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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 667 records · Page 37
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2016

Effects of a Novel Acoustic Transmitter on Swimming Performance and Predator Avoidance of Juvenile Chinook Salmon: Determination of a Size Threshold

Abstract Telemetry studies are used worldwide to investigate the behavior and migration of fishes. The miniaturization of acoustic transmitters enables researchers to tag smaller fish, such as the juvenile life stages of salmon, thus representing a greater proportion of the population of interest. The development of an injectable acoustic transmitter has led to research determining the least invasive and quickest method of tag implantation. Swimming performance and predator avoidance were examined. To quantify critical swimming speed (Ucrit; an index of prolonged swimming performance) and predator avoidance for juvenile Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), fish were split into three groups: (1) fish implanted with a dummy injectable acoustic transmitter (IAT treatment), (2) fish implanted with a dummy injectable acoustic transmitter and passive integrated transponder (PIT) tag (IAT+PIT treatment), and (3) an untagged control group. The Ucrits and predator avoidance capability of tagged fish were compared with untagged fish to determine if carrying an IAT adversely affected swimming performance or predator avoidance. Fish implanted with only an IAT had lower Ucrit values than untagged fish and a size threshold at 79 mm fork length was found. Conversely, Ucrit values for fish implanted with an IAT+PIT were not significantly different from untagged controls and no size threshold was found. Predator avoidance testing showed no significant difference for fish implanted with an IAT compared to untagged individuals, nor was there a significant difference for IAT+PIT fish compared to untagged fish.

juvenile Chinook salmon, swimming performance, pre↗
DOE OSTI2022

Noninvasive acoustic time-of-flight measurements in heated, hermetically-sealed high explosives using a convolutional neural network

In this work, we present a data-driven technique for measuring the time-of-flight through material sealed within a container. Time-of-flight measurement provides a noninvasive means of quantifying the sound speed profile within a material by transmitting an acoustic burst and then measuring the time required for the burst to arrive at an opposing receiver. In a hermetically-sealed cylindrical container, a portion of the acoustic energy propagates through the material as a bulk wave, while the remainder of the acoustic energy propagates around the container walls as guided waves. As a result, interference from the guided waves obscures the bulk arrival, inhibiting measurement of the sound speed. The technique uses a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) to identify critical features in the measured waveforms and identify bulk wave arrivals. We demonstrate this time-of-flight measurement technique on high explosive-filled containers as they are heated from room temperature to detonation. This is a particularly challenging application for acoustic time-of-flight measurements as the high explosives have significant sound speed gradients as they undergo heating, and they lead to significant attenuation of the bulk wave, as opposed to the guided waves, which do not suffer significant attenuation. We characterize the performance of the CNN as a function of the high explosive temperature and as a function of the CNN hyperparameters. We then provide physical insight into the error trends.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2018

Time-domain imaging of gigahertz surface waves on an acoustic metamaterial

We extend time-domain imaging in acoustic metamaterials to gigahertz frequencies. Using a sample consisting of a regular array of ~1 μm diameter silica microspheres forming a two-dimensional triangular lattice on a substrate, we implement an ultrafast technique to probe surface acoustic wave propagation inside the metamaterial area and incident on the metamaterial from a region containing no microspheres, which reveals the acoustic metamaterial dispersion, the presence of band gaps and the acoustic transmission properties of the interface. Here, a theoretical model of this locally resonant metamaterial based on normal and shear-rotational resonances of the spheres fits the data well. Using this model, we show analytically how the sphere elastic coupling parameters influence the gap widths.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2025

Surface and bulk two-level-system losses in lithium niobate acoustic resonators

Lithium niobate (LN) is a promising material for building acoustic resonators used in quantum applications, but its performance is limited by poorly understood material defects called two-level systems (TLSs). Here, in this work, we fabricate high-performance acoustic resonators from LN with quality factors up to 6 ×10 7 and use them to separate bulk and surface contributions to TLS loss. By comparing these bulk acoustic wave (BAW) resonators with previous surface-acoustic-wave and phononic-crystal studies, we show that devices with high surface-participation ratios are limited by surface TLSs, while our BAW devices reveal an intrinsic bulk TLS limit. Through systematic surface treatments and microscopy, we demonstrate that BAW resonator performance remains unchanged despite surface modifications, confirming operation in a bulk-limited regime. Here, our work establishes quantitative bounds on both surface and bulk TLS losses in LN within the context of the material growth and fabrication approaches we have pursued, and it provides guidance for future device engineering and materials development.

