-Resolution Meshes on Regional Climate Simulations

Science.gov (United States)

Fowler, L. D.; Skamarock, W. C.; Bruyere, C. L.

2014-12-01

The Model for Prediction Across Scales (MPAS) is currently being used for seasonal-scale simulations on globally-uniform and regionally-refined meshes. Our ongoing research aims at analyzing simulations of tropical convective activity and tropical cyclone development during one hurricane season over the North Atlantic Ocean, contrasting statistics obtained with a variable-resolution mesh against those obtained with a quasi-uniform mesh. Analyses focus on the spatial distribution, frequency, and intensity of convective and grid-scale precipitations, and their relative contributions to the total precipitation as a function of the horizontal scale. Multi-month simulations initialized on May 1st 2005 using ERA-Interim re-analyses indicate that MPAS performs satisfactorily as a regional climate model for different combinations of horizontal resolutions and transitions between the coarse and refined meshes. Results highlight seamless transitions for convection, cloud microphysics, radiation, and land-surface processes between the quasi-uniform and locally- refined meshes, despite the fact that the physics parameterizations were not developed for variable resolution meshes. Our goal of analyzing the performance of MPAS is twofold. First, we want to establish that MPAS can be successfully used as a regional climate model, bypassing the need for nesting and nudging techniques at the edges of the computational domain as done in traditional regional climate modeling. Second, we want to assess the performance of our convective and cloud microphysics parameterizations as the horizontal resolution varies between the lower-resolution quasi-uniform and higher-resolution locally-refined areas of the global domain.

Bacterial transport in heterogeneous porous media: Observations from laboratory experiments

Science.gov (United States)

Silliman, S. E.; Dunlap, R.; Fletcher, M.; Schneegurt, M. A.

2001-11-01

Transport of bacteria through heterogeneous porous media was investigated in small-scale columns packed with sand and in a tank designed to allow the hydraulic conductivity to vary as a two-dimensional, lognormally distributed, second-order stationary, exponentially correlated random field. The bacteria were Pseudomonas ftuorescens R8, a strain demonstrating appreciable attachment to surfaces, and strain Ml, a transposon mutant of strain R8 with reduced attachment ability. In bench top, sand-filled columns, transport was determined by measuring intensity of fluorescence of stained cells in the effluent or by measuring radiolabeled cells that were retained in the sand columns. Results demonstrated that strain Ml was transported more efficiently than strain R8 through columns packed with either a homogeneous silica sand or a more heterogeneous sand with iron oxide coatings. Two experiments conducted in the tank involved monitoring transport of bacteria to wells via sampling from wells and sample ports in the tank. Bacterial numbers were determined by direct plate count. At the end of the first experiment, the distribution of the bacteria in the sediment was determined by destructive sampling and plating. The two experiments produced bacterial breakthrough curves that were quite similar even though the similarity between the two porous media was limited to first- and second-order statistical moments. This result appears consistent with the concept of large-scale, average behavior such as has been observed for the transport of conservative chemical tracers. The transported bacteria arrived simultaneously with a conservative chemical tracer (although at significantly lower normalized concentration than the tracer). However, the bacterial breakthrough curves showed significant late time tailing. The concentrations of bacteria attached to the sediment surfaces showed considerably more spatial variation than did the concentrations of bacteria in the fluid phase. This

Finite element transport using Wachspress rational basis functions on quadrilaterals in diffusive regions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Davidson, G.; Palmer, T.S.

2005-01-01

In 1975, Wachspress developed basis functions that can be constructed upon very general zone shapes, including convex polygons and polyhedra, as well as certain zone shapes with curved sides and faces. Additionally, Adams has recently shown that weight functions with certain properties will produce solutions with full-resolution. Wachspress rational functions possess those necessary properties. Here we present methods to construct and integrate Wachspress rational functions on quadrilaterals. We also present an asymptotic analysis of a discontinuous finite element discretization on quadrilaterals, and we present 3 numerical results that confirm the predictions of our analysis. In the first test problem, we showed that Wachspress rational functions could give robust solutions for a strongly heterogeneous problem with both orthogonal and skewed meshes. This strongly heterogenous problem contained thick, diffusive regions, and the discretization provided full-resolution solutions. In the second test problem, we confirmed our asymptotic analysis by demonstrating that the transport solution will converge to the diffusion solution as the problem is made increasingly thick and diffusive. In the third test problem, we demonstrated that bilinear discontinuous based transport and Wachspress rational function based transport converge in the one-mesh limit

Thermal dileptons from coarse-grained transport as fireball probes at SIS energies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Galatyuk, Tetyana; Seck, Florian; Hohler, Paul M.; Rapp, Ralf; Stroth, Joachim

2016-01-01

Utilizing a coarse-graining method to convert hadronic transport simulations of Au+Au collisions at SIS energies into local temperature, baryon and pion densities, we compute the pertinent radiation of thermal dileptons based on an in-medium ρ spectral function that describes available spectra at ultrarelativistic collision energies. In particular, we analyze how far the resulting yields and slopes of the invariant-mass spectra can probe the lifetime and temperatures of the fireball. We find that dilepton radiation sets in after the initial overlap phase of the colliding nuclei of about 7 fm/c, and lasts for about 13 fm/c. This duration closely coincides with the development of the transverse collectivity of the baryons, thus establishing a direct correlation between hadronic collective effects and thermal EM radiation, and supporting a near local equilibration of the system. This fireball ''lifetime'' is substantially smaller than the typical 20-30 fm/c that naive considerations of the density evolution alone would suggest. We furthermore find that the total dilepton yield radiated into the invariant-mass window of M = 0.3-0.7 GeV/c 2 normalized to the number of charged pions, follows a relation to the lifetime found earlier in the (ultra-)relativistic regime of heavy-ion collisions, and thus corroborates the versatility of this tool. The spectral slopes of the invariant-mass spectra above the φ -meson mass provide a thermometer of the hottest phases of the collision, and agree well with the maximal temperatures extracted from the coarse-grained hadron spectra. (orig.)

Radiative Heat Transfer in Combustion Applications: Parallel Efficiencies of Two Gas Models, Turbulent Radiation Interactions in Particulate Laden Flows, and Coarse Mesh Finite Difference Acceleration for Improved Temporal Accuracy

Science.gov (United States)

Cleveland, Mathew A.

initialization. The TRI effects are very sensitive to the initialization of the turbulence in the system. The TRI parameters are somewhat sensitive to the treatment of particulate temperature and the particulate optical thickness, and this effect are amplified by increased particulate loading. Monte Carlo radiative heat transfer simulations of time-dependent combustion processes generally involve an explicit evaluation of emission source because of the expense of the transport solver. Recently, Park et al. [5] have applied quasi-diffusion with Monte Carlo in high energy density radiative transfer applications. We employ a Crank-Nicholson temporal integration scheme in conjunction with the coarse mesh finite difference (CMFD) method, in an effort to improve the temporal accuracy of the Monte Carlo solver. Our results show that this CMFD-CN method is an improvement over Monte Carlo with CMFD time-differenced via Backward Euler, and Implicit Monte Carlo [6] (IMC). The increase in accuracy involves very little increase in computational cost, and the figure of merit for the CMFD-CN scheme is greater than IMC.

Measured surface magnetic field attenuation of shielded windows and wire mesh over an electrically small enclosure

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hoeft, L.O.; Hofstra, J.S.; Karaskiewicz, R.J.; Wiser, G.

1984-01-01

The surface magnetic field attenuation of five types of shielded transparency (window) material was measured over the frequency range 10 kHz to 100 MHz by installing them on an .61 m x .61 m x .2 m enclosure, placing the enclosure on the wall of a TEM cell and measuring the surface and interior magnetic fields using a computer-controlled network analyzer system. The samples included two thicknesses of conductive grids on acrylic, hardware, cloth with 1/8 and 1/4-inch mesh, and a fine mesh laminated optical display window. These measurements are indicative of an enclosure with aperture coupling; namely, they become frequency-independent at high frequencies. Coarse mesh samples (1/8-1/4-inch mesh) were able to provide 50 to 60 dB of magnetic field reduction at tens of MHz, whereas the finer mesh did slightly better. This behavior is consistent with magnetic polarizability theory. Material thickness did not have an appreciable effect for frequencies above a MHz

Discrete Fracture Modeling of 3D Heterogeneous Enhanced Coalbed Methane Recovery with Prismatic Meshing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yongbin Zhang

2015-06-01

Full Text Available In this study, a 3D multicomponent multiphase simulator with a new fracture characterization technique is developed to simulate the enhanced recovery of coalbed methane. In this new model, the diffusion source from the matrix is calculated using the traditional dual-continuum approach, while in the Darcy flow scale, the Discrete Fracture Model (DFM is introduced to explicitly represent the flow interaction between cleats and large-scale fractures. For this purpose, a general formulation is proposed to model the multicomponent multiphase flow through the fractured coal media. The S&D model and a revised P&M model are incorporated to represent the geomechanical effects. Then a finite volume based discretization and solution strategies are constructed to solve the general ECBM equations. The prismatic meshing algorism is used to construct the grids for 3D reservoirs with complex fracture geometry. The simulator is validated with a benchmark case in which the results show close agreement with GEM. Finally, simulation of a synthetic heterogeneous 3D coal reservoir modified from a published literature is performed to evaluate the production performance and the effects of injected gas composition, well pattern and gas buoyancy.

Inertial Effects on Flow and Transport in Heterogeneous Porous Media.

Science.gov (United States)

Nissan, Alon; Berkowitz, Brian

2018-02-02

We investigate the effects of high fluid velocities on flow and tracer transport in heterogeneous porous media. We simulate fluid flow and advective transport through two-dimensional pore-scale matrices with varying structural complexity. As the Reynolds number increases, the flow regime transitions from linear to nonlinear; this behavior is controlled by the medium structure, where higher complexity amplifies inertial effects. The result is, nonintuitively, increased homogenization of the flow field, which leads in the context of conservative chemical transport to less anomalous behavior. We quantify the transport patterns via a continuous time random walk, using the spatial distribution of the kinetic energy within the fluid as a characteristic measure.

Discretization of the Joule heating term for plasma discharge fluid models in unstructured meshes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Deconinck, T.; Mahadevan, S.; Raja, L.L.

2009-01-01

The fluid (continuum) approach is commonly used for simulation of plasma phenomena in electrical discharges at moderate to high pressures (>10's mTorr). The description comprises governing equations for charged and neutral species transport and energy equations for electrons and the heavy species, coupled to equations for the electromagnetic fields. The coupling of energy from the electrostatic field to the plasma species is modeled by the Joule heating term which appears in the electron and heavy species (ion) energy equations. Proper numerical discretization of this term is necessary for accurate description of discharge energetics; however, discretization of this term poses a special problem in the case of unstructured meshes owing to the arbitrary orientation of the faces enclosing each cell. We propose a method for the numerical discretization of the Joule heating term using a cell-centered finite volume approach on unstructured meshes with closed convex cells. The Joule heating term is computed by evaluating both the electric field and the species flux at the cell center. The dot product of these two vector quantities is computed to obtain the Joule heating source term. We compare two methods to evaluate the species flux at the cell center. One is based on reconstructing the fluxes at the cell centers from the fluxes at the face centers. The other recomputes the flux at the cell center using the common drift-diffusion approximation. The reconstructed flux scheme is the most stable method and yields reasonably accurate results on coarse meshes.

On transport in formations of large heterogeneity scales

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dagan, Gedeon

1990-01-01

It has been suggested that in transport through heterogeneous aquifers, the effective dispersivity increases with the travel distance, since plumes encounter heterogeneity of increasing scales. This conclusion is underlain, however, by the assumption of ergodicity. If the plume is viewed as made up of different particles, this means that these particles move independently from a statistical point of view. To satisfy ergodicity the solute body has to be of a much larger extent than heterogeneity scales. Thus, if the latter are increasing for ever and the solute body is finite, ergodicity cannot be obeyed. To demonstrate this thesis we relate to the two-dimensional heterogeneity associated with transmissivity variations in the horizontal plane. First, the effective dispersion coefficient is defined as half the rate of change of the expected value of the solute body second spatial moment relative to its centroid. Subsequently the asymptotic large time limit of dispersivity is evaluated in terms of the log transmissivity integral scale and of the dimensions of the initial solute body in the direction of mean flow and normal to it. It is shown that for a thin plume aligned with the mean flow the effective dispersivity is zero and the effect of heterogeneity is a slight and finite expansion determined solely by the solute body size. In the case of a solute body transverse to the mean flow the effective dispersivity is different from zero, but has a maximal value which is again dependent on the solute body size and not on the heterogeneity scale. It is concluded that from a theoretical standpoint and for the definition of dispersivity adopted here for non-ergodic conditions, the claim of ever-increasing dispersivity with travel distance is not valid for the scale of heterogeneity analyzed here. (Author) (21 refs., 6 figs.)

Prediction of bedload sediment transport for heterogeneous sediments in shape

Science.gov (United States)

Durafour, Marine; Jarno, Armelle; Le Bot, Sophie; Lafite, Robert; Marin, François

2015-04-01

Key words: Particle shape, in-situ measurements, bedload transport, heterogeneous sediments Bedload sediment transport in the coastal area is a dynamic process mainly influenced by the type of hydrodynamic forcings involved (current and/or waves), the flow properties (velocity, viscosity, depth) and sediment heterogeneity (particle size, density, shape). Although particle shape is recognized to be a significant factor in the hydrodynamic behavior of grains, this parameter is not currently implemented in bedload transport formulations: firstly because the mechanisms of initiation of motion according to particle shape are still not fully understood, and secondly due to the difficulties in defining common shape parameters. In March 2011, a large panel of in-situ instruments was deployed on two sites in the Eastern English Channel, during the sea campaign MESFLUX11. Samples of the sediment cover available for transport are collected, during a slack period, per 2cm thick strata by divers and by using a Shipeck grab. Bedload discharges along a tidal cycle are also collected with a Delft Nile Sampler (DNS; Gaweesh and Van Rijn, 1992, 1994) on both sites. The first one is characterized by a sandy bed with a low size dispersion, while the other study area implies graded sediments from fine sands to granules. A detailed analysis of the data is performed to follow the evolution of in-situ bedload fluxes on the seabed for a single current. In-situ measurements are compared to existing formulations according to a single fraction approach, using the median diameter of the mixture, and a fractionwise approach, involving a discretization of the grading curve. Results emphasize the interest to oscillate between these two methods according to the dispersion in size of the site considered. The need to apply a hiding/exposure coefficient (Egiazaroff, 1965) and a hindrance factor (Kleinhans and Van Rijn, 2002) for size heterogeneous sediments is also clearly highlighted. A really good

Liquid Structure with Nano-Heterogeneity Promotes Cationic Transport in Concentrated Electrolytes.

Science.gov (United States)

Borodin, Oleg; Suo, Liumin; Gobet, Mallory; Ren, Xiaoming; Wang, Fei; Faraone, Antonio; Peng, Jing; Olguin, Marco; Schroeder, Marshall; Ding, Michael S; Gobrogge, Eric; von Wald Cresce, Arthur; Munoz, Stephen; Dura, Joseph A; Greenbaum, Steve; Wang, Chunsheng; Xu, Kang

2017-10-24

Using molecular dynamics simulations, small-angle neutron scattering, and a variety of spectroscopic techniques, we evaluated the ion solvation and transport behaviors in aqueous electrolytes containing bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide. We discovered that, at high salt concentrations (from 10 to 21 mol/kg), a disproportion of cation solvation occurs, leading to a liquid structure of heterogeneous domains with a characteristic length scale of 1 to 2 nm. This unusual nano-heterogeneity effectively decouples cations from the Coulombic traps of anions and provides a 3D percolating lithium-water network, via which 40% of the lithium cations are liberated for fast ion transport even in concentration ranges traditionally considered too viscous. Due to such percolation networks, superconcentrated aqueous electrolytes are characterized by a high lithium-transference number (0.73), which is key to supporting an assortment of battery chemistries at high rate. The in-depth understanding of this transport mechanism establishes guiding principles to the tailored design of future superconcentrated electrolyte systems.

TWOTRAN-2, 2-D Multigroup Transport in X-Y, R-Z, R-Theta Geometry with Anisotropic Scattering

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lathrop, K.D.; Brinkley, F.W.

1995-01-01

1 - Description of problem or function: TWOTRAN2 solves the two-dimensional multigroup transport equation in (x,y), (r,theta), and (r,z) geometries. Both regular and adjoint, inhomogeneous and homogeneous (k eff and eigenvalue searches) problems subject to vacuum, reflective, periodic, white or input-specified boundary flux conditions are solved. General anisotropic scattering is allowed and anisotropic inhomogeneous sources are permitted. 2 - Method of solution: The discrete ordinates approximation for the angular variable is used in finite difference form which is solved with the central (diamond) difference approximation. Negative fluxes are eliminated by a local set-to zero and correct algorithm. Standard inner (within-group) and outer iterative cycles are accelerated by a coarse-mesh re-balancing on a coarse mesh which may be independent of the material mesh. 3 - Restrictions on the complexity of the problem: Variable dimensioning is used so that any combination of problem parameters leading to a container array less than MAXLEN can be accommodated. On IBM machines, TWOTRAN2 will execute in the 4-byte mode so that any combination of problem parameters leading to a container array less than MAXLEN can be accommodated. MAXLEN can be several hundred thousand and most problems can be core-contained. On the CDC machines MAXLEN can be slightly greater than 40,000 words and peripheral storage is used for most group-dependent data

Stability analysis of CMFD acceleration for the wavelet expansion method of neutron transport equation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zheng Youqi; Wu Hongchun; Cao Liangzhi

2013-01-01

This paper describes the stability analysis for the coarse mesh finite difference (CMFD) acceleration used in the wavelet expansion method. The nonlinear CMFD acceleration scheme is transformed by linearization and the Fourier ansatz is introduced into the linearized formulae. The spectral radius is defined as the stability criterion, which is the least upper bound (LUB) of the largest eigenvalue of Fourier analysis matrix. The stability analysis considers the effect of mesh size (spectral length), coarse mesh division and scattering ratio. The results show that for the wavelet expansion method, the CMFD acceleration is conditionally stable. The small size of fine mesh brings stability and fast convergent. With the increase of the mesh size, the stability becomes worse. The scattering ratio does not impact the stability obviously. It makes the CMFD acceleration highly efficient in the strong scattering case. The results of Fourier analysis are verified by the numerical tests based on a homogeneous slab problem.

Multilevel Methods for Elliptic Problems with Highly Varying Coefficients on Nonaligned Coarse Grids

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Scheichl, Robert [Univ. of Bath (United Kingdom). Dept. of Mathematical Sciences; Vassilevski, Panayot S. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Zikatanov, Ludmil T. [Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States). Dept. of Mathematics

2012-06-21

We generalize the analysis of classical multigrid and two-level overlapping Schwarz methods for 2nd order elliptic boundary value problems to problems with large discontinuities in the coefficients that are not resolved by the coarse grids or the subdomain partition. The theoretical results provide a recipe for designing hierarchies of standard piecewise linear coarse spaces such that the multigrid convergence rate and the condition number of the Schwarz preconditioned system do not depend on the coefficient variation or on any mesh parameters. One assumption we have to make is that the coarse grids are sufficiently fine in the vicinity of cross points or where regions with large diffusion coefficients are separated by a narrow region where the coefficient is small. We do not need to align them with possible discontinuities in the coefficients. The proofs make use of novel stable splittings based on weighted quasi-interpolants and weighted Poincaré-type inequalities. Finally, numerical experiments are included that illustrate the sharpness of the theoretical bounds and the necessity of the technical assumptions.

Introducing a distributed unstructured mesh into gyrokinetic particle-in-cell code, XGC

Science.gov (United States)

Yoon, Eisung; Shephard, Mark; Seol, E. Seegyoung; Kalyanaraman, Kaushik

2017-10-01

XGC has shown good scalability for large leadership supercomputers. The current production version uses a copy of the entire unstructured finite element mesh on every MPI rank. Although an obvious scalability issue if the mesh sizes are to be dramatically increased, the current approach is also not optimal with respect to data locality of particles and mesh information. To address these issues we have initiated the development of a distributed mesh PIC method. This approach directly addresses the base scalability issue with respect to mesh size and, through the use of a mesh entity centric view of the particle mesh relationship, provides opportunities to address data locality needs of many core and GPU supported heterogeneous systems. The parallel mesh PIC capabilities are being built on the Parallel Unstructured Mesh Infrastructure (PUMI). The presentation will first overview the form of mesh distribution used and indicate the structures and functions used to support the mesh, the particles and their interaction. Attention will then focus on the node-level optimizations being carried out to ensure performant operation of all PIC operations on the distributed mesh. Partnership for Edge Physics Simulation (EPSI) Grant No. DE-SC0008449 and Center for Extended Magnetohydrodynamic Modeling (CEMM) Grant No. DE-SC0006618.

Topological patterns of mesh textures in serpentinites

Science.gov (United States)

Miyazawa, M.; Suzuki, A.; Shimizu, H.; Okamoto, A.; Hiraoka, Y.; Obayashi, I.; Tsuji, T.; Ito, T.

2017-12-01

Serpentinization is a hydration process that forms serpentine minerals and magnetite within the oceanic lithosphere. Microfractures crosscut these minerals during the reactions, and the structures look like mesh textures. It has been known that the patterns of microfractures and the system evolutions are affected by the hydration reaction and fluid transport in fractures and within matrices. This study aims at quantifying the topological patterns of the mesh textures and understanding possible conditions of fluid transport and reaction during serpentinization in the oceanic lithosphere. Two-dimensional simulation by the distinct element method (DEM) generates fracture patterns due to serpentinization. The microfracture patterns are evaluated by persistent homology, which measures features of connected components of a topological space and encodes multi-scale topological features in the persistence diagrams. The persistence diagrams of the different mesh textures are evaluated by principal component analysis to bring out the strong patterns of persistence diagrams. This approach help extract feature values of fracture patterns from high-dimensional and complex datasets.

A Non-Equilibrium Sediment Transport Model for Dam Break Flow over Moveable Bed Based on Non-Uniform Rectangular Mesh

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gangfeng Wu

2018-05-01

Full Text Available The use of multiple-level non-uniform rectangular mesh in coupled flow and sediment transport modeling is preferred to achieve high accuracy in important region without increasing computational cost greatly. Here, a robust coupled hydrodynamic and non-equilibrium sediment transport model is developed on non-uniform rectangular mesh to simulate dam break flow over movable beds. The enhanced shallow water and sediment transport equations are adopted to consider the mass and momentum exchange between the flow phase and sediment phase. The flux at the interface is calculated by the positivity preserving central upwind scheme, which belongs to Godunov-type Riemann-problem-solver-free central schemes and is less expensive than other popular Riemann solvers while still capable of tracking wet/dry fronts accurately. The nonnegative water depth reconstruction method is used to achieve second-order accuracy in space. The model was first verified against two laboratory experiments of dam break flow over irregular fixed bed. Then the quantitative performance of the model was further investigated by comparing the computational results with measurement data of dam break flow over movable bed. The good agreements between the measurements and the numerical simulations are found for the flow depth, velocity and bed changes.

User Manual for the PROTEUS Mesh Tools

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Smith, Micheal A. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Shemon, Emily R [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

2016-09-19

PROTEUS is built around a finite element representation of the geometry for visualization. In addition, the PROTEUS-SN solver was built to solve the even-parity transport equation on a finite element mesh provided as input. Similarly, PROTEUS-MOC and PROTEUS-NEMO were built to apply the method of characteristics on unstructured finite element meshes. Given the complexity of real world problems, experience has shown that using commercial mesh generator to create rather simple input geometries is overly complex and slow. As a consequence, significant effort has been put into place to create multiple codes that help assist in the mesh generation and manipulation. There are three input means to create a mesh in PROTEUS: UFMESH, GRID, and NEMESH. At present, the UFMESH is a simple way to generate two-dimensional Cartesian and hexagonal fuel assembly geometries. The UFmesh input allows for simple assembly mesh generation while the GRID input allows the generation of Cartesian, hexagonal, and regular triangular structured grid geometry options. The NEMESH is a way for the user to create their own mesh or convert another mesh file format into a PROTEUS input format. Given that one has an input mesh format acceptable for PROTEUS, we have constructed several tools which allow further mesh and geometry construction (i.e. mesh extrusion and merging). This report describes the various mesh tools that are provided with the PROTEUS code giving both descriptions of the input and output. In many cases the examples are provided with a regression test of the mesh tools. The most important mesh tools for any user to consider using are the MT_MeshToMesh.x and the MT_RadialLattice.x codes. The former allows the conversion between most mesh types handled by PROTEUS while the second allows the merging of multiple (assembly) meshes into a radial structured grid. Note that the mesh generation process is recursive in nature and that each input specific for a given mesh tool (such as .axial

Influence of vegetation and gravel mesh on the tertiary treatment of wastewater from a cosmetics industry.

Science.gov (United States)

Vlyssides, Apostolos G; Mai, Sofia T H; Barampouti, Elli Maria P; Loukakis, Haralampos N

2009-07-01

To estimate the influence of gravel mesh (fine and coarse) and vegetation (Phragmites and Arundo) on the efficiency of a reed bed, a pilot plant was included after the wastewater treatment plant of a cosmetic industry treatment system according to a 22 factorial experimental design. The maximum biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5), chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total phosphorous (TP) reduction was observed in the reactor, where Phragmites and fine gravel were used. In the reactor with Phragmites and coarse gravel, the maximum total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN) and total suspended solids (TSS) reduction was observed. The maximum total solids reduction was measured in the reed bed, which was filled with Arundo and coarse gravel. Conclusively, the treatment of a cosmetic industry's wastewater by reed beds as a tertiary treatment method is quite effective.

Filtration and transport of Bacillus subtilis spores and the F-RNA phage MS2 in a coarse alluvial gravel aquifer: implications in the estimation of setback distances.

Science.gov (United States)

Pang, Liping; Close, Murray; Goltz, Mark; Noonan, Mike; Sinton, Lester

2005-04-01

water standards for the downgradient wells under natural gradient conditions. Based on the results of this study, a 7-log reduction would require 125-280 m travel in clean coarse gravel aquifers, 1.7-3.9 km travel in contaminated coarse gravel aquifers, 33-61 m travel in clean sandy fine gravel aquifers, 33-129 m travel in contaminated sandy fine gravel aquifers, and 37-44 m travel in contaminated river and coastal sand aquifers. These recommended setback distances are for a worst-case scenario, assuming direct discharge of raw effluent into the saturated zone of an aquifer. Filtration theory was applied to calculate collision efficiency (alpha) from model-derived attachment rates (katt), and the results are compared with those reported in the literature. The calculated alpha values vary by two orders-of-magnitude, depending on whether collision efficiency is estimated from the effective particle size (d10) or the mean particle size (d50). Collision efficiency values for MS-2 are similar to those previously reported in the literature (e.g. ) [DeBorde, D.C., Woessner, W.W., Kiley, QT., Ball, P., 1999. Rapid transport of viruses in a floodplain aquifer. Water Res. 33 (10), 2229-2238]. However, the collision efficiency values calculated for Bacillus subtilis spores were unrealistic, suggesting that filtration theory is not appropriate for theoretically estimating filtration capacity for poorly sorted coarse gravel aquifer media. This is not surprising, as filtration theory was developed for uniform sand filters and does not consider particle size distribution. Thus, we do not recommend the use of filtration theory to estimate the filter factor or setback distances. Either of the methods applied in this work (BTC or concentration vs. distance analyses), which takes into account aquifer heterogeneities and site-specific conditions, appear to be most useful in determining filter factors and setback distances.

Contaminant transport in fracture networks with heterogeneous rock matrices. The Picnic code

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barten, Werner; Robinson, Peter C.

2001-02-01

In the context of safety assessment of radioactive waste repositories, complex radionuclide transport models covering key safety-relevant processes play a major role. In recent Swiss safety assessments, such as Kristallin-I, an important drawback was the limitation in geosphere modelling capability to account for geosphere heterogeneities. In marked contrast to this limitation in modelling capabilities, great effort has been put into investigating the heterogeneity of the geosphere as it impacts on hydrology. Structural geological methods have been used to look at the geometry of the flow paths on a small scale and the diffusion and sorption properties of different rock materials have been investigated. This huge amount of information could however be only partially applied in geosphere transport modelling. To make use of these investigations the 'PICNIC project' was established as a joint cooperation of PSI/Nagra and QuantiSci to provide a new geosphere transport model for Swiss safety assessment of radioactive waste repositories. The new transport code, PICNIC, can treat all processes considered in the older geosphere model RANCH MD generally used in the Kristallin-I study and, in addition, explicitly accounts for the heterogeneity of the geosphere on different spatial scales. The effects and transport phenomena that can be accounted for by PICNIC are a combination of (advective) macro-dispersion due to transport in a network of conduits (legs), micro-dispersion in single legs, one-dimensional or two-dimensional matrix diffusion into a wide range of homogeneous and heterogeneous rock matrix geometries, linear sorption of nuclides in the flow path and the rock matrix and radioactive decay and ingrowth in the case of nuclide chains. Analytical and numerical Laplace transformation methods are integrated in a newly developed hierarchical linear response concept to efficiently account for the transport mechanisms considered which typically act on extremely different

Contaminant transport in fracture networks with heterogeneous rock matrices. The Picnic code

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Barten, Werner [Paul Scherrer Inst., CH-5232 Villigen PSI (Switzerland); Robinson, Peter C. [QuantiSci Limited, Henley-on-Thames (United Kingdom)

2001-02-01

In the context of safety assessment of radioactive waste repositories, complex radionuclide transport models covering key safety-relevant processes play a major role. In recent Swiss safety assessments, such as Kristallin-I, an important drawback was the limitation in geosphere modelling capability to account for geosphere heterogeneities. In marked contrast to this limitation in modelling capabilities, great effort has been put into investigating the heterogeneity of the geosphere as it impacts on hydrology. Structural geological methods have been used to look at the geometry of the flow paths on a small scale and the diffusion and sorption properties of different rock materials have been investigated. This huge amount of information could however be only partially applied in geosphere transport modelling. To make use of these investigations the 'PICNIC project' was established as a joint cooperation of PSI/Nagra and QuantiSci to provide a new geosphere transport model for Swiss safety assessment of radioactive waste repositories. The new transport code, PICNIC, can treat all processes considered in the older geosphere model RANCH MD generally used in the Kristallin-I study and, in addition, explicitly accounts for the heterogeneity of the geosphere on different spatial scales. The effects and transport phenomena that can be accounted for by PICNIC are a combination of (advective) macro-dispersion due to transport in a network of conduits (legs), micro-dispersion in single legs, one-dimensional or two-dimensional matrix diffusion into a wide range of homogeneous and heterogeneous rock matrix geometries, linear sorption of nuclides in the flow path and the rock matrix and radioactive decay and ingrowth in the case of nuclide chains. Analytical and numerical Laplace transformation methods are integrated in a newly developed hierarchical linear response concept to efficiently account for the transport mechanisms considered which typically act on extremely

Opfront: mesh

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

2015-01-01

Mesh generation and visualization software based on the CGAL library. Folder content: drawmesh Visualize slices of the mesh (surface/volumetric) as wireframe on top of an image (3D). drawsurf Visualize surfaces of the mesh (surface/volumetric). img2mesh Convert isosurface in image to volumetric m...... mesh (medit format). img2off Convert isosurface in image to surface mesh (off format). off2mesh Convert surface mesh (off format) to volumetric mesh (medit format). reduce Crop and resize 3D and stacks of images. data Example data to test the library on...

Split-Cell Exponential Characteristic Transport Method for Unstructured Tetrahedral Meshes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brennan, Charles R.; Miller, Rodney L.; Mathews, Kirk A.

2001-01-01

The nonlinear, exponential characteristic (EC) method is extended to unstructured meshes of tetrahedral cells in three-dimensional Cartesian coordinates. The split-cell approach developed for the linear characteristic (LC) method on such meshes is used. Exponential distributions of the source within a cell and of the inflow flux on upstream faces of the cell are assumed. The coefficients of these distributions are determined by nonlinear root solving so as to match the zeroth and first moments of the source or entering flux. Good conditioning is achieved by casting the formulas for the moments of the source, inflow flux, and solution flux as sums of positive functions and by using accurate and robust algorithms for evaluation of those functions. Various test problems are used to compare the performance of the EC and LC methods. The EC method is somewhat less accurate than the LC method in regions of net out leakage but is strictly positive and retains good accuracy with optically thick cells, as in shielding problems, unlike the LC method. The computational cost per cell is greater for the EC method, but the use of substantially coarser meshes can make the EC method less expensive in total cost. The EC method, unlike the LC method, may fail if negative cross sections or angular quadrature weights are used. It is concluded that the EC and LC methods should be practical, reliable, and complimentary schemes for these meshes

A software framework for the portable parallelization of particle-mesh simulations

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sbalzarini, I.F.; Walther, Jens Honore; Polasek, B.

2006-01-01

Abstract: We present a software framework for the transparent and portable parallelization of simulations using particle-mesh methods. Particles are used to transport physical properties and a mesh is required in order to reinitialize the distorted particle locations, ensuring the convergence...

Discontinuous diffusion synthetic acceleration for Sn transport on 2D arbitrary polygonal meshes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Turcksin, Bruno; Ragusa, Jean C.

2014-01-01

In this paper, a Diffusion Synthetic Acceleration (DSA) technique applied to the S n radiation transport equation is developed using Piece-Wise Linear Discontinuous (PWLD) finite elements on arbitrary polygonal grids. The discretization of the DSA equations employs an Interior Penalty technique, as is classically done for the stabilization of the diffusion equation using discontinuous finite element approximations. The penalty method yields a system of linear equations that is Symmetric Positive Definite (SPD). Thus, solution techniques such as Preconditioned Conjugate Gradient (PCG) can be effectively employed. Algebraic MultiGrid (AMG) and Symmetric Gauss–Seidel (SGS) are employed as conjugate gradient preconditioners for the DSA system. AMG is shown to be significantly more efficient than SGS. Fourier analyses are carried out and we show that this discontinuous finite element DSA scheme is always stable and effective at reducing the spectral radius for iterative transport solves, even for grids with high-aspect ratio cells. Numerical results are presented for different grid types: quadrilateral, hexagonal, and polygonal grids as well as grids with local mesh adaptivity

Documentation for MeshKit - Reactor Geometry (&mesh) Generator

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jain, Rajeev [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Mahadevan, Vijay [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

2015-09-30

This report gives documentation for using MeshKit’s Reactor Geometry (and mesh) Generator (RGG) GUI and also briefly documents other algorithms and tools available in MeshKit. RGG is a program designed to aid in modeling and meshing of complex/large hexagonal and rectilinear reactor cores. RGG uses Argonne’s SIGMA interfaces, Qt and VTK to produce an intuitive user interface. By integrating a 3D view of the reactor with the meshing tools and combining them into one user interface, RGG streamlines the task of preparing a simulation mesh and enables real-time feedback that reduces accidental scripting mistakes that could waste hours of meshing. RGG interfaces with MeshKit tools to consolidate the meshing process, meaning that going from model to mesh is as easy as a button click. This report is designed to explain RGG v 2.0 interface and provide users with the knowledge and skills to pilot RGG successfully. Brief documentation of MeshKit source code, tools and other algorithms available are also presented for developers to extend and add new algorithms to MeshKit. RGG tools work in serial and parallel and have been used to model complex reactor core models consisting of conical pins, load pads, several thousands of axially varying material properties of instrumentation pins and other interstices meshes.

Concept on groundwater flow and mass transport through heterogeneous porous media and application to in-situ test analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hatanaka, Koichiro; Umeki, Hiroyuki.

1995-01-01

Generally, geological media is modelled as porous or fractured media depending on their characteristics. Since the channels of groundwater flow and the transport paths are determined by the heterogeneity of the geological media, quantitative understanding of the heterogeneity is an important issue for modelling flow and transport processes through them. Therefore, it becomes popular way to develop statistical identification approaches of the heterogeneous field by using data from in-situ test and conduct validation studies of flow and transport models through the field by comparing with observed data. In this report, the theories of the identification approach and the concept on groundwater flow and mass transport are explained briefly and the application to tracer tests conducted at Grimsel test site, Switzerland, are described. (author)

Wavelet-based Adaptive Mesh Refinement Method for Global Atmospheric Chemical Transport Modeling

Science.gov (United States)

Rastigejev, Y.

2011-12-01

Numerical modeling of global atmospheric chemical transport presents enormous computational difficulties, associated with simulating a wide range of time and spatial scales. The described difficulties are exacerbated by the fact that hundreds of chemical species and thousands of chemical reactions typically are used for chemical kinetic mechanism description. These computational requirements very often forces researches to use relatively crude quasi-uniform numerical grids with inadequate spatial resolution that introduces significant numerical diffusion into the system. It was shown that this spurious diffusion significantly distorts the pollutant mixing and transport dynamics for typically used grid resolution. The described numerical difficulties have to be systematically addressed considering that the demand for fast, high-resolution chemical transport models will be exacerbated over the next decade by the need to interpret satellite observations of tropospheric ozone and related species. In this study we offer dynamically adaptive multilevel Wavelet-based Adaptive Mesh Refinement (WAMR) method for numerical modeling of atmospheric chemical evolution equations. The adaptive mesh refinement is performed by adding and removing finer levels of resolution in the locations of fine scale development and in the locations of smooth solution behavior accordingly. The algorithm is based on the mathematically well established wavelet theory. This allows us to provide error estimates of the solution that are used in conjunction with an appropriate threshold criteria to adapt the non-uniform grid. Other essential features of the numerical algorithm include: an efficient wavelet spatial discretization that allows to minimize the number of degrees of freedom for a prescribed accuracy, a fast algorithm for computing wavelet amplitudes, and efficient and accurate derivative approximations on an irregular grid. The method has been tested for a variety of benchmark problems

Multimodal processes scheduling in mesh-like network environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bocewicz Grzegorz

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Multimodal processes planning and scheduling play a pivotal role in many different domains including city networks, multimodal transportation systems, computer and telecommunication networks and so on. Multimodal process can be seen as a process partially processed by locally executed cyclic processes. In that context the concept of a Mesh-like Multimodal Transportation Network (MMTN in which several isomorphic subnetworks interact each other via distinguished subsets of common shared intermodal transport interchange facilities (such as a railway station, bus station or bus/tram stop as to provide a variety of demand-responsive passenger transportation services is examined. Consider a mesh-like layout of a passengers transport network equipped with different lines including buses, trams, metro, trains etc. where passenger flows are treated as multimodal processes. The goal is to provide a declarative model enabling to state a constraint satisfaction problem aimed at multimodal transportation processes scheduling encompassing passenger flow itineraries. Then, the main objective is to provide conditions guaranteeing solvability of particular transport lines scheduling, i.e. guaranteeing the right match-up of local cyclic acting bus, tram, metro and train schedules to a given passengers flow itineraries.

Iterative resonance self-shielding methods using resonance integral table in heterogeneous transport lattice calculations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hong, Ser Gi; Kim, Kang-Seog

2011-01-01

This paper describes the iteration methods using resonance integral tables to estimate the effective resonance cross sections in heterogeneous transport lattice calculations. Basically, these methods have been devised to reduce an effort to convert resonance integral table into subgroup data to be used in the physical subgroup method. Since these methods do not use subgroup data but only use resonance integral tables directly, these methods do not include an error in converting resonance integral into subgroup data. The effective resonance cross sections are estimated iteratively for each resonance nuclide through the heterogeneous fixed source calculations for the whole problem domain to obtain the background cross sections. These methods have been implemented in the transport lattice code KARMA which uses the method of characteristics (MOC) to solve the transport equation. The computational results show that these iteration methods are quite promising in the practical transport lattice calculations.

A high-order multiscale finite-element method for time-domain acoustic-wave modeling

Science.gov (United States)

Gao, Kai; Fu, Shubin; Chung, Eric T.

2018-05-01

Accurate and efficient wave equation modeling is vital for many applications in such as acoustics, electromagnetics, and seismology. However, solving the wave equation in large-scale and highly heterogeneous models is usually computationally expensive because the computational cost is directly proportional to the number of grids in the model. We develop a novel high-order multiscale finite-element method to reduce the computational cost of time-domain acoustic-wave equation numerical modeling by solving the wave equation on a coarse mesh based on the multiscale finite-element theory. In contrast to existing multiscale finite-element methods that use only first-order multiscale basis functions, our new method constructs high-order multiscale basis functions from local elliptic problems which are closely related to the Gauss-Lobatto-Legendre quadrature points in a coarse element. Essentially, these basis functions are not only determined by the order of Legendre polynomials, but also by local medium properties, and therefore can effectively convey the fine-scale information to the coarse-scale solution with high-order accuracy. Numerical tests show that our method can significantly reduce the computation time while maintain high accuracy for wave equation modeling in highly heterogeneous media by solving the corresponding discrete system only on the coarse mesh with the new high-order multiscale basis functions.

