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At 8:24 a.m. on a bright September morning, a man pulls into the exit lane and turns off the Kennedy Expressway on his way to work on Roosevelt Street in downtown Chicago. One minute and 17 seconds later, his wife pulls into a parking lot in Des Plaines en route to a dentist appointment. Twelve minutes and 32 seconds later, their son's school bus drops him off for the first day of fifth grade in Evanston. It's just another Tuesday in a model created by Argonne researchers at the recently-opened Transportation Research and Analysis Computer Center (TRACC). Led by engineer Dave Weber, the team at TRACC is able to simulate the moment-by-moment movement of millions of people in the entire Chicago metropolitan area. This type of modeling, known in the transportation industry as "microsimulation," offers a number of advantages over older recreations of the transportation grid that only looked at road capacities and typical loads. Microsimulation requires the availability of tens of thousands of processor-hours, which are provided by TRACC's new Linux-based supercomputer. This enables the engineers to run simulations that used to take nearly a day in a matter of minutes, said TRACC engineer Ron Kulak. The new supercomputer, which complements Argonne's newly-installed IBM Blue Gene/P and the lab's Nanoscience Computing Facility, also allows Weber and the other researchers at TRACC to undertake comprehensive and detailed modeling of human tissues during car accidents and bridge supports under heavy stresses such as flood or high winds. "In the earlier days of crashworthiness testing, engineers only considered the damage to the vehicle," Kulak said. "But eventually they realized that what was important wasn't the vehicle, it was the occupants, like you and me. "By enlisting both high-performance computing resources and expert technical staff with expertise in parallel computing and engineering analysis applications, TRACC represents a valuable resource for the USDOT research community,” said TRACC Director Dave Weber. TRACC will become a hotbed of focused computation-based research in areas of critical importance to DOE and USDOT.Submitted by DOE's Argonne National Laboratory |
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Check out the joint Fermilab/SLAC publication symmetry.
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Collaboration advances offshore wind energy potential
Preliminary research has shown that the Eastern seaboard has the largest untapped supply of wind energy in the United States. Development of this resource will require detailed assessment of the wind characteristics, an understanding of the public concerns associated with wind power, and educational outreach. A project by Savannah River National Laboratory, utility provider Santee Cooper, Clemson University’s S.C. Institute for Energy Studies, Coastal Carolina University and others will provide critical data and experience necessary to develop wind resources available off the coast of South Carolina. The ultimate goal is the deployment of offshore wind energy technology to diversify South Carolina’s energy portfolio and a new maritime industry serving the Eastern seaboard that can significantly increase the region’s energy independence. The team is testing, developing and evaluating new technology for assessing wind power off-shore, then will use that technology to assess the coastal and offshore wind potential of coastal South Carolina counties. Initial testing of SecondWind’s Triton Sound Detection and Ranging (SODAR) station will be performed at SRNL; then the SODAR will be moved to a marsh on the South Carolina coast to determine its suitability for a marine environment. The final phase of SODAR testing will be conducted offshore on a U.S. Coast Guard platform. The offshore testing will study the compatibility of the Triton SODAR in ocean conditions, develop algorithms to correct for movement of the unit caused by ocean waves, and study the ocean’s acoustic environment that may impact the SODAR’s sensors. Data will be collected from the platform for one year to better understand the wind characteristics along the transitional area from offshore to the coast. Results of this research will be a new methodology for assessing offshore winds using a mobile platform, as well as a better understanding of the economic viability of an offshore wind farm in the region. As part of this project, the partners will also install small wind turbines at five high schools, as well as the Center for Hydrogen Research in Aiken, S.C., where much of SRNL’s energy research and development is located. These turbines will include real-time monitoring and remote data acquisition equipment that will allow team members, community members and students to view the turbines’ instantaneous and cumulative electrical output, as well as other factors, such as emission offsets and economics via any internet-connected computer. They are intended as permanent installations to educate communities about wind power, understand their concerns regarding its use, and serve as educational tools for the schools. Generating electricity using advanced wind turbines is the fastest growing renewable energy technology in the world. Costs in recent years have come down significantly, making wind power the most cost effective renewable energy source; it produces no greenhouse gases, harmful emissions or hazardous waste. It has been estimated that South Carolina alone could produce up to 3.5 GW of power from its coastal and offshore wind resources using existing technology. Capturing only 2.4% of this potential (1000 MW) would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 1.2 to 2.5 M tons per year and up to 16K tons of SO2 emissions.Submitted by DOE's Savannah River National Laboratory |
