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News and seminars received after the paper edition went to press, including: Energy Secretary Bill Richardson to visit Argonne-East, DIS seminar rescheduled, and others. |
With the help of software tools developed by scientists at Argonne's Mathematics and Computer Science Division, a supercomputer has conducted a breakthrough simulation of oil-reservoir behavior many times faster and in greater detail than methods commonly in use.
Satish Balay and Barry Smith (both MCS) tailored Argonne'sPETSc (Portable, Extensible Toolkit for Scientific Computation) to allow an oil-reservoir simulation program developed by researchers at the University of Texas to run on an IBM SP supercomputer. The software is designed to test, and predict, what will happen in the reservoir if, for example, high-pressure gas is injected into the reservoir to push oil toward production wells.
"The idea is to predict if the oil is going to go where you want it to," said Tom Morgan (MCS), program manager. "But when you're dealing with something like an oil reservoir, you're potentially dealing with millions and millions of data points. It's just not doable on a sequential machine."
Sequential machines, like desktop PCs and traditional mainframe computers, solve large, complex problems one step at a time. PETSc is a "tool kit" designed for parallel computers, which divide problems into components and send them to multiple processors to be solved simultaneously, thereby solving the problem faster.
The program divides the underground volume of the reservoir into "gridblocks," each representing a small volume of the reservoir. Each gridblock has several variables like rock porosity, pressure, density and temperature.
A series of simulations was run on an IBM SP supercomputer. The largest test, which involved four million gridblocks and 32 million unknowns, took 23 minutes to run on a 128-processor SP parallel computer.
Today's typical simulation software, running on a workstation, would require about a day to solve a simulation of only 80,000 unknowns.
PETSc can be adapted to many kinds of problems that require parallel computers. MCS has developed several software tools like PETSc for use in solving problems requiring huge numbers of calculations.
Argonne's computer scientists were pioneers in developing "portable" software, which can be used on different computers. Previously, software tools were mainly written for specific machines and could not be used on other models without extensive modification.
MCS researchers were also instrumental in developing the "message passing interface" standard, which allows the many processors in a supercomputer to communicate with each other -- sending data required for calculations back and forth. With this interface standard, parallel processing supercomputers are able to attack a wider variety of problems.
Argonne computer scientists continue to refine high-performance-computing software tools which are available to all scientists at the laboratory. The goal is to develop software that allows scientists to concentrate on the problem at hand, not on the details of using a supercomputer.
PETSc is a good example of such a tool, Morgan said. "PETSc allows the applications scientists to build working applications based on `parts' supplied by MCS," he said. "You can get it off the shelf, so to speak, and have confidence that it will be successful."
TheArgonne Combined Appeal will kick off its 1997 campaign with a clothing drive on Monday and Tuesday, Oct. 5-6.
Donations of clean, wearable clothing will be collected from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday, and from 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Tuesday in the lobby of Argonne-East's Building 213 Cafeteria.
Men's, women's and children's clothing will be accepted. Children's clothing is especially needed. Donations are tax deductible.
Volunteers are needed to help collect and sort clothing. Call Sally Ott (ECT) at ext. 2-8537 to volunteer.
Clothing will be donated to four Combined Appeal agencies: Proviso Association for Retarded Children (a United Way Crusade of Mercy organization); Alliance for the Mentally Ill of DuPage County; Fish, Inc., a clothing and food pantry; and Little City Foundation.
The Combined Appeal provides employees with a way to contribute to the Metropolitan Chicago United Way/Crusade of Mercy, United Way Will County and 18 other charities. Employees will receive information from division coordinators on how to donate during the month of October.
More information on the campaign is available on the ACA home page.
Interim Laboratory Director Frank Fradin will present Argonne's annual State of the Laboratory address Wednesday, Sept. 23, at 10 a.m. in Argonne-East's Advanced Photon Source Conference Center, Building 402.
Additional viewing by closed-circuit video will be available in the Building 203 Auditorium.
Shuttle service will be provided from Bldg. 900, the 200 area (Bldgs. 200, 201, 202, 203, 205, 208, 212, 221, 222 & 223), the 300 area and the east area.
To celebrate the expansion of Argonne's high-performance computing facilities, the Mathematics and Computer Science Division will host an open house from noon to 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 16, in Argonne-East's Building 221.
Showcased at the open house will be Argonne's new SGI Origin2000 supercomputer and the newly expanded four-wall CAVE virtual reality environment.
Activities will include informal presentations and demonstrations illustrating the potential of these new high-performance systems.
Visitors will see, for example, how Argonne researchers are prototyping new designs and simulating complex scientific phenomena in the CAVE and on its smaller counterpart, the ImmersaDesk.
