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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 649 records · Page 36
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1992

Particle simulation of rarefied aeropass maneuvers of the Magellan spacecraft

Rarefied and free molecular flowfields corresponding to proposed aeropass maneuvers through the atmosphere of Venus by the Magellan spacecraft are computed with a vectorized particle simulation method. The significance of rarefaction and reaction effects are assessed and surface heat flux, drag coefficients, and flowfield properties are computed. A simple surface heat transfer model is coupled directly to the simulation and assumes that each surface element is in radiative equilibrium with deep space. This allows direct computation of surface temperature distributions rather than requiring prescribed isothermal boundary conditions. Uncoupled dual-node heat transfer models, which account for heat capacity and thermal conductivity within each structural component, permit more accurate determination of surface temperatures. Such temperatures restrict the allowable altitudes and entry speeds of the aeropass maneuvers, and must therefore be estimated accurately. Simulations with an entry velocity of 8600 m/s at altitudes between 125 and 140 km reveal that allowable surface temperatures occur only at the highest altitudes where the flowfield is appropriately modeled as free-molecular. Excessive surface heat flux occurs at lower altitudes where molecular collisions are significant.

Haas, Brian L.↗
DOE OSTI2013

2D/1D approximations to the 3D neutron transport equation. I: Theory

A new class of '2D/1D' approximations is proposed for the 3D linear Boltzmann equation. These approximate equations preserve the exact transport physics in the radial directions x and y and diffusion physics in the axial direction z. Thus, the 2D/1D equations are more accurate approximations of the 3D Boltzmann equation than the conventional 3D diffusion equation. The 2D/1D equations can be systematically discretized, to yield accurate simulation methods for 3D reactor core problems. The resulting solutions will be more accurate than 3D diffusion solutions, and less expensive to generate than standard 3D transport solutions. In this paper, we (i) show that the simplest 2D/1D equation has certain desirable properties, (ii) systematically discretize this equation, and (iii) derive a stable iteration scheme for solving the discrete system of equations. In a companion paper [1], we give numerical results that confirm the theoretical predictions of accuracy and iterative stability. (authors)

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
NASA NTRS1991

A Comparative Study of High and Low Fidelity Fan Models for Turbofan Engine System Simulation

In this paper, a heterogeneous propulsion system simulation method is presented. The method is based on the formulation of a cycle model of a gas turbine engine. The model includes the nonlinear characteristics of the engine components via use of empirical data. The potential to simulate the entire engine operation on a computer without the aid of data is demonstrated by numerically generating "performance maps" for a fan component using two flow models of varying fidelity. The suitability of the fan models were evaluated by comparing the computed performance with experimental data. A discussion of the potential benefits and/or difficulties in connecting simulations solutions of differing fidelity is given.

Reed, John A.↗
DOE OSTI2016

Charged particle transport in magnetic fields in EGSnrc

Purpose: To accurately and efficiently implement charged particle transport in a magnetic field in EGSnrc and validate the code for the use in phantom and ion chamber simulations. Methods: The effect of the magnetic field on the particle motion and position is determined using one- and three-point numerical integrations of the Lorentz force on the charged particle and is added to the condensed history calculation performed by the EGSnrc PRESTA-II algorithm. The code is tested with a Fano test adapted for the presence of magnetic fields. The code is compatible with all EGSnrc based applications, including egs++. Ion chamber calculations are compared to experimental measurements and the effect of the code on the efficiency and timing is determined. Results: Agreement with the Fano test’s theoretical value is obtained at the 0.1% level for large step-sizes and in magnetic fields as strong as 5 T. The NE2571 dose calculations achieve agreement with the experiment within 0.5% up to 1 T beyond which deviations up to 1.2% are observed. Uniform air gaps of 0.5 and 1 mm and a misalignment of the incoming photon beam with the magnetic field are found to produce variations in the normalized dose on the order of 1%. These findings necessitate a clear definition of all experimental conditions to allow for accurate Monte Carlo simulations. It is found that ion chamber simulation times are increased by only 38%, and a 10 × 10 × 6 cm{sup 3} water phantom with (3 mm){sup 3} voxels experiences a 48% increase in simulation time as compared to the default EGSnrc with no magnetic field. Conclusions: The incorporation of the effect of the magnetic fields in EGSnrc provides the capability to calculate high accuracy ion chamber and phantom doses for the use in MRI-radiation systems. Further, the effect of apparently insignificant experimental details is found to be accentuated by the presence of the magnetic field.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2014

