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At least 343 records · Page 19

Geothermal play-fairway analysis of Washington State prospects

Herein, analysis of existing geologic, geophysical, and geochemical data revealed areas with elevated heat and permeability, defining three promising plays along the central axis of the magmatic arc of Washington State: Mount St. Helens, Wind River valley, and the southeast flank of Mount Baker. These areas are geothermal ‘fairways’, or locations with high geothermal resource potential based on modeling. This project applies innovative data analyses (Poly3D) in conjunction with methods proven in previous geothermal favorability studies (ArcGIS and MATLAB) to extract new value from existing public data. Heat and permeability potential models for each play are weighted using the Analytical Hierarchy Process, and combined to map geothermal resource potential and locations for further data collection at each site. Heat potential is based on: (1) temperature gradients, (2) volcanic vents, (3) Quaternary intrusive rocks, (4) spring temperature, and (5) spring geothermometry. Permeability potential is based on: (1) slip and (2) dilation tendency on mapped and seismic faults (3) maximum shear strain rate, and (4) dilatational strain rate at the surface, (5) modeled fault displacement distribution, and (6) displacement gradient, (7) shear, and (8) tensile fracture density, and (9) local geology and geophysical data. This information is vital for revealing the small scale heat and permeability potential of each study area, locating areas of undiscovered or untapped resources, and reducing the risk and cost involved in greenfield exploration and development. Preliminary analysis of the three play areas shows promise for geothermal development. Uncertainty modeling is underway and the results will guide future exploration plans.

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗

Ferroelectric HfO 2 and the importance of strain

Ferroelectric oxides based on HfO 2 show tremendous promise for the next generation of memory and logic devices. The ferroelectric polymorph is one of several that can be derived from the high symmetry cubic fluorite structure of HfO 2 . A single grain of HfO 2 may consist of a coherent mixture of multiple orientational and translational variants of different polymorphs. Here, we use symmetry-adapted strain-order parameters to elucidate the relationship between the different HfO 2 polymorphs and their symmetrically equivalent variants. We use first-principles electronic structure methods to identify minimum energy pathways and map them in subspaces of the symmetry-adapted strain order parameters. We next investigate the atomic structure of domain boundaries that separate coexisting variants of ferroelectric HfO 2 . Further, we rely on Gibbsian excess quantities and a precise specification of mechanical boundary conditions to describe the thermodynamic properties of domain boundaries. Our first-principles calculations show that the O and Hf shuffle arrangement within a domain boundary is closely related to the intermediate shuffle patterns of the homogeneous pathways between ferroelectric variants. Furthermore, the preferred structure within a boundary is very sensitive to local strain constraints imposed by the adjacent ferroelectric variants, leading to highly anisotropic domain boundary energies.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Fatigue damage mapping

Observations of fatigue crack nucleation and early growth are presented. The state of stress/strain was shown to play a significant role in this process. Early growth occurs on planes experiencing the largest range of shear strain (Mode 2) or normal strain (Mode 1) depending on the stress state, strain amplitude, and microstructure. These observations were summarized in a fatigue map for each material. These maps provide regions where one fatigue failure mode dominates the behavior. Each failure mechanism results in a different failure mode. Once the expected failure mode is identified, bulk deformation models based on the cyclic stresses and strains can be used to obtain reliable estimates of fatigue lives for complex loading situations.

Socie, Darrell↗

Direct evidence of strain transfer for InAs island growth on compliant Si substrates

Semiconductor heteroepitaxy on top of thin compliant layers has been explored as a path to make inorganic electronics mechanically flexible as well as to integrate materials that cannot be grown directly on rigid substrates. Here, we show direct evidences of strain transfer for InAs islands on freestanding Si thin films (7 nm). Synchrotron X-ray diffraction measurements using a beam size of 300 × 700 nm{sup 2} can directly probe the strain status of the compliant substrate underneath deposited islands. Using a recently developed diffraction mapping technique, three-dimensional reciprocal space maps were reconstructed around the Si (004) peak for specific illuminated positions of the sample. The strain retrieved was analyzed using continuous elasticity theory via Finite-element simulations. The comparison of experiment and simulations yields the amount of strain from the InAs islands, which is transferred to the compliant Si thin film.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Ranges of Applicability for the Continuum-beam Model in the Constitutive Analysis of Carbon Nanotubes: Nanotubes or Nano-beams?