acoustic wave phenomena↗
DOE OSTI2016

Vibro-acoustic Imaging at the Breazeale Reactor

The INL is developing Vibro-acoustic imaging technology to characterize microstructure in fuels and materials in spent fuel pools and within reactor vessels. A vibro-acoustic development laboratory has been established at the INL. The progress in developing the vibro-acoustic technology at the INL is the focus of this report. A successful technology demonstration was performed in a working TRIGA research reactor. Vibro-acoustic imaging was performed in the reactor pool of the Breazeale reactor in late September of 2015. A confocal transducer driven at a nominal 3 MHz was used to collect the 60 kHz differential beat frequency induced in a spent TRIGA fuel rod and empty gamma tube located in the main reactor water pool. Data was collected and analyzed with the INLDAS data acquisition software using a short time Fourier transform.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
NASA NTRS2015

Effect of Coversheet Materials on the Acoustic Performance of Melamine Foam

Melamine foam is a highly absorptive material that is often used inside the payload fairing walls of a launch vehicle. This foam reduces the acoustic excitation environment that the spacecraft experiences during launch. Often, the melamine foam is enclosed by thin coversheet materials for contamination protection, thermal protection, and electrostatic discharge control. Previous limited acoustic testing by NASA Glenn Research Center has shown that the presence of a coversheet material on the melamine foam can have a significant impact on the absorption coefficient and the transmission loss. As a result of this preliminary finding a more extensive acoustic test program using several different coversheet materials on melamine foam was performed. Those test results are summarized in this paper. Additionally, a method is provided to use the acoustic absorption and transmission loss data obtained from panel level testing to predict their combined effect for the noise reduction of a launch vehicle payload fairing.

Acoustics↗
DOE OSTI2015

Monitoring and Analysis of In-Pile Phenomena in Advanced Test Reactor using Acoustic Telemetry

The interior of a nuclear reactor presents a particularly harsh and challenging environment for both sensors and telemetry due to high temperatures and high fluxes of energetic and ionizing particles among the radioactive decay products. A number of research programs are developing acoustic-based sensing approach to take advantage of the acoustic transmission properties of reactor cores. Idaho National Laboratory has installed vibroacoustic receivers on and around the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) containment vessel to take advantage of acoustically telemetered sensors such as thermoacoustic (TAC) transducers. The installation represents the first step in developing an acoustic telemetry infrastructure. This paper presents the theory of TAC, application of installed vibroacoustic receivers in monitoring the in-pile phenomena inside the ATR, and preliminary data processing results.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Atomically Resolved Acoustic Dynamics Coupled with Magnetic Order in a Van der Waals Antiferromagnet

Magnetoelastic coupling in van der Waals (vdW) magnetic materials enables a unique interplay between the spin and lattice degrees of freedom. Characterizing the elastic responses with atomic and femtosecond resolution across the magnetic transition is essential for guiding the design of magnetically tunable actuators and strain-mediated spintronic devices. Here, ultrafast X-ray diffraction employed at a free-electron laser reveals that the atomic displacements, wave vectors, and dispersion relations of acoustic phonon modes in a vdW antiferromagnet FePS3 are coupled with the magnetic order, by tracking both in-plane and out-of-plane Bragg peaks upon optical excitation across the Néel temperature (TN). One transverse mode shows that a quasi-out-of-plane atomic displacement undergoes a significant directional change across TN. Its quasi-in-plane wave vector is derived by comparing the measured sound velocity and the first-principles calculations. The other transverse mode is an interlayer shear acoustic mode whose amplitude is strongly enhanced in the antiferromagnetic phase, exhibiting eight times stronger amplitude than the longitudinal acoustic mode below TN. The atomically resolved characterization of acoustic phonon dynamics that couple with magnetic ordering opens opportunities for harnessing unique magnetoelastic coupling in vdW magnets on ultrafast timescales.