WE-E-17A-07: Patient-Specific Mathematical Neuro-Oncology: Biologically-Informed Radiation Therapy and Imaging Physics

Purpose: To demonstrate a method of generating patient-specific, biologically-guided radiation therapy (RT) plans and to quantify and predict response to RT in glioblastoma. We investigate the biological correlates and imaging physics driving T2-MRI based response to radiation therapy using an MRI simulator. Methods: We have integrated a patient-specific biomathematical model of glioblastoma proliferation, invasion and radiotherapy with a multiobjective evolutionary algorithm for intensity-modulated RT optimization to construct individualized, biologically-guided plans. Patient-individualized simulations of the standard-of-care and optimized plans are compared in terms of several biological metrics quantified on MRI. An extension of the PI model is used to investigate the role of angiogenesis and its correlates in glioma response to therapy with the Proliferation-Invasion-Hypoxia- Necrosis-Angiogenesis model (PIHNA). The PIHNA model is used with a brain tissue phantom to predict tumor-induced vasogenic edema, tumor and tissue density that is used in a multi-compartmental MRI signal equation for generation of simulated T2- weighted MRIs. Results: Applying a novel metric of treatment response (Days Gained) to the patient-individualized simulation results predicted that the optimized RT plans would have a significant impact on delaying tumor progression, with Days Gained increases from 21% to 105%. For the T2- MRI simulations, initial validation tests compared average simulated T2 values for white matter, tumor, and peripheral edema to values cited in the literature. Simulated results closely match the characteristic T2 value for each tissue. Conclusion: Patient-individualized simulations using the combination of a biomathematical model with an optimization algorithm for RT generated biologically-guided doses that decreased normal tissue dose and increased therapeutic ratio with the potential to improve survival outcomes for treatment of glioblastoma. Simulated T2-MRI is shown to be consistent with known physics of MRI and can be used to further investigate biological drivers of imaging-based response to RT.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS1989

Laser transit anemometer software development program

Algorithms were developed for the extraction of two components of mean velocity, standard deviation, and the associated correlation coefficient from laser transit anemometry (LTA) data ensembles. The solution method is based on an assumed two-dimensional Gaussian probability density function (PDF) model of the flow field under investigation. The procedure consists of transforming the data ensembles from the data acquisition domain (consisting of time and angle information) to the velocity space domain (consisting of velocity component information). The mean velocity results are obtained from the data ensemble centroid. Through a least squares fitting of the transformed data to an ellipse representing the intersection of a plane with the PDF, the standard deviations and correlation coefficient are obtained. A data set simulation method is presented to test the data reduction process. Results of using the simulation system with a limited test matrix of input values is also given.

Abbiss, John B.↗
DOE OSTI2016

Vacancy enhanced formation and phase transition of Cu-rich precipitates in α - iron under neutron irradiation

In this paper, we employed both molecular statics and molecular dynamics simulation methods to investigate the role of vacancies in the formation and phase transition of Cu-rich precipitates in α-iron. The results indicated that vacancies promoted the diffusion of Cu atoms to form Cu-rich precipitates. After Cu-rich precipitates formed, they further trapped vacancies. The supersaturated vacancy concentration in the Cu-rich precipitate induced a shear strain, which triggered the phase transition from bcc to fcc structure by transforming the initial bcc (110) plane into fcc (111) plane. In addition, the formation of the fcc-twin structure and the stacking fault structure in the Cu-rich precipitates was observed in dynamics simulations.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

Influences of different gases on the terahertz radiation based on the application of two-color laser pulses