Mesh Excision: Is Total Mesh Excision Necessary?

Science.gov (United States)

Wolff, Gillian F; Winters, J Christian; Krlin, Ryan M

2016-04-01

Nearly 29% of women will undergo a secondary, repeat operation for pelvic organ prolapse (POP) symptom recurrence following a primary repair, as reported by Abbott et al. (Am J Obstet Gynecol 210:163.e1-163.e1, 2014). In efforts to decrease the rates of failure, graft materials have been utilized to augment transvaginal repairs. Following the success of using polypropylene mesh (PPM) for stress urinary incontinence (SUI), the use of PPM in the transvaginal repair of POP increased. However, in recent years, significant concerns have been raised about the safety of PPM mesh. Complications, some specific to mesh, such as exposures, erosion, dyspareunia, and pelvic pain, have been reported with increased frequency. In the current literature, there is not substantive evidence to suggest that PPM has intrinsic properties that warrant total mesh removal in the absence of complications. There are a number of complications that can occur after transvaginal mesh placement that do warrant surgical intervention after failure of conservative therapy. In aggregate, there are no high-quality controlled studies that clearly demonstrate that total mesh removal is consistently more likely to achieve pain reduction. In the cases of obstruction and erosion, it seems clear that definitive removal of the offending mesh is associated with resolution of symptoms in the majority of cases and reasonable practice. There are a number of complications that can occur with removal of mesh, and patients should be informed of this as they formulate a choice of treatment. We will review these considerations as we examine the clinical question of whether total versus partial removal of mesh is necessary for the resolution of complications following transvaginal mesh placement.

Analytical modelling of hydrogen transport in reactor containments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Manno, V.P.

1983-09-01

A versatile computational model of hydrogen transport in nuclear plant containment buildings is developed. The background and significance of hydrogen-related nuclear safety issues are discussed. A computer program is constructed that embodies the analytical models. The thermofluid dynamic formulation spans a wide applicability range from rapid two-phase blowdown transients to slow incompressible hydrogen injection. Detailed ancillary models of molecular and turbulent diffusion, mixture transport properties, multi-phase multicomponent thermodynamics and heat sink modelling are addressed. The numerical solution of the continuum equations emphasizes both accuracy and efficiency in the employment of relatively coarse discretization and long time steps. Reducing undesirable numerical diffusion is addressed. Problem geometry options include lumped parameter zones, one dimensional meshs, two dimensional Cartesian or axisymmetric coordinate systems and three dimensional Cartesian or cylindrical regions. An efficient lumped nodal model is included for simulation of events in which spatial resolution is not significant. Several validation calculations are reported

Transmission probability method based on triangle meshes for solving unstructured geometry neutron transport problem

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wu Hongchun [Nuclear Engineering Department, Xi' an Jiaotong University, Xi' an 710049, Shaanxi (China)]. E-mail: hongchun@mail.xjtu.edu.cn; Liu Pingping [Nuclear Engineering Department, Xi' an Jiaotong University, Xi' an 710049, Shaanxi (China); Zhou Yongqiang [Nuclear Engineering Department, Xi' an Jiaotong University, Xi' an 710049, Shaanxi (China); Cao Liangzhi [Nuclear Engineering Department, Xi' an Jiaotong University, Xi' an 710049, Shaanxi (China)

2007-01-15

In the advanced reactor, the fuel assembly or core with unstructured geometry is frequently used and for calculating its fuel assembly, the transmission probability method (TPM) has been used widely. However, the rectangle or hexagon meshes are mainly used in the TPM codes for the normal core structure. The triangle meshes are most useful for expressing the complicated unstructured geometry. Even though finite element method and Monte Carlo method is very good at solving unstructured geometry problem, they are very time consuming. So we developed the TPM code based on the triangle meshes. The TPM code based on the triangle meshes was applied to the hybrid fuel geometry, and compared with the results of the MCNP code and other codes. The results of comparison were consistent with each other. The TPM with triangle meshes would thus be expected to be able to apply to the two-dimensional arbitrary fuel assembly.

A parallel adaptive mesh refinement algorithm for predicting turbulent non-premixed combusting flows

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gao, X.; Groth, C.P.T.

2005-01-01

A parallel adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) algorithm is proposed for predicting turbulent non-premixed combusting flows characteristic of gas turbine engine combustors. The Favre-averaged Navier-Stokes equations governing mixture and species transport for a reactive mixture of thermally perfect gases in two dimensions, the two transport equations of the κ-ψ turbulence model, and the time-averaged species transport equations, are all solved using a fully coupled finite-volume formulation. A flexible block-based hierarchical data structure is used to maintain the connectivity of the solution blocks in the multi-block mesh and facilitate automatic solution-directed mesh adaptation according to physics-based refinement criteria. This AMR approach allows for anisotropic mesh refinement and the block-based data structure readily permits efficient and scalable implementations of the algorithm on multi-processor architectures. Numerical results for turbulent non-premixed diffusion flames, including cold- and hot-flow predictions for a bluff body burner, are described and compared to available experimental data. The numerical results demonstrate the validity and potential of the parallel AMR approach for predicting complex non-premixed turbulent combusting flows. (author)

Fluid flow and heat transfer investigation of pebble bed reactors using mesh adaptive large-eddy simulation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pavlidis, D.; Lathouwers, D.

2011-01-01

A computational fluid dynamics model with anisotropic mesh adaptivity is used to investigate coolant flow and heat transfer in pebble bed reactors. A novel method for implicitly incorporating solid boundaries based on multi-fluid flow modelling is adopted. The resulting model is able to resolve and simulate flow and heat transfer in randomly packed beds, regardless of the actual geometry, starting off with arbitrarily coarse meshes. The model is initially evaluated using an orderly stacked square channel of channel-height-to-particle diameter ratio of unity for a range of Reynolds numbers. The model is then applied to the face-centred cubical geometry. Coolant flow and heat transfer patterns are investigated. (author)

Flow and transport in unsaturated fractured rock: Effects of multiscale heterogeneity of hydrogeologic properties

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhou, Quanlin; Liu, Hui-Hai; Bodvarsson, Gudmundur S.; Oldenburg, Curtis M.

2002-01-01

The heterogeneity of hydrogeologic properties at different scales may have different effects on flow and transport processes in a subsurface system. A model for the unsaturated zone of Yucca Mountain, Nevada, is developed to represent complex heterogeneity at two different scales: (1) layer scale corresponding to geologic layering and (2) local scale. The layer-scale hydrogeologic properties are obtained using inverse modeling, based on the available measurements collected from the Yucca Mountain site. Calibration results show a significant lateral and vertical variability in matrix and fracture properties. Hydrogeologic property distributions in a two-dimensional, vertical cross section of the site are generated by combining the average layer-scale matrix and fracture properties with local-scale perturbations generated using a stochastic simulation method. The unsaturated water flow and conservative (nonsorbing) tracer transport through the cross section are simulated for different sets of matrix and fracture property fields. Comparison of simulation results indicates that the local-scale heterogeneity of matrix and fracture properties has a considerable effect on unsaturated flow processes, leading to fast flow paths in fractures and the matrix. These paths shorten the travel time of a conservative tracer from the source (repository) horizon in the unsaturated zone to the water table for small fractions of total released tracer mass. As a result, the local-scale heterogeneity also has a noticeable effect on global tracer transport processes, characterized by an average breakthrough curve at the water table, especially at the early arrival time of tracer mass. However, the effect is not significant at the later time after 20 percent tracer mass reaches the water table. The simulation results also verify that matrix diffusion plays an important role in overall solute transport processes in the unsaturated zone at Yucca Mountain

Development of a fast pin-by-pin transport solver in ARCADIA registered

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Geemert, R. van

2009-01-01

For satisfaction of future global customer needs, dedicated efforts are being coordinated internationally and pursued continuously at AREVA NP. The currently ongoing CONVERGENCE project is committed to the development of the ARCADIA registered next generation core simulation software package. ARCADIA registered will be put to global use by all AREVA NP business regions, for the entire spectrum of core design processes, licensing computations and safety studies. As part of the currently ongoing trend towards more sophisticated neutronics methodologies, an SP 3 nodal transport concept (van Geemert 2008) has been developed for ARTEMIS (Hobson 2008) which is the steady-state and transient core simulation part of ARCADIA registered . For enabling a high computational performance, the SP 3 calculations are accelerated by applying multi-level coarse mesh rebalancing (van Geemert 2006). In the current implementation, SP 3 is typically about 1.4 times as expensive computationally as SP 1 (diffusion). The developed SP 3 solution concept is foreseen as the future computational workhorse for many-group 3D pin-by-pin full core computations by ARCADIA registered . With the entire numerical workload being highly parallelizable through domain decomposition techniques, associated CPU-time requirements that adhere to the efficiency needs in the nuclear industry can be expected to become feasible in the near future. The accuracy enhancement obtainable by using SP 3 instead of SP 1 has been verified by a detailed comparison of ARTEMIS 16-group pin-by-pin SP N results with KAERI's DeCart reference results (Kozlowski 2003) for the 2D pin-by-pin Purdue UO 2 /MOX benchmark. Within the associated pin-by-pin grid, large pin-to-pin variations in cross-section values occur due to the explicit modelling of guide tubes, gadolinium pins as well as the heterogeneous distribution of MOX assemblies and UO 2 assemblies featuring significantly different burnups. With a pin-by-pin grid as

A new approach to tracer transport analysis: From fracture systems to strongly heterogeneous porous media

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tsang, Chin-Fu.

1989-02-01

Many current development and utilization of groundwater resources include a study of their flow and transport properties. These properties are needed in evaluating possible changes in groundwater quality and potential transport of hazardous solutes through the groundwater system. Investigation of transport properties of fractured rocks is an active area of research. Most of the current approaches to the study of flow and transport in fractured rocks cannot be easily used for analysis of tracer transport field data. A new approach is proposed based on a detailed study of transport through a fracture of variable aperture. This is a two-dimensional strongly heterogeneous permeable system. It is suggested that tracer breakthrough curves can be analyzed based on an aperture or permeability probability distribution function that characterizes the tracer flow through the fracture. The results are extended to a multi-fracture system and can be equally applied to a strongly heterogeneous porous medium. Finally, the need for multi-point or line and areal tracer injection and observation tests is indicated as a way to avoid the sensitive dependence of point measurements on local permeability variability. 30 refs., 15 figs

Notes on the Mesh Handler and Mesh Data Conversion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Sang Yong; Park, Chan Eok

2009-01-01

At the outset of the development of the thermal-hydraulic code (THC), efforts have been made to utilize the recent technology of the computational fluid dynamics. Among many of them, the unstructured mesh approach was adopted to alleviate the restriction of the grid handling system. As a natural consequence, a mesh handler (MH) has been developed to manipulate the complex mesh data from the mesh generator. The mesh generator, Gambit, was chosen at the beginning of the development of the code. But a new mesh generator, Pointwise, was introduced to get more flexible mesh generation capability. An open source code, Paraview, was chosen as a post processor, which can handle unstructured as well as structured mesh data. Overall data processing system for THC is shown in Figure-1. There are various file formats to save the mesh data in the permanent storage media. A couple of dozen of file formats are found even in the above mentioned programs. A competent mesh handler should have the capability to import or export mesh data as many as possible formats. But, in reality, there are two aspects that make it difficult to achieve the competence. The first aspect to consider is the time and efforts to program the interface code. And the second aspect, which is even more difficult one, is the fact that many mesh data file formats are proprietary information. In this paper, some experience of the development of the format conversion programs will be presented. File formats involved are Gambit neutral format, Ansys-CFX grid file format, VTK legacy file format, Nastran format and CGNS

COMPUTATIONAL EFFICIENCY OF A MODIFIED SCATTERING KERNEL FOR FULL-COUPLED PHOTON-ELECTRON TRANSPORT PARALLEL COMPUTING WITH UNSTRUCTURED TETRAHEDRAL MESHES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

JONG WOON KIM

2014-04-01

In this paper, we introduce a modified scattering kernel approach to avoid the unnecessarily repeated calculations involved with the scattering source calculation, and used it with parallel computing to effectively reduce the computation time. Its computational efficiency was tested for three-dimensional full-coupled photon-electron transport problems using our computer program which solves the multi-group discrete ordinates transport equation by using the discontinuous finite element method with unstructured tetrahedral meshes for complicated geometrical problems. The numerical tests show that we can improve speed up to 17∼42 times for the elapsed time per iteration using the modified scattering kernel, not only in the single CPU calculation but also in the parallel computing with several CPUs.

Riding Bare-Back on unstructured meshes for 21. century criticality calculations - 244

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kelley, K.C.; Martz, R.L.; Crane, D.L.

2010-01-01

MCNP has a new capability that permits tracking of neutrons and photons on an unstructured mesh which is embedded as a mesh universe within its legacy geometry capability. The mesh geometry is created through Abaqus/CAE using its solid modeling capabilities. Transport results are calculated for mesh elements through a path length estimator while element to element tracking is performed on the mesh. The results from MCNP can be exported to Abaqus/CAE for visualization or other-physics analysis. The simple Godiva criticality benchmark problem was tested with this new mesh capability. Computer run time is proportional to the number of mesh elements used. Both first and second order polyhedrons are used. Models that used second order polyhedrons produced slightly better results without significantly increasing computer run time. Models that used first order hexahedrons had shorter runtimes than models that used first order tetrahedrons. (authors)

Monte Carlo tests of small-world architecture for coarse-grained networks of the United States railroad and highway transportation systems

Science.gov (United States)

Aldrich, Preston R.; El-Zabet, Jermeen; Hassan, Seerat; Briguglio, Joseph; Aliaj, Enela; Radcliffe, Maria; Mirza, Taha; Comar, Timothy; Nadolski, Jeremy; Huebner, Cynthia D.

2015-11-01

Several studies have shown that human transportation networks exhibit small-world structure, meaning they have high local clustering and are easily traversed. However, some have concluded this without statistical evaluations, and others have compared observed structure to globally random rather than planar models. Here, we use Monte Carlo randomizations to test US transportation infrastructure data for small-worldness. Coarse-grained network models were generated from GIS data wherein nodes represent the 3105 contiguous US counties and weighted edges represent the number of highway or railroad links between counties; thus, we focus on linkage topologies and not geodesic distances. We compared railroad and highway transportation networks with a simple planar network based on county edge-sharing, and with networks that were globally randomized and those that were randomized while preserving their planarity. We conclude that terrestrial transportation networks have small-world architecture, as it is classically defined relative to global randomizations. However, this topological structure is sufficiently explained by the planarity of the graphs, and in fact the topological patterns established by the transportation links actually serve to reduce the amount of small-world structure.

Exponential characteristics spatial quadrature for discrete ordinates radiation transport in slab geometry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mathews, K.; Sjoden, G.; Minor, B.

1994-01-01

The exponential characteristic spatial quadrature for discrete ordinates neutral particle transport in slab geometry is derived and compared with current methods. It is similar to the linear characteristic (or, in slab geometry, the linear nodal) quadrature but differs by assuming an exponential distribution of the scattering source within each cell, S(x) = a exp(bx), whose parameters are root-solved to match the known (from the previous iteration) average and first moment of the source over the cell. Like the linear adaptive method, the exponential characteristic method is positive and nonlinear but more accurate and more readily extended to other cell shapes. The nonlinearity has not interfered with convergence. The authors introduce the ''exponential moment functions,'' a generalization of the functions used by Walters in the linear nodal method, and use them to avoid numerical ill-conditioning. The method exhibits O(Δx 4 ) truncation error on fine enough meshes; the error is insensitive to mesh size for coarse meshes. In a shielding problem, it is accurate to 10% using 16-mfp-thick cells; conventional methods err by 8 to 15 orders of magnitude. The exponential characteristic method is computationally more costly per cell than current methods but can be accurate with very thick cells, leading to increased computational efficiency on appropriate problems

Multi-level adaptive simulation of transient two-phase flow in heterogeneous porous media

KAUST Repository

Chueh, C.C.

2010-10-01

An implicit pressure and explicit saturation (IMPES) finite element method (FEM) incorporating a multi-level shock-type adaptive refinement technique is presented and applied to investigate transient two-phase flow in porous media. Local adaptive mesh refinement is implemented seamlessly with state-of-the-art artificial diffusion stabilization allowing simulations that achieve both high resolution and high accuracy. Two benchmark problems, modelling a single crack and a random porous medium, are used to demonstrate the robustness of the method and illustrate the capabilities of the adaptive refinement technique in resolving the saturation field and the complex interaction (transport phenomena) between two fluids in heterogeneous media. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd.

Tetrahedral-Mesh Simulation of Turbulent Flows with the Space-Time Conservative Schemes

Science.gov (United States)

Chang, Chau-Lyan; Venkatachari, Balaji; Cheng, Gary C.

2015-01-01

Direct numerical simulations of turbulent flows are predominantly carried out using structured, hexahedral meshes despite decades of development in unstructured mesh methods. Tetrahedral meshes offer ease of mesh generation around complex geometries and the potential of an orientation free grid that would provide un-biased small-scale dissipation and more accurate intermediate scale solutions. However, due to the lack of consistent multi-dimensional numerical formulations in conventional schemes for triangular and tetrahedral meshes at the cell interfaces, numerical issues exist when flow discontinuities or stagnation regions are present. The space-time conservative conservation element solution element (CESE) method - due to its Riemann-solver-free shock capturing capabilities, non-dissipative baseline schemes, and flux conservation in time as well as space - has the potential to more accurately simulate turbulent flows using unstructured tetrahedral meshes. To pave the way towards accurate simulation of shock/turbulent boundary-layer interaction, a series of wave and shock interaction benchmark problems that increase in complexity, are computed in this paper with triangular/tetrahedral meshes. Preliminary computations for the normal shock/turbulence interactions are carried out with a relatively coarse mesh, by direct numerical simulations standards, in order to assess other effects such as boundary conditions and the necessity of a buffer domain. The results indicate that qualitative agreement with previous studies can be obtained for flows where, strong shocks co-exist along with unsteady waves that display a broad range of scales, with a relatively compact computational domain and less stringent requirements for grid clustering near the shock. With the space-time conservation properties, stable solutions without any spurious wave reflections can be obtained without a need for buffer domains near the outflow/farfield boundaries. Computational results for the

User's guide for TWOHEX: a code package for two-dimensional, neutral-particle transport in equilateral triangular meshes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Walters, W.F.; Brinkley, F.W.; Marr, D.R.

1984-10-01

TWOHEX solves the two-dimensional multigroup transport equation on an equilateral triangular mesh in the x,y plane. Both regular and adjoint, inhomogeneous (fixed source) and homogeneous problems are solved. Three problem domains are treated by TWOHEX. The whole core domain is a 60 0 parallelogram with vacuum boundary conditions on each face. The third core domain is a 120 0 parallelogram with two vacuum and two rotational boundary conditions. The sixth core domain is a 60 0 parallelogram with two vacuum and two rotational boundary conditions. General anisotropic scattering is allowed and an anisotropic inhomogeneous source may be input as cell averages

Thermodynamically consistent coarse graining of biocatalysts beyond Michaelis–Menten

Science.gov (United States)

Wachtel, Artur; Rao, Riccardo; Esposito, Massimiliano

2018-04-01

Starting from the detailed catalytic mechanism of a biocatalyst we provide a coarse-graining procedure which, by construction, is thermodynamically consistent. This procedure provides stoichiometries, reaction fluxes (rate laws), and reaction forces (Gibbs energies of reaction) for the coarse-grained level. It can treat active transporters and molecular machines, and thus extends the applicability of ideas that originated in enzyme kinetics. Our results lay the foundations for systematic studies of the thermodynamics of large-scale biochemical reaction networks. Moreover, we identify the conditions under which a relation between one-way fluxes and forces holds at the coarse-grained level as it holds at the detailed level. In doing so, we clarify the speculations and broad claims made in the literature about such a general flux–force relation. As a further consequence we show that, in contrast to common belief, the second law of thermodynamics does not require the currents and the forces of biochemical reaction networks to be always aligned.

An unstructured-mesh finite-volume MPDATA for compressible atmospheric dynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kühnlein, Christian; Smolarkiewicz, Piotr K.

2017-01-01

An advancement of the unstructured-mesh finite-volume MPDATA (Multidimensional Positive Definite Advection Transport Algorithm) is presented that formulates the error-compensative pseudo-velocity of the scheme to rely only on face-normal advective fluxes to the dual cells, in contrast to the full vector employed in previous implementations. This is essentially achieved by expressing the temporal truncation error underlying the pseudo-velocity in a form consistent with the flux-divergence of the governing conservation law. The development is especially important for integrating fluid dynamics equations on non-rectilinear meshes whenever face-normal advective mass fluxes are employed for transport compatible with mass continuity—the latter being essential for flux-form schemes. In particular, the proposed formulation enables large-time-step semi-implicit finite-volume integration of the compressible Euler equations using MPDATA on arbitrary hybrid computational meshes. Furthermore, it facilitates multiple error-compensative iterations of the finite-volume MPDATA and improved overall accuracy. The advancement combines straightforwardly with earlier developments, such as the nonoscillatory option, the infinite-gauge variant, and moving curvilinear meshes. A comprehensive description of the scheme is provided for a hybrid horizontally-unstructured vertically-structured computational mesh for efficient global atmospheric flow modelling. The proposed finite-volume MPDATA is verified using selected 3D global atmospheric benchmark simulations, representative of hydrostatic and non-hydrostatic flow regimes. Besides the added capabilities, the scheme retains fully the efficacy of established finite-volume MPDATA formulations.

An unstructured-mesh finite-volume MPDATA for compressible atmospheric dynamics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kühnlein, Christian, E-mail: christian.kuehnlein@ecmwf.int; Smolarkiewicz, Piotr K., E-mail: piotr.smolarkiewicz@ecmwf.int

2017-04-01

An advancement of the unstructured-mesh finite-volume MPDATA (Multidimensional Positive Definite Advection Transport Algorithm) is presented that formulates the error-compensative pseudo-velocity of the scheme to rely only on face-normal advective fluxes to the dual cells, in contrast to the full vector employed in previous implementations. This is essentially achieved by expressing the temporal truncation error underlying the pseudo-velocity in a form consistent with the flux-divergence of the governing conservation law. The development is especially important for integrating fluid dynamics equations on non-rectilinear meshes whenever face-normal advective mass fluxes are employed for transport compatible with mass continuity—the latter being essential for flux-form schemes. In particular, the proposed formulation enables large-time-step semi-implicit finite-volume integration of the compressible Euler equations using MPDATA on arbitrary hybrid computational meshes. Furthermore, it facilitates multiple error-compensative iterations of the finite-volume MPDATA and improved overall accuracy. The advancement combines straightforwardly with earlier developments, such as the nonoscillatory option, the infinite-gauge variant, and moving curvilinear meshes. A comprehensive description of the scheme is provided for a hybrid horizontally-unstructured vertically-structured computational mesh for efficient global atmospheric flow modelling. The proposed finite-volume MPDATA is verified using selected 3D global atmospheric benchmark simulations, representative of hydrostatic and non-hydrostatic flow regimes. Besides the added capabilities, the scheme retains fully the efficacy of established finite-volume MPDATA formulations.

The DANTE Boltzmann transport solver: An unstructured mesh, 3-D, spherical harmonics algorithm compatible with parallel computer architectures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McGhee, J.M.; Roberts, R.M.; Morel, J.E.

1997-01-01

A spherical harmonics research code (DANTE) has been developed which is compatible with parallel computer architectures. DANTE provides 3-D, multi-material, deterministic, transport capabilities using an arbitrary finite element mesh. The linearized Boltzmann transport equation is solved in a second order self-adjoint form utilizing a Galerkin finite element spatial differencing scheme. The core solver utilizes a preconditioned conjugate gradient algorithm. Other distinguishing features of the code include options for discrete-ordinates and simplified spherical harmonics angular differencing, an exact Marshak boundary treatment for arbitrarily oriented boundary faces, in-line matrix construction techniques to minimize memory consumption, and an effective diffusion based preconditioner for scattering dominated problems. Algorithm efficiency is demonstrated for a massively parallel SIMD architecture (CM-5), and compatibility with MPP multiprocessor platforms or workstation clusters is anticipated

A software platform for continuum modeling of ion channels based on unstructured mesh

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tu, B; Bai, S Y; Xie, Y; Zhang, L B; Lu, B Z; Chen, M X

2014-01-01

Most traditional continuum molecular modeling adopted finite difference or finite volume methods which were based on a structured mesh (grid). Unstructured meshes were only occasionally used, but an increased number of applications emerge in molecular simulations. To facilitate the continuum modeling of biomolecular systems based on unstructured meshes, we are developing a software platform with tools which are particularly beneficial to those approaches. This work describes the software system specifically for the simulation of a typical, complex molecular procedure: ion transport through a three-dimensional channel system that consists of a protein and a membrane. The platform contains three parts: a meshing tool chain for ion channel systems, a parallel finite element solver for the Poisson–Nernst–Planck equations describing the electrodiffusion process of ion transport, and a visualization program for continuum molecular modeling. The meshing tool chain in the platform, which consists of a set of mesh generation tools, is able to generate high-quality surface and volume meshes for ion channel systems. The parallel finite element solver in our platform is based on the parallel adaptive finite element package PHG which wass developed by one of the authors [1]. As a featured component of the platform, a new visualization program, VCMM, has specifically been developed for continuum molecular modeling with an emphasis on providing useful facilities for unstructured mesh-based methods and for their output analysis and visualization. VCMM provides a graphic user interface and consists of three modules: a molecular module, a meshing module and a numerical module. A demonstration of the platform is provided with a study of two real proteins, the connexin 26 and hemolysin ion channels. (paper)

Performance of a fine-grained parallel model for multi-group nodal-transport calculations in three-dimensional pin-by-pin reactor geometry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Masahiro, Tatsumi; Akio, Yamamoto

2003-01-01

A production code SCOPE2 was developed based on the fine-grained parallel algorithm by the red/black iterative method targeting parallel computing environments such as a PC-cluster. It can perform a depletion calculation in a few hours using a PC-cluster with the model based on a 9-group nodal-SP3 transport method in 3-dimensional pin-by-pin geometry for in-core fuel management of commercial PWRs. The present algorithm guarantees the identical convergence process as that in serial execution, which is very important from the viewpoint of quality management. The fine-mesh geometry is constructed by hierarchical decomposition with introduction of intermediate management layer as a block that is a quarter piece of a fuel assembly in radial direction. A combination of a mesh division scheme forcing even meshes on each edge and a latency-hidden communication algorithm provided simplicity and efficiency to message passing to enhance parallel performance. Inter-processor communication and parallel I/O access were realized using the MPI functions. Parallel performance was measured for depletion calculations by the 9-group nodal-SP3 transport method in 3-dimensional pin-by-pin geometry with 340 x 340 x 26 meshes for full core geometry and 170 x 170 x 26 for quarter core geometry. A PC cluster that consists of 24 Pentium-4 processors connected by the Fast Ethernet was used for the performance measurement. Calculations in full core geometry gave better speedups compared to those in quarter core geometry because of larger granularity. Fine-mesh sweep and feedback calculation parts gave almost perfect scalability since granularity is large enough, while 1-group coarse-mesh diffusion acceleration gave only around 80%. The speedup and parallel efficiency for total computation time were 22.6 and 94%, respectively, for the calculation in full core geometry with 24 processors. (authors)

A two-dimensional discontinuous heterogeneous finite element method for neutron transport calculations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Masiello, E.; Sanchez, R.

2007-01-01

A discontinuous heterogeneous finite element method is presented and discussed. The method is intended for realistic numerical pin-by-pin lattice calculations when an exact representation of the geometric shape of the pins is made without need for homogenization. The method keeps the advantages of conventional discrete ordinate methods, such as fast execution together with the possibility to deal with a large number of spatial meshes, while minimizing the need for geometric modeling. It also provides a complete factorization in space, angle, and energy for the discretized matrices and minimizes, thus, storage requirements. An angular multigrid acceleration technique has also been developed to speed up the rate of convergence of the inner iterations. A particular aspect of this acceleration is the introduction of boundary restriction and prolongation operators that minimize oscillatory behavior and enhance positivity. Numerical tests are presented that show the high precision of the method and the efficiency of the angular multigrid acceleration. (authors)

Predictive coarse-graining

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Schöberl, Markus, E-mail: m.schoeberl@tum.de [Continuum Mechanics Group, Technical University of Munich, Boltzmannstraße 15, 85748 Garching (Germany); Zabaras, Nicholas [Institute for Advanced Study, Technical University of Munich, Lichtenbergstraße 2a, 85748 Garching (Germany); Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, University of Notre Dame, 365 Fitzpatrick Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556 (United States); Koutsourelakis, Phaedon-Stelios [Continuum Mechanics Group, Technical University of Munich, Boltzmannstraße 15, 85748 Garching (Germany)

2017-03-15

We propose a data-driven, coarse-graining formulation in the context of equilibrium statistical mechanics. In contrast to existing techniques which are based on a fine-to-coarse map, we adopt the opposite strategy by prescribing a probabilistic coarse-to-fine map. This corresponds to a directed probabilistic model where the coarse variables play the role of latent generators of the fine scale (all-atom) data. From an information-theoretic perspective, the framework proposed provides an improvement upon the relative entropy method and is capable of quantifying the uncertainty due to the information loss that unavoidably takes place during the coarse-graining process. Furthermore, it can be readily extended to a fully Bayesian model where various sources of uncertainties are reflected in the posterior of the model parameters. The latter can be used to produce not only point estimates of fine-scale reconstructions or macroscopic observables, but more importantly, predictive posterior distributions on these quantities. Predictive posterior distributions reflect the confidence of the model as a function of the amount of data and the level of coarse-graining. The issues of model complexity and model selection are seamlessly addressed by employing a hierarchical prior that favors the discovery of sparse solutions, revealing the most prominent features in the coarse-grained model. A flexible and parallelizable Monte Carlo – Expectation–Maximization (MC-EM) scheme is proposed for carrying out inference and learning tasks. A comparative assessment of the proposed methodology is presented for a lattice spin system and the SPC/E water model.

Towards a real time computation of the dose in a phantom segmented into homogeneous meshes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Blanpain, B.

2009-10-01

Automatic radiation therapy treatment planning necessitates a very fast computation of the dose delivered to the patient. We propose to compute the dose by segmenting the patient's phantom into homogeneous meshes, and by associating, to the meshes, projections to dose distributions pre-computed in homogeneous phantoms, along with weights managing heterogeneities. The dose computation is divided into two steps. The first step impacts the meshes: projections and weights are set according to physical and geometrical criteria. The second step impacts the voxels: the dose is computed by evaluating the functions previously associated to their mesh. This method is very fast, in particular when there are few points of interest (several hundreds). In this case, results are obtained in less than one second. With such performances, practical realization of automatic treatment planning becomes practically feasible. (author)

A mobile-mobile transport model for simulating reactive transport in connected heterogeneous fields

Science.gov (United States)

Lu, Chunhui; Wang, Zhiyuan; Zhao, Yue; Rathore, Saubhagya Singh; Huo, Jinge; Tang, Yuening; Liu, Ming; Gong, Rulan; Cirpka, Olaf A.; Luo, Jian

2018-05-01

Mobile-immobile transport models can be effective in reproducing heavily tailed breakthrough curves of concentration. However, such models may not adequately describe transport along multiple flow paths with intermediate velocity contrasts in connected fields. We propose using the mobile-mobile model for simulating subsurface flow and associated mixing-controlled reactive transport in connected fields. This model includes two local concentrations, one in the fast- and the other in the slow-flow domain, which predict both the concentration mean and variance. The normalized total concentration variance within the flux is found to be a non-monotonic function of the discharge ratio with a maximum concentration variance at intermediate values of the discharge ratio. We test the mobile-mobile model for mixing-controlled reactive transport with an instantaneous, irreversible bimolecular reaction in structured and connected random heterogeneous domains, and compare the performance of the mobile-mobile to the mobile-immobile model. The results indicate that the mobile-mobile model generally predicts the concentration breakthrough curves (BTCs) of the reactive compound better. Particularly, for cases of an elliptical inclusion with intermediate hydraulic-conductivity contrasts, where the travel-time distribution shows bimodal behavior, the prediction of both the BTCs and maximum product concentration is significantly improved. Our results exemplify that the conceptual model of two mobile domains with diffusive mass transfer in between is in general good for predicting mixing-controlled reactive transport, and particularly so in cases where the transfer in the low-conductivity zones is by slow advection rather than diffusion.

Finite element approximation to the even-parity transport equation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lewis, E.E.

1981-01-01

This paper studies the finite element method, a procedure for reducing partial differential equations to sets of algebraic equations suitable for solution on a digital computer. The differential equation is cast into the form of a variational principle, the resulting domain then subdivided into finite elements. The dependent variable is then approximated by a simple polynomial, and these are linked across inter-element boundaries by continuity conditions. The finite element method is tailored to a variety of transport problems. Angular approximations are formulated, and the extent of ray effect mitigation is examined. Complex trial functions are introduced to enable the inclusion of buckling approximations. The ubiquitous curved interfaces of cell calculations, and coarse mesh methods are also treated. A concluding section discusses limitations of the work to date and suggests possible future directions

3-D diffusion program XYZ-MUGDI with data-analyzing program XYZFF

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Siewers, H

1976-01-01

The XYZ-MUGDI program solves boudary value and eigenvalue problems for three-dimensional heterogeneous configurations in X, Y, Z-geometry for a maximum of four energy groups. The program XYZFF is a program for analyzing data; with it especially the average and maximum form factors for arbitrary coarse-meshed networks can be evaluated.

Prevention of Incisional Hernias with Biological MeshA Systematic Review of the Literature

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

FILIP ETIENNE MUYSOMS

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Background: Prophylactic mesh augmented reinforcement during closure of abdominal wall incisions has been proposed in patients with increased risk for development of incisional hernias (IH. As part of the BioMesh consensus project, a systematic literature review has been performed to detect those studies where MAR was performed with a non-permanent absorbable mesh (biological or biosynthetic. Methods: A computerized search was performed within 12 databases (Embase, Medline, Web-of-Science, Scopus, Cochrane, CINAHL, Pubmed publisher, Lilacs, Scielo, ScienceDirect, ProQuest, Google scholar with appropriate search terms. Qualitative evaluation was performed using the MINORS score for cohort studies and the Jadad score for RCTs. Results: For midline laparotomy incisions and stoma reversal wounds, 2 RCTs, 2 case control studies and 2 case series were identified. The studies were very heterogeneous in terms of mesh configuration (cross linked versus non cross linked, mesh position (intraperitoneal versus retromuscular versus onlay, surgical indication (gastric bypass versus aortic aneurysm, outcome results (effective versus non effective. After qualitative assessment we have to conclude that the level of evidence on the efficacy and safety of biological meshes for prevention of incisional hernias is very low. No comparative studies were found comparing biological mesh with synthetic non-absorbable meshes for the prevention of incisional hernias. Conclusion: There is no evidence supporting the use of non-permanent absorbable mesh (biological or biosynthetic for prevention of incisional hernias when closing a laparotomy in high-risk patients or in stoma reversal wounds. There is no evidence that a non-permanent absorbable mesh should be preferred to synthetic non-absorbable mesh both in clean or clean-contaminated surgery.

Controlling the error on target motion through real-time mesh adaptation: Applications to deep brain stimulation.

Science.gov (United States)

Bui, Huu Phuoc; Tomar, Satyendra; Courtecuisse, Hadrien; Audette, Michel; Cotin, Stéphane; Bordas, Stéphane P A

2018-05-01

An error-controlled mesh refinement procedure for needle insertion simulations is presented. As an example, the procedure is applied for simulations of electrode implantation for deep brain stimulation. We take into account the brain shift phenomena occurring when a craniotomy is performed. We observe that the error in the computation of the displacement and stress fields is localised around the needle tip and the needle shaft during needle insertion simulation. By suitably and adaptively refining the mesh in this region, our approach enables to control, and thus to reduce, the error whilst maintaining a coarser mesh in other parts of the domain. Through academic and practical examples we demonstrate that our adaptive approach, as compared with a uniform coarse mesh, increases the accuracy of the displacement and stress fields around the needle shaft and, while for a given accuracy, saves computational time with respect to a uniform finer mesh. This facilitates real-time simulations. The proposed methodology has direct implications in increasing the accuracy, and controlling the computational expense of the simulation of percutaneous procedures such as biopsy, brachytherapy, regional anaesthesia, or cryotherapy. Moreover, the proposed approach can be helpful in the development of robotic surgeries because the simulation taking place in the control loop of a robot needs to be accurate, and to occur in real time. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Modeling multicomponent ionic transport in groundwater with IPhreeqc coupling: Electrostatic interactions and geochemical reactions in homogeneous and heterogeneous domains

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Muniruzzaman, Muhammad; Rolle, Massimo

2016-01-01

is coupled with the geochemical code PHREEQC-3 by utilizing the IPhreeqc module, thus enabling to perform the geochemical calculations included in the PHREEQC's reaction package. The multicomponent reactive transport code is benchmarked with different 1-D and 2-D transport problems. Successively...... the electrostatic interactions during transport of charged ions in physically and chemically heterogeneous porous media. The modeling approach is based on the local charge balance and on the description of compound-specific and spatially variable diffusive/dispersive fluxes. The multicomponent ionic transport code......, conservative and reactive transport examples are presented to demonstrate the capability of the proposed model to simulate transport of charged species in heterogeneous porous media with spatially variable physical and chemical properties. The results reveal that the Coulombic cross-coupling between dispersive...

Modeling Transport of Cesium in Grimsel Granodiorite With Micrometer Scale Heterogeneities and Dynamic Update of Kd

Science.gov (United States)

Voutilainen, Mikko; Kekäläinen, Pekka; Siitari-Kauppi, Marja; Sardini, Paul; Muuri, Eveliina; Timonen, Jussi; Martin, Andrew

2017-11-01

Transport and retardation of cesium in Grimsel granodiorite taking into account heterogeneity of mineral and pore structure was studied using rock samples overcored from an in situ diffusion test at the Grimsel Test Site. The field test was part of the Long-Term Diffusion (LTD) project designed to characterize retardation properties (diffusion and distribution coefficients) under in situ conditions. Results of the LTD experiment for cesium showed that in-diffusion profiles and spatial concentration distributions were strongly influenced by the heterogeneous pore structure and mineral distribution. In order to study the effect of heterogeneity on the in-diffusion profile and spatial concentration distribution, a Time Domain Random Walk (TDRW) method was applied along with a feature for modeling chemical sorption in geological materials. A heterogeneous mineral structure of Grimsel granodiorite was constructed using X-ray microcomputed tomography (X-μCT) and the map was linked to previous results for mineral specific porosities and distribution coefficients (Kd) that were determined using C-14-PMMA autoradiography and batch sorption experiments, respectively. After this the heterogeneous structure contains information on local porosity and Kd in 3-D. It was found that the heterogeneity of the mineral structure on the micrometer scale affects significantly the diffusion and sorption of cesium in Grimsel granodiorite at the centimeter scale. Furthermore, the modeled in-diffusion profiles and spatial concentration distributions show similar shape and pattern to those from the LTD experiment. It was concluded that the use of detailed structure characterization and quantitative data on heterogeneity can significantly improve the interpretation and evaluation of transport experiments.

Radionuclide transport calculations from high-level long-lived radioactive waste disposal in deep clayey geologic formation toward adjacent aquifers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Genty, A.; Le Potier, C.

