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NASA NTRS1998

Global Retrieval of Cloud Particle Size and Optical Thickness Using ISCCP Data

The primary thrust of this investigation is to develop an algorithm to retrieve cloud particle sizes using ISCCP data. The research under this grant has been successful in obtaining initial results of global distribution of ice-particle sizes. Further research about possible problems caused by nonsphericity of ice particle sizes is currently underway. An algorithm of retrieving ice-cloud particle sizes using ISCCP CX data has been developed. The first survey of ice-particle size in a near-global scale has been completed. Comparison with in situ measurements of ice crystal sizes during FIRE I shows good agreement. The initial results show that the global mean size of ice crystals (De) is about 60 micron. This result is consistent with the range of in situ measurements all over the world if definitions of effective particle size are unified (see next section). The survey also shows that there is no distinct difference of ice-particle sizes between continental and maritime ice-clouds. There are many different definitions of effective particle size used in ice-cloud research. Simple comparisons between values of in situ measurement and satellite remote sensing are misleading and may lead to incorrect conclusions. We reviewed different definitions of effective particle sizes used in the literature and compared their relative magnitudes.

Welch, Ronald M.↗

DOE OSTI2016

B-Trees and Cache-Oblivious B-Trees with Different-Sized Atomic Keys

Most B-tree articles assume that all $\textit{N}$ keys have the same size $\textit{K}$, that $\textit{f = B/K}$ keys fit in a disk block, and therefore that the search cost is $O(\text{log}_{f+1}N) $ block transfers. When keys have variable size, B-tree operations have no nontrivial performance guarantees, however. This article provides B-tree-like performance guarantees on dictionaries that contain keys of different sizes in a model in which keys must be stored and compared as opaque objects. The resulting atomic-key dictionaries exhibit performance bounds in terms of the average key size and match the bounds when all keys are the same size. Atomic-key dictionaries can be built with minimal modification to the B-tree structure, simply by choosing the pivot keys properly. Further, this article describes both static and dynamic atomic-key dictionaries. In the static case, if there are $\textit{N}$ keys with average size $\textit{K}$, the search cost is $O(\lceil K/B\rceil \text{log}_{1 + \lceil K/B\rceil} N)$ expected transfers. It is not possible to transform these expected bounds into worst-case bounds. The cost to build the tree is $\textit{O(NK)}$ operations and $\textit{O(NK/B)}$ transfers if all keys are presented in sorted order. If not, the cost is the sorting cost. For the dynamic dictionaries, the amortized cost to insert a key $\textit{κ}$ of arbitrary length at an arbitrary rank is dominated by the cost to search for $\textit{κ}$. Specifically, the amortized cost to insert a key $\textit{κ}$ of arbitrary length and random rank is $O(\lceil K/B\rceil log_{1+ \lceil B/K\rceil } N + |κ|/B)$ transfers. A dynamic-programming algorithm is shown for constructing a search tree with minimal expected cost. This article also gives a cache-oblivious static atomic-key B-tree, which achieves the same asymptotic performance as the static B-tree dictionary, mentioned previously. A cache-oblivious data structure or algorithm is not parameterized by the block size $\textit{B}$ or memory size $\textit{M}$ in the memory hierarchy; rather, it is universal, working simultaneously for all possible values of $\textit{B}$ or $\textit{M}$. On a machine with block size $\textit{B}$, if there are $\textit{N}$ keys with average size $\textit{K}$, search operations costs $O(\lceil K/B \rceil log_{1+ \lceil B/K \rceil} N)$ block transfers in expectation. This cache-oblivious layout can be built in $\textit{O(N}\text{log}\textit{(NK))}$ processor operations.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

DOE OSTI2018

Evolution of Size and Chemical Composition of Copper Concentrate Particles Oxidized Under Simulated Flash Smelting Conditions

An experimental study was conducted to elucidate the evolution of size and chemical composition of La Caridad copper concentrate particles during oxidation under simulated flash smelting conditions. Input variables tested included particle size and oxygen concentration in the process gas. The response variables included the size distributions, chemical composition, and morphology of the reacted particles at seven locations along a laboratory reactor. Particles with initial size < 45 µm contained mostly chalcopyrite, they increased their mean size and decreased the amount of dust in the population during oxidation. This was explained by a reaction path involving rapid melting followed by collision and coalescence of reacting droplets during flight. Particles with sizes > 45 µm contained varying amounts of chalcopyrite and pyrite, and tended to either maintain or decrease their mean size upon oxidation. When size reduction was observed, dust was produced because of fragmentation, and the particles showed no evidence of collisions during flight. The main oxidation products detected in the particles consisted of matte, cuprospinel, and magnetite. A plot of the mean size divided by the mean size in the feed against the fraction of sulfur eliminated generalized the experimental data so far reported in the literature, and helped identify the reaction path followed by the particles.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2012

