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Spotlight

Bhagirath Addepalli

Hometown: Hyderabad, India

Program: PhD (Graduated May 2012)

Current Position: Microsoft Program Manager

Research Interests: Fundamental and applied research in fluid dynamics, inverse and optimization techniques, and statistical modeling and analysis of data. Specifically, interests include: laboratory experiments, computational fluid dynamics, Lagrangian random-walk modeling, development of novel case-specific objective functionals (metrics) for inverse problems, development of efficient and robust optimization and inversion techniques spanning deterministic, stochastic (frequentist), and Bayesian methods, multiple criteria decision making (MCDM - Pareto optimality), linear and nonlinear regression techniques for stochastic modeling, statistical modeling of time series data, model selection in inverse problems.

Publications:
A) Journal Publications / Pre-prints:
a) Addepalli, B., K. Sikorski, E.R. Pardyjak and M.S. Zhdanov. Source characterization of atmospheric releases using stochastic search and regularized gradient optimization. Inverse Problems in Science and Engineering, 2011. 19(8): p. 1097-1124.
b) Addepalli, B. and E.R. Pardyjak. A pseudo-metric to handle zero measurements and predictions in atmospheric inverse-source problems. Under review. Submitted to Inverse Problems in Science and Engineering.
c) Addepalli, B. and E.R. Pardyjak. Investigation of flow structure in step-up street canyons. Ready to be submitted to Boundary Layer Meteorology. Pre-print available upon request.
d) Addepalli, B. and E.R. Pardyjak. Study of flow fields in asymmetric step-down street canyons. Ready to be submitted to Boundary Layer Meteorology. Pre-print available upon request.
e) Addepalli, B., E.R. Pardyjak, P. Willemsen and D.E. Johnson. Urban form optimization for air quality applications using simulated annealing and genetic algorithms. Ready to be submitted to Atmospheric Environment. Pre-print available upon request.
f) Addepalli, B. Markov Chain Monte Carlo annealing for atmospheric inverse-source problems. To be submitted to Inverse Problems in Science and Engineering. Pre-print available upon request.

B) Peer-reviewed Conference Publications:
a) Addepalli, B., K. Sikorski, E.R. Pardyjak and M.S. Zhdanov. Quasi-Monte Carlo, Monte Carlo, and regularized gradient optimization methods for source characterization of atmospheric releases. in Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings 09391, Algorithms and Complexity for Continuous Problems. 2009. Dagstuhl, Germany: Schloss Dagstuhl - Leibniz-Zentrum fuer Informatik, Germany.
b) Addepalli, B. and E.R. Pardyjak. Study of flow fields in asymmetric step-down street canyons. in The International Workshop on Physical Modelling of Flow and Dispersion Phenomena (PHYSMOD). 2007. University of Orleans, France.

C) Conference Publications:
a) Pardyjak, E.R., Addepalli, B., et al., Impact of green infrastructure on urban microclimate and air quality, in the 8^th International Conference on Urban Climate - ICUC 8. 2012: Dublin, Ireland.
b) Addepalli, B. and C. Sikorski, A note on objective functions for atmospheric inverse-source problems, in second National Conference in Advancing Tools and Solutions for Nuclear Material Detection. 2011: Salt Lake City, UT.
c) Addepalli, B. and C. Sikorski, Efficient adaption of simulated annealing and genetic algorithms to atmospheric inverse-source problems, in AIChE Annual Meeting. 2010: Salt Lake City, UT.
d) Addepalli, B. and C. Sikorski, Tools to characterize the source of hazardous releases, in 1^st National Conference on Advancing Tools and Solutions for Nuclear Material Detection. 2010: Salt Lake City, UT.
e) Addepalli, B., M.J. Brown, E.R. Pardyjak and I. Senocak. Evaluation of the QUIC-URB wind model using wind-tunnel data for step-up street canyons, in Seventh Symposium on the Urban Environment. 2007: San Diego, CA.
f) Addepalli, B. and E.R. Pardyjak. 2D PIV Measurements of street canyon flow for buildings with varying angles and separation distances. in American Meteorological Society Sixth Symposium on the Urban Environment. 2006: Atlanta, GA.

D) Conference Presentations:
a) Addepalli, B., E.R. Pardyjak, P. Willemsen and D.E. Johnson. GPU-MCDM: A new module of the Quick Urban and Industrial Complex (QUIC) dispersion modeling system for urban form optimization. in the 8^th International Conference on Urban Climate - ICUC 8. 2012: Dublin, Ireland.
b) Addepalli, B., E.R. Pardyjak, P. Willemsen and D.E. Johnson. Development of a multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) tool for urban form optimization. in 92^nd AMS Annual Meeting. 2012: New Orleans, LA.
c) Addepalli, B., E.R. Pardyjak, P. Willemsen and D.E. Johnson. Urban form optimization for air quality applications using simulated annealing and genetic algorithms. in Ninth Symposium on the Urban Environment. 2010: Keystone, CO.
d) Addepalli, B., M.J. Brown, E.R. Pardyjak and I. Senocak. Investigation of the flow structure around step-up, step-down, deep canyon, and isolated tall building configurations using wind-tunnel PIV measurements, in Seventh Symposium on the Urban Environment. 2007: San Diego, CA.
e) Addepalli, B., E.R. Pardyjak and M.J. Brown. The effect of geometry on the wake structure of a surface mounted obstacle. in 60^th Annual Meeting of the APS Divison of Fluid Dynamics. 2007: Salt Lake City, UT.
f) Addepalli, B. and E.R. Pardyjak. Experimental investigation of the effect of Reynolds number and HΔ value on flow fields in street canyons with cubical Buildings. in American Physical Society, 59^th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics. 2006: Tampa Bay, FL.
g) Addepalli, B. and E.R. Pardyjak. 2D PIV measurements of flow between a pair of model buildings with varying geometries. in American Physical Society, 58^th Annual Meeting of the Division of Fluid Dynamics. 2005: Chicago, IL.

