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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.

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At least 487 records · Page 27
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Modeling and design of compact, permanent-magnet transport systems for highly divergent, broad energy spread laser-driven proton beams

Laser-driven (LD) ion acceleration has been explored in a newly constructed short focal length laser beamline at the BELLA petawatt facility (interaction point 2, iP2). For applications utilizing such LD ion beams, a beam transport system is required, which for reasons of compactness be ideally contained within 3 m. While they are generated from a micron-scale source, large divergence and energy spread of LD ion beams present a unique challenge to transporting them compared to beams from conventional accelerators. This study gives an overview of proposed compact transport designs using permanent magnets satisfying different requirements depending on the application for the iP2 laser beamline such as radiation biology, material science, and high-energy density science. These designs are optimized for different parameters such as energy spread and peak proton density according to the application’s need. The various designs consist solely of permanent magnet elements, which can provide high magnetic field gradients on a small footprint. While the field strengths are fixed, we have shown that the beam size is able to be tuned effectively by varying the placement of the magnets. The performance of each design was evaluated based on high-order particle tracking simulations of typical LD proton beams. We also examine the ability of certain configurations to tune and select beam energies, critical for specific applications. A more detailed investigation was carried out for a design to deliver 10 MeV LD accelerated ions for radiation biology applications. With these transport system designs, the iP2 laser beamline is ready to house various application experiments.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Neutron-Resonance Transmission Analysis with a Compact Deuterium-Tritium Neutron Generator

Neutron Resonance Transmission Analysis (NRTA) is a spectroscopic technique which uses the resonant absorption of neutrons in the epithermal range to infer the isotopic composition of an object. This spectroscopic technique has relevance in many traditional fields of science and nuclear security. NRTA in the past made use of large, expensive accelerator facilities to achieve precise neutron beams, significantly limiting its applicability. Here, we describe a series of NRTA experiments where we use a compact, low-cost deuterium-tritium (DT) neutron generator to produce short neutron beams (2.6 m) along with a 6 Li-glass neutron detector. The time-of-flight spectral data from five elements – silver, cadmium, tungsten, indium, and 238 U – clearly show the corresponding absorption lines in the 1-30 eV range. The experiments show the applicability of NRTA in this simplified configuration, and prove the feasibility of this compact and low-cost approach. This could significantly broaden the applicability of NRTA, and make it practical and applicable in many fields, such as material science, nuclear engineering, and arms control.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

(2+1)-dimensional compact Lifshitz theory, tensor gauge theory, and fractons

The (2+1)-dimensional continuum Lifshitz theory of a free compact scalar field plays a prominent role in a variety of quantum systems in condensed matter physics and high energy physics. It is known that in compact space, it has an infinite ground-state degeneracy. In order to understand this theory better, we consider two candidate lattice regularizations of it using the modified Villain formalism. We show that these two lattice theories have significantly different global symmetries (including a dipole global symmetry), anomalies, ground-state degeneracies, and dualities. In particular, one of them is self-dual. Given these theories and their global symmetries, we can couple them to corresponding gauge theories. Here, these are two different U(1) tensor gauge theories. The resulting models have excitations with restricted mobility, i.e., fractons. Finally, we give an exact lattice realization of the fracton and lineon-elasticity dualities for the Lifshitz theory, and scalar and vector charge gauge theories.

2-dimensional systems↗
DOE OSTI2023

Nuclear and hybrid equations of state in light of the low-mass compact star in HESS J1731-347

Here, we sample over 500 relativistic mean-field theories constrained by chiral effective-field theory and properties of isospin-symmetric nuclear matter and test them against known stellar structure constraints. This includes a recent mass and radius measurement of a compact object in supernova remnant HESS J1731-347, with an unusually low mass of M = 0.77$^{+0.20}_{–0.17}$M ⊙ and a compact radius of R = 10.4$^{+0.86}_{–0.78}$ km. We show that none of the sampled nuclear models meet all constraints at the 68% credibility level, but that hybrid equations of state with a quark-matter inner core and nuclear outer core easily can. This indicates a tension between astrophysical constraints and low-energy nuclear theory.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2019

