Weather forecasting models are computationally intensive applications and traditionally they are executed in parallel machines. However, some issues prevent these models from fully exploiting the available computing power. One of such issues is load imbalance, i.e., the uneven distribution of load across the processors of the parallel machine. Since weather models are typically synchronous applications, that is, all tasks synchronize at every time-step, the execution time is determined by the slowest task. The causes of such imbalance are either static (e.g. topography) or dynamic (e.g. shortwave radiation, moving thunderstorms). Various techniques, often embedded in the application’s source code, have been used to address both sources. However, these techniques are inflexible and hard to use in legacy codes. In this thesis, we explore the concept of processor virtualization for dynamically balancing the load in weather models. This means that the domain is over-decomposed in more tasks than the available processors. Assuming that many tasks can be safely executed in a single processor, each processor is put in charge of a set of tasks. In addition, the system can migrate some of them from overloaded processors to underloaded ones when it detects load imbalance. This approach has the advantage of decoupling the application from the load balancing strategy. Our objective is to show that processor virtualization can be applied to weather models as long as an appropriate strategy for migrations is used. Our proposal takes into account the communication pattern of the application in addition to the load of each processor. In this text, we present the techniques used to minimize the amount of change needed in order to apply processor virtualization to a real-world application. Furthermore, we analyze the effects caused by the frequency at which the load balancer is invoked and a threshold that activates rebalancing. We propose an automatic strategy to find an optimal threshold to trigger load balancing. These strategies are centralized and work well for moderately large machines. For larger machines, we present a fully distributed algorithm and analyze its performance. As a study case, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach for dynamically balancing the load in Brams, a mesoscale weather forecasting model based on MPI parallelization. We choose this model because it presents a considerable load imbalance caused by localized thunderstorms. In addition, we analyze how other effects of processor virtualization can improve performance.

A crescente utilização de plataformas flutuantes na atividade de exploração de petróleo vem exigindo desenvolvimento de estudos relacionados a novas técnicas de execução e metodologias de projetos de fundações em ambiente marinho. A presente pesquisa é continuação do trabalho desenvolvido por Rocha (2014) e tem como objetivo: estudar a atenuação de cargas dinâmicas no trecho da linha de ancoragem embutida no solo, através de experimentos em modelos reduzidos com solos argilosos. Os ensaios foram realizados em laboratório a partir de um sistema de carregamento dinâmico capaz de produzir vibração com faixas de aceleração e frequência desejadas. Para atingir os objetivos da pesquisa foram abordados os conceitos da carga dinâmica, reologia e tixotropia. Foram realizados ensaios em solos argilosos com teores de umidade em torno de 120%, obtidos a partir de misturas no laboratório de caulim (85% em massa seca), bentonita (15% em massa seca) e água, com a finalidade de obter um solo argiloso com propriedades geotécnicas similares às dos solos offshore prospectados pela Petrobras. Os ensaios de mini palheta e extração de umidade ao longo da profundidade permitiram concluir que os valores da resistência não drenada da argila crescem com profundidade, enquanto o teor de umidade decresce, sendo que a resistência ao cisalhamento não-drenada guarda similaridade em relação às condições de campo. Na realização dos ensaios de carregamentos estáticos e dinâmicos realizados com variação do ângulo de referência de 0º a 55º foram utilizadas duas células de cargas para medir as forças aplicadas no touch down point e no ponto de ancoragem. Os resultados obtidos nesses ensaios mostraram atenuação de carga devido à força de reação (atrito) gerada pelo solo na interface solo-corrente, quando a massa do solo envolvente é sujeita a grandes deformações. Observou-se que a magnitude de atenuação estática varia de 12,9 a 18,3% e depende da variação de profundidade de embutimento da estaca (comprimento da linha de ancoragem), do ângulo de referência, da resistência não drenada da argila e do nível de força de pré-tração aplicada, enquanto que no ensaio de carregamento dinâmico verificou-se que os valores de atenuação normalizada de cargas dinâmicas situam-se na faixa de 24 a 26% e são levemente influenciados pela variação da força de pré-tração e frequência de vibração devido à parcela viscosa da argila. / The increasing use of floating platforms for oil exploration activity has required development of studies related to new techniques and methodologies for foundation design in the marine environment. This research is the continuation of the work of Rocha (2014) and aims: to study the attenuation of dynamic loads in buried mooring lines through experiments in reduced scale models in clay deposits. The tests were performed in the laboratory from a system of dynamic loading that is able to produce vibration within desirable ranges of acceleration and frequency. The concepts of dynamic loading, rheology and thixotropy are discussed in order of evaluating the properties of the clay. Tests were conducted on clay soils with moisture content of about 120% obtained from laboratory mixtures of kaolin (85% dry matter), bentonite (15% dry matter) and water, in order to obtain a clay soil with geotechnical properties similar to those of offshore fields prospected by Petrobras. The mini vane tests and water content of specimens showed that the values undrained shear strength increase with increasing depth, while the moisture content decreases. In carrying out static and dynamic loading tests performed on reference angles ranging from 0° to 55° two cell loads were used to measure the forces applied at the touch down point and at the anchor point. The results obtained in these tests showed load attenuation due to the reaction forces (friction) generated by the soil along the soil-stream interface, when the mass of the surrounding soil is subjected to large deformations. It was observed that the magnitude of the static attenuation varies from 12.9 to 18.3%, the variation being a function of depth of cutting mounting (anchoring line length), reference angle, undrained shear strength of the clay and level of pre-applied tensile force, while the dynamic loading tests were found to give normalized attenuation values of dynamic loads in the range of 24 to 26%. Under dynamic loading, attenuation is slightly influenced by variation of tensile force and frequency of vibration due the viscous efects of the clay.

