High Performance Computing Facility Operational Assessment, CY 2011 Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility

Technical Report · Wed Feb 01 00:00:00 EST 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1036210· OSTI ID:1036210

Baker, Ann E ^[1]; Barker, Ashley D ^[1]; Bland, Arthur S Buddy ^[1]; Boudwin, Kathlyn J. ^[1]; Hack, James J ^[1]; Kendall, Ricky A ^[1]; Messer, Bronson ^[1]; Rogers, James H ^[1]; Shipman, Galen M ^[1]; Wells, Jack C ^[1]; White, Julia C ^[1]; Hudson, Douglas L ^[1]

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1. ORNL

Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF) continues to deliver the most powerful resources in the U.S. for open science. At 2.33 petaflops peak performance, the Cray XT Jaguar delivered more than 1.4 billion core hours in calendar year (CY) 2011 to researchers around the world for computational simulations relevant to national and energy security; advancing the frontiers of knowledge in physical sciences and areas of biological, medical, environmental, and computer sciences; and providing world-class research facilities for the nation's science enterprise. Users reported more than 670 publications this year arising from their use of OLCF resources. Of these we report the 300 in this review that are consistent with guidance provided. Scientific achievements by OLCF users cut across all range scales from atomic to molecular to large-scale structures. At the atomic scale, researchers discovered that the anomalously long half-life of Carbon-14 can be explained by calculating, for the first time, the very complex three-body interactions between all the neutrons and protons in the nucleus. At the molecular scale, researchers combined experimental results from LBL's light source and simulations on Jaguar to discover how DNA replication continues past a damaged site so a mutation can be repaired later. Other researchers combined experimental results from ORNL's Spallation Neutron Source and simulations on Jaguar to reveal the molecular structure of ligno-cellulosic material used in bioethanol production. This year, Jaguar has been used to do billion-cell CFD calculations to develop shock wave compression turbo machinery as a means to meet DOE goals for reducing carbon sequestration costs. General Electric used Jaguar to calculate the unsteady flow through turbo machinery to learn what efficiencies the traditional steady flow assumption is hiding from designers. Even a 1% improvement in turbine design can save the nation billions of gallons of fuel.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). National Center for Computational Sciences (NCCS)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: DE-AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1036210
• Report Number(s): ORNL/TM-2012/100; TRN: US201206%%365
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS//MATHEMATICS, COMPUTING, AND INFORMATION SCIENCE
BIOETHANOL
CARBON 14
CARBON SEQUESTRATION
COMPRESSION
CRAY COMPUTERS
DNA REPLICATION
ENERGY SECURITY
HALF-LIFE
LIGHT SOURCES
MACHINERY
MOLECULAR STRUCTURE
MUTATIONS
NEUTRON SOURCES
NEUTRONS
PROTONS
SHOCK WAVES
SPALLATION
STEADY FLOW
TURBINES
UNSTEADY FLOW
OLCF Operational Assessment OA