Size and time-resolved growth rate measurements of 1 to 5 nm freshly formed atmospheric nuclei

This study presents measurements of size and time-resolved particle diameter growth rates for freshly nucleated particles down to 1 nm geometric diameter. Novel data analysis methods were developed, de-coupling for the first time the size and time-dependence of particle growth rates by fitting the aerosol general dynamic equation to size distributions obtained at an instant in time. Size distributions of freshly nucleated total aerosol (neutral and charged) were measured during two intensive measurement campaigns in different environments (Atlanta, GA and Boulder, CO) using a recently developed electrical mobility spectrometer with a diethylene glycol-based ultrafine condensation particle counter as the particle detector. One new particle formation (NPF) event from each campaign was analyzed in detail. At a given instant in time during the NPF event, size-resolved growth rates were obtained directly from measured size distributions and were found to increase approximately linearly with particle size from {approx}1 to 3 nm geometric diameter, increasing from 5.5 {+-} 0.8 to 7.6 {+-} 0.6 nm h{sup -1} in Atlanta (13:00) and from 5.6 {+-} 2 to 27 {+-} 5 nm h{sup -1} in Boulder (13:00). The resulting growth rate enhancement {Lambda}, defined as the ratio of the observed growth rate to the growth rate due to the condensation of sulfuric acid only, was found to increase approximately linearly with size from {approx}1 to 3 nm geometric diameter. For the presented NPF events, values for {Lambda} had lower limits that approached {approx}1 at 1.2 nm geometric diameter in Atlanta and {approx}3 at 0.8 nm geometric diameter in Boulder, and had upper limits that reached 8.3 at 4.1 nm geometric diameter in Atlanta and 25 at 2.7 nm geometric diameter in Boulder. Nucleated particle survival probability calculations comparing the effects of constant and size-dependent growth indicate that neglecting the strong dependence of growth rate on size from 1 to 3 nm observed in this study could lead to a significant overestimation of CCN survival probability.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2013

Uncertainty in Modeling Dust Mass Balance and Radiative Forcing from Size Parameterization

This study examines the uncertainties in simulating mass balance and radiative forcing of mineral dust due to biases in the aerosol size parameterization. Simulations are conducted quasi-globally (180oW-180oE and 60oS-70oN) using the WRF24 Chem model with three different approaches to represent aerosol size distribution (8-bin, 4-bin, and 3-mode). The biases in the 3-mode or 4-bin approaches against a relatively more accurate 8-bin approach in simulating dust mass balance and radiative forcing are identified. Compared to the 8-bin approach, the 4-bin approach simulates similar but coarser size distributions of dust particles in the atmosphere, while the 3-mode pproach retains more fine dust particles but fewer coarse dust particles due to its prescribed og of each mode. Although the 3-mode approach yields up to 10 days longer dust mass lifetime over the remote oceanic regions than the 8-bin approach, the three size approaches produce similar dust mass lifetime (3.2 days to 3.5 days) on quasi-global average, reflecting that the global dust mass lifetime is mainly determined by the dust mass lifetime near the dust source regions. With the same global dust emission (~6000 Tg yr-1), the 8-bin approach produces a dust mass loading of 39 Tg, while the 4-bin and 3-mode approaches produce 3% (40.2 Tg) and 25% (49.1 Tg) higher dust mass loading, respectively. The difference in dust mass loading between the 8-bin approach and the 4-bin or 3-mode approaches has large spatial variations, with generally smaller relative difference (<10%) near the surface over the dust source regions. The three size approaches also result in significantly different dry and wet deposition fluxes and number concentrations of dust. The difference in dust aerosol optical depth (AOD) (a factor of 3) among the three size approaches is much larger than their difference (25%) in dust mass loading. Compared to the 8-bin approach, the 4-bin approach yields stronger dust absorptivity, while the 3-mode approach yields weaker dust absorptivity. Overall, on quasi-global average, the three size parameterizations result in a significant difference of a factor of 2~3 in dust surface cooling (-1.02~-2.87 W m-2) and atmospheric warming (0.39~0.96 W m-2) and in a tremendous difference of a factor of ~10 in dust TOA cooling (-0.24~-2.20 W m-2). An uncertainty of a factor of 2 is quantified in dust emission estimation due to the different size parameterizations. This study also highlights the uncertainties in modeling dust mass and number loading, deposition fluxes, and radiative forcing resulting from different size parameterizations, and motivates further investigation of the impact of size parameterizations on modeling dust impacts on air quality, climate, and ecosystem.

