SBIR-STTR Award

Numerical models related to subsurface fluid flow, contaminant transport, and chemical and biological reactions play key roles in several DOE program areas. Decision makers and stakeholders dealing with groundwater issues need to select, from the large number of models available, those which have the potential to produce useful information. At present, decision makers have no systematic, information-technology-based method for identifying simulation models that meet a set of specified requirements for use on a given project. This project will develop a Model Management System (MMS) for numerical models that deal with subsurface fluid flow, contaminant transport, and chemical and biological reactions. In this approach, each candidate model will be associated with model metadata and stored in a relational database that supports standard query language. Phase I will: (1) design a model metadata template with a sufficiently rich structure to enable a wide range of exploratory model analyses; (2) design a relational database of mathematical models that address subsurface flow, transport, and chemical and biological reactions; (3) populate the database with a modest number of models and their associated model metadata; (4) design a web portal that enables users to navigate the model database using queries and data mining techniques; and (5) beta-test the prototype MMS and web portal and revise as necessary.

Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee:
It is envisioned that the MMS component of the web portal would be freely accessible to al users. Commercial services could involve: (1) subscription-only access to other parts of the portal that contain, for example, enhanced user manuals, sample data sets, or processing tools; and (2) groundwater modeling

Numerical models related to subsurface fluid flow, contaminant transport, and chemical and biological reactions play key roles in several DOE program areas. Decision makers and stakeholders dealing with groundwater issues need to determine, from the large number of models available, which models have the potential to produce useful information. At present, decision makers have no systematic method for identifying simulation models that meet a set of specified requirements for use on a given project. This project will create a Model Management System for numerical simulations of subsurface science phenomena. Phase I developed a preliminary ontology for subsurface science simulations; constructed a model metadata vector with a structure that is rich enough to enable a detailed description of each model and provide quantitative comparisons of different models; created a prototype relational database of mathematical models that simulate subsurface flow, heat transport, and chemical and biological reactions; developed an initial web site that enables users to use a "model choice wizard" to assist in identifying models appropriate for use on a particular problem; and initiated beta testing of the prototype database and web site. Phase II will augment the current cosine based model comparison metric with a Latent Semantic Analysis metric; add a wiki (a set of web pages for community editing) to the model management system to provide a forum for model users to discuss models and share data; develop a generic model management framework; and continue the development of tools for creating and managing metadata.

Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee:
In addition to the application to subsurface science, a web-based model management framework should find use in numerous physical sciences areas