In this work, using a two-dimensional Particle In Cell-Monte Carlo Collision simulation method, a comparative study is performed on the influences of different types of atomic and molecular gases at various background gas pressures on the generation of broadband and intense Terahertz (THz) radiation via the application of two-color laser pulses. These two modes are focused into Argon (Ar), Xenon (Xe), Nitrogen (N{sub 2}), Oxygen (O{sub 2}), and air as the background gaseous media and the plasma channel is created. It is observed that the THz radiation emission dramatically changes due to the propagation effects. A wider THz pulse is emitted from the formed plasma channel at the higher gas pressures. The significant effects of the propagation features of the emitted THz pulse on its energy at the longer lengths of the plasma channel are observed.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2016

Reverse energy partitioning—An efficient algorithm for computing the density of states, partition functions, and free energy of solids

A robust and model free Monte Carlo simulation method is proposed to address the challenge in computing the classical density of states and partition function of solids. Starting from the minimum configurational energy, the algorithm partitions the entire energy range in the increasing energy direction (“upward”) into subdivisions whose integrated density of states is known. When combined with the density of states computed from the “downward” energy partitioning approach [H. Do, J. D. Hirst, and R. J. Wheatley, J. Chem. Phys. 135, 174105 (2011)], the equilibrium thermodynamic properties can be evaluated at any temperature and in any phase. The method is illustrated in the context of the Lennard-Jones system and can readily be extended to other molecular systems and clusters for which the structures are known.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2015

TU-F-CAMPUS-T-04: Variations in Nominally Identical Small Fields From Photon Jaw Reproducibility and Associated Effects On Small Field Dosimetric Parameters

Purpose: To investigate uncertainties in small field output factors and detector specific correction factors from variations in field size for nominally identical fields using measurements and Monte Carlo simulations. Methods: Repeated measurements of small field output factors are made with the Exradin W1 (plastic scintillation detector) and the PTW microDiamond (synthetic diamond detector) in beams from the Elekta Precise linear accelerator. We investigate corrections for a 0.6x0.6 cm{sup 2} nominal field size shaped with secondary photon jaws at 100 cm source to surface distance (SSD). Measurements of small field profiles are made in a water phantom at 10 cm depth using both detectors and are subsequently used for accurate detector positioning. Supplementary Monte Carlo simulations with EGSnrc are used to calculate the absorbed dose to the detector and absorbed dose to water under the same conditions when varying field size. The jaws in the BEAMnrc model of the accelerator are varied by a reasonable amount to investigate the same situation without the influence of measurements uncertainties (such as detector positioning or variation in beam output). Results: For both detectors, small field output factor measurements differ by up to 11 % when repeated measurements are made in nominally identical 0.6x0.6 cm{sup 2} fields. Variations in the FWHM of measured profiles are consistent with field size variations reported by the accelerator. Monte Carlo simulations of the dose to detector vary by up to 16 % under worst case variations in field size. These variations are also present in calculations of absorbed dose to water. However, calculated detector specific correction factors are within 1 % when varying field size because of cancellation of effects. Conclusion: Clinical physicists should be aware of potentially significant uncertainties in measured output factors required for dosimetry of small fields due to field size variations for nominally identical fields.

07 ISOTOPE AND RADIATION SOURCES↗
DOE OSTI2018

Monte Carlo Study of Magnetic and Thermal Phase Transitions of a Diluted Magnetic Nanosystem

Monte Carlo (MC) simulation method with the Metropolis algorithm is used to study the magnetic and thermal phase transition properties of a spherical nanoparticle. The system consists of two concentric spheres of rays R{sub C} and R{sub S}, respectively (R{sub c} < R{sub s}). For r < R{sub c}, the spin is σ = ±3 /2 and ±1 /2, and for R{sub C} < r ≤ R{sub S}, the spin is S = ±7 /2, + 5/2, ±3 /2, and ±1 /2 with antiferromagnetic interface coupling. Between R{sub C} and R{sub S}, the sites are populated with the probability (p). We present a detailed discussion on the magnetic and thermal phase transition characteristics of the system under consideration. Our investigations show that this system can be used as a magnetic nanostructure possessing potential applications in magnetism.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
NASA NTRS2011

