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At least 73 records · Page 4

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DOE OSTI2023

Spliced soft-core interaction potential for filling small-scale enclosures

A molecular dynamics system employing a spliced soft-core potential (the “MD/SSCP”) facilitates studying the arrangement of particles in an enclosure and/or near an interface. In some embodiments, the MD/SSCP initializes a three-dimensional representation containing the enclosure and the particles in a first arrangement. The MD/SSCP conducts a first simulation to transition the representation to a second arrangement, during which the particles are allowed to move through a wall of the enclosure while the SSCP is unengaged. The MD/SSCP conducts a second simulation to transition the representation to a third arrangement, during which it becomes more difficult for the particles to move through the wall of the enclosure while the SSCP is gradually engaged. The MD/SSCP conducts a third simulation to transition the representation to a fourth arrangement of the particles, during which it becomes almost impossible for the particles to move through the wall of the enclosure.

Meshot, Eric↗

NASA NTRS2013

RUSHMAPS: Real-Time Uploadable Spherical Harmonic Moment Analysis for Particle Spectrometers

RUSHMAPS is a new onboard data reduction scheme that gives real-time access to key science parameters (e.g. moments) of a class of heliophysics science and/or solar system exploration investigation that includes plasma particle spectrometers (PPS), but requires moments reporting (density, bulk-velocity, temperature, pressure, etc.) of higher-level quality, and tolerates a lowpass (variable quality) spectral representation of the corresponding particle velocity distributions, such that telemetry use is minimized. The proposed methodology trades access to the full-resolution velocity distribution data, saving on telemetry, for real-time access to both the moments and an adjustable-quality (increasing quality increases volume) spectral representation of distribution functions. Traditional onboard data storage and downlink bandwidth constraints severely limit PPS system functionality and drive cost, which, as a consequence, drives a limited data collection and lower angular energy and time resolution. This prototypical system exploit, using high-performance processing technology at GSFC (Goddard Space Flight Center), uses a SpaceCube and/or Maestro-type platform for processing. These processing platforms are currently being used on the International Space Station as a technology demonstration, and work is currently ongoing in a new onboard computation system for the Earth Science missions, but they have never been implemented in heliospheric science or solar system exploration missions. Preliminary analysis confirms that the targeted processor platforms possess the processing resources required for realtime application of these algorithms to the spectrometer data. SpaceCube platforms demonstrate that the target architecture possesses the sort of compact, low-mass/power, radiation-tolerant characteristics needed for flight. These high-performing hybrid systems embed unprecedented amounts of onboard processing power in the CPU (central processing unit), FPGAs (field programmable gate arrays), and DSP (digital signal processing) elements. The fundamental computational algorithm de constructs 3D velocity distributions in terms of spherical harmonic spectral coefficients (which are analogous to a Fourier sine-cosine decomposition), but uses instead spherical harmonics Legendre polynomial orthogonal functions as a basis for the expansion, portraying each 2D angular distribution at every energy or, geometrically, spherical speed-shell swept by the particle spectrometer. Optionally, these spherical harmonic spectral coefficients may be telemetered to the ground. These will provide a smoothed description of the velocity distribution function whose quality will depend on the number of coefficients determined. Successfully implemented on the GSFC-developed processor, the capability to integrate the proposed methodology with both heritage and anticipated future plasma particle spectrometer designs is demonstrated (with sufficiently detailed design analysis to advance TRL) to show specific science relevancy with future HSD (Heliophysics Science Division) solar-interplanetary, planetary missions, sounding rockets and/or CubeSat missions.

