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At least 307 records · Page 17

CHROTRAN, 1.0

CHROTRAN is a fork of the widely-used PFLOTRAN flow and reactive transport numerical simulation code. It implements custom physics and chemistry appropriate to the design of in-situ reduction of heavy metals such as Cr(VI) in groundwater. CHROTRAN includes full dynamics for five species: the metal to be remediated, an electron donor, biofilm, a nontoxic conservative bio-inhibitor, and a biocide. Direct abiotic reduction by donor-metal interaction as well as donor-driven biomass growth and bio-reduction are modeled, along with crucial processes such as donor sorption, and biofilm inactivation. The software implementation handles heterogeneous flow fields, arbitrarily many chemical species and amendment injection points, and features full coupling between flow and reactive transport, allowing for assessment of the effect of bio-fouling.

Hansen, Scott K.↗

Chemorheology of reactive systems: Finite element analysis

The equations which govern the nonisothermal flow of reactive fluids are outlined, and the means by which finite element analysis is used to solve these equations for the sort of arbitrary boundary conditions encountered in industrial practice are described. The performance of the computer code is illustrated by several trial problems, selected more for their value in providing insight to polymer processing flows than as practical production problems. Although a good deal remains to be learned as to the performance and proper use of this numerical technique, it is undeniably useful in providing better understanding of today's complicated polymer processing problems.

Douglas, C.↗

Flexible sample environment for high resolution neutron imaging at high temperatures in controlled atmosphere

In high material penetration by neutrons allows for experiments using sophisticated sample environments providing complex conditions. Thus, neutron imaging holds potential for performing in situ nondestructive measurements on large samples or even full technological systems, which are not possible with any other technique. Our paper presents a new sample environment for in situ high resolution neutron imaging experiments at temperatures from room temperature up to 1100 degrees C and/or using controllable flow of reactive atmospheres. The design also offers the possibility to directly combine imaging with diffraction measurements. Design, special features, and specification of the furnace are described. In addition, examples of experiments successfully performed at various neutron facilities with the furnace, as well as examples of possible applications are presented. Our work covers a broad field of research from fundamental to technological investigations of various types of materials and components.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

A multiphysics coupling framework for exascale simulation of fracture evolution in subsurface energy applications

Predicting the evolution of fractured media is challenging due to coupled thermal, hydrological, chemical and mechanical processes that occur over a broad range of spatial scales, from the microscopic pore scale to field scale. We present a software framework and scientific workflow that couples the pore scale flow and reactive transport simulator Chombo-Crunch with the field scale geomechanics solver in GEOS to simulate fracture evolution in subsurface fluid-rock systems. This new multiphysics coupling capability comprises several novel features. An HDF5 data schema for coupling fracture positions between the two codes is employed and leverages the coarse resolution of the GEOS mechanics solver which limits the size of data coupled, and is, thus, not taxed by data resulting from the high resolution pore scale Chombo-Crunch solver. The coupling framework requires tracking of both before and after coarse nodal positions in GEOS as well as the resolved embedded boundary in Chombo-Crunch. We accomplished this by developing an approach to geometry generation that tracks the fracture interface between the two different methodologies. The GEOS quadrilateral mesh is converted to triangles which are organized into bins and an accessible tree structure; the nodes are then mapped to the Chombo representation using a continuous signed distance function that determines locations inside, on and outside of the fracture boundary. The GEOS positions are retained in memory on the Chombo-Crunch side of the coupling. The time stepping cadence for coupled multiphysics processes of flow, transport, reactions and mechanics is stable and demonstrates temporal reach to experimental time scales. The approach is validated by demonstration of 9 days of simulated time of a core flood experiment with fracture aperture evolution due to invasion of carbonated brine in wellbore-cement and sandstone. We also demonstrate usage of exascale computing resources by simulating a high resolution version of the validation problem on OLCF Frontier.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Experimental and numerical investigation of reactive shock-accelerated flows

The main goal of this program was to establish a qualitative and quantitative connection, based on the appropriate dimensionless parameters and scaling laws, between shock-induced distortion of astrophysical plasma density clumps and their earthbound analog in a shock tube. These objectives were pursued by carrying out laboratory experiments and numerical simulations to study the evolution of two gas bubbles accelerated by planar shock waves and compare the results to available astrophysical observations. The experiments were carried out in an vertical, downward-firing shock tube, 9.2 m long, with square internal cross section (25×25 cm 2 ). Specific goals were to quantify the effect of the shock strength (Mach number, M) and the density contrast between the bubble gas and its surroundings (usually quantified by the Atwood number, i.e. the dimensionless density difference between the two gases) upon some of the most important flow features (e.g. macroscopic properties; turbulence and mixing rates). The computational component of the work performed through this program was aimed at (a) studying the physics of multi-phase compressible flows in the context of astrophysics plasmas and (b) providing a computational connection between laboratory experiments and the astrophysical application of shock-bubble interactions. Throughout the study, we used the FLASH4.2 code to run hydrodynamical and magnetohydrodynamical simulations of shock bubble interactions on an adaptive mesh.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Reactive mixing in swirling flows

The effect of swirl on the mixing of two gas streams of the same density and axial velocity in a coaxial annular geometry has been examined. The flow is studied via a fluorescent tracer, 2-3 biacetyl. Through direct excitation, collisional excitation, and collisional de-excitation of the tracer, the turbulent transport, molecularly mixed and unmixed regions in the flow are visualized. The visualization results indicate that there are interesting three dimensional inviscid large scale structures. Mixing in the molecular level is found to be mainly localized in these structures.

