Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “B physics”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 415 records · Page 23
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2023

Waves of Electric Charge Generated by Pulse Corona of Alternating Polarity

The project contributes to DoE Office of Science program “Opportunities in Frontier Plasma Science” by providing plasma science experiments at the Princeton Collaborative Research Facility (PCRF) – the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. The research consisted of - extensive experimental/simulation studies of a pulse corona discharge pattern and dynamics performed at the University of Notre Dame; - non-intrusive measurements of electric field distribution and dynamics performed at PCRF by the method employing Electric Field-Induced Second Harmonic Generation (EFISH); and - analysis of the data acquired.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Outstanding questions in magnetospheric plasma physics: The pollenzo view

Based on discussions held at a workshop in Bra-Pollenzo, Italy, this paper elaborates upon 19 outstanding questions of plasma physics in the Earth's magnetosphere. The questions are grouped according to (a) driving processes, (b) radiation belt and ring current issues, (c) auroral physics, (d) internal plasma processes, and (e) magnetosphere-ionosphere mapping issues. Future needs for magnetospheric plasma physics (measurements, techniques, simulations, theories, studies) are outlined.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS2006

Characterizing diurnal and seasonal cycles in monsoon systems from TRMM and CEOP observations

The CEOP Inter-Monsoon Study (CIMS) is one of the two main science drivers of CEOP that aims to (a) provide better understanding of fundamental physical processes in monsoon regions around the world, and (b) demonstrate the synergy and utility of CEOP data in providing a pathway for model physics evaluation and improvement. As the data collection phase for EOP-3 and EOP-4 is being completed, two full annual cycles (2003-2004) of research-quality data sets from satellites, reference sites, and model output location time series (MOLTS) have been processed and made available for data analyses and model validation studies. This article presents preliminary results of a CIMS study aimed at the characterization and intercomparison of all major monsoon systems. The CEOP reference site data proved its value in such exercises by being a powerful tool to cross-validate the TRMM data, and to intercompare with multi-model results in ongoing work. We use 6 years (1998-2003) of pentad CEOP/TRMM data with 2deg x 2.5deg latitude-longitude grid, over the domain of interests to define the monsoon climatological diurnal and annual cycles for the East Asian Monsoon (EAM), the South Asian Monsoon (SAM), the West Africa Monsoon (WAM), the North America/Mexican Monsoon (NAM), the South American Summer Monsoon (SASM) and the Australian Monsoon (AUM). As noted, the TRMM data used in the study were cross-validated using CEOP reference site data, where applicable. Results show that the observed diurnal cycle of rain peaked around late afternoon over monsoon land, and early morning over the oceans. The diurnal cycles in models tend to peak 2-3 hours earlier than observed. The seasonal cycles of the EAM and SAM show the strongest continentality, i.e, strong control by continental processes away from the ITCZ. The WAM, and the AUM shows the less continentality, i.e, strong control by the oceanic ITCZ.

Lau, William K. M.↗
NASA NTRS2007

Characterizing Diurnal and Seasonal Cycles in Monsoon Systems from TRMM and CEOP Observations

The CEOP Inter-Monsoon Study (CIMS) is one of the two main science drivers of CEOP that aims to (a) provide better understanding of fundamental physical processes in monsoon regions around the world, and (b) demonstrate the synergy and utility of CEOP data in providing a pathway for model physics evaluation and improvement. As the data collection phase for EOP-3 and EOP-4 is being completed, two full annual cycles (2003-2004) of research-quality data sets from satellites, reference sites, and model output location time series (MOLTS) have been processed and made available for data analyses and model validation studies. This article presents preliminary results of a CIMS study aimed at the characterization and intercomparison of all major monsoon systems. The CEOP reference site data proved its value in such exercises by being a powerful tool to cross-validate the TRMM data, and to intercompare with multi-model results in ongoing work. We use 6 years (1998-2003) of pentad CEOP/TRMM data with 2 deg x 2.5 deg. latitude-longitude grid, over the domain of interests to define the monsoon climatological diurnal and annual cycles for the East Asian Monsoon (EAM), the South Asian Monsoon (SAM), the West Africa Monsoon (WAM), the North America/Mexican Monsoon (NAM), the South American Summer Monsoon (SASM) and the Australian Monsoon (AUM). As noted, the TRMM data used in the study were cross-validated using CEOP reference site data, where applicable. Results show that the observed diurnal cycle of rain peaked around late afternoon over monsoon land, and early morning over the oceans. The diurnal cycles in models tend to peak 2-3 hours earlier than observed. The seasonal cycles of the EAM and SAM show the strongest continentality, i.e, strong control by continental processes away from the ITCZ. The WAM, and the AUM shows the less continentality, i.e, strong control by the oceanic ITCZ.

