The EU Center of Excellence for Exascale in Solid Earth (ChEESE): Implementation, results, and roadmap for the second phase

publishedVersio

Book of Abstracts

no abstrac

Modeling dispersed gas-particle turbulence in volcanic ash plumes

This PhD thesis focuses on numerical and analytical methods for simulating the dynamics of volcanic ash plumes. The study starts from the fundamental balance laws for a multiphase gas\u2013 particle mixture, reviewing the existing models and developing a new set of Partial Di\ufb00erential Equations (PDEs), well suited for modeling multiphase dispersed turbulence. In particular, a new model generalizing the equilibrium\u2013Eulerian model to two-way coupled compressible \ufb02ows is developed. The PDEs associated to the four-way Eulerian-Eulerian model is studied, investigating the existence of weak solutions ful\ufb01lling the energy inequalities of the PDEs. In particular, the convergence of sequences of smooth solutions to such a set of weak solutions is showed. Having explored the well-posedness of multiphase systems, the three-dimensional compressible equilibrium\u2013Eulerian model is discretized and numerically solved by using the OpenFOAM\uae numerical infrastructure. The new solver is called ASHEE, and it is veri\ufb01ed and validated against a number of well understood benchmarks and experiments. It demonstrates to be capable to capture the key phenomena involved in the dynamics of volcanic ash plumes. Those are: turbulence, mixing, heat transfer, compressibility, preferential concentration of particles, plume entrainment. The numerical solver is tested by taking advantage of the newest High Performance Computing infrastructure currently available. Thus, ASHEE is used to simulate two volcanic plumes in realistic volcanological conditions. The in\ufb02uence of model con\ufb01guration on the numerical solution is analyzed. In particular, a parametric analysis is performed, based on: 1) the kinematic decoupling model; 2) the subgrid scale model for turbulence; 3) the discretization resolution. In a one-dimensional and steady-state approximation, the multiphase \ufb02ow model is used to derive a model for volcanic plumes in a calm, strati\ufb01ed atmosphere. The corresponding Ordinary Di\ufb00erential Equations (ODEs) are written in a compact, dimensionless formulation. The six non-dimensional parameters characterizing a multiphase plume are then written. The ODEs is studied both numerically and analytically. Di\ufb00erent regimes are analyzed, extracting the \ufb01rst integral of motion and asymptotic solutions. An asymptotic analytical solution approximating the model in the general regime is derived and compared with numerical results. Such a solution is coupled with an electromagnetic model providing the infrared intensity emitted by a volcanic ash plume. Key vent parameters are then retrieved by means of inversion techniques applied to infrared images measured during a real volcanic eruption

XSEDE: eXtreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment Third Quarter 2012 Report

The Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE) is the most advanced, powerful, and robust collection of integrated digital resources and services in the world. It is an integrated cyberinfrastructure ecosystem with singular interfaces for allocations, support, and other key services that researchers can use to interactively share computing resources, data, and expertise.This a report of project activities and highlights from the third quarter of 2012.National Science Foundation, OCI-105357

Tracing back the source of contamination

From the time a contaminant is detected in an observation well, the question of where and when the contaminant was introduced in the aquifer needs an answer. Many techniques have been proposed to answer this question, but virtually all of them assume that the aquifer and its dynamics are perfectly known. This work discusses a new approach for the simultaneous identification of the contaminant source location and the spatial variability of hydraulic conductivity in an aquifer which has been validated on synthetic and laboratory experiments and which is in the process of being validated on a real aquifer

Analysis Of Model And Observation Data For The Development Of A Public Pm2.5 Air-Quality Advisories Tool (Aquat)

Thesis (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2012An air-quality advisory tool (AQuAT) that combines mobile measurements of particulate matter less than or equal to 2.5mum in diameter (PM2.5) with air-quality simulations performed with the Alaska adapted version of the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model was developed to interpolate PM2.5-measurements into unmonitored neighborhoods in Fairbanks, Alaska. AQuAT was developed as traditional interpolation methods of interpolating the mobile measurements were unsuccessful. Such a spatially differentiated air-quality advisory is highly desired in Fairbanks due to health concerns of PM2.5, and the need to improve the quality of life. The accuracy of AQuAT depends on the accuracy of the air-quality simulations used for its database. Evaluation of these simulations showed that they captured the observed relationships between PM2.5-concentrations and major meteorological fields (e.g., wind-speed, temperature, and surface-inversions) well. Skill scores for simulated PM2.5-concentrations fell in the range of modern models. The AQuAT database can include information on the nonlinear impacts of various emission sources on PM2.5-concentrations. This benefit was illustrated by investigating the impacts of emissions from point sources, uncertified wood-burning devices, and traffic on the distribution of PM 2.5-concentrations in the neighborhoods. Sensitivity studies on the effects of wood-burning device changeouts on the PM2.5-concentrations suggested that the emission inventory should be updated as soon as possible to capture recent changes in the emission situation in response to the changeout program. The performance of AQuAT was evaluated with PM2.5-measurements from mobile and stationary sites, and with simulated PM2.5-concentrations of winter 2010/2011 which were assumed to be "grand-truth" data. These evaluations showed that AQuAT captured the magnitudes and temporal evolutions of the PM 2.5-measurements and the "grand-truth" data well. The inclusion of wind-speed, wind-direction, and temperature in AQuAT did not improve its accuracy. This result may be explained by the fact that the relationships between meteorology and PM2.5-concentrations were already captured by the database. AQuAT allows quick spatial interpolation after the mobile measurements were made and provides error bars. It also allows for any route within the area for which a database of simulated concentrations exists. It was shown that AQuAT can be easily transferred for applications in other regions