Figueroa-Vinas, Adolfo↗

DOE OSTI2026

Arctic Black Carbon Aerosol Deposition Study North Slope of Alaska 2020- ACSM Measurements

Particles are removed from the atmosphere through both wet and dry deposition. These processes are poorly understood, though they constitute important uncertainties in climate and air quality models. This project aims to use observational constraints on particle fluxes to improve model representations of dry deposition. In support of black carbon (SP2) and particles (UHSAS) flux measurements at the meteorological tower, we measured non-refractory chemically-speciated aerosol composition with an Aerosol Chemical Speciation Monitor at the the NSA Central Facility (C1). ACSM measurements were made between 9 Sept and 26 Oct 2021. This site is a coastal tundra location, and received snow during the project.

Chl_ACSM↗

DOE OSTI2026

Arctic Black Carbon Aerosol Deposition Study North Slope of Alaska 2020- ACSM Measurements

Aerosol Chemical Speciation Monitor↗

NASA NTRS2010

Computer Models Simulate Fine Particle Dispersion

Through a NASA Seed Fund partnership with DEM Solutions Inc., of Lebanon, New Hampshire, scientists at Kennedy Space Center refined existing software to study the electrostatic phenomena of granular and bulk materials as they apply to planetary surfaces. The software, EDEM, allows users to import particles and obtain accurate representations of their shapes for modeling purposes, such as simulating bulk solids behavior, and was enhanced to be able to more accurately model fine, abrasive, cohesive particles. These new EDEM capabilities can be applied in many industries unrelated to space exploration and have been adopted by several prominent U.S. companies, including John Deere, Pfizer, and Procter & Gamble.

Source record↗

DOE OSTI2022

Flowability of Crumbler Rotary Shear Size-Reduced Granular Biomass: An Experiment-Informed Modeling Study on the Angle of Repose

Biomass has potential as a carbon-neutral alternative to petroleum for chemical and energy products. However, complete replacement of fossil fuel is contingent upon efficient processes to eliminate undesirable characteristics of biomass, e.g., low bulk density, variability, and storage-induced quality problems. Mechanical size reduction via comminution is a processing operation to engineer favorable biomass flowability in handling. Crumbler rotary shear mill has been empirically demonstrated to produce more uniformly shaped particles with higher flowability than hammermilled biomass. This study combines modeling and experimentation to unveil fundamental understandings of the relation between granular particle characteristics and biomass flow behavior, which elucidate underlying mechanisms and guide selection of critical processing parameters. For this purpose, the impact of critical material attributes, including particle size (2–6 mm), particle shape (briquette, chip, clumped-sphere, cube, etc.), and surface roughness, on the angle of repose (AOR) of milled pine chips were investigated using discrete element method (DEM) simulations. Forest Concepts Crumbler rotary shear system is used to produce milled pine particles within the same size range considered in DEM simulations. AOR of different sets of these particles were measured experimentally to benchmark DEM results against experimental data. Specific energy consumption for the comminution of biomass with different particle size and moisture content are measured for technoeconomic analysis. Our results show that the smaller size (2 mm) of pine particle achieves better followability (i.e., smaller AOR) while the energy cost of comminution is significantly higher and bulk density is almost the same as the 6-mm pine particles. For the 2-mm particle size, Crumbles from veneer have better flow properties than Crumbles from chips. Contrarily, no significant difference was observed between the AOR of the two materials for the 6-mm particle size. Furthermore, from DEM simulations, mechanical interlocking between particles was found as a dominant factor in determining AOR of complex-shaped particles such as milled pine, which cannot be accurately captured by using simple particle shapes (e.g., mono-sphere) with a rolling resistance model. Conversely, clumped-sphere model alleviates this limitation without increasing computational cost significantly and can be used for accurate representation of biomass granular particles when simulating free-flow behavior.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗

DOE OSTI2025

Arctic Black Carbon Aerosol Deposition Study North Slope of Alaska 2020- UHSAS Measurements

Particles are removed from the atmosphere through both wet and dry deposition. These processes are poorly understood, though they constitute important uncertainties in climate and air quality models. This project aims to use observational constraints on particle fluxes to improve model representations of dry deposition. Within this data set, we measured fluxes of size resolved particles with an ultrahigh sensitivity aerosol spectrometer (UHSAS) at the ARM facility’s North Slope Alaska site. Measurements were made at the meteorological tower between 9 Sept and 25 Oct 2021. This site is a coastal tundra location and received snow during the project.