coherent acoustic phonons↗
DOE OSTI2021

Acoustic Exposure to Turbine Operation Quantifies Risk to Bats at Commercial Wind Energy Facilities

ABSTRACT Turbine‐related bat mortality at commercial wind energy facilities may threaten populations of migratory tree‐roosting bat species in North America. Industry stakeholders and regulatory agencies alike are investigating strategies to reduce risk of population‐level consequences as the wind energy industry grows. Bats collide with turbines only when turbine rotors are spinning and curtailing turbine operation at low wind speeds can effectively reduce bat fatality rates. Nonetheless, few quantitative data exist to determine appropriate threshold wind speeds below which turbine operations should be curtailed. Carcass monitoring is labor‐intensive and does not provide information on factors linked to bat fatality rates on any scale finer than nightly. We tested whether acoustic bat data recorded at turbine nacelles could provide a more precise and sensitive measure of fatality risk to bats by analyzing acoustics, weather, turbine operation, and carcass data collected at 2 commercial wind energy facilities in West Virginia over 7 years. Each wind facility implemented several distinct curtailment treatments during our study, allowing us to compare fatality rates and acoustic bat activity across multiple operational strategies. We found that bat passes exposed to turbine operation explained close to 80% of the variation in carcass‐based estimates of bat fatality rates and accounted for significant variation in raw carcass counts per turbine and probability of finding bat carcasses during individual turbine searches. Conversely, bat activity occurring when turbines were not operating had little or no relationship to fatality rates. We also found that patterns in bat activity exposure could be predicted accurately among turbines and years. Our results demonstrate that measuring exposure of acoustic bat activity provides a quantitative basis for designing, evaluating, and adaptively managing curtailment strategies. This is an important advance towards using curtailment to reduce bat fatality rates strategically while allowing for increased generation of renewable energy. © 2021 The Authors. Wildlife Society Bulletin published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of The Wildlife Society.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2019

Self-focusing of cosh-Gaussian laser beam and its effect on the excitation of ion-acoustic wave and stimulated Brillouin backscattering in collisionless plasma

An analytical and numerical study has been carried out for self-focusing of an intense cosh-Gaussian laser beam in collisionless plasma and its impact on the excitation of ion-acoustic wave and stimulated Brillouin backscattering process. The analytical model has been developed under Wentzel–Kramers–Brillouin and paraxial ray approximations. The nonlinearities of ponderomotive force on electron and the relativistic oscillation of the electron mass have been used in this study. The nonlinear differential equations have been set up for the beam width parameters of the main beam, ion-acoustic wave, backscattered wave and back reflectivity of stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS). These equations have been solved numerically for different values of decentred parameter (b), relative plasma density (ω{sub p0}/ω{sub 0}) and incident laser intensity (a). The results have been compared with only relativistic nonlinearity and Gaussian profile of laser beam. The focusing of laser beam, ion-acoustic wave and scattered wave are found to be strong under relativistic-ponderomotive regime compared to only relativistic regime. Further, it is observed that focusing/intensity of main laser beam, ion acoustic wave and SBS back reflectivity increases with increasing the values of b and ω{sub p0}/ω{sub 0}. Itis also found that back reflectivity of SBS process gets suppressed with the increase in the value of a. This study may be useful in laser induced fusion scheme where back scattering of SBS plays very important role.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Spectral element method for elastic and acoustic waves in frequency domain