2007-01-01

In the context of high-level nuclear waste repository safety calculations, the modeling of radionuclide migration is of first importance. Three dimensional radionuclide transport calculations in geological repository need to describe objects of the meter scale embedded in geologic layer formations of kilometer extension. A complete and refined spatial description would end up with at least meshes of hundreds of millions to billions elements. The resolution of this kind of problem is today not reachable with classical computers due to resources limitations. Although parallelized computation appears as potential tool to handle multi-scale calculations, to our knowledge no attempt have been yet performed. One emerging solution for repository safety calculations on very large cells meshes consists in using a domain decomposition approach linked to massive parallelized computer calculation. In this approach, the repository domain is divided in small elementary domains and transport calculation are performed independently on different processor for each elementary domain. Before to develop this possible solution, we performed some preliminary test in order to access the order of magnitude of cells needed to perform converged calculation on one elementary disposal domain and to check if Finite Volume (FV) based on Multi Point Flux Approximation (MPFA) spatial scheme or more classical Mixed Hybrid Finite Element (MHFE) spatial scheme were adapted for those calculations in highly heterogeneous porous media. Our preliminary results point out that MHFE and VF schemes applied on non-parallelepiped hexahedral cells for flow and transport calculations in highly heterogeneous media gave satisfactory results. Nevertheless further investigations and additional calculations are needed in order to exhibit the mesh discretization level needed to perform converged calculations. (authors)

Development of three-dimensional nuclear design program for large fast breeder reactor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Inoue, Kohtaro

1987-01-01

The report describes a calculation program for core design, called HICOM, and its calculation accuracy. HICOM is designed for three-dimensional neutron diffusion calculation and combustion calculation for large fast breeder reactors to be conducted according to a control rod plan and fuel replacement plan. The improved coarse mesh technique is applied to neutron diffusion calculation. It is demostrated that HICOM permits rapid and accurate operation. For the evaluation of the applicability of HICOM, three-dimensional six-group neutron diffusion calculation is conducted for a 1,000 MWe axial heterogeneous FBR core. Results demonstrate that the program can perform numerical calculation in a time period shorter than 1-40 that for calculation by CITATION (triangle mesh method). This is achieved by using the improved coarse mesh method and carrying out the operation by a vectorial procedure. For the evaluation of the nuclear calculation accuracy of HICOM, analysis is made of reactivity, output distribution and B 4 C control rod worth emasured in an FCA criticality experiment carried out by the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute. Calculations are found to agree with measurements within a permissible error. The same level of calculation accuracy is obtained for homogneous core, axial heterogeneous core and cores with internal blankets with different forms. (Nogami, K.)

A simplified, coarse-mesh, three-dimensional diffusion scheme for calculating the gross power distribution in a boiling water reactor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Borresen, S.

1995-01-01

A simplified, finite-difference diffusion scheme for a three-dimensional calculation of the gross power distribution in the core of a boiling water reactor (BWR) is presented. Results obtained in a series of one- and two-dimensional test cases indicate that this method may be of sufficient accuracy and simplicity for implementation in BWR-simulator computer programs. Computer requirements are very modest; thus, only 3N memory locations are required for in-core treatment of the inner iteration in the solution of a problem with N mesh points. The mesh width may be chosen equal to the fuel assembly pitch. Input data are in the form of conventional 2-group diffusion parameters. It is concluded that the method presented has definite advantages in comparison with the nodal coupling method. (author)

The 3-D diffusion program XYZ-MUGDI with data-analyzing program XYZFF

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Siewers, H.

1976-01-01

The XYZ-MUGDI program solves boudary value and eigenvalue problems for three-dimensional heterogeneous configurations in X, Y, Z-geometry for a maximum of four energy groups. The program XYZFF is a program for analyzing data; with it especially the average and maximum form factors for arbitrary coarse-meshed networks can be evaluated. (orig.) [de

Spatially heterogeneous ages in glassy dynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Castillo, Horacio E.; Chamon, Claudio Chamon; Cugliandolo, Leticia F.; Iguain, Jose Luis; Kennett, Malcolm P.

2003-09-01

We construct a framework for the study of fluctuations in the nonequilibrium relaxation of glassy systems with and without quenched disorder. We study two types of two-time local correlators with the aim of characterizing the heterogeneous evolution in these systems: in one case we average the local correlators over histories of the thermal noise, in the other case we simply coarse-grain the local correlators obtained for a given noise realization. We explain why the noise-averaged correlators describe the fingerprint of quenched disorder when it exists, while the coarse-grained correlators are linked to noise-induced mesoscopic fluctuations. We predict constraints on the distribution of the fluctuations of the coarse-grained quantities. In particular, we show that locally defined correlations and responses are connected by a generalized local out-of-equilibrium fluctuation-dissipation relation. We argue that large size heterogeneities in the age of the system survive in the long-time limit. A symmetry of the underlying theory, namely invariance under reparametrizations of the time coordinates, underlies these results. We establish a connection between the probabilities of spatial distributions of local coarse-grained quantities and the theory of dynamic random manifolds. We define, and discuss the behavior of, a two-time dependent correlation length from the spatial decay of the fluctuations in the two-time local functions. We characterize the fluctuations in the system in terms of their fractal properties. For concreteness, we present numerical tests performed on disordered spin models in finite and infinite dimensions. Finally, we explain how these ideas can be applied to the analysis of the dynamics of other glassy systems that can be either spin models without disorder or atomic and molecular glassy systems. (author)

Quantifying geological uncertainty for flow and transport modeling in multi-modal heterogeneous formations

Science.gov (United States)

Feyen, Luc; Caers, Jef

2006-06-01

In this work, we address the problem of characterizing the heterogeneity and uncertainty of hydraulic properties for complex geological settings. Hereby, we distinguish between two scales of heterogeneity, namely the hydrofacies structure and the intrafacies variability of the hydraulic properties. We employ multiple-point geostatistics to characterize the hydrofacies architecture. The multiple-point statistics are borrowed from a training image that is designed to reflect the prior geological conceptualization. The intrafacies variability of the hydraulic properties is represented using conventional two-point correlation methods, more precisely, spatial covariance models under a multi-Gaussian spatial law. We address the different levels and sources of uncertainty in characterizing the subsurface heterogeneity, and explore their effect on groundwater flow and transport predictions. Typically, uncertainty is assessed by way of many images, termed realizations, of a fixed statistical model. However, in many cases, sampling from a fixed stochastic model does not adequately represent the space of uncertainty. It neglects the uncertainty related to the selection of the stochastic model and the estimation of its input parameters. We acknowledge the uncertainty inherent in the definition of the prior conceptual model of aquifer architecture and in the estimation of global statistics, anisotropy, and correlation scales. Spatial bootstrap is used to assess the uncertainty of the unknown statistical parameters. As an illustrative example, we employ a synthetic field that represents a fluvial setting consisting of an interconnected network of channel sands embedded within finer-grained floodplain material. For this highly non-stationary setting we quantify the groundwater flow and transport model prediction uncertainty for various levels of hydrogeological uncertainty. Results indicate the importance of accurately describing the facies geometry, especially for transport

Discontinuous Galerkin Subgrid Finite Element Method for Heterogeneous Brinkman’s Equations

KAUST Repository

Iliev, Oleg P.

2010-01-01

We present a two-scale finite element method for solving Brinkman\\'s equations with piece-wise constant coefficients. This system of equations model fluid flows in highly porous, heterogeneous media with complex topology of the heterogeneities. We make use of the recently proposed discontinuous Galerkin FEM for Stokes equations by Wang and Ye in [12] and the concept of subgrid approximation developed for Darcy\\'s equations by Arbogast in [4]. In order to reduce the error along the coarse-grid interfaces we have added a alternating Schwarz iteration using patches around the coarse-grid boundaries. We have implemented the subgrid method using Deal.II FEM library, [7], and we present the computational results for a number of model problems. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

Fluid flow and heat transfer investigation of pebble bed reactors using mesh-adaptive LES

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pavlidis, Dimitrios; Lathouwers, Danny

2013-01-01

The very high temperature reactor is one of the designs currently being considered for nuclear power generation. One its variants is the pebble bed reactor in which the coolant passes through complex geometries (pores) at high Reynolds numbers. A computational fluid dynamics model with anisotropic mesh adaptivity is used to investigate coolant flow and heat transfer in such reactors. A novel method for implicitly incorporating solid boundaries based on multi-fluid flow modelling is adopted. The resulting model is able to resolve and simulate flow and heat transfer in randomly packed beds, regardless of the actual geometry, starting off with arbitrarily coarse meshes. The model is initially evaluated using an orderly stacked square channel of channel-height-to-particle diameter ratio of unity for a range of Reynolds numbers. The model is then applied to the face-centred cubical geometry. coolant flow and heat transfer patterns are investigated

Impact of mesh and DEM resolutions in SEM simulation of 3D seismic response

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Khan, Saad; van der Meijde, M.; van der Werff, H.M.A.; Shafique, Muhammad

2017-01-01

This study shows that the resolution of a digital elevation model (DEM) and model mesh strongly influences 3D simulations of seismic response. Topographic heterogeneity scatters seismic waves and causes variation in seismic response (am-plification and deamplification of seismic amplitudes) at the

Analysis of radially heterogeneous ZPPR-13A benchmark for investigating the spatial dependence of the calculated-to-experiment ratio for control rod worths

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mahalakshmi, B.; Mohanakrishnan, P.

1993-01-01

Investigation were performed on the ZPPR-13A critical assembly to determine the cause of the radial variation of the calculated-to-experimental (C/E) ratio for control rod worth in large heterogeneous cores. The effects of errors in cross section, mesh size, group condensation, transport, and modeling were studied by studied by using two- and three-dimensional diffusion calculations and three-dimensional transport calculations. In that process, the cross-section set and the calculation scheme that are being used for fast reactor design in India have been revalidated. The cross-section set was found to yield satisfactory results. Three-dimensional calculations with adjusted and unadjusted cross sections confirmed that the error in cross sections was largely responsible for the radial dependence of the C/E ratios. The contributions from group condensation and mesh size errors were < 2%, and from modeling errors and transport correction, < 1%. The effect of these errors is insignificant when compared with the effect of the cross-section error. The analysis also showed that even without the adjustment in diffusion coefficient suggested in earlier studies, a satisfactory prediction is found, at least for this benchmark. The diffusion-to-transport correction for control rod worth was found to be -7%

A self-cleaning underwater superoleophobic mesh for oil-water separation

KAUST Repository

Zhang, Lianbin

2013-07-31

Oil-water separation has recently become a global challenging task because of the frequent occurrence of oil spill accidents due to the offshore oil production and transportation, and there is an increasing demand for the development of effective and inexpensive approaches for the cleaning-up of the oily pollution in water system. In this study, a self-cleaning underwater superoleophobic mesh that can be used for oil-water separation is prepared by the layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly of sodium silicate and TiO2 nanoparticles on the stainless steel mesh. The integration of the self-cleaning property into the all-inorganic separation mesh by using TiO2 enables the convenient removal of the contaminants by ultraviolet (UV) illumination, and allows for the facile recovery of the separation ability of the contaminated mesh, making it promising for practial oil-water separation applications.

Prevention of a parastomal hernia by biological mesh reinforcement

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

René H Fortelny

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Introduction: In the field of hernia prevention the prophylactic mesh-reinforcement of stoma-sites is one of the most controversially discussed issues. The incidence of parastomal hernias in the literature reported to be up to 48.1% after end colostomy and up to 30.8 % after of loop colostomy respectively, but still remains uncertain due to diagnostic variety of clinical or radiological methods, heterogeneous patient groups and variable follow-up intervals respectively. Anyway, the published data regarding the use of synthetic or bio-prostethic meshes in the prevention of parastomal hernia at the primary operation are very scarce. Methods: A literature search of the Medline database in terms of biological prophylactic mesh implantation in stoma creation identified 6 systematic reviews, 2 randomized controlled trials (RCT, 2 case controlled studies and 1 technical report. Results: In a systematic review focusing on the prevention of parastomal hernia including only RCTs encompassing one RCT using bio-prosthetic mesh the incidence of herniation was 12.5 % compared to 53% in the control group (p<0.0001. In 1 RCT and 2 case control studies respectively, there was a significant smaller incidence of parastomal herniation as well as a similar complication rate compared to the control group respectively. Only in 1 RCT no significant difference regarding the incidence of parastomal hernia was reported with comparable complication rates. Conclusion: Thus so far 2 RCT and 2 case control studies are published with prophylactic bio prosthetic reinforcement in stoma sites. The majority revealed significant better results in terms of parastomal herniation and without any mesh related complications in comparison to the non mesh group. Further multicenter RCT are required to achieve a sufficient level of recommendation.

Tensile Behaviour of Welded Wire Mesh and Hexagonal Metal Mesh for Ferrocement Application

Science.gov (United States)

Tanawade, A. G.; Modhera, C. D.

2017-08-01

Tension tests were conducted on welded mesh and hexagonal Metal mesh. Welded Mesh is available in the market in different sizes. The two types are analysed viz. Ø 2.3 mm and Ø 2.7 mm welded mesh, having opening size 31.75 mm × 31.75 mm and 25.4 mm × 25.4 mm respectively. Tensile strength test was performed on samples of welded mesh in three different orientations namely 0°, 30° and 45° degrees with the loading axis and hexagonal Metal mesh of Ø 0.7 mm, having opening 19.05 × 19.05 mm. Experimental tests were conducted on samples of these meshes. The objective of this study was to investigate the behaviour of the welded mesh and hexagonal Metal mesh. The result shows that the tension load carrying capacity of welded mesh of Ø 2.7 mm of 0° orientation is good as compared to Ø2.3 mm mesh and ductility of hexagonal Metal mesh is good in behaviour.

Seeking new surgical predictors of mesh exposure after transvaginal mesh repair.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Pei-Ying; Chang, Chih-Hung; Shen, Meng-Ru; Chou, Cheng-Yang; Yang, Yi-Ching; Huang, Yu-Fang

2016-10-01

The purpose of this study was to explore new preventable risk factors for mesh exposure. A retrospective review of 92 consecutive patients treated with transvaginal mesh (TVM) in the urogynecological unit of our university hospital. An analysis of perioperative predictors was conducted in patients after vaginal repairs using a type 1 mesh. Mesh complications were recorded according to International Urogynecological Association (IUGA) definitions. Mesh-exposure-free durations were calculated by using the Kaplan-Meier method and compared between different closure techniques using log-rank test. Hazard ratios (HR) of predictors for mesh exposure were estimated by univariate and multivariate analyses using Cox proportional hazards regression models. The median surveillance interval was 24.1 months. Two late occurrences were found beyond 1 year post operation. No statistically significant correlation was observed between mesh exposure and concomitant hysterectomy. Exposure risks were significantly higher in patients with interrupted whole-layer closure in univariate analysis. In the multivariate analysis, hematoma [HR 5.42, 95 % confidence interval (CI) 1.26-23.35, P = 0.024), Prolift mesh (HR 5.52, 95 % CI 1.15-26.53, P = 0.033), and interrupted whole-layer closure (HR 7.02, 95 % CI 1.62-30.53, P = 0.009) were the strongest predictors of mesh exposure. Findings indicate the risks of mesh exposure and reoperation may be prevented by avoiding hematoma, large amount of mesh, or interrupted whole-layer closure in TVM surgeries. If these risk factors are prevented, hysterectomy may not be a relative contraindication for TVM use. We also provide evidence regarding mesh exposure and the necessity for more than 1 year of follow-up and preoperative counselling.

Monte Carlo charged-particle tracking and energy deposition on a Lagrangian mesh.

Science.gov (United States)

Yuan, J; Moses, G A; McKenty, P W

2005-10-01

A Monte Carlo algorithm for alpha particle tracking and energy deposition on a cylindrical computational mesh in a Lagrangian hydrodynamics code used for inertial confinement fusion (ICF) simulations is presented. The straight line approximation is used to follow propagation of "Monte Carlo particles" which represent collections of alpha particles generated from thermonuclear deuterium-tritium (DT) reactions. Energy deposition in the plasma is modeled by the continuous slowing down approximation. The scheme addresses various aspects arising in the coupling of Monte Carlo tracking with Lagrangian hydrodynamics; such as non-orthogonal severely distorted mesh cells, particle relocation on the moving mesh and particle relocation after rezoning. A comparison with the flux-limited multi-group diffusion transport method is presented for a polar direct drive target design for the National Ignition Facility. Simulations show the Monte Carlo transport method predicts about earlier ignition than predicted by the diffusion method, and generates higher hot spot temperature. Nearly linear speed-up is achieved for multi-processor parallel simulations.

3-D inversion of airborne electromagnetic data parallelized and accelerated by local mesh and adaptive soundings

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Dikun; Oldenburg, Douglas W.; Haber, Eldad

2014-03-01

Airborne electromagnetic (AEM) methods are highly efficient tools for assessing the Earth's conductivity structures in a large area at low cost. However, the configuration of AEM measurements, which typically have widely distributed transmitter-receiver pairs, makes the rigorous modelling and interpretation extremely time-consuming in 3-D. Excessive overcomputing can occur when working on a large mesh covering the entire survey area and inverting all soundings in the data set. We propose two improvements. The first is to use a locally optimized mesh for each AEM sounding for the forward modelling and calculation of sensitivity. This dedicated local mesh is small with fine cells near the sounding location and coarse cells far away in accordance with EM diffusion and the geometric decay of the signals. Once the forward problem is solved on the local meshes, the sensitivity for the inversion on the global mesh is available through quick interpolation. Using local meshes for AEM forward modelling avoids unnecessary computing on fine cells on a global mesh that are far away from the sounding location. Since local meshes are highly independent, the forward modelling can be efficiently parallelized over an array of processors. The second improvement is random and dynamic down-sampling of the soundings. Each inversion iteration only uses a random subset of the soundings, and the subset is reselected for every iteration. The number of soundings in the random subset, determined by an adaptive algorithm, is tied to the degree of model regularization. This minimizes the overcomputing caused by working with redundant soundings. Our methods are compared against conventional methods and tested with a synthetic example. We also invert a field data set that was previously considered to be too large to be practically inverted in 3-D. These examples show that our methodology can dramatically reduce the processing time of 3-D inversion to a practical level without losing resolution

Kinetic solvers with adaptive mesh in phase space

Science.gov (United States)

Arslanbekov, Robert R.; Kolobov, Vladimir I.; Frolova, Anna A.

2013-12-01

An adaptive mesh in phase space (AMPS) methodology has been developed for solving multidimensional kinetic equations by the discrete velocity method. A Cartesian mesh for both configuration (r) and velocity (v) spaces is produced using a “tree of trees” (ToT) data structure. The r mesh is automatically generated around embedded boundaries, and is dynamically adapted to local solution properties. The v mesh is created on-the-fly in each r cell. Mappings between neighboring v-space trees is implemented for the advection operator in r space. We have developed algorithms for solving the full Boltzmann and linear Boltzmann equations with AMPS. Several recent innovations were used to calculate the discrete Boltzmann collision integral with dynamically adaptive v mesh: the importance sampling, multipoint projection, and variance reduction methods. We have developed an efficient algorithm for calculating the linear Boltzmann collision integral for elastic and inelastic collisions of hot light particles in a Lorentz gas. Our AMPS technique has been demonstrated for simulations of hypersonic rarefied gas flows, ion and electron kinetics in weakly ionized plasma, radiation and light-particle transport through thin films, and electron streaming in semiconductors. We have shown that AMPS allows minimizing the number of cells in phase space to reduce the computational cost and memory usage for solving challenging kinetic problems.

Lectures on coarse geometry

CERN Document Server

Roe, John

2003-01-01

Coarse geometry is the study of spaces (particularly metric spaces) from a 'large scale' point of view, so that two spaces that look the same from a great distance are actually equivalent. This point of view is effective because it is often true that the relevant geometric properties of metric spaces are determined by their coarse geometry. Two examples of important uses of coarse geometry are Gromov's beautiful notion of a hyperbolic group and Mostow's proof of his famous rigidity theorem. The first few chapters of the book provide a general perspective on coarse structures. Even when only metric coarse structures are in view, the abstract framework brings the same simplification as does the passage from epsilons and deltas to open sets when speaking of continuity. The middle section reviews notions of negative curvature and rigidity. Modern interest in large scale geometry derives in large part from Mostow's rigidity theorem and from Gromov's subsequent 'large scale' rendition of the crucial properties of n...

Field verification of advanced transport models of radionuclides in heterogeneous soils

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Visser, W.; Meurs, G.A.M.; Weststrate, F.A.

1991-01-01

This report deals with a verification study of advanced transport models of radionuclides in heterogeneous soils. The study reported here is the third phase of a research program carried out by Delft Geotechnics concerning the influence of soil heterogeneities on the migration of radionuclides in the soil and soil-water system. Phases 1 and 2 have been reported earlier in the EC Nuclear Science and technology series (EUR 12111 EN, 1989). The verification study involves the predictive modelling of a field tracer experiment carried out by the British Geological Survey (BGS) at Drigg, Cumbria (UK). Conservative (I 131 , Cl-, H 3 ) as well as non-conservative (Co-EDTA) tracers were used. The inverse modelling shows that micro dispersion may be considered as a soil constant related to grainsize. Micro dispersion shows a slow increase with distance from the source. This increase is caused by mass transfer between adjacent layers of different permeability. Macro dispersion is observed when sampling over a larger interval then permitted by the detail with which the heterogeneity is described in the model. The prediction of the migration of radionuclides through heterogeneous soils is possible. The advection dispersion equation seems to be an adequate description of the migration of conservative tracers. The models based on this equation give comparable results on a small field test scale (3.5 m). The prediction of the migration of adsorbing species is more difficult. The mathematical descriptions seem appropriate, but the heterogeneity in soils seems to create a higher order of uncertainty which can not be described as yet with calculation strategies available at this moment

Convergence analysis of the rebalance methods in multiplying finite slab having periodic boundary conditions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hong, Ser Gi; Lee, Young Ouk; Song, Jae Seung

2009-01-01

This paper analyzes the convergence of the rebalance iteration methods for the discrete ordinates transport equation in the multiplying finite slab problem. The finite slab is assumed to be homogeneous and it has the periodic boundary conditions. A general formulation is used to include three well-known rebalance methods of the linearized form in a unified way. The rebalance iteration methods considered in this paper are the CMR (Coarse-Mesh Rebalance), the CMFD (Coarse-Mesh Finite Difference), and p-CMFD (Partial Current-Based Coarse Mesh Finite Difference) methods which have been popularly used in the reactor physics. The convergence analysis is performed with the well-known Fourier analysis through a linearization. The analyses are applied for one-group problems. The theoretical analysis shows that there are one fundamental mode and N-1 Eigen-modes which determine the convergence if the finite slab is divided into N uniform meshes. The numerical tests show that the Fourier convergence analysis provides the reasonable estimate of the numerical spectral radii for the model problems and the spectral radius for the finite slab approaches the one for the infinite slab as the thickness of the slab increases. (author)

The Role of Chronic Mesh Infection in Delayed-Onset Vaginal Mesh Complications or Recurrent Urinary Tract Infections: Results From Explanted Mesh Cultures.

Science.gov (United States)

Mellano, Erin M; Nakamura, Leah Y; Choi, Judy M; Kang, Diana C; Grisales, Tamara; Raz, Shlomo; Rodriguez, Larissa V

2016-01-01

Vaginal mesh complications necessitating excision are increasingly prevalent. We aim to study whether subclinical chronically infected mesh contributes to the development of delayed-onset mesh complications or recurrent urinary tract infections (UTIs). Women undergoing mesh removal from August 2013 through May 2014 were identified by surgical code for vaginal mesh removal. Only women undergoing removal of anti-incontinence mesh were included. Exclusion criteria included any women undergoing simultaneous prolapse mesh removal. We abstracted preoperative and postoperative information from the medical record and compared mesh culture results from patients with and without mesh extrusion, de novo recurrent UTIs, and delayed-onset pain. One hundred seven women with only anti-incontinence mesh removed were included in the analysis. Onset of complications after mesh placement was within the first 6 months in 70 (65%) of 107 and delayed (≥6 months) in 37 (35%) of 107. A positive culture from the explanted mesh was obtained from 82 (77%) of 107 patients, and 40 (37%) of 107 were positive with potential pathogens. There were no significant differences in culture results when comparing patients with delayed-onset versus immediate pain, extrusion with no extrusion, and de novo recurrent UTIs with no infections. In this large cohort of patients with mesh removed for a diverse array of complications, cultures of the explanted vaginal mesh demonstrate frequent low-density bacterial colonization. We found no differences in culture results from women with delayed-onset pain versus acute pain, vaginal mesh extrusions versus no extrusions, or recurrent UTIs using standard culture methods. Chronic prosthetic infections in other areas of medicine are associated with bacterial biofilms, which are resistant to typical culture techniques. Further studies using culture-independent methods are needed to investigate the potential role of chronic bacterial infections in delayed vaginal mesh

Heterogeneity of passenger exposure to air pollutants in public transport microenvironments

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Fenhuan; Kaul, Daya; Wong, Ka Chun; Westerdahl, Dane; Sun, Li; Ho, Kin-fai; Tian, Linwei; Brimblecombe, Peter; Ning, Zhi

2015-05-01

Epidemiologic studies have linked human exposure to pollutants with adverse health effects. Passenger exposure in public transport systems contributes an important fraction of daily burden of air pollutants. While there is extensive literature reporting the concentrations of pollutants in public transport systems in different cities, there are few studies systematically addressing the heterogeneity of passenger exposure in different transit microenvironments, in cabins of different transit vehicles and in areas with different characteristics. The present study investigated PM2.5 (particulate matter with aerodynamic diameters smaller than 2.5 μm), black carbon (BC), ultrafine particles (UFP) and carbon monoxide (CO) pollutant concentrations in various public road transport systems in highly urbanized city of Hong Kong. Using a trolley case housing numerous portable air monitors, we conducted a total of 119 trips during the campaign. Transit microenvironments, classified as 1). busy and secondary roadside bus stops; 2). open and enclosed termini; 3). above- and under-ground Motor Rail Transport (MTR) platforms, were investigated and compared to identify the factors that may affect passenger exposures. The pollutants inside bus and MTR cabins were also investigated together with a comparison of time integrated exposure between the transit modes. Busy roadside and enclosed termini demonstrated the highest average particle concentrations while the lowest was found on the MTR platforms. Traffic-related pollutants BC, UFP and CO showed larger variations than PM2.5 across different microenvironments and areas confirming their heterogeneity in urban environments. In-cabin pollutant concentrations showed distinct patterns with BC and UFP high in diesel bus cabins and CO high in LPG bus cabins, suggesting possible self-pollution issues and/or penetration of on-road pollutants inside cabins during bus transit. The total passenger exposure along selected routes, showed bus

Integrated Radiation Transport and Nuclear Fuel Performance for Assembly-Level Simulations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Clarno, Kevin T [ORNL; Hamilton, Steven P [ORNL; Philip, Bobby [ORNL; Berrill, Mark A [ORNL; Sampath, Rahul S [ORNL; Allu, Srikanth [ORNL; Pugmire, Dave [ORNL; Dilts, Gary [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL); Banfield, James E [ORNL

2012-02-01

The Advanced Multi-Physics (AMP) Nuclear Fuel Performance code (AMPFuel) is focused on predicting the temperature and strain within a nuclear fuel assembly to evaluate the performance and safety of existing and advanced nuclear fuel bundles within existing and advanced nuclear reactors. AMPFuel was extended to include an integrated nuclear fuel assembly capability for (one-way) coupled radiation transport and nuclear fuel assembly thermo-mechanics. This capability is the initial step toward incorporating an improved predictive nuclear fuel assembly modeling capability to accurately account for source-terms and boundary conditions of traditional (single-pin) nuclear fuel performance simulation, such as the neutron flux distribution, coolant conditions, and assembly mechanical stresses. A novel scheme is introduced for transferring the power distribution from the Scale/Denovo (Denovo) radiation transport code (structured, Cartesian mesh with smeared materials within each cell) to AMPFuel (unstructured, hexagonal mesh with a single material within each cell), allowing the use of a relatively coarse spatial mesh (10 million elements) for the radiation transport and a fine spatial mesh (3.3 billion elements) for thermo-mechanics with very little loss of accuracy. In addition, a new nuclear fuel-specific preconditioner was developed to account for the high aspect ratio of each fuel pin (12 feet axially, but 1 4 inches in diameter) with many individual fuel regions (pellets). With this novel capability, AMPFuel was used to model an entire 17 17 pressurized water reactor fuel assembly with many of the features resolved in three dimensions (for thermo-mechanics and/or neutronics), including the fuel, gap, and cladding of each of the 264 fuel pins; the 25 guide tubes; the top and bottom structural regions; and the upper and lower (neutron) reflector regions. The final, full assembly calculation was executed on Jaguar using 40,000 cores in under 10 hours to model over 162

The Modelling Analysis of the Response of Convective Transport of Energy and Water to Multiscale Surface Heterogeneity over Tibetan Plateau

Science.gov (United States)

SUN, G.; Hu, Z.; Ma, Y.; Ma, W.

2017-12-01

The land-atmospheric interactions over a heterogeneous surface is a tricky issue for accurately understanding the energy-water exchanges between land surface and atmosphere. We investigate the vertical transport of energy and water over a heterogeneous land surface in Tibetan Plateau during the evolution of the convective boundary layer using large eddy simulation (WRF_LES). The surface heterogeneity is created according to remote sensing images from high spatial resolution LandSat ETM+ images. The PBL characteristics over a heterogeneous surface are analyzed in terms of secondary circulations under different background wind conditions based on the horizontal and vertical distribution and evolution of wind. The characteristics of vertical transport of energy and heat over a heterogeneous surface are analyzed in terms of the horizontal distribution as well as temporal evolution of sensible and latent heat fluxes at different heights under different wind conditions on basis of the simulated results from WRF_LES. The characteristics of the heat and water transported into the free atmosphere from surface are also analyzed and quantified according to the simulated results from WRF_LES. The convective transport of energy and water are analyzed according to horizontal and vertical distributions of potential temperature and vapor under different background wind conditions. With the analysis based on the WRF_LES simulation, the performance of PBL schemes of mesoscale simulation (WRF_meso) is evaluated. The comparison between horizontal distribution of vertical fluxes and domain-averaged vertical fluxes of the energy and water in the free atmosphere is used to evaluate the performance of PBL schemes of WRF_meso in the simulation of vertical exchange of energy and water. This is an important variable because only the energy and water transported into free atmosphere is able to influence the regional and even global climate. This work would will be of great significance not

High-order discrete ordinate transport in non-conforming 2D Cartesian meshes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gastaldo, L.; Le Tellier, R.; Suteau, C.; Fournier, D.; Ruggieri, J. M.

2009-01-01

We present in this paper a numerical scheme for solving the time-independent first-order form of the Boltzmann equation in non-conforming 2D Cartesian meshes. The flux solution technique used here is the discrete ordinate method and the spatial discretization is based on discontinuous finite elements. In order to have p-refinement capability, we have chosen a hierarchical polynomial basis based on Legendre polynomials. The h-refinement capability is also available and the element interface treatment has been simplified by the use of special functions decomposed over the mesh entities of an element. The comparison to a classical S N method using the Diamond Differencing scheme as spatial approximation confirms the good behaviour of the method. (authors)

Estimating the acute health effects of coarse particulate matter accounting for exposure measurement error.

Science.gov (United States)

Chang, Howard H; Peng, Roger D; Dominici, Francesca

2011-10-01

In air pollution epidemiology, there is a growing interest in estimating the health effects of coarse particulate matter (PM) with aerodynamic diameter between 2.5 and 10 μm. Coarse PM concentrations can exhibit considerable spatial heterogeneity because the particles travel shorter distances and do not remain suspended in the atmosphere for an extended period of time. In this paper, we develop a modeling approach for estimating the short-term effects of air pollution in time series analysis when the ambient concentrations vary spatially within the study region. Specifically, our approach quantifies the error in the exposure variable by characterizing, on any given day, the disagreement in ambient concentrations measured across monitoring stations. This is accomplished by viewing monitor-level measurements as error-prone repeated measurements of the unobserved population average exposure. Inference is carried out in a Bayesian framework to fully account for uncertainty in the estimation of model parameters. Finally, by using different exposure indicators, we investigate the sensitivity of the association between coarse PM and daily hospital admissions based on a recent national multisite time series analysis. Among Medicare enrollees from 59 US counties between the period 1999 and 2005, we find a consistent positive association between coarse PM and same-day admission for cardiovascular diseases.

Scalable and massively parallel Monte Carlo photon transport simulations for heterogeneous computing platforms.

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, Leiming; Nina-Paravecino, Fanny; Kaeli, David; Fang, Qianqian

2018-01-01

We present a highly scalable Monte Carlo (MC) three-dimensional photon transport simulation platform designed for heterogeneous computing systems. Through the development of a massively parallel MC algorithm using the Open Computing Language framework, this research extends our existing graphics processing unit (GPU)-accelerated MC technique to a highly scalable vendor-independent heterogeneous computing environment, achieving significantly improved performance and software portability. A number of parallel computing techniques are investigated to achieve portable performance over a wide range of computing hardware. Furthermore, multiple thread-level and device-level load-balancing strategies are developed to obtain efficient simulations using multiple central processing units and GPUs. (2018) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).

Reactor physics verification of the MCNP6 unstructured mesh capability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Burke, T. P.; Kiedrowski, B. C.; Martz, R. L.; Martin, W. R.

2013-01-01

The Monte Carlo software package MCNP6 has the ability to transport particles on unstructured meshes generated from the Computed-Aided Engineering software Abaqus. Verification is performed using benchmarks with features relevant to reactor physics - Big Ten and the C5G7 computational benchmark. Various meshing strategies are tested and results are compared to reference solutions. Computational performance results are also given. The conclusions show MCNP6 is capable of producing accurate calculations for reactor physics geometries and the computational requirements for small lattice benchmarks are reasonable on modern computing platforms. (authors)

Reactor physics verification of the MCNP6 unstructured mesh capability

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Burke, T. P. [Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences, University of Michigan, 2355 Bonisteel Boulevard, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (United States); Kiedrowski, B. C.; Martz, R. L. [X-Computational Physics Division, Monte Carlo Codes Group, Los Alamos National Laboratory, P.O. Box 1663, Los Alamos, NM 87545 (United States); Martin, W. R. [Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences, University of Michigan, 2355 Bonisteel Boulevard, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (United States)

2013-07-01

The Monte Carlo software package MCNP6 has the ability to transport particles on unstructured meshes generated from the Computed-Aided Engineering software Abaqus. Verification is performed using benchmarks with features relevant to reactor physics - Big Ten and the C5G7 computational benchmark. Various meshing strategies are tested and results are compared to reference solutions. Computational performance results are also given. The conclusions show MCNP6 is capable of producing accurate calculations for reactor physics geometries and the computational requirements for small lattice benchmarks are reasonable on modern computing platforms. (authors)

Enhancement of Bacterial Transport in Aerobic and Anaerobic Environments: Assessing the Effect of Metal Oxide Chemical Heterogeneities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

T.C. Onstott

2005-01-01

The goal of our research was to understand the fundamental processes that control microbial transport in physically and chemically heterogeneous aquifers and from this enhanced understanding determine the requirements for successful, field-scale delivery of microorganisms to metal contaminated subsurface sites. Our specific research goals were to determine; (1) the circumstances under which the preferential adsorption of bacteria to Fe, Mn, and Al oxyhydroxides influences field-scale bacterial transport, (2) the extent to which the adhesion properties of bacterial cells affect field-scale bacterial transport, (3) whether microbial Fe(III) reduction can enhance field-scale transport of Fe reducing bacteria (IRB) and other microorganisms and (4) the effect of field-scale physical and chemical heterogeneity on all three processes. Some of the spin-offs from this basic research that can improve biostimulation and bioaugmentation remediation efforts at contaminated DOE sites have included; (1) new bacterial tracking tools for viable bacteria; (2) an integrated protocol which combines subsurface characterization, laboratory-scale experimentation, and scale-up techniques to accurately predict field-scale bacterial transport; and (3) innovative and inexpensive field equipment and methods that can be employed to enhance Fe(III) reduction and microbial transport and to target microbial deposition under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions

Urogynecologic Surgical Mesh Implants

Science.gov (United States)

... procedures performed to treat pelvic floor disorders with surgical mesh: Transvaginal mesh to treat POP Transabdominal mesh to treat ... address safety risks Final Order for Reclassification of Surgical Mesh for Transvaginal Pelvic Organ Prolapse Repair Final Order for Effective ...

Performance of Implementation IBR-DTN and Batman-Adv Routing Protocol in Wireless Mesh Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Herman Yuliandoko

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Wireless mesh networks is a network which has high mobility and flexibility network. In Wireless mesh networks nodes are free to move and able to automatically build a network connection with other nodes. High mobility, heterogeneous condition and intermittent network connectivity cause data packets drop during wireless communication and it becomes a problem in the wireless mesh networks. This condition can happen because wireless mesh networks use connectionless networking type such as IP protocol which it is not tolerant to delay. To solve this condition it is needed a technology to keep data packets when the network is disconnect. Delay tolerant technology is a technology that provides store and forward mechanism and it can prevent packet data dropping during communication. In our research, we proposed a test bed wireless mesh networks implementation by using proactive routing protocol and combining with delay tolerant technology. We used Batman-adv routing protocol and IBR-DTN on our research. We measured some particular performance aspect of networking such as packet loss, delay, and throughput of the network. We identified that delay tolerant could keep packet data from dropping better than current wireless mesh networks in the intermittent network condition. We also proved that IBR-DTN and Batman-adv could run together on the wireless mesh networks. In The experiment throughput test result of IBR-DTN was higher than Current TCP on the LoS (Line of Side and on environment with obstacle. Keywords: Delay Tolerant, IBR-DTN, Wireless Mesh, Batman-adv, Performance

SU-E-CAMPUS-I-02: Estimation of the Dosimetric Error Caused by the Voxelization of Hybrid Computational Phantoms Using Triangle Mesh-Based Monte Carlo Transport

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, C [Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD (United States); Badal, A [U.S. Food ' Drug Administration (CDRH/OSEL), Silver Spring, MD (United States)

2014-06-15

Purpose: Computational voxel phantom provides realistic anatomy but the voxel structure may result in dosimetric error compared to real anatomy composed of perfect surface. We analyzed the dosimetric error caused from the voxel structure in hybrid computational phantoms by comparing the voxel-based doses at different resolutions with triangle mesh-based doses. Methods: We incorporated the existing adult male UF/NCI hybrid phantom in mesh format into a Monte Carlo transport code, penMesh that supports triangle meshes. We calculated energy deposition to selected organs of interest for parallel photon beams with three mono energies (0.1, 1, and 10 MeV) in antero-posterior geometry. We also calculated organ energy deposition using three voxel phantoms with different voxel resolutions (1, 5, and 10 mm) using MCNPX2.7. Results: Comparison of organ energy deposition between the two methods showed that agreement overall improved for higher voxel resolution, but for many organs the differences were small. Difference in the energy deposition for 1 MeV, for example, decreased from 11.5% to 1.7% in muscle but only from 0.6% to 0.3% in liver as voxel resolution increased from 10 mm to 1 mm. The differences were smaller at higher energies. The number of photon histories processed per second in voxels were 6.4×10{sup 4}, 3.3×10{sup 4}, and 1.3×10{sup 4}, for 10, 5, and 1 mm resolutions at 10 MeV, respectively, while meshes ran at 4.0×10{sup 4} histories/sec. Conclusion: The combination of hybrid mesh phantom and penMesh was proved to be accurate and of similar speed compared to the voxel phantom and MCNPX. The lowest voxel resolution caused a maximum dosimetric error of 12.6% at 0.1 MeV and 6.8% at 10 MeV but the error was insignificant in some organs. We will apply the tool to calculate dose to very thin layer tissues (e.g., radiosensitive layer in gastro intestines) which cannot be modeled by voxel phantoms.

Intravesical midurethral sling mesh erosion secondary to transvaginal mesh reconstructive surgery

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sukanda Bin Jaili

2015-05-01

Conclusion: Repeated vaginal reconstructive surgery may jeopardize a primary mesh or sling, and pose a high risk of mesh erosion, which may be delayed for several years. Removal of the mesh erosion and bladder repair are feasible pervaginally with good outcome.

Mesh versus non-mesh repair of ventral abdominal hernias

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jawaid, M.A.; Talpur, A.H.

2008-01-01

To investigate the relative effectiveness of mesh and suture repair of ventral abdominal hernias in terms of clinical outcome, quality of life and rate of recurrence in both the techniques. This is a retrospective descriptive analysis of 236 patients with mesh and non-mesh repair of primary ventral hernias performed between January 2000 to December 2004 at Surgery Department, Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences, Jamshoro. The record sheets of the patients were analyzed and data retrieved to compare the results of both techniques for short-term and long-term results. The data retrieved is statistically analyzed on SPSS version 11. There were 43 (18.22%) males and 193 (81.77%) females with a mean age of 51.79 years and a range of 59 (81-22). Para-umbilical hernia was the commonest of ventral hernia and accounted for 49.8% (n=118) of the total study population followed by incisional hernia comprising 24% (n=57) of the total number. There was a significant difference in the recurrent rate at 3 years interval with 23/101 (22.77%) recurrences in suture-repaired subjects compared to 10/135 (7.40%) in mesh repair group. Chronic pain lasting up to 1-2 years was noted in 14 patients with suture repair. Wound infection is comparatively more common (8.14%) in mesh group. The other variables such as operative and postoperative complications, total hospital stay and quality of life is also discussed. Mesh repair of ventral hernia is much superior to non-mesh suture repair in terms of recurrence and overall outcome. (author)

Reactivity perturbation formulation for a discontinuous Galerkin-based transport solver and its use with adaptive mesh refinement

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Le Tellier, R.; Fournier, D.; Suteau, C.

