Simulation | EPFL Graph Search

A simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time. Simulations require the use of models; the model represents the key characteristics or behaviors of the selected system or process, whereas the simulation represents the evolution of the model over time. Often, computers are used to execute the simulation. Simulation is used in many contexts, such as simulation of technology for performance tuning or optimizing, safety engineering, testing, training, education, and video games. Simulation is also used with scientific modelling of natural systems or human systems to gain insight into their functioning, as in economics. Simulation can be used to show the eventual real effects of alternative conditions and courses of action. Simulation is also used when the real system cannot be engaged, because it may not be accessible, or it may be dangerous or unacceptable to engage, or it is being designed but not yet built, or it may simply not exist. Key

Étude du tomographe de haute résolution pour petits animaux ClearPET par la méthode de Monte Carlo

Martin Rey

The Lausanne ClearPET demonstrator is one of the new generation of high resolution small animal PET scanners. A high resolution PET scanner aims to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio measured in pixels for a given time without compromising spatial resolution. In order to achieve it, ClearPET scanners are based on phoswich technology : two different crystals (LSO and LuYAP) are aligned one behind the other and coupled to the same channel of a multichannel photo-detector. Depth-of-interaction is determined by a pulse shape analysis. To improve the prototype design, a Monte Carlo simulation toolkit dedicated to emission tomography – GATE – was created. The accurate description of time-dependent phenomena such as source or detector movement and source decay kinetics represents the most important feature of this software. The first part of this work presents the demonstrator built in Lausanne, mainly the DAQ process and the libraries for the data treatment, and the GATE functionality. In the second part, the measurements obtained with the ClearPET demonstrator combined with simulations are presented. The simulations allow estimation of the performance of a final scanner and refinement of the detector head design. Measurements as well as simulations give a spatial resolution of 1.3 mm on the scanner axis and 2.5 mm at 4 cm from the axis. Temporal resolution for two modules with the same sampling phase is about 4.3 ns for LSO and 4.9 ns for LuYAP. For a standard acquisition, the energy resolution at 511 keV is about 31 ± 4 % for LSO and 33 ± 8 % for LuYAP. The peaks at full energy before calibration are about 480 ± 50 keV1 for LSO and 470 ± 40 keV1 for LuYAP. These variations, coupled with hardware threshold, are one of the main reasons for the sensitivity and count rate performance limitations. A sensitivity of 4.37 ± 0.05 is estimated for a full ring design with four rings of detector modules. The large systematic errors are induced by the variability previously mentioned. ------------------------------ 1 As spectra are not normalized, keV unities are inappropriate. Channel numbers are more accurate.

EPFL2007

Direct numerical simulation of phase change in the presence of non-condensable gases

Lubomír Bures, Yohei Sato

This paper describes a new numerical method for the simulation of phase change phenomena between a liquid and a vapour in the presence of non-condensable gases. The method is based on an interface-tracking approach in the framework of single-fluid modelling. The principal innovative feature represented is the capability of simulating a mixture of the condensable gas (vapour) and non-condensable gases with different densities. The formulation and subsequent discretization of the governing equations for the species transport are discussed in detail. In particular, a volume-averaged velocity field is introduced into the species transport equation in combination with a mass-averaged velocity field approach for the momentum equations. The resulting algorithm has been implemented into the incompressible Navier-Stokes solver, PSI-BOIL, which features a finite-volume approach based on a fixed, rectangular, Cartesian grid. Several verification cases have been undertaken to ensure the code modifications have been correctly implemented. These include simulation of the Stefan problem, involving evaporation and condensation in a 1 D configuration, and an evaporating droplet under forced convective flow. In all cases, very good agreement has been obtained with analytical solution. A simulation of direct-contact condensation of a practical application is also presented, which serves to demonstrate the potential capability of the new approach to a wider range of engineering problems, including pressure suppression pools in nuclear reactors. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

2020

An Atomistic Simulation Method for Oxygen Impurities in Aluminium Based on Variable Charge Molecular Dynamics

Andreas Elsener

Impurities are known to have a significant impact on materials properties. In particular, the presence of impurities can change mechanical properties and stabilize the microstructure by reducing grain growth and recrystallization processes. In the past atomistic simulations, in particular molecular dynamics, have contributed a lot to the understanding of deformation mechanisms in nanocrystalline metals. Especially, insights into details of dislocation/GB interactions have been gained. Additionally, simulations on coupled grain boundary migration in bicrystalline samples have played an important role in understanding stress assisted grain growth in nanocrystalline metals. However, all these simulations have been performed on monatomic systems. This means that the role of impurities has not yet been considered in these simulations. Some of the important difference between experiments and simulations could be removed by introducing dilute O distributions to computational Al samples. For this purpose, a simulation method is required which can deal with the oxidation of Al atoms around the O impurities and which can simulate the ionic and metallic nature of bonding simultaneously. Here, a method is suggested which fulfills the requirements by modifying the variable charge method of Streitz and Mintmire [Phys. Rev. B 50, 11996 (1994)]. A local chemical potential approach which optimizes the charge on only those atoms expected to be ionic is developed. Additionally the EAM potential for the non-electrostatic interaction given in the publication of Streitz and Mintmire is substituted by empirical potentials which treat the Al-Al interactions with a well-known Al potential. The Al-O and O-O interactions in these EAM potentials are fitted for the simulation of dilute O impurities in Al and additionally for the simulation of corundum in case of a second potential. The aforementioned developments are applied to study the effect of O impurities on the deformation of nc Al. A fully three-dimensional nc sample containing 15 grains of 12 nm grain-size is deformed with a dilute O content in the triple junction lines. The impact of O impurities on dislocation propagation is also considered in a sample which consists of a single grain extracted from a large molecular dynamics simulation. This simulation geometry contains a perfect dislocation, which is pinned at the surrounding grain boundary network. Therefore it allows the study of pinning strength and after unpinning the propagation behavior of the dislocation under various O impurity distributions. Additionally, the role of O impurities on coupled GB migration is investigated by studying two bicrystalline samples with different O distributions in both of them. In the discussion, the emphasis is on the simulation method. Especially, the significance of the samples, simulation conditions and the performance of the method in the different applications are discussed. Additionally, the different developments (local chemical potential approach and EAM potentials) are critically analyzed and improvements for future simulations of impurities are suggested.

EPFL2010