E) Technical Reports:
a) Addepalli, B., C. Sikorski and E.R. Pardyjak. Source Characterization of atmospheric releases using quasi-random sampling and gradient optimization. Report submitted to the School of Computing, University of Utah. Report number: UUCS 09-001.
b) Nelson, M., B. Addepalli, D. Boswell and M.J. Brown. QUIC Start Guide (v 4.5). Los Alamos National Labratory. LA-UR-07-2799.

Contact: addbugs@gmail.com

The GEnUSiS (Green Environmental Urban Simulations for Sustainability) Project

Surface Temperature simulations from QUIC ENERGY

Supported by the National Science Foundation - NSF IDRCBET-PDM 113458
Collaborative Research: The Impact of Green Infrastructure on Urban Microclimate and Energy Use

PIs: Eric Pardyjak, Rob Stoll, Todd Harman, W. James Steenburgh at the University of Utah with collaboration from Peter Willemsen at the University of Minnesota, Duluth

Students:
University of Utah: Bhagirath Addepalli (PhD), Brian Bailey (PhD), Daniel Alexander (MS)
University of Minnesota, Duluth - Scot Halverson (MS), Matthew Overby (MS)

Post-doctoral Fellows: Adam Kochanski
Research Professors: David Johnson

Intellectual Merit: We propose to use large-scale simulation science to investigate the impact of green infrastructure projects on urban energy use and microclimate. Green infrastructure projects come in many forms including; the development of parks, alteration of building rooftops, and the use of novel asphalt and concrete materials for streets and parking lots. They all share the common goals of reducing energy usage, mitigating pollution emissions and improving the urban microclimate. Due to difficulty in simulating the large disparity in length scales (m to km), little is know about their impact. Our interdisciplinary team will utilize a suite of computationally based strategies to bridge these scales and improve our understanding of how green infrastructure interacts with the urban environment at local (neighborhood), city, and meso- scales. Specifically, we are interested in how the distribution of heat, moisture and pollutants can be effected. We hypothesize that large-scale simulation science can be used to find optimal green infrastructure designs. We will investigate the complex interaction between urban form and green infrastructure and develop strategies to guide future projects. To adequately resolve the fundamental transport processes that govern the distribution of heat, water vapor and pollutants across a wide range of scales, will require petascale computing. We will implement a new urban fluid dynamics and mass transport simulation code inside of a massively parallel computational framework (Uintah) capable of taking advantage of the largest computing platforms. This simulation tool will be combined with mesoscale simulations to produce high-resolution (on the order of 1 m) simulations of the urban core with realistic atmospheric forcing conditions. Mesoscale simulations will also be combined with an extremely fast-running GPU based urban microclimate and dispersion tool to optimize the design of green infrastructure projects based on different criteria (e.g., energy usage, space). Our target simulation scenario is a full diurnal cycle of Oklahoma City during the Joint Urban 2003 field campaign, with high fidelity physics, resolving physical effects at length scales ranging from ~1m to 1000’s km. This target scenario takes advantage of the extensive datasets from Oklahoma City taken during the field experiment allowing for detailed validation. We will also utilize an interactive and immersive virtual environment to provide unprecedented understanding and refinement of the complex physical processes associated with transport and dispersion in an urban setting across scales from the street to the entire city.

Broader Impacts: These simulation tools will aid urban planners in developing useful and unique strategies for the designing and implementation of green infrastructure projects. To ensure this, we will continue to work with urban planners throughout the model development process. The data from the high-resolution simulations will be made available in an archival form to other researchers working on urban meteorology applications. These data will span an unprecedented range of scales and have a detailed representation of the physical processes. We anticipate that it will be useful for a wide range of model development and theoretical work outside the scope of this proposal. In addition, this proposal has a substantial outreach component at both collaborating universities designed to introduce American Indians, Alaskan Natives, and other minorities to simulation science and environmental engineering. Through our program, students will be invited to a weeklong interactive learning symposium during each of the three years of the grant. In addition, this project will provide interdisciplinary training in the atmospheric, engineering, computer and social sciences for graduate students and post-doctoral researchers through collaborative research activities and from involvement in the Global Change and Ecosystem Center at the University of Utah.