A crescente utilização de plataformas flutuantes na atividade de exploração de petróleo vem exigindo desenvolvimento de estudos relacionados a novas técnicas de execução e metodologias de projetos de fundações em ambiente marinho. A presente pesquisa é continuação do trabalho desenvolvido por Rocha (2014) e tem como objetivo: estudar a atenuação de cargas dinâmicas no trecho da linha de ancoragem embutida no solo, através de experimentos em modelos reduzidos com solos argilosos. Os ensaios foram realizados em laboratório a partir de um sistema de carregamento dinâmico capaz de produzir vibração com faixas de aceleração e frequência desejadas. Para atingir os objetivos da pesquisa foram abordados os conceitos da carga dinâmica, reologia e tixotropia. Foram realizados ensaios em solos argilosos com teores de umidade em torno de 120%, obtidos a partir de misturas no laboratório de caulim (85% em massa seca), bentonita (15% em massa seca) e água, com a finalidade de obter um solo argiloso com propriedades geotécnicas similares às dos solos offshore prospectados pela Petrobras. Os ensaios de mini palheta e extração de umidade ao longo da profundidade permitiram concluir que os valores da resistência não drenada da argila crescem com profundidade, enquanto o teor de umidade decresce, sendo que a resistência ao cisalhamento não-drenada guarda similaridade em relação às condições de campo. Na realização dos ensaios de carregamentos estáticos e dinâmicos realizados com variação do ângulo de referência de 0º a 55º foram utilizadas duas células de cargas para medir as forças aplicadas no touch down point e no ponto de ancoragem. Os resultados obtidos nesses ensaios mostraram atenuação de carga devido à força de reação (atrito) gerada pelo solo na interface solo-corrente, quando a massa do solo envolvente é sujeita a grandes deformações. Observou-se que a magnitude de atenuação estática varia de 12,9 a 18,3% e depende da variação de profundidade de embutimento da estaca (comprimento da linha de ancoragem), do ângulo de referência, da resistência não drenada da argila e do nível de força de pré-tração aplicada, enquanto que no ensaio de carregamento dinâmico verificou-se que os valores de atenuação normalizada de cargas dinâmicas situam-se na faixa de 24 a 26% e são levemente influenciados pela variação da força de pré-tração e frequência de vibração devido à parcela viscosa da argila. / The increasing use of floating platforms for oil exploration activity has required development of studies related to new techniques and methodologies for foundation design in the marine environment. This research is the continuation of the work of Rocha (2014) and aims: to study the attenuation of dynamic loads in buried mooring lines through experiments in reduced scale models in clay deposits. The tests were performed in the laboratory from a system of dynamic loading that is able to produce vibration within desirable ranges of acceleration and frequency. The concepts of dynamic loading, rheology and thixotropy are discussed in order of evaluating the properties of the clay. Tests were conducted on clay soils with moisture content of about 120% obtained from laboratory mixtures of kaolin (85% dry matter), bentonite (15% dry matter) and water, in order to obtain a clay soil with geotechnical properties similar to those of offshore fields prospected by Petrobras. The mini vane tests and water content of specimens showed that the values undrained shear strength increase with increasing depth, while the moisture content decreases. In carrying out static and dynamic loading tests performed on reference angles ranging from 0° to 55° two cell loads were used to measure the forces applied at the touch down point and at the anchor point. The results obtained in these tests showed load attenuation due to the reaction forces (friction) generated by the soil along the soil-stream interface, when the mass of the surrounding soil is subjected to large deformations. It was observed that the magnitude of the static attenuation varies from 12.9 to 18.3%, the variation being a function of depth of cutting mounting (anchoring line length), reference angle, undrained shear strength of the clay and level of pre-applied tensile force, while the dynamic loading tests were found to give normalized attenuation values of dynamic loads in the range of 24 to 26%. Under dynamic loading, attenuation is slightly influenced by variation of tensile force and frequency of vibration due the viscous efects of the clay.