A Variational Method to Retrieve the Extinction Profile in Liquid Clouds Using Multiple Field-of-View Lidar

While liquid clouds playa very important role in the global radiation budget, it's been very difficult to remotely determine their internal cloud structure. Ordinary lidar instruments (similar to radars but using visible light pulses) receive strong signals from such clouds, but the information is limited to a thin layer near the cloud boundary. Multiple field-of-view (FOV) lidars offer some new hope as they are able to isolate photons that were scattered many times by cloud droplets and penetrated deep into a cloud before returning to the instrument. Their data contains new information on cloud structure, although the lack of fast simulation methods made it challenging to interpret the observations. This paper describes a fast new technique that can simulate multiple-FOV lidar signals and can even estimate the way the signals would change in response to changes in cloud properties-an ability that allows quick refinements in our initial guesses of cloud structure. Results for a hypothetical airborne three-FOV lidar suggest that this approach can help determine cloud structure for a deeper layer in clouds, and can reliably determine the optical thickness of even fairly thick liquid clouds. The algorithm is also applied to stratocumulus observations by the 8-FOV airborne "THOR" lidar. These tests demonstrate that the new method can determine the depth to which a lidar provides useful information on vertical cloud structure. This work opens the way to exploit data from spaceborne lidar and radar more rigorously than has been possible up to now.

Pounder, Nicola L.↗
DOE OSTI2014

Dose reduction using a dynamic, piecewise-linear attenuator

Purpose: The authors recently proposed a dynamic, prepatient x-ray attenuator capable of producing a piecewise-linear attenuation profile customized to each patient and viewing angle. This attenuator was intended to reduce scatter-to-primary ratio (SPR), dynamic range, and dose by redistributing flux. In this work the authors tested the ability of the attenuator to reduce dose and SPR in simulations. Methods: The authors selected four clinical applications, including routine full field-of-view scans of the thorax and abdomen, and targeted reconstruction tasks for an abdominal aortic aneurysm and the pancreas. Raw data were estimated by forward projection of the image volume datasets. The dynamic attenuator was controlled to reduce dose while maintaining peak variance by solving a convex optimization problem, assuminga priori knowledge of the patient anatomy. In targeted reconstruction tasks, the noise in specific regions was given increased weighting. A system with a standard attenuator (or “bowtie filter”) was used as a reference, and used either convex optimized tube current modulation (TCM) or a standard TCM heuristic. The noise of the scan was determined analytically while the dose was estimated using Monte Carlo simulations. Scatter was also estimated using Monte Carlo simulations. The sensitivity of the dynamic attenuator to patient centering was also examined by shifting the abdomen in 2 cm intervals. Results: Compared to a reference system with optimized TCM, use of the dynamic attenuator reduced dose by about 30% in routine scans and 50% in targeted scans. Compared to the TCM heuristics which are typically used withouta priori knowledge, the dose reduction is about 50% for routine scans. The dynamic attenuator gives the ability to redistribute noise and variance and produces more uniform noise profiles than systems with a conventional bowtie filter. The SPR was also modestly reduced by 10% in the thorax and 24% in the abdomen. Imaging with the dynamic attenuator was relatively insensitive to patient centering, showing a 17% increase in peak variance for a 6 cm shift of the abdomen, instead of an 82% increase in peak variance for a fixed bowtie filter. Conclusions: A dynamic prepatient x-ray attenuator consisting of multiple wedges is capable of achieving substantial dose reductions and modest SPR reductions.