2011-01-01

Within the framework of a Discontinuous Galerkin spatial approximation of the multigroup discrete ordinates transport equation, we present a generalization of the exact standard perturbation formula that takes into account spatial discretization-induced reactivity changes. It encompasses in two separate contributions the nuclear data-induced reactivity change and the reactivity modification induced by two different spatial discretizations. The two potential uses of such a formulation when considering adaptive mesh refinement are discussed, and numerical results on a simple two-group Cartesian two-dimensional benchmark are provided. In particular, such a formulation is shown to be useful to filter out a more accurate estimate of nuclear data-related reactivity effects from initial and perturbed calculations based on independent adaptation processes. (authors)

Hybrid subgroup decomposition method for solving fine-group eigenvalue transport problems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yasseri, Saam; Rahnema, Farzad

2014-01-01

Highlights: • An acceleration technique for solving fine-group eigenvalue transport problems. • Coarse-group quasi transport theory to solve coarse-group eigenvalue transport problems. • Consistent and inconsistent formulations for coarse-group quasi transport theory. • Computational efficiency amplified by a factor of 2 using hybrid SGD for 1D BWR problem. - Abstract: In this paper, a new hybrid method for solving fine-group eigenvalue transport problems is developed. This method extends the subgroup decomposition method to efficiently couple a new coarse-group quasi transport theory with a set of fixed-source transport decomposition sweeps to obtain the fine-group transport solution. The advantages of the quasi transport theory are its high accuracy, straight-forward implementation and numerical stability. The hybrid method is analyzed for a 1D benchmark problem characteristic of boiling water reactors (BWR). It is shown that the method reproduces the fine-group transport solution with high accuracy while increasing the computational efficiency up to 12 times compared to direct fine-group transport calculations

Mathematics and computational methods development in U.S. department of energy-sponsored research (nuclear energy research initiative and nuclear engineering education research). 4. Development of an Expert System for Generation of an Effective Mesh Distribution for the SN Method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Patchimpattapong, Apisit; Haghighat, Alireza

2001-01-01

The discrete ordinates (S N ) method is widely used to obtain numerical solutions of the transport equation. The method calls for discretization of spatial, energy, and angular variables. To generate an 'effective' spatial mesh distribution, one has to consider various factors including particle mean free path (mfp), material and source discontinuities, and problem objectives. This becomes more complicated if we consider the effect of numerics such as differencing schemes, parallel processing strategies, and computation resources. As a result, one may often over/under-mesh depending upon limitations on accuracy, computing resources, and time allotted. To overcome the foregoing issues, we are developing an expert system for input preparation of the discrete ordinates (S N ) method. This project is a part of an ongoing project sponsored by Nuclear Engineering Education Research. Our expert system consists of two parts: (a) an algorithm for generation of a mesh distribution for a serial calculation and (b) an algorithm for extension to parallel computing, which accounts for parallelization parameters including granularity, load balancing, parallel algorithms, and possible architectural issues. Thus far, we have developed a stand-alone algorithm for generation of an 'effective' mesh distribution for a serial calculation. The algorithm has been successfully tested with the Parallel Environment Neutral-Particle Transport (PENTRAN) code system. In this paper, we discuss the structure of our algorithm and present its use for simulating the VENUS-3 experimental facility. To date, we have developed and tested part 1 of this system. This part comprises of four steps: creation of a geometric model and coarse meshes, calculation of un-collided flux, selection of differencing schemes, and generation of fine-mesh distribution. For the un-collided flux calculation, we have developed a parallel code called PENFC. It is capable of calculating un-collided and first-collision fluxes

Mesh removal following transvaginal mesh placement: a case series of 104 operations.

Science.gov (United States)

Marcus-Braun, Naama; von Theobald, Peter

2010-04-01

The objective of the study was to reveal the way we treat vaginal mesh complications in a trained referral center. This is a retrospective review of all patients who underwent surgical removal of transvaginal mesh for mesh-related complications during a 5-year period. Eighty-three patients underwent 104 operations including 61 complete mesh removal, 14 partial excision, 15 section of sub-urethral sling, and five laparoscopies. Main indications were erosion, infection, granuloma, incomplete voiding, and pain. Fifty-eight removals occurred more than 2 years after the primary mesh placement. Mean operation time was 21 min, and there were two intraoperative and ten minor postoperative complications. Stress urinary incontinence (SUI) recurred in 38% and cystocele in 19% of patients. In a trained center, mesh removal was found to be a quick and safe procedure. Mesh-related complications may frequently occur more than 2 years after the primary operation. Recurrence was mostly associated with SUI and less with genital prolapse.

Goal based mesh adaptivity for fixed source radiation transport calculations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baker, C.M.J.; Buchan, A.G.; Pain, C.C.; Tollit, B.S.; Goffin, M.A.; Merton, S.R.; Warner, P.

2013-01-01

Highlights: ► Derives an anisotropic goal based error measure for shielding problems. ► Reduces the error in the detector response by optimizing the finite element mesh. ► Anisotropic adaptivity captures material interfaces using fewer elements than AMR. ► A new residual based on the numerical scheme chosen forms the error measure. ► The error measure also combines the forward and adjoint metrics in a novel way. - Abstract: In this paper, the application of goal based error measures for anisotropic adaptivity applied to shielding problems in which a detector is present is explored. Goal based adaptivity is important when the response of a detector is required to ensure that dose limits are adhered to. To achieve this, a dual (adjoint) problem is solved which solves the neutron transport equation in terms of the response variables, in this case the detector response. The methods presented can be applied to general finite element solvers, however, the derivation of the residuals are dependent on the underlying finite element scheme which is also discussed in this paper. Once error metrics for the forward and adjoint solutions have been formed they are combined using a novel approach. The two metrics are combined by forming the minimum ellipsoid that covers both the error metrics rather than taking the maximum ellipsoid that is contained within the metrics. Another novel approach used within this paper is the construction of the residual. The residual, used to form the goal based error metrics, is calculated from the subgrid scale correction which is inherent in the underlying spatial discretisation employed

Improvement of neutronic calculations on a Masurca core using adaptive mesh refinement capabilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fournier, D.; Archier, P.; Le Tellier, R.; Suteau, C.

2011-01-01

The simulation of 3D cores with homogenized assemblies in transport theory remains time and memory consuming for production calculations. With a multigroup discretization for the energy variable and a discrete ordinate method for the angle, a system of about 10"4 coupled hyperbolic transport equations has to be solved. For these equations, we intend to optimize the spatial discretization. In the framework of the SNATCH solver used in this study, the spatial problem is dealt with by using a structured hexahedral mesh and applying a Discontinuous Galerkin Finite Element Method (DGFEM). This paper shows the improvements due to the development of Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR) methods. As the SNATCH solver uses a hierarchical polynomial basis, p−refinement is possible but also h−refinement thanks to non conforming capabilities. Besides, as the flux spatial behavior is highly dependent on the energy, we propose to adapt differently the spatial discretization according to the energy group. To avoid dealing with too many meshes, some energy groups are joined and share the same mesh. The different energy-dependent AMR strategies are compared to each other but also with the classical approach of a conforming and highly refined spatial mesh. This comparison is carried out on different quantities such as the multiplication factor, the flux or the current. The gain in time and memory is shown for 2D and 3D benchmarks coming from the ZONA2B experimental core configuration of the MASURCA mock-up at CEA Cadarache. (author)

Polygonal Prism Mesh in the Viscous Layers for the Polyhedral Mesh Generator, PolyGen

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Sang Yong; Park, Chan Eok; Kim, Shin Whan

2015-01-01

Polyhedral mesh has been known to have some benefits over the tetrahedral mesh. Efforts have been made to set up a polyhedral mesh generation system with open source programs SALOME and TetGen. The evaluation has shown that the polyhedral mesh generation system is promising. But it is necessary to extend the capability of the system to handle the viscous layers to be a generalized mesh generator. A brief review to the previous works on the mesh generation for the viscous layers will be made in section 2. Several challenging issues for the polygonal prism mesh generation will be discussed as well. The procedure to generate a polygonal prism mesh will be discussed in detail in section 3. Conclusion will be followed in section 4. A procedure to generate meshes in the viscous layers with PolyGen has been successfully designed. But more efforts have to be exercised to find the best way for the generating meshes for viscous layers. Using the extrusion direction of the STL data will the first of the trials in the near future

A Deep Penetration Problem Calculation Using AETIUS:An Easy Modeling Discrete Ordinates Transport Code UsIng Unstructured Tetrahedral Mesh, Shared Memory Parallel

Science.gov (United States)

KIM, Jong Woon; LEE, Young-Ouk

2017-09-01

As computing power gets better and better, computer codes that use a deterministic method seem to be less useful than those using the Monte Carlo method. In addition, users do not like to think about space, angles, and energy discretization for deterministic codes. However, a deterministic method is still powerful in that we can obtain a solution of the flux throughout the problem, particularly as when particles can barely penetrate, such as in a deep penetration problem with small detection volumes. Recently, a new state-of-the-art discrete-ordinates code, ATTILA, was developed and has been widely used in several applications. ATTILA provides the capabilities to solve geometrically complex 3-D transport problems by using an unstructured tetrahedral mesh. Since 2009, we have been developing our own code by benchmarking ATTILA. AETIUS is a discrete ordinates code that uses an unstructured tetrahedral mesh such as ATTILA. For pre- and post- processing, Gmsh is used to generate an unstructured tetrahedral mesh by importing a CAD file (*.step) and visualizing the calculation results of AETIUS. Using a CAD tool, the geometry can be modeled very easily. In this paper, we describe a brief overview of AETIUS and provide numerical results from both AETIUS and a Monte Carlo code, MCNP5, in a deep penetration problem with small detection volumes. The results demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of AETIUS for such calculations.

The anatomy of effective discharge: the dynamics of coarse sediment transport revealed using continuous bedload monitoring in a gravel-bed river during a very wet year

OpenAIRE

Downs, Peter W.; Soar, Philip J.; Taylor, Alex

2015-01-01

Indirect, passive approaches for monitoring coarse bedload transport could allow cheaper, safer, higher-resolution, longer-term data that revolutionises bedload understanding and informs river management. Here, insights provided by seismic impact plates in a downstream reach of a flashy gravel-bed river (River Avon, Devon, UK) are explored in the context of plate performance. Monitoring of a centrally-situated plate (IP1) during an extremely wet 12-month period demonstrated that impacts were ...

Reactive solute transport in physically and chemically heterogeneous porous media with multimodal reactive mineral facies: the Lagrangian approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Soltanian, Mohamad Reza; Ritzi, Robert W; Dai, Zhenxue; Huang, Chao Cheng

2015-03-01

Physical and chemical heterogeneities have a large impact on reactive transport in porous media. Examples of heterogeneous attributes affecting reactive mass transport are the hydraulic conductivity (K), and the equilibrium sorption distribution coefficient (Kd). This paper uses the Deng et al. (2013) conceptual model for multimodal reactive mineral facies and a Lagrangian-based stochastic theory in order to analyze the reactive solute dispersion in three-dimensional anisotropic heterogeneous porous media with hierarchical organization of reactive minerals. An example based on real field data is used to illustrate the time evolution trends of reactive solute dispersion. The results show that the correlation between the hydraulic conductivity and the equilibrium sorption distribution coefficient does have a significant effect on reactive solute dispersion. The anisotropy ratio does not have a significant effect on reactive solute dispersion. Furthermore, through a sensitivity analysis we investigate the impact of changing the mean, variance, and integral scale of K and Kd on reactive solute dispersion. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Benchmark calculations of power distribution within assemblies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cavarec, C.; Perron, J.F.; Verwaerde, D.; West, J.P.

1994-09-01

The main objective of this Benchmark is to compare different techniques for fine flux prediction based upon coarse mesh diffusion or transport calculations. We proposed 5 ''core'' configurations including different assembly types (17 x 17 pins, ''uranium'', ''absorber'' or ''MOX'' assemblies), with different boundary conditions. The specification required results in terms of reactivity, pin by pin fluxes and production rate distributions. The proposal for these Benchmark calculations was made by J.C. LEFEBVRE, J. MONDOT, J.P. WEST and the specification (with nuclear data, assembly types, core configurations for 2D geometry and results presentation) was distributed to correspondents of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency. 11 countries and 19 companies answered the exercise proposed by this Benchmark. Heterogeneous calculations and homogeneous calculations were made. Various methods were used to produce the results: diffusion (finite differences, nodal...), transport (P ij , S n , Monte Carlo). This report presents an analysis and intercomparisons of all the results received

Dynamics of Coupled Contaminant and Microbial Transport in Heterogeneous Porous Media: Purdue Component

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cushman, J.H.; Madilyn Fletcher

2000-06-01

Dynamic microbial attachment/detachment occurs in subsurface systems in response to changing environmental conditions caused by contaminant movement and degradation. Understanding the environmental conditions and mechanisms by which anaerobic bacteria partition between aqueous and solid phases is a critical requirement for designing and evaluating in situ bioremediation efforts. This interdisciplinary research project, of which we report only the Purdue contribution, provides fundamental information on the attachment/detachment dynamics of bacteria in heterogeneous porous media. Fundamental results from the Purdue collaboration are: (a) development of a matched-index method for obtaining 3-D Lagrangian trajectories of microbial sized particles transporting within porous media or microflow cells, (b) application of advanced numerical methods to optimally design a microflow cell for studying anaerobic bacterial attachment/detachment phenomena, (c) development of two types of models for simulating bacterial movement and attachment/detachment in microflow cells and natural porous media, (d) application of stochastic analysis to upscale pore scale microbial attachment/detachment models to natural heterogeneous porous media, and (e) evaluation of the role nonlocality plays in microbial dynamics in heterogeneous porous media

Dynamics of Coupled Contaminant and Microbial Transport in Heterogeneous Porous Media: Purdue Component

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cushman, J.H.

2000-06-01

Dynamic microbial attachment/detachment occurs in subsurface systems in response to changing environmental conditions caused by contaminant movement and degradation. Understanding the environmental conditions and mechanisms by which anaerobic bacteria partition between aqueous and solid phases is a critical requirement for designing and evaluating in situ bioremediation efforts. This interdisciplinary research project, of which we report only the Purdue contribution, provides fundamental information on the attachment/detachment dynamics of bacteria in heterogeneous porous media. Fundamental results from the Purdue collaboration are: (a) development of a matched-index method for obtaining 3-D Lagrangian trajectories of microbial sized particles transporting within porous media or microflow cells, (b) application of advanced numerical methods to optimally design a microflow cell for studying anaerobic bacterial attachment/detachment phenomena, (c) development of two types of models for simulating bacterial movement and attachment/detachment in microflow cells and natural porous media, (d) application of stochastic analysis to upscale pore scale microbial attachment/detachment models to natural heterogeneous porous media, and (e) evaluation of the role nonlocality plays in microbial dynamics in heterogeneous porous media.

Toward An Unstructured Mesh Database

Science.gov (United States)

Rezaei Mahdiraji, Alireza; Baumann, Peter Peter

2014-05-01

Unstructured meshes are used in several application domains such as earth sciences (e.g., seismology), medicine, oceanography, cli- mate modeling, GIS as approximate representations of physical objects. Meshes subdivide a domain into smaller geometric elements (called cells) which are glued together by incidence relationships. The subdivision of a domain allows computational manipulation of complicated physical structures. For instance, seismologists model earthquakes using elastic wave propagation solvers on hexahedral meshes. The hexahedral con- tains several hundred millions of grid points and millions of hexahedral cells. Each vertex node in the hexahedrals stores a multitude of data fields. To run simulation on such meshes, one needs to iterate over all the cells, iterate over incident cells to a given cell, retrieve coordinates of cells, assign data values to cells, etc. Although meshes are used in many application domains, to the best of our knowledge there is no database vendor that support unstructured mesh features. Currently, the main tool for querying and manipulating unstructured meshes are mesh libraries, e.g., CGAL and GRAL. Mesh li- braries are dedicated libraries which includes mesh algorithms and can be run on mesh representations. The libraries do not scale with dataset size, do not have declarative query language, and need deep C++ knowledge for query implementations. Furthermore, due to high coupling between the implementations and input file structure, the implementations are less reusable and costly to maintain. A dedicated mesh database offers the following advantages: 1) declarative querying, 2) ease of maintenance, 3) hiding mesh storage structure from applications, and 4) transparent query optimization. To design a mesh database, the first challenge is to define a suitable generic data model for unstructured meshes. We proposed ImG-Complexes data model as a generic topological mesh data model which extends incidence graph model to multi

TRIDENT: a two-dimensional, multigroup, triangular mesh discrete ordinates, explicit neutron transport code

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Seed, T.J.; Miller, W.F. Jr.; Brinkley, F.W. Jr.

1977-03-01

TRIDENT solves the two-dimensional-multigroup-transport equations in rectangular (x-y) and cylindrical (r-z) geometries using a regular triangular mesh. Regular and adjoint, inhomogeneous and homogeneous (k/sub eff/ and eigenvalue searches) problems subject to vacuum, reflective, white, or source boundary conditions are solved. General anisotropic scattering is allowed and anisotropic-distributed sources are permitted. The discrete-ordinates approximation is used for the neutron directional variables. An option is included to append a fictitious source to the discrete-ordinates equations that is defined such that spherical-harmonics solutions (in x-y geometry) or spherical-harmonics-like solutions (in r-z geometry) are obtained. A spatial-finite-element method is used in which the angular flux is expressed as a linear polynomial in each triangle that is discontinous at triangle boundaries. Unusual Features of the program: Provision is made for creation of standard interface output files for S/sub N/ constants, angle-integrated (scalar) fluxes, and angular fluxes. Standard interface input files for S/sub N/ constants, inhomogeneous sources, cross sections, and the scalar flux may be read. Flexible edit options as well as a dump and restart capability are provided

Mesh optimization for microbial fuel cell cathodes constructed around stainless steel mesh current collectors

KAUST Repository

Zhang, Fang

2011-02-01

Mesh current collectors made of stainless steel (SS) can be integrated into microbial fuel cell (MFC) cathodes constructed of a reactive carbon black and Pt catalyst mixture and a poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) diffusion layer. It is shown here that the mesh properties of these cathodes can significantly affect performance. Cathodes made from the coarsest mesh (30-mesh) achieved the highest maximum power of 1616 ± 25 mW m-2 (normalized to cathode projected surface area; 47.1 ± 0.7 W m-3 based on liquid volume), while the finest mesh (120-mesh) had the lowest power density (599 ± 57 mW m-2). Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy showed that charge transfer and diffusion resistances decreased with increasing mesh opening size. In MFC tests, the cathode performance was primarily limited by reaction kinetics, and not mass transfer. Oxygen permeability increased with mesh opening size, accounting for the decreased diffusion resistance. At higher current densities, diffusion became a limiting factor, especially for fine mesh with low oxygen transfer coefficients. These results demonstrate the critical nature of the mesh size used for constructing MFC cathodes. © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Micro-scale heterogeneity of spiders (Arachnida: Araneae) in the ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Coarse-scale studies that focus on species distributions and richness neglect heterogeneity that may be present at finer scales. Studies of arthropod assemblage structure at fine (1 × 1 km) scales are rare, but important, because these are the spatial levels at which real world applications are viable. Here we investigate ...

Heterogeneity and Scaling in Geologic Media: Applications to Transport in the Vadose and Saturated Zones

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Brown, Stephen R.

2003-06-01

Heterogeneity and Scaling in Geologic Media: Applications to Transport in the Vadose and Saturated Zones Stephen Brown, Gregory Boitnott, and Martin Smith New England Research In rocks and soils, the bulk geophysical and transport properties of the matrix and of fracture systems are determined by the juxtaposition of geometric features at many length scales. For sedimentary materials the length scales are: the pore scale (irregularities in grain surface roughness and cementation), the scale of grain packing faults (and the resulting correlated porosity structures), the scale dominated by sorting or winnowing due to depositional processes, and the scale of geomorphology at the time of deposition. We are studying the heterogeneity and anisotropy in geometry, permeability, and geophysical response from the pore (microscopic), laboratory (mesoscopic), and backyard field (macroscopic) scales. In turn these data are being described and synthesized for development of mathematical models. Eventually, we will perform parameter studies to explore these models in the context of transport in the vadose and saturated zones. We have developed a multi-probe physical properties scanner which allows for the mapping of geophysical properties on a slabbed sample or core. This device allows for detailed study of heterogeneity at those length scales most difficult to quantify using standard field and laboratory practices. The measurement head consists of a variety of probes designed to make local measurements of various properties, including: gas permeability, acoustic velocities (compressional and shear), complex electrical impedance (4 electrode, wide frequency coverage), and ultrasonic reflection (ultrasonic impedance and permeability). We can thus routinely generate detailed geophysical maps of a particular sample. With the exception of the acoustic velocity, we are testing and modifying these probes as necessary for use on soil samples. As a baseline study we have been

On the Longitudinal Dispersion in Conservative Transport Through Heterogeneous Porous Formations at Finite Peclet Numbers

Science.gov (United States)

Severino, Gerardo; Cuomo, Salvatore; Sommella, Angelo; D'urso, Guido

2017-10-01

We consider transport of a conservative solute through an aquifer as determined: (i) by the advective velocity, which depends upon the hydraulic conductivity K and (ii) by the local spreading due to the pore-scale dispersion (PSD). The flow is steady, and it takes place in a porous formation where, owing to its erratic spatial variations, the hydraulic log conductivity Y≡ln⁡K is modeled as a stationary Gaussian random field. The relative effect of the above mechanisms (i)-(ii) is quantified by the Peclet number>(Pe>) which, in most of the previous studies, was considered infinite (i.e., no PSD) due to the overtake of advective heterogeneities upon the PSD. Here we aim at generalizing such studies by accounting for the impact of finite Pe on conservative transport. Previous studies on the topic required extensive numerical computations. In the present note, we remove the computational burden by adopting the rational approximate expression of Dagan and Cvetkovic (1993) for the covariance of the velocity field. This allows one to obtain closed form expressions for the quantities characterizing the longitudinal plume's dispersion. Transport can be straightforwardly investigated by dealing with a modified Peclet number>(Pe>¯>) incorporating both the PSD and the aquifer's anisotropy. The satisfactory match to Cape Cod field data suggests that the present theoretical results lend themselves as a useful tool to assess the impact of the PSD upon conservative transport through heterogeneous porous formations.

MeSH Now: automatic MeSH indexing at PubMed scale via learning to rank.

Science.gov (United States)

Mao, Yuqing; Lu, Zhiyong

2017-04-17

MeSH indexing is the task of assigning relevant MeSH terms based on a manual reading of scholarly publications by human indexers. The task is highly important for improving literature retrieval and many other scientific investigations in biomedical research. Unfortunately, given its manual nature, the process of MeSH indexing is both time-consuming (new articles are not immediately indexed until 2 or 3 months later) and costly (approximately ten dollars per article). In response, automatic indexing by computers has been previously proposed and attempted but remains challenging. In order to advance the state of the art in automatic MeSH indexing, a community-wide shared task called BioASQ was recently organized. We propose MeSH Now, an integrated approach that first uses multiple strategies to generate a combined list of candidate MeSH terms for a target article. Through a novel learning-to-rank framework, MeSH Now then ranks the list of candidate terms based on their relevance to the target article. Finally, MeSH Now selects the highest-ranked MeSH terms via a post-processing module. We assessed MeSH Now on two separate benchmarking datasets using traditional precision, recall and F 1 -score metrics. In both evaluations, MeSH Now consistently achieved over 0.60 in F-score, ranging from 0.610 to 0.612. Furthermore, additional experiments show that MeSH Now can be optimized by parallel computing in order to process MEDLINE documents on a large scale. We conclude that MeSH Now is a robust approach with state-of-the-art performance for automatic MeSH indexing and that MeSH Now is capable of processing PubMed scale documents within a reasonable time frame. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/CBBresearch/Lu/Demo/MeSHNow/ .

Multiscale Adapted Time-Splitting Technique for Nonisothermal Two-Phase Flow and Nanoparticles Transport in Heterogenous Porous Media

KAUST Repository

El-Amin, Mohamed F.; Kou, Jisheng; Sun, Shuyu

2017-01-01

This paper is devoted to study the problem of nonisothermal two-phase flow with nanoparticles transport in heterogenous porous media, numerically. For this purpose, we introduce a multiscale adapted time-splitting technique to simulate the problem

DOT-IV two-dimensional discrete ordinates transport code with space-dependent mesh and quadrature

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rhoades, W.A.; Simpson, D.B.; Childs, R.L.; Engle, W.W. Jr.

1979-01-01

DOT IV is designed to allow very large problems to be solved on a wide range of computers and memory arrangements. New flexibility in both space-mesh and directional-quadrature specification is allowed. For example, the radial mesh in an R-Z problem can vary with axial position. The directional quadrature can vary with both space and energy group. Several features improve performance on both deep penetration and criticality problems. The program has been checked and used extensively on several types of computers. All of the features have been insured operable except the following two, which must not be used: criticality searches and P/sub L/ variable by group or material. Diffusion theory problems must not use internal or external boundary sources, variable mesh, or variable quadrature. A diffusion iteration cannot produce internal boundary source output or ''angular flux tape.'' The P 1 module is very limited. The special geometries, INGEOM greater than or equal to 10, have not been completely checked and are not guaranteed. 7 figures, 1 table

Thermal-hydraulics verification of a coarse-mesh OpenFOAM-based solver for a Sodium Fast Reactor

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bonet López, M.

2015-07-01

Recently, in the Institute Swiss Paul Scherrer Institut, is has developed a platform Multiphysics, based in OpenFOAM, that is capable of performing an analysis multidimensional of a reactor nuclear. One of the main objectives of this project is to verify the part of the code responsible for the Thermo-hydraulic analysis of the reactor. To carry out simulations this part of the code uses the approximation of thick mesh based on the equations of a porous medium. Therefore, the other objective is demonstrate that this method is applicable to the analysis of a reactor nuclear fast of sodium, focusing is in his capacity of predict the transfer of heat between a subset and the space vacuum between subsets of the core of the reactor. (Author)

Multi-cell vortices observed in fine-mesh solutions to the incompressible Euler equations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rizzi, A.

1986-01-01

Results are presented for a three dimensional flow, containing a vortex sheet shed from a delta wing. The numerical solution indicates that the shearing caused by the trailing edge of the wing set up a torsional wave on the vortex core and produces a structure with multiple cells of vorticity. Although observed in coarse grid solutions too, this effect becomes better resolved with mesh refinement to 614 000 grid volumes. In comparison with a potential solution in which the vortex sheet is fitted as a discontinuity, the results are analyzed for the position of the vortex features captured in the Euler flow field, the accuracy of the pressure field, and for the diffusion of the vortex sheets

Green's function method for the monoenergetic transport equation in heterogeneous plane geometry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ganapol, B.D.

1995-01-01

For the past several years, a series of papers by the transport group at the University of Arizona dealing with benchmark solutions of the monoenergetic transport equation has appeared. The approach has been to take advantage of highly successful numerical Laplace Fourier transform inversions to provide benchmark quality solutions in infinite media, half-space in one and two dimensions and in homogeneous slabs. This paper extends the set of solutions to include heterogeneous slab geometry by using the recently established Green's Function Method (GFM). Analytical benchmark solutions are an essential part of the quality control of computational algorithms developed for particle transport. In addition, benchmarking methods have applications in the classroom by providing examples of how computational mathematics is used to solve physical problems to obtain meaningful answers. In a structural context, monoenergetic solutions are directly applicable to the investigation of the microlight environment within a leaf. The leaf is considered to be a composition of alternating layers of highly absorbing pigments and water superimposed on a refractively scattering background

Laparoscopic appendicectomy for suspected mesh-induced appendicitis after laparoscopic transabdominal preperitoneal polypropylene mesh inguinal herniorraphy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jennings Jason

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Laparoscopic inguinal herniorraphy via a transabdominal preperitoneal (TAPP approach using Polypropylene Mesh (Mesh and staples is an accepted technique. Mesh induces a localised inflammatory response that may extend to, and involve, adjacent abdominal and pelvic viscera such as the appendix. We present an interesting case of suspected Mesh-induced appendicitis treated successfully with laparoscopic appendicectomy, without Mesh removal, in an elderly gentleman who presented with symptoms and signs of acute appendicitis 18 months after laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair. Possible mechanisms for Mesh-induced appendicitis are briefly discussed.

Influence of mesh density, cortical thickness and material properties on human rib fracture prediction.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Zuoping; Kindig, Matthew W; Subit, Damien; Kent, Richard W

2010-11-01

The purpose of this paper was to investigate the sensitivity of the structural responses and bone fractures of the ribs to mesh density, cortical thickness, and material properties so as to provide guidelines for the development of finite element (FE) thorax models used in impact biomechanics. Subject-specific FE models of the second, fourth, sixth and tenth ribs were developed to reproduce dynamic failure experiments. Sensitivity studies were then conducted to quantify the effects of variations in mesh density, cortical thickness, and material parameters on the model-predicted reaction force-displacement relationship, cortical strains, and bone fracture locations for all four ribs. Overall, it was demonstrated that rib FE models consisting of 2000-3000 trabecular hexahedral elements (weighted element length 2-3mm) and associated quadrilateral cortical shell elements with variable thickness more closely predicted the rib structural responses and bone fracture force-failure displacement relationships observed in the experiments (except the fracture locations), compared to models with constant cortical thickness. Further increases in mesh density increased computational cost but did not markedly improve model predictions. A ±30% change in the major material parameters of cortical bone lead to a -16.7 to 33.3% change in fracture displacement and -22.5 to +19.1% change in the fracture force. The results in this study suggest that human rib structural responses can be modeled in an accurate and computationally efficient way using (a) a coarse mesh of 2000-3000 solid elements, (b) cortical shells elements with variable thickness distribution and (c) a rate-dependent elastic-plastic material model. Copyright © 2010 IPEM. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Persistent pelvic pain following transvaginal mesh surgery: a cause for mesh removal.

Science.gov (United States)

Marcus-Braun, Naama; Bourret, Antoine; von Theobald, Peter

2012-06-01

Persistent pelvic pain after vaginal mesh surgery is an uncommon but serious complication that greatly affects women's quality of life. Our aim was to evaluate various procedures for mesh removal performed at a tertiary referral center in cases of persistent pelvic pain, and to evaluate the ensuing complications and outcomes. A retrospective study was conducted at the University Hospital of Caen, France, including all patients treated for removal or section of vaginal mesh due to pelvic pain as a primary cause, between January 2004 and September 2009. Ten patients met the inclusion criteria. Patients were diagnosed between 10 months and 3 years after their primary operation. Eight cases followed suburethral sling procedures and two followed mesh surgery for pelvic organ prolapse. Patients presented with obturator neuralgia (6), pudendal neuralgia (2), dyspareunia (1), and non-specific pain (1). The surgical treatment to release the mesh included: three cases of extra-peritoneal laparoscopy, four cases of complete vaginal mesh removal, one case of partial mesh removal and two cases of section of the suburethral sling. In all patients with obturator neuralgia, symptoms were resolved or improved, whereas in both cases of pudendal neuralgia the symptoms continued. There were no intra-operative complications. Post-operative Retzius hematoma was observed in one patient after laparoscopy. Mesh removal in a tertiary center is a safe procedure, necessary in some cases of persistent pelvic pain. Obturator neuralgia seems to be easier to treat than pudendal neuralgia. Early diagnosis is the key to success in prevention of chronic disease. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Early experience with mesh excision for adverse outcomes after transvaginal mesh placement using prolapse kits.

Science.gov (United States)

Ridgeway, Beri; Walters, Mark D; Paraiso, Marie Fidela R; Barber, Matthew D; McAchran, Sarah E; Goldman, Howard B; Jelovsek, J Eric

2008-12-01

The purpose of this study was to determine the complications, treatments, and outcomes in patients choosing to undergo removal of mesh previously placed with a mesh procedural kit. This was a retrospective review of all patients who underwent surgical removal of transvaginal mesh for mesh-related complications during a 3-year period at Cleveland Clinic. At last follow-up, patients reported degree of pain, level of improvement, sexual activity, and continued symptoms. Nineteen patients underwent removal of mesh during the study period. Indications for removal included chronic pain (6/19), dyspareunia (6/19), recurrent pelvic organ prolapse (8/19), mesh erosion (12/19), and vesicovaginal fistula (3/19), with most patients (16/19) citing more than 1 reason. There were few complications related to the mesh removal. Most patients reported significant relief of symptoms. Mesh removal can be technically difficult but appears to be safe with few complications and high relief of symptoms, although some symptoms can persist.

Mesh erosion after abdominal sacrocolpopexy.

Science.gov (United States)

Kohli, N; Walsh, P M; Roat, T W; Karram, M M

1998-12-01

To report our experience with erosion of permanent suture or mesh material after abdominal sacrocolpopexy. A retrospective chart review was performed to identify patients who underwent sacrocolpopexy by the same surgeon over 8 years. Demographic data, operative notes, hospital records, and office charts were reviewed after sacrocolpopexy. Patients with erosion of either suture or mesh were treated initially with conservative therapy followed by surgical intervention as required. Fifty-seven patients underwent sacrocolpopexy using synthetic mesh during the study period. The mean (range) postoperative follow-up was 19.9 (1.3-50) months. Seven patients (12%) had erosions after abdominal sacrocolpopexy with two suture erosions and five mesh erosions. Patients with suture erosion were asymptomatic compared with patients with mesh erosion, who presented with vaginal bleeding or discharge. The mean (+/-standard deviation) time to erosion was 14.0+/-7.7 (range 4-24) months. Both patients with suture erosion were treated conservatively with estrogen cream. All five patients with mesh erosion required transvaginal removal of the mesh. Mesh erosion can follow abdominal sacrocolpopexy over a long time, and usually presents as vaginal bleeding or discharge. Although patients with suture erosion can be managed successfully with conservative treatment, patients with mesh erosion require surgical intervention. Transvaginal removal of the mesh with vaginal advancement appears to be an effective treatment in patients failing conservative management.

Surgical management of lower urinary mesh perforation after mid-urethral polypropylene mesh sling: mesh excision, urinary tract reconstruction and concomitant pubovaginal sling with autologous rectus fascia.

Science.gov (United States)

Shah, Ketul; Nikolavsky, Dmitriy; Gilsdorf, Daniel; Flynn, Brian J

2013-12-01

We present our management of lower urinary tract (LUT) mesh perforation after mid-urethral polypropylene mesh sling using a novel combination of surgical techniques including total or near total mesh excision, urinary tract reconstruction, and concomitant pubovaginal sling with autologous rectus fascia in a single operation. We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 189 patients undergoing transvaginal removal of polypropylene mesh from the lower urinary tract or vagina. The focus of this study is 21 patients with LUT mesh perforation after mid-urethral polypropylene mesh sling. We excluded patients with LUT mesh perforation from prolapse kits (n = 4) or sutures (n = 11), or mesh that was removed because of isolated vaginal wall exposure without concomitant LUT perforation (n = 164). Twenty-one patients underwent surgical removal of mesh through a transvaginal approach or combined transvaginal/abdominal approaches. The location of the perforation was the urethra in 14 and the bladder in 7. The mean follow-up was 22 months. There were no major intraoperative complications. All patients had complete resolution of the mesh complication and the primary symptom. Of the patients with urethral perforation, continence was achieved in 10 out of 14 (71.5 %). Of the patients with bladder perforation, continence was achieved in all 7. Total or near total removal of lower urinary tract (LUT) mesh perforation after mid-urethral polypropylene mesh sling can completely resolve LUT mesh perforation in a single operation. A concomitant pubovaginal sling can be safely performed in efforts to treat existing SUI or avoid future surgery for SUI.

Longitudinal dispersion coefficients for numerical modeling of groundwater solute transport in heterogeneous formations.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Jonghyun; Rolle, Massimo; Kitanidis, Peter K

2017-09-15

Most recent research on hydrodynamic dispersion in porous media has focused on whole-domain dispersion while other research is largely on laboratory-scale dispersion. This work focuses on the contribution of a single block in a numerical model to dispersion. Variability of fluid velocity and concentration within a block is not resolved and the combined spreading effect is approximated using resolved quantities and macroscopic parameters. This applies whether the formation is modeled as homogeneous or discretized into homogeneous blocks but the emphasis here being on the latter. The process of dispersion is typically described through the Fickian model, i.e., the dispersive flux is proportional to the gradient of the resolved concentration, commonly with the Scheidegger parameterization, which is a particular way to compute the dispersion coefficients utilizing dispersivity coefficients. Although such parameterization is by far the most commonly used in solute transport applications, its validity has been questioned. Here, our goal is to investigate the effects of heterogeneity and mass transfer limitations on block-scale longitudinal dispersion and to evaluate under which conditions the Scheidegger parameterization is valid. We compute the relaxation time or memory of the system; changes in time with periods larger than the relaxation time are gradually leading to a condition of local equilibrium under which dispersion is Fickian. The method we use requires the solution of a steady-state advection-dispersion equation, and thus is computationally efficient, and applicable to any heterogeneous hydraulic conductivity K field without requiring statistical or structural assumptions. The method was validated by comparing with other approaches such as the moment analysis and the first order perturbation method. We investigate the impact of heterogeneity, both in degree and structure, on the longitudinal dispersion coefficient and then discuss the role of local dispersion

How coarse is too coarse for salmon spawning substrates?

Science.gov (United States)

Wooster, J. K.; Riebe, C. S.; Ligon, F. K.; Overstreet, B. T.

2009-12-01

Populations of Pacific salmon species have declined sharply in many rivers of the western US. Reversing these declines is a top priority and expense of many river restoration projects. To help restore salmon populations, managers often inject gravel into rivers, to supplement spawning habitat that has been depleted by gravel mining and the effects of dams—which block sediment and thus impair habitat downstream by coarsening the bed where salmon historically spawned. However, there is little quantitative understanding nor a methodology for determining when a river bed has become too coarse for salmon spawning. Hence there is little scientific basis for selecting sites that would optimize the restoration benefits of gravel injection (e.g., sites where flow velocities are suitable but bed materials are too coarse for spawning). To develop a quantitative understanding of what makes river beds too coarse for salmon spawning, we studied redds and spawning use in a series of California and Washington rivers where salmon spawning ability appears to be affected by coarse bed material. Our working hypothesis is that for a given flow condition, there is a maximum “threshold” particle size that a salmon of a given size is able to excavate and/or move as she builds her redd. A second, related hypothesis is that spawning use should decrease and eventually become impossible with increasing percent coverage by immovable particles. To test these hypotheses, we quantified the sizes and spatial distributions of immovably coarse particles in a series of salmon redds in each river during the peak of spawning. We also quantified spawning use and how it relates to percent coverage by immovable particles. Results from our studies of fall-run chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytsha) in the Feather River suggest that immovable particle size varies as a function of flow velocity over the redd, implying that faster water helps fish move bigger particles. Our Feather River study also

Mediating Dynamic Supply Chain Formation by Collaborative Single Machine Earliness/Tardiness Agents in Supply Mesh

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hang Yang

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Nowadays, a trend of forming dynamic supply chains with different trading partners over different e-marketplaces has emerged. These supply chains, which are called “supply mesh,” generally refer to heterogeneous electronic marketplaces in which dynamic supply chains, as per project (often make-to-order, are formed across different parties. Conceptually, in a supply mesh a dynamic supply chain is formed vertically, mediating several companies for a project. Companies that are on the same level horizontally are either competitors or cohorts. A complex scenario such as this makes it challenging to find the right group of members for a dynamic supply chain. Earlier on, a multiagent model called the collaborative single machine earliness/tardiness (CSET model was proposed for the optimal formation of make-to-order supply chains. This paper contributes the particular agent designs, for enabling the mediation of CSET in a supply mesh, and the possibilities are discussed. It is demonstrated via a computer simulation, based on samples from the U.S. textile industry, that by using intelligent agents under the CSET model it is possible to automatically find an ideal group of trading partners from a supply mesh.

An adaptive mesh refinement approach for average current nodal expansion method in 2-D rectangular geometry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Poursalehi, N.; Zolfaghari, A.; Minuchehr, A.

