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At least 361 records · Page 20

Merging neutron stars. 1. Initial results for coalescence of noncorotating systems

We present three-dimensional Newtonian simulations of the coalescence of two neutron stars, using a smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) code. We begin the simulations with the two stars in a hard, circular binary, and have them spiral together as angular momentum is lost through gravitational radiation at the rate predicted by modeling the system as two point masses. We model the neutron stars as hard polytropes (gamma = 2.4) of equal mass, and investigate the effect of the initial spin of the two stars on the coalescence. The process of coalescence, from initial contact to the formation of an axially symmetric object, takes only a few orbital periods. Some of the material from the two neutron stars is shed, forming a thick disk around the central, coalesced object. The mass of this disk is dependent on the initial neutron star spins; higher spin rates result in greater mass loss and thus more massive disks. For spin rates that are most likely to be applicable to real systems, the central coalesced object has a mass of 2.4 solar mass, which is tantalizingly close to the maximum mass allowed by any neutron star equation of state for an object that is supported in part by rotation. Using a realistic nuclear equation of state, we estimate the temperature of the material after the coalescence. We find that the central object is at a temperature of approximately 10 MeV, while the disk is heated by shocks to a temperature of 2 to 4 MeV.

Davies, M. B.↗

Postexplosion hydrodynamics of supernovae in red supergiants

Shock propagation, mixing, and clumping are studied in the explosion of red supergiants as Type II supernovae using a two-dimensional smooth particle hydrodynamic (SPH) code. We show that extensive Rayleigh-Talor instabilities develop in the ejecta in the wake of the reverse shock wave. In all cases, the shell structure of the progenitor is obliterated to leave a clumpy, well-mixed supernova remnant. However, the occurrence of mass loss during the lifetime of the progenitor can significantly reduce the amount of mixing. These results are independent of the Type II supernova explosion mechanism.

Herant, Marc↗

Anomalous Ion Heating and Pole Erosion in the 12.5-kW Hall Effect Rocket with Magnetic Shielding (HERMeS)

Wear measurements of the inner pole cover in HERMeS have shown as much as ten times higher erosion rates than past numerical simulations predicted. Also, measurements of ion velocity distribution functions (IVDF) suggest that ion heating occurs near the chamfered regions of the acceleration channel and around the inner pole surface. In our companion paper we present theoretical evidence that the plasma conditions in this region can excite instabilities in the lower hybrid frequency. Here, we provide further evidence of their presence through comparisons between numerical simulations and measurements. After including in the 2-D axisymmetric hydrodynamic-PIC code Hall2De an idealized model of the ion temperature based on a scaling with the lower hybrid frequency, we find the agreement between the computed and measured IVDF is significantly improved. In addition, the computed erosion rates at the inner pole surface are now in close agreement with wear test measurements.

Frieman, Jason↗

Modeling of Condensations in Coronal Loops Produced by Nanoflares with Variable Frequency and Location

The presence of condensations in active regions has the potential to be an important diagnostic of coronal heating. We present the results of models of nanoflare heated coronal loops using the 1-D hydrodynamic ARGOS code. The nanoflares are modeled by discrete pulses of energy along the loop. We explore the occurrence of cold condensations due to the effective equivalent of thermal non-equilibrium (TNE) in loops with steady heating, and examine its dependence on nanoflare timing and intensity and also nanoflares location along the loop, including of randomized distributions of nanoflares. We find that randomizing nanoflare distributions, both in time/intensity and location, tends to diminish the likelihood of condensations compared to regularly occurring nanoflares with the same average properties, but that condensations can sometimes occur in regimes where regular nanoflares would not produce TNE. Also, the condensations stay in the loop for a shorter amount of time when the nanoflares distributions are random. These properties can be used in the future to investigate diagnostics of coronal heating mechanisms.