balance↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

NASA NDE Fracture Critical Detectable Flaw Sizes History and Methodology

NASA requires that NDE methods and inspectors demonstrate 90% Probability of Detection (POD) with 95% confidence for critical flaw sizes when inspecting fracture critical metallic components. NASA addresses the known variability of NDE inspector capability in two ways. The first, Special NDE, requires that every inspector demonstrate the required 90/95 POD, which is resource intensive. The second approach is Standard NDE for which conservative flaw sizes for different NDE methods are provided such that it is expected that most properly trained inspectors will exceed the 90/95 POD requirement. As such, individual POD demonstration testing is not required. The origin of NASA Standard NDE dates to the start of the Space Shuttle Program in the early 1970’s. In the first study to quantitatively assess NDE methods and inspectors, the performance of multiple inspectors was evaluated for different NDE methods using a large set of fatigue cracked specimens. A rudimentary POD analysis was performed to estimate the 90/95 POD flaw size for each inspector for each method. Additionally, the average and standard deviation of the 90/95 POD flaw size across the multiple inspectors was calculated to estimate the flaw size for which 95 percent of inspectors would provide the 90/95 POD capability. These estimated 90/95/95 POD flaw sizes evolved into the NASA Standard NDE flaw sizes still in use for structural analysis five decades later. The methodology for performing Standard NDE POD studies was never documented in NASA requirements. Furthermore, POD analysis methods have significantly evolved since this seminal study. Likewise, NDE methods have improved and there has been a push to reassess Standard NDE flaw sizes for existing methods, and to develop Standard NDE flaw sizes for new methods such as digital radiography. In this study, a Standard NDE POD methodology was developed and baselined using the historical data. This reanalysis of the historical data identified several deficiencies in the original test plan as well as an overall lack of conservatism in the estimated 90/95/95 POD flaw sizes. The results of this historical review and the new methodology are being incorporated into an update of NASA NDE POD requirements.

Nondestructive Evaluation↗

DOE OSTI2018

Rapid measurement of sub-micrometer aerosol size distribution using a fast integrated mobility spectrometer

We present rapid measurement of submicron particle size distributions enables the characterization of aerosols with fast changing properties, and is often necessary for measurements onboard mobile platforms (e.g., research aircraft). Aerosol mobility size distribution is commonly measured by a scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS), which relies on voltage scanning or stepping to classify particles of different sizes, and may take up to several minutes to obtain a complete size spectrum of aerosol particles. The recently developed fast integrated mobility spectrometer (FIMS) with enhanced dynamic size range classifies and detects particles from 10 to ~600 nm simultaneously, allowing submicron aerosol mobility size distributions to be captured at a time resolution of 1 second. In this study, we present a detailed data inversion routine for deriving aerosol size distribution from FIMS measurements. The inversion routine takes into consideration the FIMS transfer function, particle penetration efficiency in the FIMS, and multiple charging of aerosols. The accuracy of the FIMS measurement is demonstrated by comparing parallel FIMS and SMPS measurements of stable aerosols with a wide range of size spectrum shapes, including ambient aerosols and aerosols classified by a differential mobility analyzer (DMA). The FIMS and SMPS-derived size distributions show excellent agreements for all aerosols tested. In addition, total number concentrations of ambient aerosols were integrated from 1 Hz FIMS size distributions, and compared with those directly measured by a condensation particle counter (CPC) operated in parallel. Finally, the integrated and measured total particle concentrations agree well within 5%.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2018

Effects of size reduction on microstructural, optical, vibrational, magnetic and photocatalytic properties of ZnO nanocrystals