Aerosol concentration↗

NASA NTRS1987

Origin and transport of high energy particles in the galaxy

The origin, confinement, and transport of cosmic ray nuclei in the galaxy was studied. The work involves interpretations of the existing cosmic ray physics database derived from both balloon and satellite measurements, combined with an effort directed towards defining the next generation of instruments for the study of cosmic radiation. The shape and the energy dependence of the cosmic ray pathlength distribution in the galaxy was studied, demonstrating that the leaky box model is not a good representation of the detailed particle transport over the energy range covered by the database. Alternative confinement methods were investigated, analyzing the confinement lifetime in these models based upon the available data for radioactive secondary isotopes. The source abundances of several isotopes were studied using compiled nuclear physics data and the detailed transport calculations. The effects of distributed particle acceleration on the secondary to primary ratios were investigated.

Wefel, John P.↗

NASA NTRS1988

Continuum theories for fluid-particle flows: Some aspects of lift forces and turbulence

A general framework is outlined for the modeling of fluid particle flows. The momentum exchange between the constituents embodies both lift and drag forces, constitutive equations for which can be made explicit with reference to known single particle analysis. Relevant results for lift are reviewed, and invariant representations are posed. The fluid and particle velocities and the particle volume fraction are then decomposed into mean and fluctuating parts to characterize turbulent motions, and the equations of motion are averaged. In addition to the Reynolds stresses, further correlations between concentration and velocity fluctuations appear. These can be identified with turbulent transport processes such as eddy diffusion of the particles. When the drag force is dominant, the classical convection dispersion model for turbulent transport of particles is recovered. When other interaction forces enter, particle segregation effects can arise. This is illustrated qualitatively by consideration of turbulent channel flow with lift effects included.

Mctigue, David F.↗

DOE OSTI2025

Arctic Black Carbon Aerosol Deposition Study North Slope of Alaska 2020- SP2 Measurements

Particles are removed from the atmosphere through both wet and dry deposition. These processes are poorly understood, though they constitute important uncertainties in climate and air quality models. This project aims to use observational constraints on particle fluxes to improve model representations of dry deposition. Within this data set, we measured refractory black carbon with a single particle soot photometer (SP2) at the ARM facility’s North Slope of Alaska site. Measurements were made at the meteorological tower between 9 Sept and 27 Oct 2021. This site is a coastal tundra location, and received snow during the project.

Black carbon mass concentration↗

DOE OSTI2025

Semi-supervised permutation invariant particle-level anomaly detection

The development of analysis methods to distinguish potential beyond the Standard Model phenomena in a model-agnostic way can significantly enhance the discovery reach in collider experiments. However, the typical machine learning (ML) algorithms employed for this task require fixed length and ordered inputs that break the natural permutation invariance in collision events. To address this, a semi-supervised anomaly detection tool is presented that takes a variable number of particle-level inputs and leverages a signal model to encode this information into a permutation invariant, event-level representation via supervised training with a Particle Flow Network (PFN). Data events are then encoded into this representation and given as input to an autoencoder for unsupervised ANomaly deTEction on particLe flOw latent sPacE (ANTELOPE), classifying anomalous events based on a low-level and permutation invariant input modeling. Performance of the ANTELOPE architecture is evaluated on simulated samples of hadronic processes in a high energy collider experiment, showing good capability to distinguish disparate models of new physics.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2020

Atmospheric ice nuclei concentration measurements over a high altitude-station in the Western Ghats, India