Ranges of validity for the continuum-beam model, the length-scale effects and continuum assumptions are analyzed in the framework of scaling analysis of NT structure. Two coupled criteria for the applicability of the continuum model are presented. Scaling analysis of NT buckling and geometric parameters (e.g., diameter and length) is carried out to determine the key non-dimensional parameters that control the buckling strains and modes of NT buckling. A model applicability map, which represents two classes of NTs, is constructed in the space of non-dimensional parameters. In an analogy with continuum mechanics, a mechanical law of geometric similitude is presented for two classes of beam-like NTs having different geometries. Expressions for the critical buckling loads and strains are tailored for the distinct groups of NTs and compared with the data provided by the molecular dynamics simulations. Implications for molecular dynamics simulations and the NT-based scanning probes are discussed.

Harik, Vasyl Michael↗

The Uniaxial Tensile Response of Porous and Microcracked Ceramic Materials

The uniaxial tensile stress-strain behavior of three porous ceramic materials was determined at ambient conditions. Test specimens in the form of thin beams were obtained from the walls of diesel particulate filter honeycombs and tested using a microtesting system. A digital image correlation technique was used to obtain full-field 2D in-plane surface displacement maps during tensile loading, and in turn, the 2D strains obtained from displacement fields were used to determine the Secant modulus, Young s modulus and initial Poisson s ratio of the three porous ceramic materials. Successive unloading-reloading experiments were performed at different levels of stress to decouple the linear elastic, anelastic and inelastic response in these materials. It was found that the stress-strain response of these materials was non-linear and that the degree of nonlinearity is related to the initial microcrack density and evolution of damage in the material.

anelasticity↗

Moleculo Long-Read Sequencing Facilitates Assembly and Genomic Binning from Complex Soil Metagenomes

ABSTRACT Soil metagenomics has been touted as the “grand challenge” for metagenomics, as the high microbial diversity and spatial heterogeneity of soils make them unamenable to current assembly platforms. Here, we aimed to improve soil metagenomic sequence assembly by applying the Moleculo synthetic long-read sequencing technology. In total, we obtained 267 Gbp of raw sequence data from a native prairie soil; these data included 109.7 Gbp of short-read data (~100 bp) from the Joint Genome Institute (JGI), an additional 87.7 Gbp of rapid-mode read data (~250 bp), plus 69.6 Gbp (>1.5 kbp) from Moleculo sequencing. The Moleculo data alone yielded over 5,600 reads of >10 kbp in length, and over 95% of the unassembled reads mapped to contigs of >1.5 kbp. Hybrid assembly of all data resulted in more than 10,000 contigs over 10 kbp in length. We mapped three replicate metatranscriptomes derived from the same parent soil to the Moleculo subassembly and found that 95% of the predicted genes, based on their assignments to Enzyme Commission (EC) numbers, were expressed. The Moleculo subassembly also enabled binning of >100 microbial genome bins. We obtained via direct binning the first complete genome, that of “ Candidatus Pseudomonas sp. strain JKJ-1” from a native soil metagenome. By mapping metatranscriptome sequence reads back to the bins, we found that several bins corresponding to low-relative-abundance Acidobacteria were highly transcriptionally active, whereas bins corresponding to high-relative-abundance Verrucomicrobia were not. These results demonstrate that Moleculo sequencing provides a significant advance for resolving complex soil microbial communities. IMPORTANCE Soil microorganisms carry out key processes for life on our planet, including cycling of carbon and other nutrients and supporting growth of plants. However, there is poor molecular-level understanding of their functional roles in ecosystem stability and responses to environmental perturbations. This knowledge gap is largely due to the difficulty in culturing the majority of soil microbes. Thus, use of culture-independent approaches, such as metagenomics, promises the direct assessment of the functional potential of soil microbiomes. Soil is, however, a challenge for metagenomic assembly due to its high microbial diversity and variable evenness, resulting in low coverage and uneven sampling of microbial genomes. Despite increasingly large soil metagenome data volumes (>200 Gbp), the majority of the data do not assemble. Here, we used the cutting-edge approach of synthetic long-read sequencing technology (Moleculo) to assemble soil metagenome sequence data into long contigs and used the assemblies for binning of genomes. Author Video : An author video summary of this article is available.