Highlights: • ZnO nanocrystals of different sizes 4–19 nm, thus different S/V ratios synthesized. • Lattice strain and lattice volume increase with size reduction. • Raman spectra show enhanced surface effects with phonon mode disappearance. • ESR shows exchange interaction; VSM shows surface originated ferromagnetism. • Photocatalysis is less affected with size reduction and surface enhancement. - Abstract: ZnO nanocrystals were synthesized in the size range 4 nm–19 nm by chemical co-precipitation method and extensively characterized by various techniques. Size control was achieved by changing the concentration of ME that acted as the capping agent. Lattice strain and lattice volume were found to increase with the decrease in crystallite size that could be attributed to an enhanced influence of surface atoms. Raman spectroscopy provided evidence of enhancement of surface influence and reduction of crystallinity with the observation of decrease in E{sub 2}{sup high} phonon mode intensity with a decrease in crystallite size. Electron spin resonance spectra revealed the presence of exchange interaction as well as presence of lattice disorder. Vibrating sample magnetometry results showed that M-H curves exhibit hysteresis loops which confirmed the ferromagnetic nature of the nanocrystals and it could be attributed to the interaction between localized electron spins resulting from oxygen vacancies at the surface. Blue shift of the UV–Visible absorption spectra was observed with decrease in crystallite size, which could be attributed to quantum confinement effect. Room temperature photoluminescence spectra were recorded under UV light excitation, which showed emission of different colours (light violet, violet, blue and green) in the visible region, attributable to the presence of various types of defects such as zinc interstitial, zinc vacancy and oxygen vacancy in the ZnO nanocrystals. Photodegradation of aqueous methylene blue by the ZnO nanocrystals was performed under simulated sunlight irradiation. There was a very small increase in efficiency of photodegradation with size reduction, which showed that there was no significant change in surface defects with size reduction in the nanocrystals despite the surface enhancement. A mechanism for photocatalysis involving defect states has been proposed.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2018

Compressive deformation behavior and strain rate sensitivity of Al-cenosphere hybrid foam with mono-modal, bi-modal and tri-modal cenosphere size distribution

Highlights: • Cenospheres of different size ranges and distributions are used in hybrid aluminium foam. • Microstructure and deformation response of hybrid foam cenosphere size distribution. • Hybrid foam with bi or tri-modal cenosphere distribution exhibits higher strength and energy absorption. • The plateau stresses and energy absorption increased marginally with strain rate. • In case of bi- or tri-modal size distribution, strain rate sensitivity and strain rate sensitivity parameter is marginally lower. - Abstract: AlSi12Cu1Mg1 aluminium alloy-cenosphere closed cell hybrid foams with different kinds of cenosphere size distribution (mono-modal, bi-modal and tri-modal) are used to see the effect of cenosphere size distribution on their deformation behavior under quasi static compressive loading conditions at different strain rates. The stress strain curves are almost similar type irrespective of the cenosphere size distribution and strain rate. However, the plateau stress and energy absorption increased significantly when one used bi-modal and or tri-modal cenosphere size distribution instead of mono-modal cenosphere size distribution. These plateau stresses and energy absorption also increased marginally with strain rate. The densification strain remained almost invariant with strain rate and cenosphere size distribution. The strain rate sensitivity and strain rate sensitivity parameter is relatively lower in case of bi-modal and tri-modal cenosphere size distribution particularly at higher relative density.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2013

Influence of compensator thickness, field size, and off-axis distance on the effective attenuation coefficient of a cerrobend compensator for intensity-modulated radiation therapy

Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) can be performed by using compensators. To make a compensator for an IMRT practice, it is required to calculate the effective attenuation coefficient (μ{sub eff}) of its material, which is affected by various factors. We studied the effect of the variation of the most important factors on the calculation of the μ{sub eff} of the cerrobend compensator for 6-MV photon beams, including the field size, compensator thickness, and off-axis distance. Experimental measurements were carried out at 100 cm source-to-surface distance and 10 cm depth for the 6-MV photon beams of an Elekta linac using various field size, compensator thickness, and off-axis settings. The field sizes investigated ranged from 4 × 4 to 25 × 25 cm{sup 2} and the cerrobend compensator thicknesses from 0.5–6 cm. For a fixed compensator thickness, variation of the μ{sub eff} with the field size ranged from 3.7–6.8%, with the highest value attributed to the largest compensator thickness. At the reference field size of 10 × 10 cm{sup 2}, the μ{sub eff} varied by 16.5% when the compensator thickness was increased from 0.5–6 cm. However, the variation of the μ{sub eff} with the off-axis distance was only 0.99% at this field size, whereas for the largest field size, it was more significant. Our results indicated that the compensator thickness and field size have the most significant effect on the calculation of the compensator μ{sub eff} for the 6-MV photon beam. Therefore, it is recommended to consider these parameters when calculating the compensator thickness for an IMRT practice designed for these beams. The off-axis distance had a significant effect on the calculation of the μ{sub eff} only for the largest field size. Hence, it is recommended to consider the effect of this parameter only for field sizes larger than 25 × 25 cm{sup 2}.