2013-01-01

Highlights: ► A new adaptive h-refinement approach has been developed for a class of nodal method. ► The resulting system of nodal equations is more amenable to efficient numerical solution. ► The benefit of the approach is reducing computational efforts relative to the uniform fine mesh modeling. ► Spatially adaptive approach greatly enhances the accuracy of the solution. - Abstract: The aim of this work is to develop a spatially adaptive coarse mesh strategy that progressively refines the nodes in appropriate regions of domain to solve the neutron balance equation by zeroth order nodal expansion method. A flux gradient based a posteriori estimation scheme has been utilized for checking the approximate solutions for various nodes. The relative surface net leakage of nodes has been considered as an assessment criterion. In this approach, the core module is called in by adaptive mesh generator to determine gradients of node surfaces flux to explore the possibility of node refinements in appropriate regions and directions of the problem. The benefit of the approach is reducing computational efforts relative to the uniform fine mesh modeling. For this purpose, a computer program ANRNE-2D, Adaptive Node Refinement Nodal Expansion, has been developed to solve neutron diffusion equation using average current nodal expansion method for 2D rectangular geometries. Implementing the adaptive algorithm confirms its superiority in enhancing the accuracy of the solution without using fine nodes throughout the domain and increasing the number of unknown solution. Some well-known benchmarks have been investigated and improvements are reported

Efficacy of Prophylactic Mesh in End-Colostomy Construction: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Shuanhu; Wang, Wenbin; Zhu, Bing; Song, Guolei; Jiang, Congqiao

2016-10-01

Parastomal hernia is a very common complication after colostomy, especially end-colostomy. It is unclear whether prophylactic placement of mesh at the time of stoma formation could prevent parastomal hernia formation after surgery for rectal cancer. A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted to evaluate the efficacy of prophylactic mesh in end-colostomy construction. PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library were searched, covering records entered from their inception to September 2015. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing stoma with mesh to stoma without mesh after surgery for rectal cancer were included. The primary outcome was the incidence of parastomal hernia. Pooled risk ratios (RR) with 95 % confidence intervals (CI) were obtained using random effects models. Six RCTs containing 309 patients were included. Parastomal hernia occurred in 24.4 % (38 of 156) of patients with mesh and 50.3 % (77 of 153) of patients without mesh. Meta-analysis showed a lower incidence of parastomal hernia (RR, 0.42; 95 % CI 0.22-0.82) and reoperation related to parastomal hernia (RR, 0.23; 95 % CI 0.06-0.89) in patients with mesh. Stoma-related morbidity was similar between mesh group and non-mesh group (RR, 0.65; 95 % CI 0.33-1.30). Prophylactic placement of a mesh at the time of a stoma formation seems to be associated with a significant reduction in the incidence of parastomal hernia and reoperation related to parastomal hernia after surgery for rectal cancer, but not the rate of stoma-related morbidity. However, the results should be interpreted with caution because of the heterogeneity among the studies.

Generalized multiscale finite element methods for problems in perforated heterogeneous domains

KAUST Repository

Chung, Eric T.

2015-06-08

Complex processes in perforated domains occur in many real-world applications. These problems are typically characterized by physical processes in domains with multiple scales. Moreover, these problems are intrinsically multiscale and their discretizations can yield very large linear or nonlinear systems. In this paper, we investigate multiscale approaches that attempt to solve such problems on a coarse grid by constructing multiscale basis functions in each coarse grid, where the coarse grid can contain many perforations. In particular, we are interested in cases when there is no scale separation and the perforations can have different sizes. In this regard, we mention some earlier pioneering works, where the authors develop multiscale finite element methods. In our paper, we follow Generalized Multiscale Finite Element Method (GMsFEM) and develop a multiscale procedure where we identify multiscale basis functions in each coarse block using snapshot space and local spectral problems. We show that with a few basis functions in each coarse block, one can approximate the solution, where each coarse block can contain many small inclusions. We apply our general concept to (1) Laplace equation in perforated domains; (2) elasticity equation in perforated domains; and (3) Stokes equations in perforated domains. Numerical results are presented for these problems using two types of heterogeneous perforated domains. The analysis of the proposed methods will be presented elsewhere. © 2015 Taylor & Francis

Surface meshing with curvature convergence

KAUST Repository

Li, Huibin; Zeng, Wei; Morvan, Jean-Marie; Chen, Liming; Gu, Xianfengdavid

2014-01-01

Surface meshing plays a fundamental role in graphics and visualization. Many geometric processing tasks involve solving geometric PDEs on meshes. The numerical stability, convergence rates and approximation errors are largely determined by the mesh qualities. In practice, Delaunay refinement algorithms offer satisfactory solutions to high quality mesh generations. The theoretical proofs for volume based and surface based Delaunay refinement algorithms have been established, but those for conformal parameterization based ones remain wide open. This work focuses on the curvature measure convergence for the conformal parameterization based Delaunay refinement algorithms. Given a metric surface, the proposed approach triangulates its conformal uniformization domain by the planar Delaunay refinement algorithms, and produces a high quality mesh. We give explicit estimates for the Hausdorff distance, the normal deviation, and the differences in curvature measures between the surface and the mesh. In contrast to the conventional results based on volumetric Delaunay refinement, our stronger estimates are independent of the mesh structure and directly guarantee the convergence of curvature measures. Meanwhile, our result on Gaussian curvature measure is intrinsic to the Riemannian metric and independent of the embedding. In practice, our meshing algorithm is much easier to implement and much more efficient. The experimental results verified our theoretical results and demonstrated the efficiency of the meshing algorithm. © 2014 IEEE.

Surface meshing with curvature convergence

KAUST Repository

Li, Huibin

2014-06-01

Surface meshing plays a fundamental role in graphics and visualization. Many geometric processing tasks involve solving geometric PDEs on meshes. The numerical stability, convergence rates and approximation errors are largely determined by the mesh qualities. In practice, Delaunay refinement algorithms offer satisfactory solutions to high quality mesh generations. The theoretical proofs for volume based and surface based Delaunay refinement algorithms have been established, but those for conformal parameterization based ones remain wide open. This work focuses on the curvature measure convergence for the conformal parameterization based Delaunay refinement algorithms. Given a metric surface, the proposed approach triangulates its conformal uniformization domain by the planar Delaunay refinement algorithms, and produces a high quality mesh. We give explicit estimates for the Hausdorff distance, the normal deviation, and the differences in curvature measures between the surface and the mesh. In contrast to the conventional results based on volumetric Delaunay refinement, our stronger estimates are independent of the mesh structure and directly guarantee the convergence of curvature measures. Meanwhile, our result on Gaussian curvature measure is intrinsic to the Riemannian metric and independent of the embedding. In practice, our meshing algorithm is much easier to implement and much more efficient. The experimental results verified our theoretical results and demonstrated the efficiency of the meshing algorithm. © 2014 IEEE.

Transport of Sr 2+ and SrEDTA 2- in partially-saturated and heterogeneous sediments

Science.gov (United States)

Pace, M. N.; Mayes, M. A.; Jardine, P. M.; McKay, L. D.; Yin, X. L.; Mehlhorn, T. L.; Liu, Q.; Gürleyük, H.

2007-05-01

Strontium-90 has migrated deep into the unsaturated subsurface beneath leaking storage tanks in the Waste Management Areas (WMA) at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Hanford Reservation. Faster than expected transport of contaminants in the vadose zone is typically attributed to either physical hydrologic processes such as development of preferential flow pathways, or to geochemical processes such as the formation of stable, anionic complexes with organic chelates, e.g., ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA). The goal of this paper is to determine whether hydrological processes in the Hanford sediments can influence the geochemistry of the system and hence control transport of Sr 2+ and SrEDTA 2-. The study used batch isotherms, saturated packed column experiments, and an unsaturated transport experiment in an undisturbed core. Isotherms and repacked column experiments suggested that the SrEDTA 2- complex was unstable in the presence of Hanford sediments, resulting in dissociation and transport of Sr 2+ as a divalent cation. A decrease in sorption with increasing solid:solution ratio for Sr 2+ and SrEDTA 2- suggested mineral dissolution resulted in competition for sorption sites and the formation of stable aqueous complexes. This was confirmed by detection of MgEDTA 2-, MnEDTA 2-, PbEDTA 2-, and unidentified Sr and Ca complexes. Displacement of Sr 2+ through a partially-saturated undisturbed core resulted in less retardation and more irreversible sorption than was observed in the saturated repacked columns, and model results suggested a significant reservoir (49%) of immobile water was present during transport through the heterogeneous layered sediments. The undisturbed core was subsequently disassembled along distinct bedding planes and subjected to sequential extractions. Strontium was unequally distributed between carbonates (49%), ion exchange sites (37%), and the oxide (14%) fraction. An inverse relationship between mass wetness and Sr suggested that

Monte Carlo study of the influence of energy spectra, mesh size, high Z element on dose and PVDR based on 1-D and 3-D heterogeneous mouse head phantom for Microbeam Radiation Therapy.

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Hui; Jing, Jia; Xu, Liangfeng; Mao, Xiaoli

2017-12-01

To evaluate the influence of energy spectra, mesh sizes, high Z element on dose and PVDR in Microbeam Radiation Therapy (MRT) based on 1-D analogy-mouse-head-model (1-D MHM) and 3-D voxel-mouse-head-phantom (3-D VMHP) by Monte Carlo simulation. A Microbeam-Array-Source-Model was implemented into EGSnrc/DOSXYZnrc. The microbeam size is assumed to be 25μm, 50μm or 75μm in thickness and fixed 1mm in height with 200μmc-t-c. The influence of the energy spectra of ID17@ESRF and BMIT@CLS were investigated. The mesh size was optimized. PVDR in 1-D MHM and 3-D VMHP was compared with the homogeneous water phantom. The arc influence of 3-D VMHP filled with water (3-D VMHWP) was compared with the rectangle phantom. PVDR of the lower BMIT@CLS spectrum is 2.4times that of ID17@ESRF for lower valley dose. The optimized mesh is 5µm for 25µm, and 10µm for 50µm and 75µm microbeams with 200µmc-t-c. A 500μm skull layer could make PVDR difference up to 62.5% for 1-D MHM. However this influence is limited (influence is limited for the more depth (influence of 3-D heterogeneous media. Copyright © 2017 Associazione Italiana di Fisica Medica. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Discontinuous Galerkin methods and a posteriori error analysis for heterogenous diffusion problems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stephansen, A.F.

2007-12-01

In this thesis we analyse a discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method and two computable a posteriori error estimators for the linear and stationary advection-diffusion-reaction equation with heterogeneous diffusion. The DG method considered, the SWIP method, is a variation of the Symmetric Interior Penalty Galerkin method. The difference is that the SWIP method uses weighted averages with weights that depend on the diffusion. The a priori analysis shows optimal convergence with respect to mesh-size and robustness with respect to heterogeneous diffusion, which is confirmed by numerical tests. Both a posteriori error estimators are of the residual type and control the energy (semi-)norm of the error. Local lower bounds are obtained showing that almost all indicators are independent of heterogeneities. The exception is for the non-conforming part of the error, which has been evaluated using the Oswald interpolator. The second error estimator is sharper in its estimate with respect to the first one, but it is slightly more costly. This estimator is based on the construction of an H(div)-conforming Raviart-Thomas-Nedelec flux using the conservativeness of DG methods. Numerical results show that both estimators can be used for mesh-adaptation. (author)

Mesh size in Lichtenstein repair: a systematic review and meta-analysis to determine the importance of mesh size.

Science.gov (United States)

Seker, D; Oztuna, D; Kulacoglu, H; Genc, Y; Akcil, M

2013-04-01

Small mesh size has been recognized as one of the factors responsible for recurrence after Lichtenstein hernia repair due to insufficient coverage or mesh shrinkage. The Lichtenstein Hernia Institute recommends a 7 × 15 cm mesh that can be trimmed up to 2 cm from the lateral side. We performed a systematic review to determine surgeons' mesh size preference for the Lichtenstein hernia repair and made a meta-analysis to determine the effect of mesh size, mesh type, and length of follow-up time on recurrence. Two medical databases, PubMed and ISI Web of Science, were systematically searched using the key word "Lichtenstein repair." All full text papers were selected. Publications mentioning mesh size were brought for further analysis. A mesh surface area of 90 cm(2) was accepted as the threshold for defining the mesh as small or large. Also, a subgroup analysis for recurrence pooled proportion according to the mesh size, mesh type, and follow-up period was done. In total, 514 papers were obtained. There were no prospective or retrospective clinical studies comparing mesh size and clinical outcome. A total of 141 papers were duplicated in both databases. As a result, 373 papers were obtained. The full text was available in over 95 % of papers. Only 41 (11.2 %) papers discussed mesh size. In 29 studies, a mesh larger than 90 cm(2) was used. The most frequently preferred commercial mesh size was 7.5 × 15 cm. No papers mentioned the size of the mesh after trimming. There was no information about the relationship between mesh size and patient BMI. The pooled proportion in recurrence for small meshes was 0.0019 (95 % confidence interval: 0.007-0.0036), favoring large meshes to decrease the chance of recurrence. Recurrence becomes more marked when follow-up period is longer than 1 year (p < 0.001). Heavy meshes also decreased recurrence (p = 0.015). This systematic review demonstrates that the size of the mesh used in Lichtenstein hernia repair is rarely

Discontinuous Galerkin methods and a posteriori error analysis for heterogenous diffusion problems; Methodes de Galerkine discontinues et analyse d'erreur a posteriori pour les problemes de diffusion heterogene

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Stephansen, A.F

2007-12-15

In this thesis we analyse a discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method and two computable a posteriori error estimators for the linear and stationary advection-diffusion-reaction equation with heterogeneous diffusion. The DG method considered, the SWIP method, is a variation of the Symmetric Interior Penalty Galerkin method. The difference is that the SWIP method uses weighted averages with weights that depend on the diffusion. The a priori analysis shows optimal convergence with respect to mesh-size and robustness with respect to heterogeneous diffusion, which is confirmed by numerical tests. Both a posteriori error estimators are of the residual type and control the energy (semi-)norm of the error. Local lower bounds are obtained showing that almost all indicators are independent of heterogeneities. The exception is for the non-conforming part of the error, which has been evaluated using the Oswald interpolator. The second error estimator is sharper in its estimate with respect to the first one, but it is slightly more costly. This estimator is based on the construction of an H(div)-conforming Raviart-Thomas-Nedelec flux using the conservativeness of DG methods. Numerical results show that both estimators can be used for mesh-adaptation. (author)

High resolution field study of sediment dynamics on a strongly heterogeneous bed

Science.gov (United States)

Bailly Du Bois, P.; Blanpain, O.; Lafite, R.; Cugier, P.; Lunven, M.

2010-12-01

Extensive field measurements have been carried out at several stations in a macrotidal inner continental shelf in the English Channel (around 25 m depth) during spring tide period. The strong tidal current measured (up to 1.6 m.s-1) allowed sediment dynamics on a bed characterised by a mixture of size with coarse grains to be dominant. Data acquired in such hydro-sedimentary conditions are scarce. A new instrument, the DYnamic Sediment Profile Imagery (DySPI) system, was specifically conceived and implemented in-situ to observe and measure, with a high temporal resolution, the dynamics of a strongly heterogeneous mixture of particles in a grain-size scale. The data collected covered: 1) grain size range (side scan sonar, video observations, Shipeck grab samples, DySPI images) and vertical sorting (stratigraphic sampling by divers) of sediment cover, 2) hydrodynamic features (acoustic Doppler velocimeter, acoustic Doppler profiler), 3) suspended load nature and dynamics (optical backscatter, chlorophyll fluorometer, particle size analyser, Niskin bottles, scanning electron microscopy), 4) sand and gravel bedload transport estimates (DySPI image processing), 5) transfer dynamics of fine grains within a coarse matrix and their depth of penetration (radionuclides measurements in stratigraphic samples). The four stations present different grain size vertical sorting from a quasi-permanent armouring to a homogenous distribution. The sediment cover condition is directly linked to hydrodynamic capacity and sediment availability. Fine grain ratio within deep sediment layers (up to 10 cm) is higher when the bed armouring is durable. However, fine sediments are not permanently depth trapped: deep layers are composed of few years-old radionuclide tracers fixed on fine grains and a vertical mixing coefficient has been evaluated for each sediment cover. Fine grain dynamics within a coarse matrix is inversely proportional to the robustness of the armour layer. For current

ASSIMILATION OF COARSE-SCALEDATAUSINGTHE ENSEMBLE KALMAN FILTER

KAUST Repository

Efendiev, Yalchin

2011-01-01

Reservoir data is usually scale dependent and exhibits multiscale features. In this paper we use the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) to integrate data at different spatial scales for estimating reservoir fine-scale characteristics. Relationships between the various scales is modeled via upscaling techniques. We propose two versions of the EnKF to assimilate the multiscale data, (i) where all the data are assimilated together and (ii) the data are assimilated sequentially in batches. Ensemble members obtained after assimilating one set of data are used as a prior to assimilate the next set of data. Both of these versions are easily implementable with any other upscaling which links the fine to the coarse scales. The numerical results with different methods are presented in a twin experiment setup using a two-dimensional, two-phase (oil and water) flow model. Results are shown with coarse-scale permeability and coarse-scale saturation data. They indicate that additional data provides better fine-scale estimates and fractional flow predictions. We observed that the two versions of the EnKF differed in their estimates when coarse-scale permeability is provided, whereas their results are similar when coarse-scale saturation is used. This behavior is thought to be due to the nonlinearity of the upscaling operator in the case of the former data. We also tested our procedures with various precisions of the coarse-scale data to account for the inexact relationship between the fine and coarse scale data. As expected, the results show that higher precision in the coarse-scale data yielded improved estimates. With better coarse-scale modeling and inversion techniques as more data at multiple coarse scales is made available, the proposed modification to the EnKF could be relevant in future studies.

Inter-flow and intra-flow interference mitigation routing in wireless mesh networks

OpenAIRE

Houaidia, Chiraz; Idoudi, Hanen; Van den Bossche, Adrien; Saidane, Leila; Val, Thierry

2017-01-01

In this paper, we address the problem of QoS support in an heterogeneous multi-rate wireless mesh network. We propose a new routing metric that provides information about link quality, based on PHY and MAC characteristics, including the link availability, the loss rate and the available bandwidth. This metric allows to apprehend inter-flow interferences and avoid bottleneck formation by balancing traffic load on the links. Based on the conflict graph model and calculation of maximal cliques, ...

Domain decomposition and CMFD acceleration applied to discrete-ordinate methods for the solution of the neutron transport equation in XYZ geometries

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Masiello, Emiliano; Martin, Brunella; Do, Jean-Michel

2011-01-01

A new development for the IDT solver is presented for large reactor core applications in XYZ geometries. The multigroup discrete-ordinate neutron transport equation is solved using a Domain-Decomposition (DD) method coupled with the Coarse-Mesh Finite Differences (CMFD). The later is used for accelerating the DD convergence rate. In particular, the external power iterations are preconditioned for stabilizing the oscillatory behavior of the DD iterative process. A set of critical 2-D and 3-D numerical tests on a single processor will be presented for the analysis of the performances of the method. The results show that the application of the CMFD to the DD can be a good candidate for large 3D full-core parallel applications. (author)

Analysis of the Numerical Diffusion in Anisotropic Mediums: Benchmarks for Magnetic Field Aligned Meshes in Space Propulsion Simulations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniel Pérez-Grande

2016-11-01

Full Text Available This manuscript explores numerical errors in highly anisotropic diffusion problems. First, the paper addresses the use of regular structured meshes in numerical solutions versus meshes aligned with the preferential directions of the problem. Numerical diffusion in structured meshes is quantified by solving the classical anisotropic diffusion problem; the analysis is exemplified with the application to a numerical model of conducting fluids under magnetic confinement, where rates of transport in directions parallel and perpendicular to a magnetic field are quite different. Numerical diffusion errors in this problem promote the use of magnetic field aligned meshes (MFAM. The generation of this type of meshes presents some challenges; several meshing strategies are implemented and analyzed in order to provide insight into achieving acceptable mesh regularity. Second, Gradient Reconstruction methods for magnetically aligned meshes are addressed and numerical errors are compared for the structured and magnetically aligned meshes. It is concluded that using the latter provides a more correct and straightforward approach to solving problems where anisotropicity is present, especially, if the anisotropicity level is high or difficult to quantify. The conclusions of the study may be extrapolated to the study of anisotropic flows different from conducting fluids.

Voltammetry at micro-mesh electrodes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wadhawan Jay D.

2003-01-01

Full Text Available The voltammetry at three micro-mesh electrodes is explored. It is found that at sufficiently short experimental durations, the micro-mesh working electrode first behaves as an ensemble of microband electrodes, then follows the behaviour anticipated for an array of diffusion-independent micro-ring electrodes of the same perimeter as individual grid-squares within the mesh. During prolonged electrolysis, the micro-mesh electrode follows that behaviour anticipated theoretically for a cubically-packed partially-blocked electrode. Application of the micro-mesh electrode for the electrochemical determination of carbon dioxide in DMSO electrolyte solutions is further illustrated.

Considering heterogeneities by transmissibilities averaging on adapted meshes in reservoir simulation; Prise en compte des heterogeneites par prise de moyenne des transmissivites sur maillages adaptes en simulation de reservoir

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Urgelli, D

1998-10-16

Reservoir heterogeneity can be described using geostatistical models. But these models generate the heterogeneity on millions of fine grid blocks, which leads to prohibitive computational costs for reservoir simulations. In order to reduce the number of grid blocks, averaging techniques are needed to up-scale the fine scale permeabilities to the larger scales appropriate for flow simulation and engineering calculations. Grid block permeability up-scaling for numerical reservoir simulations has been discussed for a long time in the literature. It is now recognized that a full permeability tensor is needed to get an accurate reservoir description. But, the equivalent permeability on coarse grid blocks cannot be used directly on the numerical scheme. Usually, the harmonic average of the coarse grid block permeability is used for the transmissibility calculation, but it might cause a loss of accuracy. The purpose of this thesis is to present a new procedure for computing the equivalent transmissibility in the discretized flow equations on Cartesian grids and Corner Point Geometry grids. An application of this technique to a finite volume type numerical scheme is detailed. The principle of this technique is to calculate a permeability term on a shifted block placed between the two adjacent blocks where the transmissibility must be determined. At the field scale, the flow region can be divided into two types : a linear flow pattern with a low pressure gradient far from the wells and a radial flow pattern with a high pressure gradient in the vicinity of the wells. The radial flow region is usually more important for the prediction of production forecast, because it is directly related to the well. This was demonstrated theoretically and numerically for 2-D problem. The transmissibility up-scaling in radial flow pattern consists to determine the transmissibilities in the vicinity of wells and the numerical Productivity Index simultaneously. This new method called `shifted

Streaming simplification of tetrahedral meshes.

Science.gov (United States)

Vo, Huy T; Callahan, Steven P; Lindstrom, Peter; Pascucci, Valerio; Silva, Cláudio T

2007-01-01

Unstructured tetrahedral meshes are commonly used in scientific computing to represent scalar, vector, and tensor fields in three dimensions. Visualization of these meshes can be difficult to perform interactively due to their size and complexity. By reducing the size of the data, we can accomplish real-time visualization necessary for scientific analysis. We propose a two-step approach for streaming simplification of large tetrahedral meshes. Our algorithm arranges the data on disk in a streaming, I/O-efficient format that allows coherent access to the tetrahedral cells. A quadric-based simplification is sequentially performed on small portions of the mesh in-core. Our output is a coherent streaming mesh which facilitates future processing. Our technique is fast, produces high quality approximations, and operates out-of-core to process meshes too large for main memory.

Application of space-and-angle finite element method to the three-dimensional neutron transport problems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fujimura, T.; Nakahara, Y.; Matsumura, M.

1983-01-01

A double finite element method (DFEM), in which both the space-and-angle finite elements are employed, has been formulated and computer codes have been developed to solve the static multigroup neutron transport problems in the three-dimensional geometry. Two methods, Galerkin's weighted residual and variational are used to apply the DFEM to the transport equation. The variational principle requires complicated formulation than the Galerkin method, but the boundary conditions can be automatically incorporated and each plane equation becomes symmetric. The system equations are solved over the planar layers which we call plane iteration. The coarse mesh rebalancing technique is used for the inner iteration and the outer iteration is accelerated by extra-polation. Numerical studies of these two DFEM algorithms have been done in comparison between them and also with THe CITATION and TWOTRAN-II results. It has been confirmed that in the case of variational formulation an adaptive acceleration method of the SSOR iteration works effectively and the ray effects are mitigated in both DFEM algorithms. (author)

A coarse-grained model for synergistic action of multiple enzymes on cellulose

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Asztalos Andrea

2012-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Degradation of cellulose to glucose requires the cooperative action of three classes of enzymes, collectively known as cellulases. Endoglucanases randomly bind to cellulose surfaces and generate new chain ends by hydrolyzing β-1,4-D-glycosidic bonds. Exoglucanases bind to free chain ends and hydrolyze glycosidic bonds in a processive manner releasing cellobiose units. Then, β-glucosidases hydrolyze soluble cellobiose to glucose. Optimal synergistic action of these enzymes is essential for efficient digestion of cellulose. Experiments show that as hydrolysis proceeds and the cellulose substrate becomes more heterogeneous, the overall degradation slows down. As catalysis occurs on the surface of crystalline cellulose, several factors affect the overall hydrolysis. Therefore, spatial models of cellulose degradation must capture effects such as enzyme crowding and surface heterogeneity, which have been shown to lead to a reduction in hydrolysis rates. Results We present a coarse-grained stochastic model for capturing the key events associated with the enzymatic degradation of cellulose at the mesoscopic level. This functional model accounts for the mobility and action of a single cellulase enzyme as well as the synergy of multiple endo- and exo-cellulases on a cellulose surface. The quantitative description of cellulose degradation is calculated on a spatial model by including free and bound states of both endo- and exo-cellulases with explicit reactive surface terms (e.g., hydrogen bond breaking, covalent bond cleavages and corresponding reaction rates. The dynamical evolution of the system is simulated by including physical interactions between cellulases and cellulose. Conclusions Our coarse-grained model reproduces the qualitative behavior of endoglucanases and exoglucanases by accounting for the spatial heterogeneity of the cellulose surface as well as other spatial factors such as enzyme crowding. Importantly, it captures

Three-dimensional modeling of nitrate-N transport in vadose zone: Roles of soil heterogeneity and groundwater flux

Science.gov (United States)

Akbariyeh, Simin; Bartelt-Hunt, Shannon; Snow, Daniel; Li, Xu; Tang, Zhenghong; Li, Yusong

2018-04-01

Contamination of groundwater from nitrogen fertilizers in agricultural lands is an important environmental and water quality management issue. It is well recognized that in agriculturally intensive areas, fertilizers and pesticides may leach through the vadose zone and eventually reach groundwater. While numerical models are commonly used to simulate fate and transport of agricultural contaminants, few models have considered a controlled field work to investigate the influence of soil heterogeneity and groundwater flow on nitrate-N distribution in both root zone and deep vadose zone. In this work, a numerical model was developed to simulate nitrate-N transport and transformation beneath a center pivot-irrigated corn field on Nebraska Management System Evaluation area over a three-year period. The model was based on a realistic three-dimensional sediment lithology, as well as carefully controlled irrigation and fertilizer application plans. In parallel, a homogeneous soil domain, containing the major sediment type of the site (i.e. sandy loam), was developed to conduct the same water flow and nitrate-N leaching simulations. Simulated nitrate-N concentrations were compared with the monitored nitrate-N concentrations in 10 multi-level sampling wells over a three-year period. Although soil heterogeneity was mainly observed from top soil to 3 m below the surface, heterogeneity controlled the spatial distribution of nitrate-N concentration. Soil heterogeneity, however, has minimal impact on the total mass of nitrate-N in the domain. In the deeper saturated zone, short-term variations of nitrate-N concentration correlated with the groundwater level fluctuations.

Hyporheic zone as a bioreactor: sediment heterogeneity influencing biogeochemical processes

Science.gov (United States)

Perujo, Nuria; Romani, Anna M.; Sanchez-Vila, Xavier

2017-04-01

Mediterranean fluvial systems are characterized by frequent periods of low flow or even drought. During low flow periods, water from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is proportionally large in fluvial systems. River water might be vertically transported through the hyporheic zone, and then porous medium acts as a complementary treatment system since, as water infiltrates, a suite of biogeochemical processes occurs. Subsurface sediment heterogeneity plays an important role since it influences the interstitial fluxes of the medium and drives biomass growing, determining biogeochemical reactions. In this study, WWTP water was continuously infiltrated for 3 months through two porous medium tanks: one consisting of 40 cm of fine sediment (homogeneous); and another comprised of two layers of different grain size sediments (heterogeneous), 20 cm of coarse sediment in the upper part and 20 cm of fine one in the bottom. Several hydrological, physicochemical and biological parameters were measured periodically (weekly at the start of the experiment and biweekly at the end). Analysed parameters include dissolved nitrogen, phosphorus, organic carbon, and oxygen all measured at the surface, and at 5, 20 and 40 cm depth. Variations in hydraulic conductivity with time were evaluated. Sediment samples were also analysed at three depths (surface, 20 and 40 cm) to determine bacterial density, chlorophyll content, extracellular polymeric substances, and biofilm function (extracellular enzyme activities and carbon substrate utilization profiles). Preliminary results suggest hydraulic conductivity to be the main driver of the differences in the biogeochemical processes occurring in the subsurface. At the heterogeneous tank, a low nutrient reduction throughout the whole medium is measured. In this medium, high hydraulic conductivity allows for a large amount of infiltrating water, but with a small residence time. Since some biological processes are largely time-dependent, small water

Laparoscopic mesh explantation and drainage of sacral abscess remote from transvaginal excision of exposed sacral colpopexy mesh.

Science.gov (United States)

Roth, Ted M; Reight, Ian

2012-07-01

Sacral colpopexy may be complicated by mesh exposure, and the surgical treatment of mesh exposure typically results in minor postoperative morbidity and few delayed complications. A 75-year-old woman presented 7 years after a laparoscopic sacral colpopexy, with Mersilene mesh, with an apical mesh exposure. She underwent an uncomplicated transvaginal excision and was asymptomatic until 8 months later when she presented with vaginal drainage and a sacral abscess. This was successfully treated with laparoscopic enterolysis, drainage of the abscess, and explantation of the remaining mesh. Incomplete excision of exposed colpopexy mesh can lead to ascending infection and sacral abscess. Laparoscopic drainage and mesh removal may be considered in these patients.

Boltzmann Solver with Adaptive Mesh in Velocity Space

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kolobov, Vladimir I.; Arslanbekov, Robert R.; Frolova, Anna A.

2011-01-01

We describe the implementation of direct Boltzmann solver with Adaptive Mesh in Velocity Space (AMVS) using quad/octree data structure. The benefits of the AMVS technique are demonstrated for the charged particle transport in weakly ionized plasmas where the collision integral is linear. We also describe the implementation of AMVS for the nonlinear Boltzmann collision integral. Test computations demonstrate both advantages and deficiencies of the current method for calculations of narrow-kernel distributions.

Coarse graining for synchronization in directed networks

Science.gov (United States)

Zeng, An; Lü, Linyuan

2011-05-01

Coarse-graining model is a promising way to analyze and visualize large-scale networks. The coarse-grained networks are required to preserve statistical properties as well as the dynamic behaviors of the initial networks. Some methods have been proposed and found effective in undirected networks, while the study on coarse-graining directed networks lacks of consideration. In this paper we proposed a path-based coarse-graining (PCG) method to coarse grain the directed networks. Performing the linear stability analysis of synchronization and numerical simulation of the Kuramoto model on four kinds of directed networks, including tree networks and variants of Barabási-Albert networks, Watts-Strogatz networks, and Erdös-Rényi networks, we find our method can effectively preserve the network synchronizability.

Mesh optimization for microbial fuel cell cathodes constructed around stainless steel mesh current collectors

KAUST Repository

Zhang, Fang; Merrill, Matthew D.; Tokash, Justin C.; Saito, Tomonori; Cheng, Shaoan; Hickner, Michael A.; Logan, Bruce E.

2011-01-01

that the mesh properties of these cathodes can significantly affect performance. Cathodes made from the coarsest mesh (30-mesh) achieved the highest maximum power of 1616 ± 25 mW m-2 (normalized to cathode projected surface area; 47.1 ± 0.7 W m-3 based on liquid

Acceleration and parallelization calculation of EFEN-SP_3 method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yang Wen; Zheng Youqi; Wu Hongchun; Cao Liangzhi; Li Yunzhao

2013-01-01

Due to the fact that the exponential function expansion nodal-SP_3 (EFEN-SP_3) method needs further improvement in computational efficiency to routinely carry out PWR whole core pin-by-pin calculation, the coarse mesh acceleration and spatial parallelization were investigated in this paper. The coarse mesh acceleration was built by considering discontinuity factor on each coarse mesh interface and preserving neutron balance within each coarse mesh in space, angle and energy. The spatial parallelization based on MPI was implemented by guaranteeing load balancing and minimizing communications cost to fully take advantage of the modern computing and storage abilities. Numerical results based on a commercial nuclear power reactor demonstrate an speedup ratio of about 40 for the coarse mesh acceleration and a parallel efficiency of higher than 60% with 40 CPUs for the spatial parallelization. With these two improvements, the EFEN code can complete a PWR whole core pin-by-pin calculation with 289 × 289 × 218 meshes and 4 energy groups within 100 s by using 48 CPUs (2.40 GHz frequency). (authors)

SUPERIMPOSED MESH PLOTTING IN MCNP

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

J. HENDRICKS

2001-02-01

The capability to plot superimposed meshes has been added to MCNP{trademark}. MCNP4C featured a superimposed mesh weight window generator which enabled users to set up geometries without having to subdivide geometric cells for variance reduction. The variance reduction was performed with weight windows on a rectangular or cylindrical mesh superimposed over the physical geometry. Experience with the new capability was favorable but also indicated that a number of enhancements would be very beneficial, particularly a means of visualizing the mesh and its values. The mathematics for plotting the mesh and its values is described here along with a description of other upgrades.

Simulation of unsaturated flow and nonreactive solute transport in a heterogeneous soil at the field scale

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rockhold, M.L.

1993-02-01

A field-scale, unsaturated flow and solute transport experiment at the Las Cruces trench site in New Mexico was simulated as part of a ''blind'' modeling exercise to demonstrate the ability or inability of uncalibrated models to predict unsaturated flow and solute transport in spatially variable porous media. Simulations were conducted using a recently developed multiphase flow and transport simulator. Uniform and heterogeneous soil models were tested, and data from a previous experiment at the site were used with an inverse procedure to estimate water retention parameters. A spatial moment analysis was used to provide a quantitative basis for comparing the mean observed and simulated flow and transport behavior. The results of this study suggest that defensible predictions of waste migration and fate at low-level waste sites will ultimately require site-specific data for model calibration

Carrier mobility in mesoscale heterogeneous organic materials: Effects of crystallinity and anisotropy on efficient charge transport

Science.gov (United States)

Kobayashi, Hajime; Shirasawa, Raku; Nakamoto, Mitsunori; Hattori, Shinnosuke; Tomiya, Shigetaka

2017-07-01

Charge transport in the mesoscale bulk heterojunctions (BHJs) of organic photovoltaic devices (OPVs) is studied using multiscale simulations in combination with molecular dynamics, the density functional theory, the molecular-level kinetic Monte Carlo (kMC) method, and the coarse-grained kMC method, which was developed to estimate mesoscale carrier mobility. The effects of the degree of crystallinity and the anisotropy of the conductivity of donors on hole mobility are studied for BHJ structures that consist of crystalline and amorphous pentacene grains that act as donors and amorphous C60 grains that act as acceptors. We find that the hole mobility varies dramatically with the degree of crystallinity of pentacene because it is largely restricted by a low-mobility amorphous region that occurs in the hole transport network. It was also found that the percolation threshold of crystalline pentacene is relatively high at approximately 0.6. This high percolation threshold is attributed to the 2D-like conductivity of crystalline pentacene, and the threshold is greatly improved to a value of approximately 0.3 using 3D-like conductive donors. We propose essential guidelines to show that it is critical to increase the degree of crystallinity and develop 3D conductive donors for efficient hole transport through percolative networks in the BHJs of OPVs.

Cache-Oblivious Mesh Layouts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yoon, S; Lindstrom, P; Pascucci, V; Manocha, D

2005-01-01

We present a novel method for computing cache-oblivious layouts of large meshes that improve the performance of interactive visualization and geometric processing algorithms. Given that the mesh is accessed in a reasonably coherent manner, we assume no particular data access patterns or cache parameters of the memory hierarchy involved in the computation. Furthermore, our formulation extends directly to computing layouts of multi-resolution and bounding volume hierarchies of large meshes. We develop a simple and practical cache-oblivious metric for estimating cache misses. Computing a coherent mesh layout is reduced to a combinatorial optimization problem. We designed and implemented an out-of-core multilevel minimization algorithm and tested its performance on unstructured meshes composed of tens to hundreds of millions of triangles. Our layouts can significantly reduce the number of cache misses. We have observed 2-20 times speedups in view-dependent rendering, collision detection, and isocontour extraction without any modification of the algorithms or runtime applications

Coupled electron-photon radiation transport

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lorence, L.; Kensek, R.P.; Valdez, G.D.; Drumm, C.R.; Fan, W.C.; Powell, J.L.

2000-01-01

Massively-parallel computers allow detailed 3D radiation transport simulations to be performed to analyze the response of complex systems to radiation. This has been recently been demonstrated with the coupled electron-photon Monte Carlo code, ITS. To enable such calculations, the combinatorial geometry capability of ITS was improved. For greater geometrical flexibility, a version of ITS is under development that can track particles in CAD geometries. Deterministic radiation transport codes that utilize an unstructured spatial mesh are also being devised. For electron transport, the authors are investigating second-order forms of the transport equations which, when discretized, yield symmetric positive definite matrices. A novel parallelization strategy, simultaneously solving for spatial and angular unknowns, has been applied to the even- and odd-parity forms of the transport equation on a 2D unstructured spatial mesh. Another second-order form, the self-adjoint angular flux transport equation, also shows promise for electron transport

Size graded sediment dynamics: from the processes characterization to the transport modelling in the English Channel

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Blanpain, O.

2009-10-01

The purpose of this work is the implementation of a sediment transport model in the English Channel. The design of such a model requires the identification of the physical processes, their modelling and their in-situ validation. Because of the sedimentary particularities of the study area, modelling of the mechanical behaviour of a non uniform mixture of sediments and particularly of the fine grains within a coarse matrix is required. This study focused on the characterization of the relevant processes by acquisition of experimental and in-situ data. Data acquired in hydro-sedimentary conditions comparable to those found in the English Channel are scarce. A new instrument and image processing technique were specifically conceived and implemented in-situ to observe and measure, with a high temporal resolution, the dynamics of a strongly heterogeneous mixture of particles in a grain-size scale. The data collected compared well with several existing formulations. One of these formulations was chosen to be adapted. The transfer dynamics of fine grains in coarse sediments and their depth of penetration were acquired from stratigraphic samples. The sediment transport model deals with multi-size grains and multi sedimentary layers, it is forced by swell and currents, and accounts for bead load and suspended load transports. It was applied to realistic scenarios for the English Channel. (author)

User Manual for the PROTEUS Mesh Tools

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Smith, Micheal A. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Shemon, Emily R. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

2015-06-01

This report describes the various mesh tools that are provided with the PROTEUS code giving both descriptions of the input and output. In many cases the examples are provided with a regression test of the mesh tools. The most important mesh tools for any user to consider using are the MT_MeshToMesh.x and the MT_RadialLattice.x codes. The former allows the conversion between most mesh types handled by PROTEUS while the second allows the merging of multiple (assembly) meshes into a radial structured grid. Note that the mesh generation process is recursive in nature and that each input specific for a given mesh tool (such as .axial or .merge) can be used as “mesh” input for any of the mesh tools discussed in this manual.

Anisotropic evaluation of synthetic surgical meshes.

Science.gov (United States)

Saberski, E R; Orenstein, S B; Novitsky, Y W

2011-02-01

The material properties of meshes used in hernia repair contribute to the overall mechanical behavior of the repair. The anisotropic potential of synthetic meshes, representing a difference in material properties (e.g., elasticity) in different material axes, is not well defined to date. Haphazard orientation of anisotropic mesh material can contribute to inconsistent surgical outcomes. We aimed to characterize and compare anisotropic properties of commonly used synthetic meshes. Six different polypropylene (Trelex(®), ProLite™, Ultrapro™), polyester (Parietex™), and PTFE-based (Dualmesh(®), Infinit) synthetic meshes were selected. Longitudinal and transverse axes were defined for each mesh, and samples were cut in each axis orientation. Samples underwent uniaxial tensile testing, from which the elastic modulus (E) in each axis was determined. The degree of anisotropy (λ) was calculated as a logarithmic expression of the ratio between the elastic modulus in each axis. Five of six meshes displayed significant anisotropic behavior. Ultrapro™ and Infinit exhibited approximately 12- and 20-fold differences between perpendicular axes, respectively. Trelex(®), ProLite™, and Parietex™ were 2.3-2.4 times. Dualmesh(®) was the least anisotropic mesh, without marked difference between the axes. Anisotropy of synthetic meshes has been underappreciated. In this study, we found striking differences between elastic properties of perpendicular axes for most commonly used synthetic meshes. Indiscriminate orientation of anisotropic mesh may adversely affect hernia repairs. Proper labeling of all implants by manufacturers should be mandatory. Understanding the specific anisotropic behavior of synthetic meshes should allow surgeons to employ rational implant orientation to maximize outcomes of hernia repair.