De Novo assembly↗

Constitutive Behavior and Hot Workability of a Hot Isostatic Pressed Ti-22Al-25Nb Alloy during Hot Compression

A Ti-22Al-25Nb alloy was fabricated from prealloyed powders by hot isostatic pressing for 2 h at a temperature of 1050 °C and pressure of 100 MPa. The hot deformation behavior of the Ti-22Al-25Nb alloy was characterized by isothermal compression testing at deformation temperatures between 900 and 1060 °C and strain rates between 0.001 and 1 s{sup −1}. Based on the true stress–strain curves, a constitutive equation was constructed to describe the flow stress as a function of the strain rate and deformation temperature. Three-dimensional (3D) processing maps were developed based on dynamic material model theory using the stress flow data to identify the instability and optimization regions of the hot processing parameters. The results show that the flow stress decreases with increasing deformation temperature and decreasing strain rate, and the softening mechanisms are different under different deformation conditions. The apparent activation energies in the (α{sub 2} + β/B2 + O) and (α{sub 2} + B2) phase regions are calculated to be 865.177 and 590.661 kJ/mol, respectively, which suggests that the hot isostatic pressed (HIPed) Ti-22Al-25Nb alloy requires a high hot deformation activation energy. Combined with microstructural observations, the optimal processing domains are determined to be a temperature range of 1030-1060 °C and strain rate range of 0.01-0.1 s{sup −1} in the α{sub 2} + B2 phase region. Moreover, the results indicate that adiabatic shear bands and severe inhomogeneous deformation cause flow instability at lower temperatures (900-1005 °C) and higher strain rates (> 0.1 s{sup −1}).

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Strengthening Mechanisms and Deformation Behavior of Industrially-Cast and Lab-Cast Dual-Phase High Entropy Alloy

An iron-rich high entropy alloy Al 0.65 CoCrFe 2 Ni comprising of both FCC and BCC phases was designed and fabricated using induction melting at a large industrial scale and suction casting at a small lab scale. Spinodally decomposed interdendritic regions were uniformly distributed in the industrially melted alloy, and a finer dendritic structure with smaller sized spinodal structures was observed in the alloy suction cast at lab scale. The suction cast alloy fabricated at the lab scale exhibited significantly higher compressive yield strength compared to the industrially cast alloy. The relative strengthening contributions in the alloys due to solid solution, grain boundary, dislocation interactions and interphase boundary were analyzed. Dislocation hardening was the major contributor responsible for the higher strength of the SC alloy. The deformation behavior in the alloys was examined with the help of orientation image mapping. Finally, intense slip band formation at large strains in the industrially melted alloy indicates that cold working can be an effective technique to enhance the strength of the dual-phase high entropy alloy processed at a large scale.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Performance and wake flow characterization of a 1:8.7-scale reference USDOE MHKF1 hydrokinetic turbine to establish a verification and validation test database

As hydrokinetic turbine technologies continue to advance towards commercialization, public datasets on the performance characteristics for these devices and their flow field effects are invaluable to advance our understanding of these technologies and to validate analytical and numerical models. The Applied Research Laboratory at The Pennsylvania State University (ARL Penn State) collaborated with Sandia National Laboratories and the University of California at Davis to design, fabricate (at a 1:8.7 scale), and experimentally test a novel hydrokinetic turbine rotor design to provide an open platform and dataset for further study and development. The water tunnel test of this three-bladed, horizontal-axis rotor recorded power production, blade loading, the near-wake flow, cavitation effects, and noise generation. These state-of-the-art measurements demonstrate much of the complex physics associated with the flow through an unducted, horizontal-axis turbine, and they elucidate the performance characteristics and flow field effects at an unprecedented fidelity, accuracy and resolution. Measurements of powering coefficients (power, torque and thrust) as a function of tip-speed-ratio were performed. The dataset also includes unsteady measurements of driveshaft loading, blade strain, tower pressures, and radiated noise. Detailed flow mapping using laser Doppler velocimetry, and planar and stereo particle image velocimetry includes measurements of mean velocity and Reynolds stresses. Although the wake measurements are limited to less than half a diameter, they reveal the complex flow patterns in the near-wake structure of the rotor. The full database, available at the United States Department of Energy’s marine and hydrokinetic data repository, includes tunnel and model Computer Aided Design geometry files and inflow data sufficient for a “Model-the-Test” computational Verification and Validation study.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗

Isotopically nonstationary 13 C flux analysis of cyanobacterial isobutyraldehyde production

Here, we applied isotopically nonstationary 13 C metabolic flux analysis (INST-MFA) to compare the pathway fluxes of wild-type (WT) Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942 to an engineered strain (SA590) that produces isobutyraldehyde (IBA). The flux maps revealed a potential bottleneck at the pyruvate kinase (PK) reaction step that was associated with diversion of flux into a three-step PK bypass pathway involving the enzymes PEP carboxylase (PEPC), malate dehydrogenase (MDH), and malic enzyme (ME). Overexpression of pk in SA590 led to a significant improvement in IBA specific productivity. Single-gene overexpression of the three enzymes in the proposed PK bypass pathway also led to improvements in IBA production, although to a lesser extent than pk overexpression. Combinatorial overexpression of two of the three genes in the proposed PK bypass pathway ( mdh and me ) led to improvements in specific productivity that were similar to those achieved by single-gene pk overexpression. Our work demonstrates how 13 C flux analysis can be used to identify potential metabolic bottlenecks and novel metabolic routes, and how these findings can guide rational metabolic engineering of cyanobacteria for increased production of desired molecules.