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Acoustic characterization of high intensity focused ultrasound fields generated from a transmitter with a large aperture

Prediction and measurement of the acoustic field emitted from a high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) is essential for the accurate ultrasonic treatment. In this study, the acoustic field generated from a strongly focused HIFU transmitter was characterized by a combined experiment and simulation method. The spheroidal beam equation (SBE) was utilized to describe the nonlinear sound propagation. The curve of the source pressure amplitude versus voltage excitation was determined by fitting the measured ratio of the second harmonic to the fundamental component of the focal waveform to the simulation result; finally, the acoustic pressure field generated by the strongly focused HIFU transmitter was predicted by using the SBE model. A commercial fiber optic probe hydrophone was utilized to measure the acoustic pressure field generated from a 1.1 MHz HIFU transmitter with a large half aperture angle of 30°. The maximum measured peak-to-peak pressure was up to 72 MPa. The validity of this combined approach was confirmed by the comparison between the measured results and the calculated ones. The results indicate that the current approach might be useful to describe the HIFU field. The results also suggest that this method is not valid for low excitations owing to low sensitivity of the second harmonic.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Multiscale Simulation of Deployable Composite Structures

In this paper, a multiscale simulation method for analyzing deployable composite structures is presented. Effective shell properties of the composites are obtained based on Mechanics of Structure Genome (MSG) homogenization, and then implemented into a user-subroutine UGENS for structural simulation with shell elements in Abaqus. The column bending test(CBT) of a flat thin flexure and lenticular composite boom in a simplified deployer structure are studied for demonstration. A viscoelastic material model with direct integration is adopted in this paper. The CBT simulation shows good agreement with experiments during relaxation, while errors are observed when comparing residual deformation. It is shown that this CBT model can be calibrated to CBT test results. For the lenticular boom analysis, the complete process of flattening, coiling, stowage, deployment and recovery is simulated with the viscoelastic shell model.

Finite element analysis↗
NASA NTRS1991

Particle simulation in a multiprocessor environment

A parallel implementation of a particle simulation method that is portable between a wide class of multiprocessor computers is presented. A fine grain spatial decomposition is utilized where several subdomains having a regular structure are computed at each processing node. This leads directly to an efficient and straightforward load balancing scheme if the number of subdomains at each processor is permitted to vary in an appropriate manner. Three dimensional simulations incorporating full thermochemical nonequilibrium are possible using the resulting code. Vectorizable algorithms are retained from earlier work allowing efficient use of deeply pipelined node processors where available. Performance results are presented from three different machine architectures demonstrating the portability of the code. On a 128-node Intel iPSC/860, performance is twice that of a single Cray-Y/MP CPU running a highly vectorized simulation code. Speedup is linear over the full range of number of processors on all target machines, indicating scalability of the method to higher degrees of parallelism.

Mcdonald, Jeffrey D.↗
DOE OSTI2014

Determination of the k{sub Q{sub c{sub l{sub i{sub n,Q{sub m{sub s{sub r}{sup f{sub c}{sub l}{sub i}{sub n},f{sub m}{sub s}{sub r}}}}}}}}} correction factors for detectors used with an 800 MU/min CyberKnife{sup ®} system equipped with fixed collimators and a study of detector response to small photon beams using a Monte Carlo method