Lau, William K. M.↗
DOE OSTI2021

Development, characterisation, and deployment of the SNO+ liquid scintillator

A liquid scintillator consisting of linear alkylbenzene as the solvent and 2,5-diphenyloxazole as the fluor was developed for the SNO+ experiment. This mixture was chosen as it is compatible with acrylic and has a competitive light yield to pre-existing liquid scintillators while conferring other advantages including longer attenuation lengths, superior safety characteristics, chemical simplicity, ease of handling, and logistical availability. Its properties have been extensively characterized and are presented here. This liquid scintillator is now used in several neutrino physics experiments in addition to SNO+.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

The DUNE Far Detector Interim Design Report Volume 1: Physics, Technology and Strategies

The DUNE IDR describes the proposed physics program and technical designs of the DUNE Far Detector modules in preparation for the full TDR to be published in 2019. It is intended as an intermediate milestone on the path to a full TDR, justifying the technical choices that flow down from the high-level physics goals through requirements at all levels of the Project. These design choices will enable the DUNE experiment to make the ground-breaking discoveries that will help to answer fundamental physics questions. Volume 1 contains an executive summary that describes the general aims of this document. The remainder of this first volume provides a more detailed description of the DUNE physics program that drives the choice of detector technologies. It also includes concise outlines of two overarching systems that have not yet evolved to consortium structures: computing and calibration. Volumes 2 and 3 of this IDR describe, for the single-phase and dual-phase technologies, respectively, each detector module's subsystems, the technical coordination required for its design, construction, installation, and integration, and its organizational structure.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Measurement of the phase between strong and electromagnetic amplitudes in the decay J/ψ → ϕη

The first direct measurement of the relative phase between the strong and electromagnetic amplitudes for a J/ψ decaying into a vector-pseudoscalar final state is performed using 26 energy points of e + e − annihilation data between 3.00 GeV and 3.12 GeV. The data sets were collected by the BESIII detector with a total integrated luminosity of 452 pb −1 . By investigating the interference pattern in the cross section lineshape of e + e − → ϕη, the relative phase between the strong and electromagnetic amplitudes of J/ψ decay is determined to be within [133°, 228°] at 68% confidence level.

QCD↗
DOE OSTI2022

Measuring recoiling nucleons from the nucleus with the future Electron Ion Collider

Short range correlated nucleon-nucleon (NN) pairs are an important part of the nuclear ground state. They are typically studied by scattering an electron from one nucleon in the pair and detecting its spectator correlated partner (spectator-nucleon tagging). The Electron Ion Collider (EIC)should be able to detect these nucleons, since they are boosted to high momentum in the lab frame by the momentum of the ion beam. To determine the feasibility of these studies with the planned EIC detector configuration, we have simulated quasi-elastic scattering for two electron and ion beam energy configurations: 5 GeV electrons and 41 GeV/A ions, and 10 GeV electrons and 110 GeV/A ions. We show that the knocked-out and recoiling nucleons can be detected over a wide range of initial nucleon momenta. We also show that these measurements can achieve much larger momentum transfers than current fixed target experiments. By detecting both low and high initial-momentum nucleons,the EIC will provide the data that should allow scientists to definitively show if the EMC effect and short-range correlation are connected, and to improve our understanding of color transparency