Visitors will also have an opportunity to talk with scientists about their research in such diverse areas as climate modeling, numerical software, computational chemistry, networking, and collaborative environments.
To help manage the flow of visitors through the building, MCS recommends that employees attend before 3 p.m., if possible, because faculty and students from local universities are expected during the last two hours.
For more information, see the MCS open house Web site at www.mcs.anl.gov/openhouse.
The Argonne Club is selling tickets for a performance by legendary comedian Bill Cosby at the Rialto Square Theatre, Joliet, on Sunday, Nov. 15.
The club has purchased a block of excellent main-floor seats for the show, which will begin at 7 p.m.
Tickets will be sold in Argonne-East's Building 213 Cafeteria starting Monday, Sept. 21, from noon to 1 p.m. Tickets are $30 each, and will be limited to four per person.
Representatives from agencies supported by the Argonne Combined Appeal will be available the week of Sept. 21 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the lobby of Argonne-East's Building 213 Cafeteria.
Agency staff will answer questions and tell employees how their donations benefit these organizations.
Agencies scheduled are:
Monday, Sept. 21
American
Red Cross -- A humanitarian not-for-profit organization that
provides relief to victims of disasters; health and safety
education; and emergency communications to help prevent,
prepare and respond to emergencies.
4-H
Clubs -- A voluntary informal education program for boys and
girls ages 5-18.
Tuesday, Sept. 22
YMCA,
Indian Boundary -- Provides programs for children, adults
and families.
United
Way Will County -- A not-for-profit human services
organization serving all the communities of Will County.
It's primary purpose is to unite and promote the financial
and human service programs of not-for-profit organizations
serving Will County residents in the areas of health,
welfare, recreation, education, and family support.
Wednesday, Sept. 23
SHARE/Leyden Family Services -- A not-for-profit residential
alcohol and substance abuse detoxification and
rehabilitation treatment facility.
PARC --
Provides educational, residential, vocational, speech,
occupational and physical therapy to 685 adults and
children.
Thursday, Sept. 24
Breaking
Free, Inc. -- Provides outpatient drug and alcohol
counseling for adults and youths as well as placement
referrals to facilities.
Plows
Council on Aging -- Assists people aged 60 and older in
Palos, Lemont, Orland and Worth Townships who are physically
and psychologically impaired with the tasks of daily living,
personal care, financial and health matters and family or
personal problems.
Friday, Sept. 25
Sertoma
Speech and Hearing Center -- Provides services including
speech therapy, hearing evaluations and hearing aids for
adults and children as young as 6 weeks.
Care and
Counseling Center -- Provides women experiencing unplanned
pregnancies and their families with free pregnancy tests,
counseling, maternity and infant supplies, support groups
and parenting classes.
The Combined Appeal provides employees with a way to contribute to the Metropolitan Chicago United Way/Crusade of Mercy, United Way Will County and 18 other charities. Employees will receive information from division coordinators on how to donate during the month of October.
More information on the campaign is available on the ACA home page.
Crack sealing and roadway striping will be performed on several roads at Argonne-East during the weekend of Sept. 19.
Maintenance work will be done on portions of Westgate, Eastwood, Inner Circle, and Rock roads. The cracks will be cleaned out, filled with hot asphalt and sprinkled with sand.
Employees should avoid these areas over the weekend while the asphalt cures and new reflective striping dries.
The Argonne Club and the Waste Minimization and Pollution Prevention Advisory Committee are sponsoring a clean-up walk near Argonne-East Friday, Oct. 2 (note change in date), from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.
This year's walk coincides with National Pollution Prevention Awareness Week. Participants will meet at Westgate and remove trash along Lemont Road.
Bottled water and other refreshments will be provided for clean-up walk volunteers, courtesy of Marriott Corp.
To volunteer, or for more information, call Keith Trychta at ext. 2-1476 or the Waste Management and Pollution Prevention hotline at ext. 2-6778.
Volunteers at last year's walk picked up enough trash to fill fifty 55-gallon bags.
Argonne employees can learn to use the World Wide Web in a class being offered Tuesday, Sept. 29, by the Electronics and Computing Technologies Division.
"Introduction to Internet Using Web Browsers" (ECT330) introduces PC users to the Internet and World Wide Web using their choice of the two major Web browser programs, Netscape or Microsoft Internet Explorer. Participants must be familiar with Windows 95.
The class will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. in Argonne-East's Building 201, Room 167C. Class size is limited to 10. Cost of the class is $135.
Seven Northwestern University graduate interns presented results of pollution prevention projects at Argonne-East Sept. 3.
The students are part of a graduate intern program sponsored by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. They were accompanied by their sponsors from Argonne, U.S. Post Office, Morton International, Motorola, Rock Island Arsenal and the City of Crystal Lake.