Purpose: In a previous work, output ratio (OR{sub det}) measurements were performed for the 800 MU/min CyberKnife{sup ®} at the Oscar Lambret Center (COL, France) using several commercially available detectors as well as using two passive dosimeters (EBT2 radiochromic film and micro-LiF TLD-700). The primary aim of the present work was to determine by Monte Carlo calculations the output factor in water (OF{sub MC,w}) and the k{sub Q{sub c{sub l{sub i{sub n,Q{sub m{sub s{sub r}{sup f{sub c}{sub l}{sub i}{sub n},f{sub m}{sub s}{sub r}}}}}}}}} correction factors. The secondary aim was to study the detector response in small beams using Monte Carlo simulation. Methods: The LINAC head of the CyberKnife{sup ®} was modeled using the PENELOPE Monte Carlo code system. The primary electron beam was modeled using a monoenergetic source with a radial gaussian distribution. The model was adjusted by comparisons between calculated and measured lateral profiles and tissue-phantom ratios obtained with the largest field. In addition, the PTW 60016 and 60017 diodes, PTW 60003 diamond, and micro-LiF were modeled. Output ratios with modeled detectors (OR{sub MC,det}) and OF{sub MC,w} were calculated and compared to measurements, in order to validate the model for smallest fields and to calculate k{sub Q{sub c{sub l{sub i{sub n,Q{sub m{sub s{sub r}{sup f{sub c}{sub l}{sub i}{sub n},f{sub m}{sub s}{sub r}}}}}}}}} correction factors, respectively. For the study of the influence of detector characteristics on their response in small beams; first, the impact of the atomic composition and the mass density of silicon, LiF, and diamond materials were investigated; second, the material, the volume averaging, and the coating effects of detecting material on the detector responses were estimated. Finally, the influence of the size of silicon chip on diode response was investigated. Results: Looking at measurement ratios (uncorrected output factors) compared to the OF{sub MC,w}, the PTW 60016, 60017 and Sun Nuclear EDGE diodes systematically over-responded (about +6% for the 5 mm field), whereas the PTW 31014 Pinpoint chamber systematically under-responded (about −12% for the 5 mm field). OR{sub det} measured with the SFD diode and PTW 60003 diamond detectors were in good agreement with OF{sub MC,w} except for the 5 mm field size (about −7.5% for the diamond and +3% for the SFD). A good agreement with OF{sub MC,w} was obtained with the EBT2 film and micro-LiF dosimeters (deviation less than 1.4% for all fields investigated). k{sub Q{sub c{sub l{sub i{sub n,Q{sub m{sub s{sub r}{sup f{sub c}{sub l}{sub i}{sub n},f{sub m}{sub s}{sub r}}}}}}}}} correction factors for several detectors used in this work have been calculated. The impact of atomic composition on the dosimetric response of detectors was found to be insignificant, unlike the mass density and size of the detecting material. Conclusions: The results obtained with the passive dosimeters showed that they can be used for small beam OF measurements without correction factors. The study of detector response showed that OR{sub det} is depending on the mass density, the volume averaging, and the coating effects of the detecting material. Each effect was quantified for the PTW 60016 and 60017 diodes, the micro-LiF, and the PTW 60003 diamond detectors. None of the active detectors used in this work can be recommended as a reference for small field dosimetry, but an improved diode detector with a smaller silicon chip coated with tissue-equivalent material is anticipated (by simulation) to be a reliable small field dosimetric detector in a nonequilibrium field.

07 ISOTOPE AND RADIATION SOURCES↗
DOE OSTI2015

A coupled ordinates method for solution acceleration of rarefied gas dynamics simulations

Non-equilibrium rarefied flows are frequently encountered in a wide range of applications, including atmospheric re-entry vehicles, vacuum technology, and microscale devices. Rarefied flows at the microscale can be effectively modeled using the ellipsoidal statistical Bhatnagar–Gross–Krook (ESBGK) form of the Boltzmann kinetic equation. Numerical solutions of these equations are often based on the finite volume method (FVM) in physical space and the discrete ordinates method in velocity space. However, existing solvers use a sequential solution procedure wherein the velocity distribution functions are implicitly coupled in physical space, but are solved sequentially in velocity space. This leads to explicit coupling of the distribution function values in velocity space and slows down convergence in systems with low Knudsen numbers. Furthermore, this also makes it difficult to solve multiscale problems or problems in which there is a large range of Knudsen numbers. In this paper, we extend the coupled ordinates method (COMET), previously developed to study participating radiative heat transfer, to solve the ESBGK equations. In this method, at each cell in the physical domain, distribution function values for all velocity ordinates are solved simultaneously. This coupled solution is used as a relaxation sweep in a geometric multigrid method in the spatial domain. Enhancements to COMET to account for the non-linearity of the ESBGK equations, as well as the coupled implementation of boundary conditions, are presented. The methodology works well with arbitrary convex polyhedral meshes, and is shown to give significantly faster solutions than the conventional sequential solution procedure. Acceleration factors of 5–9 are obtained for low to moderate Knudsen numbers on single processor platforms.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