Cheng, W. K.↗

A flow-system comparison of the reactivities of calcium superoxide and potassium superoxide with carbon dioxide and water vapor

A single pass flow system was used to test the reactivity of calcium superoxide with respiratory gases and the performance was compared to that of potassium superoxide. The KO2 system is used by coal miners as a self-contained unit in rescue operations. Particular attention was given to the reactivity with carbon dioxide and water vapor at different temperatures and partial pressures of oxygen, carbon dioxide, and water vapor. The calcium superoxide beds were found to absorb CO2 and H2O vapor, releasing O2. The KO2 bed, however, released O2 at twice the rate of CO2 absorption at 37 C. It is concluded that the calcium superoxide material is not a suitable replacement for the KO2 bed, although Ca(O2)2 may be added to the KO2 bed to enhance the CO2 absorption.

Wood, P. C.↗

Theoretical study of reactive and nonreactive turbulent coaxial jets

The hydrodynamic properties and the reaction kinetics of axisymmetric coaxial turbulent jets having steady mean quantities are investigated. From the analysis, limited to free turbulent boundary layer mixing of such jets, it is found that the two-equation model of turbulence is adequate for most nonreactive flows. For the reactive flows, where an allowance must be made for second order correlations of concentration fluctuations in the finite rate chemistry for initially inhomogeneous mixture, an equation similar to the concentration fluctuation equation of a related model is suggested. For diffusion limited reactions, the eddy breakup model based on concentration fluctuations is found satisfactory and simple to use. The theoretical results obtained from these various models are compared with some of the available experimental data.

Gupta, R. N.↗

A kinetic-theory approach to turbulent chemically reacting flows

The paper examines the mathematical and physical foundations for the kinetic theory of reactive turbulent flows, discussing the differences and relation between the kinetic and averaged equations, and comparing some solutions of the kinetic equations obtained by the Green's function method with those obtained by the approximate bimodal method. The kinetic method described consists essentially in constructing the probability density functions of the chemical species on the basis of solutions of the Langevin stochastic equation for the influence of eddies on the behavior of fluid elements. When the kinetic equations are solved for the structure of the diffusion flame established in a shear layer by the bimodal method, discontinuities in gradients of the mean concentrations at the two flame edges appear. This is a consequence of the bimodal approximation of all distribution functions by two dissimilar half-Maxwellian functions, which is a very crude approximation. These discontinuities do not appear when the solutions are constructed by the Green's function method described here.

Chung, P. M.↗

A review of fluids under nanoconfinement: Reactivity, geomechanics, phase transitions, and flow

Due to its many industrial applications, the physics associated with the nanoconfinement of fluids has garnered great attention from the scientific community in roughly the last fifteen years. One pioneer of that research has been the Multi-Scale Fluid-Solid Interactions in Architected and Natural Materials (MUSE) Energy Frontier Research Center, which produced more than 50 journal articles from 2018 to 2023. We structure the findings of MUSE into four categories and contextualize the work with the broader literature. Here, the four categories are (1) the dependence of chemical reactions on the degree of confinement, which given the lower freedom of motion of molecules yet improved availability of reaction sites generally lead to enhancement from bulk reactions; (2) the mechanical properties of the porous matrix, which are dependent on the heterogeneity of the system in terms of both composition and structure; (3) the phase transitions under nanoconfinement, which are influenced by the pore size and morphology, surface chemistry, and substrate composition; and (4) the physical controls of slip flow, which demonstrate the importance of several factors, such as wettability. These aspects of nanoconfinement are becoming clearer, but there are other elements such as mathematical theory that are still being developed.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Experimental investigation of a reticulated porous alumina heat exchanger for high temperature gas heat recovery

The present study presents an experimental study of a prototype counter-flow heat exchanger designed to recover sensible heat from inert and reactive gases flowing through a high temperature solar reactor for splitting CO2. The tube-in-tube heat exchanger is comprised of two concentric alumina tubes, each filled with reticulated porous alumina with a nominal porosity of 80% and pore density of 5 pores per inch (ppi). The RPC provides high heat transfer surface area per unit volume (917 m(-1)) with low pressure drop. Measurements include the permeability, inertial coefficient, overall heat transfer coefficient, effectiveness and pressure drop. For laminar flow and an inlet gas temperature of 1240 K, the overall heat transfer coefficients are 36-41 W m(-2) K-1. The measured performance is in good agreement with a prior CFD model of the heat exchanger. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Banerjee, A↗