13C INST-MFA↗

Comparison of Dislocation Characterization by Electron Channeling Contrast Imaging and Cross-Correlation Electron Backscattered Diffraction

The characterization and quantification of dislocations is predominately carried out using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Nevertheless, the sample preparation necessary for TEM foils can be cumbersome and possibly introduce defects. Two other techniques for characterizing and quantifying dislocations are electron channeling contrast imaging (ECCI) and cross-correlation electron backscattered diffraction (CC-EBSD). ECCI is similar to TEM in that specific imaging (channeling or diffraction) conditions need to be established, but is carried out in a scanning electron microscope on bulk samples, resulting in less complex sample preparation. CC-EBSD measures subtle changes in orientation measured from EBSD patterns to calculate elastic strains and the Nye tensor to deduce and map the total geometrically necessary dislocation (GND) content. Furthermore, this work presented here compares the capabilities of ECCI and CC-EBSD to map dislocations generated from nanoindentation.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Preliminary deformation model for National Seismic Hazard map of Indonesia

Preliminary deformation model for the Indonesia’s National Seismic Hazard (NSH) map is constructed as the block rotation and strain accumulation function at the elastic half-space. Deformation due to rigid body motion is estimated by rotating six tectonic blocks in Indonesia. The interseismic deformation due to subduction is estimated by assuming coupling on subduction interface while deformation at active fault is calculated by assuming each of the fault‘s segment slips beneath a locking depth or in combination with creeping in a shallower part. This research shows that rigid body motion dominates the deformation pattern with magnitude more than 15 mm/year, except in the narrow area near subduction zones and active faults where significant deformation reach to 25 mm/year.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Blunt Impact Brain Injury using Cellular Injury Criterion

The Advanced Combat Helmet (\ACH") military specification (\mil-spec") requires a helmeted magnesium (\Mg") Department of Transportation (\DOT") headform be dropped vertically, with an impact speed of 3.1 m/s (10 ft/s), onto a steel hemispherical target. The pass/fail criteria are based on translational acceleration (150 G) alone, absent of any rotational component. Without a rotational component, the specification's injury risk application is limited to skull fracture and peripheral hematomas (subdural, subarachnoid), since this translational acceleration injury risk assessment is based on the Wayne State Tolerance Curve (\WSTC"). To provide a more comprehensive view of injury for the entire brain, an alternative approach is needed. To meet this need, we worked with a larger group called PANTHER, a collaboration between national laboratories, industry, and academia. Collaborations specific to research and results presented here come from efforts led by Mr. Ron Szalkowski and Mr. Sushant Malave, Ms. Alice Fawzi, and Dr. Christian Franck. We have developed a prototypical injury risk criterion based on the neuronal response to abrupt changes in general motion (translation, rotation, or both). The cellular-based mild traumatic brain injury (\cbmTBI") criterion utilizes both the strain and strain rate of brain tissue to account for the stretch and rate of stretch that occurs throughout the brain as a result of blunt impact to the head. We conducted physical experiments of an ACH-fitted magnesium headform, which produced repeatable headform peak accelerations. Then, we developed a simulation of the experiment, and validated the simulation output with the experimental data. We then substituted the magnesium headform with a human headform, consisting of skin, muscle, bone, gray matter, white matter, cerebral-spinal fluid, membranes, vasculature, intravertebral discs, airway and sinus. We quantified brain injury risk using the cbmTBI criterion, using the current mil-spec test and a modified test. The modified mil-spec test used an inclined anvil target that was located posterior to the crown of the helmet in the axial plane. While the current mil-spec test produced brain deformation from head translation alone, the modified test produced brain deformation from head translation and rotation, which is closer to most real world and combat theater impacts (e.g., such as occur in tertiary blast exposure). Compared to the current mil-spec test, the modified test produced elevated strains in the human digital twin. These data, mapped to the cbmTBI criterion, suggest increased injury risk for blunt impacts that cause rotation and translation, rather than just translation alone. Moreover, these data may lead to a rotational performance metric, which is rooted in the biology and pathology of the brain's response to impact and blast, and which should be used to improve next-generation helmet designs.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Thermocryogenic buckling and stress analyses of a partially filled cryogenic tank subjected to cylindrical strip heating