07 ISOTOPE AND RADIATION SOURCES↗

DOE OSTI2014

Plasmon-Enhanced Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting with Size-Controllable Gold Nanodot Arrays

Size-controllable Au nanodot arrays (50, 63, and 83 nm dot size) with a narrow size distribution (+/- 5%) were prepared by a direct contact printing method on an indium tin oxide (ITO) substrate. Titania was added to the Au nanodots using TiO2 sols of 2-3 nm in size. This created a precisely controlled Au nanodot with 110 nm of TiO2 overcoats. Using these precisely controlled nanodot arrays, the effects of Au nanodot size and TiO2 overcoats were investigated for photoelectrochemical water splitting using a three-electrode system with a fiber-optic visible light source. From UV-vis measurement, the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) peak energy (ELSPR) increased and the LSPR line width (G) decreased with decreasing Au nanodot size. The generated plasmonic enhancement for the photoelectrochemical water splitting reaction increased with decreasing Au particle size. The measured plasmonic enhancement for light on/off experiments was 25 times for the 50 nm Au size and 10 times for the 83 nm Au nanodot size. The activity of each catalyst increased by a factor of 6 when TiO2 was added to the Au nanodots for all the samples. The activity of the catalyst was proportional to the quality factor (defined as Q = E-LSPR/Gamma) of the plasmonic metal nanostructure. The enhanced water splitting performance with the decreased Au nanodot size is probably due to more generated charge carriers (electron/hole pair) by local field enhancement as the quality factor increases.

Kim, HJ↗

DOE OSTI2018

Collective Dispersal Leads to Variance in Fitness and Maintains Offspring Size Variation within Marine Populations

Variance in fitness is well known to influence the outcome of evolution but is rarely considered in the theory of marine reproductive strategies. In coastal environments, turbulent mesoscale eddies can collect larvae into packets, resulting in collective dispersal. Larvae in packets return to the coast or are lost offshore in groups, producing variance in fitness. Using a Markov process to calculate fixation probabilities for competing phenotypes, we examine the evolution of offspring size and spawning duration in species with benthic adults and pelagic offspring. The offspring size that provides mothers with the highest mean fitness also generates the greatest variance in fitness, but pairwise invasion plots show that bet-hedging strategies are not evolutionarily stable; maximizing expected fitness correctly predicts the unique evolutionarily stable strategy. Nonetheless, fixation can take a long time. We find that selection to increase spawning duration as a risk avoidance strategy to reduce the negative impacts of stochastic recruitment success can allow multiple offspring sizes to coexist in a population for extended periods. This has two important consequences for offspring size: (1) coexistence occurs over a broader range of sizes and is longer when spawning duration is longer because longer spawning durations reduce variation in fitness and increase the time to fixation, and (2) longer spawning durations can compensate for having a nonoptimal size and even allow less optimal sizes to reach fixation. Collective dispersal and longer spawning durations could effectively maintain offspring size variation even in the absence of good and bad years or locations. Finally, empirical comparisons of offspring size would therefore not always reflect environment-specific differences in the optimal size.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2026

Importance of finite-size corrections for accurate ab initio modeling of carrier capture at semiconductor defects: A case study of substitutional C N in GaN