Mixed-phase and ice clouds play a significant role in modulating the Indian summer monsoon rainfall, and modeling studies suggest that inaccurate representation of ice nucleating particles (INP) is one of the factors, which have resulted in a deficiency in the prediction of cloud properties and hydrological cycle. We do not understand the ice nucleation mechanisms to represent the ice formation in the model, and therefore more INP measurements at various supercooled temperatures are needed. This study reports for the first time real-time INP concentration at a high altitude station in the Western Ghats region of India, and these results will be used to constrain the ice nucleation parameterizations in the model. The variation of INP for any particular cloud condition can have strong microphysical responses of mixed-phase precipitation formation processes. Also, to improve the representation of heterogeneous ice nucleation, INP measurements of various types of aerosols commonly observed over the Indian region are needed. This study presents, the INP concentrations and daily concentration of non-refractory chemical composition (organics, sulfate, nitrate, ammonium, and chloride), cloud condensation nuclei (CCN), and aerosol size distribution. Spectrometer for Ice Nuclei (SPIN) was operated to measure INP concentration at the mountain site from August to December 2018. INP measurements were performed at three different temperatures (-25, -30, and - 34 °C) in the immersion freezing mode relevant for mixed-phase cloud conditions. The average INP concentrations approximately varied from 0.18 to 12.4 L-1, 0.39 to 24 L-1, 1.1 to 40.2 L-1 at -25, -30, and - 34 °C, respectively. These concentrations are within the concentrations reported in the literature from different regions across the globe. The air mass back trajectory analysis showed that continental air mass contains more INP compared to maritime air mass. The information on INP concentration and chemical characteristics of aerosol will help to improve heterogeneous ice nucleation parameterization in numerical models.

Kumar, Anil V.↗

NASA NTRS2004

Representation of the Geosynchronous Plasma Environment for Spacecraft Charging Calculations

Historically, our ability to predict and postdict surface charging has suffered from both a lack of reliable secondary emission and backscattered electron yields and poor characterization of the plasma environment. One difficulty lies in the common practice of fitting the plasma data to a Maxwellian or Double Maxwellian distribution function, which may not represent the data well for charging purposes. For 13 years Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) has been accumulating measurements of electron and proton spectra from Magnetospheric Plasma Analyzer (MPA) instruments aboard a series of geosynchronous satellites. These data provide both a plasma characterization and the potential of the instrument ground. We use electron and ion flux spectra measured by the LANL MPA to examine how the use of different spectral representations of the charged particle environment in computations of spacecraft potentials during magnetospheric substorms affects the accuracy of the results. We calculate the spacecraft potential using both the measured fluxes and several different fits to these fluxes. These flux measurements and fits have been corrected for the difference between the measured and calculated potential. The potentials computed using the measured fluxes, the best available material properties of graphite carbon, and a secondary electron escape fraction of 81%, are within a factor of three of the measured potential for nearly all the data. Using a Kappa fit to the electron distribution function and a Maxwellian fit to the ion distribution function gives agreement similar to the calculations using the actual data. Alternative spectral representations, including Maxwellian and double Maxwellian for both species, lead to less satisfactory agreement between predicted and measured potentials.

Davis, V. A.↗

NASA NTRS2006

Representation of the Geosynchronous Plasma Environment in Spacecraft Charging Calculations

Historically, our ability to predict and postdict spacecraft surface charging has been limited by the characterization of the plasma environment. One difficulty lies in the common practice of fitting the plasma data to a Maxwellian or Double Maxwellian distribution function, which may not represent the data well for charging purposes. We use electron and ion flux spectra measured by the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Magnetospheric Plasma Analyzer (MPA) to examine how the use of different spectral representations of the charged particle environment in computations of spacecraft potentials during magnetospheric substorms affects the accuracy of the results. We calculate the spacecraft potential using both the measured fluxes and several different fits to these fluxes. These measured fluxes have been corrected for the difference between the measured and calculated potential. The potential computed using the measured fluxes and the best available material properties of graphite carbon, with a secondary electron escape fraction of 81%, is within a factor of three of the measured potential for 87% of the data. Potentials calculated using a Kappa function fit to the incident electron flux distribution function and a Maxwellian function fit to the incident ion flux distribution function agree with measured potentials nearly as well as do potentials calculated using the measured fluxes. Alternative spectral representations gave less accurate estimates of potential. The use of all the components of the net flux, along with spacecraft specific average material properties, gives a better estimate of the spacecraft potential than the high energy flux alone.