T A Kucera↗

Nonlinear hydrodynamics of cosmological sheets. 1: Numerical techniques and tests

We present the numerical techniques and tests used to construct and validate a computer code designed to study the multidimensional nonlinear hydrodynamics of large-scale sheet structures in the universe, especially the fragmentation of such structures under various instabilities. This code is composed of two codes, the hydrodynamical code ZEUS-2D and a particle-mesh code. The ZEUS-2D code solves the hydrodynamical equations in two dimensions using explicit Eulerian finite-difference techniques, with modifications made to incorporate the expansion of the universe and the gas cooling due to Compton scattering, bremsstrahlung, and hydrogen and helium cooling. The particle-mesh code solves the equation of motion for the collisionless dark matter. The code uses two-dimensional Cartesian coordinates with a nonuniform grid in one direction to provide high resolution for the sheet structures. A series of one-dimensional and two-dimensional linear perturbation tests are presented which are designed to test the hydro solver and the Poisson solver with and without the expansion of the universe. We also present a radiative shock wave test which is designed to ensure the code's capability to handle radiative cooling properly. And finally a series of one-dimensional Zel'dovich pancake tests used to test the dark matter code and the hydro solver in the nonlinear regime are discussed and compared with the results of Bond et al. (1984) and Shapiro & Struck-Marcell (1985). Overall, the code is shown to produce accurate and stable results, which provide us a powerful tool to further our studies.

Anninos, Wenbo Y.↗

Hydrodynamic modeling of plasma channel systems for laser plasma accelerators

Structured plasma channels are an essential technology for driving high-gradient, plasma-based acceleration and control of electron and positron beams for advanced concepts accelerators. Laser and gas technologies can permit the generation of long plasma columns known as hydrodynamic, optically-field-ionized (HOFI) channels, which feature low on-axis densities and steep walls. By carefully selecting the background gas and laser properties, one can generate narrow, tunable plasma channels for guiding high intensity laser pulses. Here, we present on the development of simulations of HOFI channels using the FLASH code, a publicly available radiation hydrodynamics code. We explore sensitivities of the channel evolution to laser profile, intensity, and background gas conditions, and identify relevant scalings with laser intensity through a range of practical channel delays.

Accelerators↗

Radiation Hydrodynamics in the Lagrangian Application Project’s LUMOS code

Starting in 2019, the Lagrangian Applications Project (LAP) and the Transport Project set out to develop a new ALE/Lagrangian radiation-hydrodynamics (RH) capability in a new code product named LUMOS. This work was done under the guidance of the Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) program with the goal of producing software capable of leveraging the high-order thermal radiative transfer (TRT) solvers provided by the Jayenne and Capsaicin software projects. This capability supplements the existing gray diffusion solver that is currently available in LAP’s FLAG code [1, 2, 3] for RH. The remainder of this memo describes the coupling of the radiation and hydrodynamics solvers within LAP’s LUMOS code. Initially delivered in 2020 as part of an L2 milestone [4], this capability continues to mature in FY21 with more efficient and robust algorithms, new support for ALE, and support for mixed materials per cell. Today, LUMOS is provided as a standard end-user product in the suite of LAP tools provided in each release cycle. Code access can be requested at https://asc.lanl.gov.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Non-linear MHD modelling of transients in tokamaks: a review of recent advances with the JOREK code

Transient magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) events like edge localized modes (ELMs) or disruptions are a concern for magnetic confinement fusion power plants. Research with the MHD code JOREK towards understanding control of such instabilities is reviewed here in a concise way to provide a complete overview, while we refer to the original publications for details. Experimental validation for unmitigated vertical displacement events progressed. The mechanism of vertical force mitigation by impurity injection was identified. Two-way eddy current coupling to CARIDDI was completed. Shattered pellet injection was simulated in JET, KSTAR, ASDEX Upgrade (AUG) and ITER. Benign runaway electron beam termination in JET and ITER was studied. Coupling of kinetic REs to the MHD is ongoing and a virtual RE synchrotron radiation diagnostic was developed. Regarding pedestal physics, regimes devoid of large ELMs in AUG were simulated and predictive JT60-SA simulations are ongoing. For ELM suppression by resonant magnetic perturbations (RMPs), AUG, ITER and EAST simulations were performed. A free boundary RMP model was validated against experiments. Evidence for penetrated magnetic islands at the pedestal top based on AUG experiments and simulations was found. Simulations of the naturally ELM-free quiescent H-mode in AUG and HL-3 show external kink mode formation prevents pedestal build-up towards an ELM within windows of the edge safety factor. With kinetic neutral particles, high field side high density formation in ITER was simulated and with kinetic impurities, tungsten transport in AUG RMP plasmas was studied. To capture turbulent transport, electro-static full-f particle in cell models for ion temperature gradient and trapped electron modes were established and benchmarked. Application to RMP plasmas shows enhanced turbulence in comparison to unperturbed states. Energetic particle interactions with MHD were studied. Flux pumping that prevents the safety factor on axis from dropping below unity was simulated. First non-linear stellarator applications include current relaxation in $l$ = 2 stellarators, while verification for advanced stellarators progresses.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