Gravitational wave emission from collisions of compact scalar solitons

We numerically investigate the gravitational waves generated by the head-on collision of equal-mass, self-gravitating, real scalar field solitons (oscillatons) as a function of their compactness $C$. We show that there exist three different possible outcomes for such collisions: (1) an excited stable oscillaton for low $C$, (2) a merger and formation of a black-hole for intermediate $C$, and (3) a pre-merger collapse of both oscillatons into individual black-holes for large $C$. For (1), the excited, aspherical oscillaton continues to emit gravitational waves. For (2), the total energy in gravitational waves emitted increases with compactness, and possesses a maximum which is greater than that from the merger of a pair of equivalent mass black-holes. The initial amplitudes of the quasi-normal modes in the post-merger ring-down in this case are larger than that of corresponding mass black-holes -- potentially a key observable to distinguish black-hole mergers with their scalar mimics. For (3), the gravitational wave output is indistinguishable from a similar mass, black-hole--black-hole merger. Based on these results, LIGO may be sensitive to oscillaton collisions from light scalars of mass 10 -12 eV $\lesssim$ m $\lesssim$ 10 -10 eV.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Versatile compact heater design for in situ nano-tomography by transmission X-ray microscopy

A versatile, compact heater designed at National Synchrotron Light Source-II for in situ X-ray nano-imaging in a full-field transmission X-ray microscope is presented. Heater design for nano-imaging is challenging, combining tight spatial constraints with stringent design requirements for the temperature range and stability. Finite-element modeling and analytical calculations were used to determine the heater design parameters. Performance tests demonstrated reliable and stable performance, including maintaining the exterior casing close to room temperature while the heater is operating at above 1100°C, a homogenous heating zone and small temperature fluctuations. Two scientific experiments are presented to demonstrate the heater capabilities: (i) in situ 3D nano-tomography including a study of metal dealloying in a liquid molten salt extreme environment, and (ii) a study of pore formation in icosahedral quasicrystals. The progression of structural changes in both studies were clearly resolved in 3D, showing that the new heater enables powerful capabilities to directly visualize and quantify 3D morphological evolution of materials under real conditions by X-ray nano-imaging at elevated temperature during synthesis, fabrication and operation processes. This heater design concept can be applied to other applications where a precise, compact heater design is required.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Additive Manufactured Compact Microwave Absorbers

A high-performance, compact microwave absorber was created using Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) 3D printing. Both a narrowband and a broadband absorber were created. The narrowband absorber was designed at 4.9 GHz, mid-band in WR-187 waveguide. The broadband absorber tried to achieve the best attenuation across the entire 3.95 to 5.85 GHz band. Two types of carbon loaded polylactic acid (PLA) plastic and one type of unloaded PLA were 3D printed with variable percentages of air to achieve different values of effective dielectric constant and loss tangent. The absorber comprised five or six rectangular pieces of these plastic materials. The thickness and fill factor values for each piece were optimized to minimize reflection through fast analytic modeling in MATLAB®. The results were then verified by HFSS® simulation as well. The stack progressed from the lowest loss and lowest dielectric constant to the highest at the shorting end. The final narrowband load had simulated return loss of 87 dB at 4.9 GHz with an analytic solution in MATLAB. The measured return loss of the 3D printed attenuator was 73 dB at 4.929 GHz. The total length of the absorber was 2.44 inches. A commercial absorber for WR-187 with return loss of 40 dB has length of 13 inches. The experiment proves that an effective and compact microwave absorber can be created using 3D printing.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2019

Modeling, Design, and Experimental Verification of a WPT Level-3 Wireless Charger with Compact Secondary Coupler

This study introduces a wireless power transfer (WPT) Level-3 rated charger with >11 kW nominal output. The proposed system is interoperable for WPT Level-1, 2, and 3 charger applications of which power levels and airgap separations are defined in SAE J2954. The system designed for this study is capable of operating at Z 1 (100-150 mm), Z 2 (140-210 mm) and Z 3 (170-250 mm) vehicle assembly ground clearance range classes with a very compact vehicle-side (secondary) coupler. The couplers are characterized for the maximum output power (P out ) and the coupling coefficient (k) with different airgaps. System frequency response and the sensitivity analysis are presented. Experimental results are shown for 190.5 mm and 216 mm airgap separations. These results demonstrate that the proposed system with a very compact secondary can be operated at these ground clearance classes with high efficiency at WPT level-3 charging levels.