Davis, V. A.↗

DOE OSTI2022

Assessing Gender Bias in Particle Physics and Social Science Recommendations for Academic Jobs

We investigated gender bias in letters of recommendation as a possible cause of the under-representation of women in Experimental Particle Physics (EPP), where about 15% of faculty are female-well below the 60% level in psychology and sociology. We analyzed 2206 letters in EPP and these two social sciences using standard lexical measures as well as two new measures: author status and an open-ended search for gendered language. In contrast to former studies, women were not depicted as more communal, less agentic, or less standout. Lexical measures revealed few gender differences in either discipline. The open-ended analysis revealed disparities favoring women in social science and men in EPP. However, female EPP candidates were characterized as “brilliant” in nearly three times as many letters as were men.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

DOE OSTI2023

Breakups are complicated: an efficient representation of collisional breakup in the superdroplet method

Abstract. A key constraint of particle-based methods for modeling cloud microphysics is the conservation of total particle number, which is required for computational tractability. The process of collisional breakup poses a particular challenge to this framework, as breakup events often produce many droplet fragments of varying sizes, which would require creating new particles in the system. This work introduces a representation of collisional breakup in the so-called “superdroplet” method which conserves the total number of superdroplets in the system. This representation extends an existing stochastic collisional-coalescence scheme and samples from a fragment size distribution in an additional Monte Carlo step. This method is demonstrated in a set of idealized box model and single-column warm-rain simulations. We further discuss the effects of the breakup dynamic and fragment size distribution on the particle size distribution, hydrometeor population, and microphysical process rates. Box model experiments serve to characterize the impacts of properties such as coalescence efficiency and fragmentation function on the relative roles of collisional breakup and coalescence. The results demonstrate that this representation of collisional breakup can produce a stationary particle size distribution, in which breakup and coalescence rates are approximately equal, and that it recovers expected behavior such as a reduction in precipitate-sized particles in the column model. The breakup algorithm presented here contributes to an open-source pythonic implementation of the superdroplet method, PySDM, which will facilitate future research using particle-based microphysics.

de Jong, Emily (ORCID:0000000253104554)↗

DOE OSTI2023

Quantum Many-Body Theory from a Solution of the N -Representability Problem

Here, in this study, we present a many-body theory based on a solution of the N-representability problem in which the ground-state two-particle reduced density matrix (2-RDM) is determined directly without the many-particle wave function. We derive an equation that re-expresses physical constraints on higher-order RDMs to generate direct constraints on the 2-RDM, which are required for its derivation from an N-particle density matrix, known as N-representability conditions. The approach produces a complete hierarchy of 2-RDM constraints that do not depend explicitly upon the higher RDMs or the wave function. By using the two-particle part of a unitary decomposition of higher order constraint matrices, we can solve the energy minimization by semidefinite programming in a form where the low-rank structure of these matrices can be potentially exploited. We illustrate by computing the ground-state electronic energy and properties of the H 8 ring.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗

NASA NTRS1987

Theoretical approaches to metal chemistry

Theoretical calculations on metals ranging from very accurate ab initio studies of diatomic and triatomic systems to model studies of larger clusters are presented. Recent improvements in the representation of one-particle and n-particle spaces have made possible the prediction that Al2 has a 3Pi(u) ground state, even though the 3Sigma(-)g state lies within 200/cm. Results suggest that cluster geometry varies dramatically with cluster size, and that rather large clusters are required before the bulk structure becomes optimal. Al cluster studies show that three-body terms are needed for quantitative agreement with ab initio calculations.

Bauschlicher, Charles W.↗