HPC for the EEC: Industrial Trade Tools for the Aging Energy Infrastructure

The energy transport and refining sectors are challenged with reliably delivering safer and cleaner energy to US consumers while meeting an ever-growing global demand. The energy infrastructure of US refineries and pipelines is aging, and corrosion and damage mechanisms are constant threats to mechanical integrity and safety. However, governments and industry stakeholders are reluctant to replace or upgrade the existing infrastructure due to the immense cost. To better understand and mitigate the risks of aging infrastructure, strong technical analysis capabilities, combined with the optimization of monitoring and decision making, is critical. Today, this is accomplished via complex simulations and data analysis. To this end, advanced High-Performance-Computing software will be leveraged and integrated in industrial trade tools to lower the barrier for new users, increase the ease of access for experienced users, and allow for smarter decisions to be made in the midstream and downstream energy sectors. In Phase I, there are two paths forward: a data-integration module for optimized pipeline inspection and an efficient advanced simulation module for large-scale welding repair simulation. In the data-integration module, large-scale spatial analysis and clustering algorithms will be utilized for anomaly detection. In the advanced simulation module, fast and efficient solvers, preconditioners, and time-stepping methods, will be implemented for parallelized three- dimensional finite element welding simulations to aid in the safe repair of aging infrastructure. These two applications will be distilled and hardened into easy to use industrial trade tools delivered via the web. Full deployment of High-Performance-Computing into industrial trade tools for midstream and downstream infrastructure will have broad benefits across these industries. These include increased public and environmental safety, the adoption of this technology into these industries, and decreased cost of operations. The combination of advanced numerical methods and web-enabled delivery stands to make a big impact in these sectors. This will have lasting consequences on how these industries do business as the project heads into Phase II and Phase III, and even beyond