To mesh or not to mesh: a review of pelvic organ reconstructive surgery

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dällenbach P

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Patrick Dällenbach Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Division of Gynecology, Urogynecology Unit, Geneva University Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland Abstract: Pelvic organ prolapse (POP is a major health issue with a lifetime risk of undergoing at least one surgical intervention estimated at close to 10%. In the 1990s, the risk of reoperation after primary standard vaginal procedure was estimated to be as high as 30% to 50%. In order to reduce the risk of relapse, gynecological surgeons started to use mesh implants in pelvic organ reconstructive surgery with the emergence of new complications. Recent studies have nevertheless shown that the risk of POP recurrence requiring reoperation is lower than previously estimated, being closer to 10% rather than 30%. The development of mesh surgery – actively promoted by the marketing industry – was tremendous during the past decade, and preceded any studies supporting its benefit for our patients. Randomized trials comparing the use of mesh to native tissue repair in POP surgery have now shown better anatomical but similar functional outcomes, and meshes are associated with more complications, in particular for transvaginal mesh implants. POP is not a life-threatening condition, but a functional problem that impairs quality of life for women. The old adage “primum non nocere” is particularly appropriate when dealing with this condition which requires no treatment when asymptomatic. It is currently admitted that a certain degree of POP is physiological with aging when situated above the landmark of the hymen. Treatment should be individualized and the use of mesh needs to be selective and appropriate. Mesh implants are probably an important tool in pelvic reconstructive surgery, but the ideal implant has yet to be found. The indications for its use still require caution and discernment. This review explores the reasons behind the introduction of mesh augmentation in POP surgery, and aims to

Dynamics of Coupled Contaminant and Microbial Transport in Heterogeneous Porous Media: Purdue Component. Final report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cushman, J.H.

2000-01-01

Dynamic microbial attachment/detachment occurs in subsurface systems in response to changing environmental conditions caused by contaminant movement and degradation. Understanding the environmental conditions and mechanisms by which anaerobic bacteria partition between aqueous and solid phases is a critical requirement for designing and evaluating in situ bioremediation efforts. This interdisciplinary research project, of which we report only the Purdue contribution, provides fundamental information on the attachment/detachment dynamics of bacteria in heterogeneous porous media. Fundamental results from the Purdue collaboration are: (a) development of a matched-index method for obtaining 3-D Lagrangian trajectories of microbial sized particles transporting within porous media or microflow cells, (b) application of advanced numerical methods to optimally design a microflow cell for studying anaerobic bacterial attachment/detachment phenomena, (c) development of two types of models for simulating bacterial movement and attachment/detachment in microflow cells and natural porous media, (d) application of stochastic analysis to upscale pore scale microbial attachment/detachment models to natural heterogeneous porous media, and (e) evaluation of the role nonlocality plays in microbial dynamics in heterogeneous porous media

Calculation of neutron shielding using an unidimensional model of transportation in formulation of discrete ordinates with scattering linearly anisotropic and a speed

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Libotte, Rafael Barbosa; Alves Filho, Hermes; Oliva, Amaury Muñoz

2017-01-01

The physical phenomenon of transport of neutral particles in a host environment is of interest in various scientific applications, e.g., nuclear reactors, shielding calculations, radiological protection, nuclear medicine, agronomy, materials science, oil prospecting, etc. In all these areas there is a need for an accurate description of the transport of the particles in the host medium. In this class of applications are the neutron shielding problems, also referred to as 'fixed-source' problems, where the interaction of the particles with the medium does not produce new neutrons, i.e., non-multiplicative medium. In this context, the development of tools that model these problems is relevant and of a beneficial return to society. In this work, we propose the development of deterministic mathematical and computational modeling of neutron transport using the linearized equation of Boltzmann applied to neutron shielding problems. Here we present also the development of a spectro-nodal method (coarse mesh) considering the scattering phenomenon as being linearly anisotropic. We show the results using a computational application, developed in Java language, version 1.8.0 9 1

6th International Meshing Roundtable '97

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

White, D.

1997-09-01

The goal of the 6th International Meshing Roundtable is to bring together researchers and developers from industry, academia, and government labs in a stimulating, open environment for the exchange of technical information related to the meshing process. In the pas~ the Roundtable has enjoyed significant participation born each of these groups from a wide variety of countries. The Roundtable will consist of technical presentations from contributed papers and abstracts, two invited speakers, and two invited panels of experts discussing topics related to the development and use of automatic mesh generation tools. In addition, this year we will feature a "Bring Your Best Mesh" competition and poster session to encourage discussion and participation from a wide variety of mesh generation tool users. The schedule and evening social events are designed to provide numerous opportunities for informal dialog. A proceedings will be published by Sandia National Laboratories and distributed at the Roundtable. In addition, papers of exceptionally high quaIity will be submitted to a special issue of the International Journal of Computational Geometry and Applications. Papers and one page abstracts were sought that present original results on the meshing process. Potential topics include but are got limited to: Unstructured triangular and tetrahedral mesh generation Unstructured quadrilateral and hexahedral mesh generation Automated blocking and structured mesh generation Mixed element meshing Surface mesh generation Geometry decomposition and clean-up techniques Geometry modification techniques related to meshing Adaptive mesh refinement and mesh quality control Mesh visualization Special purpose meshing algorithms for particular applications Theoretical or novel ideas with practical potential Technical presentations from industrial researchers.

JNC results of BN-600 benchmark calculation (phase 3)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ishikawa, M.

2002-01-01

The present work is the result of phase 3 BN-600 core benchmark problem, meaning burnup and heterogeneity. Analytical method applied consisted of: JENDL-3.2 nuclear data library, group constants (70 group, ABBN type self shielding transport factors), heterogeneous cell model for fuel and control rod, basic diffusion calculation (CITATION code), transport theory and mesh size correction (NSHEX code based on SN transport nodal method developed by JNC). Burnup and heterogeneity calculation results are presented obtained by applying both diffusion and transport approach for beginning and end of cycle

Architectural and Mobility Management Designs in Internet-Based Infrastructure Wireless Mesh Networks

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Weiyi

2011-01-01

Wireless mesh networks (WMNs) have recently emerged to be a cost-effective solution to support large-scale wireless Internet access. They have numerous applications, such as broadband Internet access, building automation, and intelligent transportation systems. One research challenge for Internet-based WMNs is to design efficient mobility…

Management of complications of mesh surgery.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Dominic; Zimmern, Philippe E

2015-07-01

Transvaginal placements of synthetic mid-urethral slings and vaginal meshes have largely superseded traditional tissue repairs in the current era because of presumed efficacy and ease of implant with device 'kits'. The use of synthetic material has generated novel complications including mesh extrusion, pelvic and vaginal pain and mesh contraction. In this review, our aim is to discuss the management, surgical techniques and outcomes associated with mesh removal. Recent publications have seen an increase in presentation of these mesh-related complications, and reports from multiple tertiary centers have suggested that not all patients benefit from surgical intervention. Although the true incidence of mesh complications is unknown, recent publications can serve to guide physicians and inform patients of the surgical outcomes from mesh-related complications. In addition, the literature highlights the growing need for a registry to account for a more accurate reporting of these events and to counsel patients on the risk and benefits before proceeding with mesh surgeries.

User Manual for the PROTEUS Mesh Tools

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Smith, Micheal A.; Shemon, Emily R.

2015-01-01

This report describes the various mesh tools that are provided with the PROTEUS code giving both descriptions of the input and output. In many cases the examples are provided with a regression test of the mesh tools. The most important mesh tools for any user to consider using are the MT M eshToMesh.x and the MT R adialLattice.x codes. The former allows the conversion between most mesh types handled by PROTEUS while the second allows the merging of multiple (assembly) meshes into a radial structured grid. Note that the mesh generation process is recursive in nature and that each input specific for a given mesh tool (such as .axial or .merge) can be used as ''mesh'' input for any of the mesh tools discussed in this manual.

To mesh or not to mesh: a review of pelvic organ reconstructive surgery

Science.gov (United States)

Dällenbach, Patrick

2015-01-01

Pelvic organ prolapse (POP) is a major health issue with a lifetime risk of undergoing at least one surgical intervention estimated at close to 10%. In the 1990s, the risk of reoperation after primary standard vaginal procedure was estimated to be as high as 30% to 50%. In order to reduce the risk of relapse, gynecological surgeons started to use mesh implants in pelvic organ reconstructive surgery with the emergence of new complications. Recent studies have nevertheless shown that the risk of POP recurrence requiring reoperation is lower than previously estimated, being closer to 10% rather than 30%. The development of mesh surgery – actively promoted by the marketing industry – was tremendous during the past decade, and preceded any studies supporting its benefit for our patients. Randomized trials comparing the use of mesh to native tissue repair in POP surgery have now shown better anatomical but similar functional outcomes, and meshes are associated with more complications, in particular for transvaginal mesh implants. POP is not a life-threatening condition, but a functional problem that impairs quality of life for women. The old adage “primum non nocere” is particularly appropriate when dealing with this condition which requires no treatment when asymptomatic. It is currently admitted that a certain degree of POP is physiological with aging when situated above the landmark of the hymen. Treatment should be individualized and the use of mesh needs to be selective and appropriate. Mesh implants are probably an important tool in pelvic reconstructive surgery, but the ideal implant has yet to be found. The indications for its use still require caution and discernment. This review explores the reasons behind the introduction of mesh augmentation in POP surgery, and aims to clarify the risks, benefits, and the recognized indications for its use. PMID:25848324

A characteristic based multiple balance approach for SN on arbitrary polygonal meshes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Grove, R.E.; Pevey, R.E.

1995-01-01

The authors introduce a new approach for characteristic based S n transport on arbitrary polygonal meshes in XY geometry. They approximate a general surface as an arbitrary polygon and rotate to a coordinate system aligned with the direction of particle travel. They use exact moment balance equations on whole cells and subregions called slices and close the system by analytically solving the characteristic equation. The authors assume spatial functions for boundary conditions and cell sources and formulate analogous functions for outgoing edge and cell angular fluxes which exactly preserve spatial moments of the analytic solution. In principle, their approach provides the framework to extend characteristic methods formulated on rectangular grids to arbitrary polygonal meshes. The authors derive schemes based on step and linear spatial approximations. Their step characteristic scheme is mathematically equivalent to the Extended Step Characteristic (ESC) method but their approach and scheme differ in the geometry rotation and in the solution form. Their solutions are simple and permit edge-based transport sweep ordering

Streaming Compression of Hexahedral Meshes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Isenburg, M; Courbet, C

2010-02-03

We describe a method for streaming compression of hexahedral meshes. Given an interleaved stream of vertices and hexahedral our coder incrementally compresses the mesh in the presented order. Our coder is extremely memory efficient when the input stream documents when vertices are referenced for the last time (i.e. when it contains topological finalization tags). Our coder then continuously releases and reuses data structures that no longer contribute to compressing the remainder of the stream. This means in practice that our coder has only a small fraction of the whole mesh in memory at any time. We can therefore compress very large meshes - even meshes that do not file in memory. Compared to traditional, non-streaming approaches that load the entire mesh and globally reorder it during compression, our algorithm trades a less compact compressed representation for significant gains in speed, memory, and I/O efficiency. For example, on the 456k hexahedra 'blade' mesh, our coder is twice as fast and uses 88 times less memory (only 3.1 MB) with the compressed file increasing about 3% in size. We also present the first scheme for predictive compression of properties associated with hexahedral cells.

RGG: Reactor geometry (and mesh) generator

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jain, R.; Tautges, T.

2012-01-01

The reactor geometry (and mesh) generator RGG takes advantage of information about repeated structures in both assembly and core lattices to simplify the creation of geometry and mesh. It is released as open source software as a part of the MeshKit mesh generation library. The methodology operates in three stages. First, assembly geometry models of various types are generated by a tool called AssyGen. Next, the assembly model or models are meshed by using MeshKit tools or the CUBIT mesh generation tool-kit, optionally based on a journal file output by AssyGen. After one or more assembly model meshes have been constructed, a tool called CoreGen uses a copy/move/merge process to arrange the model meshes into a core model. In this paper, we present the current state of tools and new features in RGG. We also discuss the parallel-enabled CoreGen, which in several cases achieves super-linear speedups since the problems fit in available RAM at higher processor counts. Several RGG applications - 1/6 VHTR model, 1/4 PWR reactor core, and a full-core model for Monju - are reported. (authors)

Properties of meshes used in hernia repair: a comprehensive review of synthetic and biologic meshes.

Science.gov (United States)

Ibrahim, Ahmed M S; Vargas, Christina R; Colakoglu, Salih; Nguyen, John T; Lin, Samuel J; Lee, Bernard T

2015-02-01

Data on the mechanical properties of the adult human abdominal wall have been difficult to obtain rendering manufacture of the ideal mesh for ventral hernia repair a challenge. An ideal mesh would need to exhibit greater biomechanical strength and elasticity than that of the abdominal wall. The aim of this study is to quantitatively compare the biomechanical properties of the most commonly used synthetic and biologic meshes in ventral hernia repair and presents a comprehensive literature review. A narrative review of the literature was performed using the PubMed database spanning articles from 1982 to 2012 including a review of company Web sites to identify all available information relating to the biomechanical properties of various synthetic and biologic meshes used in ventral hernia repair. There exist differences in the mechanical properties and the chemical nature of different meshes. In general, most synthetic materials have greater stiffness and elasticity than what is required for abdominal wall reconstruction; however, each exhibits unique properties that may be beneficial for clinical use. On the contrary, biologic meshes are more elastic but less stiff and with a lower tensile strength than their synthetic counterparts. The current standard of practice for the treatment of ventral hernias is the use of permanent synthetic mesh material. Recently, biologic meshes have become more frequently used. Most meshes exhibit biomechanical properties over the known abdominal wall thresholds. Augmenting strength requires increasing amounts of material contributing to more stiffness and foreign body reaction, which is not necessarily an advantage. Thieme Medical Publishers 333 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001, USA.

Seasonal variation of fine- and coarse-mode nitrates and related aerosols over East Asia: synergetic observations and chemical transport model analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Uno, Itsushi; Osada, Kazuo; Yumimoto, Keiya; Wang, Zhe; Itahashi, Syuichi; Pan, Xiaole; Hara, Yukari; Kanaya, Yugo; Yamamoto, Shigekazu; Fairlie, Thomas Duncan

2017-11-01

We analyzed long-term fine- and coarse-mode synergetic observations of nitrate and related aerosols (SO42-, NO3-, NH4+, Na+, Ca2+) at Fukuoka (33.52° N, 130.47° E) from August 2014 to October 2015. A Goddard Earth Observing System chemical transport model (GEOS-Chem) including dust and sea salt acid uptake processes was used to assess the observed seasonal variation and the impact of long-range transport (LRT) from the Asian continent. For fine aerosols (fSO42-, fNO3-, and fNH4+), numerical results explained the seasonal changes, and a sensitivity analysis excluding Japanese domestic emissions clarified the LRT fraction at Fukuoka (85 % for fSO42-, 47 % for fNO3-, 73 % for fNH4+). Observational data confirmed that coarse NO3- (cNO3-) made up the largest proportion (i.e., 40-55 %) of the total nitrate (defined as the sum of fNO3-, cNO3-, and HNO3) during the winter, while HNO3 gas constituted approximately 40 % of the total nitrate in summer and fNO3- peaked during the winter. Large-scale dust-nitrate (mainly cNO3-) outflow from China to Fukuoka was confirmed during all dust events that occurred between January and June. The modeled cNO3- was in good agreement with observations between July and November (mainly coming from sea salt NO3-). During the winter, however, the model underestimated cNO3- levels compared to the observed levels. The reason for this underestimation was examined statistically using multiple regression analysis (MRA). We used cNa+, nss-cCa2+, and cNH4+ as independent variables to describe the observed cNO3- levels; these variables were considered representative of sea salt cNO3-, dust cNO3-, and cNO3- accompanied by cNH4+), respectively. The MRA results explained the observed seasonal changes in dust cNO3- and indicated that the dust-acid uptake scheme reproduced the observed dust-nitrate levels even in winter. The annual average contributions of each component were 43 % (sea salt cNO3-), 19 % (dust cNO3-), and 38 % (cNH4+ term). The MRA dust

A finite element method with overlapping meshes for free-boundary axisymmetric plasma equilibria in realistic geometries

Science.gov (United States)

Heumann, Holger; Rapetti, Francesca

2017-04-01

Existing finite element implementations for the computation of free-boundary axisymmetric plasma equilibria approximate the unknown poloidal flux function by standard lowest order continuous finite elements with discontinuous gradients. As a consequence, the location of critical points of the poloidal flux, that are of paramount importance in tokamak engineering, is constrained to nodes of the mesh leading to undesired jumps in transient problems. Moreover, recent numerical results for the self-consistent coupling of equilibrium with resistive diffusion and transport suggest the necessity of higher regularity when approximating the flux map. In this work we propose a mortar element method that employs two overlapping meshes. One mesh with Cartesian quadrilaterals covers the vacuum chamber domain accessible by the plasma and one mesh with triangles discretizes the region outside. The two meshes overlap in a narrow region. This approach gives the flexibility to achieve easily and at low cost higher order regularity for the approximation of the flux function in the domain covered by the plasma, while preserving accurate meshing of the geometric details outside this region. The continuity of the numerical solution in the region of overlap is weakly enforced by a mortar-like mapping.

Cognitive resource management for heterogeneous cellular networks

CERN Document Server

Liu, Yongkang

2014-01-01

This Springer Brief focuses on cognitive resource management in heterogeneous cellular networks (Het Net) with small cell deployment for the LTE-Advanced system. It introduces the Het Net features, presents practical approaches using cognitive radio technology in accommodating small cell data relay and optimizing resource allocation and examines the effectiveness of resource management among small cells given limited coordination bandwidth and wireless channel uncertainty. The authors introduce different network characteristics of small cell, investigate the mesh of small cell access points in

Calculation of neutron shielding using an unidimensional model of transportation in formulation of discrete ordinates with scattering linearly anisotropic and a speed; Cálculos de blindagem de nêutrons usando um modelo unidimensional de transporte na formulação de ordenadas discretas com espalhamento linearmente anisotrópico e uma velocidade

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Libotte, Rafael Barbosa; Alves Filho, Hermes; Oliva, Amaury Muñoz, E-mail: rafaellibotte@hotmail.com, E-mail: halves@iprj.uerj.br, E-mail: aoliva@iprj.uerj.br [Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), Nova Friburgo, RJ (Brazil). Departamento de Modelagem Computacional

2017-07-01

The physical phenomenon of transport of neutral particles in a host environment is of interest in various scientific applications, e.g., nuclear reactors, shielding calculations, radiological protection, nuclear medicine, agronomy, materials science, oil prospecting, etc. In all these areas there is a need for an accurate description of the transport of the particles in the host medium. In this class of applications are the neutron shielding problems, also referred to as 'fixed-source' problems, where the interaction of the particles with the medium does not produce new neutrons, i.e., non-multiplicative medium. In this context, the development of tools that model these problems is relevant and of a beneficial return to society. In this work, we propose the development of deterministic mathematical and computational modeling of neutron transport using the linearized equation of Boltzmann applied to neutron shielding problems. Here we present also the development of a spectro-nodal method (coarse mesh) considering the scattering phenomenon as being linearly anisotropic. We show the results using a computational application, developed in Java language, version 1.8.0{sub 9}1.

On Reducing Delay in Mesh-Based P2P Streaming: A Mesh-Push Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Zheng; Xue, Kaiping; Hong, Peilin

The peer-assisted streaming paradigm has been widely employed to distribute live video data on the internet recently. In general, the mesh-based pull approach is more robust and efficient than the tree-based push approach. However, pull protocol brings about longer streaming delay, which is caused by the handshaking process of advertising buffer map message, sending request message and scheduling of the data block. In this paper, we propose a new approach, mesh-push, to address this issue. Different from the traditional pull approach, mesh-push implements block scheduling algorithm at sender side, where the block transmission is initiated by the sender rather than by the receiver. We first formulate the optimal upload bandwidth utilization problem, then present the mesh-push approach, in which a token protocol is designed to avoid block redundancy; a min-cost flow model is employed to derive the optimal scheduling for the push peer; and a push peer selection algorithm is introduced to reduce control overhead. Finally, we evaluate mesh-push through simulation, the results of which show mesh-push outperforms the pull scheduling in streaming delay, and achieves comparable delivery ratio at the same time.

Transrectal Mesh Erosion Requiring Bowel Resection.

Science.gov (United States)

Kemp, Marta Maria; Slim, Karem; Rabischong, Benoît; Bourdel, Nicolas; Canis, Michel; Botchorishvili, Revaz

To report a case of a transrectal mesh erosion as complication of laparoscopic promontofixation with mesh repair, necessitating bowel resection and subsequent surgical interventions. Sacrocolpopexy has become a standard procedure for vaginal vault prolapse [1], and the laparoscopic approach has gained popularity owing to more rapid recovery and less morbidity [2,3]. Mesh erosion is a well-known complication of surgical treatment for prolapse as reported in several negative evaluations, including a report from the US Food and Drug Administration in 2011 [4]. Mesh complications are more common after surgeries via the vaginal approach [5]; nonetheless, the incidence of vaginal mesh erosion after laparoscopic procedures is as high as 9% [6]. The incidence of transrectal mesh exposure after laparoscopic ventral rectopexy is roughly 1% [7]. The diagnosis may be delayed because of its rarity and variable presentation. In addition, polyester meshes, such as the mesh used in this case, carry a higher risk of exposure [8]. A 57-year-old woman experiencing genital prolapse, with the cervix classified as +3 according to the Pelvic Organ Prolapse Quantification system, underwent laparoscopic standard sacrocolpopexy using polyester mesh. Subtotal hysterectomy and bilateral adnexectomy were performed concomitantly. A 3-year follow-up consultation demonstrated no signs or symptoms of erosion of any type. At 7 years after the surgery, however, the patient presented with rectal discharge, diagnosed as infectious rectocolitis with the isolation of Clostridium difficile. She underwent a total of 5 repair surgeries in a period of 4 months, including transrectal resection of exposed mesh, laparoscopic ablation of mesh with digestive resection, exploratory laparoscopy with abscess drainage, and exploratory laparoscopy with ablation of residual mesh and transverse colostomy. She recovered well after the last intervention, exhibiting no signs of vaginal or rectal fistula and no recurrence

Non-Galerkin Coarse Grids for Algebraic Multigrid

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Falgout, Robert D. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Schroder, Jacob B. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)

2014-06-26

Algebraic multigrid (AMG) is a popular and effective solver for systems of linear equations that arise from discretized partial differential equations. And while AMG has been effectively implemented on large scale parallel machines, challenges remain, especially when moving to exascale. Particularly, stencil sizes (the number of nonzeros in a row) tend to increase further down in the coarse grid hierarchy, and this growth leads to more communication. Therefore, as problem size increases and the number of levels in the hierarchy grows, the overall efficiency of the parallel AMG method decreases, sometimes dramatically. This growth in stencil size is due to the standard Galerkin coarse grid operator, $P^T A P$, where $P$ is the prolongation (i.e., interpolation) operator. For example, the coarse grid stencil size for a simple three-dimensional (3D) seven-point finite differencing approximation to diffusion can increase into the thousands on present day machines, causing an associated increase in communication costs. We therefore consider algebraically truncating coarse grid stencils to obtain a non-Galerkin coarse grid. First, the sparsity pattern of the non-Galerkin coarse grid is determined by employing a heuristic minimal “safe” pattern together with strength-of-connection ideas. Second, the nonzero entries are determined by collapsing the stencils in the Galerkin operator using traditional AMG techniques. The result is a reduction in coarse grid stencil size, overall operator complexity, and parallel AMG solve phase times.

Use of a multigrid technique to study effects of limited sampling of heterogeneity on transport prediction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cole, C.R.; Foote, H.P.

1987-02-01

Reliable ground water transport prediction requires accurate spatial and temporal characterization of a hydrogeologic system. However, cost constraints and the desire to maintain site integrity by minimizing drilling can restrict the amount of spatial sampling that can be obtained to resolve the flow parameter variability associated with heterogeneities. This study quantifies the errors in subsurface transport predictions resulting from incomplete characterization of hydraulic conductivity heterogeneity. A multigrid technique was used to simulate two-dimensional flow velocity fields with high resolution. To obtain these velocity fields, the finite difference code MGRID, which implements a multigrid solution technique, was applied to compute stream functions on a 256-by-256 grid for a variety of hypothetical systems having detailed distributions of hydraulic conductivity. Spatial variability in hydraulic conductivity distributions was characterized by the components in the spectrum of spatial frequencies. A low-pass spatial filtering technique was applied to the base case hydraulic conductivity distribution to produce a data set with lower spatial frequency content. Arrival time curves were then calculated for filtered hydraulic conductivity distribution and compared to base case results to judge the relative importance of the higher spatial frequency components. Results indicate a progression from multimode to single-mode arrival time curves as the number and extent of distinct flow pathways are reduced by low-pass filtering. This relationship between transport predictions and spatial frequencies was used to judge the consequences of sampling the hydraulic conductivity with reduced spatial resolution. 22 refs., 17 figs

Bell transform

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Everett, C.J.; Cashwell, E.D.

1974-01-01

The coarse-mesh rebalance method is adopted for Monte Carlo schemes for aiming at accelerating the convergence of a source iteration process. At every completion of the Monte Carlo game for one batch of neutron histories, the scaling factor for the neutron flux is calculated to achieve the neutron balance in each coarse-mesh zone into which the total system is divided. This rebalance factor is multiplied to the weight of each fission source neutron in the coarse-mesh zone for playing the next Monte Carlo game. The numerical examples have shown that the coarse-mesh rebalance Monte Carlo calculation gives a good estimate of the eigenvalue already after several batches with a negligible extra computer time compared to the standard Monte Carlo. 5 references. (U.S.)

Tumour heterogeneity in oesophageal cancer assessed by CT texture analysis: Preliminary evidence of an association with tumour metabolism, stage, and survival

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ganeshan, B.; Skogen, K.; Pressney, I.; Coutroubis, D.; Miles, K.

2012-01-01

Aim: To undertake a pilot study assessing whether tumour heterogeneity evaluated using computed tomography texture analysis (CTTA) has the potential to provide a marker of tumour aggression and prognosis in oesophageal cancer. Materials and methods: In 21 patients, unenhanced CT images of the primary oesophageal lesion obtained using positron-emission tomography (PET)-CT examinations underwent CTTA. CTTA was carried out using a software algorithm that selectively filters and extracts textures at different anatomical scales between filter values 1.0 (fine detail) and 2.5 (coarse features) with quantification as entropy and uniformity (measures image heterogeneity). Texture parameters were correlated with average tumour 2-[ 18 F]-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG) uptake [standardized uptake values (SUV mean and SUV max )] and clinical staging as determined by endoscopic ultrasound (nodal involvement) and PET-CT (distant metastases). The relationship between tumour stage, FDG uptake, and texture with survival was assessed using Kaplan–Meier analysis. Results: Tumour heterogeneity correlated with SUV max and SUV mean . The closest correlations were found for SUV mean measured as uniformity and entropy with coarse filtration (r = –0.754, p < 0.0001; and r = 0.748, p = 0.0001 respectively). Heterogeneity was also significantly greater in patients with clinical stage III or IV for filter values between 1.0 and 2.0 (maximum difference at filter value 1.5: entropy: p = 0.027; uniformity p = 0.032). The median (range) survival was 21 (4–34) months. Tumour heterogeneity assessed by CTTA (coarse uniformity) was an independent predictor of survival [odds ratio (OR)=4.45 (95% CI: 1.08, 18.37); p = 0.039]. Conclusion: CTTA assessment of tumour heterogeneity has the potential to identify oesophageal cancers with adverse biological features and provide a prognostic indicator of survival.

Upscaling of Large-Scale Transport in Spatially Heterogeneous Porous Media Using Wavelet Transformation

Science.gov (United States)

Moslehi, M.; de Barros, F.; Ebrahimi, F.; Sahimi, M.

2015-12-01

Modeling flow and solute transport in large-scale heterogeneous porous media involves substantial computational burdens. A common approach to alleviate this complexity is to utilize upscaling methods. These processes generate upscaled models with less complexity while attempting to preserve the hydrogeological properties comparable to the original fine-scale model. We use Wavelet Transformations (WT) of the spatial distribution of aquifer's property to upscale the hydrogeological models and consequently transport processes. In particular, we apply the technique to a porous formation with broadly distributed and correlated transmissivity to verify the performance of the WT. First, transmissivity fields are coarsened using WT in such a way that the high transmissivity zones, in which more important information is embedded, mostly remain the same, while the low transmissivity zones are averaged out since they contain less information about the hydrogeological formation. Next, flow and non-reactive transport are simulated in both fine-scale and upscaled models to predict both the concentration breakthrough curves at a control location and the large-scale spreading of the plume around its centroid. The results reveal that the WT of the fields generates non-uniform grids with an average of 2.1% of the number of grid blocks in the original fine-scale models, which eventually leads to a significant reduction in the computational costs. We show that the upscaled model obtained through the WT reconstructs the concentration breakthrough curves and the spreading of the plume at different times accurately. Furthermore, the impacts of the Hurst coefficient, size of the flow domain and the orders of magnitude difference in transmissivity values on the results have been investigated. It is observed that as the heterogeneity and the size of the domain increase, better agreement between the results of fine-scale and upscaled models can be achieved. Having this framework at hand aids

Do goethite surfaces really control the transport and retention of multi-walled carbon nanotubes in chemically heterogeneous porous media?

Science.gov (United States)

Transport and retention behavior of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) was studied in mixtures of negatively charged quartz sand (QS) and positively charged goethite-coated sand (GQS) to assess the role of chemical heterogeneity. The linear equilibrium sorption model provided a good description o...

[Mesh structure of two-dimensional tumor microvascular architecture phenotype heterogeneity in non-small cell lung cancer].

Science.gov (United States)

Xiong, Zeng; Zhou, Hui; Liu, Jin-Kang; Hu, Cheng-Ping; Zhou, Mo-Ling; Xia, Yu; Zhou, Jian-Hua

2009-11-01

To investigate the structural characteristics and clinical significance of two-dimensional tumor microvascular architecture phenotype (2D-TMAP) in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Thirty surgical specimens of NSCLC were collected. The sections of the tumor tissues corresponding to the slice of CT perfusion imaging were selected to construct the 2D-TMAP expression. Spearman correlation analysis was used to examine the relation between the 2D-TMAP expression and the clinicopathological features of NSCLC. A heterogeneity was noted in the 2D-TMAP expression of NSCLC. The microvascular density (MVD) in the area surrounding the tumor was higher than that in the central area, but the difference was not statistically significant. The density of the microvessels without intact lumen was significantly greater in the surrounding area than in the central area (P=0.030). The total MVD was not correlated to tumor differentiation (r=0.042, P=0.831). The density of the microvessels without intact lumen in the surrounding area was positively correlated to degree of tumor differentiation and lymph node metastasis (r=0.528 and 0.533, P=0.041 and 0.028, respectively), and also to the expressions of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), ephrinB2, EphB4, and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) (r=0.504, 0.549, 0.549, and 0.370; P=0.005, 0.002, 0.002, and 0.048, respectively). The degree of tumor differentiation was positively correlated to PCNA and VEGF expression (r=0.604 and 0.370, P=0.001 and 0.048, respectively), but inversely to the integrity of microvascular basement membrane (r=-0.531, P=0.033). The 2D-TMAP suggests the overall state of the micro-environment for tumor growth. The 2D-TMAP of NSCLC regulates angiogenesis and tumor cell proliferation through a mesh-like structure, and better understanding of the characteristics and possible mechanism of 2D-TMAP expression can be of great clinical importance.

OpenCL-based vicinity computation for 3D multiresolution mesh compression

Science.gov (United States)

Hachicha, Soumaya; Elkefi, Akram; Ben Amar, Chokri

2017-03-01

3D multiresolution mesh compression systems are still widely addressed in many domains. These systems are more and more requiring volumetric data to be processed in real-time. Therefore, the performance is becoming constrained by material resources usage and an overall reduction in the computational time. In this paper, our contribution entirely lies on computing, in real-time, triangles neighborhood of 3D progressive meshes for a robust compression algorithm based on the scan-based wavelet transform(WT) technique. The originality of this latter algorithm is to compute the WT with minimum memory usage by processing data as they are acquired. However, with large data, this technique is considered poor in term of computational complexity. For that, this work exploits the GPU to accelerate the computation using OpenCL as a heterogeneous programming language. Experiments demonstrate that, aside from the portability across various platforms and the flexibility guaranteed by the OpenCL-based implementation, this method can improve performance gain in speedup factor of 5 compared to the sequential CPU implementation.

Bendable transparent conductive meshes based on multi-layer inkjet-printed silver patterns

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yu, Po-Chin; Hong, Chien-Chong; Liou, Tong-Miin

2016-01-01

Many consumer electronics manufacturers have used transparent conductive films in solar cells, LED devices, and touch panels as a medium for simultaneous electric charge transportation and light transmission. The conductivity and transmittance of transparent conductive films greatly affect the efficiency of these optoelectronic devices. This study presents a transparent and conductive mesh based on inkjet-printed silver and conductive polymer. Also, we propose a mathematical model for calculating the optimized mesh pattern. The proposed model precisely calculates an optimized line-width-to-line-spacing ratio. Furthermore, the results of our experiment verify the relationship between the line-width-to-line-spacing ratio and figure of merit. Compared with the equations of past studies, the equation proposed in this study is valid for a broader range of line-width-to-line-spacing ratios. In addition, the theoretical results of our study correlate more strongly with the experimental data of this study than with that of previous studies. To achieve the highest figure of merit, the values of the filling factor and the line-width-to-line-spacing ratio should be 0.05 and 19, respectively. Finally, we reduced the sheet resistance of the inkjet-printed mesh by 97.9% by applying multilayer printing. However, we were able to reduce only the optical transmittance of the mesh by 3.0%. The developed inkjet-printed silver meshes can survive more than 3500 bending tests simultaneous with application of 300 mA current. (paper)

Upscaled Lattice Boltzmann Method for Simulations of Flows in Heterogeneous Porous Media

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jun Li

2017-01-01

Full Text Available An upscaled Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM for flow simulations in heterogeneous porous media at the Darcy scale is proposed in this paper. In the Darcy-scale simulations, the Shan-Chen force model is used to simplify the algorithm. The proposed upscaled LBM uses coarser grids to represent the average effects of the fine-grid simulations. In the upscaled LBM, each coarse grid represents a subdomain of the fine-grid discretization and the effective permeability with the reduced-order models is proposed as we coarsen the grid. The effective permeability is computed using solutions of local problems (e.g., by performing local LBM simulations on the fine grids using the original permeability distribution and used on the coarse grids in the upscaled simulations. The upscaled LBM that can reduce the computational cost of existing LBM and transfer the information between different scales is implemented. The results of coarse-grid, reduced-order, simulations agree very well with averaged results obtained using a fine grid.

Upscaled Lattice Boltzmann Method for Simulations of Flows in Heterogeneous Porous Media

KAUST Repository

Li, Jun

2017-02-16

An upscaled Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) for flow simulations in heterogeneous porous media at the Darcy scale is proposed in this paper. In the Darcy-scale simulations, the Shan-Chen force model is used to simplify the algorithm. The proposed upscaled LBM uses coarser grids to represent the average effects of the fine-grid simulations. In the upscaled LBM, each coarse grid represents a subdomain of the fine-grid discretization and the effective permeability with the reduced-order models is proposed as we coarsen the grid. The effective permeability is computed using solutions of local problems (e.g., by performing local LBM simulations on the fine grids using the original permeability distribution) and used on the coarse grids in the upscaled simulations. The upscaled LBM that can reduce the computational cost of existing LBM and transfer the information between different scales is implemented. The results of coarse-grid, reduced-order, simulations agree very well with averaged results obtained using a fine grid.

Method and system for mesh network embedded devices

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Ray (Inventor)

2009-01-01

A method and system for managing mesh network devices. A mesh network device with integrated features creates an N-way mesh network with a full mesh network topology or a partial mesh network topology.

Recently developed methods in neutral-particle transport calculations: overview

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alcouffe, R.E.

1982-01-01

It has become increasingly apparent that successful, general methods for the solution of the neutral particle transport equation involve a close connection between the spatial-discretization method used and the source-acceleration method chosen. The first form of the transport equation, angular discretization which is discrete ordinates is considered as well as spatial discretization based upon a mesh arrangement. Characteristic methods are considered briefly in the context of future, desirable developments. The ideal spatial-discretization method is described as having the following attributes: (1) positive-positive boundary data yields a positive angular flux within the mesh including its boundaries; (2) satisfies the particle balance equation over the mesh, that is, the method is conservative; (3) possesses the diffusion limit independent of spatial mesh size, that is, for a linearly isotropic flux assumption, the transport differencing reduces to a suitable diffusion equation differencing; (4) the method is unconditionally acceleratable, i.e., for each mesh size, the method is unconditionally convergent with a source iteration acceleration. It is doubtful that a single method possesses all these attributes for a general problem. Some commonly used methods are outlined and their computational performance and usefulness are compared; recommendations for future development are detailed, which include practical computational considerations

Fog water collection effectiveness: Mesh intercomparisons

Science.gov (United States)

Fernandez, Daniel; Torregrosa, Alicia; Weiss-Penzias, Peter; Zhang, Bong June; Sorensen, Deckard; Cohen, Robert; McKinley, Gareth; Kleingartner, Justin; Oliphant, Andrew; Bowman, Matthew

2018-01-01

To explore fog water harvesting potential in California, we conducted long-term measurements involving three types of mesh using standard fog collectors (SFC). Volumetric fog water measurements from SFCs and wind data were collected and recorded in 15-minute intervals over three summertime fog seasons (2014–2016) at four California sites. SFCs were deployed with: standard 1.00 m2 double-layer 35% shade coefficient Raschel; stainless steel mesh coated with the MIT-14 hydrophobic formulation; and FogHa-Tin, a German manufactured, 3-dimensional spacer fabric deployed in two orientations. Analysis of 3419 volumetric samples from all sites showed strong relationships between mesh efficiency and wind speed. Raschel mesh collected 160% more fog water than FogHa-Tin at wind speeds less than 1 m s–1 and 45% less for wind speeds greater than 5 m s–1. MIT-14 coated stainless-steel mesh collected more fog water than Raschel mesh at all wind speeds. At low wind speeds of steel mesh collected 3% more and at wind speeds of 4–5 m s–1, it collected 41% more. FogHa-Tin collected 5% more fog water when the warp of the weave was oriented vertically, per manufacturer specification, than when the warp of the weave was oriented horizontally. Time series measurements of three distinct mesh across similar wind regimes revealed inconsistent lags in fog water collection and inconsistent performance. Since such differences occurred under similar wind-speed regimes, we conclude that other factors play important roles in mesh performance, including in-situ fog event and aerosol dynamics that affect droplet-size spectra and droplet-to-mesh surface interactions.

Meshes optimized for discrete exterior calculus (DEC).

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mousley, Sarah C. [Univ. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL (United States); Deakin, Michael [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Knupp, Patrick [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Mitchell, Scott A. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

2017-12-01

We study the optimization of an energy function used by the meshing community to measure and improve mesh quality. This energy is non-traditional because it is dependent on both the primal triangulation and its dual Voronoi (power) diagram. The energy is a measure of the mesh's quality for usage in Discrete Exterior Calculus (DEC), a method for numerically solving PDEs. In DEC, the PDE domain is triangulated and this mesh is used to obtain discrete approximations of the continuous operators in the PDE. The energy of a mesh gives an upper bound on the error of the discrete diagonal approximation of the Hodge star operator. In practice, one begins with an initial mesh and then makes adjustments to produce a mesh of lower energy. However, we have discovered several shortcomings in directly optimizing this energy, e.g. its non-convexity, and we show that the search for an optimized mesh may lead to mesh inversion (malformed triangles). We propose a new energy function to address some of these issues.

Adaptive hybrid mesh refinement for multiphysics applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Khamayseh, Ahmed; Almeida, Valmor de

2007-01-01

The accuracy and convergence of computational solutions of mesh-based methods is strongly dependent on the quality of the mesh used. We have developed methods for optimizing meshes that are comprised of elements of arbitrary polygonal and polyhedral type. We present in this research the development of r-h hybrid adaptive meshing technology tailored to application areas relevant to multi-physics modeling and simulation. Solution-based adaptation methods are used to reposition mesh nodes (r-adaptation) or to refine the mesh cells (h-adaptation) to minimize solution error. The numerical methods perform either the r-adaptive mesh optimization or the h-adaptive mesh refinement method on the initial isotropic or anisotropic meshes to equidistribute weighted geometric and/or solution error function. We have successfully introduced r-h adaptivity to a least-squares method with spherical harmonics basis functions for the solution of the spherical shallow atmosphere model used in climate modeling. In addition, application of this technology also covers a wide range of disciplines in computational sciences, most notably, time-dependent multi-physics, multi-scale modeling and simulation

Shutdown dose rate analysis with CAD geometry, Cartesian/tetrahedral mesh, and advanced variance reduction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Biondo, Elliott D.; Davis, Andrew; Wilson, Paul P.H.