The hydrodynamics of galaxy formation on Kiloparsec scales

Two dimensional numerical simulations of Zeldovich pancake fragmentation in a dark matter dominated universe were carried out to study the hydrodynamical and gravitational effects on the formation of structures such as protogalaxies. Preliminary results were given in Yuan, Centrella and, Norman (1991). Here we report a more exhaustive study to determine the sensitivity of protogalaxies to input parameters. The numerical code we used for the simulations combines the hydrodynamical code ZEUS-2D (Stone and Norman, 1992) which was modified to include the expansion of the universe and radiative cooling of the gas with a particle-mesh code which follows the motion of dark matter particles. The resulting hybrid code is able to handle highly nonuniform grids which we utilized to obtain a high resolution (much greater than 1 kpc) in the dense region of the pancake.

Norman, Michael L.↗

Simulation and Emulation of X-Ray Diffraction from Dynamic Compression Experiments

Many important aspects of the dynamic thermo-mechanical response of materials occur at the mesoscale, i.e. a physical scale of interactions smaller than what can be adequately described by homogenous behaviors, yet larger than the scale of the atomic lattice. Concurrent advancements in computational power, continuum theory, and experimental diagnostics are enabling unprecedented understanding of such interactions. However, we cannot develop a sufficient level of confidence in such mesoscale capability until the constitutive description of the underlying constituents is reliably representative of their actual physical behavior. Therefore, there is a strong need to combine experimental, modeling, and data-science techniques to validate models of the thermomechanical response of individual single crystals. One experimental diagnostic with high potential impact to shock physics and materials science is in-situ x-ray diffraction. This paper is primarily focused on simulation of x-ray diffraction in shock physics, but with an aim toward quantifying parametric uncertainty of simulation models. Here, we develop and demonstrate a data-science and model-driven approach to constrain the parameterization of continuum models of crystal lattice deformation associated with the shock response of crystalline materials. The framework is built around the connection between continuum hydrodynamic simulations of lattice deformation and a new Bragg diffraction simulation code, BarberShop. The dynamic deformation of a crystal lattice is modeled using the DiscoFlux model within an arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian hydrodynamic code, FLAG. These detailed continuum simulations of lattice deformation can be computationally slow, thus a statistical model is used to emulate the evolution of lattice deformation fields in time and across the considered model parameter space. Emulated lattice deformation fields can then be generated rapidly for any combination of physics model parameters. In turn, these fields can be fed into BarberShop to realize a rapid prediction of Bragg diffraction patterns associated with particular values of physics model parameters. The framework enables parameterization of the single crystal model to obtain Bragg diffraction patterns that most closely resemble a corresponding measurement. Furthermore, the framework naturally provides sensitivities of the lattice deformation to the physics parameters. We highlight the utility of this framework through the application to a synthetic closed-loop inverse problem leading to the parameterization of a single crystal material model. As a model problem, we consider the dynamic response of the energetic molecular crystal, cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine (or RDX), under dynamic compression induced by simulated flyer plate impact experiments.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Diagnosing the DARHT Electron Beam-Target Interaction and Hydrodynamic Expansion [Dissertation]