Weather forecasting models are computationally intensive applications and traditionally they are executed in parallel machines. However, some issues prevent these models from fully exploiting the available computing power. One of such issues is load imbalance, i.e., the uneven distribution of load across the processors of the parallel machine. Since weather models are typically synchronous applications, that is, all tasks synchronize at every time-step, the execution time is determined by the slowest task. The causes of such imbalance are either static (e.g. topography) or dynamic (e.g. shortwave radiation, moving thunderstorms). Various techniques, often embedded in the application’s source code, have been used to address both sources. However, these techniques are inflexible and hard to use in legacy codes. In this thesis, we explore the concept of processor virtualization for dynamically balancing the load in weather models. This means that the domain is over-decomposed in more tasks than the available processors. Assuming that many tasks can be safely executed in a single processor, each processor is put in charge of a set of tasks. In addition, the system can migrate some of them from overloaded processors to underloaded ones when it detects load imbalance. This approach has the advantage of decoupling the application from the load balancing strategy. Our objective is to show that processor virtualization can be applied to weather models as long as an appropriate strategy for migrations is used. Our proposal takes into account the communication pattern of the application in addition to the load of each processor. In this text, we present the techniques used to minimize the amount of change needed in order to apply processor virtualization to a real-world application. Furthermore, we analyze the effects caused by the frequency at which the load balancer is invoked and a threshold that activates rebalancing. We propose an automatic strategy to find an optimal threshold to trigger load balancing. These strategies are centralized and work well for moderately large machines. For larger machines, we present a fully distributed algorithm and analyze its performance. As a study case, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach for dynamically balancing the load in Brams, a mesoscale weather forecasting model based on MPI parallelization. We choose this model because it presents a considerable load imbalance caused by localized thunderstorms. In addition, we analyze how other effects of processor virtualization can improve performance.

Weather forecasting models are computationally intensive applications and traditionally they are executed in parallel machines. However, some issues prevent these models from fully exploiting the available computing power. One of such issues is load imbalance, i.e., the uneven distribution of load across the processors of the parallel machine. Since weather models are typically synchronous applications, that is, all tasks synchronize at every time-step, the execution time is determined by the slowest task. The causes of such imbalance are either static (e.g. topography) or dynamic (e.g. shortwave radiation, moving thunderstorms). Various techniques, often embedded in the application’s source code, have been used to address both sources. However, these techniques are inflexible and hard to use in legacy codes. In this thesis, we explore the concept of processor virtualization for dynamically balancing the load in weather models. This means that the domain is over-decomposed in more tasks than the available processors. Assuming that many tasks can be safely executed in a single processor, each processor is put in charge of a set of tasks. In addition, the system can migrate some of them from overloaded processors to underloaded ones when it detects load imbalance. This approach has the advantage of decoupling the application from the load balancing strategy. Our objective is to show that processor virtualization can be applied to weather models as long as an appropriate strategy for migrations is used. Our proposal takes into account the communication pattern of the application in addition to the load of each processor. In this text, we present the techniques used to minimize the amount of change needed in order to apply processor virtualization to a real-world application. Furthermore, we analyze the effects caused by the frequency at which the load balancer is invoked and a threshold that activates rebalancing. We propose an automatic strategy to find an optimal threshold to trigger load balancing. These strategies are centralized and work well for moderately large machines. For larger machines, we present a fully distributed algorithm and analyze its performance. As a study case, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach for dynamically balancing the load in Brams, a mesoscale weather forecasting model based on MPI parallelization. We choose this model because it presents a considerable load imbalance caused by localized thunderstorms. In addition, we analyze how other effects of processor virtualization can improve performance.