2016-01-01

Highlights: • A CAD-based shutdown dose rate analysis workflow has been implemented. • Cartesian and superimposed tetrahedral mesh are fully supported. • Biased and unbiased photon source sampling options are available. • Hybrid Monte Carlo/deterministic techniques accelerate photon transport. • The workflow has been validated with the FNG-ITER benchmark problem. - Abstract: In fusion energy systems (FES) high-energy neutrons born from burning plasma activate system components to form radionuclides. The biological dose rate that results from photons emitted by these radionuclides after shutdown—the shutdown dose rate (SDR)—must be quantified for maintenance planning. This can be done using the Rigorous Two-Step (R2S) method, which involves separate neutron and photon transport calculations, coupled by a nuclear inventory analysis code. The geometric complexity and highly attenuating configuration of FES motivates the use of CAD geometry and advanced variance reduction for this analysis. An R2S workflow has been created with the new capability of performing SDR analysis directly from CAD geometry with Cartesian or tetrahedral meshes and with biased photon source sampling, enabling the use of the Consistent Adjoint Driven Importance Sampling (CADIS) variance reduction technique. This workflow has been validated with the Frascati Neutron Generator (FNG)-ITER SDR benchmark using both Cartesian and tetrahedral meshes and both unbiased and biased photon source sampling. All results are within 20.4% of experimental values, which constitutes satisfactory agreement. Photon transport using CADIS is demonstrated to yield speedups as high as 8.5·10"5 for problems using the FNG geometry.

Application of the finite element method to the neutron transport equation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Martin, W.R.

1976-01-01

This paper examines the theoretical and practical application of the finite element method to the neutron transport equation. It is shown that in principle the system of equations obtained by application of the finite element method can be solved with certain physical restrictions concerning the criticality of the medium. The convergence of this approximate solution to the exact solution with mesh refinement is examined, and a non-optical estimate of the convergence rate is obtained analytically. It is noted that the numerical results indicate a faster convergence rate and several approaches to obtain this result analytically are outlined. The practical application of the finite element method involved the development of a computer code capable of solving the neutron transport equation in 1-D plane geometry. Vacuum, reflecting, or specified incoming boundary conditions may be analyzed, and all are treated as natural boundary conditions. The time-dependent transport equation is also examined and it is shown that the application of the finite element method in conjunction with the Crank-Nicholson time discretization method results in a system of algebraic equations which is readily solved. Numerical results are given for several critical slab eigenvalue problems, including anisotropic scattering, and the results compare extremely well with benchmark results. It is seen that the finite element code is more efficient than a standard discrete ordinates code for certain problems. A problem with severe heterogeneities is considered and it is shown that the use of discontinuous spatial and angular elements results in a marked improvement in the results. Finally, time-dependent problems are examined and it is seen that the phenomenon of angular mode separation makes the numerical treatment of the transport equation in slab geometry a considerable challenge, with the result that the angular mesh has a dominant effect on obtaining acceptable solutions

A model of regional primary production for use with coarse resolution satellite data

Science.gov (United States)

Prince, S. D.

1991-01-01

A model of crop primary production, which was originally developed to relate the amount of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (APAR) to net production in field studies, is discussed in the context of coarse resolution regional remote sensing of primary production. The model depends on an approximately linear relationship between APAR and the normalized difference vegetation index. A more comprehensive form of the conventional model is shown to be necessary when different physiological types of plants or heterogeneous vegetation types occur within the study area. The predicted variable in the new model is total assimilation (net production plus respiration) rather than net production alone or harvest yield.

Connectivity editing for quadrilateral meshes

KAUST Repository

Peng, Chihan

2011-12-12

We propose new connectivity editing operations for quadrilateral meshes with the unique ability to explicitly control the location, orientation, type, and number of the irregular vertices (valence not equal to four) in the mesh while preserving sharp edges. We provide theoretical analysis on what editing operations are possible and impossible and introduce three fundamental operations to move and re-orient a pair of irregular vertices. We argue that our editing operations are fundamental, because they only change the quad mesh in the smallest possible region and involve the fewest irregular vertices (i.e., two). The irregular vertex movement operations are supplemented by operations for the splitting, merging, canceling, and aligning of irregular vertices. We explain how the proposed highlevel operations are realized through graph-level editing operations such as quad collapses, edge flips, and edge splits. The utility of these mesh editing operations are demonstrated by improving the connectivity of quad meshes generated from state-of-art quadrangulation techniques. © 2011 ACM.

Connectivity editing for quadrilateral meshes

KAUST Repository

Peng, Chihan; Zhang, Eugene; Kobayashi, Yoshihiro; Wonka, Peter

2011-01-01

We propose new connectivity editing operations for quadrilateral meshes with the unique ability to explicitly control the location, orientation, type, and number of the irregular vertices (valence not equal to four) in the mesh while preserving sharp edges. We provide theoretical analysis on what editing operations are possible and impossible and introduce three fundamental operations to move and re-orient a pair of irregular vertices. We argue that our editing operations are fundamental, because they only change the quad mesh in the smallest possible region and involve the fewest irregular vertices (i.e., two). The irregular vertex movement operations are supplemented by operations for the splitting, merging, canceling, and aligning of irregular vertices. We explain how the proposed highlevel operations are realized through graph-level editing operations such as quad collapses, edge flips, and edge splits. The utility of these mesh editing operations are demonstrated by improving the connectivity of quad meshes generated from state-of-art quadrangulation techniques. © 2011 ACM.

Leveraging the power of mesh

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Glass, H. [Cellnet, Alpharetta, GA (United States)

2006-07-01

Mesh network applications are used by utilities for metering, demand response, and mobile workforce management. This presentation provided an overview of a multi-dimensional mesh application designed to offer improved scalability and higher throughput in advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) systems. Mesh applications can be used in AMI for load balancing and forecasting, as well as for distribution and transmission planning. New revenue opportunities can be realized through the application's ability to improve notification and monitoring services, and customer service communications. Mesh network security features include data encryption, data fragmentation and the automatic re-routing of data. In order to use mesh network applications, networks must have sufficient bandwidth and provide flexibility at the endpoint layer to support multiple devices from multiple vendors, as well as support multiple protocols. It was concluded that smart meters will not enable energy response solutions without an underlying AMI that is reliable, scalable and self-healing. .refs., tabs., figs.

Universal Linear Scaling of Permeability and Time for Heterogeneous Fracture Dissolution

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, L.; Cardenas, M. B.

2017-12-01

Fractures are dynamically changing over geological time scale due to mechanical deformation and chemical reactions. However, the latter mechanism remains poorly understood with respect to the expanding fracture, which leads to a positively coupled flow and reactive transport processes, i.e., as a fracture expands, so does its permeability (k) and thus flow and reactive transport processes. To unravel this coupling, we consider a self-enhancing process that leads to fracture expansion caused by acidic fluid, i.e., CO2-saturated brine dissolving calcite fracture. We rigorously derive a theory, for the first time, showing that fracture permeability increases linearly with time [Wang and Cardenas, 2017]. To validate this theory, we resort to the direct simulation that solves the Navier-Stokes and Advection-Diffusion equations with a moving mesh according to the dynamic dissolution process in two-dimensional (2D) fractures. We find that k slowly increases first until the dissolution front breakthrough the outbound when we observe a rapid k increase, i.e., the linear time-dependence of k occurs. The theory agrees well with numerical observations across a broad range of Peclet and Damkohler numbers through homogeneous and heterogeneous 2D fractures. Moreover, the theory of linear scaling relationship between k and time matches well with experimental observations of three-dimensional (3D) fractures' dissolution. To further attest to our theory's universality for 3D heterogeneous fractures across a broad range of roughness and correlation length of aperture field, we develop a depth-averaged model that simulates the process-based reactive transport. The simulation results show that, regardless of a wide variety of dissolution patterns such as the presence of dissolution fingers and preferential dissolution paths, the linear scaling relationship between k and time holds. Our theory sheds light on predicting permeability evolution in many geological settings when the self

Ground-level ozone in four Chinese cities: precursors, regional transport and heterogeneous processes

Science.gov (United States)

Xue, L. K.; Wang, T.; Gao, J.; Ding, A. J.; Zhou, X. H.; Blake, D. R.; Wang, X. F.; Saunders, S. M.; Fan, S. J.; Zuo, H. C.; Zhang, Q. Z.; Wang, W. X.

2014-12-01

We analyzed the measurements of ozone (O3) and its precursors made at rural/suburban sites downwind of four large Chinese cities - Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Lanzhou, to elucidate their pollution characteristics, regional transport, in situ production, and impacts of heterogeneous processes. The same measurement techniques and observation-based model were used to minimize uncertainties in comparison of the results due to difference in methodologies. All four cities suffered from serious O3 pollution but showed different precursor distributions. The model-calculated in situ O3 production rates were compared with the observed change rates to infer the relative contributions of on-site photochemistry and transport. At the rural site downwind of Beijing, export of the well-processed urban plumes contributed to the extremely high O3 levels (up to an hourly value of 286 ppbv), while the O3 pollution observed at suburban sites of Shanghai, Guangzhou and Lanzhou was dominated by intense in situ production. The O3 production was in a volatile organic compound (VOC)-limited regime in both Shanghai and Guangzhou, and a NOx-limited regime in Lanzhou. The key VOC precursors are aromatics and alkenes in Shanghai, and aromatics in Guangzhou. The potential impacts on O3 production of several heterogeneous processes, namely, hydrolysis of dinitrogen pentoxide (N2O5), uptake of hydro peroxy radical (HO2) on particles and surface reactions of NO2 forming nitrous acid (HONO), were assessed. The analyses indicate the varying and considerable impacts of these processes in different areas of China depending on the atmospheric abundances of aerosol and NOx, and suggest the urgent need to better understand these processes and represent them in photochemical models.

Comparison of Non-overlapping and Overlapping Local/Global Iteration Schemes for Whole-Core Deterministic Transport Calculation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yuk, Seung Su; Cho, Bumhee; Cho, Nam Zin

2013-01-01

In the case of deterministic transport model, fixed-k problem formulation is necessary and the overlapping local domain is chosen. However, as mentioned in, the partial current-based Coarse Mesh Finite Difference (p-CMFD) procedure enables also non-overlapping local/global (NLG) iteration. In this paper, NLG iteration is combined with p-CMFD and with CMFD (augmented with a concept of p-CMFD), respectively, and compared to OLG iteration on a 2-D test problem. Non-overlapping local/global iteration with p-CMFD and CMFD global calculation is introduced and tested on a 2-D deterministic transport problem. The modified C5G7 problem is analyzed with both NLG and OLG methods and the solutions converge to the reference solution except for some cases of NLG with CMFD. NLG with CMFD gives the best performance if the solution converges. But if fission-source iteration in local calculation is not enough, it is prone to diverge. The p-CMFD global solver gives unconditional convergence (for both OLG and NLG). A study of switching scheme is in progress, where NLG/p-CMFD is used as 'starter' and then switched to NLG/CMFD to render the whole-core transport calculation more efficient and robust. Parallel computation is another obvious future work

Hernia Surgical Mesh Implants

Science.gov (United States)

... knitted mesh or non-knitted sheet forms. The synthetic materials used can be absorbable, non-absorbable or a combination of absorbable and non-absorbable materials. Animal-derived mesh are made of animal tissue, such as intestine or skin, that has been processed and disinfected to be ...

A test of systematic coarse-graining of molecular dynamics simulations: Thermodynamic properties

Science.gov (United States)

Fu, Chia-Chun; Kulkarni, Pandurang M.; Scott Shell, M.; Gary Leal, L.

2012-10-01

Coarse-graining (CG) techniques have recently attracted great interest for providing descriptions at a mesoscopic level of resolution that preserve fluid thermodynamic and transport behaviors with a reduced number of degrees of freedom and hence less computational effort. One fundamental question arises: how well and to what extent can a "bottom-up" developed mesoscale model recover the physical properties of a molecular scale system? To answer this question, we explore systematically the properties of a CG model that is developed to represent an intermediate mesoscale model between the atomistic and continuum scales. This CG model aims to reduce the computational cost relative to a full atomistic simulation, and we assess to what extent it is possible to preserve both the thermodynamic and transport properties of an underlying reference all-atom Lennard-Jones (LJ) system. In this paper, only the thermodynamic properties are considered in detail. The transport properties will be examined in subsequent work. To coarse-grain, we first use the iterative Boltzmann inversion (IBI) to determine a CG potential for a (1-ϕ)N mesoscale particle system, where ϕ is the degree of coarse-graining, so as to reproduce the radial distribution function (RDF) of an N atomic particle system. Even though the uniqueness theorem guarantees a one to one relationship between the RDF and an effective pairwise potential, we find that RDFs are insensitive to the long-range part of the IBI-determined potentials, which provides some significant flexibility in further matching other properties. We then propose a reformulation of IBI as a robust minimization procedure that enables simultaneous matching of the RDF and the fluid pressure. We find that this new method mainly changes the attractive tail region of the CG potentials, and it improves the isothermal compressibility relative to pure IBI. We also find that there are optimal interaction cutoff lengths for the CG system, as a function of �

Drag Prediction for the NASA CRM Wing-Body-Tail Using CFL3D and OVERFLOW on an Overset Mesh

Science.gov (United States)

Sclafani, Anthony J.; DeHaan, Mark A.; Vassberg, John C.; Rumsey, Christopher L.; Pulliam, Thomas H.

2010-01-01

In response to the fourth AIAA CFD Drag Prediction Workshop (DPW-IV), the NASA Common Research Model (CRM) wing-body and wing-body-tail configurations are analyzed using the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) flow solvers CFL3D and OVERFLOW. Two families of structured, overset grids are built for DPW-IV. Grid Family 1 (GF1) consists of a coarse (7.2 million), medium (16.9 million), fine (56.5 million), and extra-fine (189.4 million) mesh. Grid Family 2 (GF2) is an extension of the first and includes a superfine (714.2 million) and an ultra-fine (2.4 billion) mesh. The medium grid anchors both families with an established build process for accurate cruise drag prediction studies. This base mesh is coarsened and enhanced to form a set of parametrically equivalent grids that increase in size by a factor of roughly 3.4 from one level to the next denser level. Both CFL3D and OVERFLOW are run on GF1 using a consistent numerical approach. Additional OVERFLOW runs are made to study effects of differencing scheme and turbulence model on GF1 and to obtain results for GF2. All CFD results are post-processed using Richardson extrapolation, and approximate grid-converged values of drag are compared. The medium grid is also used to compute a trimmed drag polar for both codes.

Ecology of coarse wood decomposition by the saprotrophic fungus Fomes fomentarius.

Science.gov (United States)

Větrovský, Tomáš; Voříšková, Jana; Snajdr, Jaroslav; Gabriel, Jiří; Baldrian, Petr

2011-07-01

Saprotrophic wood-inhabiting basidiomycetes are the most important decomposers of lignin and cellulose in dead wood and as such they attracted considerable attention. The aims of this work were to quantify the activity and spatial distribution of extracellular enzymes in coarse wood colonised by the white-rot basidiomycete Fomes fomentarius and in adjacent fruitbodies of the fungus and to analyse the diversity of the fungal and bacterial community in a fungus-colonised wood and its potential effect on enzyme production by F. fomentarius. Fungus-colonised wood and fruitbodies were collected in low management intensity forests in the Czech Republic. There were significant differences in enzyme production by F. fomentarius between Betula pendula and Fagus sylvatica wood, the activity of cellulose and xylan-degrading enzymes was significantly higher in beech wood than in birch wood. Spatial analysis of a sample B. pendula log segment proved that F. fomentarius was the single fungal representative found in the log. There was a high level of spatial variability in the amount of fungal biomass detected, but no effects on enzyme activities were observed. Samples from the fruiting body showed high β-glucosidase and chitinase activities compared to wood samples. Significantly higher levels of xylanase and cellobiohydrolase were found in samples located near the fruitbody (proximal), and higher laccase and Mn-peroxidase activities were found in the distal ones. The microbial community in wood was dominated by the fungus (fungal to bacterial DNA ratio of 62-111). Bacterial abundance composition was lower in proximal than distal parts of wood by a factor of 24. These results show a significant level of spatial heterogeneity in coarse wood. One of the explanations may be the successive colonization of wood by the fungus: due to differential enzyme production, the rates of biodegradation of coarse wood are also spatially inhomogeneous.

Nickel cobaltite nanograss grown around porous carbon nanotube-wrapped stainless steel wire mesh as a flexible electrode for high-performance supercapacitor application

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wu, Mao-Sung; Zheng, Zhi-Bin; Lai, Yu-Sheng; Jow, Jiin-Jiang

2015-01-01

Graphical abstract: Nickel cobaltite nanograss with bimodal pore size distribution is grown around the carbon nanotube-wrapped stainless steel wire mesh as a high capacitance and stable electrode for high-performance and flexible supercapacitors. - Highlights: • NiCo 2 O 4 nanograss with bimodal pore size distribution is hydrothermally prepared. • Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) wrap around stainless steel (SS) wire mesh as a scaffold. • NiCo 2 O 4 grown on CNT-wrapped SS mesh shows excellent capacitive performance. • Porous CNT layer allows for rapid transport of electron and electrolyte. - Abstract: Nickel cobaltite nanograss with bimodal pore size distribution (small and large mesopores) is grown on various electrode substrates by one-pot hydrothermal synthesis. The small pores (<5 nm) in the nanograss of individual nanorods contribute to large surface area, while the large pore channels (>20 nm) between nanorods offer fast transport paths for electrolyte. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with high electrical conductivity wrap around stainless steel (SS) wire mesh by electrophoresis as an electrode scaffold for supporting the nickel cobaltite nanograss. This unique electrode configuration turns out to have great benefits for the development of supercapacitors. The specific capacitance of nickel cobaltite grown around CNT-wrapped SS wire mesh reaches 1223 and 1070 F g −1 at current densities of 1 and 50 A g −1 , respectively. CNT-wrapped SS wire mesh affords porous and conductive networks underneath the nanograss for rapid transport of electron and electrolyte. Flexible CNTs connect the nanorods to mitigate the contact resistance and the volume expansion during cycling test. Thus, this tailored electrode can significantly reduce the ohmic resistance, charge-transfer resistance, and diffusive impedance, leading to high specific capacitance, prominent rate performance, and good cycle-life stability.

A THREE-YEAR EXPERIENCE WITH ANTERIOR TRANSOBTURATOR MESH (ATOM AND POSTERIOR ISCHIORECTAL MESH (PIRM

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Marijan Lužnik

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Background. Use of alloplastic mesh implantates allow a new urogynecologycal surgical techniques achieve a marked improvement in pelvic organ static and pelvic floor function with minimally invasive needle transvaginal intervention like an anterior transobturator mesh (ATOM and a posterior ischiorectal mesh (PIRM procedures. Methods. In three years, between April 2006 and May 2009, we performed one hundred and eightyfour operative corrections of female pelvic organ prolapse (POP and pelvic floor dysfunction (PFD with mesh implantates. The eighty-three patients with surgical procedure TVT-O or Monarc as solo intervention indicated by stress urinary incontinence without POP, are not included in this number. In 97 % of mesh operations, Gynemesh 10 × 15 cm was used. For correction of anterior vaginal prolapse with ATOM procedure, Gynemesh was individually trimmed in mesh with 6 free arms for tension-free transobturator application and tension-free apical collar. IVS (Intravaginal sling 04 Tunneller (Tyco needle system was used for transobturator application of 6 arms through 4 dermal incisions (2 on right and 2 on left. Minimal anterior median colpotomy was made in two separate parts. For correction of posterior vaginal prolapse with PIRM procedure Gynemesh was trimmed in mesh with 4 free arms and tension-free collar. Two ischiorectal long arms for tension-free application through fossa ischiorectale – right and left, and two short arms for perineal body also on both sides. IVS 02 Tunneller (Tyco needle system was used for tension-free application of 4 arms through 4 dermal incisions (2 on right and 2 on left in PIRM. Results. All 184 procedures were performed relatively safely. In 9 cases of ATOM we had perforation of bladder, in 5 by application of anterior needle, in 3 by application of posterior needle and in one case with pincette when collar was inserted in lateral vesico – vaginal space. In 2 cases of PIRM we had perforation of rectum

Influence of Basalt Mesh Induced Increase of Heterogeneity of Cement Composites with Dispersed Fibers on Its Resistance under Near-Field Blast

Science.gov (United States)

Zíma, J.; Foglar, M.

2017-09-01

This paper describes the influence of multiple basalt meshes in the cement composite specimens on the damage induced by near-field blast. Experimental measurements performed in the Boletice military area in 2014 and 2015 are evaluated by numerical simulations. The evaluation of the results is mainly focused on the stress propagation in the cement composite with dispersed fibers, the propagation of the overpressure caused by the blast and velocity of the ejected parts from the specimen. The influence of the presence and position of the basalt meshes in the specimen on its damage induced by delamination is also examined.

Exponential characteristic spatial quadrature for discrete ordinates radiation transport with rectangular cells

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Minor, B.; Mathews, K.

1995-01-01

The exponential characteristic (EC) spatial quadrature for discrete ordinates neutral particle transport previously introduced in slab geometry is extended here to x-y geometry with rectangular cells. The method is derived and compared with current methods. It is similar to the linear characteristic (LC) quadrature (a linear-linear moments method) but differs by assuming an exponential distribution of the scattering source within each cell, S(x) = a exp(bx + cy), whose parameters are rootsolved to match the known (from the previous iteration) spatial average and first moments of the source over the cell. Similarly, EC assumes exponential distributions of flux along cell edges through which particles enter the cell, with parameters chosen to match the average and first moments of flux, as passed from the adjacent, upstream cells (or as determined by boundary conditions). Like the linear adaptive (LA) method, EC is positive and nonlinear. It is more accurate than LA and does not require subdivision of cells. The nonlinearity has not interfered with convergence. The exponential moment functions, which were introduced with the slab geometry method, are extended to arbitrary dimensions (numbers of arguments) and used to avoid numerical ill conditioning. As in slab geometry, the method approaches O(Δx 4 ) global truncation error on fine-enough meshes, while the error is insensitive to mesh size for coarse meshes. Performance of the method is compared with that of the step characteristic, LC, linear nodal, step adaptive, and LA schemes. The EC method is a strong performer with scattering ratios ranging from 0 to 0.9 (the range tested), particularly so for lower scattering ratios. As in slab geometry, EC is computationally more costly per cell than current methods but can be accurate with very thick cells, leading to increased computational efficiency on appropriate problems

Serpentinization of mantle-derived peridotites at mid-ocean ridges: Mesh texture development in the context of tectonic exhumation

Science.gov (United States)

Rouméjon, Stéphane; Cannat, Mathilde

2014-06-01

At slow spreading ridges, axial detachment faults exhume mantle-derived peridotites and hydrothermal alteration causes serpentinization in a domain extending more than 1 km next to the fault. At the microscopic scale, serpentinization progresses from a microfracture network toward the center of olivine relicts and forms a mesh texture. We present a petrographic study (SEM, EBSD, and Raman) of the serpentine mesh texture in a set of 278 abyssal serpentinized peridotites from the Mid-Atlantic and Southwest Indian Ridges. We show that serpentinization initiated along two intersecting sets of microfractures that have consistent orientations at the sample scale, and in at least one studied location, at the 100 m scale. We propose that these microfractures formed in fresh peridotites due to combined thermal and tectonic stresses and subsequently served as channels for serpentinizing fluids. Additional reaction-induced cracks developed for serpentinization extents <20%. The resulting microfracture network has a typical spacing of ˜60 µm but most serpentinization occurs next to a subset of these microfractures that define mesh cells 100-400 µm in size. Apparent mesh rim thickness is on average 33 ± 19 µm corresponding to serpentinization extents of 70-80%. Published laboratory experiments suggest that mesh rims formation could be completed in a few years (i.e., quasi instantaneous at the plate tectonic timescale). The depth and extent of the serpentinization domain in the detachment fault's footwall are probably variable in time and space and as a result we expect that the serpentine mesh texture at slow spreading ridges forms at variable rates with a spatially heterogeneous distribution.

Fog water collection effectiveness: Mesh intercomparisons

Science.gov (United States)

Fernandez, Daniel; Torregrosa, Alicia; Weiss-Penzias, Peter; Zhang, Bong June; Sorensen, Deckard; Cohen, Robert; McKinley, Gareth; Kleingartner, Justin; Oliphant, Andrew; Bowman, Matthew

2018-01-01

To explore fog water harvesting potential in California, we conducted long-term measurements involving three types of mesh using standard fog collectors (SFC). Volumetric fog water measurements from SFCs and wind data were collected and recorded in 15-minute intervals over three summertime fog seasons (2014–2016) at four California sites. SFCs were deployed with: standard 1.00 m2 double-layer 35% shade coefficient Raschel; stainless steel mesh coated with the MIT-14 hydrophobic formulation; and FogHa-Tin, a German manufactured, 3-dimensional spacer fabric deployed in two orientations. Analysis of 3419 volumetric samples from all sites showed strong relationships between mesh efficiency and wind speed. Raschel mesh collected 160% more fog water than FogHa-Tin at wind speeds less than 1 m s–1 and 45% less for wind speeds greater than 5 m s–1. MIT-14 coated stainless-steel mesh collected more fog water than Raschel mesh at all wind speeds. At low wind speeds of wind speeds of 4–5 m s–1, it collected 41% more. FogHa-Tin collected 5% more fog water when the warp of the weave was oriented vertically, per manufacturer specification, than when the warp of the weave was oriented horizontally. Time series measurements of three distinct mesh across similar wind regimes revealed inconsistent lags in fog water collection and inconsistent performance. Since such differences occurred under similar wind-speed regimes, we conclude that other factors play important roles in mesh performance, including in-situ fog event and aerosol dynamics that affect droplet-size spectra and droplet-to-mesh surface interactions.

Remediating Contaminant Plumes in Groundwater with Shallow Excavations Containing Coarse Reactive Media.

Science.gov (United States)

Hudak, Paul F

2018-02-01

A groundwater flow and mass transport model tested the capability of shallow excavations filled with coarse, reactive media to remediate a hypothetical unconfined aquifer with a maximum saturated thickness of 5 m. Modeled as contaminant sinks, the rectangular excavations were 10 m downgradient of an initial contaminant plume originating from a source at the top of the aquifer. The initial plume was approximately 259 m long, 23 m wide, and 5 m thick, with a downgradient tip located approximately 100 m upgradient of the site boundary. The smallest trench capable of preventing offsite migration was 11 m long (measured perpendicular to groundwater flow), 4 m wide (measured parallel to groundwater flow), and 3 m deep. Results of this study suggest that shallow trenches filled with coarse filter media that partially penetrate unconfined aquifers may be a viable alternative for remediating contaminated groundwater at some sites.

Large Contribution of Coarse Mode to Aerosol Microphysical and Optical Properties: Evidence from Ground-Based Observations of a Transpacific Dust Outbreak at a High-Elevation North American Site

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kassianov, E. [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington; Pekour, M. [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington; Flynn, C. [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington; Berg, L. K. [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington; Beranek, J. [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington; Zelenyuk, A. [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington; Zhao, C. [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington; Leung, L. R. [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington; Ma, P. L. [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington; Riihimaki, L. [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington; Fast, J. D. [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington; Barnard, J. [University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada; Hallar, A. G. [Storm Peak Laboratory, Desert Research Institute, Steamboat Springs, Colorado; McCubbin, I. B. [Storm Peak Laboratory, Desert Research Institute, Steamboat Springs, Colorado; Eloranta, E. W. [University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, Wisconsin; McComiskey, A. [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Boulder, Colorado; Rasch, P. J. [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington

2017-05-01

Our work is motivated by previous studies of the long-range trans-Atlantic transport of Saharan dust and the observed quasi-static nature of coarse mode aerosol with a volume median diameter (VMD) of approximately 3.5 µm. We examine coarse mode contributions from the trans-Pacific transport of Asian dust to North American aerosol microphysical and optical properties using a dataset collected at the high-elevation, mountain-top Storm Peak Laboratory (SPL, 3.22 km above sea level [ASL]) and the nearby Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Mobile Facility (AMF, 2.76 km ASL). Data collected during the SPL Cloud Property Validation Experiment (STORMVEX, March 2011) are complemented by quasi-global high-resolution model simulations coupled with aerosol chemistry. We identify dust event associated mostly with Asian plume (about 70% of dust mass) where the coarse mode with moderate (~4 µm) VMD is distinct and contributes substantially to aerosol microphysical (up to 70% for total volume) and optical (up to 45% for total scattering and aerosol optical depth) properties. Our results, when compared with previous Saharan dust studies, suggest a fairly invariant behavior of coarse mode dust aerosols. If confirmed in additional studies, this invariant behavior may simplify considerably model parameterizations for complex and size-dependent processes associated with dust transport and removal.

Numerical calculations on heterogeneity of groundwater flow

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Follin, S.

1992-01-01

The upscaling of model parameters is a key issue in many research fields concerned with parameter heterogeneity. The upscaling process allows for fewer model blocks and relaxes the numerical problems caused by high contrasts in the hydraulic conductivity. The trade-offs are dependent on the object but the general drawback is an increasing uncertainty about the representativeness. The present study deals with numerical calculations of heterogeneity of groundwater flow and solute transport in hypothetical blocks of fractured hard rock in a '3m scale' and addresses both conceptual and practical problems in numerical simulation. Evidence that the hydraulic conductivity (K) of the rock mass between major fracture zones is highly heterogeneous in a 3m scale is provided by a large number of field investigations. The present uses the documented heterogeneity and investigates flow and transport in a two-dimensional stochastic continuum characterized by a variance in Y = In(K) of σ y 2 = 16, corresponding to about 12 log 10 cycles in K. The study considers anisotropy, channelling, non-Fickian and Fickian transport, and conditional simulation. The major conclusions are: * heterogeneity gives rise to anisotropy in the upscaling process, * the choice of support scale is crucial for the modelling of solute transport. As a consequence of the obtained results, a two-dimensional stochastic discontinuum model is presented, which provides a tool for linking stochastic continuum models to discrete fracture network models. (au) (14 figs., 136 refs.)

Comparison of a lightweight polypropylene mesh (Optilene® LP) and a large-pore knitted PTFE mesh (GORE® INFINIT® mesh)--Biocompatibility in a standardized endoscopic extraperitoneal hernia model.

Science.gov (United States)

Jacob, Dietmar A; Schug-Pass, Christine; Sommerer, Florian; Tannapfel, Andrea; Lippert, Hans; Köckerling, Ferdinand

2012-02-01

The use of a mesh with good biocompatibility properties is of decisive importance for the avoidance of recurrences and chronic pain in endoscopic hernia repair surgery. As we know from numerous experiments and clinical experience, large-pore, lightweight polypropylene meshes possess the best biocompatibility. However, large-pore meshes of different polymers may be used as well and might be an alternative solution. Utilizing a totally extraperitoneal technique in an established animal model, 20 domestic pigs were implanted with either a lightweight large-pore polypropylene (PP) mesh (Optilene® LP) or a medium-weight large-pore knitted polytetrafluorethylene (PTFE) mesh (GORE® INFINIT® mesh). After 94 days, the pigs were sacrificed and postmortem diagnostic laparoscopy was performed, followed by explantation of the specimens for macroscopic, histological and immunohistochemical evaluation. The mean mesh shrinkage rate was 14.2% for Optilene® LP vs. 24.7% for INFINIT® mesh (p = 0.017). The partial volume of the inflammatory cells was 11.2% for Optilene® LP vs. 13.9% for INFINIT (n.s.). CD68 was significantly higher for INFINIT (11.8% vs. 5.6%, p = 0.007). The markers of cell turnover, namely Ki67 and the apoptotic index, were comparable at 6.4% vs. 12.4% (n.s.) and 1.6% vs. 2.0% (n.s.). In the extracellular matrix, TGF-β was 35.4% for Optilene® LP and 31.0% for INFINIT® (n.s.). Collagen I (pos/300 μm) deposits were 117.8 and 114.9, respectively. In our experimental examinations, Optilene® LP and INFINIT® showed a comparable biocompatibility in terms of chronic inflammatory reaction; however, the shrinkage rate was significantly higher for INFINIT® after 3 months. The higher shrinkage rate of INFINIT® should be taken into account when choosing the mesh size for an adequate hernia overlap.

Mesh fixation in laparoscopic incisional hernia repair: glue fixation provides attachment strength similar to absorbable tacks but differs substantially in different meshes.

Science.gov (United States)

Rieder, Erwin; Stoiber, Martin; Scheikl, Verena; Poglitsch, Marcus; Dal Borgo, Andrea; Prager, Gerhard; Schima, Heinrich

2011-01-01

Laparoscopic ventral hernia repair has gained popularity among minimally invasive surgeons. However, mesh fixation remains a matter of discussion. This study was designed to compare noninvasive fibrin-glue attachment with tack fixation of meshes developed primarily for intra-abdominal use. It was hypothesized that particular mesh structures would substantially influence detachment force. For initial evaluation, specimens of laminated polypropylene/polydioxanone meshes were anchored to porcine abdominal walls by either helical titanium tacks or absorbable tacks in vitro. A universal tensile-testing machine was used to measure tangential detachment forces (TF). For subsequent experiments of glue fixation, polypropylene/polydioxanone mesh and 4 additional meshes with diverse particular mesh structure, ie, polyvinylidene fluoride/polypropylene mesh, a titanium-coated polypropylene mesh, a polyester mesh bonded with a resorbable collagen, and a macroporous condensed PTFE mesh were evaluated. TF tests revealed that fibrin-glue attachment was not substantially different from that achieved with absorbable tacks (median TF 7.8 Newton [N], range 1.3 to 15.8 N), but only when certain open porous meshes (polyvinylidene fluoride/polypropylene mesh: median 6.2 N, range 3.4 to 10.3 N; titanium-coated polypropylene mesh: median 5.2 N, range 2.1 to 11.7 N) were used. Meshes coated by an anti-adhesive barrier (polypropylene/polydioxanone mesh: median 3.1 N, range 1.7 to 5.8 N; polyester mesh bonded with a resorbable collagen: median 1.3 N, range 0.5 to 1.9 N), or the condensed PTFE mesh (median 3.1 N, range 2.1 to 7.0 N) provided a significantly lower TF (p < 0.01). Fibrin glue appears to be an appealing noninvasive option for mesh fixation in laparoscopic ventral hernia repair, but only if appropriate meshes are used. Glue can also serve as an adjunct to mechanical fixation to reduce the number of invasive tacks. Copyright © 2010 American College of Surgeons. Published by Elsevier

Learning to Play Efficient Coarse Correlated Equilibria

KAUST Repository

Borowski, Holly P.

2018-03-10

The majority of the distributed learning literature focuses on convergence to Nash equilibria. Coarse correlated equilibria, on the other hand, can often characterize more efficient collective behavior than even the best Nash equilibrium. However, there are no existing distributed learning algorithms that converge to specific coarse correlated equilibria. In this paper, we provide one such algorithm, which guarantees that the agents’ collective joint strategy will constitute an efficient coarse correlated equilibrium with high probability. The key to attaining efficient correlated behavior through distributed learning involves incorporating a common random signal into the learning environment.

Percolation in Heterogeneous Media

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vocka, Radim

1999-01-01

This work is a theoretical reflection on the problematic of the modeling of heterogeneous media, that is on the way of their simple representation conserving their characteristic features. Two particular problems are addressed in this thesis. Firstly, we study the transport in porous media, that is in a heterogeneous media which structure is quenched. A pore space is represented in a simple way - a pore is symbolized as a tube of a given length and a given diameter. The fact that the correlations in the distribution of pore sizes are taken into account by a construction of a hierarchical network makes possible the modeling of porous media with a porosity distributed over several length scales. The transport in the hierarchical network shows qualitatively different phenomena from those observed in simpler models. A comparison of numerical results with experimental data shows that the hierarchical network gives a good qualitative representation of the structure of real porous media. Secondly, we study a problem of the transport in a heterogeneous media which structure is evolving during the time. The models where the evolution of the structure is not influenced by the transport are studied in detail. These models present a phase transition of the same nature as that observed on the percolation networks. We propose a new theoretical description of this transition, and we express critical exponents describing the evolution of the conductivity as a function of fundamental exponents of percolation theory. (author) [fr

Finite volume approximation of the three-dimensional flow equation in axisymmetric, heterogeneous porous media based on local analytical solution

KAUST Repository

Salama, Amgad

2013-09-01

In this work the problem of flow in three-dimensional, axisymmetric, heterogeneous porous medium domain is investigated numerically. For this system, it is natural to use cylindrical coordinate system, which is useful in describing phenomena that have some rotational symmetry about the longitudinal axis. This can happen in porous media, for example, in the vicinity of production/injection wells. The basic feature of this system is the fact that the flux component (volume flow rate per unit area) in the radial direction is changing because of the continuous change of the area. In this case, variables change rapidly closer to the axis of symmetry and this requires the mesh to be denser. In this work, we generalize a methodology that allows coarser mesh to be used and yet yields accurate results. This method is based on constructing local analytical solution in each cell in the radial direction and moves the derivatives in the other directions to the source term. A new expression for the harmonic mean of the hydraulic conductivity in the radial direction is developed. Apparently, this approach conforms to the analytical solution for uni-directional flows in radial direction in homogeneous porous media. For the case when the porous medium is heterogeneous or the boundary conditions is more complex, comparing with the mesh-independent solution, this approach requires only coarser mesh to arrive at this solution while the traditional methods require more denser mesh. Comparisons for different hydraulic conductivity scenarios and boundary conditions have also been introduced. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.

Parallel adaptive simulations on unstructured meshes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shephard, M S; Jansen, K E; Sahni, O; Diachin, L A

2007-01-01

This paper discusses methods being developed by the ITAPS center to support the execution of parallel adaptive simulations on unstructured meshes. The paper first outlines the ITAPS approach to the development of interoperable mesh, geometry and field services to support the needs of SciDAC application in these areas. The paper then demonstrates the ability of unstructured adaptive meshing methods built on such interoperable services to effectively solve important physics problems. Attention is then focused on ITAPs' developing ability to solve adaptive unstructured mesh problems on massively parallel computers

Prolapse Recurrence after Transvaginal Mesh Removal.

Science.gov (United States)

Rawlings, Tanner; Lavelle, Rebecca S; Coskun, Burhan; Alhalabi, Feras; Zimmern, Philippe E

2015-11-01

We determined the rate of pelvic organ prolapse recurrence after transvaginal mesh removal. Following institutional review board approval a longitudinally collected database of women undergoing transvaginal mesh removal for complications after transvaginal mesh placement with at least 1 year minimum followup was queried for pelvic organ prolapse recurrence. Recurrent prolapse was defined as greater than stage 1 on examination or the need for reoperation at the site of transvaginal mesh removal. Outcome measures were based on POP-Q (Pelvic Organ Prolapse Quantification System) at the last visit. Patients were grouped into 3 groups, including group 1--recurrent prolapse in the same compartment as transvaginal mesh removal, 2--persistent prolapse and 3--prolapse in a compartment different than transvaginal mesh removal. Of 73 women 52 met study inclusion criteria from 2007 to 2013, including 73% who presented with multiple indications for transvaginal mesh removal. The mean interval between insertion and removal was 45 months (range 10 to 165). Overall mean followup after transvaginal mesh removal was 30 months (range 12 to 84). In group 1 (recurrent prolapse) the rate was 15% (6 of 40 patients). Four women underwent surgery for recurrent prolapse at a mean 7 of months (range 5 to 10). Two patients elected observation. The rate of persistent prolapse (group 2) was 23% (12 of 52 patients). Three women underwent prolapse reoperation at a mean of 10 months (range 8 to 12). In group 3 (de novo/different compartment prolapse) the rate was 6% (3 of 52 patients). One woman underwent surgical repair at 52 months. At a mean 2.5-year followup 62% of patients (32 of 52) did not have recurrent or persistent prolapse after transvaginal mesh removal and 85% (44 of 52) did not undergo any further procedure for prolapse. Specifically for pelvic organ prolapse in the same compartment as transvaginal mesh removal 12% of patients had recurrence, of whom 8% underwent prolapse repair

Apseudo-fluid representation of vertical liquid–coarse solids flow

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

ZORANA ARSENIJEVIC

2005-05-01

Full Text Available The pseudo–fluid concept has been applied for the prediction of the pressure gradient and voidage in vertical liquid-coarse solids flow. Treating the flowing mixture as a single homogenous fluid, the correlation for the friction coefficient of the suspension–wall was developed, as was the correlation between the true voidage and the apparent (volumetric voidage in the transport tube. Experiments were performed using water and spherical glass particles 1.20, 1.94 and 2.98 mm in diameter in a transport tube of 24 mm in diameter. The loading ratio (Gp/Gf was varied between 0.05 and 1.05 and the fluid superficial velocity was between 0.4 Ut and 4.95 Ut where Ut represents the single particle terminal velocity. The voidage ranged from 0.648 to 0.951 for these ratios. Experimental data for the pressure gradient and voidage from the literature agree well with the proposed correlations.

