MOOSE Newsletter (January 2021)

Improved INL HPC Remote Connectivity

The [hpc_remote.md] instructions have been updated for a better user experience in accessing web-based INL HPC resources. The previous instructions involved using an additional browser with a proxy to access said resources (hpcgitlab, moosebuild, hpcweb, etc). The new proxy configuration file method is much easier to setup for the end-user and does not require an additional browser. For more information, see [hpc_remote.md#socks-proxy].

Ray Tracing Module

!media large_media/ray_tracing/cone_ray_study_rays.png style=width:32%;float:right;margin-left:10px;;margin-right:10px

Native ray tracing capability has been released in the [ray_tracing/index.md].

The module traces rays throughout the finite element mesh. Notable features include:

Ray contribution to residuals and Jacobians along ray segments (example: line sources)
Tracing on meshes with adaptivity
Supports ray interaction with internal and external boundaries
Supports storage and manipulation of data unique to each ray
Supports ray interaction with field variables
Supports parallel execution

SQA Failure Analysis Report

Failure analysis reports were added to the SQA documentation, see [framework_far.md] for an example.

SQA Extension Documentation

Documentation for setting up MOOSE-based applications to leverage capabilities of MooseDocs for SQA was added: [extensions/sqa.md].

Strumpack Support

Strumpack is a direct solver that has been actively developed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. For certain problems, we found that strumpack performed better than other direct solver options. Strumpack support was added in the latest PETSc update to MOOSE. The solver can be involved via options -pc_type lu -pc_factor_mat_solver_type strumpack.