Coherent microwave scattering from resonance enhanced multi-photon ionization (Radar REMPI): A review

Coherent microwave scattering from laser-induced plasmas, including weakly ionized plasma, laser sparks, Multiphoton Ionization (MPI), and Resonance Enhanced Multi-Photon Ionizations (Radar REMPI) has achieved much successes in plasma, reactive and nonreactive flow diagnostics. Under illumination of microwaves (Radar), electrons inside the laser-induced plasma oscillate with the electric field of the microwave and re-radiate from the electrons forming coherent scattering. In the far-field approximation, the microwave scattering from the small volume plasma reflects the generation and evolution of unbounded electrons inside the plasma, when the microwave wavelength is much greater than the size of the plasma and the skin layer depth at the microwave frequency is larger than the size of the plasma. Laser excitation schemes, microwave detection methods, calibration of microwave scattering, and the novel applications of the technique have been significantly expanded and improved. Furthermore, this review paper summarizes physical principles, various REMPI excitation schemes for atomic and molecular species, and temperature measurements in plasma and reactive flows. Discussions on new research directions and applications are given at the end.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Reactive-transport modeling of fracture flow to quantify the changes in flow pathways from matrix thermal contraction and mineral precipitation and dissolution; influence of grid resolution

A series of reactive-transport models of Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) were constructed using the reactive transport code PFLOTRAN to examine the effect of matrix thermal contraction and mineral dissolution/precipitation on fracture flow in the context of grid cell size and model complexity. It was found that for thermal drawdown at production well, the impact of fracture zone grid cell size is negligible.

Gatz-Miller, Hannah Sarah↗

Numerical Simulation of Supersonic Compression Corners and Hypersonic Inlet Flows Using the RPLUS2D Code

A two-dimensional computational code, PRLUS2D, which was developed for the reactive propulsive flows of ramjets and scramjets, was validated for two-dimensional shock-wave/turbulent-boundary-layer interactions. The problem of compression corners at supersonic speeds was solved using the RPLUS2D code. To validate the RPLUS2D code for hypersonic speeds, it was applied to a realistic hypersonic inlet geometry. Both the Baldwin-Lomax and the Chien two-equation turbulence models were used. Computational results showed that the RPLUS2D code compared very well with experimentally obtained data for supersonic compression corner flows, except in the case of large separated flows resulting from the interactions between the shock wave and turbulent boundary layer. The computational results compared well with the experiment results in a hypersonic NASA P8 inlet case, with the Chien two-equation turbulence model performing better than the Baldwin-Lomax model.

Kapoor, Kamlesh↗

Mineralogical and transport controls on the evolution of porous media texture using direct numerical simulation

The evolution of porous media due to mineral dissolution and precipitation can change the bulk properties of subsurface materials. The pore-scale structure of the media, including its physical and mineralogical heterogeneity, exerts controls on porous media evolution via transport limitations to reactive surfaces and mineral accessibility. Here in this paper we explore how these controls affect the evolution of the texture in porous media at the pore scale. For this purpose, a pore-scale flow and reactive transport model is developed that explicitly tracks mineral surfaces as they evolve using a direct numerical simulation approach. Simulations of dissolution in single-mineral domains provide insights into the transport controls at the pore scale, while the simulation of a fracture surface composed of bands of faster-dissolving calcite and slower-dissolving dolomite provides insights into the mineralogical controls on evolution. Transport-limited conditions at the grain-pack scale may result in unstable evolution, a situation in which dissolution is focused in a fast-flowing, fast-dissolving path. Due to increasing velocities, the evolution in these regions is like that observed under conditions closer to strict surface control at the pore scale. That is, grains evolve to have oblong shapes with their long dimensions aligning with the local flow directions. Another example of an evolving reactive transport regime that affects local rates is seen in the evolution of the fracture surface. As calcite dissolves, the diffusive length between the fracture flow path and the receding calcite surfaces increases. Thus, the calcite dissolution reaction becomes increasingly limited by diffusion.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Structural isomers of C2N(+) - A selected-ion flow tube study

Reactivities of the structural isomers CCN(+) and CNC(+) were examined in a selected-ion flow tube at 300 + or - 5 K. The less reactive CNC(+) isomer was identified as the product of the reactions of C(+) + HCN and C(+) + C2N2; in these reactions only CNC(+) can be produced because of energy constraints. Rate coefficients and branching ratios are reported for the reactions of each isomer with H2, CH4, NH3, H2O, C2H2, HCN, N2, O2, N2O, and CO2. Ab initio calculations are presented for CCN(+) and CNC(+); a saddle point for the reaction CCN(+) yielding CNC(+) is calculated to be 195 kJ/mol above CNC(+). The results provide evidence that the more reactive CCN(+) isomer is unlikely to be present in measurable densities in interstellar clouds.

Knight, J. S.↗