Thermocryogenic buckling and stress analyses were conducted on a horizontally oriented cryogenic tank using the finite element method. The tank is a finite-length circular cylindrical shell with its two ends capped with hemispherical shells. The tank is subjected to cylindrical strip heating in the region above the liquid-cryogen fill level and to cryogenic cooling below the fill level (i.e., under thermocryogenic loading). The effects of cryogen fill level on the buckling temperature and thermocryogenic stress field were investigated in detail. Both the buckling temperature and stress magnitudes were relatively insensitive to the cryogen fill level. The buckling temperature, however, was quite sensitive to the radius-to-thickness ratio. A mechanical stress analysis of the tank also was conducted when the tank was under: (1) cryogen liquid pressure loading; (2) internal pressure loading; and (3) tank-wall inertia loading. Deformed shapes of the cryogenic tanks under different loading conditions were shown, and high-stress domains were mapped on the tank wall for the strain-gage installations. The accuracies of solutions from different finite element models were compared.

Ko, William L.↗

Fault Creep along the Southern San Andreas from Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar, Permanent Scatterers, and Stacking

Interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) provides a practical means of mapping creep along major strike-slip faults. The small amplitude of the creep signal (less than 10 mm/yr), combined with its short wavelength, makes it difficult to extract from long time span interferograms, especially in agricultural or heavily vegetated areas. We utilize two approaches to extract the fault creep signal from 37 ERS SAR images along the southem San Andreas Fault. First, amplitude stacking is utilized to identify permanent scatterers, which are then used to weight the interferogram prior to spatial filtering. This weighting improves correlation and also provides a mask for poorly correlated areas. Second, the unwrapped phase is stacked to reduce tropospheric and other short-wavelength noise. This combined processing enables us to recover the near-field (approximately 200 m) slip signal across the fault due to shallow creep. Displacement maps fiom 60 interferograms reveal a diffuse secular strain buildup, punctuated by localized interseismic creep of 4-6 mm/yr line of sight (LOS, 12-18 mm/yr horizontal). With the exception of Durmid Hill, this entire segment of the southern San Andreas experienced right-lateral triggered slip of up to 10 cm during the 3.5-year period spanning the 1992 Landers earthquake. The deformation change following the 1999 Hector Mine earthquake was much smaller (4 cm) and broader than for the Landers event. Profiles across the fault during the interseismic phase show peak-to-trough amplitude ranging from 15 to 25 mm/yr (horizontal component) and the minimum misfit models show a range of creeping/locking depth values that fit the data.

Lyons, Suzanne↗

Tracking Metabolic Changes in Microbial Culture using Redox Measurements

During long-term space missions, microbial cultures accumulate the effects of low-dose radiation, microgravity, and other factors; altered growth and metabolic activity may occur before viability effects. This could affect functionality of bioreactors or other bio-enabled mission systems, as well as shed light on human health. Spaceflight microbiology studies beyond the low Earth orbit exposure afforded by the ISS have been limited. Nanosatellites offer an increasingly popular alternative for deep space missions. However, the communications delay requires biofluidic automation of a pre-defined experimental protocol, and the lack of sample return (reliance on sensors in flight) can significantly limit feasible investigations. Previous biological CubeSats (PharmaSat, O/OREOS, EcAMSat) have used alamarBlue, an off-the-shelf formulation of the redox indicator dye resazurin, to track metabolic activity, as will BioSentinel, the upcoming interplanetary microbiology experiment. A series of ground experiments (see abstracts by Liddell, Santa Maria, and A. Kim) were conducted using a microbial culture system outfitted with an electrochemical sensor array (electrical conductivity, pH, oxidation-reduction potential, and dissolved oxygen) with alamarBlue and the same strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae as BioSentinel. By improving mapping of measured changes in alamarBlue kinetics to physicochemical changes, and ultimately to biological alterations such as shifted metabolic pathways, this work supplements data analyses from past missions and planning for future missions using alamarBlue to characterize space radiation effects. Initial results indicate that alamarBlue acts like a redox buffer; its presence significantly changes redox kinetics in otherwise identical cultures. The initial color change (blue resazurin reduced to red/pink resorufin) appears as a redox plateau. A second plateau, likely corresponding to the second color transition (resorufin to the colorless hydroresorufin), occurs at a lower redox value. The relationship to carbon source exhaustion, dissolved oxygen depletion, cell death, and measured redox potential is complex and still under study.

Tracking↗