Simulation

[Due to the increasing size of the archives, each topic page now contains only the prior 365 days of content. Access to older stories is now solely through the Monthly Archive pages or the site search function.]

Battelle introduces Grid Command Distribution services and software for rapid modeling of smart grid distribution circuits

February 26, 2013

Screen shot of a Grid Command Distribution “heatmap” analysis for a neighborhood. Source: Battelle and AEP (data). Click to enlarge.

Battelle recently unveiled its new Grid Command Distribution services and software for utilities. The software is a front-end for the open-source GridLAB-D, a distribution system simulation and analysis tool developed at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), a Department of Energy (DOE) lab managed by Battelle. Battelle staff developed the new Grid Command Distribution software internally as part of its work over the past two years as part of an ongoing smart grid demonstration project in Ohio: AEP Ohio’s gridSMART program, sponsored by the DOE.

The new offering greatly shortens the time—from 4-5 days to less than a minute in some cases, according to Battelle—required to build extremely detailed planning models for the analysis of distribution circuits on a smart grid that encompass a plethora of devices, technologies and operating policies such as energy storage systems, line configurations, transformers, demand response tariffs, Volt-VAR optimization (VVO), plug-in vehicle charging, water heater loads, and so on. (VVO seeks to optimize voltage at all points along the distribution feeder under all loading conditions, thereby increasing grid efficiency.)

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MacArthur Foundation grant supports Urban Center for Computation and Data

January 20, 2013

A new Chicago-based research center using advanced computational methods to understand the rapid growth of cities will receive a $500,000 grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The funds help launch the Urban Center for Computation and Data (UrbanCCD), an initiative of the Computation Institute (CI) dedicated to data-driven urban research, planning and design.

Announced in December 2012, UrbanCCD was initially funded by a $600,000-grant from the National Science Foundation and unites researchers from several Chicago institutions, city officials and private enterprise with the Computation Institute (CI), a joint initiative between the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory.

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SpeedSource used ANSYS simulation software to speed design of motorsports version of Mazda SKYACTIV-D engine

December 11, 2012

Static pressure. In-cylinder pressure contour after injection. Credit: SpeedSource Race Engineering. Click to enlarge.

Earlier this year, Mazda Motorsports announced it would supply racing versions of the new SKYACTIV-D diesel engines (earlier post) to customer teams competing in GRAND-AM’s newly announced GX Class for advanced/clean technologies, beginning with the 2013 season. (Earlier post.) The racing SKYACTIV-D will make its official racing debut in the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona on 28 January.

The motorsports version of the engine was designed by motorsports research and development company SpeedSource Race Engineering using ANSYS simulation software quickly to design the engine—in about one-third the time of the industry average—without compromising essential reliability standards for the engine’s use in a competitive racing environment. The motorsports SKYACTIV-D clean-diesel engine is the first production-based, four-cylinder racing diesel engine to be used in a major racing series.

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Reaction Design introduces model fuel library resulting from work of Model Fuels Consortium

November 14, 2012

Good fuel models are required for good predictions. Left: modeling using a reduced n-heptane model (34 chemical types) vs. data. Right: mofe accurate n-heptane model (174 chemical types) vs. data. Source: Reaction Design. Click to enlarge.

Reaction Design is introducing the first volume of the industry’s most well-validated available Model Fuel Library, the result of seven years of research and validation under the Model Fuels Consortium (earlier post). MFC members included Toyota, GE Energy, VW, Suzuki, Petrobras and Conoco. The MFC is ending its work in December.

The Model Fuel Library is a subscription-based library which includes more than 40 fully validated, self-consistent components that can be used to simulate fuel effects in virtually all types of automotive and aircraft engines, as well as engines used for electric power generation. The components can be combined to model a large variety of new or existing fuel blends.

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High Performance Computing key enabler for accelerating development of high efficiency engines

November 05, 2012

Increasing complexity of vehicle design is driving the need for better simulation and more powerful computers. Wagner and Pannala. Click to enlarge.

The complexity of new and future vehicles—driven by the need for increasing fuel efficiency and decreasing emissions with ever-changing drive-cycle demands and environmental conditions—is adding unprecedented flexibility in design and driving the need for better simulation and more powerful computers, observed Dr. Robert M. Wagner, Director of the Fuels Engines and Emissions Research Center, and Dr. Sreekanth Pannala, Senior Research Staff Member in the Computing and Computational Sciences Directorate at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in a keynote talk at the recent Global Powertrain Conference.

Advances in high performance computing (HPC) resources are leading to a new frontier in engine and vehicle development, Wagner and Pannala suggested, including the ability to produce detailed simulations to generate benchmark data; engineering simulations to explore the design space (e.g., injector optimization at ORNL); and reduced models for design optimization and control strategies. In general, HPC can help solve problems which were once thought unsolvable, they noted.

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