Numerical techniques in time domain are widespread in seismic and acoustic modeling. In some applications, however, frequency-domain techniques can be advantageous over the time-domain approach when narrow band results are desired, especially if multiple sources can be handled more conveniently in the frequency domain. Moreover, the medium attenuation effects can be more accurately and conveniently modeled in the frequency domain. In this paper, we present a spectral-element method (SEM) in frequency domain to simulate elastic and acoustic waves in anisotropic, heterogeneous, and lossy media. The SEM is based upon the finite-element framework and has exponential convergence because of the use of GLL basis functions. The anisotropic perfectly matched layer is employed to truncate the boundary for unbounded problems. Compared with the conventional finite-element method, the number of unknowns in the SEM is significantly reduced, and higher order accuracy is obtained due to its spectral accuracy. To account for the acoustic-solid interaction, the domain decomposition method (DDM) based upon the discontinuous Galerkin spectral-element method is proposed. Numerical experiments show the proposed method can be an efficient alternative for accurate calculation of elastic and acoustic waves in frequency domain.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2017

The PAC-MAN model: Benchmark case for linear acoustics in computational physics

Benchmark cases in the field of computational physics, on the one hand, have to contain a certain complexity to test numerical edge cases and, on the other hand, require the existence of an analytical solution, because an analytical solution allows the exact quantification of the accuracy of a numerical simulation method. This dilemma causes a need for analytical sound field formulations of complex acoustic problems. A well known example for such a benchmark case for harmonic linear acoustics is the “Cat's Eye model”, which describes the three-dimensional sound field radiated from a sphere with a missing octant analytically. In this paper, a benchmark case for two-dimensional (2D) harmonic linear acoustic problems, viz., the “PAC-MAN model”, is proposed. The PAC-MAN model describes the radiated and scattered sound field around an infinitely long cylinder with a cut out sector of variable angular width. While the analytical calculation of the 2D sound field allows different angular cut-out widths and arbitrarily positioned line sources, the computational cost associated with the solution of this problem is similar to a 1D problem because of a modal formulation of the sound field in the PAC-MAN model. - Highlights: • A benchmark case for 2D harmonic linear acoustic problems is proposed. • The PAC-MAN geometry is used as emitter/scatterer in this benchmark. • An analytic formulation of radiated and scattered sound is derived. • Line and disk sources, plane waves, and surface vibrations are considered.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2019

Listening to laser sparks: a link between Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy, acoustic measurements and crater morphology

In preparation for the SuperCam/Mars Microphone scientific investigation, the acoustic signal associated with the plasma formation during Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) experiment is studied with regard to the shot-to-shot evolution of the laser induced crater morphology and plasma emission lines. A set of geological targets are depth profiled using a specifically designed LIBS setup coupled with acoustic test bench under ambient terrestrial atmosphere. Experiments confirm that the decrease of the acoustic energy as a function of the number of shots is well correlated with the target hardness/density and also demonstrate that the acoustic energy can be used as a remote tracer of the ablated volume of the target. Overall, listening to LIBS sparks provides a new information relative to the ablation process that is independent from the LIBS spectrum.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2020

Identifications and classifications of human locomotion using Rayleigh-enhanced distributed fiber acoustic sensors with deep neural networks

Abstract This paper reports on the use of machine learning to delineate data harnessed by fiber-optic distributed acoustic sensors (DAS) using fiber with enhanced Rayleigh backscattering to recognize vibration events induced by human locomotion. The DAS used in this work is based on homodyne phase-sensitive optical time-domain reflectometry (φ-OTDR). The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the DAS was enhanced using femtosecond laser-induced artificial Rayleigh scattering centers in single-mode fiber cores. Both supervised and unsupervised machine-learning algorithms were explored to identify people and specific events that produce acoustic signals. Using convolutional deep neural networks, the supervised machine learning scheme achieved over 76.25% accuracy in recognizing human identities. Conversely, the unsupervised machine learning scheme achieved over 77.65% accuracy in recognizing events and human identities through acoustic signals. Through integrated efforts on both sensor device innovation and machine learning data analytics, this paper shows that the DAS technique can be an effective security technology to detect and to identify highly similar acoustic events with high spatial resolution and high accuracies.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2011

Dust-acoustic solitary modes in plasmas with isothermal and nonthermal ions: Polarity switches and coexistence domains