Automatic mesh generation with QMESH program

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ise, Takeharu; Tsutsui, Tsuneo

1977-05-01

Usage of the two-dimensional self-organizing mesh generation program, QMESH, is presented together with the descriptions and the experience, as it has recently been converted and reconstructed from the NEACPL version to the FACOM. The program package consists of the QMESH code to generate quadrilaterial meshes with smoothing techniques, the QPLOT code to plot the data obtained from the QMESH on the graphic COM, and the RENUM code to renumber the meshes by using a bandwidth minimization procedure. The technique of mesh reconstructuring coupled with smoothing techniques is especially useful when one generates the meshes for computer codes based on the finite element method. Several typical examples are given for easy access to the QMESH program, which is registered in the R.B-disks of JAERI for users. (auth.)

Isotope Investigations of Groundwater Movement in a Coarse Gravel Unsaturated Zone

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mali, N. [Geological Survey of Slovenia, Department of Hydrogeology, Ljubljana (Slovenia); Kozar-Logar, J. [Jozef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana (Slovenia); Leis, A. [Institute of Water Resources Management, Hydrogeology and Geophysics, Joanneum Research Forschungsgesellschaft mbH, Graz (Austria)

2013-07-15

The unsaturated zone above an aquifer serves as a water reservoir which discharges water and possible pollution to the saturated zone. This paper presents the application of oxygen-18 and tritium isotope methods in the study of groundwater transport processes in the unsaturated zone of Selniska Dobrava coarse gravel aquifer. The Selniska Dobrava gravel aquifer is an important water resource for Maribor and its surroundings, therefore the determination of transport processes in the unsaturated zone is important regarding its protection. Groundwater flow characteristics were estimated using isotopes and based on experimental work in a lysimeter. Tritium investigation results were compared with the results of long term oxygen-18 isotope investigation. In this paper the analytical approach, results and interpretation of {delta}{sup 18}O and tritium measurements in the unsaturated zone are presented. (author)

Spatial Heterogeneity of Sustainable Transportation Offer Values: A Comparative Analysis of Nantes Urban and Periurban/Rural Areas (France

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Julie Bulteau

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Innovative solutions have been implemented to promote sustainable mobility in urban areas. In the Nantes area (northwestern part of France, alternatives to single-occupant car use have increased in the past few years. In the urban area, there is an efficient public transport supply, including tramways and a “busway” (Bus Rapid Transit, as well as bike-sharing services. In periurban and rural areas, there are carpool areas, regional buses and the new “tram-train” lines. In this article, we focus on the impact on house prices of these “sustainable” transportation infrastructures and policies, in order to evaluate their values. The implicit price of these sustainable transport offers was estimated through hedonic price functions describing the Nantes urban and periurban/rural housing markets. Spatial regression models (SAR, SEM, SDM and GWR were carried out to capture the effect of both spatial autocorrelation and spatial heterogeneity. The results show patterns of spatial heterogeneity of transportation offer implicit prices at two scales: (i between urban and periurban/rural areas, as well as (ii within each territory. In the urban area, the distance to such offers was significantly associated with house prices. These associations varied by type of transportation system (positive for tramway and railway stations and negative for bike-sharing stations. In periurban and rural areas, having a carpool area in a 1500-m buffer around the home was negatively associated with house prices, while having a regional bus station in a 500-m buffer was non-significant. Distance to the nearest railway station was negatively associated with house prices. These findings provide research avenues to help public policy-makers promote sustainable mobility and pave the way for more locally targeted interventions.

Characterization of coarse particulate matter in school gyms

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Branis, Martin; Safranek, Jiri

2011-01-01

We investigated the mass concentration, mineral composition and morphology of particles resuspended by children during scheduled physical education in urban, suburban and rural elementary school gyms in Prague (Czech Republic). Cascade impactors were deployed to sample the particulate matter. Two fractions of coarse particulate matter (PM 10-2.5 and PM 2.5-1.0 ) were characterized by gravimetry, energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry and scanning electron microscopy. Two indicators of human activity, the number of exercising children and the number of physical education hours, were also recorded. Lower mass concentrations of coarse particulate matter were recorded outdoors (average PM 10-2.5 4.1-7.4 μg m -3 and PM 2.5-1.0 2.0-3.3 μg m -3 ) than indoors (average PM 10-2.5 13.6-26.7 μg m -3 and PM 2.5-1.0 3.7-7.4 μg m -3 ). The indoor concentrations of coarse aerosol were elevated during days with scheduled physical education with an average indoor-outdoor (I/O) ratio of 2.5-16.3 for the PM 10-2.5 and 1.4-4.8 for the PM 2.5-1.0 values. Under extreme conditions, the I/O ratios reached 180 (PM 10-2.5 ) and 19.1 (PM 2.5-1.0 ). The multiple regression analysis based on the number of students and outdoor coarse PM as independent variables showed that the main predictor of the indoor coarse PM concentrations is the number of students in the gym. The effect of outdoor coarse PM was weak and inconsistent. The regression models for the three schools explained 60-70% of the particular dataset variability. X-ray spectrometry revealed 6 main groups of minerals contributing to resuspended indoor dust. The most abundant particles were those of crustal origin composed of Si, Al, O and Ca. Scanning electron microscopy showed that, in addition to numerous inorganic particles, various types of fibers and particularly skin scales make up the main part of the resuspended dust in the gyms. In conclusion, school gyms were found to be indoor microenvironments with high concentrations of

Recent advances in acceleration of source iterations for fixed-source slab-geometry S{sub N} calculations based on P{sub N} synthetic initial guess

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Guida, Mateus Rodrigues; Alves Filho, Hermes; Barros, Ricardo C., E-mail: mguida@iprj.uerj.br, E-mail: halves@iprj.uerj.br, E-mail: rcbarros@pq.cnpq.br [Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), Nova Friburgo, RJ (Brazil). Instituto Politecnico. Programa de Pos-Graduacao em Modelagem Computacional

2015-07-01

The scattering source iterative (SI) scheme is applied traditionally to converge fine-mesh numerical solutions to fixed-source discrete ordinates (S{sub N}) neutron transport problems with linearly anisotropic scattering. The SI scheme is very simple to implement under a computational viewpoint. However, the SI scheme may show very slow convergence rate, mainly for diffusive media (low absorption) with several mean free paths in extent. In this work we describe two acceleration techniques based on improved initial guesses for the SI scheme, wherein we initialize the scattering source distribution within the slab using the P{sub 1} and P{sub 3} approximations. In order to estimate these initial guesses, we use the coarse-mesh solution of the PN equations with special boundary conditions to account for the classical S{sub N} prescribed boundary conditions, including vacuum boundary conditions. To apply this coarse-mesh P{sub N} solution for the accelerated scheme, we first perform within-node spatial reconstruction, and then we determine the fine-mesh average scalar flux and total current for initializing the linearly anisotropic scattering source terms for the SI scheme. We consider a number of numerical experiments to illustrate the efficiency of the offered P{sub N} synthetic acceleration (P{sub N}SA) technique based on initial guess. (author)

Quadratic inner element subgrid scale discretisation of the Boltzmann transport equation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baker, C.M.J.; Buchan, A.G.; Pain, C.C.; Tollit, B.; Eaton, M.D.; Warner, P.

2012-01-01

This paper explores the application of the inner element subgrid scale method to the Boltzmann transport equation using quadratic basis functions. Previously, only linear basis functions for both the coarse scale and the fine scale were considered. This paper, therefore, analyses the advantages of using different coarse and subgrid basis functions for increasing the accuracy of the subgrid scale method. The transport of neutral particle radiation may be described by the Boltzmann transport equation (BTE) which, due to its 7 dimensional phase space, is computationally expensive to resolve. Multi-scale methods offer an approach to efficiently resolve the spatial dimensions of the BTE by separating the solution into its coarse and fine scales and formulating a solution whereby only the computationally efficient coarse scales need to be solved. In previous work an inner element subgrid scale method was developed that applied a linear continuous and discontinuous finite element method to represent the solution’s coarse and fine scale components. This approach was shown to generate efficient and stable solutions, and so this article continues its development by formulating higher order quadratic finite element expansions over the continuous and discontinuous scales. Here it is shown that a solution’s convergence can be improved significantly using higher order basis functions. Furthermore, by using linear finite elements to represent coarse scales in combination with quadratic fine scales, convergence can also be improved with only a modest increase in computational expense.

In-vitro examination of the biocompatibility of fibroblast cell lines on alloplastic meshes and sterilized polyester mosquito mesh.

Science.gov (United States)

Wiessner, R; Kleber, T; Ekwelle, N; Ludwig, K; Richter, D-U

2017-06-01

The use of alloplastic implants for tissue strengthening when treating hernias is an established therapy worldwide. Despite the high incidence of hernias in Africa and Asia, the implantation of costly mesh netting is not financially feasible. Because of that various investigative groups have examined the use of sterilized mosquito netting. The animal experiments as well as the clinical trials have both shown equivalent short- and long-term results. The goal of this paper is the comparison of biocompatibility of human fibroblasts on the established commercially available nets and on sterilized polyester mosquito mesh over a period of 12 weeks. Three commercially available plastic mesh types and a gas-sterilized mosquito polyethylenterephtalate (polyester) mesh were examined. Human fibroblasts from subcutaneous healthy tissue were used. Various tests for evaluating the growth behavior and the cell morphology of human fibroblasts were conducted. The semi-quantitative (light microscopy) and qualitative (scanning electron microscopy) analyses were performed after 1 week and then again after 12 weeks. The cell proliferation and cytotoxicity of the implants were investigated with the help of the 5'-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (BrdU)-cell proliferation test and the LDH-cytotoxicity test. The number of live cells per ml was determined with the Bürker counting chamber. In addition, analyses were made of the cell metabolism (oxidative stress) by measuring the pH value, hydrogen peroxide, and glycolysis. After 12 weeks, a proliferation of fibroblasts on all mesh is documented. No mesh showed a complete apoptosis of the cells. This qualitative observation could be confirmed quantitatively in a biochemical assay by marking the proliferating cells with BrdU. The biochemical analysis brought the proof that the materials used, including the polyester of the mosquito mesh, are not cytotoxic for the fibroblasts. The vitality of the cells was between 94 and 98%. The glucose metabolism

Vertical Subsurface Flow Mixing and Horizontal Anisotropy in Coarse Fluvial Aquifers: Structural Aspects

Science.gov (United States)

Huggenberger, P.; Huber, E.

2014-12-01

Detailed descriptions of the subsurface heterogeneities in coarse fluvial aquifer gravel often lack in concepts to distinguish between the essence and the noise of a permeability structure and the ability to extrapolate site specific hydraulic information at the tens to several hundred meters scale. At this scale the heterogeneity strongly influences the anisotropies of the flow field and the mixing processes in groundwater. However, in many hydrogeological models the complexity of natural systems is oversimplified. Understanding the link between the dynamics of the surface processes of braided-river systems and the resulting subsurface sedimentary structures is the key to characterizing the complexity of horizontal and vertical mixing processes in groundwater. From the different depositional elements of coarse braided-river systems, the largest permeability contrasts can be observed in the scour-fills. Other elements (e.g. different types of gravel sheets) show much smaller variabilities and could be considered as a kind of matrix. Field experiments on the river Tagliamento (Northeast Italy) based on morphological observation and ground-penetrating radar (GPR) surveys, as well as outcrop analyses of gravel pit exposures (Switzerland) allowed us to define the shape, sizes, spatial distribution and preservation potential of scour-fills. In vertical sections (e.g. 2D GPR data, vertical outcrop), the spatial density of remnant erosional bounding surfaces of scours is an indicator for the dynamics of the braided-river system (lateral mobility of the active floodplain, rate of sediment net deposition and spatial distribution of the confluence scours). In case of combined low aggradation rate and low lateral mobility the deposits may be dominated by a complex overprinting of scour-fills. The delineation of the erosional bounding surfaces, that are coherent over the survey area, is based on the identification of angular discontinuities of the reflectors. Fence diagrams

Refficientlib: an efficient load-rebalanced adaptive mesh refinement algorithm for high-performance computational physics meshes

OpenAIRE

Baiges Aznar, Joan; Bayona Roa, Camilo Andrés

2017-01-01

No separate or additional fees are collected for access to or distribution of the work. In this paper we present a novel algorithm for adaptive mesh refinement in computational physics meshes in a distributed memory parallel setting. The proposed method is developed for nodally based parallel domain partitions where the nodes of the mesh belong to a single processor, whereas the elements can belong to multiple processors. Some of the main features of the algorithm presented in this paper a...

Quantum theory of multiscale coarse-graining.

Science.gov (United States)

Han, Yining; Jin, Jaehyeok; Wagner, Jacob W; Voth, Gregory A

2018-03-14

Coarse-grained (CG) models serve as a powerful tool to simulate molecular systems at much longer temporal and spatial scales. Previously, CG models and methods have been built upon classical statistical mechanics. The present paper develops a theory and numerical methodology for coarse-graining in quantum statistical mechanics, by generalizing the multiscale coarse-graining (MS-CG) method to quantum Boltzmann statistics. A rigorous derivation of the sufficient thermodynamic consistency condition is first presented via imaginary time Feynman path integrals. It identifies the optimal choice of CG action functional and effective quantum CG (qCG) force field to generate a quantum MS-CG (qMS-CG) description of the equilibrium system that is consistent with the quantum fine-grained model projected onto the CG variables. A variational principle then provides a class of algorithms for optimally approximating the qMS-CG force fields. Specifically, a variational method based on force matching, which was also adopted in the classical MS-CG theory, is generalized to quantum Boltzmann statistics. The qMS-CG numerical algorithms and practical issues in implementing this variational minimization procedure are also discussed. Then, two numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the method. Finally, as an alternative strategy, a quasi-classical approximation for the thermal density matrix expressed in the CG variables is derived. This approach provides an interesting physical picture for coarse-graining in quantum Boltzmann statistical mechanics in which the consistency with the quantum particle delocalization is obviously manifest, and it opens up an avenue for using path integral centroid-based effective classical force fields in a coarse-graining methodology.

Quantum theory of multiscale coarse-graining

Science.gov (United States)

Han, Yining; Jin, Jaehyeok; Wagner, Jacob W.; Voth, Gregory A.

2018-03-01

Coarse-grained (CG) models serve as a powerful tool to simulate molecular systems at much longer temporal and spatial scales. Previously, CG models and methods have been built upon classical statistical mechanics. The present paper develops a theory and numerical methodology for coarse-graining in quantum statistical mechanics, by generalizing the multiscale coarse-graining (MS-CG) method to quantum Boltzmann statistics. A rigorous derivation of the sufficient thermodynamic consistency condition is first presented via imaginary time Feynman path integrals. It identifies the optimal choice of CG action functional and effective quantum CG (qCG) force field to generate a quantum MS-CG (qMS-CG) description of the equilibrium system that is consistent with the quantum fine-grained model projected onto the CG variables. A variational principle then provides a class of algorithms for optimally approximating the qMS-CG force fields. Specifically, a variational method based on force matching, which was also adopted in the classical MS-CG theory, is generalized to quantum Boltzmann statistics. The qMS-CG numerical algorithms and practical issues in implementing this variational minimization procedure are also discussed. Then, two numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the method. Finally, as an alternative strategy, a quasi-classical approximation for the thermal density matrix expressed in the CG variables is derived. This approach provides an interesting physical picture for coarse-graining in quantum Boltzmann statistical mechanics in which the consistency with the quantum particle delocalization is obviously manifest, and it opens up an avenue for using path integral centroid-based effective classical force fields in a coarse-graining methodology.

A method to obtain new cross-sections transport equivalent

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Palmiotti, G.

1988-01-01

We present a method, that allows the calculation, by the mean of variational principle, of equivalent cross-sections in order to take into account the transport and mesh size effects on reactivity variation calculations. The method validation has been made in two and three dimensions geometries. The reactivity variations calculated in three dimensional hexagonal geometry with seven points by subassembly using two sets of equivalent cross-sections for control rods are in a very good agreement with the ones of a transport, extrapolated to zero mesh size, calculation. The difficulty encountered in obtaining a good flux distribution has lead to the utilisation of a single set of equivalent cross-sections calculated by starting from an appropriated R-Z model that allows to take into account also the axial transport effects for the control rod followers. The global results in reactivity variations are still satisfactory with a good performance for the flux distribution. The main interest of the proposed method is the possibility to simulate a full 3D transport calculation, with fine mesh size, using a 3D diffusion code, with a larger mesh size. The results obtained should be affected by uncertainties, which do not exceed ± 4% for a large LMFBR control rod worth and for very different rod configurations. This uncertainty is by far smaller than the experimental uncertainties. (author). 5 refs, 8 figs, 9 tabs

Transport of Organic Oil Components from Immobile and Bypassed Oil in Heterogeneous Porous Media

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Huseby, O.; Haugan, A.; Sagen, J.; Muller, J.; Bennett, B.; Larter, S.; Kikkinides, E.S.; Stubos, A.K.; Yousefian, F.; Thovert, J.-F.; Adler, P.M.

2001-12-01

An experimental study, as well as theoretical and numerical models, are used to validate a methodology to exploit conventional geochemical data with regard to the concentration profiles of organic components occurring naturally in hydrocarbon reservoir oils. The experiment was designed to study transport of organic compounds from immobile oil during water injection. A homogeneous oil-filled core sample was made heterogeneous by drilling a hole through its central axis and filling it with a highly permeable material. Under the present conditions, diffusion coefficients are the most important parameters controlling the transport, and the effect of partitioning could be accounted for by a simple normalization. The experimental results are well described by a simple 2-D analytical model which assumes instantaneous removal of solutes from the oil-water interface. The experimental results are also well described by two numerical models, of which one is a full featured reservoir scale model, suitable for applications of the methodology to reservoir scale cases. (author)

Computational methods and modeling. 3. Adaptive Mesh Refinement for the Nodal Integral Method and Application to the Convection-Diffusion Equation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Torej, Allen J.; Rizwan-Uddin

2001-01-01

The nodal integral method (NIM) has been developed for several problems, including the Navier-Stokes equations, the convection-diffusion equation, and the multigroup neutron diffusion equations. The coarse-mesh efficiency of the NIM is not fully realized in problems characterized by a wide range of spatial scales. However, the combination of adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) capability with the NIM can recover the coarse mesh efficiency by allowing high degrees of resolution in specific localized areas where it is needed and by using a lower resolution everywhere else. Furthermore, certain features of the NIM can be fruitfully exploited in the application of the AMR process. In this paper, we outline a general approach to couple nodal schemes with AMR and then apply it to the convection-diffusion (energy) equation. The development of the NIM with AMR capability (NIMAMR) is based on the well-known Berger-Oliger method for structured AMR. In general, the main components of all AMR schemes are 1. the solver; 2. the level-grid hierarchy; 3. the selection algorithm; 4. the communication procedures; 5. the governing algorithm. The first component, the solver, consists of the numerical scheme for the governing partial differential equations and the algorithm used to solve the resulting system of discrete algebraic equations. In the case of the NIM-AMR, the solver is the iterative approach to the solution of the set of discrete equations obtained by applying the NIM. Furthermore, in the NIM-AMR, the level-grid hierarchy (the second component) is based on the Hierarchical Adaptive Mesh Refinement (HAMR) system,6 and hence, the details of the hierarchy are omitted here. In the selection algorithm, regions of the domain that require mesh refinement are identified. The criterion to select regions for mesh refinement can be based on the magnitude of the gradient or on the Richardson truncation error estimate. Although an excellent choice for the selection criterion, the Richardson

Outcomes of Autologous Fascia Pubovaginal Sling for Patients with Transvaginal Mesh Related Complications Requiring Mesh Removal.

Science.gov (United States)

McCoy, Olugbemisola; Vaughan, Taylor; Nickles, S Walker; Ashley, Matt; MacLachlan, Lara S; Ginsberg, David; Rovner, Eric

2016-08-01

We reviewed the outcomes of the autologous fascial pubovaginal sling as a salvage procedure for recurrent stress incontinence after intervention for polypropylene mesh erosion/exposure and/or bladder outlet obstruction in patients treated with prior transvaginal synthetic mesh for stress urinary incontinence. In a review of surgical databases at 2 institutions between January 2007 and June 2013 we identified 46 patients who underwent autologous fascial pubovaginal sling following removal of transvaginal synthetic mesh in simultaneous or staged fashion. This cohort of patients was evaluated for outcomes, including subjective and objective success, change in quality of life and complications between those who underwent staged vs concomitant synthetic mesh removal with autologous fascial pubovaginal sling placement. All 46 patients had received at least 1 prior mesh sling for incontinence and 8 (17%) had received prior transvaginal polypropylene mesh for pelvic organ prolapse repair. A total of 30 patients underwent concomitant mesh incision with or without partial excision and autologous sling placement while 16 underwent staged autologous sling placement. Mean followup was 16 months. Of the patients 22% required a mean of 1.8 subsequent interventions an average of 6.5 months after autologous sling placement with no difference in median quality of life at final followup. At last followup 42 of 46 patients (91%) and 35 of 46 (76%) had achieved objective and subjective success, respectively. There was no difference in subjective success between patients treated with a staged vs a concomitant approach (69% vs 80%, p = 0.48). Autologous fascial pubovaginal sling placement after synthetic mesh removal can be performed successfully in patients with stress urinary incontinence as a single or staged procedure. Copyright © 2016 American Urological Association Education and Research, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Effect of fly ash on the strength of porous concrete using recycled coarse aggregate to replace low-quality natural coarse aggregate

Science.gov (United States)

Arifi, Eva; Cahya, Evi Nur; Christin Remayanti, N.

2017-09-01

The performance of porous concrete made of recycled coarse aggregate was investigated. Fly ash was used as cement partial replacement. In this study, the strength of recycled aggregate was coMPared to low quality natural coarse aggregate which has high water absorption. Compression strength and tensile splitting strength test were conducted to evaluate the performance of porous concrete using fly ash as cement replacement. Results have shown that the utilization of recycled coarse aggregate up to 75% to replace low quality natural coarse aggregate with high water absorption increases compressive strength and splitting tensile strength of porous concrete. Using fly ash up to 25% as cement replacement improves compressive strength and splitting tensile strength of porous concrete.

Mersiline mesh in premaxillary augmentation.

Science.gov (United States)

Foda, Hossam M T

2005-01-01

Premaxillary retrusion may distort the aesthetic appearance of the columella, lip, and nasal tip. This defect is characteristically seen in, but not limited to, patients with cleft lip nasal deformity. This study investigated 60 patients presenting with premaxillary deficiencies in which Mersiline mesh was used to augment the premaxilla. All the cases had surgery using the external rhinoplasty technique. Two methods of augmentation with Mersiline mesh were used: the Mersiline roll technique, for the cases with central symmetric deficiencies, and the Mersiline packing technique, for the cases with asymmetric deficiencies. Premaxillary augmentation with Mersiline mesh proved to be simple technically, easy to perform, and not associated with any complications. Periodic follow-up evaluation for a mean period of 32 months (range, 12-98 months) showed that an adequate degree of premaxillary augmentation was maintained with no clinically detectable resorption of the mesh implant.

Unstructured mesh adaptivity for urban flooding modelling

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, R.; Fang, F.; Salinas, P.; Pain, C. C.

2018-05-01

Over the past few decades, urban floods have been gaining more attention due to their increase in frequency. To provide reliable flooding predictions in urban areas, various numerical models have been developed to perform high-resolution flood simulations. However, the use of high-resolution meshes across the whole computational domain causes a high computational burden. In this paper, a 2D control-volume and finite-element flood model using adaptive unstructured mesh technology has been developed. This adaptive unstructured mesh technique enables meshes to be adapted optimally in time and space in response to the evolving flow features, thus providing sufficient mesh resolution where and when it is required. It has the advantage of capturing the details of local flows and wetting and drying front while reducing the computational cost. Complex topographic features are represented accurately during the flooding process. For example, the high-resolution meshes around the buildings and steep regions are placed when the flooding water reaches these regions. In this work a flooding event that happened in 2002 in Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom has been simulated to demonstrate the capability of the adaptive unstructured mesh flooding model. The simulations have been performed using both fixed and adaptive unstructured meshes, and then results have been compared with those published 2D and 3D results. The presented method shows that the 2D adaptive mesh model provides accurate results while having a low computational cost.

Laboratory experiments on solute transport in bimodal porous media under cyclic precipitation-evaporation boundary conditions

Science.gov (United States)

Cremer, Clemens; Neuweiler, Insa

2016-04-01

Flow and solute transport in the shallow subsurface is strongly governed by atmospheric boundary conditions. Erratically varying infiltration and evaporation cycles lead to alternating upward and downward flow, as well as spatially and temporally varying water contents and associated hydraulic conductivity of the prevailing materials. Thus presenting a highly complicated, dynamic system. Knowledge of subsurface solute transport processes is vital to assess e.g. the entry of, potentially hazardous, solutes to the groundwater and nutrient uptake by plant roots and can be gained in many ways. Besides field measurements and numerical simulations, physical laboratory experiments represent a way to establish process understanding and furthermore validate numerical schemes. With the aim to gain a better understanding and to quantify solute transport in the unsaturated shallow subsurface under natural precipitation conditions in heterogeneous media, we conduct physical laboratory experiments in a 22 cm x 8 cm x 1 cm flow cell that is filled with two types of sand and apply cyclic infiltration-evaporation phases at the soil surface. Pressure at the bottom of the domain is kept constant. Following recent studies (Lehmann and Or, 2009; Bechtold et al., 2011a), heterogeneity is introduced by a sharp vertical interface between coarse and fine sand. Fluorescent tracers are used to i) qualitatively visualize transport paths within the domain and ii) quantify solute leaching at the bottom of the domain. Temporal and spatial variations in water content during the experiment are derived from x-ray radiographic images. Monitored water contents between infiltration and evaporation considerably changed in the coarse sand while the fine sand remained saturated throughout the experiments. Lateral solute transport through the interface in both directions at different depths of the investigated soil columns were observed. This depended on the flow rate applied at the soil surface and

Characterization of coarse particulate matter in school gyms

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Branis, Martin, E-mail: branis@natur.cuni.cz [Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Science, Institute for Environmental Studies, Prague (Czech Republic); Safranek, Jiri [Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Physical Education, Department of Outdoor Sports, Prague (Czech Republic)

2011-05-15

We investigated the mass concentration, mineral composition and morphology of particles resuspended by children during scheduled physical education in urban, suburban and rural elementary school gyms in Prague (Czech Republic). Cascade impactors were deployed to sample the particulate matter. Two fractions of coarse particulate matter (PM{sub 10-2.5} and PM{sub 2.5-1.0}) were characterized by gravimetry, energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry and scanning electron microscopy. Two indicators of human activity, the number of exercising children and the number of physical education hours, were also recorded. Lower mass concentrations of coarse particulate matter were recorded outdoors (average PM{sub 10-2.5} 4.1-7.4 {mu}g m{sup -3} and PM{sub 2.5-1.0} 2.0-3.3 {mu}g m{sup -3}) than indoors (average PM{sub 10-2.5} 13.6-26.7 {mu}g m{sup -3} and PM{sub 2.5-1.0} 3.7-7.4 {mu}g m{sup -3}). The indoor concentrations of coarse aerosol were elevated during days with scheduled physical education with an average indoor-outdoor (I/O) ratio of 2.5-16.3 for the PM{sub 10-2.5} and 1.4-4.8 for the PM{sub 2.5-1.0} values. Under extreme conditions, the I/O ratios reached 180 (PM{sub 10-2.5}) and 19.1 (PM{sub 2.5-1.0}). The multiple regression analysis based on the number of students and outdoor coarse PM as independent variables showed that the main predictor of the indoor coarse PM concentrations is the number of students in the gym. The effect of outdoor coarse PM was weak and inconsistent. The regression models for the three schools explained 60-70% of the particular dataset variability. X-ray spectrometry revealed 6 main groups of minerals contributing to resuspended indoor dust. The most abundant particles were those of crustal origin composed of Si, Al, O and Ca. Scanning electron microscopy showed that, in addition to numerous inorganic particles, various types of fibers and particularly skin scales make up the main part of the resuspended dust in the gyms. In conclusion, school

A Multiscale Simulation Method and Its Application to Determine the Mechanical Behavior of Heterogeneous Geomaterials

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shengwei Li

2017-01-01

Full Text Available To study the micro/mesomechanical behaviors of heterogeneous geomaterials, a multiscale simulation method that combines molecular simulation at the microscale, a mesoscale analysis of polished slices, and finite element numerical simulation is proposed. By processing the mesostructure images obtained from analyzing the polished slices of heterogeneous geomaterials and mapping them onto finite element meshes, a numerical model that more accurately reflects the mesostructures of heterogeneous geomaterials was established by combining the results with the microscale mechanical properties of geomaterials obtained from the molecular simulation. This model was then used to analyze the mechanical behaviors of heterogeneous materials. Because kernstone is a typical heterogeneous material that comprises many types of mineral crystals, it was used for the micro/mesoscale mechanical behavior analysis in this paper using the proposed method. The results suggest that the proposed method can be used to accurately and effectively study the mechanical behaviors of heterogeneous geomaterials at the micro/mesoscales.

Ab initio velocity-field curves in monoclinic β-Ga2O3

Science.gov (United States)

Ghosh, Krishnendu; Singisetti, Uttam

2017-07-01

We investigate the high-field transport in monoclinic β-Ga2O3 using a combination of ab initio calculations and full band Monte Carlo (FBMC) simulation. Scattering rate calculation and the final state selection in the FBMC simulation use complete wave-vector (both electron and phonon) and crystal direction dependent electron phonon interaction (EPI) elements. We propose and implement a semi-coarse version of the Wannier-Fourier interpolation method [Giustino et al., Phys. Rev. B 76, 165108 (2007)] for short-range non-polar optical phonon (EPI) elements in order to ease the computational requirement in FBMC simulation. During the interpolation of the EPI, the inverse Fourier sum over the real-space electronic grids is done on a coarse mesh while the unitary rotations are done on a fine mesh. This paper reports the high field transport in monoclinic β-Ga2O3 with deep insight into the contribution of electron-phonon interactions and velocity-field characteristics for electric fields ranging up to 450 kV/cm in different crystal directions. A peak velocity of 2 × 107 cm/s is estimated at an electric field of 200 kV/cm.

Modeling of flow and reactive transport in IPARS

KAUST Repository

Wheeler, Mary Fanett

2012-03-11

In this work, we describe a number of efficient and locally conservative methods for subsurface flow and reactive transport that have been or are currently being implemented in the IPARS (Integrated Parallel and Accurate Reservoir Simulator). For flow problems, we consider discontinuous Galerkin (DG) methods and mortar mixed finite element methods. For transport problems, we employ discontinuous Galerkin methods and Godunov-mixed methods. For efficient treatment of reactive transport simulations, we present a number of state-of-the-art dynamic mesh adaptation strategies and implementations. Operator splitting approaches and iterative coupling techniques are also discussed. Finally, numerical examples are provided to illustrate the capability of IPARS to treat general biogeochemistry as well as the effectivity of mesh adaptations with DG for transport. © 2012 Bentham Science Publishers. All rights reserved.

Monitoring and evaluation of wire mesh forming life

Science.gov (United States)

Enemuoh, Emmanuel U.; Zhao, Ping; Kadlec, Alec

2018-03-01

Forming tables are used with stainless steel wire mesh conveyor belts to produce variety of products. The forming tables will typically run continuously for several days, with some hours of scheduled downtime for maintenance, cleaning and part replacement after several weeks of operation. The wire mesh conveyor belts show large variation in their remaining life due to associated variations in their nominal thicknesses. Currently the industry is dependent on seasoned operators to determine the replacement time for the wire mesh formers. The drawback of this approach is inconsistency in judgements made by different operators and lack of data knowledge that can be used to develop decision making system that will be more consistent with wire mesh life prediction and replacement time. In this study, diagnostic measurements about the health of wire mesh former is investigated and developed. The wire mesh quality characteristics considered are thermal measurement, tension property, gage thickness, and wire mesh wear. The results show that real time thermal sensor and wear measurements would provide suitable data for the estimation of wire mesh failure, therefore, can be used as a diagnostic parameter for developing structural health monitoring (SHM) system for stainless steel wire mesh formers.

The mesh controversy [version 1; referees: 2 approved

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joshua A. Cohn

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Pelvic organ prolapse and stress urinary incontinence are common conditions for which approximately 11% of women will undergo surgical intervention in their lifetime. The use of vaginal mesh for pelvic organ prolapse and stress urinary incontinence rose rapidly in the early 2000s as over 100 mesh products were introduced into the clinical armamentarium with little regulatory oversight for their use. US Food and Drug Administration Public Health Notifications in 2008 and 2011, as well as reclassification of transvaginal mesh for prolapse to class III in early 2016, were a response to debilitating complications associated with transvaginal mesh placement in many women. The midurethral sling has not been subject to the same reclassification and continues to be endorsed as the “gold standard” for surgical management of stress urinary incontinence by subspecialty societies. However, litigators have not differentiated between mesh for prolapse and mesh for incontinence. As such, all mesh, including that placed for stress urinary incontinence, faces continued controversy amidst an uncertain future. In this article, we review the background of the mesh controversy, recent developments, and the anticipated role of mesh in surgery for prolapse and stress urinary incontinence going forward.

Feature-Sensitive Tetrahedral Mesh Generation with Guaranteed Quality

OpenAIRE

Wang, Jun; Yu, Zeyun

2012-01-01

Tetrahedral meshes are being extensively used in finite element methods (FEM). This paper proposes an algorithm to generate feature-sensitive and high-quality tetrahedral meshes from an arbitrary surface mesh model. A top-down octree subdivision is conducted on the surface mesh and a set of tetrahedra are constructed using adaptive body-centered cubic (BCC) lattices. Special treatments are given to the tetrahedra near the surface such that the quality of the resulting tetrahedral mesh is prov...

Non-ideal magnetohydrodynamics on a moving mesh

Science.gov (United States)

Marinacci, Federico; Vogelsberger, Mark; Kannan, Rahul; Mocz, Philip; Pakmor, Rüdiger; Springel, Volker

2018-05-01

In certain astrophysical systems, the commonly employed ideal magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) approximation breaks down. Here, we introduce novel explicit and implicit numerical schemes of ohmic resistivity terms in the moving-mesh code AREPO. We include these non-ideal terms for two MHD techniques: the Powell 8-wave formalism and a constrained transport scheme, which evolves the cell-centred magnetic vector potential. We test our implementation against problems of increasing complexity, such as one- and two-dimensional diffusion problems, and the evolution of progressive and stationary Alfvén waves. On these test problems, our implementation recovers the analytic solutions to second-order accuracy. As first applications, we investigate the tearing instability in magnetized plasmas and the gravitational collapse of a rotating magnetized gas cloud. In both systems, resistivity plays a key role. In the former case, it allows for the development of the tearing instability through reconnection of the magnetic field lines. In the latter, the adopted (constant) value of ohmic resistivity has an impact on both the gas distribution around the emerging protostar and the mass loading of magnetically driven outflows. Our new non-ideal MHD implementation opens up the possibility to study magneto-hydrodynamical systems on a moving mesh beyond the ideal MHD approximation.

Performance of the hybrid wireless mesh protocol for wireless mesh networks

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Boye, Magnus; Staalhagen, Lars

2010-01-01

Wireless mesh networks offer a new way of providing end-user access and deploying network infrastructure. Though mesh networks offer a price competitive solution to wired networks, they also come with a set of new challenges such as optimal path selection, channel utilization, and load balancing....... and proactive. Two scenarios of different node density are considered for both path selection modes. The results presented in this paper are based on a simulation model of the HWMP specification in the IEEE 802.11s draft 4.0 implemented in OPNET Modeler....

Data-Parallel Mesh Connected Components Labeling and Analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Harrison, Cyrus; Childs, Hank; Gaither, Kelly

2011-04-10

We present a data-parallel algorithm for identifying and labeling the connected sub-meshes within a domain-decomposed 3D mesh. The identification task is challenging in a distributed-memory parallel setting because connectivity is transitive and the cells composing each sub-mesh may span many or all processors. Our algorithm employs a multi-stage application of the Union-find algorithm and a spatial partitioning scheme to efficiently merge information across processors and produce a global labeling of connected sub-meshes. Marking each vertex with its corresponding sub-mesh label allows us to isolate mesh features based on topology, enabling new analysis capabilities. We briefly discuss two specific applications of the algorithm and present results from a weak scaling study. We demonstrate the algorithm at concurrency levels up to 2197 cores and analyze meshes containing up to 68 billion cells.

Obtuse triangle suppression in anisotropic meshes

KAUST Repository

Sun, Feng; Choi, Yi King; Wang, Wen Ping; Yan, Dongming; Liu, Yang; Lé vy, Bruno L.

2011-01-01

Anisotropic triangle meshes are used for efficient approximation of surfaces and flow data in finite element analysis, and in these applications it is desirable to have as few obtuse triangles as possible to reduce the discretization error. We present a variational approach to suppressing obtuse triangles in anisotropic meshes. Specifically, we introduce a hexagonal Minkowski metric, which is sensitive to triangle orientation, to give a new formulation of the centroidal Voronoi tessellation (CVT) method. Furthermore, we prove several relevant properties of the CVT method with the newly introduced metric. Experiments show that our algorithm produces anisotropic meshes with much fewer obtuse triangles than using existing methods while maintaining mesh anisotropy. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Obtuse triangle suppression in anisotropic meshes

KAUST Repository

Sun, Feng

2011-12-01

Anisotropic triangle meshes are used for efficient approximation of surfaces and flow data in finite element analysis, and in these applications it is desirable to have as few obtuse triangles as possible to reduce the discretization error. We present a variational approach to suppressing obtuse triangles in anisotropic meshes. Specifically, we introduce a hexagonal Minkowski metric, which is sensitive to triangle orientation, to give a new formulation of the centroidal Voronoi tessellation (CVT) method. Furthermore, we prove several relevant properties of the CVT method with the newly introduced metric. Experiments show that our algorithm produces anisotropic meshes with much fewer obtuse triangles than using existing methods while maintaining mesh anisotropy. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Image-Based Geometric Modeling and Mesh Generation

CERN Document Server

2013-01-01

As a new interdisciplinary research area, “image-based geometric modeling and mesh generation” integrates image processing, geometric modeling and mesh generation with finite element method (FEM) to solve problems in computational biomedicine, materials sciences and engineering. It is well known that FEM is currently well-developed and efficient, but mesh generation for complex geometries (e.g., the human body) still takes about 80% of the total analysis time and is the major obstacle to reduce the total computation time. It is mainly because none of the traditional approaches is sufficient to effectively construct finite element meshes for arbitrarily complicated domains, and generally a great deal of manual interaction is involved in mesh generation. This contributed volume, the first for such an interdisciplinary topic, collects the latest research by experts in this area. These papers cover a broad range of topics, including medical imaging, image alignment and segmentation, image-to-mesh conversion,...

Multiscale Adapted Time-Splitting Technique for Nonisothermal Two-Phase Flow and Nanoparticles Transport in Heterogenous Porous Media

KAUST Repository

El-Amin, Mohamed F.

2017-05-05

This paper is devoted to study the problem of nonisothermal two-phase flow with nanoparticles transport in heterogenous porous media, numerically. For this purpose, we introduce a multiscale adapted time-splitting technique to simulate the problem under consideration. The mathematical model consists of equations of pressure, saturation, heat, nanoparticles concentration in the water–phase, deposited nanoparticles concentration on the pore–walls, and entrapped nanoparticles concentration in the pore–throats. We propose a multiscale time splitting IMplicit Pressure Explicit Saturation–IMplicit Temperature Concentration (IMPES-IMTC) scheme to solve the system of governing equations. The time step-size adaptation is achieved by satisfying the stability Courant–Friedrichs–Lewy (CFL<1) condition. Moreover, numerical test of a highly heterogeneous porous medium is provided and the water saturation, the temperature, the nanoparticles concentration, the deposited nanoparticles concentration, and the permeability are presented in graphs.

Albedo-adjusted fast-neutron diffusion coefficients in reactor reflectors