Engineering topics

Jans, E. R.

Publications and source records attributed to Jans, E. R..

3 records

DOE OSTI2024

Spectral analysis and kinetic modeling of radioluminescence in air and nitrogen

Here, in this article we present a quantitative analysis of the second positive system of molecular nitrogen and the first negative system of the molecular nitrogen cation excited in the presence of ionizing radiation. Optical emission spectra of atmospheric air and nitrogen surrounding 210 Po sources were measured from 250 to 400 nm. Multi-Boltzmann and non-Boltzmann vibrational distribution spectral models were used to determine the vibrational temperature and vibrational distribution function of the emitting N 2 (C 3 Π u ) and N 2 + (B 2 Σ + u ) states. A zero-dimensional kinetic model, based on the electron energy distribution function (EEDF) and steady-state excitation and de-excitation of N 2 (X 1 Σ + g ), N 2 + (B 2 Σ + u ), N 2 + (X 2 Σ + g ), N 4 + , O 2 + , and N 2 (C 3 Π u , v), was developed for the prediction of the relative spectral intensity of both the N 2 + (B 2 Σ + u → X 2 Σ + g ) emission band and the vibrational bands of N 2 (C 3 Π u → B 3 Π g ) for comparison with the experimental data.

38 RADIATION CHEMISTRY, RADIOCHEMISTRY, AND NUCLEA↗

DOE OSTI2022

Time-resolved measurements of HO 2 radical in a heated plasma flow reactor

Time-resolved, absolute HO 2 number density in diluted H 2 –O 2 –Ar, CH 4 –O 2 -Ar, and C 2 H 4 –O 2 –Ar mixtures excited by a repetitive ns pulse discharge in a heated plasma flow reactor is measured by Cavity Ringdown Spectroscopy (CRDS). The experimental results are obtained at $\textit{T}$ = 300-600 K and $\textit{P}$ = 130 Torr, both during the discharge pulse burst and in the afterglow. In this work, the HO 2 number density is inferred from the CRDS data using a spectral model exhibiting good agreement with previous measurements of absolute HO 2 absorption cross sections. In the room-temperature H 2 –O 2 mixture, as well as in CH 4 –O 2 and C 2 H 4 –O 2 mixtures over the entire temperature range studied, HO2 is generated only during the discharge burst and decays in the afterglow. However, in the H 2 –O 2 mixture at elevated temperatures, $\textit{T}$ = 400-600 K, HO 2 persists in the afterglow up to 10 ms after the discharge burst, comparable with the flow residence time in the reactor. Comparison with kinetic modeling shows that the sustained reactivity after the source of radicals is turned off is due to a chain propagation / hydrogen oxidation process, which dominates the radical recombination reactions. The kinetic modeling predictions are in good agreement with the relative HO 2 number density measured in all three mixtures, although the model underpredicts the absolute number densities in H 2 –O 2 at $\textit{T}$ = 400-600 K by up to a factor of two. Detection of the sustained low-temperature reactivity in H 2 –O 2 , initiated by the radical generation in the plasma, suggests that the plasma excitation may also affect kinetics of oxidation and reforming of fuels exhibiting low-temperature chemistry below hot ignition point.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2021

SPEARS: A Database-Invariant Spectral modeling API

The Spectral Physics Environment for Advanced Remote Sensing (SPEARS) application programming interface (API) is a Python-based, line-by-line, local thermal equilibrium (LTE) spectral modeling code which is optimized for simultaneously synthesizing optical spectra from any combination of fundamental spectroscopic databases. In this article, we contribute two novel spectral modeling techniques to the scientific literature. First we describe how SPEARS integrates a physics-based collisional model for calculating pressure broadening in the absence of available broadening coefficients. With this collisional model implementation, a generalized approach to fundamental spectroscopic databases can be achieved across multiple databases. We also detail our adaptive grid mesh algorithm developed to make the code scalable for simulating large spectral bandwidths at high spectral fidelity using intuitive grid parameters. Here, we present comparisons to other modeling tools, experiments, and provide a discussion on the SPEARS user interface.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