Onar, Omer↗
DOE OSTI2014

Design and development of a portable flash X-ray source driven by battery powered compact Marx generator

The design, construction and operational characteristics of a portable flash X-ray source driven by battery-powered compact Marx is reported. The novel configuration of compact Marx utilizes hollow capacitors in successive stages to enhance the erection reliability. The characteristic impedance of this system is ∼ 200 Ω. At discharge of ∼ 22 kV, >200 kV output pulse of 60 ns duration (FWHM) with rise time of <5 ns (10% - 90%) is produced. The pulser requires Nitrogen gas pressurization up to 3 atm for operation at maximum rating. The Marx generator assembly is fitted in to a stainless steel tube of 10 cm diameter and 1.2 m length. While using a demountable sealed X-ray tube of matched impedance, this device produces an X-ray pulse of approximately ∼ 30 ns duration and has maximum energy of ∼ 200 keV. This true tabletop device is able to produce dose up to 100 mR per shot, measured at the distance of 30 cm from output window. The focal spot size has been passively confirmed to be in the sub-millimeter (<1 mm) range. (author)

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Compact Ferroelectric Programmable Majority Gate for Compute-in-Memory Applications

In this study, a compact and novel ferroelectric (FE) programmable majority gate is proposed and its novel application in Binary Neural Network (BNNs) is investigated. We demonstrate: i) by integrating N metal-ferroelectric-metal (MFM) capacitors on the gate of a transistor (1T-N-MFM structure), a nonvolatile and programmable majority (MAJ) gate that performs MAJ of AND between the gate input and polarization is realized; ii) validation the functionality of our 3-input MAJ of AND gate through comprehensive theoretical and experimental investigations; iii) a compact implementation of 3-input MAJ of XNOR gate that leverages only five of our 3-input MAJ of AND gates connected in parallel; iv) application of MAJ of XNOR gates to replace the XNOR gates and the first layer of the adder tree in the BNNs for up to 21x area saving on top of eliminating the energy-hungry memory accesses due to the compute-in-memory nature.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2020

Conjugate Heat Transfer Analysis of the Supercritical CO2 Based Counter Flow Compact 3D Heat Exchangers

Compact heat exchangers using supercritical fluids such as CO2 are preferred due to their high heat transfer capacity and smaller footprint. Three-dimensional conjugate forced convection heat transfer analysis was performed on several shell-and-tube counter-flow microchannel heat exchangers. Numerical simulations were conducted to test effect of change in mass flow rate, hydraulic diameter and various cross sections on the heat transfer. Increasing mass flow rate improved heat transfer up to a maximum value and then decreased downstream with increasing turbulence. Maximum heat transfer was obtained for the micro channel with the smallest hydraulic diameter. Amongst the cross sections analyzed (circular, square, circular with radial ribs, and square with radial ribs), the most uniform distribution of temperature and maximum heat transfer were obtained for circular cross section with radial ribs. An optimally efficient operation of such a heat exchanger can be attained by considering these factors during multi-objective constrained optimization of geometric parameters and requirements for additive manufacturing of such compact heat exchangers.

Chitale, Janhavi↗
DOE OSTI2021

Compact, All-PM Fiber Integrated and Alignment-Free Ultrafast Yb:Fiber NALM Laser With Sub-Femtosecond Timing Jitter

We report a simple and compact design of a dispersion compensated mode-locked Yb:fiber oscillator based on a nonlinear amplifying loop mirror (NALM). The fully polarization maintaining (PM) fiber integrated laser features a chirped fiber Bragg grating (CFBG) for dispersion compensation and a fiber integrated compact non-reciprocal phase bias device, which is alignment-free. The main design parameters were determined by numerically simulating the pulse evolution in the oscillator and by analyzing their impact on the laser performance. Experimentally, we achieved an 88 fs compressed pulse duration with sub-fs timing jitter at 54 MHz repetition rate and 51 mW of output power with 5.5×10 -5 [20 Hz, 1 MHz] integrated relative intensity noise (RIN). Furthermore, we demonstrate tight phase-locking of the laser's carrier-envelope offset frequency ( fceo ) to a stable radio frequency (RF) reference and of one frequency comb tooth to a stable optical reference at 291 THz.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2018

Influence of Compaction During Reaction Heat Treatment on the Interstrand Contact Resistances of Nb 3 Sn Rutherford Cables for Accelerator Magnets