In ab initio studies of carrier-capture processes in defective semiconductor materials, the single-effective-mode formalism and the static-coupling approximation have become the predominant theoretical approaches for determining carrier-capture coefficients. The single-mode formalism relies on accurate nonequilibrium defect energies obtained from density-functional theory (DFT), where required inputs are a series of configurationally displaced, defect-containing supercells obtained using an interpolative ansatz, and where the DFT outputs are corresponding total energies that have traditionally been postprocessed using a long-established ground-state formulation of finite-size corrections and defect-formation energies. This formulation remains commonly used even though the defects that form a configuration-coordinate (CC) diagram typically exist as structures that are displaced from the ground state. To remedy this inconsistency, Kumagai has recently proposed novel methods for implementing finite-size corrections specifically intended for DFT calculations of the defect energies used to construct CC diagrams and implement the single-mode formalism [Y. Kumagai, Phys. Rev. B 107, L220101 (2023)]. Kumagai's approach builds on the latest finite-size-correction methods introduced to describe vertical charge-state transitions for charge-localizing point defects in semiconductors and insulators [T. Gake et al., Phys. Rev. B 101, 020102 (2020); S. Falletta et al., Phys. Rev. B 102, 041115 (2020)]. The newly identified finite-size artifact treated in these studies is the polarization charge induced on a configurationally frozen defect and its subsequent interaction with a vertical transition in charge state. In this work, we evaluate Kumagai's proposed methodology by applying it in a high-precision DFT study of carrier capture by substitutional C N in GaN, a well-characterized and technologically relevant defect and material. We have rigorously calculated C N defect energies across various supercell sizes for each defect configuration and charge state on the hole-capture CC diagram of C N (𝑞=−1), enabling a direct comparison of the slopes of the defect energies versus inverse cell size with those predicted by Kumagai. The most consequential prediction of Kumagai's method is that these slopes distinctly vary as the square of the linear-interpolation parameter used to construct the nonequilibrium defect configurations. Our results quantitatively support this prediction. Moreover, with these new finite-size corrections and multiple-cell-size DFT calculations in place, we find that the classical energy barrier for hole capture by C N (𝑞=−1) in GaN decreases to 0.092–0.127 eV. This finding confirms the recent ≈ 0.1 eV prediction of Reshchikov based on the weak temperature dependence for hole capture observed in photoluminescence experiments [M. A. Reshchikov, J. Appl. Phys. 129, 121101 (2021)]. These results stand in stark contrast to previously calculated barriers of 0.486 and 0.73 eV, which also used the single-mode formalism but were obtained by instead using ground-state-based finite-size corrections. Our reduced classical barrier for capture increases the temperature-dependent hole-capture coefficient of a C N (𝑞=−1) defect by more than two to four orders of magnitude for temperatures of 100–600 K, compared to the previous 0.486 eV results. While other defects may not be as dramatically affected as here, we suggest that incorporating proper finite-size corrections for the vertical-transition-like states embedded within CC diagrams is an essential, yet previously unrecognized, component of accurate modeling of carrier-capture when using the single-effective-mode formalism.

dielectric properties↗

DOE OSTI2019

Quasi‐static confined uniaxial compaction of granular alumina and boron carbide observing the particle size effects

Abstract The quasi‐static confined uniaxial compaction of granular alumina and boron carbide was studied, and the effect of triaxial stress on the materials as a function of increasing particle size was observed. The average particle sizes studied for granular alumina were 170 ± 63, 230 ± 55, 330 ± 67, and 450 ± 83 µm. The average particle size studied for granular boron carbide were 170 ± 40, 190 ± 34, 320 ± 59, and 470 ± 90 µm. The material response at hydrostatic pressure as a function of porosity, the bulk modulus as a function of hydrostatic pressure, and the transmission ratio as a function of applied load was evaluated for increasing particle size. For alumina, the increase in particle size resulted in an increase in strength for a fixed porosity, the bulk modulus of this material did not show clear particle size‐dependent trends, and the transmission ratio increased with increase in particle size. Conversely, for granular boron carbide, the hydrostatic pressure‐porosity curve shifted to the right with increasing particle size, the change in bulk modulus increased with increasing particle size, and no clear particle size‐dependent trends were observed when looking at the transmission ratio during the experiment. Post‐experiment scanning electron microscopy revealed that alumina powder fragmented from elongated shapes to block‐like structures, while boron carbide powder appeared more circular before the experiments and fragmented into smaller comminuted pieces. This paper discusses the implication of the work in the context of the limited experimental data in the field and the modeling of granular advanced ceramics behavior.