Hauenstein, F. (ORCID:0000000212652212)↗
DOE OSTI2024

Solving the Orszag–Tang vortex magnetohydrodynamics problem with physics-constrained convolutional neural networks

We study the 2D Orszag–Tang vortex magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) problem through the use of physics-constrained convolutional neural networks (PCNNs) for forecasting the density, ρ, and the magnetic field, B, as well as the prediction of B given the velocity field v of the fluid. In addition to translation equivariance from the convolutional architecture, other physics constraints were embedded: absence of magnetic monopoles, non-negativity of ρ, use of only relevant variables, and the periodic boundary conditions of the problem. The use of only relevant variables and the hard constraint of non-negative ρ were found to facilitate learning greatly. The divergenceless condition ∇·B=0 was implemented as a hard constraint up to machine precision through the use of a magnetic potential to define B=∇×A. Residual networks and data augmentation were also used to improve performance. This allowed for some of the residual models to function as surrogate models and provide reasonably accurate simulations. For the prediction task, the PCNNs were evaluated against a physics-informed neural network, which had the ideal MHD induction equation as a soft constraint. Several models were able to generate highly accurate fields, which are visually almost indistinguishable and have low mean squared error. Only methods with built-in hard constraints produced physical fields with ∇·B=0. The use of PCNNs for MHD has the potential to produce physically consistent real-time simulations to serve as virtual diagnostics in cases where inferences must be made with limited observables.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Neutron thermalization in nuclear graphite: A modern story of a classic moderator

Graphite has been of great interest since the dawn of the nuclear era. In this work, we will focus on the thermal neutron scattering of two types of nuclear graphite that have different microstructures, namely, the historic PGA which has a very anisotropic medium-grained needle coke, and the new G347A which is a near-isotropic fine-grained graphite. We report the results of room temperature inelastic neutron scattering measurements for the scattering function, double differential scattering cross-section, and phonon density of states. The obtained results are discussed in conjunction with results extracted from first-principles lattice dynamics simulations of crystalline graphite, using the incoherent approximation and by also including the coherent-one phonon contribution. Excellent agreements have been found between the measured and calculated scattering functions and phonon densities of states. The inclusion of the coherent-one phonon scattering shows a significant improvement of the calculated scattering functions, double differentials, and inelastic scattering cross-sections. We also highlight the physical concerns about the current thermal neutron scattering ENDF/B-VIII of nuclear graphite library and its corresponding phonon density of states. This work aims to provide a new presentation of neutron thermalization by graphite and offers a new set of high quality experimental and computational data for consideration.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Development of a data-driven neural network model for electron thermal transport in NSTX

A data-driven electron thermal transport neural network (ETT-NN) model, trained on TRANSP interpretative analysis results of National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX), was developed to enable faster and more accurate ETT computation for spherical tokamaks (STs). The model incorporates both convolutional NNs and recurrent NNs, allowing it to simultaneously account for the spatial and temporal non-localities and multi-scale features of turbulent transport, which have been considered only in a limited manner in conventional models. The model was validated through interpretative analysis and predictive simulations using Tokamak Reactor Integrated Automated Suite for Simulation and Computation, demonstrating relatively high accuracy. Additionally, parameter scans were performed on test discharges known to exhibit specific turbulent modes, such as microtearing mode, trapped electron mode, kinetic ballooning mode, and electron temperature gradient mode. The scanning results revealed that the ETT-NN model exhibits the same trends as those observed in conventional gyrokinetic simulations or theories, while also capturing the global nature of turbulent transport, indicating that the data-driven model accurately reflects the underlying physical characteristics. Furthermore, due to the dimensionless nature of the model, we can feasibly expand its applicability by incorporating data from other devices and uncovering the characteristics of ETT in STs in the future.