The high field superconducting magnets required for ongoing and planned upgrades to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will be wound with Nb 3 Sn Rutherford cables for which reason studies of Nb 3 Sn strand, cable, and magnet properties will continue to be needed. Of particular importance is field quality. Here, the amplitudes of multipoles in the bore fields of dipole and quadrupole magnets, induced by ramp-rate-dependent coupling currents, are under the control of the interstrand contact resistances-crossing strand, R c , adjacent strand, R a , or a combination of them, R eff . Although two decades ago it was agreed that for the LHC R c should be in the range 10-30 μΩ, more recent measurements of LHC quadrupoles have revealed R c values ranging from 95 to 230 μΩ. This paper discusses ways in which these values can be achieved. In a heavily compacted cable R eff can be tuned to some predictable value by varying the width of an included stainless steel (effectively “insulating”) core. But cables are no longer heavily compacted with the result that the crossing strands of the impregnated cable are separated by a thick epoxy layer that behaves like an insulating core. If a stainless steel core is actually present, Reff must be independent of core width. Since there is no guarantee that a fixed predetermined amount of interlayer separation could be reproduced from winding to winding it would be advisable to include a full width core.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Grouper: A Compact, Streamable Triangle Mesh Data Structure

Here, we present Grouper: an all-in-one compact file format, random-access data structure, and streamable representation for large triangle meshes. Similarly to the recently published SQuad representation, Grouper represents the geometry and connectivity of a mesh by grouping vertices and triangles into fixed-size records, most of which store two adjacent triangles and a shared vertex. Unlike SQuad, however, Grouper interleaves geometry with connectivity and uses a new connectivity representation to ensure that vertices and triangles can be stored in a coherent order that enables memory-efficient sequential stream processing. We also present a linear-time construction algorithm that allows streaming out Grouper meshes using a small memory footprint while preserving the initial ordering of vertices. In this construction, we show how the problem of assigning vertices and triangles to groups reduces to a well-known NP-hard optimization problem, and present a simple yet effective heuristic solution that performs well in practice. Our array-based Grouper representation also doubles as a triangle mesh data structure that allows direct access to vertices and triangles. Storing only about two integer references per triangle-i.e., less than the three vertex references stored with each triangle in a conventional indexed mesh format-Grouper answers both incidence and adjacency queries in amortized constant time. Our compact representation enables data-parallel processing on multicore computers, instant partitioning and fast transmission for distributed processing, as well as efficient out-of-core access. We demonstrate the versatility and performance benefits of Grouper using a suite of example meshes and processing kernels.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2014

SU-D-BRE-07: Neutron Shielding Assessment for a Compact Proton Therapy Vault

Purpose: To perform a neutron shielding assessment of a commercially available compact proton therapy system. Methods: TOPAS (TOol for PArticle Simulation) beta release was used to model beam line components for Mevion S250 proton treatment system the design of which is that the cyclotron is present in the treatment room. Three neutron production sources were taken into account in the simulation. These are the cyclotron, the treatment nozzle and the patient itself, respectively. The cyclotron was modeled as a cylindrical iron target (r =5 cm, length = 8 cm). A water phantom (10 cm ×10 cm ×60 cm) was used to model the patient and various structures (scattering foils, range modulator wheel, applicator and compensator) defaulted in TOPAS were used to model the passive scattering treatment nozzle. Neutron fluences and energy spectra were counted in a spherical scoring geometry per incident proton in 18 angular bins (10 degree each). Fluence to dose conversion factors from ICRU publication 74 were used to acquire neutron ambient dose equivalent H*(10). A point source line of sight model was then used to calculate neutron dose at eight locations beyond shielding barriers. Results: The neutron ambient dose equivalent was calculated at the 8 points of interest around the proton treatment vault. The highest dose was found to be less than 0.781 mSv/year outside south barrier wall. However, the dose is less than 0.05 mSv/year at the control room area of the proton vault. Conclusion: All Points of interest were well under annual dose limits. This suggests that the shielding design of this compact proton therapy system is sufficient for radiation protection purpose. However, it is important to note that the workload and the occupancy factors are direct multipliers for dose calculations beyond the barrier and must be accurately estimated for validation of our results.