Nicewicz, Piotr↗

DOE OSTI2014

SU-D-BRE-03: Dosimetric Impact of In-Air Spot Size Variations for Commissioning a Room-Matched Beam Model for Pencil Beam Scanning Proton Therapy

Purpose: To quantitatively evaluate dosimetric consequence of spot size variations and validate beam-matching criteria for commissioning a pencil beam model for multiple treatment rooms. Methods: A planning study was first conducted by simulating spot size variations to systematically evaluate dosimetric impact of spot size variations in selected cases, which was used to establish the in-air spot size tolerance for beam matching specifications. A beam model in treatment planning system was created using in-air spot profiles acquired in one treatment room. These spot profiles were also acquired from another treatment room for assessing the actual spot size variations between the two treatment rooms. We created twenty five test plans with targets of different sizes at different depths, and performed dose measurement along the entrance, proximal and distal target regions. The absolute doses at those locations were measured using ionization chambers at both treatment rooms, and were compared against the calculated doses by the beam model. Fifteen additional patient plans were also measured and included in our validation. Results: The beam model is relatively insensitive to spot size variations. With an average of less than 15% measured in-air spot size variations between two treatment rooms, the average dose difference was −0.15% with a standard deviation of 0.40% for 55 measurement points within target region; but the differences increased to 1.4%±1.1% in the entrance regions, which are more affected by in-air spot size variations. Overall, our single-room based beam model in the treatment planning system agreed with measurements in both rooms < 0.5% within the target region. For fifteen patient cases, the agreement was within 1%. Conclusion: We have demonstrated that dosimetrically equivalent machines can be established when in-air spot size variations are within 15% between the two treatment rooms.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

DOE OSTI2015

SU-E-T-196: Comparative Analysis of Surface Dose Measurements Using MOSFET Detector and Dose Predicted by Eclipse - AAA with Varying Dose Calculation Grid Size

Purpose: Skin dose can be the limiting factor and fairly common reason to interrupt the treatment, especially for treating head-and-neck with Intensity-modulated-radiation-therapy(IMRT) or Volumetrically-modulated - arc-therapy (VMAT) and breast with tangentially-directed-beams. Aim of this study was to investigate accuracy of near-surface dose predicted by Eclipse treatment-planning-system (TPS) using Anisotropic-Analytic Algorithm (AAA)with varying calculation grid-size and comparing with metal-oxide-semiconductor-field-effect-transistors(MOSFETs)measurements for a range of clinical-conditions (open-field,dynamic-wedge, physical-wedge, IMRT,VMAT). Methods: QUASAR™-Body-Phantom was used in this study with oval curved-surfaces to mimic breast, chest wall and head-and-neck sites.A CT-scan was obtained with five radio-opaque markers(ROM) placed on the surface of phantom to mimic the range of incident angles for measurements and dose prediction using 2mm slice thickness.At each ROM, small structure(1mmx2mm) were contoured to obtain mean-doses from TPS.Calculations were performed for open-field,dynamic-wedge,physical-wedge,IMRT and VMAT using Varian-21EX,6&15MV photons using twogrid-sizes:2.5mm and 1mm.Calibration checks were performed to ensure that MOSFETs response were within ±5%.Surface-doses were measured at five locations and compared with TPS calculations. Results: For 6MV: 2.5mm grid-size,mean calculated doses(MCD)were higher by 10%(±7.6),10%(±7.6),20%(±8.5),40%(±7.5),30%(±6.9) and for 1mm grid-size MCD were higher by 0%(±5.7),0%(±4.2),0%(±5.5),1.2%(±5.0),1.1% (±7.8) for open-field,dynamic-wedge,physical-wedge,IMRT,VMAT respectively.For 15MV: 2.5mm grid-size,MCD were higher by 30%(±14.6),30%(±14.6),30%(±14.0),40%(±11.0),30%(±3.5)and for 1mm grid-size MCD were higher by 10% (±10.6), 10%(±9.8),10%(±8.0),30%(±7.8),10%(±3.8) for open-field, dynamic-wedge, physical-wedge, IMRT, VMAT respectively.For 6MV, 86% and 56% of all measured values agreed better than ±20% for 1mm and 2.5mm grid-sizes respectively. For 18MV, 56% and 18% of all measured-values agreed better than ±20% for 1mm and 2.5mm grid-sizes respectively. Conclusion: Reliable Skin-dose calculations by TPS can be very difficult due to steep dose-gradient and inaccurate beam-modelling in buildup region.Our results showed that Eclipse over-estimates surface-dose.Impact of grid-size is also significant,surface-dose increased up to 40% from 1mm to 2.5mm,however, 1mm calculated-values closely agrees with measurements. Due to large uncertnities in skin-dose predictions from TPS, outmost caution must be exercised when skin dose is evaluated,a sufficiently smaller grid-size(1mm)can improve the accuracy and MOSFETs can be used for verification.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2015