Quantitative electron beam-target interaction studies on the Dual-Axis Radiographic Hydrodynamic Test (DARHT) electron linear induction accelerators have only been performed recently. This includes characterization of the temperature, density, pressure, extent, and expansion velocity of the plasma plume. The results presented in this dissertation present a detailed and unified overview of the accelerator systems, target heating physics, beam transport, and diagnostic tools. Additional information includes calibration sources, radiation hydrodynamics, spectroscopic-quality radiation transport modeling, experimental measurements, and analyses of electron beam driven aluminum experiments. The first set of spatially and temporally resolved spectroscopic measurements of electron beam driven aluminum are presented. Contamination quantification analyses are used to understand the origin of the strong Na-I 3p-3s lines that are observed in absorption within the aluminum plasma continuum. These results inform the creation of the first spectroscopic-quality radiation transport model that links several atomic physics codes to interpret the conditions from which the Na-I lines originate. A good agreement is found between the surface analysis results and the model which confirms the concentration of the sodium present within the aluminum alloy foil material. It also demonstrates, for the first time on electron beam-driven target experiments, the ability to interpret plasma conditions from measured absorption lines. In a second experimental campaign which focuses on pure aluminum, the Al-I 3p-4s and 3p3d doublets are both measured in emission. A detailed analysis of the Al-I 3p-4s doublet reveals that the lines undergo moderate self-absorption. A simple model of the self-absorption effect is successfully used to match measured spectra at various temperature/density/plasma scale length combinations. These measurements led to the realization of the minimum density that can be resolved by the spectrometers for the Al-I 3p-4s lines due to the large slit width required to observe a signal on aluminum. These measurements also demonstrate the sensitivity of visible and long wave UV spectroscopy to minor changes in both temperature and density. The simple self-absorption model will be useful for analysis of other beam-target interaction experiments with spectra exhibiting either self-absorption or full self-reversal. Substantial headway has been made on the modeling front by linking together several codes needed to model both the energy deposition, hydrodynamic motion, and atomic kinetics to produce synthetic spectral calculations that are compared with experimental measurements. There exists ample space for improvement, especially with benchmarking the hydrodynamics codes and equation-of-state tables with experimental measurements. The X-ray diagnostics required to make these new measurements along with the simulation capabilities required to interpret the results are under development and will be the subject of future studies.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Morphology of shocked lateral outflows in colliding hydrodynamic flows

Supersonic interacting flows occurring in phenomena, such as protostellar jets, give rise to strong shocks and have been demonstrated in several laboratory experiments. To study such colliding flows, we use the AstroBEAR AMR code to conduct hydrodynamic simulations in three dimensions. Here, we introduce variations in the flow parameters of density, velocity, and cross-sectional radius of the colliding flows in order to study the propagation and conical shape of the bow shock formed by collisions between two, not necessarily symmetric, hypersonic flows. We find that the motion of the interaction region is driven by imbalances in ram pressure between the two flows, while the conical structure of the bow shock is a result of shocked lateral outflows being deflected from the horizontal when the flows are of differing cross sections.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Applying the Gyrokinetic Formulation of Magnetized Plasma Dynamics to Z-pinch plasmas

This project adapts and applies the gyrokinetic Eulerian code COGENT to an emerging area of highly-magnetized Z-pinch plasma systems. Simulation efforts for these plasmas currently use either magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) fluid codes, which suffer from fidelity being restricted to narrow plasma conditions, or fully kinetic particle-in-cell (PIC) methods, which suffer from the run-time needed to resolve the very small spatial and temporal scales required for the plasma conditions. The progress with achieving detailed theoretical understanding of Z-pinch plasma systems can be greatly expedited using some combination of gyrokinetic and drift-ordered MHD models, developed in the tokamak community and implemented in the COGENT code. These formulations are applicable to a much larger parameter space than standard MHD models, while providing a substantial speed-up in run-time over fully kinetic codes. In particular, the gyrokinetic formalism is successfully applied to a flow-stabilized Z pinch (FSZP) system – a promising fusion concept where a sheared axial flow is used to provide stability against large-scale ideal-MHD modes. Results of gyrokinetic simulations with COGENT agree well with those from fully kinetic simulations, while requiring ~500x less run-time.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Numerical Model of IProTech PIP WEC Device