NSTX↗
DOE OSTI2026

Continuum radiated power density $(P^{\textrm{C}}_{\textrm{rad}})$ and effective charge $(Z_{\textrm{eff}})$ estimates from multi-energy photon-counting measurements

Multi-energy soft x-ray pinhole cameras have been designed, built, calibrated, and operated at Madison symmetric Torus, Alcator C-Mod, and more recently at Tokamak a configuration variable and Tungsten Environment in Steady-State Tokamak (WEST), to measure plasma emission across multiple energy ranges. Here we describe a new methodology to estimate the local continuum radiated power density and the plasma effective charge (Z eff ) directly from photon-counting measurements of the line-free continuum emission (Bremsstrahlung and Radiative Recombination) in several energy bands between 11 and 18 keV. This capability is particularly valuable for confinement systems using metal plasma-facing components, where x-ray losses from interactions with the sputtered wall can represent a significant fraction of the total radiated power (P rad ). The approach leverages a well-characterized detector responsivity, modeled by a complementary error function, and interprets the differential multi-energy measurements between adjacent energy levels through the probability density function of a Gaussian distribution. The implementation of this diagnostic technique is currently under development on the WEST tokamak, aiming at the goal of providing real-time P rad and Z eff measurements during long-pulse operation (up to 1000 s) in the 2026 campaign.

WEST↗
DOE OSTI2024

An examination of the performance of molecular dynamics force fields: Silicon and silicon dioxide reactive ion etching

Classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of plasma-surface interactions were performed of physical sputtering and reactive ion etching (RIE), with predictions based on several force fields. In this paper, we focus mainly on SiO 2 but include some results for Si substrates as well. Here, we compare predictions from these MD simulations to experimental studies of SiO 2 physical sputtering (by Ar + ions), RIE of Si, and RIE of SiO 2 (both using F atoms and Ar + ions). MD results using different published force fields are compared to reported yields from published vacuum beam experiments. The near-surface depth profiles predicted using different force fields are compared. One motivation for the present study is to document the nature and magnitude of differences in the predictions for selected systems and conditions of practical interest.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

The principle of minimal power

This article is devoted to the memory of Yuri P Raizer, who passed away in 2021. He left a noticeable trace in gas discharge physics. The principle of minimal power (the state that requires minimal power is most probable) is thoroughly used in his books. Although the fundamental laws of physics do not imply this ad hoc principle, a detailed analysis of underlying phenomena can often reveal why nature prefers this path. Raizer illustrated this principle for plasma stratification, formation of electrode spots, discharge constriction, the shape of an arc channel, etc. We argue that the nonlinearity of equations describing gas discharges can often justify the realization of a plasma state maintained at minimal electric power. This nonlinearity appears because small groups of energetic electrons often control the ionization processes. The number of these electrons depends strongly on the ratio of the electric field to gas density, E/N. Under certain conditions, the ionization rate can also depend nonlinearly on electron density due to stepwise ionization and Coulomb collisions. Here, we use the principle of minimal power to illustrate some of Raizer's contributions to gas discharge physics from a single point of view. We demonstrate that nonlinearity of ionization processes in gas discharges can substantiate this principle for plasma stratification. However, striations of s, p, and r types in neon could exist with minimal or no ionization enhancement. This reminds us of Raizer's warning that applying the minimal power principle could lead to erroneous predictions, and a proper theory is required in each case to justify its use. 'The phenomenon of striations satisfies the principle of minimal power' – Yuri Raizer

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Implementing a microphysics model in hydrodynamic simulations to study the initial plasma formation in dielectric ablator materials for direct-drive implosions

A microphysics model to describe the photoionization and impact ionization processes in dielectric ablator materials like plastic has been implemented into the 1-D hydrodynamic code LILAC for planar and spherical targets. Currently, the initial plasma formation during the early stages of a laser drive are modeled in an ad hoc manner, until the formation of a critical surface. Implementation of the physics-based models predict higher values of electron density, electron temperature, and pressure than the ad hoc model. Moreover, the numerical predictions are consistent with previous experimental observations of the shinethrough mechanism in plastic ablators. For planar targets, a decompression of the rear end of the target was observed, that is similar to recent experiments. An application of this model is to understand the laser-imprint mechanism that is caused by nonuniform laser irradiation due to single beam speckle.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