SU-E-T-454: Impact of Air Gap On PDDs of 6 MV Photon Beam for Various Field Sizes in Inhomogeneous Phantoms

Purpose: To investigate how the shape of air gap and its size will impact the percent depth doses (PDDs) of a 6MV photon beam for various field sizes. Methods: Two in-house phantoms were manufactured containing rectangular (phantom A) and circular (phantom B) air gaps. Both phantoms A and B were composed of same top layer (solid-water; 30×30cm{sup 2},5cm thickness) and bottom layer (solid-water; 30×30cm {sup 2},8cm thickness), but middle layer was varied to observe air gap effects and scatter contribution to the measurement point. In phantom A, a rectangular shaped air gap (30×30cm{sup 2},7cm thickness) was created by placing Styrofoam blocks between top and bottom layers of the phantom. In phantom B, middle layer was replaced by “inhomogenous block”, composed of acrylic plate (30×30cm{sup 2}, 4cm thickness) followed by PVC(30×30cm{sup 2},3cm thickness). Additionally, circular air gap was created by drilling a hole (diameter=2.8cm, length=7cm) at the center of “inhomogenous block”. In both phantoms, measurement readings were obtained at 13cm depth (i.e., 1cm after air gap) and depth of maximum dose(6MV energy; 100 MUs; field sizes ranged from 3×3cm{sup 2} to 10×10cm{sup 2}). The PDDs at 13cm depth were compared in both phantoms. Results: The measurements in both phantoms A and B showed an almost linear increase in PDDs with increasing field size, especially for smaller field sizes (from 3×3 to 7×7cm{sup 2}). For each field size, the PDD in phantom A was smaller compared to the one in phantom B. The difference in PDDs between two phantoms decreased with an increase in field size as the PDD difference decreased from 9.0% to 6.4%. Conclusion: The shape and size of air gap affect the PDD measurements in secondary build-up region as 6 MV primary beam traverses through the center of air gap. The scatter contribution due to increase in field size was more noticeable for field sizes ≤7×7cm{sup 2}.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2022

Automated Identification of Characteristic Droplet Size Distributions in Stratocumulus Clouds Utilizing a Data Clustering Algorithm

Abstract Droplet-level interactions in clouds are often parameterized by a modified gamma fitted to a “global” droplet size distribution. Do “local” droplet size distributions of relevance to microphysical processes look like these average distributions? This paper describes an algorithm to search and classify characteristic size distributions within a cloud. The approach combines hypothesis testing, specifically, the Kolmogorov–Smirnov (KS) test, and a widely used class of machine learning algorithms for identifying clusters of samples with similar properties: density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise (DBSCAN) is used as the specific example for illustration. The two-sample KS test does not presume any specific distribution, is parameter free, and avoids biases from binning. Importantly, the number of clusters is not an input parameter of the DBSCAN-type algorithms but is independently determined in an unsupervised fashion. As implemented, it works on an abstract space from the KS test results, and hence spatial correlation is not required for a cluster. The method is explored using data obtained from the Holographic Detector for Clouds (HOLODEC) deployed during the Aerosol and Cloud Experiments in the Eastern North Atlantic (ACE-ENA) field campaign. The algorithm identifies evidence of the existence of clusters of nearly identical local size distributions. It is found that cloud segments have as few as one and as many as seven characteristic size distributions. To validate the algorithm’s robustness, it is tested on a synthetic dataset and successfully identifies the predefined distributions at plausible noise levels. The algorithm is general and is expected to be useful in other applications, such as remote sensing of cloud and rain properties. Significance Statement A typical cloud can have billions of drops spread over tens or hundreds of kilometers in space. Keeping track of the sizes, positions, and interactions of all of these droplets is impractical, and, as such, information about the relative abundance of large and small drops is typically quantified with a “size distribution.” Droplets in a cloud interact locally, however, so this work is motivated by the question of whether the cloud droplet size distribution is different in different parts of a cloud. A new method, based on hypothesis testing and machine learning, determines how many different size distributions are contained in a given cloud. This is important because the size distribution describes processes such as cloud droplet growth and light transmission through clouds.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