Large dust-acoustic waves are investigated in a multispecies plasma model consisting of cold negative dust in the presence of cooler Boltzmann and hotter nonthermal Cairns positive ions, in a Sagdeev pseudopotential formalism. Use of the pseudopotential at the acoustic speed itself yields in a systematic way compositional parameter values where negative/positive solitons interchange polarities and also where both polarities coexist. The latter requires that solitons at the acoustic speed exist, with finite amplitudes, compared to superacoustic solitons of the opposite polarity. The coexistence region starts when the pseudopotential at the acoustic speed has a negative root at the limit of infinite dust compression and ends when a positive double root is encountered. Outside the coexistence domain, only negative or positive superacoustic solitons can exist. Thus, the discussion and numerical evaluations are guided by precise physical and analytic arguments rather than mere numerical experimentation. Graphs of relevant Sagdeev pseudopotentials illustrate the link with the analytical constraints.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2011

Ion acoustic waves and double-layers in electronegative expanding plasmas

Ion acoustic waves and double-layers are observed in expanding plasmas in electronegative gases, i.e., plasmas containing an appreciable fraction of negative ions. The reported experiments are performed in argon gas with a variable amount of SF{sub 6}. When varying the amount of SF{sub 6}, the negative ion fraction increases and three main regimes were identified previously: (i) the plasma smoothly expands at low negative ion fraction, (ii) a static double-layer (associated with an abrupt potential drop and ion acceleration) forms at intermediate negative ion fraction, (iii) double-layers periodically form and propagate (in the plasma expansion direction) at high negative ion fraction. In this paper, we show that transition phases exist in between these regimes, where fluctuations are observed. These fluctuations are unstable slow ion acoustic waves, propagating in the direction opposite to the plasma expansion. These fluctuations are excited by the most unstable eigenmodes and display turbulent features. It is suggested that the static double layer forms when the ion acoustic fluctuations become non-linearly unstable: the double layer regime being a bifurcated state of the smoothly expanding regime. For the highest negative ion fraction, a coexistence of (upstream propagating) slow ion acoustic fluctuations and (downstream) propagating double layers was observed.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2012

Ion acoustic solitons in Earth's upward current region

The formation and evolution of ion acoustic solitons in Earth's auroral upward current region are studied using one- and two-dimensional (2D) electrostatic particle-in-cell simulations. The one-dimensional simulations are confined to processes that occur in the auroral cavity and include four plasma populations: hot electrons, H{sup +} and O{sup +} anti-earthward ion beams, and a hot H{sup +} background population. Ion acoustic solitons are found to form for auroral-cavity ion beams consistent with acceleration through double-layer (DL) potentials measured by FAST. A simplified one-dimensional model simulation is then presented in order to isolate the mechanisms that lead to the formation of the ion acoustic soliton. Results of a two-dimensional simulation, which include both the ionosphere and the auroral cavity, separated by a low-altitude DL, are then presented in order to confirm that the soliton forms in a more realistic 2D geometry. The 2D simulation is initialized with a U-shaped potential structure that mimics the inferred shape of the low altitude transition region based on observations. In this simulation, a soliton localized perpendicular to the geomagnetic field is observed to form and reside next to the DL. Finally, the 2D simulation results are compared with FAST data and it is found that certain aspects of the data can be explained by assuming the presence of an ion acoustic soliton.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2012

Existence domains of arbitrary amplitude nonlinear structures in two-electron temperature space plasmas. I. Low-frequency ion-acoustic solitons

Using the Sagdeev pseudopotential technique, the existence of large amplitude ion-acoustic solitons is investigated for a plasma composed of ions, and hot and cool electrons. Not only are all species treated as adiabatic fluids but the model for which inertial effects of the hot electrons is neglected whilst retaining inertia and pressure for the ions and cool electrons has also been considered. The focus of this investigation has been on identifying the admissible Mach number ranges for large amplitude nonlinear ion-acoustic soliton structures. The lower Mach number limit yields a minimum velocity for the existence of ion-acoustic solitons. The upper Mach number limit for positive potential solitons is found to coincide with the limiting value of the potential (positive) beyond which the ion number density ceases to be real valued, and ion-acoustic solitons can no longer exist. Small amplitude solitons having negative potentials are found to be supported when the temperature of the cool electrons is negligible.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