A crescente utilização de plataformas flutuantes na atividade de exploração de petróleo vem exigindo desenvolvimento de estudos relacionados a novas técnicas de execução e metodologias de projetos de fundações em ambiente marinho. A presente pesquisa é continuação do trabalho desenvolvido por Rocha (2014) e tem como objetivo: estudar a atenuação de cargas dinâmicas no trecho da linha de ancoragem embutida no solo, através de experimentos em modelos reduzidos com solos argilosos. Os ensaios foram realizados em laboratório a partir de um sistema de carregamento dinâmico capaz de produzir vibração com faixas de aceleração e frequência desejadas. Para atingir os objetivos da pesquisa foram abordados os conceitos da carga dinâmica, reologia e tixotropia. Foram realizados ensaios em solos argilosos com teores de umidade em torno de 120%, obtidos a partir de misturas no laboratório de caulim (85% em massa seca), bentonita (15% em massa seca) e água, com a finalidade de obter um solo argiloso com propriedades geotécnicas similares às dos solos offshore prospectados pela Petrobras. Os ensaios de mini palheta e extração de umidade ao longo da profundidade permitiram concluir que os valores da resistência não drenada da argila crescem com profundidade, enquanto o teor de umidade decresce, sendo que a resistência ao cisalhamento não-drenada guarda similaridade em relação às condições de campo. Na realização dos ensaios de carregamentos estáticos e dinâmicos realizados com variação do ângulo de referência de 0º a 55º foram utilizadas duas células de cargas para medir as forças aplicadas no touch down point e no ponto de ancoragem. Os resultados obtidos nesses ensaios mostraram atenuação de carga devido à força de reação (atrito) gerada pelo solo na interface solo-corrente, quando a massa do solo envolvente é sujeita a grandes deformações. Observou-se que a magnitude de atenuação estática varia de 12,9 a 18,3% e depende da variação de profundidade de embutimento da estaca (comprimento da linha de ancoragem), do ângulo de referência, da resistência não drenada da argila e do nível de força de pré-tração aplicada, enquanto que no ensaio de carregamento dinâmico verificou-se que os valores de atenuação normalizada de cargas dinâmicas situam-se na faixa de 24 a 26% e são levemente influenciados pela variação da força de pré-tração e frequência de vibração devido à parcela viscosa da argila. / The increasing use of floating platforms for oil exploration activity has required development of studies related to new techniques and methodologies for foundation design in the marine environment. This research is the continuation of the work of Rocha (2014) and aims: to study the attenuation of dynamic loads in buried mooring lines through experiments in reduced scale models in clay deposits. The tests were performed in the laboratory from a system of dynamic loading that is able to produce vibration within desirable ranges of acceleration and frequency. The concepts of dynamic loading, rheology and thixotropy are discussed in order of evaluating the properties of the clay. Tests were conducted on clay soils with moisture content of about 120% obtained from laboratory mixtures of kaolin (85% dry matter), bentonite (15% dry matter) and water, in order to obtain a clay soil with geotechnical properties similar to those of offshore fields prospected by Petrobras. The mini vane tests and water content of specimens showed that the values undrained shear strength increase with increasing depth, while the moisture content decreases. In carrying out static and dynamic loading tests performed on reference angles ranging from 0° to 55° two cell loads were used to measure the forces applied at the touch down point and at the anchor point. The results obtained in these tests showed load attenuation due to the reaction forces (friction) generated by the soil along the soil-stream interface, when the mass of the surrounding soil is subjected to large deformations. It was observed that the magnitude of the static attenuation varies from 12.9 to 18.3%, the variation being a function of depth of cutting mounting (anchoring line length), reference angle, undrained shear strength of the clay and level of pre-applied tensile force, while the dynamic loading tests were found to give normalized attenuation values of dynamic loads in the range of 24 to 26%. Under dynamic loading, attenuation is slightly influenced by variation of tensile force and frequency of vibration due the viscous efects of the clay.

This thesis aims to implement dynamic load balancing mechanism into the parallel simulation model of the heat distribution in a CPU cooler. The first part introduces theoretical foundations for dynamic load balancing, describing current solution approaches. The second part refers to the heat distribution model and related topics such as MPI communications library or HDF library for data storage. Then it proceeds to the implementation of simulation model with dynamic 2D decomposition of square model domain. Custom geometry based dynamic load balancing algorithm was introduced, which works with this decomposition. Important part of the implementation is Zoltan library, used especially for data migration. At the end, a set of experiments was presented, which demonstrates load balancing abilities of designed model together with conclusions and motivation for future research.

The aim of this thesis was to build equipment for testing bearing condition analysis during its life. The theory of bearing parameter and diagnostics methodology for their analysis are discussed. Hardware used for device design and data collection. Finally, the course of measurement and software evaluating the end of the test are discussed.

This thesis deals with the study of sudden step changes observed in model testing of standard bearing steel 100Cr6. Methodology of experiments with step change of load is proposed and applied in measurements. Three complete series of experiments were conducted, and rating life was determined for each loading trend. Based on the experiments carried out, it was found that the selected steel is able to withstand the sudden step of load changes, despite the fact that it is not material of choise for this type of load. Part of this work was to verify functionality of the innovated test stations AXMAT with modern diagnostics and a new control system, and also of the hydraulic variant of AXMAT, which allows to remotely derive dynamic loading of the test sample.

No description available.