07 ISOTOPE AND RADIATION SOURCES↗
DOE OSTI2015

SU-E-T-568: Neutron Dose Survey of a Compact Single Room Proton Machine

Purpose: To ensure acceptable radiation limits are maintained for those working at and near the machine during its operation, a comprehensive radiation survey was performed prior to the clinical release of Mevion S250 compact proton machine at Stephenson Oklahoma Cancer Center. Methods: The Mevion S250 proton therapy system consists of the following: a superconducting cyclotron to accelerate the proton particles, a passive double scattering system for beam shaping, and paired orthogonal x-ray imaging systems for patient setup and verification via a 6D robotic couch. All equipment is housed within a single vault of compact design. Two beam delivery applicators are available for patient treatment, offering field sizes of as great as 14 cm and 25 cm in diameter, respectively. Typical clinical dose rates are between 1 and 2 Gy/min with a fixed beam energy of 250 MeV. The large applicator (25 cm in diameter) was used in conjunction with a custom cut brass aperture to create a 20 cm x 20 cm field size at beam isocenter. A 30 cm − 30 cm − 35 cm high density plastic phantom was placed in the beam path to mimic the conditions creating patient scatter. Measurements integrated-ambient-neutron-dose-equivalence were made with a SWENDII detector. Gantry angles of 0, 90 and 180 degrees, with a maximum dose rate of 150 MU/min (for large applicator) and beam configuration of option 1 (range 25 cm and 20 cm modulation), were selected as testing conditions. At each point of interest, the highest reading was recorded at 30 cm from the barrier surface. Results: The highest neutron dose was estimated to be 0.085 mSv/year at the console area. Conclusion: All controlled areas are under 5 mSv/year and the uncontrolled areas are under 1 mSv/year. The radiation protection provided by the proton vault is of sufficient quality.

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗
DOE OSTI2016

TU-H-BRA-02: The Physics of Magnetic Field Isolation in a Novel Compact Linear Accelerator Based MRI-Guided Radiation Therapy System

Purpose: To develop a method for isolating the MRI magnetic field from field-sensitive linear accelerator components at distances close to isocenter. Methods: A MRI-guided radiation therapy system has been designed that integrates a linear accelerator with simultaneous MR imaging. In order to accomplish this, the magnetron, port circulator, radiofrequency waveguide, gun driver, and linear accelerator needed to be placed in locations with low magnetic fields. The system was also required to be compact, so moving these components far from the main magnetic field and isocenter was not an option. The magnetic field sensitive components (exclusive of the waveguide) were placed in coaxial steel sleeves that were electrically and mechanically isolated and whose thickness and placement were optimized using E&M modeling software. Six sets of sleeves were placed 60° apart, 85 cm from isocenter. The Faraday effect occurs when the direction of propagation is parallel to the magnetic RF field component, rotating the RF polarization, subsequently diminishing RF power. The Faraday effect was avoided by orienting the waveguides such that the magnetic field RF component was parallel to the magnetic field. Results: The magnetic field within the shields was measured to be less than 40 Gauss, significantly below the amount needed for the magnetron and port circulator. Additional mu-metal was employed to reduce the magnetic field at the linear accelerator to less than 1 Gauss. The orientation of the RF waveguides allowed the RT transport with minimal loss and reflection. Conclusion: One of the major challenges in designing a compact linear accelerator based MRI-guided radiation therapy system, that of creating low magnetic field environments for the magnetic-field sensitive components, has been solved. The measured magnetic fields are sufficiently small to enable system integration. This work supported by ViewRay, Inc.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2016

HU multimerization shift controls nucleoid compaction

Molecular mechanisms controlling functional bacterial chromosome (nucleoid) compaction and organization are surprisingly enigmatic but partly depend on conserved, histone-like proteins HUαα and HUαβ and their interactions that span the nanoscale and mesoscale from protein-DNA complexes to the bacterial chromosome and nucleoid structure. We determined the crystal structures of these chromosome-associated proteins in complex with native duplex DNA. Distinct DNA binding modes of HUαα and HUαβ elucidate fundamental features of bacterial chromosome packing that regulate gene transcription. By combining crystal structures with solution x-ray scattering results, we determined architectures of HU-DNA nucleoproteins in solution under near-physiological conditions. These macromolecular conformations and interactions result in contraction at the cellular level based on in vivo imaging of native unlabeled nucleoid by soft x-ray tomography upon HUβ and ectopic HUα38 expression. Structural characterization of charge-altered HUαα-DNA complexes reveals an HU molecular switch that is suitable for condensing nucleoid and reprogramming noninvasive Escherichia coli into an invasive form. Collective findings suggest that shifts between networking and cooperative and noncooperative DNA-dependent HU multimerization control DNA compaction and supercoiling independently of cellular topoisomerase activity. By integrating x-ray crystal structures, x-ray scattering, mutational tests, and x-ray imaging that span from protein-DNA complexes to the bacterial chromosome and nucleoid structure, we show that defined dynamic HU interaction networks can promote nucleoid reorganization and transcriptional regulation as efficient general microbial mechanisms to help synchronize genetic responses to cell cycle, changing environments, and pathogenesis.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