iProTech PIP wave energy converter (WEC) is a slack moored, single hull device with no moving parts in the water, joints or bearings. This submission includes data of the simulation, reports, and code for the iProTech PIP (WEC) project. The organization of the data included in the provided archive is detailed below and in the data description of the archive. The data teamer-iprotech-nrel folder includes and explains matlab and python code developed to hydrodynamically model the PIP WEC device in WEC-Sim. The subfolders cover the following steps: 1) report: explanatory information on device geometry 2) pip_mesher: python code to generate mesh panels from device profile data 3) wec-sim_models: matlab code to run WEC-Sim The data uploaded is a snapshot as of 11/02/2121 of code residing in a Github repository administered by David Ogden of NREL.

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗

X-ray-line coincidence photopumping in a potassium-chlorine mixed plasma

Exploiting the multiple long pulse capability and suite of x-ray diagnostics of the Orion laser, we have set out to explore line coincidence photopuming—the enhancement in population of an atomic level brought on by resonant absorption of x rays from a different emitting ion. Unlike previous work, the two ions are in the same plasma and so the experiment is an x-ray analog of the well-known Bowen resonance fluorescence mechanism that operates in astrophysical situations in the optical region. Herein, our measurements have shown enhanced fluorescence in a chlorine plasma, attributable to line coincident photopumping from co-mixed potassium ions. To detect this relatively low signal-to-noise phenomenon, the data from multiple shots are combined, and the statistical method of bootstrapping is used to assign a confidence value to the measured enhancement, resulting in an estimate of the enhancement of 39 ± 18 16 % compared to the null case, where no pumping occurs. The experimental results have been compared to coupled radiation-transport and radiation hydrodynamics simulations using the CRETIN code together with the NYM radiation hydrodynamics model and agreement has been found, with the simulations also predicting modest enhancement.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗

Validation and application of a multiphase CFD model for hydrodynamics, temperature field and RTD simulation in a pilot-scale biomass pyrolysis vapor phase upgrading reactor

Accurate prediction of transport phenomena is critical for VPU reactor design, optimization, and scale-up. The current study focused on the validation and application of a multiphase CFD model within an open-source code MFiX for hydrodynamics, temperature field, and residence time distribution (RTD) simulation in a non-reacting circulating fluidized bed riser for biomass pyrolysis vapor phase upgrading (VPU). First, an Eulerian-Eulerian approach three-dimensional CFD model was employed to simulate the pilot-scale VPU riser on the supercomputer Joule. Excellent quantitative agreement between experimental and simulated results was achieved for pressure drops and temperature field in a range of operating conditions. Then the validated multiphase CFD model was applied to predict gas and solid residence time distributions (RTDs) since prediction and analysis of RTD is an important tool to study the complex multiphase flow behavior and mixing inside chemical reactors. The predictions show that solid mean residence time is 3.5 times the gas residence time; the solid RTD is more sensitive to the process gas flow rate than the solids circulation rate.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗

Galaxy formation and physical bias

We have supplemented our code, which computes the evolution of the physical state of a representative piece of the universe to include, not only the dynamics of dark matter (with a standard PM code), and the hydrodynamics of the gaseous component (including detailed collisional and radiative processes), but also galaxy formation on a heuristic but plausible basis. If, within a cell the gas is Jeans' unstable, collapsing, and cooling rapidly, it is transformed to galaxy subunits, which are then followed with a collisionless code. After grouping them into galaxies, we estimate the relative distributions of galaxies and dark matter and the relative velocities of galaxies and dark matter. In a large scale CDM run of 80/h Mpc size with 8 x 10 exp 6 cells and dark matter particles, we find that physical bias b is on the 8/h Mpc scale is about 1.6 and increases towards smaller scales, and that velocity bias is about 0.8 on the same scale. The comparable HDM simulation is highly biased with b = 2.7 on the 8/h Mpc scale. Implications of these results are discussed in the light of the COBE observations which provide an accurate normalization for the initial power spectrum. CDM can be ruled out on the basis of too large a predicted small scale velocity dispersion at greater than 95 percent confidence level.

Cen, Renyue↗